National Cyber Security

TAINAN, Taiwan, April 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX – News) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced it will attend two separate investor conferences in San Francisco and New York City in May and also host meetings with interested investors in California and New York in the days after each conference. Information about the conferences and Himax’s participation follows.

Security Research Associates 8^th Annual Spring Growth Stock Conference

May 14 15, 2012

Le Meridien Hotel, San Francisco

Ms. Jackie Chang, CFO for Himax Technologies, will present for the Company and also host 1-1 meetings with conference attendees on Tuesday, May 15 from 8:00am to 5:00pm PT. Investors interested to schedule a 1-1 meeting with the Company should contact their SRA representative or Himax contacts listed below.

MACQUARIE 2012 TAIWAN KOREA CORPORATE CONFERENCE

May 21 22, 2012

Sofitel Hotel – New York City, New York

Jackie Chang will also meet with investors at the Macquarie Taiwan and Korea Corporate Conference in New York City on Monday and Tuesday, May 21 and 22. Investors interested to schedule a 1-1 meeting or small group session with the Company should contact their Macquarie representative or Himax.

About Security Research Associates (SRA)

Security Research Associates (SRA) is a boutique investment banking and capital markets firm assisting fast growing public companies, in the small cap arena, with their capital and strategic advisory needs. The firm’s banking focus is on working with companies between $50 million and $2 billion in market capitalization. SRA concentrates primarily on the Technology, Healthcare, Consumer and CleanTech sectors and assists in the financing needs of later stage private companies looking for bridge capital prior to going public. Devon Wygaerts is the company’s contact and can be reached at devon@sracap.com or (415) 925-0346.

About Macquarie Group

Macquarie Group is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. Macquarie’s main business focus is making returns by providing a diversified range of services to clients. Macquarie acts on behalf of institutional, corporate and retail clients and counterparties around the world. The firm has expertise in specific industries, including resources and commodities, energy, financial institutions, infrastructure and real estate. Mandy Chang is the company’s contact and can be reached at mandy.chang@macquarie.com or +886 2 2734 7536.

About Himax Technologies, Inc.

Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX – News) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display image processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, LCOS micro-displays used in palm-size projectors and head-mount displays, LED driver ICs, power management ICs, and chipsets for TVs and monitors. The company also offers digital camera solutions, including CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security and medical devices. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs 1,500 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan and the US. With more than 1,200 patents in three continents on its technologies, Himax has retained its position as the leading display image processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.

http://www.himax.com.tw

Published: Friday, April 27, 2012

Tineka Smith
Published 26 April 2012

A new report by Absolute Software reveals that London ranks number one in computer theft throughout the EMEA.

Photo Credit: Daniel Zivkovic

The United States remains the No.1 location for stolen laptops worldwide, followed by the UK and Denmark.

Fewer than 10% of thefts actually occur from the office. However, most of the laptops stolen were not necessarily company assets. As more work places are becoming mobile, work laptops are increasingly being kept at home or on the go, and personal laptops are being brought into the workplace.

The most common areas for theft within the EMEA were from residences (14%) and cars (11%).

Summer time was revealed to be the peak period for corporate laptop theft, when employees are usually on holiday and laptops were left unsecured in their homes.

“The cost to business of purchasing new equipment without knowing where existing assets are, as well as the potential fines for data breaches can be very expensive,” said Stephen Midgley, Global VP at Absolute Software.

“Regulations dictate a timescale from a breach to when customers must be notified of data loss. If companies aren’t aware of a lost laptop for days or weeks; compliance with regulation becomes a real challenge and limiting damage to a company’s brand and reputation is almost impossible.”

A high percentage of theft also took place in locations such as Airport luggage and storage areas (29%), the boarding area (22%) and in the security zone (12%), where most travellers might least suspect their laptops would be stolen.

Over 40% of respondents said they didn’t know when or where their laptops were stolen.

“Laptops contain an incredible amount of sensitive data, from company passwords stored as cookies to customer details auto-saved in spreadsheets,” said Midgley.

“We’ve found that identity theft is one of the top related crimes for laptop theft. Speed is of the essence when it comes to a security breach – a lag in reporting theft could make the difference between successfully wiping data and encryption being cracked and crucial data stolen.”

