Intel takes aim at NVIDIA with Mobileye acquisition

Platform shifts kill companies. Mainframe companies missed the shift to minicomputers, minicomputers to desktops, and desktops to mobile. Machine learning is the next platform shift. Hardware platforms for machine learning have yet to be defined.Creating the machine learning models that power the next generation of self-driving cars, home assistants and language translation will require novel new hardware architectures that are significantly faster and address much larger memory spaces.+ Also on Network World: 5G will help autonomous cars cruise streets safely + To ensure it doesn’t miss out on this platform shift, Intel spent $15.3 billion to acquire Mobileye. Its goal is to gain early entry into the self-driving car market that will consume even more silicon than cars do today for self-driving, safety and convenience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

There Won’t Be A CCIE: SDN. Here’s Why

There’s a lot of work that’s been done recently to bring the CCIE up to modern network standards. Yusuf and his team are working hard to incorporate new concepts into the written exam. Candidates are broadening their horizons and picking up new ideas as they learn about industry stalwarts like OSPF and spanning tree. But the biggest challenge out there is incorporating the ideas behind software defined networking (SDN) into the exam. I don’t believe that this will ever happen. Here’s why.

Take This Broken Network

If you look at the CCIE and what it’s really testing, the exam is really about troubleshooting and existing network integration. The CCIE introduces and tests on concepts like link aggregation, routing protocol redistribution, and network service implementation. These are things that professionals are expected to do when they walk in the door, either as a consultant or as someone advising on the incorporation of a new network.

The CCIE doesn’t deal with the design of a network from the ground up. It doesn’t task someone with coming up with the implementation of a greenfield network from scratch. The CCIE exam, especially the lab component, only tests a candidate on their ability to work Continue reading

27% off Corsair STRAFE RGB Mechanical Gaming Backlit Multicolor Keyboard – Deal Alert

The Corsair STRAFE RGB mechanical gaming keyboard features 100% Cherry MX gaming key switches - Unique gold-cross point contacts for incredible reliability, durability, and precision.  Cherry MX Red key switches are extremely responsive, with a smooth, linear response and a wide actuation zone, and no audible click or tactile “bump”.  The keyboard features multi-color dynamic backlighting - Brilliant RGB backlighting that immerses you in the game with virtually unlimited lighting adjustability. It's fully programmable - reassign any key or set up the most extreme macros for advanced gaming. And a detachable soft-touch wrist rest provides the comfort you need for marathon gaming sessions. Gaming-grade circuitry provides 100% anti-ghosting and 104 key rollover on USB ensures no matter how fast your play, all your keypresses register. The list price of $149.99 has been reduced 27%, for now, to $110. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BrandPost: How to Plan Your Move to Multi-Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet has been in the market for more than 15 years, but with rapid advances in Wi-Fi speeds and the rollout of increasingly bandwidth-intensive applications, many enterprises and SMBs are finding it’s finally running out of steam.Whereas once the only alternative to wired gigabit Ethernet networks was a jump to 10G, which requires new cabling, now there’s another option: 2.5G or 5G, using the Cat 5e/Cat 6 twisted pair cable you already have installed. Thanks to the work of the 45-member NBASE-T Alliance, you can find products based on the IEEE 802.3bz standard for 2.5/5G Ethernet ratified in September 2016.In this post, we’ll provide guidance to help you plan an upgrade.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI trained Geek Squad techs on law-enforcement tactics, new records show

The connection between the FBI and Best Buy's internal service and repair organization Geek Squad went a lot further than initially thought, according to newly unsealed records in a case involving a doctor charged with child pornography after bringing in a laptop for repair. The Orange County (California) Weekly has been all over a case involving a well-respected physician Dr. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. + Also on Network World: Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again + While performing a recovery scan of his data files, a Geek Squad technician found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." The technician notified his boss, who alerted the FBI. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI trained Geek Squad techs on law-enforcement tactics, new records show

