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Seagate Technology will start shipping a new range of 2.5-inch hard drives for the notebook PC market this June. The range contains a number of industry firsts that promise consumers a combination of better performance and storage capacity compared to the company’s existing models, it said at a news conference on Tuesday. The Momentus-brand hard drive series includes a 120GB drive that spins at 5400 rpm and a 100GB drive that spins at 7200 rpm. This is the first time notebook drives with these combinations of rotational speeds and capacities have been announced by Seagate, according to Mark Walker, manager of product marketing at the company.

The new range of drives comes in three series that cover the high-performance, mid-range, and value notebook PC markets respectively, Walker says. The 7200.1 series offers drives with 40GB, 60GB, and 80GB capacities as well as the 100GB version. All the drives in this series run at 7200rpm. The 5400.2 series offers drives at 30GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, and 100GB capacities as well as the 120GB version, and all the drives run at 5400rpm.

The 4200.2 series also has the same six capacities as the 5400.2 series, but the drives run at 4200rpm, the company says. Both the 7200.1 and the 5400.2 series will be available with Parallel ATA or Serial ATA interfaces, while the 4200.2 series will only be available with the Parallel ATA interface, the company says.

Read the full story @ PC World

This solution guide shows you how to plan, deploy, and manage 802.1X wireless LAN security using Microsoft Windows Server 2003. This guidance provides step-by-step instructions for deploying wireless local access network (LAN) security for Microsoft Windows XP, and Pocket PC clients using the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) and password authentication.

The Securing Wireless LANs with PEAP and Passwords solution guide is designed to help small- and medium-sized organizations protect their wireless local access network (LANs). This prescriptive guidance will assist you in planning, deploying, testing, and managing a wireless LAN security infrastructure using Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Pocket PC 2003. The guide is a companion to the earlier solution guide Securing Wireless LANs – a Certificate Services Solution. However, this updated guide uses passwords to authenticate users and computers to the LAN instead of digital certificates.

The solution uses industry standards such as 802.1X to ensure broad interoperability. Windows XP Wireless Auto Configuration and the Microsoft Active Directory directory service help to minimize the complexity of installing and managing the solution—many of the more complex operations are automated in scripts that are provided with the guide. You can also install the solution entirely on existing servers in your environment to keep costs low.

Download from Microsoft

The Microsoft® Solution for Windows®-based Hosting empowers service providers of all sizes to lower operational costs while increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) through the roll out of enhanced managed services. Using key products from Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, the Solution provides best practices, tools, scripts, and code samples to help you efficiently deploy and operate hosted offerings on the Windows platform.

More info from Microsoft

Microsoft is readying a new security tool to add to its arsenal.
The newest member of Microsoft’s growing security-focused product family is the “Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP,” according to beta testers who requested anonymity.

The toolkit, which is currently in private beta test, is designed for users who are sharing computers in businesses and homes. It is especially focused on users of shared computers in libraries, cafés, schools and other similar environments, testers said.

What unites these shared computers is the fact that there seldom is a dedicated systems administrator managing them. As a result, they tend to be prime targets for all kinds of malware.

According to beta testers, the following tools are part of the toolkit:

A Windows Disk Protection Tool designed to protect the core operating system and program files from being permanently modified;

A Windows Restriction Tool that allows for the tailoring of individual users’ profiles. Among the variables that can be locked down: access to the command prompt, Internet Explorer settings and the Registry Editor;

A User Profile Tool that enables the simple creation and deletion of user profiles on a shared computer

Continue reading at Microsoft Watch

The long awaited Service Pack 1 for Windows Small Business Server 2003 has finally been released! This update includes:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP1
Microsoft SharePoint Services SP1
Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP1
Microsoft Windows XP SP2

For Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, SP1 additionally includes:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4
Microsoft ISA Server 2004 Standard SP1 (Upgrade from ISA 2000)

Note: SP1 can not be uninstalled, so perform a complete backup before installation.

View: What’s New for Windows SBS 2003 SP1
Download: Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 1

After all, the question is not what Adobe Creative Suite 2 can do, but what it can’t. Attend the FREE seminar and you will be shown how the latest Adobe Creative Suite 2 provides you with everything you need to weave magic. Register NOW!

Who should attend

Graphic and web designers, photographers, illustrators, print service providers, DTP operators and anyone who wants to make their creative ideas become reality.

What you will learn

Delivering the next level of integration in creative software, Adobe Creative Suite 2 enables you to realize your ideas anywhere — in print, on the web, or on mobile devices.

Get an in-depth look of the full new versions of Adobe Creative Suite 2:

Adobe Photoshop® CS2 gives you greater control and precision over your images with revolutionary vanishing point and multiple layer selection.

Adobe InDesign® CS2 with innovative features such as object styles to create rich, versatile page layouts for high-quality, cross-media output.

Adobe Illustrator® CS2 generates new power for vectors with advanced painting and drawing tools in Live trace and Live paint.

Adobe GoLive® CS2 enables you to create web sites or design content for mobile devices with visual CSS authoring for mobile devices and enhanced live rendering.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional which offers effective collaboration and printing via efficient electronic reviews with clients and greater control over print output.

