IT Executive news

• Tested: The physical effects of low-end VR hardware

  11-08-2016 23:40
  
  It’s widely believed that a satisfying VR experience requires a steady 90 frames per second, and that dropping even a single frame below that threshold can cause nausea— forcing you to spew chunks.
  To find out if that’s really true, I decided to test it. For my high-end control hardware, I used an AVA Direct Exemplar 2 box. This PC doesn’t just meet the specs for VR, it exceeds them with a GeForce GTX 1080, 64GB of DDR4, and an overclocked Core i7-6700K. Indeed, AVA
  
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• 24% off Acer Chromebook 15 CB5-571-C1DZ (15.6-Inch Full HD IPS, 4GB RAM, 16GB SSD) - Deal Alert

  11-08-2016 23:30
  
  Acer's 15.6-inch Full HD Chromebook allows you to see more, do more and explore more than ever before. With a 27% larger screen area than the 13.3-inch Chromebook, and a 24% larger screen than a 14-inch Chromebook means more content can be shown and less scrolling and productivity tools such as Excel are easier to interact with.  The display is bright and crisp with a 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution with wide viewing angle display, allowing you to share content simply and easily with th
  
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• 32% off Pulse Solo Dimmable LED Light with Dual Channel Bluetooth Speakers - Deal Alert

  11-08-2016 22:43
  
  Pulse Solo is the world's first LED light with dual speakers in one bulb. Pulse Solo combines the energy efficiency of a dimmable LED light with the high-quality audio of JBL Bluetooth speakers. Setup is easy, twist the Pulse Solo into any standard light socket, and adjust both lighting and sound from any Bluetooth enabled iOS or Android device. Experience the soaring highs and the rich stereo sound of JBL combined with warm, dimmable lighting, without the fuss of speaker wires, power cord
  
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• Amazon Kinesis Analytics lets devs analyze real-time data with SQL

  11-08-2016 22:33
  
  Amazon launched a new tool on Thursday aimed at helping developers build applications that offer insights from a firehose of data in real time. Kinesis Analytics will let users set up SQL queries that run on data that's constantly updating, expanding the reach of the popular data analysis language beyond traditional database applications. Once a user has set up a Kinesis Analytics stream, the results can then be routed to up to four different services, including Amazon S3, Redshift, and Ela
  
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• AMD turns back to x86 for server reboot as it downgrades ARM

  11-08-2016 22:29
  
  AMD's move three years ago to rely on ARM for server chips is turning out to be a big mistake.The company is putting its faith back in x86 chips as it seeks a reboot in servers, a market in which the company was once a big player. Riddled with chip delays and abandoned projects, AMD has downgraded ARM in its server strategy.Instead of ARM-based servers, AMD is relying again on x86 chips, this time based on the promising Zen architecture, to take market share from Intel.AMD shipped its first ARM-
  
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• Microsoft relents on shorter Windows 7 support decree

  11-08-2016 20:59
  
  Microsoft today repudiated an early retirement date for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 support, saying that it will patch those operating systems on PCs running Intel's Skylake silicon until 2020 and 2023, respectively.
  The move was a complete rollback of a January degree that Microsoft called a "clarification" of its support policy. Under the January plan, Microsoft would have ended most support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on July 17, 2017, if the operating systems were powering machines equipped
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The four P's of analytics

  11-08-2016 20:55
  
  Few fields change as fast as digital. New channels, new methods, new business models — and all of it demands new methods of measurement and analytics. As new technologies and practices disrupt the field, digital analytics practitioners adapt. In any given year, a few themes dominate, and right now, the topics dominating discussion at the enterprise digital analytics table are four P’s: prioritization, personalization, people and perspective.PrioritizationAnalysts face a supply and d
  
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• BrandPost: Oracle’s Acquisition of NetSuite: 4 Considerations to Keep in Mind

  11-08-2016 20:48
  
  On the heels of Oracle’s announcement of intent to buy NetSuite for $9.3 billion, analysts are weighing in with varying opinions on what this means to Oracle and the ERP market. At the end of the day, this acquisition is about buying market share, adding NetSuite’s recurring cloud revenue, and jockeying for position in the well-publicized race to be the first $10 billion cloud company. Here are four things to keep in mind as a result of this acquisition:1. Oracle Couldn’t Crack
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Are you getting the full benefit of DevOps?

