IT Executive news

• Apple disappoints with flat iPhone sales

  26-01-2016 23:38
  
  Apple sold roughly as many iPhones during the last quarter of 2015 as it did during the same period in 2014, signaling a possible end to continual gains for the phone and a potential shift in Apple’s business and the smartphone market at large.That’s according to financial results from the company's first fiscal quarter, which ended Dec. 26. They showed Apple sold 74.8 million smartphones during the previous quarter, compared to 74.5 million handsets during the same period in 2014. O
  
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• Vereenvoudiging IT blijft mensenwerk

  26-01-2016 23:08
  Ruim 60 senior managers wisselden onlangs kennis en ervaring uit over het versimpelen van IT. Locatie was de Zaal van topdesigner Piet Hein Eek in Eindhoven, die de derde Food for Thought-bijeenkomst opende met een betoog over versimpeling, gezien door de bril van een ontwerper.Jan Post, oud CEO van Philips Nederland... lees meer
  
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• Comcast rolls out Wi-Fi management toolset

  26-01-2016 22:03
  
  Comcast’s new WiFi Pro service, the company announced today, attempts to build advanced network monitoring and management features into a product designed for small business and branch office use.
  WiFi Pro, Comcast said, offers numerous management consoles, accessible via the web or through smartphone apps, that provide activity reporting, QoS, and configuration options. It also builds in the ability to run one network for staff and another for guests or patrons, provides service and secu
  
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• New Year, new CIO appointments!

  26-01-2016 21:58
  
  By now, we're all fully immersed in 2016 and all the opportunities a new year brings! Here is a roundup of December 2015 and January 2016 CIO appointments. Delta Air Lines appointed Rahul Samant to senior vice president and CIO. Samant was previously chief digital officer at AIG.LinkedIn ML Krakauer, CIO of EMCTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 5 tips for securing your AWS cloud

  26-01-2016 21:45
  
  Despite public cloud being as popular as ever, questions like, ‘is it more secure than my data center?’ still remain.
  In October, Amazon Web Services released a white paper outlining best practices for using its cloud. Sections include how to control costs, enable fault-tolerant infrastructure and get the best performance. Perhaps most importantly, it has advice on how to secure an AWS cloud environment.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 12 Free Cloud Storage options
  Here are five tips from Ama
  
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• Microsoft's Garage has developed a new iPhone app that aims to be your news feed for work

  26-01-2016 21:39
  
  Microsoft's Garage internal incubator has come out with a news feed on the iPhone targetting users' business information needs.News Pro is a new app that allows users to connect their LinkedIn or Facebook accounts and get a feed of the top stories relevant to their interests and work experience. Depending on how much time people have spent elaborating what they're into on one of those networks, the initial recommendations might not be all that helpful, but users can specify more about their inte
  
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• Verizon and Samsung partner on tech to beef up indoor wireless coverage

  26-01-2016 21:38
  
  Verizon and Samsung on Tuesday announced 4G small-cell LTE technology to improve in-building wireless coverage for business customers.
  Verizon’s 4G LTE Network Extender for Enterprise relies on Samsung’s small-cell technology to provide voice over LTE and data service.
  These small-cell units would be installed in weak coverage areas to help workers keep their wireless connections via smartphone and tablets.
  The companies said in a joint statement that the technology is ideal for mid
  
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• Microsoft's Bing just called the first four primaries for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton

  26-01-2016 21:03
  
  In March, Microsoft said it would use its Bing technology to predict the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. On Tuesday, Microsoft jumped in with both feet, calling the first four Republican primaries for Donald Trump.
  Microsoft’s Bing predicts that Trump will win the Republican primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada relatively easily, topping Ted Cruz in all four states. Hillary Clinton is expected to win three out of the first four Democratic primaries&mdash
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What the (President) Fox has to say: Take a closer look at Mexico

