IT Executive news

• Security Experts React to President's Cybersecurity Proposals

  12-01-2015 23:59
  
  Information security experts today praised the attention U.S. President Barack Obama is lavishing on cybersecurity, but have some concerns about how proposed legislation will be implemented and enforced while others say the proposals don't go far enough.In a speech at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today — marking the first time a U.S. president has come to the FTC since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's visit in 1937 — Obama proposed legislation that would require companies to notify
  
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• As victim lay dying, gunman asked hostages: 'Do you want me to finish him off?' - The Times of Israel

  12-01-2015 23:52
  
  The Times of Israel
  As victim lay dying, gunman asked hostages: 'Do you want me to finish him off?'
  The Times of Israel
  The other three fatalities, it was later revealed, were Yohan Cohen, 22, an employee of the market, Phillipe Barham, a father of four and an IT executive and François-Michel Saada, a retired father of two. “One of the men was still suffocating [from ...
  
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• Verizon Gets 'Black Eye' in Long Cloud Shutdown

  12-01-2015 23:16
  
  The Verizon Cloud platform is up and running again after a 40-hour shutdown over the weekend for a planned upgrade.
  For an industry that generally measures downtime in minutes or several hours, this was a long shutdown. But Verizon says the outage means it won’t have to interrupt users’ service again for future upgrades.
  Even so, one user found to be too little too late.
  “When a company claims enterprise-grade global services, they are asking customers to entrust their most important
  
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• Windows 10, Chrome OS battle royale to benefit PCs this year

  12-01-2015 22:55
  
  Laptops with Microsoft’s Windows 10 will be in a heavyweight bout with Chromebooks for market dominance later this year, but no matter who wins, PC shipments will benefit from the clash.Worldwide PC shipments are expected to decline by a lower-than-expected rate of 3.3 percent this year, and fall by just 1.8 percent in 2016, as Windows 10 and Chromebooks help stop years of bleeding in the PC market, IDC said on Monday. Shipments declined by 4.7 percent last year when compared to 2013.The re
  
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• Windows 7 Exits Mainstream Support: What You Need to Know

  12-01-2015 22:48
  
  Yet another end is nigh for Windows 7. After months of buildup—Microsoft killed standalone software sales of the operating system in October 2013, and Windows 7 consumer PCs stopped being manufactured in October 2014—the venerable OS is finally exiting “mainstream support” on January 13, 2015. And for months now, the Web has been flooded with a wave of confused or downright fearmongering headlines and articles implying that Windows 7 is following Windows XP into the graveyard.To r
  
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• New Service Wants to Rent Out Your Hard Drive's Extra Space

  12-01-2015 22:46
  
  While not a new concept, a new decentralized service is beta testing a peer-to-peer network that would "rent" unused capacity from your computer's hard drive as part of a cloud service to store files from other users.
  The service, called Storj, uses the network and end-to-end encryption to allow the transfer of data to and from your computer’s drive. Your hard drive is literally used to store other people’s data.
  During a crowdsourcing campaign last year, Storj garnered 910 Bitcoins val
  
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• Google Stops Patching Core Android Component in 60% of Devices

  12-01-2015 22:08
  
  Google has stopped patching a core component of Android in versions older than v. 4.4, aka "KitKat," a security researcher said today, as he urged the company to reconsider the policy that could leave more than 60% of all Android users vulnerable to future attacks.
  On Monday, Tod Beardsley, the engineering manager at security vendor Rapid7, claimed that Google's security team said they would not craft fixes for flaws in WebView for Android 4.3 and older. Android 4.3, the predecessor to KitKa
  
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• Zap2it First: Behind-the-scenes glimpse into 'The Bridge's' Season 2 stories - Zap2it.com (blog)

  12-01-2015 21:34
  
  Zap2it First: Behind-the-scenes glimpse into 'The Bridge's' Season 2 stories
  Zap2it.com (blog)
  "It was scary as s*** to try [something so different with the show], but ultimately if we were going to tell a story about the border and tell the show that I think 'The Bridge' can be, we had to do it," executive producer Elwood Reid told reporters ...
  
