IT Executive news

• Dell targets hyperscale wannabes with new line of bare-bones servers

  20-10-2015 23:30
  
  Dell has released a new family of servers aimed at companies that want some of the cost savings of using custom-built hardware but without having to do as much of the engineering work.The servers are aimed at what Dell calls the second tier of hyper-scale customers -- those big enough to buy hundreds or even thousands of servers at a time, but who aren't as massive as a Google or a Facebook. That includes smaller Web-scale companies as well as telcos, financial services firms, cloud software com
  
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• Dell steps up analytics push with Statistica 13, new vertical services

  20-10-2015 23:30
  
  Dell got a jump-start in the world of analytics software when it acquired StatSoft early last year, and on Tuesday it forged further ahead into the space with a new Statistica release and a variety of industry-specific services.Announced at the company's Dell World conference taking place in Austin, Texas, this week, Statistica 13 updates the company's advanced analytics software platform with several key new capabilities. First and foremost is native distributed analytics, a feature that allows
  
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• BrandPost: Real-Time Situational Awareness: Never Say “I Don’t Know”

  20-10-2015 23:00
  
  It’s 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday. As you round the corner, you (literally!) run into your CISO. He’s been with the CIO preparing for the quarterly board meeting, and they need your help. The high profile-breaches that have occurred in the last year may cause the board to drill-in and ask questions. As Director of Information Security, you’re supposed to know best, right? But, as you know, things aren’t always so crisp and clear.“I Don’t Know” Is Not an Optio
  
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• Akamai's CDN is coming to Azure thanks to expanded partnership

  20-10-2015 21:44
  
  Azure users have already had access to the homegrown content delivery network services Microsoft offers in both standard and premium versions, but thanks to a newly expanded partnership, they'll soon be able to tap CDN services from Akamai as well.Microsoft will fully integrate access to the Akamai CDN into Microsoft Azure, it announced Tuesday, so as to optimize performance of content and applications deployed and delivered on its cloud platform.Microsoft is also planning a series of first-part
  
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• Video: Women in computing speak up -- and out -- at Grace Hopper 2015

  20-10-2015 21:28
  
  Energy was high and ideas were flying at the recent 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and US CTO Megan Smith leading the charge. (computerworld.com)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Western Digital self-encrypting external hard disk drives have flaws that can expose data

  20-10-2015 21:19
  
  The hardware-based encryption built into popular Western Digital external hard disk drives has flaws that could allow attackers to recover data without knowing the user password.A team of three security researchers investigated how the self-encryption feature was implemented in several popular Western Digital My Passport and My Book models. Depending on the type of microchip used for the encryption operation, they found design flaws and backdoor-like features that enable brute-force passwor
  
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• Security information sharing gets even bigger with BSIMM6

  20-10-2015 20:57
  
  The BSIMM (Building Security In Maturity Model) is gaining a measure of maturity itself – its sixth iteration went public earlier this week.
  The fundamental goals remain what they were at the beginning, in 2009, according to Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital, one of the cofounders and the BSIMM’s chief spokesman: To save software developers both headaches and money by building security into their products from the start, instead of trying to bolt it on later.
  ““It is
  
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• Zend paves new path to get PHP applications on the Web

  20-10-2015 20:48
  
  Zend Technologies is offering a release candidate version of its Expressive PSR-7 microframework, for developing PHP middleware applications for the Web.
  The release candidate enables development of applications with PSR-7 (PHP Standards Recommendation), a set of HTTP message interfaces that provide contracts for interacting with HTTP requests and responses, URIs, and uploaded files, Zend said. It allows for writing of small, single-purpose libraries for the likes of cookie-signing and content
  
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• HTC launches One A9 smartphone with tech purists in mind

  20-10-2015 19:39
  
  HTC on Tuesday unveiled its new 5-in. display One A9 smartphone with an unusual appeal to smartphone purists who want to buy it unlocked and with few alterations to pure Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).
  The phone will sell globally starting in early November with a limited promotional unlocked price of $400, which is $250 below HTC's previous price for unlocked phones.U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint will support the unlocked device initially, followed by Verizon Wireless once a software u
  
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• 15 simple, yet powerful Excel functions you need to know

