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As an increasing number of students and employees accomplish daily tasks from home, this additional internet usage has combined with gaming and streaming needs to bring about the most significant IT energy crisis of modern times. While it's easy to forget, keeping websites like Google, Facebook, and Netflix online requires an incredible amount of electrical energy, and the Neutrino Energy Group proposes that neutrino-derived electricity could be used to push server technology away from fossil fuels and toward true sustainability.Does IT Electrical Demand Damn Sustainable Energy to Fringe Applications?According to IT writer Mark Mills, the recent global lockdown clearly illustrates how our digital energy use is directly tied to future economic health. While gasoline consumption went down nearly 30 percent during the first week of lockdown in the United States, for instance, overall electrical consumption only decreased by seven percent. These figures actually indicate increased overall energy use across all sources, demonstrating how our ability to fuel online interactions will determine the viability of global technological society over the next few decades.At present, fossil fuels are the only energy technology capable of sustaining our combined internet needs. While existing renewable energy technologies can take some of the burden away from oil and coal, making a complete switch to renewables at this stage would cause the internet to collapse around the world.According to Mills, it is still "prohibitively expensive" to produce reliable energy from solar and wind farms since these energy technologies depend on specific environmental conditions to operate. What this seasoned tech author fails to point out, however, is the significant decrease in voltage that occurs when electricity is transported from sustainable energy farms to the server banks that operate the global cloud.On-Site Renewable Energy Generation Is RequiredIn 2015, two of the world's most prominent energy physics researchers independently discovered that neutrinos have mass, making these ethereal particles serious targets of sustainable energy research. Unlike wind or solar farms, neutrino-based energy technologies can operate anywhere, anytime regardless of environmental conditions.The neutrinovoltaic technology developed by the Neutrino Energy Group derives electrical energy from neutrinos, which are invisible and bombard the Earth in roughly equal numbers every moment of every day, instead of drawing energy from the visible spectrum of light.The revolutionary technology developed by the Neutrino Energy Group harvests a small amount of the kinetic energy of neutrinos as they pass through everything we see, and this kinetic-energy is then transformed into electricity.Solar cells can not be stacked on top of each other since they can only operate when they are unblocked from the suns rays. This design flaw ist not suffered by Neutrinvoltaic cells which means they can be stacked on top of each other with the bottom cells generating just as much electrical power as the cells on top.Neutrino Inside devices could operate mere centimeters away from server banks, eliminating voltage-over-distance energy decreases. In fact, Holger Thorsten Schubart,founder of the Neutrino Energy Group, even proposes that Neutrino Energy could be modified to fit inside existing technologies like cloud servers.Support the Neutrino Energy Group to Keep the Internet RunningWhile the present crisis spared the internet, we can't say the same for future economic catastrophes. The best way to preserve our ability to go online is to invest in renewable energy technologies, and neutrino energy is the only electricity-generating technology that can operate close to or inside of server banks. Support the Neutrino Energy Group to defend our IT infrastructure from any crisis the future may bring.For more information click here : https://neutrino-energy.comDisclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. NoForbes Indiajournalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.

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Neutrino Energy Will Power The Future's Internet Consumption - Forbes India

Almost a year ago, Microsoft launched a preview of Windows Server Containers in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Now the company announced the general availability of Windows Server containers in AKS, including the support of private clusters and managed identities.

With the GA of Windows Server containers, enterprises can now lift-and-shift their Windows applications to run on managed kubernetes services in Azure. Moreover, developers in these enterprises can create, upgrade, and scale Windows node pools in AKS through the standard tools such as the Azure Portal or Command Line Interface (CLI) - Azure will help manage the health of the cluster automatically.

Furthermore, Windows and Linux applications can run in parallel on a single AKS cluster which makes it easier for enterprises to bundle their applications for business processes. Microsoft corporate vice president, Azure Compute Brendan Burns wrote in his blog post on the GA release:

Running both Windows and Linux applications side by side in a single AKS cluster, you can modernize your operations processes for a broader set of applications while increasing the density (and thus lowering the costs) of your application environment.

And Elton Stoneman, Microsoft Azure MVP and Docker Captain, told InfoQ:

It's fantastic to see Windows nodes reach General Availability in AKS - it's a real milestone in the journey towards moving all your apps into containers and onto the cloud. Kubernetes uses the same application manifest language for Windows and Linux apps, so you get a layer of consistency across all your applications. Older .NET Framework apps and new apps written in .NET Core or Go or Node.js all have the same artifacts to build and run them: Dockerfiles and Kubernetes manifests. You can develop and deploy all your apps using GitHub actions, publishing your images to the Azure Container Registry and deploying to AKS with the same simple workflows.

Microsoft is not the only public cloud vendor with Kubernetes services and support for Windows Containers. For instance, Amazon announced the general availability of Windows Container on Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)in October last year; however, it has some limitations. Also, Google brought the support of Windows Containers to its Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)in preview at the beginning of this year and recently became ga.

