1-10 [Tech Info] This section introduces the latest ICT technologies related to your fields of interests: project management, network security, application development methodologies, and so forth. OIC - JICA

1. ISO/IEC 27001:2005(ISMS Standard) Has Just Been Published
2. PMP(R) Credential Exam System Changes
3. GUI or CUI?
4. Skype Technology
5. Eclipse Latest Status
6. New Computer Viruses Increase by 48% in 2005
7. If you understand yourself well, you can communicate well
8. Next Generation of Microsoft Excel
9. Virtual Machine Makes Your Computer More Efficient
10. Ajax: A Boost to Web Technology

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1 [Tech Info] ISO/IEC 27001:2005(ISMS Standard) Has Just Been Published
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ISO/IEC 27001:2005 has just been published on Oct. 15, 2005. It
replaces BS 7799-2:2002 (UK Standard). ISO/IEC 27001:2005 is a
management standard, which explains how to build, maintain and improve
an Information Security Management System (ISMS). It is based on risk
assessment and Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model. The standard provides a
specification for ISMS and the foundation for third party audit and
certification. It is harmonized to work with other management system
standards such as ISO 9001 and 14001.

"'The publication of ISO/IEC 27001:2005 is a big event in the
world of information security and the standard has been eagerly
awaited,' said Ted Humphreys, Convener of the working group
responsible for managing the development of the standard. 'It is a
standard that all security-conscious organizations should look to
implement.'"

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/pressreleases/2005/Ref976.html

In addition to the development of ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 is
working on several other standards that will all be included in the
27000 series of standards - in analogy to the management system
standards, such as ISO 9001 and 14001.

The standards in the 27000 series are:

- ISO/IEC 27000: Information Security Management System Fundamentals
and Vocabulary (under development)

- ISO/IEC 27001: Information Security Management System - Requirements
(published)

- ISO/IEC 27003: Information Security Management System Implementation
Guidance (under development)

- ISO/IEC 27004: Information Security Management Measurement (under
development)

- ISO/IEC 27005: Information Security Risk Management (under development)
The integration of ISO/IEC 17799:2005 into the 27000 series will be
discussed and decided upon in spring 2007; a forward in ISO/IEC
17799:2005 is explaining this situation, and if ISO/IEC 17799:2005 is
integrated into 27000 series, it will obtain the number ISO/IEC 27002.

There is ISMS Conformity Assessment Scheme based on BS 7799-2:2002 in
Japan. Security Course participants studied details in "Making ISMS",
and all participants studied a little in "Security Basics". This
scheme will be revised in 2006, based on ISO/IEC 27001:2005.

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2 [Tech Info] PMP(R) Credential Exam System Changes
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On September 30, 2005, Project Management Institute (PMI(R))
officially revised Project Management Professional (PMP(R)) credential
examination. PMP is a credential awarded by PMI and currently the
number of PMP holders amounts to 50,000 all over the world.

The major changes in the exam are as follows:

- The new exam is based on "A Guide to the Project Management Body
of Knowledge (PMBOK(R)) Guide Third Edition", while the old exam
was based on "PMBOK Guide 2000 Edition".

- The passing score is 106 questions correct out of 175 scorable
questions (61 percent) , while it used to be 137 out of 200 (69
percent) in the old exam.

PMP exam can be taken in over 60 countries. Among the countries which
PMA Course participants belong to, Bulgaria, China, Indonesia,
Philippines, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan have testing centers for
this certificate.

For details, visit PMI website.
http://www.pmi.org/info/pdc_pmpexam05.asp

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3 [Tech Info] GUI or CUI?
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There are two types of well-known user interfaces. One is "GUI
(Graphical User Interface)" and the other is "CUI (Character User
Interface)". GUI enables users to make operation more easily by using
graphics such as icons, buttons and pointing devices. On the other
hand, CUI prepares character-based interface such as terminal screens
and users input from keyboards.

Nowadays it seems that GUI has become mainstream not only for Windows
users, but also for UNIX/Linux users. Users do not have to memorize
and type the commands. It is good for beginners because anybody can
intuitively make operation with mouse click and visual guidance.

