http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040429/D82885100.html
Short article celebrating the 40th anniversary of the BASIC computer language created by Kemeny and Kurtz. In fact an interesting phenomenon is recorded here: the Kemeny/Kurtz creation went hand in hand with the microcomputer -- both were liberating instruments which put power in the hands of nonspecialists in a way which is difficult to imagine nowadays.
And there is just the rub -- in the quest for more power, our systems and their supporting programming languages have become so complex that they are now the domain of technical professionals. The wheel has come full circle in a sense, and there is something sad as well as good about it all.
But BASIC was one of the foundations on which the IT revolution was built, and is worth remembering for this very fact.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Business/SiliconInsider/SiliconInsider-1.html
The travails of Sun Microsystems, as mentioned in this blog, are, according to this analyst, typical of big firms which tried to turn themselves around and failed. His extensive analysis of why Sun is doomed is certainly worth considering, especially when analysed in terms of 'survivors' like IBM and Texas Instruments -- which had attributes and timing that Sun lacks.
Perhaps the most provocative statement in the article is the notion that it would be more beneficial for all if Sun accepted the inevitable now, wound itself up, and distributed its considerable assets. Whether true or not, I suspect those same assets will in fact fuel Sun's CEO's natural pugnacity to keep on fighting to an end which this article clearly indicates, can be indeed bitter.
http://infosecuritymag.techtarget.com/ss/0,295796,sid6_iss366_art684,00.html
A commonly accepted explanation for security problems is poorly written software, whether application or operating system. This article discusses 7 major trends in software development, many of which have security implications:
1. Disappearance of Bloated Operating Systems: Microsoft's 'kitchen sink' approach to operating systems has shown its vulnerability both legally and technically; a simple OS is a safer OS.
2. Evolution of Components and Objects: will allow security elements to be seamlessly integrated into application, but will also increase the risks of penetration
3. Rise of Mobile Code: will continue to cause security headaches.
4. Normalization of Distributed Computation: increases complexity, thus increasing exploit risks both logically and geographically.
5. Proliferation of Embedded Systems: PDA's have the organizational security potential of a hand grenade, though location-specific security application may help here.
6. Mass Adoption of Wireless Networks: represent the major challenge to organizational security.
7. Change in Payment Models: Giving digital content economic value makes it impossible to defend.
While many of these factors have a negative implication on security, the fact that they tend to specialized solutions in each application environment means that future security exploits will not be as widespread as at present. But when they do happen, they will cut much deeper.
A related article discusses the problems inherent in complexity, connectivity, and extensibility as these relate to current software:
http://infosecuritymag.techtarget.com/ss/0,295796,sid6_iss366_art689,00.html
I have known for some time that operating system code has increased in complexity [I remember the DOS days well], but the chart showing that the number of code lines in Windows OS has metastasized from 3 million to 50 million lines in 15 years is a vivid and arresting image!
http://news.com.com/2100-7343-5194756.html
Problems with Digital Rights Management have been touched on in this blog before, indicating the degree to which I felt it was A Bad Thing And A Bad King. The indexed article suggests that while corporations may feel attracted to DRM, in fact there are a host of practical and technical difficulties which must be overcome. In this case [just like in copy protection], the only people really affected are the honest users, who are crimped in their ability to do things, while the bad guys simply overpower the protection and move on.
One point deserving additional stress mentioned in the article: corporate interest in DRM tends to intensify when a high executive is embarassed by leaked information. Of course, the suggestion that such embarassment is more easily avoided, and with greater social benefit, by simply refraining from the behaviour in the first place is simply too, too silly for words.
http://reader.rocketinfo.com/desktop/
The importance of RSS as an educational and communications medium is evident by the space devoted to it in this blog. One thing which stays my hand [and probably that of many others] is the fact that to implement an RSS news aggregator on my desktop, I have to install the Microsoft .NET framework, and I am not exactly bursting with desire or gifted with the time to do this.
The RocketInfo reader to the rescue! The indexed URL takes you to a registration page where you can configure a free Web-based aggregator for yourself, without having to download anything at all.
