0 The Essential of Keeping Your iPhone Safe and Secure

How much personal information are you carrying around on your iPhone? Contacts, text messages, e-mails, pictures - quite a lot, am I right? Because your iPhone phone holds a lot of personal information, it's important to know how to keep that information safe and secure.

The following are the 7 essential things you should to in order to keep the information on your iPhone safe and secure:

1. Password protect you iPhone and set the phone to automatically lock itself after few minutes of inactivity.

2. Use remote wipe application. There's quite a few remote wipe apps available for iPhone smartphones. I would recommend you to go with an app called Find My iPhone. With Find My iPhone, you can always find the location of your phone on a map as well as delete all data input from the phone remotely.

3. Don't sensitive data such as passwords, bank information and so on on your iPhone. I think this one is pretty obvious, isn't it?

4. Don't connect your phone to unknown WiFi networks, use 3G/4G instead. If you are connected to a Wifi network, somebody could possibly attack your phone and install malware on it.

5. Don't open shady links on social media networks and other sites. Your friend Bill shared a link of a teenage girl doing what on Facebook? Your friend Bill is 42, married and has children - do you really think it was him?

6. Use firmware and make sure that you always have the latest version.

7. Don't trust strangers alone with your phone. Yes, that nice young girl on the street only asked your phone to call her parents but are you sure she didn't actually install spyware on it?

If you are also concerned about how well your iPhone is running, then look here - it's a great guide on how to reset your iPhone. Resetting your iPhone can fix a ton of different problems and make your phone work a lot faster.

0 Exin Green IT Foundation Certification Exam

Hello everyone! Today's topic will be slightly different than what I talk about most of the times. In this post, I will be talking about Exin Green IT Foundation exam.

The Exin Green IT Foundation exam is an entry level professional certification test geared specifically for advancing the knowledge and abilities of IT personnel to contribute to corporately responsible and economically sound organizational IT initiatives. This Exin certification exam certainly has its benefits for IT professionals, including the acquisition of highly valued skills in the job market, skills which will only become more valuable in the future as more and more organizations recognize the importance of Greener IT on business success.

Candidates for the Exin Green IT certification exam don’t just include IT professionals. In fact, the exam is applicable in the professional development plans of individuals working in a range of other capacities, including business and sustainability managers and business and financial analysts, to name just a few.

Successfully completing the Exin Green IT Foundation exam increases your value with your current employer and provides you additional clout with prospective employers or clients as well. To achieve success, you’ll need to focus your studies on the testing materials, and ideally utilize practice exams for measuring your knowledge attainment prior to taking your exam. Training options are available with Exin approved training services, and there are full length practice exams, as well as tutorials and other self study materials, offered through online prep services like TestsLive.com.

There are a total of 40 questions on the exam and you’ll need to achieve a score of 65 percent or higher to pass. Exin recommends a minimum of one year IT experience prior to taking the test, and encourages candidates to dedicate at least 30 hours of study to their exam prep. 

0 Voice over IP (VoIP)

Hello everyone, we're together once again! After the post about the sound card I recently picked up, I thought I would talk about something which is related to sound. Hence, today's topic is Voice over IP, or VoIP in short.

You might not be familiar with the term, but I'm sure once I tell you Skype is a VoIP service, you'll know what I mean. Every software which grants you the ability to transmit audio over internet is considered as a VoIP service. Now the name makes more sense, doesn't it?

Note that transmitting audio over internet is not limited to computers. There are phones called IP phones, which use an ethernet cable instead of a phone cable. They work like a regular phone does considering that you connected it to your router and have an active internet connection.

There are also phone adapters, called ATA (analog telephone adapter) which turns your standard phone into an IP phone. This is done by converting the analog telephone signal into digital signal in order to use it with internet. Setting it up is pretty simple as well. All you have to do is to plug your phone into the ATA, and the ATA to your router.

VoIP is getting really popular day by day since it has many advantages such as being able to change your Caller ID, call transfer, and three-way calling. It also includes the traditional phone features such as call forwarding, number filtering and many more.

How VoIP works is pretty simple. It's a basic packet transfer between two IPs. It's like downloading and uploading at the same time. You send and receive packets at the same time, which allows you to both send and receive audio.

VoIP comes with disadvantages as well, but they aren't too many. Basically, the only problem VoIP has is dependability. Power cuts, viruses, bandwidth problems may cause problems in your VoIP experience, which might get you in trouble in a case where you have to make a critical call. Then again, I don't think they are reasons not to use VoIP since they're pretty extreme cases in my opinion.

If you're more into the computer section of VoIP, and looking for software to use, I recommend Skype to start with. Provided you have a good connection, Skype is the best you can get. If you don't have sufficient bandwidth to use Skype, you can use other software such as TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Mumble, or RaidCall. These software are usually used in gaming in order to lower bandwidth usage, gather large amounts of people in the same place easier than Skype, and maintain anonymity if preferred.

