IT Executive news

• Forget Super Bowl 50: Let's crown the cabling Installer of the Year!

  27-01-2016 22:47
  
  There will be bonding. There will be splicing. And there will be firestopping.
  Yes, it’s time to roll up your sleeves, de-fog your goggles, climb your ladder and get ready for the 9th annual BICSI Cabling Skills Challenge next week in Orlando, where the Installer of the Year will be crowned and awarded a $5K prize (not to mention a towering trophy). 
  This will definitely beat the NFL’s Pro Bowl as a competition fix during the seemingly endless lead-up to Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7
  
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• Deep learning is coming to your phone through a new Google partnership

  27-01-2016 22:43
  
  Android phones may soon get a whole lot smarter thanks to a new partnership between Google and chip maker Movidius that promises to bring machine intelligence directly into mobile devices.Movidius specializes in machine vision, and it has already worked with Google on the Project Tango computer-vision platform. Now, through the new collaboration, Google will use Movidius' flagship MA2450 chip to bring deep learning to Android handsets.Deep learning is a branch of machine learning often appl
  
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• Like Chromebooks, thumb-size PCs will bloom

  27-01-2016 22:19
  Thumb-size PCs like Intel's Compute Stick are still a novelty, but adoption will slowly grow as TVs and displays increasingly become the center of entertainment and computing.ABI Research is estimating that shipments of these compact computers will reach 5 million  by 2021. ABI didn't provide shipment numbers for 2015, but the market for the devices is still in its infancy. The forecast growth trajectory sounds like that for Chrome PCs, which were introduced in 2011 but whose worldwide
  
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• Despite layoffs, VMware has a big bet on this one cloud innovation

  27-01-2016 21:22
  
  These are turbulent times for the venerable virtualization company VMware.
  In an earnings call this week CEO Pat Gelsinger admitted that last year was a “challenging time” for VMware investors. The company’s core compute virtualization products are “reaching maturity” and will be a decreasing portion of the company’s future business, he says.
  VMware announced 800 layoffs this week and that its CFO has left the company. A planned merger by its parent company E
  
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• New Android ransomware uses clickjacking to gain admin privileges

  27-01-2016 21:21
  
  File-encrypting ransomware applications that target Android devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated. One new such program is using clickjacking techniques to trick users into granting it administrator privileges.Clickjacking is a method that involves manipulating the user interface in a way that allows attackers to hijack users' clicks and trigger unauthorized actions. It is mostly used in Web-based attacks, where various technologies allow creating invisible buttons and positioning them
  
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• Seeking new revenue, AT&T and Verizon eye the Internet of Things

  27-01-2016 21:00
  
  AT&T and Verizon — the nation's two biggest carriers — are seeing their traditional U.S. wireless businesses shrink, having suffered from an ongoing price war and declining buyer interest in new smartphones.
  To make up for that drop, both carriers are increasingly focused on new areas for growth, including Internet of Things projects, as well as far-flung investments like AT&T's wireless service in Mexico and Verizon's investments in new media through AOL advertising technol
  
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• You'll soon be able to do more than just Like a Facebook post

  27-01-2016 20:48
  
  You see a friend's Facebook post about the death of a pet, the loss of a job or an annoying encounter they had at work. You want to acknowledge the post but you don't want to click the Like button. Those aren't likeable posts.
  Maybe you'd prefer to click on a Sad button or a Love button or a Wow button. In a few weeks, you'll have that option.
  In an interview with Bloomberg, Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, said the company is adding five new reactions to thepopular Like button. Alth
  
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• Forget cards and flowers; crowdfunding site helps pay medical bills

  27-01-2016 20:20
  
  Cathy Kehler, a 50-something church worker who'd never had a serious illness, was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer last spring.
  Kehler's insurance, which has a $700-a-month premium, didn't cover all of her expenses and after three operations including a double mastectomy, her out-of-pocket expenses had soared to more than $8,000.
  Family and friends offered emotional support, along with obligatory flowers, well-wishing cards and the occasional dinner to make life easier. But what Ke
  
