Tag Archive for Google

| March 20, 2012
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Spyware Prevention 101

Spyware Prevention 101Spyware goes by many names, including adware, malware, crimeware, scumware, and snoopware. No matter what you call it, spyware’s purpose is still the same: to steal your personal information (PII).

steal your identity, use your credit cards, siphon funds from your bank accountsHelp Net Security says that once hackers have your personal information they can steal your identity, use your credit cards, siphon funds from your bank accounts, and more. Simply put: it’s bad news and you want nothing to do with it.

The good news, according to the article, is that spyware prevention is possible and there are many ways to keep these dangerous programs at bay. In addition to installing the right software, users can practice these computer security tips from Broomfield, CO-based Internet security firm Webroot:

  • Download software directly from the source. The article says a common way to get a spyware infection is to install free or pirated programs from file-sharing sites which have been booby-trapped with malware.
  • Set your browser security settings to “high” and protect yourself from “drive-by” downloads and automatic installations of unwanted programs.
  • Use a firewallAvoid questionable websites, such as those featuring adult material. They’re notorious for spreading spyware threats and causing users problems.
  • Use a firewall.
  • Be suspicious of email and IM.
  • Don’t open attachments unless you know the sender and are expecting a file from them.
  • Delete messages you suspect are spam (don’t even open them).
  • Avoid clicking on links within messages.
  • do not click on a link embedded in the email messageDo not give personal information to unsolicited requests even if they seem legitimate.
  • If you receive a request for personal information from your bank or credit card company, contact that financial institution directly, but do not click on a link embedded in the email message.

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Amichai Shulman – CTO, Imperva posted that the credentials to a Hotmail account are worth $1.50 and a Gmail account is worth over $80 to cyber-criminals. Gmail is more valuable to the attacker because of the wide variety of other Gmail cloud services that can be accessed through Gmail credentials.

It is also likely that credentials used by a person for one application will most work on other applications as well. It is not uncommon for people to have the same username and password used for their Facebook account, their Twitter account, their Airline Frequent Flyer account, or any application that uses their Gmail account as the application account name.

That’s why spyware is bad.

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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.

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| March 6, 2012
Comments Off on Top Wireless Predictions for 2012

Top Wireless Predictions for 2012

Top 10 Wireless Predictions for '12 from Juniper ResearchUK-based Juniper Research published a year-end list of predictions for the mobile and wireless industry for 2012. A copy of the report can be downloaded from Juniper Research, with registration here. Are they on-target or off-the-wall?

Recession Likely to Hit Smart Device SalesRecession Likely to Hit Smart Device Sales. Juniper Research says the continued recession will hurt smartphone and tablet sales. They believe tablet sales will be hurt more than “must-have” smartphones.

They say cash-strapped consumers may opt for the lower-priced tablets. This could benefit players such as Amazon (AMZN) Kindle Fire or ARCHOS (ALJXR) ARNOVA branded devices rather than an Apple (AAPL) iPad. eReaders are most likely to be the hardest hit according to the report.

The Year of the Quad-Core Processor2012 – The Year of the Quad-Core Processor. ASUS (2357) was the first to release Quad-Core Processor. The new chip appeared n November 2011, It ran on the Eee Pad Transformer Prime with the newly launched NVidia (NVDA) Tegra 3 chip. Qualcomm (QCOM) has also added a quad-core chip to their Snapdragon line. Juniper Research expects more to come.

Quad-core processors offer improved performance and increased battery life. The performance boost comes from being able to multi-task more efficiently. It ensures that music will keep playing smoothly while the user is playing games or taking pictures. The power savings come from being able to keep those cores at a relatively low clock speed.

Quad-core processors will allow developers to add more realistic effects, getting ever closer to the elusive console-quality experience. The Tegra 3 even allows for controller support and mirroring to a 3D TV. Javascript and Flash will also run faster allowing web developers to create more graphics and script-heavy apps and pages.

Windows 8 OS to Fuel Nokia RevivalWindows 8 OS to Fuel Nokia Revival Disrupt Tablet Market.  Microsoft’s (MSFT) next OS will be compatible with both Intel and ARM architectures.  Windows 8 will run on both PC and mobile devices. The research firm believes Windows 8 will create a huge ecosystem of devices from smartphones to desktops for app developers to target. Juniper Research expects Microsoft to gain market share in the tablet space, as it replaces the non-tablet-optimized Windows 7. And, with Nokia (NOK) transitioning its existing (smartphone) and new products (likely to include a tablet) to Microsoft’s platform, the Finnish giant will be fighting back after spending several years losing market share to Google (GOOG) Android and Apple iOS devices.

High Profile Malware Attacks on Mobile Devices2012 to see High Profile Malware Attacks on Mobile Devices. There have been many malware attacks targeted at mobile devices. However, these attacks have been relatively small-scale. This is unlikely to continue. Cyber-criminals will not be able to pass up the opportunity that consumer smartphones and tablets will present. Juniper Research anticipates that 2012 will see several high-profile, international attacks on various mobile OSs. Consumers at large must bed aware of the pressing need to protect their smart devices by installing security software.