  26-01-2016 20:47
  
  Last week, I posted the first half of a conversation I had with former President of Mexico Vicente Fox. In it, we discussed what Mexico is doing to become a serious player in the global IT and business process outsourcing industry. According to Fox, the country’s success depends, to at least some degree, on the diplomatic and commercial nature of its cross-border relations.  
  ESTEBAN HERRERA:  President Fox, you have succeeded at the highest levels of both politic
  
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• 11 cloud trends that will dominate 2016

  26-01-2016 20:24
  
  Along with social, mobile and analytics, cloud technologies and models have earned a place as one of the core disruptors of the digital age. And while the cloud market has matured over the years, its interaction with the rapidly growing data and analytics landscape suggests there are plenty more disruptive opportunities for cloud in 2016. As 2016 gets underway, five insiders share their predictions for what 2016 holds in store for the cloud.[ Related: It’s a hybrid cloud world, and we&rsqu
  
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• Walmart open-sources OneOps to free you from cloud lock-in

  26-01-2016 20:15
  
  Back in October Walmart made a pledge to combat vendor lock-in to the cloud by open-sourcing its OneOps technology, and on Tuesday it made good on that promise.OneOps is now available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, offering continuous app-lifecycle management to any company, free of charge.OneOps enables developers to code their products in a hybrid, multi-cloud environment, without committing to any one cloud vendor. What that means is that they can test and switch among different cloud
  
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• Sprint may lease cell towers on public lands to lower costs

  26-01-2016 19:48
  
  Sprint today said it is looking at new ways to add cell towers while still saving money, and is considering not renewing costlier existing leases with third-party providers.
  The range of money-saving options will include leasing towers on public rights of way, which is considered far less expensive than placing radio antennas on privately-owned land or rooftops.
  "We are focused on densification, without jeopardizing the customer network," Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in an earnings call to di
  
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• Security startup wages continuous war games against networks

  26-01-2016 19:01
  
  Startup SafeBreach automatically assesses corporate networks to find out whether they offer up enough security loopholes for real-world attacks to succeed.
  Using software probes called simulators distributed throughout customers’ networks, SafeBreach attempts to establish connections among devices and network segments just as a hacker would do in trying to carry out malicious activity.
  These automated attempts are driven by the Hacker’s Playbook, a SafeBreach library of known attack
  
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• Startup Cybric aims to reduce time between detecting and remediating breaches

  26-01-2016 18:51
  
  Startup Cybric is working on a cloud-based platform to help businesses find out about breaches quickly and clean them up as fast as possible.
  It will do that with its platform, Continuous Security Delivery Fabric that creates a clone of network elements in its cloud and runs tests against them looking for vulnerabilities. Because the work is done in the cloud, it doesn’t slow down or interfere with the business’s production network, the company says.
  Because multiple tests can be ru
  
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• Big Switch frees up its SDN

  26-01-2016 18:44
  
  Big Switch Networks this week is seeking to build on its success by making its products free.
  The SDN company is rolling out a free editions of its Big Monitoring and Big Cloud fabric software as an inducement to upgrade to the beefier – and commercial – versions. Big Switch is also unveiling new releases of the pay versions of the products designed to support 100G Ethernet, enhance VMware and OpenStack integration, and improve scale.
  Big Switch just landed a $48.5 million Series C
  
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• An unsexy merger could make your building more cool

  26-01-2016 18:26
  
  The names Johnson Controls and Tyco International don't generate the kind of excitement buzzing around some companies in the Internet of Things, but the merger they announced Monday might have a big impact on that market.Both are far older than the army of startups that has formed around IoT, and they make equipment that until recently faded into the background. Tyco supplies security, fire and surveillance systems, while Johnson is big in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and pla
  
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• Health insurer loses 6 hard-disk drives with records of 95,000 customers

  26-01-2016 18:15
  
  Health insurer Centene Corp. said six hard disk drives with personal health information on 95,000 of its customers have gone missing.
  "While we don't believe this information has been used inappropriately, out of abundance of caution and in transparency, we are disclosing an ongoing search for the hard drives," Centene CEO Michael Neidorff said in a statement.
  Centene, a Fortune 500 company that reported $16 billion in revenue in 2014, operates health plans for 2.9 million members in 21 states.
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: LinuxONE gets flexible pricing and enhanced support for hybrid cloud environments

