Selfie fits modern politics like a handshake

The selfie as a political toolImage by ReutersHolding or running for a political office in 2016? You had better be able to take a decent selfie, or at the very least understand your need – responsibility may not be too strong of a word – to abide by the voting public’s thirst for that smartphone snap. It’s like knowing how to properly lift and eat a local delicacy, or name-drop the state university’s football coach. Politics 101. It’s a non-partisan, worldwide requirement, too. Here are recent examples via Reuters:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Layer 2 Routing—Haven’t we been here before?

We often think the entire Internet, as we know it, just popped out of “thin air,” somehow complete and whole, with all the pieces in place. In reality, there have been many side roads taken, and many attempts to solve the problem of pushing the maximum amount of data across a wire along the way. One of these ways came to mind this last week, when I ran across this story—

Also on the virtualisation list is the customer premises equipment (CPE), and this deserves a little explanation. Obviously every premises needs some sort of physical connection to the network providing the services. What CPE virtualisation refers to is making the CPE as generic as possible. —The Register

Pulling layer 2 into the network to centralize the edge—where have I heard this before? Maybe it was all those years ago, when I was in TAC, and we used to support Cisco 1001’s, or the LEX—LAN Extenders. The promise then was the same as the promise now: a lightweight, easy to manage device that would relocate all the intelligence from the network edge into the access layer of the “mother ship,” where it could be properly managed.

Remember Rule 11? If Continue reading

HPE’s Cloud Group Gets a New Boss

Bill Hilf is out as HPE Cloud joins the Enterprise Group.

Juniper Makes Another Move in Optical Networking

It buys silicon photonics company Aurrion.

IDG Contributor Network: The Netflix Effect and the API Effect: Parallel paths to disruption?

The Netflix Effect has kicked off waves of disruption that are changing how the media business has run for decades. Similar to the Netflix Effect, the API Effect might fundamentally change the ground rules in the industries of companies that provide real-time communications applications to enterprise businesses. The implications for both universes have many parallels and portend possibly massive marketplace changes. What are the Netflix Effect and the API Effect? What is the Netflix Effect? In the media industry it is the waves of change set off by the disaggregation of content and content production from the traditional methods of creation and distribution (cable and television networks and movie studios).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Introducing Dockercast – the Docker Podcast

Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Dockercast the official Docker Podcast. The Docker and container ecosystem is moving fast and it can be hard to catch up with the latest projects or features. Podcasts is an efficient medium for getting up to the speed with the latest news from the ecosystem on-demand. Now you can catch up wherever you are by playing or downloading Docker podcast episodes directly to your phone, laptop or tablet.  
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White House, NSF, NASA tout ambitious drone application plans

The National Science Foundation will devote $35 million in research funding over the next five years to accelerate the safe, intelligent, design and control of unmanned aircraft applications.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+The announcement was part of a wide-ranging White House Office of Science and Technology Policy proclamation to, as it said, promote the safe integration and innovative adoption of unmanned aircraft systems across the United States.The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is today hosting a workshop on “Drones and the Future of Aviation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House, NSF, NASA tout ambitious drone application plans

The National Science Foundation will devote $35 million in research funding over the next five years to accelerate the safe, intelligent, design and control of unmanned aircraft applications.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+The announcement was part of a wide-ranging White House Office of Science and Technology Policy proclamation to, as it said, promote the safe integration and innovative adoption of unmanned aircraft systems across the United States.The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is today hosting a workshop on “Drones and the Future of Aviation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kill a smartphone password with a scan of your eye

Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to log in -- on top of its screen.There's an uneasy feeling about the flash of light projected into your eye, but experts believe iris scanning is a more secure form of biometric authentication than fingerprints.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kill a smartphone password with a scan of your eye

Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to log in -- on top of its screen.There's an uneasy feeling about the flash of light projected into your eye, but experts believe iris scanning is a more secure form of biometric authentication than fingerprints.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel’s Kim Stevenson To Lead IoT Business

Intel is counting on its IoT Group to offset losses from the decline in PC sales.

