International Linux Foundation Announces Distributed Network For All Users
by Dave Murphy
In an announcement that will likely have long term implications for users of personal computers, the International Linux Foundation today reported that it will release a version of its operating system that will include a link to a distributed network.
This distributed network will allow all users of the new Linux version to share one another's central processing units (CPU). Users who are not taking full advantage of their computers' CPUs will automatically share available CPU cycles with those Linux users who are executing procedures that can take advantage of extra cycles that exceed their own computer's CPU.
Distributed networks, such as the Seti@Home project, which now requires the BOINC application, enable potentially millions of computer CPUs to share the effort of calculating complex formulae and searching large data pools. BOINC and Seti@Home are provided courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley.
The new Linux distribution, while similar to the BOINC network in effect, will not require the installation of the BOINC client software. By design, each computer on which the new version of Linux is installed will automatically seek out other similar installations and connect seamlessly into a distributed network, all without requiring the user's taking any affirmative consent or action. The net effect of will be a global distributed network of Linux computers, some of which have hundreds of thousands of CPUs already networked into a single cluster, will share the processing power of one another's CPUs.
A single user executing an application that requires trillions of CPU cycles may find the application completing in seconds, as the Linux distributed network shared the applications execution across hundreds of free CPUs. Given that Linux is used worldwide, free CPU cycles are expected to always be available, as computers are usually left running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Those computers that are expected to provide the greatest service are Web servers, which are connected to the Internet backbone through high bandwith connections. Home users connected via broadband will also provide a solid foundation to this new distributed Linux network, especially those with fiber to the home connections that have high speed upstream connections.
04.01.08 @ 05:38 PM ET
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Finding Digital Heaven - A Windows User Switches to a Mac
by Dave Murphy
I was an avid fan of PCs for 25 years. I was an ardent supporter of Microsoft Windows, even during the dark Me years. However, when Vista came to my desk last fall, I lost my passion for PCs. I bought one of the most capable notebooks available, spending ten times more than I did for my the eight-person 1964 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88 that I drove while I was in college. Yet, Vista ruined this fine piece of computing hardware. Yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and for the last two weeks, I have been in computing heaven.
I was on spring break with my family; we were sharing space at my wife's sister's beach house. On the fourth day of the vacation, while I was preparing discussion questions for my online classes, my Sony Vaio, running Windows Vista Business Edition, crashed for the umpteenth time. This time it was serious, requiring me to restore the entire system partition from a backup image.
After a few minutes of grumbling, I got to work recreating the partition and hoping that the master boot record was not corrupted, as that would complicate my restoration efforts. My wife, a computer engineer, overheard my under-the-breath comments and suggested that I finally give up on Vista, as it seemed to require more time to maintain that to productively use. She suggested that I call Apple and order a MacBook; she was sure that they could deliver it within a day to the beach house, and I would lose only one day's work. Every man needs a woman as supportive as my wife is to me!
Using our youngest daughter's notebook, I visted Apple's website and evaluated the current line of MacBook notebook computers. I narrowed my options down to three models, and I called the Apple sales line. Sure enough, in less than 10 minutes and dozens of specific technical questions, I was confident that a MacBook would meet all of my needs. The Apple salesperson offered to deliver the computer to our vacation spot within 24 hours for as many dollars. I promised to call back, after talking to my wife.
After talking to Peg, I decided to drive two hours to the nearest Apple store to touch the machine that I had selected, just to be sure it was exactly what I was expecting. I grabbed our oldest daughter, who, as a teenager, loves road trips, and we struck off.
The Apple Genius with whom we spoke at the Apple store was patient and friendly. For an hour, I peppered him with questions and comments about each MacBook model. He remained calm and actually seemed to enjoy helping me. Finally, he said, "You seem to be very particular about your computers." My daughter nearly passed out from laughing. I have been called many things, but particular is the most polite of them all.
My daughter suggested that I would be most happy with the MacBook Pro, as it had a separate video card and the keyboard was most comfortable for me. I agreed with her evaluation, and we bought the computer, an extra power adapter, a case, and a copy of Microsoft Office. Even though the Apple Genius promised that I would not need Office, I thought it would be a safe bet, as I need to be fully compatible with my student's documents.
While ringing up our purchase, I noticed that the Apple Genius granted me over $200 in educator discounts. Everything about Apple, from the employees, to the store, to the computer, has been a pleasure. I love great customer service, and I feel right at home with everything Apple.
