Last Friday, January 16th, I was complimented by Chemtech. The company gave compliments to all employees that finished their college course in 2007/2008.

 
The computer engineers including me beside Rubião from right to left.

We got together at the 23rd floor of Rio de Janeiro’s office where Luiz Eduardo Ganem Rubião (CEO and founder of Chemtech) talked a little bit about the company’s perspectives giving us some insight related to life, economy, the job market and ongoing and future projects.

The way Rubião thinks about life subjects, mainly being an optimist is how I face the day to day. There’s no time to be wasted with illusions and we should always think positive. Doing so we’ll for sure harvest good fruits.

The following is the transcription of the letter I received with a present (a book of my area of specialization - computer engineering) …

Rio de Janeiro, January 16th, 2009

Dear Leniel Braz de Oliveira Macaferi,

Young people like you represent the future of technology. With your know how you can contribute to Brazil’s development so that it stands out in the worldwide technology. It is in the knowledge, in technology that a differential arises.

Chemtech is proud to have been with you in your first steps to engineering and for us still being together. It’s with satisfaction that today we call you an engineer! A Chemtecheano engineer, a Brazilian engineer.

We’re together in this journey that starts with your graduation. Success!

A strong hug from the Chemtech family.

Nanotechnology refers to a field of applied science and technology whose theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, generally 100 nanometers (billionths of meters) or smaller, and the fabrication of devices or materials that lie within that size range. Is any technology that is based on the placement or manipulation of single atoms.

Many innovations will come to light, which will make extensive use of nanotechnology. We know little about the natural phenomena that are surrounding us. In truth everything is already made and is near us, but we just can’t see because we need in the course of time develop our science and create new tools that will make us capable of discovering new chemical elements.

There is a famous maxim from French chemist Lavoisier that is:

In nature nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.

We are in a constant process of evolution and development.

With the discovering of new chemical elements and inherent natural phenomena, we’ll be capable of creating new types of materials what on the other hand will bring over more and more discoveries. Discoveries lead to innovations.

If we think that we are working with minuscule particles and that the smaller particle hasn’t been discovered yet, we can assert that we have a lot to learn. In truth it wasn’t long since that the first chemical elements were discovered.

Now it’s interesting to catch sight of how many nice opportunities there are to use nanotechnology. As an example: the manufacturing process of computer processors. I just can’t wait to have a super fast computer. To that end it’s necessary that nanotechnology evolves. For a faster processor it is necessary that billions of small electrical components called transistors be placed in a microchip. The smaller the transistors the greater amount of them can be put in a single chip. There’s a law specific to this subject called Moore's law.

New techniques can also be applied in the medicine field with the development of robots invisible to the human eyes that can flow within the human body fighting against all sorts of diseases.

At last, nanotechnology is a really important and promising technology and I expect that it evolves rapidly for the sake of men’s well being of course because other forms of use also exists. I won’t comment about them here. I think that the reader caught what I want to express with this. If not, try to remember about war technologies.

I can foresee that in a time period of 40 years (approximately 2050) we’ll be in a new baseline and nanotechnology will be a completely forgotten technology. As a matter of fact, it always happens with technologies.

As of the date of this post we already have 11 nanometers technology. For comparison, the processor Intel Core Duo that is the one I use today is manufactured with a 65 nanometers technology.

The crescent demand for enterprise management software has as key factor big companies, which need to manage millions of records trying with that: find a better way of working with so great amount of information available in their huge databases and get to the target of their business.

Between the most used software for enterprise management are the ones that lie in one of the following main categories:

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Balanced Scorecard or Scoreboard (BSC)

ERP

Resources planning in a company (ERP) include or try to include all the company’s data and processes in a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple software and hardware components to achieve integration. A key ingredient for most ERP system is the use of a unified database to store the data from the various modules of the system.

CRM

Customer relationship management uses software products developed to help the companies in the construction and keeping of a good relationship with their clients. This is done through the storage of information of each client in an efficient and intelligent way. CRM is a general term that encompasses concepts used by the companies to manage their clients and includes capture, storage and analysis of data, suppliers, partners and internal processes information.

