http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/october29/nilsson-1029.html
Reflecting on his career as an Artificial Intelligence researcher, the article subject suggests that humans and computers will always be different, but the intellectual and creativity differences will narrow. This is sufficiently ambiguous to give one pause. On one reading, if the differences are sufficiently narrow, then AI will ultimately usurp human intelligence, because it is much more effective within the corporate structure. On the alternative reasoning, when our machines 'grow up' enough that the gap is sufficiently narrow for us to treat them as alternative autonomies, then the potential benefits from man-machine interaction could be boggling to the minds of both [and this is an issue where there is much SF writing of merit].
Of course, if you seek to determine which of these future will come about, based on the principles I have expressed elsewhere in this blog, the answer is obvious.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15500149
The latest employment data suggests that IT joblessness has stopped increasing, and runs slightly less than the overall national average in the USA. However the good news is not evenly distributed -- database administrators and computer programmers have been especially hard-hit, as have older workers [or workers with degrees which are over 30 years old].
On the other hand, business-technology managers, computer scientists, and software engineers enjoy brighter prospects. Both Microsoft .NET and Linux developers are in demand, as are people with an IT-audit background. On the remaining appendage, recruiters are still getting 100 applications for every single open position, so the boom days are not exactly here again.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1020linux.html
Despite the progress made in Linux development, users still want more: better tools for system management, extended driver support, enhanced security, and more commonality amongst distributions [in my opinion, one of the major FUD issues with Linux, for people who do not understand the OS well].
In addition to the main article, there is a selection of related links.
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2003/tc20031029_8670_tc056.htm
Article evaluating the latest ['Panther'] upgrade of the MAC OS/X, suggesting that the new version's ease of use and additional speed make it worth the asking price. Most interesting is the fact that the upgrade is incremental -- it is not like having to relearn the OS basics, in the way one often has to do when confronted with a Microsoft upgrade.
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2003/tc20031023_9828_tc055.htm
Amid all the hoopla about the AMD 'Athlon-64' CPU, this article makes the point that AMD has, hitherto, been spectacularly unsuccessful in its competition with Intel, and has not made a profit in nearly 3 years. Analysts question whether the 64-bit initiative can ever translate into commercial viability; AMD may leverage its expertise into the flash memory business, and get out of the CPU ratrace.
This sort of information must severely dampen the enthusiasm of those planning an Athlon-64 purchase, since this would be an expensive orphan at today's prices - I must say I am reconsidering my purchase planning right now.
http://www2.cio.com/analyst/report1860.html
Article suggesting that there are continuing signs of a recovery in the IT industry, which can be expected to continue into 2004. The more interesting part of the discussion is the explicit rejection of IT 'commodification', which sees it as just a base cost which everyone pays. Since established vendors are back in control, and technology users are increasingly business users, we are seeing significant structural changes in the environment which may lead to massive productivity gains across industries.
Of course, if all this simply means accelerated employment outsourcing, it is not necessarily a matter of warm confidence.
http://networking.ittoolbox.com/news/dispnews.asp?i=103238
Article discussing overseas outsourcing trends in IT, explaining the rationale behind it. Shows how a specific locality [the Kansas City area] is affected by this development, which is beginning to spawn a backlash. Computer science enrollments are sharply down at local universities, leading to a fear of atrophied technical skills in the USA -- which begs the question: how can the skills be maintained if all the jobs are outside the country?
Makes the suggestion that the "middle class" is beginning to fight back, and instantiates the unsustainability of the developing USA pattern where there are a few rich stockholders at the top, a mass of low-paid service personnel at the bottom, and nothing in between. Yet clearly this is exactly the direction in which North American employment is heading, and any of the proposed cures thus far specified for this problem appears worse than the disease.
Perhaps we all should learn to like flipping burgers and cleaning toilets -- if nothing else, this might help solve the USA's illegal immigrant problem, as people start competing for the 'jobs nobody wants'.
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1737
The 'classic' firewall solution is enabled in a router. This works, but there are administrative and performance costs to such a solution. This article explains how a transparent bridge can be set up to be a firewall also, and what some of the drawbacks and benefits of such an approach can be. Intelligently applied, using a transparent bridge can boost security without penalizing perfomance.
The article provides links to Linux resources for implementing bridging firewalls, although there is no particular reason why this technique should be confined to Linux.
http://www.kbst.bund.de/Anlage303777/pdf_datei.pdf
A detailed, warts-n-alll look at the issues and problems involved in migrating from Windows [both as an operatings system and a support plaftorm for major service applications] to Linux. Equally valuable is the acceptance of the large degree of variables which can apply in this stuation, suggesting a multiplicity of migration paths rather than just a single conduit from A to B.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001772631_spam23.html
Article reporting a survey indicating that the most serious effect of spam has been less technological [though this is serious enough] and more on the degree of faith people have in the InterNet and e-mail. When spam reached a critical point, it ceased to be an annoyance and became a problem, which took much of the bloom off the non-technological rose of global communication.
The fact that many people do not employ any filter, but just delete spam as it arrives, is good indication of what spam costs. I do not use a filter myself, or any other form of rejection process, simply because I dread a false negative [a real message deleted as spam]. I would estimate, since I use a previewer, that spam only adds about 5% extra time onto my e-mail experience, but I spend a lot of time with e-mail, so that still amounts to a significant time loss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/23/technology/circuits/23diar.html
Article describing the results of a Perseus Development study on blogs indicated that 2/3 of the 4.12 million blogs were abandoned [defined as not updated for at least two months] -- over a million blogs lasted exactly a day. Under 2% of blogs were updated daily, and only 9.9% had a posting linking to national news. What then, are blogs there for?
This does not mean that blogs are useless, only that their development is proceeding apace. In particular, I do not think that a blog necessarily needs daily updating, and in fact do not update this one every day. On the other hand, were I not to update at least weeky, this blog would lose much of its function. Other blogs, on other subjects, may have a longer or shorter update frequency.
Nevertheless, a blog should be updated more than once to really count..
Note there are some other IT articles in this same URL reference.
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/computer.html
A page of links to computer and science jokes taken from rec.humor.funny, at least one of which may make you smile.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60927,00.html
In this article we have a good example of rights in conflict. A firm providing electronic voting services, Diebold Inc., had internal memos detailing problems [potentially serious] leaked to voting activists, who have published them on Web sites. The company is suing the ISPs carryng the Web sites, claiming copyright violation, and many ISPs have submitted on this issue [though this fatally compromises any claim they might have to "common carrier" status, in my opinion. Note that the telephone company would not be liable if someone phoned the press and read one of the memos in question to someone at the other end].
