Tech Readers » Internet

“Call from Gmail” Service Launched – Free Calls to USA & Canada

Zaheer Ahmed Khan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:05:53 +0000

There had been rumors about Gmail Call Service since June 2010 and today, Google made it official. Just like Google Chat, Video, and voice chat, Gmail Call option is also integrated right into the Gmail interface using VoIP technology from the Gizmo5 acquisition.

Google’s “Call from Gmail” is not free but cheaply priced. We tried calling Pakistan for $0.11 per minutes which is fairly reasonable. You can make a call by pressing “Call Phone” in the left column chat window. I think the service is currently in Beta version because I didn’t see the “Call Phone” option in my other Gmail accounts.

According to my users of Call from Gmail, the voice quality is great but I tried calling USA, Canada, Pakistan but the call did not completed. I was getting this message all the time, “We could not complete your call, please try again”. This could be temporary though…

Now the Good news, all calls to USA and Canada landline are free in the year 2010. Also all users get free credit of $0.10.

Update: Call phone option is now available on all my Gmail IDs.

Update: I tried making call today and it worked fine. Fast and crisp as expected.

How to Download Free Antivirus

Bilal Akram — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:03:19 +0000

An antivirus software is a type of program that searches your hard drive and floppy disks for any known or potential infections. The market for this kind of program has grown because of Internet growth and the growing use of the Internet by businesses associated with protecting their computer assets.

Antivirus software provides an important layer of protection from a multitude of infections, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, dialer, keylogger and rootkit infections. Originally antivirus programs just detected infections and bug removers just picked up spyware but nowadays the boundary between antivirus and spyware removers is unclear. Most present antiviruses have at least reasonably good pick up rates of all forms of malware.

Malware includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers and rootkit threats that perform malicious tasks on a computer. With the huge increase in bugs, antivirus programs cannot keep up with detecting all of it. But employing more than one real-time antivirus uses much more system resources, can cause conflicts and even reduce protection. So I recommend you only choose one antivirus for real-time protection. Instead, you can grow your protection using other security software.

Looking at several free antivirus software can assist in locating programs which are vital in protecting your computer from infections threats and other forms of malware. After doing a couple of searches you will find that Avira AntiVir is one of the best antivirus programs out there now.

Firstly, AntiVir does not include web or e-mail scanning capabilities; this is only available in the paid version. The shortage of an e-mail scanner is not really a disadvantage, it just means that AntiVir won’t warn you of virus filled emails before you open them. But you should not open an infected email, AntiVir will continue to spring into action, so it doesn’t mean that you’re not protected from email-based infections. Secondly, AntiVir has advertisements that come up with every update, you can disable or take these ads.

Finally, AntiVir has a time-limited license. It is renewable, but be aware that you’ll have to from time to time go through the hoops. Although AntiVir had signature updating complications in the past this seems to be corrected now.

Where to Find Free Animated Emoticons

Bilal Akram — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:00:54 +0000

Emoticons have definitely transformed the way people communicate via different forums more popularly in emails, instant messengers, social networking sites, mobile phones and like devices. Emoticons are sometimes referred to as Smileys since the graphics can be used interchangeably. The ’smiley’ or the ’smiley face’ is a stylized image of a smiling human face with the most simple smiley being a yellow circle with two small dots symbolizing eyes.

Emoticons are emotional icons or graphics; they are employed to give an illustration of the writer’s present mood, emotions and attitude during conversations, instant or not. They can also be used to enhance written words or as abbreviations which makes them really helpful in situations where words are not sufficient to communicate the message. Emoticons portray the expression on the writer’s face or their tone of voice in a lifelike way; they help to unmistakably set the perspective of messages. Mainly, emoticons are line of characters that can be found on keyboard shortcuts. The most common emoticons are MSN and Yahoo Messenger Emoticons. apart from Yahoo Messenger Emoticons, there is also Yahoo Messenger Hidden Emoticons that are not found in the emoticon menu, and Yahoo Messenger Hidden Emoticons that can be downloaded and added to the accessible emoticon menu.

Free animated emoticons are widely available online. These online sites offer the opportunity to download emoticons specific to Yahoo, MSN and others. Messengerfreak.com offers animated emoticons for MSN Messenger users. These are available in categories such as Animals, Girls Emoticons, Boys Emoticons, Cartoons and Words. Freesmileys.org have thousands of animated smiley faces mostly presented in GIF format. With a choice from over fifty categories smileys may be static or animated and are easy to add to forum posts, social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook, MSN messenger, Yahoo Messenger, personal websites, blogs, email and more! Other websites for free animated emoticons include msnemoticons.org which has a library of 10,000 emoticons, smilies and other similar products.

