What’s a Mathematical Fallacy, you say? According to Wikipedia: In mathematics, certain kinds of mistaken proof are often exhibited, and sometimes collected, as illustrations of a concept of mathematical fallacy.

I didn’t get it either. But that doesn’t really matter, cause you’ll have fun watching this video anyway!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…. I learned about this mathematical fallacy where you prove that ’2′ is numerically equal to ’1′… Recently, a friend of mine (dude named Sikandar) asked me to prove it to him and recorded me proving it.

“Why not upload it and share it with the great readers at artsyHANDS?”, I say.

A Mathematical Fallacy from Awais Imran on Vimeo.

There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of PC security products available online and off. There is simply no end to the number of software that are designed to protect you from viruses, malware, spyware and all sort of shiznattz.

For the security conscious user, it’s a nightmare to choose which software to install because each product portrays itself as better than the other. In that case, what do you dooo?

Ze Tips!

You install a standard-fare antivirus and then follow the following simple steps! That’s what you doo!

USE AN ANTI-VIRUS

A common misconception among common people is that they refuse to install an anti-virus because they belive it would be too hard a process to install it. Well, I’ll tell ya this: when a virus makes your PC go kaput, that’ll be an even harder process.

Why are you reading this if you have no anti-virus installed!? The first and last step to safety & security is to install an anti-virus. I personally recommend using Avast! It’s fast, light on your PC, super-effective against both viruses and spyware and the price is just right: freee!

Scan Dat Thang

Hackers and virus-creators often use removable disks(such as your Flash Drive) to spread their malicious programs. It’s the most common way of spreading them and as such, you must always scan the flash drive with your anti-virus before using it. All it takes is right-clicking on your flash drive in My Computer and click on “Scan with Avast!”

Activate Windows Firewall

Your firewall is like a sentry guarding the gates to your computer from the Internet, it controls which data is allowed to come in and which data is permitted to come out. Although many more powerful firewalls are available, Window’s very own firewall is the best for the everyday user.

Open up your Control Panel, click on “Security Center” and activate Windows Firewall from there.

Keep your software updated

The people behind the software you use fix various issues each time they announce an update. Keeping your installed software up-to-date is of great importance.

All you need to do is install and then run the Update Checker from FileHippo.com. Job done!

Regularly scan your computer

It’s perfectly normal for a cunning virus to evade your antivirus’ real-time scanner. This is where the on-demand scanner comes into play

People stay away from scanning their computers by giving rather lame excuses, “It slows my computer down!” Here’s a suggestion: just scan it overnight! It’s highly recommended that you do this at least once every month.

Keep your security software updated

Lots; nay, hundreds of viruses are released into the wild daily. Make sure you keep your antivirus updated so it can kick their ass! Most antivirus’ do this themselves i.e. they auto-update, however if you don’t have an always-on connection, you’ll have to update it yourself. Right-clicking on your antivirus’ icon in the system tray and clicking on “update” usually works out.

Look at file-size before downloading

Let’s face it. People do use torrents and P2P clients like LimeWire to illegally download songs, movies and/or install full-price software for free. I can’t stop you if you do as such. I’m here to give you tips!

So here’s what you do: look at the file’s size before you download it! Adobe Photoshop CS4 can’t be squashed into a meager 437KB file, can it? Nor can a Kings of Leon song be packed into 17.1KBs! These are actual viruses! Virus-creator-people just change the name of the file to make it look like a full file.

Use an updated internet browser

The internet is the base of operations for most, if not all, the malware out there. Protect yourself by using an Internet browser that is updated. Dump Internet Explorer, move on to Firefox! It’s cinch to install!

Famous Last Words

Your security software can only take you so far. After that ‘far’ point, your computer’s security depends entirely upon you and you alone. So stay on your toes while using your computer, that next click may as well spell doom for you if you don’t consider what’s BEYOND that click.

Stay safe

I’m a big fan of Twitter – the microblogging service: what we do on twitter is post little updates (limited to 140 characters) about what we’re doing, thinking or thinking of doing. We tell this to all the people who follow us (they tend to be random folks). It’s all nerdoo-fun really. Yes, you may laugh. I have no life.

One of the most common ways of posting an update – called tweets – is to share a link to a website which you may find funny, entertaining or maybe just informative for what it is.

The SHORTEST Link Shortener, after the jump! Click on “Read the rest of this entry”.

140 Characters and Link Shorteners

In that case, sending out a really long link like this: http://artsyhands.com/2009/08/kids-survive-chatting-msn-messenger/ (that’s 66 characters) can cause problems putting the message through within 140 characters.

And this is precisely from where, Link shorteners or URL Shorteners as they are called; stemmed from.

Using the link shortening service u.nu, I can shorten the above link to this: http://u.nu/87qz. Down from 74 characters to a simple 16. Amazing, no?

So how is this useful to you? It really is of no use unless you use twitter. Otherwise, it’s largely a gimmick.

Last night, I went looking for the absolute shortest of link shortening services. Sure, there’s the TinyURLs and bit.lys and whatnot, they’re all fine and dandy but when you want to feel like the biggest and smartest of nerds, you will want to show your tweeps the shortest link.

How short can URLs and domain names really get?

Three characters is the minimum limit. The most popular three name link shorteners are 3.ly, u.nu, x.vu, 5.gp, r.im and a.gp. The shortest shortened URLs can go as low as 13 characters!

In the unnecessary hunt for the shortest link shorteners, I found three services:

tweak.tk

What this URL shortener does is make the URL you want to be shortened into.. get this: an ACTUAL website with a random domain name like this: http://fskl3.tk <– That’s down to 15 characters! Why they give away domain names for free is best guessed by Wikipedia:

Tokelau provides any interested individuals .tk domain names free of charge. These free domains are pointed to Tokelau servers which simply redirect traffic.

Tokelau is a small territory in New Zealand. Their internet level code .tk can be registered for free, unlimted number of times from this page!

However, tweak.tk is basically just unreliable. Out of the 10 clicks I made to my shortened address, only 3 passed through. Not recommended.

tinyarro.ws

At first glance, this simply seems like just another URL shortener, but it is, in fact the absolutely shortest URL shortener! What tinyarro.ws does is make use of special characters instead of alpha-numerics. Have a look at the link I shortened:

http://?.ws/?

Ahhh! I wish the special characters that tinyarro.ws uses would be compatible with other softwares because most twitter clients just don’t support them. :’(

Clicked on that link above! See? Even our software doesn’t support it.

3.ly

Threely is yet another Link shortener. Reliable and short URLs. Just what your average joe needs. You can even choose a custom ID!

http://3.ly/JjS <— 15 characters.

For the fact that it doesn’t let you down, 3.ly is highly recommended!

—-

The WINAR

In retrospective, let’s look at all the links we shortened:

Original Link: http://artsyhands.com/2009/08/kids-survive-chatting-msn-messenger/ 66 characters

Tweak.tk: http://fskl3.tk 15 characters

tinyarro.ws: http://?.ws/? 13 characters

3.ly: http://3.ly/JjS 15 characters

We have a WINAR! 3.ly wins just cause it’s reliable because in the end, that is what truly matters!

So go ahead, shorten that link! Get the Short URL Firefox add-on to trim URLs with ease.

Waisybabu