IDG Contributor Network: How to bring true interoperability to the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an incredibly diverse space, encompassing a large variety of hardware form factors and software ecosystems unlike anything we have seen in technology. Smartwatches, connected cameras, drones, thermostats, voice-enabled speakers, smart appliances and more—they all live together within the IoT.RELATED: 8 tips for building a cost-effective IoT sensor network But the diversity and innovation that excites many IoT fans is a big challenge not just for manufacturers and developers, but also (and most importantly) consumers. Which technology options should be used when designing or deploying IoT devices? How do they keep up with updated or new operating systems? What about new software and connectivity technologies coming up? Those are just some of today’s challenges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to bring true interoperability to the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an incredibly diverse space, encompassing a large variety of hardware form factors and software ecosystems unlike anything we have seen in technology. Smartwatches, connected cameras, drones, thermostats, voice-enabled speakers, smart appliances and more—they all live together within the IoT.RELATED: 8 tips for building a cost-effective IoT sensor network But the diversity and innovation that excites many IoT fans is a big challenge not just for manufacturers and developers, but also (and most importantly) consumers. Which technology options should be used when designing or deploying IoT devices? How do they keep up with updated or new operating systems? What about new software and connectivity technologies coming up? Those are just some of today’s challenges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Digital India threatened by Internet shutdowns

containerd joins the Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Today, we’re excited to announce that containerd – Docker’s core container runtime – has been accepted by the Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) as an incubating project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). containerd’s acceptance into the CNCF alongside projects such as Kubernetes, gRPC and Prometheus comes three months after Docker, with support from the five largest cloud providers, announced its intent to contribute the project to a neutral foundation in the first quarter of this year.

In the process of spinning containerd out of Docker and contributing it to CNCF there are a few changes that come along with it.  For starters, containerd now has a logo; see below. In addition, we have a new @containerd twitter handle. In the next few days, we’ll be moving the containerd GitHub repository to a separate GitHub organization. Similarly, the containerd slack channel will be moved to separate slack team which will soon available at containerd.slack.com

containerd has been extracted from Docker’s container platform and includes methods for transferring container images, container execution and supervision and low-level local storage, across both Linux and Windows. containerd is an essential upstream component of the Docker platform used by millions of end users that  also provides the industry with an open, Continue reading

Railroads and Cars: a Fairy Tale

Imagine a Flatworld in which railways are the main means of transportation. They were using horses and pigeons in the past, and experimenting with underwater airplanes, but railways won because they were cheaper than anything else (for whatever reason, price always wins over quality or convenience in that world).

As always, there were multiple railroad tracks and trains manufacturers, and everyone tried to use all sorts of interesting tricks to force the customers to buy tracks and trains from the same vendor. Different track gauges and heptagonal wheels that worked best with grooved rails were the usual tricks.

Tell Policy Makers to Think Twice Before Blocking Content or Flipping the Internet Kill Switch

Kubernetes and VMware NSX

Attending CloudNativeCon/KubeCon this week in Berlin (29^th – 30^th of March)? Please visit us at our booth #G1 and click for more details about what’s happening at the show!

IT is undergoing a huge transformation.

Organizations are moving away from static infrastructure to full automation on every aspect of IT. This major shift is not happening overnight. It is an evolutionary process, and people decide to evolve their IT at different speeds based on organizational needs.

When I decided to join the VMware Networking & Security Business Unit four years ago, the key deciding factor for me was that I felt that networking is adopting automation far too slowly. Do not get me wrong – we always automated network configurations in some form. I still remember vividly my time as a networking consultant at a major German airport. Back at the beginning of the new millennium, I used a combination of Perl, Telnet and Expect to migrate the configuration of a huge core network from a single-tenant configuration to a multi-tenant MPLS/VPN.  Nevertheless, at some point, network operators stopped evolving, and even today largely, we continue to automate by manually setting up new configuration into Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Smyte wants to get biblical on all those bad online actors

It’s really hard to come up with good startup names, especially names for which the URL is still available, so it is interesting to see startups go back, way back, to find names. One of those is San Francisco security startup Smyte.Smyte's reason for being is to smite (see what I did there?) bad online actors. Its SaaS software is already used by a number of peer-to-peer marketplaces and social apps to combat spam, scam, online harassment and credit card fraud. In other words, Smyte fights pretty much everything social media has, alas, come to be known for. Smyte is a graduate of Y Combinator’s Winter 2015 program.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Easily Finding the Latest CoreOS AMI ID

It seems as if finding the right Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID for the workload you’d like to deploy can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Each combination of region and AMI produces a unique ID, so you have to look up the AMI for the particular region where you’re going to deploy the workload. This in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad, but then you have to wade through multiple versions of the same AMI in each region. Fortunately, if you’re using CoreOS Container Linux on AWS, there’s an easy way to find the right AMI ID. Here’s how it works.

