Space walkImage by REUTERS/NASA/Handout via ReutersIt had to be quite the rush. The first spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA) happened March 18, 1965, when cosmonaut Alexei Leonov first departed the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 spacecraft to test the idea – he stayed out about 10 minutes. American Edward White II took the US’ first spacewalk that year in June stepping out of the Gemini IV spacecraft. Since that time many have taken the plunge outside the their spacecraft to fix problems, make adjustments and even hit a golf ball, as one NASA astronaut did in 2006 – he shanked it. Take a look at some of the milestones of spacewalking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The US Census Bureau has designs on bringing the 2020 census online but while that might sound like a good idea, there are many challenges that need to be addressed.That’s according to the Government Accountability Office which in a report out today said that to successfully offer the Internet as public response option the Census Bureau needs to, among other things, design and develop an Internet response application, develop and acquire the IT infrastructure to support the large volume of data processing and storage.The idea is a good one. The GAO stated that the Census Bureau has determined an Internet response option offers several benefits for the 2020 census, including the added convenience for households in an increasingly Internet-enabled population to respond to the survey; better quality data, which could reduce the amount of follow-up that is needed for surveys with incomplete or inconsistent data; and less printing, postage, and processing of paper questionnaires.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., this week said it had created a Cisco Archive that promises to document and preserve the networking giant’s impact on the industry and Internet.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+In a blog post, Paula Jabloner the first Director of the newly established Cisco Archive wrote about one of the more significant events the Archive will preserve: “It was 1989. Kirk Lougheed of Cisco and Yakov Rekhter of IBM were having lunch in a meeting hall cafeteria at an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference. They wrote a new routing protocol that became RFC (Request for Comment) 1105, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), known to many as the “Two Napkin Protocol” — in reference to the napkins they used to capture their thoughts.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Few areas of the enterprise are as ripe for change as the wide area network. And there are plenty of technologies – from hybrid WAN services and software defined networking to better management tools -- lining up to push such a makeover closer to reality.
“There is about as much turmoil in the WAN arena as possible,” said Steve Taylor, senior research fellow with Webtorials.com.
You can get the sense of the tumult by taking a look at the vendor activity in all aspects of the WAN. A ton of startups including vendors such as CloudGenix, Glue Networks, Viptela and Velocloud are offering new WAN services and products. Established vendors such as Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Riverbed are also scrambling to address WAN issues with new software and hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Few areas of the enterprise are as ripe for change as the wide area network. And there are plenty of technologies – from hybrid WAN services and software defined networking to better management tools -- lining up to push such a makeover closer to reality.
“There is about as much turmoil in the WAN arena as possible,” said Steve Taylor, senior research fellow with Webtorials.com.
You can get the sense of the tumult by taking a look at the vendor activity in all aspects of the WAN. A ton of startups including vendors such as CloudGenix, Glue Networks, Viptela and Velocloud are offering new WAN services and products. Established vendors such as Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Riverbed are also scrambling to address WAN issues with new software and hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Given the amount of time the FTC and others have put into curing the robocall problem, it is disheartening to hear that a group of companies for almost a year have been making billions of illegal robocalls.
The Federal Trade Commission and 10 state attorneys general today said they have settled charges against a Florida-based cruise line company and seven other companies that averaged 12 million to 15 million illegal sales calls a day between October 2011 through July 2012, according to the joint complaint filed by the FTC and the states.
+ More on Network World: FTC: Imposter scams bully into top 3 consumer complaints spot +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HBO’s John Oliver took apart the net neutrality issue in a piece from his Last Week Tonight with John Oliver HBO show in 2014.
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The Artic Circle pretty much has been a damn cold, desolate place but no so anymore what with the military’s increased attention and commercial growing prospects.Those are the main reasons the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency cites for wanting to build an advanced generation of sensors capable of transmitting data on air, surface and/or undersea activities above the Arctic Circle for at least 30 days.+More on Network World: World’s coolest gas stations+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NASA
NASA this week began exploring a Centennial Challenge program that would require contestants to build spacecraft capable of catching, capturing, and manipulating small objects in space at high speeds.The idea is such spacecraft could take part in Mars, moon, asteroid or other missions that require sample gathering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Federal IT projects have hit the critical care list all too often and now watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office have moved those undertakings to its High Risk List which means Congress and the executive branch should take an extra special look at the situation.The GAO puts out the High Risk List every two years at the start of a new Congress, with the notion that resolution to those problems in particular could save billions in taxpayer money. The list currently includes 32 items ranging from climate change and cyber security threat response to Medicaid fraud.+ More on Network World: FBI: The top 3 ways Congress could help fight tenacious cyber threats +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Cooney