Still searching for a killer app in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

A couple of days ago, as I was finishing the InfoWorld review of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a good friend (and astute editor) asked me a very simple question: Where is the killer app in Windows 10? After all, if folks are going to go through the pain and bother of upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Win10 -- and of climbing the learning curve once again -- there has to be a good reason for the effort, right?[ Your one-stop shop for Microsoft knowledge: Everything you need to know about Windows 10, in a handy PDF. Download it today! | Survive and thrive with the new OS: The ultimate Windows 10 survivor kit. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows newsletter. ] I racked my brain. It's a very pertinent question, especially now that the days of free upgrades are drawing to a close.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to ensure your A.I. gets good nutrition

Like children, artificial intelligence needs proper parenting to achieve its full potential, and proper parenting starts with a healthy diet — of good data. Businesses increasingly acknowledge the potential of A.I. to accelerate decision making, but many have serious concerns about what is happening inside the black box. The quality of any A.I. can only be as good as the data it processes. Of course, “garbage in, garbage out” has long been an analytics refrain, but it’s even more important for A.I. Why? Consider the difference between the two. An analytics solution typically provides a graph prioritizing the results. Ask an analytics program why sales are down in the Northeast region, and you’ll essentially get a list of possible factors: supply chain hiccups, demographic changes, social media trends, etc. A human then has to evaluate the results to determine which factors to base the ultimate decision on. A cognitive A.I. approach is less transparent. Ask an A.I. why sales are down in the Northeast region and you get a single, definitive answer. That’s it. Done deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Moto Z: Is this the Droid you’ve been looking for?

The new Moto Z phones are pretty remarkable for some innovative things they can do -- and for something important they left out. Motorola is one of the oldest brands in electronics. The company invented car radios (hence "Motor-ola") and was the first company to build cell phone infrastructure and the phones themselves. In the early days, Motorola's phones were flat out the best you could get. Over the years, the company lost its way, with the exception of a few pretty good phones in the last couple of years. Now, after several ownership changes, Moto is part of Lenovo.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft lays out iOS porting plans with Islandwood

Eleven months ago, Microsoft introduced its Windows Bridge for iOS, otherwise known as Project Islandwood. It is an open source tool to port iOS apps to Windows freely available on GitHub. Since then, the project has experienced considerable downloads and Microsoft has made quite a bit of changes. All of this is documented in the Windows blog.According to the company, developers have been requesting complete API coverage of Microsoft's UIKit implementation. UIKit is a set of 30 modular interface components used in iOS's Cocoa Touch, among other platforms, and it's difficult to modify UIKit because that would mean modifying hundreds of classes. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE, Intel & 6WIND DemoFriday Q&A: High Performance vADCs & OpenStack Virtual Infrastructure

Further explore the HPE, Intel & 6WIND's high performance vADC demo. Read the Q&A

Microservices Gone Wild – Tech Dive Part 2

Tech Dive - Microservices

In this post, I’ll outline the program I’ll be using to demonstrate how microservices work. It’s written in go but it’s pretty straightforward. At the end of the series of posts I will upload all of these examples to github as well, in case anybody wants to poke at them.

The Program – Squariply

For demonstration purposes, I’ll be discussing a very simple program that is currently implemented in a monolithic fashion. I’ve called it squariply for reasons that will momentarily become obvious.

Purpose

Squariply accepts two integers on the command line, calculates the product (i.e. multiplies the two numbers), then squares the resulting number before printing the final result out. Mathematically speaking, if the integers provided on the command line are a and b, the output will be equivalent to (a * b) ^ 2.

Monolithic Code

My extremely amateur go code looks like this:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "strconv"
)

func main() {
    str_a := os.Args[1]
    str_b := os.Args[2]

    int_a, _ := strconv.Atoi(str_a)
    int_b, _ := strconv.Atoi(str_b)

    multiplyResult := int_a * int_b
    squareResult := multiplyResult * multiplyResult

    fmt.Printf("Result is %d\n", squareResult)
}

For the purposes of clarity, Continue reading

Flaws in Oracle file processing SDKs affect major third-party products

Seventeen high-risk vulnerabilities out of the 276 flaws fixed by Oracle Tuesday affect products from third-party software vendors, including Microsoft.The vulnerabilities were found by researchers from Cisco's Talos team and are located in the Oracle Outside In Technology (OIT), a collection of software development kits (SDKs) that can be used to extract, normalize, scrub, convert and view some 600 unstructured file formats.These SDKs, which are part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware, are licensed to other software developers who then use them in their own products. Such products include Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise, IBM WebSphere Portal, Google Search Appliance, Avira AntiVir for Exchange, Raytheon SureView, Guidance Encase and Veritas Enterprise Vault.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Flaws in Oracle file processing SDKs affect major third-party products