One the one hand, you have the company claiming that its intellectual property has been stolen, and on the other, you have the publicizers claiming that the company cannot use IP law to cover up what may be a criminal activity. On the face of it, one would have to think that the activists have the better of the case, but consider this: an internal memo often does not state facts, but opinions or incorrect information -- so wonders whether the gun is smoking as furiously in this case as might initially have been thought.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/102203A.html
Short article with an interesting premise: that the blogs of today serve the same purpose in circumventing what is seen as a smothering authority that CB radio did in its time. In some sense, despite some reservations expressed in other quarters, the InterNet represents a form of anarchic freedom of expression which is both liberating and valuable, and blogs certainly form a part of this.
There never will be a "single viewpoint" -- the only question will be the degree of efficient suppression which is capable of being brought to bear on all but the "authorized version". Given that media and information are the two biggest money-spinners on the planet, there is every reason to be concerned about this, which only makes this prospect of blogging that more cheering.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6296-5035234.html
Discusses the implications of the Global Positioning System, expecially as it relates to the InterNet. The point here is that everything now can "know" where it is, and communicate this to other devices [actually the harder part of the equation]. Many great oaks spring up from this acorn, including automatic most-efficient physical routing between two places.
Yet again another "iceberg technology" in the ongoing development of making the world smart.
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/itspending/story/0,10801,86122,00.html
Despite appearances, I am just as human as the next person who has my same quotient of human kindness, and one thing to we are prone is looking at which technologies are on the upward slope, since these are the logical candidates for curriculum development. This article lists 5 technologies which are going in the opposite direction, plans to abandon which should be put in place posthaste:
* Windows 9x
* Client/server computing [as strictly construed]
* IBM SNA and proprietary network architectures
* Tape backup
* Visual Basic 6
In fact, I de-emphasize the first four of these in my current classroom teaching, only avoiding the last one because I don't teach programming.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,60831,00.html
The vision of a computing technology which interacted with us seamlessly without barriers [sort of an ultimate in 'user-friendly'] was born [like so much else in personal computing] at Xeroc PARC over a decade ago. This annotated article reports on a conference about the degree to which connections have proliferated, as well as providing links to related stories on this topic.
The objective: our computers should be friends, not obstacles. Another in the many 'iceberg' issues in IT.
http://www.cio.com/archive/092203/kurzweil.html
Some form of constructive engagement with the future, I strongly believe, is an indispensable tool in any IT professional's armoury, especially those engaged in teaching people who have a very good chance of living to the 22nd century.
This article by the ever-provocative Ray Kurzweil is an absorbing defence of the proper attitude towards future risks, and is thus worth reading in itself, but the fact that it is part of an article set: "Technology's Impact On Everything" with a diverse range of author links, each article with subscriber comment, makes it a resource worth highlighting.
A somewhat different take on the near future of IT in the 21st century is given here by Bill Joy, whom Kurzweil mentions in his article:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,490598,00.html
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15300004
Gigabit Ethernet has been coming with all the inevitability of Godzilla advancing on a night-shrouded Tokyo -- now we can feel the monster's hot breath. As applications become more data-intensive, and as the requirements for networking bandwidth grow, Gigabit Ethernet becomes a more likely alternative.
Even if you are not prepared to put the backbone in, you can easily and cheaply equip nodes with this capability, and then upgrade the backbone later. Alternatively, in new installations, the argument for having the capability in the backbone from the get-go is hard to ignore.
This article discusses the current state of play in this area.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60770,00.html
A design guru opines on the importance of the 'wow' factor, the viscerial reaction we get when we see someone using an Apple 17" widescreen portable. His position: the look and feel, and concomitant pleasure a techological object gives is as an important a design criterion as actual function. Clearly, this bit of advice applies to IT, particularly program design.
And yet, I wonder: what makes me go "wow" about my main home system is not the case, which is boring beige to the featureless max, but the fact that it contains a 10,000 rpm SCSI RAID array, which gives new meaning to disk speed.
And what slows my hand with something like the highly lucious APPLE G5 with 23" Cinema display, which has the 'wow' factor in spades, is a little matter of some $6K. For that, I can have a higher-performing Athlon 64 FX box with a much more capable graphics card, a bigscreen display, and lots of money left over to buy cigars. It may not look like much, but I don't think I really care.
In the case of much modern technology, my response is not "wow" but "what?!?!", although I must admit I am weakening when it comes to keychain USB storage peripherals, which appear ever-more indispensible to me.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60770,00.html
A major problem in conserving our computer heritage is the degradation of media, widely regarded as a serious problem. The answer, suggested by the creator of th 'Wayback Machine" is to archive them on the InterNet. But this, surprise, surprise, violates copyright law, even if the copyright holder cannot be contacted for permission in the first place. Even more absurdly, the DCMA suggests that for encrypted works, permission cannot even be given to allow such storage.
This is just another instance of the degree to which the current legal structure attempting to regulate information technology is devoid of reason, common sense, or any concept of "the greatest benefit to the greatest number".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031011/FOLD11//
One of the most endearing [and irritating] aspects of the IT field is the way in which supposedly disparate intellectual concepts fuse together into a mutation of astounding potency. In part, this is simply a reflection of the computer's capacity to be a 'general machine', but the trick still looks magical for all that.
This article discusses programs which simulate orgami-style folding on computers, and their surprising and fruitful research results.
Now when we can get computational bending, stapling, and mutilation, we will indeed have crossed the threshold of a Brave New World.
http://security.itworld.com/nl/security_strat/10212003/
"Social Engineering" is widely acknowledged as a major security problem, but convincing examples of this attack technique in practice can be difficult to construct. A poorly-constructed example may fail completely in getting the point across. This article presents a real-world example which could be most useful as a starting point for in-class discussion.
http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml
An interesting, albeit somewhat dated, report on what sorts of online behaviour result in spam, and providing a list of simple, common-sense tips for avoiding it. The numerous charts and graphs provide an enlightening display of a number of facts and trends.
http://entmag.com/reports/article.asp?EditorialsID=51
One thing which should be clear to all System Administrators is that Server 2003 and W2KS are not, compared to NT, "your father's Oldsmobile". Even Microsoft's bitterest critics agree that the later versions of the server OS are capable and much more secure than NT, which really did not qualify as "enterprise-ready".
