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Technology in remote parts of the Globe: It starts with a boat

716_ Have you ever wondered what technologies are being used in remote places around the world? Terry Morreale, producer and director of the Women in IT Channel and also a senior engineer at Applied Trust Engineering talked to Evi Nemeth about her passions. Evi is a retired university professor, author (currently working on the 6th edition of Unix/Linux System Administration Handbook, co-authored by Trent Hine) with interests in Networks, Data Structures, Unix Tools, C Programming, System Administration with her real world interests being Sailing, Skiing, Hiking. Evi is in Boulder working on finishing the book. Usually you would find her and her yacht (that sleeps six) in the San Blas Islands on the Caribbean side of Panama... if she is not sailing somewhere in another part of the world. Terry and Evi talked about Evi's experiences in these primitive parts of the world. Have you ever wondered what happens to those brilliant professors teaching our new leaders, writing books that are too technical to read, creating startup companies, did you think they just faded away? Not Evi Nemeth, her story is an enchanting tale of a renowned CU Computer Science Professor, retired and sailing the remote locations of our world.
Related Links: Women in IT Channel || Applied Trust Engineering || Girl Geeks || Evi Sailing || Keywords: Evi Nemeth, Terry Morreale, Technology, Unix/Linux System, Administration Handbook, Computer Science, Global > Bytes= 11783421 > 9.14.09 LISTEN

Cloud Computing: Challenges, Choices and How to Make Better Decisions

If you have a business question with a technical component and you feel over your head, check out the 'Dear Ned' series and you'll either find the answer or submit a question and you'll get back an answer. Here's an example. Ned McClain and Trent Hein, co-founders of Applied Trust Engineering were discussing with Larry another crazy week in IT. Trent said, "We've certainly gotten a lot of questions about Cloud Computing. I think a lot driven by this two hour Gmail outage that occurred. I think folks are trying to understand what Cloud Computing means to them and what they can move to it - or should move to it, and what they can't. There are a lot of questions around, "If I move my applications into the Cloud, does that mean I no longer need system administrators?" Ned replied, "That's a great question and a difficult question because Cloud Computing is such an overused buzz word. Just like Web 2.0, it seems like everybody's got one. And so it's hard to sift through all of the marketing hype and know what cloud computing means to me. But, maybe there's a good way to categorize it into two main buckets... One is outsourced infra structure, and maybe that's called 'Utility Computing' where you lease a server or access to a network, or storage - low level infra structure services. And the other is outsourced applications, often called Application As a Service. That's more the Gmail/Google apps even Yahoo mail paradigm. And those are really different paradigms. One model is that you're leasing tier-one infrastructure and managing it yourself essentially." Listen for more discussion and answers...
Related Links: Ask Your Own Questions || Dear Ned Channel || Women in IT || Applied Trust || >>Channel: ATE 6059470 bytes 9/7/09 LISTEN

Software as a Service (SaaS) Meets Software for Security (SfS)

Gerhardt Eschelbeck is the CTO and Senior Vice President of Engineering, at Webroot. Gerhardt is one of the first in the country, maybe the world, to deal with the SaaS model. That’s Software as a Service. This has been a significant transition which has been driven largely by the threat landscape. Today’s threat is fairly stealth and designed to stay undetected for as long a time as possible. The purpose of the thieves is financially motivated. Today’s threats are fundamentally designed to steal information from the user’s computer, the banking information, financial, health information and what not. Therefore, we clearly have to look at this from a protection standpoint. I think the technologies that we developed 10 and 15 years ago which were very effective when applied to the virus threat, are not as applicable for today’s threat. What the industry requires is an approach that is much more sophisticated. We have moved from a purely desktop approach to a multi tiered defense model. I think the goal here is that you need to use a leverage similar to what the bad guys are using to actually detect those spyware technologies. This is where Webroot has been pioneering and working as an organization over the past four years. We have been able to protect, prevent and detect infections for our customers; this is certainly our top priority. Steps that an organization can do to stay clean and healthy from a computer hygiene perspective are; First make sure you update your systems whenever patches become available. “Microsoft Tuesday”. Missing patches are very frequently used within the first 24 – 48 hours by hackers to take advantage of those security holes. Not just the Microsoft programs, but all of the other programs and systems that you use, be it iTunes or Adobe, etc. The Second Recommendation: Make sure that your malware protection is the latest, state-of-the-art, and is updated to the minute. Thirdly, there are typically areas of very sensitive data that you have on your computer. Take a look at that from an encryption perspective, to make sure it is protected properly. LISTEN

Related Links: Webroot || E-Mail Security || On Demand Software || Cyber Security || Podcast Directory || Bytes: 21176636 LISTEN

Taking the Mystery Out Of Search Engine Optimization

Whether you are a new entrepreneur or successfully growing your company one of the things, top-of-mind for businesses and organizations of all sizes is acquiring new customers. One of the main ways of doing that on the web is acquiring them through search engine optimization. Jeff Finkelstein, founder of Customer Paradigm is an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Pat asked Jeff, “Every business doesn’t sell something on line, why is it important for them to show up in the SEO rankings?" Jeff's reply really got Larry's attention beacuse w3w3.com does not sell online. "Every business doesn’t sell something on line, but if you do come up through word-of-mouth and your company still doesn’t come up top with the search engine rankings, you’re perceived by customers as less relevant, less important because your site isn’t coming up in the search engines. It is unfortunately a zero sum game," pointed out Jeff. He goes on to point out that Google is the overall market leader, they have, depending on who you talk to, between 55-85% of the search business, more so in the business-to-business community, a little bit less in the business-to-consumer realm; Yahoo is the second and MSN is the distant third. Jeff gives specific steps and metrics on how any company can make search engines work for them. LISTEN

