Canon announced that they will be releasing a new camera in their DSLR range that would replace the current Rebel XT (350D) and XTi (400D) range. The new camera is said to be more affordable and is aimed at entry-level photography enthusiast.
The EOS Rebel XS will boast a 10.1 megapixel resolution, 2.5″ LCD and most importantly, Live View. Compared to the entry-level 400D, the Canon 1000D is just slightly better. However, Live View is the feature that separates the 1000D from the 350D or 400D. On top of that, the new Canon 1000D will ditch the bigger and more expensive compact flash card with the SD/SDHC cards.
Canon will release the camera with an upgraded “kit lens”. Instead of the older entry-level EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, the kit lens that will be bundled with the 1000D will have an added image stabilizing feature. Thus, this helps first time users get less blurry shots and better control at low-level lighting.
However, the Canon 1000D still falls short of sheer performance as compared to Canon’s latest entry-level 450D. Thus, it is placed below the performance of the 450D but with less than applaudable reason to upgrade from a 400D. The pricing, at current posting time, is said to be at the USD$799 - $899 range.
Auburn (CA) – Most small businesses and consumers do not have elaborate disaster recovery plans in place, which means that their data may be at risk, especially if backups are stored nearby. Fire and water can wipe out at least portions of the contents stored on hard drives in a matter of seconds. ioSafe announced new hard drives that promise to withstand fire and water and offer a type of product for all those who don’t invest in off-site storage.
ioSafe claims that it is the first company to offer fire- and waterproof hard drives, which may be worth a look not just for businesses, but also families who are looking for ways to keep those digital family pictures safe, even when a house burns down. The company uses 2.5” drives within 3.5” enclosures are specially equipped with heat and water barriers.
Fire protection is provided by the firm’s “DataCast endothermic insulation technology”, which the manufacturer claims forms a chemical bond with water molecules that, at temperature above 160 degrees Fahrenheit, releases water vapor to limit the internal temperature of the unit. Combined with the insulation, ioSafe claims that the drive can sustain outside temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 15 minutes and short term peak temperatures of up to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the case of a fire, the plastic tabs on the inside of the 3.5” casing will melt at a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit, closing the drive and blocking airflow. The manufacturer said that the inside of the 2.5” drive should not get hotter than 210 degrees Fahrenheit during a fire, as 98% of radiant heat can be deflected. Typical house fires reach a heat of about 1100 degrees Fahrenheit with 3 to 5 minutes.
There was no detailed information on the water protection technology, other than the claim that the drive will be protected from fresh or salt water damage, both in full submersion and spray/splash scenarios. Full submersion protection is guaranteed for up to 24 hours in up to 5 ft of water.
Just in case the drive is damaged, ioSafe offers an optional data recovery plan that is activated through the registration of a product. The service, which is offered free of charge, provides access to data recovery experts and includes up to $2500 payment by ioSafe to a third-party data extraction service plus replacement product, if required.
Not surprisingly, ioSafe’s hard drives come at a premium over regular hard drives. The price list ranges from $330 for a 5400 rpm 80 GB drive to $460 for a 7200 rpm 200 GB drive. The highest capacity is offered by a 320 GB 5400 rpm model for $450.
As you guys have noticed, Google have changed their “favicon” — that small icon you usually see at the address bar of your browser. Their are usually a symbol of a company’s brand and most websites have them.
Apparently, the people from Google are having a hard time coming out something that represents “Google”. The favicon you see now isn’t the final draft. They are just using it as a temporary favicon, until they settle for a new one. Hence, Google is opening submissions to everyone to submit their favicon design here. So if you have a nice design that you want to be displayed as a Google favicon, submit your design before June 20th.
For many months, the Eee-PC has been at the top of many wish lists (including mine) and it had claimed consecutive months of being the “best-selling product” all over the world! Can the new MSI Wind dodge the Asus Eee-PC from its top spot? Let’s see!
News of an Eee-PC killer were going around way back in January this year. Only last month did we get concrete evidence that there was a contender to battle it out with the Eee-PC. Then again we were skeptical and we had to wait for further intelligence. Now that we know the specifications of the contender, let’s see whether this rumoured killer is lethal enough.
