How a Florida fender-bender could threaten Uber’s business model

A March collision between a Mitsubishi Outlander and a scooter in the Miami area could have huge repercussions in Silicon Valley. According to reports in Buzzfeed and elsewhere, the minor accident caused only a few thousand dollars in damages. But it could have a nationwide impact on the business models of ridesharing and other app-driven services. Because the SUV was dropping off Uber passengers at the time, the driver asked the company's insurance to cover the costs. But Uber and the driver couldn't come to an agreement, so—unable to keep driving until the vehicle was fixed or replaced—Darrin McGillis ended up filing an unemployment insurance claim against Uber and a subsidiary. That forced the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to determine whether the driver was actually an employee of Uber, not an independent contractor, as the company claims. Last week, the Florida DEO's initial determination held that McGillis was indeed an employee, not a contractor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A match made in heaven? 10 tech mergers that defined the industry

AOL, back on the marketImage by REUTERS/Brendan McDermidAn unexpected merger between AOL and a storied incumbent? You'd be forgiven for thinking you'd gone back to the turn of the century, but no, that happened earlier this month. Whatever the reasons behind the AOL-Verizon merger -- for all the talk of AOL's content offerings, its advertising platform may be the big prize -- at a mere $4.4 billion dollars the deal is a pale shadow of the $164 billion blockbuster AOL-Time Warner merger that marked the height of dot-com hubris.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A match made in heaven? 10 tech mergers that defined the industry

AOL, back on the marketImage by REUTERS/Brendan McDermidAn unexpected merger between AOL and a storied incumbent? You'd be forgiven for thinking you'd gone back to the turn of the century, but no, that happened earlier this month. Whatever the reasons behind the AOL-Verizon merger -- for all the talk of AOL's content offerings, its advertising platform may be the big prize -- at a mere $4.4 billion dollars the deal is a pale shadow of the $164 billion blockbuster AOL-Time Warner merger that marked the height of dot-com hubris.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MPLS “No Label” vs “Pop Label”

I like MPLS. And I don’t necessarily mean as a solution to solve a problem, but as something to configure in the lab. It’s fun to build things that do something when you’re done. Setting up OSPF or EIGRP and being able to traceroute across routers is meh. But configuring MPLS with all the associated technologies — an IGP, LDP, MP-BGP, — and then getting all of them working in unison… when you get the traceroute working, it’s rewarding.

Here’s something to keep an eye out for when you’re troubleshooting MPLS: An LFIB entry (that is, the Label Forwarding Information Base) that states “No Label” versus one that states “Pop Label”. These mean very different things and can be the difference between a working Label Switched Path (LSP) and a non-working LSP.

The Topology

Here’s the topology I’m working with:

MPLS-no-label-vs-pop-label-topology

Click to Enlarge

 

R21 and R8 are Customer Edge (CE) routers and they communicate through the MPLS network in the “BRANCHES” VRF. R4 and R7 are Provider Edge (PE) routers and R1, R5, and R6 are Provider (P) routers.

Working State

I’m going to examine traffic going from R8’s 10.1.8.8 address and destined to R21’s 10. Continue reading

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, May 27

Hyundai is first to roll with Android AutoHyundai is the first carmaker to put Android Auto into vehicles, starting with navigation features on the 2015 Sonata, where the vehicle’s dashboard infotainment system mirrors a connected Android smartphone. Google’s automotive software competes with Apple’s CarPlay, which Hyundai has previously said would be offered as an option on the 2015 Sonata.EMC scoops up Virtustream for cloud management for $1.2 billionEMC will expand its portfolio of cloud management tools in a $1.2 billion deal to buy Virtustream. Virtustream’s xStream software is used to manage complex enterprise applications, such as SAP’s S/4HANA, so they can be run effectively on hosted infrastructure services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, May 27

Hyundai is first to roll with Android AutoHyundai is the first carmaker to put Android Auto into vehicles, starting with navigation features on the 2015 Sonata, where the vehicle’s dashboard infotainment system mirrors a connected Android smartphone. Google’s automotive software competes with Apple’s CarPlay, which Hyundai has previously said would be offered as an option on the 2015 Sonata.EMC scoops up Virtustream for cloud management for $1.2 billionEMC will expand its portfolio of cloud management tools in a $1.2 billion deal to buy Virtustream. Virtustream’s xStream software is used to manage complex enterprise applications, such as SAP’s S/4HANA, so they can be run effectively on hosted infrastructure services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, May 27

Hyundai is first to roll with Android AutoHyundai is the first carmaker to put Android Auto into vehicles, starting with navigation features on the 2015 Sonata, where the vehicle’s dashboard infotainment system mirrors a connected Android smartphone. Google’s automotive software competes with Apple’s CarPlay, which Hyundai has previously said would be offered as an option on the 2015 Sonata.EMC scoops up Virtustream for cloud management for $1.2 billionEMC will expand its portfolio of cloud management tools in a $1.2 billion deal to buy Virtustream. Virtustream’s xStream software is used to manage complex enterprise applications, such as SAP’s S/4HANA, so they can be run effectively on hosted infrastructure services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Computer chips made of wood promise greener electronics

