Dish Network Internet Service - Fast Speeds, Low Price

Are you one of the 30 million folks who live in a remote area and are saddled with sluggish, erratic dialup Internet service? This short article will show you how to get low cost satellite Internet service through dishNET, anywhere in the United States.

How does dishNET Internet work?

There are two primary components installed at your home when you purchase dishNET Internet service - a satellite dish and a satellite Internet modem. Once you get on the Internet, your laptop or computer sends out a signal to your modem which in turn delivers the signal to your satellite dish. The signal will then be sent to a satellite hovering 4 miles above the earth. This signal is bounced off the satellite and routed to a dishNET receiving station which then sends the signal to the Internet.

After an Internet site is found, the signal is transmitted from the receiving station, to the satellite, to your dish, then back to your modem which in turn decodes the signal and delivers it to your laptop or computer.

How fast is dishNET Internet service?

Depending upon the plan you choose, dishNET Internet service is up to 200 times faster than 56K dialup services, and 3 times faster compared to DSL (digital subscriber line). With this much speed you are able to stream videos, download photos and music, as well as surf the Internet in a fraction of the time it takes with DSL or dialup.

A Comparison

A major software program download (1GB) will take 2 weeks using dialup, and only 2 minutes through dishNET. Uploading a whole, 160 Mbps music album will require 65 hours by using dialup, but only 16 seconds with dishNET.

dishNET Doesn't Use Your Telephone Line

dishNET doesn't use your telephone line so you can take messages or calls on the phone whenever you use the Internet. You won't have to wait for another person to get off the phone before you can get online, and you won't worry that you missed a phone call while you were online.

Do I need to wait to get online?

With dishNET you won't waste your time trying to log on then wait for your computer to connect to the Internet because dishNET provides an "always on" connection.

So how does dishNET compare with other satellite Internet service providers?

dishNET
You can get Internet services with up to 10 Mbps upload speed in addition to 2 Mbps download speed for $39.99 a month. You'll get free installation and there is a $10 a month equipment lease fee. $39.99 is the cost when you bundle your service with Dish Network satellite television service. Should you buy dishNet only, the price is $49.99 per month.

HughesNet
You get Internet service with up to 10 Mbps upload speeds plus 1 Mbps download for $59.99 a month. There's a $10 equipment lease fee, and you get free installation after a $99 mail-in rebate.

WildBlue
$49.99 per month for up to 10 MBps upload speed plus 1 Mbps download speed. There's a $10 equipment lease fee and a $149.99 installation fee.

Bottom Line

For less than $1.30 a day you could have fast, reliable, dishNET high-speed Internet service and enjoy all of the advantages the Internet provides.

Facebook Announcements

The Social Media giant has made changes again, Facebook announced today that Android users will enjoy free VoIP calling capabilities on the Messenger app. This feature will be released to US users first, but it's going to be a gradual thing don't expect to have this added benefit immediately. Facebook will roll this out gradually to U.S. users, so don't expect to be able to use it immediately. Anyone with Facebook Home, which is the newest update on the Mobile app, can currently use VoIP to call friends.

Below are directions on how to make calls on Facebook. Keep in mind, Facebook Home is the only user ready option to date. This will speed up conversations that may shift from an inbox message, to a phone call. Also, It would be a great way to save minutes, if on a plan that measures every second of use on a cell phone.

To call someone on Facebook using VoIP technology within the Android Messenger app, tap the "info icon" at the top right corner of the screen, then tap "free call."

For Facebook Home users, start a call within a "Chat Head" by tapping the three dots next to the person's name, opening the conversation in Messenger, then tapping "info" and then "free call."

Some users may be surprised to know, that on the Facebook messenger app, we can already leave voice recordings within the message to our friends and family. This became available to users in early 2013, yet reports show little usage and many who were completely unaware of the opportunity. To do this on the Messenger app, tap on the plus sign in the bottom left hand corner. click record voice and record your message with unlimited space. Also take a look at the tool bar that pops up and enjoy other services you may not have known about.

Promoted Posts Changes On Facebook Equals Ease And Accessibility

Another new change comes for the Page Owners of Facebook. "Promoted Posts" have taken a sharp escalation in accessibility for Page Owners. Previously Page Owners could only create a Promoted Post from the mobile Pages Manager app, and not from any other source. Now they can easily increase the vastness of their posts directly from their page. Incidentally the Promoted Post capability has been on User Profiles for a few months now.

Increasing or social connections, making it easier to connect. Tailoring advertising that appears on our profile, and ads we are able to target our audience with. That's the direction and overall mission. As it always has been from the start with Facebook.