Stoneman also told InfoQ:

I have been working with clients using Windows nodes in AKS under the preview release for several months now, and it has been very solid and easy to use. Lots of organizations have a roadmap for their Windows apps which starts by moving them to containers as-is with no code changes and then gradually breaking them up into distributed applications. Now with Windows nodes GA in AKS, that is a fully supported path in Azure. You can start by shifting .NET Framework monoliths into Windows pods, and incrementally split features out into .NET Core apps running in Linux pods, all on the same AKS cluster.

Besides the support for Windows Containers in AKS, Microsoft also announced support for private clusters and managed identities which are intended to provide developers with greater security capabilities and to easier meet compliance requirements. Private clusters allow the use of managed Kubernetes within a closed network - without connection to the internet. And, with private clusters, the security measures of highly regulated industries such as finance or healthcare can be met.

Next to the support for private clusters, AKS supports managed identities, which enables secure interaction with other Azure services such as Azure Monitor for Containers or Azure Policy. Furthermore, developers do not have to manage their service principals or rotate credentials often.

Lastly, Burns wrote in his blog post about the continuous development of more integrations between AKS and Azure Advisor and bringing industry best practices right into the AKS experience. Moreover, Microsoft is committed to bringing customer learning into the VS Code extension for Kubernetes to provide developers with advice and integrate security advice into the Azure Security Center. Developers, operator, and architects can, according to Burns, be successful with Kubernetes on Azure through the available learning, frameworks, and tools.

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Microsoft Announces the General Availability of Windows Server Containers, and More for AKS - InfoQ.com

A few months ago, I was on yet another panel with yet another foreign academic who described the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (Cloud Act) as an aggressive overreach by the US what he called expansive sovereignty.

I hadnt heard that particular term before. But I have heard the same basic epithet from numerous foreign governmental officials, many of whom worry that US will use the Cloud Act to scoop up foreigners data.

The world, understandably, has questions about the Cloud Act. The problem is, the rhetoric does not match the reality.

In contrast to the oft-heard assertions, the Cloud Act is a narrowly tailored act of limited application. It specifies that the US law enforcement officials can, in connection with a criminal investigation and according to detailed and specific standards and procedures, request emails and other data held by those companies subject to US jurisdiction.

The obligation to produce the sought-after data applies regardless of where the underlying 0s and 1s are stored.

Importantly, the Cloud Act is not an intelligence gathering tool. It is not an economic espionage tool. Law enforcement officials can only demand access to the data if it supports a criminal investigation over which the US has jurisdiction to prosecute.

READ:Should we be worried that the state will use mobile phones to trace us during the Covid-19 pandemic?

In order to get access to the data, law enforcement must meet specified standards and follow specified procedures. These standards and procedures apply across the board, whether the US is seeking the data of an American citizen, resident or foreigner.

For content, law enforcement needs a warrant issued by an independent judge based on a finding of probable cause. This is a relatively high bar for law enforcement to meet. In fact it is a more robust and more privacy protective standard than applies in just about any other country in the world.

Moreover, the reach is limited. US law enforcement cannot issue demands for emails and other communications content, from foreign companies that operate wholly outside the US.

That would be an extraterritorial assertion of authority and US law does not provide any mechanism for issuing warrants extraterritorially.

Contrast that with the draft EU E-evidence Directive, which requires any company that offers any services to the EU residents to install an EU-based representative, thereby ensuring EU jurisdiction over otherwise extraterritorially-located companies.

There is no equivalent requirement in US law.

Contrary to the rhetoric, the Cloud Act also adopts new provisions specifically designed to take into account foreign sovereign interests. It explicitly provides for a new statutory motion to quash a conflict with foreign law and if certain conditions are met.

It also expressly preserves the right of service providers to raise court challenges based on conflicting foreign law, even in situations where the statutory motion to quash is not available. This helps ensure that foreign government interests are taken into account.

We have not seen any such challenges litigated to date, in part because the conflicts have, at least until now, been more theoretical than real.

Consider the run-of-the mill US investigation of an American citizen with respect to a local murder or fraud investigation. Imagine that the US law enforcement officials served a warrant on Google or Facebook for relevant data, but, for whatever reason, the data is stored outside the US. Few, if any, foreign governments would claim a sovereignty invasion if the companies turned over that data.

Notably, despite the claims of some, Ireland never asserted a sovereignty violation in the long-standing litigation over whether US law enforcement officials could compel Microsoft to disclose emails held on a server in Dublin.

In court filings, Ireland emphasised that it would, in response to a diplomatic request, work with US government officials to access the data. But it never claimed that the US was required to make such a request. Or that the alternative approach taken violated its sovereignty.

That said, there are times when a conflict would arise if, say, the US is compelling the production of foreigners data protected by foreign law. Here, there is a legitimate foreign government interest at stake, that of protecting ones own citizens and residents.

