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Greater Lafayette Information Technology SocietyJoin the emailing list! | | Join our group on Linked-In | Keep up with GLITS on Twitter |
Monthly Meeting Schedule3rd Tuesday each month at Puccini's (map), on the levee at Wabash Landing, West Lafayette.
Meals and drinks will be "pay as you go" unless we have an event sponsor, and then the food and non-alcoholic drinks will be included with the meeting. We invite our current membership to help grow our future membership. If you're a GLITS member, be a friend and ask a friend or colleague to join us. Tech HeadlinesSponsorshipMake the right choice for yourself and your business, and join an active, growing and diversified technology user group. With nearly 200 members strong and growing, the Great Lafayette Information Technology Society is an excellent source for accessing colleagues and industry experts in technology. As a member, you have access to monthly meetings that feature relevant topics and guest speakers, and quarterly business mixers keep our group membership informed, networked and well fed! As a sponsor, you get a free listing on our Web site. Become a Premier Sponsor, and this will enable you to submit your logo, pictures, upcoming events, business description-most anything & everything you would like to have featured on your dedicated sponsor page. Sponsorships start at $50.00 to be a GLITS Friend for a year, and meeting sponsorships starting at $150.00. Each sponsorship level has its own features, but all have the benefit of being part of a growing society, that is united in a mission to achieve and maintain a standard and progressive view of technology for the Great Lafayette area and thus building a stronger and inventive community. Join us at our next meeting, and join the emailing list. Interested in being a sponsor? Please contact Scott Charles or Bill Ooms. Articles
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Coming Tuesday, May 15
Managed Print ServicesThe subject for the Greater Lafayette Information and Technology Society will be "Managed Print Services". Kraig McConihay from Copiers Plus will be presenting on the changes in the copier and document industry. These changes include managed print services and how imaging vendors are positioning products and services for business process optimization. The starting time for the meeting will be at 5:30 pm for the hospitality session, and 6:00 for the 'Managed Print Services" at Puccini's in the back room. Get out time will be approximately 7:00 pm with food and beverage available. Tweeting is allowed and even encouraged. April 17Bob Verplank, Computer Visions PadsThe program was opened by our president, Bill Ooms, at about 6 PM at Puccini's. The subject was pads (iPads and other tablets). Our opening speaker was Shane Rogers of Harrison Steel Castings Company in Attica. Shane has more pads in his possession than any other one person on the planet. His company asked him to do a study on which one was best. So he went out and bought just about one of each. He started with a Blackberry pad partially because his company uses Blackberry in much of their communications. He found that the browser did not work very well until he added the Android operating system. He found that to be better, but the system was rather complicated to operate. He then tried a Motorola Xoom tablet. He still felt that the browser was extremely slow. He then obtained a Hewlett Packard webOS pad when it was being sold at a distressed price. He thought that perhaps the HP had the fastest operating system of all. But, you can no longer purchase the unit. He then tried out an Acer Iconia tablet running Windows 7. It has good security and a good connection to their internal network, but as delivered only produced a four hour battery life. He tried that system with Windows 8 and thought that produced a better battery life. He tried a Kindle Fire and thought that it was extremely slow. He tried and iPad 2 and found this had a battery life of six days which was the best battery life of all products tried. They now have 12 of these in use. The new iPad (3) has lower battery life and for their purposes it offers few additional features. They use them to repair equipment, show diagrams, packing, and lists of instructions for equipment maintenance. They have not been used very much for management but that may change with the availability of a new operating system. In terms of security, they would like to have a unit that, if it "walks off", could be wiped clean from afar. He notes that cell-tower triangulation could give an indication of where a unit is located, but in a city with one cell tower, he just knows whether it's in the city or not. Not all iPads have GPS and so location is an inexact science. He notes that sometimes they use a case which has metal dust on it and in his factory setting may find it easy to scratch the face of the Pad. This is made worse by the fact that many of the motions on the surface of the pad are repetitive for both location and direction. New cases are coming out which may affect both the durability of the case and the glass. He would like to see the durability of the unit exceed two years. Right now, that