Digital Inspiration

After few weeks of beta testing , Copernic have released the final 1.5 version of their popular desktop search tool - the free Copernic Desktop Search . The final release of CDS 1.5 features smarter CPU resource usage, improved Mozilla Thunderbird support, broader metadata indexing, support for Netscape 8, multiple performance increases, and much more. The key features introduced in the beta version of CDS 1.5 were Thunderbird and Eudora email search, indexing of network drives, improved multimedia metadata indexing, usability improvements, and a new API for adding custom file indexers. Wildcards can now be used to add custom file extensions to index. But I continue to miss support for .chm and .hlp files in Copernic. But there is some ray of hope. Copernic 1.5 comes with a COM API allowing third-party developers to create plug-ins enabling new file type indexing. Hope some day, one geek will write a plug-in to support MS help files - Amen ! It was sad to see WP describing this ubi

And Microsoft have done exactly that - Microsoft has granted clemency to the 19 year-old author of the Blaster worm. Rather than pay $500,000 in restitution, the youth will be sentenced to 225 hours of community service, which may not involve computers. U.S. District Judge said the sentence reflected that although he was 18 at the time of the attack, his maturity level was much younger than that. She also said his home life contributed to the problem. The Blaster, or MSBlast, worm was the culprit behind massive denial of service attacks against Microsoft's Web properties and infected over 50,000 unpatched Windows systems in the summer of 2003. [ Via ] Parson is to work off his debt to Microsoft during his three years of supervised release -- 75 hours per year. The service is not to involve computers or the Internet, and is to benefit less fortunate members of his community, the agreement said.

It is not always easy to attach those big files to e-mail messages as the attachment limit for most ISPs is about 10MB. Don't be disappointed - there are some slick --and free--Web sites for sending really big files. Both Dropload and YouSendIt let you send single files of up to 1GB in size. (Warning: For professional users on fast broadband connections, only. Do not try this on dial-up.) Dropload - http://www.dropload.com YouSendIt - http://www.yousendit.com Both these services are quick n' easy to use, with no ActiveX installations or other hassles. With YouSendIt, just tell the site the location of the file on your drive and who the file goes to, and the file is on its way. I like being able to send the file to multiple addresses. Dropload's advantage is that once you're registered (and don't worry, it's benign), you can save recipient e-mail addresses. That's handy if you need to send a file to the same person at a later date. I came across another free

If you are a user of the Mozilla Suite, Firefox or Thunderbird and noticed some security bug, report it immediately here . Reporters of valid critical security bugs will receive a $500 (US) cash reward and a Mozilla T-shirt. The Mozilla Security Bug Bounty Program is designed to encourage security research in Mozilla software and to reward those who help us create the safest Internet clients in existence. The Security bug must be original and previously unreported and it must be a remote exploit. If two or more people report the bug together the $500 reward will be divided among them. Check out the Security Bug Bounty Program FAQ . German bloke Michael Krax got $2,500 after he found five bugs in its Firefox browser.

Their capabilities should be built into the operating system, something both Microsoft and Apple are working on. Windows users have a while to wait -- Win XP's successor, nicknamed Longhorn, won't ship before the summer of 2006 -- but Apple's Mac OS X Tiger should arrive this spring. Rob Pegoraro writes an interesting article on Desktop Search Tools : Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool The file-search tool in Windows XP is a dog, and not just metaphorically -- a little animated puppy appears on screen to indicate your query's status by wagging its tail, panting, scratching itself and other actions. If only Microsoft's programmers had put such effort into the rest of this software! Its searches run painfully slowly and routinely yield masses of unrelated files. A gaggle of contenders has recently put forth replacements for Microsoft's search. Some are popular Web portals -- Ask Jeeves, Google and Yahoo. Some are small, obscure developers -- Copernic and Bl

You can now search instant messages from Yahoo! Messenger and contacts from your Yahoo! Address Book. * Search your instant messages from Yahoo! Messenger * Search your contacts from Yahoo! Address Book * Search for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, text, HTML, ZIP and over 200 other file types. * Search the Web using Yahoo! Search from the same interface. * Selectively index only the content you choose - files, emails, IM's, contacts. * View search results instantaneously - as fast as you can type Yahoo , in Sunnyvale, California, hasn't decided yet whether it will enable the tool to tap into data stored on competitors' servers, such as Web mail services other than its own, Horowitz says . In order to have the tool index data from Yahoo's servers, users have to activate a feature which asks for their Yahoo ID and password, he says. The tool is still useful for those users who just want to index data stored on their PCs, he says. For example, Yahoo Messenger sessions are ar

Amul is a brand of butter made in India. As kids we used to dip Amul buttered bread in hot milk chai. But the Amul Utterly Butterly Girl is an icon of middle class India from the 60s to now. The eagerly awaited Amul ads combine scathing social commentary on the scandal du jour and shine light on little known middle class aspirations that make India a very special place. For example see these Ads made during the 1976-7 emergency. Or see the entire archive till today. The Amul girl who lends herself so completely to Amul butter, created as a rival to the Polson butter girl. "Eustace Fernandez (the art director) and I decided that we needed a girl who would worm her way into a housewife's heart. And who better than a little girl?" says Sylvester daCunha. And so it came about that the famous Amul Moppet was born. From the Sixties to the Nineties, the Amul ads have come a long way and continue to tease a laughter out of them. Where does Amul's magic actually lie? Man

