In its third annual Internet and media analysis, The Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) has found the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech buzzwords of 2008 to be cloud computing, green washing, and buzzword compliant followed by resonate, de-duping, and virtualization. Rounding out the Top Ten were Web 2.0, versioning, word clouds, and petaflop. The most confusing Acronym for 2008 was SaaS (software as a service).

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, said “The words we use in high technology continue to become even more obtuse even as they move out of the realm of jargon and into the language at large.”

The Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited High Tech Words of 2008 with Commentary follow:

· Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)

· Green washing – Repositioning your product so that its shortfalls are now positioned as environmental benefits: Not enough power? Just re-position as energy-saving.

· Buzzword Compliant — Including the latest buzzwords in literature about a product or service in order to make it ‘resonate’ with the customer.

· Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.

· De-duping – shorthand for de-duplication, that is, removing redundant data from a system.

· Virtualization – Around since dinosaurs walked the planet (the late ‘70s) virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.

· Web 2.0 – Now there’s talk of Web 3.0, just when we were finally getting used to Web 2.0.

· Versioning – Creating new revisions (or versions) with fewer bugs and more features.

· Word Clouds – Graphic representations of the words used in a text, the more frequently used, the larger the representation.

· Petaflop – A thousand trillion (or quadrillion) floating point operations per second Often mistaken as a comment on the environmental group.

The Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited Acronym for 2008: SaaS — software-as-as-service to be differentiated, of course, from PaaS (platforms as a service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service).

Others words under consideration include the ever popular yet amorphous ‘solution’, 3G and SEO.

In 2007 IPOD, Flash, Cookie, Nano and Cookie lead the list with SOA as the most confusing acronym

In 2005, HTTP, VoIP, Megapixel, Plasma, & WORM were the leading buzzwords.

The analysis was completed using GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. This analysis was performed earlier this month.

Source:-http://www.languagemonitor.com/news/top-10-most-confusing-high-tech-buzzwords030

European law-enforcement officials have uncovered a highly-sophisticated credit-card fraud that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported quoting the US intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case.

Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to the British law enforcement said it affected big retailers, including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Tesco Ltd.

The account data have been used to make repeated bank withdrawals and Internet purchases, such as airline tickets, in several countries, including the US. Investigators haven’t pinpointed the culprits. Early estimates of the losses range of $50 million to $100 million, but the figure could grow, said the person close to the British law enforcement.

The scheme uses untraceable devices inserted into credit-card readers that were made in China. The devices selectively send account data through a wireless connection to computer servers in Lahore and constantly change the pattern of theft, so it is hard to detect, officials say.

“Pretty small but intelligent criminal organisations are pulling off transnational, multi-continent heists that only a foreign intelligence service would have been able to do a few years ago,” said Joel F Brenner, the US government’s top counter-intelligence officer. The US intelligence officials, including senior National Security Agency officials, are monitoring the case in part because of ties with Pakistan. The scheme comes on the heels of the August indictment of a fraud ring that stole more than 40 million credit-card numbers from the US companies, including TJX Cos, the parent company of the TJ Maxx.

In March, the security officials at the MasterCard Inc saw a pattern of potential fraud in northern England. Meanwhile, a security guard at a UK grocery store noticed suspicious statistics on his cell phone and alerted authorities. The Scotland Yard learned of the report and eventually connected it with the warning from the MasterCard, according to the person close to the British law enforcement. Examining the store’s credit-card readers, investigators discovered a high-tech bug tucked behind the motherboard. It was a small card containing wireless communication technology.

The bug would read an individual’s card number and the corresponding personal identification number, then package and store the data. The device would call a number in Lahore once a day to upload the data to the servers there and obtain instructions on what to steal next.

A MasterCard spokesman declined to discuss details of the case but said safeguarding the financial information was a top priority for the company. There is no obvious visual indication that a machine has been altered, but those with the bugs weigh about four ounces more. For the past several months, teams of investigators have been weighing thousands of machines across Europe with a precision scale.

So far, investigators have found hundreds of machines in five countries: Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. They have turned up at European grocery chains, including Asda, which is owned by Wal-Mart; Tesco; and J Sainsbury PLC, according to the person close to the British law enforcement.

A spokeswoman for Asda said: “It’s subject to a police investigation, so we can’t comment.” A spokeswoman for the Sainsbury denied its stores were hit by the scheme. A spokeswoman for the Tesco said: “We’re aware that this was an issue for retailers.” She said the Tesco tested its devices and was confident that they were secure now.

