In this article we will consider PDA’s myths related to libraries. PDAs are the reality of modern world. And they are always in a few inches away. And library users will expect libraries to support this technology. Here we try to debunk 10 of the most common PDA mispersuasions.

Myth 1. PDA is like a fad.

According to the statistics there are about 60 millions PDAs worldwide, about 40% in USA. And the amount should increase. In fact, when something new will come, it will have many similarities to today’s PDAs. It will be personal and digital and assisting, and probably much more.

Myth 2. Few people use handhelds.

Last researches tell that about 20 million Americans are using mobile devices for Internet access. That is more than a few, isn’t it!

Myth 3. PDAs can’t offer much to libraries.

In conjunction with wireless connectivity PDAs allows librarians to give point-of-need service. Client can access the library catalog, perform searches, and retrieve information. It must be useful if the library has implemented a wireless network. Patrons can also use PDAs to access databases that the library has purchased and made available to them. Nowadays more and more e-books are becoming available for free. This way librarians can exert an influence on the marketplace by telling vendors what library patrons need.

Myth 4. PDAs can’t offer much to librarians.

Even if libraries don’t provide PDAs services in public use, they can provide them for own staff. One of the most popular uses of the PDA from the beginning has been the datebook function, with its alarms and reminders. Address book and calendar information can be coordinated so that appointment locations and phone numbers can be inserted into the calendar without re-keying.

Myth 5. It is too hard to support all kinds of PDAs.

In fact, there are only three models of PDA.
1) Small devices using text (phones and BlackBerry/RIMs).
2) Palm-based devices using the Palm OS.
3) Windows-type devices using Windows CE or Windows PocketPC.
And if you develop services for the lowest (text-only) platform, it will work on all three.

In the modern world of the growth of technology Internet takes a leading position. However, with Internet evolution hackers also are getting smarter improving tool kits and developing new exploits. Understanding this, many organizations give a lot of attention to their networks security. Firewalls, anti-spyware, data encryption are now used almost everywhere. And, obviously, those who doesn’t use this common security measures is an excellent target for hackers.

But, is it as true as it seems to be. Take a look at the security myths below.

Myth #1. Encryption is 100% effective.

No doubt, data encryption is a must for the networks security. However, John Orbeton, senior security researcher of Zone Labs warns, that modern sniffers can intercept Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Secure Shell (SSH). While encryption standards have several points of vulnerability, it can be used by hackers with the right tools.

Myth #2. Firewalls guarantees protection.

Common thought is that having firewall you can feel safe. Steve Thornburg, an engineer with Mindspeed Technologies says, that it is possible to read the entire IP trail through the best firewalls, and then sniff out the network. Knowing IP trail, hackers can learn details about computers and servers and find vulnerabilities basing on this info.

Myth #3. Macs are totally safe.

A lot of Mac users think they are not vulnerable to attack by hackers. In fact, many Macs run Windows programs or can be networked with Windows hosts, which can expose Macs with Windows vulnerabilities. Gary McGraw, security expert CTO of Cigital, sure that it is only a matter of time before Macs viruses appear. Symantec has issued report where describe more than 30 vulnerabilities of Mac OS X. And it warns that these vulnerabilities can be easily exploited by hackers.

Myth #4. Software patches are totally effective.

It is not always true. There are some tools exist that allows hackers to roll back patches that are distributed through the Windows Update tool. Learning effect of the patch hacker is able to find how it works and then determine how to take advantage of it. New tools are developed every day basing on the usual scanning for vulnerabilities. Today hacker also have an excellent partner in the person of Google. It allows to find unprotected webcams, default server login pages and so on.

Myth #5. Private corporate networks are unreachable for hackers.

Some administrators defends their networks to the death. And the only chance for hackers is when users take their company laptop to an unprotected connection. It even possible for hackers to setup Wi-Fi access point to trick users to logging into their network. After that they can setup a keylogger which can steal password to the company VPN.

Myth #6. Hackers ignore old software.

Some of us think that if we’re running legacy systems, they are not vulnerable to attack by hackers. Because hackers attention is attracted only by widely used software. Not so, says Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the SANS Internet Storm Center. He warns that web servers that haven’t been patched recently are a common point of target for hackers. A lot of old versions of Apache and IIS are attacked with buffer overflows.

6. Data storage devices can be destroyed by magnets.

This statement came from the time of wide usage of floppy disks. They are really magnets sensitive. But do you know anybody who uses floppy disks nowadays? All modern data storages such as hard drives, USB flash cards, CD discs can not be affected by magnets. In fact, they can, but only by the very powerful magnets that are used in different laboratories. And there is no reason to worry about any magnet at your home.

7. CD/DVD discs can last forever.

Some discs manufactures claim their product can live up to 100 years. But these terms can be achieved only following several strong conditions:
- use of best materials;
- absence of errors during writing process;
- ideal storage conditions;
But these items above are seldom fulfilled. Data of the terms of CD/DVD discs living are very differ between the manufactures and researchers. The only advice I can give is, if some data are critical for you, you better make second copy every 2-3 years. Also store discs away from dust and sunlight heat.

