Toshiba and Bill Nye take you behind the scenes for New Year's Eve in Times Square

It's 2016 now -- time seems to fly. On New Year's Eve many revelers around the world gathered in various locations including Sydney, London, Rio de Janeiro and New York City. Times Square gets a prominent eye in the US and, to a certain extent, the world over.

This year the sponsor of the big show was Toshiba and during the process of bringing all of the festivities together for ringing in the new year it made a short video documentary.

The video features not only the set-up of everything, but also many of the live performances by prominent artists such as Adele.

You'll also get Bill Nye "The Science Guy", famous for his popular kids TV show that teaches about...well, science. Nye is a well known figure, not only among kids, but also with the science and skeptical community in general as he tends to say what's on his mind and what he feels is accurately backed up by evidence. In this case though, he's just having fun like everyone else.

The video also includes the famous countdown and ball drop, not to mention the very large and well lit digits for 2016.

You can catch the video below and reminisce about what you may or may not remember depending on how your evening went.

Image Credit: leolintang/Shutterstock

American hacking group killed the BBC's online presence to test anti-ISIS attack powers

A huge DDoS attack took the BBC's websites offline on Thursday, as well as the broadcaster's iPlayer streaming service. The disruption lasted for several hours, and now a US-based group of 'cyber hackers' that usually targets ISIS has claimed responsibility.

The New World Hacking group is a self-proclaimed hacktivist group that supports Anonymous. It says that despite effectively knocking the BBC from the face of the web, it was only meant to be a test of server power rather than a targeted attack on the corporation.

While the BBC acknowledged that there had been a 'technical problem' with its online services on Thursday, it has not commented on whether this came as the result of a DDoS attack or not.  On New Year's Eve, New World Hacking expressed surprise that their 'attack' had hit the headlines:

Didn't know our attack made the news https://t.co/uBwa0vdUAD | #Offline | 600 GBps | https://t.co/Bo3TO4Xga3 @BBC @AboutTheBBC @BBCBreaking

— New World News (@NewWorldHacking) December 31, 2015

In a series of tweets to BBC technology reporter Rory Cellan-Jones today, New World Hacking said:

We are based in the US, but we strive to take down Isis [IS] affiliated websites, also Isis members.

We realize sometimes what we do is not always the right choice, but without cyber hackers... who is there to fight off online terrorists?

The reason we really targeted [the] BBC is because we wanted to see our actual server power.

'Anti-IS group' claims BBC website attack - in Twitter messages to me https://t.co/sALmMp3wmu

— Rory Cellan-Jones (@BBCRoryCJ) January 2, 2016

The group says that ISIS will continue to be its primary target, but it's not clear if further 'server tests' could result in other big sites being hit:

REMEMBER.. Only a DDoS attack test.. ISIS will be our main target. #BinarySec https://t.co/tNizF8aTDl

— New World News (@NewWorldHacking) January 2, 2016

Best Windows apps this week

One-hundred and sixty-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.

New additions have found their way to the Windows Store in surprising number in the last week.

App of the week is Series Tracker, a professionally looking TV show tracking, management and discovery application for the Windows platform.

Other applications and games of note are Two Dots, an interesting puzzle game, and Dynamic Theme, an app that provides you with the means to configure dynamic wallpapers for the desktop background and lockscreen.

As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead.

Discounts This Week

Red Stripe Deals are back. Up to six applications and games are discounted and highlighted in Windows Store each week.

The following is this week's selection:

• Timeclock, a time tracking application for $0.99
• The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle (Full), an adventure game for $0.99
• Runtastic PushUps Pro, a fitness app for $0.99
• Baseball Riot, an action game for $1.49
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary for $13.99
• MoBu - Financial Management, a finance application for $3.49

App of the week

Series Tracker

The app for TV junkies. Keep track of your favorite TV shows, discover what is hot and upcoming, or browse shows by using the search or finding shows specific actors played a role in.

The option to look-up actors to find out which shows they stared in is without doubt one of the coolest features of the application, as it provides you with a different angle when it comes to TV show discovery.

