IT Executive news

• T-Mobile launches free video-streaming service

  10-11-2015 23:34
  
  T-Mobile announced Tuesday it will offer free streaming of wireless video to certain T-Mobile customers for services such as HBO, Hulu, Netflix and 21 others.
  The service, called Binge On, will be available starting Sunday at no extra charge to T-Mobile's Simple Choice customers paying for 3GB of data. In addition, the carrier said it doubled the LTE data caps at every level in Simple Choice at no extra cost.
  "T-Mobile is un-leashing entertainment and giving customers exactly what they want," C
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Who moved my schedule?

  10-11-2015 21:59
  
  Change happens when the pain of holding on becomes greater than the fear of letting go. ― Spencer JohnsonProject schedules are subject to change all the time. When you think that you have it clearly defined and communicated, something unexpected happens and before you know it, you are making changes. It is not that changing schedules is necessarily your idea or desire to do, it is more often a consequence of movements that occurred outside your control. Program managers are typically respo
  
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• Ex-Juniper sibs look to soften up the WAN

  10-11-2015 21:57
  
  An SDN start-up has emerged from stealth to propose a new way to architect WANs and branch networks.
  Versa Networks is co-founded by Kumar and Apurva Mehta, brothers and ex-Juniper Networks engineers who helped build one of that company’s most successful products, the MX edge router. Versa has over $40 million in funding since 2012 from Sequoia, Mayfield and Verizon Ventures, and is addressing a total available market worth over $40 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comme
  
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• Alibaba sales hit $5B in first 90 minutes of 'Singles Day' promotion

  10-11-2015 21:12
  An annual sales promotion on China's biggest online shopping site is off to an spectacular start with $5 billion of goods sold in just 90 minutes.That's equal to more than half of last year's total sales volume of $9.3 billion for the entire day and close to the 2013 all-day total of $5.8 billion.Alibaba's "Singles Day" is an attempt to get customers who are single to buy themselves gifts and has taken place for several years on November 11, chosen for its numeric date of 11/11.It kicked of
  
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• Google finally cutting off Chrome updates on Windows XP and Vista

  10-11-2015 20:50
  
  Windows XP will be getting even less secure next year, when Google stops updating Chrome for users of Microsoft's nearly geriatric operating system. The company announced today that PCs running XP and Vista will be able to keep using Chrome after April 2016, but Google will cease providing updates to its browser, including security-focused patches. That same deal goes for Mac users running OS 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8. Google said it was turning off the updates because the makers of all five
  
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• Think your IT project is a nightmare? Check these out and you'll feel better

  10-11-2015 20:44
  There are many ways to gauge satisfaction with a new computer system, but when the people who have to use it show up for work wearing red and declare it "Code Red" day, you probably don't need to bother with a survey.That's exactly what's scheduled to happen this Thursday in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, where government workers plan to protest the one-year anniversary of a controversial new computer system.Ontario's Social Assistance Management System (SAMS), installed a year ago this week by
  
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• 5 key qualities IT leaders should cultivate

  10-11-2015 20:30
  
  Mobile architecture, data science, business process expertise, agile development — the list of hard skills CIOs need to bring into their organizations through new hires is a long one. Add to this some tough-to-find soft skills, such as critical thinking, communication, and business acumen, and you have a major talent challenge on your hands.CIO.com Jeff Donaldson, Executive Director of GameStop Technology InstituteWhile you are busy hiring for these hard and soft skills, you might con
  
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• How a big U.K. bank uses Facebook at Work for collaboration

  10-11-2015 19:42
  
  In just six months, Facebook at Work's user base increased from a handful of companies to about 300 organizations. The social network also earned itself a marquee customer for its workplace collaboration and communication product, which is currently available only as a limited pilot: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). RBS is not yet paying for the service, but the deal marks the largest Facebook at Work deployment to date. In July, the financial services firm launched a small pilot that included
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 4 big reasons why healthcare needs data science

