IT Executive news

• Ruckus says OpenG can make LTE work better indoors

  18-02-2016 23:34
  Carriers' heroic efforts to keep mobile devices well-connected can go to naught once users walk into a hotel or office building, if the signals can't get in. Now someone else can solve that problem, according to Ruckus Wireless.The enterprise Wi-Fi company wants to become an LTE network vendor, supplying gear for indoor networks that could belong to a service provider, an enterprise or a building owner. Trials will start this year, and if the idea catches on it may go big in 2018, Ruckus Chief O
  
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• Apple re-issues iOS 9.2.1 to fix iPhones bricked by Error 53

  18-02-2016 22:14
  
  Apple today re-issued iOS 9.2.1 to fix the "Error 53" that had crippled iPhones whose owners had replaced some parts themselves or had a third-party shop do repairs.
  The new iOS 9.2.1 will only be served to users who update their iPhonesthrough iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. Most iPhone owners retrieve updates over the air using their cellular connection, and so will not receive the replacement.
  Error 53 appeared on iPhone 6, 6S, 6 Plus and 6S Plus devices after a do-it-yourself or third-party
  
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• These two startups are out to dethrone Slack

  18-02-2016 21:31
  
  There's nothing like raging success to bring on a pack of competitors, and that's exactly what's now happening in the enterprise-collaboration arena.Ever since the public launch of its team-communication software two years ago, Slack has taken enterprises by storm, propelled by its freemium business model and plenty of investor enthusiasm. Today, it claims 2.3 million daily active users, more than 675,000 paid seats and over US$64 million in annual recurring revenue.To read this article in full
  
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• Butterfly Labs can't afford the $39M fine to settle charges it duped bitcoin hopefuls

  18-02-2016 21:18
  
  In the heady days of 2013, when the world was agog over the promise of bitcoin, a few companies were racing to develop special hardware used to "mine" new value from the virtual currency. One of the best known, Butterfly Labs, over-promised on what it could deliver.On Thursday, U.S. regulators said Butterfly Labs and two employees have settled charges accusing them of deceiving thousands of people by keeping payments for bitcoin mining systems that were never delivered.To read this article
  
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• Microsoft fixes sleep deprivation issues for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4

  18-02-2016 21:10
  
  Early reports from owners of Microsoft's Surface Book premium-priced notebook and the Surface Pro 4 tablet today said that a firmware update issued Wednesday has fixed their devices' sleep problems.
  "Overnight (~8 hours) unplugged, I lost 8% of the battery, but doing a sleep study showed that it actually DID go into a low-power state, for 99% of the time it was asleep, for the first time ever," said someone identified only as dmills6788 in a thread on Microsoft's own support forum. "So in that
  
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• New beta build of Windows 10 offers Edge, Cortana improvements

  18-02-2016 20:48
  After a long wait, Microsoft is giving Windows Insiders some major new features to play around with, after spending the past couple of months primarily making backend improvements to its new operating system.The company released build 14267 to early adopters who are a part of the Windows Insider Program’s Fast ring on Thursday morning, offering new features in Cortana, Microsoft Edge and Skype. Cortana now has a dedicated button in the assistant’s right-hand corner that people can us
  
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• Twitter password recovery bug exposes 10,000 users' personal information

  18-02-2016 20:41
  
  Twitter has notified 10,000 users that their email addresses and phone numbers may have been exposed due to a bug in the website's password recovery feature.
  The incident happened over the course of 24 hours on an unspecified day last week, but the company alerted affected users on Wednesday.
  "Any user that we find to have exploited the bug to access another account’s information will be permanently suspended, and we will also be engaging law enforcement as appropriate so they may conduct
  
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• Obama taps former security advisor, IBM CEO to lead cyber panel

  18-02-2016 20:39
  
  In the waning months of the Obama administration, the White House is racing to lay the groundwork for an enduring plan to shore up the nation's critical digital infrastructure.
  Yesterday, President Obama described the digital age as a sort of double-edged sword, at once delivering "incredible opportunity, incredible wealth," while also presenting a new set of complex and evolving security challenges that arise from an environment where "more and more of our lives are being downloaded, being sto
  
