[ Note: Video Embedded at Bottom of Post ]

Recently, I received an email from my good friend Dave. A friend of his from Austin had recently lost his wife, yet was receiving scam texts from “her” in London. Dave asked if I knew anyone in London, [...]]]>

The letter we enclosed for the scammer in the parcel.

[ Note: Video Embedded at Bottom of Post ]

Recently, I received an email from my good friend Dave. A friend of his from Austin had recently lost his wife, yet was receiving scam texts from “her” in London. Dave asked if I knew anyone in London, and fortunately, I knew some wonderful people who were more than excited to help out. What follows below is the full story, in email form (emails and most last names removed for obvious reasons; I’m sure Tim Allen (me) and Bob Marley are fairly safe).

Subject: Londoner’s?
————————

From: Dave B
Date: Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 6:14 PM
To: “Tim Allen”

Hey – know any whitehats in London?

An old friend and recent Austinite like myself could use a little help.

Rob “Judge” Marley (and you think you’re the only guy needin’ a nickname), recent Austin transplant, old time Burning Man friend who founded some epic and still running camps out there needs a hand.

His wife died this past year after a long and gruesome battle with cancer. No lie that. Joan and I were with him and Tiffany “Stormy” Marley until the end – and it didn’t come quietly. Rob has been through the meat grinder.

So today he starts getting insistent messages from he dead wife. Hell, nearly everyone she ever communicated with gets messages. Same old scam. I’m stuck in London. My passport and money are gone. Please wire me money. Its an old and weak scam.

But its coming from a dead woman.

Nothing like a kick in the balls followed by a shit sandwich being rammed down your throat, ay?

Rob has tracked it down to one Blackberry and one specific Internet cafe in London. Yes, he – and other involved – have filed the appropriate complaints with the authorities.

Know anyone who wants to walk over to a cafe, look for dick and kneecap’m for being the bitch-of-week?

Here’s a link to Rob:  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=XXXX

BTW – Rob works at XXXX and is often in the control room for YYYY. He’s an exceptional dude. You’d like him.

———-
From: Tim Allen
Date: Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 12:37 PM
To: Dave B, Justin B, Nick L

The only folks I know in London aren’t exactly White Hat hackers – more like brilliant graphic designers – but might be up for a Sherlock Holmes case like this. I’ve CC’d them.

Justin, Nick – anything you can do with this? I know you guys travel all the time, so feel free to say you’re too busy, but you’re my London contacts. Anything you can do to help out with some recon in this extremely fucked up situation, to earn a shitload of karma?

Regards,

-Tim

———-
From: Nick L
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 4:21 AM
To: Tim Allen

Hi Tim

Have been away but just back now – do you know which cafe this is coming from and how often – what absolute twats!!!

If you have any more information let us know and we will see what we can do!

Nick

———-
From: Tim Allen
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:23 AM
To: Nick L, Dave B

Hey Dave,

Do you have any more information for Nick? I don’t know if we’ll be able to find anything, but perhaps he could at least poke his head in and talk to someone at the cafe in question.

Thanks Nick! I hope you’re doing great.

Regards,

-Tim

———-
From: Dave B
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 11:02 AM
To: “Rob Marley”
Cc: “Tim Allen” , Nick L

Mr. Marley,

Care to comment?

Dave Brown

PS – Nick! I was in London 2 months ago. Tim told me that I must meet you but sadly my schedule was overbooked. Next time.

———-
From: Nick L
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 11:09 AM
To: Dave B
Cc: “Rob Marley”, “Tim Allen”

sure no probs, let us know that name of the cafe and we will pay a visit. let you know what the score is!

———-
From: Rob Marley
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 11:29 AM
To: Dave B
Cc: “Tim Allen”, Nick L

Hey guys,

Thanks for doing a little Sleuthing for me.

I’ve been in contact with “Tiffany” over the weekend. I’ve told “her” that I couldnt get to the bank over the  weekend and would have to wait till Monday.

This morning I got another email from her saying “Poor me, I didn’t make it out of here. Sad! I hope your weekend was great.” I told her we would be putting together a fundraiser to help her out.

The address where she wants the money wired to is:
11 Charing Cross Road
London, WC2H 0QU UK

A quick Google search shows this is an Internet cafe (Street View is a beautiful thing)

It would be fun to go in there posing as a courier and see who steps up to receive the package. Maybe let them know that there are people that dont appreciate getting bullshit email scams like this from dead friends.