The app taps into IMDB and Trakt, and supports features such as a watchlist that keeps track of your shows, lists of recent or missed episodes, and upcoming shows.

Other apps

Kingdom Tales 2 HD

Kingdom Tales 2 HD is a level-based strategy game in which you need to complete tasks to proceed to the next level.

You may be asked to construct certain buildings, or generate resources such as gold to move on.

Time management is essential in the game as you need to send out workers and other characters to collect taxes, clear roads or upgrade buildings.

The game is free, but needs to be unlocked if you want to play it fully.

Dynamic Theme

Dynamic Theme is a free app for Windows that enables you to set a dynamic background and lock screen image.

The app supports individual bing images, local photos or a slideshow of photos, and may sync the settings across devices on top of that.

Two Dots

Two Dots is a unique puzzle game in which you need to connect two or more dots of the same color.

Each level of the game tasks you with goals that you are required to reach to proceed to the next level in line. This usually involves connecting a certain number of colored dots, for instance 50 green, red and blue dots.

You connect adjacent dots by drawing lines, and all dots that you have connected in this way are removed from the level in the process.

New dots are dropped from the top into the level when this happens. You may create special connections, squares or rectangular ones which offer more points and special effects.

Crime Coast: Mafia Wars

You play as the head of a mafia family in Crime Coast: Mafia Wars. It is a city building game at its core with a single-player and multi-player component.

Create a base of operations by hiring gang members, constructing buildings and defenses, and upgrading those.

Once you have amassed an army of followers, you can send them out on missions to raid other towns and bring back loot.

You may raid the bases of other players in the game and form a cartel of mobsters with other players to increase your influence.

Nitro Nation

Nitro Nation is all about drag racing. You start as a new player with a generic car which you can upgrade or replace with another as you earn money racing your opponents.

The races are not that spectacular as you control gas and gears only but don't steer the cars yourself.

It comes down to hitting the sweet spot to get the most out of the car and while that sounds easy at first, it can be tricky to get it right all the time.

The game features lots of cards and upgrades, a story mode as well as other modes and tournaments that you can play compete in.

Block Slider Star

Tetris with a twist, that was my first impression when I started to play the game's first level.

The game keeps Tetris's main objective of clearing lines by filling them with objects dropped from the top, but mixes it up with an interesting sliding mechanic that allows you to move pieces already dropped to different positions

Notable updates

• Audiobooked for Windows 10 Beta is now available. It is an audiobook application to manage and play audiobooks.
• Eurosports.com is a universal app now supporting Cortana on top of it.
• Flipkart Beta for Windows 10. App for the popular shopping site.
• Moodflow, an app to find music matching moods has been reimagined for Windows 10 and acts more like a radio now.

Despite Microsoft's increasingly aggressive tactics, Windows 10's growth continues to slow

Microsoft is largely unrepentant about pushing its new operating system so aggressively, and early in the year it will be marking Windows 10 as a "recommended update" in a bid to get larger numbers of Windows 7 and 8.x users to make the switch.

Since its launch, Windows 10 has been gaining usage share at a steady, if rather unexciting rate, but there’s a clear downward trend that shows users of older operating systems are in no hurry to upgrade.

The latest desktop OS usage numbers from NetMarketShare show yet another dip in Windows 10’s fortunes. In December the new operating system gained 0.96 percentage points, going from 9 percent to 9.96 percent. With a normal operating system, grabbing 10 percent of the market in just five months would be viewed as a solid start, but this is a free operating system following the unpopular Windows 8, so you would expect growth to be much faster. For comparison, in the same time frame back in 2009, Windows 7 had claimed 12 percent of the market and it wasn’t free.

The slowing of growth for the new OS is quite clear. In September, Windows 10 grew by 1.42 percentage points, in October it grew by 1.31 and in November it increased its share by 1.06 percentage points. As we saw, in December the new OS grew by 0.96 percent. For an operating system that’s not only free but being pushed ever more forcefully onto users, that trend has to be a worry for Microsoft.

