IT seems to be growing again. Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending will increase 4.5% this year to $3.68 trillion, driven by artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain technology, and the IoT.
Digital transformations are fashionable. You won’t find an enterprise that isn’t leveraging some combination of cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to better serve customers or streamline operations. But here’s a hard truth about digital transformations: Many are failing outright or are in danger of failing. Typical reasons for failing are not understanding what is digital transformation (different people understand it differently), lack of CEO sponsorship, talent deficiency, resistance to change. Usually a technology-first approach to digital transformation is a recipe for disaster. Truing to just push trough technically unfeasible transformation idea is another way to fail.
The digital era requires businesses to move with speed, and that is causing IT organizations to rethink how they work. A lot of IT is moving off premises to SaaS providers and the public cloud. Research outfit 451 standout finding was that 60 per cent of the surveyed enterprises say they will run the majority of their IT outside the confines of enterprise data centres by the end of 2019. From cost containment to hybrid strategies, CIOs are getting more creative in taking advantage of the latest offerings and the cloud’s economies of scale.
In 2018 there seems to be a growing Software Engineering Talent Shortage in both quantity and quality. For the past nine years, software engineers have been at the top of the hardest to fill jobs in the United States. And same applies to many other countries including Finland. Forrester projects that firms will pay 20% above market for quality engineering talent in 2018. Particularly in-demand skills are data scientists, high-end software developers and information security analysts. There is real need for well-studied, experienced engineers with a formal and deep understanding of software engineering. Recruiting and retaining tech talent remains IT’s biggest challenge today. Most CIOs are migrating applications to public cloud services, offloading operations and maintenance of computing, storage and other capabilities so they can reallocate staff to focus on what’s strategic to their business.
The enterprise no longer is at the center of the IT universe. It seems that reports of the PC’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and the long and painful decline in PC sales of the last half-decade as tailed off, at least momentarily. As the sales of smartphones and tablets have risen, consumers had not stopped using PCs, but merely replaced them less often. FT reports that PC is set to stage a comeback in 2018, after the rise of smartphones sent sales of desktop and laptop computers into decline in recent years. If that does not happen, then PC market could return to growth in 2019. But the end result is that PC is no longer seen as the biggest growth driver for chip makers. An extreme economic shift has chipmakers focused on hyperscale clouds.
Microservices are talked about a lot. Software built using microservices is easier to deliver and maintain than the big and brittle architectures or old; these were difficult to scale and might take years to build and deliver. Microservices are small and self-contained, so therefore easy to wrap up in a virtual machine or a container (but don’t have to live in containers). Public cloud providers increasingly differentiate themselves through the features and services they provide. But it turns out that microservices are far from being one-size-fit-for-all silver bullet for IT challenges.
Containers will try to make break-trough again in 2018. Year 2017 was supposed to be the year of containers! It wasn’t? Oops. Maybe year 2018 is better. Immature tech still has a bunch of growing up to do. Linux Foundation’s Open Containers Initiative (OCI) finally dropped two specifications that standardise how containers operate at a low level. The needle in 2018 will move towards containers running separately from VMs, or entirely in place of VMs. Kubernates gains traction. It seems that the containers are still at the point where the enterprise is waiting to embrace them.
Serverless will be talked about. Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources. Serverless architectures refer to applications that significantly depend on third-party services (knows as Backend as a Service or “BaaS”) or on custom code that’s run in ephemeral containers (Function as a Service or “FaaS”), the best known vendor host of which currently is AWS Lambda.
Automation is what everybody with many computers wants. Infrastructure automation creates and destroys basic IT resources such as compute instances, storage, networking, DNS, and so forth. Security automation helps keeping systems secure. It bosses want to create self-driving private clouds. The journey to self-driving clouds needs to be gradual. The vision of the self-driving cloud makes sense, but the task of getting from here to there can seem daunting. DevOps automation with customer control: Automatic installation and configuration, Integration that brings together AWS and VMWare, workflows migration controlled by users, Self-service provisioning based on templates defined by users, Advanced machine learning to automate processes, and Automated upgrades.
Linux is center of many cloud operations: Google and Facebook started building their own gear and loading it with their own software. Google has it’s own Linux called gLinux. Facebook networking uses Linux-based FBOSS operating system. Even Microsoft has developed its own Linux for cloud operations. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a very fine idea.
