Bill Gates Seeks to Reinvent the Toilet

Though Bill Gates stepped down as head of Microsoft in 2008 to focus on philanthropy, he hasn’t left the realm of world-changing innovation.
Gates hosted the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle, Wash. Tuesday and Wednesday, showcasing the designs and working prototypes of eight design finalists from around the world, who followed though on his August 2011 challenge to reinvent the toilet. The former Microsoft chief invited innovators to create a product that could function without water pipes, a sewer connection or outside electricity, while costing less than 5 cents per day to honor. The eight universities that presented at the fair received a cumulative $400,000 to develop their prototypes.
The winning toilet came from California Institute of Technology, receiving $100,000 for its model of a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity. The second place toilet, hailing from the UK”s Loughborough University receives $60,000 for its toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water. The third prize winner, from the University of Toronto, receives $40,000 for its toilet that sanitizes human waste.

According to the Gates Foundation, the need for a new toilet model is obvious: 2.6 billion people in the world lack access to safe and affordable sanitation.
Other prototypes presented at the fair include a toilet powered by the sun that generates cooking gas and a toilet that turns waste into electricity.
Take a look at some Reinvent the Toilet Challenge finalists and let us know which you think should be mass produced. Can a reinvented toilet be a game changer for the developing world? Is Gates properly directing his energies and funds? Let us know what you think in the comments.

WAEC releases May/June 2012 results

The West African Examinations Council on Friday released the results of the May/June 2012 West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

The candidates for this year’s examination performed better than their counterparts in the last three years.

A total of 649,156 candidates representing 38.81 per cent of the total candidates that sat for the examination this year obtained credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

This represents an 8.9 per cent increase above last year’s performance, where 471,474 candidates representing 30.91 per cent had five credits and above in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.

In 2010, 317,142 candidates representing 23.71 per cent of the candidates that sat for the examination obtained five credits including English and Mathematics.

Addressing journalists in Lagos on Friday, the Head of the Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Dr. Iyi Nwadiae, said a total of 1,695,878 candidates registered for this year’s examination out of which 1,672,224 sat for the examination.

He said out of the total number of candidates, 1,545,004, representing 91.10 per cent, had their results fully released, while 150,874 candidates, representing 8.90 per cent had a few of their subjects still being processed because of some errors mainly traceable to the candidates and schools either in the course of registration or writing the examination.

Nwadiae said of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination, 771,731 candidates (46.14 per cent), obtained six credits and above and 952,156 candidates representing 56.93 per cent obtained five credits and above.

Apart from improved results this year, the WAEC boss stated that cases of examination malpractices declined compared with previous years.

He said the positive trend was an indication that investment in the education sector was beginning to yield dividends, adding that cases of malpractice would naturally reduce when candidates were adequately prepared for examinations.

He, however, said the results of 112,000 candidates, representing 6.70 per cent were being withheld in connection with various cases of examination malpractice.

He explained that the cases were being investigated, adding that the reports of the investigations would be presented to the Nigerian Examinations Committee of the council in due course for consideration.

He said the committee’s decision would be communicated to the affected candidates through their schools.

He said 114 blind candidates registered for the examination. Out of this number, 95 candidates sat for the examination.

He said candidates could check their results on the council’s website: www.waecdirect.org from Monday 12th August, 2012.

Megatek Computers is giving reliable information that candidates are not supposed to buy scratch cards to access their results as the scratch cards had already been supplied the various schools through which the candidates purchased their forms.

“The cost of scratch card is already included in the total cost of the form. Candidates are not expected to pay for scratch cards separately.

How to Protect Your Smartphone From Viruses

All smartphone owners should be aware of and concerned about viruses that affect smartphones, but most aren't. Only 4 percent of mobile phones use virus protection software, according to Juniper Network Global Threat Center's Malicious Mobile Threats Report 2010/2011. Personal and identity information such as financial passwords and contact lists -- once stored on protected personal computers -- now appear on unprotected smartphones. Phones infected with malware, Trojan horses and other viruses leave your phone unusable, send the virus to your contacts or worse: Perpetrators steal usernames and passwords that can lead to identity theft. Protecting your phone is a twofold process; avoid potential viruses and download legitimate virus protection on your phone. 

