Apple Watch, Samsung Edge glitches anger users, but no outright revolt

Problems with the new Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone have infuriated some early adopters, but they still stay loyal to their favorite brand.Some have taken to user forums and tweets with expletive-deleted missives. This post Wednesday on an Android Central forum by Edge smartphone user Ajay Rivera seemed to summarize recent sentiment: "This was my second device to crap out and [a support rep] still treated me like an *****"Despite such anger, many in the industry dismiss glitches -- and subsequent user furor -- as par for the course with most new products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What can your Apple Watch do without your iPhone?

Strapped to your wrist, the Apple Watch goes everywhere that you go. Between it and the iPhone, it’s almost possible to leave your wallet at home. But what happens to the Watch when you leave your iPhone at home?Smart as the Apple Watch is, it’s still dependent on your smartphone for a number of its most common features, most notably anything that requires access to the Internet or pulls data from apps on your phone. But even should your iPhone be elsewhere—or off—your Apple Watch is still a pretty competent device. Time is of the essence Obviously the watch can tell time whether your iPhone is around or not. If it couldn't, that would be downright nutty.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Can Microsoft’s new Surface 3 replace your notebook?

Microsoft wants you to abandon your preconceived notions of a laptop and embrace the Surface as more than just a tablet. In fact, Microsoft wants you to ditch your cumbersome notebook and one-dimensional tablet -- presumably your iPad -- and replace them with one device: the Surface 3. But even with an adjustable kickstand and full Windows 8.1, can the Surface 3 compete with a traditional notebook, or tablet for that matter?In 2012, the answer would have been -- and often was -- a resounding "No." However, the Surface line has come a long way in delivering the performance and usability you would need in order to dump your notebook. And Microsoft is not alone in its hybrid efforts. The trend is for notebook and tablet manufacturers to throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. As a result, the hybrid market is booming, and we've seen a slew of tablets that do a great impression of a notebook, and vice versa.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Redesigning CloudFlare

Redesigning CloudFlare

Redesigning CloudFlare

CloudFlare’s original interface grew at an amazing speed. Visually, it hadn't changed much since CloudFlare’s launch in 2010. After several years of new features, settings, and ancillary UIs buried beneath clicks, it became clear that the user experience was lacking and would only get worse as we continued to add features. The question became: How could we make a UI that was versatile, scalable, and consistent?

If you haven’t yet, make sure you read Matthew’s post about the philosophy behind our new interface. This post will go into the details and the thought process behind designing our new dashboard.

Why a redesign?

We needed versatility for a growing variety of users and devices

As CloudFlare has grown, we now have a large variety of customers spanning four very different plan levels. We needed an interface that would work well for both the casual owner of a single blog, an agency managing many client sites, and enterprise customers that demand ultimate control. Also, the rise of responsive design was something we wanted to take seriously — the dashboard should be versatile enough to work just as well on every device.

We needed a platform that we could build upon

Redesigning CloudFlare

We couldn’t Continue reading

Mozilla may offer new browser features only on secure websites

Mozilla is planning to gradually favor HTTPS (HTTP Secure) connections over non-secure HTTP connections by making some new features on its browser available only to secured sites.The browser developer decided after a discussion on its community mailing list that it will set a date after which all new features will be available only to secure websites, wrote Firefox security lead Richard Barnes in a blog post. Mozilla also plans to gradually phase out access to browser features for non-secure websites, particularly features that could present risks to users’ security and privacy, he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Skill Development Planning by the Dozen


I’ve been going to Cisco Live as one of the speakers for several years now. As Cisco employee, you can go to Cisco Live (for free) only if you are a speaker, or part of the World of Solutions exhibition, or if you come for the customers, or to support the network infrastructure for the event.

For the past three years at Cisco Live I’ve been sharing strategy and tips and tricks of how to become CCIE based on my own experience. My part of the session is focusing on skill development planning to achieve the objective, which is to pass CCIE lab exam. There are many technical sessions available during the event, but only very few talk about how to build learning plan and walk you through step by step of sample plan created by someone who has done it. I believe the session material can be applied outside CCIE context, and it’s relevant with my previous post, so I’m going to share it here with some updates.