Another indicator of how much water the RSS technology is drawing is the existence of a dedicated newsletter on this and related topics, which you can evaluate and to which you can subscribe by going here:
http://channels.lockergnome.com/rss/
Since it is a Lockergnome product, its quality should be high.
http://entmag.com/reports/article.asp?EditorialsID=62
Active Directory in Microsoft Windows has been mentioned in this blog before, and with good reason. Here is a special report on AD, with an indication that the NT user base is shifting over, a look at what AD holds in the future, and mention of the availability of a stand-alone AD which does not have to be associated with a server.
http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp
A searchable, filterable FAQ on Microsoft Security, with the default showing the top frequently asked questions. A sidebar lists over a dozen subsections of the FAQ base, along with management and contact tools, plus links and a way to view the entire FAQ contents.
Since the FAQ's provide links to both home and business content, they can serve as a most useful source of information generally, as well as, perhaps, inspiring one or more laboratory exercises or case studies.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/fileandprint/file/dfs/tshootfrs.mspx
File Replication Service (FRS) is one of those important pieces of Microsoft network plumbing which can be the source of undetected [and therefore deadly dangerous] woes. What once was balky and clunky in NT has become a vital Active Directory supporting component in Server 2003. Because it operates 'behind the scene', teaching it and understanding it are more than somewhat challenging. The indexed URL provides a page of downloadable tools for managing/troubleshooting FRS, along with the instructions on how to use these tools and how to work with FRS.
The technical reference for Server 2003 supporting FRS, as well as all of the other technologies functioning in the operating system, can be found here:
http://entmag.com/reports/article.asp?EditorialsID=61
Issues surrounding Server 2003 adoption rates have been ventilated in this blog, and this current sepcial report refines and updates this information. Consisting of a set of survey results and an in-depth case study [with a plethora, though not a surfiet, of related links], this report suggests that Server 2003 is being accepted rapidly [indeed, in the absence of any definitive statistics, I would suggest it is outpacing Windows 2000 Server in terms of site penetration].
Getting a good grip on what is happening here is important for curriculum planning and development in any institution expecting to teach about Microsoft servers, and this article certainly helps in that regard.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040413_0505_tc146.htm
The question of IT commodification, discussed earlier in this blog was related to the degree to which IT innovation appeared to have slowed or stopped. The indexed article looks forward into the near future of office hardware and software, suggesting that there is a lot of evidence for further productivity gains with improved techology.
With the costs of basic hardware falling, the home-office gap has closed remarkably -- one wonders if these developments are pursued, if the gap won't open again. It is not that people don't need productivity at home -- it is just that most people can't afford such improvements.
This is the Open Source Vulnerability Database, which aims to catalogue all of the security issues to which the InterNet is susceptible. The home page shows the most recent entries which have been verified [two of these, for example, were dated the same day as this post]. The database can be browsed and searched, and documentation and FAQ are available from the home page.
Straight from some portion of the horse's anatomy, this page indexes Windows 2000 Server Active Directory Maintenance resources for operations, optimization, and troubleshooting. Following the 'Active Directory Operations Overview" link ultimately will lead you to two alphabetized indices of every task and procedure involved in Active Directory, with active links to both short and detailed explanations of the items involved.
A similar resource for Server 2003 can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/default.mspx
The service operations guide appears identical for both, however.
http://www.schneier.com/paper-pki.html
Public Key Infrastructure is one of the more mind-deadening things to teach in a security curriculum -- it is just rather hard to interest students about this concept, perhaps not least because there is some disagreement in the IT field itself about how and whether to use it. Here is a white paper: "Ten Risks of PKI: What You're Not Being Told About Public Key Infrastructure", which suggests that the benefits of PKI have been oversold, which could be a useful starting point for some more interesting discussions on this subject.
http://www.csoonline.com/read/040104/networks.html
We tend to think of the network as a collection of computers, perhaps extending the term to certain specialized devices like printers and plotters. But as this article points out, we increasingly are supplying IP addresses to devices which are not even remotely characterizable as computers, and the significant security problems which result are addressed at length. Not least of the problem is the explosion in numbers of linked devices, which could reach into the trillions by the end of this decade.
