Construction giant Dewalt has entered the smartphone market with a tough Android-powered handset designed for building industry workers.

The £379 (108,184.39 Naira) device is designed to survive a 2m drop on to concrete and can operate in temperatures ranging from -20C to 60C.

Rival firm Caterpillar has already established itself as a brand in the physically tougher smartphone sector.

The so-called "tough phone" market is flourishing.

"Lots of people in the trade and construction industries, as well as outdoor sports enthusiasts, have realised that just having a thicker case isn't going to see them through," said James Booker, purchasing manager at UK firm Tuffphones.

Caterpillar's Tough Smartphone. 

To be certified as a "tough phone", handsets have to undergo more rigorous physical tests, including being subjected to tumbling - turned over and over inside a device for long periods of time, Mr Booker explained.

They also have to be water and dust proof.

Because they are sturdier, they can also incorporate a bigger battery, he added - the Dewalt phone claims to offer up to eight hours of talk time.

"One of the main things about traditional smartphones is that they are svelte and slim - there's an obvious correlation with how large a battery they can get in there," Mr Booker said.

While most of its specifications are fairly standard for the sector, Dewalt's MD501 phone comes with in-built QI wireless charging, which is unusual, he added.

Its touchscreen is made of commercially manufactured Gorilla Glass - a highly robust but thin type of glass that works with gloved hands.

The handset is a collaboration with Global Mobile Communications, a rugged phone specialist.

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Google in its 11-year legal battle with an authors group. 

The Court said it would not hear an appeal from the Authors Guild, which claimed Google breached copyright laws by scanning books without permission.

The technology giant began the process in 2004, so it could include extracts in a searchable database, and it was sued by the Authors Guild in 2005.

The Supreme Court's judgement is the final ruling on the matter.

Google's database of books lets people search through millions of titles and read passages and selected pages from them.

While some of the books in the database are old titles that are no longer protected by copyright, millions are more recent publications.

The Authors Guild had argued that the project undermined authors' ability to make money from their work.

Google said its database was a "fair use" of protected works, describing it as "a card catalogue for the digital age".

The firm could have faced billions of dollars in damages claims from authors if it had lost the case.

The Authors Guild said it was "disappointed" that the Supreme Court would not hear its appeal.

The organisation's president Roxana Robinson said: "We believed then and we believe now that authors should be compensated when their work is copied for commercial purposes".

A Google spokeswoman said: "We are grateful that the court has agreed to uphold the decision of the Second Circuit which concluded that Google Books is transformative and consistent with copyright law."

Hackers have again demonstrated that no matter how many security precautions someone takes, all a hacker needs to track their location and snoop on their phone calls and texts is their phone number.

The hack, first demonstrated by German security researcher Karsten Nohl in 2014 at a hacker convention in Hamburg, has been shown to still be active by Nohl over a year later for CBS’s 60 Minutes.

The hack uses the network interchange service called Signalling System No. 7 (SS7), also known as C7 in the UK or CCSS7 in the US, which acts as a broker between mobile phone networks. When calls or text messages are made across networks SS7 handles details such as number translation, SMS transfer, billing and other back-end duties that connect one network or caller to another. By hacking into or otherwise gaining access to the SS7 system, an attacker can track a person’s location based on mobile phone mast triangulation, read their sent and received text messages, and log, record and listen into their phone calls, simply by using their phone number as an identifier.

Nohl, who is currently conducting vulnerability analysis of SS7 for several international mobile phone networks, demonstrated the hack for the CBS show. He tracked a brand new phone given to US congressman Ted Lieu in California from his base in Berlin using only its phone number. Nohl pinpointed Lieu’s movements down to districts within Los Angeles, read his messages and recorded phone calls between Lieu and his staff.

The biggest issue for consumers is that there is little they can do to safeguard against this kind of snooping, short of turning off their mobile phone, as the attack happens on the network side, regardless of the phone used.