SCM

Supply chain management is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the supply chain to the highest efficiency degree possible. SCM includes all the transport logistics and storage of raw material and ready products from the origin to the destiny consumption market.

BSC

Balanced scorecard or scoreboard is a concept used to measure if the activities of a company are yielding expected results in terms of the strategic vision. Its focus isn’t only the financial result but also human questions. It helps in the provisioning of a more comprehensive vision of an organization what in its turn helps the companies to act according to the best way possible in a long term basis.

How is it used?

All these software work integrated.

The chairman, VP, CFO, CEO, CIO, CTO, etc., simply sat down in front of their computer and request a report. The systems then combine the data stored in unified databases, which have all the company’s historical data using technologies such as OLAP and OLTP. Business intelligence (BI), artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, etc, are concepts extensively applied to do the junction of enterprise data.

It has all to do with relevant data and how to better combine them through (SQL queries) to extract useful information. Information = processed data = money! :-)

My computer engineering final project verses about LINQ (Language Integrated Query), that is, the integration of the query language (SQL) into the programming language (specifically C#). It's a good starting point for those that wanna learn the principles of working with queries to extract useful information from databases.

What to expect from the future?

The good part of it is that this market is growing in a fast pace. This way, a lot of job opportunities are emerging.

I particularly have interest in this field: databases, computer networks, BI, HPC, etc. My area of specialization will be for sure system analysis with focus on software engineering and infrastructure.

I expect to work in this field in a near future. It’s really interesting and challenging because there are always details that can be improved, optimized.

Information management (IM) is the key to the proper organization of a company. If a company organizes its data, its income will grow. It’s a proved fact.

Just as a note: one alarming factor that can arise is the security related to all the information of a company what creates the field of information security.

A new area that is attracting attention nowadays is parallel computing, most precisely, high performance computing, which is other very important factor when dealing with huge sets of data as is the case of enterprise management software.

Parallel processing will be the focus on the next years because it is necessary for the next step toward fastest software processing. Long live the dual-quad (many) core processors.

Distance education or distance learning is a positive manner of tackling global education shortcomings. If we think about the world population we can imagine that not everyone has easy access to the resources we’re so accustomed to. Considering time constraints, distance education reveals itself a great alternative because the time spent to get to a classroom can be a negative factor. Think about people that live outside of big cities. They can't even apply for a course they want because there is no such a course where they live. These barriers lessen education availability and so someone somewhere that doesn’t fit on the above time and place prerequisites has their plans thwarted and can't move forward towards the mainstay “Education”. It’s a really beautiful word. Look at it for an instant and realize what would be of you if you didn’t have the basic of it. To those people to acquire a diploma in some area of knowledge can be considered an unthinkable action.

With the advent of the Internet we have today a classroom right inside our own home. We have the information we want at the exact moment we want and in most part all the information is freely available, that is, we have the opportunity to learn about any subject without having to pay for that end avoiding expenses with specific material that in most cases will be used only once or at most twice to be frank.

Obviously there are prestigious institutions that provide distance education, which confer the most prestigious titles to those that finish a course without at least being present in a classroom. All that with the help of new technological advances that pervade our lives, which in turn make distance education something viable.

Particularly I don’t like the idea of distance education. I prefer to be present at the classroom. It would feel weird taking an educational leadership course in a virtual classroom. I believe that presence education is more enriching. I write this based upon all point of views, being the most important: more active social life interaction.

The virtual classroom world is interesting, yet it’s necessary to heed, for this can bring some undesirable consequences such as the lack of a direct liaison between the teacher/professor and their students and colleagues. Great part of our development is done through social interaction and this is almost foregone when we talk about distance education. There are plenty of other factors that influence my opinion, but for now this demonstrates one of the big bottlenecks that refrains the distance education of evolving in faster paces. There are still conservatives. It can be the case that in a near future such conservatives perish the thought.

The actual distance education environments, such as TelEduc in Brazil enable the distance education practice to reach more and more people. My alma mater UBM constituted a center for distance education called NEAD and uses TelEduc as its environment. I have used it and what I write here has as background my experience as a user of the system.

