text: News about data leaks, government surveillance and private information trading have made the front page of media outlets in recent years. Last year, a data protection scandal erupted when it was discovered that Facebook started collecting and storing data from WhatsApp users after acquiring the application in 2015. While phone numbers are not shared with Facebook, other types of information are gathered, such as the type of devices and the operating systems used to operate it on.
  This is supposed to be used in analytics in order to optimize marketing efforts. However, Facebook is already plagued by rumors of them selling this information to the NSA and the FBI and as long as their information pool enlarges, privacy will likely diminish drastically for each citizen. Moreover, NSA’s extracting tool called PRISM violates the privacy of people from all over the world under the pretext of defending the state against terrorist activity. Yahoo and Google have also been accused of cooperation along with other Silicon Valley companies that work with sensitive data.
  Hackers also threaten information security, as their instruments become more advanced and intrusive. Accessing banking information or webcams have become common practices and those who don’t pay attention to what links they click on might find themselves in danger.
  Company owners and managers fear hacking the most, particularly since they can’t control what their employees browse. Which is why they often end up exploring the possibilities of digital surveillance. A Windows monitoring software can let a supervisor see anything from typed commands to visited URL’s and versions are available for other operating systems. And while it is acceptable to watch over workers’ activity and prevent them from engaging in any damaging actions, there are other forms of surveillance that are considered immoral, including:
  Social Media Following
  This has become a common practice in the workplace as colleagues start befriending each other on Facebook and following each other on Twitter and Instagram. However, this is an unfortunate thing to do from a managerial point of view. Appreciating some subordinates more on social media may cause feelings of insecurity and resentment for others. Moreover, access to a worker’s posts where they express personal convictions and ideas may cause biased decisions in the workplace in the long run. On the other hand, some employees will feel the need to limit their public sharing as work connections crowd their friend list.
  Many companies have a system of employee email monitoring so that managers can be on top of any risky situation. Most of the time people are not aware of it. This can lead to very unpleasant situations, where workers use their work address for personal purposes or where they make comments via email regarding their supervisor or their company. Later on, they can face discrimination from supervisors or even lose their jobs, even though they were not informed about this intrusion. Employees should be warned previous to signing a contract that the information they exchange by company e-mail is not personal, so they can make informed decisions about the contents of their messages.
  Hiring or Firing Based on Internet Searches
  Another problematic practice is that of supervisors goggling employers before an interview to find social media accounts and making an impression about the candidate’s appearance, social status, and likings. About 61% of employers engage in this practice, according to a CareerBuilder Survey. Moreover, people have lost jobs because of their Instagram or Facebook posts where they exposed controversial beliefs, showed nudity or engaged in inappropriate blogging.
  Over monitoring Computers and Phones
  Some companies are strict when it comes to their workers’ daily productivity, others want to make sure the apps and sites the employees access are not a threat to their internal systems. However, monitoring websites and apps is one thing, but collecting GPS information from phones is highly invasive of their personal space. And while there is no explicit law forbidding it, it is a form of unjustified control that is heavily frowned upon.
  All things considered, advancements in digital technology have enabled people with a complex set of tools to interact with each other, share ideas and work more efficiently. Nevertheless, it is up to each person, company, and government to decide how to best use these tools and how to establish the proper boundaries between public or private institutions and citizens.
  It’s a funny thing. Your signature uniquely identifies you as you. The last thing you’d want is to have dozens of signatures; it would make identity theft that much simpler. But when it comes to an IPS, many assume the more signatures, the better. The FortiGuard IPS service is marketed as inspecting “Over 8,000 signatures consisting of 15,649 rules.” Checkpoint notes that it delivers “1,000s of signature, behavioral and preemptive protections.” All of which begs the question, is the sheer quantity of signatures the right way to measure the effectiveness of an IPS?
  Traditional IPS appliances remain limited in many ways. An IPS is only effective at protecting devices on its network; it cannot protect cloud and mobile traffic. Security appliances must be carefully “cared for,” constantly requiring new signatures and software patches. The result of which is a big time-sink for IT teams. And with HTTPS traffic now the norm, SSL or TLS inspection is essential for any IPS. Yet, decrypting encrypted traffic is processing-intensive, exacting a heavy toll on IPS performance.
  Against this backdrop we need to consider the value of additional threat signatures. Every signature applied by an IPS requires additional processing. As a result, IT managers find themselves in the unenviable position of weighing security protection against operational efficiencies and hardware constraints. On the one hand, they can run all IPS signatures for maximum protection, ultimately forcing an expensive hardware upgrade when the number of signatures start to exceed IPS processing capacity. On the other hand, IT managers run select IPS signatures and significantly complicate IPS deployments, requiring the evaluation and assessment of every signature’s severity, performance impact, and ability to accurately identify a threat.
  The reality is that all too many threats detected by IPS signatures are either irrelevant or can be defended against more efficiently with other security systems. Our security researchers recently completed an analysis of signatures supplied for the open source Snort IPS. They found that many of its signatures block attacks against outdated applications while many other signatures identified the same attack using different IP addresses or domain names. Attackers often jump between domains and IP addresses faster than Snort updates, making many of these signatures irrelevant.
  The truly accurate measure of an IPS’ effectiveness should be less about the quantity of signatures and more about the impact of those signatures. Like an Aikido master deflecting attacks with the most economical movement, the successful IPS stops the greatest number of serious threats with the least number of signatures.
  How do we gain this Aikido-like efficiencies from our IPS systems? First, rather than trying to create IPS signatures for every attack, we need to start relying on other security engines to do their jobs. Security engines with reputation data are a far better way to block threats from rapidly changing domains or IPs, for example, than dozens of specific, hardwired IPS rules. The fact that this isn’t happening reflects a deep architectural flaw within traditional IPS architecture.
  Even when they are packaged with other tools or share common management consoles, legacy IPS operation remains siloed. The pattern-matching language used to build IPS signatures cannot utilize information from other security modules, such as application control, antivirus, and URL categorization and reputation. The lack of interaction between security components is intentional. IPS was designed to work at wire speed. Integrating its real-time processing with other security products adds too much delay into the session. However, without the context from other security sources, IPS signatures could erroneously block good traffic flows or too few threats.
