Facebook wants you to hang out with your friends in VR

Facebook is making it possible to hang out with your friends in virtual reality using Spaces, a new app the company launched Tuesday for the Oculus Rift. The app will allow people to join a shared, immersive video call, represented by a personalized avatar.Using Spaces, people can hang out around a virtual reality table, share three-dimensional drawings and use the Rift’s built-in microphone to chat with one another. Users can also surround themselves and their friends with 360-degree photos and videos from Facebook’s library of content.People who don’t have a Rift headset can also be included in a Spaces hangout by using Facebook’s Messenger video calling functionality. Users will be able to view a Space from their smartphone, and have their video call shown inside the virtual reality environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Machine Learning Storms Into Climate Research

The fields where machine learning and neural networks can have positive impacts seem almost limitless. From healthcare and genomics to pharmaceutical development, oil and gas exploration, retail, smart cities and autonomous vehicles, the ability to rapidly and automatically find patterns in massive amounts of data promises to help solve increasingly complex problems and speed up  discoveries that will improve lives, create a heathier world and make businesses more efficient.

Climate science is one of those fields that will see significant benefits from machine learning, and scientists in the field are pushing hard to see how the technology can help them …

Machine Learning Storms Into Climate Research was written by Jeffrey Burt at The Next Platform.

401k, ROTH IRA, and NSX, Wait What?

Today is “tax day” here in the United States where the deadline to file your personal income taxes is due and many of us are looking at our tax burden, investments, and how to deal with the 4 million words in the U.S. tax code. So why not take this day to compare the complexity of taxes with the complexity of traditional data center networking and security. If legacy networking is the 1040-long form then NSX is the 1040-EZ form. Akin to the questions I have for my tax advisor, I sometimes get questions from customers about NSX asking: “We don’t need micro-segmentation, we have VLANs and Firewalls”, or “We don’t need network virtualization, we can do that today with routers and switches…If have to have network hardware anyways, why do I need network software as well?”

So, in the spirit of Tax Day here in the US, let’s compare hardware and software to what they really are…investments. And yes, different investments are taxed differently. Let’s think of traditional networking as a 401K and NSX as a ROTH IRA. Both are investments, and both get taxed.

  • Traditional networking investments are “tax-free” UNTIL you retire (or refresh Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: We’re all responsible for combating fake news

I spoke to a 5th grade class about identity theft the other day. I quickly discovered that these kids were struggling with EXACTLY the same problems most of us struggle with in our workplace and our personal lives. They were swimming in a sea of dubious information, not able to tell what was real and what was not, or if they were being scammed or by whom.“Sometimes I’m gaming,” said one kid, “and someone asks ‘What’s your real name?’ and I’m like, why does he need to know?”“I was on this chat board, and I could just tell this person was totally fake, but I didn’t know what to do,” said another kid.+ Also on Network World: What fake news means for IT—and how IT security can help fight it + The truth is, every day, in every possible way, we get bombarded with fake information. It doesn’t matter how old we are, how smart we are, whether we’re at home or at work. The world is full of falsity, whether it’s phishing, fake news or some weirdo trying to learn more about us when we’re playing a video game.To read this article Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: We’re all responsible for combating fake news

I spoke to a 5th grade class about identity theft the other day. I quickly discovered that these kids were struggling with EXACTLY the same problems most of us struggle with in our workplace and our personal lives. They were swimming in a sea of dubious information, not able to tell what was real and what was not, or if they were being scammed or by whom.“Sometimes I’m gaming,” said one kid, “and someone asks ‘What’s your real name?’ and I’m like, why does he need to know?”“I was on this chat board, and I could just tell this person was totally fake, but I didn’t know what to do,” said another kid.+ Also on Network World: What fake news means for IT—and how IT security can help fight it + The truth is, every day, in every possible way, we get bombarded with fake information. It doesn’t matter how old we are, how smart we are, whether we’re at home or at work. The world is full of falsity, whether it’s phishing, fake news or some weirdo trying to learn more about us when we’re playing a video game.To read this article Continue reading

Amazon Prime Gets You 20% off Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus – Deal Alert

Place Philips Hue Lightstrips under furniture or kitchen cabinets, into coves or highlight architectural features with indirect white light. Control color, dimming and shading through the app, or with your voice via an Alexa compatible device. Shape, bend or extent these 6-foot strips as needed. Sync lighting effects to music, movies, or games to take your experience to the next level. A hub is required and sold separately. The typical list price of $89.99 is currently being discounted 20% in a promotion for Amazon Prime members only (or those with a free trial: get one here). See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

It’s ‘It,’ as in the movie, not IT, as in ‘eye-tee’

I have read a dozen or more Stephen King books over the years, but ‘It’ – the one upon which an upcoming movie is based and named -- is not among them. So I could relate right away to this observation posted to the section of Reddit devoted to sysadmins:“I keep seeing posts and advertisements for the movie IT. Every time, I think of it as I-T and have to reread it. … Is it just me?”No, it’s not just you. And, speaking at least for myself, this isn’t the first time I’ve been momentarily confused by an uppercase IT. My mind reads that as “an acronym for information technology,” not “the creepy clown from a Stephen King novel,” or any other meaning more commonly attached to the word it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

It’s ‘It,’ as in the movie, not IT, as in ‘eye-tee’

I have read a dozen or more Stephen King books over the years, but ‘It’ – the one upon which an upcoming movie is based and named -- is not among them. So I could relate right away to this observation posted to the section of Reddit devoted to sysadmins:“I keep seeing posts and advertisements for the movie IT. Every time, I think of it as I-T and have to reread it. … Is it just me?”No, it’s not just you. And, speaking at least for myself, this isn’t the first time I’ve been momentarily confused by an uppercase IT. My mind reads that as “an acronym for information technology,” not “the creepy clown from a Stephen King novel,” or any other meaning more commonly attached to the word it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft buys former employee Charles Simonyi’s Intentional Software

Serial space tourist Charles Simonyi is going back again -- to his former employer, Microsoft.When Simonyi quit as Microsoft's Chief Software Architect in 2002, it was to create a start-up devoted to making programming simpler. Now Microsoft has agreed to acquire that company, Intentional Software.During his absence from Microsoft, Simonyi also found time to fly to the International Space Station -- twice. He made his first trip in 2007 and liked it so much that he went back again two years later.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Drone software gives offline farmers real-time images

Cloud computing is all well and good for enterprises with big-data applications and consumers with virtual assistants, but it runs into some limits in an isolated cornfield.On farms and other places far from powerful computers and network connections, there's a trend away from centralized computing even while most of the IT world is embracing it. In remote places, the internet of things requires local processing as well as data-center analysis. So-called edge computing is coming to industries including manufacturing, utilities, shipping, and oil and gas. Agriculture is getting it, too.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s cool quantum computing plan embraces cryogenic memory

Microsoft has crazy quantum computing plans. It is building hardware based on a particle that hasn't been discovered, and the company now wants to make super-cool memory for quantum computers.The company is working with Rambus to develop and build prototype computers with memory subsystems that can be cooled at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic temperatures typically are below minus 180 degrees Celsius or minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit.Quantum computers could eventually replace today's PCs and servers and promise to be significantly faster. But the systems are notoriously unstable and need to be stored in refrigerators for faster and secure operation. As an example, D-Wave's 2000Q quantum computer needs to be kept significantly cooler than supercomputers so operations don't break down.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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