Rozne rzeczy z sieci

1. Make it Acrobat 6.0. And work more securely. Adobe Acrobat offers flexible security options,
   proven reliability and is already a document standard with thousands of businesses and government agencies. Download a free tryout of Adobe Acrobat 6.0 today.
   http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,12sw,1,elb5,6n79,48gk,84du
   
2. Ciekawe odnośniki do domeny internet.com's network of more than 160 Web sites is organized into 12channels:
   Developer http://internet.com/webdev/ Download http://internet.com/downloads/
   International http://internet.com/international/
   Internet Lists http://internet.com/lists/
   Internet News http://internet.com/news/
   Internet Resources http://internet.com/resources/
   IT http://internet.com/it/
   Small Business http://internet.com/sb/
   Linux/Open Source http://internet.com/linux/
   Windows Technology http://internet.com/win/
   Wireless Internet http://internet.com/wireless/
   xSP Resources http://internet.com/xsp/
   
3. Ciekawy artykuł na temat pozycjonowania znalezionych przez wyszukiwarki internetowe stron (Yahoo i Google). Użytkownik jest trochę przerażony możliwością "odkrycie" jego upodobań w trakcie przeszukiwania zasobów Internetu. Z jednej strony jest mu potrzebny tak mechanizm który uwzględnia jego upodobania, ale z drugiej strony zdaje sobie sprawę, że te informacje mogą być wykorzystane przeciwko niemu. Oto propozycje czołowych wyszukiwarek: http://www.searchnewz.com/searchnewz-12-20040823SearchEnginePersonalizationTheFallout.html
   
4. Odnośnie XP SP2 "... There are three methods offered by Microsoft to disable automated patching: an executable file (to run on each XP computer to change a registry setting); a group policy template (to apply to Active Directory); or a URL embedded in an e-mail message to each user..." Czy nie aby ten trzeci sposób nie wygląda na działanie poprzez mechanizm podobny do wirusów w poczcie?
   
5. Today's focus: Getting XP security updates without SP2 By Steve Blass
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   Can we disable delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2 through Automatic Updates and Windows Update without blocking the delivery of other critical security updates?
   Microsoft disabled XP SP2 updates for 120 days starting Aug. 16 because many companies wanted to test the service pack before it got automatically installed.
   Update control tools are available from Microsoft ( ). Each tool uses a different method to create a new registry key - "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft Windows\WindowsUpdate" with the value "DoNotAllowXPSP2."
   There is a template for companies that have implemented Active Directory-based Group Policy that centrally disables and enables delivery of SP2. This tool kit includes software that can run on individual PCs for companies that don't use Active Directory Group Policy.
   sample script that accepts a machine name as a parameter is provided to support execution through logon scripts or remote script execution commands. A sample e-mail containing an update control URL is provided ( ) so users can disable and re-enable SP2 updates through a Web browser.
   
6. NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DENNIS DROGSETH ON NETWORK/SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 08/23/04 Today's focus: Is quality of experience beyond SLAs?
   Today's focus: Is quality of experience beyond SLAs?
   By Dennis Drogseth
   In this column I am going to press the point that quality of experience sets all traditional notions of service-level agreements on their heels. Now - not later - is the time to make the mental leap. QoE represents a fundamental shift in how SLAs can be defined.
   Taken at face value, QoE is exactly what it sounds like - the quality of experience. "Experience" is defined in my Oxford American Dictionary as "an actual observation of facts and events," and, as a verb, "to observe, to share, to actually be affected by - a feeling." What's interesting from these definitions is that the word itself combines two very different dimensions. One is a more empirical sense of observed reality, while the other includes sensation and imagination - it is about feeling.
   Both definitions play in QoE - which reflects a very different agenda than traditional SLAs. Rather than simply building from what's measurable up to the customer or end user, QoE would suggest starting with the end user, honoring the objective and subjective merits of his or her experience and trying to approximate them in metrics that can be validated in terms of technical performance and customer behavior.
   You already may be thinking that this approach is an unhealthy combination of masochism and naiveté, but I would argue just the opposite - it is the shortest path to comfort and mental health for you and your customers.
   Business productivity, customer loyalty, and business partnerships depend on QoE in all its dimensions. No one will stick with a provider that gets gold stars for SLAs but still leaves them experientially discontent - especially if other options present themselves. By trying to force you and your customers to live in a simulated universe in which only technical metrics apply, it is you who are being naïve. Sure, you will need to "manage" expectations and set some technical boundaries, but your ability to do this successfully is greatly enhanced once you approach the problem in terms of multi-dimensional experience rather than introverted technical specifications.
   A few pointers and observations:
   * Listen to your customers. While the old-fashioned help desk approach is often reactive and cumbersome, it can also provide useful background on customer perceptions and requirements. A strong, proactive service initiative will also help to promote dialog and interaction.
   * Recognize that while availability and performance remain prime factors, there are other dimensions to QoE - such as consistency, cost to the customer, security, flexibility (e.g., mobility of a service, or customer choice of service), and variety (number of available and customer-relevant services). This is not a finite list - because the dimensions of experience are not finite.
   * Look at options for testing responsiveness. Since degraded service has proven to be more of a customer turnoff than intermittent spurts of lack of availability, performance and QoE are probably the two most closely linked metrics. Until fairly recently, synthetic transaction analyses were the top choice for QoE validation, and they do still play a role. Synthetic transactions provide IT with a self-contained context for control. You can set the time and frequency and define SLAs accordingly - and of course synthetic transactions are superior for testing availability.
   New technologies - including slimmer, more efficient agent technology, more advanced server-based transaction analysis, and significant advances in techniques for packet analysis - are making observed transactional baselining more possible. Unlike synthetic transactions, observed baselining can inform you, on a dynamic basis, of actual customer behavior and customer disaffection - for example, when transactions are aborted due to impatience. Some techniques are now highly scalable in capturing individual user behaviors as well as infrastructure performance in large, geographically dispersed environments.
   These are just a few points. I invite your comments and opinions as well, and welcome intelligent disagreement and notes of support.
   Oh, and to answer the question posed in the headline: in my opinion, the glorious and troublesome fact is that QoE is indeed beyond SLAs, which can only, at best, approximate it - and that's because experience, itself, is more sprawling than the Internet, and more complex than all the data centers in the world.
   RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
   End-user SLAs: Guaranteeing 'real' service levels
   Network World Outsourcing Newsletter, 07/30/03
   http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/asp/2003/0728out1.html
   Why quality of experience is important
   http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2002/01502703.html
   IOS changes could alter face of Cisco routers
   Network World, 08/23/04
   http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/082304cisco.html?nl2
   CA looks to reduce 'integration tax'
   
7. Software maker exposes hidden data
   Published: August 23, 2004, 9:30 AM PDT
   By David Becker
   Staff Writer, CNET News.com
   Workshare, a specialist in collaboration software built around Microsoft Office applications, is aiming to alert businesses to the danger of hidden data lurking in their documents.
   The company on Monday launched Metadatarisk.org, a Web site with information on the dangers posed by hidden metadata in documents. The site includes Metafind, a downloadable tool for automatically analyzing and exposing metadata in documents posted on a given Web site.
   "There's up to 25 different types of hidden metadata that exists in Microsoft documents," said Matthew Brown, Workshare product manager. "And the more documents get passed around, the bigger the risk becomes."
   Metadata, hidden information that can specify everything from a document's creator to deleted text, has become a growing risk for companies. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was embarrassed last year, when documents meant to bolster his cause for intervention in Iraq contained metadata with information that contradicted the official position. After examining metadata in a legal document of Linux adversary the SCO Group, CNET News.com learned that SCO originally planned to sue Bank of America.
   Word and other Office applications include tools for removing such metadata before a document is shared with others, but those capabilities are used inconsistently at best, Brown said. "It's something where it really needs to be part of company policy--how you deal with metadata," he said. "If you don't create and enforce a good policy about cleaning up after yourselves, there's a real risk."
   Workshare includes metadata removal tools in its namesake product, an application intended to enhance a company's ability to share and manage Office documents. The company also sells a separate product, Workshare Protect, which automatically strips metadata from documents before they leave a company's network.
   "Our vision is to encourage collaboration around Microsoft documents--but to do it securely," Brown said. "Collaboration is a very important part of today's working practices, but it does present some new risks."
   