How to: Flush Domain Name System (DNS)

Zaheer Ahmed Khan — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:25:52 +0000

The Domain Name System or DNS specifically relates to a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It connects different sections of information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Added to this, and perhaps its most important use, it translates domain names that are meaningful to humans into the numerical or binary identifiers associated with networking equipment for the intended objective of locating and addressing these devices globally. A Domain Name System is in some way much like a “phone book” for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into actual IP addresses. For example, www.this example.com would translate to numerals within this formation xxx.xx.xxx.xxx.

The Domain Name System issues the responsibility of assigning domain names and mapping those names to unique IP addresses by identifying authoritative name servers for each domain. Authoritative name servers are allocated to be responsible for their specific domains, and additionally they can assign other authoritative name servers for their own sub-domains. This mechanism enhances the reliability of the DNS making it fault tolerant which subsequently helps to avoid the need for a single central register to be continually consulted and updated.

Generally, the Domain Name System is also used to store other types of information, for example, the list of mail servers that accept email for a given Internet domain. By allowing a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is a vital constituent of the Internet overall performance and functionality.

There are times where it might be necessary to flush dns to get a new name resolution. Additionally you may decided to flush dns cache when you can not access a newly registered domain name. You can easily flush your dns cache at any point to get a new entry. It is a fairly easy process that takes very little time. Below the instructions to flush DNS using either of the three major Operating Systems: Linux, Windows or MAC is explained.

To flush DNS cache if using a Microsoft Windows Operating System (Win XP, Win ME, Win 2000):-

Go to Start
Then go to Run
Enter cmd
Once in command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns
The operation should now be complete.

To flush the DNS cache in Linux, restart the nscd daemon:-

To restart the nscd daemon, Open the terminal and then type /etc/rc.d/init.d/nscd restart
Once you run this command your linux DNS cache will flush.

To flush the DNS cache in Mac OS X Leopard:-

Type lookupd -flushcache in your terminal to flush the DNS resolver cache.
ex: bash-2.05a$ lookupd -flushcache
Once you run the command your DNS cache (in Mac OS X) will flush.

To flush the DNS cache in Mac OS X:-

Type dscacheutil -flushcache in your terminal to flush the DNS resolver cache.
ex: bash-2.05a$ dscacheutil -flushcache
Once you run the command your DNS cache (in Mac OS X Leopard) will flush.

Earn Cash for Online Surveys

Zaheer Ahmed Khan — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:40:57 +0000

Now more than ever people are searching for other ways to earn money. The internet has become a useful source for getting extra cash once you use the most legitimate channels. Participating in an online survey is one way in which you can earn a bit of extra cash from home. Most surveys will have specific requirements. These will include age and residency. Once you meet the requirements you can go ahead and register to do surveys from your company of choice. However, you should be careful when doing surveys. Many of these are simply scams that will likely not deliver what they promised.

There are several ways to be paid after performing a survey. You may be paid directly to your bank account which is much more preferable or you may request to get a cheque for the amount you have earned. Most people would stay clear of receiving a cheque because of the extended waiting time involved. There are some surveys that may award you with redeemable coupons, gift vouchers or other forms of compensation.

When you sign up with a few sites you will be sent surveys on a weekly or daily basis. Depending on the site you may be given a huge volume to do. However, you do not have to do all the surveys that you receive. You have the option of choosing the ones that are better suited to your taste. When choosing a survey you should decide which ones will be more lucrative. For example you may find a few that cost $1.00 some that cost $5.00 etc.. It is obvious that if you are eligible for the ones that designate a $5.00 value then those are the ones you should pursue first.

Attempt to complete as many surveys as you are able to. You can earn a fairly modest amount by doing multiple surveys. But remember when doing the surveys be sure that you are honest. These surveys are important to different types of research.

It is important to pinpoint scam sites. These include those that tell you, you have won an expensive gift when you have not yet done anything or ask you to pay money for fragile lists.

A few websites that offer reputable surveys include:

http://www.cashcrate.com/

Registration on this site is free and you will receive $1.00 once you have finished your profile. Once you’re done doing this you can start making money with 100% free offers, doing the surveys, and playing games. The payment for each survey ranges from $1.00 – $10.00.

https://www.opinionoutpost.com

Registration is free and you will start receiving surveys once you have entered all your profile information. This site will pay by cheque; additionally you can ask to be paid once you earn $5.00 or more.

http://www.inboxdollars.com

This site enables you to earn money from taking surveys, playing games, and completing offers. You can also earn money by reading e-mails that are sent to your address. These e-mails will be sent intermittently throughout the day.

