IT Executive news

• Google Go upgrade fixes bug that could leak RSA private key

  14-01-2016 22:53
  
  Google has released an upgrade to Go 1.5.3 to fix a security issue with the math/big package for implementing multiprecision arithmetic. Go programs must be recompiled with this version to receive the fix.
  "This issue can affect RSA computations in crypto/rsa, which is used by crypto/tls," a golang-dev post in Google Groups says. "TLS servers on 32-bit systems could plausibly leak their RSA private key due to this issue. Other protocol implementations that create many RSA signatures could
  
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• Raytheon names enterprise security spinout Forcepoint

  14-01-2016 22:21
  
  Raytheon has given a name to the enterprise security business it has been piecing together for the past few years: Forcepoint.
  The new entity that it is spinning out rolls up Raytheon Cyber Products, Websense (which the company bought an 80% share in last year), and next generation firewall vendor Stonesoft that Raytheon agreed to buy last fall and now owns.
  Forcepoint says its plan is to continue integrating products from the three entities so it can offer a range of protections including Web,
  
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• State of the CIO 2016: It's complicated

  14-01-2016 21:00
  
  What can you do to get paid more, earn greater respect, gain access to more resources to address IT challenges and find career fulfillment? The answer is simple: Play an active role your company's business strategy. That's the message from the 571 executives surveyed for our 15th annual State of the CIO report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Obama will ask for $4 billion for self-driving car research

  14-01-2016 20:50
  The U.S. government plans to spend almost $4 billion over the next 10 years on research into autonomous driving and, as a first step, will come up with a set of model regulations to govern the technology and its use on public roads across the country.The plan sets the U.S. on a firm path towards the increasing use of self-driving car technology. It's also an attempt to head off what could become a patchwork of laws that end up hampering research and development."Today’s acti
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 2016 mobility predictions: lose the notebook and desk phone

  14-01-2016 20:21
  
  At this time of year, most of us are looking forward to what the New Year has to bring in terms of new technologies and opportunities. It’s not a coincidence that the annual consumer electronics gadget-fest in Las Vegas, CES, takes place the first week back after the holiday. This year’s predictions sound the same as last year’s: drones, wearables, IoT. Here’s a couple of my own that place less emphasis on technology and more on impact and how users behave.Prediction: The
  
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• Microsoft integrates Skype with Slack to simplify team video calls

  14-01-2016 20:09
  
  Slack may be the darling of the group communication market right now, but there's one thing it's missing: voice and video calling. Microsoft is aiming to patch that up with a new integration between Skype and the popular messaging service. The imaginatively-named Skype integration for Slack creates a new command that lets people type "/skype" into a channel or private chat and have Microsoft's conferencing service automatically generate a link that will launch a call for participants in the
  
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• Hybrid clouds are hot, SDNs and DevOps coming on strong

  14-01-2016 19:27
  
  If you're a CIO the chances are good your computing environment looks something like this: A hybrid cloud comprising core business software hosted internally but interfacing with software-as-a-service applications that are important but not mission-critical. And you also have public cloud services where you test applications.Karl Triebes, CTOof F5 Networks.Eighty-one percent of 3,000 vice presidents of IT, network and infrastructure architects surveyed last summer by F5 Networks fit that profile
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Microsoft open sources Javascript engine behind its Edge browser

  14-01-2016 19:09
  
  Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has started releasing more and more of its software as open source. Yesterday the company released as open source the Chakra Javascript engine that powers Microsoft's Edge browser.
  The sources for ChakraCore are now available under the MIT licence at the ChakraCore GitHub repository. This choice of licence is interesting because MIT licence is one of the most liberal licenses -- anyone is free to take the code and use it in open source and proprietary products.To
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 reasons you didn't get that last project management job

  14-01-2016 19:09
  
  You tried for a career change or at least a job change. You saw a project management job that you wanted and you went for it. But it didn't happen – for whatever reason it just didn't work out. Unfortunately, you likely aren't going to get feedback from the hiring organization. If you didn't get an interview, then you probably won't even get a reply to an email. If you were a finalist, you likely still won't get any good feedback – hiring organizations are too worried about liability
  
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• Android Auto coming to 40 car models this year

  14-01-2016 18:31
  
  Google is positive about the road ahead for Android Auto, saying it will come to 40 car models and support more apps this year.Android Auto brings messaging, mapping, entertainment, media playback and other apps to cars, but via a smartphone. The apps run on an Android smartphone, which plugs into an in-car display via a USB port.Hyundai was first to bring Android Auto to its dashboard, and today ten car models in a few countries have Android Auto. The 40 car models launching this year will
  
