NASA’s planet hunter spots record 1,284 new planets, 9 in a habitable zone

NASA’s planet hunting space telescope Kepler added a record 1,284 confirmed planets to its already impressive discoveries of extraterrestrial worlds. This batch of planets is the largest single account of new planets since Kepler launched in 2009 and more than doubles the number of confirmed planets realized by the space telescope so far to more than 2,300. NASA: Kepler's most excellent space discoveries "Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA. "This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NASA’s planet hunter spots record 1,284 new planets, 9 in a habitable zone

NASA’s planet hunting space telescope Kepler added a record 1,284 confirmed planets to its already impressive discoveries of extraterrestrial worlds. This batch of planets is the largest single account of new planets since Kepler launched in 2009 and more than doubles the number of confirmed planets realized by the space telescope so far to more than 2,300. NASA: Kepler's most excellent space discoveries "Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA. "This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 interesting wireless networking research projects

Here's a brief look at three academic research projects that explore existing and future uses of wireless networking technology:Smaller RFID tags North Carolina State University researchers have come up with ways to create passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that are not only 25% smaller but also cheaper than typical tags. The no-longer-secret-sauce: The tags don't need to convert AC radio signals from a reader into DC in order to respond to the transmitter.These AC-only RFID tags are the work of Paul Franzon, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, and Ph.D. students Wenxu Zhao and Kirti Bhanushali.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chicago bank finds public cloud ready for prime time

In the early 1930s Congress chartered a dozen federal loan banks across the country to help smaller banks provide liquidity for home loans. Today, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago holds $70.7 billion in assets. And Eric Gieger, vice president of IT operations for the bank runs this financial institution from the cloud.Just a few years ago it would have been rare to see financial institutions operating in the public IaaS cloud, but recently there have been more examples. Last year at Amazon’s re:Invent conference Capital One’s CIO Rob Alexander described how the bank is using Amazon’s cloud to host some of the company’s newest applications. Capital One and the FHLB of Chicago show that even the most risk-averse organizations are beginning to embrace public cloud computing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rackspace’s big pivot pays off

After a tumultuous time period of executive transition, questions about whether the company would be taken private or sold, and debate about the future of its public cloud plans, managed hosting and cloud provider Rackspace made a big pivot last year.The company has always prided itself on “Fanatical Support,” meaning that it will help customers use its infrastructure services. Last year it did what would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago though: It began offering that fanatical support for other cloud providers too.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: IDC's pick for the best cloud consultant is... | Geeky ways to celebrate Friday the 13th +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ixia’s CloudLens brings visibility to hybrid cloud environments

The digital business era has brought about many changes to IT. One of the biggest evolutions is the acceptance and usage of the cloud.Cloud computing’s path is similar to the one virtualization traveled about a decade ago. Early on, virtualization was used in labs and for non-mission-critical workloads. But as the technology matured and organizations became comfortable with it, usage exploded.The same thing is happening with cloud, and over the next few years, the industry will see more and more applications and services moved to the cloud. Hybrid Cloud: The time for adoption is upon us For most organizations, however, migrating to the cloud is no simple thing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Increasing the Strength of the Zone Signing Key for the Root Zone

A major milestone was achieved in mid-2010 when Verisign and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce, successfully deployed DNSSEC for the root zone. Following that point in time, it became possible for DNS resolvers and applications to validate signed DNS records using a single root zone trust anchor. -via CircleID

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Ansible as Automation Glue

Ansible

Throughout my time at Ansible, I have endeavoured to put together pertinent demos for customers - when I was 'on the other side of the fence' I always preferred it when a vendor asked about the challenges we faced and prepared the product to show how it would help me.

A few months back a customer told us about their challenge of getting code from development into production, and how it was taking almost a third of a year. They wanted to see how Ansible could help accelerate that workflow.

Since giving that demo I've not stopped asking customers about their challenges, but nine times out of ten they come back with the same answer these days - development to production workflow acceleration. That's when I show the same demo.

ansible

After running through this so many times, I thought it might be useful to record it as a screencast to share it publicly - along with all the Ansible playbooks used to put it together. The demo runs to 18 minutes in total, but covers many aspects of how powerful and flexible Ansible is as a tool - from machine provisioning to configuration management to code deployment to interacting with various Continue reading

Twitter #PassesNoteToFlightAttendant, geeky laughter ensues

Perhaps you noticed the story last week about an economics professor whose math scribblings prior to takeoff from Philadelphia so alarmed a paranoid ninny sitting next to him that she reported the “suspicious behavior” in a note passed to an American Airlines flight attendant. You know, as in math means terrorist so flight delayed two hours. Twitter noticed and this morning the hashtag #PassesNoteToFlightAttendant produced much merriment. Here’s a sampling, the first of which would have blown that ninny’s mind: There’s plenty more if this kind of thing amuses you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Twitter #PassesNoteToFlightAttendant, geeky laughter ensues

