Monday, August 1, 2011

Google Adsense CPM Ads Earn Money Without Clicks

Not all Google Adsense Ads require clicks to make extra money quickly for you. If you analyze reports, you may have seen earnings without any clicks. This is because many ads are CPM ads for which advertisers pay you money per 1000 ad impressions.
CPM stands for “cost per 1000 impressions.” Advertisers running CPM ads set their desired price per 1000 ads served, select the specific sites on which to show their ads, and pay each time their ad appears.
Why is it good for you?
CPM ads in Google Adsense compete against pay-per-click (or CPC, cost per click) ads in the ad auction, so only the highest performing ads will be served to your pages. If an advertiser wants to specifically target your site, they will need to bid high enough to beat out the CPC ads that are already in the auction in order to show up on your page. Google pays you each time a CPM ad is shown on your page. But you won’t earn additional revenue for clicks on these ads.
How do CPM ads look like?
CPM ads can be either text or image ads, and are always site-targeted. CPM text ads will expand to take up the entire ad unit.
What I learnt from this?
I had earlier added a competitive ad filter to several ads which seemed less targeted and were less likely to get clicked, but as income dropped I realized that these were CPM ads and they made extra money even if they were not clicked. And they competed for price with ads which would have appeared in their place, so no point filtering them anyway. The Google Adsense ad auction and smart pricing are too complex for us to deal with, lets leave it to Google at best. For more information, visit Adsense support.

Adobe Edge: Adobe's new HTML5 Web Animations Tool

 
Html5 150x150
Today, Adobe is launching a new tool called Adobe Edge which will allow creative professionals to design animated Web content using Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Not Flash.
Aimed to coexist with Adobe Flash, not replace it, the Web design software is Adobe's big bet on how it will continue to solidify its position as a top player in the infrastructure of the modern Web, especially as the Web goes increasingly mobile. In this new mobile context, the Web has become a more hostile environment for Flash, which has no place on Apple mobile devices, and likely never will.
HTML5 vs Flash...or HTML5 and Flash?
Although Flash still accounts for the majority of website animations today, that won't always be the case.
So does Edge's launch mean that Adobe caved and ceded the battle to HTML5 over Flash? Adobe doesn't see it that way. Although battles make for good headlines here in the world of tech journalism, it's not really an either/or scenario when it comes to the 'Flash vs. HTML5' conundrum in the professional world. For today's Web designers and developers, both technologies are still used.

Adobe's Support for HTML5 Continues with Edge

'HTML5 is an opportunity for Adobe,' explains Devin Fernandez, Group Product Manager for Adobe's Web Pro Segment, 'that's not to say there aren't opportunities for Flash.' He contends that Flash will continue to push forward, and, as we have reported previously, it will focus on areas that HTML5 cannot yet address as well - like 3D gaming for example. (Although even there, HTML5 is making inroads.)
Still, with HTML5 being a relatively new technology, it doesn't today deliver a consistent experience across the widest range of devices and browsers. For example, Windows XP, which even to Microsoft's own chagrin remains a fairly popular computer operating system, can only run up to Internet Explorer 8. That means it can't take advantage of the many major leaps in terms of HTML5 support introduced in IE 9.
In other words, Adobe believes Flash still has a solid future here on the Web for some time. But when the Web is ready for an entirely Flash-free existence, this is surely Adobe's plan for maintaining its relevance among the creative professionals crowd, including developers and designers alike.

What Does Edge Do?

Adobe claims it has been a strong player in HTML5, going back to April 2010, when it first began introducing support for the technology in its product line, including Dreamweaver, Illustrator, its Digital Publishing Suite and, more recently, its Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool, Wallaby.
Now, with Adboe Edge, it aims to provide the tools that will help professionals build Web animations, and in the future, even simple games. At present, Edge will focus on its core animation engine, but in the future, it plans to add more HTML5 features, including Canvas support, support for HTML5 Audio and Video tags, richer support for animating SVG graphics and more.
Edge 2 screenshot 072711
The software (for both Mac and PC) is designed to have an intuitive paneled user interface, a fast startup time, and will include, at the bottom, the familar timeline feature creative professionals already know and understand. Edge users can import existing HTML documents and graphic assets including SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF and then sytle them with CSS3. Panels on the left and right provide access to properties of the .EDGE file and the various elements the designer is working with. And in the center, there runs an embedded version of the WebKit browser.
When a project is complete, it will work on modern Web browsers like those that run on Android, iOS, HP's webOS, the BlackBerry PlayBook, plus Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer 9.

Where to Get Adobe Edge

Starting today, Adobe Edge is available as a free download while in its public preview period. The 1.0 product is expected to launch next year.
This is a hugely important launch for Adobe - one that IDC analyst Al Hilwa, says is 'the biggest thing they have done so far.' Hilwa likes Adobe Edge, and believes it shows that Adobe is really in-tune with designer needs.
'Adobe has started working on HTML5 and has brought many little things, showing that they can pivot nicely to new trends,' Hilwa told us. 'It shows that they can remain the premier tools vendor no matter what the technology inside is.'
Will designers agree with Hilwa's sentiment, though? In time, we'll know.
Edge 1_Screenshot_072711.png

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Now make your website load faster with Google



According to Ram Ramani, the lead engineer on the Google's Bangalore team that worked on the project, websites using Page Speed will see a speed improvement of 25% to 60%.
 
"To use the service, you (webmasters) need to sign up and point the site's DNS entry to Google," Ramani wrote in a post on Google's official blog. "Page Speed fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices, and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe. Your users will continue to access your site just as they did before, only with faster load times."

Though Google is offering the service free of charge to a select number of webmasters initially, it will charge a fee once it launches the service. According to Ramani, the Web giant is working to speed up site load times for the last two years and the latest project is another step towards enabling faster browsing. Google claims that the optimization will happen in the real time.

With the importance of the web growing, many companies are aiming to deliver better Web browsing experience. In recent years, all browser makers have put in a lot of efforts to speed up page rendering. Opera Mini, a browser for portable devices, uses its own servers to compress data before serving it on smartphones and tablets. Opera claims this optimization helps it offer a superior and faster Web browsing to experience to mobile users.

Companies like Amazon and Akamai, meanwhile, offer services like content delivery network (CDN) that can speed up data distribution. Many websites rely on these services. According to reports, Page Speed will make of both website optimization as well as a CDN.

