Tech Talk Radio
November 2002
Sponsored by Stratford University
Saturdays at Noon EST on WMAL NewsTalk Radio
Turn the dial to AM630 or listen on the Internet at ListenLive

It's everything you always wanted to know about computers
and information technology, but were afraid to ask.

     David Burd 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. Older shows are archives as transcript summaries. You can listen live over the Internet by clicking ListenLive during show time.

Show Selected Topics
November 30, 2002
<RealAudio | MP3>
<Weekly Newsletter>
top
  • Preempted by Navy Football
November 23, 2002
<No RealAudio | MP3>
<Weekly Newsletter>
top
  • Monster SUV Fit for James Bond
    • Smart Truck is funded by the Army's TACOM
    • Bond-like countermeasures with TouchScreen activation
      • Blinding Lights, Explosion Suppression, High Voltage Door Handles
      • Lightweight Armor, Bulletproof Glass, Oil Slicks,
      • Pepper Spray Dispensers, Smoke Screen, Tack Dispenser
    • Biocentric/AuthenTec Fingerprint Identification, Quad-steering, and Mobile Video
    • Solid state Windows CE touch screen computer
    • Satellite and terrestrial wireless communications with GPS and mapping.
    • Weapon is raised from the cap of the vehicle through sliding doors. Enemy targets are spotted by the four cameras, for both day and night operation.
  • DARPA Total Information Awareness Program
    • Funded by DARPA Information Awareness Office, John Poindexter, Office Director
    • DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is home to many innovative ideas (e.g. the Internet)
    • Project seeks to use data mining techniques to analyze and consolidate a wide range of intelligence and commercial databases. ACLU "disturbed" with this new program.
    • Other Programs Information Awareness Office
  • Silicon Retina Vision Update
    • Device made by Second Sight in Santa Clarita, California
    • Miniature camera attached to glasses that sent signal to wireless receiver behind ear. Signal sent to electronic chip attached to retina
    • Two blind patients have seen a sixteen pixel image
    • Increasing that to 1000 pixels will be like low resolution TV
    • Will be at least five years before devices are widely available
  • Internet Provisions in Homeland Security Bill
    • ISP like AOL or MSN could give government subscriber info without warrant
    • Police would gain added wiretap authority
    • Raises possibility of life imprisonment for hacking, if intent was to kill or harm.
    • Government given authority to trace e-mail and other traffic during a cyber attack
    • ACLU expected to file suit
  • Papermate Pendulum Pen
    • Automatically adjust to writing angle
    • Tip rotates to stay vertical
    • Only cost $4
  • Asteroid Threat Reassessed
    • Scientist now estimate the asteroid that hit Siberia in 1908 will only hit earth once every 1000 years.
    • Equivalent to 10 Megaton of TNT
    • In an inhabited area, would kill millions of people
    • Based on geosynchronous satellite images looking to rocket launches
    • Between 1994 and 2002, over 300 impacts have been observed
  • Pedal Power Drives Computers in Laos
    • Five villages are linked to the Internet as part of project funded by Jhai Foundation
    • Custom built PC features
      • Use flash memory instead of hard drive and operate with 20W
      • Are powered with car battery that is charged with bicycle crank
      • Are connected by 802.11 wireless to solar powered relay that is beamed to town (30 km away)
      • Use customized Linux OS with Loa script
    • Residents will use computers for crop market timing, selling handicrafts, using spreadsheets, telephoning relatives.