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• Box, Dropbox users can now edit Office documents together in real time

  27-01-2016 20:14
  
  Business users who rely on cloud storage providers like Dropbox and Box now have some improved tools in their collaboration arsenal, thanks to a set of integrations that Microsoft announced Wednesday. Starting Wednesday, Office Online users can work in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations shared inside Box, Dropbox, Citrix ShareFile and Egnyte. That means those folks who don't use Microsoft's systems to store their files will still be able to use the Office web apps to wor
  
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• Flash video is 'on life support,' but big sites won’t let go

  27-01-2016 20:12
  
  As a video format, Adobe Flash is almost gone for good.
  According to a report by Encoding.com, Flash accounted for just 6 percent of video output last year, down 15 percent from 2014. Today, it’s mainly used for legacy browsers, banner ads, and some specific edge cases. “We expect to see the Flash video codec disappear completely from our report with 24 months,” the report says.
  That sounds like great news for people who’ve dropped Flash from their web browsers due to se
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Pulling the plug on the AI hype

  27-01-2016 20:04
  
  There have been many discussions in the blogosphere predicting the doom and gloom of the inevitable rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I've seen theories on everything from how it will result in massive layoffs to the ultimate downfall of humanity itself.Some prominent names – such as physicist Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, to name a few – have put forth ominous warnings of the effects AI could have on mankind. Let’s take a break from this kind of hype and take
  
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• Google Docs, Sheets and Slides get better mobile commenting

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  One of the key components of the Google Apps productivity suite has been the tech giant's focus on providing collaboration tools so that people can work on the same document together, wherever they happen to be. Those capabilities got a group of upgrades on Wednesday across iOS, Android and the Web.First off, the Sheets and Slides apps for iOS and Android have gained commenting functionality, meaning that users can add their thoughts to spreadsheets and presentations on the go (the Docs word pro
  
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• Correlatie tussen inzet hybride cloud en succes digitalisering

  27-01-2016 19:37
  Beslissers in IT en de business zijn het erover eens dat digitale transformatie en de inzet van hybride cloud de sleutel vormen tot succes in het digitale tijdperk. Daarop duidt wereldwijd onderzoek in opdracht van ict-dienstverlener EMC.Organisaties moeten ‘digitaal gaan denken’ om... lees meer
  
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• After lackluster Apple report, all eyes on Samsung

  27-01-2016 19:29
  Just how bad are conditions in the smartphone market? We'll get a better idea later Wednesday when Samsung announces its latest quarterly earnings.Apple painted a pretty bleak picture for high-end smartphones on Tuesday when it reported slow sales growth and forecast its first drop in revenue in 13 years."We're seeing extreme conditions—unlike anything we've experienced before—just about everywhere we look," Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call.Samsung has already signaled it
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 best practices in healthcare IT security: How Group Health Cooperative does it

  27-01-2016 19:17
  
  The one thing we learned for sure in 2015 was that healthcare has become a target for hackers across the globe. Over 100 million healthcare records were compromised in data breaches in 2015 and research firm IDC predicts that 1 in 3 individuals will have their healthcare records compromised in 2016. According to John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, 2015 has been filled with denial of service attacks, hard-to-detect malware, and a skyrocketing number of personal internet connecte
  
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• Taco Bell CMO on digital marketing's 7 paradoxes

  27-01-2016 18:56
  
  PALM DESERT, Calif. — When Taco Bell CMO Marisa Thalberg took the stage this week at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Annual Leadership Meeting she showed a graphic that depicts the growing complexity and chaos of the modern marketing technology landscape. More than 2,000 startups and legacy providers currently vie for a piece of that market, according to Terry Kawaji, founder and CEO of investment bank Luma Partners, which created the graphic Thalberg used in her presentation.To
  
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• Linaro provides go-to Linux-based software stack for ARM servers

