Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series

The months of waiting are over as Ballmer and company reveal Microsoft's response to the iPhone and Android. But will it be enough to stave off competitors with a long head start?

Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7. Click to enlarge. Source: Microsoft

Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited Windows Phone 7 Series on Monday, finally giving the world a glimpse of its answer to mobile competitors' touchscreen phones as well as an introduction to the smartphone operating system's new name.

At the press conference, held at this week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said that the "7 Series" phones will be available at retail in time for the 2010 holiday season.

Officials also named a list of partners, including mobile operators as well as handset manufacturers that will build the 7 Series. On the list of operators that will be partnering with Microsoft to provide phones to customers as well as software and services are AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
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Senior Vice President Andy Lees of Microsoft's mobile communications business also announced that it is investing in joint projects with two of the mobile operators -- AT&T and Orange -- to bring "a full Windows Phone 7 Series experience to the market across a range of phones."

He did not elaborate on what the efforts might entail, however.

It's no accident that Microsoft singled out AT&T, since it is so far the exclusive partner for Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPLE) iPhone in the U.S. It was also the first to deliver smartphones based on Windows Mobile -- the current version of its smartphone software -- into the U.S. market in 2003. Orange, meanwhile, was the first operator to offer Windows Mobile smartphones in 2002, Leeds added.

Although the rumor mill had been rife with speculation that Microsoft would sell handsets under its own brand, such an announcement was not forthcoming -- at least not at MWC.


Instead, Microsoft trotted out a list of handset manufacturers that will make the 7 Series, including Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm.

"One of the things we've kept constant is our belief in the partner model," Lees said, though he also admitted that Microsoft has at least considered making its own branded phone.

Ballmer said Microsoft will describe opportunities for developers at the company's upcoming MIX developers conference in Las Vegas next month.

"About a year and a half or two years ago, we had to step back to recast and reform our strategy [and] I think we're well on our way to something that can be pretty exciting," Ballmer said.
Windows Phone 7 features

Among the features coming in 7 Series phones will be a user interface that is closely related to Microsoft's Zune HD media player, along with built in Bing search, and support for Xbox Live.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows Phone program management

(L & R) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Windows Phone program management, discuss Windows Phone 7.

The 7 Series devices will also have three dedicated hardware buttons that are controlled by the operating system -- home, back, and Bing search.

Additionally, Microsoft will provide a 7 Series version of Office and the Outlook mail client, and a large portion of Microsoft's emphasis is on consistency of the UI in order to provide users with an integrated experience, officials said.

"Internet Explorer [on 7 Series] is based on the desktop IE code [and Outlook] works just like Outlook on the desktop," Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Windows Phone program management," told the gathered press.

As far as hardware specifications, 7 Series devices will support a four-point multitouch UI.

Perhaps one disappointment for some potential customers is that 7 Series devices will lack support for Adobe Flash.

"We have no objection to Adobe Flash support, but in [version 1] there will be no support," Ballmer told a questioner at the end of the press conference.

As for futures, Microsoft officials said that the company will be gradually revealing more regarding 7 Series over coming months.

"We hope Windows Phone 7 Series is our lucky number," Ballmer added.

Six Tips for Protecting Critical Data

Six Tips for Protecting Critical Data
Tip One – People, Policies and Priorities First
Consider having the right people, policies and procedures in place before turning attention to technology strategy. Designate one individual in
the company as the data protection owner. This person is responsible for getting management buy- in, documenting the processes,
investigating the options, and directing testing and training.
The data protection owner should form a group to determine what the most critical information to the business is. This small group should
include those individuals whose input will ensure that the most critical business information is protected. In a small business, this may be just
the owner or the executive staff. In a midsize business, a manager from each function is probably most appropriate. The data protection
owner should identify any relevant regulations that affect the company's data protection priorities. Next, the group should define the critical
applications. Given the limited resources in most small and midsize businesses, initially narrow your focus to the one or two core applications
where an inability to access key information can quickly start to cost you money, such as your e-commerce site, customer database or e- mail
system. By focusing on protecting just one or two critical applications, your data protection goals will be more attainable.


