VOIP News

The Internet Radio Linking Project, also called IRLP, is a project that links amateur radio stations around the world by using Voice over IP (VoIP). Each gateway consists of a dedicated computer running custom software that is connected to both a radio and the Internet. This arrangement forms what is known as an IRLP Node. Since all end users communicate using a radio as opposed to using a computer directly, IRLP has adopted the motto “Keeping the Radio in Amateur Radio”.

Amateur radio (or ham) operators within range of a local node are able to use DTMF to initiate a node-to-node connection with any other available node in the world. Each node has a unique 4 digit node number in the range of 1000-8999. A real-time searchable list of all nodes worldwide (including their current status) is available anytime by viewing the IRLP Network at a Glance. As of April 2007, there are over 1,280 nodes across 7 continents.

Stations wishing to communicate with 3 or more nodes at the same time may accomplish this by connecting to what is called an IRLP Reflector. Each reflector on the network has 10 channels (0-9) with channel 0 being the main channel. Each reflector has a unique 4 digit node number in the range of 9000-9999. The first 3 digits consist of the reflector number, while the fourth digit represents the channel number. As of April 2007, there are 20 operational reflectors (including Echo Reflector 999, which digitally records and plays back your transmission for testing purposes). Since each reflector has 10 channels, there are a total of 200 unique reflector channels available for use.

History

IRLP was invented by David Cameron, VE7LTD. Born and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Cameron attended the University of British Columbia where he joined the UBC Amateur Radio Society. He built his first repeater and computer-based repeater controller in the 1990s.

Cameron installed the first three IRLP nodes in November of 1997. They used the Windows operating system (OS) with VocalTec’s iPhone installed. There were problems with the software, mainly in the fact that iPhone is not very stable nor is it controllable. After running iPhone for close to 6 months on active connections to Vernon, British Columbia, Canada and Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Cameron decided to rebuild the nodes. This is when the Linux OS and the Speak Freely software were first tested.

On November 12, 1998, the VE7RHS node was first installed in Gage Towers, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada using Linux. A few days later, the VE7RVN node came online from the residence of Michael Paul Illingby, VE7TFD in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. Since this point, no further problems were experienced. This planted the seed for the IRLP network to grow. New nodes slowly launched across Canada, followed by the United States and worldwide.

Node numbers were originally set at 3 digits in length. Due to the extensive growth of the IRLP network, an extra digit needed to be added in 2002. Existing node numbers after this change received a trailing zero. For example, if your node number was 123, it was now 1230. All existing reflectors were also converted from single channels to 10 channels. This new type of reflector was known as a super-reflector.

Requirements

Computer

• A dedicated IBM compatible computer, Pentium class (Intel, AMD etc), running a processor clocked at least 200 MHz

• At least 128 MB of RAM

• A dedicated hard drive of at least 2 GB

• Basic (legacy) parallel port running LPT1 (or HEX 0×378/9 for the techies)

• Soundcard - most PCI cards work as do many motherboard based Chipsets but the good old ISA SoundBlaster 16 is the best

• Ethernet Adapter (Network Card) connected to the Internet

Operating System

Linux is the operating system (OS) of choice for IRLP, as it allows the best in reliability, programmability, efficiency, and functionality. Most older IRLP nodes use the Red Hat 7.3 or Red Hat 9 distribution, as they were very stable releases and ran very smoothly on any Pentium or better computer. In 2005, a custom version of Fedora Core 3 was introduced, followed by Fedora Core 5 in 2006. As of March 2007, IRLP no longer supports Red Hat and started shipping with the CentOS 4.4 distribution. This release provides greatly improved operation with more support for audio cards.

IRLP Hardware

An IRLP board is required to interface to the radio. Currently version 3.0 IRLP boards are available fully assembled and tested. Each board comes complete with all the cables between the board and computer parallel port (with sub-hoods) and terminates in a male DB-9 connector for interface into the radio. You will require a female DB-9 to interface your radio/repeater/controller and two mono or stereo 1/8″ audio jacks to connect to your sound card. The audio circuitry (since it is specific to your hardware) is the owner’s responsibility.

