Cameron Gray and Dr. Richard Shurtz, President of Stratford University, host Tech Talk, a program about computers and information technology.
     Links to selected programs are below. All programs are archived in RealAudio format. Just click on the RealAudio link below the date to listen.

• Email of the Week
  • Great show. Love the career advice here in California – Kao Saelee
  • Very informative and organized. I am interested in security – Espahrom
  • You’re wrong about Kodak not producing film anymore -- Jean Jolkovski
  • How can I pull audio track from DVD? Loyal listener since 2000 – Jumboshrimp
• Ode to the Tech Talk Listener
  • A tribute to the listener who thinks that things are changing too fast
  • A tribute to the listener who likes film, plain old telephones, and the Sears catalog
  • Get ready for a dose of pure nostalgia
• MyDoom Worm Installs Backdoor and Targets SCO and Microsoft
  • Most commonly named: W32/Mydoom.A-mm
  • Tracked on InternetStormCenter (http://isc.incidents.org/)
  • F-Secure estimates that 20 to 30% of all email traffic is MyDoom. In just three days, Mydoom blew past SoBig to become the worst worm in virus history. Infected 500,000 systems on Wednesday alone.
  • My personal mailbox has been hit hard (Zero on the Sunday ( 25th), 9 on Monday, 27 on Tuesday, 53 on Wednesday, 45 on Thursday, 41 on Friday)
  • Mydoom is a mass-mailing worm that attempts to spread via email and by copying itself to any available shared directories used by Kazaa.
    • The worm harvests addresses from infected machines and targets files with the following extensions: .wab, .adb, .tbb, .dbx, .asp, .php, .sht, .htm, .txt.
    • Mydoom also tries to randomly generate or guess likely email addresses to send itself to.
    • In addition, Mydoom opens a connection on TCP port 3127-3198, an indication of a backdoor for subsequent actions by hackers.
    • Programmed to start a DDOS attack February 1st thru 12th on SCO (Version A) and February 3rd thru 12th on Microsoft (Version B)
  • Linux lovers jubilant about SCO attack. On Slashdot.org, “Finally a worthwhile virus. Where can I download a copy?”
  • Microsoft and SCO have both offered $250,000 rewards for a tip that leads to the capture of author.
  • Port scan on 3127 increased sharply Thursday and Friday as hackers try to exploit the MyDoom backdoor, according to InternetStormCenter.
  • Email characteristics
    • From: Random, spoofed email address
    • Subject: Random
    • Text: Various, including:
    • The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment.
    • The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment.
    • Mail transaction failed. Partial message is available.
    • Attached file: Various, with extensions including .exe, .pif, .cmd, .scr. The attachment often arrives in a zip archive, and is also represented by what appears to be a text file icon, but is in fact an executable.
  • Actions you should take: Update Virus scan with latest signatures and use a firewall. If infected download a program to clean your machine. Most anti-virus companies have posted this program as a public service. Stinger by McAfee is a good removal tool.
• Website of the Week: www.wififreespot.com
  • Site includes a nationwide listing of all retail outlets that offer free wi-fi
  • District of Columbia has 7
  • Maryland has 4
  • Virginia has 35 with 50% in Northern Virginia
  • Check out the vendors who offer free wi-fi and use their services
• Local Hackers Group: DC2600
  • The DC Chapter of 2600
  • 2600 (The Hacker Quarterly) has inspired over 100 such clubs
  • The magazine is named after 2600 Hz, the tone to secure free long distance calls.
  • Monthly Meeting: First Friday of each month
  • Meeting Place: The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Food Court on bottom level near Ruby Tuesdays
    
• 2004 – The Year of the Upgrade
  • Processor Chips
• Intel and AMD will deploy 90 nm chip technology in second half of 2004 with evolutionary improvement in clock speed and efficiency
  • Intel (Prescott) 90 nm strained silicon
    • 1 MB L2 cache, improved threading
  • AMD 90 nm technology
    • Athens (Opteron)
    • San Deigo (Ahtlon 64)
• It will replace the current 130 nm technology  (Pentium 4 and AthlonXP)
• Supporting Technology
  • PCI Express (3GIO) (800MHz to 2 GHz bus technology)
  • Replaces 133 MHz PCI
  • High speed memory (DDR—II)
  • Dual layer optical media and blue laser light technology
  • New form factors
• If you want the latest don’t buy until third or fourth quarter of this year
• For most of us, use the Minus One Rule for best Price/Performance ratio
• MikeRoweSoft.com Litigation Settled
  • Mike Rowe is 17 year old high school student
  • Started a website that highlights his programming skills
  • www.mikerowesoft.com was viewed by MS as a trademark infringement
  • Microsoft sued for rights to name and offered $10.
