oTree - An open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments

AbstractoTree is an open-source and online software for implementing interactive experiments in the laboratory, online, the field or combinations thereof. oTree does not require installation of software on subjects’ devices; it can run on any device that has a web browser, be that a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone. Deployment can be internet-based without a shared local network, or local-network-based even without internet access. For coding, Python is used, a popular, open-source programming language. www.oTree.org provides the source code, a library of standard game templates and demo games which can be played by anyone

Bringing IoT to the Lab : SiLA2 and Open-Source-Powered Gateway Module for Integrating Legacy Devices into the Digital Laboratory

In this article a gateway module to integrate legacy laboratory devices into the network of the digital laboratory in the 21st century is introduced. The device is based on ready to buy consumer hardware that is easy to get and inexpensive. Depending on the specific requirements of the desired application (bare embedded computer, RS232 serial port connector, IP65 certified casing and connectors) the needed investment ranges from about 95 € up to 200 €. The embedded computer runs an open source Linux operating system and can in principle be used to run any kind of software needed for communicating with the laboratory device. Here the open source SiLA2 standard is used for presenting the device’s functions in the network. As an example the digital integration of a magnetic stirrer is shown and can be used as a template for other applications. A method for easy remote integration of the device to ensure an easy and consistent workflow in development, testing and usage is also presented. This incorporates a method for remote installation of SiLA2 servers on the box as well as a web frontend for administration, debugging and management of those

Beginner's Guide for Cybercrime Investigators

In the real world there are people who enter the homes and steal everything they find valuable. In the virtual world there are individuals who penetrate computer systems and "steal" all your valuable data. Just as in the real world, there are uninvited guests and people feel happy when they steal or destroy someone else's property, the computer world could not be deprived of this unfortunate phenomenon. It is truly detestable the perfidy of these attacks. For if it can be observed immediately the apparent lack of box jewelry, penetration of an accounting server can be detected after a few months when all clients have given up the company services because of the stolen data came to competition and have helped it to make best deals. Cybercrime is a phenomenon of our time, often reflected in the media. Forensic investigation of computer systems has a number of features that differentiate it fundamentally from other types of investigations. The computer itself is the main source of information for the investigator. CONTENTS: Computing systems and storage media - Computing devices - - Peripheral devices - - External drives for media storage - Typology of data stored on specific supports – File systems - - Program that allows working with ” inactive” space - Information that can be obtained from the computing system environment Computer networks - Copper wire in computer networks - Optical fibers - Wireless LAN - Internet and Intranet Software and services - Client/server architecture - Protocols and Standards - Internet Services - - e-Mail - - - Spam - - HTTP - - Web address - URL - - Web browsers - - - Browser cookies - - Working with web pages - - - Choosing your favorite web pages - - - Keeping track of visited web pages - - - Saving web pages - - Proxy servers - - Privacy on the Internet - FTP - Instant Messaging - Peer-to-peer networks Vulnerabilities - The first attacks on the Internet - Cybercrime - - Typologies of cyber attackers - - - Classification of cyber attackers according to their skills and objectives - Classification of risks and incidents in cyberworld - - Classification as a list of terms - - List of categories - - Categories of results - - Empirical lists - Events, attacks and incidents - Online security events, actions, and targets - - Actions - - Targets - Attacks - - Tools - - Vulnerabilities - - Unauthorized results Cybercrime laws - The concept of "cybercrime" Investigations - Computer forensic investigations - Digital evidence - Digital sampling during investigations - The suspect - Witnesses in cybercrime - Transporting of samples in laboratory - Analysis of samples - Preparing team members - Computer tools Convention on Cybercrime - Preamble - Chapter I – Use of terms - Chapter II – Measures to be taken at the national level - - Section 1 – Substantive criminal law - - - Title 1 – Offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems - - - Title 2 – Computer-related offences - - - Title 3 – Content-related offences - - - Title 4 – Offences related to infringements of copyright and related rights - - - Title 5 – Ancillary liability and sanctions - - Section 2 – Procedural law - - - Title 1 – Common provisions - - - Title 2 – Expedited preservation of stored computer data - - - Title 3 – Production order - - - Title 4 – Search and seizure of stored computer data - - - Title 5 – Real-time collection of computer data - - Section 3 – Jurisdiction - Chapter III – International co-operation - - Section 1 – General principles - - - Title 1 – General principles relating to international co-operation - - - Title 2 – Principles relating to extradition - - - Title 3 – General principles relating to mutual assistance - - - Title 4 – Procedures pertaining to mutual assistance requests in the absence of applicable international agreements - - Section 2 – Specific provisions - - - Title 1 – Mutual assistance regarding provisional measures - - - Title 2 – Mutual assistance regarding investigative powers - - - Title 3 – 24/7 Network - Chapter IV – Final provisions Recommendation No. R (95) 13 - Appendix to Recommendation No. R (95) 13 - - I. Search and seizure - - II. Technical surveillance - - III. Obligations to co-operate with the investigating authorities - - IV. Electronic evidence - - V. Use of encryption - - VI. Research, statistics and training - - VII. International co-operation Rules for obtaining digital evidence by police officers Standards in the field of digital forensics Principles in digital evidence Procedures model for the forensic examination - Hard disk examination Code of Ethics Sources and references About - Nicolae Sfetcu - - By the same author - - Contact Publishing House - MultiMedia Publishin