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• Citrix buys Sanbolic to virtualize storage for VDI, app delivery

  12-01-2015 20:50
  
  Citrix Systems has acquired storage virtualization vendor Sanbolic in a move that could make it easier for Citrix users to use applications and virtual desktops spread across data centers and clouds.Sanbolic sells software that lets enterprises treat the capacity in most types of storage infrastructure as a single virtual system that understands the needs of each application. Those capabilities play into Citrix’s mission of efficiently delivering virtual desktops to users and making applica
  
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• Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance kiest voor Xtandit

  12-01-2015 20:26
  Xtandit, de grootste concessionair van Xerox, heeft bij Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance Nederland het printerpark opnieuw ingericht met behulp van Managed Print Services (XMS). Op basis hiervan heeft de organisatie samen met Xtandit een printbeleid opgesteld en een overstap van 80 cartridge printers naar 30... lees meer
  
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• Continuous delivery: over vijf jaar weten we niet beter!

  12-01-2015 20:26
  Door Bob van Zeist – De traditionele manier waarop we software ontwikkelen en in productie brengen staat de laatste tijd flink onder druk. Het is steeds urgenter om ideeën sneller te realiseren en nieuwe functionaliteiten direct aan de eindgebruiker ter beschikking te stellen. Om dit proces te versnellen... lees meer
  
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• Obama calls for data breach notification law, privacy bill of rights

  12-01-2015 20:25
  
  U.S. President Barack Obama will push Congress to pass a law requiring companies that are victims of data breaches to notify affected consumers within 30 days and a second law that gives consumers more control over their digital data, he said.Obama will call for a national data breach notification law and a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights in ID theft and privacy initiatives in his State of the Union speech Jan. 20, he said Monday at the Federal Trade Commission.To read this article in full or
  
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• U.S. military Twitter, YouTube accounts apparently hacked by ISIS

  12-01-2015 20:15
  
  Supporters of the extremist group known as ISIS or the Islamic State apparently took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts on Monday of the U.S. Central Command, a top military security unit.Phone numbers of top military officers and what the hackers said were classified documents were posted on Centcom’s Twitter feed, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The Twitter feed for Centcom, which is responsible for U.S. security interests in 20 nations stretching through the Arabian
  
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• U.S. CENTCOM Twitter Feed Compromised by 'Cyber Jihadists'

  12-01-2015 19:20
  
  The official Twitter account for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) was compromised Monday afternoon, by attackers claiming to support the terrorist group ISIS.
  In a series of messages posted to the compromised account, the attackers published images of documents, which were allegedly taken from hijacked mobile devices.
  The person(s) claiming responsibility for the attack later posted a warning to American soldiers on Pastebin, that ISIS was already in their PCs, and that the Pentagon networ
  
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• Microsoft Blasts Google for Baring Windows Bugs Before They're Patched

  12-01-2015 19:17
  
  After Google posted detailed information about a second Windows vulnerability in less than two weeks -- before Microsoft was able to patch the flaws -- Microsoft today lashed out, calling its rival's move a "gotcha" that puts users at risk.
  Some security experts sided with Google -- saying that in a changed world, patching must speed up -- while others saw the search giant's decision to reveal vulnerability information, including proof-of-concept attack code, as arbitrary and counter-product
  
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• Not Sure About Wearables? Lumoid Launches a Try-Before-You-Buy Program

  12-01-2015 18:42
  
  Buying a fitness tracker or smartwatch is a big commitment not everyone's ready to make. A new service from Lumoid might be able to help.
  The company is offering a rental program for wearables that lets you try up to five devices at a time. You can then buy any of the devices from Lumoid for the regular retail price, or pay a $20 rental fee if you decide not to keep any of them. (There are no shipping fees involved on the customer's end.)
  Currently, Lumoid offers 16 wearable devices for rent
  
