EPIXY

Currency

2009-07-15T22:48:00.003+05:30

Sri Lanka has a unified exchange rate for foreign currencies which flats in response to basic exchange market developments.

Currency Rates
Exchange rates of the following currencies were:
Universal Currency Converter

Note:
These rates apply to all bills paid in foreign currency at hotels,travel agents or shops authorized to accept foreign currency.Certain shops are licensed to transact business in foreign currency only.Foreign currencies other than Pound Sterling,US Dollars ,Deutsche Marks and Japanese Yen are not necessarily accepted at provincial Banks.

Currency Regulations:
Visitors to Sri Lanka bringing in excess of US $ 10,000 should declare the amount to the Customs.

All unspent monies,which were converted from foreign currencies declared on arrival can be re-converted to original currency.

Credit Cards:
Many hotels and shops accept reputed Credit cards.No surcharge should be permitted for its use.Cash advance are possible against credit cards in certain banks.

Banking Facilities:
Banking facilities have grown and widened tremendously to cope with the sophisticated needs of today's business man.Sri Lanka and foreign banks provide an expanding range of services to investors.

Special Exchange Counters of Banks
BANK OF CEYLON
BUREAU DE CHANGE
BOCTRAVEL (Pvt)Ltd
COMMERCIAL BANK
HATTON NATIONAL BANK
PEOPLE'S BANKSAMPATHBANK LIMITED
SEYLAN BANK

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?

2009-04-21T21:48:00.000+05:30

There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese Legend...

*Thumb represents your Parents
*Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
*Middle finger represents your-Self
*Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner
*& the Last (Little) finger represents your children

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip
(As shown in the figure below):

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)...,
they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.
Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)... ., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)... ., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).
You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT....., because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!

Please try this out......... ....
ISN'T THIS A LOVELY THEORY?

Google's Work Environment ..

2009-04-20T10:43:00.008+05:30

We already knew that working for Google had certain advantages, but, believe me, this giant of the search motor takes the welfare of its employees seriously .. as shown by this decompression (stress) capsule that is impermeable to sound and light ...

Work Station: Each employee has at least two large screens. There are 4-6 'Zooglers' per office.

Technical Support: Problem with your computer ? No problem ... Bring it to this area where drinks are available while it is being fixed ...

REST ... This room provides massage chairs that you control ... while you view relaxing aquariums .... !!!

Health: Professional masseurs (eusses) available.

Top 15 Unfortunate Domain Names

2009-04-17T23:34:00.007+05:30

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is -
www.WhorePresents.com/

2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice and views at
www.ExpertSexChange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.PenisLand.net/

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.TheRapistFinder.com/

5. There’s the Italian Power Generator company,
www.PowerGenitalia.com/

6. And don’t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales,
www.MolestationNursery.com/

7. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is
www.CummingFirst.com/

8. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,
www.SpeedOFart.com/

9. Manufacturer of instruments for monitoring temperature, humidity and pressure Dickson didn’t think twice when they choose:
www.DicksOnWeb.com

10.If you’re known as Big Al, why not call your online fish supplies store for Big Al’s Online?
www.BiGalsOnline.com

11.A holiday rentals company in Spain is called Choose Spain. Hopefully the vacation won’t be a painful experience:
www.ChoosesPain.com

12.The small town Winters’ local newspaper is called Winters Express and can be read online at:
www.WinterSexPress.com

13.If you offer a scaffold erection/dismantle service, maybe you shouldn’t have a mammoth as your mascot and call your company Mammoth Erection:
www.MammothErection.com

14.Even if you’re company is called Cumbria Storage Systems don’t even think about calling your website:
www.CumStore.co.uk

15.Don’t start a business in Cook Islands… Given that their TLD is .ck and they use .co for commercial domains, you end up with:
www.budget.Co.ck

See now wasn't that fun.

BEST-EVER FREEWARE UTILITIES LIST

2009-04-17T23:15:00.001+05:30

1 Best Free Web Browser
2 Best Free Anti-Virus Software
3 Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover
4 Best Free Browser Protection Utility
5 Best Free Firewall
6 Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover
7 Best Free Rootkit Scanner/Remover
8 Best Free Intrusion Detection Utility
9 Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service
10 Best Free Software Suite

More to come...

