Whether it’s a home office or a large business, computer and monitors use and waste a large amount of electricity as well as increasing our carbon foot print. A computer left running overnight or for the weekend is where more of the wasted electricity is found as over 30 million of the 60 million home computers and the 104 million office computers are left on. This means about 15 million tons of wasted energy every year.

Many people find their computers producing decorative screensavers are also adding to their carbon footprint since computer still have to run at full power to be able to produce this screensaver. Screensaver isn’t the only piece of computer which using this much energy just sitting on our desks. Yet there is an option for many of us who have to leave our desk several times a day to tend to other business. One person’s carbon footprint from just their home computer can be reduced by more then 650 pounds a year at the same time they save $30 to $50 on their electricity bill just by adding an Ecobutton.

The Ecobutton is a lighted device that sits on your desk just like your mouse and connects to your computer by a USB cable as a reminder of reducing our footprint. Whether it’s a short or long break, you can just simply press the button and your computer slips into an “ecomode” saving energy by slipping into using the same amount of power it uses when your computer is shut down.

Another reminder to boost your choices to reduce your carbon footprint is the software that comes with the Ecobutton. This software tells you how much power, how much money, and how many carbon units you have save by using the Ecobutton.

The Ecobutton is just one more small way each person can reduce their carbon footprint and increase the money in their pocket. With money being tight and our knowledge of the importance of going green, Ecobutton gives us one more step in the right direction, but isn’t the only positive advantage. It also saves us time. To be able to reduce our carbon footprint without the Ecobutton means we have to wait for our computers to reboot on our return.

Saving time and money at the same moment we are reducing our carbon footprint make the Ecobutton a good choice as an addition to all the computer equipment on our desk. The only downfall that can be found is there is no price or information to purchase. This can only be done by emailing the company directly. So check it out and see what you think.

Remember always, that physical security encompasses both physical connectivity and availability. It is no good having the most physically secure core components if they are inaccessible. The access types and capabilities will vary in accordance with the purpose of the access and the entity requesting that access.

The major desirable attributes of core components are maximizing up time, reliability, availability, stability, confidentiality and authorized accessibility with the appropriate privileges of course. Down time, particularly of the unplanned variety has no place here.

Achieving these objectives is no mean feat but we are now going to take our first steps in this area. Eliminating all public access to the core components of our communications and networking structure is a good place to start. Let us start by reviewing the first seven rules of location and placement.

The Rules of Location and Placement

Here again are the first seven rules of location and placement.

1. Restrict Access

The first rule of location and placement tells us to whenever and wherever possible locate core components, devices and infrastructure where the public cannot gain free access to them. Be aware that you also need to secure your core devices and infrastructure against subversion from within.

2. Camouflage and Concealment

The second rule of location and placement states that if infrastructure and core components must pass through a publicly accessible location then camouflage and conceal them to keep them out of sight. Use camouflage to your advantage. For more see Location and Placement.

3. Lock Up and Lock Down

Complement your secure location and placement of core components in a secure location with the appropriate lock up and lock down measures.

Incorporating locking devices of all types in your physical security strategies is imperative. These measures should compliment one another and any additional lock down technologies and procedures that you implement.

Monitoring and alarm systems have a big role to play in heightening the security of core components.

4. Eighty/Twenty

Location and placement rule four (the 80/20 rule) - 80% of the entire network's traffic should remain local while only 20% leaves the local network. The local traffic and the local network traffic are relative to the subnet(s), internal network(s), external network(s) and internetworks in question.

Only 20% of the total network traffic should travel over internal core links or the exterior (e.g. the Internet or another branch). Local traffic is between devices located on the same network segment (subnet).

Provision for organization-wide structures and subdivisions such as branches, facilities, buildings, departments, work groups, functionalities, services, logical associations, processes, traffic type, priorities etc. needs inclusion.

5. Proximity

Location and placement rule five is the proximity rule which tells us that wherever possible all devices including core components, that have a physical and logical relationship (linked or associated in some way e.g. subnets, work group membership) should be located as physically near to each other as possible.

This means that you would place all devices servicing B Block together. The distribution layer routers, switches and servers for B Block would be located in the same rack.

6. Reflection

The sixth rule of location and placement states that physical location, placement and naming should reflect both physical and logical associations as well as any other relevant relationships and dependencies. This holds true for communications and network core components.

7. Redundancy

Location and placement rule seven is the redundancy rule. Whenever possible ensure that you have included adequate and appropriate redundancy features into your network design. The production environment implementation should reflect this. Having redundant core components adds reliability and robustness to communications and networking environments.

