It's no secret that there are fewer undergraduate students majoring in computer science today than there were in the late '90s. The Computing Research Association's statistics show that the number of freshman who list computer science as a probable major has fallen by 70 percent since 2000. According to the Associated Press, universities are responding to this trend by attempting to spice up computer science education and make it more appealing to incoming students.

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One example is Georgia Tech's new robotics program, which uses an inexpensive programmable robot called the Scribbler to encourage hands-on learning. The Scribbler, which can be programmed to draw shapes and navigate through obstacle courses, is relatively compact and costs only $75.

In addition to formulating curricula that are more colorful and engaging, universities are also offering new programs that focus on multimedia or web development, topics that are becoming increasingly relevant for many contemporary computer programmers. These are also the skills that students are most likely to have developed before heading off to college, and so it forms a natural bridge into the computing sciences.

I have less than fond memories of my own experiences with computer science education. I was frustrated with the emphasis on niche commercial development tools that I had never used before and have rarely used since. I also got frustrated with the emphasis on technical minutiae that aren't particularly relevant to general application development. Assembly programming and compiler design skills acquired in college aren't going to be very useful for software developers who enter the workforce and get paid to write web applications with ASP.NET or Ruby on Rails. That particular problem could largely be resolved by the emergence of new academic programs that differentiate between computer science and web application development. Few schools do this, however.


Improvements to computer science education are being touted as a way to prevent the United States from continuing to lose relevance in the technology industry, a problem that is also becoming pervasive across the board in other fields relating to math and science. Although increasing the number of computer science students could make the United States more competitive in the tech industry, there are other factors that should be included as well. Encouraging students to become technology entrepreneurs isn't going to do much good if abusive patent litigation, for instance, prevents them from innovating and developing products. Refactoring computer science education is a step in the right direction, but other reforms are needed as well.

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The strength of Windows Vista's security model is easily the biggest question facing the nascent operating system. While sales will be strong simply on account of the way OEMs have adopted Vista on their midrange and high-end offerings, the place of Vista in the enterprise is not yet clear. Microsoft must demonstrate that its approach to security with Vista is indeed effective; otherwise, IT managers will see little benefit to moving to the new OS anytime soon.

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Windows Vista only offers "marginal security advantages over XP" according to tests completed by CRN. "Vista remains riddled with holes, despite its multilayer security architecture and embedded security tools." The report's findings are mixed and at times a little unfair, but it does demonstrate the problems that Microsoft has to face—technical and otherwise.

The report faults Vista for "providing no improvement in virus protection vs. XP," but of course Windows Vista does not ship with antivirus software—something the reviewer fails to mention. Faulting an AV-less Vista for not stopping viruses is a bit like faulting a door without a lock for opening when the handle is twisted. Any business that is deploying Vista (or XP) without an antivirus solution is, of course, out of its mind.

What Vista does have built in is Windows Defender and User Account Control, which should both help stop forms of malware other than viruses. And CRN found that Vista does have an "edge" over XP when detecting spyware and adware. It wasn't perfect though: some malware slipped though. Here, though, we run into the issue of deciding what counts as "stopping" malware. For instance, CRN says that Vista "missed" Trojan-Spy.Win32.Goldun.ms, when in fact UAC warns a user when it is accessed (I can confirm that). CRN faults Windows Defender for not identifying and blocking the Trojan outright (it did block others), while Microsoft will tell you that UAC did its job by throwing up a warning and asking for user intervention.

In testing some remote data exploits, the reviewers were unable to determine if all of the exploits they tested actually target Vista, making their findings rather questionable. IE7 did stop one RDS exploit while missing four others that may have been only targeted at XP. Notably, XP did not stop any of the RDS exploits. Vista is better here, but the jury is out on how well it did or did not do since the reviewers were unable to determine the full threat of the exploits they were using.

Vista and XP both failed miserably at finding scripting exploits in the HTTP stream, and this remains a big problem for both operating systems. Vista failed to flag the exploits as they came down the pipe, though the firewall did detect when the exploits attempted to communicate over the 'net. This is what we've found in our testing as well (the results of which we hope to publish next month).

CRN doesn't tell the whole story with such exploits, however. IE7 in protected mode forces such scripts to run at a very restricted user privilege level, unlike XP which will allow those same scripts to run at the same privilege level as a user. Vista may let some of those scripts through, but the damage they do is also mitigated to a certain extent. This is why Microsoft believes such threats will have to evolve to survive with fewer rights and less access to the system: if they get through, they will find a very limited sandbox to play in. CRN's coverage complete ignores this point and fails to test for its effectiveness.


