UniforumNZ'99 - A Biased Perspective

I'll present a brief summary of those presentations I attended, inevitably biased by my well known views of whats important! The proceedings are available for those who'd like more (independent) details.

1. UniforumNZ'99
   • 16th Annual Conference, Workshops & Exhibition
   • Theme: The Business of Choice
   • 13-17 April 1999, Rydges Rotorua
   • wide range of topics: case histories, company plans, future prognostications, Linux, security, legal issues etc
   • will briefly discuss a selection of these
2. Rotorua, NZ
   
3. Relationships - Organisational Encounters
   • Carl Cargill & Ann Buzbee, Sun, USA
   • discussed organisational structures - then vs now
   • shift away from hierarchical
   • but lack of communications between players
     • hoarding of info leads to power
   • consider role & metrics for various players
   • to break barriers
     • change the metrics
     • share information
   • argue that pervasive IS can make this easier
   • new role of IT is to manage not just technology, but info & info flow
   • need Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)
4. Bird's Nest Terrace - Waimangu
   
5. The GNU Project
   • Richard Stallman, FSF, USA
   • espoused his philosophy on freedom
   • free as in freedom to use, change, share, share changes
   • cf. "children encouraged to share toys, but not favorite music"
   • Copyleft - a copyright which insists freedom is preserved
   • discussed the history of FSF/GNU
   • left MIT to develop a "free" O/S
   • EMACS, then various GNU tools, finally GNU/Linux system
6. Mt Tarawera
   
7. Exploration & Visualisation of Reusable Components Using Java
   • Stuart Marshall & Robert Biddle, Victoria Uni, Wellington NZ
   • need: "understand & use some complex component"
   • approach: harness to test drive and visualise
   • uses Java Reflection API, Java VM Debugger Interface, Serialization
   • Dyno in action:
     • load component (any Java class file, source unnecessary)
     • test drive component & inspect state
     • load View for visualisation
     • test drive component and
     • observe behaviour via animation
   • visualisation: gather info, filter important bits, animate
   • "documentation via interactive animation"
8. Mt Maunganui
   
9. Making & Managing Monsters
   • Digby Turner & Bill Parkin, Consultants
   • case study in building a Beowulf cluster
   • an affordable supercomputer using a cluster of COTS
   • concept from NASA centre in mid'94
   • cluster of standard PC's networked together
   • used "Extreme Linix" distribution
   • motivation - school lab full of computers unused in vacation
   • suggestion - for a modest consideration get a supercomputer at local school
   • demo: 16 Pentium PC's with ether switch
   • installed "Extreme Linix" + PVM
   • got quite impressive performance
   • used ghost to rebuild systems afterwards
10. Tairua, Coromandel Peninsula
    
11. Mission Critical UNIX - Fortune 500 Companies
    • Anne Buzbee, Sun, USA
    • goal - take competitive high ground
    • need - "web time" product cycles
    • inhibitors - legacy O/S & apps, lack of standards, inflexible IT arch
    • computer ages: mainframe, desktop, server, network
    • challenges - heterogeneity, interoperability
    • "Moores Law is a Laggard!"
12. Inferno Lake - Waimangu
    
13. Regulation of Pernography on the Internet
    • Edwin Lim, Uni Auckland
    • pornography not legally defined
    • many formats on net - text, image, sound, video, multi-media
    • NZ law on pornography - publication? objectionable?
    • publication? does cover computers & storage devices, any format
    • objectionable? some things explicitly defined, others community std
    • offences - supply/transmission, exhibit to minors, possession
    • more recent proposed legislation rejected
    • other means - parental guidance, author rating, restricted env, filters
14. Hells Gate
    
15. Identification & Ownership of Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Software
    • Matt Adams, Patent Attorney
    • Intellectual Property - Trade-marks, Registered Designs, Copyright, Patent
    • Copyright - protect "expression of idea"
    • for 50 yrs after authors death
    • does not protect against independent creation or function of code
    • Patent - protect "aplication of idea"
    • for 20yrs in return for full disclosure
    • does protect against independent creation & function
    • cf TOCS Y2K fix (shift dates as feed in/out legacy prog)
16. Frying Pan Lake - Waimangu
    
17. CECIL - a Wolf in Sheeps Clothing
    • John Paynter, Uni Auckland
    • CSL - Computer Supported Learning (pr Cecil)
    • a system for manageing CSL, in wide use
    • staff/student details, assessment def, processing, analysis
    • assessement questions - multi-choice, multi-answer, essay
    • multi-choice - stem, choices, feedback, extensions
    • analysis - overall score, of questions, item score with feedback
    • issues - staff time, bandwidth, tech support
18. Steaming Cliffs, Lake Rotmahana
    
19. The Burgler in Your Computer
    • Jim Higgins, ISOCNZ
    • "Are our current legal structures adequate for today's technologies?"
    • NO
    • ubiquitous global telecommunications
    • but laws mostly geographically defined
    • required elements: intercept, access, use, damage
    • need multi-country jurisdiction & harmonisation
    • risks - legislating technology rather than issue
20. Devil's Cauldron, Hells Gate
    
21. UNIX Privilege Manager
    • Alby Carter, Telecom NZ
    • bg - 3 computer rooms, 200+ systems, 7x24, IBM manage
    • search for an admin solution to the "powers of root"
    • need - customisable, keeps "real root", no kernal changes
    • can "lock root password away", partition privilege
    • freeware like sudo etc good, but hard in heterogenous env
    • decided on UPM, from Axent, met 80% of need, easily
    • UPM - a set of programs, daemons, config files
    • master daemon on 1+ security servers authorise actions
    • full logging of these systems (not system action is on)
    • good GUI interface for building configs
22. Rapaura Water Gardens, Coromandel Peninsula
    
23. We Live in Interesting Times
    • Rolf Jester, Gartner Group, Aus
    • "turmoil but opportunity"
    • nb. not actualy chinese curse, earliest record 50's in US
    • lots of intersting things from Gartner surveys
    • Y2K impact, IT spending, outsourcing trends, alignment, h/w
    • directions - thin-clients - fat-vendors (most of benefit in best practise)
    • directions - server appliances taking off, storage, web, apps
    • directions - Linux, just ovver peak in "hype cycle"
    • futures - server O/S - OS/390, WinNT, OS/400, HPUX, Solaris, AIX, Tru64, Linux
    • IT Eras - 1 Automation, 2 Productivity, 3 Value Creation, 4 Reshaping Businesses
24. Whare, Buried Village, Rotorua
    
25. Conclusion
    • UniforumNZ'99 was lots of fun
    • great venue, great dinners, lots of interesting people
    • oh, the talks weren't bad either
    • any questions ????
26. Winter Gardens, Auckland