One Tough Week for Facebook

This week seems to be a tough one for Facebook due to the two sues and one recommendation to control Facebook. First issue is about one proposed feature of Facebook called frictionless sharing which places a user's behavior/activities in user news feed by analyzing the activities of user in Facebook. A collection of advocacy groups asked Federal Trade Commission(FTC) to stop Facebook from implementing the proposed frictionless sharing feature as it is against federal law. Another issue is the sue by timelines.com about using Facebook's Timeline feature. Timeline.com, a Chicago-based company fears the timeline feature by Facebook can eliminate them. In addition to this, Timeline.com alleges that Facebook redirecting users from the the FB page of Timeline.com to the timeline page by Facebook.

Another sue is about Facebook tracking FB users even after they log out. Facebook confirmed that they are using tracking cookies on user computer and that is active even after the user log out from Facebook. However, Facebook claims the allegation is baseless and they will fight against this law suit.

Technology Blog

Windows 8 Secure boot may Prevent Booting Linux Distributions

Since Windows 8 is using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to perform secure boot, it will be difficult to install and execute many distros of Linux Operating System in a Windows 8 computer if those distributions are not UEFI verified. Windows 8 is using UEFI to prevent rootkits and other boot level attacks but it may prevent other versions of OS boot loaders too from booting. So it is difficult to implement a dual-boot system in a Windows 8 computer. UEFI is a promising technology to improve the booting speed and security but it can create many unexpected issues. One of the problem is the lack of ability to run a genuine firmware or OS loader in a computer (Secure boot enabled) by the user if it is not UEFI verified. It is afraid that many OEMs will not give the control to turn off secure boot to the user and it may end the world of free software. In a careful analysis the issue is not directly related to Windows 8 but related to vendors who decide to implement secure boot for their PCs.


What is Unified UEFI and Secure Boot

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a promising firmware interface controlled by UEFI forum, a collection of chipset, hardware, system, firmware, and operating system vendors who decide specifications, test tools, and reference implementations that are used across many UEFI PCs. Any company can join UEFI forum and ensure their product is UEFI verified. It is an effort to improve the security of a PC by eliminating the chances of booting any boot level malware. Secure boot is the firmware validation process of UEFI.

How UEFI Secure Boot Improves PC Security

In Microsoft blog they demonstrate the differences between an ordinary boot and secure boot.



This image is self explanatory and anyone can easily identify how Secure Boot prevents rootkits from booting. Secure boot check the signature of the firmware when the system powered on and if the signature of the firmware is not present in the allowed list stored in the database, it cannot execute. Here comes the problem for many Linux distributions in a secure boot enabled system. If the Linux distro is not in the allowed list, UEFI will not let it to boot. Since many Linux users use customized Linux versions, it will be more complicated.

Technology Blog

Proposed US Internet Rule Prevents Broadband Providers to Control Consumer Rights

Though proposed US Internet rule is considered as very weak by many public interest groups, it can balance consumer rights and ISP's right to manage network congestion. This law prevent broadband providers from blocking customers from accessing legal content irrespective of its size including movie files. However, broadband providers have the right to manage their network to avoid bandwidth congestion. Motivation for such rule is the failure of FCC in federal appeals court against Verizon in an issue to prohibit Verizon from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications on its broadband network. Federal appeals court ruled that FCC has no power to prevent Verizon from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications on its broadband network.


Even if the law is in favor to the average consumers many object the law as it is an attempt by the government to control Internet. An addition to this, major broadband providers like AT&T and Verizon publicly show their negative attitude towards the proposed rule. Verizon spokesman says they will go to court against it as soon as the rules are published.


However, public interest groups welcome the rule with a note the current proposed rule is very weak. They say they will do their best to keep the law in place by defending it in court.

Further read:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/us-fcc-netneutrality-idUSTRE78M4AS20110923

Facebook wants Small Businesses to Use FB Ads in addition to Like Pages

Most of the small businesses know the power of online marketing including SEO,SEM, PPC etc. An up to date business executive knows the potential of online presence and many companies successfully owned their own Facebook fan pages(Facebook Like Page) with thousands of likes. They know they can effectively market their products via those Facebook like pages. Now Facebook plans to teach small business owners to utilize the potential of Facebook to reach customers beyond the Like page. Facebook wants every small business owners to enjoy the benefits offered by Facebook ads. According to some reports 9.2 million businesses(estimated) that currently have Facebook pages (Like Page) to promote their products. Now Facebook wants these potential small business holders to use Facebook ad slots to promote their business.

Facebook plans to partner with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to utilize the potential small business owners to use Facebook ads. To do this they need to teach small business owners about the potential of Facebook ads to bring more customers for their business.

