IT Executive news

• Wireless power systems could one day beam electricity from space

  06-10-2016 23:47
  
  Forget smartphone charging. When it comes to next-generation wireless power, engineers in Japan are working on a system that can send large amounts of electrical power over considerable distances.
  Behind several prototypes and projects is a common idea: the ability to send power from the sky to the ground.
  The eventual goal of the research is a huge space-based solar array that isn't affected by earth's weather systems and constantly collects large amounts of energy, which is then sent down to
  
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• Largest European chip-maker partners for wireless charging

  06-10-2016 22:53
  
  Europe's largest semiconductor chip maker, ST Microelectronics (ST), has partnered with Massachusetts-based WiTricity to develop integrated circuits for wireless power transfer.
  WiTricity pointed to the deal as indicative of how chip makers are taking note of wireless charging as a new source of revenue while helping roll out the technology across products.
  Virtually all major chip makers have joined wireless charging development consortia, such as the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), the Po
  
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• Juniper CEO: On the cusp of transforming economics of optical networking

  06-10-2016 22:50
  
  Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim believes his company’s recent purchase of silicon-photonics vendor Aurrion may lead to a major cost reduction for high-speed networking gear.
  Rahim says he thinks “we are potentially on the cusp of a real breakthrough that will transform the economics of the optics in networking equipment, which obviously will be of great interest to anybody that is building a large, mission-critical network.”
  The big benefit for customers will be a better price
  
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• OpenStack Newton serves up a heaping helping of scalability

  06-10-2016 22:32
  
  The next release of OpenStack made its debut on Thursday with a raft of new features for better scalability and resiliency.Architectural and functional barriers can make it difficult for companies to scale their clouds up or down across platforms and geographies, but OpenStack's 14th release -- dubbed Newton -- does away with many of those limitations. The open source cloud-building software now includes improved scaling capabilities in its Nova, Horizon, and Swift components, its makers say.New
  
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• How to shield your company from cyber enforcement

  06-10-2016 22:19
  
  This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.
  A lot has changed in the world of cyber regulation. September 2015 saw the widely reported SEC administrative proceeding against RT Jones for violating the “Safeguard Rule” in failing to establish and implement written cyber protection policies. Next was Morgan Stanley. And this past March the Con
  
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• Something new is coming to the PC industry: Growth

  06-10-2016 22:04
  
  There's something new coming in the PC market: growth! Sales volumes have hit bottom, and will start to pick up from next year, say analysts at Gartner.Growth won't be fast -- just 0.4 percent next year, and perhaps 3 percent the year after -- but it will mark a change from the 8 percent drop in unit sales Gartner is forecasting for this year.Sales of basic laptops and desktops will continue to shrink, from 216 million this year to 199 million in 2018, said Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal
  
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• How Google Home's 'always on' will affect privacy

  06-10-2016 21:15
  
  Google this week took the wraps off Google Home, its smart speaker and home entertainment hub, but questions remain about the impact the device will have on users' privacy.
  A direct rival to Amazon Echo, Google Home is the company's entry into the smart home market.
  Want Google Home to play your favorite song? Just say, "OK, Google" and ask for it to play the music. Want the device, which is equipped with its artificial-intelligence based Assistant, to play that funny cat video from YouTube on
  
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• Surface AIO rumors intensify with FCC filings for Surface-colored mouse, keyboard

  06-10-2016 21:09
  
  Photos of an upcoming Surface-themed mouse and keyboard have been published by the FCC, pretty solid evidence that a Surface all-in-one PC will arrive soon.
  Late last month, the Bluetooth SIG published the first official notification of an upcoming Surface keyboard. Now, it’s the FCC’s turn: external as well as internal shots of the rather spartan keyboard have been published, as well as the mouse. Both carry Microsoft branding and were submitted by Microsoft. Windows Central u
  
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• Why cybersecurity spending will drive business digitization

  06-10-2016 21:04
  
  The days of CEOs regarding data protection technologies and staff as a budget drain and operating tax that stifles innovation are over. Galvanized by high-profile breaches, companies are shelling out more money to shore up corporate defenses. CEOs also recognize that security is table stakes for building digital products and are entrusting their CISOs with more responsibilities.[ Related: Security challenge: Wearing multiple hats in IT ]Fifty-nine percent of 10,000 C-Suite executives polled by P
  
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• Drones could help with disasters like Hurricane Matthew