Nohl said: “The mobile network is independent from the little GPS chip in your phone, it knows where you are. So any choices that a congressman could’ve made, choosing a phone, choosing a pin number, installing or not installing certain apps, have no influence over what we are showing because this is targeting the mobile network. That, of course, is not controlled by any one customer.”

Hackers have proven that they can break into SS7, but security services, including the US National Security Agency, are also thought to use the system to track and snoop on target users. 

According to a new report by Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned Apple analyst, who claims that the iPhone will be seeing a whole new design in 2017, dropping the iconic aluminum casing for an all-glass enclosure with AMOLED screen. This follows on from another of Kuo’s reports in late March, where he first suggested Apple will return to an iPhone design akin to the iPhone 4. It does not seem like the iPhone 7 for 2016 will be seeing such a major overhaul, breaking Apple’s tick-tock pattern of a significant chassis redesign every other generation.

Kuo believes that Apple will be moving to an all-glass enclosure, dropping aluminum completely as it will no longer appear modern or fresh in 2017. Apple’s smartphone competitors are also adopting aluminum designs in droves, making it more likely Apple will want to differentiate with entirely new materials.Kuo does not elaborate on how Apple will make the next iPhone entirely out of glass, so currently the specifics of the drastic redesign will have to be left to the imagination. Apple used glass for the iPhone 4/4s front and back, but this was sandwiched together with a stainless steel band. It’s currently unclear how an iPhone could be constructed primarily out of glass.

The new glass phone will also feature a new AMOLED display panel, which will be thinner and lighter to compensate for the slight weight increase of glass compared with metal exteriors. Kuo does not believe that drop test issues will be a roadblock in Apple’s decision making, given the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s already relied heavily on glass front and back. Last week, Apple reportedly reached a $2.6 billion agreement with Samsung to supply OLED panels for iPhone displays.

It definitely seems like Apple is saving a major new iPhone form factor for 2017, which leaves Apple’s 2016 iPhone 7 refresh somewhat in question. Leaks to date have shown very modest changes for the iPhone 7, with a design largely the same as the existing iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models. It certainly looks like Apple’s next big refresh for the iPhone will not come to light this year, perhaps earlier in 2017 if not the fall. So far, the biggest new thing for the iPhone 7 appears to be the addition of a dual-camera for better pictures, although rumors have indicated this will be exclusive to the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus.

Samsung has unveiled its two latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and GS7 edge. Rumors about the GS7 and GS7 edge hit the Web months ago. However, Samsung did keep a few surprises under wraps.

We will, together, unwrap these surprises....

1) Galaxy S7 and GS7 edge digital camera

The GS6, GS6 edge and GS6 edge+ all have 16MP cameras. The new GS7 and GS7 edge have 12MP digital shooters. So, you ask, why is a reduction in megapixels a good thing? Simply put, megapixels aren't everything when it comes to digital cameras, and at a certain point, the lens, aperture and shutter speed begin to carry as much if not more weight.

The cameras on the new GS7s are the "first dual pixel sensor 12MP" smartphone cameras ever, according to Samsung, which means every pixel they pack is used to focus. That leads to quicker, more effective autofocus. Samsung says the GS7 cameras focus "two to three times faster" than the GS6 shooters. The GS7 camera aperture (F1.7), leads to 25 percent less exposure time than the cameras on the GS6s (F1.9), according to Samsung, which should result in crisper, clearer images. The camera pixels themselves are also larger in the GS7s (1.4μm) than the GS6 phones (1.12μm), Samsung says, and they take in more light and help capture quality images in dimly lit spaces.

2) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge and microSD memory cards

The Galaxy S6 was the first Galaxy S smartphone that didn't have a slot for expandable memory, and though this wasn't a deal-breaker for most folks, it was a disappointment for many. Samsung reversed course with the GS7 and again included a microSD slot. The company also figured out a way to include the memory card, the memory-card and SIM card slots on the GS7 are one and the same. The GS7 phones currently support memory cards up to 200GB, though Samsung says they could be updated to work with higher capacity cards as they're released.

3) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge and 'Always on Display'

The two new GS7 smartphones have a new "Always on Display" feature that does just what it suggests and lets you quickly view a variety of information without ever touching your device to wake it. The feature isn't unique — Motorola's latest DROIDs have similar "Attentive Displays". (The GS7 devices both run Android v6.0.1 "Marshmallow.")

The customizable Always on Display can also use a motion sensor to wake the GS7 devices and display the date, time and message alerts; a calendar; or a personalized screen. And it has two different light levels so, for example, if you place the GS7 on your bedside in the dark, the Always on Display dims accordingly.

4) Galaxy S7 and GS7 edge are water resistant

Samsung has sold various water-resistant and ruggedized phones for years. It even makes a bulked-up version of the GS6, the GS6 Active, that's basically a GS6 with body armor. While the GS7 phones are not ruggedized like the Active, they are just as water-resistant.

Samsung is careful to stress that while the GS7s are protected from water, they're not waterproof. The new phones have an International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) protection rating of IP68, which means they offer "protection from contact with harmful dust" and are "protected from immersion in water with a depth of more than 1 meter,"according to CNET. But you should by no means try to take underwater photos with a GS7 — or if you do, don't go crying to Samsung when your phone croaks.

5) Galaxy S7 edge's enhanced 'edge screen'

The curved displays on Samsung's edge phones are designed to provide quick access to information, apps and contacts. Not surprisingly, the GS7 edge has some new edge screen features.The edge panel now takes up more of the display when opened; it is 550 pixels instead of 256 pixels, or more than double the width of the edge panel on past Samsung edge phones. The larger size lets you view two side-by-side columns of apps or contacts instead of just one. And the new GS7s also shows certain information horizontally down the column so you don't need to hold the phone in landscape orientation to see it. 

6) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge have big ol' batteries

Both of the new GS7s have significantly larger batteries than their GS6 counterparts. Poor battery life is the GS6 edge's Achilles heel, and these larger power packs should address that issue.

The GS7 has a 3,000mAh battery (which is about 18 percent larger than the GS6's 2,550mAh battery) and the GS7 edge has a whopping 3,600mAh battery (20 percent larger than the 3,000mAh GS6 edge+ battery). There is a downside to packing such large battery packs into phones, and I'll get to that in the next section, but they should also mean longer battery life.

7) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge and faster wireless charging

Like the GS6 and GS6 edge phones, the new GS7s support both Qi andAirFuel Alliance wireless charging standards. However, the new phones power up faster wirelessly — you can charge a dead phone to about half capacity in 30 minutes, according to Samsung … if you use an appropriate wireless "fast charge" accessory, such as the company's new wireless charge pad, which props the GS7 up at about a 40-degree angle, so you can see the Always On Display features. The Galaxy S6 edge+ fully charges wirelessly in about 120 minutes, according to Samsung, so the new phones should wirelessly power up about twice as quickly.

There's a lot to like about these two new phones, but they're not perfect.

Here are a few reasons why Samsung might have missed its mark with the GS7s.

1) Bigger battery means heavier GS7

The GS7s both received battery upgrades, and that's certainly a good thing, but those larger power packs mean the devices are heavier than their GS6 and GS6 edge+ counterparts. The weight difference between the GS6 edge+ (153 grams) and the slightly smaller, yet still heavier GS7 edge (157 grams) is a just 4 grams. However, the GS7 (152 grams), which has the same size display and is actually a bit thinner than the GS6 (138 grams), is more than 10 percent heavier. And it's 15 percent heavier than the GS6 edge (132 grams).

The weight difference between the GS6 edge+ and GS7 edge isn't particularly noticeable, but people who upgrade from the GS6 or GS6 edge to the GS7 will definitely feel some extra heft.

2) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge look very familiar

The two new GS7s phones look nearly identical to the GS6 and GS6 edge+. That's not necessarily a bad thing (the GS6 is a genuine looker), but there's something disappointing about a new smartphone that looks just like your old phone.

3) Galaxy S7, GS7 edge only available with 32GB storage

The new GS7 phones support memory cards, but they're available only with one internal storage option: 32GB. If you don't want to purchase a memory card — or have to remember to carry one around in your wallet or purse — and 32GB of on-board storage isn't enough, the GS7s might not be right for you.

Whatsapp, which was acquired by Facebook and is becoming the fastest growing communication company in world, has come up with a new feature on their app. This feature is known as End-to-End Encryption. It has been integrated into the latest versions of their app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands.

Let us see some of the Merits of this new feature. 

• Security by Default

WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is available when you and the people you message use the latest versions of our app. Many messaging apps only encrypt messages between you and them, but WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even Whatsapp. This is because your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. For added protection, every message you send has its own unique lock and key. All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on settings or set up special secret chats to secure your messages.

• Speak Freely

Whatsapp Calling lets you talk to your friends and family, even if they're in another country. Just like your messages, Whatsapp calls are end-to-end encrypted so Whatsapp and third parties can't listen to them.

• Messages that Stay with You

Your messages should be in your hands. That's why Whatsapp doesn't store your messages on our servers once we deliver them, and end-to-end encryption means that Whatsapp and third parties can't read them anyway.

• See for Yourself

Whatsapp lets you check whether the calls you make and messages you send are end-to-end encrypted. Simply look for the indicator in contact info or group info.

 When it comes to information security there are about as many opinions on the subject as there are network hosts in any given organization. Everyone has his own definition of “secure” yet it's such a difficult thing that cannot truly be quantified. So, when management, auditors, business partners, and customers come asking about how secure your environment is, what do you, what do you say? How do you even define the word? It's a really tough thing but one thing is for sure it's different in every situation.

What “secure” means to me is:

• The information risks have been identified.
• The risks have been prioritized.
• Management is on board with the risks and has allocated the appropriate resources to address them.

Security is not a state of compliance. It’s not situation where everyone is happy with the current level of perceived security. Nor is it the fact that no known breaches have occurred. This latter part is where many organizations end up getting themselves into trouble. Everything is quiet and humming along and the assumption is that all is well as long as no issues are being detected. That's hardly ever the case. In fact, in so many situations, businesses are notified by third parties that they have actually been breached.

 Perhaps the greatest challenge with security is assuming that someone else is taking care of all the right things. It's no different than those committee meetings that we are all subjected to where everyone assumes that everyone else has things under control. There has to be some accountability when it comes to security. Perhaps that accountability comes in terms of a third party auditor or consultant telling you where things are at - including the things you don’t want to hear. Perhaps it comes from vulnerability scanners and related security tools - as they are always getting better at uncovering new issues and providing the latest intelligence. Perhaps it's because you and your team of IT and security professionals are getting better - knowing what to look for and how to better address the security issues as they arise.

 At the end of the day, only you will know what “secure” means in the context of your business based on your own unique governance and compliance needs and especially based on your business's bottom line. After all, security is not the primary goal of pretty much every business. Instead, the goal is acquiring and retaining a customer and ensuring the appropriate shareholders are being taken care of. If you can keep that in mind and keep your finger on how security impacts your business and your unique situation, you're going to be well ahead of the curve.

Perhaps, most importantly, keep in mind that you don't have to be at the front of the herd and have the top level of security. However, you do need to be at least in the middle of the pack and not stand out. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself. Secure or not, you’re definitely a target.

In recent weeks, I've noticed that when I visit some websites, using Google Chrome, they get blocked due to some deceptive content on these websites. I did a bit of research and realized that Google has now started blocking websites that use deceptive content or ads to make you do things that you wouldn't normally do, such as fake download buttons that appear right next to the real download button, or pop-ups demanding you phone tech support to remove a million malware infections that were apparently found on your computer. It sounds like this will be a gradual rollout; it'll take time for Google to work out which sites are consistent offenders.

