Bachelor of Computer Arts

Computer arts, media arts, animation, and graphic design represent one of today’s fastest growing fields. Bachelor of Computer Arts is a multidisciplinary degree program that provides students with the creative, technical and communication skills. Students in the program are geared up to take challenging careers in arts, media, video production. They are offered courses from areas of arts, communication, media, digital media, business and design fundamentals.
The program offers a comprehensive coverage of basic principles of arts, design and multimedia through to the final artistic productions. It offers specialization in Graphic Design, Media Production, and Animation & Multimedia.

Industry trends indicate an exponential increase in demand for specialists with creative talent, artistic expression, technical expertise, aesthetic sense, and media understanding. With advances in digital technology and its integration with the field of arts, new areas of design and expression have emerged. These include digital drawing, digital imaging, graphic design, product design, advertising design, computer animation, and visual effects.

Animation & Multimedia

The Animation & Multimedia specialization focuses on providing the conceptual, technical, and visual design skills required to create multimedia applications and environments. Students build a strong foundation for a multimedia design career by learning design principles, narrative structure, storyboarding, digital imaging, basic action scripting, video and sound editing, motion graphics, and interaction design.

The specialization aims to provide the academic and practical base covering the creative, design, technical and business skills necessary within the multimedia field. Students will be able to acquire in-depth knowledge of the process of creative thinking and concept development, as well as the technical skills needed to produce lively and creative content, and the business acumen and professional competency to be an efficient and effective member of a multimedia business or enterprise.
Multimedia Lab

To enable the students to meet the above objectives, a special lab is made available with state-of-the-art software and hardware tools. The equipment includes video capturing equipment, production video equipment, sound mixers, editing equipment etc.

BILL GATES OPENS NEW COMPANY

If you are a Bill Gates, you can't sit at home after an early retirement. You will do something; Bill Gates is doing a lot more. After stepping down from his position at Microsoft and handing over the helm to Steve Ballmer, Gates is reportedly setting up a new company. The new company, called bgc3 (the website is still under construction, check out http://www.bgc3.com/), is reported to deal with broad range of topics such as 'scientific and technological services', 'industrial analysis and research' and 'design and development of computer hardware and software.
WELL, Gates venture into scientific area could be critical. He is known for closed source and proprietary technologies. Will he take the same approach in scientific matters? If yes, it could spell disaster. The Human Genome project has become so successful owing to its open source nature. However, it's way too early to predict anything.The new company is expected to be a think tank for science and tech innovations. TechFlash reported the 'c' in the name stands for 'catalyst', not 'company'. The company will also work as a catalyst between Microsoft and The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation. Recently, the foundation's The Grand Challenges Explorations initiative announced the winners of their Round 1 funding. This diverse group of scientists and researchers from 22 countries and five continents will each receive a $100,000 award to help them take their bold, new ideas for global health solutions to the next level.According to Techflash, "The records describe bgC3 as a 'holding company' headquartered in Kirkland – a relatively short, picturesque drive from Gates' home on Lake Washington."There was an interesting interpretation of bgC3 by the news site. "Bill Gates Company Three – his third enterprise after Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But that’s only partially correct, according to the Gates insider.Well, Gates' retirement days are over. He is back to work

MOTHERBOARD

The Motherboard is the main chassis of the PC. All data that flows from component to component inside the computer at some point goes through the motherboard. That is the Motherboards main function to direct data flow to the right components.
650i SLI Chipset - Details, specifications and available motherboards based on the Nvidia Nforce 650i SLI Chipset.
680i SLI Chipset - Take a look at one of the most feature packed chipsets to hit the market to date. Designed for the Intel socket 775 range of CPU's
BIOS Beep codes - If you PC has a problem booting up. Chances are it will beep at you. These beeps are trying to tell you something. Find out what the combination of beeps actually mean.
Buying a motherboard - What type of motherboard do you need? As the Motherboard connects all your other components together you will need one to suit the components you have. Check out the guide and get the perfect motherboard.
What does your Motherboard Chipset do? - Find out why your motherboard chipset is so important and the jobs it does within your PC.
KT400 Chipset - Info on the KT400 chipset and Motherboard comparisons using this chipset.
KT600 Chipset - Info on the KT600 chipset and Motherboard comparisons using this chipset.