Some of the 'ways of thought' which prevailed in the NT days have carried over to the later server versions, according to this article, which downplays many of the previous problems which NT had. Worth reading in itself, but made even more so by the spirited and diverse commentary attached to each reason discussed.
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php
Whatever one thinks about the latest inane antics by the RIAA [and what I say could only be recorded on phosphors made of asbestos], the bottom line is that they can cause a System Administrator a world of hurt. This is so, even if nobody in the organization is deliberately sharing files. This site provides a process checklist to make sure you cannot be easily sued, and is worth implementing in any network for which someone has administrative responsibility.
It is worth implementing on your home system, as well.
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
With the increasing proliferation of scumware and other pestiliferous software, knowing what is going on in a Windows system when it starts up is crucial. However knowing what is going on requires additional information, which this site provides: an alphabetic index of startup entries [not] processes, including which ones are actually caused by a virus.
Another take on this, using the same information base classified in a different way, which may be just the way students will most easily understand it, is this site:
http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/PENINDEX.HTM
This lists startups and executable programs with a direct link to each item mentioned.
Here is a startup application database which classifies starting programs into categories ranging from essential to dangerous:
http://www.greatis.com/regrun3appdatabase.htm
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20031001/strategies.html
Generating new ideas in IT is as important as doing so in any other venue, and the brainstorming technique is an established tood for doing this. The article discusses results of brainstorming research, which suggests, among other things, that solitary brainstorming is the most effective. It also looks at why we so often get great ideas while having a bath.
The thing which arrests me most is the degree to which the modern workplace is actually antithetical to the environment in which brainstorming is most productive. Perhaps there simply is an upper limit to the number of new ideas we wish to generate?
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1672/
A lengthy and somewhat tongue-in-cheek article about the wrong ways to handle newly-purchased computer hardware. As well as being a good source of Dreadful Warnings, it could also be used as the source for troublehshooting scenario deveopment, so it has a serious side as well.
Here is another take on the same subject:
http://www.dansdata.com/sbs3.htm
Both authors claim complete independence in devloping their particular screeds.
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
The link indexes a free tutorial and presentation creation tool called "Wink", which those who have used report on favourably. It could be a handy tool to the classroom IT teacher in a situation where specific software is either lacking or cannot be mounted on a class computer.
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2003/0818nsm1.html
The regulatory environment around IT has become increasingly strewn with minefields, making compliance as important an issue for IT as it is for human resources or finance. This article suggests what IT professionals should know about compliance activities, and provides links to other sources of related information.
The wise IT worker will not be caught napping by this issue -- it can have fatal effects on career prospects!
http://www.sharpsystems.com/products/datasheets/RD3D1010-4.pdf
This sounds to me like a classic example of "put up or shut up" technology -- the .PDF gives a product description of a laptop with a 3-D screen which does not require the use of special glasses to view. The technology is based on LCD screens, and if effective, could do much to obsolete CRTs at a faster rate than previously opined.
Which is the rub -- do we really want this? I think there is a real distinction between an in-screen stereo vision [which is like looking through a window or down a tunnel] and a true holographic display which is actually 'in the round'. The latter is preferable, the former just an interesting novelty.
On the other hand, I have been wrong before....
http://certcities.com/editorial/news/story.asp?EditorialsID=509
Microsoft has implemented a new certification: Microsoft Certified Desktop Service Technician, meant to be an entry-level certification, with two exams covering such things as trouble-shooting InterNet Explorer problems and assisting users with OFFICE. Published opinon has been split, with some denouncing it as a money grab by Microsoft, and others lauding the certification as filling a real gap.
On the face of it, I call this too soon to tell -- we will have to see what the actual exam tests. But I think two points are worth noting:
1) As described [and unless changed], the MCDST does not replace the A+; the former is Microsoft-specific and as much [or more] directed to Microsoft applications as Microsoft OS, while the latter extends its grasp beyond software to hardware, and looks outside the Microsoft world. I would think having both of these certifications would be highly advantageous to someone looking for helpdesk work.
2) There is some evidence suggesting that the real 'growth' opportunity for IT professionals is with smaller organizations who cannot afford offshore outsourcing. In such a case, the 'design' skills of something like a MCSE will be necessary, but not sufficient, because such an IT worker must be a jack of all trades, in which case the MCDST would be a desirable credential for MCSEs as well.
There is some evidence that Microsoft is looking to replicate Cisco's certification stucture, with an entry-level certification, a junior certification in the MCSA, a senior certification in the MCSE, and an 'architect' certification [which nature is to be determined yet] somewhat equivalent to the CCIE.
Again, it is easy to fleer at Microsoft for developing such a structure, but certification granularity makes great sense to me in the light of the fact that IT shops have a certain "chiefs-to-indians" ratio to maintain, and it is actively counterproductive to insist on the highest level of certifications for those at the lower rungs of the ladder in a large shop. In a small shop, especially one starting to implement IT in a formal way, an entry certification could be initially appropriate, and then the certification requirement could 'grow with the job', providing an effective way for people to combine certification training with the development of on-the-job skills.
For this happy development to be realized, however, the certification exams have to be relevant and resistant to cheating, and on this prospect, the jury is still out.
http://whitepapers.comdex.com/data/detail?id=1065711306_625&type=RES&src=KA_RES
Capacity planning is an exercise of major significance to network administrators/managers, but it is also one which may be done so infrequently that when it is done, it is not done effectively. Given the current economic straits of IT, a white paper like "Capacity Planning in Today's Economy" has applications throughout the whole IT structure.
http://whitepapers.comdex.com/data/detail?id=1066151815_96&type=RES&src=KA_RES
Effective security is not a matter of absolute prevention -- that's impossible -- but of managing risks. This white paper: "Security Risk Management - Strategies for Managing Vulnerabilities and Threats to Critical Digital Assets" outlines how to create requirements for such strategies.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994215
The portmanteau word "Wintel" has served as a shorthand acknowledgement of the throughough interdependence between Intel's hardware and Microsoft's software. So significant has this relationship been that despite a bias in this blog about announcements about deliveralbles Real Soon Now, I am mentioning this one: a CPU chip which will allow different OS to run together with the same ease as different applications run under one OS today.