The device can be told to copy certain types of transactions — for example, five Visa platinum cards or every tenth transaction. It can also be instructed to go dormant to evade detection. On average, only five to 10 card numbers would be phoned in to Pakistan, the person close to the British law enforcement said.

Source : News

This howto is a practical guide without any warranty – it doesn’t cover the theoretical backgrounds. There are many ways to set up such a system – this is the way I chose.

First we install some packages to speed up yum and prevent problems with packages.

yum install yum-fastestmirror yum-skip-broken

SELinux should be disabled. If you’re not sure if it is disabled enter:

cat /etc/selinux/config | grep SELINUX=

Disable SELinux if it is enabled:

vi /etc/selinux/config

Set

SELINUX=enforcing

to

SELINUX=disabled

Afterwards reboot the system:

reboot

yum install samba

Now because the firewall has been setup during the installation of Fedora 8 e have to open a few ports so that the clients can connect to Samba:

system-config-firewall-tui

You will get the interface in which you have to select the desired interface as for example “eth0” in “Trusted Interface” and also you need to configure the service of ‘Samba” as the ‘Trusted Services“

Now we enable the automatic startup of the needed services.

chkconfig smb on
chkconfig nmb on
chkconfig swat on

Afterwards reboot the system.

reboot

Now go to the /etc/samba/smb.conf for eiditing

i used the text editor and made the  desired changes as required . here is the sample of smb.conf which i am using for  your reference

# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the

# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed

# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too

# many!) most of which are not shown in this example

#

# For a step to step guide on installing, configuring and using samba,

# read the Samba-HOWTO-Collection. This may be obtained from:

# http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf

#

# Many working examples of smb.conf files can be found in the

# Samba-Guide which is generated daily and can be downloaded from:

# http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf

#

# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)

# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #

# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you

# may wish to enable

#

# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command “testparm”

# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.

#

#—————

# SELINUX NOTES:

#

# If you want to use the useradd/groupadd family of binaries please run:

# setsebool -P samba_domain_controller on

#

# If you want to share home directories via samba please run:

# setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on

#

# If you create a new directory you want to share you should mark it as

# “samba-share_t” so that selinux will let you write into it.

# Make sure not to do that on system directories as they may already have

# been marked with othe SELinux labels.

#

# Use ls -ldZ /path to see which context a directory has

#

# Set labels only on directories you created!

# To set a label use the following: chcon -t samba_share_t /path

#

# If you need to share a system created directory you can use one of the

# following (read-only/read-write):

# setsebool -P samba_export_all_ro on

# or

# setsebool -P samba_export_all_rw on

#

# If you want to run scripts (preexec/root prexec/print command/…) please

# put them into the /var/lib/samba/scripts directory so that smbd will be

# allowed to run them.

# Make sure you COPY them and not MOVE them so that the right SELinux context

# is applied, to check all is ok use restorecon -R -v /var/lib/samba/scripts

#

#————–

#

#======================= Global Settings =====================================

[global]

# ———————– Netwrok Related Options ————————-

#

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: MIDEARTH

#

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field

#

# netbios name can be used to specify a server name not tied to the hostname

#

# Interfaces lets you configure Samba to use multiple interfaces

# If you have multiple network interfaces then you can list the ones

# you want to listen on (never omit localhost)

#

# Hosts Allow/Hosts Deny lets you restrict who can connect, and you can

# specifiy it as a per share option as well

#

workgroup = yourgroupname

server string = Samba Server Version %v

netbios name = yourgroupnetbiosname

interfaces = lo eth0 172.16.100.240/24

hosts allow = 127. 172.16.100.

# ————————— Logging Options —————————–

#

# Log File let you specify where to put logs and how to split them up.

#

# Max Log Size let you specify the max size log files should reach

# logs split per machine

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# max 50KB per log file, then rotate

max log size = 50

# ———————– Standalone Server Options ————————

#

# Scurity can be set to user, share(deprecated) or server(deprecated)

#

# Backend to store user information in. New installations should

# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards

# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.

; security = user

; passdb backend = tdbsam

# ———————– Domain Members Options ————————

#

# Security must be set to domain or ads

#

# Use the realm option only with security = ads

# Specifies the Active Directory realm the host is part of

#

# Backend to store user information in. New installations should

# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards

# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.

#

# Use password server option only with security = server or if you can’t

# use the DNS to locate Domain Controllers

# The argument list may include:

# password server = My_PDC_Name [My_BDC_Name] [My_Next_BDC_Name]

# or to auto-locate the domain controller/s

# password server = *

; security = domain

; passdb backend = tdbsam

; realm = MY_REALM

; password server = <NT-Server-Name>

# ———————– Domain Controller Options ————————

#

# Security must be set to user for domain controllers

#

# Backend to store user information in. New installations should

# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards

# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.

