software world

You’ll notice that it starts off with images which is really cool because it confirms that it’s the right camera. On the left it has various options I can select from including: Reviews, Accessories, Manual, Repair, Lenses, and Videos. Pretty slick. So I was looking for a manual in this case. I simply click on the Manual selection, and the first result is the correct manual from Nikon. Let’s try the same search with Google.

All I get from Google is a ton of advertisers and links to buy the camera. Not at all what I’m looking for. I click into a few of the links to see if they have the manual and they don’. They also don’t really have pictures or reviews easily accessible anywhere. Next I’ll try a more specific search I guess like “Nikon D60 Manual”.

So I tried to find my manual again, this time I get a paid link to the Nikon web site, followed by something that looks like it should be the manual. I click on it, and it’s definitely not my manual. I scroll down a bit, and no manual. So I go to the Nikon site and start looking through it and about 15 clicks later I find what I’m looking for.

With Bing I not only found exactly what I was looking for, but the interface was so simple I was able to find the manual in two clicks by only typing “Nikon D60”. With Google I typed in exactly what I wanted, and it took me 15 clicks and about 5 minutes. Google gets an Epic Fail, Bing clearly wins.

Let’s try another search for “Disney”. If I am searching for Disney I am probably looking for: Games, Movies, Disney Store, Shows, and Schedules. Guess what bing lets me filter on super easily! Check it out below and tell me it’s not an awesome search result:

Google’s results for “Disney” are very lacking. Pretty much everything that shows up is not what I’m looking for, and its presented in a pretty static interface that reminds me of the 1990’s to be honest.

So on basic search that typical users will perform, Bing’s results are ridiculously better.

Comparing Bing Interface with Google Interface

Winner: Bing

Let’s go on a tour of some of the Bing features. A nice one to start with is the new preview feature that allows you to see useful information pertaining to a web site before you click the link. I’m not talking about a useless thumbnail that you can’t see well. This is actually relevant information, including links to let you drill into the site, before even going to the web site.

You’ll notice it’s pretty slick. I just hover of the right side of the result, and I get details on the web site, with links that let me drill into the site right away. This is actually a huge time saver that should get rid of many of the “Click and Back” usage that many users do today on search engines. The really nice thing is how well this feature works and how easy it is to read.

I really love the filtering options you get with bing as well. They are freaking awesome. I can very easily filter my result set on anything I would like, and the search results change, and in some case the interface changes slightly to present the data better. But the cool thing is that you feel like you are still on the same page. With Google as you go to different Google applications, you feel like you are definitely in a different place, and can’t easily get back to where you were.

Comparing Bing Image Search with Google

Winner: Bing

I love the image searching because it’s so integrated with the rest of my experience. Clicking on Images easily filters my results and shows me Images. I can easily hover over the images, and as I hover over them they seem to “Pop Out” at me. I get more information on the image as well.

If I click on the image, I get a listing of all the images had previously which is pretty cool, and I can also see the image in larger view if I like, all within the same interface.

You also get some easy to use options for the Bing Image Search that aren’t hidden. They are easy to see, and you can filter your results very easily.

By (MR.KAKAR)

Günümüzde anti-virüs yazılımı kullanmayan hemen hemen hiçbir kullanıcı kalmadı. Bu da doğal olarak anti-virüs yazılımları arasında önemli bir rekabete yol açıyor. Anti-virüs devlerinden biri sayılan ve bu yarışta öne geçmek isteyen AVG yakın zamanda XPL ve Sana Software'i satın almıştı. Bu atılımı ile desteklenen yeni sürümü 8.5 ile, 80 milyondan fazla ücretli ve

Symantec says a buggy diagnostic program spurred a rash of Norton antivirus user complaints late Monday and Tuesday morning.

Problems started around 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, when Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2006 and 2007 users started receiving error messages connected to a Symantec software update that tried to download a program called PIFTS.exe.

"In a case of human error, the patch was released by Symantec 'unsigned,' which caused the firewall user prompt for this file to access the Internet," wrote Symantec spokesman Dave Cole in a forum post explaining the problem.

Users reported that Norton's own firewall software was popping up error messages asking them if they wanted to install the PIFTS.exe file. Norton's firewall would have let it pass, had it been digitally signed.