Tip Two – Get the Data out of the Building
It is extremely important to get your data out of the building and out of harm's way. The ideal offsite location is distant geographically so it
remains unaffected by large-scale disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Consider what the most likely threats are to your place of
business.
● Is it local power outages? How far away would you need to store the data to be on a different power grid?
● Is it earthquakes or hurricanes? Keep the backup data at least an area code away.
● Is it most likely to be server failures? Think about what could be done for more rapid recovery of the production machine.
Think creatively about how you can cost-effectively backup the data remotely. For example, if your office is in New York City and your IT
administrator lives in New Jersey, you could simply setup a PC backup server in their home that is connected to the main server by DSL or
cable.


Tip Three – Calculate the Costs of Downtime
For your peers to appreciate the gravity of the problem, you may need to estimate the downtime costs for employees, suppliers and customers
if they can't access critical information. The following method provides a simple way to estimate the average cost per hour of downtime.
Cost Per Occurrence = (To + Td) x (Hr + Lr)
To = Time / Length of Outage
Td = Time Delta to Data Backup (How long since the last backup?)
Hr = Hourly Rate of Personnel (Calculate by monthly expenditure per department divided
by the number of work hours.)
Lr = Lost Revenue per Hour (Applies if the department generates profit. A good rule is to look
at profitability over three months and dividing by the number of work hours.)
Next, define the recovery objectives for your applications. The best way to quantify your objectives is with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for each application. The RTO for an application is simply the goal for how quickly you need to have that
application's information restored. For example, perhaps 4 hours, 8 hours, or next business day is tolerable for e-mail systems. The RPO for an
application is the goal for how much data you can afford to lose since the last backup. Is it 2 minutes worth, 20 minutes or 2 hours? Then
estimate the costs to achieve your RTO and RPO for each application.


Tip Four – Think Beyond Tape to Achieve Your Recovery Objectives
Once you have established how quickly you need to recover key applications (RTO), how much data you can afford to lose (RPO) and your
budget, you can select the appropriate technology solution. Like many SMBs, you are likely to discover that traditional tape backup won't be
enough to achieve your RTO and RPO goals for critical applications.
For SMBs whose critical applications run at multiple remote locations, the quality and consistency of on-site tape backup is also an issue. Few
companies of any size have technical experts in branch locations who can clean and maintain tapes, ensure that they are properly backing up,
and execute a recovery when needed.
Small and midsize businesses face a conundrum: tape backup systems are inexpensive and fairly reliable, but they offer poor RPO and RTO for
critical applications, and they are usually ineffective for remote locations. Hardware mirroring technology, which uses remote copy technology
to provide synchronous mirroring between two sites, offers excellent RPO and RTO but it is prohibitively expensive for a small or midsize
business to buy and manage. Plus, it is less than ideal for backing up remote locations which often have low-bandwidth connections.
New solutions based on asynchronous software-based replication can achieve the acceptable RTO and RPO objectives for critical applications
without the cost and complexity of the synchronous replication approach. With software-based replication, only the bytes that change are
replicated. When compared with synchronous replication solutions, this approach offers lower load on the production servers, faster updates
and the ability to send replication updates across low-bandwidth Internet networks.
Double-Take – The Solution for SMBs
Double-Take is the most effective way for small and midsize
businesses to experience the data protection benefits of
asynchronous software replication.
Today, Double-Take is the most relied-upon solution for real-
time replication of critical data and automated failover for
application availability. Double-Take is Microsoft Windows
2000 and 2003 certified at all levels, one of the few
replication products to have achieved this level of
certification. It delivers protection that is better or
comparable to many hardware based solutions, but costs
tens of thousands less.
Double-Take replicates changes to files at the byte-level from any Windows Server to any other Windows Server across any IP-based network.
It installs on each server and monitors the real-time changes that are occurring to files and it replicates those changes to another server and
applies them to a secondary replica of the data. All changes are sent and applied in the exact logical order that they occurred on the
production system, guaranteeing a crash-consistent copy of data on the secondary system.
Beyond minimal protection
Double-Take Small Business Server Edition from Double-Take Software goes beyond the minimal protection of periodic backup by providing
disk-based continuous data replication, ensuring minimal data loss, and enabling fast recovery from any disaster or outage - priced with the
small business in mind.
Double-Take continuously captures byte-level changes as they happen and replicates those changes, locally or to a recovery site miles away.
Because changes are captured in near-real time, in the event of a disk crash, power failure, human error or natural disaster, you may only lose
seconds of data - instead of hours or entire days. Unlike other costly solutions that limit your geographic options or require special network
connections, Double-Take Small Business Server Edition works over any distance using your existing IP networks even the Internet. You can
station your target server as far away as you would like to ensure maximum protection against disasters.
DEPENDING ON DATA: PROTECTING SMALL BUSINESS SERVER AND SIX OTHER TIPS FOR SMBS
Because Double-take replicates only the bytes that change, it uses the minimum bandwidth required to backup your data. Features like
Flexible Bandwidth Scheduling and Intelligent Compression allow you to control when replication occurs and how much bandwidth Double-
Take is allowed to use.
When disaster strikes, you can use the secondary disk-based copy of your data to restore the production server within moments. Double-Take
is server, storage, network and application independent and works with the services you have today.
Full-Server Failover: Protect more than just your data
But there's more to protecting your systems than just protecting the data. Double-Take's Full-Sever Failover feature ensures everything is
protected - including the operating system(OS), applications and data. The Full-Server Failover feature combines cutting-edge system state
protection and recovery capabilities with the real-time replication of Double-Take, ensuring applications are available when they're needed
without introducing paralyzing levels of complexity for the small business owner. A single click of a button is all that it takes to completely
recover your systems. Because the Full-Server Failover feature is protecting the system state of the production server, there's no need to
separately manage service packs, application updates or hotfixes on the standby server, further reducing the complexity of maintaining
application uptime.

