Java Is Becoming the New Cobol
InfoWorld (12/28/07) Snyder, Bill
Java is becoming less popular with developers as many are switching to Ruby on Rails, PHP, AJAX, and Microsoft's .Net to develop rich Internet applications. Many developers feel that Java slows them down. Peter Thoneny, CEO of Twiki.net, which produces a certified version of the open source Twiki wiki-platform software, says Java promised to solve incompatibility problems across platforms, but the different versions and different downloads of Java are creating complications. Ofer Ronen, CEO of Sendori, which routes domain traffic to online advertisers and ad networks, says languages such as Ruby offer pre-built structures such as shopping carts that would have to be built from scratch with Java. Zephyr CEO Samir Shah says Java's user-interface capabilities and memory footprint simply do not measure up and put it at a serious disadvantage in regards to mobile application development. Nevertheless, developers and analysts agree that Java is still going strong in internally developed enterprise apps. "On the back end, there is still a substantial amount of infrastructure available that makes Java a very strong contender," Shah says.
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Friday, December 28, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Security: Wi-Fi Routers Are Vulnerable to Viruses
Wi-Fi Routers Are Vulnerable to Viruses
New Scientist (12/22/07) Merali, Zeeya
Indiana University in Bloomington researcher Steven Myers has been investigating how a virus could be spread between wireless routers. "We forget that routers are mini-computers," Myers says. "They have memory, they are networked, and they are programmable." However, routers are not usually scanned for viruses or protected by firewalls, and while Myers says there are no known viruses that target routers, they are still easy targets. Routers within about 100 meters would be able to spread viruses to one another and create a vast network for viruses. While routers normally do not communicate with each other, it would be easy for hackers to create a virus that enables routers to communicate. Myers used records on the location of Wi-Fi routers around Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston, and parts of Indianapolis to create a simulation of how a router attack might spread. In each simulated city, viruses were able to jump between routers lacking high-security encryption within 45 meters of each other. The virus spread surprisingly fast, with most of the tens of thousands of routers becoming infected within 48 hours. The geography of the cities affected how the virus spread, with rivers and bays acting as "natural firewalls." Routers can be protected by changing the password from the default setting and enabling high-security WPA encryption. University of Cambridge computer scientist Ross Anderson says the study exposes a more significant problem in that all electronics, including phones, routers, and even microwaves, are being built with software that could potentially become infected.
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New Scientist (12/22/07) Merali, Zeeya
Indiana University in Bloomington researcher Steven Myers has been investigating how a virus could be spread between wireless routers. "We forget that routers are mini-computers," Myers says. "They have memory, they are networked, and they are programmable." However, routers are not usually scanned for viruses or protected by firewalls, and while Myers says there are no known viruses that target routers, they are still easy targets. Routers within about 100 meters would be able to spread viruses to one another and create a vast network for viruses. While routers normally do not communicate with each other, it would be easy for hackers to create a virus that enables routers to communicate. Myers used records on the location of Wi-Fi routers around Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston, and parts of Indianapolis to create a simulation of how a router attack might spread. In each simulated city, viruses were able to jump between routers lacking high-security encryption within 45 meters of each other. The virus spread surprisingly fast, with most of the tens of thousands of routers becoming infected within 48 hours. The geography of the cities affected how the virus spread, with rivers and bays acting as "natural firewalls." Routers can be protected by changing the password from the default setting and enabling high-security WPA encryption. University of Cambridge computer scientist Ross Anderson says the study exposes a more significant problem in that all electronics, including phones, routers, and even microwaves, are being built with software that could potentially become infected.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Security: DNS Attack Could Signal Phishing 2.0
DNS Attack Could Signal Phishing 2.0
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Researchers at Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying a virtually undetectable form of attack that quietly controls where victims go on the Internet
The study, set to be published in February, takes a close look at "open recursive" DNS servers, which are used to tell computers how to find each other on the Internet by translating domain names like google.com into numerical Internet Protocol addresses. Criminals are using these servers in combination with new attack techniques to develop a new generation of phishing attacks.
