Unfortunately, computer users can fall into a license agreement, after installing a piece of software, which may contain difficult to understand passages and terms.  On the less complicated end of the pool, phrases like "We grant you the right to…" equates to what the user (you) can do with the software package.  Whereas words to the effect of "We reserve the right to…" gives the software maker the right to stipulate conditions for using the software.  The license agreement starts easily enough, but can become complex as the wording continues.

Some open source and freeware licenses can be worded so the user can do what they please.  These are less common.  Typically you will encounter a lengthy document, which is frustrating to read.  What if you could speed it up and get to the meat and potatoes of the matter?  The goal is, of course, to find out if the software is really free; or if it carries strange stipulations.

Earlier I had written a post on how to manually read through and understand End User License Agreements, but now you don’t have to do that .

The EULAlyzer Personal (for private home use) tool, from Javacoolsoftware.com, is a great utility to help interpret license agreements.  To help arm yourself in the skirmish of words, EULAlyzer will analyze the license’s text and look for particular phrases and words.  The results will show the user whether the software is understood to be safe, or if they should be concerned.  Keep in mind, and the javacoolsoftware.com website reiterates this point, that EULAlyzer is not a substitute for legal counsel, when it comes to legal interpretation of a license agreement.

After installing EULAlyzer, start up the program before you install a particular program.  In this example, I am scanning the license for the NMap program.  When you arrive at the welcome screen, click on the "Scan a New License Agreement" link in the center portion of the screen.

The next window you will see is blank, for the most part.  This is the point when you can stop with the EULAlyzer tool, and grab a license agreement, or start an installation from another program.  No worries about copy and paste as EULAlyzer lets the user drag a (cross hair shaped) marker from EULAlyzer, over the license text to bring it into the analysis section.

The license now fills the empty portion of the analysis screen.  You have a better interface to peruse the text within the software license; however the point in using EULAlyzer is to let it do the work.  Click on the Analyze button to accomplish this.

When EULAlyzer has completed its scan, it will turn over to a results section and describe what it found.  It rates what it found on an "Interest ID" system.  What this boils down to is how much attention should be paid to specific sections of the license.  Based upon a scale of one to ten, your results range from unimportant to suspicious.

Looking at the above screen shot, EULAlyzer gives the NMap license a five in three different sections.  The concerns it brings to the table is matters surrounding the phrase "Third Party" and website addresses.  Ultimately, it falls on the individual user to determine if these details are important or not.

For the purpose of comparison, I began, stressing the word began, to install Kazaa; simply to scan the license agreements.  To illustrate a point, you have less paperwork to look over when buying a car.  Back to the subject at hand, the first (of several) license agreements made EULAlyzer light up like a fireworks show.  I cannot expand them all in this view, but in contrast to NMap, there were several Interest ID ratings above a five.

After one is finished scanning a license or two, they can bounce over to the statistics section to get a count on how many licenses they have been through.  This is just a simple statistics counter, which tracks the Interest ID, Length, and Words and Phrases totals.

I would highly recommend this tool to anyone who downloads freeware, shareware, and other tools off the Internet.  For that matter, anyone who installs any type of software should have this utility handy.  There are commercial programs that may indiscriminately contact the Internet, and not necessarily tell you up front.  EULAlyzer can help people take a look at what they are getting into, for better or worse; before they click on the Finish button of a new software setup.

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EULAlyzer – EULA License Analyzer

Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

That all sounds mighty fine, collaboration is good, creativity is good, it’s all good up until the time you try and use a Web 2.0 site over a slow Internet connection. Let us not forget that the whole idea behind the HTTP protocol was to present data inside a thin client, using the least amount of network resources possible.

I spent almost a decade in the software development industry, and I can tell you that back then, we used to work to the lowest common denominator, the feature set for new software would be defined by requirements, not by what was funky, we had limited system resources available to us, so we made sure we did not waste any. I cannot help but believe that the average web designer these days just does not care that a large percentage of people around globe do not have the benefit of fat bandwidth broadband connections.

