Review: de.Light combines light bulb with Wi-Fi; mixed results ensue

The de.Light system (about $150) by XY-Connect (based in Singapore) is one of the more unique networking products I’ve tried in some time. The set includes an LED light bulb with Wi-Fi capabilities, gaining network access through a powerline adapter that users can plug into their home router. The system is designed to help fill any Wi-Fi blind spots within your home, giving client devices network access without needing to upgrade to a new router or switch.Here’s how it works: you plug the de.Light Adapter into a wall outlet near your existing router, then plug in the included Ethernet cable into one of your router’s LAN ports. The Adapter includes a passthrough power outlet, so you can then plug other things (like a power strip or other power cord) into it without losing the outlet. The adapter supports HomeplugAV, creating a powerline network throughout the power lines within your home. The light bulb (an LED device) screws into any light socket. The company says the bulb works better with overhead lighting sockets rather than mobile lamps, to give Wi-Fi coverage from the top downward into an area.To read this article in full or to Continue reading

Announcing Docker Enterprise Edition

For consistency, we are also renaming the free Docker products to Docker Community Edition (CE) and adopting a new lifecycle and time-based versioning scheme for both Docker EE and CE. Today’s Docker CE and EE 17.03 release is the first to use the new scheme.

Docker CE and EE are released quarterly, and CE also has a monthly “Edge” option. Each Docker EE release is supported and maintained for one year and receives security and critical bugfixes during that period. We are also improving Docker CE maintainability by maintaining each quarterly CE release for 4 months. That gets Docker CE users a new 1-month window to update from one version to the next.

Both Docker CE and EE are available on a wide range of Continue reading

Introducing the Docker Certification Program for Infrastructure, Plugins and Containers

In conjunction with the introduction of Docker Enterprise Edition (EE), we are excited to announce the Docker Certification Program and availability of partner technologies through Docker Store. A vibrant ecosystem is a sign of a healthy platform and by providing a program that aligns Docker’s commercial platform with the innovation coming from our partners; we are collectively expanding choice for customers investing in the Docker platform.

The Docker Certification Program is designed for both technology partners and enterprise customers to recognize Containers and Plugins that excel in quality, collaborative support and compliance. Docker Certification is aligned to the available Docker EE infrastructure and gives enterprises a trusted way to run more technology in containers with support from both Docker and the publisher. Customers can quickly identify the Certified Containers and Plugins with visible badges and be confident that they were built with best practices, tested to operate smoothly on Docker EE.

Save Your Seat: Webinar – Docker Certified and Store on March 21st.

There are three categories of Docker Certified technology available:

• Certified Infrastructure: Include operating systems and cloud providers that the Docker platform is integrated and optimized for and tested for certification. Through this, Docker provides a great user Continue reading

3 ways to gauge employee engagement and satisfaction

Performance reviews and employee satisfaction surveys aren't always the best way to get honest feedback from employees. And as a result, more companies are moving to establish a feedback culture, which relies on fostering an open-culture through communication and frequent check-ins with employees.Ty Tucker, CEO of REV, a performance management platform vendor, emphasizes the importance of encouraging trust and patience when building a feedback culture."In the end, it doesn't matter if you have the best perks -- like a fancy cafeteria that offers free lunch or a gym in the office -- without trust, none of this matters. Although this business philosophy can take a lot longer to gain traction than simply sending out a survey, you will likely receive more honest opinions and genuine feedback if your employees trust you -- and vice versa," he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 Windows 10 tablets put to the test

Anyone who depends on their tablet throughout the workday knows that disaster can strike at any moment -- it can get accidentally pushed off a desk or dropped while you're running for your airline connection, or caught in a sudden storm, or sat on by your three-year-old.If you want to avoid last-minute catastrophes, then you may want to consider buying a ruggedized tablet.There were about 530,000 rugged tablets sold in 2016, about 0.3% of the overall computer market, making it a niche within a niche, according to Chetan Mohan, lead hardware and semiconductor analyst at market-research firm Technavio. He forecasts sales to rise to 720,000 systems by 2021, an annual increase of over 6% -- a rare portion of the PC market that is prospering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

13 reasons not to use Chrome

OK, we’re kidding a bit. Chrome is great. Google did a wonderful job with it—and continues improving it every day. The marketplace recognizes this, and many surveys show Chrome is the most popular browser by far.It’s not hard to see why. Chrome is stable, in part because its architects made a smart decision to put each web page in a separate process. It has excellent HTML5 standards support, loads of extensions, synchronization across computers, and tight integration with Google’s cloud services. All of these reasons and more make Chrome the popular choice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

15 IoT tools connected to Raspberry Pi

Prime your Pi for enterprise IoTImage by Logo by Raspberry Pi FoundationIoT is a sparkly new term for what the scientific community has been doing for a long time. But now, in its enterprise incarnation, we’re trying to place those data-gathering devices closer to the edge. Both researchers and businesses are essentially looking for “time series” data -- in other words, time-stamped data about the physical world around you. A great example of this can be found in the power industry, where companies are trying to obtain detailed information on power usage closer to their consumers, so they can build better usage models for the likes of rooftop solar.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to get your infrastructure in shape to shake off scriptable attacks

According to F-Secure’s The State of Cyber Security 2017 report, criminal hackers perform most cyber-attacks using basic, scriptable techniques against poorly maintained infrastructure. This will continue as long as there are loads of attack scripts and plenty of poorly secured networks.The number of attack scripts is climbing as elite hackers continue to create these scripts and sell them to others, says Itzik Kotler, CTO and Co-Founder, SafeBreach. There doesn’t seem to be any stopping this trend.CSO examines scriptable attacks and the part of the problem that you can control: getting your infrastructure in shape to shrug off these breaches.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to get your infrastructure in shape to shake off scriptable attacks

