The Mini Mobile Robotic Printer will let you bring your office anywhere

There are a few things in the office that don’t really travel well. One of the main things is a printer, which can make life pretty stressful if you’re on the go constantly. You come to rely on a hotel having one for public use, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen.
If you often find yourself needing to print things without a way of doing it, then the Mini Mobile Robotic Printer might be able to lend you a hand. This is about the size of your fist, and can print an A4 page in about 40 seconds. Simply activate the printer by sliding the hatch to reveal the inkjet, and start printing away. The inkjet will last for about 1,000 pages, and at the moment, you’ll only be able to print grayscale images or black text. This is a rechargeable device, and will last for about an hour on one charge.
You will need to make sure you line up the printer properly, otherwise your printing is going to be everywhere but where you want it. It is capable of printing multiple pages, and will stop once it has reached the bottom, and will wait until you move it to the new page, and tap the correct button on the corresponding app. The cartridge is easy to find as it is a standard HP one, so you can find it just about anywhere. This will be available in white and black, and will cost around $200-220.

X-Avidemux 2.6.1

                          

Avidemux is a powerful application that allows you to perform basic editing operations on video files. You can easily use it to edit your family movies, to join two or more clips or to cut out a part of the video file.

OS Requirement Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7

License Freeware File Size 19.9 MB

Version 2.6.1 [rev6]

Date Added Thu 28, 2013 at 04:47 pm

                     

How BlackBerry Lost Its Status as the Enterprise Mobile Gold Standard

I was reading Michelle Maisto's well-researched and well-written story about how enterprises are slowly moving away from BlackBerry as the standard for secure mobile communications. While I was doing this, I was waiting for the new BlackBerry Z30 GSM phone to restart—a process that was taking far longer than it should. This device that I'm reviewing for eWEEK should have been BlackBerry's tour de force. Instead, this device that was intended to help bring the company back to life does little to inspire confidence. In fact, this lack of confidence is such that I'm packing a spare phone just in case this device gives up the ghost again. But enough of writing about the Z30. This phone will appear in a detailed review that will appear soon on eWEEK. Instead, we need to examine how it was that a company with such a commanding role in the market, and with such good hardware engineering, lost its way so completely. In the process it's also necessary to separate fact from fiction, since a great deal that's said and believed about the mobile enterprise market is almost entirely fiction.

 

An example is that only about 2 percent of the mobile devices out there are BlackBerry devices, seemingly inundated in a sea of iPhones. Another is that the enterprise has virtually abandoned the maker in favor of cooler choices. In fact, as Maisto writes, a Gartner report places the installed base of BlackBerry devices at 26 percent in the enterprise, on average. That may not be the company's once commanding lead, but it's a far cry from 2 percent.

Clearly, the enterprise has not abandoned BlackBerry. But what is the source of this misinformation about BlackBerry's market position? Partly it's because there's confusion between gross sales, sales into the enterprise, total installed base and enterprise installed base. It's also partly due to a skewing of figures when the numbers are taken from U.S. sales versus global sales. Still, the share of BlackBerry in the enterprise is shrinking overall, although the numbers vary by the type of enterprise. Consider the government and financial services industries, and BlackBerry is doing fine. But that's not the case in every industry. The one constant is that in companies where security is of paramount importance, there are a lot of BlackBerry devices. In enterprises where security is less important than user happiness, other brands prevail. BlackBerry was forced into its long retreat from the top of the mobile market for two reasons. First, the company chose to ignore the trends clearly being set by Apple and Android phones for far too long.

The second was that when BlackBerry did respond to those trends, it did so with too little, far too late. When the Z10 arrived, it was a very nice touch-screen phone in a sea of other very nice phones.
BlackBerry's failure to innovate is well-documented, so I won't go into it again here. What was perhaps worse was the company's failure to deliver. The BlackBerry 10 operating system and the phones that run it were months late, meaning that the company had to make do with its seemingly antiquated QWERTY phones and tiny screens when the rest of the world was moving to smartphones with screens large enough to allow practical Web browsing. While enterprise buyers weren't necessarily swayed by such coolness, their users were. This popularity with users translated into lots of useful apps, some of which were good for business. BlackBerry, meanwhile, commissioned few apps, and worse, required developers to choose between the functionally limited BlackBerry 7 platform, which has many users, and the more effective BlackBerry 10 platform that had few users. Things are changing at BlackBerry, but at a glacial pace. It's now possible, a year after it was introduced, to load most Android apps onto a BlackBerry 10 device, but only if those apps aren't on Google Play. However, finding this information out so you can do it requires searching non-company sources and downloading third-party apps.