  11-08-2016 20:30
  
  DevOps enables IT departments to meet the business stakeholders’ demands for faster cycle time. But it’s causing enterprises to rethink where their talent should be located. As DevOps adoption grows, we hear two important questions: (1) how can we do DevOps in a distributed model, and (2) should we do DevOps in a distributed model?DevOps presents major implications to the enterprise IT ecosystem, including shared services and service providers. The components and tools of DevOps (the
  
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• Google nixes Flash, embraces HTML5 in Chrome browser

  11-08-2016 20:21
  
  Adobe's Flash Player, a stalwart technology for rich Internet media applications for years, continues to lose its prominence, with Google set to designate HTML5 as the preferred option in its Chrome browser.
  In December, Chrome 55 will make HTML5 the browser's default experience, except with sites that only support Flash. Google says that HTML5, often seen as the industry-standard replacement for proprietary technology like Flash, will give performance benefits.[ The art of programming is chang
  
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• Microsoft buys Beam's livestreaming tech to grab a chunk of the e-sports market

  11-08-2016 20:00
  
  Microsoft said Thursday that it has acquired Beam, a livestreaming service that also allows users to collectively control and affect gameplay as it happens.
  Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Beam will become part of Microsoft’s Xbox team, Matt Salsamendi, the founder of Beam, wrote in a blog post. 
  Livestreaming video across YouTube has become a cottage industry in itself, as streamers discuss a variety of topics including fashion, sports, and technology. Streaming
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 4 traits of top leaders in tech

  11-08-2016 19:57
  
  The role of technology leaders has evolved as organizations continue to embrace the competitive advantages tech initiatives can bring to their organizations.While innovation and problem solving are vitally important skills, there are other traits that consistently appear in top tech leaders that are worth adopting. Here are four attributes I think every successful tech leader should possess:1. They’re decisive. The speed of business is moving at an incredible rate. While some decisions mus
  
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• This new R extension gives data scientists quick access to IBM's Watson

  11-08-2016 19:49
  
  Data scientists have a lot of tools at their disposal, but not all of them are equally accessible. Aiming to put IBM's Watson AI within closer reach, analytics firm Columbus Collaboratory on Thursday released a new open-source R extension called CognizeR.R is an open-source language that's widely used by data scientists for statistical and analytics applications. Previously, data scientists would have had to exit R to tap Watson's capabilities, coding the calls to Watson's application programmin
  
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• Intel's new Atom chips for cars and IoT could shed ugly mobile past

  11-08-2016 19:44
  
  Intel's Atom chips are on their way out of mobile devices, and the next generation of the chip line will instead be targeted toward drones, self-driving cars, and IoT devices.The new Atom chips will retain the line's focus on low power consumption, with an emphasis on graphics and visual computing. The chip line, to be announced next week at Intel Developer Forum, will be used to maneuver cars, drones, and robots and to also help them recognize objects.Many Atom mobile and server chips have been
  
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• Four free tools for handling Amazon Web Services security incident response

  11-08-2016 19:22
  
  Responding to security incidents that involve deployments within Amazon Web Services is a lot different from responding to incidents that happen on corporate-owned gear, and two researchers have come up with free tools to make that process easier.
  Obtaining forensic evidence is different, primarily because security pros can’t obtain physical access to the machines on which their AWS instances are running.
  +More on Network World: Black Hat: 9 free security tools for defense & attacking
  
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• Open vSwitch finds new home at the Linux Foundation

  11-08-2016 19:08
  
  The developers of open source virtual networking technology Open vSwitch (OVS) said this week they will move future development to the Linux Foundation Project.
  The move releases Open vSwitch, which usually runs on hypervisors, up to a greater number of developers who can use it to further develop tools and applications for the virtual networking world. OVS works on a wide variety of systems, including Linux, DPDK, Hyper-V, and FreeBSD. The technology is used in a variety of Software Defined Ne
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Open source and saving the earth from asteroids

  11-08-2016 19:08
  
  Holberton School is a Silicon Valley-based computer training school that trains students to be full-stack software engineers and sees itself as an alternative to traditional 4-year college. Julien Barbier, co-founder and CEO of the newly formed school said that “traditional schools are great at teaching theory, but students don't get much hands-on training. And, in the process, students spend almost fours years in college just to learn theory. When they go out to find jobs, companies that
  
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• CoreOS updates Kubernetes stack for enterprises

