Why Should I Study Abroad?

Study abroad is an enriching and eye-opening adventure, where learning extends far beyond the classroom. People planning careers in almost every field can benefit from an international experience, and college is the easiest time to spend an extended amount of time abroad!

Study Abroad will expose you to new ways of thinking, living, and viewing the world!

Benefits include:

The opportunity to learn about another culture firsthand

Fulfilling major and minor coursework requirement

Learning an entirely new language or becoming fluent in one you have already studied

Developing new intellectual pursuits, skills, and perspectives Travel

By living within another culture, you are likely to gain a deeper appreciation for the culture and country in which you study. You may also gain a new understanding of, and perhaps even appreciation for, the United States and its way of life. You can also expect to make friendships and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Study Abroad can also help give you a competitive edge in the job market. Employers increasingly seek graduates who have international experience, and a study abroad experience will enhance your employability. International knowledge, cross-cultural communication skills, flexibility, resilience, and the ability to adapt to new circumstances are skills enhanced through study abroad that are important to employers in various fields.

How will be the WORLD after 100 years

I'm thinking that if we aren't careful with all this pollution and war - the only ones who will have to worry about getting around may be the paramecium.However, if I let my imagination free and assume that we humans survive the current state of affairs and try to conjure up what transportation could be like in 100 years, I suspect we will be using a propulsion system based on pulling the power right out of the atmosphere and the sunlight and will have dropped our primitive system of using fossil fuels as well as the (purely profit motivated) system of having raw electricity forced through wires. Tesla's designs made this unnecessary from the start of the 20th century.The vehicles will then be very different - lighter and mostly using some form of flight for all but very local travel and will not need roads and highways so much as very well organized flight paths. Local urban travel will be only by use of publicly controlled vehicles following carefully organized grids which will be part of the buildings themselves and will not require the type of road systems as at present - so there will be walkways and nature where we now have roads and highways, throughout the towns and cities. Personal (publicly owned and maintained) vehicles will be smaller and lighter and will fit together in such a way as to make them stackable and easy to store and access from vehicle tubes that will be affixed to the buildings. Timeless visual designs will highlight the beauty of the materials used, being kept sleek, simple, uncluttered and efficient and with features that ensure optimum simplicity for implementing advances in technical details. Planned obsolescence will by then have been declared a punishable offence and will have been replaced with production that is rewarded for the longevity and upwards mobility of the design. Advances in the technical details will be frequent (since the creativity will be directed into improvement of functionality rather than extreme competition for sales) and will be inexpensive and easy to implement. Imagine what could already have been done by now if the money funneled during the past 100 years into war and the physical and mental machinery of the subjugation of most by the few - for personal power and material gain - had instead been used to develop and improve life for everyone.Dream along with me...

Interesting Facts- Things we dont know!

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times.

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

The King of Hearts is the only king! WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. (Since Venus is normally associated with women, what does this tell you!)

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

Most dust particles in your house are made from DEAD SKIN!

The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. So did the first "Marlboro Man."

Walt Disney was afraid OF MICE!

PEARLS MELT IN VINEGAR!

The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but, not downstairs.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six (6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. (I keep my toothbrush in the living room now!)

And the best for last.....Turtles can breathe through their butts.(I know some people like that, don't YOU?)

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management (SCM) is the term used to describe the management of the flow of

materials, information, and funds across the entire supply chain, from suppliers to component producers to final assemblers to distribution (warehouses and retailers), and ultimately to the consumer. In fact, it often includes after-sales service and returns or recycling. In contrast to multiechelon inventory management, which coordinates inventories at multiple locations, SCM typically involves coordination of information and materials among multiple firms.

Supply chain management has generated much interest in recent years for a number of reasons.

Many managers now realize that actions taken by one member of the chain can influence the profitability of all others in the chain. Firms are increasingly thinking in terms of competing as part of a supply chain against other supply chains, rather than as a single firm against other individual firms. Also, as firms successfully streamline their own operations, the next opportunity for improvement is through better coordination with their suppliers and customers. The costs of poor coordination can be extremely high. In the Italian pasta industry, consumer demand is quite steady throughout the year.

