Water Gasoline

AVG flags ZoneAlarm as malware (CNET)

2008-10-20T22:01:00.001-07:00

CNET - This post was updated at 3:30 p.m. PDT with comment Check Point.

Unified communications is adware spyware removal tool term used for integrating all communications - data and voice - over the Internet. This can include data in its myriad forms such as email, instant messaging data, data generated by business computer applications, faxes, and text messages. But key sources include voice sent via network avenues or stored on digital devices, such as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), voice mail, audio-video, web conferencing, white boarding, and .wav files. Such integrated communications can save money from operating budgets.

Savings accrue from, among other expenses, doing away with long distance charges when using VOIP, from dispensing with the need for travel to meetings when they can be held in a virtual environment, or from travel to far-away classes when an instructor or team can be using a whiteboard from disparate physical locations. Savings like these accrue to the 26% of businesses that have adopted them. But when litigation demands discoverable data, .wav and voice-based files can be difficult and costly for a computer forensics expert or an e-discovery system to search and index.

There are many tools designed for searching text files, and even for text from deleted files. These range from computer forensic suites such as adware spyware removal tool and Access Forensic Toolkit that each costs thousands of dollars, to open source tools, including hex editors that cost the user nothing at all. The more extensive packages may be less expensive in the long run when billable humans are added to the mix.

There are many wildly expensive e-discovery systems in place to assist in storing and indexing the large masses of data that are generated on a daily basis in the corporate environment. Services may be outsourced, or brought in-company. Again the cost of putting the systems and procedures into place may pale against the sanctions and fines that could result from not being ready for litigation, should it arise.

There are also many effective tools for scanning paper documents into text files, which are then searchable.

While many of the tools for searching and storing data are effective, and accurate, when it comes to audio, no such level of accuracy or ease yet exists for the purpose of searching for specific information. There are currently three means of searching audio: phonetic search, transcribing by hand, and automatic transcription.

Phonetic search technology matches wave patterns, or phonemes, to a library of known wave patterns. For example, the acronym "B2B" would be represented by the following phonemes: "_B _IY _T _UW _B _IY" (Wikipedia example from Nexidia, a company involved in speech recognition systems). Given the wide variation in modes of speaking, pronunciation, accents and dialects, the accuracy of this method is spotty. It produces many false hits. And while it may identify sections and phrases that are of interest, it doesn't transcribe the audio into text - the audio must then be listened to.

Manual transcription of audio so that transcribed text can then be automatically searched, is time-consuming. As it depends upon a listener to type the words as they are heard, this labor-intensive task can also be very expensive. There may be security concerns, as the audio goes outside the company (or perhaps the country) to be transcribed.

Machine transcription is the one automated means of converting audio to text. But it suffers from accuracy issues. It compares "heard" audio with known libraries, again facing issues of differing pronunciations, terms not in existing libraries, and clarity of recording. While high-quality recordings can lend themselves to recognition rates of 85% or so (a positive-looking number until compared with the nearly 100% accuracy of pure text searches), when dealing with voice mail, accuracy dips down as low as 40%.

The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) require companies to have a means of identifying key communications and data sources. That data must then be saved. For the sake of efficiency, both in the optimizing amount of storage required, and diminishing the volume of data that must be identified and produced for litigation, it is also important to be able to accurately identify data that is unnecessary.

While requirements for retention of data increase, and storage costs go down, identifying what audio should be kept and what should be deleted can be costly. As such information is digitized, it must nonetheless be stored and indexed (or searched after the fact). The technology is not mature, and is evolving. There may be an opening for an innovative company to prosper here, especially if able to produce some kind of breakthrough in voice-to-text technology. In the meanwhile, companies face a difficult issue in deciding what stays and what goes.