Today, it has been two weeks since my Vista computer last crashed. I don't care; I am in heaven with my MacBook Pro. I have been more productive on this machine than I ever was on a DOS or Windows machine. The system automatically backs itself up to my Time Machine drive, and my data is automatically backed up to Amazon's S3 servers, using JungleDisk.
I cannot imagine ever buying another Windows notebook.
03.31.08 @ 01:31 PM ET
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Americans Use Multiple Research Sources
by Dave Murphy
Americans use multiple resources when searching for specific answers. The traditional sources, libraries and librarians, are still common alternatives, even with the ubiquitous availability of internet access.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project surveyed Americans' use of a variety of information sources that help them seek answers to common problems that could in some way be related to government agencies and programs. The survey evaluated how Americans seek information on
-dealing with a serious illness or health concern
-making a decision about school enrollment
-financing school
-upgrading work skill
-dealing with a tax matter
-changing a job or starting a business
-getting information about major programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
The survey's major findings are
-The internet is a go-to source
-Searchers usually end up satisfied
-Libraries meet special needs
-Digital divides matter
-Government documents should be created and delivered in all shapes and sizes
-E-government is not an option, it's a necessity
Like most Americans, I grew up using public libraries. My parents were often willing to drive me to the major public library in my hometown. When I was old enough to ride my bicycle more than just a few miles from home, I started spending time at the local college libraries. This respect for and love of library resources continues in me today. If it were not for the inclement weather, I would be spending this lazy Sunday afternoon at the public library.
The Pew report introduces the role of libraries, "For generations, public libraries have played a central role in providing a vast range of information to Americans. From the stacks of non-fiction books, to racks of newspapers and magazines, to shelves of reference materials and government documents, libraries have been the place to go to find answers to questions."
Over the last decade and a half, the internet has offered a challenge to libraries' dominance of reference resources. Most popular magazines publish the same content material in digital format as is published in the print format. Dictionaries and encyclopedias, including those with which most Americans are familiar, are available for free or a nominal annual fee on the internet. Now, with the popularization of e-book readers, such as those from Sony and Amazon.com, books can be easily delivered in digital format, no longer requiring avid readers to physically travel to the library. In fact, my local public library offers a wide selection of digital materials through its internet portal, including streaming music, music downloads, and books, which may be checked out for three weeks, just like a printed book.
However, as the Pew report identifies, this flexibility of accessing published data is only available to those with broadband internet access. Dial-up users are more restricted in accessing online resources, and are more likely to use their physical library resources for research.
Pew Internet & American Life Project report: Information Searches that Solve Problems.
12.30.07 @ 04:07 PM ET
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Proton-Based Network Offers Free Cellular and Internet Services
by Dave Murphy
Free voice and data services will be available through an international consortium’s program that deploys a proton-based global network. The telecommunications network’s potential was confirmed last week following research using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
Large Hadron Collider
While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest high-energy particle accelerator, was not expected to come online and be available for research activities for another six months, this information-transfer process was tested during the system’s post-installation efficacy evaluation process (PIEEP). The LHC resides within a 27 km circumference underground tunnel that ranges in depth below ground level from 50 to 150 meters.
The telecommunications network, which requires no physical interstitial points of transmission, will allow transmission bandwidth of at least 100MB/s between endpoints. Owing to the quantum distribution properties of protons and the availability of unused geosynchronous satellites currently in orbit, terrestrial endpoints may be located anywhere and airborne endpoints may be located to a maximum altitude of 150 miles above the surface of the Earth.
Technology Background
A proton is a subatomic particle with a positive electrical charge of one fundamental unit (1.602 x 10-19 coulomb). The CERN scientists, led by Dr. Albus Luminare, were able to store 8 bytes of quantum data within a single photon of pure white light. Using light photons, which travel through a vacuum at 299,792,458 meters per second, the scientists were able to effect the high bandwidth data network, creating multiple individual channels of data between two end points at near fiber-optic speed.
The current research demonstrates that data transmission does not have to be limited to a single transmission medium, such as a fiber-optic cable. Rather, multiple independent transmission streams may be effected through the use of quantum entanglement, and directed focus mirrors, which allow the digital data to be transmitted without the need of physical cables. Data endpoints may transmit and receive data between cellular and internet endpoints using satellite-based mirrors, literally reflecting the multiple data streams off mirrors in geostationary orbit, 22,500 miles above the surface of the Earth.
