The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, April 1

Amazon wants to try putting physical “buy now” buttons all over your houseBecause Jeff Bezos hasn’t yet figured how to wire your brain directly to Amazon’s warehouses, the company is experimenting with cluttering your home with special-purpose buttons in the name of e-commerce. Its new Dash Buttons can be put up anywhere—kitchen, bathroom drawer, broom closet—and programmed to put in a buy order for, say, laundry detergent, by syncing to the Amazon mobile app over the user’s home Wi-Fi network. The devices will go out to Prime customers by invitation only.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Acer to bring Chrome OS to an all-in-one PC, as vendors experiment

Desktop devices running Chrome OS haven’t exactly found much traction, but that hasn’t stopped Acer from developing an all-in-one PC built for the Google operating system.On Wednesday, Acer announced its upcoming Chromebase device, just after Google and its partners unveiled a range of new Chrome-related products slated to launch soon.Acer’s Chromebase is set to arrive in the second quarter in North America and Asia Pacific. The all-in-one has a 21.5-inch 1080p touchscreen display and an Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core processor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ethernet over Fibre Channel

Since the 80’s, Ethernet has dominated the networking world. The LAN, the WAN, and the MAN are all now dominated by Ethernet links. FIDDI, HIPPI, ATM, Frame Relay, they’ve all gone by the wayside. But there is one protocol that has stuck around to run alongside Ethernet, and that’s Fibre Channel. While Fibre Channel has mostly sat in the shadow of Ethernet, relegated to only storage traffic, it’s now poised to overtake Ethernet in the battle for the LAN. And the way that Fibre Channel is taking on Ethernet is with Ethernet over Fibre Channel.

Suck it, Metcalfe

While Ethernet has enjoyed tremendous popularity, it has several (debilitating) limitations. For one, forwarding is haunted the possibility of a loop, and Spanning Tree Protocol is required to keep a watchful eye. Unfortunately, STP is almost as bad as a loop, with the ample opportunity for misconfigurations (rouge root bridges) and other shenanigans.  TRILL, a Layer 2 overlay for Ethernet that allows multi-pathing, hasn’t found its way into a commercial product yet, and its derivatives (FabricPath from Cisco and VCS from Brocade) haven’t seen much in the way of adoption.

Rathern than pile fix upon fix on Ethernet, SAN administrators (known for Continue reading

F5 Data Groups, Wildcards and tmsh

Just a quick note about a problem I ran into with adding data groups to an F5 system using tmsh. I wanted to add a string data group containing a list of URIs mapping to other URIs. This was for use in an iRule that will redirect these URIs.

So I thought that this tmsh script would do the trick:

modify ltm data-group redir_uris records add {"/first-uri" { data "/new-uri"}}
modify ltm data-group redir_uris records add {"/second-uri" { data "/new-uri"}}

Every time I tried it, I got this result:

Syntax Error: the "create" command does not accept wildcard configuration identifiers

Hmm. But I don’t have any wildcards. So what’s the problem? I couldn’t figure it out at the time, and ended up having to resort to manually entering the data group via the web interface. A bit slow, but luckily it was only around 20 entries.

Today I found out what was going wrong: SOL12999: “Data group records beginning with a slash character cannot be added using tmsh.”

Description: You cannot add data group records that begin with a slash ( / ) character to data groups using tmsh.

This issue occurs when all of the following conditions are met:

• You Continue reading

Arista EOS Available on Whitebox Switches

A few months ago Gigamon did the right thing: they figured out that their true value lies not in the hardware boxes, but in the software running on them, and decided to start offering their GigaVUE-OS on whitebox switches.

So far, Arista is the only other networking vendor that figured out it doesn't make sense to resist the tide - Arista EOS is now available on Open Compute Networking whitebox switches.

Update 2015-04-02: If you followed the links in this blog post, you probably figured out that it’s an April Fools’ one. However, that’s not the end of the story…

Why HBO partnered with Apple for HBO Now

During Apple's most recent special event, the company announced that HBO Now, a new HBO service which doesn't require a cable TV subscription, would premiere on Apple TV.In the days that followed, it was discovered that HBO Now will be an Apple TV exclusive for three months, after which the service will be opened up to other media platforms. Still, with HBO seemingly not needing Apple to get a foothold in the living room, one has to wonder why and how Apple was able to secure a 3 month exclusivity arrangement.Addressing this very topic, HBO CEO Richard Plepler explained as much during a Tuesday interview with CNBC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon subscribers can now opt out of ‘supercookies’

Verizon customers can now opt out of having a unique identifier placed on their phones that critics have labelled a ‘supercookie’ because it’s almost impossible to remove.Verizon said in January that it would allow subscribers to opt out of the tracking mechanism, but it didn’t say when. On Tuesday, it said the identifier won’t be inserted for customers who opt out of its mobile advertising program.The move hasn’t satisfied privacy advocates, who say many customers won’t be aware that they need to opt out of the program. The identifier should be “opt in” instead, those advocates say.“This is an improvement, but it doesn’t do nearly enough,” said Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist with Electronic Frontier Foundation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon subscribers can now opt out of ‘supercookies’

Verizon customers can now opt out of having a unique identifier placed on their phones that critics have labelled a ‘supercookie’ because it’s almost impossible to remove.Verizon said in January that it would allow subscribers to opt out of the tracking mechanism, but it didn’t say when. On Tuesday, it said the identifier won’t be inserted for customers who opt out of its mobile advertising program.The move hasn’t satisfied privacy advocates, who say many customers won’t be aware that they need to opt out of the program. The identifier should be “opt in” instead, those advocates say.“This is an improvement, but it doesn’t do nearly enough,” said Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist with Electronic Frontier Foundation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A New Journey Begins

