Digit Magazine December 2007

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by  Digit

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Editorial
Who’ll
Take Charge?
T
THE TALE OFthe suicide of 25-year-old Praveen Kumar
in November has yet again raised concerns about the
extent and growth of cyber-crime in India. Kumar, a
hotel management graduate from Kerala, met
someone in a chat room who claimed to be a con-
sultant with an oil company based out of the UK.
Having befriended Kumar over a couple of chat ses-
sions, the “consultant” asked him to send over his CV
for a job opening at the company. Kumar promptly
obliged. The next day, he got a job offer: assistant
administrative officer at the oil company, with a fat
pay packet—£4,600 (Rs 3.7 lakh) per month. There was,
of course, a clause—the consultant needed money to
arrange for documents: visa, medical and migration
certificates, and so on. These amounted to Rs 8.5 lakh. Deepak AjwaniExecutive Editor
Kumar’s father obliged, but soon after, the “con-
sultant” could not be contacted. Kumar had fallen
“Indian cyber-law needs a lot of beefing
prey to a Nigerian fraudster, and the incident pushed
him over the brink. up to be able to spell out clearly what
In another case, the police arrested a 27-year-old
online acts are fraudulent, and the
man for allegedly cheating a Mumbai-based software
engineer through the Internet by posing as a woman punitive measure in each case.”
and stealing money from his bank account.
Rajesh, a resident of Ambalamukku, Kerala, ran
an Internet cafe. After befriending the engineer leave a sufficient number of loopholes for fraudsters
through chat, Rajesh posed as “Renuka” using a voice to evade prison. Indian cyber-law needs a lot of beefing
converter. He later forwarded a photo from a mar- up to be able to spell out clearly what online acts are
riage bureau to the engineer, who provided a credit fraudulent, and the punitive measure in each case.
card and code to “her” to withdraw Rs 2,500 for a Also, with cyber-crime happening in newer and dif-
flight ticket to Mumbai. Rs 22,000 was withdrawn ferent forms, the shaping up of cyber-law needs to
using the card. beevolutionary.
I’m just citing two incidents here from the thou- The lack of understanding—even knowledge
sands of instances of cyber-fraud in India. The of—cyberspace amongst the lawmakers, and the
problem is, only a few know and understand the almost negligible focus on cyber-crime at govern-
gravity of the problem while even fewer know how to mental bodies and even in police departments,
combat it. Finding a solution is left either to the gov- means the general population will continue to be
ernmental agencies such as the ministry of informa- open to the threat of online con-men. What kind
tion technology, or the owners of the sites the fraud of wake-up call is needed?
stems from. There is little the police can do here. Ill-
equipped in terms of both infrastructure and knowl-
edge of cyber-crime and its practice, the
specially-created Cyber-crime Investigation Cell is usu-
ally helpless. Private institutions, software companies
and ethical hackers help them solve such cases.
Even if the Cyber-crime Investigation Cell does
find a way to nail down the criminal, our cyber-laws [email protected]
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6 DIGITDECEMBER 2007
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Connect lContents
44
newsbytes CONNECT 30 Days With
Second Life
13 Directions We’ve spoken quite a bit
Acomprehensive search about the “game” called
engine shootout would be Second Life.Now one of us
highly desirable, but is, actually spent a few hours
sadly, impossible. Here’s
each day for a month in
our look at how well the
8 major three search engines that removed-from-reality
Mount Everest: perform—and also at what atmosphere—here’s the
Connected! apart from these you report
might, or might not,
consider 42
8 31 Know More About
Internationalised Display Interfaces
Domain Names
(as in Japanese C hild’s P lay Whether it’s because you own a device,
and Arabic and or because someone comes to you for
so) come closer help, it’s good to know what goes
You need to know about at least a few good online places where
where—in terms of connectors. Here’s
kids can really have fun—it’s not just about keeping them away
9 from the bad places about the newer-generation connectors
The Internet 24 for displays
helps young 18 Safety First
people in
Pakistan connect Time has taught us that there are too
to rally many, in fact waytoo many, people out
there who don’t follow the basic
9 precautions when it comes to getting Comfortable Control
Kids either don’t online and being there for a while. So well, they aren’t glamorous, but you need to
want to or can’t The bad news is that bad things can choose well. Here’s a mini-shootout of input
play outdoors— easily happen, and the good news is devices—we’vedone much of the elimination
so the Internet that it’s easy to prevent it. Find out work for you by choosing only those really
is to blame for
their lard what and how worth considering if you want a hand-friendly
computingexperience
Contents
F
6
exactly how Hindi news portals, hindi Years
Digit Archive
your magazines, and a varietyof
Every Single Digit Magazine
competitors other resources and Web and Fast Track Book
got top sites that you need to enjoy
positions in working in Hindi.
