Wire Connected

Apart from being more dependable than solar energy, wind energy has always been a secondary choice for all eco-minded home owners. Reasons include bird kills, noise and the decrease in the output when wind changes direction. A concept wind turbine designed by Industrie-SA can answer all these problems with a clever design. The vertical axis turbine is designed for urban environments having windy conditions.

Lockheed Martin hosted four industry leaders in vascular, voice and signature recognition at its Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts (BEACON) in West Virginia, a space intent on collaborating between industry, government and academia in the field of biometrics. The four companies invited were Identica, PerSay, Speech Technology Center and Noninvasive Medical Technologies.

The intent behind the forum of industry leaders, called Biometrics on the Edge, was a combination of demonstrating new technologies while speaking of their applications in fields such as law enforcement and national defense. Additionally, the four companies representatives attended a presentation from West Virginia University on the future of biometrics.

Windows 7 is finally nearing it’s completion, and the Release Candidate is finally available. After installing the Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 back in December on my PC at home, i decided to upgrade my work Laptop to Windows 7. The score to the right is from my Laptop.

First of all, i had Bitlocker enabled on my ThinkPad W500, which was running Windows Vista x32 and i intended to install Windows 7 x64. So a direct inplace upgrade was out of the question. I created a backup of the machine, disabled Bitlocker, upgraded my laptops BIOS to the latest version, and booted Windows 7 setup from an USB stick.

Next, i pressed Shift-F10 on the setup screen, deleted all the Windows and Program Files folders, and then started an installation directly on the Bitlocker-enabled drive (this way, i didn’t have to restore all the files i already had on the drive, saving me valuable time).

Windows 7 was done after about 25 minutes, and greeted me with Aero enabled and the 1920×1200 15″ screen already set to a scaling factor of 125%. This is were i also noticed that DPI settings are now user dependant, instead of affecting the whole system. An extremely nice feature, that probably needed quite a bit of work. I set the scaling factor to 115%, which is the best factor between readability and remaining screen real estate for me.

Unfortunately, the switchable graphics driver available from Lenovo did not support WDDM 1.1. I went into the BIOS and configured the machine to always use the Intel graphics. However, i noticed that unlike in Vista, the Intel graphic card did not produce 100% smooth Aero animations. Since i have the power supply connected most of the time anyway, i configured the system to always use the ATI card. This produced better results.

The fingerprint reader does not work yet, but i didn’t invest time in that since i don’t use it anyway. Also, there are issues with Intel AMT, which i don’t use either.

So the base OS worked flawlessly after install. Even switching the graphics card around didn’t phase it, Aero was automatically enabled and the correct resolution configured. WLAN, Audio, everything you would need worked out of the Box.

I joined the machine to the domain, where it sucked down all the GPOs for our corporate network. I unplugged the network cable, and it automatically connected to the corporate wireless network, authenticated by EAP-TLS.

Since our printserver is WS08 x64 box, corporate printing also worked automatically, without any additional work. Of course, all the other group policy settings applied as they should, and i didn’t find any issues yet regarding policy settings.

But an OS alone doesn’t serve a purpose, you need applications. I’ve installed the following applications:

• Adobe Reader 9.1 Works perfectly.
• DIAS-iS Network Client 3.2 Works perfectly.
• DIAS-iS OSP Version 3 for Office 2007 Works perfectly.
• Office 2007 SP1 Enterprise, Visio and PDF/XPS plugin Works perfectly.
• Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies Works perfectly.
• Office 2007 VSTO 3.0 Works perfectly.
• Office 2007 Communicator R1 with latest Hotfix Works perfectly.
• Solitas InfoStore Windows Retrieval Works perfectly.
• IBM System i Access V6R1M0 x64 Works perfectly.
• IrfanView Works perfectly.
• Mozilla Firefox 3.1b3 Works perfectly.
• PuTTY 0.60 Works perfectly.
• SonicWALL Global VPN Client x64 Sometimes loses it’s IPsec driver - repairing the program helps.
• Windows Live Messenger Works perfectly.
• Virtual CloneDrive Works perfectly.
• WinRAR Works perfectly.
• tn5250 Works perfectly.

So far, so good. The SonicWALL issue may be annoying, but it’s not a dealbreaker. Judging from my experience, it’s a SonicWALL issue. Opening a bug there won’t help, as they don’t support Windows 7 yet. I can live with that.

