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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 16 Issue 38
Volume 16, Issue 38 Atari Online News, Etc. September 19, 2014
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1638 09/19/14
~ Hackers Steal Fed Data! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Docker Cloud Startup
~ Net Neutrality Comments ~ eBay Redirect Attack! ~ Apple Unveiling in Oct
~ Zuckerberg: Study Tech! ~ Tor Users Threatened! ~ Windows 9 Event Soon
~ "Right To Be Forgotten" ~ ~ Microsoft Cuts Jobs!
-* Hacker Plays Doom on Printer *-
-* FCC Questions Net Neutrality Rules! *-
-* Hyrule Warriors - The Defilement of Zelda! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Lots of stuff going on in the world lately! The people of Scotland vote
down the opportunity to break away from the United Kingdom. Personally,
I feel that was an important and correct path to take. More pressure to
be directed toward terrorism, but we'll see how that fares. Lots more,
but I'm sure you watch the news or read a newspaper on occasion!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Hacker Plays Doom on a Canon Printer!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Hyrule Warriors The Defilement of Zelda!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Hacker Plays Doom on a Canon Printer
Over the past two decades, the seminal shooter Doom has appeared on PCs,
consoles, iPhones, and e-readers.
Its latest stop? A Canon PIXMA printer.
Michael Jordon, the head of research at cybersecurity firm Context
Information Security (not the star of Space Jam), managed to hack into
the printer and replace its information screen with hellbeasts and
Cacodemons. It didnt come without effort and definitely isnt for
amateurs, but he did post step-by-step instructions for those with some
shady tech know-how.
Jordon didnt just do it for fun, however. Its his job to expose
vulnerabilities, though he doesnt believe this particular issue has been
exploited
yet.
We are not aware of anyone actively using this type of attack for
malicious purposes, but hopefully by raising awareness, we can encourage
vendors to increase the security of this new generation of devices, he
said.
Canon, not surprisingly, was less than thrilled when Jordon notified it
about the loophole, since it could allow less socially inclined hackers
to install other types of programs on the printer. The company says it
plans to issue a fix for the printers firmware soon to prevent others
from using the printer as a game system, or worse. (To be safe, you might
want to keep your PIXMA printer disconnected from the Internet until that
patch comes out.)
For what its worth, just because a good game can be played on a system
doesnt mean its an entertaining experience. The color palette gets
pretty screwed up as you play, and Jordon didnt reveal what, exactly, he
used to control the game (though we suspect it was a USB keyboard).
Believe it or not, a Canon printer isnt the weirdest system Doom has run
on. Back in July, a team of Australians got it running on an ATM, and
last year, a crew of modders managed to convert a piano into a Doom
machine. The team had to provide its own screen, but theres still an
undeniable charm to taking out hellspawn as you try to remember which
key is B-flat.
Hyrule Warriors Review The Defilement of Zelda
The first all-new Zelda game on the Wii U is a crossover with Dynasty
Warriors, but which game benefits most from the team-up?
If you know what Dynasty Warriors is then you already know exactly what
to expect of this game. Weve seen many Zelda fans and Wii U owners
trying to convince themselves that this would be something more
substantial, but despite a few minor improvements to the formula this is
just as shallow and repetitive as the Warriors games have always been.
And we really cant understand why the team-up ever seemed like a good
idea to Nintendo.
Given its niche appeal in the West theres actually a good chance you
havent heard of Dynasty Warriors before, but the fact that its so easy
to describe is part of the problem. The closet point of comparison is a
3D version of old school scrolling beat em-ups like Final Fight, in
terms of both the limited number of moves, the equally limited
intelligence of your enemies, and the intense repetition of the gameplay.
The core Dynasty Warriors games are set in 3rd century China but theres
also a spin-off series called Samurai Warriors, a crossover series called
Warriors Orochi, and more besides. But on top of this is a wide range of
licensed spin-offs based on popular Japanese franchises such as Gundam,
Fist of the North Star, One Piece, and Dragon Quest. As a consequence
Hyrule Warriors is just the latest in a long line of near identical
games, that still look and play the same as their 14 year old progenitor.