Memory business boomed in 2017 for both NAND and DRAM. The drivers for DRAM are smartphones and servers. Solid-state drives (SSDs) and smartphones are fueling the demand for NAND. NAND Market Expected to Cool in Q1 from the crazy year 2017, but it is still growing well because there is increasing demand. Memory — particular DRAM — was largely considered a commodity business.
Lots of 3D NAND will go to solid state drives in 2018. IDC forecasts strong growth for the solid-state drive (SSD) industry as it transitions to 3D NAND. SSD industry revenue is expected to reach $33.6 billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 14.8%. Sizes of memory chips increase as number of layer in 3D NAND are added. The traditional mechanical hard disk based on magnetic storage is in hard place in competition, as the speed of flash-based SSDs is so superior
There is search for faster memory because modern computers, especially data-center servers that skew heavily toward in-memory databases, data-intensive analytics, and increasingly toward machine-learning and deep-neural-network training functions, depend on large amounts of high-speed, high capacity memory to keep the wheels turning. The memory speed has not increased as fast as the capacity. The access bandwidth of DRAM-based computer memory has improved by a factor of 20x over the past two decades. Capacity increased 128x during the same period. For year 2018 DRAM remains a near-universal choice when performance is the priority. There is search going on for a viable replacement for DRAM. Whether it’s STT-RAM or phase-change memory or resistive RAM, none of them can match the speed or endurance of DRAM.
PCI Express 4.0 is ramping up. PCI-standards consortium PCI-SIG (Special Interest Group) has ratified and released specifications for PCIe 4.0 Specification Version 1. Doubling PCIe 3.0’s 8 GT/s (~1 GB/s) of bandwidth per lane, PCIe 4.0 offers a transfer rate of 16 GT/s. The newest version of PCI Express will start appearing on motherboards soon. PCI-SIG has targeted Q2 2019 for releasing the finalized PCIe 5.0 specification, so PCIe 4.0 won’t be quite as long-lived as PCIe 3.0 has been. So we’ll See PCIe 4.0 this year in use and PCIe 5.0 in 2019.
USB type C is on the way to becoming the most common PC and peripheral interface. The USB C connector has become faster more commonplace than any other earlier interface. USB C is very common on smartphones, but the interface is also widespread on laptops. Sure, it will take some time before it is the most common. In 2021, the C-type USB connector has almost five billion units, IHS estimates.
It seems that the after-shocks of Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities on processors will be haunting us for quite long time this year. It is now three weeks since The Register revealed the chip design flaws that Google later confirmed and the world still awaits certainty about what it will take to get over the silicon slip-ups. Last pieces of farce has been that Intel Halts Spectre, Meltdown CPU Patches Over Unstable Code and Linux creator Linus Torvalds criticises Intel’s ‘garbage’ patches. Computer security will not be the same after all this has been sorted out.
What’s Next With Computing? IBM discusses AI, neural nets and quantum computing. Many can agree that those technologies will be important. Public cloud providers increasingly provide sophisticated flavours of data analysis and increasingly Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Central Banks Are Using Big Data to Help Shape Policy. Over the past few years, machine learning (ML) has evolved from an interesting new approach that allows computers to beat champions at chess and Go, into one that is touted as a panacea for almost everything. 2018 will be the start of what could be a longstanding battle between chipmakers to determine who creates the hardware that artificial intelligence lives on.
ARM processor based PCs are coming. As Microsoft and Qualcomm jointly announced in early December that the first Windows 10 notebooks with ARM-based Snapdragon 835 processors will be officially launched in early 2018, there will be more and more PCs with ARM processor architecture hitting the market. Digitimes Research expects that ARM-based models may dominate lower-end PC market, but don’t hold your breath on this. It is rumoured that “wireless LTE connectivity” function will be incorporated into all the entry-level Window 10 notebooks with ARM processors, branded by Microsoft as the “always-connected devices.” HP and Asustek have released some ARM-based notebooks with Windows 10S.