Best Free Software Suite

2009-04-17T23:13:00.000+05:30

The Open CD site [1] offers for free a wonderful collection of just about every application software product you need to run a PC including the latest version of OpenOffice. Many of these freebies substitute admirably for expensive commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative for MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP, Thunderbird for Outlook, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, 7-zip for WinZip and many more. If you then add to this collection some of the other utilities from my "46 Best-ever Utilities" collection you will have all the software you'll ever need without spending a cent. Note: All of the Open CD utilities can be downloaded for free as a CD ISO image. If you have a slow connection you can purchase the CD for a as little as $1.99. In addition to the Windows versions, the CD also contains the same collection of programs implemented under a version of Linux called Ubuntu that can be booted and run directly from the CD. That way you not only get to try all these great programs you can try Linux as well, without interfering in any way with your current Windows installation.

Update: the folks at Ubuntu [2] are now giving away free CDs containing the latest version of Ubuntu Linux together with most of the programs on the Open CD. They will send you the full Ubuntu installation CDs plus a live CD where you can run Ubuntu directly from the CD. You can order as many CDs as you want and you don't even have to pay the mailing costs! When you get your CDs read this this simple introduction to Linux [3] before starting.

[1] http://theopencd.org
[2] https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
[3] http://www.paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/24/how-to-ubuntu-linux-for-novices/

Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service

2009-04-17T23:12:00.000+05:30

There are lots of reasons folks have for wanting to surf anonymously, ranging from simple paranoia to possibly being murdered by a malevolent foreign government. Whatever the reasons, commercial services that offer anonymity are doing real well. However one of the best services JAP [1], is totally free. In fact JAP is perhaps a little too good. That's why the German Police insisted in 2004 that a backdoor be put into the product to allow interception of child pornographers. This was done but subsequently removed as a result of court action by JAP.

An alternative to JAP is a system called Tor [2]. It not only allows anonymous browsing but anonymous P2P, email, IM, and IRC chat as well. Given the US Navy origin of Tor, the suspicion arises that this system may indeed have a permanent backdoor. However the source code is now publicly available so that suspicion can perhaps be set aside. More worrying was a raid by German police in September 2006 involving the seizing of some Tor servers in that country. Again, pedophiles were the supposed target but who really knows.

Whatever, both JAP and Tor offer a level of secrecy that is better than many commercial systems though not watertight. However expect your surfing to slow down as you'll be relayed through a chain of servers particularly with Tor which has been ground to a near standstill by BitTorrent users seeking to hide from the RIAA. Note: the latest V5 release of JAP now allows Tor users to use JAP as a software access point.

A recent development is the release of TorPark [3], a special version of the Firefox browser that has been configured to work with the free Tor anonymizing service and run directly from a USB flash drive. It's a neat idea; just plug in your USB stick to any PC with a USB port and Firefox V2.0.0.2 is automatically launched, set up for secure and private surfing.

The most obvious application is internet cafes, public terminals or indeed any PC including your own where you don't want to leave any trace of your private surfing activities. However, what attracts me is not so much the privacy side as the security potential. That's because TorPark creates a secure encrypted connection between the PC you are using and the Tor servers. This allows you to safely transmit information without fear of interception. This makes it ideal for surfing on open Wi-Fi networks. Previously, secure surfing on such networks required the use of private VPN networks, an option only available to corporates, the well heeled and the technically savvy. Now, using TorPark, any surfer can reap the same security benefits for their browsing.

[1] http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html Freeware, Any Windows system with Java, 107KB
[2] http://tor.eff.org/ Free BSD License, All Windows, 4.6MB
[3] http://www.torrify.com/software_torpark.html Freeware, Windows NT and later, 11MB

Best Free Intrusion Prevention and Detection Utility for Home Use

2009-04-17T23:11:00.000+05:30

These days all users face a real risk of malicious programs secretly installing themselves on your computer. Anti-virus and anti-spyware products dramatically reduce the chance of infection but are not perfect. In particular they are prone to miss new malware products not yet included in their signature databases. They can also fail to detect malware programs that are cleverly disguised to avoid detection.

