IT Executive news

• Start hoarding SSDs: Prices are expected to spike as supply gets tight

  05-12-2016 23:12
  Time to add SSDs to your hoarding list. Citing a transition in technology and increased demand, NAND prices are expected to begin heading north next year, analysts say.
  NAND chips revenue had already increased by 19.6 percent due to increased demand in the third quarter of this year and will be even tighter as we close the year out, wrote Sean Yang, research director of DRAMeXchange. 
  Part of the tight supply is attributed to an industry transition from older, less dense 2D NAND to 3D
  
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• 23% off iClever Backlight Bluetooth Folding Keyboard for Smartphone, PC, or Tablet - Deal Alert

  05-12-2016 23:07
  
  This lightweight and super portable keyboard from iClever features a compact design with full standard-size keys, but folds down into ⅓ of the size. This model has a convenient backlight feature with red, blue, or green selectable at two brightness levels, so you can type in every environment from a dimly-lit classroom to a dark airplane cabin. Its Broadcom Bluetooth module has a generous operating range of 30 feet, and connects quickly with your devices when you simply unfold the keyboard
  
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• Nikola Motor unveils its hydrogen fuel cell 18-wheeler

  05-12-2016 22:47
  
  Startup Nikola Motor Co. unveiled a hydrogen fuel-cell powered 18-wheel tractor trailer truck that will have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles on a fill-up, which is nearly double that of any other semi-truck on the road.
  The custom-built, hydrogen-electric, 800-volt fuel cell 18-wheeler, a class 8 rig that will be able to haul 80,000 lbs., will be more powerful than any other production diesel truck on the road, the company said.
  In May, the company announced that its first class 8 semi-truck woul
  
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• 4 top disaster recovery packages compared

  05-12-2016 22:31
  
  Whether the disaster is a flood, a power outage or human error, IT departments have the critical role of getting business systems working again. And that requires reliable disaster-recovery software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• HP shutting down default FTP, Telnet access to network printers

  05-12-2016 22:27
  
  Security experts consider the aging FTP and Telnet protocols unsafe, and HP has decided to clamp down on access to networked printers through the remote-access tools.Some of HP's new business printers will, by default, be closed to remote access via protocols like FTP and Telnet. However, customers can activate remote printing access through those protocols if needed."HP has started the process of closing older, less-maintained interfaces including ports, protocols and cipher suites" identified
  
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• NIPS conference: Google releases open-source, AI, 3D game-development project

  05-12-2016 22:23
  
  Today, on the opening day of the marquee AI conference Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Barcelona, Google announced in a blog post the release of its DeepMind Lab project available to the AI community under open source licensing terms.
  Artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are the next two computing platforms. DeepMind Lab is a 3D AI platform for building virtual games that bring these two platforms together in multiple dimensions. DeepMind Lab uses a s
  
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• AWS wants to dominate beyond the public cloud with Lambda updates

  05-12-2016 21:56
  
  Amazon Web Services' big Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas brought a plethora of new features and upgrades to its cloud platform. But there was one key set of upgrades that set the stage for Amazon's expansion outside its own public cloud data centers.Two years ago, AWS CEO Andy Jassy made a big splash at Re:Invent when he introduced Lambda, a service that lets developers write snippets of code that execute in response to event triggers. Amazon does the work to provision servers to run that code
  
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• Amazon Go aims to change retail by eliminating check-out lines

  05-12-2016 21:48
  
  Amazon.com is using machine learning to try to change the shopping experience and the retail industry in general.
  Amazon employees are testing a new brick-and-mortar store, called Amazon Go, in Seattle that lets customers using an app bypass the checkout line.
  Using a combination of machine learning, computer vision, sensors and deep learning, the smart store is designed to keep track of what users take off and return to shelves so it can track their purchases in a virtual cart. When they're do
  
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• Behavior analytics tools for cybersecurity move into enterprises