I’d just love to tell the guy off. Maybe take a few pictures of his face and post it around the net just for fun.

That’s all the information I know so far. I’ll keep trying to string them along through email, but eventually they are going to get tired and move on to someone else.

Thanks for the help!

Rob

———-
From: Tim Allen
Date: Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 11:35 AM
To: Rob Marley
Cc: Dave B, Nick L

Maybe sic Michael Palin on them? This is a good read:

http://www.419eater.com/html/booked.htm

Regards,

-Tim

———-
From: Nick L
Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 12:55 PM
To: Rob Marley
Cc: Dave B, Tim Allen , Louise J

Hi guys

Sorry to have dropped off the radar but we have had a terribly busy week.

Louise and I are due to be in the West End tomorrow afternoon and we were going to pay a visit to the store with a package to deliver as you suggest and see what we could find out. Louise is going to be armed with a camera (she’s wanted to stake out the place for days but realized she would have to park illegally on Charing Cross Road – she has gone all Nancy Drew on me!)

We will report back with our findings and hope that this has not been too awful for you.

It’s a pleasure to help
Nick and Lou

———-
From: Tim Allen
Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:20 PM
To: Nick L
Cc: Rob Marley, Dave B, Louise J

Thank you both so much. As you can see, this is a pretty messed up situation, so we really appreciate you guys going above and beyond. If there’s ever anything we can do to help out state-side, let us know! We’ve got Austin (South by Southwest) and Philly covered!

Regards,

-Tim

———-
From: Dave B
Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:26 PM
To: Tim Allen
Cc: Nick L, Rob Marley, Louise J

Yes, please consider us your Austin/SXSW resource. Please let me know if you are coming to town.

DB

———-
From: Louise J
Date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 5:17 PM
To: Dave B
Cc: Tim Allen , Nick L, Rob Marley

Hi Dave & Tim

So… we went down at appointed time but unfortunately “Tiffany” was no show

I’ve filmed our exploits and Nick will send the ftp link to over the weekend to show you what happened

Downstairs was an internet cafe and they sent us to the office above which turned out to be some really grubby recruitment place

No one had heard of “Tiffany” so we think we might need to try and set up one more meeting

Anyway Nick is out this evening and I’m sure he’ll fill you in on more of the detail – but I just wanted to let you know how we’d got on to date

Also I’ve enclosed a pic of the message that Nick enclosed in Tiffany’s package – so please feel free to add / amend anything for our next attempt…

Catch up soon and have a lovely weekend

x Lou

———-
From: Dave B
Date: Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 5:31 PM
To: Louise J
Cc: Tim Allen , Nick L, Rob Marley

You people are exceptional. No really. You’ve just earned free drinks and BBQ all through Austin.

So come to Austin some time. We will go out of our way to show you a true “Keep Austin Weird” good time.

DB

———-
From: Nick Laurence <nick@riversrunred.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 5:38 AM
To: Dave B
Cc: Louise Jorden <louise@riversrunred.com>, Tim Allen , Vitiare <vitiare@gmail.com>

Hi guys

Here the link to the movie file – sorry but our trail has run cold or the recruitment agency on the first floor is a cleverly constructed front to obscure some trafficking / laundering / porn ring. We think that someone has been using that cafe and would have perhaps given the owners another of their hard luck stories so that they would permit them to use it as a mail location which couldn’t be traced back to their home address.

If there’s anything else we can do or if you hear from them again don’t hesitate.

[video withheld for privacy, but it is awesome.]

Thank you
Nick

———-
From: Tim Allen
Date: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 9:39 AM
To: Nick Laurence <nick@riversrunred.com>
Cc: Dave B, Louise Jorden <louise@riversrunred.com>, Vitiare <vitiare@gmail.com>

Thanks so much for your efforts. It definitely sounds like a shady operation. We really appreciate you going way above and beyond, and hope we can repay the favor some day!

Regards,

-Tim

———-
From: Rob Marley
Date: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 9:47 AM
To: Tim Allen
Cc: Nick L, Dave B, Louise J

I had told “Tiffany” that we had a fundraiser in her honor and that instead of wiring the money to her, I would deliver it personally. I told “her” I was getting on a plane and needed to know where she was. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard from them since last week, so its safe to say they probably thought something was up and just moved on to the next email address they’ve hacked.

