New ‘Internet of Animals’ actually seems useful for pet owners

And now for something completely different, courtesy of the country that definitely does things differently. Japan is rolling out Anicall (site is in Japanese), a social network for dogs and cats that it refers to as "The Internet of Animals."Anicall first rolled out in January at the first ever Wearable Expo in Japan, but more details were shared on the show "Great Gear" on NHK World, the English-language version of Japan's biggest broadcast network.Anicall works with your smartphone and a plastic collar for the pet. Instead of using GPS and Wi-Fi, the collar uses Bluetooth to communicate, giving it a much longer battery life.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Not even an Apple Watch can save shirtless dad bod

Maybe I don't get out enough, but I haven't seen too many Apple Watches in the wild yet. The first 2 I saw belonged to fellow IDG Enterprise editors, who were wielding them at our recent offsite editorial meeting. Both gave "so far, so good" reviews to the devices. The third one I spotted in the wild was at a big concert in Boston this past weekend and the wearer made quite an impression on those in the vicinity. Aside from sunglasses, the only apparel he wore above his waist was the Apple Watch with blue wristband. He was the only shirtless guyI remember seeing at the event, which attracted a mainly college/20-something demographic that I sense this gent was not a member of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How now IoT cow? Sensors can track Elsie’s temperature

The Internet of Things is many things to many people - we’re seeing things like Internet-connected basketballs to vending machines and other devices that connect to the cloud to provide valuable data.One thing I didn’t expect in the IoT world was a device that could measure a cow’s temperature.But that’s exactly what Brad Walters, CEO of Monnit, showed me recently at Interop 2015. Walters’ company makes more than 40 different types of sensors that fit into the world of IoT. Most of the things are dry (or wet) devices that measure temperature, water sensing or gas leaks - important things that can mean the difference between a small problem or a major disaster, whether inside your home or at your remote data center.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: The New IT

The New ITThe New IT
Jill Dyche

Research has found that almost half of the CEOs described CIOs as being out of touch with the business and unable to understand how to apply IT in new ways. Over half also considered IT “a commodity service purchased as needed.”

So begins Jill Dyche in her examination of the relationship between IT and business. This statement sums up the entire point of this book: IT needs to find a way to be more engaged in the business world. Rather than just selling IT as a “commodity to be purchased,” IT leaders need to learn to show how IT can drive business value.

The author breaks the topic into three major parts — What’s Wrong with IT, Your IT Transformation Toolkit, and Leadership in the New IT. The first section, of course, outlines the litany of problems with IT in the business world today, from not having a seat at the table to being more about process and tools than actually driving business value. The second section contains a set of exercises that might (or might not — as in my case) apply to you and your role in IT leadership. These exercises involve Continue reading

Avago buying Broadcom for $37 billion to create networking chip giant

Avago Technologies has agreed to buy Broadcom in a deal that will create a networking chip giant with a wide variety of products, including components for the burgeoning IoT sector.It has offered US$37 billion for Broadcom, including $17 billion in cash and equity valued at approximately $20 billion, it said on Thursday. The combined company will offer products for wired and wireless networks.MORE M&A: 2015 enterprise network/IT acquisition trackerBoth companies’ chips are found in wireline and wireless networks. Avago also makes chips for optical networks, while Broadcom’s are used in connected home and car equipment and the Internet of Things. It recently announced support for Apple’s HomeKit platform, and chipsets for 802.11ac networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 movies that get IT (almost) right

9 movies that get IT (almost) rightIf you push a real spy for a few minutes, they'll admit their life is nothing like the movies. Car chases are rare, beautiful opponents are few, and the itinerary is anything but exotic. It's mainly sitting at a desk, clicking and typing. But as Alfred Hitchcock once said, "The cinema is not a slice of life but a piece of cake."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Home security demystified: How to build a smart DIY system

Everyone wants their home to be safe and secure, yet only 17% of homeowners own a home security system. Why? Because traditional systems cost hundreds of dollars to install, require long-term contracts and mean a lifetime of monthly fees.  

Today, however, wireless technology has blown the DIY home security space wide open. Homeowners and renters can now build and maintain their own custom-designed home security system easily and inexpensively.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the options for DIY home security systems that offer similar -- and in some cases, better -- functionality to traditional systems, at substantially less cost. From connected cameras to smart sensors and whole home systems (with no monthly fees), to simple all-in-one gadgets, read on to find peace of mind for the right price.

