Some Malicious Computer Viruses

A computer virus is a computer program or programming code which can replicate itself from one folder to other folder and one computer to other computer. A properly engineered virus can cause a huge damage, e-g, in January 2004, a virus name Mydoom Worm infected approximately a quarter-million computers just in a single day. Trojan horses, Worms, spywares and rootkits are different forms of virus. A virus can be spread through E-mails, removable media like CD, DVD, USB drive and through other computers on same network. Following are some most dangerous Viruses which caused a lot of damage.

CIH: CIH is also known as Chernobyl, is a virus coded by Chen Ing Hau of Taiwan. It was one of the most damaging viruses at its time which used to overwrite critical information on infected system drives and in some cases system BIOS was also corrupted. This virus caused a huge loss in Asia.

ILOVEYOU: also known as Aric Paul, is a computer worm that attacked tens of millions of computers in 2000 through email. It was an email with subject "ILOVEYOU" having an attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU". After opening the attachment, this worm used to send a copy of itself to all the email addresses on the Windows Address Book and with the user's sender address. This virus also caused several malicious changes to the computers.

Fun.exe (New Folder): was first apperaed in 2008. This virus installs multiple copies of itself throughout the system on different locations with different names, its icon is just look like a folder, and upon clicking it starts working and making copies in all folders. It is nearly impossible to delete them.

Backdoor.Win32.IRCBot (MSN Messenger Fame): is a backdoor computer worm that is spread through MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. Once it is installed on a computer, it copies itself into a Windows system folder. It send itself to all MSN Contacts offering them to open an attachment "photos.zip" or click on a link with a personal message like
"Hey, is this your picture? :S http://www.msnimages.net/images/viewimage.php?=abc@hotmail.com".
This worm is also used  by hackers as it allows for confidential information to be transmitted to a hacker.

Recent Frauds of PTCL

Although PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Limited) has the credit to introduce low cost broadband DSL for corporate sector as well as home users and is the largest internet service provider in Pakistan, but now PTCL has started to over-charge its customers without any prior notification. Also after making its monopoly in Local Market, the services and customer support of PTCL is getting poorer gradually. There are also some reports that PTCL Telephone Exchange Level staff has started to charge the customers illegally.

One month back, unexpectedly, all 1 MB accounts converted to 2 MB without any prior notification and all such accounts were over-charged. Although it was mentioned on Telephone bill that on request the account may be reverted back and the amount of bill will be adjusted in next bill, many customers requested to revert it back but once again customer's received the increased bill.

Another recent fraud by PTCL noticed this month when many customers were charged 1000 rs extra in their monthly telephone bill, according to PTCL customer care, from now onward extra amount will be charged on downloading upto 50 GB data, means PTCL's unlimited broadband is now limited.

Lets hope for some good news from PTCL after these unexpected shocks. Also we hope that PTCL will provide all the promised services without any extra charges.

Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcut is a sequence or a combination of two or more keystrokes which let users to perform their task easily and quickly. A List of some important and daily use shortcuts is given below.

Windows Button + M                                  Minimize all loaded programs and windows

Windows Button + D                                   Show Desktop

Windows Button + F                                   Search Files and Folders in Windows

Windows Button + E                                   Load Windows Explorer

Windows Button + R                                   Load Run Command Window

          

Windows Button or Ctrl + Escape             Open Start menu

Windows Button + U                                   Load Utility manager

Windows Button + L                                    Lock

Windows Ctrl + Shift + Escape                  Show Windows Task Manager

F1                                                                  Load Windows Help

Alt + F4                                                        Close any active program or window

Ctrl + F4                                                       Close any sub window

Alt + Space + N                                           Minimize any active program or window

Alt + Space + X                                           Maximize any active program or window

Alt + Space + R                                           Restore any active program or window

Alt + Space + M                                          Move any active program or window (active window must not in maximized position)

Alt + Space + S                                          Re size any active program or window (active window must not in maximized position) Print Screen Capture full current screen (You can paste it in Paint Brush or any other program like Photoshop or Microsot Word etc.)

Alt + Print Screen                                       Capture only active window (You can paste it in Paint Brush or any other program like Photoshop or Microsot Word etc.)