Facebook, possibly the granddaddy of all Web 2.0 sites, takes over 3 minutes to load the home page across my dial-up connection, do you think I actually bother using it? And I am not alone in my limited Internet connection, I know dozens of people who still have to use dial-up within a half mile radius of me right now.

A slow loading site is not a problem in itself, as long as the little status bar is moving and we have some way of knowing we are still waiting for data and it’s just a case of being patient right? Wrong! So many Web 2.0 sites have also included AJAX functionality into their pages, when AJAX is refreshing, the browser does nothing, no status display, no spinning icon, it just displays as a completed load until the AJAX update actually appears.

This means that for some sites, I am left sitting waiting for minutes at a time, with no actual visual indication that anything is actually happening at all, this is unacceptable.

Ok so this is a bit of a rant, but when did the software industry start putting visuals and style over plain old usability? I don’t care how pretty your website looks, if it takes me 10 minutes to login, 8 of which I sit with my fingers crossed hoping my connection hasn’t hung, with no way of knowing if anything is happening, I am just not going to use your site.

You may have heard the old K.I.S.S adage, Keep It Simple Stupid, this had been a mantra for software developers for several decades, which now seems to have been thrown out of the window by this “brave new world” of Web 2.0. Quite frankly, if something can be done in flat HTML, why do it any other way?

When developers started rolling out flash enabled sites several years ago, they were polite enough to give low bandwidth visitors a non-flash site as an option, not so with Web 2.0 sites.

So what do you think? Is good looking better than usable? Would you rather have cool features you will never used instead of a responsive and robust browsing experience? I know which I prefer.

This is a guest post by Mac Wheeler, who currently lives and works in Thailand.

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Has Web 2.0 gone 1.0 too far?

While most websites will give the software hunter some idea as to the nature of the software, be it free or trial; not all do. However, any programmer worth his or her salt will include an End User License Agreement in some form or another. Putting the EULA (also comes in “software license agreement” or just “license” flavors) within a setup routine for a program is common practice, but they can also be found on websites, README files, and Help menus.

This snippet example from the WinZip website states the WinZip license right on the website itself. Should one want to download the software, this license agreement is out in the open for all visitors. It is important to point out, that with WinZip, that they do not pull any punches about their software. If the website visitor scrolls down a couple of inches, WinZip clearly states that this software is not freeware.

This is the kind of license agreement you want to see; unless you are looking for a free program that is. That said; a clearly defined license is helpful so one understands right off the bat what they can and cannot do with this software. This program will require a fee at some point to continue using it.

What about the free programs then? Free programs carry a variety of licenses, but as a good rule of thumb is to categorize them as home use only or home and commercial use. An example of a home use license (may also be referred to as private use) is show below.

While this is a very short license, there are two points that should stand out. Firstly, this is software is for your own use, not your business or place of work. Secondly, this license does not permit one to deconstruct the software and change the software code. Should you understand the license agreement, you will then click the obligatory “I accept the agreement” and get on with the installation.

A word of caution about End User License Agreements: The people who do not read license agreements really should. Why? There may be legal issues surrounding your use of the software, as well as wording that give the program permission to change your computer settings.

Here we see a potential issue. This portion of the license is having you agree to be of the understanding that the files you are sending and receiving may not be legal to posses.

Here is another precarious matter. Granted, this software swears they are only collecting usage data. In order to collect that information, something has to stay open on your Internet connection to let them get the data (Security issue!!).

In any event, it is worth one’s time to look over the EULA to see what they can and cannot do with the software, and in what capacity it can be used. Should you be in doubt as to some of the wording, contact the program’s author or manufacturer. They will be able to better explain the more cryptic parts of the license.

This is a guest post by Charles Brader, a tech enthusiast and blogger.

Technorati Tags: software license,license agreement,end user license agreement

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But the fun days are over for Beselo, for Secure Mobile Systems (or SMobile Systems) has developed a software that can fight the horrible worm. SMobile Systems has created a mobile anti-virus update and cleaning tool, and introduced it to their Security Shield platform for mobile phones. With that, the mobile phones are protected from any Beselo worm, and, if already infected, are disinfected by the cleaning tool.