10 biggest technology myths: Must Read

artical Picture Ah, the world of tech myths! Despite countless efforts to kill them, a host of myths continue to persist. Some of them are result of plain ignorance while a few had genuine lineage but as the technology moves forward, do not hold true anymore.
We take a look at 10 of these fallacies and squash them.
More mega pixels mean better picturesWe wish it could be true. Because then we all would have been pro photographers. More mega pixels were a big deal when digital cameras were new. But once the threshold of five mega pixels was reached, the number stopped being the most important factor in a camera.
In any modern camera, image quality primarily depends on sensor size and quality of lens. This is the reason why you are likely to get better images from say a Nikon D40, a 6 mega pixel camera, than a new point-and-shoot slick camera that can capture photos in 14 mega pixels.

Higher dynamic contrast ratio is betterMonitor and TV makers love to bandy about dynamic contrast ration. For example, Acer says its S231HL monitor has a dynamic contrast ratio of 12,000,000:1. In reality, this number doesn’t mean anything.
This contrast ratio can be achieved only when the monitor is displaying a completely black image. During normal use, the ratio is likely to be lot less than the static contrast ratio, which is 1000:1. Dynamic contrast ratio is a just a marketing scam so steer clear of that.
More RAM in a graphics card is betterThis is another marketing scam. And many gamers fall prey to it. In a graphics card, everything depends on the kind of processing chip that is used and not on amount of RAM. While buying a graphics card users need to pay close attention to the name. For example, AMD Radeon HD 6850 with just 1GB RAM will be more than four to five times faster than AMD Radeon 6450 with 2GB RAM.

Macs don't have virusesIt’s not really a myth. There is some truth to it. People using Apple’s MacBook, iMac or Mac Pro are less likely to face computer viruses. But this is not because Apple’s computers or operating software are virus-proof. The fact is that cyber criminals largely focus on Windows because that is used by majority of people. But as popularity of Apple’s computers increases, cyber criminals are taking note and new viruses and trojans on Mac have started appearing.
Right click+refresh makes PC fasterAround 15 years ago, computers were always running out of memory. RAM was very expensive and most computers had just 4MB to 8MB RAM. Then, there were poorly-coded applications that caused memory leaks. This led to the practice of right click+refresh on the desktop as by refreshing the display or in other words Explorer, in some cases users quickly reclaimed free RAM after closing a process.
On modern computers, which have ample RAM, doing a right click+refresh is nothing more than a foolish habit.
For graphics work, a Mac is bestThis one too was true sometime back. But now it’s more of a myth than a fact. Before 2006, Apple was using processors based on PowerPC architecture by IBM. Compared to Intel or AMD processors, PowerPC chips had an advantage in graphics-heavy work. But after 2006, Apple shifted to Intel processors. A Mac still has some advantage in font management as well as quality of bundled monitor. But if you are a graphic designer who knows your trade well and who takes care while choosing his gear, you don’t need to pay premium and buy a Mac just because someone told you that it is better for graphics work.

To delete a file permanently, delete it from Recycle BinAfter deleting a sensitive file from recycle bin, never think that you have obliterated it. Using recovery programmes, even a kid can retrieve the file back. When you delete a file from recycle bin, Windows just changes its file name and makes it invisible to user. The file does not get deleted unless it is overwritten, which happens over a period of time when you create new files.
CPUs with more cores/Ghz are betterAnother marketing lie. In any processor or computing chip, the underlying architecture is what matters. This is the reason why even slower AMD Athlon processors were considerably faster than Pentium 4. And the architecture is reason why nowadays a four-core Sandy Bridge processor from Intel is faster than six-core processors that AMD sells.
You need to buy expensive security softwareThis was true when no good security software were available for free. But situation has changed a lot in the last few years. Nowadays, if you want some cyber security on a home computer you don’t really need to spend any money.
Microsoft Security Essentials, which is a free dowanload, will do the job. And so will free anti-virus programs from AVG, Avast or Avira.
You need to stop a USB drive before taking it outThis is true but partially. If there is a file transfer going on, which means if you are moving files between pen drive and computer, you may need to stop USB drive before unplugging the pen drive.
But if there is no file transfer happening, you can pluck out the pen drive right away. We assure you that it won’t go up in flames.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Google+ And The Death Of Online Anonymity

Google+ wants its users to use their real names in making profiles in the social network. This has been the problem of Facebook in the past. Now the search giant has been suspending accounts on Google+ for various reasons but users are complaining that it is too strict in some cases but it’s not consistent with its policy.
People are now asking whether anonymity in the internet is already going away because of Google’s obsession with the users’ real name. In a recent crackdown in Google+, accounts suspended included some prominent members of the hacker community. These include a programmer named Skud and a popular iPhone developer only known by his alias MuscleNerd.
There are reports that certain accounts were restored even though they used obvious pseudonyms. Google said that it doesn’t really want to force people to use their legally given names and doesn’t mind people setting up profiles under commonly used names although the rules are too vague and open to different interpretations.
Google senior vice president Vic Gundotra said that the company wants to maintain a positive tone on the social network. He compared the policy as requiring people to wear shirts in a restaurant. But online identity is a lot complex than that.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Apple laptops can be hacked to self-destruct; flaw to be detailed by hacker next month


How’s this for an undocumented feature? Apple’s newer MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks have a security flaw that can allow hackers to remotely prevent the batteries from charging. Better yet, hackers can exploit the same flaw and remotely cause batteries to explode. Apple laptops’ new “smart” battery technology is intended to provide added control over power management, and it does just that. Unfortunately, it also gives hackers added control because the microcontroller chip that ships in recent Apple laptops can be accessed remotely using a default password shared by each and every notebook. Charlie Miller, the security expert who discovered the vulnerability, plans to showcase the flaw next month at the Black Hat security conference. There, Miller will show that he is able to access the battery controller remotely and cause it to refuse a charge, or even heat up until it catches fire and explodes. “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller told Forbes last week. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.” Thankfully, the security expert also intends to showcase a fix for the flaw, which Apple will hopefully implement as soon as possible.

Chrome vs IE9 vs Firefox: Browser War

Browser WarsThe Speed of the Web

Web browsers are converging. Since the arrival of Google Chrome nearly three years ago, all browsers have come under its influence, and they've all moved in the same three-pronged directions—speedier page loading, cleaner user interfaces, and greater support for new Web standards. All of the major browsers—Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera—have made significant strides in each of these three dimensions. The first two qualities are pretty much universally desirable, but the "standards" support piece, while also desirable, gets sticky: Each browser seems to support a different subset of the many features that fall under the label HTML5. All you have to do is check out each browser's HTML5 demo site. Apple's HTML5 demos, for example, flat out won't function unless you're browsing with Safari. So much for "standards."