Apparently the phone number they used as a contact number has been talked about on the net. Its definitely not the first time they’ve scammed people for money.

This was a beautiful attempt, everyone. Thank you all for trying to catch this person on camera. Im sure this is the last we will hear about Tiffany in London.

-Rob

———-
From: Dave B
Date: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 9:59 AM
To: Rob Marley
Cc: Tim Allen, Nick L, Louise J

Holy hell y’all are special people. No wonder Tim was insisted that I connect with you two when I was in London. Wish I could have then but business did not allow it.

Nevertheless please do come and visit us in Austin. We’ll take care of you.

DB

So, no, we didn’t catch Tiffany red handed. However, the mysterious texts have stopped, as I think “Tiffany” got wind that she was about to get pwned. So mission accomplished, and a testament to how having friends across the planet can really help out a messed up situation. So, here’s the video grand finale:

The 2010 Wharton Higher Education Web Symposium is next week! I hope [...]]]> This just in from next week’s Wharton Higher Ed Web Symposium; if you’re going to attend, be sure to say hello! If you haven’t registered yet, there are still a few spots left. http://www.WhartonUIConf.org/ – a great line up is in store!

The 2010 Wharton Higher Education Web Symposium is next week! I hope you are as excited as I am.

Here are some details of interest, to make sure you have all the information you need.

Location, Registration & Food:

The Symposium is being held at Huntsman Hall.

Once you arrive at Huntsman, we’ll be downstairs in the Forum Level for most of the conference. There will be signs directing you where to go. Alternately, just ask anyone you see where the Forum level is, and they’ll direct you.

We’ll have the registration desk open from 8:00am – 11:00am both days. You’ll be able to pick up your registration packet there. The main sessions start promptly at 9:00 and you won’t want to miss a minute.

Breakfast goodies will be served from 8:30-9:00, and coffee, drinks, and snacks will be available throughout the day. Lunch will be from 12:00 – 1:30pm. Vegetarian options will be available.

There will be wireless access if you would like to bring a laptop, and a limited number of walk-up computer stations to check email.

Evening Events:

Our friends at PhillyCHI are hosting a pre-conference happy hour at the Blockley Pourhouse on Tuesday, 7/20. It is located on 38th street between Market & Chestnut. Doors open at 5:30pm and the first 100 people will get one free drink ticket. PhillyCHI has a fun evening planned… in addition to food, drink, and fun, there are rumors of a Mario Kart tournament. Even if you didn’t sign up ahead of time, feel free to come on by.

There will be walking escorts leaving the Locust Walk entrance of JMHH every 15 minutes from 5:15 – 6pm if you would like to walk with someone.

Make sure to check out the networking dinner options on 7/21, if you are interested. There is still plenty of room. You can select one by using your personalized URL below. Even if you are only coming for Thursday, you can still join a networking dinner on Wednesday!

This is kind of neat. I contributed to a chapter on using Virtual Worlds in education.

My co-authors on the chapter are:

David M. Antonacci, Director of Teaching & Learning Technologies University of Kansas Medical Center; Kansas City, KS USA

Nellie Modaress, Educational Technology Liaison University of Kansas Medical Center; Kansas City, KS USA

Edward Lee Lamoureux, Associate [...]]]>

Crompco's Virtual Gas Station

This is kind of neat. I contributed to a chapter on using Virtual Worlds in education.

My co-authors on the chapter are:

David M. Antonacci, Director of Teaching & Learning Technologies
University of Kansas Medical Center; Kansas City, KS USA

Nellie Modaress, Educational Technology Liaison
University of Kansas Medical Center; Kansas City, KS USA

Edward Lee Lamoureux, Associate Professor Department of Interactive Media and Department of Communication
Bradley University; Peoria, IL USA

David Thomas, Manager, Academic Technology
University of Colorado Denver; Denver, CO USA

Here’s the abstract:

User-created virtual worlds are emerging technologies with rapidly growing acceptance in education. Of the various reported educational uses of these virtual worlds, the focus of this chapter is on virtual worlds for constructivist learning activities because this use has application to many real-life courses and has the potential to transform teaching and learning. To assist educators with recognizing and understanding virtual world learning activities, Antonacci & Modaress (2005, 2008) developed the Interaction-Combinations Integration model. However, this model has not been studied in actual virtual-world learning practice. Using a case study method, this chapter: examines the usefulness of this model to organize and describe actual virtual world learning activities, provides additional learning activity examples, and describes what was needed to implement and conduct these learning activities.