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• Obama taps former NSA CEO to head up cybersecurity

  18-02-2016 20:39
  
  In the waning months of the Obama administration, the White House is racing to lay the groundwork for an enduring plan to shore up the nation's critical digital infrastructure.Yesterday, President Obama described the digital age as a sort of double-edged sword, at once delivering "incredible opportunity, incredible wealth," while also presenting a new set of complex and evolving security challenges that arise from an environment where "more and more of our lives are being downloaded, being store
  
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• Good riddance payphones: NYC's free gigabit Wi-Fi kiosks go live

  18-02-2016 20:31
  
  New York City on Thursday officially launched its payphone booth replacements: shiny new 9-foot-plus-high kiosks dubbed Links that offer free Gigabit-speed Wi-Fi as well as free domestic VoIP calls via a tablet app.
  Mayor Bill de Blasio, joined by vendor partners such as Qualcomm and NYC Department of IT and Telecommunications reps, showed off the first operating Links, just over a dozen of which are spread across 3rd Avenue for starters (see map). The spacing of the hotspots will enable users
  
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• Cato Networks puts network security in the cloud

  18-02-2016 20:29
  
  Shlomo Kramer – co-founder of Check Point Software, Imperva and Incapsula – is at it again with Cato Networks, a cloud-based network security provider aimed at helping midsize companies that are strapped for funds and expertise to tune-up their defenses.
  Cato kicks off its service sometime before midyear with offers of next-generation firewalling, URL filtering, application control and VPN access to customers who link their networks to the service. The service can protect traditiona
  
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• Skullcandy unplugs MPLS, moves to WAN-as-a-Service

  18-02-2016 20:00
  
  The move to a cloud-based ERP system forced Skullcandy to rethink its global network, which ultimately led to the decision to migrate to an offering from Aryaka.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently discussed the migration with Systems Manager Yohan Beghein.
  Skullcandy Systems Manager Yohan BegheinTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Avoiding the pain of major software purchases

  18-02-2016 19:54
  
  Cloud or off-the-shelf: major software purchases like ERP seldom deliver all that is hoped. The first signs of trouble are when the implementation does not proceed as planned. When the software finally goes into production, the results are distinctly underwhelming. While outright failures happen, partial failures are much more common. These projects suffer from many or all of the pains below:Implementation takes significantly longer than planned
  Costs are substantially over budget
  New software d
  
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• Google releases intelligent image analysis tools for developers

  18-02-2016 19:32
  
  Google launched the open beta for its Cloud Vision service on Thursday, giving developers a new way to make intelligent apps that use images.  Using Google Cloud Vision, developers can manipulate images in several ways, such as running optical character recognition to pull text out of images, or using the technology that powers Google’s SafeSearch feature to detect inappropriate images. Google launched the service in private beta last year, and it is now available for public cons
  
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• Open source security is not as big of a concern as it once was

  18-02-2016 19:24
  
  In 2003 Sreenivasa Rao Vadalasetty helped write a report for the SANS Institute that was titled “Security Concerns in Using Open Source Software for Enterprise Requirements.” To some that title today is almost laughable.
  The report stated: “Though the open source has potential to be more secure than its closed source counterpart, it should not be taken for granted that open source is more secure because there are some constraining factors. Despite the fact that the source code
  
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• GitHub responds to developer demands with new features

  18-02-2016 19:14
  
  Weeks ago, developers took to GitHub to voice their dismay at the way the code hosting platform was ignoring long-standing feature requests.
  GitHub responded with a formal apology and a promise to do better. Yesterday, it rolled out the ability to create templates for GitHub issues and pull requests -- "the first of many improvements" to address those complaints, it says.[ Get the most out of collaborative programming with InfoWorld's 20 essential pointers for Git and GitHub. | Keep up with hot
  