Steve Burgess is a freelance technology writer, a practicing computer forensics specialist as the principal of Burgess Forensics, and a contributor to the recently released Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases, 5th Edition by Moenssens, et al. Mr. Burgess may be reached at http://www.burgessforensics.com or via email at steve@burgessforensics.com

Really Hot Gadgets That Changed Computers Forever - The Mouse

2008-09-24T18:01:00.001-07:00

You probably wouldn't be viewing this right now if you were completely computer illiterate. Besides, it's a well known fact that the world is basically run by computers by now. From the most complex of businesses to the busiest of airports, from the most daring researches to the most bored office employee playing virtual solitaire, all these are done by computers. It would probably be an absolute disaster if we weren't able to use computers with the same ease that we do today. And a big part of this is thanks to the mouse.

Imagine what the world would be like without the mouse. And the way we live our lives today is all thanks to the contributions of one man. Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963 after extensive usability testing. In fact a lot of similar pointing devices were invented which involved different body parts to do what they do that included head-mounted devices attached to the chin or the nose. But eventually because of its simple design, the mouse won out against all the other designs. The first mouse was large and bulky, and used two wheels perpendicular to one another for movement, the turning of each contributing to the movement of one axis.

There are now several kinds of mice, which include the popular optical mouse, the inertial mouse, and the 3D mouse. And together with the development of the mouse, accessories like the mouse pad and foot covers have also been developed. The mouse has now become so important that everyone from a teenager playing Starcraft in Korea to an office worker in Australia needs it for their normal get cool virus scan removal functions. There would not be as many people who use computers now if this special invention wasn't invented.

The mouse is one of the most important inventions in the history of the 20th century.

If you want to know about the other kinds of computer hardware that have changed the world, visit: http://crunkish.com/category/article-pages/technology/hardware/top-ten-computer-hardware-breakthroughs/

Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive/Ctree support - overview for consultant

2008-09-18T04:41:00.001-07:00

All of us know that Microsoft bought former Great Plains Software and formed Microsoft (Great Plains) Business Solutions in the earlier 21st century. It was total success for GPS, we guess, but for Great Plains Dynamics / eEnterprise / Dynamics C/S+ clients it was the time of change. First of all Great Plains Software, as being independent corporation in 1990th had to stake on certain future predictions. They decided that future should be based on these two basic principles:

Database Independence. Nobody could predict if Microsoft, Ingress, Oracle, IBM DB2, Btrieve, Ctree/Faircom or somebody else from newcomers will win the market. In such a situation, if you are growing ERP publisher you need to be flexible and have the ability to switch quickly from one DB platform to another

Universal Graphical interface. Some illusions were related to 1972 invented C language now it is clear that each computer manufacturer tries to stick standards to its own platform and universal graphics is somewhat no-one uses because of the slow performance. But it is seen now not in 1990th
These two above principles resulted in creation of Great Plains Software development environment and language Great Plains Dexterity. This is history.

Now lets go to nowadays realities. We see large number of so-called orphan clients (who lapsed to pay annual enhancement/maintenance fee to Microsoft Business Solutions) and still sits on two legacy platforms (not supported anymore): Pervasive SQL 2000 and Ctree (we are not talking here about Great Plains Accounting this ERP was phased out in 2001). We see common frustration, when something happens with performance, for example these clients are trying to appeal to regular MBS VAR/Partner and figure out that the partner doesnt have expertise to support this phased out platform. Well give you some hints, before you call the specialist:

Pervasive SQL had multiple service Adware Alert and you probably have multiple CDs of various Pervasive versions in your library. Use the latest one to reload Pervasive for your workstations

Pervasive SQL 2000 original (1999) should not be installed at all it will not work if any service pack was applied from the server side

Typical workstations slowdown issue is resolved by removing (on the workstations) these files: wbtrv32.dll, w32bticm.dll, and wbtr32.dll

Expect old hardware and disk space issues these could be monitored by IT department

Good luck with support and if you have issues or concerns we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is a Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, New Orleans, Toronto, Montreal and having locations in multiple states and internationally