If and when such a conflict arises, providers can and should bring a motion to quash, as the Cloud Act clearly allows. (US officials also should take steps to avoid such conflicts.)

This kind of approach makes sense. What matters is the protection of ones citizens and residents, not the location of bits and bytes that happen to flow through ones borders.

Meanwhile, the second part of the Cloud Act was, as many seem to forget, enacted at the behest of foreign governments, particularly the UK. Specifically, it was adopted in response to foreign governments frustrations about the difficulties in accessing their own nationals and residents communication content from US-based providers.

It puts in place a mechanism by which foreign governments can, subject to numerous safeguards and pre-conditions, request certain communications content from US-based service providers. This enables foreign governments to access certain data more expeditiously, without having to go through the laborious mutual legal assistance process to do so.

Of particular concern, the Cloud Act scapegoat is being pointed to by countries around the world to set limits on the transfer of data outside ones borders. The ironic result the US, through the Cloud Act, has taken steps to reduce restrictions on data transfers at the same time that other countries are pointing to the same act in support of their own data localisation mandates.

The Cloud Act is not perfect, but it is not the evil or expansive assertion of US snooping power that some claim it to be. To the contrary, it is a modest criminal law provision that largely codifies the status quo and adopts new provisions explicitly designed to accommodate foreign interest in US-held data.

Jennifer Daskal is a professor at the American University Washington College of Law

Original post:
Cloud Act is not a sovereign aggressive overreach by the US - News24

pCloud is a Swiss-based online file storage provider that was founded in 2013 and now has more than 10 million users. Its popularity has only continued to grow, and pCloud has consistently performed well in our rankings of the best cloud storage providers.

To learn more about why were such big fans, head over to our pCloud review. In this piece, well be talking about one specific aspect of the service: setting up pCloud Drive. This tutorial will show you how to download and set it up on a Windows computer, but the process is similar if youre setting it up on Mac or Linux.

pCloud Drive is a cross-platform desktop application used to sync files between a device and its secure servers. It also allows you to work with files that are stored on the pCloud servers without taking up space on your computer.

You can register with pCloud using just an email address and a password to get 2GB of free storage. Alternatively, you can log in through your Apple, Facebook or Google account.

Once youve got your pCloud account login details, you need to download pCloud Drive.

After you download pCloud Drive, you need to install it. By default, it will be installed on your C:/, but you can change the installation location by selecting options. Select install to proceed.

The installation will be completed a few moments later. Select launch to start configuring it.

It will ask you for your account login details. Enter the email and password you used earlier to create a pCloud account.

If you open File Explorer, youll now see the pCloud virtual drive in the left-hand pane. A menu icon will also be added to the taskbar (in the bottom right of the screen), which allows you to easily access and manage pClouds settings.

This program will automatically start when you log in to your computer. You can change that by opening up the application and selecting the settings tab. There are other settings you can change here, but we would recommend you leave them alone.

Heres where it can get a bit confusing. By default, this virtual folder is not synced to your local computer. This means that if you drag and drop files into it, they wont be available to use if youre not connected to the internet. Theyll be delivered straight to the cloud.

If you want to change this, then you need to open up the application, select the sync tab and then add new sync.

Choose a specific folder in your pCloud that you want to keep synced with somewhere on your computer.

You then need to choose where you want these synced files to be stored on your device. Select choose local folder and pick the folder that should be synced.

All thats left to do is confirm this by selecting add sync.

Now that these two folders are synced, any changes made within one of these folders will be mirrored in the other. This means that if you delete files in a local folder that is synced with pCloud, then it will also be deleted from the cloud.

Starts from $ 399 per month for 500 GBFree plan available Save 20 % All Plans

pCloud Drive is an excellent desktop client. It automatically sets up a virtual drive on your computer accessible like an old-fashioned mapped drive and allows you to sync areas of this virtual drive to your computer, too.

Signing up for a pCloud free plan gives you 2GB of free space and requires only an email address and a password. You can easily extend this to 10GB by verifying that your email address is real and sending out email invitations to your friends.

Sign up for our newsletterto get the latest on new releases and more.

If you need more space than this, pClouds paid plans are affordable. A lifetime plan is available, too, which isnt something youll find from alternatives like Amazon Drive or Google Drive (check out our pCloud vs Google Drive piece). This pCloud Lifetime plan represents excellent value for money.

It is disappointing that client-side encryption isnt included in pClouds paid plans, though. pCloud alternatives like Sync.com are cheaper and also have zero-knowledge encryption included. If thats something youre after, then check out our Sync.com review to learn more.

If you have any questions or problems about setting up pCloud Drive, you can get support in pClouds help center. Alternatively, let us know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading.

Starts from $ 500 per month for 1000 GBFree plan available All Plans

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How to Set Up pCloud Drive in 2020 - Cloudwards