Tip Five - Make it Easy for Users to Restore Themselves
Most SMBs don't have the IT resources to respond to individual requests to restore files. Fortunately, solutions like Microsoft's Windows
Storage Server 2003 make it easy for users to restore files themselves. Windows Storage Server 2003 can be configured to take a snapshot of
the data on a server twice a day, for example. Should a user delete or make unwanted permanent changes to a document, they can simply
select the file from any snapshot by right clicking on the file, selecting "Properties", viewing all the versions of the file and selecting the one
they want.


Tip Six - Make Sure You Really Can Restore In Different Situations
It's important to make sure you have thought through how to restore your critical applications quickly - either locally or at a different location.
Do you have fast access to all of the components you need to recover? What are the specific steps needed to restore a failed server? What
would you do if you had to move the company's operations and employees to another location?
Double-Take can help you recover at another location or recover a branch location quickly, and because it only replicates the data that's
changed, it works well over long distances even with low bandwidth connections.

Phani's TechMedia

REASSESSING SERVER COSTS
FOR MID-SIZE COMPANIES - SUN Microsystems Defination

Most companies keep their servers for three to fi ve years. Current economic
conditions might suggest companies hold on to their installed servers longer,
but that may not be the best strategy to employ.
With pressures to rein in budgets, a server refresh to Sun Microsystems® servers
based on the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series delivers the performance and
energy savings that businesses require today. Additionally, signifi cant cost cutting
can be realized through consolidation and virtualization without compromising
performance. In fact, organizations can realize up to a 9:1 server replacement (of
single core systems from 2005) and achieve up to 90 percent lower operating costs
and an estimated 8 month payback1.
1 Based on internal Intel estimates as of Nov 2008. Consolidation ratio based on performance comparison of Intel Xeon processor 5500 series
vs. single-core Xeon processor using SPECjbb2005 bops (business operations per second). Eight month payback is an Intel estimate based
on comparing the cost savings achieved in 9:1 server consolidation from both power/cooling and OS licensing versus the estimated cost of
purchasing a new server featuring Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.
2
efficiency that enable companies to efficiently consolidate
servers, thus helping them to significantly
cut these costs and reduce staffing requirements to
manage the servers.
A CRITICAL TIME
IT organizations within companies of all sizes are
being called on to reduce spending. In Ziff Davis
Enterprise’s CIO Insight 2009 IT Spending Survey2 of
219 IT managers, 80 percent of the respondents said
they were under more pressure to reduce costs this
year than they were last year.
At the same time, IT is under more pressure to provide
more services. Employees want access to their
e-mail at all times, business partners need access
to shared resources, and customers want to peruse
Web sites, get account information, and place orders
on their schedules, not the company’s. This nonstop
nature of most businesses is forcing IT to make
all applications available 24/7/365.
Meanwhile, many companies are trying to grow their
businesses and add new services to make up for any
revenue shortfalls or customer losses that may have
occurred. This means that IT must support even
more users and new business applications.
Providing support to satisfy these IT needs using
existing servers has cost implications. For years,
companies have typically deployed a new server for
each new application, which has resulted in great
inefficiencies. In many situations, it is quite common
for CPU, memory, and storage utilization rates to be
in the 10 to 15 percent range or lower. Besides not
using computing capacity efficiently, this approach
incurs very large operational costs. According to
IDC3, companies spend $8 in maintenance for each
$1 invested in IT hardware. This means a $2,500
server would have $20,000 in additional costs associated
with it for maintenance. If a dozen such
servers could be eliminated through consolidation, a
company would thus save $240,000 in management