Along with new standard support, all browsers have posted massive improvements in page-rendering and script execution speed. You just have to look at the often-cited SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks to see this. Even Chrome, which I already described as "lightning fast" in December of 2008, has sped up on the test from a time of 881ms to 267ms in version 12 on my 2.6GHz dual-core laptop—that's less than a third of the time! The rest of the browsers have followed suit, clustering around the same level of performance. Mozilla and Google have built their own Javascript speed tests, Kraken and V8, respectively. When these first came out, the maker's own browsers widely outpaced competitors, but results on these tests are also evening out.

Browser Google V8 (v.6) Score
(higher is better)
Google Chrome 12 8205
Firefox 5 3459
Opera 11.50 3,454
Safari 5.1 2567
Internet Explorer 9 2360

Browser Mozilla Kraken 1.1 Score in ms
(lower is better)
Google Chrome 12 4841
Firefox 5 5707
Opera 11.50 12353
Internet Explorer 9 15050
Safari 5 17603

Browser SunSpider 0.9.1 Score in ms
(lower is better)
Internet Explorer 9 245
Google Chrome 12 267
Firefox 5 282
Opera 11.50 279
Safari 5.1 303
The next frontier in browser performance is about graphics hardware acceleration. In this area, Internet Explorer and Firefox are ahead of Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari. Microsoft was the first browser maker to make an issue of hardware acceleration in the buildup to its releasing IE9. The company's site for its browser, called IETestdrive.com, sports a slew of demonstrations that show off hardware acceleration, which you can try running in any browser. On these, you can clearly see IE and Firefox's lead in hardware acceleration.
On the FishIE demo, which uses Canvas and Javascript to display swimming tropical fish, Chrome delivered 40 frames per second with 20 fish and 5 FPS with 500 fish. Since both Firefox 4 and IE9 use hardware acceleration for more than just future 3D content, they score the maximum 60 FPS with 20 fish, but IE still beats Firefox with 500 fish. Chrome was, however, better than Opera, which only mustered 20FPS and 3FPS.

BrowserFishIE with 20 fish (FPS - higher is better) 500 Fish
Internet Explorer 9 6039
Firefox 4 6035
Google Chrome 12 404
Opera 11.50 203
Safari 5 203
Another IE9 demo, Psychedelic Browsing, spins a color wheel and plays spacy sounds, reporting RPM as a result. Surprisingly, Firefox beats Microsoft at its own game here by a tad, though it doesn't play the required sound. Chrome, however, plays the test's required sound, but fares far worse in the revolutions per minute result:
Browser Psychedelic Browsing
RPM (higher is better)
Firefox 4 1885 (no sound)
Internet Explorer 9 1799 (correct sound)
Google Chrome 12 131 (correct sound)
Opera 11 82 (no sound)
Safari 5 83 (no sound)
One final test of hardware acceleration comes from Mozilla, its Hardware Acceleration Stress test, which spins a spiral of photos in the browser window and reports a score in frames per second (which tops out at the LCD's maximum of 60FPS):
Browser Mozilla Hardware Acceleration Stress Test
FPS (higher is better)
Firefox 4 60
Internet Explorer 9 60
Google Chrome 12 17
Opera 11 17
Safari 5 3
On this test, again, the browsers with graphics hardware acceleration trounced those without. IE8 can't run the test since it lacks the requisite HTML5 support.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Get Your Free Domain Name - Three Best Domain Name Providers

I’m going to share some of my favorite free URL redirection services that provide free short URLs which look exactly like a paid domain name. There are many services that can convert a long URL into a shorter one like Tinyurl, bit.ly, etc but they are limited for single links. Three services listed below give you free domain names (actually subdomains) which you can use for your websites or blog hosted on free service like blogspot.com!

#1 co.cc Domains

cocc94 1 3 Best Free Domain Registration Servicesco.cc is one of my favorite free domain service since it is lot more than a URL shortener. Domain name formats they provide is like www.yourdomain.co.cc. You can register upto 2 domains with a single account. You will get full control over domain management. They provide DNS and MX services too. So, you can either use the regular URL forwarding or frame forwarding (doesn’t show ur original link in address bar) or you can use these DNS services and add CNAMEs in your domain. CNAME control means you can use Google apps and so you can have your own email id like mail@yourdomain.co.cc rather than the usual yourname@gmail.com or yourname@yahoo.com.

#2 co.nr Domains

soof62 3 Best Free Domain Registration Servicesco.nr is not so special as co.cc but are in the market for long. They provide free domain name in the form www.yourdomain.co.nr and it can be used for either URL redirection for another domain or any long web URL. They also support meta tags and provide favicon support. The only problem with this service is that we need to provide a link back to their site from our homepage or where we redirect this URL or else the service will be deactivated momentarily.

#3 .tk Domains

dot tk 3 Best Free Domain Registration Services
DOT.TK domains are also used for url forwarding i.e to convert any web URL into the form www.yourdomain.tk . In addition to the normal URL forwarding they also provide mail forwarding where in we can choose upto 250 mail aliases to be forwarded to your mail account. For example, you can forward mail@yourdomain.tk or info@yourdomain.tk into your personal mail account. Earlier, they used to have a banner ad at the top of the window but now they have removed the ads completely which makes this service more attractive. The only problem now is all domain names that receive less than 25 hits per 90 days will be removed from your account.
There are a lot more free domain services but these are the only ones without any ads and they provide domains which are more or less similar to paid domains. I’Il write more on the other services in my next post. What are you waiting for?  Register your free domain now.

Cloud computing could lead to billions in energy savings

Another study out this week has found that if companies adopt cloud computing, they can reduce the energy consumption of their IT and save money on energy bills. The report, created by research firm Verdantix and sponsored by AT&T, estimates that cloud computing could enable companies to save $12.3 billion off their energy bills. That translates into carbon emission savings of 85.7 million metric tons per year by 2020.
The Verdantix report isn’t the first one to deliver such a finding. Last year Pike Research found that cloud computing could lead to a 38 percent reduction in worldwide data center energy use by 2020, compared to what the growth of data center energy consumption would be without cloud computing. Another study from Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy last year found that moving business applications to the cloud could cut the associated per-user carbon footprint by 30 percent for large, already-efficient companies and as much as 90 percent for the smallest and least efficient businesses.
All of that is good news. Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive Internet infrastructure shifts to happen in recent years. Web companies have been embracing cloud computing in order to buy flexible, lower cost, on-demand computing power from companies like Amazon. And these cloud computing services generally replace the computing that would have been done by companies’ own in-house computing resources.
However, it’s always good to take these studies with a grain of salt. There’s a reason AT&T and Microsoft are looking into the energy efficiency of cloud computing: they sell cloud computing services.
Other studies have also found that cloud computing isn’t always the most energy efficient computing option, and in certain instances the cloud can be more energy intensive than traditional in-office computing. A report from University of Melbourne researcher Rod Tucker and his team, which I wrote about for GigaOM Pro (subscription required), found that cloud computing can indeed save energy when it leads simply to the consolidation of servers, but looking at three different applications of cloud computing — storage, software and processing —  energy efficiency savings are negated in some scenarios.
For example, one such instance when the cloud isn’t more efficient, according to Tucker’s research, is when companies are using cloud computing for storing data. Tucker found that when the number of downloaded and accessed files becomes larger (more than one download per hour for a public cloud storage service), those energy efficiency gains are erased.
There’s enough research out there by now that shows that cloud computing is overall more energy efficient than traditional in-house computing. Which is great news for Internet companies and cloud computing providers. The growing energy consumption of the Internet, data centers and our always-on connected devices will only continue to grow, so efficiency trends will only to continue to become important.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Best Free Antivirus Software

