Geeks in Paradise | Brian Chee » November 2007

November 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Why not carry your entire reference collection?

TAGS: Toys and tools

Depending upon what circles you travel in, you may have noticed the currently flurry caused by the release of the Kindle from Amazon. Based upon the eInk technology developed by Joseph Jacobsen of the MIT Media Labs the Kindle is similar to offerings from Sony and iRex but has added the Amazon marketing engine behind it along with an EV-D0 connection they're calling Whispernet.

The Amazon Kindle

The Sony PRS-505 eBook

The iRex iLiad

Pictures of the Amazon Kindle, the Sony PRS-505 eBook, and the iRex iLiad (in order)

Key to this technology is that the display only uses power to change the display (i.e. page turns) and is nearly the same contrast ratio as black ink on white paper. The concept of being able to carry around a huge reference library on a single slate like device has been around for quite a while. Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame envisioned slates taking the place of paper onboard the starship Enterprise, while still giving users the portability and ease of use of their paper analog. Librarians been having discussions with publishers on the over all copyright, and loanability of an eBook. I've personally seen papers at library conferences, panel discussions and LOTS of listserv entries all talking about the pro's and con's of an eBook. Some of the discussions have been:

Pro's:
- Automatic expiration of a loan book through electronic means.
- Patrons can checkout LOTS of books on a self serve kiosk
- Even reference books can be checked out to a single user and have it expire in hours instead of days.
- Shelf space is VERY expensive and this doesn't take up much space at all
- Floor space costs to heat/cool/clean and this only needs environmental for the servers
- No more lost books

Con's:
- More IT support needed to handle kiosks, servers, etc
- Expansion of data center to handle servers, etc
- Hassles with publishers on electronic loan policies
- Patron tech support costs
- Patron complaints about the loss of the experience and feel of a good book
- Just how do you inventory an eBook?

It's very interesting just how varied the opinions of publishers are on the topic. Tim O'Reilly has been very public on his opinion and just what the industry will have to do in order for this technology to be adopted.

So while similarly interested, Bill Pollock (Founder of No Starch Press) has been taking a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) approach and has had PDF versions of many of their books available along with special deals for those that would like to own both a paper copy and an electronic copy.

I've also sent off email queries to the PR reps for a wide variety of publishing houses and O'Reilly and NoStarch were the only ones to respond. (Go figure...everyone else is old school brick and mortar)

There also happens to be a professor that is taking his entire office reference collection (most out of print anyway), slicing off the spine, dropping it into a high speed duplex scanner and then dumping those PDF's onto SD cards for his Sony eBook. To keep in the spirit of the copyright, he's then recycling the paper of the original book so that he still only owns a single copy of the book. His comments have been nothing short of glowing on being able to travel into remote locations with his entire reference collection.

So while we still have a LONG way to go, the world seems to be warming to the concept of an ebook and if we can finally get the major vendors to agree upon a standard for ebook DRM (Digital Rights Management) we might see more titles become available in coming years. I for one, really like the approach by Bill Pollock of NoStarch where they do a digital watermark with the owner's information on the PDF, but that's it. A breath of fresh air and NoStarch should give itself a pat on the back for this gutsy move. Truly FOSS dude...

So I'm sincerely hoping that publishers will get a hint that reference books are MUCH more valuable when you can easily carry them around with you and that perhaps the model at NoStarch is something to take a good hard look at. I'm sure the librarians of the world (My wife included) will be waiting in the wings for the dust to clear from this battle.

