Yes this is a day early.
Okay I might be a little bit slow but I have become quite enamoured with Dragon Naturally Speaking and being able to dictate, in this case my entire blog entry, without needing to type and spell check what I am writing.
I am learning how to use the latest version of Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 and while I am just a beginner the majority of this blog entry will be dictated. My ageing wrists have already noticed the benefits as has my basic posture at the computer.
The latest version of these products are a far cry from the early ones. I can speak at a natural pace in my natural voice and the application makes very few mistakes, mostly on personal names. While I haven't tried it yet a product supports navigation in a web browser and allows text entry in most types of data entry boxes.
This week we start with a new series on cyber crime. There had been a number of movies concerning the subject for example sneakers with Robert Redford. In the early days is most Leek insisted a theft of telecommunication services and fraudulent transfer of electronic funds. As computer networks became more complex and more widely spread so did the incidence of computer crime and laws to deal with it.
With the rapid development of technology comes a new set of challenges. It wasn't that long ago that we access the Internet using a modem, typically a dial-up, that provided fairly slow access to the Internet. With broadband becoming more common, the vulnerability of those connected has increased.
Most people know about peer-to-peer connections that are used to transfer pirated content. This same connection can be used to spread malware or perform a denial of service attack, DOS. The mobile phone has changed from a simple communications device to a mobile computer platform that when connected to the network offers the same chance for attack.
Many people know little about science and technology. They know how to use a computer and the Internet but not how they work. This is true of many examples of technology including the car. I know people that can't change a tyre or never check the water level in the same can be said of those who own computers. There are many computers that have no malware protection, or some software has been installed but never updated but somehow these people still feel quite safe surfing the net.
You need three things in place to commit a crime you need a group were motivated to offend, and availability of opportunity, and a lack of well prepared protection. The digital world offers these in abundance.
Interspersed over the next unknown number of articles will look a little more closely at the subject and hopefully by the end of it both you and I will not only understand it in greater detail but also be able to protect ourselves more easily and more thoroughly.
Industry News
The era of the CD appears to be coming to a close. CDs came onto the market at the end of the 70s and became the replacement for the audio tape. Over the past decade or so the CD was declared a Finnish format but is still managed to hang on until now. Over the last two years sales have fallen just under 7% and in the last year over 12%. The replacement technology is the digital online format which can be found in a variety of different codecs.
While digital sales have grown over the past few years it has not been enough to make up for the fall in CD sales. There has been a growth in the sale of singles online which is more of an indication of impulse buying that a switch to the digital online format. Part of the problem appears to be that the major music makers don't understand the online sales platform. The most part price points are being too high in comparison to the physical versions which is why it is the singles that had become most attractive. Album sales have been suffering to the point where in the UK music stores are starting to close down. It hasn't helped that some of these sellers are selling the products more cheaply online than in their stores.
As usual the antipiracy groups are suggesting that this is all due to piracy. BPI recently suggested that four illegal downloads take place every legitimate song purchase. I've covered the subject before in the past and from the research I read at least part of this problem is poor music quality and a lack of understanding of the online sales model that has led to a decrease in sales. Making up figures based on what a person in some country might have bought knowing that even if they had the money they wouldn't be able to afford it only detracts from the real issues.
Good news for PC buyers this year. For the same money you will be up to get a lot more memory than you could a year ago. While this may not sound like news DRAM prices are expected to drop quite a bit this year so if you can wait from little while you get more value for your money. DDR3 memory in particular will be much less expensive. This is a faster and less power hungry memory and we can expect to see this in Flash drives in the very near future, these currently use DDR2 technology. Prices have dropped so rapidly that was barely any difference in price for 1 GB and 2 GB module at the end of 2010.
Here is a website that breaks all the rules of page design. Warning, do not view if you are an epileptic. http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/.
Seagate has declared that they will bring out higher capacity drives this year. While this may not sound like news they expect to be three months ahead of the competition which is a bold prediction. By midyear expect to see 4 TB drives. Seagate does not seem to be concerned by the new range of tablet units. I suspect one reason for this is that as more and more people access high-definition media files they will need more and more storage requirements. Since Seagate also manufactures solid-state memory drives they have both parts of the market covered and they expect to sell about six times the amount of flash memory they did last year.
Technical Tip
When I tried to schedule a task to run under Windows it objected because I do not have the password on my main account. Over the years I have found that there are always ways around restrictions. The following solution is for XP pro so if you are using another operating system you will need to look up the exact steps.
From the start menu to schedule a task:
Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks. Then fill in the details of the programs start time and so on. If you don't have a password on your account then first go to Control
Panel and then:
Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options
Find the line below and change the enabled setting to disabled.
Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only.
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