Sam Myers

While not technically Web 2.0, podcasting is a phenomenon that began around the Web 2.0 revolution. In recent years I’ve had people ask me what a podcast is and what they’re used for, so in this post I’ll try to clear up some of the confusion surrounding podcasts.

A podcast is simply a media file that is periodically distributed over the Internet to its audience. Most podcasts are similar to a radio show, and the content is either in the style of talk radio or music radio. The podcast is recorded and compressed into an .mp3 file, and sent to the listener via RSS feeds or through a program such as iTunes.

The term ‘podcast’ came about because of the success of Apple’s iPod, although any device that plays .mp3 files will be able to play most podcasts. Because many podcasts are distributed on a daily or weekly basis, podcasts give people new and re-occurring content to listen to.

As an example, lets say I want to subscribe to The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast, available at PBS’s website. I would use iTunes to subscribe to the podcast, and as soon as a new episode became available iTunes would automatically download it and sync it to my iPod. I could then listen to NewsHour while taking the bus to campus, or while working in the library. When the next NewsHour podcast became available, iTunes would again automatically download the episode and put it on my iPod.

There are many different podcasts available today, and iTunes has a great directory containing thousands of podcasts on a wide variety of subjects. You don’t need an iPod to enjoy podcasts, if you’d like you can listen to them from iTunes. Podcasts are a great way to get fresh content on your iPod to listen to, and I recommend that everyone give them a try.

Posted by Myers2 at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an earlier post, I wrote about the how Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. Although today many use the phrases Internet and World Wide Web as synonymous terms, they are technically two different entities. The Internet is simply the giant interconnecting computer network that links millions of computers from all over the globe. It is comprised of the actual connections between the different computers, and different services operate on top of this interconnecting network. One such service is the World Wide Web, which runs on the internet and is a collection of documents that are linked via hypertext. Other examples of services that run on top of the Internet are e-mail and file sharing.

The Internet as we know it today began as ARPANET, which was created by the United States Department of Defense. ARPANET was designed as a network that could survive a nuclear attack. This was possible by using packet-switching technology and a distributed network, which resulted in a communications network that had no centralized location, and would still function even if parts of it were destroyed or damaged. Packet-switched networks send traffic through a variety of different routes in order to reach the desired destination. If one route is destroyed, the packets are automatically re-routed to the destination via an alternate route.

The term “Internet” was first used in 1974, and was used to describe any network of computers using TCP/IP protocols. The Internet today still uses the TCP/IP protocols. Early activity on the Internet consisted mostly of email use, until the emergence of World Wide Web pages.

It is interesting to think that the Internet, which would eventually lead to a drastic change in the way the world communicated, began as a military project as a defense from nuclear attack. If you’re interested in reading more about the development of the Internet, the Internet Society features a variety of links on its webpage, and you can view it here.

Posted by Myers2 at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The European Renaissance was a time of renewed learning, a time when classical knowledge from ancient Greek and Roman times were reintegrated into society. Some key figures in the Renaissance were called polymaths, also known as Renaissance Men or Homo Universalis (universal man). Polymaths had a wide variety of knowledge from many different fields of study.

Popular polymaths were Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, and Galileo Galilei. These men were known for their broad depth of knowledge in a variety of areas, from both the arts and scientific fields. As an example, Leonardo da Vinci was known not only for his works of art, but also for his scientific knowledge and study of the human body and anatomy. Polymaths attempted to understand all knowledge in the universe, which was considered an ideal in the time of the European Renaissance.

In today’s Information Renaissance, the idea of the polymath is still applicable. Having knowledge in a wide variety of information technologies will aid in understanding the current happenings in the Information Renaissance. Some notable Information Age polymaths I would list include Bill Gates from Microsoft, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. The polymath of the European Renaissance was based on an ideal that one could aquire universal learning. The Polymath of the Information Renaissance is someone who has universal learning in the information field. Striving to become an Information Polymath should be a goal of all professionals working in the information and communication field today.

