IT Executive news

• Microsoft waives July's Windows 10 upgrade deadline for assistive-tech users

  09-05-2016 23:38
  
  While Microsoft may be sounding the alarm about the end of the free upgrade period for Windows 10, one group of users shouldn’t have to worry: those who use assistive technologies.
  Microsoft plans to end its one-year free upgrade program on July 29, after which Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users will have to pay for the privilege of using Windows 10. But that deadline will not apply to users of technologies designed for disabilities, Microsoft said in a blog post.
  “We are continuing to
  
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• 41% off HP OfficeJet Pro 8620 All-in-One Wireless Photo Printer - Deal Alert

  09-05-2016 22:41
  
  The OfficeJet Pro 8620 copies, scans, prints and faxes. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,100 people (read reviews).  With a regular list price of $299.99, the 8620 has been reduced by 41% to just $177.87.Easily print from anywhere using your phone or tablet (Airprint on iPhone or iPad). Speedy print speeds of 21 pages/minute black and white, or 16.5 pages/minute color. Also capable of borderless and double-sided printing. Save up to 50% on Ink with HP Instant Ink: o
  
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• FCC, FTC launch inquiry into smartphone security updates

  09-05-2016 22:16
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have opened parallel inquiries into the way smartphone security updates are issued and handled by major mobile carriers and device makers.The two agencies say they are responding to the growing amount of personal information held in smartphones and a recent rise in the attacks on the security of that information.The FCC has sent letters to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular asking for information on 
  
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• San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco pledge to go with 100% renewable energy

  09-05-2016 22:08
  
  Last year, San Diego's city council voted to commit the city to using 100% renewable energy by 2035.
  Last week, San Diego reiterated its pledge to renewable energy and other sustainable strategies, such as eliminating half of all greenhouse gas production, in a Climate Action Plan memorandum.Creative Commons Lic.A view of solar panels installed in 2011 on the roof of Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Headquarters in San Diego. The rooftop photovoltaic installation supports the Department
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 important announcements from day 1 of CoreOS Fest, Berlin

  09-05-2016 20:53
  
  CoreOS kicked off its first international CoreOS Fest today in Berlin, Germany with many significant announcements. Here are 6 of the things you need to know from day 1 of the event.Etcd 3 beta announced
  Etcd is a distributed key value store that provides a reliable way to store data across a cluster of machines. Etcd 3 uses a redesigned storage engine and next generation API that makes it faster and much more scalable that etcd 2. It can handle tens and thousands of requests per second, thanks
  
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• SIEM review: Splunk, ArcSight, LogRhythm and QRadar

  09-05-2016 20:47
  
  IT and security managers in the IT Central Station online community say that the most important characteristics of security information and event management (SIEM) products is the ability to combine information from several sources and the ability to do intelligent queries on that information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 things world-class achievers do nonstop

  09-05-2016 20:10
  
  Why do only a few make it to the top? What does it take to become a world-class achiever in your field of expertise?The other day, I was at a NBA playoffs game between Toronto and Miami. It was a spectacular match where the Toronto Raptors beat Miami Heat in overtime. The crowd went absolutely crazy. It was a sign that the players delivered: they won and they entertained. While I observed the game I tried to figure out what the three things are that top-talent professionals have, or do over and
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The 'business' in business intelligence: There’s NOT an app for that

  09-05-2016 19:43
  
  Ours is a society of technophiles. We readily adopt – and rely heavily upon – the software that powers our digital devices to entertain us, to make us more productive, to monitor our health, or to get us safely from Point A to Point B, and back again.With this passionate (some might say “frantic”) adoption of consumer technology, it is understandable that we are encouraged to believe that a compelling, easy-to-install, easy-to-configure software solution already exists to
  
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• Meet Viv, the new voice assistant from the creators of Siri

