Coursecast of the Week

Episode 0001, 01/01/2007

Welcome to Course Technology's Coursecast of the Week, Episode 1.

I'm your host, Ken Baldauf, bringing you relevant technology news and information for college students.

This Coursecast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions for higher education.

This is Episode 1 and the recording date is January 1st, 2007 - Happy New Year!

In this episode we investigate:

  • terabyte flash drives
  • radio frequency identification for Tokyo shoppers
  • RFID for US international travelers
  • a new virus to beware of
  • and the top 5 wired colleges

NEW HARDWARE INNOVATION

Flash memory has become a very popular form of portable storage. Unlike hard drives and disk drives, it has no moving parts. so its faster and more stable. It also can retain data without power, making it ideal for portable devices. Flash memory is used in USB thumb drives, cell phones, digital cameras, portable music players like the iPod Nano, and many other portable devices.

This week researchers at Samsung announced a new flash memory chip technology that allows them to build flash memory in three dimensions. Today's flash memory chips align the flash memory cells in rows and columns on a flat surface. Samsung has figured out a way to effectively stack these layers creating 3-D memory structures. They anticipate that this will soon lead to a one-terabyte flash chip composed of eight layers of silicon.

How will that effect you and I? Consider this: An iPod Nano with a 1 TB Flash Drive would be able to store 250,000 songs or 12,500 hours of video, or a combination of both! Imagine your entire music, photo, and movie collection in the palm of your hand!!

Samsung is working on a way to mass produce the new 3-D flash memory chips rat an affordable price. Check out the story at technologyreview.com for more details.

"Samsung's Plan for Terabit Flash Memory", Kate Greene, Technology Review, Dec 18, 2006
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17907

WIRELESS TELECOM & PRIVACY

Radio Frequency ID for Tokyo Shoppers

A recent Computerworld article details Tokyo's Ubiquitous Network Project which involves installing ten thousand RFID tags and other beacons around Tokyo's famous Ginza shopping district.

If you aren't familiar with RFID, it stands for Radio Frequency Identification, and is the technology that many believe will replace the bar code as a method of tagging merchandise. RFID tags contain tiny microchips the size of half a grain of rice that can hold thousands of bytes of information. The benefit of using RFID over bar codes is that RFID tags can be read through radio signals without physical or visual contact. So, rather than having to scan each individual item with a laser, you can scan groups of items with an RFID reader from anywhere within a few feet. When you finish shopping in an RFID grocery store you would simply roll a cart full of RFID tagged merchandise between two scanners and within seconds all of your items are scanned and you are on your way. Store clerks could take inventory by simply strolling down the aisles with a reader.

While RFID promises to provide conveniences for consumers at the check-out, and big savings in business operations, it also has many other uses -and that takes us back to Tokyo. The tags being installed in Tokyo's Ginza district will provide location-based information to shoppers equipped with specially designed wireless handheld devices. The handheld device obtains location information from an RFID tag which is then used to access information about that location from an Internet server over a wireless network. For example, standing in front of a restaurant, you would activate your handheld device to view the daily specials or find out how long of a wait until a table is available. It is anticipated that as this technology matures, cell phones will replace the currently used handheld devices.

Another use for the new Tokyo system is to assist visitors in finding a destination. In the Computerworld article, Tokyo Go. Shintaro Ishihara explained it like this: "Ginza is the most famous shopping district in Japan. In every building there are many shops, bars and clubs, and it can be difficult to find the one you want."

"Project to tag Tokyo neighborhood with RFID", Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, December 26, 2006 
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9006778&source=rss_topic78

RFID for US International Travelers

U.S. international travelers are experiencing a different side of RFID as they find out what it feels like to be tagged. Beginning today, the first day of 2007, all passports issued by the US State Department will include always-on RFID chips. In the interest of national security, the US is turning to RFID in passports to make it easier for officials to quickly access information about travelers. Some fear that the technology might also make it easier for a hacker with an RFID reader to access personal information as well. Blogs have been abuzz with discussions on how to sidestep the new system. This month's Wired magazine includes instructions for disabling RFID chips in passports. The method includes some old technology: a hammer or other blunt instrument, and a warning that tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison.

"START", Jenna Wortham, Wired, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/start_pr.html

INFOSEC

Information Security Threats in 2007

Security watchdog, Verisign is cautioning Internet users about a new e-mail worm being distributed with the subject "Happy New Year!" Hundreds of thousands of such messages are being distributed with an attachment named "postcard.exe". When launched the attached file will install several different malicious programs on your PC and email copies of itself to other users. As always, don't run email attachments or click links in email even if the message is from a trusted source.

"'Happy New Year!' worm on the move",Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service, Dec 29, 2006
http://security.itworld.com/4340/061229newworm/page_1.html

CAMPUS NEWS

"Top 10 Wired Colleges", PC Magazine, Dec, 20, 2006,
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2073408,00.asp

PC Mag teams up with The Princeton Review to find the most connected, plugged-in, and high-tech campuses in the country.

  1. Villanova University
  2. M.I.T.
  3. Indiana University Bloomington
  4. Swarthmore College
  5. Creighton University
  6. University of Illinois
  7. Michigan Tech University
  8. University of Southern California
  9. Quinnipiac University
  10. University of Oklahoma

That's it for this week's Coursecast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the Coursecast Web site accessible from www.course.com. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the power of technology!