IT Executive news

• U.S. uncovers $20M H-1B fraud scheme

  02-05-2016 23:28
  
  The U.S. government has indicted a Virginia couple for running an H-1B visa-for-sale scheme the government said generated about $20 million.
  Raju Kosuri and Smriti Jharia of Ashburn, Va., along with four co-conspirators, were indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
  The scheme involved, in part, setting up a network of shell companies and the filing of H-1B visas applications for non-existent job vacancies.
  Workers were require
  
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• Cracker Jack ruins its iconic free toy by replacing physical prizes with QR codes

  02-05-2016 23:28
  Frito-Lay is vanquishing any nostalgia you might’ve had left for Cracker Jack by eliminating the physical toy inside.
  In its place, all Cracker Jack boxes will now include a piece of paper with a QR code printed on it. Scanning that code into an iOS or Android app called Blippar will cause a baseball-themed digital “toy” to appear on the screen. For instance, consumers might see themselves on a simulated stadium Jumbo-Tron, or be able to put themselves on a digital baseball ca
  
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• A judge has partially dismissed Twitter's surveillance case against the government

  02-05-2016 23:21
  
  A California court has dismissed part of a lawsuit brought by Twitter that challenges U.S. government restrictions on what it can say about surveillance requests on its users.Twitter sued the government in 2014, alleging that the restrictions, which are common to all Internet service providers, infringe its First Amendment right to free speech.Earlier this year, the Department of Justice asked the federal district court in Oakland, California, to toss out the lawsuit. It argued that th
  
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• Facebook Messenger testing Snapchat-style disappearing messages for iOS

  02-05-2016 23:09
  
  Facebook is considering a new feature so that not every message your send on its Messenger app will live forever.
  On Monday, screenshots revealed a potential version of Facebook Messenger on iOS where users can set a time-limit for their messages to remain visible after being sent. According to the screenshots, Messenger users will have the option to enable disappearing messages on the iOS app and set a time-limit for the messages to disappear after one minute, after 15 minutes, after one hour,
  
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• 14% off Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Activity Wristband - Deal Alert

  02-05-2016 22:40
  
  Track workouts, heart rate, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes, and steps with the popular Fitbit Charge HR. Sync data wirelessly and automatically back to your computer or smartphone, where it can be viewed and analyzed securely online. Fitbit Charge HR also tracks your sleep, and can wake you with a silent alarm. The unit averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 24,000 people (read reviews). With a regular list price of $149.99, you can save $21 and pick it up
  
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• Why CEOs must go big in digital (or go home)

  02-05-2016 22:15
  
  CEOs are unlikely to slash technology spending in the face of weakening economies because they can't afford to impede crucial digital business initiatives required to serve customers, according to new research from Gartner. That bodes well for CIOs, who are accustomed to seeing budgets slashed as political unrest, falling oil prices and other macro factors weigh on the business."Those CEOs who see that the digital future is going to happen inexorably will protect digital initiatives and will can
  
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• Dell plus EMC has a name: Dell Technologies

  02-05-2016 21:45
  
  Dell’s planned US$67 billion acquisition of EMC will create a broad collection of businesses called Dell Technologies.Under that umbrella, the pure Dell name will live on in the company’s client business, including its PCs, while its enterprise infrastructure division will be called Dell EMC, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell announced on Monday at EMC World in Las Vegas.Dell Technologies will be the only company selling everything from edge devices to core data centers and cloud in
  
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• Oracle is paying $532 million to snatch up another cloud service provider

  02-05-2016 21:14
  
  Hard on the heels of a similar purchase last week, Oracle has announced it will pay $532 million to buy Opower, a provider of cloud services to the utilities industry.Once a die-hard cloud holdout, Oracle has been making up for lost time by buying a foothold in specific industries through acquisitions such as this one. Last week's Textura buy gave it a leg up in engineering and construction."It’s a good move on Oracle’s part, and it definitely strengthens Oracle’
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Digital transformation: Why it's important to your organization

  02-05-2016 21:12
  
  Is your organization embracing digital transformation?  What is digital transformation exactly?  And if you are not embracing it, should you?Organizations need to evolve to address the changing business landscapes. Ideally IT spending is driven by the need to meet business requirements. Business leaders want IT to be focused on business results, innovation, and continuous improvement. Digital transformation can be defined as the acceleration of business activities, processes, competenc
  
