Tech Simplified » Software

Evaluation of Performance

Admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:42:20 +0000

The IT industry has seen many phases, first was simple computer based on 8086 processors with limited capability of performing tasks, then came DOS the first operating system which made possible the calculations easy. Then came the era of modern computers with Windows , the first in this series was Windows 3.1 , then came Windows 95, and now the latest in this series is Windows 7 from Microsoft. Others have followed as well.

The thing which is common in all of them is connectivity to the Internet and the exchange of information’s from other computer around the Globe. With this Globalization thing, the Globe has become local market and thus companies from one country look for clients in other country and so on. These clients are either CEO’s or CPO’s to evaluate the performance of their suppliers, i.e. the Supplier Performance Evaluation.

Suppliers are the key to success of any company. They help company in securing products and services of the best quality at the lowest possible cost. However a few financially unhealthy suppliers can easily destabilize the environment that your business operates in .This could in turn adversely affect the core business operations and subsequently profit margins.

The current macroeconomic scenario also puts equal pressure on both types of companies- services and product, to manage their suppliers efficiently and effectively. One way of doing this is by constantly evaluating the performance of your existing suppliers against parallel and standard performances.

Are you being watched?

Admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:04:21 +0000

Monitor from Access Online is a discreet, remote surveillance tool, useful for employers wanting to keep tabs on their employees and parents who want to keep an eye on their children. The product monitors and logs detailed reports containing lists of sites visited, and active applications, complete chat reports, a folder activity report, printer activity and detailed key log report.

Allowing you to capture and save screen images while you are away from your computer, it details exactly what was viewed at specific intervals, and runs hidden in the background. All reports are viewable only to the administrator with the password.

The installation process is fairly simple, but abruptly takes you to the main configuration screen. Here you are left to fend for yourself without any user manuals or even Read-me files. The program begins automatically on start-up and proves to be slightly CPU-intensive.

Next step is the configuration screen extremely basic, with five configuration tabs.

The first tab lets you configure the information to be logged and the report mailing schedule, which can be set to a pre-scheduled time-sadly this option refused to work for us! The next tabs are for connections, e-mail settings and e-monitor set-up, wherein you can set the password and hot-key. Curiously, these reports provide no encryption facility and the key-logger gave several erroneous logs.

For: Helps you remotely monitor the daily activities on your Pc.

Against: The product lacks finesse, possesses inadequate help files and the key-logger needs some serious tweaking.

Ban that spam

Admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:02:34 +0000

E scan Internet 2003 Security Suite is yet another soldier to help you strengthen your defense stratagem against viruses and spam. It has introduced a new layer, called Micro World Win sock Layer (MWL), which sits between the default WinSock2 layer and the applications layer. MWL analyzes and filters traffic between the mail server and the web.

E Scan ISS has a simple installation process, complete with a background score of music to put you in just the right ‘fight to the finish’ mood! However, the interface lacks finish and takes a bit getting used to. The Help files could be more comprehensive. That apart, eScan offers the usual options such as disk scanning and kernel driver-the latter checks every EXE file.

The parental control option provided helps in keeping your children away from unsavory sites, but a word of caution here: do remember to turn off the auto-update blocked site list option, as it often ends up adding many harmless sites to the blocked list. It blocked Google in our case!

E-mail-scanning and spam-blocking is achieved using a standard linguistic control approach which provides a list of keywords in the block list but it is not enough to combat intelligent spammers.

Some other features worth mentioning are Heuristics scanning, NETBIOS firewall, remote access file rights and automated updates.

For: Heuristics scanning, pop-u p blocking and MicroWorld WinsockLayer which analyzes and filters the traffic between the mail server and the Internet. Against: Insufficient help files, needs a more sophisticated approach for advanced spam control.

Record now on RecordNow!

Admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:00:13 +0000

Sonic’s Record Now! Deluxe edition is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for CD and DVD recording. It comes bundled with Cine Player, My DVD, Record Now and a quick file archiving tool. Sonic has made very interesting changes; for instance the whole application is given a Wizard-based feel and \ a pleasant interface.

Getting started is a simple matter of choosing one of the four iconic project tabs-Audio, Data, Copy, or VCD-from below the main player window. Record Now will launch one of these categories; these in turn come with their own sub-categories.

