- Firefox is customizable with add-ons and themes at addons.mozilla.com, but internet explorer only supports toolbars.

- Firefox is more secure, since it is not part of the operating system and anything stored in its cache will not directly affect your computer.

- Many people have criticized Firefox for not supporting windows update and that some websites run better on internet explorer. This problem has an easy solution: An add-on called IE-tab, which integrates Internet Explorer into firefox destroying the need to use Internet explorer.

- Some say that Internet explorer looks better than Firefox. There is an easy solution to this as well. There is a theme for firefox which makes Firefox look exactly like internet explorer.

- Firefox's address bar drop down menu is much nicer than Internet Explorer's because it shows the title in large font above the URL of the history.

- Are you scared about websites putting cookies on your computer that you don't want? There are plenty off add-ons that do this in firefox but Internet Explorer cannot do this.

- Firefox can save your opened tabs from your last browsing session. Internet explorer cannot.

- Firefox has a tool called "Fashion your firefox" which automatically installs the correct add-ons for your personality (Social butterfly, Rockstar, Shopaholic, etc.). Internet explorer doesn't have add-ons.

Still not convinced? Try Firefox and figure it out for yourself.

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My grandmother didn't know diddly about computers but she used to wax lyrical about all the changes that she had seen in her life and wonder out loud - to anyone who would listen including her cats - whether or not life had been better without those transformations.  She hadn't seen a car or a plane until she was ten but it wasn't long after that she heard news about related fatalities.  So much for them being safe!  It was a great mistake, too, to start her on the subject of nuclear weapons - we just didn't go there unless we had an afternoon to spare.  It was a really good job that she died before she woke up, like Keanu Reeves' character Neo in The Matrix, in an enclosed pod encased in vile pink stuff with a USB port stuck in the back of her head.  That would have been way too much for her to take - let alone the rest of the family.  Having said that, the thought of her doing slow-motion kung-fu puts a wry smile on my face.

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Digression aside, I used to wonder whether or not I would be able to measure my life against such changes - ones which had so many global repercussions.  Surely the internet's next big phase will be something I can look back at but will I understand it then let alone now?  When I reach her age will I be able, in the supermarket, to turn with childish glee and announce "I'm ninety three you know!" (one of her many habits in that sometimes inevitable journey of the mind back towards infancy) and then pinpoint in an obviously well-rehearsed fashion the great changes I have seen?  Or even better, will I be able to word process it in to a poem (of sorts), upload it and share on a zillion social networking sites instantly, while drawing attention to my great feat of old age by zapping the store with my PDA to let everyone know it?

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Possibly, I can do some of that now and to list the changes I have witnessed in my lifetime would be noises off, as it were.  One revolution (it means change, after all!) I believe I will be able to comment upon was when the Internet became The Cloud.  The internet has been open to codgers for years, (and the Rise of The Silver Surfer isn't just about the sheer number of greys using the net - ahem!). But new stuff just keeps happening!  What exactly is The Cloud?  Find out here without receiving a withering look from a teen!

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I am preaching to the converted here, at least in terms of internet usage.  You are here already.  You expect it to be remote occasionally (perhaps not quite as remote as indicated in the picture above!), but some of the new terms have passed you by.  However, simply by reading this now, you must have already come a certain amount of the way to being in The Cloud.  You read on-line (perhaps the last time you felt the touch of a paperback was a while ago!) and you may even shop or bank online too.  As for social networking, let me guess!  Facebook? Bebo? MySpace? Friends Reunited?  You may use wiki spaces professionally as well as socially.  You may even write online - like myself - and be part of a growing an interactive community of people who think collectively and share resources on the internet.

So far, so Web 2.0.  What comes next, what is pretty much here already is, so we are told, The (mysterious to many) Cloud.  This is the envisioned era when all of your personal data storage needs - and any computer-based activities are carried out online.  In fact, hold it right there - takes those words ‘computer based' out of the sentence and you are even closer to what The Cloud may mean.  OK, breathing, sleeping, eating and going to see a man about a dog many never be online activities (until we become Ghosts in the Machine for real?) but what else are we talking about?  Pretty much everything, to be sure!

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If you are younger than twenty you may well have stopped reading this now, because you already know what is coming. That's because you are already doing most of it.  As you get older and have your own children they will take what you have learned and add upon it.  However, this article isn't really for you members of Generation C - you are living it already.  If, though, you want it defined or need something easy to digest, then maybe read on!

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Perhaps you should make a little tick list to begin with.  How many of the following do you already do online?  Do you work, spend and invest on line?  Do you gamble, meet new friends and listen to music online?  Do you watch the TV, movies and read newspapers and books online?  Do you take pictures, upload them and view them online?  Well, perhaps you already have your head in The Cloud as these are exactly the sort of experiences that it will encompass.  You may already be living in the clouds!

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Oh - and do not expect to be alone.  Everyone will be on this particular bandwagon, headed up by some of the world's biggest (and scariest) organizations.  The hard-drive is dead and SSDs (not some awful sexually transmitted disease but Solid State Drives!) are on the march.  However, you may find that these become significantly smaller as companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple come up with more and more new stuff!