Exclusive: Oracle to reboot Java EE for the cloud

Oracle’s intentions for the future of Java EE have been cloudy, to say the least.Rumored to have put the project on the back burner, Oracle has weathered a storm of complaints over its stewardship of enterprise Java, with two separate organizations considering plans to move Java EE forward without Oracle. Rather than let Java EE wither, Oracle is instead looking to reboot the platform to better accommodate where enterprises are headed, particularly to the cloud, said a high-ranking Oracle official in response to recent criticism.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ] In an exclusive interview this week, Oracle’s Thomas Kurian, president of product development, emphasized ambitious intentions to modernize the server-side platform, for which Oracle is gathering feedback now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GE Power’s CDO is transforming his company and an industry

After a long career in enterprise software, Ganesh Bell became GE’s first chief digital officer in early 2014. Now, as CDO of GE Power, Bell is leading a transformation of this giant unit of the industrial powerhouse which, in turn, is driving change through the entire power-generation industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Microsoft reveals big plans for .Net Core

As part of a road map for its open source .Net Core runtime, Microsoft is planning more APIs, an upgrade to the F# language, and expanded processor and Linux support..Net Core, a multi-platform, modular subset of the .Net Framework programming model, was released as a 1.0 version late last month, along with ASP.Net Core 1.0 Web application framework.[ Free tools! Get the most out of Windows with 15 open source tools for system admins. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with InfoWorld's Windows newsletter. ] "This release will bring back many of the missing APIs in .Net Core, including networking, serialization, data, and more," said Microsoft's Scott Hunter, a member of the .Net engineering team. "These APIs will be part of .Net Standard 2.0, which will be released at the same time, resulting in APIs being consistent across .Net Framework, .Net Core, and Xamarin." The APIs will make it easier to write portable code that can run on major .Net platforms, targeting .Net 2.0 standard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon unveils ‘virtual network services’

Hard on the heels of a similar pitch from AT&T, Verizon this morning is taking the wraps off a lineup of Virtual Network Services (VNS) that it bills as a natural extension of data-center virtualization that promises enterprise WAN customers fast, flexible provisioning as well as cost savings. Industry analysts say such an expansion of existing software-defined networking will find an audience, but that not every customer will be ready for the deep end of the pool at the same time, a caveat Verizon readily acknowledges. The Verizon package – initially including security, WAN optimization and SD-WAN services -- offers customers multiple delivery and pricing models, as well as managed software from a roster of brand-name vendors such as Cisco and Juniper the company says will expand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon unveils ‘virtual network services’

Like AT&T, Verizon is going virtual for enterprises

If you want to be able to turn network services on and off the same way you do virtual machines, some big carriers are starting to think like you.On Thursday, Verizon announced enterprise services defined and activated through software, a move intended to help both the carrier and its customers save money and respond more quickly to changing needs. It could mean firing up a new carrier Ethernet link to a branch office in minutes instead of months, for example.Verizon’s Virtual Network Services announcement comes just days after AT&T introduced its own set of software-defined services and then partnered with Orange to help move more service smarts from hardware into software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Like AT&T, Verizon is going virtual for enterprises

The Ubuntu-powered BQ Aquaris M10 tablet: Almost amazing

Some reviews are easy to write. A new laptop gets released? Check out the specs, see how sturdy it is, test out the battery life—that sort of thing. Pretty simple, really. This is not that kind of review. What we’re looking at here is, on the face of it, simply a tablet. And I could do an in-depth review of the hardware itself, but that would tell you next to nothing about it. In front of me sits the BQ Aquaris M10: Ubuntu Edition, 10.1-in. screen, quad-core, 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 8MP camera. Pretty average specs. It feels like the cutting-edge Android-powered tablets—from about three years back. These can be picked up starting at around $250 USD.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TCP Congestion Avoidance on Satellite Links

While some people spread misinformation others work hard to figure out how to make TCP work on exotic links with low bandwidth and one second RTT.

Ulrich Speidel published a highly interesting article on APNIC blog describing the challenges of satellite Internet access and the approach (network coded TCP) they took to avoid them.

8 Ways To Jumpstart Your IT Security Career

IT pros have several avenues for gaining security knowledge and training.

Toward 25 Gigabit Ethernet Standardization

Spurred by hyper-scale data center requirements, 25 GbE is on its way to becoming an industry standard.

Deploying Cisco traffic generator in GNS3

Goal: Deploy TRex, a realistic Cisco traffic generator, to test devices in GNS3. TRex traffic generator is a tool designed to benchmark platforms using realistic traffic. One of the tools through which TRex can be learned and tested is a virtual machine instance, fully simulating TRex without the need for any additional hardware. … The […]

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