Outlook

                   In this annual Outlook issue, we look ahead at research and technology that are likely to have an impact in the next few years. Topics addressed include the findings of a committee convened to identify key challenges to continued growth in computing performance and to outline a research agenda for meeting emerging 21st-century computing needs; nanostores.

                 A new design approach that focuses on data-centric workloads and hardware-software codesign for upcoming technologies; the application of 3D silicon interposer technology to high-performance computational systems; and an apoptic computing project that has been working toward the long-term goal of programmed death by default for computer systems.

Debit Card

                  Debit Card fraud is growing in mass proportions across Canada. ATM machines and Point of Sale Terminals are being compromised with “Skimming equipment”. Skimming equipment is unauthorized copying of electronic data from your debit card. Skimming equipment captures both the card number and PIN then fake cards are reproduced. This equipment can include pin-hole cameras, wireless bluetooth technology, portable card readers, etc.
 If you ever have that uneasy feeling making a purchase or withdrawing money, trust your instinct, and go elsewhere. Most, if not all, of the big reputable banking institutions are placing the most advanced security technology on their ATM locations to help prevent this scam. The same cannot be said about private ATM’s.

                   which is another term for either debit card transactions, or Interac seem to be the flavour of the month. Recent news reported that quite a few previously trusted big brand stores, restaurants and gas stations as well as some small independent grocery stores have been targeted by this scam. In most recent cases, the terminals were actually physically compromised with a chip being inserted inside dummy handheld devices. Yes, the whole keypad is switched when the thieves have the opportunity. Either the thieves come back and switch back the original unit to get the information stored on the dummy or they just don't bother if the dummy is setup to send the cardholders number and PIN remotely over a wireless connection using skimming equipment.

Pidgin - Multiple Instant Messenger Service

             Available as a free of charge download from , this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL, MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu. Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.
Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password.  Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
            Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.
            All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present. The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems. Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.