KT880 Chipset - Info on the KT600 chipset and Motherboard comparisons using this chipset.
K8T800 Chipset - Info on the K8T800 chipset and Motherboard comparisons using this chipset.
PCI Express - The age of the AGP bus has passed. New technology has come to forefront in the form of PCI Express. New data transfer system for both graphics cards and other components.
What is Your Motherboard - What exactly is you motherboard and what is its purpose? A Basic guide to PC motherboards.
What Now for Socket A - A look at the latest Chipsets for the Socket A platform from VIA, Nvidia and SiS and Compare what they have to offer.
Understanding your Motherboard - What are the different parts of your motherboard. This article shows you what each part of your main board is for.

Information communication technology

Information and Communications Technology - or technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. The term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly in two communities: education and government[1]. In the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is synonymous with IT; ICT in fact encompasses any medium to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records); technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. It includes the wide variety of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage), the rapidly developing personal hardware market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and much more; the full gamut of application software from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the Internet. Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included.
It should be noted that "ICT" by this English definition is different in nuance and scope than under "ICT" in Japanese, which is more technical and narrow in scope.
ICT capabilities vary widely from the sophistication of major western economies to lesser provision in the developing world. But the latter are catching up fast, often leapfrogging older generations of technology and developing new solutions that match their specific needs
BY SANDESH

# 2008 year in review: Security

We take a look back at the top security stories of this year, from new exploits to the continuing tit-for-tat battle between the hackers and the anti-malware community.
January It was a slow start to the year in security terms, but Sophos predicted more Mac malware, law enforcers announced a new international database of criminals, and the chairman of Barclays had his identity stolen.
February The embarrassment continued for the government after it was revealed that a Home Office data disc ended up on eBay, security firm Trend Micro acquired encryption firm Identum, and Google tightened the security on its hosted Google Apps service.
March Microsoft sought to buy in more security expertise with the purchase of Komoku, Facebook enhanced its privacy settings, the Tories called for the app ointment of a cyber security minister, and Tim Berners-Lee warned about data privacy issues on the internet.
April The Information Commissioner criticised the government for its inexcusable data breaches, and the annual Infosecurity show kicked off in London.
May Experts warned that the new Faster Payments initiative may lead to more fraud, CompTIA warned of mobile security threats, Vista was said by some to be more vulnerable than Windows 2000, and this month saw the 30th anniversary of spam.
June Section 6.6 of the Payment Card Industry standard came into force, and Gartner announced that the enterprise security industry is still booming.
July Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon lost his extradition appeal, vulnerabilities in the DNS were exploited for the first time, payment service Apacs reported a 180 per cent surge in phishing emails over the past year, and Facebook accidentally revealed personal information on 80 million users.
August Microsoft's Patch Tuesday on 12 August was the largest in years with 26 updates, ex-White House security adviser Howard Schmidt took the reins at the newly formed Information Security Forum, and McAfee bought data leak prevention firm Reconnex.
September The hack of Republican vice president nominee Sarah Palin's email account highlighted the security dangers of using webmail. Consolidation in the security space continued when McAfee snapped up Secure Computing, and supporters of Gary McKinnon appealed to the Home Office to refuse his extradition to the US.
October October saw the annual RSA Conference Europe, with the European Union hinting that it could introduce data breach notification laws as soon as 2011. The private sector showed that it was as adept as the government at losing data, meanwhile, with the news that T-Mobile's Deutsche Telekom branch had lost 17 million customer details.
November November was a busy month. Spam fighters received a boost with the closure of hosting company McColo. The Information Commissioner finally got improved powers of investigation and punitive action, and published a new report designed to educate firms about building privacy-enhancing technologies into systems from the start. The EU recognised the growing problem of e-crime by launching a five-year crime fighting plan. Meanwhile new vnunet.com research found that our readers think chief executives should take the rap for data breaches. And finally, Symantec wrapped up its acquisition of MessageLabs and announced the retirement of chief executive John Thompson.
December And finally December saw a whole host of predictions from the vendor community, warning of more data losses, more sophisticated malware and more malicious spam. IBM reported that security attacks now number 2.5 billion a day globally, while Kasperksy Lab chief executive Eugene Kasperksy boldly predicted that his company would break into the top four endpoint security vendors by next year, and reach the number one spot before his retirement.