Which suggests, as indicated in this blog before, that we will need IPv6 after all!
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/security/33344.html
Problems relating to InterNet security have become bromidic commonplaces, and have been mentioned earlier in this blog. This article addresses the threats inherent in the Net being built on foundations which were never designed with security in mind, and what must be done to remedy this situation.
Another article, looking at at a current TCP flaw which could lead to connection shutdowns, councludes that the vulnerability is there, but can be easily countered, and is in fact in the process of being patched:
http://internetweek.com/security02/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18902471
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62988,00.html
Before there was the Web, there was gopher, a simple visual interface for InterNet navigation and file access. It was once an essential part of the data diver's toolkit, and now is almost a fond memory. But as this article notes, gopher servers still exist, and there are a variety of ways of accessing them.
While primarily of nostalgic interest, one is tempted to question whether using gopher might avoid some of the major issues currentlyarising with widespread Internet Explorer use.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/offshore.html
Another look at the pros and cons, ups and downs of offshoring, which has been addressed previously in this blog, at some length. Even so, a couple of qualities make this particular article worth a glance.
The first thing worth noting is that offshoring is not the same as a downturn in the business cycle -- jobs lost through offshoring are gone "and they ain't a-coming back". The human cost of this is considerable: we may experience some schadenfreude in contemplating how people who once earned 6-figure salaries now see McDonald's as a luxury treat, but we do so at our peril. There seems to be no natural stopping place for the offshoring phenomenon, and the potential corrosiveness it can exert on worker loyalty is something which really deserves more attention than it currently gets.
The second thing worth noting is how fundamentally dishonest most companies are about this issue, which this article particularly highlights. One can understand that offshoring is a PR disaster for those firms implementing it, but corporate convenience should not be the yardstick by which public debate is conducted in a democracy. By acting in such an evasive manner, corporations become part of the problem instead of the solution [and, worse, make defining the problem and therefore deriving solutions alike more difficult].
Some observers have cautioned against emotionalism over this issue, but in my heart of hearts, I wonder if perhaps it is time for us to get mad about it.
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,91841,00.html
The concatenation of serindipity and blogging should be axiomatic. Case in point: a
throw-away line in another entry in this blog suggested finding relevant results is a major search-engine issue [something which is expecially true when the search term is ambiguous, as I learned recently when trying to search for "stop smoking bands" -- and no, I am not giving up cigars, I was helping a student with a search!].
This article reports on several research initiatives which promise to improve relevance, particularly for highly-structured research fields. At a time when public commercial search engines are taking merchandising steps of dubious propriety, this sort of initiative is well worth tracking. The 'next Google' might not be what we are expecting it to be.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0421chinaagree.html
The initiative taken by the Chinese Communist government to develop a restrictive IT standard, mentioned earlier in this blog, has been retracted as a result of international negotiations. One would have liked to "been the fly on the wall for to see that!". Perhaps the most interesting outcome of this is the degree to which it suggests that China's trade ties to the rest of the world are so valuable that it will not take risks which jeapordize them, even if the Chinese IT industry would benefit in the short term.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0405cybersecurity.html
The standard riposte of the IT industry to security problems has been to hold the customer responsible. The weakness of this assumption [which, say, compared to any other area of product liability represents a glaring exception] is beginning to be evident to many. The National Cyber Security Partnership has issued a report, summarized by this article, suggesting that government has a role in implemeting incentives for industry to develop more secure software. Sounds good to me!
A sidebar indexes the NCSP site and some of the reports they offer, and additional articles and resources are provided at the end of the article.
