Worth Reading: The last bastion of proprietary software

Open source software has done a lot to transform the IT industry, but perhaps more than anything else it has reminded those who architect complex systems that all elements of a datacenter have to be equally open and programmable for them to make the customizations that are necessary to run specific workloads efficiently and therefore cost effectively. -The Next Platform

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The EU and US reportedly reach data-transfer deal

The U.S. and the European Union have reportedly reached an agreement on the language of a key data transfer pact, including limits on U.S. surveillance.The revamped EU-U.S. Privacy Shield was sent to EU member states overnight, according to a report from Reuters. Privacy Shield would govern how multinational companies handle the private data of EU residents.Member states are expected to vote on the proposal in July, unnamed sources told Reuters. Representatives of the EU and the U.S. Department of Commerce didn't immediately respond to requests for comments on the reported deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The EU and US reportedly reach data-transfer deal

The U.S. and the European Union have reportedly reached an agreement on the language of a key data transfer pact, including limits on U.S. surveillance.The revamped EU-U.S. Privacy Shield was sent to EU member states overnight, according to a report from Reuters. Privacy Shield would govern how multinational companies handle the private data of EU residents.Member states are expected to vote on the proposal in July, unnamed sources told Reuters. Representatives of the EU and the U.S. Department of Commerce didn't immediately respond to requests for comments on the reported deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

30 days in a terminal: Day 8 — The slow descent into madness

On June 16, just a hair over one week, I started using the Linux terminal. Exclusively. Up until that point, I'd been a lover of all things command line—my fondness for text based interfaces, and unreasonably old technology, bordering on the legendary. Despite that, I've relied on graphical interfaces for the better part of the last three decades. I've always told myself that I could, if I wanted to, do all of my computing entirely within a text-based shell—and never leave. With the number of times I've suggested this to myself, you'd almost think I was trying to goad myself into it. Throwing down some serious nerd peer pressure—on myself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is 2016 Optimism About SDN and NFV Justified?

SDN and NFV is expected to surge in 2016

Alchemy Can’t Save Moore’s Law

We don’t have a Moore’s Law problem so much as we have a materials science or alchemy problem. If you believe in materials science, what seems abundantly clear in listening to so many discussions about the end of scale for chip manufacturing processes is that, for whatever reason, the industry as a whole has not done enough investing to discover the new materials that will allow us to enhance or move beyond CMOS chip technology.

The only logical conclusion is that people must actually believe in alchemy, that some kind of magic is going to save the day and allow …

Alchemy Can’t Save Moore’s Law was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Demisto accelerates security investigations through automation and collaboration  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  When it comes to network and endpoint security incidents, there's no shortage of products that can detect suspicious activities and send up alerts. However, what there is a shortage of is skilled incident response experts and time to investigate all the alerts. Security operations (SecOps) professionals need better tools and more efficient processes to become more effective.Demisto Inc. is a new company that launched in May to address these challenges. Demisto says it can help Security Operations Centers (SOCs) scale the capabilities of their human resources, improve incident response times, and capture evidence while working to solve problems collaboratively. The Demisto Enterprise platform is an innovative approach that includes enabling collaboration among analysts and intelligent automation using bots and playbooks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Demisto accelerates security investigations through automation and collaboration  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  When it comes to network and endpoint security incidents, there's no shortage of products that can detect suspicious activities and send up alerts. However, what there is a shortage of is skilled incident response experts and time to investigate all the alerts. Security operations (SecOps) professionals need better tools and more efficient processes to become more effective.Demisto Inc. is a new company that launched in May to address these challenges. Demisto says it can help Security Operations Centers (SOCs) scale the capabilities of their human resources, improve incident response times, and capture evidence while working to solve problems collaboratively. The Demisto Enterprise platform is an innovative approach that includes enabling collaboration among analysts and intelligent automation using bots and playbooks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

54% off Vansky Bias Lighting for HDTV USB LED Multi Color Strip Accent Lighting – Deal Alert

This bias lighting strip, currently discounted by 54% on Amazon from $49.99 down to just $22.99, reduces eye-strain caused by differences in picture brightness from scene to scene in movies, shows and games, by adding a subtle backlight to your monitor or TV.  The LED lights can be changed with up to 20 color selections customizing and setting the mood of your workspace. The strip is easy to install and can be cut to size and plugs directly in the USB port of the TV or monitor.  Just Plug-and-play!To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

54% off Vansky Bias Lighting for HDTV USB LED Multi Color Strip Accent Lighting – Deal Alert

This bias lighting strip, currently discounted by 54% on Amazon from $49.99 down to just $22.99, reduces eye-strain caused by differences in picture brightness from scene to scene in movies, shows and games, by adding a subtle backlight to your monitor or TV.  The LED lights can be changed with up to 20 color selections customizing and setting the mood of your workspace. The strip is easy to install and can be cut to size and plugs directly in the USB port of the TV or monitor.  Just Plug-and-play!To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: New fiber light patterns will shatter a ‘bandwidth ceiling’

Traditional fiber-optic communication sends data using just one light pattern. That’s fine, but it means the amount of bandwidth that a fiber strand can deliver is limited. If you could add more light patterns alongside the initial one, you could increase the bit rate, some scientists say.By bundling more information-containing light arrangements into a fiber, you could theoretically increase bandwidth.And scientists think they might have figured out how to do it. They say they are ready to crack what they call a “bandwidth ceiling.”+ Also on Network World: First light-based chip could signal revolution for fiber networks +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: New fiber light patterns will shatter a ‘bandwidth ceiling’

