Microsoft takes its databases worldwide with Cosmos DB

Developers will have an easier time scaling their applications to meet global needs with a database product Microsoft updated on Wednesday. Called Cosmos DB, the service lets developers store data that can be replicated across any of the company’s 34 Azure public cloud regions.Cosmos is an expansion of DocumentDB, a managed NoSQL database service that Microsoft launched in 2015. Its key innovation is a feature that lets developers pick between five consistency models that range from "strong" to "eventual" consistency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DockerCon Europe Registration and Call for Proposals are OPEN

DockerCon 2017 in Austin was amazing! We are still on a high from the energy and excitement that is created when 5,500 members of the Docker Community are in one place. Containers are everywhere, and the learning, inspiration and networking that those four days brings is unrivaled. We welcomed amazing speakers, made tons of meaningful connections and are already geared up to do it again for DockerCon Europe: October 16 – 19th in Copenhagen! Early Bird registration is now open, hurry up and get your ticket before they sell out.

 

Register for DockerCon Europe!

 

DockerCon Europe 2017

In addition, today we opened the DockerCon Copenhagen Call for Papers. We hope that you were inspired by the Moby Project and LinuxKit announcements and are looking forward to your submissions on the following:

Using Docker

Has Docker technology made you better at what you do? Is Docker an integral part of your company’s tech stack? Do you use Docker to do big things?

By giving concrete, first-hand examples, tell us about your Docker usage, share your challenges and what you learned along the way, and inspire us on how to use Docker to accomplish real tasks. When attendees leave your session, they should understand Continue reading

Bot-generated comments swamp FCC, urging overturn of net neutrality

Some supporters of a U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to repeal its recent net neutrality rules have apparently resorted to dirty tricks.An apparent bot-generated campaign has posted more than 83,400 comments on the FCC's website supporting the agency's plan to gut its own net neutrality rules.A handful of people whose names are on the bot-generated comments have denied making the comments, according to a report by ZDNet. The 83,400 comments, filed to the FCC's comment system between Monday and Wednesday, all contain the same text, reading in part:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Bot-generated comments swamp FCC, urging overturn of net neutrality

Some supporters of a U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to repeal its recent net neutrality rules have apparently resorted to dirty tricks.An apparent bot-generated campaign has posted more than 83,400 comments on the FCC's website supporting the agency's plan to gut its own net neutrality rules.A handful of people whose names are on the bot-generated comments have denied making the comments, according to a report by ZDNet. The 83,400 comments, filed to the FCC's comment system between Monday and Wednesday, all contain the same text, reading in part:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Datanauts 083: Diving Deep Into vSphere Host Resources

Today on the Datanauts we explore the depths of vSphere 6.5 host resources to help you maximum performance of your virtual infrastructure and provide a deeper understanding of essentials such as CPU, memory, storage, and Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA). Our guests are Frank Denneman and Niels Hagoort, authors of the forthcoming book vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive. The post Datanauts 083: Diving Deep Into vSphere Host Resources appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Microsoft finally bans SHA-1 certificates in Internet Explorer and Edge

The Tuesday updates for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge force those browsers to flag SSL/TLS certificates signed with the aging SHA-1 hashing function as insecure. The move follows similar actions by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox earlier this year.Browser vendors and certificate authorities have been engaged in a coordinated effort to phase out the use of SHA-1 certificates on the web for the past few years, because the hashing function no longer provides sufficient security against spoofing.SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) dates back to 1995 and has been known to be vulnerable to theoretical attacks since 2005. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has banned the use of SHA-1 by U.S. federal agencies since 2010, and digital certificate authorities have not been allowed to issue SHA-1-signed certificates since Jan. 1, 2016, although some exemptions have been made -- for example, for outdated payment terminals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft finally bans SHA-1 certificates in Internet Explorer and Edge

