Dirpy -- Very Useful Web Utility

Dirpy Studio, 

Dirpy Studio, which is currently in beta, is a tool that lets you download or convert your favorite YouTube videos to high quality mp3s in real-time. Dirpy Studio provides many useful features like real-time transcoding, id3 metadata tags, offsets, support for high quality formats (including HD), and more.

Dirpy also provides a powerful file search tool to help you find audio, video, archive, and executable files hosted in open directories across the web.

This is an amazing tool for those Web Monkeys who keep downloading YouTube Videos in different Video format.  This will provide the utility of converting any Video files to High Quality MP3's. 

They Say, Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Thanks to people who Uploaded Audio Songs in the form of Videos, ( People go Bonkers for Piracy !! :P ), Otherwise, DIRPY would never have been invented. 

Go DIRPY'ing around Yipee!! Cheers!!!

Most Physically and Cryptographically Secure USB Flash Drive

Always wondered How to Protect Data if  it stored in USB Flash Drives, & if it's Stolen! 

Some of the ways we can think of protecting the data would be to Simply Destroy it, without letting the information to be transmitted later. Here we are talking about a Device something similar to the one's we've seen in Hollywood Flicks like Matrix or Mission Impossible, Batman. 

The device destroys itself after the eject sequence is initiated or If any Data is being hacked. Poof !! & the Device corrupts the data. This seems like the Device has a mind of its own , well rather a Destructive mind at that. 

There are some devices in the Market which have the capability of corrupting the data by means of Encrypting it or perhaps by Asking for necessary validations for a limited number of times. But all these can be Cracked & Hacked. 

Of late, I have been thinking about an Agent on a device which can perhaps do the Job of Destructing the Device if it gets stolen.  

Say we have a GSM compatible Data Storage USB Flash Drive. 

The name says it all, The Device can Simply Communicate by sending signals from the Client Machine on which it is used,  To a Server or the Cell Phone which will authorize the Authenticity. In this case the Cell Phone could receive an SMS, which when Replied back with the Right Password will authorize the Owner. 

Lets imagine the Scenario, If the Device gets Stolen and Data has been tried to access or being Formatted.

In this case, The device sends an SMS to the Owner for Verification and If the Owner is aware that the data is being Stolen, then the Device alerts him by an SMS. Now there is a Situation which demands to have Two Passkeys/ Password: One for the Actual owner to use the Device & Secondly The Password to be used To Corrupt the Data. 

In this case if the Owner Replies the Second Password/ Passkey, which corrupts the Data, The the Device which is stolen Just goes POOF!!! & the Data is Corrupted permanently. 

This scenario explains the various technologies that can be used to develop these Agents, which do Wonderful things to these Machines. It's a Great world of Cryptography and Tremendous Opportunity for the Human Race to work upon something Real.  

There are many such Companies which just do the Encryption & Decryption part the Hardware Device, But none of them which Aims to Provide the Real Security. Below is one such device which claims to be the World Most Physically & Cryptographically Secure USB Device;

IronKey S200 is the First and Only USB Storage Device to Achieve FIPS 140-2, Level 3 Validation; Delivers Advanced Cryptochip Featuring AES-256, Tamper-Resistance and Self-Destruction Circuitry

 Highlights of IronKey S200:

• The first and only USB flash drive to meet the rigorous government security requirements of FIPS 140-2, Security Level 3.
• Hardware-based AES 256-bit encryption in CBC mode.
• Tamper-resistant and tamper-evident rugged metal case.
• Secure management of encryption keys.
• Anti-malware capabilities in hardware provide an unprecedented layer of protection from malware and prevent its spread onto enterprise and government networks.
• AutoRun lock-down protects against worms.
• Read-only mode prevents malware on infected hosts from infecting IronKey devices.
• Trusted network restrictions prevent IronKey devices from unlocking on uncontrolled PCs.
• Optional anti-virus/anti-malware scanning cleans the devices in the background.
• Dual-channel architecture enables significant performance when writing large and small files to the drive.
• Includes extended-life flash memory capable of running high-bandwidth applications such as data backups, virtual machines, or bootable mobile desktops.
• Enterprise Management Cloud Service over the Internet for the enforcement of security policies, security and anti-malware updates, and the tracking and auditing of hundreds or thousands of devices.
• Optional Enterprise Management Server that customers can host themselves.

IronKey FIPS 140-2, Level 3 Validation:

• The IronKey S200 USB flash drive has been awarded FIPS certificate 1149.
• IronKey S200 includes the ability to prevent intruders from gaining access to Critical Security Parameters (CSPs ) held within the cryptographic module.
• The physical security mechanisms required at Security Level 3 validate that IronKey thumb drives can detect and respond to attempts of physical access, use or modification of the cryptographic module.
• IronKey includes the physical security mechanisms required for the validation including the use of production-grade components, hard potting material to encapsulate the chip circuitry and a hard metallic enclosure.