 

How To Swap Between Apps On The iPad

Today we are going to look at how you can swap between running apps on the iPad. We will start from the very beginning and I am assuming that you are new to the iPad.

When you start up the iPad you will get the main starting screen. This is normally full of the apps that come pre-installed with the system. For instance in the top left hand side of the screen you will see "Messages" then reading from left to right you will see "Facetime" and "Photos".

The order may differ on your iPad but this will be if you have opted to move the apps around.

Moving your finger from right to left in a swiping motion will move the screen across and you will see more apps. This will normally be full of apps that you have downloaded from the app store.

The reason that you will want to learn how to quickly swap apps using the quick task bar at the bottom is to save you time searching through every app that you have installed. You can use the search bar but if it is an app you use daily it is far quicker to use the quick task bar at the bottom.

So here is how you swap between apps on the iPad quickly:

1. Tap the home button twice quickly.

2. A bar will pop up at the bottom with all of your recently used apps. This will also include running apps or the apps still in the memory.

3. Swipe across with your finger from right to left until you find the app you want.

4. Tap it once to select it and the app will launch.

5. Start from step 1 every time you want to swap an app.

If you are running the latest IOS6 on your iPad you can bring up the quick task bar even faster by placing four fingers on the iPad and swiping in an upwards motion.

So start with your forefinger and finish with your pinkie and make sure they are all touching the screen and then swipe up and you will see the quick task bar to select a previously used app.

The above is how to save yourself time and quickly swap between your most used apps on the iPad.

If you use apps like Spotify to listen to your music you will also be able to control the volume of your music and the brightness of the iPad from the same quick task bar.

 

iPhone iOs 7

Apple's iPhone operating system or iOS has come a long way since it was first created and released with the original iPhone. We have seen many interesting innovations such as folders for apps, multitasking, background pictures, Siri, Passbook and many others. iOS has brought Apple great renown in the world of smartphones for its simple and easy to navigate interface crammed full of features. Some of the decisions Apple has made regarding iOS haven't been so well received though, a prime example of this is their decision to remove Google Maps as a default app and replace it with their own maps app. This didn't seem like such a big deal at first considering it was well publicised that Apple wanted to cut ties with its rival in any way it could, however their maps offering was substantially worse than Google's, and put a large dent in the faith people had in Apple and its iOS.

So what can we expect to see this time around? Well tickets for Apple's worldwide developer conference or WWDC go on sale 25th of April, and this promises to shed some light on the future of iOS, as well as Mac OS. However it is unlikely that we will see everything, or even as much about iOS 7 as Apple was originally intending to show if rumours about it being delayed are true. It has been reported that Apple has been forced to pull developers from the latest version of Mac OS to help get iOS 7 back on track, possibly for release with the iPhone 5s which is supposed to launch at the end of Q2 or the start of Q3.

It is likely that Apple will take inspiration from Microsoft by implementing some sort of live tile effect for apps that can really make the most of it, such as the weather app or stocks. This will make the interface seem much more alive than the rather boring home screen does currently. Something else that is possible is improvements made to the lock screen, which currently doesn't have much use apart from showing album covers when songs are playing and displaying notifications. iOS 7 may also bring some sort of "Facebook Home" feature which was recently released for Android phones, as Facebook is currently in talks with Apple to bring the Home experience to their devices. Given Apples previous attempts to integrate Facebook when iOS 6 was made, it may be a possibility that Home could come to iOS, though Apple is notorious for removing anything remotely close to Home from the App Store so perhaps not. They also don't like people to mess with their defaults, hence why the default browser, mail and maps apps cannot be changed. Facebook home coming to iOS may require a slight bending of these rules.

But who will be able to access the latest version of iOS? No news regarding this is available, but the iPhone 5, the new iPad and the iPad mini are certain to be supported considering that they were released only recently, but it is questionable as to whether the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 will receive it. The iPad 2 is still on sale as Apples 10.1 inch budget tablet offering and the iPhone 4 the budget iPhone, but Apple may choose to leave these devices out in order to push customers to its new line of products, especially the iPhone 4, given that a budget iPhone is slated for release late this year.

We shall just have to wait and see.

 

Securing a Website From Hacking

Hacking is defined as an attempt to modify the programmed behavior of any application according to the intent of an attacker. The attacker or hacker himself is a computer programmer who penetrates the protection of the original code and modifies its behavior by injecting bad code inside the application. The reason for hacking can be anything, for de-reputing a company or for illegally utilizing its resources of web host like CPU and bandwidth.

The selection of website development tool i.e. software like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal used for developing a website also influences the potential threat which can be faced by a website. For example, WordPress, being the most popular Content Management System in web development, is highly targeted by attackers. The Plugin culture of WordPress further highlights the loose entry points for hackers to easily intrude a website.

