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Showing posts from 2014

How to Check if an Email Address is Valid and Exists

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How to Check if an Email Address is Valid and Exists How do you know if an email address exists or not? The easy option would be that you send a dummy mail to that email address, wait for an hour or so and if your message bounces, it is very likely that the particular email address does not exist. The approach works but wouldn’t it be nice if you could check any email address instantly without even sending that test message? The other slightly technical option to verify an email address is by querying the mail server. You connect to the mail server through telnet ( see video ), enter your email address and the other email address that you are trying to verify. If the server response is an error code, the email address is probably not valid. How to Check Email Addresses Instantly Let me share an extremely simple method for checking if an email address is valid and exists or not. Go to the login page of the email service and pretend that you no longer remember

Google Wants You to Design the Internet of Things

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Desai Tech Solutions - www.desaitech.in Google Wants You to Design the Internet of Things Impatient for the Internet of Things, Google is providing seed money for reseraching new technologies. Have an idea for how the much-anticipated Internet of Things should operate? If the idea is good enough, Google may pay you to see it to fruition. As part of a new effort to generate more Internet of Things technologies, Google is planning to issue a number of grants to facilitate pioneering research in this nascent field of computing. "While the Internet of Things (IoT) conjures a vision of 'anytime, any place' connectivity for all things, the realization is complex given the need to work across interconnected and heterogeneous systems, and the special considerations needed for security, privacy, and safety," co-wrote Google chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, in a blog post announcing the research program . The "Internet of Things"

Backup your Emails on a USB Drive for Offline Access

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Backup your Emails on a USB Drive for Offline Access How do you ensure that you always have access to all your web emails – even at places where there is no Internet or when you aren’t carrying your own laptop? One of the popular options is that you use a tool like Microsoft Outlook to download all your emails to the computer beforehand and you can then read them anywhere even in offline mode. Both Gmail and Hotmail offer POP3 access to help you download messages using any email client while there are easy workarounds for Yahoo Mail. There are some downsides though. First, most email clients aren’t portable (can you carry emails on a USB drive?) and second, if all you want is offline access to your Gmail messages and nothing extra, Outlook is probably too heavy a tool for that purpose. I have been testing a Windows-only utility called MailStore that seems like an ideal solution for such a problem – the tool is free, there’s a portable version for your USB stic

Azure outage hits Microsoft Office 365 users & websites

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Azure outage hits Microsoft Office 365 users & websites Microsoft cloud forced offline yet again Microsoft Azure has suffered yet another outage that left customer websites offline and the software giant's Office 365 users without access to apps and data. The failure also caused the Microsoft MSN service to black out as engineers struggled to rectify the situation. According to Azure’s status page , the problem began at 00.52 GMT on Wednesday morning, affecting access to Office 365 and Xbox Live servers. A spokeswoman said the firm was “investigating an issue affecting access to some Microsoft services. We are working to restore full access to these services as quickly as possible.” While most of the problems were resolved later in the day, Microsoft said it was still investigating a number of problems affecting virtual machines in its North Europe and West Europe datacentre facilities. “A sub

Facebook's New Iowa Datacenter Goes Modular to Grow Forever

Facebook's New Iowa Datacenter Goes Modular to Grow Forever The company dropped its cluster design for a network fabric with smaller server pods. The traffic inside Facebook's datacenters is growing so fast that the company is changing the basic architecture of its networks in order to keep up. The new design, which Facebook calls a data center fabric, doesn't use a new link speed to make the network run faster. Instead, it turns the whole system into a set of modules that are less expensive and more widely available than what the company's using now. It's also easier to deploy and manage, according to Facebook's networking chief. Unlike older hierarchical networks, the modular design can provide consistently fast links across the data center for any two servers to talk to each other. The new architecture was used in a 476,000-square-foot (44,000-square-meter) data center that goes online today in Altoona, Iowa. Facebook plans to use it in all

Microsoft Open Sources .Net Server Stack

Microsoft Open Sources .Net Server Stack The company is building a version of .Net for Linux and Mac OS X In an effort to broaden its reach beyond Windows developers, Microsoft has released as open source the server-side components of its .Net framework and embarked on a project to port the runtime software to Linux and Mac OS. The initiative aims to make .Net a cross-platform framework, said S. "Soma" Somasegar, the Microsoft corporate vice president who leads the company's developer division. "You can build a .Net app and then decide if you want to run it on a Linux server or on Windows Server," he said. "We want to deliver a comprehensive offering for every developer working on any application." The .Net open sourcing was one of a number of announcements the company made Wednesday around its developer tools and services. The company is also releasing a free version of its flagship Visual Studio flagship IDE (integra

