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Category Archives for "Networking"

Inventor of new lithium-ion battery responds to skepticism

The inventor of a new lithium-ion (Li-on) technology that is purported to be safer, faster-charging, and longer-lasting than today's rechargeable batteries responded to experts wary of his claim, saying new discoveries invite strong skepticism.John Goodenough, 94, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor of the original lithium-ion battery, this week said he demonstrated new battery cells that have at least three times as much energy density as today's Li-on batteries. Creative Commons Lic. The lithium-ion battery in a Nissan Leaf.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

L.A. and NYC still rank behind smaller cities in wireless performance

The two biggest cities in the U.S. -- New York City and Los Angeles -- continue to rank well below many smaller U.S. cities in overall wireless performance, according to millions of field tests performed by RootMetrics in the second half of 2016.The New York metro area, with 18 million people, ranked just 66th in the latest round of tests of the nation's largest 125 metro areas. Meanwhile, L.A., with 12.1 million people, ranked 49th. In testing done by RootMetrics in the first half of last year, New York finished 59th, L.A., 99th.[ Further reading: The votes are in: Which mobile data provider is best? ] L.A. improved in two of six measurements: call and data performance. New York's drop was largely driven by a "steep decline" in network speed and data performance, RootMetrics said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 ways to speed up Chrome: Tips for power users and newbies

Chrome is already the most popular and powerful browser for your PC, but you may be missing out on more ways to improve your experience. Delve into Chrome’s massive extensions library or tinker with under-the-hood features, and see how you can enjoy smarter, faster browsing.Chrome has a considerable network of extensions, some of which can be found in the Chrome Web Store, while others are available from particular providers. For the most part, extensions, err, extend what your browser can do, connecting to your favorite services so you can do most of your work in Chrome and get it done faster.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to fix five Windows 10 headaches

Microsoft Windows 10 has gone a long way towards fixing the problems that were endemic with earlier versions of Windows -- notably Windows 8. But it's still far from a perfect operating system and has its share of headaches.4. Recover lost storage spaceTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: SaltStack shifts devops into high gear

The only sane and efficient way to manage a large numbers of servers—or even a few dozen, if they change often—is through automation. Automation tools have to be learned and mastered, so they exact a significant up-front cost, but they dramatically reduce the administrative burden in the long run. Perhaps most important, they provide a staunch line of defense against the fatal fat-fingered mistake, which even the most sophisticated cloud operators struggle to avoid.Ease of use. Configuration management is simple with SaltStack. Because Salt uses the YAML configuration format, states are can be written quickly and easily. YAML state descriptions are structured well, with solid readability. The support for Mako, JSON, Wempy, and Jinja allows developers to extend Salt’s capabilities. The availability of built-in modules makes it easy to configure and manage states.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: SaltStack shifts devops into high gear

The only sane and efficient way to manage a large numbers of servers—or even a few dozen, if they change often—is through automation. Automation tools have to be learned and mastered, so they exact a significant up-front cost, but they dramatically reduce the administrative burden in the long run. Perhaps most important, they provide a staunch line of defense against the fatal fat-fingered mistake, which even the most sophisticated cloud operators struggle to avoid.Ease of use. Configuration management is simple with SaltStack. Because Salt uses the YAML configuration format, states are can be written quickly and easily. YAML state descriptions are structured well, with solid readability. The support for Mako, JSON, Wempy, and Jinja allows developers to extend Salt’s capabilities. The availability of built-in modules makes it easy to configure and manage states.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How AI, machine learning will impact tech recruiting

Artificial intelligence and machine learning already make a huge impact on the way we watch movies and television, shop, and travel, but how will these new technology advancements affect you as a sourcing or recruiting professional?It all comes down to being able to quickly analyze huge amounts of data and make decisions and predictions based on that, says Summer Husband, senior director, data science, at Randstad Sourceright, in a presentation at SourceCon, in Anaheim, Calif, last week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 greatest inside security risks

Internal threatsImage by ThinkstockLast year was the worst on record for information security incidents, and the majority of those were due to inside sources, many studies agree. Prime suspects are employees and contractors with privileged user access, says Sam Elliott, director of security product management at Bomgar. Elliott warns that these 10 employees could be your greatest internal security threat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 greatest inside security risks

Internal threatsImage by ThinkstockLast year was the worst on record for information security incidents, and the majority of those were due to inside sources, many studies agree. Prime suspects are employees and contractors with privileged user access, says Sam Elliott, director of security product management at Bomgar. Elliott warns that these 10 employees could be your greatest internal security threat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Critical infrastructure: Off the web, out of danger?

The debate over the chances of a catastrophic cyber attack taking down a major part of the nation’s critical infrastructure (CI) has been ongoing for a generation.But it hasn’t been settled – in some ways it is more intense now than ever.On one side are those, including high government officials, who warn of a “cyber Pearl Harbor” that could leave swaths of the country in darkness and cold – without electric power – for months.Retired Adm. James Stavridis, dean at Tufts Fletcher School and a former NATO supreme allied commander, used that term just three months ago, saying such an attack would be aimed either at the electrical grid or the financial sector.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Critical infrastructure: Off the web, out of danger?

The debate over the chances of a catastrophic cyber attack taking down a major part of the nation’s critical infrastructure (CI) has been ongoing for a generation.But it hasn’t been settled – in some ways it is more intense now than ever.On one side are those, including high government officials, who warn of a “cyber Pearl Harbor” that could leave swaths of the country in darkness and cold – without electric power – for months.Retired Adm. James Stavridis, dean at Tufts Fletcher School and a former NATO supreme allied commander, used that term just three months ago, saying such an attack would be aimed either at the electrical grid or the financial sector.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The first and only NOS to support LinkedIn’s Open19 project

Today we are excited to announce our support of Open19, a project spearheaded by LinkedIn. Open19 simplifies and standardizes the 19-inch rack form factor and increases interoperability between different vendors’ technology. Built on the principles of openness, Open19 allows many more suppliers to produce servers that will interoperate and will be interchangeable in any rack environment.

