Are You Ready for DST?
Hackers find New Ways
Vista - Migrate or Not
Upgrade Your Server
Trivia
What is it?
Security Threats
 

What is it?

A: It's a hard disk in 1956.  This is a volume and size of 5MB memory storage in 1956.  In September 1956, IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD).  The HDD weighed over a ton an dstored 5MB of data.

Time is beginning to run short so we want to be sure that you are prepared. We do want you to understand the ramifications of being unprepared. This change is not just an inconvenience that throws appointments off by one hour but has a ramification for anything that requires an accurate time and date stamp. Examples are automated tasks such as data backups, database functions or something as simple as a mobile device that relies on synchronization. When you sit back and think about how dependent your line of business applications are on accurate dates and time you can imagine the issues that will arise if your systems aren't patched or even worse, if some are and some are not. Here is a summary of items that you need to consider:

1. Make sure that your Windows Systems are patched including servers, workstations and especially, Microsoft Exchange.

2. Timing for the installation of updates is critical and all of your systems should be updated at or near the same time. Patches applied on some machines and not others can create a mismatch on appointments that are scheduled in the time space in between.

3. Microsoft highly recommends printing out a copy of critical appointments that are in the "extended DST" timeframe. This period is from March 11th 2007 to April 1st 2007 and from October 28th 2007 to November 4th 2007.

4. Put the date and meeting time in the subject line of the meeting request or appointment so you can tell at a glance if it is correct. For example, "Meet with Barton Olney on HeliosVision 11:00AM CST"

5. If you haven't done so already, contact your major line of business application vendors to see if their software will be affected. Most probably rely on the system date and time but it never hurts to ask.

6. Microsoft is also suggesting that anyone who uses their calendar for critical appointments print it out for the extended DST period for comparison after the patching process has been completed.

7. If you are running anything older than Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 Microsoft is not supplying the patch for free. If you want an incentive to replace your old equipment they are giving you one. Microsoft is charging $4,000 for the patch on Windows 2000 systems and there is no hotfix available for older products.

8. Any Windows based device is affected, as well as devices from other manufacturers. This includes but is not limited to Smartphone's, Pocket PC devices, Blackberries, etc.

If you follow these basic steps you should see little impact when the change occurs. If you are concerned, have questions or just curious about the status as it relates to your business please do not hesitate to contact us at 578-9739.  If you wish more information please go to www.dstpatch.com. 

Virus writers are using sophisticated technology to fight back against anti-virus suppliers, a report from Kaspersky Lab reveals.

Hackers are developing websites that load Trojans onto end-users' machines but delivered innocuous files to anti-virus companies

Other Trojans monitor firewalls and automatically click yes to alerts asking if the Trojan's activity is permitted.

Another technique is to wrap known viruses in multiple packets, known as packers, which hide the file from virus scanners.

Kaspersky said that cybercriminals were modifying existing packers at a rapid rate to evade anti-virus signatures.

The percentage of viruses that contain payloads which target anti-virus software is also growing.

Malicious programs now exist that are designed to destroy dozens, if not hundreds, of security solutions.

Cybercriminals have responded to security counter-measures introduced by anti-virus companies by creating viruses with kernel-mode code which can modify the operating system.

"Over the next several years, IT security companies will be able to use all their resources to reduce the pressure exerted by malicious users, but it will become ever more difficult," the report concluded.

8 Signs You Need to Upgrade Your Server
By Christopher Elliott
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center

Your server hardware is a ticking time bomb.
Don't be alarmed. It may never actually "blow up" — which is to say, melt down and take lots of data with it. But one day, sooner or later, it will become obsolete. And for your business, that's potentially an explosive liability.

"The older hardware is, the more likely that a failure and loss of productivity will occur," warns Donald Hess, senior systems engineer at Entre Computer Services, a systems integrator based in Rochester, N.Y. "In general, a company can avoid big expenses by updating its servers every three years. If it waits five years, then there's a big risk of being compelled to upgrade many components simultaneously." Ouch.

Read more...

• The first flexible, rolled film for still photographs was introduced only about 4 years before the first motion picture was made.

• The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor.

• The first manned spacecraft to be launched was the Soviet’s Vostok 1, which left Earth in 1961.

• The first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1935.

• "MIDI" stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a standard means of sending digitally encoded information about music between electronic devices, often between synthesizers and computers.

• Time magazine named the computer its "Man of the Year" in 1982.

• A 1999 survey of 25,500 standard English-language dictionary words found that 93 percent of them have been registered as dot-coms.

• A 2001 study conducted by PC Data and Information Resources Inc. showed that greeting cards, soup, breakfast cereal, and Imodium were among the most popular package goods bought online.

• A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.

• A bicycle headlight mostly allows others to see you. However, some of the brighter lights do aid nighttime vision. Most lights range in wattage from 2.4 to 20. Police-department bikes in the United States use a minimum of 15 watts.

• A car operates at maximum economy, gas-wise, at speeds between 25 and 35 miles per hour.

• A chest X-ray is comprised of 90,000 to 130,000 electron volts.

• A chip of silicon a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a full city block.

• A computer on a chip that today costs $10 is equal in performance to systems costing $100,000 three decades ago.

• A device invented as a primitive steam engine by the Greek engineer Hero, about the time of the birth of Christ, is used today as a rotating lawn sprinkler.

• A floppy disk drive on a home computer usually doesn't need to be cleaned more than twice a year. If used too often, cleaning disks can scratch recording heads and throw the disk drive out of adjustment.

• A four-engine jet can land safely on just one engine.

• A frog is a device at the intersection of two railroad tracks to permit the wheels and flanges on one track to cross or branch for the other.

• A machine has been invented that can read printed English books aloud to the blind, and it can do so at speed half again as fast as normal speech.

• A mangonel was a piece of military equipment used to launch stones.

• A new permanent display is available for viewing at National Air and Science Museum at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.: the gondola from the Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to fly around the world nonstop. After 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes in the air, the Breitling Orbiter 3 and crew – Switzerland’s Bertrand Piccard and Britain's Brian Jones – landed on March 21, 1999, marking the first successful nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon. The gondola is 20 feet long and 8 feet high, while the balloon itself is the same height as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.