Corrections or additions?
These articles by Michele Alperin, Scott Carpenter, and Tony Faber
were prepared for the January 17, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper.
All rights reserved.
Security Issues For Cable & DSL
Would you buy a new sports car that had no door locks
or car alarm? Of course not. Unfortunately, Internet users everywhere
are buying and installing cable modems and DSL (Digital Subscriber
Line) connections that are as fast, sleek and vulnerable as that
lockless,
alarm-less sports car, and the average user does not know how to
protect
their digital lives from a computer hack.
Stephen F. Heffner will discuss how to implement these high
speed Internet connections and protect yourself from nefarious hacking
at the Princeton ACM /IEEE Computer Society meeting at the Sarnoff
Corporation auditorium on Thursday, January 18, at 8 p.m. The meeting
is free. A pre-meeting dinner with Heffner will be at 6 p.m. at the
Rusty Scupper. For more information or to RSVP for the dinner, call
609-924-8704, or E-mail: princetonacm@acm.org.
Heffner, president of Pennington Systems Incorporated,
a software development company on Independence Way, points out that
home and small business PC users access the Internet one of two ways.
The first is through a dial-up modem connection, using a 56k (or
slower)
modem to connect through a phone line. Increasingly, the second way
is through a broadband connection, typically cable modem or DSL, which
provides an Internet connection utilizing cable television wiring
or a direct Internet wire. Broadband connections are all the rage
for users who crave the speed of a sports car from the Internet.
"Dial up connections provide a dynamically allocated Internet
address, where you are assigned a different Internet address every
time you connect up. With the high speed broadband connections, your
Internet address is static, it always stays the same," says
Heffner.
Therein lies the risk, as practically speaking, dynamic Internet
addresses
are at little risk to a computer hacker. "It serves a hacker no
purpose, their access is limited to the length of time you maintain
that particular connection," he adds. On the other hand, due to
the direct, constant nature of a static Internet addresses, "the
risk of a hack or virus attack is tremendous."
Compounding the security issue is that the attack risk is
bi-directional.
That is, your static Internet address is susceptible to attack from
both incoming problems, as when someone hacks your PC’s hard drive
and erases files, or outgoing, as in case of a Trojan Horse attack
where the marauding virus renames key executable files on your PC
that in turn send requests from your PC out through your Internet
connection.
Heffner has grappled with security issues for years. The University
of Chicago graduate has been in the computer industry since 1963,
holding positions with IBM, Applied Data Research and Dun & Bradstreet
before becoming an independent systems consultant in 1972. In 1977
he founded Pennington Systems, where he created XTRAN, a proprietary
expert system for symbolic translation of computer languages. He also
was an adjunct professor of decision sciences for 13 years at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
As a long-time computer scientist with a passion for Internet
security,
Heffner has found several rather inexpensive yet highly effective
means of securing a broadband connection, easing the fears of attack
for even the most intrepid Internet speed junkies.
The biggest differences in setting up a broadband connection revolve
around whether you are installing a connection for a single PC (the
home user) or for a network (small businesses or the home office).
Setting up a single user connection isn’t too difficult. But, Heffner
says, setting up a network is complicated by the need to share that
one static Internet address among several PCs or other devices (such
as a printer, fax, or someday your refrigerator).
This problem is solved by the use of the Network Address Translation
(NAT) protocol. NAT allows multiple devices to share a single Internet
address. This protocol can be part of a hardware package (such as
a router that acts as a "front end" to your network,
translating
everything coming into and going out from your network) or a piece
of software installed in the PC with the Internet connection. Once
it is in place, you can fly across the Internet from anywhere on your
network. Your work is done, right? Wrong, says Heffner.
At this point, you need to secure this connection. For a single PC,
protection from intruders is mostly accomplished by turning off disk
and printer sharing (for example, in Windows98, go to the Control
Panel, click Network, then the File and Print Sharing button and
uncheck
all options). Since these services must be enabled in a network
environment,
Heffner suggests password protection, using non-obvious passwords
that aren’t in the dictionary. This hinders reverse engineering
attacks
in which the hacker uses a program designed to systematically crack
the password.
These measures cost nothing (except the NAT solution) and provide
basic protection from many computer hacks; however, more can be done.
And don’t forget, you still need to secure yourself against outgoing
attacks.
In any security solution, Heffner suggests utilizing hardware,
software,
or a combination of both to make your digital sports car safe:
Firewall hardware. Hardware for an Internet security firewall
requires a router. The same router that handles your network NAT
service
often includes a firewall service too. A firewall is a filter that
examines all Internet traffic and rejects or warns about anything
that is inappropriate. The process to set a firewall up can be
tedious,
but after that, it requires little attention.
