Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Comcast Threatens Net Neutrality - Again

Netflix Partner Says Comcast ‘Toll’ Threatens Online Video Delivery

9:45 p.m. | Updated


Level 3 Communications, a central partner in the Netflix online movie service, accused Comcast on Monday of charging a new fee that puts Internet video companies at a competitive disadvantage.


Level 3, which helps to deliver Netflix’s streaming movies, said Comcast had effectively erected a tollbooth that “threatens the open Internet,” and indicated that it would seek government intervention. Comcast quickly denied that the clash had anything to do with network neutrality, instead calling it “a simple commercial dispute.”


The dispute highlighted the growing importance of Internet video delivery — an area that some people say needs to be monitored more closely by regulators. Net neutrality, which posits that Internet traffic should be free of any interference from network operators like Comcast, is thought to be on the December agenda of the Federal Communications Commission.


“With this action, Comcast demonstrates the risk of a ‘closed’ Internet, where a retail broadband Internet access provider decides whether and how their subscribers interact with content,” Thomas C. Stortz, the chief legal officer for Level 3, said in a statement Monday.


Those issues cut to the heart of Comcast’s imminent acquisition of NBC Universal, which is in the final stages of review by the F.C.C. and the Justice Department. The F.C.C. is considering attaching a condition to the merger that would aim to keep Comcast’s Internet network open to competitors, according to public filings this month.


In theory, without government action, Comcast could speed up streams of NBC programs and slow down streams of its rivals’ programs. “This may be one of those teaching moments for consumers to understand what’s at stake,” said Michael McGuire, a media analyst for Gartner.


There is no known case of Comcast ever slowing the traffic to one of its direct competitors, but it did delay some peer-to-peer file traffic in a much-litigated case several years ago. Comcast says it supports an open Internet — but also says that it needs to be able to manage its expensive and still-evolving networks, which are essentially on- and off-ramps to the Internet.


Level 3 in essence operates a highway that connects to those ramps and handles traffic to and from individual Web sites. Comcast customers rely on the company’s on- and off-ramps from that highway. With nearly 17 million broadband Internet customers, Comcast is the nation’s largest such service provider.


The scuffle between the two started on Nov. 19, when Level 3 says Comcast demanded a recurring fee to “transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content.”


Three days later, under pressure from Comcast, “Level 3 agreed to the terms, under protest, in order to ensure customers did not experience any disruptions,” Mr. Stortz said.


Mr. Stortz did not cite Netflix in his statement. But just a week before Comcast’s demand, Level 3 announced a multiyear deal to support Netflix’s rapidly growing streaming service.


A recent study found that at peak times, Netflix represented 20 percent of Internet download traffic in the United States. That makes it a de facto competitor for incumbent distributors like Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which are eager to protect both the subscription television business and the emerging video-on-demand business.


Mr. Stortz implied that Comcast was taking the action to impair companies that compete with its own cable and Internet services.


A spokesman for Netflix declined to comment Monday. Netflix, which announced a new pricing structure last week, is gradually weaning its customers from DVDs by mail in favor of online streaming, making any new costs a serious concern.


Comcast on Monday rebuffed the notion that the new fees were related to Netflix by saying that the type of traffic distributed by Level 3 was irrelevant. Joe Waz, a senior vice president at Comcast, says it has had a peering agreement with Level 3 to swap traffic fairly evenly. Now Level 3 is sharply increasing its traffic, he said, while resisting a commercial agreement to pay for that.


Comcast is “already carrying huge amounts of video to our high-speed Internet customers every day through commercial arrangements, and it seems to be working for everybody else,” Mr. Waz said. “Level 3 is trying to change the rules of the game.”


If nothing else, the dispute demonstrates that consumers have little, if any, idea how convoluted it can be to transmit video to a computer or mobile phone.


Nonetheless, on Monday night, public interest groups that have steadfastly opposed the combination of Comcast and NBC Universal argued that the Level 3 case proved that Comcast would discriminate against competitors if it could.


“On its face, this is the sort of toll booth between residential subscribers and the content of their choice that a net neutrality rule is supposed to prohibit,” said Harold Feld, legal director of one such group, Public Knowledge, in a statement.


Mr. Stortz said Level 3 would be approaching government regulators this week and “asking them to take quick action to ensure that a fair, open and innovative Internet does not become a closed network controlled by a few institutions with dominant market power that have the means, motive and opportunity to economically discriminate between favored and disfavored content.”


