Beware of Microsoft Powerpoint Flaw

Microsoft has warned that Hackers are targetting a unpatched flaw in Microsoft office Powerpoint to attack users PC 's .

Versions Vulnerable : Microsoft Office 2003 SP3,Office 2002 SP3 and 2000 SP3 .

Hackers will launch attack by making you open a powerpoint file which has been crafted already . When you open the file powerpoint will try to access a invalid object in the memory which in turn allows the hacker to execute code remotely on your system .

As per Security advisory , attacks are not spread yet heavily but they expect some limited number of expects targetted at some users .Right Now Microsoft did not come up with any patch for this flaw but they might do it in next patch.

So What should I do to protect myself against powerpoint vulnerability ?

Microsoft suggests us not to open files received from untrusted sources, use the Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment (MOICE) to open untrusted files, and use Microsoft Office File Block policy to restrict the opening of Office 2003 and earlier documents.

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Tata Nano Review - Shall I go for a Nano or Maruti 800 ?

Hmmm this is a million dollar question to be answered .After reading lot of reviews and listening to people i personally built a opinion on this people 's car .So will I buy a nano or not ? What opinion do i have on Nano ?

When I start thinking about Nano ,the first ever question in my mind is Why TATA built this car ?? His Indica is doing good so as his Ace which are priced above 2 lakhs .When I heard his reply to this question , I am so happy that now Indian business echelons are thinking of customers.For your information Indian business people are never conscious of customer satisfaction. Indian customers never question about the quality of the product . Seeing a family travelling on a scooter with a kid standing in the front , a dad driving it and a mom holding a baby in her lap and if possible one more kid between the dad and mom,Mr Tata wanted to build something that will revolutionize these peoples lives.When I started thinking what he can build in a lakh , My thinking can not go beyond a Auto Rickshaw .But I was surprised when 6 feet Ratan came out of our little peppy toy called Nano in Auto Expo last year .


Did you ever hear of something called a operational efficiency ?? Nano is a perfect example of operational efficiency . You can read How Mr Ratan and his team achieved this here !! The Nano team of 500 people did a very brilliant job in building this little car . They achieved price efficiency mainly in material and by taking advantage of low cost Indian labour . They used plastic instead of metal but with no compromise in safety norms . As per TATA motors Nano will satisfy all the safety norms .

As a Indian , I am proud of what Mr Tata as achieved . They showed the world a brutal example of engineering . They proved the world that we the Indians are capable of achieving things rather than jut using things someone else has invented. So what things I consider can be reasons for buying the Nano ?

Pro s of Nano :
* Every one knows the Nano .Having it will be a kind of status symbol in earlier days . People ask you lot of questions about it .
* Cool design . A one lakh car is not expected to be so cool in design but the Indian automaker made it. Its peppy look does force me to buy it .It beats Maurti 800 in this point
* Brand TATA : TATA s products are known for their quality. Tata Vehicles are very low on maintenance so as Will be Nano .
* Price Tag : Not to be mentioned , yes I will certainly buy the Nano for its price tag . Its the lowest priced car in the world .
* Mileage : Nano will offer you more mileage that most of the other cars .Tata Motors say it will give you 20 + .

How is Nano in comparision with other cars ? Read on here .

Con s of Nano :

