Computer Forensics

Computer Forensics is the scientific study of computers or computer related data in relation to an investigation by a law enforcement agency for use in a court of law. While this technology may be as old as computers themselves, the advances in technology are constantly revising this science. While all computer languages are created with ones and zeros, it's much easier to track what was done when, although by whom continues to be problematic. Forensic science has done well to keep up with the task of tracking and tracing what is done and creation of a timeline in an attempt to reconstruct a possible crime. Although it's possible to clean and remove data from a hard drive, most people simply think that a delete key really removed the data. In actuality, the delete key simply removed the file location from an index file and the actual data is still safely on the system. It's up to the data recovery skills of the forensic computer personnel to capture and restore that data without modification.

Computer forensics can be used to track emails, instant messaging and just about any other form of computer related communications. This can be necessary, especially in the world where computers and data travel around the world in seconds. Packet sniffers can literally be placed within a data stream and provide information on what's running through the network in real time. This is really phenomenal considering the millions upon millions of data packets moving through any individual part of the network. Computer forensic science is an interesting niche in the law enforcement field that is seldom considered as a career. As it's relatively new, the field is considered by many to be wide open for anyone with the initiative to learn the skills. Unlike many computer related jobs, a computer forensic specialist will not be outsourced to a country on the other side of the world. The confidentiality of the data is just too sensitive to allow it to travel throughout the world just to save a little cash.

Web Conferencing Software Can Improve Your Business

Web conferencing software can be used to give sales presentations, do product demonstrations, give online training and to meet with anybody anywhere across the globe. All that is required is that all the meeting parties should have access to an adequate Internet connection. Several factors need to be considered when you are looking for an online meeting and web conferencing solution. Factors that will determine the success of you online meetings and web conferences are as follow. The greater the complexity of the solution the more scarce IT staff will have to be involved to make it work. Online meeting and web conferencing software is available that is so simple to operate that all staff, even those that are practically computer illiterate, can use it.

Some solutions are really difficult to implement, requiring in-depth information technology skills. You require a fault-tolerant architecture that provides you with high online meeting reliability and availability. Your web conferencing software must work as you expect it to every time you want to use it. The solution payment plan can greatly impact on its successful implementation. Most providers will charge you on a pay-as-you-use basis. This payment option works against successful implementation. An increase in productivity can be achieved with a reduction in employee travel and its accompanying costs and discomfort. Your staff should have the confidence to frequently meet online to increase productivity with co-workers, employees and customers. The easier the software is to use, the more frequently it will be used. Your Internet meeting software solution should allow your meeting attendees to be in control of the online presentation when so required. The organizer of the meeting should be able to temporarily relinquish control to the rest of the participants. Your web conferencing solution must make clear economic sense. Online meeting software is available that will give you the above functionality for a flat fee of around $50 or $40 per month, depending on whether you take a monthly or yearly subscription.

End of the Internet

For months there has been a rising concern about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the internet. The threat according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communication and entertainment - video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games. Moving images take far more bandwidth than normal sounds and data. These images are hefty rivers of digital bits as they traverse the internet gateways and pipes. According to a study, last year a social networking site consumed as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000.

According to a report, a research firm projected that user demand for the internet could outpace network capacity by 2011. The title of a debate scheduled next month at a technology conference in the Boston sums up the angst: “The end of the internet?" But the internet traffic surge represents more a looming challenge than catastrophe. Even those most concerned are not predicting a lights-out internet crash. Heavy traffic in the internet may lead to heavy delays and sloe downloads. According to researchers the internet will not collapse, but there will be a growing class of stuff that we will not be able to do online. But among this bad news there is good news too, and that is the technology for handling such massive internet traffic is advancing at an impressive pace as well.

Computer Networks: Routers, Firewall and Print Server

Router: A router is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of the connectors will be labeled WAN. You should connect the WAN port to the Ethernet connection on a broadband source, such as a cable or DSL modem. The other ports on the router can be connected other computers or switches/hubs that will share the WAN connection. Routers allow you to share your broadband connection with multiple computers in your house. Rather than connecting your computer directly into your cable or DSL modem you connect the router to the cable or DSL modem. Now any computer that you connect to the router will have access to the Internet. If you run out of ports on your router you can always connect an additional switch to the router. To connect a switch to a router simply connects the switch’s "uplink" port to one of the routers Ethernet ports. Of course, don’t connect to the router’s WAN port. The WAN port should only be connected to something such as a cable or DSL router.

