Florida Teen Arrested in Twitter Hack

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/twitter-hack-arrest.html
July 31, 2020 at 11:11PM

The authorities arrested a 17-year-old who they said ran a scheme that targeted the accounts of celebrities, including former President Barack Obama and Elon Musk. Two others were also charged.

Microsoft Said to Be in Talks to Buy TikTok, as Trump Weighs Curtailing App

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/tiktok-microsoft.html
July 31, 2020 at 10:17PM

The discussions come as TikTok’s ownership by a Chinese company is under scrutiny by the White House and lawmakers.

Amazon Wins Without Even Trying

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/amazon-earnings.html
July 31, 2020 at 08:19PM

As America’s economy suffers, Big Tech does shockingly well.

Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/style/randonautica-app.html
July 31, 2020 at 06:42PM

An app that generates coordinates for adventurers claims to turn your thoughts into reality. TikTok and YouTube creators want you to believe it — but you shouldn’t.

I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/blocking-the-tech-giants.html
July 31, 2020 at 06:40PM

As lawmakers debate whether Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are monopolies, a reporter recalls her attempt to avoid interacting with the companies.

‘Hey, You Free on Friday for a Meeting and a Bank Heist?’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/business/video-game-meetings.html
July 31, 2020 at 12:00PM

Eager for an alternative to Zoom, executives are getting together in video games, to bond, brainstorm or rampage.

The Economy Is in Record Decline, but Not for the Tech Giants

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/technology/tech-company-earnings-amazon-apple-facebook-google.html
July 31, 2020 at 02:02AM

Even though the tech industry’s four biggest companies were stung by a slowdown in spending, they reported a combined $28 billion in profits on Thursday.

Big Tech’s Backlash Is Just Starting

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/technology/big-tech-backlash.html
July 30, 2020 at 07:48PM

The congressional antitrust hearing showed that concerns about the tech stars aren’t going away.

Grilled by Lawmakers, Big Tech Turns Up the Gaslight

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/technology/big-tech-ceos.html
July 30, 2020 at 05:40PM

It is less clear that tech executives’ strategy of evasive answers will continue to work now that lawmakers have begun doing their homework.

‘This Is a New Phase’: Europe Shifts Tactics to Limit Tech’s Power

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/technology/europe-new-phase-tech-amazon-apple-facebook-google.html
July 30, 2020 at 12:00PM

The region’s lawmakers and regulators are taking direct aim at Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple in a series of proposed laws.

Lawmakers, United in Their Ire, Lash Out at Big Tech’s Leaders

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/big-tech-hearing-apple-amazon-facebook-google.html
July 30, 2020 at 04:38AM

The chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook faced withering questions from Democrats about anti-competitive practices and from Republicans about anti-conservative bias.

Titans of Tech Testify in Their Trust-Me Suits

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/style/Bezos-zuckerberg-cook-pichai-testimony-suits.html
July 30, 2020 at 02:14AM

It’s a tongue twister, but also a strategy. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai appeared before Congress and dressed the part.

Memers Have a New Campaign Aimed at Getting Trump Out of Office

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/style/meme-2020-lincoln-project-election.html
July 29, 2020 at 11:00PM

Meme 2020, the social media collective that supported Michael Bloomberg’s presidential primary run, is back with a new focus: mail-in ballot registration.

Commerce Department Asks F.C.C. to Narrow Protections for Web Platforms

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/trump-fcc-twitter-facebook.html
July 29, 2020 at 07:22PM

The request comes as President Trump continues to accuse tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter of suppressing conservative content.

Congress Doesn’t Get Big Tech. By Design.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/congress-big-tech.html
July 29, 2020 at 07:01PM

Members of Congress may say dumb things at the tech hearing, but it’s not necessarily their fault.

How to Fight Against Big Tech’s Power

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/personaltech/big-tech-power-how-to-fight.html
July 29, 2020 at 05:25PM

We are beholden to a few Big Tech overlords for much of our digital lives. We can be more conscientious about it.

Turkey Passes Law Extending Sweeping Powers Over Social Media

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/world/europe/turkey-social-media-control.html
July 29, 2020 at 01:00PM

The legislation extends control over social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Critics worry it will be used to stifle dissent and criticism of the government

Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon C.E.O.s Are Testifying Before Congress. Here's What to Know.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/tech-ceos-congress-what-to-know.html
July 29, 2020 at 10:00AM

The C.E.O.s are likely to argue before Congress that their companies aren’t anticompetitive. Here are the facts.

Universal’s Theatrical Releases Will Quickly Be Available in Homes

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/business/media/universal-amc-movies-at-home.html
July 29, 2020 at 01:48AM

The studio agreed to a deal with AMC, the world’s biggest theater chain, to shorten the exclusive window for new movies to 17 days from 90, likely changing the way Hollywood does business.

Misleading Virus Video, Pushed by the Trumps, Spreads Online

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/virus-video-trump.html
July 29, 2020 at 12:15AM

Social media companies took down the video with hours. But by then, it had already been viewed tens of millions of times.

Amazon Is Jeff Bezos

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/amazon-jeff-bezos.html
July 28, 2020 at 08:00PM

Bezos built Amazon into a central force in the world. This week he’ll have to answer for it.

Uber and Lyft Drivers Win Ruling on Unemployment Benefits

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/business/economy/lyft-uber-drivers-unemployment.html
July 28, 2020 at 05:50PM

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction instructing New York State to begin payments promptly, citing an “inexcusable delay.”

Their Businesses Went Virtual. Then Apple Wanted a Cut.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/apple-app-store-airbnb-classpass.html
July 28, 2020 at 12:00PM

After Airbnb and ClassPass began selling virtual classes because of the pandemic, Apple tried to collect its commission on the sales.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google Prepare for Their ‘Big Tobacco Moment’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/amazon-apple-facebook-google-antitrust-hearing.html
July 28, 2020 at 12:00PM

The tech C.E.O.s will appear together at a congressional hearing on Wednesday to argue that their companies do not stifle competition.

'Challenge Accepted' on Instagram: Black and White Selfies for Women

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/style/challenge-accepted-instagram.html
July 28, 2020 at 01:43AM

A campaign that purports to be about “women supporting women” is filling people’s Instagram feeds with striking, if opaque, imagery.

What to Do About TikTok

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/technology/tiktok-data-privacy.html
July 27, 2020 at 10:09PM

Instead of banning the app, U.S. officials could force it to be more transparent.

Jeff Bezos Cast in a Role He Never Wanted: Amazon’s D.C. Defender

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/business/jeff-bezos-amazon-congress.html
July 27, 2020 at 12:00PM

The chief executive, who testifies before Congress for the first time on Wednesday, had taken a hands-off approach with lawmakers in Washington.

You Won’t Find These Masks at 7-Eleven

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/business/fashion-masks-coronavirus.html
July 27, 2020 at 12:00PM

Motorized air purifiers and heated sanitizers. Breathable fabrics and chic prints. With face coverings here to stay, consumers are starting to demand more than cheap throwaways.

A Possible Weapon Against the Pandemic: Printing Human Tissue

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/science/bioprinting-covid-19-tests.html
July 27, 2020 at 12:00PM

Bioprinting could be used for testing potential treatments for Covid-19, cancer and other diseases.

Fighting False News in Ukraine, Facebook Fact Checkers Tread a Blurry Line

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/world/europe/ukraine-facebook-fake-news.html
July 26, 2020 at 09:48PM

Facebook hired a Ukrainian group battling Russian disinformation to flag misleading posts. But critics say the fact checkers’ work veers into activism.

