Episode 0049, 05/17/2008
Title/Description: Arms Race, Muni Wi-fi, Hyperconnectivity, Wireless Life and Death
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 49, recorded May 17th, 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 New Arms Race
The newly formed Air Force Cyber Command, or AFCYBER, is ramping up a new version of the age-old arms race. In an article published in the Armed Services Journal, Col. Charles W, Williamson III outlines a plan in which the US Air Force would create a botnet that it can focus on Internet sites owned by the enemy to take them down. As previously discussed on this program, botnets are made up of hundreds or thousands of computers working together on the Internet to accomplish some task. Typical botnets, created illegally by hackers, make use of PCs owned by unsuspecting Internet users to send out massive amounts of spam or launch distributed denial of service attacks or DDOS. A DDOS involves many computers all requesting resources from one Internet server repeatedly, until the server is unable to function normally, depriving the public of service. Over the past year, foreign governments have been suspected of launching DDOS attacks against US government Web sites. The US military is hoping to gain the same power, or greater, and use it to intimidate and discourage its enemies.
Sources: Preparing for cyber warfare: US Air Force floats botnet plan [Ars technica], Carpet bombing in cyberspace [Armed Forces Journal]
Story 2 - Muni Wi-fi's last gasps
Two years ago, most major cities in the US were touting plans to implement municipal wireless Internet services base on Wi-fi technology - commonly called Muni Wi-Fi. Muni Wi-Fi promised to provide equal and convenient access to the Internet for everyone in the city, assisting the mobile work force to stay connected and giving a hand up to the poor. Philadelphia was one of the first big cities to announce such a plan and is often considered the poster child for Muni Wi-Fi. This week, Philadelphia and Earth Link announced that they are pulling the plug on the system. EarthLink is selling their entire Wi-Fi business blaming major financial losses that necessitate the move. Besides Philly, Chicago and San Francisco have also faced problems rolling out Muni Wi-Fi. The expense of installing and maintaining thousands of access points around a city, to support tens of thousands of users, is just too great. It appears that city-wide wireless Internet coverage may have to wait until 2010 when the big telecom companies roll out their 3G wireless networks based on WiMax and LTE technologies.
Sources: Philadelphia's municipal Wi-Fi network to go dark [Ars Technica], EarthLink Backs Out of Philly Wi-Fi Deal [NewsFactor]
Story 3 - Hyperconnectivity Syndrome
A study by Interactive Data Corp (IDC) has coined a new category of person - hyperconnected. According to IDC a hyperconnected person is "reasonably happy with their work/life balance, even though they use almost all devices for both, and they are willing to communicate with work on vacation, in restaurants, from bed, and even in places of worship." China and the US have the highest percentage of hyperconnected individuals. Worldwide, 16 percent of the 2,400 people surveyed are classified as hyperconnected. However, 26 percent were classified as increasingly connected - on their way to hyper. The IDC report points out areas of concern for businesses as employees merge personal and professional time and activities and also problems for hyperconnected people who may suffer under the strain of information overload. Are you hyperconnected? There is little doubt that I am.
Sources: No off switch: "Hyperconnectivity" on the rise [Ars Technica]
Story 4 - Wireless Internet a Matter of Life and Death
Telecom companies are working to squeeze every drop of usable frequency out of the wireless spectrum. Google and others are petitioning the FCC to use narrow bands of unused wireless spectrum that exists between spectrum ranges approved for specific services. The areas of spectrum between services, that some call white space, was provided as padding to keep one service from bleeding over into another. For example, you wouldn't want an FM radio station to blare into the headphones of a pilot receiving orders from the tower. Nor would you want your television to change channels when you press the button to open and close you garage door. The telecom companies believe that a whole lot of white space spectrum could be used to provide people with high-speed Internet service, especially in rural and underserved areas. Others are arguing that employing white space would cause interference in important wireless services. Television and radio stations are fighting the idea because the wireless microphones they employ depend on white space to send clear signals. More importantly hospitals and medical device manufacturers say that giving up the white space spectrum would threaten medical devices that depend on wireless signals such as heart monitors and blood pressure and respiration devices. The FCC is conducting tests to determine the interplay between white space and wireless signal quality.
Sources: Wireless Patient Devices at Risk from Internet Use [NewsFactor]
And that brings us to News Briefs.
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. Email 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!