Professor Austin is Professor of Neural Computing in the Department of Computer Science, and leads the Advanced Computer Architectures (ACA) group.  He teaches Computer Architectures and a course “So you want to start a company?”.  He also runs a small spin-off company, Cybula Ltd.

Jim also has a very interesting and diverse computer collection from Crays and other supercomputers to the BBC micro and other microcomputers.  The collection contains some real gems.  See http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/ for details.  These computers are the topic for this evening’s talk and Professor Austin will bring some examples of old computers with him.

The event will be in rooms 1F024 and 1F025 which are on the first floor.  Disabled access is available and there is car parking on the site.  Please sign in at reception when you arrive.  Thank you to Richard Hind, Tutor of IT and Computing at York College, for organising this event.

See www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/maps-and-directions/ for information on how to get to the college and floor plans.

Please email us (wybranchbcs@googlemail.com) if you are coming to the meeting so we can arrange sufficient seating and refreshments.

For those requiring something more substantial than tea or coffee and biscuits, the College has a canteen, open until 6pm, serving hot food and sandwiches.

Event hosted jointly by the British Computer Society – West Yorkshire Branch and Open Source Specialist Group.

As open-source software has grown in sophistication, it has quickly become a viable alternative to the major proprietary operating systems. This presentation will give an update on the current capabilities of open source along with an insight into future developments. Matthew will discuss the issues and myths around its use in commercial and public-sector organisations, whilst also providing pointers for personal use.

The talk will include:

• Overview of Ubuntu?
• Usage in the contexts of: Commercial-enterprise, Public Sector, Personal
• Open Source Applications
• Open Source Capabilities
• The road map

Matthew Barker joined Canonical in 2006, taking responsibility for the OEM channel in South Asia. Having successfully built partnerships with hardware manufacturers like HCL, Wipro and eSys, he moved into the Canonical Corporate Services Team in 2008 focussing on driving the adoption of Ubuntu in enterprise. He has overseen deployments with organisations like the NHS, York University and Handelsbanken. He has experience across all the significant vertical markets and of “the how and why” open source is being adopted.

Founded in late 2004, Canonical is the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project with the  mission to help individuals and organisations take full advantage of open-source technologies by:

• Delivering the world’s best free-software platform
• Ensuring its availability to everyone
• Supporting it with high-quality professional service offerings
• Encouraging the continued growth and development of the free-software community

Canonical believes the open-source community creates better software. The community enables an increase development capacity many times over. Ubuntu is a community-developed and supported project. Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users around the world. Every six months the world’s best free and open-source software is selected, tested, brought together, and made freely available on common technology platforms.

The volume of malware has accelerated, rapidly driven by a change in motive amongst writers from malicious intent to commercial intent evolving from “occasional” exploits to a thriving global economy. With the increasing scale and sophistication of attacks ensuring you or your users are protected is an increasing challenge demanding a  “collaborative” approach to beat the cyber criminals, protecting consumers and businesses.

Modern malware attacks aren’t confided to the dark areas of the internet anymore as you can get infected by simply visiting a perfectly legitimate website that you visit on a daily basis.. Jacques will use a real life example of how such an attack takes place and what is needed to do it. He will also give you an insight into the tools cyber criminals are using to compromise their victims. This will be a straight talking and deep dive into what is happening on a day to day basis, including topics such as:

• a look into what is happening within the computer underground
• showing off new technologies used by hackers to compromise their victims
• talking about a real life case study of how hackers compromise websites to serve malware
• new methods used by hackers to compromise mobile users
• key points that you need to be aware of about modern day malware

Jacques Erasmus (Director of Malware Research at Prevx) researches emergent types of malware to ensure users are fully protected from these new forms of cyber-threat.   Jacques has recently featured on the BBC 6 o’clock news, BBC Click, BBC Breakfast, ITV News and is often approached by international media for his opinion on emerging Internet threats.