#

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This

# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don’t use this

# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job

#

# Domain Logons let Samba be a domain logon server for Windows workstations.

#

# Logon Scrpit let yuou specify a script to be run at login time on the client

# You need to provide it in a share called NETLOGON

#

# Logon Path let you specify where user profiles are stored (UNC path)

#

# Various scripts can be used on a domain controller or stand-alone

# machine to add or delete corresponding unix accounts

#

security = user

passdb backend = tdbsam

domain master = yes

domain logons = yes

# the login script name depends on the machine name

; logon script = %m.bat

# the login script name depends on the unix user used

logon script = %u.bat

logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%u

# disables profiles support by specifing an empty path

logon path =

# add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd “%u” -n -g users

# add group script = /usr/sbin/groupadd “%g”

# add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -n -c “Workstation (%u)” -M -d /nohome -s /bin/false “%u”

# delete user script = /usr/sbin/userdel “%u”

# delete user from group script = /usr/sbin/userdel “%u” “%g”

# delete group script = /usr/sbin/groupdel “%g”

add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd -m ‘%u’ -g users -G users

add group script = /usr/sbin/groupadd %g

add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -s /bin/false -d /var/lib/nobody %u

add user to group script = /usr/sbin/usernod -G %g %u

delete user script = /usr/sbin/userdel -r %u

# delete user from group script = /usr/sbin/userdel “%u” “%g”

delete group script = /usr/sbin/groupdel %g

# Password Program

template shell = /bin/bash

passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u

passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully*

passwd chat debug = yes

unix password sync = yes

log level = 3

# ———————– Browser Control Options —————————-

#

# set local master to no if you don’t want Samba to become a master

# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply

#

# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser

# elections. The default value should be reasonable

#

# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup

# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election

local master = yes

os level = 33

preferred master = yes

#—————————– Name Resolution ——————————-

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:

# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both

#

# – WINS Support: Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it’s WINS Server

#

# – WINS Server: Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client

#

# – WINS Proxy: Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on

# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be

# at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.

#

# DNS Proxy – tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names

# via DNS nslookups.

wins support = yes

; wins server = w.x.y.z

wins proxy = yes

; dns proxy = yes

# ————————— Printing Options —————————–

#

# Load Printers let you load automatically the list of printers rather

# than setting them up individually

#

# Cups Options let you pass the cups libs custom options, setting it to raw

# for example will let you use drivers on your Windows clients

#

# Printcap Name let you specify an alternative printcap file

#

# You can choose a non default printing system using the Printing option

load printers = yes

cups options = raw

; printcap name = /etc/printcap

#obtain list of printers automatically on SystemV

; printcap name = lpstat

; printing = cups

# ————————— Filesystem Options —————————

#

# The following options can be uncommented if the filesystem supports

# Extended Attributes and they are enabled (usually by the mount option

# user_xattr). Thess options will let the admin store the DOS attributes

# in an EA and make samba not mess with the permission bits.

#

# Note: these options can also be set just per share, setting them in global

# makes them the default for all shares

; map archive = no

; map hidden = no

; map read only = no

; map system = no

; store dos attributes = yes

#============================ Share Definitions ==============================

[homes]

comment = Home Directories

browseable = yes

writable = yes

valid users = %S

valid users = yourgroupname\%S

[printers]

comment = All Printers

path = /var/spool/samba

browseable = no

guest ok = no

writable = no

printable = yes

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons

[netlogon]

comment = Network Logon Service

path = /home/samba/netlogon

admin users = administrator

valid users = %U

read only = yes

guest ok = yes

browseable = no

writable = no

share modes = no

# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share

# the default is to use the user’s home directory

[Profiles]

comment = User Profiles

path = /home/samba/profiles

valid users = %U

create mask = 0600

security mask = 0600

directory mask = 0770

directory security mask = 0770

read only = no

browseable = no

available = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in

# the “staff” group

[public]

comment = Public Stuff

path = /backups

public = yes

writable = yes

printable = no

; write list = +staff

 This is first of the series which I am discussing on IT AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT

What is Service?

“A service is a mean of delivering values to customers by facilitating outcomes that they want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks”

Now few things comes up in your mind by reading the above definition is that what does facilitating outcomes means and what are the effects and how does it relates to IT industry, what is meant by delivering values.

By facilitating outcomes I mean to say that it will enhance the performance and reduce the effect of constraints. It also increases the probability of desired outcomes. And it also affects the resources and their capabilities and also performance of the customer tasks. Now with the service there is service management comes up.

