A few years ago, when there were still plenty of struggling dial-up users out there, I remember being warned of the impending doom the internet faced from the future requirement for video on demand. I was pretty much convinced at the time and the ISPs do seem to have kept up for the time being, although the BBC seems intent on pushing it to the limit. Following on from the successful IPlayer launch, they’ve now announced Beeb1 and 2 to be broadcast online at the end of the month. In competition is Sky, with their originally named, Sky Player , which will offer a range of channels including subscription to Sky Movies.

Things are starting to get very blurred nowadays, is my laptop for work, gaming or watching telly? Is my phone a music player, for talking to people or is that also a telly? Will the internet cope or will it crunch? We will have to wait and see.

With the speed at which technology moves, choosing the right programming language as a career move is never an easy task. To make matters worse, once you think you’ve found what looks to be a future for yourself, by the time you’ve tooled up, you realise that half the world have also been doing the same and your future’s not looking so guaranteed. For those that chose PHP/MySQL early on should be feeling pretty comfortable right now, this report from oDesk suggesting that PHP is outstripping demand for all other languages, by quite a degree.

Of course, MySQL, recently acquired by Sun have made PHP/MySQL the perfect match for developers and it’s good to see it leading the way. Nothing better to do with time than drink hot cups of tea and think about arrays of arrays and loops within loops, then it looks a good option.

It comes as no surprise that human error is fast being recognised as one of the biggest threats to organisations’ security. As this recent survey of IT Managers reported here suggests, the recent big stories on data loss are focusing our fears away from intentional threats to the accidental. Yes, humans are fallible, big style — some would argue this is what characterises ourselves as human in the first place — but the question is what to do about it? Is it time for a full lock-down? Is it time for businesses to start following the security manual rules at last? The truth is security slows down business, but when the proverbial hits the fan, in whose direction should the finger of blame be pointed? Awareness of course, plays a big issue here. Education is the tool needed to get the message across, a Windows password recovery tool is only a few clicks away on Google, so if you fall asleep on the train and get your laptop nicked, don’t expect your desktop saved data to be safe.

Registration is now open for LOSUG on 19th November. Come along and hear presentations from two of our community members - Frank Hofmann and Peter Tribble.

Frank will be sharing his knowledge of FUSE and Peter will talk about SolView, his OpenSolaris ‘Community Innovation’ award-winning java utility which displays information about a Solaris 10 (or later) system.

To book your place at the meeting on 19th November
Register online

It looks like this is the year when solid-state drives creep into the server marketing. We’re already familiar with them in our iPods and USB sticks and laptops, such as the Apple MacBook Air. Sun launched its 7000 Storage System series this week, such as the 7410 that uses a hybrid storage architecture, combining Read and Write optimised Flash Accelerators (SSDs) with 7200 RPM SATA II drives for high energy efficiency.

It seem inevitable that this will be the way forward for disk space in the next few years, growing from the humble beginning of the bios being stored in NVRAM, to the entire data being stored there as well. The benefits of SSD based systems are faster start-up, extremely fast write speed and no noise! SSD is a much safer way of storing data as it’s not stored using mechanical parts. Bring it on, at last, something to lighten the load of lugging servers around.

Digital Dingbat #18 Answer - Spreadsheet
Digital Dingbat #19 Answer - Raid Array

Now, no one on System Heroes likes to contradict themselves – but after Spod’s famous last words yesterday, we may have (very slightly) done just that. Before I babble on any further, let me fill you in if you missed Wednesdays Blog. Basically my esteemed colleague Spod gave us a little mindshare on the beautiful world of email spamming and how ‘it never stops’. I have no disagreements there as I have seen multiple cases of spamming, phishing, spoofing and a whole host of other net nasties designed to scam lusers within the last six months. The problem is real and thus creates a need for a solution – cue multimillion pound spam filter and antivirus industry. Like any other solution it tends to deal with the end results of the issue and never actually deals with the source of the problem – until now.