  10-11-2015 19:28
  
  In the healthcare industry, what could be more important than having better healthcare outcomes? Each and every day healthcare workers around the globe are striving hard to find more ways of improving our lives. However, the world is changing, and frankly, at a faster rate than most of us can keep up. Intuition alone will no longer be enough for quality patient outcomes. The amount of healthcare data continues to mound every second, making it harder and harder to find any form of helpful informa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: New job? 8 steps to successfully navigate the first 90 days

  10-11-2015 19:21
  
  Congratulations! You’re excited and at the top of the world. You’ve received the offer letter for your new role. You and your new employer have both said "I do!" You’ve said goodbye to your current team. You’ve taken your friends and family out to celebrate. All is well with the world and your next big adventure awaits you. You can do anything!!But hold your horses. Before you rush off and start working in your new job I’d suggest you stop and make time to plan for
  
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• VW snags leading self-driving car expert from Apple

  10-11-2015 19:13
  
  Volkswagen has hired away one of Apple's top experts on autonomous vehicle technologies, signaling the German auto maker's intent to become a serious player in self-driving cars.Johann Jungwirth was hired by Volkswagen to lead research into advanced technologies as head of its new Digitalization Strategy Department. He had been at Apple since September 2014, after heading North American R&D for Mercedes Benz.The impact on Apple is hard to gauge since Apple hasn't even acknowledged it's
  
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• No connectivity? No problem for Google Maps

  10-11-2015 18:58
  
  Ever wanted to use Google Maps to figure out where you’re going in an area with spotty – or even no – Internet access?
  That may not be an issue any longer.
  Google announced today that Google Maps users now can get offline navigation and search.
  "Roughly 60% of the world is without Internet today, and even where online access is available, it can still be spotty," wrote Amanda Bishop, a Google product manager, in a blog post. "That means that quick and easy access to informatio
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: APIs have changed the game

  10-11-2015 18:53
  
  In competition, speed dominates.  The mantra that you win by “providing the most value at the least cost” isn’t complete until you add “in the least amount of time.”This can be easy to forget this during periods in which companies jockey for a slight edge by tweaking established operating models that are largely similar.But at times disruptive innovation changes the game.  Even the best practitioners of the old ways can’t match those who embrace the
  
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• Three indicted in JPMorgan hacking case

  10-11-2015 18:50
  
  On Tuesday, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's office unsealed an indictment against three individuals charged with hacking several financial institutions, financial news publishers, and other companies.
  In a statement to Reuters, JPMorgan confirmed that the recently unsealed indictment is connected to last year's hack, which impacted 83 million households.
  Monday's indictment focuses on Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein.
  In court documents shared with CSO Online, the prose
  
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• ARM is bringing some much needed security to the Internet of Things

  10-11-2015 18:30
  
  If you believe what the tech industry tells us, everything is coming online. From pacemakers to washing machines to street lights, all will be networked together and feeding data into the cloud. If this Internet of Things comes to pass, we're going to need a lot more security than we have today.Chip design company ARM announced plans Tuesday for a new line of chips intended to help secure those devices. ARM is best known for designing the microprocessors in smartphones and tablets, but it also d
  
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• ARM has a new 64-bit chip for the next billion smartphones

  10-11-2015 18:30
  
  ARM released a new chip design Tuesday that should bring a burst of performance to low-cost smartphones aimed at fast-growing markets like China, India and Brazil.
  Most people in rich countries who want a smartphone already have one, so growth at the high-end of the market has been cooling off a bit. But in developing countries, things are still heating up, and that's primarily where ARM's new chip is destined.
  Called the Cortex-A35, it's the company's first chip for the low end of the smartpho
  
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• MacBook ‘vending machine’ dispenses loaners at London School of Economics

  10-11-2015 18:25
  
  The Apple environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has grown from a handful of unsupported Macs to more than 1,000 managed Apple devices over the last couple of years. Shifting to more automated provisioning of Apple devices has allowed the British university to try new things – including offering loaner laptops to students through a MacBook “vending machine” in the library.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(I
  
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• Tim Cook on iPad Pro: 'Why would you buy a PC anymore?'