It was also disappointing to see CRN completely ignore the issue of buffer overflows, which has been addressed well in Vista by most accounts. This was a major weak spot with XP, and so far, Vista looks strong in this area, strong enough that Vista may never get its own "SQL Slammer." Why CRN didn't address this is a mystery, as it is no minor matter.

Indeed, while the CRN report is informative, it lacks much critical information to support its judgment that Vista is only a minor improvement. For instance, it's not enough to know if an exploit "got through" IE. What happened afterward? Did it modify system files, corrupt the registry, or deliver some other payload? CRN doesn't report on the effects it observed. We cannot know if the scripting exploits really bypassed Vista because CRN doesn't tell us what the scripts did. There's a big difference between 1) a script exploit running and then installing a rootkit in XP and 2) a script exploit running in Vista but failing at installing that same rootkit. CRN makes no distinction.

In all, the CRN report finds that Vista was as good as XP in seven categories and better in four others (notably, Spyware/Adware, Obfuscated Code Exploits, RDS Exploits, and Trojans). Importantly, it was never outperformed by XP, and just as importantly, these tests were carried out using default settings. The scripting exploits, for instance, are largely defanged by tweaking IE7's zone settings, and there are other moves that a competent IT shop would undertake to make Vista more secure before releasing it to Joe User. And again, CRN didn't measure the effect of these exploits, which ignores a big piece of the overall security overhaul in Vista.

Still, Vista's security is most certainly not a "slam dunk," and that should worry Microsoft. The mantra that Vista is an evolutionary step in security should be met with better results than this. As one IT contact told me recently, some shops view Windows security primarily as an issue of aggressive filtering at the corporate firewall, and Vista doesn't look poised to change that. All the reviews in the world probably won't change that, either. Time, coupled with a relatively clean record for Vista, is probably the only thing that will change skeptical minds.

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The Internet has been around since the 1960’s. The World Wide Web was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee as a tool for academic and government researchers to link scientific research। It was not widely available to the general public until Internet Service Providers began offering dial-up service in the mid-1990s.

Any computer you buy now is obsolete in about 3 years if you continue to buy modern software। Most of the proprietary or integrated computers are obsolete much sooner, 1.5-2 years. Nevertheless, the average computer problem can be avoided with just a few minor tweaks:

OVERLOAD ON ACTIVE FONTS

Every new font you install sucks up physical memory। Unless you have RAM to spare, it would be advisable not to load too many more than your commonly used fonts.

Recommend making a folder like “Fonts_other”, since this will help you find it easily; “Fonts_other” should wind up right next to (or under) the Fonts folder। Then, when you want to use a particular font in a document/graphic, go to your “Fonts_other” folder, double-click on the font you want to use, and launch the application in which you wish to use it. The font should show up in your regular list as if it were installed the “normal” way. When you’re done, you can close the font preview window and Windows is none the wiser.This also fixes the problem of too many fonts. All fonts are stored in the Registry, which has a limit of 64k for each key, meaning 800 - 1000 fonts are all that can be stored without a shareware font manager program.

SCREEN SAVERS AND A SYSTEM THAT हंग्स

One of the first things you then need to do is disable the power management of your system। Sure, you were right when you opted for a power management system that either puts the monitor into a sleep mode or a screen saver comes on. Not all components react favourably when the system automatically gets into a reduced-power mode. Which is why they do not respond or the system hangs when you try to get the system up again after a while.

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU USE WIFI

You may have already used wireless networks in your home, in airports, coffee shops, or even public parks। These networks are convenient, but they do come with a security risk. If you set up your own wireless network at home or in your dorm room, learn how to protect your home network and pay special attention to the section on wireless network security.

PASSWORD YOUR COMPUTER

Passwords are the first line of defense in protecting your computer from criminals, pranksters, or a careless roommate. If you don’t use a password to log on to your computer, anyone can access your computer and unlock it. Be sure to lock your computer when you’re not using it.

BACK UP ALL WORK

The image of us losing important documents because we forgot to back up our work has almost become a cliché. Still, many of us don’t have the time to back up. You can set back up programs to do it on a daily basis or do what I do and save all important documents on an external HD.

BONUS TIPS

१।Use a personal firewall to keep unwanted entities out of your computer.
२।Don’t open email attachment that you are not expecting to receive and scan all attachments with a virus scan program before opening or sending.
३।Only make online purchases through known companies. If you want to make a purchase from an unknown company, take time to research the company.
४।Keep your operating system up to date. If you have a windows/mac computer, make sure you update the operating system on a regular basis.
५।Never plug your computer directly into a power outlet. Relatively inexpensive surge protectors go a long way to protect a several thousand dollar investment.
६।Unplug your system during lightning storms, even if it is surge protected।

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