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/030104/mainframe.html
Mainframes have been mentioned occasionally in this blog, because they are still important players in the IT environment, and are also often the server centerpiece of a network. As this article indicates, mainframes have particular security problems, most of which relate to their relative age. The article also suggests solutions -- there is definitely scope for hope here, but the problem must be realized first.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3639679.stm
Link to a short article [with lots of interesting commentary appended] about a couple of surveys on passwords, which indicated that 70% of those in the survey would reveal their password for a chocolate bar. Beneath the surface humour is a serious point: that many of our security activities set themselves up for failure because they simply don't take human nature into consideration. With attacker threats becoming so severe and the value of defended asssets so great, I think it comes close to professionally irresponsible for those in the IT field to keep on pushing the same tired solutions which have been repeatedly shown as inadequate.
Besides, if somebody offered me a 6-pack of LINDT Cognac-filled bars....
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/03/14/rss_job_one_managing_the.htm
RSS has been mentioned a time or two in this blog. Here is a solid article [with extensive internal refrerences] on the potential for RSS to manage the torrent of information currently inundating us. A variety of tools are discussed -- even if not all of them are successful, some will be, and the competitive advantage bestowed by effective use of these tools takes some imagining.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/04/nine_rules_for_good_technology.htm
Problems with the Open Source Software model have been mentioned in this blog in previous entries, and one recurrent theme is the aura of legal uncertainty which currently surrounds OSS. The article indexed by the URL is a long, thorough, sound discussion of the legal issues in which Open Source Software is enmeshed, and should go a long way, if information is necessary, to enabling orgnizations to set policy on these issues.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/04/nine_rules_for_good_technology.htm
'Educational technology' is often seen as oxymoronic, and quite justifiably so. This article, which links to a downloadable book, is an instructive and provocative meditation on how technology actually can support education. The 9 Rules mentioned in the title are:
1) Always Available
2) Always On
3) Always Connected
4) Standardized
5) Simple [Boy, I agree with this -- if it needs a manual, you don't need it]
6) Does Not Require Parts
7) Personalized
8) Modularized
9) Does What You Want It To Do.
Come to think of it, that is not a bad list of rules for any technology!
http://www.blueoxen.org/papers/0000D/
Meaty article with references, by an author of outstanding discernment [he agrees with me] on the state of collaborative tools. As I have ruminated, passim in this blog, we don't seem to make effective use of the tools we have. The author suggests this may well be because the tools are not very good in the first place.
Certainly, his enumertion of the qualities needed by good collaborative software are dead on, leading to a most poignant question: has the failure hitherto really been in the tools themselves, or in the way these tools are used? Is it a matter of "build it, and they will come" or is it a matter of "I've got to get in front of this crowd -- I'm their leader!"?
Top-down or bottom-up; this manifesto definitely suggests the latter as most appropriate.
Added note: not least among the charms of this article is that it gives another defintion for the acronym 'RSS'.
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-167-1-1-618817-7768-1
The travails of Sun Microsystems have been mentioned in this blog before, which may go some way to explaining why Sun settled with Microsoft for $1.6 billion. From this author's viewpoint, which which I largely agree, Sun really has not gotten anything of value in the long term, simply the ability to keep afloat for a while longer in increasingly stormy compettitive waters.
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/
The link is to a free, downloadable copy of Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, by Lawrence Lessig. This issue is so important that information about it should be widespread. The ultimate irony is, that by restricting culture to the degree big media do, they ultimately kill the creative goose which lays the golden eggs by which they profit.
The usual remedy to such a market failure is government action. One of the major functions of government is to make and enforce decisions in the general benefit against stakeholders with vested interests. Since to all intents and purposes in most 'democratic' countries in the world, the vested interests effectively own the government, there is little chance of that happening.
Spider Robinson wrote a SF short story on this issue: "Melancholy Elephants" which is right to the point -- alas, Robinson overestimated the sagacity and probity of today's politician, a shortcoming only forgiveable because it is so easy to do.
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=3622_0_3_0_C
Short editorial, with embedded links to other stories, suggesting that blogs have grown in capability and popularity that they constitute a valuable business tool. Indeed, blogs have evolved from the link-and-comment model followed here [which is itself still valid and useful] to platforms for sharing thoughts, to archives, or as a tool for individual expression in the form of short essays.