Service Management idea or rather we can say that the theme comes up with the idea of service providers. The origins of service management are in traditional forms with the businesses likes of airplanes, banks, telecommunications providers, hotels etc. so as the IT industry grows up the concept and adaption of service management grows as well and it now the most lethal part in any IT organization.  As IT organization has adapted the service- oriented approach for managing IT applications, infrastructure and processes. Business Problems and support for business models, strategies and operations are increasingly dependent upon the service management.

The service management according to me 

“A set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services”

Now with the service management the standards come up in our minds which are being followed all around the world. ITIL service management concept is one of them. In the next following parts and in this write up I will go into the detail of ITIL service management concepts

What is ITIL?

ITIL is the abbreviation of Information Technology Infrastructure Library which gives us the framework or rather we can say that standards sort of stuffs by following it we can implement the best practices being followed in the IT industry related to service management. ITIL is basically owned by UK Government and not by any commercial proprietary solution or practice.

ITIL is basically comprises of the following characteristics

Ø  Non- Proprietary — which tells us that ITIL Service Management Best Practices are being put on i.e. applicable in any  industry which have the concerns of IT Service Management because they are not based on any particular technology platform or industry type.

Ø  Non Perspective — ITIL offers robust, mature and time valued and times tested best practices that have applicability to all types of service organizations. Helps the organization determine where it is today, and where it wants to be. It continues to be helpful in public as well as private organization to its  internal and external customers whether they belong to SME’s or Large Organizations or within any technical environments

Ø  Best Practices — ITIL Service Management practices represent the learning experiences and thoughts leaderships of the world’s best in class of service providers. The approach to an  understanding that has already been proved to be the most effective by the leading organizations and it is derived  from the practices of the most  effective and successful people in the field

Ø  Good Practices — By good practices means that what everybody is doing as it’s seen as complete with no gaps, and often referred to as the most appropriate  and also the fact that there is always a continual search for improvement as well know nobody is perfect so we can imply this rule in here.

Ø  Systematic Usage — it is the systematic usage of the Service Management practices that are responsive, consistent and measurable and this also defines the quality of the service provider in the eyes of their customer.

Ø  Continuously Analization — it is the provider’s ability to continuously analyze and fine tune the service provision to maintain stable, reliable yet adaptive and responsive services that allows the customer to focus on their business without the concern of IT service availability.

The ITIL service management practices are comprised off three main sets of practices and services

Ø  ITIL Service management  practices — Core Guidance

Ø  ITIL Service management practices — complementary

Ø  ITIL Web support

Now In my next write up I will go into the details of ITIL Service management — Core Guidance

Now don’t think that being an IT Professional myself I am giving suggestion to the upcoming IT professional that do think again to work in the field of IT … That not the case for all of you . As being working in the IT field from past 10 years I have realized that it’s kind of “Thankless Job” … because when there is some problem occurred in the software or hardware at some critical moments fingers always pointed out towards IT and people think that they(IT) must have done something wrong which might be not the case and people think that being in IT they are doing nothing. They are just keep on resting and playing games. But from my experience being working in IT its kind of stressful job as you have to always on your toes to keep the systems running at their 100% and if something goes wrong I know how hard it is to face the management and tell them what went wrong . But as being service provider department or vendor or organization or consultant we have to face and ready for these kinds of situations.

But on the other hand there are cases where we have been appreciated and being rewarded also by putting up some marvelous efforts as in the case of ERP implementation in my current working organization, at the time of implementation 9/11 thing happened and the Consultants went back to their homeland … the project seems to be at stake as all the efforts being put on by the team and trainings have been done because at that point we cannot revert to the old things, but let me clear one thing the implementation team have the support from higher management for the implementation which is really helpful for us, by having support from them we have implemented the ERP which is now being running ALHAMDULILLAH successfully from past 7 years and now we are in testing phase of its new version and business process re-engineering / business continuity/ IT Governance.

Being in the field of IT you have to be well aware of all the current market trends and happenings around you, I know that its really hard to keep yourself update with the market trends and happenings around you related to the field of IT but you have too because if you don’t then you will be outdated related to IT knowledge. At times too keep yourself updated you have to spend the money form your pockets because it’s a sort of risk always related to it that management might ask you “DO YOU HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CURRENT IT TRENDS” and if you say “No” then be prepare for listening anything from them .. You need to re-train yourself as much as you can. As myself , I have to be updated all the time what is going on, which hardware is currently on the rising phase and which is out dated. What kind of software products we have in the market which can help us out and what not useful to us. As the things are so much rapidly changing in the field of IT that you will never knew what will come up next and by whom in this field.

