Automated guideway transit refers to guided transit vehicles operating singly or in multi-car trains with fully automated control (no crew on transit units). Service may be on a fixed schedule or in response to a passenger-activated call button. Automated guideway transit includes personal rapid transit, group rapid transit and people mover systems.

Personal rapid transit (PRT), also called personal automated transport (PAT), is a public transportation concept that offers on-demand, non-stop transportation, using small, independent vehicles on a network of specially-built guideways.

People mover or automated people mover (APM) systems are fully automated, grade-separated mass transit systems which serve a relatively small area such as an airport, downtown district or theme park. The term “people mover” has become generic for the type of system, which may use technologies such as monorail, duorail, automated guideway transit or maglev.

Monorail means a system of guided transit vehicles operating on or suspended from a single rail, beam, or tube. Usually they operate in trains. Monorails are distinguished from other types of elevated rail system by their use of only a single beam, and from light rail and tram systems by the fact they are always grade separated from other vehicles and pedestrians.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Passenger rail terminology, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Before a user gets to the network there is usually some form of machine authentication, this probably verifies and configures the system for some basic level of access. Short of mapping a user to a MAC address prior or during this process (802.1x) it is not simple to have users authenticate at this point. It is more usual for a user to attempt to authenticate once the system processes (daemons) are started, and this may well require the network configuration to have already been performed.

It follows that, in principle, the network identity of a device should be established ”before” permitting network connectivity, for example by using digital certificates in place of hardware addresses which are trivial to spoof as device identifiers. Furthermore, a consistent identity model has to account for typical network devices such as routers and switches which can’t depend on user identity, since no distinctive user is associated with the device. Absent this capability in practice, however, strong identity is not asserted at the network level.

The first task when seeking to apply Identity Driven Network controls comprises some form of authentication, if not at the device level then further up the stack. Since the first piece of infrastructure placed upon a network is often a network operating system (NOS) there will often be an Identity Authority that controls the resources that the NOS contains (usually printers and file shares). There will also be procedures to authenticate users onto it. Incorporating some form of single sign-on means that the flow on effect to other controls can be seamless.

Many network capabilities can be made to rely upon authentication technologies for the provisioning of an access control policy.

For instance; Packet filtering -firewall, content-control software, Quota Management systems and Quality of service (QoS) systems are good examples of where controls can be made dependent upon authentication.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Identity driven networking, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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22d Space Operations Squadron (22 SOPS) is a United States Air Force unit of the 50th Network Operations Group, itself a part of the 50th Space Wing, and is located at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. 22 SOPS develops, publishes, executes, and enforces the network operations tasking order, as well as operating and maintaining worldwide remote tracking stations and associated communications systems comprising the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). It additionally coordinates launch and on-orbit operations of Department of Defense and other national agencies’ satellites in support of warfighters, the President, and the Secretary of Defense. Lastly, the squadron supports NASA’s space mission.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article 22d Space Operations Squadron, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are examples of contemporary operating systems that implement a safe mode; as well as other complex electronic devices.

An operating system in safe mode will have reduced functionality, but the task of isolating problems is easier because many non-core components are disabled (turned off). An installation that will only boot into its safe mode typically has a major problem, such as disk corruption or the installation of poorly configured software that prevents the operating system from successfully booting into its normal operating mode.

Though it varies by operating system, typically safe mode loads as few executable modules as possible and usually disables devices, except for the minimum necessary to display information and accept input. Safe mode can also take the form of a parallel “miniature” operating system that has no configuration information shared with the normal operating system. For example, on Microsoft Windows, the user can also choose to boot to the Recovery Console, a small text-based troubleshooting mode kept separate from the main operating system (and can also be accessed by booting the install CD), or to various “safe mode” options that run the dysfunctional operating system, but with features such as video drivers, audio and networking disabled.

Safe mode typically provides access to utility and diagnostic programs so a user can troubleshoot what is preventing the operating system from working normally. Safe mode is intended for maintenance, not functionality, and provides minimal access to features.

Microsoft Windows’ safe mode is accessed by pressing the F8 key as the operating system boots. Also, in a multi-boot environment with multiple versions of Windows installed side by side, the F8 key can be pressed at the OS selector prompt to get to safe mode.

An equivalently minimal setting in Unix-like operating systems is single-user mode, in which daemons and the X Window System are not started, and only the root user can log in. On Mac OS versions 6, 7, 8 and 9, a similar mode is achieved by holding down the shift key while booting, which starts the system without extensions. In Mac OS X holding the shift key after powering up puts the system in safe mode. Safe mode with networking, one of the variations of safe mode, can be used to troubleshoot network issues.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Safe mode, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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External Data Representation (XDR) is an IETF standard from 1995.

It allows data to be wrapped in an architecture independent manner so data can be transferred between heterogeneous computer systems. Converting from the local representation to XDR is called ”encoding”. Converting from XDR to the local representation is called ”decoding”. XDR is implemented as a software library of functions that is portable between different operating systems and is also independent of the transport layer.

