Some recent computer News

The first news about computer

At February 22^nd, Microsoft lost the trial against Alcatel – Lucent, the French network company. The court delivered a verdict of guilty of Microsoft and ordered it to pay 1 billion and 520 million dollars. Alcatel – Lucent had sued Microsoft for the patent right of MP3. It has the original technique of deal of music files, but it appealed that this technique was used by Microsoft without permission for creating new music software of Microsoft. Of course Microsoft insists that they signed a contract with a German company for using MP, so it is considering appealing against this sentence.

I think Microsoft may solve this problem in some ways, but it could damage in an unguarded moment by Apple Computer.

The second news

At February 22^nd, Google announced that it will provide new service, called Google Apps Premier Edition. With this service, we can use many functions that are useful especially business. First, it has Google Talk. This is the IP telephone and instant massaging function. Second, we can use Google Calendar for making our schedule easily. Third, we can make documents and calculate on the table with Google Docs＆Spreadsheets like Microsoft Word and Excel. A few years later, this might be very popular in the business world.

I do not know how useful it will be in business, but I am very interested in this service because I am going to major in business in the future.

Today let me introduce my favorite websites.
Very good sites that I know are Dictionary.com, Google adsense, and Buy.com

Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/

This website is very useful for students. Of course you can find the meaning of an English word with this site; furthermore, you can find many synonyms and antonyms very easily. Wait! Dictionary.com still has more functions than you expect. It has not only dictionary functions but also encyclopedia and reference functions. Because all of them can be used free, you can have mini-library!

How to use: put the word you want to figure out into the box at the right corner!

Google adsense http://www.google.com/adsense

Do you have your own website or blog? If you have, this site is very beneficial for you. In order to use this site, you need to register and make your account. After you register, you can attach some advertisement on your website or blog. The advertisements should be related your website’s contents automatically. All advertisements are provided by Google, so it is very safe. Once someone visit your website and click advertisement, you will be given some money from Google. Although the money per one click is very low, it is free to start and maintain. Therefore, if you have website or blog, why don’t you try it?

Caution: DO NOT try it for school-assignment or company’s blog. USE your private one.

Buy.com http://www.buy.com/

In this website, you can buy many goods, especially DVD, CD, and Books. It is like Amazon, but you can buy some goods in cheaper prices than Amazon. In addition to DVD, CD, and Books, Buy.com has many merchandised such as electronics, bags, toys, indoor and outdoor goods, and even cell phones. Therefore, when you are looking for some stuff, visit not only Amazon but also Buy.com!

Caution: Only English is used in Buy.com

Thank you for reading, and try them if you are interested in!

Computer Terms: What Is "Social Engineering"?

Social Engineering means getting important and confidential information by social means, such as conversation, eavesdropping, and steals. This is also called “social hacking” or “social cracking”. Because social engineering does not require any special computer skill for finding information, everyone can do it.
The examples of the information are passwords of your account in computers. If someone fined your password written on your memo in the garbage box, you could be the victim of social engineering; in other words, this person would abuse your account for shopping, and you will have to pay something that you will not get.
Also, disguising other person for drawing information is another example of social engineering. For example, someone could pretend to be your mother and ask your information such as bank account number.
If this happens within a company, this company will be stolen their workers’ and financial information. This must be huge damage for it. These days, because the e-mail is very popular, the social engineering using e-mail is increasing. If you want to know much about e-mail social engineering, you can visit the website of computer protection program.
Therefore, it is very dangerous but very popular in this world. We have to pay more attention about it because it can happen many times in the United States or United Kingdom.

What I now about the Mac (Apple computers)?

On the day of second week of this semester, one news struck surprise to me. iPhone, one of the greatest products of Apple computer, will be released next June! Oh my god! What an innovative sell phone it is! When I go to the United States, I will buy it absolutely, so I want to know about it more.
First of all, iPhone has the same function as iPod, so I can listen to a lot of music. Before having known this news, I had planed to buy an iPod for using in the U.S., but I do not need it with having iPhone. However, I have no idea how to download music into phone and how many music it saves in itself. Therefore, my interest is the function of music in iPhone.
Also, I heard we can see the internet if we have iPhone. Unlike normal sell phones, it provides the same picture of the internet as computers. Because I have blogs and check some websites everyday, this function is very important for me. Moreover, I wonder whether iPhone can display Japanese or not. Consequently, I am interested in this internet function most.