Sources:
Ohjelmistoalan osaajapula pahenee – kasvu jatkuu
PC market set to return to growth in 2018
PC market could return to growth in 2019
PC sales grow for the first time in five years
PCI-SIG Finalizes and Releases PCIe 4.0, Version 1 Specification: 2x PCIe Bandwidth and More
Hot Chips 2017: We’ll See PCIe 4.0 This Year, PCIe 5.0 In 2019
Outsourcing remains strategic in the digital era
8 hot IT hiring trends — and 8 going cold
EDA Challenges Machine Learning
The Battle of AI Processors Begins in 2018
How to create self-driving private clouds
ZeroStack Lays Out Vision for Five-Step Journey to Self-Driving Cloud
2017 – the year of containers! It wasn’t? Oops. Maybe next year
2018′s Software Engineering Talent Shortage— It’s quality, not just quantity
How Central Banks Are Using Big Data to Help Shape Policy
Digitimes Research: ARM-based models may dominate lower-end PC market
Intel Halts Spectre, Meltdown CPU Patches Over Unstable Code
Spectre and Meltdown: Linux creator Linus Torvalds criticises Intel’s ‘garbage’ patches
Meltdown/Spectre week three: World still knee-deep in something nasty
What’s Next With Computing? IBM discusses AI, neural nets and quantum computing.
PCI Express 4.0 as Fast As Possible
Microsoft has developed its own Linux!
Microsoft Built Its Own Linux Because Everyone Else Did
Facebook has built its own switch. And it looks a lot like a server
Googlella on oma sisäinen linux
Is the writing on the wall for on-premises IT? This survey seems to say so
12 reasons why digital transformations fail
7 habits of highly effective digital transformations
857 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is an SRE and how does it relate to DevOps?
https://opensource.com/article/18/10/sre-startup?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
The SRE role is common in large enterprises, but smaller businesses need it, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jan Strupczewski / Reuters:
EU Commission approves Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-github-commission/eu-commission-approves-microsofts-acquisition-of-github-idUSKCN1MT1Y1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bill Gates / Wall Street Journal:
Bill Gates reflects on Paul Allen, remembering him as a passionate man who held his family and friends dear and as a brilliant technologist and philanthropist
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-i-loved-about-paul-allen-1539862016
Tomi Engdahl says:
Three Horror Stories about Terrible Software Decisions
https://oneio.cloud/resources/three-horror-stories-about-terrible-software-decisions/?utm_campaign=Ongoining-ONEiO-interest+–+Software+as+a+Service+–+kopio&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=display&utm_content=Horror+stories+–+kopio&hsa_acc=46212948&hsa_ver=3&hsa_src=%5BSITE_SOURCE_NAME%5D&hsa_grp=6111809915986&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ad=6116824418386&hsa_cam=6109688003586
At Service-Flow, we’ve been working on integration projects for a long time! And from the dreamy ‘couldn’t have gone better’ projects to the absolute chaotic nightmares, we have pretty much seen it all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Desatoff / GameDaily.biz:
DFC Intelligence report: by focusing on games-as-a-service, EA grew to $33B in market value from $4B in 2012, while Activision Blizzard grew to $60B from $10B
EA and Activision double down on games-as-a-service
https://gamedaily.biz/article/320/ea-and-activision-double-down-on-games-as-a-service
Thanks to a focus on a continuing revenue model, Activision Blizzard’s market value has grown by over $50 billion since 2012.
A new report from analyst group DFC Intelligence takes a macro look at prominent trends in the games industry. According to the report, the trend of games-as-a-service has become an extremely lucrative business model for some of the larger developers and publishers in the industry, most notably, EA and Activision Blizzard.
According to DFC’s report, EA has seen an exponential growth in market value through the games-as-a-service business model. Since 2012, EA has seen its value grow from $4 billion to $33 billion. Activision Blizzard’s increase in market value during the same period is even more impressive: from $10 billion in 2012 to over $60 billion today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Peli voi olla myös taideteos eikä pelkkä talousnumero – “Minua on jo pitkään rieponut tapa, jolla peleistä puhutaan”
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10466376?utm_source=facebook-share&utm_medium=social
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 7 open source project management tools for agile teams
https://opensource.com/article/18/2/agile-project-management-tools?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
In this roundup of open source project management tools, we look at software that helps support Scrum, Kanban, and other agile methods.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software developers today, by the numbers: 4 takeaways
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/10/software-developers-today-numbers-4-takeaways?sc_cid=7016000000127eyAAA
What makes IT stars tick? New data shows what developers want to learn – and shape – in today’s enterprise