Although apparently the original idea was to make something more akin to
a regular Zelda game Nintendos classic franchise has in the end had very
little influence on Hyrule Warriors. The Chinese soldiers are now moblins
and stalfos, and your player characters are a selection of (mostly female)
characters from Zelda history. But thats just changing the wallpaper,
the contents within are almost exactly the same.
Although you use bombs and boomerangs as secondary weapons there are no
environmental puzzles to solve with them, and rarely any special uses for
them against enemies. Its best to shoot a deku baba from a distance with
a bow and arrow, but thats as complicated as their use ever gets. Thats
especially true of the boss battles, with the game using only a small
number of classic enemies and grossly simplifying their nature so that
all youre doing is button-mashing away at their health bar.
We probably shouldnt spoil exactly what characters are in the game, but
theres a wide variety from sword-wielders to magic users. But now matter
who they are and what weapons theyre wielding all of their combat boils
down to just mashing the light and heavy attack buttons. The
dial-a-combos that result are incredibly simplistic and leave no room for
you to impose your own play style on the game.
Although perhaps the damning thing about the combat is that its actually
amongst the most complicated of any of the existing Dynasty Warriors
games. Especially when you add in the magic system that gives you either
a stat boost or a special move, or ideally a combination of the two.
But while this may be a good Dynasty Warriors game it certainly doesnt
deserve to be part of the Zelda franchise. Apart from anything the clumsy
and simplistic combat is well below the standards of the 3D Zelda games.
For example, Hyrule Warriors has a dodge move that makes the same noise
as the dodge in Skyward Sword. But whereas in that game you had to jump
over and under enemies to get at their weak point, while cleverly slicing
their shields in two, here you just blandly mash the button until your
character awkwardly sidles round and you get in a more powerful attack.
Combat is all Hyrule Warriors is about and yet the regular Zelda games do
it so much better, despite for them it only being one element amongst
many. The main draw of a Dynasty Warriors game is meant to be the dozens
of soldiers on screen at once, but even assuming you havent got tired of
this spectacle in the last 14 years the artificial intelligence and
graphical fidelity suffers so much as a result that the gimmick just
isnt worth it.
Allied soldiers still mill around disinterestedly as you fight for your
life, while the featureless levels genuinely look like a PlayStation 2
game or at best a first year Xbox 360 title. Battles can take a long
time to resolve but although success revolves around the capturing and
maintaining of soldier-generating keeps theres no real strategy
involved beyond keeping an eye on your home base.
Hyrule Warriors (Wii U) a rare chance to play as Zelda in a Zelda game
On the default difficulty the story campaign is short and anti-climatic,
and instead the games longevity is meant to come from the adventure
mode. This offers up a large grid-based map in mimicry of the first The
Legend Of Zelda on the NES. The idea is that you explore each point on
the map, completing simpler battles that often revolve around more
specific goals such as wiping out a set number of enemies in a certain
time or with a specific weapon.
This considerably extends the length of the game but certainly not the
interest level, and if you werent sick of playing through the games
bland levels from the story mode you certainly will the nth time you have
to endure them in adventure mode. (Theres also an extra challenge mode
available via a day one patch, which at the moment adds just one extra
hard mission.)
The only real novelty in Hyrule Warriors is the chance to play as someone
other than Link in a Zelda game, but since the combat is so similar
across all the other characters even thats a hollow attraction. There is
a co-op option for each mode, with one person on the TV and the other on
the GamePad, but although the games simplicity seems to make it suitable
for more casual gamers the difficultly level is actually relatively high.
More importantly its a terrible introduction to Zelda, or indeed video
games in general.
Dynasty Warriors fans will insist everything weve just said is
completely wrong, and even by the low standards of the franchise we have
to admit this is one of the best games in the series. But it absolutely
is not a Zelda game and offers almost nothing of value to the usually
legendary adventures of Link.