  20-10-2015 18:57
  Power users love to talk about how powerful and awesome Excel is, what with its Pivot Tables, nested formulas, and Boolean logic. But many of us barely know how to find the Autosum feature, let alone use Excel’s functions to create powerful formulas.If that’s you, here are 15 handy Excel functions that will get you well on your way to spreadsheet mastery.=SUM()
  The first function anyone should know tells Excel to carry out basic arithmetic. Let’s say you wanted the numbers in c
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Being mindful to improve the conversations you have with yourself

  20-10-2015 18:44
  
  We all have conversations going on constantly in our heads. For some of us they are subtle, passive, and help us feel protected and safe. For others, they are much more aggressive and destructive.Sometimes we are aware of these conversations and our reactions to them. More often though, we are oblivious to their destructive messages, and how they impact our beliefs, sense of self, motivation, and happiness.Notice that you have internal conversations
  One of the best ways to become savvy to the ne
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Google angers iOS users with Material Design

  20-10-2015 18:41
  
  Google's Material Design has become a hallmark of recent versions of Android. But should Google use Material Design in its iOS apps too? A recent thread on the Apple subreddit got hundreds of comments from iOS users who shared their thoughts about Google using Material Design in its iOS apps.Redditor Heyyoudvd started the thread off with this rant:
  I'm finding lately that I've been using Google's apps less and less because they've been increasingly annoying me, thanks to Google's total stylistic
  
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• Survey shows a third of people would opt for smartphone over car

  20-10-2015 18:34
  
  Once a rite of passage for any teenager, owning a car is increasingly being overshadowed by the desire for a smartphone, a new survey shows.
  The survey of 1,200 people in four major countries by global tech design firm Frog found that 30% of respondents would give up their car before their smartphone.
  "Given that smartphones have been commonly available for only 10 years, we expect the proportion of people who value them more than their car to grow swiftly and significantly," Frog said in
  
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• Samsung Galaxy S7 may be announced early, in January

  20-10-2015 18:05
  
  Samsung is reportedly announcing in January its next Galaxy S7 smartphone, which would come in two processor versions: Premium and Sub-Premium.
  If the report Tuesday in the Electronic Times News is correct (as that news source usually is when reporting Samsung news), the Premium version would represent an important value for enterprise buyers seeking greater processing power for support of background functions, such as encryption, without "grinding down" performance, said Phil Hochmuth, an anal
  
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• Microsoft makes good on cancelled Surface Book pre-orders

  20-10-2015 17:50
  
  After botching some Surface Book pre-orders, Microsoft says it will make things right with expedited shipping.
  Reports of cancelled pre-orders started popping up on Reddit’s Surface forum earlier this week, as users found that they couldn’t keep their orders after getting fraud alerts from their banks or credit card providers. One buyertold Windows Centralthat even after rectifying the issue with American Express, Microsoft still failed to accept the order and ultimately cancelled i
  
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• Tableau's new Vizable app puts analytics at your fingertips

  20-10-2015 17:30
  
  The rise of big data has put considerable wind into the sails of visualization tools like Tableau, but it's also put a new premium on simplicity and accessibility. With such goals in mind, Tableau on Tuesday debuted Vizable, a free new iPad app that puts sophisticated analytics capabilities at users' fingertips.
  "We realized that if we were going to start Tableau over again today, for the mobile generation, we'd build it for touch and on a mobile device," said Dave Story, the company's vice pre
  
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• Microsoft Store lists Lumia 950 as teardown offers peek at 950 XL's liquid cooling

  20-10-2015 16:40
  
  Microsoft loves nothing more than a long build-up to a product release, and the Lumia 950's slow stroll towards launch sure drives that home. Weeks after initially revealing the Windows 10 Phones, the Microsoft Store is finally listing the Lumia 950 after posting the 950 XL earlier, as noticed by Windows Central.
  There are actually two listings for the device: an unlocked version and the AT&T only build. Just like its larger XL cousin, however, the 950 is not yet available for pre
  
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• 13 top Web development bootcamps in 13 cities

  20-10-2015 16:18
  
  Bootcamp bonanzaImage by Franco Folini/Flickr, WikipediaAccording to a recent survey by bootcamp directory and reviews website Course Report, more than twice as many students are expected to graduate from coding bootcamps this year (16,056) than in 2014 (6,740).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Cheap VR for the masses: Google Cardboard headed to 1 million NY Times subscribers

  20-10-2015 16:12
  
  New York Times subscribers may soon notice that their paper is thicker than usual, with a Google Cardboard virtual reality headset stuffed inside.
  On the weekend of November 7, Cardboard will be included with more than 1 million home deliveries of the Times’ print edition. Times Insiders and some online subscribers will also get an email promo code for a free Google Cardboard headset.
  Like the name suggests, Cardboard is a lightweight virtual reality system made out of folded up cardboard
  
