According to a survey by AFCOM, cloud computing is on the rise among data center operators, more than doubling since last year, and expected to reach 80-90 percent in the next five years. Among respondents to the data-center-focused organization's annual "State of the Data Center" survey, 36.6 percent have implemented some form of cloud computing technology within their data centers, and another 35.1 percent are seriously considering doing so. This is big leap from last year, when only 14.9 percent had implemented cloud technology, and underscores a general consensus among IT professionals and pundits that cloud computing is fast becoming an accepted delivery model for IT resources.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Cloud and Efficiency Are Driving Data Center Decisions |
Thursday, March 24, 2011
I'm sure glad WI state legislators are the experts on Open Source... /sarcasm
State lawmakers oppose open source for VA health records -
Single-vendor approach at odds with VA's plans for open source development -
If VA and DOD accept that recommendation, it potentially could cause a delay in current plans for integration and modernization of VA and DOD record systems, Brewin reports. It also could benefit medical record system solutions provider Epic Systems Corp. of Verona, Wisconsin.
In a response to one of the Wisconsin lawmakers, Roger Baker, VA assistant secretary for information and technology, stood by the open source approach.
http://fcw.com/articles/2011/03/23/wisconsin-lawmakers-urge-single-vendor-for-va-dod-health-records-upgrades.aspxWednesday, March 23, 2011
LMI Expert to Share New Cloud Computing Findings at Data Center World
McLean, Va., March 23, 2011 — LMI systems engineering expert David K. Shepherd will discuss LMI's research into cloud computing, and how it can provide federal government leaders with well-founded, insightful and timely tools to help prepare them for the paradigm shift that will accompany adoption of cloud services.
The session is part of the Data Center World conference in Las Vegas, to be held March 27–31, 2011.
The session is part of the Data Center World conference in Las Vegas, to be held March 27–31, 2011.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Not surprising. Amazon was lazy and wrong here...
Apple sues Amazon over 'App Store'
On March 18, Apple filed a complaint against Amazon in California over Amazon's use of "App Store," a trademark owned by Apple. According to Bloomberg, Apple has asked the court to bar Amazon from using the "App Store" name in its Android software development program and upcoming Android application store, titled the Amazon Appstore.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Time to get this done -
App Guide: Mobile tax apps
Finished your taxes yet? These apps for the iPhone and iPad can help make sure that everything's in order before the April 18 filing deadline rolls around.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Uh Oh...
RSA breach leaks data for hacking SecurID tokens
'Extremely sophisicated' attack targets 2-factor auth
Attackers breached the servers of RSA and stole information that could be used to compromise the security of two-factor authentication tokens used by 40 million employees to access sensitive corporate and government networks, the company said late Thursday. "Our investigation has led us to believe that the attack is in the category of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)," RSA Executive Chairman Art Coviello said in an undated letter posted on the company's website. "Our investigation also revealed that the attack resulted in certain information being extracted from RSA's systems."
Neither the letter nor a filing (PDF) with the Securities and Exchange Commission identified what the stolen data was, but Coviello went on to say it "could potentially be used to reduce the effectiveness of a current two-factor authentication implementation as part of a broader attack."
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/18/rsa_breach_leaks_securid_data/
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Foo Fighters Surprise Fans at Texas' South by Southwest
http://post.ly/1lGv4
Foo Fighters Surprise Fans at Texas' South by Southwest |  |
March 17, 2011 6:21:23 AM
From: Starpulse, MTV, AceShowBiz.
Foo Fighters celebrated the premiere of their new documentary at Texas' South By Southwest festival by hitting the stage for a surprise performance on Tuesday and playing their upcoming album in its entirety. 1
been a minute since Dave Grohl and his intrepid Foo Fighters exploded our faces off with a hard-rocking awards show performance. Joined by on-again Foo guitarist Pat Smear, the Foo Fighters opened the 2011 mtvU Woodie Awards with a blood-pressure-raising live performance of "Rope," the lead single off their upcoming seventh studio album Wasting Light. 2
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Libyan Spider, LLC |
Recent events in Libya and their temporal impact on .ly domain names
With recent events of unrest in Libya, many of our clients and also our partners have reached out to us concerned for our well being and safety. We would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all those who have reached out to us and truly appreciate whole-heartedly for their attention and compassion.
