Tanpola Articles Directory

When properly conceived, architected, and executed – RIAs can engage your users, build your brand, and drive your technology ROI.

RIAs, or Rich Internet Applications, are applications which move traditional desktop functionality onto the web. A great example of this is Gmail, the Google email client which is entirely web-based. Instead of accessing a desktop client such as Outlook, you log into a web site and get a similar experience.
At the heart of an RIA is the user experience (UX). The traditional web paradigm was to present static pages of text with a series of links or buttons. Users would click on things and wait for a new page to load while their transaction was taking place somewhere behind a web server.

This paradigm still holds for web navigation, but for interaction with a single web application, page-loads are a no-go. Technologies like Ajax, Adobe Flex, and Microsoft Silverlight can build the user interface in the browser, handle user interactions, and allow for communication with the server without reloading the page.

Ideally, users will experience near instantaneous interaction (like with most desktop software). In fact research has shown that web users are growing less patient, and expect a greater perception of performance with the web sites they use.
If you are doing business on the web, it is in your best interest to evaluate how RIA technology can help you keep your competitive edge. Your customers will be expecting it.

With RIA technology properly applied your business can:
-Create a more engaging experience for your customers – building a larger and more active customer base
-Add stickiness to your site – keeping customers from going to your competition
-Build your brand – adding bankable value to your most important asset
-Use and re-use web services – getting a higher return on your technology investment
-Add new features to your web site – turning your site into larger profit center

This is not to say that you should try to build your own version of Gmail. A prudent way to begin is to look at the way your users interact (or want to interact) with your web site. Find ways to add that perception of instantaneous action. You can iteratively add functionality to your web site while keeping a sharp eye on usability.

Let’s say, for example, that you have an ecommerce web site where people can check their orders. They navigate to an orders page where they are shown a list of order numbers and dates that are hyperlinked to an order details page. What if clicking on that link dropped open a box underneath that order that contained the detail info? The user doesn’t have to navigate away, and can check each order from that one page. This is one small example of the interactivity and user experience that RIA technology can provide.

John Moore is a Web 2.0 expert who creates Rich Internet Applications. He has created the web’s first RIA community at http://www.riaspot.com.

Securing the world’s largest temporary network takes a variety of vendors working together.

For three days, InteropNet is one of the largest hacking targets on the planet. Attacks and threats come from both inside and outside the network. While the external attacks are certainly more malicious in intent, most of the internal ones ended up being due to misconfiguration or just plain misunderstanding.

To understand the problems associated with this type of setup, please view the following:
1.Video streaming devices flooded the network with millions of multicast packets per second. EM7 noticed a big bump in latency on that network segment at the same time that the Enterasys Dragon IDS caught the flood of packets. Both tools could tell the origin of the packets and traced them back to misconfigured video multicast devices. In this case Not Malicious, but the result was still degradation to that network segment until the problem was fixed.

2.One vendor at the show purposely scanned all other devices on the show network to model them in their product demos. They didn’t ask anyone’s permission (or at least they didn’t ask ours). They purposely used multiple community strings to see if any would work. Personally I don’t think they meant it to be malicious, but as a monitoring tool in this space, they should have known that doing all that scanning would actually degrade network and other vendors’ device performance. I wonder if this is the vendor that was telling people that it does this at every show, and this is the first time it’s been caught.

Connect the Vendors
Enterasys took care of external attacks by identifying them and asking Qwest to block them. But it’s with the internal “devices behaving badly”, that the real fun began. It took a combination of vendors to identify, confirm and track down the offenders on the network.

First Enterasys Dragon IDS alerted on suspicious behaviors. Dragon identified what IP, MAC address or port on a switch was having the issue – which information was cross-checked against vendor registry info in EM7 to track down offenders to a booth, a room or a wireless access point in the facility. Splunk was also used to look at logs and verify the source of bad behavior.

For tracking down wireless misbehavior, Aruba Networks had a cool tool that took the info from Dragon and EM7 and used it to literally triangulate the location (down to a laptop).

Before the show started, we tested our security process by sending people out with laptops and finding them, gps-style, whether they were walking around or hiding under a desk.

Overall, I think the real-life multi-vendor network security solutions I’ve described here are great examples of why interoperability is so important and why InteropNet was such a great experience.

Louis DiMeglio is in charge of all pre and post-sale customer engineering engagements at ScienceLogic (http://www.sciencelogic.com). Louis has nearly fifteen years of experience in IT and over seven in IT and Network Management.

When buying network supplies, one must take into consideration the quality of the products and its longevity. These are a very important element to computing and keeping your IT system running. In the event of your supplies depleting after a prolonged amount of usage, you should always have a backup plan with your networking systems. Networking supplies can include things like connectors, LAN testers, crimp tools, data/server racks, LAN cables, RJ45 adaptors, fibre optic leads and patch panels. All of these items can wear away and lose its optimum functionality after a long period.

Finding the best quality network supplies can take plenty of time; this can very often confuse people as to deciding which suppliers to approach. Many suppliers online say they offer the best quality and reasonably priced products. The best thing to do is to approach the suppliers that have a good reputation for the supplies and have proven track record of selling good quality products. To do this you can research on the internet, read up forum posts from people who have had direct contact with these suppliers and compare prices from the selected suppliers.