Every computer needs antivirus protection, period. If cost is an issue, try one of these nine free AV apps.

The Best Free Antivirus If your computer ever connects to the Internet, it's potentially exposed to viruses and other malicious software. As last year's Stuxnet worm demonstrated, even a computer that never connects can be compromised through an infected USB drive. Given the quality of free antivirus software available, there's no excuse for failing to install protection. The question is, which is the best free antivirus?
Publishers of free AV software don't always put out a new release every year. None as yet have jumped on the 2012-edition bandwagon: but that's OK: It's still 2011. Here's the low-down on recent free antivirus releases. Here's the low-down on the most recent releases to help you choose the best free antivirus software.
Blocking Malware Attack
When you get a brand-new computer the very first thing you should install is a good antivirus. Not sure which one to choose? Install a free one to stay protected while you're researching your decision.
Ad-Aware FREE Internet Security 9.0 (Free, 4.5 stars) scored well across the board in my hands-on malware protection tests. It detected 91 percent of the threats and scored 9.0 points, the best score of any free product. Comodo Antivirus 5.0 (Free, 3.5 stars) actually detected more threats, 94 percent of them, but was just slightly less effective at blocking them, for a score of 8.9 points.
All of the free products did a decent job of protection, though avast! Free version 6.0 (Free, 3.5 stars) was less effective against scareware threats and AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 (Free, 3.5 stars) less effective against scareware. For an explanation of how I arrive at these scores, see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Free Antivirus Malware Blocking Chart Fighting Existing Malware
You can't always start with a clean system. A free antivirus can be very handy when you need to clean up an infestation of malicious software right now. Ad-Aware FREE proved very effective in my malware removal tests. Comodo, the other top scorer for malware blocking, didn't do nearly as well at cleanup.
Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars) is the only one of this group tested with my 2011 malware collection. It detected 91 percent of threats, the same as Ad-Aware, but scored much lower due to incomplete cleanup. According to Panda,an update with improved cleanup abilities is in the works. Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 (Free, 3 stars) doesn't shine either at blocking or cleanup.
Several of the free products specifically aim to clean up malware problems, not to give you ongoing protection. Symantec designed Norton Power Eraser (Free, 4 stars) to aggressively deal with scareware and other persistent malware that may prevent installation of a full-scale antivirus product. The similar Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1 (Free, 3.5 stars) was especially effective at detecting and removing scareware.
When tech support agents for other antivirus companies hit the wall trying to help users, they sometimes invoke Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46 (Free, 3.5 stars) to perform the initial cleanup. In my tests it tied with Ad-Aware FREE for top overall score, though it wasn't as effective against rootkits. For details on how I derive these scores, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Free Antivirus Malware Removal Chart Your Best Choice
Which free antivirus should you choose? Since they're free, you can try several to see which suits you the best. In my testing Comodo and Ad-Aware FREE were especially effective at blocking new malware attacks, while Panda Cloud and Ad-Aware FREE did a good job removing existing malware. Where others excelled at one task or the other, Ad-Aware FREE Internet Security 9.0 handled both protection and cleanup very well. It remains PCMag's Editor's Choice for free antivirus.
Ad-Aware Free Internet Security 9.0 Ad-Aware FREE Internet Security 9.0
 
Most free antivirus utilities are good at either malware removal or malware blocking, but not both. Ad-Aware Free proved very effective in both areas, almost as effective as Ad-Aware Pro. This is a great free antivirus solution for non-commercial use.
avast! Free version 6.0 : Full Scan avast! Free version 6.0

Avast! Free has some dandy new features, and it's a great-looking program. However, the new features didn't shine in my testing. It needs to do a better job cleaning up the threats it detects. Since it's free, you can give it a try and make your own decision.
AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 is better at removing malware than most free solutions, but not at malware blocking. With the current release it has the full power of AVG's paid solutions, and the independent labs give it top marks. Add some unusual bonus features and you've got a solid choice for free antivirus protection.
Comodo Antivirus 5.0 Comodo Antivirus 5.0

Comodo promises to keep a clean PC clean, and it delivers on that promise. It does include a component to scan and clean infested systems, but this component doesn't really work. Consider using a different free tool for cleanup, and be prepared to carefully peruse Comodo's numerous popups.
Malwarebytes Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46

When support agents from other vendors run into malware that foils their own product they frequently direct users to run Malwarebytes. I can see why—it's small, fast, and simple. This free product should definitely be in your toolbox. Just don't pay extra for real-time protection.
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 : Scheduled Scan Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0

If using a Microsoft product gives you a warm, safe feeling you may consider relying on Microsoft Security Essentials for antivirus protection. The independent labs give it good ratings, for the most part. In my own testing, though, it didn't shine. Other free products offer better protection.
Norton Power Eraser : Ready to Restart Norton Power Eraser

Norton Power Eraser's aggressive detection features catch threats others miss. It can also remove malware that blocks antivirus installation. The combination of Norton 360 and Norton Power Eraser set new scoring records in all categories of my malware removal tests.
Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1 : Scan Results Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1

Both PCMag's tests and independent lab tests show that Norman's malware cleanup isn't the best. However, this free tool runs even when malware blocks installation of more full-featured products. Give it a try when you need a quick fix.
Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 Free Edition : Installation Options Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 Free Edition

This free antivirus solution minimizes its impact on your system by using the cloud for malware detection, and its simple user interface is easy on the eyes. In testing, it didn't completely handle every detected threat, but it's still a reasonable choice if you're looking for a free solution.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

