I wish all of you happy new year and 2012 to be a better year for you and your families. You are very welcome to send suggestions and comments on ways to improve the website for you. Also, you are welcome to tell which is your favorite category and what you want to see more when visiting michalisnicolaides.com. The website was created for you and I have removed all advertisement months ago. I will try to keep it that way in the next months. I will try to update the content daily, keep you informed and provide you with more freeware applications. Bookmark the site and come back for more. You can support the website by donating as much as you want or show your appreciation by sending a thank you via contact form.
Site belongs to the top million
This website keeps climbing the Alexa traffic rank and it is now on the top million websites in traffic. Today, Alexa global rank for MichalisNicolaides.com is 921,561. It started from over 20 million and within six months it is on the top million. The site’s Alexa rank for US traffic is 616,889 which is important because more than 20 percent of the visitors are coming from the US. The site has currently about four thousand unique visitors per month and the plan is to increase this number to at least five thousand per month within the first quarter of 2012.
China has Beidou which is better than GPS
China has now its own satellite navigation system called Beidou. Beidou is an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and it is providing location, timing and navigation data. The purpose to the project that started at 2000 is to make China’s military independent from foreign technology, in this case US government’s GPS. Beidou has now ten satellites and another six will be added in 2012. Beidou currently covers China and surroundings, with this six additional satellites it will cover most Asia and by 2020 and with 35 satellites will have global coverage. Alternative systems are Russian Glonass and European Galileo. Beidou is compatible and interoperable with the other systems. The entire Beidou project will cost $25 billion by 2035.
How to erase a CD
This post is not for erasing the data from the CD but erasing the CD and making it useless. With this method you erase the reflective metallic layer on the disc with electrical current. Data is saved on that metallic layer and by removing it you make the CD useless. All you need is high voltage and you will feel like Nikola Tesla. The reason you see it shrinking and disappearing is because CD recording medium is conductive and sparks follow the least resistance path. Sparks vaporize the medium from the outside because it is the nearest path and continues until it is gone completely.
Pentagon approves the use of Android by DoD officials
Pentagon has approved the use of Android by Department of Defense (DoD) officials. DoD officials can now use Android only version 2.2 and only on Dell hardware. Also, DoD employees will still use BlackBerry in addition with the Dell Venue that can now use. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has certified Android Dell Mobile Security and can be used on defence networks. Pentagon chose Android because it is open source and DoD tech guys can modify it to department’s needs. Another reason was the fact that Apple tracks iPhone users with the build-in GPS chips and apparently they don’t want that. This is a big Android win against Apple.
India orders internet companies to remove offensive to Indians content
According to a court in New Delhi, big Internet companies will have to remove all content that is offensive to Indians from their websites. All content must be removed by February 6 and report their progress on January. Companies ordered to purge themselves are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube and 21 more. Indian government is trying to monitor and control electronic information. Special units have already been set up to monitor social networking websites. They are mostly concerned about images, altered images of politicians and religiously sensitive images.
Talking Animals – Ultimate Dog Tease
You might already watched this video but it is very funny and it was one of the most viewed videos of 2011. It is about a man that teases his talking dog. Words are fitting to dog’s mouth movements which makes it look realistic and funny. If you haven’t watch it so far click play to the following video and watch it now. If you want more funny videos with animals let me know in a comment so I can provide you more funny animal videos. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Iran government websites on local server
Most of Iran government websites, about 90 percent, are moved and are now hosted on local server instead of foreign-based hosting providers. Iranian officials said that data was at risk and could be accessed at any moment. With this move they will reduce the cyber attacks and prevent affections from malicious software. In my opinion, all government websites of every country should be hosted on local servers. Iran was forced to do that because a malicious software named Stuxnet affected several computers and centrifuges used in its nuclear programme. Iran launched a special police unit to fight cyber crime, both hackers and crime committed on social networking websites like Facebook.
An Android Backdoor without permissions
Thomas Cannon, a security expert have developed an app that can install a backdoor in Android smart phones. The app does not exploit any security holes and it does not require any permissions. The app is able to give a remote shell to an attacker and allow him to execute commands on the device. The attacker could be anywhere in the world and execute the commands remotely. The app is not an exploit, it uses Android as it was designed to work. The app in a clever way can establish a two-way communication channel and it works on all Android versions from 1.5 to 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich).
Clinical trials of HIV vaccine will start on January
Canadian researchers have created a vaccine and they believe that it can prevent HIV. They will start clinical trials on humans in January as it is approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Researchers can’t be sure if the vaccine works before the trials but they are positive. Even if it is, it will take about five years for the vaccine to go on the market. The SAV001 vaccine uses dead HIV-1 virus and it is altered genetically to be non-pathogenic. The number of people with HIV at the end of 2010 was 34 million according to the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. The number is increasing year by year and this vaccine gives hope in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people.