Tesla Model 3 reservations tops 325,000

Even the most optimistic of Tesla enthusiasts couldn't have predicted how high demand for the Tesla Model 3 would turn out to be. In what would clearly be a sign of things to come, Elon Musk, when unveiling the Model 3 last week, said that more than 115,000 people had already plunked down $1,000 to reserve a car they hadn't yet even seen.In the days that followed, Musk would periodically take to Twitter to provide reservation updates. First the reservation tally hit 200,000, then 276,000, all with no signs of a slow down. Yesterday, Musk said he would provide an up-to-date reservation count sometime today. That said, Tesla earlier today put out a blog post boasting that reservations for the Model 3 have already topped 325,000.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Up to 84% off Dragon NaturallySpeaking Today Only – Deal Alert

Today only, Amazon is offering Dragon NaturallySpeaking software at discounts of up to 84%.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the world's best-selling speech recognition software. Dictate and edit documents, send email, search the Web and use social media with unparalleled speed, ease and comfort. Dragon literally gets smarter as you use it, picking up on the words, names and phrases you use the most to convert your voice into text and commands with up to 99% accuracy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House won’t support encryption unlocking legislation

President Barack Obama's administration won't support legislation to force device makers to help law enforcement agencies defeat encryption, according to a news report. Two senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been floating draft legislation to require device makers and other tech companies to provide workarounds for encryption and other security features, but the White House won't offer public support for the proposal, according to a report from Reuters. FBI Director James Comey has long pushed for encryption workarounds, and just last month, Obama called for tech companies and the government to work together to allow police access to suspects' smartphones protected by encryption.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud Security Challenges

Large organizations are embracing public and private cloud computing at a rapid pace. According to ESG research, one-third of organizations have been using public and private cloud infrastructure for more than three years, and more than half of organizations (57%) have production workloads running on cloud computing infrastructure (note: I am an ESG employee).Of course, cloud computing is very different than physical or virtual servers, which translates into a different cybersecurity model as well. And these differences lead to a variety of security challenges. ESG recently surveyed 303 cybersecurity and IT professionals working at enterprise organizations (i.e. more than 1,000 employees) and posed a series of questions about cloud computing and cloud security. When asked to identify their top challenges with cloud security:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud Security Challenges

Large organizations are embracing public and private cloud computing at a rapid pace.  According to ESG research, one-third of organizations have been using public and private cloud infrastructure for more than 3 years and more than half of organizations (57%) have production workloads running on cloud computing infrastructure (note: I am an ESG employee).Of course, cloud computing is very different than physical or virtual servers which translates into a different cybersecurity model as well.  And these differences lead to a variety of security challenges. ESG recently surveyed 303 cybersecurity and IT professionals working at enterprise organizations (i.e. more than 1,000 employees) and posed a series of questions about cloud computing and cloud security.  When asked to identify their top challenges with cloud security:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House won’t support encryption unlocking legislation

President Barack Obama's administration won't support legislation to force device makers to help law enforcement agencies defeat encryption, according to a news report. Two senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been floating draft legislation to require device makers and other tech companies to provide workarounds for encryption and other security features, but the White House won't offer public support for the proposal, according to a report from Reuters. FBI Director James Comey has long pushed for encryption workarounds, and just last month, Obama called for tech companies and the government to work together to allow police access to suspects' smartphones protected by encryption.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM Watson CTO on What’s Ahead for Cognitive Computing

After close to twenty years at IBM, where he began as an IBM Fellow and Chief Architect for the SOA Foundation, Rob High has developed a number of core technologies that back Big Blue’s enterprise systems, including the suite of tools behind IBM WebSphere, and more recently, those that support the wide-ranging ambitions of the Watson cognitive computing platform.

Although High gave the second day keynote this afternoon at the GPU Technology Conference, there was no mention of accelerated computing. Interestingly, while the talk was about software, specifically the machine learning behind Watson, there was also very little about the …

IBM Watson CTO on What’s Ahead for Cognitive Computing was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

UPDATE: UL responds to blogger’s criticism

UPDATE: Underwriters Laboratory has requested comments, which are appended at the bottom.Today, Underwriters Laboratory announced the UL CyberSecurity Assurance Program. I won’t call it an oxymoron, but I’m deeply worried about it. While I have faith in UL, I’m not sure if they realize the breadth and depth of what they’re getting into.UL is the reason there are only small holes in appliances and CE gear. Why? So an average toddler can’t stick something inside and become electrocuted. UL helps product vendors have liability insurance within sane ranges. They promulgate standards that vendors are responsible to adhere to for insurance sake. Test labs do the rest, ensuring that First Article Samples (and then, perhaps subsequent production samples) of products adhere to a bevy of standards—all designed to make products safer but at least insurable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your car’s computers might soon get malware protection