The XDR data format is in use by many systems, including:

* Network File System

* Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call

* EMC’s NetWorker backup software (in its newer releases)

* NetCDF (a scientific data format)

* The R language and environment for statistical computing

* High Level Architecture

* The HTTP-NG Binary Wire Protocol

* The SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine, to serialize/deserialize compiled JavaScript code

* The Ganglia distributed monitoring system

* The sFlow network monitoring standard

* The libvirt virtualization library, API and UI

*The Firebird for Remote Binary Wire Protocol
Adapted from the Wikipedia article External Data Representation, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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* PC-MOS: an MS-DOS-like multiuser operating system with support for multi-tasking on serial terminals.

* PC-MOS/386: a later version of PC-MOS using features not present on processors prior to the 80386.

* LANLINK: a NetBIOS-ready local area network that leverages serial and parallel port connected platforms

* MultiLink: a multitasking environment for DOS

PC/MOS figured prominently in the lawsuit ”Arizona Retail Systems, Inc. v. The Software Link, Inc.”, where Arizona Retail Systems claimed The Software Link violated implied warranties on PC/MOS. The case is notable because The Software Link argued that it had disclaimed the implied warranties via a license agreement on the software’s shrinkwrap licensing. The result of the case, which Arizona Retail Systems won, helped to establish US legal precedent about the enforceability or otherwise of shrinkwrap

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Software Link, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Hardware device configuration

The most common use of ioctls is to control hardware devices.

For example, on Win32 systems, ioctl calls are used to communicate with USB devices, or to discover drive geometry information for attached storage devices.

Ioctls are used on Unix systems to configure the network interfaces. For example, on BSD Unix systems such as Mac OS X, the IP subnet mask for an interface is configured by opening a network socket and then invoking the SIOCSIFNETMASK ioctl on it.

Terminals

One use of ioctls exposed to end-user applications is terminal I/O.

Unix operating systems have traditionally made heavy use of command line interfaces. The Unix command line interface is built on pseudo terminals (ptys), which emulate hardware text terminals such as VT100. Ptys are controlled and configured as if they were hardware devices, using ioctl calls. For instance, the window size of a pty is set using the TIOCSWINSZ ioctl.

Kernel extensions

When applications need to extend the kernel, for instance to accelerate network processing, ioctl calls provide a convenient way to bridge userspace code to kernel extensions. Kernel extensions can provide a location in the filesystem that can be opened by name, through which an arbitrary number of ioctl calls can be dispatched, allowing the extension to be programmed without adding system calls to the operating system.

For example, on the Solaris operating system, the ipfilter packet firewall is programmed using the SIOCIPF* ioctl calls.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Ioctl, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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A state of computer “security” is the conceptual ideal, attained by the use of the three processes:

#Prevention

#Detection

#Response

*User account access controls and cryptography can protect systems files and data, respectively.

*Firewalls are by far the most common prevention systems from a network security perspective as they can (if properly configured) shield access to internal network services, and block certain kinds of attacks through packet filtering.

*Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS’s) are designed to detect network attacks in progress and assist in post-attack forensics, while audit trails and logs serve a similar function for individual systems.

*”Response” is necessarily defined by the assessed security requirements of an individual system and may cover the range from simple upgrade of protections to notification of legal authorities, counter-attacks, and the like. In some special cases, a complete destruction of the compromised system is favored, as it may happen that not all the compromised resources are detected.

Today, computer security comprises mainly “preventive” measures, like firewalls or an Exit Procedure. A firewall can be defined as a way of filtering network data between a host or a network and another network, such as the Internet, and can be implemented as software running on the machine, hooking into the network stack (or, in the case of most UNIX-based operating systems such as Linux, built into the operating system kernel) to provide realtime filtering and blocking. Another implementation is a so called physical firewall which consists of a separate machine filtering network traffic. Firewalls are common amongst machines that are permanently connected to the Internet. However, relatively few organisations maintain computer systems with effective detection systems, and fewer still have organised response mechanisms in place.

Difficulty with response

Responding forcefully to attempted security breaches (in the manner that one would for attempted physical security breaches) is often very difficult for a variety of reasons:

* Identifying attackers is difficult, as they are often in a different jurisdiction to the systems they attempt to breach, and operate through proxies, temporary anonymous dial-up accounts, wireless connections, and other anonymising procedures which make backtracing difficult and are often located in yet another jurisdiction. If they successfully breach security, they are often able to delete logs to cover their tracks.

* The sheer number of attempted attacks is so large that organisations cannot spend time pursuing each attacker (a typical home user with a permanent (e.g., cable modem) connection will be attacked at least several times per day, so more attractive targets could be presumed to see many more). Note however, that most of the sheer bulk of these attacks are made by automated vulnerability scanners and computer worms.