In Short: It always sounded like a bad idea, but although Zelda has
inspired one of the best Dynasty Warriors games to date the end result
is still well below average by any other standard.
Pros: Slightly more complex combat than usual for a Dynasty Warriors
game. Playing as other characters is fun for a short while. Co-op option
for all modes.
Cons: Instantly repetitive and horribly shallow gameplay that has very
little in common with a real Zelda title. Terrible artificial
intelligence and graphics. Short, poorly scripted story campaign.
Score: 4/10
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
FCC Questions How To Enforce Net Neutrality Rules
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission needs to create explicit rules
that tell broadband providers what traffic management techniques they can
and cannot use if the agency has any hope of enforcing its proposed net
neutrality rules, some advocates told the agency Friday.
The FCC needs to reclassify broadband as a common-carrier, public utility
service in order to have a firm regulatory foundation to take net
neutrality enforcement actions, representatives of Kickstarter and
Mozilla said during an agency forum on net neutrality enforcement.
The FCC needs strong prohibitions against broadband providers selectively
blocking or slowing Web traffic, said Susan Crawford, a visiting
intellectual property professor at Harvard Law School. She called on the
FCC to pass net neutrality rules pegged to Title II of the Communications
Act, a section of the law that has focused on requirements for
common-carrier telephone companies.
"Consumers are really collateral damage in some Titanic battles between
these terminating [broadband] monopolies at the interconnection points
and edge providers," said Crawford, a longtime net neutrality advocate.
"The government is the only entity that can take on these companies."
The FCC's mission is to protect the public trust, and that focus trumps
the profit motive of a handful of large broadband carriers "every time,"
Crawford added. "The only reason to water down very strong net neutrality
rules under Title II would be to serve the commercial interests of the
carriers," she added.
Earlier this year, after a U.S. appeals court threw out parts of the
FCC's 2010 net neutrality rules, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed
new rules that would allow broadband providers to engage in what he
called "commercially reasonable" network management. Advocates of strong
rules have criticized Wheeler's proposal, saying it would allow broadband
providers to selectively slow Internet traffic and charge Web content
providers for priority traffic handling.
Representatives of two broadband trade groups opposed calls for the FCC
to adopt public utility-style rules, saying the dozens of regulations in
Title II would create a long and expensive process for net neutrality
complaints.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group
representing cable broadband providers, supports "reasonable" net
neutrality rules at the FCC, but the agency should focus on adopting
overarching principles and enforcing violations on a case-by-case basis,
said Rick Chessen, the NCTA's senior vice president for law and
regulatory policy.
The FCC needs to be flexible with enforcement as Internet business models
change, instead of adopting "prophylactic, prescriptive rules," Chessen
said. "We don't know which way this fast-moving Internet is going," he
said. "We don't know how it's evolving. We don't know what it's going to
look like two months from now, let alone two years from now."
New traffic management rules would pose "significant real" costs for the
approximately 3,000 small wireless ISPs across the U.S., added Stephen
Coran, a lawyer representing the Wireless Internet Service Providers
Association. WISPs have "no record of bad behavior" related to net
neutrality, he said.
The FCC can recognize the value of small ISPs by "not saddling them with
a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach that will increase costs, deter
investment, stifle innovation and slow the deployment of critically
important broadband service," Coran said.
Coran called for "regulatory certainty" that defines reasonable network
management practices that ISPs are allowed to use, and he called on the
FCC to require "good faith" negotiations between groups complaining
about potential net neutrality violations and ISPs before a formal
complaint can be filed.
In its 2010 rules, the FCC "created a vast, grey area where it's very
difficult to quantify the risk and assess the risk," he said. "If you're
a small ISP, and you're looking for money, and the banker says, 'I see
you have this net neutrality complaint, tell me what that means,' I
can't sit there and say it's a $1 problem or a $1 million problem."
Title II regulation is needed because of the market power and resources
of Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Communications and Time Warner Cable,
countered Michal Rosenn, the lone corporate lawyer at Kickstarter. Many
Web-based services don't have the money to engage in protracted net
neutrality fights with the largest broadband providers, she said.