Next is music compilation, which comes with the familiar drag-and-drop options placed in a lucid two-window interface. Peculiarly, when you drag and drop tracks, the last track always ends up first, thus completely changing the order! How annoying is that? A CD-labeling application also forms a part of Record Now- it will directly import track information onto your label. Unfortunately it lacks advanced options.

My DVD, is a longtime front-runner in the entry-level DVD authoring field and comes with stunning motion backgrounds. Although the program doesn’t allow you to freely place menu buttons or text, its ease of use and professional-looking results go a long way. Cine Player sports a very uncluttered interface and gives Open DVD support as a major feature, beneficial for authoring DVDs using Open DVD-compliant authoring programs. Lastly, Quick Archiving features allow quick backup and disk copy options. For: Easy to use, provides Cine Player with Open DVD and good DVD authoring. Against: Changes track order, lacks advanced CD-labeling features.

Get dotty with Crazy Talk!

Admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:56:28 +0000

CrazyTalk is 3D morphing software from Reallusion which allows morphing your photos and syncing them with audio to help you create talking pictures, complete with animated emotions. The software allows you to pick any photo, resize it and place wire-frame points, simulating the facial muscle points in orderto edit them.

It lets you add facial gestures to every word or sound from within a bank of 20 different expressions. We added fake eyeballs to our photos and then played around with their color and size. Although they did add zing to the pictures, they looked quite unnatural.

You can breathe your pictures to life using the audio-sync option; use their Text-To-Speech technology to speak a written text message with a synthesized voice; or better still, you can record your own voice using its built-in audio studio. The preset sound filters lack advanced voice manipulation features and the output sounds a bit tinny at certain times.

CrazyTalk has both Home and Web editions. The trial versions are available for download on its site-hefty downloads of 17 MB or 24 MB respectively. The evaluation period is just 7 days, after the expiry of which you must buy the full version for a huge $49.95.

For: Commendable picture morphing and audio-sync features.

Against: The software lacks advanced audio and video editing features. Besides, it also proves to be a tad expensive.

ScopeWare – The Verdict

Admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:53:18 +0000

Among the things we didn’t like was the fact that ScopeWare does not work on non-Microsoft e-mail clients; that is a significant deficiency. The other thing is the price itself. While $30 (approximately Rs 1,324) for a personal edition may be affordable in the American context, it is not the kind of money the average Indian desktop user normally shells out-unless one is a power user. On the other hand, if this tool is to be deployed across a network, $80 (approximately Rs 3,600). this is a terrific investment. Look at it this way-the way ScopeWare delivers results, it is as good as any Knowledge Management System. How many KMSs do you know of, that come for this price?

Having said that, we wish it had one more feature built into it-the ability to search the web-like Grokker-which is probably ScopeWare’s closest competitor.

For: Terrific search capabilities. This file cataloging software can dig up anything and is rather addictive!

Against: Does not support nonMicrosoft e-mail clients. Besides, it may be too expensive for individual users

Scope Ware Review

Admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:51:11 +0000

In our tests, ScopeWare performed incredibly well and managed to locate documents that were stored in the most obscure locations. The results are fairly stunning and it is difficu It not to be infatuated by its capabilities.

Search results are thrown up on your screen in the form of neatly indexed, transl ucent cards. As you move your mouse over these cards, the card on which you have placed your cursor, pops up to the front. If that’s the file you want, simply doubleclick on it, and it invokes the corresponding application that allows you to view the file. If it isn’t, simply move on to the next one.

After having used this piece of software for over two weeks now, we’re pretty sure that there is not a chance in hell that we’re going to go back to using Windows Explorerparticularly while trying to search the network.

As a concept, this isn’t a new one. But ScopeWare’s predecessors simply fizzled out because the indexing engines hogged system resources and slowed machines down considerably. ScopeWare scores on this count by employing two features. For one, it integrates with Microsoft’s inbuilt indexing function. That means it doesn’t have to rebuild a database of files that exists on your machine.

On another front, a user can specify that the indexing engine should start work only if the machine’s processing capacities are idling. Between both of these features, ScopeWare manages to keep system resources free.