The 7 things we’re looking for at Google I/O 2015

Don’t call it a developer conference… …when it’s really Google Prom. OK, it’s also a developer conference, but isn’t that what you picture if I say the words “Google Prom?” I/O generally features at least a couple fairly major announcements from Google, and the 2015 edition isn’t expected to disappoint. Here are the seven things we’re looking for this time around.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco bypassed Russia sanctions to continue sales: report

Cisco reportedly skirted sanctions in order to sell networking equipment to Russia’s military.In an investigative piece published this week, Buzzfeed alleges Cisco knowingly sold gear through straw companies fronting for Russian government and military institutions in violation of American sanctions. Cisco denies any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the scheme, allegedly perpetrated by its Russian operations, according to Buzzfeed.Cisco says some of the bogus customer names were errors, Buzzfeed reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Netgear and ZyXEL confirm NetUSB flaw, are working on fixes

Networking device manufacturers ZyXEL Communications and Netgear have confirmed that some of their routers are affected by a recently disclosed vulnerability in a USB device-sharing service called NetUSB.ZyXEL will begin issuing firmware updates in June, while Netgear plans to start releasing patches in the third quarter of the year.The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2015-3036, is located in a Linux kernel module called NetUSB that’s commonly used in routers and other embedded devices. The module is developed by a Taiwan-based company called KCodes Technology and allows routers to share USB devices with other computers via the Internet Protocol (IP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yandex tries to improve privacy features of its new browser

Russian Internet company Yandex has released a beta version of its new browser that the company says is more privacy-friendly than an earlier build.Unlike an alpha version released last year, the Yandex.Browser beta doesn’t send usage statistics to the company by default. However, other information will still be shared, so it remains to be seen whether the privacy safeguards will be compelling enough to attract a substantial number of users, as the company hopes.Yandex, which runs Russia’s most popular search engine, decided to make this beta version more privacy friendly than the alpha in response to feedback from users in Germany, Canada and the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple restores iCloud after global disruption hinders services

Apple says it has resolved a widespread iCloud issue that caused service disruptions for 40 percent of its users—that comes out to at least 128 million people, based on a company customer count.Several services, including iCloud Mail, had been running slower for some people, Apple said in an early status report. Apple later updated iCloud’s status page to reflect that all services were working normally. The service issue lasted for around seven hours, starting at approximately 2:15 a.m. ET and ending around 9:30 a.m. ET, according to the service’s status page.Apple didn’t provide details on what caused the disruption or how many people were affected. However, the company said in a 2013 earnings report that 320 million people use iCloud, which lets them back up and sync information stored on Apple devices via the company’s cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

No, I do not believe this steak was cooked by an iPhone, but I’ll bite anyway

Generally speaking, I’m pretty good at skipping past ads in my Twitter stream, but this one grabbed my attention with a clickbait headline that proved harder to resist than a perfectly grilled slab of beef.“Would you believe this steak was cooked by an iPhone?”Not for a nanosecond, of course, despite the multitude of stories connecting fire and iPhones over the years.But I couldn’t escape the attendant curiosity: What in the name of Steve Jobs might allow a marketing professional – no, make that even a marketing professional -- to suggest such a preposterous feat might be possible.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Using an Apt Proxy

In this post I’ll show you how to use apt-cacher-ng as an Apt proxy for Ubuntu systems on your network. I’m sure there are a lot of other resources that also provide this information, but I’m including it here for the sake of completeness and making it as easy as possible for others. Using an Apt proxy will help reduce the traffic coming from your network to external repositories, but it simpler and easier than running your own internal repository or mirror.

This isn’t the first time I’ve discussed apt-cacher-ng; almost two years ago I showed you how to use Puppet to configure Ubuntu to use apt-cacher-ng. This post focuses on the manual configuration of an Apt proxy.

On the server side, setting up an Apt proxy is as simple as one command:

apt-get install apt-cacher-ng

I’m sure there are some optimizations or advanced configurations, but this is enough to get the Apt proxy up and running.

On the client side, there are a couple of ways to configure the system. You could use a tool like Puppet (as described here), or manually configure the system. If you choose manual configuration, you can place the configuration in either /etc/apt/apt. Continue reading

The path to enterprise IoT may not be as steep as you think

The tech challenges that accompany IoT projects shouldn't deter companies from attempting to find meaning in data gathered from connected devices. The solutions may be closer than they think.The IT behind the Internet of Things, including sensors, databases and analytics software, has been around for a while. The challenge is getting these disparate systems and components to work together, said Phil Regnault, a senior vice president with Hitachi Consulting, on a panel at MIT's CIO Symposium. MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 12 most powerful Internet of Things companies Data analysis tools and data storage, technologies that are key to IoT, are extremely affordable, according to Richard Soley, executive director of the Industrial Internet Consortium. "There's no excuse for not using this technology today," he said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, May 12

Senators block vote extending NSA dragnet powersFour U.S. senators ground the chamber’s business to a halt Wednesday in an effort to prevent voting on a bill that would extend a law that’s legitimized the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone and business records. The relevant section of the Patriot Act expires at the end of the month, and to stop it from being renewed, a bipartisan group took control of the Senate floor in a filibuster mid-Wednesday.Hack hits health care target, reaps data on 1.1 millionTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, May 12

Senators block vote extending NSA dragnet powersFour U.S. senators ground the chamber’s business to a halt Wednesday in an effort to prevent voting on a bill that would extend a law that’s legitimized the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone and business records. The relevant section of the Patriot Act expires at the end of the month, and to stop it from being renewed, a bipartisan group took control of the Senate floor in a filibuster mid-Wednesday.Hack hits health care target, reaps data on 1.1 millionTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon adds groceries, meals to one-hour Prime Now delivery service

Amazon.com has expanded its Prime Now one-hour deliveries to include groceries, meals and baked goods from local stores in New York, in a move that will soon be extended to other cities.The deliveries will be available in some Mahattan neighborhoods starting Thursday, and then expand across the island in the coming weeks. The Prime Now website lists 11 zip codes where residents can use the service. Amazon will add local stores in other cities soon, it said.The first batch of stores are D’Agostino, Gourmet Garage and Billy’s Bakery, and Eataly and Westside Market will be the next, according to Amazon.Prime Now and the Android or iOS apps people use to shop were announced in December last year. The service is also available in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Dallas and Miami. It can be used from 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free and one-hour delivery costs US$7.99. As the name implies, users first have to sign up for a regular Prime membership to use the service, which is priced at $99 a year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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