Lockdown
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB, Laptop, Security, Mobile on
If you work for a security company you wouldn’t normally leave your laptop and your BlackBerry with a journalist you’ve only just met when you go to fetch coffee. Feeling comfortable doing that says you’re confident in your security. Susan Callahan of Safend isn’t worried about leaving her laptop on a table, in a security tray, or anywhere. If she loses it, it’s just an inconvenience - not a security breach.
You probably know of Safend as a tool for protecting USB ports. That’s a big part of the security story today. Flash memory sticks are everywhere - they’re the new floppy disk that can carry all your information. Walking around the various memory companies at CES we found all shapes and sizes of memory stick, all united by being something that easily fits in a pocket. 1GB devices cost almost nothing, and the latest generation give you up to 64GB of storage. You’ll even find them built into Swiss Army knives.
64GB? That’s more than many laptop hard disks. It’s also more than 13 DVDs-worth of data.
With that amount of low cost storage available to all and sundry, it’s not surprising that businesses are seeing flash drives as a security risk. Two CD-ROMs worth of tax data caused one of the biggest data losses in the UK, so it’s easy to imagine just how much damage a tiny memory stick can do.
So how do you protect your data, when it can easily move onto a keyring?
We spent some time on a hot January afternoon at a Silicon Valley Starbucks with Susan, talking about how businesses can use endpoint security tools to protect their data. Securing USB sticks is just part of their story, as the Safend software lets you control exactly how you can use USB ports. You can set up policies for approved devices, and provide different levels of access for different classes of users. There are also rules for controlling just how DVD and CD writers can work, as well as tools for handling hard disk encryption.
That means that the CEO may get full access, while sales teams will only be able to read data sent to them by clients. Other teams might only be able to share data using encrypted memory sticks that are automatically encrypted as soon as they’re connected to a PC. Managing the rules is easy enough, with a central console and a single policy server that can handle up to 10,000 client devices. You can even set up geographic rules, to handle the differences between EU and US privacy requirements, or provide rules that work on specific file content or sizes. There’s even the option to set up rules based on content – so you could have rules that would allow staff to copy any document that doesn’t contain credit card numbers or any other identity information.
Data loss isn’t just about the network, and the Safend tools also help handle disk encryption (which is why the ThinkPad was safe on the cafe table). Lose a protected laptop and anyone who “acquires” it won’t be able to read the files – let alone copy them onto a CD or a flash disk.
There’s enough regulation out there to make device protection as important as your firewalls – so have you locked down your laptops yet?
–Simon (in Silicon Valley)
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Clean desks with USB video
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Hardware, USB, Laptop on
More and more of your users are chosing to work with laptops, notebooks and netbooks. That’s great - it gets them mobile and makes them productive in and out of the office. Even so, there’s a downside: there’s never enough screen real estate.
That might not be a problem for everyone, but if your users are developing code, producing publishing layouts or working with big Excel spreadsheets, the standard 12 inch widescreen displays just don’t cut it in the pixel department. The answer is obvious, use an external monitor, but you’re then stuck with cabling the monitors in, and providing enough hot desking space for everyone who wants to connect to a screen. Then comes the biggest problem - what do you use to connect the laptops to the screens? Some will have VGA, some DVI, some HDMI, and some DisplayPort.
Supporting all those standards isn’t easy. You’ll need to keep records of the ports on each machine you’re supporting, and have a sufficient stock of cables for all your possible combinations of users. There is an alternative - in the shape of a port that all your laptops will have, even the port-deprived Macintosh Air.
So what is it?
You might be surprised, as it’s the humble USB connector.
DisplayLink are one of those UK companies you’ll have never heard of, as they license their USB display technology to all and sundry. All you need to do is buy the appropriate adapter for the monitor (and increasingly it’s being built in to the hardware). Install the drivers on a laptop, plug in a USB cable and you’re able to drive up to six additional monitors with very little memory overhead. It’s an impressive technical feat that simplifies the IT pro’s life considerably. It’s not just monitors that use the DisplayLink hardware - InFocus has added it to a pair of projectors (so you don’t need to carry loads of cables to a meeting).