A young application specialist Y-san, who is a typical GUI user, says,
"I hate command. I hate terminal screen. I hate keyboard typing. Why
should we do such old aged operation in the era of GUI? We have many
useful tools and can make applications by drag and drop. It's enough!"

However, there remain persons who still love commands. Most of them
are very skillful developers, but they usually shut their heart to the
GUI world. A genius engineer O-san, who is an extreme command lover,
says, "If you like GUI, it's OK. Whatever you want. I do not want to
waste my time caring amateurs like you."

Why do they adhere to commands and never change their way? The answer
is easy. GUI is efficient only for the easy work, but for the complex
work, CUI has the great advantage. For example, if you want to put
extension ".oic" to all the files in your PC whose names include
"okinawa" and are updated in half a year, using command is far simpler
than using GUI.

K-san, the command analyst says, "Commands are represented by pure
text format so you can grasp all the system configuration as a
string. It means you can make the perfect reconfiguration of your
settings. Being represented by text format enables you to do iterative
operations using such technique like copy-and-paste, and/or
functioning."

If you are a typical GUI lover, try to use command sometimes. It will
make your work easier and more comfortable!

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4 [Tech Info] Skype Technology
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Skype, the Internet telephone software released two years ago, now has
over 60 million users in the world.

The reason of its popularity is the voice communication quality, which
is the same level as ordinary telephone. Therefore, users do not feel
stressed while talking. Another reason is that this service is free of
charge if used in PC-to-PC communication. You have to pay if you call
from Skype to ordinary telephone, however, the communication charge is
far less than that of ordinary telephone.

The inexpensiveness of this service comes from the low cost of the
service provider's facility. Normally, telephone service is provided
by expensive circuit switches owned by telephone companies. However,
Skype owns only the servers to manage their user accounts and
authenticate them. The other functions such as controlling calls are
allocated to users' computers dispersedly using P2P (peer to peer)
technology.

So far, this software is mainly for personal use, however, gradually
it has gained popularity among the companies that seek for lower
communication costs. Also it may become a key-application to integrate
telephone network into LAN.

The latest version of Skype supports video chat, which can be applied
to video conferences in companies. If you are interested in Skype,
please try to access the site below.
http://www.skype.com/

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5 [Tech Info] Eclipse Latest Status
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Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on
providing a vendor-neutral open development platform and application
frameworks for building software. Eclipse is used in a lot of real
systems development.

For details, see http://eclipse.org/

The following is an overview of Eclipse.

Features

1) Equal level function to commercial IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) products

Eclipse includes input complementation function, debug function,
build tool, CVS (Concurrent Version System), etc.

2) Expansion of functions by plug-ins

Eclipse can be an IDE for C/C++, PHP, or Perl as well as JAVA by
introducing plug-ins.

3) Substantial information
There are substantial technical information about Eclipse which
communities and individuals transmit. It is possible for you to
solve problems based on the information.

Version

The latest version of Eclipse is 3.1.1 published in September,
2005. You will need a 1.4.2 level or higher Java runtime or Java
development kit (JDK) installed on your machine in order to run
Eclipse.

Eclipse completely supports J2SE 5.0 from version 3.1. If you
install J2SE 5.0 on your machine, you need to install Eclipse 3.1.x
or higher. If you install J2SE 1.4 or smaller on your machine, you
can install Eclipse 3.1.x or smaller.

You can download Eclipse 3.1.1 from the following URL.
http://eclipse.org/downloads/
You can download J2SE 5.0 from the following URL.
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp

Plug-ins

One of the big factors that spread Eclipse is a plug-in
architecture. Various types of plug-ins are developed all over the
world and published. There are useful plug-ins in the following.

o Web application development plug-in
- Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project (WTP)
WTP includes source editors for HTML, JavaScript, CSS, JSP, SQL,
XML, DTD, XSD, and WSDL.
http://www.eclipse.org/webtools

- Eclipse HTML Editor HTML Editor is an Eclipse plug-in for
HTML/JSP/XML Editing.

http://amateras.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/fswiki_en/wiki.cgi?page=EclipseHTMLEditor

- JSEclipse
JSEclipse is an Eclipse plug-in for JavaScript Editing.
http://www.interaktonline.com/Products/Eclipse/JSEclipse/Overview/

