2012年5月14日 星期一

The Body Bomb Menace

After the explosion, as the air cleared in a Saudi villa, the grotesque remains of the suicide bomber littered the room. His mission on that night in August 2009 had been to murder Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the head of the country’s counter-terror operations. The would-be assassin had claimed he was giving himself up. He had said he would try to persuade others to surrender as well—but only if he could meet the prince in person. The Saudis flew the “repentant” terrorist from near the border with Yemen to Riyadh. They searched him.The core of an indoor positioning system. He carried no weapon that anyone could see. And then, as he met with the prince, suddenly, like something out of a horror movie, the man exploded. Saudi television showed the bomber’s arm blown through the tiles of the suspended ceiling. A bare foot stood alone on the floor.Another Chance to buymosaic (MOS) 0 comments. The torso was sheered away below the waist. Bits of flesh stained the white furniture.

Bin Nayef survived with only minor injuries. But a new age of terror—or attempted terror—had begun: that bomb was the first known prototype of a weapon all but undetectable by conventional security measures. Another version of it, a so-called underpants bomb, came close to exploding four months later on an American airliner bound for Detroit. And last week word leaked that a double agent—one run by bin Nayef—had successfully penetrated the same group of terrorists in Yemen, claiming that he, too, wanted to be a suicide bomber. The double agent had obtained the most recent, most sophisticated version of the device, turning it over to his Saudi handlers and their American friends from the Central Intelligence Agency.

Are we safe yet? Not hardly, says Don Borelli, who was until recently one of the FBI’s top agents in counterterrorism and now works with the Soufan Group in New York City. “We got one of these things, but who knows how many more of them are out there?” The man thought to have been the bomb maker is Ibrahim al-Asiri, who sent his own brother to die in the attempt to kill bin Nayef. “How many underlings does he have?” asks Borelli. “How many apprentices are there to whom he’s spread this knowledge so they can take up the work if he meets the business end of a drone strike?”

Worse still, intelligence is mounting that new terrorist bombs are under development that are meant to be implanted surgically inside a man or a woman (conjuring fears, not least, that someone who looks great with child could in fact be heavy with explosives). Last spring, U.S. intelligence officials began to pick up worrying information that al-Asiri was working with doctors on just such a project. Some dismissed the plan as far-fetched. But by last June, the CIA concluded that al-Asiri was close to being able to pull it off.

Newsweek has learned that U.S. intelligence officials circulated a secret report that laid out in vivid detail how doctors working for al-Asiri had developed the surgical technique. An American government source familiar with the report described it as 15 to 20 pages, single spaced, and replete with schematics and pictures. “It was almost like something you’d see in Scientific American,” the source said. (In military parlance, the bomb is called a “surgically implanted improvised explosive device,” or SIIED.) A diagram with arrows and blocks of text explained the surgical process. “The idea was to insert the device in the terrorist’s love handle,” says the U.S.Posts with Hospital rtls on IT Solutions blog covering Technology in the Classroom, government source, who declined to be named discussing sensitive intelligence. While it was not clear whether the terror doctors had ever succeeded in implanting explosives in a human being, they had experimented with dogs and other animals.

Fortunately these devices are easier to describe than to detonate. “You would have to have a very unique firing system,Proxense's advanced timelocationsystem technology.” says Borelli. “If it’s a ‘body bomb’ you are going to have to have a way to initiate it from the outside—almost a stent, or something like a pacemaker.Features useful information about glassmosaic tiles,” And it’s not least because of the technical challenges that, in fact, both of al-Asiri’s suicide-bomb devices known to have been used were failures. In the attack on bin Nayef, the body of the bomber himself absorbed most of the explosive force. The pyrotechnic underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up the Northwestern jet to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, fizzled instead of exploding. But as Borelli points out, “Even the threat of these devices causes a reaction by the security apparatus where we wind up spending millions of dollars.” The body scanners now in many U.S. airports were installed to prevent a more deadly repeat of the Abdulmutallab incident. If SIIEDs could be perfected, however, even full-body scanners would not detect them.

Dart adds Solo to its menu in changing food-drink container market

From a cinder block building in Mason, the Dart family built an industrial monolith from humble beginnings and a humble product: the foam cup that lets a person hold hot coffee.

But while that ever-reliable cup,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, made from expandable polystyrene foam, has served Dart Container Corp. well over the past 50 years, a question mark looms large as the company begins the next 50.