Working long hours is usual in the field of IT as now become AN ENIGMA with it. So its not become un usual with most of IT professionals to work long hours but the thing is that working for long hours is not sort of routine jobs but yes it does at month ends or year ends when there will full load of work where you have to take the backups when all the work have been done or when there are least users connected with the application, make surety of the all the systems available. Most of my friends to whom I know are always on call basis including myself , if god forbidden something goes wrong we will be remain in touch. That’s why companies do realize our importance and they pay us too and give incentives as well, and also that some time we have to run the tasks that we have to really take care off like off server service packs or server up gradation or backup routines or system health checks for which we have to plan about the time days & strategy because these sort of tasks will be not be done in haphazard way.

People also assume that we all know about the IT stuff but that’s not the case because we all have some expertise related to the IT field. From system administration to Development to Networks to security to IT governance etc etc. all people working in those division have their working expertise related to it so its better to ask them those type of question on which they are working on . but not like that if you ask some software development person that what kind of router we are using in our organization or if you asked network person that how this software developed and what software technologies used in the development of it …… perhaps you get the reply “NO I DON’T KNOW ABOUT IT” . So it’s better to ask the person who worked on them by creating awareness about it amongst the people of your organization and around your peer network.

IT always be considered as the “Cost Centers” and hardly as the “Profit Generators”. IT department who are well mannered and established their benefits will remain unhidden which is not good so as being IT manger you need to point out what are you offering to the organization and how you are doing it . Add this with is that there is a lack of healthy respect for the technology that runs most businesses and what we get in return is not in the eyes of the management which being IT managers we have to point them out which is a constant uphill task for us thats where “Business Intelligence” comes up.

At times there were queries being generated by the HR departments that to list down the works being done by you being in IT and when you end up with it by listing down the whole work which is being done by you it gets into some lengthy work that those HR guys don’t feel bothered to read about them (that happen with me hehe). Also I observed that everybody’s job was urgent. If five people come to you in the morning each with a different problem, what can you do? Each one cannot continue their work until the “tiny” problem is solved. As they don’t know why the problem has occurred and what are the causes of it. I know it’s hard to say “No” to any one like that because all of them have priorities and workload so we have to tackle them with tips and tricks likes off on which position the user is and how much work load it have.etc etc. Some times its hard for the user to convey about his/her problems so being in IT my experience is that we have to listen them carefully what they are trying to say and then help them out being giving them some information about the problems and gathered the data about the problems and solved them as soon as possible in the prescribed manner.

In the end I can say that I may be missed out points that which I can not think of but do share with all of us and for new comers in the field of IT … all of you are always welcome so cheer up and wish all of new comers good luck and bright future. If you need any help of mine do contact me …..

Few days back I attended the event which was organized by Al-Futtaim Technologies Pakistan (formerly known as Alcatel-Lucent Pakistan) about “Green IT” and recently I have come to know about IBM’s event “Paint Your IT Green” organized in Lahore and Islamabad few days back. As being the World’s Leading IT Innovator and Business Solutions Provider IBM is providing Services to the Pakistani Organization from many decades and IBM is uniquely capable of Integrating Industry and Technology Expertise to help businesses meet their urgent energy, environment and sustainability Challenges and also same goes with the Al-Futtaim Technologies they are the leading Technology Solutions Provider in UAE ………………………Both the event which were conducted was primarily focused on the importance of Green IT ……

For those who don’t know what Green IT is? It means that

“How to use the computer resources in such an efficient way by adapting the friendly environmental habits such as Power Consumptions, Recycling, and Virtualization etc.”

Let me clarify what Green IT is in more detail ……By keeping in mind that we want to implement Green IT in our organization we have to follow some approaches about it. As I have mentioned in the above definition that we have to adapt Friendly environmental habits such as Power Consumptions, Recycling, Virtualization.

