Google is open-sourcing its Chrome browser on the Apple iOS platform, after making changes enabling the code to be part of Google’s Chromium browser project.The code will be moved to the open source Chromium repository, which lets developers build their own Chrome-like browsers. It had been kept separate from Chromium because of Apple's requirement that all iOS browsers be built on the Apple-controlled WebKit rendering engine.[ Safeguard your browsers; InfoWorld's experts tell you how in the "Web Browser Security Deep Dive" PDF guide. | Cut to the key news in technology trends and IT breakthroughs with the InfoWorld Daily newsletter, our summary of the top tech happenings. ]
But after years of refactoring to cleanly separate WebKit from the Chrome for iOS code, the Chrome for iOS code is rejoining Chromium, Google said in a bulletin. (Chrome on other operating systems uses Google's own Blink browser engine.) Developers can compile the iOS version of Chromium like they can for other Chromium versions. Google said it had spent a lot of time during the past several years making changes required to move the code for Chrome for iOS into Chromium.To read this article Continue reading
Over the past year I've reviewed half a dozen open source machine learning and/or deep learning frameworks: Caffe, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (aka CNTK 2), MXNet, Scikit-learn, Spark MLlib, and TensorFlow. If I had cast my net even wider, I might well have covered a few other popular frameworks, including Theano (a 10-year-old Python deep learning and machine learning framework), Keras (a deep learning front end for Theano and TensorFlow), and DeepLearning4j (deep learning software for Java and Scala on Hadoop and Spark). If you’re interested in working with machine learning and neural networks, you’ve never had a richer array of options. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Can’t we all get alongImage by PixabayDo deepening adoption and broader deployment of container technologies (from the likes of Docker, CoreOS and others) threaten to escalate into the latest skirmish between operations, developers and information security? Certainly, the potential exists to widen the rift, but in fact there is far more common ground than would initially suggest. Containerization introduces new infrastructure that operates dynamically and is open in nature, with more potential for cross-container activity. Containerization presents an almost unprecedented opportunity to embed security into the software delivery pipeline – rather than graft on security checks, container monitoring and policy for access controls as an afterthought.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Companies are asking why the enterprise applications that their employees, customers and partners use every day can't be as simple and intuitive to use as the apps on their smartphones.They can be.In fact, corporate IT is already taking many cues from mobile consumer apps for improving user experience and speeding development of business applications.It's working. By focusing development on specific tasks, enterprise developers are producing apps faster while using fewer IT resources and less code. Even better, the simplicity and ease-of-use of the apps -- little or no training required -- can make them less intimidating for users.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last summer at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference, the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge pitted automated systems against one another, trying to find weaknesses in the others' code and exploit them."This is a great example of how easily machines can find and exploit new vulnerabilities, something we'll likely see increase and become more sophisticated over time," said David Gibson, vice president of strategy and market development at Varonis Systems.His company hasn't seen any examples of hackers leveraging artificial intelligence technology or machine learning, but nobody adopts new technologies faster than the sin and hacking industries, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The cloud conversation is not new. We know by now that the cloud is a prerequisite to shaping scalable and resource-elastic, variable cost-based businesses. However, companies and their CIOs continue to struggle with how to work effectively in this new model, perhaps because they have underestimated the required changes.Successful migration to the cloud is not a trivial milestone. In fact, it may be one of the most significant journeys the IT organization embarks upon. It requires changes to the way the organization functions and delivers – and the speed at which it does so. It calls for a full-scale mindset shift as well as new ways of working - no small feat for most companies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The latest network hardware from Cisco Systems gives new meaning to the words “light switch.”The Catalyst Digital Building Series Switch is an Ethernet switch designed to link different kinds of building infrastructure over a network. It will be available worldwide in the second quarter. It uses Cisco’s enhanced version of PoE (Power over Ethernet) to run things like lights and cameras while collecting data about those devices over the same standard cable.The switch embodies the merger of IT and OT (operational technology), one of the big enterprise trends that the internet of things is driving. The line is blurring between information systems like servers and building systems like lighting, heating, and physical security. The new technology could make buildings run better. It might also help to turn IT folks and facilities experts into a bit of both.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You won’t find many public references by Apple to its Mobility Partner Program, an expanding effort by the company to unite with software developers/integrators to boost sales of iPhones and iPads to businesses. In fact, Apple reportedly has discouraged partners in years past from discussing MPP out in the open.But the veil of secrecy surrounding the program is thinning. Apple’s public relations department didn't acknowledge my queries about MPP, such as how long the program has actually been around. But CEO Tim Cook has begun citing the program during Apple (AAPL - NASDAQ) earnings calls over the past year: He specified in October that more than 120 partners have signed on worldwide, and that’s up from about 90 at the start of the year. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A recent IDC survey found 84% of U.S. consumers are concerned about the privacy of their personal information, with 70% saying their concern is greater today than it was a few years ago.These concerns of consumers should also alarm businesses: Consumers are willing to switch to another bank, medical center or retailer if they feel their personal information is threatened, the survey found."Consumers can exact punishment for data breaches or mishandled data by changing buyer behavior or shifting loyalty," said Sean Pike, an analyst at IDC, in a statement. The survey, released last week, polled 2,500 U.S. consumers about their privacy concerns across four verticals: Financial services, healthcare, retail and government.