Archive for May, 2006

What was old may actually be new - Part II

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on May 26, 2006
in Announcements, Projects and Tools
. 0 Comments

Thin ClientThis post begins with the financial considerations around building thin client workstations. 

To work this out, I needed a plan (nice thought).  I would construct a small lab with two stations and two servers.  One server would be Windows 2003 and the other would be CentOS4 (Linux) but both had to be the same model.  On the workstation side, I wanted two fully depreciated computers of different vintages.  This approach allowed me to test the widest variety of choices while being fair on the server side. 

Here are my four computers: 

  • Dell GX400 - 500M RAM - Windows 2003
  • Dell GX400 - 500M RAM - CentOS4
  • Dell GX 620 - 256M RAM - No Disk, No Operating System
  • Dell GX 1 - 256M RAM - No Disk, No Operating System

Now that I think of it, I should have taken the time to name themEmbarassed

I wanted to support workstations with a full suite of applications and a choice for the users, Linux or Windows.  For the Linux users, the selection was KDE and for the Windows users … well … Windows.  For an office applications, the Penguins get OpenOffice and Traditionalists get Microsoft Office.  The workstations need to support the sound cards too, because I want to support call center applications.  I will address applications for the call center in a later post in this series.

In the server side, the CentOS box would run Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) 4.2 and on Window, Remote Desktop functionality.

The costs for this approach are minimal (well actually nothing) for the Linux software and standard pricing for the Microsoft components. Later in the series I will address maintenance and operational costs.

My next section in the series will get to the issue of making the computers work together.  I have four computers, requirements and desire but nothing concrete yet. 

Security policies and procedures

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on May 23, 2006
in Security
. 0 Comments

I had a post yesterday that focuesed on the security events at Midyear. However, given the attention that the recent breach of personal information at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been receiving, it might be a good time for you to consider your organiztion’s policies and procedures surrounding protection of personal identity information. It appears that the incident could have been prevented if policies, already in place, were followed.

NAR has two programs that directly focus on protecting consumer and employee information.

The recently announced "Deter, Detect and Defend” initative aims to educate consumers, particularly home buyers, about the devastating effects of identity theft and help them protect themselves against it. 

NAR’s REALTOR Secure program is an information security best pratices program that allows industry firms to confirm that they have the right policies, procedures and technologies in place to prevent these types of incidents.  

And we at CRT are available to help on the security education front. Over a hundred industry firms have benefited from CRT’s outreach program with information security being one of the prime topics.

So to ‘take advantage’of this event you could:
- Review your policies and ensure that you have the appropriate use procedures in place.
- Send a reminder about your policies and the need for following them.
- Use it  to educate senior management about the need for protecting information.
- Ask executive management that they reinforce the need to follow security policies to avoid these situations.

PolicyPage 1.0.1 released

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on May 22, 2006
in General
. 0 Comments

PolicyPage release 1.0.1 is now available.The changes are aimed at making the app easier to understand, install and use.

Here are the changes for v 1.0.1
- All production data is now in a single directory structure (ppage/productiondata) for ease of backup. 
- New installation messages added and upgraded the installation documentation.
- Additional documentation for creating PolicyPage users.
- Eliminated the need to change the php.ini file for email configuration.
- Added message at logon time if email has not been configured.
- Provide a method to add new PolicyPage users without using email.
- Allow multiple attempts to register the same user (in case prior attempts fail due to an email problem).

PolicyPage comments (and bugs) can be posted to the project mail list.
You can download PolicyPage application by visiting the project site.

We continue to look to the community to guide future development priorities. We invite and welcome your input. 

Midyear topics

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on May 22, 2006
in Conferences and Security
. 0 Comments

The NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo took place last week in Washington DC. This is one of the best NAR meeting because of the number of attendees and the focus of the events. Besides  the business of running NAR and a great trade expo, REALTORS get the opportunity to meet with elected officials and put forth the REALTORS’ agenda on capital hill. 

One item that received prominent attention at the Midyear meeting is security. It was a part of many topics as well as having it own session.

First the National Association of REALTORS and the Federal Trade Commission have formed a partnership to prevent identity theft. The program, “Deter, Detect and Defend ,” aims to educate consumers, particularly home buyers, about the devastating effects of identity theft and help them protect themselves against it. 

Continue reading ‘Midyear topics’

Cross platform development on the Go

Published
by
Keith Garner
on May 18, 2006
in Tools
. 0 Comments

Previously, I had mentioned my laptop switch to a Mac running OS X.  I finally got around to trying Parallels Workstation.  Parallels Workstation is a virtual machine solution for Windows, Linux, and (now) intel-based OS X that allows you to run any x86 operating system within it.  Its very similar to VMWare Workstation which I’ve used on and off for 6 years on Linux.  I used VMWare for those pesky few work related apps over the years that just don’t run on anything but Windows and won’t run under solutions like CodeWeavers CrossOver Office.  I always like to say I put Windows into a nice little box (where it can’t hurt anyone.)

