Microsoft Subscription Computing: 20 Million Can Afford to Have a Computer

Microsoft’s subscription based computing program will help more then 20 million people across the globe to have a personal computer or a laptop at their desk. Microsoft has started this started the Microsoft’s subscription based computing  two and half years back after the launch of this program 2 millions computers are deployed across the globe. Microsoft has already partnered with more then 40 companies in 33 courtiers across the globe.


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NComputing Setting Up Virtual Desktop Labs in Indian Schools

The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has chosen NComputing for providing Virtual Desktop technology in it’s 5000 secondary schools. This Virtual Desktop implementation provide computing access to 1.8 million children throughout the state. This single implementation of Virtual Desktops in India is the largest deployment  of NComputing’s solution in India.

By implementing NComputing Virtual Desktop solution government will save $20 million in up-front and ongoing costs. The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing technology creates multiple virtual desktops on a single PC so that many users can tap the unused capacity and share it as if each person had their own computer. Andhra Pradesh chose the NComputing X300 solution, which enables up to seven users to simultaneously share one PC.

The purpose of computing labs is to educate students and teachers about some computer skills, office productivity (spreadsheets, word processing) as well as subjects like reading and math. The entire system will run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and use Microsoft Office Suite.

Andhra Pradesh chose the NComputing X300 package, which connects the virtual PCs to the main PCs using PCI cards and cables.

Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of NComputing Said

NComputing is proud to have been chosen by Andhra Pradesh to fulfill its vision to improve learning and computer literacy throughout the state,At about $70 per seat, our solution is the ideal platform to enable schools, businesses, and governments to maximize their PC investment. We are the world leader in desktop virtualization and the scale of this deployment further extends our leadership position.

Javier Arrupea Gitlin, director, Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group, Said

India holds a strong position in the knowledge economy today due to the country’s consistent investment in education over the years.In India and around the globe, Microsoft is committed to enabling affordable access to computing for education. Through Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential commitment, we are continually looking for innovative and affordable technology solutions that can sustain social and economic progress. Initiatives such as this announced today that leverage the value to educational computing provided by the Windows Server platform represent yet another solution that can help move us towards this goal.

Mr. Raj Shah, chief marketing officer of NComputing, Said

With the modernization of India’s economy, students are eager to learn the computer skills that will prepare them for the digital workplace – but most government school students have never even had the chance to type on a keyboard or click a mouse. This computerization project shows how forward thinking governments can use proven and practical technologies like NComputing to bridge the digital divide.

Source: NComputing Wins Bid to Provide Computing Access to 1.8 Million Students in India

Computer Crashes and How To Avoid Them

Computer Crashes and How To Avoid Them Have you ever been working on an important report or about to make your highest score in your favorite game, and your computer suddenly freezes? You sit for a while hoping that things will start working again, but it doesn’t happen. What’s more, you encounter the dreaded blue screen error and are forced to reboot your system or your computer simply crashes. Anybody who has worked with Windows computers know the harmful effects of computer freeze and crash occurrences. Not only may you lose your data, but you may also end up with corrupt registry entries and system files. Computer crashes may occur due to several reasons. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the most common reasons and a few simple tasks that you can perform to resolve them.

Reason 1: Software Problems

Software problems usually occur when there is a problem with an installed software or device driver. If this happens, the best way to resolve the error is to either uninstall this faulty software and reinstall it or try to update it with its latest version. For example, you may have to reinstall Windows firewall software if it is working erratically and causing problems with your Internet access activity.

Reason 2: Faulty RAM

You may have one or more Random Access Memory chips on your computer. Quite often, RAM related problems occur if the RAM chips on your computer are not of the same configuration or one of the chips is faulty. RAM related problems may usually generate fatal exception errors that may stop your computer from functioning and crash your PC.

To check your RAM for problems you may use a good memory testing tool to run various diagnostics tests and identify the fault. You may also remove all but one RAM chip and then start your PC to see if the error occurs. If it does, then the chip on the system is causing the problem, otherwise, keep adding your RAM chips until you identify the faulty chip.

