Kural Tamil Software

Kural Tamil Software is a keyboard manager that helps to directly input Tamil in any Microsoft Windows applications. It can be used with MS Office, Open Office, Star Office, Google's Docs, and Spreadsheet, WordPad, Notepad, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, Adobe products, and many more applications. And also helps to chat in Tamil using Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, and AIM chat clients.
With full Unicode support, now you can send and receive Tamil Unicode mails, chat in Unicode Tamil, and search the Web for Unicode Tamil contents. Kural Tamil software is bundled with Kavithai a Tamil/English word processor, Paravai an SMTP based email client, encoding converter, Thendral a compact, portable Kural, and Osai a Tamil text to speech engine. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.

What's new in this version: This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.

Read more: Kural Tamil Software (Tamil) - Download.com http://download.cnet.com/Kural-Tamil-Software-Tamil/3000-2079_4-10696429.html#ixzz1mLLD6avk

Windows 8 Preview

Windows 8 is a coin with two very different sides: On one side is a tablet operating system, with the tile-heavy Metro user interface inspired by Windows Phone 7. On the other is an improved version of the full Windows 7-like desktop operating system. The first is very simple and consumer-oriented, and competes with tablets like Apple’s iPad and Google Android tablets. The other is the operating system favored by power users of complex and professional Windows programs.
Microsoft not only thinks it can successfully walk the tightrope between these two usage cases, but that the result will be better and less limiting than any of the alternatives. I took an early version of the OS for a spin. The Windows 8 Developer Preview I tested was on an Intel-based Windows 8 developer preview PC. This is the first version of Windows 8 to be officially let outside of Microsoft employees’ hands, and as its name suggests, it’s far from fully baked. But it demonstrates a lot of improvements and new capabilities we can expect to see in Microsoft’s next big OS.

How to buy a gaming PC

When many people think of gaming, they automatically think of gaming consoles. And, sure, many households have at least one (if not all) of the three major gaming consoles available: the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. But for a truly connected and immersive gaming experiences desktop PCs reign supreme. Gaming PCs are more upgradable than laptops, and it's still easier to install expansion packages to PC games than on consoles. There are vast online communities dedicated to modifying games to get desired results ('mods'). You need to use a PC for the best in 3D gaming, and you simply can't get all the new gaming bells and whistles unless you have a high-powered gaming PC. That said, you don't necessarily have to buy the most expensive desktop to play the most popular games.
Design Matters
Gaming PCs used to be humungous behemoths that took up a lot of space underneath your desk. You can still buy one of these monoliths, especially if you're interested in a multi-graphics card setup (more on that later). However, more modest mini-towers, all in one PCs, and small form factor PCs are certainly powerful enough to play all but the most strenuous games at the highest screen resolutions. Small form factor PCs and all in ones have the added benefit of being portable, in case you're on the way to a social gaming session at a friend's house or a rented hall somewhere.
CPU: The Gaming PC's Heart
The gaming developers all post what their minimum requirements are for their games. Popular games like World of Warcraft list old-school single-core processors like the 1.3GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ as minimum, but you really don't want to play at "minimum" on a new PC. Likewise, ultra low power (ULV and CULV) -core AMD and Intel processors are best left to being Web-browsing secondary PCs in your house. You can play simple games including role-playing games (RPGs) like Torchlight and casual games like Diner Dash or Plants vs. Zombies on a modest dual-core AMD or Intel processor.
If you're more serious about your gaming, look for a faster dual core or true quad coreAMD A or Intel processor, so you can play today's games and tomorrow's. First person shooter games will work fine on mid-level dual or quad core PCs, but if you tend to buy the latest game as soon at it is released, look at quad-core processors like the Intel Core i5/i7 or the six-core AMD Phenom II X6. Multi-core processors will pay off on games that tout "realistic physics" or "class leading visuals," but for the most part four or more cores help multimedia tasks more than gaming. Some processors are touted as being "quad-core class". This translates to: "dual core processor with better multi-thread handling". Strangely enough, these processors work fine as gaming platforms, as long as your GPU is strong enough.
System Memory and Storage
Memory is cheap these days. Buy at least 4GB of RAM. Use whatever speed is recommended for your system (DDR2-800, DDR3-1333, etc.)—end of story. For storage, getting a 500GB hard drive should only cost a few extra bucks compared with a standard 320GB one, and will hold many games. You can get a system with one or more solid-state drives (SSD) instead of a spinning SATA hard drive, but they are very expensive on a Gigabyte-per-dollar basis (around $300 for a 256GB SSD versus $60 for a 1TB SATA hard drive). If you're really impatient, the SSD can dramatically decrease loading times and reboot times (seconds vs. minutes), but for now they're not worth the added expense unless you're flush with cash.
Graphics Muscle
Just about every one of the PC reviews on pcmag.com lists integrated graphics as bad for gaming. This is for the most part true, but integrated graphics like Intel HD Graphics 3000 and ATI Radeon HD 6450 can handle limited 3D gaming. These graphic processors (GPUs) are certainly powerful enough to handle most casual games like Diner Dash, Farmville, and even light 3D games like Torchlight, Sims 2/3, and Spore. Getting a single high end GPU like the ATI Radeon HD 6670 or Nvidia GeForce GT 560 Ti is enough to play high end games like Crysis, Lost Planet 2, or the latest graphics masterpiece at moderate screen resolutions (1,280 by 720 in our standard tests).
If you want to max out your 3D performance and likely send your credit card cowering, then you can upgrade to two or three high-end graphics cards like the ATI Radeon HD 6990 (with CrossFireX) or Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 (with SLI). These highest-end graphics card will add over a thousand dollars to your final price, but then again these highest end PCs are the gaming equivalent of a million dollar supercar.
Make sure you buy one of those 24 to 27-inch 120Hz high-resolution 3D-capable monitors to make your multiple GPU system worth it. I'm still unsure about the viability of stereoscopic 3D in the gaming PC market, but you will be prepared if 3D ever takes off. Just be forewarned that stereoscopic 3D usually requires you to use 3D glasses. You may never use the system to its highest potential, and there will be something faster in 6-9 months, but you can tell your friends you have arrived in the upper strata if you buy one.

Difference between Microprocessor and a microcontroller

A microprocessor and a microcontroller are both essentially processors that are designed to run computers. The type of the computer machinery that the two run is different, though essentially the main task of both the microprocessor and the microcontroller is the same. Both are generally termed as the core of any machinery that has a computerized form. One is a specialized form of processor whereas the other is found in all computers.

Microprocessors

Microprocessors are normally called what we refer to as a Central Processing Unit, also commonly known as the heart and the brain of any computing machine. A microprocessor is required to perform an array of tasks. These are of general purpose and therefore it is said that the microprocessor is essential to perform the logical operations. The microprocessors are configured into microchips to serve their purpose of start a computer and boot commands as and when the computer is prompted to do so.

Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers are specific in nature to the task they need to perform. Usually found present in automobiles and appliances, the microcontroller has a microprocessor on its board to carry out all the logical operations of the gadget. The microcontroller once programmed, can work on its own since it has a stored set of instructions that it executes as and when required. A microcontroller can be easily said to be a small microprocessor that has a CPU, RAM, ROM and the input and output ports all embedded on the single microchip.

Difference between Microprocessor and Microcontroller

The major difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller are their functions. Where a microprocessor has more generalized functions, a microcontroller is more specific to its task.

A microprocessor may not also be programmed to handle real-time tasks whereas a microcontroller such as in devices that need to control temperature of water or perhaps measure the temperature of a room require real time monitoring and therefore with its inbuilt set of instructions the microcontroller works on its own.

A microprocessor requires constant input by a human such as in a personal computer so that instructions can be boot. A microprocessor is the memory of the computing machine whereas the microcontroller integrates the entire computer in a single chip. Not only does it have the memory embedded in, it also has input and output ports plus peripherals such as timers and converters. All this can be handled with a single touch.

Conclusion

Both microprocessors and microcontrollers have to run commands and therefore run a device on its own, however it’s the minute architectural design of the microcontroller that leaves a person interested in awe of the tasks it can perform when it is compared to a microprocessor. When a person requires running a word document or a video game on their computers they are essentially using the microprocessor, and when they have to work a microwave oven, they are working a microcontroller. Therefore, microcontrollers are more specific to the appliance they are configured for.

