Once your lucky, twice your good, can be said about Baker College of Flint winning the 2009 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio this past weekend. (April 17th – 19th)  The team of eight Students successfully defended thier National title from last year and became the first school to ever win the title for a second time, let alone in a row.

This was the fourth year for the competition and out of the eight teams participating three were former champions.  The teams hoping to snag a second championship was the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, Texas A&M, and of coarse Baker College. The other teams participating was Northeastern University, Dekota State University, Cal Poly Pomona, and University of Washington. Each team performed exceptionally well, and it was noted that this years group participating was the best so far in both talent and skill compared to previous competitions. Each team in order to get to this level have to pass a Regional Competition where only the first place team is given the priviledge to go on to the National levels, some teams even had to participate in state qualifiers in order to go on to the regional level.

Baker College was considered the underdogs in the previous year and their winning of the national title was questionable in the previous year, but when it came time for the winners to be announced this year the name Baker College was met with a round of applause from the entire room as many were happy to see the college once again excel in the competition. Baker College has been participating in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition since 2006 where it was invited to the Midwest Regional Competition in Urbana Illinois.  The school slapped together a team of eight individuals who were tasked to learn all they could withing a month and a half time in the utter hopes they wouldn’t go and embarrass themselves.  The team has since gained confidence and assurance that what they know and their abilities are comparable to that of any student within a large University or even in the professional world.

The students work hard for nearly a year to prepare themselves for these competitions now.  Taking the time to learn how to set up servers running services such as Active Directory, an E-commerce site, and Email.  The students require knowledge in many areas of the IT Industry such as knowledge of Microsoft Operating Systems, Unix and Linux Systems and even properly configuring Cisco devices. This competition has provided a pratical means to learn how to perform such tasks that they learn about in the classroom.  Along with learning important services that are routine for running a business network the students also learn how to set up monitoring software and various issues regarding security.  The team is student lead, while their Acedemic Advisor, Van Scott does provide support and information to them when needed, for the most part the team looks to themselves for encouragement and the direction they need to take in order to propery prepare for these events.

Some might think that two is enough and three is being a bit greedy, but as for the Baker College team they indend to continue doing these competitions even if that means evident defeat.  After all it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about learning.  That’s what these competitions are all about.  Winning is just a perk, but what really matters is what you take away from these competitions.

The image is almost too good to be true. For the past two years I’ve been hearing rumors of a possible tablet coming from Apple. This is just the type of device that Apple needs to get their hands on and do what they did for the mp3 player to the tablet PC.

The tablet PC’s been out for years but no one’s made an innovation into the technology to really make it.  Most tablets are too bulky holds a price twice the amount you could get a good laptop for, and have a crummy battery life. The current tablets have a swivel screen and keyboard that can fold up for tablet use, but this makes the device extremely bulky. Plus there is the weight in such a device, something your going to carry in your hand similar like a tablet of paper can’t weigh very much. To sum it all up, current Tablet PC’s just blow.

Now there isn’t any official news from apple concerning this image, so no exact details on the hardware. At this point everything is simply speculation. From the looks in the picture this device has no keyboard and is simply a screen where all your input is by touch input. Which is awesome, that’s the step these machines need to go.  As far as connections, I’m sure it’ll have plenty of usb ports, 4 -5 at the least.  It’ll obviously be wireless, it would be nice to have an ethernet port on it. From a IT standpoint that would be perfect for performing tests in a wiring closet.  It looks like it’ll be running OSX, which a full OS would be just fine.

Now it’s been speculated that Apple might be announcing the release of a Tablet PC in June.  This coincides with this years WWDC and with the return of Steve Jobs form his sabbatical.  Now other than OS 10.6 being released, there really isn’t anything new or big to be discussed at the developers conference.  So it makes sense that Apple’s holding back on something big (like a tablet) to unveil at the conference to get developers cracking on what they do best.

Whether this is a very well done photoshop, or this is truly a leak of a concept from Apple. I truly hope one day soon we’ll start seeing devices like this not only from Apple but from many manufacturers. Until then, I’ll continue to set my hopes high for an Apple Tablet.

This caught me as hysterical; According to this slashdot article; McDonald’s Restaurant everyone’s favorite fastfood joint, has filed a patent on how to create a sandwich.