  05-12-2016 21:21
  
  Behavior analytics is one of the more recent buzzwords in enterprise cybersecurity, with more than 35 vendorscompeting for customers, according to security analysts.
  Behavior analytics in cybersecurity is roughly defined as using software tools to detect patterns of data transmissions in a network that are out of the norm. The theory is that the analytics tool would detect the anomaly and alert IT managers, who would stop the unusual behavior or cyberattack.
  Enterprises use behavior analytics t
  
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• Contrary to reports, Chrome 55 continues to render Flash

  05-12-2016 20:11
  
  Google last week released Chrome 55, but contrary to reports the browser has not yet begun to block content rendered by Adobe's Flash Player.
  In August, Google laid out steps it would take to retreat from Flash. As of Chrome 55, only Flash content on 10 sites, including Amazon, Facebook and YouTube, was supposed to display -- and then only after an acknowledgement by the user. For all other sites, Chrome 55 was to render HTML5 content, if it was available, but not that for Flash.
  Although sever
  
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• After warehouse staff, Amazon to replace store clerks with robots

  05-12-2016 19:44
  
  Amazon.com is still figuring out how to use robots to fill store shelves, but it's about done with clerks. Next year, the company will open a convenience store in Seattle where shoppers can walk in, take what they want -- and leave.
  The Amazon Go store is on the corner of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street in Seattle, in the heart of Amazon's new campus development and a few blocks from the company's headquarters.
  Amazon wants people to walk in to the store and then just walk out with what they wa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: SUSE ups its IaaS, PaaS game

  05-12-2016 19:38
  
  SUSE, the oldest Linux company has just upped the PaaS and IaaS game with the acquisition of HPE’s OpenStack and Cloud Foundry assets and talent. Michael Miller, President of Strategy, Alliances and Marketing at SUSE, told me in an interview that this acquisition involves assets from both the Helion OpenStack product and the Helion Stackato product.Talent? What talent?One of the highlights of this announcement was that SUSE will also be acquiring engineering talent from HPE. But we all kn
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 10 giant steps for the Internet of Things in 2016

  05-12-2016 19:30
  
  It’s that time of year again. The “10 technology trends” and “5 ways the Internet of Things (IoT) will change your business next year” prognostications are coming out. I always read these and enjoy the critical thinking behind the authors’ lists. And every year I think about looking back at last year’s lists to see how well the forecasters did, but there isn’t much value in “I told you so” whether you are saying it or hearing it so I l
  
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• Google's Trusted Contacts pings your loved ones when you need them most

  05-12-2016 18:44
  
  Google’s Android services already work overtime to make our life easier, but its new app may actually be able to save it. Called Trusted Contacts, it connects you with the closest people in your life to allow them to find you in an emergency.
  To set up the app, you simply need to designate the people you would like to share your location with, and Google will ping them with your request. Unlike Familio or GeoZilla, however, Trusted Contacts isn’t for meet-ups. The app is primarily d
  
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• BrandPost: 5 Strategies to Turn Quality Compliance into a Competitive Advantage

  05-12-2016 18:41
  
  Quality compliance is often regarded as restrictive and costly, with little return on investment. But the truth is, compliance can improve and enhance customer satisfaction.The definition of quality is a product that meets and/or exceeds customers’ expectations on a consistent basis. By moving beyond minimum quality levels, manufacturers can reach a higher level of process and product expertise that would not have been possible any other way. In other words, given the chance to exceed cust
  
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• Amazon’s biggest re:Invent cloud announcements

  05-12-2016 18:39
  
  IoT, Machine Learning and trucking data into the cloudImage by AmazonAWS’s 2016 re:Invent conference is a wrap, and if you missed any of the news check out the biggest announcements Amazon made in Las Vegas. From data analytics tools to machine learning platforms and new IoT functions, there was a lot to digest. Amazon will even truck your data into its cloud!To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 67% off iClever BoostCube 40W 4-Port USB Wall Charger with Foldable Plug - Deal Alert

  05-12-2016 18:07
  
  This 40W/8A 4-port output wall charger from iClever detects the charging capacity of each device, and provides the fastest possible charge of up to 2.4 amps per port, charging any four USB-enabled devices simultaneously. Its compact design features a foldable plug.  It contains multiple internal protection mechanisms to guarantee the safety of your device. iClever's BoostCube averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from nearly 1,000 people (read reviews). It's typical list price has beed redu
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS: Should Apple control stalkerware?

