Google to launch Google Chrome OS

After web browser from Google now it’s the time for OS from Google named as Google Chrome OS.The Open Source OS from Google is targeted at Internet-centric computers such as netbooks and will release it later this year and would begin appearing on netbooks in the second half of 2010. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as on ARM chips.

Here is the extract from the official Google blogpost

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

READ MORE - Google to launch Google Chrome OS

Bypassing Keyloggers

There is no need to tell what a keylogger is but for some n00bs a keylogger can be some kind of mechanism to create a log file of all the keystrokes you made. Keyloggers are of different variety some even offers tracking mouse clicks, takes screenshots periodically. Keyloggers can be software based or hardware based. Software based keyloggers can be remotely activated on a computer by a Trojan. By carefully reading the log file created by keylogger anyone can sieve out the useful information.

Hardware based keyloggers, uses a small socket in the keyboard, which is impossible to bypass. To know if a computer has a hardware keylogger or not look at the keyboard wire at the CPU port if it is connected normally than every thing is fine, but if it is connected to CPU via some other socket or hardware equipment than you must be aware that a Hardware keylogger is working on the computer.

Cybercafés and other PCs are possible threat as you don't know if a keylogger is running on it or not, you even can't find it on Add/Remove programs or in Task Manager as these programs has the ability to hide them. So you should be careful of specific and targeted attacks. Here I am listing some of the techniques/tricks that you can use to avoid being in such conditions.

• A simple Trick

This is a simple trick which I use this most often whenever I uses computer in college or in cybercafés. This is a simple trick which is used to bypass or we can say to fool a keylogger, let takes an example that I have to enter a Password. Let say my password is SPOOLSV. If you type the password as it is than keylogger track you password so I enter my password as follows

First I enter P then O then S i.e. I get POS then I use my mouse to click before P and then type S then again use my mouse to click after P and then type O and so on, this will help you a lot.

• On-Screen Keyboard

The simplest and the easiest method to bypass a keylogger is to use a On-Screen Keyboard (Go to Start > Programs > accessories > Accessibility > On-Screen keyboard). It is virtual keyboard that will be shown at bottom of your screen and you can use mouse to key in any sensitive information. You can use this tool to enter sensitive information like Credit card details, passwords, account name etc. Well in most of the cases it works well, but if a keylogger has mouse click tracking system than again you will be in difficulty.

• Carry browser with you

Portable browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Opera are the browser that you can take with you on the USB to Cybercafés. A simple way to bypass the process of entering email information's and passwords etc is to select "remember me" option on a secure computer. In this case browser does not save any information on the host machine, and all the information is stored in your USB only. Also it will help save your time since you carry all your favorites and bookmarks with you.

• Deep freeze

Ahh! You must be thinking how Deepfreeze by Faronics can be used to protect your sensitive information, but yes it is a great tool and mine favorite to use. As you already know when you use deepfreeze it saves the state of machine anything you do after installing deepfreeze are temporary after you shutdown your computer your system will again come back in the previous state. We will use deepfreeze this feature to bypass keyloggers. Whenever you access a public computer first install deepfreeze on it and freeze all hard drives and then use the system. What it will do is it will allow keylogger to log all your keystroke but as soon as you shutdown all the log information get wiped off and the system will remain as it was before. Using deepfreeze with any of the above given method will surely protect you.

• By Software

I am not discussing how to use it but KeyPass is the best software I know to bypass any kind of keyloggers. It is also Open Source software thus trustworthy.

The above discussed ways can be used bypass software based keyloggers, as well as hardware based keyloggers. But in hardware based keyloggers it will safer if you don't use keyboard at all. In spite you can use on-screen keyboard.

Apart from this securely delete all your data from the public PC so that no trace of your activities can be traced. Don't think that [SHIFT] + [DELETE] will help, since the data is still in hard disk to delete your data securely use programs like Free Commander and Eraser.

NOTE: Though I have made all my effort to make this article short as possible and to provide all methods but if someone knows any other method better than these please let me know.

image credits: http://www.amitbhawani.com/

READ MORE - Bypassing Keyloggers

Free - Its all we want! Where to get free legal torrents

We all know where to get our favourite music, movies, softwares etc... from internet yes obviously the best option is Torrents. But most of the torrrent sites a reputation for illegally distributing copyrighted content.
Some most popular sites are-

1. Iptorrents
2. MiniNova
3. Demonoid
4. ThePirateBay
5. IsoHunt
6. Torrentz
7. TorrentZEN
8. Btjunkie
9. Torrent-Finder


So for those who want to faught against Piracy here is a listing of some sites which provides you all your downloads for freee and yes legally.

1. Vuze - Music, videos, softwares
2. Public Domain Torrents - Classic movies and B-movies
3. eTree - Live concerts
4. Jamendo - Albums
5. Jamendo at isoHunt
6. MiniNova - Music, videos, software and games and ebooks.
7. Legit Torrents - Mostly software

If someone knows some other good site please let me know!

READ MORE - Free - Its all we want! Where to get free legal torrents

How To: Share Interent betweeen 2 PCs

To share an internet connection between multiple computers, a proxy software is required. Several solutions such as FreeProxy and AnalogX are available online. Download and Install FreeProxy from www.handcraftedsoftware.org It is simple and easy to use and also functions as a caching server and website filter/blocker.

To share a connection using FreeProxy follow these steps:


1. Click on Define > Define ports. Here you can define ports for HTTP, Socks etc (usually 8080, 1080 etc, Click on Done.
2. Now Enter this in the browsers setting on the PCs connected to the network. Click on Start/Stop to activate proxy server.

To Activate Caching:

1. Click on Define > Define Chache.
2. Tick the Activate the cache check box.
3. Select the control and data path.
4. Enter the size limit of cache depending on usage. 300MB should be fine.
5. Set the expiry to around 7 days. Click on done.

Happy sharing.

Image source: http://electronrun.com
Article source: Digit Magazine Page 87 FEB '09

READ MORE - How To: Share Interent betweeen 2 PCs