They’ve even gone as far as creating a flowchart (shown left) on how to properly assemble a sandwhich.

Now, my thoughts is this is retarded; Next someone’s going to patent walking or breathing. But this is being taken seriously by the patent office.  Hopefully we won’t be required to pay royalties everytime we want to brown bag our lunch.

Thanks to geekculture.com a list of our geek operatives have been leaked.  Thanks for ruining our fun guys!

This is something that’s been on my mind for a couple of weeks, and now I’m finally ready to addiquatley cover the topic.

For about two years I suffered from an addiction to World of Warcraft.  This covered my life from the period of around spring 2006 to this late summer of around August 2008.  During this time I’d find myself playing anywhere from twelve to even sixteen hours a day.  Playing the moment I woke up to late hours into the night or even the early morning.  During this time I found myself blowing off engagments with friends and even skipping classes in college to play the game.

I can recall atleast once that this addiction cost me a relationship I was very interested in pursueing with an individual.  Blowing her off to spend time playing the game because of some raid in which I was going to get some uber gear for one of my characters. This along with many times I blew off some of my closest friends to stay home and play the game. Through those actions I’ve become distant to these people I once valued so much.

I even suffered in college due to my addiction. As I became more and more enthralled into the game my grades began to slip to the point I began failing most of my classes.  A direct corralation exists between the time I began to slip in college and the time I played WoW.  While I have been able to get two recieve two accosiate degree’s I am suffering due to my actions in my persuit of a Bachalor’s Degree.

Since I’ve sworn off the game, I’ve been able to begin to regain my academic standings.  I’ve begun to accel again in my classes as I’ve become emerged in my studies immensely. Sadly I’ve accepted that most relationships scolded by the experience is irrecoverable, yet I’ve learned from the experience.

I am fortunate to some who have suffered greater loss due to such an addiction.  Many people who have come out admitting a World of Warcraft addiction has suffered loss of a job or even divorce.  I am glad to admit I’ve never lost a job over such an addiction. While it has hindered my search for one during times I’ve been unemployed.

I am proud to say I have learned from this experience, and have no intent or desire to go back to the game. As I will also be weiry of participating in any other Mass Online Multiplayer game in the future.

Here is the truth behind the whole I’m a…… Campaign.

I was watching the New NBC series “Knight Rider” on sci-fi earlier, they were replaying the premiere episode.  Figured I had to watch at least one episode, give the series a chance.  And wouldn’t you know it something caught my attention.  It wasn’t the beautiful actress Deanna Russo striping into her underwear withing the first 15 minutes, but it was the type of technology they were mimicking on the series.  In the HQ and on the windshield of the car K.I.T.T. you’d see windows pop up like on a computer screen.  Even more you would see in the HQ the tech’s were manipulating windows on a interface, where a keyboard would be on a desktop.  By touch technology they were able to move, view, and send these windows to other screens in the complex or even transmitted to the car itself.  The first thought that came to my mind was that’s Microsoft Surface technology!

I first seen this technology on a webcast Bill Gates gave.  It was simply a table that’s surface was a computer screen that interacted with touch and objects placed on it.  At first sight I instantly thought, “wow! this is the future.” Gates demonstrated how by simply placing a cellphone on the table would display a personal desktop you could manage.  And by placing a business card on the tables and sliding the digital image it displayed on the table’s surface you could simply drag and drop the info it provided into your contact list on  your personal desktop, that would then be added to your phone.  It was just amazing what he was able to do with this demo.

Now, Microsoft has been heavily focused on touch technology over the past few years, the surface is only the first product that reaps the rewards of this research.  The most recent demo’s of Microsoft’s next operating system code named “Windows 7” is flooded with touch technology.  Microsoft knows the next big thing for computers is touch interfaces and they are doing all they can to be the first ones to provide it.  The technology has been around for years, many fast food restaurants use cash registers that is touch based to take orders, even going to the Supermarket, like Kroger, or a Wal-mart you see touch screens in the self check out lines.  It’s in our smart phones, in tablet pc’s.  But what Microsoft has developed with the technology behind the surface is cutting edge to these types of screens.  What we’re used to seeing at stores and on tablet pc’s use a special type of screen that detects touch on a grid, the Microsoft Surface technology utilizes camera’s to detect placement of touch.