In some cases you don’t need to buy separate hardware - Toshiba and HP (among others) have built the hardware into their latest desktop docking stations, which only need a USB connection to give a laptop a range of ports it never had to start with. You don’t need to buy specific matching hardware, as these are USB-connected docks which work with all types of laptop (and with more than one OS).
We met up with the DisplayLink folk at CES, where they were demonstrating the latest version of their hardware - taking it up to an impressive 1920 x 1280 resolution (enough for the latest 24″ and 27″ displays). It was impossible to tell the difference between a USB connected display and one with a DVI connection all the way to the machine. DisplayLink wasn’t only using wired USB - wireless USB connections were used to drive a set of displays from a netbook, connecting a pocket-sized machine to a wall-filling LCD TV.
Big displays weren’t the only thing on show. One option was a USB connected (and powered) 7″ display. Perhaps best used as an auxiliary display for a desktop or a portable screen for a mobile user, the tiny display could be used to show email or IM windows, or to hold Photoshop pallettes. There was even a touch screen version with a built-in webcam - ideal for VOIP software like Skype. Sadly you can’t use them as a screen for a server (at least not until it’s booted). UEFI appears a promising solution, as it will allow DisplayLink to load drivers as a part of the boot process, but it’s going to be some time before USB screens become the primary screen…
With monitor manufacturers building in DisplayLink chips, along with the hardware in laptop docking stations, it appears that DisplayLink has finally reached the mainstream. It’s been a long haul for the Cambridge company, but it looks like the work has finally paid off.
Now we can start to get rid of all those bulky video cables…
Rated: 60% (4 votes)
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Playing (IT Pro) Games
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Toys & gadgets, Hardware, USB on
Gamers seem to get it all.
Everywhere you went at CES this year, there were tools and toys for gamers.
They have the fastest, most powerful, best looking machines. Dell’s latest XPS Studio monster has all the looks of a classic US muscle car, while HP’s Firebird takes the F1R3FLY concept laptop and turns it into a sleek and powerful desktop PC. Then there are Logitech’s latest gaming keyboards, with a mass of programmable keys and tunable colours - as well as colour mini-displays.
It’s those programmable keys that make the G19 an ideal keyboard for an IT pro. There’s no reason why a gaming macro can’t actually be a stored snippet of PowerShell, or a set of keystrokes to quickly open up and log in to a remote desktop. There are twelve of what Logitech calls G-keys, and these can have three seperate macros attached to each key - so you can use them to store up to 36 different single keypresses or complex macros. There’s also a key to record new macros on-the-fly. Even the keyboard colour coding can be used to tell you if you’re writing code or managing systems.
If you’re happy with your existing keyboard (and I wouldn’t drop my ergonomic Wave for anything) you can still take advantage of macro keys using a gamer’s gameboard like the G13.
Gameboards are today’s take on the old plug-in numeric keypads. Like the G19 there are plenty of programmable keys, and a simple LCD display - as well as a thumb joystick. What might have been the key to a World of Warcraft session is also an ideal tool for someone working with Photoshop or a video editing application. You can take a tool like this and map in the key strokes and manipulations needed to quickly edit a podcast, or debug some code - or just scroll through and search your log files.
It’s easy to see just how gamer tools can be used by the IT pro. They can speed up tedious tasks, and can store commands you use often. The tricky bit is getting your boss to approve the purchase (and making sure you don’t use yours to thrash him in the office Unreal Tournament on a Friday night…).
–Simon
From CES 09 in Las Vegas
Rated: 20% (1 votes)
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Add a dongle, get a free notebook
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB, Networking, Wireless, Mobile on
The usual round of email press releases dropped into the SandM mailbox this morning. One caught our attention, from the folk at PC World, which signals something we’re pretty sure is going to be one of the big IT trends for 2008.
In a tie up with 3, they’re going to be offering a free cheap laptop (or
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Mobile with your mobile
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB, Windows Mobile, Networking, Wireless, Mobile, Internet, Microsoft on
My shiny laptop is so shiny and new it doesn’t have a PC Card slot. That’s a bit of a problem, when the only 3G mobile data cards we have in the office are PC Cards. It’s even more of a problem when you’re in the car park at Costco and need to get a file from your home PC…
Express Card slots are great - if you’ve got an express card.
Built in antennae for WAN modules are even better - if you’ve got a module fittted.
