I usually feature comedy on Saturdays.  In the past, I have featured jokes, comics, cartoons, and news on the weekends.  Sometimes I include comics, stories, games, and photos.  Today, it will be all about a great sign!

Take a gander at this funny sign:

I found this photo on the Flicker site of matildaben. He has a link to its original author, Virtual Wolf, here.

The most humorous part of all of this is that it is all so true.  Some of the jokes hit a bit close to home! 

I hope that I gave you a chuckle to make your weekend a little brighter.  I will be back Monday with more serious topics!

What did you think of the sign?  Funny? Do you know of any other similar signs?  Please share.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 26, 2010.

Image Credits: I found this photo on the Flicker site of matildaben. He has a link to its original author, Virtual Wolf, here.

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I like Information Age quotations.  I find some of them very inspirational and like to carry a new one around about every week.  I thought that i could share mine with you from time to time.

Here is my quote of the day:

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Milton Friedman

You can learn more about our quote source at Wikipedia.

So how do you think that this relates to Information Technology?  How do you think that it could be important to Information Technology Professionals?

Do you like quotations? Do you collect them, too?  What did you think of when you read this one?  Do you agree or disagree with it?  Please comment below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 20, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image credit: Provide for the Common Defense

Quote Source: Brainy Quote

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• Someone sends you a link to a long web article, or
• Your RSS Reader only gives you a synopsis or an article with a link to the full version, or
• You start reading a long web story, but you won’t hold your online connection long enough to finish it, or
• You wish there was some way to save a great web article that did not depend on the source to stay static, or
• You just wish that you could save some great, long web content for later reading on your laptop, smart phone, or Kindle

Well now you can!  And, best of all, the service is free!

The service, that I use dozens of times a day, is called Instapaper.  It is designed by By Marco Arment.  They self describe themselves as, “A simple tool to save web pages for reading later.” But, I have to say that I believe they are being overly modest.  You can read their own description via their Frequently Asked Questions page, here.

In a nutshell, you:

1. Open a free account with them.
2. Install a bookmark in your browser and/or a bookmarklet app on your tool bar.  This works with all the major browsers including mobile safari on the iPhone.
3. You surf to a page that you like or copy a link.  You then go to their bookmark or hit their bookmarklet and Bam!  It gets saved.  You can also go to your Instapaper Account page and manually paste the link.
4. To access the saved pages you can use their website, download an iPhone/Android/Blackberry application, or tie it to your Amazon Kindle Account.

That is it!  What is really cool is that:

• It is smart enough to grab the story and not the page on a blog or news site.
• It is smart enough to grab the “for print view” rather than the web view, meaning that you get the whole article and not the first page!
• On the very very very few pages that don’t work, it is smart enough to self-detect the error and give you a clean link to go back to it.

I tell you, this is the way to read web pages, blog articles, and news stories later when you have time.  Plus, the saved links last forever, giving you a clean way to reference them in the future.

I have to say, Bravo, to the developer.  This is master level work that I whole heartedly recommend to my readers.  If you are an Information Technology Professional, then you have to be using this service.  It is a game changer!

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 29, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: instapaper.com

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Well I think that we can all agree that using webcams on school provided computers to spy on students without parental consent is a really bad idea.  I also think that attempting to cover it up and denying it when caught with your hand in the cookie jar is a far worse one.  Nevertheless, this story will shape the landscape of information technology and mobile computing for years to come, so all Information Technology Professionals need to be conversant on both the facts and the implications.

hothardware.com – Laptop Monitoring: It’s Not Just In Pennsylvania

“One of the major news stories of the past week has focused on the Lower Merion school district in Philadelphia and the furor created when the school admitted it could remotely activate student webcams and observe them remotely. One clip from an episode of Frontline that aired in June 2009, however, proves that Lower Merion’s Harriton High School is not the only place where students’ rights are potentially being violated.”

There was so much written about this topic that there is no single news story to cover all bases.  I recommend that you review Google News’ aggregation site for this topic.  You can find all angles, opinions, and levels of engagement there.