  11-08-2016 19:00
  
  Tectonic, CoreOS's soup-to-nuts infrastructure platform for running containers, is getting upgraded with a revamped management console and improved scaling.
  With Tectonic, CoreOS provides an enterprise CoreOS Linux and Kubernetes container management stack featuring a management console, SSO integration, and the Quay container registry. Tectonic 1.3, released Thursday, features an upgraded console for managing users, groups, and LDAP directories. The Tectonic look and feel has been enhanced ove
  
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• Open source R extension simplifies data science with IBM Watson

  11-08-2016 18:56
  
  With the release of CognizeR, an open source extension for the statistical computing-focused R programming language, Columbus Collaboratory is aiming to simplify data science with IBM Watson."Our goal was to connect data scientists everywhere with cognitive computing in a software environment they already know and love: R," Ty Henkaline, chief analytics innovator at Columbus Collaboratory, said in a statement yesterday. "CognizeR now shortens the journey toward building real cognitive solutions
  
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• 66% off CrossOver, and Run Windows Apps On Your Mac - Deal Alert

  11-08-2016 18:54
  
  It’s no secret that Windows, Mac, and Linux are the three major operating systems dominating the market today—and that their incompatibility often creates issues for users. For the inevitable moments when you need to use a Windows app on your Linux or Mac, there’s CrossOver 15 for Mac and Linux, now only $19.99.With CrossOver 15, you can launch Windows apps, from productivity software to games, natively on your Mac or Linux PC. You’ll be able to operate Windows software a
  
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• Snowden and Huang hope to help smartphones go dark

  11-08-2016 18:53
  
  “Privacy is dead,” has been a mantra, for different reasons, for generations. In the cybersecurity community, it has been conventional wisdom for at least a decade. But Edward Snowden and Andrew “bunnie” Huang apparently think they can revive it a bit, at least if you own an iPhone 6.
  Their goal, they say in a white paper titled, “Against the Law – Countering Lawful Abuses of Digital Surveillance,” is to create an add-on hardware component that wil
  
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• BrandPost: The Top Challenges Of Cloud Adoption And Optimization You Must Plan For

  11-08-2016 18:30
  
  Cloud continues to be a game-changer for organizations — increasing business agility, boosting flexibility and improving performance.  According to the 2015 IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study, 25 percent of total IT budgets will be allocated to cloud computing in 2016.And investment in cloud is growing, with 31 percent investing significantly in SaaS today and 49 percent expecting to do so over the next three years, according to the 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey The Creative CIO.
  
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• Android, iOS bug bounty biz is booming

  11-08-2016 17:51
  
  If you're not a hacker pounding away on Android or iOS for security flaws, you may be in the wrong profession — at least if you appreciate a nice stack of Benjamins.A single verified zero-day vulnerability in iOS could net you a cool half mil from security firm Exodus Intelligence. That's 150 percent more moola than the $200,000 amount Apple last week said it would offer for proven critical vulnerabilities. Apple also said it would double that amount if recipients donate the cash to charit
  
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• Tech giants aren't as innovative as you think

  11-08-2016 17:24
  
  Many titans of technology today have well-known reputations of being innovative and creative. However, new research based on the experiences of employees who work at these firms suggests external perceptions may not represent reality. 
  Facebook, for example, doesn't prioritize creativity in the workplace as well as its peers, and Microsoft is more specific than Facebook and Google when it looks for certain traits in employees, according a report from Good&Co, a firm that surveys profes
  
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• How well does social engineering work? One test returned 150%

  11-08-2016 17:24
  
  White hat hackers see companies at their worst.  It is, after all, their job to expose weaknesses. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently chatted with penetration testing expert Josh Berry, Senior Technology Manager at Accudata Systems, an IT consulting and integration firm based in Houston, to learn more about the attack techniques he encounters and what he advises clients do to fight back.
  Josh Berry, Senior Technology Manager, Accudata SystemsTo read this article in f
  
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• Anatomy of a service outage: How did we get here?