The connection between the FBI and Best Buy's internal service and repair organization Geek Squad went a lot further than initially thought, according to newly unsealed records in a case involving a doctor charged with child pornography after bringing in a laptop for repair. The Orange County (California) Weekly has been all over a case involving a well-respected physician Dr. Mark A. Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier took his laptop to the Mission Viejo Best Buy in November 2011 after he was unable to start it. + Also on Network World: Why you shouldn't trust Geek Squad ever again + While performing a recovery scan of his data files, a Geek Squad technician found an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck." The technician notified his boss, who alerted the FBI. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pennsylvania sues IBM over troubled $110M IT upgrade

Pennsylvania is suing IBM over a $110 million IT project to upgrade its unemployment compensation system that the state says was never completed.The lawsuit alleges that state residents ultimately paid $170 million "for what was supposed to be a comprehensive, integrated, and modern system that it never got," Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement last Thursday announcing the lawsuit.Asked to comment, an IBM spokesperson said: ""The claims alleged by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are without merit. IBM will vigorously defend itself against this lawsuit."But the odds were against this project from the start, according Jim Johnson, founder and chairman of Standish Group, which studies and consults on software project management. "Successful projects of this size are very, very rare," said Johnson.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After rocky tenure, Mayer to leave Yahoo ‘tarnished’

After nearly five rocky years as CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer will be leaving her post with something of a tarnished image.As Yahoo continued to struggle under her tenure, so did Mayer's reputation as someone who could run a top-tier company. And that is likely to affect the jobs she'll look at taking on next."I think she'll end up on the boards of directors of several companies, but probably will not receive an offer to head up a top company anytime soon," said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX. "Her tenure at Yahoo has tarnished her brand, and it will need to be rehabilitated a bit before she gets another shot at the top slot in another tech firm."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Despite 5G, LTE will be even bigger five years from now

In 2022, even after 5G has officially launched, 4G will be bigger than ever.An ABI Research report released Monday reinforces what mobile operators and network builders have been saying about the move to 5G: It will be a gradual transition, not a wholesale replacement. Over the next decade or more, LTE will remain in use and and offer some of the same benefits as 5G. In some cases, it might be hard to tell the difference.LTE carries about 67 percent of all mobile traffic now, ABI says. By 2022, two years after 5G is expected to become commercially available, it will have an even bigger share, at 82 percent, ABI analyst Nick Marshall said in a press release about the report. Only about 13 percent of traffic will be on 5G.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 must-ask questions for evaluating EDR tools

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) products give IT staff visibility into endpoints for detecting malicious activity, analyzing data and providing appropriate response. EDR is part of a burgeoning security market, peppered with well-known vendors such as Carbon Black, Cisco, CrowdStrike and FireEye.Anyone looking at EDR today has come across the term "threat hunting," the process of searching through voluminous amounts of data to find signs of a threat actor or emerging attack rather than relying on known threat signatures. It's a combination of threat intelligence and big data analytics. Threat hunting is a critical component of a comprehensive EDR solution and a key differentiator from endpoint protection platforms (EPPs), with which they are often confused.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

10 must-ask questions for evaluating EDR tools

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) products give IT staff visibility into endpoints for detecting malicious activity, analyzing data and providing appropriate response. EDR is part of a burgeoning security market, peppered with well-known vendors such as Carbon Black, Cisco, CrowdStrike and FireEye.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Back up all your data to your NAS box without installing any software

If you know anything about NAS (Network Attached Storage), you know that it’s a great centralized backup receptacle for your PCs. If you didn’t know, we just told you. Actually, the name is bit of a giveaway: NAS is storage that you attach via ethernet or Wi-Fi and access across the network. What that doesn’t tell you is that most NAS boxes have the smarts of a PC, with a full-blown app environment that includes extensive backup abilities.But there are two things that even NAS-aware users might not realize: First, many NAS boxes are perfectly capable of backing up data from PCs running any type of operating system (e.g., Windows, OS X, or Linux) from anywhere, using nothing more than their integrated utilities. All you need to do is configure the PC to give up its data, and then use the NAS box to grab it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Back up all your data to your NAS box without installing any software