  26-01-2016 18:06
  
  IBM announced the LinuxONE systems at LinuxCon Seattle last year. The LinuxONE family is comprised of two Linux powered mainframe computers: LinuxONE Emperor and LinuxONE Rockhopper. Emperor is a super expensive monster of a machine that is capable of scaling up to 8,000 virtual machines or thousands of containers, currently the most of any single Linux system. LinuxONE Rockhopper is an entry-level system targeted at clients and emerging markets that want mainframe capabilities.
  Now, the compan
  
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• First look: Microsoft Azure Stack hits the ground running

  26-01-2016 18:00
  
  Microsoft's latest attempt to square the circle of on-premises IT and cloud services, Azure Stack brings what Microsoft describes as a "cloud consistent" platform into the data center. Cloud consistent means that Azure Stack offers the same portal, management, and devops tooling as the Azure cloud service -- although it's not built on the same underlying software, but instead extends Windows Server 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Companies, start your (hybrid) clouds: Azure Stack's first beta is coming

  26-01-2016 18:00
  
  Microsoft is releasing the first technical preview of its Azure Stack private cloud platform on Friday, which will allow customers to bring capabilities from the Azure public cloud into their own data centers.
  Microsoft announced Azure Stack last spring at its Ignite conference, but it didn't offer many details about how the system would work. With this first technical preview, IT professionals and developers with powerful enough hardware will be able to spin up an Azure Stack instance and give
  
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• Let us look at the code running our devices, says Federal Trade Commissioner

  26-01-2016 17:33
  
  Consumers should have the right to inspect the source code for connected devices they own, to ensure it doesn't contain bugs or backdoors, one U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner believes.As we connect our homes, our vehicles and our clothing to the Internet of Things, "We need to be very mindful of consumer data security and be very careful of anything that undermines that data security," said Commissioner Terrell McSweeny.McSweeny was speaking in a personal capacity at the State of the Net confere
  
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• Seeing OLED as the future for displays, LG bets big on new factory

  26-01-2016 17:23
  Ultra-vivid OLED screens could replace LCDs in TVs, PCs and mobile devices, and LG wants to be ready for that.LG Display, a unit of parent company LG Electronics, is investing US$380 million in a production facility for OLED panels to address "growing market demand," according a SEC filing on Tuesday.The investment could indirectly help reduce the price of OLED TVs, which are more expensive than LCD/LED TVs. Some OLED TVs are already available, but price tags are high largely because they are ex
  
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• U.S. Congress to federal agencies: You have two weeks to tally your backdoored Juniper kit

  26-01-2016 17:12
  
  Around two dozen U.S. government departments and federal agencies are being questioned by the U.S. Congress on whether they were using backdoored Juniper network security appliances.
  In December, Juniper Networks announced that it had discovered unauthorized code added to ScreenOS, the operating system that runs on its NetScreen network firewalls. The rogue code, which remained undetected for 2 years or more, could have allowed remote attackers to gain administrative access to the vulnerable de
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Diabolical fun with the Churchill Solitaire game for iOS

  26-01-2016 17:12
  
  I've long been an admirer of Sir Winston Churchill, Great Britain's prime minister during World War 2. Churchill was arguably the greatest man of the twentieth century and had many accomplishments over the course of his very long and extraordinary life.
  But one thing I never knew about Churchill was that he had his own unique game of Solitaire. Churchill's version of Solitaire might have been lost forever after his death, had he not taught it to a Belgian diplomat who then taught it to Donald R
  
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• 10 lesser-known facts about Apple's product design

  26-01-2016 17:04
  
  10 lesser-known facts about Apple's product designImage by REUTERS/Beck DiefenbachWhen it comes to design, whether it be on the hardware or software end of the spectrum, Apple’s attention to detail is arguably unparalleled. Over the past few decades, Apple has built a reputation for paying attention to minute details that most consumers don’t even notice until they're pointed out to them. Remarkably, even seasoned iPhone and Mac owners are often by surprised by design details that th
  