Mass Downloader DigitMagazine PDFs
search
3.3.698 SR2 engines—so —2001 to 2007
Adownload manager that you can learn Fast TrackPDFs
allows you to transfer how they do it, improve on —2005 to 2007
individual files (or lists of it, and get your own site
files) from Web and FTP sites ahead of them Enjoy six and a half years
of Digiton your Desktop!
at the maximum available
speed. @TheOffice Massive Assault puRbeliasdh eedv—eriny FPaDsFt fTorramckat!
Remote Access Network 2
Microsoft Search 3.17.5154 2.0.249
Server 2008
Provides
Express (x86) Secure
Deliver Search to your Remote
organisation quickly and Access and
easily for free with Microsoft Office
Search Server 2008 Express. Connection
by allowing you to virtually the background of Half-Life 2—
connect to your Office Genre: Strategy. A 3D think- mythologies and legends of a Synergy Mod Server
Network from any place in based strategy game where lot of countries. Characters: Advanced facial
the world. rivals struggle for global F.E.A.R. 1.08 animation system delivers
Blogvani Hindi dscoim-fii neantvioirno ninm ae nfat.scinating Dedicated Server tshoep hm-ost
SEO SpyGlass Toolbar 1
Hyper-stylised combat for isticated
2.0.10 Blogvani Hindi Toolbar offers Silk Road 1.130 breathtaking cinematic in-game
An extremely powerful you updated Hindi blogs, Online Client action. Gripping supernatural charact-
competition research tool. links to resources for Genre: RPG. The episode- storyline for spine-tingling ersyou’ve
SEOSpyGlass will showyou computing in Hindi, all major pattern scenario is written in intensity of play. ever seen.
6 DIGITDECEMBER2007
News Bytes Connect_Dec_07.qxd 5/12/2008 2:58 PM Page 8
Blame Game Gone Bad! Tenuous Link At first, it sounds
Post The Move
A picture portraying Shivaji in a poor light was posted on Bangladesh was offline for most of the day November 13: the sensational—“Mount Everest
Orkut, and a hue and cry ensued. Police got the offending IP sabotage stopped all Internet use. There was a nationwide is connected.”—this is the
from Google. Airtel, the ISP, obliged them with a name. A investigation. What baffles us is that reports say “Cables tallest mountain we’re
Bangalore-based techie was jailed, then 50 days later, were cut.” Cableswere cutand a country goes offline? We’re talking about. The This was one traumatic month—we repeat. As an added bonus, other
released without charges. Talk about bad name resolution... as lost as you are—don’t ask us for an explanation. underlying thought is that shifted office all the way from one place departments can hear him, too, and
along what was called the Bombay-Pune better understand his gentle nature.
if we can do this—yes, the
newsbytes highway to another place on the Now who’s unhappy, disgruntled,
project was very difficult
Bombay-Pune highway. Adding to the and in a vague mood of protest?
indeed—then we can
trauma somewhat is the fact that our old Ram:The obvious first in this category.
connect pretty much
security guards are no longer with us; He needs to travel by train for the first
anyplace.
we’re feeling a little insecure. time in his life, his coffee is served in
And then, on second
Security Watch LOTS IN A NAME? thought, it begins to sound So well, what’s the impact been? smaller cups, and if those horrible things
The Web: Even More Global quite ordinary: there really Looking at some who have been here a weren’t enough, the lift isn’t operational
while, let’s see who’s happy and why. yet—so he must actually climb up three
isn’t a conceptual big deal
Windows URI Handling Raaabo:Because this place is less distant flights of stairsa day!
about putting a tower
Vulnerability from civilisation. You see, Robert and a Vijay:No place by a window for a
someplace on a mountain,
The Problem Mid-November, the keeping the Internet a non- Japanese—which you’ll have is there? million others define “actual Bombay” as thoughtful, almost-meditative smoke.
Mid-November, Microsoft Internet fragmented, global entity. to copy and paste—that But then again, this is a “civilisation,” and all the rest of the (We’re reporting this, but Vijay’s sincere
issued a software update to Corporation for We learn that it’s not as you’ll imagine what it’s landmark in connectivity. metropolitan area as “the villages.” appeal to all of you is to never smoke.)
fix a security vulnerability in Assigned Names and straightforward as it might been like all these years for It’s not too far off, the day Nimish:He lives in an even more highly- Sanket:That Test Centre was his Own.
Windows versions including Numbers (ICANN) seem: ICANN had, in October those not familiar with when you’ll be able to call civilised place, so he’s pleased, too. This one isn’t. Yet.
