Why Linux pioneer Linus Torvalds prefers x86 over ARM

Linux pioneer Linus Torvalds is a stand-up guy -- he says what he feels. There's no sugarcoating, and he'll admit to faults, like recent issues with the Linux 4.8 kernel.He was full of surprises at last week's Linaro Connect conference, when he was asked about his favorite chip architecture. He didn't blink before saying it was x86, not ARM.It may have been the long history of x86 with PCs that influenced his answer. There's little fragmentation of software and hardware with x86, and things just work.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Show 309: cPacket & The Next Generation Of Performance Monitoring (Sponsored)

Today s sponsored show dives into performance network monitoring with cPacket. Learn about its Intelligent Monitoring Fabric, an ASIC-based product that promises full-line-rate capture and deeper levels of insight. The post Show 309: cPacket & The Next Generation Of Performance Monitoring (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

One Default Password Might Have Fueled the Mirai IoT Botnet

And guess what: You can't change it.

Microsoft’s Azure Stack TP2 Further Strengthens the Hybrid Azure Public / On-prem Environment

Azure Stack Technical Preview 2 (TP2) was announced at the Microsoft Ignite Conference at the end of September (2016), a MAJOR update from the TP1 release earlier this year focusing on extending the features and capabilities of Azure Stack as it progresses toward a formal release next year. A quick primer on what Azure Stack is for those reading up on Azure Stack for the first time.  In short, Azure Stack is Microsoft’s Azure public cloud environment that organizations can setup and run on-premise in their own datacenters.  Unlike something like Amazon Web Services that is a cloud-only solution where you have to import and export configurations and environments between your existing on-premise datacenter and AWS, Microsoft’s Azure Stack provides the same platform between the public cloud, hosted providers, and on-premise providers for the simplicity of building, configuring, and moving workloads between private and public clouds.  The Hybrid model of on-premise datacenters and public cloud services is a huge focus for enterprises that I covered in my initial February 2016 blog post introducing Azure Stack (http://www.networkworld.com/article/3037483/cloud-computing/truly-understanding-microsoft-s-azure-stack.html).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Comcast Will Test LoRaWAN IoT Networks in Two Markets

Target: 30 markets in the next 18-30 months.

Avi Networks Supports Applications Across Multi-Clouds

Those applications include Avi’s load balancing app.

SDxCentral Weekly News Roundup — October 7, 2016

IBM and AT&T are teaming to help businesses manage their networking services more effectively.

Sand Castle

The post Sand Castle appeared first on 'net work.

Juniper NXTWORK2016 – Quick Review

What to say about NXTWORK2016, Juniper’s second customer conference? In short, I’m impressed.

The San Jose Marriot was once again the venue for the two-day NXTWORK conference, but this year things were clearly scaled up a little. Food tables which last year took up around 1/3 of the main ballroom this year moved to a large marquee which had been built just outside the hotel (it’s much better than it might sound at first).

Replacing last year’s food tables was a Social Media lounge which confused me slightly only because it didn’t seem to be much of an actual lounge, although it did seem to have a couple of classic PacMan machines to amuse anybody sitting there.

The middle section of the ballroom was occupied mainly by sponsor stands in what I think Juniper was once again calling a ‘midway’, and there was some comfortable seating as well.

The remainder of the ballroom had been divided off and was set up for general sessions and keynotes. Just down the hallway were a number of other rooms set up for technical breakout sessions and, as last year, a testing center where attendees could take Juniper exams.

NXTWORK2016 Keynotes / General Sessions

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Court reinstates $120M patent award for Apple in Samsung case

A U.S. appeals court has reinstated a US$119.6 million award for Apple in a long-running smartphone design patent dispute with rival Samsung.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that two Apple smartphone design patents, one related to a slide-to-unlock feature, are valid and Samsung infringed a third patent related to helping smartphone users find phone numbers.The case goes back five years, when Apple first filed a series of patent lawsuits against Samsung, alleging infringement of several Apple's iPhone design patents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nadella points to machine learning as battleground in cloud computing

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has identified machine learning as the firm's key focus as cloud computing usage becomes more widespread. It is an area that is fast becoming the battleground for the big cloud providers. Google and Amazon Web Services both offer a range of tools that make it easier for developers to create "intelligent' applications, while the likes of Salesforce are keen to incorporate artificial intelligence into their software services. Speaking at an event in London's Canary Wharf financial district, Nadella's sales pitch placed emphasis on the role of machine learning across Microsoft's range of cloud products - from infrastructure and platform as a service offering in Azure, to its Dynamics and Office365 cloud software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

​Mobility revenues ramp up with software spending high

Mobility revenues are forecast to grow from US$1.5 trillion in 2016 to more than $U1.7 trillion in 2020, representing an increase of 2.2 per cent, or roughly $U40 billion in annual revenue gains.IDC findings report that mobility revenues will primarily come from consumer and enterprise purchases of hardware (smartphones, portable PCs, and tablets) and services (connectivity services).However, software revenues will experience double-digit growth over the forecast period as developers race to deliver applications that meet the mobility needs of both groups.The strongest growth within the software category will come from investments in mobile application development platforms, mobile enterprise applications, and mobile enterprise security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Comcast’s 1TB data cap starts rolling out across the U.S.