may not occur. Cor comparison, he believes that the durability of a PC would be three years. Earle Naye asked whether a unit like this could control proprietary hardware for an audio system. (Is there an app for that?) He then told us that he was writing C+ code or symbolic code to control audio systems. He observed that hardwiring for such units was very expensive and that a remote control would be a great addition. It would be a great system if you could control audio, video, lighting, HVAC, garage doors,and security in homes, houses, and hotels. Shane noted that he was considering controlling his home with four devices similar to a pad. That project was a plan and so far not completed. Steve Belter told us that he had a Slingbox for an older father to control his TV program in Maryland. He also had similar boxes he could control in Chicago and in Lafayette. The subject for the May 15th , 2012 meeting is "Managed Print Services". Kraig McConihay from Copiers Plus will be presenting on the changes in the copier and document industry. These changes include managed print services and how Imaging Vendors are positioning products and services for business process optimization. March 20Bob Verplank, Computer Visions Data CentersThe first speaker was Eric George with the Purdue data center. He graduated from Ball State University in 2000, was with Butler University, and Appnuity, an Indianapolis tech company, before he came to the Purdue Research Foundation. McClure Services is a for profit entity that manages the data center in the Purdue Research Park. Essential infrastructure for a datacenter include:
PowerPower is provided by Duke energy with a backup generator which can be producing full power within 30 seconds of start up. They use UPS by APC to provide power for the 30 seconds before the generator reaches its peak. They have adequate controls on the power to assure that the power is clean. Network connectivityNetwork connectivity is assured with multiple feeds, multiple carriers, redundant routes for both the carrier and the customer, with ethernet circuits and fiber circuits to the customers with backups which can be assured by Wintek. CoolingCooling is provided with a Liebert unit that provides cooling and humidity control. This unit is under a planned maintenance contract for proactive maintenance needs. The humidity is set for 45% and the temperature is set for 72° to 86°. SecuritySecurity is provided by keycard, security cameras, biometrics, a block wall, security keys, and escorted access of the customer to his server if necessary after hours. Access to the cabinet may be granted. Fire protectionThe servers are protected by an inert gas which is FM 200. Support structureThey have a help desk, a phone with automated attendant, to pass on a message to someone on call during off-hours. The generator is tested weekly. Currently they have four empty cabinets, and 20 in current use. Future expansion is possible. A starting number for cabinet rental would be $750 per month. Data storage off-site is possible and on-site through the use of NAS and may also be stored off-site at an alternate location such as Wintek.
Our second speaker was Travis Bailey, of Wintek Corporation. He talked about why a data center was a good idea. The need exists for backup, clean power, cooling, physical space, network connectivity, access controls, and expansion. Different companies will have different requirements which may be arranged in tiers dependent upon how much system redundancy and uptime are required. Power and UPSThey have a backup generator for backup power which has two fuel systems, one of natural gas and the other of LP gas to provide a redundant and long-lasting fuel source. They have a UPS system that includes hot-swappable batteries and hot-swappable power inverters. The UPS uses power from Duke Energy (or the backup generator) to charge the batteries and the redundant inverter modules use power from the batteries to create clean power for equipment. Their power is cleaned up by different circuits, is metered, and they attempt to balance all three phases of their electrical load in order that the generator runs smoothly, efficiently, and with the best performance. CoolingTheir heating, ventilation, and cooling comes from split units with outdoor compressors and either wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted indoor air-handling units. They use multiple units for redundancy, so that in the event one system fails the other can take over. NetworkThey too have multiple Internet upstream connections from different vendors over different circuits and they may be used separately or jointly. BackupThey can back up the customer data on-site, at the PRF facility, the downtown Indianapolis site (Lifeline), and Carmel (NFrame) and Ft. WaNFrame) and Ft. Wayne (Indiana Data Center). Physical layoutBecause of their basement location, their wiring must run overhead instead of in a computer floor. They pay attention to having separate overhead racks for network wiring and for power wiring. Their power is three-phase 208 Volts. They have a water sensor and a temperature sensor. AccessAccess is by key card for building access and also for the rack if required by customer.