Everlane’s Promise of ‘Radical Transparency’ Unravels

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/fashion/everlane-employees-ethical-clothing.html
July 26, 2020 at 12:00PM

Employees past and present are challenging management, saying the company’s ethical image was an illusion.

Don’t Ban TikTok. Make an Example of It.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/technology/tiktok-china-ban-model.html
July 26, 2020 at 12:00PM

There is plenty the U.S. government could do to ensure that TikTok acts responsibly without getting rid of it altogether.

The Great Au Pair Rush

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/business/the-great-au-pair-rush.html
July 25, 2020 at 12:00PM

When the Trump administration shut the borders to many new au pairs, those already in the country found they had something new: options.

Elon Musk: The Maureen Dowd Interview

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/style/elon-musk-maureen-dowd.html
July 25, 2020 at 12:00PM

The billionaire space oddity on life with Grimes and Baby X, Trump, Tesla, tunnels, short shorts, stock surges, Facebook fumbles and everything else under the sun.

Comic-Con Is Online, and So Is the Artist Alley

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/style/comic-con-online-artist-alley.html
July 25, 2020 at 12:00PM

Indie artists who make a significant portion of their income at fan conventions are hoping virtual attendees will be willing to spend.

Digital Habits Are Hard to Break

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/technology/digital-habits.html
July 24, 2020 at 08:28PM

Technology was supposed to be all about welcoming newcomers. But is it?

How a Tech-Funded Think Tank Influences Global Antitrust Regulators

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/technology/global-antitrust-institute-google-amazon-qualcomm.html
July 24, 2020 at 12:00PM

Google, Amazon and Qualcomm finance a George Mason University institute teaching a hands-off approach to antitrust regulators and judges.

The Star of This $70 Million Sci-Fi Film Is a Robot

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/movies/humanoid-robot-actor.html
July 24, 2020 at 12:00PM

Meet Erica, an android believed to be Hollywood’s first fully autonomous artificially intelligent actor. Can she overcome the uncanny valley?

Omegle Is Where People Meet Online Now

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/style/omegle-random-video-chat.html
July 24, 2020 at 12:00PM

Omegle, a precursor to Chatroulette, has grown in popularity during this indefinite period of social isolation.

A ‘Smart District’ Takes Shape in the Netherlands

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/realestate/brainport-smart-district-takes-shape-in-the-netherlands.html
July 24, 2020 at 08:00AM

The goal is a sustainable community that uses technology to improve the quality of life for 4,500 residents.

TikTok’s Parent Said to Weigh Selling a Majority Stake in the Video App

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/business/dealbook/tiktok-bytedance-investors-trump.html
July 23, 2020 at 11:51PM

The move would reduce ownership by a Chinese company, ByteDance, amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China.

AT&T Signed Up 4 Million HBO Max Customers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/business/media/att-hbo-max.html
July 23, 2020 at 09:50PM

The phone giant saw customer defections across its businesses, but millions signed up to its new streaming service.

Big Tech Versus Climate Change

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/technology/big-tech-climate-change.html
July 23, 2020 at 07:38PM

How tech companies and all of us can help slow global warming.

Twitter Bans QAnon Accounts

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/technology/twitter-bans-qanon-accounts.html
July 22, 2020 at 06:09AM

The company permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement. Facebook was said to be preparing to take similar action.

Enabling the New Generation of Home Workers

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/23/enabling-the-new-generation-of-home-workers/
July 23, 2020 at 04:38PM

COVID-19 has created a new normal: knowledge workers setting up their offices at home, juggling child care, homeschooling, and household chores even as they try to maintain and develop business relationships over video links.

All this comes following years marked by declining employee engagement and rising levels of stress in the workplace. Now the sudden and unexpected shift to home working has caused unprecedented levels of disruption to the lives of workers.

No surprise, most organizations were caught cold by the pandemic. The question now becomes, how can they support their teams as the world structurally shifts to a work-from-home model?

Supporting the Distributed Workplace

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a scramble to upgrade and align central IT infrastructures—from security approaches and software deployment models to the adoption of user-facing solutions like intranets and workplace technologies like chat, file sharing, and digital whiteboards.

But those efforts won’t fruit if employees at home aren’t properly equipped. It’s vital that organizations commit to supporting their workers with their home setup—certainly, more than most companies have done in the past, when working from home was typically an ad hoc arrangement. Start by examining the challenges faced by each team member and making sure they have the things they need to succeed:

• Hardware: Is their home laptop and phone good enough? Do they need an upgraded webcam, larger monitor, or an ergonomic keyboard/mouse setup?
• Software: Does each team member have the permissions and licenses needed to complete their work?
• Access: Are multiple members of the home consuming bandwidth or competing for a landline phone, perhaps requiring a service upgrade?

The rapid adjustment to working from home has made long-term planning difficult, but if this becomes a structural shift, support for home workers will become a vital part of employee and facilities management.

Courting Engagement

The perspectives of employees determine their likely trajectory as members of an organization. Their sense of belonging, their trust in the capability of leaders to meet the challenges of the pandemic, and their belief that the business offers a career development path in uncertain times all feed into their sense of belonging, worth, and desire.

Employees that believe in the business and feel the business believes and supports them will be more productive, creative, and inspired as time goes on. Organizations can address this question dynamic with three simple steps:

• Set clear goals for each team and team member
• Clarify how each team member’s role has changed (or, if not, confirm their role is unchanged)
• Leverage tools that allow team members to work together remotely with no friction

Going back to basics—communicating well with teams, assigning clearly defined roles, and providing the tools that they need to succeed—will be the key to engaged and productive dispersed teams.

The shift to working from home has changed the lives of many knowledge workers, but organizations can help their employees shift to the new ways of working. Through the right infrastructure, tools, and support for team members, it’s possible to build an enterprise that is stronger and more resilient, agile, and ready for challenge than before the great disruption of the pandemic.

Google Takes Aim at Amazon. Again.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/technology/google-ecommerce-amazon.html
July 23, 2020 at 04:00PM

The company is unveiling another initiative to compete more effectively with Amazon’s sprawling e-commerce business.

Google Takes Aim at Amazon. Again.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/technology/google-ecommerce-amazon.html
July 23, 2020 at 04:00PM

The company is unveiling another initiative to compete more effectively with Amazon’s sprawling e-commerce business.

How Equity Is Lost When Companies Hire Only Workers With Disabilities

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/business/disability-discrimination-jobs-sheltered-workshop.html
July 23, 2020 at 12:00PM

Employment remains an elusive goal for many. A recent hiring strategy may win pats on the back, but advocates fear it may pigeonhole people with disabilities.

Can the Army and Navy Ban Users From Social Media?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/style/army-gamers-war-crimes-first-amendment.html
July 23, 2020 at 01:54AM

Army and Navy channels banned viewers from their live streams when they asked about war crimes. Accused of censorship, now the Army says it will pause streaming.

Health Care Comes to Us

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/technology/coronavirus-telemedicine.html
July 22, 2020 at 08:01PM

Technology doesn’t have to cure the coronavirus to be an enabler for good.

Tim Bray is Not Done With Amazon

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/technology/amazon-critic-tim-bray.html
July 22, 2020 at 07:00PM

Tim Bray was a celebrated engineer at Amazon. Now, he is its most high-profile defector.

