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Security outfit Blue Coat Systems yesterday announced technology designed to guard against the misuse of AOL, MSN and Yahoo! IM applications on corporate networks.
Blue Coat's IM Traffic Control technology will ship in the Spring, as an additional feature of Web security appliances. These appliances are designed to combat the increasing number of Web-based threats targeting port 80 'holes' in corporate security infrastructures.
Appliances such as the SG-800 already cover content filtering, Web anti-virus and proxy cacheing to which Blue Coat is adding the ability to handcuff rogue IM use.
Nigel Hawthorn, European marketing director of Blue Coat Systems, said IM use can have substantial business benefits but still poses three main problems for corporates.
These risks are: the possibility the computer viruses will spread through IM, waste of employee time on personal conversations and the possibility of confidential company documents been sent out via IM (which, unlike email, is not logged).
The leaking of company documents through IM, of particular concern to finance houses, appears to be the best reason for considering Blue Coat's IM Traffic Control technology.
Viruses have been known to spread through IM but this risk is already covered by desktop AV packages, so we're unconvinced by Blue Coat's arguments that its add-on IM management technology is needed there.
So if IM is a particular risk to certain companies - why not simply ban it?
Hawthorn argued even if companies decided to prohibit use of IM messages, this policy is difficult to enforce through conventional firewall. AOL Instant Messenger, for example, is port agile and will try to connect via a variety of means (port 5190, port 80 and even FTP, according to Blue Coat).
According to analyst firm IDC, IM use will grow up from 80 million users in 2002 to an estimated 255 million worldwide by 2006.
Blue Coat cites this and Gartner research that approximately 70 per cent of enterprises have unsanctioned consumer IM on their networks to explain the need for its policy control technology. ®
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February 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese minister of environment and forestry, Hassan Abdel-Gadir Hilal, said that the suspected Israeli airstrike on a military complex near the capital last year left behind serious environmental threats due to the explosion of small particles that spread in the air.
- Sudanese minister of Environment and Forestry Hassan Abdel-Gadir Hilal (SUNA)
In a parliamentary hearing before the Health and Environment committee, Hilal warned that this incident has a direct effect on the human respiratory system.
He added that release of lead and carbon into the air in the aftermath of the explosion also poses a threat to the health of citizens.
Hilal went on to address the general environmental situation in the country and mentioned aging dumping grounds in the cities of Hasahisa and Kosti which are located South of Khartoum.
These dumps, he said, contain chemicals that are washed away into the Nile river during the annual rainy season.
The minister attributed the surge in diseases in Sudan to environmental pollution.
He revealed that large areas of the White Nile and Blue Nile states are contaminated because of the sugar industry. He said that people are circumventing a directive on closing channels that flow into the Nile carrying polluted items.
Hilal complained that an employee with the state of Khartoum has blocked the processing of a grant from Japan to provide waste incinerators used by hospitals on the ground that the state has a contract with external vendors to collect the medical waste and destroy it in the desert.
The minister called for amending the constitution in order to grant his ministry more powers.
He also warned about the food sold on Sudan's streets, saying it contains lead.
Lawmakers concurred with Hilal's assessment describing the environmental situation as appalling with some noting a growing trend in cancer cases which they blamed on pollution.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Fat Lady hasn't Sung
So I got this email today asking me some really interesting questions regarding why I pursue what I pursue in all my mediums. It made me really think about what drew me to the form of podcasting in the first place.
And more importantly, it inspired me to sit down and do Episode 46. I forgot how much I love to just ramble to myself. And I thought it'd be a good idea to let people know what the future of the podcast is since I've been fielding a lot of questions about its mortality. lol.
Funny note: The background music is Philip Glass Morphosis 1-5 and the lengths of the full set was the length of the podcast. I really love how reflective the music is. Hope you enjoy it too.
Google Buzz Link: http://www.google.com/buzz/alachia.me/g3HXrZr2Ewv/The-Fat-Lady-hasn-t-Sung


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August 6, 2013
Five Cloud Storage Services Revisited
Here is a list of 5 free Cloud Storage services you might want to try:
1. Dropbox. This is my all-time favourite. With Dropbox I can store, sync, and, share files online for free. Not all cloud services will sync. If that's not important to you, don't worry about it. But I like to have at least one service that will automatically sync my uploaded files to all my devices. You get 2 GB of free space but you can get more with referrals. If you still need more you can always subscribe to Dropbox Pro, available in 100 GB, 200 GB, and 500 GB plans. You can even get more than 500GB with their Business Plan.
2. Google Drive. 15 GB of free space plus the use of Google spreadsheets and docs makes this a great choice. I use Google Drive quite a bit and it's easy to share editing of files with others.
3. Bitcasa: 10 GB of free storage and surprisingly, for $99.00 a year you can have unlimited storage with their Infinite Plan. I like this option very much and am probably going to sign up for Infinite.
4. Amazon Cloud Drive: 5GB of free storage. I use this for genealogy certificates.
5. SugarSync: 5GB of free storage makes this another option. You can pay for 60GB, 100GB or 250GB plans if 5GB isn't enough for you
I haven't included SkyDrive as I don't care for it. But lots of people do use it and you can get 7 GB of storage so you might want to check it out too.
Let's talk about having your own personal cloud storage and external hard drive systems. I use Western Digital MyBookLive which hooks up to your home network and gives you your own private cloud storage. It's easy to drop files into it and it also creates a backup of your computer hard drive. I bought the 2TB version at Amazon and there is a 3TB version available too. The WD My Book Live 2TB is on sale, down from $164.99 to $109.99 while the WD My Book Live 3TB is down from $199.99 to $153.98
It's a bit of work setting it up but once you do, it's easy to use. You can even set up different folders for different family members and can password protect the folders if you wish.
I also use the WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage. In fact I have three of them! I can't live without them. They range in size from 3TB down to 320 GB so there's bound to be one that suits you. These are also your own private storage but the beauty is their portability. The size is 4 x 1 x 3 inches! I have all my genealogy photos and documents on one and I can take it with me to plug into a relative's tv (if they have a USB port) or their computer to share with them
Hopefully these ideas will help you if you're struggling with what cloud service or what type of external back up system to use.
Credits: "Computer Computing Global Social Networks" by KROMKRATHOG on FreeDigitalPhotos.net
6 comments:
- BarnsleyHistorian said...
Great minds think alike, I wrote about backing up my genealogy only they other day. http://barnsleyhistorian.blogspot.com/2013/08/back-up-your-genealogy-carefully-this.html I found that some Cloud storage is not all it seems, be wary of Clouds with tarnished linings!
- Saskey said...
Thanks for the summary. Do you have any idea how long it would take to upload 1 GB to each of these?
- GeniAus said...
Thanks for revisiting this topic. I use cloud storage sparingly but find Dropbox so useful for syncing my family history database between computers.
I carry a WD 2 terabyte drive with all my files nearly everywhere I go - wish it could earn frequent flyer points. I'll have to investigate a My Book Live when next I am North America (where prices are good)
- Olive Tree Genealogy said...
Jill, I like the ease of WD MyBookLive once it's set up. I did find setting it up very non-intuitive and somewhat tricky but once hooked into your network and your folders set up - wow!
- Olive Tree Genealogy said...
Saskey, the speed of an upload would be dependent somewhat on the receiving server BUT also on your own Internet connection.
- Olive Tree Genealogy said...
Saskey, sorry I hit enter before finishing. I don't have the best internet capabilities, in fact I'm on satellite which is considered a last ditch attempt.
But yesterday I started uploading hundreds of photos (dozens of GB) to Bitcasa and it was super speedy!


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