* Law enforcement officers are often unfamiliar with information technology, and so lack the skills and interest in pursuing attackers. There are also budgetary constraints. It has been argued that the high cost of technology, such as DNA testing, and improved forensics mean less money for other kinds of law enforcement, so the overall rate of criminals not getting dealt with goes up as the cost of the technology increases. In addition, the identification of attackers across a network may require logs from various points in the network and in many countries, the release of these records to law enforcement (with the exception of being voluntarily surrendered by a network administrator or a system administrator) requires a search warrant and, depending on the circumstances, the legal proceedings required can be drawn out to the point where the records are either regularly destroyed, or the information is no longer relevant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Computer insecurity, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Courses are the same for MSc (R&D or Business) and MAS programs. MAS students must complete 70 ECTS (including thesis) within one year; MSc students must complete the 120 ECTS in two years. Courses are 25h to 50h in length, and vary in difficulty level (L, M, H) by time and absorption.

Courses

MSc Year 1

*Introductory Courses, in VHDL, C++, UML. (L)

*Hardware Architecture, basic digital logic, caches, pipelining. Evaluated on challenging exam, project in design space exploration. (L)

*Transform Theory : Fourier, Laplace, wavelets; MATLAB, exam. (H)

*Specification Languages: Focuses on description of components in a system; evaluated on successful completion of week-long SystemC project. (M)

*Software Compilers: General compiler theory and artificial language description; project with SUIF. (H)

*Statistics: General statistics course; exam.

*Cryptography implementation of DES/3DES, AES, DH, and other cryptographic methods on paper as theory and trace practice; exam. (H)

*Design Laboratory 1 . (M)

*Digital Control: overcoming problems posed by using digital processors for control theory; exam. (H)

*DSP in multimedia; MATLAB project. (M)

*Embedded Databases: database considerations for embedded devices. (L)

*Future trends in Microprocessor Architecture . (L)

*Networking for embedded TCP/IP cores. (L)

*Reprogrammable Systems: focus on FPGAs and efficient VHDL design; weeklong course and VHDL project. (H)

*RTOS and Scheduling: scheduling methods for RTOS; exam. (H)

*Validation and Verification methods used in low-level-software and hardware-synthesis.

MSc Year 2

*Dependable Systems. Low-difficulty course; emphasis on fault tolerance in memories and networks. (L)

*Low Power Design: Power analysis of architecture-level power reduction methods, evaluation of low-power methods with Synopsys PrimePower (non data-dependent tool). (M)

*Microelectronics: as described from the physics-level up to the gate-level; fast-paced challenging exam. (M)

*Algorithms for Wireless Com.. Highest difficulty course, using MATLAB to design high-efficiency wireless communication systems. (H)

*Hw/Sw Codesign: partitioning, design space exploration, interface synthesis, and estimation.

*Design Laboratory 2.

*Low Power Software: Evaluation of (architecture-level and) OS-level effects on power usage.

*Network on chip I/II : SoC IP core design; challenging exam on design and theory.

*Performance Evaluation of queues; exam, project. (H)

*Retargettable Compilers: efficient code generation for embedded systems (optimization, retargetability, low-power); lab, exam. (M)

*VLIW architectures, ILP architectures, compilers, software. (M)

Business Track

MSc students may opt to take on additional course-load: Finance, Accounting, Organization, Marketing, Purchasing, and a final business plan of a possible business implementing a given technology.

Master Thesis

Thesis topics fall into five categories:

*Security and communications

*HW/SW for Advanced Applications

*System-Level Design

*Low-Power Design

*Pervasive Computing

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Advanced Learning and Research Institute, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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FileNet was founded in November 1982 by Ted Smith and Ed Miller. A number of the first employees came from the Xerox Office Products Division in El Segundo, with others joining from Basic4 in Orange County.

FileNet was the first company to create a commercially successful document imaging system for businesses, in March 1985. The state of computer technology in early 1983, required FileNet to custom engineer not only its own hardware but the networking software, file system, windowing system and application software to utilize its workstations and servers. This software was developed prior to Sun’s NFS, the X Window System for Unix and the wide adoption of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The software on the workstations and servers ran FDOS (FileNet Distributed Operating System), a customized UNIX System V port with additions for the XNS and TCP/IP networking protocols developed by FileNet, a custom graphics card supporting a high-resolution 19-inch monitor; an OSAR (Optical Storage and Retrieval) unit, a robotic optical storage jukebox storing up to 128 2.6-gigabyte optical disks along with a complement of drivers supporting server peripherals. The workstations were diskless and used FileNet’s Network Filesystem, to support remote file system access.

In 1985 FileNet released the first commercial Business Process Management (BPM) software, called WorkFlo. (No relation to much earlier Burroughs large system job control language named ”Workflow”.) WorkFlo was a C-Shell like scripting language, written by the late John Gilbert, which was used to automate user interface functions for people using the FileNet system in production environments. An ACM Paper written by William Fisher and John Gilbert was published in the ACM Conference on Office Automation in 1986 describes the system in more detail. Another similar paper was published by Dan Whelan in the 1990s which gives an updated view on how the system evolved.

FileNet enhanced the software offerings by launching their “C.O.L.D.” (Computer Output to Laser Disc) in 1986. This allowed storing print generated streams and eliminated having to physically print them on paper. COLD became the industry term describing software which stores standard print formatted documents (e.g. AFP, Metacode or PostScript) for subsequent retrieval, printing or processing.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article FileNet, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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