It took five long years for Microsoft (MS) to launch their new product named Vista.
A lay man may think that MS doesn’t have that expertise with them to provide people with newer versions within a shorter span of time. Also controversy after the release of IE7 instead of its multi-year development, IE 7 offered a very negligible advantage over IE 6 in a key Web technology. The support called off for WIN 98 and other older OS are few things that will have a huge impact on MS.

IDC software research shows that there were 21 million Windows 95 users out there and about 58 million Windows 98 users in the year 2003.Windows Xp may have more than 150 million users world wide.
Now in order to upgrade from your current operating system to Vista MS says that there are some specific requirements.

Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:
* A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
* 512 MB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

How are common people going to upgrade their PC for Windows Vista? There are millions of people who are using 128MB of system memory and are happy using it. Non-tech savvy community only uses the computer to check their mails and do some netsurfing and download some stuff. Is Microsoft going to lend a helping hand to the Millions of users who can’t afford to upgrade to Vista. In terms of launch of Vista it may be the biggest in this decade but what does a common man has to do with it if there is no money to upgrade his computer and OS as well.
No anti-virus, spyware, firewalls and their updates. You hardly take any time to set up your computer using Linux also no need to install any special drivers. Setting up an office network printer on Windows can take entire day but with Linux all you require is an IP address and three clicks that’s all.
Don’t you think that Open source software like Linux is a better option instead of the expensive and complicated operating system provided by Microsoft.Windows Xp was released in 2001 and Vista in 2007 but Ubuntu version (Linux) is released every six months. The next operating system after Vista may take another 10 years.

People who have switched completely to Linux say:
They find Linux to be simple and easy to use. Compared to windows troubleshooting with Linux is not at all complex at all and the performance of Linux on their hardware is superior. Linux is also good when it comes to network operating system as with a simple CLI you can use your PC from anywhere.
Even IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year and has opted for Linux.
Wake up people and think over this seriously. Whether you still want to be with the old fashioned and outdated windows desktop with a hole in your pocket or switch to an Open source which is absolutely free and ready to use operating system like Linux.

Some projects need to meet a performance result, more often than needed, this can dramatically increase the length of the project’s schedule. Users are more interested in the marketing and development side of a project, and not the more complex features; if you shift your focus more towards complex features, you will end up with a long project schedule.

Even if you do manage to avoid these requirements, the average project spends 25% of it’s lifetime changing it’s requirements; these changes can increase the schedule by up to 25%, this delay can also increase the cost of the project, and can also affect the overall customer satisfaction once the project has been completed.

Many software developers are fascinated by the many new technologies which are always coming out, and they like to test these new technology out in their apps, but most of the time they don’t see the necessity of the new techologies, or why they need to even use them; this type of time wasting can also add time to a project’s schedule.

These mistakes can be easily fixed if a software developer listens to user’s feedbacks, and makes the needed adjustments as per the feedback recieved.

Article by Paul Johnson, CMO, http://www.eTechSupport.net

Robustness testing is when a system is tested to see how robust it is; a typical example of this would be testing a system in difficult conditions. There is the fact that software is only one element of a system, there are many other elemens which need to be tested, such as hardware.

When an error is uncovered, each system element seems to blame the next one; in this case the system admin should:

* Anticipate potential interfacing problem.

* Design error-handling paths that test all information coming from other elements of the system.

* Conduct a series of test that simulate bad data or other potential errors at the software interface.

* Record the results of tests.

* Participate in planning and design of system tests to ensure that software is adequately tested.

System testing is actually a series of different tests whose primary purpose is to fully exercise the system. Although each test has a different purpose, all work to verify that all system elements have been properly integrated and perform their allocated functions.

Article by Paul Johnson, CMO, http://www.eTechSupport.net

Before you prepare for data protection, it is crucial to markup the level of risk and to comprehend what data types are being protected. Depending on your organization’s IT security standards, you need to create and codify data classification levels for all of your organizational data types which can further be ranked on a scale from high to low profile based on the risk of its loss or disclosure. While there are plenty of tools available in the market for preventing data loss, it is vital to find out the best ones that use a combination of prevention and detection methods, such as a detection engine and a data blocker.

Some examples of high-risk data might include the following:

1. Your employee and customer’s names, addresses, mobile numbers, social security numbers and other identity related information.

2. The list of your customers with email address that can be used by your competitor to pose as a customer to you.

3. The intellectual property and trade secrets.

4. Confidential BPR database and other research, case studies & synopsis.

5. Financial information & marketing plans and strategy for new launching product.

Once you have classified and documented risk levels which need protection, you should start investigating the most appropriate tools that best suit to your need.

Reconnex Inc, Vontu Inc and Vericept Corp, have standards data leakage prevention tools, these companies offer hardware app that monitor outbound IP traffic as well, you may investigate more information through visiting their site.

Article by Paul Johnson, CMO, http://www.eTechSupport.net

Software debugging
When defects have been found in a program, they must be removed. This is called debugging. Defect testing and debugging are sometimes considered to be parts of the same process, in fact they are quite different. Debugging is concerned with locating and correcting these defects
Locate - Design - Repair - Repair
error- error re-test program

Defects in the code must be located and the program modified to meet its requirement.
The debuggers must generate hypothesis about the observable behavior of the program then test these hypothesis in the hope of finding the fault which caused the abnormal output. Interactive debugging tools which show the intermediate values of program variables and a trace of the statement executed may be used to help the debugging process.

Article written by Paul Johnson, CMO, http://www.eTechSupport.net

A zero day refers to an exploit through a worm or a virus that is meant for attacking a computer before the public announcement of a vulnerability in a computer system for which there is no fix available. Anti-virus software is useless against zero day attacks because there is no update available on how to identify them and hence it is difficult to defend against them.
Zero-day is a high alert label, its attacks are often effective against “secure” networks and can remain undetected even after they are launched.
Zero Day Protection;

Intelligent hardware is the only way to protect network from zero day attacks by monitoring and analyzing sudden changes in network behavior. When it notices that the behavior is going abnormal it will divert resources from the affected areas and alert the users. The most recent was a new zero day exploit alert recently on 18th sept 2006, that was supposed to originate from a porn website particular targeted because of its vulnerability in VML inside of IE. Usually a security update is released to prevent future attacks. ZERT [Zero day Emergency Response Team] is a group of software engineers who work to release non-vendor patches for such exploits.

Article by Paul Johnson, CMO, http://www.eTechSupport.net