Dexpot [Download of the Day]

In essence nothing more than a desktop manager that Mac OSX and Linux users are familiar with, Dexpot provides Windows users similar functionality for their operating systems (version 1.5 supports Win 2K and above, while 1.4 supported even Windows 95), which isn’t present even in Windows 7. Until it arrives, those Windows users looking to simplify their interface and organise their workflow have an option: Dexpot.

Absolutely free for private use, Dexpot allows users to create additional workspaces, by allowing the creation of up to 20 separate desktops. The software is extremely flexible, providing many customization options including separate wallpapers, screen resolutions, start-ups macros, and icons for each workspace, as well as user-defined hotkeys for quick access to functions and workspaces.

Those of you who’ve used desktop/workspace managers before will probably not require any explanation as to the uses of such a manager, but here is one anyways. By allowing you to create more than one workspace or desktop, Dexpot allows users to compartmentalize/organize their work and applications onto multiple desktops, and also reduce the clutter. For example, Desktop 1 (these can also be renamed) can be for your email and web-browsing, while Desktop 2 can be for productivity such as spreadsheets and word processors, Desktop 3 solely for entertainment and media, while Desktop 4 is for games, and so on. In fact, you can even create rules for each application, so that even if you open one in the wrong (according to your own categorization) desktop, it will automatically be transferred to the correct/assigned one.
 

Tray Icon Menu

Dexpot, with its numerous customization options and super simple access interface, helps users streamline their workflow while working with numerous windows and applications, with easy switching and auto-organizatio. While it does not actually help the computer in its application process management, the tool is very light on RAM and processor usage, working flawlessly on our Windows 7 (in case you were wondering, version 1.5 onwards offers support for 64-bit operating systems with it), 2GB DDR3 RAM, and 3.1GHz quad-core machine. In fact, with its speed of operation and interesting GUI, it looks like it was born to serve Windows 7 users and Aero.

Settings - click to enlarge

General	Appearance	Components
Controls	Switching Desktops	Plugins & Extras

The interface is ridiculously easy, and supports various styles of use. If you prefer to use your mouse, all the functions can be accessed with simple right-clicks on the taskbar and tray icon, as well as the useful context menus for every window. You can move and copy windows (applications or explorer windows) from one desktop to another, or let it do Dextop do it automatically for you with preset rules. Dextop also supports plugins that can enhance its functionality, such as the Taskbar Pager, which arranges all your open desktops in a tabular format on your taskbar, for easy one-click access. It is similar to Windows 7 Desktop Preview, where a mouse-over one of the desktops will show it temporarily. It will also flash the relevant desktop button if any application in the minimized desktop wants your attention.

Click to enlarge

4 - desktops	SevenDex
Taskbar Pager	Configure Desktops

SevenDex is another plugin that places a taskbar button on each desktop, and when puts their mouse over it, displays all the open desktops at the moment. DexCube is a GUI plugin, which simply adds cube-spinning graphic transitions between desktops. Slideshow will switch between desktops in user-defined order and intervals, while Wallpaper Clock allows the user to set up a different time for each desktop. 

You can download Dextop from here (builder's page) or here (direct download link), and you can browse all our previous Download of the Day software here. 

India unveils 7th supercomputer Annapurna

CHENNAI: India's latest supercomputer 'Annapurna' was unveiled at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Chennai. 
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee unveiled the country's seventh fastest high-performance computation (HPC) cluster having 1.5 Tera Byte (TB) memory and 30 TB storage space cluster capacity. 

Banerjee lauded the technical team behind the effort for creating the super computer in a completely non-commercial domain. 

Complex issues ranging from biological applications and others could not have been approached in the absence of a supercomputer, he said. 

"Among broad-based scientific institutions in India, the Annapurna cluster is the third fastest, ranking below the IISc Bangalore and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai," an IMSc release said. 

The device will be used in simulations and numerical calculations in the areas of statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics among others, it added.

Oracle accused of fraud by DOJ

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department said it sued Oracle Corp, alleging it defrauded the federal government on a software contract in effect from 1998 to 2006 that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. 

The lawsuit alleged Oracle misrepresented its true commercial sales practices, ultimately leading to government customers receiving deals inferior to those Oracle gave its commercial customers, the department said. 

Under the contract, the General Services Administration (GSA) used Oracle's disclosures about its commercial sales practices to negotiate minimum discounts for government agencies that bought Oracle's software. 