There were 24 people in attendance at Puccini's. February 21Bob Verplank MalwareThe last Meeting of the greater Lafayette information technology society was on 21 February 2012. We had 24 of our members in attendance to hear a panel speak on the subject of Malware. The panelists included Scott Brunton, Joe Poremski, Jason Rubsam, and Steve Jones moderated by Bill Ooms. Scott led off the discussion by saying that it was his feeling that there had been a substantial drop in malware with the advent of Windows 7. He said that when he set out to clean up the computer he typically started with Rkill, then used malware bites and then installed an antivirus called AV eset. Joe Poremski relayed the story of how one customer had purchased from the Internet an antivirus, cleaned off 32 viruses, and then paid for the antivirus 69.95. He had advised them to get a LifeLock on their credit card and prepare to do battle to keep away from identity theft. He suggested that if one had not made serious headway in cleaning the computer in about 20 minutes, then perhaps it was best to wipe the computer hard drive clean and start over. The total time would be less. Steve Jones reiterated the fact that he seems to have less malware with the advent of Windows 7. This was particularly true after January 2012. He passed out some sheets that indicated that the use of a barracuda spam filter was particularly effective in the prevention of malware. His statistics were impressive. Jason Rubsam stated that he had an increase of malware in mid December and a drop since then. He stated several instances where computers that were completely wiped and had a reoccurrence of malware due to the fact that the malware was on the boot sector of the computer and therefore not completely wiped out. He too, used a combination of tools including Rkill and malware bites. He also stated that he had found some evidence that the infections of malware could sometimes be traced to the Java cache. The questions and answers flowed freely as to both cause, prevention, and cure. Some infections had taken place while reading ads on the local newspaper, the Journal and Courier. The question was did the malware come from the ad or just use the opening of the ad as a time to climb in. It was suggested that users avoid cashing in on free airline passes, lost FedEx tracking numbers, and things they came free on the Internet. Jason indicated that many times you could hover over a site and determine whether the site was going to take you to the correct location or a fictitious one. He also indicated that if you had a problem you can always call the sender of the e-mail and ask if it was real. Several parties indicated that they got what was an apparent good e-mail from a financial institution with some fake boxes added to it that requested your Social Security number. The question was asked, which was the safest web browser? Jason thought the answer seemed to be Firefox particularly with an add-in of an add blocker. Scott Brunton thought that Google Chrome was safer than Internet Explorer. Others thought that the newer forms of Internet Explorer were safer than before. A question was asked had anyone seen malware spread over a network. The answer was very infrequently. Steve Jones talked about a department of the FBI who prosecuted a man who had taken over more than 4.2 million computers and was eventually brought to justice. Users were cautioned to use good work habits and avoid e-mails from long-lost or deceased parties. Another subject that one should avoid on the Internet is discussions about 401K's. One large computer company really discouraged its employees from surfing the Internet on company time and company computers. They even had an extra computer that employees could use during breaks or offtimes to surf the Internet, buy items of interest, and other personal computer activities that seemed to be the focus of many malware intrusions. It was thought that there could be problems from malware infections even on the cloud. Another topic of interest was the saving of files from a computer about to be wiped and the reinstallation of those files after Windows had been rewritten and whether those files could introduce a version of malware of their own volition. The consensus was yes, it could and has occurred Due to a scheduling glitch, the meeting was held in the bar, with the smiling teeth, and short of the fact that no one could inflict a PowerPoint on the group, all went well. We look forward to the executive committee’s next program selection on March 20th, 2012 January 17Wally Hubbard Content Management SystemsMany web sites are built with content management systems, which allow the web site owner to focus on content and skip a lot of the work that goes under the hood. The slides from the January 16 meeting are available in PowerPoint PPT and PDF formats. Modern web sites require HTML, Graphics, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript, a database (e.g. MySQL) and a programming language (e.g. PHP). JavaScript is used in the browser to support the user interface, but another programming language such as PHP is needed on the server to connect the database and build dynamic pages. Content management systems provide all of these, and organize them into a base to start from. There are many CMS systems available. The web site CMSmatrix.org lists 1,212. We'll focus on five of the most widely used. There are also many ways to run a CMS. You can do it directly on your own machine, or in a virtual machine that runs on your computer. You can use VMWare Player to run a virtual machine and build your own site, or download a prebuilt site (http://bitnami/org/stacks) to run in it. You can also rent