  The second way to improve IPS efficiencies then is to build signatures based on the symptoms of an attack and not its details. By replacing the traditional signature with context-aware signatures, the IPS can identify often-missed attacks, such as vulnerability exploits and malware command and control communication, or only detected with many false positives or negatives.
  Essential to building context-aware signatures is integration with other security systems. The signature’s pattern-matching language should tap the full context of networking and security attributes associated with each session, flow and packet including:
  To do this, the IPS provider needs a deep understanding of real-world traffic patterns. This can often be gained by discerning big data insights derived from monitoring the large volumes of traffic across global backbones. With that insight, the IPS provider can optimize IPS signatures for maximum effectiveness, test them on real-world data before releasing to customers. And when delivered as a service, the IPS provider can monitor and tweak those context-aware signatures for maximum effectiveness.
  It’s for those reasons, Cato Networks recently introduced a context-aware Intrusion Prevention System .
  Cato IPS is also the first to be integrated with a global SD-WAN service, allowing Cato security researchers to test, modify and perfect IPS signatures using live traffic from Cato’s backbone. “With Cato IPS, our customers gain richer defense through an always current IPS, smarter signature with contextual awareness, incredible scalability that covers SSL encrypted traffic, and the insight of our world-class security research team,” says Gur Shatz, co-founder and CTO of Cato Networks.
  To illustrate, the impact of context awareness consider how a traditional IPS might block suspicious IPs and URLs. Hundreds of signatures around specific domains or IP addresses is one approach, but a wasteful one. A context-aware IPS, such as Cato IPS, can block suspicious locations by leveraging geolocation restrictions:
  The recent WannaCry outbreak, for example, can also be stopped with Cato IPS by detecting the EternalBlue exploit used by WannaCry:
  Rich context also helps with IPS performance. Normally an IPS lacks visibility into the user’s environment and must run all signatures on traffic from all clients. Not only does this generate false positives, but wastes processing inspecting irrelevant traffic, looking for Android-based threats for example, on iPhone or Windows machines. With deeper visibility into the packet stream, the Cato IPS can be more intelligent in selecting the rules to be activated. Knowing a device is an Android means that the IPS can safely skip signatures specific to Windows devices or iPhones
  With mobile devices, IoT, and the cloud our IT environments are becoming only more complex. We face an ever greater range of threats, which cannot be stopped with a traditional IPS. Context-awareness gives the IPS substantial stopping power using fewer signatures, which are better tuned to today’s rapidly shifting threat landscape.
  Throughout the years, the growing needs for storage led to the invention of simpler ways to manage file storage. But this isn’t an easy task because storage users also want efficiency and control together with great service levels, all necessary things in order to keep up with an ever-changing business world. This is how file virtualization came into action.
  Storage systems rely on special hardware, software, and disk drivers in order to deliver fast and reliable storage for data processing and computing. Managing storage and data is a complex and time-consuming activity; storage virtualization improves this, making it possible to have back-ups and achieving tasks in an efficient matter. This technique is by no means a new one, but it became hugely popular in recent years due to its many benefits. Storage virtualization basically aggregates the physical storage from multiple networks storage devices, so that it looks like a single storage device; beyond the reduced complexity of the entire storage management process, it also offers a better disaster recovery in case the storage area network (SAN) gets destroyed.
  There are two primary types of virtualization that occur when talking about storage systems: block-level virtualization and file-level virtualization. The first type is located in the SAN environment of large businesses and enterprises. It basically means that every block in a block-level system can be controlled as an individual hard drive and the blocks are managed by the server based operating systems.
  A physical storage device has a number of blocks and a set of commands to read and write blocks of data which block-level virtualization imitates in order to transmit the same commands and get the same results. Using block-level storage protocols like iSCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface), Fibre Channel or Fibre Channel over Ethernet, the storage blocks are made visible and accessible by the server-based operating system.
  File system virtualization fundamentally refers to the aggregation of multiple file systems into a single, larger virtual file system. This technique serves applications that need to access data in the form of files rather than block-by-block and these files are usually found in file systems located on Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.
  One of the main purposes that led to the file virtualization was the desire to shelter the users from the complicated processes pertaining to the storage environment. This storage technology is usually configured using a protocol such as Network File System (NFS) or Server Message Block (SMB)/ Common Internet File System (CIFS).
  The virtual file system interface, usually referred to as the v-nod interface is responsible for creating a connection between the physical systems - containing the actual data that is stored – and the logical file systems, which are basically a representation of the physical files. File virtualization has the ability to eliminate the dependencies between the data accessed and the location where the files are physically stored. This means that storage usage and server consolidation have an improved efficiency and that file-migrations can be done with minimized disruptions. This type of virtualization favors a certain level of flexibility for storage managers and increases data mobility thanks to the location independence between file systems, files from the applications and users. It can also provide a solution to file size limitations because it can save storage space for files on different servers.
  One of the key benefits brought by file virtualization is the fact that it provides a global namespace to index files on network file servers. A global namespace has the role of simplifying storage management in environments where there are many physical file systems. It’s also a good solution for fast growing environments where data needs to be accessed without having to know where it’s physically located. A global namespace gives an organization the opportunity to access a virtualized file system namespace, while it can also open more storage pools and help reduce the number of mount points in an environment.
  All in all, the evolution of storage virtualization means that previously unstructured data has become easier to manage, thus revolutionizing the technological world by transforming multiple network storage devices into what basically amounts to a single storage unit.
  Solenoids are helical shaped coils that are controlled by electric currents. Essentially Solenoids are electromechanical in nature, i.e. they are controlled by electricity and convert the electric signals they receive to mechanical movements. Solenoid valves make use of solenoids to control the flow of either liquids or gases.
  These valves are most commonly used elements for control in fluidics.
  Function
  The task of these valves can vary from shut off to release to dosage and even distributing or mixing of fluids. These are the fastest and safest switching mechanisms in valves and have the highest reliability. They are long wearing and require less power for usage and have a compact design.
  Source:
  How it works
  Solenoid valves mainly have two parts: a solenoid and a valve. The solenoid takes electrical energy and converts it to a mechanical force that opens or closes the valve. The opening and closing of the valves are usually accomplished by a plunger type actuator for these valves.
