Why Join the Information System Security Association? Written by R. Elam
I’ve finally stopped procrastinating and joined my local Information System Security Association, Colorado Springs Chapter (ISSA-COS). A few of my co-workers have been encouraging me to join since last year. Over past year many of benefits that they’ve enjoyed as member of ISSA have spilled over on to me. I encourage all serious Information security professional to join because ISSA has their fingers on pulse on all information security events, jobs and seminars at discount prices. ISSA members are always up on latest security events and seminars in town. Just two months ago, an ISSA member invited me to attend an Certified Ethical Hacking course. I actually had no idea that there was a “hacking certification” prior to her email. I attended a free seminar with mile2 and loved it so much I decided to attend whole course. I was able to attend an Ethical Hacking Course which my company paid for. I’ll be going for that cert. soon. As an ISSA member you will have access to many information security jobs in area and around world. Recently, one of my former co-workers (ISSA member) sent me information on an information security job in Baghdad. For fear of being apart of a hostage reality show on Al Jazeera TV, I declined. Would you decline a 300K/year job? I must admit I think about it every now and then. My co-worker actually took job and is much braver than I am.
| | Image conversion In ComputersWritten by KRISH
Image Conversion In ComputersJPEG, GIFF/JIFF, BMP, and TIFF are most commonly used formats for storing still image files such as photographs, graphics, and drawings. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is a standard for image compression. However, some amount of data/detail is lost in process. JPEG therefore is characterized by a glossy compression technique for still color images, just as MPEG is used for compressing motion picture files. GIFF/JIFF stands for Graphics Interchange format, which is a bit-mapped graphics file format. Its storage is limited to about 256 colors as against 16 million colors in JPEG. GIFF therefore is more suitable to store illustrations rather than color photos. Other popular formats for storing bit-mapped images are TIFF (Tagged image file format), BMP,and PCX. You'll also see GIF and JPG. You may be wondering what a bit-map is? A bit-map graphic is composed of a pattern of dots (each dot containing bits of data). Vector graphics, on other hand, use geometrical formulas to represent images. The latter can be scaled i.e. object size can be changed while maintaining its shape. Vector images are thus more flexible than bit-maps. Also vector imageslook better on higher resolution and require less memory. This brings us to difference between Paint programs and Draw programs. In Paint program drawings are represented as bit-maps. Draw programs, on other hand, represent images as vector graphics. Why we need to convert images from one format to another? • Converting GIFF files to JPEG can compress files to a considerable extent. The uncompressed data is normally 24 bits/pixel for full-color images. JPEG can achieve 10:1 to 20:1 compression without apparent loss, 30:1 to 50:1 compression with small to moderate defects, and 100:1 for very low quality purposes like archiving. These smaller size files increase storage capacity and take lesser transmission time across networks. • JPEG files are extremely useful for image archiving purposes. JPEG files store a full color range (24 bits/pixel as against 8 bits/pixels in GIFF).The display of images is particularly good on full-color hardware that is becoming common now.
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