Chip Upstarts Get Coherent With Hybrid Compute

Accelerators and coprocessors are proliferating in the datacenter, and it has been a boon for speeding up certain kinds of workloads and, in many cases, making machine learning or simulation jobs possible at scale for the first time. But ultimately, in a hybrid system, the processors and the accelerators have to share data, and moving it about is a pain in the neck.

Having the memory across these devices operate in a coherent manner – meaning that all devices can address all memory attached to those devices in a single, consistent way – is one of the holy grails of

Chip Upstarts Get Coherent With Hybrid Compute was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Virtual reality expert doesn’t see an easy fix for VR nausea

How real are virtual reality gaming experiences? If a video of a first-person shooter horror game on the HTC Vive are any indication, fairly real – at least real enough to totally freak out this chick. I own neither Vive nor Oculus at this point; yet I built a beast of a box and am interested in HTC Vive due to SteamVR Desktop Theater Mode which would allow a person to play every game in their Steam library in virtual reality. I can’t wait to slay VR room-sized Bitterblack Isle monsters and the continual flood of new foes on Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EP04: Interview with Data Center Solutions expert Loy Evans at Cisco

Loy has been in the IT industry over 20 years. He got his start as a programmer, but jumped into the networking side of the house early in his career. He’s holds a CCIE in Routing & Switching and is currently employed at Cisco Systems as a Data Center Solutions Consultant. Loy has a true passion for Data Center technologies and has been a distinguished speaker at Cisco Live numerous times.

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IDG Contributor Network: Why cellular 911 has location problems

Over the past two decades, the personal communications habits of Americans have profoundly changed. CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that the penetration of cellular devices surpassed 100 percent in 2012, and as of the latest 2014 report, penetration is now at 110 percent.

With so many mobile devices deployed, it isn't surprising that the majority of calls to our nation’s 911 emergency public safety answering points (PSAP) originate from those devices. In fact, most U.S. dispatch agencies will tell you that wireless callers are responsible for at least 80 percent of their emergency call volume. Likewise, in the European Union, that number is well into the 90 percent range in many locations. 

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Why cellular 911 has location problems

Over the past two decades, the personal communications habits of Americans have profoundly changed. CTIA – The Wireless Association reported that the penetration of cellular devices surpassed 100 percent in 2012, and as of the latest 2014 report, penetration is now at 110 percent.With so many mobile devices deployed, it isn't surprising that the majority of calls to our nation’s 911 emergency public safety answering points (PSAP) originate from those devices. In fact, most U.S. dispatch agencies will tell you that wireless callers are responsible for at least 80 percent of their emergency call volume. Likewise, in the European Union, that number is well into the 90 percent range in many locations. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

17% off Bose CineMate 15 Home Theater Sound Bar Speaker System – Deal Alert

The CineMate 15 from Bose is a highly rated soundbar system that is easy to set up and promises the kind of full, rich sound with deep bass that you have come to expect from Bose. The soundbar itself is no longer than a ruler and simply sits in front of your TV, connecting with a single cable. The accoustic mass module can be placed out of site. Together, the system works with Bose TrueSpace signal processing to spread sound far and wide, fully immersing you in the action. The CineMate 15 averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews). With the current 17% off deal, it's regular list price of $599 has been temporarily discounted to $499. See the discounted CineMate 15 Home Theatre System now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Packet Pushers Podcast Gets Techical About VMware NSX with Hutto Independent School District

Based in Texas, the Hutto Independent School District comprises more than 6,000 K-12 students on 8 campuses. When they decided to virtualize their network, they had a number of factors to keep in mind. Would the technology support VDI implementation? How would a virtual network affect business as usual? Could they deploy NSX themselves? Could they deploy NSX alongside Cisco ACI?

If you’re familiar with VMware NSX, you may have an inkling about the answers to these questions. But that’s no reason not to listen to this entertaining episode of the Packet Pushers Podcast, our favorite podcast geared toward IT practitioners and professionals.

In this episode, hosts Greg Ferro and Ethan Banks sit down with representatives from theHutto ISD—Director of Technology Travis Brown; Network Administrator Keith Reynolds; and Network Administrator Christopher Harding—to talk about why Hutto decided to virtualize the network, and why they chose to #RunNSX

Take a listen!