Without strong net neutrality enforcement, broadband providers could
drive Web startups out of business before the FCC rules on case-by-case
violations, she said.
"Unlike the carriers, or even companies like Netflix, we don't have
billions or even millions of dollars and hundreds of lawyers to devote to
just making sure we can get our product out there," Rosenn said. "The
imbalance of power here is so enormous that our ability to even exist is
based on these rules, and based on the ability to have strong, bright
line rules."
Deadline Near, Net Neutrality Comments Top 3 Million at U.S. FCC
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has received a record
3 million comments from consumers, advocates, companies and lawmakers on
proposed new Internet traffic, or "net neutrality," rules as the
deadline to formally weigh in approached on Monday.
The comments, whose flow has tested and at times overwhelmed the FCC's
systems, continued to be received as the deadline for submissions to the
official record approached at the end of the day, said FCC spokeswoman
Kim Hart.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in April revealed his proposal to set new Open
Internet rules that regulate how Internet service providers (ISPs)
manage traffic on their networks.
Under the proposal, ISPs such as Comcast Corp would be prohibited from
blocking users' access to websites or applications but could charge
content companies, such as Netflix Inc, to ensure quick and reliable
delivery of their traffic to users, as long as such deals are deemed
"commercially reasonable."
Consumer advocates pounced on proposed rules they saw as creating fast
and slow "lanes" on the web.
Responding to calls for action from advocacy groups and a segment by
comedian John Oliver on his HBO show, Americans overwhelmed the FCC with
comments through online automated submission forms, email and mail.
The net neutrality submissions more than doubled the FCC's previous
record of 1.4 million comments submitted about singer Janet Jackson's
accidental breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004.
They also smashed records at other federal agencies on contentious
issues, for instance trumping the more than 1 million comments received
by the State Department last year on its environmental review of the
Keystone XL pipeline.
No formal deadline exists for the FCC to set new rules, which require a
majority vote at the five-member FCC for approval. The agency has
scheduled a series of workshops on technological, economic and legal
aspects of the rules through early October, so the vote is unlikely
before November.
The workshops, which will be open to the public in Washington and
streamed live online, begin on Tuesday, focusing on policy approaches
to the rules and on mobile broadband.
People can submit comments by email and on Twitter, the FCC said.
Wheeler has said he wanted to set new rules as quickly as possible, given
the void created by a federal court's rejection in January of the FCC's
earlier version. That means he could present a new draft of the rules
before the end of the year.
The outcry on net neutrality prompted Wheeler to alter the plan to ask
whether "some or all" pay-for-priority deals should be banned and whether
ISPs should be entirely reclassified to face regulations more like public
utilities, an approach backed by advocacy groups but staunchly opposed by
Republican lawmakers and the ISPs.
Wheeler has repeatedly reassured the public of his intent to police any
discrimination, which ISPs say would not be in their business interest
anyway.
Hackers Steal Usernames And Passwords Of 5,000 Government Recruiters From NSA
Hackers responsible for stealing the account information of 5,000
government recruiters on GovJobs.com may be preparing to impersonate
recruiters and gain access to classified information with the credentials
of clearance-holding job seekers.
California security firm IntelCrawler discovered the security compromise
of usernames, emails and passwords belonging to recruiters from every
military service, multiple government agencies including NSA and some of
the governments top defense contractors.
IntelCrawler President Dan Clements told Bloomberg that [h]ackers with
such information could impersonate recruiters and tap job seekers who
have knowledge of sensitive government projects, or seek damaging
information about applicants to blackmail them into spying for them.
According to the company, hackers could compare lists of job hunters
against earlier hacks of commercial companies in order to obtain
blackmail-worthy information like drug and alcohol abuse, pornography or
financial transactions belonging to government workers.
IntelCrawler said that some recruiters recycle passwords across multiple
government worksites and contracts, potentially jeopardizing their
contacts beyond the compromised accounts that have been identified.