AVG update deletes critical Windows file

A recent update from antivirus firm AVG has caused havoc with some users by deleting a critical file in Windows XP after incorrectly detecting it as a virus.
Many users of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 reported seeing a warning that the Windows system file 'user32.dll' was infected with the PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN Trojans, with a recommendation that the file be moved to the program's vault and deleted.
However, this rendered the PC useless as it could no longer boot without the system file. It appears that only Windows XP users were affected.
After a slew of complaints and queries on AVG's forums, some users began offering step-by-step guides to getting PCs up and running again by booting from the Windows install disk and replacing the lost file.
AVG has since admitted that the detection was a false positive. " Unfortunately, the previous virus database might have detected the mentioned virus on legitimate files. We can confirm that it was a false alarm," said a company spokesman.
The antivirus firm has published a workaround under Hot Topics 1574 False Positive user32.dll to help those affected get back to normal. It has also released another update to correct the problem.
"We have immediately released a new virus update (270.9.0/1778) that removes the false positive detection on this file. Please update your AVG and check your files again," said the spokesman.
AVG has over 80 million users around the world, and is hugely popular thanks largely to the free version of its software.
by SANDESH

MINI LAPTOP

A mini laptop is a computer about half the size of a regular laptop. It has smaller screen, hard drive, memory, and usually slower CPU. Mini laptops and the MS Windows Mobile platform are not the same thing and should not be confused. Here, we discuss mini laptops that use the standard Windows platform (or, in some cases, the Linux platform). Although standard laptops are quite portable, your lifestyle or work style may demand something even more mobile. Mini laptops weigh about 1.5 lb, and they fit in most handbags, or even large pockets. They are able to meet most of your computing needs without too much loss in performance - or at least that is their aim.