Recently, scores of U.S. communities have banned the use of foam cups and dinnerware because the very thing that makes them great for food service -- their refusal to become soggy -- also makes them a bane when they aren’t disposed of properly.About 1 in 5 people in the UK have recurring coldsores. It takes decades for an ordinary foam cup to decompose in a highway ditch or at the water’s edge.

To hedge its bets, Dart this month completed the acquisition of its Midwestern competitor Solo Cup Co. for about $1 billion to widen its offerings and gain access to technology and markets for food service disposables made of paper.

“What’s of greatest interest to us about Solo is they are very strong, not just in plastic but also in paper,” said James Lammers, Dart’s general counsel and vice president of administration. “They have a broad line of paper-based food service products.The indoorpositioning industry is heavily involved this year. We do not make anything out of paper.”

The fit between Dart and Lake Forest, Ill.-based Solo is good for another reason: Solo’s strong retail presence among consumers.

“We are both in that space,” Lammers said. “You could go into a Meijer or Kroger supermarket and buy either Solo or Dart products, but they have a much stronger brand face with a consumer.”

As the world’s largest supplier of foam cups, Dart has competed primarily on the superior function of foam food service disposables as well as quality and price, Lammers said.

After all, paper cups for hot beverages fell out of favor more than 50 years ago with the advent of foam cups.Ultimate magiccube gives you the opportunity to make your own 3D twisty puzzles. William F. Dart and his son, William A., shipped their first order of foam cups in 1960 to customers who were dissatisfied with the shortcomings of paper cups, which didn’t retain shape and insulate well.

“W.A.” Dart, who died last December at age 84, is credited with coming up with the first reliable process of making high-quality foam cups. But today’s customers are demanding more, Lammers said.

“In the past, our customers focused primarily on function and price, but now there is a third leg to that stool: environmental profile,” he said. “Consumers weigh many different things as they consider their purchases, and increasingly, environmental profile is part of that purchasing process.Industrialisierung des werkzeugbaus.”

Not to say that Dart is abandoning either foam cups or the idea that foam-based packaging can be recycled properly. All of the corporation’s 20 production facilities worldwide are public drop-off points for food service disposables and packaging, such as foam inserts used to protect items in boxes during shipment. Two Dart operations in

Michigan and one in Corona, Calif., process and re-extrude the plastic to turn it into pellets.

Dart engineers developed a process for washing and drying used food service disposables such as cups and school lunch trays so the polystyrene could be sold and reused as protective foam packaging, egg cartons, building insulation, videocassettes, toys and office desk products. In January, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery recognized Dart as a winner in the state’s Waste Reduction Awards Program.

Sempergreen growing green roofs in Stevensburg

If you’ve been driving eastward from Culpeper, on Route 3, towards Stevensburg, you might notice on the right side of the road, down near the entrance to Luck Stone Quarry, there is something growing there.

Depending on the day and season, you might see sprinklers raining successively across the rows. You might see various colors, or might not see anything — it’s there you just can’t see it, yet.

Culpeper County is home to the largest green roof plant grower in the US, second in the world to their parent company in their native Netherlands (Holland), according to Oscar Warmerdam, President of Sempergreen.

With 120 acres under cultivation and irrigation, the company grows vegetative mats or blankets for green roof projects spread across the U.S. Sempergreen, so named for its simplicity and as a reminder that their product is always green, within integrity of the green movement, as well as for the plants’ changing and evolving color — according to season and rainfall.

Wamerdam’s background, coming from Holland, is the Dutch flower bulb industry. He’s been out in the fields for many years. And, while he’s lived in many places in the US, he settled in the Stevensburg area in 2003 when he started Moerings USA Waterplant Nursery. Nearby Stevensburg there are other greenhouse businesses that have or had management from Holland.

In 2007, Wamerdam and his partner, Corne Van Gardren, founder and President of Sempergreen Europe (they say the largest and fastest growing Green Roof provider in the world), brought the green roof product line to the US.Industrialisierung des werkzeugbaus. As they expanded and grew,Visit TE online for all of your Application tooling Solutions including tools, they’ve moved up the road and are now located at the Luck Stone Quarry on Route 3.

Sempergreen grows and ships commercial product – they don’t install, nor do they maintain. As Warmerdam says “the roof is the icing on the cake, after all the other layers are done.” He comments that they work behind the roofer, the water proofer,The all New Bluetooth Reader BT1000 features a handsfreeaccess. landscaper, and most other contractors in a building’s construction.

