Tips on Technology

Welcome back to the technology column that helps keep you informed about the fast moving world of technology.

This week we will discuss what the Army is doing to have a more secure website, and some of the features of the new Mac OS called MacOS 9, coming soon within the next couple of months.

** The United States Army Website dumps Windows NT, now runing on a secure Macintosh!

The Army website has finally got fed up with being hacked into. A group called “Global Hell” takes credit for the most recent hacking of the Army’s website. I guess the Army slogan “Be all you can be” is what they themselves are doing. They are doing this by making their website “the best and most secure it can be”. You can check it out at (http://www.army.mil)

The Army webmaster said “the Army has moved its web sites to a more secure platform”. “The Army had been using Windows NT and is currently using Mac OS servers running WebSTAR web server software for its home page web site”.

He said “the reason for choosing this particular server and software is that according to the World Wide Web Consortium, it is more secure than its counterparts”. “According to the Consortium’s published reports on its findings, Macintosh does not have a command shell, and because it does not allow remote logins, it is more secure than other platforms”. The report also said the Consortium has found no specific security problems in either the software or the server.

So if you are looking to put up your own webserver, maybe it is time to “Think Different” and use a Macintosh to provide a secure and reliable webserver for your needs. By the way, mespn.com is also being served by a Macintosh webserver….

** Mac OS 9 Features (Coming Soon) Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.

+ Multiple User Support – Demo’d at Seybold in conjunctions with the feature below, voiceprint passwords. Essentially, it give your Mac multiple personalities. File access and preference information will be stored for each user. I can see applications for this in a variety of settings, but it will definitely be a boon for the home and education markets. Teacher’s and school administrators can share their computers with students without worrying about students accessing sensitive data (or changing their grades!) At home, parents can set up a simple desktop with easy access to their kids’ favorite educational (or not so educational) titles. Multiple user support should replace, or at least nicely compliment, programs like At Ease and FoolProof.

+ Voiceprint Password Protection – In this demo, Phil Schiller tried to log in to a Power Mac as Steve Jobs. Speaking the words “My voice is my password,” returned an error message, even when spoken in an imitation (albeit a poor one) of Jobs’ voice. Jobs speaking the same words did the trick of course. I’m not sure this is an essential addition to the OS, but it certainly is cool. One has to wonder what happens when you have a cold or sore throat….

+ Sherlock II – This update to Apple’s hard drive and internet search program was primarily in response to numerous complaints about the lack of search sets to manage the hundreds of Sherlock plug-ins that now available. Although alternatives (like Sigerson) exist to add this function, it will be nice to have it built in to Sherlock. In a questionable move, Apple is borrowing from QuickTime 4.0’s interface giving Sherlock the same “brushed aluminum” look and square icons for search sets. Sherlock will come with sets for news, looking up people and comparison shopping. The results window will have contextual columns. News results will have a column with the date, shopping results will have a price column. The shopping set was to include a plug-in for eBay queries but eBay recently made a move to block external searches.

+ Keychain – If you are like me, you have several accounts scattered around the net that require passwords to access. While having the same password for them all would simplify things, it is not the most secure approach. As a result, I have several passwords to remember. With keychain, a spoken “voiceprint” phrase or typed password unlocks all your passwords in one fell swoop.

+ Network Browser – I am a big fan of Apple’s current network browser incarnation. It provides convenient access to resources available on our local area network and saves a trip to the aging chooser. With OS 9, Apple has extended the network browser’s reach to cover resources available on the Internet

+ File Sharing Over the Internet – This feature is currently available via the “Web Sharing” control panel but perhaps Apple has revamped it somehow. Either way, web sharing is a nice feature that can streamline workflow in collaborative environments.

+ Encryption – For privacy freaks and the security conscious, Apple is including the ability to encrypt files. While they are billing their encryption as “industrial strength,” details in this area are still lacking…

+ AppleScript Over TCP/IP – Another Schiller/Jobs demo that went over big with the publishing crowd at Seybold. In this demo, Schiller had two machines connected only via an Internet connection. One machine represented a client in San Francisco and one a service bureau in New York. Using AppleScript, the SF machine assembled a brochure from a database of graphics on the NY machine. Images were manipulated in Photoshop before being sent over a secure connection to the SF machine.

+ Auto Updating – Borrowing yet another feature from QuickTime 4.0, Mac OS 9 will have the ability to periodically check for, download and install updates. Presumably, this will be on a schedule set by the user. This is a nice plus for those who don’t want to sit glued to the news sites looking for major and minor updates to the
Mac OS and its various components.

If you are ready to move up to Mac OS 9, order it now….