  11-08-2016 16:31
  
  Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not promote a product or service and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.
  As euphemisms go, it's hard to beat the term “service outage” as used by IT departments. While it sounds benign -- something stopped working but tech teams will soon restore order -- anyone familiar with the reality knows the term really means “Huge hit to bottom line.”
  A quick perusal of the tech news will confirm this. Delta A
  
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• HP's affordable Stream laptops upgraded for fresh fight against Chromebooks

  11-08-2016 16:06
  
  Round two: fight! HP announced a refresh of its Stream notebooks, a budget-priced line of Windows 10 laptops that were originally seen as Microsoftian alternatives to Chromebooks.  
  The latest Stream refresh includes an updated version of the classic 11.6-inch notebook and its “x360” convertible variant, as well the return of the 14-inch Stream.
  For the 2016-2017 lineup, HP is adding dual-antenna 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi for better connectivity. The new Streams also have four color o
  
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• How to get started with a private Windows Store for Business

  11-08-2016 15:29
  
  The Windows Store for Business is a counterpart to the consumer Windows Store so familiar to home users. That means you can find the same universal Windows Platform apps in both stores. One difference is that the Store for Business works only with devices running Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile, where the consumer Windows Store supports devices running Windows 8 and 8.1 as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Taking stock of Apple's 2016 acquisitions

  11-08-2016 15:04
  
  Apple’s acquisition this past week of Turi, a Seattle machine learning company that has its roots in the open source GraphLab project, brings to six the number of deals Apple has made this year that have gone public. So while Apple’s $2.5 billion in R&D spending during its recently completed second quarter represented a 25% increase over the year-ago period and indicates that Apple is building plenty of futuristic technology in-house, the company continues to buy startups at rou
  
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• 9 things great project leaders do every day

  11-08-2016 15:02
  
  Great project leaders make waves Image by ThinkstockMaking waves shouldn't be confused with making trouble or making problems, as it is often seen. Great change can only come about when project leaders remain in a constant and conscious state of continuous improvement. They make waves by performing the following tasks and services.
  Consistently identifying and discussing process improvementsContinually looking to reinforce best practicesRemaining transparent about problems as they arise with spo
  
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• Domestic violence is a workplace issue

  11-08-2016 14:51
  
  Being in an abusive relationship isn't something you plan on. In fact, sometimes you don't even realize that's what's happened to you until you wake up in your car in a train station parking lot, covered in bruises and dried blood (from where your teeth cut the inside of your lip after you failed to dodge a wild punch) praying you don't have a black eye and that no one will notice you're wearing the same thing you wore to work yesterday.Thank goodness you ran out when you did, even if you had to
  
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• How ISPs get away with shiesty internet speed claims

  11-08-2016 14:46
  
  When you buy a new car, a sticker on the window tells you how many miles per gallon it gets. It's not a perfect measure, but automakers can't just make wildly-inflated mileage claims because the U.S. Department of Transportation checks the stickers. However, when ISPs make claims in advertisements about their upload or downloads speeds, consumers must take them on faith. And in many cases, those consumers won't ever see the speeds they're promised.Case in point: Comcast, the ISP and cable giant,
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 mistakes you can save your new managers from making

  11-08-2016 14:22
  
  Congratulations! You’ve just promoted a member of your team. They've worked hard to achieve this new position, but have you thought about what this means? Have you considered what new skills they might need to learn or new behaviors they now need to demonstrate?Don't assume that your new manager knows what they need to start doing, or stop doing, at this new career level. When it comes to success in a new role the statistics are not pretty, research and articles consistently report th
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Mac gaming: Fun with the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera in World of Warcraft

  11-08-2016 14:00
  Selfies have become an established staple use of cameras in mobile phones over the last ten years or so. But taking selfies of your real self gets a little boring after a while, unless you are a total narcissist.But if you’re a Mac gamer who plays World of Warcraft, you can actually get the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera that lets you take selfies of your WOW characters right in the game. I just got the camera recently, and it’s been a lot of fun.At first I thought it was just another silly mis
  
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• CIOs express mixed emotions on Apple’s enterprise evolution

  11-08-2016 14:00
  
  Apple's interest in the enterprise hasn't always been obvious. And though the company changed its ways to some extent during the past few years, it still prefers to let its devices and services act as its entryway into enterprise. Many IT leaders would like to see Apple focus more on the business market, but they also understand the company may never act like a traditional enterprise vendor. Apple's business partnerships with Cisco, IBM and SAP are well-publicized, but those deals are the e
  
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• Samsung both denies and admits mobile payment vulnerability

  11-08-2016 13:47
  
  Security researcher Salvador Mendoza demonstrated a flaw in Samsung Pay at Black Hat last week, in which the tokens used to secure transactions could be predicted, and used to authorize fraudulent payments.
  Samsung responded with a statement calling the report "simply not true."
  "Samsung Pay is safe, secure and consumers can be assured that there is no known risk associated to using our payment service," the company said.
  But then, in a separate, more detailed document, Samsung admitted that it
  