Posted by Myers2 at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social networking websites are key players in the Web 2.0 revolution. For those who aren’t familiar with the idea of social networking sites, they allow users to create a profile for themselves, usually users add a picture and list whatever information they feel comfortable sharing with others (age, interests, career info). Once a user creates a profile, he or she can access other user’s profiles, create a list of contacts, and communicate with those contacts. The two most famous examples of social networking websites are Facebook and MySpace, although there are many different sites attempting to differentiate themselves in order to attract users. One example that I learned about via Ars Technica is Yahoo’s Kickstart, which is aimed at connecting University students with alumni.

Yahoo’s Kickstart allows students to create a profile and connect with other students and alumni from their university. This could be very useful for students looking for a job, or other connections relating to their career. It also provides a degree of separation from their personal and professional lives. Students wouldn’t have to worry about adding a business contact to their Facebook or MySpace profile, which may contain unflattering and unprofessional comments or photos posted by their other Facebook/MySpace contacts.

However, Kickstart faces some challenges. Like any social networking website, it’s usefulness to users is directly proportional to the amount of people actually using the service. Because Kickstart is a new website, it does not have the amount of users that Facebook has, so the chances of finding useful contacts is slim. If Yahoo can be successful in attracting students and alumni, Kickstart can be a great service for students wishing to network with alumni.

Posted by Myers2 at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In recent years, many different varieties of attacks have been created in order to perform malicious acts on the computers of unsuspecting users. These attacks are capable of stealing data, corrupting or deleting files, and doing any other activities meant to disrupt a person’s normal computing activities. In order to defend against these attacks, Internet users need to be knowledgeable about any and all possible attacks to their systems. This post will examine some of the threats facing information systems today.

Virus
A computer virus is a program that contains malicious code. Once a virus has infected a computer, it will release its payload, which is the code in the program that actually does the malicious activity. A virus might act by be erasing all .doc or .xls files found on the computer. It could also access the user’s email contacts and send out messages with copies of the virus attached to the message. Payloads vary from virus to virus, some being more destructive than others. Some payloads may just pop up annoying messages on the screen at random times, other payloads may erase all files on the C: drive.

An example of a virus would be a macro virus. A macro virus is one that exploits flaws in certain documents, mainly Microsoft Office documents. By using the macro function is Microsoft Office documents, the macro virus can delete files and corrupt data.

To protect against viruses, anti-virus programs can be used to search out, detect and remove virus programs. Most virus scanners will quickly scan every document or email attachment that a user opens. If the file is found to contain a virus, it is immediately sent to the “quarantine”, where it can not deliver its payload. It is important to keep virus definition files up to date, because virus scanners can only detect the viruses they know about, and new viruses appear everyday. For critical system components, virus definition file updates and scans should be made numerous times each day. For workstations and computers of lesser importance, daily virus scans are acceptable, as long as the anti-virus program is scanning every document that the user opens.

Worms
A worm is a self replicating computer program that attacks the network of a system. Unlike viruses, which need to be attached to another program in order to replicate, worms can continuously replicate on their own. A worm will replicate over and over again until it fills all available resources, such as hard drive space or network bandwidth.

Worms can spread to other computers through email, instant messaging clients, or the internet. The payload of the worm generally only causes the worm to replicate and spread to other machines without altering files on the host machine. This rapid spread to other computers can choke internet bandwidth. Some worms have payloads that install backdoors onto the infected computer before replicating to another machine. This backdoor could be used for many purposes, including a distributed denial of service attack.

An example of a worm is Mydoom. Mydoom was released in January of 2004, and quickly became the fastest spreading worm on the internet. Mydoom infected computers through an email attachment, and used the computers for a distributed denial of service attack against the SCO Group. The worm also sent copies of itself to all contacts in the user’s email address book. Mydoom gained national media attention as it shut down the SCO Group, and a second version of the worm was set to shut down Microsoft’s web servers as well.