Please follow this author on Twitter @Tineka_S or comment below.

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One of the simplest ways to improve performance on a laptop is to add more RAM, or random access memory.

RAM prices have been steadily dropping over the years, and it’s now possible to see a significant performance boost with an investment of twenty or thirty dollars. If your machine is sluggish, you might need additional memory.

New Machines

Even if your machine is new, a memory upgrade is worth investigating. New laptops often ship with inadequate RAM. This is so the manufacturer looks like it’s providing you with a competitive price.

In a way, it is, because it’s often cheaper to add after-market RAM rather than buy a more heavily specified machine.

Two-Pronged Approach

I recommend a two-pronged approach to beefing up your machine. First, perform maintenance tasks that don’t cost money and see if matters improve.

Second, carefully, and unemotionally spend some money. Whatever anyone tells you, laptops are commodities, like bags of sugar. Make sure you have a calculator on hand for this step.

Maintenance Phase

Perform maintenance tasks to see if you can gain a performance advantage without spending any money.

The tasks that need performing are as follows:

Replace Windows’ Aero theme in the “Personalization” section of the Control Panel with a leaner basic theme; run Windows Update; defragment the hard drive; remove superfluous memory-hogging programs by getting rid of anything you don’t use; run free antispyware; run free antivirus; run a free maintenance check program that will clean up the registry; look for any disc errors; and clean out temporary files.

Once you’ve completed these time-consuming, but no-charge tasks, reboot and see if performance has improved by running your usual software. If you see a significant speed boost during the next few hours of operation, great — you need go no further.

Investigative Phase

Open the Control panel on the laptop and choose “System and Security.” Click on “View amount of RAM and processor speed” and take a look at three areas: “Processor,” “Installed Memory” and “System Type.”

If the GHz figure in “Processor” is lower than 2.30 GHz, you can likely benefit from a new machine with a faster processor if you perform tasks other than basic email and Web browsing.

If the GB figure in “Installed Memory” is lower than 8.00 GB, and the “System Type” is 64-bit Operating System, you can likely benefit from more memory in all cases.

If the “System Type” is “32-bit Operating System,” the machine will not recognize additional memory beyond 3 GB or 3.50 GB, so throw the machine out, or upgrade the OS — likely uneconomical.

I hope I don’t sound too ruthless here, but remember, a laptop is a commodity. You spend inordinate amounts of time with it. If it’s not performing and can’t perform — junk it.

The Scanning Step

Run a scanner on the machine, which will identify computer memory and propose compatible upgrades.
Crucial, a memory vendor owned by Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), a major RAM manufacturer, has a free tool you can download that will do this.

Click on the link to download the scanner. Allow it to install like any other piece of software by following the prompts.

Identify the memory type, maximum memory, currently installed memory, total memory slots and available memory slots from the resultant report. For example, DDR3 and a series of numbers as a memory type; 8 GB maximum; 4 GB currently installed; two total slots and one available slot indicates you can add 4 GB in one module.

Crucial will try to sell you the module or modules, but you can look elsewhere too. Box store consumer electronics retailers hold memory stock.

Upgrading the Memory

Switch off and unplug the laptop. Then remove the battery, and press the power button to exhaust any power in the system.

Open any panel on the underside that’s separate from the entire backside by unscrewing it. The memory slot is likely within. If the entire backside is one piece, as is the case with the Dell N5050s, the memory slots are under the keyboard.

Look above the “Fn” buttons and you’ll see tabs that you can press with a flat-bladed screwdriver or table knife. Press the tabs and lift the keyboard off.

Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal part of the laptop — then don’t move your feet.

Remove any redundant memory modules if you are replacing existing memory by pressing on the retaining clips and sliding the module out of the slot.

Add the memory module to the now free slot, or any existing open slot you see, starting with the lowest one, by holding the module by its edges, and lining up the notch.

Hold the module at 45 degrees and firmly slide it into place evenly. Then press down on the module evenly with your two forefingers. The retaining clips should catch.

Replace the case or keyboard and verify installation by checking “View amount of RAM and processor speed” in the Control Panel.

Want to Ask a Tech Question?