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• BrandPost: Cloud ERP Enables 80 Percent Growth for Manufacturing Supplier of the Year

  02-05-2016 20:12
  
  Aaron Thomas Company, Inc., a full-service contract packaging company, specializes in the food industry. The company’s high speed automated packaging services help its customers bring products to market in less time and with higher quality—earning the company accolades such as ‘Contract Manufacturing Supplier of the Year.’ To focus on growing business and maintaining its reputation for performance and quality, the company realized its legacy systems and manual processes w
  
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• Mensen belangrijker dan machines, aldus onderzoek

  02-05-2016 20:05
  Meer dan negen op de tien managers zeggen onvoldoende capaciteit te hebben om relevant te blijven in de digitale wereld. Daarop duidt onderzoek in opdracht van Cognizant en de Economist Intelligence Unit. Meer dan de helft van de organisaties zet cross-functionele teams in om hun digitale middelen te versterken en ruim... lees meer
  
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• Google buys Synergyse to teach customers how to use Apps

  02-05-2016 20:03
  
  Google Apps is getting a new set of tutorials. The tech giant announced Monday that it has acquired Synergyse, a startup that offered businesses a guided tutorial for Google Apps.Synergyse's technology allowed businesses to give their users step-by-step interactive guides to doing things inside Google Apps like sending emails in Gmail, setting up appointments in Calendar and getting started with Docs. The tutorials are frequently updated with new features that Google releases, so users can
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: When will the product be done?

  02-05-2016 19:39
  
  “When will the product be done?”That question will always plague the minds of any technical leader and for very good reason. “Publish or perish” used to only apply to professors and researchers but today it applies also to Information Technology. In Agile, getting a clear estimate of “when will the product be done?” can be a very frustrating exercise to CTOs, CIOs and IT Leadership.Today we live in a world of uncertainty and having a clear scope, schedule and
  
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• Samsung and Nvidia make peace by ending their patent lawsuits

  02-05-2016 19:19
  
  Nvidia and Samsung have avoided a potentially ugly court battle with a settlement that ends all outstanding intellectual property litigation between the two companies.Nvidia sued both Samsung and Qualcomm in September 2014, accusing them of infringing seven of Nvidia's GPU patents. Under Monday's agreement, Nvidia and Samsung will license "a small number" of patents to each other, though they said there's no broad cross-license agreement. There's also no financial payment.To read this
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How contract modeling could reshape the NFL—and help hospitals succeed

  02-05-2016 19:13
  
  As with any timely investigation of predictive modeling, it’s important to ground ourselves in the immediate surroundings, including apropos examples that may be at hand.For instance, the NFL draft (April 28-30) sparks the first football-related thoughts ahead of the 2016 season…while at the same time, the shift toward value-based care continues to keep hospital & health system financial performance top of mind.Perhaps it’s best to examine them together. Let’s dive i
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 obstacles that kill adaptivity

  02-05-2016 19:11
  
  So you've decided that your organization needs to be adaptive. We've discussed the attributes of being adaptive: scalable, extensible, responsive, forward leaning, market driving, modular, and a leader. But if we reflect back to the lessons we learned in change management 101, we know that to move forward, we need to identify the obstacles and remove them.There are five major organizational obstacles that inhibit adaptability that need to be addressed first:Unclear communication
  Myopia
  Imba
  
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• Interop at 30: New technology, new missions

  02-05-2016 18:55
  
  The Interop conference convening this week will be a far cry from the gathering of a small group of technology pioneers who sought interoperability among Internet devices 30 years ago.
  Then, the 1986 invitation-only TCP/IP Interoperability Conference drew representatives from 65 tech companies.
  The 30th version running this week in Las Vegas features a trade show with more than 160 vendors displaying their wares and where its interoperability mission ventures far outside the show’s signat
  
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• EMC World kicks off with cloud backup and cheaper flash arrays

  02-05-2016 18:00
  EMC is going back to basics -- but for a new generation of users -- on the first day of EMC World on Monday.This year’s annual user conference will be the last for EMC as an independent company, assuming Dell's pending US$67 billion acquisition goes through later this year as planned. Michael Dell will join EMC's Chairman and CEO on stage during the Monday keynote session.But EMC’s core storage business is likely to stay much the same in the short term, because it complements De
  
