IDG Contributor Network: Home heating provided by cloud servers is now a reality

One of the problems with traditional data centers has always been that the servers create a lot of heat. And that waste heat needs to be disposed of to prevent server components, switches, and other parts from overheating and malfunctioning.Various solutions have been tried over the years, including building data centers near the sea so cold sea water can be used for cooling. Facebook built a site in Sweden near the Arctic Circle to take advantage of ambient cooing—it's cold up there.And of course, expensive grid-powered air conditioning is the default solution.Data furnaces Dutch company Nerdalize reckons it's got a better answer. It suggests getting rid of data centers, distributing servers throughout communities, and using them to heat homes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to use Google’s new privacy and security tools

Google stores, manages and sometimes sells an astonishingly large and complex amount of user data. Unfortunately, that digital information isn't always kept secure or private, but Google puts some degree of control in the hands of its users. To offer you a little more control, Google this week rolled out an updated online hub designed to help manage privacy settings, called My Account, as well as a pair of tools that streamline the process of safeguarding user data.A brief history of Linux malware The My Account hub gives Google users more context on how and where their information is shared, when they can opt to remain private and the types of ads they see on Google or elsewhere online. Google redesigned My Account to display its many user settings in a more intuitive way, and the Security Checkup and Privacy Checkup tools show users how to control and manage some of the data they share with Google.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pinterest turns its feed into a store with ‘buyable pins’

Pinterest, whose site is used by many to bookmark desired retail items, will now let its users buy those items directly from its site.Content on Pinterest’s site is organized into visual bookmarks or “pins,” which users can save to their own profiles. Starting later this month, a new type of pin called “Buyable Pins” will arrive in users’ feeds, to let them purchase a variety of items without leaving Pinterest’s site.More than 2 million different products will be sold on Pinterest, through partnerships with major retailers like Macy’s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, as well as smaller boutique brands like Cole Haan, Kate Spade and Poler Stuff.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pinterest turns its feed into a store with ‘buyable pins’

Pinterest, whose site is used by many to bookmark desired retail items, will now let its users buy those items directly from its site.Content on Pinterest’s site is organized into visual bookmarks or “pins,” which users can save to their own profiles. Starting later this month, a new type of pin called “Buyable Pins” will arrive in users’ feeds, to let them purchase a variety of items without leaving Pinterest’s site.More than 2 million different products will be sold on Pinterest, through partnerships with major retailers like Macy’s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, as well as smaller boutique brands like Cole Haan, Kate Spade and Poler Stuff.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What if the iPhone debuted in 1984?

So many of the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 design concepts we see are wildly futuristic: They boast holograms and shape-shifting and increasing thinness.But Pierre, Cerveau, a Bangkok business development manager with engineering chops, has put forth a throwback iPhone design concept that goes all the way back to 1984, when Apple introduced its second Macintosh computer, the 512K. Gotta love that rotary dial.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

WikiLeaks raising $100k bounty for a copy of the Trans-Pacific trade pact

WikiLeaks wants to raise US$100,000 to offer as a reward for whoever leaks the full text of the controversial free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).The news leaks website launched a fund-raising campaign Tuesday to come up with the bounty money. The free trade agreement, involving the U.S., Japan, Canada, Australia and eight other countries, has been negotiated in secret, and just three of its 29 chapters have been leaked.“The transparency clock has run out on the TPP,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement. “No more secrecy. No more excuses. Let’s open the TPP once and for all.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA wants to make complex 3D printing trustworthy, dependable, safe

DARPA A laser beam heats a metal powder to additively build a product layer by layer. If additive manufacturing technologies like 3D printing are to become mainstream for complex engineering tasks – think building combat fighter aircraft wings or complete rocket engines – there needs to be a major uptick in the reliability and trustworthiness of such tools.+More on Network World: The hottest 3D printing projects+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Can Community Be Institutionalized?

CommunityPlanning

As technology grows at a faster pace, companies are relying more and more on their users to help spread the word about what they are doing. Why pay exorbitant amounts for marketing when there is a group of folks that will do it for little to nothing? These communities of users develop around any product or company with significant traction in the market. But can they be organized, built, and managed in a traditional manner?

Little Pink Houses

Communities develop when users start talking to each other. They exist in numerous different forms. Whether it be forum posters or sanctioned user groups or even unofficial meetups, people want to get together to talk about things. These communities are built from the idea that knowledge should be shared. Anecdotes, guides, and cautionary tales abound when you put enough people into a room and get them talking about a product.

That’s not to say that all communities can be positive ones. Some communities are even built around the idea of a negative reaction. Look at these groups that formed around simple ideas like getting their old Facebook page back or getting their old MySpace layout returned to them. Imagine the reaction that Continue reading

New SOHO router security audit uncovers over 60 flaws in 22 models

In yet another testament of the awful state of home router security, a group of security researchers uncovered more than 60 vulnerabilities in 22 router models from different vendors, most of which were distributed by ISPs to customers.The researchers performed the manual security review in preparation for their master’s thesis in IT security at Universidad Europea de Madrid in Spain. They published details about the vulnerabilities they found Sunday on the Full Disclosure security mailing list.The flaws, most of which affect more than one router model, could allow attackers to bypass authentication on the devices; inject rogue code into their Web-based management interfaces; trick users into executing rogue actions on their routers when visiting compromised websites; read and write information on USB storage devices attached to the affected routers; reboot the devices, and more.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple may have a 2-in-1 in the works

Is Apple planning some variation of a 2-in-1 device that would combine the iPad with a detachable keyboard?It's not completely far-fetched.If Apple did so, it would be keeping with a growing industry trend, analysts said. Apple wouldn't comment on this story, but that hasn't kept people from speculating.Of course, the iPad already works with various Bluetooth keyboards, including Apple's own and those from some third-party manufacturers. There are also various covers that can double as a way to prop up the tablet.+ ALSO: 20 best iPhone/iPad games +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network Break 39

Take a Network Break! Grab a coffee, a doughnut and then join us for an analysis of the latest IT news, vendor moves and new product announcements. We’ll separate the signal from the noise--or at least make some noise of our own.

Author information

Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus.

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The post Network Break 39 appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Greg Ferro.

BQ announces second Ubuntu phone and plans to build PC-smartphone combo

Against the odds, Canonical and Spanish company BQ are continuing to push Ubuntu for smartphones over Android and iOS. BQ’s second Ubuntu phone is a step up from its inaugural effort, and the two companies are also working on a smartphone that’s also a PC.Earlier this year, BQ started selling the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and will later this month start shipping the Aquaris E5 HD in Europe from its online store for €200 (US$220).The struggles of Samsung’s Tizen, Mozilla’s Firefox OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone have shown how difficult it’s to compete with the dominant smartphone platforms of Apple and Google, but that doesn’t seem to scare Canonical and BQ.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell warms to AMD chips in new laptops, desktops

Dell’s PCs largely use Intel chips, but the company is once again warming to AMD processors for its new Inspiron laptops and desktops.The Inspiron 5000 laptops with 14-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch screens contain AMD’s new A-series chips, code-named Carrizo. The laptops are now shipping worldwide even though the chips aren’t due to be announced until Wednesday.The desktop-replacement laptops start at US$449.99 for the 15-inch model, $599.99 for the 14-inch model, and $699.99 inch for the 17-inch model.Dell once used AMD chips in a range of laptops, but slowly dropped them from product lines as the chip-maker dealt with quality and production problems. Hewlett-Packard has stayed loyal to AMD, but many other PC makers have dropped AMD’s chips over the years for not standing up to Intel’s chips in performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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