Also, many routers now include an Internet protocol called Virtual
Private Network (VPN) that allows for secure links across the
Internet.
VPN is ideal for telecommuters as it allows them to work from home
as if they were connected to the company’s network. Routers range
in price from cheap to quite expensive, and usually the more money
you can spend, the better the router.
firewall. There are many software products to choose from, including
Norton’s Personal Firewall 2001 and McAfee’s Firewall. Heffner
recommends
Zone Labs’ freeware ZoneAlarm (available from www.zonelabs.com).
ZoneAlarm
does a superior job of monitoring incoming and outgoing activity along
your Internet connection. The software checks several characteristics
of each activity request and compares the results with a stored
profile
that it compiles for all of your authorized Internet activities. The
chances of a hacked file duplicating all of the profile
characteristics
are virtually impossible.
of your Internet connection, is good virus software. Such software
(McAfee VirusScan and Norton Utilities are two leading packages) scans
files on your PC and incoming E-mail attachments and cleans any
infected
files. Virus software is not expensive and should be updated every
month or so.
In the end, with the proper security tools in place, that high-speed
cable modem or DSL line of yours will be both fast and safe. Start
your engines.
— Scott Carpenter
Top Of Page
More Broadband
Michael Ettenberg, senior vice president at Sarnoff
Corporation, will give another view of broadband media, also on
Thursday,
January 18. This presentation is part of a showcase, sponsored by
the New Jersey Technology Council, that features E-business and
multimedia.
Ettenberg will discuss "The Internet’s 4th Wave — Broadband
Multimedia" at 4 p.m. at Aplion Networks, 2147 Route 27 South,
Edison. Cost: $70. Call 856-787-9700 (or go to www.njtc.org).
Ettenberg joins four other panelists set for 10-minute presentations
on the general topic, "TV and the Internet — Coming to a
Screen
Near You," telling how digital television, datacasting, and the
Internet are bringing about the next generation of television.
Kevin Lee, vice president of sales and marketing for Interact
Multimedia Inc., will discuss "Convergence of Internet and
TV."
"Issues and Strategies for Digital Rights Management" is the
topic for Peter McKiernan, senior client representative of the
Stratis Group. Robert Petrie, senior vice president of Aptegrity,
speaks on "Internet and Media Convergence," using AE Networks
as a case study.
More than 20 companies that have developed and marketed E-business
and multimedia solutions and products will display their products
and services. The sponsors for this program include Arthur Andersen;
Woodcock Washburn Kurtz Mackiewicz & Norris; Amper, Politziner &
Mattia;
and Synnestvedt & Lechner.
Top Of Page
Lean Manufacturing
The principles of lean manufacturing may not appear
to be a sexy conversation topic, but this area is often the key to
a company’s long-term profitability and growth, says Drew Locker,
principal of Change Management Associates. Locker leads a workshop
on manufacturing principles on Wednesday, January 17, at 8:30 a.m.
at the PSE&G Training Center on Route 1 in Edison. Cost: $250. Change
Management Associates (CMA) works with the New Jersey Manufacturing
Extension Partnership, an affiliate of the federally funded National
Institute of Standards and Technology, to assist small to medium-size
businesses.
The workshop is appropriate for operations workers, supervisors, VPs,
and owners. Workshop participants get to do a live simulation in a
simulated factory, based on a continuous flow model, to show how their
decisions affect productivity. Cost: $250 including a workbook and
a light breakfast and lunch. Call CMA at 856-235-8051 or NJMEP at
800-MEP-4MFG. The same workshop will also be held Friday, February
16, at the Wyndham Mount Laurel Hotel in Mount Laurel and Friday,
March 16, at the Holiday Inn in Parsippany.
According to Locker, manufacturers today struggle to meet
ever-increasing
customer demands: shorter lead times, lower costs, and better quality.
The first part can present some of the biggest problems. Locker notes
that the biggest pitfall a business can fall into is to attempt to
use the same system the manufacturer has always used to produce
results
that it wasn’t designed for.
For instance, Locker gives the example of a producer suddenly faced
with a customer who now requires one week lead time instead of the
two weeks that the manufacturing process is designed for. Many
manufacturers
take an easy way out: they simply cheat. Instead of fundamentally
changing their own practices, they keep the same system, guess how
much product the customer will want, and make everything a week
earlier.
Although it temporarily solves the problem with a minimum of effort,
this practice often depletes the bottom line in the long run.