To prevent these malevolent programs from slipping by your AV and anti-spyware programs you need additional defenses such as a Host based Intrusion Prevention program (HIPS). These programs pick up intruders by their behavior rather than by their characteristic fingerprint. They are not limited to detecting specific malware products but can target a wide range of interlopers. For the most part HIPS programs all work in a similar manner; they stop any suspicious behavior and then ask the user whether they want to allow it. This, as we shall see, can be a mixed blessing.

Unfortunately most HIPS programs, including the popular free programs WinPatrol and Prevx, generate a lot of warning messages many of which are quite cryptic. These messages tend to alarm many less experienced users who feel there is something wrong and simply don't know how to respond. That's why these products are only suitable for the very experienced (and very patient).

Thankfully a new generation of HIPS programs has emerged that use white lists, black lists, policies and behavior analysis rules along with other techniques to reduce the number of messages and the load on the user.

A prime example of this class of product is the free Cyberhawk program from Novatix. I use it on one of my PC's and it only occasionally issues warnings and even then the warnings are usually real and need to be taken seriously. In essence it provides a vital additional layer of protection to my AV and anti-spyware scanners at little cost in terms of annoyance and no cost in terms of my wallet. It is the stand-out free product in the HIPS category. Note: A number of readers have reported browsing performance problems after installing Cyberhawk. I've not found that myself but be aware that this may be a problem on some PCs.

There are some solid other contenders. Blink Personal from eEye [2] is a HIPS with a firewall as opposed to products like Comodo and ZoneAlarm Pro that are firewalls with HIPS. It's a useful tool for advanced users though I found Cyberhawk to be more effective and yet simpler to configure and use. Blink is also only free for non-commercial use.

[1] http://www.novatix.com/cyberhawk/ Freeware, Windows 2000 and later, 4.7MB[2]
[2] http://www.eeye.com/html/products/blink/personal/index.html Free for personal use,Win2K and later 26.7MB

Best Free Rootkit Scanner/Remover

2009-04-17T23:10:00.001+05:30

Rootkits are a special kind of software tool used to hide trojans, viruses and other malware from your anti-virus scanner and other security products. Unfortunately, they are extremely effective which means that some of you reading this will be infected even though you believe your PC to be totally clean. Thankfully there is a new class of security product now available called rootkit detectors that use specialized techniques to detect these dangerous intruders.

Most of these detectors require quite a bit of technical skill to interpret the results but one of the simplest to use is also amongst the most effective. It's called BlackLight [1] and is currently available as a free beta from F-Secure. The beta will expire on the 1st of October, 2007 but you can use it freely up to then. I suggest everyone download this product and scan their PC. The chances of you being infected are small but for five minutes work it's not worth taking the risk.

BlackLight will detect most rootkits missed by AV scanners but is can't provide perfect detection; no rootkit detector can. That's why its' advisable to use more than product.

If you are an experienced user you should check out SysInternals RootkitRevealer [2]. It uses a totally different different technique to BlackLight so by using both products together you'll be getting excellent overall detection. RootkitRevealer is however, harder to use than BlackLight and is a bit prone to false positives so take care before deleting detected items. If in doubt, consult the SysInternals RootkitRevealer forum. [3]

Another useful rootkit detector for experienced users is GMER [4] though please read the documentation carefully before using this one. I like this product a lot but it's not for everyone. So if you are the type that simply likes to press the "scan" button then stick with BlackLight ;>)

Currently the biggest guns in the rootkit detection war are two free Chinese products called IceSword [5] and DarkSpy [6]. They are not really detectors like the other products rather they offer a set of tools that can help reveal the presence of a rootkit. These tools include a special process viewer, startup manager and port enumerator that are not fooled by rootkits. It's left to the user though, to interpret the results. In the hands of an skilled user, these are amazing tools but not much use to beginners. The Chinese download sites are slow so I've given local download links [5], [6].

The reality is that at the present time, full protection against rootkits may require the use of multiple products. For details see my article on rootkits [7].