1 Man blog gets sold for $15 million: Case Study

Bankaholic, was a pretty interesting blog, with a catchy name, design and sticky content and like most other blogs all its content came from its sole writer and owner Johns Wu, but today the blog gets millions of hits, has got more than 20 full time writers and its 23 year old founder considered himself retired.
Ofcourse he just had to retire now, as he got an extremely sweet deal from Bankrate which offered him $12.5 million upfront and $2.5 million over two years, and he went on to make history as the owner of the most highly valued blog on the internet. In 2006 Johns Wu started a stock market and personal finance blog and according to our analysis he got most of his traffic from SEO.
While he started this blog he was still in college and like most teenagers had been struck by the idea of internet business, though science was his strength he decided to go with a stock market blog, which I bet made all the difference. This is a case study on the factors which contributed to the high valuation of this blog,

Content : the key asset

The value of any blog can be judged by the quality of its content, and if it succeeds in providing sticky and catchy content it would surely have a good sale price as quality information has always got its own price tag, even if a particular site fails to get in traffic.
John’s site provides great quality content from the beginning, and at the time of sale it had over 600 posts of the same, which is actually one of the key reasons. Seeing his first few posts I feel he combined quality content, with entertaining articles with a few posts that actually sell.
I also feel that their was heavy keyword research taking place behind all of his first few posts, for example take a look at this post, he has stuffed keywords such as APY, CD rates etc and he has dominated search results for that particular keyword, many blogs which do this will look extremely spammy, but he has made it look creative and of great quality.

Traffic : SEO & SEM

Johns already knew a lot about the internet and internet marketing, although this is just my simple assumption as till now his influence in social media is extremely low for an internet celebrity. I’ve also mentioned in a few of my previous posts that blogs which started off during the period of 2006 to 2008 experienced high growth rates due to heavy growth in internet usage and low search competition, that also was the time when Google’s search results got pretty mature.
As I’ve mentioned above, most of his earlier posts were highly keyword researched and during those times Google provided high search rankings for all quality posts all of which surely got him high traffic.
In an interview with SeoBook he has also claimed to have launched many Adwords campaigns in the beginning, which I think was a great idea. You can grow your blog heavily if you target the right keywords, the Adwords competition was extremely low back then, but still he has done what people were extremely skeptical about.
Very soon he ranked pretty high for high traffic keywords which was again a reason for such high valuations. Bankrate knew that it was next to impossible to rank for such keywords in today’s search market, so they decided to go as far as possible to get this blog.

Monetization : earnings potential

Bankrate surely expects good returns for such a huge investment, as expected they had expected more than just returns and profit by this investment. Bankaholic’s high rankings in search results is surely a great asset, and its content too was no less. But something tough to find out about the site was their initial monetization strategy.
The site got upto 200,000 visitors, so a combination of CPM, CPC and performance based advertisements would have resulted in great income. I’m sure Johns earned a solid passive income even during his first few days of blogging, but Bankrate cannot wait for years to reap back their earnings, as these monetization methods will hardly earn a six figure yearly income.
So far Bankrate has been using the same methods, and I also think they are selling sponsored reviews and promoting various finance related affiliate programs which are surely high paying. I wouldn’t be surprised if their revenues have tripled than the time when Johns used to run the site. But Bankrate already has a lot of financial sites which earn them heap loads of advertising and affiliate revenue, so I have a feeling that they are on the verge of launching a digital product to thoroughly monetize Bankaholic.

Finance niches are meant for success

A few niches on the internet are just made for success, even if my blog got 3 times the traffic Bankaholic did I surely wouldn’t even sell for even half that price. I few niches like finance, stock market, healthcare and education are extremely profitable, your adsense earnings will be comparatively higher, affiliate programs have high payouts and in the end the valuation of ones blog is always high.
This is infact an ugly truth about the internet, I am a strong advocate for the wealth and potential of the internet, but I must agree that all this isn’t divided equally as even today the geography, locality and niche of a blog have a lot of influence.
So in 2006 at the time when the competition for all niches remained low, Johns was lucky enough to chose the lucrative personal finance niche, soon the CPC rates for this niche was sky high resulting in a huge valuation for his site, so his success was partially due to luck.

On to our readers

This is surely one great example of what dedicated blogging can bring in, though Johns Wu had partial luck he had worked pretty hard on his site in the beginning. This case study is purely based on research and assumptions and cannot be back with any proof, but I bet all of you can use the above methods to build a successful internet business.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Making Money: Revealing the secret of internet money making


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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The right laptop for a student

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Sunaina Sharma is a student of BBA. Now in her final year, she is expected to work on several projects and prepare presentations. Since the 20-year-old lives in a hostel and has no access to a television set, she needs a laptop that can double up as an entertainment device; basically anything that can play music and movies.
But something Sunaina is really keen on is her social networks and her online friends. She is active on Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, and is also an avid fashion blogger.
She obviously requires a laptop on which she can prepare her projects and of course, browse the web for the latest in clothing designs. She plans on carrying the device in her backpack to college, and if she's going to be using it in public, she'd like a laptop that reflects her personality – and perhaps, is available in a few colours from which she can choose.
What Sunaina needs
Any modern processor: For the kind of work Sunaina is going to do with her laptop, an Intel Atom processor—found in netbooks—will be sufficient. But ideally, she should look to buy something that has more horsepower; probably a laptop with AMD's E-350 processor as it will also allow her to watch HD videos on YouTube.
If she wants to watch HD DVDs—and if her parents are feeling generous, and are willing to spend a bit extra—she could consider a laptop with an Intel i3 370 processor. Netbooks do not have CD/DVD drives.
RAM: 1GB RAM is sufficient for all sorts of work that a BBA student is likely to do on her laptop. If the budget permits, she can buy a laptop with more RAM, but that is not really required.
Hard disk: Sunaina will not only store the documents related to her studies on her laptop, but also her collection of songs and movies. She will, therefore, need a hard disk with at least 320GB capacity.
Less than 2.5kgs weight: Weight is an important factor for Sunaina because the laptop will be in her backpack most of the time.
Here she has two choices: She can either opt for netbooks that weigh in at less than 1.5kgs (with a screen size of less than 12 inches) or opt for a full-fledged notebook weighing in at around 2.5kgs. Her choice depends on what she values more – a bigger screen or portability.
Decent battery: A laptop that can survive four or five hours on campus, on a single charge, is good enough. Almost all new laptops—with their six cell batteries—will last for around four hours with normal use.
Special features: Since Sunaina will be using her laptop to watch films, she will do well to pick up a device that offers hardware acceleration for her high definition videos. A good bet for this would include netbooks with AMD's fusion processor such as E-350; this over those devices powered by the current generation of Intel Atom processors.
Also, Sunaina is at an age where she wants to exert her individuality in every way she can. So she could pick a device that's vibrant and colourful.
How much will it all cost: Being a student, Sunaina can't spend a fortune on her laptop.
If she wants something for cheap, she can start by taking a look at HP Pavilion DM1 that sells for around Rs 25,000. A few thousands more and she can buy HP G42, Acer Timeline X 4820T or something similar. If she wants sleeker laptops and price is no bar, she can take a look at Sony Vaio E-series laptops, which is available in different colours.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

What is the Difference Between Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional & Ultimate Editions ?

