How does one protect networks?

What is the reason for an IP address beginning with 169.254 appearing on boot up of a computer?A DHCP server cannot be found.
What common language is used by all directories using directory-based networks? LDAP
Which type of database is used by Novell NetWare v3?Bindery
Windows 3.1 was a resource-based operating system that did not require a login.True statement The introduction of which operating system changed the problem of no security or power within a workgroup?Windows NT

Google Calendar outages anger users
Google says it's working to resolve the problems
By Linda Rosencrance
March 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Users of Google Calendar are angry and frustrated that they have been unable to access the Web-based application at various times over the past two weeks.
Google Inc., in a note on its Calendar help page, said Google Calendar was "experiencing temporary performance issues" that were affecting users of Google Account and Google Apps. It gave no indication of when the problem would be fixed.
Google Calendar users who are unable to access their calendars are venting their frustrations on the Google Calendar Troubleshooting Group.
Most of the users trying to access their calendars said they get an error message that reads, "One or more of your selected calendars could not be loaded at this time. You can try to reselect the hidden calendars in a few moments."
"I am really sick of this," one user said today. "When are they going to fix this piece of garbage? I rely on this all the time and now I cannot even sync my BlackBerry to my calendars. What's going on? When are they going to fix this problem?"
Another user who received this error message, "Oops, we couldn't load details for your calendar, please try again," said, "I'm also angry. ... Anyone know what the deal is?"
One user who's been testing Google Calendar from a work environment for the past two weeks said he's experiencing intermittent problems with the application.
And another said, "Please, this is painful. No calendars for our 'Google Apps Premier Edition' users since 8:30 a.m. Eastern (today). Can we get some kind of update?"
A Google spokesman today acknowledged that some users were having problems accessing Google Calendar and that the company was working quickly to fix the problem. "We know how important Calendar is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously, the spokesman said in an e-mail. "We encourage anyone having technical difficulty to contact the Google Calendar support team through the Google Calendar Help Center."

Recently google calender has been experiencing many problem. Users of this program are very frustrated; they are unble to properly use the program or sync it to thier black berrys. Many users rely heavly on this program and it will be a huge burden to them. A google spokesperson said that the google team is working tirelessly to fix the problem. There is no word on when the problem will be fixed.

Software News

Apple announces ultra-thin laptop

The laptop weighs 1.3 kilograms and costs £1,200
Laptop on view Apple boss Steve Jobs has unveiled the world's thinnest laptop, called the MacBook Air.
The computer, which is 0.76 inches (1.93cm) at its thickest point, was unveiled at an event in San Francisco.
The Apple head also launched online film rentals for iTunes users in the US from almost every major film studio, including Disney and Fox.
"We're dying to get this international as well," said Mr Jobs, saying it would roll-out worldwide later in the year.
Of the laptop, Mr Jobs said: "It's an amazing feat of engineering."
It does not have a CD or DVD drive in order to save space. "It was built to be a wireless machine," he added.
The laptop will compete with a range of portable devices, from companies such as Sony, Dell and Asus, which are already building so-called sub-notebooks, designed to be lighter and more mobile.
The machine goes on sale in two weeks and costs from $1,799 in the US (£1,199 in the UK) and comes with either an 80 Gigabyte hard disc drive as standard or 64 Gigabyte solid state drive for an added $999.
FROM THE DOT.LIFE BLOG

This is important because it opens a new front in Apple's battle to be as big in digital video as it is in music.
Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent
Read Rory's thoughts in full
Apple worked with chip maker Intel to produce a smaller version of its Core2Duo processor for the laptop.
Movie rentals from the key Hollywood movie studios will be available in the US immediately. Until now customers have had to buy movies outright but now they rent them for up to 30 days, or for 24 hours once viewing has started.
Movie lovers will be able to download films to their computers, and transfer them to the latest iPods and iPhone, in standard and high-definition, for between $3 and $5.
The company also announced it was revamping the Apple TV device so that it can now download content independently of a computer and display it on a widescreen TV.
Mr Jobs admitted that Apple's first attempt to put online video in the living room had failed.
"[Apple TV] was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer.
"It is not what people wanted. What people really wanted was movies, movies, movies."
He added: "We weren't delivering that. We're back: With Apple TV Take Two."
He announced the firm had sold 125 million TV shows and seven million movies via iTunes.
"It's more than everyone else put together, but it didn't meet our expectations," said Mr Jobs. "I think we've got it right this time."
Mr Jobs also announced a wireless back-up system called Time Capsule, offering a combined wi-fi router and hard drive.
New software for the iPhone was unveiled, including an update to Maps, which can plot the phone owner's spot on a map without using GPS.
Apple announced it had sold four million iPhones in the first 200 days on sale, putting it on target to sell 10 million by the end of 2008.