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Apple had one of the first hiccups.  Their Macbook Air made its debut in January 2008 and was laughed at by many.  What?  A broadband enabled computer with only 2GB of memory designed so that storage was separated from the device itself?  For too many it was too early for this particular (if metaphorical) umbilical cord to be severed.  Not too many tears before bedtime for Apple, however.  The iPhone cut the cord and ate the placenta with a smile on its face.

In October 2008, Microsoft launched Azure, their first response to Cloud Computing, a ‘hit the ground running' (as ever!) platform which is in direct competition with Google.  This is an operating system (like the one you booted up a little while ago and which enabled you to access your Service Provider and read this) which will be only available online.  In other words, it will operate without a hard drive.  From it you will be able to access the latest versions of applications such as Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint.  It has, however, a lot to do to catch up with its rivals, despite the resonance its software products have with end-users (rather than practitioners) the world over.

Google beat Microsoft by a month.  In September 2008 they launched Chrome.  It is a first for Google in more ways than one as it represents the company's first attempt at a Web Browser rather than a search engine.  Although those of you who blog know that Google has ‘leased' sites for years, you might now possibly say that it owns the walls as well as the furniture.  If Google were to be absolutely honest, they would probably admit that they want to render extinct that lumbersome, cumbersome old creature we know as Internet Explorer (and which many sane individuals, and some not so, have already deserted for the likes of the slick and sexy Firefox).

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Google is trying, with Chrome, to gently lead people away from the safe and solid ground of the desktop and in to The Cloud.  They have done this by making Chrome - essentially a browser - look as much like your bog standard desktop as possible.  The hope is that people who fear change (and this is change!) will be a little relieved that their operating environment looks somehow familiar and friendly.  "Oh, it looks kinda like my PC's desktop," is their desired response from new users.

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It is off to a great start, particularly among the young.  Countless people have already got themselves a Gmail account (almost in unconscious anticipation of what moves may lay ahead for them).  At the College where I teach (hey Lewisham!) the number of students with active Google Apps accounts has sky-rocketed this year.  Google Apps, incidentally, is the name of the online suite of (Microsoft-like) applications that Gmail users can access free of charge (so far), with enough storage space to upload the Encyclopedia Britannica.   Their argument is why should they risk putting all their data on to a flash drive and risk losing it (or it becoming corrupted by a virus or a cup of hot chocolate) when all they need is an internet access and a PC to get to their work.  They have a point.  Before you ask, the answer is no!  They seem blissfully unaware - or rather blithely disregarding - of the implications for the privacy of their data.

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One way or another, Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up to lure away users - or to simply stop the "critical mass" element from ensuring Google's dominance of this market.  Another runner in this particular race is Amazon, who have offered it own Cloud based service ‘Amazon S3' since 2006.

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Let's go back to the kids for a second.  The advantages, they say, are manifold.  Not only does it replace the need to look after yet another college item - their flash drive - but they can access their work, their email - their life - through any computer device that is handy.  PC may just mean Politically Correct in twenty years!  The other advantage is that quite often they run software at home that is different to that which is used at College.  This can, obviously, cause problems, and Cloud Computing waves it good-bye in an instant.

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Companies are beginning to get wise and latch on to the advantages that Cloud Computing presents too.  They are discovering that it can cost significantly less to subscribe to data storage and software online than do what they do currently - wait a little while until Microsoft irons out the bugs (hopefully!) and then invest in upgrades every few years.  It could also mean that the traditional IT team goes the way of the dinosaurs.  What will lurk in the basements of our offices if the servers aren't there anymore?

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What about the problems in this Brave New World of ours, up in The Cloud?  Well, they are already happening.  As any Gmail user will tell you, there have been some problems recently.  If you organize your life up in The Cloud and then the day turns out sunny, what happens if there isn't a ‘Cloud' in sight?  Systems go down, we all know that.  Plus, data gets lost, leaked or stolen.  Google have not suffered any data leaks yet - but there wasn't a car crash for a little while after the invention of the motor vehicle (though with metaphorical hindsight we could argue that its very invention was a car crash in slow motion). 

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There are arguments, of course, that online storage of our data is in fact safer than keeping it in our own possession (on our hard and flash drives) and what we are fearing is not so much how it is stored but its physical immediacy to us - as if that makes it any safer from things such as theft.  I for one will not be discarding my drives just yet!  As for many, a hybrid solution (in other words, a little of each!) is the best solution for me, myself and I just now.

Download these - Web-Mail-1.3.2 and Hotmail-1.2.18 at

Installation

Right-Click the link above and choose "Save Link As..." to Download and save the file to your hard disk. It is advisable you get the latest version.

Open Thunderbird and press Tools > Add-ons.

The Add-ons window appears, press the install button and find “web-mail-1-3-2.xpi” and “hotmail-1-2-18.xpi”, wherever you downloaded them to and install them.

Restart Thunderbird.

Now go Tools > Add-ons, select Webmail and press the options button.

In POP server type “1024” and in SMTP type “2000”.

