Overheard in the tech blogosphere

Overheard - Patch antenna

Margaret Rouse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:17:23 +0000

The feed mechanism plays an important role in the design of microstrip patch antennas. A microstrip patch antenna can be fed either by coaxial probe or by an inset microstrip line. Coaxial probe feeding is sometimes advantageous for applications like active antennas, while microstrip line feeding is suitable for developing high-gain microstrip array antennas.

M. Ramesh and K.B. Yip, Design Inset-Fed Microstrip Patch Antennas

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is patch antenna.

Overheard - Port Address Translation (PAT)

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:46:00 +0000

As soon as you start using private addresses and PAT in your network, you lose one of the important security features: accountability. If a rogue user of your network is attacking an outside server, it’s close to impossible to identify him…Apache, the most popular open-source Web server, does not log port numbers.

Ivan Pepelnjak, Avoiding private IP security risks in public networks

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Port Address Translation.

Overheard - FACTA Red Flags Rule

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:44:18 +0000

Compliance with the Red Flag rules must take a risk-based approach. Organizations are not given a specific set of items to implement; there is no detailed checklist. Compliance is principle-based focused on the outcome — avoiding identity theft — and not on specific requirements.

Michael Rasmussen, Red Flag Rules compliance demands a risk-based approach

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Red Flags Rule.

Overheard - Backscatter spam

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:17:24 +0000

Sending spam, or hiring someone to send it for you, is illegal in many countries, including the U.S., where it violates the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Using false or misleading header information is also a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, but since the spammer has already decided to break the law by sending the spam in the first place, adding the crime of email address forging is trivial.

Michael Cobb, Why is backscatter spam so difficult to block?

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is backscatter spam.

Overheard - Vouch by Reference protocol

Margaret Rouse — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:52:40 +0000

URL spoofing substitutes an outlaw Web address for a legitimate one. A simple way to do that is to exploit the state of spelling among English-speaking people. A site like eddiebaur .com might fool the eye of a casual Web surfer looking for outdoor gear from Eddie Bauer.

John P Mello, ICANN move contributing to URL spoofing?

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is the Vouch by Reference protocol.

Overheard - Enterprise document management

Margaret Rouse — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:43:50 +0000

Compliance is a hamster wheel of pain. Are we in compliance? -> Hire Consultant -> The Consultant Says No -> Scurry and spend -> Repeat.

Alex Hutton, The Cult Of Compliance

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is enterprise document management.

Overheard - Closed loop MRP

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:18:57 +0000

“Because the closed-loop assesses capacity at every level, it shortens the timeframe in which any shortfalls may be detected and rectified.”

Pat Kennedy, Vivek Bapat, Paul Kurchina, Manufacturing plant information management

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is closed loop MRP.

Overheard - Bank Secrecy Act

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:59:26 +0000

FinCEN is now seeking to engage smaller to moderate size depository institutions who are working to implement the four pillars of theBank Secrecy Act regulatory regime: (1) policies, procedures and internal controls; (2) designation of a compliance officer; (3) ongoing training; and (4) independent testing.

Bryan Cave Law Firm, October 2009 Client Alerts

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Bank Secrecy Act.

Overheard - ZenServer physical block device

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:26:10 +0000

In cloud computing and virtualization, choosing between open source and commercial offerings means trading off between speed to market, features, support and development costs on the one hand and up-front licensing fees on the other. In a fast-moving market like cloud computing, many organizations will choose to jump-start their efforts by going with a commercial offering.

Sam Charrington, as quoted in Cloud computing provider chooses XenServer over Xen

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is physical block device.

Overheard - Organizational change management

Margaret Rouse — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:52:19 +0000

The foremost principle of risk communication is that ‘perception equals reality.’ In other words, what is perceived as real is real in its consequences. Employees react to perceived threats, rather than to ‘reality.’ Their level of stress during times of change is proportional to their perception of threat.

Joseph G. Wojtecki, Jr., and Richard G. Peters, Communication Organizational Change: Information Technology Meets the Carbon-Based Employee Unit

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is organizational change management.