Using the Raspberry Pi to thwart the creepy clown menace

Like me, I suspect that you have been, in  turns, amused and puzzled by the recent outbreak of creepy clowns. But should you doubt the significance of this weirdness, realize that it’s not only a United States phenomena, it’s global! TIME just published an article titled The Creepy Clown Craze Is Now Taking Over the World while The Verge tried to be sort of rational with The 2016 clown panic: 10 questions asked and answered. But no matter how much the media deny it, this is a serious thing, people. You thought the zombie apocalypse was a big deal? The clownpocalypse could well be Trump-sized, as in yuuuuuuggggggge. But fear not, dear reader, I have the answer as to how we can stay safe from marauding clowns; it’s a device called the Clowntector, an early warning system to spot and locate clown activity so professional, anti-clown professionals can do their sacred duty.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US may use sanctions to punish Russia for election hacking

The U.S. response to election-related hacks that the Obama administration now blames on the Russian government could include sanctions against that country. The administration has said that it has a range of options, including economic sanctions, to respond to Russian cyber attacks. On Friday, a Republican lawmaker said he would propose legislation to move those sanctions forward. Senator Cory Gardner, who represents Colorado, said his planned legislation would mandate that the U.S. government investigate Russian cyber criminals and sanction them when appropriate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US may use sanctions to punish Russia for election hacking

The U.S. response to election-related hacks that the Obama administration now blames on the Russian government could include sanctions against that country. The administration has said that it has a range of options, including economic sanctions, to respond to Russian cyber attacks. On Friday, a Republican lawmaker said he would propose legislation to move those sanctions forward. Senator Cory Gardner, who represents Colorado, said his planned legislation would mandate that the U.S. government investigate Russian cyber criminals and sanction them when appropriate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Best Deals of the Week, October 3rd – October 7th – Deal Alert

Best Deals of the Week, October 3rd - October 7th - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of October 3rd. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted.Prime Members Now Get Unlimited Reading On Any Device, Amazon AnnouncesAmazon has just announced one more compelling reason to consider a Prime membership -- "Prime Reading". As a Prime member, you now have unlimited access to over a thousand books, current issue magazines, comics, Kindle Singles, and more. With access from any device – including your phone, tablet, or Kindle – so you can read as much as you want, however you want, and whenever you want. Learn more about the new benefit and/or the other benefits of a Prime membership (free 2-day shipping, streaming movies & TV, unlimited music, photo storage, and more) at the Amazon Prime Home page. Prime memberships are $99/yr, but the 30-day free trial is typically where most people seem to start.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US officially blames Russian government for election-related hacking

U.S. officials are publicly blaming the Russian government for several high-profile hacks against political groups that they claim were meant to interfere with the upcoming election.U.S. intelligence agencies are confident Russia was responsible, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement on Friday.They allege that the Russian government compromised the emails of U.S. officials and institutions and then publicly leaked them online through sites such as WikiLeaks, DCLeaks, and the anonymous hacker Guccifer 2.0, who took credit for breaching the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US officially blames Russian government for election-related hacking

U.S. officials are publicly blaming the Russian government for several high-profile hacks against political groups that they claim were meant to interfere with the upcoming election.U.S. intelligence agencies are confident Russia was responsible, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement on Friday.They allege that the Russian government compromised the emails of U.S. officials and institutions and then publicly leaked them online through sites such as WikiLeaks, DCLeaks, and the anonymous hacker Guccifer 2.0, who took credit for breaching the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Both Apple and Microsoft take tumble in Gartner’s latest device forecast

Shipments of devices powered by Apple's and Microsoft's operating systems will end 2016 down from the year before. But Apple's will recover next year, while Microsoft's will continue to struggle toward growth, research firm Gartner said this week.In 2017, Apple's combination of iOS and macOS -- the former powering iPhones, the latter Macs -- will have taken second place from Windows on the devices shipped during the year. The gap between the two will widen slightly in 2018.According to Gartner, which provided Computerworld with its forecast broken out by operating system, Windows will power about 260 million devices shipped in 2016, a 12% decline year-over-year. The 260 million represents 11.2% of the total of 2.3 billion total devices, which overwhelmingly run Google's Android.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft invites reporters to see what’s next for Windows 10—and maybe Surface

It’s official: Microsoft will hold an event in New York at the end of October where the company is expected to roll out a new Surface all-in-one PC. As we reported on Thursday, photos of a Surface-themed mouse and keyboard have already appeared in FCC filings.Interestingly, however, the term “Surface”—or even “hardware”—doesn’t appears anywhere on the invitation, which beckons reporters to a New York event on Oct. 26. Instead, Microsoft has invited reporters to “see what’s next for Windows 10,” which implies some sort of strategic update to the company’s software initiatives. “Imagine what you’ll do,” is written backwards on a window.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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

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

Juniper NXTWORK2016 – Quick Review

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

NXTWORK 2016

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).

Food Marquee @ NXTWORK2016

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.

Social Media Lounge

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.

mp_midway

 

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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