The update was available for about three hours and was pushed out to a small, "limited number" of Norton users, said Jeff Kyle, a group product manager of consumer products with Symantec.

PIFTS (Product Information Framework Troubleshooter) is a diagnostic program that Symantec periodically sends out to users to anonymously collect information such as the operating system and version number of the product being used in order to get a snapshot of its user base.

The troublesome, unsigned PIFTS.exe file is no longer being distributed, but it never represented any kind of security threat, Kyle said. "If a user would have accepted it they should have been fine, and if they declined it they should have been fine."

However, the trouble was only just beginning.

Around 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time, Symantec noticed that its Norton support forums were being flooded with blank messages that had PIFTS.exe in their subject line. Within three hours there were 600 posts about PIFTS.exe. The posts contained no text, only subjects such as "IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?" and "OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS."

Symantec suspected spammers

Symantec began deleting the messages, assuming they were from spammers.

Soon the SANS Internet Storm Center had picked up on PIFTS.exe and noted that Symantec discussion-group messages were being deleted. Noting that messages mentioning the mysterious file name were being deleted from Symantec's support forums, SANS said that something "truly bizarre was going on."

By now, Norton users were becoming worried. "Norton Users Worried By PIFTS.exe, Stonewalling By Symantec," read a Slashdot post on the topic.

"Whether you believe this is something malicious or not, it is worrying the lengths the company will go to stop people from asking questions about PIFTS.exe," wrote one poster to the Abovetopsecret.com Web site. "If you have Norton on your computer, I currently advise you to not allow pifts.exe through your firewall."

Then the hackers stepped in. By midday Tuesday, criminals began posting malicious Web pages that would pop up high on Google searches for PIFTS.exe.

"With parts of the Internet flustering over the Symantec / PIFTS.exe debacle, hackers have set out to poison search engines in an attempt to cash in on unsuspecting computer users," wrote Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with security vendor Sophos.

Cluley said that three of the top five Google results for a pifts.exe search led to pages that redirected users to malicious Web pages, which tried to install fake antivirus software on victims' systems.

Late Tuesday afternoon, these malicious results were still turning up high in Google searches for PIFTS.exe.

"Of course, the fake anti-virus scan is not related to Symantec or the PIFTS.exe file," Cluley added. "It's just that the hackers are using the interest surrounding that file at the moment to generate traffic to their dangerous Web sites.








Anton Zajac, president and chief executive officer of ESET, takes the saying, "the early bird catches the worm," quite seriously, catching worms, viruses, spyware, trojans, phishing and other Internet menaces before they know what hit 'em. ESET stands for Essential Security Against Evolving Threats, and the security software firm behind the name opened its U.S. headquarters in San Diego in 1999.

In 2007, the company moved into a 25,000-square-foot office in Little Italy [in San Diego].

The number of local employees also grew, from 43 in 2006 to almost 100 in 2008.

ESET's NOD32 Antivirus -- its flagship product -- Smart Security, and Mobile Antivirus, stay ahead of the curve thanks to "heuristics," a system of detecting threats on the horizon.

"ESET has been a pioneer of a proactive detection which is not based on a previous knowledge of the files, but rather, it's based on how it behaves, either via e-mail or Web site browsing or any other vectors of attack," said Zajac.

The industry's biggest shift, according to Zajac, is that malware used to be created by programmers seeking fame; now it is created by organized crime groups.

He says there are more and more targeted attacks on specific companies in which hackers and malware writers use profiling and social engineering tactics to gain access to employee computers.

While malware continues to change and grow -- Zajac says his team comes across 100,000 unique examples of malicious code daily -- ESET and his competitors are gaining ground for their customers.

Doubled Revenues

ESET more than doubled its revenue to $33.8 million in 2006, and jumped to $62.6 million in 2007 from $14.5 million in 2005. And even in a sluggish economy, antivirus software sales haven't slowed.

"It's a multi-billion-dollar business," says Zajac. "Based on (industry research) reports it's growing 12 percent on an annual basis and will be growing steadily until 2012."

Zajac believes ESET Smart Security, introduced in October 2007, was a big contributor to last year's revenue growth, representing 25 percent to 30 percent of 2008's estimated revenue of $120 million.

Smart Security combines antivirus protection with anti-spam and firewall features.