[1] http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/ Free beta, Windows 2K/ XP/Vista, 879KB
[2] http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html Freeware, All Windows versions, 231KB
[3] http://www.sysinternals.com/Forum/default.asp
[4] http://www.gmer.net/ Freeware, Windows NT/ 2K/XP, 480KB
[5] http://majorgeeks.com/Icesword_d5199.html Freeware, Windows NT/2K/XP, 2.1MB
[6] http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/DarkSpy-Anti-Rootkit.shtml Windows 2K/XP/2003, 626KB
[7] http://www.techsupportalert.com/rootkits.htm <= How to deal with the threat of rootkits

Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover

2009-04-17T23:07:00.000+05:30

My top recommendation here is AVG Anti-Spyware [1], a product formerly formerly known as Ewido until it was acquired recently by GriSoft.

Ewido started life as an anti-trojan scanner but has been repositioned as an anti-spyware scanner by the new owners and the new name reflects that re-positioning. Whatever ever it is called it is an excellent anti-trojan and a fine anti-spyware program as well.

In my tests Ewido/AVG Anti-Spyware emerged as was one of the few products that could detect polymorphic and process injecting trojans that were totally missed by many anti-virus products. Unfortunately the free version of AVG Anti-Spyware doesn’t have a memory monitor and this omission significantly reduces the level of active protection provided. However the on-demand scanner is excellent.

I recommend that all average PC users who don't have an anti-trojan scanner download AVG Anti-Spyware and scan
their PCs weekly. I suspect you may be surprised at what you will find. AVG Anti-Spyware is also pretty good at removing some spyware infections so bear that in mind next time you encounter a spyware product you can't remove with normal anti-spyware products like Ad-Aware.

Note that AVG Anti-Spyware only works with Windows 2000 and later so Win 9X users should consider the free version of a2 (a-squared) anti-trojan as an alternative. It's not quite as effective as AVG Anti-Spyware but is still an excellent product.

High risk PC users such as P2P file sharers and frequenters of hack sites, should however consider Trojan Hunter or the full version of AVG Anti-Spyware both of which offer the active protection they need.

Note: The free version of AVG Anti-Spyware is actually the same as the paid version but after 30 days the active protection (i.e. memory monitor) becomes non-functional, automatic updates are disabled and kernel level self protection is turned off.

[1] http://www.ewido.net/en/download/ (6.17MB)
[2] http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ (13.2MB)

5 Best Free Firewall

2009-04-17T23:05:00.000+05:30

No other single product class seems to cause as much angst to average users in their installation and day-to-day use as Firewalls. For such users, Kerio Personal Firewall is my top recommendation as it seems to cause the fewest problems yet manages reasonable protection as well.

Kerio dropped the product in late 2005 but thankfully Sunbelt Software, the makers of the excellent CounterSpy anti-spyware scanner, picked it up and will continue making it available under the name of Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall [1] . Note that the free and paid versions of Sunbelt Kerio are the same. If you don't buy the product some advanced features are automatically turned off after 30 days. The product will also nag you every time you start it. For some this is a small price to pay for a great free firewall. For others it's a real turn-off.

If performance rather than ease-of-use is your criterion then the Comodo firewall [2] is the top contender. The firewall itself is very robust and it comes with a well designed intrusion detection system as well. Comodo also supports internet connection sharing, while the free versions of Kerio and ZoneAlarm do not. On the minus side the IDS is initially rather talkative and this can unnecessarily alarm inexperienced users. Additionally Comodo has been known to conflict with some other security products though more recent versions seem to be better in this respect. For the technically initiated this is an outstanding free product and an easy first choice. Note that Comodo requires Windows 2000 or XP SP2.

Also technically impressive is the Jetico Firewall [3]. It rates highest on the leak tests of all firewalls but personally I find it awkward to use. It may however, be just your cup of tea.

Another tricky product is NetVeda Safety.Net firewall [4] however its performance is quite outstanding and it offers application control and content filtering as well. This highly capable product deserves to be better known and experienced users should definitely put it on their short list.

I no longer recommend the free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall [5]. First it is a very basic product compared to the commercial ZoneAlarm Pro version. The leak-test performance of the latest free version is extremely poor while the Pro version is excellent. Second, it can be a troublesome program on some PCs.

