IT Executive news

• Pivotal raises $253M led by Ford, Microsoft

  05-05-2016 23:52
  
  Pivotal, the platform as a service company spun out from VMware and EMC three years ago, today announced plans to close a series C financing round worth $253 million led by Ford, Microsoft and its existing investors GE and its two parent companies.
  Pivotal is one of the leading vendors behind the Cloud Foundry PaaS, the commercialized version of the open source project. Cloud Foundry provides an environment for developers to build applications; it provisions the infrastructure needed to run and
  
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• Open-source really could help get you a job, study finds

  05-05-2016 23:33
  
  Experience in the open-source world is a valuable asset for technology job-seekers, and it’s getting more so over time, according to the latest Open-Source Jobs Report, which was published today by Dice and the Linux Foundation.The report, which surveyed tech hiring managers, found that nearly two-thirds were planning to increase open-source hiring more than other areas of their business in the near future, and that 59% had definite plans to add open-source workers.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD:
  
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• Apple partners with SAP in new enterprise push

  05-05-2016 23:29
  
  Apple has stepped up its efforts to target enterprise customers through a new partnership with SAP.The companies will deliver native apps for the iPhone and iPad that tap SAP's Hana in-memory computing platform, as well as a new iOS software development kit (SDK)."SAP is the ideal partner to help us truly transform how businesses around the world are run on iPhone and iPad," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.As part of the deal, SAP will develop native iOS apps using Apple's Swift programming languag
  
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• White House worries about bad A.I. coding

  05-05-2016 23:09
  
  The White House is doing a lot more thinking about the arrival of automated decision-making -- super-intelligent or otherwise.  
  No one in government is yet screaming "Skynet," but in two actions this week the concerns about our artificial intelligence future were sketched out.
  The big risks of A.I. are well-known (a robot takeover), but the more immediate worries are about the subtle, or not-so-subtle, decisions made by badly coded and designed algorithms.
  President Barack Obama's adminis
  
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• Newer Wi-Fi's faster, but it needs a fast wire behind it

  05-05-2016 23:02
  
  The next time you want to complain about slow Wi-Fi, think about saving your vitriol for wires instead.So-called gigabit Wi-Fi, or 802.11ac, is slowly starting to show up in homes, buildings and public hotspots, but it’s not delivering a gigabit to smartphones, according to an analysis by research company OpenSignal. That’s partly because of how wireless works and how the newest technology is being rolled out, but it also reflects the performance of the wired networks that Wi-Fi taps
  
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• State of EMV report: Fraud rises before a fall

  05-05-2016 22:02
  
  The switchover to EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) chipped credit cards is well underway. According to a new report from research and advisory firm Aite Group, sponsored by device intelligence and fraud prevention company iovation, 81% of credit cards in the U.S. will be EMV capable by the end of 2016. And the increased adoption of the more secure cards is fueling an increase in counterfeit fraud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Samsung's Raspberry Pi-like Artik 10 priced higher at $149.99

  05-05-2016 22:01
  
  Samsung's Artik 10 developer board will compete with the Raspberry Pi 3, but not on price.
  The Artik 10 is priced at US $149.99, and can be ordered from Digi-Key's website. That's a much higher price than the $35 Raspberry Pi 3, but the Artik 10 offers a better GPU and more storage.
  A shipment date for the Artik 10 board wasn't immediately available.
  The Artik 10 has all its components mashed onto a circuit board, much like Raspberry Pi. The board is targeted at enthusiasts looki
  
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• BrandPost: CIO Interview with Mike Cruz, Vice President of Engineering of Trunk Club

  05-05-2016 21:48
  
  Technology Gets Personal with Trunk ClubTrunk Club is one of the few Web 2.0 startups focused on physical goods as old fashioned as clothing. Tech leader Mike Cruz shares how it stays innovative, particularly as it transitions into its acquisition by Nordstrom.What is your main focus as Trunk Club Vice President of Engineering? My role is to make sure our organization is innovative and productive. Some of the biggest questions are, ‘How do you bring tech to the table with a tactile busines
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Look at how marketers tell stories with compelling data visualizations

  05-05-2016 21:37
  
  Storytelling has always been a critically important skill for marketers. However, as content strategies have changed over time, it’s become increasingly challenging for marketers to tell clear and compelling stories that resonate with their target audience.
  This is especially true when you look at the influx of data in the industry.5 Tips for effective data storytellingAlmost every modern organization understands the value of collecting and analyzing data. With the incredible amount of at
  
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• BrandPost: The State of the Cloud