costs over their lifetime.
Similarly, the electrical costs to run and cool existing
servers must be factored in. Energy costs have
become a much more important issue within the
last few years due to the increased price for electricity
and the growing desire for companies to be
greener. Because the attention paid to these costs
is relatively new, many installed servers were likely
purchased with no consideration of their operational
costs such as power consumption.
Until now, each generation of servers and processors
has consumed more power and needed more
cooling. And as a result, IDC estimates4 that companies
pay about 50 cents to power and cool servers
for every dollar spent on server hardware.
Additionally, as companies have added more servers
over the years, the space required to house those
servers has grown, too. If companies continue with
their current mode of operations and simply add
clones of existing servers without consolidating,
space demands and expenses will grow. This can be
a costly proposition. Industry estimates peg the cost
of adding data center space to be about $1,000 per
square foot5.
Furthermore, companies that have had to downsize
staff (something that is quite common with today’s
economic conditions) often want to reduce their
office space. If the servers take a disproportionate
percentage of the square footage, reductions here
will be hard to make.
WHY A CHANGE IS NEEDED
Most companies keep their servers in operation
from three to five years. Let’s assume a company
is at or approaching the four-year mark and has
to make a decision. Does it stay with the installed
base of servers and try to hold onto them until the
economy improves, or does it swap them out for
something else?
As previously mentioned, keeping these existing
servers means paying for management, electricity,
and floor space, as well as upkeep fees for service
contracts and software updates.
If the servers are three or four years old, they are
likely powered by old single-core or dual-core Intel
Xeon processors, respectively. New Sun servers,
based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, offer
significantly more processing power than their predecessors.
So these new systems can be leveraged
to consolidate applications onto fewer servers.
For example, the performance boost6 afforded
by the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series in the
new Sun servers allows up to a 9:1 consolidation
when replacing four-year-old single-core processor
servers, and a 3:1 or 4:1 consolidation when
the new servers replace three-year-old dual-core
processor servers.
In both cases, management costs are cut, licensing
fees for server operating systems shrink, and annual
energy costs are reduced. In a 9:1 server replacement,
companies can achieve up to 90 percent lower
operating costs and an estimated 8 month payback.


THE POWER OF VIRTUALIZATION
Additional costs savings can be realized by using
virtualization in conjunction with consolidation.
Virtualization simplifies the deployment and administration
of applications running on a server.
And it helps make more efficient use of compute
resources so that more applications may share a
single server without conflicts or contention for
system resources.
Here again, Sun servers based on the Intel Xeon
processor 5500 series offer much higher raw performance
compared to previous-generation servers7.
This allows more virtual machines to run on a single
server, thus compounding the cost savings benefits
of pure consolidation.
Further, Sun servers include features that
complement Intel’s new processor technologies
and enhance system performance in other ways.
For example, Sun servers are optimized for the
Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, and can greatly
leverage their performance-enhancing and
energy-saving capabilities.
And since most companies have different compute
requirements, Sun Microsystems offers a variety
of servers based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500
series from entry-level rack systems to high-density
blade systems (see chart on page 4). This gives
companies the flexibility to support a wide range of
business needs, from web and application services
to high-performance computing.
COST SAVINGS ABOUND
Sun servers bring ease-of-use benefits that help
cut expenses. In particular, the biggest expense associated
with IT equipment is personnel costs. That
includes salaries, training, and the cost to find and
hire qualified applicants.

