Odolphi, who spends most of the year as web platform architect evangelist with Microsoft Australia, told iTWire that the conference was "our best Tech.Ed ever" from an infrastructure perspective. There was zero downtime, and the "wireless [network] was rock solid." Furthermore, feedback from attendees was "overwhelmingly positive."

With around 3000 people at the event, wireless use peaked at around 1300 devices simultaneously connected. "[The network] could have handled three times as many devices," said Odolphi.

A significant change introduced for this year's event was the use of the IPv6 protocol. "We saw a fairly good uptake," Odolphi said, but there was only 23GB of IPv6 traffic compared with 1553GB of IPv4 traffic.

"There's not much content out there to consume [from IPv6 servers]," he explained. For example, while Facebook's main servers are accessible via IPv6, the associated content delivery network is still IPv4 only. So if someone turns off IPv4 and uses Facebook "it looks like a train wreck" according to an anonymous Microsoft engineer.

Active Directory broadcasts plus Google and YouTube access accounted for most of the IPv6 traffic on the Tech.Ed network generated by attendees. Still, "it was a good experiment," said Odolphi.

But there were some network-related issues - please read on.

Odolphi and his team had few problems to deal with during the course of the event. They did spend some time tracking down rogue Wi-Fi access points - attendees were specifically asked not to operate access points (including 3G wireless routers) or ad hoc wireless networks to avoid channel congestion.

There were also a few cases of network misuse such as running BitTorrent, but that was dealt with by identifying the individuals concerned and then sending polite SMS messages asking them to desist. Odolphi's team have some ideas for improving the tracking process next year.

Another change on the cards is to make external routing more diverse. Connectivity to the outside world is via a 500Mbps link from Telstra with a secondary 100Mbps connection from Over The Wire. The latter is normally reserved for use by session presenters and other production traffic, and the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre's permanent 100Mbps Telstra link is available for failover.

One potential problem that has now been identified is that there is some commonality between Telstra's and On The Wire's upstream providers. For example, all traffic between the event and microsoft.com was routed via Vocus. The Tech.Ed network team are investigating ways of achieving truly diverse routing, but this may require the use of a third provider.

Asked how he felt about reprising his role as event technology manager in 2011, Odolphi said he wouldn't know until early next year if it was going to be his responsibility again, but "I'm looking forward to it."

Dimension Data senior security consultant Ed Luck said that Facebook presents "a massive attack surface." Part of the problem is that there are more than one million developers and entrepreneurs involved, and Facebook doesn't pre-screen apps - it waits until complains are received and then investigates.

The Facebook API presents multiple opportunities that can be exploited by malware writers. For example, the API is vulnerable to 'man in the middle' attacks between a client and a legitimate application server, and Luck also suggested that it wasn't a major challenge to arrange for the server behind one externally supported app to send a message to another unrelated app (spoofing).

"We have to live through the bad part of the [security] cycle before it stabilises," he warned.

Privacy is another issue, though one that doesn't seem to be taken seriously by most Facebook users. 89% of then use their real name, and 61% use an identifiable picture, Luck said. The problem for organisations is that information available via social networks can be used as an entry vector to internal networks. One example is that such information can be used for spearphishing or social engineering attacks - the more you know about someone, the easier it is to compile an email message that will appear trustworthy because it appears to come from a known source and contains subject matter that might be expected from that person.

Is your company likely to be attacked?, Luck asked. Maybe, maybe not - but he suggested that mining companies are a good example of organisations whose secrets are of great interest to competitors and to certain governments.

And developments like Facebook Places and foursquare reveal people's locations - very useful if you want to pickpocket a particular person's mobile device when they're in a crowded bar, or when you want to be confident they will be away from their desks for a certain period.

So what do you do? Please read on for some of Luck's suggestions.

Simply banning the use of Facebook and similar services is unlikely to be effective. Apart from anything else, the result of prohibition is isolation: if your competitors are engaging with customers through Facebook, where does that leave you?, asked Luck.