  05-05-2016 21:10
  To take advantage of everything that the cloud has to offer, it’s important to stay on top of the industry trends that are driving and prioritizing its adoption. Technology is always changing, and cloud computing is no different. So what does the future hold for cloud adoption according to your industry peers? Recently, we worked with the world's leading IT research company, IDG, and asked IT decision maker’s three questions about the impact of cloud computing in correlation with the
  
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• What do you get when you cross Star Wars and famous art? This algorithm can show you

  05-05-2016 21:00
  
  Artificial intelligence has been dabbling in art to increasing acclaim over the past few months, but a new study brings its uncanny proficiency to the far-more-complicated world of video.Specifically, researchers have now found a way to apply the style of famous artists to entire videos, meaning that you can now watch Star Wars presented with your favorite artist's touch.Researchers in the University of Freiburg's department of computer science tapped deep neural networks to accomplish their tas
  
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• BrandPost: The Evolution of Data Processing Frameworks and Using the Right Tool for the Right Job

  05-05-2016 20:58
  
  Almost every enterprise customer we engage with in our Customer Solution Centers is embarking on their journey towards using data analytics to optimize the things they already do or to transform their organizations by extracting previously buried insights from their data. The common tools of the past included Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) commanded by using Structured Query Language (SQL), and these are still very much in-use today where they still fit. Over the last decade we&r
  
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• BrandPost: Forrester Study Supports the Business Case for Hadoop

  05-05-2016 20:49
  
  Savvy organizations realize that business value is buried in mountains of data. At the same time, industry disruptors recognize the key to innovation often lies in the Open Source community. When those two streams intersect, as they did 10 years ago, you get Hadoop. The Hadoop platform serves as the centerpiece of many big data projects because of its massive scale, ability to take all data types and affordability—it does not require a pile of money to build.As affordable and powerful as H
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Preparing for the technology executive interview: the right way vs. the wrong way

  05-05-2016 20:45
  Far too many of us approach job interviews with the wrong mindset. I should know. I’ve conducted thousands of interview preparation sessions with technology and global markets executives during my 20 plus years in retained executive search and coaching. Self-sabotage during an interview?
  I used to assume that the polished executive sitting in front of me with the killer resume didn't need any interview guidance, other than a few insights into the personalities of the hiring manager an
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why service level agreements are dead

  05-05-2016 20:00
  
  If you’re like many CIOs, the chances are your company compensates third-party IT service providers for something they didn’t do or pays them twice for something. Technology leader Nipa Chakravarti realized that’s what was happening at TransAlta (Canada’s largest publicly traded power generator and provider of renewable energy). I recently talked with Nipa, and she made an interesting comment: “I want to move away from SLA-driven contracts.”
  As Nipa explained
  
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• 5 products Intel could cut in its reshuffle

  05-05-2016 19:44
  
  Intel had some wild product ideas that were duds, like the OnCue TV streaming service, WiMax, and smartphone chips. Now, more products are likely to be axed as the company looks to a post-PC world.The chipmaker promised last month to review and cut some products as part of a restructuring plan that included laying off 12,000 employees. The Atom smartphone chips were the first to go while Intel redirects resources to profitable products in areas like servers, 5G connectivity, gamin
  
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• 10 companies that can help you fight phishing

  05-05-2016 19:00
  
  According to the most recent Verizon data breach report, a phishing email is often the first phase of an attack. That's because it works well, with 30 percent of phishing messages opened, but only 3 percent reported to management.
  But when employees are trained on how to spot phishing emails, and then get tested with mock phishing emails, the percent who fall victim decreases with each round.
  Of course, it's impossible to get to a zero response rate. The criminals are becoming extremely clever
  
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• Analytics comes to IT service management

  05-05-2016 18:41
  
  To help the IT function better understand the data it generates, real-time IT management specialist ManageEngine today took the wraps off its new self-service IT analytics solution, Analytics Plus.
  "One of the things that we've realized and our customers have realized is that, ironically, as big data has become a major talking point and major point of interest for customers, IT has lagged in that area in terms of using analytics solutions to better understand and optimize IT management," says R
  
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• Wearables etiquette in the workplace

  05-05-2016 17:52
  
  The days of leaving your phone in your car when heading into a job interview or making a big show of turning your phone off in front of your colleagues at the start of a meeting may come to an end when your phone is also your watch.
  Will etiquette rules need to be adjusted once we all start using wearable technologies? Maybe not -- maybe we just have to remember to follow the old rules. After all, even the current generation of mobile devices is causing many of us to forget our manners.
  "As tec
  
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• Tech groups call on presidential candidates to support encryption, embrace other IT issues

