Running a Pelican Blog on Docker Cloud with Let’s Encrypt

It's 2017 and my blog was starting to look a little dated so I decided it was time for a face-lift. While I was at it, I overhauled the way I deploy my blog too.

Enabling an Apple MBP Wireless Adapter with Fedora 25

In this article, I want to share with you the steps I took to enable wireless networking on an older (mid-2011) 13” MacBook Pro running Fedora 25. This is driven by a continued need to evaluate Fedora 25, as I’ve run into a few potential roadblocks with Ubuntu 16.04 as my primary laptop OS. Using Fedora 25 instead may help resolve some of these issues, which primarily center around corporate collaboration.

First, you’ll want to enable the RPM Fusion repositories. This is pretty well documented on the RPM Fusion web site. This link will take you to the configuration page, which will provide links for graphical setup via your browser as well as CLI commands.

Once the RPM Fusion repositories (both Free and Nonfree) repositories are enabled, then it’s just a matter of installing a few packages:

1. First, install the “kernel-devel” package appropriate for your current kernel. The command to use is:

    sudo dnf install "kernel-devel-uname-r == $(uname -r)"
   

   This could be user error on my part, but I’ve found that it’s necessary to use the full package (including version) instead of just “kernel-devel”. Otherwise, Fedora seems to have a tendency to install the latest package, which may not Continue reading

Obama commutes sentence for Manning, a WikiLeaks source

President Barack Obama has commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. soldier who disclosed classified data to WikiLeaks relating to the Iraq War.Manning was originally serving a 35-year sentence, but on Tuesday Obama reduced it. She’ll now be freed on May 17.Manning was convicted of leaking U.S. military and diplomatic information to WikiLeaks back in 2010 that included videos of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with classified documents sent to the U.S. State Department. She was arrested and began serving jail time the same year.The data supplied by Manning helped put WikiLeaks on the map as source for secret government information but drew swift condemnation from U.S. officials.   To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Obama commutes sentence for Manning, a WikiLeaks source

President Barack Obama has commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. soldier who disclosed classified data to WikiLeaks relating to the Iraq War.Manning was originally serving a 35-year sentence, but on Tuesday Obama reduced it. She’ll now be freed on May 17.Manning was convicted of leaking U.S. military and diplomatic information to WikiLeaks back in 2010 that included videos of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with classified documents sent to the U.S. State Department. She was arrested and began serving jail time the same year.The data supplied by Manning helped put WikiLeaks on the map as source for secret government information but drew swift condemnation from U.S. officials.   To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE Inks Deal For SimpliVity

HPE buying SimpliVity for $650 million to boost hyperconvergence

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has agreed to buy SimpliVity for US$650 million as expands its hyperconverged offerings, and analysts believe it's a great deal.SimpliVity makes management software that helps administrators gain control over data-center resources. The tools help enterprises make efficient use of server, storage and networking resources.The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.For months, HPE was rumored to be pursuing SimpliVity, which also offers convergence tools for servers from Dell, Lenovo and Huawei. Hyperconvergence companies are a hot commodity. Nutanix, a top player in the market, went public in September last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE buying SimpliVity for $650 million to boost hyperconvergence

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has agreed to buy SimpliVity for US$650 million as expands its hyperconverged offerings, and analysts believe it's a great deal.SimpliVity makes management software that helps administrators gain control over data-center resources. The tools help enterprises make efficient use of server, storage and networking resources.The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.For months, HPE was rumored to be pursuing SimpliVity, which also offers convergence tools for servers from Dell, Lenovo and Huawei. Hyperconvergence companies are a hot commodity. Nutanix, a top player in the market, went public in September last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle outlines plans to take on Amazon in cloud

Oracle executives today revealed the results of years’ worth of engineering and development efforts on its IaaS public cloud and announced a new bare metal cloud database service and an international geographic expansion. Oracle is typically not considered one of the top IaaS public cloud leaders, but the company has hopes of competing in the market by combining its infrastructure services – which focus on its core database services – with a suite of application development and software as a service offerings. At its Cloud World event in New York today, company executives laid out their vision of how they will take on competitors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Salesforce.com.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE to Acquire Hyperconverged Player SimpliVity for $650M

Not quite the price that was rumored.

Microsoft labels Windows 7 ‘outdated’ as it stumps for 10

Microsoft on Monday reminded customers running Windows 7 that they have just three years of support remaining, told them that the aged OS was "long outdated" and urged them to upgrade to Windows 10.Windows 7 will exit what Microsoft calls Extended Support on Jan. 14, 2020; at that point, the company will stop all security updates.Microsoft used the three-years-and-counting milestone to simultaneously denigrate Windows 7 and promote its successor. "Windows 7 is based on long-outdated security architectures," said Markus Nitschke, the head of Microsoft Germany, in a post to a German-language company blog, adding that the OS "does not meet the requirements of modern technology, nor the high security requirements of IT departments."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Free Software Foundation shakes up its list of priority projects

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation Tuesday announced a major rethinking of the software projects that it supports, putting top priority on a free mobile operating system, accessibility, and driver development, among other areas. The foundation has maintained the High Priority Projects list since 2005, when it contained just four free software projects. Today’s version mostly identifies priority areas, along with a few specific projects in key areas:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Open Baton MANO Group Pre-Dates OSM and Open-O

Open Baton may eventually contribute to other open source MANO groups.