RF Hardware

A link radio or repeater is needed to interface to the IRLP board. The radio must have a COS (carrier operated squelch) signal. If the link radio is to be connected directly to the input/output frequencies of a repeater, the repeater must not have any hang time or courtesy tone. This can easily be accomplished using CTCSS on the repeater transmitter that follows the COS of the receiver.

See also

• EchoLink
• eQSO

External links

• The Official Site of the IRLP
• Yahoo Group

The Chilean Counter-Terrorism Unit (Spanish: Unidad Anti-Terrotista) or UAT is a tactical unit of the Chilean Air Force designated to handle terrorist threats.

The team is composed of Air Force officers experienced in close combat and terrorist situations (ie: hostage situations, bomb situations) and specially airplane kidnapping.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa’s central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the city of Pretoria.

Presently, it is the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in Africa and accounts for about 10% of the entire African R&D budget. It has a staff of approximately 3,000 technical and scientific researchers, often working in multi-disciplinary teams.

The CSIR’s main areas of research are:

• Built Environment.
• Defence, Peace, Safety and Security technologies.
• Food, biological and chemical technologies.
• Materials and manufacturing sciences.
• Natural Resources and Environment.

Institutes at the CSIR

• Meraka Institute

Research centres at the CSIR

• National Laser Centre

External links

• CSIR Website
• CSIR Research Space
• Defence Research and Development in South Africa - The Role of the CSIR
• Meraka Institute - The African Advanced Institute for Information and Communication Technology
• Transport research in the CSIR: [1]

IPDC may refer to:

• International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), an UNESCO program.

• Internet Protocol Datacasting (IPDC), which implies IP based datacasting (data broadcasting) over radio and television broadcasting networks such as DVB-H. See also IP over DVB.

• Internet Protocol Device Control (IPDC), a specification for controlling hardware devices.

The PE router, where “PE” stands for provider edge, is a router between one network service provider’s area and areas administered by other network providers. A network provider is usually an Internet Service Provider as well (or only that).

The term PE router covers equipment capable of a broad range of routing protocols, notably:

• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)

PE routers need not be aware of what kind of traffic is coming from the provider’s network. However, some PE routers also do labeling.

A J2EE application or an enterprise application is any deployable unit of J2EE functionality. This can be a single J2EE module or a group of modules packaged into an EAR file along with a J2EE application deployment descriptor. J2EE applications are typically engineered to be distributed across multiple computing tiers.

Enterprise applications can consist of the following:

• EJB modules (packaged in JAR files);
• Web modules (packaged in WAR files);
• connector modules or resource adapters (packaged in RAR files);
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) modules (packaged in SAR files);
• application client modules;
• Additional JAR files containing dependent classes or other components required by the application;
• Any combination of the above.

See also

• Enterprise software

Reference

• http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/glossary.html

The National Security Advisory Board forms the third element of the National Security Council (NSC) set up in India. It consists of persons of eminence outside the Government with expertise in external security, strategic analysis, foreign affairs, defence, the armed forces, internal security, science and technology and economics.

The board meets at least once a month, and more frequently as required. It provides a long-term prognosis and analysis to the NSC, and recommends solutions and address policy issues referred to it.

See also

• Joint Intelligence Committee
• Strategic Policy Group
• National Security Council
• National Security Advisor

Parlino was an Internet telephony (VoIP) network based on open standard SIP-protocols, launched by Parlino S.A. of Luxembourg, a fully owned company of the Swedish Tele 2 Group.

History

Launched on May 2 2006, Parlino is a software-based VoIP application which made it possible to make free phone calls with a PC over the Internet. The software also made calls to ordinary landline phones or mobiles. In early 2007, Parlino suddenly shut down its operation. The trademark Parlino is today used for a segment of Tele2 subscription-free cell phone calling cards aimed at young cell phone users.

