How a boat could sink the internet

Posted on February 5, 2008

How a boat could sink the internet
By Scott Shuey, Chief Business Reporter Published: February 02, 2008, 01:39

For those of us who grew up listening to stories about how the internet was invented with the goal of establishing a communications network that would even function in the event of a nuclear war, we have to ask: How did a boat off the coast of Egypt manage to destroy internet access to every continent in the Northern Hemisphere?

The answer to that question is rather disturbing and quite complex. For starters, internet access wasn’t destroyed; it was just that the capacity of the remaining connections was severely strained. While the internet may have been designed to withstand global thermonuclear war, it wasn’t really designed to make sure you could access MySpace on the Day After.

etisalat and du, by all appearance, did a good job of rerouting the internet to where they could. That doesn’t mean that internet access was still available to all, but it did mean that essential communication still happened, just via different routes.

The problem is that the internet has evolved beyond just being a means to communicate. It is now how we do business and share our lives with our friends and family. The original concept behind the internet as envisioned back in the 1960s centred mainly on sending e-mail. We still do that, but we also shop, send pictures, bank, play games and a host of other things that eat up more bandwidth than was even imaginable back in the ’60s.

But despite advancements in software, the physical structure of the internet is still ’60s technology. It’s still an array of servers connected by chords. That’s vastly simplifying things, because these chords are more complex than most things we encounter during the day. According to one Cisco engineer whom I spoke with, these cables break down light and use the individual colour of the spectrum as virtualised cables to carry information. It other words, these cables turn all your data into waves of red (just to pick a colour at random) light and send it on its way. The whole thing is amazing, but still somewhat fragile since it can all be brought down by someone trying to do something as crazy as stopping a boat.

That’s a huge problem. It’s impossible to gauge the amount of money lost since Wednesday, but even some basic guessing shows loss is huge. The internet interruption meant there was no tech support from India, downloads from iTunes were stopped, and business deals didn’t get signed. I listened to one person yesterday having a nervous conversation with a colleague because a contract that had been sent via e-mail was apparently lost. “Why didn’t you send it by fax?” he asked. His colleague apparently gave him an answer along the lines of “because no one does that anymore.”

We’ve become so dependant on the internet that we never consider what could happen if it goes down, and now we’re losing money because of it.

It’s obvious that the internet’s infrastructure needs an upgrade. e-commerce cannot afford to let itself be subject to the whim of the boating industry. Laying new anchor-proof cables will be a multi-billion project for every existing cable, but it may become a necessity if we want to continue to have confidence in the new industry we’ve created.

Computer upgrades that make sense

Posted on January 23, 2008

Computer upgrades that make sense
(DPA)19 January 2008

WASHINGTON – With notebook and desktop computer prices at an all-time low, you have to think carefully about upgrading them.

That’s because the cost of a few upgrades may come close to equalling the price of an entirely new system.

In general, aside from adding memory or a new hard drive to your computer, you’ll probably want to avoid upgrades designed to improve performance.

The fact is, components in a modern computer – whether desktop or notebook – operate more synergistically than they do independently. So if you upgrade a computer’s main processor, for example, your system may still be hampered by memory that is not optimally paired to the processor or a graphics card that cannot fully unburden the processor enough to allow you to see its full potential.

But that doesn’t mean that all upgrades short of buying a new computer are folly. In general, upgrades that add functionality to your computer – and especially those that might be transferred to a new computer, should you buy one later – can be smart investments. Let’s look at a few.

RAM

Both memory (RAM) and hard drive upgrades make good sense if you know that your system is hampered by insufficient RAM or too little hard drive space. Windows systems today need 1 gigabyte (GB) of memory, at least, and most recent computers can accept up to 4 gigabytes. If you do a lot of multitasking, photo or video editing, or advanced CAD work, you’ll probably benefit from more RAM, especially if you’re using Vista. Bear in mind that a memory upgrade is unlikely to be transferable to a new machine, since memory technology changes about as quickly as processor technology.

Media card reader

Computers sold today often have a media card reader as optional equipment. Media card readers allow you to transfer files from your camera or other portable device much more quickly than if you have to search for a cord and plug the device in directly.

A media card reader is a great convenience, too – and something that’s usually transferable to a new machine or even between machines. If you buy an external media card reader that connects by USB, you can plug it in to just about any computer.

The media card reader is typically seen by your computer as just another drive. Plug in a CompactFlash or other removable storage medium into it, and you can read files from it just as you can by copying files from one disk to another. Internal media card readers are also available, but these will require that you pop open your computer and install them yourself – or have a technician do it for a fee.

USB scanner

The purpose of computers is to be able to store information digitally. But if you have a bunch of paper-based material around the office, you’ll need the services of a flatbed scanner to get the data into your computer.

The good news about flatbed scanners is that they’ve become a lot smaller and less expensive than in previous generations. And best of all, there are lots of models on the market today that are powered solely from a USB port, meaning you won’t even need to plug them into the wall.

A scanner is a no-brainer, useful accessory. They’re so small, light, and thin today that you can easily transport them from notebook to desktop, and many models, such as the Canon Lide series, are available for under 100 dollars.