  06-10-2016 20:35
  
  Weather disasters like Hurricane Matthew are pushing wireless carriers to test drones and other unmanned aircraft that can act as wireless hot spots for 4G LTE connections to help emergency responders.
  Verizon announced Thursday it had just completed a simulation in Cape May, N.J., using unmanned planes to act as flying hot spots for 4G LTE connections. First responders could use those hot spots to communicate in remote places where wireless antennas were lost or unavailable.
  [Here's a video of
  
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• Snapchat what? Instagram Stories racks up 100 million daily viewers

  06-10-2016 20:20
  
  Instagram arrived late to the ephemeral messaging trend—so late that it almost missed the boat entirely—but the photo-sharing network is seeing success.
  On Thursday, Instagram revealed that its Stories feature gets 100 million daily viewers, about one-fifth of Instagram’s 500 million monthly active users. Instagram, which just turned six years old, debuted Stories in August to let its users share video clips and photos that disappear after 24 hours. You can also decorate
  
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• Rooftop solar installation prices drop as does payback time

  06-10-2016 20:20
  
  The cost of rooftop solar installations continues to decline but not as quickly as it did in previous years, according to a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
  National median installed prices in 2015 declined year-over-year by $0.2 per watt (/W), or 5%, for residential systems, by $0.3/W,  or 7% for non-residential systems of  less than 500 kW, and by $0.3/W, or 9%, for non-residential systems of more than 500 kW.
  Solar installation price declines have been partial
  
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• Oculus reveals a tantalizing glimpse at social VR's future

  06-10-2016 19:55
  
  Ever since Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop—the other shoe being "Social Integration," or whatever fancy term you want to apply. And today at the third annual Oculus Connect conference in San Jose we got a radical look at how that might actually manifest in the future.
  In a live stage demo presented by Mark Zuckerberg himself, we saw a unified "people-first" environment that could seamlessly cycle through hanging out with friends (or at least y
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Business value is key to IT success

  06-10-2016 19:30
  
  IT managers who manage technology versus managing the business of IT support have an uphill battle. The bottom line is that it is all about the business, not about the technology.Technology is certainly important for most companies in today's world, but the key issue to keep in mind is that technology is not normally the core competency of a company:In banking it's about delivering banking services.
  In manufacturing it's about creating new widgets.
  In healthcare it's about providing healthcare s
  
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• How Apple plans to make iCloud, Siri, and iTunes better

  06-10-2016 19:30
  
  Apple has a plan to make its cloud services good: moving the groups responsible for building them into one building so they can work together.
  The teams behind iCloud, Siri, Apple Music, iTunes, Apple News, Apple Pay, and Maps all work under Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of software and services, but they are physically spread out. Apple has realized that the physical distance is contributing to slow bug fixes and product development, sources told Bloomberg, so the company is ce
  
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• New Microsoft support scheme scraps decade pledge

  06-10-2016 19:27
  
  More than a month ago, Microsoft quietly added a new support policy that dropped the company's decade of technical support for an open-ended product lifetime that could be terminated at Microsoft's discretion.
  Wes Miller, analyst with Directions on Microsoft, viewed the new policy -- dubbed "Modern Lifecycle" -- as a glimpse into the future of support from the Redmond, Wash. company.
  "For more than a year, since Microsoft talked about LTSB [Long-term Servicing Branch], we've all been wondering
  
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• AT&T hitches its Internet of Things network to Amazon’s cloud

  06-10-2016 19:27
  
  AT&T and Amazon Web Services today announced a partnership that will allow connected devices on AT&T’s network to more easily and securely transmit data into the AWS cloud, marking a strategic integration of their Internet of Things platforms.
  AT&T says it has nearly 29 million connected devices on its network in 200 countries as of the second quarter of this year. AT&T and AWS will be working to preconfigure devices on the AT&T network to send and store data in the AW
  
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• 67% off Etekcity 4 Pack Portable Outdoor LED Camping Lantern with 12 AA Batteries - Deal Alert

  06-10-2016 18:59
  
  Whether used for camping, trick or treating, or power outages, this lantern will provide up to 12 hours of bright omnidirectional LED lighting to see your surroundings. When the battery power of the lantern runs low, the brightness will dim to an energy saving mode to provide longer lasting illumination (up to 4 hours of low power usage). It's lighter, brighter and more portable than most flashlights while still featuring the rugged durability to withstand the outdoors. The military grade exter
  
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• FCC to vote on strict privacy rules for ISPs in late October

  06-10-2016 18:54
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will push forward with controversial privacy regulations that would require broadband providers to get customer permission before using and sharing geolocation, browsing histories, and other personal information.Broadband providers have complained the proposal puts stronger privacy rules in place for them than for internet companies like Google and Facebook. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has scheduled a final vote on the regulations for Oct. 27.Broadband
  