Close these down and go Tools > Account settings.

The Account Settings window will appear press the “Add Account…” button near the bottom of the screen.

In the next window that opens select Web Mail and press Next >.

Type your name in the first textbox that appears and your email address in the second textbox, and press next to move on.

In the next window textbox type your email address, and press next to move on.

Check the information is correct in the next window and press finish.

Now still on the account settings window select your email address from the left of the window. In the textbox next to account name delete the input and type your email address, and press ok.

Open account settings again and this time press Server Settings under your email address and change the local host port to “1024”, and press ok.

Now restart Thunderbird. When you run Thunderbird again a promt window will appear wanting you to type your password in. Type it in a press OK.

Everything should work fine if it doesn't re-read this tutorial or restart Thunderbird and try again. Hope this works.

Fred is a cute little bunny wunny and his heart has stopped beating.  You have a minute to get his heart back in working order before the cute wikka wabbit goes to that curry pot in the sky.  Fortunately you have a range of surgical instruments to help but time is working against you!  In less than a minute you have to prepare Fred for surgery, make an incision and get that little heart beating again.  If you fail, off to heaven he goes.  Not for the squeamish or teddy bear fans!

To Know Becky is to want to Kill Becky

Meet Becky - possibly the most irritating little girl on the internet!  She has a lot to say for herself and - as you can guess it's all about "me, me, me".  A satire on the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of websites out there that are devoted to recording the minutiae of a person's life and that no-one (repeat no-one) ever visits on purpose.  After a little time with Becky you will begin to realize that lolcats are actually quite amusing and rickrolling should be back in fashion.  That is, if you don't go out and shoot yourself!

Countdown

If you take your laptop on a plane and feel upset about the seat in which you have been placed, the person next to you or the general princess of pop demeanor of your air steward then you may want to play this naughty flash animation while they are hovering around.  Generally and advisedly speaking, unless you want to spend a year or two in Hotel Guantanamo you may wish to keep it to yourself and snigger about what people's reactions would be were you to allow them to see this!

Palin as President - Be Afraid

Not since Margaret Thatcher was unceremoniously removed from power has the western world shuddered so involuntarily at the thought of a lady at the top of the political tree of an occidental power.  Whether you love her or hate her you will not be able to suppress a titter as you play with President Palin in the Oval Office.  You can open the curtains to see what is going on outside, play with the toy bridge on her desk or throw darts at a list of outrageous baby names.  Pure wicked bliss to be had here - you were warned!

An End User License

If you have ever brought a product from a certain Seattle based global enterprise then you should really read the small print before you install it on to your PC.  That small print should really be read and gone through with a fine tooth comb.  With a little help from a few ants and a magnifying glass, you too can discover the reality of the situation.  Who needs the devil when you can sell your soul to Mr Gates?

Pumpkin Head

If you tire of the yearly mess-fest in the kitchen (and other rooms) that is Halloween, then simply unleash the power of the internet on your kids instead.  OK, these are not pumpkins you can put on your porch but it may just keep the kids quiet for a minute or two.  This feisty piece of flash allows you to create your own pumpkin.  All you need is some time to waste and a steady hand and you can have your own set within nanoseconds.  The above attempt is my own - go on, see if you can do any better!

See Adolf Dance

If you like watching despotic maniacs dance, then this may well be for you.  There is a certain madness here and although you may not find anything offensive it serves as a reminder that ridicule can be used to good effect, even when the horrors of history fail to do so. 

You may have a friend (or two) who doesn't know much about the internet do those people still exist?).  Send them a link to this little beauty and you will be able to tell straight away if they are net-savvy or one of those people who pretend they are.  While not particularly evil, this may well be enough to get them scratching their heads.  You may well find out what sort of sense of humor they have too!

Mood Music

The Swedish band Lodger are well known for their depressing lyrics - in fact they make Radiohead and The Smiths look like a day out in the park.  With ice cream and ducks going quack.  This is a day out in a very dark park, the story of a man thrown out by his partner.  It's all down hill from there as he fails to make life bearable afterwards.  Flash gone really bad: hide the razor blades!

If you hated the television series Heroes because it was about as far up its own rear end as it could be without reappearing out of its mouth and flying away, then this animated short is for you.  A fairly blistering satire as far as blisteringness and satiricism go; you may even get a small thrill if it is your favorite TV series of all time.  Doubtful, but a possibility!

Author: Peter Hartman

Today we are hearing a lot about cloud computing and what a wonderful revelation it is supposed to be. Let us clear up the doubts and inconsistencies and see whether or not it is for us.

The Cloud

In short; “the cloud” is a metaphor for the Internet derived from how the Internet has been long depicted in network diagrams such as Figure 1 below. The basic idea of the cloud is that users are able to connect to service providers and through them other users in a transparent manner without the knowledge of or even the need to know about the complexities of the underlying architecture and technologies that make the information technology services accessed and used by users possible.

Cloud Computing Services

Cloud style computing delivers IT-related capabilities “as a service”. Thus users are able to access information technology enabled services by way of the Internet (“the cloud”) without any expertise or knowledge needed on the user's part.