Also new to the lineup, ESET Mobile Antivirus, is anti-malware specifically created for mobile devices such as smart phones.

The commercial version was released last fall.

"I expect this to be an extremely fast-growing segment of our product line, since it reflects the transient in the industry in the way our clients use technology," said Zajac.

ESET LLC is a spinoff of ESET, an accounting software firm launched in Slovakia 17 years ago. The company has labs in Slovakia, England, Argentina and the Czech Republic and recently opened a lab in Poland. Around 40 percent of revenue comes from the United States.

Largest Client Renewal

ESET was just renewed by its largest client, the Ontario Ministry of Education. In 2007, the agency selected NOD32 to protect 350,000 machines, says Zajac, which has been increased to 400,000 networked computers.

The firm's clients include big companies such as Dell Computer Corp. and Microsoft Corp., but also governments, small to medium-sized businesses, educational institutions, Internet service providers and home users.

In 2008, ESET was listed as No. 11 on the Business Journal's list of the county's 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

"I believe the biggest success we have accomplished is that we stayed focused, which allowed us to sustain the growth of the company," said Zajac. "We look at long-term investments, not short-term gain."
B y (MR.KAKAR)

IT-Services Thomas Holz

(openPR) - Antivirus programs are indispensable in the PC world nowadays. For e-mail clients however, they can be a problem, at least when duplicates occur. The antivirus programs can often add status texts to e-mails. If the same e-mail is fetched twice, for example with another account or after the scanner was updated, a different e-mail is created. This duplicate is a big problem. It cannot be recognized because it has a different e-mail text body.

Unless you’re using the new version 1.22 of 1-Click Duplicate Delete for Outlook from ITSTH. The program already has received lots of great reviews and can now automatically recognize e-mail duplicates that only differ by the signatures of anti-virus-solutions in the e-mail body text. For this, the new version was trained to recognize the text of Avast, AVG, ESET, MessageLabs, RAV Antivirus, Sophos and many others.

“We had many customers who said that they duplicate e-mails weren’t found. It turned out, that the e-mails were indeed not identical, but contained some differences in the signatures of the AV programs.” explains Thomas Holz, chief developer of the software. “But that’s of course a bad reason for not finding the duplicates, you can’t answer that to the customer. So we researched the programs and their signatures and trained our software.” The new version 1.22 is the result: it solves the problem completely automatic. And has of course many other useful features:
• Incredible easy 1-click solution;
• Improved duplicate recognition
• Detects + removes duplicate e-mail, contact, calendar items;
• Automatic merging of duplicate contacts;
• Expert mode with presentation of details and confirmations;
• Undo;
• Great pricing: you can even suggest a price

Availability:
1-Click Duplicate Delete for Outlook 1.22 supports Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista and Outlook 97/98/2000/2002/XP/2003/2007 and costs only $ 39.95 (USD). Registered customers are entitled to the unlimited functionality, free lifetime updates and technical support.

AN EVALUATION COPY IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

ITSTH is a privately held software company focused on Outlook and synchronization tools development. Our commitment to high standards of program robustness, usability and customer service has helped us gain respect of customers around the world.
By (MR.KAKAR)

Submitted by Justin Sorkin on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 01:53

• Technology Sector
• Internet
• Security
• TNM

As per the Trend Micro blog, the Conficker worm is finally at work - causing damage by way of fitting the infected computers with a nasty antivirus application called SpywareProtect2009. Coming with the typical scareware strategy of warning about potential threats on the computer, the fake app offers to clean the PC for $49.95.

With the Conficker having hit millions of Windows-based computers on the Internet, experts are worried that the repeated infection alerts appearing on the screen may entice people to click on them and pay for the software just to avoid the infuriating messages, thus ending up furnishing thieves with their credit card information.

The phony antivirus feature – which attempts to install a Trojan downloader – reinforces the hearsay that there is monetary motive behind the malware, without any clandestine intention of interrupting computer or network operations.

Along with being a big money-spinner for online scammers, Conficker is also razing an update for an .E modification, a list of which has been posted on a Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog. The new changes give the worm another chance to spread via MS08-067 Microsoft vulnerability, and further its attempts to stop more current programs as well as block attempts to reach further domains.

