Kiran Upadhyay

Google continues to expand its use of legal-but-questionable tax shenanigans as a way to minimize its overseas tax burden. According to Irish media reports Friday, in 2013 Google Ireland Limited paid an effective tax rate of just 0.16 percent on €17 billion ($22.8 billion) revenue, which came to a mere €27.7 million ($37.2 million). Google paid €11.7 billion in “administrative expenses,” which The Irish Times reports “largely refers to royalties paid to other Google entities, some of which are ultimately controlled from tax havens such as Bermuda.” David Wilson, a London-based Google spokesman, confirmed the Irish figures to Ars. Google and many other tech firms have recently come under increased scrutiny for using a quirky Irish tax law arrangement that allows organizations to incorporate in Ireland but legally route money through other jurisdictions, such as the Netherlands. It's all done in the name of drastically reducing tax burdens. The general term is called “transf...

All hard drives die sooner or later, but that doesn’t mean they all die at the same rate. At this time, the average lifespan of a hard drive is six years i.e. 50% of hard drives make it to the six-year mark. Sometimes an early death is the fault of the manufacturer, but more often than not, hard drives fail earlier than they should because we don’t take care of them. For some, that might be a strange concept. Hard drives are tucked away within the computer, aren’t they? Do they really need to be “taken care of”? You’d be surprised. Let’s look at the most common causes of hard drive failure and what you can do to prevent them. Don’t want to suffer through the recovery of a dead hard drive, do you? The quickest way to render a hard drive useless is physical trauma. Sounds obvious, I know, but hard drives are more fragile than you might expect them to be – there are several moving parts that can malfunction even at the slightest disturbance. A simple bump while the hard drive is sp...

Imagine you’ve just snapped a thousand photos on your digital camera — it isn’t one of those “smart” models with Wi-Fi like the Samsung Galaxy Camera — and now, back in your hotel room and equipped with free wired Internet, you’d like to share them with your friends and family right away, but you don’t have a computer, or an SD card reader. I’d be willing to bet good money that this has happened to some of you. If so, the devices I’m reviewing today would be right your alley. Today, in a double review, I’ll be taking a look at the Apotop Wi-Reader and Wi-Reader Pro — two portable, wireless SD card and USB drive readers and routers. They’ll also be given away, so be sure to read through the entire review and join the competition. Introducing the Apotop Wi-Reader and Wi-Reader Pro Apotop’s Wi-Reader (DW09) and Wi-Reader Pro (DW17) are marketed to operate as wireless SD card readers and USB hubs. Basically, they help to connect external media with iOS and Android smartphones, tabl...

Want to make a living from Wordpress? There are many ways to go about it: designing themes, coding plugins, managing all of the back-end details, etc. It’s not the easiest job in the world – it’s especially hard to distinguish yourself and find potential clients – but if this is the path you want to take, there are some things to keep in mind. There are no shortcuts to becoming a WordPress professional. WordPress is simple on its surface but surprisingly complex once you start exposing the cogs in its engine. You may be overwhelmed by it. There are many facets to WordPress and it’s not necessary to master ALL of them, but the more you know, the better your chances of success. Familiarize Yourself With The Basics For starters, train up on the underlying languages that power WordPress. The main engine is coded in PHP and all of the data is stored in MySQL. Stylesheets are written in CSS, templates are handled in a mixture of HTML and PHP, and front-end features are bolstered with...

Technologically speaking, Ubuntu is a pretty good Linux distribution. But sometimes you might wish that the user experience in Ubuntu could be better. There are plenty of Ubuntu-based derivatives that try to solve this problem in their own ways, but one distribution that’s gaining some special attention is Deepin. Interested? Here are five reasons why you should try Deepin, especially if you’re new to Linux. Based On Ubuntu First off, Deepin is based on Ubuntu, which provides many under-the-hood benefits. Since Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions are widely used across the Linux community, you’ll know that all packages are supported and updates are guaranteed (especially security updates). Additionally, any packages that you find online that are made for Ubuntu can be installed in Deepin without any worries at all. While Deepin might not be very popular, you can feel good using it. Deepin’s Own Desktop Environment deepin desktop   5 Reasons Why New Linux Users Will Lo...

