7 dazzling smartphone improvements with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip

Unparalleled improvements will come to smartphones with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835, a tiny chip with powerhouse features. Super-thin handsets will be as fast as PCs, LTE data transfers could be faster than a wired internet connection, and virtual reality will be in the palm of your hand. Top handsets like Samsung's Galaxy S8 are likely to end up using the new eight-core Snapdragon 835 chip. Here are seven improvements coming to handsets.Smartphones will be thinnerPhones are already thin, but will get even thinner with the Snapdragon 835. The chip -- which is smaller than a U.S. penny -- is 35 percent smaller than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 820, which powers the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. If smartphone sizes remain the same, device makers could pack in larger batteries and battery life. The chip will also occupy less circuit board space, allowing device makers to add more memory or other components.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: A review of technical developments in cryptography

The biggest practical development in crypto for 2016 is Transport Layer Security version 1.3. TLS is the most important and widely used cryptographic protocol and is the backbone of secure Internet communication; you’re using it right now to read this blog! After years of work by hundreds of researchers and engineers, the new TLS design is now considered final from a cryptography standpoint. —EFF

The post Worth Reading: A review of technical developments in cryptography appeared first on 'net work.

The Rosie Pattern Language, a better way to mine your data

We’ve all been there: You’ve got tons of unstructured or semi-structured data to sift through and like any savvy nerd, you know that doing so handraulically is against all that is good and holy [queue “Mission Impossible” music]. Your problem, which you have to accept, is how to efficiently and effectively automate the extraction process. As an old hand on the digital ship you’ll probably turn to a tool you know well such as grep, that good ol’ workhorse that implements regular expressions. Say you want to find all of the IPv4 addresses in a text file. You might resort to using:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel unveils its Optane hyperfast memory

Intel today announced that its upcoming Optane non-volatile memory will ship in the second quarter of the year as 16GB and 32GB M.2 expansion cards.Optane memory will be available as an option for new Intel-based client platforms, including Intel 7th Gen Core (Kaby Lake), and as a standalone component. Platforms and motherboards supporting Intel Optane technology will be labeled "Optane Ready" to indicate their compatibility.Intel unveiled Intel Optane Memory along with sharing details about Intel 7th generation Core processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Zigbee Writes a Universal Language for IoT

The Zigbee dotdot language could help with IoT fragmentation.

Top 10 Ethical Dilemmas & Policy Issues in Science & Tech

You think you have problems? Sure you do, but pity those in science and technology tasked with advancing artificial intelligence, drones and healthcare methods that are fraught with peril despite potentially huge benefits.The University of Notre Dame's John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values has issued its fourth annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology, and it contains some doozies. It might have seemed tough to top some of 2016's issues, from lethal cyberweapons to bone conduction for marketing, but no sweat. Of course the Notre Dame center's researchers hope to be able help address some of these new concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top 10 Ethical Dilemmas & Policy Issues in Science & Tech

You think you have problems? Sure you do, but pity those in science and technology tasked with advancing artificial intelligence, drones and healthcare methods that are fraught with peril despite potentially huge benefits.The University of Notre Dame's John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values has issued its fourth annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology, and it contains some doozies. It might have seemed tough to top some of 2016's issues, from lethal cyberweapons to bone conduction for marketing, but no sweat. Of course the Notre Dame center's researchers hope to be able help address some of these new concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Study shows 802.11ac wave 2 APs gaining sales ground

Shipments of 802.11ac wave 2 access points doubled in volume in the third quarter of 2016, as the newer wireless technology begins to reach further into the mainstream.According to statistics from IHS Markit, the new tech accounted for about 10% of all wireless access points shipped during the third quarter, up from 5% in the previous quarter. That’s more than half a million wave 2 access points sold during those months.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Facebook gets 2017 tech industry Year in Apologies rolling + Donald Trump offers cybersecurity warning: 'No computer is safe'To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Now its a Microblog

The transition to Packet Pushers is complete.  My long-form technical and analytical writing is published there.

Etherealmind will become a “microblog”:

1. I want to share links, thoughts, references, observations that I collect from reading and research.
2. Posts with just a few sentences and link to the source.
3. Its not practical to publish to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc individually. Nor do I want to, I own this content.

The post Now its a Microblog appeared first on EtherealMind.