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• 10 must-have Android apps to make your Chromebook more useful

  11-08-2016 13:00
  
  The right apps make your Chromebook indespensibleImage by Ryan WhitwamEver since Google introduced Chrome OS on the CR-48 prototype laptop back in 2011, Chromebooks have relied on web apps and simple Chrome extensions to get things done. Now, Chromebooks are getting access to the Play Store with heaps of Android apps. Not all of them work well on Chromebooks, and others don't really add to the experience, but some of them can give your Chromebook a big boost. We tested dozens of popular apps on
  
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• 6 shocking gaps in your data security strategy

  11-08-2016 12:26
  
  Crumbling wallsImage by Steve TraynorDespite billions of dollars invested in cybersecurity, businesses lose critical data daily. We’ve secured our organizations like fortresses, building layers of walls around networks, applications, storage containers, identity, and devices. But when an unhappy employee moves high-value designs onto a USB drive or sends important email attachment outside the “secure” network, those walls crumble the moment we need them the most.To read this ar
  
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• IT employment dips in July, but tech sector sees a gain

  11-08-2016 12:01
  
  In industries such as finance, retail, healthcare and others, IT employment broadly declined in July by 88,000 jobs, or 1.9%, according to tech industry trade group CompTIA.
  The cuts last month reduced occupational IT employment by 46,000 jobs so far this year, to about 4.43 million.
  That sounds alarming, right? Perhaps not -- if you widen the picture a bit.
  In June, IT occupational employment showed a net gain of 74,000 jobs, and this month-to-month volatility is normal because of the way the
  
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• Want secure code? Give devs the right tools

  11-08-2016 12:00
  
  The Internet has serious security problems that need to be fixed. Despite many calls to action over the years for the industry to band together and work on solutions, progress has been mild. What’s needed isn’t necessarily more security technology. What’s needed are better tools for developers so that they can improve the security of their code.
  In his keynote at Black Hat in Las Vegas, Dan Kaminsky, chief scientist and co-founder of White Ops, advocated for environments and c
  
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• Mingis on Tech: The future of H-1Bs and the fate of IT

  11-08-2016 12:00
  
  Donald Trump talks about the H-1B visa program on the campaign trail and calls for changes; Hillary Clinton does not.
  And yet, even with that kind of attention in a presidential election year -- and two different reform bills floating around Congress -- the H-1B visa program is unlikely to see any significant changes anytime soon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 10 killer PC upgrades that are shockingly cheap

  11-08-2016 12:00
  No need to break the bankSure, swanky new Surface Pros and $1,200 graphics cards may capture all the headlines, but on a practical level, the real story is that PCs aren’t cheap. As a working father with two kids and a mortgage to pay, I understand that all too well. But if your computer’s starting to feel pokey, there’s fortunately no reason to rush out a spend hundreds on a new one.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Ecuador says Swedes will question Assange at its UK embassy

  11-08-2016 09:47
  
  Ecuador has granted a request from Swedish prosecutors to question WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London, where he has been holed up for over four years.Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador in 2012 after he slipped into the country’s embassy in the U.K. He is wanted by police in Sweden for questioning in connection with a sexual assault investigation.U.K. police have said that they would arrest Assange to meet an extradition request from Sweden if he steps out f
  
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• Twitter is not liable for ISIS activity on its service, judge rules

  11-08-2016 05:56
  
  Twitter is not liable for providing material support to the Islamic State group, also referred to as the ISIS, by allowing its members to sign up and use accounts on its site, a federal judge in California ruled Wednesday.The lawsuit against Twitter filed by the familes of two victims of a terror attack in Jordan is similar to another filed by the father of a victim of the Paris attack in November against Twitter, Google and Facebook for allegedly providing material support to terrorists by prov
  
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• IoT is now growing faster than smartphones

  11-08-2016 02:09
  
  If there were any doubt that IoT is for real, one fact ought to dispel it: For the first time, U.S. mobile operators are adding IoT connections to their networks faster than they’re adding phones.In fact, cars alone are getting connected to cellular networks faster than anything else, according to statistics compiled by Chetan Sharma Consulting for the second quarter of this year. Counting all U.S. carriers, about 1.4 million cars got connected to cellular networks in the quarter, compared
  
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