The cost of carrying extra inventory is often huge. There’s the cost
of warehouse space, the cost of managing, moving and tracking the
extra product, etc. Moreover, says Locker, we live in an era where
the life cycle of the average product is shorter and the
predictability
of its sales are lower than ever before. The trend of business is
towards customization, meaning that a product often has to be changed
with little or no warning. It’s harder and harder to predict what
will be ordered, meaning there is a greater chance than ever of being
stuck with unused inventory, which dilutes profits.
"It’s an inventory hot potato — no one wants to hold it,"
says Locker. "That’s why the emphasis is now on velocity; speed
through the system. Instead of holding extra inventory, we look at
the problem differently. We would actually reduce the time needed
to get a product out to less than a week."
Locker helps businesses reduce lead times by striving to standardize
and simplify all aspects of a business, such as purchasing and
scheduling,
in addition to the manufacturing process itself.
The manufacturing process can be improved in a multitude of ways,
ranging from new equipment, new procedures, and a new layout of the
production area. A simple example can be found in the storage of
manufacturing
parts. Most companies have a centralized stockroom from which parts
are shipped when an order comes in. Locker notes that a good deal
of time can be saved simply by storing the parts at the point-of-use.
Locker categorizes possible improvements like this one into a lean
manufacturing "toolbox." Tools in the toolbox include:
this can dramatically reduce manufacturing times. It also includes
having a place for everything and everything in its place.
maintaining
reliable equipment.
switching
from one product to another is essential for meeting short lead times.
a sample or photo of a finished product to compare with products
coming
off the line.
dramatic
results. A 75 percent reduction in lead times is typical for companies
that he works with.
In fact, Locker helped two major American window companies produce
such results. Windows made in this country can have over 200 different
features and options — grids, patterns and glass types —
before
size is even taken into account. With both companies, work in process
inventories have been reduced as much as 90 percent, the manufacturing
space has been cut in half, and there have been significant quality
improvements. In lead times, one company has gone from receipt to
delivery in just three to five days. Manufacturing using continuous
flow processes, which starts with cutting the glass and ends with
wrapping the product, takes just four to eight hours. In fact, most
of that three to five days is just loading and shipping.
Both companies have matched Locker’s typical result of a 75 percent
reduction in lead time, and both have grown their businesses 300 to
500 percent over the last six years, largely due to their ability
to win business from major retailers with these short lead times.
Another positive side effect of lean manufacturing processes is that
effective use of them also can solve seemingly unrelated business
problems. For instance, a common management lament is the difficulty
of obtaining good help. Locker suggests that businesses are often
asking for too much. Manufacturing processes are frequently
undocumented,
and it takes new employees a long time to figure out where everything
is located and exactly what procedures they should be following.
By following the lean manufacturing principle of standardizing,
simplifying,
and documenting procedures, a company can have a new employee step
in and be successful from the get-go. It also can mean lower labor
costs since fewer people are required to do the same job.
— Tony Faber
Top Of Page
Coping with Stress
Stress has become one of the accepted evils of modern
life, along with weight gain and traffic. You do what you can to avoid
them, but you know they will always be around. Stress is partly the
result of time-saving devices gone haywire. "Things like cell
phones, pagers, and E-mail are wonderful conveniences," says
psychologist
Ruth B. Goldston, "but they bring with them pressure and
stress to do more in a shorter period of time." At the same time,
changing role expectations and the impact of feminism have upped the
stress in many families. Paralleling these higher expectations for
achievement is a decrease in social support and community time.
Goldston, based at 330 North Harrison Street, and her colleague, Brian
G. McDonald, with an office at 20 Nassau Street, will offer a
two-hour
seminar on "Stress Management for Busy People," Tuesday,
January
23, at 7 p.m. The free workshop, sponsored by the community education
program at the Medical Center at Princeton, meets in the ground floor
conference room at 253 Witherspoon. Call 609-497-4480 to register.
Goldston and McDonald offer a process for diagnosing sources of
personal
stress, developing priorities for stress reduction, and learning
useful
stress management techniques tailored to personal priorities. The
diagnostic process includes:
as specific as possible. Goldston advises that it is hard to deal
effectively with very generalized statements of stress like "My
job is so stressful I can’t stand it." But you can address
"When
my boss gives me too many things to do, and I can’t get them done,
I feel very stressed." Because one source of stress is simply
the feeling of being overwhelmed, she says, it helps for people to
focus on discrete stressors.
in the ranking, explains Goldston, this process "gets people
speaking
more specifically and makes each stressor more discrete. It helps
a lot when a person can identify things more specifically."
most significant stresses in their lives. "Now we have narrowed
the field," says Goldston, "and are working on the three
things
that probably need the most attention."
stressors. "At first it is hard to see patterns, but once you
starting putting things down, you may notice them," says Goldston.