  27-01-2016 18:45
  
  While ARM processors don't lack for software development support in the mobile device space, it's a different story when it comes to servers.Software and firmware tools for ARM servers are fragmented, and there's no single go-to package for users to configure and get ARM servers up and running easily.Recognizing that challenge, standards organization Linaro is pushing a new open-source software reference platform that will provide easy access to firmware and common software tools for easier inte
  
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• UpGuard offers a rating score of risk preparedness

  27-01-2016 18:21
  
  UpGuard analyzes data about the state of corporate networks to devise a single numerical score that gives a quick sense of security risk, a number that could be used by insurance companies to set premiums for cyber insurance.
  The UpGuard platform includes a scanner that evaluates exposure of publicly facing Web interfaces and determines the risk of breaches. This is augmented by analysis of data about the internal network from sources including existing security platforms and software services
  
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• The ultra-secure OS beloved by Edward Snowden gets a major upgrade

  27-01-2016 18:16
  Edward Snowden's favorite secure operating system just got a major upgrade. Version 2.0 of the Amnesic Incognito Live System, better known as Tails, rolled out recently. Tails 2.0 brings a new desktop environment, sandboxing for services via the always controversial systemd, and a new build of the Tor Browser.
  More importantly, Tails 2.0 makes it easier for new users to try out the operating system thanks to a revamped installation process. The new process begins in the browser, with step-by-st
  
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• 3 uplifting apps to destroy the winter doldrums

  27-01-2016 18:05
  
  How do I say this politely? So far, 2016 sucks.David Bowie died. I was still recuperating from that news when Alan Rickman and Glenn Frey passed away. The scary stock market was next; a practically unheard-of Atlantic hurricane in January; and finally the East Coast blizzard.It's been a downright dismal year already — unless you're a fan of Cam Newton or Peyton Manning. Instead of dwelling on the bad stuff, however, I'm using these mobile apps to help me get through this winter of disconte
  
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• BlackBerry debuts EMM fruits of Good deal

  27-01-2016 17:41
  
  It wasn't all that long ago when Good Technology's CEO took a nasty shot at then-competitor BlackBerry. BlackBerry quickly fired back with a scathing blog post aimed directly at Good.But that was then. In September, BlackBerry swallowed Good Technology in a $425 million acquisition, and this week the Canadian company announced its first integration between BlackBerry EMM and Good security products: the new Good Secure EMM Suites. (Funny how a few hundred million dollars can smooth over even the
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: First beta of the Brave ad blocking browser released for OS X

  27-01-2016 17:37
  
  Former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich has been back in the headlines recently, with a new browser project called Brave. The Brave browser blocks ads by default and then replaces them with what it calls "clean ads." The goal of the project seems to be to provide a viable financial alternative for publishers that doesn't flood users with obnoxious advertising and privacy violating trackers.Here are some details about the Brave browser from the Brave site:
  Everyone’s talking about ad blocking. Bloc
  
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• Pentaho adds native Python integration

  27-01-2016 16:51
  
  Aiming to better support machine learning and analytical environments, Pentaho Labs yesterday announced that it has developed a native integration for the Python language through Pentaho Data Integration (PDI).PDI is essentially a portable "data machine" for ETL, which you can deploy as a stand-alone Pentaho cluster or inside a Hadoop cluster through MapReduce or YARN. Will Gorman, vice president of Pentaho Labs at Hitachi subsidiary Pentaho, says the integration means data scientists can now us
  
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• With GPUOpen, AMD hopes gamers will get more out of its Radeon GPUs

  27-01-2016 16:49
  AMD has revealed the details of its GPUOpen project, through which it hopes to carve a bigger niche for itself in the crowded market for graphics processors in x86 machines.The company is being squeezed from above by Nvidia, which dominates the high end of the GPU market, and from below by Intel, which can leverage its larger share of the x86 CPU market to sell its own integrated graphics chipsets. While it can't do much about Intel, GPUOpen could allow AMD's Radeon chips to score a few poi
  
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• Ericsson has a 5G phone, and it weighs 150kg

