Archive for June, 2006

What is old may actually be new - Part III

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on June 30, 2006
in Announcements, Projects and Tools
. 0 Comments

Thin ClientIt has been a very busy traveling month and haven’t had time to share more thoughts on this topic so I apologize in advance.

I saw this article today on the topic and I realized it will save me a lot of time explaining how I set up the Thin Clients in my network.  It is a good "How To" and even includes a Real Estate example. I will new focus on the differences in the CRT work.  

First, we used CentOS instead of Debian as an operating system.  In the context to LTSP this is not a big change and the article covers setup well. 

Another difference is that our setup uses OpenLDAP for authentication.  This existing infrastructure allows us to manage authentication centrally for all of our services like administration, e-mail, etc.  Because our client machines need to support either Linux or Windows applications, we needed a way to authenticate to Windows.  We used pGina , and excellent Open Source plug-in for Windows authentication. From the pGina website:

However, Microsoft does allow for customization of its client access and authentication methods through the interface specifications and details of their GINA (Graphical Identification aNd Authentication) dynamic link library. This library “… is a replaceable DLL component that is loaded by the Winlogon executable. The GINA implements the authentication policy of the interactive logon model and is expected to perform all identification and authentication user interactions.” (MSDN)

A third difference in setups has to do with sound.  We wanted to create VOIP enabled workstations.  This requires audio to be supported on either the Linux or Windows servers, and redirecting audio back to the thin client. In the next installment, I will talk about what we did to be network sound running.  

Info security: U - R - IT

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on June 22, 2006
in Announcements, Internet, MLS, Security and Tools
. 0 Comments

realtor secure logo small.jpgThe key to security is embedded in the word itself:

U R IT

If not you, then who?
If not now, then when?

During your typical day, you may be exposed to situations where you are vulnerable to a security breach. (e.g. PDA or laptop left in a car, unmonitored office doors open to public, contracts in plain view). And then there are the risks to your computers themselves - viruses, hacks and phishers.

You need to be prepared to:
Access - Remediate - Monitor

Infosec wheelBuilding and sustaining an effective information security rogram requires resolve, commitment and know-how. This is why educating agents, staff and executive management on security fundamentals has become essential. As a result, NAR’s Center for REALTOR(R) Technology is launching the ‘Summer of Security’ educational initiative. We want to continue to offer you the "know-how." Together with your resolve and commitment, sound information security is achievable!

The Summer of Security initiative is a part of the REALTOR Secure program and consists of a weekly e-mail containing helpful and relevant information on security issues. Our goal is to create a culture through which you become more conscious of the need for security and better understand why security measures are relevant to you and your business. Our purpose is not just to convey information, but also to compel you to evaluate what you do and how you do it, and make changes as appropriate. This topic is important for you and for our industry.

The Summer of Security effort represents NAR’s commitment to bring you practical information and guidance . Ideas that you can put into action immediately to improve your security and enhance
your business position.

We look forward to presenting this educational initiative to you throughout this summer. We encourage you to share these mail messages with others in your organizations, post them to your web site and publish them in your newsletters, etc. If you would like to recieve the summer of security series on newsletterplease drop me a note andyou’ll be added to the list.

Thanks for tuning in.

PolicyPage 1.0.3 released

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on June 22, 2006
in Announcements, MLS and Tools
. 0 Comments

policyPage-logo120_35.jpgPolicyPage release 1.0.3 is now available. In release 1.0.3 only the documentation and FAQs changed. The changes make the app easier to understand, install and use.

The changes for v 1.0.3 include:
- Updated email configuration documentation.
- Enhanced the Frequently Asked Questions for those questions received over the past several months.

There is no need for 1.0.2 PolicyPage users to upgrade. The revised documentation is available online. With the release of 1.0.3 the development effort now focuses on spidering to test  all pages on a web site.

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.

Patents and Standards

Published
by
Keith Garner
on June 22, 2006
in Articles and Internet
. 1 Comment

This week I’ve been working with/looking into Web Services, specifically SOAP and its related standards.  In the course of my investigations I found that one of the related security standards, SAML, is under patent by RSA.  I tripped across this fact when reading the front page of the OpenSAML project.  For all I know, other parts of SOAP might be under patent as well, but I haven’t tripped across a reference, nor have I gone looking.