The contract required Oracle to update GSA when commercial discounts improved and extend the same improved discounts to government customers. 

The lawsuit was initially filed in federal court in Virginia by Paul Frascella, Oracle's senior director of contract services, the department said, adding it then decided to intervene in the case and to file a complaint under the False Claims Act.

5 Hidden dangers of Facebook

Over the last few years, Facebook’s growth has been phenomenal. The world’s no. 1 social networking site also recently beat Google to become the most visited Web site in the US for an entire week at a stretch. However, the site has also lately being receiving lot of flak for its privacy policies. 

An expert in online privacy has drawn attention to the five dangers of sharing information on social networking site Facebook. Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online, claims marketing efforts by the company often results in a compromise on account holders' privacy, reports CBS News. 

Goodchild noted five risks of using Facebook. They are:

Risk 1.

Your information is being shared with third parties.

According to Facebook policy as on April 2010, “When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. ... The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.”. Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.”

Risk 2.

Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign.

In March, private e-mail according to a Gawker report, private email addresses that many Facebook users wanted to keep hidden were revealed publicly on a multitude of Facebook profiles. The glitch was later resolved by Facebook.

Risk 3

Facebook ads may contain malware.

Recently, a Facebook event invitation was reportedly sent to some over 2,300 friends of Jim Breyer, Accel Partners venture capitalist who sits on Facebook's board of directors, asking "Would you like a Facebook phone number?" However, the message was actually a scam and the users who entered their passwords in response to the message in turn sent the whole thing to their friends lists too.

"This was a phishing scam and Jim's account appears to have been compromised," read a statement from Facebook as provided to venture industry news site PEHub.

Risk 4.

Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable.

On May 6th, the popular social network patched a major security bug that allowed users to snoop on their friends' private chats, and view their pending friend requests. The exploit forced Facebook to temporarily disable chat.

Risk 5.

Scammers are creating fake profiles. 

Earlier this week, 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the site manipulates privacy settings to make users' personal information available for commercial use. (ANI) 

Capgemini to hire 7,000 more in India

Bullish on strong growth prospects in India, global IT consultancy Capgemini has hired 10,000 people so far in 2010 and plans to recruit another 7,000 by the year-end.

FM rejects 3G refund to MTNL, BSNL

BANGALORE: Finance Minister has rejected a proposal to refund $6.4 billion paid by two state-run telecom firms for 3G and broadband wireless access spectrum, the Business Standard reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. 
Pranab Mukherjee struck down the request put forth by Telecoms Minister A Raja citing legal complications that might arise if the fees were returned to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), both controlled by the government, the newspaper said. 

For 3G spectrum, BSNL has paid Rs 10186.58 crore, while MTNL has paid Rs 6564 crore. Meanwhile BSNL has paid Rs 8313.8 crore and MTNL Rs 4533.97 crore for BWA spectrum. Both BSNL and MTNL had taken loan to make the payment. 

The government had raised over Rs 1.06 trillion ($22.8 billion) in an auction of 3G and wireless broadband spectrum this year, about 3 times more than expected, following aggressive bidding by firms in the world's fastest growing mobile market. 

Raja is now working on an alternative proposal to help BSNL, which is planning an IPO, to recover growing losses from rolling out services in rural areas, the newspaper said. 

The unions of both the state operators have threatened a three-day strike from Sept. 21, followed by an indefinite strike, if the government does not return the 3G and broadband money. 

Mobile carriers including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Communications won 3G spectrum in some zones while Qualcomm and Infotel were amongst winners in the wireless broadband spectrum auction. 
Qualcomm will today announce its BWA partners in India.

UAE bans Blackberry services

DUBAI: Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) was hit with its first major ban on Sunday after the United Arab Emirates, citing security risks, said BlackBerry services would be barred in October. 

The move, which will affect half a million users as well as visitors to the Gulf state, follows a warning from Bahrain in April against using Blackberry Messenger software to distribute local news and security concerns raised by India last week. 

The UAE, home to Gulf financial hub Dubai, said it would halt Blackberry services on October 11 until an “acceptable solution” is developed and applied. 

“It’s a final decision but we are continuing discussions with them,” Mohammed Al Ghanem, director general of the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said. 

“Censorship has got nothing to do with this. What we are talking about is suspension due to the lack of compliance with UAE telecommunications regulations.” 