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• Cable and telecom are rivals again with new IoT networks

  06-10-2016 18:49
  
  Comcast and the biggest U.S. carriers are taking their long-running rivalry to the internet of things.The country's largest cable company and telecommunications giants, Verizon and AT&T, have been fighting each other for years in home broadband, business internet service and wireless access. Now they're set to compete over LPWANs, the low-power, wide-area networks that could connect many of the IoT devices of the future.On Wednesday, Comcast said it would launch trials of one LPWAN technolog
  
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• Information sharing still a heavy lift

  06-10-2016 18:05
  
  Everybody shares stuff, man.
  That line, from ‘70s stoner comics Cheech and Chong, was about sharing joints, of course.
  But today it is about information, and the message from top-level government financial and intelligence officials is that everybody needs to do more of it.
  At the Cambridge Cyber Summit this week, held at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium and sponsored by MIT, The Aspen Institute and CNBC, several of them stressed that effectively countering the level and sophistication of cy
  
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• Another very bad week for Samsung (with two bright spots)

  06-10-2016 18:01
  
  You have to feel bad for Samsung.
  Following the highly publicized recall of what is likely the best smartphone (mobile device?) the South Korean electronics heavyweight ever released, the Galaxy Note7, things have progressively slid down (down, down) for the company.
  Yesterday, a man on a Southwest Airlines plane in Louisville, Ky., reportedly powered down his Note7 before takeoff, only to find it overheating and eventually smoking in his pocket just minutes later. The Note7 owner apparent
  
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• New Dyn CEO previously led BTI, Arbor Networks

  06-10-2016 17:33
  
  Dyn, the Manchester, N.H., internet performance management company, has named network industry veteran Colin Doherty as its new CEO.
  Doherty previously led BTI, a packet optical company acquired last year by Juniper Networks, and security company Arbor Networks, and early in his career had numerous roles at Nortel.
  MORE: Q&A with Dyn Chairman Jim Baum on how Dyn is rising to the cloud challengeTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Analysts ask: Did Samsung cut corners in shipping Note7 replacements?

  06-10-2016 17:23
  
  Smoke billowing from what appears to be a replacement Samsung Galaxy Note7 caused the evacuation on Wednesday of a Southwest jet on the ground in Louisville. No one was injured.
  Samsung is trying to retrieve the Note7 to verify whether it is indeed a replacement unit. Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other federal authorities are conducting investigations.
  If it is indeed a replacement Note7, Samsung will face some tough questions about whether it cut corners in offeri
  
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• Spotify ads slipped malware onto PCs and Macs

  06-10-2016 16:27
  
  Spotify's ads crossed from nuisance over to outright nasty this week, after the music service’s advertising started serving up malware to users on Wednesday. The malware was able to automatically launch browser tabs on Windows and Mac PCs, according to complaints that surfaced online.
  As is typical for this kind of malware, the ads directed users’ browsers to other malware-containing sites in the hopes that someone would be duped into downloading more malicious software. The “
  
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• Google dealt setback in age bias case by judge interested in 'Googleyness'

  06-10-2016 16:21
  
  An age discrimination lawsuit against Google was approved Wednesday as a '"collective action" by a federal court judge in San Jose. The decision means that certain types of software engineers, age 40 or over, who were rejected for jobs at Google since August 2014, and after an in-person interview, will be able to join the lawsuit.
  Thousands of others may be eligible.
  But this was more than an ordinary court ruling. Judge Beth Labson Freeman's ruling may be remembered for the artful flourish of
  
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• New Amazon Echo Dot Launches Oct 20, Get Free Ones When You Buy 5 or 10 - Deal Alert

  06-10-2016 16:13
  
  The all new Amazon Echo Dot launch date is right around the corner: October 20th. Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play & control music (either on its own, or through a connected speaker/receiver), control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms, and more. If you’re looking to buy them as gifts, or for different homes or rooms, Amazon will throw in a free one ($50 value) when you buy 5, or two free ones when you buy 10 (a
  
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• 4chan's misfortune a blessing for the rest of us

  06-10-2016 15:54
  
  It's not hard to find hate on the internet -- most of the time you just have to look at the comments section attached to just about any article. The article topic never seems to matter -- sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and any other kind of bigotry you can imagine are all lobbed with equal gusto at lifestyle and news articles as they are at stories that tackle feminism, race, gender and sex. It's even worse if you happen to be a woman and have an opinion on the internet. So, I avoid rea
  