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• How a Snack Food Company Plans to Compete With Tech Giants for IT Talent

  12-01-2015 18:31
  
  Mondelez International, the food and beverage conglomerate behind such well-known brands as Cadbury, Dentyne, Oreo and Ritz, sells about 8 billion products each month. It's a stretch to suggest that technology is part of its DNA, but that will very likely change during the next five years."We might become one of the largest technology companies in the world," said B. Bonin Bough, Mondelez vice president of global media and consumer engagement, at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Sh
  
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• 9 Linux Distros to Watch in 2015

  12-01-2015 18:13
  
  Looking aheadImage by Nicolas RougierPredictions are fun. We all enjoy tech predictions at the beginning of each year. This isn't that. This is a list of the nine Linux Distributions that I feel will be the most interesting to watch during 2015. We're talking both desktop and mobile here because, let's face it, Linux is everywhere. (Note: I say these will be the most "interesting to watch," not necessarily the best or the highest quality. Just the most interesting and entertaining to keep tabs o
  
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• FBI access to surveillance program expands in recent years

  12-01-2015 18:10
  
  U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation access to overseas surveillance collected by sister organization the National Security Agency has expanded in recent years, with the law enforcement agency gaining access to collected but unprocessed data in 2009, according to a report released by the government.The FBI’s access to email and other data collected from overseas targets in the NSA’s Prism program has been growing since 2008, according to a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice inspector general
  
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• Dutch government sued over data retention law

  12-01-2015 17:45
  
  The Dutch data retention law will have its day in court on Feb. 18, when the District Court of the Hague hears a legal challenge to it filed by a broad coalition of organizations.The law requires telecommunications and Internet companies to retain their customer’s location and traffic metadata for six to 12 months, depending on the type of data, for investigatory purposes.However, the complainants want the court to invalidate the law because it violates fundamental privacy rights, said thei
  
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• 2015 Mobile Security Survival Guide

  12-01-2015 17:14
  
  Security risks and data breaches are growing while the form factors of computing devices shrink—because much enterprise data today is created and consumed on mobile devices. This clearly explains why mobile security persistently tops the list of most pressing enterprise security concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IBM attributes patent success to global diversity

  12-01-2015 17:10
  
  For the 22nd year in a row, IBM has produced more U.S. patents than any other company, a success that it attributes, at least in part, to the global diversity of its researchers.“Nobody has a lock on intellect, skills, and experience. Many countries have different areas of focus. If you have a different education system, you can come up with different views of the same phenomenon,” said Bernie Meyerson, IBM chief innovation officer.For 2014, IBM garnered 7,534 patents, more than any other
  
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• Orange looks to take over struggling French cloud

  12-01-2015 16:55
  
  Pitching “NSA-free” cloud services in Europe isn’t enough to become successful. In a bid to give French cloud provider Cloudwatt a boost, Orange is in negotiations to take over the whole company.Cloudwatt was founded in 2012 by Orange, aerospace and defence company Thales and the French government to offer a “Made in France” cloud service. But while there is an interest in locally owned and hosted services across Europe, simply waving a national flag over a cloud offering is not eno
  
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• 5 Ways to Give IT Recognition

  12-01-2015 16:36
  
  Appreciating IT workersImage by ShutterstockWe all like to know that our efforts are appreciated. For people working in IT, recognition is too often neglected, simply because so much of what IT workers do is behind the scenes and goes unnoticed by the majority of employees.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Google discloses another unpatched Windows flaw, irritates Microsoft

  12-01-2015 16:05
  
  Google released details of a second unpatched privilege escalation flaw in Windows 8.1 in less than a month, drawing criticism from Microsoft.Microsoft is unhappy with the 90-day public disclosure deadline enforced by Google’s security research team known as Project Zero.Project Zero members routinely find vulnerabilities in products from other companies. These flaws get reported to the affected software vendors and if they are not patched in 90 days, Google automatically makes the vulnerab
  
