IDG Contributor Network: Data centers will fit in a laptop form factor eventually

Storing all of the books ever written on media the size of a postage stamp is possible with atom-based memory, say scientists.Five hundred terabits per square inch is doable, in fact. That would be 500 times more efficient than current state-of-the-art commercial hard drives, say the researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.To prove the feat could be accomplished, the scientists created an 8,000 bit memory “where each bit is represented by the position of one single chlorine atom,” the university says in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: LinkedIn’s Ambry

The overall design of Ambry should look fairly familiar. There are frontend servers that handle incoming requests (there are just three operations: put, get, and delete) and route them to backend data nodes which store the actual data. A ZooKeeper-based cluster manager looks after the state of the cluster itself. —the morning paper (the full paper is here)

The post Worth Reading: LinkedIn’s Ambry appeared first on 'net work.

It’s official (sorta): Windows 10 kneecapped PC sales

There has been anecdotal talk that Microsoft's aggressive Windows 10 upgrade/giveaway harmed PC sales, since it's known most people upgrade to a new OS via a new PC purchase rather than doing a software upgrade. Now Gartner has confirmed this theory.In an interview with The Register (and confirmed with the analyst by me), Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal told the publication, "People with older PCs upgraded to Windows 10 and held onto them. Microsoft didn’t expect that number to be so high."+ Also on Network World: Credibility and trust: Microsoft blows it +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brake pedal data can fingerprint drivers with 87% accuracy in 15 minutes

Have you opted for lower car insurance premiums via installing an insurance-supplied dongle? If so, then did you realize that dongle could narc you out when brake pedal usage is used a biometric identifier? Kiki der Gecko If you are thinking surely not, then think again as researchers had nearly a 90% accuracy in identifying drivers via brake pedal sensor data after only 15 minutes of driving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brake pedal data can fingerprint drivers with 87% accuracy in 15 minutes

Have you opted for lower car insurance premiums via installing an insurance-supplied dongle? If so, then did you realize that dongle could narc you out when brake pedal usage is used a biometric identifier? Kiki der Gecko If you are thinking surely not, then think again as researchers had nearly a 90% accuracy in identifying drivers via brake pedal sensor data after only 15 minutes of driving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Latest leap second plan poses a dilemma for conscientious sysadmins

Conscientious sysadmins face a dilemma on December 31, when a new leap second will threaten the stability of computer systems and networks.Scientists occasionally add a leap second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time reference most clocks are set by, so as to keep it in step with the earth's gradually slowing rotation. If they didn't, then clocks would be off by about a minute at midday by 2100.Computer systems don't like leap seconds as they are programmed to expect the same number of seconds in every minute of every hour of every day. The various ways of tricking them into accepting the extra second -- stretching out all the other seconds in the preceding minute, hour or day, repeating the same second twice, or creating a 61st second in a minute, can cause chaos as they affect different computers in different ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Latest leap second plan poses a dilemma for conscientious sysadmins

Conscientious sysadmins face a dilemma on December 31, when a new leap second will threaten the stability of computer systems and networks.Scientists occasionally add a leap second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time reference most clocks are set by, so as to keep it in step with the earth's gradually slowing rotation. If they didn't, then clocks would be off by about a minute at midday by 2100.Computer systems don't like leap seconds as they are programmed to expect the same number of seconds in every minute of every hour of every day. The various ways of tricking them into accepting the extra second -- stretching out all the other seconds in the preceding minute, hour or day, repeating the same second twice, or creating a 61st second in a minute, can cause chaos as they affect different computers in different ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Latest leap second plan poses a dilemma for conscientious sysadmins

Conscientious sysadmins face a dilemma on December 31, when a new leap second will threaten the stability of computer systems and networks.Scientists occasionally add a leap second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time reference most clocks are set by, so as to keep it in step with the earth's gradually slowing rotation. If they didn't, then clocks would be off by about a minute at midday by 2100.Computer systems don't like leap seconds as they are programmed to expect the same number of seconds in every minute of every hour of every day. The various ways of tricking them into accepting the extra second -- stretching out all the other seconds in the preceding minute, hour or day, repeating the same second twice, or creating a 61st second in a minute, can cause chaos as they affect different computers in different ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plea to Cisco: ‘CCIE routing and switching written exam needs to be fixed’

Tom Hollingsworth, a CCIE and author of a popular blog called “The Networking Nerd,” used that forum last week  – smack in the middle of Cisco’s annual user conference -- to issue a blistering critique of the CCIE routing and switching written exam. “The discontent is palpable,” according to Hollingsworth. “From what I’ve heard around Las Vegas this week, it’s time to fix the CCIE Written Exam.”That contention has received broad though not unanimous support on Twitter and comments on the post itself. As for Cisco, it tells me they’re always open to suggestions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plea to Cisco: ‘CCIE routing and switching written exam needs to be fixed’

Tom Hollingsworth, a CCIE and author of a popular blog called “The Networking Nerd,” used that forum last week  – smack in the middle of Cisco’s annual user conference -- to issue a blistering critique of the CCIE routing and switching written exam.  “The discontent is palpable,” according to Hollingsworth. “From what I’ve heard around Las Vegas this week, it’s time to fix the CCIE Written Exam.” That contention has received broad though not unanimous support on Twitter and comments on the post itself. As for Cisco, it tells me they’re always open to suggestions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fixing The CCIE Written – A Follow Up

I stirred up quite the hornet’s nest last week, didn’t I? I posted about how I thought the CCIE Routing and Switching Written Exam needed to be fixed. I got 75 favorites on Twitter and 40 retweets of my post, not to mention the countless people that shared it on a variety of forums and other sites. Since I was at Cisco Live, I had a lot of people coming up to me saying that they agreed with my views. I also had quite a few people that weren’t thrilled with my perspective. Thankfully, I had the chance to sit down with Yusuf Bhaiji, head of the CCIE program, and chat about things. I wanted to share some thoughts here.

