A blockchain ‘smart contract’ could cost investors millions

Investors in a "smart contract" built on the Ethereum blockchain platform may have lost cryptocurrency worth millions of dollars because they missed a loophole in the contract's fine print.The contract was written in Ethereum's Solidity programming language, and the fine print was the code that set out the rules for investing in, operating, and withdrawing from a crowd-sourced venture capital fund called The DAO (The Distributed Autonomous Organization.) .Ethereum, like other blockchains, is a distributed public ledger, or record of transactions. Where the bitcoin ledger records bitcoin transactions, the Ethereum blockchain records transfers of a cryptocurrency called Ether. But there's more: Ethereum is also a platform for running smart contracts. Its creator, the Ethereum Foundation, describes smart contracts as "applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Look at Key SDN Deployments

While the SDN market isn’t taking off as much as everybody would like, it’s being implemented in many customer deployments for key data center use cases.

Docker Orchestration Is the Focus of Docker 1.12

Google's Kubernetes is the likely target.

Accelerating Network Transformation with Big Cloud Fabric 3.6 and Big Monitoring Fabric 5.7

Ticketmaster free tickets website off to rough start

Those outrageous Ticketmaster fees you've perhaps grudgingly been paying for years have indeed been found to be outrageous, and now the company has been forced to dole out $400M in vouchers that can be used to buy new tickets.For people like me, who have bought many Red Sox, Celtics and concert tickets over the years, this could be quite a windfall. Or not.As you can read on the FAQ page for Schlesinger et. al. vs. Ticketmaster, the ticket brokerage firm was found to have used an unclear fee system and overcharged those who had tickets shipped to them between Oct. 21, 1999 and Feb. 27, 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ticketmaster free tickets website off to rough start

Those outrageous Ticketmaster fees you've perhaps grudgingly been paying for years have indeed been found to be outrageous, and now the company has been forced to dole out $400M in vouchers that can be used to buy new tickets.For people like me, who have bought many Red Sox, Celtics and concert tickets over the years, this could be quite a windfall. Or not.As you can read on the FAQ page for Schlesinger et. al. vs. Ticketmaster, the ticket brokerage firm was found to have used an unclear fee system and overcharged those who had tickets shipped to them between Oct. 21, 1999 and Feb. 27, 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Under the hood of Cisco’s Tetration Analytics platform

Cisco’s entrance into the data center analytics market with the introduction of Tetration is the culmination of two years worth of wrangling various open source projects and developing proprietary algorithms in the areas of big data, streaming analytics and machine learning.Tetration is an analytics platform that provides deep visibility into data center and cloud infrastructure operational information. Here’s a description from Network World’s story on Tetration:The platform, Cisco Tetration Analytics gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data analytics and machine learning to offer IT managers a deeper understanding of their data center resources. The system will dramatically simplify operational reliability, application migrations to SDN and the cloud as well as security monitoring.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Under the hood of Cisco’s Tetration Analytics platform

Cisco’s entrance into the data center analytics market with the introduction of Tetration is the culmination of two years worth of wrangling various open source projects and developing proprietary algorithms in the areas of big data, streaming analytics and machine learning.Tetration is an analytics platform that provides deep visibility into data center and cloud infrastructure operational information. Here’s a description from Network World’s story on Tetration:The platform, Cisco Tetration Analytics gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data analytics and machine learning to offer IT managers a deeper understanding of their data center resources. The system will dramatically simplify operational reliability, application migrations to SDN and the cloud as well as security monitoring.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Hello World – Welcome to The Agile Data Center

Some of the best technology in the world has begun with a simple "Hello World". I wanted to do the same and introduce myself along with this new blog entitled "The Agile Data Center". With this blog I will be focusing on some of the latest technologies around modernizing data center software and hardware, as well as aligning skill sets and introducing new roles in the IT space. So what defines an agile data center and why should you care? Growing up in the technology space I've worked for companies such as VERITAS, Symantec, SAP, and EMC. During that time and especially now I can see and realize that most companies have not aligned business and IT. While this has "worked" for a number of years, companies are now becoming quickly disrupted by startups that have successfully aligned IT and can keep up with the rapid pace of business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Hello World – Welcome to The Agile Data Center

Some of the best technology in the world has begun with a simple "Hello World". I wanted to do the same and introduce myself along with this new blog entitled "The Agile Data Center". With this blog I will be focusing on some of the latest technologies around modernizing data center software and hardware, as well as aligning skill sets and introducing new roles in the IT space. So what defines an agile data center and why should you care? Growing up in the technology space I've worked for companies such as VERITAS, Symantec, SAP, and EMC. During that time and especially now I can see and realize that most companies have not aligned business and IT. While this has "worked" for a number of years, companies are now becoming quickly disrupted by startups that have successfully aligned IT and can keep up with the rapid pace of business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Software defined—you keep using those words…

Software Defined Networks (SDNs), are everywhere, and everyone is either building one, selling one, or using one. Everyone, that is, except—probably—you. Don’t feel too bad if you’re feeling left out, because it’s hard to know, precisely, what you’re actually being left out of. After all, can you actually define what an SDN is? -ECI

The post Worth Reading: Software defined—you keep using those words… appeared first on 'net work.