Expand with SATA

External hard drives are essential today, either as a backup device or as an additional storage pool. The trouble is that most external hard drives connect to your computer or notebook via a USB port, which provides data transfer speeds that are too slow.

Enter SATA. Now the industry standard for internally connecting hard drives to motherboards, SATA ports can also be added externally to your PC or notebook. With an external SATA port and an hard drive enclosure that supports SATA, you can transfer files to a backup device as quickly as you can move data from one folder to another on your PC.

For desktop computers, search for a SATA PCI card at retailers such as Newegg.com. These plug directly in to a free PCI slot inside your computer and give you one or more SATA ports on the outside of your case into which you can plug an external SATA hard drive. You shouldn’t have to pay more than 20 dollars for such an upgrade, and you can take it with you if you upgrade your computer later.

Similarly, you can find plenty of SATA PCMCIA cards for notebooks on the market. These typically provide two external SATA ports to a notebook computer, and since they come in a standard PCMCIA card, you can transfer those ports to any notebook with a PCMCIA slot. Expect to find these expansion cards on the market for 25 to 40 dollars.

Duplexing printer

Lots of folks who have migrated to Windows Vista are finding that the manufacturer of their printer has been slow in getting a compatible printer driver out. That might be as good an excuse as any to consider upgrading your general-purpose printer. But there are other reasons, as well.

First among them is cost. Not only have the prices of laser printers come down drastically from just a few years ago – with models on the market at 100 dollars or less – but green features of some of the better ones will save you money over the lifetime of the unit.

For instance, duplexing – the ability to print on both sides of a piece of paper – can save you significant money in paper costs and, of course, reduce the amount of paper you use. If your printer is on its last legs – and giving you fits with Windows Vista – it could be time to move on to something better.

Unique story: Japanese bank running on Indian IT

Posted on December 11, 2007

Unique story: Japanese bank running on Indian IT
Dibeyendu Ganguly, TNN

There was a time when Shinsei Bank had so many Indian software engineers working at its headquarters in Tokyo that the company canteen introduced a range of curries on its menu. The software engineers were from TCS, Wipro, Infosys, iFlex, Polaris, Nucleus and their numbers were in thousands. Led by Jay Dvivedi , Shinsei’s legendary Indian-born CIO, they transformed Shensei from the stodgy old institution it was five years ago to the sleek new retail bank it now is.

The story eventually became a Harvard Business School case study, titled Information Technology and Innovation at Shensei Bank, and CEO Thierry Porté attests to the debt the Japanese bank owes the Indian engineers. “The IT initiative totally changed Shinsei,” he says. “Even today, we are a Japanese bank that runs on Indian IT.”

Formerly the head of Morgan Stanley Japan, Porté joined Shinsei in 2003, two years after its IT rejig began, but as a long time resident of Tokyo, he was well acquainted with the problems of the country’s banking system. When Indian engineers first began their work at Shinsei, Japanese banks charged ATM users a fee for every transaction — and the service was available only during banking hours, till three o’clock in the afternoon. “Japan’s banks started sooner with IT, but they didn’t change as technology developed,” says Porté . “Shinsei was one of the earliest to completely shut down legacy systems and start afresh.”

Shinsei’s IT project was completed in one year rather the three years originally estimated and it cost only $60 million — 10% of what other Japanese banks spent on similar projects. The Harvard case study gives the credit to Dvivedi’s relationship with India’s IT companies: “With each company , Shinsei worked to establish a relationship characterised as a partnership rather than one of a supplier.

The bank worked with its partners without requiring competitive bids, avoiding traditional requirement documents such as Request For Proposal or Request For Information. Dvivedi believed these were superfluous process steps that added unnecessary time and overhead. Further, Shinsei did not enter into fixed-price contracts; on the contrary, engagements were quantified on a time-and-material basis.”

An interesting aspect of Shensei’s new IT system is that it uses no mainframe computers. In fact, Shinsei is Bill Gates’ favourite company — featuring in every other speech he makes — for its systems are based entirely on PCs using the Microsoft Windows platform. Further, it uses the public internet rather than leased lines, which allows it to move work to any location, the most important of which is India. Shinsei still has a close relationship with its Indian IT partners, who are called in whenever its system needs to be expanded and upgraded , such as when it acquired APLUS, a consumer finance company , whose systems needed to be integrated with the bank. “We have virtual work rooms in India,” says Porté . “We video-conference with our IT partners for new projects all the time.”
The thousands of Indian software engineers who created the bank’s IT system, and continue to work with it, have never needed to learn Japanese — Shinsei has provided them with translators all through. As an American private-equity owned Japanese bank, Shinsei is exceptionally global in its outlook. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Porté is American (his parents immigrated to New York from France after World War II), while his wife is Japanese. And there are several other Indians at the top in Shinsei besides Dvivedi, such as its CFO and head of retail banking.

Last year, Shinsei expanded its India connection with a small office in Mumbai, offering corporate advisory services. This was followed by a deal with UTI Mutual Fund, through which Shinsei distributed UTI’s products to investors in Japan (the asset management venture manages $500 million). The tie-up is now being expanded to other South East Asian countries, starting with Singapore.