Comcast said bandwidth caps would be back before 2019, and now the company's living up to its promise.The cable provider recently announced that its 1 terabyte bandwidth cap for Xfinity Internet subscribers would start rolling out more broadly. Comcast’s data caps are currently in effect in 16 regions with another 18 regions getting the bandwidth cap on November 1. You'll find the complete list of current and upcoming bandwidth cap regions at the bottom of this post.The company settled on the 1TB cap limit after experimenting with various caps for several years in select areas. During that time, Comcast appeared to be favoring a 300GB cap, but never rolled it out nationwide. Then in April, Comcast bumped up the cap in its test markets to 1 terabyte.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Comcast’s 1TB data cap starts rolling out across the U.S.

Comcast said bandwidth caps would be back before 2019, and now the company's living up to its promise.The cable provider recently announced that its 1 terabyte bandwidth cap for Xfinity Internet subscribers would start rolling out more broadly. Comcast’s data caps are currently in effect in 16 regions with another 18 regions getting the bandwidth cap on November 1. You'll find the complete list of current and upcoming bandwidth cap regions at the bottom of this post.The company settled on the 1TB cap limit after experimenting with various caps for several years in select areas. During that time, Comcast appeared to be favoring a 300GB cap, but never rolled it out nationwide. Then in April, Comcast bumped up the cap in its test markets to 1 terabyte.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why sentient tools will be catastrophic to the job market

My old friend Brian David Johnson, one of the leading futurists in the world, just published a frightening paper on Sentient Tools for Frost & Sullivan. This paper has similar themes to a recent massive GAO report suggesting that the rapid rise of sentient tools is going to have a profound impact on the job market.This impact indicates that many folks across a wide spectrum of jobs are not only going to be displaced, but that they may be unemployable. In addition, we may be looking at the near total elimination of many, if not most, of the entry jobs that kids first get when coming out of school.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House slates $80M for city tech innovations

The White House last week announced $80 million in new federal funds for its ongoing Smart Cities Initiative while doubling the number of participating U.S. cities to more than 70. The funding is meant to spur development of technologies and programs in four primary areas: to reduce energy usage; improve urban transportation with connected and autonomous vehicles; beef up public safety and disaster response; and transform city services such as outreach to the homeless. The funding is partly a response to a comprehensive report from presidential advisors in February recommending ways to maximize technology innovation in cities. Dozens of experts worked on the report, including Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, and Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon on firm footing to push for discount in Yahoo deal, analysts say

Verizon should push for a big discount off its pending $4.8 billion deal to buy Yahoo, given Yahoo’s recent data breach and reported questionable security practices, several analysts said Friday.“Verizon should certainly pay less for Yahoo at this point,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Unfortunately, the property is damaged goods, particularly after the acknowledged security breach.”A report on Thursday in the New York Post, quoting unnamed sources, said Verizon pushed Yahoo for a $1 billion discount on the purchase deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon on firm footing to push for discount in Yahoo deal, analysts say

Verizon should push for a big discount off its pending $4.8 billion deal to buy Yahoo, given Yahoo’s recent data breach and reported questionable security practices, several analysts said Friday.“Verizon should certainly pay less for Yahoo at this point,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Unfortunately, the property is damaged goods, particularly after the acknowledged security breach.”A report on Thursday in the New York Post, quoting unnamed sources, said Verizon pushed Yahoo for a $1 billion discount on the purchase deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

French software developer sues Apple, seeking improvements in iOS browser

Software developer Nexedi is so keen to see Apple improve the rendering engine in its iPhone browser that it's filed suit against the company in a French court.Nexedi develops cross-platform business apps in HTML5 that can run unchanged on Windows, Linux, and Android.On Apple's iOS, however, it runs into a problem: The browser rendering engine on iOS, WebKit, doesn't have the same HTML5 capabilities as the rendering engines used on other platforms.Among the HTML5 capabilities missing in the iOS version of WebKit are access to APIs for vibration, ambient light detection, battery status, notifications, filesystem access and the WebRTC videoconferencing protocol, according to a copy of Nexedi's lawsuit seen by the IDG News Service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Perspica Uses Machine Learning for Root Cause Analysis

Perspica customers include advertising companies, government agencies, and small businesses.