  05-05-2016 17:48
  
  U.S. presidential candidates should embrace encryption and narrow government access to Internet users' data as part of a comprehensive technology agenda, IT trade groups say.While the FBI and some lawmakers have pushed in recent months for encryption workarounds in criminal investigations, presidential candidates should "recognize encryption as a critical security tool," 13 tech trade organizations said in a set of tech policy recommendations released late Wednesday.By narrowly targeting go
  
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• Windows 10 adoption hits 300 million as Microsoft warns the free upgrade will end soon

  05-05-2016 17:45
  
  Microsoft says that 300 million devices now run Windows 10. And if yours isn’t among them, time is running out.
  On Thursday, Microsoft began showing potential customers of Windows 10 the carrot as well as the stick, touting Windows 10’s success but also warning that the free upgrade offer would expire in a couple of months. If consumers don’t upgrade their PCs from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 by July 29, Microsoft will charge $119 for a copy of Windows 10 Home when they eventuall
  
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• Cisco patch stops attackers from taking over TelePresence systems

  05-05-2016 17:34
  
  Cisco Systems has fixed a critical vulnerability that could allow attackers to take over TelePresence systems,  and patched other high-severity flaws in Cisco FirePOWER and Adaptive Security Appliance devices.
  The TelePresence software vulnerability stems from an improper authentication mechanism for the XML application programming interface (API). Attackers could exploit it by sending crafted HTTP requests to the XML API in order to bypass authentication and execute unauthorized configura
  
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• Cloud consequences: JP Morgan calls time on IT-as-usual

  05-05-2016 16:19
  
  A couple of weeks ago, JP Morgan released a report called “CIO Survey Foreshadows Changing of the Guard,” based on a survey of senior IT leaders from large enterprises. The report received a few days of notoriety with, rather unusually, discussion in both the technical and financial press.
  The headlines mostly focused on the survey’s finding that, while these IT organizations currently run around 16 percent of their workloads in public cloud environments, in five years that nu
  
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• ServiceNow CreatorCon for Kids

  05-05-2016 16:00
  
  SPARK Programming and ServiceNow are coming to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and Linium is pleased to sponsor this creative event for kids!  CreatorCon for Kids 16 brings together the next generation of developers with a 2-hour introductory class for kids ages 8 to 17. During this complimentary session, kids will build a working version of an 8-bit arcade game.  
  
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• It’s time for CIOs to be innovation leaders

  05-05-2016 15:50
  
  It’s not a new assertion that CIOs occupy a position that affords them vision across the entire enterprise. What is new is how important to the future of business (and to the CIO role) that enterprise-wide perspective is becoming. I see it as the key to unlocking innovation leadership. And I believe it will differentiate CIOs and render them indispensable in the era of business transformation.The CIO’s silo-bridging perspective is like the Force in the Star Wars mythos—an energ
  
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• Online advertising has a dark side, but IT can shed some light

  05-05-2016 15:49
  
  The Marketing department’s new digital advertising program doubled traffic to the company website. Great news — except that there was no corresponding bump in sales revenue. Once that fact became clear, the CEO asked the CIO to get involved.
  This all happened at a company I have worked with, but it’s not all that unusual. The truth is that there are many ways that online numbers can be inflated that have nothing to do with real people looking at actual ads or content. In this
  
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• 50% off Anker Portable Charger PowerCore - Deal Alert

  05-05-2016 15:46
  
  The powerful 20000mAh PowerCore 20100 from Anker weighs just 12.5 oz, but fully charges most phones and tablets to 100% several times over without needing to be recharged. It charges the iPhone 6s seven times, the Galaxy S6 five times or the iPad mini 4 twice. Industry leading output of 4.8 amps provides enough power to simultaneously charge any combination of devices at full speed. Surge protection, short circuit protection and more advanced safety features keep your devices safe. For additiona
  
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• Getting rejected but not disrespected

  05-05-2016 15:24
  
  Last week, I complained about the complete lack of feedback in the interviewing and hiring process? Well, here's an example of how to get it right.
  Last week -- shortly after my blog on that topic posted, in fact -- my husband received another rejection. But this time, the blow was softened because the company took the time to explain why they weren't "moving forward" with his candidacy. They gave him feedback on exactly how and why he did and didn't fit their notion of an ideal candidate.To beg
  
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• Box launches a product just for government users

  05-05-2016 15:00
  
  Box is launching a new offering aimed squarely at government customers in an attempt to get more public agencies to use its file storage and collaboration service.On Thursday, the company launched Box for Government, designed to make it easier for government organizations to deploy Box for their employees. That announcement was timed with Box receiving provisional authority to operate under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management program (better known as FedRAMP), a sign that the comp
  
