Tag Archive for 2012

| August 11, 2012
Comments Off on How the Internet Works

How the Internet Works

How the Internet WorksThe World Science Festival created this short video explainer on how the Internet works, as a setup to Internet Everywhere: The Future of History’s Most Disruptive Technology, a sold-out program featuring Internet pioneer Vint Cerf of Google (GOOG), MIT‘s Neil Gershenfeld, lawyer and Internet advocate Elizabeth Stark and Alex Wright, director of user experience at The New York Times.

According to the blurb on YouTube, the video lets you ride shotgun with a packet of data—one of the trillions involved in the trillions of Internet interactions that happen every second to see how the internet works. Look deep beneath the surface of the most basic Internet transaction, and follow the packet as it flows from your fingertips, through circuits, wires, and cables, to a host server, and then back again, all in less than a second.

This is another video that explains how the Internet works from Ericson, which was around when I was a newbie networker.

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| August 9, 2012
One comment

Detroit Among Best US Cities for Tech Jobs

Detroit Among Best US Cities for Tech JobsIf you’re looking for a job in technology, come to Detroit. According to a report from VentureBeat Baltimore, Detroit and Pittsburgh have the best prospects for tech jobs. This comes from the Simply Hired July 2012 employment outlook.

DetroitSimply Hired’s Nathan Beers sliced the data and told VentureBeat that when you compare the number of available jobs and the number of currently employed technology workers, the best places in the U.S to be looking for a job are Baltimore, Detroit, Charlotte, and Portland. By this measuring stick, the Silicon Valley area ranks only eighth.

Simply Hired which bills itself as the world’s largest job search engine, has over eight million job listings. 30 million users check the service monthly from 24 countries, and Simply Hired powers the job search functionality on sites like LinkedIn and The Washington Post.

Here are all the details on the best markets for technology workers, according to Simply Hired:

  1. looking for a job in technology, come to DetroitBaltimore – Towson, MD
  2. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI
  3. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC
  4. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
  5. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
  6. Pittsburgh, PA
  7. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
  8. Richmond, VA
  9. Raleigh – Cary, NC
  10. New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ

Forbes recently called Detroit a potential up-and-comer for tech jobs in the next decade. The article says even though the Motor City area lost 20% of its tech jobs in the past decade, it still boasts one of the nation’s largest concentrations of tech workers, nearly 50% above the national average. In the past two years, the region has experienced a solid 7.7% increase in technology jobs, the second-highest rate of any metro area.

Ford, Chrysler, GMThe Forbes article says the Motor City region seems to have some real high-tech mojo. According to the website Dice.com, Detroit has led the nation with the fastest growth in technology job offerings since February — at 101%. This can be traced to the rejuvenated auto industry, which is increasingly dependent on high-tech skills. Manufacturing is the increasingly prodigious driver of tech jobs; games and dot-coms are not the only path to technical employment growth.

Simply Hired - July 2012Forbes - May 2012
Baltimore, MD areaSeattle, WA area
Detroit, MI areaWashington DC-area
Charlotte, NC areaSan Diego, CA area
Portland, OR areaSalt Lake City, UT
Seattle, WA areaBaltimore, MD area
Pittsburgh, PAJacksonville, FL
Milwaukee, WI areaSan Jose, CA area
Richmond, VAColumbus, OH
Raleigh-Cary, NCRaleigh-Cary, NC
New York, NY areaNashville, TN area

rb-

Umm- I’ve covered this phenomenon for a while here. here and here. On one hand, this seems to be true, it is nearly impossible to hire good tech staff, I know I’ve tried. On the other hand, I am still looking for a new gig.

Anybody hiring? Who wants to prove to me that Detroit Michigan is among the best US cities to find a tech job?

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| August 7, 2012
Comments Off on Anti-Patent Troll Bill Introduced

Anti-Patent Troll Bill Introduced

A newAnti-Patent Troll Bill Introduced bill introduced in the House of Representatives attempts to deter frivolous patent litigation. The bill would force unsuccessful patent plaintiffs to cover defendants’ legal costs according to Daily Wireless. Introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act is limited to patents related to computer hardware and software.