This got me thinking about how, in my view, patents and open standards shouldn’t mix.  If a standard is to be truly open, it needs to be freely implementable by everyone.  Without open standards we wouldn’t have much of the technology we now take for granted:  e-mail and the web being two obvious examples.  A standard that has parts of it under patent could potentially harm small businesses as well as the open source developer.

I started to do some research to write this blog post, and came across a paper that covers everything I would have wanted to talk about and then some.  The Problem of Software Patents in Standards is written by Bruce Perens.  Its a fairly short paper and talks about the current situation in software patents, what various standards bodies are doing to address the problem, and he make recommendations about resolving the problems around this issue.

As more technology standards are being defined in the real estate industry, it is my hope that the standards bodies in the industry keep thoughts like this in mind.

Some secure fun - Part 2

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on June 21, 2006
in Internet, MLS and Security
. 0 Comments

realtor_secure.jpgA while ago, we produced some videos related to security in order to try alternative means of getting the word out on security.  Traditional means were not working.  We tried white papers, a website and e-mails.  The second video in this series has some fun with Identity Theft from a financial perspective . 

Enjoy and I’ll post more over time.

Some secure fun! Part 1

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on June 17, 2006
in Internet, MLS and Security
. 3 Comments

realtor_secure.jpgA while ago, we produced some videos related to security in order to try alternative means of getting the word out on security.  Traditional means were not working.  We tried white papers, a website and e-mails.  The first video has some fun with identity theft .  We had fun making them, and this venue is as good as any to distribute them.

Enjoy and I’ll post more over time.

Net Neutrality and you

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 14, 2006
in General
. 2 Comments

    The House of Representatives just voted down the net neutrality amendment to the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement(Cope) Act- they voted in the Cope Act (more on that later). What is this net neutrality and why was there a vote about it? 

    Basically net neutrality is the idea that all data should be treated neutrally on the internet. Data from my server shouldn’t have priority over data from your server.

    Sounds straight forward right? Well there are some issues turning the ideal into reality, namely QoS (Quality of Service). QoS is regulated by the routers that control the "net" in internet. Currently these routers determine which packets get higher priority based on what the information being transmitted requires- webpage content is happy with a best effort priority(read low priority), it will wait patiently for it’s turn even if other data cuts in line, high bandwidth video or voice communication information can’t allow others to cut, watching a video that cuts out for a second or two randomly is not a lot of fun, it requires a high priority. So if your server is hosting video content it’s data transmissions will have a higher priority then my server hosting basic web pages. This works great right now but as more servers start transmitting data requiring high priority, bandwidth becomes an issue.

     Now why would anyone be against this? The ISPs don’t like it, they would like to charge users that transmit high priority data more. They say the bandwidth and QoS requirements are a heavy burden on their networks. Case in point; video streaming now comprises approximately 20% of internet traffic in the US and is growing. They say that net neutrality will cause problems for their engineers who design QoS architechtures and involve expensive upgrades to their networks. Because of this they would like to implement a tiered internet- fast transmission speeds for those who pay extra and slower speeds for those who don’t- this certainly isn’t neutral but it’s a valid argument

    Advocates of the net neutrality ammendment say that enabling the ISPs to create a tiered internet would allow them to charge for a service that’s already been paid for. Example; you paid for your internet connection, Google pays for theirs. Once both parties are connected they should be able to communicate but under a tiered plan there would be more fees for transmitting specific types of data. The ISPs could disallow transmission of certain types of data that competed with services of their own unless a fee was paid; this is where the Cope Act comes in.

    The Cope Act gets rid of the hassle cable companies had to go through implementing their networks. Before the Cope Act cable companies had to negotiate with thousands of local governments for franchise agreements to offer video services now they only need to get approval from the FCC.

    There are many issues with this but the reason I mention it is that the ISPs and Telcos pushed for this . Why? Because they want to get into the video business and they say it would take decades for them to go through the negotiations to catch up to the cable companies. Once the ISP’s are in the video business they’ll be able to control access to their competitors services, not very neutral.

    Much of the ISPs networks were built with public money in tax breaks, direct subsidies in money and land(for cable or fiber runs) with the understanding that they would upgrade their networks to give the public high speed connections, exactly what they are now complaining the high priority transmissions require.