Virus and mal-ware scanners can be used to protect systems from computer worms. Like defending computers from viruses, the scanning programs should be updated and used on a regular basis.

Trojan Horses
Trojan Horses are programs which contain hidden malicious code. The programs are usually disguised in small, seemingly helpful programs. When somebody installs the program, the malicious part of the code executes its payload. Some Trojan horse payloads silently monitor the internet behavior of the user, and transmit that data back to their creators. The creators of the Trojan horse then sell that consumer data to spamming or advertising companies. Other Trojan horses install backdoors on the systems they sneak on to, creating a zombie computer, which can be used in a distributed denial of service attack.

To protect users from Trojan horses, anti-virus and mal-ware software can be used to detect and prevent Trojan horses. It would also be wise to explain to employees the threat of Trojan horses, and show them how to spot a Trojan horse in email.

Password Attacks
An organization’s security is only effective when attackers do not have access to the inner layers of the network. Passwords are essential in keeping private data out of the hands of hackers. Two types of password attacks are a brute force attack and a dictionary attack.

A brute force attack attempts to guess passwords by entering every possible combination of keystrokes until the correct password is guessed. A brute force attack could be prevented by enforcing policy that only allows users to enter a wrong password 3 times before being locked out of the system for 20 minutes.

A dictionary attack is similar to the brute force attack, but a dictionary attack will only guess common passwords from the dictionary. Because most people use simple, easy to remember words as their passwords, dictionary attacks can easily break into machines that aren’t properly secured. To prevent against dictionary attacks, companies can force employees to create passwords that contain at least 10 characters, and use at least 3 numbers, for example. These are known as strong passwords.

Denial of Service Attacks
Denial of service attacks (DoS) attempt to crash servers by sending an unmanageable amount of information to the target server. The server cannot handle all the requests, and when the server crashes legitimate users of the server can no longer access it. If a retail web server was targeted, a company would lose money every second their server was down.

A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) uses zombie computers to launch a large amount of simultaneous requests at a server from many different locations. This attack has the same effect; it crashes the server and denies access to legitimate users of the server. Backdoors can be installed by using Trojan horses or worms.

Denial of service attacks are the most difficult attack to defend against. They are considered to be an Internet Weapon of Mass Destruction. They can be very costly to organizations.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack
A man-in-the-middle attack uses IP spoofing to allow a hacker to sneak past a firewall, where he examines packets traveling along the network. The hacker will intercept certain messages and modify them, without either the sender or receiver knowing about the change. The man-in-the-middle could ask a user for her username and password, thereby gaining access to secure systems on the network. Intrusion detection systems try to detect any packet sniffing happening on the network, and they look for signs that someone is eavesdropping on the network.

Posted by Myers2 at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The introduction of the Internet in the mid 1990s changed the way the world communicated. People were suddenly able to access a wealth of information and websites from all around the world. The Internet has had a major effect on businesses, which had to adapt to the new challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet. The electronics industry in particular was drastically changed with the introduction of e-business practices. Retailers of electronic goods were faced with a vast increase in competition, and customers had the chance to purchase goods for the lowest possible price.

Electronics Industry Before E-Business
Before the widespread popularity of the Internet, consumers could only purchase electronics from retail outlets such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, or through a mail order catalog. A customer's choice was limited by type of products that were carried by stores located around their general area. If a customer could not find an item in the local region, they would have to order the product from a mail order catalog, or travel to another city that contained a store that stocked the item they were hoping to purchase.

By only having access to stores in their local area, customers also had to settle for the prices offered by the local retail outlets. This meant that the consumer could not choose from many different stores to find the best price, but instead had to pay whatever the stores charged.

