Cisco issues urgent reboot warning for bug in ASA and Firepower appliances

Cisco has issued an urgent request to Cisco customers running specific releases of software on their Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) appliances to reboot their devices to prevent a device from hanging and stop passing traffic.Cisco said its ASA and FTD devices are affected by a “functional software defect that will cause the device to stop passing traffic after 213 days of uptime” and that the issue is a result of a software regression bug introduced when addressing Cisco bug ID CSCva03607.+More on Network World: IBM on the state of network security: AbysmalTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HelloSign branches out to fix frustrating forms

Getting set up at a new job can be a frustrating maze of forms that require overlapping information to be entered perfectly. Solving that is the idea behind HelloWorks, a new service from HelloSign designed to simplify the process of filling out forms.People using HelloWorks will be able to complete forms digitally rather than fill out PDFs on their computers or scan handwritten responses. Even if users have to work through several different forms, the system will automatically populate identical fields with the appropriate response. That way, people won’t need to fill in their address half a dozen times.The new service is an expansion for HelloSign, which got its start as a company with a service that let users send faxes over the internet. In the intervening years, the company expanded to offer e-signature capabilities that compete with companies like DocuSign and Adobe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What does it mean that Cisco will sell Software?

Our friend Cisco made a big announcement this week – “Cisco has built a new networking operating system that will allow users to run its most sophisticated networking features on older and lower cost Cisco routers and switches”.

We welcome and are in fact quite excited about this change. This validates the inevitable paradigm shift of the segregation of network hardware and software, and even a big titan like Cisco cannot stop the change.

If you can recall Cisco’s then-CEO John Chambers’ talk in 2015, Chambers dismissed SDN and white box makers, saying “We are seeing no unusual competition in the market, no unusual competition with white-label or white box [vendors], nor will we in the future.” Even in mid 2016, the new Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins, still maintained the same tough position, stating “There’s a misconception that’s driving the belief that all customers want to buy white box switches”. That was less than a year ago, and the world has completely changed.

So Cisco has changed their opinion. The market is going through a paradigm shift, and I actually admire Cisco’s courage to embrace the changes instead of fighting them. Cisco has been leading the networking industry Continue reading

Google AudioSet aims to make sounds, from roars to boings, searchable

Google researchers have released a collection of 2 million-plus labeled audio snippets designed to spark innovation in the area of sound search.The company earlier this month published a paper titled "AudioSet: An ontology and human-labeled dataset for audio events" that it hopes will combine with image recognition to strengthen overall search and identification capabilities that could be used in a wide variety of machine learning applications, including the automation of video captions that include sound effects. Google began work on the project last year.Google has exploited its YouTube business to collect 2 million ten-second YouTube excerpts (totaling 5.8 thousand hours of audio) labeled with more than 500 sound categories to create its AudioSet. Categories start at high levels such as Human Sounds and Music, and then get more specific, such as Whistling and Music Genre.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

20% off Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station – Deal Alert

A new approach that centers around performance makes the Airport Extreme taller with 6 antennas at the top, three for the 2.4GHz band and three for the 5GHz band, creating a higher platform for dispersing the signal. Together with 802.11ac wireless technology, they let you connect faster, farther. Averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from 1,800 people, the typical list price of Apple's Airport Extreme has been discounted on Amazon by 20% to $159. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

20% off Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station – Deal Alert

A new approach that centers around performance makes the Airport Extreme taller with 6 antennas at the top, three for the 2.4GHz band and three for the 5GHz band, creating a higher platform for dispersing the signal. Together with 802.11ac wireless technology, they let you connect faster, farther. Averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from 1,800 people, the typical list price of Apple's Airport Extreme has been discounted on Amazon by 20% to $159. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon to launch wireless Cat M1 network nationwide to juice IoT

Verizon on Friday will launch a nationwide wireless network designed to help developers, businesses, utilities and municipalities deploy secure internet-of-things devices at lower cost.The Verizon 4G LTE Category M1 (Cat M1) network will span 2.4 million square miles and will be the first of its kind, the company said.Many IoT technologies have been slow to catch on, but Verizon's Cat M1 and similar networks will be game changers for IoT deployments, said Steve Hilton, an IoT analyst at Machnation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What AI can and cannot do today

A two-day artificial intelligence (AI) conference could overlook the opposing point of view, especially held in San Francisco—the epicenter of technology innovation and the center of over-hyped technology.But by adding Gary Marcus to the speaker roster of the MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference, we got a balanced view about AI, including engaging criticism about where AI works, where it does not, and why Marcus says the direction of R&D in the AI field will not lead to artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is a theoretical machine intelligence that equals human intelligence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Senator: Russia used ‘thousands’ of internet trolls during US election

The Russian government used "thousands" of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat."This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America," Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used "thousands of paid internet trolls" and bots to spread disinformation on social media.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Senator: Russia used ‘thousands’ of internet trolls during US election

The Russian government used "thousands" of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat."This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America," Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used "thousands of paid internet trolls" and bots to spread disinformation on social media.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung reboots its smart home, IoT strategy with the Galaxy S8