Dr. Luminare, chairman of the Worldwide System Hardware Language Infrastructure Systems & Technology Symposium (WiSHLISTS), has announced that the charitable organization will license—at no cost--the new technology, called the Proton-based Information System (PIS), to nations willing to offer free nationalized cellular and internet service to citizens, without restriction.
Dave’s Opinion
The PIS network sounds the death knell for terrestrial telephone and broadband providers. My sources confirm that the symposium’s services will be available before the end of the year, and I expect to see a plethora of new mobile digital devices that will take advantage of this high-speed data network.
It is fortunate that Dr. Luminaire’s team of scientists conducted their research during the LHC’s PIEEP phase, as CERN reported earlier this week that the LHC suffered a failure of its three quadrupole magnets.
Call for Comments
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References
CERN
LHC Magnet Test Failure
04.01.07 @ 09:03 AM ET
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Using Computer Clock Skew to Crack Anonymity Networks
by Dave Murphy
At the recent Chaos Communications Congress, Steven J. Murdoch, a researcher in the security group at the University of Cambridge, discussed how clock skew can be used to facilitate a digital attack against anonymity networks. Clock skew, the tendency for a computer's clock to become less precise when heated, can reduce the efficacy of anonymizers, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Tor network.
Murdoch explains, "When a crystal is manufactured, it has a clock skew, and it's different for each crystal (throughout its) lifetime." Tadayoshi Kohno, now an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, has shown that computers on the internet can be identified by their clock skews, by tracking the timestamps of each machine's transmitted packets. Clock skew, however, yields up to only 64 separate identifiers, making it an incomplete confirmation tool.
Clock skew has long been a concern of engineers of synchronous network, as it causes the clock signal for system components to arrive at different times; however, Murdoch is the first to take advantage of this hardware fallibility. Murdoch attacked The Onion Router, Tor, an anonymizing network that allows unregistered users to access web sites without identifying themselves. Tor network encrypts web traffic, through multiple servers, creating layers of anonymizing packets, none of which may be decrypted by another node on the Tor network.
Murdoch tested his digital attack by setting up a Tor network server and causing the server to warm up by executing intensive processes. The increase in system temperature caused minor changes in clock skew.
Dave's Opinion
To understand how clock skew can be used to affect the security of anonymity networks, such as Tor, I think that we must first understand how Tor works. I suggest reviewing the audio recording or transcript of Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte's Security Now! podcast. Episode 70 of this podcast explains in clear, lucid detail how the Tor network creates anonymity for web users.
Kohno's theoretical work and Murdoch's proof of concept attack does not bode well for network security systems, including the GPS and other national digital assets that require precise timings to function properly.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments on the ITinfo blog.
References
Steven J. Murdoch's notes, Detecting temperature through clock skew – Hot or Not: Defeating anonymity by moniToring clock skew to remotely detect the temperature of a PC
Steven J. Murdoch's University of Cambridge website
Electronic Frontier Foundation Tor Network
Tadayoshi Kohno's paper, Remote Physical Device Fingerprinting
Tadayoshi Kohno's University of Washington website
Steve Gibson & Leo Laporte's Security Now! Podcast, Achieving Internet Anonymity (episode 70)
12.29.06 @ 11:28 AM ET
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Those Aren’t Really Friends Sending You E-mail
by Dave Murphy
Have you recently been receiving messages from a number of new friends? If so, you are either a good person or a one of the millions of spam victims. Experts estimate that 90% of e-mail traffic is spam, and those spammers claiming to be your friend may not really have your best interests at heart.
Why Are We Receiving More Spam?
Spammers are not giving up; in fact, they are getting smarter.
One of the reasons that we are lately receiving more spam is that spammers are diligently working to get past our antispam filters by embedding their messages in graphic images. Antispam filters are effective at reading the content of incoming messages and detecting common telltale word patterns, image spam gets past the keyphrase filters because it does not include ASCII text, only a graphic image. Since last year, the amount of image spam has increased 400%, it now represents almost up to half of all unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) messages.
BotNets
Spammers also hide their identities and locations by using botnets, remotely-controlled personal computers that have been infected with a malware application and used to transmit the spam messages to their final, intended recipients. An article in Wikipedia states that spammers send 80% of UCE via botnet, sending transmitted 55 billion spam messages each day. While these numbers are unconfirmed, e-mail users generally agree that they get too many spam messages a day.
