MonALISA is  a framework based on dynamic distributed service architecture and was developed by Caltech for its HEP(High Energy Physics) dept.  The abbreviation stands for Monitoring Agents using Large Integrated Service Architecture. The scope of the framework is to monitor, control and optimize complex systems. The design principle of Monalisa is based on multi-threaded, self-describing agent-based subsystems that gathers information and process tasks by means of collaboration and generates alerts or take automated decisions based on it. With a large monitoring modules like SNMP, Ganglia, network probes and embedded program monitoring hooks, MonALISA is currently used in monitoring GRID systems, networks and distributed applications and as a platform for distributed agents. The underlying technology of the framework is Java JINI and Web services, WSDL and SOAP technologies. Full article (518 words) »

Probably you know it needs a firewall program to use the Internet safely. Firewall not only protects you against attacks from the Internet, it also informs you when programs installed on your computer are trying to phone home and enable you to prevent hackers  from accessing your system. Now Windows firewall is unable to do this. So you need a top-notch firewall.
With the success of Zonealarm firewall there's a stream of new firewall software programs generated and released every year. Out of these only a few are worth your time and money. Now if you are looking to use firewall for private and non-profit organizations the best option is a free firewall. We have a selected the top 5 free firewall for Windows users.

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After Bing's fiasco over pornographic videos its ace search engine Google's turn to face the wrath. Chinese Internet sentinel codenamed the Chinese-language version of Google was accused for disseminating pornographic and vulgar information.  The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center has already beefed Goolge about the pornographic and vulgar links on its search engine for chinese- www.google.cn. It urged Google to carry-out a thorough clean-up of its web pages and also requested the authorities to take stern action against the company.

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In India I can get 1Mbps from Tata Indicom / VSNL for Rs. 2500 (~ 55.55$ / month with 45Rs-1$ conversion rate) + Tax which brings it to Rs 2800 per month.

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Gone are the days of buggy, infection prone and troublesome Internet Explorer. The popular product on which I want to throw some light on, needs no introduction. The Guinness record holder software for maximum downloads in a single day is the one and only Firefox. I am writing this article in Firefox and most likely you are going to read it in Firefox too (if not, why not?). So without further ado, I present you my choice of top 10 smart browsing hacks for Firefox:

1. How to rapidly search any website directly from Firefox address bar
2. HowTo Speed Up Firefox
3. How to Type URL's Faster
4. How to Navigate Tabs from Keyboard
5. How To Make Advanced Configuration Changes in the Guts of Firefox
6. 13 Time saving Keyboard shortcuts in Firefox
   
7. How To Get Rid of The Annoying Scroll Tab Button
8. How to Start Downloading Add-ons Immediately
9. How to Limit Firefox Memory Usage
10. How to Move or Remove The 'close tab' Button
11. Bonus Tip: How to Personalize Firefox

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You all know now that Google News crawled an obscure reprint of an article from 2002 when United Airlines was on the brink of bankruptcy. United Airlines has since recovered but due to a missing dateline, Google News ran the story as today's news. The story was rapidly picked up by other news aggregators and eventually headlined as a news flash on Bloomberg. This triggered automated trading programs to dump UAL, cratering the stock from $12 to $3 and evaporating 1.14 billion dollars (nearly United's total market cap yesterday) in shareholder wealth. The stock recovered within the day to $10 and is now trading at $9.62, a market cap of $300M less than before Google ran the story.

This story highlights the unhealthy importance of Google on world economy. Google's action (intentional or not) can be directly attributed to over 300 million dollar loss by United and a loss of face. Should Google be sued for this mistake? Full article (331 words) »