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• IBM gets 215 million patient profiles in $2.6 billion analytics firm buy

  18-02-2016 18:33
  
  IBM's Watson Health, the company's 10-month-old healthcare data crunching unit, plans to acquire Truven Health Analytics and its 215 million patient profiles, with the ultimate goal of helping health-care providers make better business and patient-care decisions.The $2.6 billion deal, announced Thursday, gives IBM Watson Health access to a huge new data set in the unit's efforts to mine data to improve health-care quality while controlling costs.Including data from Truven, Watson Health will hav
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Trump vs. Apple: Dingbat Donald may have lost millions of votes

  18-02-2016 18:01
  I generally try to stay away from politics on this blog since it's such a toxic subject, and the focus of the blog is Apple and it's products. But sometimes things happen and it's impossible to remain silent where politics is concerned.And so it is with the recent comments by Donald Trump about Apple's resistance to a court order to create a backdoor to the phone of one of the terrorists who murdered people in San Bernardino. Trump has foolishly sided with the government instead of Apple and its
  
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• 5 facts about Apple and the terrorist’s iPhone

  18-02-2016 17:56
  
  A great deal of hype and misinformation surrounds the court order requiring Apple to help law enforcement access the iPhone of the deceased San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook. Some of the misinformation has come from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Some people are claiming that giving in to law enforcement’s demands would be a crippling blow to the privacy of U.S. citizens. Here are five facts to put those fears in perspective:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Experts contend Apple has the technical chops to comply with court order

  18-02-2016 17:36
  
  On a technical level, Apple can comply with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) request for help in accessing an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the people accused of killing 14 in California two months ago, security experts said Wednesday.
  "I believe it is technically feasible for Apple to comply with all of the FBI's requests in this case," said Dan Guido, the co-founder and CEO of Trail of Bits, a New York City-based security firm, in a Wednesday post on his firm's blo
  
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• Google lends Apple support over FBI encryption demands

  18-02-2016 17:05
  
  Google CEO Sundar Pichai has lent support to Apple in the debate over encrypted iPhones—sort of.
  In a series of Twitter posts, Pichai praised Apple CEO Tim Cook for writing an “important” letter thatspeaks out against the FBI’s decryption demands. “Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy,” Pichai wrote.
  While Pichai noted that Google provides data access to law enforcement when legally required, that’s different from ma
  
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• Twitter gets graphic with videos in direct messages and a GIF library for all

  18-02-2016 16:33
  
  Twitter just added two handy new features to its network, and both are about the miracle of the moving image.
  The company is currently rolling out the ability to send videos via direct message (DM) in Twitter for mobile, as well as a searchable GIF library to spice up your tweets on most platforms.
  Why this matters: The addition of GIF search is a nice bonus, but video capture and sharing is the bigger deal for Twitter. In recent months, the company has added new features to make direct message
  
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• Apple CEO Cook: Judge’s order to decrypt shooter’s iPhone is more than an encryption issue

  18-02-2016 15:42
  
  A court order for Apple to help the FBI carry out a brute-force attack on the iPhone used by shooters in last year’s San Bernardino terrorist attack would set a precedent with broad implications, experts say.
  For one, it could mean that in the future makers of encryption products might have to modify them to meet similar orders if they can’t otherwise access the encrypted data they contain. This raises the concern of privacy advocates who say encryption is important not only to prot
  
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• Skype introduces free group video calling across iOS and Android

  18-02-2016 15:17
  
  Skype announced Thursday that iOS and Android users in the U.S. and Western Europe can expect to start making group video calls from their smartphones and tablets in the coming week. 
  The feature will allow users to hold conversations with up to 25 friends at once. Skype designed two new views for group video conferences: the first allows users to see one another in a grid, and it's designed for calls with a handful of people. A second active speaker view shows a big picture of the person
  
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• Supply chains: Danger ahead!

