Hyperloop Technologies taps a new CEO

n an industrial building in downtown LA, Elon Musk's vision for a high-speed, energy-efficient transportation system is underway.

A passerby would likely miss any "Hyperloop Technologies" signage, according to former Snapchat COO Emily White.

White thought her Uber driver was lost the first time she went to visit cofounder and venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar at Hyperloop headquarters. Pishevar, an early investor in Uber, is known in Silicon Valley for his ability to connect people with companies and his willingness to take big bets. He wanted White to join the company's board.

Pishevar's persuasion worked. White is joining the board of Hyperloop Technologies, which is also naming a new CEO: former Cisco President Rob Lloyd.

In 2013, Musk proposed the idea for a transportation alternative where passengers travel at 700 miles per hour in pods through vacuum-like, low-pressure tubes.

He called it "the fifth mode" of transportation and encouraged companies to take on the challenge. Hyperloop Technologies is one of several firms that embraced the mission head-on. It says it's creating a more energy-efficient mode of transport that will cost less than half of any high-speed rail project.

Given the vision's sci-fi nature and technological challenges, turning the concept into a reality will be no small feat.

It's one of the reasons White decided to come on board.

"I've always been really attracted to stuff on the bleeding edge," she told CNNMoney.

White joined Snapchat when there were just 30 employees and worked at Google (GOOG) when there were just 200 employees. She says Hyperloop Technologies has already grown dramatically since she met with Pishevar in April. The year-old startup has more than 50 employees.

Lloyd, meanwhile, says he's ready to apply his 20 years at Cisco (CSCO,Tech30) to building Hyperloop. He'll replace cofounder and CTO Brogan BamBrogan, who was serving as interim CEO.

"I fell in love with the idea of how we live, how we organize our cities," Lloyd told CNNMoney. "It was a dream come true."

He likens the construction of Hyperloop to building out the Internet.

In a blog post, Lloyd outlined the company's latest progress in building out the tech to make Hyperloop a reality: compressor tech that can operate at high speeds and low pressures with a wind tunnel, levitation tech that would lift the pod off rails, and advancements in the architecture of the tube that would transport pods carrying passengers.

The company says a working prototype of a two-mile test loop will be ready at the end of 2016 or early 2017.

Amazon built the Star Trek computer for your house

The Amazon Echo is like a standalone Siri that sits on your coffee or kitchen table.

It looks like a roll of paper towels and is almost less useful in its current version. But it represents an extremely promising future.

That future would look something like this: Every day when you come home from work, the Echo (or something like it) will tell you when the mailman came by, how many times your heat or air conditioning turned on, and whether or not your kids finished the milk in the fridge. Then, when you're kicking off your shoes and changing into house clothes, you can preheat the oven, and turn on and change the channel on the TV in the kitchen -- all from your bedroom.

We're not there yet, but with something like the Amazon Echo, we're getting closer to a Star-Trek-like computer in your home.

Here's what it does

Essentially, the Echo is a piece of home decor or furniture you can talk to. It controls other things in your house and lets you search the Web (using Bing) for mundane information.

The Echo is controlled by voice commands beginning with the trigger words "Alexa" or "Amazon." A ring of lights at the top of the black cylinder turns blue, orange, or red as it listens, processes, responds, or sits idle. It talks back in crystal clear sound using natural language.

You can also instruct it to turn other electronics on and off if they're connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Currently, only about a dozen products are compatible with the Echo. Mainly plugs and light bulbs.

It can recognize your voice from far across the room, even while it's in the middle of telling you about traffic conditions, or playing music or audiobooks.

If you connect your Google calendar, you can command the Echo to give you a summary of your week, set alarms, timers, and compose task lists.

And, because the device is linked to your Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) account, you can tell the Echo to add things you've previously purchased to your shopping cart.

You can access a list of all the commands you've given it through a dedicated mobile app. The more you use it, the smarter it gets.

The promise

The Echo has received rave reviews since going on sale earlier this summer. It has a four and a half star rating from close to 23,000 customers.

The 3% of people who gave it one or two stars say it's not worth the $179. One described it as a "slightly glorified MP3 player."

After having it on my living room table for two weeks, I tend to agree with this sentiment. Amazon itself lists the product in its "Home Audio Speakers" category.