The UAE objects to BlackBerry data being exported offshore and managed by a “foreign, commercial operation.” 

The regulator said only Blackberry data services operate in that method. The decision will not affect users of rival Nokia and Apple’s iPhone smartphones. 

“Today’s decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE,” the TRA said. 

TRA’s Ghanem said the suspension would also apply to BlackBerry users with foreign telephone numbers, closing one potential loophole. RIM officials in Canada were not immediately available for comment. 
RIM shares rose last week on speculation that it might unveil a new touchscreen BlackBerry 9800 this week to better compete with the iPhone and other models. 

Uproar 
The suspension of BlackBerry Messenger, email and web browsing services comes after attempts dating back to 2007 to bring the service into line with regulations, the UAE’s TRA said. 

One of the two local service providers, state-controlled Emirates Telecommunications (Etisalat), introduced a software upgrade last year which RIM said was an unauthorised “telecommunications surveillance application.” 

How hackers break into 'secure' websites

LAS VEGAS: Researchers have uncovered new ways that criminals can spy on Internet users even if they're using secure connections to banks, online retailers or other sensitive Web sites. 

The attacks demonstrated at the Black Hat conference here show how determined hackers can sniff around the edges of encrypted Internet traffic to pick up clues about what their targets are up to. 

It's like tapping a telephone conversation and hearing muffled voices that hint at the tone of the conversation. 

The problem lies in the way Web browsers handle Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, encryption technology, according to Robert Hansen and Josh Sokol, who spoke to a packed room of several hundred security experts. 

Encryption forms a kind of tunnel between a browser and a website's servers. It scrambles data so it's indecipherable to prying eyes. 

SSL is widely used on sites trafficking in sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, and its presence is shown as a padlock in the browser's address bar. 

SSL is a widely attacked technology, but the approach by Hansen and Sokol wasn't to break it. They wanted to see instead what they could learn from what are essentially the breadcrumbs from people's secure Internet surfing that browsers leave behind and that skilled hackers can follow. 

Their attacks would yield all sorts of information. It could be relatively minor, such as browser settings or the number of Web pages visited. It could be quite substantial, including whether someone is vulnerable to having the "cookies" that store usernames and passwords misappropriated by hackers to log into secure sites. 

Hansen said all major browsers are affected by at least some of the issues. 

"This points to a larger problem — we need to reconsider how we do electronic commerce," he said in an interview before the conference, an annual gathering devoted to exposing the latest computer-security vulnerabilities. 

For the average Internet user, the research reinforces the importance of being careful on public Wi-Fi networks, where an attacker could plant himself in a position to look at your traffic. For the attacks to work, the attacker must first have access to the victim's network. 

Hansen and Sokol outlined two dozen problems they found. They acknowledged attacks using those weaknesses would be hard to pull off. 

The vulnerabilities arise out of the fact people can surf the Internet with multiple tabs open in their browsers at the same time, and that unsecured traffic in one tab can affect secure traffic in another tab, said Hansen, chief executive of consulting firm SecTheory. Sokol is a security manager at National Instruments Corp. 

Their talk isn't the first time researchers have looked at ways to scour secure Internet traffic for clues about what's happening behind the curtain of encryption. It does expand on existing research in key ways, though. 

"Nobody's getting hacked with this tomorrow, but it's innovative research," said Jon Miller, an SSL expert who wasn't involved in the research. 

Miller, director of Accuvant Labs, praised Hansen and Sokol for taking a different approach to attacking SSL. 

"Everybody's knocking on the front door, and this is, 'let's take a look at the windows,'" he said. "I never would have thought about doing something like this in a million years. I would have thought it would be a waste of time. It's neat because it's a little different." 

Huawei launches 20 mobiles in India

NEW DELHI: Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies today announced its entry into the Indian mobile handset market with the launch of 20 new handsets. 

Till now, Huawei was selling handsets bundled with services offered by telecom operators like Tata Teleservices and BSNL. 

"The Indian telecom industry is growing at the rate of 20 million subscribers a month. Our entry into the open market will help us tap more growth opportunities in India," Huawei Device Chief Marketing Officer Victor Xu told reporters here. 

The phones have been launched under two series -- Hangout and Android -- which are based on Qualcomm's chipset solutions. 

The handsets, priced at Rs 2,000 onwards, will be available from August. 

