Intel’s data center chief talks machine learning — just don’t ask about GPUs

If you want to get under Diane Bryant’s skin these days, just ask her about GPUs. The head of Intel’s powerful data center group was at Computex in Taipei this week, in part to explain how the company's latest Xeon Phi processor is a good fit for machine learning. Machine learning is the process by which companies like Google and Facebook train software to get better at performing AI tasks including computer vision and understanding natural language. It’s key to improving all kinds of online services: Google said recently that it's rethinking everything it does around machine learning.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Intel turned Thunderbolt from a failure into a success

The third time could be the charm for Intel and its Thunderbolt technology. A year after introducing Thunderbolt 3 at Computex 2015, Intel is finally starting to see success with its high-speed external I/O—enough that even doubters might agree it’s winning.You needn’t look far for signs that Thunderbolt 3 will succeed where its two predecessors failed dismally on the PC. This year’s top-tier laptops from HP and Dell, as well models from MSI, Asus, Razer, and Acer, all prominently feature Thunderbolt 3 ports. Almost all of the high-profile laptops of the last few months have prominently featured Thunderbolt 3 ports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Code red: Health IT must fix its security crisis

The health care industry provides an alluring target for malicious hackers. Personal health information has a much longer shelf life than financial information, making it a major draw for identity thieves. But a new and more troubling threat has arisen: the potential disruption of critical hospital systems by cybercriminals.With a diverse array of digital systems, hospitals have evolved into complex technology operations. Yet they remain singularly ill-prepared to defend against attacks, in part because the multiplicity of systems forms a wider surface area to attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Code red: Health IT must fix its security crisis

The health care industry provides an alluring target for malicious hackers. Personal health information has a much longer shelf life than financial information, making it a major draw for identity thieves. But a new and more troubling threat has arisen: the potential disruption of critical hospital systems by cybercriminals.With a diverse array of digital systems, hospitals have evolved into complex technology operations. Yet they remain singularly ill-prepared to defend against attacks, in part because the multiplicity of systems forms a wider surface area to attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Code red: Health IT must fix its security crisis

The health care industry provides an alluring target for malicious hackers. Personal health information has a much longer shelf life than financial information, making it a major draw for identity thieves. But a new and more troubling threat has arisen: the potential disruption of critical hospital systems by cybercriminals.With a diverse array of digital systems, hospitals have evolved into complex technology operations. Yet they remain singularly ill-prepared to defend against attacks, in part because the multiplicity of systems forms a wider surface area to attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tricks that ransomware uses to fool you

Pulling ransomware out of …Image by ThinkstockRansomware quite often targets businesses (for example hospitals) rather than individuals. Corporations have more valuable data and more money for ransom (ransom increases from roughly $500 per computer to $15,000 for the entire enterprise). Cyphort has examined different variants of ransomware to help users get an idea of what might be coming down the Internet pipeline. So keep an eye out for these characteristics before your network is taken hostage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tricks that ransomware uses to fool you

Pulling ransomware out of …Image by ThinkstockRansomware quite often targets businesses (for example hospitals) rather than individuals. Corporations have more valuable data and more money for ransom (ransom increases from roughly $500 per computer to $15,000 for the entire enterprise). Cyphort has examined different variants of ransomware to help users get an idea of what might be coming down the Internet pipeline. So keep an eye out for these characteristics before your network is taken hostage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: People are more likely to share their passwords when offered chocolate

"Beware those bearing gifts" is the ancient phrase that dates back a few thousand years. It referred to the wooden horse that was used to dupe the folks of Troy into allowing the Greeks into their city.Well, don’t trust the horse today, either.Freebies are just as likely to be accompanied by trickery now as they’ve ever been, according to scientists who’ve been studying the willingness to communicate confidential information.Presents “greatly increased the likelihood of participants giving away their password,” psychologists from the University of Luxembourg say their research has revealed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: People are more likely to share their passwords when offered chocolate

"Beware those bearing gifts" is the ancient phrase that dates back a few thousand years. It referred to the wooden horse that was used to dupe the folks of Troy into allowing the Greeks into their city.Well, don’t trust the horse today, either.Freebies are just as likely to be accompanied by trickery now as they’ve ever been, according to scientists who’ve been studying the willingness to communicate confidential information.Presents “greatly increased the likelihood of participants giving away their password,” psychologists from the University of Luxembourg say their research has revealed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Transforming Silos into Universal Cloud Networking

We have witnessed a massive shift in the way applications are built and deployed, moving away from siloed IT to seamless workloads, workflows and work-streams. This revolution has changed the fundamental way that networks are architected to enable support of cloud native applications. With these new architectures, one can now automate and provision the entire network with real time agility, ushering in a new class of cloud networks.

