FCC Auction for 700Mhz Ends

Excerpt from PhoneScoop.com
The FCC 700 MHz auction came to an end this afternoon, after 38 days, 261 rounds, and $19.6 billion in bids. Of the five large blocks being auctioned off, spectrum licenses in the A, B, C, and E blocks reached their minimum bids. The D block, which was reserved for a nationwide public safety network, failed to reach the minimum bid and is being officially removed from the auction.

The FCC may attempt to sell it off again in a separate auction. The C block, which generated the most interest because it covers large portions of the U.S., reached its minimum bid early in the auction and has remained mostly stagnant since. The FCC will not disclose the names of the winners of the 1,099 licenses that were made available for up to 10 days.

Technology History: The Dot Com Crash

The Dot Com Crash occured from March to October in 2002 -- when the NASDAQ stock market composite index lost 78% of its value. The bubble began in the mid 1990s with widespread, public availability of the World Wide Web.

The new economy of the Internet set the stage for euphoria where speculators were barely able to control their excitement. The crash was set into motion as a series of losses and failures (such as Netscape) were reported in the first quarter of 2000.

Yahoo's Yang Tell Rice It's Her Job to Get Dissidents Released

Article from RedmondMag.com, By Peter Varhol
In a response that has irony written all over it, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it was the State Department's job to pursue the release of two journalists being held in a Chinese prison for allegedly leaking state secrets and political writings. The irony is that it was information provided to the Chinese government by Yahoo that led to these arrests and imprisonments.

Yang claims that the information Yahoo provided was released against company values, and the company has settled a lawsuit by the families involved and established a human rights fund after the fact. However, after a Yahoo official was caught in the act of misleading Congress about the affair, California Rep. Tom Lantos responded, "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies."

It sounds like a cop-out by Yahoo to me. Does no one there recall the courage and conviction of H. Ross Perot as chronicled in "On Wings of Eagles"? Yang wouldn't do that; it's all about dollars and cents to him.

Nokia Shows Nano Technology in its concept MORPH Mobile Phone

Article from Nokia.com

Featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, Nokia's Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (UK) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities. Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices:

• Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live
  
• Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving
• Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension
• Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge
• Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

In addition to the advances above, the integrated electronics shown in the Morph concept could cost less and include more functionality in a much smaller space, even as interfaces are simplified and usability is enhanced. All of these new capabilities will unleash new applications and services that will allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways.

Flexible & Changing Design
Nanotechnology enables materials and components that are flexible, stretchable, transparent and remarkably strong. Fibril proteins are woven into a three dimensional mesh that reinforces thin elastic structures. Using the same principle behind spider silk, this elasticity enables the device to literally change shapes and configure itself to adapt to the task at hand. A folded design would fit easily in a pocket and could lend itself ergonomically to being used as a traditional handset. An unfolded larger design could display more detailed information, and incorporate input devices such as keyboards and touch pads. Even integrated electronics, from interconnects to sensors, could share these flexible properties. Further, utilization of biodegradable materials might make production and recycling of devices easier and ecologically friendly.

Read more at Nokia.com

Technology History: Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation's IPO opened on the stock market on February 14, 1986. The asking price of the IPO was $21.00 per share. At that time, Gates, Ballmer and the gang were making much of the company's revenue on Macintosh software, BASIC language interpreters, and the PC operating system MS-DOS.
After the IPO, Microsoft began a tremendous run -- earning large increases in revenue over the next two decades. By 2003 (a mere 13 yrs later), a $2,100 investment at the 1986 IPO offering price was worth $1.5 million. Sadly, while Microsoft has posted excellent dividends over the last 21 years, their share price has fallen by more than half from it's peak around the time of the dot com bubble.

Technology History: The Apple iPod

Seven years ago... Apple Computer hired Tony Fadell in early 2001 and assigns him a team of designers, programmers and hardware engineers to develop a new music player called the iPod. Fadell's business idea is to take an MP3 player, build a music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was highly involved with the project since its inception and molded the device's shape, feel and design. The rest, as they say... is history.

Excel Flaw Highlights Need for Better App Security

Experts believe the rising number of exploits targeting Excel gives hackers incentive to continually exploit applications -- rather than operating systems -- for flaws.

