Today, I’m covering something called the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) that is used to secure communication between you and websites.  So, if it sounds like something you’re interested in reading about it, you’ll find more after the jump!

Foundations: How Websites Work

It wasn’t very long ago that organizations like banks and other organizations that transmit sensitive information figured out that the World Wide Web was an awesome tool for communicating with their customers and peers. Websites allowed these companies to do communicate prices and product details to anyone who wanted to know them. These websites, much like every other one out there, are only useful through the use of the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) that allows computers to transmit website data to each other.

To really boil down how the whole process works, consider this graphic:

An example of a regular HTTP Exchange of information (click to enlarge)

This is pretty simple right? The user (that would be you) manipulates you web browser into asking a website (technically, a web server – but I’m being lax with my terminology for the sake of communication) for a home page. The website then sends the homepage back to you. This entire exchange happens in something we in the computing world call plain text, meaning that if you were an outsider looking in on the exchange of data, you could pretty easily read what was going on. And on the Internet, there is always some third party watching what is going on.

Locking down communications

So, let’s be honest. Do we really care if someone knows that we accessed the homepage for the Bachellorette? Ok, well some people might. But most of the time, our use of the Internet is pretty mundane. Making sure that mysterious shadow on the wall can’t see what is going on isn’t usually that big of a deal. But, I propose this possibility: what if the exchange in the graphic above looked more like this:

We don't want this to happen! (click to enlarge)

Naturally, this is a bad idea because anyone could be listening in on this little exchange between you and what is presumably your banking website. Surely you don’t want to end up having your banking account number plastered all over the web for anyone to use. It was on this realization that people came up with a modification to HTTP called HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. The goal of HTTPS is to scramble, or encrypt, HTTP messages so that anyone who might be listening in will have no idea what is going on. So, the graphic above ends up looking like this:

Someone looking in would have no idea what is going on here. (click to enlarge)

Of course, while this is going on – you don’t notice any difference in what you see in your web browser. You are still sending messages to the website and receiving webpages as a response, but someone who is snooping on your connection won’t be able to see what is going on. Your computer and the website use these items called certificates that allow the both parties that are privy to the conversation to understand each other, while everyone else listening in is clueless. Think of it as if you’re actually speaking a completely different language than everyone else on the Internet, that is unique to your specific conversation. Pretty cool, right?

How do I use this technology?

Odds are you already do and don’t realize it. Look up in the address bar of your web browser. You probably noticed that the address starts out “http://” – which means that you’re running on a regular connection. But anytime that starts out “https://” you’re running in a secure mode and it will be very difficult for someone else to snoop in on your connection.

In addition to this, most modern browsers will even provide some visual indicator when the highest level of security has been reached successfully. Take Chrome and Firefox visiting a secure page on Facebook as an example:

Chrome's Address Bar while visiting a secure site (click to enlarge)

Firefox's address bar while visiting a secure site (click to enlarge)

In addition to this, these security measures can also be used to ensure that the website you’re talking to is the one that you’re supposed to be talking to. Some browsers like Google Chrome will give you a pretty clear indication when something may be hinky with site you’re trying to visit, and often it looks something like this:

Chrome letting you know something is wrong (click to enlarge)

Take note of two things. First, of course, the big warning message in place of a web page. But secondly, note that the “https” in the address bar is crossed out in red, instead of appearing in green in the previous image I showed you. This is Chrome telling you something isn’t right.

Certificates for secure communication on the Internet have to be renewed periodically. And oftentimes, it is the case with some large organizations (coughThe University of Georgiacough) that the certificates expire – generating warnings like the one you see above. However, if you’re not completely sure that you’re communicating with someone trustworthy – those warning signs are generally a pretty good reason to back up and go find another website to hang out on.

In Conclusion

I hope this has been a helpful, yet still technically accurate explanation of what HTTPS is and why it’s helpful to know about. As always, leave me some comment love below. At some point I’ll get around to covering some recent events again – I’m just tired of the lawsuit drama for now.

