Report: Apple to chase Echo, Google Home in voice assistant market

Tech giant Apple could be readying itself for an uncharacteristic act of openness, as the company prepares to take the wraps off of the Siri SDK in a bid for a bigger piece of the growing digital voice assistant market.A report from The Information’s Amir Efrati said yesterday that Apple is getting ready to make development tools for Siri widely available for the first time, which will allow app developers to create products that integrate with the company’s popular voice assistant.ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Not dead yet: 7 of the oldest federal IT systems still wheezing away + Software-Defined WANs: Viptela gets $75M in fundingTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: The bias built in at Facebook

But “surfaced by an algorithm” is not a defense of neutrality, because algorithms aren’t neutral. Algorithms are often presented as an extension of natural sciences like physic or biology. While these algorithms also use data, math and computation, they are a fountain of bias and slants — of a new kind. —NYT

The post Worth Reading: The bias built in at Facebook appeared first on 'net work.

Google AI expert explains the challenge of debugging machine-learning systems

Google Director of Research and renowned artificial intelligence (AI) expert Peter Norvig, presented an entirely different side of AI and machine learning at the EmTech Digital conference. He compared traditional software programming to machine learning to highlight the new challenges of debugging and verifying systems programmed with machine learning do what they are designed to do.Traditional software programming uses Boolean-based logic that can be tested to confirm that the software does what it was designed to do, using tools and methodologies established over the last few decades.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SD-WAN Startup Viptela Raises $75M

Cashing in on big names like Verizon and Singtel.

Large-Scale Weather Prediction at the Edge of Moore’s Law

Having access to fairly reliable 10-day forecasts is a luxury, but it comes with high computational costs for centers in the business of providing predictability. This ability to accurately predict weather patterns, dangerous and seasonal alike, has tremendous economic value and accordingly, significant investment goes into powering ever-more extended and on-target forecast.

What is interesting on the computational front is that the future of weather prediction accuracy, timeliness, efficiency, and scalability seems to be riding a curve not so dissimilar to that of Moore’s Law. Big leaps, followed by steady progress up the trend line, and a moderately predictable sense …

Large-Scale Weather Prediction at the Edge of Moore’s Law was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Tips for adding IPv6 to IPv4 networks

The original title for this story was "Transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6," but when we started researching, we quickly realized that most organizations are adopting an outside-in strategy, rather than moving over from all-IPv4 to all-IPv6 deployments. This means that they're often taking steps to accommodate incoming and outgoing IPv6 traffic at the organizational boundary and translating between the two stacks, or tunneling one protocol over another, for internal access and use. The majority of internal clients and other nodes are using IPv4, with increasing use of IPv6 in dual-stack environments (environments that run IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks side-by-side).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Tips for adding IPv6 to IPv4 networks

The original title for this story was "Transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6," but when we started researching, we quickly realized that most organizations are adopting an outside-in strategy, rather than moving over from all-IPv4 to all-IPv6 deployments. This means that they're often taking steps to accommodate incoming and outgoing IPv6 traffic at the organizational boundary and translating between the two stacks, or tunneling one protocol over another, for internal access and use. The majority of internal clients and other nodes are using IPv4, with increasing use of IPv6 in dual-stack environments (environments that run IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks side-by-side).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Tips for adding IPv6 to IPv4 networks

The original title for this story was "Transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6," but when we started researching, we quickly realized that most organizations are adopting an outside-in strategy, rather than moving over from all-IPv4 to all-IPv6 deployments. This means that they're often taking steps to accommodate incoming and outgoing IPv6 traffic at the organizational boundary and translating between the two stacks, or tunneling one protocol over another, for internal access and use. The majority of internal clients and other nodes are using IPv4, with increasing use of IPv6 in dual-stack environments (environments that run IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks side-by-side).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

5 active mobile threats spoofing enterprise apps

Impersonating appsEnterprise employees use mobile apps every day to get their jobs done, but when malicious actors start impersonating those apps, it spells trouble for IT departments.  David Richardson, director of product at Lookout, and his team recently researched five families of malware doing just that: spoofing real enterprise apps to lure people to download their malware. The dataset of mobile code shows that these five, active mobile malware families often impersonate enterprise apps by ripping off the legitimate app’s name and package name. These apps include Cisco’s Business Class Email app, ADP, Dropbox, FedEx Mobile, Zendesk, VMware’s Horizon Client, Blackboard’s Mobile Learn app, and others.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 active mobile threats spoofing enterprise apps

Impersonating appsEnterprise employees use mobile apps every day to get their jobs done, but when malicious actors start impersonating those apps, it spells trouble for IT departments.  David Richardson, director of product at Lookout, and his team recently researched five families of malware doing just that: spoofing real enterprise apps to lure people to download their malware. The dataset of mobile code shows that these five, active mobile malware families often impersonate enterprise apps by ripping off the legitimate app’s name and package name. These apps include Cisco’s Business Class Email app, ADP, Dropbox, FedEx Mobile, Zendesk, VMware’s Horizon Client, Blackboard’s Mobile Learn app, and others.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Regulators: cybersecurity poses biggest risk to global financial system