Most of the time, websites are hacked due to the reckless approach by administrators for maintaining and securing their respective domains. Following measures can be deployed to reduce the severity of an attack by a considerable amount:

Website owners often deploy any web hosting service by comparing the price of services without considering the level of security a host can provide. Attackers easily gain access to different websites, hosted on a poorly secured web server. Attackers then intrude web directories of different websites and alter the behavior of the website or any application. Prior to selecting a hosting service, the effectiveness of security of the hosting facility should be checked and a review about the same should be considered.
File access permission on the web server should be implemented and verified properly and periodically. This ensures that no other person can gain an insight into the code of the application or even the hierarchy of directories. This strengthens the security of the website as well as the web server and provides access only to an authentic administrator with access permissions. It also helps to upgrade the access permission for different people involved in maintaining a website.
Remove un-used plugins from all the location of the web directory, which were once in use or used for testing purpose. It provides two advantages; it speeds up the load time of the website and it removes any unnecessary entry point in the website which is not usually monitored.
Another reason that websites are hacked is because websites keep on using outdated plugins and security measures while attackers on the other hand, develop new methods to gain entry in the web directory. So it is desired for the webmasters to apply the new patches and upgrades periodically, as they are released to fill the earlier voids discovered by the team of Ethical Hackers, which website software companies deploy to refresh and upgrade security effectiveness of their platforms.

In most cases, website owners are notified if their website is hacked by web browser's protection utilities or search engine results. In other cases, hackers re-direct the website to another site or display a message notifying the viewer of the hacking event through a message. Another way of identification can be examined with the unnatural or un-intended behavior of the website like unnecessary pop-up messages, redirects or software download options.

Christa Joe is a keen blogger and enjoys reading and writing about the recent technology. Software development, cloud based software development and mobile applications are some of her key area of interests. She's also a freelance writer and write for various technology consulting companies like Q3 technologies.

 

ValueClick forecasts weak revenue after first-quarter miss

 Online marketing services provider ValueClick Inc forecast second-quarter sales well below market estimates as it integrates its marketing, media and global service offerings, sending its shares down 14 percent in after-hours trading.

"Between the initiatives in the United States and now Europe, we are experiencing some of the anticipated indigestion from integration," Chief Executive John Giuliani said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.

"We think that's going to impact the (second-quarter) top line."

The company added that the worst was not over for it in Europe, in contrast to what it had said in February. ValueClick, however, gets almost all of its revenue from the United States.

ValueClick forecast revenue of $164 million to $168 million for the second quarter, below analysts' expectations of $175.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

First-quarter revenue rose 13 percent to $165.4 million, but fell short of analysts' estimates of $166.7 million.

Net income rose to $26.3 million, or 34 cents per share, in the first quarter, from $21.6 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned 42 cents per share.

Analysts on average expected an adjusted profit of 40 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company fell to $27.31 in after-market trading. They closed at $31.74 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Roshni Menon)

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'Vampire Diaries' star Ian Somerhalder joins interactive news site RYOT's board

By Greg Gilman

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Actor and activist Ian Somerhalder has joined the advisory board of interactive news website, RYOT, the actor's charity announced Tuesday.

RYOT, a media outlet encouraging readers to "become the news," bridges the gap between learning about things happening in the world and actually making a difference in it.

Each news story on the site is paired with a "RYOT note" explaining the social value of the story, while suggesting a charity or organization dedicated to a related cause.

If RYOT readers do not wish to give the organizations financial support, the site encourages them to simply stay informed, or better yet, volunteer their time to the charity.

"We started the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (ISF) because we didn't like the feeling of helplessness that came with environmental catastrophes such as the BP oil spill," Somerhalder said in a statement. "The news media serves a very useful purpose in communicating things that are happening in the world around us, but traditionally it doesn't allow the opportunity for people to really get involved and generate positive change. That's what is so appealing to me about RYOT. Every story gives you the option to get involved, to give, to reach down inside yourself and find what touches your heart and to react right that very second."

"RYOT is a disruptive, young news source that combines news with action. Ian is an inspiration to us, the way he uses his voice to continually push forward important social issues," RYOT's co-founder, Bryn Mooser, said. "He's bringing young people back to the news. Old news has made us depressed for so long, with RYOT we want to empower readers with every story. By taking action you can become part of the solution."

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Prepaid debit cards: a weak link in bank security

 A brazen gang of cyber criminals, who stole $45 million from bank ATMs in 27 countries, exposes an Achilles heel in the global financial industry: prepaid debit cards.

