Mac sales tumble 12% in second-biggest downturn since ’07

Apple yesterday said it sold 4 million Macs in the March quarter, a 12% decline from the same period the year before, and a larger contraction than for the personal computer business as a whole.The year-over-year downturn in Mac sales was the second straight down quarter, and excepting a brutal 22% drop at the end of 2012, the largest since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007.Analysts at IDC and Gartner earlier this month pegged the continued contraction of the PC industry at 11.5% and 9.6%, respectively. Both also missed the actual Mac number for the quarter in their forecasts for Apple, overestimating by 11% to 13%: IDC had tapped shipments at 4.5 million, while Gartner said it was 4.6 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

U.S. cyberwar against ISIS could use methods and tactics criminals use against enterprises

Cyberwar against ISIS could bring into play tools and tactics that corporate security pros face every day, only this time they will be used as part of a larger objective than criminal profit.The goals of the offensive are to disrupt communications within ISIS and between the group and potential recruits, according to a story in the New York Times.To meet those goals, U.S. Cyber Command could use such means as DDoS and man-in-the-middle attacks, banking Trojans and even ransomware-type attacks that irreversibly encrypt machines (but skip the ransom), experts say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

U.S. cyberwar against ISIS could use methods and tactics criminals use against enterprises

Cyberwar against ISIS could bring into play tools and tactics that corporate security pros face every day, only this time they will be used as part of a larger objective than criminal profit.The goals of the offensive are to disrupt communications within ISIS and between the group and potential recruits, according to a story in the New York Times.To meet those goals, U.S. Cyber Command could use such means as DDoS and man-in-the-middle attacks, banking Trojans and even ransomware-type attacks that irreversibly encrypt machines (but skip the ransom), experts say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Errata Security 2016-04-27 17:48:00

Who's your lawyer. Insights & Wisdom via HBO's Silicon Valley (S.3, E. 1)

The company's attorney may be your friend, but they're not your lawyer.  In this guest post, friend of Errata Elizabeth Wharton (@lawyerliz) looks at the common misconception highlighted in this week's Silicon Valley episode.

 
by Elizabeth Wharton


Amidst the usual startup shenanigans and inside-valley-jokes, HBO's Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 1 contained a sharp reminder: lawyer loyalty runs with the "client," know whether you are the client.   A lawyer hired by a company has an entity as its client, not the individuals or officers of that company.  If you want an attorney then hire your own. 

Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 1- Setting the Scene (without too many spoilers, I promise)
Upon learning of a board room ouster from the CEO to the CTO role, the startup company's founder Richard storms into the meeting with two board "friends" in Continue reading

Almost two-thirds of software companies contributing to open source

Open source’s march toward preeminence in business software continued over the past year, according to a survey released today by open source management provider Black Duck Software and venture capital firm North Bridge.Roughly two-thirds of respondents to the survey – which was administered online and drew 1,300 respondents – said that their companies encouraged developers to contribute to open-source projects, and a similar proportion said that they were actively engaged in doing so already. That’s a 5% increase from the previous year’s survey.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: OpenStack users talk benefits, challenges of open source clouds + IBM lines up all-flash storage to help power cognitive computingTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Exascale Timeline Pushed to 2023: What’s Missing in Supercomputing?

The roadmap to build and deploy an exascale computer has extended over the last few years–and more than once.

Initially, the timeline marked 2018 as the year an exaflop-capable system would be on the floor, just one year after the CORAL pre-exascale machines are installed at three national labs in the U.S.. That was later shifted to 2020, and now, according to a new report setting forth the initial hardware requirements for such a system, it is anywhere between 2023-2025. For those who follow high performance computing and the efforts toward exascale computing, this extended timeline might not come as …

Exascale Timeline Pushed to 2023: What’s Missing in Supercomputing? was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

New Ways of Thinking

Rule 11 definitely applies to most new technology that’s being hyped (and overhyped) in the networking world. But while some things stay the same, others actually do change. From one of my readers—

Much of the current “trends” in networking are largely just new marketing-speak on old concepts, but some (I’ll propose) are actually new, or require new ways of thinking—which is which, or for a simpler version: how (really) should I change my thinking to reflect the new-networking-order?

This question rebounds through the networking industry today—how, really, do I need to change my thinking to cope with the new networking order? There are, on the face of it, three options available. Let me begin with a story from a prior career to set the stage.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked on airfield electronics and communication systems. Things like RADAR systems, wind speed measurement systems, TACANs, VORs, crypto hardware, MUX’s, inverse MUX’s, and even telephone switches. There was a point when I saw something interesting happening where I lived and spent my time. The TACAN and VOR, for instance, were replaced by new gear. Instead of half splitting, measuring things, and replacing individual components, Continue reading

New Ways of Thinking

Rule 11 definitely applies to most new technology that’s being hyped (and overhyped) in the networking world. But while some things stay the same, others actually do change. From one of my readers—

Much of the current “trends” in networking are largely just new marketing-speak on old concepts, but some (I’ll propose) are actually new, or require new ways of thinking—which is which, or for a simpler version: how (really) should I change my thinking to reflect the new-networking-order?

