The Weather Company Seeks Next Data-Driven Platform

When considering system and software needs at massive scale, one application area that tends to shed light on what lies ahead is weather prediction and modeling.

Over the last year, we have had a number of pieces about what centers that deliver forecasts (and carry out research to improve those predictions) need to do to stay ahead, and while conversations about hardware and software are important, what is emerging is that weather, like many other areas of computing at scale, actually needs a platform versus innovation at one or two levels of the stack.

With that idea of a platform

The Weather Company Seeks Next Data-Driven Platform was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

IDG Contributor Network: Digital mesh: Continuous, hyper-connectivity for everyone

Hyper-connectivity is the way of the future. The world is going to become more electronic, and CEOs are banking on digital technology to grow their revenue.To make that a reality, IT services need to be involved, said Helen Huntley, a Gartner research vice president, speaking at Gartner’s Tech Growth and Innovation Conference in Los Angeles earlier this week.It calls for having a kind of device or digital mesh that produces hyper-connectivity for everyone. That, coupled with vast swaths of data and smart machines, will be a principal “strategic technology change” we’ll see, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

My Cisco Live 2016 Schedule

Ever since my blog, CiscoLive 2016: ‘Summer Camp for Geeks’, I’ve been getting questions about what my personal CLUS schedule typically looks like for the week.  CiscoLive 2016 will be my 11th CiscoLive US (“#CLUS”) and my 13th CiscoLive in general.

It is my favorite work week of the ENTIRE year.  And I look forward to it a great deal.  At the same time…. it is not even one full week and one can miss so much they wished they hadn’t missed because the time flies by so quickly. And yes… I have learned this the hard way.

So… first things first – I came up with the list of things that are prioritizes to me for the week.

All that said…… Here ya go. My CiscoLive (CLUS) schedule for the week.

  • Teach
  • Recharge
  • Learn
  • Play and Have Fun

clus_fish

Who speaks for multi-vendor environments?

In 1980, the final episode of one my favorite TV shows, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, aired. In “Who Speaks for Earth?” Sagan summarized the mess that has become humanity and the impending doom that will befall Earth if things do not change. The episode also provides alternatives to that behavior and offers a way to save Earth but begs the big question of who actually speaks for Earth to enable the behavior change.This is not unlike what’s happening in the data center today. It’s been well documented on this site and others that the data center is currently a mess. Data centers are built on repeatable building blocks, but configuration is still done manually. In Cosmos, Sagan gave the planet only a minuscule percentage chance of surviving if humans didn’t change their ways. Similarly, organizations must change the way they operate data centers if they are to make it in an increasingly digital world where speed is everything. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who speaks for multi-vendor environments?

In 1980, the final episode of one my favorite TV shows, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, aired. In “Who Speaks for Earth?” Sagan summarized the mess that has become humanity and the impending doom that will befall Earth if things do not change. The episode also provides alternatives to that behavior and offers a way to save Earth but begs the big question of who actually speaks for Earth to enable the behavior change.This is not unlike what’s happening in the data center today. It’s been well documented on this site and others that the data center is currently a mess. Data centers are built on repeatable building blocks, but configuration is still done manually. In Cosmos, Sagan gave the planet only a minuscule percentage chance of surviving if humans didn’t change their ways. Similarly, organizations must change the way they operate data centers if they are to make it in an increasingly digital world where speed is everything. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lenovo’s Phab2 Pro will be the first Google Project Tango AR smartphone

Lenovo's new Phab2 Pro, developed with Google, brings augmented reality to smartphone screens without the need for a headset. The device, which has a 6.4-inch screen, pushes smartphone functionality to new heights. The giant display presents a wealth of information that changes how people interact with the physical world around them. The smartphone, based on Google's Project Tango computer vision technology, will ship worldwide in August for US $499, Lenovo announced Thursday. It's loaded with cutting-edge sensors, cameras, and a Snapdragon 652 processor from Qualcomm. The device can be used to measure distances, recognize items, map locations, and provide real-time indoor navigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

National Intelligence office wants to perfect the art of security deception

Sometimes a great offense is much better than a stout defense, especially when it comes to protecting enterprise assets.This week the advanced technology developers from the Intelligence Advance Research Projects Activity (IARPA) office put out a Request For Information about how to best develop better denial and deception technologies – such as honeypots or deception servers for example -- that would bolster cyber security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

National Intelligence office wants to perfect the art of security deception

Sometimes a great offense is much better than a stout defense, especially when it comes to protecting enterprise assets.This week the advanced technology developers from the Intelligence Advance Research Projects Activity (IARPA) office put out a Request For Information about how to best develop better denial and deception technologies – such as honeypots or deception servers for example -- that would bolster cyber security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How the Internet is like the Verrazano Bridge