Read more: http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-microprocessor-and-microcontroller/#ixzz1mLI15sxn

ePUB Validator 1.0

ePUB Validator 1.0 comes as a helpful and reliable utlity that can enable you to check your ePub files. ePUB Validator is a GUI front-end for EpubCheck. You can easily validate IDPF EPUB files, without having to use the command line.
Requirements:
Java  You can use Winzip, Winrar to open rar, zip, iso files.
You should use Internet download manager, flashget or a software suport faster download
free download:http://download2s.com/windows/epub-validator-1.0/14848.html

ABBYY Fine Reader Pro 8.0 Review

Optical character recognition is a mature technology, and the machines it now runs on are immensely powerful compared with those used in the early days of OCR, so it's not unreasonable to expect any current program to recognise pages of scanned text perfectly. In this respect ABBYY FineReader Pro does not disappoint, but as nearly every scanner comes with a 'lite' OCR package for free, a program with a £100 price tag has to offer more than just accuracy, and it's here that FineReader Pro really excels.

As you'd expect, FineReader Pro can extract words from pages of mixed text and graphics; it can recognise columns, tables and boxed text; and it can reconstruct the layout of an original document in a number of formats including Word, Word XML, PDF and HTML.

More surprisingly, it has an easy familiarity with a range of input formats beyond the usual TIFF files: it can open PDF files, extract the text from documents photographed with digital cameras and recognise document images saved in several other popular image formats. It can even extract meaningful text from screen shots, which can be captured with a separate utility, of which more later.

Despite the program's flexibility, its user interface is remarkably uncluttered and the same toolbar copes with any type of recognition task. The controls will be familiar to anybody who has ever used a mainstream OCR package, consisting of four buttons to acquire a source image, recognise it, check it, and finally save it. For newcomers to the OCR game there's also a wizard to guide them through all four stages until they become familiar with the steps involved.

For big projects, a scheduled batch processing facility allows you to scan multiple documents and have FineReader Pro recognise them overnight or when you're away from your PC. There's also an optional fast recognition mode that more than doubles the recognition speed for documents with simple layouts.

FineReader does a good job of analysing complex pages to separate the text and graphics, but its tendency to turn graphical elements, such as coupons and logos, into text whenever it can is not always welcome. There is a manual override allowing you determine for yourself how a page is divided into text, graphics, tables and barcodes, but it's probably not worth the effort unless FineReader makes a mess of things when left to its own devices.

We tested the program with a range of documents including photocopied faxes, screwed up originals rescued from a waste bin, coloured text, shaded backgrounds and tissue-thin pages where the reverse side shows through. It handled all of them with alacrity, turning the pages automatically if scanned upside down or in the wrong orientation, and coping well with skewed scans.

The built-in spelling checker is comprehensive, and you can also ask FineReader to check your Microsoft Word custom dictionary if you use a lot of specialist words. The program supports 179 different languages and comes with spelling checkers for 30 of them. It had no problems coping with multilingual documents in French, Swedish and English but had to be told up front which languages to expect, not being able to work them out for itself.

FineReader's party tricks are really cool: the PDF recognition facility is useful if you want to edit a PDF file which is only available in a locked version. You can also extract groups of pages, or individual pages, and save them as a new PDF file.

The ability to recognise text that has been photographed with a digital camera is also impressive. Although the use of a 5-megapixel camera with good natural lighting is recommended, we achieved excellent results using a 3-megapixel pocket camera under poor ambient lighting conditions with flash. The results when using a low-resolution camera built into a PDA were hit and miss - and you can't expect them to be much better from any device with a fixed-focus lens - but the ability to capture documents inside libraries and public places, where scanning is not an option, is welcome.

The screen capture utility is equally nifty but less obviously practical. It captures text from any rectangular area of the screen and opens it in FineReader, Word or Excel. It's a neat trick, and it makes it possible to capture graphical text, such as that found on Web pages, for editing, but we can't say we've ever had the need. Maybe you know better.
Verdict
FineReader isn't cheap but it's worth every penny if you regularly need to convert paper or PDF documents into alternative editable formats. Great results can be achieved using the default settings, so FineReader starts saving you time and money from day one.

Read more: http://www.itreviews.com/software/office-software/abbyy-finereader-pro-80/#ixzz1mLGsZjxA

Prime OCR Review

Overview Prime Recognition's award winning production OCR product, PrimeOCR was originally released in 1995.  PrimeOCR is a Windows NT OCR engine that reduces OCR error rates by up to 65-80% over conventional OCR by implementing "Voting" OCR technology. PrimeOCR reduces overall OCR processing costs by reducing the total number of errors generated from OCR and providing a level of reliability not available with other OCR engines.

PrimeOCR Job Server (click on image for larger image)

PrimeOCR produces fewer errors

Today's best OCR engines are only achieving, on average, 98% accuracy, when recognizing typical quality images.  On a typical page of 2000 characters, that means that 40 errors remain in the OCR output.

By using PrimeOCR, error rates can be reduced by 65-80%.  This means that the 40 errors generated by today's OCR engines can be drastically reduced to 8 by using PrimeOCR.

PrimeOCR saves time and money

Although you may pay more for PrimeOCR, the total system and operating costs are much lower by using PrimeOCR.

In some OCR intensive applications, manual error correction cost, including manual labor, and verification workstations, can often be 50-70% of the total image system costs.  By reducing the need for error correction, PrimeOCR saves costs associated with annual/project manual error correction labor, capital investment.

PrimeOCR produces cleaner data

Not only does PrimeOCR reduce the total number of errors during OCR, but it also reduces the total number of errors that make it into your database or final application by 75%.

Only 40-60% of errors generated by standard OCR software are "flagged" for correction.  Since manual error correction typically only looks at flagged errors, this means that up to 60% of the errors produced by the OCR software are not reviewed and remain in the OCR data.  PrimeOCR generates more accurate suspicious character "flags" reducing the total number of errors that remain in the data after processing.

The PrimeOCR Job Server - Production level reliability image processing

The PrimeOCR Job Server provides flexibility and dependability to process a large array of OCR processing options and a level of reliability to process thousands of images without error.  Each job defines the images to process, any pre/post OCR processing options required, and the type of output.  The OCR Job Server queues the jobs for batch processing, and displays completed job statistics for effective batch management.

All Prime Recognition products are designed for easy installation, simple operation, reliable processing, and are scalable to match your OCR throughput requirements.  Within minutes of installation, the PrimeOCR Job Server is generating high accuracy output.  

Ever plan to process thousands of images overnight only to find out in the morning that the OCR engine crashed on a poor quality image?  PrimeOCR's NT's automatic engine recovery feature automatically senses when an engine fails and automatically re-initializes it for the next image.  This level of software reliability eliminates downtime and mandatory manual intervention during OCR processing.  Operating efficiencies are realized by implementing PrimeOCR into your imaging system.

By leveraging PrimeOCR's features, customers reduce OCR errors from image processing, and gain efficiencies in production imaging systems.

Interested in improving OCR accuracy in your imaging system, or having problems with your current system crashing during batch processing?  Let us show you how PrimeOCR can impact your conversion operations.  Give PrimeOCR a try.

PrimeOCR - fast AND accurate

PrimeOCR can be set up in a mode called "selective voting".  In this mode PrimeOCR offers the best of both worlds, the high speed of conventional OCR when you can afford it, and the high accuracy of Prime Recognition's technology when you need it.

PrimeOCR automatically identifies the quality of documents. On clean documents, PrimeOCR will only run one engine, on lower quality documents PrimeOCR will run multiple engines and vote the results. Selective voting is configurable by the user, you decide when to run more engines. This flexibility offers a number of advantages. For example, you may wish to vote less often because you need higher throughput to finish your job for an upcoming deadline, or you may "turn up" voting because this project is for a customer who is more demanding of OCR accuracy.

PrimeOCR can address your throughput requirements while addressing high accuracy OCR needs.

HTML Editor Review

One of the best free editors is KompoZer, our top recommendation for newbies. It's designed for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive web site without needing to know HTML.  Features include integrated file management (upload to and edit files on a web server), tabbed editing (allowing work on multiple pages), and support for forms, tables and templates.
KompoZer's last stable release was in 2007, and the last Beta (development version) was released in February 2010.
Worth watching is BlueGriffon, which is a fork of KompoZer, currently under active development and looking very promising.
Another good editor is Amaya. It's a project from the The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and so shines in the area of standards compliance and accessibility.
Amaya lets users both browse and author web pages, which enables easy copying and pasting of information from other web pages and easy creation of links to other websites.  You can seamlessly upload your web pages onto a server from within Amaya as well.

