SoCal IT Pro Association Newsletter                           Volume 3  Number 6
Southern California Information Technology Professional Association        June 1, 2005

Welcome Members, Visitors and Friends!
Inside this Issue:
Microsoft Gets Tough on Piracy
Bagle Variants Getting More Sophisticated
Your laptop can be a pain in the neck!


Meeting Announcement
Previous Meeting
Final Notes…
Email the Editor

And Now, The News...

Microsoft Gets Tough on Piracy: Download Validation Takes Effect This Month

>From now on, when you attempt to download files from Microsoft, a new Active X program will check your registry to determine whether you have a valid or a pirated copy of Windows XP, before permitting downloads. It will scan for the Product Key. Occasionally, even a genuine copy of Windows XP will fail validation, and you will need to input the Product Key, which you may find on a sticker on the back or side of your system unit, or on the back of the Windows XP manual. [Note: Should you have difficulty finding the Product Key, you can download the freeeee: Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder, v1.41, from http://www.magicaljellybean.com! Yes, it's a hacking tool that searches the registry for the data, but it can make life so much easier!]

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Bagle Variants Getting More Sophisticated

Now renamed "Glieder" by Computer Associates International, eight new variants of the Bagle virus were released last week with abilities not previously encountered in a single viral package. Matt Loney, ZDNET UK, reports on that the new variants attack in three stages. "In this staged approach, viruses seed their victims, then disarm them, and then finally exploit them."

First, a mass mailing entices unwary recipients to click on an attachment, which activates the virus, which then emails itself to everyone in the user's address book. Second, it downloads a backdoor Trojan, Win32.Fantibag, which disables the computer's ability to update its antivirus software, and shuts down Microsoft updates as well. Third, it downloads and runs a second Trojan, Win32.Mitglieder, which disables AV software and firewalls, and finally hijacks the system for use in a botnet, a group of networked systems used for spam, identity theft, and similar nefarious purposes. To read the full story, click here.

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Your laptop can be a pain in the neck!

While the focus of repetitive stress injuries has been on the use of desktop systems, laptops are now gaining both in popularity and as sources of stress injuries. In an article by Alorie Gilbert, CNET News.com, the medical community is now noting the rise of such injuries caused by the continual use of laptops. In fact, repetitive stress injuries have caused extended absences from work, which costs companies millions.

The three main problems with laptop usage are: 1) the screen and keyboard are too close together; 2) the keyboard is too small; and 3) people will take them home from work, which means they spend the time they should be resting, generating further damage to the same muscles and tendons they stressed earlier in the day. Ideally, a monitor should be view at 20 inches distance, centered about 8 inches below eyelevel. When placed in your lap, the laptop monitor is too low, causing you to bend you neck down too far, causing shortening and damage to the neck muscles. The smaller keyboard forces you to hold your hands in an unnatural position for long periods of time, producing stress on the tendons and muscles of the wrists and hands. If you place the laptop on a table, your arms and hands must be held up too far, producing stress in the upper arms, neck, shoulders, back and even in the muscles attached to the sternum.

Methods to avoid neck, back, shoulder, and arm/wrist injuries include using an external keyboard, monitor and mouse, taking breaks at regular intervals, and stopping before your muscles get sore (rather than after the damage is done). In short, laptop computers were designed for occasional usage, not constant use, and when misused, will cause extensive pain and suffering. To read the full article, click here.

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Meeting Announcement: Thursday, June 9, 2005:

ExaGrid Systems Inc., http://www.exagrid.com presents: "Utilizing Grid Technology to protect your business critical data”, given by ExaGrid's Gary Fort – Sr. SE for Western Region, gfort@exagrid.com.

The following descriptive information was taken from ExaGrid's website: "By integrating data protection software directly with industry standard storage, ExaGrid's Advanstor®, Self-Protecting Storage Systems, take the complexity, risk and operational expense out of protecting data. The result is higher data availability at a much lower cost.

"Advanstor Systems self-protect and self-manage data through automated local and remote backups, fast reliable restores, multi-site replication, disaster recovery and archiving.

"The Advanstor® system integrates industry standard NAS storage with on-site and off-site disk-based backup/restores, and fast site disaster recovery.

"Central to the Advanstor system is ExaGrid's comprehensive data protection and storage management software. The Advanstor software uses a policy based model to allow administrators to determine both storage and protection capabilities for a particular piece of data. Once a policy is set, the system is intelligent enough to implement the policy and correct itself should it fall out of compliance.