Last week, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission called cybersecurity the biggest risk facing the global financial industry."Cyber risks can produce far-reaching impacts," said SEC chair Mary Jo White.For example, cybercriminals recently stole $81 million from a bank in Bangladesh by using Swift, the global money transfer network.The SEC promises to step up regulation and Swift itself is expected to launch a new cyber security initiative this week that includes independent security audits of its customers. Meanwhile, top finance officials from G-7 nations met in Japan to discuss plans to improve global cybersecurity coordination.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Regulators: cybersecurity poses biggest risk to global financial system

Last week, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission called cybersecurity the biggest risk facing the global financial industry."Cyber risks can produce far-reaching impacts," said SEC chair Mary Jo White.For example, cybercriminals recently stole $81 million from a bank in Bangladesh by using Swift, the global money transfer network.The SEC promises to step up regulation and Swift itself is expected to launch a new cyber security initiative this week that includes independent security audits of its customers. Meanwhile, top finance officials from G-7 nations met in Japan to discuss plans to improve global cybersecurity coordination.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New court request raises further doubts about transatlantic data transfers

Thousands of companies were turned into lawbreakers at a stroke the last time the High Court of Ireland referred a question about data protection to the Court of Justice of the European Union. And it may be about to do it again.That means yet more uncertainty for companies processing European citizens' personal information in the U.S., as they struggle to keep up with the changes in privacy regulations triggered by the CJEU's response to the Irish court's last question.Under EU law, citizens' personal information can only be exported to jurisdictions guaranteeing a similar level of privacy protection to that required by the 1995 Data Protection Directive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Mobile data use skyrockets

More evidence of the growing surge in wireless data reliance was released this week with CTIA’s announcement of its 2015 annual survey results.Americans used well over double (137 percent) the amount of data in 2015 than they used in 2014, the wireless industry trade body found. And 2015’s 9.6 trillion megabyte (MB) delivery was three times the throughput sent in 2013. In that year, we used only a measly 2.2 trillion MB.CTIA, formerly known as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, says  2015’s 9.6 trillion MB is the equivalent of streaming 59,219 videos every minute. What’s interesting is that despite that 137 percent gain in data last year, subscriber numbers rose only 6 percent over the same period. And the total number of smartphones in use, in the country, was up only about a tenth at 9 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Not dead yet: 7 of the oldest federal IT systems still wheezing away

There are some seriously old IT systems at work in the federal IT arsenal and some that are 56 years old have no real retirement date.That was one observation from a report issued this week from the federal watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.“Agencies reported using several systems that have components that are, in some cases, at least 50 years old. For example, the Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation's nuclear forces. In addition, the Department of the Treasury uses assembly language code—a computer language initially used in the 1950s and typically tied to the hardware for which it was developed,” the GAO stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Not dead yet: 7 of the oldest federal IT systems still wheezing away

There are some seriously old IT systems at work in the federal IT arsenal and some that are 56 years old have no real retirement date.That was one observation from a report issued this week from the federal watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.“Agencies reported using several systems that have components that are, in some cases, at least 50 years old. For example, the Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation's nuclear forces. In addition, the Department of the Treasury uses assembly language code—a computer language initially used in the 1950s and typically tied to the hardware for which it was developed,” the GAO stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

55% off Rugged Geek Portable Power Supply and Vehicle Jump Starter – Deal Alert

Here we have a good candidate for this year's Father's Day gift, either for yourself or a dad you know. This handy gadget is a 600A portable power supply capable of charging your laptops, tablets and phones. However, this one can also boost most cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles and tractors as well. The Rugged Geek INTELLIBOOST is truly designed for all of the critical batteries in your life. In an emergency, just connect the included jumper cables and attach to your vehicle's dead battery. It will start gas engines up to 6.0l and diesel engines up to 3.0l. It also features 2 USB Charging ports to charge your devices, a laptop charging port with 8 included laptop tips, and a powerful LED flashlight with emergency modes. All while maintaining a footprint similar in size to most smartphones, and a weight of under 1 pound. It currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 140 reviewers, many of which have posted videos of themselves successfully boosting their own vehicles including a 6.0l Cadillac (see reviews). With a regular price of $199.99, this 55% off deal puts it at just $89.99. Continue reading

Arduino targets the Internet of Things with Primo board

Arduino, the Italian company that has powered the "maker" movement with a series of small computing boards that can be programmed and configured for different tasks, is introducing a board targeted at the so-called Internet of Things.IoT encompasses the world of Internet-connected machinery and gadgets, many of which include sensors that remotely and autonomously send data.The Primo features WiFi, Bluetooth low energy, NFC (near-field communications), and infrared built into the board. Previously, users had to connect add-on boards to get wireless networking.The company first showed the board at the weekend's Maker Faire Bay Area. Increased interest among hobbyists in building gadgets and gizmos that could automatically communicate via the Internet led to its development, Arduino CEO Federico Musto said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Driving Compute And Storage Scale Independently

While legacy monolithic applications will linger in virtual machines for an incredibly long time in the datacenter, new scale-out applications run best on new architectures. And that means the underlying hardware will look a lot more like what the hyperscalers have built than traditional siloed enterprise systems.

But most enterprises can’t design their own systems and interconnects, as Google, Facebook, and others have done, and as such, they will rely on others to forge their machines. A group of hot-shot system engineers that were instrumental in creating systems at Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems in the past two decades have …

Driving Compute And Storage Scale Independently was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Securing the Cloud With SDN

An in depth analysis of the implications of increased threats for network virtualization, cloud & security.