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• Must-Have Fitness Apps, Accessories for Phablet Owners

  12-01-2015 16:04
  
  Are you working out with a phablet in your pocket? If so, you need to read this post.Sales of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones have been big since their September debut, according to Kantar Worldpanel, with the Samsung Galaxy S5 not far behind. In other words, phablets are huge — in more ways than one.Here's something else that's huge, at least at this time of year: exercise. As someone who's been working out with an iPhone 6 Plus by my side since September, I have a few apps and a
  
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• 2015 IT Data Center Infrastructure Convergence Predictions

  12-01-2015 15:56
  
  IT infrastructure is constantly riding the often-tumultuous waves of consolidation and separation. A typical example would be the eras of mainframe, open systems, and PC computing. No surprise there. For the past three to five years, server virtualization has been a catalyst for data center consolidation, (even though for the most part, IT has mapped server virtualization initiatives to existing IT infrastructure choices, or dare I say legacy infrastructure).
  Regardless, as a result of the s
  
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• Google Chases Microsoft with Beefed-up Translate Speech Tools

  12-01-2015 15:51
  
  Microsoft spent the last half of 2014 getting everyone excited about Skype Translator,  a new technology that translates real-time conversations between two people speaking different languages over Skype. The new feature went into an invite-only preview in December.
  Not to be left behind, Google recently let slip to The New York Times that it intends to beef up the spoken translation chops of Google Translate for Android and (presumably) iOS.To read this article in full or to leave a commen
  
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• CIOs Discuss How They Convey IT Value to the Business

  12-01-2015 15:28
  
  Welcome to CIO Quick Takes, a series of brief, anecdotal reports produced in partnership with the CIO Executive Council. The challenges -- and opportunities -- for CIOs have never been greater. Roles are evolving, budgets are shifting, IT is getting a SMAC down, the line between consumer and enterprise products is virtually gone, the IT skills gap is widening ... . For all those reasons and many more, we know the questions are swirling.
  
  David Chou , CIO of the University of Mississippi Med
  
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• Google Surges into Top 10 in Patent Race; IBM Retains Huge Lead

  12-01-2015 15:00
  
  Tech companies made a strong showing among the top U.S. patent recipients for 2014, with IBM dominating the rankings as it has for more than two decades.
  IBM was awarded 7,534 utility patents last year, according to data from IFI Claims Patent Services. IBM’s record-setting haul is up 11% compared to 2013, when it earned 6,809 patents.
  IBM bested the next most prolific patent recipient, Samsung, by a huge margin. Ranked No. 2, Samsung received 4,952 patents in 2014.To read this article in
  
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• Nitrogen leak kills two at LG Display factory

  12-01-2015 14:20
  
  Two people were killed and four suffered injury from suffocation on Monday, after a nitrogen leak at an LG Display factory in the South Korean city of Paju, north of Seoul.The workers were performing regular maintenance and repair of equipment on the production line before the leak at 12.43 p.m. local time, the company said in a statement.The victims were employees of LG Display and its contractor company, all in their 30s. They were sent to nearby hospitals immediately, where one still remai
  
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• NewVantage Partners Names Tony Pagliarulo Partner and Practice Leader - Fort Mills Times

  12-01-2015 14:13
  NewVantage Partners Names Tony Pagliarulo Partner and Practice Leader
  Fort Mills Times
  Pagliarulo was most recently IT chief operating officer and senior vice president for EMC Corporation, the $22B global leader in information infrastructure solutions, where he held senior IT executive positions since joining the firm in 2001. He led ...
  