Cyber security experts and industry analysts say the burgeoning use of prepaid debit cards for everything from gift certificates to disaster relief handouts is making it easier for hackers to withdraw large amounts of money before detection.

Prepaid cards have fewer controls on them than on regular credit and debit cards issued by banks. Each prepaid card issued is like a blank slate: anonymous, new, and lacking any credit history or individual behavior pattern against which bankers and payment processors can measure activity to look for red flags.

They are also easier to hack. Raising a withdrawal limit on a prepaid card involves hacking into a system at a third-party payment processor, a company that is generally smaller than a bank and, if based outside the United States, potentially subject to looser cyber security standards.

"It's usually prepaid debit cards. That's the card of choice in this. The bad guys know the system and they have been able to exploit it," said Joe Petro, a managing director at Promontory Financial Group, who worked for 20 years as the head of fraud prevention and investigations for Citigroup Inc.

"The vulnerability stems from third-party processors, who may not have the same level of security systems that banks are able to have," he added. Petro was speaking generally and said he did not have direct knowledge of the $45 million heist.

In a globally coordinated campaign, hackers broke into two unidentified payment processing companies that handled the prepaid debit cards for two Middle Eastern banks, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

Once inside the computer networks, they increased the available balance and withdrawal limits on prepaid MasterCard debit cards issued by Bank of Muscat of Oman and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC of the United Arab Emirates.

The criminal ring's operatives then fanned out around the world and used fraudulent prepaid cards to withdraw money from thousands of ATMs. The global scope and speed of the theft was unprecedented, cyber investigators said. In the case of Bank of Muscat, $40 million was stolen in just over 10 hours.

Experts said the use of prepaid debit cards, instead of credit cards, was not accidental. Credit cards are attached to individuals whose spending habits over time give banks and credit card companies clear patterns they can use when trying to identify unusual or illicit activity.

EVADING DETECTION

A thief moving from ATM to ATM with a personal credit card would likely quickly raise alarms, because his or her behavior would look out of place compared to the credit card user's normal activity.

"The banks are using state-of-the art defenses, but the more sophisticated actors are able to breach their networks," said Shawn Henry, the former head of cyber crime investigations at the FBI, now president of professional services at security firm CrowdStrike.

While the $45 million swindle is one of the largest ever, security experts say banks deal with similar, albeit smaller, thefts regularly - they are just rarely disclosed.

By 2013, the amount of money that was placed onto reloadable prepaid cards reached about $201.9 billion from $28.6 billion in 2009, according to a report published by Mercator Advisory Group.

"Of all the types of cards that are there, prepaid cards is the fastest growing category," said Scott Valentin, analyst with FBR Capital Markets & Co.

"With cash payments slowing and an increase in mobile payment and online commerce, the importance of these cards is only going to increase," Valentin said. "With credit cards you need to be credit worthy and with debit cards you need a bank account. Prepaid cards gets you past these two issues and as a result are extremely popular."

That has raised concerns about the need for better security around prepaid cards, and the card processing companies that service them.

For more than a decade, banks have been required by U.S. law to ensure their electronic systems and those used by their outside contractors meet certain safety requirement. U.S. banks using payment processors must have a contractual agreement that states the payment processor is meeting the same security standards the bank does.

The problem, said Doug Johnson, vice president for risk management policy at the American Bankers Association in Washington, is that U.S.-based banks, don't always find it easy to ensure that what is agreed in the contract with an overseas payment processor is really being implemented.

"I fully anticipate that regulatory agencies are going to spend increased time looking at third-party providers," Johnson said.

In the case of the two Middle Eastern banks, one used a U.S.-based credit card processor, while the other used one in India. The U.S.-based company's breach shows even third-party processors close to home can make banks vulnerable.

The hackers likely used some of the most sophisticated software available, said George Tubin, a senior security strategist for Trusteer, a Boston-based cyber security firm.

Emails and other communications can bring malware into a corporate computer system. Employees opening email attachments unwittingly download spy software without even realizing it, Tubin said. The software then collects and transmits information back to the hackers who created it.

"Once they gain access to the right corporate network and figure out how to get the right privileges, they can do whatever they want," Tubin said.

(Reporting By Emily Flitter in New York and Tanya Argawal in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

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Twitter eyes big business in Brazil's World Cup, Olympics

While Brazil struggles to finish its stadiums in time for the 2014 World Cup, Twitter is already working to cash in on what the U.S. company's head of revenue, Adam Bain, sees as a potentially huge business opportunity.

Robust consumer spending, growth potential from still-low Internet penetration and fast adoption of smart phones have turned this nation of 194 million people into an attractive market for Twitter and other online giants.