  09-05-2016 18:57
  Siri made the iPhone more responsive with artificial intelligence, but now its founders want to put AI in every device you own. Dag Kittlaus, who cofounded Siri, left Apple five years ago, but now he’s back with a new voice assistant named Viv that he predicts will change the way we interact with not just our phones, but our home appliances, cars, and more. Viv has gotten a lot of hype for a product that hasn’t shipped yet, but Kittlaus demoed Viv publicly for the first time at Tech
  
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• These graduate students had no idea their teaching assistant was a robot

  09-05-2016 18:49
  
  On the Internet, "nobody knows you're a dog," as the old meme goes, and today, the same can increasingly be said of robots.There are already scheduling robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans, and recently students at the Georgia Institute of Technology learned that "Jill Watson" -- a teaching assistant they had relied upon all semester -- was in fact artificially intelligent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Helicopter CIOs: stop micromanaging

  09-05-2016 18:23
  
  The term "helicopter parenting" (or its less appealing alternatives like "lawnmower parenting," "cosseting parent" or "bulldoze parenting”) describes parents involved in all aspects of their children's life, leaving kids no space for improvisation or independence... or in business terms: micromanaging!Now, typically, CIOs have developed and grown past the micromanagement issues, but sometimes we cannot stop ourselves from diving too deep into a topic, especially ones close to our heart, li
  
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• Bewust kiezen voor Web-scale Architecture

  09-05-2016 18:06
  Door Edwin van Wijk – Meer doen in minder tijd. Of het nu gaat om snel doorvoeren van wijzigingen met een korte time-to-market, aanpassen van applicaties op basis van de wensen van gebruikers of anticiperen op veranderingen in de markt; de IT-afdeling krijgt steeds minder tijd om wijzigingen door te voeren en... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: It would be madness for Apple to buy Netflix

  09-05-2016 17:35
  With the recent cratering of Apple’s stock price, armchair financial pundits are speculating that the company should be more aggressive in acquiring other companies to spur the company’s growth. At the top of the list of proposed companies is Netflix.I’ll share my thoughts below, but a recent post on Investopedia by Richard Saintvilus explored the idea of Apple buying Netflix:
  Shares of Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) have been under pressure, falling more than 13% over the past month, dr
  
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• Google tests black links in search results, and people freak out

  09-05-2016 16:45
  
  Google is considering a big visual shake-up for its search results that renders links in black instead of blue.
  Google has been testing black search result links internationally since Friday or Saturday, according to TheSEMPost. Previously visited links appear in a lighter shade of gray, rather than the current purple.
  It’s unclear whether Google will roll out black links to all users, but keep in mind the search giant routinely tests visual tweaks among a small percentage of its users. I
  
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• Microsoft Outlook for iOS, Android gets 3 useful calendar features

  09-05-2016 16:34
  
  Microsoft has been criticized in the past for stuffing too many features into its desktop software — more features than most users could possibly want. However, the company strikes a much better balance these days with mobile apps, as demonstrated by the latest version of its Outlook app.Outlook's new "calendar apps" feature, for example, adds compelling reasons to use the app: integration with Evernote, Wunderlist, and Facebook. You can now add Facebook birthdays and events to your Outloo
  
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• Bangladeshi police accuse SWIFT technicians of leaving central bank vulnerable to hack

  09-05-2016 16:16
  Technicians from the SWIFT global financial network connecting it to Bangladesh's central bank made it easier for hackers to attack the bank, Bangladeshi police and a bank official have told Reuters.The technicians worked on Bangladesh's Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, used to transfer money among Bangladeshi banks, three months before hackers attempted to steal US$951 million from the central bank. The work opened up "a lot of loopholes" in bank computer systems, said the head of the
  
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• Founder of Liberty Reserve virtual currency sentenced to 20 years in prison

  09-05-2016 16:01
  The founder of now defunct virtual currency Liberty Reserve has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using his company to run a huge money laundering scheme catering to cybercriminals.Arthur Budovsky, 42, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, with Judge Denise Cote also ordering him to pay a US $500,000 fine.In January, Budovsky pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.  During sentencing, Cote noted Budovsky
  
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• 4 tips to help switch marketing automation systems

