EngiGuide

We all know that good Engineers are only as good as their equipment permits them to be. If you have an old, slow laptop that hangs every time you load , we have a problem. Below is a list of the 5 best laptops for web design, in descending order.
You may also like this post:  Top 10 Best Selling Laptops in India 2011

#5: HP Envy 17

This is a very solid laptop that gets you many features for the price. The highlghts include dual 320 GB hard drives, an insanely powerful ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850, i5-450m processor and USB 3.0.
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Technical Details

• Intel Core i5-450M processor 2.40GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.66 GHz; 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) – Max supported = 8GB;
• 640GB (7200RPM) Hard Drive – Dual 320GB (SATA); Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector); Wireless LAN 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
• 1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0: Three USB 2.0, 3rd port shared with eSATA; mini-Display port; 1 HDMI; 1 VGA; 1 RJ -45;
• 17.3 inch diagonal HP HD BrightView Infinity LED Display (1600 x 900); 1 Headphone out/Microphone-in combo jack
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 Graphics with up to 3835MB total graphics memory with 1GB dedicated;
• Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer Support; Beats Audio and HP Triple Bas
• Laser-etched aluminum finish in carbon relic; HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated microphone; 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader

#4: Sony VAIO VPC-F137FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop

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Although generally on the costly side, Sony makes very good laptops. While the Vaio wasn’t our top choice, it’s still a very solid machine. Check out the specs below:

Technical Details

• Accessories – Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery (5000mAh), AC Adapter, Power Cord; Software Bundle – Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter (Purchase a Product Key to activate a full Microsoft Office 2010 suite), Norton Internet Security 2010 30-Day Trial Offer, 1-Year Limited Warranty
• Intel Core i7-740QM Quad-core 1.73GHz Processor with Turbo(R) Boost Technology up to 2.93GHz
• 6MB L3 Cache
• 6GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM (8GB max.)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

#3: Alienware m17x

While this is a “gaming laptop”, the Alienware 17x is an excellent choice for web designers due to its raw power. Gaming laptops are the most technically demanding, thus they are an excellent choice for web designers. Check out the power of this monster laptop below:

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Technical Details

• Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz, 2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache
• 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs); USB 2.0 (4) eSATA/USB 2.0 Combo (2-in-1 Port) with PowerShare DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA Audio-out Connectors (3) Audio-in/Microphone Jack Built-in Front Speakers (2) Gigabit Ethernet
• 500GB (7200 RPM) Hard Drive; 8x Slot-Loading CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW)
• CrossFireX 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Graphics; 17″(1440 x 900)Widescreen
• McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 6 Months; Steam gaming portal

#2: Asus G73JH-X5

Although marketed as a gaming laptop, much like the Alienware m17x, this machine is an absolute beast when it comes to hardware specs and power. Just check out its specs below:

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Technical Details

• Intel i7-720QM (1.60 GHz Quad-Core with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz)
• 8GB DDR3 1066MHz , 4 SODIMM Sockets, up to 8GB
• 640GB (320GB x 2) 7200RPM HDD; Blue-Ray Disk Combo Drive; 802.11 b/g/n
• ATI 5870 Graphics with 1G GDDR5; Windows Home Premium 64-bit Operating System
• 17.3-Inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED Display; 2.0M Webcam; 1 YR Accidental Damage Warranty Included

#1: Apple MacBook Pro (My Fav)

With excellent performance, a long battery life and a completely flawless design, Apple’s MacBook Pro is the ultimate blend of user-friendliness and power laptop for web designers, or just about anyone. It’s available with either a 15-inch 1440×900 screen or a 17-inch with the full 1920×1200 resolution. With the new OS X Leopard, AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, Apple’s Multi Touch touchpad, High Speed Thunderbolt Port, FaceTime HD Camera, plus the latest 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, you get a laptop computer that can rival or surpass most desktop computers.

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Technical Details

• 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor
• 750 GB Hard Drive, 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive, 4 GB DDR3 RAM
• 15.4 inch LED-backlit display, 1440-by-900 resolution
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• High Speed Thunderbolt Port, FaceTime HD Camera, Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

Today we are glad to release a  freebie: a Facebook Fan Page GUI PSD, designed by Hike and released. The PSD will speed up the process of creating previews, thus sparing you from drawing all the comps and letting you customize all the texts, buttons and data as you need. All layers are vectorized, allowing you to scale up the GUI without loss of quality. The mock-up is 100% pixel-accurate, it has 4 viewing modes (default wall, wireframe wall, default tab, wireframe tab), all layers labeled and grouped. Smart guides are included. The PSD is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS3+.

With every update Facebook performs to its fan page design, Hike reproduces it 24 hours later and updates its download link with the latest version. The main idea behind this PSD was to provide all designers and agencies with a useful tool that will improvs their daily workflow when it comes to preparing Facebook-related previews for their clients or internal presentations. As usual, the goodie is absolutely free to use in private and commercial projects.

Download the PSD for free!

You can use the freebie for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the file as you wish.

official download from the designer’s site (.zip, 2.1 Mb, will be regularly updated)

Features

• 100% pixel-accurate
• 4 viewing modes (default wall, wireframe wall, default tab, wireframe tab)
• Fully vectorized
• Limitless scaling
• All layers labeled
• Smartly grouped
• Completely editable
• Includes smart guides
• CS3+ compatible
• Always up to date

Previews

Tab wireframe (large preview)

Default wall (large preview)

Wall wireframe (large preview)

Layer Pallett (large preview)

OWASP has released the list of top 10 web security threats of 2010 . The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an open community dedicated to the enhancement of all kinds of web and computer security . These are the threats which has caused the maximum damage to cyber world in 2010 . Here are these security risks .

1 SQL Injection
Injection flaws, such as SQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing unauthorized data.

2. Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
XSS flaws occur whenever an application takes untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation and escaping. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites.

3. Broken Authentication and Session Management
Application functions related to authentication and session management are often not implemented correctly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, session tokens, or exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities

4. Insecure Direct Object Refrences
A direct object reference occurs when a developer exposes a reference to an internal implementation object, such as a file, directory, or database key. Without an access control check or other protection, attackers can manipulate these references to access unauthorized data.

5. Cross Site Request Forgery
A CSRF attack forces a logged-on victim’s browser to send a forged HTTP request, including the victim’s session cookie and any other automatically included authentication information, to a vulnerable web application. This allows the attacker to force the victim’s browser to generate requests the vulnerableapplication thinks are legitimate requests from the victim

6. Security Misconfiguration
Good security requires having a secure configuration defined and deployed for theapplication, frameworks, application server, web server, database server, and platform. All these settings should be defined, implemented , and maintained as many are not shipped with secure defaults. This includes keeping all software up to date, including all code libraries used by the application.

7. Insecure Cryptographic Storage
Many web applications do not properly protect sensitive data, such as credit cards, SSNs, and authentication credentials, with appropriate encryption or hashing. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct identity theft, credit card fraud, or other crimes.

8. Failure to Restrict URL Access
Many web applications check URL access rights before rendering protected links and buttons. However, applications need to perform similar access control checks each time these pages are accessed, or attackers will be able to forge URLs to access these hidden pages anyway.

9. Insufficient Transport Layer Protection
Applications frequently fail to authenticate, encrypt, and protect the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive network traffic. When they do, they sometimes support weak algorithms, use expired or invalid certificates, or do not use them correctly.

10 Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards
Web applications frequently redirect and forward users to other pages and websites, and use untrusted data to determine the destination pages. Without proper validation, attackers can redirect victims to phishing or malware sites, or use forwards to access unauthorized pages.