  18-02-2016 15:01
  
  Poor Chipotle! No company wants CNN, Forbes, MSNBC or other news services reporting on its latest corporate debacle. An E. coli outbreak in the food industry is a company’s worst nightmare, and can tank a company’s reputation (and stock price!). Businessweek’s barfing-burrito cover is an image that will live in advertising history and, unfortunately, customers’ memories. While I hope Chipotle will not back away from its commitment to small, local farmers supplying hormon
  
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• This free app makes online tax prep much less painful

  18-02-2016 14:28
  
  In the past, when tax season rolled around, I used to log into my various online finance accounts and manually download statements for the year. Three words aptly describe this joyless chore: Tee. Dee. Us.FileThis, a terrific, freemium cloud-based service, does all the work for you. FileThis automatically, and regularly, logs into your accounts and downloads PDFs of your credit card, bank, mortgage, utility, health insurance, and other statements.Why you should use FileThis
  You can archive state
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The voice of the customer is dead

  18-02-2016 14:23
  Enterprise IT departments and third-party service providers have been trained that the customer is king and the voice of the customer is paramount. This has been drummed into IT folks. But there’s a problem: The customers don’t know what they want.If you survey IT customers (business users or end customers) about what frustrates them or what they want IT to do differently, they absolutely have an opinion. But when you incorporate that into your systems or services, you find they are
  
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• How Apple's consumer software miscues hinder it in the enterprise

  18-02-2016 13:48
  
  Apple is, at its core, a consumer electronics company that makes two-thirds of its revenue from iPhone sales. However, as the technology world shifts from a hardware-driven model to one in which software, services and data deliver more value and innovation to both consumers and business customers, Apple could find itself on the outside looking in.
  For the better part of a year, the company has dealt with the perception that its online services and apps are in decline. Frustrations with iCloud,
  
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• CIOs cautiously embrace Windows 10

  18-02-2016 13:48
  
  Seven months before Microsoft first released Windows 10 last summer, Neeraj Rajpal, CIO of legal giant Morrison & Foerster, said the pain of upgrading roughly 2,000 users to a new OS outweighed the potential benefits to the company. "I need a compelling reason, (and right now) I don't see it," he told CIO.com in January.
  Today, more than 200 million devices run Windows 10, including 22 million in business and education, according to Microsoft. Rajpal has also since changed his mind and expe
  
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• Verizon keeps its crown in latest wireless performance report

  18-02-2016 13:43
  
  Verizon Wireless came out on top once again in the results of an independent wireless performance test released today by RootMetrics that encompasses more than 3.8 million data points from across the country. The findings come at a time when both T-Mobile and Sprint have been running television ads designed to mock Verizon. Those ads also suggest T-Mobile and Sprint have the fastest networks, according to "independent testing."
  So who's lying? Unlike ads for diet supplements that clai
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Guarding against fraud in the age of social sharing

  18-02-2016 13:32
  
  Consider the following scenario, taken directly from the case files of the FBI.
  “The accountant for a U.S. company recently received an e-mail from her chief executive, who was on vacation out of the country, requesting a transfer of funds on a time-sensitive acquisition that required completion by the end of the day. The CEO said a lawyer would contact the accountant to provide further details.‘It was not unusual for me to receive e-mails requesting a transfer of funds,’ the a
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Beware of the productivity measurement fallacy

  18-02-2016 13:18
  
  About twenty years ago (OK, thirty years ago), a company-wide productivity initiative was implemented where I was employed. To their credit, they really did it right. Senior management was very involved and truly worked hard to lead the charge. The program was clearly communicated to the employees. Prizes were given out to the teams that created the greatest company savings. All in all, it was very well done and very successful. A number of business processes were improved, vendor costs were red
  
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• Do hunches beat facts in CIO decision-making?