Many of these uses are directly transferrable to the organizational world as elements of value. Organizations also see blogs as useful for project management and knowledge management/dissemination. One suspects that if competitive advantage is the result of blog implementation that business will go for this technology in a big way.
Another article looking at the current status and future potential of blogs can be found here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0415/p14s02-stin.html
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_16/b3879009_mz001.htm
In what has become an all-too-familiar pattern, this article dicusses how many of the features originally considered for implementing in the next Windows OS release, code-named 'Longhorn", are being dropped so the OS can be brought in somewhere close to its anticipated time. Such things as the radically improved file system now are to be implemented in 'Blackcomb', the successor to Longhorn, not expected before the end of the decade.
Given that people are just becoming acclimated to Server 2003, of course, one wonders what the real hurry is here.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1551702,00.asp
Short article covering new initiatives in Communist China to develop IT standards which differ from those prevailing in the rest of the world. Because mainland China is such a large market, and is also such a large producer of IT equipment, the force of such standards is significant. Currently, most of the IT production structure in China is owned by foreign companies, implemeting low-cost production of foreign technology designs. By mandating different standards in a large and growing market, and licencing these to select Chinese companies, who then become mandatory partners for any foreign firm in this area, China hopes to keep more profits in the country.
Since this goes against the long-term trends to open, non-proprietary standards, it represents a considerable challenge to the 'accepted way of doing things', which challenges have tended to fail in the past. The question here, perhaps, is the degree to which Chinese economic expansion continues, because the more it does so, the stronger China's bargaining position with the rest of the world.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/33293.html
Article reporting that in response to a security consultancy's claim that "the world's safest and most secure online server operating system is proving to be the Open Source family of BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) and the Mac OS X based on Darwin.", an industry analyst says that such judgements are scarcely meaningful. The human element contributes to half of all security breaches, and this remains constant across operating systems. The real point being pushed here is that it is not the OS, but aspects of scale relating to connectivity which cause the problems.
In other words, if OS x and Windows were to invert their market shares, OS X would be the operating system experiencing vulnerability assaults. Far from allowing us to ignore the OS as a factor in all of this, as mentioned earlier in this blog, I would say the OS has to be front and centre as part of the analysis.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/migration/linux/mvc/win2kcd.mspx
While most of the buzz these days is about migrating from other operating systems to Linux, with Windows being one of the major feedstock pools for this, in fact the migration may proceed the other way, in some cases. Microsoft's site, at the indexed URL provides a complete guide to Linus to Windows migration, inluding a virtual conference covering migration in extensive detail, white papers on pre-, post-, and ongoing-migration issues, case studies, analyst reports, and additional resources for specific platforms and activities.
If you want to go this way, Microsoft wants you to be sure to know how to do it. The fact that this in-depth how-to covers 6 pages of extensively illustrated and annotated articles is testimony to that.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=170177&seqNum=1
The IT arena has always had community elements [and seen itself as a defined community: 'the geeks'], but as IT becomes more pervasive, in one sense that community becomes so large that it evaded easy identification. In another sense, what some commentators are seeing as enabled by IT is "social networking", as discussed in this article.
Blogs and RSS are important components of social networking, but the full range of tools, with their advantages and disadvantages are also covered here. The fact that mobile computing proliferates terminals simply makes the potential for social networking all that more extensive.
There is a lot to this, but there is one aspect which needs further commentary, having a double-edged aspect. The first edge comes out when the author remarks "Surely you've been invited by someone to Friendster or Orkut" -- well, in fact I have not been, and don't expect to be soon, even though I am tightly connected to the InterNet. So some people will be excluded from social networking by their nature. The second edge is that a significant portion of the populace lacks access to the IT network, and always will do so. To the extent that social networking comes to define 'the human community', this represents another (and extreme) case of technological marginalization.
