Where and What Is U.S. Trading Internationally?

Where and What Is U.S. Trading Internationally?: "

The Commerce Department reported today that U.S. trade rebounded strongly in 2010. The following charts detail who we’re trading with, and what we’re trading.

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How To Check If Someone Is Stealing Your WiFi – And What You Can Do About It

How To Check If Someone Is Stealing Your WiFi – And What You Can Do About It: "

WiFi running a bit slow lately? If your router is still using old security methods such as WEP, then there’s a very real possibility that someone has hacked in to steal your WiFi. In my article on Cool WiFi Devices You’ve Probably Never Heard Of, I showed you a $100 commercially available router that would automatically hack your WEP-protected WiFi network in less than half an hour. Apart from the obvious fact that your internet will be slower, the hacker might be using your internet to do nefarious evil things – all of which could easily be traced back to you. So how you can find out if someone is using your WiFi, and perhaps more importantly – what exactly can you do about it?

Check the devices associated with your router

This method is 100% guaranteed to see any devices registered on your network, but not every router contains this valuable info. Log in to your router by typing it’s IP address directly into the browser address bar. In most setups, either http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.1.1 should work, or it may be written on the router itself, along with the username and password you need to log in with. If you can’t find a password anywhere, and don’t remember changing it, then check the database of default passwords here, or phone your ISP (assuming they gave you the device).

Once logged in, look around a section called Attached Devices or Device List. On DD-WRT flashed routers, this is under the Status -> Wireless screen. You will find a list of all the IP addresses currently being used.

On my standard Virgin Media router, I found a list under the IP filtering section.

Of course, not all your devices will have helpful names, so you’ll need to figure out the IP address of each computer and WiFi device you own in order to cross-check them against the list. I covered how to find your IP address a few days ago when I showed you how to control your torrent client from your mobile. Don’t forget that an iPhone or Android phone will also have it’s own IP address if it’s using your WiFi, so you’ll need to account for those too.

Track Them Down Physically

This may be taking it a little far, but running the MoocherHunter live CD tracking suite will enable you physically hunt them down by triangulating network signals. Scary stuff, indeed. You’ll a directional antenna for this to work best.

What to do about it

Basic Security – Stop using WEP

Any router purchased in the last 5 years or so should be able to support a more secure authentication protocol, so log in to your router again and find the Wireless Settings screen.

Change the security options to either WPA or WPA2. WPA2 is more secure, but I find it’s incompatible with some of the devices on my network so I chose the option that allows for both. Don’t choose the Enterprise option as it is designed for companies with authentication servers. When choosing your password, make sure it is at least 15 characters long, includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation.

There are some other methods that people will typically advise you to take, but put simply – they don’t work:

Hiding your SSID: You can hide your network name so it won’t be seen, but freely available hacking tools such as Backtrack will reveal them instantly.

IP filtering: This blocks out a specific IP, but changing IP is as simple as refreshing the connection.

MAC filtering: More secure since it blocks a device via the unique hardware address that is given out when it’s manufactured, but again, anyone trying to steal your WiFi can easily “spoof” their MAC address.

Funny – Turn their internet upside down

For anyone with a spare PC or who doesn’t mind messing with the command line, you could create an open WiFi network specifically for these freeloaders, and run everything through a Linux proxy. The proxy can setup to cut directly into their internet stream, and one interesting outcome is that you can turn all their images upside down.

Profit – Run a paid WiFi portal

If you install the open source DD-WRT, you can run a paid WiFi Hotspot portal. Set your own rates, never worry about payment processing (they handle everything), then just collect your check if someone has used your hotspot – you’ll get 75% of the money paid. Remember, you’ll need to live in a big city for this to be viable with lots of potential customers. I’ll look at this option more at a later date to show you exactly how you can set one up if you’re interested.

Conclusion:

So your WiFi is feeling a little sluggish? The truth is that someone probably isn’t stealing your WiFi. More likely your computer is running slowly, or your router needs rebooting. You could also try boosting the WiFi signal.