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• Higher-Education CIOs Weigh In on 2015 Priorities

  12-01-2015 14:00
  
  The calendar flipping over into 2015 doesn't mean a new academic year for most American college and university students, but it does mean a new beginning for higher-education CIOs.We asked four CIOs about what they're looking forward to in the new year, what changes are in store on their campuses, and how they see the role of the higher-ed CIO evolving.Customer Experience on Campus
  
  IT will continue to play a major role across campus in making the university experience better for customers,
  
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• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Monday, January 12

  12-01-2015 13:50
  
  Paris attack prompts calls for closer watch on Internet contentOnline privacy and expression might be another a casualty of last week’s murderous rampage at French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo: European interior ministers have issued a statement calling for faster reporting, and removal, of “material that aims to incite hatred and terror.” They also agreed to go ahead with plans for the controversial European Passenger Name Record (PNR) framework that could make airlines share pass
  
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• Anti-terror cooperation with ISPs is 'essential' in wake of Paris shootings, EU ministers say

  12-01-2015 13:25
  
  In the wake of the shootings in Paris last week, justice ministers across the European Union have called on major Internet providers to create a system to quickly report and remove online material that “aims to incite hatred and terror.”Such a system is “essential” to stem online terrorist propaganda, the ministers of interior and justice said in a joint statement on Sunday, responding to the shootings at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.“We are concerned
  
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• Why Criminals Pick on Small Business

  12-01-2015 13:04
  
  Does the size of your enterprise really matter to cybercriminals? Well, yes and no.
  Most experts would agree with Jody Westby, CEO of Global Cyber Risk, when she says, “it is the data that makes a business attractive, not the size – especially if it is delicious data, such as lots of customer contact info, credit card data, health data, or valuable intellectual property.”
  But, most experts also say the reality is that small and midsized enterprises (SME) are more attractive targets bec
  
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• The 6 Best (and 4 Worst) Smart-Home Products We Saw at CES 2015

  12-01-2015 13:00
  CES: A Disneyland for smart home geeksImage by ThinkstockWhether you call it the connected home, the smart home, or just the Internet of Things, the concept of connecting everything inside the home to the Internet dominated this year's CES. I don't think we could have seen every system, gadget, appliance, light bulb, and sleep monitor if we had three weeks to wander the cavernous halls of the Las Vegas and Sands Expo convention centers and the surrounding hotels. It was like a Disneyland for sm
  
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• Wearables Go Niche and Narrow in the Search for Consumer Relevance

  12-01-2015 12:30
  
  Wearables are looking for commitment. Manufacturers know that consumers discard many activity trackers within a year of purchase, and it seems that no advances in actual technology are helping new wristbands stand out.
  So instead of trying to chase established general-purpose fitness trackers such as those from Jawbone and Fitbit, the manufacturers we saw at CES 2015 were much more focused on niche use-case scenarios, hawking purpose-built wearables for marathon runners, basketball playe
  
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• 4 Ways for IT to Connect Better with Customers

  12-01-2015 12:30
  
  If you walk by an IT office these days, the only sounds you're likely to hear are the dull whir of laptop fans and the gentle hum of servers — barely a warm body to be found. The IT staff is on the loose.
  In many cases, IT's first order of business is to get closer to customers. Progressive IT shops are achieving that mission in several different ways. Jamie Cutler believes that embedding IT personnel in business units is the most critical move any IT department can make. "It's the differe
  
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• Which Cloud Providers Had the Best Uptime Last Year?

  12-01-2015 12:07
  
  Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform recorded impressive statistics for how reliable their public IaaS clouds were in 2014, with both providers approaching what some consider the Holy Grail of availability: five nines.
  Flash back just to 2012 and pundits bemoaned the cloud being plagued with outages - from one that brought down Reddit and many other sites to the Christmas eve fiasco that impacted Netflix. It was a different story last year.To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• 7 Notable Raspberry Pi Rivals

  12-01-2015 12:05
  
  Board-to-board!OK, these are different products, which can probably all co-exist happily, but NARRATIVES! RIVALRIES! We’re the media, after all. Here, then are seven, um, FEROCIOUS RIVALS to the Raspberry Pi. Whose micro-computer is the micro-est?RELATED: Pi, translated: The evolution of Raspberry PiTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Uptime Simplifies System and Server Monitoring