XP SP2. Criminal groups have announced plans to “fast- of 2006, commissioned a “our” alphabet! anybody from anywhere— Deepak the Ed:Because the new office is Anyway, we’re still a small, happy
been targeting that track” the development of laboratory test of the new and this bit of news just smaller, his oath-laden speech is easily family, ‘cause the line is thinly drawn
vulnerability to break into country-coded top level kinds of domain names. CONNECTED WELL AND TRULY reminds us of that. audible to all without his having to ‘tween joy and sorrow, as the song goes.
machines and steal data. domains (ccTLDs). International characters Tech On
The patch fixes a critical Some background: would have to be encoded, THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA cent were not allowed to WIRE POWER It’s not a one-off
flaw found in Windows XP you’ve noticed that all and ICANN intended to find The Hill Online’s climb trees, 27 per cent Tech In The incident, and neither is it
and Windows Server 2003 domain names use only 37 whether the use of the were not allowed to play restricted to protests: “Blogs
systems that also have characters—the letters A to encoded characters would Unhealthy— on climbing equipment…” RealReal and Facebook are starting to
Internet Explorer 7 installed. Z, the numerals 0 to 9, and “have any impact on the So it’s about overprotective change the way young
The vulnerability is not the dash. All these are operations of the root name Mount Everest is now Again parents as well. World Pakistanis think because
present in Windows Vista. “Latin” characters—so it servers providing (un)wired. Hughes said that, people who aren’t usually
As some background, for imposes a restriction on the delegations, or the iterative November 14, a driven away from public interested in politics are
more than a month prior to people of countries where mode resolvers.” Chinese mobile phone space, children were being being exposed to it,” said
that, cyber-criminals have these aren’t used. For Then, in March, the provider tested— Kids are getting fat and pulled into virtual worlds: Mid-November, during Hamza Sadiq Khan, creator
been sending out spam example, as you know, you results were announced: successfully—a transmission lazy, at least in think social networking the crackdown on of Facebook group “Go
messages containing can’t have (and type out) a the tests had been station on the world’s countries where sites, Second Life, and other dissent by Pakistani Musharraf Go!!!”.
malicious links or Adobe PDF domain name in Hindi. there’s a lot of money—for virtual phenomena. President Pervez Musharraf, If you remember,
documents that try to install This means several example, the UK. There are The question is whether young Pakistanis were using communication via blogs
spyware when the user clicks things—inconvenience for too many reasons to with such online blogs and social networking and cell phones played an
the links or opens the files those not familiar with the mention, but not least distractions there for the sites to do what they could important role—in India and
respectively. Latin alphabet, a sense of amongst these is the taking, kids would go out to voice and demonstrate in other countries—in the
According to Microsoft, “a alienation for them Internet and the value it anyway—even if there were dissent. For example, plans rescue efforts after the
remote code execution (because of having to type holds for young people. to be an abundance of for “flash” protests in large tsunamis of 2005.
vulnerability exists in the way in something they never The UK Children’s playgrounds and even if cities were posted at the last These, given the very low
that the Windows shell would), and the Minister, Beverly Hughes, parents encouraged them minute. This was after the Internet penetration in
handles specially crafted URIs incongruence of naming a recently blamed MySpace to do so. As we all know, government shut down the countries like India and
that are passed to it. If the domain in one language and co. for their part in the online’s addictive. country’s two largest private Pakistan. One need only
Windows shell did not and typing it out in sad phenomenon of kids Now the reason for that television news channels. think of the countries being
sufficiently validate these another. not being outdoors could be something as Cell phone messaging fully-connected to imagine
URIs, an attacker could So back in March of this enough. A recent report by simple as people being was being used as well to co- just to what extent the
exploit this vulnerability and year, ICANN launched a a think-tank called Demos inherently physically lazy, ordinate dissent efforts. As Internet can empower.
execute arbitrary code.” campaign to provide details how “the benefits or something as exotic as representative of what was How is the Internet
internationalised ccTLDs, successful. “No impact at all tallest mountain. The of a good public realm for humans being wired for going on, one student said, perceived by officials in
The Solution with the co-operation of the could be detected,” wrote intention is to enable calls children and young wiredness. (We’re sure “We let students know authoritarian states? China
The vulnerability is quite Country Code Names tester Lars-Johan Liman. “All by casual climbers—there people are part of the there’s going to be some through Facebook groups naturally comes to mind,
critical, and if you haven’t Supporting Organisation involved systems behaved seem to be many such benefits it gives the rest of study or the other that and blogs when the protests with its Net censorship and
heard of anything like “the (ccNSO). exactly as expected.” now—as well as those society,” going on to talk will try and find out.) are taking place. We are other measures and policies.