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• Solar airplane begins journey across the continental US

  02-05-2016 17:59
  
  Solar Impulse 2, a pioneering solar-powered aircraft attempting to fly around the world without burning a single drop of fuel, set off early Monday for the U.S. coast-to-coast leg of its flight.The aircraft departed Moffett Field in Silicon Valley at 5:30 a.m. local time bound for Phoenix, where it is expected to land at around 9 p.m. Solar Impulse 2 had been in California for just over a week after arriving from Hawaii.The goal of the flight is to highlight and promote clean energy.The aircraft
  
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• Is a truce possible in the ad-blocking war?

  02-05-2016 17:22
  
  The online advertising world is a war zone – increasingly bandwidth-intensive, intrusive ads are countered by the exploding use of ad-blocking technology, which in turn is countered by increasingly aggressive anti-ad-blocking technology.
  But amid what looks like an arms race, at least some in the industry are arguing that something close to a win-win is possible: A settlement that would lead to users being willing to tolerate – perhaps even look at – ads that are much less ann
  
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• CIOs: Match security plans to your company's 'risk appetite'

  02-05-2016 16:55
  
  This report from the CIO Executive Council (CEC), based on a webcast featuring Scott Angelo, CIO at K&L Gates, and Mike Plantinga, CIO at CIBC Mellon, explores CIO-level strategies for dealing with cybersecurity threats – before and after a data breach.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Samenbrengen databronnen en data integriteit grootste zorg bij selfservice BI

  02-05-2016 16:42
  Organisaties die succes willen boeken met Business Intelligence-programma’s doen er goed aan zakelijke gebruikers selfservice functionaliteiten te bieden die het besluitvormingsproces ondersteunen. Maar de complexiteit van het samenbrengen van databronnen en het bewaken van de integriteit van gegevens baart... lees meer
  
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• Microsoft to begin SHA-1 crypto shutoff with Windows 10's summer upgrade

  02-05-2016 16:03
  
  Microsoft last week outlined the timetable it will use to drop browser support for sites that secure traffic with SHA-1 certificates, part of an Internet-wide plan to rid the Internet of the weaker encryption.
  With the delivery of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update -- slated to ship sometime this summer -- both Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge will stop displaying a lock icon for sites that reply on a SHA-1 certificate. That icon signals that the bits back and forth between browser and website ar
  
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• 7 ways small businesses can benefit from mobile apps

  02-05-2016 15:58
  
  As many small businesses now know, to stay competitive these days, you need to be mobile. But being mobile is not just about having a mobile-friendly website. (Though if you are a retail or service business, having a mobile website is a must.) It means connecting with on-the-go customers and employees – and helping mobile customers and employees to connect with you (and each other). And these seven mobile applications can help small and midsized businesses do just that.[ Related: 6 cloud s
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: CoreOS Fest goes to Berlin

  02-05-2016 15:34
  
  CoreOS is gearing up for CoreOS Fest on May 9-10 in the city of Berlin, Germany. In its second year, and first time in Europe, CoreOS Fest gathers technical minds from around the world as companies look to solve issues of security, consistency and efficiency.Hundreds of experts in open source, distributed systems, Linux containers, security, Kubernetes, and more will participate in discussions around the future of hyperscale infrastructure and how they can work together to build a more secure In
  
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• 10 tips to help CIOs reduce stress

  02-05-2016 15:34
  
  The role of CIO can be a stressful one, and living under stress is something everyone should avoid. That's because overexposure to cortisol and other hormones that are released in times of stress can lead to health problems including anxiety, depression, sleep problems and heart disease.The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to help remove the stress associated with a C-level position. Here are some tips from fellow executives.Security stress
  Tip 1: Know your network archite
  
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• Okta offers Touch ID-based multifactor authentication for iPhones

  02-05-2016 15:00
  
  Okta, a San Francisco-based identity management startup, announced Monday a bunch of updates to its products that are aimed at improving its offerings on mobile devices. Okta Verify, the company's two-factor authentication product, now supports Touch ID for user authentication. What that means is that users who get a push notification sent to their iPhone in order to approve a login can now authenticate the attempt using their fingerprint. It's an added level of security on top of the two-f
  