Google Drive + third-party apps = files at your fingertips

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 Work today is very different from 10 years ago. Cloud computing, once a new idea, is abundantly available, and collaboration is possible across offices, cities, countries and continents. Drive for Work enables collaboration and content sharing for businesses large and small and helps them share and access their files — even from different cloud applications. Google Drive extends the reach of business applications by taking content that previously was only available in a single application, and making it available across multiple applications — all while maintaining security. For example: Marketing teams can create collateral in Drive that’s accessible for sales reps who spend time in a salesforce automation (SFA) app on their mobile phone.  Support reps working in a helpdesk app can use Drive to share a customer-submitted error log with engineers.  Accounts payable clerks working in an accounting app can generate an invoice and share the invoice directly with a v

Google Signs 60-year Lease to do Research at NASA's Moffett Airfield...

Google Signs 60-year Lease to do Research at NASA's Moffett Airfield Google is paying US$1.16 billion over the initial 60-year lease term. Google is paying US$1.16 billion over 60 years to lease from NASA the Moffett Federal Airfield in California. The Internet giant plans to renovate and use the historic Hangar One, originally built to house airships, for research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of "space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies," NASA said Monday. The other two hangars at the airfield will be used for similar purposes, it added. A Google spokesman declined to provide more details. NASA has estimated that the lease will save it about $6.3 million each year in maintenance and operation costs besides providing the $1.16 billion in rent over the initial 60-year lease term. MFA is at present maintained by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Google is also

EMCO Limited powers global collaboration with Google Apps for Work

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Bhagwat Patil, Head IT of EMCO Limited . Read more about EMCO’s move to Google Apps here . As one of the leading players in energy transmission and distribution, EMCO Limited sees immense opportunities in India’s rising power sector. With the country’s energy demand expected to reach over 315 gigawatts by 2017, the industry is currently valued at more than $600 billion. In order to meet this opportunity, we need a digital collaboration strategy that allows us to keep pace with the market. EMCO Limited’s solutions and products are marketed to over 50 countries worldwide so we interact constantly with our overseas partners and customers to collaborate and innovate across product lines and business segments. We compared various technology solutions and tested them for security and remote access for our employees. Encouraged by the positive results and employee feedback, we decided that Google Apps for Work would be the best fit for our business. With Google Apps, e

Microsoft Offers Office 365 Refunds to iPad Users After Launching Free Version...

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Microsoft Offers Office 365 Refunds to iPad Users After Launching Free Version If you recently paid $70 or more to edit Office documents on an iPad, you can now switch to the free version and get a refund. If you recently forked over $70 or more to edit Office documents on an iPad , you can now switch to the free version and get a partial refund. The iPad version of Office previously required an Office 365 subscription for document editing, priced at $70 per year for the "Personal" edition and $100 per year for the "Home" edition. That changed on Thursday, when Microsoft made basic editing free on all mobile devices, including iPads. While some advanced features are still hidden behind the Office 365 paywall , users who can get by with the free version can now request a pro-rated refund for unused subscription time. Refunds are available until January 31 of next year to anyone who purchased a subscription on or after March 27, 2014. B

Microsoft Changes Windows Licensing...

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Microsoft Changes Windows Licensing Mark November 3, 2014, in your calendar as a red-letter day and living proof that leopards can change their spots. On this day, Microsoft changed the terms of Windows licensing for its flagship desktop operating system, Windows Enterprise. In an update to the terms and conditions of its Enterprise edition, Microsoft now offers the option to purchase Windows desktop operating systems on a per-user basis as well as a per-device basis, thereby opening up BYOD (bring your own device). Even more amazing, this user-based license negates the hated VDA (Windows Virtual Desktop Access). According to the Microsoft licensing website , with per-user licensing you can: Free your users to use or access Windows Enterprise across all their devices. Deliver Windows Enterprise across devices through local install, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), or Windows To Go. Gain the simplicity of counting users instead of counting all of their vari

Getting things done: Office editing on iOS...