URI vulnerability” or “the Already, many countries And now, in this “fast- performing in the 2008 about the lack of formal Point is, if our bodies are having flash protests for As Internet penetration
PDF vulnerability,” visit whose languages use non- track” bid, the next step “is Olympic torch relay. The playgrounds and such, and to survive in an five or ten minutes so we do increases in developing
www.microsoft.com/technet/ Latin characters had been to develop the policies that relay will carry the Olympic how traffic keeps children increasingly wired not get caught.” countries, it’ll be interesting
security/Bulletin/MS07- demanding the ability to will see the creation of new torch to the top; the site of off public space. environment, we’re going The most popular to watch two things: first,
061.mspx(http://tinyurl. use Internationalised top-level domains in the station is at 6,500 The report says, “In one to have to quickly figure Facebook protest group was whether access will bridge
com/2dbxdu) ASAP and patch Domain Names (IDNs). characters from the metres. This station—as well national study, 45 per cent the most practical way to We Oppose Emergency in divides or actually increase
your system. The page has all Those in support of IDNs languages of the world.” as two others—would of 500 children interviewed bring in that much-needed Pakistan, which had more them; second, whether reg-
you need to know. saw that development as an It’s only after you see a provide service along the said they were not allowed physical exercise. Unless than 11,000 members mid- imes that want to do so can
important step towards domain name in, say, entire climb. to play with water, 36 per the food pill arrives first. November. effectively police access.
n 250,000-PC botnet operator to get 60 yearsn Google unveils API for Outlook and Gmail interoperability n Users say“Gmail 2.0” is slow and buggy n Major US ISP Comcast sued over BitTorrent blocking n Nicholas Negroponte claims for many Rwandan kids’ first word is “Google.” Unlikely...
8 DIGITDECEMBER2007 DIGITDECEMBER2007 9
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Connect lFeatures
the huge mobile phone According to Toshiba, the
market here. They said would new models with HD-DVD will
be working on their brand cost 8 to 10 per cent more
image with more promotions than laptops with similar
and, of course, continuing to configurations and regular
keep up the competitive pric- DVD SuperMulti drives (DVD-
ing on all their products. Writers). During the event,
We asked about DDR3, Toshiba announced six vari-
and Kingston told us they ants of the A200, of which
were actively working on that four will be HD-ready.
technology, but that they Other goodies include a
believed it would only pick up maximum storage capacity of
momentum towards the end 400 GB (200 x 2), ATI mobility
of 2008 and early 2009. DDR3 Radeon HD2600 / X2400, 2 GB
modules are currently very DDR2, a 15.4-inch WXGA Clear
expensive, and sales would Superview display screen, and
only come from test labs, a plethora of connectivity
motherboard manufacturers, options. All variants will by
irst Glimpses
Digit @ Kingston: and a few enthusiasts. For powered by Intel Core 2 Duo
Taiwan now, DDR2 667MHz would be processors and Windows Vista
Kingston invited several the most in demand, they Home Premium.
said, and Kingston would go The inclusion of HD-DVD
publications—including
with it for now. doesn’t really matter for
us—for their 20th
On solid state drives (SSD), Indian consumers, but 8 to 10
anniversary celebrations. The
Kingston’s stand is that they per cent is a reasonable price
press event was at Hsin-chu,
would only see the light of difference to pay for being
the industrial capital of
the day through laptops. SSDs future-proof. The exact prices
Taiwan. One of the highlights
for Desktops would still be at weren’t declared, but expect
of the year for them was the
least a year or so away due to to pay around Rs 60,000 for
recently-launched (October)
Two first-hand HyperX series of DDR3 RAM. high manufacturing costs and the base model, and more for
limited capacities. high-end configurations.
reports: Kingston The factory floor was
suited up for the tour when
told us about Toshiba’s New
we arrived; the assembly of
Notebooks
their near-future all the products is done over
plans in India— line-ups of SMT (Surface Singapore, 6th November
Mount Technology) machines 2007, Toshiba’s Computer
and Toshiba that run a few metres in Systems Division announced
about their new length. The modules are then the launch of their new range
tested using visual scanners of affordable Satellite A200
notebooks
and then tested for working. notebooks. The highlight is
The testing area is a huge hall the inclusion of an
with long lines of mother- HD-DVD drive
boards of all generations one and HDMI
after the other testing PC connectivity.
RAM modules and USB drives. The Satellite A100 and
There are also laptop setups A200 series from Toshiba
Toshiba also announced
for testing SO-DIMMs. Then were oriented towards value-
its go-green initiative called
there’s the labelling and conscious buyers, and have
Notebook-2-recycle: they are
packaging area. had reasonably good configu-
now offering to recycle its
We managed to get talk- rations. With the inclusion of
notebooks free of cost, free of
ing with Nathan Su, product HD-DVD and HDMI connectiv-
any obligation to buy a new
manager for Flash memory, ity, the A200 will be able to
Toshiba notebook—just call
and Ann Bai, product play HD content on the
the global support centre,
manager for DRAM memory, laptop screen; one can opt to
and a pickup will be
about Kingston’s strategies enjoy the high definition on a
arranged. In Phase One, the
and interests in India. larger screen via the HDMI
service will start in Singapore;
Kingston has chosen to focus, connectivity, which supports
Phase Two will include
in India, on the USB market resolutions up to 1080i. The
Thailand, Malaysia, and
(including memory cards and HDMI connector also allows
Indonesia; and in the final
USB drives) more than PC the laptop to be connected to
phase, it will be rolled out in
memory, because of import Audio/Video receivers.
all of Southeast Asia.
duty issues, and because of
12 DIGITDECEMBER2007
Connect lFeature
Directions
Is there search beyond Google?