Generally all control over; or administrative interaction with, the technologies and infrastructure required to deliver and support the “cloud services” on offer for end-user accessibility and the functionalities provided to the end-user by the said information technologies and infrastructure as “services in the cloud” are managed by “the cloud services” provider rather than by “the cloud services” clients. This is a double-edged sword with an upside and a downside that I will detail shortly but for now remember that not every “cloud” has a silver lining.

The Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) state that “Cloud computing is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc.".

Cloud Computing Components

Think of cloud computing as a generally abstract concept incorporating such technologies as Software-as-a-Service (S-a-a-S), the whole plethora of technologies referred to under the umbrella of Web 2.0 functionalities and other mature and emerging technology trends that all rely heavily upon the Internet to deliver the communications channels between users and processing facilities and data centers in order to satisfy the computing needs of end-users.

A well known example of the “cloud computing” philosophy is Google Apps, which provides common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on Internet connected servers. You could say that in the strictest sense the Google search facility is a “cloud computing service”.

Cloud Computing and Google Search

Google uses automated bots called “spiders” to crawl the Internet. These spiders transmit information; back to Google's data center, about the web pages that they have crawled. This information is then processed, classified and indexed by Google using a weighted relevance algorithm so that whenever a user requests information regarding any particular topic Google can look up their cached index database and return hopefully relevant links to the inquiring user.

Pre-Indexing - The reason that it all works so fast is that the scanning (crawling) and indexing of the Internet has already been done and all Google's software need do is look up a referential database for associated links to the specified query parameters.

Performance - A big part of the Google speed magic is delivered by knowing that all they are required to deliver to the searcher is the first page of related topic headers, summaries and links. If the searcher requires more than they will be compiled and delivered to the user's browser as and when requested.

The Laws of Processing - Using the basic processing law that “the information that you are most likely to need to process next is that which you have just processed” Google builds lists based on what they call page-rank.

The Cloud Factor - Where does cloud computing come into all of this you may well ask? The answer is that; as depicted in Figure 2 the Internet is used as the communications channel by a user to request a service (search) from a transparently Internet connected search service provider (Google) in real time.

• User sends search query request via the Internet to the transparently Internet connected search service provider (Alta Vista, Craig's List, Yahoo or Google as in this case)
• The search service provider (Google in this case) performs some processing on the users behalf (searches their database index)
• Additional processing of the retrieved query results is performed by the search service provider to ensure that that the results are presented in a format that the user can use (browser and application specific)
• The results (the first page of relevant links) are then transmitted via the Internet (the cloud) to the user and the search results are stored in cache by the search service provider ready for additional access should that be required
• The user receives the results from the cloud and they are displayed in the format requested by the user (on-screen or printed etc). The user; if satisfied with the results returned may end the service at this point or if not yet satisfied request additional search query processing from the search service provider (Google once again) via the Internet.

So you see that using Google Search meets all the requirements necessary for this to be classified as “cloud computing”. As shown in Figure 2 above the Internet “cloud” is the communications medium and the requesting processes, signal transmission and routing, Google's data center request processing, results compilation and search results transmission back to the requesting user via the Internet all take place transparently without the user's knowledge or any control over the information technology systems involved in their successful search query. In a nutshell this is Cloud Computing.

Cloud Architectures and Infrastructures

Decentralized Models - Today we find that some successful cloud computing architectures have very little truly centralized infrastructure or billing systems. Examples here include Peer-to-Peer networks like BitTorrent and Skype along with “volunteer” computing implementations such as SETI@home.

Centralized Models - Other cloud computing implementations such as the Google search and Google Apps scenarios outlined above are patterned around a distributed centralized computing infrastructure.

Distributed Centralized Processing Model - Centralized because centrally located servers perform the processing and distributed since multiple processing facilities are incorporated into the production environment implementation.

The reasons for adopting a distributed centralized infrastructure are to provide for greater resiliency, scalability and redundancy of assets with the objective of eliminating potential single-point-of-failure scenarios.

This usually involves multiple ultra high-speed links to the Internet backbone for each such facility thereby reducing the impact of a single link failure bringing the entire cloud computing facility and its services down.

We must bear in mind that the majority of cloud computing services consist of reliable services delivered from state-of-the-art “green” data centers designed and built on compute (processing) and storage virtualization technologies. Not surprisingly blade centers and traditional rack mount systems in clusters play a leading role.

Anywhere Accessibility - Having services, applications and data available and accessible from anywhere and everywhere on the global stage with the Internet cloud acting as a single point of access for all of the computing needs of a group or many groups of large numbers of users is one of the primary benefits promised by the cloud computing model. Only time will tell as to whether or not this is delivered by cloud computing providers to the satisfaction of customers.

Commercial Cloud Computing Implementations

From a commercial perspective the cloud computing service provider; such as a web hosting service, will need to meet some very demanding and widely varied metrics requirements including Quality-of-Service (QoS) that will need specific and custom service level agreements (SLAs) far different to the majority of those we have seen in the past.