Consumers were also faced with a lack of available information and knowledge about electronic products before the Internet. The main source of information about products came from the salespeople working in the retail outlets, or the information provided by mail order catalogs. This proved to be problematic because most customers would only obtain product information from sales pitches, instead of objective and impartial sources. If a consumer wanted objective information about an electronics product, a trade or enthusiast magazine could be used. These magazines provided some information about electronics products, but they did not supply consumers with the vast amount of detailed information that can now be found on the Internet. Also, relying on magazines for information about consumer electronics was expensive and inefficient when compared to the current amount of information that can be found on the Internet for no cost.

While consumers of the electronics industry had a lack of choice and information about products, the sellers of consumer electronics had different challenges and opportunities before the Internet age. Before the Internet, retail consumer electronic stores faced much less competition with rivals. Competition consisted mainly of other retail stores in the area, so less focus was needed for attracting customers to the stores. Because consumer electronics could be purchased from a variety of stores, it was still necessary to keep prices low and to maintain a high level of customer service, but the competition was restricted to a city or town, instead of the entire planet.

Electronics Industry After E-Business
The introduction of the Internet changed the world in many ways. Business were forced to compete not only with the their region or area, but with the entire world. Consumers were provided with a huge amount of information along with seemingly infinite places to purchase electronic goods.

Effect on Consumers
Consumers benefited greatly from the services provided by the Internet. Consumer electronics could be purchased from a huge variety of websites, and website portals such as newegg.com used a directory of Internet retailers to provide the customer with the lowest possible price. Goods could often be found for much cheaper on a website than at a retail outlet.

Consumers could also use web auction sites such as eBay to purchase used consumer electronics at a reduced price. eBay made it possible for people to find rare or discontinued products, and consumers could also easily find current electronic goods for purchase. This is an example of how the Internet increased the amount of choice consumers had when shopping for consumer electronics.

When purchasing goods from websites, the cost of shipping is usually the responsibility of the customer. Few web retailers handle the costs of shipping the goods, and instead have the customer pay to have their products shipped to them. By doing this the retailer saves costs, and the consumer is usually provided with a choice of speedy delivery at a premium price, or slower delivery at a cheaper price. Paying for shipping can be both positive and negative. If the price for a product is lower after shipping on a website than it is at a retail store, then the customer saves money. However, if the customer has to pay the same price that a local store would charge, the shipping costs would make it more expensive to buy online. Some customers may prefer the convenience of online shopping and pay the extra amount for shipping if they feel the overall online buying experience is easier than going to a retail store.

Effect on Retailers
The web also changed the way that sellers of consumer electronics conducted business. Brick and mortar retail stores had to compete with organizations from around the globe, instead of other stores in town. Most large retail operations introduced their own websites to sell goods to consumers in order to compete with online only companies such as Amazon. Some brick and mortar used their websites to provide unique services. An example of this is Circuit City, which implemented a system where customers could pay for items online, and then stop by a local Circuit City location to pick up their item. This saved money on shipping costs for the customer, and made ordering online more convenient for some consumers.

Retailers also used the web and networking technology to better manage inventory levels in their brick and mortar stores. By managing inventory levels using technology, overhead costs can be reduced while ensuring that products are always available for customers to buy.

Conclusion
E-business has greatly changed the way that consumer electronics are bought and sold. These changes have brought new opportunities and challenges for both businesses and consumers. Consumers have a greater choice of places to purchase products, and retailers face increased competition and new business models.

Posted by Myers2 at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is an emerging technology that is used to deliver digital television through an Internet network to a subscriber’s home. The television channels are sent to the subscriber’s premises via packets in the same way internet traffic is transported. This allows telephone companies such as AT&T to offer services to compete with cable and satellite television companies. Using IP technology is much more efficient on a network, and allows for companies like AT&T to deliver television service on their network.

Background
IPTV does not refer to streaming internet video from a website, such as YouTube or watching television shows on NBC.com. Watching video through a web browser is known as internet video, and is unrelated to IPTV. IPTV is similar to satellite or cable television, it delivers broadcast television channels and offers other services such as Video on Demand to customers who pay a monthly fee. Similar to digital cable, IPTV services require a set top box in the subscriber’s home to decode the incoming packets of information. Because a high amount of bandwidth is needed to deliver high quality television channels, a high speed broadband internet connection is required for IPTV.