Related Links: Customer Paradigm || 12 Strategies for Effective Email || Search Engine Optimization || Find It ||  > Bytes: 23684391 LISTEN

Think Like a Hacker and We Can Beat Them

Most people don’t think like hackers. Today’s hacker isn’t the hobbyist or the kid taking a break from his Xbox. Now it’s a criminal and they just don’t give up – they work through the night until they break in. Roxanne (Roxy) Podlogar, VP Commercial Services, SysTest and Ron Wood, director of Business Development for our Security Practice, he’s certified CISSP cover issues from misperceptions to firewalls; from wireless to credit card fraud. Ron explains, "Here's an example of a a misperception. You put your firewall up and you feel safe. But once the wall is compromised, your applications are wide open. There are various ways to get through and that could be as easy as you open Port 80, the standard http access. When you open your website to customers on the Internet, it’s open doors. You’ve just opened a window to your application, so you want to know that your application is secure. It’s not enough just to have a firewall; you have to harden your application. It’s got to be hardened all the way through, your barriers of defense. First you build a wall, then you harden your apps, make a hardened OS all the way down to your desktop. I mean everything needs to be hardened." Larry cringed when he heard that one. There are many famous cases such as the TJ Maxx horror story. In that example over 45 million credit card user data was stolen. There was more money made and stolen in that one transaction than every bank robbery across the last 10 years. Ron and Roxy share some very important strategies.
Related Links: SysTest Labs || Hi-Tech Heist - CBS News || Cyber Security Channel || Software Channel || Bytes: 27128563 LISTEN

Delivering High Performance - The Challenges and the Choices

David Walker, Software Division President for the American Society for Quality (ASQ) along with Linda Westfall and Granville Jones, co-chairs of the International Conference on Software Quality (ICSQ) share some insights why users, developers and organizations of all sizes are feeling the software-pinch in our ever-changing environment with a focus on the sometimes elusive topic, software quality. On October 16 & 17 the 2007 conference is being held in Denver. It provides a forum for individuals and organizations seeking technologies, concepts, and techniques to improve the quality of their software products, processes, and services, and looking to enjoy networking and learning opportunities. Ken Schwaber, co-developer of Scrum and Dr. Richard Turner, Fellow, Systems and Software Consortium are keynote speakers. Introducing Agile Methods into Traditional Environments with a top-notch Agile panel is also part of the conference. There are other extras available during that week. LISTEN
Related Links: ICSQ || Agile Panel || American Society for Quality || Associations || Bytes: 12196365 > LISTEN

Does Lost and Found Have Your Hard Drive?

Data is becoming very sensitive., That information is on hard drives and people need to be concerned about the information that’s on there. This is the ultimate, take your computer to an event like this and you can watch your hard drive being shredded. It’s all about destroying that data. Recycling is the right thing to do, but you have to make sure it’s being done correctly. Computer & Electronic Recycling Sponsor, Luminous Recycling, Steve Fuelberth discusses this dicey issue with Karl Dakin, Green Up Denver. Look for Luminous Recycling + all the other Colorado Exhibitors at the IT Summit Exhibitors Floor Plan - Tuesday, May 30th. Related Links: Event Photos || Green Up Denver || Luminous Electronics Recycling || Conscious Economy Channel || Data Destruction || Channel: Recycling ||  Bytes: 3524757 LISTEN

Your Business and the Internet’s Identifier System

It started out with DARPA and the National Science Foundation and went through iterations and challenges that included a 1992 episode in Amsterdam, a major issue dealing with IP numbers and names was resolved in 1998 and the march goes on with ICANN serving a very important role with URLs.

John Crain, Chief Technical Officer for ICANN, talks about the importance of this unique identifier system with Larry Nelson and reveals the history and includes comments about Vinton Cerf, current Chief Internet Evangelist for Google also recognized as one of the ‘Fathers of the Internet.’ Meet John Crain, May 30th - at the IT Summit-Denver
Related Links: ICANN || IT Summit-Denver Agenda || Podcast Directory || ICANN Blog || Vinton Cerf Interview || Channels: News >> Bytes: 6280362 LISTEN

Google, FBI, CH2M HILL, Tech Stars Talk

The IT Summit is a conference series for executives from the government, education, economic development and corporate communities. Wes Sherman of the Paramount World Group, producers of the Denver IT Summit says, the events are produced by and for senior leaders for the purposes of economic development, education, and the proliferation of information technology. This full-day Summit includes seminars, panel discussions and CIO Roundtables. If you want to personally meet and listen to industry experts in government, education, economic development and corporate communities, here's your chance.

Related Links: The IT Summit || Denver Agenda || Web Community Calendar || Bytes: 3269175 LISTEN 4/30/07

Tracking the Life (and Contents) of a 3-Year Old Computer

Look around your office. In the next one to three years, estimate how many electronic items, big and small, will be replaced; computers, printers, copiers, keyboards, mice, cell phones, monitors, PDAs, laptops, servers… Next, how will they be disposed of? It’s not just the physical components, it’s also the vital and confidential information stored on those devices.

It’s not just pollution and doing your part, that is socially responsible. It’s also being responsible for customer data, intellectual property or other confidential information. Steve Fuelberth, President & CEO of Luminous has the solution that is leading edge, socially responsible and cost effective.

Related Links: || Luminous Recycling || Mobile Technology Destruction || Green Up Denver || Computer & Electronic Recycling || Channels: Recycling, In the News Bytes: 5400976 LISTEN