 

If it sounds like BlackBerry is trying its best to become a business school worst-case analysis, you wouldn't be far off. Here, for example, is the company that desperately needs customers dumping a major carrier because that carrier basically hurt its feelings. This is how you plan a comeback?

It's no wonder BlackBerry fell from grace as the enterprise gold standard. The company did to itself what competitors couldn't have done. BlackBerry managed to knock itself out of the top rankings. The other question now becomes, who will replace BlackBerry? The answer is nobody. After BlackBerry lost its place as the corporate go-to company, other vendors have picked up parts of what was once the gold standard. Apple and Android have the app markets, for example, while Microsoft has some important support for the enterprise and it has integration with the rest of the world of Windows. In reality, the future is what you see now. You can still buy a BlackBerry if you need hard-core security, but other devices are plenty good enough for most purposes. Those other phones even might do a better job of supporting the features that you need the most, a need that BlackBerry can't fill anymore.

It's time you start using a password manager

The Heartbleed internet vulnerability has left two-thirds of the internet vulnerable. The bug allows attackers to steal user names and passwords. Even popular sites like Google and Yahoo! were affected, though they've since patched the vulnerability.

While you can't stop hackers from attacking websites, you can take steps to protect your information. The first line of defense is to create secure and unique passwords for every site and service you use. The problem is, how are you supposed to remember all of these passwords? The answer is with password managers.

What's a password manager?

Password managers are programs that generate, store, and encrypt all your passwords. You'll just need to remember one, strong master password to get into your password database.
By creating unique and randomized passwords with letters, numbers, and symbols, you'll prevent compromising all of your accounts if your password is stolen. If your Facebook account gets hacked, the hacker can easily access your other accounts that use the same password.

Weak passwords with just letters and numbers are vulnerable to brute-force attacks. Short passwords make these types of attacks even easier.
Apps like 1Password and LastPass are great options and act as much more than just password managers. They can store sensitive documents, credit card information, and even your software licenses.

But what if someone steals my master password?

This is highly unlikely and password managers make it difficult for attackers to crack your master password. We spoke with Jeffrey Goldberg, Defender Against the Dark Arts (that's really his title) at 1Password about how the app protects master passwords. "Your 1Password data is encrypted with keys derived from your Master Password. Nobody has any access to those keys or your Master Password. If someone captures your 1Password data, they cannot decrypt it without your Master Password."

This is the same case with LastPass. Although LastPass syncs your password database with its servers, it doesn't send or store any encryption keys. All encryption keys are derived from your master password and stored locally on your computer or device.
"We use SSL only as a second level of protection. Our core protection is from storing keys locally," says LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist.

Do I really need to change all my passwords?

First check which sites you use that were affected by Heartbleed and make sure they've been patched. Mashable has a great list of popular sites and their reactions to Heartbleed. Make sure a site has fixed the Heartbleed bug before you change your password, otherwise you risk having your new password exposed as well. Although there have been reports that Heartbleed may be exaggerated, there's no harm in being just a bit paranoid.
Cloudflare, a content delivery network, proposed a challenge for people to steal private keys using a site with the Heartbleed bug. Within hours, several people were successful in exploiting the bug to steal private encryption keys, meaning the threat is very real.
"[Heartbleed] is not an exaggeration," says Siegrist. "Cloudflare has proven that it is exploitable. "It's quite possible that usernames and passwords were taken."

Changing passwords with a password manager is easy; the apps will remember the new passwords and store them for you. LastPass makes it even easier by alerting users which sites and accounts were vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. They have a public website where you can type in URLs to check if they were affected. Mashable has compiled a great list of company responses to Heartbleed.
While there are no automation tools, both 1Password and Lastpass are working on this feature.
"You still have to find the password change form yourself and then let 1Password assist you with creating and saving a new strong login. Improving this process is something that were are always doing," says Goldberg.
Still, a little bit of work now can prevent a big headache in the future.

What else can I do to protect myself?

Password managers are the first step you should take to protect your accounts. Be vigilant about security news and pay attention to the websites you visit.
Phishing attacks, sites made to trick users into thinking they're another site, are a popular way to steal user data. Never click on suspicious links sent to you via email or over chat.
Password managers can help is this regard as well by taking users directly to the correct site. Sometimes the smallest typo in a web address can take you to a phishing site and you may not notice.

"People should try to take SSL/TLS warnings in their browsers more seriously," says Goldberg. The lock in the URL bar in modern browsers will show which sites are legitimate and are using encryption. Most browsers will warn you if you're visiting a dangerous site but awareness never hurts.
You should also enable two-factor authentication on sites and services that support it. Two-factor authentication basically requires two forms of identification: a password and a randomly generated code. Once you enter your password, you'll be required to provide a random code, which can be sent to you via SMS or via an authenticator app like Google Authenticator. The codes will only work for a small window of time before they expire.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Evernote, and many other companies provide this extra layer of security. It may be a bit more work to get into your account but it's worth it to keep your accounts secure.
Finally, make sure to keep all your computers, phones, and tablets updated. Security flaws are often patched in system and software updates.
Apps like Avast! alert users about outdated software. Softonic for Windows also helps users keep their apps up to date.
For more information about Heartbleed and how you can protect yourself, check out our coverage below.

Dell Software Releases AppAssure 5.4 Data Backup Platform

AppAssure 5.4 features a slew upgrades designed to improve replication, optimize performance and reporting, and broaden platform support.

Dell Software announced the launch of AppAssure 5.4, the latest version of the company’s all-in-one backup, replication and disaster recovery software platform.

AppAssure 5.4 features a slew upgrades designed to improve replication, optimize performance and reporting, and broaden platform support.

The latest version is also designed to offer a simplified user experience to help meet the data protection needs of both customers and managed service providers (MSPs).

Additional upgrades include protection schedule templates, nightly mount checks, and reduced memory consumption.

A host of replication enhancements give users more control and flexibility when architecting their data protection environment.

AppAssure 5.4 features multi-target and multi-hop replication capabilities, allowing users to replicate backup data from a single AppAssure core server to multiple target servers.

Other new replication features include scheduled replication that enables users to set customized replication schedules for each target, and advanced replication throttling, which lets users limit the speed of replication in bandwidth-constrained environments.

"Modern data protection is about ensuring that critical data and applications can be quickly recovered in the event of an outage or corruption. Prolonged downtime simply isn’t acceptable," Srinidhi Vardarajan, general manager of data protection for Dell Software, said in a statement. "That means customers and MSPs not only need solutions that are fast, scalable and reliable, they also need the flexibility to build a program based on the specific recovery needs of their businesses and clients."

AppAssure 5.4 further empowers MSPs to manage customers’ backup environments with numerous replication, reporting and management enhancements.

In addition, Dell Software now offers a variety of sales tools and training materials tailored specifically for the MSP community, with Accelerite (formally Persistent System’s rCloud), JMK Solutions, Synesis International and Intelice Solutions all recently becoming partners.

The platform also offers support for a wide range of critical systems including VMware ESX 5.5, Oracle VirtualBox, UEFI, RHEL 6.5, and CentOS 6.5.

A series of upgrades provide new and existing users with a more streamlined management experience, such as a new graphical user interface that provides quicker access to the most commonly used areas of the product.

The release also offers dynamic deduplication cache sizing, which helps simplify the configuration process and delivers more optimal performance by automatically selecting the ideal deduplication cache size based on available memory.

"The release of AppAssure 5.4 is the latest example of how Dell Software’s robust portfolio of data protection solutions gives them just that," Vardarajan continued. "With AppAssure, users can protect data continuously, move data anywhere, and, when the time comes, recover everything and recover it quickly."

A host of replication enhancements give users more control and flexibility when architecting their data protection environment.

