Why You'll Love a Mac

• It’s designed to be a better computer.
• It comes with software you'll love to use.
• It comes with the world's most advanced operating system.
• It comes with award-winning support.
• It runs Office and works with your existing PC files.
• It's compatible with your stuff.
• It doesn't get PC viruses.
• It's loaded with the latest technology.
• It runs Window and Windows applications.

For more details, refer to http://www.apple.com/why-mac/.

Should I? Or Should I Not?

I'm now kinda torn after seeing, listening and getting to experience how wonderful it is. Should I take the plunge or not?

What are you thinking? No, I'm not deciding if I should take the plunge for whatever you are thinking.... I'm deciding whether I should switch to Mac from PC or not. I was given an excellent sales pitch, complete with demo and a full dissection of the OS this afternoon over a lunch catch-up with a pal from XXX.

My initial concerns was whether a Mac could run a Windows OS as a Virtual Machine or not. And this concern was put to rest with this software called "Parallels Desktop". My friend even had another applications called "Coherent" or thereabouts which enables a Windows App to run in the Mac environment rather than in the Windows OS itself!! Pretty cool, huh?

Switching to a Mac is no easy feat for me. It will be a whole new learning & familiarising experience all over again. Tasks which I am able to perform effortlessly will take some time to achieve... Commands which I was able to find without batting an eyelid will take me minutes to locate... The confidence and feel of being in control of the OS will be lost upon me!!

I'm seriously considering getting a MacBook for my next laptop, but the price is putting me off a little. @ SGD1488, its nearly double what I'm expecting to pay for a new laptop (or netbook). How? How? How? I'm now sitting on the fence.....

Can anyone say something that will push me over?

Cloud Computing

According to Wikipedia, Cloud Computing refers to Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.

In a nutshell, it means a company requiring a certain service (eg. Email) will engage the services of an Email services provider who will provide the company with email services using the provider's servers located with the provider.

Cloud-Computing's the IN-THING now, every IT Solutions company out there is talking about moving to the CLOUD.... Cloud, Cloud and MORE Cloud. But exactly what's the big deal with clouds?

Here's the benefits :

• Agility improves with users' ability to rapidly and inexpensively re-provision technological infrastructure resources.
• Cost is claimed to be greatly reduced and capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure. This ostensibly lowers barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained with usage-based options and fewer IT skills are required for implementation (in-house).
• Device and location independence enable users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using (e.g., PC, mobile). As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.
• Multi-tenancy enables sharing of resources and costs across a large pool of users thus allowing for:
• Centralization of infrastructure in locations with lower costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.)
• Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest possible load-levels)
• Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems that are often only 10–20% utilized.
• Reliability is improved if multiple redundant sites are used, which makes well designed cloud computing suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery. Nonetheless, many major cloud computing services have suffered outages, and IT and business managers can at times do little when they are affected.
• Scalability via dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real-time, without users having to engineer for peak loads. Performance is monitored, and consistent and loosely coupled architectures are constructed using web services as the system interface. One of the most important new methods for overcoming performance bottlenecks for a large class of applications is data parallel programming on a distributed data grid.
• Security could improve due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but concerns can persist about loss of control over certain sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored kernels. Security is often as good as or better than under traditional systems, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many customers cannot afford. Providers typically log accesses, but accessing the audit logs themselves can be difficult or impossible. Furthermore, the complexity of security is greatly increased when data is distributed over a wider area and / or number of devices.
• Maintenance cloud computing applications are easier to maintain, since they don't have to be installed on each user's computer. They are easier to support and to improve since the changes reach the clients instantly.
• Metering cloud computing resources usage should be measurable and should be metered per client and application on daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis. This will enable clients on choosing the vendor cloud on cost and reliability (QoS).

Wow, a whole lot of Pros for Cloud Computing.... but what about the Cons?