Sempergreen projects have been in Chicago (United Airlines cargo facility), Minneapolis (Target Center), Nashville (Music City Center), Raleigh, Calgary, Toronto, San Diego, , as well as more locally to Portsmouth, Fredericksburg (Germanna Community College) and in to Washington D.C. (US Coastguard headquarters.)

They also provided material to the Mary Washington University facility in Dahlgren, as well as for IMF building in Washington, and the Department of Environment.

“Green roofs are not a luxury,” Warmerdam explains. “They solve a storm water solution.” Then he reminds us that a city has more pavement and rooftop surface,An airpurifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. therefore rain has no direct opportunity to get back into the earth. Instead rain runs off roofs, pavements, roads, parking lots. He says that even mature trees in a city, with their foliage and deep root systems, are not sufficient in quantity to improve the natural water cycle. Green roofs play a huge role in catching and absorbing rainfall, as well as delaying the flow to storm water catchment areas and drains which then flow to streams and rivers to bays, lakes and ultimately to the sea.You can create a beautiful chinamosaic birdhouse that will last for generations.

Still, green roof buildings and structures need gutters and pipes for excess rainfall. Richard W. Hoek, General Manager of Sempergreen says “green roofs are low maintenance, not no maintenance.” Moreover, “a green roof can double or triple the life of the roof membrane – which can be tar, rubber, or plastic.”

So, what’s growing in those fields down there beside the road? It’s called sedum.

While there are about 1,500 plants in the sedum class of plants, Sempergreen plants a mix of sedum — about 10-15 varieties. Sedum has a shallow root system which means they need less soil or growing material; they are drought tolerant and can withstand temperature changes; plus the plants store water. It takes about 9-12 months to grow a mat.

It’s taken some trial and error to get the land they use into an effective operating system, as the soils they are farming on are unique. They’ve installed a weather monitoring system and a 300’ well that provides the water for the extensive irrigation system, keeping sedum blankets growing with optimal conditions. Warmerdam says they “use specially grown sedum cuttings and seeds” and the cuttings come from the Pacific Northwest.

Sempergreen was at the CitiesAlive conference in Philadelphia this past November 2011.

Warmerdam is Chair of the Corporate Members Committee of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which sponsored the conference. In 2010, he said they had two roofs that won an award; however, it is the installer/designer or the building owner that gets the credit for the awards in this event, not the grower.

As Warmerdam says, “a green roof cycles – it is a fluid and dynamic experience,” over the course of a year sedum changes color. Blooms of pink, purple, yellow, white, and red make for an interesting visual on a rooftop or on a wall, as well as in the fields, where sedum first gets its start, down the road in Stevensburg.

2012年5月10日 星期四

Campbell Hall bites the dust, clearing space for LEED-certified replacement

Demolition crews began tearing down Campbell Hall Thursday to make way for a new LEED-certified facility — also to be known as Campbell Hall — for UC Berkeley’s astronomy and physics departments.

“The replacement of Campbell has been on the agenda for some time, so it’s exciting to finally have the project underway,” said Christine Shaff, Berkeley’s director of communications for facilities services. “The goal is to create a new, more efficient building that’s better suited to supporting the modern teaching and research needs of the campus.”

The 53-year-old building,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. at Hearst Mining Circle and Oppenheimer Way, will be demolished from the top down using a high-reach excavator, which arrived on campus last week direct from San Francisco’s Doyle Drive teardown project.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking.

Fitted with rotational hydraulic claw-like shears, the giant excavator will dismantle Campbell’s six-story concrete and steel structure floor-by-floor down to ground level, before excavating the building’s single below-ground floor.

“This is a small site with many tightly clustered buildings adjacent,” said Shaff . “Imploding a multi-story building is expensive, loud and really messy, and would have impacted nearby research that is vibration sensitive.”

Crews finished stripping out building interiors and exterior elements of the structure last week, ahead of major demolition work. Many of the existing building’s fixtures and fittings, such as doorknobs and window frames, were salvaged for reuse in other buildings across campus. Workers also removed the red-clay roofing tiles, which will be stored for future use.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle,

Demolition and site-clearing work — more than 90 percent of debris will be recycled — is scheduled to continue over the next four weeks. Crews placed protective panels over the windows of the LeConte Hall to minimize noise impacts and are also using water hoses to mitigate dust dispersal.

Replacing the cramped and outmoded Campbell Hall, which was constructed in 1959 and has a seismic rating of “poor,” will cost an estimated $87 million. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will attend a groundbreaking ceremony Monday to mark the transition to the construction phase of the project.

