IBM makes 300 times faster transistor!

Imagine a personal computer 100 times faster than the currently available computer or 250 times faster than a mobile phone chip! IBM has built a transistor, which is capable of these speeds - a development that could pave the way for ultra-fast computers and wireless networks according to the computer giant which made the announcement on Monday.

Bernie Meyerson, head of semiconductor research for IBM, stated that what they have been doing in the last several years is pushing the absolute limits of silicon technology. What they have done in demonstrating this is that they are nowhere near having tapped the limits of silicon performance, and that is very encouraging.

Meyerson further added that the transistor achieved a speed of 500 GHz, which is 100-plus times speedier than the fastest PC chips sold today, and about 250 times faster than the typical mobile telephone chip. IBM achieved the record speeds by building a transistor one of the basic building blocks of processors found in almost everything you get from silicon laced with the exotic chemical element germanium.

This is a marked improvement as improvements in chip-making has been focused on shrinking the sizes of the chips while IBM has made a quantum leap by building up the transistor which is going to back to the beginnings of the processor building, to achieve this feat. As per the report, the speed was hit only when IBM researchers, working with counterparts from the Georgia Institute of Technology, cooled the transistor to near absolute zero, but Meyerson said the device still ran at 300 GHz at room temperature.

Forecast from IBM says that the advances will show up in real products within a couple years, probably in chips to power super-fast wireless networks capable of transmitting a DVD-quality movie in as little as five seconds. It could eventually speed up wireless networks and develop cheaper mobile phones. Oh yes, the times they are changing!

Yahoo! and AT&T form Yahoo! AT&T to offer VoIP services

There is good news for all the users of Yahoo! Messenger and regular users of AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet subscribers and all Yahoo! users in AT&T's traditional 13-state local service area. Yahoo! has now tied up with AT&T to launch VoIP services.

With this new feature the consumers in the US can make PC-to-PC phone calls using the VoIP technology. The pricing has been kept low to make it very attractive. For now the calls within the US to over 30 countries for under two cents per minute. Yahoo! also allows users to receive calls from regular landlines and mobiles for a fixed fee of approximately $3 per month. These also comes with a Phone IN and a Phone Out feature

PHONE IN:
Yahoo! offers the users with a regular PTSN number for a small fee allowing them to receive calls anywhere in the world.

PHONE OUT:
Yahoo! consumers in the US can make VoIP PC to phone calls to call to land lines or mobile phones in more than 180 countries. Rates of the calls to over thirty countries are fixed at two cents a minute.

Yahoo! and AT&T are cementing their alliance, which began in 2001. It no small matter then that Yahoo! aims at making Yahooing an experience to remember.

Echoing Skype In

Key in the words “Skype” in Google search and the results page it says Skype – The whole world can talk for free. I can remember there was a time not so long ago when net2phone services were available on Yahoo Messenger for a short time. Thereafter it became a paid service and many discontinued using that service.

With over 100 million subscribers, Skype is definitely regenerating that lost interest by making calls over the Internet absolutely FREE. In order to make a free call from one PC to another, it is mandatory that both ends are connected to computer terminal with the rest of the associated gadgets like microphone and headsets. So what happens when you want to call someone who is not connected by a PC at home? For them Skype has the Skype Out - a paid service where you get to call almost anyone anywhere around the world to their regular phones. Costs have been kept fixed and low anytime of the day to make it attractive.

Now a Vancouver based company called EQO (pronounced Echo) is taking it one step further by announcing the availability of its free BETA EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service for Skype(TM), which allows people to access Skype from a regular mobile phone.

While VoIP WiFi phones will have to be in a WiFi area to function correctly, if EQO proves its technology, ordinary mobile phones could get to access the Skype software and enjoy the benefits of a low priced call over the Internet. So it would be a clever way of tapping into the benefits of VoIP without having to change your phone for a WiFi enabled one. While EQO is available for limited models are available for now, EQO is not charging for the software that’s going to bridge the gap between your PC and your mobile handset.

Finally considering the advantages this trial software will have to offer, for the larger interest of the telephoning community EQO BETtAr work.

Is my Net banking login really secure?

Every time I log into my net banking account, I am not only asked for my login name and password but I also get to see the small lock Icon appear on the right hand corner of my screen indicating that the transfer is secure. Get the mouse near the Lock Icon and it would probably display the type of encryption too - say 128 bit or 64 bit etc. All these are measures to make the online banking experience safe and secure. But how many net banking experiences really are?

According to Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute, American banks like Chase.com and American express ask customers for login particulars over encrypted forms but he points out that there is no authentication technology at the other end to prove that the users are genuine. One method of ensuring a higher degree of security is for the banks to use the HTTPS web pages for logins. On these web pages, use of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a default in addition to encrypting the information on the page.

Capital One Bank, Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co, Chase.com and American Express all require use of such encryption without which your data and details are very vulnerable to anyone wanting to hack in. While this is not a foolproof method, this additional step with a 128-bit encryption makes it a whole lot more difficult to hack in then it otherwise is. But the psyche behind this for most banks is that directing their customers from their main banking site to a secure HTTPS web page is likely to put off a lot of them.