Alt + Tab                                                    Switching between loaded softwares Delete Delete selected files and send to "Recycle bin" (It can be restore from "Recycle bin" later)

Shift + Delete                                              Delete selected files and do not send to "Recycle bin" (It can't be restore from "Recycle bin" later)

Ctrl + C                                                      Copy selected files

Ctrl + X                                                      Cut selected files

Ctrl + V                                                      Paste copied or cut files

Alt + Enter                                                  Get properties of selected file Enter Open or load selected file

Shift + F10                                                  Right click  

Stephen Hawking, The Einstein of Current Era

After Albert Einstein, not a single scientist has gained as much popularity and fame as Stephen William Hawking. Born 8th January 1942 in Oxford, England, Hawking started his education in London and for his graduation in natural sciences, he went to Oxford University. Although his final marks at Oxford did not reflect his abilities, he was able to prove there that he has something unique and special about him. In 1962 he completed his graduation from Oxford and then stayed there for some time to study astronomy.But soon he went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge to study astrology and cosmology.

Early in his Cambridge study, he started developing symptoms of a motor neuron disease that soon made his control weaken over his body and as of 2011 he is completely paralyzed physically. After the fever really came into action he was told by the doctors that he can hardy live for another three years. He left his PhD because of the sock. But at this very moment Dennis William made him to work again on his doctorate. He cannot move nor speak, a tiny IR sensor lets him twich his cheek to spell and speak words.

Hawking is considered one of the best scientists of the current era. Rather than his complete physical disability he has been working on scientific projects since 1965. His main research is concerned with cosmology and quantum gravity and space sciences. His work on the black hole theory is widely regarded to be the finest work on the subject matter. He extensively worked on various scientific theorems along with other fellow scientists. Hawking is a great advocate of scientific methods and research. One of his popularity factors is that he is a firm believer in the existence of aliens in universe and even to make it more dramatic he suggested that these aliens can be devastating for humans and our world.

He has been a publically recognized and honored figure all around the globe. His genius even with his disability has made him a role model for many. His work has been globally accepted and published in the universities. Several of his books and research papers are published all around the world. He has been given many awards and honors for his achievements, including Albert Einstein medal, Order of British Empire and Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Many of building throughout the world has been named in against him to recognized and honor his works in the field.

How to increase traffic to your website

There are many creative ways to increase traffic on website. Instead of spamming and using illegal ways if one use these methods, definitely a lot of traffic will be generated.

1) Search Engine Optimization: SEO is the best unpaid way to bring your website up on top on search engines and increase traffic of your website. It is a collection of many techniques which improve the ranking of a website. Backlinking and Posting on relevent Forums also helps a lot.

2) Upload Original, Unique and Quality Content: Try to offer such content which visitors couldn't find anywhere else onm internet. Keep updating the content of your website for repeat visits.

3) Try to get Backlinks from high PR websites. Greater the quantity of good backlinks, greater the traffic of website. Try to avoid free content generators and never ever copy and paste from other website. Spelling and Grammar mistakes put very bad reflection on visitors.

4) Article and Forum Marketing: Write some articles related to your website and add your website's link at the end. Submit all these articles to article directories and other websites related to your topic. Also join some top forums related to your website's topic, and post your website's introduction along with your website's Link.

5) Social Networking: Social Networking is one of the strongest platform to generate traffic to your website. Set up profiles at popular Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. Make a customized page for your Website, join other pages related to your topic and try to network with people in your niche.

6) Blogging: Create a blog directly related to your website. Blogging can be also be considered as Social Networking. Try to post content on blog minimum twice or thrice a week. If you have an IT Solutions website, try to post Tips and Tricks related to IT.

By using all these methods you can increase traffic on website.

World Trade Center, Once upon a time

World Trade Center was originally a complex of seven buildings in New York City, USA. It was famous for because of two of its main and the longest buildings known as Twin Towers. It was open on 4th April 1973 and was destroyed in 2001 during the famous 9/11 Attacks. Before 9/11 attacks, 11th September was just a date, but after that it became history.

The idea of World Trade Center was first proposed in 1943 and New York's Governor Thomas E. Dewey was authorized to begin developing plans for the project, but these plans were put on hold in 1949 because of objections made by New Jersey Governor. In the end of 1961, all the problems and objections in the establishment of World Trade Center were finished, and that was a green signal to start work on the project.

On 20th September, 1962, Minoru Yamasaki selected as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. Originally, 80 stories were planned for these towers but later the architect planned that both the buildings have to be 110 stories tall. The design were brought on the screen on January 18, 1964.

Among all of seven buildings, most popular buildings were North and South Towers (Twin Towers) were 1,350 feet (415 m) high and occupied about one acre of the total 16 acres of the site's land.

In 1972, after completion, the North Tower became the tallest building in the world surpassing the Empire State Building. The South Tower completed in 1973, and it became the 2nd tallest building of the world. Five other small buildings covered about 16 acres block.