Modern cars contain tens of specialized computers that control everything from infotainment functions to steering and brakes. The pressing need to protect these computers from hackers will likely open up a new market for car-related software security products.Karamba Security, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the companies that has stepped up to answer this demand. The company's anti-malware technology, unveiled Thursday, is designed to protect externally accessible electronic control units (ECUs) found in connected cars.These controllers, like those that handle handle telematics, infotainment and on-board diagnostics, can be accessed via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even the Internet, so they can serve as entry points for hackers into a car's network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your car’s computers might soon get malware protection

Modern cars contain tens of specialized computers that control everything from infotainment functions to steering and brakes. The pressing need to protect these computers from hackers will likely open up a new market for car-related software security products.Karamba Security, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the companies that has stepped up to answer this demand. The company's anti-malware technology, unveiled Thursday, is designed to protect externally accessible electronic control units (ECUs) found in connected cars.These controllers, like those that handle handle telematics, infotainment and on-board diagnostics, can be accessed via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even the Internet, so they can serve as entry points for hackers into a car's network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

30 Amazing Products & Vendors: Best of Interop Finalists 2016

11 mobile tools for IT heroes on the go

11 mobile tools for hardcore IT pros on the goImage by WikipediaThe need to provide more services, with fewer colleagues to help cover them, has meant being able to respond to user needs from nearly anywhere on earth at nearly any hour of the day. To this end, I’ve been collecting tablet-based IT tools that work well over lower-speed connections to ensure the work gets done wherever I roam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Puppet expands support for Docker, Kubernetes

Devops staple Puppet, formerly Puppet Labs, is upgrading its Puppet Enterprise IT automation platform and offering new and expanded support for infrastructure like Docker containers and Kubernetes container management.Puppet automates the software delivery process to bridge traditional infrastructure with more contemporary technology, including public and private clouds and microservices architectures. It even has been suggested as a tool for users to build their own PaaS clouds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Puppet expands support for Docker, Kubernetes

Devops staple Puppet, formerly Puppet Labs, is upgrading its Puppet Enterprise IT automation platform and offering new and expanded support for infrastructure like Docker containers and Kubernetes container management.Puppet automates the software delivery process to bridge traditional infrastructure with more contemporary technology, including public and private clouds and microservices architectures. It even has been suggested as a tool for users to build their own PaaS clouds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The rise of the citizen data scientist

When Mark Pickett was a captain in the Marines, he knew he couldn't be there to make every decision for his soldiers. "You can't rehearse every scenario, and there will be times when you can't communicate," he explained. "You want to groom your Marines to be able to rely on themselves and their unit." It's not so different in the business world in this era of big data. Now senior director for online analytics and business intelligence at Sears, Pickett has been an early champion of the so-called citizen data scientist movement, by which employees in multiple parts of an organization are empowered with the analytics tools and skills to get the answers they need from their data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s happening with the Intel executive turnover?

As a company, Intel has been as notoriously stable as its chips. You didn't hear about much turnover there. Many staff, especially executives, followed in the career path of former CEO Paul Otellini – join the company right out of school and retire from it decades later. That's because Intel was good about promoting people, and they didn't have to jump around the Silicon Valley to get a promotion or a raise.That, however, is changing, as one of the most insular company's in the Valley is seeing some real turnover in its executive suite. The latest shakeup involves the departures of Kirk Skaugen, the head of the Client Computing Group, and Doug Davis, who ran the IoT group, said they would leave the company to pursue new opportunities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s happening with the Intel executive turnover?

As a company, Intel has been as notoriously stable as its chips. You didn't hear about much turnover there. Many staff, especially executives, followed in the career path of former CEO Paul Otellini – join the company right out of school and retire from it decades later. That's because Intel was good about promoting people, and they didn't have to jump around the Silicon Valley to get a promotion or a raise.That, however, is changing, as one of the most insular company's in the Valley is seeing some real turnover in its executive suite. The latest shakeup involves the departures of Kirk Skaugen, the head of the Client Computing Group, and Doug Davis, who ran the IoT group, said they would leave the company to pursue new opportunities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The WLAN Battle Over RRM

How data science is changing the energy industry

Recent declines in oil prices have hit the world economy hard. Alberta, Canada’s major oil region, has witness increased unemployment due to declining commodity prices. In January 2016, Saudi Arabia increased the price of gasoline for its citizens by 50 percent given the situation. With major fluctuations in prices and the high cost of energy projects, quality information has never mattered more.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 15 big data and analytics companies to watch The energy industry uses data science to cut costs, optimize investments and reduce risk. Reducing costs with data science is a popular application in the industry: much work has focused on improving maintenance and equipment monitoring. Optimizing investment decisions takes several forms including better internal resource allocation and assisting investors. Data science also contributes to improving public safety by providing better monitoring and oversight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Home IoT devices are wide open, security provider discovers

Reverse-engineering a password in a Wi-Fi-driven WeMo light switch by using the decryption code from the device is among the security debacles uncovered by IoT security hardware solution firm Bitdefender.To add insult to injury, Bitdefender told the device maker about the discovered vulnerability last fall, when it discovered the problem, and as of February, it still hadn’t been fixed, Bitdefender says in its study Risks in the Connected Home.And the WeMo wasn’t the only IoT device Bitdefender found lacking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here