Protect Your Information from a Data Breach

If your company has been the victim of a data breach you know how frustrating and time consuming such an event can be. In addition to having to rebuild your databases and inform customers about the issues, there is also a monetary cost associated with replacing and reinforcing lost or stolen records. There are many commonalities that exist in data breaches that will help you anticipate and prevent any such attacks from occurring in your system. Over half of data breaches compromise the servers in a company’s infrastructure and nearly 80 percent happen when there are low security barriers. Lessons can be learned from some of the more extensive breaches in recent history so that you can protect your valuable information moving forward. For example, a cyber-security attack on Central Hudson Gas & Electric in New York impacted around 110,000 customers. Take a look at the infographic below to learn more about the nature of data breaches.

Written by IT Creations, a company an independent wholesale distributor of high-end servers and components in Los Angeles.

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Get a custom URL for your Google+ profile

Today I got a email from Google+ as given in the email I am eligible to get a custom URL for my Google+ profile. I'm not sure if you're eligible! if you're eligible you will get a email from them Like I got., It's like facebook and twitter username but it has the + sign which makes the URL look great also we all have a long ID that has numbers so getting a custom URL would be really helpful for everyone.

There's link given in the email that takes you to get a custom URL you will get a the email with a username suggested automatically that depends on your Google+ name. Mine was +MohamedShimran I think It would suit me well :D.

Look here, you can change the custom URL they have suggested or else just go ahead with the suggested one:

 

In order to change the URL you must verify your phone number by entering the code sent by message:

 After confirming the verification code, you will get the custom URL replaced with your older one.

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Going Beyond Schools: Learning Management Systems For Individuals And Businesses

Learning management systems (LMSs) are being used in online education and integrated into blended learning environments more and more every day. In the education sector, the advantages of using an LMS are numerous and well known: they provide a centralized space for all of a course’s materials, resources, and activities; students can access the course materials at any time and using various devices; students can collaborate with each other, submit assignments, and receive feedback; instructors can track students’ progress and identify when additional support is needed; and so on.

In the past LMSs could cost $50,000 to $100,000 or more, which made using them cost-prohibitive for all but the largest and most well-funded universities and organizations. Now, however, that trend is changing. A host of new cloud-based LMS software packages are available, some free and others on a low-cost subscription basis. With the costs under control, small organizations and even individuals can use LMSs to deliver courses and training programs online.

LMSs offer many advantages for businesses, even small businesses—not only for training employees, but also for keeping them updated on the latest products and trends. Here are some major reasons organizations should consider using an LMS in their training programs:

• Cost savings. This is the number one reason many organizations move from traditional instructor-led training (ILT) to eLearning. Putting programs online saves money associated with travelling to deliver or receive training. In today’s climate, as many companies continue to decrease their learning and development (L&D) budgets, saving money while continuing to deliver high-quality training is essential.

• Ease of use. In addition to having high upfront costs, LMSs of the past also required a good deal of work just to update and maintain. Organizations would need to hire in-house technicians or purchase an additional service package from the LMS vendor. In addition, they were very technically demanding to use, practically requiring a degree in computer programming just to operate. This is no longer true—today’s LMSs are very user-friendly, as are eLearning authoring tools in general, and anyone with basic computer literacy can design and publish a course online.

• Analytics. Recently, big data has become all the rage in pretty much every sector of business and society. LMSs allow organizations to collect their own L&D big data, as all aspects of training can be tracked, including employee engagement with training materials, progress through courses, and success on assessments.

• Informal learning. In business environments, informal learning, such as peer-to-peer learning and self-paced independent learning, is estimated to account for up to 70 percent of learning. That is a huge percentage, considering informal learning is not often accounted for in formal training programs. LMSs with social media integration, such as spaces for employees to discuss content and collaborate on projects, offer ways for instructors to monitor and assess informal as well as formal learning.

Elearning for large businesses has been around a long time, and eLearning for small businesses is expanding, but now individuals not associated with either schools or businesses are starting to get into the action. Recently, there has been a trend toward a new form of democratization—massive open online courses (MOOCs) have allowed anyone to become a student, and now low-cost, user-friendly eLearning development tools and online LMS software are allowing anyone to become a teacher. The DIY (do-it-yourself) movement and the popularity of peer-to-peer learning are turning subject matter experts everywhere into online instructors, and many websites allow individual users to create, and even sell, their courses online.

Education is no longer something that takes place solely in schools. People everywhere are demanding access to educational resources and materials, and a new wave of online learning management system software is working to respond to their needs.

Sameer Bhatia is founder & CEO of ProProfs.com which is a leading provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge.Sameer has a background in technology with a Masters in Computer Science from USC (University Of Southern California) and is an ed-tech industry veteran. You can find Sameer on Google+ .