Oh yeah, as a personal frustration: Hey folks, if you go electronic, it no longer costs that much to "reprint" a book that's been out of print for years. Why should an ebook ever go out of "print", now publishers can afford to keep a book in their catalog just about forever (or at least until the copyright expires) with no printing costs to deliver the product. Translated, the gravy train can go on just about forever and you don't have to walk away from those small classroom print requests of less than 100 copies anymore. Electronic books can now be a "long tail" product that can keep making profits just about forever.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 26, 2007 02:54 PM

November 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Linux Firewalls from No Starch Press

TAGS: Book Reviews

With our great firewalls shootout looming on the horizon (2008Q1) I've begun to wonder just what it would take to build a firewall for a Distributed Enterprise main office out of open source tools. So when the folks from NoStarch Press sent me a copy of Linux Firewalls by Michael Rash I just had to start a sub project with my students to try to build an open source equivalent to the appliances that will be arriving in my lab this coming year.

Linux Firewalls
Attack Detection and Response with iptables, psad, and fwsnort
by Michael Rash

October 2007, 336 pp.
ISBN-10 1-59327-141-7
ISBN-13 978-1-59327-141-1

$49.95

BIG NOTE, the type of Firewall that's proposed for this market segment would be typical of what you might find at a distributed enterprise like some large hardware store chains where one might find a largish UTM (unified threat management) appliance that would be capable of handling gigabit throughput from both their DMZ and from the trusted side of the shop to some pretty big pipes on the WAN side. Minimum buy in for this shootout is quantity 3 gigabit interfaces and if you can't move at least a gig/sec, you probably ought not to be playing. The goal is to handle the huge amount of data being fed at it by hundreds of branch offices through VPN's, in addition to all the crud on the Internet washing up on the shores of our fictional enterprise all combined with the throughput necessary to handle the legitimate traffic from folks e-shopping or just looking things up on the corporate site.

First and foremost a firewall based upon a general purpose operating system is only as secure as the base OS. Michael Rash actually starts off with a discussion on just how you can build a Linux kernel that ONLY has what you need to support the firewall, losing all those extra pieces that can collect vulnerabilities over time. That's chapter one! What really makes this book different from the others I've seen over the years is that the author approaches the subject in a layered method while exposing potential vulnerabilities at each step. (Thank you so VERY much) So for those that are new to the security game, the book also takes a stab at teaching the basics of network security while teaching you the tools to build a modern firewall.

The author goes on with a detailed approach to PSAD (Port Scan Attack Detector), diving into details like attack signature detection, attack finger printing and active responses. Particularly valuable is his detailed discussion on FWSnort (IDS for Linux firewalls) and how it can be used to analyze in depth attacks that IPTables would normally not be able to recognize or act upon. Keep in mind that FWSnort is NOT a full implementation of Snort but rather a PERL implementation that will take Snort rules and translate them to a rough equivelent of IPTables rules that would normally be quite difficult to implement. You can if you want implement a layered approach and setup a full version of the Snort IDS to examine network streams at various locations, but FWSnort gives you a greater level of control over exactly what packet streams you let through your firewall.

Overall, this is not quite a cookbook, but more of a reference for those that want to dig into extending what they're already learned implementing IPTables on their Linux servers and/or workstations. It's also a terrific reference for those trying to fine tune what they already have with new features like FWSnort and/or PSAD. Nothing is going to replace sites like http://www.cipherdyne.org/fwsnort or http://www.netfilter.org for detailed descriptions of how each package works, but Linux Firewalls is a great place for those that either can't or won't spend the thousands of dollars on an appliance enterprise class firewall.

NOTE: The author does assume that you know a bit about where to find things in the Linux world, but has courteously included LOTS of actual command examples.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 19, 2007 12:28 PM

November 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Look ma, no batteries!

TAGS: Toys and tools

You know the story, you grab your handy dandy electric screwdriver off the tool bench to rack or un-rack a piece of gear only to find the batteries dead. You can't leave it in the charger since that would cause the batteries to develop a memory leaving you high and dry again. New battery packs cost as much as buying a whole new electric screwdriver and then there's the issue about finding someplace that will take the old packs for recycling. (or taking time out of your busy schedule to take it over to someone that will take it for recycling) Or just the guilty conscience knowing that you're using a device that is possibly putting more toxic heavy metals into the environment.