At Magazzino, Social Distancing Devices Vibrate. So Does the Art.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/arts/design/magazzino-art-social-distancing-virus.html
July 22, 2020 at 05:00PM

A Hudson Valley oasis of Italian art debuts eight up-and-coming artists — and new wearable safety tech — upon its reopening.

Slack Accuses Microsoft of Illegally Crushing Competition

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/technology/slack-microsoft-antitrust.html
July 22, 2020 at 04:09PM

The complaint, filed in Europe, threatens Microsoft’s recent ability to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

Inside Research: Evaluating SD-WAN

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/22/inside-research-evaluating-sd-wan/
July 22, 2020 at 03:07PM

In his recent Key Criteria Report, respected analyst and author Chris Grundemann explores the criteria needed to understand and evaluate software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) solutions and how they are transforming the performance of traditional wide area networks (WANs).

The report, “Key Criteria for Evaluating SD-WAN,” explores this fast-developing area of network solutions. It outlines the key elements that define an SD-WAN, including centralized management, network virtualization with encryption, the use of multiple circuits, and path measurement. These features are the basic set of requirements for an SD-WAN and help give it the qualities that set it apart and make it a useful networking technique to simplify and improve WANs.

Chris outlines how those looking to incorporate an SD-WAN solution into their organization can differentiate between solutions and how different features and criteria can boost the capabilities of a network. These features include:

• Routing and forwarding capabilities
• Network security
• WAN optimization
• Cloud integration
• Application awareness
• Flexible deployment

All these elements show how the right SD-WAN solution can transform the capabilities of a network and help redefine its operation. Chris shows how these features should be examined and evaluated before choosing an SD-WAN vendor.

In the final section of this Key Criteria Report, Chris outlines several cutting edge features that set vendors apart—features that Chris believes are set to define the SD-WAN space over the next few years. These include software-defined perimeters that Chris describes as a next-generation VPN that provides “zero-trust network access with identity-based access management, whether or not you are at a branch or on a mobile client.”

The report shows how the increasing shift to cloud-based applications is accelerating the need for and adoption of SD-WANs. It will help organizations understand the key elements of SD-WAN that will benefit them.

Learn more about the full report, “Key Criteria for Evaluating SD-WAN,” here.

Once Science Fiction, Gene Editing Is Now a Looming Reality

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/style/crispr-gene-editing-ethics.html
July 22, 2020 at 12:02PM

The prospect of erasing some disabilities and perceived deficiencies hovers at the margins of what people consider ethically acceptable.

In Electric Car Market, It’s Tesla and a Jumbled Field of Also-Rans

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/business/tesla-electric-car-audi-polestar.html
July 22, 2020 at 12:00PM

Most traditional carmakers are struggling to produce and market electric vehicles even as Tesla sells hundreds of thousands of its luxury models.

Twitter Takedown Targets QAnon Accounts

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/technology/twitter-bans-qanon-accounts.html
July 22, 2020 at 04:10AM

The company said it had permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement.

U.S. Accuses Hackers of Trying to Steal Coronavirus Vaccine Data for China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/politics/china-hacking-coronavirus-vaccine.html
July 22, 2020 at 01:48AM

Two suspects in China targeted companies working on vaccines as part of a broader cybertheft campaign to enrich themselves and aid the Chinese government, officials said.

Beware the ‘But China’ Excuses

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/technology/us-china-technology.html
July 21, 2020 at 08:34PM

Just because U.S. politicians and tech giants are blaming China, doesn’t mean we should be scared.

The Evolution of ML Infrastructure

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/21/the-evolution-of-ml-infrastructure/
July 21, 2020 at 07:12PM

Data is the “new oil” for modern tech, transforming countless industries and providing invaluable insight as organizations leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. But this data-rich future—where information once bound for cold storage becomes an actionable, strategic asset—comes with challenges. More data must be stored safely at reasonable cost over longer time spans, even as enterprises forge a data foundation layer to transform every type of data they own from a liability to be stored and defended into an asset to be leveraged.

Enterprises need the right storage infrastructure to manage this transition and unlock the potential value in their data. In this blog post, we outline how storage has evolved to combat the challenges of AI, ML, and big data and how the new generation of data storage offers a better solution than traditional stacks.

What ML and Big Data Need

To make a successful data storage layer for AI and ML operations using large amounts of data, your infrastructure must provide:

• High performance: Data is created and consumed by multiple users and devices concurrently across multiple applications, and in some cases (like IoT), with thousands or millions of sensors creating unstoppable flows of structured and unstructured data.
• High capacity: Petabyte and exabyte-scale systems are becoming common in very large organizations across all industries.
• Easy access: You need systems that can be accessed remotely, across long distances, while weathering unpredictable network latency. And systems must manage large capacities and lots of files in a single domain without a trade-off.
• Intelligence: Rich metadata is a fundamental component for making data indexable, identifiable, searchable, and eventually, reusable. The Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) phase should ideally be automated. Offloading this process to the storage system simplifies these operations and makes data easier to find and quickly reusable.

Building a Better System

It is tough to find all of these characteristics in a traditional storage system. In fact, they look incompatible at first glance. Often, we must stack several different technologies to accomplish this:

• All-flash storage enables high-performance and low-latency access to data
• Object storage makes data accessible from everywhere
• External resources necessary for metadata augmentation, indexing, and search operations enable rich interaction

Rather than create a complicated stack, a new answer has emerged over the last few years: Next-Generation Object Storage. This solution uses all-flash and hybrid (flash and spinning media) object stores to combine the characteristics of traditional object stores with those usually found in block and file storage. The result:

• High performance: Flash memory-optimized systems are capable of handling small and large files alike, improving throughput with low latency and parallelism.
• Smart: Integration with message brokers and serverless frameworks with the ability to send event notifications to trigger functions enables the system to understand and augment what is stored while it is ingesting data.
• Analytics tools integration: Standard, custom, and augmented metadata is indexed automatically with tools like Elasticsearch. A growing number of data analytics tools, like Apache Spark for example, can directly leverage Amazon S3 interfaces to access data.
• Efficiency: Internal tiering mechanisms automate resource optimization for information lifecycle management (ILM). ILM makes next-generation object stores more cost-effective than public clouds.
• Multi-tenancy: A single object store can serve disparate workloads, for example supporting ML workloads alongside pure, capacity-driven applications that require lower performance (such as backup or archiving).
• Multi-cloud integration: Modern object stores can leverage public cloud resources and form an active part of a broad hybrid cloud strategy.

Conclusion

The challenges posed by AI and ML to data infrastructure have been resolved to some extent by the new generation of object stores.

Object storage now offers much more than it did in the past. It can offload several tasks from the rest of the infrastructure. It is faster and can form the data foundation layer for today’s capacity needs and tomorrow’s next-generation and cloud-native applications. Finally, next-generation object stores make it easier to implement new initiatives based on ML and AI workloads. It allows for a quick start with the potential to grow and evolve the infrastructure as required by the business.

Major Security Flaws Found in South Korea Quarantine App

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/technology/korea-coronavirus-app-security.html
July 21, 2020 at 03:14PM

The defects, which have been fixed, exposed private details of people in quarantine. The country has been hailed as a pioneer in digital public health.

Coronavirus Threatens the Luster of Superstar Cities

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/business/economy/coronavirus-cities.html
July 21, 2020 at 10:00AM

Urban centers, with a dynamism that feeds innovation, have long been resilient. But the pandemic could drive a shift away from density.

