Democrats support ‘ambitious’ tech investment

The just-released draft of the Democratic party platform calls for increasing investments in science and technology research. It supports net neutrality and expansion of high-speed broadband networks. But its biggest push is in the areas of clean energy and infrastructure investment.The platform says nothing about the offshore outsourcing of IT jobs and other types of work susceptible to offshoring. It is silent on the use of H-1B visa, similar to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.Clinton has not discussed the temporary visa program and doesn't mention it in her platform, but does call for "stapling" or nearly automatic green cards for STEM advanced degree graduates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Democrats support ‘ambitious’ tech investment

The just-released draft of the Democratic party platform calls for increasing investments in science and technology research. It supports net neutrality and expansion of high-speed broadband networks. But its biggest push is in the areas of clean energy and infrastructure investment.The platform says nothing about the offshore outsourcing of IT jobs and other types of work susceptible to offshoring. It is silent on the use of H-1B visa, similar to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.Clinton has not discussed the temporary visa program and doesn't mention it in her platform, but does call for "stapling" or nearly automatic green cards for STEM advanced degree graduates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS shines

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) represents the first release from Canonical to deliver long-term support since 2011 (version 14). While the latest improvements may not be entirely revolutionary, Ubuntu 16.04 rounds up exciting features to fortify the server base and enhance the desktop experience. InfoWorld reviewed the new desktop release in April. In this review, I’ll focus on the server.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS shines

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) represents the first release from Canonical to deliver long-term support since 2011 (version 14). While the latest improvements may not be entirely revolutionary, Ubuntu 16.04 rounds up exciting features to fortify the server base and enhance the desktop experience. InfoWorld reviewed the new desktop release in April. In this review, I’ll focus on the server.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Response: CAM Table Basics

This post is a response to Greg Ferro’s recent Basics posts on (Content Addressable Memory) CAM tables. As this is a response post, you can assume that I don’t agree entirely with all of his definitions. Alternatively, perhaps I am totally wrong and I need to go back and relearn how CAM works. Either way, Greg loves a good spar, so maybe together with our readers we can determine the truth in an understandable format for the betterment of everybody who isn’t a hardcore digital electronics engineer.

Greg’s Posts

Before continuing, I’d recommend should go reading these posts as context, since they are the basis for this post:

Basics: What is Content Addressable Memory (CAM) ?
Basics: What is Binary CAM (BCAM) ?
Basics: What is Ternary Content Address Memory (TCAM) ?

I’ll now address my concerns post by post below.

What is CAM

A CAM cell in the chip actually consists of two SRAM cells. SRAM requires requires extensive silicon gates to implement that require a lot of power per gate for fast switching. In a chip, power consumption generates heat and leads to limits on thermal dissipation by the limited footprint of a chip. This is a key factor on the Continue reading

Rio Olympics pose security risks to travelers

Police officers held up a sign saying "Welcome to Hell" at the Rio airport last week, according to local and international news reports, and the region's acting governor warned of a total collapse in public security. More funding is on its way, but it might not be enough to make a difference in time for the Olympic games. Meanwhile, physical safety isn't the only thing that travelers need to worry about -- security experts warn that travelers need to be extremely careful when they access computer networks, as well.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 26 crazy and scary things the TSA has found on travelers "The Rio situation is a mess," said Shaun Murphy, CEO at communication security firm PrivateGiant. "I would suspect that from a cyber security front, it's going to be just as messy."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rio Olympics pose security risks to travelers

Police officers held up a sign saying "Welcome to Hell" at the Rio airport last week, according to local and international news reports, and the region's acting governor warned of a total collapse in public security. More funding is on its way, but it might not be enough to make a difference in time for the Olympic games. Meanwhile, physical safety isn't the only thing that travelers need to worry about -- security experts warn that travelers need to be extremely careful when they access computer networks, as well.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 26 crazy and scary things the TSA has found on travelers "The Rio situation is a mess," said Shaun Murphy, CEO at communication security firm PrivateGiant. "I would suspect that from a cyber security front, it's going to be just as messy."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Smartphone upgrade cycle dramatically slowing, study finds

Despite a barrage of new handsets launched by phone manufacturers on an annual or half-yearly basis, consumers are drastically curtailing their phone upgrades, new research has found.And many are now waiting for “phones to die before replacing them,” speculates eMarketer, which has been writing about digital advertising company Fluent’s replacement cycle study.The reason for the slowdown is said to be a combination of the demise of the two-year phone contract from mobile network operators (MNOs) and a lack of ground-breaking technology exciting consumers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Twistlock Raises $10M for Container Security

Containers are hot, but container security is still in its early stages.