The trick, he suggested, is to get the balance right. Information that's open to misuse shouldn't be published unnecessarily, but excessive prohibition can be counter-productive and may be ignored. Acceptable use policies might reasonably include not wasting company time, and not being derogatory about customers. Such policies should also cover the use of personal devices.

Talking of personal devices, Luck described mobile devices - especially smartphones - as "a target rich environment." He noted the discovery of multiple Android apps that request more rights than would be appropriate for the ostensible purpose and then use them for nefarious purposes. The fact that an Android app given rights to read logs has access to information including SMS messages, GPS coordinates, browser history and more doesn't help.

Among other problems with Android are the way old versions of the operating system with less restrictive default permissions are still being shipped by some manufacturers, and the period of vulnerability introduced by the delay between Google releasing a security update and it being distributed by vendors.

Android's not the only problem, Luck suggested, pointing out that techniques used to jailbreak an iPhone can also be used to implant malware.

Non platform-specific issues include mobile applications that expose personal data by failing to erase temporary files after use, web sites that use URL-based session IDs (which can then be abused by malware), and 'split tunnelling' situations caused by tethering a phone to a computer to bypass the corporate firewall (which can open the door to a cross-site attack).

According to Alcatel-Lucent, OpenPlug's functionality will "enable service providers, enterprises and developers [to] create and deploy applications - in virtually record time and without sacrificing the unique customer experience - across multiple mobile devices and within service provider app stores.

"As a result, applications that had previously only been available on more sophisticated devices such as smartphones, can now be enjoyed by consumers on any mobile device, which opens up opportunities in emerging markets, where low cost mobile phone circulation is highest."

OpenPlug has commercialised, under the ELIPS name, a range of patented technologies that facilitate the development of mobile phones, smartphones and the applications that run on them.

ELIPS Studio is claimed to "offer the first open software development environment allowing independent software vendors (ISVs) to create and deploy simultaneously in record time their mobile applications on iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux and other proprietary systems."

Laura Merling, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent's global developer strategy, said: "This isn't purely a mobile play - the software can be extended to support application development for IPTV set top boxes, game consoles, even the ng Connect LTE Connected Car."

She told iTWire "One of the interesting things that OpenPlug has done is that when you compile the application they use the native operating system for that platform so the consumer experience is the way they expect it to be on every device.

"It takes advantage of the screen size and the interactions you expect. You can't really tell that someone used the same tool to build an app for an iPhone or an Android, and that is something we found really interesting."

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She added, "With featurephones you need a layer of software to be installed on the device. Moving forward our mid term goal is to be able to support mass-market phones based on bada, brew etc in the same way. So that carriers can reach all of their customers' devices.

"The reality is that while the growth for smartphones is there, our customers in Asia Pacific have a huge base of featurephones out there that they want to reach. It's not so much about increasing ARPU as about retaining customers."

Alcatel-Lucent intends to exploit synergies between the OpenPlug technology and its existing offerings, including ProgrammableWeb - acquired in June and claimed to be "the universal source for Web application programming interfaces" - by integrating the OpenPlug offerings into its suite of developer tools.

The OpenPlug toolset will be incorporated into Alcatel-Lucent's Developer Platform and Open API service, "thus broadening the functionality available to service providers, enterprises and developers for the exposure of network assets and the rapid introduction of new services across mobile and Web domains," the company said. They will continue to be offered stand-alone as at present.

"Deploying valuable web and mobile services requires assembling many different pieces from many horizons," said Eric Baissus, CEO of OpenPlug. "By combining OpenPlug's ELIPS Suite and ELIPS Studio technologies with Alcatel-Lucent's platforms and API services, we enable developers and service providers to gather all these pieces in a very efficient and consistent way. This will dramatically facilitate the deployment and the monetisation of the new generation of applications that the market is expecting."