- PHPEclipse
PHPEclipse includes PHP parser, debugger, code formatter, outline
view, and templates, etc.
http://www.phpeclipse.de/tiki-view_articles.php

- TruStudio Foundation
TruStudio is PHP and Python IDE built on Eclipse.
http://www.xored.com/trustudio

o GUI application development plug-in
- Visual Editor(VE)
Visual Editor provides a framework for creating Eclipse-based GUI
builders.
http://www.eclipse.org/vep/

o UML modeling plug-in
- Eclipse UML Free Edition
Eclipse UML is a visual modeling tool of UML.
http://eclipseuml.com

- SDE for Eclipse Community Edition
SDE is a visual modeling tool of UML.
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/product/sde/ec/

Participants of WOA Course used TruStudio for a development of PHP
application in the workshop. Eclipse HTML Editor, JSEclipse, and
PHPEclipse also have useful functions for a development of web
application.

A lot of plug-ins are available on Eclipse. Please try to introduce
Eclipse into a system development of your organization by all means!

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6 [Tech Info] New Computer Viruses Increase by 48% in 2005
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Sophos Co. has published the report concerning the damage of computer
viruses in 2005 on December 6th. According to this report, the number
of new virus/worm identified by Sophos Co. during 2005 was 15907.
This figure shows an increase of 48% over the previous year.

"W32/Zafi-D" worm has caused the biggest damage. "W32/Netsky-P" virus,
the previous year's hardest hitting virus, has dropped to second
place. "W32/Sober-Z", just unleashed in November 2005, has already
risen to third place. The report also identified that one in every 44
e-mails has viral in 2005.

The number of new computer viruses increase year by year.
Countermeasures against malicious software becomes more and more
necessary to avoid damages. As all of you know, installing anti-virus
software is important, but it's not sufficient.

Why don't you review your daily operation when using computers?

1. Don't open email-attached files without checking its safety.
2. Don't use preview window on MUA.
3. Check computer viruses when sending any files by using e-mails.
4. Maintain the latest pattern file in anti-virus software.
5. Check new security patches information.
6. Make backup files regularly.
etc....

These should be documented as rules. How about your organization?

The top ten viruses of the year,reported at Sophos' global network of
monitoring station, are as follows

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Virus Percentage of Report Firstly Identified Month
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1 W32/Zafi-D 16.7% Dec. 2004
2 W32/Netsky-P 15.7% Mar. 2004
3 W32/Sober-Z 6.0% Dec. 2005
4 W32/Sober-N 4.3% May. 2005
5 W32/Zafi-B 4.0% Jun. 2004
6 W32/Mytob-BE 3.9% Jun. 2005
7 W32/Mytob-AS 3.8% May. 2005
8 W32/Netsky-D 3.0% Mar. 2004
9 W32/Mytob-GH 1.9% Oct. 2005
10 W32/Mytob-EP 1.8% Jun. 2005
- OTHERS 38.9% -
---------------------------------------------------------------
(Source: Sophos Co.)

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7 [Tech Info] If you understand yourself well, you can communicate well.
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You all studied "Coaching skills" in Leadership Training. Do you use
coaching skills in your daily life? If you say that you use them
everyday, that is great! Please keep doing. But if you say, "I can't
use coaching skills because colleague's ideas are not good.", "There
is no enough time for coaching session.", or "I have to teach correct
way of doing.", maybe you are right. Your idea can be much better than
their idea.

I would like to remind you that people are not willing to commit to
other's
idea very much comparing with their own ideas. You should give your
proposal in manner that they can accept easily.

Today I introduce you the "enneagram", a study of personal growth
based on ancient teachings. The enneagram describes nine distinct
personalities. Knowing your own personality type, you will understand
"your way of thinking" and "others might have different way of
thinking". Since your colleagues might have different personality
types, it is good to use different communication style for better
understanding of your proposal.

Please visit http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ and try The Free RHETI
Sampler to know your personality. After taking the sample test, they
give
you advice. You can find another explanation in http://www.ennea.com/.

People have different personalities but it doesn't mean they are better
or
worse. I hope you will use enneagram and enjoy better communication.