We realize and understand the concerns that .ly domain owners might have regarding the future of .ly and whether they are in any danger of malfunctioning. We, at Libyan Spider, felt it was necessary to release a statement to answer and put at ease the worries that you may have regarding your .ly domains.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
BlackBerry Cracked In Hacking Contest -
RIM's revamp of browser with open-source code gave the winners an opening
By Kelly Jackson HigginsDarkreading
The closely held BlackBerry is no longer a relative enigma in smartphone security: a team of three researchers yesterday at the Pwn2Own contest at the CanSec West conference in Vancouver hacked the device by exploiting a vulnerability in BlackBerry's newest browser version.
The team -- Vincenzo Iozzo, Willem Pinckaers and Ralf Philipp Weinmann -- exploited a flaw in the open-source WebKit browser code that RIM now uses in new versions of its smartphone platform, and then grabbing the contact list and image database of a RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Open up wide-
iPad 2 Wi-Fi Teardown (iFixit)
iFixit:
iPad 2 Wi-Fi Teardown — We got our hands on Apple's newest tablet, the iPad 2 on March 11, 2011. Follow us on Twitter to get all the latest updates. Finally!!! The iPad has come back to iFixit! And this time, it has a 2 in front of its name, hence the iPad ...
Sweet!
Rackspace releases new open source iPad/iPhone app for sys admins to run their Web empire, first look (Robert Scoble/Scobleizer)
For sys admins who want to have a life, here's your life saver. Rackspace, today, released a new version of its Rackspace Cloud iPhone and iPad app, which lets you run your web empire on the Rackspace ...
Why does PC World constantly make up Apple FUD? Low self esteem?
PCWorld iPad 2 Selling Out in US, But Is It Safe?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/221955/ipad_2_selling_out_in_us_but_is_it_safe.html#tk.rss_news
Friday, March 11, 2011
This is only here for the goofy picture -
Rep. King launches radicalization hearing with a balanced tone
Thu, 2011-03-10 12:09 PM
 |
Rep. Peter King |
Confronted by accusations that he was reviving a form of McCarthyism – plus the suggestion that his defense decades ago of Irish Republican Army terrorists opened him to charges of hypocrisy – Rep. Peter King persisted on March 10 and kicked off a series of congressional hearings on radicalization within the Muslim-American community.
Tweet from @USGovNews
[CPSC] CPSC Launches New Consumer Product Safety Information Database Today: Today, the U. S. CPSC... http://1.usa.gov/eHqEhW
Mmmmm bacn -
Google 'smart labels' de-stress e-mail
The Gmail feature called "smart labels," which now is available for users who choose to switch on the feature through the Gmail Labs page, automatically sorts e-mail into groups to make it easier -- and hopefully less stressful -- for to users to manage their overflowing inboxes.
Google on Wednesday announced yet another e-mail feature designed to defuse one of the true time bombs of modern digital existence: information overload.
The Gmail feature called "smart labels," which now is available for users who choose to switch on the feature through the Gmail Labs page, automatically sorts e-mail into groups to make it easier -- and hopefully less stressful -- for to users to manage their overflowing inboxes.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Gotta google this- online Congressional disbursement records. Imagine what is in there.
Last year, the House Office of Interparliamentary Affairs paid the full $6,300 to send a staffer to the protocol school, but no other Congressional staff paid tuition to the school, according to online Congressional disbursement records.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Shameful! | Wisconsin Senate leader admits union-busting bill is about defeating Obama |
Wisconsin Senate leader admits union-busting bill is about defeating Obama
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 -- 3:36 pm
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R), the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader, must have forgotten his talking points while appearing on Megyn Kelly's Fox News show. This afternoon he admitted on-air what many liberals have long-suspected: rescinding collective bargaining rights from state workers is Wisconsin is as much about the 2012 presidential election as Wisconsin's 2011 budget shortage.
As first reported by ThinkProgress, Fitzgerald told Kelly: "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you're going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."