Thousands call on Congress to overturn net neutrality rules

Opponents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s new net neutrality rules aren’t giving up, with a conservative advocacy group saying it has collected more than 540,000 signatures on a petition asking Congress to overturn the agency’s action.American Commitment, a group with connections to Republican billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, delivered those petitions to Congress this week. Each petition went to the three members of Congress, one representative and two senators, representing the person signing the letter, American Commitment said.“The landslide 2014 elections made crystal clear that the American people reject larger, more intrusive government,” the Web form leading to the letters says in part. “But President [Barack] Obama reacted by moving even further left, ignoring the fact the Federal Communications Commission is supposed to be an independent agency, and openly demanding the FCC take the most radical action imaginable: reducing the Internet to a ‘public utility,’ imposing sweeping new taxes and destroying private investment, competition, and innovation while putting bureaucrats firmly in control.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Survey: A majority of Apple Pay users encounter problems

Apple Pay is coming up short for many people who attempt to use the mobile payment service at the register.A survey from research firm Phoenix Marketing International found that 68 percent of respondents who have used Apple Pay had encountered an issue when making an in-store purchase.The leading compliant made by nearly half of respondents was that retailers’ sales terminals took too long to record a transaction. Other problems: employees who didn’t know how to process sales with the mobile wallet (42 percent); errors in how the sale posted (36 percent), like a transaction appearing twice; and out of service Apple Pay terminals (27 percent). Almost half of the Apple Pay users surveyed (47 percent) found that the particular store they visited didn’t accept Apple Pay although the retailer was supposed to support the service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Detecting advanced threats with user behavior analytics

Amazon tries a physical button for making purchases

Amazon might be on to the killer app for restocking toilet paper from the privacy of your home.Amazon Prime members can now request an invite to get their hands on “Dash Button,” a small oval-shaped device to be placed strategically around the home like drawers, cupboards ... or the bathroom wall. Push its button, and the device will instantly purchase an item of the user’s choosing. Currently there’s more than a dozen buttons for buying Tide laundry detergent, Bounty paper towels and Gillette shaving products. Users can set up the device to send them any applicable item they want; a link on Amazon’s site refers users to more than 250 Dash button products including moisturizers, dog food, and paper towels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon tries a physical button for making purchases

Amazon might be on to the killer app for restocking toilet paper from the privacy of your home.Amazon Prime members can now request an invite to get their hands on “Dash Button,” a small oval-shaped device to be placed strategically around the home like drawers, cupboards ... or the bathroom wall. Push its button, and the device will instantly purchase an item of the user’s choosing. Currently there’s more than a dozen buttons for buying Tide laundry detergent, Bounty paper towels and Gillette shaving products. Users can set up the device to send them any applicable item they want; a link on Amazon’s site refers users to more than 250 Dash button products including moisturizers, dog food, and paper towels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP hits former Autonomy execs with $5B suit

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office may have dropped its investigation of software firm Autonomy earlier this year, but that doesn’t appear to have done much to allay HP’s ire. HP—which acquired Autonomy in 2011—has confirmed that it plans to sue Mike Lynch and Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s former CEO and CFO, for $5.1 billion.HP filed a Claim Form against Lynch and Hussain on Monday alleging they engaged in fraudulent activities while executives at Autonomy, an HP spokeswoman said via email. “The lawsuit seeks damages from them of approximately $5.1 billion.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Budgeting For Wireless With E-Rate

After having a nice conversation with Josh Williams (@JSW_EdTech) and helping Eddie Forero (@HeyEddie) with some E-Rate issues, I’ve decided that I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it any longer. But my conversation with Josh revealed something that I wasn’t aware of with regards to the new mandate from the president that E-Rate needs to address wireless in schools.

Building On A Budget

The first exciting thing in the new rules for E-Rate modernization is that there has been an additional $1 billion injected into the Category 2 (Priority 2) items. The idea is that this additional funding can be used for purchasing wireless equipment as outlined in the above initiative. I’ve said before that E-Rate needed an overhaul to fix some of the issues with reduced funding in competition for the available funding pool. That this additional funding came through things like sunsetting VoIP funding is a bit irritating, but sometimes these things can’t be helped.

The second item that caught my attention is the new budgeting rules for Category 2 in E-Rate going forward. Now, schools are allocated $150 per student for a rolling five year period. That means the old “2 Continue reading

IT troubles plague Federal Copyright Office

The IT department at the nation’s Copyright Office needs more than a little work.A report out this week from the watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office points out a number of different technical and management woes that see to start at the top – with the CIO (a position that has a number of problems in its own right) and flows down to the technology, or lack-thereof.As the nation’s copyright center it is imperative that it operate efficiently to effectively protect all manner of written and recorded material but according to the GAO it doesn’t.+More on Network World: CIA: A world without Google Maps or satellites?+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Seven things to know about Intel’s ‘Cherry Trail’ Atom chips

Microsoft’s Surface 3 is the first announced device to use Intel’s new Cherry Trail Atom chips, but you can expect therm to show up soon in other devices too. So what are the chips capable of and what should we expect?The Surface 3, which went on sale Tuesday, highlights some of the capabilities of Cherry Trail, officially called the Atom X5 and X7. The chips can run full Windows 8 and Windows 10 and are better at graphics than their ‘Bay Trail’ predecessors. But they also have limitations. They won’t do so well at compute intensive tasks such as video editing, which remain the domain of Intel’s faster Core processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Infinera Featured Interview: Open Transport Switch Helps Bring Virtualization to the Optical Layer

In an interview with Infinera's VP of Marketing Michael Capuano, we learn more about the Open Transport Switch (OTS) and how it's helping companies like Pacnet virtualize the optical layer.

iPaaS: A new approach to cloud Integration