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• Microsoft SQL Server 2016 finally gets a release date

  02-05-2016 15:00
  Database fans, start your clocks: Microsoft announced Monday that its new version of SQL Server will be out of beta and ready for commercial release on June 1. 
  The news means that companies waiting to pick up SQL Server 2016 until its general availability can start planning their adoption.
  SQL Server 2016 comes with a suite of new features over its predecessor, including a new Stretch Database function that allows users to store some of their data in a database on-premises and send infreq
  
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• Android at work: 38 business-worthy apps

  02-05-2016 14:48
  
  "Android" and "enterprise" are two words that traditionally haven't gone together. But with Google beefing up its Android for Work initiative -- and getting ready to launch more enterprise-friendly features with the upcoming Android "N" release -- the notion of companies considering Android for employees no longer seems far-fetched.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Robots at your service

  02-05-2016 14:47
  
  Robo-versatility on displayImage by ReutersWhile some of us wait patiently for a real-life version of the housekeeper from The Jetsons, today’s “working robots” are taking on a surprising variety of tasks, as evidenced by this collection of recent photos provided by Reuters.Waiting to buy an iPhoneImage by Reuters/Robert GalbraithTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 6 colleges turning out open source talent

  02-05-2016 14:45
  
  Most IT departments have project road maps that will require open-source skills, but finding recent college grads with open source talent can be challenging.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Design thinking for healthcare

  02-05-2016 14:36
  
  Design thinking creates great innovations by imagining new approaches to organizational creativity. It does this by designing for value.Industrial design to design thinking
  The Stanford University, catapulted design thinking into the mainstream when they first introduced the concept as a formal method taught to engineering students in 2005. The organic roots of design thinking go back further and lead us to Harold Van Doren, that wrote the book Industrial Design: A Practical Guide published in 1
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Apple’s new CareKit apps are great news for consumers. If.

  02-05-2016 14:31
  
  Developing mobile apps isn’t hard. So why should we be excited about yet another group of startups that have developed mobile apps that join the list of 165,000 apps already available to us? This past week, Apple unveiled the first few apps for the CareKit, the open source framework launched recently to enable developers to build mobile applications for healthcare consumers. Following up on ResearchKit, the framework for helping launch clinical studies by gaining access to the communi
  
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• The expanding landscape of exploit kits

  02-05-2016 14:11
  Angler, Magnitude, and Nuclear are a few of the most commonly used exploit kits criminals are using to deliver a variety of payloads from botnets to ransomware. Exploit kits are really just a means for malicious actors to get in the door. Once their payloads are installed, the payload is unique to the criminal, and the payload delivered has a profound impact on business operations.
  The prevalence of exploit kits and the techniques favored by attackers changes quite often. Only a few years ago,
  
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• Fitness watch faceoff: Garmin vivoactive HR vs. Fitbit Surge

  02-05-2016 14:00
  
  Garmin's new vivoactive HR wearable is designed to compete directly with Fitbit's Surge. Both devices are fitness watches with some smartwatch notification capabilities. Each has built-in GPS for mapping outdoor exercise and related statistics. Both automatically track sleep, and they work along with community leaderboards, so owners can compete against other users. The two watches each cost $250, and both are quality products.So how can you tell which one is a better fit for you?
  
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• IT leaders pick productivity over security

  02-05-2016 13:52
  
  Results from two recent studies suggest that cybersecurity needs an overhaul at most companies with root causes of the problem including poor communication, a lack of employee awareness, slowed productivity and a lack of budget.In its 2016 Cybersecurity Confidence Report, Barkly, an endpoint security company, surveyed 350 IT pros to determine the top security concerns for 2016 and gauge how confident IT leaders are when it comes to cybersecurity issues. The survey looked at IT leaders' biggest s
  
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• Why referrals make the best hires

  02-05-2016 13:37
  
  Looking for a new job but can't seem to land one? Maybe your poor networking skills are to blame? A new national survey reveals that while HR professionals say employee referrals are the best source for finding great candidates, only 7 percent of job seekers are using referrals as part of their job search.The Active Job Seeker Dilemma survey, from Future Workplace, a research firm and workforce management consultancy and Beyond.com, a career and hiring marketplace, polled 4,347 U.S. job seekers
  
