Sorriest technology companies of 2016

A sorry, sorry lotMicrosoft couldn’t get out of its culturally-clueless way in 2016. Samsung apologized over and over for its flaming Note7 fiasco. HP, T-Mobile, Facebook and pretty much every other big name in tech was forced to issue a public apology or more during the year, as public relations pros earned their money (or not) to salvage their employer or client’s reputation – for the time being. You won’t be sorry for taking a spin through this collection of corporate apologies from the tech world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VMware Acquires Employees & Assets of PLUMgrid

The book closes on one of the earliest SDN startups.

22% off Roku Streaming Stick – Deal Alert

Stream just about anything – blockbusters, broadcast TV, big entertainment brands, and niche channels. Movies, TV shows, live sports, news and music. Roku has the only streaming players that work with all these channels: Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, VUDU, Sling TV, and PBS KIDS. Easy access to 350,000+ movies and TV episodes across 3,500+ paid or free channels. Use your smartphone or tablet and the Roku mobile app to enjoy private listening anytime via your headphones. And use your mobile device as a fully functional remote control. The highly rated Streaming Stick from Roku is currently discounted 22% from its typical price of $49.99, so you can buy it now for just $39. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker & Prometheus Joint Holiday Meetup Recap

Last Wednesday we had our 52nd meetup at Docker HQ, but this time we joined forces with the Prometheus user group to host a mega-meetup! There was a great turnout and members were excited to see the talks on using Docker with Prometheus, OpenTracing and the new Docker playground; play-with-docker.

First up was Stephen Day, a Senior Software Engineer at Docker, who presented a talk entitled, ‘The History of Metrics According to Me’. Stephen believes that metrics and monitoring should be built into every piece of software we create, from the ground up. By solving the hard parts of application metrics in Docker, he thinks it becomes more likely that metrics are a part of your services from the start. See the video of his intriguing talk and slides below.

‘The History of Metrics According to Me’ @stevvooe talking #metrics and #monitoring at the #Docker SF #meetup! @prometheusIO @CloudNativeFdn pic.twitter.com/6hk0yAtats

— Docker (@docker) December 15, 2016

Next up was Ben Sigelman, an expert in distributed tracing, whose talk ‘OpenTracing Isn’t Just Tracing: Measure Twice, Instrument Once’ was both informative and humorous. He Continue reading

On being a 24/7 organization and the 2016 leap second

If the cloud is real, software important, and system reliability paramount, then non-stop computing, computing across time zones, and invisibly short repair times ought to be mandatory, wouldn’t you think? Of many requirements lain in litigation, regulatory compliance, and other “best practices,” there is one that doesn’t seem to make the checklists. Let me lay it out for you: Can you get support 24/7/365.25?You get bonus points for knowing leap seconds are coming. Why? Because among other things, Kerberos time synchronization mandates pretty accurate timing. We’re about to insert a leap second into your life on western New Year’s Day. You may have zones that celebrate other years, but to be in sync with the time standards in the United States, there will be an extra second. The earth is slowing down. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On being a 24/7 organization and the 2016 leap second

If the cloud is real, software important, and system reliability paramount, then non-stop computing, computing across time zones, and invisibly short repair times ought to be mandatory, wouldn’t you think? Of many requirements lain in litigation, regulatory compliance, and other “best practices,” there is one that doesn’t seem to make the checklists. Let me lay it out for you: Can you get support 24/7/365.25?You get bonus points for knowing leap seconds are coming. Why? Because among other things, Kerberos time synchronization mandates pretty accurate timing. We’re about to insert a leap second into your life on western New Year’s Day. You may have zones that celebrate other years, but to be in sync with the time standards in the United States, there will be an extra second. The earth is slowing down. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On being a 24/7 organization and the 2016 leap second

If the cloud is real, software important, and system reliability paramount, then non-stop computing, computing across time zones, and invisibly short repair times ought to be mandatory, wouldn’t you think? Of many requirements lain in litigation, regulatory compliance, and other “best practices,” there is one that doesn’t seem to make the checklists. Let me lay it out for you: Can you get support 24/7/365.25?You get bonus points for knowing leap seconds are coming. Why? Because among other things, Kerberos time synchronization mandates pretty accurate timing. We’re about to insert a leap second into your life on western New Year’s Day. You may have zones that celebrate other years, but to be in sync with the time standards in the United States, there will be an extra second. The earth is slowing down. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5G Standard May Include Information-Centric Networking, MEC

ATIS, the 3GPP, and ETSI are looking closely at ICN and MEC.

How AT&T is Using Virtualization as a Security Tool

One of the first things we virtualized was our security, AT&T says.

Microsoft’s year in review: The highs and lows of 2016

After the turmoil and chaos of the Ballmer years, the Nadella Era of Microsoft is almost boring. The company is executing well with a few misfires—nobody's perfect or flawless—controversy is minimal and employees seem content for the first time in ages. CEO Satya Nadella enjoys a 95 percent approval rating, according to Glassdoor. That doesn't mean 2016 was an uneventful year, just quieter than in the past with no major blowups. But let's look back at the year that was in Microsoft highs and lows. High: Microsoft introduced its real-time translation technology for Skype, creating the sort-of equivalent to the Star Trek universal translator where voice conversations would be translated in real time. We learned why the Skype translator came out. Nadella saw it still running as a lab project and lit a fire under the researchers to productize it. He wanted to see more of an effort to make commercial projects out of research experiments, and the translator was one of them. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Exaggerating the End of NetEng

The argument around learning to code, it seems, always runs something like this:

We don’t need network engineers any longer, or we won’t in five years. Everything is going to be automated. All we’ll really need is coders who can write a python script to make it all work. Forget those expert level certifications. Just go to a coding boot camp, or get a good solid degree in coding, and you’ll be set for the rest of your life!