And here’s my contribution:

OBJECT-OBJECT INTERACTION CASE: GAS TANK SIMULATION (ALLEN)

As of 2009, Crompco was a 160-person limited liability company (LLC) in Plymouth Meeting, PA, located just outside of Philadelphia. Crompco was founded in the early 1980s, and shortly after, bought by Rusty Carfagno, the current CEO. Since being founded, Crompco has grown to become the largest independent tank testing company in the world, with a service footprint extending from Maine to Florida, and as far west as Ohio and Texas. As of 2009, the company consisted of approximately 30 office employees, and 130 field technicians who typically work in two person crews. Crompco’s clients are the biggest companies in the world, including ExxonMobil, Hess, Sunoco, Shell (Motiva), Lukoil, and many more. Crompco tested approximately 20,000 stations per year in various capacities, from full regulatory compliance testing to company-specific inspection and replacement programs. The fleet of 70 trucks was top-notch, allowing for many parts to be taken on-site for minor repairs, which often avoided the need for an expensive return trip and re-test on faulty equipment. Crompco has been recognized as the tech leader within the sector, leading the way with fully automated field data capture first through iPaq hand-held devices, and now Tablet PCs, as well as innovative work in Second Life. Crompco was the first company to use Second Life for corporate training purposes, in January of 2004.

Ed Kubinsky was Crompco’s Director of Special Projects and led a team consisting of Timothy Allen, Head of Technology; Tracy Richmond, Safety Coordinator; and Chuck Pedano, Vice President. Kubinsky and Richmond trained the new hires in their respective fields of expertise: Richmond on safety and OSHA regulations and Kubinsky on the testing services performed in general. Allen coordinated upgrades for the virtual training system through requests from Kubinsky and Richmond, and he trained them on any new features added to the system.

Rather than training each new recruit on Second Life, which has a fairly high learning curve, the virtual world was projected onto a large screen for viewing, and the Crompco avatar was driven by an expert user, typically Kubinsky or Allen. This training was used for all new field technicians, as it introduced all the basics of gas station layout and Crompco safety requirements. The piping, pump, and pressure systems that lie underneath the asphalt of a tank field are fairly complex, and there are many different configurations to which a gas station can be built (about 15 standard configurations, excluding rare exceptions). Having new field technicians understand the complex systems, potential dangers, and a general knowledge of the mechanical and electronic systems before working in an environment with tens of thousands of gallons of gasoline is absolutely essential. Fortunately, within Second Life, nothing is flammable!

The virtual gas station was the brainchild of Allen, a long-time Second Life resident. In early 2004, Allen started to ask himself how Second Life could be used for purposes other than entertainment and showed the virtual world to Crompco’s Vice President, Chuck Pedano, a tech enthusiast and supporter. Together, they agreed that making a virtual gas station would be useful for quite a few purposes. First and foremost would be training new hires, but as the Second Life adoption rate continues to increase and computer speed improves, plans are to also train station managers and show companies where problems exist on their current stations. In the future, Second Life could provide a central location for nationwide training as well.

The initial project objectives were to show several key systems: the tanks, the lines that take the product from the tanks to the dispensers where gas is pumped, the submersible turbine pumps (STPs), siphon bars, and the full Stage II vapor recovery system. While that may be Greek to anyone outside of the industry, these components are the basic essentials to understanding how to test a station’s components to ensure the station is in environmental compliance.

Prior to training new recruits on Second Life, a white board with dry-erase markers was used. The trainers would draw a bunch of underground tanks, pumps, dispensers, and piping. After about five minutes, the new recruit’s attention and interest was waning. Also, this approach did not really get the point of how gas stations worked across to the new hires. Understanding gas station operation would not “click” in their minds until they saw a station under construction and could see the system under the asphalt.

