Fire up the WABAC Machine, Mr. Peabody: In June 2008, I wrote a piece for MIT Technology Review explaining “How Facebook Works.” The story started with this: Facebook is a wonderful example of the network effect, in which the value of a network to a user is exponentially proportional to the number of other users that […]
Security standards for cellular communications are pretty much invisible. The security standards, created by groups like the 3GPP, play out behind the scenes, embedded into broader cellular protocols like 3G, 4G, LTE and the oft-discussed forthcoming 5G. Due to the nature of the security and other cellular specs, they evolve very slowly and deliberately; it’s […]
Ransomware is a huge problem that causes real harm to businesses and individuals. Technology service providers are gearing up to fight these cyberattacks – and that’s coming none too soon. Ransomware is a type of cyberattack where bad actors gain access to a system, such as a consumer’s desktop or a corporate server. The attack […]
It’s bad enough not knowing which state you are in. Much worse not to know which state! (Road trip, July 2014)
Forget vendor lock-in: Carrier operation support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS) are going open source. And so are many of the other parts of the software stack that drive the end-to-end services within and between carrier networks. That’s the message from TM Forum Live, one of the most important conferences for the telecommunications […]
San Francisco – Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2016 had plenty of developers. Plenty of WWDC news about updated operating systems, redesigned apps, sexy APIs, expansion of Apple Pay and a long-awaited version of Siri for the Macintosh. Call me underwhelmed. There was nothing, nothing, nothing, to make me stand up and cheer. Nothing inspired me to reach for […]
You’ve gotta be there! Michael Huerta was just announced as Grand Opening Keynote at InterDrone, the industry’s most important drone conference. BZ Media’s InterDrone will be Sept 7-9, 2016, in Las Vegas. (I am the “Z” of BZ Media.) InterDrone 2015 was attended by 2,797 commercial drone professionals from all 50 states and 48 countries, […]
I am hoovering directly from the blog of my friend Arthur Hicken, the Code Curmudgeon: Last week with Alan Zeichick and I did a webinar for Parasoft on automotive cybersecurity. Now Alan thinks that cybersecurity is an odd term, especially as it applies to automotive and I mostly agree with him. But appsec is also pretty poorly fitted to automotive […]
Have you done your backups lately? If not… now is the time, thanks to ransomware. Ransomware is a huge problem that’s causing real harm to businesses and individuals. Technology service providers are gearing up to fight these cyberattacks – and that’s coming none too soon. In March 2016, Methodist Hospital reported that it was operating […]
Get used to new names. Instead of Dell the computer company, think Dell Technologies. Instead of EMC, think Dell EMC. So far, it seems that VMware won’t be renamed Dell VMware, but one never can tell. (They’ve come a long way since PC’s Limited.) What’s in a name? Not much. What’s in an acquisition of […]
The Panama Papers should be a wake-up call to every CEO, COO, CTO and CIO in every company. Yes, it’s good that alleged malfeasance by governments and big institutions came to light. However, it’s also clear that many companies simply take for granted that their confidential information will remain confidential. This includes data that’s shared […]
No smart software would make the angry customer less angry. No customer relationship management platform could understand the problem. No sophisticated HubSpot or Salesforce or Marketo algorithm could be able to comprehend that a piece of artwork, brought to a nationwide framing store location in October, wouldn’t be finished before Christmas – as promised. While […]
Let’s explore the causes of slow website loads. There are obviously some delays that are beyond our control — like the user being on a very slow mobile connection. However, for the most part, our website’s load time is entirely up to us. For the most part, our website’s load time is entirely up to us […]
Barcelona, Mobile World Congress 2016—IoT success isn’t about device features, like long-life batteries, factory-floor sensors and snazzy designer wristbands. The real power, the real value, of the Internet of Things is in the data being transmitted from devices to remote servers, and from those remote servers back to the devices. “Is it secret? Is it safe?” […]
CeBIT Preview, Hannover, Germany — It looks like a slick Jedi move, but it’s actually the Internet of Things. When Hannes Sjöblad wants to pay for coffee, he waves his hand in front of the pay station. When he wants to open a door, he waves his hand in front of the digital lock. When […]