Mr. McGuire, of Gartner, said, “There is no law here. There are only guiding principles. F.C.C. clarity on this kind of thing is going to be required.”

Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com
 

Monday, November 29, 2010

140 Google Interview Questions

140 Google Interview Questions | Seattle Interview Coach

Here's a list of 140 Google interview questions. Many of our clients have interviewed and received Google job offers. Contact us for a

free 15 minute interview analysis

before your Google interview.

Link to Google interview questions for:

  • Why do you want to join Google?
  • What do you know about Google's product and technology?
  • If you are Product Manager for Google's Adwords, how do you plan to market this?
  • What would you say during an AdWords or AdSense product seminar?
  • Who are Google's competitors, and how does Google compete with them?
  • Have you ever used Google's products? Gmail?
  • What's a creative way of marketing Google's brand name and product?
  • If you are the product marketing manager for Google's Gmail product, how do you plan to market it so as to achieve 100 million customers in 6 months?
  • How much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail ads?
  • Name a piece of technology you’ve read about recently. Now tell me your own creative execution for an ad for that product.
  • Say an advertiser makes $0.10 every time someone clicks on their ad. Only 20% of people who visit the site click on their ad. How many people need to visit the site for the advertiser to make $20?
  • Estimate the number of students who are college seniors, attend four-year schools, and graduate with a job in the United States every year.
  • How would you boost the GMail subscription base?
  • What is the most efficient way to sort a million integers?
  • How would you re-position Google's offerings to counteract competitive threats from Microsoft?
  • How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
  • You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
  • How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
  • How would you find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory?
  • Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
  • How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?
  • You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?
  • Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?
  • Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?
  • In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
  • If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?
  • If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)
  • Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it's only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slow poke takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?
  • You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?
  • How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
  • You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?
  • You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)
  • You are given 2 eggs. You have access to a 100-story building. Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100th floor. Both eggs are identical. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-story building an egg can be dropped without breaking. The question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process.
  • Describe a technical problem you had and how you solved it.
  • How would you design a simple search engine?
  • Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco.
  • There's a latency problem in South Africa. Diagnose it.
  • What are three long term challenges facing Google?
  • Name three non-Google websites that you visit often and like. What do you like about the user interface and design? Choose one of the three sites and comment on what new feature or project you would work on. How would you design it?
  • If there is only one elevator in the building, how would you change the design? How about if there are only two elevators in the building?
  • How many vacuum’s are made per year in USA?
  • Why are manhole covers round?
  • What is the difference between a mutex and a semaphore? Which one would you use to protect access to an increment operation?
  • A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?
  • Explain the significance of "dead beef".
  • Write a C program which measures the the speed of a context switch on a UNIX/Linux system.
  • Given a function which produces a random integer in the range 1 to 5, write a function which produces a random integer in the range 1 to 7.
  • Describe the algorithm for a depth-first graph traversal.
  • Design a class library for writing card games.
  • You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write a the question on a card which and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?
  • How are cookies passed in the HTTP protocol?
  • Design the SQL database tables for a car rental database.
  • Write a regular expression which matches a email address.
  • Write a function f(a, b) which takes two character string arguments and returns a string containing only the characters found in both strings in the order of a. Write a version which is order N-squared and one which is order N.
  • You are given a the source to a application which is crashing when run. After running it 10 times in a debugger, you find it never crashes in the same place. The application is single threaded, and uses only the C standard library. What programming errors could be causing this crash? How would you test each one?
  • Explain how congestion control works in the TCP protocol.
  • In Java, what is the difference between final, finally, and finalize?
  • What is multithreaded programming? What is a deadlock?
  • Write a function (with helper functions if needed) called to Excel that takes an excel column value (A,B,C,D…AA,AB,AC,… AAA..) and returns a corresponding integer value (A=1,B=2,… AA=26..).
  • You have a stream of infinite queries (ie: real time Google search queries that people are entering). Describe how you would go about finding a good estimate of 1000 samples from this never ending set of data and then write code for it.
  • Tree search algorithms. Write BFS and DFS code, explain run time and space requirements. Modify the code to handle trees with weighted edges and loops with BFS and DFS, make the code print out path to goal state.
  • You are given a list of numbers. When you reach the end of the list you will come back to the beginning of the list (a circular list). Write the most efficient algorithm to find the minimum # in this list. Find any given # in the list. The numbers in the list are always increasing but you don’t know where the circular list begins, ie: 38, 40, 55, 89, 6, 13, 20, 23, 36.
  • Describe the data structure that is used to manage memory. (stack)
  • What's the difference between local and global variables?
  • If you have 1 million integers, how would you sort them efficiently? (modify a specific sorting algorithm to solve this)
  • In Java, what is the difference between static, final, and const. (if you don't know Java they will ask something similar for C or C++).
  • Talk about your class projects or work projects (pick something easy)… then describe how you could make them more efficient (in terms of algorithms).
  • Suppose you have an NxN matrix of positive and negative integers. Write some code that finds the sub-matrix with the maximum sum of its elements.
  • Write some code to reverse a string.
  • Implement division (without using the divide operator, obviously).
  • Write some code to find all permutations of the letters in a particular string.
  • What method would you use to look up a word in a dictionary?
  • Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?
  • You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you fine the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?
  • What is the C-language command for opening a connection with a foreign host over the internet?
  • Design and describe a system/application that will most efficiently produce a report of the top 1 million Google search requests. These are the particulars: 1) You are given 12 servers to work with. They are all dual-processor machines with 4Gb of RAM, 4x400GB hard drives and networked together.(Basically, nothing more than high-end PC’s) 2) The log data has already been cleaned for you. It consists of 100 Billion log lines, broken down into 12 320 GB files of 40-byte search terms per line. 3) You can use only custom written applications or available free open-source software.