Although the Echo is impressive in many ways -- amazing sound quality, speedy response time, beautiful design -- it's not portable, and it doesn't actually do much for someone like me or other people who live less complex lives in small places.

I'm not married, I don't have kids, I live in a New York City apartment. I don't spend that much time in the kitchen, which is where the hands-free feature is most useful. I own no connected light bulbs and plugs. And if I need an answer to something or want to play music, I have a cell phone which is a far more powerful computer at this point.

A virtual assistant would be imperative if I had a huge house with multiple rooms, lots of responsibilities to juggle. Even then, an Echo-like system would be much more useful if it could help me pay bills, compose email, and set up travel plans.

How we reach the future

Google (GOOGL, Tech30), Apple (AAPL, Tech30), and other large tech and telecommunications companies have been developing ways for people and businesses to control their physical lives digitally for a while now.

Most of the existing platforms are managed through mobile apps. Some, including AT&T (T, Tech30), have already integrated their Web-connected home security systems into cars.

However, none of these networks will be useful enough until our homes are filled with connected devices that can be controlled by a central operating system. At the same time, it's important to start building foundations now so that everything will work together once all of our peripheries are online.

In building the Echo, Amazon is tackling both problems at the same time.

Porsche plans electric car to challenge Tesla

Porsche and Audi are hoping to challenge Tesla in the luxury electric car market, but Elon Musk can sleep easy for now. Both are still years away from production.

Porsche unveiled its first all-electric concept car at the Frankfurt auto show Tuesday. It looks like a futuristic version of the Porsche 911.

The German sports car maker boasts that the four-door Mission E will be able to drive roughly 310 miles on a single charge. The new model should take just 15 minutes to charge to about 80% of its capacity.That would be significantly faster than market leader Tesla (TSLA), which requires about 30 minutes to reach the same level of charge.

Plus, the Mission E boasts a longer range than Tesla's Model S. It should run for 250 miles after a 15-minute charge versus 170 miles from a 30-minute charge.

Still, Tesla has a few years to close that gap.

A Porsche spokesperson told CNNMoney that production of the car would be "feasible within the near future," but noted that it may take five years for battery technology to advance sufficiently.

Porsche's Mission E concept car is an electric, four-door vehicle that could go head-to-head with Tesla's Model S.

The concept is part of a bigger push by Porsche parent Volkswagen (VLKAY) into electric vehicles. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn said the group is planning to roll out 20 more electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2020.

"No commitment to electro-mobility can be any clearer than that," said Winterkorn, who oversees brands including Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti.

Audi unveiled a new all-electric SUV concept vehicle called the e‑tron quattro last month. It will have the same driving range as the Porsche Mission E, and production will begin in 2018.

The Mission E will offer features such as gesture-activated controls, eye-tracking controls and some holographic images around the dashboard.

The interior of the Porsche Mission E concept car.

Unlike its competition, the car can also be charged wirelessly.

Porsche said drivers will be able to park over a coil embedded in the floor of their garage and energy will transfer to the battery without cables.

And you can't talk about Porsche without talking about speed. The car should go from zero to 60 in under 3.5 seconds.

The Porsche Mission E concept car.

Buying a laptop?

Kids are going back to school and Microsoft released a new version of Windows. That means it's officially laptop buying season.

Buying a new laptop is difficult. You have to choose between a dozen or so computer brands, each with its own multiple lines of laptops, each of which comes in various iterations and confusing specifications. (What's better: The HP Spectre x360 13-4100dx or the MacBook MK4M2LL/A?) It's enough to make your head hurt.

Now you've got yet another consideration: Intel (INTC, Tech30)introduced a new lineup of Core processors on Wednesday, and you've got not one, not two, but six to choose from.

The new chips are Intel's sixth-generation Core processors. Intel claims that the new chips double the performance, triple the battery life and deliver improved graphics over the previous models. The smaller-sized chips will also let PC makers build their new computers to be thinner and lighter.

In addition to a new round of Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors are three new members of the Core family: the Core m3, Core m5 and Core m7.

Intel announced the new chips at the international radio exhibition in Berlin, known as IFA. Like the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January, IFA showcases the latest and greatest gadgets from the tech industry.

So how do you decide?

