Today's Contemporary World!

On-line, Online, or On line: Which Is Correct?

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:06:02 +0000

“Surprising Things You Can Do On-line” was a headline found on the front cover of the Reader’s Digest in November 1999 issue.

“Swiss Post Moves Some Mail Online” was a headline of the America’s most reliable newspaper in 12 July 2009 The New York Times Internet issue.

“On line computer recalibration of instruments” was the title of an article published by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) and hosted by the Harvard University domain name.

With over billions of Web pages on the Internet, as these appeared on 18 July 2009 via the Google search engine including http and www-starting domain names, various Web sites use any of the three forms of “online” regardless of their credibility and fame. Three of the world-renowned reference and university Web sites show nonstandard variants of “online” to the usage of the Internet and technical language. The Reader’s Digest used “on-line” as a prepositional phrase, The New York Times used “online” as preposition, and the Harvard University or the ADS used “on line” as an adjective. This is what makes the loss of standard; thus, it must be put into a serious scrutiny to avoid proliferating inappropriate syntax in the cyberspace.

What is the etymology of “online” used in the cyberspace? This word has been common since the 18th century, and is used in asking and/or answering during telephone calls such as “May I know who’s on the line?” In the 19th century America, Douglas Engelbart coined the term “online” when he developed the first prototype computer mouse as part of the oNLine System (NLS) in Stanford Research Institute. Few years later, computer programmers began to use the simplified “on line” of the telephone etiquette, “on the line.” However, usage of the term “online” always leads numerous scholars and experts of American language and Internet language to different arguments.

Writers and editors of our team are required to follow the standard used by most of the reliable sources, as approved by the INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ Management. For consistency, “online” should be used as an adjective while “on line” is used as preposition. The term “on-line” is not used in most reputable publishers, as they prefer the simpler form of word. Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary has only one entry: “online.”

Examples of Accurate Usage

Adjective: The online debate has been launched on the webmaster’s Web site.
Preposition: Official members of the team will meet their counterparts on line.

References:
Reader’s Digest
The New York Times
The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System

Where there is accuracy? Are meticulous persons there?

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:15:31 +0000

When was the Internet invented? This is, perhaps, one of the questions, which gives numerous and various answers. Based on a source, it was invented in 1957 when Sputnik I, the first satellite, was launched by the Soviet Union. According to others, Vinton Gray Cerf is the ‘father of the Internet’ while another source on the web says Alexander Graham Bell was the first man who was able to transmit a message through his invented telephone in 1876. There are more answers other than that, then, when it was and how it was? What about the question, “How many miles away is Earth from the Moon?” By searching on the web, there are Web sites, which said to be “credible and accurate” publishing that it takes 238,856.95 miles. Some say it’s 383,614,000 miles away from each other! Others say it’s 238,000 miles, 250,000 miles and so on. Which do you think is correct? This is what we call the loss of accuracy—one question with numerous answers and various details—this happens when you click on the search button on line! So now, what do you think about those Web sites?

In today’s world, everybody can easily access the information by one click of search. Within a few seconds, search engines suddenly give a wide range of data. You think the vast amounts of data on the Internet are credible, but you’re uncertain, aren’t you? In fact, most of them are incomplete, dated, or entirely bogus. Others give information with ambiguous details and events, which never happened in the history—authors add their opinion that becomes a part of the story. And the worst thing? There are Web sites that keep publishing their articles with a number of grammatical errors and inappropriate punctuations or writing styles. Do you think they are credible? There are millions of information providers, but only few of them are reliable and highly recommended.

What’s the best thing to do? Put every item of information into a scrutiny. Review everything!

A List of Antivirus Software Programs Disclosed

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:27:30 +0000

With the various threats of virus like Conficker, security maintenance of computer systems and servers has become the major concern not only for every individual owning personal or standard desktop but also for the number of business people running huge servers and other programs.

IT research specialists of INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ Information Systems Research Center (IR-ISRC) conducted a peer review on the methodological ways of avoiding virus attacks from computer wizards or hackers. According to the team, the experiment is in progress. While they queue up the items of information to the public, a list of reliable antivirus software programs has been disclosed for precaution.