XML Editor Review

Tim Berners-Lee's dictum, "If it's not on the Web, it doesn't exist," may now be supplemented with, "And if your business is not creating XML content, it may soon cease to exist."
XML is changing the way content is created - for print publishing, for the Web, and for other new distribution channels like ubiquitous PDAs and WAP-based 3G cell phones - all of which are connected by ever-faster Internet connections. In recent years, XML has also become a leading method for moving content, with RSS feeds providing stories from blogger sites, transmitting audio and video from new podcasting sites, and managing Web Services, which communicate via XML-RPC, SOAP, and other behind-the-scenes protocols that have largely replaced CORBA, D-COM, and even EDI as data-exchange standards. XML is returning to its roots as a markup language for creating and structuring content. From high-end publishing tools like Adobe FrameMaker, InDesign, and Quark Xpress to Web-content tools like Adobe GoLive and Macromedia Dreamweaver, and on to Microsoft Office 12 and OpenOffice (not to mention Google's stunning entry into document creation with its acquisition of Writely), XML export and import and even XML creation and storage are now becoming commonplace. Yet XML content creation and delivery is at least three times more difficult than HTML, which in turn is many times harder than writing a Word document. So the success of the new content tools depends on making structured authoring, or guided writing, appear to be much easier than HTML: "As easy as Word" is a popular marketing slogan.
In the high-end print publishing industry, XML content is advancing on several fronts. Microsoft Windows Vista will offer its XML Paper Specification (XPS) to the print industry as a rival to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). Best-of-class desktop publisher Quark Xpress has lost significant market share to Adobe InDesign and hopes to recover by supporting XML Job Definition Format (JDF). IBM has abandoned decades of DocBook and SGML in favor of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). IBM donated DITA XML technology to OASIS, which has made it a standard. And Adobe announced that it is moving its technical documentation to DITA, starting with its Creative Suite docs. Finally, as markets become global, companies localizing their content will be doing it with XML standards like Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) and XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF).
To get a handle on the tools that make this all happen, we reviewed 12 tools commonly known as XML Editors. We found some terminology confusion in the market because some of these "Editors" are clearly aimed at the authors, writers, and editors who create the core content, while others are for the application developers who build the structure and styles within which the former can do their guided writing. We will distinguish the two as XML Author Editors and XML Developer Editors (an IDE, or Integrated Development Environment). And as you'll see, we found that one product suite does both.
Our XML Editors were selected from nearly 80 listed on the CMS Review site, and we are confident they are the best XML content-creation tools on the market. We looked far and wide to find American, Austrian, Canadian, Dutch, Irish, Japanese, Romanian, and Russian software development teams. Collectively, these tools are in use by millions of content creators around the world working in XML.

The Three Layers of Content Management

Separating presentation (layout, style, format) from content is a CMS cliché. This can be done quickly with cascading style sheets (CSS) and HTML (or better, XHTML). Separating off the presentation into style sheets is a lot harder than straight HTML, but the result is much more manageable and reusable content.

The three layers of content: the core text (XML),
the structure (XSD), and the style layer (XSL).

XML further extends the amount of separation so that three basic things result: 1) the XML document containing the pure content itself, 2) a DTD or XML Schema Document (XSD) with the allowable structural elements and their attributes to validate the XML document, and 3) XSL style sheets (possibly XSL_FO and XSLT transformations) to convert the core content document to multiple output channels with different presentations.
The three layers correspond to different types of markup. In the content core, the markup is semantic, with meaningful tags like name and price, the RDF properties that will drive the Semantic Web. In the structural layer, markup is syntactic, with tags like div and span. In the outer layer, markup is stylistic or presentational, with tags like font, b, and i.
The layers also correspond to different professional skill sets - designers on the outside, architects building the middle layer, and content authors in the core. XSD, XML, and XSL are three components like the red, green, and blue signals of component television. Separating CSS from XHTML is, like S-Video, good but not HDTV.
And finally, in an effort to make the objective of XML content-creation tools more readily understandable, here's a railroad metaphor: we can say the Developer Editor tools build the structure rail on one side (the content model) and the style rail on the other (the presentation model) that keep the author/editor on track with guided writing.
Author or Developer? Both
Since almost every major content-creation tool (e.g., Word) can now export documents in XML format, why do you need a dedicated XML Author Editor and XML Developer Editor? Because creating well-formed XML documents is not enough. Your organization needs XML documents that are structured properly. That means documents validated against your content model - the schemas and DTDs that describe allowable content elements and attributes. An XML Author tool will create valid content immediately, instead of starting from Word files, whose XML output must be painfully converted to valid XML. Many organizations create Word templates for authors, then parse the Word XML to match their schemas. XML Author Editors eliminate this time-wasting step.
Second, your XML will need to be re-purposed to feed ever more types of output channels as you exploit multiple opportunities to publish your content. The XML Developer Editor will let your application developers design and build the several XSLT transformations that will be needed behind the scenes to publish your content. So now that we've framed the whys and wherefores of XML tools, it's time to take some out for a spin.
Test Method
We downloaded trial versions of all 12 tools and installed them on a new dedicated test platform at CMS Labs. We read the online documentation (many PDFs we downloaded and printed out). Overall, existing online training was good, though video training from Altova, Stylus Studio, and SyncRO Soft really stood out. When companies offered us personal online training (with screen-sharing sessions), we accepted.
We joined online company forums where they were offered and read some posts to get a sense of the user communities. We also joined independent mailing lists of user groups. When we encountered problems, we first Googled the error message or situation, then we sent in questions to vendor support. We found the company is usually a user's last resource for help.
Once all the tools were installed, we created a test set of XML documents, XML schemas, and XSLT style sheets. We took them from CM Pros' Design Patterns for reporting Best Practices initiative and we simplified one of these to make a DITA XML test document.
We recommend you follow a similar methodology, working with test documents drawn from your own content. If you have no structured content, you have three options:

1. You can get a consultant to structure your content (or learn yourself). This may be long and difficult, but in the end, a rewarding process.
2. All the XML Developer Editor tools can extract structure from a collection of similar-instance documents. They infer a content model (allowable elements - you may need to fine-tune the order and frequency). They then give you a schema document you can use to create more documents structured to be consistent with your existing content.
3. You can work within proposed industry-standard content models like the new DITA structures for topics, concepts, tasks, and references.

Feature Evaluation
We would like to make a point that, given the space limitations of this print article, we can cover only a small number of the key features that distinguish these tools. We plan to create an online report that will provide more details, including many screenshots of key features, a glossary of terms, links to documentation on all these XML Editors, and mention of dozens of other XML Editors that did not make the cut for EContent but might fit your niche. For a sophisticated developer, any good text editor can be used to create XML documents, XML schemas, and XSLT style sheets. Among the most popular are HomeSite and UltraEdit (Windows), BBEdit (Mac), Emacs (Unix), and jEdit (cross-platform Java), our favorite tool. These typically have validation, tag-completion, elements in context, etc. And jEdit recognized the ditabase.dtd properly from its DOCTYPE declaration, where our reviewed XML Developer Editors surprisingly could not.
Here are the key features we focused on in our examination of these tools:
IDE. An XML Developer Editor that is the central part of an Integrated Development Environment is a must-have tool for any organization moving its content to XML. Since that now includes all content, at least one person in your organization needs an IDE. We judge the IDE tools by how many different aspects of XML they support. They should not only work with XML schemas and DTDs, they should provide full creation and debugging tools for these schemas. Perhaps even more important, they should let you design, debug, and deploy the many different style sheet transformations (XSLT) to repurpose your content for multichannel publishing. The best of them are part of a coordinated suite of tools that implement the many other options for XML development, which includes an alphabet soup of acronyms.

Altova’s source code view can switch to a Grid/Structure view, plus WYSIWYG (Authentic) view and a browser view

WYSIWYG. A simple XML Author tool that enforces the structural and styling constraints of XML schemas and XSL transformations can do this without revealing complex behind-the-scenes machinery. It should provide a comfortable and familiar interface for content creators used to working in standard what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processors. If the ratio of content creators to content editors and designers is high, you will need many more XML Author tools than XML Editor tools.
Validation. Guided writing, or structured authoring, works best when the writer is constantly assisted in doing the right thing. The ideal is continuous real-time validation against the content model rules in the schema. Even more rigid is to not allow the possibility of error. So validation comes in a range of settings. It can be turned off for experts. It may be done by clicking a request for validation. It may provide only warnings. It may actually correct or prevent errors. Some tools only allow both start and end tag sets to be inserted.
Elements in context. When adding structural elements, the best tools display a context-dependent list of the "allowed" or "available" elements that can be added at the current insertion point in the document. This can be in a separate window pane or a floating palette, a drop-down menu when you type an open tag, or revealed by right-clicking at the insertion point. Some Editors allow you to turn this down, or completely off for power users.
Tags-on view. Though they disrupt the pure WYSIWYG look, optional visual representations of the start and end tags for structural elements are very helpful.
Structure, or Tree, view. A hierarchical view of the document, which expands and contracts elements like an outline tool, letting you move around quickly in large documents. More powerful Editors let you move structural elements in this view and synchronize changes with other views.
Grid view. An arrangement of your content in something like spreadsheet cells. Cells can be moved, preserving their internal structure.
Drag/drop structure. The best Editors allow selection of the whole structural element, then drag-and-drop of the element - only to locations that are valid for the specific element, of course.

