Oracle’s next big business is selling your info

There’s a decent chance you're part of Oracle’s next big business. Not selling products to you, but selling you as a product. That's the idea behind the Oracle Data Cloud, a massive pool of information about consumers and companies.The tech titan has put it together by tracking people across the web and buying data from a variety of sources. People who have their data included may not even know that they’ve opted in for that data collection.There’s no big red button that someone has to click in order to be a part of the company's data collection machine. Instead, its base of user data is fed by a network of third parties. The Data Cloud is primarily fed by three types of sources: publishers, like Forbes and Edmunds, retail loyalty programs, and traditional data brokers like Experian and IHS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

17% off Corsair Gaming MM300 Anti-Fray Cloth Gaming Mouse Pad – Deal Alert

The MM300 is a high endurance, pro-grade cloth mouse pad for high-DPI gaming mice. Reinforced stitched edges guard against surface peeling, and the optimized textile-weaved surface design gives superior control and precision tracking for absolutely lethal in-game accuracy. With multiple sizes available, from small to extended, the MM300 has just the right size to fit your needs.  This gaming pad currently averages 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 840 people (read reviews) on Amazon, where the extended version's typical list price of $29.99 has been recently dropped 17% to just $24.95.  See this deal now on Amazon To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell strengthens data center stack with shiny new assets

Just a few years back, Dell said it didn't want to mimic sloppy behemoths like IBM or HP and, instead, wanted to be lean and focus on the mid-market.But after a US$67 billion merger with EMC in 2016, the new company called Dell Technologies is a full-bodied systems integrator, offering hardware, networking, storage, and services.In the meanwhile, the company's rivals slimmed down. The new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focuses on data-center hardware, while IBM focuses on software.Dell Technologies is taking a page from Alphabet, a bunch of autonomous companies like Google working together. Dell Technologies includes hardware company Dell and storage provider EMC, with many independent operational units that have combined to strengthen the company's infrastructure stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell strengthens data center stack with shiny new assets

Just a few years back, Dell said it didn't want to mimic sloppy behemoths like IBM or HP and, instead, wanted to be lean and focus on the mid-market.But after a US$67 billion merger with EMC in 2016, the new company called Dell Technologies is a full-bodied systems integrator, offering hardware, networking, storage, and services.In the meanwhile, the company's rivals slimmed down. The new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focuses on data-center hardware, while IBM focuses on software.Dell Technologies is taking a page from Alphabet, a bunch of autonomous companies like Google working together. Dell Technologies includes hardware company Dell and storage provider EMC, with many independent operational units that have combined to strengthen the company's infrastructure stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell strengthens data center stack with shiny new assets

Just a few years back, Dell said it didn't want to mimic sloppy behemoths like IBM or HP and, instead, wanted to be lean and focus on the mid-market.But after a US$67 billion merger with EMC in 2016, the new company called Dell Technologies is a full-bodied systems integrator, offering hardware, networking, storage, and services.In the meanwhile, the company's rivals slimmed down. The new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focuses on data-center hardware, while IBM focuses on software.Dell Technologies is taking a page from Alphabet, a bunch of autonomous companies like Google working together. Dell Technologies includes hardware company Dell and storage provider EMC, with many independent operational units that have combined to strengthen the company's infrastructure stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Mirantis scores sweet Vodafone deal. More fuel for the OpenStack fire

I’ve been covering Mirantis for the longest time. They’re an easy company to write about. Seemingly every drama in the IT industry has some kind of Mirantis involvement, and while that might be a slight exaggeration, it’s fair to say that they’re good at providing fodder for the peanut brigade.Most recently, Mirantis has been undergoing something of a transformation, as market dynamics and the realities of their initially chosen areas (that of being a specialist OpenStack service shop) didn’t really prove viable. In recent months, Mirantis has significantly cut staffing levels and pivoted somewhat to being a service provider across a variety of open-source cloud operating systems (most notable Kuberenetes).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel sold you out