Cool-Includes personal hotspot -
5 Things IOS 4.3 Brings the iPad and iPhone
Here's what iPhone and iPad users will get with the new iOS 4.3 firmware update due this week from Apple.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Interesting -
SAS Pushes BI to Apple's IPad, IPhones -
SAS Institute is teaming up with mobile BI (business intelligence) vendor Mellmo to bring analytic applications to Apple's iPhone and iPad, the companies...
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Good - maybe it won't crash everytime too.
Twitter submitted an update to Apple yesterday -
Sean Garrett / @sg:
Twitter submitted an update to Apple yesterday for our iPhone app. It fixes some bugs & makes it so the quickbar doesn't overlay on Tweets
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
This is Silly |
Feds could be fined for working during a shutdown
| FederalNewsRadio.com |
According to the Antideficiency Act, if a furloughed federal employee works during a shutdown, they could be in a heap of trouble.
Granted, that's not the formal language for it. That looks more like this:
An officer or employee who violates 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a) (obligate/expend in excess or advance of appropriation), section 1342 (voluntary services prohibition), or section 1517(a) (obligate/expend in excess of an apportionment or administrative subdivision as specified in an agency's regulation) "shall be subject to appropriate administrative discipline including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay or removal from office." 31 U.S.C. §§ 1349(a), 1518.
In addition, an officer or employee who "knowingly and willfully" violates any of the three provisions cited above "shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both." 31 U.S.C. §§ 1350, 1519.
"In fact," said Tony Scardino, Chief Financial Officer at the Patent and Trademark Office, "our head of IT, our chief information officer was telling us it's actually illegal for you to check your BlackBerry if you're on a government shutdown. There's a $5,000 dollar sanction, up to two years in prison... I mean none of that's going to happen, but the point is it's literally on the books that says it's illegal for you to work if you're in a government shutdown."
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=15&sid=2292825
50 Android Market Apps Found Harboring Malware |
Google takes pirated apps offline, but many Android users' smartphones could still be at risk
By Kelly Jackson Higgins, Darkreading
It was only a matter of time before the bad guys took advantage of the open Android Market in a big way: Google removed some 50 free apps this week from the store after they were discovered to be carrying malware that "roots" the phone, steals data, and installs a back door.
But the discovery came a few days after the apps hit the Android Market, so an estimated 20,000 to 500,000 users may already have downloaded the infected apps, most of which are pirated versions of legitimate Android apps, including Super Guitar Solo, Music Box, Advanced Barcode Scanner, and Spiderman, mobile security experts say. A user on Reddit first flagged the malware, and then Lookout Security found additional infected apps, all of which contain a piece of malware called DroidDream.
Google doesn't vet or security-scan apps submitted to its open, community-based app market, but security experts say the invasion of rogue apps could ultimately pressure the search engine giant to add some form of vetting applications before they hit the Market. It's all based on user comments and rankings of apps, and notifications to the user on what functions in the phone the app wants to use before he downloads it. "It's totally up to the user," says Chris Wysopal, CTO of Veracode. "This is not really working."
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
PacketFence - Worth a look:
PacketFence is a fully supported, trusted, Free and Open Source network access control (NAC) system. Boasting an impressive feature set including a captive-portal for registration and remediation, centralized wired and wireless management, 802.1X support, layer-2 isolation of problematic devices, integration with the Snort IDS and the Nessus vulnerability scanner; PacketFence can be used to effectively secure networks - from small to very large heterogeneous networks.
Shared Assessments
More and more, corporations of all sizes are using outsourced services to support critical business functions. But while companies can outsource sensitive data processes and services, they can never outsource responsibility for the associated risk. To manage risk and respond to evolving regulatory requirements, companies must carefully evaluate the security of the controls their service provider partners have in place.
Shared Assessments is a member-driven, industry-standard body that injects speed, efficiency and cost savings into the service provider control assessment process. Shared Assessments Program members work together to eliminate redundancies and create efficiencies, giving all parties a standardized, consistent, faster, more rigorous, more efficient and less costly means of conducting security, privacy and business continuity assessments.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rt 66-
HOV Ramps to Monument, Stringfellow Open to All During Off-Peak Hours |
The HOV restricted ramps will be available to all starting at 10 a.m. on February 28.
All motorists will soon be able to use westbound Interstate 66 exit ramps to Monument Drive and Stringfellow Road (HOV or not) on weekends and during off-peak hours.