Geeks Informed

Current Price Trends for Computer Parts

2012-01-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Last Update:
January 10, 2012

Thailand Floods Impact Hard Disk Drive Prices

According to the Thailand Business Report, the recent record floods in Thailand have caused a 20% increase in prices for hard disk drives (HDD). IDC is forecasting that there will be a 25-28% shortfall. SSD drives can be expected to meet some of the demand.

Thailand's flooding is the worst in over a century. Prices appeared to stabilize late in December when Western Digital's factories restarted production, but the impact could be felt for more than a year.

Thailand is a major player in the production of HDD. Western Digital's Bang Pa-In facility produces more than one-quarter of the world’s supply of HDD “sliders”.

Thailand also is important is automotive electronic components. The auto makers Ford, Mazda, Hino, Honda, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota have all temporarily ceased work in Thailand. Honda and Toyota have been forced to slow production in factories in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, North America, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam due to the floods.

The camera manufacturers Canon, Sony, and Nikon have all suffered production disruptions. Sony has three fabs in Thailand. The disruption has caused Sony to delay product introductions of the cameras NEX-7 and the Reflex Alpha 65, and other components will be in short supply. Sony makes the CCD camera sensors and Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chips which are used to enhance the imagery. A product manager at the Sony fabs estimated that normal production would resume in 3-4 months, or around March 1, 2012.

Industry planners are receiving severe criticism, since most of the industrial growth in Thailand has been built in the flood plain north of Bangkok.

Chip Demand Slowed in 3rd Quarter

Computer makers from Asia have reported that demand for their products slipped dramatically in July. The market for DRAM and Flash has predictably suffered. "I'm a little surprised today we have as much pressure in the DRAM industry as we do," Steve Appleton, Micron. Micron shares were down 7.3% to $5.25 in recent trading.

The average selling price (ASP) for 2 Gb DDR3 (DDR) is about $0.75. Hynix has priced it product at $0.70, while Micron, the only U.S. manufacturer, is priced at $0.90. (DIGITIMES)

Impact of the Japan Crisis on the Technology Sector

The earthquake-tsunami, and the resulting nuclear crisis at Fukushima are still impacting the IC market, but the market has begun to stabilize.

NAND Flash demand, the memory most affected by the Japanese earthquake since Japan accounts for about 40% of worldwide NAND Flash capacity, has weakened. The NAND Flash average contract price has decreased by 10-15% since its peak in late April. Many customers added inventory in April to protect against potential shortages. With the supply now proven stable, these customers are consuming inventory and not placing new orders. The inventory should be returned to normal levels in Q3.

Japan is still an important supplier of electronic integrated circuits. Tokyo itself, is not an IC manufacturing region. Most of the chip fabrication is located in either Western or Southern Japan.

There have already been several international technology management operations that have relocated from Tokyo to Hong Kong. For the immediate future, a calculation must be made including the mobility of existing investments.

Silicon Wafers are used by Chip factories as the base material for production. Two Japanese operations, Shin-Etsu Chemical (located in Shirakawa) and MEMC Electronic Materials (located in Utsunomiya), have halted production. The MEMC plant is of less concern, since it has a smaller output, and the type of wafers produced can be substituted from many other facilities.

The Shirakawa plant produces 300mm wafers, which are in shorter supply. This plant accounts for 20% of global 300mm silicon wafer production. Shin-Etsu says that it can compensate for this plant's capacity by increasing production at its other facilities. For more information on Japan's crisis, see The Impact of Japan's Crisis on the Technology Sector.

There have been reports of shortages in niche markets. For example, Sony's CCD production has been affected, causing short supplies. CCD chips are used in cameras as the photographic element. Two factories operated by Texas Instruments suffered damage sufficient to cause a 2-3 month production outage, but a short-term disruption from the TI factories should not cause a significant problem.

Chip Inventories on Rise

Companies that rely on ICs are increasing their chip inventories to insure an adequate supply in the wake of the crisis in Japan.

In the 4th quarter of last year, global chip inventories surged to their highest level in over two years. Chip vendors had 84 days of inventory (DOI) at the end of the fourth quarter, up 5.5 days (about 7%) from 78 days in the third quarter. Chip inventories are a key measure of the balance between supply and demand and often indicate future pricing trouble (iSuppli).

Flash Memory Prices Likely to Decline

Once the hysteria concerning Japan recedes, then Flash memory prices should return to their pre-crisis levels, but it is not clear when exactly this will occur.

Hynix (Korea), Micron (Singapore), Samsung (Gyeonggi, Korea) and Toshiba (Yokkaichi, Japan) will begin production in new fabs later this year. Yokkaichi, near Kyoto, is about 200 miles SW of Tokyo. A glut of production capacity is anticipated.

NAND now sells for about $1.60 per gigabyte, but once the new factories are on-line, the price per gigabyte should decrease by 40-50%.

CPU Prices Decreases

Intel recently cut prices across a wide range of processors used in both mobile and desktop PCs, including reductions of up to 40% on its quad-core chips. The prices of other Core 2 Quad chips were cut by 16%-20%. These quad-core chips are used in high-end desktops.

Intel's move is in response to price pressure from rival Advanced Micro Devices, which earlier announced Phenom II quad-core chips for high-end desktops.

AMD has cut pricing on some Phenom II X4 and Phenom II X6 CPUs. The X4 (quad-core processors), the 955 BE, 965 BE and 970 BE, had price reductions of $10. The X6 (six-core processors) hav ealso seen price reductions, the 1055T is now $175, the 1090T is $205, and the 1100T costs $239.

Intel’s least expensive six-core processor (Core i7-970), is priced at $885.

Intel reduced the price for some of its Xeon CPUs for servers and Celeron processors for mobile devices. The quad-core Xeon 3370 is now priced at $316, a 40% drop from December, while the Celeron 570 chip was cut by 48%, from $134 to $70.

Overall, the Semi industry has managed to reduce manufacturing costs by more than 30% per year for the last half-century.
Source: IDG News Service

New Fines for Memory Factories

Last May 20, European antitrust regulators fined nine semiconductor manufacturers more than $400 million for price manipulation of the market for DRAM memory chips.

The group said all of the companies admitted their liability for the infringement. The companies were Elpida Memory, Hitachi, Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon, Mitsubishi Electric, Nanya Technology, NEC Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and Toshiba.

Micron was not included because it notified the Commission about the cartel in 2002.

Many analysts are forecasting 15-20 percent growth in semiconductor sales for this year. Semiconductor revenues may approach $250 billion or more for the year.

PC manufacturers have been reducing inventory, which has resulted in lower sales at the wholesale market. This has been driving down part prices in general. This process has now run its course, once inventories were reduced, and prices stabilized. Inventories are now again on the rise, which may begin to negatively impact prices if this trend continues.

The worldwide PC market increased by more than 24% in the first quarter of 2010 when compared to the prior year. But remember the context; in 2009 the market declined by about 7% relative the preceding year.

Memory

Prices of DRAM stabilized in December after a prolonged price slump. The price of the current benchmark DDR3 2 gigabit, 256Mx8 1333 megahertz is now at $0.88. Only 15 months earlier (September 2010), the same device was selling for $4.34.

InSpectrum Technology, (DRAM exchange) predicts lower prices for DRAM for the remainder of the year. Aggressive spending plans by DRAM leader Samsung Electronics has increased production capacity and has resulted in price declines as anticipated. Last year, Samsung increased its spending on new DRAM production capacity to 11 trillion Korean won (~$9.7 billion).

A shortage of memory chips early last year caused chip makers like Samsung to increase production. This has resulted in price declines which should continue for the rest of the year. Samsung's goal is to control about 50% of the total DRAM market. Samsung's currently controls about 41% of the global DRAM market, and with an aggressive factory expansion ($7.8 billion in 2011), the goal appears realistic.

The average selling price (ASP) for DRAM continues to challenge profitability. The prices have been well below the cost to manufacture. Prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices rose marginally in April, but stayed below the $1 level, casting doubts on the prospect for their quick recovery. Globally, memory vendors have lost more than $12 billion in the last 3 years. For many manufacturers, the current prices are approaching a break-even level. If shortages do occur later this year, some money will be made.

Major DRAM producers are moving their DRAM manufacturing to more efficient production nodes. For example, Samsung is in pilot production at the 45 nanometer node (the smaller the node, the higher the circuit density = efficiency). Inevitably this will spur further price decreases, but the outlook remains very difficult to predict, and will also track the economy. If the world economy stays in recession, look for prices to remain very weak.

In an effort to stabilize prices, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk have reduced flash memory production by about 30% this year. A 16GB NAND flash memory chip sold for about $1.80 at the end of 2008, but is now selling for over $4. Apple's new 3GS smart phone is causing some of the increase in NAND flash memory prices, since each phone consumes between 8-32 gigabytes of NAND flash. Global sales of NAND flash memory is expected to rise for the foreseeable future at a compound annual rate of about 40%, (more than $900 million in 2013).

Last year, Apple made a $500 million prepayment to Toshiba for flash memory chips to ensure an adequate supply. Apple has been manipulating the market for NAND flash memory chips by ordering more chips than it actually consumes. This results in artificially deflated flash prices (Korea Times). Apple receives very good profit on its memory, but leaves manufacturers with more flash chips than needed.

Many memory factories are capable of producing either DRAM or NAND flash products. When the NAND market had oversupply problems earlier this year, DRAM prices were quickly affected since the factories shifted production from NAND to DRAM.

DDR3 DRAM (SDRAM) is now shipping from a several memory vendors. DDR3 is better because the chips can use 60 percent less power than DDR2, and provide almost twice the bandwidth (data rate). DDR3 is expected to eventually replace DDR2 as the memory of choice. Currently, DDR3 1066Mhz 2GB sells for about $24. DRAM vendors including Samsung Electronics have narrowed down the price difference between DDR2 modules and DDR3 in an attempt to encourage faster adoption of DDR3 by PC manufacturers. DDR3 allows for chip capacities of 512 megabits to 8 gigabits, for a maximum memory module size of 16 GB.

(Source: www.DramExchange.com)

Capital Investment in New Manufacturing Capacity

The Semiconductor Industry is famous for its "Boom & Bust" cycles, and the model remains accurate. We have been in a major Bust for the last few years. If we emerge out of this recession in a slow gradual growth period, the industry will be able to track the growth with manufacturing capacity. If however, the economy recovers quickly (a "U" or "V" shaped recovery), then there will be severe shortages for many products, especially the chips that require the newest manufacturing techniques.

According to the research firm, VLSI, February 2010 chip factory utilization was 93% for the front end of the manufacturing process, 95% for test, and 94% for assembly.

SEMI now estimates that the industry experienced an 8% annual growth in installed fab capacity for 2010 (growth was -4.4% in 2009). The SEMI forecast projects another 8% increase for 2011, and 9% for 2012.

Spending in North America is included with approximately $9 billion forecasted to be spent for fabs in North America. 12 fabs investing over $100 million each, including Intel’s upgrades of its facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. GlobalFoundries (AMD) fab construction project in upstate New York, and Samsung’s 300 mm expansion in Austin, Texas. IBM, Micron, and Texas Instruments also are included. The semiconductor industry is increasingly dominated by just a few companies. According to IC Insights, this trend is likely to accelerate (Only 10 Players in 300mm Wafer Race).

A trend having enormous impact on capital investment strategies is the use of foundries. Foundries are most often found in Asia, especially Taiwan. Companies, including Intel, Texas Instruments, and AMD, have been using foundries for years to supplement their production capacity. Intel has been in the news for outsourcing the Atom, the microprocessor designed for netbooks, and Intel's most promising venture in years, to a foundry in Taiwan. Dongbu Semiconductor in Korea is for all practical purposes, a TI facility. Dongbu is the world's 6th largest foundry with two 8-inch fabs, a total production capacity of about 95,000 wafers a month (a single wafer results in hundreds of integrated circuit "chips"). TI executives hold two key positions at Dongbu Semiconductor: Lou Hutter, Senior Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Analog Semiconductor Division, and Shaunna Black, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing Operations.

But as recent problems at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC the world's largest foundry company) demonstrate, it can be dangerous to rely on a third party for critical production. TSMC recently confirmed a yield crash with their 40nm process technology that has resulted in yield rates below 40%. Major customers for TSMC's 40nm processes include AMD and Nvidia.

Capital spending by semiconductor companies declined last year by about 40%, to $26 billion (from $43 billion in 2008).

Samsung has reduced its capital spending by a third. Micron (Idaho) has cut its capital spending by almost 75%. DRAM suppliers have cut back the most. DRAM capital spending is 20% of its level in 2007. Intel, is the exception, and has cut its capital spending by only about 2%.

Forecasts for this year (notoriously unpredictable) call for an increase in capital spending of more than 10%, as measured from last years exceedingly depressed baseline. It should be noted that Applied Materials (the world's largest Semiconductor equipment manufacturer) has announced a headcount reduction of about 12% for later this year. "We have to be realistic about the markets we are serving," Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter.

(Source: IC Insights)

Microprocessors

AMD and Intel are surviving the slow economy better than the memory companies. Unit shipments increased to more than 280 million units last year. The inexpensive Atom processor helped to boost unit growth, but resulted in a lower average sale price (ASP). The Atom microprocessor used in notebook computers represented about 20 percent of Intel's mobile PC processor shipments. The CPU ASP dropped by 10 percent (IDC).

According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, microprocessor prices fell 49% a year between 2000 and 2006, declining more than the prices of personal computers (26%), storage devices (23%) and software (1%). Ironically, the European Union fined Intel more than 1.06 billion euros (~ $1.5 billion) for market manipulation. It would appear that Intel's manipulation was counter-productive.

Intel had over $21.5 billion of cash in the bank at the end of 2010.

The European Union fined Intel $1.45 billion in May. Late last year, Korea's Fair Trade Commission fined Intel $18.6 million. And in November, Intel agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD to settle all antitrust and patent suits. A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon, you are talking about some real money.

Samsung Fined for Price Fixing Again

Samsung Electronics Co, Sharp Corp and five other makers of liquid crystal displays (LCD) have agreed to pay more than $550 million to settle claims that they colluded to fix prices for LCD panels in televisions, notebook computers and monitors.

"This price-fixing scheme manipulated the playing field for businesses that abide by the rules, and left consumers to pay artificially higher costs for televisions, computers and other electronics," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Samsung will have to pay $240 million, Sharp $115.5 million, Taiwan-based Chimei Innolux Corp $110.3 million, and Hitachi will pay $39 million.

The agreement follows a second settlement earlier this month by eight companies, including Samsung and Sharp, requiring payment of $388 million to settle litigation by direct purchasers of the LCD panels.

Hard Disk Drives

The overall proportion of total computer costs for data storage continues to rise. Storage will soon account for more than half of total computer hardware and software costs.

Hard disk manufacturing and design has improved dramatically in recent years to result in drives of higher capacities for the same price. At the beginning of the decade, 40GB was the highest capacity generally available, but now drives of 3 TB (75X increase) are available.

3.5" HDD Survey 8/2/2011

3TB          $170
2TB          $70
1 TB          $55
750 GB      $45
500 GB      $40

2.5" HDD
Demand for the 160-GB through 500-GB SATA units is stable.

IDE drive production continues to decrease as the market moves to the SATA interface. Spot shortages in the IDE interface may be expected.

(Source: www.converge.com)

SSD Drives are still more expensive than conventional HDD. An SSD Drive now costs about $1 per gigabyte while a HDD drive costs less than $0.10 per gigabyte. The price of an SSD continues to improve (SSD drives once sold for more than $25 per gigabyte), and with manufacturing volumes anticipated, the price difference should be further reduced. Prices for SSD decreased by more than 20% in 2011.

The Thailand floods could provide a direct push to SSD. Hard-drives are expected to be in short supply though the end of the year, and SSD could contribute to a solution.

A new player to SSD is Super Talent Technology. Super Talent combines flash technology with the latest specification of USB (3.0), achieving read speeds of up to 125 MB a second, and write speeds of up to 50 MB a second. This would permit 500 MB of data to be downloaded in 10 seconds.

SSDs are an ideal storage solution for netbooks. One can buy an 80 GB HDD for $30-$35, but that would only get you 15 GB of flash capacity. At the current technology node (42 nm), it is not possible to manufacture SSD at $1/GB, but when the manufacturing node reaches 24 nm, this price looks feasible. Toshiba became the first fab to begin 24 nm volume production in 3rd Quarter 2010.

Who Is Geeks Mobile USA?

2012-01-08T11:48:00.000-08:00

Geeks Mobile USA (computerrepairservicesusa.com and geeksmobileusa.com) operates a network of contractor technicians across the USA, finding their contacts from services like OnForce, or sometimes CraigsList.

At times this operation has utilized different names (besides Geeks Mobile USA) including "Systems Made Easy", "Boston Computer Professionals", Computer Repair Services USA" and "Computer Repair Boston". Geeks Mobile has recently operated under the business name "ALL IT" (web: http://www.allitsupported.com/).

The company’s name is a play on the name of the company "Geek Squad". Do not confuse Geeks Mobile USA with Geek Squad. If you visit the GeeksMobileUSA website, the company has the appearance of a significant enterprise. This is deceiving.

The proprietor of Geeks Mobile USA is a Mr. Ilya Elbert. Mr. Elbert has been known to write positive fake reviews for his own company on independent review websites. Reviews from real customers say that their credit cards and bank accounts have been charged without permission, and that they have been grossly unsatisfied with the work performed. Contractors complain that Mr. Elbert fails to pay for services rendered, but complain more about being used to gather information that would be later used fraudulently by Geeks Mobile USA.

Geeks Mobile USA is a fraudulent operation, but more importantly, the company is a metaphor for much of the NSO community. Geeks Mobile USA is an unpolished criminal enterprise, but the more dangerous criminal, is the criminal with polish, and some surprising companies currently meet that description.

NSO companies like GeeksMobileUSA.com will accept a work order, and then find a technician from service networks like OnForce.com (also an NSO) or even CraigsList (CraigsList is comparable to the classified advertisements in the newspaper, except it is on-line). If you have hired Geeks Mobile USA for a job, the technician you met was probably unaware that they were involved in a scam. In fact, the most likely victim in this arrangement is the contractor, since they frequently will never be paid. In most cases, the NSO never meets the contractor, except over the telephone or Internet.

However, like many companies in the National Service Organization (NSO) market segment, Geeks Mobile USA is not completely illegitimate. Many customers have had a successful repair, if the contractor that was hired happened to be competent.

CraigsList has become an reluctant expert on operations like Geeks Mobile USA.com. CraigsList offers the following guideline:

"DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON - follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts."

It's good advice. Also, be careful of advertisements in the phone book or the Internet. Firms like Geeks Mobile USA will pretend that they are local, even maintaining local phone numbers in the larger cities.

Companies like Geeks Mobile USA will come and go. Mr. Elbert may change the name of his enterprise tomorrow. If you can get a reference from a friend, that is your best source for technical support. Until there is effective industry or governmental oversight of the National Service Industry, it will continue to be a very dangerous environment.

Corruption in business is not a new problem, but the Internet has certainly provided a new chapter. The anonymous nature of the Internet is not conducive to ethical behavior. Some of the more unscrupulous NSO operations provide false mailing addresses, making it more difficult for law enforcement.

Apathy is probably the most dangerous aspect of the current situation. Business corruption has become like the steroid problem in sports. It is such a part of the environment, that we have begun to accept it. Fraudulent operations are so common, that law enforcement rarely enforces existing law, except in the most brazen cases.

If we are to achieve a sustainable free market economy, business must behave ethically. The recent election of Barack Obama and his party's landslide victory was more than a victory for the Democrats. It was also a backlash against overly business-friendly policies. How many crimes have been committed due to this permissive environment?

The unethical behavior and infuriating instances of greed in the National Service Industry is creating a larger negative impact. The resulting lack of credibility will negatively affect business industry-wide. A higher standard for business ethics is required. But if baseball can take steps to combat steroids, then strong leadership can address the problems with the National Service Industry.

Who is United Service Source (USSI)?

2011-12-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing of technical service is a growth industry. One organizational structure for this application is the use of independent contractors organized by National technical service organizations (NSO). It can be expensive to hire direct employees across the country, and outsourcing the work via a NSO is often the less expensive alternative.

But the NSO community has a terrible reputation for paying their bills. It's a classic David versus Goliath story. The NSO is always the Goliath, with deep pockets, and a staff of lawyers on standby. The person owed is most often a very small contractor operator, who not only cannot afford large legal bills, but he (or she) is also dependent on the NSO for future work.

With a problem NSO, the contractor finds themselves begging for money that has already been earned. According to Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission, fraudulent activity of this type occurs most frequently in the computer hardware and software industries.

United Service Source Inc. (USSI) in Brevard County, Florida (Melbourne) is an interesting case study. USSI organizes work for companies across the United States through a network of subcontractors. Companies like USSI have a poor record for meeting the financial obligations with their contractors (see Fraud Against Contractors or Programmer Sues USSI for Delinquent Payment).

USSI Known Associates
Organization	Vendor	Application
Financial Consultants	E-Trade	Stock Broker
Hotels	Lodgenet	Hotel Pornography
Hospitals	TipTV	Infomercials
Hospitals	Newborn Channel	Infomercials
Kentucky Fried Chicken	NCR Enterprise	Digital Display Menus
Kentucky Fried Chicken	Wireless Ronin	Digital Display Menus
Enterprise Rent-a-Car	AirMagnet	Order Processing
Pediatricians	Enqii KidCARE TV	Child Care
Oral Medicine	Dynasign	Dentists
Animal Medicine	EmebaVet	Veterinarians
Animal Medicine	Enqii PetCARE TV	Veterinarians
AT&T	Samsung	LCD Television
Corporate	Verizon	Business Satellite Link
Corporate	Samsung	LCD Television
Corporate	Star2Star Communications	Telephone via Internet (VoIP)
Movie Theaters	Mainstream	Satellite link for pre-movie commercials
Federal Aviation Administration	SPL Integrated Solutions	Communications
U.S. Postal Service	Logix	Internet Services
U.S. Postal Service	Target Vision	Postal Vision Employee Training

NSO-Governmental Relationship

A corrupt NSO will typically cultivate a cozy relationship with the local government. It is not an accident that most of these operations are based in rural jurisdictions, probably more malleable to their needs. Non-locals should not expect objectivity with disagreements. The local judiciary acts as a "home-town referee". Florida Today (November 23, 2008) called the situation in Melbourne, USSI headquarters,

"an ugly pattern of incompetence and impropriety that cries out for investigation," Florida Today further said "It would be negligent at this point for the Governor to ignore his duty to the public to make sure that the laws and the Constitution are faithfully enforced. Today, reasonable people are making the conclusion that Brevard County systemically engages in corruption and collusion."

Florida, ranks as the state with the most federal corruption convictions over the past decade. Florida, with 824 convictions of local, state and federal officials, even exceeded Illinois (Blagojevich) and Louisiana (William Jefferson). Florida is the only state in the union to charge court fees to those who cannot afford to pay, effectively holding hostage the Constitutional rights of millions of Floridians to access the courts without sale, denial, or delay, a basic tenet on which our government was founded.

USSI manipulated local government officials in 2010 to receive local tax abatements. USSI feigned interest in moving the company to Texas, and used this leverage to give local authorities enough cover to award USSI a tax exemption. Insiders know the play was a complete ruse.

Wolves tend to operate in packs. Many of companies that do business with USSI, including Samsung Electronics and Verizon Communications, have a lengthy history of marginally illegal activities.

Samsung has a long history of involvement with organized crime. A former CEO of Samsung, Lee Kun-Hee was convicted of tax evasion and security law violations. For his crimes, Lee was fined over $100 million and was sentenced to 3 years in prison (suspended because of his age). Lee stole a more than $2 billion.

Seong Hwan Kim, chairman of Samsung general labor union, was imprisoned even after Amnesty International selected him as a Prisoner of Conscience. Samsung maintains "free union", which effectively eliminates unions at their factories with violence. Samsung has legally maintained that any industrial disaster in one of their semiconductor factories is classified as a natural death.

Verizon is no stranger to involvement in seedy activities. In a well publicized example, a contract with the State of Pennsylvania wound up in court, because Verizon promised broadband services that it never delivered. Verizon made more than $1 billion in profit from this contract.

"The president of Verizon Pennsylvania struck a secret "gentleman's agreement" with State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo under which the phone company agreed to pay millions to a law firm of Fumo's choosing." Philadelphia Inquirer (6/26/07)

Fumo used his considerable influence in the Pennsylvania government to end a lawsuit in which state regulators opposed a plan to restructure Verizon into wholesale and retail units. Former Senator Fumo (D., Phila.) was recently convicted of 137 counts of fraud and corruption. Fumo joked with his girlfriend that he was good at spending "OPM", short for other peoples' money. Fumo will be eligible for release from prison (Ashland, Kentucky), in January 2013.

Is Your Neighbor Involved?

The strategy used by these companies brings back memories of Love Canal. In years past, large companies would hire a contractor to do their dirty work, most famously dumping highly toxic waste into the rivers and lakes. The strategy provided plausible deniability while the waterways were permanently destroyed. They could pretend to be as guiltless as a Southern Preacher and point their finger at the contractor as the Bad Guy who had Ruined the Environment.

Toxic waste from factories, chemical industry, and nuclear power plants can be very expensive to handle properly. Bean-counters from these industries are motivated to reduce these costs. An unfortunately common scenario would include a business partner hired to manage the waste. Of course, the lowest bidder would win the job. A competing bidder that properly performed the work would find it impossible to compete. The bean-counter would be unaware (and did not want to know) that the waste was being illegally dumped, after all, the responsibility had been delegated to the contractor -- the bean-counter's hands were clean. The resulting damage from thousands of these contracts has caused countless health and ecological problems in the affected areas, and the taxpayer is still paying for cleanup of these sites. Ignorance is no excuse.

As awareness improves, two trends are occurring:

Consumers and businesses are recognizing the benefits of hiring locally, and avoiding the participation in criminal enterprise.

Responsible clients are monitoring the NSO companies with whom they do business, and avoiding the ones with poor reputations.

Everyone must realize that if they do business with NSO operations with "questionable" business ethics, even through a 3rd party, they will ultimately be held accountable.

Electronics Reliability Issues at the 45 Nanometer Node and Below

2011-12-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

Most tech-aware people have heard of Moore's Law. Moore was an engineer for Intel in 1965 when he famously observed that the number of transistors on a typical Integrated Circuit (IC) was doubling approximately every 18 months.

More recently, engineers have concerns that a continuation of Moore's law will be impossible. There is significant pressure on the IC industry to continue progress, hence justifying future consumer purchases. If the computer or other electronic module available today, is only equal in performance to the one already owned, why would you replace it?

Advanced fabs are now manufacturing at what is known in the industry as the "28 nanometer node" or below. This refers to the dimensions of features in the circuit. Intel has 4 factories in production with this technology node. They have been joined by Matsushita (Panasonic), AMD (GlobalFoundries), IBM, TSMC, UMC and Samsung. At this point, we are still on course for maintaining Moore's Law, but there are some troubling issues.

The most significant problem is reliability. As the recent problems with Intel's "Sandy Bridge" CPU chipsets revealed, even the best operations are vulnerable. The Cougar Point devices have been recalled for degradation over time. Over $700 million of Intel product was recalled (about 8 million units).