I would be the last to underestimate the value of this, the threat it poses to Microsoft, or the degree of difficulty in actually delivering on this promise.
http://www.theregister.com/content/61/33292.html
When the numbers are foggy, what's a poor crystal-baller to do? Enthusiasts on both sides of the Windows-Linux divide have been forecasting the death of the opposition in the server market for some time now. This article indicates the complexity of the environment in which such claims are being made.
It all rather reminds me about the old joke about the two-car race held in the Soviet Union, in which the Chevrolet won and the Moskovitch lost: in discribing the event, Tass indicated that the Moscovitch came in second, whereas the Chevrolet was just ahead of the last-place finisher in the race!
http://www.ertl.jp/ITRON/home-e.html
Things I would never know if I did not surf the Net relentlessly -- turns out the most "popular" OS in the world is not UNIX, not Windows, but ITRON, a Japanese-developed embedded systems operating system which is used in millions of devices in Japan alone. The project home page gives details of the system and news about it, in both Japanese and English.
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15202136&pgno=1
Entended article indicating that incompatibilities between Linux and Windows systems continue to be a major concern of administrators, particularly those in enterprise systems. In fact, some 33% of respondents separately segment the Linux and Windows environments. The former are the Web and similar "outward-looking" systems and the latter are the desktops.
This is not a situation which should be expected to be resolved Real Soon Now.
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=4867
An admittedly rough and ready comparison of Red Hat Linux 9 vs Sun Solaris 9, coming to the conclusion that the Red Hat product wins by a nose, and is cheaper to boot. Obviously, more examination of this comparison would be helpful, but if it were to hold up, so much the worse for Sun, since its proprietary OS is more expensive than Linux, especially if the number of processers rises over 1.
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/
I do not program I admit
Not even one little tiny bit
I'm not ashamed, I'm not amazed
To say it leaves me whollly dazed
You may think me quite the rogue, m'aam
But this does not mean I ever program.
OK, so I don't, but heaps and heaps of top-ranked sysadmins do so, and in some sense this is what distinguishes a real Robert E. Lee from a Martin Sheen look-alike in the networking world. Here is a free on-line book The Art Of Unix [sic] Programming by none other than the head honcho of the Free Software movement, Eric Steven Raymond.
'Nuff said.
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/
A cleanly laid-out site devoted to security issues, including white papers, news, ongoing research, training and cerfification, resources, trends, and opinions, plus premium services available for a fee.
http://www.tscm.com/warningsigns.html
In today's organizational climate, being concerned about covert observation is not paranoia, it is just common sense. The URL referenced provides a plain and easily understood list of signs indicating someone may be listening to more than you would like. Some valuable steps to follow in effecting a remedy are also outlined.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci863439,00.html
Many security experts consider that a majority of security threats come from inside the firewall, and this article discusses this in some detail, making the point that fatal damage is much more likely to come from the inside. In addition to the article referenced, a sidebar offers links to additional articles, references, webcasts, and tips.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/SiliconInsider/SiliconInsider_030114.html
Much of the discussion about security focusses on crackers, who are the equivalent of a random natural disaster from any specific organization's point of view [in other words, I was not running around waving my golf club in the air, but I got struck by lightning anyway], or on insiders who have an "inside" motivation. This article indicates that industrial espionage is becoming a more prevelant problem, with obvious security implications as well.
http://www.vnunet.com/Features/1143201
Blade servers [essentially servers-on-a-card which can be racked together in a common chassis] are becoming an increasingly important feature in server rooms, and this article explains the pros and cons.
The market for blade servers is discussed here:
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4600/030730blademkt/page_1.html
A short explanation of blade servers is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,950904,00.html
http://ftp.qbss.com/ftp/info/pricelist200309121000.txt
The 404 error message explanation to beat all 404 error message explanations. Well worth a long look -- I watched for 5 minutes, and there were no repeats.
Of course, chillingly, someday this may actually be a real response., and not just a canned script.
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2121720
Article reporting on the first conference on agents in networking, displaying areas of success [principally financial markets] as well as areas where the application is more speculative, but has much broader payoff effects. This area of research is well worth constant attention of networking folks for two reasons:
1) It represents a major opportunity for more effective control of highly complex networks; and
2) If successful, it will cost most of us our jobs.
The agent concept is one which hitherto has not reached its considerable potential, and progress may be about as frustrating as with speech recognition, but it is nevertheless something which could become a dominant feature of our future lives.
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,85639,00.html
It may not appear like a major high-tech issue, but the increased density of modern blade servers is actually imposing limits in terms of being able to keep them cool enough to function. It turns out that many server rooms are now temperature-limited rather than volume-limited. The main article discusses this, while providing sidebars for tips, standards, methods, and links relating to cooling.
Incidentally, as a home user, I am able to avoid having to heat my condominium for a couple of months in the year, when the amount of heat given off by machines is sufficient to keep the temperature above the thermostat's trigger point. So the cooling problem may affect home users, too.
http://www.americasnetwork.com//americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=71650
Whether we need IPv6 to cure a shortage of IPv4 addresses was brought into question, according to this article, by those claiming that the address shortage is overblown. This has created a controversy of its own, although as the article also notes, IPv6 brings additional improvements which are highly desirable in their own right, over and above the abundance of addresses it creates.
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3086051
http://www.cioupdate.com/trends/article.php/3086581
http://www.cioupdate.com/budgets/article.php/3087231
A three-part article [oddly enough not internally linked] about Linux in the enterprise, dealing with security, conversion, and cost issues, intended as a CEO backgrounder. This provides a useful summary for evaluating the desirablility of Linux as an enterprise platform,
http://www.computing.vt.edu/research_computing/terascale/
An entire Web site section devoted to the Terascale Cluster Project at Virginia Tech university, which is using 1,100 G5 Macintosh computers to provide a supercomputer at a bargain basement price. The site includes a discussion forum for sharing thoughts and critiques, and provides a good learning example of large-scale clustering.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
Certainly one of the most attractive aspects of the InterNet was its reputation as a technology providing liberated freedom of speech, since it turned the old saw about a free press ["a press is only free to whomever has the gold to own one"] on its head. Increasingly, however, a variety of developments have called this bright promise [which at its most anarcho-libertarian probably was fools gold] into question.
This on-line publication by an experienced and concerned observer: "The Digital Imprimatur" gives its plot away in its subtitle: "How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle". Increasingly, alas, it does look like this is going to happen, and there is SFA we can do about it.