  • Mike Rowe went to the press. MS admitted being heavy handed and has now settled with Mike for an undisclosed amount (training, Xbox, hosting)
• Bill Gates To Be Knighted
  • Buckingham Palace has announced that Bill Gates will knighted in recognition of his contribution to enterprise in Britain.
  • Because he is not a British citizen, the Microsoft Corp. chairman cannot use "Sir" in front of his name
  • He can put the letters KBE -- Knight Commander of the British Empire -- after it.
  • Honor to be conferred at earliest time of convenience
• Playboy and AOL Settle Keyword Advertising Case
  • Playboy accused Netscape of trademark infringement through its "keying" ad system that offered advertisers a list of more than 400 keywords
  • Keywords included the two trademarked Playboy terms, which would trigger adult-oriented ads.
  • Unlike Google and Overture, Netscape did not offer companies recourse to remove their trademarked terms.
  • Terms of settlement, which will presented to the courts next week, were not disclosed
  • Buying keywords has become an important search engine advertising revenue source
• Stratford News
  • IT Professional Courses sequences (2 to 3 day courses) available
  • Wireless security classes designing Wi-Fi link between Tysons and Woodbridge campus
  • Next Start: February 9th, 2003
  • Open House: February 7th, 2003
  • Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
  • Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
  • Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
  • Website: www.stratford.edu
  • Phone number: 800-444-0804

• Email of the Week
  • Keep sending the Newsletter to Austrailia – Pat Neary
• GOP staff had access to private Democrat files
  • Infiltration of files seen as extensive, according to Boston Globe
  • Confidential Democratic files in the Senate Judiciary Committee were not password protected
  • This security glitch dates back to 2001
  • When Democrats took control of the Senate after the defection from the GOP of Senator Jim Jeffords
  • A technician hired by Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont,  apparently made a mistake
  •  Anyone could access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by both parties
• According to Republicans, their computer technician informed his Democratic counterpart of the glitch, but nothing was done
• Low level staffer scanned and printed files.
• Some were released to the press regarding court nominees, particularly “Estrada”
• He has resigned to go back to school
• Beware of Hotel Hackers
  • High speed Internet connections are springing up everywhere
  • Both wired and wireless
  • Many are set up as a single network neighborhood
  • So you can see the other “guests” on the network
    • Look at shared subdirectories
    • Copy files, view pictures, etc.
    • Use their machines for a mail server of spam
  • Many laptops have shared directories to transfer files to/from the desktop
  • Providers can isolate each guest, but most don’t
  • You can either use Network Neighborhood to view the other guests
  • Serious hackers can use NNap to perform port scans them
  • Closing your ports is as important as, locking the door
• Site of the Week: www.allofmp3.com
  • Russian MP3 download site now in English
  • Selling MP3 songs in with two billing methods
    • 1 cent per megabyte (or around 5 cents a song)
    • $14.95/month unlimited downloads
  • Accepts Paypal payments.
• Superbowl Pepsi Ad to Feature Downloaders
  • 20 teens sued by the Recording Industry Association of America will appear in the Pepsi superbowl Pepsi ad
  • Ad kicks off a two-month offer of up to 100 million free – legal – downloads from Apple’s iTunes
  • Background music “I Fought the Law…and the law won.”
  • The teens say “We are still going to download music for free off the Internet.”