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• Netflix to crack down on proxy, VPN access

  14-01-2016 18:27
  
  The days of using a proxy server or VPN (virtual private network) to access Netflix across borders could soon be over.The streaming service said on Thursday that it plans to "evolve" its technical defenses so that those attempting to skirt geographic content blocks can't access Netflix sites in foreign countries.Proxies and VPNs enable users in one country to appear as if they are in another, allowing them to gain access to sites and content that they normally wouldn't be able to see. Netfl
  
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• Netflix to crack down on proxy servers

  14-01-2016 18:27
  
  The days of using a proxy server to access Netflix across borders could soon be over.The streaming service said on Thursday that it plans to "evolve" its technical defenses so that those attempting to skirt geographic content blocks can't access Netflix sites in foreign countries.Proxies enable users in one country to appear as if they are in another, allowing them to gain access to sites and content that they normally wouldn't be able to see. Netflix is one of the most popular destinations
  
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• Android banking malware SlemBunk is part of a well-organized campaign

  14-01-2016 18:08
  
  An Android Trojan that targets mobile banking users has evolved into a sophisticated, persistent and hard-to-detect threat, suggesting that it is part of a well-organized attack campaign.Researchers from security firm FireEye first documented the Trojan in December and named it SlemBunk. Once installed, it starts monitoring the processes running on the device and when it detects that a mobile banking app is launched, it displays a fake user interface on top of it to trick users into inputting th
  
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• What 'El Chapo,' Sean Penn and BlackBerry teach us about encryption

  14-01-2016 18:06
  
  Have you heard the one about the Mexican drug kingpin, the eccentric movie star and the Ugly Duckling smartphone that's all of a sudden the talk of the tech town for all the wrong reasons?No? Me neither, but recent reports about the role Sean Penn and BlackBerry phones allegedly played in the capture of two-time prison escapee and illegal-substance peddler extraordinaire Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman have all the makings of a classic knee-slapper.If you just came out of some sort of coma and have no
  
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• Shift to digital business disrupts traditional IT

  14-01-2016 18:02
  
  2016 is set to be a year of shifts for IT – shuffling budget dollars, reconfiguring business processes, and recasting tech talent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Microsoft changes rules of Windows 10 upgrade game

  14-01-2016 17:36
  
  Microsoft yesterday again changed the rules of its better-upgrade-to-Windows 10 game, announcing that some business PCs running the professional editions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 would soon begin seeing notifications to migrate to the newest OS.
  At the same time, the Redmond, Wash. company belatedly provided instructions to block the Windows 10 upgrade. The timing was not coincidental: Microsoft is historically more accommodating to its commercial customers than it is to consumers when it c
  
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• How to banish the Windows 10 upgrade prompts in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

  14-01-2016 17:21
  
  Microsoft is getting really, really annoying with its push to get people running Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. In fact, Microsoft recently expanded its upgrade prompts to Windows “Pro” machines that had been exempt from the original effort. The most annoying part of all this is the constant taskbar pop-ups asking you to upgrade to Windows 10.
  If you want to banish the Windows 10 upgrade prompt, there’s already a third-party software solution out there that w
  
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• Cisco fixes unauthorized access flaws in access points, wireless LAN controllers

  14-01-2016 16:44
  
  Cisco Systems released critical security updates for several products, including access points and wireless LAN controllers, in order to fix vulnerabilities that could give remote attackers access to devices.
  The Cisco Aironet 1830e, 1830i, 1850e and 1850i series access points contain a default account with a static password that attackers can use to gain unauthorized access, the company said in an advisory.
  Fortunately, the account does not have administrative privileges, so the vulnerability
  
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• 5 stages of a Web app attack [Infographic]

  14-01-2016 16:22
  
  Web application attacks are among the leading causes of data breaches, according to Verizon's 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report, which looked at data from 80,000 security incidents and over 2,000 confirmed data breaches in 61 countries. The report also found that weak or stolen credentials account for over 50 percent of breaches involving Web applications, and those in the financial services sector are favored targets for Web application attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a c
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to unlock your potential and live a life you love!