1. Devs want to learn new skills and disciplines – not just new languages
2. Devs have some influence over tools – but is it enough?
3. Language choices abound and Python wins hearts
4. As DevOps matures, developer interest grows
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.siili.com/fi/tarinat/devaajan-tulevaisuus-pilvinen?utm_medium=display&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=rekry-tarinat-liikenne-tech&utm_content=devaajien_tulevaisuus_on_pilvinen
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fast Company:
Many of the economists who testified at FTC hearings this week and dismissed or criticized the idea of tech monopolies received money from big tech in the past
Should we break up the tech giants? Not if you ask the economists who take money from them
https://www.fastcompany.com/90253465/should-we-break-up-the-tech-giants-not-if-you-ask-the-economists-who-take-money-from-them
This week’s FTC hearings on the growing power of companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google only included economists who have taken money, directly and indirectly, from giant corporations that have a stake in the debate.
Amid growing concern over the power of such behemoths as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other tech giants, in recent months there’s been a bipartisan push for better enforcement of antitrust rules–with even President Trump saying in August that their size and influence could constitute a “very antitrust situation.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched its most wide-ranging study of corporate concentration in America in more than 20 years with a series of hearings being held around the country.
But there’s a problem. The FTC organized these hearings so that Simons and the public would be hearing from many economists who have taken money, directly or indirectly, from giant corporations.
FTC also had economics professors from prestigious universities. But these professors, while they do academic research, also have lucrative consulting arrangements with firms representing large corporations.
In other words, every single economist testifying on the issue of corporate concentration derived income, directly or indirectly, from large corporations. Beyond that, the hearing itself was held at the Antonin Scalia Law School, which is financed by Google and Amazon.
This is a problem more broadly for the entire set of hearings, which included roughly 40 economists on the payroll of such consulting firms.
“Companies & lawyers that rely on economists as witnesses aren’t looking for neutrality…. [Instead] to be able to be an advocate without seeming to be an advocate.”
This is not to say that taking money from corporations is always wrong. It isn’t.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fred Wilson / AVC:
Recent news serves as a reminder that operators in startups and venture capital should work to ensure their investors are not bad actors
Who Are My Investors?
https://avc.com/2018/10/who-are-my-investors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
How projects like Ocean Protocol, Oasis, Enigma, and SingularityNET use blockchain for AI research hoping to curb the dominance of big tech in the field
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/technology/how-the-blockchain-could-break-big-techs-hold-on-ai.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCI Express 3.0 needs reliable timing design
https://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4461106/PCI-Express-3-0-needs-reliable-timing-design?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=link&utm_medium=EDNPCBDesign-20181022
PCI Express (PCIe) is an important standard for chip-to-chip communications and serves as a standard for connecting motherboards to peripheral cards. It can be challenging, however, to implement the reference clock so that it meets the various requirements of the PCIe standard. Designers need to consider frequency, jitter, output standard, and other characteristics. With an understanding of the different PCIe architectures, their individual reference clock requirements, and how clock devices can help meet the various PCIe reference clock requirements, developers can design reliable systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nitasha Tiku / Wired:
Three recent books argue that big tech became powerful not because of “software disruption” but by ducking regulation, squeezing workers, strangling competitors — A FEW YEARS after the Great Recession, you couldn’t scroll through Google Reader without seeing the word “disrupt.”
https://www.wired.com/story/alternative-history-of-silicon-valley-disruption/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Repl.it, a startup letting users write and ship code from their browsers, raises $4.5M Series A led by a16z, with YC, Paul Graham, and others participating — – Repl.it is a start-up whose technology lets software engineers quickly write and ship code from a web browser.
Former Facebook engineer quit to build the programming tool he always wanted
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/22/andreessen-horowitz-leads-4point5-million-seed-round-in-replit.html
Repl.it is a start-up whose technology lets software engineers quickly write and ship code from a web browser.
The start-up has raised a $4.5 million round of initial funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, a major investor in GitHub, another developer tool start-up that was acquired by Microsoft in June for $7.5 billion.
Amjad Masad built software developer tools for Facebook’s thousands of engineers for two years. Then he decided he needed to leave the company to build the online developer tool he most wanted.
“At some point I looked back at the space of online dev tools, and I found that no one had really built the start-up that I wanted to build,” he said. “I had to quit my job at Facebook to pursue it.”
That start-up is called Repl.it, and its goal is to make it possible for anyone to quickly write and ship code from their web browsers.