At 82,000 square feet, the new building, designed by Studios Architecture to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver rating,Choose from our large selection of cableties, will be significantly more spacious than Campbell. It will feature a rooftop observatory and six above-ground floors of instructional, research, administrative and support space for astronomy and physics.

The basement level will house a low-noise, low-vibration research laboratory, to be called the Center for Integrated Precision and Quantum Measurement. The state-of-the-art physics research lab is being funded in part with an $11 million federal grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The replacement of Campbell Hall marks the final phase of a long-term campus plan to modernize, expand and better integrate its physics complex, which spans LeConte and Birge halls — the latter physically connected to the LeConte addition by a multi-story, glass-walled walkway. The new Campbell building will connect to the adjacent LeConte via a raised walkway.

Getting stuck in search of a good photo

Newspaper photographers usually have multiple daily assignments, and since the Telegram & Gazette covers all of Central Massachusetts (and then some), it can result in hours spent in a car on any given day.

If the weather is bad, we drive to where it's effects are the worst. If traffic is backed up because of an accident, we go there anyway. We are experts at shortcuts and alternate routes. We are intimately acquainted with Worcester's potholes. And all the while we're on the hunt for a quick and cheap lunch.

Our vehicles don't look like much on the outside. It's worse on the inside. I remember telling myself last winter that I really need to vacuum the previous winter's road sand from my monster mats.Stone Source offers a variety of Natural stonemosaic Tiles. Now the sand has become one with the crusty road salt imbedded in my carpets. Yes, I hate to say it,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. I probably have a few very old french fries under my front seats. Looking for stray coins for the parking meter is always an adventure.

I started working as a photojournalist for another newspaper in the summer of 1985. The first vehicle I purchased with my new job in mind was a slightly used 1983 Jeep Cherokee - not the smaller Cherokee that most people are familiar with, but the old full-size Cherokee that shared the same chassis with the venerable Grand Wagoneer. My Jeep was a two-door version with an old carburated AMC straight-six motor and, of course, four-wheel drive. I'm not sure it had any actual options. Crank windows,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. an AM radio, a rubber floor liner instead of carpeting, shiny black vinyl seats, and no air conditioning. The latter two features made me appreciate the front vent windows on hot summer days.

I drove that Jeep beyond the 200,000-mile mark, but alas, rust chewed enough holes in the floor that summer air conditioning wasn't needed anyway. It was so airy inside that the heating system was useless on cold winter days.

My most notable experience with the Jeep was taking it to a large unpopulated wooded area commonly known as “The Desert,” more than 600 acres straddling the borders of Sudbury, Marlboro and Hudson. It was Saturday, Jan. 2, 1988. The assignment was to take photos for the next day's Sunday paper for a story about how The Desert had become a favorite spot for people to torch cars, whether they owned them or not.

Before it was reclaimed as conservation land in the 1990s, a visit to The Desert was not unlike walking onto the set of the post-apocalyptic film “The Road Warrior.”

After meandering my way along a dirt road that runs through the middle of The Desert, I found myself slowly creeping down a small hill in four-wheel drive, unsure if the large frozen puddle in front of me was safe to cross.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. I parked the Jeep, stepped out of the vehicle to inspect the ice, decided it looked safe enough and drove the Jeep over it with no problem. A little further on, I stopped to take photos of a row of charred and abandoned cars. A muddy creek blocked the road ahead of me so I turned around… only to find that I couldn't return the way I came because someone in an International Scout had broken through the ice where I had crossed a minute earlier.

The front end of the Scout was sinking lower in the puddle as the driver tried to back out. I remember watching the water get churned up by his front tires and his radiator fan.

I now had the muddy creek behind me and a partially submerged International Scout blocking the road in front of me. So what does any red-blooded American male do when faced with such a dilemma? Use it as an opportunity to go off road, of course.

The fact that I was already off road is beside the point.

Steering around the Scout-ingesting puddle, I gunned the motor, watching mud and ice flying behind me from front and rear tires. The Cherokee swung left and right as the off-road tires struggled to find a grip in what turned out to be a frozen-over muddy bog. I was making pretty good progress until I hit a little offshoot of the muddy creek. It was about 3 feet wide and deep enough for my Jeep to get stuck on its frame rails.

I looked over at the driver of the Scout,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, my partner in crime. A couple of lawn chairs, a grill, and some beer would have been nice, except that I had photographs in my camera that were needed for the next day's paper.