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 11 Chinese Companies Over Human Rights

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/business/economy/china-sanctions-uighurs-labor.html
July 21, 2020 at 03:29AM

The move, which affects suppliers to major international brands such as Apple, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, could force companies to sever some ties to China.

Google Coronavirus Apps Give it Way to Access Location Data

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/technology/google-covid-tracker-app.html
July 20, 2020 at 09:04PM

Some government agencies that use the software said they were surprised that Google may pick up the locations of certain app users. Others said they had unsuccessfully pushed Google to make a change.

How Porky Pig Works From Home

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/technology/coronavirus-work-from-home.html
July 20, 2020 at 07:49PM

He has the perfect work-from-home job. And even he misses people.

Data Center Acceleration

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/16/data-center-acceleration/
July 16, 2020 at 06:48PM

Do you remember the data center of the past? And by past, I mean 20 to 25 years ago, when there was this huge, almost philosophical debate about complex instruction set computer (CISC) and reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architectures, and between large symmetric multi-processing (SMP) servers and mainframes and smaller systems. There were even fights over some esoteric system designs. All of this was happening before there were co-processors, ASICs and other fancy accelerators to speed data access and optimize complex operations.

You might think we are past the fighting, now that data centers have largely aligned around commoditized x86 (ahem, CISC) CPUs, small two-socket servers, and a general standardization of the components that make up the modern data center. But the reality is that an increasing number of companies are rethinking the data center in ways that remind me of the ideological tussles of the past, while introducing new paradigms and innovations based on recent technology advancements.

The Limits of Ordinary Data Centers

Intel CPUs today are amazingly powerful. They can boast up to 112 cores and an incredible number of instructions and features to manage every type of workload—the latest Intel CPUs can handle specialized machine learning activities with aplomb. But there’s a catch, and the entire industry is working to find solutions.

When you look at current x86-based server designs, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Jack of all trades, master of none.” These servers offer a balanced approach that works well for most applications but simply aren’t designed for the specialized workloads that are emerging. Big data analytics, machine learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI), Internet of Things, and other high-demand workloads are changing the shape and focus of data centers. For some enterprises, these specialized workloads are already more important than the workaday business applications that most x86-based servers were designed to address.

Yes, many companies are running most of these new applications in the cloud, but the fundamental concept remains. Cloud providers long ago changed the way they think about their server architectures. Isn’t it time you did, too?

CPUs and GPUs and Accelerators, Oh My!

As we think about cost, power, efficiency, and optimization in a modern data center, we immediately find that traditional x86 architectures don’t work anymore. Don’t believe me? Examples are everywhere.

Consider ARM CPUs (RISC!), which are less powerful on a single core basis than their x86 counterparts, but consume a fraction of the energy and can be more densely packed in the same rack space. When you consider that most modern applications are highly parallelized and organized as microservices, suddenly ARM becomes a very attractive option. No, you won’t run SAP on it, but ARM servers can run practically everything else. Good examples of this type of server design can be found from Bamboo Systems or with Amazon Graviton instances.

At the same time, single-core CPU performance is becoming less relevant now that GPUs have been deployed for specialized tasks. GPU-enabled platforms have prompted a rebalancing of system designs, addressing the uniquely data-hungry nature of these processors.

In addition to new network interfaces, we have seen developed new and efficient protocols to access data, such as NVMe-oF.

The problem is that the overhead required to make network communications secure and efficient can easily clog a CPU. For this reason, we are seeing a new generation of network accelerators that offload demanding tasks from the CPU. Examples of these implementations include Pensando, which offers impressive performance without impacting CPU workload and optimizes the movement, compression, and encryption of large amounts of data. Here is an introduction to Pensando from a recent Cloud Field Day. And again, major cloud providers are implementing similar solutions in their data centers.

This story is not fully told. Storage is following a similar trend. NVMe-oF has simplified, parallelized, and reduced the data path, improving overall latency, while data protection, encryption, compression, and other operations are offloaded to storage controllers designed to build virtual arrays distributed across multiple servers without impacting CPU or memory. Nebulon offers an example of this approach, which I am scheduled to present at Storage Field Day 20. Another example is Diamanti with their HCI solution for Kubernetes which leverages accelerators for both storage and networking.

Closing the Circle

Is this a radical approach to data center design? Large cloud providers have been remaking their data centers for years now, and large enterprises are starting to follow suit. The fact is, if you are using the cloud for your IT, you are already engaging these new data center models in one way or the other.

I’ve written before on this topic, especially about ARM CPUs and their role in the data center. This time is different. The software is mature, the ecosystem of off-the-shelf solutions is growing, and everybody is looking for ways to make IT more cost-conscious. Are you ready?

Is Visibility the DevOps Magic Bullet?

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/14/is-visibility-the-devops-magic-bullet/
July 14, 2020 at 05:21PM

DevOps is an area defined by aspiration – there’s a better way of doing things, it suggests, a path to faster software delivery, better results, more efficient processes and higher levels of productivity. The potential is there, but as we cover in our report Driving Value Through Visibility, the path to success is beset by challenges. Not least:

• Siloed teams
• Complex architectures and legacy constraints
• Complicated and challenging compliance issues
• Communications issues internally

These challenges can stymie development efforts, diminish potential value and negatively shape the view of development projects internally. It’s not just traditional enterprises that can suffer: younger, and reputedly ‘agile’ organizations can hit similar challenges when they attempt to scale.

At least part of the answer, in our experience, comes down to visibility (or, as somebody once said, “if you can’t measure, you can’t manage”. Building on themes we have been developing across our DevOps report series, visibility needs to be end-to-end, across the pipeline from development and into operations. This gives management the information they need to prioritize and plan; it helps teams identify bottlenecks in development; and it offers wider understanding of ongoing innovation projects, and their value across the organization.

As we discuss in our Key Criteria report, end-to-end visibility is a key element of Value Stream Management, which enables value creation across a process, helping deliver on the goals of DevOps, such as efficiency, improved time to value and so on. Not only this but it helps shift the mindset of an organization from project- to product-based thinking, effectively focussing on the outcomes for the customers, not the needs of the project.

As organizations look to scale their practices, they need to increase visibility within their organization in parallel with their processes becoming more complex. So, while there may be no such thing as a magic bullet (not in this industry at least), visibility helps decision-makers know which way to aim.

To read the full report, click here.

More Resignations, but No Sign Yet of a Change in Gaming Culture

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/technology/gaming-harassment.html
July 19, 2020 at 08:59PM

Since dozens of women spoke up about harassment in gaming last month, prominent industry figures have resigned. But has anything really changed?

Hackers Tell the Story of the Twitter Attack From the Inside

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/twitter-hackers-interview.html
July 18, 2020 at 12:13AM

Several people involved in the events that took down Twitter this week spoke with The Times. What might have been a pursuit of Bitcoin spun out of control.

The Fall of ‘Terrace House’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/arts/television/terrace-house-suicide.html
July 17, 2020 at 11:34PM

Japan’s heartwarming reality TV hit ended in tragedy when the participant Hana Kimura killed herself after a wave of online abuse. But “Terrace House” was always more complicated than it appeared.

F.T.C.’s Facebook Investigation May Stretch Past Election

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/ftc-facebook-investigation.html
July 17, 2020 at 11:10PM

The agency’s handling of the case stands in stark contrast to the antitrust investigation into Google by the Justice Department.