First off, I was spending time with my girlfriend while I had the opportunity this weekend. Sorry, blogosphere. She takes priority over you.

Secondly, I’ve been preoccupied with dealing with a malfunctioning car. I own an older Nissan Sentra that has decided it is time for its air conditioning to die. For those of you who haven’t visited Georgia before, this is unacceptable behavior for a car in August. So, there has been a considerable amount of time and effort over the last week dealing with those problems. The good news is that it looks like I’ll be able to drive my brother’s car for awhile when it gets out of the shop. It’s about 4 years newer than mine, and in much better shape. Unfortunately for my brother, he gets to drive around in the Sentra until we find a replacement for it. So, needless to say – I’m looking forward to that.

Third, if any of you tried to access Farmdawg Nation over the weekend you probably had some trouble. We had some more glitches in our server software over the weekend, and last night the site was down for a bit while I was investigating different options for server software. The server that runs Farmdawg Nation is named Jethro (yes, my servers are named after NCIS characters) and I’m beginning to think that I’ve been pushing it too hard. The system only has 256MB of RAM, which is less than most desktop systems require as a bare minimum. Now, servers are more lightweight in terms of software, but 256MB can get cramped if you’re trying to do too many things at once. Jethro is a mail server, regular web server, ruby on rails web server, MySQL server, and Subversion server – all in one. Surely someone out there is ready to slap me for trying to do all that with 256MB.

I waffled between expanding the memory on Jethro and starting a new server. I opted to start a new server. I want a server that I can work on and not have to worry about Farmdawg Nation or any other sites that I host going down if something goes amiss. This week I will begin the process process of migrating services over to reduce the load I’m putting on Jethro. Farmdawg Nation will be offline for parts of this move. So, I don’t know how much I will blog this week, but I may have some useful tutorials or something for things that I figure out along the way.

So, that’s pretty much what has been happening. As always, feel free to leave me some comment love (or try to at least). I hope to talk to you guys in a couple of days after the dust has settled with the server move.

The term “virtual machine” may sound confusing or may not evoke any type of mental picture at all. But my hope is that by the end of this blog post, you’ll have a clear understanding of the meaning of the term – and why they are such a popular innovation in modern computing. More after the jump!

What is a Machine?

This may sound completely ridiculous, but to even begin understanding virtual machines, we must first understand machines. What is a machine? Well, for the purposes of this computer-oriented discussion, a machine is some hardware (physical components and circuitry) that is designed the process and allow a user to interact with some software (e.g. Microsoft Word). So, using this definition we can clearly see that the physical components you are using to view this web page on your computer make up a machine. What you may not know is that there are a lot of other devices you see in your daily life that also meet this definition. Graphing Calculators are machines, for example (and are quite often more complex than people give them credit for).

So, if we accept this definition of machine it should go without saying (because it’s common knowledge) that not all machines are created equal. Some computers run faster than others, or can store more memory than others. However, these days the limiting factor to being able to run the software you want to run will rarely be what type of machine you have. Rather, more often than not, it will be a matter of whether the piece of software you want to run can in fact run with your Operating System (e.g. Windows, Mac), which serves as the intermediary between your machine and your applications like Microsoft Word.

I am a Website Developer. So, the question that most often poses this problem for me is when a client asks: “Does this work in Microsoft Internet Explorer?” Well, I’m a Mac user, and I can’t get a current version of Internet Explorer for Mac. They haven’t released a new version in several years, so testing with that version would hardly be representative of how things work in Internet Explorer today. Also, I can’t very well go back to my client and say, “Sorry, I’m running a Mac… I can’t test that because my Operating System doesn’t let me.” And it is also true that I’m not going to get rid of my current Operating System to do one test that’s going to take a matter of minutes, and I’d also like to avoid buying a PC exclusively for the purpose of running Windows.

If only there were some way to run a different Operating System side-by-side with or on top of my Operating System.

