Acer’s Chromebook 11 N7 is tough as nails, but runs on old tech

Do you have the nasty habit of knocking your laptop around? Meet Acer's tough-as-nails Chromebook 11 N7, designed to withstand a serious beating.The Chromebook 11 N7 has an 11.6-inch screen and is fortified with layers of protection to withstand drops. Acer has been so meticulous in ruggedizing the laptop that it's even difficult to remove key caps from the keyboard -- whether by accident or on purpose.Why did Acer construct such a Chromebook? It's targeted at educational institutions that issue laptops to students, who may be clumsy with PCs. The Chromebook 11 N7 is certainly more durable than the iPad, which has been given to students and can crack easily if mishandled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

12 things you’ll get in PCs with Intel’s new Kaby Lake chips

Amazingly thin Windows 10 laptops and tablets will soon become available with Intel's new Kaby Lake chips, which were announced at CES. These chips, called 7th Generation Core, will extend laptop battery life to new highs, and bring new capabilities like 4K video. You'll also enjoy VR by connecting headsets to Kaby Lake laptops or tablets. There's a lot more to Kaby Lake, and here's what you can expect from PCs: Thinner and lighter laptops Laptops and tablets with Kaby Lake are so thin and light that their weight in a backpack is not noticeable, unless it's a fully loaded gaming PC. Samsung's new 13.3-inch Notebook 9 weighs an amazing 816 grams, but offers only seven hours of battery life. Low-power Kaby Lake chips will also be in laptops and 2-in-1 devices from Lenovo, HP, Acer and Dell that weigh 1 to 1.5 kilograms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell protects Alienware, shoves low-end gaming into Inspiron 7000

Merging gaming PCs into low-end brands failed for PC makers like HP, but Dell is giving it a shot. Dell is moving budget gaming PCs into the consumer Inspiron brand as it positions the premium Alienware PCs for a leap into the 4K and virtual reality era. At CES, Dell introduced new Inspiron 7000 gaming laptops, which have the look and feel of Alienware PCs. With a starting price of US$799, the Inspiron 7000 models aren't as feature-packed as the new Alienware 13, 15, and 17 laptops, which were also announced at the show and will ship this month. The Inspiron 7000 models -- which comes with 14- or 15.6-inch screens -- have processing and graphics punch with high-end Intel Core i7 H-series Kaby Lake CPUs and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPUs. It's the first Inspiron gaming laptop and the fastest in that brand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel’s new NUC mini-desktops get Kaby Lake, Optane and Thunderbolt 3

A lot of cool technologies are coming to Intel's latest NUCs, which are powerful mini-desktops that now boast the company's latest Kaby Lake chips. A NUC  packs all components tightly in a small PC that is light enough to be held  in one hand. These mini-PCs are easily customizable and considered desktop replacements. Some of the new NUCs have Thunderbolt 3 ports, Intel Iris Plus graphics for 4K video, and are ready for Intel's superfast Optane storage. Intel has announced three new "tall" NUCs with 7th Generation Core i3, i5 and i7 chips, and two "short" NUCs with Core i3 and i5 chips. The "tall NUCs" are slightly larger and more powerful than the short NUCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DockerCon 2017: Call For Papers FAQ

It’s a new year, and we are looking for new stories of how you are using Docker technology to do big things. Submit your cool hack, use case or deep dive sessions before the DockerCon 2017 CFP closes on January 14th.

To help with your submissions, we’ve answered the most frequent questions below and put together a list of tips to help get your proposal selected.

Q. How do I submit a proposal?

A. Submit your proposal here.

Q. What kind of talks are you looking for?

A. This year, we are looking for cool hacks, user stories and deep dive submissions:

• Cool Hacks: Show us your cool hack and wow us with the interesting ways you can push the boundaries of the Docker stack. You do not have to have your hack ready by the submission deadline, just clearly explain your hack, what makes it cool and the technologies you will use.

• Using Docker: Tell us first-hand about your Docker usage, challenges and what you learned along the way and inspire us on how to use Docker to accomplish real tasks.

• Deep Dives: Propose code and demo heavy deep-dive sessions on what you have been able to transform with Continue reading

Sponsored Post: Loupe, New York Times, ScaleArc, Aerospike, Scalyr, VividCortex, MemSQL, InMemory.Net, Zohocorp

Who's Hiring?

Fun and Informative Events

• Your event here!

Cool Products and Services

• A note for .NET developers: You know the pain of troubleshooting errors with limited time, limited information, and limited tools. Log management, exception tracking, and monitoring solutions can help, but many of them treat the .NET platform as an afterthought. You should learn about Loupe...Loupe is a .NET logging and monitoring solution made for the .NET platform from day one. It helps you find and fix problems fast by tracking performance metrics, capturing errors in your .NET software, identifying which errors are causing the greatest impact, and pinpointing root causes. Learn more and try it free today.