  14-01-2016 16:17
  
  It’s 2016 and you may be wondering: what happened to 2015?!The year went by in a flash. You had a number of goals you wanted to reach. Things you wanted to do for yourself or your family. But somehow those things never got done. Your intentions were in the right place. Yet you never seemed to find the time or energy to get traction on the things that were really important to you.Or maybe you’re feeling stuck in a rut and wondering if there is anything more life has to offer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 factors that will impact the growth of IoT in healthcare

  14-01-2016 16:13
  
  Here comes the Internet of Things ( IoT). Again. A year ago, I wrote a column here arguing that the IoT movement isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, primarily because being able to connect “things” doesn’t make them an “Internet of Things.” I thought it would be a good time to revisit my position in light of all the press that IoT has been getting lately.Gartner has estimated that some 6.4 Billion connected things will be in use by the end of 2016, wit
  
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• 8 essential ingredients for project success

  14-01-2016 15:50
  
  No two projects are the same. But all successful projects share a similar set of processes and procedures, or methodology, for keeping on track and on budget. Here are eight elements of a successful project.[ Related: Top 5 predictions for project management in 2016 ]1. Scope and deadlines are defined up front. “During complex projects, it’s easy for team members to miss seeing the forest through the trees,” says Catherine Roy, senior manager, PMO, HOSTING, a managed cloud serv
  
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• Wereldbank: voordelen digitalisering onvoldoende gespreid

  14-01-2016 15:46
  Digitale technologie lijkt overal en heeft de wereld in zeer korte tijd veel voordelen gebracht, is onze perceptie. De verworvenheden van digitalisering lijken helder: hogere productiviteit, efficiënter werkende organisaties, tevredener medewerkers, burgers en consumenten. En ofschoon deze verworvenheden zich ook... lees meer
  
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• Peter den Held directeur Ontwikkeling Services bij RWS

  14-01-2016 15:45
  Peter den Held is per 1 maart 2016 benoemd tot directeur Ontwikkeling Services bij Rijkswaterstaat. Den Held werkt momenteel bij het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties als programmadirecteur van het Overheid Data Center Rijswijk en als vestigingsmanager SSC-ICT Den Haag. Daarvoor... lees meer
  
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• Traffic Builders tekent contract voor cloudservices

  14-01-2016 15:44
  Online marketingbureau Traffic Builders en ict-dienstverlener Ultimum hebben hun handtekening gezet onder een driejarige outsourcingsovereenkomst.
  Ultimum wordt het enige aanspreekpunt voor ict-zaken van Traffic Builders.Na enkele jaren met verschillende duienstverleners te hebben gewerkt, besloot  om de gehele... lees meer
  
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• Clouds en compliance – zó gaat het samen

  14-01-2016 15:44
  Door Edwin Schouten – Bedrijven profiteren graag van de mogelijkheden van cloud-technologie. Lagere kosten en meer flexibiliteit, wie wil dat nu niet? Maar risico’s als dataveiligheid en compliance blijven bestaan, vooral bij de publieke clouds.Het is altijd zinvol om op continue basis de mogelijkheden... lees meer
  
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• Information sharing bill passes, but privacy debate goes on

  14-01-2016 15:40
  
  The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) is a done deal. But the debate over both its security value and privacy implications isn’t. It lingers, in some cases more intense than ever.
  The mere fact that it has become law is historic – there have been numerous attempts in Congress, spanning nearly a decade, to craft a bill that would enable the sharing of cyber-threat indicators among government and private-sector entities without creating liability risks for companies or
  
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• Skype's magical real-time language Translator tool goes live for all Windows users

  14-01-2016 15:32
  
  Microsoft-owned Skype promised that real-time translation tools were coming, and now they're here. Skype Translator is now live for all Windows desktop users. If you’ve ever wanted your German cousin speak to you in his native language while you speak to him in English, now you can.
  Skype Translator currently offers voice-to-voice translation for seven languages including English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish. An additional 50 languages are available for
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The Project Manager roadmap for 2016

  14-01-2016 15:05
  
  I kept getting asked for my predictions for Project Management in 2016.I always find thinking this way rather at odds with our world.How many Project Managers had projects that neatly concluded by New Years Eve, all ready for fresh ones to start when they returned to the office in January? How many PMs will work in a tangibly different way in this year to how they did in the last? I know one PM who studies Gartner’s thinking with a forensic eye but most of the others are too busy getting t
  
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• AMD ships delayed ARM server chips to a cautious market