Oh, and let us know in the comments if you’ve found people stealing your WiFi before, or have any amusing WiFi stories to tell.

Image Credit: ShutterStock

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What Nokia's Windows move means for Open Source

What Nokia's Windows move means for Open Source: "

When Nokia announced that it was going to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 for its smartphones some people saw this is a great move. Other folks, like yours truly, saw Nokia and Microsoft partnering being as dumb as betting that the Pittsburgh Pirates will win the 2011 World Series. But, what do Nokia’s open-source partners think of this move? I asked, and as you might guess, they’re not happy.

Jim Zemlin, head of The Linux Foundation tried to make the best of it, “The Linux Foundation is disappointed in Nokia’s decision today to choose Microsoft as the primary platform for its mobile phones. Tough times give birth to difficult decisions that we don’t always agree with, but open source is–at its core–about choice. We believe that open source software is more than a sum of its parts, and the market is currently bearing that out. The Linux Foundation is here to enable collaboration among its members and the Linux community, and we invite participation in MeeGo [an embedded Linux for smartphones and other devices that was supported by Intel and Nokia] and any of our other many projects and programs.”

I might add that Nokia is a gold member of the Linux Foundation. Nokia’s been a member of the Foundation since 2007. The Linux Foundation itself had been, and I presume will continue to be a big MeeGo supporter. Nokia’s move to Windows Phone 7 could not have made the Foundation nor its members happy.

In particular, although Nokia has said it will continue to support MeeGo, Intel, Nokia’s chief MeeGo partner was not pleased. In a statement Intel said:

While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.

Our strategy has always been to provide choice when it comes to operating systems, a strategy that includes Windows, Android, and MeeGo. This is not changing.

MeeGo is not just a phone OS, it supports multiple devices. And we’re seeing momentum across multiple segments–automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and our Intel silicon will be in a phone that ships this year.

Still, you have to believe that Intel feels hosed by Nokia’s move.

Another open-source group that’s wondering what’s going to happen next is Nokia’s Qt division. Qt is the cross-platform framework behind both MeeGo and the KDE Linux desktop. Now, though, Qt looks like it’s irrelevant to Nokia’s future.

Aaron Seigo, a leading KDE developer and one of the chief designers of the KDE 4 desktop, wrote on his blog that “While I have little good to say of the announcement that was made, what remains of interest to me is the level of investment in Qt, the strategic positioning of MeeGo going forward and what KDE’s role can and will be as both of those things continue to mature.”

Seigo continued, “Open governance around Qt is moving forward briskly and from what I gather there are some interesting and useful announcements to come. R&D investment continues. However, we (KDE) won’t know the full shape of how this will impact our landscape in the mid- and long-terms until we speak more with people at Nokia as well as within the Qt team itself. That’s going to take weeks, not hours or days.”

I asked Seigo for more of his thoughts on the matter and he replied, “The most important thing to keep in mind is that Qt is licensed under the LGPL (Lesser General Public License) and has a broad ecosystem around it. Regardless of what happens at Nokia, it won’t be the end of the world.”

While Qt’s licensing situation is complicated, with no fewer than three possible licenses, the bottom line is that it’s relatively easy to legally use Qt in software projects.

Seigo added, “That said, it is far, far too early to say anything conclusive about what it means for Qt and therefore by extension to F/OSS [Free and Open-Source Software] communities like KDE and their projects. We’re (KDE) putting together an internal task force to work through these topics with Nokia as well as the broader Qt community and it will need a few weeks to arrive as useful conclusions.”

“It’s a dynamic situation that we’re taking seriously and tracking, but we’re also being careful not to jump the gun and either miss opportunities that arise as a result or make poor reactive decisions to challenges as yet not fully understood,” he concluded.

That sounds like a fair assessment to me. We’re going to need to wait and see.

I will add one more thing, from where I sit, Android is actually the least effected open-source project by Nokia’s moves. MeeGo, followed by KDE and other Qt users are the ones with something to be concerned about. Google and its Android friends? I think they could care less.