Is there a piece of tech you’d like to know how to operate properly? Is there a gadget that’s got you confounded? Please
send your tech questions to me, and I’ll try to answer as many as possible in this column.

And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments!

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Let’s say you could buy an Apple MacBook Air — but with twice the battery life, at half the price. Does that sound attractive?

Duh!

What is this — a so-called “ultrabook” that Intel is pushing through its usual OEMs? Nope. Ultrabooks may be slightly less expensive than a MacBook Air, but that’s par for the course for the usual multi-decade Microsoft-Apple comparison anyway. Nothing new there. Just predictable linear progression.

No, the laptop that will fit this bill is another new class of Microsoft-based product hitting the market simultaneously with the “regular” Windows 8 this October-November. And it’s not based on Intel or AMD.

Microsoft published a lot of details about this new class of laptop Feb. 9:

I thought that the world would quickly absorb this detailed description of Microsoft’s plans. However, in the two months that has passed, I find that few people have drawn any conclusions from Microsoft’s great revelation.

It’s all hiding in plain sight. Just read it.

Side by side with Windows 8 for Intel and AMD, Microsoft is making a version of Windows 8 available for use on devices using CPU/GPU SoCs (Systems-on-Chip) from Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments. These will fit almost any “large” (i.e., non-handheld) form factor, including tablet, laptop and desktop. The focus is on tablets, laptops and “hybrid” laptops/tablets.

Just consider, for a moment, some of the key reasons the Apple iPad became so popular: Instant-on availability, great battery life, great security, easy manageability. Those attributes also apply to Windows 8 on ARM. Here’s the difference: It’s an unsuccessful struggle to make your iPad as productive as your laptop. People try all the time, but nobody has shown me that it can be done successfully, for a variety of software and hardware reasons that are not likely to be overcome anytime soon.

What’s the upside here?

1. Form factor: These new chips draw a lot less power and generate less heat than x86, so they don’t need a fan — just like your iPad doesn’t need a fan. This means they can be made thinner, lighter, fit a bigger battery and yield better battery life. Also: instant-on boot-up.

Whoever he is, he’s got some nerve.

The thief who walked out of Tacoma City Hall April 6 carrying four laptop computers didn’t even try to disguise himself. No hat, no sunglasses, no fake mustache … his shaved, balding head practically glows in the surveillance footage that captured his brazen feat.

He’s described as white and in his 30s or 40s, with a medium build. He wore a dark-gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes.

Tacoma police detectives know what he did and when he did it, but they don’t know who he is.  They’re prepared to pay as much as $1,000 for that information. Two grainy screen grabs of the thief appear in a Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers flier released Tuesday, along with new details of the unsolved incident.

He walked into City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday – a sleepy hour when most workers are gone. The building stays open until 7 p.m. on weekdays, said city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff.

The thief walked into an office on the 12th floor and walked out carrying the four laptops, each one assigned to a city council member. Whether the office was locked by that time is unclear. McNair-Huff said security officers patrolling the building just missed seeing the man.

In the Crime Stoppers photos, the man appears to carry the laptops in black bags slung over each shoulder. He walked out through a side entrance, into the city’s parking garage.  

The laptops, initially thought to be Hewlett-Packard models, are in fact older – Gateways. “Big brick laptops,” McNair-Huff said.

The computers have serial numbers, which are on file in city records. The estimated value: $150 to $200 apiece, McNair-Huff said. Police are combing online sites and pawnshops, looking for traces.

Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486

sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com

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STOCKTON, CA – Parents just don’t wander onto the campus at Sutherland Elementary School in Stockton any longer.

As part of $160,000 worth of security improvements, parents and other visitors wait outside the school until office staff sees them and “buzzes” them in.

The gates, cameras and warning signs were added after the school had eight laptops stolen from classrooms earlier this year.

Principal Harold Brown said the loss of those computers will have a negative impact on what his staff is trying to accomplish.

“Society, with so many people out of jobs, is hurting.  With the economy going down, people are doing what they can to keep themselves living.  But education is how you keep living,” said Brown.

Brown said the cost of replacing each stolen laptop is about $2,000.

by tdaly@news10.net

News10/KXTV