There are not many people who can seriously put into question the projected dominance of Google search technology in the future evolution of the Internet. Through his brilliantly engineered software architecture and conceptual maps of its' potential applications, supergenius Tim Berners-Lee, the acknowledged inventor of the World Wide Web, has for years been carrying his message of a "semantic web" that will make the current incarnation of the web seem look like your Dad's Rolodex by comparison.
In Berners-Lee vision, the next generation of web technology will be semantic, i.e. all data will be interconnected and capable of communicating with other "information" through a common language so speak. The following article discusses the development of the semantic web alongside the related, but not parallel development of Google’s search, mapping, and tracking applications. Berners-Lee is not anti-Google, but he is passionately against the centralization of web data and any form of proprietary control over Internet content.
I also encourage you to check out this very insightful video presentation in which Berners-Lee takes you on a virtual tour of the Web from its’ beginnings into tomorrow. This is fascinating stuff. Please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Blog community after brainstorming on your own.
Thanks to Dana Lee for permission to use this Photo.
Have you seen the recent commercials from Verizon Wireless touting their wireless service, contrasting their service with the seemingly restrictive confinement of WIFI. This is part of a battle for wireless dominance. WIFI is the current wireless standard leader. If you have a laptop, chances are you have some sort of WIFI router device in your home to provide WIFI access for it and other devices in your house such as the newest IPOD release. You have probably utilized the WIFI offerings of a local coffee shop or hotel (I couldn’t imagine staying in a hotel today that didn’t offer WIFI or at least Ethernet network access). If you download a free program called NetStumbler and install it on a computer that has a wireless card, you can discover wireless access points wherever you are. The program makes a sound every time a new WIFI point is discovered. Driving around with your laptop running NetStumbler can make your computer sound like a video game as it will sound off repeatedly like a machine gun as it find the plethora of WIFE points in the area.
The problem with WIFI is that it is spotty and not predictable. WIFI has a limited range and many WIFI hotspots are now guarded with security such as WPA, disallowing public access. This has created a demand for a more streamlined wireless standard that offers blanket coverage.
One option is the cell phone companies such as Verizon. These services can offer as much as much as 3.5 Gig of network throughput, putting WIFI to shame. WIMAX is another option in which metropolitan areas can offer blanket coverage throughout the area with speeds up to 4 Gig. Both of these offerings work on some sort of subscription plan which can cost as much as $60 a month. Unlike WIFI, each and every device must have a separate subscription, making these alternatives very expensive. Over a dozen metropolitan WIMAX projects have been dismantled over the past year due to higher than predicted costs and a shortage of willing subscribers. WIFI has also fired back with the new 802.11n WIFI standard this year which offers greater throughput and coverage than its WIFI predecessors. The battle has just begun for wireless dominance…
If you are purchasing a PC today over $700, chances are the specs include a dual core processor. Multi-core processors have been thetrend for several years. A dual core processor is a CPU with twoseparate cores on the same die, each with its own cache. It’s the equivalent of getting two microprocessors in one. A typical server today has at least two dual core processors. Quad cores are also very popular too. The organization that I work for typically uses dual quad core processors for any of the servers that will be carrying a processing load such as a database server, email server or a virtual host.
But as you can surmise, it’s not stopping at quad core. Intel will be releasing a six core processor later this year. AMD will be releasing theirs early next year. These will be strictly targeted at the server market since desktop software can barely fully utilize dual core processing. And if 6 isn’t enough, both companies plan on releasing a 12 core processor sometime in 2010.
Johnny Lee is a brilliant technologist who’s become a YouTube star through his amazing demonstration of Wii remote hacks. After watching this video, you’ll never look at your Wii the same again. I love this video because Lee once again proves how integral human creativity and ingenuity are to the process of technological innovation. In this case, a relatively unknown guy like Lee on center stage at the famed TED conference, reinventing the very essence of what an already popular technology’s applications can ultimately be. These hacks are insane. Don’t miss this one…
The 2008 Global Information Security Workforce Study was recently released. A total of 7,548 professionals in the field were surveyed. The complete study can be downloaded at https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?category=510
The most interesting headline from the study was the fact that 70 percent of all respondents reported that their own employees are the biggest threat to their organization’s security. This is contrary to the common belief that organizations must throw most of their resources at the outside perimeter of the organization’s network to prevent outsiders from accessing their network.
This premise is supported by a recent finding that email is now no longer the number one manner in which viruses access an organization’s network. With the ease at which employers now bring in thumb drives, personal laptops and PDA’s. Network security plans must focus on an umbrella approach that guards the entire network.
Blip.tv is regarded as “the world’s leading videoblogging and podcasting service,” but it’s their community based ethos and collaborative principles that really persuaded our Ashworth University Student Life team to deveop our own television channel through this incredible company. Blip.tv’s video publishing, sharing, and syndication features make it easy for anyone to get their message heard in the increasingly crowded online video marketplace. We here at Ashworth University would like to thank Blip.tv for their outstanding service. We’d also like to encourage you to check out our Ashworth University Television channel on Blip.tv. If you are a video content creator and would like to work with Ashworth University, please feel free to contact me at the following email address to discuss the possibilities. Thank You!
Thanks to Jamie Hladky for permission to use this Photo.