The thinnest layers in these devices are now measured in atomic layers (the number of atoms). At 45 nanometers, the thinnest layers are only 3-5 atoms in thickness, with very little margin for error.

One of the fundamental problems for the new node is heat. The general rule in electronics: for each 10 degrees (Centigrade) increase in operating temperature, a 50% reduction in circuit lifetime will result. The new devices, especially the microprocessors, produce more heat, and are much more difficult to cool.

There are other problems, many related to dielectrics. Voltage stress tends to increase as device feature size decreases. Over time, this can lead to dielectric breakdown. As the dielectric is reduced to less than 2 nanometers in thickness, leakage currents tend to increase significantly, which raises power consumption, and generates more heat.

Reliability studies are projecting a device lifetime for this generation of devices of approximately 3-5 years, as opposed to a reliability of 10-15 years with electronics produced at the 65nm technology node.

Flash memory has demonstrated that the smaller the device features, the less memory read/write cycles prior to failure. System designers, through careful statistical modeling and use of algorithms, idealize randomizing of cell use of available flash memory which allows the load to be spread out.

The reliability problems with this technology nodes 45nm and smaller are commonly discussed in the automotive, medical and military (Milspec) communities. These communities have always been more sensitive to reliability issues. One doesn't want a critical system failing.

Discussion of the reliability problems has been far less common in the general consumer community. This is predictable, since the Semiconductor Industry does not wish to discourage adoption of the technology, and the "consumer" is much less organized.

Many consumers apparently don't care. Even well documented reliability problems, for example with the Sony Playstation 3, did not significantly dampen sales of the product. Certain devices: game-players, cell-phones, MP3-player, etc. are considered disposable. In the future, with the newer tech nodes, it is necessary to modify our expectations of what constitutes a "normal" lifetime. It remains to be seen if the consumer will continue to be tolerant of increasingly reduced product lifetimes.

A Guide to Importing Security Cameras from China

2011-09-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

China is the world leader in labor-intensive manufacturing. China is the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for about half of the world’s shoes and clothing, toys, electronics, appliances, and furniture. For items like security cameras, China controls more than 80% of the $13 billion U.S. market(1). Much of the manufacturing in China is accomplished in a region of Eastern China, in the Pearl River Delta in Guangzhou, and in particular the city of Shenzhen.

Shenzhen has received more than $30 billion in foreign investment and has grown in population from about 300,000 in 1985, to more than 10 million today (31X). This region of China has come to dominate many world markets in a very short time.

The challenges of importing cameras from China for use in the U.S. include the control of instrument quality, efficient shipping, the safe transfer of money, and the support of equipment warranties.

Quality

Profit margins in China are usually very small for commodity items like security cameras. Competition with other manufacturers is intense, and copy-cat products are very common. There are often several dozen companies making products so similar distinction is difficult.

• A thin profit-margin explains the
behavior of the typical OEM in China.

Thin profit margins also equal thin margins for error. If a product fails at your customer, the OEM business model in China may not account for return shipping costs and repairs (2).

Shipping

Shipping costs will be an important component in your total overhead.

The major international carriers serving the China to U.S.A. market include UPS, Federal Express, and DHL. Air delivery, which usually takes 3-4 days, will cost on average about 3 times more than delivery for the same package across the United States. Most OEM are proficient at negotiating a fair rate, and passing that cost to you.

Payment

The customer will usually need to prepay for goods at the time of order. Wire transfers (TTL) with your bank or Western Union are often used for the transfer of money. Many, but not all, OEM in China now accept credit cards and/or PayPal.

I have transferred money many times with both Western Union and banks with reputable companies from China, and to date, have never been victimized. But there is certainly a vulnerability to the process (see “warranty” below).

Credit cards and PayPal do offer some added security, but be advised, the time period for filing a grievance is usually 45 days or less. A transaction from China, if it includes any complications, will probably exceed 45 days.

If in doubt, when approaching the 45 day window, file a grievance. It can be cancelled if necessary.

Warranty

Every OEM has field failures. Electronics from China, including security cameras, are usually of very high quality. My failure rate on received cameras has been less than 5%, and the failure rate of the cameras once past the initial 10 day period, is less than 3% for the first year.

On three occasions I have returned cameras to the OEM for repair because of failure during the warranty period. Once, I received fully operational cameras returned within 20 days. On the second occasion (same OEM), I received the cameras back, but the cameras were still faulty, I returned them again, and received cameras, faulty for the 3rd time. With a second supplier (you can guess why I changed suppliers), the OEM received the cameras, sent them to their laboratory for “research” and they were never returned, despite many complaints.

The lack of warranty support from the OEM is a result of the extremely thin profit margin. When something goes wrong, there is no money in the budget to correct the problem.

If you place significance on customer service, then the costs of a warranty will need to be included in your own local business model. This is contrary to business norms in the U.S., but “it is what it is”. The warranty from the OEM is usually worthless.

This leads the conversation to an important point in the business relationship. In the United States, if an OEM failed to deliver on an important commitment, you as the customer would have options. You might contact the Better Business Bureau, or failing that, you could sue the OEM. As a practical matter, none of these options exist in China.

   • It is worth noting that companies like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, companies
     with great resources, still choose to do only do business with China
     via a Taiwanese intermediary (FoxConn).

Conclusion

Using our example, the security camera, China so dominates the industry, that for the economy application, a choice will almost surely be an instrument from China. In many cases, there is not a reasonable alternative.

This can be frustrating if one does enter the business acknowledging the problems. Be prepared to solve those problems without support from the OEM.

But even after accounting for these issues, in a risk-rewards calculation, the China option is still often the logical conclusion.

References/Footnotes:

1 Asia-Pacific to Propel Growth in Global CCTV Market, RNCOS, May 29, 2009

2 Explaining China's Quality Control Problems, Paul Midler, U.S. News and World Report, April 23, 2009

Customs Requirements: Import Rules from U.S. Customs

About the Author:

Brian Bradshaw is the General Manager of B.V. Technology in Plano, Texas. B.V. Technology has imported electronics from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
BV4Tech.com

State of CAD and Engineering Workstation Technologies

2011-07-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

By TN Chan

Hardware for CPU-Intensive Applications

Computer hardware is designed to support software applications and it is a common but simplistic view that higher spec hardware will enable all software applications to perform better. Up until recently, the CPU was indeed the only device for computation of software applications. Other processors embedded in a PC or workstation were dedicated to their parent devices such as a graphics adapter card for display, a TCP-offloading card for network interfacing, and a RAID algorithm chip for hard disk redundancy or capacity extension. However, the CPU is no longer the only processor for software computation. We will explain this in the next section.

Legacy software applications still depend on the CPU to do computation. That is, the common view is valid for software applications that have not taken advantage of other types of processors for computation. We have done some benchmarking and believe that applications like Maya 03 are CPU intensive.

For CPU-intensive applications to perform faster, the general rule is to have the highest CPU frequency, more CPU cores, more main memory, and perhaps ECC memory (see below).

Legacy software was not designed to be parallel processed. Therefore we shall check carefully with the software vendor on this issue before expecting multiple-core CPUs to produce higher performance. Irrespectively, we will achieve a higher output from executing multiple incidences of the same application but this is not the same as multi-threading of a single application.

ECC is Error Code Detection and Correction. A memory module transmits in words of 64 bits. ECC memory modules have incorporated electronic circuits to detect a single bit error and correct it, but are not able to rectify two bits of error happening in the same word. Non-ECC memory modules do not check at all - the system continues to work unless a bit error violates pre-defined rules for processing. How often do single bit errors occur nowadays? How damaging would a single bit error be? Let us see this quotation from Wikipedia in May 2011, "Recent tests give widely varying error rates with over 7 orders of magnitude difference, ranging from 10−10−10−17 errors/bit-hour, roughly one bit error per hour per gigabyte of memory to one bit error per century per gigabyte of memory."

Hardware for GPU-Intensive Applications

The GPU has now been developed to gain the prefix of GP for General Purpose. To be exact, GPGPU stands for General Purpose computation on Graphics Processing Units. A GPU has many cores that can be used to accelerate a wide range of applications. According to GPGPU.org, which is a central resource of GPGPU news and information, developers who port their applications to GPU often achieve speedups of orders of magnitude compared to optimized CPU implementations.

Many software applications have been updated to capitalize on the newfound potentials of GPU. CATIA 03, Ensight 04 and Solidworks 02 are examples of such applications. As a result, these applications are far more sensitive to GPU resources than CPU. That is, to run such applications optimally, we should invest in GPU rather than CPU for a CEW. According to its own website, the new Abaqus product suite from SIMULIA - a Dassault Systemes brand - leverages GPU to run CAE simulations twice as fast as traditional CPU.

Nvidia has released 6 member cards of the new Quadro Fermi family by April 2011, in ascending sequence of power and cost: 400, 600, 2000, 4000, 5000 and 6000. According to Nvidia, Fermi delivers up to 6 times the performance in tessellation of the previous family called Quadro FX. We shall equip our CEW with Fermi to achieve optimum price/performance combinations.

The potential contribution of the GPU to performance depends on another issue: CUDA compliance.

State of CUDA

According to Wikipedia, CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia GPU accessible to software developers through variants of industry-standard programming languages. For example, programmers use C for CUDA (C with Nvidia extensions and certain restrictions) compiled through a PathScale Open64 C compiler to code algorithms for execution on the GPU. (The latest stable version is 3.2 released in September 2010 to software developers.)

The GPGPU website has a preview of an interview with John Humphrey of EM Photonics, a pioneer in GPU computing and developer of the CUDA-accelerated linear algebra library. Here is an extract of the preview: "CUDA allows for very direct expression of exactly how you want the GPU to perform a given unit of work. Ten years ago I was doing FPGA work, where the great promise was the automatic conversion of high level languages to hardware logic. Needless to say, the huge abstraction meant the result wasn't good."

Quadro Fermi family has implemented CUDA 2.1 whereas Quadro FX implemented CUDA 1.3. The newer version has provided features that are significantly richer. For example, Quadro FX did not support "floating point atomic additions on 32-bit words in shared memory" whereas Fermi does. Other notable improvements are:

Up to 512 CUDA cores and 3.0 billion transistors
Nvidia Parallel DataCache technology
Nvidia GigaThread engine
ECC memory support
Native support for Visual Studio

State of Computer Hardware Developments

Abbreviations

HDD is Hard Disk Drive
SATA is Serial AT Attachment
SAS is Serial Attached SCSI
SSD is Solid State Disk
RAID is Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
NAND is memory based on "Not AND" gate algorithm

Bulk storage is an essential part of a CEW for processing in real time and archiving for later retrieval. Hard disks with SATA interface are getting bigger in storage size and cheaper in hardware cost over time, but not getting faster in performance or smaller in physical size. To get faster and smaller, we have to select hard disks with SAS interfaces, with a major compromise on storage size and hardware price.

RAID has been around for decades for providing redundancy, expanding the size of volume to well beyond the confines of one physical hard disk, and expediting the speed of sequential reading and writing, in particular random writing. We can deploy SAS RAID to address the large storage size issue but the hardware price will go up further.

SSD has turned up recently as a bright star on the horizon. It has not replaced HDD because of its high price, limitations of NAND memory for longevity, and immaturity of controller technology. However, it has found a place recently as a RAID Cache for two important benefits not achievable with other means. The first is a higher speed of random read. The second is a low cost point when used in conjunction with SATA HDD.

Intel has released Sandy Bridge CPU and chipsets that are stable and bug free since March 2011. System computation performance is over 20% higher than the previous generation called Westmere. The top CPU model has 4 editions that are officially capable of over-clocking to over 4GHz as long as the CPU power consumption is within the designed limit for thermal consideration, called TDP (Thermal Design Power). The 6-core edition with official over-clocking will come out in June 2011 timeframe.

Current State & Foreseeable Future

Semiconductor manufacturing technology has improved to 22 x 10-9 metres this year 2011 and is heading towards 18 nanometres in 2012. Smaller means more: we will get more cores and more power from a new CPU or GPU made on advancing nanotechnology. The current laboratory probe limit is 10-18and this sets the headroom for semiconductor technologists.

While GPU and CUDA are having big impacts on performance computing, the dominant CPU manufacturers are not resting on their laurels. They have started to integrate their own GPU into the CPU. However, the level of integration is a far cry from the CUDA world and integrated GPU will not displace CUDA for design and engineering computing in the foreseeable future. This means our current practice as described above will remain the prevailing format for accelerating CAD, CAE and CEW.

General Abbreviations

CAD is Computer Aided Design
CAE is Computer Aided Engineering
CEW is Computer aided design and Engineering Workstation
CPU is Central Processing Unit
GPU is Graphics Processing Unit

About the Author
TN Chan is the system architect of Compucon New Zealand, http://www.compucon.co.nz. He is a Chartered Engineer and has 17 years of power station engineering experience and 18 years of computer system hardware experience. His current roles are business management, knowledge transfer, technology appraisal, quality assurance and project management. He can be reached at tn@compucon.co.nz.

Japan's Crisis and the Impact on the Technology Sector

2011-04-20T12:38:00.001-07:00

The crisis in Japan caused by the earthquake-tsunami, and the resulting problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are challenging a Japan, that until very recently, appeared on the brink of recovering from a 20 year recession.

The latest tragedy is now estimated to be the most costly natural disaster in history. The earthquake and tsunami concentrated most of the damage in the northern part of the country. The Japanese North is, in general, much less industrialized than Japan's Southern and Southwestern regions.

The problems with the nuclear power facility, at the Fukushima plant located about 100 miles northeast of Tokyo, have caused concerns with both radiation, and with electrical generation capacity, since the Fukushima facility was one of the most important electrical generating plants in Japan.

The damage to the country is severe, but Tokyo, in the Southeastern part of the island, itself suffered minimal direct damage from either the earthquake or resulting tsunami.

If the the nuclear contamination can be limited to only the immediate area around the Fukushima plant, and Japan can stabilize the electrical grid, then the international economic impact should be minimal. However, apparent containment breaches at multiple reactors indicate that a regional event is in progress.

The most likely outcome of the current issues would be a long-term contamination of the ground-water. A regional event that affected the Tokyo metropolitan area, home to 36 million people, and countless technology management and R&D operations, would be very significant.

A direct comparison with Chernobyl is not ideal since a chemical explosion at the Chernobyl plant caused a huge airborne emission of radioactivity (more than 400X more radiation than Hiroshima or Nagasaki) that affected large parts of Europe. The Fukushima crisis seems to be Chernobyl in slow motion. The degree of regional contamination from the Fukushima plant will not be accurately measured for some weeks or months.

An important component in the calculation is the difference between the Tokyo citizenry and population surrounding Chernobyl. Approximately 15% of the adult Ukrainian population have completed higher education. Tokyo has one of the most educated populace in the world.

Kiev is a comparable distance from the Chernobyl accident as Tokyo is from the current event. Kiev was never officially evacuated, though many women and children left voluntarily. Kiev is 110 miles (175 kilometers) South of Chernobyl. The Tokyo Center is 147 miles (238 kilometers) from Fukushima. Would Tokyo tolerate a similarly compromised environment?

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi Wireless Network Problems - 4 Diagnostic Strategies Toward Optimal Performance

2011-02-11T04:12:00.000-08:00

By Steve Leytus

Until recently there have been two primary techniques employed to troubleshoot Wi-Fi 802.11 wireless networks -- network discovery and RF spectrum analysis. Network discovery is also commonly referred to as network site survey or Wi-Fi scanning. Lately, two new WiFi diagnostic tools have been introduced that broaden the range of troubleshooting techniques -- 'Wi-Fi Channel Analysis' and 'Connection Analysis'. This article briefly describes 4 strategies for troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks, and mentions some of the 'pros' and 'cons' associated with each strategy.

Expensive RF analysis tools are available to measure a variety of parameters that only an RF engineer has a clue what they mean and the implications of their values. But when it comes to networks -- wired or wireless -- ultimately, what one should be most interested in is throughput performance. 802.11 (i.e. Wi-Fi) is a robust standard that includes a variety of protocols that help it communicate wirelessly with other devices. Unless one has intimate knowledge of the 802.11 standard and its inner workings, then it is not possible to predict how an 802.11 network will behave when you are armed solely with RF measurements. This is why it is important to focus on performance metrics -- since these more accurately predict how a wireless network will actually behave in a real-world environment.

What follows is a brief introduction to 4 troubleshooting techniques (network discovery, RF spectrum analysis, WiFi channel analysis, and WiFi connection analysis). We begin with a summary of the pros and cons of the different troubleshooting techniques, which should give you a high-level view of the direction in which the field of WiFi diagnostics is currently headed:

Summary:

1. Network Discovery:

Advantages:

Inexpensive

Disadvantages:

Of limited use since it only detects beacon packets transmitted by 802.11 access points. It does not "see" or measure RF energy transmitted by non-802.11 devices (which dominate the RF environment) or, even, actively transmitting 802.11 stations.

2. RF Spectrum Analysis:

Advantages:

Detects all RF transmissions within a frequency band.

Based on the transmission pattern you might be able to identify the source of the interference.

Disadvantages:

Expensive -- since it requires proprietary hardware.

When it detects RF interference in the 2.4x or 5.x GHz ISM bands, it can not predict how this will affect 802.11 devices or WiFi network performance -- since it knows nothing about the 802.11 standard nor how its underlying protocols work to mitigate potential sources of interference.

3. WiFi Channel Analysis:

Advantages:

Inexpensive -- uses off-the-shelf 802.11 devices.

Measures RF interference through the eyes of an 802.11 device -- hence, can better predict how an 802.11 Wi-Fi network will actually perform in the current environment.

Can quantify the expected performance for each Wi-Fi channel, thereby allowing you to choose the optimal channel.

Disadvantages:

Of limited use when attempting to identify the source of interference.

4. Connection Analysis:

Advantages:

Inexpensive -- uses off-the-shelf 802.11 devices or your built-in 802.11 adapters.

Measures throughput performance of your 802.11 devices when connected to a Wi-Fi network -- which is the ultimate metric when it comes to troubleshooting a network.

Disadvantages:

Of limited use when attempting to identify the source of interference.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Descriptions:

1. Network Discovery

An 802.11 network discovery tool will report the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for each access point (AP) it detects, along with the channel used by the AP. Approximately every 100 mSec an AP transmits a small beacon packet and a discovery tool (running on your laptop and using its 802.11 wireless adapter) detects the beacon and adds the packet information (including the AP's SSID) to its list of known access points. In addition, the discovery utility may report signal strength (in dBm units) of the beacon as detected by the client adapter. The beacon's signal strength is a reflection of how close the AP is to your current location. Though this is useful information, it does not tell you anything about non-802.11 devices or even how busy the access points are. That is, your laptop could be sitting next to a microwave oven and the discovery tool would be clueless as to its existence. The discovery tool only knows about beacon packets transmitted by 802.11 devices and can not see non-802.11 transmissions.

Network discovery tools use the 802.11 adapter built into your laptop or an external USB 802.11 adapter. Since they do not require additional proprietary hardware, then they are relatively inexpensive (even free).

AP Beacon Strength Is Not A Measure Of Performance

The signal strength reported by a network discovery tool is the signal strength of a beacon as measured by the 802.11 wireless adapter installed on your laptop or desktop machine. Each access point (AP) sends out a short pulse or beacon of information approximately every 100 mSec. It's equivalent to an 'I'm over here!' shout. It does not expect a response from the 802.11 client adapters that may hear it -- it's just a one-way shout. The signal strength that the network discovery tool reports is the signal strength of a beacon, and the signal strength of a beacon is a reflection of how close that AP is located to you. It is not a reflection of the performance or throughput you can expect by associating with that AP -- rather, it is an indication of the AP's physical location relative to you. If the AP with the strongest beacon has 24 client adapters associated with it that are actively transmitting and receiving information, and if you connect with that AP then you will be client number 25 and your network connection will seem slow. On the other hand, if you instead choose to associate with an AP whose beacon strength is weaker but which is not associated with other client adapters, then you will likely experience better performance. Furthermore, the AP with the strongest beacon signal may be using a channel that is subject to RF interference -- again, degrading its performance. When it comes to networking (both wired and wireless) what we care most about is performance. And the key to performance is 'throughput' (i.e. bytes-per-second). Though a beacon's signal strength can affect it's performance, what's more important is the number of client stations that are competing for the same AP and whether the channel currently used by the AP is subject to RF interference from other wireless devices in the vicinity.

2. RF Spectrum Analysis

An RF spectrum analyzer is the instrument of choice for detecting and identifying sources of RF interference. Spectrum analyzers are a basic tool used for observing radio frequency (RF) signals. Since they detect all RF transmissions (both 802.11 and non-802.11) then they provide a much better picture of the RF environment, which then helps you identify and, perhaps, locate devices that could be interfering with your Wi-Fi network. Typically an RF spectrum analyzer will employ a 2-dimensional display where the vertical axis (Y-axis) represents the strength of a signal and the horizontal axis (X-axis) represents the frequency of a signal. If the spectral trace of the interfering RF transmissions have previously been documented, then it might be possible to determine which type of device is causing the disturbance. As for tracking-down and attempting to locate an interferer, in practice this is more difficult than it might seem on the surface. Not only does it require the use of a directional antenna, but in an indoor environment with waves bouncing all over the place (off of objects and walls) then how do you discern from which direction the wave originated. In other words, when your directional antenna measures a signal from a wave you don't know whether that's the original wave or the result of a wave that has bounced off of an object or wall in the room.

3. WiFi Channel Analysis

Today, one of the hottest topics discussed by Wi-Fi infrastructure manufacturers is "using the infrastructure to troubleshoot the infrastructure". That is -- using 802.11 devices to troubleshoot an 802.11 network. Channel analysis is a new technique we have championed and pioneered. This type of tool uses 802.11 hardware to perform data acquisition -- hence, the results truly reflect how RF interference in the local environment affects throughput performance of 802.11 channels. This is not possible using an RF spectrum analyzer. By virtue of the fact an 802.11 channel analyzer views the RF world through the eyes of an 802.11 device, then the diagnostic information it provides more closely mirrors the performance you can expect from your own 802.11 client adapters. This makes it easier to troubleshoot and fix problems and allows you to make better-informed decisions regarding how best to configure your wireless network for optimal throughput performance.

4. Connection Analysis

Ultimately, the bottom line for any network (wired or wireless) comes down to throughput performance -- that is, how many bytes-per-sec can be transferred from one node on the network to another. The dBm and RSSI values that are often referred to in the context of wireless networks don't mean much if you can't somehow relate them to a performance metric. Before we can really begin to troubleshoot a wireless network we need a way to benchmark its performance, so as modifications are made we can determine whether or not they really make a difference in the network's performance. A connection analysis tool allows you to directly compare the performance and reliability of different combinations of 802.11 adapters and access points.

Steve Leytus is a senior software engineer and develops applications for NutsAboutNets.com. For more information about low cost, PC-based, WiFi diagnostic tools for installing, optimizing and trouble-shooting 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless networks please visit http://www.NutsAboutNets.com.

Netbook Computer: Hybrid of a Smart Phone and a Laptop Computer

2011-02-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

February 7, 2011

There is a huge market niche between mobile devices like the iPhone and laptop computers. More than any PC product in recent memory, the Netbook is a "game-changer", with its design to be highly portable and to take maximum advantage of the Internet.

The Netbook is trying to address two markets at once: low price and small size. Most netbook computers are selling for less than $400, less with an Internet Service contract, and are much smaller than the typical laptop. The timing is right for this product. Surveys find that the average teenager is already online an average of five hours a day.

“This is the true beginning of a new era,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia. “You will get computing devices of all shapes and sizes.”

The netbook era began in earnest last year with almost 12 million units sold. Now, almost every PC maker offers the tiny laptops. Current forecasts call for 25 million netbooks to be sold this year, in an otherwise depressed tech economy.

Apple's iPad Dominates Netbook Market

The global PC market saw an 8 percent drop in shipments in the first quarter of this year, caused primarily by poor desktop PC sales (iSuppli), but netbooks saw an increase in sales of about 10%.

Netbooks make compromises in order to stay inexpensive and small. This sometimes includes less RAM, no DVD or CDROM, and a smaller harddrive. The display is usually 7-8 inches with a vertical resolution of 600 pixels. The price can also be reduced further by using Linux instead of Windows XP. Vista is generally a very poor choice for most Netbooks; it needs too many resources, and results in a very slow response.

ABI Research predicts that approximately 140 million netbooks will be sold in 2013. In the Netbook market, price is extremely important. Since budget conventional laptop computers running Windows XP can be purchased for about $500, the netbook vendors have a great deal of pressure to be inexpensive. Smartphones will compete at the lower price points. And there undoubtedly will be much overlap between the platforms.

The computer industry is at an inflection point in a new generation change. Twenty per cent of new laptop buyers now choose a "netbook" class computer. Behind this trend, there are two driving forces:

First, the world economy is stagnant, so the price of anything, including computers, is more closely scrutinized by the consumer.

The second driving force is the availability of an alternative microprocessor (many), operating system (Linux), and software environment ("Cloud Computing").

There are several parts to this argument, and this is a case of the total impact being greater than the sum of the parts.

The Atom Generation

History will undoubtably call this development the "Atom Generation". Currently there are several significant competitors in the Netbook microprocessor market. Intel's Atom is selling very well in spite of the slowing economy.

The Atom CPU family has modern functions (i.e. EM64T, SSSE3) mated with older x86 architecture. Power management and price are emphasized, but at the expense of performance. The Atom was designed to compete with the new generation ARM microprocessors currently marketed by the likes of Texas Instruments and Freescale. But the Atom, with its x86 legacy, can make use of the latest Windows versions and benefit from broader software compatibilty than the ARM CPUs.

AMD’s has finally begun sampling to device makers the embedded G-Series processor which consumes less than 9W of power and includes dual 64-bit x86 CPU cores, an ATI Radeon GPU, system and DRAM controllers, PCI Express, and High Definition video interfaces into a package that occupies about half a square inch of PCB space.

VIA's new Nano CPU (x86) aims to take its share with a cost competitive, faster version of the Atom. Via upgraded their specifications at April's Embedded Systems Conference West. Via has modified the microcode of the Nano CPU, which boosted performance and lowered power consumption. The Nano is expected to announce several design wins by the end of the year. Already in the Via camp are Samsung, with its NC20 netbook, and Dell with a Nano based blade server.

"Intel's new Core processors and AMD's new Athlon processors are ramping, and at a time when, IDC believes, consumers and corporations will be anticipating a much healthier 2010 and looking for more value than just low price in their PCs. Intel's low-end Atom processor for netbooks represented 20 percent of the chipmaker's mobile PC processor mix in the first quarter, down from 24 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009." Shane Rau, IDC.

The latest player is Freescale (formerly Motorola). Freescale calls its microprocessor the i.MX515. The unit benchmarks at 2100 Dhrystone MIPS at speeds up to 1GHz. It also uses 1/3 the power and will sell for 1/3 the price of the Atom.

The i.MX515 is of the "ARM" class of microporcessors. An ARM netbook should have about an 8 hour battery life, as compared with two hours for an Atom netbook because the ARM chip has been designed from the beginning to be power efficient.

It is very likely that the cell phone you currently own has an ARM processor as its brain. The drawback behind the ARM processors is they are limited in application compatibility, for example, a computer using an ARM processor cannot run Excel. Warren East, CEO of ARM, estimates that ARM CPUs will be sold in six million netbooks in 2010, about 20% of total netbooks sales.