The Machine Goes Virtual

Awhile back, some clever people figured out that this was, in fact, possible using a concept that we in the Computer Science world call a system virtual machine that essentially tricks an Operating System like Windows into believing that it is running on a real computer independent of any other supporting software. To illustrate, let us take a very simplistic view of how a computer is organized in terms of what depends on what:

So, I think it is a pretty safe statement to make that every system is organized like this on a large scale. Of course, there are a lot of elements in here I’ve omitted, as this is supposed to be more of a broad strokes outline than anything else. But every Operating System and Application pretty much expects this kind of arrangement.

The magic of the Virtual Machine is that it lies.

See, whenever an Operating System is starting up, the first thing that it tries to do is learn about its environment. The Virtual Machine lies to it when it reports the information about the Operating System’s environment, and essentially tricks an Operating System to believe it is running on a computer where it is the sole Operating System. The Operating System that is being lied to, or virtualized, is called the guest operating system. Likewise, the Operating System that is really in charge of working with the hardware on the physical computer is called the host operating system.

The end result of this little ruse is that you can do something like run Windows and Mac OS X side-by-side.

Virtual Machines Today

A screenshot of VMWare Fusion on my computer running a Guest Operating System, Ubuntu Linux.

Virtual Machines soared in popularity when Apple came out with their line of MacBooks. MacBooks were the first Apple product to use Intel Processors in them. Many people, myself included, invested in purchasing Virtual Machines when we made the switch to Mac because there were still a few programs that ran only in Windows. So, instead of maintaing two computers, we utilized Virtual Machine technology to run Windows as a guest operating system only when we needed it. It turns out that it worked pretty well.

Virtual Machines exist in all arenas in the technology industry, and they’re always growing in popularity. Keep in mind, these are not the only type of virtual machines out there either. There are some that are specialized toward one specific purpose, like the Java Virtual Machine. Anytime you run an application written in Java, a Java Virtual Machine starts and runs the application completely transparently. There have also been rumors that the next version of Windows will be using Virtual Machine technology to help make systems more secure, but how that works is slightly outside the scope of this article.

Conclusion

Sorry if this article seems like it was a little rushed, because it was. But, nonetheless, I hope that you have gained something from my discourse into the concept of the Virtual Machine. As always, leave me some comment love below. Questions are always welcome.

Have an excellent Wednesday evening everyone!

Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Lawsuits
Surprise! Yes, there is yet another outrageous lawsuit out there. It seems that Facebook has decided they own any word ending in “book” – or at lest the rights to it. I enjoy Wired’s initial response to this:

This begs the obvious question: Would Facebook sue a social-networking site for priests named Goodbook? Or a librarian-networking site named Librarybook?

What I want to know is why Facebook is targeting a no-name site that very few people would have thought to find on their own anyway? Why haven’t they targeted social networking sites like “yearbook.com”? I’m not sure what sparked this, as I doubt this site would have ever actually gained any popularity. Trying to re-invent the wheel has always been an exercise left to the student, unless you’ve got something unique to present. Teachbook, however, seems to be a Joomla! driven website run by someone without much concept of what they are doing. Case in point, an about page that has no information on it (screen shot below).

Yeah, anyway… moving on.

Not a planet. Sad.

Pluto: The Dwarf Planet
Wired reminds us today that four years ago this day Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. I personally remember this being a pretty big deal for me in high school… I guess because I didn’t really consider the classification of a planet something that has one of those ominous “thems” behind it, you know? But alas, everything is controlled by someone. But, if you’re feeling bad for pluto like I am – consider investing in this pluto support t-shirt.

Google is all about the human rights!
Google had a post on their blog today I was completely in support of, detailing their support for human rights on the internet video community. What is curiouser, is the same day they announced the recipients of their scholarship for students attending Universities in China. Am I the only one that finds this somewhat comical? For those who may not be in the loop, earlier this year Google suffered a major security breach where the Chinese government was suspected. Google even had the NSA helping them beef up their security. I would have been in support of their plan to pull out of mainland china, but alas — it is not happening. Oh well, no big deal. All of the recipients are still stuck in their cars trying to get home anyway, for all we know.