A hackathon – like the debut LSO Hackathon held in November 2015 at the MEF’s GEN15 conference – is where magic happens. It’s where theory turns into practice, and the state of the art advances. Dozens of techies sitting in a room, hunched over laptops, scribbling on whiteboards, drinking excessive quantities of coffee and Diet […]
Las Vegas, December 2015 — Get ready for Bimodal IT. That’s the message from the Gartner Application, Architecture, Development & Integration Summit (AADI). It wasn’t a subtle message. Bimodal was a veritable drumbeat, pounded home over and over again in keynotes, classes, and one-on-one meetings with Gartner analysts. We’re going to be hearing a lot about bimodal […]
This essay was originally published on the Reform Judaism blog on September 2, 2015. I was inspired to write this poem after reading Rabbi Eliezer’s teaching in Pirkei Avot that advises us that because it is not possible to repent one day before we die – because we don’t know when that will be – […]
Your app’s user interface is terrible. Your business plan is flawed. Your budget is a pipe dream. Your code isn’t efficient. Clients are unhappy with your interpersonal skills. Your meetings are too long. You don’t seem to get along with your developers. You are hard to work with. You are being kicked off the task […]
This essay was first published on the Reform Judaism blog on July 6, 2015. In the Torah portion Pinchas, God instructs Moses, “Ascend these heights of Abarim and view the land that I have given to the Israelite people. When you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your kin, just as your brother Aaron was.” Although […]
This essay was first published on the Reform Judaism blog, and was adapted from an article I wrote in December 2013 for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. Some Jewish families light Shabbat candles every Friday night. That is authentic Reform Judaism. Some families rarely or never light Shabbat candles. That, too, is […]
Software-defined networks and Network Functions Virtualization will redefine enterprise computing and change the dynamics of the cloud. Data thefts and professional hacks will grow, and development teams will shift their focus from adding new features to hardening against attacks. Those are two of my predictions for 2015. Big Security: As 2014 came to a close, […]
For development teams, cloud computing is enthralling. Where’s the best place for distributed developers, telecommuters and contractors to reach the code repository? In the cloud. Where do you want the high-performance build servers? At a cloud host, where you can commandeer CPU resources as needed. Storing artifacts? Use cheap cloud storage. Hosting test harness? The […]
Drones are everywhere. Literally. My friend Steve, a wedding photographer, always includes drone shots. Drones are used by the military, of course, as well as spy agencies. They are used by public service agencies, like fire departments. By real estate photographers who want something better than Google Earth. By farmers checking on their fences. By […]
Cloud-based storage is amazing. Simply amazing. That’s especially true when you are talking about data from end users that are accessing your applications via the public Internet. If you store data in your local data center, you have the best control over it. You can place it close to your application servers. You can amortize […]
SEYTON The tests, my lord, have failed. MACBETH I should have used a promise; There would have been an object ready made. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Loops o’er this petty code in endless mire, To the last iteration of recorded time; And all our tests have long since found Their way to dusty death. […]
Washington, D.C. — “It’s not time to regulate and control and tax the Internet.” Those are words of wisdom about Net Neutrality from Dr. Robert Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, held here at the MEF GEN14, the annual conference from the Metro Ethernet Forum. Bob Metcalfe is a legend. Not only for his role in inventing Ethernet and […]
I like this new Microsoft. Satya Nadella’s Microsoft. Yes, the CEO needs to improve his public speaking skills, at least when talking to women’s conferences. Yet when you look at the company’s recent activities, what appears are lots of significant moves toward openness, a very positive focus on personal productivity, and even inventiveness. That’s not […]
Malicious agents can crash a website by implementing a DDoS—a Distributed Denial of Service Attack—against a server. So can sloppy programmers. Take, for example, the National Weather Service’s website, operated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. On August 29, the service went down, hard, as single rogue Android app overwhelmed […]
HTML browser virtualization, not APIs, may be the best way to mobilize existing enterprise applications like SAP ERP, Oracle E-Business Suite or Microsoft Dynamics. At least, that’s the perspective of Capriza, a company offering a SaaS-based mobility platform that uses a cloud-based secure virtualized browser to screen-scrape data and context from the enterprise application’s Web […]