News on Technology

2008-01-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

EU probes Microsoft again
By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer Mon Jan 14, 1:29 PM ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union regulators said Monday they were again investigating software giant Microsoft Corp. this time on suspicion of abusing its market position by squeezing out competing Internet browsers and software rivals dependent on Microsoft programs.
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The European Commission opened two formal probes, the first move against the company since a court four months ago backed the EU in a long-running legal battle over Microsoft's actions in using its ubiquitous Windows operating system to elbow into new software markets.
Microsoft said it would cooperate fully with the Commission's investigation and provide any and all information necessary.
"We are committed to ensuring that Microsoft is in full compliance with European law and our obligations as established by the European Court of First Instance in its September 2007 ruling," it said in a statement.
EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said he could not put a time frame on how long it would take regulators to decide whether they would file formal charges against the company, saying this usually depended on "how complicated the issues are and the level of cooperation that we receive from the company under investigation."
Although regulators did not specifically name Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, they will look at some of its features such as desktop search.
The EU is also wading into a row between Microsoft and open source developers backed by International Business Machines Corp. by looking into Microsoft's open format for archived documents — Office Open XML.
The first new probe — triggered by a complaint from Norway's Opera Software ASA — will look at whether Microsoft illegally gives away its Internet Explorer browser for free with Windows. Opera had called on the EU to strip Internet Explorer out of Windows or carry alternative browsers.
The investigation will check also if "new proprietary technologies" held other browsers back by not following open Internet standards. Regulators said they had also received allegations that Microsoft had illegally packaged desktop search and Windows Live to its operating system.
The second investigation will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software — including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft's push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework.
Since Microsoft supplies the software to the vast majority of home and office computers, rivals complain that refusal to give them interoperability information shuts the door on a huge potential market.
The EU said it was acting on a complaint from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems — a group representing IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp. — that has asked regulators prevent Vista using Microsoft's existing monopoly power to move into the new Internet market.
"It is regrettable that despite the judgment of September 2007, Microsoft continues to use its desktop monopolies to restrict competition. That's what the ECIS and Opera complaints are about," ECIS spokesman and legal counsel Thomas Vinje said.
The EU said it will also look at whether Office Open XML — used by governments and large corporations to store older documents — "is sufficiently interoperable with competitors' products."
Microsoft said it developed the format to offer richer software than the nonproprietary OpenDocument Format created by open source developers and used by IBM.
But the open source community claims that Microsoft is trying to supplant a possible rival in ODF and stem the potential threat of open source software eating into its market share.
The EU is building on its March 2004 decision that found Microsoft had violated EU antitrust rules by trying to damage rivals for server and media player software. It told Microsoft to offer a version of Windows without the Media Player software, to share communications code with rivals and pay a record $613 million fine.
Microsoft delayed obeying the order, launching an appeal to the European Court of Justice that it lost on Sept. 17, 2007.
Although Microsoft then dropped further appeals and promised to abide by September court ruling, the EU's antitrust chief Neelie Kroes warned that a precedent had been set for future behavior in other areas.

Networking

2008-01-14T09:12:00.001-08:00

A computer network is an interconnection of a group of computers. Networks may be classified by what is called the network layer at which they operate according to basic reference models considered as standards in the industry such as the four-layer Internet Protocol Suite model. While the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model is better known in academia, the majority of networks use the Internet Protocol Suite (IP) as their network model.

Components of Computers

2007-01-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

Computer Hardware- any part of a computer system that you can see or touch.
Storage- Holds data, instructions, and info for future use.