Clarity Of Purpose

One of the biggest complaints that I’ve heard is that I was being “malicious” in my post with regards to the CCIE. I was also told that it was a case of “sour grapes” and even that the exam was as hard as it was on purpose because the CCIE is supposed to be hard. Mostly, I felt upset that people were under the impression that my post was designed to destroy, harm, or otherwise defame the Continue reading

Oracle issues largest patch bundle ever, fixing 276 security flaws

Oracle has released a new quarterly batch of security updates for more than 80 products from its software portfolio, fixing 276 vulnerabilities.This is the largest Oracle Critical Patch Update (CPU) to date. The average number of flaws fixed per Oracle update last year was 161, according to security vendor Qualys. Furthermore, out of the 276 security flaws fixed in this update, 159 can be exploited remotely without authentication.At the top of the priority list should be the Java patches, which address 13 new vulnerabilities. That's because Java is used in a lot of applications and is installed on a large number of systems."Customers really do need to apply these Java CPU patches as soon as possible,"  said John Matthew Holt, the CTO of application security firm Waratek, via email. Among the patches that require urgent attention are those for the HotSpot Java virtual machine for desktops and servers, which received high CVSS (Common Vulnerabilities Scoring System) scores, Holt noted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle issues largest patch bundle ever, fixing 276 security flaws

Oracle has released a new quarterly batch of security updates for more than 80 products from its software portfolio, fixing 276 vulnerabilities.This is the largest Oracle Critical Patch Update (CPU) to date. The average number of flaws fixed per Oracle update last year was 161, according to security vendor Qualys. Furthermore, out of the 276 security flaws fixed in this update, 159 can be exploited remotely without authentication.At the top of the priority list should be the Java patches, which address 13 new vulnerabilities. That's because Java is used in a lot of applications and is installed on a large number of systems."Customers really do need to apply these Java CPU patches as soon as possible,"  said John Matthew Holt, the CTO of application security firm Waratek, via email. Among the patches that require urgent attention are those for the HotSpot Java virtual machine for desktops and servers, which received high CVSS (Common Vulnerabilities Scoring System) scores, Holt noted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Datanauts 043: The Full Stack Journey With Scott Lowe

The Datanauts talk with blogger, author, and tech guru Scott Lowe about open source software, the future of the data center, and what the notion of the full stack engineer means for the technology profession. The post Datanauts 043: The Full Stack Journey With Scott Lowe appeared first on Packet Pushers.

5 tips to avoid summer’s plummeting productivity

Avoid summer's plummeting productivityImage by Thinkstock Investment in employee education and learning increases engagement and makes employees more productive. If you find your workload is a bit light during the summer months, consider sitting down with your manager to identify existing professional development programs or courses to add to your skill set, Battles says. If you can't physically attend courses, take advantage of virtual training tools and online massive open online courses. 1. The more you knowImage by Thinkstock To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Etisalat to Use Affirmed Networks’ vEPC for IoT & WiFi Calling

Affirmed Networks vEPC is also being used by AT&T.

Skype sets a course for the cloud, ditching some apps on the way

Skype is leaving behind its peer-to-peer roots and going all in on the cloud. While the popular messaging app made it this far by facilitating connections between computers for video calls and other communications, it's moving to a cloud architecture that is supposed to improve performance and expand the service's capabilities.According to Skype Corporate Vice President Amritansh Raghav, the architecture shift has taken three years of work. It is supposed to provide a number of benefits, including improved message syncing across devices. Certain Skype features are already built on top of the new cloud infrastructure, including the mobile group video calling and live translation features that the service introduced recently.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Windows 10 Anniversary Update fails to excite

One year after the initial, faltering release of Windows 10 “RTM” (build 10240) and almost nine months after the arrival of Win 10 Fall Update (version 1511), we finally have a new tenant at the apex of the Windows 10 “as a service” heap. Windows 10 Anniversary Update, aka Redstone 1, aka version 1607, is available to Windows Insiders. The update should start rolling out to Windows 10 version 1511 users on August 2.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New HIPAA guidance addresses ransomware

The U.S. Department of Human Services has released new guidance for health care organizations that focuses on the growing threat of ransomware, stresses the need for better education and regular backups, and confirms that a ransomware attack against plain-text health information is, in fact, a breach that must be disclosed. The guidance recommends that organizations identify the risks facing their patient information, create a plan to address those links, set up procedures to protect systems from malware, train users to spot malware, limit access to sensitive information to just the people who need it most, and have a disaster recovery plan that includes frequent data backups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New HIPAA guidance addresses ransomware

The U.S. Department of Human Services has released new guidance for health care organizations that focuses on the growing threat of ransomware, stresses the need for better education and regular backups, and confirms that a ransomware attack against plain-text health information is, in fact, a breach that must be disclosed. The guidance recommends that organizations identify the risks facing their patient information, create a plan to address those links, set up procedures to protect systems from malware, train users to spot malware, limit access to sensitive information to just the people who need it most, and have a disaster recovery plan that includes frequent data backups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here