  • How to Keep Track for Digital Pictures
    • First There was the Digital Camera, Now We have Digital Files
    • Windows XP has build in tools for managing photos
      • Users the file and directory metaphor
    • ThumbsPlus5 from Cerius Software ($79)
      • Image database that uses same metaphor
    • Picasa from Lifescape Solutions ($29)
      • Second generation digital photo management system
      • Based on photographs, including dates subject matter
  • Home Security Tutorial
    • Published by cert.org
    • Outlines what each home computer user must do to protect themselves
    • This 30-page report is easy to read and to implement
  • Peer-to-Peer Goes Legit
    • RadioFreeVirgin provides 50 commercial-free streams for $5/month
    • Since there is no file transfer, there is no copyright infringement
    • A service of Virgin Atlantic Airlines
  • Internet Population Jumps
    • Users jump to 655 Million worldwide, up 30% from last year
    • Value of goods purchased $2.3B, up 50% from last year
    • About 18% of all purchasing is done over the Web
  • Microsoft News
    • Oversight Committee Takes Shape
      • DOJ and Nine States Nominate Harry Saal to committee
      • Microsoft Nominates Franklin Fite to committee
      • Saal and Fite will select third member
    • Microsoft Warns of Critical Security Flaw
      • Affects Windows 2000, Millennium, and 98, but not XP
      • Allows hackers to change hard drive using MS Data Access Components (MDAC)
      • 65th security bulletin issued by MS this year
  • Hot Laptop Burns Penis
    • New Pentium 4 Processors Generate Lots of Heat
    • Laptop case is frequently designed to serve as a heat sink and radiator....bottom gets hot!
    • One man did not heed these warnings.
    • Suffered second degree burns…..in a most private area.
  • Rich's Game Picks for Holiday Gifts
  • MailBag
    • We have got lots of letters
  • Stratford News
    • Next start is January 6th
November 16, 2002
<No RealAudio | MP3>
<Weekly Newsletter>
top
November 9, 2002
<No RealAudio | MP3>
<Weekly Newsletter>
top
  • Tech Talk Guest: Bruce Potter
    • Founder of Novawireless
    • Community advocate for wireless broadband access (free or cost recovery model)
    • Security and Unix expert
    • Author of O’Rielly book on Wireless Security
  • BAE Systems, Integrated Systems Division, is Now Hiring!
    • Tech Talk Guest: Susie Wagner, Director of Human Resources
    • Over 70 vacancies in Reston
      • Imagery and Geospatial Integrated Systems (IGIS)
      • Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4)
      • Require clearance beyond secret
    •  Job Fair
      • Wednesday, November 13th, 4:30 to 7:00 PM
      • To be conducted at Reston Location
      • Reservations not required
  • Survey Shows Women Prefer HDTV over Diamonds
    • Guys, This is the perfect excuse for Christmas and Holidays
    • Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) interviewed 1,000 women
      • 58% would prefer an HDTV over 1-carat diamond
      • 64% would rather have a digital camera than a pair of half-carat diamond earrings
    • CEA confirms the following
      • Women spend $55 billion each year on technology products
      • Women initiate 49% of all electronics purchases
  • Spam Stats
    • Brightmail the leading ISP Spam Filter has released the following Stats
    • Total Spam Volume
      • 5.3M Spam attacks in October, 2002
      • Up from 1.6M in October 2001
    • Spam Distribution
      • Financial—36%
      • Adult--12%
      • Products—31%
  • NIST seeks input on computer security
  • Election Fallout for Technology
    • No change in House
    • Republican Majority in Senate
      • Department of Homeland Security, which includes online security
      • Would hold Federal agencies to tougher computer standards and encourage private sector to share vulnerability info with Feds
      • Expect R&D tax incentives
      • Republican rated 85% and Dems 64% favorable by Information Technology Council
      • “Fritz” Hollings will be replaced by John McCain as Senate Commerce Committee Chair
        • Fritz favored embedded digital rights software
        • Fritz opposed to broadband deregulation (Tausin-Dingle bill)
  • Bank Error Exposes E-mail Addresses
    • Bank of the West Exposed 3,300 e-mail addresses in e-mail alerting members of ATM downtime
    • Sent to a list using the To: field, instead of the BCC: field
    • Several years ago AT&T and Seagate Software made a similar mistake
  • Touch Screen Ballots Pass Test on Election Day
