GnomeDex Update - Day One
Rob Rosenberger was the first speaker at today's GnomeDex session. He operates VMyths.com, a site dedicated to debunking virus hoaxes, myths, and urban legends. He spoke on the history of computer hoaxes. Very entertaining.
The highlight of the day for me was, I believe, at lunch. No! Not the meal, though the Marriott did a fine job, the speakers! <g> I didn't catch the names of either person, as I hadn't taken anything with me to write upon. I'll add them later if possible.
The president of the Greater Des Moines Partnership spoke about Des Moines as a technical center. He showed a video the partnership has put together called Change Your View that did a wonderful job of highlighting Des Moines.
Next, a director of the Des Moines Area Community College west campus, DMACC West, walked us through the new campus which is being set up for technical education. They have a lot of really interesting things going on, like their work towards a paperless campus, that really integrate technology into education. Great stuff.
The highlight of the afternoon, at least for me, was Steve Gibson of grc.com. Steve is a computer networking security expert who has done tons for computer users everywhere. He spoke about his concerns (expectations, really) that something called raw sockets in Windows XP will enable the next generation of hacking and network attach tools to flourish.
Steve has written about raw sockets on his page. It is interesting reading, from a technical and security standpoint, though I have to admit I don't understand some of what he has written.
Steve is highly visible in the area of computer security, and many people try out their attacks on his site. Perhaps the most classic of these was his day by day log of a Denial of Service attack made against his site in May, 2001.
Microsoft also presented with an interesting look at mobile technology, including a Pocket PC with built in cell phone. Cool stuff, but I can't think of much of a need for it.
More from GnomeDex - Day Two tomorrow.
10:06:03 PM 
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