  09-05-2016 15:34
  
  Switching from one marketing automation platform to another is a headache most organizations would probably rather avoid. Such transitions are often costly and can sap the motivation and morale of sales and marketing teams tasked with learning new programs. A change of providers can also delay brands' abilities to launch new campaigns, and it sometimes takes time to incorporate the appropriate data into the new systems.Despite those challenges, changes of marketing automation tech are often nece
  
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• Schiphol gaat netwerken vernieuwen

  09-05-2016 15:17
  De nationale luchthaven Schiphol gaat zijn core-, distributie- en datacenter-netwerken vernieuwen. Cisco gaat de apparatuur en de architectuur leveren en Vosko, dat al samenwerkt met de luchthaven, treedt op als implementatiepartner.De nieuwe netwerken, die flexibel en schaalbaar zullen zijn, vormen straks een... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Ones to watch: Influential women in open source

  09-05-2016 15:14
  
  The woman force in open sourceImage by daspunkt/flickrDon't let the technology gender gap fool you; there are many outstanding women in open source. Some founded companies, some are leading major projects and many are among the most interesting and influential figures in the open source world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Pausing on the PC death march

  09-05-2016 14:36
  
  I am a dinosaur.
  The reports of the impending death of the PC are not greatly exaggerated. The PC is yesterday’s technology, its demise hastened by smartphones, tablets and the cloud-computing services that make large-capacity computing devices unnecessary.
  But I am part of a shrinking minority, still doing most of my work on PCs. In my case, they are Linux-powered PCs, but that is not the point. I would still be a dinosaur if I used Mac OS X or Windows.
  You’ve probably seen the num
  
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• Is student loan assistance the next big thing in corporate recruiting?

  09-05-2016 13:51
  
  As of 2015, more than 40 million Americans had some kind of student loan debt. According to a survey from education finance portal iontuition of the 1,000 student-loan-debt-holders surveyed in July 2015, 80 percent say they'd appreciate it if their employers helped with repayment of their debt through a matching opportunity, much like a 401k. As businesses struggle to attract and retain talent, is student loan repayment assistance becoming a must-have benefit?[ Related story: Employers get creat
  
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• Oost-Europese developers verhogen werkethos in scrumteams

  09-05-2016 13:45
  Vanwege het tekort aan ontwikkelaars zoeken Nederlandse bedrijven in toenemende mate over de landsgrenzen. Wat daarbij opvalt, is dat scrumteams met developers uit Oost-Europa hier sterk in opkomst zijn. En deze ontwikkelteams hebben een verhoogd werkethos, stelt Huxley IT, recruitmentbureau voor IT-specialisten, dat... lees meer
  
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• Should you hire for bimodal IT?

  09-05-2016 13:37
  
  Modern IT departments are struggling to balance needing to innovate while also maintaining legacy systems to keep the business running smoothly. As a result, one popular answer, as proposed by Gartner, has been to shift to bimodal IT. The idea is that bimodal IT separates the department into two camps, one that focuses on a more traditional side of IT and another that invests in fast paced innovation. It's been hailed as the future of IT -- unless you talk to Forrester, that is. The research fir
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Gathering and managing software requirements for buying or building

  09-05-2016 13:11
  
  When considering new enterprise software, it is usually a good idea to start with an evaluation even if the outcome is a decision to build the software yourself. See my previous article: Why most enterprise software projects should start with an evaluation. This article considers using features from existing products to inspire the writing of requirements for either buying or building software. We conclude by mentioning several tools to manage those requirements.Requirements for buying
  
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• Can UC keep remote workers engaged?