This question rebounds through the networking industry today—how, really, do I need to change my thinking to cope with the new networking order? There are, on the face of it, three options available. Let me begin with a story from a prior career to set the stage.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked on airfield electronics and communication systems. Things like RADAR systems, wind speed measurement systems, TACANs, VORs, crypto hardware, MUX’s, inverse MUX’s, and even telephone switches. There was a point when I saw something interesting happening where I lived and spent my time. The TACAN and VOR, for instance, were replaced by new gear. Instead of half splitting, measuring things, and replacing individual components, Continue reading

Samsung’s smart robot can answer questions and be a security guard

Creativity is alive and well at Samsung, which is developing several cool devices in its labs, including a home companion robot called Otto.The multi-talented robot can answer questions and double as a part-time security system when needed. It is expected to be demonstrated at the Samsung Developer Conference this week in San Francisco.Functionally, Otto is similar in some ways to Amazon Echo, featuring an interactive speaker that can answer questions, order products and play music. But the robot also includes a "head" that hosts a high-definition camera and a display.You can ask questions like "What is Hillary Clinton's age?" or seek out news or weather information, and Otto will bark out the answers. The robot is a prototype, and Samsung has no plans to sell the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s Artik 10, a challenger to Raspberry Pi 3, will ship next month

Samsung will start shipping its eight-core Artik 10 board computer next month, a challenger to the Raspberry Pi 3.The Artik 10 was first announced last year and could be a PC replacement if you don't mind building out your own system. It could also spawn the development of smart appliances, drones, robots and other gadgets. Like the Raspberry Pi, its components are crammed onto a small circuit board.The Artik 10 will be available from online retailer Digi-Key starting in May, Samsung officials said.Pricing wasn't immediately available, but the Artik 10 could end up being more expensive than the US$35 Raspberry Pi 3, and even the $99.99 Artik 5, a smaller Samsung board for wearables and small gadgets that started shipping in February.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s Artik Cloud to challenge Microsoft’s Azure in IoT

Samsung and Microsoft have crossed paths in the smartphone and tablet markets, and will now do battle in the cloud. Samsung on Wednesday announced the Artik Cloud service for businesses, which the company hopes will give it a strong position in the emerging Internet of Things market. In IoT, it will take on cloud services like Microsoft's Azure and IBM's Bluemix.Simply put, the Artik Cloud provides the tools needed for companies to securely collect, store and analyze telemetry data collected from a wide range of sensors.The cloud service also provides software tools and connectors to link IoT data to other cloud services or silos of data that companies may have in server installations or outside sources.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I am the reason for Apple’s falling iPhone sales

If you’re looking for the reason why Apple just experienced a decline in year-over-year iPhone sales, go ahead and blame it on me. Well, me and millions of other people just like me.Formerly faithful upgrades For the past six years, I have upgraded my iPhone every 24 months, as soon as my carrier contract was up for renewal. I happily went from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5 to an iPhone 6 Plus. Each time I upgraded, I was thrilled to get the new model with its bigger screen, faster performance and other cool bells and whistles.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD finally experiences some good fortune

More than a few pundits have been ready to draw a sheet over AMD, as the company has steadily lost money and share of both the CPU and GPU market. Well, don’t call it a comeback just yet, but fortune is starting to favor Silicon Valley’s biggest underdog.  AMD just announced a new joint venture with Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co., Ltd (THATIC) to build custom system on chips (SoCs) for the Chinese server market. AMD expects the total value of the deal to be approximately $293 million, with $52 million in revenue earned over the course of this year. This is not a chip or product deal. CEO Lisa Su said this is a technology licensing deal. It’s a combination of x86 technology along with server fabrics, technology AMD probably acquired when it purchased microserver vendor SeaMicro.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech Q&As: The IDG Enterprise Interview Series

Why Microsoft is your best strategic partner for the futureAvanade CEO Adam Warby details how a $2 billion IT services company is capitalizing on new Microsoft cloud and collaboration capabilities to power digital transformation projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Platform Advantage of Amazon, Facebook, and Google

Where’s the mag­ic? [Amazon] The databas­ing and stream­ing and sync­ing in­fras­truc­ture we build on is pret­ty slick, but that’s not the se­cret. The man­age­ment tools are nifty, too; but that’s not it ei­ther. It’s the trib­al knowl­edge: How to build Cloud in­fras­truc­ture that works in a fal­li­ble, messy, un­sta­ble world.

Tim Bray, Senior Principal Engineer at Amazon, in Cloud Eventing

Ben Thompson makes the case in Apple's Organizational Crossroads and in a recent episode of Exponent that Apple has a services problem. With the reaching of peak iPhone Apple naturally wants to turn to services as a way to expand revenues. The problem is Apple has a mixed history of delivering services at scale and Ben suggests that the strength of Apple, its functional organization, is a weakness when it comes to making services. The same skill set you need to create great devices is not the same skill set you need to create great services. He suggests: “Apple’s services need to be separated from the devices that are core to the company, and the managers of those services need to be held accountable via dollars and cents.”

If Apple has this problem they are not the only Continue reading

Worth Reading: Gone in six characters

Today, we are releasing our study, 18 months in the making, of what URL shortening means for the security and privacy of cloud services. We did not perform a comprehensive scan of all short URLs (as our analysis shows, such a scan would have been within the capabilities of a more powerful adversary), but we sampled enough to discover interesting information and draw important conclusions. -Freedom to Tinker

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Worth Reading: Gone in six characters

Today, we are releasing our study, 18 months in the making, of what URL shortening means for the security and privacy of cloud services. We did not perform a comprehensive scan of all short URLs (as our analysis shows, such a scan would have been within the capabilities of a more powerful adversary), but we sampled enough to discover interesting information and draw important conclusions. -Freedom to Tinker

LinkedInTwitterGoogle+FacebookPinterest

The post Worth Reading: Gone in six characters appeared first on 'net work.

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