And more new features such as Version Cue® CS2 that enhances file versioning and review management, with Adobe Bridge, Adobe Stock Photos, color consistency, and a unified Adobe PDF file creation - all designed to make your creative ideas become reality.

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The Best Practice approach is a systematic, professional approach to the management of IT service provision. Currently, the source of “best practice” definition for IT Service Management can be found in the ITIL publications from the Office of Government Commerce.

The IT Infrastructure library (ITIL) has become a widely acceptable approach to IT Service Management in the industry. ITIL provides a consistent and comprehensive set of best practices for IT service management, promoting a quality approach to achieve business effectiveness and efficiency in the use of information systems.

HP has been an active supporter of ITIL since 1995. HP uses ITIL and HP’s ITSM Reference Model to help customers achieve maximum IT operational effectiveness.

Agenda (24 May 2005, Tuesday)
8.00 - 8.30am Registration
8.30 - 9.30am ITIL Best Practices
9.30 - 9.50am Break
9.50 - 10.50am e-Learning Best Practices
10.50 - 11.30am e-Learning Demo
11.30am Q&A, Raffle & Closing

Date: 5/24/2005
Time: 8:00AM To 11:30AM
Venue : Ballroom, New World Renaissance Hotel

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In this program, Jeff Dean of Google describes some of these challenges, discusses applications Google has developed, and highlights systems they’ve built, including GFS, a large-scale distributed file system, and MapReduce, a library for automatic parallelization and distribution of large-scale computation. He also shares some interesting observations derived from Google’s web data.

This is a facinating video with some details never heard elsewhere
Produced by:University of Washington, October 21, 2004
Runtime:00:55:36

http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.asp?rid=2459

Cisco Press has partnered with Cisco authorized Career Certifications exam vendors Pearson VUE and Prometric to offer certification candidates a chance to win free Cisco Certification exams for one year. Four winners will be able to take 12 exams, from CCNA to CCIE written.

The CertCities.com Readers’ Choice Awards named Cisco the “Best Overall Certification Program” in 2004.

As part of the promotion, candidates can also save up to 43% on Cisco Press certification titles when they purchase books from Bookpool.com.

Visit www.ciscopress.com/examoffer to register for your chance to win.

ANTIVIRUS firm Trend Micro is dangling a million pesos with a chance to work in the company to the winner of this year’s Trend Micro Tech Challenge. The contest will pit the network security development skills of students from different colleges and universities in the Philippines.
Co-sponsored by Discovery Suites and Replica Graphix, this year’s contest theme is “Network Protection against Security Threats.” Teams composed of five to six members (excluding a coach), will design, implement, and test a security application over a networked environment with various security threats.

It will focus largely on protection against spyware, applications that sneak into unprotected computers allowing hackers to enter and control the victim’s network and install other malicious applications.

The contest is open to fulltime undergraduate students currently attending any Philippine college or university. Applicants must register through Trend Micro’s contest site starting May 16, 2005

Visit the 2005 Trend Micro Tech Challenge Website for more details.

The California Central Coast security groups have released another dozen new free downloadable security awareness/motivation posters as of May 1, 2005. This brings our total to 149 different designs!

Check them out @ http://members.impulse.net/~sate/posters.html

The new version has some controls that have been removed and some that were added. It will better address some of hte new challenges that are facing information security professionals out in the field.

See Press Release on the new version of the ISO 17799 standard

Air Raid: (noun) An attack by military aircraft, especially when armed with bombs and rockets; an attack by armed planes on a ground or surface target.

Air Raid: (security) Penetration of organizational and personal wireless airspace by attackers with malicious intent.*

Tournament Description

Wireless networks using 802.11 and Bluetooth have become common deployments in today’s corporate environments.

To underscore the importance of securing these newer types of networks on top of traditional wired networks, ThinkSECURE (www.securitystartshere.net), whose founders Christopher Low and Julian Ho designed and implemented BlackOPS for PACE2004, have put together AIRRAID, a first-of-its-kind-in-Asia, if not the world, wireless hacking tournament**, to provide security professionals and grayhats alike with a real-world wireless penetration contest.

Though this 2-phase, protected-systems-penetration game’s key focus is on wireless (specifically 802.11 & Bluetooth) security, it also highlights the risks posed by a security-conscious organization’s partners who do not implement equivalent security on their part or do not synchronize their security policies with each other.

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Update: As of 3PM (PST) May 23, 2005, MS PH closed registration to TechFest 2005: Summer Edition as they have reached maximum registrants.

PRE-REGISTRATION is open only for selected invitees and open from May 10 - May 21

After May 21, Registration will be open to the public

AGENDA:
Opening – Jojo Ayson
Windows Server 2003 SP1 – Jay Paloma
Windows Server 2003 R2 – Nicky Eala
BizTalk in Real Life Scenarios – Warren Yu
Visual Studio .NET 2005 – Ritchie Lozada
Developing Multilanguage Applications and Web Sites with VSNET 2005 – Mark Punzalan
SQL Server 2005 – Andre Ngo
Microsoft Solutions Framework – Louie Ragasa
Microsoft Licensing – Jojo Ayson
Microsoft Club Launch – Jojo Ayson

Pre-register now @ Microsoft Philippines Techfest 2005 Summer Edition