Cloud Mobility to Drive Collaborative CommunicationsCloud Mobility to Drive Collaborative Communications – The BYOD trend driven by the consumerization of enterprise IT will increase according to the research firm. Specifically, Juniper Research believes that 2012 will see a substantial increase in the number of enterprises moving to develop and deploy mobile-centric, social business strategies.

Other predictions from Juniper Research include:

  • The London 2012 Olympics will boost mobile advertising and M-Gambling, and kickstart NFC.
  • Mobile Coupons to drive the mCommerce market despite economic stagnation.
  • MEMsaccelerometers and gyroscopes to transform the sensor market for mobile devices.
  • Social Gaming will become a major mobile play with the introduction of synchronous gaming.
  • Online, Mobile and Physical will begin to fuse into one retail market.

 rb-

I’ll come back to these predictions at the end of the year and see which predictions were on target or off in space somewhere.

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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.

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| March 1, 2012
Comments Off on It’s Official: Google is Better Than Us

It’s Official: Google is Better Than Us

It's Official: Google is Better Than UsBusnessInsdier’s Matt Rosoff reports that Google (GOOG) Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that people in Silicon Valley don’t talk about the concerns of the 99% because a lot of them are immune to those concerns.

It's Official: GOOG Better Than UsCEO Schmidt told Brad Stone at BusinessWeek, “Occupy Wall Street isn’t really something that comes up in daily discussion because their issues are not our daily reality.”

He also said “We live in a bubble, and I don’t mean a tech bubble or a valuation bubble. I mean a bubble as in our own little world….”

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Maybe GOOG should think about how statements like this look to the 99%.

Do you think Google is concerned about what the public thinks?

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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.

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| February 7, 2012
Comments Off on Data Centers To Go Wireless

Data Centers To Go Wireless

Data Centers To Go Wireless

MIT’s Technology Review reports researchers from IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), and the University of California, Santa Barbara have come up with a way to improve data transmission in data centers. Heather Zheng, associate professor of computer science at UCSB who led the research says wireless is the answer to the in-rack cabling mess usually found in data centers. In their paper (PDF), the researchers say that transmitting data wirelessly within a data center would be simpler than rewiring data for tech titans like Google (GOOG), Facebook, or Twitter.

Line-of-sight connections

WiFi radio wavesThe earlier challenge for multi-gigabit wireless in the data center was it required a line-of-sight connection to be useful. Achieving the required data center speed could not happen in the maze of metal racks, HVAC ducts, and electrical conduits that make up most data centers.

TR reports that the researcher’s solution is to bounce 60-gigahertz Wi-Fi signals off the ceiling, which could boost data transmission speeds by 30 percent. Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm points out that this could result in data transfers up to 500 Gigabits per second. She says current Ethernet cables in data centers are generally 1, 10, or maybe 40 gigabits per second.

60-gigahertz Wi-Fi for servers

Data center ceiling WiFiMs. Zheng and colleagues used 60-gigahertz Wi-Fi, which has a bandwidth in the gigabits-per-second range and was developed for high-definition wireless communications according to TR. However, it has its limitations, says Ms. Zheng. To maximize the bandwidth and reduce interference between signals, it needs to use 3D beamforming to focus the beams in a direct line of sight between endpoints. “Any obstacle larger than 2.5 millimeters can block the signal,” she says in the TR article.

One way to prevent the antennas from blocking each other would be to allow them to communicate only with their immediate neighbors, creating a type of mesh network. But that would further complicate efforts to route the data to the proper destinations, Professor Zheng told TR. Bouncing the beams off the ceiling directly to their targets not only ensures direct point-to-point communication between antennas but also reduces the chances that any two beams will cross and cause interference. “That’s very important when you have a high density of signals,” she says.

Flat metal plates placed on the ceiling offer near-perfect reflection. “You also need an absorber material on the rack to make sure the signal doesn’t bounce back up,” says Ms. Zheng.

Wireless can add 0.5 terabytes per second

Data centerAccording to Technology Review, the UCSB team worked with Lei Yang from Intel Labs in Oregon and Weile Zhang at Jiao Tong University in Xi’an, China, to simulate a 160-rack data center to see how the system might work. “Our simulation shows that wireless can add 0.5 terabytes per second,” she says.

IBM is also looking into using wireless technology in data centers, Scott Reynolds, a researcher at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, who has been developing 60-gigahertz systems told TR. “These data centers are just choked with cables,” he says. “And so every time you want to reconfigure one it’s very labor-intensive and expensive.” But one problem with turning to wireless transmission, he adds, is that “you need to have hundreds of these wireless data links operating in a data center to be useful.” Since 60-gigahertz Wi-Fi has only four data channels, it’s important to configure the beams so they don’t interfere with each other.

Mark Thiele, the EVP of data center technology at Switch Communications‘ SuperNAP data center, told GigaOm that the research is worth following as low-latency networking inside the data center can be a bottleneck today for applications that range from financial trading to trying to move gigantic data sets around.

TR reports Ms. Zheng and her colleagues are now working on building a prototype data center to put their solution into practice.