While we’re still telling you to explore away
Ram Mohan Rao
from the known and trusted, we must say: (a)
there happen to be too many search engines
The word “search” is so loaded, the mind that claim new-age capabilities, and (b) the
boggles. There are categories of search current paradigm—of rating a site based on link
beyond text—news, images, and so on. analysis—is powerful. You can’t go toowrong.
There are search engines catering to each of Do explore the page we mentioned: that list
these—as well as to different kinds of text is a delight. You’ll find, for example, a search
search; in fact, there are hundreds of search engine you can influence by clicking on feed-
engines. Sometimes what you find makes you back links for result pages. (Which is an excellent
search for something new—one isn’t even idea in itself, problem being that enough people
always clear about what one is looking for. The need to go there in the first place.)
Web isn’t organised; it’s a mess, really, quite Now we really want to see if there’s merit to
like this paragraph. All those neat pages like anything beyond traditional search engines, so
BBC and Time.com might make it seem other- let’s take a look at Clusty, which readwriteweb
wise, but think about it: when you’re at .comcalls a “Search 2.0” site.
news.bbc.co.uk, you might as well be reading
Clusters
a newspaper with a magical sprinkling of
interactivity—you don’t need to be on the Clusty looks quite like a traditional search
Internet. You’ll be reading what they present engine—you can
you. The point of the Internet is that there’s search the Web,
(usually) exactly what you’re looking for at news, blogs,
some place, and search engines attempt to images, and more. So
guide you there. well, we took a look at
What follows is our attempt at guiding you what Clusty could tell us about
to the search engines—to the possibilities. how search engines work—we
asked it the naïve question,
Meek Contenders
“Howdo search engines work?”
There are, like we said, hundreds of search One look at the first
engines. None of them present you with as ten and we could
many search results as the big ones, but no- tell this
one cares whether you get a million results or thing had
athousand: you need just about twenty or so gotten it spot
relevant ones. on: all of them are
Let’s first establish why it is that people 100 per cent relevant.
gravitate to Google (and the others in its As spot on as Google etc., if
league). Is it just out of habit? Because every- you’ll pardon our helplessness
one else does it? in needing benchmarks.
Not quite. In this, our look at what might But Clusty goes where the
possiblyreplace the big three, we first looked others don’t is that on the
at www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_ left, you get “clusters”:
alternative_search_engines.php (the URL says it). Optimization, Web Crawlers,
Forgivably not inclined to perform searches Meta-Search Engines, and so
on all hundred, we took a random look: on. Here’s from
WebBrain.com (interesting name, that’s why). the “Tips”
Now people often search for celebrities and cluster:
models and such, so wetook a random name,
that of French supermodel Laetitia Casta, and “Do’s and
tried it on WebBrain, “The Smartest Way To Don’ts of search engine list-
See The Web”. ings. Here are some important
It looked good: we got what you see along- tips to look over...”
side—six category matches, about a hundred “Subscribe today and
“sitematches,” and a helpful categorisation of get web site design,
L.C. into “Models and Pin-Ups,” branching out development and
intoother models and pin-ups. Smart. search engine
First category match and the first result marketing tips by
there brought us what you on the next page. email.”
Not quite Laetitia Casta. So we tried another Not too much sense
link, and got something equally nondescript. there. Clusty just saw the
Nilanjan Ghosh
DIGITDECEMBER2007 13
Connect lFeature Connect lFeature
word “tips” on several pages and clustered ple: their applications, the future, and so on.
those together. We’ll speak about plain text Web search, You really don’t know what to expect; after
But then, when you do a Laetitia Casta at because areas like image search are too subjec- all, you don’t know anything about the
Clusty, you get (apart from the main results) tive. So say we have a simple question, the subject, and it’s the duty of the search engine
clusters such as Wallpaper, Model, and so on— same one we used earlier: “How do search to take you in the right direction. What do
which can be useful. Similarly with “Nokia engines work?” they bring up?
N90”: clusters such as Nokia N91, Specs & No surprises here. For a straightforward, The first ten results, though different at the
Features, Carl Zeiss, and more. But the real Internet-related query like this one, down to 50 three sites, are all relevant. However, beyond
value of clusters becomes apparent when you results, the first three all bring up totally rele- about 20 or 30, the results at Yahoo! tend to get
do a search on “nanotechnology”: the clusters vant matches, many of which actually include a little niche—as in advanced. Even so, Yahoo!
are Research, Investment, Future, the original phrase. Interestingly, Ask.com gives you a suggestion starting with “Also try:”.
