editorial The Tech-sense All of the people working in research labs, over 4 times each! Shouldn’t someone you pay all those working in hardware and software to protect your PCs and data know such a basic companies, all of us working at Digit, and all of thing? What about all the man-hours wasted? you – readers of tech magazines, web sites, and Working in a media company, I also get a tech enthusiasts – all taken together, constitute lot of FTP login details, to get ads, transfer pages, a minority in the grand scheme of things. And download images – the usual deal. I can’t begin not the whole of that minority, mind you, knows to tell you how many times I’ve found the pass- enough about technology to practise it well. words to be weak, and sometimes, it’s the same Over the past decade or so, I have seen as the root password to the actual server’s OS! technology enter every aspect of our lives, and Then there’s the whole web site business, the mobile phone is perhaps now the starting which is just another example of the visually Apoint for most of the world. However, I still find impaired leading the blind. I’ve seen people with so many causes for complaint, when I encounter a distrust for open source software’s security, people who should just know better. get custom-coded solutions that either break or I can’t begin to describe the disappoint- have security holes the size of a bus. Very often, ment I feel when I speak to customer service the “product” provided is just an open source representatives who know less than I do about package that’s coded on top of, without proper their product. And no, I’m not special, most of understanding of, the original code, thus result- you who read this magazine, have had similar ing in security holes. If not, then it’s custom- encounters. coded, without following some basic principles Almost every month I find myself arguing, of security. quite fruitlessly, with my ISP’s representatives, The advantage we’ve always had at Digit, over some issue or another. Most often it’s a is the fact that we’re all a bunch of technology badly configured server, or some technical prob- fanatics. There’s always someone around who “Xxxxxxx” lem with their lines that causes me to call them. will offer up better solutions, and all of us can Of course all I get in return is standard verbiage, troubleshoot, rip apart and rebuild our own and ridiculous requests to “delete my IE cache”. PCs. We’re blessed with a lot of people who have I don’t even use IE, and what’s IE got to do with the “tech sense” – or basically a combination the fact that their DNS server is down? Why of common sense, technology knowledge and should I have to spend 15 minutes of my life, experience. every month, educating people about how their Although this tech sense has helped us stay system is supposed to work? numero uno in your eyes, we’re not content to sit The common everyday system assembler is back and do nothing more. Doing more, however, no different. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve is not possible if we look at you as “readers” of a seen rear system fans pushing air into a cabinet, magazine. Starting this month, and hopefully a instead of out; or CPUs that run hot because the regular feature from now on – depending on the guy who threw it together thought, “Thermal way you respond – we will be looking to interact paste? You can probably never have enough!” more with you. Whether it’s online through our The technology service providers across web site, via e-mail, in real-time via live chats, or SoHos and SMBs are no better. Yes I will admit face-to-face workshops, we’re going to go beyond that there are quite a few gems, in this field, but the scope of any “magazine”, and try to empower overall, it’s just sad to see the pathetic state of the tech community of India. knowledge and awareness. Whether it’s saving you assembly costs by I’ve spoken to quite a few small business teaching you how to do it yourself, or help- owners who just cannot seem to find an afford- ing you use technology better, we’re going to able and reliable enough maintenance provider. listen to some of our readers who asked for an One such company’s network was recently increased level of interaction, and help more assailed by the Conficker worm, and a whole people develop better “tech sense”. host of other malware. As usual, the sys-admin Turn to page 28 to find out more, and don’t (from an outsourced company), felt the best forget to write in and tell me if you have some solution was to format-reinstall Windows on suggestions about how we can help more. individual computers. However, it was sad to see that he didn’t seem to have the common sense to unplug the LAN cable when reinstalling the OS, ensuring to plug it back in only after install- ing an updated anti-virus software. As a result, by the time I pointed this out to him, he had formatted and reinstalled Windows on 3 PCs [email protected] DIGIT MARCH 2009 1 1 DIGIT MARCH 2009 YOUR TECHNOLOGY NAVIGATOR May 2009 • Volume 9 • Issue 5 Managing Director Sales and Marketing Dr Pramath Raj Sinha VP Sales and Marketing To advertise Printer and Publisher Naveen Chand Singh South East Kanak Ghosh Product Manager Navneet Miglani Sanjay Bhan Jayanta Bhattacharyya Publishing Director Assistant Brand Manager Arpita Ganguli Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Asheesh Gupta National Marketing Manager Mobile: +91-93418 29285 Phone: +91-93318 29284 Editorial Vikram Duggal Phone: +91-80-2554 6370/73 +91-33-2231 7344/46 Editor-in-chief Marketing Communication Fax: +91-80-4151 8330 Edward Henning Thomas Varghese Phone: +91-44-2823 5186/88 North Editor Co-ordinator, Scheduling, Fax: +91-44-2823 0731 Pranav Saran Robert Sovereign-Smith MIS and Ad-sales Aatish Mohite Phone: +91-40-2789 4167 Email: [email protected] Editor-at-large and Online Architect +91-40-5522 1051 Phone: +91-93126 85289, Ahmed Shaikh Production and Logistics Fax: +91-40-2772 0205 +91-11-4160 8655/56/57/58 Senior GM - Operations Head - Copy Desk Shivshankar Hiremath Nash David West International Production Executive Vilas Mhatre Ganesh Lakshmanan Navin Chand Singh Writers Logistics M P Singh, Mohd . Ansari, Aditya Madanapalle, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Siddharth Parwatay Shashi Shekhar Singh Mobile: +91-98196 18498 Mobile: +91-99013 00772 Phone: +91-22-2437 2214/19 Test Centre Circulation and Subscription — Sales Fax: +91-22-2448 2059/1123 Manager - Test Development and GM Circulation Milind Prabhughate Sourcing Michael Browne Co-ordinator Pramod Patil Manager - Testing and Processes Rossi Fernandes Customer Service Prerana Panchal, Advertisers' index Reviewer Kumar Jhuremalani Vrushali Londhe Client Page No Fortune 113 Product Co-ordinator Customer Service: KP Nambiar +91-22-4078 9612/13/14 APC 3 Hp Back Cover Design Head Office: Editorial, Marketing Creative Head Kabir Malkani Bank of India 15 IBALL 11,81 Art Director Rohit A Chandwaskar and Customer Service Senior Designer Vijay Padaya, Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt. 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