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5 Coolest Celebrity Gossip Websites

If you are one of those who love getting celebrity news and gossips as it happens then you should be reasing this article. With thousands of different gossips sites on the web, it can be challenging to fish out the best place to turn with the most up-to-date information. Here are the top 5 coolest celebrity websites with the latest gossips that will keep you updated and in the know on the latest news.

1. TMZ
TMZ has lately become the go-to place for the latest celebrity gossip. They were the first to report on the death of Michael Jackson, as well as Britney Spears filing to divorce Kevin Federline. With a large staff working around the clock, TMZ is the most frequently updated website when it comes to celebrity news. Not only do they have a website, but also a television segment that airs on E! so not only do you have a website full of the latest information, but you can see the celebrity gossip reporting in action with the numerous members of the TMZ team on-camera telling you the latest news. TMZ has become a favorite among those who want the latest gossip.

2. E! News
With its one television network and website, E! is one of the most popular sources for the latest celebrity news. What's great about E! is that they have exclusive celebrity interviews everyday with celebrity gossip. If you want to see the latest celebrity news and gossip in action, you can catch their news segments every weeknight. The E! News website is constantly updated with news and gossip with follow ups to reports found on other websites.

3. The Hollywood Gossip
The Hollywood Gossip is located in Lighthouse Point, FL and is one of the leading websites for celebrity gossip. Not only do they cover gossip about the most popular celebrities, but they also cover gossip and news about the celebrities who are off the radar and not so popular anymore. With a team of reporters and anchors working around the clock, there is no question as to why The Hollywood Gossip is one of the most popular gossip sites on the web.

4. Perez Hilton
One of the most controversial bloggers in celebrity gossip, Perez Hilton has fine-tuned the genre of celebrity gossip. His influence of formerly outing celebrities has increased attention on celebrities, with the rest of the media seemingly acting on Hilton's cue. Not only does he report on celebrity gossip, but he also includes his own opinions and input with his famous "doodles" on tabloid photographs. While he may be extremely biased in his reporting, there is no doubt that his opinion will inspire readers to investigate more into the gossip he publishes.

5. Celebrity Gossip, Powered By Gossip Center
Celebrity Gossip is part of the Gossip Center brand, and originally began as a hub for a group of girlfriends to report on the latest celebrity gossip, Celebrity Gossip has grown since it began in 2003, and being bought out by Brand Technologies in 2006. Celebrity Gossip reports on the latest entertainment news and celebrity gossip directly on their website.

This article was written by Kate Parkfield. She has been on the editorial staff of one of the most influential celebrity magazines in Africa. She recommends that you visit buzz South Africa, an information website where she often makes her contributions.

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SEO Tips For Marketing Your App

If you have developed a great app then you need to start marketing it in order to increase sales and make sure you are earning some money with your app. It is a really good idea to learn some basic SEO to guarantee that search engines rank your new app higher and people will be more able to find it.
Here are some essential SEO tips to help you out.

Make Sure You Have Strong Online Presence

The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have a strong online presence even if you are only going to publish this one app. Make sure you brand your app by building a website to talk about the app and by joining social media platforms in order to market your app. This is important because the more there is overall talk about your app the more you are going to get people interested. So before you publish your app start building an online presence.

Be Wise With The Listing

When you are listing your app on the marketplace it is really important that you include links to your webpages as these will help improve your search engine ranking. Many major companies are really bad at using their links as part of the listing process and you really shouldn’t do the same mistake. So link directly to your landing pages and make sure your app name is included in this landing page to improve your ranking even more.

Search The Keywords People Use

When you get people using your app it is really important that you look into their use of the app and see if you can find some keywords based on this information. For instance, if you have an app about cooking recipes you should look what are the recipes people using your app are using the most and then take advantage of this recipe as a keyword to get more people interested in your app.

Always Link To A Marketplace

When you are including a link to buy your app you can’t make the mistake of forgetting to use the name of the marketplace and your app name. What this means is that instead of linking with the anchor text of “Buy here for iPhones” you must mention your app name “Buy X here for iPhones”, with X obviously being your app. Search engines pick this up a lot better than if you don’t use it. The same goes for always mentioning the correct marketplace in your app’s anchor text as well.

Talk About Development

You can also get more views and more people talking about your app if you blog about the development process. So from the moment you download an Android software development kit to the moment you publish it is a good idea to blog about the process and get people interested on your product.

Get People Talking

You also want to promote as much organic marketing as possible because this is really the best form of SEO for any app. Marketing Land suggests using social media and encouragement to get people to link and talk about your app as much as possible.

Gary is a big technology geek and he loves to find out how people can market their apps better in order to get into the app market. When he isn't reading SEO tips he likes to spend time learning to speak French.