With soccer's World Cup rapidly approaching and the 2016 Olympics around the corner, Brazil stands out as the kind of opportunity a company under pressure to monetize its 200 million-strong user base doesn't want to miss.

"You think about the next 10 years in Brazil and it is really going to be amazing from a business perspective," Bain, Twitter's global president of revenue, said in an interview on a visit to Sao Paulo this week.

"Brazil is the largest opportunity we see in Latin America and frankly across all of the other markets," the executive said. "That's why we are here building and we will continue to invest in this market in a big way."

The World Cup and the Olympics are meant to showcase Brazil's status as an emerging economic power. But with just a year left before the opening match, Latin America's biggest economy is struggling to finish new stadiums and put in place key infrastructure such as G4 mobile networks.

For Twitter, the international sports events are also crucial. The San Francisco-based company saw record levels of traffic during the 2012 London Olympics and launched a model of integration with TV that company executives like Bain think may be a substantial part of its monetizing strategy.

Twitter makes money through its "promoted tweets" or advertisement posts that users receive in their tweet feeds. The company is expected to generate nearly $600 million in revenues this year, according to the research firm eMarketer.

Bain, the man in charge of turning Twitters' huge user base into money, came to Brazil to talk to businesses that are starting to lay out their strategies for the World Cup and the Olympics.

"Some of our most strategic deals that we have signed with marketers, which are global deals that we have signed over multiple years, many of them include work that they want to do here in Brazil during the World Cup and the Olympics," he said.

The challenge is not so much explaining to marketers why they have to incorporate the microblogging platform into their marketing strategies as it is to show them how to do it.

BRAZIL, A NO-BRAINER

Twitter is one of the latest U.S. Internet companies to land in Brazil, an emerging market that has embraced social media with almost religious zeal.

Just six months ago the company hired a former Yahoo! executive to lead the charge and the sense of work in progress is apparent in the impersonal, half-empty rental office Twitter occupies in Sao Paulo's financial district.

But things have changed since rival Facebook got here a couple of years ago. Brazil's once hefty economic growth slowed down to a mere 0.9 percent in 2012 and mounting inflation is beginning to dent consumer confidence, dimming some of the enthusiasm over the Internet's potential here.

And yet Bain says opening an office in Brazil was a no-brainer. Even before setting foot here, the country was already Twitter's No. 3 market after the United States and Japan, with an estimated 40 million subscribers.

"The overall impact has potential to be huge," he said when asked when asked about the revenue Twitter expected from the World Cup and the Olympics, which he declined to estimate.

An Internet penetration rate of just 44 percent - half that of the United States - combined with soaring sales of smart phones to a booming middle class, make Brazil attractive in the long run for companies like Twitter and Facebook.

And, according to Bain, users in Brazil are responding better than others to advertisement in the form of "promoted tweets," with an engagement rate two or three times higher than the global average.

"The world's spotlight is going to move to Brazil in a very dramatic fashion and investment certainly follows with that."

(Reporting by Esteban Israel; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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YouTube starts paid subscription service

By Ronald Grover

(Reuters) - Google's YouTube video service is dipping its toe into pay television by starting on Thursday a subscription service with 30 content creators, including children's programmers Sesame Street and Muppet creator The Jim Henson Co, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

YouTube, the world's largest video website, allows creators to set subscription fees and accept advertisements, at their discretion, for the channels they create.

For $4.99 a month, subscribers can get golf lessons from the PGA Golf Academy. The Laugh Factory charges $2.99 for clips of stand-up comedy routines and Henson charges $2.99 for full length episodes of "Sid The Science Kid" and "Fraggle Rock."

YouTube has spoken repeatedly about its intent to experiment with paid channels, and has made no secret about its intent to be a major player in quality content.

"If feels to me as if history is repeating itself, said Tony Vinciquerra, former chairman of News Corp's Fox Networks Group. "In the early '80s cable providers subsidized channels to enhance offerings to consumers and increase penetration. Fast forward to today, and YouTube is subsidizing the development of new content offerings."

YouTube will feature content from traditional TV and film producers, company executives said, and at the launch featured children's videos from National Geographic and videos from cable channel HDNet.

That could eventually be a threat to cable and TV operators, but no time soon, said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst with BTIG LLC.

"I think everyone who creates video programming should be worried about the growth of new content channels," he said. "Broadcast TV has been hurt by cable. Broadcast is still a very large business despite fragmentation."

Content creators will get most of their revenue from subscriptions, as they already do from advertising on the site, according to company officials.

In March, YouTube said on its blog that it has more than 1 billion unique users a month. The new subscription service will be available in 10 countries at launch.