A more generalized view of this, which essentially concludes that we will sell our souls for a mess of pottage, can be found here:
http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3606168&p1=0
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,112749,00.asp
Article which explores several important aspects of 64-bitness, including which hardware systems are ready, which operating systems are ready, the limited state of play with available applications, and what the future is likely to bring. What struck me so forceably is the reminder that it took 15 years between the introduction of the first 32-bit capable Intel processor and the rollout of a 32-bit operating system.
A number of factors suggests the delay in moving to 64-bits will be much less, and just like the 386 chips, the overall performance of the 64-bit chip even on 32-bit software may be sufficiently attractive in itself to guarantee it a market.
The other item worth remark in this article -- in a [admittedly crude] faceoff between Athlon-64s using the FX technology [the high end Athlon] and the Apple G5, the Athlon-64 boxes wielded a tin of the proverbial substance on most tests, and were 10% cheaper to boot.
http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5089274.html
Sun Microsystems has announced a version of their SOLARIS OS which will work with AMD's 64 OPTERON-64 so as to take advantage of the latter's 64-bitness. It joins SuSE Linux and some of the BSDs in offering such support.
Since SOLARIS increasingly looked like it was being shoved into a niche market by Linux, this is an excellent example of "winning through joining 'em", though if Sun keeps the OS price high, it may in fact fail to gain much traction in this market.
As a secure [and litigation-free] alternative to Windows which can run on desktop machinery, however, SOLARIS may look highly attractive.
http://www.anonymizer.com/tensteps/index.shtml
With privacy concerns ramping rapidly upwards [although here I agree with Larry Ellison of Oracle: "There is no privacy any more. Get over it!"], having a quick referece quide to simple steps to assist with this has obvious merit for students and teachers alike, and that is exactly what this page offers.
An important perspective worth emphasizing: nobody can protect yourself better than you -- you do have a responsibility to act safely in these matters.
http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=5983
As the gorilla of inteterminate weight sitting smack-dab in the middle of major security problems, Microsoft is not sitting back and snacking on bananas. This article indicates its PR reaction, with intentions for more secure technologies Real Soon Now. Given the prominence of the Microsoft bashers, it is only reasonable to consider the alternative case.
For this article, the multitude of lengthy, technically detailed, and mostly negative comments are as interesting as the original statement, if not more so.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248
A new form of copy protection, called "Fade", protects games from being copied, not by making the copying impossible, but by making it unattractive. Games using this technology can be copied freely, and will work well at first, but eventually the copy protection degrades the game experience so badly that getting a legitimate version is the only solution.
Defeating the technical ability to make flawless digital copies seems like a perverse technological triumph, but it does have this upside: ordinarly I can know if I am going to play a game intensively within several hours of first playing it -- so if I did like it, I would not object to buying it.
The major caveat is that the Fade technology should be clearly distinguishable from an actual machine malfunction, so I can correctly diagnose what is going on. I also wonder, based on the technology used, if this protection could not be defeated by cloning the original, instead of copying it.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/100603C.html
Article invoking the technological equivalent of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" in economics [that the emergent properties of individual and disparate transactions can nevertheless have directive {and more arguably, beneficial} results]. The upshot of the "digital hand" is such an empowerment of consumers that producers have no price leverage at all.
Since most of us are consumers, this initially appears to be good news -- but without producer margins of profit for salaries, how can consumer wages be maintained? The whole issue of extending commoditization is at work here. The locus of competitive advantage will shift from techological capabilities to organizational deployment.
This is another "tip of the iceberg" issue.
This is a SANS report [as distinguished from an AVEC report, which is something else altogether] on the top 20 InterNet vulnerabilities, 10 from the Windows side of the house and 10 from UNIX/Linux. That IIS should continue to hold top position in the Windows listing should not come as a flabbergasting surprise to anyone.
http://www.theregister.com/content/56/33226.html
A common riposte to the continuint vulnerability of Windows to viruses is the claim that if other OS represented the same sized "target" as Windows, they too would be infested. This article suggests otherwise: the basic structure of OS X and Linux help make them more resistant to viruses from the get-go. There is considerable resonance, mentioned here, with the "monoculture" problem, which does not exist for either of these other OS.
If true, then this is another cost factor which needs to be evaluated when looking at the practicality of replacing Windows in an organization.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1308772,00.asp
Article explaining what all the buzz about the next-generation Microsoft desktop is all about, and what the software is likely to include. One thing it makes crystal-clear is that the trend towards integrating the desktop and the server which culminated in Windows 2000 is definitely being reversed.
Of course, this new version of the OS will make such demands on hardware that most desktop users will have to upgrade [but what about those who invest in 64-bit systems now?], surprise! surprise!
In addition to the article, this page also provides a number of related links, including one which suggests there will be a 'Longhorn Server' after all....
Here is a site with breaking news about information technology, broken into sections on hot news, e-business, technology, trends, enterprise computing, opinions, innovation, cybercrime, Macintosh, worldwide technology, techology developments outside the IT umbrella, and special reports. The site is cleanly laid out, and it is easy to see when a section is updated.
http://itw.itworld.com/GoNow/a14724a87343a89073442a1
While products and services to provide security are available in profusion, no single solution provides all the protection you need. A layered approach is definitely the most appropriate and fruitful solution process, and this white paper: "Network Configuration Management: An Additional Layer of Security" gives advice on how to implement this as part of your network configuration, which certainly should be part of anyone's defensive planning.
http://itw.itworld.com/GoNow/a14724a87343a89073442a2
Thin clients are like the movie monster which refuses to die. While I am apparently not alone in thinking them a thoroughly Bad Thing [because they are disempowering], nevertheless hope springs eternal in the thin client supporter ranks. This white paper, admittedly from an interested party: "Thin Clients: Four Facts You Can’t Afford to Ignore" makes the contrary case, and it is always good to consider the contrary case from time to time.
After all, it may even be right, forcing that most painful thing, a change of mind.
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4589/031001linkfeature_uc/page_1.html
The URL indexes a page of links about utility computing and related isues, including news articles/features, webcaset, white papers, product information, and a newsletter up with which you can sign. As a much-heralded enterprise solution, this technology is definitely worth keeping an eye on, and this site effectively peels that eye,
http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/10/1010grovepinnacor.html
Article discussing the degree to which the InterNet, as we have come to know it, is at risk from the garbage and malware currently flooding it. The potential for Net balkanization is considered very real [and this would simply be another example of a "Tragedy of the Commons"]. The concept of 'end-to-end' communication is ultimately at risk here.