  10-11-2015 17:50
  
  Apple CEO Tim Cook is making the media rounds this week before the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which Apple hopes will be a shot in the arm for its tablet sales, goes on sale Wednesday. So why does Cook think Apple customers will want a Pro over, say, a 12- or 13-inch laptop? In an interview published Tuesday in Britain’s The Telegraph, Cook said the Pro will be all the computer that people could need.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Hello, Facebook! Obama gets his social media on

  10-11-2015 17:40
  
  Hello, Facebook!
  That's part of the message that President Obama posted on his first Facebook page on Monday.
  "I hope you'll think of this as a place where we can have real conversations about the most important issues facing our country – a place where you can hear directly from me, and share your own thoughts and stories. (You can expect some just-for-fun stuff, too.)," Obama wrote.
  The president then took the opportunity to get behind the issue of climate change.
  "I hope you'll join me
  
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• CIOs receive low marks on IT reform report card

  10-11-2015 17:18
  
  With the passage of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act late last year, Congress approved the most significant overhaul of the government's technology operations in nearly two decades.So now, almost a year on, how have agencies responded to FITARA's mandates?[ Related: New CIO authorities only first step toward better federal IT ]Not so well, according to a new evaluation from a House subcommittee. In that scorecard, which looked at areas like data center consolidation, inc
  
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• Surgical simulators get Hollywood special effects

  10-11-2015 16:57
  
  What's creepy to one person can be lifesaving to another: Boston Children's Hospital teamed up with Hollywood special-effects artists to create lifelike simulators to train surgeons on complex, high-stakes operations. Two new trainers are under development and were unveiled at the hospital's Pediatric Innovation Summit in Boston. These will join Surgical Sam and other simulators. 
  A new neurosurgical trainer focuses on a type of brain surgery to relieve life-threatening swelling, while
  
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• Which Linux distros should newbies use?

  10-11-2015 16:32
  
  Easy or tough?Image by ThinkstockLinux has a bad rap as a daily driver – the programs aren’t written to run on Linux, it’s tricky to install stuff, and so on. But it might surprise people who think along those lines to learn that plenty of the distributions out there are actually quite simple to use. Here’s our latest appreciation of the desktop Linux landscape.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Node.js takes center stage in NetBeans 8.1

  10-11-2015 16:30
  
  NetBeans, which has been a prominent Java IDE for years, is featuring Node.js and JavaScript capabilities in its latest incarnation.
  Version 8.1 of the open source IDE, released late last week, offers a multitude of capabilities for the popular server-side JavaScript platform, including a new Node.js project wizard, an enhanced JavaScript editor, new support for running and debugging Node.js applications, and a redesigned interface.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please clic
  
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• Microsoft to follow Amazon into UK with cloud hosting service

  10-11-2015 16:26
  Microsoft will deliver Azure and Office 365 cloud services from data centers in the U.K. by late next year, CEO Satya Nadella told customers in London on Tuesday.The move comes less than a week after Amazon Web Services unveiled its plans to open a U.K. data center cluster by early 2017. It's a sign that both companies are taking seriously moves by European Union data protection authorities to restrict the export of EU citizens' personal information, and beefing up their data processing capabili
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 tips to help managers build great teams

  10-11-2015 16:26
  
  In sports, the team that wins the championship is often not the one with the most talent, but rather the team with great chemistry or an excellent complement of skills. When this happens, commentators talk about the intangibles that allowed the team to overachieve and reach the pinnacle of their profession. In business, there are similar intangibles that allow teams to achieve more than might be expected given their raw talent. This article focuses on six areas that make the difference between g
  