  05-12-2016 18:05
  
  Stalkerware is the latest label given to some apps in the iOS App Store. Stalkerware apps only offer “Always" or “Never” for location tracking, and that has some iOS users very upset because they feel that their privacy is being violated by these kinds of apps.A writer at Medium recently weighed in with a post that asked Apple to force developers to offer users the option to have location tracking on only when using the app:
  It’s come to light that Uber and other companie
  
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• Chrome 55 pushes Flash into the background

  05-12-2016 17:49
  Chrome version 55 rolled out late last week and drove another nail in the coffin for Flash on the web. Google announced in August that Chrome 55 would default to HTML5 video instead of Flash, effectively blocking Adobe’s web plugin from running on most sites. The company has yet to confirm that Chrome 55 did in fact roll out defaulting to HTML5. We have asked Google for comment and will update this story should the company respond.
  Part of the original plan, which actually reaches all the
  
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• Chrome bug triggered errors on websites using Symantec SSL certificates

  05-12-2016 17:45
  
  If you've encountered errors over the past month when trying to access HTTPS-enabled websites on your computer or Android phone, it might have been due to a bug in Chrome.The bug affected the validation for some SSL certificates issued by Symantec, one of the world's largest certificate authorities, as well as by GeoTrust and Thawte, two CAs that Symantec also controls.The bug was introduced in Chrome version 53, but also affected the Android WebView component that Android apps use to display We
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Surgeon, innovator and entrepreneur shares insights

  05-12-2016 17:30
  
  It was quite inspiring to hear Jeffrey Hausfeld, founder and chairman of the Board of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE), speak recently about his experience as a surgeon, innovator and entrepreneur.This was during the inaugural meeting of the Society’s Orange County/San Diego Chapter held at our Innovation Lab in Newport Beach.SoPE, a biomedical and health care innovation network of over 26,000 international members, is our newest alliance partner, giving us expanded collaborat
  
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• How to use data to design the best market for your company

  05-12-2016 17:23
  
  Your business spends a lot of time analyzing the market you sell to, but can you take a step back and instead create the market that you want? Experts in the little-known field of behavioral economics and market design say “yes.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• BrandPost: PCI DSS 3.2: Is It Enough to Protect Cardholder Data?

  05-12-2016 17:19
  
  PCI DSS 3.2 consists of 12 requirements spread across six domains. Since the main goal of PCI is protecting cardholder data, these requirements focus on user access to the servers that host this data, or servers through which this data passes. But is PCI 3.2 enough to protect cardholder data, or do organizations need additional protection?Understanding PCI DSS 3.2The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handl
  
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• Alaska Airlines CIO departs to build digital smart cities

  05-12-2016 17:13
  
  Former Alaska Airlines CIO Veresh Sita has joined Emaar Properties as its chief digital officer, a role in which he will oversee a technology transformation intended to drive growth for the Dubai-based global real estate developer. His core focus is incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things (IoT) into sophisticated properties, or "digital smart cities," Sita says.Emaar Properties is one of the largest real estate developers in the United Arab Emirates and is
  
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• Microsoft pauses Windows 10 previews to shift to radical new update system

  05-12-2016 17:01
  
  Microsoft quietly announced on Friday that Insider Preview builds are being put on hold. It’s not clear how long Windows 10 fans will have to go without a new build, but the reason may make the life of an Insider easier in the long run.
  Insider builds are seeing a brief pause so that Microsoft can transfer Insider builds to the company’s new Unified Update Platform (UUP). The UUP allows Microsoft to deliver differential downloads—also known as delta updates. This means that up
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 7 tips for finding new brand evangelists in 2017

  05-12-2016 17:00
  
  Brand evangelism may sound like a strange concept if you’re unfamiliar with the term, but it doesn’t have anything to do with a religious appreciation for your brand. Instead, as Business Insurance USA describes it, brand evangelism or advocacy is simply the willingness for certain members of your target audience to profess their interest in or appreciation for your brand. It serves as an extension of your brand visibility and promotion strategy and comes with a host of benefits, bu
  