Loosing Your iPhone Sucks
It really does. So Macworld has two articles today concering the topic of recovering lost iPhones. The first article is a lifehacker-esqe article that gives you step-by-step instructions on setting your lock screen wallpaper to include your contact information. However, the second article is far more interesting.

Some new patents seem to indicate that Apple is coming up with some pretty clever ways of telling if your iPhone is missing. The general idea is that soon your iPhone may be able to detect if it has been stolen on its own based on the heartbeat of the person holding the device, or the distance away from a certain object that it is paired with. It will even be able to alert the authorities how the culprit is getting away (or your Don, if that’s how you take care of things).

Android News
The first fun news in the area of my favorite mobile platform is the release of the upgrade plans for Motorola Android phones. For US telephone users, the Droid X will see the Android 2.2 update sometime late in the summer. The Backflip, Cliq, and Cliq XT should be seeing an upgrade to Android 2.1 sometime around the end of 2010 (possibly as late as the beginning of 2011). The Devour, on the other hand, will not be getting an update to Android 2.1. If you want to see the full article on Talk Android, complete with a list of upgrade plans for other countries, click here.

On a similar note, it seems that Motorola accidentally leaked the Android 2.2 update to some Droid X users. Well, some clever people who had the upgrade leaked to their device shared it with some friends… who shared it with some websites… who shared it with everyone. Anyway, now Motorola is up in arms, according to Wired. They’re reporting here that Motorola is sending cease and desist orders to the websites that were hosting the update.

The Amazon Kindle seems to have inspired something slightly more advanced, Engadget reports. The new device is an Android reader with a color screen. Pocketbook, the company behind the readers, is announcing a series of five models supporting 6 and 9.7 inch screens. Engadget has a full gallery of images and the full press release that you can find here. I don’t know about you, but all the talk about these Android tablet devices is getting me excited. Then again, I just like seeing Apple jump through hoops, and am completely for anything that will let me see some of that. I will still admit the iPad is pretty sexy though…

Lifestyle News
So, everyone loves traveling – but as technology expands, so do the way in which we can use that technology when we’re on the go. The iPad is one particular device that can change how we travel, and Wired put together a pretty cool list for using your iPad when you’re traveling. They have everything from practical battery and money saving techniques to useful apps that will help you get around wherever you might be. I don’t own an iPad, so I won’t talk about how bitter the article makes me feel, and will instead suggest you check it out yourself.

Odd News
Wired is nothing if not diverse, and I love some of the stranger stuff they can come up with. Oftentimes, I know people who work in Atlanta have good reason to complain about the traffic on their daily commute. But, if you think your commute is bad – Wired is here to prove you wrong. One of their articles today was about something that I term as “the worst traffic jam of all time” – a 9-day traffic jam in Beijing. I don’t think I can really augment that with anything.

So why not blog about having trouble blogging? Seems natural right?

I’m playing with a few different ideas as to how I can bridge the gap of silence on days when I don’t have a big piece. One option is to accumulate news items over the course of the day, Monday thru Friday, and make one large post at about 6PM or 7PM with a composite view of what happened (complete with the occasional editorial remark, of course). Then, aim for one to two larger stories per week. I think that shall be my goal for this coming week, and if I feel like it is a good schedule, I’ll keep it.

As always, I’d love to hear any ideas you’d like to have covered in depth. Be it something you think I should explain in the tech industry to ideas for recurring articles. Let me know what you think, or just leave some miscellaneous comment love, as always!

See you guys tomorrow.

A picture of the Computer-keyboard Macbook!

Bart Reardon, the organizer of this little project to salvage a busted Macbook Air, seems to have made some pretty cool progress. For anyone that’s interested in his hackery (yes, that’s a word) he has daily blog posts following new developments in the creation of his little pet project. Not everyone may think this falls into the OMGAWESOME category, but I sure do. If you want to read more about it, check out the link below?