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• Oil company hopes to strike efficiency with cloud analytics

  10-11-2015 16:12
  
  An offhand remark about hating spreadsheets led Laredo Petroleum CIO Lars Crotwell to deploy analytics software to help the company curb production costs. Crotwell, during a phone call with a friend in 2013, complained that business managers were cross-referencing data from dozens of Excel files to understand why operating costs for some wells were higher than those producing twice as much oil."We were using a lot of homegrown spreadsheets and it was like herding cats," says Crotwell, who manage
  
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• Best Buy pulls away curtain on Black Friday 2015 tech deals

  10-11-2015 15:44
  
  Best Buy overnight revealed its Black Friday deals, which include a slew of tech products from vendors such as Apple, Microsoft, Dell and Samsung. A handful of deals are already live, too.
  Black Friday previews have been leaked fast and furious this week, with Target, Sears, Kohl's and Staples being among others that have shared their sales news (or had their news shared by websites such as BFads, BlackFriday.com and BestBlackFriday.com).To read this article in full or to le
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS 9: How to take Live Photos and use them as Lock Screen wallpaper

  10-11-2015 15:17
  
  iOS 9 comes with some great new features, but it's even better if you own an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus. The new iPhones let you take Live Photos, which are photos that have a couple of seconds of video automatically taken before and after the photo. So when you press down on a Live Photo via 3D Touch, you'll see it animate.In this tip I'll show you how to take a Live Photo, and also use it as your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus' Lock Screen wallpaper.How to take a Live Photo on the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus To take
  
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• Junk mail and spam got you down? Get these 2 apps

  10-11-2015 15:11
  
  The holidays are nigh. I can tell by the surge of junk email in my inbox and all the catalogs I don't want in my mailbox. I mean, seriously: I bought a friend's daughter a Christmas gift from the American Girl catalog once, years ago, and that damn catalog still arrives at my door every year.All this unwanted stuff is overwhelming, but I found two useful apps that help cut down on clutter.Unclutter that inbox with Unroll.meUnroll.me is a new, attractive, easy-to-use iOS app that makes it simple
  
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• Nvidia packs machine learning for Web video in new GPUs

  10-11-2015 15:00
  
  Tagging online videos with information about colors, surroundings and even emotions in order to enhance search could soon become easier with Nvidia's new machine-learning graphics processors.
  Nvidia's Tesla M40, and its little brother, the M4, both announced Tuesday, are server-based graphics processors designed to process and provide more context for videos, said Ian Buck, vice president of the accelerated computing at Nvidia.
  The GPUs will sit in servers where videos are stored and then serve
  
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• How big data is changing the database landscape for good

  10-11-2015 15:00
  Mention the word "database," and most people think of the venerable RDBMS that has dominated the landscape for more than 30 years. That, however, may soon change.
  A whole crop of new contenders are now vying for a piece of this key enterprise market, and while their approaches are diverse, most share one thing in common: a razor-sharp focus on big data.
  Much of what's driving this new proliferation of alternatives is what's commonly referred to as the "three V's" underlying big data: volume, ve
  
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• FCC says sites don't have to honor 'do-not-track' requests

  10-11-2015 14:20
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this month refused to put teeth into the weak "do-not-track" features found in today's most popular browsers. Such features politely ask websites not to track you — but the majority of sites rudely ignore the requests. Last summer, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog asked the FCC to make those requests mandatory, but the commission last week said no.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• FCC says sites can ignore 'do-not-track' requests

  10-11-2015 14:20
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this month refused to put teeth into the weak "do-not-track" features found in today's most popular browsers. Such features politely ask websites not to track you — but the majority of sites rudely ignore the requests. Last summer, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog asked the FCC to make those requests mandatory, but the commission last week said no.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 10 Microsoft Office 2016 features you’ll love