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Windows 7
Microsoft recently announced Windows 7 pricing and upgrade options. Now that we have Windows 7 pricing and upgrade matrix, let’s check the difference between the most wanted Windows 7 editions: Windows 7 home premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Since Windows 7 upgrade program and Windows7 pre-order program started already, you might want to check the suitable Windows 7 edition for you.

Below is the chart that shows you the difference btw Windows Home premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions.
Difference between Windows 7 home premium, Professional and Ultimate

Friday, May 27, 2011

How to Choose The Best Domain Name for You?

Choosing domain name.
Choosing a domain name: Your difficult
questions answered!
What domain name should you choose for your business? Is a .com still important? Should you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a .com, or just register a .biz or other extension? Are Google search engine ranks affected by whether you have a .com or not?
In this post, I’ll answer these questions and more, and make some recommendations to help you choose the right domain name. Some of my suggestions may be controversial!

Short and Catchy, or Longer?

There are basically two types of domain names: short and catchy or long and keyword-filled. (I define “short” as anything with fewer than 8 characters before the dot.) Which type of domain name you use depends on how you plan to attract visitors to your site. If you plan to mostly attract people by word of mouth, use something short and catchy.
I tend to build sites that get most of their traffic from Google. In that case, a keyword-filled domain is preferable. What do I mean by that? Let’s say you own Snazzy Sandwiches in Saskatoon. You’d probably lean toward snazzysandwiches.com or snazzysandwiches.ca (since Saskatoon is in Saskatchewan, Canada.)
But you may also want to consider buying a keyword-driven domain name. In this case, more people are probably searching for “sandwiches in Saskatoon” or “sandwiches Saskatoon” than your business name. Unless you are the only sandwich shop in town, one of the best ways to capture this traffic is to also pick up the keyword-driven name–in this case, sandwichessaskatoon.com or .ca.
The key here is to find out exactly what people are searching for in Google and other search engines, and picking up the “exact match” keyword domain name. That means no “the”, “a”, hyphens, or any other extraneous words. So, if people are typing in sandwiches Saskatoon, you want sandwichessaskatoon as the first part of your domain name.

How Do You Find Out What People Are Typing Into Google?

I’m a big fan of using the free Google Keyword Tool to figure out domain names. Find a keyword that is searched between 10,000 and 50,000 times per month, and see if the exact match domain name is available.
Every once in a while, you’ll hit a home run. I had a client once who did marketing for a certain type of business. He paid me for consulting time to figure out how to get more business from his website.
I ran the Google keyword tool for him and found out that business owners were actually typing in the type of the business followed by “marketing” about 800 times a month! Better yet, the exact match .com domain name was available! With some savvy tricks, I helped him conquer 2 of the top 3 slots in Google for those keywords. It added 5 figures a year to the bottom line of his business…and took about three hours of work.

What if the .Com Isn’t Available?

But more often, the exact match .com is not available. It’s either in use or for sale for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Let’s say you’re setting up a site to sell home remedies. You hit up the Google keyword tool and see that “home remedies for acne” is searched 40,500 times a month. (This is true, by the way.) That’s a huge avalanche of traffic if you get ranked #1 for that keyword, and domain names with the keyword in them naturally rank higher than domain names without.
But all the domains are taken. The .com, .net, and .org are all parked–meaning they don’t have any real content on them, and may be for sale. You know the owners will probably want hundreds of dollars for them. The .biz looks like a scam site.
So what do you do? This is a pretty common quandary. Do you go for one of the weird extensions like .cc or .tv, or try to buy one of the more common domains like .com or .net? Or do you just start over from scratch?
First, let’s talk about what all those weird extensions are. Any two-letter extension, like .cc, .ws, and .tv, are actually country codes. Some countries, like Tuvalu, a tiny island nation of just 12,000 people, got extraordinarily lucky in the “domain name lottery”. Tuvalu licensed the .tv extension to Verisign, a top domain name registrar, for “not less than $1 million per quarter.” Wow! (Here’s the entire list of country codes.)
I tread very carefully with these two-letter extensions. Except for ones that have been widely adopted, like .tv and .us, I tend to avoid them. I also tend to avoid .org, unless you just want to set up a blog on it and you’re not selling anything, because .org is, in many people’s minds, still associated with its original purpose of serving non-profit organizations.
In order, I prefer: .com; .net; .biz; .us. Since none of those are available, if you were my client, I would advise you to go back to Google at this point, and search for similar keywords. Sure enough, a similar keyword, acne home remedy, with 27,100 searches per month, has the .biz available, and in this case, I’d advise you to buy that.

But Don’t You Need a .Com?

There’s a myth floating around that you need a .com to rank better in Google. That’s a complete myth, I assure you. For Google, it’s more important to have proper keywords in your domain name than to have the .com.
The reason to get a .com is because people tend to assume that your site is the .com. So, if you don’t have the .com and someone else does, that other site will pick up some traffic that would otherwise go to your site.
If the .com is available for registration, go ahead and get it. I recently found a keyword that had 27,100 searches per month, and the .com was available. I immediately snagged it and plan to use it as an advertising-driven niche site. But more commonly, you’ll find the .com is for sale for a few hundred dollars.
In this case, I recommend that you use an alternative extension, set up your website, and then reinvest your profits. That’s what I did with Blog Set Up. I used the Google keyword tool to figure out which domain I wanted, and then bought the .us. The site was profitable immediately, and I reinvested the profits back in to buying the .com version of the domain name. The acquisition closed this week, so blogsetup.us is now blogsetup.com!
In conclusion, I only recommend buying an expensive domain name if you’ve already launched your business and are making money. It’s perfectly acceptable to start your business on a .biz or .us, especially if you’re getting most of your traffic via Google. Then buy the .com with your first profits. If your business isn’t profitable, then, you’re not out hundreds or thousands of dollars with the .com. But if your business is profitable, I recommend snagging the .com as soon as you can afford it.
Do you have thoughts or suggestions on choosing a domain name? Let me hear them in the comments!
Recommended Reading:
  • Namecheap. I recommend Namecheap as a good domain name registrar. Never use Go Daddy to register domains.
  • Go Daddy. The link here is to a site called nodaddy.com, which was set up by a friend of mine after Go Daddy screwed up his entire business by shutting his domain name down for days. I know another person this happened to, as well. Never use Go Daddy for anything–not hosting, not domain name registration, anything. Again, I recommend NameCheap (above).