The breach occurred on Aug. 13 and the company has since reported their
findings to Homeland Securitys U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team,
which is investigating the hack.
eBay Redirect Attack Puts Buyers' Credentials at Risk
EBay has been compromised so that people who clicked on some of its
links were automatically diverted to a site designed to steal their
credentials.
The spoof site had been set up to look like the online marketplace's
welcome page.
The US firm was alerted to the hack on Wednesday night but removed the
listings only after a follow-up call from the BBC more than 12 hours
later.
One security expert said he was surprised by the length of time taken.
"EBay is a large company and it should have a 24/7 response team to deal
with this - and this case is unambiguously bad," said Dr Steven Murdoch
from University College London's Information Security Research Group.
The security researcher was able to analyse the listing involved before
eBay removed it.
He said that the technique used was known as a cross-site scripting (XSS)
attack.
It involved the attackers placing malicious Javascript code within
product listing pages. This code in turn automatically redirected
affected users through a series of other websites, so that they ended up
at the page asking for their eBay log-in and password.
Users only had to click the original listing to have their browser
hijacked.
"The websites the user is being redirected to are almost certainly
compromised by the attacker to hide his or her traces," Dr Murdoch
explained.
He added that the fake page the users were ultimately delivered to
contained code that had the potential to carry out further malicious
actions.
"EBay is pretty competent, but obviously it has been caught out here," he
said.
"Cross-site scripting is well within the top 10 vulnerabilities that
website owners should be concerned about."
A spokesman for eBay played down the scope of the attack.
"This report relates only to a 'single item listing' on eBay.co.uk whereby
the user has included a link which redirects users away from the listing
page," he said.
"We take the safety of our marketplace very seriously and are removing the
listing as it is in violation of our policy on third-party links."
However, the BBC identified that a total of three listings had been posted
by the same account involved.
At least two of them produced the same redirect behaviour. The third was
removed by eBay, along with the other two, before it could be checked.
The issue was originally identified by Paul Kerr, an IT worker from Alloa
in Clackmannanshire who is also an "eBay PowerSeller".
He called the firm shortly after he had clicked on a listing for an iPhone
and been redirected.
"The advert had been up for 35 minutes," he told the BBC.
"When I spoke to the lassie on the phone, she said: 'I'm going to report
that to the highest level of security to get it looked into.' And she did
emphasise that.
"They should have nailed that straight away, and they didn't."
Mr Kerr identified the problem because the web address of the page he was
sent to was unusual. He screen-grabbed a video of the attack, which he
uploaded to YouTube as evidence.
He added that other less tech-aware users might not have realised the
danger they were in.
"It's guaranteed - you can bet your bottom dollar that somebody's going to
click on that and be redirected to a third-party site and they're going to
enter their details and be compromised," he said.
"You don't know how many of the hundreds of thousands of people who use
eBay will have done that."
This is not the first technical setback eBay has suffered in recent
months.
The site has experienced several periods when members have been unable to
sign into their accounts and have received incorrect password alerts.
In May, the firm made users change their passwords after revealing that
a database containing encrypted passwords and other non-financial data
had been compromised.
In addition, it announced in July that 1,600 accounts on its StubHub
ticket resale site had been broken into resulting in a scam that
defrauded the service of about $1m (£600,000).
EU Regulators Agree on Guidelines for 'Right To Be Forgotten' Complaints
European regulators have agreed on criteria for judging appeals for the
"right to be forgotten", taking into account public profiles or crime for
example, when search engines such as Google turn down requests to have
information deleted from search results.
But regulators made no mention of two thorny issues: whether search
engines ought to inform publishers when articles have been delisted from
search results, and whether links ought to be removed from all versions
of Google, such as Google.com.
The working group of EU data protection authorities aims to bring some
clarity to implementing a landmark court decision in May that gave
Europeans the right for the first time to ask search engines to erase
information about them from the web.
The guidelines, which are expected to be finalised by the end of
November, will set out categories for organizing the types of appeals
coming in from citizens and create a common record of decisions taken by
regulators.