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  Server and systems management tools have long been too expensive and too complex to actually use without spending thousands of dollars on consultants. Uptime Software has been trying to change that with a product that can be installed and useful within an hour. We tested the latest version (7.3.1) on a small network of Windows physical and virtual machines.
  Like similar products, Uptime consists of a monitoring server that collects information from several scanning methods, including SNMP tr
  
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• The Coolest, Craziest PC Mods and Builds of 2015 (So Far)

  12-01-2015 12:00
  They took Vegas by stormThe PC—you know, the technology everyone dismisses—rolled into Vegas for CES 2015 with an entourage so big, it would make even 50 Cent proud. So yes, even though January's barely begun, the year's PCs are already looking great. We rounded up the brashest of the show into one spectacular display of PC power.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• PHP vs. Node.js: An Epic Battle forDeveloper Mind Share

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  It’s a classic Hollywood plot: the battle between two old friends who went separate ways. Often the friction begins when one pal sparks an interest in what had always been the other pal’s unspoken domain. In the programming language version of this movie, it’s the introduction of Node.js that turns the buddy flick into a grudge match: PHP and JavaScript, two partners who once ruled the Internet together but now duke it out for the mind share of developers.
  In the old days, the partners
  
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• Next-Gen Rust Language Moves to 1.0 Alpha

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  Rust, positioned as a fast systems programming language immune to most crashes, has moved to a feature-complete 1.0 alpha release stage.
  A blog post on Rust late last week from the Rust Core Team described the alpha release as a "huge milestone" for the language, which has been a Mozilla Research project. "While we plan to make many usability improvements before the final release," the post says. "All 1.0 language features are now in place, and we do not expect major breaking changes to them
  
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• Kyocera DuraForce is the Android Phone Designed for The Hulk

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  In a world of me-too Android smartphones, the Kyocera DuraForce stands out. Way out. It's heavy, bulky, and not exactly pretty. Something The Hulk would carry around.
  But as the name suggests, the DuraForce is not meant to be stylish. Instead, it's designed to be abused yet continue working. This ruggedized Android smartphone is meant for construction workers, utility linemen, oil riggers, security guards, coaches, park rangers, and other folks whose work environments are rough and tumble.[
  
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• How IT is Creating the 'Smart' Workplace

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  From pharmaceutical companies to oil and gas firms, enterprises are breaking down silos and boosting the bottom line through the expanded use of collaboration tools and technologies. And IT is leading the charge.
  Konica Minolta’s structural changes are impacting the role of IT. As remote diagnosis increasingly replaces on-site service calls for the company’s printer business, service has become a function of IT. The company has eliminated outsourcing contracts and hired more IT people. Sale
  
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• 15 Ways to Screw Up a Job Interview

  12-01-2015 12:00
  
  IT hiring is on the rise again. And with demand oustripping supply, IT professionals with particularly hot skills might find themselves overwhelmed by opportunities – and inundated with job interviews. But just because companies seem to be vying for someone with your skills and capabilities doesn’t mean you can get too casual about the interview.Mistake 8: Overselling yourselfTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• MTN appoints senior IT executive to drive enterprise business offerings - Biztech Africa

  12-01-2015 11:34
  
  MTN appoints senior IT executive to drive enterprise business offerings
  Biztech Africa
  In a move to further strengthen its position in the enterprise business segment, MTN Group today announced the appointment of Debbie Minnaar, a former executive at IBM South Africa, as General Manager for Products and Services within its Group ...
  
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• Samsung's new Galaxy A7 packs bigger screen, more processing power

  12-01-2015 08:05
  
  Samsung is coming out with a new phablet, that will incorporate a metal frame, and comes at “competitive price point”, according to the Korean electronics maker.The A7, unveiled on Monday, comes just a few months after Samsung announced its two smaller siblings, the A5 and the A3, in late October.The A7, however, is not only bigger with a 5.5-inch high-definition AMOLED display, but also packs more computing power as it combines two separate quad-core processors. In addition, it has a lar
  
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