Technology History - Usenet

Usenet's roots go back to 1979 when the idea of sharing information and news within a community of computer users was realized by two graduate students. They develop conferencing software and connect computers at Duke and the University of North Carolina. Usenet grew and subsequently turned into a network that connects tens of thousands of sites around the world, from mainframes to PCs.

Solar Storm May Ground Aircraft, Overload Power Grids

by Paul Wagenseil / FOX News
Image taken by NASA's SOHO satellite on July 1, 2002
The severe geomagnetic storm bombarding the Earth on Thursday was expected to disrupt radio, television and cell-phone communications worldwide and could force airlines to reroute passenger flights that normally fly over the North Pole.
Power-grid operators will have to make sure their systems do not overload from induced current, and satellites in close Earth orbits will need to have their positions constantly monitored as the atmosphere expands from the additional heat and frictional drag increases.
"It's really hitting the Earth's magnetic field pretty hard," Joseph Kunches, lead forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., told FOXNews.com. "It's already affected HF [high-frequency] radio on the other side of the globe, as well as the astronauts aboard the ISS [international space station]." As Kunches spoke, the Space Environment Center's atmospheric magnetic sensors oscillated wildly, meaning that the charge of the particles hitting the planet swung drastically between positive and negative.
A large sunspot, dubbed number 930, ejected a major X-3 category solar flare late Tuesday, blanketing two astronauts at the end of a spacewalk with X-rays within minutes. A few hours later, a wave of accelerated protons hit the space station and attached space shuttle Discovery, but the astronauts were already sheltered behind protective bulkheads and airlocks. Earthbound organisms and electronics were in no danger from those initial waves, but at about 8:45 a.m. EST Thursday, about 36 hours after the initial flare, a slow-moving coronal mass ejection — basically a strong solar-wind gust of subatomic particles plus a large magnetic field — began hitting the planet.
"It's not the worst-case scenario," Kunches explained. "It's not as bad as, say, the Halloween storm of 2003, but it will probably cause the auroras to move toward the Equator tonight, meaning that the northern lights may be visible from the continental United States. Airlines will also have to think about whether it's safe to fly the polar routes," he added. "They might have to consider flying at lower altitudes, or not flying over the poles at all."
The Earth's magnetic field is like a doughnut encircling the planet, and deflects most charged particles that arrive from space. However, since the "holes" of the doughnut plunge into the Earth at the north and south magnetic poles, a certain amount of space radiation penetrates the atmosphere deeply, even hitting the surface, at those locations.
Humans inside airplanes flying high over the magnetic poles are thus exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation even under normal space-weather conditions. During a severe geomagnetic storm, it might not be worth getting off the ground.
"There's still no one answer for what a 'safe' amount of radiation would be," Kunches said. He added that the technological implications of the storm were more clearly defined. "As the solar wind hits the atmosphere, it expands," he explained, "which increases the frictional drag on satellites traveling around the Earth. Ground-based operators will have to keep track of their positions, which will be further complicated by radio-signal interference from the storm." Regional electrical networks are at risk as well. "Induced current will enter power grids," said Kunches, "and operators will have to make sure their systems don't overload." Thanks to the terrestrial magnetosphere, the overall effect on biological organisms will be little. That wouldn't be the case, though, for astronauts staffing a future Moon base. "If, 20 years from now, the same sort of storm were to hit a Moon base," said Kunches, "the impact upon people there would be very much worse. They'd have no magnetic field to protect them."

The Ten Most Important Security Trends of the Coming Year

Experts Predict the Future
The Ten Most Important Security Trends of the Coming Year

Mobile Devices
1. Laptop encryption will be made mandatory at many government agencies and other organizations that store customer/patient data and will be preinstalled on new equipment. Senior executives, concerned about potential public ridicule, will demand that sensitive mobile data be protected.

2. Theft of PDA smart phones will grow significantly. Both the value of the devices for resale and their content will draw large numbers of thieves.

Government Action
3. Congress and state governments will pass more legislation governing the protection of customer information. If Congress, as expected, reduces the state-imposed data breach notification requirements significantly, state attorneys general and state legislatures will find ways to enact harsh penalties for organizations that lose sensitive personal information.

Attack Targets
4. Targeted attacks will be more prevalent, in particular on government agencies. Targeted cyber attacks by nation states against US government systems over the past three years have been enormously successful, demonstrating the failure of federal cyber security activities. Other antagonistic nations and terrorist groups, aware of the vulnerabilities, will radically expand the number of attacks. Targeted attacks on commercial organizations will target military contractors and businesses with valuable customer information.

