Posts tagged News
IT Quote of the Week: Louis Gerstner
Jun 4th
We are continuing our IBM theme this week. The obviously have had a number of smart people work there!
International Business Machines (IBM) was one of the first information technology companies in the world and definitely the first one to become a Fortune 100 company. Its CEOs, such as Louis Gerstner, therefore make for worthy additions to our IT Thought of the Day Quote of the Week Series. Last week we featured their founder, this week, we go to their CEO from 1993-2000, Louis Gerstner. He is most famous for his massive reorganization of the company away from hardware and into consulting.
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:
“Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.”
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 June 4, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: Time Magazine
Quote Source: Brainy Quote
IT Vocabulary Builder: Scareware
May 28th
OK, I found a new information technology term on the news wires this morning: Scareware! I always love our human need to find a tag for new ideas and concepts.
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
The place where I saw the reference is here:
The UK Register – 3 men charged in $100m scareware scam:
“Federal prosecutors have accused three men of running an operation that used fraudulent ads to dupe internet users around the world into buying more than $100m worth of bogus anti-virus software…
The scheme often tricked users into purchasing multiple sham products, which were sold under names including Malware Alarm, Antivirus 2008 and VirusRemover 2008.”
You can learn more about our new term at Wikipedia. Here is how they define it:
Scareware comprises several classes of scam software with malicious payloads, or of limited or no benefit, that are sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices. The selling approach uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat, generally directed at an unsuspecting user. Some forms of spyware and adware also use scareware tactics.
A tactic frequently used by criminals involves convincing users that a virus has infected their computer, then suggesting that they download (and pay for) fake antivirus software to remove it.
A couple of other web resources are available:
I guess IT Professionals can learn something new every day!
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 know of any other new IT terms that should be discussed?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 28, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: DHS
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News Commentary – We are running out of Internet Addresses… Again!
May 31st
Posted by Scott Coughlin in Business of IT
No comments
So, it seems to me that about every year at this time, we have a frenzy concerning how we are running out of Internet addresses. As background, every device that
connects to the Internet must have a unique identification code, called an IP address. The current addressing scheme is nearly 15 years old and called, IP version 4, or IPv4 for short. The funny thing is that I have been reading this same story for each of those past 15 years and even did a term paper on it when I got my masters!
On Mondays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments were generated after I read a CNN story. It is about the same message that they issue once per year. I recommend it to you. Give it a read below.
CNN.com – Are you ready for the big internet crunch?
The basic problem is that when the Internet went mainstream in the mid-nineties, no one envisioned that every person on the planet would have multiple computers, let alone a smart phone, toaster, and Wii that needed an address. The problem got very acute around the millennial, but was warded off by a new addressing scheme for downstream computers, called NAT, that allowed every computer on a local network to share a single point-of-presence connection to the Internet. This is why, you are said to be sharing an internet connection on your local street, at the coffee shop, and at work.
The solution is to upgrade the address scheme to a newer version, called IP version 6 or IPv6. You can read all about it at Wikipedia. Don’t worry about version 5… it is caput. IPv6 brings a host of new features in addition to its dramatically increased address space including quality of service, security, and expandability. The good news is that every piece of networking hardware built in the past five years came out-of-the-box compatible. The bad news is that people have continued to write online software code that only works on IPv4 even though they new it’s life expectancy was short. And thus lies the problem, the actual impact of shifting will be a crap shoot until we pull the trigger. That, and no one wants to be the first penguin off the iceberg, and risk mission kill.
The best news is that this story has not changed on lick in the past eight years! We will all gnash our teeth, complain a bit, and decide to put off the inevitable for another year. Stay tuned in June 2011 for another CNN news story on this ery same issue….
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 May 31, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: VEED.in – Tech News