[1] http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm (7.3MB)
[2] http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ (8MB)
[3] http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/jpfirewall.htm[ (2.7MB)
[4] http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm (6.3MB)
[5] http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp (9.0MB)

Best Free Browser Protection Utility

2009-04-17T23:04:00.000+05:30

There's a scumware plague at the moment. All it takes is a visit to a pushy web site or a "loaded" shareware install and next minute your Internet Explorer homepage has been changed, your default search setting altered, unwanted ads pop up on your screen and worse.

If you use Windows 2000 or later my top recommendation for safe browsing is a free program called Sandboxie [1] that creates a special contained "sandbox" environment on your PC. While browsing within the virtual sandbox provided by Sandboxie you are totally corralled off from other parts of your PC. So any files you download are isolated to the sandbox. Similarly, any programs that are executed only do so within the sandbox and have no access to your normal files, the Windows operating system or any other part of your PC.

Usage is remarkably simple. To start a sandboxed browsing session you just click the Sandboxie icon from the Quick Launch tray and this will launch your default browser in the sandbox. You can then use it in the normal way to browse to sites or download files.

If you downloaded a file it will install normally but again will be corralled off from your real PC. Anything it writes to your hard drive, any changes to the Windows Registry or changes to the Windows startup will be held in a separate area within the sandbox. Similarly, any new processes running in your computer memory will be sandboxed.

After you have finished browsing you can right click the Sandboxie icon and delete all sandboxed files and processes and your PC will be returned to the same state it was in before the browsing session. If you want retain particular downloaded files you can save them permanently before clearing the contents of the Sandbox.

The advantage is clear: any spyware, trojans, keyloggers or other malware products that infected your PC while browsing will be eliminated.

Sandboxie works fine with all browsers but requires Windows 2000 and later. It can cause problems on some PCs so backup before installing.

Users of earlier Windows versions may want to check out SpywareBlaster [2]. It's is not a sandbox but rather is a program that changes some settings in your computer to help prevent an initial infection. It provides protection against thousands of malevolent products that use ActiveX based exploits, block hostile sites and discards unwanted cookies as well. SpywareBlaster is most effective with Internet Explorer but can be used with Firefox as well. though this may be overkill as Firefox doesn't need to be protected against ActiveX exploits. Once it has changed your setting SpywareBlaster doesn't really need to continuously run on your PC other than to provide automatic updates. These can however be initiated manually. SpywareBlaster is free but the update service costs $9.95 annually.

A companion program to SpywareBlaster is SpywareGuard [3] that provides active protection. It is a monitor that checks programs before they are run for malware behavior and also does some signature checking as well. However of late SpywareGuard seems to have been rather neglected with no new updates for more than a year so I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

An alternative to SpywareGuard is to use one of the free intrusion prevention and detection utilities listed here. These provide active protection against infection and work very effectively in concert with the passive protection provided by SpywareBlaster.

[1] http://www.sandboxie.com Free for personal use, Win2K and later, 310KB
[2] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html Freeware, all Windows version, 2.5MB
[3] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html Freeware, All Windows versions, 913KB

Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover

2009-04-17T23:03:00.000+05:30

A couple of years ago most folks relied on SpyBot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware for spyware protection. Alas spyware has evolved so quickly that these once outstanding products are no longer up to the task of providing primary protection though they remain useful as secondary, on-demand scanners.

The new generation of malware requires a new generation of defensive products. Such products need to provide stronger active protection and broader spectrum detection. The best anti-spyware programs, WebRoot SpySweeper and Spyware Doctor are both commercial products but there are two capable free products that I can recommend.

The first is Microsoft's Windows Defender program [1] which is currently available as a free beta. Defender is the latest re-incarnation of the excellent Giant Antispyware product that Microsoft purchased late in 2004. Based on my tests, Windows Defender is not as effective as its immediate predecessor but still has solid protective capability. I tested it on several drive-by download sites and its multiple real time monitors provided reasonable (though by no means watertight) defense. It appears to be a little vulnerable to polymorphic malware in particular and for this reason I suggest it should be used in combination with regular on-demand scans from the free AVG Anti-Spyware. My other reservation about Windows Defender is that it consumes quite a lot of your processing power. If you have a modern PC this should not be a problem but older machines will definitely suffer a performance hit.