Note: The order of the Antivirus Software Programs is based on the number of its total downloads.

Pages: 50/350

Antivirus Software Program >> Total Downloads

1. AVG Anti-Virus 8.5.287 >> 4,557,720
2. Norton AntiVirus Definitions Update (x86 package) 11/05/2008 >> 4,293,235
3. Norton AntiVirus 2009 16.0 >> 3,222,912
4. PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 5 >> 2,673,990
5. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.0.314 >> 2,518,143
6. Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.0.125 >> 2,323,356
7. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0.0.125 >> 2,216,286
8. Avast Professional Edition 4.8.1335.90414 >> 2,128,766
9. AVG internet Security 8.5.287 >> 1,649,482
10. F-Prot Antivirus for Windows 6.0.9.1 >> 1,563,159
11. A-squared Free 4.0.0.46 >> 1,315,444
12. Panda Internet Security 2009 7.01 >> 1,217,130
13. ThreatFire AntiVirus Free Edition 4.0 >> 1,161,635
14. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Definition Complete Update 04/24/2009 >> 1,161,409
15. Avast Virus Cleaner Tool 1.0.211 >> 941,618
16. The Cleaner Professional 4.2 build 4319 >> 860,914
17. Trojan Guarder Gold 7.74 >> 729,541
18. PC Tools AntiVirus 5.0.0.22 >> 714,998
19. ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus 8.02 >> 666,037
20. Avira AntiVir Premium 9.0.0.430 >> 607,245
21. Ashampoo AntiVirus 1.61 >> 544,039
22. Returnil Virtual System 2008 Personal Edition 2.0.1.9002 >> 504,240
23. Trojan Guarder 6.40 >> 467,005
24. W32.Nimda.A@mm (Nimda) Removal Tool >> 404,597
25. Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 9.0.1 >> 385,638
26. Norton AntiVirus 2009 Definitions Update 11/05/2008 >> 307,446
27. IParmor 5.46 >> 293,604
28. Solo Antivirus 7 >> 292,106
29. Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0.0.367 >> 274,127
30. ProcessGuard 3.15 >> 257,085
31. Autorun Eater 2.3 >> 237,972
32. BitDefender Total Security 2009 >> 236,340
33. Dr. Web Anti-Virus for Workstations 4.31a >> 233,579
34. BullGuard Internet Security 8.5 >> 228,712
35. F-Secure Anti-Virus 2009 >> 222,804
36. EAV Antivirus Suite Free Edition 5.98 >> 203,467
37. VirusKeeper 2009 professional 9.0.17 >> 200,004
38. BitDefender Free Edition 10.0 >> 189,835
39. ClamWin Antivirus 0.88 >> 187,404
40. Panda Antivirus Pro 2009 8.0 >> 151,399
41. NOD32 Standard Version (Windows 95/98/Me) 2.5>> 149,302
42. Quick Heal AntiVirus Plus 2009 10.0 >> 140,787
43. Rising Antivirus 2009 21.22.30 >> 140,182
44. USB Disk Security 5.1.0.15 >> 139,915
45. BitDefender Antivirus 2009 >> 128,017
46. McAfee AVERT Stinger >> 112,983
47. Quick Heal Anti-Virus 2006 for Windows NT/2000/Xp 8 >> 106,865
48. PC Media Anti-Virus 1 RC1 >> 106,505
49. Virtumonde Remover build 40 beta >> 104,277
50. VirusKeeper 2008 8.1 >> 99,578

To be continued.
Source: CNET Download.com (05/01/2009)

Secret to securing a Web site revealed to Webmasters

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:18:06 +0000

“Site is temporarily down for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. Rest assured that access will resume after two working days.” Do you frequently use this message when your site is down for fixing all the bugs in your computer system or server? Surely, this circumstance can lessen your profits for two days if you are selling on line. So, just be sure that your Web site never encounters a number of errors. However, how do you maintain the proper configuration of your site’s system to avoid any malfunctions of the program?