The post Packet Pushers Podcast Gets Techical About VMware NSX with Hutto Independent School District appeared first on The Network Virtualization Blog.

IDG Contributor Network: Most online tracking is from Google-owned properties

All of the top five tracking tools found on websites are from Google-owned properties.And new, cookie-replacing methods of identifying computers, called fingerprinting, is being used by advertisers, a new study found. Fingerprinting can work by sending audio files to individual web browsers. The method identifies the PC, Princeton University explains in its research (PDF).Princeton says its study, completed in January, is the biggest assessment of online tracking ever. The university trawled a million of the “top” websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Most online tracking is from Google-owned properties

All of the top five tracking tools found on websites are from Google-owned properties.And new, cookie-replacing methods of identifying computers, called fingerprinting, is being used by advertisers, a new study found. Fingerprinting can work by sending audio files to individual web browsers. The method identifies the PC, Princeton University explains in its research (PDF).Princeton says its study, completed in January, is the biggest assessment of online tracking ever. The university trawled a million of the “top” websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What Language Should You Learn?

So you’ve decided, for all the reasons given in my last post on this topic, that you want to learn to code. The next, obvious, question is: what language should you learn? Remember the goal isn’t just to learn to code, but to learn the mindset, tools, and structure of coding; to dog past the simple ability to kick off scripts, and actually pick up an overview of the ground level “stuff” necessary, the “stuff” that is going to transfer from being able to code to being a good engineer. You don’t want to waste your time just learning a new skill, you want to what you learn to intersect with what your main learning goals are in a way that ultimately supports them.

If you’re a bit confused by all this mumbo-jumbo, go back and take a look at one of the first posts on this blog: Jack of All Trades.

To answer the question—which languages should I learn—I need to look beyond what’s “easiest to learn,” or “most popular right now,” or any of the “standard” ways people make this sort of decision. To relate this back to network engineering terms, I want to learn routing, not how Continue reading

The sad reality about Windows Phones

Everybody loves smartphones, but almost nobody loves Windows smartphones.A majority (78 percent) of all mobile phones sold worldwide between January and March were smartphones, and smartphones sales grew by 4 percent compared to the same time period the year previous, according to a recent report by market research firm Gartner. Yet with all that smartphone activity, Windows phone sales fell even further. Actually, the word “fell” is being generous. The truth is they crashed.Hard.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier Windows mobile device market share fell below the one percent mark worldwide to 0.7 percent during the first quarter of 2016, according to Gartner. Just one year ago, Windows device sales were anemic at 2.5 percent, but that’s still many times better compared to where they are now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to go back to Windows 7 or 8 after an unwanted Windows 10 upgrade

Microsoft’s putting away the carrots and breaking out the sticks in its quest to migrate 1 billion users to Windows 10 over the next couple of years.After pushing out the free upgrade as a Recommended update to Windows 7 and 8 users earlier this year—which means that you downloaded the initial installation bits if you use the default Windows Update, like most people should—Microsoft changed its nagging pop-up prompt in an insidious way over the past week. For the past six months, the “Get Windows 10” pop-up asked permission to start an update, but lacked a “No thanks” option, so the only way to avoid it was to close the window by pressing the X in the upper-right hand corner. Now, the pop-up says “We will upgrade you at this time,” and pressing the X counts as consent. You need to click a small, easily missed link in the pop-up to cancel the upgrade, instead.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft updates Dynamics CRM with a new IoT twist

There's an update available for Microsoft's Dynamics CRM 2016, and it brings with it a brand-new tool to help companies tap the Internet of Things for their customer-service efforts.Announced on Monday, the Spring 2016 Wave of Dynamics CRM adds Connected Field Service, a new tool companies can soon use to leverage the potential of predictive maintenance via IoT devices.Available as a preview in June, Connected Field Service continuously monitors IoT-enabled devices for anomalies, generating alerts that trigger automated actions or service tickets and workflow according to service level agreements. Service technicians with the right skills and tools are then matched against the service requirement based on availability and proximity and routed to customer locations for preventive action.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here