NetworkingNexus.net

What’s behind Microsoft’s not-so-crazy startup spending spree

Microsoft so far this year has been the most acquisitive company in enterprise IT, snapping up at least four firms on top of four others that it bought in the last two months of 2014. And while the buyouts might at first glance appear scattershot – we’re talking text analysis, calendaring and digital pen startups among others -- there does seem to be a grand plan here.Our regularly updated Enterprise Networking & IT Acquisition Tracker shows through the first calendar quarter that Microsoft has announced more than twice as many buyouts as any other company (not that all acquisitions are immediately made public and taking into account that our tracker is focused on enterprise-related acquisitions -- Google has bought at least four consumer-oriented companies).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Workday targets professional services with new suite

Anyone who’s ever worked in professional services knows that the focus there on people and billable projects can open up a world of specialized requirements from any supporting business software. With that very distinction in mind, Workday on Thursday unveiled a new suite of financial and human-resources tools designed specifically for professional services users.Offering functionality for both financial management and human capital management, Workday Professional Services Automation aims to give companies a unified alternative to the patchwork of often-disconnected solutions that many currently rely on. A single system delivers insights and analytics regarding people, revenue, expenses and profitability, allowing customers to optimize project performance, Workday said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Solving the Cloud Security Crisis

Will SDN be a key component?

Dell to ship Windows 10 tablet with USB Type-C port

Dell is looking ahead to Windows 10 and planning to release a tablet with the OS and other new technologies in September or October.A refreshed Venue 11 Pro will have the USB Type-C port, which first appeared in Apple’s 12-inch MacBook and in Google’s Chromebook Pixel last month, said Kelli Hodges, a manager at Dell.Although Microsoft hasn’t given a specific release date for Windows 10, Dell’s plans shed light on when PCs and tablets might start shipping with Windows 10 pre-installed. One thing is clear: PC makers are eager to move away from the unpopular Windows 8. Windows 10 will run in smartphones, tablets, PCs, wearables and other devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA wants software that adapts, lasts over 100 years

Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said announced a new program aimed at building software systems that can adapt and survive more than a century years on the job.The program, called Building Resource Adaptive Software Systems, or BRASS is expected to lead to significant improvements in software resilience, reliability and maintainability by developing the computational and algorithmic requirements necessary for software systems and data to remain robust in excess of 100 years.The program looks to address the issues of high costs and frustration with current software systems which continue to grow in complexity and require users to become accustomed to constant update cycles.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LinkedIn buys training site Lynda.com, enters professional development market

LinkedIn is acquiring online learning company lynda.com for US$1.5 billion in cash and stock, the social networking site announced Thursday.Lynda.com offers professional development courses on design, creative and business topics. Some of the courses, for example, teach how to write HTML, negotiate better, or use design software like Photoshop. The site was launched by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin in 1995 as a way to teach Web publishing and design.Integrating lynda.com with LinkedIn would allow job seekers to know what skills are required for a position they’re interested in and immediately be prompted to take a course in that subject, Ryan Roslansky, LinkedIn’s head of content, said in a blog post. Further details on whether lynda.com would be combined with LinkedIn, or if the training site would continue to operate independently weren’t provided.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LinkedIn buys training site Lynda.com, enters professional development market

The FTC is worried about algorithmic transparency, and you should be too

It’s no secret that algorithms power much of the technology we interact with every day, whether it’s to search for information on Google or to browse through a Facebook news feed. What’s less widely known is that algorithms also play a role when we apply for a loan, for example, or receive a special marketing offer.Algorithms are practically everywhere we are today, shaping what we see, what we believe and, to an increasing extent, what our futures hold. Is that a good thing? The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, like many others, isn’t so sure.“Consumers interact with algorithms on a daily basis, whether they know it or not,” said Ashkan Soltani, the FTC’s chief technologist. “To date, we have very little insight as to how these algorithms operate, what incentives are behind them, what data is used and how it’s structured.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Spotty indoor cell coverage is on its way out

The days of strolling down a street, smartphone connected to somewhat speedy mobile internet connection, only to have the connection thwarted when you enter a large building, may be numbered.Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) think that scalable "small cells" are the answer to a vexing building-penetration issue.For the end user, asking for a Wi-Fi password at every stop-and-call may become a thing of the past if these small cells take off and work as promised.What are they? Small cells are distinct from an MNO's macrocells, which are mounted on rooftops and other structures, and are served by a cellular base station. Macrocell antennas are the ones you see dotted around your neighborhood.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Use of Windows XP makes European ATMs vulnerable to malware attacks

