IDG Contributor Network: New laser vortex patterns to increase chip data rates

A bottleneck in data rates is coming, some scientists say. The ever-increasing demand for faster devices, networked information and collected data threatens to ultimately disappoint society—data throughputs and speeds aren’t going to be able to keep up with our digital thirst if we don’t figure out more efficient methods to do it.The problem is particularly prevalent within systems. The semiconductor itself is pretty fast, but an issue arises when one tries to get the data in and out of the semiconductor and over to the surrounding electronics. The conventional interconnects, like wires, slow it all down.Lasers as a solution Some are betting on lasers as a solution. And indeed growing lasers on silicon substrate is one proposed way. Transistors meshed with photonics is another—silicon-germanium has inherent light-absorbing capabilities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Accenture, Endgame team up to become the Van Helsing of cybersecurity

In 2004, there was science fiction movie about a character named Van Helsing. He was a vigilante monster hunter who went around searching for and vanquishing evil monsters such as Mr. Hyde, Dracula and werewolves. If you were evil, there was nowhere to hide. Van Helsing would find you and put an end to you.Accenture and Endgame plan to do the same kind of thing against security threats.Accenture, one of the leading IT, management and consultancy firms, and Endgame, an NSA-centric security solution vendor, are teaming up to offer threat hunting as a service. The new offering will be an Accenture-based managed service that leverages the leading-edge technology and expertise from Endgame.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What your cyber risk profile tells insurers

A cyber risk profile is a complex measure of an organization's security posture. It paints a picture of your risk related to technical aspects such as network and system security liability and network interruption, as well as more organizational aspects such as cyber defense maturity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

3 ways you can still get Windows 10 for free

Well, here we are. The free upgrade period for Windows 10 ended on July 29. You had a year to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, but you put it off, and put it off, and now it’s too late.Or is it? There is no longer an official way to upgrade to Windows 10 without paying a cent. But there are a few loopholes making the rounds on the Internet that apparently allow you to still get a free upgrade.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10 We haven’t tested all of these methods to see if they’ll work. But we can tell you that all of these methods require you to check your morals at the door.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

snaproute Go BGP Code Dive (6): Starting a Peer

In our last post on BGP code, we unraveled the call chain snaproute’s Go BGP implementation uses to bring a peer up. Let’s look at this call chain a bit more to see if we can figure out what it actually does—or rather, how it actually works. I’m going to skip the actual beginning of the FSM itself, and just move to the first state, looking at how the FSM is designed to move from state to state. The entire thing kicks off here—

func (st *IdleState) processEvent(event BGPFSMEvent, data interface{}) {
st.logger.Info(fmt.Sprintln("Neighbor:", st.fsm.pConf.NeighborAddress, "FSM:", st.fsm.id,
"State: Idle Event:", BGPEventTypeToStr[event]))
switch event {
case BGPEventManualStart, BGPEventAutoStart:
st.fsm.SetConnectRetryCounter(0)
st.fsm.StartConnectRetryTimer()
st.fsm.ChangeState(NewConnectState(st.fsm))
....
}

What we need to do is chase down each of these three calls to figure out what they actually do. The first is simple—it just sets a retry counter (connectRetryCounter) to 0, indicating we haven’t tried to restart this peer at all. In other words, this is the first attempt to move from idle to a full peering relationship. This counter is primarily used for telemetry, which means it’s a counter used to show you, Continue reading

The doctor will see you now – virtually

Telehealth, the practice of providing care services remotely using digital technologies, took a big step forward at New York-Presbyterian last week. The hospital system, which sees more than 2 million people a year, is now offering patients the option to receive second opinions, urgent care and consultations via online portals and video conferencing services.The initiative is designed to improve patient outcomes while lowering healthcare costs, says CIO Daniel Barchi, who joined the hospital in December after serving as CIO at Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine since 2010. Barchi says the program was well underway before he joined NYP. “Our CEO, Steve Corwin, had the vision for telehealth,” Barchi says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon aims to pump up its IoT presence with fleet management deal

Verizon Communications plans to buy cloud-computing-focused fleet management firm Fleetmatics Group, in a deal that will pump up the telecom carrier's internet of things portfolio.The US$2.4 billion deal for the Dublin-based fleet management vendor will give Verizon a toehold in the GPS vehicle-tracking and connected cars markets. Fleetmatics, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, has about 37,000 customers and 737,000 subscribed vehicles worldwide.The deal, announced Monday, "underlines Verizon's commitment to the IoT space," Dan Bieler, a digital business analyst with Forrester Research, said by email. "In terms of IoT revenues, this deal helps to improve Verizon's positioning."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