Technology

To use Parlino, a software client for Windows XP/Windows 2000 had to be downloaded (a version for Mac was never released). The user opened an account and downloaded the freeware from the Parlino websiteUser guide (pdf). The Parlino software was based on the open standard IAX2 for soft phones; and SIP-compatible protocols for the main infrastructure. According to Tele2, the open based platform provided for better sound quality than Skype, though there weren’t any official scientific verification for that claim.

Features

For use into public telephone networks, assets had to be loaded by means of a credit card. The balance expired after 180 days of inactivity. The service offered the option of “Parlino Dial-in”, providing users with a regular telephone number which could be dialed at a national rate, irrespective of whether the Parlino user’s location. The Parlino phone number could also be forwarded to any other phone number or connected to a voicemail service. Text messages (SMS) could be sent to any cell phone for an initial rate of €0.07. Emergency calls were not possible.

Usage

Tele2 never released any figures of customers or active users. As a launch offering, the first 10,000 customers would received a free wireless VoIP phone (DECT) which is to be connected by USB with the PC (this offer was still pending when Parlino shut down its operation in 2007).

External links

• Official Parlino website
• Official Tele 2 website

References

Payment recovery firms specialize in getting vendors to return money inadvertently paid to them. In corporate America, this frequently occurs when accounts payable staff accidentally pay a duplicate invoice. Another situation in which this might occur is when, for instance, a company places a deposit on a corporate cell phone account in order to prevent service interruption in the event of a late payment. If the company then switches cell phone providers, it may have difficulty collecting its deposit from the original provider. Accounts receivable staff who handle incoming payments seldom have authority to cut checks themselves, and in any case tend to place a lower priority on returning overpayments than in collecting back payments. Rather than spend time on hold working with vendors, many companies decide to turn the matter over to the experts.

KPackage is KDE’s package manager frontend.

It supports BSD, Debian, Gentoo, RPM and Slackware packages. It provides a GUI for the management and upgrade of existing packages and the installation and acquirement of new packages. Additionally, it provides functionality to help manage package caches.

KPackage is part of kdeadmin, and is developed here.

See also

• Adept Manager

External links

• KPackage handbook

In computing, a base address denotes a memory address serving as a reference point (”base”) for other addresses. To specify an absolute address, the relevant base address is added to an offset (aka displacement). This way of determining a memory address is called relative addressing.

See also

• index register
  
• I/O base address

Within the context of corporate and organizational networks, a greynet is an elusive networked computer application that is downloaded and installed on end user systems without express permission from network administrators and often without awareness or cognition that it is deeply embedded in the organization’s network fabric. These applications may be of some marginal use to the user, but inevitably consume system and network resources. In addition, greynet applications often open the door for end use systems to become compromised by additional applications, security risks and malware.

Examples

• Public instant messaging (AIM, MSN, Yahoo!)
• Web conferencing (webcam, Voice Over IP (VOiP) Telephony
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing clients
• Data Processing SETI@Home
• Adware “utilities”
• Commercial spyware
• Keystroke logging

The Dynamics of Greynet Growth

As computer workstations have become connected to the Internet, a variety of programs have proliferated that offer the ability to extend communications, gather and deliver information, and to serve the needs of marketing concerns. Among the first to emerge were instant messaging clients such as ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. Developments in technology have added video capability through webcam units, all of which have worked together to take advantage of available bandwidth in single, small network, and corporate environments.

The growth of greynets takes advantage of software and hardware developments. Informal networks are now appearing that provide a variety of streaming media and content that is supplied or modified by end users. An emerging category is “podcasting”, in which users generate content for widespread download on portable MP3 players.

