Tech Buzzwords from WhatIs.com

What is a 3-D chip?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:48:00 -0700

This podcast from WhatIs.com explores what 3-D chips are, how they're made and what their production might mean for the extension of Moore's Law into the third dimension. In April 2007, a new version of 3-D chips was announced by a partnership of IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, with support from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency ( DARPA).

To learn more about the advance, we went right to the source and called up Kerry Bernstein. Kerry is a Senior Technical Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Hts, NY. Kerry was kind enough to sit down with WhatIs.com's Alex Howard to talk about IBM's development of through silicon vias, 3-D chips and the future of microprocessors.

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What is Web texting?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Thu, 8 Mar 2007 11:52:00 -0800

Web texting is two-way text messaging from the Web to a mobile handheld device, usually a cellular phone.

Traditionally, SMS messages are texted from handheld to handheld. As mobile providers have improved their Web sites, it has become possible for subscribers to log on and send text messages to cell phones from the online account. Now, companies are taking it one step further and allowing text messages to be sent to and from an online application and a cell phone.

To learn more, WhatIs.com's Alex Howard called up Gavin Macomber, co-founder & executive vice president of MobileSphere, which has developed a Web texting platform.

When you listen to the podcast, you'll learn the answers to the following questions:

How is Web texting different from "normal" texting
How does Web texting work?
What security concerns are there with Web texting?
What is happening with mobile spam and SMSing? What about SMiShing?
What international issues are there with Web texting? Where does it work -– and where doesn't it?
How many users in North America are sending text messages vs. eastern Asia or Western Europe?
Are Treos and BlackBerrys and other QWERTY keyboard-equipped handsets changing the equation?
How is the market for Web texting changing with millions of users beginning to save, edit, upload and share multimedia content from camera and video phones?
What is fixed-mobile convergence and what's important about the trend?
What is a softswitch and how does it work?
What is an MVNO?

Use the Flash player above or click on the MP3 link below to listen on your PC or download to your favorite portable media player. After you listen, visit Joopz to try out Web texting yourself.

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What is Joost?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:44:00 -0800

What is Joost? Formerly known as the "Venice Project," Joost is an IPTV service based on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology from the creators of Skype and Kazaa.

When you listen to this podcast from WhatIs.com, you'll learn the answers to the following questions:

Who created these P2P apps?
How is Joost different from YouTube, Current.tv, Revver or other online video?
What platforms does Joost work on?

Use the Flash player above or click on the MP3 link below to listen on your PC or download to your favorite portable media player.

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What is a media-aware network?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:35:00 -0800

A media-aware network uses a combination of software and hardware within routers to bring more intelligence to the edges of a network, enhancing the experience of VoIP, videoconferencing or other communications users. To learn more about media-aware networks, WhatIs.com's Alex Howard interviewed Cathal Phelan and Keith Morris, the CEO and VP of marketing, respectively, at Ubicom, a manufacturer of specialized processors and router equipment.

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When you listen to the podcast, you'll learn the answers to the following questions:

What is a media-aware network? How do they work?
What does increased intelligence at the application layer mean in real-world terms?
What is a communications and media processor (CMP)?

Use the Flash player above or click on the MP3 link below to listen on your PC or download to your favorite portable media player.

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What is crowdsourcing?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Fri, 2 Feb 2007 08:57:00 -0800

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a function traditionally performed by an employee and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people using the Internet. Crowdsourcing relies on a combination of distributed networks, inexpensive digital tools of production and people who create content, rate other people's work or solve problems in their spare time. To learn more about this buzzword, WhatIs.com's Alex Howard went right to the source and interviewed Jeff Howe, the writer who coined the term (in concert with editor Mark Robinson) and published this article exploring the crowdsourcing phenomenon in Wired Magazine.

When you listen to the podcast, you'll learn the answers to the following questions:

Where does the term "crowdsourcing" come from?
How does crowdsourcing work?
What are some real-life case studies of the phenomenon? How is Amazon's Mechanical Turk is an excellent example.of crowdsourcing?
What are the five new rules for this new labor pool?
How is crowdsourcing affecting the stock photo industry, corporate R&D, newspapers and advertising?
How is Second Life a pure example of crowdsourcing?
Where doesn't crowdsourcing work? Are fair labor concerns and protection of intellectual property at issue?