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• Beddit tracks sleep without the wearable

  20-10-2015 16:12
  
  We all know how important sleep is, and we know we probably don't get enough of it, especially during hectic workweeks. So do you really need a sleep tracking device to tell you what you already know?[Related: Fitbit rival Misfit Link costs $20, automatically tracks sleep]That's the question the makers of devices such as the Beddit Smart Sleep Monitor ($149) must answer if they want consumers to buy their trackers. I've used several different devices to track sleep, including Beddit. If you
  
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• Google makes full-disk encryption and secure boot mandatory for some Android 6.0 devices

  20-10-2015 16:04
  
  Google's plan to encrypt user data on Android devices by default will get a new push with Android 6.0, also known as Marshmallow.The company requires Android devices capable of decent cryptographic performance to have full-disk encryption enabled in order to be declared compatible with the latest version of the mobile OS.Google's first attempt to make default full-disk encryption mandatory for phone manufacturers was with Android 5.0 (Lollipop), but it had to abandon that plan because of perform
  
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• FCC to probe Verizon, AT&T over contract lock-in

  20-10-2015 15:55
  
  The FCC announced late last week that it would investigate Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier over highly strict service terms in wireline business service contracts, which critics say lock customers into their deals unfairly.
  The commission is particularly focused on the special access market, which encompasses the legacy copper links that make up part of the fabric of U.S. Internet service. The large incumbent providers under investigation control a lot of these special access links,
  
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• Irish privacy watchdog to investigate Facebook over spying allegations

  20-10-2015 15:44
  
  The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has agreed to investigate allegations that Facebook exposes its users' personal data to mass snooping by U.S. intelligence services, following a ruling of the High Court of Ireland on Tuesday.Austrian Facebook user Maximilian Schrems filed a complaint with the DPC in 2013, in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance system.The DPC initially dismissed the complaint as "frivolous," a decision Schrem
  
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• 10 great messaging apps for your Android Wear watch

  20-10-2015 15:43
  
  Leave your phone in your pocketImage by Ryan WhitwamGoogle has certainly beefed up the feature set of Hangouts on Android Wear since launch, but just because Hangouts is the default messaging client on most Android phones doesn’t mean it's your only option for messaging from your wrist.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Windows 10 upgrade cycle has CIOs bracing for (and embracing) change

  20-10-2015 15:39
  
  CIOs say the shorter upgrade cycles for the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system are a breath of fresh air. Microsoft’s previous approach of protracted revisions seem antiquated in an era of constantly refreshed cloud and mobile platforms. Windows customers say that while the shift is another sign that the 40-year-old software giant is modernizing its IT delivery processes, managing the change will take significant effort."Historically, your Windows upgrades were these massive projects --
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 pitfalls to achieving the full value of investments

  20-10-2015 15:38
  
  When I ask CIOs to explain the reasons behind why they think their organizations do not maximize the value of investments, I get a variety of answers. In my first post, I talked about research which shows that the majority of IT projects are not achieving their full value. Whenever I share this statistic at events, the CIOs in the room respond with a groan. The challenge is all too familiar.We work hard to ensure that the initial investment in a new product or service will create business value.
  
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• Lenovo REACHit on Windows 10 offers smart search across devices, the cloud

  20-10-2015 15:30
  
  The latest crop of Windows 10 PCs is somewhat disappointing because so few of them take advantage of core features built into the new OS. Lenovo, however, managed to do just that with a cool and useful app built on top of Cortana, the Windows 10 virtual assistant.Lenovo's REACHit is in essence a powerful search app that can query across multiple devices — PCs, phones, and tablets — as well as cloud-based services such as Dropbox and Gmail. It's still in testing but is
  
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• Microsoft advances Surface Enterprise initiative with new warranty options and more

  20-10-2015 15:00
  
  Coming off the heels of a major hardware announcement earlier this month, Microsoft revealed a smorgasbord of new initiatives aimed at boosting the appeal of its Surface tablets for large enterprises and other organizations such as schools and governments.Enterprises that want to purchase a large number of Surface tablets and keyboards for their employees will have a new premium warranty option to choose from: Microsoft Complete for Enterprise. It's a three-year warranty that comes with many of
  
