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How not to agree to clean public toilets when you accept any online terms and conditions MercatorNet The same concerns apply when it comes to downloading free software and apps which can sometimes come bundled with other software or extensions, often referred to as Potentially Unwanted Programs. If people don't read the terms and conditions then ...

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How not to agree to clean public toilets when you accept any online terms and conditions - MercatorNet

Mumbai: Schools and colleges have now begun to adopt free open source computer software for learning instead of paying huge amounts for licensing. St Marys School at Mazgaon is the first school to have adopted Linux open source Operating System (OS). This move has overthrown the monopoly of proprietary software like Microsoft, Adobe and Acrobat. The school has saved around Rs 2,000 of every student by adopting this free OS. Both the teachers and students have been acquainted to this new software as it is quite similar to the other software that they were initially using.

This school opted for this change because it lacked the funds needed for licensing and also due to the technological advantage. Fr Jude Fernandes, principal of the school, said, My school is an aided school where we charge just Rs 600 as computer fees for an entire year from every student. I could not burden my students to pay more fees just so that I could pay the licensing charges of these software, amounting to lakhs of rupees. This idea of installing this change was initiated by a voluntary group of teachers and professionals called Linux Users Group (ILUG) of Mumbai.

A senior member of the group said, Our education institutions have been teaching us Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop. Whereas, a text document, presentation or designing is what students need to learn. And that can be learnt on any software. We can learn on freely available software instead of paying huge sums for these products. Surprisingly, questions related to these products were also asked in Maharashtra State Board examinations.The member added, Recently, the state board issued a notification, stating that schools should use open source software.

The member added, Recently, the state board issued a notification, stating that schools should use open source software. Therefore, questions in computer papers have been shifted from Microsoft word to text document and Excel sheets to spreadsheets. These open source free software do not have a license fee and are easily available with low virus risks. Fernandes added, The recruitment companies want students who are well versed with these software so I think education institutions should adopt this change for the technological benefit.

The ILUG found out in a Right to Information (RTI) query that Ruia College had spent Rs 30 lakh in three years, Khalsa College spent Rs 8 lakh in one year and the civic body spent Rs 18 lakh on these proprietary software. The ILUG which can be approached at ilugmumbai@gmail.com aims to approach more schools and colleges to adopt this change and help students.

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Mumbai: School gives software firms run for their money. Here's how - Free Press Journal

Its all well and good splashing out for a pre-built PC or putting together a bespoke tower yourself, but whats the point of sinking all that money into it if youre not getting the very best performance out of each component? Thats where overclocking comes in.

Once thought the pastime of acne-ridden, basement-dwelling tech nerds, overclocking has now become one of the most widely used avenues for getting your PC firing on all cylinders.

Weve included some of the best free pieces of overclocking programs available right now, from mainstream utilities that anyone can pick up and use to complicated tools that enable you to tweak even the smallest of elements in pursuit of even more gaming performance.

Intimidated by overclocking? MSI Afterburner makes it easy for even complete beginners to wring extra power from their hardware

One of the oldest overclocking tools out, but still one of the best, MSI Afterburner has become a mainstay on the PC overclock scene. So why is it still so popular?

Well, for a start its very easy to use, making it ideal for newbies and those with an intermediate level of knowledge to push your graphics to their designed limit. Also, unlike EVGA PrecisionX (mentioned below), it supports both Nvidia and AMD processors.

The current version of MSI Afterburner includes a still decent number of utilities, including GPU/shader/memory clock adjustment, the power to adjust advanced fan speed, and the ability to tweak GPU voltage control.

We also like the bespoke hardware monitor included as part of the interface, which effectively tracks the performance of your rig and shows frame rates, etc while youre playing a game.

Sure, its not the most comprehensive of packages, and certainly wont appeal to the hardcore among us, but its still a robust suite that will help transform your games if youre relatively new to the scene.

Download here: MSI Afterburner

If you have an AMD GPU, this is the only overclocking software you need

Unlike MSI Afterburner, AMD Overdrive only supports AMD's own branded GPUs, but it still manages to offer one of the most impressive ways to get your PC running at an invigorated pace. As long as your CPU is of AMD origin (including its chipset), you can start pushing those components like theyve never been tested before. Best of all, the attractive interface provides convenient access to an impressively in-depth set of tools to make this ideal for both relative newcomers and seasoned overclockers.