  09-05-2016 12:50
  
  So you have a dispersed workforce. Maybe you're part of a big company with several offices. Or maybe your employer has a liberal work-from-home policy. Or perhaps you work with key contractors who may not always be in your office. Whatever the reason, you need unified communication (UC) technology. And so do a lot of other companies. But a recent study by IT consultancy Softchoice suggests that not many companies are getting the tools they need. Softchoice surveyed 250 IT managers and
  
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• 7 ways to prevent mobile break-in

  09-05-2016 12:48
  
  Looking over your shoulderImage by Louis OliveiraAs mobile devices continue to penetrate our society, mobile security is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Every mobile device, whether it’s a phone or a tablet, provides hackers with a new avenue to seize private information. We’ve seen many banks, hospitals, and other large organizations have enormous data breaches that caused a lot of damage and recovery time, and they don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. For
  
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• Why a smart contact lens is the ultimate wearable

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  Smart contact lenses sound like science fiction. But there's already a race to develop technology for the contact lenses of the future — ones that will give you super-human vision and will offer heads-up displays, video cameras, medical sensors and much more. In fact, these products are already being developed.
  Sounds unreal, right? But it turns out that eyeballs are the perfect place to put technology.
  Smart contact lenses are like implants but they don't require surgery and can usually
  
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• Tested: The $1500 Dell XPS 15 vs. the $1500 MacBook Pro 13

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  The fans have spoken. It wasn’t enough last year for me to compare Microsoft’s Surface Book to Apple’s MacBook Pro 13. Silly me, I figured a dual-core 13-inch laptop should go up against a dual-core 13-inch laptop. But nooooo, fans cried: For this to be a “fair fight,” I should have pitted the Surface Book against a MacBook Pro 15. 
  Normally, comparing the 4.5-pound, 15-inch, quad-core MacBook Pro 15 to the 3.3-pound, 13-inch, dual-core Sur
  
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• Review: HP Elite x2 is a combo tablet for the enterprise

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  One of the latest device types to hit the market is the 2-in-1 -- a tablet that, with the addition of a keyboard, becomes a full-fledged computer. This isn't a new idea -- there have been Bluetooth keyboards available for tablets practically ever since "tablet" became a tech term. And there have been tablets that came with attachable keyboards as well. But now it looks like the category has matured to the point that the 2-in-1 is seen as a possible computer substitute, especially for people who
  
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• Newspaper chain sending IT jobs overseas

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  The McClatchy Company, which operates a major chain of newspapers in the U.S., is moving IT work overseas.The number of affected jobs, based on employee estimates, range from 120 to 150.The chain owns about 30 newspapers, including The Sacramento Bee, where McClatchy is based; The Fresno Bee, The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., The State in Columbia, S.C. and the Miami Herald.In March, McClatchy IT employees were told that the company had signed a contract with Wipro, an India-based IT ser
  
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• First look: Microsoft’s API mashup tool for the rest of us

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  Not all cloud applications need to be cloud-scale. They’re often simple routing and switching apps that take information from one source, process it minimally, then pass it on. That’s where tools like IFTTT and Yahoo Pipes came into play, allowing you to quickly build and share information flows that linked one service to another. Sadly, Yahoo Pipes has been shut down, and IFTTT has concentrated on simple links to the Internet of things.
  That means there’s space in the market
  
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• 5 free/low-cost Wi-Fi analyzers for Windows 10

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  Inexpensive appsWe’ve reviewed Wi-Fi analyzers that run on Android, Windows, and Mac OS X devices. These apps allow you to analyze the wireless access points and channels on the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. Now we’re reviewing apps, published as Universal Windows Platform apps on the Microsoft Store, that run on Windows 10 PCs, tablets and phones. The Wi-Fi features that developers can utilize in the Universal Windows Platform are still pretty limited. But these apps are inexpensive and/or fr
  
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• 20 fixes for a Windows 10 update meltdown

  09-05-2016 12:00
  
  If you’re having problems with Windows 10’s forced updates, you’re not alone. Thankfully, with 11 cumulative updates behind us, we’ve accumulated some coping experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Twitter blocks access to analytics around its data for US intelligence agencies

  09-05-2016 07:02
  Twitter has blocked Dataminr from offering analytics around real-time tweets from the social networking site to U.S. intelligence agencies, according to a newspaper report.The social networking company, which provides Dataminr with real-time access to public tweets, seems to be trying to distance itself from appearing to aid government surveillance, a controversial issue after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the government was collecting information on use
  
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