A related viewpoint avaliable as a downloadable .PDF file, coming essentially to the same conclusion, is "The Beginning of the End of the Internet? Discrimination, Closed Networks, and the Future of Cyberspace", available from:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-239800A1.pdf
My, for some reason, the most recent set of posts have been gloomy and doomy!
http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/10/1010grovepinnacor.html
Report of a speech by Andrew Grove suggesting that the trend to outsourcing IT jobs is undermining the USA's technical capacity, with India and China being the beneficiaries. The result of this hollowing out could be unrecoverable, just as was the case with the steel and semiconductor industries.
One estimate has 10% of USA IT jobs moving offshore in 2004 -- but of course, if companies can make the immediate bottom line look good, what does it matter that the nation is irretrievably damaged over the long term? In the absence of public policy, and at a time when the concept of "government for the benefit of the people" has been nearly totally discredited, it is highly unlikely that anything will alter this trend.
Grove also specifies other problems, including a moribund patent system, a shortage of high-speed InterNet connections, S & T R & D funding shortfalls, and failures of the education system as additional negative aspects for the USA's technological position. The fact that most "viewers with alarm" have been proved wrong in the past does not mean that this jeremiad lacks validity, but if it is in fact true, one is inclined to accept that the Titanic has struck the iceberg and it is all over except for the inevitable deck chair rearranging.
The main article referenced is about the problems, perils, and pleasures of using a Macintosh computer in an PC-networked workplace, and is interesting enough, but the added commentary to the article takes it into whole other dimension of what is possible and reasonable on a network. Oddly enough, I strongly suspect if Apple were to dump their hardware exclusivity so as to make their prices "competitive", I think they would face a window of opportunity for replacing the faltering Wintel standard. As it is, they stand to reap the worst of both worlds -- never gaining critical mass, and eventually being hammered under.
Still, even at their rather jaw-dropping prices, the 17" Powerbook and the dual processor G5 [with the inevitable 23" Cinema display] are extremely attractive machines in their own right. In fact I would happily accept donations of slightly used ones, or the equivalent of in-store credit....
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1332766,00.asp
Intimations of indisposed immanence on the part of the "Longhorn" desktop update to Microsoft Windows have been bandied about, but now it is official -- the earliest the OS will be ready to ship is 2006. There will be a considerable knock-on effect for the rest of the products which Microsoft is developing.
Of course, now SP 2 for XP is promised to be a "new version" of the OS, but still, I think the overall reduction in the pace of OS obsolescence will be highly welcome.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/6925805.htm
The appeal of technology can be seductive, and in some cases, produces effects, as this columnist arges, which are equivalent to addiction -- something addressed by E.M. Forster nearly 80 years ago in his story "The Machine Stops". There is no question we do become dependent, and as users of Microsoft operating systems in particular have learned to their cost, this dependency can be used against us.
As this article notes, there are important political costs to this technological dependency, and the nature of the situation means that these are getting higher and higher, with no apparent way out, short of radical action. Somehow, I get the feeling we have been through all this before....
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6924663.htm
Once a leading light of the IT industry, Sun Microsystems is sliding towards apparent oblivion, accoring to investment analysts. At a time when some faint signs of a recovery in the IT industry can be discerned, Sun's sales continue to decline. The increasing power and ubiquity of the Intel chipset and the Linux operating system has negatively affected both the hardware and software side of Sun's business. Sun, of course, perfers to shine light on the brighter side, saying its installed base is firm.
Another perspective on the Sun situation is available here:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/6925805.htm
A very much less gloomy outlook on Sun's prospects, invoking the way IBM turned itself around, and itemizing Sun's strengths as well as its real, albeit solveable problems, can be found here:
http://news.com.com/2009-7339_3-5087245.html
A late-breaking analyst upgrade of Sun Microsystems stock is described here:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7664198.htm
On the IBM PC and all its Wintel derivitives, a warm reboot requrires the 'control-alt-delete’ three-finger salute. This short article profiles the individual who invented this control sequence, and explains why he made the choice he did. This is an interesting vignette on how a common standard came to be.
http://computerperformance.co.uk/ebooks.htm
Having a fair tinge of Scottish blood in my veins, my general rule on this blog is to recommend only items which are free -- teaching budgets are strapped enough as it is. This is an exception: a selection of e-books on Windows 2000, 2003, and Exchange. covering Scripting, Active Directory, Performance Monitoring, Migration, and Configuring, most of which are priced under $5.
Each e-book is described in some detail on the site and free sampler is available to allow you to judge the quality of these works before paying anything.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/29/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/index.htm
Article which discusses the business implications of AMD's Athlon-64 CPU, not least of which attractions is the fact that it offers consumers the opportunity to buy a system which will last a good 5 years at a minimum. In fact, this argument is so compelling that I have put off my personal plans to buy a new system, and were I a CTO or CIO facing the need for a mass desktop buy, I would also hold on to my cash for a few months longer, if at all possible.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31679.html
The current spate of computer malware is bad enough if it simply represents crackers working their revenge on the world of the straights. This article raises the more disturbing spectre that criminal organizations are behind the most recent proliferation of worms, to permit them to implement extortion attacks against companies. Another profitable criminal undertaking in regards to networking is credit-card number theft.
In addition to the main article, sidebars link to a variety of other resources on this and related topics.
http://utilitycomputing.itworld.com/4604/030924linuxgrid/index.html
Article examining the degree to which Linux is making [and can make] contributions to grid computing, explaining the pros and cons. In addition the site indexes a number of white papers and articles relating to grid computing.
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,3959,1256718,00.asp
Article suggesting that the drive to offshore offsourcing has many hidden downsides. In today's lemming-like drive to cut costs, long-term permanent damage can be done to both national security and a company's competitive position. However, the article also ruefully notes that the lemmings are on the march and have gone over the cliff already.
This extensive, multiple-page article can also be downloaded in a .PDF version.
http://www.unbehagen.com/wifism/
I have great difficulty in believing this site is serious -- a site selling a wireless device which detects news source keywords and shocks you as a result, so you are no longer a disinterested observer.