There should be prizes for this. Let’s call them The Oopsies. The most bafflingly easy servers to hijack, turn out to be those running Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT).People warned me about this, and I pooh-pooh’d it. Please hand me a scraper so that I can wipe the egg off my face. The servers are so wickedly simple to jack that a third-grader can log into them and merrily do essentially root damage.+ Also on Network World: The insecurities list: 10 ways to improve cybersecurity + That the largest server CPU provider on earth doesn’t fall all over itself in sincere apologies (United Airlines gone wrong?) doesn’t surprise me. No one falls on their sword anymore. No one takes product managers out behind the cafeteria and strips the access key fob from the management toy room. It’s all just jolly. Oops. Sorry, folksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel sold you out

There should be prizes for this. Let’s call them The Oopsies. The most bafflingly easy servers to hijack, turn out to be those running Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT).People warned me about this, and I pooh-pooh’d it. Please hand me a scraper so that I can wipe the egg off my face. The servers are so wickedly simple to jack that a third-grader can log into them and merrily do essentially root damage.+ Also on Network World: The insecurities list: 10 ways to improve cybersecurity + That the largest server CPU provider on earth doesn’t fall all over itself in sincere apologies (United Airlines gone wrong?) doesn’t surprise me. No one falls on their sword anymore. No one takes product managers out behind the cafeteria and strips the access key fob from the management toy room. It’s all just jolly. Oops. Sorry, folksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPhone 8 may be released in October

For anyone eagerly anticipating the release of the iPhone 8, we have some good news to share. Amid reports that production difficulties and component shortages may have resulted in the iPhone 8 hitting stores as late as November, a new report via Digitimes saysiPhone 8 mass production is on track and that the device will go on sale sometime in October.According to the report, Apple's key partners in the supply chain will begin ramping up component production in June. Specifically, TSMC will reportedly begin producing Apple's next-generation A11 processor towards the later half of June. What's more, some of the yield issues that Apple was previously facing have reportedly been addressed. All that said, mass production is reportedly on track to get underway sometime in August or September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to use PowerShell with DISM

With the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update in early April, Microsoft changed the default command-line environment in Windows 10 from the Command Prompt (aka cmd.exe) to PowerShell. There, the old black-and-white command-line interface gives way to a new, blue-and-white style in the latest version of Windows 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

IDG Contributor Network: Red Hat rolls out the announcements at its annual summit

Last week open source company Red Hat held its annual summit. I didn't actually attended the event, but I took the opportunity to follow along virtually. Many of my analyst friends were there, and between their missives, some back-channel conversations and interaction with their AR/PR team, I got a pretty good handle on what was up.This comes at an interesting time for Red Hat. Its original business, Red Hat Linux in all its flavors, is going well, but newer open-source initiatives (OpenStack, OpenShift, Docker, etc.) have muddied the waters and created a requirement for Red Hat to embrace different areas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Automating F5 Big-IP Using Ansible webinar

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The following blog contains answers to all questions asked during the Automating F5 BIG-IP using Ansible webinar.

Interested in exploring other Ansible webinars? Register for one of our upcoming webinars or watch an on-demand webinar.

Q: Can you pass the BIG-IP username and password by variable? Also, is there a way to mask the password in the Playbooks or manually feed the credentials as the Playbooks run? How can we ensure security here given that administrative passwords are clear text in the Playbooks themselves?

Yes, the BIG-IP username and password can be passed as a variable by referencing them from the inventory file or even provide them during runtime on the cli -- although this would show them in the process list if you did a 'ps'. You can also specify them in a vars_prompt; this would prevent them from being shown in 'ps'. The downside here is that this would limit the amount of automation you can provide because running the Playbook would require that either be typed in or specified with '-e' ('-e' auto fills vars_prompts that match). The recommended way is to get the vars from a secure location. Ansible provides Vault, Continue reading