Generally speaking, the "i" processors are faster and more expensive than the "m" processors, and the higher numbers are faster and more expensive than the smaller numbers. But determining how much much speed you really need can be tricky.

The best way to figure out which of Intel's six new processors to get is to consider what you plan using your new PC for. Do you want to use it for basic tasks, such as Web browsing, Facebook and Netflix? Do you want to do average tasks, such as using Office, business apps and iTunes? Or maybe you need your PC for advanced tasks, including video editing, gesture control or gaming?

Here's a quick guide:

1. Super-cheap tablet or a tiny PC + basic computing tasks = Core m3.

2. Moderately-priced tablet or tablet/laptop hybrid for average + average tasks = Core m5.

3. Higher-end tablet/laptop hybrid + average tasks = Core m7.

4. Inexpensive laptop or mini PC + average tasks = Core i3.

5. Moderately-priced PC + advanced tasks = Look for a Core i5.

6. High-end, full-powered laptop + seriously advanced computing tasks = Core i7.

Keep in mind that the speed of your processor isn't the only factor that determines how well your PC functions. For instance, more RAM allows you to run more tasks simultaneously, and a solid-state flash drive instead of a mechanical hard drive will allow your PC to boot faster.

But tailoring the processor for your computing needs is generally a good way to ensure that you're getting the right PC.

Intel hopes the new sixth-generation Core chips help to jumpstart the PC market, which has been in a slump. Intel unveiled its fifth-generation chips in January, but PC customers have largely been sitting on their hands, holding out for Microsoft to release Windows 10 (which debuted in late July).

As a result, Intel said over 1 billion PCs in use today are more than three years old, and the PC market is due for a rebound, as customers with older computers look to buy newer models.

The new processors will be available on Macs and PCs, but Intel said they have been designed with Windows 10 in mind. They're optimized for new Windows features, including Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant, the Windows Hello smart-login feature and other Windows-specific features.

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Definition and Solutions

ITIL is a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. What's the big deal about it, and why is it considered so important in corporate computing? We explain the basics before you hunker down with the books.

What is ITIL?

Developed by the British government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) during the 1980s, it at first consisted of more than 30 books, developed and released over time, that codified best practices in information technology accumulated from many sources (including vendors' best practices internally, consultancy) around the world. IBM, for example, says that its four-volume series on systems-management concepts, A Management System for Information Systems, known as the Yellow Books, provided vital input into the original ITIL books.When CCTA, along with several other agencies, was rolled into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the OGC adopted the project as part of its mission to work with the U.K. public sector as a catalyst to achieve efficiency, value for money in commercial activities, and improved success in the delivery of programs and projects.The goal wasn't to create a proprietary product that could be commercialized; rather, it was to gather best practices that could assist with what the government recognized was an increasing dependence within the government on IT combined with a painful lack of standard procedures that were increasing costs and allowing errors to perpetuate. It quickly became apparent that distributing these best practices would profit both public and private-sector organizations.The books weren't authored by CCTA personnel, nor are they now, although the Crown holds copyright, and owns the namesITIL and Information Technology Infrastructure Library. Instead, experts in each discipline produce the text, which is then rigorously reviewed, first by the ITIL Advisory Group, then by reviewers recruited from the ITIL community in a formal quality-assurance process before publication.

What's in the ITIL?

The original 30 books were condensed in 2000 (when what's known as ITIL v2 was launched) into a more manageable seven, each wrapped around a facet of IT management. The seven books are:

• Service Support
• Service Delivery
• Planning to Implement Service Management
• ICT Infrastructure Management
• Applications Management
• Security Management
• The Business Perspective

Within some categories is a series of related sub-topics.

Service Support: The identification and recording of IT configuration items, and processes around handling changes, problems and incidents are described. Sub-topics include:

• Service Desk: How to establish and run a service desk as the central point of contact for users.
• Incident Management: After something has gone wrong, how to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
• Problem Management: First, you diagnose root causes of incidents reported by the service desk; then, you arrange changes in the IT infrastructure to prevent their recurrence.
• Change Management: Discusses processes and procedures to ensure prompt, efficient and controlled handling of changes.
• Release Management: Planning of new releases so both IT and non-IT requirements are considered.
• Configuration Management: How to identify, control, and maintain records of the configurations of items and services.