You have to learn how to crawl before you learn how to walk, but once you learn a foundation of IT skills in Ashworth University’s information technology programs and anchor yourself in the IT labor force, here are the ten hottest tech skill sets you should aim to learn in the next five years according to Tech Republic.
Voice over IP - sales of pure IP PBX systems for the first quarter of 2007 increased 76% over the first quarter of the previous year
Unified Communications - the convergence of different communications technologies, such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and fax
Hybrid Networks – Networks are no longer all Windows or all Linux, they are a hodgepodge of different systems and IT pros need to learn more than one of them.
Wireless Technologies – everything’s going wireless it seems.
Remote User Support – with more employees working off-site today, help support personnel must provide remote support to anywhere.
Mobile User Support – more and more organizations are providing blackberries and other smart portable devices for their employees that must be supported.
Software-as-a-Service – or SaaS as it is referred to in technical articles. With the popularity of Web 2.0, the trend is to now provide software applications over the Internet rather than installing them on each and every computer.
Virtualization – With the dominance of VMWare and the soon to be released 2008 Virtual Application from Microsoft, virtualization is THE buzzword today along with its countless benefits.
IPv6 – Although this standard has not grown in popularity as of yet, mostly because the wide usage of NAT has allowed us to not run out of IP addresses on the Internet as fast as predicted, this standard is going to come about within the next five years.
Security - A skill set that will probably always be in the top 10.
Thanks to Miguel Lopes for permission to use this Photo.
The architecture of cyberspace is interconnected, timeless, and invisible from the inside-out. On the Ashworth University Blog, we’re not afraid of the matrix and try to share perspectives from around the world, just a 0 1 code, on the technology issues that influence how this network will evolve in complexity, and most of us would like that evolution to be open rather than closed in principle. Earlier this year, the nation of Estonia was involved in what by any measure must be considered one of the most large scale and sophisticated “cyber attacks” in history, an attack that operated on several levels simultaneously, resulting in the virtual collapse of this nation’s electronic infrastructure. Instantly, the fundamental question, “who did this?” was buzzing with elements of fear and conspiracy. Did Vladimir Putin and Russia conduct this operation in the shadow of political revenge? Was the attack the work of loosely connected and politically marginalized hackers who were sending their own message to an establishment attempting to exert increased state control over the Internet, i.e. you’re more vulnerable than you think and we’re waiting for your next move. The following video consists of an interview with information security expert, Dmitry Skylyarov, in which he shares his inside perspective on what occurred and the big picture implications of what is perhaps the most misunderstood yet powerful of political weapons; the large scale, well conceived, organized, and executed cyberattack. This is a must watch interview. Click on the image above to watch this video. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks to Kit Cowan for permission to use this Photo.
I had to go about shopping for a new KVM switch at my work to replace one that had gone bad. This gave me the idea to write a short blog piece about KVM switches. A KVM switch allows a user to control multiple servers or workstations with a single monitor and mouse/keyboard. In a typical datacenter, each rack of servers will be connected to a KVM switch which has an assigned monitor/mouse/keyboard. Because of KVM switches, organizations don’t have to purchase a monitor and keyboard/mouse set for every single machine. This makes sense since users do not dedicate themselves to a server desktop as they do a workstation.
Each computer is connected to the KVM switch with a special VGA or USB cable. Higher end KVMs allow standard Ethernet cables to connect computers. KVMs usually come in 4, 8 and 16 port versions, meaning that it can accommodate that many machines. When a user wants to access a particular machine, he simply hits an assigned key on the keyboard to view a menu of the computers that are managed by that KVM. He then selects the machine he wishes to view and the monitor then brings it up. Imagine if you were downloading and installing Windows Updates on 8 servers. You could pull up each server at a single monitor and complete the tasks without leaving your chair.
KVM switches are not utilized as much as they have been in the past due to the ease of tools such as Microsoft Remote Desktop which allows one to remote into any windows server at will and pull up the server desktop wherever they are in the world. These remote applications due have one big limitation in that they do not allow a user to view the booting process of the server or access the BIOS as one normally is able to. Unlike a KVM, if you reboot a machine while remoting into it, you lose your connection. Because of this, KVM switches continue to be a valuable tool for networks today.
One of the biggest players in the KVM market is Avocent. Visit their website at www.avocent.com to learn more about their product line and KVMs in general.
If you open a window in your car, house, or computer today; there’s an outside chance that you may see an event horizon out there where the sun used to be. You don’t have to do anything more than stare, so please don’t worry about recording the moment with a camera. We often discuss the development of a metaverse on this blog, a 3-D environment or simulated world that’s completely integrated with the “real world” that we physically live in. The concept once seemed like science-fiction, but then we realized, collectively, that we didn’t have to imagine ourselves walking down the street while information was being transmitted to and from our minds, i.e. telecommunications, music, photographs, etc. Consider Emotiv’s newest addition to their virtual toy box, a neuro-headset that translates the electrical signals in the user’s brain into emotional/conscious responses of this user’s virtual self or avatar. This neuro-headset is scheduled to hit the market later this year as a gaming device, which is cool enough in itself, yet the other potential applications of this technology for those with various cognitive and physical disabilities could literally be life-altering. Check out this video demonstrating just a few of this headset’s capabilities. We’ve all seen this before, but where were we?
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