TechImpact / it happens there first

VPN's and all of their remote connectivity glory, are usually as much thumb tacks and bailing wire as they are a real solution. There are more products and protocols out there than there are vpn users. Everything from pptp (well known for its insecurity) to ipsec with Cisco's industry standard intrusive installation. Of course, if you just want a simple way for your users to access the network from anywhere, there is only 1 good solution I have found: Adito VPN.

by Chris Gamble

I just read an article about car sales taking a nosedive. I honestly don't expect to see the result of this where I live because I have been fortunate enough to find one of the pockets of America that has so far been un-effected. Of course, I could have been more fortunate if I were those lucky few that joined in on the bail-out lotto we just had, but that's another story.

by Chris Gamble

Though the courts maintain its right, Viacom has relented on its claim to see all of Google's data. Though this is no historic event for user rights, or security, or any great victory for the legal system, it is a historic event in the copyright wars. It smells of an air of civility from one of the titanic competitors, but really it's a hard fought victory for the public. The outcry from so many, finally came together loud enough to be heard. This should be nothing less than a proud moment for consumers.

by Chris Gamble

Live chat support was once the domain of IT companies that had the resources to develop themselves or the funds to hire costly third party providers. By open sourcing not only their corporate IM, but their web chat plug-in, Jive Software has opened web support to the masses.

by Chris Gamble

CBS News tells me that outsourced emails may be more of a security problem than in the past. It seems that a judge has recently rules that "IF" text messages and emails are stored on a third party providers system, employees have the right to privacy. That means no checking on email to see if your latest widget plans are going out the virtual back door. Of course, this does not apply if the emails are stored on company internal servers, so we may see a move away from third party hosting when security is a priority.

CBS sites Associated Press as original source, but I'm afraid to link to them.

by Chris Gamble

InfoWorld reports that a new bill is in the Senate to combat spyware ... or does it?

S. 1625 named the Counter Spy Act prohibits taking over computers with zombies or to take information for identify theft. Except these new rules for our safety (which are already illegal under other bills)

"do not apply to any monitoring of, or interaction with, a subscriber's Internet or other network connection or service, or a protected computer, by or at the direction of a telecommunications carrier, cable operator, computer hardware or software provider, financial institution or provider of information services or interactive computer service..." -- (Section 6a)

And of course the 10th commandment or exemption provides for these activites when used for "(10) detection or prevention of the unauthorized use of software fraudulent or other illegal activities."

Info World provides a much more in-depth legal analysis, but for the purposes of IT management and security, this does not bode well.

Consider #1 -- Vendor at the end of its life and running out of cash. Given the choice of going out of business peacefully, or start dragging your customers through the muck -- what would most companies choose. Now consider this, would you as an IT professional want them to have that choice?

Consider #2 -- The latest BSA program to check copyrights had perforated your network. This is quite legal under this new law, but as no software is perfect, it has been piggy backed by a malicious hacker. There is no option to sue the BSA, and we can only hope that the hacker is in a country with extradition.

Consider #3 -- Your vertical market software is supported via an off-shore support contract. Your American vendor has every right to watch your network, but what ethics is their foreign vendor obligated to?

Not sure about you, but just those three scare the hell out of me -- and would cause grave concern in any lapel flag wearing Senator. So why has this thing progressed so far?

by Chris Gamble

CNet reports a victory by Quanta computer over LG. LG had sued Quanta for patent infringement. Quanta was using non-patented techniques and methods in its product, but using Intel chips that were covered by LG patents.

The Supreme court upheld a type of "first sale" doctrine. Since Intel had licensed the patent for its chips, Quanta does not have to pay again for those patents. A long way to go before we return sanity to our intellectual property laws, but each step forward is a good sign for business.

by Chris Gamble

New York Times Reports that a super computer in New Mexico has reached the petaflop milestone. The new "Road Runner" computers at twice the speed of the previous record holder -- IBM's "BlueGene/L".

The Road Runner is built using 12,960 chips that are an improved version of the IBM Cell microprocessor, a parallel processing chip originally created for Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Though this machine will retire its way to classified weapons calculations, it will see some use in trying to predict climate change.

by Chris Gamble

According to this article (pdf format) at Transactiondirectory.com, Mobile Payments (using cell phones to buy things, allowing your mobile to act as a 'virtual wallet' of sorts) are mostly an Asian phenomenon. 85% of all mobile transactions take place west of the Pacific.

The article lists "established payments infrastructure and greater concern over security" as reasons for the disparity.

In addition, cell phones sold in the US lack important features that would make mobile payments more feasible, such as finger print scanners for security and IC chips (integrated circuits – in this context RFID chips used for mobile payments). The technology gap exists on the vendor side as well, and extremely low interest among US consumers doesn't offer a lot of hope that this "Chicken and Egg" scenario will resolve itself any time soon.

And yet, the dour expectations for growth in mobile payments has not seemed to deter firms from investing in mobile payments infrastructure. Visa, PayPal, Citi, EBay, Nokia, MasterCard and a host of other companies have all launched or will soon launch trials with mobile payments technology in the US.

But with the 'credit card culture' so firmly entrenched here, is there really any advantage to a cell phone based payment system?

by Jerry Gamble

CNET News reports -- Novel has watched it's Linux business grow 31% year over year with it's Linux business over $29 million in the second quarter of 2008. This growth is completely outside of their Microsoft Linux related business.

Two important factors to take away from this:

1> It is possible to create a reliable support industry for Linux.

2> Linux itself is continuing its monumental up-take in corporate America.

Both of which I believe are positive signs.

by Chris Gamble