…
The Georgia Tech and Google researchers estimate that as many as 0.4 percent, or 68,000, open-recursive DNS servers are behaving maliciously, returning false answers to DNS queries. They also estimate that another two percent of them provide questionable results. Collectively, these servers are beginning to form a "second secret authority" for DNS that is undermining the trustworthiness of the Internet, the researchers warned.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052198
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Researchers at Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying a virtually undetectable form of attack that quietly controls where victims go on the Internet
The study, set to be published in February, takes a close look at "open recursive" DNS servers, which are used to tell computers how to find each other on the Internet by translating domain names like google.com into numerical Internet Protocol addresses. Criminals are using these servers in combination with new attack techniques to develop a new generation of phishing attacks.
…
The Georgia Tech and Google researchers estimate that as many as 0.4 percent, or 68,000, open-recursive DNS servers are behaving maliciously, returning false answers to DNS queries. They also estimate that another two percent of them provide questionable results. Collectively, these servers are beginning to form a "second secret authority" for DNS that is undermining the trustworthiness of the Internet, the researchers warned.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052198
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Software: Computing in a Parallel Universe
Computing in a Parallel Universe
American Scientist (12/07) Vol. 95, No. 6, P. 476; Hayes, Brian
Multicore chips that facilitate parallel processing will require a major rethinking in program design, writes Brian Hayes. Software for parallel processors is vulnerable to subtle bugs that cannot manifest themselves in strictly sequential programs. Running correct concurrent programs is possible, but a key challenge is that running the same set of programs on the same set of inputs can entail different results depending on the precise timing of events. One concept for addressing this problem is to have the operating system manage the allocation of tasks to processors and balance the workload, which is currently the chief strategy with time-sliced multiprocessing and dual-core chips. Another tactic is to assign this responsibility to the compiler, which, like the earlier strategy, would be the job of expert programmers. But making the most of parallel computing requires all programmers to deal with the problems of creating programs that run efficiently and properly on multicore systems. "We have a historic opportunity to clean out the closet of computer science, to throw away all those dusty old sorting algorithms and the design patterns that no longer fit," Hayes concludes. "We get to make a fresh start."
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American Scientist (12/07) Vol. 95, No. 6, P. 476; Hayes, Brian
Multicore chips that facilitate parallel processing will require a major rethinking in program design, writes Brian Hayes. Software for parallel processors is vulnerable to subtle bugs that cannot manifest themselves in strictly sequential programs. Running correct concurrent programs is possible, but a key challenge is that running the same set of programs on the same set of inputs can entail different results depending on the precise timing of events. One concept for addressing this problem is to have the operating system manage the allocation of tasks to processors and balance the workload, which is currently the chief strategy with time-sliced multiprocessing and dual-core chips. Another tactic is to assign this responsibility to the compiler, which, like the earlier strategy, would be the job of expert programmers. But making the most of parallel computing requires all programmers to deal with the problems of creating programs that run efficiently and properly on multicore systems. "We have a historic opportunity to clean out the closet of computer science, to throw away all those dusty old sorting algorithms and the design patterns that no longer fit," Hayes concludes. "We get to make a fresh start."
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Blog: Zero Days: How to protect yourself; includes a pretty good list of "should do's"
Zero Days: How to protect yourself; Larry Dignan: November 28th, 2007
The SANS Institute released its top 20 security risks for 2007, which documents the security arms race between cyber-criminals and the folks playing defense. But let's focus on the big scourge -- zero day attacks.