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• CSO salaries expected to sky rocket

  20-10-2015 14:01
  
  By many accounts, 2015 was the year of the big data professional, with data scientists even being hailed as the “sexiest job of the year” by one study. But 2016 may emerge as the year of the chief security officer, as another new study reveals that pay for CSOs is rising faster than most every other IT job.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Oracle reworks OpenStack for a containerized world

  20-10-2015 14:00
  It's been just over a year since Oracle first released an OpenStack version tailored for its namesake Linux distribution, and on Tuesday it followed up with a key update reworked specifically for today's containerized world.Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux Release 2 is the first commercially available OpenStack implementation that's packaged entirely as Docker instances, Oracle said, meaning that enterprises don't need to install components individually.Based on the Kilo release of OpenStack th
  
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• 5 ways to use Facebook Groups to grow your professional network

  20-10-2015 13:42
  
  You've heard the stories about people losing their job over an imprudent Facebook post, but what about actually finding a job on Facebook? It's possible, because beyond the political posts and photos from your second cousin's wedding, there lies a world of industry-specific Facebook Groups where you can connect with other professionals in your industry, and you can even connect with recruiters there.
  LinkedIn or Facebook?Compared to sites like LinkedIn, where professional networking groups aboun
  
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• How to diversify your IT hiring pipeline

  20-10-2015 13:13
  
  Frustrated by the lack of diversity at your tech company or by the lack of women and underrepresented minority applicants? At the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Technology, last week in Houston, several experts shared tips on how to address the issue, emphasizing that successful diversity strategies start by making sure every step in your hiring process is consistent with that goal. That starts with identifying where in your hiring process the problem is occurring.Identify the problemMany
  
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• Who cares about Hadoop on Linux? Microsoft (yes, really)

  20-10-2015 13:09
  
  Last month Microsoft did something extraordinary – something which demonstrates how completely the company has changed since its third CEO, Satya Nadella, took over.Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure HDInsight, a fully managed Apache Hadoop cluster service running on Linux in its Azure cloud.At first glance that's doesn't seem like to much of a big deal. But it is, and here's why.When Microsoft announced Azure back in 2008, what it actually announced was "Windows Azure."
  
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• Real world lessons from AWS re:Invent 2015

  20-10-2015 13:04
  
  Last week Amazon Web Services (AWS) held its yearly re:Invent and it was, as always, revelatory. As I said to one fellow attendee, you go to VMWorld to see the future of old IT, and re:Invent to see the future of new IT.If you’re interested in the future of new IT, here are three things that re:Invent made clear regarding AWS: 1. AWS goes mainstream 
  Over the years, many people have denigrated AWS as a service primarily used by startups and SMBs. If ever that were true, re:Invent
  
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• Fujitsu puts Sparc M10 servers in the cloud for big retailers

  20-10-2015 13:00
  While most of the public cloud runs on low-cost x86 hardware, it's not the only game in town. Rackspace is building a service using a new server based on IBM's Power processor, and now Fujitsu is making moves with its Sparc-based M10 Unix systems.On Tuesday, Fujitsu launched a managed cloud service in North America that's aimed at retailers like Safeway and Costco and brands like Nike and Banana Republic. It's designed to let them test and deploy new commerce applications quickly witho
  
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• Onbetrouwbare sleutels en certificaten leiden tot verlies klanten

  20-10-2015 12:43
  Zes op de tien bedrijven hebben klanten verloren door het gebruik van onvoldoende beveiligde sleutels en certificaten, met een gemiddelde schade van 15 miljoen dollar per incident. Daarop duidt een onderzoek onder meer dan 2000 security professionals door het Ponemon instituut en Venafi, beveiliger van... lees meer
  
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• Penn Medicine’s big data system triggers early detection of life-threatening infections

  20-10-2015 12:30
  Healthcare organizations are latching on to big data for everything from population health management to genomic research. For Penn Medicine, the healthcare system and medical school affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, those technology advances are touching patients in very real ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Healthcare orgs fall short on software security

  20-10-2015 12:00
  
  A recent study confirmed what security professionals have long suspected: The health care sector lags behind other high-visibility industry sectors regarding software security. The number of health care breaches, including Anthem and Premera Health this year alone, hint at underlying issues in software security practices.
  Health care organizations tended to score lower than their counterparts in financial services, independent software vendors, and consumer electronics, according to Cigital&rsq
  
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• 2015 technology industry graveyard