Interestingly, the new update has a self-demolition system, whereby it will automatically erase itself after May 3, 2009!

anco Santander's migration of systems inherited with its UK acquisitions to its core banking platform will pay dividends when it rebrands its UK operations over the next year.

The Spanish bank, which has acquired companies in the UK such as Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester, will rebrand them as Santander by the end of next year. Santander said that all its acquisitions will be rebranded once they have been successfully migrated to its in-house banking platform, Partenon.

Customers of the different parts of the business will be able to use any of the 1,300 collective UK branches, which will operate under a single core banking system.

António Horta-Osório, CEO of Santander in the UK, said the switch to Santander's global IT platform has driven the brand change. "Abbey has moved to Partenon over the last three years. The experience gained from this major project has enabled Santander to implement a similar programme more quickly for B&B branches, and the group expects to complete the switch of B&B's 338 branches by July 2009. A&L's 254 branches will migrate to the Partenon system by the end of 2010."

ADVERTISEMENT

"Alliance and Leicester will be rebranded last because the integration to the Partenon platform is more complicated," said a spokesman.

Bob McDowall, analyst at TowerGroup, said having a core banking system such as Partenon makes it easier for banks to rebrand acquisitions. "It could not have achieved what it has achieved without it."

Banco Santander's strategy is to grow by acquisition and integrate the IT operations of the firms it buys to its own in-house platform, which uses in-house middleware called Banksphere.

As well as rationalising IT, this creates cross-selling opportunities and improves customer satisfaction and operational performance. The platform uses a single database so all of a customer's relationships with the bank are automatically linked through a single view of customers.

Partenon was a differentiator during takeover negotiations with Abbey in 2004 because of performance improvements it offered the UK bank, as well as expected cost savings of £300m.

By (Mr.KAKAR)

Developer PopCap says it has released a Mac port of Peggle Nights, its puzzle game sequel. Similar to the classic Breakout, players attempt to clear bricks out of a series of screens using a bouncing metal ball, which must avoid obstacles and be shot precisely to maximize combos. Nights switches Peggle into a "dreamtime" theme, with characters taking on alter egos.

Featured in the game are 60 new levels for the Adventure mode, and another 60 for Challenge players. Also introduced are new achievements and style awards, as well as a Peggle Master power-up. The game costs $20, and in early March should receive a free Spring bonus pack, consisting of 10 new levels. System requirements are not currently available.

Electronic Arts has announced Spore Galactic Adventures, a customizable expansion pack that adds new content and features to the space game in Spore. Gamers can choose from dozens of Maxis-created adventures, with a variety of mysteries to solve and battles to fight. Space creatures can be upgraded with 32 new accessories, including the Plasma Pulser, Energy Blade, Stunning Charm, Jump Jet and Hypnomelder. Users can play as a Warrior for battling enemies, a Bard for dabbling with friends, or choose from a number of other roles.

The expansion pack adds even more variety depth to the space game, with several new features and capabilities. For the first time, an adventure creator will allow users to build and share missions based on personalized planets.

Spore Galactic Adventures for Mac can be pre-ordered directly from the company for $30. A formal release date has not yet been announced.

Filed under: gaming, software
Other story tags: Electronic Arts

People crowded the doors to the Expo just after the keynote


Devo entertained guests at the Macworld Blast party


A (very) quick wardrobe change, and it was back to music


Avery's new DesignPro software impressed with it's iApp-like interface and scalable features


CCP Games employees Valerie Massey (left) and Arend Stührmann (right) proudly show off Eon, the company's magazine compendium for EVE Online


Codeweavers demonstrate Crossover, its take on virtualization on the Mac


Electronic Arts featured its Cider-ported Mac games, such as Battlefield 2142...


...and Command & Conquer 3


EA's new Spore was available for patrons to play with


Character creation in Spore


Character creation in Spore


The Ego waterproof iPod case, with integrated speakers


XtremeMac's iPod case display


Part of the Mac Games Pavilion


HP's new B8850


HP's 8180


HP's D5360


HP's single-pass CP4005dn




Lynda.com online training service


Arguably, the most visited display at the Expo


Quark's eye-catching booth


Ricoh had many new laser- and gel-based printers on the show floor


TechTool Pro 5 will be able to test EFI memory


Many of TechTool's new features were tightly under wraps


VMware's display used a 2.66GHz Quad Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM to pull off some impressive demos