Service Delivery: ITIL covers aspects of the actual delivery of the services. Sub-topics include:

• Availability Management: How do you maintain the availability of services to allow a business to function effectively?
• Capacity Management: Best practices in predicting future needs.
• IT Service Continuity Management: After a disaster or other business interruption, how to manage service continuity to agreed-upon levels.
• Service Level Management: Establishing, monitoring, and reporting IT achievements and establishing ways to eliminate poor service.
• Financial Management for IT Services: Budgeting, accounting and charging for IT services.

Single topic volumes:

• ICT Infrastructure Management: Management of infrastructure, from equipment to services.
• Application Management: The software development lifecycle is covered, emphasizing clear requirements, definitions and implementations to meet business users' needs.
• Planning to Implement Service Management: Where do you start when planning to implement ITIL? This book offers guidance.
• Security Management: The means by which you can keep your infrastructure secure.
• The Business Perspective: This volume aims to help business managers understand the issues in service provision. It covers business relationship management, partnerships and outsourcing, continuous improvement, and the exploitation of information, communication and technology (ICT) for business advantage. It consists of three books:
  • In Times of Radical Change
  • Surviving IT Infrastructure Transition
  • Understanding and Improving
  • At the end of 2005, theOGC announced plans for a refresh of the ITIL volumes. In its statement, it said, "Our overwhelming driver for this refresh is to keep the guidance up-to-date such that ITIL continues to be 'fit for purpose' as the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world."Authoring of the books in ITIL v3 was completed in late 2006, and the review of the content is under way. The new ITIL, with associated certifications, is expected to be released sometime in 2007. It is again being condensed, moving from seven core volumes to five.OGC also announced that it will pursue the development of Web-based resources for current and aspiring ITIL users.

Information Technology (IT) definition

Information technology (IT) is the use of any computers, storage, networking and other physical devices, infrastructure and processes to create, process, store, secure and exchange all forms of electronic data.

Typically, IT is used in the context of enterprise operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies. The commercial use of IT encompasses both computer technology and telephony.

The term information technology was coined by the Harvard Business Review, in order to make a distinction between purpose-built machines designed to perform a limited scope of functions and general-purpose computing machines that could be programmed for various tasks. As the IT industry evolved from the mid-20th century, it encompassed transistors andintegrated circuits -- computing capability advanced while device cost and energy consumption fell lower, a cycle that continues today when new technologies emerge.

IT software and hardware

IT includes several layers of physical equipment (hardware), virtualization and management or automation tools, operating systems and applications (software) used to perform essential functions. User devices, peripherals and software, such as laptops, smartphones or even recording equipment, can be included in the IT domain. IT can also refer to the architectures, methodologies and regulations governing the use and storage of data.

Business applications include databases like SQL Server, transactional systems such as real-time order entry, email servers like Exchange, Web servers like Apache, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems. These applications execute programmed instructions to manipulate, consolidate, disperse or otherwise affect data for a business purpose.

Computer servers run business applications. Servers interact with client users and other servers across one or more business networks. Storage is any kind of technology that holds information as data. Information can take any form including file data, multimedia,telephony data and Web data, data from sensors or future formats. Storage includes volatile random access memory (RAM) as well as non-volatile tape, hard disk and solid-state flash drives.

IT architectures have evolved to include virtualization and cloud computing, where physical resources are abstracted and pooled in different configurations to meet application requirements. Clouds may be distributed across locations and shared with other IT users, or contained within a corporate data center, or some combination of both deployments.

IT education and job functions

A team of administrators and other technical staffers deploy and manage the company's IT infrastructure and assets. IT teams depend on a wide range of specialized information and technology skills and knowledge to support equipment, applications and activities. Third-party contractors and IT vendor support personnel augment the IT team.

Type Of Clouds, What Is The Best Option?

Cloud place or services being offered could describe cloud computing.

We have the following types of clouds based on place:

· Public,

· Private,

· Hybrid, and

· Community.

Public Cloud

Here, Service provider places its resources such as applications and storage through the Internet. A pay per use model determine service cost. Fees vary according to criteria as time use, traffic volume, number of concurrent users or visits.

