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Tech Talk Radio Highlights
This week Tech Talk reviewed transmission of voice
over IP networks, the worldwide rise of Linux, the FBI's
use of OnStar to eavesdrop, phone number portability
winners and losers, spam legislation and long term
solutions, smart card hacks of voting and slot
machines, and much more.....
Listen now to the latest show in MP3 format.
Check out all the links
referenced during the show.
Tech Talk airs each Saturday at 8 am on
WJFK Radio (FM106.7) and is sponsored by Stratford
University. WJFK is a CBS affiliate and the number one
FM radio station in the Washington, DC market.
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| Voice over IP Forum | | | Voice over IP (VoIP) is changing the telecom
landscape. It has the potential of by-passing
conventional telco billing systems. In response to this
trend, the FCC conducted a Voice over IP Forum
on December 1, 2003. The objective of the forum was
to bring together new voice over IP upstarts, existing
telecommunication companies, and regulators in order
to develop a regulatory framework that will provide
both stability and innovation to the marketplace.
FCC Chairman, Michael K Powell, said in his opening
remarks "I believe that IP-based services such as VoIP
should evolve in a regulation-free zone." Not all
companies share his view.
Career Hint: VoIP is here to stay. It offers a great
career opportunity. And don't forget about IPv6, which has been mandated for
DoD deployment by 2008.
Check
out the FCC VoIP Forum
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| Linux is Gaining Ground | | |
After
nearly three years of development, Linux Kernel 2.6 will be released
next month. It supports up to 64 CPUs and 64 Gbytes of memory
for improved server scalability.
On other fronts, IBM and Novell
closed a deal with SuSe, a clear indicator of their
strong Linux backing. Last month, China selected the
Linux OS to be installed in 1 million machines next year.
Ultimately China will install Linux in 200 to 300 million
machines. Expect Japan and South Korea to follow suit.
Career Hint: Linux is here to stay. It also
offers a great career opportunity. Pick an old computer,
download a free Linux distribution, and begin learning.
Check
out the Christian Science Monitor Article
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| OnStar Surveillance Ruled Illegal | | |
OnStar
by General Motors and Teleaid by ATX are the two most popular
car emergency systems. They both use a cell phone connection
to communicate with the central monitoring station and an
internal GPS system for tracking. One feature of these systems
is the ability to eavesdrop on conversations. This feature
was designed to be used during a car theft. However, the FBI
used it to spy on suspects under investigation in Las Vegas.
Last month the 9th Circuit Court ruled
that such eavesdropping was illegal because
emergency features, such as crash notification, were
effectively disabled while the surveillance activity used
the cell connection. If that limitation can be removed
(perhaps with a second phone line), expect the FBI to
continue such activities.
Check
out The Register Article
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| New Spam Bill is a Turkey | | | The new Spam Bill passed by Congress requires only an
opt-out link. It overrides all state legislation including
the stronger California bill that requires opt-in.
Spammers win with this bill, and Congress gets to
pretend it is helping the consumer.
A workable solution would require authenticated source
address to keep spammers from spoofing. The Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) and the Anti-Spam Research
Group (ASRG) are working on a solution.
Expect to wait a couple of years. In the meantime, grin
and bear it.
Check
out the ZdNet Article
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| DDoS Rears Its Ugly Head | | |
Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks were introduced in large
scale by the Trinoo,
Trinity, and Stacheldraht tools in 1999/2000. Since then,
major commercial sites have been successfully attacked.
This year organized criminals are using DDoS
attacks to force online bookmakers (bookies), retailers
and payment providers into protection rackets.
Blackmail requests are in the $40K to $50K range. They
seem to be originating from crime syndicates operating
in Eastern Europe. Vendors who pay are not talking
about it.
Check
out The Register Article
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