Now there is an answer that while it isn't fancy, sure I'd love a clutch and a few other things, but in all reality having the ability to fully charge this beast in 90seconds makes up for whatever features it's currently lacking. So let's dig into a little background on why this is so different.

A Battery (according to the History Channel's Modern Marvels program on batteries) contains energy through a chemical reaction. While a capacitor stores energy as a field between two charged plates. Quite a few scientists have gone the capacitor route for remote sensors, especially those in hostile environments. Anyone that's driven in the great white north knows that car batteries don't work very well when things get really cold, however, capacitors work just dandy. I've used a small 1 farad capacitor to store upwards of 10 hours of operational juice for some very small embedded computers (Basic Stamp) to monitor weather in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

So it was only a matter of time before someone actually applied capacitance energy storage to small electric screwdrivers. After all, most of the time you only have to drive a couple screws, and if you need to drive a lot more, just dump it in the charger and get a cuppa. 90 seconds later you have a fully charged unit ready to drive more screws.

Now my bitches: the unit is a bit flimsy and doesn't have a shaft lock for those times when the motor just doesn't have enough torque to turn that stuck screw. I'd also really like a clutch so that I lessen the chance of stripping the screw heads mounting that heavy server.

So while I first heard about this from the folks at Popular Mechanics I just had to bring this to the attention of the enterprise IT world. This is the perfect screwdriver to leave ready to go in your data center. It's a green technology, it's convenient, and darn if it doesn't work as advertised. Now if Coleman would only get moving and get them into the stores in time for the holiday season, it would be great. I got screwed for a massive amount of shipping on a fairly light unit. My receiving folks got VERY confused since it arrived from Kentucky from some tobacco company.

Here's a YouTube video on the technology….and yes, it really does get fully charged in just 90 seconds.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 15, 2007 10:48 AM

November 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SOTI Pocket Controller - Pro

TAGS: Toys and tools

As mobile devices creep into the enterprise, IT professionals are faced with a documentation and remote support gap due to the hassles of getting information off the mobile platform. Heck, mobile devices have been a pain for me whenever I've had to write stories on mobile devices for the exact same reason.

Soti.net out of Ontario, Canada offers their Pocket Controller software that lets you connect to your Windows Mobile device via locally connected Active Sync or via wired or wireless TCP/IP connection. I'm playing with the stand alone Pro version for screen shots, and video of mobile applications, but the Enterprise version goes way beyond a simple demo tool. With the ability to connect remotely over a WWAN or WLAN connection; the corporate help desk now has parity with desktops in remote control capabilities for guiding mobile users through complex setups or procedures.

I've been up on my soap box over the last couple years about how mobile devices are arriving in the enterprise. I've also harped on how this started with personal mobile devices sneaking in just like how PC's did in the 80's. What our readers keep reminding us about is that just because of device is used in an enterprise does NOT make it Enterprise Ready. Details like remote support of users in the field has been largely ignored by almost all the mobile carriers and handset manufacturers; so imagine my excitement when the Microsoft Unified Communications Group did a CoMo (Communicator Mobile 2007) demo at their Redmond, Washington campus using the SOTI product.

Not only is Pocket Controller a way to duplicate the Windows Mobile screen onto a PC for training and demos, but it also provides an easy way to get crystal clear screen shots (instead of a camera), video recordings of a procedure on the mobile device (instead of a camcorder), registry editing, printing, mass file upload/download, and remote control over the network.
*NOTE: in order to get Voice Command working with a bluetooth headset, you MUST do a registry edit for several types of mobile devices like my T-Mobile DASH.