Robert Grant mentioned that strategy is the means by which individuals achieve their objectives. In short, successful strategy can be achieved by having clear and consistent goal, understanding the environment Continue reading

Ultron didn’t save the world

The movie Avengers: Age of Ultron has a message for us in cybersec: In our desire to save the world, we are likely to destroy it.

Tony Stark builds "Ultron" to save the world, to bring peace in our time. As a cybernetic creation, Ultron takes this literally, and decides the best way to bring peace is to kill all humans.

The problem, as demonstrated by the movie, isn't that there was a bug in Stark's code. The problem was the hubris thinking that Stark could protect everyone. Inevitably, protecting everyone meant ruling everyone, bringing peace by force. It's the same hubris behind the USA's effort to bring peace to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I mention this because in the cybersecurity industry, there are many who propose to bring security through authority. They want government mandated rules on how to write code, imposed liability requirements, and so on.

This sounds reasonable. After all, nobody wants medical equipment like pacemakers to be hacked. But here's the thing. Computer-controlled devices have the potential to vastly improve health, whether it's Watches monitoring your heart, pacemakers, insulin pumps, and so on. While these devices can be hacked, the practical reality is that if you want Continue reading

Review: Avengers, Age of Ultron

Today was the opening of the movie "Avengers: Age of Ultron". The best way to describe it is this. On the first date, you went and saw "The Avengers". You felt the rush of something new, and you were quite satisfied. This movie, "Age of Ultron", is the second date. You already know what to expect, but that doesn't matter, because you progress past the holding-hands stage. You didn't go all the way, but you know that's coming on the third date, with "Avengers: Infinity Wars".

Remember that this movie is part of the Marvel Avengers arc, consisting of Ironman (3 movies), Captain America (2), Thor (2), Hulk, and Avengers (2). This arc also includes two TV series, and also a (so far) unrelated Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Everything is leading to the Infinity Wars movies.

I point this out because while this movie seems like a fine standalone movie for those who have seen none or only a few of the others, the greatest enjoyment will be in seeing it within context. In particular, while Ironman 3 isn't a terribly good movie, it's worth seeing before this movie, as it Continue reading

Malware campaign inflated views of pro-Russia videos

A botnet designed for Web advertising fraud was also used to nudge up the number of views of some pro-Russian videos on the website DailyMotion, according to security vendor Trustwave.An investigation into what appeared to be strictly ad fraud turned out to have a surprising political angle, wrote Rami Kogan of Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, in a blog post on Thursday.“We can’t know for sure who’s behind the fraudulent promotion of video clips, but it appears to be politically motivated,” he wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Running Docker Machine on Rackspace Public Cloud

Next up I am giving Docker Machine on Rackspace public cloud a whirl. If you don’t have an account and want to check it out take a look at their developer+ credit. Here is a gif diagram (I’m addicted to making gifs atm, sometimes not even cats pics like here) overviewing Docker Machine. To get installed and much more on ... The post Running Docker Machine on Rackspace Public Cloud appeared first on NetworkStatic | Brent Salisbury's Blog.

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Startup launches subscription model for buying SSL certificates

A Utah-based startup has launched a subscription model for buying SSL certificates, an essential but at times onerous task.SSL and its successor, TLS (Transport Layer Security), are cornerstones of Web security, encrypting data exchanged between two machines. It underpins virtually every kind of transaction that requires privacy on the Web, from email to e-commerce. It’s signified by “https” in the URL bar of a browser.Companies and organizations are using more and more SSL certificates as the need for secure machine-to-machine communication has increased with cloud computing, virtualization and mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google extends Android voice search to Zillow, Shazam, NPR

“OK Google, where are the open houses in Chicago?” That’s a question that might yield a useful response for Android users, now that Zillow’s real estate service is integrated into Google’s voice search.Several new integrations hit Google’s voice search system for Android devices on Thursday, which lets people conduct queries orally by first saying, “OK Google.” In addition to Zillow, Shazam, NPR and online radio service TuneIn have been integrated.The integrations require users to have those other apps on their smartphone or tablet. But instead of having to open the apps individually, users can ask their mobile device directly, which, hopefully, will then take them inside the appropriate app with an answer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook change will give you control over data sharing with apps

