Not too long ago, Apple added something phenomenal to the iPhone OS: a dashboard screen. If you have a Macintosh computer, you may be familiar with the dashboard that is available (regularly) by pressing F4. Otherwise, you can draw similarities to your Windows 7 Dashboard on the right hand side of your desktop, that shows you updates on your applications and widgets you add to it. Finding your dashboard on your iPhone is just as easy: just put your finger on the top of your iPhone screen, and drag down.

Here, in your dashboard, you will see all of the updates that has been pushed into such by your applications that desire to send you messages: things like new text messages, new updates to your subscribed magazines, your messages on payment applications. If you have reviewed a message set by an application by tapping on it, that message will automatically become deleted. However, if you don’t desire to go into the application to delete it, simply tap in the top right on the bar that categorizes that particular application, and tap again to clear all of the messages set by that application, and clear up your dashboard.

But, your dashboard isn’t all about your application. You not only get your messages, but you get important information set by default applications, such as the weather. If you don’t feel like scouting out your weather application amidst all your applications you have downloaded, simply go into your dashboard, and find out the forecast for the whole week, just by a simple swipe. Not only that, tickers for your stocks are displayed near the bottom of the dashboard.

Unless you have a great product, service or idea for which people are willing to wait, chances are highly likely that these potential clients will leave your website should your response time take too long to their incoming requests.  Ignore your application’s performance and you are more likely to be dumped by your users sooner than expected.

To improve the performance of an ASP.Net application you need to optimize your front-end UI (user interface) code as well as the back-end database. You can also think of the following tips as a brief best practices guide for the ASP.net performance optimization. So, whether you are a developer, UI designer or member of the deployment team, the following tips may help you. No matter what’s your role in the project or what you do to boost performance of your application, always remember that your goal should be to:

·          Minimize the amount of data you sent across the network.

·          Reduce the number of server requests.

Here you go (in no particular order)

At Database level

With stiff penalties for being caught and the whiff of secretive underground or even nefarious acts, computer hacking can be seen as a somewhat dubious pursuit. Not all hackers operate with the motive of emptying your Paypal account, however; there are many hackers who utilize their skills to aid companies in locating security flaws ("penetration testing") or engage in hacking with the goal of becoming cyber-freedom-fighters that champion simple human freedoms, such as the right to free speech.

Computer hacking is as much an art as it is a skill. At its simplest distillation, hacking is the systematic search for chinks in programming armor. While advanced problem-solving, intuition and sophisticated understanding of programming languages are a distinct advantage, there does exist a number of push-button programs that computing wizards have written allowing those less sophisticated in the art of hacking to break into remote computers in a variety of ways. Because of this new ubiquity, today's hackers no longer need to be a programming Wunderkind; they simply need to know where to download software and be able to turn on a computer. It really is that simple and the implications can be disturbing.

Phishing, Push-Button Programs and Brute Force Tactics

There's no need to crack a company's firewall if you have direct physical access to their computers. One aspect of hacking is the impersonation of an employee or service worker with the goal of gaining access to a company's database, where the hacker can then unleash whatever havoc he or she has planned into the system. Another is to engage in simple phishing techniques, such as impersonating an employee who forgot their password and needs help logging into the system.

Because such impersonations often fail thanks to companies becoming more security-conscious, taking over operations of a computer remotely is often the preferred method of gaining access. Such attempts can be facilitated in a variety of ways. One is the brute-force method, in which a program such as SQLmap, Nmap or Burpsuite is used; running one of these programs is analogous to trying every doorknob in a neighborhood to see which house is unlocked. Using a variety of different parameters, these programs can find access to a vulnerable computer or network in less than a minute.

Hackers can also attempt to gain access with a program like Metasploit. With literally a few clicks of a mouse, access to a remote and vulnerable computer can be achieved by a relative newbie. With a related hacking aid, called Meterpreter, a backdoor is created that allows access into an operating system. It does not install itself onto the remote computer, running instead using the computer's memory; in fact, Meterpreter can hide itself inside the operations of a perfectly valid program, so it cannot be detected even by sophisticated programmers. Once engaged, it allows a remote user carte blanche access to the system in question.

Where to Learn the Art of Hacking

Of course, for those who wish to learn the actual skills rather than download someone else's hack, there are a number of practice sites that pose an increasingly difficult set of challenges intended to train neophytes in the art of hacking. For example, Hack This Site starts beginners with the goal of cracking simple flaws in coding scripts or software such as HTML, Unix, Javascript and Apache. Their structured series of tests increase in complexity, incorporating real-word scenarios and even old-fashioned "phone phreaking" challenges that recall the bygone golden age of hacking skills displayed by Matthew Broderick in "WarGames."

Using just these simple tools and free practice sites, beginners have a powerful array of hacking resources just a simple mouse click away.

Disruptive technologies such as hand-held devices, cloud computing and social media are rattling the foundations upon which traditional businesses are built. Enterprise customers have grown smarter at ensuring the latest technological trends work in their favor. Everyone is trying to zero in on their core competencies by employing commodity services to run their business.

Likewise, enterprise application vendors need to zero in on their core competencies and enhance more value to the businesses of their clientele by leveraging standards-based commodity services, such as IaaS and PaaS, provided by leaders in those segments (e.g. Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform etc.).

What else enterprises need to do is learn to adopt new and emerging technologies such as cloud, utility and social computing to build on them to penetrate new market avenues.

New small and medium-sized entrants into the market are constantly challenging enterprises given their ability to rapidly turnaround and address the requirements of the customers in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, these new advancements also affect how enterprises create, deploy, and manage solutions and applications. If you take the example of Force.com, for instance, you find that it’s a common war zone for enterprise application vendors to furnish SME markets with their applications, with the new entrants mostly having an edge.