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8 [Tech Info] Next Generation of Microsoft Excel
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Currently, the Microsoft Corporation is developing a new version of
Microsoft(R) Excel, under the code name of "Excel 12." This software
will be a part of "Microsoft Office 12", a new version of the
Microsoft Office suite.

In "Excel 12", the maximum number of rows handled will be increased
from the current 65,536 to 1,048,576 (1500% more rows than in Excel
2003!) , and the number of columns will increase from 256 to
16,384. This means that the label of the rightmost column is "XFD"
instead of the current "IV". At present, you need Microsoft Office
Access to handle such large data, but you will be able to handle them
in the new Excel, as long as the number of rows is around 1 million or
less.

Other limits that will be expanded are:

- Total amount of PC memory that Excel can use
1GB -> Maximum allowed by Windows
- Number of sorting levels on a range or table
3 -> 64
- Number of conditional format conditions on a cell
3 conditions -> Limited by available memory
- The number of levels of nesting that Excel allows in formulas
7 -> 64
...etc.

New features are as follows;

- "Save as" function in PDF format.

- Sorting function not only by character or number, but also by
cell color.
...etc.

As you are aware, this is a major change in Excel's history! This
major change in the product might have been driven by threat of the
other open source software, such as OpenOffice. Anyway, I hope "Excel
12" will become more useful one.

The release timing of Microsoft Office 12 has not yet been announced.
But it is said that it will be ready in early 2006 according to
sources.

For more detail, click Microsoft developer's blog.
http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/default.aspx

If you want to register to beta test Excel 12, see the website below.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx

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9 [Tech Info] Virtual Machine Makes Your Computer More Efficient
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A VM (Virtual Machine) is a computer which is defined in software. In
other words, VM simulates a computer. With VM, you can run two or more
operating systems on single computer at the same time. For example,
you can use Linux and Windows on single computer at the same time with
VM.

For servers or system administrators, VM can make the best use of
computer resources and save energy and space, because two or more VM
is running on a single computer. Adding that, with each VM which
serves for a specific service like DNS or WWW, it can make each
service more secure.

For users and developers, VM makes each PC more useful, because it
acts as many computers at low cost.

There are some VM software: Xen or OpenVZ as open source software; and
VMware, Virtual PC or Virtuozzo as commercial software.

This time, I would like to introduce VMware.

Originally, every VMware product was commercial software. Now, you can
use some of VMware products without fee: VMware player and VMware
Server.

With VMware player, you can execute ready-made VM and you can download
disk images of VM via the Internet.

With VMware server, you can try and evaluate most features of
VMware. But you can not use advanced features like dynamic load
balancing.

Because I use some hardware which has drivers for Windows only and I
need MS Office sometimes, I use Windows XP. But I need software for
UNIX, too. So I try VMware player and a disk image for OpenBSD which
is one of free software operating systems, and connect to VM for
OpenBSD via virtual network. In other words, I can use Windows and
OpenBSD on single computer at the same time. It makes me happy!

Of course, you can use VM for Linux or Windows.

Have a try!

URL: http://www.vmware.com

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10 [Tech Info] Ajax: A Boost to Web Technology
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As you may know, Macromedia Flash(TM) is commonly used to create
moving design elements on a web page. Well then, have you ever heard
of "Ajax"? Ajax (pronounced as "A-JAX") is an abbreviated expression
of "Asynchronous JavaScript And XML."

Ajax is not something you can download or buy. It is just a new
approach of building web applications. Using existing technologies
such as HTML, JavaScript, DOM, and XML, you can build very interactive
web applications without using Flash.

You may unconsciously have experienced Ajax when using Google Map,
Google Suggest, and so forth. Now check up Google Maps. Use zoom bar
to zoom in and zoom out. Use your cursor to grab the map and scroll
around. Every motion happens almost immediately without waiting for
pages to reload. In other words, the server asynchronously do
something without stalling a user's interaction with the application.

Ajax in not anti-Flash. We should use the right technology (Ajax,
Flash, etc.) in the right place.

Anyway, Ajax is an important development for Web applications, and its
importance is going to grow day by day. With Ajax, Flash, and the
other technologies, the Web is closer than ever to becoming a viable
default platform for application development.

You can see more on the web page of Mr. Jesse James Garrett, who is
the godparent of Ajax.

http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php
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