Intel architecture CPUs will hold about 95% of the netbook market in 2009 (over 22 million units), but ARM microprocessors should gradually overtake Intel over the next 3-4 years.

Intel will make an estimated 31 million netbook CPUs in 2010, while ARM designs will command about 8 million units. By 2012 Intel will ship about 43 million CPUs while ARM will make 53 million units, (ARM 55 percent, Intel 45 percent). (Robert Castellano, The Information Network (New Tripoli, Pennsylvania)).

Netbook vendors using ARM processors are marketing their products as "smartbooks". Microsoft does not plan a Windows version for ARM, since these CPUs do not comply with the x86 instruction set used by Intel and AMD. ARM machines will instead use Linux, Google's Android and other operating systems.

Microsoft does offer a version of Windows Mobile that is compatible with ARM, but does not plan to adapt that product for the netbook.

A system equipped with any of these microprocessors is very low power consuming (the idle current is less than 50 Watts), and is multimedia capable. All are compatible with advanced DDR2 RAM and supporting chipsets.

"We see a huge opportunity in the netbook market as consumers demand more cost-effective and higher performing solutions," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's Networking and Multimedia Group.

The Atom comes equipped with 56KB L1 cache and 512KB of L2 cache. The Nano has 128KB L1 cache and 1MB L2 cache. The Freescale microprocessor has 64 KB L1 cache and a 256 KB L2 cache. Benchmark tests show that an Atom PC is nearly comparable to a Celeron PC, but the Nano is faster than the Atom on most benchmark tests. Be sure to check the model of CPU when comparing these units. For example, the VIA microprocessor benchmark tests were performed with top-of-the-line units (1.8 GHz), buts some vendors like Samsung are using a lower performing module (1.3 GHz).

A system equipped with one of these microprocessors is capable of SDTV video replay. This is important, because the price difference between a portable DVD player and a netbook continues to shrink. Via has claimed in marketing releases that it is capable of HDTV (even 1080p) playback, but independent tests have disputed this claim.

Intel's next generation Atom class microprocessor is almost ready. The product, code-named "Moorestown," marries the low-power Atom processor with a graphics processor and a memory controller. This should enable Intel to compete well in consumer electronics and wireless gadgets like genius-class cell phones. Moorestown will offer similar performance to the current Atom, but with a 50x reduction in idle power, and a 3x reduction in power when processing High-Def video.

According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, "The market is coming to us more than we are chasing after the market". Marrying computing power to the mobile world is a lot easier than utilizing a chip designed for mobility and adding the ability to handle computing applications. "All consumer electronics, and I mean all, are aimed at bringing the Internet into devices".

Intel has been worried that the netbook market would cannibalize the conventional laptop market, but Intel's latest estimates conclude that only about 20% of netbook sales, would have been laptop sales, had the netbook never existed.

Netbook Operating System

Ubuntu is a powerful, user-friendly operating system based on Linux. Linux operating systems were only for the masochistic a few years ago. Now, Ubuntu is an elegant solution for laptops computers. It contains all the applications you want including a web browser, and it includes open-source presentation, document and spreadsheet software. The best thing about Ubuntu is that it is free.

Dell Computers estimates that one-third of its Inspiron Mini 9 systems are shipped with Linux instead of a Microsoft operating system.

Moblin is an Intel's version of an open-source operating system (OS) for netbooks. Moblin is designed specifically for the Intel Atom CPU (x86), that currently has the lion's share of the netbook market. Moblin is a Linux OS, but with significant enhancements to the user interface. It is also free.

A hybrid of Moblin and Nokia's OS, Maemo, will be called "MeeGo". MeeGo is expected to make its commercial introduction in time for the 2010 Christmas shopping season. MeeGo is designed for both Intel's Atom and ARM microprocessors.

Google is also a player in the netbook OS market with a product called "Android". Android is designed for use either with smartphones or "mobile internet devices" (MID). Acer computers (Taiwan) has announced plans to market a line of Android netbooks later this year.

"The Android operating system offers incredibly fast wireless connection to the Internet,” said Jim Wong, Acer, President of information technology global operations. Acer has demonstrated that the Android netbook has a very fast boot-up time (~18 seconds) and a less than 1 second shutdown.

Microsoft's strategy for netbooks is to market a crippled version of Windows 7, and then encourage the purchase of optional features. Microsoft will sell several editions of Windows 7 for netbooks. Microsoft had originally planned to limit the most basic Windows 7 version, called "Starter Edition", to only run three programs at a time, but they backed down from that position due to complaints from the market.

But Windows 7 Starter Edition will not allow use of more than one monitor, support Windows Media Center for the watching of recorded TV, or contain a number of other features. Microsoft points out that its more advanced Windows 7 versions will also work on netbooks, but for a premium price.

Microsoft has banned netbook OEMs from utilizing hybrid storage solutions (both SSD and HDDs) with Windows XP. This restriction will join the already enforced rule which limits netbook manufacturers to a maximum of 1GB RAM with Windows XP.

The netbook is a problem for Microsoft. Currently, if a netbook uses a Microsoft operating system, it is XP (not Vista), and Microsoft's profit margin is much thinner for XP. More troublesome, many netbooks use Linux or Google's Android, completely bypassing Microsoft. Microsoft recently announced the first sales decline ever for Windows. Microsoft blamed netbooks for the historic drop.

Netbook Software Environment

In the United States and many parts of the world, it is becoming increasingly possible to assume a broadband Internet connection. This is more of a challenge for netbooks since they are portable. Tethering (using a cellphone as an internet modem) will play an important role.

WiMax and LTE, next generation broadband wireless services, will be implemented in large cities in the U.S. over the next two years. These technologies will fill the gaps of internet access. WiMax requires a new network to be built whereas LTE is an evolution of existing WCDMA/HSPA networks. The upgrade to LTE makes it a natural choice for many telecom carriers.

Verizon will launch LTE in two cities before the end of this year, and in as many as 30 metropolitan areas in 2010. LTE can provide a maximum speed of a 80 Mbps, about 25 times faster than the current networks. Verizon will use the 700MHz frequency band that was previously used to broadcast TV.

The reliance on Internet services to provide technologies that have been conventionally thought of as on-board, is sometimes called "Cloud Computing" or "Software as a Service" (SaaS). Examples of Cloud Computing services include Salesforce.com, NetSuite.com and Google Apps. These business applications are accessed online while the software and data are stored on the servers. Some of the services are free, while the others are on a pay by use structure.

SaaS is consistent with current trends of centralized databases and mobile devices like netbook computers. The use of this software environment enables the user to minimize the cost of capital expenditures for hardware and software. For example, graphics applications can require significant hardware and software resources. If these applications are accessed via the Internet, those resources can be provided by the on-line application.

SalesForce.com has both a paid service, and a reduced-feature version that is free, called "Mobile Lite". SalesForce.com estimates that it may add 1 million new customers with the Mobile Lite version, and that many will choose to upgrade to the full featured paid version.

Microsoft has entered the SaaS arena with free Web-based versions of its Office suite, including a Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Microsoft will make money by including commercials.

For the business customer, Microsoft will host an Internet business version of Office, charging companies for a small fee.

Ericsson has engineered the ability to remotely prevent use of a Netbook when it is equipped with one of Ericsson's latest generation of modems. Ericsson calls this function a "kill pill". The technology can also be used to secure corporate data if the netbook is stolen.

The kill pill becomes more relevant as telecom companies are subsidizing the purchase of netbooks, in return for a monthly Internet access fee (for example AT&T-RadioShack is selling an Acer netbook for $99, but a 2 year contract at $60/month for wireless access is required).

"Pixel Qi" adds Kindle-Like Features to Netbooks

The netbook market is about to swallow the E-Reader market (Kindle). A startup called Pixel Qi has introduced a display that should allow a netbook to include the needed features.

A netbook that is capable of E-Reader function is a natural. E-Readers are priced at levels comparable to a netbook. Products from Sony and Amazon range between $299 and $359, and the upscale Kindle DX retails for $489. Add the ability to surf the Internet, watch movies, and answer Email, and the potential for a hybrid device is obvious.

The screens should be available on netbooks by the end of this year. The new netbooks will be designed to include e-reader functions that will probably include a display that can swivel to cover the keyboard. said John Ryan, chief operating officer at Pixel Qi.

The first Pixel Qi product, called 3qi, is a 10.1-inch netbook screen designed to work in three modes: a black-and-white mode for reading text and e-books, and 2 color modes, designed for use indoors or in bright sunlight. This just squeezes under Microsoft’s threshold of a 10.2 inch screen in order to quality for a cheap OEM licence for the Windows 7 Starter edition.

Microsoft's pricing scheme of Windows 7 is unusual. Windows 7 will cost $75 for large screen laptops, but $25 for a screen less than 10.2 inches. It is the same software.

To utilize the netbook as a "Kindle", netbook users will need e-reader software, which is available from several companies, including Adobe Digital Editions, and Microsoft Reader.

Power consumption is another issue Pixel Qi tackled in its 3qi screens. They have addressed the problem with innovative design. E-ink mode extends battery life by shutting off the backlight, and is intended for reading e-books, documents, Web sites or blogs and other text-based material. "What you're looking at is a screen that's entirely reflective," said Ryan, at Pixel Qi's temporary office in Taipei. "It's just running like e-paper so that it's running on the ambient light. It's not fighting the office light , it's not fighting the sunlight. That makes it better for reading but it also cuts the power consumption. The backlight in the screen is typically the largest power drain in any notebook computer."

The screens may cost a slightly more than a conventional LCD screens at first, but the costs will go down as production volume picks up. Pixel Qi designs are based on TFT-LCD (thin-film-transistor liquid crystal display) technology, which is the most common technology and production line process. This should simplify manufacturing.

The Year of the Netbook

"This is going to be a polarizing year," says Francis Sideco, senior wireless analyst with research firm iSuppli. "You are going to see all the partnerships lining up. If Intel had come in a year later, I might have said the ARM world had it all wrapped up. But this is Intel. They are still the biggest semiconductor maker on the planet, and you can't put anything past that R&D machine they have over there."

2009 will be the year when:

a netbook market leader emerges,

Ubuntu (Linux) becomes mainstream, and

the Cloud Computing concept is tested by the marketplace.

The implications are enormous. The leading platform from the netbook battle will have the advantage when similar questions are asked at the next generation of smartphone, what is being called the "genius-phone".

The lines continue to blur between notebook computers, netbook computers, and smart phones. A smart phone today has much in common with a notebook computer from 6-8 years ago. Netbook computers currently fill a market niche between notebooks and smart phones. Notebook OEMs are squeezing the niche from the other side.

Sony recently introduced a notebook computer that is similar in weight to a netbook. Weighing in at a lithe 1.6 pounds (including battery), the Vaio X is only a half an inch thick. The system includes built-in 3G mobile broadband and a solid-state drive. The notebook will utilize Windows 7 Pro with prices starting at $1,300. Sony uses a two-GHz Intel microprocessor for the CPU.

In the market space between smartphone and netbook, Qualcomm has introduced what they call a "smartbook", which runs on their ARM processor ("snapdragon"). The device, manufactured by Lenovo, boasts that it is the first system fully flash compliant, making on-line video more accessible. The device size is slightly larger than most smartphones, and includes a full keyboard. Qualcomm believes that by 2014, the amount of monthly mobile data traffic will exceed the total amount of data traffic in all of 2008, and that by 2011, smartphone unit sales will exceed all computer unit sales.

The categorization of systems into one group or the other will continue to become more difficult. Vendors already have incentive to avoid the "netbook" label, as consumers are assuming netbook equals cheap.

Flat-Rate Prices for Technical Contracts

2011-02-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

The latest trend in IT consulting work is flat-rate pricing. Under this scheme, the customer pays a fixed fee for work. A fixed portion of this fee is passed on to the contractor.

Flat rates are easier for the coordinating company, especially if the service is originated at a retailer, but can have negative implications for the contractor. When conditions are consistent, the flat rates have fewer problems. If, for example, every customer needed a service that required a similar amount of time, and a similar amount of travel expense, then a flat rate would be more logical.

To exacerbate the problem, some of the contracts include up to two visits. The logic is that one visit may be needed to determine a part requirement, and a second visit for installing the part. If the contractor works in a rural environment, travel expense can be important. If the customer is a hundred mile trip one-way, there is a potential for 400 miles of travel. This effectively discourages a contractor from accepting work orders from outside of a very conservative radius.

"When it comes to acquisition, government makes the rules. And, in a tough economy, contractors are more willing to adjust to those rules."

"True, firm-fixed-price contracts will result in a lower bid, particularly in today’s economy; but does this really result in better performance or better quality?" Mike Sullivan, Acquistion Solutions Inc., FederalTimes.com, June 22, 2009.

In a performance-based contracting environment, the business model must encourage the development of the incentive relationship. Incentives can define how the contractor will be rewarded for performance above the minimum quality levels. Disincentives define how the contractor will be penalized for performance below the minimum performance quality levels.

Incentive fees contingent upon the contractor meeting desired metrics can include the contractor sharing in the savings due to ingenuity or innovation, or reward the contractor for finishing a project early. Incentives should be in place to reward the contractor for the desired attributes of the contractor's role.

Quality assurance (QA) is critical to the successful management of incentive based contracts. When properly executed, QA can provide early warning of problems in the process.

Flat rate contracts distort the work environment. A contractor will often interact with a remote company, for example, to qualify communications. When working under flat rates, the remote company has little motivation to ensure that an efficient process is managed. If the contractor must wait on his phone for extended periods, why should the company care?

Under these conditions, contractors are encouraged to compromise the quantity of services delivered. A conscientious contractor will normally want to not only fix the primary problem, but do a quick overview of the system maintenance. With flat rates, this is discouraged. This results in mediocre service. If a top of the line TV would sell for the same price as a low quality TV, for how long would companies make high quality TVs?

A useful analogy would be a comparison to the gasoline price controls introduced during the Nixon administration. During the 1979 energy crisis (see photo), price controls resulted in a shortage of product. The artificially distorted market brought about lines at gas pumps and a shortage of gasoline. Hawaii tried a similar strategy in 2005-2006, with disastrous results. The same forces are at play with IT services.

Remote Computer Support - Must Know Facts

2011-02-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

By JD Chang

Remote computer support is needed if you're unable to get local computer help, you want someone to fix your laptop problem quickly, or you don't have money to afford on site repair or home technicians.

In this article, I'll address:

-What is remote repair?
-How do I find the best remote support technicians?
-How can I leverage free remote help options?

What is remote computer support?
This basically happens via the internet - thus you must have a computer internet connection, preferably broadband, cable, ISDN, etc.

Remote computer help requires teleconferencing a technician to take over your computer and fix problems as if they were sitting in front of your laptop or desktop.

At the same time, support personnel will be talking to you on the phone or via VOIP for you to describe the problems and help aid in the solution.

Remote laptop and desktop help works best for software issues - hardware is very hard to solve over the phone or internet.

How do I find the best remote laptop support technicians?
Start with Google Search. Look for the following keywords:

-remote laptop repair
-distance desktop inspection
-online PC installation
-best PC technicians
-remote PC technicians
-internet laptop repair

That's just a start. When finding remote diagnostic options, you need to consider price, availability, expertise, and references.

Don't be scammed - often online inspection personnel will take over your computer and steal personal information such as credit cards, insurance, passwords, etc.

Whether laptop or desktop, PC or mac, best Anti-virus or no Anti-virus, they can still do this.

How can I leverage free remote support options?

#1 is to ask friends and family. They are more trustworthy, and the computer help is usually free.

#2 is to ask desktop forums specific questions. They will tell you how to solve your software problems, without needing to remotely take control of your PC.

#3 is to find free electronics forums - there are plenty of these through Google and Yahoo! search. Setup a Skype account, and a video teleconferencing account, and you can get started on free repair support!

Anything else I need to know about distance desktop repair?

There are many options - from online assistance over phone, to support by videoconferencing, to support by technicians taking control of your desktop through a remote portal.

Consider variables mentioned earlier - price, reliability, and availability. With all computer problems, you want them fixed fast! It's frustrating dealing with very slow computers and not knowing how to troubleshoot computers when needed.

Finally, think about local repair centers. These are not much more expensive and can be much more reliable. These local shops and support stores are brick-and-mortar, so you worry less about scams.

It's just another option if you're not 100% sure of remote computer support.

Hope that helps, best of luck in solving all of your hardware and software problems.

JD Chang is an expert computer technician specializing in PC repair. Click here to solve your PC support problems. Learn about remote computer support now and save $1000s in the next 10 minutes!

Find Legitimate Free Antivirus Software

2010-08-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

By S. Michele Wallace

Computers are an essential part of many people's day to day lives. Contracting a computer virus can cripple your ability to communicate with others or earn a living. Luckily many sources are available to find free antivirus software that will allow you to protect your investment.

Sources for finding free antivirus software online are plentiful. Here are some suggestions for the best free software to prevent computer viruses.

Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes are two very popular antivirus programs which are available for free download. They are targeted towards spyware and Trojans. These types of programs are less visible to the naked eye than some viruses. They can be downloaded without your knowledge and hidden on your computer.

Another great option for antivirus software is Avast. Avast is geared more towards traditional viruses and operates through a search and destroy type method of virus hunting. A product like Avast can work well in tandem with software like Spybot and Malwarebytes. Installing both types of programs can provide extra protection for your computer. Searching for all types of damaging programs increases your protection.

If you're unsure about downloading software and consider yourself a very basic computer user, Microsft Security Essentials can be a great option. It is a brand new product from Microsoft that combines spyware and antivirus protection. The program is free for home and home business users of Windows XP and beyond. It runs itself and does a good job without much interaction.

If you're a more tech savvy user, a product like Comodo Antivirus can be very effective. This program is very vocal, and pops up a lot of messages for permissions when you're using your computer. If you're using Windows Vista you have probably noticed the numerous permissions pop ups. If you dislike them or are annoyed by them, this probably isn't the best antivirus software for you.

Finding legitimate sources for free antivirus software can be a challenge. It is important to make sure you are downloading a reputable, trustworthy program. Rogue anti-virus software usually appears as a fake Windows warning on your computer. It will tell you about the dozens or hundreds of viruses it's detected, and ask you to purchase the full version of the antivirus software.

In reality, if you click to purchase, you will be downloading what is also known as scareware or malware. It's a program specifically designed to damage or disrupt your computer system. In addition, they are trying to take your money through an unsecure credit card purchase. The best way to avoid downloading rogue anti-virus software is to know which antivirus software you installed, and avoid purchasing or clicking on any notifications that are not from that software.

What should you do if you ever get a pop up or notification that looks legitimate but does not look like the antivirus software you use? Immediately scan your computer using your legitimate antivirus software. It's important to know which programs you've installed on your computer since people who make viruses and rogue software are very good at making them look legitimate.

What if you suspect that your computer has already contracted a virus? You can download the free versions of Spybot Search and Destroy, Malwarebytes or Spyware Doctor and run them. They will not interfere with your current or previously installed antivirus programs.

Super Antispyware is a good program to download if you suspect you already have a virus. It can be more effective at evading detection by spyware that is already on your machine. If you run a spyware scan and your computer locks up, shuts down, or the program closes, it is a good idea to seek immediate technical support.

If you're unsure which free antivirus software to choose, message boards, forums and reviews are a great source. Find people who use their computer similarly to how you do, and see what they've found to work best. That way you can get good information and start protecting your computer immediately.

Learn more about computer antivirus programs at Buzz on IT. Buzz on IT provides information based on more than 20 years of experience and a dedication to educating people on the dangers of computer viruses and how to avoid them.

IPv6 Tutorial

2010-07-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

By Bryan Waters

IPv6 is an ever-emerging star of the Internet. Several years ago, when the protocol started to be drafted, it immediately entered under every spotlight available in IT. Back then, the perspective of not having any more IPv4 addresses to assign seemed horrifying: nobody was ready for it, and there were quite a few people who expected the Internet to be dead and buried in a few months.

The fears seemed to be premature back then. Indeed, five years after news of IPv6 started grabbing the headlines, the perspective of IPv4 depletion is still at least five years away. This does serve IANA's purposes: the migration is slow and gradual.

But most important, the migration is not determined only by the depletion problem. IPv6 offers several advantages of its own, besides the much larger address space, which ensures that IPv6 addresses will certainly not be depleted anywhere in the following decades.

What are these advantages? The IPv6 protocol includes many innovations, along with some features that are present in IPv4, but were developed after the IPv4 protocol itself. The most important of these are link-local addresses, jumbograms, link-layer level error checking, as well as native support for multicasting and network-layer security.

Link-local addresses are also present in IPv4. These are special addresses used in addition to global addresses, which applications can use. Link-local addresses are always present and never change, greatly simplifying the configuration and routing protocols.

Jumbograms are very large packets, potentially much larger than the IPv4-standard 64 kB packets. In a network, the data stream is not continuous, but discrete, carried using so-called packets, standard-sized pieces of information, which include not only the information itself, but also other details used for routing, error checking and so on. When IPv4 was designed, 64 kB packets were practical enough. Today, however, something as simple as a photograph requires hundreds of packets, each containing more than just the information. Thus, some traffic is, essentially, "wasted". Jumbograms come to alleviate this: since several hundreds of KiB (or even more - up to 4 GB) can be packed into a single packet, the transfer of large files requires fewer packets, and hence less traffic used for something else than information. Furthermore, jumbograms can considerably simplify the design of protocols and low-level applications.

Unlike IPv4, IPv6 does not rely on network-level checksum fields to ensure that information is correctly transmitted. When IPv4 was designed, the network infrastructure was less reliable than today, meaning that errors were often occurring during transmission. It is thought that errors are much less common today, and thus, it makes sense to transfer error-checking to transport layers (protocols like TCP or UDP). As a consequence, IPv6 is quite easier to implement - an important advantage in the development of embedded systems, like network-enabled house appliances.

Finally, IPv6 has native support for IPsec, a network-layer encryption and authentication protocol. Unlike IPv4, IPv6 requires that this protocol is implemented.

IPv6 under Windows

Configuring Windows for IPv6 support is not very difficult. In fact, if you have Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you need not do anything - IPv6 is already there and enabled. Due to IPv6's support for link-local addresses and DHCP, chances are you do not even need to go through any additional configuration tasks.

If you are using Windows XP, you will have to install the IPv6 protocol first. To do so, open the Command Prompt (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt) and type:

C:>netsh interface ipv6 install

To make sure that the installation has been successful, run ipconfig. The output should include a list of IPv6 addresses, along with some other IPv6 and IPv4-related output. It may look quite similar to this:

c:>ipconfig

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : iptest.example.com

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:db8:8311:f282:2461:6134:a4a7:faa7

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:db8:8311:f282:a451:f134:64a1:b944

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:db8:8311:f282:651:f5ff:ab05:ac75

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0::f282:200:ab8a:ab3e:fc61%1

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::200:ab8a:ab3e:fc61%4

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254

fe80::210:ffff:fed6:61c0%4

In most IPv6 networks, it is highly unlikely that you will need to change the IPv6 address. However, if you need to, you can do so by running the following command in the Command Prompt:

c:>netsh interface ipv6 add (address)

replacing (address) with the IPv6 you want to use.

IPv6 under Linux

Most Linux distributions come with an IPv6-ready kernel and userpace toolset. If you are using an older distribution, or if you have compiled the kernel manually, you may want to check that IPv6 support is available. If it does, your /proc filesystem will include the file /proc/net/if_inet6. If it is not, it means you need to load the IPv6 module, or, if it is not available, to recompile the kernel.

Loading the IPv6 modprobe is done by running modprobe:

$ modprobe ipv6

The module will be loaded if it exists. If not, you will have to recompile the kernel, or at least update it. Generally, updating the kernel is the easiest solution if your distribution allows you to. You will hardly find a single Linux distribution not supporting IPv6 by default. Otherwise, you will have to recompile your kernel for IP support. The list of options should include packet socket, Unix domain sockets, kernel/user netlink socket, routing messages, tcp/ip networking, the ipv6 protocol (compiled as a module if you want) and /proc filesystem support.

After enabling IPv6 support by loading the IPv6 module (if you have compiled IPv6 directly into the kernel, then you need not load the module - IPv6 support is already there), you can test your configuration by running ifconfig. The output should include lines like the following:

$ ifconfig

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1C:42:D9:33:65

(some output omitted)

inet6 addr: 2001:a50:3450:1:20A:cbff:facf:9d0a/64 Scope:Global

inet6 addr: fe80::108:c75f:fedf:9d0a/64 Scope:Link

(some output omitted)

The lines that start with inet6 are the ones important.

Should you enable IPv6?

If you use IPv6 in a network, the answer is yes, definitely. IPv6 greatly simplifies network configuration - since it is so easy to assign dynamic addresses and since many of the IPv4-related hassles are gone, you hardly ever need to touch your TCP/IP configuration with IPv6.

However, if you do not use it at all, disabling it may slightly improve your network performances. Nevertheless, chances are you do not need to do it. Keeping it is a better bet.

Bryan Waters has been developing software for over two decades and has written numerous technical articles on all aspects of the software industry as well as several books that are currently available on Amazon.com covering topics such as Windows software development, PHP and web services. He currently blogs his opinions and thoughts on technology at http://abwaters.com/.

Who is Craig's List?

2010-06-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

Craigs List (craigslist.com) is now a major power in on-line marketing. Some of the company's biography is well known. Craig Newmark started Craigs List in 1995 as an email distribution list of San Francisco area friends. The growth has been astonishingly rapid. From an initial base of 10 cities in the year 2000, today, the entire country is serviced, and internationally, more than 50 countries are listed.

Craigs List only employs about 30 people. Though most of its advertisements are free, it does charge for employment ads in some geographic areas, for example, $75 for an ad in San Francisco, and $25 per ad in 9 other cities.

About 30 percent of Craig's List total revenues are derived from "Sex Advertisements" (Huffington Post, June 28, 2010). Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has asked Craigs List to stop (unwittingly) enabling child prostitution through its classified ads. Visitors to the Craigslist adult services section "will see what clearly are children up for sale," said Malika Saar, the executive director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights. Pedophilia has become an inseparable facet of the Craig's List self-identity.

Craigs List has become very popular with shoppers and browsers. The website receives about twenty billion page views per month (37th place overall among web sites worldwide and seventh most popular English-language website in the world (Alexa.com)). With over eighty million new classified advertisements each month, Craigs List is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over two million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements to personal ads and adult services (previously erotic services).

Craig Newmark's father was a New Jersey insurance executive, and he grew up a self admitted social outcast ("I had some developmental issues. Being a nerd, I had some problems getting along with other kids”). After a 17 year stint at IBM, where he was mistreated by managers (according to Anthony Batt, Craig's close friend), Craig migrated to San Francisco to work for the Charles Schwab brokerage.

Craig's List' tendency toward anti-social behavior, the encouragement of pedophilia and sexual deviancy, the lackluster management of fraudulent operations, etc., all may have their root in Mr. Newmark's own deviancy.

"He put my picture on Craigslist, and I was sold for sex by the hour at truck stops and cheap motels, 10 hours with 10 different men every night. This became my life. Men answered the Craigslist ads and paid to rape me."