For the first time, a country in Western Europe has reported that malware attacks were used by hackers to steal €1.23 million (US$1.32 million) from ATMs. One major problem is the continued use of Windows XP in ATMs, making them more vulnerable to attacks, a report on ATM fraud said.The report does not specify which country reported the malware attacks, said Lachlan Gunn, executive director the European ATM Security Team (EAST), an organization that aims to provide an oversight of trends in ATM fraud.However, it is the first time these attacks were reported in Western Europe. Malware attacks on ATMs have been used for some time in other parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America, Gunn said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Police operation disrupts Beebone botnet used for malware distribution

Europol, in collaboration with Dutch authorities, the U.S. FBI and private security companies, have seized the domain names used to control a botnet called Beebone.The police action Wednesday included a so-called botnet sinkholing operation that involved redirecting domains used by the botnet’s command-and-control servers to a server controlled by security companies.Such an action prevents attackers from controlling the botnet and also gives authorities a chance to identify victims whose computers are now connecting to the sinkhole server.Information about the botnet will be distributed to ISPs and CERTs [computer emergency response teams] from around the world so they can notify victims and help them clean their systems, Europol said Thursday in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel to help Chinese vendors churn out more PCs

Last year, Intel convinced small, little-known Chinese tablet makers to use its chips instead of only ARM’s. Now it wants those companies to churn out PCs, potentially upsetting a market that has been dominated by Taiwanese manufacturers.Many PCs are already manufactured in China, but often times in factories owned by Taiwanese companies, partnering with Intel, that have specialized in the trade for decades.Mainland Chinese companies have been feverishly developing tablets and smartphones, on the other hand, and they are flooding the market with low-cost models.Last year, Intel supplied 46 million tablet chips, and many of those went to these little-known manufacturers and vendors in China. Some of these vendors include Hampoo, Ramos and ChipHD, among many others that tend to build cheap mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brocade switch extends SDN, campus automation

Brocade this week unveiled a campus switch and other enhancements to better support video and wireless traffic, improve management and extend software defined networking. The new switch is the ICX 7250. It supports up to eight 10G Ethernet ports for uplinks or stacking, and can be stacked 12-high into a virtual chassis supporting 576 Gigabit Ethernet and 96 10G ports. Brocade says this density will enable campus networks to better support bandwidth-intensive video and wireless traffic.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brocade switch extends SDN, campus automation

Bet you’ve never heard Beethoven on a Tefifon

Unless you are German or collect vintage audio equipment, chances are you have never even heard of the Tefifon. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, since virtually everything has a Wikipedia page. The Tefifon was a German-developed and manufactured audio playback format that utilized cartridges loaded with an endlessly looped reel of plastic tape (much like the later 4-track and 8-track magnetic audio tape cartridges) with grooves embossed on it, similar to the ones on a phonograph record. Born in the 1950s, it never really caught on, but it’s a fascinating contraption. For a better sense of the Tefifon and how it works, I recommend this 11-minute video from a blog called Techmoan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 9

Facebook’s cred is still intact with teens, survey saysA Pew Research survey has found that Facebook is the most popular social network among teens, debunking the notion that it was losing ground among the younger generation. While 71 percent of all teens surveyed use Facebook, 41 percent said they use it the most often compared to other sites. Snapchat and Instagram aren’t far behind, though.Oz launches subscription video platform Thursday, aims at creatorsIcelandic startup Oz is launching a new video platform and mobile app on Thursday that aims to give artists, small businesses and even journalists a platform to publish videos online and get subscription revenue from viewers. Oz videos will be accessible on the Web as well as on iOS and Android. The company suggests that most content creators charge around $5 per month; the platform supports payments in 120 different currencies, with Oz taking a 30 percent cut of producers’ revenue.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Islamist hackers take French broadcaster TV5Monde off air

French-language TV network TV5Monde was hit by a crippling cyberattack Wednesday that disrupted broadcasting across its channels and also involved the hijacking of its website and social media accounts.The attack happened at around 10 p.m. Central European Time and given its scale, probably took serious planning by the attackers—a group that calls itself the Cyber Caliphate. The same group, which claims affiliation to extremist organization ISIS, also hijacked the Twitter accounts of Newsweek, the International Business Times and the U.S. Central Command earlier this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Response: Your Software Needs Hardware to Deliver

The hardware makes the software possible but disappears quickly from view.

The post Response: Your Software Needs Hardware to Deliver appeared first on EtherealMind.

More Layer-2 Misconceptions

My “What Is Layer-2 and Why Do You Need It?” blog post generated numerous replies, including this one:

Pretend you are a device receiving a stream of bits. After you receive some inter-frame spacing bits, whatever comes next is the 2nd layer; whether that is Ethernet, native IP, CLNS/CLNP, whatever.

Not exactly. IP (or CLNS or CLNP) is always a layer-3 protocol regardless of where in the frame it happens to be, and some layer-2 protocols have no header (apart from inter-frame spacing and start-of-frame indicator).