IDG Contributor Network: First light-based chip could signal revolution for fiber networks

Researchers have combined transistors and photonics in a fabricated chip for the first time. The photonics act as inputs and outputs (I/O) and let the microprocessor talk to other chips. That light-based technology could be faster and more bandwidth-friendly than wires.The new chip is revolutionary because the photonics I/O have been made into part of the chip for the first time in a manufacturing scenario, scientists from the University of California Berkeley and the University of Colorado wrote in a letter published in Nature.Photonics is the technology behind the detection of photons, or particles of light. It's the principal building block for fiber-optic transmission of data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Internet of Very Cold Things: Sigfox extends its low-power radio network to Antarctica

Sigfox, operator of a low-power, wide-area radio network for the Internet of Things, expects to be connecting objects on every continent by year-end, and has just checked off the most challenging of those: Antarctica.The company's first base station in the southern hemisphere could be a little further south, but not by much: It's at Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station, 200 kilometers in from the Antarctic coast, at an altitude of 1,382 meters.In Antarctica, Sigfox is far from offering the coast-to-coast coverage its networks in France, Spain and Portugal provide: The Princess Elisabeth antenna has a range of about 50 kilometers, which means it would take over a hundred similar transmitters to cover the Antarctic coast, and over a thousand of them to cover the entire landmass -- and that's without worrying about how they would all be installed, maintained and powered. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Authentication startup brings on ‘Catch Me If You Can’ ID thief as adviser

Authentication/identity-protection startup Trusona has enlisted the help of former identity thief Frank Abagnale -- the subject of the movie “Catch Me if You Can” -- to advise as it prepares to market what it claims to be an unbreakable cloud platform to make sure imposters don’t login. Wikimedia Frank Abagnale Abagnale, now a security consultant, has helped out Trusona’s founder and CEO Ori Eisen before with his previous venture, ad-tracking and fraud prevention firm 41st Parameter, which was bought by Experian in 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yet Another Blog About Segment Routing, Part3: SR-TE

In the last blog we looked at PCE for centralized path-computation and PCEP as a communication protocol between PCE and PCC.We also looked at brief demo of PCE sending ERO’s (IP or SR Node labels) to the PCC(Head end). In this Blog post we will particularly try to focus at Traffic Engineering (SR-TE) aspects of […]

The post Yet Another Blog About Segment Routing, Part3: SR-TE appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Yet Another Blog About Segment Routing, Part3: SR-TE

In the last blog we looked at PCE for centralized path-computation and PCEP as a communication protocol between PCE and PCC.We also looked at brief demo of PCE sending ERO’s (IP or SR Node labels) to the PCC(Head end). In this Blog post we will particularly try to focus at Traffic Engineering (SR-TE) aspects of […]

The post Yet Another Blog About Segment Routing, Part3: SR-TE appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Go coverage with external tests

The Go test coverage implementation is quite ingenious: when asked to, the Go compiler will preprocess the source so that when each code portion is executed a bit is set in a coverage bitmap. This is integrated in the go test tool: go test -cover enables it and -coverprofile= allows you to write a profile to then inspect with go tool cover.

This makes it very easy to get unit test coverage, but there's no simple way to get coverage data for tests that you run against the main version of your program, like end-to-end tests.

The proper fix would involve adding -cover preprocessing support to go build, and exposing the coverage profile maybe as a runtime/pprof.Profile, but as of Go 1.6 there’s no such support. Here instead is a hack we've been using for a while in the test suite of RRDNS, our custom Go DNS server.

We create a dummy test that executes main(), we put it behind a build tag, compile a binary with go test -c -cover and then run only that test instead of running the regular binary.