Open Standards - In these regards open standards (don't forget that the Internet owes its success to being an open standard) and open source software have a lot to offer and may well prove to be the critical factors in the successful growth and deployment scenarios for the cloud computing world in the years ahead.

Reduced Capital Expenditure - Because customers of cloud computing service providers are not burdened with the fiscal outlays; that would normally accompany the rollout of new information technologies and their supporting infrastructure, they can budget their costs as a consumable service utility.

This means that they will pay for what they use in very much the same way as we pay for other utilities such as water, power and gas etc. There is also no need to overspend in order to make provision for peak and seasonal demands.

This is an area which costs business considerably as a recent Forester research report has shown that most companies use only 10% of their computing resources 95% of the time with public holidays and the Christmas period being the exceptions to standard usage patterns. With many businesses so reliant on this peak trade to ensure year-long viability they have no choice but to plan for the exception rather than the rule. “Make hay while the sun shines” is the modus operandi behind this type of strategy.

Utility and Subscription Billing Models - It is no surprise to find that many cloud computing offerings have indeed adopted the utility model and have tailored their services and billing structures accordingly. Yet another variation on this theme is the subscription model which charges customers on a subscription basis.

Both models have the own structural strengths and weaknesses and will probably co-exist side-by-side rather than directly compete head-to-head as it were. This latter prospect is given weight by the fact that some of the largest players in the cloud computing service provider game (Microsoft, IBM, HP, Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com) do in fact offer both billing structures to their clients.

Improved Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness - The sharing of computing resources among multiple “tenants” is one of the easiest to implement of all strategies to deliver greatly improved asset and resources utilization rates. This means that servers do what they were designed and built to do; that is to serve and have very little idle time. More bangs for your processing buck.

The resultant and significant savings in facility running costs are augmented by improvements in the speed of application development. Because customers do not have to engineer for peak loads dramatic improvements in computer capacity can be readily delivered.

Increased High-Speed Bandwidth - The central technologies that are making all this distributed centralized cloud computing a realistic and viable choice and hence its rapid uptake by business and consumers alike are the networking technologies that have recently delivered massive increases and capabilities at relatively minimal fiscal investments.

Improvements in fiber optic transmission media and 10 Gigabit Ethernet in combination deliver ultra high-speed bandwidth capabilities that make it possible to receive the same degree of agility and rapid response times from centralized infrastructure at all geographically dispersed sites.

It no longer matters which distributed centralized facility you connect with. The service response and delivery will be of the same high speed standard anywhere and everywhere. Nor does it matter from which of a client's facilities the cloud computing services are accessed from.

This latter point seems to have had the most influence since branch offices can now have head office transmission and processing capabilities and performance. A fact not lost on the corporate world.

Cloud Computing Providers

Players in the cloud computing service provision game include the likes of Amazon, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and Yahoo!

Cloud Computing Users

Some of the early adopters of cloud computing services include individuals and small organizations through to very large conglomerates such as: General Electric, L'Oréal, Procter & Gamble, Valeo and the WWE.

It must be noted that traditional ISPs are not dragging the chain and are getting in on the cloud computing service provision industry in a big way. Tier 1 ISPs do after all have a huge advantage in that they already have, own or have peering agreements in place concerning the Internet backbone and IP Transit arrangements other would-be players will need to negotiate.

As already noted web hosting services are a major component of current cloud computing implementations and will undoubtedly grow exponentially as Web 2.0 and all its additional user capabilities become the true de facto standard for the Internet and websites in particular.

Reduced Control

It must be noted that the user of cloud computing services is for the large part totally dependent upon the cloud computing service provider for such administrative responsibilities as data security, backup, disaster planning and recovery, encryption, accessibility, authentication, regulation and many regulatory requirements. Data sanitization once data stored in a cloud computing environment has passed its user's use by date is another concern.

Security Concerns

In general; the security aspects of a cloud computing service are primarily the concern and prerogative of the cloud computing service provider. All would-be customers should check very thoroughly the proposed providers intended operating procedures and practices as well as their track record in these regards.

It is very hard for the customer to verify the actual current security practices and implemented initiatives of a cloud computing service provider because the customer generally has no access to the provider's facility which can be comprised of multiple facilities spread around the globe.

There can be little doubt that the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that the customer of cloud computing services will need to negotiate with their prospective cloud computing services provider will for the reasons outlined above take on greater importance than has often been the case with Help Desk type SLAs in the past. Whether the cloud computing services provider develops a range of SLAs themselves or their prospective clients develop them remains to be seen.

What is clear is that the metrics of such SLAs do need to be very clearly detailed with clear and precise delineation of roles and responsibilities regarding a broad range of potential eventualities. It might pay to get the lawyers in on this one.

Everyone has used the Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer at some point in their life, and many have ended up trying/using Mozilla Firefox as a good alternative, but very few have used any other, except maby for Apple Safari which they accidently downloaded whilst updating Itunes.

Opera is a wonderful internet browser that at one time you used to have to pay to use. It has since been made available for free.

It's main version is for desktop/laptop computers, although they have recently made a version for mobile phones, but in this article we will just be covering the PC version.