Note that you need a legal version of Windows XP SP2 to run this program. I've been told cracked versions of Defender that will run on any XP SP2 PC are currently circulating on the P2P networks but I'd approach those with caution. The idea of a cracked security program strikes me as an oxymoron.

My second choice is Spyware Terminator. Unlike Windows Defender it works with all versions of Windows so it's the stand-out choice for Windows 9x users. It's no slouch either. Like Windows Defender it has strong active protection. Indeed with its built in HIPS system that warns you of any unrecognized intruders, it has stronger protection against unknown threats than the Microsoft product. This was confirmed on some tests I ran on drive-by download sites where Spyware Terminator proved to be impregnable.

Spyware Terminator has it's own spyware detection engine but gives you the option of using a second engine based on the Open Source ClamWin anti-virus program. ClamAV is not the most effective AV scanner on the market but it's certainly competent and the additional protection can only be a plus.

On the downside Spyware Terminator is slow to scan and can slow down your PC a tad though not as much as Windows Defender. I've also heard reports that support via the free forum is poor.

Choosing between Windows Defender and Spyware Terminator is not easy. As of today I thing Spyware Terminator has the edge but it's difficult to see how free product like this can remain viable, particularly in a high support product class such as anti-spyware.

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d ( 6.4MB)
[2] http://www.spywareterminator.com (2.3MB)

Best Free Anti-Virus Software

2009-04-17T23:02:00.000+05:30

There are three equal recommendations in this category. First there is AVG Antivirus 7 Free Edition. This product [1] has been continuously refined since it was first released in 1991 and the recently released V7.5 makes further improvements to an already solid product. Additionally, it's relatively small, light on resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning. There is a free and a pro version, the only difference being that the free version has a few non-critical features disabled and has no direct technical support.

Equally effective is the free Avast! scanner [2] though its funky media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast! also required periodic re-registration while AVG does not. However Avast! does not seem to suffer the signature file update problems that plague some AVG users.

My third choice is the AOL Anti Virus Shield [3]. This is a cut down version of the top rated Kaspersky AV and is being made available for free to all uses not just AOL members.

On first sight it seems like an unbeatable deal but it's not quite what it seems. This really is a "lite" version. It lacks the important html and heuristics modules present in the full Kaspersky product so the protection afforded against hostile web sites is actually inferior to AVG and Avast!. Gone, too, is the ability to create rescue disks and to fully manage the quarantine area. The configuration options are also more limited.

That said, AOL Anti Virus Shield still offers more powerful malware detection than AVG and Avast! . It does however need to be augmented by other products to improve protection again hostile sites and zero-day threats. Possible candidates would be a sandbox for surfing (see section 4) and an anti-spyware product with strong real time protection (see section 3).

Both AVG and Avast! are excellent free products that will meet the needs of most users. However neither offers the best malware detection available. That title belongs to commercial products like NOD32, F-Secure, the full version of Kaspersky AV and others. They are however capable packages and offers the financially challenged a real alternative to the major anti-virus suites.

However if you use these free products in conjunction with a free on-demand scanner, you can achieve a level of detection approaching that of the best commercial products. Further improvement is possible by creating a layered defense using additional free security products such as AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly Ewido).

On-demand scans should be run regularly, at least weekly, to check for viruses and other malware that may have been missed by your main scanner.

If you don't use AOL AVS as your main AV product then this should be your the top choice as an on-demand scanner as its detection is outstanding. You should though, disable the AOL AVS real time monitor otherwise you may run into conflicts with the monitor on your primary AV product.

Another top recommendation for an on-demand scanner is AntiVir Personal Edition Classic [4]. It offers significantly better detection rates than either AVG or Avast! but the lack of email scanning precludes recommendation as a primary scanner. However as an on-demand scanner, it's first rate. If you use it in this role, make sure you disable its resident virus guard during installation to prevent it interfering with your main AV scanner. Even so , it's quite an intrusive product -you will certainly be well aware of its presence. Note that the recently released V7 unfortunately introduces a time limited license though apparently this will be renewable.