Firewall: A firewall controls traffic flow between your network and the Internet. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Windows XP SP2 or higher includes a software firewall. A hardware firewall is included with most routers. A firewall is a very good idea. It can protect you from inbound virus attempts. By inbound virus attempt I mean other computers that will connect to your computer and attempt to infect your computer. You do not want to run a computer directly connected to the Internet, without a firewall. There are just too many other computers out there that can connect and infect you without you even noticing.

Print Server: Just like you can buy a device to allow you to share a hard drive, you can do the same with a printer. A print server connects directly to your printer. Your printer is then shared to all of your computers on the network. This is convent because you do not need to leave the printer hooked to a computer, which must be turned on to print.

Computer Networks: Hub and Switch

Home networks are becoming more common. People want to be able to share a single broadband Internet connection to several computers in the house. There are many different devices that you can use to make up your home network. If you have never heard network terminology device names like router, hub, etc may seem confusing. The purpose of most of these devices is to control how the network passes around information. This information is sent in the form of "packets". I will refer to the term packet several times in this article. It simply means the data that the network is transporting. I will now explain the purpose of the major components of a home network.

Hub: A hub is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled “Uplink”. This port allows you to connect multiple hubs together, if you run out of ports on your hub. If you do not have an uplink port on your hub, the hub cannot be easily extended if you run out of ports. A hub is a device that attaches multiple computers on an Ethernet network. If you have a number different computers that you want to connect together, you could connect each to the hub. Any packet that is sent out by any computer on the network will immediately be transmitted to the other computers. Each computer will determine if the packet was really intended for it, and filter out packets that were intended for other computers. You really should not use a hub in a modern home network. You should always use a switch in place of a hub. Switches will be discussed in the next section.

Switch: A switch is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled “Uplink”. This port allows you to connect multiple switches together, if you run out of ports on your switch. If you do not have an uplink port on your switch, the switch cannot be easily extended if you run out of ports. A switch serves the same function as a hub. It allows you to connect multiple computers together, so that they can exchange packets. However, a switch is much more efficient than a hub. A switch will only send Ethernet packets to the computer that the packet was intended for. Because of this you should always use a switch in place of a hub.

Telescope And Astronomy

Galileo is often thought of as inventing the telescope. He didn’t invent the telescope but he was the first person to turn one toward the night sky. And the observations he made created the new science of modern astronomy where telescopes are used to help us understand our universe, our place in it, and how it works.Galileo first heard about the mysterious telescope in 1609 and set out to make a copy for himself. This first telescope magnified images about three times. And over the course of a decade Galileo continued to make more telescopes and his most powerful one magnified images about ten times. This telescope enabled him to see things never before seen. And it enabled him to change our view of the universe and of the objects in the sky.
The first thing that Galileo turned his telescope to was the moon and by observing it over the course of many nights he made an important discovery. He saw that dark areas on the surface grew and shrunk depending on where the moon was in relation to the sun. From this he made the correct deduction that these dark areas were shadows cast by craters and mountains. He further explained with geometry that the height of the mountains and depth of the craters could be correctly calculated. This was an astonishingly important revelation in our view of the universe because it was previously believed that the moon was a smooth surfaced object. Another extraordinary observation, and the most important, that Galileo made was the discovery of the four largest moons around Jupiter. They were previously unviewable but with his ten-power telescope he could see them. And after viewing them over the course of several nights he observed that they moved. With further careful observation and calculation he proved that they revolved around Jupiter. And this was a universe changing observation because it was previously believed that everything in the universe revolved around the Earth. Galileo went on to make many telescopes and to make many other important observations in both the night and day sky including the discovery of spots on the sun and the discovery of the rings of Saturn. His observations in the sky spurred on many other telescope makers and astronomers to further explore the amazing and mysterious objects in the sky. But more importantly he also spurred on other astronomers to apply the laws and lessons of mathematics and logic to their observations in a quest to understand how the universe works.

Architectural Outsourcing

The outsourcing industry worldwide is booming. There are very few Information Technology sectors which are not into outsourcing. The question arises, that when everybody is jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon for obvious benefits, then why not the construction and real estate industry.One aspect where the real estate industry can immediately benefit is in outsourcing designing of 3d models or renders of their present and future projects. It is widely acknowledged that the 3d representation of a real estate venture creates a stunning impression in the mind of the buyers, if designed appropriately.Today, architects and builders recruit in-house designers who design 3d models for them. But then most of these people are not 3D specialists, not at least specialists in designing 3d models for real estate ventures. To achieve this purpose one needs the help of civil engineers, architects and designers working in tandem. Also, the cost of outsourcing this work is much less than compared to getting it executed in-house.Also, to allocate resources to 3D modelling is a problematic affair for such consultants and companies as their core business is construction and not 3d design.To tap this opportunity many companies have emerged worldwide who specialize specifically in 3D modelling.