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• Twitter's stopped showing ads to its favorite users

  26-01-2016 16:30
  Social networks love to cater to their more prominent users. Facebook, for example, creates unique experiences and apps just for celebrities. Now Twitter's upping the experience for its “VIP” tweeters. Those most precious of users are seeing no—or at least far fewer—ads in their timelines, according to Re/code.
  What exactly constitutes a VIP is unclear, but the informal designation appears to factor in a person’s celebrity, tweet volume, and social reach. It&r
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Meet 14-year-old SCaLE presenter Keila Banks

  26-01-2016 15:30
  
  Keila Banks is an inner city Los Angeles student, a coder, and a seasoned presenter, having delivered her first presentation at SCaLE 11x when she was just 11 years old. I spoke with Keila about her SCaLE 14x talk, the future of open source, and getting teens exposed to technology conferences. Following is an edited transcript of that interview.
  How did you get to know about Linux and open source?
  My dad was using Ubuntu and Linux Mint so I kind of got encouragement from him using it. And that'
  
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• 12 lessons ecommerce businesses learned this holiday season

  26-01-2016 15:21
  
  Online holiday sales rose again in 2015, with ecommerce businesses seeing a 20-percent increase over 2014 holiday revenue, according to MasterCard Advisors. Clearly, that is good news for online merchants. But there is always room for improvement. Dozens of etailers and ecommerce experts share 12 lessons they learned this past holiday season.[ Relate: 8 ecommerce categories that will be hot in 2016 ]1. Plan your holiday marketing efforts early (before November). “My number one tip is to pr
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 lessons CIOs can learn from Kim Kardashian

  26-01-2016 15:01
  
  I’ve previously shared a glimpse into the kind of data that motivates venture capital to hunt for industries with “weak mobile flanks” to attack.  I’ve offered case studies to help companies get beyond the “mobile web versus app debate.”But jokes about breaking the Internet aside, television personality Kim Kardashian West has in effect thrown down the gauntlet on what enterprises should be accomplishing in digital.To read this article in full or to
  
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• Citrix ShareFile review: Enterprise-quality file storage and synchronization

  26-01-2016 15:00
  You’re likely well aware that there are a host of cloud-based file synchronization and sharing services that let you store your files in the cloud and synchronize them across devices and share files with others. DropBox for Business, OneDrive, Box, and Google Drive all offer business quality tools for sharing and synchronizing files, but Citrix ShareFile is the first I’ve used that feels as if you’re working in a true client/server environment. Designed for companies that need
  
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• Adobe Voice for iPhone lets you quickly create video slideshows

  26-01-2016 14:40
  
  Nearly two years ago, I reviewed Adobe's then-new, iPad-only Adobe Voice app. At the time, I deemed it a terrific tool for digital marketers and others who want to tell stories using voice, music, and images, and then share them online.Adobe just updated its Voice app, and it now supports iPhones. The app is still useful and still free, though it's much easier to use on an iPad's larger display than an iPhone screen.How to create custom video using Adobe Voice for iPhone
  The app is a d
  
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• Preparation lowers long-term post-breach costs

  26-01-2016 14:00
  
  Preparation can significantly lower the long-term costs of a breach, according to a SANS report released this morning.
  Companies that had plans in place, that spent time identifying and classifying data, and that used in-house teams were able to lower their long term expenses -- as did companies that successfully stayed out of the news.
  The majority of companies affected by a breach also invested in new security tools and services, as well as administrative and physical controls, training, and
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways to get the best production from those around you

  26-01-2016 13:50
  
  When we are working in professional environments we should be acting professionally and treating others professionally. I always believe it is best to live by the motto or golden rule of treating others the way you want them to treat you. It's worked well for me for 30 years of professional work as an employee, team member, manager, project manager, developer, consultant, speaker and author. Most of that time has been spent as a manager and project manager leading skilled teams of dedicated prof
  