  • Announcer says “Announcing the Pepsi iTunes Giveaway”
• Computer Sleuthing Aid Troops in Iraq
  • Use techniques pioneered by big city police departments
  • Use software to predict location and timing of attacks
  • Study clusters of attacks for the time of day, day of week, location
  • Reroutes convoys to avoid hotspots
  • Uses three programs to record data on every bomb blast, every suspect detained, every tip recorded, digital fingerprints of suspects
  • Beginning to see patterns emerge
  • Commercial Off The Shelf Software (COTS)
    • Analyst’s Notebook by I2 Ltd, Cambridge, UK. (www.i2.co.uk)
      • Identifies factors contributing of an issue
      • Evaluates probable cause
      • Increases ability to rapidly achieve a broad-based understanding of complex issues
    • Crimelink by Precision Computing Intelligence, Arizona, (www.pciusa.us)
      • Compiles independent and unrelated data into orderly understandable formats
      • Supports photos, chart annotations, documents, audio, video of people and entities
• Don’t Get Hooked by Phishing
  • E-mail scam requests info with fake form (PayPal)
  • Scam artists call as “credit card reps” to verify account info (Visa, Mastercard)
  • Don’t fill out forms asking for critical data like SSN, password, account numbers
  • Don’t answer questions from callers asking for same info
  • Also shred sensitive financial data
• DOJ Wants VoIP Wiretap Powers
  • DOJ urging FCC “not to minimize” importance of wiretapping VoIP
  • Part of FCC’s broad ranging discussion of VoIP regulatory structure
  • Traditional telecom regulatory models do not apply
    • Pricing and Taxation
    • Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which requires facilities for lawful surveillance
  • FCC is expected to rule of the issue in 2004
• Cyberbrain Behind Dean’s Campaign
  • Meet Zephyr Teachout
    • Wired 32-year old farm girl from Norwich, Vermont
    • Went to Yale as a track star, then Duke Law School,
    • Had 32 jobs before she arrived at Dean headquarters.
    • Known as “Queen of the Dean Geek Corp”
  • Her vision is
    • Self-organization through peer-to-peer interaction using Meetup.com (meetup.com)
    • No central controls
    • Meetings organization by supporters through connection sites like
  • Created Dean Space (deanspace.org) a set of tools for dynamic website development. Based on Drupal (drupal.org), an open source content management system.
  • Also using open source php for web development
• Lucrative Domain Names
  • Tiny island of Niue, located off the coast of New Zealand
    • Domain Name (.nu)
  • Niue was all but wiped off the map at the end of last week when cyclone Heta sent 300kph winds and 20-metre waves smashing into a population of just 1,200 people. Perhaps 500 will remain
  • Over 100,000 .nu domains have been registered, mostly to the Swedes since "nu" means "now" in Swedish.
  • It also means "naked" in French but the French porn industry has yet to really cotton onto the domain.
  • Most successful domain name launch
  • Tuvalu Islands (population: 11,300)
    • Domain Name (.tv)
    • Leased .tv for 12 years for $50 million.
  • The official rule, set up by Jon Postel in the early days of the Internet, is that if a country is included in the international list of countries (International Country Code Standard ISO 3166-1) then it is given a domain.
  • Four of the 243 quoted country code top-level domains don’t even have anyone living on them.
• USB Printer Ports Finally on Wireless Access Points
  • The problem with home network printing
  • Netbios print sharing can be complicated with firewall, requires
  • Netbios over SPX/IPX, or
  • Port 137 passthrough
  • One computer always on
  • Network printers and print servers expensive
  • Print server on access point is cost effective and convenient
  • 802.11g Options: Dlink DI824VUP, Netgear FWG114P, IOGear GWA501, SMC2804WBRP-G
• Stratford News
  • Current News
• Voice over IP Lab setup for Masters in Telecommunications
• Wireless security classes make antennas, design wireless link between Tysons and Woodbridge
• Security classes most popular at the undergrad level
• Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
• Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
• Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
• Website: www.stratford.edu
• Phone number: 800-444-0804

• Tech Talk Guest: John Hoskins
  • John has over fifteen years of experience as an information systems manager in jobs across the spectrum of the IT industry.
  • Senior Manager of the Internal Computing Network at AOL, where he lead deployment and support of systems and resources for over 15,000 employees at AOL.
  • He was also a Senior Manager of Call Center Operations at AOL
  • Manager of Information Technology in the Midatlantic for KPMG
  • John is currently the Network Manager at Velocity Trade, which offers the FloorPass Trading Platform.