Tertiary institutions as the case of UBM offer a vast range of improvement courses for their employees and even support courses for students that are undergoing their internship programs and college conclusion projects. The idea appears to be good, but in practice it’s not adopted by everyone, perhaps because of the lack of information regarding the distance education platform’s features and capabilities.

It’s good to highlight that the devices and techniques used to implement distance education are in great part the result of advances pertaining to information and communication technologies. These technologies aggregate people from the more diverse knowledge fields. Information and communication technologies include the set of technological and computational resources set aside to generate and propitiate the use of information. Thus, such technologies are established on the following components: hardware and their peripheral devices, software and their resources, telecommunication systems and data and information management.

The people responsible for the development and management of these components are increasingly requested on the market. Between them are computer engineers, computer scientists, system analysts, business analysts, chief information officers (CIO), chief executive officers (CEO), chief financial officers (CFO) just to name a few.

The instructional level has been growing a lot during the last years, what rises the competitiveness on the job market. A proven fact is that executives have been using distance education to leverage their academic degree, attending courses, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at international universities as MIT, University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, etc. Notwithstanding the executives are on their houses in the comfort of their couches or beds.

I complete this brief analysis of the influence of distance education stating that the use of new technologies like the Internet and well developed distance education environments are making life a lot easier if we take into account the commodity and easy access to information of any given area.

It’s worth to remember about the inherited risks that most of the times pass by unnoticed. The utilization of technology in excess can enslave men, transforming them in slaves of their own inventions. Wherefore we must discuss such subject, aiming at the discovery of a steady point between the virtual and real life, providing a better way for a rich development environment where all people can evolve in a natural manner. I wrote and meant everybody, what presupposes the integration of the underprivileged people into this whole new world of information called Internet. Long live the blogs of life.

Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. The term virus is commonly used to refer to many different types of malware programs.

Types
The following table shows the most common types of computer viruses and their characteristics.

Common types of computer virus

Type	Characteristic
File	Attaches or associates its code to a file. Usually, this type of plague adds the code to a file of a normal program or overwrites the file. The virus infects Windows executable files, especially the ones with .com and .exe extension types and doesn't act directly over data files. In order for its destructive power to take effect, it's necessary that the contaminated files be executed.
False Alarm	Does not cause damage to the computer, but consumes connection time and bandwidth of the internet connection to make the user send the alarm to a larger number of people. Can be classified as Hoax or Chain Letter.
Backdoor	As its name states, it's a virus that open the computer's "back door" enabling hackers to take the computer control. Normally, the backdoor virus comes embedded in files received through e-mail or downloaded from the internet. When the file is executed, the user free the virus, that opens a computer port for the virus creator so that he can gain the complete or restrict control of the computer.
Boot	Infects the initialization area of floppy discs and hard disks. Vital system files are found on these areas. This virus has a high destruction power, even blocking the user from starting the computer operating system.
Trojan Horse	Apparently inoffensive virus that brings embedded another program that is the malign virus.
Encrypted	Codified virus that complicates antivirus actions.
Hoax	Messages that usually arrive in e-mails alerting the users about a showy, highly destructive virus.
Macro	Infects macros (executable code used in text processors and spreadsheets to automate tasks). Disables essential functions as Save, Close and Exit.
Multipartite	Infects the master boot record (MBR), boot tracks and files.
Mutant	Programmed to complicate its detection by antivirus software. Is capable of altering itself after each execution of the infected file.
Polymorphic	More intelligent variation of the mutant virus. Tries to impede the antivirus action modifying its internal structure or its codification techniques.
Program	Infects only executable files, blocking the user from initializing the operating system.
Script	Programmed to execute commands without user interaction. There are two categories of the script virus: VB based on the programming language and the JS based on JavaScript. This kind of virus can come embedded in images and in files with uncommon extensions as .vbs.doc, vbs.xls or js.jpg.
Stealth	Invisible virus that uses one or more techniques to avoid its detection. Can redirect system indicators and infect a file without altering the same.

