Tablet Sales Make a Dent

It has been recently reported that Tablet sales has been the reason for a recent sales decline in lap-tops. In fact, predictions have been made in the past that this would happen and recently has proven to be right. Even though Tablets are not as powerful as lap-tops, consumers feel a need to have one in their technology instrument tool-kit. Users have admitted that the Tablet has not fully replaced their lap-top, but are very convenient for checking e-mails; Facebook and twitter accounts; reading digital books; online banking; and using it for driving directions. However, tablets still have a ways to before being able knocking out term papers or playing a graphics-intensive multiplayer video game. Although, expect lap-tops to become legacy equipment when those capabilities become available. As of now HP confirmed a 23% drop in sales for notebooks and desktops. In addition, Dell confirmed a 7% drop in sales, as well as Acer's 16% drop in shipments, all while Tablets are flying off the shelves.

It is predicted that Apple will sell 47 million pads this year out of 70 million total sold worldwide. Furthermore, experts expect this number to reach 108 million by next year. As a result, tablets will definitely take over the desk-top and lap-top market in the future. Surveys reported that 77% of Tablet users reduced the use of their primary PC once they brought Tablets. Overall, PC manufacturers should put in place some sort of plan for Tablets because as the numbers show, sooner rather than later they may need to produce more Tablets than traditional PC's to keep factories open.  

Is IPv6 the Next Step?

Could Ipv6 be the answer we all have been hoping for? With exponential growth of the internet IP addresses have become scarce. However, IPv6 will provide every device in the world connected to the Internet with its own unique IP address with plenty of addresses to spare. IPv6 resolves the IP address shortage by using additional octets to create IP addresses. For example, IPv4 addresses are displayed as 192.168.10.1. On the other hand, IPv6 IP addresses are displayed as 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. Companies like Comcast, YouTube, Sprint, and Mozilla are currently supporting the next generation internet protocol, which could mean the IPv6 conversion could come quicker than planned.

Back in 1981 when IPv4 was created the design supported the number of IP addresses needed for all the devices attached to the internet. Although, as technology advanced more devices needed to be attached such as servers, PCs, phones, tablets, automobiles, TV's, video game consoles, and home broadband network routers. As a result, The Engineering Task Force (IETF) designed IPv6 with more capabilities then IPv4. For example, multicasting that sends datagrams to groups of receivers in a single transmission. In other words, the source machine sends a packet out only once even though it's going to multiple receivers. This process conserves bandwidth and reduces network congestion. Another feature of IPv6 is Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC). SLAAC operates like plug and play; therefore, when a new device is turned on it will automatically configure its own IPv6 address avoiding manual configuring and eliminating private addresses that are not directly accessible through the internet.

There are some major differences in IPv4 over IPv6. First, IPv4 can only support 4.3 billion IP addresses. On the other hand, IPv6 128- bit addresses can support 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses. Finally, IPv4 addresses are in dotted decimal notation while IPv6 addresses are in hexadecimal.

Paper Phone: Next Generation Cellular Phone

Just when we think smart phones cannot get any better, there has been a discovery of a new prototype phone called the PaperPhone. The name alone tell us why they call it the paper phone, this new type of smart-phone introduces bend technology that bends like a piece of paper to make calls and utilize other functions of the phone. 

The e-paper prototype Paperphone was created by a research team at Queen's University in Canada in junction with a research team at Arizona State University. The chassis consist of a 9.5 centimeter diagonal screen that is lightweight, flexible, and about the thickness of a ID badge. The prototypes as of right now can do everything a smart-phone can do however, does not have photo taking capabilities as of yet. The phone uses a E-ink display that the user bends to makes phone calls, listen to music, or use apps. Vertegaal says it expects all smart-phones to be like this 5 to 10 years from now, even though the Paperphone still has a long way to go in development. Looking even further ahead, imagine smart-phones or Ipads that can roll-up like a newspaper therefore, eliminating the cracked screen.

This is the development of a technology that is believed to take us into the next wave of the future. When the concept of paper electronics becomes mastered, we will be able to transfer unthinkable amounts of data on devices that can roll up and fit into the smallest places possible. As a result, we will be able to stack paper laptops on-top of each other that resembles a stack of papers, but consist of multiple personal computers capable of the same functions we do today and more.