Just imagine Your computer in 7-10 years.  No keyboard, no mouse.  All you have is a flat desktop with a screen beneath it projecting a computer desktop.  To write a paper, you have to start a program that displays keys before you similar to what used to be a key board, and to navigate anywhere you simply point and click using your index finger.  Heck even to save a file to a disk you don’t need a usb drive anymore, they’ve turned into more of a credit card you place on the table that on contact connects to the computer as a connected disk drive.  The possibilities are endless, and will happen.

Right now, it may seem like a Microsoft thing, but before long, once it catches on; it’ll be produced by others.  Heck there will probably be an Apple version and a linux version even.  We’re looking at a technology similar to the beginning of the PC Industry, where Apple released the first home computer and it was unforeseen that there would be anyone else.

Personally I can’t wait, I’m excited over the whole thing. I can’t wait for this technology to progress and be available to the average consumer.

Just released Ping 2.0.  A windows application that utilizes the ping utility. Check it out!

This is probably the latest April Fools joke of the year, or not; perhaps no one found it until today. Nonetheless here is the “leaked” source code for Windows Vista. I just hope Microsoft doesn’t come and sue me or something!

If three years ago you were to tell me I’d be on a Cyber Defense team that would be capable of winning a state competition then go onto a regional competition and then make it to a national level competition; I’d never have believed it. Now if your wondering what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition hosted by the Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA).

Now this is really a big thing, it may not seem like it; Heck I don’t even fully realize how big this is and I’m a part of it. But this is an event where select colleges come to compete against each other first at a state level, then onto a regional level, and finally to the national level. It tests how participants can handle a mock up network against real life situations be it through defense against hackers or simply adding some new type of application to the current network structure. This event is only four years old, and my college Baker College of Flint, Michigan has been participating in it for the past three years. But over the past four years this competition has really built up to becoming a huge thing in IT World of Business. We’ve even caught the attention of the US Government.

Now this is how I got caught up into all of this. If you really want to know more about the completion itself check out the National CCDC website. Anyways, I received a call one Saturday morning three years ago sometime in January about being put on a list to participate in a computer security competition. I was kind of shocked about it and didn’t really know what it was all about. But over the next few days I started hearing more about from friends at the college who was also approached about it. Now right from the start I didn’t think I was good enough to be on this team having no background or idea about computer security at the time. Nevertheless I was selected as one of 8 participants to represent the college. The catch was to participate we needed to submit a resume about our computer knowledge and I believe an essay. (certain details a fuzzy to me being it was so long ago.) I remember it was deadline day and we had to have our stuff in by then to be able to participate, and I hadn’t done anything. My main reason for not doing a resume or essay was that I thought there was a ton of candidates and I had no chance of being selected. Yet the team captain who was in charge of getting things around for this, insisted I get my stuff turned in, so I quickly wrote up a resume and essay and emailed it. Turns out they only had 8 people in mind and they just wanted the resume and essay for please the deans or something like that. But I was on the team, and as a Linux administrator at that. I will always say this competition is what made me so knowledgeable at Linux and pushed me more away from Windows Administration; which is true. So anyways I was on the team and we were set on preparing for something we had no idea what we were getting caught up in. The details of how we did the first year isn’t really all that important, but the fact was we were a small college competing against universities. We figured we had no chance, but it was worth traveling and getting away to have some fun.

Now I never competed the second year the college went, being I attended a different campus, but the original team was mostly there take away a couple members. And they did great, the second year they participated added a state level competition and they took first place which qualified them to go to regionals and they fared well I’m told at regionals. But this year the third year is when our college shined. I’m going to get out of the way the irony of third time’s a charm, because oddly it really is. We qualified for regionals at the state level competition taking second place by a difference of one point. Going onto regionals my only mind set was “we made it this far, I expect nothing else”. But to my surprise after sitting in a warm over crowded lecture hall waiting for the results of this years regional competition, I uttered a “holy shit” as the first place team, the team who would be going to San Antonio, TX to compete against the top six teams in the nation.

So now I sit hear with only two more weeks before I board a plane to Texas, still not having the fact that we are Midwest Regional Champions and are taking on all the big boys sink in. I guess I’ve done god for myself being someone who never really thought he was good enough to be able to do this.