This will help regulators determine whether the information should remain
accessible under the individual's name by asking them to weigh factors
such as the public role of the person, whether the information relates
to a crime and how old it is.
"We want the toolbox to guide difficult decisions on how to balance the
individual's right to privacy in the Internet age against the public
interest," Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, who heads France's privacy
watchdog and the WP29, said earlier this month.
A contact person at each data protection authority will ensure that
appeals people file are handled consistently across the EU's 28 member
states, the statement from the Article 29 Working Party (WP29) said on
Thursday.
Regulators came up with a draft of the criteria at a two-day meeting in
Brussels this week.
Around 90 such appeals have been filed with privacy regulators in
Britain, 70 in Spain, 20 in France and 13 in Ireland.
The WP29 members also met with media companies on the sidelines of the
meeting to gather their views on how to strike a balance between the
freedom of information and privacy. In July they met with search engine
companies Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Google's decision to notify the media via email that their articles had
been scrubbed from results prompted the BBC and The Guardian to write
articles about the removals, condemning them as censorship aimed at
whitewashing the past.
"There might be single, outstanding cases where involving the publisher
might be appropriate. But to do so systematically is undue," said
Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg's data protection body in Germany
which has jurisdiction over Google.
Google says it has received over 120,000 requests from across Europe to
remove from its search results everything from serious criminal records,
embarrassing photos and negative press stories. It could not be reached
for comment after the meeting.
The May ruling from Europe's top court sparked a lively debate between
free speech advocates who say it will lead to a whitewashing of the
past, and privacy campaigners who say it simply allows people to limit
the visibility of some personal information.
The Internet giant, which handles over 80 percent of searches in Europe,
has previously come under fire for its handling of "right to be
forgotten" requests. Its restriction of the removal of Internet links to
European sites only, for example Google.de in Germany, has been
questioned by several authorities.
"The effect of removing search results should be global. This is in the
spirit of the court ruling and the only meaningful way to act in a global
environment like the Internet," said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg's
data protection body in Germany which has jurisdiction over Google.
Comcast Is Threatening to Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor
Multiple users of anonymous Web browser Tor have reported that Comcast
has threatened to cut off their Internet service unless they stop using
the legal software.
According to a report on DeepDotWeb, Comcast customer representatives
have branded Tor illegal and told customers that using it is against
the companys policies.
Tor is a type of Web browser that, in theory, makes all your Internet
activity private. The software routes traffic through a series of other
connected Internet users, making it difficult for governments and
private companies to monitor your Internet usage. Up to 1.2 million
people use the browser, which became especially popular after Edward
Snowden leaked information showing that the NSA was eavesdropping on
ordinary citizens. Prior to that, Tor had been popular among people
transacting business on Silk Road, the online market for drugs and hit
men.
The problem is that downloading or using Tor itself isnt illegal.
Plenty of people might have legitimate reasons to want to surf the Web
in private, without letting others know what they were looking at. But
Tor has been pretty popular with criminals.
Comcast has reportedly begun telling users that it is an illegal
service. One Comcast representative, identified only as Kelly, warned
a customer over his use of Tor software, DeepDotWeb reports:
Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the Internet,
are usually doing things that arent so-to-speak legal. We have the right
to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at any time due to you
violating the rules. Do you have any other questions? Thank you for
contacting Comcast, have a great day.
Comcast customers, speaking to DeepDotWeb, claimed that Comcast
repeatedly asked them which sites they were accessing using Tor.
In a statement to DeepDotWeb, Comcast defended its actions, seemingly
asserting that it needs to be able to monitor Internet traffic in case
it receives a court order:
We respect customer privacy and security and would only investigate the
specifics of a customers account with a valid court order. And if were
asked by a court to provide customer information, then we ask for a
reasonable amount of time to notify the customer so they can decide if
they would like to hire a lawyer and if they do, then we turn the case
over to them and they proceed with the judge directly and we step away.
UPDATE: Comcast also said in a later statement that the report was
wildly inaccurate and that it has no stated policy against its
customers using Tor.
