Getting your site listed in DMOZ.

Today I came across a very useful article written by Akash Kumar in which he gives some really useful tips about how to get your site listed in DMOZ.

As you know DMOZ is an Open Directory Project and it is the largest human-edited directory on the Web and this task is taken care of by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.

It is not easy to get a listing in the DMOZ directory and as blogger or a webmaster getting listed in DMOZ is a big step towards drawing in some good traffic.

In the article there are 5 tips mentioned. They are:-

1. Submit your site to a proper category.
2. Make sure that your site has original and quality content.
3. Get your web site professionally designed.
4. Be sure to put your contact information on the web site.
5. Check your site for broken links and spelling errors.

To get a detailed explanation about the 5 tips mentioned here read the article here.

Google Notebook--sensitive informations revealed.

As most of you might know Google Notebook is a bookmarking tool which lets users to bookmark a content from a Google search or a webpage by using the extension. Using this you can add clippings of text, images and links from webpages and publish the notebook.

This is a really useful tool to organize your notes and can be accessed from anywhere.

But recently the Google Notebook search has been found to be used by people to search for sensitive informations such as social security numbers and email passwords which has been bookmarked by the Notebook users.

A very recent Techcrunch article written by Michael Arrington points to a Digg post in which among one of the user comments there is a link to some very sensitive personal information such as social security numbers bookmarked by Google Notebook user.

And in one of the other links among the Digg user comments one can see a list of emails and passwords. And Google clearly states that "The content on this page is provided by a Google Notebook user, and Google assumes no responsibility for this content." So naturally if someone's personal information is revealed because they were careless enough to put it out there in the open it is not Google's responsibility.

It seems even after all the phishing and scam attacks that is rampant on the net some users are still living in a land where they are oblivious to all the happenings.

Christmas themed malwares.

Christmas is here and it is also time for Christmas themed malwares. Users unwrapping these unsolicited gifts are bound to have a PC that can be kept wrapped forever.

There are three now making the rounds according to the F-secure weblog. One is the Christmas.exe malware. This is a IRC bot variant and once executed this one downloads malicious executables from web servers at waiguadown.008.net and user.free.77169.net.

This is what it looks like when opened and what works in the background is not as pretty as what you see here:
The other two are the backdoor called Christmas_Puzzle.exe, and a powerpoint file called Powerpoint file called Christmas+Blessing-4.ppt.

The Christmas_Puzzle.exe is a backdoor and is a rootkit. And this is more dangerous since rootkits are hard to detect by ordinary Anti-Virus tools. Once opened it displays a christmas themed Jigsaw puzzle on the screen just to trick the user into believing that this is a friendly software.

The Power point based malware, Christmas+Blessing-4.ppt. opens up a slide slow while it the background it drops and execute two embedded programs.

Screenshot of Christmas+Blessing-4.ppt. from the F-secure blog:


The two word vulnerabilities are not yet patched and so is the Firefox 2 password manager security flaw. And also news is that the vista exploits are being sold in the underground market for $50,000 a pop. It seems the hackers are having a busy Christmas season but at least with this christmas themed malwares I am glad that they at least realised that it is Christmas time.

Related reading:
What are Rootkits and free Rootkit detecting softwares.
27steps to prevent Viruses.
Everything about trojans and Anti-Trojans.
About spywares and Anti-spywares.
Mozilla fixe s 8 security flaws in FF2.
A look at the top 10 security threats for the coming year.

Digitize your Audio Cassettes.

First method:

Today I came across an Article in the Lifehacker blog, written by Rick Broida. In that article he gives some tips about how to digitize the audio cassettes and there are basically three things you need viz:- a stereo patch code, a cassette player and Audacity, an open-source, cross-platform program that makes simple work of recording and editing audio. Check out the article and also some of the comments because there you can find some alternative methods for doing this stuff.

Second method:




There is a gadget I came to know about a while ago which can be used for coverting not just audio cassettes but vinyl records too. It is called the ION usb turntable. It coverts vinyl records into WAV, WMV and MP3s. And you can plug a tape deck into an auxiliary port and convert your old cassettes. But unlike the above method this will cost you a cool $200, since that is how much this gadget costs.

One of the best things about digitilazing audio cassettes is that you can get a lot of audio cassettes for a very low price especially rare items (not just music but audio books and stuff) that would cost you a lot on CD at bargain stores or online stores like ebay etc:-

Vista Transformation pack for non Vista users.

For the those who have not yet got the Windows Vista here is a software package that helps transform their Windows XP or Windows 2003 into a Vista environment. It not just changes the desktop environment. Instead it changes a whole lot of features and your PC will appear just like it has Vista loaded.

Vista Transformation Pack will replace many of the resources in Windows XP/Windows Server 2003. It can change such things as:

* Boot screen
* Welcome Screen / Logon Screen
* New msstyles files (visual styles)
* New desktop and file icons
* New toolbar icons
* Progress Dialogs
* Sounds scheme
* System Tray icons
* New Wallpapers
* Windows Media Player Skins
* And much more

Those of you who already has the earlier version of this vista transformation pack you can update Vista Transformation Pack without uninstalling and you can even integrate Vista Transformation Pack into Windows setup files.

The latest version is the ver 6 and is currently released for testing purposes and the final version will be released soon and you will find support forum for the new version as well as the older versions at this support page.

Download the vista transformation pack 5.5.

- Softpedia.
- RapidShare.
- SendSpace.
- EZ-Files.

You can also check out some screenshots of the 5.5 pack here.

SofaTUbe...Watch YouTube from your sofa!

Now you can watch YouTube and Revver from the comforts of your sofa, thanks to RedKawa who has released a service called Sofatube which features an interface that’s optimized for viewing from far away, rather than two feet away on your desk.

According to Pete Cashmore of Mashable.com, SofaTube is being promoted for use on home theater PCs, the PlayStation 3 and (once the Opera browser is released for the Wii tomorrow) the Nintendo Wii, too. The use of Ajax means that there are no page loads.

Now what would be really interesting to see is the reaction of YouTube to this method and may be some copy right issues. Talking about copyright issues it would be hard to not mention the $1.65 Trillion lawsuit that RIAA filed against the Russian site Allofmp3.com today. Yes a massive 1.65 Trillion!