The Tuesday updates for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge force those browsers to flag SSL/TLS certificates signed with the aging SHA-1 hashing function as insecure. The move follows similar actions by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox earlier this year.Browser vendors and certificate authorities have been engaged in a coordinated effort to phase out the use of SHA-1 certificates on the web for the past few years, because the hashing function no longer provides sufficient security against spoofing.SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) dates back to 1995 and has been known to be vulnerable to theoretical attacks since 2005. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has banned the use of SHA-1 by U.S. federal agencies since 2010, and digital certificate authorities have not been allowed to issue SHA-1-signed certificates since Jan. 1, 2016, although some exemptions have been made -- for example, for outdated payment terminals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon’s new Echo Show is a really big deal

I’d like to think that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is taking my advice about how to improve his company’s Echo smart speaker and Alexa voice assistant—but he probably isn’t. More likely, the new Echo Show device the company announced yesterday is just another logical step in the evolution of voice recognition and smart assistants.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft brings customization to its pre-built AI services

Microsoft is doubling down on its cloud AI services for business customers with a fleet of new offerings aimed at helping companies deal with video and unique problems not solved by its off-the-shelf cognitive services.New services announced Wednesday include a new Video Indexer service that will provide customers with automated captioning, sentiment analysis, custom face recognition, object detection, optical character recognition and keyword extraction of videos they provide. The tool is built on existing Microsoft services, but gives customers an easier way to process large amounts of video for indexing and analysis rather than require manual work by humans.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches critical IOS security fault found after CIA WikiLeaks dump

Cisco this week said it patched a critical vulnerability in its widely deployed IOS software that was disclosed in the WikiLeaks dump of CIA exploits earlier this year.Cisco had in March issued a “critical” security advisory for the IOS software that runs on some 300 models of its Catalyst switches and other networking equipment.+More on Network World: FBI/IC3: Vile $5B business e-mail scam continues to breed+Cisco this week wrote: “A vulnerability in the Cisco Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) processing code in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of an affected device or remotely execute code with elevated privileges.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches critical IOS security fault found after CIA WikiLeaks dump

Cisco this week said it patched a critical vulnerability in its widely deployed IOS software that was disclosed in the WikiLeaks dump of CIA exploits earlier this year.Cisco had in March issued a “critical” security advisory for the IOS software that runs on some 300 models of its Catalyst switches and other networking equipment.+More on Network World: FBI/IC3: Vile $5B business e-mail scam continues to breed+Cisco this week wrote: “A vulnerability in the Cisco Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) processing code in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of an affected device or remotely execute code with elevated privileges.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The need to automate routine work has never been higher

Anyone who has been in the workforce for any significant length of time probably feels like their workload has grown tenfold, but they likely brush it off to getting old or maybe being burned out. The fact is, however, the extra workload is very real. This week, as part of its Knowledge17 event, ServiceNow released a study called “Today’s State of Work: At the Breaking Point” (pdf) that shows how bad the problem currently is. Before I get into the details of the survey, it’s important to understand the demographics. The report summarizes a survey of about 1,850 business leaders, including C-level executives, vice presidents, directors and managers in seven countries, to understand the workload of business leaders, the impact of automation and the opinions on the future of work. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump to FBI Director James Comey: You’re fired!

As shocking as it is, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey yesterday, despite the agency investigating possible collusion with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.Trump’s letter to Comey stated: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”Trump said new leadership was needed to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump to FBI Director James Comey: You’re fired!

As shocking as it is, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey yesterday, despite the agency investigating possible collusion with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.Trump’s letter to Comey stated: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”Trump said new leadership was needed to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What to expect at Microsoft Build 2017

Today marks the start of this year’s Microsoft Build developers conference in Seattle, not far from Microsoft HQ. It seems like yesterday that the show was launched at the Anaheim Convention Center, which I attended for a briefing on Windows Server 2012, among other things. The show has grown tremendously and played a part in the launches of Windows 8 and 10, among many other products.So, news will roll out out throughout the day by people there to cover the show, but in advance of that, let’s take a look at what will likely be the big news in different categories, and what we hope to see. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here