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• EU privacy watchdogs have questions about Yahoo's secret email scanning

  06-10-2016 15:44
  
  European Union privacy watchdogs are concerned by reports that Yahoo has been secretly scanning its users' email at the request of U.S. intelligence services."It goes far beyond what is acceptable," said Johannes Caspar, Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Hamburg, Germany.Reuters reported on Tuesday that Yahoo had built a system for U.S. government agencies to search all of its users' incoming emails. Other tech companies were quick to distance themselves, saying they
  
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• Verizon iPhone 7 users report nagging connectivity issues

  06-10-2016 15:13
  
  Expensive new smartphones ought to work flawlessly out of the box, but hundreds of Verizon Wireless customers say their new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus phones frequently lose data connectivity and GPS signals.
  "My phone is saying 'No Service' in previously strong-signal areas. Mine has done this about 4 times that I've noticed in the past 24 hours. It lasts about 2-3 minutes each time," wrote MacRumors.com user Mike6367 on a site forum. He is one of many consumers who left related comments.
  An Apple di
  
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• Security vs. privacy: The endless fiery debate continues

  06-10-2016 15:03
  
  The intractable nature of the “privacy vs. security” debate, in a world where the internet is a tool for criminals, spies and terrorists as well as for billions of law-abiding citizens, was on full display during Wednesday’s Cambridge Cyber Summit at MIT.
  Not surprisingly, it didn’t get resolved.
  The event, hosted by The Aspen Institute, CNBC and MIT, featured top-level government officials, private-sector experts and activists, who all agreed that there needs to be a &l
  
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• How to build a modern multi-monitor workstation

  06-10-2016 14:22
  
  Using more than one monitor with your computer can increase productivity and efficiency, thanks to the capability to keep more app windows open and within sight. Modern PCs, with their fast processors and ample memory, are capable of running scores of apps at a time, and additional monitors help you get the most out of your machine.A few years ago, we detailed how to set up a multi-monitor workstation and how to use multiple displays along with a laptop. Here we focus on recent developments that
  
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• How recruiters are adapting to an evolving job market

  06-10-2016 14:14
  
  Recruiting's a competitive business, and it's getting even hotter. Jobvite's 2016 Recruiter Nation Report surveyed 1,600 recruiters and HR professionals in July 2016 and found that 95 percent expect hiring to be just as competitive or even more so than in 2015, and 69 percent say their companies' hiring has increased in the last year.
  That's a problem in an increasingly tight talent market; 65 percent of respondents say a lack of skilled candidates is their largest obstacle to hiring, even as 33
  
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• Why being a data scientist 'feels like being a magician'

  06-10-2016 14:00
  
  The data scientist role was thrust into the limelight early this year when it was named 2016's "hottest job," and there's been considerable interest in the position ever since. Just recently, the White House singled data scientists out with a special appeal for help.
  Those in the job can expect to earn a median base salary of roughly $116,840 -- if they have what it takes. But what is it like to be a data scientist? Read on to hear what three people currently on the front lines had to say.To re
  
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• 5 steps to avoid burning out your on-call IT staff

  06-10-2016 13:58
  
  Everyone is susceptible to burnout on the job, but if you're an on-call IT worker you are in a unique position. You can't just clock out at the end of the day. When you go home, you are required to be on alert for any emergency incidents, which can make it hard to truly unwind and relax after a long day."This affects work-life balance the most; 'always-on' readiness, not able to relax, an inability to have a downtime, a requirement to provide support during non-business hours and eating into one
  
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• Samsung to buy Viv Labs to challenge Google Assistant

  06-10-2016 13:12
  
  Samsung Electronics has agreed to buy Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence startup created by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham.You may not have heard of Kittlaus, Cheyer or Brigham, but if you own an iPhone you've probably spoken with one of their creations, Siri. Apple bought their first startup, a spinoff from SRI International, in 2010. A couple of years later, they left to create Viv.Samsung's move into AI could be seen as a reaction to Google's launch of a new AI assistant on its
  
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• 7 ways you’re leaking leverage

  06-10-2016 13:12
  
  7 ways you’re leaking leverageImage by Computerworld / ThinkstockLeaking leverage in negotiations is a lot like leaking oil in a car — you won’t really notice it has happened until it’s too late. Vendors nearly always have an information advantage when it comes to negotiations. They are experts at gathering data, compiling research, asking questions and using other techniques to ferret out useful information to gain leverage. Here are seven ways you may be leaking leverag
  
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• What do Pixel phones mean for Google’s Android partners?