Right From The Word Go

For a start Opera is very easy to download and install, going to the Opera homepage will point you towards the download section, or simply googling "Opera" will take you direct to the download page. From here you just click to download it and run it. Setup takes a few minutes and doesn't require a restart after it is finished.

After installing it, you can boot it straight up. The default homepage is a page about getting started with Opera, but it can easily be changed by going onto "Tools" then "Preferences" to change the homepage to whatever you want.

The Features

Tabs

Opera has tabs, much like Firefox and the latest Internet Explorer 7 (IE were really behind the times before Vista). This means that you can open up preety much as many pages as you want without having hundreds of windows cluttering your taskbar.

Mouse Gestures

Another great feature that seems to be very Opera specific (although once again add-ons for IE and Firefox will allow this), are mouse gestures. By holding down the right mouse button you can then move it in different directions to do cause different effects. Moving the mouse left with go back a page. Moving right will go forward to the next page on your browser. Moving down will open a new tab, etc. etc.

Although seemingly complecated at first, they are very simple and once mastered can save great amount of time and effort, and once you have started using them, there really is no way back. If you choose to start using Firefox, the first thing you will automatically do is download the mouse gestures add-on, purely due it's ease of use, and win over clicking the back button at the top of your browser.

Skins

These are available right from the start on both Opera and Firefox (but not available on IE), and both are very similar. Basically if you don't like the look of the browser when you first install it (the black is a little dull), you can apply a new "skin" which are created by other users, which will completly change the look of the browser. There are hundreds of skins, with something to suit everyone. Want everything bright blue? Done. Want a subtle vista matching colour scheme? Done. With a little searching you will find a skin that suits your taste.

Widgets

Widgets, despite their amusing name, can actually be very useful, and can be used for many different purposes. Widgets can do just about anything. There are widgets that show you maps of the world, widgets that allow you to play fun little games such as sim aquarium whilst browsing, some widgets can show you real time webcams from all over the world, others allow you to play radio stations or check the news, and some just tell you the time, or show weather forcasts.

Overall widgets are handy little extras that add that extra bit of entertainment or information whilst your surfing the web.

Torrent Downloader

Opera, unlike Firefox, IE, or any other browser I can find, has a built in torrent downloader. For the average person looking to have a nice looking browser that they can happily surf the net on, this won't effect them; but for those who know about downloading files through a torrent, this could be handy.

Rather than having to download a dedicated torrent program such as utorrent, all torrentsbei can be handled easily inside a seperate tab in Opera, which allows you to see all the usual information such as seeders and peers, aswell as being able to do all the standard tasks such as setting download limits etc.

This is probibly one of Opera's greatest achievements, as by having a built in torrent program, whilst it's competitors do not, it means it can appeal to a wider audience.

Easy To Navigate History

Ever looked at a really good news article, then crossed it down, then wanted to look at it but not been able to find it? Well Opera has it covered. All you have to do is type in whatever you want to find into the adress bar, and it will show you the websites/pages you have visited lately where the specific phrase has been used. A good example would be where I was looking at some motherboard upgrades earlier. If (for example) I couldn't remember the website that I was looking at that had them cheap, then I can just type "motherboard" into the address bar, and it will show that earlier I was looking at *whatever motherboard* on whichever page of ebuyer I was looking at it on. Overall this excellent way of browsing your history is just genious, and is great when you can't remember the exact thing you were looking at.

Conclusion

Many things included here are including in add-ons for firefox, or by downloading the popular IE Pro for Internet Explorer users, but the fact that they come built in, means that the creaters of the browser really are in touch with their users, and that is always a major thing when it comes to creating any sort of program, be it a game, an application, or a browser.

Opera really does set a new standard for web browsers, and i'm sure when IE finally gets an update, or when the next generation of Firefox comes out, things Opera has already done, such as including a torrent downloader, or having mouse gestures, will become the new standard for browsers.

1. Do not promote you Propeller link in other social bookmarking sites like Digg or StumbleUpon but especially in StumbleUpon. I attempted to do it in SU. When I first submitted my article, I had no read and prop. After I waited for more than two hours, I checked my stats again. There was no change in stats and there was nothing to do but a small cheat. I submitted my Propeller link to Stumbleupon. Ten minutes later,I had only three props and more than 200 reads and my rating increased to 5.0. After one hour passed, my rating increased to 7.5 with more than 1500 read and only four props. At the end, my article was in the frontpage. However, in the next two hours, my submission in Propeller was removed then I was completely banned from the system. This was a great experience since I am not cheating anymore.
2. Join the groups but send related contents to them. I was joining every group I saw. As far as I remember, I joined more than 50 groups before my ban. When I submitted an article, I was sending it to all groups and doing this continuously. This might be one of the reasons for my ban. You should send related contents to the groups. Try to become an active user in the gropus.
3. Make a lot of friends. Follow their submissions and prop their articles if you like. You can always follow your friends' submission from the “Friends' submissions“ part.
4. Check it frontpage articles and try to understand their main properties. Try to learn what active propellers want to read about and what they prop.

