All Shows

Show of 11-29-2003

  • Tech Talk News
  • Email Received This Week
    • Pat Neary: How safe is my wireless from war drivers without WEP?
    • Dick St. Clair: Firewall Options for XP
    • Jean Jolkovski Mac Panther Drivers for Farallon (now Proxim) Phoneline sytem
    • Robert Olsen ? Voting Machine newsletter article somewhat misleading
    • Jimbo from Missouri
    • Marvin Mejia from Costa Rica
    • Assorted other fans with good wishes
  • Wireless Alphabet Soup
    • 802.11 Standards (a, b, and g)
      • 802.11a (5 Ghz, 54 Mbps)
        • 8 non-overlapping channels
        • 100 foot range, non-uniform coverage
      • 802.11b (2.4 Ghz, 11 Mbps and 22 Mbsp when enhanced)
        • 3 non-over-lapping channels
        • 150 foot range
      • 802.11g (2.4 Ghz, 54 Mbps)
        • 3 non-overlapping channels
        • 150 foot range
        • Backward compatibility with b
        • Will probably prevail in the race for dominance
    • Components
      • Wireless network card
        • Hermes (supported by Netstumbler) Chipsets
        • Prism (not supported by Netsumbler) Chipsets
        • Jack for external antenna is useful (Orinocco/Agere)
      • Access Point/Firewall
        • Firewall, Proxy Server with DHCP
        • WAN Port (10/100) for connection with DSL/Cable Modem
        • Addition Ethernet Ports (10/100)
        • Integrated Print Server very useful
    • Security
      • Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP)
      • Mac Address Filtering
      • Risk versus Cost Discussion
      • How Safe and at what cost?
  • Internet Plagiarism Is Found At All Levels
    • Students cut and paste, but don?t learn how to write
    • The distinction between copying and creating original content has been blurred
    • Plagiarism is rampant in high school (50%), college, and grad school
    • Teachers are fighting back
    • They are using a tool called Turnitin.com
      • Founded by John Barry in 1990s when he was a PhD grading papers
      • Turns essays into strings of numbers that can be compared with other texts
      • Licensed to schools including 200 in Md, Va, DC
      • Cost is 60 cents per student per year
  • Stupid Idea of the Week — Master/Slave Computer Labels Banned
    • Los Angeles officials has asked manufacturers to stop using the terms ?master? and ?slave? on computer equipment
    • Affects all hard drives with where the term applies to primary and secondary hard drives
    • Affects networks that collect information via polling
    • Request made by Joe Sanoval, Division Manager of Purchasing and Contract Services. He directive said, ?Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label.?
  • Number Portability ? Week One
    • Only 80,000 switched phone number to another carrier
    • TIS Telecomm Services, the firm that processes over 80% of such orders, expected ?hundreds of thousands? on the first day
    • Early estimates expected around one million to switch
    • Program has not encountered any reported problems.
  • Buying Songs on the Internet ? An Update
    • iTunes is getting some competition
      • Prices are as low as 79 cents per song
      • Expect it to drop to around 50 cents per song so that an album is sold a half price
    • RIAA legal actions against twelve year olds is getting results
      • June (7 million members in Kazaa)
      • September (4.2 million members in Kazaa) after lawsuits were filed
      • November (3.2 million members in Kazaa)
      • If you download, don?t share!!!
    • DVD Jon Cracks iTunes DRM encryption
      • Jon, 19 years old, cracked the DVD security codes
      • Posted a new program, QTFairUse, that can crack iTunes encryption
      • His website (http://www.nanocrew.net/software/) is down
      • Program captures unprotected digital data and makes perfect copies to an unlocked file
  • This Christmas It is All About Gadgets that Connect
    • Everything is linked to the PC (USB 2.0, Firewire, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi)
    • Everything will work together because the PCs enforce a set of standards
    • PC has become a gadget supporter
    • MP3 Players
      • Flash memory (256M or 128 M)
      • Mini hard drives (10G to 40 G)
      • USB 2.0 or Firewire
      • Apple iPod (10 to 40G) ? FM transmitter, iTunes, Recording
      • Creative Lab Nomad Zen (first HD, 10 to 20G)
      • Archos Multimedia (10 to 20G)
      • Creative Labs Muvo (Flash memory, AAA)
    • Digital Cameras
      • Megapixel (2 to 6 MP)
      • Optical Zoom (3x to 10x)
      • Memory (CompactFlash or SD)
      • Around $100/MPixel
    • Wi-Fi Networking
      • See Above
    • Computer/Laptop
      • Memory (256 MB/5112MB)
      • Video Card Memory(64M/128M)
      • Hard Drive (40G/60G)
      • USB 2.0 or Firewire
      • DVD+RW and DVD-RW
      • Processor Options
      • Intel Celeron/P3/P4/Centrino
      • AMD Athlon
      • Displays (Flat Panel)
    • Game Consoles
      • Sony PlayStation 2 has best game selection and native networking
      • Xbox excellent hardware (HDTV, DVD support) but lack of support from EA
  • Internet Access Tax Moratorium Debated
    • Ron Wyden (D-Ore) and George Allen (R-Va) have sponsored a bill to bar all Internet access taxes permanently
    • Blocked by some states that want to tax DSL, IP-telephony, email
    • Will probably pass with date extension only
  • Virginia Tech Computer 3rd Fasters
    • Fastest computers are now clusters
    • VTech assembled 1,100 Apple Macintosh G5 computers
    • Each G5 has two 64-bit IBM PowerPC9 processors
    • Clocked at 10.3 trillion operations per second
    • Cost $7 million to build and maintain
    • Can?t handle applications yet, need additional software development
  • Stratford News
    • Next Start January
    • Masters Degrees e-Business, Telecommunications
    • Bachelor Degrees in IT, Business Administration, and Hospitality
    • Associated Degrees in Digital Design and Animation, Web Services and e-Business, Networking and Security, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and Business Administration
    • Website: www.stratford.edu
    • Phone number: 800-444-0804