  Almost all solenoid valves function on a two mode or digital principle i.e. they are either active or switched on i.e. the coil is active with an electric current passing through it, or they are resting, inactive or switched off when there is no electric current.
  Modes of operation of Solenoid valves
  In general, there are two types of Solenoid valves, they are direct-operated or Pilot operated.
  Direct-Operated Solenoid Valves
  These valves are controlled entirely by the solenoid force.The valve has a plunger in the valve is kept in place either opened or closed with the help of the fluid pressure and a closing spring. The only thing that can move the position of the plunger is the solenoid force.
  These can have two different type of functioning:
  Normally closed - In this case the solenoid valve is closed when switched OFF and opens when switched ON. These valves require a continuous flow of electricity to keep the valve open.
  Normally open - In this case, the solenoid valve is open when switched OFF and closes when switched ON. These valves require a continuous flow of electricity to keep the valve closed.
  There are solenoid valves that are designed to switch between normally open and normally closed states. These are called as Latching or Bi-stable Valves. For these, just short electrical impulses are enough to make the solenoid valve to become either opened or closed valves reducing the electric power consumption and heating to negligible amounts.
  Pilot-Operated Valves
  These valves use a smaller pilot solenoid valve to control a larger valve. The second larger valve is usually activated pneumatically but the two are together referred to as a pilot- operated solenoid valve.
  These valves generally require less electricity to operate but have a drawback that they need continuous and constant power to remain in the active state, whereas a direct-acting valve requires full power only to activate the valve, thereafter it requires much lower power to hold it in the active state.
  The pilot operated solenoid valves are also much slower than a direct operating valve.
  Types of Solenoids valves
  Two-Way Valves
  The valve has two ports one for inflow and the other for outflow. This is the most basic solenoid valve with a normally open or normally closed state.
  Three-Way Valves
  Three-way valves have three ports. These can have one inlet and two outlets or two outlets and one inlet depending on its function.In this type of valve one outlet stays closed while the other stays open. These are used when the operation requires alternating and exhaustive pressure, for example, a dishwasher.
  Four-Way Valves
  This type of valves has four or five pipes or ports. These can have a single or two solenoids with a single valve operator. In this type of a valve half, the ports supply pressure, and the remaining connections provide exhaust pressure. These valves are used in dust collectors, safe field wiring, gas applications etc.
  Proper research is required before buying a solenoid valve, to suit a function. It is important to take note of specifications required for the system, the type of fluid used in the operation and also the type of material that should be used for the seals.
  Sweating is an involuntary phenomenon that our body skin performs in order to regulate the body temperature. Technically known as perspiration, it is the release of salt-based fluids from our sweat glands located under the skin.
  While sweating is an essential natural process, excessive sweating leads to social problems and sometimes embarrassment when attending a public meeting. Hence a need for the development of an artificial process that could control excessive sweat arose which gave birth to Iontophoresis.
  Defining Iontophoresis
  The process of Iontophoresis was brought into active treatment in the early 1940s. Since then, the process itself has evolved several fold time. Iontophoresis is the advanced stage for patients who are suffering from excessive sweating, scientifically known as Hyperhidrosis. With an impressive success rate, typically ranging from 65%-98.5% for eliminating excessive sweats from the targeted parts of the body, Iontophoresis is considered safe and reliable.
  Working Of Iontophoresis
  source:
  Iontophoresis uses purified water as a medium to conduct a mild electrical current to the sweat glands present in the skin cells. Iontophoresis is the process that works by passing charged particles all the way to the sweat glands, thereby making it dysfunctional rather than excessive sweat.
  Areas That Can Be Treated With Iontophoresis
  Several body parts are proven to be treated with desired results to eliminate excessive sweat by using Iontophoresis. Typically, Iontophoresis enjoys a success rate of 98.5% for feet area and around 65-75% for armpit and underarms area. Some of the other body parts that can undergo Iontophoresis include facial area, forehead including scalp area.
  How Is Iontophoresis Performed?
  Major factors on which the success of Iontophoresis depend includes
  The following procedure is usually followed while undergoing Iontophoresis
  Utmost care is taken so that Iontophoresis is conducted in a zone where the possibility to sweat is the minimum.
  Side Effects Of Iontophoresis
  As mentioned earlier, Iontophoresis mainly because of its nature of the treatment is one of the safest treatments. But there are exceptions to all good things in this world. Some of the side effects of Iontophoresis include:
  Patients Who Should Avoid Iontophoresis
  Though Iontophoresis is a safe, reliable treatment and this has been repeatedly mentioned throughout, a certain category of patients must avoid undergoing Iontophoresis. They include Pregnant women, Patients fitted with a pacemaker, Patients with metal implants and Patients suffering from epilepsy.
  FDA-Approved Devices For Iontophoresis
  To the much of the patient’s convenience, FDA approved devices are in the market that can be used for Iontophoresis in the home.
  A powerful package, this device has the highest success rate. More than 20000 units have been sold till date and this proves its popularity. Enjoying an FDA-approved device status, the device is the most expensive public use device for Iontophoresis.
  Though the makeover of this device is dull, the unit is powerful enough to provide desired results.The device is expensive yet one of the popular FDA-approved devices in practice.
  Alternative To Iontophoresis
  What if Iontophoresis fails to treat your concern? There are other ways too to reduce your excessive sweat. Such ways use the additional substance to enhance/strengthen the process of Iontophoresis. Some of these enhancements include:
  A very holistic view about the process of Iontophoresis is detailed in the above passages. Consider it only as a general guide and make sure to have an opinion from a specialist before undergoing Iontophoresis.
  Electronic signatures are a robust method of verifying the integrity of an electronic document. This is the digital counterpart of putting your signature on the dotted line. With the majority of organizations making a shift from paperwork to electronically managed records, the concept of signing these documents electronically is a no-brainer. This need is even more compounded in cases where those who sign on the document and those who need to verify the document work remotely. It doesn’t help that the general public perception of eSignatures is poor as compared to their physical counterpart. A recently published paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology looks into the trust issues people have with eSignatures. Another paper explores the indirect side-effects eSignatures have on individual honesty and integrity. Properly implemented eSignatures are in fact very secure and resistant to tampering. This is supported by the fact that online contract signing is going manstream.