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Monday, November 26, 2007
Medical Software: Design of Patient Tracking Tools May Have Unintended Consequences
Design of Patient Tracking Tools May Have Unintended Consequences
University at Buffalo News (11/26/07) Goldbaum, Ellen
A new field study by researchers at the University at Buffalo, the University of Rochester, and the University of Florida, Jacksonville found that properly designing computational tools is critical for the successful use of such tools in patient-care applications, particularly in hospital emergency rooms. The study examined the use and efficiency of new electronic patient-status boards in the emergency departments of two busy, university-affiliated hospitals. Overall, the researchers found that computational tracking systems affect how health care providers communicate information and track activities regarding patient care, which can change how providers work. The results provide an important example of what can happen when new technologies are not developed by designers with a sufficient understanding of how the technology will be used, says UB professor Ann Bisantz. "Research in human factors, the study of the interactions between humans and technology, has shown that in complex workplaces where safety is critical, such mismatches between the way practitioners work and the technologies that are supposed to support them can have unintended consequences, including inefficiencies and workarounds, where the technology demands that people change their work method," Bisantz says. During observations, focus groups, and interviews with nurses, physicians, secretaries, IT specialists, and administrators, the researchers found that the computerized systems are unable to match the functionality of the manual, erasable whiteboards traditionally used in emergency departments. "If you don't understand the underlying structure of the work that is being done in a particular setting, then you cannot design the technology that will best support it," Bisantz says.
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University at Buffalo News (11/26/07) Goldbaum, Ellen
A new field study by researchers at the University at Buffalo, the University of Rochester, and the University of Florida, Jacksonville found that properly designing computational tools is critical for the successful use of such tools in patient-care applications, particularly in hospital emergency rooms. The study examined the use and efficiency of new electronic patient-status boards in the emergency departments of two busy, university-affiliated hospitals. Overall, the researchers found that computational tracking systems affect how health care providers communicate information and track activities regarding patient care, which can change how providers work. The results provide an important example of what can happen when new technologies are not developed by designers with a sufficient understanding of how the technology will be used, says UB professor Ann Bisantz. "Research in human factors, the study of the interactions between humans and technology, has shown that in complex workplaces where safety is critical, such mismatches between the way practitioners work and the technologies that are supposed to support them can have unintended consequences, including inefficiencies and workarounds, where the technology demands that people change their work method," Bisantz says. During observations, focus groups, and interviews with nurses, physicians, secretaries, IT specialists, and administrators, the researchers found that the computerized systems are unable to match the functionality of the manual, erasable whiteboards traditionally used in emergency departments. "If you don't understand the underlying structure of the work that is being done in a particular setting, then you cannot design the technology that will best support it," Bisantz says.
Click Here to View Full Article
Monday, November 19, 2007
Research: Simplicity Sought for Complex Computing [Wolfram]
Simplicity Sought for Complex Computing
Chicago Tribune (11/19/07) Van, Jon
Stephen Wolfram says people building complex computers and writing complicated software may achieve more studying nature. Wolfram says his company is exploring the "computational universe" to find more simple solutions to complex problems that are currently handled by complex software. "Nature has a secret it uses to make this complicated stuff," Wolfram says. "Traditionally, we're not taking advantage of that secret. We create things that go around things nature is doing." Wolfram believes that nature has created a molecule that could be used as a computer if people ever manage to isolate and program the molecule. University of Chicago Department of Computer Science Chairman Stuart Kurtz says a lot of computer scientists are fascinated by finding simple systems capable of producing complex results. For example, a University of Southern California professor has proposed using recombinant DNA for computing. While DNA computers are largely theoretical, computer scientists take them quite seriously, Kurtz says. "People are used to the idea that making computers is hard," Wolfram says. "But we're saying you can make computers out of small numbers of components, with very simple rules."
Click Here to View Full Article
Chicago Tribune (11/19/07) Van, Jon
Stephen Wolfram says people building complex computers and writing complicated software may achieve more studying nature. Wolfram says his company is exploring the "computational universe" to find more simple solutions to complex problems that are currently handled by complex software. "Nature has a secret it uses to make this complicated stuff," Wolfram says. "Traditionally, we're not taking advantage of that secret. We create things that go around things nature is doing." Wolfram believes that nature has created a molecule that could be used as a computer if people ever manage to isolate and program the molecule. University of Chicago Department of Computer Science Chairman Stuart Kurtz says a lot of computer scientists are fascinated by finding simple systems capable of producing complex results. For example, a University of Southern California professor has proposed using recombinant DNA for computing. While DNA computers are largely theoretical, computer scientists take them quite seriously, Kurtz says. "People are used to the idea that making computers is hard," Wolfram says. "But we're saying you can make computers out of small numbers of components, with very simple rules."
Click Here to View Full Article
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