As a promotion, Facebook plans to provide $50 discount for smaller business holders who wish to participate in Facebook ads. It is estimated that about 200,000 small businesses can utilize this offer.

Reference:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20111520-17/facebook-to-offer-free-ads-to-small-businesses-report-says/

Technology Blog

Why I don't like Rapid Firefox Updates

According to the new policy of Mozilla team, in every 6 weeks they release new version of Firefox. Mozilla team claims this rapid release helps to bring more capabilities to the Firefox. They say Internet is very fast and they cannot allow Firefox moves at a speed of traditional desktop software. Success of Google Chrome browser may also motivated Mozilla team to take such a decision. However, many people find this new Mozilla policy a little bit difficult. First of all Chrome and Firefox are not equal. Chrome has a set of users who like the features of the that browser but Firefox users are the traditional users who like the traditional look and features of Firefox browser. By trying to imitate Chrome, traditional Firefox users become disappointed. It is better to stay Firefox as Firefox and Chrome as Chrome. Some of the common issues with rapid release of Firefox are:

1. Add-on compatibility issues

One of the major issue with rapid Firefox browser release is the add-on compatibility. When I downloaded Firefox V5, I was surprised to see even Google toolbar was not compatible with latest Firefox version. Many of my add-ons were useless including some in-house tools. Anyway Mozilla team is about to find a solution to fix the add-on compatibility issue by following a bunch of new policies. You can read it by following the link below.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Add-ons/Add-ons_Default_to_Compatible

2. All customizations end

This is the another major problem every techie Firefox users face. After installing newer version of Firefox we need to customize it again from scratch.



3. Conflicts with Enterprises IT policy

Fast release of a widely using browser may create additional burden for IT departments. IT staff need to test the new version of Firefox with all internal web based tools they use. Some times they may need to update the in-house tools to make it compatible with latest version of Firefox.

4. Problems for web designers


Though Firefox is adding interesting features for web developers, it is difficult to check the compatibility of web design with multiple versions of Firefox.


In my opinion Firefox should try to make the program more stable with minor updates instead of rapid major releases. However, for me Firefox is my first choice due to its high stability. If you want to block Firefox asking to download latest version of the software, click on the link below.

Disable Firefox automatic Update Check.

Even though you can disable it, it is advised to go with the latest version of browser because of the added security and functionality.

Technology Blog

Major IT Innovations that Changed the World

This post is to inform one of the beautiful infographic on major IT innovations that changed the world by Dell community blog. This infographic tells the history of major IT companies like Microsoft, Apple, HTC, Adobe etc. The first slide is about the role of Microsoft to build a better world by its great product Windows Operating System. It starts with the first work of Microsoft MS-DOS to the latest Windows 7. Next slide is about how Microsoft changed the IT business by telling the way Windows OS addressed the 3 major business needs(Enhanced Productivity, Increased Security and Reduced cost).

After the role of Microsoft, this slide narrates the role of Adobe by telling how popular Adobe products changed business. Then this slide tells the role of AntiVirus Software in business. This slide also refer the role of Artificial Intelligence and cloud computing. I am not going to explain the entire slide, you can see the slide below.

Cloud computing and technology innovation in business infoGraphic from Dell:


Technology Blog

Time to Replace Traditional Wallet with Google Wallet

What do you think about a world where we no longer keep traditional fatty wallets to store money and credit cards to pay the bills? If the Google wallet will be a success, it can change one human nature to keep wallets (of course money) with us. We can directly pay the bill from our mobile devices without even swiping card using Google wallet. Google Wallet supports Android phones with NFC (near-field communications) technology. However, right now only Nexus S is supporting NFC technology and MasterCard is the only partner. So currently only Nexus S users with Citibank MasterCards can use Google Wallet.

To use Google wallet service, your smartphone should have NFC technology. Here a chip installed in your smartphone makes secure communication between smartphone and PayPass terminals. NFC will be common in near future. It is expected that Apple will add NFC technology in the upcoming version of iPhone. Mobile carriers also play an important role in this program. Right now Sprint is the only mobile carrier who participate the program as Sprint is the carrier of Nexus S. Other mobile carriers too will join this program as soon as other Android smartphones will add NFC technology.

Technology Blog

Error 619: A Connection to the Remote Computer Could not be Established

Today morning while trying to connect to Internet using my Photon Plus connection, I received following error message "Error 619: A Connection to the Remote Computer could not be established, so the port used for this connection was closed. " According to Microsoft support, error 619 can occur if your computer has any third party programs that is not releasing the Winsock stack after any type of Internet activity. Some examples of this kind of programs are Download Accelerator Plus and Zone Alarm. Some support forums tell another possibility which causes error 619. It is the registry error caused by improper uninstallation of previously installed programs in our computer. They recommend registry cleaning to fix this error.