  20-10-2015 12:00
  
  Ba-byeThe Technology Industry Graveyard is pretty darn full in 2015, and we’re not even including the near-dead such as RadioShack and Microsoft’s IE browser. Pay your respects here…GrooveSharkImage by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Pakweg helft Nederlandse ondernemingen past ‘lean’ toe

  20-10-2015 09:57
  Bijna de helft van de Nederlandse ondernemingen hanteert lean-principes, vooral in de maakindustrie, de zorg en de financiële sector, ofschoon het merendeel van de organisaties nog in de beginfase zit. Bovendien wordt nauwelijks gemeten wat de effecten zijn. Daarop duidt onderzoek van KPMG.Bedrijven... lees meer
  
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• Is it still possible to do phone phreaking? Yes, with Android on LTE

  20-10-2015 05:34
  
  In the 1960s and 70s, technically savvy enthusiasts sought to game telecommunications systems to make free calls, keeping telecom engineers on their toes.That practice, known as phreaking, involved such luminaries as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and John Draper, known as Cap'n Crunch, who used a whistle from a cereal box to meddle with AT&T's long-distance trunk lines.These days, mobile operators have fully embraced the Internet and are increasingly moving voice calls over fast, packet-switched
  
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• Cyber insurers could help drive IoT standards

  20-10-2015 05:02
  
  Cyber insurance premiums could prove a big driver of Internet of Things standards.
  Machine-to-machine communication has grown up in separate silos for every industry, but as it expands in the coming years as part of the broader Internet of Things wave, standards could save a lot of cost and effort, speakers at a networking conference said Monday. 
  Having a common approach that works can save IoT vendors from having to reinvent the wheel, said Jim Zerbe, head of IoT product at Neustar, a re
  
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• Microsoft exec says cumulative Windows 10 updates are better than the alternative

  20-10-2015 02:27
  
  If there's one Microsoft policy that has drawn the ire of IT managers over the course of its Windows 10 rollout, it's the company's decision to require that all users install cumulative updates without control over which packages a system receives.It's such a point of contention that a group of thousands of grumpy customers have petitioned company CEO Satya Nadella to change Windows 10 update practices. Customers want more control over what's added to their systems, but they're also concern
  
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• Apple Maps gets a boost with Boston transit and Amtrak routes

  20-10-2015 02:23
  
  iOS 9 and El Capitan finally brought public transit directions to Apple Maps, but the number of available cities was pitifully small. Only commuters in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia had access to public transportation information upon the feature’s launch in the U.S., making Apple Maps not all that useful for straphangers in other major metropolitan areas. Today, Bostonians can now use Maps to route their way on the T.To read this article
  
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• Bank’s severance deal requires IT workers to be on call for two years

  20-10-2015 02:22
  
  SunTrust Banks in Atlanta is laying off about 100 IT workers as it moves work offshore. But this layoff is unusual for what it is asking of the soon-to-be displaced workers: The bank's severance agreement requires terminated employees to remain available for two years to provide help if needed, including in-person assistance, and to do so without compensation.
  Many of the affected IT employees, who are now training their replacements, have years of experience and provide the highest levels of t
  
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• When storms hit, the Weather Company needs the cloud

  20-10-2015 02:21
  
  When hurricane winds are bearing down and water is rising across streets and into houses, no one at the Weather Channel wants to be thinking about server capacity or if their website can handle a twentyfold increase in traffic.
  When major storms hit, the people at the Weather Channel want to focus on the science behind the weather and getting information out to those who need it most.
  That's why the Weather Companyhas gone all-in with the cloud.
  "For us, the days the infrastructure is the most
  
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• Crypto researchers: Time to use something better than 1024-bit encryption

  20-10-2015 02:20
  
  It’s actually possible for entities with vast computing resources – such as the NSA and major national governments - to compromise commonly used Diffie-Hellman key exchange groups, so it’s time for businesses to switch to something else like elliptic curve cryptography, researchers say.
  “It’s been recommended to move from 1024-bit [encryption] for a long time, and now there are very concrete risks of not doing that,” says Nadia Heninger, an assistant professo
  
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• Review: Steve Jobs offers more Hollywood fiction than fact

  20-10-2015 00:19
  
  Four years after his death, Steve Jobs is passing from legend into myth. Some recountings of his life try to set the record straight, including last month's documentary, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. Others flirt with creative retellings of the facts, as did the 2013 film Jobs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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