However, because of trade promotions, volume discounts, long lead times, full-truckload discounts, and end-of-quarter sales incentives the orders seen at the manufacturers are highly variable (Hammond (1994)). In fact, the variability increases in moving up the supply chain from consumer to grocery store to distribution center to central warehouse to factory, a phenomenon that is often called the bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect has been experienced by many students playing the “Beer Distribution Game.” (Sterman (1989); Sterman (1992); Chen & Samroengraja (2000); Jacobs (2000)) The costs of this variability are high -- inefficient use of production and warehouse resources, high transportation costs, and high inventory costs, to name a few. Acer America, Inc. sacrificed $20million in profits by paying $10 million for air freight to keep up with surging demand, and then paying $10 million more later when that inventory became obsolete.

For more about Supply Chain Management visit http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/dave.pyke/case_studies/supply_chain_or_ms.pdf

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management (SCM) is the term used to describe the management of the flow of materials, information, and funds across the entire supply chain, from suppliers to component producers to final assemblers to distribution (warehouses and retailers), and ultimately to the consumer. In fact, it often includes after-sales service and returns or recycling. In contrast to multiechelon inventory management, which coordinates inventories at multiple locations, SCM typically involves coordination of information and materials among multiple firms.

Supply chain management has generated much interest in recent years for a number of reasons. Many managers now realize that actions taken by one member of the chain can influence the profitability of all others in the chain. Firms are increasingly thinking in terms of competing as part of a supply chain against other supply chains, rather than as a single firm against other individual firms. Also, as firms successfully streamline their own operations, the next opportunity for improvement is through better coordination with their suppliers and customers. The costs of poor coordination can be extremely high. In the Italian pasta industry, consumer demand is quite steady throughout the year.

However, because of trade promotions, volume discounts, long lead times, full-truckload discounts, and end-of-quarter sales incentives the orders seen at the manufacturers are highly variable (Hammond (1994)). In fact, the variability increases in moving up the supply chain from consumer to grocery store to distribution center to central warehouse to factory, a phenomenon that is often called the bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect has been experienced by many students playing the “Beer Distribution Game.” (Sterman (1989); Sterman (1992); Chen & Samroengraja (2000); Jacobs (2000)) The costs of this variability are high -- inefficient use of production and warehouse resources, high transportation costs, and high inventory costs, to name a few. Acer America, Inc. sacrificed $20million in profits by paying $10 million for air freight to keep up with surging demand, and then paying $10 million more later when that inventory became obsolete.

For more about Supply Chain Management visit

http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/dave.pyke/case_studies/supply_chain_or_ms.pdf

What ur name means.

What ur name means.

Instructions : What you do is find out what each letter of your name means.
Then connect all the meanings and it describes YOU. (Its TRUE !!)
(Is'nt it GREAT !!)

PS : If you have double or triple letters, just count the meaning once.
For Example : RAMA

R You are a social butterfly.

A You can be very quiet when you have something on your mind.

M Success comes easily to you.






go ahead and try

A You can be very quiet when you have something on your mind.
B You are always cautious when it comes to meeting newpeople.
C You definitely have a partier side in you, don't be shy to show it.
D You have trouble trusting people.
E You are a very exciting person.
F Everyone loves you.
G You have excellent ways of viewing people.
H You are not judgmental.
I You are always smiling and making others smile.
J Jealously
K You like to try new things.
L Love is something you deeply believe in.
M Success comes easily to you.
N You like to work, but you always want a break.
O You are very open-minded.
P You are very friendly and understanding.
Q You are a hypocrite.
R You are a social butterfly.
S You are very broad-minded.
T You have an attitude, a big one.
U You feel like you have to equal up to people's standards.
V You have a very good physique and looks.
W You like your privacy.
X You never let people tell you what to do.
Y You cause a lot of trouble.
Z You're always fighting with someone.

Mobile WiMAX Technology

Mobile WiMAX¹ is the next revolution in wireless technology that will enable pervasive, high-speed connectivity to meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband Internet on the go. Delivering the next leap in the mobile network evolution with fourth generation (4G) wireless, WiMAX will drive a wide array of devices well beyond what's available today, including notebooks, phones, consumer electronic devices, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and more.

The WiMAX future
The only network optimized specifically for mobile broadband Internet, WiMAX is based on a set of global standards covering fixed, portable, and mobile deployments on an open network that will help drive and leverage the openness of the Internet, as opposed to prior generation's, closed systems, such as 3G networks.

