When you think mobile apps, the names that come to mind are probably Facebook (including Messenger), YouTube and Google (Search, Play, Maps and Mail), all of which sit atop Nielsen’s list of most popular apps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.NetScaler VPX 100G Key features: NetScaler VPX 100G is the industry’s first fully-featured, virtualized ADC that delivers 100 Gigabits per second performance on commodity hardware. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Replacement Galaxy Note 7 phones may not be any safer than the Note 7 devices which caught fire and caused a recall, based on three replacement Note 7 devices catching fire in the past week.Samsung is reportedly investigating the fire fiascos, claiming that the company takes every Galaxy Note 7 fire report “seriously.” Yet after a company official goofed and mistakenly sent a text message meant for a colleague to one of the melted phone owners, the company’s concern for customers hardly seems sincere.Replacement Galaxy Note 7 catches fire, fills bedroom with smokeMichael Klering of Kentucky had his replacement Galaxy Note 7 for a little more than a week. On Tuesday, October 4, he was “scared to death” when he and his wife awoke to a bedroom full of smoke.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A common task after setting up Raspbian-based Raspberry Pi systems is to change the machine’s name (the hostname) because it will, by default, be set to "raspberrypi".While this may not be an issue if you have only one RPi on your network, for anyone developing Internet of Things (IoT) systems where there are multiple RPi’s, it would obviously be desirable to give them more useful hostnames.
You can change the hostname temporarily using the hostname command (note that you must use sudo otherwise the command will fail) but, once you reboot, the name will revert to what it was previously set to and what we usually want is to change the hostname permanently. There are a number of ways this can be achieved including using the hostname command in a shell script at startup which could perhaps be useful if you need a dynamically defined hostname but the method most often cited is by editing the hosts file, thusly:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What goes into making a computer understand the world through senses, learning and experience, as IBM says Watson does? First and foremost, tons and tons of data.To build a body of knowledge for Watson to work with on Jeopardy, researchers put together 200 million pages of content, both structured and unstructured, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. When asked a question, Watson initially analyzes it using more than 100 algorithms, identifying any names, dates, geographic locations or other entities. It also examines the phrase structure and the grammar of the question to better gauge what's being asked. In all, it uses millions of logic rules to determine the best answers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There's a data expert making a name for himself in the corporate world today, and he's attracting a lot of attention. He's a lightning-fast learner, he speaks eight languages and he's considered an expert in multiple fields. He's got an exemplary work ethic, is a speed reader and finds insights no one else can. On a personal note, he's a mean chef and even offers good dating advice.
The name of this new paragon? Watson. IBM Watson.
Named after IBM's first CEO, Watson was born back in 2007 as part of an effort by IBM Research to develop a question-answering system that could compete on the American quiz show "Jeopardy." Since trouncing its human opponents on the show in 2011, it has expanded considerably. What started as a system focused on a single core capability -- answering questions posed by humans in natural language -- now includes dozens of services spanning language, speech, vision and data analysis.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How did IBM's Watson get to where it is today? Here are some key events that happened along the way.May 1997: Deep Blue conquers chess IBM's Deep Blue computer beats world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match that lasts several days and receives massive media coverage around the world. It also inspires researchers at IBM to undertake an even bigger challenge: build a computer that could beat the champions at Jeopardy.February 2011: Victorious at Jeopardy Watson competes on Jeopardy and defeats the TV quiz show’s two biggest all-time champions. It wins US$1 million; IBM donates the full amount to charity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM may have originally built Watson to win at Jeopardy, but it saw potential applications in healthcare early on. Eventually, it formed a dedicated business unit focused squarely on making those applications happen.As far back as 2012, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and IBM teamed up to develop a Watson-based system that could help doctors create individualized cancer treatment recommendations for their patients.The following year, IBM, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and WellPoint introduced products based on Watson. A project with Cleveland Clinic, meanwhile, focused on developing a new tool to help physicians and medical students learn how to make better decisions more quickly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Omron's table tennis robot is getting smarter. At this week's Ceatec electronics show in Japan, the company has unveiled a new version that uses machine learning to assess the strength of an opponent and ramp up its game accordingly.The robot, named Forpheus, was first shown at the event in 2014 to impressive reviews. A series of robotic arms manipulate a table tennis bat, guided by cameras that watch the ball and predict where it's going to land.Omron developed the robot to promote the company's sensor technology and this latest version is showing off some of what can be done when sensing combines with machine learning and artificial intelligence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the movie The Manchurian Candidate, two soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed into sleeper agents. Later the soldiers become unwitting assassins when activated by a handler. Sound familiar? It should.Hackers use a similar model for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks using IoT devices. This process has four phases.