U.S. and Chinese researchers have developed semiconductor chips that are nearly entirely made out of wood-derived material.Aside from being biodegradable, the chips could be produced for only a fraction of the cost of conventional semiconductors, according to the group of 17 researchers, mostly from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with others from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The researchers used a cellulose material for the substrate of the chip, which is the part that supports the active semiconductor layer. Taken from cellulose, a naturally abundant substance used to make paper, cellulose nanofibril (CNF) is a flexible, transparent and sturdy material with suitable electrical properties.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Computer chips made of wood promise greener electronics

U.S. and Chinese researchers have developed semiconductor chips that are nearly entirely made out of wood-derived material.Aside from being biodegradable, the chips could be produced for only a fraction of the cost of conventional semiconductors, according to the group of 17 researchers, mostly from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with others from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The researchers used a cellulose material for the substrate of the chip, which is the part that supports the active semiconductor layer. Taken from cellulose, a naturally abundant substance used to make paper, cellulose nanofibril (CNF) is a flexible, transparent and sturdy material with suitable electrical properties.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB) 101

Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB, RFC 7047) is often mentioned together with other semi-magic SDN tools that will bring everlasting peace to the chaotic world of networking. In reality, it’s just a database access/update protocol (think SQL with JSON encoding) with an interesting twist: a client can request notifications about table or row updates, replacing periodic database polling with a pub-sub solution.

Read more ...

Some notes about Wassenaar

So #wassenaar has infected your timeline for the past several days. I thought I'd explain what the big deal is.

What's a Wassenaar?


It's a town in Europe where in 1996 a total of 41 nations agreed to an arms control treaty. The name of the agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement, comes from the town. The US, Europe, and Russia are part of the agreement. Africa, Middle East, and China are not.

The primary goal of the arrangement is anti-proliferation, stopping uranium enrichment and chemical weapons precursors. Another goal is to control conventional weapons, keeping them out of the hands of regimes that would use them against their own people, or to invade their neighbors.

Historically in cybersec, we've complained that Wassenaar classifies crypto as a munition. This allows the NSA to eavesdrop and decrypt messages in those countries. This does little to stop dictators from getting their hands on strong crypto, but does a lot to prevent dissidents in those countries from encrypting their messages. Perhaps more importantly, it requires us to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops to export computer products, because encryption is built-in to virtually everything.

Why has this become important recently?


Last year, Wassenaar Continue reading

Ads for MacKeeper refunds will run on Facebook

A sizable Internet advertising campaign is planned to alert people to a proposed class-action settlement over MacKeeper, a security program for Macs accused of deceptive practices.MacKeeper’s developer, ZeoBit, was sued in May 2014 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Filed on behalf of Pennsylvania resident Holly Yencha, the class-action suit alleges MacKeeper was deceptively marketed and did not fully function as advertised.Under a proposed settlement, ZeoBit—a company started in Ukraine but now based in California—will put US$2 million into a fund to reimburse customers but admit no fault, which is customary in class-action settlements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rubrik adds $41m in funding, releases backup appliance

When a startup’s $10 million in funding is followed two months later by a further $41 million, it’s safe to say they’re tapping into a trend. In the case of Rubrik, that trend is enterprise data management.Promising an all-in-one approach to enterprise backup and recovery, Rubrik announced its Converged Data Management platform in late March along with its initial funding. Introduced at the time via an early-access program, Rubrik’s technology aims to “eliminate backup software” by fusing enterprise data management with Web-scale IT.On Tuesday, Rubrik announced the $41 million Series B portion of its funding along with the general availability of its r300 Series hybrid cloud appliance. The Rubrik r300, a 2U unit containing up to four x86 nodes, comes pre-configured with the Rubrik Converged Data Management software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At Google I/O, Android may push deeper into the home

Android, already the most widely used operating system in smartphones, could soon find its way into refrigerators, door locks and all manner of other “smart” appliances around the home.The OS will be in the spotlight at Google’s massive I/O conference in San Francisco later this week. As well as pushing into home appliances, it could also be extended to play a deeper role in virtual reality, allowing Android developers to build apps for smartphones or VR headsets.Google hasn’t confirmed any of those plans yet, but as usual, the rumor mill has been in motion. Extending Android to even more devices could help Google draw more people to its online services, and by putting the software in home appliances, Google could gather further valuable insights into people’s behavior.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft partners with 20 more Android tablet makers to pre-load Office apps

Microsoft apps will soon come pre-installed on more Android devices thanks to 20 new partnerships the company has forged with tablet makers around the world. The group of global and regional partners, which includes LG, Sony, Haier and Wortmann, will pre-install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on devices in the near future.Beyond that, it’s mostly unclear when the manufacturers will be launching tablets with Microsoft’s apps pre-installed. Sony is slated to start with its Xperia Z4 in the next 90 days, but Microsoft hasn’t provided a timetable for the other manufacturers. LG, for its part, will include the apps on a new tablet sometime later this year. Going forward, manufacturers will have the freedom to pick which apps (if any) show up on a given tablet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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