  • There is an array A[N] of N numbers. You have to compose an array Output[N] such that Output[i] will be equal to multiplication of all the elements of A[N] except A[i]. For example Output[0] will be multiplication of A[1] to A[N-1] and Output[1] will be multiplication of A[0] and from A[2] to A[N-1]. Solve it without division operator and in O(n).
  • There is a linked list of numbers of length N. N is very large and you don’t know N. You have to write a function that will return k random numbers from the list. Numbers should be completely random. Hint: 1. Use random function rand() (returns a number between 0 and 1) and irand() (return either 0 or 1) 2. It should be done in O(n).
  • Find or determine non existence of a number in a sorted list of N numbers where the numbers range over M, M>> N and N large enough to span multiple disks. Algorithm to beat O(log n) bonus points for constant time algorithm.
  • You are given a game of Tic Tac Toe. You have to write a function in which you pass the whole game and name of a player. The function will return whether the player has won the game or not. First you to decide which data structure you will use for the game. You need to tell the algorithm first and then need to write the code. Note: Some position may be blank in the game। So your data structure should consider this condition also.
  • You are given an array [a1 To an] and we have to construct another array [b1 To bn] where bi = a1*a2*...*an/ai. you are allowed to use only constant space and the time complexity is O(n). No divisions are allowed.
  • How do you put a Binary Search Tree in an array in a efficient manner. Hint :: If the node is stored at the ith position and its children are at 2i and 2i+1(I mean level order wise)Its not the most efficient way.
  • How do you find out the fifth maximum element in an Binary Search Tree in efficient manner. Note: You should not use use any extra space. i.e sorting Binary Search Tree and storing the results in an array and listing out the fifth element.
  • Given a Data Structure having first n integers and next n chars. A = i1 i2 i3 ... iN c1 c2 c3 ... cN.Write an in-place algorithm to rearrange the elements of the array ass A = i1 c1 i2 c2 ... in cn
  • Given two sequences of items, find the items whose absolute number increases or decreases the most when comparing one sequence with the other by reading the sequence only once.
  • Given That One of the strings is very very long , and the other one could be of various sizes. Windowing will result in O(N+M) solution but could it be better? May be NlogM or even better?
  • How many lines can be drawn in a 2D plane such that they are equidistant from 3 non-collinear points?
  • Let's say you have to construct Google maps from scratch and guide a person standing on Gateway of India (Mumbai) to India Gate(Delhi). How do you do the same?
  • Given that you have one string of length N and M small strings of length L. How do you efficiently find the occurrence of each small string in the larger one?
  • Given a binary tree, programmatically you need to prove it is a binary search tree.
  • You are given a small sorted list of numbers, and a very very long sorted list of numbers - so long that it had to be put on a disk in different blocks. How would you find those short list numbers in the bigger one?
  • Suppose you have given N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are theres to merge?
  • Given a file of 4 billion 32-bit integers, how to find one that appears at least twice?
  • Write a program for displaying the ten most frequent words in a file such that your program should be efficient in all complexity measures.
  • Design a stack. We want to push, pop, and also, retrieve the minimum element in constant time.
  • Given a set of coin denominators, find the minimum number of coins to give a certain amount of change.
  • Given an array, i) find the longest continuous increasing subsequence. ii) find the longest increasing subsequence.
  • Suppose we have N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are there to merge?
  • Write a function to find the middle node of a single link list.
  • Given two binary trees, write a compare function to check if they are equal or not. Being equal means that they have the same value and same structure.
  • Implement put/get methods of a fixed size cache with LRU replacement algorithm.
  • You are given with three sorted arrays ( in ascending order), you are required to find a triplet ( one element from each array) such that distance is minimum.
  • Distance is defined like this : If a[i], b[j] and c[k] are three elements then distance=max(abs(a[i]-b[j]),abs(a[i]-c[k]),abs(b[j]-c[k]))" Please give a solution in O(n) time complexity
  • How does C++ deal with constructors and deconstructors of a class and its child class?
  • Write a function that flips the bits inside a byte (either in C++ or Java). Write an algorithm that take a list of n words, and an integer m, and retrieves the mth most frequent word in that list.
  • What's 2 to the power of 64?
  • Given that you have one string of length N and M small strings of length L. How do you efficiently find the occurrence of each small string in the larger one?
  • How do you find out the fifth maximum element in an Binary Search Tree in efficient manner.
  • Suppose we have N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are there to merge?
  • There is linked list of millions of node and you do not know the length of it. Write a function which will return a random number from the list.
  • You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write a the question on a card which and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?
  • How long it would take to sort 1 trillion numbers? Come up with a good estimate.
  • Order the functions in order of their asymptotic performance: 1) 2^n 2) n^100 3) n! 4) n^n
  • There are some data represented by(x,y,z). Now we want to find the Kth least data. We say (x1, y1, z1) > (x2, y2, z2) when value(x1, y1, z1) > value(x2, y2, z2) where value(x,y,z) = (2^x)*(3^y)*(5^z). Now we can not get it by calculating value(x,y,z) or through other indirect calculations as lg(value(x,y,z)). How to solve it?
  • How many degrees are there in the angle between the hour and minute hands of a clock when the time is a quarter past three?
  • Given an array whose elements are sorted, return the index of a the first occurrence of a specific integer. Do this in sub-linear time. I.e. do not just go through each element searching for that element.
  • Given two linked lists, return the intersection of the two lists: i.e. return a list containing only the elements that occur in both of the input lists.
  • What's the difference between a hashtable and a hashmap?
  • If a person dials a sequence of numbers on the telephone, what possible words/strings can be formed from the letters associated with those numbers?
  • How would you reverse the image on an n by n matrix where each pixel is represented by a bit?
  • Create a fast cached storage mechanism that, given a limitation on the amount of cache memory, will ensure that only the least recently used items are discarded when the cache memory is reached when inserting a new item. It supports 2 functions: String get(T t) and void put(String k, T t).
  • Create a cost model that allows Google to make purchasing decisions on to compare the cost of purchasing more RAM memory for their servers vs. buying more disk space.
  • Design an algorithm to play a game of Frogger and then code the solution. The object of the game is to direct a frog to avoid cars while crossing a busy road. You may represent a road lane via an array. Generalize the solution for an N-lane road.
  • What sort would you use if you had a large data set on disk and a small amount of ram to work with?
  • What sort would you use if you required tight max time bounds and wanted highly regular performance.
  • How would you store 1 million phone numbers?
  • Design a 2D dungeon crawling game. It must allow for various items in the maze - walls, objects, and computer-controlled characters. (The focus was on the class structures, and how to optimize the experience for the user as s/he travels through the dungeon.)
  • What is the size of the C structure below on a 32-bit system? On a 64-bit?