The approaches which I was talking about earlier in my point of view are as follows

1) Recycling

2) Virtualization

3) Power Management

4) Data Storage Systems

5) Telecommunication Techniques

The above said approaches in others mind might be different but this is what I feel that we can follow in order to implement Green IT infrastructure in our working Organization.Now what are those approaches let me define them one by one in much broader terms

1) Recycling: As well know that all know that Computers parts are being made from the materials such as of Lead , Mercury , Gold and other related materials , so when we go for recycle them we need such kind of facilities where we follow the standards being followed to recycle any type of computer parts . As currently we can see in our Country the prices of Desktop Computers have fallen down so drastically have you ever think why it is all because of the fact that we don’t have any kind of rules and regulations in our country for maintain and taking care of our People’s Health and Safety. Neither have we had the so called Recycling Facility nor do we care about it or having some awareness about what recycling is. We have to educate our people in this regard. Correct me if I am wrong in relation with the activities and policies about RECYCLING.So Importers of Personal Computers and Parts, in my point of view, are not taking care of this point and they just keep one thing in their mind that is making Profit. May be I am wrong but this is what I observed and feel about it. Yes it’s good to have Personal Computers at each home of Pakistan for the progress of IT Industry but at the cost of this thing? Where our coming generation at the stake of getting ill by using such kind of Products Usage which might be injurious to their health….. Does it feel sensible to all of you? You might be against me on this point. But that’s what I feel so I said it…….

2) Virtualization: Virtualization is a concept which enables you to work on one computer to do the job of multiple ones being residing on one physical hardware by sharing it resources for doing work across multiple operating environments, which makes easy for you to control your machine locally or remotely. So by using this concept Computer Professionals are utilizing this in combining several Physical Computer Systems into one single logical machine……. This makes them enable to monitor the power consumptions, Server Utilization, Temperature/Cooling Controls ………

3) Power Management : As being an IT Professional and specially related to the purchasing and selection of hardware , I have observed that we have to really look into this matters because it all depends upon the services and utilization requirements of ours that we choose any computer hardware. In Power Management we have to look what are the things (hardware such as Processors, Monitors , RAM’s, Hard Drives) are being used at what time and if they are underutilizing then we have to use ACPI ( Advance Configuration and Power Interface) which allows the Operating Systems, likes of Windows XP, Windows 2000, AIX , Linux(Any Distribution of it) .. are to name of the few, to directly control the power savings features.

4) Data Storage Systems: hmmm Well on this side, I can say that we really have to take care of all the data whether it’s personal or of organization. For storing the data we take our backups on Floppy Disk, Flash/USB Drives , CD , DVD, Zip Drives, Tape Cartridges and even on some complex structures too likes of Storage Area Networks … all the devices being used for taking backups and for storing does use some power whether it is on small scale or large ones……

5) Telecommunication Techniques: In today’s world the boom of telecommunication enabled us to connect in any part of world at any time regardless of boundaries…. That’s why today’s corporate organizations are utilizing this format in such a way by adapting the latest telecommunication techniques which are not only environment friendly but also helps them to reduce their over head costs and increase their profits ……..

In Pakistan we do lag such kind of facilities where we can adapt the state of the art practices and feel proud of them. There is no such kind of policies and Regulations from the Government side. At least there is some interest being showed by the local Government bodies who are taking participation in making this fact and idea to some what real ………….. For the implementation side, we do need to learn the facts, techniques and governance based upon our culture and society.As we all know that we really are lagging of such professional who have those kind of vision in relation of Green IT ………..

My Question to all of you is that… Are we ready for implementing Green IT? As we are going through the power crisis, economic crisis, political crisis …..Do Comment

IT still has a perception problem. In some organizations, we continue to be seen as geeks that play with expensive toys. Sure, these toys power the business, but their necessity is often not indicated in a way that’s “business friendly.”Reality and perception are very different animals. Well-chosen words and a positive demeanor are keys to successful requests and professional interactions with the rest of the business. Although IT continues to gain ground in visibility and potential impact, much of what we do is, and probably always will be, behind the scenes work that no one really understands, nor do they want to understand it, nor do they need to. Like the folks that maintain your office, a lot of people consider the behind-the-scenes work that IT performs as “electronic maintenance.” These are critical tasks that need to be done, but the CEO isn’t going to stop by each morning complimenting the team on doing a great job changing last night’s tapes. Quite honestly, if your CEO actually does do this, he or she may need a little more work!

Rightly or wrongly, some IT organizations have managed to move into the “PITA” category for some executives. That’s not to say that these executives don’t understand the value wrought by IT, but they have begun to tire of hearing the same story over and over again told in the same way. These executives may feel that IT has enough resources to do its job and they don’t understand why they keep complaining about small budgets and small staffs.

Why does this happen? First, look inward. When you make a pitch to the executive team for a new initiative, how do you approach the task? Do you say “We simply have to replace our old, outdated router. It keeps acting up. The new router supports IPv6 and has GigE ports, so we’ll never run out of addresses and stuff will be faster than with the old router, which is no longer supported” or do you say “Our existing router, which is the lynchpin for our connection to the Internet, is no longer supported by the manufacturer. If it fails, there is the potential for an extended outage, which would cost the organization $XXX per hour until the unit is repaired. From a risk perspective, a new router would pay for itself after only xxx hours of downtime.”