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Network advances often require cable upgrades, but rewiring takes time and money. Often the existing cable can be leveraged, or the extent of the upgrade minimized, using ]media converters, one of the least glamorous yet most common and perhaps most versatile tools in a network manager’s toolbox.New media converters and extenders are available that support Power-over-Ethernet (PoE and PoE+) and legacy cabling types such as coax and 2-wire. These devices enable increased utilization of existing network cabling while upgrading network performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many major tech companies spent less money lobbying in Washington in 2016, but a handful, including Uber and Amazon, invested significantly more in attempting to influence politicians and the regulatory process.The money, which totals tens of millions of dollars, is spent on workers and companies that monitor bills and schmooze with politicians and their staffs in the hopes of shaping laws in favor of their clients.Uber, which is regularly in conflict with regulators, spent $1.4 million on issues as varied as autonomous cars, access to military bases for its cars and transportation regulations. That's almost three times the $470,000 it spent in 2015, according to regulatory filings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The last word you want to use to describe your resume is "generic," but that's exactly how Shepherd Book, whose name has been changed for this article, felt about his own resume. "It looked like a shopping list -- even though it included my latest list of duties, it really highlighted nothing," he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
If you're on the road and want to give a presentation to your clients, you're not going to impress them if they have to squint over your shoulder at a laptop screen. But with the latest generation of mini projectors, most small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, you can carry the equivalent of a big-screen display around with you.Rif6 CubeTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
SonicWall has been through it all. The San Jose, CA-based security company began as a hot start up, went public, then private, was acquired by Dell and then spun off to a private equity firm as part of the massive Dell/EMC merger in 2016. In the wake of that change, SonicWall also got a new CEO, Bill Conner, a long-time security and tech industry leader, who took the helm in November. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
President Obama is only a couple of weeks out of office, but his legacy on cybersecurity is already getting reviews – mixed reviews.According to a number of experts, Obama said a lot of good things, did a lot of good things and devoted considerable energy to making cybersecurity a priority, but ultimately didn't accomplish the goal of making either government or the private sector more secure.The most recent, stark illustration was the series of leaks, enabled by hacks that US intelligence agencies attribute to Russia, that undermined both the credibility of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the election itself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
By now, the term Internet of Things or IoT has become a part of the tech world’s everyday vernacular, and it broadly describes the concept of an interconnected network of physical objects, including machines, wearables, buildings, automobiles and a plethora of other types of devices. And these connected “things” are being designed to bring new services and deliver new levels of efficiency and safety all around us—in homes, businesses, cities, and across industries.Now in 2017, despite billions of already-connected devices, we are only at the dawn of the IoT era. It is estimated that there will be more than 20 billion connected devices by the year 2020. This expansion will be fueled by the rapid growth of exciting new IoT use cases and opportunities all around the world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Large IoT systems usually have more than one job and need to work with other systems to be effective. Simplifying all this is one of the main things enterprise IoT platforms are designed to do.But it’s a moving target, so vendors need to keep adding new capabilities to their platforms. On Tuesday, Nokia announced updates to its Impact software platform to cover IoT applications including lighting, video analytics and parking management. There are also updates to accommodate new low-power networks.Impact is one of several software platforms designed to make IoT into more than a bunch of disparate sensor networks or automation systems. One application, like smart street lighting, may make another one, like connected parking meters, more effective. Data is the key, and integration can make all data more valuable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A 4-star hotel in the Austrian Alps, the Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt, admitted to bowing to extortion after ransomware locked up the computer running the hotel’s electronic key lock system.This was not the first time that cyber thugs attacked the hotel. During one of the attacks, the hackers reportedly left a backdoor into the system.The third attack occurred during the opening weekend of the winter season. The computer hit with ransomware controlled the electronic key lock system, the reservation system and the cash desk system.Guests, who paid about nearly $300 a night for a room, could not open their rooms with their existing keycards; new keycards could not be programmed. Arriving guests couldn’t have their reservations confirmed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
So, in the last installment of this series on the messaging protocol MQTT, we installed the Mosquitto MQTT broker. Now we'll test it which we’re going to do on the same machine that Mosquitto is running on. First, you’re going to need to install the Mosquitto client tools:sudo apt-get install mosquitto-clients
Now, let’s run Mosquitto from the command line:root@deb-01:/home/mgibbs# mosquitto
1485602498: mosquitto version 1.3.4 (build date 2014-08-17 03:38:31+0000) starting
1485602498: Using default config.
1485602498: Opening ipv4 listen socket on port 1883.
1485602498: Opening ipv6 listen socket on port 1883.
The Mosquitto broker is now listening on the standard MQTT port, 1883, for both IPv4 and IPv6 MQTT requests. Next, open a new terminal window and enter:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Currently discounted 33% on Amazon the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboardfeatures a quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 clocked at 1.2 GHz. The Pi 3 features on-board 802.11N WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here