Traditional fiber-optic communication sends data using just one light pattern. That’s fine, but it means the amount of bandwidth that a fiber strand can deliver is limited. If you could add more light patterns alongside the initial one, you could increase the bit rate, some scientists say.By bundling more information-containing light arrangements into a fiber, you could theoretically increase bandwidth.And scientists think they might have figured out how to do it. They say they are ready to crack what they call a “bandwidth ceiling.”+ Also on Network World: First light-based chip could signal revolution for fiber networks +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: New fiber light patterns will shatter a ‘bandwidth ceiling’

Traditional fiber-optic communication sends data using just one light pattern. That’s fine, but it means the amount of bandwidth that a fiber strand can deliver is limited. If you could add more light patterns alongside the initial one, you could increase the bit rate, some scientists say.By bundling more information-containing light arrangements into a fiber, you could theoretically increase bandwidth.And scientists think they might have figured out how to do it. They say they are ready to crack what they call a “bandwidth ceiling.”+ Also on Network World: First light-based chip could signal revolution for fiber networks +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lenovo patches two high severity flaws in PC support tool

Lenovo has fixed two high-severity vulnerabilities in the Lenovo Solution Center support tool that is preinstalled on many laptop and desktop PCs. The flaws could allow attackers to take over computers and terminate antivirus processes.Lenovo Solution Center (LSC) allows users to check their system's virus and firewall status, update their Lenovo software, perform backups, check battery health, get registration and warranty information and run hardware tests.The two new vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2016-5249 and CVE-2016-5248 in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database, were found by security researchers from Trustwave. They affect LSC versions 3.3.002 and earlier.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lenovo patches two high severity flaws in PC support tool

Lenovo has fixed two high-severity vulnerabilities in the Lenovo Solution Center support tool that is preinstalled on many laptop and desktop PCs. The flaws could allow attackers to take over computers and terminate antivirus processes.Lenovo Solution Center (LSC) allows users to check their system's virus and firewall status, update their Lenovo software, perform backups, check battery health, get registration and warranty information and run hardware tests.The two new vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2016-5249 and CVE-2016-5248 in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database, were found by security researchers from Trustwave. They affect LSC versions 3.3.002 and earlier.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to make IT governance work

Business executives are able to hold two contradictory thoughts in their heads: Technology is costly, but the internal IT services they use are free. An IT governance process is the way to get those execs to understand IT’s true costs — and opportunities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: The Starry Station Wi-Fi router sticks with simplicity (+video)

If you've reviewed tech products for as long as I have, you'll have learned that categories of products have archetypes. These days, for example, laptops are (for the most part) slim black boxes and monitors are thin glass rectangles. Mobile phones, which used to have clamshell designs, are now all metal (or metal-looking) slabs with a glass front. And home wireless routers tend to be small black boxes bristling with more antennas than an NSA surveillance van.The Starry Station wireless router breaks the mold. A white polycarbonate-over-metal triangular prism with a base measuring 7 x 3 in. and standing 6.25 in. high, it has a 3.8-in. LCD touchscreen you can use to see and control the device's operational status. The device retails for $350 (Amazon price - What's this?).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s pricey Surface Book is getting stomped by the ancient Surface Pro 3

Though deciding between the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4 was an agonizing choice for PCWorld editors, customers apparently know what they want: The Surface Pro 3—yes, the older one.AdDuplex, a Windows-specific ad network which compiles data on Windows machines, estimates that an even third of all Surface users are using a Surface Pro 3, a convertible tablet Microsoft phased out when its successor, the Surface Pro 4, began shipping in late 2015. SP4 sales are closing fast, though: AdDuplex said they’re about 30.9 percent of all Surface tablets that it detected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Seagate targets storage for drones and robots

Seagate is targeting drones and robots as it looks to add its storage technologies to new devices. "There's a huge opportunity there," said Patrick Ferguson, a product manager at Seagate. "I'm really excited about it." Manufacturers make drones easy to fly, but storage isn't a heavy consideration, Ferguson said. Robots and drones generate a lot of data, but have limited internal storage to retain all that information. For example, drones with multiple cameras generate a lot of video, but just one CompactFlash or SD card to store all that data may not be enough. "In a 20 minute flight you're talking hundreds of gigabytes, not tens of gigabytes," Ferguson said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 ways to beef up your resume over the summer

In today's digital world, companies are struggling to find IT professionals with the cutting-edge skills they need to drive innovation and growth. If you're an IT professional looking to land a new role or a professional looking to make a career change, summer's the perfect time to brush up on new skills. And the availability and affordability of online learning has made it easier than ever to add critical hard and soft skills, even those from elite learning institutions like Harvard, MIT and Columbia University, says Anant Agarwal, CEO of online learning provider edX. "Talking to CIOs and hiring managers, we find that they're struggling to find talent with the needed skills to grow their business and remain competitive -- a prime example of this is in data science and analytics which, as a career, has only evolved in the last few years. Traditional educational institutions can't keep up with that," Agarwal says. If you're looking to beef up your IT resume, Agarwal suggests focusing on five areas: introduction to computer science; business and management including entrepreneurship; Java programming; data science and analytics; and agile software development. [ Related story: 10 top-ranked tech-focused MBA programs ] "These are a great Continue reading