But joke or not, it does point to the potential for IT to generate human responses which simply could never be predicted in advance.
http://www.e4engineering.com/item.asp?ch=e4e_aerospace&type=Features&id=50026
If there ever was a case of killing the golden goose, the current controversy over the USA's Defence Advanced Research Project Agency must rank as a prime example. The value of this agency and the current political peril it faces are reviewed in this article, which also explains how the UK is affected by DARPA. As an incubator of tomorrow, DARPA takes some beating, and it would be shameful [albeit typical] if it should be damaged as a result of the political process.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel100303.asp?p=1
Conventional wisdom in considering LANs poo-poohs the peer-to-peer model as unsuitable to large numbers of machines. This article stands that wisdom on its head, indicating that the InterNet was originally intended to be a peer-to-peer network, and suggesting that this model can be a powerful source for a more reliable Net. Some of the intellectual pitfalls involved are addressed herein.
http://security.itworld.com/4357/030922activedefense/index.html
Index to a collection of articles on "active defence" -- carrying a hacking attack back to the attacker. While emotionally satisfying, there are lots of pros and cons about this, making this collection valuable for working professionals as well as a useful source for a stimulating debate about one aspect of computer ethics.
http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,85671,00.html
Eliot lamented about the information lost in the data; this opinion piece, which runs somewhat against the grain of the previous entry about the OII, suggests that we are a decade away from being able to give an InterNet address to everything [which, it my calculator is correct, will require something even more extensive than IPv6]. In effect, the ways in which data become 'alive' in a complex mesh of sensors, links, and effectuators simply replicates the notion of 'making the world smart' as discussed in previous entries.
An "informated" economy will be an entirely different living and working environment, with changes in the educational system not the least among the issues involved in realizing this.
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031008000791
Short article describing the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University, which is attempting to define and describe the long-term meaning of internetworking. Since its research focus is on social implications, this institute is obviously addressing deep and persisting complex concerns, exploding many myths along the way.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/tvfuture.html
In the narrow sense, this is not about IT at all, but it raises interesting issues which are certainly relevant to digital rights management. The fact is that commercials on broadcast TV have become so obtrusive that people will pay to have recorders which allow them to skip over the ads.
The corporate response is predictable: find ways of proscribing use so as to force people to watch the ads. One can only imagine the extent of public gratitude which will result. This article suggests some more useful and less restrictive alternatives.
One point the advertisers have missed, of course, is the amount of time taken by commercials -- as this has steadily escalated, people are voting with their feet. Once again, a practical initial arrangement is undone by greed. The alternative is at least interesting to contemplate.
http://www.wiebetech.com/pressreleases/BillionEqualBillion.pdf
How many bytes would a hard drive bite if a hard drive did bite bytes? The fact that manufacturers rate hard drive capacities using decimal arithmetic while many popular OS report it in binary converted to decimal [e.g. Windows] can be a source of confusion for all concerned.
This report defends the hard drive manufacturers more than I would consider reasonable. I think the size rating should be in the terms of the OS in use. But whatever side you take on this, the URL indexes a short, clear, helpful white paper: "When One Billion does not equal One Billion, or: Why your computer’s disk drive capacity doesn’t appear to match the stated capacity" on just this topic.
http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid1_gci928819,00.html?track=NL-118
While software security is a major problem, and one which just seems to be getting worse, it is not going to improve in the short run -- and some feel that useful tools will be a decade in coming. Given the variety of players who have to be brought together on this, the size of current and future vulnerabilities, and the current level of deployment against these, this pessimistic prognostication looks all too plausible.
What the article ignore is this: can we wait a decade? Will the outright harm and the loss of trust this breeds result in diminished or eliminated WAN opportunities? The cavalry may arrive to see nothing but the feathered ends of long-buried arrows.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112631,00.asp
While the "Opteron" is AMD's high-end 64-bit chip, the breakthrough they are seeking is expected from their "Athlon 64", which has already been advertised and tested in the press. This article suggests that there will not be a lot of these CPUs available until 2004. On the other hand, the price differential being charged for such chips at a time when available OS cannot take full advantage of their capabilities may act as a deterrent.
The slope of the oncoming wave may be in doubt, but its absolute magnitude cannot be denied.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61058-2003Sep24.html
Telephoned-based visual data services along the lines of Prestel, Minitel, and Telidon were all the rage over two decades ago, but in North America, it turned out they were a solution looking for a problem. They were effectively swamped by the InterNet. In France, it was a different story, and Minitel is still operational, with its terminals now Net-connected.
Reviewing the history of this technology as it played out in France is a useful object lesson in how environments and technologies interact in creating a solution, rather than a technology simply becoming the solution.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3083001
Brief report summarizing statistics about the growth of pornographic sites on the Web, with the number of pages reaching some 260 million and the number of serving sites amount to some 12% of the total.
Regardless of one's position on freedom of information and the desirability of limited interference with the activities of consulting adults, statistics such as these must give an observer pause. Connect to this the problems implicit in the educational impact of this amount of pornography, and one might be impelled to some form of action.
On a personal note, most of the porn sites I have seen are positively creepy, and I would no more give these people my credit card information than I would flush $100 bills down the toilet, so I do wonder how they can make a profit. The very proliferation of such sites suggests strongly that they do make a profit, and that fact in itself is a disturbing thought on a multiplicity of levels.
Interestingly enough, according to these statistics, over 40% of those accessing pornography at work are women.
http://news.com.com/2010-7339-5082259.html?tag=gutspro
The argument that IT commodification has reached the point that competitive advantages no longer can be realized with its implementation has been made with some eloquence. Here is a rebuttal, suggesting that the development of on-demand computing promises to restore the potential for differential IT development and the concomitant advantages.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/cof/story/0,13893,1047449,00.html
If computational power continues to grow in an approximation of Moore's Law, then, as this article indicates, we will have the power of a human brain on a computer before the middle of the decade [if one accepts with the Itanium and similar 64-bit chips that we now have the power of an ant brain on a computer -- itself no mean feat -- then the progression seems inevitable].
Well, perhaps not -- there are no lead pipe cinches in this arena. But should it come to pass, and the thing this article makes worth thinking about, our educational systems will have to change, not only in terms of methodology, but also in terms of product. If technological developments also allow more reliable output measures to be applied [something which is already ongoing] then the radical nature of this set of challenges to the current education system is impossible to overstate.
Again, apocalyptic prognostigations of radical change usually don't pan out...but the current spate of IT offshore outsourcing is a minor indication of the kinds of change in educational goals which technology demands, suggesting we cannot ignore this projection either.
