In this episode of the Computerworld Techcast, Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, explains the impact of the exponential growth of processing power in computers. In the interview, Kurzweil says that computing advances will go beyond making computers smaller and more powerful -- they will eventually lead to pervasive computing, augmented reality, and vastly longer lifespans.

Duration: 10 minutes

Wireless networking, or wifi, has made a huge impact on how people use computers in the home and office, but it will soon get a big boost from 802.11n, an upgraded version of the 802.11 wifi standard. This episode of the podcast compares 802.11n with an earlier standard, 802.11g, and describes range, transfer speeds, rollout timelines, and security relating to the new standard. 

Duration: 5 minutes

Related:

This week we'll discuss Darwin Information Typing Architecture, or DITA, an XML-based approach to managing technical documentation and other types of information.

Duration: 5 minutes

Related links:

• QuickStudy: Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
• XML Gets Organized
...Read more

Web 2.0 is an umbrella term used to describe some extremely popular Web software technologies. It's already permeated consumer culture, and now it's invading the enterprise. In this episode of the TechCast, Computerworld Reporter Heather Havenstein talks with Brian Humphrey and Ron Myers, who maintain an array of Web 2.0 technologies for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The LAFD has found the Web 2.0 platforms, including blogs, Flickr, and Twitter, to be a cheap and effective way to reach out to the public.

Biometric authentication -- the use of physical characteristics or traits to screen access to computer systems -- is the subject of this week's episode. Once the realm of science fiction and high-security government R&D labs, biometrics is now becoming more and more common in ordinary enterprise environments. This program will explain how several biometric authentication schemes work, and describe some real-world applications of the technology.

In this week's episode, we'll discuss MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS), tiny machines that can regulate, pump, and sense. They're used in everything from car safety equipment to the Nintendo Wii, and even biomedical devices.

Duration: 6 minutes

Related links:

• QuickStudy: MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS)
...Read more

In this week's episode, the podcast features an interview with Whitfield Diffie, one of leading experts on public-key encryption and co-inventor of Diffie-Hellman public key cryptography. In the interview, Diffie discusses issues relating to privacy and authentication, the difficulties of key management, and future security challenges. 

Duration: 6 minutes

Related links:

• The politics of wiretapping and encryption (Book Excerpt of Whitfield Diffie's Privacy on the Line)
...Read more

You've probably heard about "Ruby on Rails", a programming method that's popular among Web applications developers.   In this episode of the podcast, you'll hear an interview with author Justin Gehtland, talking about some of the issues raised in his book "Rails for Java Developers." 

Duration: 6 minutes

Related link:

• Book Excerpt: Rails for Java Developers
...Read more

In this episode, we explore botnets -- networks of hijacked PCs connected to the Internet that do everything from displaying pop-up ads to sending spam. The episode includes a discussion of best practices to identify and fight botnet infestations.

Duration: 6 minutes

Related links:

• Four steps to battling botnets
...Read more

This podcast episode explores the Turing Test, a method to gauge artificial intelligence.

Podcast duration: 5 minutes

In this podcast episode we explore security in the Web 2.0 world where users post content, create social networks and integrate data into mashups. What are the legal, social and technical implications?

Podcast duration: 7 minutes

Related Articles and Opinion

• Security Survival Tips for the Web 2.0 World
...Read more

This podcast episode explores LAMP, an open-source framework upon which millions of websites across the world have been built.

Podcast duration: 5 minutes

Related Article: Quickstudy: LAMP

This podcast episode explores Flash Animation, discussing why the technology has become one of the most common delivery mediums for animation and video over the Internet.

Podcast duration: 6 minutes

Related Articles and Opinion

• Quickstudy: Flash
• Q&A: MicroStrategy set to expand in 2007, exec says
...Read more

This podcast episode explores Markup Languages. First invented at IBM in the late 1960s, markup languages have been used for decades to format documents for publishing. In the 1990s, a new version was instrumental in the success of the Web.  Today, many services are dependent on Extensible Markup Language, or XML.

Podcast duration: 7 minutes

Related Articles, Blogs and Podcasts:

...Read more

This podcast episode explores system development life cycle (SDLC) models, which are used to plan and develop major enterprise software development projects.

Podcast duration: 6 minutes

Related Articles, Blogs and Podcasts:

• QuickStudy: System Development Life Cycle
...Read more