The low-cost, all-IP network architecture and backwards compatibility with existing 2G and 3G cellular network deployments makes WiMAX easier and more cost-effective to deploy and operate than current mobile wireless data solutions. As a result, it has already garnered broad support from leading operators—both wired line and wireless—and device manufacturers around the world.

Related information
WiMAX coming to a city near you
Intel® WiMAX products
WiMAX standards and interoperability
WiMAX Forum*
Check out the WiMAX Forum* web site: Intel is a founding member and provides executive leadership.

Go there
WiMAX gets global nod
Read the press release
WiMAX provides two to three times the performance of 3G solutions today, with the ability to scale to ten times the performance in the future.² As a driving force in collaboration with industry leaders, Intel is working towards further expansion and support of WiMAX through technology advancements such as Intel® WiMAX/WiFi Link 5050 Series, an integrated module solution for notebooks with advanced MIMO antenna technology. Notebooks with Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology will have Intel® WiMAX/WiFi Link 5050 Series as an available option in the latter half of 2008.

Expanding connectivity around the globe
With the ability to carry more data traffic than current wireless networks, WiMAX is intended to meet increasing demands for mobile data. WiMAX will also be the first to combine the following standards-based technologies:

Efficient support for many simultaneous users with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
Increased throughput and range with Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) smart antenna technology using multiple antennas to carry more data traffic than current networks
Based on the IEEE 802.16e standard, mobile WiMAX is designed to deliver superior data rates and scalability, lower costs, and reduced network complexity. As the first new technology to be added to the International Mobile Telecommuncations-2000 (IMT-2000 also known as 3G) set of standards in nearly a decade, WiMAX is about to revolutionize and mobilize the way we connect around the globe. Learn more about mobile WiMAX by reading these white papers.

WiMAX Technology

WiMAX is the next-generation of wireless technology designed to enable pervasive, high-speed mobile Internet access to the widest array of devices including notebook PCs, handsets, smartphones, and consumer electronics such as gaming devices, cameras, camcorders, music players, and more. As the fourth generation (4G) of wireless technology, WiMAX delivers low-cost, open networks and is the first all IP mobile Internet solution enabling efficient and scalable networks for data, video, and voice. As a major driver in the support and development of WiMAX, Intel has designed embedded WiMAX solutions for a variety of mobile devices supporting the future of high-speed broadband on-the-go.

Learn a new language is getting easier

For people that have limited time to start learning a language, there is a software i recommend and i have tested and see how so easy to learn a new language visually helped by computer software. The sofware is

Rosseta Stone.

They provide many language you wish to learn. It's multimedia powered so your skill in reading, writing, and speaking can be trained using this software.

Fiber Optic Cable

A fiber optic cable consists of tubes of glass or plastic fiber which transmit digital data over longer distances and at higher data rates than other forms of wired and wireless communications. A typical optical fiber consists of a very narrow strand or fiber of glass called the core. This core is surrounded by a concentric layer of the glass called cladding. The diameter of a core is 62.5 microns and the diameter of cladding is about 125 microns. The cladding is coated with insulating material such as plastic jacket.

In twisted-pair cable and coaxial cable, data is transmitted in the form of electric frequencies. So copper wire has to be protected from water and electromagnetic waves. In fiber optic cable, these types of problems are not occurred.

The data transmission speed is very high because fiber-optic cable uses light to transmit data. The data transmission speed is up to billions bits per second. An important characteristic of fiber optic is refraction. Refraction is the characteristic of a material to either pass or reflect light. When light passes through a medium, it bends as it passes from one medium to the other.

The advantages of fiber optic cable are:

Its transmission capacity is about 26,000 times greater than twisted pair media - up into the gigabits and more reliable (lower data transmission errors).

It has high level of security and much thinner and lighter than other metal wires.

Fiber optic not affected by electromagnetic noise for example radios, motors and others cables.

The disadvantage of fiber optic is that the cables are very costly and difficult to install.

Therefore the fiber-optic cable is becoming more popular and replacing all old cable system. Today telephone, banks, and television companies are replacing their existing telephone and coaxial cables with fiber-optic cables.