  27-01-2016 16:47
  If you're aching to get your hands on your first super-fast 5G phone, the good news is that Ericsson already has one. The bad news is, it weighs 150kg.For U.S. readers, that's about 330 pounds: Great for an NFL defensive lineman, not so much for a handset."We are running around with a big bus with a very big mobile phone on it," said Erik Dahlman, a senior expert in radio access technologies at Ericsson, which is testing potential 5G technologies near Stockholm. It's also experimenting with the
  
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• PayPal is the latest victim of Java deserialization bugs in Web apps

  27-01-2016 16:37
  PayPal has fixed a serious vulnerability in its back-end management system that could have allowed attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the server and potentially install a backdoor.
  The vulnerability is part of a class of bugs that stem from Java object deserialization and which security researchers have warned about a year ago.
  In programming languages, serialization is the process of converting data to a binary format for storing it or for sending it over the network. Deserialization i
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: CIO Insights series: Supplier engagement that works

  27-01-2016 15:13
  
  During the course of my interviews with CIO’s over the past couple of years I’ve witnessed the growth of a worrying trend - the fact that many CIO’s feel that their suppliers are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the success of their goals and their organisations objectives.I’m always aware just how easy it is to misinterpret things which is why I round the conversation we have about suppliers off with the following specific question “Do you think your Supplier La
  
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• Look out, Cisco: Major telcos join Facebook's open hardware push

  27-01-2016 15:00
  
  Big telcos including Verizon and AT&T have joined a Facebook-led project to build low-cost computing hardware, posing a fresh challenge for network vendors like Cisco and Juniper.The telcos have signed onto the Open Compute Project, a non-profit set up by Facebook in which end-user companies get together and design their own, no-frills hardware including servers, network and storage gear.The OCP members can include just the capabilities they need in a product, free of the "gratuitous differe
  
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• Cybersecurity pros switch jobs for challenging work, pay, and flexible hours

  27-01-2016 15:00
  
  Cybersecurity pros are most likely to leave to find more challenging work, better pay, and more flexible working hours, according to a survey released this morning. Office location also played an unexpected role in employees' decision as well."This is one of the points that surprised me coming up in conversation," said Javvad Malik, security advocate at AlienVault, the author of the report.When company offices were located in unpopular locations, it was more difficult for employees to switch job
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Getting projects and products right the first time

  27-01-2016 14:55
  
  Ever notice how those child safety caps cease being child proof about halfway through the life cycle of the product and just become regular caps. Don’t the manufacturers care about potential lawsuits? How many product developers does it take to make a child safety cap that will function for an entire month?As a project manager, it’s amazing to me when I see products like that fail so easily – especially when they may present a safety concern. How much of an engineering feat doe
  
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• 10 best IT jobs in America

  27-01-2016 14:45
  
  Best IT jobs in AmericaImage by ThinkstockAnonymous career review and job search site Glassdoor recently released the 2016 edition of its annual Best Jobs in America list and, not surprising, nearly half of the 25 jobs are in the IT industry. So, if finding a new job is at the top of your 2016 to-do list, check out the best of the best in IT careers, from Glassdoor's user-generateddata on earning potential, number of job openings and career opportunities.1. Data scientistImage by ThinkstockTo re
  
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• The real reason Microsoft open sourced .NET

  27-01-2016 14:18
  
  With its engineers involved in more than 2,000 open source projects, you’d have to agree that open source has more than a foothold at Microsoft these days. Most recently, for example, the browser team made the Chakra JavaScript engine that powers both Edge and Internet Explorer open source, for a very practical reason.Node, the popular JavaScript runtime, currently works only with Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. With Chakra now open source, Microsoft can take the fork of Node that it
  
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• Mac sales slide 3%, contribute smallest-ever portion of total revenue