Servers and storage systems mix data and processes from multiple clients. Users do not know the other clients' process that run on the same servers, networks, and storage systems.

Public Clouds are available to the public or a large industry sector. When this infrastructure is basic, only offers equipment or storage and not software, we talk about Infrastructure as a Service. When there is also operating system, database management and some services have a Platform as a Service model.

Cost savings is a Cloud computing principal benefit. You do not have to make an initial investment in equipment or software licenses, providing more flexibility in IT infrastructure implementation. On the other hand, the cloud computing challenges are security, interoperability and portability of information.

Platforms allow users to mount their own applications, but there are also generic applications available such as Office 365, Google Apps or Microsoft Dynamics Online.

Private Cloud

Private clouds are networks or data centers that use cloud computing technologies, such as Virtualization. This cloud offers high data protection and service level related to the owner. Themselves administered the cloud, and a Firewall secure it.

The main difference between public and private clouds, is that a public one provides services to multiple organizations. A private integrates policies and infrastructure capabilities used by the organization. On the other hand, public clouds tend to offer general consumer services at low-cost.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid clouds combine the models of public and private clouds. The user owner one part and shares another in a controlled way.

It is like a private application strengthened with computing services in the cloud. The organization keeps up control of its main applications.

A hybrid cloud is an intermediate step before moving most of the applications to the cloud, this is a less risky decision.

This Cloud has the advantage of a moderate first investment, supplemented by the services of cloud computing on demand.

Based on future requirements, you can upgrade the platform without an infrastructure investment, taking one of the following ways:

• For stable or constant needs, you can increase private cloud infrastructure and move some services to the public cloud.

• For occasional or intermittent requirements keep up the service in public clouds.

The most important advantage is that they allow systems administrators to decide which data and applications run on internal private cloud and which data stored on a public cloud, avoiding excessive resources. In this cloud type, you handle critical applications and data in the private cloud, and moves the less critical applications to the public cloud.

The Cloud complexity of use and cost are the principal disadvantages.

Community Cloud

In a community cloud several organizations share infrastructure, supporting a particular community on a specific topic, such as security, research, policy or compliance. The community or a third-party can manage the cloud. It is a private cloud extension.

This cloud supports a cluster of small organizations forming community. It supports the needs of these communities.

Public clouds, private or hybrid: what is the best option for your company?

Although cloud computing is attractive and promising, it is possible that the company wants to continue to host some applications locally, especially when the data criticality degree is high, such as business intelligence data. This is also the case of very sensitive data, such as medical records.

Any company can reap the benefits of the cloud, such as cost, speed and better asset use, through data center with a private cloud environment. An internal implementation of a cloud computing through Virtualization offers the freedom to manage workflow services and security policies, the disadvantage is that you cannot meet the same level of scalability that a  public cloud.

Public clouds offer the benefit of unlimited growth of the application. These Cloud data centers are often offered in standardized, scalable modules, allowing to handle loads with profitability and efficiency

Another option is the hybrid cloud, a model which simultaneously works with private and public clouds. Here the public cloud manages overloads during periods of high demand. Also, you have a private cloud to meet average operational requirements, enabling not oversize the data center.

In terms of costs compared to a traditional data center, there are savings in the number of servers required to do a task. In this model, firms are not restricted to use a single data center, they can use multiple data centers and even build their own internal infrastructure.

Although cloud computing is in its early years, the efficiency gains of 40 to 50 percent are taking into account to start a private cloud, for companies that for one reason or another cannot make use of cloud computing systems public.

Public clouds have certain advantages and disadvantages. Public cloud allows an almost unlimited growth, and you pay only for what you consume. However, the companies' concern focuses on data security, be restricted to a service provider, and geopolitical reasons related to the information storage.

Similarly, some companies have serious drawbacks due to its infrastructure, the systems diversity represents a significant barrier. There is a variety of computers running different operating systems on different processors. In contrast, most providers of cloud services offer limited ranges in reduced hardware, leaving companies with a heterogeneous infrastructure limited. Here, they can only put some applications in the cloud, while others should stay on internal servers. This mixture leads to difficulties to administer internal resources and services provided by the cloud.

One solution is to use a Virtualization environment internally, using the existing hardware resources. The benefits of this vision is a higher use of resources and greater efficiency.