Docker, The Hottest Cloud Startup in the West, Adds $40M
If any startup has recently made hordes of developers think deeply about
the way they do their work and consider adopting new technology, its
Docker.
Last year Docker released to the world its Linux container technology for
easily packaging up application code and moving it from one server to
another, streamlining development and deployment. Now thousands of
projects build on top of Docker, and the technology has become the talk
of Bay Area developers. So it comes as no surprise that Docker has just
brought in $40 million in fresh funding, just eight months after
announcing a $15 million round.
The new cash, announced today, will help Docker build on the open-source
project at the heart of the company and will foster the development of
management and monitoring products the startup and its partners can sell
to companies big and small.
Clearly, Docker has become a thing, Docker chief executive Ben Golub
told VentureBeat in an interview. Were super excited, and obviously
theres lots of competition now, too. We really need to execute well and
fast.
Those words carry serious weight. While month-old startups boast about
how they use Docker containers in one way or another, Docker believes
that with its container technology, its on the road to creating a
standard for software development, as a lightweight, economical
supplement to or even a replacement for virtual machines for handling
multiple applications on each physical server.
VMware led the charge of the virtual machine at the turn of the century,
and Microsoft followed with competing technology. Now it seems the time
has come for a new company to grow big with application-development
tools that can speed up development time and improve data center server
efficiency.
I think that we have the opportunity to build a truly world-class
company that, you know, changes the way we build, ship, and run
applications and that goes for a big IPO and beyond, and thats how were
organizing the company, Golub said. We clearly wouldnt have taken a
big round at a big valuation if we were planning on selling in the near
future.
The startups valuation, which a report last month estimated at $400
million, is now four times what it was at the time of the January round,
Golub said.
Youd be right to be impressed with such rapid progress. And its worth
noting that Docker would never have made such progress if investors
hadnt set aside their initial concerns last year when founder Solomon
Hykes came forward with his desire to share the Docker-container
programming for free under an open-source license.
Hykes had started dotCloud in 2011 as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
cloud for building and running applications. But that business model
has proven challenging for several companies. Thus the pivot and the
associated name change, which in hindsight look like smart moves.
The Docker project quickly gained momentum. People have downloaded the
open-source software 21 million times, up from 3 million in June. On
GitHub, the code-repository website, Docker has picked up more stars,
showing interest, than all but 27 other projects.
VMware, the company pushing the virtual machine, announced last month
that its working with Docker. Microsoft, Google, Red Hat, IBM, and
Amazon Web Services have also shown their support for Docker or Docker
containers.
Companies like CenturyLink, CoreOS, and Tutum have been actively building
on top of Docker.
Docker has begun acquiring companies in its ecosystem, including Orchard.
And Docker has felt so confident about its direction that it sold the
dotCloud PaaS.
Contemporary companies like Baidu, Gilt, Groupon, New Relic, Spotify,
and Yandex have been working with Docker containers, but the trend is
taking hold more widely.
Were starting to see very significant I would call it pilot usage in
the more traditional enterprises, Golub said. Virtually every large
bank has a Docker-related pilot of some kind, and lots of government
agencies are using Docker. Weve had health care companies using
Docker.
The startup wants to increase adoption further. It will come out with
better ways to create applications that span multiple Docker containers.
And Docker will build on its security features, too, in order to meet
regulatory requirements, Golub said.
I think that there are many people who want Docker to have all of the
sort of security, networking, storage, and management capabilities that
surround VMs [virtual machines] today, he said.
Sequoia Capital led the new round in the San Francisco-based company.
Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Trinity
Ventures, and Jerry Yang also participated. The startup employs 55, and
that number should hit 80 by the end of the year.
To date, Docker has raised $66 million, Golub said.
I think you always want to raise money before you need it, he said,
and if the company is doing well, and if the funding market looks good,
and if you have the kind of partners wanting to look at us like we did,
its just silly not to do it. The challenge is to avoid acting like a
company that has a lot in the bank.