4
Standards-based Sun servers powered by the
Intel Xeon processor 5500 series enables efficient
consolidation, thus reducing staffing demands. And
the skills needed to manage the systems are quite
common, thus potentially lowering recruitment and
training costs.
To illustrate, consider that the average salary range
for IT administrators in 2009 is between $52,750
and $82,500, according to an annual salary survey
conducted by Janco Associates8. To be conservative,
let’s assume the IT staff is being compensated at the
low end of that salary range, and that a modest 5:1
server consolidation is performed.
That means for every five people presently dedicated
to IT server management, only one would be
required to manage the new Sun servers. This is the
equivalent of gaining four new employees without
increasing the IT organization’s budget. A company
thus could allocate these employees to work on other
IT projects that may have stalled due to lack of staff,
or position them in support of new business development
ventures that will help grow the bottom line.
Even more significant consolidation ratios can often
be achieved as well. If, instead of a 5:1 ratio, a company
can consolidate nine servers onto one, it would
essentially cut in half the resource requirements.
Finally, because Sun servers are standards-based,
they can be managed with common IT skill sets.
This makes it easier to find, hire, and train workers
to manage them.
BENEFITS OF A SYNERGISTIC RELATIONSHIP
Sun and Intel technologies separately offer improved
performance, energy savings, and easier
manageability.
Sun Microsystems has a long tradition of meeting
the compute needs of businesses of all sizes. Its
systems expertise ensures optimized performance
for database, Web, and streaming media applications
– the applications that companies rely on to
remain competitive and grow their businesses.
Intel offers the confidence that applications can be
easily migrated from one generation’s systems to
another. Moreover, the performance-boosting characteristics
of its processors ensure that applications
will run optimally.
But to improve on these areas, Sun and Intel have
worked together to optimize the systems for virtualization
and Java technologies. Companies using
Intel processor-based Sun servers thus get honed
performance that allows the servers to support
more simultaneous users, virtual machines, or Java
sessions. In this way, companies can reduce the
number of servers they need to meet certain levels
of service delivery.
Another synergistic benefit includes leveraging Sun’s
power management and energy savings solutions.
For example, Sun servers include Advanced Thermal
Management (ATM), which relies on specially designed
doors and backplane panels that channel air
more effectively. ATM can reduce cooling costs and
cut down on carbon emissions as well. The energy
> SUN SERVERS BASED ON THE INTEL XEON PROCESSOR 5500 SERIES
SERVER MODEL SERVER TYPE
PROCESSORS
SLOTS / CORES MEMORY
Sun Fire X2270 1RU Rack 2 / 4 or 8 Up to 96 GB
Sun Fire X4170 1 RU Rack 2 / 4 or 8 Up to 144 GB
Sun Fire X4270 2 RU Rack 2 / 4 or 8 Up to 144 GB
Sun Fire X4275 2 RU Rack 2 / 4 or 8 Up to 144 GB
Sun Blade X6270
server module
Blade 2 / 4 or 8 Up to 144 GB
Sun Blade X6275
server module
Blade 4 / 8 or 16 Up to 192 GB
5
savings can be compounded by leveraging Intel®
Turbo Boost Technology that lets IT managers automatically
turn off individual cores and Intel® Dynamic
Power Management Technology that optimizes the
power use of the processor, chipset, and memory
based on application and business requirements.
To deliver a complete solution to meet the computing
needs of companies today, the server hardware
is complemented by Sun’s networking and
storage technologies. By combining Sun and Intel
technologies into a single solution, Sun servers
enable IT organizations to reconsider what type
of applications can be run, substantially increase
the number of virtual machines that can be supported
on a single server, and enable dramatic
consolidation in the number of servers that need
to be managed.
In addition, Sun offers services and support to
help IT organizations with server deployments and
management.
The end result is that Sun servers based on Intel
Xeon processor 5500 series are soundly backed with
both companies’ commitment to making their products
work optimally for your business. < > STAFFING IMPLICATIONS IN A SERVER CONSOLIDATION
NUMBER
OF SERVERS
STAFF REQUIRED TO
MANAGE SERVERS
STAFFING
IMPLICATIONS
BEFORE A CONSOLIDATION 100 10
AFTER A 5:1 CONSOLIDATION 20 2 Equivalent of gaining
8 new employees
AFTER A 9:1 CONSOLIDATION ~10 1 Equivalent of gaining
9 new employees

Phani's TechMedia

When Legitimate  Sites Threaten your Network

Activity online, but more recently, hackers have compromised

legitimate Web sites and planted redirect code that silently

launches attacks via the browser.

One high-profile web site compromise in 2007 provides a

glimpse into how drive-by downloads are launched against

computer users. In the weeks leading up to the NFL Super

Bowl game, Miami’s Dolphin Stadium site was hacked and

rigged with a snippet of JavaScript code.

A visitor to that site with an unpatched Windows machine was

silently connected to a remote third-party that attempted to

exploit known vulnerabilities described by Microsoft’s MS06-

014 and MS07-004 security bulletins. If an exploit was successful,

a Trojan was silently installed that gave the attacker full access

to the compromised computer. The attackers could later

take advantage of the compromised computer in order to steal

confidential information or to launch denial-of-service attacks.