Typically when software engineers want to build an app, they use a text editor to write code, save it in a second repository service like GitHub, then run it on a server or a public cloud such as Amazon Web Services.
“We’ve eliminated all those steps, and you just open a new browser tab, go to Repl.it and you have all these things in a single environment,” Masad said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft:
Microsoft reports Q1 revenue of $29.1B, up 19% YoY, net income of $8.8B, up 34% YoY; Azure revenue grew 76%, LinkedIn revenue grew 33%, Surface revenue grew 14% — Microsoft Cloud Strength Powers Record First Quarter Results — REDMOND, Wash. — October 24, 2018 — Microsoft Corp. today announced …
Earnings Release FY19 Q1
Microsoft Cloud Strength Powers Record First Quarter Results
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2019-Q1/press-release-webcast
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Minotti / VentureBeat:
Microsoft reports Q1 gaming revenue up 44% YoY, with Xbox software and services up 36% YoY and hardware up 94% YoY following Xbox One X launch last November
https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/24/microsofts-gaming-revenue-surges-44-in-q1-2019/
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft’s Q1 revenue beats estimates as Productivity revenue up 19% YoY to $9.8B, Intelligent Cloud up 24% to $8.6B, and Personal Computing up 15% to $10.7B
https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/24/microsoft-earnings-q1-2019/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8619-koodariksi-piilaaksoon-naita-kielia-sinun-pitaa-osata
Tilaston mukaan eniten kysytään Pythonin osaajia. Python onkin viime vuosina ollut nopeimmin suosiotaan kasvattanut ohjelmointikieli.
Lstan toisena on Ruby, vaikka sen suosio on viime vuosina laskenut. Webbisovellusten suosion kasvu näkyy Javascriptin nousuna kolmanneksi halutuimmaksi osaamisalueeksi.
Javascripitin perässä tulee Java. Sitä tarvitaan erityisesti, jos halutaan koodata sovelluksia Androidille. Viidentenä listalla on C++, jota käytetään usein iOS-sovellusten ohjelmointiin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Our processor tech’s got legs, says Arm: ‘One million’ data center servers will ship in 2018
By servers, it means boxes that do networking, storage, security
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/17/arm_data_center_servers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 10 most popular programming languages, according to the ‘Facebook for programmers’
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-popular-programming-languages-according-to-github-2018-10?r=US&IR=T
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Intel reports Q3 revenues of $19.2B, up 19% YoY, and net income of $6.4B, up 42% YoY, beating analyst estimates on strong PC and data center chip demand
Intel up slightly on big earnings beat
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/25/intel-earnings-q3-2018.html
Intel beat expectations on third-quarter results and fourth-quarter guidance.
Intel said earlier this week that it’s making progress on technology for 10-nanometer chips.
The company’s CEO, Brian Krzanich, resigned in June.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Legally Download Windows XP for Free, Straight From Microsoft
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-windows-xp-for-free-and-legally-straight-from-microsoft-si/
Windows XP is old, and Microsoft no longer provides official support for the venerable operating system. But despite the lack of support, Windows XP is still running on 5 percent of all computers around the globe. Why are people still using Windows XP? Mostly due to work, research, or entertainment.
Finding a copy of Windows XP isn’t easy. Finding some hardware to run it on is just as difficult. That’s why the best option is to install Windows XP in a virtual machine so you can keep it on hand at all times. Here’s how you do it!
there’s a relatively easy way to take the Windows XP Mode download and load it up in any virtual machine of your choosing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to write your favorite R functions in Python
https://opensource.com/article/18/10/write-favorite-r-functions-python?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
R or Python? This Python script mimics convenient R-style functions for doing statistics nice and easy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Monitoring database health and behavior: Which metrics matter?
https://opensource.com/article/18/10/database-metrics-matter?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Monitoring your database can be overwhelming or seem not important. Here’s how to do it right.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Motherboard:
New DMCA exemptions will make it easier for archivists and museums to preserve video games, provided they acquire original game and server codes legally — In a series of rulings, the Library of Congress has carved out a number of exemptions that will help the movement to archive and preserve video games.