  There are two regulatory acts that provide the baseline for eSignature security compliance standards for various implementations around the world; these are the ESIGN Act for the US and eIDAS for the European Union. eIDAS identifies three types of eSignatures: basic, advanced (AES), qualified (QES).
  This type of signature involves the signatory putting their signature mark on the document (typed or drawn) and then protecting it with a cryptographic signature. This “witness” cryptographic signature binds the signature marking to the document. Any unauthorized changes are thus not allowed on that document. This ensures that the person putting in the signature is actually the one who is supposed to sign. Making this accurate requires implementing authentication schemes that are a precursor to the document signing process. The key used to sign documents using basic eSignature scheme can either be a centralized one from a service provider or one from the organization itself.
  Advanced Electronic Signature scheme is more secure than the basic scheme. From the 1999/93/EC EU Directive:
  ;”
  Unlike the basic scheme where the same key was used to put a cryptographic signature on the document, AES requires that each signatory has their own unique key. The signatory’s identity must be established using the certificate provided to it by a trusted authority. The implementation should also be able to identify whether the document data has been tampered with and reject the signature in that case.
  For the actual implementation, three standards are used: XAdES, PAdES and CAdES. XAdES (short for "XML Advanced Electronic Signatures") is based upon XML Signatures, which is a general purpose framework for digital signatures. CAdES (short for CMS Advanced Electronic Signatures) is based upon Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS), which is another general purpose framework for digital signatures. PAdES (short for PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures) is one of the most popular standards. This standard defines a set of restrictions for PDF document format.
  When a digital document is presented to a system, the reviewer validates that the document has not been tampered with, and makes sure that it is signed by a certificate that they trust. That certificate in turn should be trusted by another trusted certificate and so on in the chain, until we reach the trusted root - which is a certificate that is verified to be of legitimate origins and is already stored with the reviewer system. This is very similar to how web browsers validate a website’s certificate.
  But what if some organization discovers that their identity has been compromised long ago and they should not trust the documents signed after that? That would require revoking the certificate. So when the reviewer is looking to verify the document integrity, they must know that the certificate they have been provided is no longer valid. This is done by using Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL), which is a list that is published periodically by the certificate issuing authority or by using OSCP, which is a protocol to obtain the certificate revocation status in real time. These methods work well but require network connectivity to work. A solution to this problem is Long-Term Validation (LTV). In an LTV scheme the required elements are embedded in the document itself, so the reviewer can verify the signature later on. One benefit of PAdES is that it supports LTV.
  QES are a more trusted version of AES. It involves a formal registration process for the signatory to verify their identity before a qualified certificate issuing authority.
  eSignatures are gaining more mainstream acceptance than ever before. The combination of ease of use and security makes this technology very promising. The market is still learning to adopt it. We will see more development in this space in the coming years especially in relation to smart contracts.
  This is just to deploy a test OpenStack instance to try it, perform demonstrations or to learn how to deploy cloud instances. In short, I decided to have a test OpenStack instance running on my old laptop and if possible have a booking page that lets users request access to this OpenStack setup via Horizon or SSH. I ended up creating this page for booking it -, and I have a separate URL for accessing OpenStack: (If this URL doesn’t work, it’s because I’ve shut down my laptop).
  Which Operating System do you need? I setup both DevStack and RDO (RPM Distribution of OpenStack). These are two popular free OpenStack distributions. At the time of writing this, Ubuntu 16.04 is great for setting up DevStack. It is geared towards OpenStack developers having an environment to develop and test. However, after having installed the latest release of DevStack, I decided to try out RDO. RDO is deployed using Packstack which is a tool that uses Puppet, an open source configuration management tool, to deploy the various components that make up OpenStack.
  As of writing this, DevStack’s latest package sets up OpenStack Pike (which can be confirmed from the nova version – 16.0.0) while the latest stable release of RDO contained OpenStack Ocata.
  To setup RDO, CentOS works great, however Fedora may work as well. CentOS is a free Linux distribution based on RedHat Enterprise Linux. The version I installed was the latest minimal version of the server pulled from here:. I got the “Everything ISO” version of the installer which has the option to setup the Minimal version.
  It’s best to disable Firewalld and NetworkManager.RDO recommends that in their installation website:
  Here are some of the steps I had to perform;
  sudo systemctl disable firewalld
  sudo systemctl stop firewalld
  sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager
  sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager
  sudo systemctl enable network
  sudo systemctl start network
  My laptop has a wireless port, and I didn’t want to physically plug the Ethernet port for convenience reasons. This presents a new problem. Packstack setup recommends that you have NetworkManager disabled on the Operating System. This means DHCP is out of the question. It’s also not recommended to have DHCP on the port while running OpenStack. I initially solved this using a specific IP address corresponding to the MAC address of my wireless port. In a way, it’s static, but it’s still using DHCP to set the same IP address to my wireless port every time. So, I started experimenting with several static IP configurations on my wireless port. Eventually, I was able to figure out that I had to authenticate to my wireless router manually.
  To do this, I generated a Hex Code for my SSID and password combination. To do that, use any free WPA PSK generator. Then, I created a wpa_supplicant configuration file called “wpa_supplicant.conf” with the following information.
  network={
  ssid="8 1/2"
  psk=<your_64_character_PSK>
  }
  Then use the following command to authenticate to the wireless router.
  wpa_supplicant -B -D wext -i wlp4s0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf;dhclient wlp4s044
  As you may have guessed, wlp4s0 is my wireless port. Now, I had to make this persistent on boot, so add the line above to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file and set the right permissions for this file: chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local.
  At this stage, it’s best to reboot your laptop to make sure you can connect to the Internet through the wireless port.
  It’s not mentioned in the website, but it’s better to disable selinux or set it to permissive. It’s also recommended to have a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Ensure you have properly set up the /etc/hosts and the /etc/resolv.conf files.
  Then perform the following self-explanatory steps;
  yum install -y
  yum install -y centos-release-openstack-ocata
  yum update -y
  yum install -y openstack-packstack
  In my all-in-one laptop setup, contrary to what’s specified in the installation website, it’s best to generate an answer file which you can use to fine-tune what you actually set up.
  packstack --gen-answer-file=answer.txt
  This comes up with a file (called answer.txt) which contains all the parameters regarding the installation of OpenStack. I disabled certain OpenStack components like Swift (the Object Storage service) and telemetry (the metering service) as this is just a test setup on a laptop.