Always look for a guarantee or warranty, as unpredictable situations will arise and it is best to be prepared to take back your products if it is necessary. If you do not have a guarantee for your product, you can always approach your suppliers and discuss a possible exchange or discount on your next purchase order. You want these products to be tried, tested and trusted. Often buying network supplies will mean that you will not know how well they function after a long period, as different supplies have a different functionality.

Some of the network supplies may take up plenty of floor space; if this is an issue then some of the accessories such as the essential server racks and cabinets, are good to save floor space and prevent cables from being stretched across the room. This continues to be a mounting problem for many people; therefore, extra accessories such as cable clips and ties are good to maintain a neat and tidy system. Patch leads are also good for keeping things looking presentable and are also very popular as they are affordable to buy off the internet.

Using the network supplies is good for making sure that you have access to your IT system as and when you need it. Many people find that this is a necessary tool for offices and in their daily working life. You can take a glimpse at how each of these network supplies work, through looking at specific supplier websites and reading up on the various product reviews. This will ensure you make the right choice on the product you want, however, if you really are stuck for what to get, then you should approach someone with more experience or speak to someone directly at the suppliers.

Anna Stenning is an expert on network supplies as she has had to pre order many products for the computer systems at work. For more information visit http://www.comms-express.com/

The saying that all publicity is good publicity is not strictly true. If a celebrity constantly has bad press, this will eventually have a negative effect on their reputation and the way they are perceived by the public. Everybody is allowed to make mistakes and most people understand that any mistake a celebrity makes will be magnified tenfold through the press. This does put a certain responsibility on them to behave in a certain way and many of them do but with the spotlight of the world’s paparazzi constantly on them, impeccable behaviour is bound to slip occasionally. And why shouldn’t they? They are only human after all.

However, when one of us minions slips up and has a drunken brawl in the street no-one takes a great deal of notice and we can still turn up to work the next day and earn the same amount of money – albeit a little sheepishly. It’s a little different for those who people expect to see setting an example and continuous bad press can have disastrous effects on a career.

So, what can they do to counteract it? Given that a vast majority of the population will read the news online, particularly the people that matter, the celebrity’s agents can contact a search engine optimization company and enlist their help for reputation protection. Online reports can be managed in such a way as to stop the bad news showing up first when a Google search is carried out on that particular person.

The mainstream users of search engines will rarely read past the first page and this is why search engine optimisation is such big business – everyone wants to be on page one for their key terms in order to generate the maximum amount of business from their website. So, in order to minimise the ill effects of bad publicity, high profile people will use search engine optimisation for reputation protection.

A thorough understanding of search engines and the way they work is crucial to managing an online reputation effectively. Software is available to try and cover it but each individual will need bespoke handling and software simply doesn’t cover it. Software is useful for tracking the bad publicity but cannot do anything about where it appears in a search engine.

The saying that bad news travels fast is true. So, thanks to all the social networking sites and blogs that are now online, any bad news is quickly replicated and finds its way to the top of the search engine. Search engines love blogs because they are mostly text based and the information is relatively fresh most of the time so will spider them regularly.

A search engine optimisation company worth its money will show tact and discretion in counteracting the bad news with good news. The news will be optimised into a fashion that understands how search engines work and works within these boundaries. It’s never going to be possible to take the bad news out but if you counteract it with enough good news that is search engine friendly then you can at least push the bad news back a page or two. As we have already established, most people only look at the first page of a search engine which means the chances of them seeing the bad news will be limited.

SEO expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way search engine optimisation can protect a reputation. To find out more please visit http://www.highposition.net/

Information Technology, also known as IT, has become a widely-used and all-encompassing term for computer systems that are designed to store, analyze, organize and acquire useful information. When used correctly, IT can be a very useful tool in the business world. The trick is to find IT that makes business simpler rather than more complicated. The following article outlines several criteria you should look for in IT products and the companies that sell those products. If they meet these standards, you will have a much better chance of being satisfied with your investment.

Business Savvy Professionals
Many IT businesses are experts in their field, but completely inexperienced in business. Unless you have the time to earn your own degree in IT you need them to be experts in their field and products, but additional business expertise is helpful because it allows them to evaluate your business needs. Unless they understand what you do, how you do it and why you do it, matching up the best IT solutions with your needs will be a difficult task. With the right business knowledge, an IT company can create a customized IT system to meet your needs.

Simple Technology
Bells and whistles can be cool on a car or a T.V., but IT systems are designed for efficiency; not show. The easier it is to use your system, the easier it will be to train new employees and incorporate the technology into your daily business activity. Keep it simple and you will avoid a lot of headaches.

Excellent Customer Support
Good customer support with IT systems goes beyond installing the system and teaching you how to use it. If your business is going to depend on that technology, you need to be able to depend on the IT company that sold it to you for continual service. With so many complex programs being designed every year, occasional bugs are bound to crop up every once in awhile. If a bug knocks out your IT, you will need repairs and other service as fast as possible to get on track again. Checking outside sources is usually the most reliable way to judge a company’s customer service. These sources can be anything from customer referrals and testimonials to consumer reports on their products.

You might not understand how to build IT systems yourself after reading this article, but at least you have some guidelines to follow as you shop for the right technology.

The Revere Group (http://www.reveregroup.com/services/enterprise-platforms.aspx) specializes in IT solutions. If you are interested in their services, they have several offices across the country and an extensive website. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.