"Each site in an Advanstor configuration has the following components:
  • InfiniteFilers are NAS servers that provide high-performance primary storage to NAS clients and to hundreds of applications
  • Repositories are virtualized pools of storage capacity that hold backup data for both on-site and off-site InfiniteFilers. Repositories also act as a second tier of lower-cost disk storage to the higher-performance InfiniteFiler storage tier. Repositories communicate with each other across a customer's existing MAN/WAN network. All backup data is securely replicated between sites
  • GRIDdisks are the building blocks of each repository. Each GRIDdisk is actually a powerful server with a terabyte of cost-effective SATA disk storage. The collection of on-site and off-site intelligent GRIDdisks forms a powerful, scalable "grid computer" that executes Advanstor's own distributed data protection, data migration, and self-healing software."
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Now, once again, we present this exciting offer:

VALUABLE NEWSLETTER COUPON

FOR SoCal IT Pro Association MEMBERS ONLY

PRESENT THIS COUPON WHEN YOU SIGN IN AT THE ADMISSIONS TABLE TO RECEIVE

1 FREE EXTRA RAFFLE TICKET

A SECOND CHANCE TO WIN A FABULOUS DOOR PRIZE!!!
That's right!, cut out the above coupon, and present it at the admission table, and receive your extra, FREE Raffle Ticket! As always please RSVP on the http://www.SoCalITPro.org website (it helps us to know how much PIZZA to order). The link is on the lower left hand side of the home page.

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At the Previous Meeting...

First, Rajeev Nagar, Group Project Manager of the Windows Server Clustering and High Availability team from Microsoft gave a special presentation: “Microsoft Clustering and High Availability technology”. Microsoft defines a cluster as a group of independent systems (up to eight nodes), managed as a single system. The advantages of clustering are Scalability (adding more CPUs, memory, etc.); High Availibility; and Management as a single unit. While earlier versions of the Windows Server OS made clustering possible, it was somewhat difficult to set up properly. Longhorn has a simple "Create Cluster" Wizard. Rajeev also mentioned the use of a Grid Partitioning Table (GPT), as opposed to MBR (Master Boot Record) volumes, which brings up some interesting questions concerning the advantages and disadvantages of each. Hopefully, we'll get some answers soon. He noted that the delivery date for Longhorn has been pushed back to 2007.

Next, Mark Asjarian, of Liebert Associates, http://www.liebert.com/aboutus/liebert/history/default.asp, discussed "Infrastructure Availability for Blade Servers and VoIP Deployments." The talk centered on power and airconditioning requirements for data centers. Electrical power problems include sags, surges, spikes, harmonics, EMI (Electromagnetic Interference), RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), brownouts and blackouts. Solutions mentioned were the old standby technology, Line-Interactive technology, and Liebert's special Online Double-Conversion Technology, which is capable of providing "5/9s" (99.999%) availability, or better. (Note that the phone company provides 6/9s at 48VDC.)

Mark defined "Power" as equal to "Process Load," which equals "Heat." Diagrams illustrated the heat flow in typical server rooms, where server racks placed back to back with insufficient air flow between the racks caused overheating, and thermal breakdown of servers in the upper tiers of the racks. Above 85°F, servers will go down in about five minutes! (This is BAD! You don't want this should happen!) Proper airflow should be maintained at at least 0.15 CFM/ft2 (CFM=Cubic Feet per Minute), or per person, whichever is greater. Air temperature should be maintained at 72°F (Dry Bulb)± 1-2°, with a 45% Relative Humidity. For more information about power and airconditioning systems with the ability to maintain such exacting standards for your facilities, click on the link above to get directly to Liebert Associates!

And finally, Greg Ross of NSI Software, http://www.nsisoftware.com/, presented "Real time data replication, Disaster recovery, high availability and centralized backup solutions." DoubleTake is NSI's premier software, which creates and maintains a Real-Time replica of data on another server. GeoCluster provides the ability to stretch cluster nodes over a large geographic area. Bandwidth will depend upon the volume of the data and the frequency with which it changes. DoubleTake can schedule throttling to optimize the use of bandwidth, and offers three levels of data compression. DoubleTake operates as a File System Filter, at a layer between the operating system and the disk hardware, using Sequential Transfer Asynchronous Replication (STAR) to recognize and transfer data from the source to the target system. For more detail on how these applications may benefity your organization or customers, click on the NSI Software link above.

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Final Notes…

>Suggestions: An organization is always more efficient when its members pitch in. We want suggestions for products, vendors, or technical presenters YOU would like to see at our meetings. If you have ideas for things you think we should be doing, let us know! After each meeting, Suggestion/Evaluation forms will be available. Alternatively, you may email suggestions to Brad Fischl, brad.fischl@quickstart.com, or to the Editor (see below) or you could make your suggestions on our new Online FORUM!

>Submissions: If you any ideas for an article that you might like to write for this Newsletter, or about any third-party software that you would like to share with our members, please submit your article to the Editor, contact information below. Please use the Rich Text Format (.rtf file) for your article, and in the subject line of your email, put the word, Newsletter, so I don't accidently delete your email. (I tend to delete emails from people I don't know unless the subject line clearly indicates something important.)

See you at the meeting on Thursday, Jun 9, 2005



Robert Holtzman, Editor
rholtzman@socalitpro.org

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SoCal IT Pro Association Newsletter                              Volume 3 No. 6                               06/01/2005

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