Conflict Over a Rental Car Leads to Elusive A.T.M. Skimming Suspect

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/business/credit-card-skimmer-arrest-alaska.html
July 17, 2020 at 09:53PM

He had more than 20 aliases and usually wore a mask. In the end, it was losing his temper with workers at the airport that led to his arrest, prosecutors said.

How Our Reporter Fought ‘Doomscrolling’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/technology/coronavirus-doomscrolling.html
July 16, 2020 at 08:27PM

It’s easy to get lost in all of the horrifying news online.

TikTok Enlists Army of Lobbyists as Suspicions Over China Ties Grow

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/tiktok-washington-lobbyist.html
July 16, 2020 at 05:31PM

The viral social media app has beefed up its lobbying operation to counter several potential actions in Washington that could threaten the company’s future.

The Pandemic Is Straining Airbnb

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/airbnb-coronavirus.html
July 17, 2020 at 08:19PM

For a start-up, not growing is basically the same as dying.

Airbnb Was Like a Family, Until the Layoffs Started

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/airbnb-coronavirus-layoffs-.html
July 17, 2020 at 12:00PM

What happens when a kumbaya office culture meets the business realities of a pandemic?

Twitter Struggles to Unpack a Hack Within Its Walls

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/technology/twitter-hack-investigation.html
July 17, 2020 at 04:20AM

Even some basic questions about how an array of Twitter’s most popular accounts were taken over remain unanswered.

Barr Urges U.S. Companies to Resist Serving as ‘Pawns’ for China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/us/politics/barr-china.html
July 16, 2020 at 11:14PM

The attorney general accused several companies by name of appeasing an authoritarian government to preserve access to a huge consumer market.

How Our Reporter Fought ‘Doomscrolling’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/technology/coronavirus-doomscrolling.html
July 16, 2020 at 08:27PM

It’s easy to get lost in all of the horrifying news online.

Data Center Acceleration

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/16/data-center-acceleration/
July 16, 2020 at 06:48PM

Do you remember the data center of the past? And by past, I mean 20 to 25 years ago, when there was this huge, almost philosophical debate about complex instruction set computer (CISC) and reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architectures, and between large symmetric multi-processing (SMP) servers and mainframes and smaller systems. There were even fights over some esoteric system designs. All of this was happening before there were co-processors, ASICs and other fancy accelerators to speed data access and optimize complex operations.

You might think we are past the fighting, now that data centers have largely aligned around commoditized x86 (ahem, CISC) CPUs, small two-socket servers, and a general standardization of the components that make up the modern data center. But the reality is that an increasing number of companies are rethinking the data center in ways that remind me of the ideological tussles of the past, while introducing new paradigms and innovations based on recent technology advancements.

The Limits of Ordinary Data Centers

Intel CPUs today are amazingly powerful. They can boast up to 112 cores and an incredible number of instructions and features to manage every type of workload—the latest Intel CPUs can handle specialized machine learning activities with aplomb. But there’s a catch, and the entire industry is working to find solutions.

When you look at current x86-based server designs, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Jack of all trades, master of none.” These servers offer a balanced approach that works well for most applications but simply aren’t designed for the specialized workloads that are emerging. Big data analytics, machine learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI), Internet of Things, and other high-demand workloads are changing the shape and focus of data centers. For some enterprises, these specialized workloads are already more important than the workaday business applications that most x86-based servers were designed to address.

Yes, many companies are running most of these new applications in the cloud, but the fundamental concept remains. Cloud providers long ago changed the way they think about their server architectures. Isn’t it time you did, too?

CPUs and GPUs and Accelerators, Oh My!

As we think about cost, power, efficiency, and optimization in a modern data center, we immediately find that traditional x86 architectures don’t work anymore. Don’t believe me? Examples are everywhere.

Consider ARM CPUs (RISC!), which are less powerful on a single core basis than their x86 counterparts, but consume a fraction of the energy and can be more densely packed in the same rack space. When you consider that most modern applications are highly parallelized and organized as microservices, suddenly ARM becomes a very attractive option. No, you won’t run SAP on it, but ARM servers can run practically everything else. Good examples of this type of server design can be found from Bamboo Systems or with Amazon Graviton instances.

At the same time, single-core CPU performance is becoming less relevant now that GPUs have been deployed for specialized tasks. GPU-enabled platforms have prompted a rebalancing of system designs, addressing the uniquely data-hungry nature of these processors.

In addition to new network interfaces, we have seen developed new and efficient protocols to access data, such as NVMe-oF.

The problem is that the overhead required to make network communications secure and efficient can easily clog a CPU. For this reason, we are seeing a new generation of network accelerators that offload demanding tasks from the CPU. Examples of these implementations include Pensando, which offers impressive performance without impacting CPU workload and optimizes the movement, compression, and encryption of large amounts of data. Here is an introduction to Pensando from a recent Cloud Field Day. And again, major cloud providers are implementing similar solutions in their data centers.

This story is not fully told. Storage is following a similar trend. NVMe-oF has simplified, parallelized, and reduced the data path, improving overall latency, while data protection, encryption, compression, and other operations are offloaded to storage controllers designed to build virtual arrays distributed across multiple servers without impacting CPU or memory. Nebulon offers an example of this approach, which I am scheduled to present at Storage Field Day 20. Another example is Diamanti with their HCI solution for Kubernetes which leverages accelerators for both storage and networking.

Closing the Circle

Is this a radical approach to data center design? Large cloud providers have been remaking their data centers for years now, and large enterprises are starting to follow suit. The fact is, if you are using the cloud for your IT, you are already engaging these new data center models in one way or the other.

I’ve written before on this topic, especially about ARM CPUs and their role in the data center. This time is different. The software is mature, the ecosystem of off-the-shelf solutions is growing, and everybody is looking for ways to make IT more cost-conscious. Are you ready?

How Novavax Won $1.6 Billion From Operation Warp Speed For Coronavirus Vaccine

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/health/coronavirus-vaccine-novavax.html
July 16, 2020 at 06:14PM

Novavax just received the Trump administration’s largest vaccine contract. In the Maryland company’s 33-year history, it has never brought a vaccine to market.

E.U. Court Strikes Down 'Privacy Shield' Data Transfer Pact

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/eu-data-transfer-pact-rejected.html
July 16, 2020 at 03:50PM

The ruling is the latest twist in a campaign by privacy-rights activists in Europe to prevent personal information from being transferred to countries with looser protections.

Boom Time for Death Planning

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/boom-time-for-death-planning.html
July 16, 2020 at 12:00PM

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn new business to start-ups that provide end-of-life services, from estate planning to a final tweet.

FaZe Clan President Leaves to Start XSET

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/style/xset-gaming-lifestyle-company-faze-clan.html
July 16, 2020 at 12:00PM

Greg Selkoe is leaving the successful esports conglomerate to start a new venture that’s less “frat house” and more diverse.

Airbnb Says Its I.P.O. Plans Are Back on Track

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/airbnb-ipo.html
July 16, 2020 at 04:08AM

After a financial hit from the pandemic, the San Francisco company said business was starting to return from its nose-dive.

Gates, Musk and Other Top Tech Figures Get Twitter Accounts Hacked

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/twitter-hack-bill-gates-elon-musk.html
July 16, 2020 at 02:00AM

The accounts tweeted that they would double payments in bitcoin sent to a certain cryptocurrency wallet.

TikTok Enlists Army of Lobbyists as Suspicions Over China Ties Grow

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/tiktok-washington-lobbyist.html
July 15, 2020 at 11:10PM

The viral social media app has beefed up its lobbying operation to counter several potential actions in Washington that could threaten the company’s future.