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Cable mess under a raised floorHaving just done a small data center cleanup, the idea is appealing. We pulled out 2 generations of cabling, IBM Type 1, and a bunch of Cat 3 multi-pair out from under the deck.

Ms. Higginbotham says the choice of 60 GHz for the data center is a smart move. Intel is pushing 60GHz for consumer use, under the WiGig brand (I wrote about WiGig in 2010 here). This means the chips would be cheap.

Some of the possible security issues raised by running Wi-Fi in the data center are tempered by using the 60Ghz range. She says if you are worried about someone standing outside the data center trying to eavesdrop on the data you are transmitting the 60Ghz, signals deteriorate rapidly.

Of course, change is hard and data center guys are going to have to learn wireless and top-of-rack switches would have to get radio cards installed. The Wi-Fi reflective panels would have to be installed on the ceiling of the data center and the servers would need a signal-absorbing surface so the Wi-Fi signals don’t continually bounce around the data center.

Just if you are confused about WiGig, Wi-Fi, and IEEE, EETimes says, “WiGig forged a deal with the Wi-Fi Alliance so its 60 GHz approach can be certified as a future generation of Wi-Fi. The group has aligned its technical approach with the existing IEEE 802.11ad standards effort on 60 GHz.”

Now if only they could do wireless electricity……..

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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.

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| February 2, 2012
Comments Off on Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning

Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning

– Updated 03-18-12 – Science writer David Bradley on his blog ScienceText also recommends, “Avoid social networking and email first thing.” I know it works for me, I walk around and talk to staff before I get tangled up in the work everybody else wants me to do.

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Never Check Email First Thing In The MorningSid Savara a widely regarded personal development trainer published 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning at his site sidsavara.com.

#1 – Ignorance Is Bliss … fully Productive – When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That’s why if you’ve got something important you want to make progress on, the author offers these four words for success:

SPAM computerDon’t check your email – As soon as you get in, work on something important for 30-45 minutes, and only then check your email. If you can stand it, wait even longer. The article suggests that as long as you’re ignorant of everything else that’s going on outside, you can concentrate on what you want to work on.

Any new information you get can cause you to get distracted.

#2 – It’s Not Your Todo List – Mr. Savara you know what is most important for you to work on the first thing in the morning you should go ahead and do it! By checking email, you risk doing what someone else wants you to do. Or more bluntly, when you check your inbox, the emails you get are a to-do list someone else makes for you.

Who is in charge of your time – you, or the person emailing you?

Lack of Direction#3 – It’s An Excuse To Lack Direction – The author says that checking email is a low-priority activity and that you may be checking email first thing in the morning because your to-do list has gotten off track somewhere. He argues that when you don’t have a clear list of priorities, checking email becomes an urgent activity that you do at the expense of your important ones.

#4 – Reaction vs “Proaction” – When you check your email, you end up with more work to do – and because we’re in “check email” mode, we start replying to them at the expense of the task we were just working on. Rather than actively setting an agenda, email forces you to react to items as they come in – regardless of their true priority.

Mr. Savara says he prefers taking proactive actions. Work on the things that are important to you, regardless of whether they’re urgent or simply at the top of your inbox. Stop wasteful actions, and focus on productive actions instead.

social networking#5 – Searching For Excuses Blindly checking email (or Twitter, or Facebook, or any number iTime wasters) is usually just searching for an excuse to not do the work that must be done according to the author. Don’t fall into that trap. Don’t give yourself an out by checking your email for an excuse to fail. He urges, don’t check your email  – acknowledge the task you need to get done and do it.

Cross that bridge – it’s not going away.

#6 – There’s No Set Time Limit – Meetings get a bad rap for being a waste of time – but at least you usually know how long a meeting will last. But do you know how long you’re going to spend on email once you open your inbox, odds are you don’t know – or you’ll underestimate it.

The problem is, checking email only takes a minute but you can get sucked into follow-up activities that result from opening your email, and there’s no way of knowing how much time these will take. You have a set time limit for how many productive hours you have in a day don’t let email suck you in and cause you to devote more time to it than you can afford.

#7 – It Builds Expectation – A lot of people say, “But I have to check my email! People expect a response from me in the morning!” The author believes that there are some requests that need immediate responses, but they’re much less frequent than you might think.

TimeHe argues that people expect a response from you in the morning because you’ve always responded first thing in the morning and you’ve built that expectation. The more often you check email, the more often people will expect you to check it. Just stop checking it first thing in the morning, and people won’t expect it anymore.

Mr. Savara recommends the following email rules:

  • Only check if there is something specific you are looking for. Most important – don’t go fishing around. Check it with a specific plan, a specific email you’re looking for from a specific person.
  • Separate low-value emails via filters (“rules” in outlook) or separate email addresses so you don’t even see them in your inbox when you check
  • Set a time limit. Commit to checking for 5 minutes, just to look for that one piece of information – and have your exit strategy ready. Before you open your inbox, decide what you’ll do if 1) the email is there 2) the email isn’t there 3) the email is incomplete. Don’t be reactionary – proactively decide what action you will take based on the outcomes you expect.
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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.

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