IPTV is important for telecommunication companies because it allows them to offer television, phone, and internet service all on one connection. This is called Triple Play and it allows for one company to be the single source of information delivery for a customer’s home. Cable companies are starting to offer phone services alongside internet and television, and phone companies will need IPTV to offer Triple Play services of their own in order to retain customers.

An additional benefit of using IP technologies is that it allows for unique services that are not possible with traditional satellite or cable television connections. When voice, data, and television information are all being delivered over one wire into a home over an IP based network, caller ID information could be displayed on the television when a new call comes in, and customers could program their DVR from anywhere in the world using a web interface. IP television provides new ways for companies to add unique features and value to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Overall, IPTV is not yet as widespread as satellite or cable television, although it is more popular in some countries than in others. IPTV is more popular in Europe than the US, with four times the number of users. In France IPTV is enjoying success, with about 1/3 to 1/2 of all households using IPTV technology. In the United States, IPTV is being offered in select locations by AT&T and Verizon, but neither offerings have made a significant impact on cable or satellite television market share.

IPTV Issues and Considerations
IPTV needs a broadband internet connection in order to achieve the required bandwidth to deliver television channels. If Triple Play services are offered, the television stations have to share bandwidth with the voice and data connection. This potentially can strain the network, so companies offering IPTV need an efficient network that can handle the demands of voice, data, and video.

Because IPTV uses packet switching networks, it is possible that some of the packets will be lost or delayed in transit to the subscriber’s premises. While low amounts of packet loss and delay are acceptable for internet use (if packets for a web page are corrupted in transit, the computer can request the packets again. The user has to wait a second or two longer for the page to fully load, but the page will still eventually load). Packet loss or delay is a problem with IPTV because the television image would cut out or distort. This is unacceptable because television viewers expect a constant, always on television signal with no hiccups or distortions. The reliability of IPTV is an important consideration in order to remain competitive with cable TV, which sets the standard as an always on, reliable service.

Posted by Myers2 at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the known as the man who invented the World Wide Web. Without his contributions, we would not have hyperlinks or webpages. For this fact alone he should be recognized as one of the key figures of the Information Renaissance. Today he is a Knight of the British Empire and works as the director for the World Wide Web Consortium, the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web which is responsible for overseeing the future development of the web.

The story of the World Wide Web began in 1980 when Berners-Lee was working at CERN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN), the European Organization for Nuclear Research. At CERN, Berners-Lee further developed the idea of hypertext, a fundamental building block of the Web which allows documents to link to other documents. Berners-Lee did not invent hypertext, but in his own words:

Lots of hypertext systems had been made which just worked on one computer, and didn't link all the way across the world. I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and -- ta-da! -- the World Wide Web. Source.

In order to ensure the continued success of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide web Consortium, otherwise known as the W3C. The W3C worked to keep the World Wide Web royalty free (http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/) in order to make it an attractive and cooperative place to share information. This decision is the reason why the World Wide Web has such an open ended nature today.

For his efforts, Tim Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2004, and was honored by Time Magazine when they included him in the 100 Most Important People of the Century.

For his work in developing the concept of the World Wide Web, and his continuing efforts to keep the Web open and free to all users, Sir Tim Berners-Lee can easily be called one of the most important figures in the Information Renaissance.

Posted by Myers2 at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The term 'Web 2.0' is used to describe the new websites that bring about a greater level of interactivity, creativity, and collaboration amongst users. Web 2.0 websites offer more services than what was available in the Web 1.0 era. Google Documents is an example of a Web 2.0 application, and features on-line, browser based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation capabilities. For this post I'll focus mainly on the word processing application in Google Docs.

