"But I already have a web site."

Of course you have a web site. Who doesn't? The problem is that your web site is bad and it could be better. Do you really know how to use a web site to promote your business? Do you really understand what content helps make the phone ring? Have your changed your web site in the last month? Are you involved in facebook or any other social media sites?

My guess is that you don't know much about what you have and you probably paid way too much for it. Dreamwright Web Design Studios specializes in making web sites effective and affordable. For one low monthly fee you can get everything you need from one provider that will take the time to understand your business and the industry you are in to make a web marketing plan that will succeed.

Don't waste any more time and money on anything else. Call today or come by our retail location in Mooresville, NC and let us show you the difference. 704-456-9999

Steve Jobs a Saint?

Retort on CNN’s “Short Takes: Are we turning Steve Jobs into a saint?” Published October 26^th, 2011

Many Apple-worshipers will tell you where they were on the day they heard that Apple founder, Steve Jobs had passed away. Jobs was an innovator in the computer industry and skyrocketed his company to super stardom with the release of products such as the iPod and iPhone.

Inside the CNN web site you will find an article written by the editors of CNN’s “Belief Blog” asking the question, “Are we turning Steve Jobs into a saint?” I found the article to be certainly relevant to our industry while also being relevant to my Christian beliefs.

The article/blog asked four religious leaders their opinions on how the world is digesting the news of Job’s death. Millions of Americans have given tribute by creating memorial web sites and even going as far as holding tribute vigils. The manner in which these people hold Steve Jobs to such high standards is both ungodly and sacrilegious. Some experts argue that despite not being a church, the Apple culture itself is a religious movement with many devoted followers.

Granted that the man invented products that changed the world. His style of design focused on the individual user rather than the masses making the products easy to use. Apple’s elite status over PC came from the ability of Apple products to somewhat work seamlessly together. However, as Microsoft guy myself, I found a lot of the products too constricted and obnoxious with an overinflated price tag.

Steve Jobs was famous for being a tyrant and a religious nut. If the iPhone would have failed he would have been an outcast and unemployed. Now Steve follows a path that many not-so-great people followed to rock their fame into legend - he simply died. (Kurt Cobain, Princess Diana).

Michael Ryan Corbin

Reference:

Short Takes: Are we turning Steve Jobs into a saint?”, CNN.com, written by multiple editors, October 26^th, 2011, Access on November 10^th, 2011 from http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/26/short-takes-are-we-turning-steve-jobs-into-a-saint/?iref=allsearch

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Diversify Your Marketing Portfolio

I am often asked how I can put a customer’s web site at the top of a search engine. The idea has somehow been implanted into business owner minds that the number one spot on Google search engine will result in instant success. This is far from the case. In fact we teach that even having a web site doesn’t guarantee success in business.

I know what you are thinking. Why is a web development company like Dreamwright Web Design Studios telling customers that a web site will not bring them success? It’s the same reason why financial analysts don’t tell their clients to buy lottery tickets every day as a sound retirement plan. No one thing will result in instant success.

The key to marketing your business is diversity. You need a web site but it can’t be the only marketing your business has. A web site should be your anchor. In other words, a web site should the central location that all your other marketing points to. You need a web site because it is a 24-hour brochure of company information with call-to-actions to capture interest. Everything else you do should point to your web site.

If you hand a client your business card and it doesn’t contain your web site address you missed an opportunity. Your business card alone may not have enough information to convince your potential customer. If you have a blog or social media site page like facebook, twitter, or linkedin and never refer to your web site you again have missed an opportunity. Do you have your web site on your company vehicles?

You need to diversify your marketing by empowering other avenues that all eventually redirect back to your anchor: your web site. I read in a book recently an authors response to the question: What is better than being number one on a search engine? The answer is being number one, two, three, four, and so on. Give a potential customer every opportunity to find you and utilize everything in your surroundings to advertise your web site. ~ M. Ryan Corbin 07/2011

M. Ryan Corbin is the owner and CEO of Dreamwright Web Design Studios (dreamwright.com)

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Michael Ryan Corbin

Article 3 - Trojan detection using MIB-based IDS / IPS system

The final result of any application development or systems design is the implantation of the software. In the midst of reading about the procedures and general outlines for installation, I failed to read a mention of system security. Since most applications are installed on existing hardware I found the following article by Colin Pattinson and Kemal Hajdarevic to be most interesting. The authors tackle the possibility and certain threat of existing viruses and Trojans on end user PCs. Their article is entitled Trojan detection using MIB-based IDS/IPS system.

