The Crusaders

I don’t understand why people don’t get rid of these Microsoft’s default apps (Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer) as soon as they install their OS. They are absolutely useless piece of junks.

Most of those who have and still are using it must have noticed that you frequently are asked to download new codec when you play multimedia files thru Windows Media Player. And most of us don’t even bother to check what the codec are or what they really are for…we just click ok. Well, this might be the biggest mistake you are doing. Microsoft media formats have long been used for hijacking WMP for malicious purposes (one of the reasons why tech savvies don’t use WMP).
Just look at this new breed of Trojan which is using Windows Media Player (WMP) as its carrier. Actually there is this new malware that inserts links to dangerous web pages within ASF (Advanced Systems Format) media files. If a user plays an infected music file, it will launch Internet Explorer and load a malicious web page that asks the user to download a codec if you want to play the media file. And if you click ok the actual download is not a codec but a Trojan horse that installs a proxy program on the PC that hijackers use to cover their tracks for their other malicious activity. The malware is also said to be capable of converting files such as MP2 and MP3 into Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. So, none of your music files are safe. Once downloaded the pop up will not appear which gives a feeling to the users that the codec was successfully downloaded which is just what the hijackers want us to think. Now if the multimedia files are shared through a peer-to-peer network, anyone who downloads music or video file from an affected system will be at risk of getting infected as well.

Trend Micro calls the malware “Troj_Medpinch.a,” Secure Computing named it “Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen,” and Kaspersky calls it “Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a.”

The best suggestion I give is to just get rid of that damn Window’s Media Player.

written by rajit \\ tags: Hijacking, Malware, Multimedia Files, security, Trojan horse, Windows Media Player, WMP

“Google is the leader and we have to follow the leader.” I know for some this may seem rubbish and some may even think that I’ve gone mad just ‘coz my Google PR dropped :(. But it’s a fact. A bitter fact but let’s face it, if Google doesn’t like us we can’t survive the heat of internet.

The great John Chow who makes thousands of dollars….I’ve read many of his posts and he strictly disagrees that we have to depend on Google if we want to survive in internet. According to him, it’s all about the traffic. But he’s saying all this just because he has established himself as a pro blogger and people know him/his site and they don’t need to search him in the search engine. He’s already making huge 10s of thousands of $$. But how did he get famous in the beginning. How did he get traffic as a starter? I don’t think he’d be making this amount of money if it weren’t for his PR which was 6 months back. I mean now he just has PR4 but it was when he’d PR6 that his traffic grew and he become mister popular as a blogger.

Ok let’s just cut it out. Let’s not talk about JohnChow.com….my pr dropped too and I’ve been banging my head since then. It was PR5 and few weeks back the PR dropped to 3 which was a huuuuuggggggeeee disappointment for me. As you must have noticed that the domain name of my site is very difficult (547thcrusaders.com). Actually, I’d bought this site in dp and I’ve spent over a year maintaining it. When it was bought it already had PR5… how I don’t know… it only had one pr5 backlink. But after I bought I spend night and day looking for the perfect template and getting the right content for my readers. Yes, I did quite a few paid blogposts but that was just so that I can feed my family. I never did anything that didn’t belong to my niche. But still I Google penalized my site and the result as you can see… my PR is 3 now. I don’t get enough traffic now like before and I don’t get paid now like before.

I don’t know what to do. All I could think of and most of my pals told me were to request Google for reconsideration and that’s what I did. I read the Webmaster Guidelines thoroughly and modified most of the paid links who I don’t think are important to ‘nofollw’ so that the PR juice don’t get passed to them and submitted the reconsideration form to Google. Now, I’m crossing my fingers and waiting for the reply from Google. But please don’t think I’ve gone mad. I’m not…really… huhaaaa… ahem ahem .. oops !!!

written by rajit \\ tags: google, Internet Leader, Page Rank, PR Update, Traffic

Site business promotion is an important aspect of marketing strategy for the promotion products, promotion gifts or promotion items. All the effort that have been putting in creating the web site is hopeless if the web site is not popular and does not have any traffic.

It is not a difficult task to make the website popular. There are four methods to promote the site. Among them, the first method to site promotion is to put the website ad on a high traffic web site and this will give advantage in promoting the website.