That someone so insensitive to 'people' issues like myself should come to this realization with such speed says something about this phenomenon, though as usual, I can't say exactly what.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5182641.html?tag=nefd_lede
As an example of a justice system which is not in the thrall of corporate domination, a judge in Canada made a common-sense ruling which undercuts much of the effort of the record industry to restrict file sharing. In essence, the judge noted that simply placing a copy of a copyrighted work on a shared device did not equate to publication, so long as the copy was not advertised. Although this is a major spoke in the wheels of those who wish to strangle the public domain with a cord of gold, international viewers should note that in Canada, apart from the written constitution, which is both diverse of interpretation and resistant to amendment, all law is capable of being rewritten by legislative action ["the supremacy of parliament"], and the Minister of Communications, probably nudged appropriately by industry, is on record in favour of a rapid initiative to change the law to align more exactly with USA practice.
As a Canadian citizen myself, I can only sigh....
Given the starkly utilitarian character of this blog, which I do not expect to change in any fundamental way, mentioning this URL, which leads to a online design source for blogs may seem a bit, well, badly-thought-out. And in fact, most of the advice on this site is probably lost on me -- but that does not mean that it is not good advice, well worth taking. In addition to news and links, there is discussion of design and design sites -- if you are seriously into the design end of blogging, thia site is a must -- and in its own appearance displays effective design ["I wouldn't do it that way, but I see why they did what they did, and it certainly works"].
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/index
This website preserves and showcases Graphical User Interfaces, with a featured interface of the day, featured component, and featured icon. News, a featured site, and contact information round out the home page. This is a good way to compare the look, if not the feel, of different OS without having to install them on disk partitions, and should find a place in many teachers' toolbox.
http://whitepapers.comdex.com/data/detail?id=1080147941_867&type=RES&src=KA_RES_20040331
While the importance of file transfer in many aspects of organizational operation across the InterNet cannot be gainsaid, it is equally true that the FTP protocol represents a particular vulnerability, and one which can be difficult to remedy. Some alternative standards for secure file transfer have been proposed, and this white paper asks the question: "Evolving Standards for Enhanced File Transfer: Do Recent Secure File Transfer Standards Measure Up?".
One solution to FTP vulnerabilities is deployment of a proprietary solution, as this white paper: "Instant FTP Security Made Easy" demonstrates:
http://whitepapers.comdex.com/data/detail?id=1075911003_39&type=RES&src=KA_RES_20040331
http://whitepapers.comdex.com/data/detail?id=1045490821_169&type=RES&src=KA_RES_20040331
A concept that information technology students are infrequently exposed to is the notion that IT activities cost money, and rightly or wrongly, are seen as an operating cost sink in most organizations. This makes Return On Investment calculations an essential part of the network administrator's toolkit, and this white paper: "Calculating ROI for Centralized IP-Network Analysis Systems in Large Enterprise Networks" can give students a real taste of enterprise networking, why analysis systems are needed in such networks, and how their costs can be justified.
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010227.shtml#010227
The requirement for Liunux to offer a better user experience to challenge Microsoft for the SOHO market in a big way has been made in this blog before. One of the key components of this is a high quality GUI, another notion that is not exactly new to this blog. Installation issues have been adduced as a real deal-breaker in particular.
One of the more contentious issues relating to Linux desktop use has been about cost. Yet there is no question that Linux has been making progress as desktop alternative. All of which serves as an extensively self-referential introduction to this article by a Linux skeptic, who has nevertheless kept trying, and who now considers that the gap is indeed narrowing rapidly enough to start thinking about Linux as a desktop alternative.