Often, identifying patterns may highlight certain self-defeating
aspects
of personal style, for example, difficulties dealing with other
people,
not being assertive enough, thinking negatively about oneself, or
holding oneself to too high a standard. "People start to see an
emerging picture as they work through these exercises," continues
Goldston.
Goldston maintains that the stress management techniques that she
and McDonald present are quick and to the point. "We have zeroed
in on what really seems to work for people." Among their
techniques:
time to spend hours relaxing themselves, but there are ways of
relaxing
more rapidly," Goldston says. One simple technique is called
"square
breathing" — breathe in for four counts, hold for four, exhale
for four, and rest for four. The advantages of this strategy are that
it gets people to attend to and slow down their breathing, and it
is simple to learn and do.
— sleeping enough, eating well, exercising, and taking time for
oneself. Effective self-care may mean realizing, for example, that
sleeping is important. "Too often we think sleeping is the thing
we can cut back on or compromise about," Goldston says. Making
changes to improve self-care may involve different kind of
goal-setting,
but sometimes it may mean just doing the right thing, but in smaller
chunks. For example, if a person takes 10 minutes of personal time,
that is better than nothing at all.
and at home is that people have difficulty speaking up for themselves
in appropriate ways," says Goldston. The two extreme versions
of people with assertiveness issues are the person who swallows down
everything and says nothing and the person who flies off the handle
and explodes. Sometimes the same person exhibits both behaviors. One
management technique for this form of stress is the "24-hour
rule."
A person is advised to wait 24 hours before confronting someone or
raising a difficult issue. This rule helps the explosive person by
providing time to calm down and think through a problem. But, because
the rule also mandates not waiting more than 24 hours, it also helps
the person who avoids speaking up at all costs.
patterns.
"What trips up people the most is absolute black and white
thinking,"
Goldston says. For example, people with perfectionist tendencies are
always grading themselves and scoring either 0 or 100, and they need
to learn how to use the rest of scale — all of the numbers in
between. People must learn to risk looking at more complicated, less
well-defined answers.
people
need to figure out who is part of their support system and then come
up with strategies to expand that system and to use it more
effectively.
Often people are reluctant to ask for help, and they may need to
examine
the sources of their unwillingness and decide what would help them
to tap into potential sources of support more easily. Research shows
that people who have social support and use it effectively fare better
with illness and other major life stresses.
an M.A. in counseling from Hunter College, and earned a Ph.D. in
clinical
and development psychology from Rutgers University. She worked for
seven years as a counselor at Brookdale Community College, where she
also offered assertiveness training classes. At Rutgers the focus
of her graduate work was on the emotions, and after graduation, she
worked at the Carrier Clinic as a post-doctoral fellow and set up
a private practice.
Talking about the genesis of the stress management seminar, Goldston
says, "the challenge of working with people quickly and
effectively
is something every clinician is facing. And a lot of what therapists
are doing is to help people cope with the stress in their lives."
Goldston and McDonald expect people to leave the seminar with a
personal
plan about how to address stress in their own lives.
A potential outcome of the process of developing a stress-management
plan, says Goldston, "could be that people re-evaluate their
priorities
and modify their expectations of what it means to be happy, and
productive,
and successful." But in the meantime, given the demands of modern
life, people must find ways to reduce stress. Even little changes
can make a difference.
— Michele Alperin
Top Of Page
OSHA Courses
Explore a new career in environmental safety and
industrial
hygiene with courses by Emilcott Associates given in Chatham. Along
the way you might learn useful information about regulations from
the EPA or OSHA. For instance, do you need to know the special health
and safety challenges that working in laboratories presents? A
four-hour
course in Laboratory Safety and Health costs $95 and is scheduled
for Wednesday, January 24, at 8 a.m. The course covers the principles
of laboratory and chemical safety, such as physical and biological
hazards; chemical hygiene plans; controlling hazards, and emergency
preparedness. You will get a lab safety check list.
Presented later that day, starting at 1 p.m., is a course on
laboratory
fire and life safety issues.
Other half-day courses are on Warehouse and Material Handling Safety
Management (Wednesday, February 7, at 8 a.m.), Forklift Safety
(Wednesday,
February 7, at 1 p.m.), Fall Protection and Scaffold Safety
(Wednesday,
March 14, at 8 a.m.), and Excavation and Trenching Safety (Wednesday,
March 4, at 1 p.m.).
An all-day course in understanding the chemistry of hazardous
materials
is Monday, February 5, at 8 a.m., and costs $200. Crew leaders and
engineers can take eight-hour Hazardous Waste Operations site
supervisor
training on Friday, February 23, also for $200. Call 800-886-3645.