So what does this brilliant little free overclocking tool offer? For a start, AMD Overdrive enables you to change the clock speed of your RAM and adjust the overall speed of your fans (an incredibly useful utility, especially if youre currently having overheating issues).

The built in status monitor lets you see the state of your processor in real time as you overclock it to the hilt, and with streamlined interface (one thats markedly improved over the years), you can easily and confidently tweak the voltage or clock speeds by simply moving a slider.

Okay, theres a little more to it than that, but we like how cleanly it can distill its utilities down to simple actions.

Download here: AMD Overdrive

Free, convenient overclocking software for Nvidia graphics card owners, with support for up to 10 custom user profiles

Easily one of the most popular overclocking tools on the market today, EVGA PrecisionX has become a must for gamers looking to give their rig or gaming laptop a decent push in the hardware performance stakes.

Unfortunately, EVGA PrecisionX only works with Nvidia graphics cards (sorry, AMD users) so youll need to have something like a GeForce GTX TITAN, 900, 700 or 600 installed.

The latest version supports Microsoft DirectX 12 API, as well as enabling you to change your GPUs clock offset and its memory clock offset. As if that wasnt good enough, EVGA PrecisionX also presents you with the power to overclock your refresh rate and establish up to 10 individual overclocking setups. You can even seamlessly switch between them at will!

This being a free overclocking tool aimed at gamers who want better performance with the minimum of hassle, the freeware offers an easily navigable interface that wont drown you in too many options or utilities.

It might not be as comprehensive as some of the more advanced tools out there, but if youre looking to squeeze out better clock speeds overall, EVGA PrecisionX is an ideal addition to your machine.

Download here: EVGA PrecisionX

Two free programs that will give you an in-depth look at your hardware, helping you see where there's room for improvement

Not all free overclocking tools give you the kind of data you really need to see where you machine can be tweaked or adjusted. Thats where tools like CPU-Z and GPU-Z come in, offering an in-depth look into exactly how your PC or laptop is performing.

CPU-Z enables you to track processor name and number details, determine codenames, identify processes, packages, cache levels and more. It can test the performance of your mainboard and chipset, as well as instantly bringing up memory types, sizes, timings and module specifications (SPD). It can even offer real-time measurements of each core's internal frequency and memory frequency.

Then theres GPU-Z, which supports Nvidia, AMD, ATI and Intel GPUs (so youll definitely have a card thats compatible). The free tool displays adapter, GPU and display information, and provides all the information youll need for overclock, default clocks and 3D clock shenanigans.

Both GPU-Z and CPU-Z work brilliantly alongside all of the overclocking tools in this list, so grab them both and take a peek deep inside your PC.

Download here: CPU-Z Download here: GPU-Z

One for the experts, SetFSB lets you tinker with your PC's front side bus

Weve shown you some of the most popular tools and utilities in the world of overclocking, but what if youre a seasoned PC builder who wants to squeeze every ounce of juice your machine has to offer? Sounds like you need something in-depth and comprehensive thats been designed with overclocking pros in mind say hello to the brilliant little tool that is SetFSB.

Unlike some other overclocking tools, SetFSB is all about making adjustments to your system's front-side bus (FSB), which connects the CPU to the main memory. Its speed is measured in MHz and can vary from 60 to 400 (it can go higher if youre lucky/slightly mad), so the higher the speed, the better the performance. Think of it as plugging yourself directly into the Matrix.

One quick word of warning, though. SetFSB is not for the faint of heart and should only really be used if youre an experienced PC tinkerer and overclock pro. Youll need a strong knowledge of the limits of your motherboard and CPU before tinkering with its settings, otherwise you could end up cooking your machine due to the unbridled precision at your fingertips.

Download here: SetFSB

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The best free overclocking software 2017 - TechRadar

How often do you see this when youre online, whether downloading a new app or software or signing up for some new service?

Click Agree to Accept our Terms and Conditions

You click on it, but then discover youve just agreed to give up your future first-born child or clean public toilets for a thousand hours.

This is what happened recently to more than 20000 people in the UK when they accepted the terms and conditions for free Wi-Fi that included a commitment to clean public toilets, hug stray dogs and paint snails shells to brighten up their existence.

Thankfully, the Wi-Fi provider, Purple, says it is not going to enforce its community service clause.

But it makes a good point. Purple says it added the spoof clause to its terms and conditions for a two-week period to see if anyone would notice. It said in a statement: The real reason behind our experiment is to highlight the lack of consumer awareness when signing up to use free Wi-Fi.