A number of computer wizards illicitly acquire access to the confidential information in a computer system. These hackers are scattered everywhere. Their identities are anonymous as they can hide themselves from the common rabbles. Nowadays, the power of Internet becomes more sophisticated. While site owners are keeping the users’ information on the database, computer geeks are trying to enter their servers to gain control over the entire Web site. Now, if your site experiences undesirable functions, beware of it! It can be one of these possible causes: either there are some errors in your codes or there are codes that manipulate your site’s functions because something/someone controls the program. Therefore, in order to avoid such occurrence, these significant tips may help you prevent your site from any unknown access to your Web site.

Removing Badware
The first step to secure your Web site is to check the presence of badware (deceptive adware, malware, or spyware) on your site. This software is designed to gain access to and/or damage your computer system through screensavers having hidden advertisements, malicious Web browser toolbars that navigate your users/visitors to other unknown sites, or certain keylogger software that can corrupt all data connected to your Web site. Badware does not only harm your computer system but it also causes spam and phishing emails and the loss of your customers’ account at the banks. If your site offers downloadable software directly from your site’s page (due to some affiliated programs offered by external Web sites), check the terms and conditions that are bundled with your software. If you find the software deceptive during installation, which does not clearly identify its specification and/or makes changes to other software, transmits data to other unknown parties and is not easy to uninstall completely, then it merely shows the qualities of badware. To verify it, download the entire software package to a virtual machine. Scan it using antivirus or antispyware programs. Avast Home Edition, AVG Anti-Virus, NOD32 for Windows are recommended for protecting your computer system against deadly computer viruses!

Evaluating Programming Codes
Manual checking of the entire source code of the Web site or downloading the whole source to a virtual machine makes it easier to find some malicious codes that you never used in developing your Web site. Invisible iframe tags may be one of those malicious codes. While they create a small “window” on your Webpage, another Webpage that is the source of these tags can load iframe in your site. The source of this iframe may load malicious software that can ruin your entire Web site. However, if you are the owner of an iframe having the source in a more secured site, you have the chance to hide your source code. Another significant thing that you must evaluate on your Web site concerns encrypted code or scripts. These obfuscated scripts are used to hide the codes used in developing your Web site even though encoding is quite easy to spot as it uses either “Hex” (e.g. %74%69%6F%6E%20%64) or “Unicode/Wide” (e.g. \u0035\u0048\u0010\u0098) characters. Moreover, check your Web logs. If there are executable files having .exe, .bat, .cmd, .scr, and .pif extensions and JavaScript files on it, beware! Attackers may use your Web site to host such badware and link to it from other sites.

(to be continued)

Ida, a 47-million-year-old fossil found

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:43:43 +0000

Lack of male characteristics reveals the femaleness of the newly discovered 47-million-year-old fossil that could link to the human ancestors and prove Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Jorn Hurum, a Norwegian paleontologist led the team to analyze the Darwinius masillae, which was named “Ida” after his daughter yesterday, May 19. It was found in Germany by an anonymous owner and turned over to the said paleontologist of Oslo’s National History Museum in Norway.

Scientists thought it was a primitive lemur but after the team conducted research and tests, the fossil has been discovered to be 95% complete due to its missing left rear leg and believed to have anthropoid features, which could be “the first link to all humans, the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor,” according to Hurum.

Research studies reveal that Ida was approximately 9 months old (six year-old human) when she died. Based on the scientists’ theory, she suffered a fracture that made her left wrist injured and that when she went off to the lake to drink, carbon dioxide fumes lost her. In addition, they predicted that due to her broken wrist, she became unconscious and has been drifted into the water, which made her preserved for 47 million years.

Avsim.com goes offline; site hacked

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:22:05 +0000

“We regret to inform the flight simulation community that on Tuesday, May 12, AVSIM was hacked and effectively destroyed… We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all,” said Tom Allensworth, CEO and Publisher of AVSIM.

Thirteen years of service in all aspects of flight simulation without experiencing sudden site downtime, AVSIM has been expecting the health of its official Web site until Tom Allensworth suddenly realized the site’s vulnerability on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 malicious hacker attack.

A highly sophisticated attack suddenly took down the AVSIM’s two servers while the management had not set up an external backup system. According to the CEO, he is uncertain if the site would ever back on line.

IT World

INTELLIGENTIAResearch™ — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:14:27 +0000

Welcome to Information Systems Research Center. Enjoy exploring this world!