Copyright Law Just Got Better for Video Game History
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zm9az5/copyright-law-just-got-better-for-video-game-history
In a series of rulings, the Library of Congress has carved out a number of exemptions that will help the movement to archive and preserve video games.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natfriedman / The GitHub Blog:
GitHub’s new CEO Nat Friedman says Microsoft’s $7.5B acquisition of GitHub is now complete
http://blog.github.com/2018-10-26-github-and-microsoft/
Tomi Engdahl says:
8 ways interviewers turn off IT job seekers
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/10/8-ways-interviewers-turn-it-job-seekers?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Having trouble filling open positions in IT? You’re certainly not alone – but the culprit may be a flawed or dated approach to interviews
Recruiting the best IT talent is as challenging as ever. Companies are more willing to bend over backward to secure their favorite candidates – from offering more job flexibility to upping their salary offers, according to survey data from Robert Half. One software company recently made headlines for starting the recruiting process with middle school students. In India, more than 50,000 tech jobs are vacant due to a shortage of qualified candidates, especially for data science and AI roles.
When it comes to the hiring process, highly skilled technology professionals hold many of the cards
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amir Bozorgzadeh / VentureBeat:
A look at how AR has found popularity in the enterprise with industrial deployments in automotive assembly lines, quality control, training centres, and more
While AR plays catch-up in other sectors, it’s taking over the enterprise
https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/27/while-ar-plays-catch-up-in-other-sectors-its-taking-over-the-enterprise/
When I ran my last piece earlier this month on the not-so-surprising progressive state of the VR industry, it was intended to shake up the naysayers nest, which for its part pervades with the mistaken notion that the immersive market is somehow suffering or failing. The facts, I argued, point exactly in the opposite direction, but in order to agree they have to be willing to revisit and revise any vestige of false narratives that might be influencing their view of the landscape.
Naturally, there are parallels to be drawn in what is happening on the other end of the immersive spectrum; in the land of AR. It’s true that, according to Gartner, AR appears to haven’t moved very much since last year, despite the emergence of mobile AR platforms, ARKit and ARCore, that have for their part imbued all of our smartphones with the environmental awareness to drive mainstream AR.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fujitsu to shut German computer plant
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSL8N1X62Y4
Fujitsu plans to close a personal computer and laptop factory in Germany, its last hardware production centre in Europe, potentially costing 1,800 jobs, it said on Friday.
The job cuts are part of a wider global restructuring at Fujitsu, which plans to concentrate its personal computer production operations in Japan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s Becoming Increasingly Unlikely that We’ll See a Major Shift To Virtual Reality Any Time Soon
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/10/28/2038249/its-becoming-increasingly-unlikely-that-well-see-a-major-shift-to-virtual-reality-any-time-soon?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
VR was supposed to be a revolution, with companies like Oculus pioneering a whole new way for gamers and non-gamers alike to be immersed in digital environments — but that excitement has markedly cooled. The media has gone through several cycles of fawning, optimistic prognostication, and… wishful thinking? — but for all the hype we have very little consumer interest to show for it.
The virtual reality dream is dying
We were promised better worlds, and all we got was this lousy headset.
https://theoutline.com/post/6443/virtual-reality-dream-is-dead-hype-oculus-rift-facebook-playstation
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are the new iPads and Macs the most accurate Apple analyst thinks Apple could launch next week at its New York event
https://nordic.businessinsider.com/what-apple-is-expected-to-announce-at-october-event-ming-chi-kuo-2018-10?r=US&IR=T
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Gives Bullish Outlook on Surprising Jump in PC Demand
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-25/intel-forecast-beats-estimates-on-surprising-jump-in-pc-demand
Intel Corp., the world’s second-biggest semiconductor maker, gave bullish forecasts that demonstrate growth is back in a personal-computer market many thought was dying.
Revenue in the fourth quarter will be about $19 billion and profit will be $1.16 per share, Intel said in a statement Thursday. Both projections beat analysts’ average estimate. Intel also lifted its revenue prediction for 2018 to $71.2 billion, $6 billion more than it was forecasting at the beginning of the year.