  18-02-2016 12:49
  
  If you think CIOs are rigorous, analytical bunch, think again: Many CIOs make decisions based on nothing more than hunches, intuition and general sense of "what feels right."That's one of the conclusions of a report commissioned by IT infrastructure company Colt Technology Services.Its "CIO: Instinct or hard data – which wins?" study found that 71 percent of senior IT decision makers believe that, on balance, personal experience is more effective than data analysis in driving successful st
  
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• This Old Tech: Exploring the lost world of Prodigy

  18-02-2016 12:00
  Remember when...From 1988 to 1996, IBM and Sears jointly operated a graphically rich online service called Prodigy, which allowed users from all over the United States to dial in and view weather, stocks, news, and more while also exchanging emails and bulletin board posts with other users.When the service shut down in 1999 (after a few ownership changes), Prodigy took its rich history of graphical screens with it. All seemed lost until a programmer named Jim Carpenter figured out a way to extra
  
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• Review: MakerBot Replicator 3D printer adds its new Smart Extruder+

  18-02-2016 12:00
  
  Last month, MakerBot began offering its Smart Extruder+, a new and improved print head for its flagship Replicator and Replicator Mini desktop 3D printers.
  The company claims the new Smart Extruder+ provides a more reliable printing process for its fused filament fabrication (FFF) machines. In order to test this, MakerBot sent me a Replicator 3D printer and Smart Extruder+ to review.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Latest tests show all four major wireless carriers are strong

  18-02-2016 12:00
  
  Despite claims by the four biggest U.S. wireless carriers that each one has the best nationwide network, the latest performance data gathered by testing firm RootMetrics shows that are all good and getting better.
  "This a great time for consumers. Network providers are really trying hard so that consumers ultimately benefit. You're not going to go wrong with any one of them," said Julie Dey, vice president of RootMetrics, in an interview.
  The competition between all four has been tight for year
  
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• How to roll back your Windows 10 upgrade

  18-02-2016 12:00
  
  Hundreds of millions of Windows 10 users can’t be wrong -- or can they? I hear from people every day who tried the Win10 upgrade and for a variety of reasons -- broken drivers, incompatible programs, unfamiliarity, fear of snooping, doubt about Win10’s future -- want to get back to their good ol’ Windows 7 or 8.1.
  If you performed an upgrade using Microsoft’s tools and anointed techniques, rolling back should be easy. Operative term: “should.” Unfortunately,
  
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• Google green-lights Go 1.6

  18-02-2016 12:00
  
  Google has released version 1.6 of the Go open source programming language, featuring improvements to HTTP/2 backing and garbage collection.
  "Go 1.6 adds transparent support in net/http package for the new HTTP2/protocol," release notes state. "Go clients and servers will automatically use HTTP/2 as appropriate when using HTTPS."[ Also on InfoWorld: Download the quick guide to Google Go today. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ]
  In a b
  
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• AquaJS floats a framework for JavaScript microservices

  18-02-2016 12:00
  
  The AquaJS framework for Node.js looks to speed up app dev by streamlining integration processes. In development at enterprise connectivity services provider Equinix, AquaJS moved to public beta stage this week with a general release, available as an Npm, expected in a month.
  "You define a contract. AquaJS will read those contracts, and it automatically generates the scaffolding end-to-end," said Venkatachalam Rangasamy, senior software architect at Equinix.[ Need a JavaScript tool for you
  
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• Marvell, Carnegie Mellon settle patent dispute over hard drive chips

  18-02-2016 08:56
  Chip company Marvell Technology Group has settled with Carnegie Mellon University to end a long-standing patent dispute over chips used in hard disk drives.Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Marvell has agreed to pay CMU US$750 million, with no ongoing royalty payments, which is far lower than the $1.54 billion that a court in Pennsylvania had awarded the university.The two patents in the seven-year-old suit relate to methods to improve accuracy in the detection of recorded data when certa
  
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• White House: FBI is not asking Apple for a 'backdoor' to the iPhone

  18-02-2016 06:08
  
  The White House said  it is not the aim of the government to compromise the security of Apple's iPhone, as it only wants the company to help in the case of one phone that was used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2.Google, Mozilla and some other tech organizations and civil rights groups have meanwhile supported Apple's stand.An order by a judge in California on Tuesday triggered off a furious response from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said the government wanted th
  