Reason 3: Hard Disk Problems

Hard disk problems usually occur when your disk gets filled up with unwanted programs, temporary files, obsolete system files and other such data. This filled up hard disk also causes disk fragmentation that may further slow down your disk and may even cause physical damage to it. This is the reason why to prevent hard disk problems, it is essential that you periodically use Add or Remove Program or a good third-party un-installer to remove unwanted software. You must also use Disk Cleanup regularly to clean up all unwanted junk files. In addition to this, it is essential that you use Disk Defragmenter periodically to make data on your disk contiguous and further enhance the speed of your computer.

Reason 4: Virus and Spyware Infections

Malicious infections such as virus, Trojan, worms, Spyware and Adware may stealthily creep on to your system through different sources and cause havoc. These Malware programs can generate many different types of computer errors, cause system crashes, steal your personal and confidential data, and in more severe cases even erase your entire hard disk. To prevent these infections, it is essential that you have anti-Malware tools, such as AntiVirus and anti-Spyware on your computer. For these tools to be effective you must choose tools that offer real-time protection and keep these tools updated with the latest malware definitions to ensure you are protected against the latest threats at all times. It is also important that you run regular full system scans to ensure that no malicious data exists on the disk.

Reason 5: Registry Problems

System crashes may occur due to an unstable, fragmented, and slow registry. To prevent these registry problems it is essential that you regularly scan and clean your registry. To avoid manually scanning through the complex registry tree by using the Registry cleaner tool, it is best to use a good and reliable third-party registry cleanup tool. These tools can help you perform several other registry maintenance tasks, including registry cleanup, backup, and defragment.

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HP Released Compaq dc7900 Business PC Series

HP Compaq dc7900 Business PC Series HP released Compaq dc700 series computers to strengthen their business series computers and at same time HP also announced it’s new POS retail system. HP Compaq dc7900 business desktop series includes security, productivity and power-saving features to provide business power users a reliable computing experience that can handle the most demanding workloads. The HP Compaq dc7900 Business Desktop PC is expected to be available worldwide at later this month at a starting U.S. list price of $599.

HP Compaq dc7900 Business Desktop PC are available in three configuration Intel Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core and Celeron single and dual core processors and 250- and 500- GB SATA hard drives. The systems also support dual-monitor display right out of the box without having to purchase a third-party graphics card.

Greg Morris, an HP product manager said

The dual-monitor display capability saves you about $100,The dc7900 series offers a lot of graphics capability and flexibility. Through our partnership with Verdiem, we’ve made it easier for small business owners to set up their own power policies.For example, they can input their local cost-per-kilowatt and calculate the exact cost of various power configurations. They can also set different work and non-work power profiles. When they leave for the day, the PC automatically switches to the non-work configuration and saves on power consumption.

DC7900 comes with a number of security features including

Virtual Browser: Virtual browser make a separate layer between your Internet browsing a local file system. HP said that should your computer be attacked by malicious software, the browser lets you remove unwanted programs from the sandbox with one click of the mouse.

Other security measures in the dc7900 series include two new features within the HP ProtectTools security suite. The Privacy Manager, HP said, lets you exchange e-mails with a secure digital signature, while File Sanitizer is designed to permanently remove data from your PC before you dispose of it

A very common problem for computer users

It happens with most of the computer users their machine suddenly shutdown and restart fine without showing any error message or valid reason. This happens because of overheating. If your PC frequently shuts down, instantly without showing any error then you may need to replace the power supply. PC monitors the CPU temperature so in case of overheating it shutdown the machine to prevent from any harm for CPU, because it is a vital combination of delicate circuits. An easy way to check current CPU temperature is, in the my computer properties go to CPU World but it’s only available in Vista. A free program for all the users is derived by Alfredo Milani Comparetti’s SpeedFan, displays in system tray to fine-tune the heat and balance the power.

Few steps when you face problem like that

  • Check fans of CPU are spinning smoothly or not, if not then make your PC free of dust and clean air vents and also check isn’t any wire or cable blocking the fan.
  • Make sure all the fans of CPU should work properly. When the PC off Spray compressed moisture-free air into the vents to remove dust.
  • After all still facing the same problem then take it to professional, other than overheating it may be the driver fault so keep updating your drivers.

Computershopper: Best Place for Laptop Review and Buying Guide

Computershopper: Best Place for Laptop Review and Buying Guide It’s really difficult to find  laptop as per our requirement and it’s even harder to find the place form where we can purchase the laptops. As I live in India and here laptops are costlier then other parts of the world.  Some days back Ajay has written a very good post about “Laptop buying guide”, but he has not covered any thing about from where we can purchase the laptop and other gadgets.