There are lots of search engines. The company can submit the website to the various search engines. This is the second method to site promotion. The third method is to place the website ad on the forums or blogs. By doing this, people will notice about the website. The forth method is to write articles and send to the articles directories.

written by rajit \\ tags: Internet Marketing, Site Promotion, Website

Are you fond of cartoons and animations? It’s not just kids whom I’m asking this question but I think that people of all age groups can be cartoon fans. However have you ever wondered how they are created or what is the complex mechanism that one has to go through for creating an animation to bring an imaginative character into existence? It might be just a few minutes cartoon but the time, patience and hard work to create it is more than creating a real life movie.

Anyways, if you are a cartoon lover then you might want to visit this site called AniBoom.com where you can watch as much funny cartoons and animations as you like online. It’s a networking site where you can communicate and they’ve got unlimited cartoon clips and animations installed for you. And if you want to learn to animate then you can use their free animation software, ShapeShifter which is pretty easy and fun to use. You can upload your creations and take part in the monthly ShapeShifter challenge where you can have a chance to win Toon Boom Software. Also if you are a professional in this field, then AniBoom might prove to be a real good platform for you to express/advertise your talent and creativity. Folks might want to give you work on the basis of animations that you’ve created and uploaded here.

Right now AniBoom is just over internet but they plan to cross over to other mediums as well as TV, Cellular, PC games etc. in near future. Do watch out for the latest cartoons and animations at AniBoom.

written by rajit \\ tags: Aniboom, Animation, Cartoons, Shape Shifter

One the richest men in the world and the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates has decided that it’s time he now steps down from his job. Bill who has spent 33 years of his life at the worlds biggest software company Microsoft, who at the age of 31 had become the youngest self-made billionaire and once the richest man on Earth is now planning to spend his fortune that he made through developing software for the personal computer on charity. I just wish I get some part of that charity

“He will remain as Microsoft’s chairman and work on special technology projects, but according to Mr. Gates, great wealth brings great responsibility and his future work will include finding new vaccines and financing projects in the developing world.” BBC

It’s a big decision that he made and I really support it. May be it is really the time for him to step off and take a rest, spent sometime with his family. Don’t forget me Bill. We’ll miss you .

written by rajit \\ tags: Bill, Bill Gates, Microsoft

I came across this blog AllSpammedUp.com, an anti spam blog a week ago I guess. Actually, it was moreover a business anti spam blog that provides insights on anti spam and its development as a threat to businesses worldwide.

At that time my eyes went straight to an article “Researchers Crack Microsoft’s CAPTCHA”. It was a really interesting post about two researchers at Newcastle University’s School of Computing Science who claim to have successfully cracked Microsoft’s CAPTCHA system. Then I read most of its homepage posts. They were appealing too. I found it useful and right at that moment I subscribed to the blog thinking that the information that it is providing and that I hope it would provide in future will be a big help to me later. And really this blog has come up to the mark till now.

I truly have enjoyed its previous posts and discussions on anti spam for businesses. The blog is a new release but the uniqueness is appreciable and I got to learn a lot from it too. They got a lot of info on anti spam issues in a small business environment, and on how to deal with anti phishing, malware and email security and stuffs like that. Hope they will keep up the great work. Do subscribe to it.

written by rajit \\ tags: Anti Spam, Anti Spam Blog, Hijack, Spam

I love being a critique…point out things in a product or service which I find need attention. Some may think that it’s become my habit but I don’t mind them at all. My views are strictly for the betterment of the product or service. At least I think so.

Anyways, today I come through a SEO service site of Digital Third Coast and I couldn’t help write this post. I went through their site thoroughly. Yes, I read all what they had to say about what they can and are able to do for those who hire their service but the one this that crosses my mind is that there are so many already established SEO and Internet Marketing Service out there who have already built a reputation among people and who rank well in the search engine for keyword such as SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, SEO service, etc. So, my question is that will this newly established Chicago Search Engine Optimization company be able to survive the fierce world full of competitors and will it firstly be able to SEO its own site to rank on top in major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. for its major keywords before promising other they can and will rank them well. Because only after that will this company be visible to those who seek for SEO service on the internet. I guess they too might be banging their head to answer this same question.

One thing that I admire though is that you can see this site in the first page for the keyword ‘Chicago Search Engine Optimization’ which is a big achievement for a newly established service but still they have a long way to go if they want to survive the heat of SEO.

written by rajit \\ tags: Chicago Search Engine Optimization, Internet, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

One of the most popular Internet service providers in the UK, AOL has a firm customer base of over 34 million customers around the world. Customers do prefer AOL broadband to other Internet Service Providers in the UK.

The advantages that AOL broadband service’s subscribers savor are numerous including lightning speed access to the internet, download speed extending up to 56kbps and unlimited time online with internet call charge absolutely free of charge. AOL Broadband Providers provides two Packages namely Wireless and Wireless Plus.