No, the Internet has not become a series of bridges; it remains a series of tubes.The Internet is like the Verrazano Bridge in that there are moves afoot – ill-advised moves -- to change how each entity is represented through the written word.In the case of the Internet, the influential Associated Press and its indefatigable style disciples have already decreed that the word Internet should no longer be capitalized. Many news organizations and journalists are meekly complying by demoting the Internet to the internet. As you can see, I am refusing to fall in line.Meanwhile, in New York City, nitpicky petitioners are demanding that the Verrazano Bridge – North America’s longest such span – be renamed the Verrazzano Bridge. OK, fine, renaming may be oversating the case; they’re actually demanding the addition of a second “z” in Verrazano, despite the fact that it’s been spelled with only one since the bridge opened in 1964.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How the Internet is like the Verrazano Bridge

No, the Internet has not become a series of bridges; it remains a series of tubes.The Internet is like the Verrazano Bridge in that there are moves afoot – ill-advised moves -- to change how each entity is represented through the written word.In the case of the Internet, the influential Associated Press and its indefatigable style disciples have already decreed that the word Internet should no longer be capitalized. Many news organizations and journalists are meekly complying by demoting the Internet to the internet. As you can see, I am refusing to fall in line.Meanwhile, in New York City, nitpicky petitioners are demanding that the Verrazano Bridge – North America’s longest such span – be renamed the Verrazzano Bridge. OK, fine, renaming may be oversating the case; they’re actually demanding the addition of a second “z” in Verrazano, despite the fact that it’s been spelled with only one since the bridge opened in 1964.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Reading List: 060916

A few of the papers, RFCs, and drafts I’m reading this week, along with a short description of each.

A Survey of Worldwide Censorship Techniques
draft-hall-censorship-tech-03

Censorship is a large problem on the Internet—but it’s often difficult to find any good description of the various ways censors can both find and block “offending” content. This draft is a short, readable overview of the various techniques actually seen in the wild, along with pointers to research about the techniques themselves, and instances where they’ve been used in the real world.

IPv6 Extension Headers and Packet Drops
draft-gont-v6ops-ipv6-ehs-in-real-world

One of the interesting features of IPv6 is its support for extension headers, which are variable length bits of information—metadata about the packet, for instance—that can be attached to a packet and processed by either the receiving host or forwarding devices along the way. Extension headers are useful, in that they allow IPv6 to be easily extended on the fly, rather than forcing the protocol designer to create a set of metadata “in stone.” Extension headers, however, are also controversial; how should an ASIC designer decide which ones to support in hardware, and how should extension headers that cannot be handled in hardware Continue reading

Communications of the Bolek Trojan

A few weeks ago CERT Polska released a short blog post introducing a new malware family now known as Bolek. PhishMe and Dr.Web have since added some additional insight into the family. Browsing through a memory dump of the malware, a Webinjects section sticks out. Webinjects usually imply banking malware, so it seems Bolek picks […]

Hackers could have changed Facebook Messenger chat logs

Here's a Facebook hack straight from the pages of the novel 1984: A way to rewrite the record of the past."Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," went the ruling party's slogan in George Orwell's dystopian novel.Security researchers have found a way to control the past, by altering Facebook's logs of online chats conducted through its website and Messenger App.Such modified logs could be used to control the future, the researchers suggest, by using them to commit fraud, to falsify evidence in legal investigations, or to introduce malware onto a PC or phone.Roman Zaikin of Check Point Software Technologies discovered a flaw in Facebook's chat system that made it possible for an attacker to modify or remove any sent message, photo, file or link in a conversation they were part of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers could have changed Facebook Messenger chat logs

Here's a Facebook hack straight from the pages of the novel 1984: A way to rewrite the record of the past."Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," went the ruling party's slogan in George Orwell's dystopian novel.Security researchers have found a way to control the past, by altering Facebook's logs of online chats conducted through its website and Messenger App.Such modified logs could be used to control the future, the researchers suggest, by using them to commit fraud, to falsify evidence in legal investigations, or to introduce malware onto a PC or phone.Roman Zaikin of Check Point Software Technologies discovered a flaw in Facebook's chat system that made it possible for an attacker to modify or remove any sent message, photo, file or link in a conversation they were part of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 ways video can boost your business

According to a recent Aberdeen report, marketers who use video see much faster revenue growth (49 percent) than those who do not. However, video has become more than just a marketing tool. With their capability to visually explain and demonstrate things and concepts, videos can help businesses not only showcase their products and services, attracting new customers, but they can help companies attract new employees and even make workers more productive.Here are six cases where video can be beneficial.1. Explaining your value proposition/what you do Why tell people what you do when you can show them?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open Forum Track at DockerCon 2016 Includes Curated and Open BoF Sessions and Panels!

Ready for another new addition to DockerCon this year?

The Open Forum track is brand new to this year’s conference agenda! This room is our unique version of hybrid Birds-of-a-Feather sessions and interactive panel discussions. The goal is for a highly interactive conversational room around some guided topics. Be sure to stop in at some point during the conference and let us know what you think!

Continue reading

Ghost story blogger has kind words for Comcast

It's not every day I come across positive sentiments about Comcast, so I thought I'd share this example that I stumbled upon in a local blog focused on, of all things, ghost stories. Author Liz Sower writes realistic but fictional accounts of the paranormal at "Ghosts in the Burbs," and she caught my eye with this recent headline: Xfinity vs. Verizon. I thought for sure she was going to dive into haunted DSL or eerie broadband experiences.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here