Microsoft has had enough of OEM bloatware

One of the best things about a build-your-own PC is you can make sure no crapware/bloatware is installed, since you are buying a bard hard drive to start. No unwanted apps or utilities that cause more harm than good. You install the OS and the apps you want. Unfortunately, not everyone is as good with a screwdriver as me, and most folks prefer to buy a brand-name PC. That's especially true for laptops, since the white box/builders market is primarily for tower builders. So, laptop buyers have no choice but to put up with unwanted apps that clog the hard drive and memory.+ Also on Network World: Windows 10 Anniversary Update: A guide to the builds +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker just made it easier to natively orchestrate containers

This week container lovers are convening in Seattle for the annual Dockercon conference and a major theme this year is how to manage containers at scale.To kick off the conference Docker – the company that open sourced the popular container runtime of the same name and now sells commercially supported software for running containers – announced native integration of container orchestration platform named Swarm into its product.Swarm has been an open source project for managing groups of containers, but Docker today announced that its container runtime will ship with an optional Swarm Mode.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: HPE looks to move data between computers at the speed of light | Platform 9 is the latest to ease container deployment woes +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The FCC is about to take a big step to superfast 5G networks

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will move to open up high-frequency spectrum to not-yet-available 5G mobile services in an effort to bring the superfast wireless connections to U.S. consumers.The FCC, during its July 14 meeting, will vote on a proposal to open up a whopping 14 gigahertz of high-band spectrum to unlicensed wireless use, Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday. Wheeler didn't offer a lot of details about the proposal during his speech."We will be repeating the proven formula that made the United States the world leader in 4G," Wheeler said in a speech. "It’s a simple formula: Lead the world in spectrum availability, encourage and protect innovation-driving competition, and stay out of the way of technological development."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM leverages machine learning for hyper-local weather

It's been just about six months since IBM closed its acquisition of The Weather Company, but it's not resting on its laurels. This week Big Blue moved to leverage The Weather Company's go-to-market strength to launch Deep Thunder, a machine learning-driven weather model developed by IBM Research to help industries ranging from aviation and agriculture to retail better predict the business impact of weather."One of the greatest things about being part of IBM is having a relationship with IBM's Research arm," says Mary Glackin, head of Science & Forecast Operations for The Weather Company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Do third-party vendors have a bullseye on their backs?

Because there are so many different kinds of third parties, identifying whether they do or don’t have the right infrastructure or security protocols can be a challenge. Moreover, doing the proper due diligence needed to vet third-party vendors can be costly and time consuming.As so many organizations rely on a variety of different providers, third parties can become the gateways to the network. In order to mitigate the risk of a breach from a third party, enterprises need to design a vetting process and understand the language of the service-level agreemen in order to best evaluate their contracts.[ ALSO ON CSO: How to achieve better third-party security: Let us count the ways ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Do third-party vendors have a bullseye on their backs?

Because there are so many different kinds of third parties, identifying whether they do or don’t have the right infrastructure or security protocols can be a challenge. Moreover, doing the proper due diligence needed to vet third-party vendors can be costly and time consuming.As so many organizations rely on a variety of different providers, third parties can become the gateways to the network. In order to mitigate the risk of a breach from a third party, enterprises need to design a vetting process and understand the language of the service-level agreemen in order to best evaluate their contracts.[ ALSO ON CSO: How to achieve better third-party security: Let us count the ways ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Take these security books with you on vacation

Real-life cyber mysteriesImage by ThinkstockWhy spend your beach time this summer reading fictional mystery novels when real world mysteries are swirling through the cyber sphere? BAE Systems has put together a summer reading list for cyber security professionals. It includes titles that cover the international underworld of money laundering, the greatest criminal minds in hacking, insights into understanding how cyber criminals think, the impact of potential cyber attacks and cyber wars on mission critical targets as well as practical advice and business lessons on cyber security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Take these security books with you on vacation

Real-life cyber mysteriesImage by ThinkstockWhy spend your beach time this summer reading fictional mystery novels when real world mysteries are swirling through the cyber sphere? BAE Systems has put together a summer reading list for cyber security professionals. It includes titles that cover the international underworld of money laundering, the greatest criminal minds in hacking, insights into understanding how cyber criminals think, the impact of potential cyber attacks and cyber wars on mission critical targets as well as practical advice and business lessons on cyber security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker Market Share Soars 30%, says Datadog Research

Study tracked 10,000 companies and their use of Docker.