Jacques has also been instrumental in the development and growth of the Prevx product (with over over 5 million users worldwide), as well as helping to launch a number of consumer-facing security products which are now protecting millions of people across the world.  Jacques has been central to helping champion a behaviour-based approach to security software which addresses the faults inherent with the signature-based methods used by many existing major anti-virus vendors.

‘Black Box’ working is where you have no knowledge of the internal workings of a system. However, how many defects remain undetected due to this problem? This talk looks at the ‘Black Box’ view of software developments, and uses worked examples to show the things that may be missed unless testers are used who appreciate the underlying complexities of IT. Various ‘Black Box’ problems are examined such as:

• Lack of control over testing
• Hidden / unknown functionality
• Manual processes
• Compensating errors
• Incorrect tests and incorrect assumptions

The talk also introduces Quality Driven Development (QDD), a technique which can resolve the Agile / Waterfall debate. QDD establishes a point where a stable release of code is arrived at, and only sets the ‘clock ticking’ on testing time from that point onwards. This is an evolutionary/iterative ‘prototyping’ phase that precedes the formal test stage. Any testing time up to the stable point being reached is called ‘Development by Test’ Time (DBT). DBT is charged to the project as Development time, not testing time i.e. it is not allowed to reduce the amount of ‘real test’ time. DBT also provides transparency to project sponsors of the quality of the development.

Tim Hunter, our speaker, is an IT consultant for Yorview (www.yorview.co.uk). He has over 28 years experience of IT development and testing, gained in major companies throughout the UK and Europe. His wide ranging experience includes Project Delivery and System Testing gained in various Financial Services Sectors including Retail Credit, Banking, Insurance and Telecommunications.

After 10 years of running his own IT consultancy, Tim has launched his own Quality Driven Development methodology which he hopes will resolve the Agile / Waterfall debate. He has written articles for Computer Weekly and IT Now. Tim also runs one of the most commented on blogs on the BCS website: The ‘IT Quality’ Blog: (http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConBlog.21).

Tim is an experienced speaker, and has delivered speeches at the Software Quality Management Conference (Southampton, UK) and the BCS Software Testing Specialist Group Conference (London UK) in 2009.

Downloads

Opening the black box: WYBCS August presentation (PDF, 1.19MB)

The slides from Tim’s presentation.

Following our highly successful evening event in January 2008 and based on the feedback received at the event, the West Yorkshire branch of the British Computer Society is proud to present another evening of CV (Curriculum vitae) guidance and recommendations in these troubled times of recession.

Leading local specialist IT recruiters have agreed to work together for the first time and deliver a formal presentation based on their combined industry experiences.

• How to write a winning CV for both permanent and contract roles
• Guidance for employers when creating a job specification
• Tailoring a CV to fit the role described within the job specification
• CV Howlers
• Open Q&A session with a panel of IT recruiters

Panellists will be available after the event for one to one meeting, answering questions which were not suitable for the open Q&A session.

This event has limited capacity so please email (wybranchbcs@googlemail.com) quickly to reserve your place and avoid disappointment.

The committee would like to thank nti (www.ntileeds.co.uk) for sponsoring this event and making it possible.

Chris Mills, Developer Relations Manager with Opera Software and Editor of Opera’s Web Standards Curriculum (www.opera.com/wsc) will speak about a range of topics relating to Web Standards. This will include a discussion of the past, present and future of Web Standards, beginning with the development of the original HTML and CSS specs and ending with the ongoing development of modern standards including HTML5 and CSS3.

In addition, Mr. Mills will also explore the importance of Standards based web development in terms of accessibility and cross device rendering, particularly important given the ballooning use of mobile devices to access the Internet

Opera believes the Web is a force for good. As an industry leader in providing innovative and standards-compliant Web browsing, Opera Software seeks to work with the next generation of leaders and thinkers whose ideas will decide the future of the Web.

