CornellSun.com Topic

computers

Horrendous Performance with Gigabyte's RAID

Zheng Gu  —  Feb 8, 2009

It's well known that software RAID solutions are noticeably slower than hardware ones. Still, when I built my PC last year, I chose to use the onboard G-RAID anyway assuming that at least it was better than nothing. I wasn't expecting the performance to be so horrendous.

‘Bot’ Epidemic Infects Campus

Venus Wu  —  Oct 27, 2008

More than 1,000 Windows computers at Cornell fell victim to a widespread “bot” infection, the Cornell Information Technologies Security Office announced Friday evening through a University-wide e-mail alert.

A bot is a piece of malicious software, or “malware,” that can automatically perform various tasks that may range from downloading more malware to stealing passwords to attacking non-Cornell internet websites or servers.

None of the infected computers have shown observable change that can be seen by the user, according to Wyman Miles, manager of security engineering at the CIT security office. He explained that the lack of symptoms was probably a “deliberate attempt by the malware authors to conceal an infection for as long as possible.”

LHC Hacked

Sun Staff  —  Sep 17, 2008

A group of hackers identifying themselves as the 2600 succeeded in hacking into a computer network of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. CERN scientists said the network is used to analyze data from the new accelerator’s Compact Muon Detector.

The Large Hadron Collider, (LHC) began operation in early September, but will not begin smashing particles until late in the year. The particle collisions will recreate conditions the universe has not seen since a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The hacker team 2600 also identified themselves as the “Greek Security Team” and was competing against a rival hacker group to successfully tap the computer system of history’s largest physics experiment.

iTwin - coming soon

Peter Fu  —  Sep 16, 2009

Ever needed to transfer a large file from one computer to another only to realize that the file was about the size of Texas and there was no way you could possibly use that itty bitty flash drive you brought from home to finish the transfer? Well, in the past you had some basic solutions such as using an Ethernet cable to set up an ad hoc network between the two computers, breaking the file into many pieces with either HJsplit for Windows or Split&Concat for Mac and then copying the pieces one by one, or if you were lucky - an external hard drive. 

Voting Down the Malware, One Quorum at a Time

Peter Fu  —  Sep 9, 2009

When I finally managed to pull myself out of bed after an epic battle with the flue, an article on CNET caught my eye: Symantec Corporation, the maker of Norton Antivirus, is pursuing a new form of malware prevention that turns the self-mutating abilities of certain malware against itself. The new product is called Quorum. The best part of it all? It's slated for release on Wednesday, which means if you're sick with the flu and your computer happens to be in the same boat, then you can take the new program for a test drive.

Trapping the Snow Leopard

Peter Fu  —  Sep 2, 2009

The OS War between Microsoft and Apple has been going on since the release of the Macintosh in 1984.

As we approach closer to present day, the release of Mac OS X in 2001 completely changed the playing field. 2009 is looking to be a turning point for both operating systems with Microsoft slated to release Windows 7 in October and Apple releasing OS X Snow Leopard on August 30. Both systems boast better performances, and seeing as I've already turned my skeptical eye to Windows 7 in a previous blog, I feel that it's Apple's turn on the chopping block.

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