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-41/sp800-41.pdf
Firewalls are devices which have such fundamental simplicity [the equivalent of a locked door against outsiders] that it is easy for the uninitiated to over-simplify their implementation, and therefore create a worse security menace than if nothing had been done. The white paper indexed here: "Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy: Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology" provides an in-depth view of what firewalls are and how they work, and what important issues need to be considered in implementing these devices.
http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/cmag_nl_infosec_content.asp?articleid=681&zoneid=39
This is a very short guide to a very extensive array of security information available at the Cisco site -- one which explains what can be found somewhat better, I think, than Cisco itself does. Covering security advisories for Cisco products; technologies: security including overviews, case studies, trends analysis, best practices, white papers, and more; enterprise and small-medium business security seminars, white papers, self-study courses, and more; ISPs: managed security services; a security glossary; plus the Networking Professionals Connection: Security Forum, this page indexes a wealth of Cisco information, itself more easily found due to this page.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/perl/story/33301.html
Interesting overview of 8 textbooks which are popular for teaching IT to MBA students, and the degree to which they minimize Linux, or are positively hostile towards the alternative operating system. Textbooks, by their nature, tend to the 'plain vanilla', and it is not surprising to find that the sorts of errors for which humanities texts get castigated in vain also crop up here. It is certainly worth noting by IT educators the degree to which text bias exists.
Interestingly enough, if you move towards books intended for computer science types [for example, general titles on operating systems], there Linux and UNIX get all the coverage they deserve, which is extensive.
To turn a phrase: "I mild less who writes the nation's laws, and more who writes the nation's business texts".
Here is something which could have any number of major educational uses: the UNIX Forums [sic]. In addition to network computing topics:
UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
C Programming in the UNIX Environment
IP Networking for Dummies Questions & Answers
Network Security for Dummies Q & A
many of which are obviously directed at the newcomer, special interest topics include Linux, SUN Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, OS X, SCO[!], and BSD. Treated as well are general topics, downloadable UNIX and Linux benchmarks, and UNIX Standards.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/blog.html
I have created meta-blog entries in this discussion before, and here is another example of how blogs are being used in corporations both for public relations and as a knowledge-management tool internally. One important point made in this article, and exeplified by the very blog you are reading: they can become easily-mined data repositories free from spam or garbage [yes, spam comment attacks on blogs have happened, and indeed this blog has been so treated, but the cure is relatively easy to implement].
The proof of this particular pudding is that enterprise editions of blogging tools are under development, with the capacity to link blogs and RSS aggregation capabilities being a major facet of this.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5177257.html
Novell, which last January bought the major Linux distributor, SuSE, as well as the Ximian desktop, has adopted the strategy of coupling the desktop and office productivity software to its operating system. This takes a leaf from Microsoft's book, since it is this strategy which largely accounts for Microsoft's dominance. If correctly implemented and marketed, such a software suite should be extremely interesting to companies looking to avoid the pricing and intellectual property straightjacket Microsoft now has on them. The nature of Linux suggests that the same constraints will not (and cannot) be implemented by Novell.
Even though this represents a major departure for Novell, the company still intends to support its venerable NetWare network operating system [which currently has about 5% market share], and is considering developing a new version, itself tightly integrated with Linux.
For another viewpoint, which characterizes Novell's announcement as an indication that stand-alone NetWare is going away, see:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1552516,00.asp
http://www.WindowsNetworking.com/pages/article.asp?id=300
http://www.WindowsNetworking.com/pages/article.asp?id=302
The importance of remote control tools in network administration is close to self-evident. The two URLs link to an excellent 2-part article on using the Terminal Services application in Windows 2003 to implement remote administration. Heavily illustrated, with copious examples, the article shows you how and why to use Terminal Services, as well as providing trouble-shooting information plus hints and tips. Since it is not always possible to demonstrate Terminal Services in the classroom, having a good article for students to access certainly is a useful alternative.
The degree to which network administrators face multiple threats is manifest from the following selection of security articles:
A good description of countermeasures to ward off the problems inherent in social engineering [which I think is one of the most critical threats in organizations of any size] can be found here:
http://www.windowsecurity.com/pages/article.asp?id=1318
A Windows feature named Alternate Data Streams, originally designed to enhance compatibility with Apple systems, now is a subtile threat (of which many Windows sysadmins are unaware) to such operating systems if the attacker is a clever hacker:
http://www.WindowSecurity.com/pages/article.asp?id=1314
That worm and other malicious code attacks are getting worse because perpetrators appear to be able to release them without much fear of being caught, and the resources available for hacking have become more widespread, forms the core of this article:
http://www.WindowSecurity.com/pages/article.asp?id=1317
An examination of the issues relating to open source security makes the point that whether software is open- or closed-source has little validity as a determinant, since the arguments in this issue can be made so many ways:
http://www.WindowSecurity.com/pages/article.asp?id=1315
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/
The URL indexes a site devoted to the world of Windows networking, with its major focus being a good selection of article and tutorials. Downloadable networking software for Windows is another feature of the site, which also offers useful links plus newsletters to which you can subscribe. The interface is clean, uncluttered, and functional, making for a highly worthwhile interactive experience.
