Tag: computing

What is Virtualization and why Do you need to know it?

Paul

Virtualization In the Cloud Illustration

Virtualization

Virtualization, what does it really mean?  Let’s walk through what the word means and then we can talk about it some more.   Virtual is like you are attending a class remotely because there is no real materials or even books that you can use to feel or see.   Let’s talk about realization, This is the part that people sometimes do not understand when they hear the word virtualization that the system that is doing this will need to also realize that the system.  It’ll need to create a motherboard, CPU, memory, display, ports, and USB ports, and even hard drives and peripherals.   It however isn’t really anything that can be touch or even seen by us the user.  It is all inside a computer being made by the computer to fool the operating system that is being created by the virtual machine.

Cloud computing

What is that word and what does that have to do with virtualization?   I am sure everyone has asked that at one point or time and they might want to know about it even more.   Cloud computing is basically a lone server or it could even be a service for companies to use somewhere around the world to create an operating system for the business to use such as Windows 365 which lets you create a Windows desktop virtually on a server to be able to do everything you can do on physical system as if you had one there right now.   Play games, edit documents, write emails, and so on are what it is called to be cloud computing.  Just think of it as being a computer on the internet and you will start to realize that it is not a real computer.

Do we need virtualization?

In all we do now, virtualization is going to be more and more used in now than in the old days.  It allows corporation to manage desktops around the world and not have them physically there.  The cost of having a desktop will not be overhead and they can have a server have several people on it and cutting the cost of have having to buy the computer parts or even the computer for the employees.  They can then buy really cheap computers that don’t take up as much space and these cheap computers will most likely be underpowered.   In the process, they can use that to do what might need to be done on the virtual machine.   It can seem like a lot but in the end the computer they bought isn’t as expensive as buying a system that can do  what a cloud computer and is far more manageable to the IT staff.  They can keep it running and if something happens they can call the company and get someone there to fix the problem that they can’t do.

Benefits Vs Cost

Here’s where it get even better, because if you really think about this as being a virtualization as service, you’ll see that the benefits verses the cost of using one is probably going to be less than you think.   Let’s break it down in further for you and explain why in so many ways.   Virtualization is basically meaning several computers can be on a really beefy server.   It can be a beast and can be used to utilize the CPU processing when it is need to do something like graphics or even just programs that might need the processing power.   It could in theory also be used to mine bitcoins or even Ethereum but I really don’t know if it is actually be done like that on a server because you’d only want one system on the server to maximize the chance to mine a bitcoin or an Ethereum coin as they say.   Because the more people on that server the more processing power will be divided to the the people equally so that’s one thing to consider.  We could look at cost of buying a server or even renting a server but in reality what we need to look at is the idea that the server can host several employees or people on the server to do tasks that remotely or even at the office that will far out way the cost of buying a bulky computer and having the employee’s be in the office all the time.

This is all the definition of what a computer is in the cloud, we just have to think of it as a way to illustrate what it is and why we need it.   Do you agree or disagree, do you think I did a good job describing it?   Why not leave a comment and tell me what you thoughts or if you think I could of talked about something more.   I’d love to hear you thoughts on this matter and others.

 

Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

Paul

I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn’t believe what I saw:

Something users shouldn't do!!!As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity.   You shouldn’t be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their “walls” – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

This deservese a little mind and a lot of understanding.   By the spammers hacking into facebook accounts they have the chance to scam or spam people with links to possibly have a virus or trojan installer.

[ad#ad2-right]For example This one blog talks about the Virus:

Symantec’s Norton Antivirus software has flagged this as a “high risk” Infostealer.Gampass virus. More info on this particular Trojan vius is here. (Note: Symantec warns the risk level is “low,” since it originated in 2006, but this new Facebook email is a new iteration of the same virus.)

You might be inclined to click on this link because it’s from a friend, but they did not intentionally send it to you — and yes, their Facebook photo is attached, too.

[Via Sync-blog]

facebookident2Now I went searching through my friends list and also found this little bit of information.  As you can see this one is asking for people to use there account to scam people out of money.  They could use this to find out even more information of the Other partner and make you believe your talking to the real deal.   Saying they need money because they are stuck over seas or something like that.   I’ve seen this on other blogs where people have sent money to “friends” but are actually people who are the scammers.  Then if you send the money you are out of luck with your money and possibly your friends to.  I am sure there are more but this is prime examples of what you shouldn’t do and why.

So what can you do to prevent Identity Theft and/or being scammed?

    [ad#cricket-right-ez]

  • Roboform Review — A Password Manager that will help protect your passwords from key loggers and other such phishing sites.    I strongly recommend it to to all who are security minded. (Never use the same password for all your accounts)

  • Are you worried about your identity? — This is good information in checking out sites that might be questionable.  You can find out what type of site it by using your brains.

  • Old Phish Become New again — This is blog post about twitter and what may happen if you did give out your password.   This is a good example of why you never should give out your password to third party websites.

  • Twitter Spammers a getting more smarter — This is also good example of what happens when you see become friends with someone who isn’t real.   You could be the next to be spammed and/or impersonated.

If you follow some common steps you to could prevent from being the victim or getting your Identitiy stolen.   Some things to remember is Never tell anyone your Birthday the whole date like someone did on twitter a few days ago.  It’s nice that they are growing older but that gives people that much more information to use to steal your money or your idenitiy.   Think before you give out any personal information like Age, Married, who your married to and anything that might be used to be able to access your account or your impersonate you.  Remember only you can prevent from being scammed or lossing your identity, you wouldn’t want to have to pay for your mistakes.

Google Now lets you Video/Voice chat!!

Paul

After checking out some of what Google has been doing.  I find out that you can now Video Conference for free.  That is to say that you can conference with someone on line and do cloud computing.   According to Google:



To Get this Video and Voice chat Click this link

[ad#ad2-right]Now I might not a lot but this will be most likely be used in association with the new Google Phone, the G1. So I thought about how this will be used? This will be used in several ways. To keep in touch with family, to make it easier to telecommute and to Video Conference with associates from work. Google Model is “DO NO EVIL”. There is a flaw to this I am sure, this is a Internet Protocol to Internet Protocol connection and in doing so you create so much possibility of a virus getting through. There is no doubt that this is using flash. It also is know to make the infrastructure of a business weak. The Intranet of the business would be compromised. I am sure there are vulnerabilities in this and we will hear them shortly. I’d give it a week or two, remember the problem with Google Chrome and how un-secure it is. These are just a few of what would cause security headaches to all who work in the IT field. I just want to bring that up to prove a point. Google’s mantra isn’t perfect, it is what it is.

Microsoft reveals “Microsoft Azure”

Paul

Windows Azure is part of a set of new and existing technologies behind the Azure Services Platform, a development and execution platform that runs end-user and corporate software on Microsoft’s own servers, accessible over the web. It joins Google’s App Engine and Amazon’s EC2 in an increasingly competitive market.

[Via ZDnet]

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Although,  There isn’t much more they have said I am quite curious how they will interegrate this into the cloud computing.  According to Microsoft, it won’t run on the company server but  Microsoft Datacenter.  Now this I can see is a big security problem.   Because most companies use what they call an Intranet and not the internet.  So that leaves questions on if companies are going to use this system or not.   Are you ready to let your information float somewhere over the inernet tht is SENSITIVE and CONFIDENTIAL?   These are the questions that Microsoft will have to Answer, before any company will use this on there systems.