Find Yourself Online

Google has done it again! They never cease to amaze me. The company has designed an online management system that monitors online mentions of your name. This must be music to the ears of the 10 million paranoid people in the world and another bad day for the people who are members of the “I Hate Google Club”.  I think this is a really cool management program that even I would eventually play with. The program which is called Me on the Web tracks online references to your name and other malicious, unfitting, or incorrect information.

These Google Alerts work much like network management system alarm events. Whenever the Google search engine crawler finds information regarding key names; Me on the Web creates alarm events and provides the resources to remove unwanted content. Personal information like email addresses and phone numbers will also trigger events. 

For all you people in the world who like sexting after knocking back a few drinks on Saturday night can take advantage of this service as well. If that special someone decides they want to show the world your goodies, Me on the Web can also send alerts for any embarrassing pictures of yourself posted on the web, and offers tips on removing the content from Google search results.

After researching the topic I did find a couple flaws. One of which is that some users will get alerts for email addresses closely related to their own. In addition, information could take up to six months to be removed from Google caches.  We learn from this that the service is not flawless and you can expect to get what you pay for which by the way is a $0 monthly service fee. Although, like everything else with Google anticipate to see improvements over time and maybe even a paid version at some point.

Network Management Systems Under One Roof

    I bet network administrators are happy to hear that researchers from Bolton College has developed a network management system that monitors a building BMS (building management system), closed circuit television system, IPTV system, ICT systems, and a host of other systems. Even though all this sounds good it could also be a hindrance to network operators. The idea of managing all these systems in one integrated system seems great, but wouldn’t this mean more work for administrators? Unless operators renegotiate salaries they will acquire more work due to managing additional systems that would normally be run by another department.

   Thus, the convergence will make life easier. For example, pinpointing problems that need to be fixed.  Administrators will not have to spend hours figuring out where problems are located within the network and how to fix them. This capability can come in handy while managing many complex networks that could cause an adverse effect on each other via bandwidth and power usage. EPICenter, which is the core platform for this particular network management system can display the network in map form.

     One of the best features of EPICenter is the ability to click one of the network topology lines and see alarms, events, and alerts for ventilation , heating, fire alarms, elevators, NIC cards, fan speeds, etc.  However, this network management system cannot converge reporting. In my opinion this is one of the most important features inside a system like this. Not having integrated reporting with software like this is similar to not having vanilla ice cream with your peach cobbler  it’s just not complete. But this is an area that is being worked on. As a result, I personally would not invest any funds into the system until this particular issue is resolved.
    
     Users will have to decide for themselves if this new network management system is worth it. Ask yourself, do you want a central location to monitor the buildings BMS systems like fire alarms, elevators, and electrical power without converged reporting? Or would it be worth the wait to jump onboard in a couple of years when the total package is available.

Various Agents and Probes In One Database

It is very important for network communication managers to use network management systems to ensure network uptime. NMS helps administrators to monitor, diagnose, and keep network problems to a minimum. These systems can get complicated when using many different agents and probes to collect network information. To make this an easier task Network General Inc. has developed The Total Network Visibility architecture, a NMS that will let data from various agents and probes be correlated on a single console to allow network administrators to see an overall report of their network’s health.  

This heterogeneous network management system can also help administrators manage traps and alarms better. Using different SMNP’s creates a complicated atmosphere when managing automatic and user-programmed alerts. The software allows operators to see alerts from any probe in one global database. Traditionally probes and agents collect different types of data on a network, which can be viewed by administrators, but commonly in separate databases. The beauty of the Total Network Visibility architecture NMS is that all those different agents can be seen together.

The wide range of sensory inputs like RMON’s embedded in most switches and routers can create a report.  If the equipment was manufactured by different vendors then multiple reports can be created. Consequently, those reports would have to be accessed individually by operators to be analyzed. Reviewing a large number of reports can be time consuming and increase the risk of missing important information. Large computer networks could possibly have hundreds of probes and agents. With the management of so many agents administrators are also required to keep up with probe groups, probe user ID’s, and passwords. Centralized probe management can cure this problem and allow staff to become more productive.

Overall, the software stated above or others like it can be very helpful in monitoring multiple adapter cards simultaneously over a network. Likewise, Network General Inc. proprietary sniffer system can be viewed side by side with data from an ATM and Token Ring network.