According to Merling, "The move advances Alcatel-Lucent's Application Enablement strategy, which is focused on combining the trusted and secure network capabilities of service providers with the speed and innovation of the Web to provide a richer end-user experience. To those watching our developer platform and service strategy evolve, there is no mistaking how serious we are about playing a leading role in the future of application enablement."

Link Security Group has been contracted by Queensland's Moreton Bay Regional Council to deploy what is said to be the largest municipal wireless video surveillance network in Australia.

Link will use Firetide's wireless mesh equipment to cover a 130 square kilometre area with 42 nodes. The network will carry HD video from nearly 50 outdoor cameras from Axis.

The Milestone XProtect video management software will be used to monitor the video feeds. The software can potentially be used to integrate Moreton Bay's existing analog CCTV cameras.

"Firetide represents the very best in cutting-edge wireless technology, with its wireless infrastructure mesh optimised for the transmission of surveillance video," said Alex Baulden, senior network engineer at Link.

"The security and reliability of communications were critical, and performance we’ve seen in the field is impressive," he added.

What about the cameras? Please read on.

Wai King Wong, country manager ANZ at Axis Communications said "Where image quality is the key consideration it is important to have full frame rate video streaming so that activities in a scene and fast-moving objects can be easily seen and captured."

"Our HDTV cameras are compliant with the SMPTE standards in resolution, frame rate, colour fidelity and aspect ratio to ensure that a rich viewing experience with excellent image detail is achieved," he added.

Four new plasma displays from Panasonic include features specifically aimed at the commercial signage market. Flat panel displays are being increasingly used for signage in retail, transport, hospitality, education and other environments.

The new Panasonic screens are available as 42in and 50in units, with HD and full HD versions in both sizes. They are designed for horizontal or vertical mounting.

Features include image enlargement (allowing up to 16 displays to be configured as a 'video wall'), picture-in-picture, and 'advanced dual picture' which allows video to be superimposed on a full-screen PC image.

A serial interface allows remote monitoring of the display status. A range of optional terminal boards allows the displays to be configured in various ways including RGB-through connections, or to provide remote control of connected equipment such as PCs or DVD players.

Prices start at $A1329 for the TH-42PH20W (42in HD) and rise to $2869 for the TH-50PF20W (50in full HD).

The new models join Panasonic's existing 58, 65, 85 and 103in screens.

The service is presently available in all capital city CBDs [to within 5km of the CBD] and selected metropolitan areas, associated airports and in more than 100 regional locations. (Telstra's web page devoted to the new service has a link to a list of all areas where the service is available, but the link was not working at the time of writing.)

Telstra is quoting "typical" downstream bandwidths in the range 1.Mbps to 20Mbps. A Telstra video showed the modem delivering around 10Mbps in a number of locations in the Melbourne CBD and iTWire was able to obtain 10Mbps from our office in the inner Sydney suburb of Enmore.

(This was achieved using speedtest.net and a server in Canberra operated by AussieHQ Interestingly the other two available nearby servers, operated by Optus in Melbourne and Sydney, delivered less than half this speed).

The service is being offered at the same price as current Next G broadband services (the modem is available at $0 on a $69 per month 6GB contract, or can be bought for $299). However because of a shortage of supply of the modems, they are being offered initially only to Telstra Enterprise And Government and Telstra Business customers with account managers.

Mike Wright, Telstra's executive director of networks and access technologies, said Telstra had at present only 2000 of the modems, dubbed the Telstra Ultimate USB Modem, but was expecting more shortly. "There is another shipment coming in late September and from then and after that we will have the supply to meet demand forecasts."

He added that, like previous HSPA services launched on Next G, the new service and delivery of the new modem had been made possible only through close co-operation between Telstra, network supplier Ericsson, chipmaker Qualcomm and modem manufacturer, Sierra Wireless.

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John Paitaridis, Telstra's executive director, network products and services in Enterprise & Government, said: "One of the reasons we decided to launch first to Enterprise And Government and Business customers is that clients are saying that their ability to access applications quicker makes a difference to their business and when they start to equate time savings and doing calculations around productivity it does become a return on investment."

