Bolstering Lustre on ZFS: Highlights of Continuing Work

The Zetta File System (ZFS), as a back-end file system to Lustre, has had support in Lustre for a long time. But in the last few years it has gained greater importance, likely due to Lustre’s push into enterprise and the increasing demands by both enterprise and non-enterprise IT to add more reliability and flexibility features to Lustre. So, ZFS has had significant traction in recent Lustre deployments.

However, over the last 18 months, a few challenges have been the focus of several open source projects in the Lustre developer community to improve performance, align the enterprise-grade features in ZFS …

Bolstering Lustre on ZFS: Highlights of Continuing Work was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

IDG Contributor Network: Security fatigue—or how I learned to overcome laziness and use a password manager

I admit it: I sometimes suffer from “security fatigue,” and I bet you do, too.If you’ve ever reused a password for a new site login, thinking the site isn’t that important, you suffer from it. If you’ve clicked on a tempting email offer or social media request, even if it looked sketchy, you’ve got it. And if you’ve sent a business document to your private email so you can keep working on it at home, you’ve definitely got it.+ Also on Network World: The CSO password management survival guide + You’re not alone. Security fatigue is a bug the majority of us have. A NIST study recently reported that most people don’t do the right thing when it comes to cybersecurity because they are too lazy, too hurried, or not convinced that they are a target for cybercrime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Security fatigue—or how I learned to overcome laziness and use a password manager

I admit it: I sometimes suffer from “security fatigue,” and I bet you do, too.If you’ve ever reused a password for a new site login, thinking the site isn’t that important, you suffer from it. If you’ve clicked on a tempting email offer or social media request, even if it looked sketchy, you’ve got it. And if you’ve sent a business document to your private email so you can keep working on it at home, you’ve definitely got it.+ Also on Network World: The CSO password management survival guide + You’re not alone. Security fatigue is a bug the majority of us have. A NIST study recently reported that most people don’t do the right thing when it comes to cybersecurity because they are too lazy, too hurried, or not convinced that they are a target for cybercrime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: The FTC’s IoT challenge

One of the biggest cybersecurity stories of 2016 was the surge in online attacks caused by poorly-secured “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices such as Internet routers, security cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs) and smart appliances. Many readers here have commented with ideas about how to counter vulnerabilities caused by out-of-date software in IoT devices, so why not pitch your idea for money? Who knows, you could win up to $25,000 in a new contest put on by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). —Krebs on Security

The post Worth Reading: The FTC’s IoT challenge appeared first on 'net work.

Greenpeace’s naughty and nice list of the most – and least – green tech vendors

Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace is out with its latest report card judging internet companies on use of renewable energy and while Apple, Google and Facebook continue to score the highest marks, the market’s leading IaaS public cloud vendor Amazon Web Services is called out with failing grades. +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: No honor among thieves: Crooks seeking ransom for MongoDB data someone else stole | Oops, this Redditor accidentally deleted his Microsoft Azure DNS +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Intuition Robotics debuts a robotic companion for the aged

This week, Intuition Robotics, a formerly stealth Israeli startup, is debuting ElliQ, a kind of robot, kind of personal assistant that it classifies as an artificial intelligence-based robot companion. What that means in plain English is that this device is a kind of hub where information, internet services and connectivity combine and are delivered in a (hopefully) accessible way to the intended audience: in this case, the aged. While In Israel last month, I met with Dor Skuler, CEO and founder of Intuition Robotics, to get the low down on what the company is doing and what the rationale is.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

44% off Logitech G700s 910-003584 Rechargeable Gaming Mouse – Deal Alert

For gamers who know there is no such thing as “over-prepared”, the G700s is a must-have. Precise? Check. Customizable? 13 programmable buttons will perform complex macros at your command. Full-speed wireless? With the lightning-fast report rate of a wired gaming mouse, you won’t believe it’s not plugged in. The G700s Gaming Mouse is highly rated on Amazon with 4 out of 5 stars from over 2,400 customers (read reviews). Right now its list price has been reduced a generous 44% to just $55.53. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Boston VTUG Winter Warmer

Hi Folks – if any of you are going to be at the VTUG Winter Warmer at Gillette Stadium, come find me, I’ve got a keynote at 10am at “West Side South”. If you’re going to be in the area, it’s an event that’s been going on for several years now and should be fun..

I’ll be talking about Red Hat’s strategy in the Hybrid Cloud and especially how RHV fits into that.

I believe (don’t quote me on this) that the event is free for VTUG members, and that all you need to do is register to become a VTUG member (I believe that is also free) before the event.

Register

VTUG Winter Warmer Agenda

Date: January 19, 2017
Location: Gillette Stadium, Patriot Place, Foxboro MA

Hope to see you there,

Captain KVM

The post Boston VTUG Winter Warmer appeared first on Captain KVM.