It being 1988 neither of us had a cellphone handy but I did have a trusty two-way radio mounted in my Jeep. I called the newspaper and, after a bit of explaining, followed by more explaining, I managed to get the Sunday editor to make arrangements for a tow truck to yank me out of the mud. But I had a long wait in front of me. Good thing we had some visitors to keep us entertained…

First came the caravan of ATV enthusiasts (see photo at lower right). Then a few helpful people who offered to pull the Scout out with their SUVs and pickup trucks, the most notable being the driver of a brand-new customized Suzuki Samurai who tried to make use of the little winch mounted on his bumper. I couldn't help but smile as I watched that most diminutive of SUVs happily sliding along on the frozen tundra as the winch pulled it closer to the motionless Scout.

And then there was the pickup truck driver who thought that running starts with a tow rope and chain might free the Scout from the puddle. I vaguely remember trying to hide from potential projectiles.

Things got more interesting when the guys with the guns showed up (see photo at upper right). I was unaware that The Desert was a popular spot amongst the target-shooting crowd. They looked a bit intimidating, but I have to admit the AR-15 was kinda cool.

In “Love for Alyssa,” an 8-Year-Old Girl’s Heart For Life Is Unbridled in Kaczmarek’s Photos

Arthrogryposis is a rare disorder that prevents one’s limbs and muscles from developing and stretching out normally.We offer the best ventilationsystem, It restricts movement by locking up joints. It can restrict speech or other daily functions such as eating. It affects about one in every 3,000 live births. There’s no cure.

It doesn’t sound like the inspiration for an art show. But that’s if you haven’t met Alyssa Hagstrom, the defiantly effervescent 8 year old who’s lived with the condition all her short live, or Jennifer Kaczmarek, the fine arts documentary photographer who’s been recording Alyssa’s life since she met her shortly after her fifth birthday in stills that give the lie to the notion of a disorder. Whether Alyssa is sitting up with an oxygen mask on, basking in the languor of a rising or setting sun in her wheelchair, sitting in the throne-like arms of her slightly older sister Alexxis or balancing on father Duane’s shoulders, she is all movement and life. Even in one of the most arresting big photographs of Alyssa, where only her shins and feet appear, dangling from above in a bathroom, the suggestion is of a child taking flight, not being held down.

What disorder there may be is in the stillness around Alyssa, or the silence: she abides neither.

“She’s amazing. She really is,” Kaczmarek says.Silicone moldmaking Rubber, “Her personality is so full of life. You would never evenen known that she was handicapped if you didn’t see her, if you were just talking to her. You would never know. She is just a real social butterfly.”

That’s what Kaczmarek’s work captures, with never a hint of condescension. Kaczmarek, who’s been photographing her own three young children almost uninterruptedly since her 9-year-old daughter Bella was 1, isn’t talking down to the child—many of the pictures are at eye level or below, making Alyssa dominant—but letting her talk through these big,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, almost oversize color prints, which form “Love for Alyssa,” the latest show at Hollingsworth Gallery, opening Saturday evening with a reception at 6 p.m., and with Alyssa present.

“I just want people to have a glimpse into her world,” Kaczmarek says.

Kaczmarek is asking you for one thing: donate money. “Love for Alyssa” isn’t just a photography exhibit. It’s a fund-raiser that takes its name from the non-profit Kaczmarek established in January 2011 for Alyssa’s sake, to raise money and help with expenses from Alyssa’s care, expenses not covered by other means. At this moment she needs a costly lift, because she is getting heavy. Kaczmarek has raised $2,300 since. The prints will be priced in the high three figures, but Kaczmarek expects to raise most of the money through the show by way of outright donations: checks in whatever amounts patrons would contribute, along with small contributions for children’s art work that fills a large wall of the gallery.The best rubbersheets products on sale, Students who take art classes at Hollingsworth, along with children from Bella’s Girl Scout troupe and from children at Trinity Presbyterian Church, have painted or drawn works inspired by Alyssa, and that may sell for a few dollars.

“Really, besides even just helping her financially, whatever I could do,” Kaczmarek says, “I had other motives for doing this. And it was really because how awesome her spirit is. I was hoping this would be something she could carry with her when she got older, because the only thing I always think about with her is I think about the future. I think about her sister, and now with her brothers, and how everybody is going to go off, they’re going to be with their friends, they’re going to have their lives. It’s different now that she’s little. And things will hit her when they don’t, now. I thought this would be something positive for her.”