* In start may be the car might be a status symbol but with its numbers increasing and every one having it , you may not feel so elited of having it .
*A rear mounted engine with roaring sound reminds me of a sports car but its Nano man .This rear mounted engine surely reminds me of a diesel Auto :).
* Speed matters . Its top speed is claimed to be a bit above 100 but I dont think a 600 + cc engine can do it with 4 people on board .
* Its nearest competitor Maruti 800 is among the most reliable vehicles from the Indian car stable . It has been tested through times and its a tough vehicle. I personally own it and there is not doubt about it . It offers me a mileage of around 18 - 20 most of the times .Most of the people are still in a kind of dilemma whether Nano first version may have some glitches like Indica initial release .
* If you think of price tag , The basic nano which is of 1 lakh which will be given only to first one lakh customers and thats also on the basis of a electronic lottery . If I am buying a car for my family , I will surely look for something that has a air conditioner .For a Nano having a air conditioner , I have to pay around 1.7 lakh and I can get a Maruti 800 if I can afford 30 k more .
* Not to forget this , The most annoying thing is the application form and the deposit price. They charge 300 rs for a application and the deposit price is arround 70 k .Tata might had put this one to avoid huge bookings from customers but as a customer its not that much comfortable.
*Its dashboard looks to me much like a auto dashboard . I am not at all impressed with it dashboard did not give me a rich feel of a good car .
When I summarize all the pros and cons I dont see many strong reasons for buying the Nano .But yes , its a new kid on the block . If you like trying new things, you can book one .If you care about each penny you spend , you can save 30 k by going for a nano instead of a Maruti 800 .

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Internet Explorer 8 Review - Why should I use IE 8 ?

Microsoft shipped in its final version of Internet Explorer yesterday . IE 8 is considered a stiff response by Microsoft to its rivals . With the market share of Internet Explorer decreasing and number of rivals increasing day by day , Microsoft had to work on building something that will wow the users and turn them back to Internet Explorer .So what we have in the box with Internet Explorer 8 ?

• AutoComplete Address bar : Just like the latest version of Firefox and chrome browser , now IE address bar is also not just for typing the URL .It provides autocomplete functionality which will get a list of results from your History and Favorites, organized by category based on what you type.The search will be done even in the content of the previously visited pages also .The address bar can also be used to display matching websites from RSS feeds as well. Choose Tools-->Internet Options-->Content, then click the Settings button next to AutoComplete. Check the box next to Feeds, and click OK and then OK again. Now when you use the Address Bar, information from RSS feeds will be displayed as well.

• Group Tabbing : This is something which you might notice first when you use IE8 . IE8 has improved the way it handles tabbing . For people who love to use new tabs instead of new windows , IE8 makes your life more easier now with group tabbing . When you open a new tab from a existing page, the new tab opens directly to the right of the originating one, and both tabs are given the same color. That way, all related tabs are automatically grouped and color-coded.In firefox , you have to use colour tabs extension to achieve this.If you open one more tab from the existing page, it won't appear on immediate right of originating one like earlier . It will appear in the far right of the group with same color as of the group .You can even move a tab from one group to other by just dragging it . You can control a entire group just by right clicking on one tab and choosing the right option as shown in the figure.

• Tab Handling : Each tab is isolated from the others, so if one tab crashes, the entire browser won't close down. You can restore the crashed tab, and when you do, it reloads with the information that it had when its crashed, such as a partially written e-mail or a video . If its a video ,it will start playing at the point the tab has crashed .IE8 even have a new feature to reopen the closed tabs. To reopen the last tab you've closed, you press Ctrl-Shift-T. To see a list of recently opened tabs and choose which to open, you right-click any tab, select Recently Closed Tabs, and pick the one you want to open .

• Accelerators and Web Slices :This is the most noticeable feature in the latest version of Internet Explorer. Accelerators are nothing but addons which will get more information on the text you have on a webpage like searching , translation , send a email ,digging the link , getting the Map of a address .... It is a kinda mashup which shows you the result of accelerator in the current page itself . Rightnow we have most of the accelerators from the microsoft such as Live Maps, Live Search and Windows Live Spaces. There are others as well, including ones from Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo. Its not tough writing a accelarator . You can do it easily with knowledge of basic XML .
  

Web Slices offer one more way of easily getting information. They deliver information that is changing on a particular website which you are not visiting directly . For e.g if you have a website that displays latest news , you can get the news without visiting the website .When you visit a Web page that csupports slicing, the Web Slice icon on the right side of Favorites bar turns green as shown in the figure. when you click it you can see a list of Web Slices available on that page. If you select one it gets added to favourite bar. When its content changes, the title turns bold. Click the Web Slice, and it displays the content just like a live bookmark in firefox.You can click on the content to go to the web page .

