Overheard – 802.11n

Now that the final version of 802.11n has been approved and products based on that standard are shipping, many expect rapid adoption of high-speed wireless networks in the enterprise. Access points (APs) that support 802.11n are up to six times faster and can reach up to twice as far as legacy 802.11abg APs. Lisa Phifer, How to keep networks secure when deploying an 802.11n upgrade

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is single stream 802.11n.

Overheard – data federation technology

Federation technology has two real benefits, a business benefit and a technical one.  It increases visibility into lines of business, and it can help reduce costs and complexity by reducing the need for an extra, expensive database server.  It also saves users time by removing the need to query multiple data sources manually. Wendy Tam, as quoted in Data federation technology complements fragmented data warehouses

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is data federation technology.

Overheard – MinWin

MinWin is a way to graft onto Windows some semblance of the architectural layering it should have had, if its architects in the 1980s had any foresight into how Windows would be used thirty years later. Scott M. Fulton, Mark Russinovich on MinWin, the new core of Windows

The breakthrough with Server Core, introduced back in Windows Server 2008, is that it minimized the number of running services to just those that enabled the operating system to be self-sustaining, and perform its roles as a server to the outside world. But even those services contain dependencies to libraries that involve graphical functionality, even if none of those services use that functionality. Conceivably, a breakthrough above and beyond Server Core itself would be a completely minimalistic kernel, upon which those roles could be added modularly, without having to involve libraries that presume the computer operator needs graphics, a mouse, and sound. MinWin is the first critical step in that direction.

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is MinWin.

Overheard – Risk assessment framework

Now that security has the attention of business management and boards of directors, CIOs must learn how to translate an information security program into terms the business understands. SearchCIO-Midmarket, A guide to managing the risk assessment process

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is risk assessment framework.

Overheard – Rural broadband

At some point, the public money will be consumed and the networks that have been deployed under the stimulus will need to stand on their own financially. Attention to the business model and the potential subscriber base are critical in ensuring that the broadband stimulus funding leads to long term benefits rather than short-term experiments. Mike Jude, Broadband stimulus: Wireless makes sense, but check the ROI

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Overheard – tape shoeshining

If you put a single 180MB/sec tape drive behind a 50MB/sec to 60MB/sec pipe, you’re just asking for trouble. W. Curtis Preston , How faster tape drives can slow down your backups

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is tape shoeshining.

Overheard – Prepaid wireless broadband

While AT&T and Verizon Wireless have offered prepaid cell phone service for years, up until now the companies have required customers sign a contract for their wireless broadband services. Marguerite Reardon, AT&T offers prepaid wireless broadband

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is wireless broadband.  AT&T and Verizon wireless are competing for business by offering prepaid daily/weekly and monthly passes.

Marguerite Reardon from CNET wins the “But the emperor has no clothes!” award this week.  She’s the only blogger I’ve read to wonder what the heck AT&T is thinking, trying to put more users on an already overloaded and not-very reliable (IMHO) network.

Overheard – Tower of Hanoi

The downside to the Towers of Hanoi tape rotation scheme is its complexity and the fact that not all backup applications support it. This method also has a tendency to wear out lower numbered tapes because they are used so much more frequently than higher numbered tapes. Brien M. Posey, An introduction to data backup tape rotation schemes

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day definition is Tower of Hanoi.

Overheard – Onboarding and offboarding

“Onboarding is one of those made-up words that creeps into the English language to drive us purists crazy. I suspect their authors cheat at Scrabble, adding ‘ing’ to words such as network, partner and dialogue to get extra points.” Jim George, Onboarding, offboarding and just plain B.S.

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is onboarding.

Overheard – Pandemic planning

“Most of the larger financial institutions have some kind of pandemic/influenza plan or at least a pandemic overlay to their existing business continuity plans, but I don’t know if I would say they’re all prepared to the extent that they need to be prepared.” John Copenhaver as quoted in Swine flu puts spotlight on pandemic planning

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is pandemic planning.