Yet another good option for on-demand scanning is the free version of the commercial AV product BitDefender [5]. It's a first class product with outstanding detection rates but as the free version lacks an email scanner and a resident virus guard, it's only really suited for use as an on-demand scanner rather than your main AV product. There are some other limitations as well. First it has an annoying habit of detecting malware products that have been quarantined by other security products and you can't exclude these areas from subsequent scans. Secondly, it is only available on a one year non-renewable license.

[1] http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ (16.0MB)
[2] http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html (8.8MB)
[3] http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp? (13.9MB)
[4] http://www.free-av.com (8.7MB)
[5] http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html (13.2MB)

Best Free Web Browser

2009-04-17T22:58:00.000+05:30

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is a competent browser with enough features to meet the needs of most users but is difficult to recommend due to on-going security concerns. In the past IE has been a focus for security attacks and there is little to suggest this will change with the release of IE7. Additionally, Microsoft have a poor track record for speedily fixing IE defects and this has left users open to drive-by attacks and other forms of zero-day exploits.

There are several excellent alternatives with the new Mozilla Firefox V2 [1] a solid first choice. It's safer than IE, so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections since they started using the product. It's also browses a tad faster than IE, is very stable and is more standards compliant. The program loads slower than IE but once running, it positively zips along. With tabbed browsing and over 2000 free extensions (add-ons) that allow you to customize your experience, it provides most users with a major surfing upgrade. Firefox is now my everyday browser though I still leave IE on my PC for the occasional web site that's designed around IE's non-standard features.

An equal first choice is Opera [3]. It's a speed demon; probably the fastest of all the common browsers. But it's much more than that; it's full featured, standards compliant and safe. Just as Firefox is extensible through add-ins, Opera can be enhanced using Widgets, though there are not nearly as many of these available as Firefox extensions. Then again, it doesn't need as many extensions as a lot of the features added by Firefox add-ins are already available built into the standard Opera browser. There's just so much to like about Opera V9 that you could easily create a case that it's better than Firefox. Indeed, if I could get an Opera replacement for some of my key Firefox add-ins, I'd probably switch.

Users who don't want to drift too far from the Microsoft stable can get some of the feature advantages of Firefox and Opera by using one of the many customized shells for Internet Explorer such as Maxthon [4] and Avant [5]. Their main selling feature for these products used to be tabbed browsing but now that this is available in IE7 it's hard to create a case for their general recommendation. Still if you need a specialized feature they are worth considering. On the downside these shells share most of the same security problems as IE as they utilize the IE engine.

Last but not least is the K-Meleon browser [6], a slimmed down cousin of Firefox that's optimized for Windows. Of the four browsers I use regularly on my different PCs, K-Meleon is the quickest loading and along with Opera, the fastest for surfing. On the downside there are only a limited number of add-ons and plug-ins available so you are pretty well limited to the features available in the standard product. If you are the type of person who prefers performance to bells and whistles you should definitely try K-Meleon.

[1] http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ (5.6MB)
[2] http://www.techsupportalert.com/firefox.htm
[3] http://www.opera.com/ (4.6MB)
[4] http://www.maxthon.com/index.htm (1.9MB)
[5] http://www.avantbrowser.com/ (1.86MB)
[6] http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/ (6MB)

How does Google knows if you are a Adsense client and clicking on your own ads?

2009-04-17T22:27:00.001+05:30

As an Adsense Publisher, you are supposed to adhere to the Adsense Program Policies religiously.As a policy, Google is very strict with those who click on their own Google Ads.Google has its own way of identifying click fraud happening with Google Adsense.If you are wondering how How does Google knows if you are a Adsense client and clicking on your own ads on our own pages??I hope that you will find this little article helpful and informative.

When you visit a website using your Web browser(ex.IE,FF,Opera) there are various information along with the IP Address that are sent to the website.The website can then extract these information and make use of them ( like Google does ;) ) as per their processes.
The Information that is sent across either by HTTP Headers or other means includes

1. Your PC’s IP address
(Every computer connected to the Internet is assign a unique number known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Since these numbers are usually assigned in country- or region-based blocks, an IP address can often be used to identify the location from which a computer is connecting to the Internet.)