According to a press release, George Tuvell, chief technology officer of SMobile, said that SMobile has been at the forefront of monitoring and protecting mobile phone companies and their users and subscribers against malware attacks such as Beselo. “Sadly, this worm proves that mobile viruses are no longer ‘theoretical’ in nature,” Tuvell added.

Beselo had been attacking mobile phones using Symbian S60, some of which are Nokia’s 6630, 7610, 6680, and N70. “This is a particularly insidious virus that is smarter in design, and ultimately more dangerous to consumers, corporate smart phone users and to the carriers who provide service to mobile customers, than nearly any previous attack that has gotten into the wild,” Tuvell said.

It is, by far, safe to say that Beselo is just a part of the past. Relatively, mobile phone attacks by malicious software are still considered rare nowadays that there really isn’t much commotion created from malware attack reports. However, mobile companies worry that modifications of this Beselo worm can easily frighten the mobile market yet again, before new measures against the new worm are developed. Loki

[tags]Symbian, SymbianOS, Beselo, smartphone, Nokia, worms, viruses, SMobile[/tags]

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As well as running standard computer applications such as Windows, MS Office, and the like, surfing the ‘net, storing vast media (photo, video, audio), entertainment forums and all of the standard home office tools are generally part of the PDA’s standard spec. What is more, as the competition is so fierce, manufacturers are constantly trying to outdo one another by developing technology that encases the newest craze, tool, look. Making the abundance of features greater whilst making the devices slicker, more powerful, more robust. This ultimately has brought the price down to affordable proportions.

So why do the vast majority of PDA’s still only get used for the basic, everyday run of the mill organisational tasks that the first generation devices could do. Research shows that 8 out of 10 PDA’s in personal use today are used for no more than 20% of the features. Worse still, hundreds of thousands of PDA’s sit collecting dust in drawers. The argument that ‘it does the job that I need it for’ doesn’t wash. Why pay $300 for a PDA when a $20 pocket organizer would do. It is time we explored the PDA in all its techno-glory and people began to embrace their capabilities with a little more gusto!

Synchronization with Personal Computers

OK, so we can begin with the core task – Why they were invented? Answer… to keep us up to speed with appointments, tasks, contacts and email. The PDA is the perfect device for such a ‘roaming’ agenda – light, portable and now with the development of PDA software which comes as standard, they are fully compatible with personal computers for synchronization with your desktop setup. What is more, with wireless connectivity the flexibility to synchronize has even greater benefits as PDA’s can reconcile conflicting data anywhere, anytime, to keep it up to date, be it, calendar or task management, uploading of files and new email, without the need for physical connectivity between devices. In essence it allows the user to automate (to varying configurable levels) their entire schedule and workflow.

Spend the time – Organize

We know the number one reason why PDA’s were invented, to organize our lives better. So it makes sense that with the development of synchronization and more attractive GUI’s organising the information on your PDA could not be simpler. Now with the common ‘Windows’ desktop look of most it has never been easier to arrange information for your own easy access. As such there should be no excuses for saying ‘I can’t configure my browser/email’ or ‘it’s just a minefield of menu’s’. Arrange your information as you would your PC – categorise, bookmark, add to ‘hot lists’ and favourites. As a PDA is now pretty much a miniature PC think of it in those terms and structure everything as you would your PC. It will make you more productive and less frustrated.

Taking ‘entertainment’ to a whole new level

OK, so the professional functionality stuff is out of the way, what about how a PDA can meet our own personal entertainment needs – Listening to music, watching movies, playing games, taking photographs, recording video. Well the PDA has in modern times become a slick pocket entertainment centre. All now have the capability to hold and play mass volumes of media of many formats. Whether it be music, movies, video clips, artwork, photographs, the storage capacity and playback ability of today’s PDA’s is very impressive. What is more, the quality of screen resolution and audio output is such that you lose nothing to ruin your viewing/listening pleasure.

Interactive communications

With the development of secure wireless networks and as most locations now have wireless ‘hot spots’, the PDA has become an all encompassing worldwide connected interactive communications device. Whether connecting to the Internet to browse news, for entertainment, to shop, run messaging/chat services or to upload/download media from millions of resources worldwide it is all possible with a PDA. Furthermore, as new technologies are presented to us (GPS, Bluetooth, etc) there follows a stampede by the manufacturers to make them available on PDA’s, to cater for all user requirements/experiences.