5. Cell phone worms will infect at least 100,000 phones, jumping from phone to phone over wireless data networks. Cell phones are becoming more powerful with full-featured operating systems and readily available software development environments. That makes them fertile territory for attackers fueled by cell-phone adware profitability.

6. Voice over IP (VoIP) systems will be the target of cyber attacks.
VoIP technology was deployed hastily without fully understanding security.

Attack Techniques
7. Spyware will continue to be a huge and growing issue. The spyware developers can make money so many ways that development and distribution centers will be developed throughout the developed and developing world.

8. Zero-day vulnerabilities will result in major outbreaks resulting in many thousands of PCs being infected worldwide. Security vulnerability researchers often exploit the holes they discover before they sell them to vendors or vulnerability buyers like TippingPoint.

9. The majority of bots will be bundled with rootkits. The rootkits will change the operating system to hide the attack's presence and make uninstalling the malware almost impossible without reinstalling a clean operating system.

Defensive Strategies
10. Network Access Control will become common and will grow in sophistication. As defending laptops becomes increasingly difficult, large organizations will try to protect their internal networks and users by testing computers that want to connect to the internal network. Tests will grow from today's simple configuration checks and virus signature validation to deeper analysis searching for traces of malicious code.

How these trends were determined
Twenty of the most respected leaders in cyber security developed this list. First each proposed the three developments that they each felt were most important. Then they compiled the list of more than 40 trends and voted on which were most likely to happen and which would have the greatest impact if they did happen. That resulted in a prioritized list. To validate their prioritization, they asked the 960 delegates at SANSFire in Washington to each prioritize the 40 trends. More than 340 did so. The SANSFire delegates' input reinforced the experts' prioritization and helped target the Top Ten.

NYT on iPod/iTunes Sales - Lies, Darn lies, and Statistics

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

The other day the New York Times published a short article which attempted to draw some conclusions about iPod and iTunes sales based on a report published by Forrester Research. Instead of coming to any sensible conclusion, all the article did was highlight a total lack of statistical understanding at the NYT. I'll save you having to read the article (even though it's only about 150 words long) by summarizing it for you:

67.4 million iPods sold as of Sept 06, 22 songs sold for every iPod sold, therefore iPods sales are not driving iTunes sales.

The flawed logic here is clear - 67.4 million iPods sold does not equate to 67.4 million iPods still in use. Far from it. Over the last four years a huge number of iPods will have been lost, stolen, damaged or just plain broken. You could come to a similar flawed conclusion by looking at the numbers of cars sold since 2000 and the volume of gasoline sold. You come up with a number, but it's a meaningless one.
Another factor that the article failed to point out is that iPods are available in countries where the iTunes store is not available. This is going to skew the numbers by a fair amount. In addition, the article fails to address the fact that one family or household might own more and one iPod yet share a single iTunes account.
We must not forget too about the iPod user's existing music and media libraries too. People will have music they've ripped that they can transfer onto the iPod. MP3 players have been around for some time now. I ripped my entire CD collection to hard disk back in 1999 (between Christmas and the New Year - I remember it well!) and while I've bought and ripped CDs since then, my music library hasn't grown significantly since then (on the other hand, my Audible.com library has grown about fifty-fold in that time). Bottom line is that iTunes was meant to drive iPod sales, not the other way around.
I think that the Apple iPod/iTunes model is an interesting one. While some people see through it and just see high-priced, DRMed, low-quality audio, others see it as a cheap, convenient way to buy the music they want. In that respect, iTunes is a handy service for some iPod owners. For those that regularly buy music from iTunes, they quickly hit a point where the value of the music library is greater than that of a new iPod and switching is not an option - Apple now has a customer for life.
The fact is that iTunes was never mean to supply all the music fodder that iPod owners wanted. It's crazy to think like that. Assuming that the average track is about 4MB, an 80GB iPod can hold 20,000 tracks, and at 99 cents each that means big bucks. Even a 2GB nano can hold about $495 worth of tunes.

Health Tip: Monitor Your Child's TV Watching

by ScoutNews, LLC

Too much time in front of the TV can lead to aggressive behavior and a tendency to engage in risky, unhealthy activities, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. Parents should set rules around TV watching, including limiting time to no more than one hour or two hours each day, and never while doing homework.
Carefully choose shows that your child is allowed to watch, and watch the shows with your child when you can. Try to avoid watching shows that may convey stereotypes or inappropriate messages for children, the AAP says. Also look for educational, appropriate videos made to help children learn, grow, and develop mentally.