The company, whose processors are at the heart of most of the world’s laptops, desktops and servers, has been raking in cash this year as companies have spent on upgrading their hardware. Intel reported revenue from its PC-centric business, its largest unit, rose 16 percent in the third quarter to $10.2 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Linux Kernel Is Now VLA-Free: A Win For Security, Less Overhead and Better For Clang
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/10/29/1935253/the-linux-kernel-is-now-vla-free-a-win-for-security-less-overhead-and-better-for-clang?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
With the in-development Linux 4.20 kernel, it is now effectively VLA-free. From a report:
The variable-length arrays (VLAs) that can be convenient and part of the C99 standard but can have unintended consequences. VLAs allow for array lengths to be determined at run-time rather than compile time. The Linux kernel has long relied upon VLAs in different parts of the kernel — including within structures — but going on for months now (and years if counting the kernel Clang’ing efforts) has been to remove the usage of variable-length arrays within the kernel. T
The Linux Kernel Is Now VLA-Free: A Win For Security, Less Overhead & Better For Clang
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kills-The-VLA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s everything Apple announced today at its big hardware event
https://tcrn.ch/2QdDq5K
From new iPads to new MacBook Airs, Apple had a bunch of hardware refreshes to debut this morning. Here’s everything they showed off.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s new T2 security chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/apple-t2-security-chip-microphone-eavesdropping/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Apple’s newest MacBooks include a new feature that makes it far more difficult for hackers or spies to eavesdrop on your microphone.
Buried in Apple’s latest range of MacBooks — including the MacBook Pro out earlier this year and the just-announced MacBook Air — is the new T2 security chip, which helps protect the device’s encryption keys, storage, fingerprint data and secure boot features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeffrey M. Perkel / Nature:
A look at how Jupyter, an open source, interactive, web-based computational notebook, has emerged as a de facto standard among data scientists
Why Jupyter is data scientists’ computational notebook of choice
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07196-1
An improved architecture and enthusiastic user base are driving uptake of the open-source web tool.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ian King / Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft to use chips from Xilinx for more than half of the co-processors used on Azure servers, which previously used Intel chips exclusively
Microsoft Picks Xilinx for Over Half of Azure Servers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-30/microsoft-is-said-to-pick-xilinx-for-over-half-of-azure-servers
Xilinx Inc., a maker of programmable chips increasingly being used in data centers, has won orders from Microsoft Corp.’s Azure cloud unit, replacing chips made by Intel Corp., according to people familiar with its plans.
Azure will use Xilinx chips as co-processors in more than half of its servers, winning business that has been an exclusive for Intel’s Altera unit, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the arrangement hasn’t been made public yet. Co-processors are chips that accelerate some functions to relieve the main processor in a server. A representative for Xilinx declined to comment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HPE brings high performance computing to astronauts in space
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hpe-brings-high-performance-computing-to-astronauts-in-space/
HPE’s Spacebourne Computer will be open to astronauts on the International Space Station, allowing them to run experiments in space rather than sending data back to Earth.
HPE is bringing high performance computing (HPC) capabilities to astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The Spaceborne Computer, a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) supercomputer that HPE and NASA launched into space last year, will help astronauts analyze data directly in space, rather than having to send it back to Earth.
For the last year, HPE and NASA have been testing the resiliency of the Spacebourne Computer. A high-performance COTS system had never run in space before. NASA typically only approves computers for space once they’ve been “ruggedized” to withstand variables like radiation, solar flares, micrometeoroids, unstable electrical power and irregular cooling.
“After gaining significant learnings from our first successful experiment with Spaceborne
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Released
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/10/30/2235242/red-hat-enterprise-linux-76-released?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Fresh on the heels of the IBM purchase announcement, Red Hat released RHEL 7.6
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/suosiotaan-huimasti-kasvattaneesta-linux-jakelusta-julkaistiin-uusi-versio-lataa-ilmaiseksi-taalta-6747140
Manjaro tarjoaa Linuxin parhaat puolet kauniiseen pakettiin käärittynä. Arch Linuxin komentorivin sijaan Manjaron asentajaa tervehtii graafinen asennusvelho tai vaihtoehtoisesti mahdollisuus kasata itse oma Linux-kokemuksensa Manjaro Architect -työkalun avulla.
Käyttöjärjestelmän lippulaivaversio toimitetaan Xfce-työpöytäympäristöllä (4.13) varustettuna.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fedora 29 Released
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/10/30/229249/fedora-29-released?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Fedora 29 is released today. Among the new features are the ability to allow parallel installation of packages such as Node.js.