Download Emoticons for Free – Enjoy a Colorful Talk

Zaheer Ahmed Khan — Sat, 08 May 2010 12:13:53 +0000

Emoticons can be retrieved for many applications inclusive of Yahoo messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Skype, MAC and for Blackberry Messenger to name a few. The typical thinking is that the emoticons download is moderately easy to manage and can be accomplished free of cost on most available websites!

Tracked as far back as the nineteenth century where they were routinely used in casual/humorous writing; emoticons have advanced into one of the notably common and fun internet applications worldwide. One of the most popular emoticons typeset is the smiley face which was conceived in 1963 by freelance artist Harvey Ball. The smiley face became the founding basis for all various emoticons that came following.

Emoticons are icons used to express emotional meaning in a written configuration. A fusion of the words emotion and icon, emoticons show meaning by using symbols or icons. They are frequently used in online communication, and more customarily in messaging applications such as MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. These applications also come with basic emoticons but users are able to grow their number by downloading emoticons from online websites.

The first action to downloading emoticons is to do an internet scan for online sites that offer them. There are sites that will allow this service for free, so state this in your search engine. Free emoticons can be acquired on websites including addemoticons.com and smileycentral.com, which customarily give emoticon downloads for free; browse through a number of sites and pick the service that best represents your needs.
Once you choose your emoticon site, browse the emoticons applicable and select the ones you are seeking to download to your computer. A great deal of sites will feature a “Download” button. Click the button and you can then save the file to your computer. Employ your new emoticons in the messenger or email program of your choice.

Exercise caution when downloading anything online. You should have a functioning anti-virus program on your computer in the event of any possible virus downloads.

Google Voice in Pakistan

Bilal Akram — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:41:50 +0000

Google voice is one of the most anticipated services offered by Google but it is still not open to everybody. The new service allows you to acquire a universal number that will forward calls to your other numbers for example, your office desk number, your mobile number, your home number etc. You can define rules for re-directing calls and for incoming calls to your Google Voice which will not only save and record your messages on the other hand it will also convert and transliterate it to text, and will finally email you the text. Google has been giving out Google Voice accounts on invite-only basis and you can request for the invite here at http://www.google.com/voice.

You can sign up for the service and can enjoy all the benefits like web based SMS, an online contact list, transcribed voice mail, call forwarding and rules associated with these call forwards and much more, once you have an invite. However this service is only available in US, but if you want to try it in Pakistan or anywhere else in the world, you will need a US based number to make it happen. You can follow these steps below to acquire a US based number.

Step 1: Request Invite

Simply request an invitation with your email address. Visit http://www.google.com/voice to get an invite. Don’t get panicked as it will take several days in order to provide you with an invitation.

Step 2: Get a US based phone number

Whenever you receive an invitation and you try to sign up, Google will ask you for your US telephone number to link with your Google Voice account. All the calls you make using Google Voice will be directed to that number. To get such a number you can use one of the following services:

1. Virtual Phone Line – http://www.virtualphoneline.com

2. Skype online phone number – http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/onlinenumber/

Step 3: Make Google Voice account

The email that you receive as an invite from Google will contain the link. Click that link and accept the invite, make an account. While signup process, you will be asked for your US number, give the number you bought in step 2.

Once you have this setup ready, you can get a Google Voice client on your mobile phone and enjoy Google Voice on your cell-phone as well.

Beware of Fake Antivirus Programs

Bilal Akram — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:37:58 +0000

Virus Creators and Malware Distributors are always looking for different ways to infect every computer and out of all these one of the best method they are using is by getting inside a user’s system through fake anti-virus softwares.

This method is best because users keep searching for free anti-virus software’s and when they find any of these, they would just move forward for a quick installation of the same. These Softwares would perform everything as mentioned in their installation features except actually scanning your computer and removing the virus from it.

Once installation is done fake anti-virus programs would start reporting you with virus infection alerts, parasite infection on the PC, system scan results which are bogus and show you fake security

Once you pay attention to them they will eventually ask you to buy their paid version, and you will be risking all your important data and information. When someone is notified that unless they don’t purchase the paid version of the software, all the data on their Hard Disk Drive would be lost or get corrupted, hence the normal computer owners would not mind paying a amount of 25 – 50$ range for these kind of tricky applications.

These softwares are distributed through different websites and blogs on the Internet in the form of free scanning tools which computer users instantly download without verifying there source nor the installation files and get tricked with the Fake Anti-Virus (Fake AV) products.

They create false alarms on the user’s computer and instruct the users to upgrade for keeping their computers secure and safe which is only possible by paying some amount of money to these scammer’s.

List of Fake Anti-virus Softwares:

Make a note of this list and try not to download any of these to the maximum extent possible.