8. Jim Hugunin, the moving force behind IronPython and co-designer of AspectJ, is now a member of Redmond's Common Language Runtime team.
   
   Microsoft is continuing to grab top developer talent. The latest catch: Open source stalwart Jim Hugunin. Hugunin created Jpython/Jython; codesigned the AspectJ aspect-oriented-programming language while working at the Xerox PARC research center; and is the moving force behind IronPython, the implementation of the Python language targeted at .Net and Mono. Hugunin has joined Microsoft's Common Language Runtime team, where he will work on furthering Microsoft's support for dynamic languages. (Dynamic programming languages enable programs can change their structure as they run.)
   Hugunin started with Microsoft on August 2. But he hasn't completely abandoned the open source fold.
   A posting on the Iron Python home page said Hugunin plans to continue to work on Iron Python from inside Microsoft. The first public version of IronPython was released on July 28 under the Common Public License, an open-source license http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1495495,00.asp
   "JimHugunin (sic) has announced that he is going to join the CLR team at Microsoft, to continue his work on IronPython, and further improve the CLR's support for dynamic languages," reads the posting on the Iron Python site.
   Since joining Microsoft, Hugunin has launched a blog on Microsoft's Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) site.
   "Over the past year, I've become a reluctant convert to the CLR.," he said in his first post. "My initial plan was to do a little work and then write a short pithy article called, 'Why .NET is a terrible platform for dynamic languages.' My plans changed when I found the CLR to be an excellent target for the highly dynamic Python language."
   Check Out Hugunin's Site New Microsoft Blog = http://blogs.msdn.com/hugunin/
   While many Microsoft staffers posting to their own Web logs seemed most interested in Hugunin's Python roots, his Java-savvy also could be of use to Microsoft.
   AspectJ is an aspect-oriented extension to the Java programming language that is currently overseen by the Eclipse.org standards body. And, as Hugunin noted on his personal Web site, "Jython is frequently cited as compelling evidence that the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an effective platform for languages other than Java when making comparisons to Microsoft's CLR
   
9. The company on Monday launched Metadatarisk.org, a Web site with information on the dangers posed by hidden metadata in documents. The site includes Metafind, a downloadable tool for automatically analyzing and exposing metadata in documents posted on a given Web site.
   "There's up to 25 different types of hidden metadata that exists in Microsoft documents," said Matthew Brown, Workshare product manager. "And the more documents get passed around, the bigger the risk becomes."
   Metadata, hidden information that can specify everything from a document's creator to deleted text, has become a growing risk for companies. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was embarrassed last year, when documents meant to bolster his cause for intervention in Iraq contained metadata with information that contradicted the official position. After examining metadata in a legal document of Linux adversary the SCO Group, CNET News.com learned that SCO originally planned to sue Bank of America.
   Word and other Office applications include tools for removing such metadata before a document is shared with others, but those capabilities are used inconsistently at best, Brown said. "It's something where it really needs to be part of company policy--how you deal with metadata," he said. "If you don't create and enforce a good policy about cleaning up after yourselves, there's a real risk."
   Workshare includes metadata removal tools in its namesake product, an application intended to enhance a company's ability to share and manage Office documents. The company also sells a separate product, Workshare Protect, which automatically strips metadata from documents before they leave a company's network.
   "Our vision is to encourage collaboration around Microsoft documents--but to do it securely," Brown said. "Collaboration is a very important part of today's working practices, but it does present some new risks."