Stocking Stuffer Ideas, Deals and Discounts – Deal Alert

Just because it fits in a stocking doesn't make it a good idea, or a smart use of your money this season. Here we've compiled a list of great techie stocking stuffer ideas that are reasonably priced, highly rated, and deeply discounted. We'll update this list throughout the season as we find you more good deals on sensible stocking-stuffers.51% off Apple USB-C to Lightning Cable This USB-C cable connects your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to your computer's USB-C port for syncing and charging.  Currently discounted 51% on Amazon from Apple, taking its typical list price down to just $19. See the discounted cable on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Large BGP Communities

But there is one sub-area of BGP which can’t handle 4-byte ASNs: the BGP communities mechanism. BGP uses special sub-packets inside the protocol to exchange values that encode as 32-bit values, and use one of these 32-bit values to associate two 16-bit numbers; one identified as an ASN and the other as an arbitrary community tag. This permits a relationship between the two values to be specified cleanly and permit BGP routing decisions to be informed by the community tag associated with a given ASN. —APNIC

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Apple explores possibility of making iPhones in the U.S.

Well before Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for President, the current President-elect didn't mince words when it came to American companies relying upon factories in China for manufacturing purposes. Speaking to a crowd at Liberty University last January, Trump said if he were to become President, he would take steps to ensure Apple "builds their damn computers in this country." More broadly, Trump added that he'd like to see Apple manufacture all of their devices in the United States instead of outsourcing said duties to Asian-based partners such as Foxconn. While Trump's promise will likely go unfulfilled, Apple reportedly isn't taking any chances. In an apparent effort to remain prepared for any type of new policy Trump might dream up, Apple has reportedly asked both Foxconn and Pegatron about the feasibility of "moving iPhone production" to the United States.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple explores possibility of manufacturing iPhones in the United States

Well before Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for President, the current President-elect didn't mince words when it came to American companies relying upon factories in China for manufacturing purposes.Speaking to a crowd at Liberty University last January, Trump said that if were to become President, he would take steps to ensure that Apple "builds their damn computers in this country." More broadly, Trump added that he'd like to see Apple manufacture all of their devices in the United States instead of outsourcing said duties to Asian-based partners like Foxconn.While Trump's promise will likely go unfulfilled, Apple reportedly isn't taking any chances. In an apparent effort to remain prepared for any type of new policy Trump might dream up, Apple has reportedly asked both Foxconn and Pegatron about the feasibility of "moving iPhone production" to the United States.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Azure Stack Portable – The Enterprise Cloud (in a Briefcase)

Azure Stack is Microsoft’s enterprise cloud technology that allows organizations to run Microsoft Azure on their own premise.  During the early adopter testing phase, I needed an Azure Stack host that I could take between my office (by day) and home (on weekends), or to take to client sites to demonstrate.  So I created a portable version of Azure Stack by building a 14-core / 10-terabyte cloud in a briefcase!For those who need a background on Azure Stack, please see a couple articles I wrote on Azure Stack describing the technology in more detail, as well as the business use cases of who is lining up to buy Azure Stack.  My initial article back in February 2016 covers some early experiences, and then a October 2016 article that updated some more recent work on Azure Stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Azure Stack Portable – The Enterprise Cloud (in a Briefcase)

Azure Stack is Microsoft’s enterprise cloud technology that allows organizations to run Microsoft Azure on their own premise.  During the early adopter testing phase, I needed an Azure Stack host that I could take between my office (by day) and home (on weekends), or to take to client sites to demonstrate.  So I created a portable version of Azure Stack by building a 14-core / 10-terabyte cloud in a briefcase!For those who need a background on Azure Stack, please see a couple articles I wrote on Azure Stack describing the technology in more detail, as well as the business use cases of who is lining up to buy Azure Stack.  My initial article back in February 2016 covers some early experiences, and then a October 2016 article that updated some more recent work on Azure Stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google partners with Intel to build machine learning cloud chips and adds a new exec

Google Cloud Platform solidified its partnership with Intel and announced plans to create customized silicon chips for tasks like machine learning, security, container orchestration and the Internet of Things, while bringing on a new executive to help the company flush out its strategy.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: 10 Tips from the front line of enterprise cloud use +The Cloud Foundry Foundation announced that its former executive director, Sam Ramji has joined Google in a leadership position, but his new title is not yet know. Cloud Foundry Foundation is the home of the open source application development platform of the same name. Companies like Pivotal and IBM base their PaaS off CF. Google cloud is also the preferred public cloud for Pivotal’s hosted CF version.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco’s Service Provider Revenues Fell 12% in Q1 2017

But it may not matter if tax repatriation comes to pass.

2016 Cloud Automation and DevOps Report Available Now

Download now to learn the latest on the Cloud Automation and DevOps

IoT gear will need better security to win a Z-Wave badge

Tighter security will soon be mandatory for IoT devices that use the popular Z-Wave wireless protocol.Starting next April, the Z-Wave Alliance will require all products to include its S2 (Security 2) framework before they can be certified as Z-Wave compliant. S2 is designed to prevent hackers from breaking into IoT devices that are on Z-Wave networks.Home IoT has recently proved to be a dangerous vector for internet-based attacks, such as the one that corralled thousands of IP cameras and other devices into the so-called Mirai botnet that disrupted internet service last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IoT gear will need better security to win a Z-Wave badge

Tighter security will soon be mandatory for IoT devices that use the popular Z-Wave wireless protocol.Starting next April, the Z-Wave Alliance will require all products to include its S2 (Security 2) framework before they can be certified as Z-Wave compliant. S2 is designed to prevent hackers from breaking into IoT devices that are on Z-Wave networks.Home IoT has recently proved to be a dangerous vector for internet-based attacks, such as the one that corralled thousands of IP cameras and other devices into the so-called Mirai botnet that disrupted internet service last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IoT gear will need better security to win a Z-Wave badge