Capture: Identify and take over control of IoT devices
Subvert: Reprogram the device to conduct malicious acts
Activate: Instruct the hacked device to launch attack
Attack: Launch the DDoS attack
Why are such attacks increasing? How can IoT device security be hardened? What DDoS protections are available? What advisory resources are available? Let’s take a look.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The all new Amazon Echo Dot launch date is right around the corner: October 20th. Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play & control music (either on its own, or through a connected speaker/receiver), control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms, and more. If you’re looking to buy them as gifts, or for different homes or rooms, Amazon will throw in a free one ($50 value) when you buy 5, or two free ones when you buy 10 (a $100 value). To take advantage of this limited time offer, select 6 or 12 in the quantity dropdown and add to your Shopping Cart. Enter promo code DOT6PACK or DOT12PACK at checkout where you will see the discount applied. The new Amazon Echo Dot comes in black, and now also white. See the new Amazon Echo Dot now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve written about and researched the cybersecurity skills shortage for many years. For example, ESG research indicates that 46% of organizations claim to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills this year – an 18% increase from 2015 (note: I am an ESG employee).Of course, I’m not the only one looking into the cybersecurity skills shortage. For example:
According to Peninsula Press (a project of the Stanford University Journalism Program), more than 209,000 U.S.-based cybersecurity jobs remained unfilled, and postings are up 74 percent over the past five years.
Analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow 53 percent by 2018.
So many researchers agree then that we don’t have enough skilled prospects to fill all of the open cybersecurity jobs. Okay but that puts a heck of a lot of burden on the existing cybersecurity workforce. Are they up to the task? Do they have the right training? Are they managing their careers appropriately?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Along with virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI) is perhaps the hottest buzzword in technology these days. AI is turning up everywhere, from chatbots and smart speakers to driverless cars and autonomous everything. And now it’s coming to CRM, courtesy of Salesforce Einstein, which the company says brings machine learning, predictive analytics and natural language processing to the entire Salesforce platform.At the giant Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this week, Salesforce execs from CEO Marc Benioff on down were predictably enthusiastic about the new features. In a 150-minute keynote address accompanied by Will.i.am and an impressive variety of non-profit and other Salesforce customers, Benioff warned attendees that “you know the world has been changing” and noted that the cloud gives you access to the new world of AI technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
European Union privacy watchdogs are concerned by reports that Yahoo has been secretly scanning its users' email at the request of U.S. intelligence services."It goes far beyond what is acceptable," said Johannes Caspar, Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Hamburg, Germany.Reuters reported on Tuesday that Yahoo had built a system for U.S. government agencies to search all of its users' incoming emails. Other tech companies were quick to distance themselves, saying they would have challenged any such request in court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The hack of the Democratic National Committee this past summer, allegedly by Russia, prompted a political firestorm, but didn’t cause even a ripple in the US economy.But imagine the economic firestorm that would result if online attackers brought the entire internet down, even temporarily.You may not have to imagine it, according to Bruce Schneier, CTO of Resilient Systems, cryptography guru, blogger and international authority on internet security. In a recent post titled, "Someone is Learning How to Take Down the Internet," he wrote that he had been told by multiple sources that, ““someone has been probing the defenses of … some of the major companies that provide the basic infrastructure that makes the Internet work.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the keys to good writing is tailoring the message to your audience, but when the subject is you, and you're writing your own resume, even professional writers can get stymied.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Trust no oneImage by PexelsAt the heart of every exploit, the vulnerability always lies in the target’s trust for attacker supplied input. This is true whether the attack is network-based or a hacker is trying to gain physical access to a specific location. To effectively mitigate risk, companies and individuals need to take the necessary precautions to keep data secure. The saying in the cybersecurity consulting industry is “trust, but verify.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Five minutes. That's all it took for Christian Lang to uproot from the workspace he'd occupied for the past 18 months and move to a new spot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
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
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