In Arbortext Editor we have selected a short description element in our
DITA document and are dragging it. The red "stop/no parking" symbol
indicates shortdesc is not allowed inside the paragraph element.
Arbortext will let you drop an invalid element if it thinks it can make it
valid after you drop it, in which case the symbol is a blue "plus" sign.

Source-code view. Some pure WYSIWYG Editors can show the source code for changes best made while looking at the XML source. Top tools highlight the syntax with your choice of colors so authors can easily distinguish the code from the content.
Tag auto-completion. When typing tags yourself, auto-completion is one way of enforcing correct structure.
Line indenting. Source code that is hard to scan quickly is useless. The best tools indent child elements to reveal the document structure. They may do this as you type or on-demand. But watch out for tools that add white space where you don't want them in mixed XML content. They should "roundtrip" your code cleanly.
XSLT processor. Built-in XSLT processing lets you view the multiple transforms to publishing output channels.
XPath/XQuery. Quickly find elements anywhere in a document that share a property and may be targets for special repurposing in your XSLT outputs. Some tools populate the XPath with your contextual position. As you click in the document your XPath appears automatically in the search box.
Native XML databases. Berkeley and eXist databases store your XML as is.   Many content management systems do as well.
Specific schemas. Support for well-known XML "vocabularies" like DocBook, DITA, etc. Support also for different schema standards, like DTD, XSD (XML Schema Document), Relax NG, NRL, etc.
DITA. The Darwin Information Typing Architecture standardizes schema components that can be specialized to a variety of technical documentation needs.
DocBook. While DITA accomplishes most of what the SGML DocBook standard provides, some tools continue support for DocBook.
Package size. The amount of code downloaded gives you some idea of the amount of work put into these great tools.
Communities online. Judging a book by its cover is a bad idea, but listening to what users are saying about these tools is a solid criterion for judgement.
Google PageRank. Another objective measure of a company is its Google ranking on a logarithmic scale from one to ten. Note that every additional step up in rank means roughly ten times the importance of the site.
Templates. A library of "stationery" resources, XML documents that authors can start with, knowing they are valid for certain schemas and support specific output style sheets.
Developer tools. All our Developer tools can extract schemas from well-formed XML documents. Some offer visual schema designers. Some provide schema management to assist in the creation of compound XML documents that contain elements from diverse schemas and namespaces, e.g., Dublin Core, SVG (scalable vector graphics), MathML, etc. Some visual XSLT style sheet designers are synchronized with their code view. Look for new XSLT 2.0 support.

The visual design view above is synchronized with the source code view.

Spell check. This can range from simple checking with a customizable word list to dynamic word and phrase completion to insure that writers use terminology consistently throughout the organization.
Multilingual. Unicode support for integration with translation tools.
There are other important features you should evaluate when considering the selection of an XML tool; however, we didn't include these in our matrix because all 12 tools we evaluated have them.

Opera Web Browser 11

Fifteen years and eleven iterations strong, the Opera Web browser has endured the rise and fall of Netscape, flight from Firebird to Firefox, and gradual ebb of IE hegemony. In spite of its niche desktop presence, the Oslo-based software company has found warmer reception in the mobile market, where Opera Mobile 11 (Free) for Android performs for an audience of tens of millions. The browser's appeal is not unlike that of opera itself: refinement. The browser, at least, also happens to be quick and capable. Opera patrons will appreciate be able to take their bookmarks, Speed Dials, and search engines to go, with Opera Link. Everyone will applaud the browser's silky smooth scrolling. When it comes to customization, Opera doesn't match Add-on-ready alternatives Dolphin Browser HD 5.0 (Free, 4 stars) or Firefox 4 Mobile (Free, 2.5 stars); however, users seeking a svelte web browser with full-throated multimedia support will want to take a seat with Opera Mobile 11.

Unobstructed Views
Opera Mobile 11 hits the right notes for mobile browsing. It lacks the swagger of Firefox's swipeable trays, but the clean bottom-fitted navigation bar, defined by the Opera "O," looks and performs well. The tab-sorting tray, which reveals miniaturized page-views, is a visual treat. On the other hand, minimalists will appreciate how Opera provides a Full Screen Mode as well as the option to individually disable both the navigation and status bars. There's even a Mobile View that compresses full-size webpages for the mobile screen (albeit, with mixed success).

Dolphin Browser mobile Browser

Dolphin Browser HD 5.0 is a veritable trickster of a mobile browser. You can change this Android app's look and feel through custom themes, add capability with Add-ons, or even navigate by gesture. When you encounter a pesky mobile site, you can don a disguise—for example, an iPad's veneer—to unlock the un-cropped page. Flummoxed by Flash? No more, so long as you're running Dolphin and Android 2.2. While I eagerly await a Dolphin-specific syncing service—such as Opera Link or Mozilla Sync—for the moment, the browser's support for Google Bookmarks suffices. If you're fishing for the UI sensibilities of Firefox 4 (Free, 2.5 stars) and the multimedia aptitude of Opera Mobile 11 (Free, 3.5 stars), reel in Editors' Choice pick Dolphin Browser HD 5.0.
Dress for the Occasion
For those accustomed to the stock Android browser, Dolphin is a fluid transition. Users can access everything from bookmarks to browsing history by clicking the phone's Menu button. Moreover, Dolphin mimics FireFox: swiping in from the left bezel reveals a Bookmarks drawer; swiping from the right unveils Add-ons and Themes, should you care to dress your browser for holidays—be it Christmas or Halloween Orange.

Review of Downloadmanager

Download Accelerator Plus (7, dubious privacy policy)
A few versions back, Download Accelerator Plus came even without a privacy policy, and the one found in a hidden place online contained some bad terms. Today, during the installation a license agreement will be shown, and this license agreement contains a privacy policy. It's still quite misleading and contradicting though, speaking about co-registrations with other services on the one hand, but only anonymous publishing on the other hand. How a registration with other services can be done anonymously is beyond my understanding...
In addition, just starting it opens half a dozen connections to ad servers, including Cydoor. Couldn't deal with the downloads on the site I used for this tests, as it always tried to download the download page, blocking the load of it inside the browser. On other pages, it worked ok. Still, even if you neglect the ads and possible spying, there are other download managers that are easier to use.
Download Express (1.4 build 233 SR 1, spyware-clean, free for non-commercial use)
Download Express is freeware for personal use, and quite fast in downloading as it splits every download and downloads it with 10 connections (like nearly all download managers in this list do). Its IE integration is working nicely, its download dialog is informative (though its quite flickering - a small thing the developers should fix). The German localization I tested is not complete, but at least there are a lot of localizations.
FlashGet (1.40, spyware-infected or paid mode)
FlashGet can be installed in two modes - one ad-sponsored, one ad-free shareware mode that needs registering. I tried the ad-sponsored version, and indeed it did install Cydoor.
The interface by the way reminds me strong of one of the other tools I tested (screenshots will be added later to this article). With only 5 simultanous download connections, it was only half as fast as Download Express, but it can be set to use up to ten.
My opinion about this one is that you can get better download managers for free.
FreshDownload (6.50, spyware-clean, free for personal use)
The IE integration of FreshDownload had problems during my tests and tried to download HTML pages as files, but once downloaded identified them as such and re-opened them in the browser. It doesn't have a lot of features, but it has the necessary ones and comes along with an easy to use interface. Too bad it doesn't uninstall completely.
Update: After a user reported that newer versions of this software would phone home every few minutes, I wanted to give it another try. I'm afraid I will have to report that it now required your name and email address to get a download link. I never received that email, but bunches of "unpopular" (misleading) advertisement popups from their website.
GetIt (1.04, spyware-clean, freeware)
Not very easy to use. In fact, the browser integration and the save dialogs need a lot of work. Until that work is done, I wouldn't recommend using it.
GetRight (5.02, spyware-clean, free trial)
GetRight has been one the first download managers around; in the early days spyware infected, but clean today. GetRight is not free, and doesn't have too many features compared to some other download managers in this test, but it's reliable and its IE integration works better than that of many others. If you already use it and don't miss any features, there are not many reasons to switch.
Go!Zilla (1.44.39, spyware-infected, 30-day trial)
Only a trial, and then also infected with eZula and Radiate. Does also installs a Smart Explorer, a browser that did phone home when starting it and will keep in memory. The browser integration wasn't working either, and crashing IE instead. With so many good and clean alternatives, keep your fingers from this one.
Internet Download Manager (3.1.8, spyware-clean, 60-day trial)
IDMs advantage is an easy to use user interface and integration into many browsers.
LeechGet 2003 (1.0 RC3 build 1500, spyware-clean, free for personal use)
LeechGet has the biggest graphical overload, but it's nicely designed and very informative. LeechGet is free for personal use, but you have to pay for commercial use and/or for for removing some limits. It doesn't install any adware or spyware, and has more features than most managers I tested. It has also been recommended by c't as the best freeware solution. It works with IE as well as Opera, Netscape or Mozilla (even Firebird).
Lightning Download (1.2.1, spyware-free, free 30-day trial)
From the same makers as GetRight (HeadLight Software, Inc.) comes Lightning Download. My first suspicion was that they created it because some people may mistrust GetRight because of its infected past, but its clean as well, and working like it should, and it's easy to use (I specially like that it shows URLs that are in clipboard inside the tray icon menu to quickly start downloading them).
NetAnts (1.25, spyware-infected)
Not only that the NetAnts interface looks more complicated to use than most other tested download managers, it is infected with Cydoor.
Net Transport (spyware-clean, free for non-commercial)
Net Transport also behaved quite well, is spyware free, available at no cost and in many languages.
ReGet (Deluxe 3.3, spyware-clean, 30-day trial)
Actually not a bad one, having different modes for newbies up to pros, a usable interface, and a good browser integration. 16 streams at the same time is the highest default I found so far, but as I would recommend 10 to 20 with DSL for larger downloads anyway, that's not bad at all.
Star Downloader (1.42, spyware-clean, freeware).
The link on their website downloaded an older version (1.42), and right upon the first start Star Downloader told me there was a newer one available (1.50). Sniffing the network traffic though it became clear that all that this update lookup is a clean anonymous thing. Star Downloader is free and spyware-clean. It supports the major browsers, and after changing some options, it worked quite well.
WGET (1.6.x to 1.8.x, spyware-clean, GNU freeware)
WGET is my all-time favorite. It offers more options than any of the other tools I tested (except splitting the download - at least I haven't found that option yet ;) ), but the downside is that it is a command line utitility. You should have some command line knowledge to use it, or take a look at some of the GUIs (graphical user interfaces, I'll try to add some links to those later) for WGET that are out there. While the other tested download managers are all for Windows, WGET is available for Linux, MacOS and some other Operating Systems.
Still to be tested: NetLeech, Sun Download Manager, Download Mage
Conclusion: And the winner is ... LeechGet, followed by Download Express. Both are easy to very easy to use, have a nice looking (but not too crowded) user interface, are spyware-clean and free for personal use
source:http://www.safer-networking.org/en/articles/download-managers.html