Background
IBM was one of the pioneers in experimenting with miniature laptops. They eventually handed over their prototype to a third party developer but that product never made it to the mass market.
A number of manufacturers have produced commercially available products including Sony, Fujitsu, Asus, JVC, Sharp, and Acer. Additionally, the $200 Linux-based XO laptop developed by the One Laptop Per Child program (whose goal is to provide children in the developing world with access to computer technology) might almost be considered a mini laptop because of its small size.
Functionality
The Fujitsu U810 is an example of an MS Windows-based mini laptop and is therefore PC compatible. It has a 5.6" LCD screen, 1GB ram with 40GB hard drive. For wireless connectivity, you get WiFi a/b/g and Bluetooth. The unit has a qwerty keyboard. Surveys reveal that web browsing, reading email with attachments, managing personal information (such as agendas), downloading pictures, and word processing make up most of our usage when we are on the move. The Fujitsu U810, and its peers, can accomplish all those tasks, and can also provide communication via Skype.
Impact on teaching
In the classroom, most instructors will probably find mini laptops less than ideal: the small keyboard make it hard to type quickly (especially at a podium), the on-board mouse is a bit awkward for moving the cursor, and the screen resolution and pixel pitch is too low for quick glances. For use in a classroom, an instructor would do well to choose a decent 12-13" laptop over a mini laptop.
Impact on learning
A 2007 study at the University of Waterloo revealed that more students own or have access to a laptop than to a desktop computer. However, many students prefer to not bring their laptop to class, because of its size, weight, and the potential for the laptop to be stolen. Mini laptops address some of these concerns, and therefore they may be a good option for students (especially if the student also has access to a larger laptop or desktop for more intensive work, such as writing an essay). For students who prefer taking notes by hand (rather than typing), the Fujitsu U810 has a pen input.
Accessibility issues
The Fujitsu U810 has the usual Windows Accessibility tools. Additionally, as mentioned, it has a pen input tool. Challenges pertaining to the size of the keyboard will be an issue for some users. Likewise, the small screen size necessitates a lot of scrolling. The on-board mouse, too, is in a different location than on most laptops. In short, you will need to do a lot of "getting used to" the Fujitsu U810 (and its peers) before you will feel comfortable with it. Incidentally, one issue that I wrestled with when evaluating this device was whether I should put it on a desk or hold it in my hand when I'm using it. I ended up putting it on my desk like a laptop.
Best practices
The strength of small devices such as mini laptops is self evident: you can take them places where you wouldn't take their larger laptop cousins. As mentioned previously, it's best to use a mini laptop as an adjunct to another regular-sized laptop or desktop computer. One could, for example, use a mini laptop in class or during a meeting to take notes; but you'd probably want to transfer those notes to a larger computer before, say, incorporating them into an essay or departmental report.
Hardware and software considerations
Typically, mini laptops use low-power WiFi and low-contrast displays to prolong their battery life. For the same reason, they also use a powered-down version of common CPUs. Accordingly, if you need to run resource-heavy applications, like a video editing program, you should probably steer away from a mini laptop. You should also take into consideration the OS platform used by mini laptops, to make sure that you can easily move documents from it to any other computer you use. The OS platform of most mini laptops is either Windows-based or some variant of Linux.
Support and training
At the University of Waterloo, IST primarily supports certain designated brands of desktop and laptop computers (formerly Dell and currently Lenovo). IST will attempt to offer support for other brands and kinds of computers (including mini laptops), but the extent of their support may be limited. Regarding software, if you have a specific program that you intend to use on a mini-laptop, you should ask your vendor to install and test that program before you buy it.
Financial cost
Mini laptops sell for about $800. There are some much cheaper devices in the market but you should pay close attention to their specifications as some of them are not fully PC-compatible, and are essentially gadgets of limited use. I should know, as I have a few of them.
Current usage at UW
Until recently, mini laptops tended to be "special order" devices as opposed to something that stores kept in stock on their shelves. Not surprisingly, therefore, mini laptops are not much in evident use at the University of Waterloo.
Current support at UW
The "standard" brand of desktop or laptop computer at UW has been Dell (in the past) and Lenovo (at present). Accordingly, IST is best equipped to support those brands of computers. IST will, though, attempt to offer support for other brands of computers belonging to faculty and staff.
The bottom line
A mini-laptop such as the Fujitsu U810 can perform most of what the typical user will demand with varying degrees of ease and challenge. The Fujitsu U810 is a good device if you are on the move all day or if you travel a lot and just need basic computing. Personally, I prefer to have simply use my smartphone when I want to be super mobile, as it allows me to read email, PDFs, and documents, and to check my online schedule. For more dedicated computing, I would rather have a decent 13-inch laptop.
Some considerations when you are choosing a make and model

Avoid buying a mini-laptop that has a non-Intel CPU as it may cause issues with your applications.
Choose a unit that has a display of at least 8" or 1024 horizontal resolution (so you don't have to scroll sideways)
Choose a unit that has at least a 6-cell battery.
Try the keyboard and mouse to make sure you are comfortable using them.
Choose a Windows or Linux operating system based on whether you will need your mini-laptop to inter-operate with other computers (and their operating systems) and other kinds of hardware.