Monday, May 23, 2011

What is a CAM, R5, DVDRip, DVDSCR, XviD…?

CAM

A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera make shake. Also seating placement isn’t always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there’s text on the screen, but a lot of times these are left with triangular borders on the top and bottom of the screen. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor, but sometimes we’re lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.
TELESYNC (TS)
A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality. Quality ranges drastically, check the sample before downloading the full release. A high percentage of Telesyncs are CAMs that have been mislabeled.
TELECINE (TC)
A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed. A great example is the JURASSIC PARK 3 TC done last year. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film
SCREENER (SCR)
A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a “ticker” (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape. Most screeners are transferred to VCD, but a few attempts at SVCD have occurred, some looking better than others.
DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)
Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good. Usually transferred to SVCD or DivX/XviD.
DVDRip
A copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail (for example, Star Wars episode 2) again, should be excellent quality. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD.
VHSRip
Transferred off a retail VHS, mainly skating/sports videos and XXX releases.
TVRip
TV episode that is either from Network (capped using digital cable/satellite boxes are preferable) or PRE-AIR from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier (do not contain “dogs” but sometimes have flickers etc) Some programs such as WWF Raw Is War contain extra parts, and the “dark matches” and camera/commentary tests are included on the rips. PDTV is capped from a digital TV PCI card, generally giving the best results, and groups tend to release in SVCD for these. VCD/SVCD/DivX/XviD rips are all supported by the TV scene.
WORKPRINT (WP)
A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print (Men In Black is missing all the aliens, and has actors in their places) and others can contain extra scenes (Jay and Silent Bob) . WPs can be nice additions to the collection once a good quality final has been obtained.
DivX Re-Enc
A DivX re-enc is a film that has been taken from its original VCD source, and re-encoded into a small DivX file. Most commonly found on file sharers, these are usually labeled something like Film.Name.Group(1of2) etc. Common groups are SMR and TND. These aren’t really worth downloading, unless you’re that unsure about a film u only want a 200mb copy of it. Generally avoid.
Watermarks
A lot of films come from Asian Silvers/PDVD (see below) and these are tagged by the people responsible. Usually with a letter/initials or a little logo, generally in one of the corners. Most famous are the “Z” “A” and “Globe” watermarks.
Asian Silvers / PDVD
These are films put out by eastern bootleggers, and these are usually bought by some groups to put out as their own. Silvers are very cheap and easily available.
R5
R5 refers to a specific format of DVD released in DVD Region 5, the former Soviet Union, and bootlegged copies of these releases that are distributed on the Internet. In an effort to compete with movie piracy, the movie industry chose to create a new format for DVD releases that could be produced more quickly and less expensively than traditional DVD releases. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing common on DVD releases, and without any special features. This allows the film to be released for sale at the same time that DVD Screeners are released. Since DVD Screeners are the chief source of high-quality pirated movies, this allows the movie studios to beat the pirates to market. In some cases, R5 DVDs may be released without an English audio track, requiring pirates to use the direct line audio from the film’s theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release is tagged with “.LINE” to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.
The image quality of an R5 release is generally comparable to a DVD Screener release, except without the added scrolling text and black and white scenes that serve to distinguish screeners from commercial DVD releases. The quality is better than Telecine transfers produced by movie pirates because the transfer is performed usingprofessional-grade film scanning equipment.
Because there is no scene release standard for pirated R5 releases, they were variably tagged as Telecines, DVD Screeners, or even DVD rips. In late 2006, several release groups such as DREAMLiGHT, mVs, and PUKKA began tagging R5 releases with “.R5″ or r5 line (the line meaning it has direct english line audio) and suggesting that other groups do the same.
VCD
VCD is an mpeg1 based format, with a constant bitrate of 1150kbit at a resolution of 352×240 (NTCS). VCDs are generally used for lower quality transfers (CAM/TS/TC/Screener(VHS)/TVrip(analogue) in order to make smaller file sizes, and fit as much on a single disc as possible. Both VCDs and SVCDs are timed in minutes, rather than MB, so when looking at an mpeg, it may appear larger than the disc capacity, and in reality u can fit 74min on a CDR74.
SVCD
SVCD is an mpeg2 based (same as DVD) which allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits at a resolution of 480×480 (NTSC) which is then decompressed into a 4:3 aspect ratio when played back. Due to the variable bit-rate, the length you can fit on a single CDR is not fixed, but generally between 35-60 Mins are the most common. To get a better SVCD encode using variable bit-rates, it is important to use multiple “passes”. this takes a lot longer, but the results are far clearer.
XVCD/XSVCD
These are basically VCD/SVCD that don’t obey the “rules”. They are both capable of much higher resolutions and bit-rates, but it all depends on the player to whether the disc can be played. X(S)VCD are total non-standards, and are usually for home-ripping by people who don’t intend to release them.
DivX / XviD
XviD & DivX are the most commonly encoded movies. DivX used to be the most popular, until it went from open source to a corporation that bought the rights & started charging for it (although the crack can easily be obtained for the DivX encoder, most people have switched to XviD, not only because it is open source, but also because it is superior in many ways). In the last year or so, many stand-alone DVD players have been released that are capable of playing DivX/XviD movies (even on CDRs), which has made this the most popular form of encoding. The majority of XviD/DivX rips are taken from DVDs, and are generally in as good quality as possible that can fit on one 700MB CDR disc, which is why most XviD/DivX movies are almost exactly 700MB, so they can be burnt onto a CDR & played in these new DVD players (which can be purchased just about anywhere for as little as $30-$40 USD). Various codecs exist, the most popular at the moment being the new XviD 1.2 codec. DivX encoded movies will definitely play on these new DVD players, & it only takes a little simple tweaking by the ripper to ensure XviDs will play on them as well, but it is therefore not guaranteed. (If you want to learn more about XviD/DivX encoding so you can make your own DVDrips, just visit doom9.org)
x264
x264 is a free software library for encoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video streams. (More to come.)
CVD
CVD is a combination of VCD and SVCD formats, and is generally supported by a majority of DVD players. It supports MPEG2 bit-rates of SVCD, but uses a resolution of 352×480(ntsc) as the horizontal resolution is generally less important. Currently no groups release in CVD.
DVD-R
Is the recordable DVD solution that seems to be the most popular (out of DVD-RAM, DVD-R and DVD+R). it holds 4.7gb of data per side, and double sided discs are available, so discs can hold nearly 10gb in some circumstances. SVCD mpeg2 images must be converted before they can be burnt to DVD-R and played successfully. DVD>DVDR copies are possible, but sometimes extras/languages have to be removed to stick within the available 4.7gb.
MiniDVD
MiniDVD/cDVD is the same format as DVD but on a standard CDR/CDRW. Because of the high resolution/bit-rates, its only possible to fit about 18-21 mins of footage per disc, and the format is only compatible with a few players.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Cracking Winrar: A step-by-step approach