The Location and Placement of Core Components

Once again that old saying about “location, location, it's all about the location” comes to mind as does “Out of sight, out of mind”.

Unrestricted Public Access

Unlike devices placed in areas permitting free and unrestricted public access, because you have no other practical or feasible alternative, core components and infrastructure beg strict adherence to the first three rules of location and placement.

This brings forth the question “What about rule two how and where do camouflage and concealment come into the picture?”

Concealment

Concealment is achieved simply be locating your core components in a location that has highly restrictive accessibility. One easy way of doing this is by ensuring that there are no less than five controlled access points en route from the most proximal publically accessible area to the core component facility.

Controlled Access Routes

Controlled access routes also help to regulate staff access to the facility housing your core components. Members of staff with no immediate and legitimate purpose for needing access to the core components facility will find that, just like the public they too cannot gain access unheralded.

No Justification

There is most definitely no justifiable reason that members of the public should or might need access to the core components facility. In fact, this applies to all persons other than the communications and networking teams.

Any necessary transient visitations (technicians etc.) are manageable by authorizing and regulating such events as and when required. Once concluded all access authorization and permissions are withdrawn.

Camouflage

Camouflage is achievable by not having a whole pile of signs saying things like “Core infrastructure this way.” In other words, do not advertise your core center's location. Those who need to go there will know where it is. Do not place your core center where outsiders can look in.

Public Free Zone

Selection of a “public free zone” for the location of your key communications and networks core components and infrastructure will go a long way to achieving as high a level of physical security possible.

There is absolutely no reason why any anonymous member of the public should ever need to access your communications and network core components. Permitting the public the freedom to access your core components at will is just crying out for a catastrophe to strike you down.

Security in Depth

Implementation of multiple additional layers of physical security along the access route to the secure location in which you have placed your core components is essential. This strategy goes by the name of security in depth.

Although, we are focusing on and dealing with the physical elements of this strategy here it would still be amiss of me not to mention that additional procedural and logical security measures also need implementing.

Subversion From Within

You should also take into consideration the sad reality of subversion from within. Whether the intentions are malicious or not, some people just cannot help themselves from putting a spanner in the works.

Lock Up and Lock Down

No prizes for guessing that the “lock up and lock down” rule location and placement involves locks and keys as well as biometrics and other security-oriented aspects such as authentication and identification procedures and processes.

The exact manner of the implementation of these initiatives I will not go into here now but stay tuned because I will elaborate further in another article.

Physically Secure Locations

Place as many; if not all, network core components into as secure an environment as you possibly can. This should include such core components as servers, routers, switches, administrative access workstations and major communications links and equipment. However, this does not mean that they will all be in the same room.

Physical Security Perspective

From a physical security perspective, a secure environment means a whole lot more than just locks and keys, video cameras and security guards. It also includes the actual physical “health” and functional availability of the devices concerned.

Core Component Facility Environment

Environmental control systems such as air-conditioning are an essential part of every communications and networking core components facility. Their management and delivery is also a matter for physical security and not just the maintenance staff.

Utilities

Utilities such as electricity and communications links (telephone lines, leased lines, cable etc.) are other key mission critical service components that need addressing from a physical security perspective.

Next time we will look into Mission Critical Components. Until then enjoy!

People who have tried running Java Server Pages on a web server running in a Java Runtime Environment would have seen an issue while starting the server: “JAVA_HOME is pointing to the Java Runtime Environment and not to the Java Development Kit”.

We know that to run java applications, we need a Java Virtual Machine and we already have one by installing the Java Runtime Environment. But then why is the server complaining that Java Runtime Environment alone is not sufficient?

Though java applications run equally well on systems those have a Java Development Kit or a Java Runtime Environment than what is the difference between the two? Should I use a Java Runtime Environment or a Java Development Kit for my java applications? To answer these questions let us understand “What are the Java Runtime Environment and the Java Development Kit composed of?”

The Java Runtime Environment contains these main components:

Java Virtual Machine Standard java packages

The Java Development Kit has a java compiler in addition to the Java Virtual Machine and the standard packages (i.e. Java Virtual Machine + standard packages + java compiler). A Java Runtime Environment is sufficient just to run java applications, but to develop a java application you will need a Java Development Kit because only the Java Development Kit has the java compiler required to compile the application that you are developing.

Coming back to the earlier Java Server Page issue, Java Server Pages are compiled by the server at runtime and hence requires a java compiler and thus the need for a Java Development Kit.

I hope I have provided clarity about java runtime environment.

My endangered species games failed to find a market. I should have listened to the industry insider who told me "people interested in the environment are usually better educated and better off than most people, but they don't spend their money. They're all talk, and they're cheap." Apart from being about "the environment", the games also suffer from that other "kiss of death": they're "educational".

Oh dear. Environmental, educational, and aimed at a market which won't spend its money. Strike three, and I'm out of business.

Despite the dismal prognosis at birth, the games - The Whale Game, The Rhino Game, The Polar Bear Game, and The Mapinguari Game; the last one involving an effort to save the legendary Mapinguari by saving the Amazon Rainforest, its critically endangered habitat – gained generous reviews.

Dave Clawson of the International Rhino Foundation said he "found (The Rhino Game) enjoyable and…educational. I think the simplicity of the format would work well with children; it encourages them to read and follow along (versus a first person shoot ‘em up game), it lets the user make choices, and it has an element of adventure, all while it attempts to inform them about rhino smuggling.”

One student, Amy Brockmeyer, wrote to say 'I just played the rhino game. It is hard. I think I made all wrong choices. I ended up losing and with minus 35 points and nothing but a rhino horn. I am going to try to master this game. This is awesome."

A review in The Oceanside Star, a Canadian newspaper, said I "obviously believe that if we are to save the earth and its endangered species, we must enlist the younger generation – and if we do that, we’d better make it technology friendly and fun…Each game (The Rhino Game, The Whale Game, and Mapinguari – a giant sloth that lives in the Amazon) leads the player on an adventure to help him or her save the species. Along the way the adventurer learns a great deal and has a lot of fun. (The games' creator) believes his product is filling a niche market, namely parents who want their children to be more conscious of the environment. “

As it turned out, it wasn't even a niche market. It was non-existent.

I even had the games include a lot of action and some violence - but players don't inflict it. They try to stop it. The games are also competitive; each completed game receives a Rating so players can see if they improve as they play more games or if they can do better than other players.

Most of The Rhino Game occurs in Africa's Garamba National Park. Players must struggle to even reach the park, but once there they encounter hostile rhino horn poachers, suspicious park rangers, inquisitive European TV crews, cruel wild-life smugglers, greedy bushmeat traders, angry elephants and hippos, and indigenous peoples whose lives have been ravaged by war.

They could be attacked by elephants in musth or rhinos protecting their young, find themselves in a river with angry hippos, try to rescue a rhino from a mine-field, try to hide from, or even shoot down, spotter planes, or witness a fight between a rhino and an elephant. They might suffer tropical diseases or their donkeys and horses could become ill. If things go really wrong, they have to leave as quickly as possible!

In The Polar Bear Game players go to the Russian Arctic, struggling with snowstorms and whiteouts; trucks getting stuck in melting permafrost, breaking down, being stolen, or catching fire; snow-mobiles crashing through thin ice; expedition members becoming ill; angry polar bears attacking their snowmobiles or camp; and suspicious indigenous peoples.

Players tranquilize selected polar bears to take blood samples to assess their health and record sightings of individual bears and female bears with cubs.

Players in The Mapinguari Game collect photographs, video, audio recordings, samples of droppings, and DNA and blood samples etc. as evidence of Mapinguari’s existence, hoping it will persuade the world community to protect the animal. Protection would mean protecting its habitat, the tropical rainforests, and, therefore, saving the forest’s indigenous peoples and their cultures.

On daily treks through the forest they face hostile ranchers, farmers, loggers, and gold miners, tropical diseases and infestations of parasites and insects, campaigns by skeptical scientists to discredit them, floods and fires threatening their camp, and attacks by anacondas, jaguars, and piranhas.

If players accumulate sufficient points, they select the evidence and arguments to use in a presentation to the United Nations which decides Mapinguari's – and The Amazon's – fate.

Players in The Whale Game observe the health of several oceans, test the DNA of whale meat bought in Japan or Iceland, and encounter hostile whaling fleets, hurricanes or typhoons, tsunamis, industrial fishing fleets, fishers using destructive driftnets, rogue waves, and many kinds of ocean pollution, including oil spills, plastics, sewage, fertilizers, and toxic chemicals. They try to divert a naval fleet heading for collision with a pod of whales and witness titanic struggles between whales and giant squid. They must also accurately identify any whales they see.

When they return home, they present their data and observations to the world community. Hopefully, whales and their ocean habitat will be protected!

Unfortunately for these endangered species, they won't be helped by educational, "environmental" games. There's so many "shoot 'em up" games which dominate the market.

After all, destroying is so much more fun than protecting and saving.

I should have known better than to take the path "less traveled by"; as Frost said, "that has made all the difference."