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• BrandPost: Microsoft Software A Time to Deploy and a Time to Migrate

  05-05-2016 14:39
  Make sure strategy—not panic—is driving your migration. There is no better time to upgrade your Microsoft environment than today. The decision is easy, but executing can be a challenge.  By keeping business strategy at the top of your objectives, you can assure best chance of best outcomes. They say there is an appointed time for everything, and that includes your software. At some point you will have to migrate to newer, more powerful, flexible and secure—and perhaps
  
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• Cyber insurance can be your worst nightmare, best friend

  05-05-2016 14:38
  
  LAS VEGAS -- Cyber insurance can pay out millions of dollars to cover the cost of data breach liability, but buying the policies can be a nightmare for info security pros, and premiums for similar coverage can vary wildly, an Interop audience was told.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• U.S. carriers near bottom of wireless network performance list

  05-05-2016 14:30
  
  U.S. wireless customers generally pay more for cellular service than consumers in other developed countries. However, a just released survey of mobile app performance on wireless networks in seven countries, from real-time mobile app monitoring company Apteligent, indicates that the heavy investment in network enhancements made by the four major U.S. wireless carriers during the past years hasn't translated into speeds, availability or reliability that's on par with several Canadian an
  
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• Why Apple's awkward approach to enterprise is paying off

  05-05-2016 14:00
  
  Apple's credibility in the enterprise has never been stronger. During the 22 months since the company inked a once unthinkable alliance with IBM, Apple turned a corner with IT professionals by simply extending its established strengths in consumer user experience, interface design and hardware to the market, which it hasn't historically prioritized."To a certain degree it's one of those successful partnerships that's a well-kept secret," says Van Baker, research vice president at Gartner. Both c
  
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• Are you ready for peak hiring season?

  05-05-2016 13:56
  
  It's (almost) summertime and the hiring's easy -- or, at least, it's easier in May, June and July than at other times of the year, according to internal data from recruiting and hiring software platform Smart Recruiters.
  Turn up the heatSmartRecruiters polled 700 companies and approximately 100,000 employees and gathered data between January 2015 and January 2016. They found May, June and July were the most strategic hiring times for companies, because those months offered the highest number of
  
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• DDoS costs, damages on the rise

  05-05-2016 13:28
  
  Peak-time distributed denial-of-service attacks cost organizations more than $100,000 per hour, said half of the respondents to a new survey of mid-sized and large corporations in the U.S. and Europe.
  And for a third of respondents, the average peak hourly revenue loss was more than $250,000.
  However, shutting down attacks took time. Only 26 percent said it took them less than an hour, while 33 percent said it took between one and two hours, and 40 percent said it took more than three hours.MOR
  
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• How Hilton delivers greater convenience to hotel guests

  05-05-2016 13:24
  
  The modern travel experience involves much hassle and aggravation. There are endless security procedures, delayed flights and the discomfort of jet lag. After all that, who wants to stand in a long line waiting to check in at a hotel?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Who is a target for ransomware?

  05-05-2016 13:21
  
  Target on youImage by Andreas DantzAccording to the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, ransomware campaigns only care about the payout rather than the individual target. Ransomware, whether purchased or developed, is relatively cheap and delivery is virtually free.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 8 challenges affecting software project management

  05-05-2016 13:15
  
  Managing projects of all sizes and levels of complexities is part of business, regardless of what vertical industry you’re talking about. Software development is no different. New in-house software development and implementations, infrastructure related projects, enhancements or upgrades, and the increasing development of web-based solutions and mobile apps are a constant within the software industry.The software industry is in an endless and rapid state of flux, influenced greatly by the
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Cybersecurity and the Black Swan event

  05-05-2016 13:09
  
  With all of the resources dedicated to preventing cybersecurity attacks are banks still vulnerable to a Black Swan event? Are they focusing on truly important things or just the most prolific? This is part two in a three part series. (9 mins)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• To go from IT to IoT, build on your skills

  05-05-2016 13:00
  
  The Internet of Things is growing so fast, it’s an obvious place to look for career growth.
  IoT is already a reality at 29 percent of enterprises, according to a Gartner survey taken late last year. Fourteen percent said they would implement it this year, and 64 percent said they plan to use some form of IoT eventually.
  Yet, like a lot of IoT technology, jobs in this vast field are still evolving out of what's been in place for years. Instead of aiming for a whole new job, the best strate
  
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• Smartphone camera shootout: Galaxy S7 vs. iPhone 6S