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Server sales bolstered by cloud expansions

Server vendors recorded the strongest shipment growth in over four years for the first quarter, mainly driven by continued investments in the hyperscale server infrastructures that power public and private clouds.It was a great start to the year, with the largest shipment growth since the third quarter of 2010, when the market was recovering from the economic downturn. First-quarter server shipments grew by 13 percent year on year to 2.7 million units, while revenue grew by almost 18 percent to US$13.4 billion, Gartner said on Thursday.This growth was driven by particularly strong demand from the so-called hyperscale area in the U.S. Hyperscale is a term used to describe distributed systems that use thousands of servers to power cloud and big data infrastructures, according to Gartner. Growth came from all form factors, including rack-optimized, blade, density-optimized, and tower servers, according to IDC, which reported similar server numbers on Thursday. Consolidation and virtualization in the enterprise boosted server vendors’ revenue, IDC said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What is OAM – Operation, Administration, Maintenance ?

OAM is a set of tools that have been used to provide network fault indication, performance information, fault localization, data and diagnosis functions. In different standard bodies usage of OAM is slightly different thus it creates a confusion among the engineers. IETF published a best practice RFC to clarify the OAM acronym. RFC 6291 ” Guidelines… Read More »

The post What is OAM – Operation, Administration, Maintenance ? appeared first on Network Design and Architecture.

Don’t be sloppy, use a floppy

One of the quirkier and more popular sections on Reddit is called r/MildlyInteresting, which features stuff that is … go ahead and guess. Posted there last night was the above photo, which I found to be … go ahead and guess.It turns out that using old floppy disks as drink coasters is not a new idea. You can find plenty – both authentic and reproductions – online.However, one Redditor had a reasonable quibble with the one in the picture:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, May 28

Lenovo’s concept smartphone lets you interact with projected imagesA Lenovo concept smartphone that’s fitted with a laser projector module can display content on a hard surface, like a table or wall, where users will be able to interact with the projected images. On Thursday, Lenovo showed off “Smart Cast,” which can also read the gestures of users interacting with the projected images: in one demo, a user was able to play a song on the image of a piano keyboard projected onto a table.Google said to be planning a do-over on mobile paymentsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, May 28

Lenovo’s concept smartphone lets you interact with projected imagesA Lenovo concept smartphone that’s fitted with a laser projector module can display content on a hard surface, like a table or wall, where users will be able to interact with the projected images. On Thursday, Lenovo showed off “Smart Cast,” which can also read the gestures of users interacting with the projected images: in one demo, a user was able to play a song on the image of a piano keyboard projected onto a table.Google said to be planning a do-over on mobile paymentsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

German gov’t proposes telecom data retention law

German telecom and Internet operators could once again be forced to store customer traffic and location metadata for police investigation purposes, five years after a previous data retention law was declared unconstitutional.The draft data retention law unveiled on Wednesday would oblige providers to store call and Internet traffic metadata for a maximum of 10 weeks while location data would have to be stored for four weeks, the German government said.The measure is meant to help law enforcement agencies in their fight against terrorism and serious crime. According to the government, it strikes the right balance between freedom and security in the digital world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

German gov’t proposes telecom data retention law

German telecom and Internet operators could once again be forced to store customer traffic and location metadata for police investigation purposes, five years after a previous data retention law was declared unconstitutional.The draft data retention law unveiled on Wednesday would oblige providers to store call and Internet traffic metadata for a maximum of 10 weeks while location data would have to be stored for four weeks, the German government said.The measure is meant to help law enforcement agencies in their fight against terrorism and serious crime. According to the government, it strikes the right balance between freedom and security in the digital world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sony keeps optical discs alive with storage startup acquisition

Sony’s push to get enterprise users to store data on optical discs has received added momentum with its acquisition of a Facebook-linked startup focused on optical storage.Led by former Facebook executive Frank Frankovsky, Optical Archive in California will develop new optical disc library systems for corporate clients’ “cold storage,” which hold data that aren’t accessed often but are preserved for a long time. Examples of such data are photos on social media sites and regulatory or legal documents.The move marks the entry of Sony, which developed the Blu-ray disc over a decade ago, into data center storage, a market it has shied away from partly due to the limited capacity of its optical discs amid the explosion of cloud-based storage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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