Later in 2007, the high-traffic “Bank of India” web site was

hijacked by hackers in a sophisticated attack that used multiple

redirects to send Windows users to a server hosting an

e-mail worm file, two stealth rootkits, two Trojan downloaders,

and three backdoor Trojans. The Bank of India compromise

combined JavaScript obfuscation, multiple iFrame redirect

hops, and fast-flux techniques to avoid detection and to keep

malicious servers online during the attack. This image shows

a screenshot of the compromised Bank of India site with the

malicious script used to launch the drive-by download attack.

These are just two examples to highlight the extent of the

problem on legitimate web sites. According to data from

ScanSafe, a company that tracks web-based malware threats,

74 percent of all malware spotted in the third quarter of 2008

came from visits to compromised web sites.

Attackers also are known to have used poisoned third-party

advertising servers to redirect Windows users to rogue servers

that are hosting drive-by downloads. These malicious

ads (malvertisements) are typically Flash-based and exploit

unpatched desktop applications.

Drive-By Download Engines

Malware exploit kits serve as the engine for drive-by downloads.

These kits are professionally written software components

that can be hosted on a server with a database backend.

The kits, which are sold on underground hacker sites, are fitted

with exploits for vulnerabilities in a range of widely deployed

desktop applications, including Apple’s QuickTime media

player, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, RealNetworks’ Real-

Player and WinZip.

Browser-specific exploits have also been used, targeting

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple Safari, and

Opera. Several targeted exploit kits are fitted only with attack

code for Adobe PDF vulnerabilities or known flaws in ActiveX

controls.

Identity thieves and other malware authors purchase exploit

kits and deploy them on a malicious server. Code to redirect

traffic to that malicious server is then embedded on web sites,

and lures to those sites are spammed via e-mail or bulletin

boards.

An exploit kit server can use HTTP request headers from a

browser visit to determine the visitor’s browser type and

version as well as the underlying operating system. Once the

target operating system is fingerprinted, the exploit kit can

determine which exploits to fire.

In some cases, several exploits can be sent at the same time,

attempting to compromise a machine via third-party application

vulnerabilities. Some of the more sophisticated exploit

kits are well maintained and updated with software exploits

on a monthly basis. The kits come with a well-designed user

interface that stores detailed data about successful attacks.

The data can range from operating system versions exploited,

the target’s country of origin, which exploit was used, and the

efficiency of exploits based on traffic to the malicious site.

WHEN LEGITIMATE SITES THREATEN YOUR NETWORK Page 2

The Unpatched Desktop

The drive-by download epidemic is largely attributed to the

unpatched state of the Windows ecosystem. With very few

exceptions, the exploits in circulation target software vulnerabilities

that are known – and for which patches are available.

However, for a variety of reasons, end users are slow to apply

the necessary software fixes.

Microsoft’s Automatic Updates mechanism offers end

users a valuable way to keep operating system vulnerabilities

patched, but the same cannot be said for third-party desktop

applications. Secunia, a company that tracks software vulnerabilities,

estimates that about one-third of all deployed desktop

applications are vulnerable to a known (patched) security

issue.

The most practical approach to defending against drive-by

downloads is to pay close attention to the patch-management

component of defense. Specifically, users should;

• Use a patch management solution that assists with

finding – and fixing – all third-party desktop applications.

Secunia offers two tools – Personal Software

Inspector and Network Security Inspector – that can

help identify unpatched applications.

• Use a desktop browser that includes anti-phishing and

anti-malware blockers. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,

Mozilla Firefox, and Opera all provide security features

to block malicious sites.

WHEN LEGITIMATE SITES THREATEN YOUR NETWORK Page 3

• Enable a firewall and apply all Microsoft operating

system updates. Avoid using pirated software which

has its updates disabled through WGA.

• Install anti-virus/anti-malware software and be sure to

keep its databases updated. Make sure your anti-virus

provider is using a browser traffic scanner to help

pinpoint potential problems from drive-by downloads.

Karthika Masam Celebrations at Mudiyanur

Karthika Masam Celebrations at Mudiyanur – 16^th Nov 09

Raitha Bandhavas,

Here is a Glimpse of Spiritual Activities happened at Mudiyanur on the ‘Last Monday’ as a part of Karthika Masam Celebrations.