Anyway, while in DC for NAR’s midyear meeting I found some time to work on ezRETS.  Unfortunately, I haven’t fully finished my port to OS X and I wanted to do some testing.  Off to Parallels website to download beta6 of Parallels Workstation and a Linux install CD/DVD.  Parallels Workstation install was just a click and go package for OS X.  I then configured a virtual machine to have a virtual CD-ROM that used the Linux install CD image as the CD that’s in the CD-ROM drive.  One fairly quick Linux install later, and I was checking out a copy of the libRETS and ezRETS source code and starting the compiles.  Inside the virtual machine it feels like the promised near-native performance is being achieved.  Once it was all compiled, I was able to run the tests I needed on ezRETS.

So, now I can run Linux on top of OS X without leaving OS X.  When I get back to the office, I’ll also install Windows in a virtual machine and my dev tools in there.  Once I’ve got that, with my single MacBook Pro I can continue to do cross-platform development on the three platforms I care about without having to be in the office.

All in all, even while still in beta, I’m very impressed with Parallels Workstation.  Compared to VMWare on my old Thinkpad A31p on Linux, the performance of the main OS doesn’t seem to suffer as much when processor intensive tasks are happening in the virtual machine.  I don’t think that’s anything against VMWare though.  Its either the fact that with the Intel Dual Core I’ve effectively got two CPUs in here or the Intel VT-x support in the Intel Dual Cores helping here.

What was old may actually be new - Part I

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on May 17, 2006
in Announcements, Projects and Tools
. 0 Comments

Thin ClientI have been meaning to start a series about a new project I’m working on.  It doesn’t even have a name yet, but I have had positive results so far. This post introduces the busuness and technical drivers used during the early stages.  Hopefully, I will find the time to write a full white paper on the topic this summer.

I was looking to broaden the CRT project base so I thought I would look at the systems that drive Real Estate offices.  What would be nice was a project dedicated to radical cost reduction with moderate functionality improvements over current approaches.  A tall order.

Continue reading ‘What was old may actually be new - Part I’

Open for Business

Published
by
Keith Garner
on May 16, 2006
in Conferences
. 1 Comment

Blog room signCRT’s mid-year meeting bloggers’ room is open for business.  In fact, I’m posting from there now.  Stop and by and say hi, write yourself a post, have some coffee and relax a bit!

We’re in the Forum room in the Omni.  Follow the signs from the hallway to find us.

[Update: I've taken a few pictures of the room with my camera phone.  They aren't the best quality, but you'll get the idea.  Click on the images for a larger view.]

BlogRoom1.jpg BlogRoom2.jpg

CRT is Sponsoring a Developers Day

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on May 11, 2006
in Conferences
. 0 Comments

CRT has been attending the Inman Real Estate Connect conference for the past few years. We find it an excellent way to discover and network. This year another day has been added to the conference.

We’re so excited about this addtional day that we are sponsoring it. Developer Day is focused specifically for the new real estate technologist, and will focus attention on where developers’ needs are greatest.  This dawn-to-dusk pre-conference is by developers and for developers of real estate software. We think it is a great place for CRT to be and ask that you consider attending. Mark will be speaking. Some of the topics include mapping, search, document management, standards, video integration, transaction management and analytics.

Besides CRT, there are other great sponsors like Microsoft, Google, Redfin, Mapquest and Inman. 

And I should mention that the conference is in San Francisco from July 26 to 28. We hope to see you there.

Yet another Bloggers’ Room at mid-year meeting update

Published
by
Keith Garner
on May 11, 2006
in Conferences
. 0 Comments

Blog room signI just wanted to put a quick update on the Bloggers’ Room which we’ll have available next week at next week’s Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.  All the plans we’ve spoken about in the previous post still stand.  The image in this post (click for a larger version) is what the sign identifying the Blog Room will look like.  We posted it here to give you a heads up.

One thing to mention, that we haven’t before, is that the room will be open all week and open from 7am until 8pm every day.  Ian or I will be in there a majority of the time, so stop by and say hi.

When we’re in the room we will be able to answer (or try to answer) any and all questions on topics ranging from CRT to blogging in general to basic technical support to who would win in a fight: Picard, Kirk, Sheridan, or Adama?  We’d also be glad to plug any of CRT’s projects, especially ezRETS and libRETS.

Spam is really getting out of control

Published
by
Keith Garner
on May 4, 2006
in Internet
. 3 Comments

spamanm.gifFirst we had e-mail and newsgroups, and then we had spam.  Then we had blogs, and soon after we had blog comment spam.  Luckily, here on our Wordpress based blog, Spam Karma 2 is doing a good job of keeping the spam away or, at least, under wraps.

Today I’ve witnessed the birth of a new kind of spam: bug tracking system spam.  Since our projects are open source, we keep the ability to submit bugs open to anyone.  Today, we got a "bug report" that appears to be Chinese spam.  Ian ran it through a translator, and in fact, it is spam for some sort of LED display, as the URL they posted suggests.

I’m going to leave it in the database for a few days so anyone read this can check it out.  Come Monday, I’m going to remove it from the database.  I just wonder the effectiveness of spamming a bug tracking database that very few people read.  Of course, I’ve increased the readership of that piece of spam by posting about it here in my incredulity.