Asked about the new government directive asking telecom equipment-makers to deposit source codes and detailed designs for all their products and services in an escrow account, the company said it has received the notification. 

"We have received the notification and are going through it and after going through it, we should be able to comment on it," Huawei Telecommunications (India) Executive Director (CSSS) A Sethu Raman said. 

The government introduced new norms for telecom operators importing equipment from vendors. 

International telecom gear makers will have to deposit source codes and detailed designs of all products and services they sell here in an escrow account in encrypted form, so that security agencies and operators can access them in case of an emergency.

Microsoft unveils new phones

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp set out its ambitions to dominate the consumer electronics market with Windows-powered tablet computers and smartphones designed to beat back advances by Apple Inc and Google Inc. 

New tablets will be available as soon as they are ready to ship and phones will be on the market this autumn, CEO Steve Ballmer said, setting up a key test of Microsoft's ability to capture the imagination of tech-savvy consumers. 

"We're coming full guns," said Ballmer at the company's annual presentation to analysts at its Redmond, Washington headquarters. "We're going to sell like crazy; we're going to market like crazy." 

Microsoft has been irked by Apple selling more than 3 million iPads since the launch in April and is working with PC makers Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Toshiba Corp and others to develop so-called tablet or slate devices running the Windows operating system. 

"We've got to push right now with our hardware partners," said Ballmer. "They (the new devices) will be shipping as soon as they are ready. It's job No. 1 urgency around here. Nobody's sleeping at the switch." The new tablets will run on Intel Corp chips, said Ballmer, dampening talk that a recent agreement with British chipmaker ARM Holdings Plc heralded a shift toward that company's chip design, which powers the iPad and most smartphones. 

A new range of Intel chips expected early next year will give the whole market for tablets a boost next year, Ballmer said, adding that both Windows phones and tablets will have "aggressive" marketing support from Microsoft. 

Microsoft employees showed off the new phones running Windows Phone 7, made by handset makers Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Corp, but did not allow photographs of the devices, which are still at the prototype stage. No handset makers have announced a date for commercial launch. 

Ballmer said only that they would be coming to market this autumn. The devices have large touch screens, incorporate a Zune music player, email programs and link up with content from Xbox Live, Facebook, and other networks. Ballmer acknowledged Microsoft has lost ground in the phone sector. 

"It's probably fair to say we've got a lot of work to do," said Ballmer. "It isn't all going to happen overnight." When asked what would happen if the new Windows phone software was not a success, or a repetition of the ill-fated Windows Vista, Ballmer answered: "It won't be," adding that there was no contingency plan. 

How 100 mn Facebook users' info got leaked

LONDON: The man who harvested and published the personal details of 100 million Facebook users has said that he only disclosed what was already public information. 

Ron Bowes, a security consultant, used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles, collecting data not hidden by the user's privacy settings. 

The list, which contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user's profile, name and unique ID, has been shared as a downloadable file. Bowes said that he did it as part of his work on a security tool. 

"I'm a developer for the Nmap Security Scanner and one of our recent tools is called Ncrack," the BBC quoted him as saying. "It is designed to test password policies of organisations by using brute force attacks; in other words, guessing every username and password combination," he added. 

By downloading the data from Facebook, and compiling a user's first initial and surname, he made a list of the most common probable usernames to use in the tool. 

In theory, researchers could then combine this list with a catalogue of the most commonly used passwords to test the security of sites. Similar techniques could be used by criminals for more nefarious means. 

Bowes said his original plan was to "collect a good list of human names that could be used for these tests.” "Once I had the data, though, I realised that it could be of interest to the community if I released it, so I did," he added. 

Bowes confirmed that all the data he harvested was already publicly available but acknowledged that if anyone now changed their privacy settings, their information would still be accessible. 

"If 100,000 Facebook users decide that they no longer want to be in Facebook's directory, I would still have their name and URL but it would no longer, technically, be public," he said. 

Bowes said that collecting the data was in no way irresponsible and likened it to a telephone directory. "All I've done is compile public information into a nice format for statistical analysis," he said 

In a statement, Facebook confirmed that the information in the list was already freely available online. "No private data is available or has been compromised," the statement added. 

Bowes supported the view by adding that harvesting this data highlighted the possible risks users put themselves in. "I am of the belief that, if I can do something then there are about 1,000 bad guys that can do it too. For that reason, I believe in open disclosure of issues like this, especially when there's minimal potential for anybody to get hurt. 