Back it up!

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again. A PDA is a personal computer in all but name in this technological age. As such it is imperative that after all the hard work you put into synchronising information, organising it systematically, and filling it with all your entertainment needs, the last thing you want is to unintentionally delete information or lose it all without effective disaster recovery or backup storage. In this regard PDA’s come with memory card slots for copy, backup and restore requirements. These cards come in various formats, i.e. CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard and Secure Digital and have storage capacities of up to 16gb. That’s a lot of music, movies, documents, email, etc! that can be stored on one little chip that simply slots in the side of the PDA and seamlessly copies in the same way a USB chip, DVD or CD would via a PC.

—————————————————————————

It goes without saying, the PDA is a wonderful organisational tool. But once you explore its potential and tap into the many resources it has, you will enrich your experience ten fold. Don’t be afraid to give it a thorough workout, tap parts of the screen you don’t know, READ THE MANUAL, enjoy your fully operational ‘battle station’ for what it is, a miniature business/entertainment portal.

[tags]pocket pda, smartphone, handheld pc, buy handheld pc, synchronize, pda phone, minicomputer, handheld pda, video on pda, games on pda[/tags]

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And especially if you do stupid things like put your name on your blog, etc, you’ll surely be found by someone if they do a simple search for your name on Google. Maybe not if you’re name is John Smith, but hella sure if your name is Aseem Kishore (me! My blog shows up #3 on Google when you search my name and I show up about 10 more times on the next 4 to 5 pages in various blog directories)! So basically, if you put your name anywhere in your blog (profile, comments, etc), you can eventually be found.

And there are many cases recently of people posting comments against their bosses and getting fired for it! Or someone hiring you might decide to do a quick search on your name just to make sure you don’t show up linked to pornlovers.com or some other not-so-good place. You can take certain steps to make sure you protect your identity if you want to express ALL your thoughts without any consequences.

1. Use a Pseudonym and Don’t Give Away Any Identifying Details – This means your real name (obviously), pictures of yourself (obviously), birthdays, work locations, places you go to in your city (bars, restuarants, clubs, etc), and blogging while you are at work! The last one is important because you company may monitor network traffic and the web addresses can easily be read.

2. Use Tools to Anonymize your computer - When you go to a web site, your IP address can usually be determined by the site you are connecting to. Or if you have a blog on some big name sites, they might ask you to give your real name. You can use a program called Tor to make sure no one can see your real IP address. It basically routes you through many servers so that you cannot be tracked.

You can also use a product from Anonymizer.com which again does the same thing to hide your IP address.

3. Limit Your Audience – If you’re blogging for friends and family, then you don’t need everyone in the world reading it, so set passwords if you can to restrict access to your blog posts. Some blog sites allow you to designate “friends” who are the only trusted people to view your blog.

4. Google will find you – Google’s search bot finds just about everything on the internet even if you have a web site with just one page and a little text! In order to stop Google from indexing your pages, you have to create a file called robots.txt. You can use the “Robots Text File Generator” tool for free at Web Tool Central to help you do this.

These are some of the ways to help make your blog or web site more anonymous on the internet and if I find any other ways, I’ll add them.

Source: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php

[tags]blog anonymously, anonymous blog, hide your identity[/tags]

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The presentation, from Kearney-Abrams, is broken up into three main parts:

1. Selft Assesement Tools – Talks about how your wrists are positioned, what’s touching your chair, where are your feet, etc.

2. Pain and Strain Risks – Goes through the major risk factors that cause pain and strain when using a workstation, awkard postures, contact stress, and visual fatigue.

3. Ergo-Smart Workstations – Walks you through visually and tells you how to setup your workstation in the best possible way!

So all your bloggers like me, you’ll need this if you’re spending all your time on the computer! My neck is already hurting and it’s only 12:30 PM!!! Goodness! I’m going to watch it now!