Enterprise Management Service Enhancements:

• Mac support for Silver Bullet service provides remote wipe, comprehensive tracking and rich reporting capabilities.
• Configurable time-out policy enables the ability to automatically lock devices after a specified period of inactivity.
• Search capabilities help to locate device information by user name, email address, serial number or other specific information.
• Enhanced backup and recovery capabilities from previous Password Manager to the Identity Manager.
• Management capabilities are available as cloud-based SaaS or on-premise server software for flexibility in meeting organizational requirements.

Nature's Fury

Name : Geo Sink Hole "hundimiento"

Size : 20 meters deep and 15 meters wide

Location : Guatemala, 15º 30' N and 90º 15' W  [ Located in Central America and lies between Honduras and Belize ]

Root Cause Analysis : Overwhelming saturation of rains from tropical storm Agatha. { Not Photoshop, sadly }

Autonomous Flying Drones

Robotics developers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control have built autonomous robots that drive, dock with their peers on the ground, then fly into the air in coordinated swarms....all of this without human direction. In fact, the vehicles can drive around on the ground as individual, autonomous units, but "it is not until they assemble that they are able to fly," according to the researchers:

These modules are organized as distributed computational units with minimal sensory input. This is a complex system that is rich in dynamics with much room to explore various strategies of distributed estimation and control.

More about the little buggers here, on the researchers' project website.

Video: Distributed Flight Array (YouTube video from The Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control)

Report on the project here, at Wired Danger Room.

How it all works, in an infographic that follows...

The ABC of Ssl: Super Duper Encrypted Security in an Age of Internet Commerce

You have most probably viewed a digital SSL certificate in action by visiting sites where an “s” appears in the http:// of an address bar. The “s” stands for “secure” and indicates that data being exchanged by the web site and your Internet browser has been coded or encrypted. Additional proof of a secure web connection is provided through the appearance of a little padlock at the bottom of the browser. Internet Explorer 7 provides the added advantage of confirming a secure status through a color-coded address bar .

In case you have wondered how all this is articulated, wonder no more because we are here to tell you how.

Simple Definition

The abbreviation “SSL” stands for “secure socket layer” which is one of the many ways to code, scramble or encrypt online data. This form and level of encryption is achieved through the use of complex algorithms. Today, the standard level of encryption used when transmitting sensitive data over the Internet is called 256 bit SSL encryption. This form of digital data protection ensures that communication between a web site and your browser is first scrambled and coded at the point of departure and then subsequently decoded when it arrives at its chosen destination. In other words, even if the data is intercepted by a malicious software application or by a live individual, the data is not compromised in any way, shape or form.

SSL Certificate Wish List

Like everything technical, SSL certificates come in various strengths and combinations. Which SSL certificate is best for you depends largely on the type of e-commerce company you operate, your transaction volume and the level of browser access you wish to provide to your customers. Your SSL certificate vendor is in a position to perform a needs assessment on your site and recommend the right digital SSL certificate for you.

Standard SSL Certificate

For starters, there is the simple, garden variety vanilla SSL certificate which provides protection only to a single domain also known as FDQN or Fully Qualified Domain name. The most popular versions of web browsers currently in use such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari are fully compatible with this certificate. This SSL certificate is incompatible with sub-domains. If you have more than one sub-domain which you need to secure, you have a better option available which we will explore in a moment.

SGC SSL Certificate

The second category of digital SSL certificates is called the SGC certificate. SGC stands for server gated cryptography and essentially allows you or your online customers to use old 40 bit legacy browsers to step up to 128 or 256 bit capacity and thus provide an added layer of security. This SSL certificate costs much more than the starter SSL certificate described above and may not be worth the extra expense.

EV SSL Certificate

EV SSL certificates provide an unprecedented level of security and protection through confirmed identity assurance. Until the advent of this certificate, your customers had no visible indication on the browser to confirm that you were a legitimate and a verified enterprise. EV SSL certificates work in tandem with all popular browsers and indicate through a symbol of trust, a green address bar or even a clearly spelled out message, that your corporate identity has been verified by the SSL certificate authority. This process of verification is implemented by asking you to submit corporate documentation such as licenses, articles of incorporation, bank statements, phone bills and other forms of verifiable evidence. Internet Explorer 7 currently provides the maximum amount of information to site visitors about the nature of this SSL protection. The address bar in Internet Explorer 7 has been programmed to change colors to reflect the security level of the connection. The address bar turns green when the SSL encryption is fully in place. Additionally, this browser also displays the name of the SSL certificate provider as well as the name of the certifying authority. Since these attributes are available only in EV SSL certificates in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7, investing in this class of SSL certificates is worth a serious consideration. If you happen to be an established Internet commerce company and have the funds to invest in this class of SSL certificates, this might be the right protection package for you and your customers.