The MSI Wind comes with a 1.6Ghz Atom processor by Intel. The memory module that comes with the MSI Wind varies with the OS that you choose. A Linux version comes with a DDR2 512MB memory while a Win XP version comes with DDR2 1GB memory. The maximum memory the MSI Wind can take up to is 2GB. The MSI Wind carries an 80GB Sata 5400RPM HDD.
These are the other features that comes with the MSI Wind:
10” 1024×600 LCD Panel
1.3M / 0.3M Webcam
4-in-1 Card Reader, SD/MMC/MS/MSpro
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Built-in 802.11b/g WLAN Card / Bluetooth Supported (Bluetooth is optional)
I/O ports includes -
Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1
USB2.0 Port X 3
Mic-in Port X 1/Line-in Port x 1
Headphone Output X 1
LAN Port X1
3 Cell/6Cell Li-Ion batteries
The battery life of the 6-cell batteries is around 5.5 hours. The weight of the MSI Wind stands at 1Kg with a 3 cell battery and about 1.2Kg with a 6 cell battery. The Linux version of the MSI Wind retails at USD$399 while the Win XP version retails at USD$599. The MSI wind comes with 3 flavours,; Angel White, Empire Black and Romantic Pink.
So who gives the best punch and downs the other for the count? Comparing the specifications of MSI Wind and the Asus Eee-PC 1000, MSI Wind does fare better in some aspects. For example, the Eee-PC runs an Atom 1.33Ghz while the MSI Wind runs at 1.6Ghz. The difference ain’t that much but the bottom line is, it does makes a difference! The bulk and weight of the MSI Wind seems to be better-of than the Asus Eee-PC. On top of that, the MSI Wind keyboard is not as cramped as the Asus 900.
On the other hand, some consumers may prefer the lighter weight (sub 1 KG) of Asus’ older version Eee-PC. Furthermore, Asus has the”first-person” advantage when it comes to low-cost ultra portable notebooks. Hence, it is still too early to tell whether the MSI Wind will displace Asus from it’s No. 1 spot in mini-laptops.
Looking at the pictures, you can’t really tell the difference between the 700, 900 and the 1000. Not unless you take a look at it side-by-side. The Asus 1000 carries a larger 10″ LCD screen, thus allowing the ultra-portable PC to have a larger, less cramped keyboard. However, a larger screen size would mean an added weight to the Eee-PC. The Asus Eee-PC 1000 weighs a hefty 1.4Kg with an 8-cell battery and about 1.25Kg with a 6-cell battery.
As of now, there are no details with regards to the pricing of the Asus Eee-PC 1000. However, it would definitely cost more than the Eee-PC 901, which is retailing at about USD$649.
There is also no details with regards to the resolution of the newer 10″ Eee-PC. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the screen resolution is still the same.
So we’ve heard about the Intel’s revolutionary ATOM chip which consumes less than a few watts of power. Coupled that with a mobile device, it gives you the ability to have a longer battery life without much sacrifice with regards to performance. Asus saw the opportunity and used the Atom chip on its ever-popular Eee-PC.
The ASUS Eee-PC 901 will be running the Atom Z520 processor, overclocked at 1.33Ghz and consuming power at about 2W peak. The average power of this processor is said to be at 220mW. Compared to the 19W of a Conroe celeron processor, the Atom chip has lots of power saving potential. Thus, this will allow the Eee-PC 901 to have a longer battery life as compared to its predecessor. To date, no credible benchmarks have been made to show how much longer the Eee-PC 901 can last.
The Windows XP version of the Eee-PC 901 will retail at USD$649 while the Linux version will retail at USD $549. Skeptics have shown displeasure with regards to the steeper pricing of the newer Eee-PC as one could get a better-horsepower laptop with $649. However, one must take note that the Eee-PC is not aimed at replacing laptops but it is more geared towards the ultra-portable laptop market. At the current price, it beats all contenders with its lower-pricing and general aesthetics.
However, it’s still unknown whether the increased price due to the inclusion of the Atom processor is worth it. In my opinion, the Atom processor is best used in mobile phones and other portable media players so as to fully utilize the power of the Atom processor, i.e an x86 compatible processor with minimum power consumption. The predecessors of the 901 has in itself an x86 compatible processor. It is yet to be shown how much battery life could be saved on the Eee-PC. Thus, only time will tell.