Tighter security will soon be mandatory for IoT devices that use the popular Z-Wave wireless protocol.Starting next April, the Z-Wave Alliance will require all products to include its S2 (Security 2) framework before they can be certified as Z-Wave compliant. S2 is designed to prevent hackers from breaking into IoT devices that are on Z-Wave networks.Home IoT has recently proved to be a dangerous vector for internet-based attacks, such as the one that corralled thousands of IP cameras and other devices into the so-called Mirai botnet that disrupted internet service last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SAP offers cash for referrals in new cloud channel program

To sell its cloud services, ERP vendor SAP is crowdsourcing its sales team.SAP began offering its 15,000 software partners a share of revenue from cloud services they helped sell back in August, under a program called Cloud Choice Profit. It was a way to reward them for helping businesses migrate from traditional on-premise systems, where partners could capture a larger share of the revenue.At a sales conference in New York on Thursday, it extended the program to offer any businesses, partner or not, referral fees if leads they provide result in a sale of cloud services, an option SAP calls Cloud Choice Referral.The program covers sales of SAP's ERP Cloud and HCM Cloud, among other services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump remains frighteningly behind in cybersecurity

As we move into 2017, cybersecurity concerns continue to escalate. This past few months, we’ve seen some scary incidents, such as the Oct. 21 distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the DNS services at Dyn that used IoT devices like home routers and cameras as a botnet. Oh, and the last few months of the U.S. presidential election featured data breaches of the DNC and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s email and the subsequent posting of this information on WikiLeaks.It's pretty alarming, and it doesn’t appear things will get better anytime soon. This begs the question: What type of cybersecurity response can we expect from President Donald Trump’s administration? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump remains frighteningly behind in cybersecurity

As we move into 2017, cybersecurity concerns continue to escalate. This past few months, we’ve seen some scary incidents, such as the Oct. 21 distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the DNS services at Dyn that used IoT devices like home routers and cameras as a botnet. Oh, and the last few months of the U.S. presidential election featured data breaches of the DNC and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s email and the subsequent posting of this information on WikiLeaks.It's pretty alarming, and it doesn’t appear things will get better anytime soon. This begs the question: What type of cybersecurity response can we expect from President Donald Trump’s administration? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chinese smartphone vendors show sales gains as Apple, Samsung sales decline in Q3

Third-quarter smartphone sales showed strength by Chinese vendors but declines of 6% for Apple iPhones and 14% for Samsung smartphones over last year.Samsung’s decline is unsurprising, given the furor over the overheated batteries in its Galaxy Note7s that surfaced in late August, leading to a global recall of millions of the devices.“The decision to withdraw the Galaxy Note7 was correct, but the damage to Samsung’s brand will make it harder for the company to increase smartphone sales in the short term,” said Anshul Gupta, research director for Gartner, which released the smartphone third-quarter sales numbers on Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Republicans kill FCC plan to cap prices for business data lines

A U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to cap, and in some cases cut, prices charged for widely used business data lines is probably dead after Republicans in Congress pressured the agency to drop a scheduled vote.For more than a decade, some U.S. businesses and advocacy groups have been pushing the FCC to regulate prices for middle-mile business broadband connections largely owned by AT&T and Verizon. This so-called duopoly has forced customers to pay billions of dollars in inflated prices, critics say.Supporters of price caps were oh-so-close, with the FCC scheduled to vote on a plan from Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday, but the agency abruptly canceled the vote Wednesday afternoon after pressure from congressional Republicans. The proposal remains under consideration by the FCC but appears to be dead, observers said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Republicans kill FCC plan to cap prices for business data lines

A U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to cap, and in some cases cut, prices charged for widely used business data lines is probably dead after Republicans in Congress pressured the agency to drop a scheduled vote.For more than a decade, some U.S. businesses and advocacy groups have been pushing the FCC to regulate prices for middle-mile business broadband connections largely owned by AT&T and Verizon. This so-called duopoly has forced customers to pay billions of dollars in inflated prices, critics say.Supporters of price caps were oh-so-close, with the FCC scheduled to vote on a plan from Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday, but the agency abruptly canceled the vote Wednesday afternoon after pressure from congressional Republicans. The proposal remains under consideration by the FCC but appears to be dead, observers said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On the ‘Net: The Internet Protocol Journal

The latest IPJ has been published—the first in a while. Ole is just putting the publication back on a sound footing; hopefully we’ll start seeing new editions of this excellent resource on a regular basis. Two good articles this month—

Comprehensive Internet E-Mail Security
William Stallings

At its most fundamental level, the Internet mail architecture consists of a user world in the form of Message User Agents (MUA), and the transfer world, in the form of the Message Handling Service (MHS), which is composed of Message Transfer Agents (MTA). The MHS accepts a message from one user and delivers it to one or more other users, creating a virtual MUA-to-MUA exchange environment. This architecture involves three types of interoperability.

Cloudy-Eyed: Complexity and Reality with Software-Defined Networks
Russ White and Shawn Zandi

Software-Defined Networks (SDN) are promoted as a way to eliminate the complexity of distributed control planes, increase network responsiveness to specific applications and business requirements, and reduce operational and equipment cost. If this description sounds like the classic “too good to be true” situation, that’s because it might just be.

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On the ‘Net: The Shifting Job of the Network Engineer

As more companies examine the cloud, network engineering tools are changing, requiring engineers to rethink and recraft their job descriptions. —Tech Target

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