Creative answers here are going to be so valuable that the nation or institution first coming up with them can have a major competitive advantage if such answers can be implemented institutionally. This of course begs the question that existing institutions can implement these answers....
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6313-5070697.html
While the article focusses on the motivation of malware writers, it also makes two other points worth hoisting inboard:
1) Any cure for this problem is likely to be almost as bad as the disease, at the very best; and
2) As its display of punishments meted out to those convicted of wrongdoing makes entirely clear, there is no proportion between the seriousness of the crime and the severity of the punishment.
I have made my minority opinions clear on this in previous comments, but once again, the overall theme is arresting: the degree to which the contemporary legal system is simply inadequate as a tool for dealing with information technology matters, a situation not likely to receive any rapid remedy.
Unable to sleep because you have forgotten [or never known] what the IS-IS protocol is and does? The Protocols.com site to the rescue, with a comprehensive listing of relevant data, indexed in a variety of ways [including a full alphabetical list which must contain 400 entries, at the very least].
In addition the site has an on-line library with white papers and other resources available for those who register for the site.
Now you have no excuse for not knowing that the "Hardware type" header in the AARP packet is the identifier for the data-link type....
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/content/386/01/toc.html
One of the joys of teaching is when your students show you something you would never have found by yourself. In this case, they found an URL which indexes an IDG book chapter on "Networking Fundamentals" with a clear explanation of the OSI model, the most common networking protocols, and basic routing concepts/problems.
Another example of this is the following excellent site:
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid7_gci929528,00.html
which contains inter alia as good a short explanation of IPv6, complete with reference links, as anything I have ever seen.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DMCA/20031003_unintended_cons.php
A great many people interested in freedom of information and the unfettered flow of intellectual activities thought the DCMA was a major mistake -- I was [and am] certainly one of these people. This thorough paper: "Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA" [also available in .PDF] form, with a host of links, demonstrates how truly harmful the DCMA might be.
If anyone had any doubt about the baneful effects of unfettered corporate powers in relation to society as a whole, this article should disabuse them. Provisions of the act chill expression and research, hinder fair use, impede competition and innovation, and are being misused to ban access to computer networks. Once again, it demonstrates powerfully how in North America generally, and the USA in particular, we have the best government that money can buy.
A shorter critical article is presented here:
http://www.mikehealan.com/articles/DMCA/abuses.php
the conclusion to which is worth quoting:
The DMCA must be withdrawn before it causes irreparable harm to our society. Whatever replaces it should acknowledge that our permanent Fair Use rights and our permanent right to free speech are far more important than a corporation's right to protect its temporary copyright.
Of course we all know that it is completely unrealistic, in the current scheme of things, to ever think that anything like this would ever happen.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/Sterling1003.asp?p=0
Although this goes wide afield of IT issues, anything by Bruce Sterling is worth an eyeball. He here inveighs against a set of technologies he thinks we would all be better off without:
Nuclear Weapons
Coal-Based Power
The Internal-Combustion Engine
Incandescent Light Bulbs
Land Mines
Manned Spaceflight
Prisons
Cosmetic Implants
Lie Detectors
DVDs
I expect I disagree with him on the majority of these, which I suspect is highly salutary, though I do think him particularly on the mark in regard to prisons. I feel quite strongly we should punish people for their crimes, but there are lots of ways which are much less expensive, and more satisfying to contemplate, than the conventional prison system.
http://www.geoplace.com/gw/2003/0309/0309swb.asp
A good overview of an issue I have remarked on hitherto -- that we are in the process of making the world smart. The headline of this article is worth quoting: "The most profound revolutionary technologies are those that disappear...no longer exciting because [they] have become part of our life".
That hits it right on the mark. One of Marshall McLuhan's metaphors was that with new media, we were externalizing our nervous systems -- we are about to make this much more than a matter of mere metaphor.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22380.html
Certification has been a major part of the IT professional's life for nearly a decade now, and this article takes a level-headed look at the situation. The latest employment environment has switched focus to those certifications which have enduring value. In addition to hot security certifications like the CISSP, other solid areas include Linux, Citrix, Certified Enterprise Administrator, Oracle Certified Professional, and many types of Cisco certifications.
Microsoft Certified Solution Developers and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator certifications are also in demand. Conspicuous by its absence: the MCSA/MCSE networking jewel.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/74/5tech.html
With so much going on in the IT world today, one can have trouble sorting out the real earth-shaking technologies from those which are just causing the jello to ripple. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags [mentioned several times before in this blog], 3D printing, biosimulation, self-aware computers [also touched on previously], and distributed power generation are the selected candidates here.
Of all of these, I think that self-aware computers, followed by 3-D printing, probably have the potential for the deepest impact, because the combination could give rise to machine propagation. It is hard to see how a self-aware machine capable of both these functions and able to communicate in a naturalistic manner could not be granted personhood.
http://news.com.com/2009-1023-5082004.html
More in-depth commentary on the recent case Microsoft lost relating to Web browser patents, again demonstrating how unsuited the patent system is to software and networking, and how harmful malicious action undertaken within the current regieme can be.
On the one side we have the hacker outlaws, and on the other, the ligation inlaws, with actual human prosperity and progress being sandwiched between them.
http://www.computing.co.uk/News/1143845
A previous entry discussed grand challenges in computing, mostly from a USA-centric viewpoint. This article looks at the output of the UK Computing Research Committee, which is concentrating on the following projects:
IVIS: In Vivo <-> In Silico
Science for Global Ubiquitous Computing
Memories for Life
Scalable Ubiquitous Computing Systems
Architecture of Brain and Mind
Dependable Systems Evolution
Journeys in Non-Classical Computing
The record of previous Grand Challenges is worth quoting from the article:
The Human Genome Project - achieved
The Turing Test - outstanding
A championship chess programme - achieved
To find a cure for cancer within 10 years - failed in the 1970s
Unify the four forces of physics - in progress
If in even the next 20 years, the same percentage of currently specified Grand Challenges is achieved, the world as we know it will be changed beyond all recognition.
http://www.laurenceholbrook.com/TechnicalInformation/Win2KProfessionalCommonDialogBox.html
The Windows Common Dialog Box is often a source of frustration for users, surely an ironic situation for a GUI element which is seen so often. The URL indexes an explanation of how you can customize the CDB and the limitations of this approach, plus links to 3rd-party tools which can be used for further change and configuration.