That being said, we come to the end of another post. I hope you enjoyed the read folks!

0 Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro Review

Hello everyone! Today I will be reviewing the external sound card I bought lately, Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro. The reason I bought this card was mainly because I wasn't satisfied with my laptop's onboard audio. Now, I also use it with my desktop computer instead of using the onboard function. I can say it's easy to feel a difference.

When you open the box, you'll see the USB stick which is the card, a pair of headphones with microphone attached, (I must say, they're a lot better than the 30-40$ Sennheisers I often picked up for my iPhone) driver CD, (you can also install the drivers on the internet if you wish) and a USB extension cable. (since the card is bigger than a usual pen drive, it might block out other ports if you don't use this)

It's pretty straight forward to install the card on your computer and start using it. Just plug it into a USB slot, install the drivers, hook your headphones up and you're good to go. It shouldn't even take you 10 minutes.

The drivers also come with Creative Entertainment Console, where you can find EAX (environmental) effects, THX effects (such as virtual surround or crystalizer), a graphic equalizer, a sound mixer (it's connected to the Windows one), and microphone effects where you can change your voice into sounding really interesting and weird.

Although I am really happy with the card and it's definitely worth the pick up if you're using onboard and looking for something better, there are known issues about X-Fi cards (not just about this one, all the X-Fi cards) such as crackling and popping sounds which happened to me as well. It makes it impossible to use the card, so if you experience issues like this, here are a few advices.

- Update your BIOS (this solved my crackling issue, it was my last resort)
- Pull your other USB cords out to see if anything causes conflict with the card
- Download the latest drivers from the internet instead of using the CD

These are the things I can think of right now, and I think there are many other alternate solutions going on around the internet (which I tried with no help, but then again a different solution might work for someone else) that you should try. You can also try to mail Creative Support if you have tried everything with no success. I found the fix to my problem before I got a reply from them, but they still sent me a really helpful e-mail where the solution I used was also included.

All in all, ignoring the little drawback which took me 2 days to fix, I definitely recommend this card. The sound is much better compared to both onboard audio on my laptop and desktop. I picked the card up for around 60$ (electronics are expensive where I live), but you can pick it up at Amazon for 30$ if you have the possibility. Considering that it also includes a pair of headphones with a microphone, (like I mentioned, better than the low tier Sennheiser earbuds I've used) it's an amazing opportunity to take.

Thanks for reading!

0 Remote Desktop Software

Hello everyone! We are together once again. I want to talk about remote desktop software today, as it makes life easier for many people, including me. Remote desktop software is a software which allows you to connect to other computers, and access their desktop as if it was yours via the internet.

It's getting more and more popular day by day since it has many uses. It can be used for remote administration, it can be used to control computers without external peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and monitors (in order to reducse cost). It can also be used to access your own computer while you're at work or vice versa, and many other similar cases like this.

The one downside to using remote desktop is that the computer has to be turned on all the time in order to be able to access it. This problem can be solved by alternative means such as Wake on LAN. (it allows the computer to turn on when it recieves a message from the network) You might also experience lag/delay/slowness depending on the location you're connecting to and the internet speeds.

There has also been reports of malicious use of remote desktop software, such as people calling victims or sending them mails, claiming that they are from Microsoft or an anti-virus company, telling the victim that they have to check their computer, and convince them into letting the hacker into the computer. This will mostly result with your computer being infected by trojan software.

The working principle of remote desktop software is pretty simple. A copy of the controlled computer's image is sent to the controlling computer, and is updated whenever something happens. The keyboard/mouse access is given to the controlling computer directly, so it looks like as if direct input is happening on the controlled computer when you look at it.

There are many remote desktop software available to use in our time. The most popular one, since even the home users with lesser computer knowledge are known to use it, is surely TeamViewer. I can say it's my preference of remote desktop software as well since it's pretty easy and straight forward to use. It's free, and it also offers small extras like being able chat with the computer you're connected to. If you're satisfied with TeamViewer, you can also buy a license for commercial use.

RealVNC and other VNC software are also quite popular, even though they're less recognized by home users. I believe I talked about RealVNC in one of my earlier posts, so check it out if you wonder what it is. Then again, I believe TeamViewer is superior compared to any of these, both in terms of features and the user friendliness.

Microsoft also offers an integrated remote desktop software, if you don't want to bother with installing software for it. It's called Remote Desktop Protocol/Connection (depends on the Windows you use) if you want to give it a try. Note that you'll need to enable remote desktop connections on the host computer in order for this to be successful.