struct foo {

char a;

char* b;

};

  • Efficiently implement 3 stacks in a single array.
  • Given an array of integers which is circularly sorted, how do you find a given integer.
  • Write a program to find depth of binary search tree without using recursion.
  • Find the maximum rectangle (in terms of area) under a histogram in linear time.
  • Most phones now have full keyboards. Before there there three letters mapped to a number button. Describe how you would go about implementing spelling and word suggestions as people type.
  • Describe recursive mergesort and its runtime. Write an iterative version in C++/Java/Python.
  • How would you determine if someone has won a game of tic-tac-toe on a board of any size?
  • Given an array of numbers, replace each number with the product of all the numbers in the array except the number itself *without* using division.
  • Create a cache with fast look up that only stores the N most recently accessed items.
  • How to design a search engine? If each document contains a set of keywords, and is associated with a numeric attribute, how to build indices?
  • Given two files that has list of words (one per line), write a program to show the intersection.
  • What kind of data structure would you use to index annagrams of words? e.g. if there exists the word "top" in the database, the query for "pot" should list that.
  • What is the yearly standard deviation of a stock given the monthly standard deviation?
  • How many resumes does Google receive each year for software engineering?
  • Anywhere in the world, where would you open up a new Google office and how would you figure out compensation for all the employees at this new office?
  • What is the probability of breaking a stick into 3 pieces and forming a triangle?
  • You're the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?
  • How would you work with an advertiser who was not seeing the benefits of the AdWords relationship due to poor conversions?
  • How would you deal with an angry or frustrated advertisers on the phone?