8. Wireless networks are unsafe.

This myth tells you that wireless networks can be easy hacked. The most secure method to work on computer is do not connect to the Internet and other networks, don’t plug any external device and better do not run any executable files. But we all know this is a paranoia. In fact, any wireless connection is less secure than a wired one. But if you will use strong encryption level it can be secure much like a wired network. Nowadays all common wireless devices support one of the encryption protocols: WEP, WPA and WPA2. You can use one of them to feel your self safely. WPA2 is considered the most secure among others.

9. Installed antivirus software guarantees your protection.

Of course, antivirus must be installed on any computer, especially if it is connected to the Internet. But its availability does not automatically protect your PC. Every PC vulnerable to the new viruses, trojans, malware. Because antivirus need to be updated to catch them. And it can take up to 1 day for the software company to come up with the updates. Generally, antivirus without updates is effective much like no antivirus at all against new viruses. So it is very important to keep your antivirus software updated.

10. Gaming is only a destructive evil.

Possibly, it can be true if gaming becomes a life style. And no doubt a lot of teenagers spend much more time playing computer games than playing sport games. However, pro-gamers earn a good fees for the win. Besides, gaming can be a good relaxing and de-stressing feature. Also, last researches prove gaming is very useful for surgeons, they help fingers be more flexible.

11. My emails are safe because they require username and password.

Using username/passwords for webpages and email clients software ( like Outlook ) is not the same. Webpages that ask for authentication are almost always SSL encrypted. It means that data transfered between your computer and server can not be decoded by the hacker. It is not always true for email text you send. Malefactor from your network can catch your ‘travelling’ emails.

Not all modern people are keeping pace with the technology progress. And it causes appearance a lot of questions that give birth to the numerous myths. We gathered biggest technology myths and explained whether they are fiction or not.

1. 64-bit OS calculates twice faster than 32-bit OS

In fact, you need a 64-bit software running on 64-bit OS. In this case you can use all advantages of 64-bit platform. Using 32-bit software on a 64-bit OS does not give any benefits in performance.

2. You can damage your PC when switching off power without shutting down computer.

This is old myth, that you can damage your hard drive when shutting down computer by pressing power button. The only damage you can make is loosing your unsaved data. This is a common truth – save your changes often. And in that case don’t be paranoid, press reset button if your PC hangs.

3. Use ‘Safely Remove hardware’ drill every time you want to unplug USB device

This is a myth with little exceptions. The general idea is to be sure that you will not unplug USB device during data transfer. In this case you can suffer data loss. But if the device is idle there is no any need to use ‘Safely Remove hardware’ feature. Regarding about exceptions above, if you have set USB Flash as a Ready Boost device in Windows Vista, you have to safely stop it before unplugging. For other devices like mouse, keyboard, scanner, printer you can just unplug them if you are sure they are not in use.

4. Formatting and partitioning can cause physical wear of the hard drive.

Firstly, let us look into the formatting process. When you format the hard drive special software writes data in multiple patterns and then fills the entire partition with ‘0’s. This sequence of actions does not differ from a usual write operations, like copying files. During the partitioning process, the starting sectors of the hard drive are also modified to make changes in partition table. But for the hard drive this just another write operation. “Quick format” option is even less strained, because only file table is modified.

5. Remove files from recycle bin for permanently deletion.

This is absolutely not true. Deleting files from the recycle bin is not actually erasing them from PC. Operating system just marked them as empty. And it means another data can be written above them. However, while these ‘empty’ files are not overwritten, special software can easily recover them. Recovering even possible if data are overwritten, but it is much harder and more expensive.

Digital Printing becomes very popular. However, there are still a lot of misinformation regarding its quality, cost, special paper etc. Let us go trough the common myths about digital printing and find the truth.

Myth 1. Digital printing is too expensive.

Fact: Digital printing is not a low cost technology, but very affordable if project’s total costs are considered. If we talk about a unit cost, price for digital printing is definitely higher compared that of offset, for short-run printing especially. But, total project cost is likely to be lower than offset printing.

Myth 2. Digital printing is not a well-grounded.

Fact: Digital printing changed the rules of the commercial and label printing. And now it is doing the same for color book publishing. Color book publishing is a very huge market and traditional book printing is getting hard to handle such volumes. While digital printing makes it easy and economically well-grounded to print very short runs of 10, 20 or 40 books. The process is the very quite easy following: file is uploaded to a front-end workflow that generates a PDF file and a job ticket. This ticket contains all information necessary for printing.

Myth 3. The quality of the digital press printing is not so good as conventional printing.

Fact: researches of the professionals prove this is not necessary true. Let us take HP Indigo, for example. It uses liquid ink technology that allows to get quality close to the conventional printing. One more interesting technology analyses image and text as they’re being printed, and adds dots to fill gaps at the edges, without affecting color stability.

Myth 4. Digital printers are all the same.

Fact: there is a great variety of digital printing technologies and all of them can perform quite differently. We are talking about speed, quality, cost. Mentioned HP Indigo, for example, is actually an offset process with liquid ink.

Myth 5. Digital printing needs expensive special paper.

Fact: it was true when digital printing only appeared and was not widely used. Nowadays, digital printing press can print on a wide range of paper and synthetic stocks.