Article by Jabulani Leffall

Don Leatham of Lumension Security has a first-step remedy to the ongoing security concerns around Microsoft's Excel application. "IT guys should tell end users right off the bat that if they see an unrecognizable Excel document in their inbox, they should treat it like porn -- it's not something you should be opening up at work." Extreme measures aside, because Excel is one of the most commonly used software applications of the planet, it's also increasingly the most common and frequent target for client-side attacks, security experts say.

In the last 18 months alone there were more than 33 documented vulnerabilities that pertained specifically to the popular spreadsheet program, a number Microsoft would neither confirm nor deny. While this seems like a large number -- an average of almost two every month for that duration -- these are just the documented cases. This prompts IT security mavens to assert that securing Excel -- even above Internet Explorer -- should be Job No. 1 where Windows programs are concerned.

"Out of all the applications sitting on networks and desktops around the globe, Excel lends itself to be the most natural attack target because of its ubiquity in the corporate world," said Leatham, director of solutions strategy for Lumension, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. "This is definitely the one program IT pros are really pulling their hair out over because more often than not, Excel documents carry sensitive information such as financial data and the like." In mid-January, Microsoft's security group said there were continual attacks exploiting a flaw in most versions of the popular spreadsheet program.

READ MORE...

BIZ LEADERS ON BIZ CONTINUITY

Article from RedmondMag.com
Additional info from steeleye.com
SteelEye Technology has released its Technology Business Continuity Index. This annual survey conducted by the data replication and protection software developer polls IT professionals and business executives and looks at adoption levels, best practices and attitudes about business continuity. The bottom line of this year's report is that threats to business continuity are increasing, so business leaders are placing increasing priorities on business continuity. Here are some of the most significant findings of the survey:

• More than 50 percent of the CEOs surveyed regarded outages of services such as financial transaction processing or customer service as being "fatal" to their business.

• More than 40 percent of all respondents feel the average IT organization is more prepared for business continuity threats than last year.

• Less than 28 percent of IT managers feel their CEOs haven't prioritized business continuity assurance.

• 87 percent of C-level executives feel the average IT organization faces the same threats or even more threats to business continuity than last year.

• 63 percent of C-level executives feel there are now more potential threats to IT systems that are in turn threats to business continuity.

• 81 percent of IT managers feel their CEOs consider business continuity a top priority.

• 66 percent of IT managers feel their CEOs understand the steps and precautions required to ensure business continuity.

That last one is good news indeed. You won't be barking up the wrong tree when you go to your CEO asking for funding for data protection or secure offline storage.

CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage

From SANS.org:
On Wednesday, in New Orleans, US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) senior analyst Tom Donohue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch government officials and engineers and security managers from electric, water, oil & gas and other critical industry asset owners from all across North America, that

"We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."

According to Mr. Donohue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on the side of disclosure.

Westboro Baptist Church to Protest at Camp LeJeune January 26th

The Westboro Baptist Church (which is nothing more than the vile Fred Phelps and his whack relatives) is planning to picket, outside Camp LeJeune, NC, in favor of the murder of Maria Frances Lauterbach and her unborn child. The protest is set to take place just outside the main gate at Camp LeJeune on Saturday, January 26th -- starting around noon.

These "demons" are using the Holy Bible to say that God hates the American military because they have allowed homosexuality into their ranks -- and that deaths of ALL soldiers are God's work.

This could not be further from the truth. While the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin, God does NOT "hate fags". He hates sin, but loves His creation -- and that includes ALL people. God does not kill American soldiers, such as Maria Lauterbach, as some sort of vendetta against mankind.

Our Advice: Don't go to Jacksonville, NC looking for a fight, BUT be prepared to protect those who are there in protest AGAINST the Topeko, KS group. Military personnel have been given standing orders NOT to go near the demonstration. So, it's time for civilians to stand up and support our military -- and shield the world from the vomited hatred of the WBC.

EDITORIAL: I plan to be in Jacksonville -- protesting AGAINST the WBC and it message of hate. There are NO plans for confrontation, but rest assured that I would gladly get arrested for protecting (yes, that means PHYSICAL ACTION) innocent people from the venom Phelps and his ilk spew.