As a system analyst I would imagine that a threat of existing viruses on a newly developed system would be of great concern. A virus like a Trojan is exceptionally dangerous on a workstation and a network. The Trojan type virus has the ability to spread itself and open a portal on a workstation exploiting the vulnerability by opening a portal to allow other viruses to enter the workstation or network.

The main concern of an existing Trojan virus on a PC would be the opportunity it would have to access information on the new application loaded after the Trojan was installed. This would allow the virus to use its open portals within the workstation to access information in the application such as secure data. This could also leave the opportunity for a virus to alter the application from its original purpose and destroy data or worse share secure data outside the network. Most dangerously is the ability of a Trojan to be hidden from the user so that it could not be detected for days or months.

As explained in the article, an application often uses the workstation internal memory (RAM) to effectively run the program. A Trojan type virus could easily access this memory especially if it was preinstalled before the new application. As Trojans multiple they also use internal memory of the workstation. These viruses can overtake the RAM and limit the amount available to the rest of the programs on the workstation. Eventually it can become so powerful that a new application would not be able to function at all with the ultimate result of a PC that has no memory for basic functions. This leads to a “crash” of a computer making it completely unusable.

So the question becomes how do you detect a Trojan or eliminate it efficiently? Since Trojans are so hard to find what can be done to detect them early enough? Many of the more effective viruses can actually prevent antivirus programs or scanners to operate on the same workstation. The can easily disable basic functionality like opening a browser. The authors propose a simpler solution to third-party programs for detection and elimination. They propose using the information in the host computer memory – specifically the Management Information Base or MIB for short. Using such a system could become a proactive way to prevent viruses without using valuable resources to do so.

So how would MIB be useful? First of all MIB is where system information is stored. Information such as the hardware inside the PC, the connections to the network or outside (Internet), and running software is all collected inside the MIB. If you knew what was supposed to be in the MIB you could easily detect something that wasn’t supposed to be in the MIB. Sounds simple right? Actually it would take a fair amount of data and a way to process to see these changes to information inside the MIB. Storage isn’t the biggest issue but the way it transfers from one end to another is. The bandwidth between the host and the translator could be swamped by the transfer of this data which in turns takes away network speed and Internet usage. Because of the bandwidth issue intrusion detection only takes place periodically and apparently not often enough to be effective.

The answer is to keep the MIB observations on the local machine only. Instead of checking every process inside the MIB you can check certain ones which are smaller and are most likely to indicate an intrusion. One such process is the Host Resource called “HrSWrunName”. This is can be used to isolate a process to a local spot. Other useful ones might be “HrSWrunPerfCPU” which can see how much CPU is being used at one time to process a process. If there is a shift in either one it could be a Trojan. Both of them being affective is even more likely to be a virus. With these processes running locally it is possible to catch them sooner before they cause a bigger issue for the entire network or new application.

The authors continue their article by outlining a decision tree algorithm that would include a series of if/and/or situations to examine the changes in the MIB to determine if the threat is real or a false positive. The article concludes with time trials of processing times averaging 300 msec and next-step measures.

In conclusion I propose that a new step in application installation and launch be initiated. This new step would account for the possibility of foreign agents on the end user computer that might affect the usage and operations of the new application. User workstations should be inspected and cleaned using proactive techniques such as the MIB detection and other resources to ensure a sterile environment exists before a new application is installed or accessed.

References:

Pattinson, Colin, Hajdarevic, Kemal (2009) Trojan detection using MIB-based IDS / IPS system. Information, Communication and Automation Technologies, 2009. ICAT 2009. XXII International Symposium on IEEE, Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/ICAT.2009.5348410, Page(s): 1 – 5, Accessed on 05/12/2011 from IEEE.org http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5348410