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Our phones and tablets help us get things done at work, but sometimes, you’re on the subway with no reception and need to update your spreadsheet before you get to the client’s office. Or you desperately need to make edits to your marketing strategy PowerPoint before you present, but you only brought your iPad to the meeting. We’ve all been there, but now there’s a way out. With today’s launch of the new Slides app on iOS and updates to the Docs and Sheets apps, we’re delivering on our promise to make it possible for you to work with any file, on any device, any time. Now you can use the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps on your iPad or iPhone and all other devices (your Chromebook, laptop, Android phone or tablet), to complete the same tasks—online or offline. In addition, you can open, create and edit native Microsoft Office files with the Google Docs suite on iOS. According to SoftWatch about 80 percent of Office licenses are only lightly used, with many e

Hotter than your morning coffee: Google Drive for Work

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People want tools that are both powerful and easy to use. For employees, that means they should be able to access their work wherever they are, on their favorite device or share their work securely with their colleagues, even if they’re in different offices, cities or countries. For IT managers, that means never worrying about storage quotas again, or being able to track access and sharing across users and files. We realize how important this is, so earlier this summer we introduced Google Drive for Work , a package that wraps all of this together for just $10 per user per month. Here’s a look at what’s been brewing with Drive for Work over the past two months. Helping employees collaborate on the go Before we introduced Drive for Work, businesses like retailer Chico’s and aerospace and defense company Rockwell Collins were using Drive to increase collaboration across distributed teams. Travis Perkins relies on Google Drive to store and share more than 1.3 million

Google announces creation of Indian Language Internet Alliance

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Google announces creation of Indian Language Internet Alliance Posted on -Tuesday, November 4, 2014    By VARINDIA Correspondent     Google has announced the creation of the Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA), a group committed to promoting the growth of Indic-language content online. Through its efforts, the ILIA hopes to enable 300 million Indian language speakers to become highly engaged Internet users by 2017. The ILIA is composed of ABP News, Amar Ujala Publications Ltd, C-DAC, DB Digital, Firstouch, HinKhoj, Jagran Prakashan Limited, LinguaNext Technologies Pvt. Ltd, NDTV, Network 18, Oneindia.com, Patrika Group, Process Nine Technologies Pvt Ltd, Prost Innovation Pvt Ltd, Reverie Language Technologies Private Limited, Times Internet Limited, Ver Se Innovation/NewsHunt, Webdunia.com in addition to Google. The Alliance will work together to accelerate building Indic language content for the hundreds of million

How to move your files to Google Drive

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Google Drive for Work  is a new premium offering for businesses that includes unlimited storage, advanced audit reporting and new security controls and features, such as encryption at rest. If you're getting ready to move your company to Drive, one of the first things on your mind is how to migrate all your existing files with as little hassle as possible. It's easy to migrate your files by uploading them directly to Drive or using the Drive Sync client. But, what if you have files stored elsewhere that you want to consolidate? Or what if you want to migrate multiple users at once? Many independent software vendors (ISVs) have built solutions to help organizations migrate their files from different File Sync and Share (FSS) solutions, local hard drives and other data sources. Here are some of the options available for you to use: Cloud Migrator , by Cloud Technology Solutions, migrates user accounts and files to Google Drive and other Google Apps services.

PwC and Google join hands over bringing innovation in technology

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Posted on -Wednesday, October 29, 2014      By VARINDIA Correspondent The rapid pace of innovation in technology has fundamentally changed how and where work gets done, driving organizations to transform their businesses for the future. To bring new and innovative services to companies around the world, PwC and Google have made an announcement regarding the launch of a joint business relationship. From Google, companies get unprecedented innovation, technology platforms and Internet scale; while PwC brings deep industry experience, a broad range of business services and cutting-edge client insights, from strategy through execution. Together, PwC and Google will help companies collaborate more effectively, better use technology and information, and adapt to the disruptive forces shaping the world. "For our clients, acquiring the knowledge most important to their operations, securing that information and using it optimally are critical - now more than ever before. PwC i

Android Creator Andy Rubin Leaving Google...

Android Creator Andy Rubin Leaving Google By  Zach Miners , 31-Oct-2014 He was currently in charge of Google's robotics efforts. Andy Rubin, the engineer who developed Google's Android OS and was lately in charge of its robotics efforts, is leaving the company, Google confirmed Thursday. Rubin cofounded a company called Android, which Google acquired in 2005 for its mobile OS. Android has gone on to become the world's most widely used mobile operating system. Last year, though, Rubin was moved off the Android team and put in charge of Google's robotics projects. His work was taken over by Sundar Pichai, who now leads Google's Android, Chrome and other products. The reasons for Rubin's departure weren't clear, though it had something to do with the structure of his team at Google, according to a  report  on tech news site The Information. Rubin is leaving to lead an incubator for hardware startups, according to a  report  in the Wall S