• ScaleArc's database load balancing software empowers you to “upgrade your apps” to consumer Continue reading

Ransomware on smart TVs is here and removing it can be a pain

It took a year from proof of concept to in-the-wild attack, but ransomware for Android-based smart TVs is now here. As one victim discovered this Christmas, figuring out how to clean such an infection can be quite difficult. Ransomware for Android phones has already been around for several years and security experts have warned in the past that it's only a matter of time until such malicious programs start affecting smart TVs, especially since some of them also run Android. In November 2015, a Symantec researcher named Candid Wueest even went as far as to infect his own TV with an Android ransomware application to highlight the threat. While that infection was just a demonstration, this Christmas, the owner of an LG Electronics TV experienced the real deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ransomware on smart TVs is here and removing it can be a pain

It took a year from proof of concept to in-the-wild attack, but ransomware for Android-based smart TVs is now here. As one victim discovered this Christmas, figuring out how to clean such an infection can be quite difficult. Ransomware for Android phones has already been around for several years and security experts have warned in the past that it's only a matter of time until such malicious programs start affecting smart TVs, especially since some of them also run Android. In November 2015, a Symantec researcher named Candid Wueest even went as far as to infect his own TV with an Android ransomware application to highlight the threat. While that infection was just a demonstration, this Christmas, the owner of an LG Electronics TV experienced the real deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Smile vector

Smile Vector is a Twitter bot that can make any celebrity smile. It scrapes the web for pictures of faces, and then it morphs their expressions using a deep-learning-powered neural network. Its results aren’t perfect, but they’re created completely automatically, and it’s just a small hint of what’s to come as artificial intelligence opens a new world of image, audio, and video fakery. Imagine a version of Photoshop that can edit an image as easily as you can edit a Word document — will we ever trust our own eyes again? —The Verge

The post Worth Reading: Smile vector appeared first on 'net work.

BrandPost: Latest Generation Of Wi-Fi Access Points Drive Multi-Gigabit Wired Ethernet Upgrade Cycle

Organizations from the Fortune 100 to the 28 million small businesses in the United States are embracing mobility, Big Data, social media and cloud computing. This digital transformation in turn is placing crushing capacity demands on enterprise and small and mid-sized business networks.And while these “third-platform” technologies promise agility and speed, for many SMBs, the promise of faster business is too often stifled by legacy network infrastructure. The problem is the Wi-Fi networks many organizations depend on have sped past the capacity of ubiquitous Ethernet cabling to handle the high speeds needed for today’s digital business. Wireless Access Points (APs) today can transfer data faster than the Ethernet cables and network switch can support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security Without Borders: Free security help for dissidents

Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations which have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it; their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications may be intercepted, messaging programs may be blocked. All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security Without Borders: Free security help for dissidents

Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations which have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it; their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications may be intercepted, messaging programs may be blocked. All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: No excuse for airline system outages

In 2016, as multiple system outages led to long check-in lines, flight cancellations and passengers camping out in airports, several airlines’ reputations made unplanned descents. What could they have done differently to prevent these crises or to recover from them more rapidly?Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.Southwest Airlines' problem in July came down to a failed network router. Delta Air Lines' nationwide system outage in August was a result of a power surge that caused an automatic transfer switch to malfunction and take down 500 servers. Unfortunately, systems and equipment did not switch over automatically to back up power. The result of these mishaps? Each airline cancelled more than 2,000 flights and suffered negative media coverage, including a tweet storm from frustrated customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

17% off SteelSeries Nimbus Gaming Controller, Play New Minecraft Apple TV Edition – Deal Alert

One of the biggest games in recent history is now even more widely available. Minecraft was just released on Apple TV (see review here on TechConnect), and no, you don't have to control it with that little silver remote. Take full control of the game with this Bluetooth gaming remote from SteelSeries, currently discounted 17% from $60 to $50 on Amazon. The SteelSeries Nimbus remote has all the control sticks, buttons and triggers you or your kids will need to control Minecraft right on your TV. A rechargeable Lithium ion battery provides up to 40 hours of gaming on a charge. This gaming controller can ultimately be used for any Apple TV game, not just Minecraft, and can be paired to your other iOS devices as well. See the discounted SteelSeries Nimbus remote on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple watcher Gene Munster & team about to get hands-on as VCs

Gene Munster, one of the most watched Apple watchers as a longtime research analyst at Piper Jaffray, has now started a venture capital fund that promises to invest in exactly the sorts of startups Apple and its competitors are likely to buy.Loup Ventures (which gets its name for a word meaning "wolf" or "to leap/pounce" depending on which language you choose), also consists of former Munster colleagues at Piper Jaffray, Doug Clinton and Andrew Murphy.MORE: Yup, Apple made our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech CompaniesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

January Events: Networking Field Day 14, Viptela, TWiT.tv

Its my privilege to attend Network Field Day 14 in January 2017

The post January Events: Networking Field Day 14, Viptela, TWiT.tv appeared first on EtherealMind.

From Monolith to Microservices

Microservices are big in the tech world these days. The evolutionary heir to service-oriented architecture, microservice-based design is the ultimate manifestation of everything you learned about good application design.

Loosely coupled with high cohesion, microservices are the application embodiment of DevOps principles. So why isn’t everything a microservice now? At the LISA Conference, Anders Wallgren and Avantika Mathur from Electric Cloud gave some insight with their talk “The Hard Truths about Microservices and Software Delivery”.

Perhaps the biggest impediment to the adoption of microservices-based application architecture is an organizational culture that is not supportive. Microservices proponents recommend a team …

From Monolith to Microservices was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.