PlantSuccess Newsletter
Volume I, Issue 13
10/17/01
Dear Subscriber:
The early decision we made
to continue with PlantSuccess was not easy yet it was the right thing to do.
PlantSuccess 2001 was a success because of the support received from our
sponsors, speakers, moderators and attendees -- many traveled by air to share
in an event on what we do best: use current technology to improve how we
design, build and operate process plants. PlantSuccess features these best
practices.
Gold-level sponsors Bentley
Systems, Intergraph Process & Building Solutions and Verticore Technologies
led technology providers from across the country with a wide range of software
solutions covering all phases of the plant lifecycle. The related industry
organizations FIATECH, pdXML and Process Industry Practices (PIP) group joined
the sponsors.
As keynoter, Kirk Wilson,
Bayer Corporation’s vice president of engineering services, did an outstanding
job setting the stage for a series of presentations by innovative managers from
leading owner/operators and contractors in the process industry. With
PlantSuccess only three weeks after the horrific terrorist attacks, there was
only one presentation we were unable to deliver, this has become the first
commitment to next year’s conference. Session moderators, leaders as
consultants and editors, did another outstanding job and FIATECH’s workshop for
the Life Cycle Data Management (LCDM) Project was well attended.
Within the next couple of
weeks, the PowerPoint presentations on a CD will be distributed to all
conference attendees and later will be available for downloading from www.PlantSuccess.com. A limited supply
of Conference Programs for PlantSuccess 2001 and CD’s are available to people
who could not join us this year. If interested, please submit your request via
e-mail and include the necessary mail information.
The Philadelphia Airport
Marriott was an outstanding venue and the staff performed well at a time when
their industry has been turned upside down.
I have spent the twelve days
since PlantSuccess continuing a driving trip that included 15 states and logged
3500 miles visiting family and friends in New Jersey, Cape Cod, New Hampshire,
Rochester, NY, western Pennsylvania and Greenville, SC. Of course, I was struck
by the emptiness where the World Trade Center once dominated the skyline and I
know more about anthrax than ever intended. I am very encouraged by the extra
effort I have seen from so many and am even more grateful for the decision we
made and the support received from so many that made PlantSuccess 2001 a
success.
This Newsletter generates a
substantial number of visits to our website, we welcome the interest and the
access to previous issues of the Newsletter which are available there. If you'd
like to share this newsletter with a colleague, just forward a copy.
Subscriptions and cancellations can be made by sending a request to Carl.Howk@PlantSuccess.com
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Internet Security: Consensus of the
Experts
Although not a new concern,
the terms security and preparedness have received much more attention since the
recent terrorist attacks. A little over a year ago, the SANS Institute and the
National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) released a document
summarizing the Ten Most Critical Internet Security Vulnerabilities. The
current release increases the list to the Top Twenty vulnerabilities and
segments these into three categories: General Vulnerabilities, Windows
Vulnerabilities and Unix Vulnerabilities.
The Top Twenty list is
valuable because the majority of successful attacks on computer systems via the
Internet can be traced to exploitation of security flaws on this list. This is
an important, comprehensive document for people responsible for and involved
with security and the Internet – and, who isn’t?
Speaking of the Internet, in
2001 more than 400 million people worldwide will surf the web's 4 billion pages
and spend half a trillion dollars on goods and services in the process. Bill
Gates asserts that tomorrow's Internet will look a lot like what we have today
but it will be a whole lot smarter. This is a fun read that makes interesting
comparisons to the introduction of previous technologies like the automobile.
Hand-held, wireless devices
are becoming very popular for applications in plant operations. As this trend
continues and the devices become even smaller, the need for improved speech
recognition capabilities and the resulting new applications, will grow. SALT
(Speech Application Language Tags) extends existing Web markup languages to
enable intermodal and telephony access to the Web.
This is a new forum with the
potential to play a major role in developing technologies; learn about it now.
The past year has been very
hard on even the largest of the enterprise software suppliers. Survival is a
measure of success for many and the “New Year” cannot come too soon. William
Schaff thinks the bottom is in sight for many of these companies. Speaking for
users, investors, partners and employees, let’s hope so.
Full links to Volume I, Issue 13 Newsletter articles:
2.
http://66.129.1.101/top20.htm