It certainly seems plausible on the surface. The market is pretty clearly splitting into definite camps—cloud, disaggregated, and hyperconverged—and this split is certainly going to drive a lot of change in what network engineers do every day. But is this idea of abandoning network engineering skills and replacing them wholesale with coding skills really viable?

To think this question through, it’s best to start with another one. Assume everyone in the world decides to become a coder tomorrow. Every automotive engineer and mechanic, every civil engineer and architect, every chef, and every grocer moves into coding. The question that should rise just at this moment is: what is it that’s being coded? Back end coders code database systems and business logic. Continue reading

WUMT is a viable Windows Update alternative

WUMT is short for Windows Update MiniTool, a free software tool that handles Windows updates without requiring use of the built-in Update & Security facility in Windows 10. WUMT, which originally appeared on the Wilders Security Forums in October 2015, comes from an anonymous Russian translator who goes by "Mr. X." He maintains the tool on a Spanish language page on blogspot, where he regularly updates the program, currently numbered 30.09.2016 (which corresponds to its release date at the end of September 2016). You can also download the tool from MajorGeeks.com.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Samsung reportedly wraps up probe into exploding Galaxy Note7s

As Samsung looks to publicly move past the Note7 debacle with a series of upcoming carrier updates designed to brick any remaining devices, the company is also moving forward with its internal investigation of the issue. According to a report from South Korea-based The Investor, Samsung has wrapped up its probe of the phablet’s exploding batteries.Very few details are offered in the report, but the publication says Samsung’s findings have been sent to the appropriate agencies, Korea Testing Laboratory and U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration-approved UL. Thus far, Samsung has been mostly mum on the cause of Note7 fires around the world, but independent third-party investigations have pointed to the devices’ extreme thinness as a likely culprit. A representative for Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Medical data: Accessible and irresistible for cyber criminals

How valuable is personal healthcare data?Apparently it depends. Based on at least some price comparisons on the Dark Web – the underground online marketplace for cyber criminals – electronic health records (EHR) are not even close to premium goods.McAfee, now a division of Intel Security, reported recently that the price for an individual medical record ranges from a fraction of a cent to $2.50, while a so-called “fullz” record – name, Social Security number plus financial account information from a credit or debit card can fetch $14 to $25.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Medical data: Accessible and irresistible for cyber criminals

How valuable is personal healthcare data?Apparently it depends. Based on at least some price comparisons on the Dark Web – the underground online marketplace for cyber criminals – electronic health records (EHR) are not even close to premium goods.McAfee, now a division of Intel Security, reported recently that the price for an individual medical record ranges from a fraction of a cent to $2.50, while a so-called “fullz” record – name, Social Security number plus financial account information from a credit or debit card can fetch $14 to $25.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

When Technology Is The Means, Not The Goal

Mobile banking trojans adopt ransomware features

Cybercriminals are adding file-encrypting features to traditional mobile banking trojans, creating hybrid threats that can steal sensitive information and lock user files at the same time.One such trojan is called Faketoken and its primary functionality is to generate fake login screens for more than 2,000 financial applications in order to steal login credentials. The malicious app also displays phishing pages to steal credit card information, and it can read and send text messages.Faketoken's creators have added the ability to encrypt user files stored on the phone's SD card sometime in July and have since released thousands of builds with this functionality, according to researchers from Kaspersky Lab.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mobile banking trojans adopt ransomware features

Cybercriminals are adding file-encrypting features to traditional mobile banking trojans, creating hybrid threats that can steal sensitive information and lock user files at the same time.One such trojan is called Faketoken and its primary functionality is to generate fake login screens for more than 2,000 financial applications in order to steal login credentials. The malicious app also displays phishing pages to steal credit card information, and it can read and send text messages.Faketoken's creators have added the ability to encrypt user files stored on the phone's SD card sometime in July and have since released thousands of builds with this functionality, according to researchers from Kaspersky Lab.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How edge compute is making cameras ‘conscious’

Cameras used to be more about the lenses and the aperture, but today’s security and sportscams are building in technology to make them “conscious,” using edge computing and on-chip processing to get past challenges around massive data generation and poor image quality and bringing exciting new capabilities, such as facial and object recognition, in the camera itself.Take the example of Silk Labs, a company using intelligent real-time video to alert people when a package has been delivered at the home door or alert them about a stranger at the door. Or consider Knit, a camera that can see how well your baby is sleeping, inform parents about her sleep trends and monitor breathing for peace of mind during the night—all without any devices attached to the child. And more will come. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Computing Moves to the Network Edge of the Cloud

While cloud computing represents a significant advance, it's really the network edge computing phenomenon that will transform the digital end user experience.