  Then I used the following command to run the installation.
  packstack --answer-file=answer.txt
  My laptop had around 300 GB of disk space, with 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM. The setup completed in about 30 minutes, and you must see a “Installation completed successfully” message.
  It didn’t work the first time (Error: systemd start for rabbitmq server failed) and I asked a question on the Ask OpenStack forum. It hasn’t been answered by the time of this blog post, but I solved it by adding a search keyword with my domain name on my /etc/resolv.conf file and by adding my internal IP (wireless port’s IP) and my domain name in the /etc/hosts file. I will explain how to generate this domain name later. One thing to note is the way you know the installation didn’t succeed is by not getting the “Installation completed successfully” message. You will still be able to access the Horizon dashboard but several things that have to do with the RabbitMQ server will not work.
  Once the installation is done, OpenStack sets up several virtual bridges, one for the internal network (your private home network) , one for the external network (the public network) and one as a tunnel. Here’s a screenshot to better explain this;
  There are a couple of ways to handle this. The first one, the recommended I’d assume, is to setup the “br-ex” interface to have the IP address that was in the “wlp4s0” interface, and the make the wlp4s0 port, a port in the OVS bridge. If this configuration is needed for someone, I’ll post it here – but for the sake of brevity let me ignore this for now. In short, the wireless interface configuration would change to something like this;
  NAME="My_SSID"
  ESSID="My_SSID"
  ONBOOT=yes
  IPV6INIT=no
  BOOTPROTO=none
  DEVICETYPE=ovs
  TYPE=OVSPort
  OVS_BRIDGE=br-ex
  The second way, is to use the default network configured by OpenStack on the external bridge – 172.24.4.0/24 as shown in the screenshot above. This network, as it’s a bridge, can still route traffic via the wireless port to the Internet by default, and the instances that you may deploy will have connectivity to the Internet – sort of like a tunnel (I have proof of this below). However, you would not have the ability to ping the deployed instances from your local wireless network laptops.
  Once the installation is done, you can simply point your browser to your static IP address that youconfigured for the laptop, and you should be able to see the OpenStack dashboard. One of the good things I was surprised by, was a “material” theme for the OpenStack interface – inspired by Google’s material design - if you’re familiar with Android development.
  I had a Cirros instance stuck in the “queued” state, and I was able to get rid of it (only) from the CLI, using the following command;
  glance image-delete <image_ID>. This may have been because of the first failed message I received, as mentioned above.
  The rest of the setup is very important. Next, you setup Neutron. I briefly mentioned which internal and external network I setup above. I can provide more details if anyone needs this. Then setup a virtual router to bridge the internal and the external networks using one gateway address. This is a screenshot of the topology from the “second way” I mentioned above.
  Then, it’s best to setup your key pairs. You have to copy your public key on the Key Pairs section on Horizon. Most cloud instances need key pairs for authentication and your regular username/password method of authentication will not work.
  Then, setup an image – several cloud-init enabled images are available on the Internet, that you can either download and upload to Horizon, or directly import via a URL. I decided to stick with the Cirros image – just for initial testing.
  Horizon in the Ocata release has revamped the instance launching screen. It looks much better and is intuitive.
  To cut the long story short, I deployed my first instance and it was successful. I also associated a floating IP on the test 172.24.4.0 network. The wireless port acted as the gateway for the internal network – 192.168.0.0 network.
  What’s really surprising for a first-time viewer was how it was able to ping google.com in spite of not having the instance registered on my wireless router.
  This step is quite important, and should be at the top of this page, as this was one of the first things I did. My cheap wireless router had a feature of creating DDNS addresses associated with the public IP (which may change on router reboot) provided by my ISP. So, I generated a URL for my public IP address and opened up the HTTP port (80) on the router. If this URL doesn’t work, it’s because I’ve shut down my laptop.
  URL:
  However I wanted an always-on URL to enable people to “book” my OpenStack instance. This URL is here:
  The idea is if you send me a request via this URL () I’d be able to open my laptop, create a project, and user for you and let you access the resources. I also setup a booking page to charge for resources via Paypal.
  Here’s a diagram I came up in a short time to explain the whole thing to a layman:
  I wrote the whole thing in about 30 minutes, and I apologize for grammatical errors.
  Things to try in the future:
  The use of business intelligence and analytics to make decisions is on the rise in corporate America. According to a Gartner report, the the BI and analytics market is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2019. We are already at a stage where over 50% of the analysts and users in organizations have access to self-service tools for business intelligence. This is not surprising given recent reports that suggest that the use of such tools help businesses five times more likely to make faster decisions.
  But it’s not just faster decision making that is driving the adoption of business intelligence tools. BI and analytics relies heavily on data to arrive at conclusions. Decisions based on data are likely to be a lot more predictable and trustworthy than those that are based off gut-feelings or consumer surveys.
  Deploying business intelligence at work is however much more than simply installing a vendor software. BI tools are only as successful as you want them to be. The most successful businesses are those that see BI as a component of a larger process and culture change within the company. This change requires managers to establish processes that drive larger aggregation of data, processing them and actively pursuing insights from this data to arrive at decisions.
  The first step towards a successful deployment of BI is understanding your business objectives. A cost reduction project, for instance, would require a system where capital and cash outflow data from all your various warehouses and distribution centers are available at a granular level. On the other hand, if your objective is revenue maximization, then your system will not only need data pertaining to the various SKUs in the market along with their sales and distribution numbers, but also similar data of your competitors. In other words, knowing your business objectives will tell you the kind of data you will need. This will help you establish a system that gathers this data. Without a working system, deploying a BI platform is meaningless.
  The success of a BI deployment depends to a great extent on the software tools that you use. However, the best BI tool in the market may not be the right one for your business. Your evaluation should include various parameters like the cost of the tool, the size of business it is targeted at and the nature of deployment. According to this list of BI software tools, there are over 339 products available in the market today. While tools like Slemma BI and Grow BI are targeted at the price-sensitive customer, others like Rapid Insight focus on businesses that prefer Windows local installation. Pick a tool that meets not only all your feature needs, but also works within your budget and deployment requirements.