Within the last few months, the internet hosting companies thought to be behind the world’s spam problems have one by one been getting canned. On Tuesday a web hosting company based in California was shut down and instantly reduced the world’s spam by a staggering 75%. MessageLabs documented a drop in spam eight times less than normal within 12 hours after the takedown, with other security vendors reporting similar results. The Californian-based firm, McColo, behind the spam carnage was believed to host the command and control servers needed to co-ordinate spam campaigns. Unfortunately the spammers are expected to regroup in Eastern Europe once the dust settles (spam filter companies can breathe a sigh of relief after that sentence).

Spods famous lasts words – almost contradicted (temporarily). Enjoy it while it lasts, that’s what I say!.

@raid = (a, b, c );

For a while, spam was a mildly amusing ‘feature’ of the internet, greeting new users to the cyber world with outrageous indiscriminate welcome messages, but now we’re all a bit bored with it and  we’d really like the 1 in 12.5 million idiots who actually buy stuff through them to give it a break. Well, that was the estimate calculated by the brains at the University of California released yesterday. Over a 28 day period, they sent almost 350 million spam emails after infiltrating a segment of the Storm botnet, generating 28 sales (well, they didn’t actually take the money, but they set-up a fake checkout).

Although, the anti-spam industry is worth billions, one can’t help wondering if it’s not time for us all to move on to some form of permission-based email. Personally, I prefer to receive newsletters and blog updates as RSS so I can read them when I like, spam free. Real-time blacklisting has just forced spammers into using botnets, content spam filters have just resulted in sophisticated polymorphism engines creating each spam message as unique. We do have the choice, of course, of permission-only email, where each address must be individually whitelisted by a user, but it hasn’t really taken off. And so the spam never stops.

Digital Dingbat #17 Answer - microprocessor

Ahh, another week and another two public sector stories are conveniently released with the intention of being over shadowed by the American presidential election results. Fortunately, System Heroes is on hand to give these two connected Biometric related snippets of information the airing they deserve. Back in September, the Government unveiled plans to release the first UK identity card for foreign nationals. The electronic chip within the document card would store the holder’s biometric data – including fingerprints, retinal and facial scans. IT players on the shortlist to deploy this are CSC, Fujitsu & IBM so it should be no surprise that a scheme like this is going to cost a few readies. Here’s the kicker – the original cost laid out for individuals who will need to obtain this card has magically doubled. The sneaky small print was buried in a document made available to the Home Office and outlined plans by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to collect the facial scans, fingerprints and retina scans via high street outlets such as WHSmiths or The Post Office.

The cheeky part is – they forgot to mention the fee for issuing the card and the fee for collecting the biometric data are two separate things. The original cost for issuing the card was £30, the new additional cost for collecting the biometric data is another £29 – Ouch. So, you’re not a foreign national? Possibly thinking System Hero is writing about things that won’t affect you? Think again! The cost of a British passport is also set to rise substantially as Biometrics are added to the passport document. Expect to pay over £100 for you next passport renewal and anticipate a very long queue in the post office to have your fingers scanned and your eyeballs copied - Biometrics are set to become big business!

If you work in an organisation where the workers want to keep every email they have ever come close to, then an archive solution is the only way to deal with this or suffer the consequences of disfunctioning mail clients trying to work with 4GB inboxes. One option is just to outsource it and pay for the privilege of someone else doing the work. The only problem being that costs can really add up as your storage requirements go up compared to the cost of just shipping them onto your own NAS server.

Last Thursdays’ announcement that MailArchiva completed its successful validation on OpenSolaris™ offers another alternative for those looking to host their own archive solution

Of course, there’s another battle with the clouds going on here and this is probably a really good example. Yes, it can be a lot easier to just let the clouds look after it, but on the other hand there are cost issues here. For example, will the cloud just let you mass download an archive store at no additional cost? I don’t think so. Perhaps archives are best kept indoors.