The blocking will occur via Google's Safe Browsing tech, which you've probably seen before: it's that big red interstitial that appears when you click on a dodgy search result. Safe Browsing has been around for years, but it mostly just prevented you from visiting sites that were serving up malware, or sites that Google had otherwise deemed unsafe.

In November, however, Google started blocking sites that used "social engineering attacks" to get you to install unwanted software or reveal sensitive information—and today, Google is expanding that to websites that serve up deceptive embedded content (i.e. adverts). Google gives the following examples of ads that will get a website blocked:

It seems that even big download sites like CNET and Sourceforge, which regularly have a fake download button on real download pages, will be hit by this latest change. At least they should look for less annoying way to generate traffic.

For webmasters, this change could be particularly troublesome. Hosting deceptive content on your site is one thing, but deceptive third-party content served by random ad servers is a little harder to police. Google's webmaster knowledge base doesn't offer much help, except to note that "ad networks may rotate the ads shown on your site's pages. You therefore might need to refresh a page a few times before you're able to see any social engineering ads appear."

For everyone else, though, this will be a very welcome change. While usage patterns are shifting, Google Search still drives billions of website clicks per day, and many of those websites still rely on Google traffic to stay afloat. It's probably wishful thinking, but this might just be the beginning of the end for fake download buttons.

Alphabet, the parent firm for Google, became the world’s most valuable company Tuesday as a jump in its share price helped it vault past tech rival Apple.

In opening trade following a robust earnings report, Alphabet shares rose 2.9 percent to lift its market capitalization to $543 billion while Apple’s value declined to $530 billion with a modest dip in trading.

Alphabet’s quarterly profit rose five percent to $4.92 billion on the back of strong online advertising revenue, particularly from searches done by holiday season shoppers using smartphones or tablets.

Google ad revenue climbed globally, gaining on both mobile devices and desktop computers, according to Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat.

The California-based Internet colossus said its revenue topped $21.3 billion in the final three months of last year.

The earnings report was the first in which recently formed parent corporation Alphabet separated money made by Google from what it calls “Other Bets” such as its work on self-driving cars or providing Internet service using high-altitude balloons.

The new structure under Alphabet is expected to offer more transparency for investors worried about Google investing in money-losing projects.

While Google is best known as the dominant player in Internet search, it has launched a variety of trailblazing projects in recent years that are marginally related at best to its core operation.

Alphabet subsidiaries include Google, Nest Labs, and Google X labs devoted to big-vision new technologies such as self-driving cars, along with such projects as smart “Google Glass” spectacles, drones, health care and Google TV, none of which has become a major source of income.

Industry tracker eMarketer expected Google to remain the dominant player in worldwide search advertising, raking in $45.58 billion in revenue this year to claim a share just shy of 57 percent of total spending on such ads.

Former Google employee Sanmay Ved

Google, after losing and regaining ownership of Google.com, paid some amount of cash last fall. Now the company has revealed how much the slip-up cost.

Former Google employee Sanmay Ved purchased Google.com for $12 at 1:20 a.m. ET on September 29. He bought the domain name on the Google Domains registration service website after the company somehow lost ownership of it.

He owned Google.com for one minute. The transaction was reversed when Google sent Ved a cancellation order, which returned ownership to the company.

Conflicts over domain ownership aren't always settled amicably or cheaply. So-called domain squatters often try to get ahead of potential, hypothetical products and register domain names with the hopes of netting a big sale to the company that needs the site.

In this case, it seems Google may have missed a deadline to renew Google.com, creating an opportunity for someone to slip in and nab it. Neither Google nor Ved has publicly revealed exactly how the domain name became available.

