56% off Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle 3XL Water Resistant Wireless Bluetooth Speaker – Deal Alert

The OontZ Angle 3XL was designed and engineered by Cambridge SoundWorks to be their most powerful, best sounding speaker yet. Features a powerful 40 Watt AMP, delivering 20 Watts RMS loud enough to fill even large rooms with high quality sound. Perfect for parties, playing outdoors, at the pool and at the beach. Distortion-free even at maximum volume. IPX5 water resistance means it'll be OK with accidental splashes or rain. A built-in USB power bank can charge your iPhone or Smartphone while you're enjoying music. Other features include: Up to 8 hours of battery play time; Built in mic for speakerphone capability; Play from laptops, PCs and non-Bluetooth devices using the included 3.5mm audio cable connected to the aux-in jack. The Angle 3XL is highly rated on Amazon with 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 750 customers (read reviews). Right now its list price has been reduced a generous 56% to just $110. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is today’s network cost structure indicative of the future?

I’ve been a fan of software-defined networking (SDN) since my first conversation about software-based firewalls for an application deployment in 2004. Our goal was to leverage the concepts of grid computing to grow and shrink the web and application server environments in response to load, and we got the idea to throw the firewall into the mix. What made our approach possible was the ocean’s depth of software development knowledge on our team tempered by a puddle’s depth knowledge of networking.+ Also on Network World: Survey shows growing interest in SDN, where and how companies might deploy the tech +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is today’s network cost structure indicative of the future?

I’ve been a fan of software-defined networking (SDN) since my first conversation about software-based firewalls for an application deployment in 2004. Our goal was to leverage the concepts of grid computing to grow and shrink the web and application server environments in response to load, and we got the idea to throw the firewall into the mix. What made our approach possible was the ocean’s depth of software development knowledge on our team tempered by a puddle’s depth knowledge of networking.+ Also on Network World: Survey shows growing interest in SDN, where and how companies might deploy the tech +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

60% off HDMI 2.0 High Speed 4k-Ready Gold Plated 6ft Cable – Deal Alert

If you're looking for cables that can keep up with the high demands of today's video tech, you may want to consider this cable from SecurOMax, currently discounted 60%. This heavy duty, high quality 6ft HDMI 2.0 cable will drive full 4K 60hz 2160P. Something that older HDMI cables just can't pull off. It features more expensive, thicker 28 AWG wiring which enables 18 GBPS speed required for all HDMI 2.0 features. Its connectors are 24K gold-plated, with soldering points covered by a thick aluminum shell to achieve better shielding and lower SNR. Ethernet & audio return channels eliminate extra network and audio cables. All of this while also being backwards compatible. The cable by SecurOMax averages an impressive 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 1,000 customers (91% rate a full 5 stars: read reviews), and right now its price has been reduced significantly to just $11.99. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo reportedly to confirm massive data breach

Following reports that Yahoo will confirm a data breach that affects hundreds of millions of accounts, some users reported Thursday on Twitter and elsewhere that they were prompted to change their email password when trying to log in.Yahoo launched an investigation into a possible breach in early August after someone offered to sell a data dump of over 200 million Yahoo accounts on an underground market, including usernames, easy-to-crack password hashes, dates of birth and backup email addresses.The company has since determined that the breach is real and that it's even worse than initially believed, news website Recode reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo reportedly to confirm massive data breach

Following reports that Yahoo will confirm a data breach that affects hundreds of millions of accounts, some users reported Thursday on Twitter and elsewhere that they were prompted to change their email password when trying to log in.Yahoo launched an investigation into a possible breach in early August after someone offered to sell a data dump of over 200 million Yahoo accounts on an underground market, including usernames, easy-to-crack password hashes, dates of birth and backup email addresses.The company has since determined that the breach is real and that it's even worse than initially believed, news website Recode reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Keeping up with incident response

A fire department in a large city certainly has a difficult job, but its mission is fairly straightforward. When a fire is detected, the fire department dispatches an appropriately sized staff to assess, contain and put out the fire, clean up, investigate what happened, and prepare themselves for the next blaze.Yup, it's a pretty simple process when a manageable number of fires are burning. But what would happen if there were hundreds or thousands of simultaneous infernos?My guess is that a senior fire chief (and perhaps other participants from local government and law enforcement) would have to make decisions on which blazes to resource and which to ignore. These decisions would certainly be based upon information analysis and best practices, but there is still some risk that the disregarded fires would end up being far worse than expected, turn into disasters, and call into question the judgement of all involved.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fixing the mixed content problem with Automatic HTTPS Rewrites

CloudFlare aims to put an end to the unencrypted Internet. But the web has a chicken and egg problem moving to HTTPS.