Tips Choosing DSL Providers

Today there are many DSL providers offering DSL connection in all cities and some rural areas. DSL internet provides high speed on already exiting telephone lines, and same time you can use internet and as well as your line for phone. Now the selection of DSL provider depends upon your home or office location from DSL services provider office, telephone exchange updating status and your needs to using broadband connection. First of all visit your nearest DSL service provider to collect the information about their monthly rate, data speed, installation fees, modem rate and traffic allowed in one month. Mostly DSL provider offering traffic allowed up to 1 GB with basic 128 Kbps internet connection. But if you want to play online games, downloading audio or video files and uploading data, then the traffic allowed(1 GB) in one month from DSL provider will be the main issue for you. May be some DSL provider offering you up to 2 GB or more with the same rates. Always consider their customer support and modem warranty strategy whether they are offering free or paid service in case any problem after getting connection.

Some DSL providers offer more benefits for you with DSL connection to compete with others services provider like first one month free, free modem and some antivirus software. Meanwhile some ISP offers you discount package if you will pay them 6 to 8 months advance internet monthly payments. At the end I recommend you, always choose your nearest DSL service provider for good internet speed with minimum problem because distance also matter in DSL.

DSL reports tools

DSL reports tools is used to monitor the history of internet usage. These tools generate the DSL session reports (for example Start Time, Duration, Accumulated Duration, Used Bytes Accumulated Used Bytes, Caller ID and user IP Address) to solve end user problem and to improve the DSL services. Many DSL providers offer free report generator tools with their internet service. These tools can be used on both ends (user end and ISP). These tools can also monitor the user internet web pages history, messenger sign in history and errors detail.

There are many DSL providers offers free speed test reports software with Internet connection package to check speed frequently and this speed test software generate the full month speed history. Many third parties software provider companies offer free speed check software on internet, download and use it to monitor speed constantly. Yon can test speed using any website for this purpose, search speed test tools websites using any search engine. DSL speed test result will be different in different times, may be fast during early morning and slow at peak hours. You should get the results in different hours then with the help of average decide about the actual speed.

WiMAX Wireless Broadband Info

WiMAX stands for World Interoperability for Microwave Access that enables the actual broadband wireless network with high speed.

WiMAX operate same like WiFi but WiFi operate with some limitation like it is base band technology and cover only 100 feet radius with slow speed.

WiMAX covers a radius of 50 Km and work with the speed of 70 Mbps. WiMAX is the replacement of the wired broadband.

In wired broadband connection, we can transmit data with 512 Kbps to 10 Mbps speed and more, for example DSL broadband and cable broadband.

In future all new desktop and notebook computers will be incorporated with WiMAX technology.

With this technology you will be connected to the internet even you are driving your car with the speed of 120 Km.

Map of Mars! - Unbelievable!

Dear Readers,

Can u ever imagine a map with pictures of all places on Mars same as Earth's. Here it is!

Google Mars. With the help of Google Mars you can go through Mars same as Google Earth, Google Moon and Google Sky.

U can access google mars anytime using the link given below. Hope u will enjoy.


Link 4 Google Mars
http://www.google.com/mars/


Link 4 Google Moon
www.google.com/moon


Link 4 Google Sky
www.google.com/sky

The Way to Happiness

Even when times are difficult, people seek for happiness. The goal for the good life doesn’t leave us readily, even when our jobs are on the line or our investments are shrinking in value. We want so many things in our materialistic world, nice cars, beautiful homes, travel, great entertainment……and yet, with so many having had it all, few seem to really be happy. What is happiness, and what brings it on. That’s the subject of this Moral Compass.

Happiness isn’t something you can buy. If it were, somebody would be making billions selling it. Many are in the business of trying to do just that, but what they offer is only temporary enjoyment, like a great trip to somewhere that provides a good memory accompanied by lots of photos we can show our grandkids someday. But happiness – the deep satisfaction that remains with us whether times are good or times are difficult – that doesn’t come with a dollar sign. We have to seek it another way.

Happiness isn’t a life full of endless fun either. People who are fun seekers can only be happy running from one fun experience to another – if they are rich enough to pursue such a life. The effort to maintain a high on pleasure, however, is a foreboding task. Pleasure seeking with a resulting form of happiness that is only sustained until the next pleasure high can be found is not true happiness, but rather diversion.