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• Hiring a data scientists? You're doing it all wrong

  26-01-2016 13:44
  
  In 2012, Harvard Business Review dubbed data scientist the "sexist job of the 21st century," and the role still sits at number 1 spot on Glassdoor's list of the 25 best jobs in America. But are data scientists doing the jobs they were actually hired for?
  The role of a data scientist is to help businesses maximize the massive amounts of data they mine from customers, clients and internal research. Nearly every industry deals with data on some level, whether its healthcare, technology, insurance,
  
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• Hiring a data scientist? You're doing it all wrong

  26-01-2016 13:44
  
  In 2012, Harvard Business Review dubbed data scientist the "sexiest job of the 21st century," and the role still sits at number 1 spot on Glassdoor's list of the 25 best jobs in America. But are data scientists doing the jobs they were actually hired for?The role of a data scientist is to help businesses maximize the massive amounts of data they mine from customers, clients and internal research. Nearly every industry deals with data on some level, whether its healthcare, technology, insurance,
  
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• 8 tips for recruiting cybersecurity talent

  26-01-2016 13:26
  
  Good IT talent is hard to find. You know what's even more difficult? Finding good cybersecurity talent. Demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals is growing at an astonishing rate -- four times faster than the IT jobs market and 12 times faster than the overall labor market, according to research from Burning Glass Technologies.
  Unfortunately, supply isn't keeping up with demand, according to online cybersecurity training and MOOC platform Cybrary's Cyber Security Job Trends Survey for 2016
  
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• Reporting to CEO reduces risks and costs, but change comes slowly

  26-01-2016 13:00
  
  An increasing number of experts are urging companies to stop having the CSOs and CISOs report to the CIO in order to reduce conflict of interest, risk, even downtime and financial losses, but there hasn't yet been much evidence of progress.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• How IT supports sales at 3 large companies

  26-01-2016 13:00
  
  Supporting the organization’s sales department is one of the best ways that IT leaders position themselves as strategic contributors. What does that contribution look like in practice? It starts with learning what sales people do and what their challenges are. The next step is to streamline, automate and equip them with tools to make them more productive.  Justifying the cost of specialized IT support for sales is easiest in companies that have complex and large value sales.  In
  
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• Global public cloud market expected to hit $204B in 2016

  26-01-2016 12:36
  
  The worldwide market for public cloud systems is projected to hit $204 billion this year, a 16.5% increase over the $175 billion market in 2015, according to analyst firm Gartner.
  "The market for public cloud services is continuing to demonstrate high rates of growth across all markets and Gartner expects this to continue through 2017," said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner, in a statement. "This strong growth continues to reflect a shift away from legacy IT services to cloud-based service
  
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• How IT staffers keep pace at fast-growing organizations

  26-01-2016 12:30
  
  In the past five years, Darren Tedesco's IT staff has grown from about 100 employees to 250 today. And while that's a lot more people to manage, Tedesco, managing principal of innovation and strategy at Commonwealth Financial Network, isn't complaining. Those additional IT staffers are helping keep up with the firm's overall growth spurt, which includes a 15% bump in total headcount last year alone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Tested: Microsoft’s Windows Defender antivirus is less awful than it used to be

  26-01-2016 12:00
  
  We've all loved to hate Microsoft's free Windows Defender software—it's been so mediocre that it's been considered the baseline metric in third-party tests. But recent independent tests show it's actually outperforming a number of third-party suites, some of which charge you money to use them.
  Results released by AV-test.org for the month of December put Microsoft right in the middle of the pack of its list of antivirus software for home users. Microsoft is still near the bottom of the he
  
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• Does anyone really want the government deciding encryption policy?

