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BT suffers huge broadband failure across much of UK
BT suffers huge broadband failure across much of UK
A "power failure" at a major exchange in Birmingham has seen huge numbers of BT Broadband customers across the UK cut off.
The company said those affected numbered into the hundreds of thousands - about 5% of its total customers.
Business users were particularly badly affected, with many reporting considerable lost revenue as a result.
BT said the service has now been fully restored, advising customers to "turn their hub or modem off and on again".
Full Story here
Air traffic control data found on eBayed network gear
Air Traffic control data found on eBayed network gear
A switch with networking configurations and passwords for the UK traffic control centre was offered for sale on eBay, raising serious security concerns.
The £20 Cisco Catalyst switch was bought by security consultant Michael Kemp, co-founder at Xiphos Research Labs, who quickly discovered that it has been used at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) centre in Prestwick by contractor Serco. Data on the switch included supervisor credentials, internal VLAN and other networking configurations and upstream switch addresses as well as domains, gateways and syslogs.
"For twenty quid, I have got full switching details (and creds) for a switch that was in use (managed by Serco) two years ago to help keep planes in the air at Prestwick," Kemp explained. "Obviously this is a security fail, especially as the seller had 13 of the units that may well have come from the same estate."
A screenshot from...
Skills Shortage Behind High Cost of SharePoint Deployments (Study)
Skills Shortage Behind High Cost of SharePoint Deployments (Study)
An industry study of Microsoft SharePoint shows that usage of the collaboration platform is growing, but maintenance costs can be high especially given the lack of trained personnel.
An Osterman Research study, "State of the Market," pegs the average cost to manage SharePoint at $46 per user per month. Osterman, which surveyed "more than 120 IT executives, managers, and staffers at mid-to-large enterprises" in August, was commissioned by Seattle-based Azaleos Corp., a provider of management services for e-mail, collaboration and unified communications, based mostly on the Microsoft stack.
Osterman found a similar average management cost for SharePoint of $45 per user per month in a February 2009 survey, which also was commissioned by Azaleos....
Smart cities get their own operating system
Smart cities get their own operating system
Cities could soon be looking after their citizens all by themselves thanks to an operating system designed for the metropolis.
The Urban OS works just like a PC operating system but keeps buildings, traffic and services running smoothly.
The software takes in data from sensors dotted around the city to keep an eye on what is happening.
In the event of a fire the Urban OS might manage traffic lights so fire trucks can reach the blaze swiftly.
The idea is for the Urban OS to gather data from sensors buried in buildings and many other places to keep an eye on what is happening in an urban area.
The sensors monitor everything from large scale events such as traffic flows across the entire city down to more local phenomena such as temperature sensors inside individual rooms.
The OS completely bypasses humans to manage communication between sensors and devices such as traffic lights, air conditioning...
Broadband providers face speed advertising crackdown
Broadband providers face speed advertising crackdown
ISPs will have to be more careful with their use of 'unlimited' and 'maximum speed'
Internet service providers (ISPs) have been warned over misleading customers with their broadband speed claims.
New guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), the bodies responsible for writing the Advertising Codes, states that maximum speed claims should be based on the actual experience of users.
Full Story here
Windows Server 8 Ups Data Transfer Ante
Windows Server 8 Ups Data Transfer Ante
The audience broke into applause at last weeks BUILD conference when some of the new blazing fast data transfer capabilities were demonstrated by Microsofts Bryon Surace during a keynote address.
"With Windows Server 8, we can use multiple NICs [network interface controllers] simultaneously to help improve throughput and fault tolerance," Surace said.
Full Story HERE
Amazon Kindle Fire to enter tablet computer market
Amazon Kindle Fire to enter tablet computer market
Amazon has unveiled a colour tablet computer called the Kindle Fire.
The $199 (£130) device will run a modified version of Google's Android operating system.
Until now, the company has limited itself to making black and white e-readers, designed for consuming books and magazines.
As well as targeting Apple's iPad, Amazon is likely to have its sights on rival bookseller US Barnes & Noble, which already has a colour tablet.
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Full Story here
Android 'most popular' with smartphone buyers
Android 'most popular' with smartphone buyers
Smartphones running Google's Android are the most popular among those buying new handsets, suggest figures.
The survey by market research firm Nielsen shows that in the three months to the end of August, 56% of Americans buying a phone chose Android.
Apple iPhones running its iOS software were bought by 28% of new smartphone buyers.
Full Story here
CompTIA Pre-Launches Storage+ Cert
CompTIA Pre-Launches Storage+ Cert
A little late but still better late than never. In partnership with the Storage Networking Industry Alliance (aka SNIA), CompTIA has created an entry level Storage+ certification for IT professionals. A beta version of this exam is available free to the first 400 people who sign up, so if you're interested you'll want to act fast. Use the discount code "storsnia" during the Pearson VUE sign-up process, when the payment page appears to see if you still qualify.
Full Story here
Windows 8 secure boot would 'exclude' Linux
Windows 8 secure boot would 'exclude' Linux
Computer scientists warn that proposed changes in firmware specifications may make it impossible to run unauthorised operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD on PCs.
Proposed changes to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware specifications would mean PCs would only boot from a digitally signed image derived from a keychain rooted in keys built into the PC. Microsoft is pushing to make this mandatory in a move that could not be overridden by users and would effectively exclude alternative operating systems, according to Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University and other observers.
Full Story here
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