There is No Christmas without Christ

Article by Maria Mackay

Christmas; it’s that time of year when families get together, friends realise they really do love one another and suddenly that person you couldn’t stand in the office two weeks ago isn’t that bad after all. Christmas is a wonderful time of year for most people living in Britain regardless, very often, of ethnicity or religion, gender or age. But the carefree Christmas of the past, Christmas as a given, has come to face a rather unexpected challenge in recent years. The secularist campaign is merciless and its goal is clear: to obliterate Christ from Christmas. Just last month the Royal Mail released its Christmas stamp collection which was noticeably lacking a Christian theme. Meanwhile, a number of local councils and shops are putting up their lights and decorations to celebrate the dull, obscure, meaningless and ultimately pointless winterval.
As the secularist movement continues its drive to eradicate Christ from Christmas, Christians have to take a fresh look at why this is happening and what responsibility we have to take for this development. As regretful as this development is, it shows no sign of receding. So what can Christians do to restore Christmas to its rightful owner – Christ?
Firstly, as Christians we need to look at the way in which we are celebrating Christmas. Are we doing enough to reveal that a Christmas without Christ is so utterly unfulfilling in comparison to a Christmas spent with Christ? Is it clear to non-believers that Christ makes a difference? Has Christmas just become about Santa, a nice tree, some presents and a party to us as well? Is the development of Winterval not an honest reflection of what Christmas has already become – and what we have allowed it to become?
Or if not, does it remain the case that non-believers at least perceive our Christmas as nothing more out of the ordinary than this? Apostle Paul said, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ But preaching is not the responsibility only of the one standing behind the pulpit. Preaching is something that any Christian can do – and without words too – as they live out the Word in their lives. Our testimony is so important to the way those outside the faith perceive us. We need to use our mouths to testify how great this time of year is not because we are seeing family whom we haven’t seen for a long time or because we are getting a few days extra holiday from work. Rather our words need to express a deeper joy that comes from celebrating the fact that God sent Christ as the light to save us from the darkness of this world, without which light we would be utterly lost.
And we need to be demonstrating that the birth of Christ makes a difference not only to our Christmas but also to our lives beyond Christmas. Non-believers need to be able to see that for us Christmas is only the start of our joy, not the end as it is for most people who don’t know Christ or the real meaning of Christmas. And this is where self-reflection is vital: for what reason am I as a Christian, a believer of Christ, celebrating Christmas? We know that Christ makes a difference; Christian converts really know that Christ makes an unbelievable difference. Now we need to make that known through our actions, our testimonies. This is a time when Christians have to revisit the command of Christ - to let our light shine in this world.
We have to consider again just how much we are really letting our light shine. Do non-believers see in us something different at Christmas or do they see Christians just going through the same rituals as they are; exchanging gifts, attending carol services. Are we making our joy evident to all? Non-believers need to know that a Christmas which is about little more than presents, parties, and good food does not bring deep and lasting spiritual fulfilment. Amos 8 says that the famine of this era is not simply a hunger for food or a thirst for water. Thankfully, most people in this country don’t need presents.
So what do they need? To answer this we need to know what the true famine in this era is. The famine of this era is a hunger for true love – the love that only God can bring and that can only be realised through Christ. People are spiritually hungry and they are hungry for something that will not fill them up just momentarily but eternally. We need to reveal that when Christmas is spent rejoicing the birth of Christ, the Son of God, we get more than just presents; we get the deep spiritual fulfilment that cannot be bought in any shop or gift catalogue for any amount of money.
We can complain and protest to our local councils over this year’s winterval celebrations or anywhere else that we perceive Christ is being eradicated from the Christmas celebrations. That is also necessary. But there is something else we can do. When the Christian delivers his card to his non-churchgoing neighbour next door does he mention anything about what he is doing with his church this weekend to celebrate Christmas? Does he invite them along to come and see what his Christmas is all about? If they don’t know why they are even celebrating Christmas then it is the job of the Christians to tell them.
If secularists are intent on removing Christ from Christmas then there are two ways we can respond: we can either let ourselves feel pressed down or we can see what a wonderful opportunity this is to let the light of the gospel within us shine to all around us. What a wonderful opportunity we have to tell the world that they have it so wrong about Christmas. What a wonderful opportunity this is to tell the world that they are invited to the one banquet where the water turns to wine, and not the other way round.
Apostle Paul said, ‘If God is with us, who can be against us?’ This is the reassurance we have; this is the privilege of Christians. God is with us and Christmas belongs to God. When we celebrate Christmas we do not celebrate it on our own but God is with us – after all, it was the birth of His Son! So let’s do our part well as Christians and use the mouths God has given us to testify the true joy of Christianity and Christmas, to stand up for our Christmas, and let’s have more faith that God will take care of the rest. We may be persecuted but we are most definitely not abandoned by the Lord - and neither is Christmas.