32 – VXLAN Multipod stretched across geographically dispersed datacenters

This article focuses on the single stretched Fabric across multiple locations as mentioned in the previous post (31) through the 1st option.

I have been working with my friends Patrice and Max for several months building a efficient and resilient solution to stretched a VXLAN Multipod fabric across two sites. The whole technical white paper is now available and can be accessible here:

One of the key use-case for that scenario is for an enterprise to select VXLAN EVPN as the technology of choice for building multiple greenfield data center pods. It becomes therefore logical to extend VXLAN between distant PoD’s that are managed and operated as a single administrative domain. This choice makes sense as a multipod fabric functionally and operationally is a single logical VXLAN fabric, and its deployment is a continuation of the work performed to roll out the pod, simplifying the provisioning of end-to-end Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity.

Technically speaking and thanks to the flexibility of VXLAN, we could deploy the overlay network on top of any Layer 3 architecture within a datacenter.

  • [Q] However, can we afford to stretch the VXLAN fabric as a single fabric without taking into consideration the risks of loosing the whole resources Continue reading

New peripherals are bringing Windows Hello to any Windows 10 PC

Japan's Mouse Computer has developed add-on biometric sensors that will bring Windows Hello to any PC running Windows 10. Windows Hello is Microsoft's biometric security system. It allows users to dump passwords for facial or fingerprint recognition, but only on PCs that have the correct hardware. Many new PCs do, but generations of older machines that can run Windows 10 don't have the infrared camera or fingerprint sensors that are required. That's where the new add-on peripherals come in. There's a USB camera unit and a tiny USB fingerprint reader. Both will bring Windows Hello to Windows 10 PCs, said Microsoft this week at the Computex trade show in Taipei.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New peripherals are bringing Windows Hello to any Windows 10 PC

Japan's Mouse Computer has developed add-on biometric sensors that will bring Windows Hello to any PC running Windows 10. Windows Hello is Microsoft's biometric security system. It allows users to dump passwords for facial or fingerprint recognition, but only on PCs that have the correct hardware. Many new PCs do, but generations of older machines that can run Windows 10 don't have the infrared camera or fingerprint sensors that are required. That's where the new add-on peripherals come in. There's a USB camera unit and a tiny USB fingerprint reader. Both will bring Windows Hello to Windows 10 PCs, said Microsoft this week at the Computex trade show in Taipei.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Drumpf: this is not how German works

In our willingness to believe any evil of Trump, some have claimed his original name was "Drumpf". This isn't true, this isn't how the German language works. Trump has the power to short-circuit critical thinking in both his supporters and his enemies. The "Drumpf" meme is just one example.

There was no official pronunciation or spelling of German words/names until after Trump's grandfather was born. As this The Guardian article describes, in the city ("Kallstadt") where Trump's grandfather was born, you'll see many different spellings of the family name in the church's records. like "Drumb, Tromb, Tromp, Trum, Trumpff, Dromb" and Trump. A person might spell their name different ways on different documents, and the names of children might be spelled different than their parent's. It makes German genealogy tough sometimes.

During that time, different areas of German had different dialects that were as far apart as Dutch and German are today. Indeed, these dialects persist. Germans who grow up outside of cities often learn their own local dialect and standard German as two different languages. Everyone understands standard German, but many villagers cannot speak it. They often live their entire lives within a hundred kilometers of where they grew Continue reading

Server market slumps after seven quarters of growth

The worldwide server market saw a year-on-year revenue slump of 3.6 percent in the first quarter to US$12.4 billion, after a winning streak of seven quarters of growth, IDC said Wednesday.The slowdown in the market, which also witnessed shipments of servers drop by 3 percent year-on-year to 2.2 million units, is largely put down to an end in the enterprise refresh cycle and what is described as a “pause” in investments in hyperscale server deployments.Those investments are expected to be back in the second half of this year with a pick up in expenditure on servers for existing data centers and the roll out of new ones.The slowdown in the server market in the first quarter has not affected key players uniformly. Hewlett Packard Enterprise retained its top position, with revenue of $3.3 billion and a 26.7 percent share of market revenue, after a year on-year growth of 3.5 percent. Dell and IBM retained their number two and three spots respectively, but with year-on-year decline in revenue.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here