I do not think that gaining knowledge can be used as a motivation to break into someone else’s computer. In my opinion, which by the way coincides with the opinion of every civilized country’s law system, any breaking into someone’s computer without their consent is an illegal act similar to a domestic burglary and should, and is, treated accordingly.

Bearing in mind the wish that the present article does not act as a crush course for those who want to infringe the law, I shall explain the actual  act of hacking into someone’s computer.

Step #2 is using a Unix command interface with Windows to execute the hacking operations. Once this is done, hackers try to secure themselves and make sure they do not get caught. Then they try to know the “target”.

A very important step is determining the operation system of the computer they intend to hack. That can be done by a scan of the ports. After that, they open a port in the system. At that point, the actual hacking can begin with the crack of the password or of the authentication protocol(s). As soon as they do that they obtain super user privileges.

This is all it takes to get full control over a computer. Still, in order to make sure they can take off in case they are made hackers create a backdoor into the service system. It is very important for them to cover their tracks.

One of the cheapest Intel-based netbook computers is made by MSI with a $270 price tag. The MSI Wind U130-416US is based on the 5.5Watt Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz 64bit single core processor with HyperThreading and also with integrated graphics, right in the processor. The Intel GMA 3150 with shared memory is not a very fast GPU, but it gets the job done at a very low power consumption, supporting basic 3D acceleration and partial HD decoding.

64bit support is not something that a small laptop with maximum 2GB of memory really needs, although in the future 64bit computing may come to dominate the software market, so it’s good to be ready for it. Screen resolution and size are not the best, only 1024 x 600 and 10.1”, so for HD resolutions you’ll have to buy something bigger, 12” minimum, that will support 1366 x 768.For storage it has a standard 160GB 2.5” 5400RPM notebook hard disk, theoretically upgradeable to the biggest capacities available (640GB, 750GB or even 1TB in the near future), practically there may be some issues with power consumption or drive thickness. Wireless network cards, Bluetooth modules and USB ports are mandatory for such small netbook computers, mostly because they don’t have internal optical drives.

Unfortunately AMD (the second largest CPU, GPU and chipset manufacturer) has just entered the netbook computer market recently, in 2010. The first netbook computer with and AMD CPU was also made by MSI. The MSI Wind12 U230 is a somewhat bigger laptop, with a 12” HD Ready screen, but still in the same (netbook) category (available at amazon.com for $480). The AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 is a very powerful dual core processor, despite the fact that it’s still made with 65nm manufacturing process. According to PassMark – CPU mark it’s faster than a Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL56 but a little slower (<1%) than a Core 2 Duo P7500 or T5300. With this CPU AMD managed to introduce a 18Watt TDP notebook grade processor in the netbook market. The ATI Radeon 3200 GPU is also superior to anything Intel or nVidia has to offer in the on-board category. It supports DirectX 10 and hardware HD decoding thanks to the UVD and AVIVO technologies.

Although it’s a 12” netbook (bigger than most), it still doesn’t have an internal optical drive. On the other hand the battery is has a 56Watt-hour capacity, making this netbook an optimal combination of notebook and netbook properties.

Another very important part of the MSI Wind12 U230 is revealed when you remove the battery:

A standard SIM card slot, very useful on long trips when no Wi-Fi is available, but you manage to connect to a 3G/HSPA network. It seems like MSI forgot to mention this module in the official launch announcement.

While it may have some advantages over the classic design, it get very uncomfortable after a while, your index finger gets sweaty. Another disadvantage is it’s poor precision, because the mouse – mouse pad friction is taken out of the equation, so it reacts more quickly to your finger’s every little movement.

For only $8 it’s worth trying out, it’s available at lightinthebox.com.

This latest computer accessory seems very simple and you would think that it’s an everyday plastic toy, but you wold be wrong. It’s a USB 2.0 hub for laptops, with four strategically placed USB ports, one on each mouse foot. This way there’s no interference between the ports, so any type of device can be connected of any size and shape. Standard desktop and laptop computers usually have ports too close to each other, resulting in unpleasant physical limitations when using the ports.

Ports face in four different directions when the animal’s legs are spread, permitting the full use of the ports, but of course only under the 5V 500mA total power limit. Four keyboards, four mice or four USB flash drives should work without any problems, but when it comes to external hard drives all bets are off. Even one hard drive could reach the limit and not start, because most of them were designed to work in one or two USB ports with 5W of power at their disposal. When connected through a USB hub, the hard disk has to share that little power offered by the port with the USB hub.