The newspaper industry has also been a victim of the Craigs List business success. Newspapers are dependent for as much as 50% of total advertising revenue from their classified advertising, and Craigslist has had a significant impact in their ability to market their product. A Study in Northern California showed that local newspapers were losing as much as $50 million a year in revenue to Craigslist.

The Craigs List website is notable for having undergone only minor design changes in the last 15 years. Even by 1996 standards, the site is very primitive. Craigs List uses only minimal CSS and JavaScript, a design philosophy once common 15-20 years prior, but highly unusual today. The security system Craig's List employs is a hodgepodge of independent monitoring modules which can often interact with unintended effects.

Recently, several states have sued Craig's List in an effort to encourage the operation to become more responsible, especially in the area of commercial pedophilia. Craig's List has responded by replacing the Professional Sex link with the word "Censored". It would seem that management of Craig's List is offended by the government's coercion.

Craig's List benefits by it location. Craigslist headquarters is in the Sunset District of San Francisco, not far from Golden Gate Park. The extremely permissive attitude of the San Fransisco community, in which almost anything sexual, including pedophilia, sodomy, etc. is tolerated.

Who is Zip Express?

2010-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Zip Express (ZEI, www.zipexpressinstallation.com) was originally known as "OnCall Installs". The company began operations in June 2007, and changed their name in June 2008. The company provides services for computers and consumer electronics, and does about a third of their service calls "next day".

ZEI is focused on providing field services for retailers, and currently has service agreements with Target, Circuit City, Office Depot, Amazon.com, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and TigerDirect.com. In that role, they compete head-to-head with Geek Squad from Best Buy. With the industry consolidation, there has been a vacuum created, and ZEI is competing to fill that void.

The president of ZEI is Chris Mauzy, whose resume includes work as the Director of Installation Services at Ultimate Electronics, and as the Director of Business Development at Best Buy.

With the closing of CompUSA and Circuit City, there are opportunities for companies like ZEI. Circuit City Stores Inc. plans to sell its brand, trademarks and e-commerce business to Systemax Inc., the same company that purchased CompUSA's intellectual property when it closed in 2008. While the brick and mortar stores are closed, these companies will continue as a web-only entity, but this is in name only. The original organizations are gone.

"Zip Express also provides attractive margins for retailers by offering additional sales revenue on top of the product at checkout." ZEI Press Release (6/4/2008)

ZEI differentiates itself from their competitors with the way it markets it's product. For example, Geek Services companies typically charge by the hour. ZEI instead will charge X dollars per service (for example, $129 for a computer monitor installation). It is easier for retailers to accomodate the Zip Express model. (see Amazon reviews)

Zip Express now often supplements their own contractor group with technicians from OnForce. ServiceMagic, a division of IAC (NSDQ: IACI), is an investor in Zip Express.

Mailing Address:

Zip Express
3033 Excelsior Blvd; Suite 470
Minneapolis, MN 55416

China and the West During the Nanjing Decade

2010-04-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

By Luthor Laine

The period between 1927 and 1949 saw the process of decolonization in China, a process which had eventually reached its conclusion in 1998. China experienced, during this time, a long and arduous period of modernization. In reference to the causes of the suffering experienced during this transformation in China, MacKerras argued that "The history of modern China shows ample shame and humiliation at the hands of foreign imperialism. Yet the causes of China's problems were essentially internal". This is a questionable statement. There is no denying that China has, during the early half of the 20th century, faced much internal strife and adversity. But to put the blame of China's problems to only the internal social structure during this time might lack depth in helping us to understand the root cause of China's difficulty with modernization - that of European colonialism, or more specifically, Westernization.

China's problems during the era of revolution, while for the most part detached from foreign influence, would not have occurred were it not for the foreign activity that was occurring in China since several decades earlier, during the Nanjing Decade, and prior to the establishment of the CCP government in 1949. One could be inclined to agree, after reading historical facts between 1927 and 1949, that the idea of wayward foreigners managing to cause such chaos in China's social structure bears insignificance, using reasoning based on the scarcity of foreign influence in China, and the lack of important or historical events that involved foreigners. The impact of the West during such a time, one may think, seems like it has been blown out of proportion by some Western historians.

Moreover, it can also be argued easily that foreigners did not play such a critical role in the involvement of China's affairs since 1927 because of the presence of Chiang Kai Shek's nationalist Guomindang government and its lack of interest in foreign affairs (Chiang himself was popularly considered an "anti-colonial hero" in China.) Vervoorn makes a double-edged argument by introducing us to the study of Asian Societies with the following statement: It is tempting, especially for Westerners, to assume that contemporary Asian societies can be understood without a knowledge of their social, economic and political traditions. 'Modern' or 'contemporary' Asia, it is sometimes asserted, begins with Western influences anyway, and one needs to know no more about local traditions than that they are an obstacle to progress, that is, to Westernization. Were this true, it would be gratifying for those Westerners who like to see themselves as the vanguard of civilization, and make international understanding much easier (we could no longer call it cross-cultural understanding)...however, nothing could be further from the truth. Vervoorn is non-committal about this argument by further stating that:"Theories, methods of interpretation, strategies for understanding, and philosophical approaches... date as facts do, but if they are worth anything they will now greater resistance to historical wear and tear."

It is indisputable that China experienced many problems during the first half of the 20th century, both from external and internal sources. China, despite boasting a civilization spanning about 5,000 years, struggled to modernize. The process of modernization in China was a long and painful one, involving many wars, uprisings, rebellions and revolution. MacKerras tells us that: The first half of the twentieth century... was a period when modernization became accepted as an ideal by governments... It saw great reforms at least attempted, albeit haltingly, in several major fields... Above all this period saw the continuation and climax of a revolutionary process that had begun in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is in my view that while it is true that the Chinese faced much adversary and struggle internally from during the rule of the Kuomintang, the root cause of the painful process of modernization was actually instigated by the West.

It is a popular argument among scholars that China has been the main victim of Western Imperialism. MacKerras tells us that in China, during the period from 1900 to 1949, we "saw the first serious flowering of the forces we associate with modernity". As it is held that modernization is directly related to Westernization, we can apply this idea to the situation in question: According to Vervoorn, it is widely held that "'Modern' or 'contemporary' Asia... begins with Western influences". Vervoorn backs up the idea of modernization equating to westernization by further stating that "some see [the globalization process] positively and describe it in terms such as development, modernization, progress. Others see it negatively and use the words such as Westernization, imperialism, neocolonialism".

Knight has also argued that most of Asia (especially China, in this case), has been, and is still "strongly influenced in numerous ways... by forces outside the region". Knight also asserts in his book Understanding Australia's Neighbours that China was "heavily influenced by the activities of the colonial powers", and in a later chapter reinforces that idea by mentioning that "no region can remain immune from international forces". The level of impact the West has made has justified the extent to which such an idea has been mentioned. Knight describes the impact by making the following statement: "European colonialism from the sixteenth century, while sporadic and uneven in effect, cumulatively exerted a profound impact on the region... European imports [such as nationalism and the concept of the nation-state] had a dramatic influence on the countless millions of people who lived in East and Southeast Asia".

Knight wrote that "some historians have argued that it is incorrect to interpret the history of East and Southeast Asia, from 1498 to the mid 1950's, as nothing more than the history of European colonialism, with the history of East and Southeast Asia limited to a response to this external influence". These scholars may be correct in their interpretation of modern history in Asia, as Knight presents a plethora of evidence to suggest so. Knight also makes a compelling argument by mentioning to us that we shouldn't view the impact of the West as having either too adverse or too little adverse effect on Asia countries (such as China): "The... history of East and Southeast Asia cannot... be adequately understood without some comprehension of the history of colonialism and the response of many Asian people to the disruption, oppression and exploitation which colonialism brought. By the same token, the history of East and Southeast Asia, from 1498 to 1955 should not be read just as the history of the impact of European colonialism and the Asian response that this engendered." Therefore, while it is evident that the West has made a profound impact on China in modern times, we can also agree that during the reign of Chiang Kai Shek and the National Government from 1928 to 1949, China's problems were essentially of an internal nature.

During China's process of transformation - which of itself was instigated by Western ideologies of modernization, as we have thus far argued, the country had, as expected, experienced several decades of internal instability. Thus, the idea that "the causes of China's problems were essentially internal (emphasis added)", is relatively shallow, given the scope of Western dominance in China during modern times.

In the year 1927, there was the coming to power and control of the state by the Nationalist Movement leader Chiang Kai Shek, leading to the proclamation of the new capital of Nanjing on April 18, 1927. The nationalist government's foreign policy during the Nanjing Decade was fittingly based on nationalism, one of Sun Yat Sen's three principles. The unequal treaties and other unfair policies implemented by foreign governments were removed as a result of the government's nationalist policies. China recovered many foreign concessions during this time, and Britain granted tariff autonomy to China in 1928. China recovered all of its territories except Hong Kong, which remained with the British until 1997. Basically, China reclaimed her sovereignty during this time.

The performance of China in the field of diplomacy, however, was a failure, according to Fung: "Despite some notable achievements in treaty revision, the performance of the National Government in the sphere of foreign relations was a failure on the whole. Owing to a combination of factors, Nanjing's was the diplomacy of weakness".

The Sino-Japanese war began in 1937, and during the war Chinese relationsseemed to improve with the West. China became popular once Japan was defeated in 1945, and China's position in the world had improved remarkably since the beginning of the century. Shortly after the war, the Nationalist government starts to become unpopular due to growing support of the communist party, and after four years of conflict against the government, the CCP gains control of China in 1949. All of these historical events were part of the process of the modernization of China.

Talk of Western influence is scarcely found in the historical account of China between 1927 and 1949, so of course it would be easy to assume that the nation's problems were caused internally. It does however seem unusual to apply the argument that, all of a sudden, in the 20th century, China ran into a lot of strife.

The Chinese civilization has lasted in relative stability for the 5,000 years or thereabouts preceding the industrial age. K.R. Hall mentioned that "the story of economic development [in Southeast Asia]... begins long before the Christian era". So, given the historical scope of development in China and the fact that China's problems really began only in recent times, along with the encroachment of the West, it is reasonable to assert that although China's problems were of an internal nature, they were ultimately caused, or at least contributed to, by the West.

Sure enough, China experienced for the most part, a lot of internal troubles during the Nanjing decade and subsequent years until the coming to power of the CCP in 1949. But essentially, as we have demonstrated, none of this would have happened were it not for the meddling nature of the European colonialists during the preceding century. Ultimately, both the West and China had contributed to the era of revolution in China. The path to modernization in China was a hectic run of events that led to the ultimate transformation and the birth of the communist China we know today.

Luthor Erik Laine is a scholar at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. He maintains a simple Japan-related web shop at JapanFunZone.com and a personal blog at Mesetaxchange.com.

Who Is Barrister Global Services?

2009-12-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

Barrister Global Services Network (barrister.com) provides IT services within the United States. They serve customers in the commercial, government and consumer markets through direct and indirect channels. Business partners include equipment manufacturers, service companies, resellers, and distributors.

Barrister Global Services Network has moved its headquarters from Buffalo, New York to Hammond, Louisiana, near New Orleans, a region that also is home to Barrister's new president. The company was lured by incentives that will pay the company up to $1.5 million over the next 10 years.

Hammond, northwest of Lake Pontchartrain, has a population of about 18,000. The city was the home base for production of the first season of the NBC dramatic television series In the Heat of the Night. The show dealt with issues including racism, drug abuse, rape, murder, incest, and government corruption.

The number of complaints by contractors has risen dramatically since the company's relocation. It is reasonable to assume that the local judiciary is effectively a "home-town referee". You have been warned.

Who is AT&T ConnecTech?

2009-11-30T14:15:00.000-08:00

Parks Associates projects that that the home technology service market will be worth nearly $1 billion by the end of 2011 (from $450 million in 2007). The market is attracting attention from the BBG (big bloated guys). AT&T, telecom industry giant, has introduced a new service called ConnecTech. ConnecTech is AT&T's venture into technical services, designed to compete with Geek Squad (Best Buy). The service is available only to residential customers in the United States.

Another BBG (and former AT&T spinoff), Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic) has also joined the effort to milk their name recognition. The company has launched "Expert Care", which offers tech support for computer problems and home electronics.

With the demise of CompUSA and Circuit City, there are opportunities for companies like AT&T's ConnecTech. The Circuit City brand plans to sell its trademark property to Systemax Inc., the same company that purchased CompUSA's carcass when it closed last year. Systemax, also known as Tiger Direct, closed the majority of the CompUSA brick and mortar stores, and is operating elsewhere as a web-only entity.

AT&T remains strong in computer networks, but otherwise, AT&T, once a bastion of technology (inventions, patents, and Nobel Prizes), has been reduced to a pitiful paper lion. According to a report by the scientific journal Nature, as of July 2008, only four scientists remained in the Bell Labs physics basic research group.

AT&T, the company that invented Unix (Ken Thompson, a programmer at AT&T's Bell Labs invented Unix in 1969) was otherwise a failure in the computer market, and exited this marketplace almost 20 years ago. In addition, AT&T was never a significant player in consumer electronics, the second service marketplace that ConnecTech covets.

Bureaucracies are an essential aspect of all organizations and societies; however, when bureaucracies become self-serving and self-perpetuating, this is a problem. How can the economy evolve, if bloated antiquated organizations siphon off so much energy?

AT&T is now best known for their retail stores selling phones made by someone else. AT&T hit the mother-lode with the agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone. At many stores, one must take a number to wait their turn for the privilege to buy an iPhone.

“AT&T has long been a familiar face in the homes of Americans," said Carmen Nava, senior vice president, Consumer Marketing Operations for AT&T. “The home services industry represents a billion dollar marketplace.”

AT&T has a nice website. In addition, many sporting venues, golf events, and at least two automobile races carry on the AT&T tradition.

AT&T ConnecTech Plan

AT&T has partnered with OnForce, a company comparable to Ebay (and another bureacratic layer with little real contribution), to perform liason with the contractor workforce.

The AT&T ConnecTech system can sometimes resemble a Rube Goldberg machine. For example, Samsung uses AT&T ConnecTech to maintain its televisions. If a customer called the retailer who originally sold them their Samsung TV for service,

the retailer calls Samsung,

who then calls AT&T ConnecTech,

who then calls OnForce,

who then (finally) submits the job for bids to find the cheapest contractor.

Five different entities: the retailer, Samsung, AT&T, OnForce, and the local contractor each get a portion of the payment, and there is a ridiculous amount of bureacracy to wade through for the poor contractor at the end of the chain. As many customers of this system have discovered, too many cooks "spoils the broth".

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures.” Cicero

The next logical step would be for AT&T ConnecTech to add partnerships with U.S. Steel and Xerox that could provide additional prestige. This would facilitate additional bureacratic layers, and would complete the "Russian-French" model.

Can Anyone Challenge Cisco For Leadership in Network and Data Equipment?

2009-11-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

By Michael Lemm

When it comes to network providers and data equipment vendors can anyone really compete with Cisco? The perception may be no. But the reality may be far different. Or at least a little muddy.

Yes, Cisco commands a whopping share of the networking industry pie. However HP, Nortel, Alcatel, Huwaei have of late been aggressively eyeing this space for more of the market share. But for anyone to truly challenge Cisco's dominance ... they have their work cut out for them.

In my opinion, Cisco just keeps smaller players like Juniper and Foundry in the data networking market to avoid monopoly situations. With the largest footprint, deep market penetration and wide open breadth of high quality product portfolio, it has built a significant level of durability into its competitive business strategy.

As far as Alcatel (or Alcatel-Lucent), and Nortel goes, they can be classified as telecom players more than data comm players and HP is too diversified to compare with Cisco as a pure data networking player.

Cisco's business can only be threatened by changes in consumer preferences/demand (external) or technological obsolescence of their current products (internal), both of which are hard to imagine due to the capital resources it spends on marketing research and niche acquisitions.

Juniper is positioning themselves on many levels to compete with Cisco. With their newly released switch platform and the J series routers and the acquisition of Netscreen and Redline etc. Juniper already has competed fiercely for the core network space and has done marginally well with the ISP market. They have not cracked the enterprise very well, though. With their new product launches aimed directly at knocking Cisco off their perch, we may see the landscape change. Large corporations like to have more than one vendor to play off each other. Healthy competition forces innovation and drives price down.

If Juniper can ever figure out an effective marketing plan and lay off the stupid cartoons attempting to be funny, they may have a legitimate shot. They did a very brilliant thing a couple years ago and offered free classes to current and potential customers to get engineers more familiar and comfortable with JunOS. Remember OS/2 did not die because it lacked quality or desirable features.

Nortel has established the necessary feature, functionality and footprint within the voice industry. As the line between voice and traditional data blurs, Nortel will be an increasing threat.

However the one component of the question left out was "why does Cisco have this position?" The answer to this question can be found in the answer to how many IT graduates have studied Cisco courses, or are Cisco accredited, or have used Cisco equipment during their education? Interestingly the answer is most. There are very few Juniper accredited graduates, and even fewer Nortel graduates, let alone Huawei. But this doesn't mean that their respective products are better, worse or equal to Cisco. Iit just means that Cisco has cleverly used brand to differentiate itself from its competitors. People by their nature gravitate to what they know or feel comfortable with. This doesn't mean its right or wrong, its a comfort thing. The same question can be asked about McDonalds, Coke, Pepsi, and Nike.

The difference is not so much the technical side of the equipment vendors, it's more the marketing approach of the companies.

Cisco, although a manfacturer, has marketed itself as a 'system provider' which is only accomplished by joint strategies with larger system integrators. This has led the client to believe that Cisco is larger and more versitile than it actually is, a very clever approach. Cisco has always run a platform to enable its clients to adopt IP strategy in the data and voice arena without massive initial cost. Thereby crossing the boundary of voice and data ( a normal strict division).

Juniper markets to the voice elements i.e. the old PABX people in voice such as the telecoms market.

Procurve sells to a strict SMB market place and is a cheap reseller product.

The Chinese have developed a Cisco competitor based in Basingstoke, UK. However it lacks a strong marketing plan with clients.

This is why we all talk about voice and data convergence. It is what most companies try to sell. However there are still strong divisions in the end-user/client job roles ... with data rooms being one area ... and voice frames in another.

The end deal is simple .... each manufacturer, each integarator from different arenas with different skill sets needs to work together to resolve/serve a clients needs. The client requires an aspirin for his headache .... and not the ingredients to make his own. Cisco will dominate in its market due to a strong stategic partnership program with direct relationships with the client. If someone wants to challenge this they have a lot of work to do yet ... this is not really a question of technical ability.

But ... I honestly believe that Cisco is poised to take a fall just as IBM did back in the early 90s. They have forgotten that people think of them primarily as a networking company. They are no longer the first out with new ideas. They seem to think that a "me to" attitude will suffice.

For example a friend's company has just done an evaluation between 3com, Cisco and HP. All three companies make products that can easily provide him with a fantastic network. In the end Cisco has offered huge discounts, which make it competitive, but is unwilling to extend the discounts for any period of time.

They are already a Cisco shop, and they are really only comparing them to other companies for several reasons. The big one is this ... in the last couple of years they've been installing HP and 3com switches to expand their network. Because, in general both products are around 1/3 the cost. Every time they decide to purchase a new switch, they research and just can't justify the additional expense, since both of the other products will meet their requirements.

HP is a sound product line, well thought out, and has a lifetime warranty. They know exactly how to position their product, and where to price it. Their sales folk run circles around the competition. They clearly intend to clean Cisco's clock in the small to mid sized market, and have the resources to do so. The HP solution allows you to use Chassis in the wiring closets ... if you so choose ... without paying any real premium. Their switch OS seems to be very very much like Cisco's, but there are fundamental differences which some will find refreshing and some frustrating. Cisco better watch out for these guys.

3com has an awesome produce line in the 4500, 5500, 5500G and 8800 products. The performance is astounding, for over 2 years now in their 5500 G product line, they have been able to stack logically and physically with a 192Gbps. backplane speed. If you want to turn a non powered switch into a powered one ... all you have to do is change out the power supply. Which costs only as much as the differential in cost between the powered and non-powered switches. There has been a 10G slot in back since it was designed. They now offer an OSM module which can go in the 10G slot. The OSM module is a linux card with backplane access.

The switch OS is somewhat IOSish ... but is improved in the way you can query it, ("display this" is awesome) and the way the debugs work.

In the last 3 years 3com has vastly improved their support staff. They actually call you on the phone (which Cisco people seem not to want to do anymore) and seem to offer a high level of expertise.

3com offers 2 IP PBX lines the NBX and the VCX. Comparing these 2 today is similar to comparing the Mitel SX100 in 80s and 90s with the ROLM. The NBX is a rock solid medium to small PBX that works great, and offers lots of features. It comes up short, however, if you are looking at an enterprise level solution. This is where the VCX comes in. It can scale virtually as large as you want it to, offers great features, and although they struggled with it at first, it is now a very stable product.

This product line is awesome, and they can beat Cisco's price even with Cisco coming in at incredibly high discounts. If 3com is ever forgiven for leaving the Core market when they did, and if they ever learn how to market their products effectively, they could easily capture a significant piece of Cisco's market share.

My friend has not made a decision yet, but it does seem a little unlikely that he will continue to drink the Cisco Kool Aide any longer. Cisco is an amazing company, and he and I believe they will discover their vulnerabilities and react well, but not before they feel lot's of pain. My friend has worked with their products for 18 years, and is sorry to see what has happened to them because of their amazing growth to power. Hopefully Cisco can recover their leadership aptitude and attitude.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

Cisco to Lay-off up to 10,000

LON Administrator; July 12, 2011

Cisco's revenue has increased by more than 10% per year for the past five years. but the Cisco business plan called for growth of 12-17%. As a result, Cisco may eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce. (Bloomberg)

Is Geeks On Call Done?

2009-11-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

Geeks On Call has been found in default and received a notice of impending foreclosure from a senior creditor on a note secured by the total assets of the corporation.

The Geeks On Call (GOC) saga took a new turn in October, with the company's acquisition by Intellisuites. Intellisuites is owned by Glenn Davis, a Virginia Beach city council member. The death spiral had begun.

This move was not totally unexpected. GOC had failed to file required financial statements for almost a year. Former CEO (and founder) Richard Cole is no longer connected with the operation.

As recently as 2006, Entrepreneur.com ranked GOC as the 30th fastest growing franchise in the United States.

The GOC carcass included 29 remaining employees, and 57 franchise agreements. Richard Artese, vice president and CIO, and Keith Wesp, vice president of finance, were still employees of the company.

Geeks On Call (GOC) was formed in Norfolk, Virginia in 2001. The company was founded by Richard Cole, an advertising executive and Michael Joynes, a personal injury attorney. They currently operate under the names "Geeks On Call" and "CallTheGeeks.com". The company was formerly known as "Lightview".

Historically, GOC was organized differently than the typical Geek operation. Most of the storefronts were franchises (owned locally, and affiliated in a partnership with GOC).

Earlier this year, GOC modified its organization. It now appears to have been an act of desperation. The company moved one-time employees who worked at company owned locations into contractor status. Franchise locations still operate under the previous model.

GOC utilized OnForce (a contractor broker similar to Ebay) to service many of its customers. The reason for the decision was that Geeks On Call, because of the limited number of storefronts, does not have comprehensive coverage of the United States, only offering services for less than half of potential customers. This problem has become worse with the failures of so many franchises, and the recent parting of ways with 56 franchised territories. OnForce will fill in the considerable gaps.

The company earlier this year faced suits filed by 10 franchise owners, claiming fraud, among other allegations. Those suits were dismissed from Norfolk Circuit and most of the plaintiff franchisees were released from the GOC system along with the fees they had paid into the system.

Who Is Prism Pointe Technologies?

2009-10-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

The story of Prism Pointe's problems is closely related to failure of a business partner, MPC Computers in Nampa, Idaho (formerly Micron Computers). You may be more familiar with Gateway Computers. In 2007, Gateway Computers sold its government and industrial division to MPC Computers. Gateway Computers is now a part of Acer computers.

MPC Computers is currently in bankruptcy liquidation, and was sued by Prism Pointe in August of last year. MPC Computers owes Prism Pointe more than $730,000. Coincidentally, Prism Pointe stopped paying their bills last spring.

Prism Pointe Technologies (prismpointe.com) is headquartered in Fairburn, Georgia, a city with a population of about 9000. Prism Pointe claims a network of over 13,000 contractor service professionals at over 1,500 locations.

Companies like Prism Pointe will accept a work order from a company like MPC Computers, and then hire a contractor. And like many companies in the National Service Organization (NSO) market segment, Prism Pointe is not completely illegitimate. Many customers have had a successful repair, if the contractor that was hired happened to be competent. In most cases, the NSO never meets the contractor, except over the telephone or Internet.

This kind of problem (Prism Pointe Technologies) is not uncommon. In a complaint against Prism Pointe, a contractor in Colorado Springs states:

"this is the fourth such company in six years of business we have worked for doing this type of third party work. None have come through with payment."

Firms like Prism Pointe will pretend that they are local, even maintaining local phone numbers in major cities. Also, one should be careful of advertisements on the Internet for obvious reasons. Until there is effective industry or governmental oversight of the National Service Industry, it will continue to be a very dangerous environment, for both the customer and contractor.

The unethical behavior in the National Service Organization Industry is creating a larger negative impact. The resulting lack of credibility will negatively affect business industry wide. A higher standard for business ethics is required.

Computer Malware (Spyware, Viruses, etc.)

2009-09-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Malware (a combination of the words malicious and software) is software code designed to infiltrate and/or damage a computer system without the owner's knowledge. Sometimes people use the term "computer virus" interchangeably with the term malware. Surveys report that 95 per cent of people use antivirus software, but infections remain common.

Computer professionals consider viruses to be a subset of malware. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, adware, spyware, trojan horses, and other malicious software.

There is a war underway between malware professionals from companies like Norton and McAfee, and the bad guys who are often from Eastern Europe. As of today, the bad guys are winning.

Barack Obama has promised to appoint a "Cyber Czar" to lead the fight. Obama emphasized that the cyber threat is "one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. It's also clear that we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country."

An unacceptable percentage of PCs are infected. According to Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain's interview on 60 Minutes, 30% of computers have malware on them at any one time. PandaLabs Security estimates that just one virus, Conficker, infects 6% of the world's computer population.

According to Symantec, unsolicited e-mail (spam) makes up over 90 percent of all messages on corporate networks. Symantec further reported that almost 60 percent of spam is now generated by malware botnets, computers that have been hijacked by criminals. Dunbot, the worst of the spamming botnets, generates over 18 percent of all spam.

Malware gangsters now commonly use websites that sell fake anti-virus software or offer bogus downloads to distribute their malware. Video "Codecs", which is software for viewing on-line video, is a commonly infected download.

Panda Security estimates that up to 35 million computers worldwide may be infected with fake antivirus programs each month.

Industry Response

Intel technical marketing manager Steve Cutler predicts that malware will eventually be conquered with hardware-based techniques that protect the computer at the deepest level.

Intel is promoting its 'trusted execution technology' which is a set of processor hardware extensions and chipsets that have security characteristics such as measured launch and protected execution. This design is capable of creating an environment in which applications can run within their own memory space, protected from all other software on the system. The success of this hardware-based security is dependent on software vendors designing their products to utilize this security. Intel predicts that once it is known that there is a solution that can successfully address the problem of malware, the market will demand that software vendors comply.