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• What happens when Google Doc credentials are leaked on the Dark Web

  18-02-2016 03:38
  A security company recently laid tempting bait online in order to see how hackers would react. The findings aren't surprising but show how quickly leaked data is used by shady characters.
  California-based Bitglass, which specializes in cloud-based security, created a fake digital identity for an employee of a non-existent bank.
  The details included credentials for a Google Drive account, complete with real credit card details, fake corporate data and personal data, according to Bitglass' report
  
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• The hottest item at Mobile World Congress won't be for sale

  18-02-2016 03:30
  
  In Barcelona, you really can buy happiness. (It's called Iberico, a delicious Spanish ham.) But you can't buy unlicensed spectrum, and yet it's going to be the hottest thing at Mobile World Congress next week.Commercial mobile operators, which for years relied on exclusive frequencies doled out through auctions or competitions, are now looking toward bands that anyone can use. Not only is unlicensed spectrum free, it may also become available with less time-consuming red tape. And there's a lot
  
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• Hospital pays $17,000 ransom to get access back to its encrypted files

  18-02-2016 03:09
  A Los Angeles hospital has paid US$17,000 to cyberattackers who crippled its network by encrypting its files, a payment that will likely rekindle a fierce debate over how to deal with a problem known as ransomware.Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center issued a statement saying that its systems were restored on Monday, 10 days after malware locked access to its systems.The hospital contacted law enforcement as well as computer experts, wrote Allen Stefanek, president and CEO of Hollywood Pre
  
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• Google wants you to be able to vote online

  18-02-2016 01:55
  
  Like the idea of using Google to vote online for the best airline, steamed dumpling or health app?
  What about using Google to vote for governor or president? That seems to be Google's plan.
  The search giant received a U.S. patent for a voting user interface (VUI). The interface would appear along with search results and would allow the user to vote for one or more contestants competing in a campaign.
  The patent application was filed on Oct. 30, 2013, and the patent was awarded to Google on Tues
  
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• U.S. offers supercomputing help to manufacturers

  18-02-2016 01:54
  
  Five of the top 12 high performance computing systems in the world are owned by U.S. national labs. But they are beyond reach, financially and technically, for many companies, even larger ones.
  That's according to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials, who run the national labs. A new program aims to connect manufacturers with supercomputers and the expertise to use them.
  This program provides $3 million, initially, for 10 industry projects, the DOE announced Wednesday. Whether the program
  
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• This car travels 300 miles on just 85oz of (hydrogen) gas

  18-02-2016 01:44
  
  A European start-up has announced a hydrogen fuel cell car with just 18 moving parts and a range of 300 miles that is now being tested on public roadways.
  The Rasa hydrogen fuel cell car from Riversimple Movement has a chassis made from carbon fiber composite skin weighing less than 90lbs. RiversimpleThe Rasa is a two-door hatchback with a carbon fiber chassis that weighs less than 90lbs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• The 5 craziest sentences in Vogue's profile of Tim Cook and Jony Ive

  18-02-2016 00:50
  
  Apple can’t help showing off sometimes—and they should! They make cool things that people really like, and the stories of how those things get made are quite interesting and deserve to be told.
  So from time to time, they’ll invite someone over like Stephen Fry or Steven Levy, or occasionally a non-Stev(ph)en—like Vogue’s Rob Haskell, who published an exclusive interview with Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Norman Foster, the noted British architect who designed Apple&rsquo
  
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• Microsoft says its fix for Surface Book, Surface Pro 4 finally solves power problems

  18-02-2016 00:14
  It seems like Microsoft has finally, completely solved its long-standing power problems with the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. At least that’s the message its sending with a new firmware update that was released today.
  According to Microsoft, the firmware update released Wednesday fixes an issue whereby both the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 failed to go into a low-power “sleep” state. That’s resulted in less-than-expected battery life for both devices.
  “Today&r
  
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