IDG Contributor Network: How mainframes prevent data breaches

2016 was a strange year marked by everything from election surprises to a seemingly endless spate of celebrity deaths. But when historians look back at this mirum anno—weird year—it may end up being known as the year of the data breach. Of course, this sort of thing isn’t restricted to 2016, but its impact on the world was hard to ignore. Among government organizations, the IRS and FBI suffered data breaches, and corporate victims included LinkedIn, Target, Verizon and Yahoo. Literally millions of people had their private information exposed to black hats, thieves and other ne’er-do-wells of the digital world. This epidemic of data theft calls upon security experts to get serious about creating new solutions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How mainframes prevent data breaches

2016 was a strange year marked by everything from election surprises to a seemingly endless spate of celebrity deaths. But when historians look back at this mirum anno—weird year—it may end up being known as the year of the data breach. Of course, this sort of thing isn’t restricted to 2016, but its impact on the world was hard to ignore. Among government organizations, the IRS and FBI suffered data breaches, and corporate victims included LinkedIn, Target, Verizon and Yahoo. Literally millions of people had their private information exposed to black hats, thieves and other ne’er-do-wells of the digital world. This epidemic of data theft calls upon security experts to get serious about creating new solutions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How mainframes prevent data breaches

2016 was a strange year marked by everything from election surprises to a seemingly endless spate of celebrity deaths. But when historians look back at this mirum anno—weird year—it may end up being known as the year of the data breach. Of course, this sort of thing isn’t restricted to 2016, but its impact on the world was hard to ignore. Among government organizations, the IRS and FBI suffered data breaches, and corporate victims included LinkedIn, Target, Verizon and Yahoo. Literally millions of people had their private information exposed to black hats, thieves and other ne’er-do-wells of the digital world. This epidemic of data theft calls upon security experts to get serious about creating new solutions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Writing Tools: 2017

From time to time, folks ask me about how I write so much, or rather “how do you get so much done???” The reality is I tend to be very focused on tools and process. As I just revisited my tools over the new year, particularly when looking at a lot of new material that needs to be written, I thought it might be helpful to someone, perhaps, to write a post about what I’m using as the year turns over. Right now, I use—

• Word
• OneNote
• Zotero
• Notepad++
• Smartedit
• CorelDRAW
• Acrobat Standard

I know I’m “old fashioned” in this tool set; I don’t do fancy markdown, markup, marksideways, or any of that stuff. I don’t swear by a platform (I don’t have a dog in the the Apple versus Microsoft fight), etc. But this set of tools has been modified, thought, and rethought across the last 20 years and the writing of millions of words of text contained in hundreds of papers, 11 books, many hours of classroom time, etc. I have been through periods when I really focused on finding some cool new tool to write with, maybe trying to “get rid of distractions,” or whatever else. Continue reading

Allot Communications Brings In a New CEO

Andrei Elefant will stick around as chief strategy officer.

T-Mobile CTO Says Modern Core Makes SDN Less Urgent

But SDN will be key for 5G advances like network slicing.

Review: Microsoft Windows Defender comes up short

Microsoft’s latest version of its anti-malware tool, Windows Defender, is a frustrating product to evaluate. Yes, it is perhaps the best antivirus tool to come from Microsoft, with a series of noteworthy improvements. Yes, it provides good enough protection for your family’s PCs. And yes, it could be your PC’s sole antivirus utility, if you are willing to accept its limitations.However, once you examine the product in more detail, you will see why we cannot recommend it for enterprise use. And that is the frustration of this product: Microsoft is trying to do the right thing and offers a tempting feast, but ultimately offers an incomplete meal that is tough to digest.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: Microsoft Windows Defender comes up short

Microsoft’s latest version of its anti-malware tool, Windows Defender, is a frustrating product to evaluate. Yes, it is perhaps the best antivirus tool to come from Microsoft, with a series of noteworthy improvements. Yes, it provides good enough protection for your family’s PCs. And yes, it could be your PC’s sole antivirus utility, if you are willing to accept its limitations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The loss of net neutrality: Say goodbye to a free and open internet

First: I’m not a lawyer. Net neutrality—the principle that no online traffic has priority over other traffic, not even for pay—might go away. If it does, big money will be behind its demise. The end of network neutrality will create many lasting problems, including these specific issues: 1. The lawyers win  Every conceivable new theory about how one organization should have priority will ensue, and the courts will be clogged deciding the outcome. Today, the principle is simple: all traffic gets the same priority, and multimedia can have isochronous priority, but it’s not guaranteed. + Also on Network World: How Trump will attack the FCC's net neutrality rules + Without net neutrality, we will enter an era where ISPs, telcos, carriers and interconnects will all demand that THEIR traffic has priority, and yours does not—unless you pay. Let the litigation begin, and the courts glow in the dark in an attempt to sort out what theories of law now hold sway. Insert wallet, here. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security data growth drives SOAPA

Happy new year, cybersecurity community! I hope you are well rested; it’s bound to be an eventful year.Way back when at the end of November 2016, I wrote a blog post about an evolutionary trend I see happening around cybersecurity analytics and operations technology. Historically, large enterprises have relied on SIEM products to anchor their security operations centers (SOCs). This will continue, but I see SIEM becoming part of a more global cybersecurity software architecture called SOAPA (security operations and analytics platform architecture). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security data growth drives SOAPA

Happy new year, cybersecurity community! I hope you are well rested; it’s bound to be an eventful year.Way back when at the end of November 2016, I wrote a blog post about an evolutionary trend I see happening around cybersecurity analytics and operations technology. Historically, large enterprises have relied on SIEM products to anchor their security operations centers (SOCs). This will continue, but I see SIEM becoming part of a more global cybersecurity software architecture called SOAPA (security operations and analytics platform architecture). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here