Top Of Page
AMA Course
Certificates offered by the American Management
Association
are available as noncredit certificate programs at Mercer County
College.
One of two core courses for a certificate in human resources starts
Tuesday, January 30, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Called Fundamentals of Human
Resources, it meets for five weeks and costs $225, including
textbooks.
The other core course, on safe hiring and firing practices, starts
Tuesday, March 13. Three electives are also required.
"How to Develop the Strategic Plan" is the first core course
for an AMA certificate in strategic leadership and starts Thursday,
February 1, at 6:30 p.m.
The AMA is the world’s leading membership-based management development
organization. Call 609-586-9446.
Top Of Page
Road Alerts
Winter weather may make you curious about the condition
of roads you are planning to take to or from work. The Greater Mercer
TMA offers free E-mail alerts for any of two-dozen roads from Route
1 south or north to Route 202. Go to www.gmtma.org or call
609-452-8988.
For current traffic conditions on the New Jersey Turnpike, call
800-33-NJTPK
or 800-336-5875. For the Garden State Parkway, 732-PARKWAY or
In other "traffic news," still cameras offer minute-by-minute
visual traffic reports on the Web
(www.state.nj.us/transportation/traffic/cameras/rt1).
On Route 1 in this area alone, the cameras are focused on a half-dozen
intersections: Bakers Basin Road, I-295, Quakerbridge and Alexander
Roads, Scudders Mill Road, and Independence Way.
Top Of Page
Corporate Angels
for Advanced Studies for a professorship in East Asian Studies.
Currently
five scholars in residence are focusing on East Asia as part of the
School of Historical Studies. Established in 1936 by the late
cofounder
of Time Incorporated, who was born in China, the foundation aims to
encourage American-Asian understanding.
host the CEO breakfast for March of Dimes Middlesex Walk America on
Thursday, January 18, at 8 a.m. "We know how important good
prenatal
and medical care are to healthy outcomes and fully support the mission
of the March of Dimes," says John Matuska, president and CEO of
the hospital. John Sullivan, regional director of Canon USA Inc.,
will speak at the 100-person breakfast. Walk America for Middlesex
is set for Sunday, April 29, in Piscataway.
presented a $10,000 check to Lawrenceville Main Street’s Century
Campaign,
a capital campaign for physical improvements to the Village of
Lawrenceville.
The money will be used to plant street trees in the historic district,
says Tommie Culligan, president of the organization.
Top Of Page
Nominate Please
Entries for this year’s Astra Awards, sponsored by New
Jersey CAMA, are due Wednesday, January 17, at 4:30 p.m., but for
an additional fee, late entries may be submitted by Wednesday, January
24. Call Charlie Waterfall of Princeton Insurance Companies
at 609-452-9404 or Miriam Stoolman of Princeton Communications
Group at 609-924-7966. To the regular fee of $50 per entry ($75 for
non-members) a late fee of $10 is added. Among the 65 categories are
some called "Dashed Dreams," great ideas that never made it
past the concept stage.
Journalists awards, which offer eight categories including
newsletters
and online. Each entry costs $15. Call George Dawson at
732-249-2670.
is Wednesday, February 28. Honorees will be feted at a dinner on
Thursday,
May 10, at the Marriott, says Cindy Shapiro , the co-chair. Also
on the committee are Michele Long, co-chair, Elaine Britt,
Pamela Carter-Rowe, Pat Peach, Debra Lemeshow, and Georgia
Frasier.
The award honors women who represent the YW mission: attaining and
believing in the vision of eliminating racism, empowering women,
encouraging
diversity and supporting families. Nominees should meet high standards
of professional responsibility, demonstrated leadership, academic
achievement, mentoring of others, special accomplishments, and
community
service. For a nomination form call Long at 609-951-8700, extension
3041, or Lemeshow at 973-430-7475.
Foundation
"unsung heroes" awards. These prizes recognize New Jersey
citizens who have made what is termed "uncommon contributions
to the common good." Russ Berrie , the soft toy mogul with
a distribution center on Route 130, has provided $150,000 to be
divided
into three major prizes and 16 runner-up awards. For example, Richard
and Maureen Kanka won one of the three top awards in 1997 for
establishing
the foundation to raise public awareness about the dangers of sex
crimes and to provide needed counseling and assistance. Others have
won for rescuing large numbers of people during Hurricane Floyd,
founding
an after school outreach program, adopting 13 children with serious
medical conditions, founding an organization that helps the homeless,
and rescuing children from a burning building. For an application
contact the office of the president at Ramapo College of New Jersey,
201-684-7607 or fax 201-684-7960.
Corrections or additions?
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