  06-10-2016 13:00
  
  Google’s Pixel namesake has long been associated with premium devices sold at higher price points; its existence was primarily to inspire its Chromebook partners.
  Now that the Pixel line has expanded to smartphones, Google’s positioning of the Pixel line has shifted. The Pixel is a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone, and thus by extension, it has to compete with Google’s Android partners, such as Samsung, LG, Huawei, Motorola, Sony, and HTC.
  In an interview with Bloombe
  
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• 8 challenges that keep financial services CTOs and CIOs up at night

  06-10-2016 13:00
  
  Being the CTO or CIO of a financial services provider is harder than ever in today’s data-driven, hacker-plagued digital world. In addition to making sure the organization’s systems are operating smoothly at all times, they face a number of technology- and compliance-related challenges, issues that if not addressed could cost their organization millions – even billions – of dollars.Here are eight of the biggest challenges, the ones keeping financial services IT executives
  
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• IT moves to open workspaces, but not everyone is happy

  06-10-2016 12:30
  
  Five minutes. That's all it took for Christian Lang to uproot from the workspace he'd occupied for the past 18 months and move to a new spot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Business transformation proves to be a catalyst for cybersecurity spending

  06-10-2016 12:27
  
  As enterprises accelerate their use of cloud computing, online services, and ready themselves for internet of things deployments, they are finding themselves strained to find the cybersecurity talent and security tools needed to secure these efforts. That’s one of the most important takeaways from the Global State of Information Security Survey (GSISS) 2017 -- a worldwide study conducted by PwC, CIO and CSO released today.
  According to the GSISS survey, 59 percent of respondents say they
  
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• Not so startling revelations of how a hacker broke in

  06-10-2016 12:10
  
  Trust no oneImage by PexelsAt the heart of every exploit, the vulnerability always lies in the target’s trust for attacker supplied input. This is true whether the attack is network-based or a hacker is trying to gain physical access to a specific location. To effectively mitigate risk, companies and individuals need to take the necessary precautions to keep data secure. The saying in the cybersecurity consulting industry is “trust, but verify.”To read this article in full or t
  
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• Vue.js JavaScript framework revs up rendering

  06-10-2016 12:00
  
  Vue.js, which has been positioned as a rival to Facebook's popular React JavaScript library, has moved to a 2.0 release, featuring a redone rendering layer for better performance. The framework also is set to get a push in the mobile realm.
  The upgrade to Vue, a JavaScript framework for building UIs, has a rendering layer that was rewritten using a lightweight virtual DOM implementation forked from the snabbdom library.[ Use JavaScript in your dev shop? InfoWorld looks at 17 JavaScript editors
  
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• Taking down the internet: possible but how probable?

  06-10-2016 12:00
  
  The hack of the Democratic National Committee this past summer, allegedly by Russia, prompted a political firestorm, but didn’t cause even a ripple in the US economy.
  But imagine the economic firestorm that would result if online attackers brought the entire internet down, even temporarily.
  You may not have to imagine it, according to Bruce Schneier, CTO of Resilient Systems, cryptography guru, blogger and international authority on internet security. In a recent post titled, "Someon
  
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• Fujitsu considers selling its PC business to Lenovo

  06-10-2016 11:24
  
  Lenovo may be about to grow its share of the shrinking PC business again: Japanese IT conglomerate Fujitsu is considering selling its PC manufacturing business, and Lenovo may be the buyer, Fujitsu said Thursday.As part of a strategy to focus on core activities, in February Fujitsu spun out its PC business as an independent operating unit. Such spin-outs are usually a prelude to a sale.On Wednesday, Japanese media reported that the company was in talks to sell the PC business to Lenovo."These re
  
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• Yahoo's secret email scans helped the FBI probe terrorists

  06-10-2016 01:06
  
  What Yahoo was looking for with its alleged email scanning program may have been signs of code used by a foreign terrorist group. The company was searching for a digital "signature" of a communication method used by a state-sponsored terrorist group, according to a new report from The New York Times that provided more details on Yahoo's email scanning.  The report on Wednesday report didn't identify the signature or say if it involved any cryptographic computer code. But the article sa
  
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• Asus ZenBook 3 review: This MacBook clone is powerful but too faithful to the original

  06-10-2016 00:30
  
  You get great performance in this compact ultrabook, thanks to a 15-watt Kaby Lake processor and other high-end parts, but its single port for data and charging limits its general appeal.
  
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