A parallel port is a type of socket found on personal computers for interfacing with various peripherals. It is also known as a printer port or Centronics port. The IEEE 1284 standard defines the bi-directional version of the port. For the most part, the USB interface has replaced the Centronics-style parallel port. Some printers use an ethernet connection instead, and — as of 2006 — many lack a parallel port connection. On many modern computers, the parallel port is omitted for cost savings, and is considered to be a legacy port. In laptops, access to a parallel port is still commonly available through docking stations.
Cyber crimes have evolved from hackers fighting against the
views of government to sophisticated identity theft, breaking into
banks and various criminal activities. So far, local police
organizations have been losing a lot of time to recover data from such
machines, and they need all the help they can get. Now Microsoft is joining the fight.
It is a rare thing when an anti-virus company raises an alert about a widespread trojan virus. However, that is exactly the case with the new trojan named Downloader-UA.h, with a million infections stopped by McAffee alone. This trojan is spreading through file-sharing networks, so caution is advised.
Several hundred to possibly a thousand laptops are missing from the
United States State Department, according to an internal audit. Many
of the laptops likely contain classified information and as many as 400
computers belonged to the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program which
provides counterterrorism training to other nations.
Oracle Corporation CEO Larry Ellison announces in 1997 his intention to replace the PC with a low-cost device called the Network Computer (NC). The NC is billed as being as simple as turning on a TV or answering a telephone, all for less then $500. Due to incompatibility perceptions, the interest in the NC unit never comes to fruition. Sales come up about 99 million units short of Ellison's 100 million unit projection.