Hollywood Stays Away From Facebook Ad Boycott

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/business/media/hollywood-facebook-ad-boycott.html
July 15, 2020 at 10:15PM

The entertainment business is a big advertiser but has been noticeably silent as other industries protest the social network’s handling of hate speech.

Just Collect Less Data, Period.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/just-collect-less-data-period.html
July 15, 2020 at 08:29PM

Every company wants the biggest data stockpile possible. We need unilateral data disarmament.

You’re Doomscrolling Again. Here’s How to Snap Out of It.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/personaltech/youre-doomscrolling-again-heres-how-to-snap-out-of-it.html
July 15, 2020 at 07:55PM

In a pandemic that forces us to stay home, bingeing on doom-and-gloom news feels irresistible. These health experts offer ways to break the habit.

Apple Scores Legal Victory Against $14.9 Billion E.U. Tax Demand

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/business/apple-eu-ireland-tax.html
July 15, 2020 at 05:51PM

The decision is a setback for European efforts to clamp down on what the authorities there believe is anti-competitive behavior.

How Facebook Handles Climate Disinformation

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/climate-facebook-fact-checking.html
July 14, 2020 at 11:03PM

Critics say a company policy that exempts opinion articles from fact-checking amounts to a huge loophole for climate change deniers.

How to Fight Health ‘Cures’ Online

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/technology/health-misinformation-online.html
July 14, 2020 at 09:29PM

Junk health information that preys on people’s fears spreads online. Here’s how we can stamp it out.

Massachusetts Sues Uber and Lyft Over the Status of Drivers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/technology/massachusetts-sues-uber-lyft.html
July 14, 2020 at 05:30PM

A lawsuit by the state’s attorney general adds to pressure on the companies to consider their drivers full-time employees.

Is Visibility the DevOps Magic Bullet?

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/14/is-visibility-the-devops-magic-bullet/
July 14, 2020 at 05:21PM

DevOps is an area defined by aspiration – there’s a better way of doing things, it suggests, a path to faster software delivery, better results, more efficient processes and higher levels of productivity. The potential is there, but as we cover in our report Driving Value Through Visibility, the path to success is beset by challenges. Not least:

• Siloed teams
• Complex architectures and legacy constraints
• Complicated and challenging compliance issues
• Communications issues internally

These challenges can stymie development efforts, diminish potential value and negatively shape the view of development projects internally. It’s not just traditional enterprises that can suffer: younger, and reputedly ‘agile’ organizations can hit similar challenges when they attempt to scale.

At least part of the answer, in our experience, comes down to visibility (or, as somebody once said, “if you can’t measure, you can’t manage”. Building on themes we have been developing across our DevOps report series, visibility needs to be end-to-end, across the pipeline from development and into operations. This gives management the information they need to prioritize and plan; it helps teams identify bottlenecks in development; and it offers wider understanding of ongoing innovation projects, and their value across the organization.

As we discuss in our Key Criteria report, end-to-end visibility is a key element of Value Stream Management, which enables value creation across a process, helping deliver on the goals of DevOps, such as efficiency, improved time to value and so on. Not only this but it helps shift the mindset of an organization from project- to product-based thinking, effectively focussing on the outcomes for the customers, not the needs of the project.

As organizations look to scale their practices, they need to increase visibility within their organization in parallel with their processes becoming more complex. So, while there may be no such thing as a magic bullet (not in this industry at least), visibility helps decision-makers know which way to aim.

To read the full report, click here.

U.K. Bans Huawei From 5G Network, Raising Tensions With China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/huawei-uk-5g.html
July 14, 2020 at 05:05PM

Banning the use of the Chinese tech giant’s equipment in high-speed wireless infrastructure is a major reversal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson — and a big victory for the Trump administration.

Disabled Do-It-Yourselfers Lead Way to Technology Gains

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/style/assistive-technology.html
July 14, 2020 at 05:00PM

So long to overhyped innovations. Hello to tech that embeds accessibility into everyday devices.

How the United Arab Emirates Set Its Sights on Mars

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/science/mars-united-arab-emirates.html
July 14, 2020 at 07:30AM

The Hope orbiter will make contributions to research on the red planet, but the Emirati government really hopes it will inspire future scientists.

YouTube’s Factory Workers Are Angry

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/technology/youtube-economy.html
July 13, 2020 at 08:30PM

There’s a power imbalance between the internet companies and those who make the posts and videos.

The Pandemic Has Accelerated Demands for a More Skilled Work Force

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/business/coronavirus-retraining-workers.html
July 13, 2020 at 12:00PM

Even groups that regularly disagree on labor issues said there should be significant public investment in programs that can upgrade the skills of American workers.

Are Uber and Lyft Drivers Well Paid? It Depends on the Study

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/business/economy/uber-lyft-drivers-wages.html
July 13, 2020 at 03:53AM

Uber and Lyft hailed a Cornell paper’s conclusion that their drivers make solid wages. But others have questioned the researchers’ approach.

TikTok Users Respond to Potential Ban

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/tiktok-ban-us-users-influencers-taylor-lorenz.html
July 11, 2020 at 07:55PM

Gen Z and millennial users have found community on the app, particularly during the last few isolating months. And for some of them, it’s their livelihood.

Who Gets the Banhammer Now?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/style/online-communities-social-media-bans-reddit-youtube-twitch-facebook.html
July 11, 2020 at 05:18PM

In a single week, some of the internet’s biggest platforms banned users and groups they had tolerated for years. What changed?

Facebook Removes Roger Stone for Ties to Fake Accounts

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/roger-stone-facebook.html
July 11, 2020 at 03:22AM

The social network said the fake accounts were active around the 2016 presidential election.

A Fashion Model For the Moment

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/style/hanifa-pink-congo-avatar.html
July 10, 2020 at 09:28PM

How a digital avatar helped the fashion designer Hanifa go viral during the pandemic.

Can Facebook Ever Stop the Drama?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/technology/facebook-crisis.html
July 09, 2020 at 07:22PM

How Facebook’s most recent crisis started, and what it says about the company’s role in our lives.

The Tech Giants’ Invisible Helpers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/internet-infrastructure.html
July 09, 2020 at 04:26PM

Why we should all care who controls the invisible infrastructure of the global internet.

What Counts as a Streaming Hit? A Start-Up May Have Answers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/business/media/parrot-streaming-ratings.html
July 09, 2020 at 07:36AM

Unlike Nielsen, which measure audience size, Parrot Analytics says it can track viewer enthusiasm. That’s more important to subscription services.

Ninja Played Fortnite on YouTube, and the Gaming World Lost Its Mind

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/ninja-fortnite-youtube.html
July 09, 2020 at 03:33AM

The buzz that Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja, generated by streaming on a new platform showed the power famous content creators have in the video game industry.

Facebook’s Decisions Were ‘Setbacks for Civil Rights,’ Audit Finds

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/facebook-civil-rights-audit.html
July 09, 2020 at 02:39AM

An independent audit faulted the social network for allowing hate speech and disinformation to thrive — potentially posing a threat to the November elections.

Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes With Devastating Results

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html
July 08, 2020 at 11:56PM

Its users buy and sell the riskiest financial products and do so more frequently than customers at other retail brokerage firms, but their inexperience can lead to staggering losses.

Facebook Fails to Appease Organizers of Ad Boycott

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/facebook-ad-boycott-civil-rights.html
July 08, 2020 at 07:19PM

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s top executives, engaged in “spin” during a meeting over hate speech, civil rights groups said.