New features in Fedora 29 make life easier for web developers
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/new-features-in-fedora-29-make-life-easier-for-web-developers/
The new release of Fedora allows for parallel installation of packages such as Node.js, making life easier for developers working on stable and development branches of their projects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linus Torvalds and Greg K-H Talk About Linux Community, Dealing with Hardware Bugs, Chromebooks Gaining Traction, Microsoft, Companies Gleaning Data and More
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/10/28/1437239/linus-torvalds-and-greg-k-h-talk-about-linux-community-dealing-with-hardware-bugs-chromebooks-gaining-traction-microsoft-companies-gleaning-data-and-more?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWj2Fgxdrc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uuden iPadin prosessori on tähän asti tehokkain mobiilisuoritin
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8656-uuden-ipadin-prosessori-on-tahan-asti-tehokkain-mobiilisuoritin
uusitun A12X-mobiiliprosessorin uusien iPad Pro -mallien sisuksissa. Kyse on 10 miljardin transistorin jättipiiristä, joka näyttää olevan historian tehokkain mobiiliprosessori.
A12X Bionic -piiri on kasvanut melkoisesti edeltäjästään eli A1w-prosessorista. Transistoreja on tullut 45 prosenttia enemmän. 7 nanometrin prosessissa valmistettu piiri on noin 120 neliömillin kokoinen fyysisiltä mitoiltaan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 7 edelleen suosituin
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8655-windows-7-edelleen-suosituin
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Privacy is a human right’: Big cheese Sat-Nad lays out Microsoft’s stall at Future Decoded
It’s a triple A-rated keynote: Azure, AI and Accessibility
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/01/satya_nadella_microsoft_future_decoded_keynote/
Tomi Engdahl says:
I know what you’re thinking: Outsource or in-source IT security? I’ve worked both sides, so here’s my advice…
The pros and cons of using internal and external talent, or a mix of both
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/cyber_security_sourcing/
You’re a small or mid-sized business and have a growing sense of unease that you aren’t doing enough on cyber security. Must be all those headlines about ransomware infections and databases ransacked. Or – perhaps – you’re experiencing an upsurge in phishing attempts.
SMBs spent on average 27 per cent more on security in 2017 than the year before according to a survey last year by Cyren and Osterman Research, yet less than half felt confident they could prevent a network intrusion. Half, 52 per cent, had an IT security staff of two or fewer people.
The average SMB probably can’t afford what one might call a “proper” CISO to direct their security strategy. By that I mean someone with extensive experience, and typically formal qualifications, such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Certified Information Security Manager. CISOs can command six-figure salaries with an average in the range of £85,497 with “regular” staff starting above the national average.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behold! Blocks and Files is born again as storage tech website returns
Storage news and views website ready for the coming zettabyte era
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/01/behold_blocks_and_files_returns/
everal years ago, The Register absorbed the storage-focused Blocks and Files website because storage news was becoming mainstream IT industry news. The bits and bytes making up blocks, files and objects were becoming so large in number that developing storage arrays to hold them was a complex business and getting more so.
There were energetic startups: remember Data Domain, LeftHand Networks, 3PAR and many others? There were also myriad inventive software startups with better ways of organising and accessing data. Data deduplication technology rewrote the data protection business – remember Ocarina? Flash chip capacity grew and SSDs became important – and STC, FusionIO and CZ were all a part of it.
https://blocksandfiles.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
October Brings Node.js 10.x to LTS and Node.js 11 to Current!
https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-lts-and-node-js-11-to-current-ae19f8f12b51
Tomi Engdahl says:
We (may) now know the real reason for that IBM takeover. A distraction for Red Hat to axe KDE
Popular desktop Linux environment due for deprecation in RHEL – by 2024
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/rhel_deprecates_kde/
While everyone was distracted by IBM’s $34bn takeover bid, Red Hat quietly wrote a death-note for KDE – within Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to be precise.
On October 30, the Linux distro biz emitted Fedora 29 and RHEL 7.6, and in the latter’s changelog the following appears, which a Reg reader kindly just alerted us to:
KDE Plasma Workspaces (KDE), which has been provided as an alternative to the default GNOME desktop environment has been deprecated. A future major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux will no longer support using KDE instead of the default GNOME desktop environment.
In other words, if you’re using RHEL on the desktop, at some point KDE will not be supported. As our tipster remarked: “Red Hat has never exactly been a massive supporter of KDE, but at least they shipped it and supported you using it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/kellojen-siirtelyn-lopettamisella-voi-olla-yllattava-seuraus-it-alalle-6747261