CoreOS publishes a JSON feed of the latest AMI for each of their channels (stable, beta, and alpha). You can find links to these JSON feeds on this page. This is powerful for 2 reasons:

1. Because it’s available via HTTP, you can use curl to retrieve it anytime you need it.

2. Because it’s in JSON, you can use jq (see my post on jq for more information) to easily parse it to find the information you need. (Not super comfortable with JSON? Check out my introductory post.)

Putting these two reasons together, you end up Continue reading

US House votes to undo broadband privacy rules

The U.S. House of Representatives has followed the Senate in voting to repeal privacy rules that can prevent broadband providers from selling customers’ internet-browsing histories and other data without their permission.On Tuesday, the House voted 215-205 to do away with the privacy rules that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed last year. The rules had yet to come into effect.They require broadband carriers to first obtain opt-in approval from customers before using and sharing their sensitive personal information, such as web browsing history, geo-location data and what applications they've used.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US House votes to undo broadband privacy rules

The U.S. House of Representatives has followed the Senate in voting to repeal privacy rules that can prevent broadband providers from selling customers’ internet-browsing histories and other data without their permission.On Tuesday, the House voted 215-205 to do away with the privacy rules that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed last year. The rules had yet to come into effect.They require broadband carriers to first obtain opt-in approval from customers before using and sharing their sensitive personal information, such as web browsing history, geo-location data and what applications they've used.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft signs off on Windows 10 Creators Update final code

After a few more test builds in recent weeks, Microsoft has officially signed off on Build 15063 as the final code for the Windows 10 Creators Update and is making it widely available for download. Build 15063 was released last week to Windows Insiders for testing, and it seems this build is the RTM build that will be sent out to the general public next month. While Microsoft hasn't said anything official yet, the official Windows 10 Update Assistant tool is listing Build 15063 as the Creators Update. Microsoft released an Update Assistant last year for the Anniversary Update. This new version was leaked to the internet by Microsoft tipster Walking Cat (a fairly reliable source of news on Microsoft), so a lot of people, including Windows bloggers, have it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

47% off First Alert 10-Year Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Temperature – Deal Alert

First Alert's CO710 CO alarm is powered by sealed, ten year lithium batteries to provide continuous protection for ten years without battery replacement, and a built-in end-of-life alarm lets you know when its time is up. Its modern, compact design allows easy tabletop or wall mount placement, and it displays CO levels along with room temp on a backlit display. The unit's "peak" function captures and allows you to retrieve the highest CO level recorded in your home. In the event of a CO incident, this valuable information can be passed along to emergency or hospital staff. The CO710 averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its list price is discounted 47% to $31.66. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

46% off CyberPower Surge Protector 3-AC Outlet with 2 USB (2.1A) Charging Ports – Deal Alert

The Professional Surge Protector CSP300WUR1 safeguards common home and office devices, such as computers and electronics, by absorbing spikes in energy caused by storms and electrical power surges. Designed for convenience, the portable CSP300WUR1 is ideal for travelers. It provides 600 joules of protection, has three surge-protected outlets, and a folding wall tap plug. Two USB ports (2.1 Amp shared) charge personal electronics, including smartphones, digital cameras, MP3 players, and other devices. A Limited-Lifetime Warranty ensures that this surge suppressor has passed high quality standards in design, assembly, material or workmanship and further protection is offered by a $50,000 Connected Equipment Guarantee. It currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $21.955 has been reduced 46% to just $11.88. See the discounted CSP300WUR1 on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

46% off CyberPower Surge Protector 3-AC Outlet with 2 USB (2.1A) Charging Ports – Deal Alert