Sony Tablet S

The Sony Tablet S also comes with a range of other features, which make it really stand out from the crowd. There are front and rear cameras, 1080p video capture and playback, PlayStation certification, which enables users to access a range of exclusive titles, and a host of Sony created apps, including a universal remote for controlling other Sony products.
The tablet comes in two iterations, with 16GB and 32GB options available, and it has set pricing at £399 for the 16GB version. This in itself is an admission by Sony to the ferocity and difficulty of the tablet market.
Sony tends to market itself as a premium manufacturer, and set its pricing accordingly, but at £399, it has decided to compete directly with companies it would look down upon in other markets.

Google Earth Review

While Google Earth remains one of the most incredible programs you can download for free, it’s odd that it’s taken this long for the best features of one of its sister services – Street View – to be included.
With this version it’s finally there, and the difference is incredible. It’s always been a useful app, but now it’s a fully-fledged world in its own right.
With Street View, it’s the full package. Zoom down to ground level in previous versions of Google Earth, and while a few landmarks and big cities were blessed with 3D models courtesy of Sketch-Up artists and other collections, most of the world felt like a blocky wasteland. You could bring up users’ photos, which compensated for this a bit, but now you can actually get the full picture.
The one thing you can’t do is play a Tour while in Street View mode, which is disappointing, but being able to pause it and leap in and out, checking the scenery and watching out for sites of interest, is a much better way of checking the route than driving through the 3D view or trying to extrapolate from a top-down shot.
It’s also amusing to note how the view changes between the actual photos and the supposed ‘photo-realistic’ 3D models and images you have access to. Graphics technology has a fair way to go yet.
A new leaf
The other big new feature in this version is the addition of 3D trees, although this isn’t desperately impressive. It’s only activated in certain places, like San Francisco, and trying to track down foliage closer to home just gave us the same green blots on the landscape as before. At least you don’t need to worry about it spoiling the view.
Like all Google Earth features, it’s provided as a layer that can be switched on and off. It joins Oceans, Historical Imagery (now more prominent when you search) and Flight Simulator mode as interesting, but ultimately fairly gimmicky additions.

Bitdefender Antivirus Review

During installation of Bitdefender Antivirus, questions prompt the installer to set the initial user mode. Novice mode presents no tabs, having only big buttons to check for updates and scan for viruses, and there is a third button to launch game mode, backup or parental controls. Intermediate mode adds tabs for backup, tune-up, security and network management, plus a status dashboard. Expert mode gives instant access to all program features and settings. We installed it in Expert mode for this review.
There is one useful cosmetic improvement over last year's version of the suite: the controls now offer a visible response to a click.

Independent Labs Test Results

AV-Test gave BitDefender their best rating of Very Good at detecting proactive malware. For malware detection, low false positives, and fast response time, the product rated Excellent. BitDefender's scan speed was found to be only Satisfactory, and for spyware detection it attained only an above average rating - however, their tests were based on the 2010 edition, and the 2012 edition might perform better in their next round of tests.
West Coast Labs and ICSA Labs certify Bitdefender Antivirus 2012 technology for virus detection and removal. West Coast adds checkmarks for general malware and Trojan detection. A false positive snatched Virus Bulletin's latest VB100% award from BitDefender, though it passed seven of their last ten tests. AV-Comparatives.org awarded BitDefender their second-best rating of ADVANCED. Again, it was false positives that prevented it from attaining ADVANCED+.

Excellent Malware Detection

BitDefender detected every threat on our test systems. It was able to remove some of them during the scan, with others it asked what to do at the end of the scan. We chose 'Quarantine' for all of them - if that didn't work, we chose 'Delete'. Sometimes the delete failed, leaving 'No action is possible'. Normal users would at this point contact technical support for help with manual cleanup.
For a third of the threats, BitDefender left behind executable files, and two of the threats were still running. There were also many registry traces and files left behind. In our malware removal test BitDefender scored 8.5 out of 10, beaten only by the beta version of Norton Antivirus which scored 9, and Panda Global Protection 2009 which scored 8.7. BitDefender tied with the Norton beta for first place in the commercial keylogger test, scoring 7.5 points.
In a scareware (rogue security software) test, BitDefender scored 8.3, well above average, and it detected 88 percent of malware and keyloggers which used rootkit technology, scoring 6.5 points, a little above average. Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware 1.36, eScan Internet Security Suite 10, Panda and the Norton Internet Security 2012 beta all scored 7 against scareware.

Vipre Antivirus Review

VIPRE Antivirus Premium includes features for total security protection, including a 2-way firewall, malicious web filtering, ad blocking, antiphishing, and more.
- VIPRE Antivirus Premium runs seamlessly without significantly impairing system performance and is designed for an unobtrusive user experience.
- At VIPRE's core is an antivirus and antispyware engine that merges the detection of all types of malware into a single efficient and powerful system.
- The all-new anti-rootkit technology finds and disables malicious hidden processes, threats, modules, services, files, Alternate Data Streams (ADS), or registry keys on a user's system.
- Vipre has worked to reduce notification pop-ups and warnings to a minimum so that you are not bothered again and over.
- Vipre antivirus makes sure you can’t get or spread a virus, worm, or Trojan horse.
- Malware Detection prevents unauthorized scripts from webpages and websites that are infected.
- Anti-Rootkit ensures even the toughest and most sophisticated threats are kept off your PC.
- VIPRE Antivirus Premium includes comprehensive protection against email viruses, with direct support for Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail; and support for any email program that uses POP3 and SMTP (Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Eudora, etc.).
Vipre Premium Antivirus 2011

Vipre's anti-malware software is extremely popular throughout the world - it is used by 50 million people spread around 165 countries, speaking 15 different languages. The majority of users opt for the low cost Vipre Antivirus, but most customers choose to pay for more robust protection from Vipre: The Vipre Premium Antivirus 2011 ($39.95). The latest version of this suite has some considerable improvements over free version and previous versions.

We found the installation, including signature update and reboot, took about 12 minutes. There is a new 'optimization scan' which flags known-good programs - subsequent malware scans ignore these programs and run faster. On our test system, a full scan took 50 minutes, subsequent scans about 18 minutes.

The latest version of Vipre Antivirus is very similar in appearance to the previous version, apart from the enhanced speed. The new Vipre Premium is super fast antivirus which does not slow down your computer like many other antivirus programs do. It has some great features that help you automate the virus blocking process. Configuring this antivirus software is also a breeze.

