How ants decide where to move their nests may hold lessons for computer scientists seeking efficient ways to gather data from distributed networks of sensors, according to MIT researchers.It turns out that the frequency with which explorer ants bump into each other as they wander around looking for a new home for their colony is a pretty good indicator of how many other explorer ants are investigating the same site.+More on Network World: What’s hot at Cisco Live | Hungry ants knock out FiOS service … again +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. National Science Foundation will spend more than US$400 million over the next seven years to fund next-generation wireless research in an effort to bring super-fast mobile service to the country.U.S. officials hope the investments, announced Friday, will speed up the county's move to next-generation 5G mobile service, potentially offering speeds of 10Gbps, and allow for a rapid expansion of the internet of things. The next-generation mobile services will enable self-driving cars, an "always on" IoT, smart cities, new virtual reality offerings, and video to aid police, firefighters, and emergency medical responders, said John Holdren assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
"Take cover," the French government warned people in Nice via its official terror alert app.But the alert came almost three hours after police shot the driver of a truck as he plowed through crowds gathered on the waterfront late Thursday to watch a firework display celebrating France's national holiday.The System to Alert and Inform Populations (SAIP) app, introduced last month, is supposed to provide more timely and informative warnings than the existing nationwide network of sirens and radio messages. The ministry began working on the app after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, finally putting it into service on June 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
"Take cover," the French government warned people in Nice via its official terror alert app.But the alert came almost three hours after police shot the driver of a truck as he plowed through crowds gathered on the waterfront late Thursday to watch a firework display celebrating France's national holiday.The System to Alert and Inform Populations (SAIP) app, introduced last month, is supposed to provide more timely and informative warnings than the existing nationwide network of sirens and radio messages. The ministry began working on the app after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, finally putting it into service on June 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some banking software is so old that programmers have had to come out of retirement to fix glitches in the code and integrate it into mobile phone device interfaces. That’s if the banks could find the poor guy, who's probably out fishing somewhere, or if he’s still alive.Yet banks haven’t wanted to invest in from-scratch, well-documented re-engineering. It’s too expensive—bankers prefer to count money than spend it—and it’s difficult to justify a new back end to owners because code is so invisible. Banking code has thus stagnated and gotten patched when necessary, or possible, despite fraud and cyber theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some banking software is so old that programmers have had to come out of retirement to fix glitches in the code and integrate it into mobile phone device interfaces. That’s if the banks could find the poor guy, who's probably out fishing somewhere, or if he’s still alive.Yet banks haven’t wanted to invest in from-scratch, well-documented re-engineering. It’s too expensive—bankers prefer to count money than spend it—and it’s difficult to justify a new back end to owners because code is so invisible. Banking code has thus stagnated and gotten patched when necessary, or possible, despite fraud and cyber theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Imagine sitting courtside at game seven of the NBA finals without having to pay the reported $99,000 someone spent on two tickets last month. Or imagine watching that same game in the stadium, and live statistics pop up on your connected glasses that show a certain player is approaching a triple-double—without having to take your eyes off the action.
If you think either seem unrealistic, you probably didn’t think you’d be bumping into people chasing virtual Pokémon around the streets, did you?
+ Also on Network World: Amazon CTO says cloud can help crashing Pokemon Go +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Imagine sitting courtside at game seven of the NBA finals without having to pay the reported $99,000 someone spent on two tickets last month. Or imagine watching that same game in the stadium, and live statistics pop up on your connected glasses that show a certain player is approaching a triple-double—without having to take your eyes off the action.
If you think either seem unrealistic, you probably didn’t think you’d be bumping into people chasing virtual Pokémon around the streets, did you?
+ Also on Network World: Amazon CTO says cloud can help crashing Pokemon Go +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Best Deals of the WeekCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted.APC Performance SurgeArrest Outlet with Phone Splitter and Coax ProtectionThe APC Surge Arrest Performance series from APC offers the highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection for all of your data lines. The P11VT3 features 11 heavy duty outlets. Telephone and coax cable line surge suppression jacks are available to protect against dangerous surges traveling along data lines. Wiring Fault LED proactively notifies you of potentially dangerous building wiring conditions. Additional features like a ten foot power cord, safety shutters, status indicator, cord management, lifetime equipment protection policy and more make this their most complete surge offering. Over 1,100 customers on Amazon rate this item 4.5 out of 5 stars (read reviews) and Amazon indicates that its typical list price of $39.99 has been reduced by 36% to just $25.50. See this item now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Donald Trump will be "a disaster for innovation," according to some of Silicon Valley's technology leaders. But the innovation disaster they're warning of is already ongoing in America.U.S. support for research is declining, and just last month China surpassed the U.S. in number of supercomputers on the Top500 list. Both countries are now in a race to build exascale systems (1,000 petaflops), a competition the U.S. is almost certain to lose based on published roadmaps.The U.S. has set 2023 as its goal for exascale; China is aiming for 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Users of Microsoft's OneDrive have begun receiving notifications that their storage allotments have already, or will soon be, reduced to 5GB.The emails to OneDrive account holders were the first step in a process that Microsoft announced last year as part of a broader reduction in cloud-based storage allowances. The free amount was to be lowered from 15GB to 5GB, and another 15GB that many had -- the photograph-specific "Camera Roll" bonus that had been given to any who asked -- was to be erased.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The idea that Microsoft would eventually unveil a subscription licensing model for Windows 10 -- the so-called Windows-as-a-Service (WaaS) model -- has been bandied about for a while now. This week Microsoft made that idea real, but only for enterprise customers. At its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Toronto, the company announced the details of Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and Windows Enterprise E5.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Gaurav Dhillon knows a thing or two about integration. In his twenties, he co-founded Informatica and helped thousands of enterprises deal with the challenges of application and data integration in the client-server world. Now, as CEO of San Mateo, California-based SnapLogic, Dhillon is tackling the integration challenges IT shops face in the new world of cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
An offer you shouldn't refuseThe deadline cometh. July 29 looms, and after that, Windows 7 and 8 users will no longer be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you’ve been waiting for Microsoft to polish out the operating system’s initial bugs, it’s time to make the leap.This article’s more for the fence-sitters—the folks who haven’t decided whether to stick with what they know or embrace Microsoft’s new-school operating system. There are some very valid reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10, to be honest. But Windows 10 is the best Windows yet, and most people should claim the free upgrade while there’s still time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As smartwatches and other wearables gain popularity, experts are warning of potential data security risks in workplaces.Some employees have begun connecting their personal smartwatches with corporate Wi-Fi networks, which could mimic the problems caused when personal smartphones started showing up at work several years ago. That earlier bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend fostered an explosion of software products from various vendors for managing devices securely, alongside laptops and desktops.As wearables begin to flood the workplace, the risk to employers could begin to look like "BYOD on steroids," said Peter Gillespie, an attorney at Fisher Phillips, a national labor and employment law firm representing employers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SDN is an ideal methodology to push policies to campus networks.