• Data Security : while there will surely be a Non-Disclosure Agreement in place, would you place complete trust in the provider to be able to safe-keep your data? Remember, with your data on the cloud (aka Internet), anyone with the right tools/expertise will have a chance of hacking into the server which houses those data.
• Lost of Control : with services hosted in-house, you have control over the configurations of the application. However, with outsourcing, you are surrendering these controls to your provider. Getting them to customise the application will only incur additional cost.
• Service Outage : you are at the mercy of your provider should the services be down. And you'd have no idea how long it will take for services to resume. However, having said so, the provider should have enough common-sense to cater for backup servers to minimise service downtime.

To sum up, whether or not to embrace The Cloud depends entirely on the nature of your business.... Just remember to consider the fallout should your sensitive data be compromised by your provider.

Microsoft Office 2010

Yeah, the next version of Office is releasing this month, according to various sources. Had I not attended a recent product launch by Microsoft, I wouldn't have been so excited over the new Office Suite. Well, at least in the past, I couldn't really be bothered with it.

"The Future of Productivity" Launch by Microsoft was held @ Marina Bay Sands, 26 May 2010. Their CEO, Steve Ballmer dropped by to give a 45min keynote speech. Several reasons why I attended this launch although it's not related to my job scope.

Firstly, Steve Ballmer is THE keynote speaker! Come on, how often do you get to see the CEO of a MAJOR company talking on stage? And I've not even mentioned that the MAJOR company is Microsoft, the world's LARGEST software company in the world!

Secondly, the event was held @ Marina Bay Sands, one of the 2 newly completed Intergrated Resorts (aka casinos) in Singapore. I've never been there before until that day. The place is HUGE and I really mean HUGE!! However, having said that, I must also remind you that the place is not completed yet. There are still lots of constructions, renovations and touch-ups going on. So far, only the Convention Centre, Hotel and Casino are operational. The rest? Coming soon... I was looking through the MBS Shopping Guide and found 90% of the listed tenants marked with an asterisk and the asterisks is meant to mean "Opening Soon". I guess that goes to show you how completed MBS is.

Back to Office 2010, they had incorporated many new features into the new product, among them the "Paste with Preview", "Conversation View in Outlook" (imagine Gmail's thread-view for emails), "Quick Steps in Outlook". Do refer to Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Office 2010 for the details. There were also a few of my personal favourites that is not mentioned in the article; "Ignore button in Outlook", "Image/Video Editor in PowerPoint/Word" & "Simultaneous Editing".

A word of caution.... use the "Ignore" button wisely and carefully. :)

Wishlist for iPhone 4G

Someone compiled a wishlist of some 25 items.... here it goes...

From the list, I like Biometric Security, Better App Organisation & File Management, Removable Battery, Flash Support, Sleeker Design, Better Battery Life, Multitasking. On a personal basis, I've loved to see a Radio being included on the iPhone too.

Cool huh?

HTC Magic shipped with Virus

Users and potential users of HTC Magic, BEWARE!!!

According to an article @ ZDNET, a batch of HTC Magic Cellphones from Vodafone seemed to be shipped with a virus 'bundled', not a bad deal, huh??

Wanna read more info? Here goes....

Radiation Levels of Cell Phones

 Have been eyeing that dream Cell Phone for the past few months but could not get it as your contract's yet to expire? Here's another reason not to get it... the "Cell phone radiation levels" by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, USA.

Luckily, my iPhone is within range :)

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooogle

Nope, there's no typo in the title above. I've indeed spelt Google with 25 "O"s.

Why 25? Its for a very simple reason of there having 25 additional ways by which you can search for information using Google other than the usual way of punching in whatever search terms you wish into the Google Searchbox. They actually have various syntax for you to key in in order to find information such as :

• Exchange Rate
• Weather
• Stock Quotes
• Time
• Simple Arithmetic
• Unit Conversion
• etc....

Amazing? Try it @ any Google Searchbox.... For more information, do check out http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html for more details!!

Securing Your Wireless Networks

With the increase in recent years of the popularity of broadband access, connection sharing and falling prices of wireless routers, it's not at all surprising to observe the mushrooming of numerous wireless networks around the island be it in the residential nor commercial areas.