Sources
Relationship sites, torrent download sites, virtual communities as Orkut just to name a few are sources of virus. Messages or posts apparently inoffensive can have an embedded/attached virus. The virus can even be hidden in images as the one shown bellow. Take it easy. The image below doesn't have a built-in virus!

Generally, the computer virus is scattered in places of great access as is the case of pornographic sites and download networks that distribute pirate software copies (the so famous P2P networks), although nothing impedes that a virus be received in a simple e-mail message.

Harms
Most of the time the virus remains in an inactive state waiting for the user to take action. The virus can copy all the data typed by the computer user, getting a list of the visited sites, the user's preferences and even a list of all the contacts (e-mail addresses) of the user that has a virus in their computer. This forms a really dangerous virus chain in which the virus can propagate itself to other users given the e-mail addresses of the other users.

The inexperienced users don't realize the maliciousness in such appeals and end falling into the trap. They pass credit card numbers, details from where they live, where they study, what they do to have fun, etc, that is, hand over private details to a person (can be the virus creator or no) completely anonymous.

A common situation is that of an infected user that has a computer virus and not even knows about its existence till the moment that s/he receives the bank statement in which is listed the draws of tens, hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Summary
Nowadays we're witnessing an awfully race for the acquisition of new computers. Lots of inexperienced users are getting into the computer and internet world. Such users don't posses most of the time the correct information about the threats inherent to the inadequate use of computers.

Computers are excellent tools when used to legal work related tasks and healthy leisure practices,

however the inexperienced user can fall into traps when s/he decides to have fun using the computer to search for illegal tasks or practices.

With the increasingly proliferation of computer viruses it's recommended that unknown files be discarded and that visits to inappropriate sites be avoided. It's also recommend the use of an antivirus software.

In the last analysis, for those that are already familiarized with the virtual world there isn't too much danger, though the above advice must be observed. The inexperienced users must ask the experienced users for advices to gain the necessary information regarding the inherent threats present in the virtual world.

It’s known that computers help men in the more diverse areas. We see nowadays that great part of men’s activities use in some way resources proceeding from the technological evolution that in its turn is leveraged by the advancement in computational resources. However, caution is necessary.

There are a lot of barriers that complicate men’s lives when they don’t use the computer power in an adequate way. Between those barriers I can cite: aspects related to health, social life, professional life and even education. Let’s see for example: if a man doesn’t take care of his physical body, it dies.

With the intensive use of computers, the majority of people forget about physical exercises. If a man forgets about the life outside, that is, thinks that the planet only spins around the computer, this man looses his life. If a man thinks that the computer can solve any problem, this man is wrong.

A computer is only a tool. The true architects are us, the men. Without our instructions the computer is incapable of executing a task.

Leaving the bad part of the topic, let’s see some positive effects of computers on society: information access through the internet that on the other hand lends to a better informed society. Increase in job opportunities coming from better environments. The velocity we arrive at results once unthinkable of being achieved. This velocity contributes to the development of advanced resources in the research area that on the other hand will influence the more diverse branches of society.

Computers are now part of our lives. It’s our responsibility to be rational and to search for better ways of interacting with them. We must evolve together with the technological innovations, but we must not give up life. We must not be bound to the new.

Only each one of us can choose its way but a world of information is here and whoever doesn’t try to get the perfect comprehension of reality can be in a worse position. You are your manager.

Client Server architecture
The client server architecture is a computer architecture which separates a client computer from a server computer and is most implemented in a computer network such as the Internet. Each client or server connected to the network can be referenced as a node. The most common type of client server architecture includes only two types of nodes: client and server. This type of architecture is sometimes called 2-tier architecture. The 2-tier architecture makes possible the sharing of files and resources between devices connected to the computer network.

Client
A client is a computer that requests a service of a server. The service can be localized in other computer or in the same computer that requests the service, that is, the client computer can act as a server too.

Access to the service is available through some type of interface.

Types of clients
Common types of clients include:

• Web browser - a web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the world wide web or a local network.

