Understand the Connections

Last week I got a weird comment to my blog posting, from joegonzo68327845

"I really enjoyed your blog. This is a cool Website Check it out now by Clicking Here. I know that you will find this Website Very Interesting Every one wants a Free LapTop Computer"

It took time for me to realise its actually no real comment but SPLOG. As the Title indicates a spam in the blogosphere is called splog.

The www.splogreporter.com describes splog as

"Splog is a terrorist to our blogosphere and needs to be stopped. This site was created for "good willed" bloggers to report splog in an effort to help to clean up the blogosphere of splog"

The more the internet widens with new services, new ways of spams gets reported and securing the computer or www becomes a challenge with each step forward.

I always laugh at movies showing the hero/heroine hacking the computer/internet very easily without any effort. But it seems in the movie "Matrix Reloaded" Trinity had used proper hacking technique and tool in the hacking scene.

That tool shown in the movie is called Nmap. This is getting popular in the “network exploration/security auditing space” and its bundled with Redhat Linux, Debian Linux, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD operating systems.

"Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free open source utility for network exploration or security auditing. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, although it works fine against single hosts. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. Nmap runs on most types of computers and both console and graphical versions are available. Nmap is free software, available with full source code under the terms of the GNU GPL."

One of the very important issues with emails is spam’s, I am sure everybody would have received spam mails in some form or other. To put an end to this spam’s , an email security firm named IronPort is working on coming out with an email authentication system, which would confirm whether the message received from a particular sender is actually sent by that person itself, or it’s a spam where somebody else, sending the message posing as the identified sender.

"I have no lack of confidence that, given time, it will be fully implemented, possibly within the next 18 months," said Tom Peterson, vice president of technology for IronPort Systems.

It would be really interesting to watch how this system would work.

One fool proof method which can work for anyone is,
Send mail
Call the receiver over phone/mobile &
Inform him/her about your mail.

Sometimes different technologies/methods put together would bring you the desired result :-))

Try playing chess in the Thinking Machine, this is artificial intelligence program which plays chess with the viewers. It’s interesting to note that the computer’s thought process is displayed/sketched on the screen as it makes the move. The computer evaluates thousands of possible moves and decides on the best one.

Recently a downlink broadband connection through Air Balloon from stratospheric level of 24000 feet above earth was tried very successfully. This is a real breakthrough and a very innovative thinking on how www could be connected. The main idea behind this test is to provide internet in the disaster zones and low cost internet access in the under-developing worlds.

I feel this would be more useful to the media, wherever they send their correspondents; they could float a balloon as well and keep in touch with them through instant internet.

One wild imagination that comes in my mind is, this might help in rescue operations or tracking missed/lost passengers/people/travelers. How ?? the VoIP/internet phone would improve a lot in future that we should be able to carry VoIP phone as mobile with our own number/logins, so imagine if I get lost in wild depth of African Jungle during my vacation, to find me they could just float this broadband balloon in jungles, If I am lucky my phone should detect the balloon network and I would shout hey! Kindly rescue me..........

Check here for the complete article from the NewScientiest.com

“David Grace, one of the project scientists behind the test, from the University of York, UK, says stratospheric communications balloons provide wireless alternatives to fixed internet infrastructure.”You could rapidly put communications infrastructure where it doesn't exist," he told. "In developing countries it could be a cheaper way to roll out, and you could do it incrementally."

The main concern with such floating communications hubs is ensuring they do not interfere with commercial aircraft. Controllers on the ground are able to alter the altitude of the balloon but not steer it.

The stratospheric craft was equipped with two communication systems: a high power radio antenna developed at the University of York, and an ultra-high-speed optical communications system built by the German Aerospace Centre (DRL).”

One of the fast growing concepts in the software area is the ‘Distributed Computing” a k a “Compute Farms” or “Server Farms”

In simple words, it is about utilizing a set of network connected computers/servers to do parallel connected jobs. One of the mandatory requirements is the jobs being submitted should have the scope of running parallel, i.e. if the tasks defined to be preformed can only happen in the sequential form then it does not help in “Distributed computing”.

Some more basic uses of DC being

“Optimally place computing tasks and balance the load on a set of networked computers

Allow users to generate and queue more computing tasks than can be run at the moment

Ensure that tasks are executed with respect to priority and to providing all users with a fair share of access over time”

Redhat has GFS , Sun provides Grid Engine and even Google has its own Google Compute and Platform Software offers LSF. However Google Compute uses your computers idle time for their project.

I have used LSF from Platform at a very expert level and can vouch its really powerful.

Virtual WiFi allows the computer user to simultaneously connect his computer to access multiple wireless networks with just one WLAN card. It basically makes the single WLAN card to appear as multiple (virtual) WLAN cards to the user. This would help the user to configure each virtual card to connect to different wireless network.

Some uses for this according to Microsoft are

"With VirtualWiFi, you can connect to a guest's machine or play games over an ad hoc network, while surfing the web via an infrastructure network.

You can use VirtualWiFi to connect your ad hoc network, which may contain many nodes, to the Internet using only one node.

VirtualWiFi can help make your home infrastructure network elastic by extending its access to nodes that are out of range of your home Wifi access point."

Check Microsoft website for more info on this project.

If its really true, then the nokia 888 looks really cool. But I really dont think these images are officially from Nokia, anyhow its worth checking the below images.