Seagate doesn’t currently have any drives in the SSD market. Seagate currently is one of the largest makers of traditional hard drives and while it foresees a time when the solid state drive (SSD) is a better value than traditional HDDs; that time is not now.Seagate announced that next year it will double its highest capacity traditional HDD to 2TB and will introduce its first SSD. CEO Bill Watkins says Seagate will first target enterprise customers with its SSDs where the benefits of lower power consumption and faster data access will be most welcome. The enterprise environment will also be willing to pay the premium SSDs will still demand whereas the majority of the consumer market is not willing to pay the premium at this time says Seagate.
PC World quotes Watkins saying, “SSDs are not price-competitive yet.” The cost per gigabyte for SSDs isn’t expected to come down for several years. Watkins believes that SSDs will become a focus for Seagate when the cost per gigabyte of SSD storage is around $0.10.
Currently, the cost per gigabyte for the average SSD is about $3.58 per gigabyte according to Krishna Chander, an analyst at iSuppli. There are problems with SSDs to be tackled over the next few years other than price. The typical SSD still has a storage capacity too low for most users and the SSD lifespan is short compared to a traditional HDD.
The answer to the problem of durability may lie in using the SSD for data reading and fast access to commonly used files and having less frequently used stuff moved off to a HDD for more permanent storage according to some. Despite the fact that Seagate doesn’t currently sell SSDs, it does own several patents that cover technology currently used in many SSDs on the market.
In the next few month, Asus will introduce Splashtop (or known as “Express Gate”) in their notebook series which allows you to surf the web in seconds after booting! Hence, you’ll be free from that dreaded waiting time for your laptop to switch on.
Asus will be the first laptop manufacturer to bring in Splashtop into the notebook environment. Other than surfing the web, you can Skype, MSN or do whatever things possible online (even online gaming!).
Splashtop or Express Gate uses an on-board flash chip to hold the necessary data to run the light-weight operating system at boot-up. With the fast boot, users are able to start surfing in no-time. This is advantageous especially if one is on the go and in need of accessing the internet urgently for whatever purpose. With a boot-up time of under 5 seconds, it does improves one’s experience in the web environment.
“With Express Gate, users will experience a new, fast, and secure way to surf, chat and play on ASUS notebooks for a new computing experience.”
This light-weight operating system will be available on upcoming M70T, M50V, M51T, F8Va, and F8Vr laptops,
It is incredible just how big the effects of the newly discovered error in open source key generation is For all the criticism of Microsoft and its security flaws, the software giant has made an impressive turnaround. While Vista has been derided for a variety of reasons, most would agree that it’s much more secure than Windows XP. Recently, a hacker conference showed just how vulnerable systems running Mac OS X are, due to their slow rate of patches. The Mac machine was hijacked within 10 minutes, while the Linux and Windows boxes survived the day.
Now an even worse security flaw has been found in some of the basic code used by a wide variety of Linux security programs. The error originated back in May 2006 when workers on the open-source security project committed a grave and unrealized error.
A simple programming error reduced the entropy in the generated program keys created by the OpenSSL library. Why does this matter? The OpenSSL library’s key generation and other routines are used by the SSH remote access program, the IPsec Virtual Private Network (VPN), the Apache Web server, secure email clients, programs that offer secure internet portals and more.
Just two lines of code created crippling security holes in four different open source operating systems, 25 application programs, and millions of internet-attached computer systems. The vulnerability was publicly discovered for the first time May 13, after having left the door open nearly two years. A patch has been distributed, but that can do nothing to repair the damage that has occurred to compromise systems. Worse yet, it appears that through the installation of compromised keys on other systems, numerous systems not even running the code have likely been compromised.
To understand the error fully, a basic discussion on cryptography is essential. On a network anyone can peek at traffic, which is bad news for anyone sharing personal information. However, by using keys, information can be encrypted and then decrypted on the other side by a friendly computer with the proper key. As a “secure key” is typically 128 bits, which is 2128 or about 3.4*1038, the possibility of breaking the key by merely by a brute force attack is out of the realm of modern computing power. A brute force attack simply involves guessing every single number, but to try to do this on a number of this size would take many years.
However, the system falls apart if the computer can only make a small set of keys, despite the large key size. To a normal user the key looks fine, it’s the right size, and the data is being encrypted as it’s sent out. However, to the malicious user they can now use brute force attacks to guess the key and monitor your activity, opening the door to surveillance and exploitation. This is exactly what has resulted based on the newly discovered error.