Conficker

The Conficker Worm is the latest major challenge to the system. This worm has already infected several million computers. On April 1, the worm on infected computers connected over the Internet to the “botnet”, a network of host computers set up by the worm’s creators. Security professionals know which Internet server computers are the hosts for the botnet, so the system was prepared, but the worm infection rate is now too high for containment. Microsoft has offered a $250,000 bounty for the identity of the Conficker hoodlums.

Security professionals have methods for measuring the rate of computers infected. Using these techniques, PandaLabs Security has reached the conclusion that about 6% of computers worldwide are infected with Conficker, and about 50,000 new PCs are infected every day, according to Guy Bunker, a computer security expert at Symantec. According to stats from the Conficker Working Group, the number of unique IPs detected as infected with Conficker has risen in June, from 3.7 million on May 31, to 5.1 million at the end of the month.

Worldwide Conficker Infection Map
Conficker takes advantage of a design flaw in Windows. If a computer is current with its security updates, the design flaw has been closed since last October. But many people do not stay current, either because they are running a pirated copy of Windows, or from lax computer housekeeping. Unlike most malware, Conficker is very good at spreading because it can identify vulnerable PCs on its own and doesn't require human interaction to infect a computer.

The worm’s creators are in position to generate enormous levels of spam, spread new malware, or do damage to web resources. In recent months, Conficker's creators have updated the worm so that infected computers have been given new ways to communicate.

"The worm did exactly what everyone thought it was going to do, which is update itself," security expert Dan Kaminsky, who helped develop a widely-used Conficker scanner in the days leading up to April 1, told us: "the Conficker developers have cemented their ability to push updates through any fences the good guys have managed to build in February and March."

As far as what comes next? More waiting. Good methods now exist for detecting (Conficker Test) and cleansing Conficker from infected machines on a network (and, let's not forget, a months-old security patch from Microsoft is all you need to protect yourself), but by now the size of Conficker's infected army of nodes spread around the world is big enough to function with devastating consequences even if most PCs are secure.

Gumblar

Gumblar, a malware worm, is attacking computers through vulnerabilities in older versions of Adobe's PDF reader and Flash player software. The worm can redirect the user's Google search results to sites that download more malware onto the machine or allow criminals to conduct "phishing" attacks. Gumblar will disable the links found on the Google search results, and instead connect the web browser to sites that further compromise the system. Although Gumblar is not new, it has resurfaced in the new form recently.

"The Gumblar attacks have morphed again," said Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher with ScanSafe.

The rate of Gumblar infections increased by more than 200% last week. Sophos estimates that Gumblar is currently responsible for 42% of "drive-by" malware on websites.

Detecting an infection is complex, and not fool-proof. According to ScanSafe to find out if your PC has been hijacked by Gumblar, locate the file sqlsodbc.chm in the Windows system folder: C:\Windows\System32.

Obtain the Sha1 of the installed sqlsodbc.chm using FileAlyzer , a free tool for obtaining the Sha1 of a file. Sha1 is an automatically generated digital identifier for files designed by the National Security Agency (NSA), and used by security applications to confirm that a file is correct.

Compare the obtained Sha1 code and the file's size to the list located on the ScanSafe STAT Blog.

If the Sha1 and corresponding file size do not match with a pair on the reference list, it's a potential sign of a Gumblar infection.

Adobe

Adobe modules are now frequently targeted by the malware bad-guys. This includes both Adobe Flash player and Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is the program frequently used to distribute documents such as technical manuals.

"Adobe Reader is the new Internet Explorer," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with the Finnish antivirus company F-Secure.

According to Hypponen, of the total malware attacks recorded this year, 50 per cent have exploited the six known security vulnerabilities in Adobe's PDF products. Last year (2008), it was Microsoft Word which was most often the target, with about 35 per cent of total attacks. Attacks on Adobe Reader this year are up by approximately 1800%, as compared to the same period last year.

Contaminated PDF files are often used as part of a targeted attack when they are sent to a specifically selected recipient attached to an e-mail. The methods used by the recently reported spy network, which infiltrated computers belonging to the Dalai Lama, included crafted PDF files.

Hypponen suggested referring to pdfreaders.org for a list of free alternatives to Adobe Reader that may be more resistant to the malware. He warned that at the time of Internet Explorer 6's security problems, many people switched over to using Firefox, but as that browser gained significant market share, it also drew the malware hacker attention.

Hypponen said that Adobe's lack of regular security updates is a significant part of the problem. In late July, Adobe released patches for both the Flash player and Adobe Reader.

Adobe has a patch the "Zero-Day" security issue that has been using to break into computers through the Adobe Flash module.

Adobe's patches close security holes in the integer overflow, stack overflow, and heap overflow code modules that could allow to remote control of the software.

Users of Adobe Flash Player 9.x and 10.x or earlier versions should update to Adobe Flash Player 9.0.246.0 and 10.0.32.18. In addition, Adobe also recommends users of Adobe AIR version 1.5.1 and earlier versions update to Adobe AIR 1.5.2.

Users of Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 or earlier versions should update to Adobe Reader 9.1.3 and Acrobat 9.1.3.

Microsoft Office

The office suite has frequently been the target of attack. This is not surprising, given the popularity of the line. Outlook, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint have each been the target of malware attacks.

Microsoft recently issued a statement that it will no longer provide security updates for Office 2000 products. This is Microsoft's standard policy of a 10 year support period. It also provides incentive for users to upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft's products.

AntiVirus professionals are sometimes very vocal in their contempt of Microsoft Office. Kaspersky Lab has pointed out that Microsoft should secure its Office suite, and not rely on the "Band-Aid over a gaping wound" method of issuing patches for each vulnerability, but instead should address the technology that powers and processes OLE objects.
OLE is Microsoft's interprocess communication mechanism based on the Component Object Model (COM). Microsoft sometimes just calls the technology "automation".

A common method of attack involves a file posted on the Internet for download. When the file is opened, the malware is activated.

Fake Harry Potter Downloads

There is a scam out there in the form of Harry Potter downloads. This is an old trick, in a new lure. Video Codecs have been used before to spread malware. This time the lure is 'Watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The scam involves getting you to download a "Streamviewer" that the site leads you to believe is needed to see the movie, but is actually malware. This is a "Trojan Horse".

There are ways to detect the scam. One of the ways is to carefully check the link. At first glance, it may look OK, but under close scrutiny, the URL will be suspicious. You can check downloads by uploading the file to VirusTotal.com, where the file will be tested.

Microsoft Windows 7

Windows operating systems are used in about 90 percent of the world's computers. Windows 7 is in beta site testing, and should be generally available for the upcoming Christmas shopping season. But Microsoft has warned that cybercriminals are already selling booby-trapped versions of the software.

"It's so important for customers to get their copies of Windows from a trusted source," Joe Williams, general manager, Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft.

"With Windows Vista, we made significant strides in reducing the threat pirated copies posed to customers, our partners and Microsoft software, and we anticipate we'll do even better with Windows 7," Williams said.

Microsoft research estimates that as many as a third of the company's customers worldwide are running counterfeit copies of Windows.

"We see many cases of customers who wanted to buy genuine software and believed they did, only to find out later that they were victims of software piracy," Williams said.

In the case of Windows 7, the pirated software may include compromised security and tailored malware.

Reference

Virus: A virus is computer program code that will try to spread from one file to another on a single computer and/or from one computer to another. A classic virus is not an independent program, but instead, is code that attaches to an existing file on a computer. Kapersky Virus Lab reports that 200-300 new virus samples are received in their office every day.

Trojan Horse: Trojan Horses are a subset of viruses. They
get their name by the fact that they pretend to be legitimate.

Worms: A worm is a self-replicating computer program. It sends copies of itself to other computers over the Internet or other network. Unlike a virus, a worm is an independent program.

Adware: Adware generates advertisements such as pop-up windows on Web pages. The objective of adware is to earn income from advertisers.

Spyware: Spyware is a program that tracks your habits. Because it is a computer program, spyware can ensure that the spyware keeps running and may influence web navigation.

Most of time we think about Malware as the product of some pimply-faced geek. But recently, spyware didn't come from some Eastern European hacker ring. It came from one of the premier names in U.S. commerce: Sears.

"It's quite off-putting to think of a company tracking these kinds of things about you," said Benjamin Edelman, a longtime spyware researcher and an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School.

Rick Quaresima, Federal Trade Commision lawyer said the agency's primary concern was that consumers were likely unaware of how much information Sears was collecting. Sears monitored "nearly all of the Internet behavior that occurs on consumers' computers," and also collected data about the users' computers, printers, and other devices, said the FTC.

For most Malware today, the primary intent is not damage to the computer. If the user does not recognize the infection, then the program can steal passwords, credit card numbers, or use the computer to send spam to other computers on the network.

According to FBI Deputy Assistant Director Steve Martinez, Eastern European gangs are turning increasingly to cybercrime. He said the FBI had urged law enforcement agencies in other countries to go after the gangs.

Most malware is not the result of a rogue geek, but instead is the product of adult professional criminals.

"There's a lot of money in the Internet. On the last count of malware I did, only 10 percent was written by teenagers. Ninety percent is developed by criminals. This malware is designed for criminal needs such as stealing money, distributing spam and Internet rackets." said Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research for Kaspersky Labs.

Kaperky further said that criminals are turning to the Internet because of the lack of security and policing.

Who is Geek Housecalls?

2009-08-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

Geek Housecalls, Inc.
7 Cypress Drive
Burlington, MA 01803
email: dehlke@geekhousecalls.com

MA: 781-863-8111
RI: 401-351-8111
Toll Free: 1-877-4PC-GEEK (472-4335)

Web: www.geekhousecalls.com
Blog: www.geekablog.com
BBB Rating: A+

Geek Housecalls (GH) was a founded in July of 1999 by Andy Trask and Dave Ehlke. Geek Housecalls was once sued by Geek Squad (Best Buy), who asserted control of the use of the word "Geek".

In recent years, GH acquired "Home PC Networks", and "Downcity Systems", both regional service companies in New England.

Geek Housecalls employs 9 full-time, and 20 part-time tech support employees.

Windows 7 Beta Review - Windows 7 is Already More Stable Than Vista

2009-08-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

By Dave Williams

Windows 7 Beta Review - It's Time To Get Familiar - Will You skip Vista SP2?

I've got two computers running Windows 7 Beta. They are very different computers in that one is almost 5 years old and one is absolutely cutting edge with all the latest graphics cards, etc. Both run Windows 7 Beta very well and without any errors.

The new Windows 7 Aero theme is pretty and a bit more organized and intuitive than Windows Vista Aero. Enabling the mouse gestures makes Windows 7 much nicer. An example mouse gesture that I use is to wiggle the mouse back and forth like you are scratching something off a list. This instantly clears the desktop by hiding all the open windows. The new interface also allows you to click the thumbnails of the programs that are running. It's a bit Apple OSX like, except not so animated and annoying in my humble opinion.

I am still concerned about compatibility issues, but even the few games I've run have been no problem for Windows 7. Even the latest Fallout 3 ran flawlessly. Given that a Windows 7 beta will be readily downloadable in the near future and given that the apparent quality of the release exceeds that of Vista SP2 Beta, I have to ask who will bother to upgrade to Vista SP2?

In addition to frame rate increases in games, the internet connection scores nearly 10% higher throughput. On our 1GB connections, the difference is even more noticeable. Even if you do not have machine to test drive Microsoft Windows 7 on, you can use Vmware's free desktop virtualization software to set up and start exploring.

It's coming fairly soon. It's going to be good and if you work in a corporate IT department, you'll have to support it. To set up Windows 7 on Vmware, just tell vmware that you will be using Vista. This works well because one of the explicit goals of Windows 7 is driver and hardware compatibility with Vista.

Installation is a breeze. It basically looks just like the Windows Vista installer with upgraded graphics. Like all new Windows releases, Microsoft has tried to appeal to users on the current platform. The result is that there is a lot going on under the hood that has changed but that you won't see until you're in a support situation and relealize that some of your tried and true debugging rituals no longer work.

Conclusion:I think it's wise to start preparing to support this operating system now, especially if you've been holding off corporate users waiting for a better version of Vista. By the time Windows Vista SP2 Beta is stable and out the door, you'll be on the heels of Microsoft's Windows 7 release date. At the least you should install a virtual machine on Vmware for familiarization.

If you have applications that need to be tested on Windows 7, the time to start that is right now. Developers should have their beta copy very shortly.

Read more about Windows Vista SP2 Beta and Windows 7 at boutnewtech.com

Director of Geekdom at http://aboutnewtech.com and during my waking life I play a CIO for a fortune 500 Retailer.

Editor's Note: Windows 7 Release Date is October 22, 2009.

Handheld "Crash Cart" for Network Server Systems (KVM2USB)

2009-07-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Recovering an out of operation ("Down") server quickly is always a priority. When this objective can be achieved while also making the job easier, everyone wins. Most network servers today are “headless”, meaning they have no keyboard, video, or mouse. For those who work in the server environment, this results in a significant annoyance: "crash carts" (monitor, keyboard and mouse), that are needed to interface with these systems.

Although there are remote monitoring and access tools, there are times when one needs to isolate the server and connect directly. In most cases, one is left with a choice, either unplug the server and bring it to the shop, or you have a push cart with your monitor, keyboard and mouse that you lug around in data center to bring them to the network appliance you need to diagnose.

A more elegant solution to this problem is the KVM2USB from the Canadian company, Epiphan Systems (Ephiphan.com). With this small device, you connect it into your computer’s USB 2.0 port. To connect to the server, it has cables to connect to the KVM ports. It will run on-screen emulation of the server screen right through your laptop screen.

Epiphan Systems KVM2USB product is a compact device that conveys the VGA stream from any host computer to a laptop, while emulating the laptop's keyboard and mouse outputs. It's the equivalent of a handheld crash cart. The second generation KVM2USB has a more powerful microprocessor, on-board RAM buffer, and a faster and more reliable video synchronization.

The KVM2USB is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 (i386, x64), Mac OS X 10.4 and up (ppc, i386, x86_64), and Linux (x86, x86_64). The KVM2USB sells for about $400, and includes all required hardware and cabling.

Who Is Field Nation?

2009-07-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Field Nation (FieldNation.com), based in Minneapolis, is a broker of independent field service contractor-technicians to the computer service and consumer electronics industries.

Field Nation is a web based business that appears to have been designed to compete with OnForce. Like OnForce, Field Nation rates are based on the market. With more than 28 million people in the U.S. unemployed or underemployed, and with so many technical jobs outsourced overseas, this market often results in bids by contractors below the cost required to provide the service.

There can be confusion with the name "Field Nation". There are two companies with the same name. There is a marketing research company (surveys, etc.) in Vancouver, Canada at the website: http://www.fieldnation.ca/ and there is the technical service broker at the website: http://www.fieldnation.com/ located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two companies are unrelated.

New Field Nation company address: 2303 Kennedy St. NE, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55413
Tel: 952-955-4072
Fax: 952-400-3408
info@fieldnation.com

Mileage Logger from Vulocity

2009-06-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

It is tax season again. Many self-employed people claim automobile expenses as a tax deduction. If you are like me, you keep your mileage log on paper. This is a major pain. Now there is a new system that will save you time now, by eliminating the manually logged data, and later, when it is time to do your taxes. It's called "Mileage Logger", a product from Vulocity (www.vulocity.com).

The device automatically tracks the mileage using GPS and sends this information over the cell phone data network to Vulocity.

The device is designed to record using motion activation, and to require no human interaction. The device also has manual stop and start buttons. The device is small, about the size of a laptop power supply. If necessary, the device can be moved independent of the vehicle using a rechargeable battery.

This gadget will enhance your credibility with the IRS. Last year, vehicle expense accounted for about 15% of all tax deductions. Mileage Logger uses GPS to log your miles, and sends the data over the GSM cellular network to Vulocity's servers.

To see your activity, you log in to Vulocity's servers. Here, you can assign trips to business or personal use, and manually input mileage. Each record contains addresses and maps to help you remember the purpose of the trip. You can export the records to an Excel importable file, and merge, delete or add records.

There is an optional "locate on demand" feature that can be used to locate your vehicle if it is stolen, or to track your fleet of vehicles. This service costs $1 a month, in addition to the normal subscription fee.

IRS

IRS standard business mileage rate deduction for 2009 is 55¢ per mile (30,000 business miles equates to a $16,500 reduction in taxable income). The business mileage rate was 50.5 cents in the first half of 2008 and 58.5 cents in the second half. The number of IRS Schedule C Audits have increased by more than 100% over the last decade. With this year's increase in mileage rate, a further increase in audit rate is anticipated. The Mileage Logger exceeds the IRS imposed mileage log book requirements.

"I spend most of my time in representation of clients before the IRS, and that includes audits", says Charles Bell, an "IRS Enrolled Agent" (certified specialization in IRS accounting) based in Richardson, Texas. "I see often that very few people are prepared for audits regarding substantiating their mileage. It should be an easy task, but it’s just one of those things that human nature says, let’s not bother with it now, we’ll deal with it later."

A recent Syracuse University study has revealed that an increasing number of small businesses are being targeted by the IRS for audits. The smallest businesses were audited 41 percent more often in 2007 than in 2005.

OBD 2 Port

Mileage Logger connects to your vehicle via the OBD 2 port. This port is designed for vehicle diagnostics, especially pollution control, and has been required equipment for all vehicles since 1996.

The OBD 2 connector will be located within three feet of the driver. It is probably under the dash or behind an ashtray.

Mileage Logger currently sales for $200 plus a $19 per month subscription fee.

The Rise and Fall of the American Chip Industry

2009-06-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

By Brian Bradshaw

The semiconductor chip is at the core of what we think us as technology. Computers, cell phones, iPods, medical equipment, avionics, etc. have only been possible because of the chip. The American chip industry has been damaged by the recent economic slowdown like most industries, but more importantly, the chip business in the United States has been in a slow fall for 30 years.

In 2009 global chip sales dropped by almost a third from the previous year, to $15.3 billion (Semiconductor Industry Association). Over-investment in chip factories has resulted in steep losses of over the last 2 years. The chip business has been compared to farming. If too many farmers plant cotton, then the price of cotton will drop (supply and demand).

The American chip industry, outside of Intel, is an endangered species. AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, and others are already gone from the field. Others, like Texas Instruments, have set a path for the eventual elimination of manufacturing. These companies have gone "fabless", meaning they will continue designing applications, but leave the process technology and manufacturing to someone else (most often to companies in Asia).

The microprocessor market has been the exception, especially Intel. The microprocessor market has been controlled by Intel. It has been a kind of monopoly. But Intel, when operating outside the microprocessor arena (i.e. DRAM or Flash memory), has followed the general model.

Intel has recently closed 3 factories (the industry calls them "Fabs", short for fabrication): one in Colorado, one in Oregon, and one in California. But Intel is building microprocessor fabs at the same time, currently building a factory in Phoenix and one in Israel. Intel is doing OK. Intel had over $12 billion of cash on hand at the end of 2008.

In 1980, one of the pivotal events in the history of the chip industry, was IBM's selection of Intel to build the microprocessors for the IBM personal computers. IBM chose Intel over Motorola and Zilog (Zilog was founded by ex-Intel engineer Frederico Faggin, who invented the MOS process while at Fairchild).

IBM insisted that Intel facilitate second sources for the microprocessors by allowing companies like AMD to alternatively manufacture the chips. Intel's wealth has been almost fully acquired because of their control of the personal computer. IBM ceded control of the personal computer away with this agreement, or more accurately, their failure to execute this agreement.

The Rise of the American Chip Industry

The Chip Industry has its roots firmly in the United States. Scientists at AT&T Bell Labs invented the transistor in 1947. The chip, or integrated circuit, was invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild (later Intel) in 1958. There were many interim steps between these two seminal events, most accomplished by the teams from Fairchild and RCA.

In 1975, the U.S. had more than 70% of the world's market share for chips. The chip industry titans during the development years were IBM, AT&T, Texas Instruments, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard. These were established technology companies that had success in the emerging field.

Silicon Valley, in California, was largely the result of startup companies with ties to Fairchild, who was located in the area. Fairchild was a technology pioneer, but most of the success came from Fairchild alumni, what became known as the "Fairchildren". Alumni from Fairchild founded Intel, AMD, National Semiconductor, LSI Logic, Altera, Xilinx and many others. One notable Fairchild alumni was Eugene Kleiner, who would later found Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm that would help Amazon, Google and Sun Microsystems become billion-dollar companies.

The Fall of the American Chip Industry

Since the U.S. had such a commanding market share in the 1970's, it was natural that this position would be difficult to maintain. The first challenger was Japan, who was very successful at capturing the DRAM market, at the time the most important chip market. By the mid 1980s, 80 percent of the DRAM market belonged to Japan.

Many outside of Asia fail to give proper credit to the emergence of Japan in the chip industry. The common perception is that the sole reason for Japan's success was low labor costs. In fact, the primary reason for Japan's ability to manufacture at lower cost was a superior technical strategy. American DRAM manufacturers switched to a lithography technology called "steppers" a generation before the Japanese. The Japanese continued to utilize the previous generation lithography technology called "scanners". The American companies falsely believed that scanner technology would be inadequate for the newest memory devices. Scanners are significantly faster and less expensive to operate than steppers. Because the lithography step is so important to the overall process, the Japanese had a significant advantage, and used that advantage to capture the DRAM market.

In 1987 the United States started a research consortium called Sematech to combat the loss of market share. The plan called for the chip companies to share research costs, with a government subsidy. Member companies contributed $124 million to Sematech's 1990 budget and $100 million was contributed by the government through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Japan's market share did drop in the early 1990's, but this was probably more as a result of problems in the Japanese economy than with developments in the U.S. chip industry. The Japanese stock market "bubble" burst, much like the dot-com market burst in the United States. Japan's market share of total chip sales peaked in 1988 at about 49%. Today, Japan's world market share of the chip business is about 25%.

Sematech had a positive impact on the U.S. chip companies' circuit reliability. Statistical process control (SPC) techniques were led by Sematech and resulted in dramatic improvements. Motorola, a Sematech member, was the first winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The progress in reliability enabled chip customers to forego incoming inspection of chips, a huge cost savings.

Sematech was very active helping an immature U.S. equipment industry improve their tools. Sematech effectively moved the technology center of semiconductor industry from chip manufacturers to the chip equipment companies like Applied Materials and KLA. Before Sematech, the customers were the process experts, but now the process tool companies included process expertise with the equipment. This was very good for the lucky equipment companies, but Sematech was very selective. Many tool vendors were shut out by Sematech.

Those outside the chip community sometimes fail to understand the degree to which the chip equipment industry is internationalized. A fab requires hundreds of different process tools for the many different process steps (some chips require more than 500 process steps). Many of the tools cost more $1 million. Most fabs will attempt to standardize on a tool supplier for a particular process step, but all fabs have equipment from many different companies.

A few years ago, a major "Wall Street Analyst" cut his forecast of Applied Materials' business prospects based on the growth of the Taiwan semiconductor industry. The flaw in this logic is that a Taiwanese factory uses U.S. equipment at about the same rate as a United States based company. U.S. companies also commonly use equipment manufactured from outside the U.S, especially from Japan.

Since the chip equipment industry is so globalized, if Sematech makes an advance, U.S. companies gain little, if any, advantage. Chip manufacturing has become highly homogeneous, from company to company, and from country to country. Because the equipment companies now controlled the process technology, it became much easier for countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and China to enter the market. If a company had the money, the technology was for sale.

The result of the work done by the industry, especially by Sematech and its Japanese counterpart, Tohoku University, was that the process of manufacturing chips became less of an art, and more of a science. Chip manufacturing became "paint by the numbers". Once the industry reached this level of maturity, the price of capital, and the price of labor, became the dominant factors in the choice of manufacturing location.

A state of the art fab requires an investment of $3-4 billion. Chip manufacture is now a commodity business involving huge production volumes and low profit margins. A recent count of the last 40 chip factories built showed that 35 were in Asia, 3 were in the United States, and 2 were in Europe.

The memory market, including the products DRAM and Flash Memory, is the most competitive chip arena. South Korean companies currently dominate the memory market. Samsung is the leader, with more than 30 per cent market share, and Hynix is second, with more than 18 per cent market share. Elpida (Taiwan) with 15 percent, Micron (U.S.) with 11 percent, and Qimonda (formerly Siemens/Infineon, Germany, currently in bankruptcy) with 8 percent, are the other significant market share holders.

The Emergence of the Chip Foundry

Chip manufacturing technology continues to become more of a commodity. Companies that once designed, manufactured, and marketed chips, now hire a third party for the manufacture step. This is what is meant by a "fabless" company. The company that performs the manufacturing step is the "foundry". The design is accomplished via collaboration between the foundry and the fabless company.

A modern foundry provides software tools so that the fabless company can accomplish their objective using standard process cells, technology that is owned by the foundry. One of the world's first chip foundries was created in Taiwan by Texas Instruments in 1989 to manufacture DRAM. The company was called TI-Acer.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC), with $30 billion market capitalization, is the current leader in the foundry chip industry, and currently boasts more than 44 per cent of the world market share of chip foundry business. TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture of Philips (Netherlands), the government of Taiwan, and private investors. Morris Chang is the founder of TSMC, and continues to serve as the Chairman. Mr. Chang's resume includes 25 years at Texas Instruments, leaving as a group vice president in charge of the company's worldwide semiconductor business. TI-Acer merged with TSMC in 1999.

The world's second largest foundry is also in Taiwan. UMC claims more than 14% of the foundry business worldwide. Taiwan, a country about the size of Vancouver, Canada, has the highest concentration of semiconductor manufacturing in the world.

It is interesting to note that two of the executives instrumental in recent events in the semiconductor industry are on the TSMC board of directors: Carly Fiorina and Thomas Engibous.

Carly Fiorina is now best known as John McCain's Economic Advisor during the last election. She is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard where she oversaw HP's exit from the chip manufacturing business. In addition, Ms. Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies Inc. where she served as Executive Vice President, Computer Operations for Lucent and oversaw the exit of AT&T from chip manufacturing.

Thomas J. Engibous (former Texas Instruments Chairman, former president and CEO 1996 -2004), was the department manager of TI's semiconductor group when TI established TI-Acer. Texas Instruments has eliminated their R&D operation, and plans to be fabless for most of their production. TI was one of TSMC's first customers. Much of the foundry model has roots from within Texas Instruments.

The Future of the American Chip Industry

Intel will continue to dominate the Personal Computer microprocessor business for the foreseeable future. There are threats. AMD does everything well except make money. A Taiwan company called "Via" may be the more significant long-term threat. Via designs the chips and manufactures them at the local foundries. Via's core designs originated with Cyrix Semiconductor, a company started by ex-Texas Instrument engineers. Cyrix was sold to Via in 1999. Via's processors are competing well against the Intel "Atom" microprocessor, in less expensive laptop computers.

AMD recently completed an agreement with a company from ATIC (Advanced Technology Investment Company) funded by the Government of Dubai, that should enable them to continue to compete with Intel. AMD plans to build (with their partner), a chip manufacturing facility in Saratoga County, New York. AMD currently manufactures all of its microprocessors in Dresden, Germany.

AMD has a technology exchange agreement with IBM. IBM continues to do well. IBM's strategy is to participate in higher margin products and avoid commodity markets like DRAM. IBM remains a world leader of chip technology.