Problems with Greynet Programs

The problem with greynet programs is fourfold. First, greynet programs create network security risks by causing broad vectors for malware dissemination. For example, hackers’ attacks that use IM and P2P networks have grown consistently since 2004, with The IM Security Center charting a 15% increase in attacks from 2005 to 2006, and a cumulative 710% growth in the number of viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware programs from April 2005 to April 2007.IM Security Center, http://www.imsecuritycenter.com Second, they create privacy issues for the network by opening large holes for information leakage. Third, greynet programs create compliance issues for a computer network by creating an invisible parallel communications network. Fourth, they create issues on local machines through the consumption of local system resources and possible operating system or program stability concerns. All of these things increase network and IT administration time and costs.

Added to this in the corporate work environment is the loss of meaningful production time due to non-work related distractions through these greynet applications. Individual network environment policies may vary from non-existent to a full lockdown of end user system privileges. See the “Risks and Liabilities” section of Instant Messaging for a more detailed overview of threats, risks, and solutions to those problems for the most prevalent of the greynet programs, public IM.

Dealing with the security aspects of greynets has led to the emergence of specific administrative software packages that monitor and control traffic, as well as the enhancement of security suites and adware clients.

Security and Monitoring

Among the first and most prevalent of the specific administrative software packages were products that secure networks against threats borne by IM and P2P networks. These products were first introduced in 2002, and now protect 10% to 15% of U.S. corporations. Protection against these types of risks to corporate networks is still in early stages of adoption however, as evidenced by the fact that 73% of companies have security or “hygiene” in place for their email networks, while only 11% have hygiene in place for instant messaging and P2P.Akonix Systems survey of 113 IT professionals, January 17, 2006 Products are available for security, content filtering, and archiving the use of these networks from companies such as Akonix, CSC, FaceTime, Global Relay, and Scansafe.

References

New Media Council was formed by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) in 2002, in order to better represent producers working in emerging media such as DVDs, broadband and mobile entertainment, interactive television and console games.

History

The PGA has long been recognized as the principal organization to protect and promote the credit and role of the entertainment producer. In January 2001, following a series of summits that brought together members of the new media and traditional producing communities, the PGA revised its constitution to provide for the representation of New Media producers.

Identify and address the issues

Since its formation, the New Media Council has sought to identify and address some of the issues that lie most immediately before the PGA. These include how “new media” should be defined, and how the role of a new media producer differs from or is similar to its counterpart in traditional media.

Find the balance between technology and relevance

Above all, the New Media Council recognizes that the medium must serve the story and not the other way around. When creators forsake the story in pursuit of the latest production fad, they risk losing their way. As new technologies and platforms are introduced, it’s vital that we maintain a sophisticated level of understanding and involvement in relation to these emerging trends. This way, we can ensure the best representation of the producer, no matter what metamorphoses the role goes through.

Strengthen the community as a whole

The establishment of the New Media Council ensures that the Producers Guild and its members continue to be the leaders in the developing use of new media. It’s a testament to the vision and commitment of the PGA leadership that it has recognized today’s complex and unstructured digital space as an immense and promising environment for those willing to embrace and benefit from what it has to offer.

External links

• New Media Council
• Official PGA website

Army General is a rank used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an Army in the field. Army General is normally the highest rank used in peace time.

The equivalent rank in the Commonwealth, U.S., and several other countries is simply termed “General”.

The rank of Army General should not be confused with the essentially American rank of General of the Army, which is more senior, and corresponds to other countries’ Marshal or Field Marshal. The rank of General of the Army theoretically corresponds to overall command of an entire national army, while the rank of Army General only corresponds to the command of an individual army in the field.

Ranks of Army Genral by country

• Général d’Armée (France)
• Army General (Russian Federation)
• Army General (Soviet Union)

John Adams Howell (1840-1918) was an American naval officer whose career included combat duty in the Civil War. He was also a noted inventor, and retired as a rear admiral.

Howell was born at Bath, New York, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1858.

During the American Civil War, he participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. He was promoted to captain in 1884 and to rear admiral in 1898. He commanded the European squadron and the North Patrol squadron in 1898.