For an architect or builder to outsource such work to these specialist companies, is a proposition of significant benefits. Not only it saves them costs but also takes the headache off their shoulders.Also, the architectural expertise and the design expertise of 3D modelling companies can be combined to create life-like models which would be utilized on the project website, brochures and other sale materials.After all, a real estate venture is not a virtual commodity and folks would like to have a glimpse of the future before they invest.Many architects have already realized this and a significant amount of work is being outsourced. Its time others realize it too and make a head start.

Genomes

However, one of the main purposes of genomes' study has been already established. We can now study the origin of humans. Part of the efforts in understanding the origins of man is finding out what makes us distinct and how we have made ourselves separate from all other creatures. Recent studies featured by the National Geographic that have shown that our species coexisted with other humanoids have also highlighted questions regarding what has allowed us to outlive them.In the course of these endeavours, scientists have found out the important role genes in understanding human evolution. This is one of the reasons why scientists have found it compelling to study chimpanzee genome in the course of studying human characteristics. Chimpanzees, being co closely related to humans, provide a glimpse to the evolutionary past and current stage of human development. By mapping the respective genome maps of humans and chimpanzees and marking genes against specific characteristics, we find out the specific genes that correspond to human characteristics.Comparative genomics is a scientific process that investigates the similarities and contrasts of the genome of one species to another. It involves the analysis of axons, the level and canters of coding in the DNA, sequencing, gene location, length and function in the organism. Comparative genome analyses between humans and chimps have yielded key information in understanding primate evolution.There is undoubtedly a great deal similarities between human chimp genome, new researches have also have advanced knowledge of the difference between the two sets of genes. One of the key differences that have been discovered develop from the total removal of genes to the partial additions and removal that occur in nucleotides that can cause dormancy of genes, particularly those that influence immunological systems.

Global Warming

Global warming is happening and some people still think it’s not happening which is just fine, but even they have to admit the climate is changing. The planet constantly altering, we have to decide what we will do to adapt. Animals and plants are already changing the way they act by blooming and migrating sooner. With technology constantly changing, new variables are added to this equation of global warming that pessimistic scientists must take into consideration before they doom the planet. Now, for all those sceptics who think global warming doesn’t exist, here are 5 facts about global warming.

1. The Planets Temperature Has Increased And Average of 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) in the last 100 years. With the increase in green house gasses, the suns rays stay trapped and increase the world’s temperature. It is predicted that the temperature will increase in coming years because more and more of the suns heat remains trapped here on earth.

2 The cause of the increase of climate change is Human activity producing pollution and green house gasses according to many scientists. Heavy industry vigorously emits carbon dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, and other gasses. With an increase in competition to create the most products of the best quality comes an increase in the production of green house gasses, but with new laws and filters, the amount of these gasses being emitted into the air has decreased.

3. If the temperature of the planet increases to a certain point, methane from the ocean can be released into the air and drastically increase the temperature of the earth to dangerous levels.

4. People say that deforestation is a contributor to global warming right? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), deforestation occurs at a rate of 53,000 square miles per year.

5. There are more than 50 things you can do to stop or slow global warming including, lowering your thermostat, choosing energy efficient appliances and, taking showers instead of baths. Global warming or not, preventing the waste of energy doesn’t hurt anyone.

Random Access Memory

RAM is an acronym of random access memory. It refers to data storage formats, with the help of which we can access data in any order i.e. random and not in sequence. In computer, RAM is considered to be the main memory (or primary storage). RAM is considered volatile storage because as soon as the power supply is stopped, the contents of RAM are lost. Hence, the data in RAM stays as long as the computer is running. RAM is much faster to read from and write to, when compared to other storage devices like hard disk, CDROM, Floppy disk etc. RAM can be both read and written; therefore, it is sometimes also called read-write memory.

There are two fundamental types of RAM: (a) Dynamic RAM (DRAM)(b) Static RAM (SRAM)

(a) Dynamic RAM (DRAM): Dynamic random access memory is the most common kind of RAM, which stores each bit of a data in a separate capacitor and a transistor. Capacitors tend to leak electrons, thus the need for recharging arises. Hence, DRAM, unlike SRAM needs to have its storage cells refreshed or given an electric charge every few milliseconds. This refresh requirement operation is from where dynamic RAM gets its name. DRAM is a volatile memory because it loses data when the power supply is stopped.

(b) Static RAM (SRAM): Static random access memory is the kind of RAM that holds its data without external refresh, as long the power remains applied, unlike DRAM that needs to be periodically refreshed. It is a type of memory that is faster and more reliable than DRAM (Dynamic RAM). Since, Static RAM operates on the principle of moving current, it is a volatile memory.