Anyway, here's some screen shots taken off my DASH:

http://www.soti.net/
Customer Support:
support@soti.net
Sales and Marketing:
sales@soti.net
Enterprise\Volume Pricing:
sales@soti.net

Telephone:
+1 888 624 9828 (Toll Free from US & Canada Only)
+1 905 624 9828

Fax:
+1 905 624 3242

Address:
SOTI Inc.
29-5155 Spectrum Way,
Mississauga,
Ontario,
Canada, L4W 5A1

Posted by Brian Chee on November 15, 2007 09:52 AM

November 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Communicator Mobile 2007

TAGS: Testing notes

Oliver Rist and I had a whole lot of fun with Office Communication Server when folks from the Microsoft Unified Communications group brought five different Virtual Server images to my Hawaii lab to show off OCS in all its glory.

I had it running on an AMD dual CPU dual core Opteron server with 6gig of ram, and while I wouldn't have been able to handle a lot of load, it was certainly adequate for a proof of concept setup. Keep in mind that the suite can be scaled all the way up to something in the range of 125,000 users spread across quite a few servers for HA and load balancing. The point is that if you barely use certain features, combine that server with another low usage function and save a box.

Anyway, we're both in Redmond, WA with the world press to hear about Windows Server 2008, but we played hooky for a few hours and went down the road to visit with the Microsoft Unified Communications Group to talk about their new release of the Office Communications Server client for Windows Mobile 6 officially named Communicator Mobile 2007. Nicknamed CoMo, this new client is a huge step forward on giving the mobile user as much presence functions as they would on their desktop.
(Well within limits of what is actually able to run on the mobile device.) The part I liked the most was the fact that the user interface for CoMo just felt familiar, so kudo's to the HCI (Human Computer Interface) designers for shoehorning it all onto such a tiny screen.

(here is where I start talking about both CoMo and System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008)

Some key new features:
- Considerably more control over what mobile enhancements can be used in what situation. With compliance looming over mobile devices, you can turn on/off things like: camera, wifi, bluetooth, infrared, file sharing, etc all through a policy.
- Force complex passwords on the entire device instead of just the removable storage.
- More efficient sync (they say 30% better)
- Deny consumer email to close down potential paths for unauthorized information leakage

To really illustrate how modular this system is, click here to see an architecture overview:
View image

Here's some screen shots showing off the new user interface:

Posted by Brian Chee on November 6, 2007 11:52 AM

November 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft Windows Server 2008

TAGS: Industry Trends

With the leaves starting to turn color on the Redmond Washington Microsoft Campus the world’s technical journalist have gathered at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center to hear from the Windows Server team about the long awaited rollout of Server 2008 previously called LongHorn.

With the keynote talk by Bill Laing we got to hear about the timeline for the Windows Server family that stretches from the recently released Windows Home Server, to near future SMB versions, to new Clustering wizards, virtualization, and storage clustering. Officially named Windows Server 2008 by William “Bill” Gates at the WinHEC conference, Server 2008 promises increased flexibility for the IT professional. A key feature is that the Windows Server 2008 core is much slimmed down with the server role wizard adding in only the code you actually need.

The Dog and Pony show has had folks from the Hillsboro School District, CA Quest Software, and Microsoft’s own IT department all talking about how Microsoft has solved their IT needs and how key features like Virtualization in Server 2008 will continue to meet their computing needs in the coming years. One harbinger of things to come was Bill Laing’s expected announcement that this will be the last Windows Server version with both a 32bit and 64bit release. It was expected since Exchange has already taken the plunge with other key server products soon to follow. One piece of good news is that future virtualization plans seem to include continued support for Virtual Server 2005 R2 virtual disks (VHD: Virtual Hard disk) punctuated with Mr. Laing also talking about a push for VHD’s to follow an open standard.

I’ll be reporting on other presentations and this hoopla rolls along with hopes of being able to post some tasty power point slides once the Microsoft folks release them. I’ll also be cobbling together a report on future changes in Unified Communications (aka Microsoft Office Communication Server) and how Microsoft will be affecting the enterprise mobile phone of the very near future.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 5, 2007 01:35 PM