Google News will let people specify what categories of news to display on the News front page, giving an array of choices including results chosen by keyword. You can also design your custom front page by mixing and matching existing standard sections from the 22 regional editions of Google News from around the globe. Take a look at my personalized Google News page here - My keywords include Macromedia , Adobe , Microsoft , Google and Yahoo! . Google News readers will be able to create up to 20 sections for their custom page. The customization relies on cookies, or files a Web site places on the visitor's computer to store identifying details and preferences for subsequent visits. Readers can also distribute their customized setting via e-mail. Is this a hint that Google might have plans to build a portal. This feature is very similar to personalized page services offered by Yahoo! or MSN . Another new feature allows you to share your customized news page with others. Each c

Some more details are now coming on the upcoming IE 7 browser. Paul Thurrott shares some facts on Internet Explorer 7. IE 7 was originally scheduled for Longhorn . The new features we're going to see in IE 7 were originally going to be available only as part of Longhorn. IE 7 will be focused on security. Like the version of IE that Microsoft shipped in XP SP2, IE 7.0 will consist, mostly, of security-oriented features. One of these features will be an anti-phishing technology. As Gates noted, "Some of the advances [in IE 7] include things focused on phishing, where people use URLs that appear to come from another location, things related to malware. So, [that] will be another important advance [in IE 7]." IE 7 will also include an IP traffic encryption capability that will help prevent electronic eavesdroppers from modifying data before it reaches your machine or redirecting you silently to malicious servers. "It makes sure that the traffic is encrypted, so there

Urs Hoelzle, vice president of engineering and of operations at the Google, shed some light on how Google's data centers operate. Many people consider the company's operations expertise more valuable than the actual search algorithms that launched the enterprise. According to Hoelzle, Google has inexpensively built out its computing infrastructure by using thousands of "commodity" servers, instead of fewer high-end, and high-priced, machines. The trick is to make these racks of hardware work together and to ensure that the failure of one machine doesn't derail an operation. The way Google has been able to build out its computing infrastructure for millions, rather than tens of millions, of dollars is by buying relatively cheap machines. Looking at hardware costs, company engineers saw that purchasing a few high-end servers, with eight or more powerful processors, costs significantly more than dozens of simpler "commodity" servers. The trick is to make t

Tally 8.1 upgrade is available to Tally 7.1 users at an additional cost of Rs 2,700. (Please keep your serial number and email handy to download Tally 8.1) Tally 6.3 users can also download Tally 7.2 with the Tally documentation / Tally Help manual available as a CHM help file. However, if your looking to test Tally Accounting Software without buying it, you are out of luck as Tally is not available as a trial download (maybe to prevent cracks or trial patches). Tally Solutions Shop announces Tally 7.2 Release 2.1 with Job Costing and Tax Collected at Source. Visit the Tally homepage and click on the download Tally 7.2 Release 2.1 button for immediate download. TallySilver 8.1 and TallyGold 8.1 now support entry of data in all unidirectional languages and scripts, concurrently. Users can interact with the software through all commonly performed functions by choosing from the built-in vernacular interfaces. Interfaces in additional local languages are being added to the softwar

Microsoft is being tight-lipped about the feature set for the next version of Office. According to MW , Microsoft has established an internal Office 12 ship calendar that pegs Office Beta 1 availability for August 29, 2005. Beta 2 is slated for December 5, 2005. The internal release-to-manufacturing target is May 22, 2006. And the target for "street" availability for the Office 12 System is July 17, 2006, the sources said. The Office team is still contemplating whether to add other new Office servers to the mix in the Office 12 timeframe, partner sources said. If Microsoft does so, a Visio Server is a likely candidate. The new Excel and InfoPath servers are expected to operate similarly to Project Server 2003. Users are expected to the servers through a choice of the full desktop Excel and InfoPath products, or through a thin Web client that will allow users to access Excel and InfoPath data stored on a centralized server, according to partner sources. There must have been a

WinZip Companion for Outlook makes it easy for users of Microsoft Outlook to zip and encrypt attachments when sending messages. Zipping attachments saves transmission time, conserves space in Outlook mailboxes, and saves disk space for both the sender and recipient of the e-mail. The Companion can be configured to automatically zip your attachments, ask whether or not you want them zipped, or let you zip and attach files manually with just a few mouse clicks. Toolbar and menu items allow you to control the Companion's functionality on a message-by-message basis. In addition, sensitive attachments can be easily protected with the same built-in advanced AES encryption found in WinZip 9.0. WinZip Companion for Outlook works with Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002, and Outlook 2003 only.

Some major promises by Bill Gates in his keynote address: 1. Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 customers, beta will be available this summer and the final version this fall - it will not wait for the next version of Windows. We delivered on our part of XP SP2. We are actively delivering on our part of a great 64-bit Windows client. We continue to deliver on security updates for customers (across several versions of IE (back to IE 5.01) and Windows). We are going to deliver on IE7. 2. Windows Anti-Spyware To Come Free Of Charge Expanding anti-spyware protection by including the Windows® AntiSpyware technology at no additional charge as part of the Windows value proposition Gates expanded on Microsoft's recently announced plans to acquire security vendor Sybari Software Inc., which provides solutions to help protect messaging and collaboration servers from malicious software. Gates noted that when the acquisition is closed, Microsoft intends to ship