AppAssure 5.4 features multi-target and multi-hop replication capabilities, allowing users to replicate backup data from a single AppAssure core server to multiple target servers. Other new replication features include scheduled replication that enables users to set customized replication schedules for each target, and advanced replication throttling, which lets users limit the speed of replication in bandwidth-constrained environments. "Modern data protection is about ensuring that critical data and applications can be quickly recovered in the event of an outage or corruption. Prolonged downtime simply isn’t acceptable," Srinidhi Vardarajan, general manager of data protection for Dell Software, said in a statement. "That means customers and MSPs not only need solutions that are fast, scalable and reliable, they also need the flexibility to build a program based on the specific recovery needs of their businesses and clients." AppAssure 5.4 further empowers MSPs to manage customers’ backup environments with numerous replication, reporting and management enhancements. In addition, Dell Software now offers a variety of sales tools and training materials tailored specifically for the MSP community, with Accelerite (formally Persistent System’s rCloud), JMK Solutions, Synesis International and Intelice Solutions all recently becoming partners. The platform also offers support for a wide range of critical systems including VMware ESX 5.5, Oracle VirtualBox, UEFI, RHEL 6.5, and CentOS 6.5. A series of upgrades provide new and existing users with a more streamlined management experience, such as a new graphical user interface that provides quicker access to the most commonly used areas of the product. The release also offers dynamic deduplication cache sizing, which helps simplify the configuration process and delivers more optimal performance by automatically selecting the ideal deduplication cache size based on available memory. "The release of AppAssure 5.4 is the latest example of how Dell Software’s robust portfolio of data protection solutions gives them just that," Vardarajan continued. "With AppAssure, users can protect data continuously, move data anywhere, and, when the time comes, recover everything and recover it quickly." - See more at: http://www.eweek.com/small-business/dell-software-releases-appassure-5.4-data-backup-platform.html#sthash.YNBcBhmU.dpuf

Internet Domains Top 271 Million

The Internet continues to grow, as top-level domains including dot-com remain strong.
VeriSign released its quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) on April 9, once again showing a steady rise in the total number of top-level domains (TLDs) on the Internet. The fourth-quarter DNIB reported that there are now 271 million domains registered across all TLDs.

TLDs include the popular .com and .net domains, both of which are administered by VeriSign under a contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce that was most recently renewed in 2012.

According to VeriSign, the .com and .net registries now include a combined 127.2 million registered domain names, with 112 million in .com and 15.2 million in .net. Year-over-year growth for the combined .com and .net domain space was reported at 5 percent.

The other large component driving TLD registrations comes from country-code TLDs (ccTLDs). At the end of 2013, the total number of ccTLD registrations was reported by VeriSign to be 123.5 million, for a 12.1 percent year-over-year growth rate.

The most popular TLD as ranked by the total number of registered domains is .com. Following .com is the .tk domain, which is the country-code TLD (ccTLD) for Tokelau, a small territory in the South Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. One of the reasons for the popularity of the .tk ccTLD is the fact that it offers free domain names to anyone who wants one.

The .tk ccTLD is managed by domain registry operator Freenom. The way that Freenom's .tk ccTLD actually generates revenue is by monetizing domains that expire.

"Domains that are no longer used by the registrant or are expired are taken back by Freenom and the residual traffic is sold to advertisement networks," Freenom stated in a recent press release. "Next to this primary source of income, additional revenue will be generated by offering digital white labeled services, such as hosting packages, SSL certificates and others, to free domain name users."

The domains .de (Germany), .net, .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .cn (China), .info, .ru (Russian Federation) and .nl (Netherlands) round out the top 10 in the TLD list.

DNS

In addition to managing the .com and .net TLDs, VeriSign also manages the root zone for the global Domain Name System (DNS) that powers the entire Internet. VeriSign manages root DNS under contract with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the Commerce Department. IANA control is set to shift away from the Commerce Department by 2015. The transition, however, is not expected to impact VeriSign's administration of DNS.

During the fourth quarter of 2013, VeriSign reported that its root DNS infrastructure had a peak domain query load of 100 billion queries a day, which is a 19.2 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average daily DNS query volume during the fourth quarter of 2013 was reported at 82 billion queries a day, for a 6.4 percent year-over-year increase.

The most popular TLD as ranked by the total number of registered domains is .com. Following .com is the .tk domain, which is the country-code TLD (ccTLD) for Tokelau, a small territory in the South Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. One of the reasons for the popularity of the .tk ccTLD is the fact that it offers free domain names to anyone who wants one.