After searching a lot over the Internet I found Computershopper and Dell impressions 1525 is the laptop that I was looking for it. Dell laptops are best suited for my requirements because  they are chipper then other laptop provider so i prefer dell computer over other vendors. I found that Computershopper is the Website that will fulfill the requirement of most of the Laptop and gadget buyers.

Computershopper is not the Website, just about the computer products but here I found some really good reviews on Laptops and other gadgets. These reviews are not paid reviews they are critical reviews about the products and these reviews will help you to get the best value of your money. Like PC World here we also have the editor’s review and editor’s choice of product.

There are a number of brands available in the market and these brands makes life even tougher for us to select the best product for our choice here I found the Computershopper offers a good amount of useful information like how to buy products, complete buying guide and most importantly we get latest news about newly launched products including  Desktops, Laptops, cell phones, graphics cards, printers, networking, LCD monitors, hard drives , software, Digital Cameras & camcorders, mp3 players, HDTV & Home Theater, LCD Monitors .

Computershopper also has a very good blog and discussion forum. Blogs will give us latest news and reviews about the products, their prices and buying guide. If you are not satisfied with the Computershopper reviews and their guides then we can discuss our queries in their discussion forum.

Overall on the scale of 10 I will give 8.5 to Computershopper. If you are planning to buy a laptop or any gadget then before going to any other Website first check Computershopper.

A to Z Computer Algorithms and Data Structures Definition

Adaptive Sort: A sorting algorithm that can take advantage of existing order in the input, reducing its requirements for computational resources as a function of the disorder in the input.

Backtracking: Backtracking is a type of algorithm that is a refinement of brute force search. In backtracking, multiple solutions can be eliminated without being explicitly examined, by using specific properties of the problem.

Clique : A clique in a graph is a set of pairwise adjacent vertices, or in other words, an induced subgraph which is a complete graph. In the graph at the right, vertices 1, 2 and 5 form a clique, because each has an edge to all the others.

Deterministic Algorithm: Deterministic algorithm is an algorithm which, in informal terms, behaves predictably. Given a particular input, it will always produce the same output, and the underlying machine will always pass through the same sequence of states. Deterministic algorithms are by far the most studied and familiar kind of algorithm, as well as one of the most practical, since they can be run on real machines efficiently.

Edge Coloring: edge coloring is one type of the graph coloring problem. A coloring of a graph’s edges assigns a “color” to each edge of the graph. The objective is to color the graph’s edges so that no vertex has two edges leaving it that have the same “color” and to use as few colors as possible. For example, the figure to the side shows a proper edge coloring, where no two edges out of the same vertex share the same color. In this example, the graph required three different colors, and could not be colored properly in any fewer.

Finite State Machine: A finite state machine (FSM) or finite state automaton (plural: automata) or simply a state machine, is a model of behavior composed of a finite number of states, transitions between those states, and actions. A finite state machine is an abstract model of a machine with a primitive internal memory.

Greedy Algorithms: Greedy algorithms are simple and straightforward. They are shortsighted in their approach in the sense that they take decisions on the basis of information at hand without worrying about the effect these decisions may have in the future. They are easy to invent, easy to implement and most of the time quite efficient. Many problems cannot be solved correctly by greedy approach. Greedy algorithms are used to solve optimization problems.

Heap : A heap is a specialized tree-based data structure that satisfies the heap property: if B is a child node of A, then key(A) ? key(B). This implies that an element with the greatest key is always in the root node, and so such a heap is sometimes called a max heap. (Alternatively, if the comparison is reversed, the smallest element is always in the root node, which results in a min heap.)

Independent Set: an independent set or stable set is a set of vertices in a graph no two of which are adjacent. That is, it is a set V of vertices such that for every two vertices in V, there is no edge connecting the two. Equivalently, each edge in the graph has at most one endpoint in V. The size of an independent set is the number of vertices it contains.

Johnson’s Algorithm: Johnson’s algorithm is a way to find shortest paths between all pairs of vertices in a sparse directed graph. It allows some of the edge weights to be negative numbers, but no negative-weight cycles may exist.