  10-11-2015 14:18
  
  Collaboration is the key to Microsoft’s still-ubiquitous productivity suite.To the casual user, the applications that make upOffice 2016 – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are the anchor tenants, of course, rounded out by OneNote, Access and Publisher – will be indistinguishable from their predecessors. But make no mistake about it; Microsoft’s reboot of its flagship software suite is a major update, offering a wealth of collaboration capabilities that integrate more t
  
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• What to do for privacy after Safe Harbor? Syncplicity has an idea

  10-11-2015 14:05
  
  Data privacy law is murky since Europe's highest court struck down the Safe Harbor agreement long used between the U.S. and Europe. Some cloud storage vendors now plan to help enterprises adjust to the new reality. Last week, Amazon announced it will build a datacenter in London by 2017 to ensure data sovereignty for local users there. Now Syncplicity, a cloud storage and collaboration specialist, will let customers make sure their data stays in Europe and is controlled there.To read this a
  
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• IT Resume Makeover: How to inject some personality

  10-11-2015 14:01
  
  Venkat Srivinisan is a data analytics expert with Ph.D. in computer science. He exudes personality, goodwill, energy and humor. His resume, although impressive, didn't match up with his colorful, energetic and entrepreneurial personality. Though filled with impressive accomplishments (he founded T-Cube, a software company that grew to $25 million within eight years; then in 2011 he sold T-Cube and founded a consulting company, which grew to $8 million and 10 employees) his professionally written
  
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• iOS apps more vulnerable than Android

  10-11-2015 14:00
  
  Applications written for iOS devices have more vulnerabilities than those written for Androids, and this has the potential for security problems in the future as attackers move to application-based threat vectors.
  According to a new report from mobile application security vendors Checkmarx and AppSec Labs, the average mobile app has nine vulnerabilities.
  Of the iOS vulnerabilities, 40 percent were critical or high severity, compared to 36 percent of the Android vulnerabilities, said Amit Ashbel
  
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• The power of IoT on display at Cloud Expo Asia

  10-11-2015 13:54
  
  Since he announced it in 2011, Marc Andreessen’s statement that “software is eating the world” has become a truism with a pride of place in every presenter’s deck (full disclosure: it’s featured prominently in mine). Recently, Benedict Evans of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (seeing a pattern here?) writes that “mobile is eating the world.” He asserts that mobile phones will achieve the following:Become the de facto Internet access dev
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How fully homomorphic encryption can prevent infiltration of secure networks

  10-11-2015 13:46
  
  At the end of September, President Obama announced that China and the United States had reached an agreement: neither country would support or participate in cyberespionage that results in the loss of intellectual property. While the effectiveness of the agreement between the U.S. and China is still in question (James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said he is “inherently skeptical”), it’s essential that the cybersecurity community continues to secure computer netwo
  
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• Study reveals that most companies are failing at big data

  10-11-2015 13:27
  
  Enterprises like to talk about data, but what you may not hear as often is how they are actually exploiting the data they collect. According to a report entitled "How organizations can unlock value and insight from the information they hold," from Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and Iron Mountain, companies have a lot of progress to make before they start making better use of the data.The study surveyed 1,800 senior business leaders in North America and Europe at mid-sized companies with more than
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 key steps to a proper project kickoff

  10-11-2015 13:24
  
  There are some critical things that need to be done well on your project engagements. Communication – good, effective, efficient communication – is key to project success and probably one of the most important things the project manager does throughout the engagement. Good, complete requirements are the lifeblood of the project. Without accurate, complete requirements that are well-documented and easily reference-able, the project will not likely stay on budget or on time and may be
  
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• Patch Tuesday today, Windows 10 Upgrade Day on Thursday

  10-11-2015 13:05
  
  Microsoft will patch Windows 10 today, but wait until Thursday to release the first feature upgrade for the OS, a security expert bet Monday.
  Chris Geottl of Shavlik expects Microsoft to roll out its November security fixes today on the month's regularly-scheduled Patch Tuesday, but wait two days before starting to push Windows 10's first feature and functionality upgrade to customers.
  "On Patch Tuesday, the CB [Current Branch] and CBB [Current Branch for Business] customers will get a cumulati
  