There Is No Legal Protection
U.S. e-mail users took heart in the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003, which requires UCE senders to properly identify their content and allow users to opt-out of future transmissions; however, much spam is coming from outside of the United States, and the spammers are not beholden to the U.S. law.
What Can We Do?
IronPort offers ten tips to help prevent and reduce the amount of spam that we receive.
- Don't open messages from someone that we do not recognize.
- Don’t respond to spam messages.
- Don't click on hyperlinks included in the spam message.
- Don’t buy from spammers—ever!
- Don’t use a primary e-mail address; create a secondary e-mail address when submitting an online registration.
- Don’t believe everything we read.
- Do use a temporary or one-time-use credit card.
- Do read security policies.
- Use an antispam filter, either through our ISP or a standalone application.
- Do use common sense.
Dave’s OpinionI receive over 1,000 spam messages to one of my e-mail addresses, alone. If it were not for effective antispam filters, I would be afraid to open my inbox.
Call for CommentsWhat do you think? Leave your comments on the
ITinfo blog.
ReferencesIronPort Systems Offers the "Do's and Don'ts" to Avoid Spam Deluge During Holiday SeasonWikipedia, BotnetWikipedia, E-mail Spam
12.06.06 @ 01:17 AM ET
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Podcasting in America: 2006
by Dave Murphy
A podcast is a digital multimedia file that is distributed via the internet. Podcast listeners/viewers may download individual podcast files or subscribe to a subscription feed that automates the downloading of podcast episodes. Podcasts may be played on a personal computer; however, the inherent portability of the medium encourages use of a mobile playback device, such as a portable MP3 player.
According to a report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project this week, 12 percent of internet users reported downloading at least one podcast; however, only 1 percent download on a typical day.
More men who are online, 15 percent, have downloaded a podcast, compared to 8 percent of online women. Users who have been online for more than six or more years are twice as likely as those who have been online for three or fewer years (13 vs 6 percent).
Dave's Opinion
I have been listening to podcast recordings of my favorite news and conference recordings for six years. I used to carry a Sony MiniDisc player; now I use a SanDisk Sansa flash drive media player. I subscribe to 49 feeds, most of which are published by national news services or universities. The flexibility of timeshifting my listening has freed me to keep up with my preferred news sources. I carry the media player in the car, plugging it into the vehicle's audio system, and when I exercise.
I am surprised that more folk do not listen to podcasts. The value of timeshifting makes podcasting one of the most useful digital applications.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments on the ITinfo blog.
References
Pew Internet & American Life Project Report: Podcast Downloading
11.23.06 @ 12:17 PM ET
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Blogosphere Grows to 50 Million
by Dave Murphy
Technorati, the recognized blog tracking service, reported that there are fifty-one million blogs were in publication as of today. This is one hundred times more blogs than were in existence when the tracking service started, three years ago.
It is estimated, based on Technorati's numbers, that the blogosphere, the global blog space, is doubling in size about every six months.
One hundred and seventy-five thousand blogs are created every day--two every second. These aren't blog entires, but new blogs, each with dozens to thousands of articles. an estimated 1.6 million entries are posted to blogs each day--eighteen per second. These numbers do not account for the comments, trackback pings, and e-mail distributions that follow many of the articles.
While most bloggers post in English--about thirty-nine percent--thirty-one percent ware written in Japanese. Together, these languages comprise seventy percent of the blogosphere.
Call for Comments
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References
Technorati
08.13.06 @ 06:31 PM ET
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Teleportation Takes Quantum Leap Forward
by Dave Murphy
The United States Department of Defense and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence today issued a joint news release announcing a electronic urban battlefield personnel and weapons transportation system, codenamed EUBPAWT (pronounced EUW-paw). The EUBPAWT system utilizes a high-energy quantum mechanical electrical field to quantify the quantum molecular structure of living tissue, which is then spatially transported and interstitially reconstituted.
Initial tests of the EUBPAWT system confirm that reptiles and mammals can be converted to photons of light, transported through a hydrogen gas tube, and delivered, intact, over a distance of up to one statute mile (1.609 km).