I’d argue that the second approach will get you closer to your goal and possible kudos from senior management for being proactive in the face of possible failure. You’ll be seen as understanding the business rather than wanting a new toy, even though the result would be the same from a technical perspective. The second approach gives executive management some meat, too. They get to make a decision based on some real information that they can sink their teeth into. Sure, you could still get shot down, but bear in mind that most organizations have priorities beyond IT needs that must also be addressed and your executive management team may feel that the loss of the router is an acceptable risk for the time being.

When you really think about it, most departments in an organization have thankless jobs that no one thinks about until something goes wrong. Just as you expect your paycheck on time every month, the marketing department has the perfectly reasonable expectation that their database will be well maintained, kept current and kept available. In fact, these folks probably want all of this without having to ask for it. After all, it’s IT’s job to be proactive in keeping these things in working order, and they probably won’t bring you a gift from the Keebler elves every time you apply a patch that keeps their data secure.

The takeaway: Even though the tales of woe are sure to make any IT professional cringe, people outside IT just don’t care about them. They know that something is broken and it needs to be fixed… and now. Understanding this fact and eliminating the complaining within earshot of non-IT staff is critical to maintaining a professional organization. Likewise, understanding how to pitch IT needs in a way that make sense for the business is critical to the CIO’s success.

already know that you’re going to hate what I have to say. You’ll no doubt send me strongly worded e-mails and post critical comments which is fine by me . Everyone has its view point and I respect it.When you read about the security problems of some open-source applications and operating systems, some of you have nodded approvingly, and muttered words that sound a lot like “I told you so.” Let’s face it, all the smugness about the superiority of open source code has been pretty hard to take.

Of course, the open source people claim that such charges simply aren’t true. They say open-source products are better, because more people work on them and then distribute the patches–meaning that security holes get fixed right away. Microsoft, as the leading vendor of proprietary software, claims the same thing.

THE FACT IS, both sides have their share of problems–but neither side has the edge when it comes to fixing security holes. You’re just as likely to encounter a security problem with open-source code as you are with Microsoft Windows, and the fix is just as likely to appear quickly and be done properly.

Normally, this is the point where Microsoft gets trashed for its seemingly endless list of security patches for Windows. That’s not going to happen here. Yes, Microsoft does have a long list of security issues for which it has issued patches. But the fact that those patches exist means somebody in Microsoft is making sure those fixes are made.

According to Steve Lipner, Microsoft’s director of security assurance, the company’s Security Response Team operates seven days a week and has been known to issue patches to Windows security within hours of finding out about a problem. This sounds pretty responsive to me, certainly as responsive as the open-source solution to fixes–hoping someone steps up to the plate, creates a fix, and makes it available.

THE PROBLEMS with security are not greater or fewer with Microsoft’s code versus open source. They’re just different. Want another opinion? In the FBI’s ongoing list of the top 20 security problems, the number of Windows and open-source problems are about equal.

The bottom line is that you should choose your OS or Web server software by how well it meets your needs–because these days, security really isn’t the differentiating factor.

Which do you trust most when it comes to security: open source, or proprietary software? Or do you trust (or distrust) both equally?

Pakistan and its Industry… hmmmmm… Pakistan being the sixth populated nation but on the education wise we are really far behind from the other countries of our region. As I was going through the article on the Internet I get to know that Pakistan has lagged dangerously behind other regional countries in

exploiting Information Technology as a catalyst for economic revival. Yet though in the past 8 years or so the steps have been taken by the earlier governments on the setup of IT industry but still we are lagging behind. We all know that which steps have been taken by reducing the Internet bandwidths rates, Deploying SMEs, students going for PHD’s abroad and coming back. But still we are on the development phase.

As being IT Professional myself , and what ever experience I had and observed that we are very much talented as nation but we are lagging the integration between are educational sectors and industrial sectors. As I have faced this situation by myself. As in 1999 I have graduated from the one of the most prestigious university of my country and when I go for job interviews the person sitting there asked me do you know what is this and when I said never been thought they said then you are of no use , I do ask them what is wrong with me they told me that you didn’t know what we are asking , but I told them and you being sitting in the industry it is the responsibilities of personnel like yours to collaborate with the EDUCATION sectors to help young graduates to learn the leading technologies and guide them what they need to do when they passed out and ready to enter in the market. However I got the chance in one of leading automotive manufacturing of PAKISTAN where I have learned a lot with great zeal. THANKS TO ALMIGHTY ALLAH I got the boss of such a kind who is True Professional , he turned me into one of his kind , HATS OFF TO MY BOSS – THANKS ONCE AGAIN ALMIGHTY ALLAH … He told me that look if you want to be successful in you career do your work with full passion and commitment and never loose your interest in that work , if you loose then all the hardwork which you do will be lost. And learned the good set of practices which are current and being followed in IT Industry and share them with your fellow peers and by the grace of ALLAH I am following his advice , my boss is in Canada now but still I keep bugging him to know what is being followed there and when he told me what is nbeing followed I searched and learned about it and tell my fellow peers too,