This presentation will explore:

• the history and future of the Web
• the browser industry
• open Web standards
• Web applications
• the role of the Web and mobile browsing, particularly in developing countries

This briefing can also be downloaded in Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF formats:

• Joint Event with YPG June Meeting 2009 (PDF) (15.6KB)
  
• Joint Event with YPG June Meeting 2009 (DOC) (19KB)

The evening will begin with the Annual General Meeting of the West Yorkshire Branch of the British Computer Society. This will be followed by a presentation by Stephen Rothwell.

Download:

AGM 2009 Briefing (DOC) (21.0KB)

Presentation overview:

The world we live in is being ever more tightly connected by digital networks that track and trace our every action. The use of this data by retailers, brands and networks alike is being seen as a key driver to keep the consumers engaged directly with them. This is commonly known as loyalty or CRM systems. However these systems are often driven by Marketing departments within these organizations but in reality these platforms need to be led from an IT perspective.

In this presentation Stephen will focus on the themes and concepts that underline a loyalty system and the challenges an IT department face in developing or deploying these services. This presentation will cover the key aspects of designing a CRM engine, key integration points, data collection, data management and the actual operation of a scheme from the IT departments perspective. During the presentation Stephen will use a worked example for a theoretical design of a Loyalty Engine.

About Stephen Rothwell

Stephen Rothwell (BEng) is the CTO of Eagle Eye Technology and Eagle Eye Solutions and has been involved in IT based projects since 1996. Stephen’s experience spans from the development of the core signaling systems for Ericsson mobile phones, through development of payment solutions for MasterCard, Visa and Amex onto the UK leading mobile services.

Stephens’s current focus is on the development of loyalty and transaction systems utilizing the mobile phone as a key consumer device in driving these services forward. In recent years Stephen has been granted a patent on the use of Chip n Pin terminals in the process of Token less loyalty services and transaction services. Eagle Eye Solutions is currently the UK leading mobile voucher service working exclusively with the likes of Commidea and ITV.

Downloads:

• How to be a hacker – Event summary (PDF) (478KB)

Overview

Just how easy is it for an individual to equip themselves with the knowledge to attack your business?
This presentation guides you through just how easy it is for someone with intent to learn how to be a hacker.

In addition, You will see fascinating examples of how extensive IT security infrastructure can be easily bypassed with even the most basic Social Engineering techniques. Includes advanced psychological techniques, used by malicious attackers to manipulate your staff into aiding and abetting security breaches.

Do you want to know:

• Just how you are visible when you connect to the Internet
• When your home computer is a more attractive target than your business
• The simple steps to create a hacking toolkit in less than an hour
• How to bypass all your IT security with some simple Social Engineering techniques
• Why elite technical skills are no longer needed to conduct damaging hacking attacks
• Some of the human limitations of an information security approach based on IT security technology.

WARNING: This presentation is designed to help you protect yourself. In the wrong hands its contents could be dangerous. You should not pass this information on to anyone with malicious intent.

Speaker Profile:

Ian Mann MBA BEng is a Senior Systems Consultant with ECSC. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and is a Payment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor (PCI QSA). Ian is the author of ‘Hacking the Human – Social Engineering Techniques and Countermeasures’ from Gower Publishing. He is a visiting lecturer at Bradford University for the Masters in IT Security and Forensics, and has co-authored a paper at the European Conference on Information Warfare and Security.

Previously, Ian was a member of the BS7799-3 (ISO 27005) ISMS Risk Management Panel helping to author the standard. He was on the UKOnline for Business Expert Panel, and also a CESG Listed Advisor (CLAS) with GCHQ, holding security clearance.

Summary provided by ECSC.

Please advise us if you have any special dietary requirements.

Introduction

Jon began by defining ITIL as a framework to build best practice for delivering services and support, which is not prescriptive. It consists of a set of processes and disciplines which can be used separately or together.