• Email of the Week
  • Setting Up a Wireless Network At Home – Doug M
  • USB 2.0 on HP/Glad you back on the air – Rob Lotier (Ocean City)
• Wireless Networking 101
  • Tutorial: PC Magazine, October 2003
  • Dominant Standards
    • 802.11a (5 GHz, 54Mbps)
    • 802.11b (2.4GHz, 11Mbps)
    • 802.11g (2.4 GHz, 54Mbps)
  • Hardware Requirements
    • Cable Modem/DSL Modem ($120)
    • Wireless Access Point/Router ($120)
    • Performs Network Address Translation (NAT), interior address assignment (DHCP), packet filter (Firewall)
    • Wireless Network Interface Card for each computer ($65)
    • External Antenna for hard to reach places ($40 to $80). NIC must contain external antenna plug.
• Issues
  • Interference with Bluetooth Devices (2.4 GHz)
  • Interference with Wireless Telephones (2.4 GHz)
  • Access point range (Central location, walls)
• Access Point Configuration
  • Change SSID (Server Set Identifier)
  • Change Default Password
  • Enable WEP
  • Enable Mac Address Filtering
• For Real Security, use VPN
• Improvising Your Own Wireless Router
• Connect one machine directly to Internet
• Install a wireless NIC
• Enable Internet Connection Sharing
• Install Wireless NIC on other network machines
• 125Mbps Networking with 802.11g
  • Broadcom is shipping 125 Mbps 802.11g chipset
  • Buffalo Technology's AirStation 125Mbps Wireless Cable / DSL Router-g  ($199) is the first device on the market with the new chipset.
  • Backward compatible with all 54Mbsp 802.11g devices
  • Performance gain is due to reducing the timing gap between data packets.
• Verizon announced High Speed 3G Nationwide System
  • Connectivity at 300-500 kbps to compete with Wi-Fi
  • Available for $80/month in Washington
  • $1B investment in high speed CDMA network announced
  • Current offerings
    • 128kbps available with 3G for $39/mo
    • 14.4 kbsp with 2G/3G at no additional cost
  • I use the free 14.4kbps network when on travel without an Internet connection
• Peer-to-Peer Network News
  • Morpheus (by Streamcast) now taps into all file trading networks including Kazaa
    • Peer-to-peer interopability gives users a wider range of content and file swapping partners
      • Kazaa (www.kazaa.com) has 315 million downloads
      • Morpheus (www.morpheussoftware.net) has 119 million downloads
      • Beware of adware/spyware in free versions
    • Drive for interoperability and open standards in peer-to-peer networks
    • Security is a major concern
  • RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) is not happy
    • File swapping is on the climb again after the initial drop off caused by lawsuits against 300 swappers
    • 20% of computer users swapped files in May 2003
    • 11% in September 2003
      • 12% in November 2003
  • Digital Copyright Millenium Act (DCMA) will not be honored by rest of world
    • Apple is selling MP3 for 99 cents and can’t offer the Beatles
    • Russian site (www.allofmp3.com) is selling songs for 10 cents including the Beatles.
