Bluetooth is about to get some significant new mesh networking capabilities -- and the best bit is, you may not need new hardware to benefit from them.Mesh networking will make it simpler to connect sensors across industrial sites, or to create smart home or building automation networks. Rather than wasting energy shouting to be heard by a distant gateway, devices will be able to whisper to their neighbors, asking them to pass messages.It will offer a new way for devices to join the Internet of Things. Once a building has a mesh network to control lighting, say, other devices can use it as wireless infrastructure for other applications such as asset tracking and wayfinding, said Martin Woolley, technical program manager at Bluetooth SIG, the organization behind the Bluetooth standard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This USB 3.0 adapter from Inateck can interface with up to three drives simultaneously. It is compatible with 2.5"/3.5" IDE/SATA hard drives and 5.25" IDE/SATA CD/DVD drives, and features a one-touch backup function. Use it to read an old internal drive from a crashed computer, or to use an internal drive similar to an external backup drive. You might find a lot of uses for this one. The typical list price of $47.99 has been reduced on Amazon 40% right now to $28.99. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This desk lamp from TaoTronics features a sleek and minimalistic design with no buttons to speak of, thanks to its creative touch sensitive panel, for control over 5 brightness settings and another 5 color temperature settings (25 light combinations). Also features a USB port equipped with the iSmart technology for safer and faster charging. The LED reflects the light sideways and produces a strain-free light beam that doesn’t harm your eyes. The light averages 4.8 out of 5 stars from over 675 reviewers on Amazon (90% rate a full 5 stars: see reviews), where its typical list price of $36.99 has been reduced 19% to $29.99. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the years, there have been disruptive changes taking place across industries as well as business models, which in turn, has largely affected the skill requirements, content generation, evaluation and quality of jobs across the globe. Several surveys have enunciated a very new yet interesting trend which reflects the hike in expectations across the Industrial Internet of Things (Industrial IoT, or IIoT) sector when it comes to hiring new recruits, discussing the in-demand job compensations and, the level of productivity as expected by the recruiters and to some extent the job seekers as well. In fact, recruitment demands have come a long way across different Industrial IoT sectors, including energy, healthcare, finances, entertainment, information technology, automobile, professional services, communication, media and so on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Technology pundits are often given to hyperbole, but when they claim that the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing everything, they may have a point. At least, the IoT is being used in just about everything you can think of, from deeply geeky applications such as industrial sensors to frivolous gimmicks like Wi-Fi enabled toothbrushes.Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at some of the many, many different IoT use cases that people are actually using—or at least testing.Fitness wearables: IoT is the key concept powering wearables from fitness trackers to smartwatches, but keeping weekend warriors fit is only the beginning. Elite athletes and professional sports franchises are using IoT to push their performance parameters. At the other end of the spectrum, IoT can track your pet’s location and health.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In an era where all the hot tech jobs seem to focus on application development and cloud computing, it can be hard to find fresh data center engineering talent. The Institute of Technology in Sligo, Ireland, is trying to rewrite that story with a new Bachelors Degree in Data Center Facilities Engineering, starting this fall.According to the school, “The purpose of this new engineering degree programme is to provide the Data Centre industry with staff who are qualified to provide the proficient and in-depth skills necessary for the technical management and operation of data centre facilities. Expert operation and maintenance of these facilities is crucial in order to maintain 24/7 services with optimum energy efficiency.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The internet of things combined with cloud computing is the platform for innovation that is used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that should be used by enterprises, but it means setting up the right network infrastructure, JPL’s IT CTO says.“Number one, build an IoT network that’s separate from the regular network,” says Tom Soderstrom, the JPL IT CTO. “That’s what we did, and we found that it was amazing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Internet of Things, at its simplest level, is smart devices - from refrigerators that warn you when you’re out of milk to industrial sensors – that are connected to the Internet so they can share data, but IoT is far from a simple challenge for IT departments.For many companies, it represents a vast influx of new devices, many of which are difficult to secure and manage. It’s comparable to the advent of BYOD, except the new gizmos are potentially more difficult to secure, aren’t all running one of three or four basic operating systems, and there are already more of them.A lot more, in fact – IDC research says that there are around 13 billion connected devices in use worldwide already, and that that number could expand to 30 billion within the next three years. (There were less than 4 billion smartphone subscriptions active around the world in Ericsson’s most recent Mobility Report.) To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Recent Accenture Strategy research found that four out of five companies run up to half of their business functions in the cloud. Moreover, that figure is likely to increase significantly over the next few years. The research reveals that a clear majority of business leaders see the cloud platform as a critical enabler of greater innovation and competitive edge.Yet, companies still struggle when it comes to structuring the cloud transformation, beginning with the fundamental first step — planning a successful migration. What’s lacking is a solid comprehension of what value the cloud brings, its potential and its elasticity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This sport camera is a budget-friendly alternative to GoPro. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 230 reviewers on Amazon, where Its list price of $100 is currently discounted 37% to just $64. Designed to be used for biking, hiking, diving, swimming, surfing, or anywhere else you could use a rugged, waterproof camera. The camera provides 4K/25FPS, 2.7K/30FPS, 1080P/60FPS, 1080P/30FPS and 720P/120FPS video resolution. Comes with a wireless remote, and 2 rechargeable batteries that provide up to 90 minutes of continuous filming each. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft’s release of Azure Stack, an on-premises version of its public cloud, could be important for networking and data center pros for one simple reason: It gives customers a way to use a popular and familiar cloud platform without shipping their sensitive data into a multi-tenant environment.Azure Stack is software from Microsoft that’s been certified to run on a select group of partners’ hardware and is intended to look and feel just like the Azure public cloud. In addition to providing a common management platform between the public and private cloud, Azure Stack is important for another reason too: none of Microsoft’s biggest public cloud competitors have anything like it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past few years Cisco has changed the face of its security business. What was once a struggling concern is now the fastest-growing part of Cisco. How did the company do this? Part of the rebirth of Cisco security can be traced to a change in focus, away from point products to a more data-driven model. Big data, analytics and machine learning have been hot topics in IT, and Cisco has gotten religion in this area and applied it masterfully to its security business.Today, Cisco added to that when it announced its intent to acquire privately held Observable Networks. The St. Louis-based company provides dynamic network behavior monitoring to help security teams find anomalies that could indicate a breach. The product captures data and analyzes it to gain situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic, not only on a company’s network, but also out to the cloud, with support for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The concept of the “thin branch” enabled by simplifying infrastructure has been around for as long as there have been branch offices. Branch offices are typically a microcosm of the company headquarters, but without the necessary IT staff to run them. It’s common to find a myriad of network and security equipment in a branch including a router, firewall, WAN optimizer, VPN concentrators, along with almost anything else you can think of. This, of course, results in an operational nightmare as network administrators must deal with multiple devices in dozens, hundreds or even thousands of branch locations. In small networks it can be extremely challenging to track all the different hardware components and related software versions across the various locations. In large networks, this task is impossible as the number of possible combinations of hardware and software grows exponentially in relation to the number of locations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Return to the cities of Rapture and Columbia and experience the award-winning BioShock franchise like never before. BioShock: The Collection retells the epic journeys of the BioShock universe beautifully remastered in 1080p. BioShock: The Collection contains all single-player content from BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite, all single-player add-on content, the 'Columbia’s Finest' pack, and Director’s Commentary: Imagining BioShock, featuring Ken Levine and Shawn Robertson. The list price for the PlayStation 4 version has been reduced 67% to just $19.99. XBox One and PC versions have been discounted as well. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This label maker from Dymo is an all-in-one kit with everything you need to address, weigh and stamp your mail. Thermal printing technology is silent and never needs ink, toner, or ribbons. 300 dpi resolution 55 labels per minute print speed. Includes label printer, scale, 1 roll of 200 DYMO Stamps postage labels and 1 roll of 130 DYMO address labels, as well as a 2-year limited manufacturer warranty. This desktop mailing solution averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 720 people on Amazon (read reviews), there the typical list price has been reduced 37% from $190 down to $119.59. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's not the server -- it's the system. That's the word from Cisco as it rolls out its new, M5 generation Unified Computing System rack and blade servers, triggered by Intel's release of the Xeon Scalable Processor platform.Cisco's new servers use the Xeon Scalable processors -- unveiled Tuesday in New York -- to fuel performance as well as increase server density and throughput. But the value in the UCS product family lies in how the hardware works with configuration management and optimization software to make data centers run at peak efficiency, company officials say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Several years ago, there were reports that an IBM artificial intelligence (AI) project had mimicked the brain of a cat. Being the smartass that I am, I responded on Twitter with, “You mean it spends 18 hours a day in sleep mode?”That report was later debunked, but the effort to simulate the brain continues, using new types of processors far faster and more brain-like than your standard x86 processor. IBM and the U.S. Air Force have announced one such project, while Google has its own.+ Also on Network World: Machine learning proves its worth to business +
Researchers from Google and the University of Toronto last month released an academic paper titled “One Model To Learn Them All,” and they were pretty quiet about it. What Google is proposing is a template for how to create a single machine learning model that can address multiple tasks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SDN, NFV & VNF are among the alphabet soup of terms in the networking industry that have emerged in recent years.Software defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV) and the related virtual network functions (VNF) are important trends. But Forrester analyst Andre Kindness says vague terminology from vendors has created a complicated marketplace for end users evaluating next-generation networking technology. “Few I&O pros understand (these new acronyms), and this confusion has resulted in many making poor networking investments,” he says.So what’s the difference between SDN, NFV and VNF?SDN: Software defined networking To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last week, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)—the organization with the purpose of standardizing aspects of the "Web"—voted to endorse DRM on the web. It’s a move that is in direct opposition to the W3C's mission statement—and puts them squarely on the wrong side of history.Specifically, what the W3C is approving is a specification called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)—an extension to existing HTML to make implementing playback restrictions a "standard" across all web browsers. Contradictory statements from the W3C
These sorts of restrictions (DRM) are, by definition, created for the sole purpose of making it harder for people to see/hear/consume some piece of content—a movie, a song, a book, an image, etc. —often based on their hardware, software or geographical location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The IoT in the commercial sector might better be called the Internet of Prototypes, the IoP.Few of the components for building the ubiquitous IoT that the future holds are available today. The best way to envision the future is by prototyping. Prototypes of mission-critical or high-ROI applications will tease money out of research budgets to build them. All the prototypes will lead to a greater understanding, and when the cost of the problem matches the development investment the prototypes will become products. With cost reduction and standardization, products could become generalized extensible platforms.+ Also on Network World: How industrial IoT is making steel production smarter +
MIT built a fitting prototype that could, with further development, scale into a platform. A multidisciplinary team from the MIT Design Lab led by MIT Media Lab researcher Guillermo Bernal won best research paper at the Petra Conference last month for the team’s work applying IoT and wearables to industrial safety. The sophisticated and purpose-built prototype at the center of the research makes the paper “Safety++. Designing IoT and Wearable Systems for Industrial Safety through a User-Centered Design Approach” extremely tangible and predictive about how the IoT will unfold.To Continue reading