While it makes sense to use wireless technology to share internet access, one very worrying trend emerges; that many of these hotspots are lacking in basic security... Just like how you do not allow strangers into your home, there are plenty of such networks everywhere that failed to secure it's doors, allowing anyone out there to hook onto the unsecured network for the most harmless activity of FREE surfing to the most damaging acts of stealing your data for malicious intent.

It is precisely with securing your wireless network in mind that I've decided to pen this entry today... There are 101 ways to secure a wireless network but I'd not be able to cover all. I shall just stick to the basic defenses that you can deploy with out-of-the-box features that your wireless router should come with...

1. Do not broadcast your network SSID. The SSID is the name of your wireless network. Broadcasting it is equivalent to telling the whole world your home address, potentially inviting a whole lot of junk mails and other unwanted attentions.

2. Enable MAC Filtering. Each devices that needed to access the network must have a MAC Address and by limiting only those MAC Address which you are aware of, you are simply 'distributing your house keys only to those whom you know and trust'.

3. Limit IP Address Range to only as many as you need. Do not over allocate as this is similar to 'leaving excess sets of your house keys lying around'.

4. Change the default IP Range of your router. Change the default IP Range of the router to something similar but not the default. Some IT savvy folks may be able to guess your IP Range and conduct malicious tasks against you. As such, changing the default IP Range is similar to why some home owners prefered to change the locks to their homes when they initially bought it.

5. Enable encryption (WEP or WPA) on your wireless network. These 2 are the most common standards available in all of today's routers. WEP had been cracked before while WPA had proven resilient so far (phew). What happens now is that with either of the standards enabled, your communication between the PC/Laptop to the router is now secured. Think of it as if you are talking in some lingo that only you and your colleagues understand such that you boss will not be able to catch that you 2 are actually gossiping about him!

Do note that the above are not foolproof. They are only able to provide some basic defenses against evil-intentioned folks. To the experts, these defenses can be easily breached in hours, if not minutes. However, in the normal context, this is just about sufficient protection.

10 Tips for Social Networking Safety

Ever wonder how does spammers obtain your email address? Or how scammers are able to ring you with a fake kidnap claim on your loved ones? These had somewhat to do with our online habits.

How so? Think about it... when was the last time you readily provided your personal information online? You probably did so within the past week. This is not uncommon. I just did 20mins ago while applying for some account. As you can see, with the abundance of personal information going around in cyberspace, it's not difficult at all to pick up information about practically anyone on this earth using the correct tools.

How can we reduce the chances of our data being picked up? The best method would be to not use the internet at all. But then again, how many of us can truly give up the internet for good? I dare say a BIG FAT ZERO. My confidence is derived from the saying that "Once the lion had tasted human flesh, it's unlikely to go back to animal flesh." Similarly in the case here, once you've seen the convenience and rich vein of information the internet can offer, are you willing to simply plug yourself off from it? I know I wouldn't... not even over my dead body. So if we can't give it up, the next best solution would be to try and minimise our chances of getting hit. I've included herein an article which I hope can give you some insights into the precautions you can adopt.

May the internet be a safer place.....

IT Tips...

Maybe its an occupational habit but I simply can't resist posting IT Tips here whenever I find something which may be useful... Here's a few more :

1. 6 Tips for Reducing Email Overload
2. Top 10 Most Useful Secret Ninja Moves in Office (2007)

Enjoy...

MS Outlook 2003 Tips

If you have deleted your mail items the hard way, i.e. by pressing SHIFT+DEL the mail is not sent to the Deleted Items folder and you obviously won't be able to retrieve them there. Fret not, there are still hopes... By default the Recover Deleted Items functionality is only enabled on the Deleted Items folder in a user’s private folders; items that are hard deleted cannot be recovered. However, the good news is that this can be changed by making a small change to the Registry as follows :

1. Start Registry Editor ( Start > Run > "Regedit")
   
2. Locate and click the following key in the registry : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value :
   Value name: DumpsterAlwaysOn
   Data type: DWORD
   Value data: 1
4. Quit Registry Editor

That’s it. Now you can recover your hard deleted mails as well. :)