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Schedule for Week of February 13th

Schedule for Week of February 13th: "The key releases this week will be retail sales on Tuesday, industrial production on Wednesday, and the consumer price index on Thursday. For housing, the NHAB housing market index will be released on Tuesday, and housing starts on Wednesday.



----- Monday, Feb 14th -----

Morning: New York Fed Q4 Report on Household Debt and Credit



10:00 AM ET: NY Fed President William Dudley speaks in New York, Q1 2011, Household Debt & Economic Activity



----- Tuesday, Feb 15th -----

8:30 AM: Retail Sales for January.



Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.



This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline). Retail sales in December were up 13.5% from the bottom, and were 0.2% above the pre-recession peak.



The consensus is for a 0.5% increase from December. (and 0.5% increase ex-auto). Sales were probably boosted in January by the payroll tax cut.



8:30 AM: NY Fed Empire Manufacturing Survey for February. The consensus is for a reading of 15.0, up from the reading of 11.92 in January. The regional surveys have been showing fairly strong manufacturing activity recently.



10 AM: The February NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of 17, up slightly from 16 in January. Any number below 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good. This index has been below 25 for the last 3 1/2 years.



10:00 AM: Manufacturing and Trade: Inventories and Sales for December. The consensus is for 0.7% increase in inventories.



10:00 AM: Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto speaks in Akron, Ohio, 'Regional and National Economic Conditions'



----- Wednesday, Feb 16th -----

7:00 AM: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the mortgage purchase applications index.



8:30 AM: Producer Price Index for January. The consensus is for a 0.8% increase in producer prices.



8:30 AM: Housing Starts for January. After collapsing following the housing bubble, housing starts have mostly moved sideways at a very depressed level for the last two years.



This graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968.



Total housing starts were at 529 thousand (SAAR) in December, and single-family starts were at a 417 thousand rate - the lowest level since early 2009.



The consensus is for a slight increase to 540,000 (SAAR) in January.



9:15 AM ET: The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for January. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in Industrial Production in January, and an increase to 76.3% (from 76.0%) for Capacity Utilization.



2:00 PM: FOMC Minutes, Meeting of January 25-26, 2011. This will include updated forecasts of GDP growth, unemployment, and inflation.



----- Thursday, Feb 17th -----

8:30 AM: Consumer Price Index for January.



This graph shows these three measure of inflation - core CPI, median CPI and trimmed-mean CPI - on a year-over-year basis. They all show that inflation has been falling, and that measured inflation is up less than 1% year-over-year.



The consensus is for a 0.3% increase for CPI in January and for core CPI to show an increase of 0.1%.



8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for an increase to 410,000 from 383,000 last week that was probably low because of weather issues.



10:00 AM: Philly Fed Survey for February. The consensus is for a reading of 21.0, up slightly from the 19.3 in January.



10:00 AM: Conference Board Leading Indicators for January. The consensus is for a 0.2% increase for this index.



10:00 AM: Testimony, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, 'Implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act' Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate



11:30 AM: Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart asks questions of Ireland Ambassador to the U.S., 'Ireland and the U.S. Roads to Recovery,'



1:10 PM: Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher speaks on 'Federal Reserve Functions and Economic Update'



1:20 PM: Chicago Fed President Charles Evans speaks on the economic outlook



----- Friday, Feb 18th -----

8:00 AM ET: Panel Discussion, Chairman Ben Bernanke, Global Imbalances and Financial Stability, At the Banque de France Financial Stability Review Launch Event, Paris, France



After 4:00 PM: The FDIC might have a busy Friday afternoon ...

