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Browsing some of my favorite tech blogs, I came across an article from 2005 on The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security by Marcus Ranum. This is the sort of IT discussion I like to see – advanced topics tackled in a way the modestly-informed reader can understand. In short, the article outlines the absurdness of:

1. The Default Permit - “…the computer security equivalent of empty calories…”
2. Enumerating Badness – “…around 1992 the amount of Badness in the Internet began to vastly outweigh the amount of Goodness…”
3. Penetrate and Patch – “…the problem with ‘Penetrate and Patch’ is not that it makes your code/implementation/system better by design, rather it merely makes it toughened by trial and error…”
4. Hacking is Cool - “….I find it interesting to compare societal reactions to hackers as ‘whiz kids’ versus spammers as ’sleazy con artists’..”
5. Educating Users - “…like ‘Penetrate and Patch’ if it was going to work, it would have worked by now. …”
6. Action is Better Than Inaction - derides “…product-purchasing decisions by reading Gartner research reports and product glossies from vendors…”

Between the lines, Ranum is saying that computer system security should be addressed through predictive systems rather than permissive & reactive technology or training. What can average at-home users take from this? Realize your computers have vulnerabilities with people dedicated to exploit them. For tech professionals, it seems to be a much more urgent message: adapt the way you think about your world or face security as an endless, sisyphean task.

Technorati Tags: computer security, Marcus Ranum

If you’re in the market for a blade server, I’m not going to hold your hand through this article. Blade servers are meant for business. They are meant to be run in tandem with other blades within a blade enclosure. Unlike traditional rackmount servers, blades put all the non-essential hardware in the blades’ enclosure, leaving the core computing pieces intact and hot-swappable on the blade itself. (The enclosure provides power, cooling, networking and, often, other management firmware.) As you can see, those in the market for a blade server are either going to want a full blade system (blades + enclosure) or the individual blades.

I won’t try to convince you of one blade brand or another. Why? If you already have a blade enclosure, you already know what you want (you cannot usually put blades of one brand into the enclosure from another.) We feature deals on blades by makers like HP Proliant and IBM Bladecenter.

If you’re starting from scratch and are looking to buy a blade server enclosure, check out our Intel Blade Server Chassis. Inventory includes new blade server enclosures for just over $3000 and refurbished blade server enclosures for under $2500 USD. The IBM is described as

The Intel Blade Server Chassis SBCE is an example of state-of-the-art blade engineering that allows you to greatly expand computing power while reducing management resources. No matter how you configure it, the Intel Blade Server Chassis SBCE was built for efficient management. The system includes a management module that monitors temperatures and controls fan speeds, to maintain an optimum operating environment.

Do your research. Know your needs. When you decide that power, scalability and redundancy are top on your list of priorities, consider buying a blade server system.

Reference:

• Blade Servers on Wikipedia

Technorati Tags: blade server, servers

In need of a great server at a low price? We’ve got a refurbished Dell PowerEdge 2850 rack mount server that’s loaded with the features that power users want. Out of the box, the Dell server has 8GB of memory and 6 x 146GB Disk Drives. (Yes, I said SIX!) As you’d expect, it comes standard with a 1-year 100% warranty.

What’s the press saying about this Dell? PCMagazine said:

Latest hardware makes good base for future expansion. Dell OpenManage 4 is a decent upgrade to management software. Daughter cards give sys admins 24/7 accessibility to downed servers without taking valuable PCI space. Server is definition of easy to service. Dell has improved the fan management (quite a bit quieter than the PowerEdge 2650)

Looking for the official specs? We found the PDF specs for the Dell PowerEdge 2850 here. There aren’t many of these, so move quickly to snap up this bargain.

Technorati Tags: Dell server, PowerEdge