Karnaugh Map: Karnaugh map, also known as a Veitch diagram (KV-map or K-map for short), is a tool to facilitate the simplification of Boolean algebra IC expressions. The Karnaugh map reduces the need for extensive calculations by taking advantage of human pattern-recognition and permitting the rapid identification and elimination of potential race hazards.

Linear probing: Linear probing is a scheme in computer programming for resolving hash collisions of values of hash functions by sequentially searching the hash table for a free location. This is accomplished using two values - one as a starting value and one as an interval between successive values in modular arithmetic. The second value, which is the same for all keys and known as the stepsize, is repeatedly added to the starting value until a free space is found, or the entire table is traversed.

Master Theorem: Master theorem, which is a specific case of the Akra-Bazzi theorem, provides a cookbook solution in asymptotic terms for recurrence relations of types that occur in practice. It was popularized by the canonical algorithms textbook Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, which introduces and proves it in sections 4.3 and 4.4, respectively. Nevertheless, not all recurrence relations can be solved with the use of the master theorem.

Non-Deterministic Algorithm: A non-deterministic algorithm is an algorithm with one or more choice points where multiple different continuations are possible, without any specification of which one will be taken.

Open Addressing: Open addressing, or closed hashing, is a method of collision resolution in hash tables. With this method a hash collision is resolved by probing, or searching through alternate locations in the array (the probe sequence) until either the target record is found, or an unused array slot is found, which indicates that there is no such key in the table. [1] Well known probe sequences include:

Polynomial Time: polynomial time refers to the computation time of a problem where the run time, m(n), is no greater than a polynomial function of the problem size, n. Written mathematically using big O notation, this states that m(n) = O(nk) where k is some constant that may depend on the problem. For example, the quicksort sorting algorithm on n integers performs at most An2 operations for some constant A. Thus it runs in time O(n2) and is a polynomial time algorithm.

Quadtree : A quadtree is a tree data structure in which each internal node has up to four children. Quadtrees are most often used to partition a two dimensional space by recursively subdividing it into four quadrants or regions. The regions may be square or rectangular, or may have arbitrary shapes. This data structure was named a quadtree by Raphael Finkel and J.L. Bentley in 1974.

Recursive Tree: A recursive tree is a non-planar labeled rooted tree. A size-n recursive tree is labeled by distinct integers 1, 2, …, n, where the labels are strictly increasing starting at the root labeled 1. Recursive trees are non-planar, which means that the children of a particular node are not ordered.

Simulated annealing: Simulated annealing (SA) is a generic probabilistic meta-algorithm for the global optimization problem, namely locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete (e.g., all tours that visit a given set of cities). For certain problems, simulated annealing may be more effective than exhaustive enumeration — provided that the goal is merely to find an acceptably good solution in a fixed amount of time, rather than the best possible solution.

Traveling Salesman Problem : The traveling salesman problem (TSP) in operations research is a problem in discrete or combinatorial optimization. It is a prominent illustration of a class of problems in computational complexity theory which are classified as NP-hard. The problem is given a number of cities and the costs of traveling from any city to any other city, what is the least-cost round-trip route that visits each city exactly once and then returns to the starting city?

Undecidable Problem : An undecidable problem is a problem whose language is not a recursive set. More informally, such problems cannot be solved in general by computers; see decidability.

Venn Diagram: Venn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams, that show the logical relations of classes, a collection of sets (groups of things). Venn diagrams are invented around 1880 by John Venn, and nowadays used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.

weighted Graph: A weighted graph associates a label (weight) with every edge in the graph. Weights are usually real numbers. They may be restricted to rational numbers or integers. Certain algorithms require further restrictions on weights, for instance, the Dijkstra algorithm works properly only for positive weights.

XOR: The logical operation exclusive disjunction, also called exclusive or (symbolized XOR or EOR), is a type of logical disjunction on two operands that results in a value of “true” if and only if exactly one of the operands has a value of “true”.

Yule–Simon distribution: In probability and statistics, the Yule–Simon distribution is a discrete probability distribution named after Udny Yule and Herbert Simon. Simon originally called it the Yule distribution.