We are thrilled to be the first and only network operating system supporting Open19 for two reasons. First, this joint solution offers complete choice throughout the entire stack — increasing interoperability and efficiency. We believe the ease of use of this new technology helps expand the footprint of web-scale networking and makes it even more accessible and relevant.

The second reason is that we are continually dedicated to innovation within the open community, and this is one more way we can support that mission. We believe that disaggregation is not only the future but the present (read more about why we think disaggregation is here to stay). When a company like LinkedIn jumped into the disaggregate ring, we knew we wanted to be a part of it.

What is Open19?

The primary component, Brick Cage, is a passive mechanical cage that fits Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Protect your unstructured data with user behavior analytics

The theft of unstructured data is extremely common. It can be very difficult to safeguard emails and files when a lot of people have access. Even the CIA is not immune, judging by the recent exposure of its hacking tools via WikiLeaks. It’s ironic that the CIA’s hacking guides have been hacked, but it just goes to show how difficult it can be to prevent.Carelessly handled unstructured data is an easy target, and it can prove very valuable for hackers. Since unstructured data may not be monitored, attacks and successful exfiltrations often go unnoticed for long periods.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Protect your unstructured data with user behavior analytics

The theft of unstructured data is extremely common. It can be very difficult to safeguard emails and files when a lot of people have access. Even the CIA is not immune, judging by the recent exposure of its hacking tools via WikiLeaks. It’s ironic that the CIA’s hacking guides have been hacked, but it just goes to show how difficult it can be to prevent.Carelessly handled unstructured data is an easy target, and it can prove very valuable for hackers. Since unstructured data may not be monitored, attacks and successful exfiltrations often go unnoticed for long periods.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft Matter Center – Office 365 Legal Industry Case Management Add-in

Microsoft Matter Center is a (free) add-in to Office 365 to support the legal industry in case and content management leveraging the core capabilities of Office 365 and Microsoft Azure.  Microsoft developed this solution back in 2015 and has been updating the solution to fulfill on the ongoing case management needs of law firms leveraging the core functionality of secured and protected content storage, search, and collaboration. Key functionality in Matter Center: Creation of Matters:  From a case management perspective, users of Office 365 can create cases that includes case description, case conflict verification, inclusion of the legal team (internal and external), and the upload and management of documents and emails relative to the case (Office 365 email, OneDrive, search, and SharePoint Online) Ongoing Information Tracking:  Matter Center provides a centralized information tracking mechanism (OneNote) for all individuals working on the case to enter in conversations and share meeting and conversation notes to all members of the team Shared Calendars and Conversations:  Leveraging group calendars and groups, Matter Center provides a centralized method of viewing and managing important filing dates, response timelines, individual and group meetings, deposition schedules, and tracked conversations. Security and Encryption:  Continue reading

Cisco: Not Serious About Network Programmability

"You can't fool me, there ain't no sanity clause!"
Cisco isn't known for providing easy programmatic access to their device configurations, but has recently made some significant strides in this regard.

The REST API plugin for newer ASA hardware is an example of that. It works fairly well, supports a broad swath of device features, is beautifully documented and has an awesome interactive test/dev dashboard. The dashboard even has the ability to spit out example code (java, javascript, python) based on your point/click interaction with it.

It's really slick.

But I Can't Trust It

Here's the problem: It's an un-versioned REST API, and the maintainers don't hesitate to change its behavior between minor releases. Here's what's different between 1.3(2) and 1.3(2)-100:

New Features in ASA REST API 1.3(2)-100

Released: February 16, 2017
As a result of the fix for CSCvb21388, the response type of /api/certificate/details was changed from the CertificateDetails object to a list of CertificateDetails. Scripts utilizing this API will need to be modified accordingly.

So, any code based on earlier documentation is now broken when it calls /api/certificate/details.

This Shouldn't Happen

Don't take my word for it:



Remember than an API is Continue reading

¡Hola, Ecuador! Quito Data Center expands Cloudflare network to 104 cities across 52 countries

CC-BY 2.0 image by Scipio

Located only 15 miles from the Equator, we are excited to announce Cloudflare’s newest data center in the World Heritage City of Quito, Ecuador. This deployment is made possible in partnership with the NAP.EC Internet exchange run by AEPROVI (Asociación de empresas proveedoras de servicios de internet). Our newest data center expands Cloudflare’s growing Latin America network to six cities, joining Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru), Medellin (Colombia), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Valparaiso (Chile). Quito is our 104th deployment globally, with over a dozen additional cities in the works right now.

Ubicado a sólo 15 millas del ecuador, estamos contentos de anunciar el nuevo centro de datos de Cloudflare en la ciudad de Quito, Ecuador. Este se realizó en asociación con el intercambio neutral de Internet de NAP.EC administrado por AEPROVI (Asociación de empresas proveedoras de servicios de internet). Este despliegue amplía la red latinoamericana de Cloudflare a seis ciudades: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Perú), Medellín (Colombia), Sao Paulo (Brasil) y Valparaíso (Chile). Quito es nuestro 104 despliegue global, con más de una docena de ciudades en desarrollo de expansión en este momento.

Open interconnection

Cloudflare participates at over 150 Internet exchanges Continue reading