    Since this is the Center for REALTOR® Technology Blog, the obvious question is: "How will this affect our members and the real estate industry as a whole?" The simple answer is that it will effect our industry as much as others that use the internet to provide services. If the internet is no longer neutral there will be a higher cost to do business over the internet. How high will the cost be? That remains to be seen but it will certainly cost more to provide video content. With the passage of the COPE Act the ISPs can set any price they think the market will support. Unfortunately the price could be high because the internet is an integral component of most business interactions today. In other words high demand, high prices. Many network neutrality advocates say this will stifle innovation and keep the smaller players out of the game.  For REALTORS® this might mean only the large brokerages will be able to provide newly expensive services to their clients.

[update 6/16/06  CRT doesn't make policy decisions concerning NAR's stance on technology issues so our blog posts are purposefully educational. That being said, NAR is currently looking into this issue.]

ezRETS 2.0 released

Published
by
Keith Garner
on June 14, 2006
in Announcements and Projects
. 2 Comments

old(?) rets logoI don’t want the blog to turn into a software announcement only forum… buuuut

I wanted to mention that I’ve just released ezRETS 2.0.  ezRETS is an ODBC driver that speaks to RETS servers making them appear much like "any other database" to your ODBC aware apps like MS Office.  It is released under an open source license.

ezRETS 2.0 is a major feature release and brings RETS GetObject (aka Photo and other binary) support to ezRETS.

Anyway, like I said, I don’t want this to just be a software announcement forum, so read Ian’s post on Net Neutrality! 

PolicyPage 1.0.2

Published
by
Todd Costigan
on June 9, 2006
in Announcements, MLS and Tools
. 0 Comments

PolicyPage release 1.0.2 is now available.The changes are aimed at making the app easier to understand, install and use.

The changes for v 1.0.2 include:
- The PolicyPage demo site was revised to make use simpler.
- To improve security the users are now required to change the administrator’s password  upon initial use of PolicyPage
- To support a wider variety of email configurations, all email PolicyPage sends now uses PHPMailer.
           This includes support for SMTP authorization and SMTP secure sockets.
- All email configuration changes can now be accomplished through PolicyPage. There is no need to updated ini files.

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. 

Innovation for the masses?

Published
by
Mark Lesswing
on June 2, 2006
in General and MLS
. 1 Comment

think.jpgI have just finished reading a two part post from Brian Larson on the Inman News website.  I would have provided a link to the articles, but a subscription is required.  Inman is a great news source and Brian is an important industry contributor. Part 1 is called NAR/DOJ lawsuit stymies innovation (May 31, 2006) and Part 2 is called DOJ and NAR squabbles miss the point (June 1, 2006).

What struck me first was the premise that innovation is comprised of actions that all REALTORS are allowed to pursue based on policy.  In Brian’s articles, he focuses on the IDX/VOW issue as a specific example.  To quote from the second article

"So many issues are up in the air now that only the brave and foolish will invest significant amounts of money in on-line brokerage today."

Although his points about innovation within the context of policy are well presented, but I don’t believe that the story ends there.  If everyone is doing the same thing, where is the innovation?  I have always thought that innovators are the exception rather than the rule. Historical figures who where considered innovators were labeled by their colleagues as "brave", "foolish" or both.  I believe a well worn quote from Ghandi goes something like this:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Go ahead.  Dust off those history books and research other leaders from the past.  I think you will find they all had the common trait of looking at problems differently from their contemporaries. Think of the size of the books if there had never been innovators.

I hope the industry does not really think that any form of Mass Innovation is a good approach to connect with consumers via the Internet.  Real competitive advantage comes from differentiation, not homogeneity. In business, differentiation is function of creativity not standards. If Mass Innovation was the case, a major highway between two cities that is closed for construction would mean that there was no travel from one city to another.  The Pioneers would have turned back at the Rocky Mountains. If someone has enough desire, they will explore alternatives when faced with barriers. 

With this in mind I hope  the "brave" and "foolish" in the industry show us that it is possible to build net community with more than listings.  Remember that listings are a form of data and consumers want information.  The two terms are not collective exhaustive or mutually exclusive.  Transforming data into information is practiced by Journalists everyday.  I can’t think of a single newspaper that prints the entire transcript of a trial.  The industry needs to look hard at what "information that you can use" means to consumers.

I’ve always thought of myself as being an optimist, so I’m not sure whether that makes me "brave" or "foolish"Undecided