7 really cool network and IT research projects

Researchers at top universities, backed by funding from federal and other outfits, are pumping out loads of research on network security, wireless networking and more. Here's a recap of 7 impressive projects from recent months.1. Not that you trust mobile apps in the first place… Carnegie Mellon University researchers took a deep dive into about 18,000 popular free apps on the Google Play store and found that not only about half of them lacked a privacy policy but a good number of those that have policies aren’t adhering to them. As many as 4 in 10 apps with policies could be collecting location information and nearly 1 in 5 could be sharing that data without getting your permission to do so, To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

7 really cool network and IT research projects

Researchers at top universities, backed by funding from federal and other outfits, are pumping out loads of research on network security, wireless networking and more. Here's a recap of 7 impressive projects from recent months.1. Not that you trust mobile apps in the first place… Carnegie Mellon University researchers took a deep dive into about 18,000 popular free apps on the Google Play store and found that not only about half of them lacked a privacy policy but a good number of those that have policies aren’t adhering to them. As many as 4 in 10 apps with policies could be collecting location information and nearly 1 in 5 could be sharing that data without getting your permission to do so, To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle Barnstorms NYC to Reassert Its Cloud Message

All of Oracle's applications have been rewritten for cloud readiness.

Worth Reading: We’re all responsible for fake news

In an era of public opinion polls, we rarely turn our criticisms back on the public. Maybe that should change. Many people are angry with the press right now, and that’s very understandable, but we also need to acknowledge this truth: media outlets today are subject to ruthless competitive pressure. … Ask yourself: What kinds of pieces do I look for, and which do I share with my friends? … So, what does the public want? Are they interested in solid reporting and honest, careful reasoning? Or do they just want people to massage their sensitivities and confirm all their pre-existing views? If it’s mainly the latter, righting the ship will be very difficult indeed. —The Federalist

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The Great Domain Debacle

For those who are interested—this weekend I got into a “discussion” with my old/current DNS provider, Network Solutions. I’ve been using them for years, but there have apparently been recent changes at the company. Part of their “new” terms of service say—

We may, at any time, activate the auto-renew service for eligible services in your account. Further, we may provide you with an opportunity to “opt in” to our automatic renewal process in accordance with the instructions (and subject to your agreement to the terms and conditions pertaining to that process) on our Website. You agree that if you are enrolled in or otherwise utilizing our auto-renew service, we will attempt to renew your service at some point less than ninety (90) days prior to its expiration. Such automatic renewal for your service(s), if successful, may be for a shorter term than the term for which you originally purchased your service(s), but in no event shall such term be longer than the term then-currently in place for the service(s). Such automatic renewal for your service(s), if successful, shall be at the then-current price for the service(s). You further agree that, to turn off the auto-renew service for any of Continue reading

Microsoft awarded patent for multiple folding phone

There have been several efforts on the part of handset makers to create a folding device, so the large chocolate bar design of the phone will fit more easily in the pocket. Well, Microsoft has one-upped them with a patent for a mobile device that can be unfolded not once, but twice—turning it into a tablet-style device.The company initially filed the patent application Oct. 16, 2014, and was awarded the patent (US 9,541,962 B2) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Jan. 10, 2017. The news was first spotted by MSPoweruser. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Think employers must protect workers’ personal info? Think again

There’s good news for security pros worried that their organizations may be liable if their employees’ personal information gets hacked: a panel of judges in Pennsylvania says workers can’t collect damages from their employer if things like Social Security numbers, bank account information, birth dates, addresses and salaries are compromised in a data breach.Even though the stolen data was used to file phony tax returns in order to get the refunds, the workers at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) had no reasonable expectation that the data would be safe, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled recently.The case, known as in Dittman v. UPMC, pertains solely to employee records, not customer records, and not patient records, which are protected by HIPAA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Think employers must protect workers’ personal info? Think again

There’s good news for security pros worried that their organizations may be liable if their employees’ personal information gets hacked: a panel of judges in Pennsylvania says workers can’t collect damages from their employer if things like Social Security numbers, bank account information, birth dates, addresses and salaries are compromised in a data breach.Even though the stolen data was used to file phony tax returns in order to get the refunds, the workers at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) had no reasonable expectation that the data would be safe, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled recently.The case, known as in Dittman v. UPMC, pertains solely to employee records, not customer records, and not patient records, which are protected by HIPAA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here