How to Solve Error 619

To fix "Error 619: A Connection to the Remote Computer could not be established, so the port used for this connection was closed", follow the steps below.

1. Reset Winsock

In order to reset winsock, click on the link below.

How to Reset Winsock

2. Disable Firewall and network utility programs installed

By turn off any Internet related programs in your computer, you can avoid port related issues. Examples of Internet related programs are download accelerator, Firewall, torrent etc.

3. Check COM Ports

We should make sure the COM ports are used by the dialer (Internet Access Manager). To check this follow the steps below.

i. Right click on My Computer and Click on Properties

ii. Go to Device Manager

iii. Check Ports (COM & LPT)



4. Reboot Computer

After performing the above steps restart your computer.

Further Reading

1. Error 718: The Connection was Terminated

2. Error 651: The Modem has Reported an Error

3. Error 777: Connection Attempt Failed

Technology Blog

Subscribe Other's Updates in Facebook Using Subscribe Button

May be due to the continues efforts to keep Facebook on top due to the competition from Google plus, Facebook team added a new feature which allows a Facebook user to subscribe updates of other profiles. Facebook introduces new subscribe button which let a user to subscribe the public updates of any specific profile. It is not like welcoming all junk updates of the subscribed user, but you can specify which type of updates you want to receive. There are 3 options "all updates, most updates and only important" are available. You can select either one of the option at the time of subscribing a Facebook user. Many believe the new subscribe feature resembles the Twitter. It is because the new Facebook subscribe option performs the same duty of tweets from a followed user.

We cannot see the subscribe button for all Facebook profiles. Users should enable subscribe option first to show subscribe button on their profile. If you like to enable subscribe button for your Facebook profile, follow the steps below.

1. Click on Subscribe option below your Facebook profile picture

2. Click on Allow Subscribers




3. Click on OK (Edit Subscriber settings)



To view updates from subscribed users, click on subscriptions below friends.



To read more about this new Facebook feature click on the link below.

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150280039742131

Technology Blog

Law Suit by Sprint against AT&T and T-Mobile Merge

Sprint seems not so happy with the proposed merging between AT&T and T-Mobile and filed a law suit against it. According to Sprint if the merging between AT&T and T-Mobile becomes a reality, it may rise a new monopoly in wireless market. This new monopoly is enough to shut down small players like Spring from the market. AT&T's offer to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom is about $39 billion according to reports.

Spring feels this merge will make AT&T too big to compete for small players due to the increased control of AT&T over the wireless market, spectrum and roaming.
On the other hand, AT&T believes the merge will be more useful for users in rural America due to the better chances to serve them.

Further Reading


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/02/us-att-tmobile-idUSTRE78102D20110902


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20102055-94/sprint-files-suit-to-block-at-ts-t-mobile-merger/


Technology Blog

How to Fix DNS Issues in Tata Photon Plus USB Modem

I have been using Tata Photon Plus for more than one and a half year. Though I am satisfied in over all performance, I faced DNS related issues many times. Many occasions I lost access to Internet due to the issues of default Tata Photon Plus DNS server. I am sure many Photon plus users face the same issuesand looking for a solution to fix it. Here I present one practical solution to fix the normal Photon Plus DNS issues.

Change Default DNS of Tata Photon Plus

One of the best solution to fix any DNS related issues is to change the default Tata Photon Plus DNS address to one of the more reliable DNS service. Both Open DNS and Google DNS are better than most of the default ISP owned DNS. In order to change the default DNS configured in Tata Photon Plus follow the steps below.


1. Open Huawei Access Manager



2. Click on Tools and Options

Click on Tools and then select Options.



3. Click on Network Settings



To create a new Photon Plus connection profile, click on New.

4. Create new Photon Plus Profile with new DNS

Enter the following details.

Access Number: #777

User Name : Internet

Password : Internet



Click on Advanced button to change the DNS Information.



You can use either one of the following DNS addresses as primary and secondary DNS address.

OpenDNS addresses are:

Primary OpenDNS : 208.67.222.222
Secondary OpenDNS: 208.67.220.220

Google Public DNS Addresses are:

Primary Google DNS : 8.8.8.8
Secondary Google DNS: 8.8.4.4


Do not forget to save the settings after entering the details. Next time you should select the new Photon Plus profile before connecting to the Internet. After selecting new customized Photon plus profile, click on connect button.



Here you can see, we are connected to the Internet by the new profile we have created. This new profile is not using default Tata Photon Plus DNS address. So any DNS related issues caused by Photon Plus server is resolved automatically. If you are using a Linux PC, follow the link below.

Configure Tata Photon Plus for Linux PC

Technology Blog