Windows 7 Support Is no Longer Free

Microsoft's Windows 7 is now (January 13, 2015) on extended support and the support will be over on January 14th, 2020.  A lot of people like Windows 7 which is clearly better than Windows Vista. About 55% of the PC of the world uses Windows 7 more than the user of  Windows 8 and 8.1 combined.

Now every versions of Windows 7 are transferred to extended support from mainstream support meaning there will no longer be free support for Windows 7 starting today January 13, 2015. Those with licenses paid up, or signed up to licensing programs will also need to pay for Windows 7 support.

Security patches will still be provided up to 2020.

Android Lollipop Slow? Here's a Fix

Android has significantly improve the Android Lollipop in terms of design, performance, apps list, and battery life. However, despite all these improvements you may experience some lag and slowdown that may frustrate you.

Android Lollipop users have reported to the Android AOSP bug tracker some lag problems that happened after two days of "standby" time, and it went back to normal when they do a reboot. Expert said that what causing the problem is a  "memory leak", were apps keeps on using RAM even though it is no longer needed.

Those apps after some time may use so much RAM that when you use an app you will experience a lag since the system don't have enough RAM for it to function. The system will by closing apps to open more memory, which will then force it to recreate and restore the state of the apps it closed if you need to use them again. This cycle will make the system laggy.

The issue has been reported and now tagged as "resolved" however they offer no fix for now. We will have to wait for future version of Android (Android 5.0.3 or 5.1, or 6.x) to get a fix. For now all we can do is reboot the system.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

 

 

I wish all of you
A Great New Year
And More Blessings Throughout
And End With Joy.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas! 2014

Christmas is a Blessed season of hope that spread the whole world
with hope and love!

Nokia, Baidu Team Up to Power Maps, Location Services Outside China

Chinese Web giant Baidu will team up with Nokia to power their mapping and location platform, both companies announced last Monday. Nokia will now power Baidu's desktop and mobile map services for all regions that are located outside China.

Baidu is the second largest search engine next to Google, it is China's largest. Nokia have created a mapping service that has a good feedback from users.

They will initially update Baidu Maps on the desktop, iOS, and Android with maps for Taiwan, then other countries will follow suit. Their collaboration makes Baidu the first Chinese company to give location-based services to its residents traveling abroad.

Bruno Bourguet, Here's senior vice president and head of sales said: "Every day, millions of people count on Here to explore the world and discover new places whether at home or on the go. Together with Baidu, a new customer for us, we want to help the growing number of Chinese tourists get the most from their travels."

Baidu wants to capitalize on the millions of Chinese tourists who have taken 5 million trips to foreign countries in 2000 they have traveling approximately 97 million times in 2013.

SpareOne Emergency Phone

Have you ever experience being stuck in a middle of the road with busted tires and when you reach for your smartphone and try to call your Towing Service you see there's no battery left. You may have different scenario but same predicament.

SpareOne Emergency Phone is very useful in cases like this. SpareOne is a stripped bare to essentials. It worth just $50 and does not require a SIM card. The phone will function as long as you are near a GSM cell tower. The phone can be used in North, Central and parts of South America.

It has One-touch emergency services button. It also said that the battery life holds a charge for up to fifteen years with as much as 10 hours of talk time. On top of the phone there's a LED torchlight can also flash SOS emergency signal. You can also bring it when you're out for a bike since it is waterproof. It has built in panic siren.

The phone is powered by Energizer’s® powerful Ultimate Lithium AA


This emergency phone is essential in home, car, emergency first aid kit, bike, RV, or your kids backpack. It is really easy to use, if you have an emergency, just press the red cross button to call 911.

Sony Hacked: Personal Data of Hollywood Stars and Sony Employees Posted Online

Hacked files includes informations like Social Security Numbers, address, password, email address, salaries for 47,000 Employees and Actors, that includes Seth Rogen, James Franco, Sylvester Stallone, Judd Apatow and Rebel Wilson.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Sony hacking attack is getting worse. The report said that the data-security firm Identity Finder LLC analyzed 33,000 of the SPE documents and discover personal information, salaries and home addresses for individuals who are employed by Sony Pictures from as far back as 2000. All of the data analyzed by Identity Finder was stored in Microsoft Excel files without password protection.

The hackers who are taking credit for the hack and the posting online called themselves Guardians of Peace. Sony was first hit by cyberattack last November 24, 2014.

Also, an unidentified Reddit user posted an image allegedly from a Sony computer screen, which said "Hacked By #GOP

Warning: We've already warned you, and this is just the beginning.
We continue till our request be met.
We've obtained all your internal data including your secrets and top secrets.
If you don't obey us, we'll release data shown below to the world.
Determine what will you do till November the 24th, 11:00 PM(GMT).

It is suspected that the cyber-attack was done by North Korea or its supporters because of the Sony Pictures comedy  movie "The Interview" starred by Seth Rogen and James Franco as TV reporters who are recruited to carry out an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The movie is scheduled for release December 25.

The leaked also revealed the cost of the movie which is $44 million and Seth Rogen got $8.4 million, while Franco was paid $6.5 million.

The files containing the list of massive data allegedly was gathered from Sony Entertainment’s network contain a gigabyte of dumped text (638.4 and 397.8 megabytes, respectively). These includes:

• PDF files that apparently contain the passports, visas, and other associated identity documents of cast and crew for various Sony productions, such as actors Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, and Angelina Jolie (plus a file called Emmerich, Roland Greencard.pdf).
• Over 700 documents containing passwords, including spreadsheets and Word files titled “FTP passwords,” “ResearchPasswords," “ACCOUNTING PASSWORDS,” “Personal passwords,” and other files named for specific creative resource sites. There is also a file called “CA Breach Notification for User Names and Passwords (MoFo).pdf,” which someone at Sony will likely be referring to shortly.
• 179 Outlook archival .pst mailboxes, including the mail folder of an executive at Sony Pictures Releasing Canada, an IT Audit Supervisor at Sony, as well as many “archive.pst” and “backup.pst” files.
• Password protected documents—with their passwords in their names. (PASSWORD PALABRA SECRETA NISSAN.xlsx, PwC 2007 Report_PASSWORD_pwcemc60.pdf).
  IT audit documents (PASSWORD EQUAL TO USER NAME.xls, ACCOUNTS WITHOUT PASSWORDS.xls).
• Sensitive business documents including film budgets (“JR_Accrued Mktg Cost 0513 - Evil Dead.xls”) and contract documents (“Cameron Diaz - Pre-approved Medical Rider.doc”).
• Personal credentials including private key files and 1Password database backups.
• Media files for television shows that aren’t Sony Pictures products and may have been pirated copies on an employee's desktop:

Adventure Time-2x04a-Power Animal.avi
Adventure Time Her Parents.avi
Adventure Time The Silent King.avi
Adventure Time-2x09b-Susan Strong.avi
Adventure Time-2x11a-Belly of the Beast.avi
Human.Planet.S01E05.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E02.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E06.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E03.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E04.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E01.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv
Human.Planet.S01E07.720p.BluRay.x264-SHORTBREHD.mkv

Here is the reddit thread about the Sony hacking