Sources

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=266663

http://tihomir.org/crazy-questions-at-google-job-interview/

http://www.drizzle.com/~jpaint/google.html

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=299692

http://careers.cse.sc.edu/googleinterview

http://job-interview.blogspot.com/2005/02/google-interview-product-marketing.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/05/google_interview_tales/

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/29/technology/brain_teasers.biz2/index.htm

http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/ITProfessionals/EthicsIT/google-interview-questions

http://placementsindia.blogspot.com/2007/09/google-top-interview-puzzles.html

http://linkmingle.com/user/interview_questions/google_interview_questions

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?interview.11.626758.33

http://mindcipher.com/puzzle/78-clock-works

http://www.glassdoor.com

http://bluepixel.ca/blog/?p=69

http://www.businessinsider.com/my-nightmare-interviews-with-google-2009-11

Read more at blog.seattleinterviewcoach.com
 

Friday, November 26, 2010

20 Sites for FREE Website Templates

Amplify’d from creativefan.com

Top 20 Sites to Download Free Website Templates


November 26th, 2010 Posted in Freebies by Amy Hall






Do you like freebies as much as I do? Then read on and you’ll learn where to find free website templates that any designer, webmaster and blogger would be proud to have.


Well, here is a showcase of websites that offer free web templates. Just in case you don’t know, a website template is a web design that allows you to build a website or a blog. Besides, website templates are easy to edit and customize. Don’t you agree it takes less time and efforts to replace the default content with a custom one than create a brand new design?


As for the free website templates, you can download them right away. Thus, you can have your website up and running in a matter of hours and you won’t have to pay for the design. Now you know what free website templates are and it’s time to visit the top websites offering this kind of freebies.


If you need more free stuff, check out these other posts:



Enjoy!




Website Templates Online



My Templatez



Free CSS Template



Free-CSS-Templates



Nuvio Templates



Best Free Templates



Just Free Templates



Free CSS Templates



Open Designs



TemplateMo



Free Templates Direct



Open Source Templates



Template Holder



Dcarter



Templates Perfect



OHEON



ZYMIC



Rambling Soul



Free Designer Templates



Templates Rain








Read more at creativefan.com
 

Thursday, November 25, 2010

50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For - 2010

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For





50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For As we prepare to give thanks for our delicious Thanksgiving meals (and impending food comas), let's not forget to pay tribute to the wonderful developers who bring us our favorite free apps.




Earlier this week we asked you to share the free apps you're most thankful for, and you came through with thousands of votes for apps covering the desktop, mobile phone, and devices in between. With a little spreadsheet magic and a few choices of our own, we bring you the top 50 free apps we're all most thankful for. Whether you're celebrating the holiday or not, it's a great list of free software that ought to make for some gluttonous downloading. The popular apps are some of the more obvious, however, so be sure to look further down the list for new free software you may not yet know about. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!


The 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For




  1. Dropbox


    See also: Dropbox Syncs and Backs Up Files Between Computers Instantaneously, The Cleverest Ways to Use Dropbox That You're Not Using, and Create a Highly Organized, Synchronized Home Folder with Dropbox




  2. VLC (Video Lan Client)


    See also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, Set a Video as Your Wallpaper with VLC, and VLC 1.0 Records Video from DVDs




  3. Google Chrome


    See also: The Power User's Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition, Create Your Own Google Chrome Themes, How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions




  4. Firefox


    See also: Power User's Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions




  5. Opera


    See also: Opera 11 Beta Introduces Tab Stacking for Customized Grouping, Opera 11 Alpha Brings Chrome-Like Extensions to the Speedy Browser, and Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions




  6. Google Apps


    See also: Trick Out Google Apps for Your Domain, Seven Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google AppsCollaborate with Co-Workers Using Google Apps Team Edition, A First Look at Google Voice,Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks, and Turn Gmail Into Your Ultimate GTD Inbox