Virus-Tracing Apps Are Rife With Problems. Governments Are Rushing to Fix Them.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/virus-tracing-apps-privacy.html
July 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

As countries race to deploy coronavirus-tracking software, researchers are reporting privacy and security risks that could affect millions of people and undermine trust in public health efforts.

Scrutinizing SpaceX, NASA Overlooked Some Boeing Software Problems

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/science/boeing-starliner-nasa.html
July 08, 2020 at 04:08AM

The agency identified the causes of mishaps in orbit during an uncrewed test flight of its Starliner spacecraft in December.

With Pandemic Keeping Them Apart, Runners Embrace Virtual Races

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/sports/coronavirus-virtual-races.html
July 07, 2020 at 11:35PM

Marathons and meets are canceled, so runners are using tech to stay connected and compete.

Internet Powers Collide in Hong Kong

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/internet-powers-hong-kong.html
July 07, 2020 at 10:20PM

Tech giants suspend handing over information to Hong Kong, setting up a collision with China.

What Does Simp Mean?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/style/simp-history-slang.html
July 07, 2020 at 09:58PM

An insult takes a dizzying trip through rap, men’s rights, misogyny and TikTok.

YouTube’s Power of the Purse

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/youtube-online-harassment.html
July 07, 2020 at 06:06PM

YouTube shows that some constructions of digital spaces can help combat online nastiness.

Magic Leap Hires Top Microsoft Executive as C.E.O.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/peggy-johnson-magic-leap-ceo.html
July 07, 2020 at 03:00PM

Peggy Johnson, who led Microsoft’s business development, will take over the struggling virtual reality start-up in August.

A Bird? A Plane? No, It’s a Google Balloon Beaming the Internet

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/africa/google-loon-balloon-kenya.html
July 07, 2020 at 01:40PM

A commercial deal in Kenya marks the first application of balloon-powered internet in Africa, the region with the lowest percentage of internet users globally.

Palantir Files for an I.P.O.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/palantir-technologies-ipo.html
July 07, 2020 at 12:28PM

The data start-up, which has a valuation of $20 billion, would be the largest Silicon Valley tech listing since Uber made its debut last year.

TikTok to Withdraw From Hong Kong as Tech Giants Halt Data Requests

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/tiktok-google-facebook-twitter-hong-kong.html
July 07, 2020 at 09:43AM

Google, Facebook and Twitter said they were reviewing China’s punitive new national security law for the city, a rare public questioning of Chinese policy by major American tech companies.

Are Uber and Lyft Drivers Well Paid? It Depends on the Study

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/business/economy/uber-lyft-drivers-wages.html
July 12, 2020 at 11:35PM

Uber and Lyft hailed a Cornell paper’s conclusion that their drivers make solid wages. But others have questioned the researchers’ approach.

TikTok Users Respond to Potential Ban

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/tiktok-ban-us-users-influencers-taylor-lorenz.html
July 11, 2020 at 07:55PM

Gen Z and millennial users have found community on the app, particularly during the last few isolating months. And for some of them, it’s their livelihood.

Who Gets the Banhammer Now?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/style/online-communities-social-media-bans-reddit-youtube-twitch-facebook.html
July 11, 2020 at 12:00PM

In a single week, some of the internet’s biggest platforms banned users and groups they had tolerated for years. What changed?

‘It Would Be Like Losing a Little Bit of Me’: TikTok Users Respond to Potential U.S. Ban

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/tiktok-ban-us-users-influencers.html
July 10, 2020 at 10:59PM

Gen Z and millennial users have found community on the app, particularly during the last few isolating months. And for some of them, it’s their livelihood.

Facebook Said to Consider Banning Political Ads

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/facebook-politcal-ads-ban.html
July 10, 2020 at 10:58PM

The social network has been under intense pressure for allowing misinformation and hate speech to spread on its site.

Amazon Asks Employees to Delete TikTok Over Security Risks

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/tiktok-amazon-security-risk.html
July 10, 2020 at 09:13PM

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under scrutiny as a potential national security threat.

Sports in a Pandemic Don’t All Stink

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/virtual-cycling.html
July 10, 2020 at 08:26PM

Virtual cycling offers lessons for how other sports can appeal to fans leading increasingly digital lives.

Kubernetes: Overcoming Complexity

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/07/10/kubernetes-overcoming-complexity/
July 10, 2020 at 04:37PM

Kubernetes was created in 2014 to allow administrators to run distributed systems easily. Thanks to its 100% open source nature, it can run both on-premises and in the cloud, including public, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

Kubernetes has seen rapid adoption since its introduction. As it is built specially to deal with containers at scale, it is both fast and lightweight, can be used on top of any VM or bare metal server, and provides robust container-centric features. Kubernetes can run equally well on any VM infrastructure, which is huge from a DevOps perspective, as the portability of containers should be equally matched by the portability of the container manager.

For all of its advantages, Kubernetes presents unique challenges. Running stateful services such as databases on Kubernetes requires specific container-native storage systems. Without this technology, certain issues will become commonplace: stuck volumes, downtime, overprovisioning, lost data, and manual backups and migrations.

Below we outline the hardware challenges that make Kubernetes so hard, let’s look at what organizations need to do to create a successful deployment.

What Does Kubernetes Storage Need to Do?

To be successful, storage for Kubernetes requires six core features (see Figure 1):

Self-service: The ability to provision and manage the container-granular storage as needed, on-demand.

Application-aware: Kubernetes-based applications are composed of multiple containers that run across a fleet of hosts. This means that storage operations such as backup, recovery, DR, and encryption must be applied at the application-granular level, not the machine level, as is the case with traditional storage.

Automation: A layer that can carry out the details around storage implementation, as well as other operations that need to occur, such as BC/DR. Automation removes most manual processing and provides key advantages.

Infrastructure-agnostic SLAs: A consistent level of service no matter which infrastructure is being leveraged, or, not binding SLAs directly to any portion of the infrastructure, such as platform services.

Cost Optimization: Puts processes in place that can improve cost efficiencies. This includes automation of provisioning systems to ensure that no more storage is being allocated than needed.

How to Fulfill Requirements

Below are the key attributes of best-of-breed Kubernetes-native storage systems and their proper application into production.

Kubernetes-native: A subsystem, including storage and database systems, that is purpose-built for the Kubernetes platform. For instance, storage operations must be container-granular with additional operations at the namespace-level.

Kubernetes-scale performance: The storage typically must be scalable to 1,000-plus volumes per node, and thousands of concurrent operations per minute. Non-Kubernetes storage systems are often designed to handle a relatively small number of large volumes managed by an administrator, as opposed to a large number of small to medium volumes managed automatically via Kubernetes.

Application-focused: The storage must take an application or solution focus, as opposed to an infrastructure focus. Container-granular storage should be able to be provisioned on-demand when the application is deployed.

Comprehensive Kubernetes native storage stack: The ability to support both transactional- and analytic-oriented storage systems, including focusing on performance, BC/DR, data security, and data compliance, as well as the ability to support real-time backup as presented in Figure 2.

Getting It Right

There are many ways to solve Kubernetes storage, and most will work in proof-of-concept environments. However, most will not be optimal for the solution set you seek. Picking the right path is imperative to the total success of your Kubernetes-based applications where storage is on the critical path. The paths available to you can be seen in Figure 3.