House of Representaive“Patent trolls don’t create new technology and they don’t create American jobs,” DeFazio said in a news release. “They pad their pockets by buying patents on products they didn’t create and then suing the innovators who did the hard work and created the product.”

The article explains that patent trolls often buy broad patents. The purchase allows them to file flimsy lawsuits against multiple companies for infringement. Despite very thin evidence to back their lawsuits, companies are often forced to settle. They settle because going to court can easily cost over $1 million in legal costs even if the company prevails, explained DeFazio in a press release.

Loser pays

Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation explains the idea behind the SHIELD Act is simple. A plaintiff needs to believe that a defendant actually infringes a valid patent before it sues. If it doesn’t, then the plaintiff could be on the hook for the costs of litigation. They would also have to cover the winning party’s attorneys’ fees (which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases).

Fee shifting, often called “loser pays,” is not a new idea. It’s long existed in copyright law, it allows a court to award the winning party costs and fees in certain cases. In patent litigation, the EFF says this type of provision would help tilt the playing field slightly more in favor of the good guys. Fee shifting would empower innovators to fight back while discouraging trolls from threatening lawsuits to start.

The EFF has set up a website defendinnovation.org to lead the battle against patent trolls and reform the U.S. Patent Office.

rb-

Voter apathySigh – Today is primary election day here in the U.S. and I just got back from voting and a whopping 417 people in my neighborhood had voted. There are almost 17,000 people 18 years or old.

Voter apathy has everything to do with everything about where the US is today, including patent reform. Who are the politicians going to listen to?  I have covered the patent mess for a while here, here, here, and here. I doubt the political clout me and my 416 other neighborhood voters even matter when compared to the millions of dollars that Apple, Google, ATT, and the rest spend on lobbyists in Washington and Lansing to buy the legislation they want.

Have a nice day!

Related articles

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| August 4, 2012
Comments Off on ISS Room View

ISS Room View

ISS Room ViewThis NASA compilation video shows the view from the International Space Station (ISS) as it flies over the Earth at night. Watch the video which Tested found and you’ll see cities, aurorae, lightning, and occasionally even the thin edge of the atmosphere itself.

 

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,
| August 2, 2012
One comment

Malware Launches Massive Print Jobs

Malware Launches Massive Print JobsIf your printers start printing garbage characters until they run out of paper, it’s a sure sign your network has been hit by the Milicenso Trojan malware. Help Net Security reports that Symantec (SYMC) researchers have found that the garbled printouts are just a side effect of the infection and not its goal. The malware’s last variants have an extremely low detection rate – only 4 of the 42 solutions used by Virus Total detect them at the moment.

Trojan horse malwareThe article says the Milicenso Trojan is actually a backdoor used to deliver other malware on the affected machines. The infection vectors are links and malicious attachments in unsolicited emails, as well as websites hosting malicious scripts that trigger the download of the Trojan. “The Trojan creates and executes a dropper executable, which in turn creates a DLL file in the %System% folder”, shared the Symantec researchers.

The heavily encrypted DLL file creates a number of EXE and DLL files and uses a number of routines to discover whether the execution environment is a virtual machine, public malware sandbox or a black-boxing site. The Trojan also drops a piece of adware, whose aim is to serve as a decoy for AV solutions present on the machines. The blog says the  Adware.Eorezo has only one goal: to point Internet Explorer to an ad-relater URL.

Sandbox environmentHelp Net Security explains the malware triggers the massive printing by exploiting the Windows default print spooler directory. “During the infection phase, a .spl file is created in [DRIVE_LETTER]system32Spool PRINTERS[RANDOM].spl. Note the Windows’ default print spooler directory is %System%spoolprinters.”

The researchers explained “The .spl file, while appearing to be a common printer spool file, is actually an executable file and is detected as Adware.Eorezo. Depending on the configuration, any files, including binary files, created in that folder will trigger print jobs.”

rb-

I have written about the risks of copiers and printers here and here. I’m sure someone will figure out how to use this malware as a direct DOS on printers, and not as a side effect.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »