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FYI: Nokia battery recall
by billing 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

...from: http://www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/ This is a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia battery. Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation. Nokia has several suppliers for BL-5C batteries that have collectively produced more than 300 million BL-5C batteries. This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. There have been approximately 100 incidents of over heating reported globally. No serious injuries or property damage have been reported. Consumers with a BL-5C battery subject to this advisory should note that all of the approximately 100 incidents have occurred while charging the battery. According to Nokia's knowledge this issue does not affect any other use of the mobile device. Concerned consumers may want to monitor a mobile device while charging that contains a BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory. While the occurence in the BL-5C batteries produced by Matsushita in the time-period specified is very rare, for consumers wishing to do so, Nokia and Matsushita offer to replace for free any BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory. The BL-5C batteries which are subject to the product advisory were used with the following Nokia models or separately as accessories: Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60 To determine if your battery is in the recall, proceed to the above link and follow the battery identification procedure laid out there.

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INTEREST: Sun's ZFS compared with Windows 2003 Server NTFS
by billing 12 Aug '07

12 Aug '07

Sun Microcomputer's latest data management technology (the Zettabyte File System or ZFS) seeks to address the vulnerable areas of current disk management systems: vulnerable to silent data corruption, difficult to manage, and slow. Many current microcomputer OSs fall into this "vulnerable, difficult, and slow" category. Both Apple Inc. and Sun Microcomputer have announced that ZFS is coming to OS X. This Sun white paper (http://www.sun.com/software/whitepapers/ solaris10/zfs_msft.pdf?cid=920608) compares ZFS abilities with a current server OS: Windows 2003 Server. http://www.sun.com/software/whitepapers/solaris10/zfs_msft.pdf? cid=920608 One example from the paper deals with the integrity of data on disk and how to ensure that this data does not suffer any "silent" corruption: "File systems such as Microsoft Windows Server 2003 NTFS permit on- disk data to be inconsistent for varying amounts of time. If an unexpected system crash or reboot occurs while the on-disk state is inconsistent, the file system requires repair during the next boot cycle using a combination of utilities such as CHKDSK and metadata logging that requires a log replay. On the other hand, Solaris ZFS provides consistent on-disk data and error detection and correction, ensuring data consistency while maintaining high performance levels. "File system corruption can be caused by disk corruption, hardware or firmware failures, or software or administrative errors. Validation at the disk block interface level can only catch some causes of file system corruption. Traditionally, file systems trust the data read in from disk. However, if the file system does not validate read data, errors can result in corrupted data, system panics, or more. File systems should validate data read in from disk in order to detect downstream data corruption, and correct corruption automatically, if possible, by writing the correct block back to the disk. Such a validation strategy is a key design goal for Solaris ZFS."

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INTEREST: less cell time means more face-to-face... who knew?
by billing 04 Aug '07

04 Aug '07

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/business/04network.html? pagewanted=2&th&emc=th What’s Good for a Business Can Be Hard on Friends By ANGEL JENNINGS Published: August 4, 2007 A month ago, Brandy McDowell sat down with her longtime friend, Kezia Chandler, and told her she had switched cellphone carriers. Their relationship has not been the same since. Now, they barely speak. Ms. Chandler rushes Ms. McDowell off the phone when she calls during her lunch break. And long conversations about schoolwork and relationship woes have been reduced to sound bites. Maybe they should blame the cellphone carriers. The carriers, after all, set up plans that encourage subscribers to talk mainly to people in the same network. The companies say they are simply trying to recruit and retain customers. But what was set up as a purely business strategy is having an unintentional social effect. It is dividing the people who share informal bonds and bringing together those who have formal networks of cellphone “friends.” That is most true for people younger than 25 because they are the ones who see the cellphone as an extension of themselves. They are constantly sending text messages, making calls, checking the time, scheduling appointments, calculating math, taking photos, playing games or looking up something on the Internet. Those who talk the most on the phone are ages 18 to 24, according to a study of cellphone use by Telephia Inc., a San Francisco research firm that follows cellphone trends. In the first quarter of 2007, this group sent and received on average 290 calls a month, the study found. Text messaging was highest, Telephia said, among 13- to 17- year-olds, who averaged 435 messages a month. By contrast, cellphone users 45 to 54 years old spoke on the phone 194 times, on average, a month and sent only 57 text messages. David S. Hachen, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame who looked at cellphone use and its effects on people’s relationships, said he had found that cellphone networks tend to be a reflection of friendship networks. “Friendship networks,” he said, “tend to be larger in younger groups, but they have weaker ties with those they talk with. But as they get older, the networks are smaller and they have stronger ties.” Some experts worry that cellphones will replace face-to-face contact, said Scott Campbell, who teaches communication studies at the University of Michigan. But after he conducted research on the impact of cellphones on social networks, Mr. Campbell said he concluded that cellphones actually enhanced the bonds between users. “Who young people talk to says something symbolically about who they are tied to,” Mr. Campbell said in an interview. “And who they are talking to the most are their close friends.” Rich Ling, a sociologist at Telenor’s communication research institute in Norway, who wrote a book on cellphone use called “The Mobile Connection: The Cellphone’s Impact on Society,” added that cellphones blur the lines of when an encounter starts and when it ends. “Young people are not just talking for two hours, but they are continually connecting through the day,” he said. He cited the young couple who send text messages and call each other all day to set up details of a date. “When does the date start, or does it start when they are sending messages back and forth?” Mr. Campbell describes text messaging as the equivalent of passing notes in class, though they are more fragmentary and more frequent. “A lot of people think these messages are meaningless, but they are actually symbolic gestures of friendship,” he said. Unlike traditional landline telephones, which once made callers distinguish between local and long distance, cellphone carriers divide the world into in-network and outside. And because basic plans from the three major cellphone carriers, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, are all about the same price — under $60 a month — the deciding factor for young people, in particular, is what network friends are on. Carriers are giving customers more options to stay connected with people outside their network. This year, T-Mobile introduced a plan that allows customers to choose five telephone numbers outside its network that they can call free at any time. Sprint offers night minutes that start at 7 p.m., two hours earlier than competitors. “We are trying to avoid restricting customers to just people on their network,” said a Sprint spokeswoman, Emmy Anderson. But while these plans may allow callers to talk free, the person receiving the call is still using daytime minutes. Steve Bufford, 24, of Manhattan, said he constantly monitored his out- of-network minutes. And he had to cut back on conversations with a few of his friends — “until the weekends, then we become the best of friends in the world,” he said. As for Ms. McDowell and Ms. Chandler, the two who rarely talk on the phone now, they say they visit each other more. “We used to talk every day all day,” said Ms. McDowell, a 21-year-old student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. “Now I only hear from her after 9 p.m. so she doesn’t use her minutes.” In the cellphone world, minutes mean money, a lesson young adults say they quickly learn when they move off the family plans and sign their own contracts. While they once talked freely when their parents paid the bill, they become penny pinchers when they have to pay their own way. Elisa Joris, 23, of Walled Lake, Mich., said that was exactly what happened to her. She became a Sprint customer in high school when her mother added her to the family plan. Now, seven years later, she stays with the carrier because the people she talks to the most — her brother, her former boyfriend and best friends — are all on the network. Ms. Joris said that because she no longer shared minutes with her parents, she signed up for the plan with the lowest cost even though it had the fewest minutes. For $30 a month, she gets 300 daytime minutes, but it is the free calling within the network that makes the plan a real bargain. In June, she used only 200 of those peak-hour minutes. But, she said, she spent more than 800 minutes on the phone with other Sprint customers. “I have seen bills where I have used 1,500 minutes,” she said. “I try not to talk to those who don’t have Sprint. I don’t have minutes to waste.” And while her attitude has yet to affect her relationships in a negative way, Ms. Joris said it had brought her closer to someone she now considered a friend who might have been an acquaintance if she were on another network. “One reason she talks to me more than her other friends is because we both have Sprint,” she said. Some cellphone users say they have found a way to change carriers without losing touch with friends. As they switch to new companies, they try to encourage their friends to move with them. Ms. McDowell said she followed her friends as they hopped around. In high school, she said, all her friends had the T-Mobile Sidekick — the sleek, palm-size phone with a full keypad. So she signed a two- year contract with the cellphone provider so she could send them text messages at no cost. Then in college, she said she and her friends switched to Nextel so they could “chirp” to each other on their walkie-talkie phones. Last month, she returned to T-Mobile after everybody in her circle migrated back for the new Sidekick 3. Her friend, Ms. Chandler, got lost after the second move. She still has Sprint, now part of Sprint Nextel, but she said she planned to leave once her contract expired. Ms. McDowell persuaded her to move to T-Mobile. “As soon as I can, I am on my way,” Ms. Chandler said.

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Fwd: [C-REPS] Mac OS X 10.5 - obtains UNIX 03 Certification
by billing 02 Aug '07

02 Aug '07

Apple all along has been very clear about OS X, "It is true UNIX *not* Linux nor any other form of *NIX". Pedigree and various other things have been quoted by Apple to "prove" this but having a certificate of authentication from a recognized body will definitely help if there's ever a court battle. Some of the members of the certifying organization include: - IBM - who make and sell a real UNIX - Intel - HP - who also make and sell a real UNIX - NEC - who sell UNIX machines - AT&T - who invented UNIX and own (owned?) it - SUN Microsystems - the company was founded on selling UNIX. - Carnegie-Mellon - whom you'd assume would kinda know something about UNIX - MIT - ditto - Motorola Should any customers ask about indemnification in case of being sued by someone about OS X violating patents (let's use as an arbitrary example, Microsoft) all Apple need do is reply, "UNIX does not violate any 3rd party patents." (which pretty much everyone, even Microsoft, agrees with) followed by, "Apple's OS X is certified as UNIX." Done. No indemnification necessary. Makes life in the courtroom a whole lot easier. Wayne Begin forwarded message: > From: Doug Hamilton <doug_hamilton(a)umanitoba.ca> > Date: August 2, 2007 2:12:17 PM CDT (CA) > Subject: [C-REPS] Mac OS X 10.5 - obtains UNIX 03 Certification > > Hello, > > As of version 10.5 (shipping in October of this year) Mac OS X is > will be on par with Solaris, HP-UX and IBM-AIX as a true UNIX OS > development environment. Apple has just achieved the UNIX 03 > Certification for its Mac OS X 10.5 operation system. This > certification covers, "libraries, system calls, terminal > interfaces, commands and utilities, internationalization and the C > language." > > Link to the InfoWorld article (very short). > http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2007/07/ > leopard_gets_un.html?source=rss > > > Regards, > Doug > > ------------- > Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP > Senior Computer Consultant > Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba > 204-474-6196 (Ph.) > 204-474-7556 (Fax) > http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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Office 2008 - Delayed - Mid-Jan.2008.
by Doug Hamilton 02 Aug '07

02 Aug '07

Hello, Many of you have heard that the Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) inside Microsoft is busy creating "Office 2008 for Mac". Originally, Microsoft had stated that the release window for this product as second half of this year. As of today, they pushed their release window out to mid-January 2008 for quality assurance reasons. While we still do not have a fixed release date, we have gone from a six month release window down to 30 days. For more details please see the following MacWorld article. http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/08/01/msftoffice/index.php?pf=1 Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: especially for you iPhone owners in Toronto...
by billing 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

Well, OK, maybe there aren't too many of you that fit into that category but, just in case: ...from: http://boingo.com/pr/pr160.php BOINGO GIVES IPHONE USERS FREE WI-FI AT 13 MAJOR AIRPORTS IN AUGUST Today’s Coolest Smartphone Gets Free Access to the World’s Hottest Network SANTA MONICA, Calif. – August 1, 2007 – Boingo Wireless, Inc. today announced that iPhone™ owners can enjoy free Wi-Fi as they travel for business or pleasure through 13 North American airports during the month of August. This special limited time offer is available to all iPhone owners who access the Wi-Fi networks with their iPhone, giving them an introduction to the world’s largest aggregated Wi-Fi network. iPhone owners who like what they see can sign up for and use a Boingo® account to access hundreds of partner networks comprising 100,000+ hotspots. With Boingo Wireless, users of Apple Inc.’s sexy new smartphone can enjoy the full spectrum of coolness available via the iPhone’s highly integrated functionality and multimedia applications while powered by Boingo’s broadband networks. It’s the ultimate iPhone adventure. “iPhone users are searching for Wi-Fi options that will keep the device’s coolest features and content functioning at lightning speeds when on-the-go,” said Dawn Callahan, Boingo’s vice president of consumer marketing. “With our extensive hot spot coverage, choosing Boingo is a no-brainer for iPhone users who are looking for public access options beyond EDGE. This free promotion is a great opportunity for iPhone users to see for themselves.” To enjoy complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi on the iPhone, follow these four easy steps: Connect to the “concourse” SSID with an iPhone in any of the identified airports; Launch your iPhone Safari™ browser and connect to a web page on the Internet; Enter your e-mail address in the special promotional page; Click on “Go!” During August, iPhone owners can receive free Wi-Fi access at the following airports: AZO – Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport BNA – Nashville International Airport, BWI – Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, DTW – Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, EWR – Newark Liberty International Airport, JFK – John F. Kennedy International Airport, LGA – LaGuardia Airport, MDW – Midway International Airport (Chicago), MSP – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, OKC – Will Rogers World Airport (Oklahoma City), ORD – O’Hare International Airport, STL – Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and YYZ – Toronto Pearson International Airport.

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INTEREST: LifeRecord EMR on the iPhone
by billing 25 Jul '07

25 Jul '07

Even if you aren't in the medical profession, this is an interesting demo of a patient information system available via web browsers on Windows and Macintosh...... and iPhone (kinda makes me want to become a surgeon just so I can use it.... .when I get an iPhone, of course. ::-) Wayne ...from: http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/07/25/the-iphone-really-can-save- lives/ http://emr.liferecord.com/ July 25, 2007, 3:41 pm The iPhone Really Can Save Lives! Posted by Ben Worthen The iPhone can’t do brain surgery. But it sure can help, according to one doctor, reinforcing this blog’s belief that creative iPhone users will show that the device holds great promise as a business tool – often before tech managers figure that out. For business users, the biggest advantage of the iPhone over the BlackBerry isn’t the ability to play music or its lack of buttons or its several degrees of cool. It’s the iPhone’s Web browser, which makes the phone function more like a laptop than a handheld. Dr. Robert Singer is already taking advantage of that iPhone feature. By his own admission a tech geek, the Nashville, Tenn., neurovascular surgeon initially bought an iPhone because he thought it would be a fun device to own. “I was one of the June 29ers,” he tells the Business Technology Blog, referring to the day the iPhone went on sale. But he quickly saw that the browser made it an ideal workplace tool. Video demo: http://www.youtube.com/v/uX_6yIO2bR8 Dr. Singer, who says he performs about 450 surgeries a year, uses his iPhone to access his practice’s electronic medical-records system. Thanks to the iPhone’s browser, he is able to review patients’ X- Rays, angiograms and medical histories while in the operating room. (Click on the video to the left for a demonstration.) He was never able to do this with his BlackBerry, he says; instead, he would review a patient’s file in his office the night before a surgery. Not only does the iPhone let him go into surgery fresher, he also can see updated information. Earlier this week, for example, he changed the way he performed a back operation based on notes from an old surgery that had been added to a patient’s electronic record shortly before he made his first cut.

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INTEREST: Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans
by billing 21 Jul '07

21 Jul '07

Verizon was similarly critical. “Google’s filing urges the F.C.C. to adopt rules that force all bidders to [allow consumers to buy a wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier they wanted. Instead of the wireless carrier choosing what software goes on their phones, users would be free to put any software they want on it] — which would reduce the incentives for other players to bid,” said Thomas J. Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications, in a statement ...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/technology/21google.html? pagewanted=2&th&emc=th Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans By MIGUEL HELFT and STEPHEN LABATON Published: July 21, 2007 If Google succeeds with federal regulators, it could change the way millions of Americans use their cellphones and how they connect to the Internet on their wireless devices. In the Internet giant’s view of the future, consumers would buy a wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier they wanted. Instead of the wireless carrier choosing what software goes on their phones, users would be free to put any software they want on it. Google believes that the cost of voice calls and data connections to the Internet may be partly subsidized by advertisements brought to users by Google’s powerful online advertising machine. There might even be a Google phone. That vision, according to several analysts, is the reason Google said yesterday that it would bid upward of $4.6 billion for a swath of the nation’s airwaves, which are set to be auctioned by the federal government next year — as long as certain conditions are met. But Google’s efforts to position itself on the side of the consumer are also part of a fierce lobbying battle that pits it and other tech companies against wireless carriers, who oppose conditions that Google wants to set on the winners of the auction. Verizon Wireless has called the conditions “corporate welfare for Google.” And AT&T rejected Google’s latest effort, calling it an “all or nothing ultimatum.” The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Kevin Martin, has come out squarely against two of Google’s four proposed conditions. The F.C.C.’s rules governing the auction could shape the landscape for the next generation of mobile telephones and wireless Internet use. “When you go to Best Buy to buy a TV, they don’t ask whether you have cable or satellite,” said Blair Levin, a former F.C.C. official who is now an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Company. “When you buy a computer, they don’t ask what kind of Internet service you have, and the computer can run any application or service. That doesn’t exist in the wireless world. That’s where Google wants to go with this auction.” Google has already invested millions of dollars in mobile phone technology, in part, to develop a comprehensive set of software for mobile devices that goes well beyond the mobile search and map services it already offers. Rumors about a Google phone that would provide easy access to the company’s mobile services have been persistent. The company has been characteristically circumspect about its mobile plans, and just this week, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, deflected questions from an analyst about plans for a mobile phone. “We have looked pretty carefully at wireless and are thinking about what we want to do there,” Mr. Schmidt said. But Mr. Schmidt stressed the importance to Google of a network where anyone could plug in any device and have access to the full abilities of the Internet. In such an environment, Mr. Schmidt noted, mobile phone users would become significant consumers of online advertising, Google’s core business. Google fears that some of its mobile efforts could be thwarted — or prove less lucrative — if a handful of cellphone carriers continue to dominate the wireless Internet world and retain the power to determine what services and applications run on their networks. Google’s set of proposed rules would have the F.C.C. require that any devices and any application could be connected to the wireless network using the auctioned spectrum. Further, they would require that whoever wins the spectrum make a portion of it available to resellers on a wholesale basis, which Google and other technology companies believe is necessary to promote broadband competition. “I want people to have the choice to use our service,” said Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google. “That is something that I fear won’t exist in this space.” Even if Google’s service was not blocked outright, an open network would be favorable to Google’s business, as the company would not have to contract with carriers to insert ads into the service, said Paul Kedrosky, executive director of the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, San Diego. So what would Google do if its conditions were put in place and it won the auction? Mr. Sacca said that Google was not likely to build a wireless network or get into the Internet service business itself. “We could offer it to anyone who wants to collaborate with us who embraces our principles of openness,” Mr. Sacca said. The licenses, considered the beach-front property on the electromagnetic spectrum, are in the 700 megahertz band of radio frequencies, which are being surrendered by television stations as they convert to digital broadcast. The auction, to be held early next year, is expected to raise more than $10 billion in revenue for the government. The commission has been heavily lobbied in recent months about crafting auction rules. The commission is expected to issue the rules in the coming weeks. Any rules can be adopted only by a majority of the five commissioners. Mr. Martin’s draft proposal contains some elements of Google’s plan but not others. It proposed, among other things, that about one-third of the spectrum being auctioned be available for an “open network” that could be used by any mobile device or service. It also proposed no limits on the software applications used over that network. “We’re trying to ensure that we develop a wireless broadband provider who has a more open platform,” he said in an interview yesterday. He said he wanted the terms of the auction set so the winners invest in upgrading wireless networks. But he also emphasized that his proposed rules would permit the winners to resell spectrum. “If you want to be the winner of the auction, we are proposing open handsets and open applications,” he said. “If you win, you can be a wholesale supplier. Nothing prevents that.” On Thursday, AT&T said it represented a fair compromise. But yesterday, after Google said the Mr. Martin’s proposal didn’t go far enough, AT&T reacted swiftly. “This is an attempt to pressure the U.S. government to turn the auction process on its head by ensuring only a few, if any, bidders will compete with Google,” said James W. Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T, in a statement. “If Google is serious about introducing a competing business model into the wireless industry, Chairman Martin’s compromise proposal allows them to bid in the auction, win the spectrum, and then implement every one of the conditions they seek.” Verizon was similarly critical. “Google’s filing urges the F.C.C. to adopt rules that force all bidders to implement Google’s business plan — which would reduce the incentives for other players to bid,” said Thomas J. Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications, in a statement. At a Congressional hearing next Tuesday, Mr. Martin is expected to testify about the auction and the proposed rules. Some commission officials and telephone industry executives have expressed concern that Google was seeking the imposition of a wholesale requirement so that it could purposefully lose the auction, but still have access to a network at lower cost. Mr. Levin, the former F.C.C. official, suggested that Google’s latest move might simply be an effort to put pressure on the commission. “There is a significant difference between saying you are going to bid and actually bidding,” Mr. Levin said. “Lots of people in the context of an auction policy make promises,” he said. “Whether they follow through is a different matter.”

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INTEREST: Cisco access point at fault for Duke's wireless issues
by billing 20 Jul '07

20 Jul '07

...from: http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/07/20/dukecisco/index.php Cisco access point at fault for Duke's wireless issues July 20, 2007 6:11 pm ET Macworld By Jim Dalrymple After blaming Apple’s iPhone for its wireless networking problems, Duke University said earlier today that it hadn’t been able to pinpoint what the problem was. Now, it has been confirmed that a Cisco wireless access point was at fault for the networking issues. “Cisco worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem, which was caused by a Cisco-based network issue,” said Cisco in a statement provided to Macworld. “Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke’s network and the problem has not occurred since.” In a statement posted to the universities Web site late Friday Tracy Futhey, Duke’s chief information officer, said that “Earlier reports that this was a problem with the iPhone in particular have proved to be inaccurate.” Futhey went on to say that the iPhone is fully operable within Duke’s networking environment. Kevin Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke’s Office of Information Technology, laid the blame for Duke’s networking problems squarely on the iPhone. The network team began capturing wireless traffic for analysis and that’s when they discovered that the offending devices were iPhones, Miller said earlier this week. “I don’t believe it’s a Cisco problem in any way, shape or form,” Miller said firmly. Duke began backpedaling earlier today when Julian Lombardi, assistant vice president of academic services technology support for Duke University, said the university was still investigating the issue. It would appear at this point that Miller made his statements without a full report or any basis to blame the iPhone or Apple for the problems.

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INTEREST: possible iPhone network disruption
by billing 20 Jul '07

20 Jul '07

...from: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3391477 Duke: iPhone May Be Disrupting Network Apple Inc.'s flashy new iPhones may be jamming parts of the wireless network at Duke University, where technology officials worked with the company Wednesday to fix problems before classes begin next month. Bill Cannon, a Duke technology spokesman, said an analysis of traffic found that iPhones flooded parts of the campus' wireless network with access requests, freezing parts of the system for 10 minutes at a time. A single iPhone was powerful enough to cause the problem, and there are 100 to 150 of them registered on the network, Cannon said. Network administrators have noticed the problem nine times in the past week. "The scale of the problem is very small right now," said Cannon, adding that the school is working with Apple and Cisco Systems Inc., Duke's network equipment provider, to pinpoint the problem. "But the more iPhones that are around, the more they could be knocking on the door for access." The iPhone is Apple's first foray into the cellular phone business. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company released the product which combines a cell phone, media player and wireless Internet device at the end of June, with some consumers lining up outside stores days before the phones went on sale. The phones retail for $499 to $599. The gadget can access the Internet through AT&T Inc.'s Edge network or through Wi-Fi. When a Wi-Fi hotspot is unavailable, it automatically switches to the slower network but continues to check for a Wi-Fi signal. Ashok Agrawala, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland, speculated that both the phone and Duke's network are to blame for the glitches at the university. Agrawala said the phones could be struggling to regain a connection with a wireless access point, possibly when a wireless hotspot hands off to another. "When you set up a network on the campus, you set up the network to accommodate the devices you have in use," Agrawala said, noting laptops as the primary users on college campuses. "Now with the popularity of the iPhones, the network parameters may not be set right. But he added that the iPhone should be able to properly handle that problem without flooding the network. Agrawala said he also questions whether an iPhone is capable of accessing Duke's network 10,000 times a second, as found by the school's analysis. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company is working with Duke to quickly resolve the issue but didn't know details or its source. The problem has generated discussion on Internet technology forums, but there have been no reports of other networks being affected. At Maryland, for example, officials said they hadn't seen anything like the problems at Duke. Greg James, associate director of data networking at nearby North Carolina State University, said Wednesday that the school hasn't noticed any issues at its campus in Raleigh despite the usual monitoring of all wireless access points. "We're keeping a close eye out to what happens at Duke and what they find," James said.

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