  7. Simplenote and Notational Velocity


    See also: The Holy Grail of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture, Simplenote Offers Synchronized Notes on iPhones-And Now It's Free, and mNote Syncs Your Simplenote Notes with Android Phones




  8. CCleaner


    See also: CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC, Run CCleaner on a Schedule to Keep Your PC Crap-Free, and CCleaner Enhancer Makes CCleaner Even Better, Now Cleans 270 New Apps




  9. uTorrent


    See also: uTorrent 3.0 Alpha Adds Web Interface Support for iPad, Android and How to Boost Your BitTorrent Speed and Privacy




  10. Transmission


    See also: Manage Your BitTorrent Downloads with Transmission and Transmission 2.0 Adds a Whole Lot of Stability to the Popular BitTorrent Client




  11. sabnzbd+


    See also: How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps




  12. Open Office


    See also: A First Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0, OpenOffice.org 3.2 Improves Startup Times, Office 2007 Compatibility, and OpenOffice.org 3.1's Usability Tweaks




  13. Skype


    See also: our full Skype coverage




  14. Evernote


    See also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote and Clever Uses for Evernote




  15. GIMP


    See also: Is GIMP better than Photoshop?, Tweak GIMP to be More Like Photoshop, and Cartoonify Photos with the GIMP




  16. KeePass


    See also: Best Password Manager: KeePass and Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords




  17. LastPass


    See also: The Intermediate Guide to Mastering Passwords with LastPas




  18. 7zip


    See also: Hive Five Winner for Best File Compression Tool: 7-Zip




  19. ImgBurn


    See also: Download of the Day: ImgBurn (Windows), Hive Five Winner for Best CD and DVD Burning Tool: ImgBurn, and Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster




  20. Microsoft Security Essentials


    See also: Microsoft Security Essentials Ranks as Best-Performing Free Antivirus and Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough




  21. AutoHotkey


    See also: Automate Windows with AutoHotkey, Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, and The Best Time-Saving AutoHotkey Tricks You Should Be Using




  22. Pandora


    See also: Best Music Discovery Service: Pandora, Discover new music with Pandora, and How to access Pandora from outside the U.S.




  23. FileZilla


    See also: Hive Five Winner for Best FTP Client: FileZilla, FTP File Transfer Across Platforms with Filezilla 3.0, and Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla




  24. TrueCrypt


    See also: Best File Encryption Tool: TrueCrypt and Geek to Live: Encrypt your data




  25. Handbrake


    See also: Best DVD-Ripping Tool: Handbrake, Rip DVDs to Friendlier Formats with HandBrake, and Calculate the Perfect Handbrake Video Encoding Settings for Your Device




  26. VirtualBox


    See also: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox and How to Run Mac OS X in VirtualBox on Windows




  27. Audacity


    See also: Digitize and Clean Your Analog Audio Collection with Audacity, Learn how to use Audacity for podcasting, and Remove Vocals from MP3s with Audacity




  28. Paint.NET


    See also: Download of the Day: Paint.NET 3 (Windows), Pinta Brings Paint.NET's Just-Enough Image Editing to Every Computer, and Basic image editing with Paint.NET




  29. iTunes


    See also: Geek to Live: iTunes power tips, Install iTunes Without the Extra Bloat, The 23 Best iTunes Add-ons, and our full iTunes coverage




  30. Thunderbird


    See also: our full Thunderbird coverage and Backing up Gmail with Thunderbird




  31. Foobar2000


    See also: Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000 and Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000




  32. Pidgin


    See also: Chat Across IM Platforms with Pidgin 2.4, Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, and Use Dropbox to Sync Your Pidgin Profile Across Multiple PCs




  33. Adium


    See also: our full Adium coverage




  34. avast!


    See also: Avast Free Antivirus 5.0 Adds Behavior Monitor, Heuristics Engine, and Improved Performance and Free anti-virus roundup




  35. TeamViewer


    See also: Download of the Day: TeamViewer (Windows) and TeamViewer Arrives on Android for Small-Screen Remote Control and Tech Support




  36. TweetDeck


    See also: Best Twitter Client: TweetDeck, TweetDeck Offers Features Twitter Lacks, and Use Evernote with TweetDeck for Better Twitter Memory




  37. Launchy


    See also: Integrate Everything Search Tool and Launchy, Take Launchy beyond application launching, and Screenshot Tour: Tweaking Launchy




  38. Quicksilver


    See also: Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver and Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins




  39. Instapaper


    See also: Battle of the Bookmark-and-Read-Later Apps: Instapaper vs. Read It Later




  40. ReadItLater


    See also: Battle of the Bookmark-and-Read-Later Apps: Instapaper vs. Read It Later




  41. XBMC


    See also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation, Transform Your Classic Xbox into a Killer Media Center, and Turn Your XBMC Media Center into a Video Game Console




  42. PuTTY


    See also: Put PuTTY in the Tray with PuTTY Tray, Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager, and KiTTY Adds Session Saving, Portability, and More to PuTTY




  43. Cyberduck


    See also: FTP for Free with Cyberduck and Cyberduck FTP Client Updates with Google Docs Support, New S3 Features




  44. Perian


    See also: Perian Makes Nearly Every Video Playable in QuickTime




  45. XAMPP


    See also: Run Your Personal Wikipedia from a USB Stick




  46. Windows Live Essentials


    See also: First Look at Windows Live Essentials Beta's New Social Features and Lifehacker Faceoff: iLife '11 vs. Live Essentials 2011




  47. Winamp


    See also: Manage your music with Winamp and Control Winamp Remotely from Any Browser




  48. TeraCopy


    See also: Speed up file copying with TeraCopy and Hive Five Winner for Best Alternative File Copier: TeraCopy




  49. Eclipse


    See also: Tips for Using Eclipse Effectively




  50. MediaMonkey


    See also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching

Read more at lifehacker.com
 

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Use Policy to Distribute Certificates

Amplify’d from technet.microsoft.com
Use Policy to Distribute Certificates

Certificates are important credentials. Administrators may not want to let users decide which certificates to trust and which not to trust. Often the decision to trust or not trust a particular certificate should be made by an administrator or individual who is knowledgeable about the particular certificate and its trust implications for the organization.

You can use Group Policy to distribute the following types of certificates to clients.
































Type of certificate

Description

Trusted Root Certification Authorities



Implicitly trusted certification authorities (CAs). Includes all of the certificates in the Third-Party Root Certification Authorities store plus root certificates from your own organization and Microsoft.



Enterprise Trust






A certificate trust list provides a mechanism for trusting self-signed root certificates from other organizations and limiting the purposes for which these certificates are trusted.



Intermediate Certification Authorities






Certificates issued to subordinate CAs.



Trusted Publishers






Certificates from CAs that are trusted.



Untrusted Certificates






Certificates that you have explicitly decided not to trust because they are no longer valid for their intended purpose or because they are from a source that domain clients should not trust.



Trusted People



Certificates issued to people or end entities that are explicitly trusted. Most often these are self-signed certificates or certificates explicitly trusted in an application such as Microsoft Outlook.



Membership in Domain Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. For more information, see Implement Role-Based Administration.



To add certificates to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store for a domain



  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Group Policy Management.




  2. In the console tree, double-click Group Policy Objects in the forest and domain containing the Default Domain Policy Group Policy object (GPO) that you want to edit.




  3. Right-click the Default Domain Policy GPO, and then click Edit.




  4. In the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), go to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, and then click Public Key Policies.




  5. Right-click the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.




  6. Click Import and follow the steps in the Certificate Import Wizard to import the certificates.





Read more at technet.microsoft.com
 

Configuring the Certificate Authority on a Domain

Amplify’d from shahrier.blogspot.com

How to Generate a Certificate from an Internal CA






Configuring the Certificate Authority

Note:

In order to add the Certificate Service Web Enrollment component (subcomponent to CA), which we’re going to use in this article, the server needs to be running IIS, so if you haven’t already done so, install IIS before continuing with this article.

To install the CA component, do the following:

  • Click Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
  • Select Add/Remove Windows Components
  • Put a checkmark in Certificate Services

Below screen will popup as a warning, just click Yes > then Next

We now have to select what type of CA to use, choose Enterprise root CA and click Next

In the following screen we have to fill out the Common name for our CA, which in this article is mail.testdomain.com.

Leave the other fields untouched and click Next >

We now have the option of specifying an alternate location for the certificate database, database log, and configuration information. In this article we will use the defaults, which in most cases should be just fine.