Every article has only 24 hours to come to the frontpage. After 24 hours, even if your submission has been rated to 10.0, it will not come to the front page. It will stay as a passive submission in Propeller. So, you should be as fast as you do. Otherwise, your article will pass away without seeing the front page.

In reaction to our modern technological era, consumers have turned to computer and web-based logos for tattoo designs, often as a visual statement of a person's choice in software, operating systems or code platforms.

Operating Systems

The debate between the wisdom of choosing Mac, Linux or Windows continues; with consumers using their bodies as a canvas to state their personal choice.

Apple Mac Logo

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A bold, clear statement that the owner of the tattoo is a Mac user and proud of it.

Linux Penguin Logo

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A cute image that has been used as a tattoo design by many Linux users, especially female users.

Microsoft Windows Logo

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A colorful and easily recognizable image that is gaining popularity among Windows users as a tattoo design.

Connected to the Web

Web-based logo designs are becoming chic choices for tattoo designs, with the colorful Google and stylish Firefox logos taking to the streets in the form of body art.

iGoogle

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Because Google knows everything. The colorful, clear lettering makes it an attractive design for a tattoo.

Firefox

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Not only is the web browser a powerful and attractive piece of software, but the Firefox logo is also attractive and makes a stylish tattoo design.

Lock-in the Code

Mathematics, pieces of code and binary translations are often used in humorous or meaningful tattoos.

HTML

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Html code tattooed on the neck, using a snatch of code to create a humorous effect by labeling the head and body with html code.

Binary Code

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Name initials in binary code - A personal expression of self, using a Binary translation of this person's initials.

Mathematics

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This tattoo has a meaning to the person who chose it, though the symbolism may be misunderstood by those who see it. As with many tattoos, the chosen design often has a meaning that appeals to the owner of the tattoo, but isn't immediately clear to others.

A Walking Advertisement

Some people have decided to use their bodies as a walking billboard for their website.

GrownUp Geek

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This tattoo is an advertisement for GrownUp Geek. Advertising takes many forms, but this particular advertisement is paid for once, doesn't weather the way outdoor advertisements do, and will be the topic of many conversations.

Geek tattoos of games, computer symbols and hardware

Mario Brothers

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A Mario Brothers "Game Over" tattoo. There are many Mario Brothers tattoo designs available, often with the Mario character in a large, colorful scene with other gaming characters. This one, however, is a series of separate images and has been tattooed on the neck, a painful and very visible area for tattoo art.

Mac Command Key

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A bold, clean image with interweaving loops, similar to the popular trinity tattoo.

Space Invaders

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A fun image from the classic computer game, shown here in its original pixilated form.

Power

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Another simple, yet bold design that holds a deeper meaning for the owner.

Mac Finder

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A modern, graphic design used in Mac operating systems that is both friendly and colorful.

Dell

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This guy is obviously an avid fan of Dell, to have had the logo covering such a large area of his body. The clean lines and bright color of the logo make an impressive statement in a tattoo.

Many tattoos serve an aesthetic role and are simply an artistic decoration on the skin.

These tattoo design choices express the views and passions of computer and web consumers, and one can only hope that the company logo designs will not change before the tattoos fade.

An application called Instant Messenger (IM) has attracted more and more attentions from the internet users around the world lately. It is said that IM has provided them a brilliant platform to communicate using PC with a relatively lower cost as compared to other medium of communications. Anyone can use IM regardless where he or she came from. The borderless form of communication has enabled a close relationship emerging between friend, relative, family member, and even entrepreneur to deliver their messages instantly and effectively. Some of the IM platforms even allow for using video and sound instead of the text itself.

Below I listed some of the services provided by the IM that are used extensively anywhere and anytime by the internet users.

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL became the most well-known IM ten years ago. Its popularity particularly dealing with its excellent services has successfully attracted many users which later leading the company to release stand-alone official AIM client called AOL Instant Messenger or AIM. AIM uses TOC protocol and OSCAR instant messaging protocol which was released by AOL on May, 1997 and it permits registered users to communicate in real time. The new version was specifically designed for WindowXP to enable the internet users to use video and sound, sharing files and other attractive features which are added from time to time.

AIM is always regarded as the most popular method of sending instant message as it has the largest group of registered users as compared to other IM interfaces listed here. Indeed, it is a user-friendly tool that is easily manipulated by the users to communicate with each other. AOL also offers an AIM client software which can be used for Mac OS X, Mac Os, and Linus.

Yahoo Messenger

The application of Yahoo Messenger enables its users to communicate each other by using the provided current Yahoo ID to sign in. It comes with an attractive emoticon, direct communication via video, fail transfer and so forth. Its front page appears to be more attractive as compared to other IM platforms but its users are lesser than AOL. It is a user-friendly communication tool and thus it is more appropriate to be recommended for a newbie who wishes to communicate friends, relative and family members.

The interesting feature of Yahoo Messenger is that the users are allowed to share photos easily and effectively. Instead, you can choose the theme to indicate your mood or feeling via its excellent feature called IMVironments. Indeed, it is the best IM client and hence it is worth using it. Its new version, Version 8, comes with the added Voice to make the communication sounds more attractive and impressive. This version also enables the users to include “Widgets” into the new messenger. With this added feature, you can exchange message with other users who use MSN Messenger and Window Live.