Most other versions of Windows lost share in December. Windows 8 went from 2.88 percent to 2.76 percent for a decline of 0.12 percentage points. Windows 8.1 went from 11.15 to 10.30 for a drop of 0.85. With both flavors combined, the tiled OS now stands on 13.06 percent, down 0.97 percentage points.

Windows 7 remains by far and away the most popular operating system with 55.68 percent of the market, dropping just 0.43 percentage points in the month.

That just leaves Windows XP which rallied a little at the end of the year for a minor 0.34 gain. It still has 10.93 percent of the market.

Will Windows 10’s growth continue to slow in 2016? We shall see starting next month.

Photo credit: BlueSkyImage / Shutterstock

Ring in the new year by installing deepin 15 -- a beautiful Debian-based Linux distribution

As 2015 comes to a close, we must again face the reality that Linux is a failure on the desktop -- its share of the pie is almost nonexistent. While the kernel is wildly popular on smartphones and servers, Windows is still the dominant force on home and business workstations. You know what? That's fine. Regardless of popularity, or lack thereof, desktop operating systems based on the Linux kernel aren't going anywhere. We Linux users aren't going anywhere.

Today, a beautiful  operating system from China, deepin, hits version 15. No longer based on Ubuntu -- the project has switched to a Debian base -- it is gorgeous and has an intuitive HTML5-based environment. And yes, it is available in English. Happy New Year, fellow Linux users!

"deepin is a Linux distribution committed to providing an elegant, user-friendly, safe and stable operating system for users all over the world. deepin 15 pays more attention to internationalization, and is featured with brand new mirror image acceleration (CDN acceleration). Languages supported are up to 30 kinds, thus the infinite charm of deepin can be experienced globally! Newly added languages are as follows: Malay, Bulgarian, Swedish, Croatian, Japanese, Korean, Finnish, Spanish (Latin America), Hindi (India), Ukrainian", says The deepin team.

The team further explains, "deepin 15 has changed head to toe with a all new system structure. Deepin Desktop Environment and system stability has been thoroughly optimized to become lighter and more sensitive. A new window manager has been adopted in this edition. It can intelligently detect the current computer environment, then initiates a proper window manager. Thus the performance and compatibility has reached perfect balance".

While some people have been hesitant to utilize the operating system due to its Chinese roots, these fears are unfounded. It is not produced by any government, and it is open source, after all. Quite frankly, to shun an open source OS based on its country of origin is arguably ignorant.

With all of that said, I recommend giving deepin 15 a go. It is a remarkable operating system that highlights the potential of Linux on the desktop. Its focus on user experience is reminiscent of another such Linux-based operating system -- elementary. Look, I'm a nerd, you're probably a nerd, we aren't likely doing anything else on New Year's Eve. What better way to ring in the new year than installing a new distro?

Want to try it? Download the operating system here. Tell me how you like it in the comments below.

My favorite tech items of 2015 [Brian]

According to man-made calendars, today is New Year's Eve. Tomorrow is the first day of 2016, which in the grand scheme of things is inconsequential. Still, it is fun to reflect on the last year and choose the tech that I enjoyed the most.

Yeah, I'm like Oprah or Ellen. Here are my favorite things -- tech related, of course -- for 2015; laptops, smartphones, tablets, and more. While there are many products on my list, there are two products that stand out to me as being rather exceptional -- the crème de la crème, if you will.

The first exceptional device is the iPhone 6s Plus. Believe it or not, this is my first-ever Apple smartphone and I couldn't be happier. Gone are the days of being stranded on Android without updates. The best part (besides the wonderful camera), however, is the amazing apps which seem to be prettier and more fluid than those on Google's platform. I even use Apple Pay regularly, at places like Walgreens and Subway. It is a life-changing device and I love it. Best smartphone of 2015.

