5 steps to avoid burning out your on-call IT staff

Everyone is susceptible to burnout on the job, but if you're an on-call IT worker you are in a unique position. You can't just clock out at the end of the day. When you go home, you are required to be on alert for any emergency incidents, which can make it hard to truly unwind and relax after a long day."This affects work-life balance the most; 'always-on' readiness, not able to relax, an inability to have a downtime, a requirement to provide support during non-business hours and eating into one's private time -- added to the fact that calls can come at any time -- keeps one living on the edge," says Sharon Andrew, PhD, happiness evangelist at Happiest Minds Technologies, an Indian IT firm that focuses on mindfulness at work.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security vs. privacy: The endless fiery debate continues

The intractable nature of the “privacy vs. security” debate, in a world where the internet is a tool for criminals, spies and terrorists as well as for billions of law-abiding citizens, was on full display during Wednesday’s Cambridge Cyber Summit at MIT.Not surprisingly, it didn’t get resolved.The event, hosted by The Aspen Institute, CNBC and MIT, featured top-level government officials, private-sector experts and activists, who all agreed that there needs to be a “conversation” about how to “balance” the two, and that to achieve it will require more effective cooperation between the public and private sectors.But there was no agreement about where that balance lies. About the best they could do, after some conversation that got chaotic at times, was agree that they should continue the conversation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security vs. privacy: The endless fiery debate continues

The intractable nature of the “privacy vs. security” debate, in a world where the internet is a tool for criminals, spies and terrorists as well as for billions of law-abiding citizens, was on full display during Wednesday’s Cambridge Cyber Summit at MIT.Not surprisingly, it didn’t get resolved.The event, hosted by The Aspen Institute, CNBC and MIT, featured top-level government officials, private-sector experts and activists, who all agreed that there needs to be a “conversation” about how to “balance” the two, and that to achieve it will require more effective cooperation between the public and private sectors.But there was no agreement about where that balance lies. About the best they could do, after some conversation that got chaotic at times, was agree that they should continue the conversation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why being a data scientist ‘feels like being a magician’

The data scientist role was thrust into the limelight early this year when it was named 2016's "hottest job," and there's been considerable interest in the position ever since. Just recently, the White House singled data scientists out with a special appeal for help. Those in the job can expect to earn a median base salary of roughly $116,840 -- if they have what it takes. But what is it like to be a data scientist? Read on to hear what three people currently on the front lines had to say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung to buy Viv Labs to challenge Google Assistant

Samsung Electronics has agreed to buy Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence startup created by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham.You may not have heard of Kittlaus, Cheyer or Brigham, but if you own an iPhone you've probably spoken with one of their creations, Siri. Apple bought their first startup, a spinoff from SRI International, in 2010. A couple of years later, they left to create Viv.Samsung's move into AI could be seen as a reaction to Google's launch of a new AI assistant on its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones on Tuesday.Like Google Assistant, Viv is designed to answer natural language queries by integrating with a variety of web services. But where Google already has a range of in-house services -- Maps, Gmail, search -- from which to gather context, Viv aims to build an open ecosystem. Many of the useful functions will be delivered by third party developers, a model similar to the one Amazon.com is pursuing for its Echo devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4chan finally feels the weight of economic reality

4chan, the wretched hive of scum and villainy that has caused more disruptions on the internet and in real life than any other single website, is in financial trouble and facing the harsh reality that success and traffic are useless without income.The site went live in 2003 when then-15-year-old Christopher "moot" Poole set it up as a copy of a Japanese board called 2chan. The site is the ultimate in bare bones. No login or account is required; everyone is anonymous. Poole, a fan of Japanese pop culture, wanted to create an American equivalent of 2chan, where people shared images of anime and manga.It rapidly grew beyond that, with the /b/ board, Random, becoming a hive of all sorts of insanity. For a while, it was the home base of the hacktivist group Anonymous. 4chan users became notorious for both good deeds and bad, both online and in the real world, resulting in profiles of the site by the Washington Post, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. A book has been written about Anonymous and its 4chan connection, and the site was even the subject of an MIT research paper (PDF). To read Continue reading

Fujitsu considers selling its PC business to Lenovo

Lenovo may be about to grow its share of the shrinking PC business again: Japanese IT conglomerate Fujitsu is considering selling its PC manufacturing business, and Lenovo may be the buyer, Fujitsu said Thursday.As part of a strategy to focus on core activities, in February Fujitsu spun out its PC business as an independent operating unit. Such spin-outs are usually a prelude to a sale.On Wednesday, Japanese media reported that the company was in talks to sell the PC business to Lenovo."These reports are not based on any official announcement made by Fujitsu," the company said Thursday, adding that it "is currently considering various possibilities, including what is being reported, but a decision has not yet been made."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What the Yahoo NSA might’ve looked for

The vague story about Yahoo searching emails for the NSA was cleared up today with various stories from other outlets [1]. It seems clear a FISA court order was used to compel Yahoo to search all their customer's email for a pattern (or patterns). But there's an important detail still missing: what specifically were they searching for? In this post, I give an example.