Google Talk

Google is the search engine favored by the most internet users as compared to Yahoo, Ask, Netscape and other search engine sites. Google provides its web-based application for instant messaging and voice over internet (VOIP) called Google Talk or simply known as Gtalk. Gtalk enables its users to make calls instantly and effectively without paying a single cent. It also allows the communication of other XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) clients with Google Talk users with its open protocol, XMPP. Now, BlackBerry is available to use within Google Talk which can be downloaded at Google Talk's blackberry. There is also an Add Friend button, a “Search all contacts” field to enable searches in both Google Talk and Gmail contacts.

Google has made the communication more convenient by introducing Google Apps Team addition to enable talks among co-workers or classmates taken place in a friendly environment. With this add-in application, anyone can obtain Google Docs to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations. As Google Apps Team addition recognizes the connections to co-worker or classmates effectively, their contacts will automatically be added in your contact list. To try this, try visit Google Apps Team Addition Homepage.

Google Talk is a good platform to choose for an instant messaging and open communication as it can be used for many languages. To do this, you just add any of the 23 other translation bots. They are all named by two-letter language abbreviations as "[from language]2[to language]@bot.talk.google.com", and the supported language pairs are: ar2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fr2de, fr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, zh2en. So, French to German translation, talk to fr2de@bot.talk.google.com.

On June 4, 2008, Google has added many other languages with the aims to reduce the language barriers with automated chat translations many people have been experiencing. The new bots speak Bulgarian (bg), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), Hindi (hi), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Swedish (sv) and Traditional Chinese (zh-hant). Basically, there are 26 new bots: bg2en, cs2en, da2en, en2bg, en2cs, en2da, en2fi, en2hi, en2hr, en2no, en2pl, en2pt, en2ro, en2sv, en2zh-hant, fi2en, hi2en, hr2en, no2en, pl2en, pt2en, ro2en, sv2en, zh-hant2en, zh-hant2zh, and zh2zh-hant. To check out the full list of supported languages, simply log in to supported language combinations.

ICQ

ICQ is an instant messaging commonly called “I seek you” which is regarded as a stand-alone IM client since it was first released in November, 1996. It was also the first to have features like “Buddy” and an interactive communication platform. This application has become portion of family AOL Time Warner, but unfortunately it is not advertised extensively like AIM. It is an application compatible with the PC operation of OS which includes cell phone and Symbian OS. That is why it is not surprising to find that its usage is growing.

ICQ provides many excellent features which make it stands firmly among other IM platforms. It has marvelous features include spelling checker, file transfer, “Push to talk” (PTT) service, video messaging and e-mail integration. Not only ICQ let you communicate with friends and colleagues in real time, but also you can play many online games to entertain yourself. ICQ is definitely the best choice for anyone who wishes to search for an attractive and entertaining IM platform.

MSN

Like other leading websites, Microsoft provides its excellent IM plug-in known as MSN Messenger. If you wish to use the services provided by MSN Messenger, you should first have a registered Hotmail to access this type of IM platform. It offers many interesting features such as video messaging, voice communication, emotion icons and many more.

MSN Messenger also comes with a facility to enable you to search via IM to obtain your desired findings. That means you can use it as a web search without opening another window. This feature is very unique as it is not available at other IM clients. MSN is an ideal web-search and IM interface for entrepreneurs, organizations, institutions, administrative and the home users as well. The other amazing feature is that you can leave a message or send a note even you are offline. Despite a large number of people are engaging with PC Windows every day, it is undeniably that this platform has improved the searches, instant messaging and real-time communication in a wide coverage.

Jabber

Jabber is an excellent XML-based protocol to enable real-time instant messaging for e-business. The protocol is added to include Voice over IP and file transfer signaling. It is unique that it integrates the existing e-business into a more personal and dynamic environment. Despite of this excellent feature, Jabber has enabled the communication with other IM platforms to be taken place at the same time with AIM and MSN. Nevertheless, it is not suitable for a newbie who is not familiar with the interface of IM. Once you have familiar with Jabber, it could be a marvelous tool used specifically for an extensible messaging and presence information (buddy lists). Unlike other IM clients, Jabber is an open system that requires its users to use their domain name and a suitable Internet connection to access the server and to talk to users from other IM platforms like Google Talk, Pidgin, Miranda IM, Gizmo Project, Psi and iChat as well.

iChat

iChat is an AIM client by Apple Inc. that allows users to integrate MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk contacts into the Jabber pane. This client provides an excellent facility to enable its users to communicate with either users from Mac, AIM or Jabber. With its new features of video backdrops, Photo Booth effects, Keynote presentation and photo slideshows making iChat a fun and live on-line messaging tool to connect people around the world.

The most unique feature of iChat is that it enables a full-screen personal video conference over thousand miles away via any type of broadband connections. Besides that, an application of iChat provides an interesting client to be integrated with OS X. Therefore, Mac users who are using AIM should give iChat a try.