Now click Next >

The Certificate Service component will be installed, when it’s completed, click Finish

Creating the Certificate Request

Now that we have installed the Certificate Services component, it’s time to create the Certificate Request for our Default Website. We should therefore do the following:

  • Click Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
  • Expand Websites > Right-click Default Website then select Properties
  • Now hit the Directory Security tab
  • Under Secure Communications click Server Certificate…

As we’re going to create a new certificate, leave the first option selected and click Next >

Because we’re using our own CA, select Prepare the request now, but send it later, then click Next >

Type a descriptive name for the Certificate and click Next >

We now need to enter our organization name and the organizational unit (which should be pretty self-explanatory), then click Next >

In the next screen we need to pay extra attention, as the common name reflects the external FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name), to spell it out, this is the address external users have to type in their browsers in order to access OWA from the Internet.

Note: As many (especially small to midsized) companies don’t publish their Exchange servers directly to the Internet, but instead runs the Exchange server on a private IP address, they let their ISP’s handle their external DNS settings. In most cases the ISP creates a so called A record named mail.domain.com pointing to the company’s public IP address, which then forwards the appropriate port (443) to the Exchange servers internal IP address.

When your have entered a Common Name click Next >

Now it’s time to specify the Country/Region, State/Province and City/locality, this shouldn’t need any further explanation, when you have filled out each field, click Next >

In the below screen we have to enter the name of the certificate request we’re creating, the default is just fine, click Next >

In this screen we can see all the information we filled in during the previous IIS Certificate Wizard screens, if you should have made a mistake, this is your last chance to correct it. If everything looks fine click Next >

And finally we can click Finish.


Getting the Pending Request accepted by our Certificate Authority

Now that we have a pending Certificate Request, we need to have it accepted by our CA, which is done the following way:

  • On the server open Internet Explorer
  • Type http://server/certsrv

Note: In order to access the Certsvr virtual folder, you may be prompted to enter a valid username/password, if this is the case use the Administrator account. When you have been validated the Windows 2003 Server will most probably block the content of the CertSrv virtual folder, which means you wil have to add it to your trusted sites in order to continue.

Now that you’re welcomed by the Certificate Services, select Request a Certificate

Click advanced certificate request

Under Advanced Certificate Request click Submit a certificate request by using a base-64-encoded CMC or PKCS #10 file, or submit a renewal request by using a base-64-encoded PKCS #7 file

Now we need to insert the content of the certreq.txt file we created earlier, you can do this by clicking the Browse for a file to insert or by opening the certreq.txt file in notepad, then copy/paste the content as shown in the screen below, then click Submit >

Now select Base 64 encoded then click Download certificate

Click Save

Choose to save the certnew.cer on the C: drive > then click Save

Close the Microsoft Certificate Services IE window.

Appending the Certificate to the Default Website

Okay it’s time to append the approved Certificate to our Default Website, to accomplish this we need to do the following:

  • Click Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
  • Expand Websites > Right-click Default Website then select Properties
  • Now select the Directory Security tab
  • Under Secure Communications click Server Certificate… > then Next

Select Process the pending request and install the certificate > click Next >

Unless you have any specific requirements to what port SSL should run at, leave the default (443) untouched, then click Next >

You will now see a summary of the Certificate, again if you should have made any mistakes during the previous wizard screens, this is the final chance to correct them, otherwise just click Next >

The Certificate has now been successfully installed and you can click Finish

Enabling SSL on the Default Website

We have now appended the Certificate to our Default Website, but before the data transmitted between the clients and the server is encrypted, we need to click the Edit… button under Secure Communications.

Here we should put a checkmark in Require Secure Channel (SSL) and Require 128-bit encryption just like below:

Now click OK.

Testing our SSL enabled Default Website

Now that we have gone through all the configuration steps necessary to enable SSL on our Default Website, it’s time to test if our configuration actually works.

From the server (or a client) open Internet Explorer, then type:

http://exchange_server/exchange

You should get a screen similar to the one shown below:

This is absolutely fine, as we shouldn’t be allowed to access the Default Website (and any virtual folders below) through an unsecure connection. Instead we should make a secure connetion which is done by typing https, therefore type below URL instead:

https://exchange_server/exchange

The following box should appear:

Note: You may have noticed the yellow warning sign, this informs us The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match the name of the site. Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with this, the reason why it appears is because we aren’t accessing OWA through the common name, which we specified when the certificate was created. When you access OWA from an external client through mail.testdomain.com/exchange, this warning will disappear.

Click Yes

You will now be prompted for a valid username/password in order to enter your mailbox, for testing purposes just use the administrator account, like shown below:

Now click OK

We should now see the Administrator mailbox.

Notice the yellow padlock in the lower right corner, a locked padlock indicates a secure connection, which means OWA now uses SSL.

Read more at shahrier.blogspot.com