  27-01-2016 14:10
  
  Apple yesterday said it sold 5.3 million Macs in the December quarter, a 3% decline from the same period the year before.
  The year-over-year downturn in Mac sales was the first since the third quarter of 2013, and only the fourth overall since 2007. But it was a decline nonetheless, a drop of about 200,000 systems.
  Even so, Apple was able to keep the Mac sales fall-off smaller than that of the PC industry overall. IDC recently estimated the business as down 11% for the December quarter, while r
  
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• Flexibele medewerkers drager van innovatie

  27-01-2016 14:08
  Technologie mag dan de drijfveer zijn achter veel innovatie, mensen zijn de drager. Bedrijven die een ‘people first’ aanpak ontwikkelen, trekken aan het langste eind in de digitale economie. Dat is de boodschap van Accenture in een deze week gepubliceerd rapport. Alleen organisaties die hun... lees meer
  
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• Over 113 million health records breached in 2015 -- up 10-fold from 2014

  27-01-2016 14:00
  
  One out of every three Americans was affected by a healthcare record breach last year, or more than 113 million people, up more than 10-fold from 12.6 million in 2014, according to a report released this morning by Bitglass.
  Types of breaches changed dramatically, as well. In 2014, 68 of breached medical records were due to lost or stolen devices, but that percentage dropped to 2 percent last year.
  Instead, in 2015, 98 percent of lost records were due to large-scale breaches.MORE ON CSO:Data br
  
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• Why any organization can suffer a healthcare breach, and 5 tips for keeping PHI safe

  27-01-2016 12:41
  
  It appears that companies don’t have to be in the healthcare business to suffer a health information breach. About 90 percent of all industries have had protected health information compromised, according to Verizon’s PHI Data Breach Report 2015.
  More than 392 million PHI records have been disclosed from non-healthcare businesses, according to the report, but the actual total could be much higher since 24 percent of the breached organizations did not provide an exact number of recor
  
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• Hands-on with the new Vaio Z that's flipping different

  27-01-2016 12:01
  
  When Sony sold off its Vaio PC division last year, its new investors didn't look back. The rebooted Vaio brand's crazy out-of-the-box thinking started with its Vaio Z Canvas, which packs hardware no other “tablet” attempts. Now the company is back with a flipping different 2-in-1 laptop. Gordon Mah UngThe Vaio Z Flip is a 2-in-1 with a flipping screen.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Review: IBM Cloud is built to order

  27-01-2016 12:00
  
  There was a time long ago when IBM ruled the cloud, although no one used that word back then. The company’s mainframe line in the 1960s and '70s was the original distant and unseen pile of metal and silicon meant to be shared among all users. Each program got a slice of the big machine’s time, and everyone understood they were “time sharing,” which sounds a bit more precise than the amorphous word “cloud.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, pl
  
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• Eclipse Che launches the cloud IDE revolution

  27-01-2016 12:00
  
  The Eclipse Che project, a cloud IDE and developer workspace server that also provides an open source alternative to the popular JetBrains IntelliJ Java IDE, has moved to beta release status.
  Che features a workspace composed of projects and associated runtimes, or environments. Workspace configuration is persisted as versionable assets, and users can migrate workspace projects and runtimes to other Che instances, whether hosted locally or in the cloud.[ Find out how to handle the real-world pr
  
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• Oracle raises questions on open-source license for Android with OpenJDK

  27-01-2016 08:42
  Oracle has raised questions whether a version of Google's Android operating system running OpenJDK code will at all get an open-source license.Google told a court in California that it released on Dec. 24 new versions of its Android platform that are licensed for use under a free, open source license provided by Oracle as part of its OpenJDK project, a redesign that apparently aims to get around charges that the previous versions of Android infringed Oracle's copyrights on Java.OpenJDK is the op
  
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• Online advertising company fixes severe XSS flaw

  27-01-2016 06:36
  
  An online advertising company has fixed a vulnerability in its platform that could have allowed hackers to steal information from a large number of users.
  The cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw in the platform of PublicityClerks was found by a U.K. security researcher who goes by the handle CEHSecurity on Twitter.
  Cross-site scripting flaws are one of the most common faults in websites. They allow an attacker to inject malicious code into a website, which then can be used to steal data and fo
  