Daily, 50,000 people worked in the towers and 200,000 used to come as visitors. The WTC Complex had its own Zip Code. It was as famous as Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Chrysler Building.

On 26th February, 1993, a truck filled with 1,500 pounds of explosive was detonated in the underground garage of North Tower that claimed 6 Lives. On 11th September, 2001, two different hijacked flights crashed into both towers with the difference of 17 minutes, and later both the Towers Collapsed. Many Lives were claimed during these terrorist attacks, off which only 1.629 victims were identified.

Today 10 years passed, but still there are many questions, which are un-answered.

Kevin Mitnick, the journey from Hacker to Hero

Kevin David Mitnick (Born August 6, 1963) the greatest Hacker of all times.Story of Kevin Mitnick seems to be a fairy tale, where a young teenager was simply ahead of his time doing wonders in the field of computers that was still not that common and was in expansion. Being a 12 years old school boy he broke the secured purchasing system of the Los Angeles bus system to get free rides. Kevin had broken thousands of computer networks being a Hacker, including Pacific Bell tale-Switching, MCI communication, California DMV,Motorola, Nokia. Even in eighties he was arrested from his university campus while trying to break through in Pentagon security networks.

This born networking worm was among the top of the wanted list on FBI charts, but Kevin had already found a way to deal with the situation, as he had already hacked the FBI network and was able to get the inside info about him being captured and thus was avoiding FBI and police. But in 1995 FBI was able to capture this long time wanted cyber criminal and he was convicted in the court of justice and had to live in prison for five long years.

He was a child of divorced parent while living with his mother, young Mitnick was alone and there was nothing fascinating about his life, which was the main reason he started these activities, Kevin tried several times to revert back to normality but prior to 2003, he would always turn back to the ill use of computing. After 2003 it was time for him to change his status from a notorious hacker to a national hero. He decided to use all his knowledge for positive purposes. He wrote several books about cyber crimes and its remedies. Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security consultancy, where he can be consulted regarding computer security and data theft. Although his fame began as a cow boy hacker through out US, his current stature has earned him the status of a hero like human.

Al Capone, The Don

No other Don has ever been as famous as Al Capone in the American society. Born in New York to an Italian-American family, Capone was expelled from school in his early teens and was soon to be mentored by another New York Gangster Johnny Torrio. He joined several small gangs and did little mob enforcing for several of gangs in Newyork. But his real activities started in Chicago where he sifted along with his newly married wife and their son.
Chicago was a great place for Mafias at the time as the industry was booming there and these industrialists were ready to pay protection money to the mobsters, even several mobsters were there who were engaged in legal business activities along with their criminal ones.
Though, in Chicago the gang was started by Torrio, but he soon left it after being severally injured, Torrio left his place for Al Capone who gradually became an Underworld king. The Capones (Al Capone’s Gang) reached a revenue of around 100 million $ per annum .The Capone’s major revenue activities were, Liquor Selling, protection money, prostitution and gambling.
Al Capone has been a very influencing character, even in his life as he made his Mafia organization into a business empire. He had a great political influence on authorities and judiciary through bribery and other means, he controlled most of the mafia world in Chicago. His criminal empire started declining after famous saint valentine day massacre, where his men openly killed several people, including his opposing gang members. A commission was set to enquire into the issue, due to his influence he was never convinced for any murder but was instead imprisoned for tax evasion. After his punishment he was never been able to hold his previous position and has some mental and physical disorders. On 21st January 1947 he died in his home in Florida. Even after so may years he remain popular, his character has been featured in many films, dramas, literature, fiction and games.

Bermuda Triangle, The Unsolved Mystery

The Mysterious Bermuda Triangle is a strange place in Southern Atlantic Ocean where dozens of ships, planes and people have disappeared and its still a mystery where they have gone. No one knows what happened to those planes and boats. It is still a mystery whether it is because of a tornado, Hurricanes, Supernatural forces or any unusual force of gravity.

The boundaries of triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas, Caribbean island area and the Atlantic. This area is one of the most heavily flown route in the world with ships crossing it daily for ports in Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Dozens of Cruise ships, private and commercial aircraft passes through this mysterious area.

Most famous incident that is associated to Bermuda Triangle was happened in 1945 known as Flight 19, when five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers of United States Navy disappeared. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost and unfortunately another aircraft PBM Mariner Flying Boat exploded in mid-air while searching for the lost aircrafts. All the 13 Crew Members on this flying boat were also lost.

from last few decades,different Authors and Researchers have presented many theories but Bermuda Triangle is still a mystery for the world. Lets hope that this mystery puzzle will be solved sooner rather than later.