Foreign companies continue to invest in U.S. fabs, but at a reduced rate. Samsung is doing well with its DRAM factories in Round Rock, Texas, a few miles north of Austin. Samsung operates two fabs; the newest fab opened in 2007 and is considered state-of-the-art.

There are also success stories at the lower end of the technology scale. X-Fab, a German company, operates a fab in Lubbock that is a bright star on a bleak landscape. X-Fab excels by thinking "out-of-the-box", something exceedingly rare in the chip industry today, ironic considering its history. It would be impossible for X-Fab to compete in a high volume, low margin business like DRAM, but they do very well with custom analog chip production. The facility was originally built by Texas Instruments.

More than half of the chip fabs in the United States in operation at the beginning of the decade are now closed. Outside of Intel, there has been little to cheer about. There is little mystery about what the future holds. Our actions today determine our consequences tomorrow.

About the Author: Brian Bradshaw is a 25+ year veteran of the Semiconductor (Chip) Industry. His career includes work at AMD, Varian, and Sematech. He is currently General Manager of In Situ Host Systems.

IBM: Corporate Social Responsibility

Who Is OnForce?

2009-06-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

OnForce (OnForce.com) provides access to over 12,000 service professionals in a number of technology categories, including computers, printers, networking, voice over internet (VoIP), point of sale technology, and consumer electronics.
Services include repair, training, and installation throughout the USA and Canada. OnForce currently processes about 23,000 work orders per month. This is about 10% higher than last year.

This service allows small companies to easily provide service and support nationwide. Approximately 60% of OnForce work orders are for troubleshooting and repair. The rest is primarily installation or deinstallation of equipment.

OnForce, formerly ComputerRepair.com, is often compared to Ebay, but instead of merchandise, OnForce auctions technical services. In fact, some of the OnForce executives came from Ebay. The OnForce system typically results in work being awarded to the contractor who will agree to work at the lowest rate. OnForce and similar services have their share of detractors.

Certifications are tracked, and buyers can filter service providers by these certifications. The number of different certifications tracked by OnForce has recently been increased. This has historically been an important weakness of the OnForce system. Certifications from BICSI, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Nortel, Samsung, Sun, and SonicWall are now also tracked. With these changes, OnForce now earns a "Fair" grade (upgraded from "Poor") with their certification tracking. A comprehensive Microsoft certification list is the most glaring oversight.

OnForce also includes a system for tracking criminal background checks and drug tests. The contractor must pay for these checks, but since buyers often filter by these attributes, the contractor is encouraged to participate.

OnForce Technology

OnForce technology is reminiscent of early Ebay technology. Remember that Ebay was "technology-challenged" in the early years.

OnForce interfaces with the contractor via a web portal. Since most contractors in this type of work are mobile, OnForce also sends an SMS (cellphone text) message, to alert the contractor that they need to check their account. If the contractor has a web enabled phone, he can log in and accept the work order. SMS can be a weak link in the system since SMS relays are notoriously unreliable. Remember that the tech may only have a couple of minutes after the SMS message is received (if he is lucky!).

The next time that you see a service vehicle cut across 3 lanes of traffic for a highway exit, you might consider that it could be an OnForce tech racing the clock to bid on a job.

Remember when Domino's Pizza was sued for pressuring their drivers to drive recklessly to deliver pizzas on time? Dominos should have reorganized their drivers into a contractor workforce ... Shazaam!!! Zero Responsibility!

Enhancements to the system by OnForce are promised. OnForce is undoubtedly an important development in the IT services chronology.

AT&T ConnecTech Now Partners with OnForce

AT&T now offers on-site tech support, called "ConnecTech" that include services such like PC repair or Audio-Video services. Zip Express Installations (a spin-off of Best Buy) also uses OnForce, primarily for flat-screen installs.

Because these tech support services are hard to manage with a unionized labor force, companies like AT&T are contracting with third parties like OnForce for these services.

The on-site IT market does not have a clear leader at the moment. With the bankruptcies of Circuit City and CompUSA, it is clear that there is not a retailer that's well positioned to fill that role.

The Switch to Digital TV, 24 Hours and Counting: Are We Ready?

2009-06-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

6/11/09

Days, Hours... on Friday the U.S. broadcast television industry goes "digital". Make a mental note to check on your neighbors and family. One survey this week said that 2 million homes are still not prepared for the switch.

TV reception is not a luxury. If you are reading this article, you are likely tech savvy. This will be a day to be generous with your skills.

Not everyone is pleased with the transition's efficiency. "This is a $650 million mistake," said Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), who was an opponent of transition postponement. If the transition program uses all of the money, "they've managed to spend $1,000 per household for a device that costs $50."

Digital TV is intended to give our TV broadcast system a needed update. Digital technology results in higher quality reception, and is more efficient in the use of RF spectrum. With increased efficiency, more channels can be broadcast, and Rf spectrum can be used for other services, such as wireless broadband and public safety communications.

TV stations, in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission have conducted several 5 minute interuptions of the legacy analog signal. These tests allow viewers to identify their readiness status for the transition, and publicize the upcoming event.

The last "soft test" was on May 21, and resulted in over 55,000 calls to the FCC's hotline. Just over half of the calls were requests for information for the agency's coupon subsidy program.

"It was a wake-up call for consumers who are unprepared, alerting them to the fact that they need to take the necessary steps before the June 12 DTV transition." said acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps.

The new deadline is now
less than 20 days away,
but will we be ready on June 12?

The answer depends on one's perspective. If we wait until 100% of consumers have completed their preparations, we might as well cancel the plan. It will never happen. However, if we set our perspective realistically, the country as a whole is well prepared.

In January, according to research firm Nielsen, 6.5 million U.S. households were unprepared for the switch to digital television, still receiving only analog signals over antennas. Now the number of households said to be unprepared has been cut nearly in half, to about 3.5 million (approximately 3 percent of households).

Approximately one-third of full-power TV broadcast stations are already completely transitioned, and more will do so soon. In total, about 45% of TV stations will have already switched to digital-only broadcasting before June 12.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is again sending out analog converter set-top box discount coupons. The NTIA will even exchange expired coupons. To date, 26 million coupons have been redeemed.

There is concern about the demand for the converter boxes needed might exceed supply. But according to Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), "Our survey data suggest that manufacturers and retailers will likely meet consumer demand for converter boxes and antenna through the end of the transition".

Most Americans are aware of the switch, said Anne Elliott, vice president of communications at Nielsen. "At this point, I think it would be hard to imagine that anybody who watches television has not heard of this transition." But "there are always folks who buy presents on Christmas Eve and people who line up at the post office on April 15" to file their taxes.

Cyberwar in Estonia and the Middle East

2009-06-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

By Aviram Jenik

Did a member of your family help launch a cyber attack that brought an entire nation to its knees? No, seriously, don't laugh. In April 2007, communications in the Baltic state of Estonia were crippled through a coordinated attack that relied on the computers of millions of innocent users around the world, just like you and your kin. The strike was notable in fully demonstrating how cyber war had moved from idea to reality. And it all started with the movements of a single soldier.

The Bronze Soldier is a two-meter statue which formerly stood in a small square in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, above the burial site of Soviet soldiers lost in the Second World War. The memorial has long divided the population of the country, with native Estonians considering it a symbol of Soviet (and formerly Nazi) occupation and a large minority population (around 25% of the total) of ethnic Russian immigrants seeing it as an emblem of Soviet victory over the Nazis and Russian claims over Estonia. When the country's newly appointed Ansip government initiated plans to relocate the statue and the remains as part of a 2007 electoral mandate, the move sparked the worst riots the country had ever seen - and a startling cyber attack from Russia.

On April 27, as two days of rioting shook the country and the Estonian embassy in Moscow found itself under siege, a massive distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attack overwhelmed most of Estonia's internet infrastructure, bringing online activity almost to a standstill. The targets were not military websites but civilian sites belonging to organizations such as banks, newspapers, internet service providers (ISPs), and even home users. Much of the onslaught came from hackers using ISP addresses in Russia, but the most devastating element in the attack was a botnet which co-opted millions of previously virus infected computers around the globe to pummel the Estonian infrastructure.

Anatomy of a Cyber Attack

The botnet fooled Estonian network routers into continuously resending useless packets of information to one another, rapidly flooding the infrastructure used to conduct all online business in the country. The attack centered mainly on small websites which were easy to knock out, but nevertheless was devastatingly effective. Bank websites became unreachable, paralyzing most of Estonia's financial activity. Press sites also came under attack, in an attempt to disable news sources. And ISPs were overwhelmed, blacking out internet access for significant portions of the population.

While the Estonian government was expecting there to be an online backlash to its decision to move the statue, it was completely unprepared for the scale of the cyber attack. Estonia's defense minister went on record to declare the attack "a national security situation", adding "it can effectively be compared to when your ports are shut to the sea."(1)

Once it became clear that most of the country's online business infrastructure was being affected, the Computer Emergency Response Team for Estonia (CERT-EE) issued a plea for help from IT security specialists worldwide and an ad-hoc digital rescue team was assembled, which included people from my own firm, Beyond Security. It took us a few days to get to the bottom of the threat and begin setting up frontline defenses, which mainly involved implementing BCP 38 network ingress filtering techniques across affected routers to prevent source address spoofing of internet traffic. The attack waned quickly once we started taking defensive measures. But in the days it took to fight off the attack, it is likely that the country lost billions of Euros in reduced productivity and business downtime.

Cyber War in the Middle East

The Estonian incident will go down in history as the first major (and hopefully biggest ever) example of full-blown cyber warfare. However, there is one place on earth where cyber war has become part of the day-to-day online landscape - and it is still ongoing.

In the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict has a significant online element, with thousands of attacks and counter-attacks a year. This has been the situation since the collapse of peace talks in the region and was preceded by a spontaneous wide-scale cyber war between Arab and Israeli hackers in 1999 and 2000. Arab sympathizers from many nations are involved. A group of Moroccan hackers have been defacing Israeli web sites for the last six years or so, and recently Israel's military radio station was infiltrated by an Iraqi hacker.

Unlike the blitzkrieg-like strike in Estonia, this protracted warfare is not intended to paralyze critical enemy functions but more to sap morale, drain resources and hamper the economy. The targets are typically low-hanging fruit in internet terms: small transactional, informational and even homespun web sites whose security can easily be compromised. Taking over and defacing these sites is a way of intimidating the opposition - creating a feeling of 'if they are here, where else might they be?' - and leads to significant loss of data, profits and trust for the site owners.

Cyber War Spreads

If the Estonia and Middle East examples were our only experiences of cyber warfare then it might be tempting to put them down to local factors and therefore not of concern to the wider security community. Sadly, however, these instances are simply part of a much larger trend towards causing disruption on digital communications platforms. In January this year, for example, two of Kyrgyzstan's four ISPs were knocked out by a major DDoS hit whose authors remain unknown.(2) Although details are sketchy, the attack is said to have disabled as much as 80% of all internet traffic between the former Soviet Union republic and the west.

The strike appeared to have originated from Russian networks which are thought to have had links to criminal activity in the past, and probably the only thing preventing widespread disruption in this instance was the fact that Kyrgyzstan's online services, unlike those in Estonia, are poor at the best of times. It was apparently not the first such attack in the country, either.(3) It is claimed there was a politically-motivated DDoS in the country's 2005 presidential elections, allegedly attributed to a Kyrgyz journalist sympathizing with the opposition party.

China has also engaged in cyber warfare in recent years, albeit on a smaller scale. Hackers from within the country are said to have penetrated the laptop of the US defense secretary, sensitive French networks, US and German government computers, New Zealand networks and Taiwan's police, defense, election and central bank computer systems.

In a similar fashion, in 2003 cyber pests hacked into the UK Labor Party's official website and posted up a picture of US President George Bush carrying his dog - with the head of Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the UK at the time, superimposed on it.(4) The incident drew attention to government sites' lax approach to security although in this particular event it was reported that hackers had exploited the fact that monitoring equipment used by the site hosting company had not been working properly. And as long ago as 2001, animal rights activists were resorting to hacking as a way of protesting against the fur trade, defacing luxury brand Chanel's website with images of slaughtered animals. (5)

The Case for the Defense

What do all these incidents mean for policy makers worldwide? Both the Estonian and Middle Eastern experiences show clearly that cyber war is a reality and the former, in particular, demonstrates its devastating potential. In fairness, Estonia was in some ways the perfect target for a cyber strike. Emerging from Russian sovereignty in the early 1990s with little legacy communications infrastructure, the nation was able to leapfrog the developments of western European countries and establish an economy firmly based on online services, such as banking, commerce and e-government. At the same time, the small size of the country - it is one of the least populous in the European Union - meant that most of its web sites were similarly minor and could be easily overwhelmed in the event of an attack. Last but not least, at the time of the Estonian incident, nothing on a similar scale had been experienced before.

It is safe to say that other nations will now not be caught out so easily. In fact, if anything, what happened in Estonia will have demonstrated to the rest of the world that cyber weapons can be highly effective, and so should be considered a priority for military and defense planning.

What might make cyber warfare the tactic of choice for a belligerent state? There are at least five good reasons. The first is that it is 'clean'. It can knock out a target nation's entire economy without damaging any of the underlying infrastructure.

The second is that it is an almost completely painless form of engagement for the aggressor: an attack can be launched at the press of a button without the need to commit a single soldier.

The third reason is cost-effectiveness. A 21,000-machine botnet can be acquired for 'just a few thousand dollars', a fraction of the cost of a conventional weapon, and yet can cause damage and disruption easily worth hundreds of times that.(6)

The fourth is that it is particularly difficult for national administrations to police and protect their online borders. A DDoS attack may be prevented simply by installing better firewalls around a web site (for example), but no nation currently has the power to tell its ISPs, telecommunications companies and other online businesses that they should do this, which leaves the country wide open to cyber strikes.

The last but by no means least reason is plausible deniability. In none of the cyber war attacks seen so far has it been possible to link the strike with a government authority, and in fact it would be almost impossible to do so. In the case of the Chinese hack attacks, for instance, the authorities have provided a defense which amounts to saying: 'There are probably a billion hackers on our soil and if it was us we would have to be stupid to do it from a Chinese IP address.'

A similar logic potentially provides absolution to the Russian administration in the case of Estonia: if it is so cheap and easy to get a botnet to mount a DDoS attack, why would the Russians bother mounting hack attacks from their own ISPs? And in the Kyrgyz attack, although the source of the DDoS clearly points to a Russian hand, the motives for Russia's involvement remain hazy, leading to a suggestion that it may have been caused by Kyrgyzstan's own incumbent party, acting with hired cyber criminals from Russia.

Tactics For Protection

With all these advantages, it is unlikely that any military power worth its salt is by this stage still ignoring the potential of cyber warfare. In fact, since the Estonia incident it is even possible that the incidence of cyber warfare has increased, and we are simply not aware of the fact because the defensive capabilities of the sparring nations have increased. After all, another important lesson from Estonia is that it is possible to mount a defense against cyber attacks. There is no single solution, no silver bullet, but a range of measures can be taken to deal with the kinds of DDoS issues faced by Estonia and the kinds of hacker attacks still going on in the Middle East.

For DDoS strike avoidance, there are four types of defense:
• Blocking SYN floods, which are caused when the attacker (for example) spoofs the return address of a client machine so that a server receiving a connection message from it is left hanging when it attempts to acknowledge receipt.
• Implementing BCP 38 network ingress filtering techniques to guard against forged information packets, as employed successfully in Estonia.
• Zombie Zappers, which are free, open source tools that can tell a device (or 'zombie') which is flooding a system to stop doing so.
• Low-bandwidth web sites, which prevent primitive DDoS attacks simply by not having enough capacity to help propagate the flood.

For hacker attacks such as those seen in the Middle East, meanwhile, there are
three main types of defense:
• Scanning for known vulnerabilities in the system.
• Checking for web application holes.
• Testing the entire network to detect the weakest link and plug any potential entry points.

A Doomsday Scenario?
All the above are useful defensive tactics, but what about strategic actions? First and foremost, the Estonian experience showed that it is important for the local CERT to have priority in the event of an attack, in order to ensure that things can return to normal as soon as possible.

Authorities can also as far as possible check national infrastructures for DoS and DDoS weaknesses,, and finally, national CERTs can scan all the networks they are responsible for - something the Belgian CERT has already started doing. Given the openness of the internet and the differing challenges and interests of those operating on it, these measures will of course only provide partial protection. But it is hoped they would be enough to prevent another Estonia incident. Or would they?

There is, unfortunately, another type of cyber war strike which we have yet to see and which could be several times more devastating that what happened in Estonia. Rather than trying to hack into web sites just to deface them - a time-consuming effort with relatively little payback - this tactic would involve placing 'time bombs' in the web systems concerned. These could be set to lay dormant until triggered by a specific time and date or a particular event, such as a given headline in the national news feed. They would then activate and shut down their host web site, either using an internal DoS or some other mechanism.

The code bombs could lay dormant for long enough for a malicious agency to crack and infect most or all of the major web sites of a country. And in today's networked world, this is no longer about simply causing inconvenience. Think of the number of essential services, from telephone networks to healthcare systems, which now rely on internet platforms. Knocking all these out in one go could have a truly overwhelming impact on a nation's defensive capabilities, without the need for an aggressor to send a single soldier into combat.

The means to create such an attack definitely exist. So do the means to defeat it. What has happened in Estonia and the Middle East shows we now need to consider cyber warfare as a very real threat. What could happen if we fail to guard against it really does not bear thinking about.

References
1. Mark Landler and John Markoff: 'Digital fears emerge after data siege
in Estonia'. New York Times, 29 May 2007.
2. Danny Bradbury: 'The fog of cyberwar'. The Guardian, 5 February 2009.
3. Ibid.
4. 'Labour website hacked'. BBC News, 16 June 2003.
5. 'The fur flies'. Wired, 23 January 2001.
6. Spencer Kelly: 'Buying a botnet'. BBC
World News, 12 March 2009.

Aviram Jenik is the CEO of Beyond Security, which has developed tools that uncover security problems in servers and web sites, discover vulnerabilities in corporate networks, check computer systems for vulnerability to hostile external attack and audit vendor products for security risks.

Aviram Jenik

Beyond Security

http://www.beyondsecurity.com

1616 Anderson Road

McLean, VA 22102

1-800-801-2821

brianp@beyondsecurity.com

Segmenting Inside (Linux)

2009-06-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Guy Smith

Once in a great while you see a company doing what would be sane in other markets, but might be a Herculean improbability in their own.

Yes, this has to do with the Linux market.

Specifically this has to do with the embedded Linux market, a realm so fragmented that 'chaos' is too polite a description. It is also one of Linux's silent success stories. Odds are that you are within five feet of one or more devices that have embedded Linux inside. Glancing about my office I count three (a printer, a router, and a cell phone, though I suspect the hub and print server at Linux-based as well).

The embedded Linux market is fragmented along several vectors. The primary vector of discord is the application. Router makers and printer makers and cell phone makers have different interest and needs with embedded Linux. A while back my neighbors at Wind River were toying with the notion of creating an online community where users in the different markets could share innovations in a non-competitive environment, but that initiative seems to have fallen in the gutter.

Now MontaVista wants to do the opposite.

Ignoring for a moment the unfortunate aspect of having the word 'vista' in their corporate name, the folks at MontaVista have decided that the proper approach to the market is to offer embedded Linux packages tailored to different market segments. They are not tackling the relative industries (routers, printers, cell phones, etc.). MontaVista is segmenting their embedded Linux offering by CPU/platform - Atom, PowerQUICC II Pro, PowerQUICC III, TI OMAP35x, etc.

Unlike the x86 server market, where use variations between box vendors are relatively limited, the chip market for embedded Linux is highly fractured. The differences are allegedly significant enough that loading a Linux distro down with cross platform packages is a burden to the buyers. MontaVista claims that many in the market buy an embedded Linux package and then customize it to their platform before using in production.

Which seems very odd given that the use of Linux Inside is typically for the more primitive functions.

MontaVista is segmenting their product to match the chip-based segment of the market. Now segmentation is a Good Thing^TM for marketers to do. What I find curious is that the assembly of a Linux package by CPU is a significant segmentation vector and that it has taken this long for a vendor to segment accordingly.

Which means it may not be a prime vector for segmenting.

Over at Wind River, they segment based the category of final product in which their Linux will be embedded. There are Wind River Linux distros for automotive devices, networking gear, consumer products as well as several medical and military specs. Instinctively this seems to be the more rational segmentation model. Consumer devices need user interface packages (image a G-Phone without the G-UI). Networking gear doesn't need fancy UIs, but it does need routing and network security functions that a consumer device might not.

The method to MontaVista's madness may be in their new Integration Platform (sigh, another use for the acronym IP). Akin to SuSE's openBuild system, the goal is to provide customers with ways of safely and sanely customizing MontaVista's core distro. This saves buyers the pain of finding, including and removing parts of a Linux distro to make it work for the intended application.

Here is a contrast in market approaches: Wind River has both a general purpose distro and a string of special builds for different industries. MontaVista has a general distro with some reconfiguration for different CPUs and with a tool to tailor the distro to your specific needs.

Which approach is better?

I'll have to give the short-term nod to Wind River. Business in competitive markets moves fast. Wind River provides products pre-configured for various industries, and yet which can still be tweaked by the customer (or by Wind River) if there is some exotic need. This helps customer get their products to market faster and possibly cheaper. If Wind River were to engineer an openSuse/MontaVista-IP type system for customization, then they would be hitting on all cylinders.

The marketing lesson herein is that segmentation is always driven by the customer base, not the convenience of the vendor. Segmenting by industry is a natural for many technology vendors, but it may not be the viable for your products. There are two primary goals in segmenting, which we'll be happy to explain once we land you as a client. Your segmentation model must meet these goals. If you don't then you will embed your company into the ground.

Guy Smith is the chief consultant for Silicon Strategies Marketing. Guy brings a combination of technical, managerial and marketing experience to Silicon Strategies projects.

Directly and as a consultant, Guy has worked with a variety of technology-producing organizations. A partial list of these technology firms include DeviceAnywhere (mobile applications), ORBiT Group (high-availability backup software), Telamon (wireless middleware), Wink Communications (interactive television), LogMeIn (remote desktop), FundNET (SaaS), DeviceAnywhere (mobile applications), Open-Xchange (groupware), VA Software (enterprise software), Virtual Iron (server virtualization), SUSE (Linux distributions and applications), BrainWave (application prototyping) and Novell.

http://www.SiliconStrat.com

Isotopic Variants Of The Intel Atom Processor

2009-06-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

By Debasis Das

In one of my previous articles, I have mentioned how the Intel Atom processor is fueling the growth of Netbooks. Atom processors come in a range of variants; that are divided into a few families of devices depending on the resources available on the processor, clock speed, whether they support multi-threading etc.

Current Variants: The Atom isotopes or the current variants of the Atom processor are 200 family, 300 family, N270 series and Z5xx series processors. A large percentage netbooks have Atom variants powering them. That's how all pervasive it has become. What makes it so attractive! We shall take a quick look here at the features of these processors. According to Intel there are no particular significance to the numbers assigned to these components; performance or otherwise. For example the Z5xx family members are not necessarily higher performance, faster devices that the 200 family. There are different features to these families though and that is what we shall quickly review here. Ideal way of doing it would have been to present you a matrix of the isotopes vs. features available. However, the format of these articles is not quite suitable for a table like that. We shall try our best to highlight the differences anyway. The processor components available so far are Z540, Z530, Z520, Z510, Z500, N270, 330 and 230. Latest member to join the team is the N280. The major features look like as follows. The format used is the processor number followed by clock speed, L1 cache size, FSB speed and max TDP rating. Clock speed in GHz is a straightforward item. They are around the 1.6 GHz mark except for Z540 and N280 which are faster at 1.86 and 1.66 GHz respectively. Z500 has the slowest clock speed at 800 MHz.

The cache size specification is that of the first level or the so called L1. This is fairly uniform across the members except for the 330 which has a 1 MB L1 cache. The clock speed indicates a spread of raw processor speeds from 800 MHz to 1.86 GHz. That's quite a range. The L1 cache specs are almost the same except the 330 which should show a marginal advantage over similar clock speed processor when really sequential programs are involved. FSB (front side bus) is the interface to memory system off chip. The memory system here is the main memory or the system memory; as they are variously called. This is a specification that largely determines the system performance.

Even though the on-chip processor is really fast, FSB speed really determines how fast the complete system will work on an average. N280 can handle fastest interface at 667 MHz while the Z510 and Z500 can handle only 400 MHz transactions. Other components work at 533 MHz. Unique thing about the N280 is that it can handle HD video, combined with the chipset GN40 it can go right up to 1080p video. What is really interesting about these processors is their extremely low power operation. TDP, thermal design power, is a specification for maximum power design inside the chip that should be taken into consideration for thermal designs. Except for 330 and 230 the ratings are at 2.5 watt levels. The lowest dissipation is on Z500. There are other features included in the processors that help manage the power dissipation closely within those specifications. We shall discuss those at some other future opportunity. The processors have all been designed with 45 nm lithography features and the physical chip measures just 13mmx14mm. Truly miniature sized wonders!

Debasis Das has worked with technology companies for close to four decades, 25 years of which has been with IT consulting companies. He has managed software and Geospatial industry outsourcing from India for International clientele. He has worked with customers from US, Europe, Japan and China. He is widely traveled and currently engaged in consultancy in software, embedded systems and technical contents.

Contact at ddas15847@yahoo.com
Web site at http://www.consult-debasis.com

Servers - A Tale of Two Technologies

2009-06-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

By Arthur Cole

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Dickens was describing London and Paris during the French Revolution. But in today's world, it is an apt description of the IT industry during the virtual revolution.

For the worst of times, we need look no further than the server industry, which reported another disastrous quarter earlier this week. According to IDC, worldwide shipments dropped some 26.5 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2009, with all of the major vendors showing double-digit revenue drops. Overall, the industry shipped only 1.49 million units, the largest decline in five years, with revenues down nearly a quarter to $9.9 billion.

The source of all this woe is the one-two punch of the recession and virtualization, which dampens the demand for new hardware through higher utilization of existing machines. While this may be good for capital budgets, as well as the environment, it's proving to be a real burden for the server industry, which had long counted on a steady refresh rate to keep its coffers full. The decline was most keenly felt in x86 devices.

IDC is also reporting that the picture seems to be the same for the second quarter so far, although they are predicting a tepid rebound by the fourth.

To their credit, many of the top server vendors are not trying to push back the tide but are actively embracing virtualization and other advanced technologies designed to produce more efficient hardware platforms. IBM, for instance, is gearing up for a new server line that takes advantage of Intel's forthcoming Nehalem-EX architecture that features up to 64 cores across eight processors. Although the system is likely to be expensive, it could do the job of multiple blade servers through its ability to handle up to 128 individual threads. The chip itself also provides 16 memory slots per socket and four QuickPath interconnect links for processing large amounts of data in tandem.

Now for the best of times. All of this virtual and multicore activity is clearly a boon to the networking side of the house, particularly wide-band solutions like 10 GbE. Dell'Oro Group reports that the 10 GbE market rebounded in the first quarter, following a decline in the fourth quarter of 2008. The company did not release any numbers from its Network Adapters Quarterly Report, although it did say that Intel is once again the new leader in adapter card revenue and port shipments, while Broadcom retained the spot as leader in silicon controllers.