Below are some tips on how to protect your smartphones:

• 1.:  Open attachments on your phone with the same caution as you do on your computer. This includes attachments in emails and in MMS messages. Don't open attachments from people you don't know. Also, don't open attachments from a contact if the message looks suspicious. Your contact's phone or computer may be infected with a virus that is emailing or messaging itself to everyone on his contact list, including you.
  
• 2:  Watch for suspicious links sent through email or text messages. Never click on questionable links. Like attachments, these may be sent by people you don't know who are posing as individuals on your contact list. If you are suspicious about a link sent to you by a contact, email or text message the sender to ask if he sent the message. He may not know his phone or computer is infected by a virus that is sending messages to his contacts.
• 3:  Download apps only from legitimate app stores, and read the reviews before buying to make sure there is no buzz about a virus attached with the app. The Malicious Mobile Threats Report finds that as the demand for apps increases, so does the proliferation of viruses, particularly spyware. Viruses can transfer through any type of application, including gaming apps, fake anti-virus apps, fake financial-tracking apps and social networking apps.
• 4 :  Practice safe memory card use. Never share your memory card with another cell phone. An infected memory card can spread a virus to each phone it contacts.
• 5:  Set the Bluetooth option on your phone to the undiscoverable setting. Some viruses penetrate phones through a Bluetooth connection. This attack is especially tricky; you need only walk by an infected Bluetooth device while your phone is discoverable, and the virus can transfer to your phone. The first documented Bluetooth virus, the Cabir virus, which arrived in 2004, didn't harm your phone or steal valuable information, but it ran the phone battery down quickly by constantly trying to discover nearby Bluetooth connections through which to spread. Current Bluetooth viruses are more malicious; they steal contact information and disable phones.

Third-Party Apps

• 6:  Protect your iPhone from malware and other virus infections with anti-virus apps. Choose from a handful of well-known and trusted anti-virus software providers, as some viruses present themselves as inexpensive or free virus software from unknown companies. SmrtGuard Solutions' Snap Secure app and the Lookout Mobile Security app from Lookout Inc. both protect your iPhone from viruses while backing up your important data and allowing you to track or wipe your iPhone if it's lost or stolen. McAfee Enterprise Mobility Management from Trust Digital is designed for business environments with multiple mobile devices, including iPhones. Snap Secure, Lookout Mobile Security and EMM are all free downloads at the iPhone App Store. Intego created the Virus Barrier iOS software specifically for the iPhone and iPad to scan for and block any viruses from transferring to your computer when you connect the mobile device to it. Virus Barrier can be downloaded from the App Store for a small fee.
• 7:  If you own an Android-powered phone, download anti-virus from reliable suppliers to protect your personal information. The Kaspersky Mobile Security app offers find-and-wipe services as well as virus and spam protection. In addition to standard virus scans, Norton Mobile Security can lock your phone to protect personal data during a virus attack or if the phone is lost or stolen. The Bullguard Mobile Security app protects against viruses, identity theft and online fraud, and it offers parental controls, a basic backup and SIM card protection. All these apps are available for download from the Android Market.
• 8:   Add anti-virus protection for your BlackBerry with Bullguard Mobile Security, which offers a user-friendly online interface that allows you to manage your virus protection and back up information from your phone or your computer. Also useful is SmrtGuard's Snap Secure app for handy information in addition to virus protection; the app warns how new apps may affect your privacy settings and leave your device vulnerable to virus attack. The app also provides BlackBerry users with Personal Guardian service, with which you create a panic button that sends out a text message or phone call with your location. The NetQin Mobile Security for BlackBerry app provides two levels of protection: one local for your phone and one cloud based. It offers real-time virus scanning and a backup of all your data. Download Snap Secure from the BlackBerry App World. Bullguard Mobile Security and NetQin Mobile Security are available for download at the developers' websites.
• 9:   Even if your Windows computer is protected with anti-virus software, you still need a separate mobile app for your phone. Find Windows Mobile virus protection with the Kaspersky Mobile Security app, which offers a full range of protection not available in its BlackBerry and Android apps. These additional features include data encryption and parental controls. In addition to virus protection, the Bullguard Mobile Security app offers a spam filter and firewall protection with its Windows Mobile apps, which are not offered with its Android and BlackBerry versions. NetQin's NQ Mobile Security for Windows Phone app offers anti-virus scans and data backups as well as private and safe-browsing capabilities. NQ Mobile Security is available from the Windows Phone Marketplace. Kaspersky Mobile Security and Bullguard Mobile Security can be downloaded from the developers' websites.