Factors like Download limit, Usage, Broadband Charge per month, free accessories and Contract length differ depending upon the type of Package the User subscribes to.

Depending upon the type of package, the number of movies that one can download varies approximately from 10 to 40 and so is the usage allowance that varies from 10GB to 40GB. Another striking feature of AOL that naturally brings a smile to people’s faces is the fact that the Connection fee when internet users subscribe to AOL is absolutely free. In addition to that, Customers receive a wireless router and they can talk at Weekends and Evenings and at no real charge.

AOL Broadband also practices a Fair Use policy on its internet Connection services in the UK. This enables AOL Internet Service Provider to handle the network better and provide exceptional service to its subscribers all the time.

A dedicated Customer Support Desk that functions round the clock adds more weight to its value added service. Internet users looking for flexibility and performance can really count on the services of AOL Broadband Service Provider.

Visit Broadbandsuppliers.co.uk for AOL Broadband Reviews and you can compare latest broadband Packages.

written by rajit \\ tags: AOL, AOL Broadband Provider, Broadband Provider, Internet

I’ve been spending some time investigating the social aspects of gaming since it can become quite a lonely activity playing your Wii or Xbox. How do we fill our social needs, if we have any, without compromising in gaming time? After some hard-boiled thinking and research I’ve reached two concrete solutions. It’s either the internet or Guitar Hero that can bring friends and like-minded together to analyze, compete and hang-out together.

Guitar Hero – collect the whole set

However, Guitar Hero is not automatically the most social game to run on your Wii console. Things can easily become quite dull with the ”Guitar hero” blocking the tv for everybody else while trying to keep up with the rhythm. Even when there’s two guitar and VS mode is available Guitar Hero demands skill and outmost accuracy and therefore can become to internal, not including anyone in a larger group.

But this is not a problem since there is not only one guitar to buy but instruments for a complete band; drum set, base and guitar. Now we’re talking about social gaming, working together and including at least the majority of a group.

The Internet

Then if you find games such as Guitar Hero and Sing Star a bit cheesy, like they are, and want to focus on more kick ass games such as Halo, World of Warcraft and GTA you can, I may already have, turn to the web for help.

There are many online communities allowing member’s access to their game servers and live gaming with and against other members. You might not meet or actually see so many of your interactive buddies but the chat runs hot and it is a fun way to make friends.

By finding professional web hosting that offer game servers you can be a part of large global networks of players and like-minded.

That is perhaps one of the greatest benefits with the internet, the connection with others and the insignificance of geography. You can meet anyone from anywhere on the basis of sharing the same interests and fascination for games.

There are many more ways of integrating social needs and activities with gaming and if you have any ideas please comment below. These examples above is merely to exemplify the possibilities of the gaming community, the fact that we are many who live, eat and sleep for gaming. That is also why we must unite!

written by rajit \\ tags: Internet, Social Gaming, Web Hosting

There are numerous webhosting companies out there in the wild. Just a quick search over your favorite search engine and millions of results will be displayed. And if you go thoroughly thru each of the web hosting companies’ site, you’ll see that none of them are pointing out any of the drawbacks of their company. Everyone’s boasting about how good their hosting is than others and that people should select it to its competitors.

I had written about WebHostingGeeks.com in one of my previous posts where you could read unbiased reviews of top web hosting companies that you can find over the internet. It’s a big help for those who are seeking for web hosting to suit their needs. At that time I forgot to mention that it has been running another sister website too WebHostingRating.com which has been a trusted name since 2002 and is very much similar to Web Hosting Geeks.

Web Hosting Rating is an unbiased source for web hosting provider selection too where the customers themselves have rated the hosting services that they have tried out. They make sure that the ratings aren’t only positive thus giving out 100% customer based ratings which is a big help for others who are seeking to get the hosting service. To me though, the articles I found here were of much value than the ratings of hosting provider. There are many useful articles and tutorials that give even a novice person a pretty good idea about web hosting (Linux Web Hosting, Windows Web Hosting, Managed Hosting) or things that one should consider while getting a hosting and other related stuffs everything about web hosting. If you are looking for a new hosting provider or even planning to switch to another hosting, then I’m sure you’d find this site very handy. You are a customer and who’d better know you or who’d you trust better than another customer, isn’t it? Now, if I have to be impartial and rate WebHostingRating.com it’d be 6 out of 10.

written by rajit \\ tags: Rating of Web Hosting, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Articles, Web Hosting Companies, Web Hosting Reviews

There’s really need for someone who speaks out truth loudly in today’s world where forgery and biasness has taken over every bit of good that is left. There are very less number of people who are bold enough to speak the truth whether it’s sweet or sour.