Samsung has a portfolio of devices and appliances that would make Apple envious. But unlike Apple, Samsung devices don't work well together.With the Galaxy S8 smartphones and other new products, Samsung hopes that will change. The company is setting in motion a grand plan to build smart homes where its devices operate seamlessly and provide a consistent user experience.Samsung's S8 smartphones will be able to activate appliances through Connect, an app based on the company's SmartThings platform. With just a flick of the finger, the app will allow users to start a robot vacuum cleaner, dim lights, or even ask a Family Hub refrigerator to analyze contents and send a supermarket shopping list.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: It’s Personal

Meeting people we’ve talked about, directly or not, brings a poignant perspective to creating content for a wide audience. It’s personal. Somebody made a decision to create the product that way. Some group of humans worked on that standard. Real people decided on that process. Is it appropriate to cast those people in a negative light and share that opinion with an audience? Sometimes…yes, at times even crucially necessary, if unfortunate. Sometimes…maybe not. Sometimes it’s okay to shut up. To show restraint. To chain the snark monster. —Ethan Banks

The post Worth Reading: It’s Personal appeared first on 'net work.

What is bitemporal and why should the enterprise care?

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.Today, databases are the primary system of record, and organizations are required to keep an accurate picture of all the facts, as they occur. Unfortunately, traditional databases are only temporal and cannot provide a truly accurate picture of your business at different points-in-time.What organizations need today, particularly in regulated industries, is support for bitemporal data.  With a bitemporal database, you can store and query data along two timelines with timestamps for both valid times—when a fact occurred in the real world (“what you knew”), and also system time—when that fact was recorded to the database (“when you knew it”). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What is bitemporal and why should the enterprise care?

10 practical privacy tips for the post-privacy internet

ISPs and providers can now sell your data and browser histories. The U.S. Congress sold you out. If you had any browsing dignity, you don’t now. Too bad you couldn’t pay the legislators as much as the data wolves.You should have been doing these things all along, but now it’s time to decide just how much dignity you have. Most of you won’t bother. This isn’t for you. Click away, and go surf.For those remaining, take these privacy tips seriously.1. Educate yourself about cookies and clean them out regularly For some of you, this means a daily cleanout. What you DO NOT clean out (will cause you hassles) are cookies associated with financial institutions. They will put you through a drill when they don’t find the cookie that they like. Scrape them. Every browser has the ability to do this, with Chrome being the most difficult. But we’re not surprised because it’s from Google—the company whose very life depends on knowing information about you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 practical privacy tips for the post-privacy internet

ISPs and providers can now sell your data and browser histories. The U.S. Congress sold you out. If you had any browsing dignity, you don’t now. Too bad you couldn’t pay the legislators as much as the data wolves.You should have been doing these things all along, but now it’s time to decide just how much dignity you have. Most of you won’t bother. This isn’t for you. Click away, and go surf.For those remaining, take these privacy tips seriously.1. Educate yourself about cookies and clean them out regularly For some of you, this means a daily cleanout. What you DO NOT clean out (will cause you hassles) are cookies associated with financial institutions. They will put you through a drill when they don’t find the cookie that they like. Scrape them. Every browser has the ability to do this, with Chrome being the most difficult. But we’re not surprised because it’s from Google—the company whose very life depends on knowing information about you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM technology creates smart wingman for self-driving cars

IBM said that it has patented a machine learning technology that defines how to shift control of an autonomous vehicle between a human driver and a vehicle control processor in the event of a potential emergency.+More on Network World: IBM on the state of network security: AbysmalBasically the patented IBM system employs onboard sensors and artificial intelligence to determine potential safety concerns and control whether self-driving vehicles are operated autonomously or by surrendering control to a human driver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM technology creates smart wingman for self-driving cars

IBM said that it has patented a machine learning technology that defines how to shift control of an autonomous vehicle between a human driver and a vehicle control processor in the event of a potential emergency.+More on Network World: IBM on the state of network security: AbysmalBasically the patented IBM system employs onboard sensors and artificial intelligence to determine potential safety concerns and control whether self-driving vehicles are operated autonomously or by surrendering control to a human driver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Qualcomm Rearranges Tech Team, James Thompson Named CTO

The shuffle comes in advance of the close of the NXP acquisition.

Do you own your social media contacts or does your employer?

Who among us hasn't taken a contact list when they left a job? Whether you leave voluntarily or involuntarily, one of the things you pack up is your Rolodex, or the modern equivalent, to take with you to the next job. It's pretty much standard.But what if you are a public figure and have a sizable social media following? Can you keep your millions of Facebook and/or Twitter followers? That issue has not been hashed out, but it might be in Dallas.+ Also on Network World: Facebook working with fact-checkers to weed out fake news + The Blaze, a news network established by talk show host Glenn Beck, is in the midst of parting company with its highest profile on-air talent aside from Beck. The company is severing ties with Tomi Lahren, a hotheaded 24-year-old whose on-air blasts of "snowflakes" and Black Lives Matter have made her a rising star in conservative circles.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here