Traditional approaches to storage: These systems are not Kubernetes-aware, but Kubernetes-based applications can leverage them. These typically come in two forms: native storage systems for on-premises systems, or a cloud-delivered storage system such as cloud block storage, an object-based storage system, or a cloud-native database.

Container orchestration-native: More often called Kubernetes-native, these storage systems are purpose-built for a specific container orchestration engine.

This Kubernetes-native approach does not require a translation layer between VM storage and container storage, as the traditional approach does. Thus, many of the requirements and features highlighted above are supported by this container orchestration-native approach and core Kubernetes-native storage technology.

Hybrid storage solutions: These provide support for both native and non-native Kubernetes storage. They are typically not the solution of choice, given that you are trying to be all things to two or more different platforms.

Conclusion

Kubernetes is changing the way distributed systems are run and is opening up new possibilities for cloud-based databases, but to make the most of this technology, the system has to support its core needs.

Storage systems are not complex core systems, but they require special consideration given their impact on the applications and business systems that leverage them. The movement to multi-cloud and container orchestration creates an incentive to move to Kubernetes-native storage.

Why Is a Tech Executive Installing Security Cameras Around San Francisco?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/business/camera-surveillance-san-francisco.html
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/technology/facebook-crisis.html
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Ninja Played Fortnite on YouTube, and the Gaming World Lost Its Mind

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Facebook Removes Roger Stone for Ties to Fake Accounts

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Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes With Devastating Results

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/internet-infrastructure.html
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Facebook Fails to Appease Organizers of Ad Boycott

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/facebook-ad-boycott-civil-rights.html
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/personaltech/tech-that-lasts.html
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Virus-Tracing Apps Are Rife With Problems. Governments Are Rushing to Fix Them.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/virus-tracing-apps-privacy.html
July 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/style/hanifa-pink-congo-avatar.html
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Facebook Decisions Were ‘Setbacks for Civil Rights,’ Audit Finds

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/facebook-civil-rights-audit.html
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Digital continues to steal share at a rapid rate    The depth and lasting impact of the global recession, along with the sharp economic downturn in the UK, signal a long and challenging […]

Scrutinizing SpaceX, NASA Overlooked Some Boeing Software Problems

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/science/boeing-starliner-nasa.html
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Facebook Fails to Appease Organizers of Ad Boycott

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/facebook-ad-boycott-civil-rights.html
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With Pandemic Keeping Them Apart, Runners Embrace Virtual Races

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/sports/coronavirus-virtual-races.html
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What Does Simp Mean?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/style/simp-history-slang.html
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Internet Powers Collide in Hong Kong

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/internet-powers-hong-kong.html
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Magic Leap Hires Top Microsoft Executive as C.E.O.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/technology/peggy-johnson-magic-leap-ceo.html
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Hong Kong Security Law Sets Stage for Global Internet Fight

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/hong-kong-security-law-tech.html
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/africa/google-loon-balloon-kenya.html
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Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/uk-sharp-declines-across-traditional-media-will-drag-total-ad-spend-down-by-7-5-in-2020/
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/tiktok-google-facebook-twitter-hong-kong.html
July 07, 2020 at 09:43AM

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Google, Facebook and Twitter Stop Hong Kong Data Requests

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/google-facebook-and-twitter-stop-hong-kong-data-requests.html
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Palantir Technologies Files to Go Public

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/palantir-technologies-ipo.html
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YouTube’s Power of the Purse

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/youtube-online-harassment.html
July 06, 2020 at 08:08PM

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Facebook Temporarily Stops Hong Kong Data Requests

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/facebook-temporarily-stops-hong-kong-data-requests.html
July 06, 2020 at 07:26PM

The social network said it would review the city’s punitive new national security law, a rare public questioning of Chinese policy by a large American tech company.

South Korea Denies U.S. Request to Extradite Operator of Child Pornography Site

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/world/asia/south-korea-child-pornography-extradition.html
July 06, 2020 at 09:05AM

The Justice Department had sought to try Son Jong-woo after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on money-laundering and other charges.

Uber to Buy Postmates for $2.65 Billion

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/technology/uber-postmates-deal.html
July 06, 2020 at 06:16AM

The ride-hailing company’s core business has struggled in the pandemic, and it is betting on growth of its Uber Eats division.

How Infrared Images Could Be Part of Your Daily Life

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/technology/coronavirus-infrared-cameras-temperature-sensors.html
July 04, 2020 at 09:14PM

In a post-quarantine world, heat sensors could help spot sick people with elevated temperatures as they enter public places. But it’s not that simple.

Goodbye to the Wild Wild Web

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/technology/goodbye-to-the-wild-wild-web.html
July 02, 2020 at 11:06PM

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New ‘TV’ Is a Lot Like TV

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/technology/internet-tv.html
July 02, 2020 at 08:04PM

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TikTok Stars Tati and Devin Will Meet

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/style/tati-devin-tiktok.html
July 02, 2020 at 09:43PM

Two rising stars on the app have amassed a huge audience by playing along with their followers’ fantasy of romance.

New Trump Appointee Puts Global Internet Freedom at Risk, Critics Say

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/us/politics/michael-pack-china-internet.html
July 04, 2020 at 12:00PM

A battle involving Michael Pack and a U.S.-funded tech group revolves around software from Falun Gong, the secretive, anti-Beijing spiritual movement with pro-Trump elements.

Newsroom: eMarketer Cuts Alibaba Ad Forecast, As Search Business Struggles Amid Pandemic

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/emarketer-cuts-alibaba-ad-forecast-as-search-business-struggles-amid-pandemic/
June 30, 2020 at 07:01AM

Tencent surpasses Baidu as the No. 2 ad player in China   June 30, 2020 – Despite a downgrade to our ad forecast in China, digital ad spending will still […]

New Research: Evaluating Edge Colocation

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/06/29/new-research-evaluating-edge-colocation/
June 29, 2020 at 05:45PM

In a new Key Criteria Report, GigaOm Analyst Ned Bellavance outlines the features and capabilities that define the best edge colocation solutions on the market.

The report outlines the ‘table stakes’, or the features organizations should expect without exception in any solution. These include basic connectivity between layers, physical security measures, remote support, and regional redundancy.

The report defines the “Key Criteria” that currently differentiate vendors within the market, describing features that can give an organization a strategic advantage if they were to leverage them. These features include:

• Dense regional coverage
• Rapid rollout capabilities
• Automated issue resolution

Ned also highlights solutions that give flexible payment and service options as this can allow new and expanding businesses to react quickly to changing circumstances and customer demands.

Also outlined in the report are exciting new features that will become key criteria in the next year or so. These include 5G technology, which will reduce latency from hundreds of milliseconds to hundreds of microseconds for some applications, and advances in services to meet demand for remote work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ned also describes the evaluation criteria he recommends to judge a vendor’s solution against an organization’s needs. He highlights in particular how a partner ecosystem is vital for edge colocation services, as it helps to create an “end-to-end solution that is validated and pre-configured”.

The report concludes that this exciting area of communication technology is going through rapid change, and is still five to 10 years away from full maturity. Ned advises using hosted services first on specific projects with clearly defined aims where edge colocation solutions are best able to assist.

About Ned Bellavance

Ned is an experienced IT practitioner with experience in the field. Ned has worked with Fortune 500 companies and SMBs across multiple verticals, developing and deploying both on-premises and cloud-based architectures. Ned has authored two books on the Azure Kubernetes Service and HashiCorp Terraform and holds several industry certifications from vendors including but not limited to Microsoft, VMware, AWS and Citrix.