An overview of web accessibility in Greece: a comparative study 2004-2008

This communication reports on the results of a web accessibility audit of public Web sites in Greece. The audit was conducted in 2008 by the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH, in its capacity as the Greek National Contact Centre of the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network. In an earlier e-Accessibility study in 2004, that evaluated approximately 250 public and commercial Web sites in Greece, 73% of the sample failed to meet the most basic requirements for web accessibility (http://www.infosoc.gr/NR/rdonlyres/0B306F9C-A819-4F96-ABB1-A21945D1D2B3/1092/final_report.pdf). Four years later, in the context of a re-audit, a similar sample was examined for compliance with the same web accessibility standard (WCAG 1.0), as set by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. The accessibility checks were conducted during the period from March to September 2008. A comparison of the results indicates that although new web development technologies may have been employed, instead of improving the overall status of e-accessibility, this has resulted in a serious deterioration in overall accessibility levels. Such findings—85% of sites failed to comply with Level A—suggest that Greek Web sites are likely to present even more significant access barriers to people with disability than in the past. As Web Accessibility is poorly understood and, until today, new platforms have failed to deliver products that conform to WCAG, the need emerges for a concrete legislative framework to set accessibility specifications for all public Web sites in Greece

THE DESIGN OF EMBEDDED WEB SERVER FOR REMOTE LABORATORIES MICROCONTROLLER SYSTEM EXPERIMENT

Abstract— Remote laboratories are innovations in educational technology which allows students to access and interact with laboratory equipment remotely via the Internet network. There are several advantages of using a remote laboratory is the laboratory's performance is better and more efficient because of laboratory equipment can be used by students throughout the day for 24 hours. This paper presents a new design remote laboratory-based embedded web server for practical microcontroller systems. This system has several advantages compared with traditional remote laboratory based on computer server, which are small size, low power consumption, low cost and easy installation and maintenance. Design an embedded web server using 8 bit microcontroller AT89S52. The system consists of a computer server, some experiment module microcontroller system and some embedded web server for controlling modules. The computer server is used as a web server remote lab gateway that serves as a homepage and user management. Embedded web server serves as the user interface to control the lab module microcontroller via the internet. Experiment module is evaluation board AT89SXX microcontroller and is equipped with some I/O circuit. Users can perform remote process on experiment module that is: upload binary files to the target board, observing the changes via a web cam and can interact with the target board through a virtual I/O. Embedded web server is working with pure HTML instructions so that the system is more secure because it only uses port 80 only. Design remote labs are multiuser, so that at the same time can be used by more than one user. Keywords—Remote laboratories; Embedded Web Server; Microcontroller

Deliverable DJRA1.3: Tool prototype for creating and stitching multiple network resources for virtual infrastructures

This document describes the prototype FEDERICA Slice Tool developed for the virtualization of network elements in FEDERICA and for creating and stitching network resources over this virtual infrastructure. An SNMP-based resource discovery prototype is also introduced as a new functionality to be integrated in the tool.The deliverable also presents aviability study for the use of traffic prioritization in the FEDERICA infrastructure and some network performance measurements on a real slice within FEDERICA.This document reports the final results of JRA1.2 Activity in the development of a tool prototype for creating sets ofvirtual resourcesinFEDERICA.The prototype goal is to simplify and automate part of the work for NOC.The tool may also serve,with different privileges, a FEDERICA user to operate on his/her slice. The tool described here was designed with the objective of providing an interactive application with a graphical interface to operate on resources for the NOC and the end users (researchers). The tool simplify the creation and configuration of resources in a slice and it is a mandatory step to ensure scalability of the NOC effort. It offers an interactive Graphical User Interface that translates the users’ actions to commands in the substrate (networknodesandV-nodes)andslice elements(VirtualMachines).User accounts may be created for the NOC and for researchers, each with specific privileges to enable different sets of capabilities. The NOC account has full access to all the resources in the substrate, while each user’account has full access only to the virtual resources in his/her slice. The tool has been developed using the Java programming language as Open Source code and relies on the open source Globus® Toolkit. Testing has been performed in a laboratory environment and on some FEDERICA substrate equipment (1switch, 2VMwareServers) in their standard configuration. For testing the router, web services and GUI an additional computer was used, using a public IP address.Postprint (published version