  Business intelligence is one of the best examples for the popular computing phrase, ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’. In other words, incorrect or insufficient input would bring about incorrect or insufficient output. The only way to break this cycle would be to drive a cultural change within the organization that focuses on gathering data at every level and bringing them together for the decision making process. This is not an easy thing to achieve, especially if you are an enterprise business with hundreds or thousands of employees. The lead, however, needs to come from the top and this push for data-driven decision making is extremely crucial to the success of a BI deployment.
  Do you make use of business intelligence software at work? Share us your experience in the comments.
  A software review also fixes architectural errors, bugs, logic flaws and mistypes. The senior and junior engineers figure out the solution and this helps them to get to know the product in more detail.
  Why is it important
  The software reviews take place many times while the product is being developed. This helps all the members of the team to be on the same page and helps in maintaining consistency. This is crucial as the members work with different styles. Also, the company has many projects that need its attention. Getting the software checked by various associates helps in having a different perspective. The problems and bugs in the software can be easily corrected when these reviews are held. A much better and easier solution can be obtained for the same problem when many minds are at work.
  Software peer review is done at the developer level. The author takes help of his or her colleagues and fellow developers to test and figure out the technical content of the software. The Linus’s Law states “given enough eyeballs, the bugs are shallow” which loosely translates as having more number of reviewers makes tackling the problems easier. Such type of approach is usually seen in the open source reviews.
  The software management review is done to study about the software’s usage of resources and the overall project status. The management review can be either informal or formal. A formal review follows specific steps. It first prepares and plans the structure of the review. Next, the analysis of the previous software peer reviews is done. In this, the individual preparation is checked and the group or team examination takes place. A follow-up process takes place after this and the formal management review is wrapped up.
  The software audit review, also known as an external review, is done by auditors who do not belong to the development team. These officials analyse the product in terms of user requirements. They also check whether the product meets the specifications that were cited in the blueprints of the software. Also, the product is analyzed for its compliance with the standards set by the authorities. There are different criteria under this review such as timeliness, source openness, elaborateness, the financial context and inclusion of user manuals and documentation.
  Other aspects of software review
  Following the software review at the development stage is efficient. The cost of fixing a problem at this level is much lower than fixing it post production during software testing. Also, there is always a downside of recalling the products after dispatching and launching them in the market. This is also considered as defect detection process.
  Software reviews also help in training the developers to code minimum error documents. This method becomes more efficient through the years as the members learn to keep the errors at bay. This is the next level in the review which is known as defect prevention process and helps the company in the long run.
  As a product is developed at the earliest, it tends to have a greater impact on the further projects. This helps in releasing the product early in the market and making greater profits.
  Conclusion
  Software Review has a pivotal role in the development of a product that is deployed by the company. It has many advantages, especially at the user end. One of the main aspects of software review is its testing. The cost of developing the software and the required hardware for it is very cheap. That’s why, for example, one can find smartphones that are cheap and expensive. What goes behind the higher brands’ flagship models is their rigorous testing and reviewing. The product is certified and widely accepted by the crowds due to its reviews. Also, a smartphone generally, has an average shelf life of 2 to 3 years. Advanced technology is incorporated at every stage in all the fields of electronics and software reviews happen to be really successful.
  Big.
  Facebook recently announced that it is working on the complete rewrite of its frontend framework ReactJS. ReactJS has been massively popular in the javascript community for building Single Page Applications (SPA) as well as server rendered applications using Server Side Rendering (SSR). With that in mind, we look at some major changes in the new edition of the React project.
  Fiber architecture splits the process of reconciliation of the DOM tree from the actual rendering step. This enables using different types of renderers. The reconciliation step is necessary to compute the difference between the DOM nodes at one point and another point after a state change in the application has happened. Keeping a decoupled render phase helps in using React in places like VR using React-VR project, hardware using React-Hardware project, web using the core ReactJS project, and native components in platforms like iOS and Android using the React-Native project - all the while sharing a common project base. ReactJS codebase is very convoluted at the moment and this makes it difficult for beginners to contribute to it. This rewrite aims to solve that issue as well.
  React Fiber breaks the reconciliation into two parts: evaluation and commit. The evaluation of changes to be made to the DOM tree is now asynchronous. React uses a virtual DOM to find out the difference current state and the next state efficiently and only propagates the final result to the real DOM. Earlier react used to move down the component tree and apply changes along its way. Now it waits for the browser to give it control using the requestIdleCallback API wherever it is supported and uses a polyfill to support older browsers. This helps the browser in maintaining the UI so that it is responsive even when React is trying to make an update that requires some heavy computation. This interruptible evaluation phase and makes the application more fluid. The second phase is the Commit phase in which the evaluated updates are written to the DOM tree. This phase is non-interruptible as conflicting updates might introduce layout thrashing.
  React Fiber supports returning array of components from the render function instead of a single top level component. Earlier if a render function wanted to return multiple components, it had to do it by wrapping those components in a top level dummy component like span in case of web platform. This worked just fine but caused major problems when the application used flexbox for styling. React Fiber is finally solving this much hated problem and more! Render functions can even return nested arrays of components or just text.
  Web developers are in a constant fight to reduce the time of first paint for the user. It is a common practice to use Server Side Rendering for rendering React applications before pushing the content to the user. This becomes problematic at times when the render takes considerable amount of time, probably because of some heavy computation. Until that processing is complete, the server cannot send the rendered application. React Fiber solves this by including a streaming renderer. Content can be streamed as soon as it is processed. This makes it possible to send static content like analytics embeds from various providers like Mixpanel and Adobe Analytics beforehand by keeping them in top level components. Data from these can be combined later using integrations from an aggregator like Segment. This feature has been requested for a long time and it will most likely make the cut for the initial release of Fiber.
  React Fiber introduces the concept of different priorities for different kind of updates. Some updates might be high priority, like animation updates, but they might be happening via deeper nested components. In that case if the parent components require some heavy processing, that would block the animation update in child components in current version of React. React Fiber solves this by assigning a higher update priority to animation updates. Different kinds of updates get arranged in different order. There are other concerns here which the react team needs to solve. Jumping the queue should be allowed for some updates but starving other updates must not happen. Another issue is that component lifecycle events might go out of sync because of this reordering. Facebook’s React team is currently looking into a graceful lifecycle event path. This architecture also makes componentWillMount event questionable and there have been requests to remove it as well.
