Tech Pursuits-In keeping with technological advancements, the IT sector now offers a number of niche career opportunities to graduates. Reported by Pooja Mahimkar

India’s  IT  sector is expected to grow 11% per annum and
triple its current annual revenue to reach US$350 billion by FY 2025, as per
NASSCOM. While this growth is expected to further boost employment
opportunities in the sector in the future, IT graduates today too have many
careers to choose from. Apart from the obvious private and public sector
opportunities that graduates can explore in India as well as overseas,
graduates also have the option to venture into the business and academic
world. 

Here are the three major upcoming
options the field offers:

  

 Cloud computing

Cloud computing involves storing
data on the internet without needing any physical storage drive. Since most organizations
are looking to upgrade from their servers to the cloud, jobs in the cloud
computing sector are multiplying. Fresh graduates or IT professionals who wish
to make a career in this field can work as cloud architects, cloud engineers,
cloud consultants, etc.

“Enterprises have to leverage the
power of software to reimagine, redefine and rewrite the way their current
data, applications and infrastructure are managed. This has brought back the
focus on hiring and nurturing talent with core software engineering skills like
cloud computing,” says Samson David, SVP – head, global services, cloud and
infrastructure services, Infosys.

Sectors that hire: Telecom, social media, e-commerce and banking 

Big data Analysis 

Big data analytics is the process of
examining large amounts

of varied data to identify
not-so-obvious patterns and correlations, market trends, customer choices and
such statistics that can provide insightful analysis to businesses. 

“In India, the latest areas of
research are big data analysis, cloud computing, web security, cyber laws, data
mining, business intelligence, 4G, mobile telephony, etc. One needs to have
good analytical, logical and programming skills in addition to good
communication skills to make a career in this field. For this, a candidate must
learn various programming languages and should try and implement them in small
projects that they undertake during their academic years,” says Roopali Garg,
assistant professor, department

of IT, Panjab University,

Chandigarh.

Sectors that hire: Finance and insurance, technology, scientific and academic
sectors 

Ethical hacking

Ethical hackers are employed to find
loopholes in a company’s security system and save it from hackers. Ethical
hackers perform vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to identify and
report the weak zones of a company’s software and the potential hacking risks
to keep the system healthy. 

“Cyber crime, data breach, email
frauds and website defacement are common issues organisations face. Banks, IT companies
and government bodies are most likely to fall prey to hackers. Since only a few
people are aware of ethical hacking as a career in our country, there are a
number of jobs,” says Anshuman Kak, co-founder and director, SecRoot Security
Solutions Pvt Ltd.

Professionals in this field can work
as security researchers, secure code reviewers, information security
consultants, information security analysts, cyber security professionals,
network security engineers and digital forensics analysts.

Sectors that hire: Banking, IT e-commerce and social media

Tech Pursuits-In keeping with technological advancements, the IT sector now offers a number of niche career opportunities to graduates. Reported by Pooja Mahimkar

India’s  IT  sector is expected to grow 11% per annum and triple its current annual revenue to reach US$350 billion by FY 2025, as per NASSCOM. While this growth is expected to further boost employment opportunities in the sector in the future, IT graduates today too have many careers to choose from. Apart from the obvious private and public sector opportunities that graduates can explore in India as well as overseas, graduates also have the option to venture into the business and academic world. 

Here are the three major upcoming options the field offers:

  

 Cloud computing

Cloud computing involves storing data on the internet without needing any physical storage drive. Since most organizations are looking to upgrade from their servers to the cloud, jobs in the cloud computing sector are multiplying. Fresh graduates or IT professionals who wish to make a career in this field can work as cloud architects, cloud engineers, cloud consultants, etc.

“Enterprises have to leverage the power of software to reimagine, redefine and rewrite the way their current data, applications and infrastructure are managed. This has brought back the focus on hiring and nurturing talent with core software engineering skills like cloud computing,” says Samson David, SVP – head, global services, cloud and infrastructure services, Infosys.

Sectors that hire: Telecom, social media, e-commerce and banking 

Big data Analysis 

Big data analytics is the process of examining large amounts

of varied data to identify not-so-obvious patterns and correlations, market trends, customer choices and such statistics that can provide insightful analysis to businesses. 

“In India, the latest areas of research are big data analysis, cloud computing, web security, cyber laws, data mining, business intelligence, 4G, mobile telephony, etc. One needs to have good analytical, logical and programming skills in addition to good communication skills to make a career in this field. For this, a candidate must learn various programming languages and should try and implement them in small projects that they undertake during their academic years,” says Roopali Garg, assistant professor, department

of IT, Panjab University,

Chandigarh.

Sectors that hire: Finance and insurance, technology, scientific and academic sectors 

Ethical hacking

Ethical hackers are employed to find loopholes in a company’s security system and save it from hackers. Ethical hackers perform vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to identify and report the weak zones of a company’s software and the potential hacking risks to keep the system healthy. 

“Cyber crime, data breach, email frauds and website defacement are common issues organisations face. Banks, IT companies and government bodies are most likely to fall prey to hackers. Since only a few people are aware of ethical hacking as a career in our country, there are a number of jobs,” says Anshuman Kak, co-founder and director, SecRoot Security Solutions Pvt Ltd.

Professionals in this field can work as security researchers, secure code reviewers, information security consultants, information security analysts, cyber security professionals, network security engineers and digital forensics analysts.