Preface

Karthika Masam (“The Month of Lights”) has its own attractiveness and importance among Hindu religion as this is the time of ‘Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya’ (Fight over Dark/Evil) and especially Mudiyanur, a small village part of Kolar Dist. Is must visit place during this season. The Karthika Masam activities have a special place in the hearts of people here being reflection to their Spiritual Quotient, Morals & Ethics of Our Religion, Responsibility, Human values & Culture and most importantly their unpaid Love & Interest towards the service of the Mighty Lord!! (Bhakthi Yoga).
Proceedings of Karthika masam All the activities in this regard are driven based on the guidelines which were provided from our Ancestors having valuable reason and cause. These have been continuing yearly since long time for the welfare of humankind. The program marks beginning when it clocks the first Monday of the Karthika Masam as per Hindu calendar and goes on till the Last day (usually Monday) of the month.

On Each Monday of the Karthika masam Lord Someshwara Swamivaaru will be bathed in Ekaadashavaaru Rudrabhishekam followed by Panchamrutha Snanam, After which paid all respects through Bilva pooja, Shiva Sahasranamam and Maha Niraajanam. The special pooja will be conducted for Parvathi Ammavaaru which includes Lakshmi Ashtothara and Lalitha Sahasranamam. Evenings are filled with Satsang activities such as Sravanam, Keerthanams of Lord and his past times

It is the last Monday which marks the ending of Karthika Masam is the most auspicious day. On which morning Deity of the Lord will be taken through Ekaadashavaaru Rudrabhishekham and special pooja’s as usual. Evening commences grandly as the venue ‘Prasanna Sri Someshwara Swamy’ temple will be illuminated with full of lights marking the Laksha Deepotsavam followed by Girija Kalyanam. Prasanna Sri Parvathi sametha Sri Parameshwara swamivaaru royally decorated in ornaments (jewels) and flowers give darshan to all devotees in the form of “ The supreme couple of the Universe” – Jagathah Pitarouh. The whole place will be filled by bhajans and enchanting of ‘Om Namah Shivayah’ resembling the ambience of Kailasam.

After which is the most important Pushpa pallaki utsavam will begun. Devotees pulling the chariot on which Saakhshath Parvathi Parameshwarulu residing in all beauty will be carried throughout the streets of the village.

The main attraction is hundreds of small lamps ‘Deepalu’ carried alongside with Chariot. This can be termed even as speciality of our village. Entire scene looks as if all stars from universe residing into the streets, take part in the service of the Lord in magnifying the beauty of the place.

Singing, Dancing and Enchanting…all devotees will be completely drenched in the devotion. Along the way Pallaki will be offered with respects at each n every house and whole procession comes to an end in Chariot carrying the deities reaching back to the temple. This will be truly an overwhelming experience of the life time.

This year

As said earlier, all these proceedings have its roots derived from our Ancestors and as of every year this time it’s Vipra Yuvaka & Mahila Sangham took the initiate in driving this occasion to grand Success, Of course with the blessings and advice of Elder ones.

All programmes went well as scheduled from morning till late night (Mercy of the Lord).
- Morning – Rudrabhishekham, Maha mangalarathi (10.00 am to 1.00 pm)
- Evening – Girija Kalyanam, Deepalankara and bhajans (7.00 pm to 11.30 pm)
- Night - Pushpa pallaki with Deepotsavam (11.30 pm – 1.00 am)
- Small get-together to celebrate success – (1.30 am till ……DD time)

Arrangements were mind blowing this time., Thanks to our new lead with full ‘Spirit’ collected enough money in making this occasion grand success. My hearty thanks to all the donors who were kind enough in this regard.

And last but not the least my hearty congratulations & thanks to all the volunteers and others who worked hard (Kaya, Vaacha, Manasa and Arthena) towards this. I wish God shower all his blessings and give us more enthu and energy to continue further……Actually a little more energy for me ….he he he,,,, Just kiddingJ

For more photos, copy and paste the following link into your browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=ramesbs&target=ALBUM&id=5404999067493978737&locked=true&authkey=Gv1sRgCMLb5YKKxuGeVg&feat=email

Thanks & Regards,
Prince Phanindra,
Secretary,
Vipra Seva Samithi,
Mudiyanur -563127

Vipra Milana- Mudiyanur

Dear Fellow Mudiyanurians,

From generations, mudiyanur is known for culture, heritage,peaceful environment and what not. As you all know Vipra seva samithi has served the people in many ways from past 10 years. Feb 17th 2010 it has aged 10years from the time it took birth. This was started by our seniors with high intensions & service to the people as the main intension.