On a couple of test systems which were already infected with malware, Vipre had no problems installing. We are able to install the antivirus and were able to detect all the viruses. It also detected all the malware on the system without any major problems. A few high-risk malware caused a little problem, however,we were able to remove those malware in the safe-mode.
Independent Antivirus Labs Results

AV-Comparatives has improved its rating for the latest version of Vipre - last time it was rated Standard for proactive detection and on-demand detection - this time it was rated Advanced for on-demand detection.

West Coast Labs and ICSA Labs certify Vipre for malware detection and removal - last year it passed West Coast Labs' certification for cleaning, too. Virus Bulletin has awarded Vipre Antivirus the VB100% award for all of the latest 10 Windows-based test sessions.
Improved Malware Removal

The Vipre antivirus comes with an award winning malware scanner that has a separate advanced rootkit scanning component. So it isn't surprising that we found the premium suite performs better at malware removal than other malware removal tools available.

The Vipre Premium Antivirus scored slightly above average, 4.6, in a test for removing commercial malware and antispyware. In the advanced rootkit test, the suite scored great - 8.0 points - it detected all the rootkit samples and removed them all. Norton Antivirus scored the second highest in this test, with 7.9 points.

In the Rogue Security Software (scareware) test, Vipre's scanner detected every sample and was able to fully remove them all, scoring 7.5 points, better than many other antivirus software. The best performer in this test was BitDefender antivirus, with 8.0 points.

TrendMicro Titanium Antivirus Review

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McAfee Review

For one thing, the name is different (previously 'McAfee VirusScan Plus'). More importantly, the user-interface has received a major overhaul to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. Because the appearance is so radically different, the product includes links to instructional videos and online help.
The new interface is brighter and friendlier than the old beige, gray and black interface, and is designed to give the user the exact information he needs in any given situation. The old "green for safe" indicator is still present, but McAfee has taken notice user surveys and focus group feedback, and added "(no action required)" to this indicator.
At the top is a status panel providing quick access to information about updates, subscription, scanning and firewall. That's right - although not a full Internet security suite, this antivirus software offers firewall protection. Also included on the status panel is a set of rotating statistics, including the number of viruses found during the last scan, and the number of PCs on the network protected by McAfee. A full security report can also be invoked.
It takes just a couple of clicks to access all the features, and there are multiple routes to many of them. An on-demand scan, for instance, can be triggered by clicking on the Virus and Spyware Protection strip in the features area, or by clicking on the top panel. You can also launch a full scan from the "Navigation Center", which also gives access to several more obscure features.

Installation can be Difficult on Malware-Infested Systems

Unlike many antivirus products, McAfee's installer downloads the latest product code and virus definitions during the initial installation. This means that the installation can be quite a lengthy process. On the other hand, once it's installed, you have immediate access, without having to subsequently download the updates. Also, the new user interface appears immediately when you call it up, which is a big improvement over earlier versions.
We installed McAfee Antivirus on our malware-infested test systems, but the installation completed successfully on only few of them. On the other systems, installation was blocked, or the installed program was unable to run properly. The good news is, McAfee comes with a set of tools to help in these situations. The bad news is, fixing the problems on all systems required every tool available.
McAfee's Virtual Technician is your first point of call for any installation problem. This tool will check for problems with McAfee, or, if McAfee is not yet installed, for any malware which might interfere with the installation. We found that Virtual Technician solved the installation problem on one of the problematic systems.
Stinger is a McAfee tool which can see off some common threats without needing a lengthy installation process. We found that Stinger resolved issues on several of their problematic systems. After running it, McAfee was successfully installed on two more systems, but it wasn't able to run on one of those systems. McAfee's online FreeScan and pre-scan preparation tool cleared up a few more problems, but we were still left with two problematic machines. On one, McAfee would simply not install, on the other, it installed but did not work.
The first-level agent manning McAfee's chat-based support was unable to resolve the issues on these two computers, so the issue was escalated to McAfee's virus removal service. McAfee's virus removal experts remotely connected to the two computers, and, after a few hours, they eventually managed to install the antivirus software.
If you're trying to install antivirus software on a system you know is already infested with malware, McAfee may not be the best choice for the initial cleanup. However, using all the available tools, and the excellent support, we finally managed to install McAfee on all our test computers.

F-Secure Review

F-Secure conducted research into how their customers use the product, and discovered that users usually go to the main window of the program, with the intention of performing a specific action. The new user interface is simple and attractive, and is designed to make it easy for users to take whichever action they want, and also launch full scans, get an overview of the program's recent activity, or check the system security status. There is the usual red-green-yellow status indicator, but, unlike most other security products, there is no button to fix any issues found. The status screen displays the status of each module, but there is no link to the configuration settings for that module, and the statistics page displays charts, but there is no link to detailed reports.
Real-Time Protection Network

This module runs in the background, collecting non-personal information from all F-Secure users, and analyzing it to look for patterns. The information it gathers is used to help many modules. Parental control categorization depends partially on it, the spam filter uses it to fine-tune its operation, and the firewall uses it to decide whether to trust or block a program.
Installation Problems

We encountered many problems installing F-Secure on their malware-infested test computers last year, and reported no improvement in installing the product this year. Even on a clean computer, installation was slow, timed at 25 minutes - though this included the lengthy initial signature update.

On some of our test systems, we found problems with installing, updating, scanning, or a combination of all three. F-Secure's free online scanner was used, logs were sent to technical support, systems were rebooted into Safe Mode, F-Secure's Rescue CD was deployed, and more, over the course of several days. On three computers it was necessary to remove and re-install F-Secure. One computer was never able to run a scan. For these reasons, we were reluctant to recommend F-Secure for cleaning up a system that is already infected with malware.
Independent Labs Tests

Virus Bulletin has awarded F-Secure its top rating of VB100% in all tests since 2003 except one. For on-demand malware removal, AV Comparatives awarded F-Secure its second-highest rating of ADVANCED, and for proactive, non-signature based detection, STANDARD. It showed few false positives in the proactive test. ICSA Labs certifies F-Secure's antivirus technology for both detection and removal of viruses (F-Secure doesn't submit its products to West Coast Labs for testing).

F-Secure earned top marks from AV-Test. For detection of malware, proactive detection, detection of spyware and fast response time, it gained the highest rating of 'Very Good' - other products matched this score, but none beat it. For fast scan speed and low false positives, it scored 'Good'.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus Review

In March 2009, Slovakian company ESET released version 4 of their ESET NOD32 Antivirus software and ESET Smart Security Suite. Both of these Internet security products provide proactive detection of new viruses and malware, using ESET's ThreatSense technology. In this latest version, the user interface has been improved to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. There are new keyboard shortcuts to help visually-impaired users find their way around the product. ThreatSense now has more than 20 new features to improve its performance in diagnostics, recovery, and malware detection. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is password protected, to prevent strangers from uninstalling it.
What sets ESET's security software apart from most of its rivals is that it doesn't rely on recognizing the signatures of known threats. Instead, ThreatSense proactively thwarts threats based on program behavior. As Dan Clark, ESET's Vice President, pointed out, a delay of anything up to 24 hours may occur between the detection of a new malware threat and the availability of a signature to deal with it. ThreatSense is able to deal with new threats immediately, because of its signature-independence.
Dan Clark went on to point out that ESET's products are very light on system resources, which means they can effectively extend the life of older systems.
There is an energy-sipping battery mode which extends the battery life of laptops and mobile computers without compromising security protection.
The Advanced Protection Status screen keeps you informed via pop-ups of any threats encountered. Pop-ups are suppressed when full-screen applications such as presentations, games or video players are active.
Threats do not always enter your system or network through the channels you may suspect. ESET NOD32 Antivirus has a smart scanner which checks SSL-encrypted channels, such as POP3S or HTTPS and will also inspect compressed files looking for hidden threats, altogether detecting more threats than many of its rivals.
In tests using PassMark Software, in December 2009, ESET added only 15% to boot time compared to a system with no security software installed. Its closest rival in this test was Panda Antivirus, which added 25% to boot time. The worst performer here was AVG Antivirus 9.0, adding 128 percent. ESET also had the least impact of all products tested on the time it took to launch Internet Explorer, adding just 32 percent. Its closest rival here was Kaspersky Antivirus, adding 75 percent. The worst performer in the Internet Explorer test was McAfee Antivirus, adding a massive 321 percent.