Perfomance on Windows 7 on this machine is even better than Vista. I can now fully use the 4GB RAM installed in my laptop. Never used Windows XP on this machine, i can’t compare performance. All the business apps i need to do my job work flawlessly. Printing works flawlessly.

Windows 7 is even better than Vista. But for those that didn’t spend the last three years using Windows Vista, it may be rather hard to get used to all the new stuff. For example, the deployment options between 7 and Vista are both based on WIM imaging, with a few improvements here and there. If you know how to do it on Vista, you can also do it in Windows 7.

As a bonus, the score to the right from my desktop PC.

AllTrust Networks, a developer of biometric solutions, has announced that they have implemented their Paycheck Secure biometric check cashing solution in all 11 Pro’s Ranch Markets grocery store locations.

The Paycheck Secure system enables users to scan their fingerprint to authenticate their identity for cashing a check at an automated kiosk. The system’s implementation has resulted in positive customer feedback as well as employee feedback that are now saving time on manual check processes. In addition to the Paycheck Secure system, AllTrust has provided Pro’s with their national negative database to provide better fraud control.

GlobalPlatform, the specification body for smart card infrastructure, has published a white paper to explain how its existing technology can add value to biometric match-on-card solutions from research and development cost-savings and improved time to market, to compliance with industry security requirements.

“The GlobalPlatform Value Proposition for Biometric Match-on-Card Verification,” targets government officials, project managers and consultants advising on the implementation of biometric match-on-card programs, alongside smart card technical audiences. It discusses how current GlobalPlatform specifications deliver the required security and privacy to enable the deployment of a secure, interoperable and flexible biometric match-on-card solution.

GlobalPlatform on-card access control technology is also discussed within the white paper. This function can facilitate the delivery of multiple applications on one card, with each application able to securely utilize the match-on-card biometric in a flexible way without having to become biometric aware.

The document is free to download from here.

Just coming off of Earth Day in April, most of us are looking for ways to be greener and changing the lighting in our homes is just one of those ways.  This past week, NYC was home to Lightfair International 2009, which is the largest lighting trade show and conference in the world.  One of the exhibitors at Lightfair, Philips, unveiled some new ideas about “green” lighting that may soon find their way into our homes. 

Philips previewed a 600-lumen A-shape LED bulb for consumers that will be able to replace traditional 40-watt incandescent bulbs.  The LED bulb offered is five times as efficient as the incandescent bulb.  That is slightly more efficient than a 40-watt equivalent CFL bulb, which requires 10-watts.  Also, LEDs do not have CFL’s safety issues.  As you likely already know, CFLs have a small amount of mercury in them, which means they must be recycled and extra care most be taken when one breaks. 

As a bonus, with all the money you’ll save on electricity, you might be able to spring for that new gadget you’ve been eyeing, say perhaps, the Kindle 2.

Duke Energy has announced that the company will build up to 400 “Mini” solar power plants in North Carolina over the next two years, which when completed will power up to 1300 homes with green energy. The $50 million project will involve the installation of solar panels on the roofs and grounds of homes, schools, office buildings, shopping malls, warehouses and other industrial plants.

Once the project is complete, the energy harnessed will not be directly used by the building which carries the panels, but will be sent to the grid from where the energy will be transported to customers. The company will own and maintain the panels and the electricity generated during their expected lifespan of 25 years. To get the panels installed, the company will be paying a rental fee to the property owners, which will be based on the amount of land and roof space used. Residents of North Carolina can fill out an online application form, requesting the company to install the panels on their land.

The Information Commissioner has expressed concern that electronic patient records are not secure enough following the revelation that Lanarkshire NHS patient data was found on a hard drive purchased on eBay.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said that the recent spate of data losses had prompted talks with the NHS on how to ensure adequate privacy practices are in place.

"As we move towards electronic health records across England we do have anxieties. We talk very closely with the NHS to ensure that they are taking security seriously but they've got to be very vigilant indeed to get security right," he said.

The two disks from Lanarkshire NHS trust contained patient data relating to radiology and x-rays, including thumbnails of x-rays and sensitive correspondence.

In a statement, NHS Lanarkshire said the disks were disposed off through an external supplier in 2006, a policy that would now be ended.

"In this instance the hard drives had been subjected to a basic level of data removal by the company and had then been disposed of inappropriately. This was clearly in breach of contract and was wholly unacceptable," said the statement.

A study, funded by BT and Sims Lifecycle Services, also found sensitive information from companies such as Ford, Laura Ashley and Nokia on disks purchased on eBay.

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