a bare server from an ISP and install it, or rent a server with a pre-built installation. Linux is commonly used, and the most common setup is called a LAMP stack. The letters stand for Linux, Apache (web server), MySQL (database) and PHP (or Perl or Python, programming langages for the server). The top LAMP CMS systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. All are versatile. WordPress is great for a blog, Joomla is great for a brochure site, and Drupal is great at handling multiple users. An example of a WordPress site is LafayetteTech.org. At Purdue, Joomla is behind the nanotechnology site nanoHUB.org. And probably the most famous Drupal site is whitehouse.gov. A CMS can do the basic tasks needed for a web site, and many add-ons are available for the major CMSs. WordPress has 17,841 Plug-ins and 1,465 Themes, Drupal offers 14,180 Modules and 1,385 Themes and Joomla has 8,873 Extensions. These are all open source systems and the software can been freely used. The add-ons support such functions as advertising, blogs, message boards, e-commerce, event management, signups, games and project management. Popular Windows CMS systems are DotNetNuke and SharePoint. DotNetNuke comes in both free and paid versions, and you'll pay for SharePoint. An example of a DotNetNuke site can be seen at kiwanis.org. An example of a SharePoint site is evonik.com. SharePoint was aimed at internal corporate web sites, where each employee can control their own pages, but is also expanding to use in public-facing sites. Tips for running a CMS: Update your content (there's little reason to visit sites that never change) and update your software (security holes are always being discovered and patched). Follow the links above to download and play with the various CMSs. For Windows, Microsoft provides a free tool, WebMatrix, that sets up sites for you. November 15FTTx
Thomas Davis of Oscar Winski Corporation explained Winski's computer recycling. Drop off old computers for free, pay if you want hard drives degaussed, drilled or smashed. He passed out a brochure (.pdf) with prices on the last page. Here is the report by Bob Verplank: The GLITS program of November 16th, 2011 at Puccini’s started with a presentation by Thomas Davis of the Oscar Winski corp telling us about Winski’s recycling program. They will take virtually any electronic waste and dispose of it for free. You must take it there. There is a fee for pickup and a variety of fees concerning data destruction or removal from hard drives. If you want details you may contact them at oscarwinski.com/erecycling Fiber to the homePresented by Steve Belter of Indiana Dataline. The following is a summary of his slides.
A map of fiber locations may be found here. Fiber to the PremisePresented by Oliver Beers of Wintek Corp. Here is a summary of his slides. Why Fiber??
Note the extremely increased capacity of fiber over other methods. “The Network”
FTTH (Fiber to the Home)
Picture of business data flow on fiber optic
FTTB-What We Learned
In response to some other questions Oliver gave the following answers: It is very hard to set static prices for fiber to home (FFTH) or fiber to the building/business (FFTB). There are a lot of variables that play into these costs; distance from nearest cable, level of service that the end customer wants, etc. If you wanted to put a number on cost of the FFTH I would use a ballpark range of $1,000 to $6,000 per home, depending on how far the nearest cable is. Obviously as the number of subscribers at once in a specific area increases (before we actually build), the cost per home will likely go down. Our charge is anywhere from $50-$1540/month on the residential side dependent on data flow. For FFTB, the cost range is much larger; we have had projects in the $1000 range and there are those that have been $80,000 and higher. It all depends on the proximity of the nearest cable and whether or not we are building underground or aerial. On the business side, costs are very fluid as there are a lot of factors that would play into this. Cinergy MetronetGPON is a service provided by a cooperative originally started by Cinergy now known as Metronet and was presented by Steve Biggerstaff. About Cinergy MetroNet
 Picture of Evansville Head End. Noted by speaker as being very expensive and could be shared with others.  CMN crew installing fiber underground 
Area of coverageNow covers 11 communities built under the USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) loan and loan guarantee program, with more being built outside that program. RUS COMMUNITIES
Pictures are in the PowerPoints of stores and storefronts and contents as well as their community involvement. They are still working on enlarging their presence in the Lafayette Community. All of the talks were excellent and the presentations were very detailed. One thing that stood out was the fiber is certainly faster and once connected there is very little to go wrong. Repairs were nil, and problems were few. |
Meeting Write-Ups + Files
Contact InformationGreater Lafayette Information Technology Society (GLITS) VOIP Phone: (765) 560-3135
Snail Mail: c/o Greater Lafayette Commerce Provenance
GLITS is organized under GLITS is pronounced like "glitz", a word the American Heritage Dictionary says is probably derived from the German word glitzen meaning "to glitter," hence our logo sometimes glitters. |
Steve Belter from Indiana Dataline, Oliver Beers
from Wintek and Steve Biggerstaff from Cinergy MetroNet (pictured left to right) told GLITS members about fiber to the home
(FTTH), fiber to the premises (FTTP) and
fiber to the whatever (FTTx) at the November meeting at Puccini's. You can download their PowerPoint presentations: Belter 
