Episode 0046, 04/26/2008
Title/Description: CourseCast 46: BBC's iPlayer, Microsoft's Mesh, Zombies against Zombies
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 46, recorded April 26th, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - The BBC's iPlayer Controversy
There is an ongoing heated controversy going on in the UK over the BBC's iPlayer. The iPlayer is an online service that allows Brits to watch BBC programs from their Web browser. The service has become so popular that the UK Internet infrastructure is straining under the high bandwidth demands. Internet service providers are in a panic demanding that the BBC pay for network infrastructure improvements to support the large amount of video streaming traffic flowing from the iplayer Web site. Of course, the BBC disagrees. Telecom regulators aren't convinced that it’s the BBC's responsibility either.
The US would be wise to pay attention to how the UK deals with this situation as it is facing the same inevitable confrontation. Comcast has stated that its network is not designed to handle the demands of video streaming. Currently, video streaming content from sites like YouTube and Hulu make up 50 percent of total Internet traffic in the US. Tension is already rising about who should be responsible for making the investment to bulk up the US Internet infrastructure. Should it be the media companies supplying bandwidth gobbling video? The Internet Service Providers? The US Government? It seems like everyone loves making billions of dollars from the Internet, but no one wants to invest profits back into the infrastructure.
10 Percent of Broadband Subscribers Suck Up 80 Percent of Bandwidth But P2P No Longer to Blame [Gizmodo], FCC's Martin: Comcast Blocking Was Widespread [PCWorld]
Story 2 - Microsoft's Mesh
Microsoft has made a move to claim its piece of the cloud. Cloud computing allows users to store all computing resources on the Internet and access them from any Internet-connected device. Microsoft is launching Live Mesh: a virtual online desktop where Microsoft users can store and access data, media, and software. Mesh allows Microsoft users to synchronize multiple devices so that notebooks, desktops, and smartphones can all maintain the exact same copies of data. This service is similar to Apples' iDisk, provided with .Mac which provides online file storage and device syncing. Google is also experimenting with this idea. Microsoft plans to use Mesh to also deliver Microsoft software through a technology called application streaming. Using Application streaming, Microsoft users might access Microsoft Word like they access Google Docs.
Microsoft’s Mesh Revealed—Sync All Apps And All Files To All Devices [TechCrunch], Microsoft goes after cloud storage with Live Mesh preview [Ars Technica], Microsoft to offer Web-streamed Office, combating Google Apps [Computerworld], Redmond casts Mesh to catch developers [c|net]
Story 3 - Fighting Bots with Bots and Zombies with Zombies
A research team at the University of Washington has developed a defensive system to protect servers from botnet attacks. The system called Phalanx, creates friendly zombie computers that work together in a botnet to filter incoming server requests and turn away the bad zombie requests. It's easy to envision good botnets moving from defense to offense, actively seeking out bad zombie computers and cleaning up the Internet.
Another research team at the University of Mannheim and the Institut Eurocom has discovered a method of spying on botnets from within. They use captured zombie computers already employed in a botnet, and alter their software code. Since zombies in a botnet pass information one to another, researchers can use captured zombies to spy on the entire army and perhaps, someday soon, to inoculate the army and render it harmless.
To defeat a malicious botnet, build a friendly one [NewScientistTech], Fighting Storm with smog: researchers pollute botnet [Ars Technica]
And that brings us to News Briefs...
Well, 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 at www.course.com/coursecasts. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!