October's always been my favorite month – fall foliage, crisp days – "sweater weather." Then I moved to Florida, and now my October doesn't come until November! October does, though, start the six to seven months of why I live here. October is also the beginning of the fourth quarter, a quarter in which we are eagerly making plans for the 3rd release of TechRef and our regular review of all training modules. Let us know if you have any requests for either – we absolutely use your input to ensure we offer what you need.

Special announcement time – we've scheduled a Web session of Technical Recruiting (includes all the Technical Recruiting modules and Understanding IT Jobs module) on October 28th to accommodate the needs of one of our customers. Because there's room for additional participants, we're opening the session to others. The session is open to technical recruiters on a "first come, first served" basis. This seminar covers the recruiting cycle concentrating on technical specifics – how to source for techies, how to do a technical screen, how to interview a techie, and what key negotiating points will get techies to accept your offer. Check out the details on our Website, and, especially if you're new to technical recruiting, join us on October 28th.

The growing popularity of Linux has made "open systems" and "open source" terms we hear more and more often, so this issue addresses the differences between the two terms. I also talk about the importance of keeping up, and make some suggestions. Check out the questions in TechCheck – all of them deal with information that has been added to TechRef in September. If you're keeping up, you'll get them all correct!

We'll be in Atlanta on October 23rd, then be in Chicago and the Washington DC area in November, and the NYC area and "home" here in Orlando in December. In addition, we're offering web sessions October 6th, 7th and 8th and again in November and December.

Keep in touch …

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TechKnowledge

TechCheck

1. Have you swarmed?

2. What does the "g" in Oracle 10g stand for?

3. We've got smart phones, smart cards, smart dust, smart displays. But what's SmartFrog?

4. Are Red Hat Linux and Red Flag Linux the same thing?

5. How are the following terms related:

BAM
DAM
GAM
NAM
RAM

Keeping up with technology

The first and defining fact about IT is that it changes! Daily! Anyone who works with IT, IT professionals, and\or IT products understands the phrase "Stop the world, I want to get off." If we don't keep up, the changes become overwhelming.

Keeping up comes after a foundation of knowledge is achieved. A basic understanding of IT can be learned on-the-job, through training (check out CSTA), or through research. You can tell that you have this understanding in a couple of ways. You're there when you're not afraid to ask questions – you'll ask "what is that?" or "what does that mean?" because you know you'll understand the answer. Or, you know you can find out what a new term means because you can classify it into one of a few basic categories (platforms, development, data, communications, and applications). Now you're in maintenance mode and it's time to keep up.

To keep up, follow one simple rule: every time you hear a new technical term find out what it means. Add it to your own knowledge base. Then, try one - or all - of the following:

1. Work ahead. Spend a little time each week to see what's happening in the world of IT. Just an hour can keep you on top of the basics. What should you do during this hour? If you subscribe to TechRef, read everything that's been added and updated since the last week. Read each definition and then use the advanced search function to see what other definitions are related.

2. Use Computerworld. You'll probably find copies of the printed newspaper at work; if not, check online. You don't have to read the entire paper, read the headlines. Then, read each article only as long as it makes sense (this newspaper is written for technical professionals, so a lot of it is information you don't really need - and probably won't understand). You'll definitely get information on new technologies, new products, and the business aspects of IT (mergers, corporate initiatives, etc.).

3. Ask!When you hear a new term, ask what it means. If you're a technical recruiter, ask the techies you interview. If you're selling software, ask the people who developed the program(s). And, no matter what your job is, ask us! If you're a TechRef subscriber, look the term up in TechRef. If it's not there, or if you have a question about the definition, use TechRef's email option. We'll get the answer to you within 24 hours. New technologies tend to be confusing, and often you'll get an answer that's as confusing as your question. Just keep asking. It's very common to get many different answers to a technical question, but each answer adds something to your understand and you'll end up with solid knowledge.

4. Learn!When you hear about new technology, spend the time to learn what it is. Look for training. Our Specific Technology, (45 minute Web sessions) cover new technology as it comes out. If the technology is associated with a vendor or group, often a Web session will be conducted by the involved party. Look for articles and white papers -- use the Web search engines to find these. Don't spend a lot of time -- usually articles and white papers are written for technical professionals, so if you are reading something that doesn't make sense, stop reading and find something that was developed for you -- a non-technical person working with IT professionals and/or products.

5. Continue to read TechConnections. Answer the questions in TechCheck, read the technical article, read the short vocabulary list. All this technical information becomes part of your personal knowledge base. IT is an intriguing field. It does change daily, but that's part of what makes it so challenging (and fun).