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• How manufacturers make the most of machine data

  05-12-2016 16:57
  
  For many manufacturers, there is a disconnect between what goes on in their factories, including their engineering departments, and the core business processes supported by their ERP systems. It creates significant lag times for management to access, analyze and act on data from the manufacturing and development processes. Not having this data in real time could create problems with planning, inventory control, the supply chain or meeting customer expectations.Barriers to incorporating data from
  
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• The Samsung Galaxy Note7's extreme thinness may be behind battery explosions

  05-12-2016 16:50
  
  It’s been a while since Samsung has been in the news for its exploding Galaxy Note7 batteries—and we sincerely hope any of our readers who bought one has returned it to the company for a refund—but a team of enterprising engineers and developers who solve problems for a living may have discovered the root cause of the disaster.
  Samsung has been mostly mum about the issue since it announced in October that it was suspending production of the popular phablet (more than a month a
  
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• OpenAI releases Universe, a platform for training AIs to play games, use apps

  05-12-2016 16:49
  
  OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company, wants to let AIs loose in their own universe, where they can learn to play games, use apps and interact with websites.Universe is the name of OpenAI's tool for training AIs on, as it puts it, "any task a human can complete with a computer." Using a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) remote desktop, it allows the AI to control the game or app using a virtual keyboard and mouse, and to see its output by analyzing the pixels displayed on the screen.
  
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• The 11-point audit for your Salesforce.com system

  05-12-2016 16:04
  
  For a decade, Salesforce.com has been both a business application and a development platform. Now, because of the number of its APIs and available adaptors, it’s increasingly being used as an integration hub for the cloud.
  Sounds pretty strategic, doesn’t it? Too often, though, Salesforce.com (SFDC) has been managed as “just an app” and all the development work has been thought of as “just adding a feature,” without doing a top-down analysis of the consequenc
  
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• Amazon Takes $80 off Fire Tablet and Tap When Bought Together, Today Only - Deal Alert

  05-12-2016 15:37
  
  Today only, if you bundle together Amazon's Fire Tablet and Tap, you'll save $80 on the two. The bundle includes the Fire Tablet with 7" Display, Wi-Fi, and 16 GB of storage, and Amazon Tap, the Alexa-Enabled Portable Bluetooth Speaker. With the Fire tablet from Amazon you can enjoy millions of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle e-books, apps and games. It features a rich 7" IPS display and 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Available in four colors. Amazon's portable Tap device uses the Alexa Voice Serv
  
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• Putting security risks on simmer with Chef

  05-12-2016 15:12
  
  To remain PCI-compliant, I conduct quarterly security assessments of our infrastructure. This means external testing of our internet-facing PCI resources, using an approved scanning vendor (ASV), and what I call internal PCI full-population scans.Trouble TicketAt issue: Too many servers with too many different configurations make it tough to stay in compliance.
  Action plan: Use Chef and the CIS guidelines to ensure that servers are properly configured.
  We do the external scanning ever
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Analytics helps the enterprise find its identity

  05-12-2016 14:52
  
  Enterprising analytics
  To be "enterprising" is to be eager to undertake or prompt to attempt. To show initiative and be resourceful. These are leadership traits, so to be enterprising is to lead. "Analytics" is how we use data to inform decision-making, in the context of achieving business objectives. These are management practices, so analytics is about management. "Enterprising Analytics" is about being creative, resourceful and adventurous with decision-making to achieve business objecti
  
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• Security pros most worried about clouds, mobile

  05-12-2016 13:00
  
  Companies were least prepared to assess the security risks of cloud and mobile technologies, according to a survey of cybersecurity professionals released this morning.
  Around 60 percent of companies were able to assess security risks in cloud environments, down 7 points compared to last year. Mobile devices scored at 57 percent, down by 8 percentage points compared to last year.
  Overall, the confidence levels of security professionals that their cyber defenses were meeting expectations dropped
  