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• VMware cuts 800 jobs as it transitions from older 'blockbuster' compute products

  27-01-2016 06:28
  
  VMware is cutting about 800 jobs as it transitions from its traditional products to newer, emerging technologies.The company expects 2016 will be a key transition year as "we expect the effect of our new products to outweigh the decline in our compute products," CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an earnings conference call Tuesday.The company has been facing challenges in its software business as its customers are increasingly using public cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure."Pu
  
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• Firefox 44 debuts push notifications

  27-01-2016 02:16
  
  Mozilla today released Firefox 44, following in rival Chrome's footsteps by adding push notifications to the browser.
  Tuesday's update to version 44 lets users opt in to receive notifications from websites even when a site's tab has been closed or never opened.
  Google added the same functionality to Chrome in April with version 42.
  Both Chrome and Firefox rely on the W3C's (Worldwide Web Consortium) under-construction "web push" protocol, and the associated Push API (application programming int
  
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• Microsoft's research reorg chips away at what made Silicon Valley magic

  27-01-2016 02:15
  
  Back in 2014, Microsoft quietly pulled part of its "moonshot" researchers off the launch pad. According to a recent Bloomberg report, Microsoft shifted roughly half of its 1,000 researchers into a group called MSR NeXT. Its mission: to “identify technology with the most potential” and deliver it to customers—as opposed to working in isolation from product groups, which is how its researchers had previously functioned.
  Makes sense, right? After all, when Microsoft debuted its i
  
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• Judge gives breathing room to 34,000 foreign workers

  27-01-2016 02:12
  
  A U.S. judge is giving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional 90 days to get its act together on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program.
  There are approximately 34,000 foreign workers in the U.S.employed under the Optional Practical Training STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) extension. All students are eligible to work on their student visa for 12 months; STEM students have the ability to work an additional 17 months.To read this article in full or to leav
  
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• Microsoft says a Surface that survives Johnny Manziel could never have failed the Pats

  27-01-2016 02:11
  
  Don’t blame the Patriots for missing an extra point early in their NFL playoff game against the Denver Broncos, then missing a two-point conversion in the waning seconds to lose. To many in Patriot Nation, Surfacegate is to blame.
  Yes, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, which Microsoft supplied to NFL teams for use on the sideline during this season. The Surface Pro 3, which failed just as the Patriots needed it—on a defensive series early in the game. Which they clearly could not rec
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The lines between the consumer Internet and IoT are blurring fast

  27-01-2016 02:05
  
  As retailers look to personalize shopping experiences for their customers, the realm of the "consumer Internet" is looking more and more like the "internet of things." Retailers are using beacons to talk to Bluetooth enabled smartphones, providing much more granular location data. Startups are looking at ways to use video feeds to evaluate emotional reactions to products live in stores, and of course the point of sale device is getting smarter and interacting in new ways with consumer's watches
  
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• Got enterprise software? You're probably due for an audit

  27-01-2016 00:17
  If you run software for a business, take note: Vendors are watching you closely.Corporate users are expected to pay in full for all the ways they use a vendor's software, and on what systems, and for all the people who use it, and maybe more. Complicating matters further, the rules can often change.It's not easy for enterprises to keep track of every penny, but vendors do. Tales of the widely dreaded "compliance audit" are increasingly common."Vendors are putting more pressure on customers," sai
  
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• The North Face sees A.I. as a perfect fit (+ video)

  27-01-2016 00:05
  
  The North Face wants its customers to get the perfect jacket for whatever they're doing - skiing in Vermont, ice skating in New York City or just trying to stay warm on the way home from work.
  So how do they give online customers that extra assistance and know-how? Artificial Intelligence, or A.I.
  "The issue is that online shopping over the past two decades has been about a grid of products on a white background," said Cal Bouchard, senior director of e-commerce at The North Face. "That's how c
  
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