From Mainframes to Deep Learning Clusters: IBM’s Speech Journey

Here at The Next Platform, we tend to focus on deep learning as it relates to hardware and systems versus algorithmic innovation, but at times, it is useful to look at the co-evolution of both code and machines over time to see what might be around the next corner.

One segment of the deep learning applications area that has generated a great deal of work is in speech recognition and translation—something we’ve described in detail via efforts from Baidu, Google, Tencent, among others. While the application itself is interesting, what is most notable is how codes …

From Mainframes to Deep Learning Clusters: IBM’s Speech Journey was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Get into the spring mood with some new gadgets

Spring is officially on the calendar, despite having a bunch of snow still on the ground around my house. But that doesn’t matter to several of the companies displaying new products and services at the Digital Focus Spring Spectacular, held last night in New York. Here’s a roundup of some new devices that I hope to review soon: Epson Epson showed off its new projector aimed at houses looking for projection in well-lit rooms.The Home Cinema 1450 ($1,499 MSRP, available April 17) is a 3LCD projector that delivers up to 4,200 lumens of color brightness and 4,200 lumens of white brightness and full 1080p resolution. The difference between the 1450 and other projectors is its ability to provide a brilliant image in a room with lights on (like a living room, as opposed to a home theater room setup). The projector includes a built-in 16-watt speaker, and supports cable/satellite boxes, game consoles, Internet streaming devices (Roku, Chromecast, Fire Stick, Apple TV, etc.) through its two HDMI ports and a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL3) port.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s squashing of malicious Tizen smart TV bugs is turning messy

After 40 critical vulnerabilities on Samsung's Tizen -- used in smart TVs and smartwatches -- were exposed this week by Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman, the company is scrambling to patch them.But Samsung still doesn't know many of the bugs that need to be patched. It's also unclear when Tizen devices will get security patches, or if older Tizen devices will even get OS updates to squash the bugs.Beyond Samsung's smart TVs, Tizen is also used in wearables like Gear S3 and handsets like Samsung's Z-series phones, which have sold well in India. Samsung wants to put Tizen in a range of appliances and IoT devices. Tizen also has been forked to be used in Raspberry Pi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s squashing of malicious Tizen smart TV bugs is turning messy

After 40 critical vulnerabilities on Samsung's Tizen -- used in smart TVs and smartwatches -- were exposed this week by Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman, the company is scrambling to patch them.But Samsung still doesn't know many of the bugs that need to be patched. It's also unclear when Tizen devices will get security patches, or if older Tizen devices will even get OS updates to squash the bugs.Beyond Samsung's smart TVs, Tizen is also used in wearables like Gear S3 and handsets like Samsung's Z-series phones, which have sold well in India. Samsung wants to put Tizen in a range of appliances and IoT devices. Tizen also has been forked to be used in Raspberry Pi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TIIME to Pay Attention to Identity

My colleague Robin Wilton and I participated in the recent Trust and Internet Identity Meeting Europe (TIIME) in Vienna, Austria, co-sponsored by the Internet Society and organized by long-time notable identeratus Rainer Hörbe.

This meeting brought together approximately 100 people who are engaged in advancing the state of the art and strengthening trust around online identity. Structured as an “unconference,” it was up to the attendees to set the agenda and lead the sessions. As you can see from the session list the meeting covered a lot of ground.

Mr. Steve Olshansky

Why Google BigQuery excels at BI on big data concurrency

If you're trying to do business intelligence (BI) on big data and the capability to handle large number of concurrent queries is a key issue for you, Google BigQuery may well be the way to go, according to a new Business Intelligence Benchmark released Thursday by AtScale, a startup specializing in helping organizations enable BI on big data.[ Related: Google BigQuery update aims for enticing Hadoop users ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

University examines cloud phone service

Georgetown University is testing a cloud phone service intended to replace its 25-year-old system, which would cost millions of dollars to replace. The move, part of a broader telecommunications infrastructure overhaul, advances the private university's plan to migrate to consumer-friendly cloud and mobile software, says CIO Judd Nicholson. Georgetown University Georgetown University CIO Judd Nicholson.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Unity out at Canonical amid big shakeups

Canonical, the company behind the best-known Linux distribution in the world and one of the biggest players in commercial open source software, has announced several large-scale changes of direction that have created big ripples in the open source world.The biggest news is that the company will no longer focus development resources on its Unity desktop front-end for Linux – a long-standing project designed to make Ubuntu a viable operating system for a wide array of endpoints, including phones and tablets. Instead, Ubuntu will move back to the venerable GNOME desktop environment, which it split from in 2010.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Samsung's profit soars after recovery from Note7 debacle + Microsoft Surface beats Apple iPad in JD Power testsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US lawmakers demand to know how many residents are under surveillance