  React Fiber makes it possible to make parallelized updates to the DOM. In the current version updates are applied recursively to the components in the order that they are listed.
  React Fiber is definitely going to make a lot of applications work better out of the box. The official semantic version it will hold is 16.0.0. If your application works fine with version 15.5.4, it will continue to work seamlessly with React Fiber once you upgrade.
  Google is one of the most prominent firms in the market of Information and Technology. This is because, google is not only responsible for its software, but it is one of the most important companies producing search results on the internet. Many companies depend on Google search engine to make sure that their brand is displayed on the top of search result page. This is done by the artificial intelligence of the company which is developed under the name of Google Rank Brain. The algorithm was developed by the company, by the search engineers who were tested, versus the Google Rank Brain. The engineers were made to guess the top results that Google will display for a particular query. The Google Rank Brain was tested for the same. The results concluded that the engineers had 70 percent success rate and the Google Rank Brain had 80 percent success rate. This made it one of the primary choices of the companies who look forward to improving their online presence. Let us look at a detailed study carried out by software engineers in this article.
  source:
  What is Google Rank Brain?
  Google Rank Brain is an algorithm written on the basis of hundreds of mathematical calculations called vector measurements. This algorithm is written in such a way that the computer can understand the code for the search engine to be optimized. The main job of the Google Rank Brain is to boost the results for Google queries. For example, if the user types a certain work in the query box, the Google Rank Brain searches for the phrase in its database related to that word and helps in finding accurate results. This makes the task more effective and efficient.
  Another important feature of the Google Rank Brain is that it can learn new things based on the user’s way of searching for the results. The Google Rank Brain is thereby very efficient in learning new phrases and recognizing the pattern of the searching.
  Importance of Google Rank Brain
  We are in that phase of the era where every little thing is being shifted to the online platform. It is very important to walk hand-in-hand with technology to make sure that you do not miss out on potential customers and associates. You can only make your business successful if you have good online and offline presence in the market. For impressive online presence, you should know the basics such as search engine optimization. Google Rank Brain is responsible for as much as 15% of search results on the internet.
  There are different factors responsible for the query results and one of the most important is Google Rank Brain. This is because the algorithm is written in such a way that the top results will be displayed according to the phrase in the database of the search engine. This gives accurate search results.
  Google Rank Brain and SEO
  Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the most important factors that any company should keep in mind if they want to have an impressive and influential online presence. For this, the content writers of the website should be aware of the keywords being used by the customers while searching for a particular query. The more accurate the keyword, more attention the website will receive. Google Rank Brain is completely based on the phrases and keywords. If the content writers use a perfect set of keywords based on which services, the company is offering.
  When the correct set of keywords is used, the Google Rank Brain will link the keywords with the keywords in the database and link it to the websites that are ranked based on the algorithms.
  Future of Google Rank Brain
  Google Rank Brain was first rolled out in the market in the year 2015. Back then, the software engineers had the made the algorithms in such a way that they remained constant till the script was updated and was rolled out on the internet. Gradually, the changes were made in the script in such a way that it becomes more user-friendly and interactive. As the users enter queries, the Google Rank Brain learns the pattern and then feeds the pattern to the script. This makes the script more interactive and you get better results next time you search on the internet.
  Graphic designing is not a cakewalk and requires the user to enroll into design schools and cultivate high-level skills and experience in the field. This often takes a toll on non-professionals and students who toil with designing. Fortunately, now, all those who out there are struggling to put together creative and visual presentations and lack professional skills of an experienced designer should fret no more. The creative team at Adobe has exceptionally constructed an easy to use designing application namely Adobe Spark, which aims to assist non-professionals and students in creating beautiful visual presentations, web stories, E-invites, animated videos and what not! The application is not only free of cost but is also extremely facile to use. One of the striking features of its usage is its popularity among children. The colorful and bright interface evokes interest and a feeling of enjoyment among not just kids, but adults as well. Let’s look at some of the most creative ways in which Adobe Spark can be put to optimum use.
  Source:
  Create your own web page
  Thinking about creating a website to share information and promote the newly created handicrafts, bakery or confectionary business, or even accounts of adventure and adrenaline filled solo trips? One can simply create beautiful and creative websites without prerequisites of technical knowledge about HTML using the Page option in Adobe Spark. The user is primarily required to create an account which is absolutely free, then they must pick the most suitable themes accordingly provided in Theme Gallery and choose from an exquisite range of fonts in order to beautify it further. One can upload their own favorite photographs or even choose from the photos already provided in Spark, and then they can customize it with more creative elements and preview the work done. The website will be assigned a new URL and one can subsequently share it with friends and family across social media. Users can even put together travel blogs, web stories, and even newsletters by using the Page feature in the application.
  School projects are no more monotonous!
  Projects are sometimes too boring and tedious, and so children end up procrastinating and avoiding it till the eleventh hour. With Adobe Spark, school projects can be made more fun-filled, engaging and interesting. The Video feature allows its user to create tutorials, presentations and even animated videos within a short span of time. Students can choose from a variety of colorful templates, gorgeous typography and eye-catching themes in order to make their projects look more appealing and creative. They can even record an audio and incorporate it into the animated videos to instill life into the stories and characters created by them. Teachers and educators can easily play with this innovative application and redefine the traditional assignments and projects, such that the students enjoy and look forward to working with them.
  E-invites and save the date postcards
  In order to share announcements related to birthdays, engagements, weddings, graduation and even christening ceremony, one eagerly looks forward to sharing them in the most unique and beautiful ways, so that the invitees take the time to read and indulge in the creativity of the invites. In an era of technology, facilities like E-invites save time and are considered much more economical as compared to the traditional physical invites. The Spark Post feature allows the users to put together elegant and artistic E-invites and save the date postcards which would catch the readers’ eyes. This feature is a great savior of time since one can share the invitations via email or even download them for printing. This feature can help design advertisements, pamphlets, flyers, and even quotes in the most innovative and aesthetic ways that are definitely going to entice the readers.