2. Operating system

3. Cookies

4. Screen resolution

5. Browser information( IE/Firefox ).

6. Mac Address

In order to come to the correct conclusion Google or for that matter any website can place checks on

1. Above information collected from your adsense login and
2. Above information collected from PC from which the ads were clicked

If both 1 and 2 match then your adsense account might be suspended anytime. This is one of the very crude check which Google can certainly do and must be doing.

Google Blog, has this information with regards to the topic

IP addresses of computers clicking on ads are very useful data points. A simple use of IP addresses is determining the source location for traffic. That is, for a given publisher or advertiser, where are their clicks coming from? Are they all coming from one country or city? Is that normal for an ad of this type? Although we don’t use this information to identify individuals, we look at these in aggregate and study patterns. This information is imperfect, but by analyzing a large volume of this data it is very helpful in helping to prevent fraud. For example, examining an IP address usually tells us which ISP that person is using. It is easy for people on most home Internet connections to get a new IP address by simply rebooting their DSL or cable modem. However, that new IP address will still be registered to their ISP, so additional ad clicks from that machine will still have something in common. Seeing an abnormally high number of clicks on a single publisher from the same ISP isn’t necessarily proof of fraud, but it does look suspicious and raises a flag for us to investigate. Other information contained in our logs, such as the browser type and operating system of machines associated with ad clicks, are analyzed in similar ways.

Read more about Device fingerprint

Bio-divercity & Sinharaja (Lion King) Rain Forest

2009-04-17T22:12:00.004+05:30

Sri Lanka blessed with an abundance of flora and flora has a long radition of conservation.This goes back to its ancient Buddhist tradition which teaches respect and compassion all living things.The world's first wild life sanctuary was set up by Royal edict in the 3rd c. B.C in Mihintale(where the Buddhist doctrine was first preached)and is still a sanctuary.Understanding the importance of conservation ecological integrity,large wilderness tracts were set aside by successive rulers as reserves for rain catchment and pest control purposes.Today,the sanctuaries ,national parks,and reserves where law protects flora and flora comprise 14% of Island's land area of 65610sq,KM.

Within his land area there are more than 70 sanctuaries,National parks & a number of wetlands and mountain ranges.therefore the bio-diversity in Srilanka is regarded to be the greater per sq.meter of surface area than any other country in the Asian Region.When Sri Lanka's ecosystem is compared with other Asian countries, Sri Lanka has many rain forests and wetlands.There are also many ecosystems with mangroves,sand dunes,beaches and coral reefs.Numbering over 220,Sri Lanka for its size has perhaps the largest number of waterfalls of any county in the world.
Sri Lanka is aglobal bio-diversity hotspot.About half of its species are endemic,including all fresh water crabs,90% amphibians,25-75% reptiles and vertebrates,around 50% fresh water fishes,26% flowering plants,145 mammals and as non migrant birds.

Species richness is extreme and there are known to be over 3,368 species of flowering plants,314 ferns,575 mosses, 190 liveworts, 896 algae,1920 fungi,400 orchids,242 butterflies,139 mosquitos,525 crab beetles,266 land snails ,78 fresh water fishes,250 amphibians,92snakes,35 fresh water crabs,21 geckos,21 shinks,322 non-migrant birds.The Island also provides critical habitat for internationally mobile species,including 5speciesof endangered marine turtles,about 100 species of waterfowl,and many other migratory birds.

Mathematics of Life

2009-04-17T22:05:00.000+05:30

If..
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is Equal to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Hard Work
H+A+R+D+W+O+R+K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11=98%

Knowledge
K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 =96%

Love
L+O+V+E
12+15+22+5=54%

Luck
L+U+C+K
12+21+3+11=47%

(Don't most of us think, this is the most important ??)

Then what makes 100% ????

Money No!!!

M+O+N+E+Y
13+15+14+5+25=72%

Leadership No!!!

L+E+A+D+E+R+S+H+I+P
12+5+1+4+5+18+19+9+16=89%

Every problem have a solution only if we perhaps change our attitude.
To go to the top,
To that 100%,
what we really need to go further...a bit more...

ATTITUDE
A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100%

It is OUR ATTITUDE towards Life and Work that makes OUR LIFE 100% !!!

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING..
Change Your Attitude ..And You Change Your Life !!!