A phenomenological analysis of an instructional systems design creative project

This research paper is a phenomenological analysis of a creative project involving University of Northern Iowa undergraduate art students in the planning and creation of visual illustrations, graphic design concepts, .html documents, and imagery for a world wide web intranet/lnternet virtual space. This analysis looks at instructional design as a creative process and the phenomenology of the UNI Art/Cat (Art Resources Technology/Computer Assisted Training) computer laboratory. The mission, goals, and objectives of the creative project, experiential and experimental philosophies of education, and the phenomenologies of the instructional design process are the main considerations. The methodology of this thesis is primarily concerned with action research and research as lived experience. The generational aspects of computer hardware and software and the affective aspects of the evolution of the infrastructure upon instructional development is examined. This generation of techno-apparatus includes the Macintosh G3 Personal Computer in a network environment, Afga and Hewlett Packard Flatbed Scanners, Polaroid Slide Scanners, Adobe Graphic Design Software, and Symantec Visual Page Web Design Software. Commentary on the social and bureaucratic considerations in this particular creative project and discussion of the collaboration with UNI Art Department administration, faculty, and students is included with the final conclusions and recommendations

EMULATION OF THE LOAD BALANCING AND HIGH AVAILABILITY COMPUTER CLUSTER FOR NETWORK SERVICES

Članak prikazuje mogućnost uspostave emulacije računalnog klastera kojim se želi povećati dostupnost i rasporediti opterećenje mrežnog servisa. Temeljni cilj uspostave emuliranoga računalnog klastera je provjera izvedivosti izgradnje laboratorija za emulaciju klastera unutar kojega bi se mogla vršiti različita testiranja sustava, analizirati tijek podataka unutar komponenti sustava te isprobavati različita rješenja prije njihove stvarne implementacije. Članak opisuje metodiku emulacije računalnog klastera primjenom emulacije računala preko računalnog programa VirtualBox, emulacije računalne mreže preko računalnog programa GNS3, te računalnog programa za raspoređivanje opterećenja HAProxy i računalnog programa za povećanje dostupnosti Heartbeat. Prikazana je praktična primjena opisane metodike na emulaciji računalnog klastera za raspoređivanje opterećenja i povećanje dostupnosti web mrežnog servisa koji je implementiran računalnim programom Apache HTTP Server. Članak detaljnije opisuje računalni klaster za povećanje dostupnosti, računalni klaster za raspoređivanje opterećenja, te njihovu kombinaciju. Detaljno se prikazuju razlozi zbog kojih je poželjno uspostaviti laboratorij za emulaciju računalnog klastera. U zaključku članka argumentira se izvedivost laboratorija za emulaciju računalnog klastera, te se detaljnije prikazuju daljnji pravci njegova razvoja.The paper presents the possibility of establishing an emulation of the load balancing and high availability computer cluster for network service. The basic objective of establishing the emulated computer cluster is checking the feasibility of building laboratory for the cluster emulation. This laboratory can be used for different system testing, for analysing the system components data flows, and for trying out different solutions prior to their actual implementation. This paper describes the methodology of computer cluster emulation using computer emulation via software VirtualBox, computer network emulation via software GNS3, load balancing software HAProxy and high availability software Heartbeat. The paper shows the practical application of the described methodology in emulation of load balancing and high availability computer cluster for web network service which is implemented with software Apache HTTP Server. The paper also describes in detail a high availability computer cluster, load balancing computer cluster and their combination and shows the reasons why it is desirable to establish a laboratory for the emulation of computer cluster. In conclusion, the paper argues the feasibility of laboratory for the emulation of computer cluster, and indicates further development

NCLab: Public Computing Laboratory

This survey paper describes the Network Computing Laboratory (NCLab), a novel public cloud computing platform for mathematics, programming, scientific computing and computer simulations. Through a web-browser interface, it provides users with free access to interactive graphical modules that include symbolic and numerical methods, programming in several languages, computing with Python scientific libraries, computing with GNU Octave, GPU computing with CUDA, computational geometry, 3D CAD design, computational graph theory, finite element programming with the Hermes library, and interactive graphical finite element modules. Users can upload files and data from their local computers, clone projects from the database, share files, form teams, and collaborate on projects. This paper briefly describes how NCLab operates, and it provides concise descriptions of NCLab computational modules with examples of us