Perhaps you noticed the story last week about an economics professor whose math scribblings prior to takeoff from Philadelphia so alarmed a paranoid ninny sitting next to him that she reported the “suspicious behavior” in a note passed to an American Airlines flight attendant. You know, as in math means terrorist so flight delayed two hours. Twitter noticed and this morning the hashtag #PassesNoteToFlightAttendant produced much merriment. Here’s a sampling, the first of which would have blown that ninny’s mind: There’s plenty more if this kind of thing amuses you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is your data safe when it’s at rest? MarkLogic 9 aims to make sure it is

The database landscape is much more diverse than it once was, thanks in large part to big data, and on Tuesday, one of today's newer contenders unveiled an upcoming release featuring a major boost in security.Version 9 of MarkLogic's namesake NoSQL database will be available at the end of this year, and one of its key new features is the inclusion of Cryptsoft’s KMIP (Key Management Interoperability Protocol) technology.MarkLogic has placed its bets on companies' need to integrate data from dispersed enterprise silos -- a task that has often required the use of so-called ETL tools to extract, transform and load data into a traditional relational database. Aiming to offer an alternative approach, MarkLogic's technology combines the flexibility, scalability, and agility of NoSQL with enterprise-hardened features like government-grade security and high availability, it says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is your data safe when it’s at rest? MarkLogic 9 aims to make sure it is

The database landscape is much more diverse than it once was, thanks in large part to big data, and on Tuesday, one of today's newer contenders unveiled an upcoming release featuring a major boost in security.Version 9 of MarkLogic's namesake NoSQL database will be available at the end of this year, and one of its key new features is the inclusion of Cryptsoft’s KMIP (Key Management Interoperability Protocol) technology.MarkLogic has placed its bets on companies' need to integrate data from dispersed enterprise silos -- a task that has often required the use of so-called ETL tools to extract, transform and load data into a traditional relational database. Aiming to offer an alternative approach, MarkLogic's technology combines the flexibility, scalability, and agility of NoSQL with enterprise-hardened features like government-grade security and high availability, it says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Book Review: Deep Work by Cal Newport

Deep Work by Cal Newport is highly recommended if you are an information worker who is less productive than you wish you were. I recommended Deep Work even more highly if you feel you are productive, but are not producing the sort of work you desperately want to be.

SAP design chief talks details of Apple deal

SAP isn't necessarily known for its design chops or world-class user experience, but the enterprise software giant hopes its new partnership with Apple can change that. "We felt that a partnership with Apple can take that to the next level, both with Apple's expertise in design, but also the ability to optimize those designs natively on iOS devices," says Sam Yen, SAP's chief design officer.Apple and SAP began exploring potential partnerships more than a year ago, according to Yen, and their respective CEOs met in late 2015 to start to formalize the deal. The goal of the pact is to rethink the entire mobile enterprise experience, according to Yen. Apple's iOS is widely used in enterprise, and "76 percent of all global business transactions are done on SAP systems," according to Yen, so it was a "no brainer" for the two companies to combine their strengths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprise networkers have organized: Here are their demands

A user group for enterprise IT managers is taking on software-defined networking, calling for new technologies they say would better serve enterprise needs.On Tuesday, the Open Networking User Group (ONUG) announced initiatives behind four technologies that it says would help enterprises build and run their networks better.There’s no shortage of platforms and protocols for software-defined infrastructure, including things like OpenFlow, OpenStack and ONOS (Open Network Operating System). But they were developed around the needs of vendors and service providers more than of enterprises, ONUG founder Nick Lippis said. His group wants to push along a few more pieces that aren’t there yet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprise networkers have organized: Here are their demands

A user group for enterprise IT managers is taking on software-defined networking, calling for new technologies they say would better serve enterprise needs.On Tuesday, the Open Networking User Group (ONUG) announced initiatives behind four technologies that it says would help enterprises build and run their networks better.There’s no shortage of platforms and protocols for software-defined infrastructure, including things like OpenFlow, OpenStack and ONOS (Open Network Operating System). But they were developed around the needs of vendors and service providers more than of enterprises, ONUG founder Nick Lippis said. His group wants to push along a few more pieces that aren’t there yet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 security experts share their best tips for ‘fringe’ devices

What is a ‘fringe’ device in IT? For some, it’s a gadget everyone has forgotten about — a printer in a corner office, an Android tablet in a public area used to schedule conference rooms. A fringe device can also be one that’s common enough to be used in the office yet not so common that everyone is carrying one around or has one hooked up to the Wi-Fi every day. As with any security concern, many of these devices are overlooked. There might be security policies and software used to track and monitor iPads and Dell laptops, but what about the old HP printer used at the receptionist’s desk? In a hospital, it might be a patient monitoring device. In a more technical shop, it could be a new smartphone running an alternate operating system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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