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Short Security Technologies Vocabulary

Security is a major issue today, and has many aspects including technologies, protocols, software, and hardware. This vocabulary list (and next month's TechKnowledge article) deals with security technologies.

authentication Security process. Checking whether a user, or a network point is who or what it is declared to be. the most common method is through usernames and passwords. Another method, digital certificates, is a stricter form of authentication for online systems (including the Internet) where a Certificate Authority (CA) maintains ensures the authenticity of the person or location. Authentication works both ways - both the sender and the receiver of the communication can be authenticated.

encryption Altering data so that it is meaningful only to the intended receiver. There are several ways of encrypting, or coding, data. Data is encrypted by keys, and both the sender and the receiver must have the same key. A key is a value associated with a mathematical algorithm, and the longer the key is, the harder it is to break the code. Standard keys vary in length from 56 to 128 bits. Keys are also defined as secret (or symmetric), or public (asymmetric). Secret keys have a single key, or formula used to both send and receive the information. Public keys have two keys (formulas), one to send and one to receive, With a public key, even the sender cannot de-crypt a message.

firewalls System security. The software and/or hardware used to block certain kinds of traffic to corporate information systems from the Internet and corporate online systems. Used to keep out hackers and any unauthorized access. Firewalls work with ACLs (Access Control Lists) to allow only authorized access to corporate systems and information. Firewalls are usually software products that run on system servers. A dedicated computer running the security software is called a firewall appliance.

IDS (Intrusion Detection System) System software. Security software that monitors networks and reports on any unauthorized attempts to access any part of the system. These systems vary in complexity from producing a report of unauthorized access attempts, to sounding alarms, calling beepers, identifying the unauthorized user, and even tracking an intruder through a Web site or system.

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Security technology. Uses different keys to establish confidentiality and authenticate that information does come from the sender. Two keys are used: a private key which is kept confidential and a public key that is sent to potential correspondents. A document is encoded with one key can only be decoded with the other. Encryption is handled totally by software. Called asymmetric keys.

RSA encryption Security function. Public key encryption technique named after three MIT professors (Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman). See PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). Software available from many vendors (including RSA Security) but the technology is public domain. The government bans exporting this technology to foreign countries.

sandbox Communications. Security issue. Term used with Java systems to describe the security controls on Java applets. Java applets are stored by browsers in a protected area called a sandbox. This is done to ensure that the applet cannot affect the user's systems. The sandbox also limits the applets access to Websites to those on the same Web server the applet resides on.

storage encryption Storage encryption is a technology that protects stored data, particularly that in SANs (Storage Area Networks). It requires encrypting data immediately as in moves and out of disk storage. The format is usually a combined hardware/software appliance. Technology started: 2002.

VPN (Virtual Private Network) Communications software. Allows a company to use the Internet to give remote users access to internal corporate networks. Includes encryption and encapsulation functions. Creates virtual tunnels across the Internet. There are two types of VPN technologies used on the Internet today: the trusted VPN and the secure VPN. Trusted VPNs are managed by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) by defining paths through their networks to ensure that customers' traffic is routed over a trusted path. There is no equipment to buy, requires no maintenance, and often has a service-level agreement. Secure VPNs, protect traffic and provide privacy, authentication and data integrity through encryption. Theycan be managed by either the user or the service provider. A hybrid VPN combines the two technologies.

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Answers to TechCheck

1. Swarming is a type of collaboration in which large numbers of people from different locations work on a problem or opportunity. There is no central control of activity, or even of members - each can invite others to participate. Members of the "swarm" are various experts, and each contributes from his or her own knowledge. For example, for new product development artists can post images; content experts surf the Web in unison to find useful sites; researchers add pertinent files; copywriters type or edit documents together in real time; etc.

2. The "g" stands for "grid." Oracle feels that the "i" used in Oracle 8i and Oracle 9i is no longer necessary, as it is accepted that all major database software is Internet enabled. Grid (or on demand) computing is the future. This means assigning system resources to applications as needed. In the database world this means that during heavy database traffic, several servers can be assigned to database duties. When traffic eases, some of these servers can be reassigned to other tasks. The "g" in the database name means that Oracle's DBMS (DataBase Management system) is designed to work with grid computing.

3. SmartFrog (Smart Framework for Object Groups) System management tool used in grid computing. Defines distributed software systems as components and then deploys and manages the components (or resources) over a grid. Includes:

• a language for describing component collections and component configuration parameters
  
• a runtime environment which activates and manages the components to deliver and maintain running systems.

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