• CES 2004: Technology Trends
  • Storage
    • Flash Memory
  • Size up (1-2 GB now available)
  • Prices down
  • Rotating Storage
    • 1.5 GB 'Digital Capture Technology' (DCT) platform. DCT is aimed at OEM manufacturers and consists of a cartridge about the size of a half-dollar coin and weighs just 9 g (0.3 oz). ($10)
    • 4 GB 1” mini-harddrives (Hitachi)
  • Digital Video Recorders with low cost, larger (250GB) harddrives
  • High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
  • Serial interface with 2.2 Gbps datarate (1920x1080p at 30 Hz)
  • Embedded PCs in consumer entertainment devices (e.g. Digital Video Recorders)
  • High Bandwidth Home Networking Standards
    • Audio, Video Routers
    • Cat 5, Cat 6, Coax now
    • Wireless not ready for primetime yet
      • X.10 will be a thing of the past
  • The Death of the CRT Television
    • Liquid Crystal (Rear Projection, Front Projection) --
    • Digital Light Processor (Rear Projection, Front Projection) –TI
    • Liquid Crystal on Silicon (Rear Projection, Front Projection) – Intel
  • Home Networked Appliances
    • Salton’s Internet Alarm Clock
      • Displays news headlines, local weather forecast
      • Remotely turn on $99 Salton coffee pot using 900Mz signal
    • Networked kitchen appliances
    • Web cams for security
    • Heating/air conditioning controls
• Kodak Nixes Film Cameras in North America
  • Kodaks gradual seccessoin from the film business continues
  • Kodak will stop selling traditional 35 mm film cameras in the United States, Canada and Western Europe
  • company will also halt global production of Advanced Photo System (APS) cameras, a technology developed in cooperation with Fuji, Canon, Minolta and Nikon
  • The company has previously announced its intention of dropping film R&D
  • Kodak says it will continue to make 35 mm film, still its biggest moneymaker. Tech Talk mistakenly reported that this would also be dropped
• Personal Firewall Day
  • January 15, 2003
  • Sponsored by TruSecure, McAfee, Microsoft, Sygate
  • Website: www.personalfirewallday.org
  • If you understand firewalls, share your knowledge with someone
• Microsoft Anti-trust Update
  • Justice Department said the method Microsoft uses to help users shop for music from Internet retailers violated the terms of the settlement
    • When Windows XP user activated “shop for music online” it opened Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, even if another browser has been set as default
  • Microsoft has agreed to issue a patch to until link to IE
  • Microsoft’s code licensing program
    • Must provide full disclosure of all desktop API’s
    • Currently viewed as inadequate to stimulate competition.
    • Only 11 companies have licensed the code to date.
  • Concern that Microsoft is engaged in search engine wars to crush rival search engines
• Microsoft Class Action Lawsuit for DC
  • Who Qualifies: District of Columbia resident who purchased software between Feb 15, 1996 and Dec 31, 2002
  • Settlement
    • 10 for each Windows 95, 98, or Millenium
    • $5 for each MS-DOS, Windows 1.0 to 3.11, Windows NT, Windows 2000
    • $5 for each Microsoft Office, Word, or Excel
  • Phone: 1-877-208-9421
• Stratford News
  • Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
  • Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
  • Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
  • Website: www.stratford.edu
  • Phone number: 800-444-0804

• Email of the Week
  • WiFi for the Road – Phil Scarbrough
    • A number of paid WiFi hotspots are available (T-mobile is one of the largest)
  • USB versus Firewire – Jean Jolkovski
• Digital Experiences this week
  • Being screened for “terrorist” check-in line at airport
    • Must have triggered the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System
    • Perhaps getting ticket at airport and making last minute reservations contributed
  • Burning digital photos to CD at family event
  • Paying Virginia pre-payable traffic tickets online (ww.courts.state.va.us)
    • Server is IBM HTTP Server running Apache Web Services
• Virus and Spam Report 2003
  • Based on MessageLabs Threat Analysis
  • Spam Month Volume for 2003
    • Feb (35 Million), Mar (45 Million), April (60 Million, May (85 Million)
    • June (60 Million), July (80 Million), August (80 Million), Sept (120 Million)
    • Oct (170 Million), Nov (225 Million, Dec (295 Million)
  • Spam Infection Ratio for 2001/2002/2003is 1/1.63
    • Jan 2001 (1/9000), July 2001 (1/1500), Dec 2001 (1/187)