1. Antivirus 7
2. CleanUp Antivirus
3. Security Central
4. Security Antivirus
5. Total PC Defender 2010
6. Vista Antivirus Pro 2010
7. Your PC Protector
8. Vista Internet Security 2010
9. XP Guardian
10. Vista Guardian 2010
11. Antivirus Soft
12. XP Internet Security 2010
13. Antivir 2010
14. Live PC Care
15. Malware Defense
16. Internet Security 2010
17. Desktop Defender 2010
18. Security Tool
19. Antivirus Live
20. Personal Security
21. Cyber Security
22. Alpha Antivirus
23. Windows Enterprise Suite
24. Security Center
25. Control Center
26. Braviax
27. Windows Police Pro
28. Antivirus Pro 2010
29. PC Antispyware 2010
30. FraudTool.MalwareProtector.d
31. Winshield2009.com
32. Green AV
33. Windows Protection Suite
34. Total Security 2009
35. Windows System Suite
36. Antivirus BEST
37. System Security
38. Personal Antivirus
39. System Security 2009
40. Malware Doctor
41. Antivirus System Pro
42. WinPC Defender
43. Anti-Virus-1
44. Spyware Guard 2008
45. System Guard 2009
46. Antivirus 2009
47. Antivirus 2010
48. Antivirus Pro 2009
49. Antivirus 360
50. MS Antispyware 2009
51. IGuardPC or I Guard PC
52. Additional Guard

How to Protect from Fake Anti-Virus Softwares:

You can stay protected from these scams by not downloading any of the above listed softwares to your computer and always download only Legit Softwares. Next you need to download and install Remove Fake Antivirus Software (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Remove-Fake-Antivirus.shtml) which is a freeware application to remove all the Trojan’s and Viruses from your computer.

Finally it’s recommended to only install any of the following Free Antivirus Applications which are the best ones in removing malware from your computer and keep your computer secured.

1. Spyware Doctor

2. Sunbelt Software CounterSpy

3. Kaspersky Lab Internet Security

4. Norton Internet Security

5. Lavasoft Ad-Aware

6. MacScan (for Mac users)

Osama’s Profile Disabled: Facebook

Bilal Akram — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:04:44 +0000

Facebook has shutdown the profile of Al-Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden, after a security expert raised the issue with the website’s US owners.

Reports says, Osama bin Laden had a Facebook profile and Facebook page named “The leader of the Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden”, and according to the reports, he was using it as a platform to give speeches to Islamic militants and show them videos.

In regards to the decision, Andrew Noyes a Facebook spokesman said that the company was unable to determine if the Osama’s profile was fake or real. He also added:

“People often attempt to register fake accounts under the name of famous or infamous people, and we have a number of technical measures designed to prevent this behavior,”

Noyes on Fox News said:

“Sometimes these fakes do get through, but there is no evidence to suggest that the account in question or the other dozens of people who have tried to present themselves as Osama Bin Laden have any relation to the terrorist. As is our standard practice, we have disabled the account,”

He also said, the account became active less than a month ago, but had already attracted nearly 1,000 extremists, and although the language used was Arabic, messages in English had started to appear.

Internet terror expert and author Neil Doyle said:

“Bin Laden, via his supporters, is clearly taunting his pursuers.”

Since 2001, Osama and his organization have been major targets of the United States’ War on Terror. There is a 16 million pound reward for his capture, and he along with other Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

HTML5 – Future of Internet Evolution

Bilal Akram — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:15:10 +0000

What is HTML5?

WWW or the World Wide Web has traveled a long way since the early days of static pages in other words frozen, simple and silent text based pages low quality graphics. There was a time when we were astounded if a company even had a website, however those days have long gone.

Although there were some ups and down along the way, as in order to display content every browser used its own custom code which brought a massive change across cyberspace.

HTML5 is the next step in the evolution of the internet. HTML5 will revise the basic language of the online world. Its features include integration of video and audio without any java scripting or fancy tricks. You can also now pull off tricks like drag and drop interfaces, online document editing and much more without costly custom coding that may not be compatible across the board.

Many of the customized bits and pieces that exist to keep early browsers working with the new websites have been simplified by the HTML5. New features such as pre-fetching of pages and data that the user is likely to access after the page they are on are added in it. For instance, if you are reading an article, the next page’s content can be downloaded as you read, without you having to do anything.

Possibly the biggest step forward is that HTML5 will be that the markup will help computerized systems to understand the content and context of our pages, rather than just the layout.

When will we see HTML5?

Currently, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group estimates the end of 2010. HTML5 will of course be backwards compatible with HTML4 and all web pages are expected to work as normal.

Where will the next twenty years take the internet?

No one can say for sure, but HTML5’s unifying of many costly customizations will surely be a step in the right direction.

Tech Readers » Internet

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