  14-01-2016 15:05
  
  With its new "Seattle" server chips now shipping in volume after a long delay, AMD hopes that it's coming into a market where there are fewer concerns about the ARM architecture in data centers.
  The Opteron A1100 chips will power web servers, networking appliances and storage arrays. The chips are available in four- and eight-core variants, and packaged with networking and storage controllers.
  AMD was supposed to ship Seattle last year, but ultimately the delay worked to its benefit because the
  
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• Yahoo has released a ton of anonymized user data to help machine learning scientists

  14-01-2016 15:00
  
  Machine learning is taking hold in all kinds of applications, from self-driving cars to image recognition to online recommendation engines. But unless you're a Google or a Facebook, it's hard to get your hands on the kind of massive, real world data sets required to test and validate machine learning programs.Yahoo has helped to rectifying that with the release Thursday of what it called the "largest ever" data set made available to machine learning scientists. It's a collection of anonymized us
  
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• Defense One: Islamic State has written its own encrypted communications app

  14-01-2016 14:28
  
  The Islamic State is deploying its own encrypted communications app for Android, an eventuality predicted by experts who oppose efforts of governments to require encryption backdoors so they can find out what criminals are saying to teach other.
  The app, called lrawi.apk, employs what is described as rudimentary encryption and was available for download last month on a Web site where Islamic State supporters could download it and another app for distributing propaganda, according to a story pos
  
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• Why Facebook should buy Slack to win the enterprise

  14-01-2016 14:00
  
  In the past, Facebook didn't hesitate to make multi-billion dollar bets when it saw opportunities to secure new market share. With the enterprise in its crosshairs and the pending the release of Facebook at Work, experts suggest Slack, the popular messaging and collaboration app, might be a premium acquisition that the social media giant simply can't afford to pass up.Slack has many attributes that make it a viable target for Facebook, including an active user base that grows every day; a simple
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS 9.3: How to enable and configure Night Shift

  14-01-2016 14:00
  
  iOS 9.3 comes with some great new features, and one of the best is Night Shift. Night Shift provides f.lux-like functionality that uses warmer colors on your screen at night, which can help you sleep better than the blue light that iOS devices displayed in the evening before iOS 9.3.In this how-to I'll show you how to enable Night Shift and how to configure it to your preferences.Night Shift only works on 64-bit iOS devicesPlease note that Night Shift only works on 64-bit iOS devices, you won't
  
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• Outsourcing in the 21st century ambient organization

  14-01-2016 13:13
  
  Information technology continues to be exploited successfully to create or enhance products and services, thereby increasing top-line growth, as well as to lower costs through greater efficiencies.But another significant value of IT is its power to lower transaction costs to the point at which it becomes more advantageous to buy services from external providers than to produce those services within the traditional organization structure.We can foresee the future through current forerunners of wh
  
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• 7 great headphones for work and play

  14-01-2016 13:05
  
  Headphones that make taking phone calls a pleasureRegardless of whether you’re listening to music, watching TV or a movie, gaming or taking audio (or video calls) on Hangouts or Skype, the quality of your headset is going to make a difference in your experience. With so many choices on the market these days, it’s hard to know what to look for. These seven choices are a good place to start.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Why thinking like a criminal is good for security

  14-01-2016 12:25
  
  Focusing too much on protecting only the crown jewels of the enterprise might leave gaps in security for criminals who are seeking other valuable assets. The hackneyed expression, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” serves as a reminder that what the enterprise values is often different from what a criminal values.
  Defending a network and the critical assets of an enterprise is a lot like safeguarding a home. There are layers of security in homes just as there a
  
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• 'Shared iPad' in Apple's iOS 9.3 update is a big deal

  14-01-2016 12:01
  
  Apple this week offered a preview of features in the upcoming release of iOS 9.3. Those features include a range of consumer enhancements, including Night Shift, a viewing mode that minimizes the output of blue light that can disrupt sleep patterns; significant improvements in the iPhone's health tracking capabilities; the ability to secure notes; and improvements to CarPlay and the iOS News app.
  The most significant changes, however, are aimed at the education market, though it's likely those
  
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• Deep thoughts from the founders of failed startups

  14-01-2016 12:00
  
  Deep thoughts from the founders of failed startupsImage by PexelsMan, oh man: Failure sure ain't easy.OK, the actual act of screwing up may not take much skill, but dealing with the aftermath of a fumble requires elegance, grace, and more than a little humility. The esteemed philosopher Ellen DeGeneres put it best: "It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Samsung to make Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chips