  26-01-2016 12:00
  
  Security and privacy debates are highly nuanced, allowing for much interpretation, balancing acts and differences of opinion. For that reason, I try and be tolerant of a wide range of views on the subject. Every so often, though, some executive says something so divorced from logic and reality that silence is not an option. Enter AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and his attack on Apple's encryption efforts.
  Far be it from me to suggest that AT&T is really the last company on the planet that
  
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• Sony targets IoT with acquisition of chip company Altair

  26-01-2016 08:49
  
  Sony has reached an agreement to acquire chip company Altair Semiconductor in Israel for US$212 million in a bid to strengthen its offering for the Internet of Things market.Altair is a developer of modem chip technology and software relating to the LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G cellular standard for mobile phones and data terminals, which Sony aims to combine with its sensing technologies such as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and image sensors to develop new cellular-connected, sensi
  
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• Marvin Minsky, AI pioneer and Turing award winner, dies at 88

  26-01-2016 06:25
  
  Marvin Minsky, a professor emeritus at MIT who pioneered the exploration of the mind and its replication in a computer, died on Sunday from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 88, according to MIT Media Lab.In his prologue to his seminal book, Society of Mind, Minsky wrote that the book tries to explain how the mind works, and "that you can build a mind from many little parts, each mindless by itself."In 1982, he wrote in a magazine article that, "it will be a long time before we learn enough ab
  
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• Security policy samples, templates and tools

  26-01-2016 02:10
  
  “If you can’t translate your requirements into effective policy, then you’ve little hope of your requirements being met in an enforceable way," says Rob McMillan, research director at Gartner. "But if you get it right, it will make a big difference in your organization’s ability to reduce risk.”Not only that, getting your security policies right will also make a big difference in your organizations ability to do business. According to Gartner, "by 2018, 50 percent o
  
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• Beware of an iPhone-crashing link being passed around on Twitter

  26-01-2016 02:08
  You already know not to click or tap on suspicious-looking links, but URL shorteners are making that a little more complicated today. Twitter users are passing around a shortened link that directs your browser to CrashSafari.com, a site that does just what it sounds like: crashes Safari.
  If you tap on the link on your iOS device, your iPhone will start rebooting right away. On a Mac, you’ll see the spinning wheel of death (as I refer to the rainbow pinwheel), but not a complete crash. Som
  
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• The tech revolution could change (or erase) your job by 2020

  26-01-2016 02:07
  
  The Fourth Industrial Revolution is under way and while it could lead to the loss of more than 7 million jobs over the next few years, it also should add jobs in the fields of computer science, math and engineering.The global workforce is expected to go through "significant churn" in the next four years, according to a report from the World Economic Forum, a Geneva, Switzerland-based organization focused on analyzing and improving the state of the world."Developments in previously disjointed fie
  
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• A Microsoft Surface Phone sure to come, but unlikely at MWC

  26-01-2016 02:06
  
  Microsoft plans to show its latest smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February, but don't expect much news about the much-rumored, business-oriented Surface Phone.
  Analysts widely expect Microsoft will launch a so-called Surface Phone in late 2016 or early 2017.It is generally described by Microsoft observers as being a premium -- even revolutionary -- smartphone running Windows 10 (or later) that will be built by Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book team headed by
  
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• Disney IT workers allege conspiracy in layoffs, file lawsuits

  26-01-2016 02:04
  
  Disney IT workers laid off a year ago this month are now accusing the company and the outsourcing firms it hired of engaging in a "conspiracy to displace U.S. workers." The allegations are part of two lawsuits filed in federal court in Florida on Monday.
  Between 200 and 300 Disney IT workers were laid off in January 2015. Some of the workers had to train their foreign replacements -- workers on H-1B visas -- as a condition of severance.
  The lawsuits represent what may be a new approach in the a
  
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• Amazon is planning another go at making an Android smartphone

  26-01-2016 01:20
  Jeff Bezos and company appear to desperately want a piece of that Android pie.
  According to The Information, Amazon is looking to partner with primo smartphone OEMs to start integrating some of its services into devices, though much deeper than merely preloading applications, as it already does with Samsung’s devices.
  A summary of the report—the entirety of which requires a subscription to read—states:Amazon.com is looking to cement tighter software partnerships with Android p
  
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