    • Jan 2002 (1/125), June 2002 (1/42.8), Dec 2002 (1/4.7)
    • Jan 2003 (1/4.1), April 2003 (1/2.05), Dec 2003 (1/1.63)
    • Infection Ratio Definition: 1/9000 means one virus for every 9000 emails
  • Virus Threat for All Time
    • W32/Sobig.F-mm (33 M), W32/Klez.H-mm (8 M)
    • W32/Swen.A-mm (4.5 M), W32/Yaha.E-mm (3.5 M)
    • W32/Dumaru.A-mm (2 M), W32/Mimail.A-mm (1.8 M)
    • W32/SirCam.A-mm (1.5 M), W32/Klez.E-mm (1 M)
    • W32/BugBear-mm (1 M), W32/BugBear.B-mm (1 M)
  • Virus Infection Ratio for 2003
    • Feb (1/310), Mar (1/340), April (1/350), May (1/205)
    • June (1/205), July (1/275), August (1/40), Sept (1/17)
    • Oct (1/160), Nov (1/210), Dec (1/255)
    • Infection Ratio Definition: 1/310 means one virus for every 310 emails
    • August/September dip caused by SoBig Virus
• Spam Protection Techniques (pdf)
  • A MessageLabs whitepaper
  • DNS Blacklisting
  • Fingerprints or Signatures (used for virus detection)
  • Whitelisting (Identifying who to accept mail from)
  • Collaborative Filtering (Collective reporting of spam)
  • Heuristics (Complex set of rules with parameters, used for virus detection)
  • Bayesian Probability (Mathematical learning algorithm using Bayesian probability models. This has been found to be the most effective single spam solution)
  • Most systems use a combination (blacklisting, heuristics, Bayesian)
• Spam Protection Client Software
  • Mailwasher (www.mailwasher.net)
  • SpamNet (www.cloudmark.com)
  • SpamPal (www.spampal.org)
  • SpamAssassin (tp://news.spamassassin.org)
  • PopFilettp://popfile.sourceforge.net)
  • Norton Anti-Spam (www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe)
• Virus and Spam Prognosis
  • Virus and Worms Can Be stopped with Virus Protection software
    • Norton Anti-Virus is one of the best
  • Spam cannot be effectively stopped without changing addressing standards
    • Currently under development by the Anti-Spam Research Group
  Consumer Electronics Reporter: Doug Mohney
  • Reporter for The Inquirer
  • Reporter for Mobile Radio Technology
• Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
  • January 8-11th, 2003 in Las Vegas, NV
  • 2,300 exhibitors occupying 1.35 million square feet of floor space
  • Audio, Digital Imaging, Gaming, Home Networking, Home Theater, Mobile Electronics, Video, Wireless Communications
  • Digital Entertainment Is the Big and Very Competitive
    • Consumer electronics giants like Sony, Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba are facing an intensifying challenge.
    • Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the stalwarts of computing, have entered the living room.
    • Dell and Gateway's entry into the flat-screen TV market
    • HP's plan to sell television sets, big-screen projectors and an HP-branded version of Apple's popular iPod music player.
      • Carly Fiorina, HP CEO, said. ``Most living rooms are in desperate need of a digital makeover.
    • Microsoft's foray into portable media players and Windows Media Center platform (brains of the digital living room).
    • Intel announced new chip for digital television
    • The greater intelligence and Internet connectivity being added to such gadgets as watches, digital cameras and DVD players favors the PC companies
  • Networking Technologies
    • 125Mbps Networking with 802.11g (Broadcom)
    • 250Mbps Networking over Cable
• CES Product: Microsoft’s Windows Media Center
  • Allows users to link digital photos, music, video stored on their PCs to the living room entertainment systems.
  • Size of a paperback book
  • Features hard drive and 4-inch color screen
  • Connects to PC hard drive
  • Plays digital video and audio
• CES Product: Intel Liquid Crystal on Silicon
  • Will produce “film-like” HDTV.
  • Predicted $1800 LCOS HDTV displays by mid-2004
  • Will compete with TI’s Digital Light Processor (DLP) micro-mirror technology
• CSE Product: Toshiba Miniature Hard drive
  • 0.8 inches on a side
  • 1 to 4 GB capacity.
  • May replace flash memory in digital cameras.
• CES Product: SPOT Watches
  • Uses Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT)
  • Uses FM radio subcarrier frequencies to wirelessly deliver weather, news, stock quotes to a variety of devices including watches
  • “Smart watch” that does not need to be set
  • MSN messenger can send messages to your watch
  • Outlook with sync you calendar
  • SPOT services costs $59/year
• Website of the Week: www.googlism.com
• Googlism.com will find out what Google.com thinks of you
• It searches for the opinions of your friends (or anyone) about you!