For Hollingsworth Gallery, the show is and isn’t a departure.Welcome to projectorlamp. Friends and patrons of owner JJ Graham’s gallery are now used to always being surprised there. The intimate realism of Kaczmarek’s invitation to share in Alyssa’s disorder is the gallery’s latest way of inviting you on a limb, daring you to be charmed by what you would, in more conventional circumstances, look away from. Graham only makes molds to break them, and with Mercedes McCartney, his companion and a photographer who recently curated Hollingsworth’s “7 Cameras” show (which featured Kaczmarek’s work), the exhibit is in line with the gallery’s broader emphasis on photography, though in this case Graham is foregoing any of the proceeds to Kaczmarek’s cause.

2012年5月7日 星期一

IT security? You're doing it wrong!

For quite some time I've been thinking about the impact of many different trends on the world of IT, as virtualisation and cloud combine with new devices and service-oriented application development to change the way we build and deliver applications. It's one of those megatrends that we can see pushing its way through the industry, leaving trails of service clouds in its wake. But while it's big and very very visible, it's not the biggest change facing IT departments across the world. That change is already here, and it’s one that's sneaked up on us, arriving from left field with little or no fanfare.

It all stems from that cloud trend, and from the other big elephant in the room – IT consumerisation. How do we manage devices we don't control, and in fact that we can’t control,A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. in a world where information flows from device to device, from server to server, and between data centres and the cloud? It’s a complex world that is getting more and more complex every day, one where organisations are managing not just their hundreds and thousands of servers and desktops, but adding in tens of thousands of devices offering mobile computing and storage.

It’s a nightmare for traditional IT. Managing servers, desktops and applications just doesn't scale – and users don't take to IT departments applying the management techniques they've always used to their personal devices. Everything we know about it IT management has turned out to be wrong.

The answer turns out to be quite simple. Instead of managing applications and devices, with a metaphor-based on mediaeval fortifications, we start thinking about managing users and information.

That's a significant change, but one that makes a lot of sense when we look at the architectural changes that IT departments are already having to implement.Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. Some of it is already starting to be put in place especially around information-centric security, which is an essential requirement for compliance with many aspects of the modern regulatory environment. If you're having to handle financial data or health data you're already starting to put in place information security that uses access controls to determine who can see what – and where they can use the data.

Tooling built into the current generation of operating systems and storage platforms makes it easy to start implementing information-centric security, while existing directory services mean you're not that far from implementing effective user-centric management. It's all just a matter of going that little bit further.Aeroscout stone mosaic provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. Instead of using directory services to log users on, and to provision basic access rights on desktops, use them as the basis for rich access control lists on your servers, and in your applications. The rules don't need to be complex – just pragmatic.

By "pragmatic" I mean extensive use of rule-based whitelists. And by that I mean very simple access rules for files that indicate who has the rights to view, or to edit, or to copy. Rules are constructed to give explicit rights – there's no open access with blacklists for specific groups that leave holes big enough to drive a bus through. Instead it's all simple constructs of the form "USER 1 gets access to FILE 1 if member of GROUP A or of ROLE B" or at a higher level, "GROUP A can see DIRECTORY 2". It's the type of construct that makes it important to have appropriate tools for defining user groups and roles, and for both provisioning and deprovisioning users. But when done right it means less work for IT departments – as the user role assignment process can be automated as part of standard HR operations, with file rules coming from where they're stored, or what they contain. Rules can even be specifically assigned on a case-by-case basis, granting access to specific users for a specific file for a specific reason (and for a specific period of time).

The tooling is starting to arrive. BYOD deployments based on BlackBerry can use BlackBerry Balance to manage some of this, and Windows admins can take advantage of the tooling built into System Center 2012 to start the move to both information- and user-centric ways of working.

One aspect of the shift to both information- and user-centric management could appear somewhat ironic. As DRM disappears from entertainment content, it’s starting to appear in work data. If you're using Microsoft's Information Rights Management platform to control user access to data, you're using a DRM system. It’s a technology that gets more important when Windows Server 2012 arrives, as its Dynamic Access Control technology uses IRM to control access to automatically classified information – with user information in Active Directory managing the roles and groups of users used to control just who has access to that information.

With information protected at rest with strong cryptosystems, you don’t need to rely on firewalls and security appliances. User accounts contain the tools needed to decrypt information, and contextual models control how and when that information can be accessed. If you don't have rights,A culture af Mizukabi molds.A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. you can't decrypt and use the data. If you're accessing the network from a device that doesn't support user log-ons, you can't even see that there is data…