The Professional Surge Protector CSP300WUR1 safeguards common home and office devices, such as computers and electronics, by absorbing spikes in energy caused by storms and electrical power surges. Designed for convenience, the portable CSP300WUR1 is ideal for travelers. It provides 600 joules of protection, has three surge-protected outlets, and a folding wall tap plug. Two USB ports (2.1 Amp shared) charge personal electronics, including smartphones, digital cameras, MP3 players, and other devices. A Limited-Lifetime Warranty ensures that this surge suppressor has passed high quality standards in design, assembly, material or workmanship and further protection is offered by a $50,000 Connected Equipment Guarantee. It currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $21.955 has been reduced 46% to just $11.88. See the discounted CSP300WUR1 on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI warns of attacks on anonymous FTP servers

The FBI warns that attackers are targeting vulnerable FTP servers used by small medical and dental offices as a way to obtain medical records and other sensitive personal information.While the dangers of placing sensitive data on these servers is well known, smaller businesses may not have the expertise or motivation to upgrade.The attackers can use the stolen data to harass, intimidate and blackmail these businesses, the FBI says, and may also include using the stolen information to commit fraud.The attackers could also write to the servers in order to store malware and launch attacks, the FBI says.The remedy is to remove any personally identifiable information or protected health information from these servers and replace FTP with something more secure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI warns of attacks on anonymous FTP servers

The FBI warns that attackers are targeting vulnerable FTP servers used by small medical and dental offices as a way to obtain medical records and other sensitive personal information.While the dangers of placing sensitive data on these servers is well known, smaller businesses may not have the expertise or motivation to upgrade.The attackers can use the stolen data to harass, intimidate and blackmail these businesses, the FBI says, and may also include using the stolen information to commit fraud.The attackers could also write to the servers in order to store malware and launch attacks, the FBI says.The remedy is to remove any personally identifiable information or protected health information from these servers and replace FTP with something more secure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Scaling Deep Learning on an 18,000 GPU Supercomputer

It is one thing to scale a neural network on a single GPU or even a single system with four or eight GPUs. But it is another thing entirely to push it across thousands of nodes. Most centers doing deep learning have relatively small GPU clusters for training and certainly nothing on the order of the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The emphasis on machine learning scalability has often been focused on node counts in the past for single-model runs. This is useful for some applications, but as neural networks become more integrated into existing workflows, including those …

Scaling Deep Learning on an 18,000 GPU Supercomputer was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

RIP Raimund Genes, Trend Micro CTO

Raimund Genes I learned this past Saturday that my good friend and Trend Micro CTO, Raimund Genes, passed away suddenly last week. Raimund was only 54.If you were lucky enough to cross paths with Raimund, you probably share my profound sorrow at his passing. For those who never had the pleasure of a meeting, allow me to provide a few thoughts about him: I first met Raimund at an industry event where he was supposed to go through a PowerPoint presentation with me. Upon shaking my hand, he said something like, “Let’s skip the formalities of a canned presentation, go to the bar, get a drink, and just talk.” We did have a drink at the bar that day, but what I remember most was an hour of insightful and entertaining banter. He was both informal and informative simultaneously, and we immediately connected. One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to speak to some of the smartest cybersecurity people—professionals, researchers, technology vendors, legislators, etc.—on a regular basis. Out of this exceptional population, however, some people stand out. I call these folks my “beacons” in that I’m more engaged when I Continue reading

RIP Raimund Genes, Trend Micro CTO

I learned this past Saturday that my good friend and Trend Micro CTO, Raimund Genes, passed away suddenly last week.  Raimund was only 54.If you were lucky enough to cross paths with Raimund, you probably share my profound sorrow at his passing.  For those who never had the pleasure of a meeting, allow me to provide a few thoughts about him: I first met Raimund at an industry event where he was supposed to go through a PowerPoint presentation with me.  Upon shaking my hand, he said something like, “let’s skip the formalities of a canned presentation, go to the bar, get a drink, and just talk.”  We did have a drink at the bar that day, but what I remember most was an hour of insightful and entertaining banter.  He was both informal and informative simultaneously and we immediately connected. One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to speak to some of the smartest cybersecurity people – professionals, researchers, technology vendors, legislators, etc. – on a regular basis.  Out of this exceptional population however, some people stand out.  I call these folks my “beacons” Continue reading