Differences between versions

In ITIL version 2 the core process (CMDB) wasn’t widely adopted and there wasn’t information on how to work the processes together. This contrasts with version 3 where you don’t just learn the processes but also how they fit into the whole service lifecycle and the texts gives examples & diagrams to help with the implementation. Version 3 is represented by a circular diagram with arrows to indicate continual service improvement.

An organisation can choose to use either v2 or v3 so long as its service is satisfying its customers and it is continually improving. Look for opportunities when implementing ITIL e.g. where the customer was promised bells and whistles but got a dull squeak! The changes need to be managed and make sure that the process is an enabler that helps people do their job.

Conclusion

• v3 has full service lifecycle
• No need to stop doing v2
• Run implementation as a full project
• Identify champions
• Look for quick wins to keep people on track
• Don’t talk ITIL all the time – that’s a turn off
• Can lead to distinct service improvements

There then followed a series of questions and observations from the floor and a general discussion ensued.

Introduction

The evening was in two sessions, each session having two topics to choose from:

Session One

Introduction to WYSIWYG with Nick Schneider and Dominic or Online Assessment with Blackboard with Richard Hind

Session Two

Technology of WYSIWYG with Nick and Dominic or Creating video tutorials with Graham Hollingsworth

I attended the two sessions on WYSIWYG, which is software to aid with the planning, 3D design and implementation of lighting effects. The use of software in this way was an “eye-opener” although it is difficult to convey in words what we saw on the screen, the lighting desk and the effect on the room as the lighting changed.

Session One: Introduction to WYSIWYG, by CAST Software

Nick and Dominic used a studio setting with an interviewer and 2 interviewees as an example. You can have e.g. pieces of furniture, people in different poses, different coloured backgrounds etc. They had planned the studio and lighting rig then rendered it to give a 3D model of how the various lighting effects would look. By altering the position of the lights on the plan they were able to show the effects of these changes.

The software is used because it can reduce production lead time by 2 months, it’s easier and the design can be uploaded to the lighting desk. You start with a plan view (i.e. from above) and create the virtual lighting rig, placing the lamps in their positions. You then render it to see what it will look like in side view plans and 3D model. Once finished the design is uploaded onto the lighting desks. The digital light desk contains 2 laptop cpus, floppy, modem, DMX cable (to the lights) and can control lots more lights than an analogue desk. You can pre-program special effects e.g. red is a pre-programmed combination of cyan, yellow and magenta. Physical changes made on the lighting control desk are reflected in WYSIWYG representation. Conversely changes in WYSIWYG are passed to the desk and the lighting alters. It was amazing how much could be done with just one light! And equally amazing how easily a plan of the lighting could be rendered and then adjusted to meet the needs of the client.

Session Two: Technology of WYSIWYG

Dominic took us through the process from starting a plan to controlling the lamp from the lighting desk and from the software. Some problems occurred which meant we learnt more – including the fact that you can hard reboot a lamp! Some of the steps involved were:

• Cabling between the lamp and the light desk using DMX cable. The base of the lamp has an encoder which accepts DMX (language that controls lamps).
• Enabled Ethernet connection and set up the software to communicate with the instruments.
• Set up IP address for the lamp! Connect it to network and console and bind the new light to a channel
• Send data from WYSIWYG to light control desk (as a patch) The monitor has grey buttons that control each aspect of the light.

The lighting engineer can take manual control if something unexpected happens on stage. One processor does DMX light language and the other does “proper” PC work. (Windows is embedded on the PCs.) This means that if the pc dies you can still use it as a lighting desk – or if the desk dies you can use the virtual version to control the lights. Some lamps have WiFi boards and you can run the software on an iPod. Dominic demonstrated control of the lamp from his phone which is useful if you’re in the rigging!

Conclusion

The evening introduced lots of new concepts – lights with encoders, a language (DMX) and an IP address!! Where will computers go next?

Margaret Moore