Applications, and so on. brought up the following in the first 50, some- In this particular case, it’s about memory and
Clusters, then, get more and more useful as thing we wouldn’t say is relevant: nanowires, which is pretty good.
you know less and less about what you’re “Daily news about search engines and the But here’s a surprise: Live Search produced
searching for. There are other clustering search search engine industry, and information on what seemed to us the most interesting results
engines as well—Lexxe, for example. using search engines to market your web site...” in the top 50. It’s not strictly about relevance
But to its credit, Ask brings up queries that here—most of the results on all three are rele-
Community
can help narrow down the search: “Most popu- vant—but as a starting point for further
Now community search is indeed Search 2.0. lar search engines,” “How are search engines research, Live Search served better.
Take a look at Rollyo (http://rollyo.com). Anyone used,” and more.
Random Interest
can “create a search engine” here for other
Idle Surfing
people to use. So if your subject of interest is If you happened to read something in the news-
nanobots, you give your “Searchroll” a name, Next up: “latest Bollywood movie,” which you papers and you’re interested in finding more—
Looks good, the categorisation… and manually enter the sites you think are might type in if you’re just beginning a surf- say, “Darfur”—it’s again the first ten results that
the most valuable sources of information on ing session with no particular goal in mind, are important, because you’re unlikely to go
nanobots. Submit that to the site, and when hoping for something entertaining. All three beyond those.
someone wants to do a search on nanobots, brought up pretty much what we expected— With such an example—an issue of interna-
he or she might “explore” the Searchrolls and stuff on movies, wallpapers, gossip, actors tional concern—there’s not much scope for
come upon yours—and use it. and actresses, and all the rest. But there’s an going wrong, and none did. However, Yahoo!
If this becomes a big thing, it’ll become the important point here: Yahoo! gives “newcom- and MSN have their versions of other searches
next big thing… the idea is, the community is ers”—upcoming sites and personal sites, that you could try, which Google doesn’t.
better than any search engine spider at remov- is—a larger chance than do the others. This
Divining Intent
ing the junk and the not-so-useful from the might be a good or a bad thing, depending on
search results. But for a community search site how far down the results you go: you don’t This shouldn’t really be called “the real test,”
to grow in value, there must be a sufficient want an obscure site coming up in the first because it’s not often we do searches like this
number of people willing to actually use it— ten matches, and at the same time, if you’re one. How do you pronounce “Laetitia”? We used
beta-testers, so to speak. looking beyond that, you might like a little the keywords “pronounce Laetitia”, and Google
change. This is also why you’ll see your own gave us the answer within the first ten results.
Straight Questions
home page climb Yahoo!’s ranks before it Neither Yahoo! nor MSN could. That’s probably
Alternatives apart, let’s ask: how good are each Google’s The moral: give Yahoo! a chance if because the Google results with the answer had
of the big three—Google, Yahoo!, and Live you want to give lesser-known sites a chance. the word “pronounced” instead of “pronounce”,
Search—at bringing you what you’d like to see? and Google sort of treats those two the same.
Research
Let’s also bring Ask.com into the comparison, This is only one example, but it wouldn’t be
Not quite what we were looking for because many claim it brings up the most rele- Now, say you’re doing research into a subject wrong to say that when you deviate from
vant, though fewer, results. as part of college work—nanowires, for exam- “normal” searches—when you throw something
a little obscure at the search engines—Google
probably divines your intent best.
Quick Shots
And So…?
Category Search Phrase—Without Quotes Comments On Question Google Yahoo! Our Comments
Yes, some search engine will “perform” better
Dud Average Good Dud Average Good Dud Average Good
in one instance, and some other in another
Computer Utility Motorcycle wallpapers We all love our bikes! 6 3 1 8 1 1 5 4 1 We expected many duds here, and one could have used an image search for this one—but how did the text
instance. There absolutely cannot be something
search fare?
like a “ranking” for search engines across all
Software Search Alarm clock software Self-explanatory 0 8 2 4 4 2 1 6 3 We didn’t actually test the software we found; we went by what we’d expect based on our surfing experience.
categories. But we have three lessons:
In addition, trialware has been classified as “average.” (a) Take a look at the table Quick Shots. The
Web site Search Latest technology news To keep yourself updated 2 4 4 1 7 2 4 4 2 A “dud” here means something that really isn’t mainstream. Strict ratings here! comments indicate what we want to say, and
Shopping Comparison Creative Altec Lansing Trying to compare two brands with- 3 6 1 6 4 0 7 2 1 “Average” here means the result page gives some information about both brands. “Dud” also means the note that Google really is the best—but not by
out messing around with the word “creative” is used as a word instead of the brand, and if one of the brands is left out. “Good” is only if too huge a margin. Note that the results were
keywords both brands appear on the same page. Also, we were looking for speakers! differentin most cases. The search engines aren’t
Planning Travel Rajasthan holiday Starting point for planning a holiday 2 6 2 2 8 0 3 5 2 Points awarded for instant booking possibilities and for more information. all the same.