• Email client - an e-mail client, also known as mail user agent (MUA) is a frontend computer program used to manage email. Sometimes, the term e-mail client is also used to refer to any agent acting as a client toward an e-mail server, independently of it being a real MUA, a relaying server, or a human typing directly on a terminal. In addition, a web application such as the Gmail from Google providing the relevant functionality is sometimes considered an email client.

• Online chat client - an online chat client or instant messaging client is a software application that enables the user to engage in instant messaging.

Server
A server is a computer that accepts connections to serve the requests of client computers. The server sends responses to the client computers. A server is generally connected to a computer network.

Types of servers
The most common types of servers are:

• Application server - a computer with a software engine that delivers applications to client computers or devices, typically through the Internet and using the hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP). The application server handles most, if not all, of the business logic and data access of the application.

• Backup server - a computer responsible for safekeeping important business files, financial records, and personal music and pictures so that in case of the original files be deleted there will still exist a copy.

• Database server - a computer responsible for the provisioning of database services to other computer programs or computers. Database servers store the database on a dedicated computer system, allow it to be accessed concurrently, maintain the integrity of the data, and handle transaction support and user authorization. A database server divides an application into a front end and a back end, in accordance with the client-server model. The front end runs on the client computer and displays the requested data. The back end runs on the server and handles tasks such as query processing, data analysis and storage.

• DHCP server - a computer that provides the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) service on the network that assigns network addresses to other devices, such as a telephone and computer.

• DNS server - a computer that provides the domain name service (DNS) which translates the names of sites into their numerical addresses, that is, resolves the name of the website typed into the location field of the browser with the Internet protocol (IP) address of the server that will send the requested information from that website.

• Domain server - a computer that holds all the records associated with a particular domain and answers queries about those records.

• Email server - a computer acting as a mail transfer agent (MTA) or SMTPD (SMTP daemon) that is running the appropriate software. This computer is responsible for transferring the electronic mail messages from one computer to another.

• File server - a computer responsible for the central storage and management of data files so that other computers on the same network can access those files.

• Firewall server - designed to secure an internal network from threats and attacks that come from the Internet offering powerful and flexible control over all inbound and outbound network traffic.

• FTP server - a computer that runs a program that can receive requests for a file transfer protocol (FTP) link from a client computer.

• Logon server - a computer responsible for authenticating client computers in a domain.

• Print server - a computer to which one or more printers are connected, which can accept print jobs from external client computers connected to the print server over a network. The print server then sends the data to the appropriate printer that it manages.

• Proxy server - a computer system or an application program which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server requests the service on behalf of the client between an internal network of an organization and the Internet as part of a security system to protect the organization's network of external intrusion.

• Security server - a computer dedicated to provide security policy decisions and to enforce such decisions.

• Terminal server - a specialized computer which aggregates multiple communication channels together. Because these channels are bidirectional, two models emerge: multiple entities connecting to a single resource, and a single entity connecting to multiple resources.

• VPN server - a virtual private network (VPN) server is a piece of hardware or software that can act as a gateway into a whole network or a single computer. It is generally "always on" and listening for VPN clients to connect to it.

• Web server - a computer that runs a program responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, such as web browsers, serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are web pages such as HTML documents and linked objects (images, etc.).

Note: a web service can be considered a type of server. A web service is defined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable Machine to Machine interaction over a network." Web services are frequently just Web APIs that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.

Conclusion
The client server architecture is extremely used nowadays. Practically all the services that are present in the Internet are based on this architecture. Even a simple visit to a news page as much as the connection to verify the grades stored in the university’s server; all these services make use of the client server architecture.

The details related to planning, equipment acquisition, installation and configuration of software and hardware are the most important when an environment based on the client server architecture is being considered.

The application type offered by the server and the type of client that will access such application are key points to end up with a concise project.

It’s known that the greater page requisitions a server has the greater will be the necessity of a powerful hardware capable of assuring the proper operation of the application even in stress conditions. Therefore it’s important not only understand the basic concepts of the client server architecture but also acquire the understanding about specific concepts related to software and hardware, which form the base of the architecture.

We are witnesses of this fantastic era in which we see the creation of new services starting up through the great opportunities that the new wave of the internet called web 2.0 brings. Such services demands better approaches to the client server architecture.

