IBM Faces the Perils of “Bring Your Own Device”

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The trend toward employee-owned devices isn’t saving IBM any money, says Jeanette Horan, who is IBM’s chief information officer and oversees all the company’s internal use of IT. Instead, she says, it has created new challenges for her department of 5,000 people, because employees’ devices are full of software that IBM doesn’t control.

via IBM Faces the Perils of “Bring Your Own Device” – Technology Review.

Horan isn’t only trying to educate IBM workers about computer security. She’s also enforcing better security. Before an employee’s own device can be used to access IBM networks, the IT department configures it so that its memory can be erased remotely if it is lost or stolen. The IT crew also disables public file-transfer programs like Apple’s iCloud; instead, employees use an IBM-hosted version called MyMobileHub. IBM even turns off Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant, on employees’ iPhones. The company worries that the spoken queries, which are uploaded to Apple servers, could ultimately reveal sensitive information.

SpaceX Dragon: Space station astronauts capture Dragon capsule, making history

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At 9:56 a.m. EDT, space station flight engineer Don Pettit reached out with a 58-foot robotic arm and grabbed the unmanned capsule, which was “free drifting” beneath the $100-billion station at 17,000 miles an hour, roughly 250 miles above northwest Australia.

via SpaceX Dragon: Space station astronauts capture Dragon capsule, making history – chicagotribune.com.

“Once again SpaceX has done it. They have become the first private company to successfully launch their own spacecraft and get it captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm,” said NASA commentator Josh Byerly.

OpenStack Storage

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OpenStack Object Storage (code-named Swift) is open source software for creating redundant, scalable object storage using clusters of standardized servers to store petabytes of accessible data. It is not a file system or real-time data storage system, but rather a long-term storage system for a more permanent type of static data that can be retrieved, leveraged, and then updated if necessary. Primary examples of data that best fit this type of storage model are virtual machine images, photo storage, email storage and backup archiving. Having no central “brain” or master point of control provides greater scalability, redundancy and permanence.

via OpenStack Storage » OpenStack Open Source Cloud Computing Software.

How Open Compute is a Win for Rackspace

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Rackspace is one of the fastest-growing cloud computing providers. The San Antonio company spent $202 million on servers and storage for customers over the past year, adding more than 12,000 servers in its data centers.

via How Open Compute is a Win for Rackspace » Data Center Knowledge.

To put this in perspective, Amazon EC2 has over 450,000 servers according to this article.

At the Open Compute Summit earlier this month in San Antonio, both Dell and HP showed off server hardware that will work with the new Open Rack design, which features 21-inch wide equipment slots rather than the traditional 19 inches. Roenigk says Open Rack will play a key role in Rackspace’s cloud computing infrastructure in its next-generation data center design.

 

ÜberConference lets you manage conference calls visually

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These are the problems that ÜberConference, a new (and currently free) conferencing tool from Firespotter Labs, was created to solve. Several of Firespotter’s employees come from the team that developed Google Voice, and their stated goal with ÜberConference is to develop a similarly innovative and useful tool for conferencing. We experimented with the tool to see how much it could streamline the teleconference experience.

First look: ÜberConference lets you manage conference calls visually | Ars Technica.

Once the conference has ended, you can view a small conference summary that will show you how long the call lasted, who talked the most, and who talked the least. If you elected to record the call, a small speaker icon will appear next to the call—click it to listen to the call in your browser window or download the MP3.

ÜberConference is still in the early stages of development, but at the moment it looks like an elegant (if not perfect) solution for many of teleconferencing’s shortcomings. I would still like to see ÜberConference let users assign their own conference numbers to ÜberConference accounts, but if you can get every member of your team to use the service, it provides useful visual feedback and features like call recording and call history that make it worth considering—even if you already have a conferencing solution.

Touchscreen Displays

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Logic Supply carries a full line of small touchscreen LCD displays as well as industrial, IP-rated products. These LCD panels allow for easy control without a mouse and are ideal for embedded applications, point-of-service terminals, and automotive computers alike. See our FAQ section for questions about resolution settings and driver updates.

via Touchscreen Displays.

Return of the Vacuum Tube

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The new device is a cross between today’s transistors and the vacuum tubes of yesteryear. It’s small and easily manufactured, but also fast and radiation-proof. Meyyappan, who co-developed the “nano vacuum tube,” says it is created by etching a tiny cavity in phosphorous-doped silicon. The cavity is bordered by three electrodes: a source, a gate, and a drain. The source and drain are separated by just 150 nanometers, while the gate sits on top. Electrons are emitted from the source thanks to a voltage applied across it and the drain, while the gate controls the electron flow across the cavity. In their paper published online today in Applied Physics Letters, Meyyappan and colleagues estimate that their nano vacuum tube operates at frequencies up to 0.46 terahertz—some 10 times faster than the best silicon transistors.

Return of the Vacuum Tube – ScienceNOW.

VoIP Provider Files Net Neutrality Complaint With FCC

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Albany Water’s assertion that the VoIP voice over IP provider should be paying for access to its fiber-optic network violates the FCC’s net neutrality rules barring broadband network providers from selectively discriminating against Web-based content and service, L2Networks said in a press release. If the FCC allows Albany Water’s attempt to collect payments from L2Networks to move forward, other broadband network operators may be emboldened to seek money from popular Web-based services such as Google, Facebook and Netflix, L2Networks said.

via VoIP Provider Files Net Neutrality Complaint With FCC | PCWorld Business Center.

Dell follows Q1 sag with weak outlook for Q2

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Dell’s quarterly revenue fell more than analysts had expected, hurt by weak sales to consumers, large enterprises and government units. PC makers have struggled with slowing demand as mobile devices such as the iPad erode market share.

Brian Marshall, an analyst with ISI Group, said the “real poor results” shows that it will take Dell more time to transform itself from a PC company to a one-stop shop for all the information technology needs of corporations.

via Dell follows Q1 sag with weak outlook for Q2 – chicagotribune.com.

APC

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$49 Android PC System

APC was not built like an ordinary PC. For openers, we started with an awareness that the purpose of a computer is to connect to the Internet. It is the Internet that now defines computing. When you begin here, magic happens.

Expensive, overpowered CPUs and bloated software are no longer relevant. With this awareness, we were able to drop power consumption to the point of making an energy-saving light-bulb jealous.

via APC.