All users were given the chance to flag up the questionable clause in return for a prize, but remarkably only one individual, which is 0.000045% of all Wi-Fi users throughout the whole two weeks, managed to spot it.

We want free online service and free software, and we want it now. So we readily agree to the terms and conditions despite having little idea what we are agreeing to, and the service provider is in no hurry to tell us.

Thats a concern for everyone who readily accepts free Wi-Fi connections in places such as shopping centres, cafes, restaurants, hotels, bars or any other public Wi-Fi hotspots.

The same concerns apply when it comes to downloading free software and apps which can sometimes come bundled with other software or extensions. If people dont read the terms and conditions, then they wont know what else they are agreeing to install.

We have been warned about these problems for years and yet the recent Purple example shows that people still havent learnt.

Earlier this year, the Australian consumer group Choice raised the issue of licence agreements, terms-of-use agreements, and terms and conditions that people never read.

It gave the example Amazons Kindle Voyage e-reader, which it said had a minimum of eight documents that needed to be read and agreed to when buying the device, as well as documents to be read to use any subscription service.

The total word count is more than 73000, which Choice said would take about nine hours to read. It even tasked someone to read the lot, but heres the abridged version.

While the great majority of tech companies operate lawfully, if not ethically, the process of getting actual informed consent remains problematic. At present, just clicking Agree will do, regardless of what lies buried deep in the many words of those terms and conditions.

One survey in Britain found that only 7% of people read the terms and conditions carefully when signing up for an online service or product.

These documents are typically written in legalese, meaning that only a trained lawyer would be able to understand them properly. Yet the simple act of clicking on a check-box constitutes informed consent in the legal sense.

That same survey found that one in five people said they had suffered as a result of agreeing to terms and conditions without having read them carefully. One in 10 had been locked into a contract for longer than expected because they didnt read the small print.

Choice says lengthy and overly complex contracts should be considered unfair and has called for reform of the law to protect people from such agreements.

With billions of dollars at stake, IT companies need to make it clearer just what the consequences of using that product or service will be, including any potential dangers. If users can give genuinely informed consent, its a win-win situation.

For example, if we know were agreeing that an online product can use some of our personal information and we know what that information is we could receive targeted advertising that might be useful to us, and even be a good fit for our lifestyle.

So, how can we do to make sure people are properly informed in plain language about the consequences of using a product or service?

One solution that already works well is the way Creative Commons includes a human readable summary of its licensing conditions. It breaks it down to the basics then highlights anything out of the ordinary.

Its not difficult to do this, and if you have nothing to hide, the user is unlikely to be scared off by it.

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Go on, click here to accept our T&Cs - TechCentral

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwired - July 21, 2017) - For network professionals who are managing a small number of network devices at their organization, HelpSystems now offers a fully-functional free version of Intermapper, user-friendly, reliable network monitoring software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The free version of Intermapper includes network monitoring for up to 10 devices, plus full enterprise features including sophisticated network mapping, real-time performance alerts, and free monitoring for multiple items per device (e.g. disk storage, RAM memory, or CPU processor load) without consuming additional licenses.

Given the catastrophic effect IT outages have on business operations, 24/7 visibility into network performance has never been more important. A rising number of IT professionals are turning to free tools to do the job, only to be disappointed by their limited functionality, poor reliability, or time-consuming development it takes to make them fit their requirements.

Intermapper combines the power and reliability of enterprise software with the ease of installation that makes free versions so attractive. "Compared to other free network monitoring tools, which are often limited in functionality and may require heavy development work to get started, Intermapper is both powerful and easy to set up right out of the box," said Dev Barua, Senior Software Development Manager at HelpSystems.

Intermapper helps IT teams stay ahead of network outages and ensure all their physical and virtual equipment stays up and running -- today and in the future. "When you get started with Intermapper, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing you're using a fully-functional enterprise tool that will scale as your business requirements grow," said Chris Heim, CEO of HelpSystems.

The free version of Intermapper is available for download on the HelpSystems website.

About HelpSystems

HelpSystems aligns IT and business goals to help organizations build a competitive edge. Our software and services monitor and automate processes, encrypt and secure data, and provide easy access to the information people need. More than 10,000 organizations around the world rely on HelpSystems to make IT lives easier and keep business running smoothly. Learn more at http://www.helpsystems.com.

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HelpSystems Releases Fully-Functional Free Version of Intermapper Network Monitoring Software - Markets Insider