Google and DIT join hands over Digital India Initiatives

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Google and DIT join hands over Digital India Initiatives Posted on -Tuesday, September 30, 2014      By VARINDIA Correspondent The Government of Andhra Pradesh and  Google India  have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support  Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s  vision of transforming the state of Andhra Pradesh to "Digital AP."  To realise this vision, Google India - in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh state government - will launch a number of initiatives aimed towards bridging the Digital divide, and enabling skill development, leading to economic growth. Under the memorandum, Google India will work with the AP government to get women and small and medium businesses online and help them gain from the internet economy. "We want to become the first state to embrace the Prime minister’s vision of Digital India and set an example for other states to follow. We are happy to announce a number of initiatives along with Google, that will serv

Protecting Gmail in a global world

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Businesses rely on email to communicate, and on Google to ensure that their email communication is secure. Today, we’re adding to our spam filtering support in Gmail to handle duplicitous “Unicode Homoglyphs.” This release strengthens our ongoing commitment to keeping our customers safe and protected from scams, phishing attacks and spammers. Last week we announced support for non-Latin characters in Gmail — think δοκιμή.com and 测试@example.net and みんな — as a first step towards more global email. We’re really excited about these new capabilities. We also want to ensure they aren't abused by spammers or scammers trying to send misleading or harmful messages. Scammers can exploit the fact that ဝ , ૦ , and ο look nearly identical to the letter o , and by mixing and matching them, they can hoodwink unsuspecting victims. Can you imagine the risk of clicking “Sh ဝ ppingSite” vs. “ShoppingSite” or “MyBank” vs. “MyB ɑ nk”? To stay one step ahead of spammers, the Unicod

Flexible IT can unlock Japan's mobile potential

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Japanese companies are facing major challenges for long-term success. The rapid graying of society is shrinking the workforce, leaving only 62% of the population in the working age. Inflexible workplace practices prevent many women from returning to their careers after childbirth. The Japan Productivity Center ranks Japan lowest of the Group of Seven most advanced nations in productivity, despite some of the world’s longest work hours. As pressure mounts on Japanese businesses to find new ways to be productive and to attract and retain top talent, we asked Deloitte to take a look at how mobile and digital tools might be able to help. According to their new report, Japan’s Mobile Potential , access to mobile devices for work and more flexible IT policies could help unlock almost 2 trillion yen for the Japanese economy and keep some of Japan’s most skilled people in the workforce. There are a number of additional findings from the report which may be useful for busine

Google Extends Two-factor Authentication with Physical USB Keys

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Google Chrome gets support for new authentication protocol called Universal 2nd Factor. Google is letting users protect their accounts against password compromises by adding support for two-factor authentication based on physical USB keys. The new feature expands the company's 2-Step Verification mechanism that is already available for Google accounts, and requires users to input one-time-use codes received via text message or generated with a mobile app when they log in from a new device. "Today we're adding even stronger protection for particularly security-sensitive individuals," said Nishit Shah, a Google Security product manager, in a blog post . "Security Key is a physical USB second factor that only works after verifying the login site is truly a Google website, not a fake site pretending to be Google." The Security Key, which is what the special USB devices are called, only works with Chrome version 38 or newer for

Advanced security for Google Drive for Work

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  We already announced Google Drive for Work , which includes advanced Drive auditing to give organizations control, security and visibility into how files are shared. This new security feature helps companies and IT managers protect confidential information and gain insights into how their employees work. Drive audit helps IT admins view activity on documents, such as uploading and downloading files, renaming files, editing and commenting, and sharing with others. Filters make it easy to sort and find details like IP address, date range, document title and owner’s email address. To make advanced auditing reports easier to manage, admins can set up alerts for important events like files being shared outside the organization. To help organizations derive even more value from Drive for Work, we’ve been working with partners to give you even more capabilities through the Drive Audit API: Backupify protects your Google Apps data through secure, automatic, dail

Google Launches Telemedicine Beta for Video Chats With Docs

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A new feature Google is testing allows people looking for medical advice to also connect with a physician for an online consult. Google is running a temporary trial of a new feature that allows people looking for medical advice to also connect with a physician for an online consult. The feature, part of the Google+ Helpouts online collaboration video service that launched a year ago, allows healthcare workers to share expertise through live video and provide real-time advice from their computers or mobile devices. "When you're searching for basic health information -- from conditions like insomnia or food poisoning -- our goal is provide you with the most helpful information available. We're trying this new feature to see if it's useful to people," a Google spokesperson said in an email response to Computerworld . The new Helpouts feature offers a link to a video service that a physician or other healthcare worker has established for advising