Long ago it was difficult, expensive, and slow to set up an HTTPS capable web site. Then along came services like CloudFlare’s Universal SSL that made switching from http:// to https:// as easy as clicking a button. With one click a site was served over HTTPS with a freshly minted, free SSL certificate.

Boom.

Suddenly, the website is available over HTTPS, and, even better, the website gets faster because it can take advantage of the latest web protocol HTTP/2.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Many otherwise secure sites suffer from the problem of mixed content. And mixed content means the green padlock icon will not be displayed for an https:// site because, in fact, it’s not truly secure.

Here’s the problem: if an https:// website includes any content from a site (even its own) served over http:// the green padlock can’t be displayed. That’s because resources like images, JavaScript, audio, video etc. included over http:// open up a security hole into the secure web site. A backdoor to trouble.

Web browsers have known this was a problem Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: AT&T’s AirGig shows wireless internet over power lines is possible

High-speed wireless internet could soon be delivered over power lines, according to a major mobile network operator that announced positive test results of a proposed system.AT&T says its project, called AirGig, will deliver multiple gigabit-speed wireless internet by creating broadband signals that will emanate from the power lines crossing the country and beyond.The company says it won’t actually connect its equipment directly to the powerline cables but will simply use the wires as way to send modulated radio signals to individuals’ homes, smartphones, tablets and so on. The equipment sits atop the utility poles and uses the existing wires for transmitting and receiving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SourceFire & AMP showing up on CCNP: Security

Looks like the SITCS Exam, that is part of the CCNP: Security exam is going from v1.0 to v1.5. SITCS is the exam oriented around ‘Implementing Cisco Threat Control Soluation’. Now, it only makes sense as the original version of this exam was more geared towards Cisco IPS & CX which has since been EoX’ed some time […]

Google’s Allo is an early personal assistant, not a late-to-market messaging app

Allo is a child that Google just sent to school to become your personal assistant. The first release looks like a messenger app because it is a common user interface (UI) that almost all smartphone users know, and it is conversational. Like a child learns to speak through conversation with adults, Allo will learn to be a personal assistant through quadrillions of messaging conversations if it succeeds as the next big platform.Google Now and Apple’s Siri are rudimentary compared to the personal assistant that Google Allo could become. Google Now’s and Siri’s voice to text is pretty accurate, but the user is limited to a fixed set of commands, navigate, play music, search, etc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plan now for the EU’s privacy regulation revolution, says HPE exec

The cost of complying with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation might seem like something best deferred until it enters force in 2018 -- but working on compliance just might boost profit, not reduce it.The GDPR, the EU's latest rewrite of its data privacy laws, doesn't enter effect until May 25, 2018, but already IT companies are talking up their software and services for complying with the new rules.It's not just an issue for EU enterprises: Any company processing the personal information of EU citizens is affected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Visit Docker @ Microsoft Ignite – Booth #758

 

Next week Microsoft will host over 20,000 IT executives, architects, engineers, partners and thought-leaders from around the world at Microsoft Ignite, September 25th-30th at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Visit the Docker booth #758 to learn how developers and IT pros can build, ship, and run any application, anywhere, across both Windows and Linux operating systems with Docker. By transforming modern application architectures for Linux and Windows applications, Docker allows business to benefit from a more agile development environment with a single journey for all their applications.

Don’t miss out! Docker experts will be on-hand to for in-booth demos to help you:

  •       Deploy your first Docker Windows container
  •       Learn about Docker containers on Windows Server 2016
  •       Manage your container environment with Docker Datacenter on Windows

Calling all Microsoft MVPs!

Attend our daily in booth theater session “Docker Containers for Linux and Windows” with Docker evangelist Mike Coleman in the Docker booth @ 2PM every day. Session attendees will receive exclusive Docker and Microsoft swag.

To learn more about how Docker powers Windows containers, add these key Docker sessions to your Ignite agenda:

GS05: Reinvent IT infrastructure for business agility

Microsoft’s strategy Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: MacOS Sierra: The day nothing happened

I was notified that a software update was available for a few of my systems. An update to macOS Sierra was available for my main production system, a MacBook Pro, and my travel system, a MacBook Air. My personal work environment also includes a cloud-based storage service, several Linux servers for local file and print services as well as a lonely, old Windows-based laptop to execute a single application to support a long-term consulting contract.Living with an electronic tower of potential trouble Since my production environment is made up of systems from different vendors, purchased at different times, and software from different vendors, the prospect of updating anything, much less the operating system on one of my production machines, is scary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here