YouTube has spent more than $100 million to help about 150 media partners create and promote specialized YouTube video channels dedicated to topics ranging from food to sports.

"Consumers have gotten used to getting their content on the web," said Laura Martin, senior analyst with Needham and Co. "The question is whether they will pay for it."

(Reporting by Ronald Grover; Edited by Edwin Chan and Phil Berlowitz)

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U.S. appeals court issues divided ruling in software patent case

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Australia's Alice Corp does not hold valid patents on a computerized trading platform, but it remained unclear how the decision would affect other software patents.

The software industry had been watching the case for a clue to legal protection of intellectual property rights that generate much of the sector's profits. But the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals failed to reach a consensus on how to determine what software is patentable.

How innovative an invention should have to be to receive legal protection is an issue of debate in the software industry.

Technology companies had hoped the Federal Circuit, which specializes in patent cases, would provide clarity on what software is patentable.

The deeply divided court upheld a Washington D.C.-based district court's decision that patents held by Alice were based on abstract ideas, which is not eligible for patent protection.

In the case, Alice had argued that even if its patents for exchanging financial obligations involved an abstract idea, the idea is "patentable if the computer plays a significant role in the invention."

Adam Perlman, an attorney for Alice, declined to comment. Alice is owned in part by National Australia Bank Ltd.

The court did not come up with any unified standard for determining what is abstract, said Matthew Moore, a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP who was not involved in the case.

Under patent law, an abstract concept - such as the idea of a self-driving car - may not be patented, but the engineering that creates a self-driving car may be patented.

The divided opinion shows the courts' struggle with coming up with a bright line rule, Moore said.

Instead, whether or not an invention is abstract will continue to be determined on a case by case basis, which judges knowing it when they see it, he said.

Google and Dell both had filed friend-of-the-court briefs stating that "bare-bones" patents like those owned by Alice court do not innovate enough to deserve patent protection.

International Business Machines Corp, however, said that most software inventions do qualify for patent protection.

In Friday's opinion, five judges joined a portion of the opinion, authored by Circuit Judge Alan Lourie, that suggested judges ask whether there are "genuine human contributions" to the invention when determining whether it should receive patent protection.

It will take future cases to determine whether the test can earn the support of a majority of the Federal Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Federal Circuit's Chief Judge, Randall Rader, did not join that portion of the opinion authored and noted that the test is not precedent-setting.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Kimberly Moore said that the test described by Lourie could cause a "free fall" in the patent system and that the opinion defines what is "abstract" much too broadly.

CLS is pleased that the district court's decision was affirmed and said the appeals court's decision "strikes an appropriate balance between innovation and competition."

The case is CLS Bank International v Alice Corporation, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2011-1301.

(Reporting By Erin Geiger Smith)

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U.S. charges eight in $45 million cyber crime scheme

 In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks by hacking into their credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATMs in 27 countries, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

New York federal prosecutors accused eight men of allegedly forming the New York-based cell of the organization, and said seven of them have been arrested. The eighth defendant was reported to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27, according to U.S. prosecutors.

He was allegedly a leader of the cell and reported to ringleaders believed to be outside the United States.

"In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organization used laptops and the Internet," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said at a news conference. "Moving as swiftly as data over the Internet, the organization worked its way from the computer systems of international corporations to the streets of New York City."

The case demonstrates the major threat that cyber crime poses to banks around the world. Prosecutors said the international crime ring used an attack known as "Unlimited Operations" in the cyber underworld.

According to the complaint, they used sophisticated hacking techniques to break into the computers of two credit card processors, one in India in December 2012 and the other in the United States this February. The complaint did not identify the companies.

In both cases, the hackers increased the available balance and eliminated the withdrawal limits on prepaid MasterCard debit cards issued by Bank of Muscat of Oman, and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC (RAKBANK) of the United Arab Emirates.

They then allegedly distributed counterfeit debit cards to the New York cell and other teams around the world - known as "cashers" - enabling them to siphon millions of dollars from ATMs in a matter of hours, according to the complaint.

Cashers pulled some $40 million during the Bank of Muscat operation and stole another $5 million during the RAKBANK operation, prosecutors said. In total, cashers made some 40,500 withdrawals in 27 countries during the two coordinated incidents.

Representatives for the two banks could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours.

In late February, Bank Muscat disclosed that it would take an impairment charge of up to 15 million rials ($39 million) because it had been defrauded overseas by 12 prepaid debit cards used for travel. That charge was equal to more than half of the 25 million rials profit it posted in its first quarter ended March 31.