About Google Documents
Google Documents requires a Google user name and password to use. Gmail users can use their user name and password to log in. Once logged in, users can create a new word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation. They can also choose to upload existing Microsoft Office documents, although complex documents may not be able to be fully converted into an online format.

Once a document is created or uploaded, it can be viewed or edited from any computer with an Internet connection. In my opinion, this is what makes Google Docs perfect for students or anyone else working on various computers throughout the day. As a graduate student, I can be working on a paper from many different locations, including my office computer, a library lab computer, or my personal laptop. Before Google Docs, I had to either constantly email myself the current draft of my paper, or carry around a flash drive wherever I went. If I forgot to save my document before I left a library lab computer, or if my flash drive were to be corrupted, all my work would be lost.

With Google Docs, everything is saved automatically, and even if I accidentally close a browser window a pop up window appears asking me if I would wish to save before navigating away from the page. It also means that I have central location for all my current work, which removes all the hassle involved with keeping track of drafts. Google Docs keeps track of recent revisions, and you can easily switch back to an earlier version of document at any time. This may not seem very important to someone who does all their work on one computer, but if you use multiple computers throughout the day it greatly simplifies the process. I've been using Google Docs for almost a year (my first document is listed as being created on 12/6/2006), and I've found it to be one of the most useful tools I've used in my career as a college student.

If you are working in a group or team, Google Docs can be used to easily share and collaborate on documents. User's can choose to share documents with other Google users. This makes collaboration on one document very easy, without the need to constantly email the most recent version to all team members. Group members can go online to access the document and see any recent changes.

Caveats
Google Documents is not a perfect solution, nor is it meant to be a replacement for full-featured software applications such as Microsoft Office. Word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents are very basic, and are limited in terms of formatting and other options. The word processing application should be thought of as a replacement for WordPad, not a replacement of Microsoft Word. Online documents can be exported onto a user's local computer as either a .rtf or .doc file, which can then be opened by Word.

There are also privacy and availability concerns. Because the documents are stored on Google's servers instead of your local hard drive, there is a possibility that your documents could be lost or viewed by a hacker. To prevent unauthorized access to your documents, Google uses SSL technology to encrypt data when a user is working on a document. There is also a chance that Google's servers could experience technical difficulties, making a user unable to access their documents. Both of these issues must be taken into consideration (don't use Google Docs to store sensitive financial information, etc), but in reality the benefits make up for the risks. Google is a very large company with large resources, and they seem to do a good job of making sure that your information and documents are secure and available. In the year I've used Google Docs, I've never experienced a service outage.

Conclusion
I use Google Docs for rough drafts, and when I create text documents online I will export them into an offline file format and use Microsoft Word for the final formatting. This method works great for me, and I can't imagine going back to using only Microsoft Word on multiple computers to create a document. Online word processing isn't for everybody, but I think that the people who take the time to get used to the nuances and methods will enjoy a simpler and more streamlined way of doing work.

Posted by Myers2 at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Johannes Gutenberg was born in Germany around the year 1400. He is famous for inventing movable type, which revolutionized the bookmaking process in Europe. Gutenberg's invention played an important role in the European Renaissance by helping make information more accessible to more people.

Gutenberg's most famous work is his printing of the Bible. Completed in 1455, it looks rather primitive by today's standards. There are no paragraph breaks, the entire text is presented with 42 lines per page. An online copy of the Gutenberg bible is available at the British Library website, found here.

Gutenberg's process of mass producing books allowed for information to spread to more people than ever before. Aldus Manutius used the technology to print major Greek and Latin texts. The scientific community used the printing press to more easily share ideas and theories. It was a major factor in the Renaissance because it allowed for more people to have access to more information than ever before.

The emergence of the internet was another major breakthrough that allowed for people to have access to a great amount of information. Similar to how Gutenberg's printing press fueled the European Renaissance, the Internet has fueled the information Renaissance. People all over the world have access to an almost unlimited amount of information, most of which is free. This information has allowed for more people to learn more things than ever before.

Posted by Myers2 at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)