If you know anything about NAS (Network Attached Storage), you know that it’s a great centralized backup receptacle for your PCs. If you didn’t know, we just told you. Actually, the name is bit of a giveaway: NAS is storage that you attach via ethernet or Wi-Fi and access across the network. What that doesn’t tell you is that most NAS boxes have the smarts of a PC, with a full-blown app environment that includes extensive backup abilities.But there are two things that even NAS-aware users might not realize: First, many NAS boxes are perfectly capable of backing up data from PCs running any type of operating system (e.g., Windows, OS X, or Linux) from anywhere, using nothing more than their integrated utilities. All you need to do is configure the PC to give up its data, and then use the NAS box to grab it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How CIOs cope when mobile app development goes rogue

When Independence Blue Cross released its first mobile app in 2012, it simultaneously embraced the tech trend of the moment and perpetuated the legacy of shadow IT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

5 fatal flaws that dog the new Windows 10

Windows 10 will get better in the forthcoming Creators Update. That isn’t a hollow promise or more marketing drivel. It’s a straightforward observation, comparing the most egregious parts of the current version, Win10 1607 Anniversary Update, with near-final betas of the next version, 1703. While it’s too early to gauge 1703’s stability, the feature improvements are very real.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

AMD busts Ryzen performance myths, clearing Windows 10 from blame

Ryzen performance is the mystery that has launched a thousand conspiracy theories, performing like a champ in productivity and content creation tasks but occasionally delivering fewer frames than you'd expect in games. AMD debunked most of those conspiracy theories in a blog post Monday night. For starters, the company said Windows 10’s scheduler isn’t guilty. Internet hardware detectives had started to focus their blame on Windows 10 scheduler, the part of the operating system that doles out work to each individual core or thread in a chip. Many believe Windows 10 scheduler is throwing out work to the wrong cores or threads, hobbling performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

7 tips for developing a powerful data disaster plan

Data disasterImage by ThinkstockThe massive amount of data enterprises deal with today has resulted in them facing many difficult challenges. Among these challenges are not only various types of data disasters themselves, but the difficulties associated with developing a strong plan to deal with and recover from such disasters. These plans need to be able to both recover growing amounts of data from an increasingly larger set of applications, and do so in alignment with service level agreements that meet the needs of their business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Continuous authentication: Why it’s getting attention and what you need to know

User authentication is one of the basic components of any cyber security program. Identifying an individual based on a username, password or other means helps companies ensure that the person is who he or she claims to be when accessing a system, application or network.But in some cases traditional authentication processes are not enough to provide strong security throughout a user work session. That’s where continuous authentication comes in. The concept is still relatively new, and experts say few products yet exist in the market. But it’s gaining more attention as companies look for ways to prevent unauthorized access to their critical business data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Continuous authentication: Why it’s getting attention and what you need to know

User authentication is one of the basic components of any cyber security program. Identifying an individual based on a username, password or other means helps companies ensure that the person is who he or she claims to be when accessing a system, application or network.But in some cases traditional authentication processes are not enough to provide strong security throughout a user work session. That’s where continuous authentication comes in. The concept is still relatively new, and experts say few products yet exist in the market. But it’s gaining more attention as companies look for ways to prevent unauthorized access to their critical business data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows Vista has just 30 days to live

In a month’s time, Microsoft will put Windows Vista to rest once and for all. If you’re one of the few people still using it, you have just a few weeks to find another option before time runs out.After April 11, 2017, Microsoft will no longer support Windows Vista: no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates, Microsoft says. (Mainstream Vista support expired in 2012.) Like it did for Windows XP, Microsoft has moved on to better things after a decade of supporting Vista.As Microsoft notes, however, running an older operating system means taking risks—and those risks will become far worse after the deadline. Vista’s Internet Explorer 9 has long since expired, and the lack of any further updates means that any existing vulnerabilities will never be patched—ever. Even if you have Microsoft’s Security Essentials installed—Vista’s own antivirus program—you’ll only receive new signatures for a limited time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here