It’s never too late to learn Linux. Sure, it’s been around for over twenty years, but the good news is that Linux has yet to hit its peak. Every year, the number of users continues to grow and there’s no sign that it’s going to stop any time soon. Whether you’ve been putting off Linux for years or you’re just hearing about it for the first time, there are ample reasons to start today. Want to try now? These resources will get you started. Why Learn Linux? Linux isn’t for everyone. If you’re tied to Windows for some reason or another, then stick with it. If you don’t have the time or energy to learn a new operating system, that’s fine. However, you should know that there are real benefits to switching to Linux. Open source philosophy. Linux is one of the most famous instances of open source software and a prime example of open source as a viable model for business. Without open source, we wouldn’t have Firefox, Apache, MediaWiki, BitTorrent, or any number of other products that...

When my parents informed me that my blood type was A+, I felt a strange sense of pride. If A+ was a top grade in school, then surely A+ must also be the most excellent of blood types—a biological mark of distinction. It did not take long for me recognize just how silly that feeling was, but I didn’t learn much more about what it really meant to have A+. By the time I was an adult, all I really knew was that if I should end up in a hospital in need of blood, the doctors there would need to make sure they transfused me with a suitable type. And yet there remained some nagging questions. Why do 40 percent of Caucasians have Type A, while only 27 percent of Asians do? Where do different blood types come from, and what do they do? To get some answers, I went to the experts—to hematologists, geneticists, evolutionary biologists, virologists, and nutrition scientists. In 1900, the Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner first discovered blood types, winning the Nobel Prize for his research...

By now, most readers know the advice cold. Use long, randomly generated passwords to lock down your digital assets. Never use the same password across two or more accounts. In abstract terms, the dictates are some of the best ways to protect against breaches suffered by one site—say, the one that hit Gawker in 2010 that exposed poorly cryptographically scrambled passwords for 1.3 million users—that spread like wildfire. Once hackers cracked weak passwords found in the Gawker database, they were able to compromise accounts across a variety of other websites when victims used the same passcode. A team of researchers says the widely repeated advice isn't feasible in practice, and they've provided the math they say proves it. The burden stems from the two foundations of password security that (A1) passwords should be random and strong and (A2) passwords shouldn't be reused across multiple accounts. Those principles are sound when protecting a handful of accounts, particula...

Few smartphones are as aggressively marketed as Samsung’s Galaxy S5. The S5 can no longer be considered brand-new — but it  is  Samsung’s flagship, at least for the next few months. With a gorgeous screen, a capable camera, a waterproof build, and a user-replaceable battery, the Galaxy S5 has a lot to offer… at least on paper. Let’s find out how good it really is. What Makes This Review Different There are about a million Galaxy S5 reviews out there. Why should you read this one? Two keys points make our review different: We bought our own device . Unlike many tech blogs, we don’t use a review unit Samsung gave us. We went out to the store and bought one, just like you would. This means everything you read here is truly impartial – we owe Samsung nothing. We used it for more than a month . Some sites rush to be the first to publish a review on a new device. That’s not how we do things. I used the Galaxy S5 as my main (and only) Android phone for nearly two months,...

Are you suspicious that someone is trying to guess the password to your Android phone or tablet when you leave it lying around? Or do you just want another layer of security for your Android device?  Then you’ll want one of these four apps. Each of these apps can take a picture of anyone who types a wrong password or PIN into your device while trying to unlock it, and they can send that picture to you remotely. Whoever was trying to sneak into your phone is busted. Additionally, it can also be used to hunt down criminals; when they try to unlock the phone, you’ll be send photographic evidence of the thief that you can submit to law enforcement officials. Whether for security or to stop snoopers, you need one of these apps. Setup First, you’ll need to setup a password, PIN, or pattern protection for your lockscreen. You can customize the security on your default lock screen under  Settings > Security > Screen Lock . If you’re using a  third-pa...

It’s all very well being able to carry around a few thousand songs in your pocket, but they sound terrible when played through the tiny speakers on a mobile device – and you can completely forget being able hear the output above any normal level of background noise. The  Bolse SZ-801 comes to the rescue without breaking the bank. It’s a budget portable speaker with sound quality and output volume that will quite literally blow you away. The Bolse SZ-801 is  available  on Amazon for $40 (out of stock at the time of publication). A lot of design comparisons can be made between this and the $150  Jawbone Jambox  – but the Bolse SZ-801 weighs in at one third of the price. Other budget Bluetooth speakers at a similar price point simply don’t come close. Included in the box is a micro-USB charging cable (no AC adaptor though), and a 3.5mm passthrough for plugging directly into devices without Bluetooth. Design The Bolse SZ-801 is weighty but...