IBM Assembles X-Force Red for Security Testing

Because Watson can't do it all.

Cowboys running back aaalmost adds to our iPhone injury list

Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden nearly worked his way into our next big list of real life ways people have been hurt using their phones.McFadden broke his elbow over Memorial Day weekend and his coach initially told the media that it happened when the running back attempted to catch a falling iPhone. That fit right in with injuries we came across when digging through a recent batch of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data, collected from about 100 hospitals reporting emergency room visits into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. We discovered lots of trips and falls, not to mention a few animal bites allegedly caused by ringing phones startling the pets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tiny device can infect point-of-sale systems and unlock hotel rooms

Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by generating a strong electromagnetic field that simulates the data stored on the card's magnetic stripe. Kamkar presented it as a way to replace all your cards with a single device, but Hecker took the idea and investigated what else could be done with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tiny device can infect point-of-sale systems and unlock hotel rooms

Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by generating a strong electromagnetic field that simulates the data stored on the card's magnetic stripe. Kamkar presented it as a way to replace all your cards with a single device, but Hecker took the idea and investigated what else could be done with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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• Join database experts from companies like Apple, ING, Instagram, Netflix, and many more to hear about how Apache Cassandra changes how they build, deploy, and scale at Cassandra Summit 2016. This September in San Jose, California is your chance to network, get certified, and trained on the leading NoSQL, distributed database with an exclusive 20% off with  promo code - Academy20. Learn more at CassandraSummit.org


• NoSQL Databases & Docker Containers: From Development to Deployment. What is Docker and why is it important to Developers, Admins and DevOps when they are using a NoSQL database? Find out in this on-demand webinar by Alvin Richards, Continue reading

Russia hacks, plunders the U.S. No bullets fired

It seems so simple, and I hope it’s not: Russia has invaded the U.S. and assaulted the U.S. presidential election, and they haven’t fired a single shot.It would seem all roads lead to the Russian government having their fingers in the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. And WikiLeaks now becomes the New New Gun poised at the collective heads of U.S. politicians—by their revelations and their intent.+ Also on Network World: U.S. cyber incident directive follows DNC hack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russia hacks, plunders the U.S. No bullets fired

It seems so simple, and I hope it’s not: Russia has invaded the U.S. and assaulted the U.S. presidential election, and they haven’t fired a single shot.It would seem all roads lead to the Russian government having their fingers in the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. And WikiLeaks now becomes the New New Gun poised at the collective heads of U.S. politicians—by their revelations and their intent.+ Also on Network World: U.S. cyber incident directive follows DNC hack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: A Game of Pwns

Despite their perpetual status as old news, passwords and their security weaknesses continue to make headlines and disrupt security in ever-expanding ways, and the usual advice about better protection continues to go unheeded or, more worryingly, fails to address the threats any longer. As attacks continue to improve, they show that a cracked password for a given user account often has significant value beyond just the compromised environment. —Cloud Security Alliance

The post Worth Reading: A Game of Pwns appeared first on 'net work.

7 things you need to know about Samsung’s Galaxy Note7

There's a lot to like in Samsung's new Galaxy Note7, which will ship on Aug. 19.  The sharp screen is accentuated by a slight curve on the edges that makes the device easy to handle. It has a snappy, 64-bit processor, and it can rock games and virtual reality with the companion Gear VR headset. Samsung's attention to smaller details makes it a fine device. Here are seven things you need to know about Note7: Many similarities with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge The Galaxy Note7 is a large-screen version of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, with a 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440-pixel display. The USB-C port is an improvement over S7's micro-USB 2.0 ports. Common features include a 12-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth and wireless charging. The Note7 is pre-loaded with Android 6.0.1, weighs 169 grams and is 7.9 millimeters thick. It has 64GB of internal storage and an SD card slot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here