HIGHLY SKILLED HACKERS

Cyber experts said they believe the operation likely required the work of several hundred people, at least several of whom were highly skilled hackers capable of devising ways to penetrate well-protected financial systems.

"Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage," said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland.

A single account number, for instance, yielded nearly $9 million in profits, including an alleged $2.4 million from the cell in New York City, prosecutors said.

The eight defendants - all U.S. citizens and residents of Yonkers, New York - were charged with withdrawing cash from the ATMs and transporting money, not hacking into the credit card processing firms or managing the operation.

The seven arrested are: Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose Peña, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin (known as "Chino El Abusador"). All except for Rodriguez were arraigned on Thursday and pleaded not guilty. Rodriguez's attorney was unavailable. Only Pena has been released on bail.

The defendant, who reportedly had been killed was Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, also known as "Prime" and "Albertico." Lynch said it was unclear whether the murder was related to this case.

Prosecutors said cashers often laundered their proceeds by purchasing luxury goods, and sending a portion of the money back to the organization's leaders. They said they seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and bank accounts, as well as two Rolex watches and a Mercedes SUV, from the New York defendants.

Investigators said that they found an email exchange with an account associated with a criminal money laundering operation in St. Petersburg, Russia, describing wire transfers.

An investigation is ongoing to see if other cells are operating in the country, Lynch said, adding that U.S. law enforcement had worked with counterparts in Japan, Canada, Germany, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Latvia, Estonia, Thailand, and Malaysia to uncover the ring.

No individual bank accounts were compromised by the scheme, Lynch said.

(Editing by Noeleen Walder, Tiffany Wu and Leslie Gevirtz)

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Priceline sees second-quarter profit below estimates, shares fall

 Online travel agency Priceline.com on Thursday gave a forecast for second-quarter profit that was below analysts' estimates, as it cited the effects of global expansion costs, and its shares slid 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Priceline made the comments as it reported a first-quarter profit that topped estimates on improved hotel and car-rental reservations.

Chief Executive Jeffery Boyd said the second-quarter outlook reflects an expected decline in operating margins as the company invests in global growth.

"We've got an opportunity to continue to build out the international franchise of our businesses and that requires investment in marketing and in people in a very competitive marketplace," Boyd said in a telephone interview.

"Most of our growth investors are very encouraging of that strategy to really make sure that we're not under-investing in the business," Boyd added.

Priceline owes much of its success to international bookings on its Booking.com travel site. It competes with Expedia and Orbitz Worldwide, which earlier on Thursday forecast revenue for the second quarter above current analyst estimates, citing growth in its hotel business.

In the first quarter, operating expenses at Priceline rose 39 percent to $699.8 million as it spent on advertising to support its international brands.

Hotel room-night reservations and booked rental car days increased about 38 percent and 43 percent, respectively, in the first quarter, while airline tickets booked rose 1.4 percent.

Net income was $244.3 million, or $4.76 a share, in the first quarter, compared with $181.8 million, or $3.54 a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted for items, first-quarter profit was $5.76 a share, compared with $5.27 a share expected by analysts on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly revenue rose about 26 percent to $1.3 billion, compared with $1.28 billion expected by analysts.

Gross bookings, or the value of travel services customers bought, rose 36 percent to $9.2 billion in the first quarter.

Priceline forecast earnings of $8.87 to $9.45 a share for the current second quarter. Analysts have expected $9.58 a share.

Priceline also said it expects to close its $1.8 billion purchase of smaller rival Kayak Software Corp on May 21 now that regulatory approvals have been received. The acquisition will bolster Priceline's travel research and advertising capabilities.

Shares of Priceline fell to $714.50 in extended trading from their Nasdaq close of $737.50.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Alden Bentley, Andrew Hay and Leslie Adler)

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Easy to find out important file by using google search

What is the way to find out any important file easily?
For anything search we always use google. Sometimes we take a lot of time or getting velocity to find any important file. In that case we can take a few times or we can work easily by using some keywords.

As a calculator:
You can use google as a calculator. Suppose use all functions for example addition, subtracting, multiplication and division of a calculator like (3*7=) and at the end use this sign (=).

As a dictionary:
 You can use google as a dictionary also. Write the words in google search and before this word write "define". For example ( define: technology).

To find  a synonym of any words:
To know the synonym of any words just writes this sign (~) before the word. For example (~technology). 

To get information for any site:
To get any useful or important files just write this link : www.rhmbubt.com "Movie name"

To find the audio file:
To find out your favorite audio file just write:    intitle: “index of” mp3 “Your File name”

Use pen drive as a folder

If you want to block others from using your pen drive or USB drive, it can be easy to arrange. You can hide the pen drive. You can use your pen drive as a folder. At first you have to connect your pen drive with the computer. Make sure that the folder and your pen drive must be use same format. (For example NTFS file, fat-32 etc.).