Users are getting greater choice over what information is shared with websites and apps when they log in using their Facebook ID.A new version of Facebook Login, which begins its wide roll out this week, will present users with a prompt to “Edit the info you provide.” Clicking that will let users grant or deny access to different types of information. The login now also highlights who will see content posted by the app in Facebook, for apps that request the ability to do so.Facebook first announced this system during its F8 developers conference in April 2014. Many of the most popular apps, like Pinterest and Netflix, are already using it and over the next few weeks, Facebook will turn on the system for every app that uses the Facebook Login.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook change will give you control over data sharing with apps

Users are getting greater choice over what information is shared with websites and apps when they log in using their Facebook ID.A new version of Facebook Login, which begins its wide roll out this week, will present users with a prompt to “Edit the info you provide.” Clicking that will let users grant or deny access to different types of information. The login now also highlights who will see content posted by the app in Facebook, for apps that request the ability to do so.Facebook first announced this system during its F8 developers conference in April 2014. Many of the most popular apps, like Pinterest and Netflix, are already using it and over the next few weeks, Facebook will turn on the system for every app that uses the Facebook Login.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Citizens of Tech 001 – Knuckle Cracking Felt Animals

I have a new podcast recommendation to share. The title is Citizens of Tech and is a product of our good friend Ethan Banks and Eric Suthphen. Although it is part of the PacketPushers ecosystem, it is a very different type of podcast. As opposed to typical network-centric topics, this show seems to include all things tech (and things that tech people are interested in).

Check out the first episode here–

Readers of this article may also enjoy:

  1. Everyone’s Favorite Topic–Bring Your Own Device

The post Citizens of Tech 001 – Knuckle Cracking Felt Animals appeared first on PacketU.

Interop 2015: The quiz

Interop 2015: The quizIt’s time again for Interop, where the greatest networking minds in the world gather to find answers to their knottiest problems – security, storage, cloud services, mobility, virtualization, the Internet of Things – the list goes on and on. It’s also time for the Internet quiz, where the greatest minds in networking try to answer a few questions about the trade show in an effort to demonstrate their tech acumen and preparedness. Keep track of your answers as you go and see at the end how well you did.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GogglePal: Augmented reality and heads-up meets the snow

It seems like every sport is in the process of getting a high-tech digital makeover and snow sports are no exception. For example, a 3-day old Kickstarter campaign by GogglePal for an augmented reality (AR) heads up display (HUD) that can be mounted on any brand of ski googles is already over halfway to its funding goal of $40,000 and runs through May 28.The GogglePal system (I keep wanting to write “GooglePal” which is what it could become if a certain company gets interested) consists of the HUD module that sits inside your goggles a magnet that sits on the outside of your goggles to hold the HUD in place and a controller “pod” that you clip to your goggle strap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Interop Liveblog: The Post-Cloud

This session is titled “The Post-Cloud,” and the speaker is Nick Weaver, Director of SDI-X at Intel.

Nick starts his presentation with a summary of our society: some people produce goods through an effort, and others consume what is produced. Things have changed over the years that have affected this production-consumption model, but Nick quickly turns his focus to the use of machines in the production portion of this cycle. As production efficiency increased, the level of consumption also increased. This is especially true for computing machines, and how people consume the services/information produced by the computing machines.

This brings Nick around to a discussion of Jevons’ Paradox, which basically states that the increased efficiency of producing something actually leads to an increase in consumption, not a decrease of consumption.

So what does efficiency in technology look like? Technology enables things; by itself, it doesn’t really add value. Therefore, efficiency in technology means enabling more (or more powerful) things. Nick starts his discussion on technology efficiency with a discussion of DevOps, and what DevOps means. Although a number of technologies are involved to deal with the ever-increasing complexity and density that has emerged, DevOps is really about a culture change. Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Lasers will allow real-time satellite communications

There's an inherent problem with Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites of the kind used for remote observation, such as border security and disaster monitoring.The problem is that because of their low orbit—they're a few hundred miles above earth's surface, rather than 22,300 miles as found with Geostationary (GEO) satellites—they can't see their ground station at all times.They can see the earth more clearly, so they are good for monitoring; they are cheap to deploy because they don't need such a big rocket to get it up there; and they don't suffer from as much packet latency as GEO satellites because the distances are shorter.However, they aren't visible from any given point on earth at all times—they're not stationary, and they're low-down.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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