Use the Flash player above or click on the MP3 link below to listen on your PC or download to your favorite portable media player. After you listen, visit Jeff's crowdsourcing blog for frequent updates on what is happening in the crowdsourcing space.

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What is Digital Photography?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:55:00 -0700

This podcast provides an overview of the impact digital photography has made on business in the last two decades. It takes a look at the current landscape for digital photography and discusses innovations coming to market in the near future. Bonus: Also included are helpful tips for the digital photographer.

Listen on your PC or download to your favorite mobile device.
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Tech Buzzword: Ruby on Rails

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:47:00 -0700

What is Ruby on Rails? Ruby on Rails is a framework for database-backed web development in Ruby, an object-oriented programming language similar to Perl and Python.

Listen now to learn more

Intrusion Prevention Fundamentals (part 4)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:46:00 -0800

An intrusion prevention pystem (IPS) is a security protection device or application that acts as a Layer 2 forwarding device to protect network devices from attack.

Part Four: Evolution of Attack Mitigation

Intrusion Prevention Fundamentals (Part 3)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:44:00 -0800

An intrusion prevention pystem (IPS) is a security protection device or application that acts as a Layer 2 forwarding device to protect network devices from attack.

Part Three: Attack Examples from the Real World

Intrusion Prevention Fundamentals (Part 2)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:41:00 -0800

An intrusion prevention pystem (IPS) is a security protection device or application that acts as a Layer 2 forwarding device to protect network devices from attack.

Part Two: Target Value, Attack Characteristics and Attack Delivery Mechanisms

Intrusion Prevention Fundamentals (Part 1)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:35:00 -0800

An intrusion prevention pystem (IPS) is a security protection device or application that acts as a Layer 2 forwarding device to protect network devices from attack.

Part 1: Evolution of Computer Security Threats

Tech Buzzword: What is spear phishing?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:35:00 -0800

Spear phishing is an e-mail spoof used to target a specific organization and seek unauthorized access to confidential data. The source of the e-mail appears to be from an individual within the recipient's own company -- generally someone in a position of authority.

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Tech Buzzword of the Week: $100 laptop

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:04:00 -0800

Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the OLPC initiative made news when he domonstrated a working prototype of the $100 laptop at the World Economic Forum this month.

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What is Ajax? (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Thu, 2 Feb 2006 08:02:00 -0800

In this broadcast you will learn about Ajax, a design method that promises to be the breakthrough that will allow Microsoft, Adobe and other software manufacturers to serve their applications online.
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What is Google hacking?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 05:48:00 -0800

In this podcast you will learn how intruders take advantage of Google's agressive indexing and page caching features to locate and exploit vulnerable Web sites.
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What is SOA? (service-oriented architecture)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Wed, 7 Dec 2005 03:57:00 -0800

In this broadcast you will learn :

- What SOA is.
- How SOA relates to other popular programming concepts.
- What programming standards and tools are commonly used to implement an SOA strategy.

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What is iSCSI? (Internet Small Computer System Interface)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 03:54:00 -0800

iSCSI is an Internet Protocol-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. In this short podcast, you will learn how iSCI works.
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What is IPv6? (Internet Protocol version 6)

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:34:00 -0800

In this broadcast, you will learn what IPv6 is, why you should care about it, and how it will affect information technology and your networking job in the future. Listen now.

What is a blade server?

contactus@whatis.com (WhatIs.com) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:18:00 -0800

In this broadcast, we'll explain what a blade server is, how it's different from a box or rack-mounted server, and how it has moved from the world of big business to become a mainstream server solution for small to mid-sized businesses. We'll also provide a case study to illustrate how one mid-sized company sucessfully deployed blade servers. You'll learn why they initially chose blades, what issues they faced during deployment and their recommendations for other companies who are considering a blade server deployment. Listen now.