Working with research scientists from the Stanford School for Graduate Physics and Engineering, as well as the University of Aberdeen Institute of Advanced Molecular Research, military scientists have successfully tested the EUBPAWT system on soldiers, weighing up to 180 lbs (81.646 kg), successfully quantum transporting them using the flexible gas-tight polycarbonate tube, across a psuedo-urban test environment. without the need to pass through the intervening space. According to Major General W. Herbert Walters, author of the joint military release, "...in plain English, the courageous volunteers stepped into the transporter and were immediately delivered to the reception station. While the laws of quantum mechanics are too complex to include in the announcement, suffice it to say that the soldiers were delivered to the intended destination without passing through the intervening space. One moment they were here, the next they were there."
Dr. Richard Heisenberg, professor of quantum physics at the Aberdeen laboratory, directed the initial experiments and was present for the successful human test, conducted in the presence of media and peer review committees. Many of the Aberdeen and Stanford research team members were uncertain if the four volunteers would actually survive the proton-hydrogen transport.
Much of the scientists' incertitude began with Werner Heisenberg, Richard's namesake, who was the first scientist to realize that certain pairs of measurements have an intrinsic uncertainty associated with them and published his theory, in 1927, in his seminal uncertainty paper. For instance, if you have a very good idea of where something is located, then, to a certain degree, you must have a poor idea of how fast it is moving or in what direction. Now referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, in effect, the principle states that within the principles of quantum mechanics one can't measure both the direction and speed of a moving object.
Dave's Opinion
If you are a long-time reader of my work, you know that I have been following the development of quantum devices for many years. This project appears to be the first equipment created following the rules of quantum mechanics to demonstrate an immediate and useful application of quantum teleportation.
I will keep you informed as I earn more about this device and the application of quantum teleportation, which may provide a safe and effective means of allowing the military forces to traverse the intricate urban landscape surrounding the nuclear weapons facilities built by the Iranian government, just west of Tehran.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Please leave your comments on the ITinfo blog.
References
US Department of Defense
UK Ministry of Defence
04.01.06 @ 10:19 AM ET
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Which Author is Better: One or Many?
by Dave Murphy
Wikipedia, the popular online reference source for undergraduates and consumers, worldwide, has more than 15 times the number of articles than the well-known Encyclopedia Britannica, the self-proclaimed “world’s most indispensable and reliable reference resource.”
While the Encyclopedia Britannica’s flagship print edition has 65,000 articles and is published by a company that has been in business since 1768, Wikipedia, online since 2001, has amassed a corpus of 1,019, 202 articles.
Britannica uses a hired team of 4,000 authors and offers distributorships for its products—clearly a commercial enterprise; the number of contributors in this well-organized company is dwarfed by the communal and egalitarian league of Wikipedians (Wikipedia contributors and editors), over 1,000,000 of whom are registered, and an undisclosed number of whom are unregistered.
With so many Wikipedians’ being unregistered, and the veracity of registered contributors’ open to question, because of the open nature of the online encyclopedia—anyone my contribute a new article or edit an existing article—the question is begged: Can we trust the veracity of content if the author and his or her experience is unknown?
Recent news reports have called it a toss-up between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, in regard to the accuracy of content in articles; however, although Wikipedians are “encouraged to uphold a policy of ‘neutral point of view’ under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth,” I judge, because of the system’s open nature and simplicity of operation, that most articles are posted without the review of experienced editors. Is this a point of concern? Should readers question the accuracy and completeness—even the neutrality—of each Wikipedian’s comments? I think readers should question the accuracy of articles found in Wikipedia.
Readers should also question the accuracy of articles found in Encyclopedia Britannica. In fact, we should be more concerned of the potential lack of neutrality in articles that are presented by a homogenous, closed, team of authors and editors who have a commercial axe to grind, than a group of egalitarian writers who seek share their knowledge openly, whether in original work or by editing another’s article..
One reference source is insufficient. Data presented in Wikipedia should be fact-checked, just as those in Britannica. Do not take one author’s word for any but well-known facts. It is exceedingly difficult to be fully objective; opinion and prejudice creeps into all writing, often without the author’s notice.
Dave's Opinion
I am a Wikipedian, both as an original author and editor. I seek to share my knowledge, in scholarly, trade, and consumer publications, and I judge that Wikipedia is a harbinger of a digital service, the wiki, that will have a profound affect on all of our lives.
Call for Comments
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References
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Britannica
03.12.06 @ 11:54 AM ET
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