I have observed few of the stuffs which I like to share all of you. I feel that the explosive growth of the Internet and the coming tidal wave of E-Commerce still provide immense possibilities for Pakistan to exploit their potential and use these for accelerating its economic revival. As far as I know MCB is the first in Pakistan who exploit these conditions and even went to London Stock Exchange to get registered to become first Pakistani Organization to be registered there. By implementing the Huge investments in the IT side. Do keep in mind that IT is not just used for Personal computers only. It also covers the machines like which tells you the data how much bank balance you have which we used to say ATM Machines . Now after hugs investments in IT side we are getting results of it by the private sectors. And utilizing it as people getting to learn about it day by day its all because of the awareness thing.

I also feel that we are agonizingly conscious of the fact that the hyper speed of change in the Information Technology domain means that the IT year is equivalent to one month in conventional terms. This fact dictates that any meaningful action or decisions for the IT industry in Pakistan has to be implemented immediately. Pakistan and similar countries hoping to exploit the inherent potential of Information Technology must act immediately and decisively to restructure their domestic Information Technology industries to become effective role players within the global IT scenario.

· Any meaningful IT scheme in Pakistan will necessarily have to be a PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP. Bold but unconventional and strategically corrective actions and decisions are needed because we all that what needs to be and cater down so that we donot get influence by others to implement any sort of decision.

· We need to have such kind of managers with the right mix of vision and managerial competence that help us out to implement the decision (IN THAT AREA WE ARE LAGGING AS BEING PAKISTANI WHICH IS MY OBSERVATION).

· Huge amounts of financing are needed in domestic resources and foreign exchange.

· Above all, the will to prevail will be needed from the government of Pakistan to chart the right course for the national Information Technology initiative and then stay the course in spite of innumerable hurdles which are sure to bedevil the path to success.

This is the part of series of my writing

Stumble upon means to come across or to meet in general sense …. This idea has been brought into the World Wide Web first by four persons namely Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, Justin LaFrance, and Eric Boyd in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They first established the company on test basis before finalizing the product “Stumble Upon” from the five or six ideas which they have in their mind. StumbleUpon have their head office in USA.

How it Works?

StumbleUpon works on the principle of toolbar that does not mean that it’s an ordinary toolbar which sits on your web browser, what ever you Stumbleupon during your browsing u can add it on you stumble upon favorites. It acts as a service that gives you help to Stumbleupon the websites you like. Its basically a tool that can takes the aspects of social bookmarking like we used to read the book and put bookmarks for some special points and references and then Stumbleupon wraps them up for you in a button that will take you to the random sites based upon your interests .

For having StumbleUpon on your computer, you will need to install a toolbar onto your web browser. This takes around 5- 10 minutes and also your internet connection speed to download its Installation file and then execute it for the installation on your PC. During the installation it will asked you to create the profile there and pick your interests which enables the StumbleUpon toolbar to make the database which you find interesting as you browse.

What’s in it for me?

StumbleUpon is not like the standard social news/tool site it’s basically a surfing tool which helps you to goes easily on your favorite’s websites easily. Like me, you have certain websites you visit on a regular basis like for instance Pakspectator.com, whenever I got free time for example during my lunch break in office read a few blogs and comments their if necessary, and then go to some technology related blogs or websites or news articles where I am a regular. By using the Stumbleupon it makes for me my life bit easier in a way that I don’t have to look for the web addresses of my favorite websites here and there in one click I can easily go there. StumbleUpon also has some social networking features where you can add friends and stumble through pages they submitted but it doesn’t mean that it’s purely social networking site. There are much better places then this likes of orkut, hi5, facebook, myspace etc etc. The social networking features of StumbleUpon are best used to help teach the tool how to stumble better by adding friends who go to the same type of sites you like to visit.

Why should I join?

1. With less effort you can browse the websites of your interests.
2. Add friends based upon mutual interests.
3. Join and be a part of 5.5 million users who have collectively stumbled 5 billion websites so far.

What to do next?

Go to there and Start enjoying the use of StumbleUpon