Apple To Unveil New iPads, Operating System
Apple Inc is set to launch two new iPads and release the next version of
its Mac operating system at its next event on Oct. 21, a Daily Dot
report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The company plans to unveil the sixth generation of its iPad and the
third edition of the iPad mini, as well as its operating system OS X
Yosemite, which has undergone a complete visual overhaul, the Internet
news website said.
Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.
The iPad is expected to have a 9.7 inch screen, while the new version of
the iPad mini will have a 7.9 inch screen, Bloomberg earlier reported,
citing people familiar with the matter.
A Bloomberg report said the Cupertino, California-based company will
launch its next generation of iPads around mid-October as Apple prepares
for the holiday season by boosting its product lineup.
Apple sold 13.3 million iPads in the quarter ended June, falling short
of analysts' projections for more than 14 million.
Apple also unveiled its Apple Watch, two larger iPhones and a mobile
payments service dubbed "Apple Pay" last week.
Microsoft Announces Windows 9 Event
Microsoft is preparing to detail its next major version of Windows. We
had been expecting the company to hold a press event later this month,
and now its official. Microsoft will hold a Windows event in San
Francisco on Sept. 30. The software maker started emailing out invites
to the event today, and Joe Belfiore and Terry Myerson will be leading
a discussion around the future of Windows. The event will focus on
enterprise and power users of Windows.
Microsoft is expected to deliver a Windows Technical Preview at the
event or soon after so that developers and enterprise customers can
evaluate a number of changes the company is making. Screenshots and
videos of the Windows Technical Preview have leaked over the past week,
revealing the addition of a new Start menu, a virtual desktops feature,
and a Notification Center. Microsoft also appears to be tweaking its
desktop user interface to improve and flatten the traditional icons,
alongside some task bar changes for future Cortana integration and
virtual desktops.
Additional changes are expected to be pushed regularly to Windows
Technical Preview users until the operating system is complete and ready
for release next year. We understand that Microsoft is planning more UI
changes to the desktop, and a number of those improvements arent ready
for the preview just yet.
Mark Zuckerberg Urges High School Students To Study Technology
Mark Zuckerberg is undoubtedly one you should idolize in case you have
dreams like him. The CEO of Facebook is one of the youngest CEOs as well
as a billionaire himself. The success story of Zuckerberg is not unknown
to many and now Mark wants others to take on thei4r dreams just like
him. According to the reports, Mark Zuckerberg has stated that he wants
to more students from the American High Schools to take up technology as
their preferred subject for higher education.
Mark Zuckerberg has said long before that technology is going to develop
to a much greater extent in the coming years. Thus he thinks that if the
students are ready to toil hard and choose technology as the preferred
subject for their higher education, their future will end up as a rather
bright one. According to the words of Mark Zuckerberg at the Sequoia
High School of Redwood City, the knowledge of computers and technology
will open the floodgates for all the students.
Facebook CEO donated 50 laptops to the students of Sequoia High School
of Redwood City and has also announced that the social networking giant
will be conducting classes where the students will learn about the fast
developing technology and how to create applications for various
smartphones. The event at Sequoia High School in Redwood City is a part
of the companys plan to stir in enthusiasm among the youngsters to
take on careers in computers and technology. The CEO of Facebook even
told that this generation could easily produce more Zuckerbergs like
him.
Microsoft Cuts 2,100 Workers as Part of Restructuring
Microsoft Corp. is firing 2,100 workers today, part of a plan announced
in July to eliminate 18,000 jobs to streamline the workforce and
integrate the acquisition of Nokia Oyjs handset unit.
The job reductions will take place across the company in various
divisions, said Peter Wootton, a spokesman for Microsoft. In the Puget
Sound region, where Microsoft is based, 747 people are being cut.
Nadella has been aggressive in making changes since he became CEO in
February, replacing Steve Ballmer. He has shuffled management,
emphasized making Microsofts software available for all types of
devices, and announced the job cuts. Earlier this week, Redmond,
Washington-based Microsoft said it would buy Mojang AB, maker of the
Minecraft video game, for $2.5 billion in Nadellas first deal as CEO.
=~=~=~=
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