  After creating design applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom, Adobe has finally put together an application like Spark which doesn’t need the users to possess any pre-required design skills or knowledge about graphic designing. Due to the versatility of the features in the app, the eye-catching and colourful user interface which makes it popular among both children and adults, and the numerous creativity elements incorporated, Adobe Spark is a one-stop destination for all the non-professionals out there who are looking forward to stepping into the world of creative and efficient designing, be it at home or workplace or even schools.
  Blockchain is gaining popularity as an emerging trend and upcoming advancement in the field of technology that ensures the security and management of a database. It proves to be a convenient source for record or data management, identity management, transaction processing and documenting, where the system is resistant to any form of alteration or modification by a third party. The database manages an increasing collection of records known as blocks where each block is linked to a previous block. Crafted to secure data from being misused, Blockchain technology enables to maintain records and transitions between two parties in an efficient and verifiable manner.
  Description
  Designed specifically to protect data from being tampered, Blockchains utilizes a distributed timestamping server where databases are maintained autonomously and the open distributed ledger is programmed to process transactions automatically. Serving as a public ledger for all potential transactions, the concept was first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto almost a decade ago where this concept was applied to the digital currency Britcoin, which facilitated transactions as a public and decentralized ledger. The development of Blockchain technology that facilitated the requirements of Britcoin was the first in its digital field to provide a solution to double spending, where the technology does not include the involvement of an authority or a centralized server.
  Source:
  Features
  New developments in Blockchain technology provides a platform to secure transaction processing through a decentralized and distributed public ledger where online records are effectively managed and maintained without the interference of a third party. This enables the process of auditing and data management to be maintained in a cost-effective manner. Blockchain technology has created a rising demand for itself in a market where people prioritize the aspect of data security. Blockchain negates the possibility of the replication of a database or digital asset. While providing a solution to the problem of double spending, the technology ensures that every segment of data is only transferred once. Proving to be an effective method of managing transactions, Blockchain is a safer option compared to traditional methods of data management. Consisting of transactions and blocks, the functioning of Blockchain technology offers a systematic approach to the decentralized management of online data. The technology can secure and manage large-scale transactions through distribution and decentralization of the digital ledger. This is, therefore, a trusted source of database management as it aims to maintain quality and safety of online interactions.
  Defining Digital Trust
  Utilizing the concept of Cryptography, the technology aims to ensure that data cannot be altered or modified once recorded. Being an ethical form of data management, Blockchain enabled transparency to fight against the unethical trade of jewelry and diamonds, ensuring the industry to comply with the government regulations. Having started off as transaction and data processing system in banks, the evolving technology has come a long way to making its mark in the global market. Retailers are on the move to utilize this technology in order to facilitate transparent online transactions and clarity in the management of inventory. Business organizations believe that the technology has the potential and scope to enable trustworthy financial transitions in the digital front. Humaniq is a financial services app powered by the Ethereum blockchain. The startup aims to provide formal banking access to people who currently do not enjoy the privilege of systematized and transaction services. Integrating with the global economy, Humaniq aims to introduce it's breakthrough application using blockchain and biometric technologies to provide over 2 billion people with financial inclusion.
  Trend change
  Being a public ledger for Bitcoin transactions, Blockchain technology ensures a safe and transparent environment for online transactions. The industry has witnessed a significant rise in the demand for Blockchain Technology by the integration cost effective transaction management to facilitate a trustworthy platform to the public. The global trend has shifted from a centralized authority or a controlling third party to enable the functioning of a decentralized and autonomous transaction platform that ensures security and preservation of the original data. The significant innovation in technology has enabled the formation of an independent body through mass collaboration that enforces authentication and confidence of online information. Carving itself a niche in the market of financial transactions, the technology identifies its widespread impact on the global demand for this technology.
  New developments in Blockchain technology effectively ensures immutability and transparency following ethical and trustworthy means to facilitate online transactions. This innovation aims to have a lasting impact on the trustworthy trade of digital currency and ensures transparency while recording transaction and information publicly through a decentralized digital ledger. Yet to gain complete prominence over the market, the rising technology has proved to show potential to an exponential growth through the maintenance of an incorruptible public interface.
  Project managers are spoilt for choice when it comes to the various alternatives available in the market today. Picking one among these various project management tools is essentially a question of what features you need for your business and which of these tools meet all of your needs at the most affordable price. Given that most project management price their product based on the number of users in the system, the outgoing expense can quickly escalate.
  In this showdown, we are going to compare four project management tools that are priced in their own unique way. Hubbion is a tool that is completely free to use. Trello offers most essential features free of cost while restricting other important features while Wrike has very few features for free while most of the other important project management features are restricted to paid users. Basecamp has no free version, but has a fixed outgoing fee of $99/month.
  Now let us compare the features offered by each of these tools. Each of these tools has its own take on how many users can be permitted to collaborate, how many projects they may collaborate on, the size of the files that can be uploaded and the storage limit for documents.
  Users: Hubbion is open to unlimited number of users, and so is Trello. Wrike on the other hand is free for up to five users. For larger teams, you will need to pick a paid plan that starts at $9.80/user/month. Basecamp, as mentioned already, requires you to pay a fixed $99/month fee for unlimited number of users. Another difference to note here is team structure. Both Hubbion and Trello let users to collaborate with multiple teams at the same time. That is, if you are a third party contractor and work with multiple clients, you can do so from a single dashboard on Hubbion. However, users on Wrike and Basecamp are managed by a team administrator. That is, you only get added to a single team where you can collaborate.
  Projects: The next feature that is commonly a differentiating factor among the various alternatives is the number of projects you can create. All tools offer unlimited number of projects. However, if you are free user, then you can only do so from Hubbion, Trello or Wrike (for 5 users). Paid users have the option to create unlimited projects on all platforms, including Basecamp.
  File Storage Limits: Depending on what business you are in, the free version may or may not be a good fit for your needs. Businesses that deal with large file sizes would find Hubbion the best among all these tools. It offers unlimited file size uploads along with no visible cap on the total storage size. Trello has a 10 MB cap on the file size while Wrike limits the overall file storage to 2 GB. Paid users of Trello can attach files of up to 250 MB while those on Wrike can store as much as 5 GB (going up to 100 GB) depending on the plan you choose.