According to F-Secure’s The State of Cyber Security 2017 report, criminal hackers perform most cyber-attacks using basic, scriptable techniques against poorly maintained infrastructure. This will continue as long as there are loads of attack scripts and plenty of poorly secured networks.The number of attack scripts is climbing as elite hackers continue to create these scripts and sell them to others, says Itzik Kotler, CTO and Co-Founder, SafeBreach. There doesn’t seem to be any stopping this trend.CSO examines scriptable attacks and the part of the problem that you can control: getting your infrastructure in shape to shrug off these breaches.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to respond to a cyber attack

Preparing and responding to a cyberattackImage by ThinkstockCybersecurity incidents continue to grow in both volume and sophistication, with 64 percent more security incidents reported in 2015 than in 2014, according to a June 2016 report by the Ponemon Institute. The human instinct is to try to find those responsible. However, any attempt to access, damage or impair another system that appears to be involved in an attack is mostly likely illegal and can result in civil and/or criminal liability. Since many intrusions and attacks are launched from compromised systems, there’s also the danger of damaging an innocent victim’s system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to respond to a cyber attack

Preparing and responding to a cyberattackImage by ThinkstockCybersecurity incidents continue to grow in both volume and sophistication, with 64 percent more security incidents reported in 2015 than in 2014, according to a June 2016 report by the Ponemon Institute. The human instinct is to try to find those responsible. However, any attempt to access, damage or impair another system that appears to be involved in an attack is mostly likely illegal and can result in civil and/or criminal liability. Since many intrusions and attacks are launched from compromised systems, there’s also the danger of damaging an innocent victim’s system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nerd Knobs Save the Day: NSSA Saga Continues

Remember the OSPF NSSA Forwarding Address kludge and its consequences? Let’s figure out whether the nerd knobs available in Cisco IOS can save the day.

TL&DR: Don’t use OSPF areas if you can avoid them. Don’t use NSSA areas.

Swordfish Storage Management Falls Short

Hedvig Raises $21.5M and Expands to New Markets

Hedvig’s founder and CEO Avinash Lakshamn comes from Amazon and Facebook.

Get started podcasting and producing video on Linux

Interested in producing your own podcast or video series entirely from a free software-fueled, Linux-powered computer? Here’s how I accomplish that task.Feel free to copy my exact setup for your own use. Or take some of my recommendations. Or ignore everything I say here and do things better than I do. Either way, hopefully this proves useful in your Linux-fueled media production endeavors.Podcasting and video hardware The hardware setup for my daily recording is fairly simple. More often than not, I utilize a Blue USB Yeti microphone. It has exceptionally good sound (especially for the roughly $100 price tag) and functions as a sound device on every modern Linux distribution I’ve encountered.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The ultimate upgrade to Amazon’s Alexa

In a recent post, I shared 8 ways to make Amazon’s Alexa even more awesome, covering everything from better communications to easier setup and skills creation. I believe those suggestions could help Alexa become even more useful than it already is. But for voice assistants to truly fulfill their destiny, they need something a bit more radical and transformative.They need the human touch.As noted in my previous post, while Alexa does a few things really well, she doesn’t even try to deal with the vast, vast, majority of tasks and questions you might want to pose to a voice-powered assistant. That’s because the current state of AI simply doesn’t support even a tiny fraction of the questions you might want answered or tasks you might want help with. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US FCC stays data security regulations for broadband providers

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has halted new rules that would require high-speed internet providers to take 'reasonable' steps to protect customer data.In a 2-1 vote that went along party lines, the FCC voted Wednesday to stay temporarily one part of privacy rules passed in October that would give consumers the right to decide how their data is used and shared by broadband providers.The rules include the requirement that internet service providers should obtain "opt-in" consent from consumers to use and share sensitive information such as geolocation and web browsing history, and also give customers the option to opt out from the sharing of non-sensitive information such as email addresses or service tier information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US FCC stays data security regulations for broadband providers

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has halted new rules that would require high-speed internet providers to take 'reasonable' steps to protect customer data.In a 2-1 vote that went along party lines, the FCC voted Wednesday to stay temporarily one part of privacy rules passed in October that would give consumers the right to decide how their data is used and shared by broadband providers.The rules include the requirement that internet service providers should obtain "opt-in" consent from consumers to use and share sensitive information such as geolocation and web browsing history, and also give customers the option to opt out from the sharing of non-sensitive information such as email addresses or service tier information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo execs botched its response to 2014 breach, investigation finds

If your company has experienced a data breach, it's probably a good idea to thoroughly investigate it promptly.Unfortunately, Yahoo didn't, according to a new internal investigation. The internet pioneer, which reported a massive data breach involving 500 million user accounts in September, actually knew an intrusion had occurred back in 2014, but allegedly botched its response.The findings were made in a Yahoo securities exchange filing on Wednesday that offered more details about the 2014 breach, which the company has blamed on a state-sponsored hacker.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo execs botched its response to 2014 breach, investigation finds

If your company has experienced a data breach, it's probably a good idea to thoroughly investigate it promptly.Unfortunately, Yahoo didn't, according to a new internal investigation. The internet pioneer, which reported a massive data breach involving 500 million user accounts in September, actually knew an intrusion had occurred back in 2014, but allegedly botched its response.The findings were made in a Yahoo securities exchange filing on Wednesday that offered more details about the 2014 breach, which the company has blamed on a state-sponsored hacker.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here