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• 10 most useful Slack bots

  05-12-2016 13:00
  
  We experimented and tinkered with numerous bots that are available for Slack, the cloud messaging service meant mainly for business. (You can still use Slack for non-work reasons, particularly under the service’s free option.) Here are 10 that could be most helpful working alongside your Slack team.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• 10 absurd gifts for the Apple fan you're not sure you like

  05-12-2016 12:52
  
  Absurd gifts for Apple fansImage by VioNetBuying a straightforward tech gift for your friends or family members is easy. There are a slew of affordable fitness trackers, laptop bags, and all the other gadgets and accessories your iPhone-addicted loved ones could ask for.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 5 disruptive technologies to track in 2017

  05-12-2016 12:30
  
  Digital transformation is sparking change on many fronts, which means IT professionals have a lot to tackle as they head into 2017. As part of this march toward IT-driven reinvention, tech leaders are keeping watch on several emerging technologies that they believe will be catalysts for long-term innovation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• 6 tips for negotiating a better executive IT offer

  05-12-2016 12:18
  
  Congratulations -- you've got an offer for an executive level role! Whether it's your first foray into upper management or you've been a C-suite stalwart for years, negotiating a compensation package can be nerve-wracking. And while the mechanics of the negotiation might be similar whether you're an entry-level worker or a C-level executive, there are specific components of executive compensation that could throw you for a loop if you're not careful, says Howard Seidel, partner, Essex Partners.
  
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• Ransomware as a Service fuels explosive growth

  05-12-2016 12:05
  
  Believe it – you too can become a successful cyber criminal! It’s easy! It’s cheap! It’s short hours for big bucks! No need to spend years on boring things like learning how to write code or develop software.
  Just download our simple ransomware toolkit and we can have you up and running in hours – stealing hundreds or thousands of dollars from people in other countries, all from the comfort of your home office – or your parents’ basement. Sit back and w
  
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• Should you go with Google's Go? 7 pros and cons

  05-12-2016 12:00
  
  2016 was full of surprises, but in the world of programming, among the biggest was the breakthrough of Go. Once a tiny niche tool, Go has officially joined the ranks of real programming languages, evidenced by its meteoric rise up the Tiobe index, a complex amalgam of search rankings and programmer preferences. Still a ways behind stalwarts like Java, C, and Python, Go hit 16th in October 2016, up 49 spots from a year prior. That’s a big change that’s caught the eye of programmers a
  
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• How to survive the death of Flash

  05-12-2016 12:00
  Seven years ago, Steve Jobs launched the once-popular Abode Flash into a long, slow death spiral when he announced that Flash would not be installed on any of his cutting-edge products, particularly the iPad and iPhone. Jobs argued that Flash was slow, cumbersome, battery intensive, incompatible with touch-screens, and had massive security issues.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Capital One rides the cloud to tech company transformation

  05-12-2016 12:00
  
  LAS VEGAS -- Capital One Financial Corp. is taking big steps in its transformation into a tech company.
  The Fortune 500 company, one of thetop 10 largest banks in the U.S. with $313 billion in total assets, wants to be a tech company that also is a top financial services provider.
  It's a change in strategy and focus, said Rob Alexander, CIO of Capital One, based in McLean, Virginia. Among its plans as it transitions to a "tech" company are an open, collaborative workspace, IT workers with new s
  
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• An Adobe Flash flashback

  05-12-2016 12:00
  
  Flash-backRemember when the web pages were static and boring. And then along came Macromedia Flash. All of a sudden web pages were jumping and hopping with animation delivered by Flash. The multimedia platform has been on a long, slow decline over the past five years, but Flash remains embedded in many of the Internet’s most popular web sites. Here’s a look at some of the key events in the life of Flash. (Read the full story of Flash's demise.)To read this article in full or to leave
  
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• Apple offers views on automated car policy, but cagey about its plans

  05-12-2016 05:24
  
  Apple has said in comments to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it is “excited” about the potential use of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.The company’s director of product integrity Steve Kenner wrote that Apple is “investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.”Kenner did not say if the company wo
  
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