Programming technologies, new hardware devices and network apparatus, multiple multimedia capabilities, wireless connections, etc – all reinforces the propagation of the client server architecture. As a basic example, look at the biggest video site of the planet YouTube, which receives millions of video requests and that needs to provide access to its clients in a smoothly way. All this in a transparent way to its clients.

The client server architecture will subsist for a long time because it leverages the so used means of communication of actuality called internet.

Evaluating and diving into the bits about the OLPC project, it's obvious the discrepancy between the configuration of modern computers and the laptop proposed. The superiority of modern computers in terms of hardware is evident. On the other hand, the OLPC's laptop aims at the students that in their day-to-day will cope with tasks not so sophisticated. This way, the OLPC’s characteristics will satisfy with praise a lot of children around the world.

The key point of the OLPC project is to permit children to interact with each other through the mesh network that is available in the hardware and at the same time to enable the access to the fantastic computer network called internet.

The hardware configuration isn’t so attractive, but to those that never thought in the possibility of having a computer, it’s a valid option.

It’s important to mention that great part of the world's population is formed by people bellow the poverty line since 1.1 billion people, about a 1/6 of humanity lives with less than 1 dollar per day.

The initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is fantastic. Since it's coming from a country that has a dictatorial economy that provides the rules to other markets nowadays and from an institute renowned internationally and financed by great technology companies, we can expect good fruits of the progress of this project.

It’s the underdeveloped governments’ responsibility to implement the policies and enforce the proper acting for the technology area, which is related directly with the future of such nations. The poverty and the barrier imposed on the knowledge access will only be suppressed when all or at least the major part of population have access to the better of this world. Unfortunately this isn’t the real thing and any project that tries to diminish the gap of the digital exclusion is welcome.

Concluding this brief evaluation I consider the OLPC an outstanding initiative of low cost given that the necessity for knowledge and access to new technologies is increasing at a high pace in the underdeveloped nations.

A virtual office is an alternative for those that are starting up a new company because it permits the company's owner to focus more on the services being offered than all other peculiarities inherent to the establishment of a physical place and further necessities such: furniture, equipments, client reception, etc.

As an entrepreneur it’s important to know how to choose the right place for the company’s branch of activity in view of the fact that determined commercial places are more favorable to determined kinds of commercial areas.

The companies that offer virtual offices provide custom bundles for each client type (renting on determined weekdays, for example), which permits the business viability for the beginner entrepreneur. The viability will only be effective if the new entrepreneur know how to adequately choose the correct range of necessary services to his business because at the moment of bringing a company to life there isn’t the availability of a good investment capital.

As a case, I can cite the software development industry here in Brazil, where the developers have worked as an artificial person, that is, the natural person establishes a company and from that point starts to offer the development services to the more diverse clients. When an artificial person developer opens a virtual office, he earns more visibility and will be able to gain more clients through the divulgation of his work. In big commercial cities as is the case of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, there are developers that opt for a virtual office and this way they easily duplicate or even triplicate their incomes. Most of the times they earn more than their former boss for they have know how pertinent to their area and consequently they can leverage an excellent business. It’s interesting to note that in some cases the clients of the former boss pass to be clients of the new entrepreneur because they already know the quality of the work offered by him.

In general a developer only needs a notebook and his knowledge to start a new company. Other employees are unnecessary.

Opting for a virtual office seems to be an excellent alternative to expose the work publicly. With the business profit the developer will be able to contract more people or even invest in his professional career attending new courses and specializations. It’s also important to mention that being independent this new entrepreneur will be able to work when he wants; planning his own schedule since only he is in charge of his goals according to his real work capabilities. He will even be able to work at his own home near his family and when it is necessary, he will be able to go to the virtual office to meet with his clients and peers. This fact favors a lot the life of the professional for diverse motives, among which I can cite: health, family, comfort, leisure, etc.

So it’s possible to conclude that to establish a virtual office in certain cases is a good choice nowadays because a lot of people prefer to work for their own, be it for having their proper business, for being free from the subordination or even to have a better return of money without the harassments that arise from the business physical installation.