Laptop battery

HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE LIFE SPAN OF YOUR LAPTOP BATTERY

It has been discovered by IT experts that one of the problems that laptop users normally have is changing of thier laptop battery.  When you buy a new system and the manufacturer gives you a guaranty of 2 years or more, you will be surprised that while all other components of the laptop works fine even for over 5 or 6 years, the laptop battery has a shorter life span. When there is no external supply of power, the laptop battery is very useful.  Normally, a laptop battery is supposed to power the laptop for up to 2 hours (thou there are some now that can power for up to 6 hours) but it can be annoying when the laptop battery cannot supply power for more than 30 or 10 mins, honestly from experience, it reduces productivity and do not allow mobility of the laptop in areas where there is no external power supply.

If you practice the instructions listed below, you will be amazed that laptop batteries can last longer than it used to.

1. Dim your screen: how of our laptops have this very bright screen and this kills the battery faster, especially when you are not using the brightness , for example when you are watching a movie. so reduce or dim your screen.
2. Running Many Application: When you are not using some application on your background, close it because it consumes RAM and RAM consumes the battery. Reduce the application running.
3. Remove External devices: switch off devices such as Bluetooth, WiFi they drain your battery, and charging of phones and Ipod are one of the good sources of draining your battery. so whenever they are not in such shut them down.
4. CD/DVD Drives:CD and DVD Drives drains the battery most especially when there is a disk in it, when it spins it drains your battery. so copy what you need from a CD before running.
5. Keep the battery contacts clean: Clean your battery’s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
6. Take care of your battery – Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge.
7. Hibernate not standby – Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn’t save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. Hibernating a PC will actually save your PC’s state as it is, and completely shut itself down.
8. Set up and optimize your power options – Go to ‘Power Options’ in your windows control panel and set it up so that power usage is optimized (Select the ‘max battery’ for maximum effect).

Facebook Guidelines for Parents

Facebook's policy states users must be 13 years old to create a profile, but Facebook does not verify a user's age when signing up. As a parent, it is important to be aware of what Facebook is and to monitor your child's profile and online time to help keep him safe.

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1. General Rule

   • Setting general guidelines and rules with your child for Internet and Facebook usage will help keep her safe and aware of boundaries. Keep the computer in a public area of your home, such as the living room. If your child has a computer in her room, consider installing software to block certain websites or do not allow the computer to access the Internet. Discuss acceptable uses of Facebook with your child. Explain that posting inappropriate pictures or messages won't be tolerated. Creating your own Facebook profile and insisting that your child add you as a friend if she wants to use Facebook is a good way to keep an eye on what she's doing without having to look over her shoulder every minute she's online.
     

   Safety

   • Keeping your child safe is likely one of your largest concerns when it comes to Facebook. Explain to your child that he should never post his personal information such as phone numbers, school names and addresses on his profile or in a wall post or reply. Discuss who is acceptable to add as a friend and who is not. Make it clear that you don't want your child to add strangers and encourage him to deny any friend requests from people he doesn't know. If you're particularly concerned about safety, tell your child to input only his last initial instead of his full last name and tell him to use an email address that does not contain his full name for his Facebook log-in name.
     

   Privacy

   • Go through your child's profile with her and help her set up privacy settings so that people cannot view her posts and pictures unless they are friends. Go to "Privacy Settings" from the "Account" drop-down menu at the top right of the Facebook screen. Choose "Friends Only" to ensure that random people browsing Facebook cannot see your child's information. Clicking on "Edit Settings" next to "Public Search" in the "Applications, Games and Websites" portion of "Privacy Settings" will allow to disable the public search feature. This means people won't be able to search for your child's profile by her name or other information, which gives her more control over who sees her page and who she adds as a friend.
     