Bank of America Corp. does not use SSL sign-in on its front page. Instead the bank allows customers to enter their login ID on the homepage and thereafter directs them to a HTTPS site to enter the password. If you resort to net banking, I suggest you look for the LOCK Icon on the right hand bottom corner before you proceed further next time.

Is your network getting phlooded

What’s it with all these companies that coin new terms to describe Network security problems. One thing that goes unnoticed is that most of them have a fixation for the sound "Ph" to name their newly coined terms.

Phlooding is described as a group of simultaneous but geographically distributed attacks that targets a business's authentication or login in a wireless network with the goal of overloading its central authentication server. These sorts of attacks are aimed at organizations, which operate from multiple locations but are largely dependant on a single server.

When many such multiple logins are attempted simultaneously, it could cause a Flood of login requests severely slowing down of an otherwise fast server. It may also result in blocking Email or Database access, which means it, may end up in a denial of service sort of a situation.
A Company called AirMagnet are introducing wireless intrusion prevention system that includes wireless event correlation and detection methods designed to identify clusters of attacks that indicate phlooding and similar exploit.

So what’s the difference between phishing, pharming and phlooding?

Phishing is the luring of an internet user to reveal personal details (like passwords and credit card information) on a fake web page or email form pretending to come from a legitimate company like a bank.

Pharming on the other hand refers to a set of devious techniques to misdirect your Internet browser, tricking it into accessing a malicious web site that looks like and pretends to be a legitimate site, usually to trick you into entering personal information. Here it directs you to another site not by web address manipulation but by the attacker manipulating it at the DNS level.Phlooding however is largely brought upon by negligent or improper use of a wireless network and it can be avoided by ensuring a proper firewall is in place and systems are configured correctly. Leaving Windows PCs in ad-hoc networking mode is another contributory factor that perpetuates phlooding.

So the next time you get attacked I suggest you say OOOOPH !

VoIP enabled cell phones - Myth or reality?

The cell phone that helps us stay in touch with friends and family from practically anywhere are prone to weak reception resulting in call losses. Cell phones with the capability to make calls over VoIP may prove to be a solution but are such phones a reality?

The Features:

The first glimpses of a VoIP cellular phone are now being seen. Nokia and Samsung and Motorola and HP all have a prototype or two in their stables that work like cell phones using VoIP. The Cellular WiFi phones will let people make connections using a local wireless Internet access point and seamlessly switch over to a cell phone network whenever necessary. The net result is greater flexibility in mobile communications as well as cost savings gained by shifting call minutes onto the Internet thereby avoiding payment against a cell phone plan. Additionally this will make use of the benefits of both the technologies involved - high speed of the cellular technology and greater bandwidth of the Internet LAN. It is believed that the new designs from Motorola will use a single chip with automatic switching between cellular networks and LAN depending on signal strengths. This will also be achieved without dropping the call.

The Grey Patches:

A few kinks however require to be ironed out before prototypes can be sold in large numbers.
· The fact that increase in VoIP calls made over WiFi would mean less calls made over the cellular network. Naturally, convincing cellular operators for support is not going to be easy.
· Infrastructure to manage this on a large scale is another reason for them not being deployed as yet.
· The other discouraging factor is definitely going to be the price of the handset itself. "These phones are not in the consumer end of the business" Motorola's director of business development, Chris White said

Conclusion:

Although the VoIP phone will initially target the business community and it will be sometime before it becomes affordable for the common man, the VoIP phone is closer now to reality than ever before.

Is VoIP Telephony Suitable for me?

The United Kingdom has more than half its Internet using population connected to the Broadband and as many as half a million of them use VoIP. Offers by big service providers promise large reductions on the annual fee most British pay on fixed line telephony only makes it more appealing. However, Is VoIP suitable for you?

Analysing what sort of a use you put your telephone to will help you decide. If a number of relatives and friends of yours live abroad and you stay in touch with them frequently, surely VoIP phones will certainly save a considerable amount of money. On the other hand if you rare an average phone user, it may not be such a prudent decision to make the switch.

'Voip is still not substantially cheaper than having a landline, especially for the average UK landline call,' says Blair Wadman, broadband manager at uSwitch.com. 'In some cases you will be better off with a fixed-fee landline package that offers all-inclusive calls.'

A number of packages available for the customer make VoIP look like an attractive option but there are some drawbacks before taking the plunge. VoIP call quality is still not perfect yet although that will change in time. There is also the problem with certain services requiring your computer to be left on for making the call unless as with some providers you get to use a router and leave the computer turned off. Not all packages work on Apple Macs either. Security of the phone conversation is a point of concern as it is using the Internet backbone.

What happens when the broadband connection itself fails is another issue. On the other hand it is not very often that we hear of a fixed line failing. There is no denying that a number of business houses are moving towards VoIP to tap into the cost benefits to be obtained and the VoIP market will definitely grow. Notwithstanding, you as an individual must assess whether the time and the pricing is right just now for you to make that jump.