German climate researchers prepare for rising seas of data

It’s nice to have the latest kit, but a supercomputer upgrade is about to bring the German Climate Computing Center, DKRZ, a big problem: a shortage of space.Not space for the computer itself, but for the data it generates.DKRZ runs climate models on its supercomputer, projecting how our planet’s weather will evolve over decades or even, in some cases, hundreds of millennia, from the last ice age and into the future.All those models generate huge volumes of data—40 petabytes of so far—that DKRZ archives for future reference, allowing researchers to analyze the models’ output in different ways. The center also offers to store the output from climate models run by other supercomputing centers, forming a world climate studies archive drawn on by researchers around the world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nintendo says its new smartphone games will drive console sales

Nintendo expects that its new games for smartphones, built in partnership with Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA, will help boost sales of its consoles, as users “become familiar with the charms of video games.”The Japanese gaming console maker expects smartphones users will want to explore more premium experiences on its dedicated game systems, President Satoru Iwata said in a presentation posted to the company website Friday.To aid that shift, the company is working on an integrated membership service that aims to provide a bridge between smart devices and consoles, including the upcoming game system code-named NX, by allowing a consumer to access multiple devices and services with a single ID, Iwata said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Startup Twistlock seeks to padlock Docker containers

As interest grows in applications deployed in containers, questions about their security are developing as well.The open-source platform built by Docker has seen quick uptake by developers. Applications are deployed in so-called containers, which can be easily updated and moved to other machines due to their small footprint.Many application containers can run on a single physical system and share an operating system’s kernel. That commingling of demands on the operating system can, however, have serious consequences for security.Jay Lyman, research manager with the analyst 451 Group, said the security and management tools for virtual machines are highly evolved, but container technology is relatively immature.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Uber said to bid for Nokia’s Here mapping business

Uber Technologies has bid for Nokia’s Here mapping business, in a bid to reduce its dependence on Google, according to a newspaper report.Nokia said last month it was considering a possible divestment from Here as it reviewed strategic options for the business. The Finnish company made the announcement on the same day it revealed plans to acquire rival Alcatel-Lucent, which led to speculation that the company would like to sell off Here to focus on its core business of equipment for telecommunications service providers.The ride-hailing company has bid as much as US$3 billion for the business, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the offer. The bid is in competition with one from a consortium of German automakers, including BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which also could have the backing of China’s Baidu, according to the report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hacked advertising platform sent users to the Nuclear exploit kit

A suspected malicious advertising attack turned out to be a much deeper compromise of an online advertising company, according to Trend Micro.The security company found that advertisements served by Mad Ads Media, based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, redirected to websites hosting an exploit kit, which probed users’ computers for software flaws in order to deliver malware. The number of people affected peaked at 12,500 on May 2, Trend said.At first, the incident appeared to be another example of malvertising, wrote Joseph Chen, a fraud researcher with Trend. Advertising networks have occasionally seen malicious ads uploaded to their networks that redirect people to other malicious websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Install Gephi on the Mininet VM

This post describes how to install the Gephi graph visualization utility on the Mininet 2.2 virtual machine.

I want to investigate the node and link discovery function of OpenFlow and, to do that, I plan to experiment with some components of the POX SDN controller that interface with the Gephi graph visualization utility. Previously, I set up the Mininet network simulator, which includes the POX SDN controller. The final step is to install Gephi on the Mininet virtual machine.

Unfortunately, I found that the install instructions on the Gephi web site do not work. So, I used another procedure to solve the Java issue I encountered and complete the installation.

The Mininet virtual machine

Log into the Mininet VM via SSH with X forwarding. If needed, review my previous post about setting up the Mininet VM. Ensure both the NAT interface and the host-only network interface are connected.

Java

Gephi runs on Java but Java is not installed in the Mininet VM, which is based on a minimal installation of Ubuntu Server 14.04. So we must install Java.

