Dear Colleague

My aims in this newsletter are to keep you informed of new things happening in the IT world, whether it is new equipment or software or new threats to your systems that you ought to be aware of. Also, I would like to address those things that you would like explained, so if anything IT related puzzles you and you want to know more – perhaps in a “How to..” format, please let me know.

A lot has changed since my last newsletter:

1. Just about everything that moves has a camera in it and users expect to be able to upload those images to their work pc.

2. Everyone, it seems, has an iPod or other MP3 player and wants to download music for it

3. Floppy discs have just about had their day.  Many desktops and all portable come without a floppy drive.  So we now use data sticks.  The storage on them is quite incredible – 4GB devices for around £20

4. New forms of software have appeared to handle additional threats and work alongside the anti-virus applications

5. New processors have been developed to help increase processing input.  The race for the fastest processors stalled when clock speeds reached 3.8GHz.  The heat generated was difficult to dissipate without building something more akin to a hovercraft than a PC.  Clock speed have now reduced to below the 2GHz level, but the processors now have two cores.  While you might think that would double throughput, it doesn’t.

6. New storage technologies have been introduced – SATA (Serial ATA) is a faster version of the old ATA (or IDE) format, they are fast but I have had higher failure rates with this interface. SAS – Serial Attached Storage is a serial variant of SCSI, fast and expensive.  And old technologies in a new guise; external hard discs with USN and / or firewire connections, 500GB for less than £100.  There are also networked versions of external hard discs.  Basically they are stripped down PCs running Linux and providing simple sharing servers for the local network.  You can set logons and access permissions but nearly so detailed a manner as the full server provided by Windows of full Linux packages.  NAS storage start around £120 for a 500GB device.

The main thrust of my previous newsletters was to keep you informed of the virus problems when they got out of hand.  When a new virus, or a modified old one reached Medium threat to business or home machines I sent out an email.  Well it all went quiet.  Perhaps it was the news that the fellow who wrote the Love virus was gaoled or that others that wrote viruses or hacked US government computers got publicly caught that slowed them down.  (Curious you rarely hear of a UK government computer being hacked – probably because they never worked in the first place).  Another reason is that the Anti-virus companies have increased the speed at which they produce updates.  McAfee used to do weekly updates with daily temporary fixes.  They now do daily updates.  Microsoft, Apple and the various Linux and Unix variants all have improved their patching regime.  Microsoft’s now famous Patch Tuesday is an example.  For many software developers, the problem isn’t so much that there product has vulnerabilities, it is that there are companies out there who see it as their duty to hunt for them and then crow about it.  There are plenty of hackers who monitor these vulnerabilities and have an exploit ready within a day of its publication.  Microsoft and the others have to produce a patch and test it extensively before making it available.  Microsoft and the other companies have introduced patches which fix the immediate problem, they then produce update to the operating systems various parts to block off the generic problems.  IE7 has a higher level of security to help block the activities of errant add-ins.  Vista won’t let any non-application executable run without the users active participation (for which many complain).

The biggest change is in the amount of storage available to users.  Data sticks, MP3s, cameras all appear to the computer as a removable hard drive.  Anything could be copied to the device and carried out of the building!  Innocently, as part of that person’s job or with malice aforethought.  Do you have a policy in place for the use of these data devices?  Not only are they a potential waste of company time but they form an infection conduit for viruses and a means of removing confidential data from your site. 

The other side of this storage problem is their rapid obsolescence.  We have always had a problem with our hard discs filling up on the PC.  But these external hard discs fill up even more quickly.  The first problem was photographs, then it was music.  Now, if you have an internal TV tuner, it is recorded TV (a film might last 1 ½ hours and take 3GB of storage space.  When HDTV comes in multi-Terabyte storage will be needed in every home!

Next time I plan to look at the effects of the social networks.  Plus a brief piece on Voice Over IP.

Regards

Michael Walker

Microchip Computers Limited                                                6 Woodland Way

T. 01438 741120                                                                            Stevenage

F. 01438 741122                                                                            Herts

M. 07887 570128                                                                          SG2 8BT

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