The .tk ccTLD is managed by domain registry operator Freenom. The way that Freenom's .tk ccTLD actually generates revenue is by monetizing domains that expire. "Domains that are no longer used by the registrant or are expired are taken back by Freenom and the residual traffic is sold to advertisement networks," Freenom stated in a recent press release. "Next to this primary source of income, additional revenue will be generated by offering digital white labeled services, such as hosting packages, SSL certificates and others, to free domain name users." The domains .de (Germany), .net, .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .cn (China), .info, .ru (Russian Federation) and .nl (Netherlands) round out the top 10 in the TLD list. DNS In addition to managing the .com and .net TLDs, VeriSign also manages the root zone for the global Domain Name System (DNS) that powers the entire Internet. VeriSign manages root DNS under contract with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the Commerce Department. IANA control is set to shift away from the Commerce Department by 2015. The transition, however, is not expected to impact VeriSign's administration of DNS. During the fourth quarter of 2013, VeriSign reported that its root DNS infrastructure had a peak domain query load of 100 billion queries a day, which is a 19.2 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average daily DNS query volume during the fourth quarter of 2013 was reported at 82 billion queries a day, for a 6.4 percent year-over-year increase. - See more at: http://www.eweek.com/it-management/internet-domains-top-271-million.html#sthash.IO3cOSHh.dpuf

Intel, SGI Test 3M Liquid Cooling Technology

The two-phase process involves submerging the system in 3M's Novec fluid, a process officials said may reduce data center cooling costs by 95 percent.
Intel and SGI are using a supercomputer to test a data center cooling technology that calls for the system to be fully submerged in a liquid developed by 3M.

Officials with the three companies say that the cooling method could save as much as 95 percent in the cost of cooling the data center and significantly reduce the floor space needed for the infrastructure.

Keeping the data center cool enough to avoid problems caused by heat has been an issue for organizations for years. Heat can cause a range of headaches for IT administrators, from huge power bills and system failures to shorter component life and environmental concerns. System and component makers have been working to make their products more energy-efficient, and data center administrators use a variety of methods—like hot/cold aisles, massive air conditioning units and outside air—to keep the facilities cool.

Using liquid to keep the systems cooler has been experimented with for years, from IBM's Rear Door Heat Exchanger technology, which can be installed on server rack doors and uses chilled water, to other immersive liquids. Fujitsu last year introduced a new cooling technology called Liquid Loop Cooling, which uses a combination of liquid and air. Intel two years ago worked with a company called Green Revolution Cooling, whose CarnoJet System keeps systems cool by submerging them in a dielectric fluid called GreenDEF. The liquid is a blend of white mineral oil that company officials say has 1,200 times the heat capacity by volume than air. They said the process can reduce power use related to cooling by as much as 95 percent and the total power consumption of the data center by half.

The need for more efficient cooling systems will only grow as trends like cloud computing, virtualization and the Internet of things promise to increase the demand on data centers for more compute, storage and networking capabilities.

In the proof-of-concept run by Intel, SGI and 3M, the vendors submerged an SGI ICE X—the latest generation of the OEM's distributed memory supercomputer, which runs on Intel's Xeon E5-2600 server chips—into 3M's Novec Engineered Fluid, another dielectric fluid. 3M engineers have developed a two-phase immersion process that they said will reduce cooling energy costs by 95 percent.

It also will mean that organizations will no longer have to rely on municipal water supplies for evaporative cooling—greatly reducing the water consumption in the facility—and that the head taken from the system can be reused for heating systems and other tasks, such as the desalination of sea water, according to 3M officials.

The system works by submerging the system into the Novec fluid. The heat from the system is pulled away by the fluid, and the vapor is released and then condenses, falling back into the bath as liquid.

Because of the tremendous gains in energy efficiency, organizations will be able to more tightly pack components and do more computing in less space. According to 3M, businesses will be able to do the same amount of computing in a 10th of the space used by traditional air-cooled data centers. Using the Novec cooling system, a data center can support 100 kilowatts of computing power in a square meter. By contrast, traditional air-cooled facilities can support up to 10 kilowatts per square meter.

"As the backbone of the data economy, modern data centers must increase the raw performance they deliver, but also do so efficiently by containing power consumption and operating costs," Charles Wuishpard, vice president of Intel's Data Center Group and general manager of workstation and high performance computing at the company, said in a statement.

SGI officials noted that their ICE X supercomputer can scale from tens of teraflops of performance to tens of petaflops, and allows for tighter packaging of components and easy scalability. Having more efficient and less costly ways of managing data center and system cooling will help ICE X customers better leverage capabilities of the supercomputer, they said.

According to the vendors, more in-depth evaluation of the Novec system installation will begin this month. In addition, they also are working with the Naval Research Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and APC by Schneider Electric to evaluate an identical system, with the hope of showing that it can be used in data centers of any scale.