It took me a while to get around the problem, but the solution turned out to be easier than I expected. All I needed was a Windows Mobile 6 device and its built in Internet connection sharing tool (the same feature is in Windows Mobile 5, but it’s hidden away in the file system).
I installed the Windows Mobile Device Center on my laptop so I’d have all the drivers I needed, and then plugged the phone in for an initial synchronisation.
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Mini USB - it’s not just a good idea, now it’s the law!
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
A while back we remarked on our preference for power supplies that had mini-USB connectors. There are plenty of reasons for looking for a standard wall wart connector. For one thing there’s no crawling under a desk looking for just the right cable, and for another, well, it’s just less to pack and carry in these days of decreasing luggage allowances.
As Sun’s Simon Phipps says, “I now have a growing collection of useful things that work with this USB power standard, all from different places and all interchangeable. So I have a car-socket-to-USB plug, wall-warts for US & UK that deliver USB, and each new gadget that comes with a USB/mini-USB lead makes it easier to leave a cable ready everywhere. And since most power comes through my computer, there are fewer wall-warts left plugged into power sockets acting as electricity vampires.”
Reducing complexity makes peoples lives easier, and standards help control complexity. In these green days it’s sensible to standardise on one power supply so engineers can design the most efficient PSUs possible, rather than having to come up with something new every time a new gadget is released on an ever gadget hungry world. Not only that, but in an emergency we can charge devices from laptop or desktop PCs. And of course if everyone had the same power supply connectors it would make it a lot easier to borrow a charger in the office…
Some gadget companies are worse than others. Apple’s initial iPods sensibly used FireWire for power and data, while the first shuffles plugged straight into a USB port. Now the Shuffle uses a modified headphone socket for power, and the iPod connector gets more complicated with each generation. It’s USB at one end, so why not USB at both?
Nokia is another company that makes things hard for end users. Its power supplies are getting smaller - but so are the plugs that feed power into the devices. And what’s that right next to the power socket on the latest N95? Yup, you’ve guessed - a USB port used for nothing but data. I won’t go into the awful power supply connectors from Motorola and Palm, as I fear for my sanity if I think about them too much.
Well, it looks like the tide may be turning in the favour of mini-USB chargers. China’s Ministry of Information has just made it illegal to use anything else with new devices. The law is initially targeted at mobile phones (upsetting both Motorola and Nokia). However, there are apparently already 15 approved PSUs from 12 different companies, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for phone manufacturers to source power supplies.Switching to one standard PSU format should also save money, and reduce the number of chargers just thrown away after a device upgrade.
There’s really no reason now to stick with proprietary connectors. The largest emerging market has made the decision for anyone designing hardware - so now we just have to wait for the hardware to ship.
– Simon
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USB power now
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
There aren
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Make mine mini-USB!
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
We travel a fair bit. It’s something you can’t escape in this business, where companies are scattered around the country and the world. And when you travel you’re going to need to take stuff with you, especially your technology. GPS, MP3 players, PDAs, phones, cameras, they’re all in your bags and pockets.
And too often they all have different power connectors. So you need to carry different power supplies for each one (or at the very least one of those little multi-voltage suppies with the changeable tips that you always lose, and even if you didn’t you’d never remember which way round they plug into the cable anyway…). As airline baggage weight limits carry on getting stricter and stricter, I’m finding myself looking at power connectors in a very different way.
It started with mobile phones. More and more them have switched to using the same connector for syncronisation and power. The same with MP3 players. Suddenly the number of power supplies I had to carry was dropping. I actually found myself looking for kit that used USB for charging and power - I even bought a USB power adapter for the car. You can even get rechargable batteries with built in USB chargers…
So I think it’s time to put a line in the sand, and to tell proprietary power connectors that their days are numbered. There is a better way, and it’s USB. If manufacturers want to be proprietary, provide a USB cable adapter (preferably for a mini-USB plug so we don’t have to load up with USB cables!). We’re a mobile society, and digital nomads don’t want to invest in an extra camel for their power adaptor collection. Just one will do, thank you very much.
HP, Nokia, Palm and Apple - you’re all on notice. Make things easier for your users - and airline baggage handlers and bell hops around the world will thank you for!
I’ve even got a slogan: “Make mine mini-USB!”
What do you think?
–S.
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