The probability mass function of the Yule–Simon (?) distribution is

0 A to Z Computer Algorithms and Data Structures Definition

for integer  and real ? > 0, where B is the beta function. Equivalently the pmf can be written in terms of the falling factorial as

1 A to Z Computer Algorithms and Data Structures Definition

where ? is the gamma function. Thus, if ? is an integer,

2 A to Z Computer Algorithms and Data Structures Definition

The probability mass function f has the property that for sufficiently large k we have

3 A to Z Computer Algorithms and Data Structures Definition

This means that the tail of the Yule–Simon distribution is a realization of

Zipf’s Law: f(k;?) can be used to model, for example, the relative frequency of the kth most frequent word in a large collection of text, which according to Zipf’s law is inversely proportional to a (typically small) power of k.

 

 

10 Computer Programming Definitions

Abstract data type (ADT)
Abstract data type (ADT) is a specification of a set of data and the set of operations that can be performed on the data. Such a data type is abstract in the sense that it is independent of various concrete implementations. The definition can be mathematical, or it can be programmed as an interface. A first class ADT supports the creation of multiple instances of the ADT, and the interface normally provides a constructor, which returns an abstract handle to new data, and several operations, which are functions accepting the abstract handle as an argument.

Block Diagram
A block diagram is a pictorial model of a process or system. They are heavily used in the engineering world in hardware design, software design, and process flow diagrams.The block diagram is typically used for a higher level, less detailed description aimed more at understanding the overall concepts and less at understanding the details of implementation. Contrast this with the schematic diagram and layout diagram used in the electrical engineering world, where the schematic diagram shows the details of each electrical component and the layout diagram shows the details of physical construction.

Code Access Security
Code Access Security (CAS), in the Microsoft .NET framework, is Microsoft’s solution to prevent untrusted code from performing privileged actions. When the CLR loads an assembly it will obtain evidence for the assembly and use this to identify the code group that the assembly belongs to. A code group contains a permission set (one or more permissions). Code that performs a privileged action will perform a code access demand which will cause the CLR to walk up the call stack and examine the permission set granted to the assembly of each method in the call stack. The code groups and permission sets are determined by the administrator of the machine who defines the security policy.

ECMAScript
ECMAScript is a scripting language, standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification. The language is widely used on the web, and is often erroneously referred to as JavaScript or JScript, after two major dialects of the specification.

Flowchart
A flowchart is a schematic representation of an algorithm or a process.A flowchart is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which also includes the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, and scatter diagram. They are commonly used in business/economic presentations to help the audience visualize the content better, or to find flaws in the process. Alternatively, one can use Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams.A flowchart is described as "cross-functional" when the page is divided into different "lanes" describing the control of different organizational units. A symbol appearing in a particular "lane" is within the control of that organizational unit. This technique allows the analyst to locate the responsibility for performing an action or making a decision correctly, allowing the relationship between different organizational units with responsibility over a single process.

Genetic programming
Genetic programming (GP) is an evolutionary algorithm based methodology inspired by biological evolution to find computer programs that perform a user-defined task. It is a specialization of genetic algorithms where each individual is a computer program. Therefore it is a machine learning technique used to optimize a population of computer programs according to a fitness landscape determined by a program’s ability to perform a given computational task.

Handwriting Recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning (optical character recognition). Alternatively, the movements of the pen tip may be sensed "on line", for example by a pen-based computer screen surface. Handwriting recognition principally entails optical character recognition. However, a complete handwriting recognition system also handles formatting, performs correct segmentation into characters and finds the most plausible words.

Image processing
Image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as photographs or frames of video; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image. Most image-processing techniques involve treating the image as a two-dimensional signal and applying standard signal-processing techniques to it.Image processing usually refers to digital image processing, but optical and analog image processing are also possible. This article is about general techniques that apply to all of them.

Java Enterprise Edition
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is a widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java EE Platform differs from the Standard Edition (SE) of Java in that it adds libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier Java software, based largely on modular components running on an application server.

Kernel
kernel is the central component of most computer operating systems (OS). Its responsibilities include managing the system’s resources (the communication between hardware and software components).As a basic component of an operating system, a kernel provides the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources (especially memory, processors and I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function. It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls.These tasks are done differently by different kernels, depending on their design and implementation. While monolithic kernels will try to achieve these goals by executing all the code in the same address space to increase the performance of the system, microkernels run most of their services in user space, aiming to improve maintainability and modularity of the codebase.A range of possibilities exists between these two extremes.

All definitions are taken from wikipedia

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