Upstream bandwidths are the same as on the present HSPA+ service, for which Telstra quotes "typically 300kbps - 3Mbps." The new service does not have dedicated network capacity: it achieves its throughput by bonding two channels of the existing HSPA+ service. Wright said that, in doing so it achieves greater efficiencies. "Statistically is able to spread the load over the two channels." He was unable to quantify the gain, but said, "We will be measuring this as we deploy more of these devices."

Installation of the software and configuration of the modem is fairly straightforward. The Connection Manager application is stored on the USB modem and installation commences automatically when the modem is plugged in. However there is a trap for the unwary.

However iTWire's Mac had the Sierra Wireless 3G Watcher for an earlier ExpressCard USB modem installed and it had to be removed before the installation process would commence.

The modem has two optional external antennas. These provide path diversity and improved bandwidth, as distinct from the dual antennas that will come with the next generation of HSPA+ which will use two antennas each carrying a separate signal to achieve theoretical downstream bandwidths up to 84Mbps.

Wright said Telstra planned to start trials of that technology in late 2011 and to have it available in its network in early 2012. "We are yet to make any detailed plans for the extent of that rollout."

An unexpected brouhaha has erupted during Microsoft Australia’s annual Tech.Ed event concerning the hiring of the Gold Coast’s iconic and skimpily dressed “meter maids” as hosts of a remote control racing competition for Tech.Ed delegates during the Tech.Ed welcome party. 

Founded in 1965 to thwart the then newly installed parking meters with attractive young women dressed in gold coloured bikinis, who went around putting extra credit into parking meters that have either expired or have nearly expired thus saving street parked car users from parking fines, Meter Maids are said to be a Gold Coast tradition. 

Given that Microsoft was hosting a “Women in IT” event at this year’s Tech.Ed, and given the high proportion of women employed at Microsoft, there has been concern from some at the event, including some Microsoft employees, that the use of Meter Maids was decidedly inappropriate.

Some are questioning why using the world-famous, Gold Coast-based Meter Maids at a Gold Coast event is “just wrong” and “not acceptable”, as local Microsoft MD Tracey Fellows is reported to have said, but Microsoft Australia insists it apologises for any offence caused.

Microsoft Australia is blaming its local marketing department for hiring the Meter Maids, and reports say that Microsoft’s initial denial of knowing what attire the Meter Maids would wear at the Tech.Ed event was incorrect, given the report by Asher Moses in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) that the MD of Meter Maids says she has emails spanning a 2-3 week period in which Microsoft’s local marketing people chose from a selection of outfits the Meter Maids could wear.

However, Moses’ SMH report quotes Microsoft Australia saying in a statement that: "We do stand behind our first statement, however, it's our show, we take full responsibility, and it was the wrong choice.”

Unfortunately for Microsoft, the issue has received worldwide attention in the tech press and will probably be looked upon sternly by Microsoft HQ in Redmond, right when Microsoft is much keener for people to focus on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices.

The brouhaha has given Microsoft and the Meter Maids a great boost of free publicity, while also highlighting the trend away from using or even outright banning of “booth babes” at technology events such as the E3 gaming conference in Las Vegas, and from next year’s Australian CeBIT expo.

So, um… back to the Windows Phone 7 and other Microsoft stuff now? The IE 9 beta is due on September 16 apparently. Presumably it will be launched without the assistance of booth babes or booth blokes. Windows 8 is due in a couple of years, maybe longer – no-one at Tech.Ed would officially or unofficially say anything about it, despite my sort-of best efforts. Oh yeah, Apple’s having a reality distorting iEvent on September 1.

The Australian Tech.Ed event officially closes on the 27th of August, 2010, with the 2011 and future local Tech.Ed events presumably to be highly scrutinised by management to ensure no Meter Maids, Meter Men, Ninja Nerds, Psychic Pokemons or any other potentially Offensive Objects make an appearance.

Alex Zaharov-Reutt attended Tech.Ed as a guest of Microsoft.