Happiness isn’t a fleeting good feeling either – like the feeling one gets from eating a great meal or seeing a good movie. The enjoyment that comes from such experiences definitely lifts us up, but it doesn’t go down deep to create a happiness that is constant and emanates from the core of our being.

So what is true happiness? It is the deep inner pleasure one derives from living a life that is built on solid moral principle. Moral principles that guide our thoughts and actions provide us with a way to live that heads us in a positive direction at all times, whether times are good or times are difficult. Moral principles help us coexist with our family members in a solidly positive way and teach us to seek good – not harm – for our friends and associates. And where do we find those guiding principles? They are found in the Bible – the best selling book this world has ever produced.

Why are the moral principles of the Bible conducive to happiness? By following them we find peace with God, right relationships with others, and wholesomeness in our own minds. With their influence we are guided into wise living and truly positive thinking. We are taught what is good and what is evil, and just knowing that is a great step toward finding true happiness.

Happiness is a blessing God desires for all people. That desire prompted Him to inspire a book full of wise and powerful principles that, if studied and used in our lives, would guarantee a life of true happiness that includes productivity, prosperity, and good health – all great benefits of living a life that is blessed with true happiness.

Top 10 security vulnerabilities of virtualization

There are some common areas where system administrators may be unknowingly undermining security of their computing architecture and thus causing vulnerabilities to possible future attacks. These issues range from improperly secured networks to trusting that technologies such as SSL and VLANs are fool-proof. Here are the top ten issues...

1. Virtualization administrators are not security administrators!
Virtualization administrators aren't security administrators, nor do they always consult or listen to their security administrators. This problem can be mitigated by educating security administrators about the realities of virtualization and also educating the virtualization administrators in the language the security administrators use.

2. The management appliances for virtualization servers are within improperly secured or unsecured networks.

3. Trust SSL.
SSL does not assure fool-prrof security. There is an attack against SSL that is easy to do and takes less than two seconds. Do not assume SSL is secure enough. Unless pre-shared certificates are in use, SSL is at risk. If you must use SSL-based management tools, use the Administrative network for this work where you can trust who is on the network. In addition, use good VPNs to access the administrative network from outside the network.

4. Virtual machines (VMs) are not considered a hostile environment.
VMs within a demilitarized zone (DMZ) or otherwise Internet-facing are a hostile environment, but all VMs are hostile when it comes to virtualization. An attack on one VM should never directly or indirectly lead to the virtualization host.

5. NFS and iSCSI storage networks are not segregated from all other networks.

6. VirtualCenter is placed on the outside of the administrative network.
While VMware ESX is firewalled, VirtualCenter is on the wrong side of the firewall. It should be as protected as the virtualization hosts.

7. Extra service console ports exist.
When attaching a NFS server to ESX, a service console (SC) port is also created. This is a mistake; iSCSI needs service console participation, not ESX. The service console should access the storage network through a router, gateway and preferably a firewall.

8. Service console is placed within the DMZ or hostile environment.

9. Trusting that VLANs will protect the network.
You need very good switching hardware to protect from most of the known VLAN attacks. Also, the use of VLANs introduces data co-mingling over the wire.

10. Not understanding security within the hypervisor.
If you do not understand the security within the hypervisor, you will be hard pressed to define how to secure your virtualization environment.

The bottom line: Security should never be an add-on; it should be part of the design, right from the beginning.

Use mobile broadband for portability and reliability

Yesterday, when I was using my internet, I was suddenly disconnected from the internet connection. I checked for all the possible reasons and couldn’t find anything near me. So I called my service provider to know if there is any problem with them and they informed me that the internet cables are destroyed beneath the earth due to some reasons and it took 1 day for them to set right everything.

A few months back, the cables under the sea have been cut due to a ship and hence I couldn’t use my internet for a week and there are many fluctuations and frequent disconnection of my internet connection for 1 month due to that. These are a few instances that tell the problems that we face with the usage of internet connection with cable. I was searching to find some alternative to this solution and I found one, i.e., mobile broadband.