Technology History - Adobe

John Warnock and Charles Geschke left Xerox PARC in 1982 in order to further develop and commercialize their PostScript page description language. Their new company, called Adobe, was named for the Adobe Creek in nearby Mountain View, California. The company's first success was the use of PostScript in the Apple LaserWriter printer product, which played a significant role in the development of desktop publishing.

Technology History - Radio Shack

On this day in 1921, brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann opened a one-store retail and mail order operation in downtown Boston. They chose the name Radio Shack, which is a term for the small, wooden structure that houses a ship's radio equipment. The Deutschmanns thought the name was appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as ham radio operators.
The company issued its first catalog in the early 1940s and then entered the high-fidelity music market. In 1954, Radio Shack began selling its own private-label products under the brand name Realist, but was subsequently sued and consequently changed the brand name to Realistic. After expanding to nine stores plus an extensive mail-order business, the company fell on hard times in the 1960s.
Radio Shack was essentially bankrupt, but Charles Tandy saw the potential of Radio Shack and retail consumer electronics when hardly anyone else did and bought the company for $300,000. It was renamed Tandy Radio Shack. During the 1960s and 1970s, Radio Shack marketed its free battery card; a wallet-sized cardboard card, free, which entitled the bearer to free batteries when presented at one of their stores. The bearer was limited to one a month, although many customers would frequent several stores with several cards every month. These cards also served as generic business cards for the salespeople in the 1980s; the "battery club" card was still used until the company-wide changes in the early 1990s.
Its slogan since 1994 has been "You've got questions, we've got answers."

Some source info: Wikipedia.org

Computer History - PayPal

Hedge fund manager Peter Thiel and Ukrainian engineer Max Levchin established PayPal in late 1998. The two created the company with the hopes of providing a secure software system that would allow electronic transfer of payments. Their company was originally backed by Nokia Ventures, Deutche Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Within a short period, PayPal had 1.5 million account holders generating $2 million of transactions per day. Online auction giant eBay eventually purchased PayPal.













From my personal perspective PayPal is NOT to be trusted. They are not governed by normal banking rules and seem to have NO ONE overseeing their actions. Read the THOU$ANDS of PayPal horror stories at PayPalWarning.com, AboutPayPal.org and PayPalSucks.com. Many message boards also have forums dedicated to the thievery and fraud that PayPal, Inc. is involved. BTW, I am a PayPal victim -- loosing nearly $4000.00 and the primary means of income for my side business due to their fraud and stealing of my money.

Scientists Decode Ancient Astral Computer

By Ian Sample in London

A MYSTERIOUS device salvaged from an ancient Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unlocked its secrets. After a century of study, the 2100-year-old device, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, has been shown to be a complex and uncannily accurate astronomical computer. Recovered in 82 highly corroded fragments, it could predict the positions of the sun and planets, show the location of the moon and even forecast eclipses.
Experts believe it to be the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval periods. "This device is extraordinary, the only thing of its kind," said Mike Edmunds, a physicist at Cardiff University, in Wales. "The astronomy is exactly right … In terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa." It was lost among cargo in 65BC, when the ship carrying it sank in 42 metres of water off the Greek island of Antikythera.
In 1900 a sponge diver discovered the wreck. The device came to light when an archaeologist working on recovered objects noticed a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the ship revealed gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.
Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the device. Using computer X-ray tomography, which makes images of selected layers, and high-resolution surface scanning, a team led by Professor Edmunds and Tony Freeth peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered its outer casing. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates to between 150 and 100BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even re-create the irregular orbit of the moon.
The motion, known as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine's construction, the scientists speculate. Remarkably, scans showed the device uses a differential gear, which was previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century. The level of miniaturisation and complexity of its parts is comparable to that of 18th-century clocks.
Some researchers believe the machine might have been among treasure looted from Rhodes that was en route to Rome for a celebration staged by Julius Caesar. One of the remaining mysteries is why the Greek technology invented for the machine seemed to disappear. No other civilisation is believed to have created anything as complex for another 1000 years.
Bronze was often recycled in the period the device was made, so many artefacts from that time were melted down and erased from the archaeological record. The fateful sinking of the ship carrying the Antikythera Mechanism may have inadvertently preserved it.