The other stand-out product is the HP Spectre x360. This is not only the best laptop of 2015, but one of the best Windows notebooks ever. Where to begin? The body is made of beautiful aluminum, lending to a premium feeling. The trackpad is very large and responsive -- they should all be so good. The keyboard is backlit, and an absolute dream to type on. The screen is gorgeous, and is a touch variant -- you can fold it around the back for a tablet experience. Battery life is exceptional, and the machine is light enough to carry comfortably in a bag -- a road-warrior's dream.

HP offers wonderful support too, by the way. Not to mention, its pre-loaded driver management service is well-designed, offering regular driver and firmware updates. I came away impressed with the whole package -- HP hit a home run and earned my selection for best laptop of 2015 . If you want a solid all-purpose Windows laptop, this is the one to get.

Check out my full list of favorite tech items below. I have included videos where available.

Laptops

HP Spectre x360

System76 Oryx Pro

Smartphones

Apple iPhone 6S Plus

Samsung Galaxy Note5

LG V10

Tablets

Apple iPad mini 4

Streaming media box

Apple TV

Other devices

Amazon Echo

iPod touch 6th generation

Processor

AMD A10-7870K

Is your data integrated across platforms?

The lifeblood of any application is the data it uses to make decisions. It used to be that all data and applications resided within the confines of the corporate firewall, but public cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure provide elasticity and cutting-edge features to today’s organizations. Because of that, more and more companies are challenging the conventional thinking that all corporate data should always be stored on premises.

But when is it appropriate to silo data, versus integrating it across different cloud platforms?

Low Hanging Fruit: Dev/Test

The easiest, most cost-effective step an organization can take to leverage the elasticity a public cloud provider offers is to run dev/test workloads on them with sanitized data. The sporadic nature of those dev/test workloads is a perfect match for the on-demand provisioning, pay-by-the-hour capacity that public clouds provide.

Even if your dev/test workloads run eight hours a day, five days a week, without public cloud providers an organization is still paying capital expense on internal hardware 24 hours a day, seven days a week. By creating a sanitized data set for dev/test workloads that mimics production but lowers risk (should that data be breached), companies can free up that 128-hour difference between 8-5 and 24/7 through hardware reduction cost savings.

Production Marketing Website: Data That’s Already Public

The second easiest place to look for data that can be moved to the public cloud without risk is a production marketing website. Data associated with these applications are already public, and their constantly changing demand, based on various marketing activities, makes them great candidates for taking advantage of cloud elasticity.

Harder Decisions: Sensitive Production Data

With the easy choices now made, some harder decisions need to be examined. Public cloud platforms can provide features instantly that would take much longer to build within your data center. For example, Internet of Things, Big Data, device farms and data streaming services are difficult to reproduce in-house at a reasonable cost, but companies typically don’t want to risk moving that data outside a corporate firewall.

One option is to set up Virtual Private Networks (VPN) with the public cloud providers, so that services running on them can have secured access to part of an internal network, and therefore the data on that network. Public cloud providers make setups like this easy to accomplish, but for data that is used by both internal and external applications, care must be taken with the network segmentation so that a breach to the external world on the VPN does not lead to the internal consumers of the data as well.

Another option is to create an Application Programming Interface (API) for the data source that uses HTTPS encryption and key authentication access. This is more costly than the VPN approach, but prevents raw access to the data and creates a cleaner entry point that does not carry nearly the same network segmentation risk.

Consider All Your Options

Any organization looking to augment on premises infrastructure with cloud platforms needs to take data access seriously. Some data is sensitive enough that it needs to remain inside internal silos, but there are plenty of opportunities for other data. Sanitizing dev/test workloads can reap huge benefits, enabling a company to offload internal hardware for public cloud elasticity. Marketing websites already have public data in them, and their wildly changing demand makes them a good fit for public cloud as well. Other pieces of data may be needed both places, and whether a VPN or API approach is used, both offer ways to integrate data across internal and public cloud infrastructures.

A 20+ year tech industry veteran, Pete Johnson is the VP of Product Evangelism and Enablement at CliQr Technologies. He can be found on Twitter at @nerdguru.