This all makes perfect sense, of course, because as more and more data starts to run through fewer and fewer hardware devices, the focus of data center performance shifts from raw processing power to network agility and speed. Going forward, as cloud technologies allow enterprises to shift resources on a global scale, the question will no longer be "Do I have enough power to handle all this data?", but rather "How can I get this data quickly to my various end-points?"

And in this vein, there doesn't seem to be anyone interested in slowing things down. Mellanox, for example, just unveiled a 6-port, multiple-protocol 10 GbE physical layer that lays the groundwork for a new generation of high-density, low-power switches and pass-through devices. The PhyX supports all 10 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer functions and can be field-upgraded to FCoE with 2, 4, and 8 Gbps Fibre Channel gateway service without hardware modifications.

With such precipitous changes in data center hardware buying patterns, many wonder if things will ever get back to normal. While sales and revenue figures have fluctuated over the years, the hard news this time is that these changes look permanent. Once the recession is over, server sales should pick up, but they will be nowhere near previous numbers because those low utilization rates are gone forever.

The new normal will be relatively low server activity and increasingly fast networks as enterprises position themselves for the cloudy/virtual decade to come.

Read Art's article, "The Three Factors Shaping the Future of the Data Center" - http://bit.ly/LQD6h

Enabling Diagrammatic Modelling of Engineering Problems

2009-06-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

By Peter Hale

Introduction
C.S. Peirce (1906) stated in 'Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism' "Come on, my Reader, and let us construct a diagram to illustrate the general course of thought; I mean a system of diagrammatization by means of which any course of thought can be represented with exactitude". That is the purpose of this research, but to limit the scope and so make application of this theory testable the research is restricted mainly to engineers (because they often think in terms of diagrams) and to the domain of modelling (which often requires diagrams). So the aim is to apply the research first where it can have the most use and encourage others to expand it for other domains and other users. This research is intended to simplify computing for computer literate non-programmers, this includes many engineers. The main research area is enabling users such as engineers to model the problems they encounter in manufacturing and design. However, the wider aim is to prototype research for enabling a larger range of software users to model their problems. The intention is to create collaborative tools that allow users to develop software in a way they will be familiar with from their use of spreadsheets. This research brings together approaches of object orientation, the Semantic Web, relational databases, and Model-Driven and Event-Driven programming. Frankel et al. (2004) explain the opportunities for, and importance of this kind of research.

Iterative development is used both in this research and in the implementation to ensure that changes can be made systematically as necessary and without disrupting a project.

Software engineering and modelling has much in common with engineering modelling, also the tools used for both have much in common. Software process modelling, engineering process modelling, and business/workflow modelling share a common approach, and similar tools. Much of this commonality is in the need to transform requirements into design into code semi-automatically. To achieve this, continuous consultation between potential users e.g. engineers for engineering modelling problems and developers for software problems is required.

Organisations have many limitations resulting from the lack of facilities to allow users to program. For example the use of 'out of the box' modelling tools that are hard to customise or introduce collaborative capabilities, because a project deadline is so urgent that nothing else is practical.

Methodology
A common factor in these various types of modelling is the need to transform between a high level abstraction, to a lower level such as a computer model and then code. This is illustrated by examples of semi-automatically produced programs/models (Hale, 2008). The translation process involves translating from a tree/graph representation and for each node this is translated into a code representation of the equation that relates this node to any others, and this code is then presented in the interface as a result tree/graph. This can be achieved for programs and/or web pages. Kraus et al. (2007) examine and implement this transformation problem and also produce code and/or web pages. Uschold (2003) defines the Semantic Web as being machine usable and associated with more meaning. So this is a good way to convey the abstractions represented in a source and result tree to the end user.

The intention is to demonstrate a way to construct diagrammatic representations of cost using the example of an aircraft wingbox. The wingbox is the structure or skeleton of the wing. These diagrammatic representations are achieved by visual representation of items and equations that make up wingbox cost. These items and equations can be represented in standardised categories used in engineering - 'materials', 'processes', 'cost rates' etc. These categories are standard for engineering and the methods for representing items and equations that relate the items can be expressed in standard mathematical form. Therefore using the same methodology and same categories it would be possible to represent other items and equations in the same way. So this methodology is reusable for costing other engineering components including those outside aerospace. The costing method is also recursive because components and sub components can be costed separately or together and top down or from bottom up. This methodology has the potential to be applied to any calculation based modelling problem.

Engineering modelling can be performed using a high level diagrammatic view of the problem and conveyed to the computer via transformation. Solutions to this transformation problem can be found by adapting current tools and techniques using a systematic approach. Such tools and techniques involve use of modelling tools, spreadsheets, ontology management tools, and Semantic Web Web 2.0 tools. These possible solutions are not mutually exclusive and their combination could be the best way of providing usable collaborative modelling tools for computer literate end users and domain experts. The link between these alternative ways of advancing current research is translation and User Driven Modelling/Programming.

It is possible to create an extra layer of visualised semantics to enable users to specify commands in structured language. This approach of adding extra layers is the way this visual programming works. Users provide the information the program needs at the visual interface layer, and program code is created automatically. The layers provide the bridge between abstract ideas and computer code. If this approach is taken to its logical conclusion, it would be possible to allow the user to specify what the computer should do. Then each layer would communicate this to the layer below until the computer performs the action required. A simple example of this approach is the use of spreadsheets. Users can specify a calculation in mathematical terms using a formula. The spreadsheet then calculates the result of the formula. Users can change the formula if it is incorrect without any need to write code or re-compile. This accounts for the popularity of spreadsheets. However, spreadsheets do not provide the centralised and structured data-store required for a distributed collaborative system. Therefore, the research concentrates on combining the wide applicability of generic spreadsheet modelling with structured and adaptable modelling and visualisation.

It is important to enable changes to the design of the information source and its structure as necessary, even when it contains information. This makes possible continuous improvement of the information and its representation together. Clear visualisation of the structure makes out of date and duplicate information obvious, so it can be changed by the end-users of the information. This provides for maintenance of information quality without necessitating end-users to understand relational database design; though relational databases can still be accessed by software specialists for more in depth and less frequent structural changes.

Program transformation allows for writing in one representation or language, and translating to another. This is particularly useful for language independent programming, or for high level and end user programming that can then be translated to a language more easily interpreted by computer systems.

A taxonomy representation is translated into a computer model. Relationships can be conveyed to a software model that evaluates them. Information is translated from the taxonomy and is visualised in tree form in a decision support tool with the example of spar manufacture information. The visualisation of the information in a tree can be further translated into visualisation as an interactive diagram. The representation can be translated into different languages, to allow for language independence.

Related Research
Crapo et al. (2002) assert the need for a methodology for creation of systems to enable more collaborative approaches to modelling by domain expert end-users, and that this combined with visualisation would allow engineers to model problems accurately. Huhns (2001) and Paternò, (2005) both explain that alternatives to the current approach to software development are required. Modelling languages such as Alloy explained by Wallace (2003) can be used as an interface to an End-User Programming environment. Transformation from a model building environment to program code has been investigated by Gray et al. (2004).

My Research - http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~phale/

Modelling - http://sites.google.com/site/userdrivenmodellingprogramming/

I am a Researcher in the final year of my PhD. I specialise in applying Semantic Web techniques. My current research is on a technique of 'User Driven Modelling/Programming'. My intention is to enable non-programmers to create software from a user interface that allows them to model a particular problem or scenario. This involves a user entering information visually in the form of a tree diagram. I am attempting to develop ways of automatically translating this information into program code in a variety of computer languages. This is very important and useful for many employees that have insufficient time to learn programming languages. I am looking to research visualisation, and visualisation techniques to create a human computer interface that allows non experts to create software.

Mission Statement

2009-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Mission: one of the reasons that the IT services industry is so prone to corruption is because the industry is so fragmented. Most everyone on the worker-bee side is a freelancer.

Over time, many of the coordinating companies have come to believe that screwing the contractor is within their rights. The contractor should feel lucky if they ever get paid. For many contractors who have worked in this environment for several years, this situation is "normal".

This needs to change.

It was bad enough when small "fly-by-night" companies were prowling the industry. But much more disturbing, are Fortune 100 companies that are now, indirectly participating in the activity. It is not OK to knowingly hire another company to commit a crime.

The first step to address the fragmentation of the Geek Community is communication. If Geeks are aware of the actions of the coordinating companies, good and bad, then the Geek can act accordingly.

The next needed step is a measured amount of oversight by the federal government. The best situation would have been a healthy free market. In this case, that plan has resulted in a Mafia-esque technical services market. This is not a local problem. Companies in rural "friendly" municipalities are commiting grand larceny nationally. These locale have not been chosen at random. Without intervention, this situation will surely worsen.

That is the purpose of this blog:

keeping Geeks Informed.

_____________________________________________________

All About Performance Testing - The Best Acceptance Criteria

2009-06-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

By Yogindernath Gupta

First of all, let us see what is the meaning of the term "Performance Testing":

For general engineering practice, "Performance Testing" refers to evaluation & measurement of functional characteristics of an individual, a system, a product or any material.

However in software industry parlance, the term "Performance Testing" widely refers to the evaluation & measurement of functional effectiveness of a software system or a component, as regards its reliability, scalability, efficiency, interoperability & its stability under load.

These days a new science by the name "Performance Engineering" is emerging in IT industry & Performance Testing / Acceptance Testing are being viewed as its subsets. The performance engineering lays prime emphasis on covering the performance aspects in the system design itself i.e. right from the beginning & more important is that well before the start of actual coding.

Why Software Industry lays so much emphasis on Performance Testing:

The key reasons are:

1) Performance has become the key indicator of product quality and acceptance consideration nowadays in a highly dynamic & competitive market.
2) Customers are becoming extremely demanding on quality front & have clear vision of their performance objectives.
3) These days, every customer is looking for greater speed, scalability, reliability, efficiency & endurance of all applications - may it be multi tier applications, web based applications or client server applications etc. etc.
4) Greater need for identifying & eliminating the performance inhibiting factors early during the development cycle. It is best to initiate the performance testing efforts right from the beginning of the development project & these remain active till final deployment.

What are the objectives of Performance Testing?

1) To carry out root cause analysis of performance related common & uncommon problems & devise plans to tackle them.
2) To reduce the response time of the application with minimal investment on hardware.
3) To identify the problems causing the malfunctioning of the system & fix them well before the production run. Problems remedied during later stages of production have high cost tags attached to them.
4) Benchmarking of the applications, with a view to refine the company's strategy towards software acquisition for the next time.
5) To ensure that the new system conforms to the specified performance criteria.
6) To draw a comparison among performance of two or more systems.

Typical Structure of a Performance Testing Model:

Step-1: Collection of Requirements - The most important step & the backbone of performance test model
Step-2: System Study.
Step-3: Design of Testing Strategies - Can include the following.

a) Preparation of traversal documents.
b) Scripting Work.
c) Setting up of test environment.
d) Deployment of monitors.

Step-4: Test Runs can cover the following

a) Baseline Test Run
b) Enhancement Test Run
c) Diagnostic Test Run

Step-5: Analysis & preparation of an interim report.
Step-6: Implementation of recommendations from step-5.
Step-7: Preparation of a Finalized Report.

Attributes of a Good Performance Testing setup:

1) Availability of a performance baseline document detailing the present performance of the system & acting as an effective baseline, which can be used in regression testing. This baseline document can be conveniently used to compare the expectations when the system conditions happen to change.
2) Performance test beds & test environment should be separate & must replicate the live production environment as far as possible.
3) Performance testing environment should not be coupled with the development environment.
4) Resources leading to fulfillment of objectives like:

# Deployment of personnel with sound knowledge
# Systematic & deliberate planning
# Study of existing infrastructure
# Proper preparation
# Systematic execution
# Scientific analysis
# Effective reporting

However these days many companies have started doing part of the testing under the live environment, This helps them in establishing points of differences experienced during test & live systems.

How to gear up for Performance Testing?

1) Define the performance conditions: First of all we need to define performance conditions related to functional requirements like speed, accuracy & consumption of resources. Resources can be like memory requirements, storage space requirements & bandwidth of the communication system etc. etc.
2) Study the operational profile: The operational profile contains details of usage patterns and environment of the live system. It includes description of the period of operation, the operating environment, quantum of loads & expected transactions etc. When exact data is not available, the data from the testing profiles can be approximated especially when testing is not being done under the live environment.
3) Prepare good performance test cases: While designing performance test cases, our endeavor must be to

a) Understand the present performance levels & to use this information for benchmarking at a later date.
b) Evaluate the performance requirements of the system against the specified norms.
c) Clearly specify the system inputs and the expected outputs, when the system is subjected to the defined load conditions like profile of the test, test environment & the test duration etc.

Ways of doing Performance Testing:

Conventionally there are two methods of performance testing like

1) Manual performance testing
2) Automated performance testing

1) Manual Performance Testing: In order to develop an adequate confidence, the response times being a good indicator of performance of a transaction must be measured several times during the test. Use of stopwatches monitored by many persons is one of the oldest & effective way to measure the test performance. Depending upon the available infrastructure, other means can also be devised.
2) Automated Performance Testing: Many approaches can be practiced here. We can use the automation software which can simulate the users actions & can simultaneously record the response times & various system parameters like access of storage discs, usage of memory & queue length for various messages etc. etc.

We can provide additional data load over the system, through many utility programs, message replication programs, batch files & many protocols analyzing tools etc.

Important Considerations for Designing Good Performance Test Cases:

1) Stress: To take care of the ability of a system or its component to move beyond the specified limits of performance requirements.
2) Capacity: To cover the maximum amounts which can be contained, or produced, or completely fully occupy the entity.
3) Efficiency: To take care of the desired efficiency measured as the ratio of volume of data processed to the amount of resources consumed for the particular processing.
4) Response time: To take care of the specified requirements of response time i.e. the total time elapsed between the event of initiation of request to the receipt of response.
5) Reliability: Must be able to deliver the expected results with sufficient consistency.
6) Bandwidth: Must be able to measure & evaluate the bandwidth requirements i.e. the amount of data passing across the system.
7) Security: Must be able to evaluate the user confidentiality, access permissions & data integrity considerations in the system.
8) Recovery: Must be able to subject the system under test to higher loads, and measure the time it takes to the normal situation after withdrawal of loads.
9) Scalability: Must be able to handle more loads by the addition of more hardware elements components without any coding change.

Lessons learned:
Performance engineering approach encompassing load testing, stress testing or endurance testing is extremely important acceptance consideration in today's highly competitive market with highly demanding & quality conscious customers.

http://www.softwaretestinggenius.com

Earth Week E-Cycle

2009-06-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

According to the EPA, discarded electronics accounts for 220 million tons of refuse every year, enough material to fill trucks that would stretch bumper-to-bumper for more than 2000 miles. This electronic waste includes computer parts, monitors, printers, microwave ovens, cell phones, batteries, and audio-video equipment.

Every year, humans dispose of approximately 250 million computers.

Just in California, 6,000 computers become obsolete every day.

In the United States there are over 200 million mobile phones (More than 1.2 billon cell phones were sold worldwide in 2008).

Only 10% of electronics equipment is recycled. The rest winds up in landfill where it will sit for the rest of eternity.

Since electronic equipment contains toxic substances, this enormous volume poses a tremendous health and environmental risk from the landfills, where the toxins can leak into the soil and ground water. For example, cathode ray tubes (CRT) in computer monitors and televisions contain heavy metals, including lead, barium and cadmium.

According to data from EIAE.Org, lead accounts for approximately 10% of the weight of a CRT television or computer monitor. An estimated 70 per cent of heavy metals found in U.S. landfills comes from discarded electronics. These metals can be very harmful to the health of people and wildlife if they enter the ground water.

More than half of recycled electronics end up in scrapyards in China, Ghana and other developing countries. There, the refuse is burned or dismantled by hand, exposing desperate workers to mercury, lead and other toxic materials.

The five hundred million computers currently in use contain 6.32 billion pounds of plastics, 1.58 billion pounds of lead, and 632,000 pounds of mercury.

The Basel Action Network

In the United States, there are no federal regulations to address e-waste disposal, but a few states have enacted laws to address the problem. Arkansas, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington have passed regulations governing the disposal of electronic waste.

Consumer Reports has an online tool called "Fix It or Nix It" to help consumers decide whether their electronics is worth repairing or upgrading.

Donating a Computer to Charity

Landfill

Or

E-Cycle

Photo: Dru Bloomfield

There are several charitable organizations like Goodwill (reconnectpartnership.com), and National Cristina Foundation (cristina.org) that accept electronics for recycling. You can also contact eiae.org to find a local e-cycle center.

Giving away old electronics can be characterized as a charitable donation (tax deduction). If you intend to donate a computer, you should not completely erase the hard-drive, since charitable organizations usually cannot afford to purchase new operating systems. If possible, provide the charity with original installation media and documentation from when the computer was purchased.

Technical Aspects of Computer Recycling

The computer owner has the most detailed knowledge of the data contained within the computer that needs to be purged, and what data needs to be retained.

Properly deleting files requires more than just dragging files into the recycle bin and then emptying the directory. Erased documents can still be recovered unless they are purged more fully. Similarly, reformatting the hard disk may not prevent the recovery of old data as it is possible for disks to be "unformatted".

The best options are commercially available programs like Norton SystemWorks. These programs not only delete a file, but remove traces of the file on the hard-drive by writing noise over the track that once held the sensitive data.

Even though the process takes a little effort, it's worth the trouble to recycle. You probably can save enough money on your taxes, by donating the computer to charity, to make it worth your time. And you can sleep better, knowing that you did your part as a good citizen of the planet Earth.

Computer Repair Checklist - Before You Call

2009-05-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

By Ben Nystrom

Five years ago, consumers having computer problems were more likely to go out and purchase a new PC or laptop rather than seek out a computer repair service to fix the issue. Times have changed. Consumers either don't have the extra cash they once did for upgrading computer systems or they are leery of their own financial future and therefore are holding onto extra cash until times are better.

This has resulted in a surge in work for computer repair shops.

This also has resulted in a surge of phone calls and home visits with computer users who believe they have a major computer problem but really have simple, easily overlooked issues that they can fix themselves.

Before calling a local computer repair expert, it is a good idea to ensure your computer's problem isn't caused by an overlooked user error. So many laptop and PC owners forget to do some initial assessing before calling in reinforcements.

A few things to check before you call in a computer IT professional are provided as a helpful checklist to computer users everywhere:

- Power Source: Did your laptop or PC shut down or turned itself off? If you're using a laptop, the battery may have died and simply needs to be recharged. If you have a desktop, you may have accidently kicked out the power cord. Check all cords to make sure they are properly connected and try to start your computer.

- Reboot: Is your computer frozen or not allowing you to run certain programs? Try restarting (rebooting) it. If you can't reboot from the desktop, look for a restart button on the computer, usually located on the sides, above the keyword or in the back. NOTE: you may lose your most recently entered data if you force a reboot; it pays to save often.

- Virus Check: Are your browsers or software programs turning themselves on and off randomly? This could indicate a spyware or virus problem. Run a virus check on your operating system using anti-virus software (several options are available to home and office users).

- Slow Performance: Is your system simply running poorly? Consider updating your software applications. Old programs can cause your entire system to run slow. Most operating systems when connected to the internet will send you notices when a new software update is available. If that isn't the case for your computer, you can go to a software company's website and download updates from there. If you don't have internet access, you will need to go to a computer supply store and buy software update packages in person.

- Slower Performance: Are you still experiencing slow performance? You may need to evaluate your system and do some clean-up. If you have a lot of large data files like pictures, music, or videos, they could be sucking up your computer's memory and slowing up the overall process. Erasing old files you don't need any more or saving them to an external hard drive will bring your computer back up to speed. If you have a lot of programs installed on your laptop that you don't need, remove them also to free up disk space and allow your system to run more smoothly.

If you've gone through this checklist and continue to have problems, then pick up the phone and call an IT help desk or local computer repair service. Some IT services will even provide a free consultation visit to evaluate the problem before they commit to making any fixes. In this way, you can avoid any fees should the problem be something simple that you may have overlooked.

~Ben Nystrom, 2009

Having a helpful computer IT service available 24/7 for network and individual system troubleshooting is invaluable for a small business. Find out what additional support Beaverton computer repair and IT services company, Ascensha, can do for you.

Sun Done?

2009-05-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

By Guy Smith

I wonder what antitrust agency lawyers will make of Oracle's acquisition of Sun. Not that it matters much as Larry Ellison has slain that dragon before. Rumor has it the heads of three lawyers are mounted on the wall of Ellison's office (knew I liked Larry for a reason).

The database market is tiny when measured by the number of serious competitors. Oracle is the king of the enterprise database server beasts while IBM's DB2 or Microsoft's SQL Server holds a tenuous second places (depending on whose measure you use, the common analyst measures being revenues, installations, recent developer involvement, moon phases or the pattern of chicken bones tossed into a fire pit). Microsoft's SQL Server has its adherents, but that is largely out of religion for Windows not over-arching trends. Also-rans like Ingress, Sybase and others have receded into obscurity. For enterprise database technology, this is a seriously contracted market and one that would cause any government lawyer to skip their triple martini lunches.

Now Larry is buying the bottom of the market.

In Sun he also gets MySQL, the Open Source competitor for which Sun overpaid. MySQL not only has absconded with nearly the entire low end of the market (a sector where Oracle never made money nor marketed their wares with any real intent), but it is eating most of the middle ground as well. When I talk to CTOs and ask them about non-mission critical applications, they contentedly use MySQL and forgo the expense of establishing another Oracle instance.

That has to annoy Ellison no end (knew I liked MySQL for a reason).

In buying Sun, Oracle is significantly consolidating the entire database market, and demonstrably the enterprise database market. Granted MySQL's Open Source nature means Oracle doesn't really control it at all. Larry can't kill it off on a whim. Yet Oracle can influence its growth, support and overall market viability. Oracle can affect MySQL's future.

More to the point, the government simply does not like one corporation owning a wide or deep part of any market, and now Oracle has both. It has width - covering one half of the enterprise database market (if you consider Microsoft's SQL Server an enterprise solution) and it has depth now owning - for practical purposes - the bottom and middle via MySQL. Using rough estimates of penetration, we can visualize what most of us instinctively know about this merger - that the number of alternative providers in the market is suddenly smaller.

Ignoring for a moment MySQL and the steam venting from Steve Ballmer's ears this morning, the other parts of Sun are equally interesting, both from a market and an antitrust standpoint. Like MySQL, Java is Open Source. But Oracle has a vested interest in Java given the architecture of Fusion and derivatives. With Oracle dominating the enterprise application market and competitors depending heavily on Java for their applications, there is an inherent competitive advantage for Oracle to control the fate of Java. Again, being Open Source, Larry can instigate only limited intrigue, but there is enough leverage to make trouble for his foes.

Despite the potential for using SPARC's massive multi-threading chip to create a monster database engine, I cannot seriously believe Oracle wants to get into the server hardware business. X86 architectures are the new norm and if today's VMWare introduction of vSphere 4 is an indication, the cloud is the new mainframe, making SPARC's minor advantage irrelevant.

Finally, there is StorageTek, another outfit Sun bled too much cash for (was Jonathan Schwartz secretly on a buying spree for Larry?). All data needs backup, but storage is a highly competitive arena and Oracle prefers fat software margins over skinny and shrinking hardware margins. Spinning off StorageTek is highly likely though who the buyer might be is unclear. Perhaps Oracle will do with StorageTek what EMC did with VMWare and create a beast with two backs.

Regardless, we can expect the Fed's to get deeply involved and for Ellison to crush them. Owning control over MySQL and Java are juicy enough for him to play hardball (as if he knows any other way). All this time I worried about the technology business being commoditized. I should have been worried about Oracle swallowing it whole.

Guy Smith is the chief consultant for Silicon Strategies Marketing. Guy brings a combination of technical, managerial and marketing experience to Silicon Strategies projects. Directly and as a consultant, Guy has worked with a variety of technology-producing organizations. A partial list of these technology firms include DeviceAnywhere (mobile applications), ORBiT Group (high-availability backup software), Telamon (wireless middleware), Wink Communications (interactive television), LogMeIn (remote desktop), FundNET (SaaS), DeviceAnywhere (mobile applications), Open-Xchange (groupware), VA Software (enterprise software), Virtual Iron (server virtualization), SUSE (Linux distributions and applications), BrainWave (application prototyping) and Novell. http://www.SiliconStrat.com

Limited Liability Corporations

2009-05-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

By Amy McDaniel

A limited liability corporation is what many refer to when they are inquiring about the LLC. An LLC offers small business owners the same benefits of a corporation plus more. Compare the two here:

LIMITED LIABILITY

Many business owners are trying to decide between an LLC and a corporation. Both offer owners of the business limited liability. Corporation entities, however, are required to hold certain meetings and maintain paperwork formalities. The LLC offers the ability to run a business without additional formalities.

OWNERSHIP

The limited liability company issues membership units and its owners are called members. The corporation issues shares of stock and the owners are called shareholders. In most cases, both types provide a similar ownership structure. The difference is that the LLC allows a lot more flexibility if the owners of the business wanted to customize their ownership rights and obligations among members.

This flexibility is attractive to small businesses because it allows a business to be operated based on the circumstances of the personalities and desires of the particular business owners and not under a one size fits all structure mandated by the laws. For example, two members can own the same number of units, but one of them can get more profits than the other.

GOVERNANCE

Traditionally, while corporate statutes have explicit provisions regarding limited liability, corporation shareholders are generally required to hold an annual meeting and elect a Board of Directors each year. The Board is responsible for management of the business while shareholders in their capacity as shareholders have no such authority.

The limited liability company offers an option for a manager managed governance structure which is a similar centralized management structure as the corporation. Instead of a Board of Directors, the governing body is called the Board of Managers. The LLC statutes do not require annual meetings and elections and allow for the company to make its own rules in how and how often managers are elected.

In addition, a limited liability corporation can have a much simpler structure and have its members all be managers and operators of the business. This is a member managed structure. This gets rid of the central and second level which provides for less paperwork and governance maintenance. The downside here is that you must trust all members as they will each have authority to act on behalf of the business.

TAXATION

A huge benefit of an LLC is that it automatically qualifies for a single layer of taxation (called pass through taxation) without requiring the business or its owners to meet any conditions or requirements.

The corporation's default structure results in double taxation which can have a major impact on the bottom line profits. The LLC also allows for it to elect to be taxed as a corporation which is nice because it offers the option. In some cases, it may be more beneficial to have a corporation structure. Check with your accountant.

Both the limited liability company and the corporation allow for the business to elect S corporation taxation if the owners of the business and the business itself meet the laundry list of S corporation requirements. S corporation taxation is another form of pass through similar to what the LLC gets automatically.

In summary, the LLC offers more tax options than the corporation which provides business owners with more choices to choose which is most advantageous to their business.

OTHER

Fees for corporations can sometimes be based on the # of shares and so if you plan on having a large number, your fees could be significant. LLC maintenance fees are usually minimal in most states (there are exceptions) and do not vary with the number of membership units issues.

If your business plans on going public, you must be a corporation as there is not method to sell membership units on NASDAQ or the NYSE yet. Also, if you plan on raising capital by taking in a venture capital investor, the investor will likely require you be a corporation.

Otherwise, the LLC usually offers the typical small business owner with the most benefits and the easiest type of legal entity to operate. Both offer limited liability. Corporation entities require a bit more when it comes to starting, structuring and operating a business.