  05-05-2016 13:00
  
  Lately, we’ve been inundated by advertising from Apple and Samsung about how great the cameras are on their phones. On my walk to work, I see Apple’s ad touting the iPhone 6S’s ability to shoot billboard-worthy photography. And when I turn on the television, I see Samsung boasting about how well the Galaxy S7 shoots in the dark.
  While no phone compares to a good dedicated camera, these are two of the best shooters on the market. But how do they compare? That’s what
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Nilay Patel just doesn’t understand the Apple Watch

  05-05-2016 13:00
  In a recent post I vented some of my irritation with the Apple Watch whiners. These are the folks that grandly proclaim that the Apple Watch “doesn’t do anything useful” and that they “don’t need a watch” etc., etc.Bashing the Apple Watch has become a favorite past time of technology bloggers, and it's gotten to the point where it's become something of an epidemic. And now Nilay Patel has a post up at The Verge that complains about the Apple Watch being too sl
  
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• Simplivity attacks the ‘unbearable complexity’ of IT

  05-05-2016 12:35
  
  Hyperconvergence is a relatively new buzzword but Westborough, Mass.,-based Simplivity is already boasting of creating version 3.0 of this emerging IT model. In this installment of the IDG CEO Interview Series, Simplivity CEO Doron Kempel talked with IDG US Media Chief Content Officer John Gallant about how Simplivity’s OmniStack outperforms competitors like Nutanix and claims customers deploying workloads on Simplivity can save 22% to nearly 50% compared to running them on Amazon Web Ser
  
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• Report: CIOs face 'massive gap' in talent acquisition

  05-05-2016 12:15
  
  Only 11 percent of IT executives said they have a “robust” talent acquisition pipeline, according to a recent survey of 133 IT executives conducted by the CIO Executive Council (CEC). That’s a big problem in an increasingly competitive talent market, where corporate IT shops compete not only with each other for talent but also with cloud vendors and Silicon Valley.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• More PowerShell: Hash tables

  05-05-2016 12:00
  
  In this next installment of my ongoing PowerShell series, I want to focus on putting PowerShell objects to work for you. Let me warn you in advance, however: Put on your advanced thinking caps for this piece, especially if you are a non-programmer or non-developer and are used to pointing at things and clicking them once or twice to accomplish some tasks. I'm going to get abstract with you here but, as far as I know, there is no way around it.Using multiple properties with hash tablesTo read th
  
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• Kansas City gets 'smart': New streetcar line opens amid free public Wi-Fi zone

  05-05-2016 12:00
  
  Many smart city proponents speak in vast generalities. They talk about the ways that Internet of Things sensors and big data will improve life for citizens while conserving water and energy resources and reducing traffic congestion.
  Not so Bob Bennett, the recently installed chief innovation officer for Kansas City, Mo. He's a combination of CIO, city planner and futurist with a quick grasp of technical details about what smart city technology can do. Bennett arrived at his job just four months
  
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• Enterprise Node.js upgrade focuses on security

  05-05-2016 12:00
  
  NSolid, NodeSource's enterprise-grade Node.js platform, is upgrading security and monitoring with version 1.3 this week.
  The runtime meets three specific needs of enterprise customers running the popular server-side JavaScript platform: runtime-integrated profiling, advanced monitoring capabilities at scale, and enhanced security controls and vulnerability awareness. First introduced last September, NSolid "includes functionality critical to the enterprise that's not available in vanilla Node.j
  
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• 13 fabulous frameworks for Node.js

  05-05-2016 12:00
  
  13 fabulous Node.js frameworksNode.js may be several years old now, but it's still in the spring of its life. The options are multiplying, as everyone experiments with new and better ways to deliver information from the platform. These efforts translate into dozens of frameworks for Node.js enthusiasts and newbies to explore, and new growth everywhere.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• FAA setting up advisory panel on drones led by Intel CEO

  05-05-2016 09:41
  
  The Federal Aviation Administration is setting up an advisory committee, led by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, to guide it on the integration of unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace.The formation of the committee could link to plans by the FAA to finalize much-awaited rules for the commercial operation of drones, which will likely pave the way for the widespread use of the airborne devices for deliveries and other applications by companies like Amazon.com and Google.“By late sprin
  
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• A Russian hacker gave away millions of email credentials for social media votes

  05-05-2016 02:08
  
  Tens of millions of stolen credentials for Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo email accounts are being shared online by a young Russian hacker known as "the Collector" as part of a supposed larger trove of 1.17 billion records.That's according to Hold Security, which says it has looked at more than 272 million unique credentials so far, including 42.5 million it had never seen before. A majority of the accounts reportedly were stolen from users of Mail.ru, Russia's most popular email service, but creden
  
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