To enable the new recruits to see the underground system, a Second Life gas station was built in January 2004, rolled out in several weeks. With the click of a mouse, they can see under the asphalt and inside the dispensers. Additionally, color-coding was used to make identification of sub-systems easier. It immediately received quite a bit of attention as one of the first projects using Second Life for a real-life purpose. More importantly, this new, vibrant, engaging form of training has had a measurable impact. In the past, it could be six months before a new recruit got a chance to see a station under construction, and observe the piping, pumps, and tanks that are typically hidden by asphalt. With the new training, they got that chance in their first week. As a result, testers received a much clearer picture of how these entire systems work before going out into the field, and this also helped reduce the overall training period before they were ready to move from apprentice to foreman status.

After the initial development period, educational slide shows were added to the gas station, showing real-life pictures of testing equipment, how tests are performed, and safety regulations. These slide shows allow a true multimedia review of the materials being learned. Second Life has been a great platform for their corporate training needs. They considered this project to be a success, and they counted all the media attention they have received as a nice bonus. Additionally, the lessons learned developing and using the gas tank simulation can be applied to many fields: architecture, HVAC, planning of public spaces, and many more.

Fifteen minutes after tweeting, my mobile phone rang. It was Parature [...]]]> I just recently tweeted, “ARGH, Parature!” Parature is a nice customer service package we use for managing trouble tickets in Wharton Computing. It serves us well. When I made the tweet, it was about the sheer volume of tickets we currently have, not the product itself.

Fifteen minutes after tweeting, my mobile phone rang. It was Parature asking if everything was okay. He explained he saw my tweet, and tracked down my mobile number from a resume he found online. He did apologize for the “big brotherish” aspect of the call, and was happy when I explained that I was merely commenting on the sheer volume of tickets.

He asked if there was anything he could help with, and I said that other than applying the hotfix to PC-SAS for all of our customers, not much!

Creepy, or great customer service? I’m leaning towards great customer service. Either way, back to working the ticket queue!

http://www.sqlmag.com/print/sql-server/A-New-Law-that-Will-Change-the-Way-You-Build-Database-Applications.aspx

The author seems like a nice enough guy, but apparently didn’t spend the time doing his homework to find out about what the law really says. By the [...]]]> I was linked an article this morning by a coworker to SQLMag’s article on the new Massachusetts data security law. The link to the article can be found here:

http://www.sqlmag.com/print/sql-server/A-New-Law-that-Will-Change-the-Way-You-Build-Database-Applications.aspx

The author seems like a nice enough guy, but apparently didn’t spend the time doing his homework to find out about what the law really says. By the end of his article, it sounds like he’s a salesman for Microsoft SQL Server 2008. To calm the hysteria, here are a few facts gleaned from the law itself, and a few other sources. The law can be found here:

http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/idtheft/201CMR1700reg.pdf

In the article, the author claims that storing first name and last name in a database unencrypted constitutes Personally Identifiable Information or PII, and goes on to claim, “If you have a database that contains 1,000 names of Massachusetts residents and lose it without the data being encrypted that’s $5,000,000. Yikes.” This is untrue. To quote from the law itself (emphasis mine):

Personal information, a Massachusetts resident’s first name and last name or first initial and last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements that relate to such resident: (a) Social Security number; (b) driver’s license number or state-issued identification card number; or (c) financial account number, or credit or debit card number, with or without any required security code, access code, personal identification number or password, that would permit access to a resident’s financial account; provided, however, that “Personal information” shall not include information that is lawfully obtained from publicly available information, or from federal, state or local government records lawfully made available to the general public.

He also makes the mistake of implying regardless of what you are doing, that the scope of the law is universal. In fact, the scope is fairly narrow:

The regulation applies to those engaged in commerce. More specifically, the regulation applies to those who collect and retain personal information in connection with the provision of goods and services or for the purposes of employment. The regulation does not apply, however, to natural persons who are not in commerce.

Not doing this kind of basic fact checking is irresponsible for a fairly major publication; this is not a personal blog (like mine). I have contacted the author, and I hope he will amend his article, or write a new one in which he corrects these inaccuracies I dug up with ten minutes of Googling.