(b) Don’t write the other major search
Computer Problem Task manager has been disabled You have a virus, and it says “Task 0 0 10 0 0 10 3 0 7 “Good” means all result pages that tell you something about the problem
engines off; don’t say Google is all you need.
Manager has been disabled by your
Especially when you’re doing serious research
administrator”
on any topic, take a look at all of them. At the
General Interest History of British India For students 5 5 0 7 3 0 6 4 0 A subjective rating of content
same time,
Technology HDMI You need information on that tech 3 2 5 3 2 5 8 0 2 This one checks if you get the information you need, without unnecessary data (c) If you’re trying to find something that is
Information term you heard unlikely to be spelt out on a Web page, Google is
Random Question What is life all about? Don’t we all want to know? 7 1 2 6 2 2 10 0 0 Subjective; does the result attempt to answer the question? probably your best bet.
[email protected]
14 DIGITDECEMBER2007 DIGITDECEMBER2007 15
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Connect lFeature Connect lFeature
SAFETY
tant as it is to install them, so it is to keep them mandatory fields—normally the ones with an
updated. Avast! Home Edition (anti-virus), asterisk—and then choose what other data you
ZoneAlarm (firewall), and Spybot—Search and want to fill.
Destroy (anti-spyware) are some of the popular You might have already done some damage:
free programs you can use. You can find these in searching for your full name in quotes on a
FIRST the Essentials section of any of our monthly CDs. search engine. This should bring up results of
Run full virus and spyware scans from time to places where you have posted on the Web. Visit
time—say about once every one or two weeks. those result pages to check what personally iden-
Another important step is keeping your oper- tifiable information is there that needn’t be, and
ating system updated. Setting the Automatic edit those posts accordingly.
Updates to “notify” you will ensure that you are On social networking sites, where others can
aware of new updates for Windows to download see your personal details, you can choose what
(assuming you’re using Windows). Then, never details you want to show to random visitors and
have the same password for all your e-mail IDs, to your friends. It is, in general, a good idea to not
nor for your bank accounts—it’s something like add information like phone numbers, addresses,
Like all good Asfaq Tapia keeping all your eggs in one basket. Also, never e- and alternate e-
mail yourself the password for any service on the mail IDs to your
things in life,
For the most part, the Internet is a friendly Internet. You don’t want to have your e-mail profile. If you
the Internet has place. But as you know all too well, you account compromised andgive access to all your write about fam-
its dark side— can’t just connect and leave your cares other accounts to the attacker, would you? Visit- If you try to visit a potentially dangerous site from a Google search, you’ll ily and friends
behind—at least, you should know. Computer ing “cracks” and “warez” sites is another poten- see this message on your blog, it
which you want
crime, for example, is evolving: from the early- tial way to get infected by spyware or a virus—it’s is best to keep
to veer clear of day e-mails promising you pots of cash to the dangerous, and you shouldn’t be doing it anyway! e-mail attachment with your anti-virus before the blog address
more sophisticated phishing and botnet attacks It is advisable to heed Google’s warning opening it. off your profile
of today. The good thing is, it’s not difficult to message—like the one above—that shows up for as well.
stay clear of trouble—all you need is to be aware dangerous sites. If you use Internet Explorer 6 Kid Safety Just remem-
of what could go wrong. (to check this, open IE, and go to Help > About In the case that you have kids at home, most ber: before you
Internet Explorer), it is highly recommended “staying safe online” articles advise you to install enter any infor-
The Basics to update to IE7, which is more secure. This is parental monitoring software like NetPatrol and mation on the
Surfing the Internet on an unprotected comput- afree download, available at http://tinyurl.com/ CyberNanny, which block access to Web sites and Web, think for a
er is an extremely risky proposition, and if you’ve 38m4oj. We should also say that Firefox software. Truth be told, kids are smarter these second about
been doing that, just go into your Program Files (www.getfirefox.com) and Opera (www.opera days, and will soon devise ways to get around how this infor-
folder.You will almost certainly find programs .com)are more secure than IE. these blocks. You can’t leave it all to a software: mation could
you don’t remember installing. Mostdamageto Some Web sites offer screen savers, icons, it is important toeducatethem on the dangers possiblybe used
your computer happens when you don’t take and wallpapers as EXE downloads. Stay away of the Internet and the perils of personally meet- against you.