  14-01-2016 05:33
  
  Samsung Electronics will be making Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 820 mobile processors, refueling speculation that the chips could find their way into the South Korean giant's premium smartphones, thus winning back lost business.The chip-maker said Thursday it had begun mass production of logic chips utilizing its 14-nanometer LPP (Low-Power Plus) process, which is used to make its own Exynos 8 Octa processor. It added that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor also uses the 14nm LPP process an
  
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• Microsoft to start pushing Windows 10 on more business users

  14-01-2016 02:08
  
  Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 on a group of previously off-limits users as its new operating system nears the six month anniversary of its release. The company revealed Wednesday that users who are running Windows 7 Pro or Windows 8.1 Pro can expect to start seeing the Get Windows 10 app in their taskbar, suggesting that they upgrade to the new OS. The change in policy will only affect devices that are joined to an Active Directory domain and set up to receive updates directly from the Wi
  
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• Living the CES security farce

  14-01-2016 01:02
  
  Are you kidding me?
  I recently returned from the Consumer Electronics (CES) trade show in Las Vegas, and that question has been on my mind. The question doesn’t refer to any of the technologies vying to be the next big thing — although I do wonder how many Bluetooth controlled vibrators does one really need? No, what has me wondering is the big announcement ahead of CES about much tighter security restrictions. I wrote before the show that it would be a disaster with never-ending li
  
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• Make wearables, mini-robots at home with Intel's new $30 Arduino 101 board

  14-01-2016 00:55
  
  For $30, Intel's Arduino 101 board provides an easy path for makers to build a wearable computer, a mini-robot or a smart appliance for the home.The tiny board, which went on sale this week, fits in the palm of your hand and includes Intel's button-sized Curie wireless compute module. Intel wowed the audience with Curie-powered devices at CES, including a pair of speech-enabled sunglasses from Oakley that coach athletes by talking in their ear.To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• Intel's $30 Arduino 101 board lets you make wearables and robots at home

  14-01-2016 00:55
  
  For $30, Intel's Arduino 101 board provides an easy path for makers to build a wearable computer, a mini-robot or a smart appliance for the home.
  The tiny board, which went on sale this week, fits in the palm of your hand and includes Intel's button-sized Curie wireless compute module. Intel wowed the audience with Curie-powered devices at CES, including a pair of speech-enabled sunglasses from Oakley that coach athletes by talking in their ear.To read this article in full or to leave
  
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• Bing Predicts begins March Madness early with NCAA tourney invitation predictions

  14-01-2016 00:54
  
  The 2015 March Madness tournament was a triumphant year for Bing Predicts, the predictive algorithms that Microsoft uses to pick the outcomes of everything from reality TVs to sporting events. For 2016, Microsoft has launched March Madness even earlier, with a site predicting which schools will receive an invitation to the NCAA tournament.
  The premise behind the new Arewein.net site is a simple one: Pick a university, and Bing will attempt to predict whether a given school is in or out, the ove
  
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• U.S. seeks delay on OPT court order

  14-01-2016 00:52
  
  A court battle with big implications for some 34,000 foreign workers in the U.S. is turning into a nail-biter. In one month's time -- Feb. 12 -- these workers may be forced to stop working and will have little choice but to buy tickets back home.
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently filed a motion asking the court to extend that deadline 90 days, until May 10. This extension is opposed by the plaintiff, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech).
  A decision is due by
  
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• Why Google hasn't taken off in the cloud yet

  14-01-2016 00:37
  
  Startup Gennion uses sensors to provide retailers with useful information on customer store traffic. The Spain-based Internet-of-Things company processes about 16,000 events per minute from its sensors and is hoping to scale up to thousands per second soon.
  Like many young companies, Gennion launched in Amazon Web Services’ cloud. But Chief Architect Mariano Navas, a 15-year coding veteran who is on his third startup and runs a blog called Coding in Flip Flops, wasn’t impressed. He
  
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• Amazon AWS to go head to head with Microsoft Azure in Canada

  14-01-2016 00:32
  
  Amazon has promised to create a new AWS region based in Montreal, Canada, that will launch sometime in 2016, answering a competitive challenge there from Microsoft's Azure.It's unclear which AWS services will be supported in Canada at launch, or when they'll be available for use. Amazon hasn't given any timetable except to say that the region will go live sometime this year, along with four other new regions in Ohio, China, India and the United Kingdom.Once those are online, Amazon will have a t
  
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