The biggest upgrade to Second Life since 2003 occurred yesterday… the release of the Viewer 2 beta. I would highly recommend checking it out; it can be installed alongside the main Second Life viewer, v1.23. There hasn’t been a total user interface overhaul since v1.2 (under a separate numbering system) was released in 2003, [...]]]>

Second Life

The biggest upgrade to Second Life since 2003 occurred yesterday… the release of the Viewer 2 beta. I would highly recommend checking it out; it can be installed alongside the main Second Life viewer, v1.23. There hasn’t been a total user interface overhaul since v1.2 (under a separate numbering system) was released in 2003, so this is pretty huge news for virtual world enthusiasts.

Of most interest to educators, I believe, will be the rich media support. You can now run Flash (and many other media formats, not just Quicktime) on any prim surface in Second Life, so slide show services like http://www.scribblar.com/ will run without any cobbling. All Youtube (and Flash) videos are now directly displayable without mucking about with third-party web sites. See the Linden Lab overview of the new interface here.

In my opinion – and in playing around with it after the PANMA event last night – the new interface is much more intuitive for the new user. As a builder / content creator, I’ll hold my opinion until I get to use it, but for the 99% of users out there who aren’t hard-core content creators, this is clearly a pretty major win with a move to a more browser-based style of interface.

To give some perspective, father of famed Peregrine Salon blogger Tim Allen was quoted (from Tunisia) as saying, “Bloody hell! Why am I currently spreading my unique brand of Arabic/English humour in [...]]]> Sorry if I’m off the grid, folks. Penn is closed. I’ll try to be in touch, but apparently, everyone in Philly has lost their mind.

To give some perspective, father of famed Peregrine Salon blogger Tim Allen was quoted (from Tunisia) as saying, “Bloody hell! Why am I currently spreading my unique brand of Arabic/English humour in Tunisia? I’m in the Middle East and missing the third Penn snow day since I started in 1968!” (quote quite likely fabricated, but had he known, he would have said it)

In other news, we’ll all be working from home anyway, cause we’re dedicated like that. But, in case the power goes out, let me say:

1. Recharging phone now, in case of power outage.
2. Making sure all non-essential devices are unplugged from UPS devices, so we can get that extra 13.5 minutes of Internet access (not for World of Warcraft, I swear)
3. Bread? Eggs? Water? Have fun with that, hippies. I grew up, and now work, in West Philly. ALWAYS store Ramen, and the tap water never goes off. Brita is your friend. Eggs? Are you really baking something in THE snowmageddon?!
4. I figure between new phone (Blackberry Curve 8520 – hawt!), Archos, UPS, and cats, and I have a solid 4 hours and 13 minutes of entertainment before they better get the power back on. I can not be held responsible for any actions against PECO if we lose power for more than 4 hours, 14 minutes.
5. Shoveled once already. Three full inches. Not looking forward to tomorrow, but probably twelve instead of fifteen inches to deal with.
6. Call 215-898-MELT tonight. They apparently replaced the 42 year old machine (was ENIAC turned into an answering service?) that said “The University is open and operating on a normal schedule” with a new, improved machine that says 40 inches of snow in four days mean it is time for telecommuting!

</joke>

I feel I should make one salient point in this post. Here it is: I’m curious to see how local ISP data centers deal: 24/7 hot hands access? Triple-Nine up time? Make me proud, local ISPs!

No matter what… be proud of us for pretending we know what we’re doing. I’m calling my friends from Buffalo RIGHT NOW for advice.

My colleague at Penn, John Mulhern, sent out a “just the facts” email concerning the iPad. I feel compelled to share it here, as it is the most hyperbole free description of the device I have seen so far. John’s [...]]]>

The next iPod, or Lisa? CmdrTaco hated the iPod. Waiting for his review of the iPad.

My colleague at Penn, John Mulhern, sent out a “just the facts” email concerning the iPad. I feel compelled to share it here, as it is the most hyperbole free description of the device I have seen so far. John’s great at that, although there is some Penn-specific information included. Without further ado:

Today (January 27) Apple announced the iPad, an iPhone OS-based product in a considerably larger form factor than the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPad will begin shipping in late March, with the 3G/WWAN version shipping in late April.Design

The iPad is almost all screen, though the bezel is fairly wide. That screen is a fully capacitive multitouch 9.7-inch XGA (1024×768) in-plane switching (IPS) LCD. Though the aspect ratio is 4:3, the screen is technically HD since it has more than 720 pixels of vertical resolution.