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• Qualcomm brings big brains to mobile devices with deep-learning tool

  02-05-2016 13:30
  
  Qualcomm has talked about putting "silicon brains" in mobile devices and is now providing tools to train smartphones to recognize people, objects, gestures, and even emotions.Phones like Samsung's Galaxy S7 and LG's G5 that use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chips will get deep-learning capabilities with the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine software development kit, announced on Monday.The SDK will include a run-time that will exploit chip features so smartphones can accomplish deep-learning
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Hearthstone: World of Warcraft PVP with cards

  02-05-2016 13:00
  
  I played World of Warcraft for years, and I had a fun time for the most part. Eventually I got tired of it though since I was mostly just a PVP player. I found questing and raiding to be tedious, and I hated the politics and dramas of guilds.So imagine my delight when I discovered Hearthstone in the iOS app store. It’s a card game that basically lets you PVP using World of Warcraft heroes. Instead of moving a character around in a 3D world like in WOW, you battle your opponent via a deck o
  
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• Achmea Bank besteedt beoordelingstaken uit aan Quion

  02-05-2016 12:58
  Achmea Bank gaat het administratieve beheer en het merendeel van de beoordelingsactiviteiten van de hypotheekportefeuille onderbrengen bij Quion. Door de samenwerking wil Achmea Bank zijn dienstverlening te verbeteren en haar kosten structureel te verlagen.De personele en organisatorische consequenties zijn voor... lees meer
  
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• Trim your application portfolio for savings

  02-05-2016 12:30
  
  Paul Valente, a Chicago Public Schools systems engineer, jokes that his employer is "a $7 billion organization with a $6 billion budget." Not surprisingly, the underfunded department has a short-staffed IT team, so Valente is always looking for ways to cut costs and streamline operations -- and he feels he has struck gold with an application rationalization scheme.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• As CIO, this former CFO's mission is to empower business partners

  02-05-2016 12:30
  
  Herve Coureil spent more than two decades building a career before landing the top technology spot at Schneider Electric, which specializes in energy management and automation. Nothing unusual there -- except for the fact that Coureil spent most of his 23 years at Schneider outside of IT, in business and financial roles. In fact, he served as chief financial officer in Schneider's Critical Power and Cooling Services unit before becoming CIO in 2009.To read this article in full or to leave a com
  
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• How to make tech meetups work for you

  02-05-2016 12:25
  
  On any given day, more than 9,000 groups in 180 countries will gather somewhere in their local community to attend a “meetup,” according to the company that coined the term and originated the concept, Meetup.com. While topics range widely – from Texas Hold’em to plant-based nutrition – there are more listings for technology-focused topics than any other area, except careers/business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story
  
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• Vue.js lead: Our JavaScript framework is faster than React

  02-05-2016 12:00
  
  To take on Facebook's vaunted React JavaScript library, the Vue.js front-end framework has been upgraded with a virtual DOM layer improving speed and memory consumption.
  Version 2.0 of Vue.js, recently released as a public preview, is leaner and faster than before, according to a bulletin on the technology. "The rendering layer is now based on a lightweight virtual-DOM implementation that improves initial rendering speed and memory consumption by up to 2-4x in most scenarios."[ Use JavaScript i
  
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• I'm calling it: Social networking is over

  02-05-2016 12:00
  
  It was great while it lasted, but social networking is going away.
  The idea was that you could sign up for a social network like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr or Reddit and connect with old friends and acquaintances, make new ones or even interact with strangers about your life.
  Except that Twitter was really a "micro-blogging" site,LinkedIn was about finding a job, Pinterest was a pinboard site, Instagram and Flickr were photo-sharing sites
  
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• Craig Wright claims he is bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto

  02-05-2016 11:45
  
  Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright is bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, he has claimed on his personal blog and in media interviews.Wright was outed as the developer of the cryptocurrency by Wired magazine in December, but would not confirm the magazine's claims at the time. Days later the magazine said fresh evidence pointed to another possibility it had raised: that Wright may be a sophisticated hoaxer.But Wright really is Satoshi, he has claimed in interviews with the BBC, The Economist and
  
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