In a security blog post, the company revealed that it wanted to give Ved $6,006.13. which ironically looks closely like the word google(600613) -- in numbers. smart isn't it?

Google doubled that offer after Ved said he would donate the money to charity, both the company and Ved neither specified the exact figures afterwards.

Google's payout ended up going to the Art of Living India foundation, which runs free schools for children in poverty-stricken areas of India.

Ved, whose LinkedIn account describes him as an MBA candidate at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, detailed the incident in a post there last fall. He noted that Google was able to reverse the transaction because it owned the Google Domains registration service.

Meanwhile.........

Microsoft bumped into a similar issue in 2003 when it lost ownership of the Hotmail.co.uk website, The Register reported at the time. The software giant failed to cancel the transaction. However, the person who bought the domain name returned it the same day.

Windows 10's user share passed the 13% milestone last month, with a month-over-month growth spurt second only to August's explosive increase. 

 Credit: Net Applications

Windows 10's user share jumped in January by its second-largest one-month increase since its launch, data from analytic vendor Net Applications showed yesterday.

At the mid-point of its first year, Windows 10 powered approximately 196 million systems. Microsoft's current claim of 200 million machines was made in early January.

The jump in user share, an estimate of the portion of all personal computers worldwide that ran the OS was an impressive 1.9 percentage points, second only to the 4.8-point gain that Windows 10 recorded in August, the first full month of availability. January's increase was almost double that of December's.

While Net Applications does not attribute cause to an operating system's changes in user share, one obvious explanation for Windows 10's growth would be from recently purchased new devices that were put into service in January. Those new PCs replaced Windows 7 systems for the most part: The 2009 stalwart's user share plunged 3.2 percentage points to 52.5%, the largest one-month decline in Net Applications' tracking, which goes back to the operating system's 2009 launch.

Windows 10 accounted for 11.9% of all personal computer OSes and ran 13.1% of all Windows devices: The second number is higher because Windows powered 90.6%, not 100%, of all systems tallied by Net Applications.

The 13.1% mark of Windows 10 meant that the new edition had not yet supplanted Windows 8/8.1 as the second-most-popular version of Microsoft's OS. Windows 8/8.1's combined user share in January was 14.5% of all Windows devices.

Another data source, Ireland's StatCounter also showed that Windows 10's growth increased in January. StatCounter, which tracks global usage share, a proxy for activity rather than users, pegged Windows 10 at 13.7% for December, a 1.8-point gain. That was the largest single-month increase since September, when StatCounter booked Windows 10's growth at 2.3 percentage points.

Windows 10's resurrected growth put the new operating system slightly ahead of the pace that Windows 7 exhibited after its first six months on the market, according to Net Applications. Windows 7 had accumulated a 12.8% share of all Windows PCs through its sixth full month.

With about 200 million PCs running Windows 10, Microsoft is one-fifth of the way toward meeting its self-set goal of putting the OS on a billion devices by mid-2018.

Still presumably to come: Microsoft; three months ago said it would begin to automatically serve the Windows 10 upgrade to most consumer and small business Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs in early 2016. While Microsoft outlined the plan in late October and at the time said the two-part scheme would kick off "soon" by adding the Windows 10 upgrade as an optional item to Windows Update, the precursor to listing the upgrade as an automatic download by all evidence neither step has yet been taken.

After many years using android phones, I decided to switch to iphone. While I must admit that the 
experience of using an android phone is immerse but I've come to appreciate what a great job apple has 
done. There are a lot of differences but the key ones are listed below

1. The iphone user interface is much more polished. For example, when I type on the iphone, it 
shows the letter I am trying to type more often, even though the screen is smaller, am guessing 
this is better software at work

2. The iphone app ecosystem is markedly better. Google play and the apple app store both have 
about 1 million apps, and most major apps are available for both platforms but new apps and 
updates comes out first on iphone

3. IOS is stronger at the technical detail level. E.g., when you use an Iphone with a car, Bluetooth 
streaming audio works properly, you can control which contacts get synched to the car over 
Bluetooth, and if you have both Bluetooth and a wired connection to the car active, the iphone 
smartly sends phone audio over Bluetooth and streaming media audio over the wire, so both 
work. (In fact, google experience Android gets this right too but the Samsung user interface 
breaks it.). This might be fixed by an upgrade

4. The iphone camera is just the best, beautiful pictures and great features like high dynamic 
range, which both compensates for some limitations of simple cameras, and can create 
attractive images that reminds me of a painting.