For a FREE LLC Guide or to access an extensive FAQ knowledge base about the limited liability corporation, visit The LLC Expert: http://www.TheLLCExpert.com

Wi-Fi Spectrum Analyzers : Optimally Configure and Troubleshoot 802.11 Wireless Networks

2009-05-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

By Steve Leytus

Wi-Fi wireless networks have grown in popularity in recent years and are found ubiquitously in business, industry and the home. Wi-Fi networks operate in the 2.4 GHz Industry, Scientific, Medical (ISM) band - a public band that is unlicensed by the FCC. Many types of wireless devices compete for air space in the 2.4 GHz ISM band - and this introduces interference that negatively impacts the performance of a wireless network. A 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer is the tool of choice for detecting and identifying sources of interference and providing information that allows optimal configuration of a Wi-Fi network.

Overview

With wireless systems it is very difficult to predict the propagation of radio waves and detect the presence of interfering signals without the use of test equipment. Radio waves don't travel the same distance in all directions - instead walls, doors, elevator shafts, people, and other obstacles offer varying degrees of attenuation, which cause the Radio Frequency (RF) radiation pattern to be irregular and unpredictable. In order to achieve optimal reliability and throughput for your Wi-Fi ( 802.11) wireless network it is necessary to detect and identify sources of interference that impact negatively on its performance.

There are a multitude of electronic devices that transmit RF energy into the airspace. Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) operates in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. This particular range of frequencies (2.401 GHz through 2.473 GHz) is public and its use does not require licensing by the FCC. As a result, this band tends to get rather crowded – not only with 802.11 devices but also microwaves, bluetooth devices, cordless phones, baby monitors, audio/video senders, wireless cameras, etc.

Professional installers of wireless computer networks attempt to optimize their client’s Wi-Fi network by strategically choosing a subset of the 2.4 GHz band for use by their wireless network devices. The 2.4 GHz range of 2.401 – 2.473 GHz is separated into 11, 22 MHz channels. Note that 2.473GHz – 2.401GHz = 72 MHz, yet 11 times 22 MHz is 242 MHz. So, how does 242 MHz fit into 72 MHz? Answer – the channels overlap. An installer can configure the wireless router or access point (AP) to use channel 6, and then all data communication will occur over the range of frequencies associated with channel 6 (i.e. 2.426 GHz – 2.448 GHz). But if other wireless devices (802.11 or non-802.11) are also transmitting over this range of frequencies then your wireless network will suffer. So, when installing a wireless network or troubleshooting a poorly performing one, it is important to choose a channel that is not subject to interference from other devices – i.e. you don’t want your wireless network to compete with other devices for the same range of frequencies.

Wi-Fi Diagnostic Tools

There are two categories or types of tools that are available for helping you choose the best Wi-Fi channel for your wireless network - WiFi Scanners (i.e. 802.11 discovery tools) and 2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzers:

Wi-Fi scanner or 802.11 (WLAN) discovery utility. The best known in this category is NetStumbler (http://www.netstumbler.com/) . The discovery tool will report the Service Set Identifier (SSID) for each access point (AP) it detects, along with the channel used by the AP. The way this works is that roughly every 100 mSec an AP sends an “I’m here” beacon – and the discovery tool (running on your laptop and using its 802.11 wireless adapter) picks up that beacon and adds the SSID to its list. In addition, the discovery utility may report the SNR (signal-to-noise) ratio for each AP, which is approximately an indication of how close the AP is to your current location. Though this is useful information, it doesn’t tell you anything about non-802.11 devices or even how busy the APs are. That is, your laptop could be sitting next to a microwave oven, sending all kinds of RF energy into the room, and the discovery tool would be clueless to its existence. The discovery tool only knows about 802.11 devices – that is, devices that transmit RF energy according to the 802.11 protocol - and can not see non-802.11 transmissions. Here’s an analogy – you’re in a large auditorium and you hear someone across the room occasionally yell out “Hello, I’m Joe!”. Joe is an access point and he occasionally sends a beacon to let whoever is out there know that he’s there. It might be that Joe is really busy and talking with many people or he might be by himself. Or there might be a lot of noise in the auditorium that would make it difficult to carry on a conversation with Joe from a distance. The discovery tool can’t help you with that – it only hears Joe’s occasional beacon “Hello, I’m Joe!”.

2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzer. This is the instrument of choice for detecting and identifying sources of RF interference. Spectrum analyzers are a basic tool used for observing radio frequency (RF) signals – they give you a better picture of the RF environment to help identify and find devices interfering with your Wireless LAN (WLAN). Typically they’ll employ a 2-dimensional display where the vertical axis (Y-axis) represents the magnitude of a signal and the horizontal axis (X-axis) represents the frequency of a signal. Dedicated hardware spectrum analyzers can run into the tens of thousands of dollars (they employ many arrays of analog-to-digital converters). Recently, PC-based analyzers have appeared on the market. Yet they are also fairly expensive – in the neighborhood of $4000. AirSleuth is an affordable 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer available from Nuts About Nets, LLC that displays RF data in a variety of diagnostic views that help you detect the presence of interfering devices and then choose the best channel for your wireless network.

Examples
In each figure there are 3 items to take note of:

a. The maximum value on the Y-axis

b. The horizontal white lines that denote the boundaries of the 11, overlapping 802.11 channels

c. The location (i.e. frequency) and height (relative signal strength) of the major RF peaks

Figure 1. In this figure the horizontal white lines show the boundaries of the 11, 22 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Notice how adjacent channels overlap with one another.

Figure 2. The air space is relatively quiet and there are no wireless devices transmitting in the 2.4 GHz band. Notice the maximum value on the Y-axis is ‘3.0’ Relative Signal Strength units – this is small. The reason you see peaks (and the output isn’t totally flat) is the display employs automatic scaling, such that the largest peak (regardless of how small it really is) will fill-up the screen. We know this is what background noise looks like because the maximum value on the Y-axis is < 10.0.

Figure 3. A microwave oven is running. Here you can see that it emits RF energy across the entire 2.4 GHz band.

Figure 4. A 2.4 GHz cordless phone has been powered on. Notice the height of the peak in the vicinity of channel 1 is around ‘140’ units and the peak in the vicinity of channel 11 is around ‘110’ units. These are strong enough to knock-out wireless networks configured to use either channel 1 or channel 11. In addition, because of the way that channels overlap the first peak would probably also interfere with a wireless network using channel 2, and the second peak would also interfere with wireless networks using channels 9 or 10.

Figure 5. Shows the pattern of activity from a wireless network (configured to use channel 6) as it is actively transmitting a large stream of data.

Steve Leytus is a senior software engineer and develops applications for NutsAboutNets.com. For more information about AirSleuth 2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzer and other low cost, PC-based diagnostic tools for installing, optimizing and trouble-shooting 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless networks please visit http://www.NutsAboutNets.com

Satire: How to Increase Your Wi-Fi Signal

Making Life Easier For Any Computer Technician - The KVM Switch

2009-05-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

By Abe Arceo

I work as an IT specialist at a University, and I'll have about 6 or 7 computers back at my tech shop on a weekly basis that needs to be repaired. From installing or replacing hard drives or other hardware, to cleaning out viruses and spyware, I always seem to have a computer to work on at my shop.

There are plenty of times where I have to work on multiple computers at once. Sometimes it could be for one of the previously mentioned issues, or the fact that I have new shipments of computers that have to be setup for users. No matter what the case, space is a premium, and it would not be logical to have a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse setup for each computer I have to work on in our tech shop.

To help me fight through my weekly cache of computers that I need to repair or setup, without taking up several offices or cube spaces, a keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) switch has proven to be a useful tool I couldn't work without. Its functionality, along with its ease of use, has made daily computer repairs much quicker and efficient. A KVM switch allows you to connect one keyboard, one monitor, and one mouse to a little switch box, which then has ports to connect multiple computers. Older KVM switches only had a vga and PS2 connectors, but newer KVM switches come equipped with a vga and USB connections.

My current KVM switch supports up to 8 computers. The computer that sits at the first slot is my ghost server, which I use to push out ghost images or create backup images. Slots 2 through 8 are free to be hooked up to any computer that needs to be repaired, cleaned, or setup. With this current setup, I can now house all of the computers on a 4 layer shelving system, which helps save on space as each shelf can hold 3 computers.

For me, the best setup I found was to sit the KVM switch on the top shelf, and run the cables down to all of the shelves below it. This allows for easy access to the proper cables as well as quick hook ups. I am constantly rotating computers in and out of my shop, so easy access to the computers and the cables is a must.

The KVM allows me to perform multiple repair or cleaning projects, as I can quickly switch between 8 different computers as I need to. As an example, I can run windows updates on one computer, then switch over to a second computer to check for spyware and viruses, while the scans are running I can switch over to a third computer to create a backup image, and finally switch over to the first computer to connect the ghost server to the client that wishes to create a backup image. I can perform all of those tasks within minute, all while using the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse, all at the same desk.

For computer technicians that find themselves working on multiple computers through the week, and even more importantly, need to work on multiple computers at the same time, a KVM switch is an important and useful tool. Smaller shops can get KVM switches that have only 2 or 4 computer connections, where as bigger shops can get KVM switches that allow 8 or 16 computer connections. Each computer technician will have different needs, but no matter what your workload looks like, a KVM switch will help streamline your work queue as well as make your life a little easier. And as computer technicians, anything that makes things easier is always welcomed!

Abe Arceo is the Baltimore Handheld Examiner. You can view his articles at http://www.examiner.com/x-8840-Baltimore-Handheld-Examiner

Abe is also the owner of Video Game Ninja blog at http://video-game-ninja.blogspot.com

For both the Examiner and Video Game Ninja, Abe covers the latest news, info, and reviews on today's video games, tech, and gadgets.

The Employee or Independent Contractor Scam

2009-05-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

By Jack Payne

You've got some spare hours and want to earn some extra income. You get an offer to become an "Executive Assistant" in an aluminum siding company. You visit their representative, and look over their literature, handsome colored brochures which proclaim opportunity, opportunity, and more opportunity. But, nowhere are benefit packages mentioned, the usual, medical, vacation, sick leave, termination pay--nothing of this in writing. But, the rep speaks lavishly of these "benefits." You are impressed, join the team, find you are only to collect commissions for selling aluminum siding, work a few weeks, get disgusted and quit.

When you go back to collect your pay, you are told that you were never an employee, but an independent contractor, and delay excuses are made for not having your limited earnings available yet. You wait. Next time you try to contact them, you find the tent has been pulled and the company is gone. This is a pattern that is practiced repeatedly, and with much success, by con men everywhere.

Why this pattern?

Because it enables them "cover," a means by which they can hide behind an advantage to them, a differentiation problem that the politicians are too cowardly to solve.

Congress has punted on this due to the difficulty of precise language and because, generally, employers everywhere want to keep the language vague so as to give them more maneuvering room in taking on additional help. These companies assert lobbying pressure against precise language. Some states have laws, but mostly subject to interpretation all over the map. End result? You are caught in the middle.

Only the IRS has rules covering this debate, the exact nature of which are unknown, but as a general rule run something along this line:

To qualify for independent contractor status a company must not provide any tools to work with. Example: when you call a plumber to come fix your sink, he brings his own pipe wrench. You do not provide this for him. You can only supply merchandise which will be used up in the process of the job, e.g. tissues to wipe down the plumber's tools while he is working. The company may not specify work hours. That must be left up to the independent contractor, like the plumber. No other form of guidance may be exercised. You, as the customer, have engaged the plumber to attain a desired result, a workable sink, that's all. The means of getting this desired result must be left up to him. And, importantly, the independent contractor must not be provided work facilities on a regular basis. This is yet another separation criteria in determining, is this person an employee or an independent contractor? To top off: an independent contractor submits invoices for services (he works for others beside you). And, employees do not submit invoices.

So how do you protect yourself against these charlatans?

Ask them to write down the work "benefits" they offer, maybe because you wish to ponder them, and / or, talk them over with family and friends.

Have them clarify, in writing, the status of an "Executive Assistant" as opposed to Sales Representative.

Ask for a list of references from satisfied customers. Ask for bank references.

You won't have to go much further than this. If these simple requests are filled for you, this opportunity might be worth further pursuit.

If not, well, you've saved yourself a lot of time, effort. And, needless frustration.

Jack Payne is the author of the legal thriller, Six Hours Past Thursday, a fictional book about real legal scams. For more information visit http://www.sixhrs.com

Avoid Common Business Insurance Mistakes

2009-05-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

By Terence R. Collins

Business owners work hard to grow their enterprises, investing countless hours, intense labor and careful attention to assure success. Yet many overlook one of the most basic components in securing their business' long-term viability: adequate, appropriate business insurance.

When it comes to insurance, business owners make some common, potentially terminal, mistakes that may be remedied easily with a little knowledge and guidance.

Setting limits too low. Business owners often don't understand that once you pay for an initial policy, extra coverage costs only slightly more. In some cases, you can actually double your limits for only 10 percent more in premiums.

Not reading policies. Insurance policies can be intimidating, containing as much legal jargon as virtually any business contract you'll ever see. If you don't want to read or cannot understand the policy, ask an attorney or financial adviser who is well-versed in insurance. And do it before you purchase it. Afterwards, it's too late.

Misunderstanding duties to defend or indemnify. Every business owner's policy addresses these two issues, often in different ways. When purchasing a policy, you need to know whether your insurer will defend you if you get sued. You also need to know whether your insurer will pay--and to what limit--if there is a judgment against you.

Buying the wrong type of insurance. Casualty and liability are the two basic types of insurance that virtually all business owners need. Casualty will cover a business's own losses arising from sudden, unexpected events, such as an accident, and liability will protect you from the losses of others who claim their loss was your fault. Most business owner policies will provide both casualty and liability coverage, but you need to understand the variables within those two categories. Some provide pollution coverage or protection from advertising injury or completed contracts; some don't.

Eighty percent of businesses will find that business owner policies cover their needs sufficiently, but if you have a specialty business of some kind, your needs may differ. Also, if your business puts out products in any way--as a designer, manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc.--you will need product liability insurance as well.

Overlooking business interruption insurance. If something happens to your business--a flood or fire, for example--you may have insurance to rebuild your business, but if the business has no income in the meantime, you may have to shut down permanently anyway. Business interruption insurance can cover overhead and other expenses while your business is out of commission.

With all the variables in industries, businesses and policies, your best bet to avoid insurance mistakes is to get help from a knowledgeable expert. Many trade associations offer advice and even insurance policies especially suited for their industries. You can also talk to a reputable insurance agency--one that your business counterparts or competitors use. And if you're in a specialty business, seek a specialty agent. Finally, look at ratings. Companies, like Standard & Poore's and A.M. Best, among others, assess the financial strength of insurance companies and their ability to pay. Much of the information is available online.

It's important to take your time in choosing insurance companies and policies. Approach the decision with the same prudence and thoroughness you would employ if you were borrowing money. Your business may be one-of-a-kind, but just like the seven million other small businesses in the United States, one lawsuit or disaster could mean the end. Having the right business insurance can make all the difference.

Originally published in The Business News.

Terence R. Collins is an attorney with Johns, Flaherty & Collins, SC, (http://www.johnsflaherty.com), a full-service law firm based in La Crosse, Wis. According to the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, Johns, Flaherty & Collins, SC, has more top-rated lawyers than any other La Crosse law firm.

CCNA 640-802 Prep - Understanding IP Network Addressing - Exam Preparation Tutorial

2009-05-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

By Harris Andrea

Since Cisco Certifications are always hot and the Cisco CCNA is the most popular from all, I decided to start a series of articles regarding important topics that you need to be prepared for passing the CCNA 640-802 composite exam. These topics will be also useful for people taking the two-exam option (ICND1 640-822 and ICND2 640-816).

The CCNA exam will test your ability to understand the Internet Layer of the TCP/IP model, and specifically you must be able to describe the components and structure of an IPv4 address, compare public and private addresses, differentiate between the classes of IP addresses, define the function of DHCP and DNS in IP addressing etc. So let's see some important concepts below:

-- Each internet network host (computer, router, server etc) has its own unique IP address to communicate with other hosts. It is like the unique postal address of our home. There are two versions of IP addresses available. IPv4 and IPv6. The IP version 4 type is the most common today but in the future the IP version 6 will dominate. IPv4 is a 32-bit address and IPv6 is 128-bit address.

-- IP addresses can be assigned to hosts either manually or dynamically. Dynamic assignment uses the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

-- The purpose of DNS is so resolve domain names to IP addresses.

-- An IPv4 address (32 bits) is broken into 4 sections with 8 bits each. Although the IP address is a binary number, we represent it into decimal notation.

-- An IP address (IPv4) consists of the Network ID (leftmost or high-order bits) and the Host ID (rightmost or low-order bits). The subnet mask specifies what is the Network ID and what is the Host ID. For example an IP address 192.168.10.20 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 specifies that the Network ID is 192.168.10 and the Host ID is 20. Also, an IP address 10.1.2.30 with subnet mask 255.255.0.0 specifies that the Network ID is 10.1 and the Host ID is 2.30. You get the point now.

-- We have public and private IP addresses. Public addresses are always unique but private addresses can be reused in private LAN networks. The Private addresses are within the following ranges:

10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255

172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255

192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255

-- As the number of networks grew, the IP addresses were broken into categories called classes to accommodate different sizes of networks. We have five classes of IP addresses. Class A, B, C, D, E.

-- Any address that starts with a value between 1 and 126 in the first decimal octet is a Class A address. E.g 10.1.2.24 is a Class A address.

-- Any address that starts with a value in the range of 128 to 191 in the first octet is a Class B address. E.g 172.16.1.27 is a Class B address.

-- Any address that starts with a value in the range of 192 to 223 in the first octet, it is a Class C address. E.g 192.168.5.1 is a Class C address.

-- An IP address that starts with a value in the range of 224 to 239 in the first octet is a Class D address. Class D address range is used for multicasting. E.g 224.0.0.1

-- Any address that starts with a value between 240 to 255 is a Class E address. These addresses are reserved and not used anywhere.

Harris Andrea is a Cisco Certified Professional (CCNA, CCNP, CCSP) with more than 10 years experience in the networking field. He is currently employed as a senior network engineer in a leading ISP company.

Harris recommends the following CCNA Video Training package to pass your CCNA exam Guaranteed (You can watch also a Demo Video).

Check out his website Cisco Tips and Tutorials to find out what is the best way to study for your Cisco CCNA Certification.

Computer Help

2009-04-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Please report broken links to the blog administrator: Email

Ars Technica Complete System Building Guide

Build Your Own Inexpensive Computer

Building a PC: the Illustrated Guide

Computer Craft's Illustrated Assembly of a PC

Computer Knowledge

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PC Analysis Items to check on a malfunctioning computer.

The Dead PC Items to check on a malfunctioning computer.

Intel P4 Installallation

Custom PCs

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New PC Assembly Procedure , for building a new computer.

Configuration Procedures , for hardware components.

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Software Procedures , and operating systems.

The PC Guide's Troubleshooting and Repair Guide, Questions for diagnosing PC troubles.

Troubleshooting Boot Time Error Messages , explained.

Troubleshooting Run-Time Error Messages , explained.

Troubleshooting System Instability, Causes of crashes.

PC Mech Building Your Own PC, Guide to assembling a computer.

Processor Upgrading FAQ , about CPU upgrades.

Tech ARP's Intel Core i7 Installation Guide, Installing a Core i7 CPU.

PC Info, General information about hardware components.

The Tech Zone Build it Yourself, Illustrated guide to building your own computer.

The PC Guide

ComputerCraft's Guide to Computers Maintenance tips.

The PC Guide: Safety Warnings for you and your computer.

Alternative CPU, non-Intel processors.

AMD Official Site

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Chip Directory , chip information.

The CPU DataBase , CPU museum with pictures.

CPU Info - CPU museum with pictures.

CPUID , Information on Intel and AMD's x86 instruction sets.

CPU Information Center , History of microprocessors, chart of CPU information.

Dell Dimension Processor Upgrade FAQ , Info on upgrading Dell systems.

Fans Specs for CPU and case fans.

ARK (automated relational knowledgebase) , list of Intel CPUs and chipsets.

How to Contact Intel

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Master S-Spec Finder

The PC Guide: Microprocessors

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Processor Guide , specifications, and utilities

Processor Upgrading FAQ about CPU upgrades

Tech PowerUp , CPU database listing most modern processors.

Timeline of Microcomputers Timeline on the evolution of computers.

VIA Official Site , Cyrix and VIA processors

Benchtest system cooling.

ALi Chipsets

ATI

Chipsets: The Most Important Components , motherboard chipsets.

Intel Motherboard Specs on Intel-made motherboards.

Intel Motherboard Manuals , x86.org's list of Intel motherboard manuals.

MB Review - Motherboard-oriented hadrware news and reviews.

Motherboard Homeworld , CPU and chipset information

Motherboard Information , manuals and specifications

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VIA Arena, FAQ on VIA products.

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The PC Guide: BIOS Beep Codes

TechARP BIOS Guide

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Wim's BIOS Page BIOS information.

DDR Memory

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Syschk

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National Fraud Information Center , to report fraud

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Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tools

Who Is Techs In A Sec?

2009-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Techs In A Sec (www.techsinasec.com) is a business and residential computer services company based in New York City. The owner is Bob Wahlen (bobwahlen@yahoo.com). The company gets most of its business from web marketing. Although the company does not identify a snail mail address on the website, but the website host record shows an address of:

Techs In A Sec LLC
244 5th Ave, Suite 200
New York, New York 10001

Techs In A Sec is a "Carbon free Business" that pledges to "offset 100% of our carbon emissions to help protect the planet."

Terms of Service

2009-02-24T07:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Geeks Informed. The following Terms of Service govern your use of all services on this Blog. All users of Geeks Informed must also abide by our Community Guidelines. If at any time you are not willing to be bound by all of these Terms of Service, then you must not use Geeks Informed. Geeks Informed has complete discretion to update and change these Terms of Service when needed.

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Who Is Geek Choice?

2009-02-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

Geek Choice (GeekChoice.com) was founded in 1996 and began franchising in 2007. They provice IT service nationwide. Geek Choice is headquartered in Boston. Their trademark is the Toyota Scion XB vehicles that the technicians utilize.

Geek Choice had some bad publicity as the result of a contractor stealing equipment from a customer, and as a result of their response to the incident.

Corportate Address:

Geek Choice
35A Myrtle
Boston, MA 02114
(61) 778-2302

Who Is Gurus2Go?

2009-02-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

Gurus2Go (gurus2go.com) was founded in 2001 in Dallas and was later acquired by Signature Technology Group of Phoenix, Arizona (2006). The company provides IT services to public, business, education, and government customers. Gurus2Go has a national network of more than 6,000 technologists.

Corporate Address:

Gurus2Go
2424 West Desert Cove Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85029-4713
(866) 487-8724

Who Is Geeks On Time?

2009-02-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

Geeks On Time (geeksontime.com, sometimes called GOT) is a service organization, once based in Phoenix, but now relocated to White Plains, New York.

GOT operates in all 50 states and maintain a network of more than 1200 contractor-technicians. Geeks on Time has a customer base, including YMCA, Michaels, Rennert Bilingual, Smart Analyst, and Brienza Academic Advantage. The slowing economy is having a disproportionate effect on the National Service Organization (NSO) industry. It is not unlike the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

As Warren Buffet said,

"You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out."

The slowing economy is the tide going out.

Geeks on Time likes to boast about awards that have been received. And indeed the company did receive awards, but all of the awards are now looking a bit dated. The company last received a significant award in 2005, and during that same year, the company had a significant amount of positive press. The awards and positive press have been absent for the last 5 years.

Customers have complained about incompetent maintenance that led to the computers being unusable, and about the company failing to take responsibility for the problems caused. But unlike some of the competing companies in the NSO industry, there are few reports of fraudulent practices such as the charging of credit card accounts for services not performed. To be fair, any company in the technical services field will have performance issues, and the problems reports for Geeks on Time seem in line with a technically competent organization.

However, with the business problems of the last few years, many technicians will no longer take calls because they are owed a significant amount of back-pay, or they know of GOT by reputation. Remember that the technician is not only out the time, but the technician is supplying his own parts.

As Geeks on Time's reputation has gotten worse, the company has been getting desperate for contractor-technicians who don't know about their operating procedure. This problem has gotten so bad, that Geeks on Time has resorted to telemarketing techniques, calling long lists of technicians, trying to find anyone who will take the call. This has obviously led to a reduction in the competency of the workforce.

Telemarketing has become the method of choice for many NSO companies to find contractor-technicians.

In December 2008, "Media Awareness International", a Nevada corporation, acquired Geeks On Time. Very little is known about Media Awareness International, but the CEO and Chairman of Media Awareness International is Venus McNabb, who held the same positions with Geeks on Time.

There are opportunities for the NSO that survives this period of transition. Computers are going to need service. As the computer systems get more complex, and they do every year, the need for technical expertise increases.

"Consumers have been very consistent in expressing both their frustration with the complexity of today's digital home products and services and their willingness to seek professional assistance to solve these issues," said Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates Vice President. "We view the customer service and support area as not just a critical challenge for retailers, manufacturers, and service providers to overcome, but also a significant revenue generating opportunity for forward-thinking companies."

Parks Associates projects that the annual IT NSO revenue will grow from less than $500 million in 2007 to almost $1 billion in 2011.

With all of the NSO problems, a vacuum has being created. Who will fill this need? The challenge will be credibility, and the NSO industry has been tainted by these operations. Companies like Geeks on Time will have difficulty avoiding their past.

Recent Article Series

2009-02-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

This is a list of articles published concerning the National Service Organizations.

As consumers become savvier about the problems with NSO companies, two trends are occurring:

Consumers are recognizing the benefits of hiring locally, and avoiding the participation in this type of activity.

Responsible companies are monitoring the NSO companies with whom they do business, and avoiding the ones with questionable reputations.

Responsible companies realize that they will ultimately be held accountable for the NSO behavior.

Who is Geeks on Time? : In December 2008, "Media Awareness International", a Nevada corporation, acquired Geeks On Time. Very little is known about Media Awareness International, but the CEO and Chairman of Media Awareness International is Venus McNabb, who held the same positions with Geeks on Time.

Who is Prism Pointe Technologies? : The story of Prism Pointe Technologies problems is closely related to failure of a business partner, MPC Computers in Nampa, Idaho (formerly Micron Computers). You may be more familiar with Gateway Computers. In 2007, Gateway Computers sold its government and industrial division to MPC Computers.

MPC Computers is currently in bankruptcy liquidation, and was sued by Prism Pointe in August of last year. MPC Computers owes Prism Pointe more than $730,000. Coincidentally, Prism Pointe stopped paying their bills last spring.

Recession Plus Corruption Spells Doom for National Service Organizations : Unfortunately, the series is not comprehensive. Other corrupt service organizations are out there. As companies become more responsible, hopefully the need for this type of campaign will diminish.

Purpose of this Blog

2009-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

The technical services industry has more coruption problems than any other industry that I have encountered. It is not only the small, "fly-by-night" companies that are to blame, though they are common. I believe the industry is prone to this kind of corruption because the industry is so fragmented. Most everyone on the worker-bee side is a freelancer.

I believe the first step to address the fragmentation is communication. That is the purpose of this blog:

keeping Geeks Informed.