Pentagon tested world’s largest swarm of autonomous micro-drones

Have you ever seen a starling murmuration as the flock twists and turns in fantastic aerial acrobatics as if the mass shares one brain? Next time you think you see one, look again. It might not be a swarm of birds, but a swarm of 3D-printed, autonomous micro-drones.The U.S. Department of Defense announced a successful test of 103 Perdix drones. Granted, the drones are not a beautiful product of nature like starlings, but the swarm does act like a “collective organism” that shares a single brain for decision making.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pentagon tested world’s largest swarm of autonomous micro-drones

Have you ever seen a starling murmuration as the flock twists and turns in fantastic aerial acrobatics as if the mass shares one brain? Next time you think you see one, look again. It might not be a swarm of birds, but a swarm of 3D-printed, autonomous micro-drones.The U.S. Department of Defense announced a successful test of 103 Perdix drones. Granted, the drones are not a beautiful product of nature like starlings, but the swarm does act like a “collective organism” that shares a single brain for decision making.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Best Buy responds to Geek Squad snooping case

Best Buy offered its response to claims its Geek Squad repair technicians snoop through PCs brought in for repair, making a claim that is fairly obvious, given its situation. It stems from my last blog post, "Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again," which in turn was inspired by an Orange County Weekly article that claimed the FBI was paying Geek Squad staffers a $500 reward for any incriminating evidence they find in a device brought in for repair.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Best Buy responds to Geek Squad snooping case

Best Buy offered its response to claims its Geek Squad repair technicians snoop through PCs brought in for repair, making a claim that is fairly obvious, given its situation. It stems from my last blog post, "Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again," which in turn was inspired by an Orange County Weekly article that claimed the FBI was paying Geek Squad staffers a $500 reward for any incriminating evidence they find in a device brought in for repair.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Geeky ways to celebrate Friday the 13th

You're in luckWe've cobbled together a slew of things for the geeky among you to do on Jan. 13 -- Friday the 13th that isth. And we suggest you do it up because you won’t get another chance until Oct. 13, 2017.Don’t miss the day!Mobile apps exist solely for the purpose of reminding you when Friday the 13th is coming up. Pocketkai’s free iOS app will remind you of the one to three Friday the 13ths coming up each year for the next 50 years. The Bogeyman’s Android app will do likewise, for the next 10 Friday the 13ths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Python – Introduction to Argparse

I’m fiddling around a bit with Python. I’m planning to write a little script that pings a host or hosts and logs it to a file. Should be pretty basic but it’s good practice for me to take user input, read from a file, write to a file and so on. I wanted to support having arguments in the script to do things like a continuous ping or ping with x number of packets and then stop. To help the user pick the arguments I planned to do a little help text that printed out the arguments. Something like:

# Import sys
import sys
# Function for printing help text
def help_text():
    print "Daniel's awesome ping script."
    print "\n"
    print "-c    The number of packets that should be sent(integer)"
    print "-t    Timeout in seconds to wait for ICMP Echo Reply"
    print "-i    Run continuous ping"

# Check if user has input any options otherwise print help text
if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    help_text()

The problem with doing this manually is that you have to parse the arguments and build the logic yourself. For example the script should not allow someone to input both -c and -i since those arguments should be mutually Continue reading

DARPA developing secure data sharing wireless technology

The researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will later this month discuss a new software system that would let multiple levels of classified data traverse current commercial and military wireless networks while preserving the security of sensitive information. +More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016+ The agency’s Secure Handhelds on Assured Resilient networks at the tactical Edge (SHARE) program will “secure tactical mobile handheld devices to support distributed multilevel information sharing without the need for reaching back to large-scale fixed infrastructure, create new networks based on resilient and secure architectures that work in challenging environments, and develop software that rapidly configures security across the network,” DARPA says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA developing secure data sharing wireless technology

The researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will later this month discuss a new software system that would let multiple levels of classified data traverse current commercial and military wireless networks while preserving the security of sensitive information. +More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016+ The agency’s Secure Handhelds on Assured Resilient networks at the tactical Edge (SHARE) program will “secure tactical mobile handheld devices to support distributed multilevel information sharing without the need for reaching back to large-scale fixed infrastructure, create new networks based on resilient and secure architectures that work in challenging environments, and develop software that rapidly configures security across the network,” DARPA says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Should software developers have a code of ethics?

First, do no harm. This is the underlying message of the Hippocratic Oath historically taken by physicians to show they will abide by an ethical code of conduct. Plumbers, construction workers, law enforcement -- almost any professional whose work impacts the public must abide by some sort of ethical code of conduct.There's one fairly notable exception: technology. While there are organization-- and company-specific codes of conduct -- like these guidelines from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Science (IEEE-CS) joint task force on software engineering ethics professional practices, there's no one all-encompassing set of standards that includes the entire industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: DigitalOcean keeps the cloud simple

The cloud is a big place, and it’s getting bigger as everyone moves more and more computation out of their server rooms into the large datacenters. Amazon is the dominant force in the cloud, but it is far from the only choice. When the market grows this big, niches can develop. DigitalOcean is a company that has found a fertile niche by branding itself as the developer’s choice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Fix Windows 10 problems with these free Microsoft tools

To Microsoft’s credit, Windows 10 is more stable than previous versions of Windows. As with any operating system, however, things can still go wrong. Fortunately, Microsoft offers several tools that can be used to correct the most common problems: Some are built right into Windows 10, and others you download from the Microsoft site. Here’s a walk-thru explaining when you might need each tool, and how to use it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Microsoft makes minor concessions on Windows 10 data collection

Microsoft on Tuesday promised that it will dial back diagnostic data collection from Windows 10 devices when users select the "Basic" setting for the controversial harvesting."We've further reduced the data collected at the Basic level," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's top Windows executive, in a post to a company blog. Myerson did not elaborate on what was to be struck from Basic, the lowest level of diagnostic data collection offered to those running Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.[To comment on this story, please visit Computerworld's Facebook page.]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here