• Check out WJFK, Microsoft, Linux, Apple
• Technology Career Trends
  • Digital Design and Animation Moves to the Web
    • Linking the front and back end of web technology is key
    • Graphic designers who can script are golden
    • ASP, PHP, JSP, SQL, Flash
  • Secure Networking Is Talk Number One
    • Secure internetworking technologies (Cisco, VPN, etc)
    • Security best practices essential
  • Voice-over-IP Invades Telecommunications
    • Power moves to the edge of the network
    • IPv6 is unstoppable
  • Programming has become e-Business
    • Database driving website technology
    • Linked databases using interface standards
    • Designed to get the “right information to the right people”
  • Business and IT have morphed together both at the graduate and undergraduate levels
• Graphic Card Basics
  • Video card has a dedicated video processor to off-load tasks from the CPU
  • Video processor supports graphic commands (DirectX, Direct3D, OpenGL)
  • Buss basics of video (PCI versus AGP)
  • Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
    • Dedicated to the video card
    • AGP4x (1066 MB per second)
    • AGP8x (2132 MB per second)
  • Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
    • Connects all components to the CPU (Drives, RAM, Nics)
  • PCI100 (100 MB per second
  • PCI133 (133 MB per second)
  • Graphic Card Ram (32MB minimum, 256 MB maximum)
• Video Output (S-video output for connection to TV)
• Dominant Chip Sets (ATI Radeon versus NVidia GeForce)
  • Get last year’s models for around $100
  • Get the two year old model for $50
  • These two companies keep getting better
  • Competition is lowering prices and raising performance
• If you get a new PC with graphics integrated on the motherboard, make certain to get an AGP plug for expansion
• Stratford News
  • Next Start February
  • Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
  • Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
  • Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
  • Website: www.stratford.edu
  • Phone number: 800-444-0804

Email of the Week
• How Can I Remove My Name from Google Lookup? – Zen Duncan
  • Go to Removal Page (www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html)
• Enter data exactly as it appears in the google lookup
• Search Engine News for 2003
  • Big News of the Year: Google Revised Algorithm filter “link-farms”
    • Starting on the 16th of November, a major shift in results was seen on Google.
    • On Friday, 21st November, Google decided to tighten the "filter".
    • Google are trying eradicate obvious search engine manipulation from their most competitive results.
    • Separation of legitimate searches from commercial searches using paid positions
  • Search Engine Traffic Distribution for 2003
    • Google 29.5%, Yahoo 28.9%, MSN 27.6%, AOL 18.4%
    • Ask Jeeves 9.9%, Overture 4.8%, InfoSpace 4.5%, Netscape 4.4%
    • AltaVista 4.0%, Lycos 2.4%, Earthlink 2.0%, LookSmart 1.7%
• Top Search Terms for 2003
  • Lycos 50
    • KaZaA, Britney Spears, Dragonball, Paris Hilton, IRS, Kobe Bryant, Christmas, NFL, Pamela Anderson, Brooke Burke
  • Yahoo Top 100
    • Kazaa, Harry Potter, American Idol, Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Eminem, WWE, Paris Hilton, Nascar, Christina Aguilera
  • Google Zeitgeist
    • Britney Spears, Harry Potter, Matrix, Shakira, David Beckham, 50 cent, Iraq, Lord of the Rings, Kobe Bryant, Tour de France
• Using GPS to track the kids
  • Big Brother, meet Big Mother
  • Wherify Wireless GPS lets you pinpoint you kid’s location to within a few feet
  • Circle representing you child in displayed on a street map
  • Breadcrumb feature can trace movements over time
  • In an emergency, wearer can place a 911 call by pressing two buttons
  • $200 plus $20-$45/month service fee
    
• New Technology Used to Track Cattle
  • Technology is being used to help solve the Mad Cow Disease problem
  • If there's a bright side to the U.S. mad cow scare, it's that it could speed up the U.S. move to a centralized system that electronically tracks animals as they move from fields to feed lots to food stores.
  • Two tracking approaches have been proposed: Retinal Scans and RFID
  • Retinal Scanning
    • Optibrand (Fort Collins, Colo) manufactures a system that identifies animals permanently and painlessly by capturing its unique retinal vascular pattern.
    • The digital pictures are stored in a database with information about the animal, such as colour, weight or even genetic lineage
  • Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID)
    • RFID is used to track cattle in Australia, but has not been adopted in the US.
    • Downside is that tags can be switched
  • Look to see fast progress in this area, with retinal tracking adopted first
• Gadgets of the Week
  • SideWinder Cell Phone Charger
    • Retail Price: $24.95
    • Supports most (but not all) cell phones
    • 2 Minutes of cranking provides six minutes of talk time.