It’s really amazing to see what technology can achieve. The latest (or little old) news is Microsoft is introducing the Harry Potter Clock in its next Windows Version. If you don’t know what this clock is about, check Harry Potter movies to get a better idea. To give a clue this clock is similar to that on the wall of the Weasley household in the Harry Potter Films.

This Clock uses your family member’s mobile signals to track them where they are currently, something like work, home, and club. They have plans to add more locations in future.

Writely & Numsum are Spreadsheet and Word editing tools. The unique feature is you can edit your files in the web browser directly; this is cool as you can be anywhere and everywhere (online) to get access to your spreadsheet or word tools.

I believe this is what leads to Web2.0, ie the users can do everything in the web browser itself. For example, you use IM to chat, use Voice chat to talk to your friends, use the writely/numsum tools to edit/create documents, browse, check mails, write, send, receive, search, upload, download, access applications.

Some of them are already available, the rest and others will be made available soon by someone soon. In fact I think the Google – Sun team up would head this way. This makes the internet itself as an operating system, the internetOS, and most of the stuffs would be for free. Microsoft would suffer due to this and we will see Microsoft Vs Google war as a result. Most of the tools/applications/software/OS with Microsoft are charged and Google would bring all these in InternetOS for free. Software sales are still Microsoft's bread and butter, generating $US11 billion ($14.5 billion) last year alone.

Google has announced that it would launch spreadsheet and word document editing software’s online and partners with Sun Microsystems on this.

"Sun Microsystems Australia spokesman Paul O'Connor said the deal was "huge". Mr. O'Connor said the deal was a wake-up call for traditional software companies such as Microsoft.

"At the moment most people are used to having to pay for software packages, but at the end of the day, the value is in the content and services – not in the software itself," he said. "

Most of you (CS students, engineers, geeks, etc etc) might already know about SystemC, but for folks who haven’t heard about it or does not know what it is actually, here are some details, btw I assume you know what C & C++ is all about.

SystemC provides hardware-oriented constructs within the context of C++ as a class library implemented in standard C++. Its use spans design and verification from concept to implementation in hardware and software.

SystemC provides an interoperable modeling platform which enables the development and exchange of very fast system-level C++ models. It also provides a stable platform for development of system-level tools.

The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) is an independent not-for-profit organization composed of a broad range of companies, universities and individuals dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an open source standard for system-level design.

Check the complete detail on SystemC and an article on need for SystemC.

I was thinking on the broadband usage/rates/penetration around different countries and found out the following information; quite impressively India seems to have cheap broadband rates when compared to other countries. However most of the countries give minimum 512kb where in India its 256kb, but for minimum cost of 250rs (approx 6.5 dollars) with 400Mb download limit.

England
The standard broadband account offered at speeds of 512Kbps, also more than 91% of the UK has access to a broadband-enabled exchange. The figure is set to surpass 99% by summer 2005.
The above detail is as quoted in BBC

Some options available in UK
BT Broadband £29.99 per month – speed 512kb
Wanadoo BroadBand £22.99 per Month – speed 1Mb
Virgin broband £17.99 month –speed 512kb - 3GB download

Japan
Users pay about $15 a month for speeds of 30mb per second

Singapore
Singapore had the highest residential broadband penetration rate at 46.1% in the Asia Pacific region and it is expected to rise to 75% by 2009. The major players include incumbent SingTel, StarHub, Pacific Internet and Singapore Cable Vision. StarHub and Pacific Internet are DSL and wireless Internet providers while SCV is a cable Internet provider.

USA
In Philadelphia Earthlink gives wifi internet connection to its residents/visitors, and Google has bid to give free 300kbs wifi internet for all San Francisco.
However reports here & here suggest that Broadband is costlier in America

I did not have the details for countries like France, Spain, Pakistan, Germany, SriLanka and others. Feel free to comment if you have some details.

It’s really interesting to note that Web2.0 is in existence for sometime and most people are aware/not aware about this. I came to know about this when Om mentioned about it in his blog. He says Web2.0

“Is a collection of technologies - be it VoIP, Digital Media, XML, RSS, Google Maps… whatever …. That leverage the power of always on, high speed connections and treat broadband as a platform, and not just a pipe to connect.”

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc. says

“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform. “

The wikipedia explains better,

“Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. The proponents of this thinking expect that ultimately Web 2.0 services will replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.”

Check the complete details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Two interesting and path breaking news for the week from two different corners of the world

A Laptop for 100 Dollars

“The machine would be powered by a 500 MHz processor and would run a “skinny version” of the open-source Linux operating system. They plan to initially target the developing countries like Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa, and Thailand along with the state of Massachusetts, which has committed itself to equip every child in their state with a laptop. “

A Mobile for 1000 Rupees

“Speaking to reporters at the inauguration of their new Philips Innovation Centre (PIC) at Hebbal, Frans van Houten, CEO, Philips Semiconductors, said it would work with local players in India to build an "indigenous product" for an MRP of $20, which may be released sometime next year. “

Though both are yet to hit the market, it’s really encouraging to see how the technological advancement brings these products easily accessible to everybody. If we think about the costs of the Laptops or Mobiles some 10 years back it’s really unbelievable that it had reached such a level. However one can be very sure that it would be really very difficult to predict anything in IT industry. Remember “Why would anyone ever need more than 640K of RAM?" --Bill Gates, c. 1981” :-)