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Computer Games Verses Traditional Toys

We can’t get away from the fact that the world of technology is part of our every-day lives and with that comes a change in personal needs and wants. So, are parents in general falling into the trap of letting their kids to play on computers, laptops, PlayStations, etc and have the latest gadget instead of a toy that is a little more traditional; an example being pogo sticks.

Getting the Right Balance 

Technology for children isn’t all bad, as computer games are said to stimulate the imagination, which in turn enables the kids to be more creative. On the other hand, is it healthy if they spend the majority of their time playing on a computer console? Not really and one of the main issues with this is that they don’t get to play with their friends outside, whether that be in the garden, the woods, local park and so on. Therefore, missing out on being children and doing things those children can learn a lot from. Also, do parents see it as an easy way to keep children quiet and entertained, whilst their busy doing the housework etc. Not only is it very easy to sit children in front of the computer – there’s no mess and it keeps them quiet too. However, many parents that let their children play on consoles for long periods of time are becoming increasingly worried in regards to the time that children are spending on computers, laptops, IPads and technology generally.

Encourage Children to Play with more Traditional Toys

With Christmas approaching, I took it upon myself to find some amazing kids gifts and toys that don’t rely on technology, batteries or electricity. As I began to investigate the world of traditional toys I was totally amazed by the masses of choice out there; below are some examples:

Traditional Children’s Toys

To encourage kids to become more active I stumbled across the happy hopperz range. These toys are just fantastic. Best described as animal bouncy hoppers, kids will spend many fun hours bouncing on these. And for older kids we found the very much loved retro space hoppers. Bet you remember those as kids yourself!!

Outdoor Toys

Some other great outdoor toys we discovered were jump rocket launchers and flying saucers (a bit like Freezbies!) and we did have a soft spot for kites. There’s nothing’s quite as satisfying as a flying kite soaring way up into the air!!! Most children have very vivid imaginations and love to absorb themselves in the world of make believe.  To develop children’s imaginations even further pop up play tents make great gifts for kids. There are so many great designs to choose from – you really would be spoilt for choice.

Creative Gifts for Kids

We discovered a wide range of gifts to get the creative side out of children, from a simple colouring book or art set to Friendship Bracelets Making Sets, Chocolate Pizza Making Kits and even Dinosaur Excavation and Model making sets. No need to panic if you are not creative yourself as the kits we found contained everything needed to create a fabulous work of art, (plus a full set of instructions.)

Grow Kits

We particularly liked the kid’s gifts that related to the real living world and as we explored these in more details we realized just how many great fun gifts were out there. We loved the Children’s Seed Kits. How wonderful for kids to watch little tiny seeds grow into giant sunflowers or beanstalks, for example. How super cool would it be to see butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars and then eventually turn into beautiful butterflies. Well we managed to find a Butterfly Garden kit that does just that.

Building Models

For children who love to build and make models, then Construction Toys and Sets are great gifts for kids. Lego is still as popular as ever, but I would recommend ZooB as a great alternative.

Family Games

Family board games are a great way to encourage interaction, communication and co-operation between families and friends. I’m sure we all remember snakes and ladders, monopoly, ludo - timeless classics that have been around for generations. These are great games for children to play with grandparents, especially as Grandma and Granddad can probably remember playing them as children themselves. Can you remember the Beetle game with a dice? Well we found ‘build a Beetle’ - the new up to date version of that retro game…..

I can safely say that in our search to find toys and find toys and kids presents that didn’t involve computers, PlayStations. X boxes etc, we were not disappointed.  What’s more we also discovered that you don’t have to spend a fortune when it comes to buying good quality traditional gifts for kids.

Lisa, the author of this article has worked in the industry for many years and has seen many changes to the children's toy industry.

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Apple Releases iOS 7.0.3 Update

Apple introduced iOS 7 It's latest OS however it accompanied several security flaws and other bugs. The biggest problem was iMessage issue. Some users were complaining that they were not able to send messages. In previous versions of iOS similar bugs were found and removed with updates. Engaged on a similar improvement policy Apple has released iOS 7.0.3 update that brings a number of new features and fixes.

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What is JDBC Driver and JDBC Architecture

JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity. JDBC drivers helps you to open database connection and to interact with it by executing SQL queries then receiving the results with Java. The Java.sql namespace that ships JDK has various classes with their behaviors defined and their actual implementation are done in the third-party drivers.

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How To Backup Windows Drivers And Restore When Needed

Free Driver Backup is a driver backup utility, it offers solution for drivers' backup and restoration in Windows. It identifies all the hardware within the system, extracts their associated drivers from the disc and backs them up to a secure location. Then, you'll use it to stop any issues if your Windows crashes, I found the concept terribly helpful.

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