Unlike the big cable that runs all the way from your internet service provider to your home, mobile broadband does require only a USB port on your computer to use the internet. The internet service providers use a dongle for providing this service. The dongle receives signals from the nearby towers [the towers of your internet service provider like Vodafone, Orange etc] and provides internet service to you. This is a wireless internet connection with portability – you can take this from one place to another without any hassle. As long as there is a tower in range, you are able to go on the internet. This is a recent technology and hence there are some concerns with the speeds and coverage limits. GPRS, 3G, WIMAX, LTE, EV-DO are some of the methods of providing you this service. Of all 3G is the latest and widely used in present world.

There are two kinds of packages available for to use the wireless internet. You can either pay for 1 MB or you can pay for 1 month instantly and use it without counting your internet usage every time. There are different plans in them depending on the speeds, downloads etc. Dongles can be bought from direct service providers along with the service. Irish users have got more advantage than others as they have the opportunity to use three E160G services - a real alternative to fixed-line broadband, 3's USB modem offers speeds of up to 3.6MBs per second which means less yawning and table tapping - and more doing. This is one more example to show the advancement in the technology is helping to make the life easier and simple. In no time, these dongle will replace the traditional cables.

YouTube in Local Languages

Literally, it might be known as Voustube, Voitubo or Vocetubo, but the world’s most popular video-sharing site introduced local-language sites in nine countries on Tuesday that will all just go by YouTube.

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the co-founders of YouTube, which was acquired by Web search leader Google Inc. for $1.65 billion last year, told a news conference here that the nine country sites will eventually feature locally popular content.

YouTube unveiled national sites for Brazil (http://www.youtube.com.br), Britain (http://youtube.co.uk), France (youtube.fr), Ireland (youtube.ie), Italy (http://it.youtube.com), Japan (youtube.jp), the Netherlands (youtube.nl), Poland (youtube.pl) and Spain (youtube.es).

10 Symptoms of a Virus Infection

10 virus symptoms

Programs take longer to load. Memory-intensive operations take a lot of time to start.

A change in dates against the filenames in the directory. When the virus modifies a file the operating system changes the date stamp.

The floppy disk or hard disk is suddenly accessed without logical reason.

Increased use of disk space and growth in file size-the virus attaches itself to many files.

Abnormal write-protect errors. The virus trying to write to a protected disk.

Strange characters appear in the directory listing of filenames.

Strange messages like "Type Happy Birthday Joshi" (Joshi Virus) or "Driver Memory Error" (kak.worm) appear on the screen and in documents.

Strange graphic displays such as falling letters or a bouncing ball appear on screen.

Programs may hang the computer or not work at all.

Junk characters overwrite text in document or data files.

10 Signs And Symptoms Of Spyware and Adware Infections

Your system runs noticeably slower than it did before. It could be infected by spyware and adware.

A search toolbar or other browser toolbar appears even though you didn't request or install it. Spyware and adware programs are usually installed with other programs that are advertised in legitimate ways.

You receive an email in your email client with offers related to your recent Internet searches. A spyware or adware program might be monitoring your buying habits.

You enter a search term in Internet Explorer's address bar and press Enter to start the search.
Instead of your usual search site, an unfamiliar site handles the search. A spyware or adware program might be responsible for this.

You get pop-up advertisements when your browser is not running or when your system is not even connected to the Internet, or you get pop-up ads that address you by name. A spyware or adware program could be doing this.

When you start your browser, the home page has changed to something undesirable, normally to a search portal that the spyware or adware program is trying to market.

At a time when you're not doing anything online, the send or receive lights on your dial-up or broadband modem blink just as wildly as when you're downloading a file or surfing the Web. Or the network/modem icon in your system tray flashes rapidly even when you're not using the connection. This could be a spyware or adware program sending out info from your computer.

A new item appears in your Favorites list without your putting it there. No matter how many times you delete it, the item always reappears later. Spyware and adware behaviors are normally very annoying.

Your spyware or adware cure program stops working correctly. It may warn you that certain necessary support files are missing, but if you restore the files they go missing again. It may appear to launch normally and then spontaneously shut down or it may simply crash whenever you try to run it. Some Spyware programs will try to shut down your computer security programs so that they can run without being noticed.

Everything appears to be normal. The most devious spyware doesn't leave traces you'd notice! They are sitting in your system, malignant and undetected but their destruction is happening.