Kaspersky's Malware Removal

In almost all of our malware-infested test systems, Kaspersky's real-time protection dealt with active threats upon installation. In some cases multiple 'special disinfection' scans and reboots were required before it was able to do a full scan.
Kaspersky's default action is to prompt the user for action with less risky threats, and automatically remove more serious threats. We repeatedly clicked the 'fix it now' button after each scan until all threats were removed. Often, there was no visible effect after clicking the button. We had to click over and over again until everything was cleared up.
93 percent of the malware samples were detected by Kaspersky. After removal, Kaspersky left behind lots of non-executable traces and many executable. Its overall score here was very satisfactory as far as our tests are concerned.
In a rootkit removal test, covering both keyloggers and malware, and a scareware (rogue security software) removal test, Kaspersky scored excellent scores with tests against rootkits and tests against scareware.

FIFA on PlayStation Vita Uses Touch Panel Control Makes Ball Handling Literal

It's no surprise that EA's making its PlayStation Vita debut with a portable version of the FIFA franchise. Association football's the world's most popular sport and recent years have seen EA make strong strides in its rivalry with Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series. They're looking to take that resurgence to Sony's new handheld and will implementing the device's touch functionality in interesting ways.
When I handled FIFA on Vita a week ago, the developers on hand said that they wanted to deliver a full-fledged experience on par with the franchise's console games but also something that feels unique to the handheld. One of the features they can up with is touch-panel shooting, where you use the rear panel to aim and kick. When you tap, the ball goes to the spot that corresponds to wherever your fingertip is. This makes shooting on goal a completely different experience, since the touch panel's rectangular shape matches the shape of the goal. Trying it a few times gave me more precision that I expected and I even managed to slip one past the keeper.
I had a similar experience with the tap-passing that being built into the game, too. This function uses the front screen and it's as simple as where you tap is where you pass. A longer press elevates the passing kick for when you want to get the ball downfield in a hurry.
While the touch play might be considered something that EA is doing just because they can, the end result was, for me, an increase in the sense of immediacy. I felt closer to being on the field, as if my fingers were substituting for the players' legs and, with the shooting, almost like I was telepathically directing the ball. Granted, the switch in input takes some getting used to but it felt like a nice marriage of idea and device. FIFA will hit PlayStation Vita when the device launches next year.

Toshiba Satellite C665-I5210 Laptop Features & Technical Specifications

• Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Basic
• 15.6″ HD Clear SuperView LED Backlit TFT (1366 x 768) Pixels Display Screen
• Intel Core i3-2350M Processor (Up to 2.3GHz, 3MB Cache)
• NVIDIA GeForce 315M Graphics Card
• Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset
• 2GB DDR3 RAM, Upgradable Up to 8 GB
• 500GB SATA Hard Disk
• Webcam: VGA Camera with Microphone
• Card Reader: 4-in-1 Card Reader
• Optical Drive: 12.7mm 8x DVD SuperMult +/- R DL SATA
• Audio: 1.2W Stereo Speakers, Intel High Definition Audio support
• Keyboard: Flat Black with 10 Key Numeric Keypad
• Pointing Device: Multi-Touch Touchpad with Gesture Support
• Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, RGB, HDMI, RJ-45, Microphone In, Headphone Out
• Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n
• 10/100 Mbps LAN
• Bluetooth v3.0 + HS
• Kensington Lock Slot
• 6 Cells Li-Ion Battery
• Dimension: 380 x 250 x 28/37.9 mm
• Weight: Approx. 2.4 kg
• Warranty: 1 Year
• Special Feature: Multimedia Experience By Dedicated Graphics
• Exciting Offer: Tata Photon Plus Offer

Toshiba Satellite C665-I5210 Price: Approx. Rs. 33,159 /- INR

Toshiba REGZA 24PB2ZE LCD TV Features & Specification:

Toshiba REGZA 24PB2ZE LCD TV Features & Specification:

• Screen Size: 24″ LCD
• Resolution: 1366 x 768 pixels
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Contrast Ratio: 20000
• Brightness (cd/m2): 300
• Viewing Angle: 178
• Video Engine: Power Meta Brain
• Video Processing: 10 Bit
• Comb Filter: 3D Y/C (PAL & NTSC)
• Stereo System: NICAM B/G, I, D/K, & German Stereo B/G, D/K
• Audio Output: 10W X 2
• Antenna Input : 1
• HDMI : 1
• USB: Yes
• PC Input: D-Sub 15 Pin
• Input: Composite Video + Component + RCA Audio
• 3.5mm Mini Audio Jack
• Power Consumption: 68W
• Dimensions: 605 x 478 x 169 mm
• Weight: Approx. 5.5 kg

Toshiba REGZA 24PB2ZE Price in India: MRP Rs. 15,990/- Indian Rupee (INR)

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus Price

• Android v2.3 OS
• 1 GHz Processor
• 3.65″ Inch Full Touchscreen
• Samsung Social hub
• FM Radio
• Android Market
• 5 MP Camera
• Wi-Fi
• GPS Navigation

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus Phone Technical Details:
Network:

• 2G: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
• 3G: 900/2100MHz
• HSDPA: 7.2 Mbps

Platform:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS

Processor:

• 1 GHz

Connectivity:

• GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth V3.0
• USB v2.0
• 3.5mm audio Jack

Battery Life:

• 1300 mAH Li-Ion Battery

Audio/Video Features:

• Stereo FM Radio With RDS, Audio/Video Player
• Video Player: MPEG4, H.263, H.264
• Audio Player: MP3, AAC, AAC, eAAC
• Ringtones: Yes

Display Screen:

• 3.65″ Inch (320 x 480 Pixels) HVGA Capacitive Touchscreen

Camera:

• Primary: 5.0 Megapixel Camera with LED Flash
• Secondary: No
• Video Recording: WVGA@30fps

Design & Build:

• Touchscreen

Sensors:

• Accelerometer, Digital compass, Proximity
• GPS/AGPS

Memory:

• RAM 512MB
• Internal Memory 3GB
• Expandable up to 32GB

Pre-Loaded Apps & Messaging:

• Samsung Apps, Samsung Kies, Samsung ChatON mobile communication service
• Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter
• Email: POP3/IMAP Email
• Messengers: Gtalk

Others:

• Calendar
• Voice Memo
• To-do list
• Notes
• Recorder
• Calculator
• Office documents (Word, Excel, PPT ,PDF)

Dimensions & Weight:

• 114.7 x 62.5 x 11.2 mm
• 115gm

Samsung Galaxy Pop Plus S5570i Mobile Phone Features:

• 3G
• Wi-Fi
• Android Froyo OS
• 3.0 MP Camera
• Full Touchscreen
• Samsung TouchWiz 3.0
• Social Networking
• A-GPS with Google Maps

Samsung S5570i Phone Technical Details:

• Android v2.2 Froyo OS
• 832 MHz Processor
• Adreno 200 Graphics
• GSM 900/1800 MHz
• UMTS 2100 MHz
• GPRS/EDGE/MMS
• 3G Speed: HSDPA Up to 7.2 Mbps
• 3.14″ Inch QVGA (240 x 320) Pixels Capacitive Touchscreen
• FM Radio With Recording
• Camera: 3.0 MP
• Internal Memory: 164MB
• Up to 32GB Expandable Memory
• Multi Format Audio Player: MP3, WAV, eAAC+
• Multi Format Video Player: MP4, H.264, H.263
• Sensors: Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer Sensor, Digital Compass
• Wireless 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth v2.1
• Micro USB v2.0
• 3.5 mm Audio Jack
• MP3, 64 Polyphonic Ringtones
• 1200 mAH Li-ion Battery
• Talk Time: 2G: Up to 9 Hours, 3G: Up to 9 Hours
• Standby Time: 2G: Up to 570 Hours, 3G: Up to 440 Hours
• Dimensions: 60.6 x 110.4 x 12.1 mm
• Weight : 106.6 gm

Samsung Galaxy Pop Plus S5570i Price in India: Rs. 8,000 /-INR

Sharp AQUOS LC-32L415M LCD TV Features & Specification:

• Screen Size: 32″ LCD
• Resolution: 1366×768 Pixels
• Backlight system: CCFL
• Output power (RMS): 10 W (5 W x 2)
• Surround Sound: Yes
• OPC (Optical Picture Control): Yes
• S Video in: 1
• Component in: 1
• HDMI: 3
• RS-232C: 1
• 15-pin mini D-sub: 1
• Power supply: 110-240V 50 Hz
• Power Consumption: Operating-102 W, Standby-0.8 W
• Dimensions: 797 x 580 x 262 mm
• Weight: 9.0 kg

Sharp AQUOS LC-32L415M Price in India: Rs. 20,990 /- INR.

Play Station Sony Vita Review

The PSP never exploded. The Nintendo 3DS is a letdown. Now it's 2012, and Sony has the chance for a clean start that'll put console-caliber games in your bag. It does—but does a pocketable console really make sense anymore?