Sectors that hire: Banking, IT e-commerce and social media

The Swipe F-Band can track all-day fitness stats, alert for calls

Swipe Technologies has marked
its debut in the fitness tracking segment with the launch of the F-Band fitness
tracker. The device works as a fitness tracker as well as a daily routine
monitor. As per the brand, the wearable's comfortable textured band is suitable
for daily use and can be worn 24/7.

The Swipe F-Band is capable
of tracking all-day stats like steps taken and calories burned, and lets users
set goals and targets. It also monitors sleep and lets you set a silent alarm.
The device can store up to one year's worth of fitness data, which can be
transferred to the F-Band app via Bluetooth to compatible devices. The device
displays alerts for calls and is fuelled by a 55mAh battery, which the company
says can fully charge in 30 minutes and delivers seven days of battery life.  

The Swipe F-Band can track all-day fitness stats, alert for calls

Swipe Technologies has marked its debut in the fitness tracking segment with the launch of the F-Band fitness tracker. The device works as a fitness tracker as well as a daily routine monitor. As per the brand, the wearable's comfortable textured band is suitable for daily use and can be worn 24/7.

The Swipe F-Band is capable of tracking all-day stats like steps taken and calories burned, and lets users set goals and targets. It also monitors sleep and lets you set a silent alarm. The device can store up to one year's worth of fitness data, which can be transferred to the F-Band app via Bluetooth to compatible devices. The device displays alerts for calls and is fuelled by a 55mAh battery, which the company says can fully charge in 30 minutes and delivers seven days of battery life.  

There is many ways to boost up Windows XP

Following
suggestions that will Speed up Windows XP, Most of them will cost you nothing

1.     If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM,
add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can
dramatically improve system performance.

2.     Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing
the NTFS file system. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check: First,
double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select
Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up
any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK.
At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process
may take a while; it’s important that the computer be uninterrupted and
virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or
NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and
efficiency with larger disk drives.

3.     Disable file indexing. The indexing
service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive
and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can
be quite taxing on any system. The idea is that the user can search for a word,
phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands
of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP’s
built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without
the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the
time of the request to help find what the user is looking for. Most people
never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large
corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one
server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small
and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search
feature, I recommend disabling it. Here’s how: First, double-click the My
Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties.
Uncheck “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.”
Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warning or
error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click the Ignore All
button.

4.     Empty the Windows Prefetch folder
every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications
that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when
called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may
become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use.
When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance,
by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire
contents are safe to delete.

5.     Once a month, run a disk cleanup.
Here’s how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive
and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button — it’s just to the right
of the Capacity pie graph — and delete all temporary files.

6.     In your Device Manager, double-click
on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for
each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this
by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings
tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0
and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

7.     Remove all spyware from the computer.
Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy.
Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any
updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be
safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer
function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really
wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For
more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

8.     Remove any unnecessary programs
and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here’s
how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the
StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows
starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It
contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references
and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using
Google or another Web search engine.

9.     Remove any unnecessary or unused
programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

10. Turn off any and all unnecessary animations,
and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all
animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here’s how
to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on
the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel
free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change
will alter the reliability of the computer — only its responsiveness.

11. If your customer is an advanced user
who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry
tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

12. Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site
regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional
updates at your discretion.

13. Update the customer’s anti-virus
software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one
anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way
to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

14. Make sure the customer has fewer than
500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the
slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more
efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that
is, anything over 500 — will noticeably tax the system.

15. Do not partition the hard drive.
Windows XP’s NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The
data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to
reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using
partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all
your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called “D drive.” You’ll achieve
the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without
the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won’t be limited
by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the
entire hard drive. This means you won’t need to resize any partitions, ever.
That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

16. Check the system’s RAM to ensure it
is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The
download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10
extensive tests on the PC’s memory automatically after you boot to the disk you
created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are
completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the
computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run
the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

17. If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder,
check the drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases
you’ll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s
free.

18. Disable unnecessary services. Windows
XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To
determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper
site for Windows XP configurations.

19. If you’re sick of a single Windows
Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then
follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now
click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate
process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this
option to take effect.

20.  
At
least once a year, open the computer’s cases and blow out all the dust and
debris. While you’re in there, check that all the fans are turning properly.
Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more
information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles
on my site. Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable
improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers’ computers.
If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to
make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive. Thanks for
reading.

There is many ways to boost up Windows XP

Following suggestions that will Speed up Windows XP, Most of them will cost you nothing

1.     If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

2.     Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it’s important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

3.     Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system. The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP’s built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for. Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it. Here’s how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.” Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click the Ignore All button.

4.     Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

5.     Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here’s how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button — it’s just to the right of the Capacity pie graph — and delete all temporary files.

6.     In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

7.     Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

8.     Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here’s how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

9.     Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

10. Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here’s how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer — only its responsiveness.

11. If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

12. Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

13. Update the customer’s anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

14. Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that is, anything over 500 — will noticeably tax the system.

15. Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP’s NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called “D drive.” You’ll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won’t be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won’t need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

16. Check the system’s RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC’s memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

17. If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you’ll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s free.

18. Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

19. If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

20.   At least once a year, open the computer’s cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you’re in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site. Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers’ computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive. Thanks for reading.