"Since this is already public information, I see very little harm in disclosing it," he said Facebook has a default setting for privacy that makes some user information publicly available. People have to make a conscious choice to opt-out of the defaults.

BlackBerry to launch iPad rival in November

TORONTO: Research In Motion Ltd, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to introduce a tablet computer in November to compete with Apple Inc’s iPad, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans. 

The device will have roughly the same dimensions as the iPad, which has a 9.7-inch diagonal screen, said the two people who wouldn’t be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. The device will include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology that will allow people to connect to the Internet through their BlackBerry smartphones, the two people said. 

RIM is racing to come out with a product to rival the iPad in the fast-growing market for devices that bridge the gap between smartphones and notebook computers. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, last month said it sold 3 million iPad tablet computers in 80 days after they debuted in the US. 

“They can’t wait for a second generation of devices from Apple or they’ll fall too far behind,” said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw Inc in New York. 

Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for RIM, declined to comment, citing company policy not to comment on rumor or speculation. 

Blackpad pricing 
RIM plans to call the tablet Blackpad, according to one of the people familiar with the company’s plans. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, acquired the Internet rights to blackpad.com this month, according to the Whois database of domain names. 

Pricing for the device will be in line with the iPad, which starts at $499, the person said. RIM is focused on reaping additional profits from the tablet effort, rather than competing on price to sell a large number of devices, the person said. 

RIM is stepping up its competition with Apple on multiple fronts. The company is hosting an event in New York Aug. 3 at which it will debut its BlackBerry 9800 slider phone, according to one person familiar with its plans. The device will feature a full touchscreen like Apple’s iPhone and a slideout Qwerty keyboard to allow for easy e-mail typing, the person said. 

RIM plans to use the phone to regain the market share it has lost recently to its US rival. RIM’s share of the smartphone market fell to 19.4 percent of global shipments in the first quarter from 20.9 percent a year earlier, according to researcher IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts. Apple claimed 16.1 percent of the smartphone market, up from 10.9 percent a year earlier. 

Phone review: Samsung Wave

NEW DELHI: The hardware of Samsung Wave is simply amazing. It’s perhaps one of the best to come out of Samsung’s labs. But the same cannot be said about its operating system, Bada. 

It’s mediocre to say the least when compared to the latest OS rage, Google’s Android. 

If the Bada platform had been launched say a year or two earlier, it would have made perfect sense. Even now, if it was loaded on to a device priced in the range of Rs 12,000-14,000, it would have made sense. 

Although the quality and looks are top notch, Samsung has goofed up on the utilitarian aspect. The problem lies with the buttons on the side panels which unlock and control the phone’s volume. You may end up pressing the wrong buttons because of its placement. 

The phone is very slim -- just 11 mm. It’s very good looking and its metallic build is top quality. Feature-wise, the Wave is jam-packed. 
There is the HD video recording, Samsung’s 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 512 MB RAM, a super AMOLED 3.3” screen, capacitative multi-touch and a 5-megapixel camera. 

Even with all these features, if we’re asked to pick between the Wave, an Android device (say a HTC Legend) and an iPhone 3GS, the Wave would be our second choice. The 3Gs loses out solely cause of its price. If Samsung can make a device as cool as Wave, it surely can infuse much more imagination into its operating system. 

Regarding its capabilities, the phone is slick and super fast while handling applications and you can elicit a response with the slightest touch. Bada is very user-friendly. Unlike the Android and iOS4 which may intimidate first-time users, working on Bada can be a breeze. 

As far as its multimedia capabilities are concerned, gaming and video experience can be great due to its fast processing and crystal clear super AMOLED screen. Its 5 MP camera takes pretty good stills as well. In its current form with the Bada platform, the device is not too hot. Its pricing (at Rs 19,100) is not very convincing. 

As far as the Bada is concerned, Samsung has done a pretty decent job. They just need to tweak it up a bit and take it up to the class of the Android and iOS4. 

Specs 
Processor: 1GHz Hummingbird 

Display: 3.3” Super AMOLED 

Resolution: 480x800 (WVGA) 

Weight: 118g 

Memory: 2 GB internal memory 

Camera: 5 MP with flash 

Dimension: 118x56x10.9mm 

Price: Rs 19,100