• Improved security and privacy : The latest concept introduced by Microsoft in IE8 is InPrivate Browsing . InPrivate Browsing destroys any traces of information about your surfing activity when your web browser is closed .It means that all the cookies, temporary Internet files, browsing history, form information, and user names and passwords all vanish.You can start InPrivate Browsing by opening a new tab and selecting Browse with InPrivate or selecting it from the Safety button on the top right corner of the browser window.
• There is one more smart feature in IE 8 called InPrivate Filtering .Users are often not aware that some content, images, ads and analytics are being provided and shared across websites . InPrivate Filtering provides users an added level of control and choice about the information that third party websites can potentially use to track browsing activity.InPrivate Filtering is off by default and must be enabled on a per-session basis. To use this feature, select InPrivate Filtering from the Safety menu. To access and manage different filtering options for Internet Explorer 8, select InPrivate Filtering Settings from the Safety menu. To end your InPrivate Browsing session, simply close the browser window.
• Microsoft has even added some other safety features to IE8. It blocks the most common type of cross-site scripting attacks, and offers better protection against malicious ActiveX controls. Microsoft also claims that IE8 protects against "clickjacking " , in which a hacker can place an invisible button underneath or on top of a legitimate button and fool you into activating malicious code or making private information public.

Compatibility with IE 7 websites : Sites that were built for IE 7 might now display prperly in IE 8 . To avoid compatibility issues, Microsoft designed IE 8 in such a way that the browser is set to automatically switch to Compatibility View. You'll be notified when it happens with a balloon tip which appears briefly on the tab, telling you that the browser is displaying in Compatibility View.

Conclusion : So what I finally say about Microsoft latest Internet Explorer ?I can say in one line : Switch to Internet Explorer 8 .

After using the browser , I did not see any big difference in speed compared to Firefox or IE7 but there is a difference in features . Most of the features are targetted at increasing the productivity of the users .I found it much better when working with AJAX applications which might be due to enhancements in forward and back navigation buttons .With a lot of features added , IE 8 is surely something to try on guys . Its fast , easy , safe and secure .

Download Internet Explorer 8 Today .

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Now you can turn off Internet Explorer in Windows

Yes , you are reading it correctly . You can turn off Internet Explorer in your windows now . Microsoft now lets us turn off some windows key features. Continue for further details.
with Windows 7, users will have the option of disabling a number of features of the operating system . Microsoft has been facing lot of regulatory and anti trust issues in the recent times .Microsoft lost a long-running battle with EU antitrust regulators in 2007 over the way it bundled media player software into the Windows operating system.In the media player dispute, European union heavily fined Microsoft and forced it to sell a version of Windows without the offending program installed. To avoid such kind of issues , I think Microsoft has came up with this solution .

• Windows Media Player
• Windows Media Center
• Windows DVD
  
• Windows Search
• Handwriting Recognition (through the Tablet PC Components option)
• Windows Gadget Platform
• Fax and Scan
• XPS Viewer and Services (including the Virtual Print Driver)

With windows 7 Microsoft has stripped most of the programs from the Operating system Which are still available for download on Windows Live .

I dont like the way how people actually look at Microsoft . They developed things which are better than others and before any one does something , MS does it .Thats why they are here . They have better marketing strategies in place . But people always cry on Microsoft . They want a operating system for free . :) .If a OS comes out without anything , then are these people happy ?

What do you feel about Microsoft ? Lets others know through your comments .

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How to open docx file without installing office 2007 ? Read docx file in Linux

Dont have Microsoft office ? But still want to read docx ( Office 2007 word format ) files ? Here is the solution

Required : Mozilla Firefox .

There is a Firefox extension called OpenXML viewer which helps you achieve this .It lets you read docx files inside the Firefox browser just like any other HTML web page with any change in format and layout .

Download OpenXML viewer .

Open XML viewer is available for Linux also .

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