Two powerful U.S. lawmakers are pushing President Donald Trump administration's to tell them how many of the country's residents are under surveillance by the National Security Agency.In a letter sent Friday, Representatives Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers Jr. asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide an estimate of the number of U.S. residents whose communications are swept up in NSA surveillance of foreign targets. Goodlatte, a Republican, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Conyers is the committee's senior Democrat.Committee members have been seeking an estimate of the surveillance numbers from the ODNI for a year now. Other lawmakers have been asking for the surveillance numbers since 2011, but ODNI has failed to provide them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US lawmakers demand to know how many residents are under surveillance

Two powerful U.S. lawmakers are pushing President Donald Trump administration's to tell them how many of the country's residents are under surveillance by the National Security Agency.In a letter sent Friday, Representatives Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers Jr. asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide an estimate of the number of U.S. residents whose communications are swept up in NSA surveillance of foreign targets. Goodlatte, a Republican, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Conyers is the committee's senior Democrat.Committee members have been seeking an estimate of the surveillance numbers from the ODNI for a year now. Other lawmakers have been asking for the surveillance numbers since 2011, but ODNI has failed to provide them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA semantic program seeks to glean truth from obfuscation

In this era where disinformation, alternative facts and other falsehoods are the rule of the day, the researchers at DARPA are looking to build a mechanism that can glean some truth from the obfuscation.DARPA says the program, called Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives (AIDA), looks to develop a “semantic engine” that generates alternative interpretations or meaning of real-world events, situations, and trends based on data obtained from an extensive range of channels. The program aims to create technology capable of aggregating and mapping pieces of information automatically derived from multiple media sources into a common representation or storyline, and then generating and exploring multiple theories about the true nature and implications of events, situations, and trends of interest, DARPA says. +More on Network World: DARPA plan would reinvent not-so-clever machine learning systems+  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA semantic program seeks to glean truth from obfuscation

In this era where disinformation, alternative facts and other falsehoods are the rule of the day, the researchers at DARPA are looking to build a mechanism that can glean some truth from the obfuscation.DARPA says the program, called Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives (AIDA), looks to develop a “semantic engine” that generates alternative interpretations or meaning of real-world events, situations, and trends based on data obtained from an extensive range of channels. The program aims to create technology capable of aggregating and mapping pieces of information automatically derived from multiple media sources into a common representation or storyline, and then generating and exploring multiple theories about the true nature and implications of events, situations, and trends of interest, DARPA says. +More on Network World: DARPA plan would reinvent not-so-clever machine learning systems+  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Short Take – The Present Future of the Net

A few random thoughts from ONS and Networking Field Day 15 this week:

  • Intel is really, really, really pushing their 5 generation (5G) wireless network. Note this is not Gen5 fibre channel or 5G 802.11 networking. This is the successor to LTE and capable of pushing a ridiculous amount of data to a very small handset. This is one of those “sure thing” technologies that is going to have a huge impact on our networks. Carriers and service providers are already trying to cope with the client rates we have now. What happens when they are two or three times faster?
  • PNDA has some huge potential for networking a data analytics. Their presentation had some of the most technical discussion during the event. They’re also the basis for a lot of other projects that are in the pipeline. Make sure you check them out. The project organizers suggest that you get started with the documentation and perhaps even help contribute some writing to get more people on board.
  • VMware hosted a dinner for us that had some pretty luminary speakers like Bruce Davie and James Watters. They talked about the journey from traditional networking to a new paradigm filled Continue reading

Privacy settings may be the Creators Update’s biggest change

From the time it launched, Windows 10 has been the source of controversy over its aggressive monitoring of user activity, and I readily admit to fanning those flames at the start. A cottage industry of utilities has sprung up that will turn off all of the offending features in one fell swoop, which has quieted a lot of people, me included.RELATED: 11 hidden tips and tweaks for Windows 10 With the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft has made a major change in the nature of its data collection in the OS and has revealed a great deal of information on the telemetry that it gathers from your system. It is documented in a lengthy blog post by Windows chief Terry Myerson.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CyberX assesses industrial environments for cyber risks, provides continuous monitoring

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received reports of 59 cyber incidents at energy facilities in 2016. This is an increase of nearly a third over 2015. Security specialists believe this number is quite conservative, considering that energy companies aren’t required to report cyberattacks to DHS.But the actual number of incidents isn’t the really concerning part of the story. More worrisome, say federal cybersecurity officials and private security specialists, is that the vast majority of energy industry companies lack the technology and personnel to continuously monitor their operational systems for anomalous activity, which leaves them unable to detect intrusions when they happen. Consequently, they don’t even know about incidents to be able to report them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CyberX assesses industrial environments for cyber risks, provides continuous monitoring

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received reports of 59 cyber incidents at energy facilities in 2016. This is an increase of nearly a third over 2015. Security specialists believe this number is quite conservative, considering that energy companies aren’t required to report cyberattacks to DHS.But the actual number of incidents isn’t the really concerning part of the story. More worrisome, say federal cybersecurity officials and private security specialists, is that the vast majority of energy industry companies lack the technology and personnel to continuously monitor their operational systems for anomalous activity, which leaves them unable to detect intrusions when they happen. Consequently, they don’t even know about incidents to be able to report them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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