Other (so called) latest computer accessories just got a makeover, like this 2.1 speaker system:

The Edifer brand is very popular in China, it’s E1100 black speaker system is even more appreciated because of it’s unique design and great sound quality. Two satellites produce 4.5Watts of sound each, while the sub woofer delivers 12Watts. When we’re talking about efficiency however, these are not very good specifications, because the sound system’s rated power is 41Watts, meaning that it’s efficiency is around 50%. There are many electronic devices with even lower efficiency factors, but today anything below 80% efficiency can be considered wasteful.

- eye pressure
- headache
- focus difficulties
- myopia
- doubled image
- modifications in color perception

Indirect symptoms can include

- muscle and bone pain (throat, shoulders, back, hand wrist)
- excessive physical tiring
- lower visual efficiency while the activity

Precaution measures for eye illness.

1. Using some special computer glasses while using the computer.

- it has been demonstrated that using these glasses takes to increasing of the visual comfort.
- the computer glasses are an indispensable accessory when using the computer
- the ordinary glasses lenses can not ensure the required flexibility when working with the computer
- the special bifocal lenses for the computer have the upper portion designed for following the screen, while the down side is designed to follow the keyboard.
- the colored lenses covered with anti reflection layers are useful as additional elements for increasing the comfort while watching the computer’s screen.

3. Eye muscles movement (rotations, blinking) after finishing the work with the computer.

4. The personalization of the work environment and games.

5. Using voice synthesizers for reading the text.

The visual stress made by computer use. One of the most important area of the progress and renewal in our society is the computer penetration in the most various economical, social, cultural and managerial areas of life. Through the appearing of the computer and distribution of the multimedia systems (which are combining telecommunications, electronic computing technique and audio – video), the automated processing of the information is reaching new dimensions. Through the modern telecommunication systems, the digital information has reached inside the professional activity of many computing technique users, from informatics units organized in institutions, enterprises, from experts in computers to computer users. So the computer is improving our life, this advantage doesn’t spare us from some risks in health. The recent studies has shown that the work type and the number of hour per day of using video terminals are important factors in determine the level of problems caused by this activity. The eye problems are the most common for computer using. Unfortunately there are not so many information related to the computer and visual stress. There are also missing wide public information sources related to this problem. We propose in the first place to analyze the risks over the man’s health which are implied by the inadequate computer using, and second, we wish to offer some useful advices to the users for working with the computer and benefit from an increased comfort.

Today only in the US are over 100 million people with are using video display terminals, and this number is expected to increase up to 150 million in the year 2008.

The construction was started in 1943 during the World War II at University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering under the codename ‘Project PX’. At 14 February 1946, after costing about 50.000 $ (about 6 million $ in 2008 if you adjust it for inflation) ENIAC was finished and passed to the US Army. For its time it was an incredibly fast computer, although some of its components might seem at least strange. It was built from 7.200 crystal diodes, 70.000 resistors, 1.500 relays, 10.000 capacitors and 17.468 vacuum tubes.

It had a weight of about 30 tons and a size of 2.6m x 0.9m x 26m, needed a space of about 63 square meters and consumed 150 KW of power. Because the vacuum tubes technology was not the most reliable, for most of its time the ENIAC would usually crash once every two days until 1948 when high reliability tubes became available. The computer could be programmed to perform complex calculations, but usually they would take weeks to write on paper and at least a few days to program the actual machine itself. There were 6 women that did most of the programming itself, all of them being included in the Women in Technology Hall of Fame.

One of its main flaws was that it didn’t have a memory, thus all the input and output was made on magnetic cards. Eckert and Mauchly, being aware of the downsides of the ENIAC started designing a new super computer that would be later called EDVAC, a computer both faster and simpler. From 1948 until its release in 1955 a number of improvements were made to the original ENIAC design.

These included an early read only mechanism that would allow the computer to store data, a high speed shifter that was added in 1952 which improved the speed of shifting by an almost 5 factor. In 1943 another upgrade that included a 100 word expansion memory was added. It used binary and decimal code and excess-3 number representation. Also a new Function Table selector was added to support all the new addictions.

On the 2nd of October 1955 it became obsolete and was donated to the University of Pennsylvania where some of the ENIAC panels still are on display.

In the end the question remains: Who made the first computer? Although it was their design, the University of Pennsylvania cannot take full credit when it comes to the development of the first computer. After a 6 year lasting World War II the US Army acknowledged the importance of information and logistics, thus investing a huge amount of manpower and money into the first fully electronic computer: the ENIAC. The US Army is more likely to be called the first computer supporters.