Why It Matters

The point of the Game Gear, Game Boy, DS, and everything else that's followed is to give you the same fun you'd have holding a controller in your living room, no matter where you are. Video games on the subway, video games in bed.
But consoles are now simple computers, really. They cruise the internet, they stream your videos, they download songs, and trawl Facebook. They're social points—you've got friend lists and inboxes on your computer. The Vita gets this, and attempts to cram a lot of this app-y functionality into ye olde handheld. Yes, that means apps. The Vita sprints to keep up with smartphone action—if it's a sustainable pace, this means portables can't just be dumbed down consoles anymore. They need be full-fledged devices, just as capable at non-gaming as they are at gaming. Go-to gadgets we pull out of our pouches and purses just as often as anything else. And the competition will look antique.

Using It

The Vita looks and feels like any other supremely expensive piece of classic Sony hardware. You've got your expected PlayStationesque controls, with the added nicety of (responsive!) touchscreen action. Overall, a supersturdy, petroleum-shiny hand television.
Gaming is simple: download a title, or pop in a game-on-a-memory-card (another new format from Sony!) and let it install. Everything else—music, videos, Google Maps, the web browser—is an app. Everything. If you've used a phone made within the past half decade, you'll get the gist of the interface pretty quickly. Stick and click—or touch and swipe—your way through menus that are an even mix of generic smartphone and PS3.
As much as the Vita purports to be a device from the future, it all feels very familiar.

Like

The Vita—hefty and gleaming, like the Space Shuttle—is the best and most capable portable gaming system of all time, in that it replicates "the console experience" better than anything else ever has. The graphics it pushes through on its 5-inch screen actually approach what you can see with a PlayStation 3. Approaches, not equals, but still! It's a handheld gaming system—and being able to even see the taillights of a current-gen console is laudable.
The display those crisp, smooth, complex visuals are paired with is an equal star. The 960 x 544 (!) OLED touchscreen is a rich slice of cake. Games and movies pop with traffic light bright color and heavy deep blacks—no details shed. It's not a retina display, fine, but movies are more vivid here than on any iPhone.
Luckily—and crucially—the Vita controls about as well as it looks, too. It'd all be pointless if you held those console-ish graphics in dinky approximation of a console controller. But Sony's built a damn good DualShock controller around the Vita's graphical prowess: the analog sticks and triggers are responsively chewy, and the D-pad and shape buttons are just clicky and firm enough. You'll feel equally confident throwing out flying 2D fighter kicks or rolling around a Katamari. For browsing websites and music albums, skip the pads and just use your fingertips, because Sony made a damn decent touchscreen.

No Like

The Vita has graphical flash that bests pretty much any gadget you can carry with you, but the software packed into it reeks of the worst bargain bin phone. It's an obvious diagnosis. The Vita wants to outpace your smartphone. It doesn't. But the mobile envy shows—painfully so.
The appification of every single feature is irritating. Everything requires two clicks. I understand the browser being a separate thing to launch, but settings? And after each app—be it a game or maps—is closed, it's thrown into a strange netherworld of pages, or cards, or something. If this sounds confusing, it's because it is. Your most recent apps can be flipped through, horizontally, if you want to relaunch them. Or you can use a peeling gesture to discard them. It's never really clear what the advantage of this system is. None of it's particularly clear. The Vita, in trying to run beside every smartphone and tablet, trips over its own laces. Sony's newest UI isn't awful, but when it's spread over the marvelous graphics and gorgeous screen, it's so relatively bad as to be onerous. Every step feels like one step too many, every menu an attempt to ape rather than best.
And what's the payoff? Games, aside, nothing great. Nothing takes sufficient advantage of that splendid, hi-res screen. The browser is slow, the music store clumsy, the Maps app incomplete. Sony's GPS-enabled locational social network app, Near, is so confusing as to be useless. The extra software required to transfer media to your Vita? Slow and terrible. The non-gaming basics are fine at first blush, but once you get over the Hey, my handheld has a browser! factor, there's very little veneer to wear through.
Nothing is worth wading through the Vita's interface, even to see it on that divine display.

Should I Buy It?

No, unless you're the the most devout of devout gamers, too impatient to make it back to your dorm or living room. It's a wonderful looking eye-ride clad in great armor, but everything non-essential about the Vita feels so very non-essential. Sony, by jamming in the capacious functionality of a smartphone or tablet, is clearly making a bid for what gets your hands' attention. You can't use your phone and the Vita at the same time, so, hey, pick me, pick me!
But there's just no good reason to once you dispense with the games. You're not paying only for a portable PlayStation—you're playing for smartphone that unfortunately lacks both the phone and the smarts. The Vita is a small gaming machine foremost, but Sony's device ambitions force you to think: do I really want to carry another thing with a browser and shitty camera around? This one doesn't even have email.
With both phones and laptops creeping up on the traditional turf of the computer, the Vita feels uncomfortably without a place that makes sense, falling short of either side—it's not out-phoning your phone or out-consoling your console. It claims portents of the future, but really, the whole notion of the Vita feels strangely antique.
Sony PlayStation Vita
Price: $250 WiFi, $300 3G
Size: 3.289 in x 7.2 in x 0.73 in
CPU: 4 core ARM Cortex-A9
Display: 960 x 544 OLED
Data: WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth (AT&T 3G optional)
Storage: Internal: None, Memory Cards available
Camera: 1 VGA front, 1 VGA back

Nokia Lumia 710 Specification

• 3G, WCDMA (HSPA+) / Quadband GSM (900/1800/1900)
• 3.7” inch (480 x 800 Pixels) ClearBlack AMOLED Display
• 1.4 GHz SIngle Core Processor + 512MB RAM
• 8GB Memory
• 5 Megapixel Camera (28 mm wide angle) with LED Flash, 720p Video Recording and Autofocus
• Xbox Live Hub for Gaming and Zune Player for Music
• Wireless 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth v2.1
• Integrated A-GPS receivers with Nokia Maps
• Facebook integration with phonebook
• Stereo Fm Radio
• Nokia 1300 mAh battery
• Talk time up to 455 Minutes
• Standby time up to 400 Hours
• Dimensions: 119 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm
• Weight: 125.5 gm

Nokia Lumia 710 Box Packs Includes:
Handset, Stereo Headset WH-208, Nokia Battery BP-3L, Charger AC-10, Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD

MS Excel Tips: Find The Difference Between Two Dates Using DATEDIF

This is a little known function in Excel in recent years even though it has been available in all versions since 95, it is then documented only in the Help file of 2000 but no further documentation of it in any other versions.
Nevertheless this function is mighty useful for calculating an employees age, length of service or the length or duration of a loan.
This Excel function actually stands for DATED DIFFERENCE, ie it finds the difference between two dates. The dates can be calculated in a number of variables, that is year, month, day or hours.
The way to use this function or it's syntax is as follows
=DATEDIF (Date1, Date 2,Interval)
Where

• Date1 is the first date
• Date2 is the second date
• Interval is the type of interval to return i.e days, months, years

There are a number of codes to insert into the function for the date interval and yours should be one of the below:-

• m = months (complete calendar months between the two dates)
• d = days (number of days between the two dates)
• y = years ( number of complete calendar years between the two dates
• ym = calendar months between the dates as if they were in the same year
• yd = complete calendar days between the dates as if in the same year
• md = complete calendar days between the dates as if they were in the same month and year.

Here is a basic example
To calculate the length of service for an exmployee
In cell A1 type 01/12/1990
In cell B1 type 15/11/2010
In cell A5 type the formula =DATEDIF(A1,B1,"Y")
Your result will be 19.
A few points to note

• If the interval you stated is not one of the above options then Excel will return the #NUM error.
• If Date 1 is later than Date 2 Excel will return the #NUM error.
• If Date 1 or Date 2 is not a valid date then the Excel will return the #VALUE error.
• If including the Interval string i.e Y, M D etc directly in the formula then you need to enclose it in double quotes "".

• If you have the interval in another cell i.e =DATEDIF(A1,B1,C2) then there is no need for double quotes. In this case its in C2

Let's turn up the volume on this. For the length of service of an employee you would normally want to know the days, months and years of service, the formula would look like this:-
=DATEDIF(A1,B1,"y")&" years "&DATEDIF(A1,B1,"ym")&" months"&DATEDIF(A1,B1,"md")&" Days"
The result in this instance would be 19 Years, 11 Months and 14 Days. However, if your result of the formula contains a zero like 0 Years, 14 Months and 2 Days then you might want to supress your zeros so you get the result 14 Months and 2 Days only.
Again with a little tweaking of the formula we can achieve this by adding in a sneaky IF statement and your formula would look like this:-
=IF(DATEDIF(A1,B1,"y")=0,"",DATEDIF(A1,B1,"y")&" years ")&IF(DATEDIF(A1,B1,"ym")=0,"",
DATEDIF(A1,B1,"ym")&" months ")&DATEDIF(A1,B1,"md")&" days"
A great formula- give this one a go.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6867237