Navigation and user interface is achieved by multi-touch gesturing (finger swipes, pinch-out zoom, etc.), extensive pop-up/drop-down menu options, and a virtual keyboard which fills the entire length of the lower screen.

The iPad weighs 1.5 pounds without WWAN/3G connectivity and 1.6 pounds with WWAN/3G connectivity included. It is approximately half an inch thick.

iPad input/output resembles a large iPod Touch. As such, it has a dock connector, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speakers, microphone, and a SIM card tray in the WWAN models. The SIM card tray is for 3FF SIMs, which aren’t the traditional size and aren’t backwards-compatible with normal SIMs.

Standard connectivity for the iPad includes 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. The 802.11n standard was finalized in September 2009, so there is a chance that the iPad’s 802.11n connectivity will not work correctly without a firmware update. Information Systems & Computing (ISC) believes that Bluetooth is a relevant protocol for many users.

The iPad will ship with iPhone OS 3.2 and almost all current iPhone applications should be compatible with it. Over the next few months, ISC expects many of these applications to become iPad-savvy, with more effective use of the vastly greater number of pixels (over 5x) in the iPad. ISC expects the iPad to be compatible with University-centric services such as AirPennNet, Exchange and Zimbra, but this functionality will have to be confirmed.

Initial applications designed explicitly for the iPad include versions of Apple’s iWork suite (Pages word processor, Keynote presentation software, and Numbers spreadsheet); each will cost $10. The Mail application also has been significantly updated and now closely resembles the web-based version of Mail available to MobileMe users. The presence of this enhanced software indicates Apple’s intent for the iPad to move more into the content creation space versus the content viewing space occupied by the iPhone and iPod Touch.

A range of Apple-branded hardware accessories are available for the iPad, including a keyboard dock, a normal dock, a case, a camera connection kit which includes a USB connector and a Secure Digital card reader, and a USB power adapter.

Ordering Notes

Several considerations when ordering an iPad:

1) The iPad is available with 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB of memory. Like the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the memory required varies widely depending upon the usage model. Particularly, HD video and other media content are factors that are expected to drive hard drive storage needs. ISC expects that average memory usage will be higher in the iPad than in the iPhone and iPod touch.

2) The iPad has a WWAN/3G connectivity option. In the United States, WWAN/3G equipped iPads can use AT&T’s 3G service on a no contract basis for about $15 for 250 MB a month or $30 for an unlimited monthly data plan. Since the iPad will ship unlocked, plans on other GSM providers are likely to become available.

Analysis

ISC sees the iPad as an extremely interesting device, with potential uses in many areas. Of significant interest to the University is the potential for use as a textbook delivery mechanism through the ePub standard and/or Apple’s forthcoming iBook Store content delivery system. Notably, Apple has been lining up various publishers to make their content available and optimized for iPad.

I recently wrote about switching away from Internet Explorer as a recommendation to users who aren’t technically inclined. As a follow up, here’s an interesting article with some real world examples. The article brings up some good points: not only is it important to keep your browser up to date, but also your [...]]]>

Nom nom nom.

I recently wrote about switching away from Internet Explorer as a recommendation to users who aren’t technically inclined. As a follow up, here’s an interesting article with some real world examples. The article brings up some good points: not only is it important to keep your browser up to date, but also your plugins. More and more, out of date versions of plugins like Sun’s Java, Adobe’s Acrobat Reader and Adobe’s Flash Player are being exploited.

The two highest rated exploits were “pdf_pack”, which was just patched this month by Adobe, so your reader is likely out of date, and “javad0″, which was just recently patched by Sun… so yes, your Java plugin is likely out of date too. Keeping these up to date is absolutely crucial to your security. Want to see how easy it is for the bad guys to get this kind of stuff? Just Google “javad0″ and you’ll find links to sites offering these exploit packs.

The article uses an actual browser exploit kit, Eleonore. This is the same thing a lot of the bad guys use to hack you. Interesting real world stats on Internet Explorer versus Firefox are included below; these charts contain the version of the browser, then the number of times that browser version has accessed, the number the version was found to be vulnerable, and the percentage. Take a look at Firefox versus Internet Explorer, and the numbers speak for themselves, below the fold.

Firefox (almost 0% vulnerable):

Internet Explorer (8 is 11.68% vulnerable, 6 is 29.67% vulnerable!):