IDG Contributor Network: Twistlock scoops up $10M to secure all the containers

It has been interesting watching the conversation around the rise of Docker and the general attention that containers have received in the past few years. Most fascinating has been the reaction of vendors who make their revenue primarily through virtualization technologies. These vendors have been quick to assert that containers are not secure and that in order to assure certainty for an organization, either containers shouldn't be used at all (their preference, obviously) or they should be used within the ongoing context of virtualized servers.Against this narrative runs two forces. First, the container companies (notably, Docker), while being careful to not alienate their virtualization vendor partners, try to assure customers that containers are actually inherently safe. The second narrative comes from third-party vendors that offer security solutions for containers. These players agree that containers have some fundamental flaws, but their solution resolves these issues.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who needs a GUI? How to live in a Linux terminal.

The best Linux shell apps for handling common functionsEver consider the idea of living entirely in a Linux terminal? No graphical desktop. No modern GUI software. Just text—and nothing but text—inside a Linux shell. It may not be easy, but it’s absolutely doable. I recently tried living completely in a Linux shell for 30 days. What follows are my favorite shell applications for handling some of the most common bits of computer functionality (web browsing, word processing, etc.). With a few obvious holes. Because being text-only is hard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

13 top paying cities for software engineers

High demandSoftware engineers are in high demand across the United States, and depending upon where you live, you can make a killing at this job. But don’t overlook what you’re really making, when you factor in the cost of living. Online jobs marketplace Glassdoor has crunched the numbers by looking at the ratio of each city’s local median software engineer base salary to its official cost of living figures from the federal government.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 Tech Startups Blazing New Trails This Summer

SDN Lessons From Assembly Lines

Veriflow, Applying Formal Verification to Security, Lands $8.2M Series A

Yes, it's possible to check every possible data flow. Kind of.

IDG Contributor Network: Veriflow raises cash to develop network security toolkit

If software is indeed "eating the world," as famed venture capitalist and prognosticator on pretty much everything Marc Andreessen once opined, then it goes without saying that the pipes that have the unenviable task of carrying that software become ever more critical. The more important the internet, the more the underlying network of undifferentiated "dumb pipes" becomes important. This has led to the rise of myriad vendors that all help to ensure those "dumb pipes" keep working. A case in point is Veriflow, a company that is bringing a new approach to network breach and outage detection via mathematical network verification.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Private jets, personal security and more pricey CEO perks

Compensation extras add up for tech CEOsTech CEOs enjoyed a wide range of perks, from corporate aircraft and auto usage to home security, club memberships and financial planning services. Here are the 12 tech CEOs who indulged the most.RELATED: 20 highest paid tech CEOs | Biggest raises and pay cuts | single-page chart of 62 tech CEOs' total pay |To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Private jets, personal security and more pricey CEO perks

Compensation extras add up for tech CEOsTech CEOs enjoyed a wide range of perks, from corporate aircraft and auto usage to home security, club memberships and financial planning services. Here are the 12 tech CEOs who indulged the most.RELATED: 20 highest paid tech CEOs | Biggest raises and pay cuts | single-page chart of 62 tech CEOs' total pay |To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Veriflow raises cash to develop network security toolkit

If software is indeed "eating the world," as famed venture capitalist and prognosticator on pretty much everything Marc Andreessen once opined, then it goes without saying that the pipes that have the unenviable task of carrying that software become ever more critical. The more important the internet, the more the underlying network of undifferentiated "dumb pipes" becomes important. This has led to the rise of myriad vendors that all help to ensure those "dumb pipes" keep working. A case in point is Veriflow, a company that is bringing a new approach to network breach and outage detection via mathematical network verification.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why Is Every SDN Vendor Bashing the Networking Engineers?

This blog post was written almost two years ago (and sat half-forgotten in a Word file somewhere in my Dropbox), but as it seems not much has changed in the meantime, it’s time to publish it anyway.

I was listening to the fantastic SDN Trinity podcast while biking around Slovenian hills and almost fell off the bike while furiously nodding to a statement along the lines of “I hate how every SDN vendor loves to bash networking engineers.”