Here's what the rrdns_test.go file looks like:

// +build  Continue reading

Congress eyes commission to tackle encryption debate

Bipartisan congressional legislation will be introduced to create a national commission on security and technology that addresses the growing concern over encryption technology used by terrorists.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex. plan to discuss their joint legislative proposal to create a Digital Security Commission later today, according to aides. McCaul is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; Warner is a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, among other committees.A major focus of the commission will be encryption technology used in smartphone apps and elsewhere and how intelligence officials can legally monitor encrypted communications used by terrorists to plan attacks. Both lawmakers have written about how encryption poses a paradox for protecting both security and personal privacy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security ‘net: A few keystrokes down the slippery slope

A situation you could really face:

Suppose a laptop were found at the apartment of one of the perpetrators of last year’s Paris attacks. It’s searched by the authorities pursuant to a warrant, and they find a file on the laptop that’s a set of instructions for carrying out the attacks. The discovery would surely help in the prosecution of the laptop’s owner, tying him to the crime. But a junior prosecutor has a further idea. The private document was likely shared among other conspirators, some of whom are still on the run or unknown entirely. Surely Google has the ability to run a search of all Gmail inboxes, outboxes, and message drafts folders, plus Google Drive cloud storage, to see if any of its 900 million users are currently in possession of that exact document. If Google could be persuaded or ordered to run the search, it could generate a list of only those Google accounts possessing the precise file — and all other Google users would remain undisturbed, except for the briefest of computerized “touches” on their accounts to see if the file reposed there. -just security

Would you run this search? It’s a difficult question, but ultimately Continue reading

The ultimate guide to small business networking

Building a cost-effective network infrastructure is critical for SMBs, who are likely competing against large enterprises with sizable IT budgets. Small businesses need to deploy their limited tech resources wisely in order to create a business that’s agile, flexible, fast and efficient.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The Big Hang-up: IRS customer call center service stinks

If you have ever tried to get tax help from the IRS over the phone and weren’t able to get any – you are not alone.That’s because the Internal Revenue Service provided the lowest level of telephone service during fiscal year 2015 compared to prior years, with only 38% of callers who wanted to speak with an IRS assistant able to reach one, according to a report this week from the Government Accountability Office. Perhaps worse yet is that the IRS and Department of Treasury have no real plans to improve the situation, the GAO stated.+More on Network World: IRS warns yet again on scam artist trickery+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Big Hang-up: IRS customer call center service stinks

If you have ever tried to get tax help from the IRS over the phone and weren’t able to get any – you are not alone.That’s because the Internal Revenue Service provided the lowest level of telephone service during fiscal year 2015 compared to prior years, with only 38% of callers who wanted to speak with an IRS assistant able to reach one, according to a report this week from the Government Accountability Office. Perhaps worse yet is that the IRS and Department of Treasury have no real plans to improve the situation, the GAO stated.+More on Network World: IRS warns yet again on scam artist trickery+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sponsored Post: Netflix, Macmillan, Aerospike, TrueSight Pulse, LaunchDarkly, Robinhood, StatusPage.io, Redis Labs, InMemory.Net, VividCortex, MemSQL, Scalyr, AiScaler, AppDynamics, ManageEngine, Site24x7

Who's Hiring?

  • Manager - Site Reliability Engineering: Lead and grow the the front door SRE team in charge of keeping Netflix up and running. You are an expert of operational best practices and can work with stakeholders to positively move the needle on availability. Find details on the position here: https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/398

  • Macmillan Learning, a premier e-learning institute, is looking for VP of DevOps to manage the DevOps teams based in New York and Austin. This is a very exciting team as the company is committed to fully transitioning to the Cloud, using a DevOps approach, with focus on CI/CD, and using technologies like Chef/Puppet/Docker, etc. Please apply here.

  • DevOps Engineer at Robinhood. We are looking for an Operations Engineer to take responsibility for our development and production environments deployed across multiple AWS regions. Top candidates will have several years experience as a Systems Administrator, Ops Engineer, or SRE at a massive scale. Please apply here.