Source: The Macbook Air Project

Java isn’t just coffee…
As everyone in the Information Technology knows, Java is a programming language that was developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990′s. Today, Java is considered one of the standard programming language in the industry and everyone who graduates from a Computer Science program worth throwing a stick at is required to know it. All in all, Java is a major slam dunk by Sun Microsystems.

Part of the reason why Java is such a success is that, as programming languages go, it is one of the easiest to work with. Anyone with experience with a systems-level programming language like C will tell a Java programmer to count their blessings. Java programs are also “safe” in the sense that no Java program is able to crash another Java program. This is accomplished through the use of something called a Java Virtual Machine that serves as a container for each Java application.

As with all things in Computing, it is not uncommon for one company to think they can do something better than another company. This has lead to the development of over Java Virtual Machines besides the Sun Microsystems JVM. Apple has implemented their own JVM for use on their Mac computers, and Google implemented their own JVM for use on Android.

Here beginith the drama.
Thursday Oracle, a major technology company that acquired Java developer and owner Sun Microsystems earlier this year, sued Google over their Java Virtual Machine, Dalvik.

Don’t get any dirt in a clean room.
In the fast-paced world of computing, this practice is not uncommon. A lot of todays popular technologies are based on clones of previous technologies and ideologies. This is done using the concept of “clean room development.” The idea of clean room development allows a company to clone a technology without infringing on any intellectual property of the company that originally developed the technology.

Whenever a lawsuit like this appears, the first questions that are going to be asked are about practices the defendant used to develop their clone. In this situation, Oracle is going to want to see proof that Google did not directly use Oracle programming as a reference for the Google JVM. Instead, Google will be required to show that they first used one team to create a specification for how the Oracle JVM worked, then had that reviewed by a lawyer, and then wrote their code off of the specification they developed – instead of directly off of the other code.

To be honest, I don’t see Google being stupid enough to neglect this protocol. What is more likely to be the issue at hand is whether or not Google could in fact form a “clean room.” There are people at Google like Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, who were employed by Sun Microsystems while they were in the process of first developing Java in the 1990′s. Without a doubt, Schmidt will have had some inside knowledge of the techniques Sun Microsystems used in their implementation of Java.

Quite frankly, if I were Google – I would be nervous if Schmidt had any direct involvement with the development of the Dalvik JVM. Google’s only hope in this issue is that they were conscious of the potential inside knowledge Schmidt could have had, and used some method of documentation to show that no inside understanding of Sun technology was used to improve the performance of the Dalvik JVM.

There have been a lot of lawsuits recently, and I’ve responded to most of them with an attitude of distain because I believe a lot of them are a question of well-dated patents being used to claim ownership to innovations made by other people. What we see here is a completely different situation. Many people have been using this lawsuit to open the question of whether or not Software Patents should be allowed on the basis that they hinder innovation. I’ll let that sit for another post, but what I will say for now is that with the way the law is written today, I feel that Oracle has a strong case against Google.

I’m the last person that wants to see Android suffer, but I, like many others, will be following this case closely in the coming months.

I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Since the federal government ruled that jailbreaking was an exception to the DMCA copyright law, it has been getting coverage on major media networks like CNN Headline News. This means that more of the less tech savy users out there will join the jailbreak bandwagon, and malicious programmers will have a much larger target.

Apple really should act in the interest of their users and come up with a sanctioned jailbreak, but good luck getting Steve Jobs to agree to that.

Source: Computer World

For those who don’t know, BlackBerry’s internal network is entirely encrypted making it hard for governments to peek into for “law enforcement” purposes. Essentially, RIM could tell them to take a hike. However by locating a Messenger server in-country, the Saudis would have legal leverage over the contents of the server.

Here’s my question: should this be a big deal? Part of me is screaming because I don’t trust the Saudi’s (which I, unlike most Americans, will credit to a lack of understanding of what they’re about and the influence of mainstream media as opposed to any real knowledge) while the other part of me acknowledges their need to enforce their laws appropriately. Just food for thought.

Source: Reuters.com