Of course, there are many other ways/software for a remote desktop access. I just wanted to give basic information about it, and my recommendations of remote desktop software. I hope this helps you out, as I use remote desktop software in a near-daily basis, usually in order to help my girlfriend when she experiences problems with her computer.

That would be all for now, see you another day folks!

0 Server Colocation

Hello everyone! We're together once more after a week. Today's topic is server colocation, a term which is quite important for small businesses as it provides many advantages.

Let's start off with what server colocation is. In most basic explanation server, colocation is placing your server machine in some other large company's rack, and use their bandwidth. You build a server machine, you take it to a big company, and it runs there, bandwidth and power being provided by that company. It's quite similar to buying a dedicated server except that you own the hardware in this method.

Server colocation comes with many advantages. By colocating your server, you eliminate the need to pay for your own bandwidth. Of course you're paying the company you colocated your server to, but it's nothing compared to the expenses you have to face if you want to run a server. Your server will also be having a better uptime since it's expected for big businesses to have power generators and such in a case of emergency.

Compared to dedicated servers, it has the advantage of having your own hardware, which allows you to change it whenever it doesn't fit your needs anymore. You also don't have to rely on your provider for software changes. It's known that many times, it takes a long time for providers to install new software on your servers. This way, you can get on it right away whenever you want. If you're lucky, the company you colocated your server in will also manage your server. This will save you from the troubles of going to the server physically if a problem occurs. Added to that, you will eliminate the problems about data center movings and such problems as your server belongs to you and it will be up and running all the time no matter what.

Sadly, server colocation also comes with disadvantages. This method isn't too popular at the moment, so you might have a hard time finding a place to colocate your server. Note that it's pretty important that the place you're colocating the server to is close to you, so that you can reach it when you need to. Physical access could be important in some cases, and shouldn't be ignored. Another problem you might face is the price going up for the service if too much bandwidth is used in a certain period. Server colocation also requires more IT skill compared to buying a server, since you will be required to install your own hardware and software.

That being said, server colocation is recommended for small businesses who do a lot of work on the internet. An usual web hosting might not be sufficient for a business who mostly works on the internet, and it can't be expected for such type of business to have its own network setup for the server. I personally don't recommend it for individuals who want to run websites either, since a web hosting would be sufficient for this. I think it's a great thing for small businesses, and they should definitely look at this option.

0 Steelseries Sensei RAW

Hello! My old faithful Logitech G9X broke as of yesterday, so I decided to set sail for a new mouse. I ended up buying a Steelseries Sensei RAW since I'm a big fan of Steelseries products. I have to say, I really loved the G9X, and I always thought I would buy a new one if the one I had broke, but I just felt like I should go for a change this time.

First things first, I must say I'm really impressed with the product. It comes in a nice small box with its manual, a Steelseries sticker, and the mouse itself. It works as soon as you plug it in with no problems at all. I suggest you download Steelseries Engine from the website to fine tune your mouse. The mouse cable is braided like many other good mice, so that you don't rip the cable apart at some point.

There are two versions of Steelseries Sensei RAW, glossy and rubber. I picked the glossy one up since I don't really like the rubber feeling, but it's different for everyone I suppose. The mouse has 7 buttons, (LMB/RMB/MMB/M5/M6/M7/M8) where M5/M6 is placed at the left side, and M7/M8 is placed at the right side. The buttons are easily reachable without any problem even though the right side buttons look uncomfortable at first glance. There's also a button right under MMB, which allows you to toggle between 2 DPI modes. (you can set them in Steelseries Engine) You can also configure every button as you like, to execute some macros, or launch applications. I use my M7/M8 for Next/Previous song in Winamp.

The mouse has a nice LED Steelseries logo, which is also fully configurable via Steelseries Engine. You can change the intensity of the illumination, and make it blink if you want. I personally keep it illuminated all the time, since it looks quite good.

Technically speaking, the mouse is 5700 DPI, which is a lot more than enough. There are mice with over 10000 DPI now, and I just don't get why anyone would something like that. I think even 5700 DPI is a lot, and I doubt many people use it that fast.

I thought it would be hard to get used to this mouse after using the G9X for so long, but once I set the DPI to the value it was on my old mouse, I got used to it with no problem at all. I can even say that I like the glossy surface more than the surface of the G9X.

The mouse is quite lightweight, (lighter than G9X with no weights attached) which I like. As someone who plays games a lot during the day, a light mouse makes my arm feel like heavens. I would categorize it as a medium-large size mouse. If you have a small hand, you might not be so comfortable with it.

All in all, I recommend this mouse with my whole heart. I'm glad that I went for a change instead of buying another G9X. I'm not saying this mouse is better than G9X by any means, (I can't betray the old faithful this fast!) but I can say it's as good. If you're looking to buy a new mouse, and if it fits your budget (60$ in Amazon), make sure you give Steelseries Sensei RAW a chance!