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They basically asked big time venture capitalists what they put their money into if only they could find the right people to make the technologies work, write the business plans and get it working! Here’s an excerpt from the article:

” The result is this list of 20 tantalizing business ideas, ranging from a host of new websites and applications to next-generation power sources and a luxury housing development. This isn’t small-time thinking, either: These investors -which include some of Silicon Valley’s most successful VCs as well as serial entrepreneurs like Steve Case and Howard Schultz are backing their ideas with a collective $100 million in funding to the entrepreneurs who can get them off the ground.”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384349/index.htm

Read up and you’ll have gotten past the hardest part: coming up with an idea and getting money to back it up!

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Here’s the link:

http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6159568.html?part=rss&tag=2063-10801_3-0&subj=news

Basically, it’s a box of chocolates and when you pull out of of the candies, it’s plays a personalized video! Now that’s a very cool, techy, yet special gift to give to the person you care about! Might take more time than going out and buying something, but it’ll really suprise the heck out of her!

A different present to give to your loved one!

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Follow up to my post about giving your loved one a unique gift!

Next time you a big date comes up (wedding anniversary, Valentine’s day, the day you proposed, etc), instead of going after the usual suspects: flowers, chocolates, lingerie, etc – try to think what you can do using a computer! How many guys do you know who have made a whole web site about their girlfriend or wife? Probably not many!!! And won’t she be surprised to find that there is a web site she can go to that is just about her!! Of course, do not make the mistake of putting REMOTELY bad pictures of your loved one or you might just find you are not loved anymore. What I did was a couple of weeks before I made the web site I just went through a couple of digital photos of her casually recording which ones she would scoff at and which ones were “cute”!

And you can do this for cheaper than buying a dozen roses! Go to GoDaddy.com and you can get a domain name for 1 year for $8. Next you can get hosting from ASmallOrange.com for $2 a month! So to keep your site up for 1 whole year, you need to only spend $33!! That’s nothing!! And if you really want to go all out, you can go to http://www.templatesbox.com/ and download a web site template for $50 that is very professional looking and just add your content! Now I know most guys have spent more money on gifts than $80!

Another idea is to create a flash animation and send it to her for a smaller occasion like a birthday! It’s something different and you don’t have to keep trying to think of something to buy because you already got what she wanted to last 5 years!! Again, if you’re not super good at Flash (though you really don’t have to be), you can get a template from a couple of web sites:

http://www.flash-template-design.com/
http://www.flashtemplatestore.com/
http://www.free-flash-template.com/
http://www.easytemplates.com/fla-templates.htm

And if you think this is all too complicated, then anyone can do this last suggestion!! Create a PowerPoint presentation!! It might sound cheesy, but you can do some pretty nice animations in Office along with a ton of useful clipart. And the most important thing of course is that you write out how you feel; women almost always enjoy that more than just getting a gift!

So try giving your loved one a unique present on your next special day and I’m sure she’ll love it!

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Since we stare at computer screens all day, you need to take care of your eyes else you’ll find yourself getting blinder or blinking away like a crazy freak! First thing you can do is to make sure after ever hour or two, you stop and slow blink your eyes about 5 times. Just blink hard and keep them closed for about 3 seconds and open them and do it again. That’ll help reduce stress on the eyes.

Second thing you can do is to look straight up into the air and then bring your chin as close to your collar bone as possible. Doing this a few times will help loosen up your neck muscles. You can also rotate your neck too.

There are some other things that you can do in the morning before coming to the office or even during lunch, but which take more time. Rinsing your eyes with water every morning will keep them clean and fresh (not just taking a shower, but actually putting the water into your eyes). Another technique, which is apparently good, but I never do it because I’m lazy is to look towards the sun but to keep your eyes closed. The energy from the sun is apparently supposed to help your eyes.

My favorite exercise that I do at night is the finger in front of the eyes and to focus on the finger close to your eye and then to focus on the distant object behind your finger, like the wall or ceiling. If you do this long enough, your eyes will actually start to hurt and that means you are really exercising them. If you keep doing this one exercise every day, you can actually improve your vision slowly.

Give it a shot! I’ll post more Yoga tips later!

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Yoga exercise tips for IT guys!