Nowadays, there are millions of websites launching day by day. Finding the web hosting solutions for publishing those sites is a very complicated task. There are endless results to your search for the best hosting provider and all those boast to be better than the rest. Price is one of the most important factors that everyone looks at but many think that with low price comes poor quality and service. The best way I think to differentiate between them is through reviews from those who have really used the service. Most of the time we see that sites keep only positive (biased) reviews which don’t help much; instead they confuse the customers even more.

Luckily, WebHostingGeeks.com doesn’t do so. This site is fully dedicated to providing real and unbiased customer reviews of major web hosting companies. Not only do they collect web hosting reviews, they also make sure that the reviews are unbiased and customers point out the negative aspects of the hosting services as well. You can check out for yourself that they are not all positive reviews. It’s really easier now to decide which actually the best option for you is (different people have different criteria though). They also have web hosting articles which might be handy for you while getting to know more about web hosting and also while making your final selection. Just feel free to browse through the pages and gain as much information as possible before making the final decision. Sincerely, hope that this information was helpful.

written by rajit \\ tags: Reviews on Web Hosting Companies, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Articles, Web Hosting Companies, Web Hosting Reviews

It’s a little bit out of the track but today I just decided to blog about another blog … a new start. Still, I’m keeping everything under technology and computer stuffs. I don’t want to ruin my niche writing about something really stupid like some credit card, payday loans or some other things that my readers don’t prefer to read about in my blog.

Actually, I struck upon this blog by Stylish Web Design as I was looking for some information on user accounts in Windows Vista because I was much used to Xp previously and I had to configure User Account Control in my Laptop which has Vista as its operating system. This techno design blog was a big help to me and I couldn’t help refer this blog to my readers as it’s all about sharing the knowledge one has with others who need it, isn’t it? It has really got some good stuff on Web designing, Internet, Programming and other technology related stuffs. One of their posts on spyware community was also very useful. Do read it too.

It’s not that old blog though; started off just fresh this year on January. They are updating the blog frequently with news and reviews in tech crunches. So, if you are a tech freak then do check it out. If you like what you read you can even subscribe to it for latest updates. 

written by rajit \\ tags: Internet, Programming, technology, Technology Blog, Web Design

For those who are my frequent readers and who have read my previous post on the’ Offers on VPS at VirtualServerWarehouse’, they might remember that I mentioned a little about Dedicated Web Hosting at the end of that post. I didn’t just drop those few lines accidentally but because I knew that I had to write a post on dedicated hosting too as VPS (Virtual Private Server Hosting) is not enough for some websites/organizations who need to have full control over the server, get huge amount of traffic and need to use a lot of bandwidth.

“A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc.” - Wikipedia

Well, if you are from UK then let me suggest a name that is one of the leading providers of Dedicated Servers in UK. DedicatedServerWarehouse.com is solely dedicated in providing the best Dedicated Servers out there to customers. Right now they are offering 3 dedicated hosting packages, namely:

1.      Dedicated 2008 VALUE
Dedicated Hosting from £49.99 per month

• Intel Server System
• 1 x Core2 Duo 1.8GHz
• 512MB RAM (Upgradeable)
• 1×80GB SATA hard disk (Upgradeable)
• CPU power - CPS 3 Stars
• 100GB Traffic

2.      Dedicated 2008 EXTRA
Dedicated Hosting from £89.99 per month

• Dell
• Dual Core Xeon 2.3Ghz CPU
• 1GB RAM (Upgradeable)
• 1×80GB SATA hard disk (Upgradeable)
• CPU power - CPU 4 Stars
• 250GB Traffic

3.      Dedicated 2008 PRO
Dedicated Hosting from £149.99 per month

• HP Proliant DL360G5
• Quad Core Xeon 2.33Ghz CPU (Upgradeable)
• 2GB RAM (Upgradeable)
• 1×146GB SAS hard disk (Upgradeable)
• CPU power - CPU 5 Stars
• Unlimited traffic

Dedicated hosting services are pretty expensive but at this Dedicated Hosting UK, they have put their price really competitive along with maintaining quality service. You can compare the prices and select the features that best suit your needs. They do have other sister brands too for VPS Server Hosting or Colocation Web Hosting Services.

written by rajit \\ tags: Dedicated Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Dedicated Servers UK, Hosting, Managed Web Hosting, Web Hosting