Rear Admiral Howell wrote the first truly scientific American work on the deviations of the compass, patented a disappearing gun carriage, and originated the gyroscopic steering torpedo. He designed and patented the “Howell torpedo.”

Howell retired from the Navy in 1902.

Lior Louie Ashkenazi (born 1969), is an Israeli Film Academy Award-winner Israeli screen and stage actor.

Selected works

• Walk on Water (Lalechet Al HaMaim, 2004)
• Rutenberg (Ish HaHashmal, Electricity Man, 2003)
• Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret, 2001)

Awards and nominations

Award of the Israeli Film Academy

2004

Nominated

• Best Actor—Walk on Water

2001

Won

• Best Actor—Hatuna Meuheret

Nominated

• Best Supporting Actor—Ish HaHashmal

Trivia

External links

• Lior Ashkenazi - An Actor’s Actor from Jew Central

Türk Telekom is the formerly state owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was founded in 1995, being separated from the Post Office. In November 2005 it was privatized to Oger Telecom.

It is also known as one of the few ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay.

See also

• Rizon
• Türk Telekom Basketball
• Communications in Turkey

External links

• Official website

A J2EE application or an enterprise application is any deployable unit of J2EE functionality. This can be a single J2EE module or a group of modules packaged into an EAR file along with a J2EE application deployment descriptor. J2EE applications are typically engineered to be distributed across multiple computing tiers.

Enterprise applications can consist of the following:

• EJB modules (packaged in JAR files);
• Web modules (packaged in WAR files);
• connector modules or resource adapters (packaged in RAR files);
• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) modules (packaged in SAR files);
• application client modules;
• Additional JAR files containing dependent classes or other components required by the application;
• Any combination of the above.

See also

• Enterprise software

Reference

• http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/glossary.html

Security Council Resolution 1564 was a U.N. Security Council Resolution regarding the Darfur conflict passed on September 18, 2004 . It was brought before the U.N. Security Council at its 5040 meeting, with 11 members voting in favor of it and four abstaining (Algeria, the People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, Russian Federation).

Resolution 1564 was a continuation of the many steps taken in regard to the situation in Darfur, chiefly its resolution of July 30, 2004 (UN Security Council Resolution 1556) the statement of its President of May 25, 2004, its resolution 1547 of June 11, and resolution 1502 of August 26, 2003, and the Plan of Action agreed by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Sudan and the Government of Sudan.

References

External links

• UN Security Council Resolutions 2004

PGPfone is a secure voice telephony system developed by Philip Zimmermann in 1995. The PGPfone protocol had little in common with Zimmermann’s popular PGP email encryption package, except for the use of the name. It used ephemeral Diffie-Hellman protocol to establish a session key, which was then used to encrypt the stream of voice packets. The two parties compared a short authentication string to detect a Man-in-the-middle attack, which is the most common method of wiretapping secure phones of this type. PGPfone could be used point-to-point (with two modems) over the public switched telephone network, or over the Internet as an early Voice over IP system.

The Internet was not yet ready for PGPfone ­in 1996. Few people had broadband at home, and there were no protocol standards for Voice over IP. A decade later, Zimmermann released the successor to PGPfone, Zfone and ZRTP, a new and better secure VoIP protocol based on modern VoIP standards. Zfone builds on the ideas of PGPfone.

According to the MIT PGPfone web page [1] “MIT is no longer distributing PGPfone. Given that the software has not been maintained since 1997, we doubt it would run on most modern systems.”

Nevertheless, the software, source code and documentation can be found at http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgpfone/ and, despite the above prediction, still runs fine on Windows2000 and WinXP, including its derivatives such as Windows XP Media Center Edition.

See also

• Zfone
• ZRTP
• Nautilus (secure telephone)
• PGP word list
• Secure telephone

External links

• PGPfone homepage on PGPi
• Old PGPfone homepage on MIT