At its essence, this is a great cautionary tale for IT Pros… just because you can do something does not mean that you should.  Also, it is a story of the best of intentions being carried out in the worst possible ways.  Also, the great ends that were realized by this program have now been completely erased by the means that were used to obtain them.  Really a sad tale… imagine how well this all could have gone if they had simply sent home a permission slip.  My kids’ school sends them home for everything from zoo trips to in-class videos.  How did these school administrators miss the boat by so much?

Well, as they say, knowing is half the battle.  Be warned….

What do you think about this topic?  Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 28, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: xomba.com

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Today’s term is Single Sign-On.  This is how Wikipedia defines the it:

“Single sign-on (SSO) is a property of access control of multiple, related, but independent software systems. With this property a user logs in once and gains access to all systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them. Single sign-off is the reverse property whereby a single action of signing out terminates access to multiple software systems.

As different applications and resources support different authentication mechanisms, single sign-on has to internally translate to and store different credentials compared to what is used for initial authentication.”

Essentially, it is the practice of setting up one, very-high security fence for your users to cross.   Once they pass this tough security check-point, then they have ability to use all of the system resources without having to deal with another user-intrusive validation procedure.  If your information system is a castle, then the single sign-on is the main gate and the computing resources are all of the shops in the castle market that is inside the walls and moat.  The opposing model is one, very similar to the Internet, where users get asked for differing usernames, passwords, and security tokens before they get access to individual pages, databases, and programs.

Single Sign-On protocols usually invoke very hard security requirements to make sure that users are authenticated, validated, and properly approved for access at that once check.  Solutions usually involve some or all of the following:

• Usernames
• Strong passwords or Personal Identification Numbers (PINs)
• Hardware Tokens
• Random number generators
• Digital certificates
• Access Control Lists
• Smart cards

Here are some of the reasons why one might be interested in instituting a single sign-on solution:

• Users are more willing to be inconvenienced with complicated security protocols once and actually follow them.  This means that you can really come up with a high-powered “lock” and they will be willing to use it.  This prevents the “writing the password on a sticky” problem as well as the one password for many places challenge.
• Having a single repository protocol for security services permits less vulnerabilities due to software or hardware faults.
• Troubleshooting of security processes is significantly simplified when only one system is in use.
• Vendors can develop products for your system and evoke security as a service.
• Disavowing a user is simplified for human resources because they only have to expunge them from one service vice many.
• You can use completely open source services to maximize forward looking compatibility.
• Alternatively, you can use completely proprietary systems to employ “security through obscurity” concepts and be comfortable that you can replace the entire single-sign on component at a future date if desired or required.

As you can see there are potentially many reasons to consider a cross grade.

What are some of the disadvantages?

• Complexity.  These solutions are rarely easy, simple, or straight forward.
• Installation Expense.  Good solutions require investments in people, products, and training.  This is not the place to short change.
• Recurring Expense.  If you choose solutions that require hardware tokens or third-party certificates, then you will be stuck purchasing them forever.
• People.  If you only have one gate, then you had better make sure that your gate guards know what they are doing and how it works.  If you choose an obscure or complicated system then you need to be ready to pay for the right people here.
• Fault Tolerance.  If you have one gate and it gets stuck up then you entire system is out of commission.  You need to have back-up plans that don’t remove all of the security advantages of the Single Sign-On system by creating back doors.

Here are some of the best links on the subject that I found in my search of the web:

• Wikipedia – Single Sign-On.  Contains a great pros and cons as well as resources section.
• The Open Group – Single Sign-On.  Contains open source specifications, solutions, and white papers.
• IBM – Build and implement a single sign-on solution. Industry best practices, Java implementation guide, and commercial products to achieve goals.
• Novell – Secure Login Solutions.  Includes ROI calculators, product comparisons, implementation guides, and white papers.

I have used many Single Sign-On solutions.  Overall, I think that if you properly procure the solution after a formal process of defining your requirements, manning for success, and training your people the benefits of these solutions far outweigh their costs.  I am a big proponent of their employment.

Hopefully, this introduction to the vocabulary word was valuable for you.  Considering all the options for optimizing knowledge management is a core competency of all Information Technology Professionals.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 11, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Positiv-it

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