As part of the Dashamaanotsava, we are planning to have the "Vipra Vandana(Mahajanthe, MahaSankalpa)" programme by honouring the senior most of our generations who has contributed (kaya, vacha & manasa )for the village. Also We had discussion on how to organize this event. Below were the few points which were discussed in the presence of members & also with the help of seniours in the village. We had got the immense response for this idea.

Points discussed:

--> Honouring the Senior most people who have contributed to village. Names suggested were
Veda Bramha Sri Seetharama Avadhani & Veda Bramha Sri Ahobala Shastry
--> A breif description of all the families belonging to Mudiyanur
--> Suggestions for the youth regarding the carrier from the well setteled personalities irrespective of the fields.
--> Matrimonials suggestions
--> Health check ups & suggestions


Apart from the above points we need more information regarding the organizing this event. The event Vipra vandana will be planned on sunday of feb 2010. We welcome your suggestions regarding this event on how to organize & what needs to be done on the day of event. Kindly provide your inputs.

This event will be a get together for all the people who belong to mudiyanur & your presence on this day is a must.

Vipra Vandana will also help to know each other who have lost their touch with mudiyanur.

Please pass this information to all the people who belong to mudiyanur & make this event a grand success.

Thanks in advance,

Thanks & Regards,
Prince Phanindra
Secretary,
Vipra Seva Samithi,
Mudiyanur- 563127

About Myself

I am Phanindra S.V from Balakuntla family from Mudiyanur.
I first breth on this planet on 16 May 1984 at 03:00pm. Why am in taking about time & date specifically? There is a speciality here, I was born on Sri Choudeshwari Rathotsava specially at the time of chariot pulling. Will come to this point later. Moving ahead..
I was born to Sri.B.A Srinivasamurthy(Rtd Head Master) & Smt. B.S. Lakshmi(House Wife).

Let me take a pleasure to introduce my family.

I belong to Balakuntla family who are settled few genaration back at Mudiyanur. There are few people in my family whom i need to mention about. My Granfather Sri. Balakuntla Anantharama shastry was a Palegara for the entire village. His name is chanted even today at my village for his noble deeds , the support he gave to the families & made them settled. He believed in "Live & let live" principle. So what is special about him? He was the person who left home at the age of 9. Visited several places in tamilnadu & learnt a lot about life, Vedas, Classical Music.. He returned home after a long journey at the age of 19. This journey has made him grow as a very learnt & knowledgable person. Post returning to village he took the responsibility of the family. He did support his brothers Sri Balakuntla NarayanaShastry & Sri Balakuntla Subramanyam. He played an important role for their studies & made them to settle in life. Sri Balakuntla Narayana Shastry grown as a Head Clerk in Education Department where as the younger brother Sri Balakuntla Subramanyam for the two became Civil Engineer. Sri.B. Subramanyam played an important role in construction of several Dams in southren India.
The three brothers were married to
Narayana Shastry to Rukkamma - Later settled in Kolar
Anantharama Shastry to Seethalakshamma
Subramanyam to Vedamba - Later settled in Bangalore.

The Fruitfull marraige life led to 5 children to my grandfather Ananthrama Shastry
1) B.A.SrinivasaMurthy- My father
2)Papachamma(a.ka. Shantha) - Elder atta
3)Chaya
4) Sharada
5) B.A.Ram Murthy

My grandfather used to teach tell the stories of Ramayana, Mahabharatha & many Epic stories. He always used to teach me the values of life. How a person should be? What are basic principles one should follow? vedas & what not..
These things impacted on my mind when i started thinking on wats good & wats Bad. I strated understanding each & every story which he used to tell at that time.
My grandmother did a great role in supporting my thaata. She was also very intelligent & well quilified. She was the daughter of Tahasildaar Sri Subramanyam. They belong to Darbala Family.

My parents:
Being the elder son, my father shared the family responsibilty at the early stage of life along with my grandfather.  My father worked as the high school teacher in many schools. Later provided the service to MGNHS(Mahatma Gandhi National High School, Mudiyanur) & retired as head master in the same school. He has the same respect as my granfather has in the taluk. He is famous for his teaching abilities, softness, sincerity, humbleness, punctual & what not.
My mother, shared equal responsibilites of the family. They are the perfect example for the couple.