   Other Considerations

   • The computer isn't the only way your child can access Facebook. If your child has a cellphone or other Web-enabled device, he can likely access Facebook even when he's away from his computer. If you don't want your child to have Web access away from home, call your cellphone provider and ask a representative how to block Web access on your child's phone. Consider putting parental controls on other Web-related devices, such as handheld gaming systems and MP3 players with Wi-Fi.
     

10 Worst Computer Viruses of All Time

Computer viruses can be a nightmare. Some can wipe out the information on a hard drive, tie up traffic on a computer network for hours, turn an innocent machine into a zombie and replicate and send themselves to other computers. If you've never had a machine fall victim to a computer virus, you may wonder what the fuss is about. But the concern is understandable -- according to Consumer Reports, computer viruses helped contribute to $8.5 billion in consumer losses in 2008 [source: MarketWatch]. Computer viruses are just one kind of online threat, but they're arguably the best known of the bunch.
Computer viruses have been around for many years. In fact, in 1949, a scientist named John von Neumann theorized that a self-replicated program was possible [source: Krebs]. The computer industry wasn't even a decade old, and already someone had figured out how to throw a monkey wrench into the figurative gears. But it took a few decades before programmers known as hackers began to build computer viruses.
While some pranksters created virus-like programs for large computer systems, it was really the introduction of the personal computer that brought computer viruses to the public's attention. A doctoral student named Fred Cohen was the first to describe self-replicating programs designed to modify computers as viruses. The name has stuck ever since.

 
­In the good­ old days (i.e., the early 1980s), viruses depended on humans to do the hard work of spreading the virus to other computers. A hacker would save the virus to disks and then distribute the disks to other people. It wasn't until modems became common that virus transmission became a real problem. Today when we think of a computer virus, we usually imagine something that transmits itself via the Internet. It might infect computers through e-mail messages or corrupted Web links. Programs like these can spread much faster than the earliest computer viruses.
We're going to take a look at 10 of the worst computer viruses to cripple a computer system. They are:

Melissa,  I love you,T he Klez Virus, Code Red and code Red II, Nimda, Sql  Slammer  / Sapphire, My Doom, Sasser and Netsky, Leap A/Oompa A, Storm Worm

PRACTICAL TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY ONLINE

Identity theft is all about control. Who as control over your personal and financial

Information? Is it you, or the criminal on the other end of you’re computer using your

Information to apply for a credit card? Losing control of your personal information can be all too easy online. But by taking some precautions, you can maintain privacy while safely surfing the internet.

1. Adjust social –network privacy settings

   -Face book has been working to simplify their privacy settings, but they can still be confusing to the average users. Spend about 10 minutes a month making sure that your privacy settings, are what they should be and are actually protecting your privacy.

To get there, log in to  Face book, in the top right of your screen it should say “account “ when you scroll over or click on that tab you can see your privacy settings. Click here for a step by step process of how to adjust your privacy settings.

Twitter, another popular social network, also lets you lock your account from public view .in settings, there’s a feature called “protect my tweets.” They have had breaches before, so it is always good to take every precaution you can to protect your information.

2. Frequently change password- It is good to rotate passwords on sites you use often. Especially sites that hold your financial information Every 6 months or so you should change your passwords just in case someone has access to your online profile  A good way to keep track of these password is with a password  keeper such as 1 password. This way you can store your password to all sites in one places and use a master password to gain access
3. Opt-out ad tracking – Online ad network often install a small file on the computer of people who visit certain websites. These so-called cookies can log your surfing habits, allowing advertisers to tailor ads to your interest.

If you are trying to keep some online privacy then you should opt out .in the settings panel of your web browser make sure panel disable cookies from third party websites. Most advertising company’s use they see where you go on line and keep a record.

4. use a secure inter internet connection-

Don’t browse private sites and look at personal or financial information while on a public wifi connection. Never shop online at your local coffee shop because you never know who may be spying on you with that very same open internet connection. If you are making an online banking, emailing a personal story or photo, ONLY do so on secure password protected internet connection.