Digital Dingbat #15 Answer - Compressed File
Digital Dingbat #16 Answer - UBack-up Tape

After reading about a recent IT breakthrough whereby scientists have been able to control computers through thought and facial movements, I couldn’t help but recall the old and still relatively undocumented theory of lucid dreaming. Ever heard of the Dream Goggles? The basic theory involves a pair of goggles that shine weak LED lights towards the eyes when rapid eye movement is detected. The idea is that REM whilst asleep creates movement that is picked up by motion detectors within the goggles. This triggers and shines weak LED lights into the eyes, which in turn - alerts sleepers to the fact they are in a tonic/phasic state of slumber. As REM is also related to vivid dreaming, the sleeper with practise can begin to control their dreams – forget Vanilla skies, this is what real dreams are made of.

Anyway, enough with the reveries – the real medical breakthrough will no doubt help patients with serious brain injuries to function and communicate more comfortably. The system is able to capture the patients ‘bio potential signals’ through an Alice-band worn around the head and from this be able to direct a cursor on the screen. Not quite as dreamy as the lucid dream induction device but still pretty cool.

Brainwave reading scientists – we salute you!

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I was asked recently to help out with a solution for a friend’s small business should they experience another power cut (they lost a days work recently). Like a lot of businesses, they couldn’t work without their beloved PCs and internet. Obviously the first thing we thought of was a generator, but that wasn’t an option as there was no-where to store it securely and safely. Hard wiring into the mains is also a pricey investment for a small business. So, this is what I came up with:

First off, they had a few laptops to work on and a few local staff could easily nip home and get their own, so that could give up to 3 hours’ work. A car battery and power inverter for less than a £100 would allow them to recharge their batteries throughout the day and the second socket on the inverter could power the wireless ADSL router, giving internet access. Alternatively, a wireless USB router could run from one of the laptops, but they’d need to know how to set this up on the fly. Getting the files off the server was obviously still a problem, so they’d need to upgrade to a UPS that can stay alive for 10 minutes or so and have some USB sticks at the ready to grab the files they need as quick as they can. With regards to email, a Business Continuity account with an email provider such as Message Labs or Postini with business continuity would give them access to their email via a web browser. They’ll also get a couple of the new USB pay as you go internet dongles to get them on the move.

Digital Dingbat #13 Answer - User interface
Digital Dingbat #14 Answer - TCP / IP

I am all for innovation, but is the world really ready for scented laptops? The new Asus F6 range of laptops are ‘infused with special smells to suit the buyer’. The only thing this smells of is a big fat gimmick with ‘we need a unique selling point’ written all over it. The only saving grace is the fact the laptops are actually a good spec, boasting a beefy processor, solid chip set, fingerprint scanner, built in Wi-Fi and high resolution web cam. The depressing thing is, I could actually go for the Morning Dew or Aqua Ocean models. Don’t be fooled, the F6 range has nothing to do with Toilet Duck – there are four versions of the scented notebook, including Floral Blossom, Musky Black, Morning Dew & Aqua Ocean - all with different designs and scents to suit.

The lifespan of the fragrance is dependant on usage but I can definitely feel a whole range of scented refills and accessories coming on if the F6 becomes a hit. Watch this space for Christian Dior hard drives and Davidoff monitors.

anticeptic
ip

I had to laugh when I saw that BA admitted that a lack of IT training
had caused the mess at the opening of terminal 5. Well, what did they expect?
It reminds me of all the situations when people are chucked in the deep end by employers and how IT staff, in particular, miss out on training regularly offered in other professions. Don’t worry, we’ll just read manuals in the evenings for the rest of our lives as we’re used to it! Got a new system?  No worries, we’ll just magically understand it with our computer-logic brainpower.

The risk of course is that workers are forced to learn on live systems, which yes can be the best way to learn, but depending on the complexity can also be the most dangerous to the business. Can’t log into the system today?  Was this caused by an ‘unknown system failure we’re working on’ or was it Taylor studying group policy for his MSCE? Can’t telnet the web server today? That will be Noah studying routing for his SCSA, route delete default….. Oops.

Might be worth spending a few quid on a training course instead.