    • When charges, bright LED can be used for reading or walking
  • USB Memory Flash Memory Drive
    • Sizes supported: 32MB, 128 MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1 GB
    • Best value (256MB for $65 at Best Buy)
    • Supported by Windows 95, 2000, XP, and Mac.
    • Driver required for Windows98
    • Can be combined with necklace, watch, keychain
  • Maxtor One Touch USB External Hard Drives
    • 200MB ($279), 250MB ($329), 300MB ($369) Options
    • USB 2.0 and Two Firewire 400 connections
    • Able to Daisy-chain 62 devices using Firewire
    • Once Touch Backup on selected files/directories
    • Uses Rantz Retrospect Express Backup Software
    • Firewire transfer rate 50% faster than USB
      
• USB versus Firewire
  • Universal Serial Bus (USB) – Developed by Intel
    • USB Implementors Forum is setting the standards
    • Designed to replace serial/parallel ports
    • Transfer Speeds
      • USB 1.0 – 1.5 Mps (Also called Low Speed USB)
      • USB 1.1 – 12 Mps (Also called Full Speed USB)
      • USB 2.0 – 480 Mps (Also called High Speed USB)
    • Supports up to 127 devices in small peripheral network
  • Firewire (IEEE-1394) – Develop by Apple
    • 1394 Trade Association is setting the standards
    • Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394a) up to 400 Mbps
    • Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b) up 800 Mbps (first drive released Jan 7, 2003)
    • Firewire 400 is faster than USB 480 because it provides its own management of data transfer.
  • What does transfer rate really mean?
  • Time to backup a 40GB Harddrive
    • 1.5 Mbps (59.2 Hours), 12 Mbps (7.4 Hours)
    • 480 Mbps (11 minutes), 800 Mbps (6.66 minutes)
• Linux Update
• Linux Story: A Software PBX (Asterisk) VoIP System
• Asterisk is an open source PBX that runs on Linux
• Download software from www.asterisk.org
• Asterisk provides voicemail with Directory, Call Conferencing, Iteractive Voice Response, Call Queing, Three-way calling, Caller ID, ASDI, SIP, and H.323.
• Needs not additional hardware for Voice over IP
• Supports all Digium hardware including T1 and E1 interfaces for connection to PRI lines and channel banks.
• Support Internet Phone Jack products from Quicknet
• Linux Story: Virginia Tech Linux Cluster
  • Rated as 3rd Fastest Computer
  • Fastest computers are now clusters
  • VTech assembled 1,100 Apple Macintosh G5 computers
  • Each G5 has two 64-bit IBM PowerPC9 processors
  • Clocked at 10.3 trillion operations per second
  • Cost $7 million to build and maintain
  • Can’t handle applications yet, need additional software development
    
• Linux Story: Isreal Shuts Door on Microsoft
  • Isreal has suspended purchases on Microsoft productivity software
  • Will use existing MS Office versions rather than upgrading
  • Working with Sun and IBM in designing Hebrew Language version of OpenOffice
  • Moving toward Open source to save money
  • Other countries exploring the use of open source software (like Linux, OpenOffice) include France, China, German, Britain, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.
• Site of the Week: Archiving the Internet (www.archive.org)
  • The Internet Archive is building a digital library of internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, it provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and general public.
  • Archives sites as they where using the “WayBackMahcine”
• Web Creator: Tim Berners-Lee Knighted
  • Tim Berners-Lee combined HTML with URLs to create the World Wide Web
  • The honor was announced December 30, 2003 as part of Buckingham Palace’s New Year Honor’s List
  • Currently serves as Director of the World Wide Web Consortium
  • Invented “global hypertext space” while he worked at the European Particle Physics Laboratory at CERN in 1989
  • Berners-Lee used the underlying TCP/IP protocol available on the Internet
  • Prior to that time Internet applications were limited: ftp, text email, file searching.
  • His invention was popularized by Mosaic Browser.
    
• Stratford News
  • Next Start January
  • Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
  • Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
  • Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
  • Website: www.stratford.edu
  • Phone number: 800-444-0804