Although android phones has got some good qualities too, lets look at some of them

1. Durability: I always notice that people with iphones often have there screen broken or worse, the 
reason is because iphone is shrouded in glass compare this to phones like Samsung galaxy note 3 
which can drop 30 times with no issue, no crack.

2. Cross platform nature makes it more flexible:  Apple IOS is fairly hostile when it comes to other 
platforms and requires developers and companies to submit an application for a service they 
want added to its OS, so it can be vetted first. The firm has a very strict policy that forces 
developers to play by its rules if they hope to get any software onto IOS

3. Multiple prices for devices: With so many manufacturers using Android there is a huge 
opportunity to differentiate on price. This means you can get good quality device without 
weeping as u pay for it.

What are you experiences? Let us know in the comment box below.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

Prev

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

Prev

Next

2 Bad Ram
Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settings


Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).




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Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:


* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.
Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

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Most Ridiculously Awesome Geeky Computer Pranks

Everybody loves a good prank… unless you are the one on the receiving end of the fun. It’s time to hone your pranking skills, not just to make sure you are the best, but so you can avoid being pranked by others.

Yeah, sure, we could go with the old standards, like a blue screen of death screensaver or something like that, but it’s time to use our geek skills and come up with something better. We’ll cover some of the old favorites too, but maybe with a twist. Note: Many of these pranks require being able to access somebody’s computer physically, and many others require them to leave their PC logged in and unattended. You’ll have to plan accordingly.

Just create a new AutoHotkey script and drop in the following two lines of code—the first one is to hide the tray icon, and the second sets up the hotkey for replacing the text.

#NoTrayIcon
*Space::Send,SPACE

You’ll probably want to right-click on the script and compile it to an executable before putting it on their computer. I’m not providing a download for this! Just stick it somewhere on their PC, launch it, and watch the fun!

What’s really entertaining is that while I was testing this out, I accidentally pranked myself—my AHK scripts are stored in Dropbox and synced across all my PCs, and I’d forgotten about it on my desktop. Whoops!

Disclaimer: Get a sense of humor.

12 richest people in history

1. Cornelius Vanderbilt – His net worth was around $185 billion (in today’s money). He made most of his fortune from investing in railroads.
2. The Rothschilds – Not a person, but the whole family’s net worth during the 19th century was around $400 billion.
3. J. P. Morgan – Inherited a lot of money from his parents and invested it. He made $41.5 billion.
4. John D. Rockefeller – One of the wealthiest person in the history with net worth of $340 billion. He controlled 90% of the oil industry in the USA during the 19th century.
5. Andrew Carnegie – His net worth was over $300 billion. He made his fortune in the steel industry.
6. Sam Walton –  Founder of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. His net worth was $65 billion in 1992, which equal to around $100 billion counting with the inflation.
7. Henry Ford – Founder of the Ford Motor Company. His net worth was around $200 billion.
8. William The Conqueror – His peak fortune was around $210 billion in the 11th century.
9. Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft. His peak fortune was $101 billion, which is $136 billion in today’s dollar.
10. John Jacob Astor – Fur trader and real estate investor. He made over $100 billion.
11. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov – The last tsar of Russia. His net worth was around $300 billion.
12. Mansa Musa I of Mali – Also known as King of Kings. He ruled the Malian Empire. Most of his wealth was in gold, with today’s prices worth around $400 billion.