    • 16% of counties have them nationwide
      • 510 counties to date
      • Georgia deployed 22,000 successfully. Most problems were human error
      • 200 counties nationwide used them (California, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and Texas)
    • 75% are expected to have them within six years
  • The Week of the PC Tablet
    • Weigh 3 to 4 pounds, cost $2,000
    • Some resemble etch-a-sketch and others look like hybrid tablets and laptops
    • Toshiba, HP, Acer, Fujitsu, ViewSonic are in the game
    • Dell computers is holding back
  • Tech Talk News
    • Website News
    • Mailing List and Weekly Newsletter
      • Show Outline and Links
      • RealAudio and MP3 Files
    • Listing of Recent Guest Interviews
    • Don’t forget to add your e-mail address to the mailing list
  • Stratford News
    • Next Start, November 18
November 2, 2002
<No RealAudio | MP3>
<Weekly Newsletter>
top
  • Microsoft News
  • Yahoo! Goes Open Source
    • Base Technologies
      • mySQL (1996)
      • FreeBSD running Apache Web Server (1996)
      • PHP scripting language (2002)
    • Reasons: Costs and ease of use
    • Yahoo! Presentation by Michael Radwin
    • On other fronts: Linux seems to be beating Microsoft in Europe and Africa because of new licensing rules and frequent upgrade cycle
  • Mac OS Least Prone to Attack in 2002
    • Most Vulnerable: Microsoft Windows
    • Second Most Vulnerable: Linux
    • Data taken from Security Intelligence Products and Systems Database
      • Collects info from 6,000 hacker groups reaching back to 1995
        • 1,162 vulnerabilities were discovered in 2002
          • Fewer than 25
            • Mac OS, Compaq Tru64, SCO UNIX
          • Microsoft Windows had 500
          • Linux had 200
  • Wi-Fi Getting New Security Standard
    • Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
    • Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (key management)
    • User Authentication replace MAC address filtering with public-key encryption system
    • Works with existing products and will be available by 2003
  • HP puts Vatican treasures on the Net
    • Vatican Library is scanning and digitizing assets for display on the Internet
    • Ancient bible texts, rare works of art, hand written letters from MichealAngelo and Martin Luther were chosen
    • HP is donating servers, scanners, and consulting time
  • Open Secret’s of Saddam’s Inbox
    • Saddam's e-mail address is press@uruklink.net
    • Selected e-mails revealed
      • London company offers help to buy products
      • China offered to sell a deadly colorless gas
      • Las Vegas company offered to sell fire retardant for troops
      • California wireless company offered rich technology improvement
      • One sent a picture of an atom bomb explosion
      • Austrian admirer offered to help fight
  • Smart Pool Table Improve Play
    • Laser mounted on ceiling traces path of best shot
    • Computer provide audio encouragement
  • ICANN’s Shanghai Meeting Pass Reforms
    • Reduction in number of board members
    • Shaking up advisory group structure
    • Many TLD administrators still not happy
  • Business Software Alliance (BSA) Piracy Study
    • Middle Atlantic States and East North Central States have Lowest Rate (14%)
    • East South Central has highest Rate (40%)
    • Local Rates
      • Virginia (18.8%)
      • DC (16.3%)
      • Maryland (19.6%)
      • Pennsylvania (17.4%)
      • West Virginia (47.6%)
    • Overall reduction in rates over 2000 study
  • Instant Messaging Compatibility Closer to Reality
    • Internet Engineering Task Force has created a working group
    • Hopes to bring together: ICQ, AIM, and MS Messenger
    • IETF has tentatively approved SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions).  SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol
    • SIMPLE is being pushed by MS and IBM
  • Marty Cooper Declares 3G Dead at Berlin Conference
    • Speaking at Broadband DSL Forum in Berlin
    • His numbers
      • Touted to give 2Mbps it only give 1.1 Mbps
      • Because bandwidth must be shared, users will only get about 80kbps
      • Not much greater than generation that gives 50 to 60kbps
    • Earlier in the month at the Paris Mobile Internet Conference
  • Stratford News
    • Next Start, November 18
      • Results of Open House last week
      • Culinary Educators Forum being hosted this weekend at Stratford
    • Don't forget to look at the Tech Talk page on the Stratford Website
      • Audio files, links, and newsletter archive
Home Page
Top of Page