The NYTimes article explains the search thusly:
Investigators had learned that agents of the foreign terrorist organization were communicating using Yahoo’s email service and with a method that involved a “highly unique” identifier or signature, but the investigators did not know which specific email accounts those agents were using, the officials said.
What they are likely referring it is software like "Mujahideen Secrets", which terrorists have been using for about a decade to encrypt messages. It includes a unique fingerprint/signature that can easily be searched for, as shown below.

In the screenshot below, I use this software to type in a secret message:


I then hit the "encrypt" button, and get the following, a chunk of random looking text:


This software encrypts, but does not send/receive messages. You have to do that manually yourself. Continue reading

A Unikernel eBook from O’Reilly

eBook Cover

I am pleased to announce that my FREE unikernel eBook is now available from O’Reilly.

I have been giving talks about unikernels for the past 2 years at conferences throughout North America. This eBook is my attempt to present most of the information from these talks in a written form. It is not a technical HowTo book, but rather an introduction to the basic concept of unikernels and an explanation of their value.

I hope this eBook will be a useful tool for introducing people to the whys and wherefores of unikernels.

You can download your copy here: http://www.oreilly.com/webops-perf/free/unikernels.csp

Yahoo’s secret email scans helped the FBI probe terrorists

What Yahoo was looking for with its alleged email scanning program may have been signs of code used by a foreign terrorist group. The company was searching for a digital "signature" of a communication method used by a state-sponsored terrorist group, according to a new report from The New York Times that provided more details on Yahoo's email scanning.  The report on Wednesday report didn't identify the signature or say if it involved any cryptographic computer code. But the article said it was the U.S. Department of Justice, and not the National Security Agency, that had obtained a court order forcing Yahoo to comply. A Reuters report on Tuesday wasn't clear about what agencies were involved in the probe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo’s secret email scans helped the FBI probe terrorists

What Yahoo was looking for with its alleged email scanning program may have been signs of code used by a foreign terrorist group. The company was searching for a digital "signature" of a communication method used by a state-sponsored terrorist group, according to a new report from The New York Times that provided more details on Yahoo's email scanning.  The report on Wednesday report didn't identify the signature or say if it involved any cryptographic computer code. But the article said it was the U.S. Department of Justice, and not the National Security Agency, that had obtained a court order forcing Yahoo to comply. A Reuters report on Tuesday wasn't clear about what agencies were involved in the probe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Phishing still fools people, but at least more are cautious

While people still have a really hard time telling the difference between legit and phishing emails, at least there is enough awareness of the phishing threat that many people will err on the side of caution when it comes to clicking on links.This was one finding from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab in a study titled "Quantifying Phishing Susceptibility for Detection and Behavior Decisions" that published recently in the journal Human Factors.MORE: New tech can help catch spearphishing attacksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Phishing still fools people, but at least more are cautious

While people still have a really hard time telling the difference between legit and phishing emails, at least there is enough awareness of the phishing threat that many people will err on the side of caution when it comes to clicking on links.This was one finding from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab in a study titled "Quantifying Phishing Susceptibility for Detection and Behavior Decisions" that published recently in the journal Human Factors.MORE: New tech can help catch spearphishing attacksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia buys small semiconductor company to land 5G tech

A small semiconductor company based in Cambridge, Mass., was acquired today by Nokia, in a move to make the Finnish giant’s base station technology more energy-efficient.Eta Devices’ technology and institutional expertise appear to be at the heart of the acquisition, for which terms and pricing were not disclosed. Eta has 20 employees, located in Cambridge and at an R&D office in Stockholm, Sweden.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Satya Nadella's comp package slips 3% to $17.7M + Happy 25th once again to Linux, 'the little OS that definitely could'To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia buys small semiconductor company to land 5G tech

A small semiconductor company based in Cambridge, Mass., was acquired today by Nokia, in a move to make the Finnish giant’s base station technology more energy-efficient.Eta Devices’ technology and institutional expertise appear to be at the heart of the acquisition, for which terms and pricing were not disclosed. Eta has 20 employees, located in Cambridge and at an R&D office in Stockholm, Sweden.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Satya Nadella's comp package slips 3% to $17.7M + Happy 25th once again to Linux, 'the little OS that definitely could'To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Accelerating Slow Databases That Wear People Down

Todd Mostak, the creator of the MapD GPU-accelerated database and visualization system, made that database because he was a frustrated user of other database technologies, and as a user, he is adamant that accelerating databases and making visualization of queried data is about more than just being a speed freak.

“Analytics is ultimately a creative exercise,” Mostak tells The Next Platform during a conversation that was supposed to be about benchmark results but that, as often happens here, wandered far and wide. “Analysts start from some place, and where they go is a function of the resources that are …

Accelerating Slow Databases That Wear People Down was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

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