Hi folks, its been a long time since I have posted some thing technical, so I will be writing about the challenge I got at NIT KU, where I cracked WinRAR 3.80 using a disassembler and will tell you the same here. You can crack any version of WinRAR using this method and need not to pay for the registration fee and you can do this all by your self, easily. Furthermore, major software are cracked using the same way,but just get a bit complex in the methodology. This tutorial is intended for those who are new to cracking and disassembling. Disclaimer – By Reading this tutorial You agree that this tutorial is intended for educational purposes only and the author can not be held liable for any kind of damages done whatsoever to your machine, or damages caused by some other, creative application of this tutorial.
In any case you disagree with the above statement, stop here.

The Tools

To perform this hack you will be needing -
  1. Any De-assembler (I use Hackers Disassembler and Hview )
  2. Resource Hacker
  3. A patch Creator ( Use Universal Patch Creator or Code fusion)
You will be able to get them by googling or you can download my set of tools provided.

How to Crack ?

You need to have a bit knowledge of assembly language,and in case you don’t have it,just cram the steps and it will work anytime,every time. Download the latest version of WinRAR from their website and install it.
I will be cracking Winrar 3.80 here (cuz I already have it:P ). This is basically a 2 step process ( 4 step ,if you want to do things with a professional touch,period) .

Now copy the WinRAR.exe file to desktop. Make a copy of it there.

Step 1 – Hunting for Memory Address

Now load Hackers Disasembler and load the copy in it.

The Disassembler will disassemble the executable in assembly code. Now you need to search for strings that are used in WinRAR program. Press Ctrl + F and type “evaluation” without quotes and search in the assembly code. Hit enter…

After you have reached this block of code by searching, just look at the block of code above it. There you will find that some assembly values are being compared and then code is jumped to some other function. Now see carefully, the “evaluation copy” function must be invoked after some specific condition is met. We need to look for it at the code and the make certain changes to the condition so that the program doesn’t checks for the condition.

In the above code you can see this code -
00444B6A: 803DF4B84B0000 cmp byte ptr [004BB8F4], 00
00444B71: 0F859B000000 JNE 00444C12
This is the code responsible for validating you as a legal user :) . Just note down the memory address that leads to jump (JNE) at some memory location. In this case, note down 00444B71.
Note : For any WinRAR version, this code and memory address might be different,but the JNE will be same. Just note down the respective memory address that checks.
Now you need to search for the code that brings that ugly nag screen “Please purchase WinRAR license” after your trial period of 40 days is over. For this,look over your toolbar and click on “D” which stands for looking for Dialog references.

Now in the dialog box that opens,search for “please” and you will get the reference as -
ID-REMINDER, “Please purchase WinRAR license”

Double click on it and you will reach the subsequent code.

The code will be something like
* String: “REMINDER”
0048731A: 68EB5E4B00 push 004B5EEB
Just note the memory address that invokes the REMINDER dialog. In this case its 0048731A. Note it down.
Note : For any WinRAR version, this code and memory address might be different.But the Reminder Memory address code will always PUSH something. Just note down the respective memory address that PUSH ‘s.

Step 2 – Fixing and Patching

Now in this step we will be patching up values of memory addresses we noted earlier. I will be doing this using HVIEW.
Now load the copy you disassembled in Hacker’s Disassembler in Hview.

After you have loaded it, you will see the code is unreadable. Its just like opening an EXE file in notepad. You need to decode it. To do that, just press F4 and yoiu will get an option to decode it. Hit DECODE and you will be able to see code in the form of assembly code and memory addresses.

After you have done that, you need to search for memory addresses you noted down earlier. Just hit F5 and a search box will be there. Now you need to enter the memory address. To do that, enter a “.” and the type memory address neglecting the earlier “00” . The “.” will suffice for “00”. ie -
Type .444B71 in place of 00444B71

and search in the code.

After you have reached the respective code, you need to make changes to it. Press F3 and you will be able to edit the code.Now make the following changes –

After you have done it, save it by pressing F9.
Now search for next memory location by pressing F5 and entering it. Reach there and make the following changes by pressing F3 -

Save the changes by pressing F9 and exit HVIEW by pressing F10.
Congrats…You have cracked WinRAR :) Replace the original WinRAR.exe with this copyofwinrar.exe by renaming it. It will work 100% fine :P

Step 3 – Spicing up the EXE

Now U have a 100% working version of EXE, you might want to change your registration information in WinRAR. TO do this, you can use Resource hacker.

Launch Resource Hacker, load the copyofwinrar.exe in it

Now go to DIALOG –> Expand tree –> ABOUTRARDLG and click it. Now Find Trial copy line and replace it with your favorite one :P

and click on Compile Script button.

Now save the file with any name on your desktop or any location what so ever.

Now you have a fully patched WinRAR.exe file :)) you can either use it, or also can distribute it like a real cracker. If you want to learn that, move on to next step.

Step 4 – Creating a working Patch (or giving Professional touch :P )

I will be using diablo2oo2′s Universal Patcher (UPE) for creating the patch. The patch will work like any authentic one for that WinRAR version. Just like the one U downloaded at anytime of your life from any Crack and Keygen website.
Launch Patch Creator and click on add new project. Enter project Information and click on save.

Click on Add – > Offset patch

After you have done that, double click on offset patch and then
  1. Give path of original winrar.exe
  2. Give path of unmodified Winrar.exe (again)
  3. Give path for fully patched Winrar.exe (ie Cracked Winrar.exe in this case)
  4. Click on compare and it will show difference between both files
  5. Click on save.

Now in the next window, click on Create Patch and save it. The Patch will be created. Now copy it in WinRAR installation directory and hit on patch, it WILL

Congrats you have created a patch of your own and have learned to crack WinRAR :)

You can crack other software in the same way…just practice, debug and disassemble and you will get the way :)