Suppose, you want to hide your pen drive in D: \ drive by opening a folder with any name. Now go to Start / run-type  diskmgmt.msc and press Enter. You can see a list of all the drives of your computer. For example, your USB drive L: \ drive, and then Right click on the Change Drive Letter and Paths. Then you can see the option of Change Drive Letter and Paths for L: \ text box. Now Click Add to show Mount into the following empty NTFS folder from the Browse option to create a folder in your hard drive and click Ok. Now select L:\ drive to remove the L: \ drive and click Remove. The USB drive from the computer when it is connected to the L :/ drive does not show up, does not know the location of the USB  drive. You can work that folder to use as a pen drive.

Your Keyboard Button is broken???? Here is a solution...

Sometimes the button of Laptop’s keyboard is broken for many reasons. The problems are many. For example, someone  E - mail address or password has an alphabet -A but your  A toggle button of the keyboard is lost.  On the computer - screen keyboard - is going to work. But it takes a lot of time and a lot of bother. Sometimes we can use extra keyboard with laptop but it’s not flexible to use. However, if you want a small and easy solution that is to use software to get rid of the problem.

You can change the keyboard buttons by installing small software Sharp –Key. For example, the A button is lost.  If you wish to do you can convert a button to another button (which does not always work, or that the button takes you - there are available in the board). There is a process-installed Sharp key-type in (From key)-press any key (that is good in keyboard) and on the other side (To) where you can press  the key which is lost- then click OK. When you finish this process you can see the conversion key is available on behalf of the lost key.

You can download this software from below link:

http://abcomputertips.blogspot.com/2013/03/sharpkeys.html

Remove Virus From Pen Drive easily....

For our daily purpose we exchange data from one computer to another computer, for this exchange we need Pen drive. But computer viruses are an obstacle one. Sometimes we lose our important files for computer viruses. Don’t worry. We can remove all viruses with little tricks. At first connect the infected pen drive with computer. Now go to start menu and click Run. Type cmd and then press Enter. Now type your pen drive letter (for example, H :) and then press Enter. Now open start task manager by pressing CTRL+ ALT+ DEL keys together. From process click Explorer.exe and click the End Process button to close it. Here the list of unnecessary and unimportant process, if you do not need this files close all files by following previous rules as well. Otherwise viruses cannot be deleted. Now you can see the hidden files of your pen drive in promote command by typing dir / ah.To see them all the time type (attrib-h-s-r *. * ) And press  Enter to visible all files. Now it’s time to remove all these files. Now type del in command cell and type the file name you want to delete and press Enter (del autorun.inf). If the file name contains big sentence, just type the first letter and press Tab button from the keyboard. It  will take  the full name of the file. Now remove the suspicious files from your PC and unplugged pen drive. Plug the pen drive again. Open Task Manager- go to New task-Type Explorer and then press enter. From now you can do the normal tasks easily than before

Want to start and turned off the computer quickly!!!!! Here is a tips

Sometimes we use extra software in a limited capacity for this reason it may take more time to turn it on and off. We can solve this problem by changing some settings in the computer so that we can reduce time to start and stop quickly.

For Windows XP operating system- go to Run in the start menu and type msconfig and press the Enter. You can remove unnecessary startup programs from the Startup tab and uncheck the items. When you turn on the computer the unnecessary programs are loaded with items to this list. If you do not need that, uncheck them and press OK and Apply. If you want to start or restart the computer again and select Exit without Restart to skip it. Now open Notepad ( del c :/ windows / prefetch / ntosboot *. *) and  write this code on the desktop to save the file from the Save As button and the file name should be like that ntosboot.bat. Now copy the file from the desktop and paste this file to the C :/ drive ntosboot.bat .

Now go to Start menu by typing gpedit.msc at the Run and press Enter. From the Computer Configuration click Windows Settings>click Scripts (Startup / Shutdown) - to open it. On the right side you can see Shutdown. Now follow this step- Double click on Shutdown -click Add – go to Browse- C:/ drive  and show this file ntosboot.bat –click apply-Click OK .

Now go to Run-Type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. Here click on IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers- open Primary IDE Channel – from  Advanced Settings –go to the Device 1 –click  Device Type-A –click None –press the OK button. Now click on the Secondary IDE channel- from Advanced Settings –go to  Device 1 –click Device Type A-click  None and press  the OK button. When you finish all work by carefully then restart the computer. From now on, every time the computer is turned on and off takes less time than it takes before.