Wildcard SSL Certificate

A wildcard digital SSL certificate is ideal for you if you have a need to secure a primary domain and a host of sub-domains through data encryption. Under normal circumstances, SSL certificates tend to secure only a single primary domain or a sub-domain. For instance, if you had one primary domain such as http://mybook.com and two sub-domains such as http://library.mybook.com and http://research.mybook.com, you would have to invest in three separate SSL certificates. A single wildcard SSL certificate, on the other hand, can protect not only the primary domain but an unlimited number of sub-domains. This results in significant cost savings for those who need this level and quality of protection.

SSL Certificate Bottom Line

Digital SSL certificates can start from as low as $70 and can go all the way up to several thousand dollars depending on the class and strength of certificates you require. SSL certificates have a dated validity and usually expire in one year. To save money, it is best to purchase certificates with multiple year validity and shop around carefully during renewal time. The price for an SSL certificate typically includes the cost of customer support, trouble shooting and a warranty to cover losses arising out of protection failure in rare instances.

To Buy or not to Buy

Everyone knows that the Internet has created new avenues and opportunities for e-commerce. Unfortunately, this unbridled growth has also stirred up the criminal element. Until now Internet commerce companies did not have a viable solution to this rather serious problem, but now we do in the form of potent digital SSL technology which guarantees unparalleled cyber protection to one and all. More information about SSL with Purpose can be found athttp://ssl.live2support.com

Via : Technology Blog

Save Money By Not Spending It … on IT

Whether your business is traditional or Internet-based, every entrepreneur should understand that a business exists to earn profits. To earn profits, a business can do either or both of these two things: increase revenue, or cut down costs. Of these two, cutting on costs is definitely much easier than increasing income.

Use Best Practices:

1. Use Skype to cut your phone bill. Work smarter, get more done, talk more to your clients, cut your phone bill. Free calls, video and instant messaging, all-in-one.

2. Get free software. Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

3. Stop paying for software: switch to Open Source software. Business software is outrageously expensive, but there is an option. Open source computer software is free, available all over the internet, and often performs better than big label programs. For example: use OpenOffice instead of MS office.

4. Cut costs when setting up your online store. Think going online has to cost an arm and a leg? You can start out by selling items for next to nothing on online auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions.

5. Use Linkedin and Facebook. Don’t waste money on recruiters. Get inside of linkedin and Facebook and start looking for people-it works better anyway.

6. Use Skype. For about $40/year, you can use Skype and call any number in the US and Canada, anytime.

7. Ask for a better price. Negotiate everything. When you’re shopping for any type of goods or services for your business, always ask for a better price. The worst that can happen is the supplier will say no–but they might say yes …  By merely asking, you can oftentimes purchase at a discount.

Source : Technology Blog

Internet Speed Problems – 4 Simple Ways to Speed Up Your Internet Surfing

Surfing the Internet is becoming an essential thing in most of peoples life. Unfortunately, more and more PC users battle with an awfully slow internet speed. The sluggish internet speed will cause much inconvenience to computer users. With the poor speed, you can do nothing but just waste your precious time. Here, I would like to discuss some easy ways to improve internet speed with you guys.

1. Internet Speed Problems caused by Binding too many Agreements on Network Card

Slow internet surfing speed is a usual problem among LAN users because there are too many agreements binding on the Network Card. If a NIC is bound lots of agreements then the computer has to spend more time on identifying which agreement would transmit a certain group of data that passes it. PC users will feel uncomfortable at the moment when they are surfing the Internet. Here is a solution for this situation:

a. Use a Network Card to run only PPPOE agreement to connect ADSL; this will provide the exterior connection of internet. b. Use another one to run other agreements in order to boost its performance so that the speed of internet surfing would be improved obviously.

2. Internet Speed Problems caused by Unbound TCP/IP Agreement.

Unbound TCP (Transport Control Protocol)/IP (international agreement) may be caused by reasons as follow: a. the driver of Network Card is installed incorrectly. b. There is a problem with quality of Network Card. c. PCI slot is broken. Solution for this situation: You should uninstall NIC driver in the Device Manager at first—-reinstall the driver after you reboot your computer. If you still fail to improve the internet speed with this solution, please change a PCI slot for Network Card or change a new one.

3. Internet Speed Problems caused by low quality of telephone line.

If the phone line is affected by some bad extraneous factors, network device will adjust client access rate automatically and dynamically according by the quality of line and transmission distance. The Internet surfing Speed also will be affected by the export bandwidth, the website line from opponents and the device configuration if you try to visit foreign website.

4. Internet Speed Problems caused by too much installed Internet Explorer plug-ins.

Internet Explorer plug-ins would be installed or loaded on your computer automatically when you open Internet Explorer and visit website. Surfing speed of course will be slowed down by too much Internet Explorer plug-ins.

It is highly recommended to use some optimization tools to optimize your speed of Internet and clean some disused Internet Explorer plug-ins to speed up Internet surfing.

Source : Technology Blog