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• 10 riskiest applications that have passed their expiration dates

  10-11-2015 12:21
  
  ExpiredImage by ThinkstockApplications that have reached the ends of their lives are no longer maintained by their original developers, and do not receive security updates. However, many users forget to remove these applications from their machines, or do not realize that they pose a danger.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Sen. Ted Cruz changes his tone on H-1Bs

  10-11-2015 12:05
  
  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) established himself as a champion of the H-1B visa program two years ago when he proposed a 500% increase in the visa cap. But Cruz, now running for president, may be moderating his views and says he's now working on legislation to reform the program.
  Cruz, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, said he is "very, very concerned at the growing reports of abuse of the program, of companies laying off American workers and replacing them with foreign workers."
  
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• Carbon nanotubes in a race against time to replace silicon

  10-11-2015 12:00
  
  The interplay of size and time may make carbon nanotubes the answer to the computer industry's prayers as it grapples with pressure to make silicon chips ever-smaller. Or the same factors may turn CNTs into a technological dead end.
  Size refers to the dimensions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) vs. the shrinking geometry of the components on today's silicon chips. A CNT is basically a tube whose wall is 1 carbon atom thick. The tube itself is 1 nanometer (nm, or one billionths of a meter, or one-thou
  
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• 15 PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts for masterful slide creation

  10-11-2015 12:00
  Of all the programs in Microsoft Office, PowerPoint is easily the one that requires the most artful usage. Novelists might use Microsoft Word, but you’d never be able to tell that based on what you read on the page. The difference between a good presentation and a bad one, however, has a lot to do with what you see on that PowerPoint deck, and how it was put together. 
  We can’t help you find that perfect cartoon or meme to kick off your talk, but we can help you work more effic
  
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• First Linux ransomware program cracked, for now

  10-11-2015 11:26
  Administrators of Web servers that were infected with a recently released ransomware program for Linux are in luck: There's now a free tool that can decrypt their files.The tool was created by malware researchers from antivirus firm Bitdefender, who found a major flaw in how the Linux.Encoder.1 ransomware uses encryption.The program makes files unreadable by using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which uses the same key for both the encryption and decryption operations. The AES key is the
  
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• Drenthe besteedt applicatiebeheer en databases opnieuw uit aan MCX

  10-11-2015 09:51
  De provincie Drenthe heeft het technisch beheer van haar Oracle E-Business Suite omgeving, Oracle-databases en het bijbehorende besturingssystem opnieuw uitbesteed aan MCX, specialist in technisch beheer van Oracle-applicaties en databases.De provincie wil de reeds ingezette efficiëntieslag doorzetten en de... lees meer
  
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• Facebook to appeal Belgian court ban on tracking of people that aren't logged in

  10-11-2015 05:04
  
  Facebook plans to appeal an order by a court in Belgium that banned it from tracking people who are not signed on to the social networking website.The dispute largely hinges around Facebook's use of a special cookie called 'datr' that the company claims helps it distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate visits to its website."We've used the datr security cookie for more than five years to keep Facebook secure for 1.5 billion people around the world," a Facebook spokesman said Monday. "We w
  
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• Tag Heuer launches $1,500 smartwatch, but time will tell its impact

  10-11-2015 02:33
  
  Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer on Monday launched a $1,500 smartwatch that is built on Android Wear and runs an Intel Atom processor.
  The round-faced Tag Heuer Connected watch has a touchscreen with traditional digital watch hands and a titanium case that is 46 mm (1 13/16 inches) in diameter. It comes with a rubber wrist strap that'savailable in seven colors.
  With Android Wear, users can connect to 4,000 apps. Android Wear devices can also pair with Apple iPhones, in a feature Google announced Aug
  
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