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Comic for February 12, 2011

Comic for February 12, 2011: "

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Universe Could be 250 Times Bigger Than What is Observable

Universe Could be 250 Times Bigger Than What is Observable: "

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the distribution of dark matter in the center of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 1689, containing about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Coe (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and Space Telescope Science Institute), N. Benitez (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain), T. Broadhurst (University of the Basque Country, Spain), and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)

Our Universe is an enormous place; that’s no secret. What is up for discussion, however, is just how enormous it is. And new research suggests it’s a whopper – over 250 times the size of our observable universe.(...)
Read the rest of Universe Could be 250 Times Bigger Than What is Observable (460 words)

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© Vanessa D'Amico for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: closed, Cosmology, expansion, flat, geometry, open, universe

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Register for Google I/O 2011

Register for Google I/O 2011: "

We’ve been counting down the days until Google I/O 2011 and hope that you have been, too. With 91 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes to go, we’re excited to announce that registration is now open at www.google.com/io. Our largest annual developer conference will take place on May 10-11, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif.

The focus of I/O 2011 will be all about the cloud, and feature the latest Google products and technologies including Android, Google Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Google APIs. There will be many opportunities to meet members of Google’s engineering teams and take deep dives into the technologies with more than 100 technical sessions, roundtables and more. The Developer Sandbox, which we introduced at I/O 2009, will be back, featuring developers from more than 100 companies to demo their apps, share their experiences and exchange ideas.

If you liked our HTML5 countdown, stay tuned for more surprises. We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments for Google I/O 2011 at the website, on Twitter (@Googleio) and Google Buzz. Get your tickets early—last year we sold out in record time!

Registration opens with an Early Bird rate of $450, which applies through April 16 ($550 after April 16). Faculty and students can register at the discounted Academia rate of $150, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Learn more and register today at www.google.com/io.

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

Posted by Vic Gundotra, VP Engineering

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How to Automatically Backup your Files with Dropbox

How to Automatically Backup your Files with Dropbox: "

Dropbox offers 2 GB of free online storage space that you can easily bump up to 3 GB or more with the help of your social networks and by inviting friends who aren't on Dropbox yet.

This kind of space is not sufficient to backup the entire hard drive¹ but enough to save your essential files and folder that you can’t afford to lose. These may include your documents, photographs, source code and other important files.

Using Dropbox for File Backup

Backup with Dropbox is effortless but one big limitation is that your files and folders need to be residing inside the main Dropbox folder before they can be sent to the cloud.

To deal with this problem, we’ll make use of Microsoft SyncToy, a free application that keeps files and folders in sync with each other. You identify all the essential folders that you want to backup and then sync them all with the local Dropbox folder using SyncToy.

Next we’ll use the built-in Task Scheduler in Windows to run SyncToy once per day (or sooner) so that the content of our local Dropbox folder and the source folders are always in sync with each other.

Backup with Dropbox – Step by Step

Now that you have the basic idea, lets see how this can be implemented in in few easy steps (you can also skip straight to the video tutorial).

Step 1. Launch SyncToy and create a new folder pair. For instance, to backup documents, set the “Left Folder” as your My Documents folder and the “Right Folder” as a sub-folder of Dropbox. Set the action as ‘synchronize.’

Step 2. Repeat Step 1 for every folder that you want to back up using Dropbox. If you want to backup all your pictures, just point the left folder to the main ‘My Pictures’ folder or choose individual folders if you don’t have space to backup the entire archive.

Step 3. Enter taskschd.msc in the Windows Run box to start the Task Scheduler or go to Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Scheduled Tasks.

Step 4. While you are inside Task Scheduler, create a basic task and give it a name like ‘Dropbox Backup.’ Set the trigger as Daily (run backup once per day) and choose a time when you are less likely to use your workstation.

Step 5. Under Action, choose “Start a Program” and set the program name as SyncToyCmd.exe. For arguments, just say “-R” without quotes and save the task.

That’s it! SyncToy will launch everyday at the set time and will put all the new and updated files into Dropbox. Once there, Dropbox will automatically copy your files to the cloud which you can then access from anywhere from almost any device.

Video Tutorial

Liked it? Check out some Dropbox tips.

[1] Read detailed review of all the popular online backup services if you are looking to backup your full computer and not just few folders.

This article, titled How to Automatically Backup your Files with Dropbox, was originally published at Digital Inspiration under Backup, Dropbox, Software.

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