care tohave the basic lines of defence installed— from these—they are riddled with spyware and ing new“friends” they make online. A good site
anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware. As impor- /or viruses more often than not. Also, scan any to look up before educating your kids is Online Fraud
www.teenangels.organd www.wiredsafety.org. These days, the
It’s a good idea tohave the computer in the possibility of
living room where you can monitor their activi- being duped Topreventeveryone from knowing
ty. With their co-operation, you should also set online is very what you are doing on Facebook, dis-
up do’s and don’ts likehow many hours a day to real. This type able the underlined options from
use the computer, what kind of interactions they of crime would your mini-feed
should have online, and so on. generally make
use of programs that record your usernames and
Stop-Think-Click passwords or your credit card details, also known
Most of us have this tendency to click “OK” or as key-loggers. If you keep your anti-virus and
“Next” every time we see those buttons on an firewall updated and run a complete system scan
error message or Web page, without reading what every week, you can be pretty sure you’re safe. If
the text above it says. This is also true when we you need to do online banking on a public com-
install software—and this is how much unneces- puter, it is safest to enter your bank account
sary software gets installed on your computer,
software that connects to the Internet without
your knowledge, and which, in many cases, does
you more harm than good. The same goes for pop-
ups you encounter online. We’re not telling you to
be paranoid—just cautious and sensible: read
what you’re saying “OK” to!
Personal Details
You want to be as anonymous on the Internet as
possible—you never know when and where per-
sonal details can be used to your detriment.
When you register at a site, it will ask you for
personallyidentifiable information. Remember,
you don’t have to give out personal details just You can choose what information you want to display to
because a site asks you for them. Fill in the whom on your profile
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A sense of urgency to
number and password via the virtual keyboard:
take action.
go to Start > All Programs > Accessories
A threat: “If you ignore
> Accessibility > On-Screen Keyboard.
this, your account will be
It is best not to access your bank account
terminated.”
from an Internet café. If you do not have Internet
A link that to a Web site
access at home, going to a friend’s place is much
along with directions on
safer. If your bank provides it, it is best to acti-
what action to take.
vate the SMS alert service on your account so
Requests to enter
that you’re notified of every transaction you
usernames and/or
make on your account.
passwords or personally
Phishing is a now very well-known technique
identifiable information.
whereby the e-mail address of an organisation or
Bad grammar.
trustworthy person may be used to trick you into
giving out your financial details or usernames
and passwords. The fraudster may also send you When you receive such an e-
spam or pop-up messages with links that ask you mail, answer these ques-
to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your tions first:
account information, failing which the said
account will be terminated. The link on the mes- Do you deal with the
sage will normally direct you to a Web site that bank or business in
looks just like a legitimate organisation’s site, question? Underlined: the things to look for in a security
while being a site that exists simply to trick you Is the e-mail to you or certificate
into divulging information. If you fall prey, the does it have a generic
fraudster can fake your identity and run up bills greeting like “Dear user”?
or commit crimes using your name and Does it contain information about you that
account(s). Thankfully, it is easy to guard against the company should already know, like your
this type of menace. Most browsers today offer username or account number?
phishing protection; however, this is not
switched on by default. To do so in IE 7, go to
Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Phishing
Filter > Turn on automatic website checking. The
phishing filters in browsers check every site you
go to with a phishing database to check if it is
legitimate or not. If you want to manually check
a Web site address to see if it is a phish, go to
www.phishtank.com.
Web sites of all banks and monetary services
employ security certificates to validate them-
selves. If you are visiting a legitimate site in the
latest versions of Opera, IE, or Firefox, for exam-
ple, the address bar will go yellow and you’ll see
a “lock” icon at the end. Clicking on the lock will
show you the security certificate of the site.
Most phishing addresses are easy to spot—for
example, the legitimate www.abc-bank.comcould
be forged as www.abc-banking.com.
Another way a hacker could trick you into Here’s how to identify a fake e-mail
giving out your financial details is hacking into
a friend’s messenger account and sending you
an instant message with a link that tells you to If the answer to all the above is Yes, then it is
update your bank account details. It’s a cheap most likely a legitimate mail. Always remember,
trick, but it does sometimes work… remember do not reply to mails that ask for personal infor-
that a friend would never ask you via IM about mation; if there is a phone number listed below—
anything to do with money! most legit e-mails would have this as an
alternative means of contact—call and verify. And
E-mail Scams just don’t click on links in e-mails from
In spite of being the oldest way to trick people unknown contacts.
in to giving out details, e-mail scams continue
to be the most common ways to trick people on In The End…
the Web. Awareness is key—whether it’s about financial
Even if you do exercise restraint in opening crime that begins with the use of online data, or
mails from unknown persons, did you know that about how kids can be put at risk online. Con
e-mail addresses are not at all difficult to spoof? artists on the Web are always changing their tac-
Spoofed e-mails are those that appear to have tics. Keep yourself updated on the latest forms of
come from a trusted source, but are actually online threats and how to guard against them.
faked to appear that way. Here are the most com- It isn’t difficult.
mon signs of a spoofed mail: [email protected]
20 DIGITDECEMBER2007