The Gephi documentation states we need to use the Oracle version of Java, which is not available in the Continue reading

Fitbit’s IPO filing shows a strong pulse

Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers, has filed to go public and revealed some strong sales numbers in its pitch.The company seeks to raise as much as US$100 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, though the amount is subject to change. Fitbit plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT.”The filing reveals what seems to be a healthy business. The company sold roughly 10.9 million devices in 2014, more than double what it sold in 2013 and more than eight times as many as it sold in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fitbit’s IPO filing shows a strong pulse

Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers, has filed to go public and revealed some strong sales numbers in its pitch.The company seeks to raise as much as US$100 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, though the amount is subject to change. Fitbit plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT.”The filing reveals what seems to be a healthy business. The company sold roughly 10.9 million devices in 2014, more than double what it sold in 2013 and more than eight times as many as it sold in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD puts faith back in x86, downgrading its ARM effort

Two years ago, AMD tried to cut its reliance on the plodding x86 design by building server chips around ARM, the hot architecture driving mobile devices. That hasn’t worked out, and the company is now putting its faith back in x86.At an investor meeting on Wednesday, AMD further delayed its ARM-based server chip code-named Seattle and cut a major project that could have bridged the gap between its x86 and ARM chips. AMD executives also took responsibility for misreading the fast-growing server market, which is dominated by Intel x86 chips.AMD is still developing ARM-based server chips, but instead of mainstream servers, those chips will now be aimed mainly at storage, networking and other infrastructure equipment. That’s a downgrade from AMD’s focus over the last two years to make ARM servers the centerpiece of server rooms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Visual aids for networkers

Because a picture is worth 1,024 words. Much of what we study are abstract concepts invisible to the human eye. Sure, we know what boxy hardware looks like, and two of our three physical signal transmission media (excluding wireless) are things we can reach out and touch, but most of what we work on is untouchable – ghosts […]

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Quentin Demmon

Quentin Demmon
Network Engineer at Healthcare Specialty Benefits Management company

Quentin Demmon is a network engineer, hobbyist weightlifter (Olympic style), and wannabe philosopher. He is excited to be blogging about his CCIE journey in gory, melodramatic detail. Follow him on twitter, facebook, and instagram.
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The post Visual aids for networkers appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Quentin Demmon.

Facebook’s software smarts put cold storage on a power diet

When it comes to storage, Facebook is learning to do more with less.For backup copies of older content, the social network is building “cold storage” facilities that are designed to keep data available without some of the expensive, power-sucking features found in a traditional data center. Facebook says it’s built in strong protection against data loss while reducing the overhead of additional storage.These are data centers designed to hold more than an exabyte of data—1,000 petabytes—with no redundant electrical systems, while consuming less than one-sixth as much power as a conventional facility. And they store all that data on cheap, consumer-grade media.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAA: Big tech challenges for massive Washington, DC warbirds flyover

It will be one of the largest gatherings of flying WWII aircraft in history as 56 famous vintage warbirds will fly through restricted airspace over the National Mall Friday in remembrance of the 70th anniversary of VE-Day or Victory in Europe Day.The huge flyover, dubbed the “The Arsenal of Democracy,” of so many different types of aircraft – from seaplanes to fighters and the only flying B-29 Superfortress – was no easy undertaking. Reuters P-38 Lightning (right); P-51 (left)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Four cool vendors in the Internet of Things

What’s cool?The Internet of Things presents unique challenges to businesses considering the secure use of these devices. Gartner has taken a look at some of the vendors trying to address these concerns and has designated four of them cool. It’s not an exhaustive list, Gartner says, but it highlights interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD developing mega-chip that combines CPUs and GPUs

AMD will battle Intel for computer performance supremacy with a new high-speed chip that could be the fastest when it ships.The chip will combine many CPUs and graphics processors in a single package. It will deliver multiple teraflops of performance, and will be targeted at high-end graphics, supercomputing and data modeling.The chip doesn’t have a name yet, and could be released in the next two years, said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president at AMD, during an investor meeting on Wednesday.There is no chip that mixes CPUs and GPUs, and AMD wants to introduce the concept to high-performance computing, Norrod said.For decades, AMD and Intel have been locked in a leapfrogging race, one-upping each other by increasing their chips’ clock speeds. At the height of the chip wars in 2011, AMD claimed a Guinness World Record for achieving the “highest frequency of a computer processor” with its eight-core FX chip, which ran at a clock speed of 8.4GHz. The silliness of the chip battles dissipated soon after, though chip makers still love to parade high-performance chips as a sign of technological progress.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Appeals court judge shoots down DOJ’s defense of NSA phone program

A U.S. appeals court judge shredded the government’s defense of an extensive National Security Agency program targeting the phone records of the nation’s residents.Judge Gerard Lynch, writing for a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, picked apart the Department of Justice’s arguments for the phone records collection program, revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in mid-2013.The appeals court ruled that Congress didn’t authorize the massive phone records collection in the Patriot Act of 2001, the antiterrorism law the past two U.S. presidents have used as a basis for the collection. A representative of the U.S. White House’s National Security Council noted that President Barack Obama’s administration is working with Congress to create a more limited program.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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