A current look at the field of bioinformatics will reveal that it is a field
that is largely dominated by the Linux operating system, as well as by
programming languages such as Perl, Python, and Java. Windows and its
associated native application development platforms are not in widespread use
among present-day bioinformatics practitioners. In fact, the usage of Linux
and other open source technologies will likely remain the dominant platforms
upon which most novel and/or large-scale bioinformatics research is
conducted. Scientific computing of all types has deep-seated roots in Unix
and its derivatives, and as a result is very much dependent on code bases
that are written with *nix platforms in mind. Many scientific applications
are written for High Performance Computing (HPC) architectures or distributed
computing environments, and such applications will often ne... (more)
If you watch the news regularly, it is easy to notice that in almost any
given week some company seems to have experienced an electronic break-in or
in some other way experienced a form of computer or network compromise. While
computer security professionals can help to mitigate such risks via the
proper configuration of firewalls, careful crafting of Access Control Lists,
the application of updates, and the judicious application of file permission,
among other measures, it's important that one of the most fundamental ways of
improving the security of a computer or network resour... (more)
In late May 2004, Microsoft made the announcement that it was considering
entering the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Market, a market that has
traditionally been dominated by custom-engineered Unix-based machines. In
recent years, advances in technology have made possible the construction of
lower-cost computing clusters that utilize off-the-shelf hardware such as
Intel- and AMD-based processors. The operating system of choice for these
lower-end clusters has been Linux. In fact, this market is representative of
one of Linux's strongest footholds. Many in the Linux camp consid... (more)
Parallels have often been drawn between the computer security landscape and
the biological world, since security threats such as computer viruses and
worms can be viewed as digital incarnations of common biological threats.
Similarities exist in terms of modes of reproduction as well as infection,
and some research even suggests that digital threats follow the laws of
evolution that predict these threats will become more sophisticated and
effective as time progresses. A logical extension of this concept has
always been to therefore consider the idea of computer security as a fo... (more)
Throughout the last decade, society has witnessed an explosion of network
connectivity among PCs and mobile devices as well as a vast proliferation of
networked applications, ranging from Web-based email to online banking. The
end result of this is that network connectivity has become an almost
indispensable resource for many individuals. Yet along with the convenience
and flexibility of anytime, anywhere network access, society has also seen an
increase in computer-related security and privacy concerns, with the most
dreaded being the possibility of identity theft.
While numero... (more)
Christopher Frenz is the author of "Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET for Scientists and Engineers" (Apress) and "Pro Perl Parsing" (Apress). He is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Engineering at the New York City College of Technology (CUNY), where he performs computational biology and machine learning research.
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