  • Senior Service Reliability Engineer (SRE): Drive improvements to help reduce both time-to-detect and time-to-resolve while concurrently improving availability through service team engagement.  Ability to analyze and triage production issues on a web-scale system a plus. Find details on the position here: https://jobs. Continue reading

These are the 25 worst passwords of 2015

Look on the bright side! There’s one good thing that comes out of all those website breaches every year: Security researchers get to comb through all those lists of usernames and passwords to remind us just how bad most of our passwords are. Now that we’re well into 2016, password management company SplashData just released its annual round-up of the worst passwords of 2015.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD 25 most commonly used and worst passwords of 2014 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Learning QoS from RFCs

This is one of the neat things about IETF documents: while many of them are, in fact, bare descriptions of a packet format, a processing mechanism, or something similar, you can often find sets of RFCs and drafts that not only provide a solid overview of an entire area, but even give you a good set of reading material to dig deeper into the topic. -via packet pushers

The post Worth Reading: Learning QoS from RFCs appeared first on 'net work.

EZ-Wave: A Z-Wave hacking tool capable of breaking bulbs, abusing Z-Wave devices

The synopsis for Breaking Bulbs Briskly by Bogus Broadcasts mentions the promise of smart energy and building automation, as well as the many unintended vulnerabilities that are introduced in the rush to bring IoT devices to market. The researchers believe “the ability to physically damage hardware by abusing network access is particularly interesting.” I agree.Frustrated by the “lack of functionality in current Z-Wave hacking tools,” ShmooCon presenters Joseph Hall and Ben Ramsey created and released a new, open source EZ-Wave tool. Not only did the duo discuss how to use the tool for pen-testing Z-Wave wireless automation networks, they also discussed “a rapid process for destroying florescent lights.” They added, “Once access is gained to an automated lighting system, regardless of the protocol used, we demonstrate how to destroy florescent lamps rated for 30K hours within a single night of abuse.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

2016: The Tipping Point for DevOps

Jan16-Trends-blog-header.png

Ahhh, a new year.

While 2015 was certainly a big year for us as we joined the Red Hat family, in many ways we’re still right at home with our roots deeply planted in the ways of open source. That means we’re listening (as we always do) to our customers and community members about what what they see as their problems to solve and goals to achieve in the year ahead. 

Here’s a bit of what we see:

  • DevOps! It’s everywhere! If ever there was a buzzword to officially deserve the “jumped the shark” label, this might just be it. General understanding of DevOps as a practice that can potentially accelerate IT project delivery has permeated most IT departments, from the smallest of businesses to the most daunting of large enterprises, sometimes from the grassroots level, and sometimes from the top down.  

  • Thankfully, along with this recognition, people are increasingly recognizing that DevOps isn’t simply tools -- that building a healthy organizational culture is a significant part of their journey. Many organizations are beginning to recognize that it’s not a lightswitch, or a flat-out reorg. The idea that small wins can matter when bringing DevOps practices into your Continue reading

2016: The Tipping Point for DevOps

Jan16-Trends-blog-header.png

Ahhh, a new year.

While 2015 was certainly a big year for us as we joined the Red Hat family, in many ways we’re still right at home with our roots deeply planted in the ways of open source. That means we’re listening (as we always do) to our customers and community members about what what they see as their problems to solve and goals to achieve in the year ahead. 

Here’s a bit of what we see:

  • DevOps! It’s everywhere! If ever there was a buzzword to officially deserve the “jumped the shark” label, this might just be it. General understanding of DevOps as a practice that can potentially accelerate IT project delivery has permeated most IT departments, from the smallest of businesses to the most daunting of large enterprises, sometimes from the grassroots level, and sometimes from the top down.  

  • Thankfully, along with this recognition, people are increasingly recognizing that DevOps isn’t simply tools -- that building a healthy organizational culture is a significant part of their journey. Many organizations are beginning to recognize that it’s not a lightswitch, or a flat-out reorg. The idea that small wins can matter when bringing DevOps practices into your Continue reading

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