http://www.itworld.com/itwhirled/
Given the date of the posting, it seems entirely apropriate to remark upon this ste, which offers strange and amusing takes on IT and the wider world, along with less-than-earth-shattering polls, games, books, software, and interesting URLs. All of this seems suitable for classroom use, if you want to use humour to make a point -- but there is no restriction on just using this site for frivolous amusement!
http://mcpmag.com/features/article.asp?editorialsid=407
Event Logs are an important part of Microsoft computing (particularly, server computing), but the nature of the beast makes it somewhat difficult to teach. You can show Event Logs, and how they are displayed, but the details are so cryptic they often have no significance for students, and are thus quickly forgotten. The indexed article discussed Windows Event Logging, how to get over the frustration of cryptic messages, and how to use the Event Log for specific purposes.
Providing in-depth illustrated coverage of Event Viewer and its logs, this article therefore is a useful item for faculty and students to access.
http://www.cambridge-mit.org/cgi-bin/default.pl?SID=6&SSSID=446&SSSSID=366
As a general rule, this blog discusses the here-and-now, with only occasional looks at big questions or future potentials. In this case, however, the fact that the concepts discussed in the indexed article have yet to be implemented [and indeed, the question of whether they can be implemented is indeed beggable] is overshadowed by just how basic the concepts are in the IT industry. For the fact, as every technogeek knows, is that computers are our masters, not our servants -- we must accommodate their interfaces, properties, and methods, rather than the other way round.
Apart from the general damage this does to humanity [which however unquantifiable, cannot be lightly dismissed], the more important issue, especially from the hardware manufacturer's point of view, is how such inflexibility serves as a barrier to adoption. This article discusses a 'pervasive computing' research initiative joining the computer, communications, academia, and industry players in one group to help address how to make computing easier and better.
For every time I have moaned: "It shouldn't have to be this hard!", I can see this intitiative as one with major potential, very well worth tracking, and a useful source of all sorts of teaching moments.
Another perspective on this pervasive computing concept can be found here:
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/1124
http://www.nwfusion.com/research/2004/0322spam.html
Spam, and the problems it causes, form a recurring topic in this blog, because it has implications for IT education both as a subject and a phenomenon. Here is a look at the proceeding of a recent anti-spam conference, with opinions and ideas from leading participants in the fight against spam, and relevant news links following the article. One interesting theme - the participants note that the solutions here may be as much economic as technical.
Another article on this conference can be found here:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/04/16/16FEfuturemail_1.html
On the other hand, this article:
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_johansson032604.asp
suggests that a technological solution [a method which would make spam so computationally intensive that it would be worthless, instead of quick and easy] is the route to a spamless life.
Evaluating both sides of this debate is certainly a useful classroom tool, with the only certainty being the fact that the debate will go on.
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/article.php/3331751
Gartner Research, whose prognostications may require the occasional sprinkle of salt, released a report suggesting that 25% of USA IT jobs will be offshored in the next 6 years. This does not mean a necessary net loss of jobs, because some of the jobs created in India, for example, will be new local growth, not a transfer.
Offshoring has gained great momentum, and looks like a no-brainer for business decisions. On the other hand, some observers note that small-to-medium business will have much greater difficulty offshoring, and if wage pressures are allowed to operate, perhaps not all such jobs will move offshore.
For a series of news articles and reports on the offshoring debate, check this site:
http://www.eweek.com/category2/0,1738,1543526,00.asp