The error reduced the number of keys that Linux can generate from 2128 to approximately 215. The error was not caught until now because the keys were still 128 bits and to the human eye looked random. If the system had consistently produced one key, this problem would have been caught, but instead it produced a variety of keys, but a much smaller variety. The number of keys the system can generate varies with processor architecture, the size of the key, and the type of the key, but all keys using the flawed code will be greatly reduced in their number of possibilities.
Now that the floodgates are opened, a hacker HD Moore of the Metasploit project has released “toys” to help malicious users crack the poor defenseless Linux and Ubuntu boxes. Moore’s website provides lists of precalculated keys based on the bug, to allow malicious users to easily identify vulnerable systems.
Fixing the key problem is not as simple as fixing a buffer overflow vulnerability, another typical security flaw. As the keys generated our actual files, merely patching the system will not change these files. Every single key will need to be replaced in a difficult and time consuming process. Further keys need to be certified and distributed, which takes more time and is error prone.
Debian, the Linux variant used largely by security professionals, and Ubuntu, the variant most commonly used by home users are both affected. Furthermore, Windows servers may be compromised as well if they are using keys generated on Linux systems.
Ironically the bug originated from an automated tool known as Valgrind which is supposed to reduce programming bugs which lead to security vulnerabilities. It found that a block memory was not being properly initialized, meaning that it would contain random information. The automated tool politely inserted code to clean up the block of memory making it all zeros. The only problem was that the system was intentionally using the block’s unknown to get randomness to generate the keys. The library also gets randomness from mouse movements, keystroke timings, network packet arrival timings, and even microvariations in hard drive speed.
The Valgrind code caused errors, so the programmers simply commented out all the code, including the other methods of generating randomness on accident. Only the code which utilized the process ID, an integer ranging from 0 to 32,767, remained to provide randomness. It turns out the “fix” turned grievous error was not the work of the OpenSSL programmers themselves, but of the Debian team, known for their security expertise.
OpenSSL developer Ben Laurie raged, “Never fix a bug you don’t understand! Had Debian [sent the bug to us] in this case, we (the OpenSSL Team) would have fallen about laughing, and once we had got our breath back, told them what a terrible idea this was. But no, it seems that every vendor wants to ‘add value’ by getting in between the user of the software and its author.”
One developer more alarmingly points out that the vulnerability has showed a perhaps fatal flaw in the state of the open source industry and in the computer security in general. One programmer can make a major change which can be blindly accepted by other developers with little understanding of the implications. This reckons back to controversial statements made by Steve Gibson, a highly respected security consultant, when a major bug was found in Windows. Gibson suggested that rather than dumb error, it was an intentional attempt to create an open back door. While hopefully the Linux vulnerability was not maliciously created, the possibility of such a development remains.
Like Alice in Wonderland, it is often amazing to see just far down the rabbit hole goes in terms of the breadth of these kinds of problems. And this problem is clearly illustrative that unless a more comprehensive methodology of security development is adopted, these problems will only persist and multiply with time.
Don’t be alarm by it. There is nothing new about these restrictions and there are so many ways in bypassing it. I was curious and wondered whether an old trick that I used to play around with when I was 15, still worked (I couldn’t find a reason otherwise). And in less than 1 minute, I was in.
I’m not trying to advocate watching porn (hence go find out yourself) but I’m just trying to illustrate how implementations at the tech level are often not air-tight. On the surface, it deters unknowing surfers from accidentally accessing the site. But at a deeper level, it’s easy for someone (with the given knowledge) to find an alternative solution. Thus, anti-pornographic measures should be taken not only from an ISP’s perspective. It should include other approaches, for example — sex-education.
In a predominantly shy Asian culture, I feel that we are way behind other societies in terms of educating the young ones regarding sex related issues. On the other hand, I feel that the correct initiatives have been in placed and Singaporeans are becoming more aware of sex-related issues at a younger age. Therefore, it would be understandable to not expect a sudden change in Singaporean mindsets; rather, a complete change would probably take place in a few generations to come.
For the mean time, it is better to have someone to monitor your child’s internet usage rather than rely on ISPs or even “Internet Guardian” programs (which I find useless without proper supervision).
