The Global Gen World

The ability to access files and information over the Internet has been proven to be beneficial whether at work or play. The technologies that enable this kind of access fall into two general categories: those that access files remotely and those that access and control desktops remotely. While file access essentially allows the user to access files from a remote location using the Internet, desktop access and control brings the entire desktop of a person’s home computer to the computer that is being used elsewhere.

The idea is to bring the entire working environment of a computer to another which is being used from another geographical location. This eliminates the need to synchronize files between laptops and desktops and allows the user to really work away from the home or office. However, computing experience tend to be slower since current technology still does not allow lag-free control over a remote connection.

Conferencing is said to be the joining together of more than two telephone users in a single call. Once a call is established between two persons, one holds the conversation to call a third party and joins the three parties in one call at a press of a button. Its most prevalent application is in the business forum. The ability to have multiple parties meet while located in different parts of the world is highly desired due to the demands of the times.

Conferencing has evolved from simple teleconferencing to the more popular video conferencing where parties are able to engage in face-to-face conversations while talking with multiple parties. Video conferencing technology has capitalized largely on the powerful capabilities of computers and telecommunications networks.

The facilitation of the spread of malware is made more possible when a software is widely used thus maximizing the number of those that can be infected. Slowly patched software also maximizes the time the malware remains effective while maximizing development effort for new ones. Monolithic software or that which has no compartmentalization of components likewise maximizes the damage a malware can do.

Linux has a small user base that discourages malware development, rapid updates that neutralize new threats and a compartmentalized structure that isolates damaged sections. There have been file viruses that were written specifically for Linux but none have yet been propagated successfully. Proponents of Linux believe that they have a more secure platform because all the codes are reviewed by so many people that a bug easily becomes visible. Such is the principle behind the so-called Linus’ Law.

Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) was created in response to the demand for business-grade Instant Messaging (IM). There was also the need to ensure security and legal compliance as millions of consumer IM accounts are being used by employees of companies and organizations for business purposes. Lotus software initially launched the IBM Lotus some time in 1998 with Microsoft following suit with its Microsoft Exchange. Succeeding developments consisted of the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and the Office Communications Server 2007.

IBM Lotus and Microsoft have both introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that a single interface may be used by employees to their internal EIM system and their AOL, MSN and Yahoo! Contacts. There are bound to be risks and liabilities for companies without effective management and support for IM use, thus the need to consider the aspect of security.

Standard video conferencing is associated with prohibitive costs. The introduction of web conferencing is an important development in business communication as it has enabled cost to decrease while application increases. More than ever, business can be done in the comfort of people’s homes courtesy of their desktop computer. Web conferencing has allowed users to do many things at a click of a button, doing away with the substantial cost entailed in traveling to do business. It has provided a suitable substitute to face-to-face meetings as users see, hear, text, chat, present and share information.

For all intents and purposes, people can meet through web conferencing whenever and wherever needed as long as the participants have access to an online PC or laptop. High costs associated with bandwidth are no longer a deterrent to communication due to the tremendous savings afforded by web conferencing.

The SSH-2 or the revised Secure Shell protocol has a clean internal architecture made up of well-separated layers. The transport layer handles initial key exchange and server authentication and thereby sets up encryption, compression and integrity verification. The user authentication layer handles client authentication and provides various authentication methods. However, it should be noted that authentication is client-driven thus a password prompt may be initiated by an SSH client rather than the server.

The connection layer defines the concept of channels, channel requests and global requests using SSH services that are provided. SSH-2’s open architecture allows for substantial flexibility so that SSH can be used for a variety of purposes beyond the Secure Shell.

Instant messaging or IM is considered by many as a better form of communication compared to email. This is due to the ability of IM to offer real-time communication while allowing for easy collaboration. IM is more similar to a genuine conversation as against the letter format of email. Peers are able to know when a user is busy, available or away from the computer. The difference however is negligible once a system allows offline messages or the sending of messages to people who are not logged on.

Additional features such as seeing the other party, using web-cams or direct conversation over the Internet for free helped in propagating IM’s popularity. Instantaneous and simultaneous communication is possible between several parties. Information is transmitted swiftly and efficiently and conversations can be saved for future reference.

I began my internet marketing career at a company that sold diamonds over the internet (yes, people do buy diamonds online…). As part of my position I was in charge of marketing for the site as well as foreseeing the development of our admin program and shopping cart software. As pioneers in our field, we spent a fortune on development of various in-house tools and made many modifications along the way as we gained experience. It is difficult to calculate what we spend on our programs but a rough estimate would put our investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on in-house software solutions alone.

While this investment was more than justifiable according to our business model, it’s hard not to laugh at what we spent on development compared to the cost of comparable programs readily available by third party vendors today. Take the shopping cart software solution provided by ashopcommerce.com for example. Out of curiosity I tried out their demo version which is available online (you don’t have to download or install anything – they simply give you access to a demo account so you can see how it works). I must say I was more than impressed. They offer one of the most complete ecommerce software solutions I have ever seen for a mere fraction of the price of what we paid in developing our own system. Ashop Commerce goes way beyond a typical shopping cart program and provides full CRM capabilities, website statistics and analysis features and complete inventory control and management. I guess when you’re dealing with the online economy you shouldn’t be surprised when things evolve at lightning speed…