47% off CARCHET Wireless Tire Pressure Monitoring System – Deal Alert

This gadget from CARCHET is a tire pressure monitoring system that is simple to install on virtually any vehicle, and wirelessly shows you the current pressure of all 4 tires at all times while driving. Proper tire pressure prevents puncture and damage of car parts caused by flat tires. It improves fuel efficiency, prolongs tire life, and prevents abnormal wear of vehicle parts.  20% under-inflation reduces tire lifetime by 30% 30% over-inflation reduces tire lifetime by 45% 30% lower pressure looks like a properly inflated tire  Screw a sensor and a special anti-theft screw onto each valve stem where you would a valve cover. The receiver is simply plugged into your cigarette/power port. Readings are taken while in motion and a high/low pressure alarm can be set to alert you of issues. This product currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews). Amazon indicates that its typical list price of $189.99 has been reduced by 47% to $99.99. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Ultimate PC Bundle – Save Hundreds on 10 Top-Rated Apps Ft. Scrivener & CCleaner Pro – Deal Alert

The web is an incredible place, filled with a slew of programs and apps designed to help you get the most out of your PC. But which ones do you pick? Fortunately, the Ultimate PC Bundle is here, and it has curated 10 top-rated productivity, entertainment, and performance programs designed to breathe new life into your PC for only $39.99.Included in the bundle is Scrivener, a word processor and project management tool that lets you outline, take notes, and conduct research all at once. If you’re looking to boost your PC’s entertainment potential, then WALTR and Softorino Youtube Converter have you covered, letting you listen to your favorite songs offline, online, and on any format.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to Setup a Highly Available Multi-AZ Cassandra Cluster on AWS EC2

 

This is a guest post by Alessandro Pieri, Software Architect at Stream. Try out this 5 minute interactive tutorial to learn more about Stream’s API.

Originally built by Facebook in 2009, Apache Cassandra is a free and open-source distributed database designed to handle large amounts of data across a large number of servers. At Stream, we use Cassandra as the primary data store for our feeds. Cassandra stands out because it’s able to:

  • Shard data automatically

  • Handle partial outages without data loss or downtime

  • Scales close to linearly

If you’re already using Cassandra, your cluster is likely configured to handle the loss of 1 or 2 nodes. However, what happens when a full availability zone goes down?

In this article you will learn how to setup Cassandra to survive a full availability zone outage. Afterwards, we will analyze how moving from a single to a multi availability zone cluster impacts availability, cost, and performance.

Recap 1: What Are Availability Zones?

Worth Reading: Learning is hard

Easy access to the tl;dr version of everything a google search away has eroded that foundation in the IT community. I can’t exclude myself from that either, having fallen into that trap of thinking that google will help me find the quick fix. It builds a hidden technical debt because the things we claim to understand are really just black boxes we know how to stack in a certain way. The idea of learning all these things is so that we can apply them to solve problems better. Despite evidence to the contrary there is an underlying presumption that the capacity for original, creative thought is a given. —route-spf

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Pokemon Go now a go on Android smartphones with Intel chips

It took a while, but the hot Pokemon Go mobile game is now working on smartphones with Intel chips.Initially, the app wasn't compatible with Intel-based smartphones. Concerned users put up a petition, which had 42,606 supporters, requesting Niantic Labs -- the developer -- to make the game compatible with x86 smartphone chips.In response to the user backlash, Niantic Labs and Intel worked together to make the app compatible with x86 smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Announcing Docker 1.12 Hackathon winners

The judges have deliberated, our community has voted, and the results are in! We are happy to announce the top 5 submissions of the Docker 1.12 Hackathon.

In case you missed it, the theme of the hackathon was to build, ship, and run a distributed software application using a release candidate of Docker 1.12. We encouraged participants to hack the new features included in Docker 1.12, such as: Swarm Mode, Cryptographic node identity, Service API, and Build-in routing mesh.

Continue reading

VCE chief boasts of hyperconvergence superpower

VCE has only been in the hyperconverged appliance market since the February launch of its VxRail family, but President Chad Sakac says the company will soon be the No.1 player in that rapidly growing market. Sakac doesn’t lack for confidence, nor will his company – launched as a joint EMC/Cisco/VMware venture – lack for resources to back up his claims. VCE is now the converged infrastructure division of EMC and, if things go to plan, will soon be part of the merged Dell/EMC. That giant company, Sakac says, will boast a ‘superpower’ that gives it a huge advantage over rivals like Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Not being beholden to Wall Street, it can move customers more quickly to true utility models of IT. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

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