IT Executive news

• T-Mobile's free DIRECTV NOW deal is full of gotchas

  15-12-2016 23:38
  
  I sometimes feel like a broken record pointing out the flaws in T-Mobile's various "deals." The self-styled "Un-carrier" keeps rolling out offers that are never quite what they seem — its "free" iPhone 7 ploy and big discounts on Pixel Android phones are good examples.Here we go again. T-Mobile's just-announced plan to win customers from AT&T by giving them a free year of DIRECTV NOW simple isn't worth the trouble of switching.To read this article in full or to leav
  
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• Non-malware attacks are on the rise

  15-12-2016 23:25
  
  Security pros need to pay attention to malicious activities that don’t rely on actual malware to succeed, according to a study by Carbon Black.
  Attacks that exploited applications and processes legitimately running on systems – non-malware incidents – have risen from representing about 3% of all attacks in January to about 13% in November, the company’s “Non-malware attacks and ransomware take center stage in 2016” report says.
  “Non-malware attacks are
  
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• Google age-discrimination trial date is two years away

  15-12-2016 22:58
  
  Yes, justice does move slowly, but in the Google age-discrimination case it almost seems ironic.
  U.S. District Judge Beth Labson last week set Nov. 26, 2018 as the trial date in a case brought by two over-40 job applicants who were denied jobs. One of the plaintiffs was interviewed by Google on four separate occasions. The case was first filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif. in April 2015.
  In October, the court approved a motion by the plaintiff to turn the case into a "collective action,"
  
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• Feds want cars to talk to each other to avoid crashes

  15-12-2016 22:42
  
  The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has published a proposed rule that would require all light-duty vehicles to come with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology to help avoid collisions.
  The technology, DOT said, could help prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes a  year that occur when one vehicle is unaware of what another is doing.
  "We are carrying the ball as far as we can to realize the potential of transportation technology to save lives," Transportation Secretar
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How natural language processing empowers consumers

  15-12-2016 22:30
  
  As a technology decision maker, all the hyperbolic talk about having a cognitive solution that can converse with your customer might seem like years off. Understanding natural language processing (NLP) maturation coupled with the right uses, today’s NLP achievements can lead to significant benefits, cost reductions and consumer satisfaction.NLP maturation
  One could contend that NLP maturation can be broken down into three distinct maturity levels: inquiry NLP, conversational NLP and reason
  
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• BrandPost: Accelerating Business Integration and Separation with the Cloud

  15-12-2016 22:20
  
  Deals are full of optimism: Promises of value rain down on the business as a result of successful mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, so companies continue to wheel and deal to optimize portfolios and reach their growth goals.But both integrating and separating businesses after the ink on a deal dries is no easy task, particularly in the world of IT, as many business functions - from HR and Finance to Sales and Marketing - depend heavily on IT-run systems, data and automation.According to KP
  
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• Forget Angular 3, Google jumps straight to Angular 4

  15-12-2016 21:58
  
  Last month, Google surprised everyone when it detailed plans for Angular 3 to be released a short six months after Angular 2's arrival. Now it turns out there will be no Angular 3 release after all. Instead, Google will go right to version 4 of its popular JavaScript framework in March.
  Google's Igor Minar said at the recent NG-BE 2016 Angular conference in Belgium that Google will jump from version 2 to version 4 so that the number of the upgrade correlates with the Angular version 4 router pl
  
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• 4 historic security events of 2016 and what they teach us [Infographic]

  15-12-2016 21:56
  
  What is it they say about failing to learn the lessons of history and being doomed to repeat it? However the famous saying goes, I think we can agree that the events of 2016 can be very instructive if we choose to pay attention.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Insight-out: The next generation in customer engagement

  15-12-2016 21:44
  
  The new world of insight-driven business enables companies to become active participants in a conversation with customers. They're not simply limited to transactional processes or an omnichannel approach, and instead are moving toward conversations that deliver outcomes.“Market of one” is a term that is used regularly when describing how big data enables companies to go beyond simple segmentation approaches and instead tune their responses to specific individuals. The first phase of
  
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• Oracle CEO Safra Catz joins Trump's transition team

  15-12-2016 21:31
  Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz is joining President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, the team said Thursday. She will sit on its executive committee and remain in her position at Oracle.
  The appointment comes a day after Catz and other tech leaders met Trump in a high-profile meeting at his New York offices.
  "I'm actually privileged and honored to even be here, and we are looking forward to helping you, and your administration,"  Catz said at the beginning of the meeting.
  That meeting wasn'
  
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• Facebook tries crowdsourcing, fact-checkers to fight fake news

  15-12-2016 21:28
  
  Facebook is experimenting with new features to allow users and third-party fact checkers to flag posts that appear to be fake news.The new features, announced on Thursday, essentially try to solve the fake-news problem through crowdsourcing. "We believe in giving people a voice and that we cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves, so we’re approaching this problem carefully," the company said in a blog post.The measures are meant to crackdown on "clear hoaxes" spread by spammers. Use
  
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• Facebook enlists help from fact-checkers to fight fake news

  15-12-2016 20:11
  
  Facebook said it was prepared to fight the fake news problem that has taken over its platform, and now it’s putting some muscle behind that promise with new features that help users differentiate true from false.
  Now when you spot a fake story being circulated in your News Feed, you can report it by clicking on the upper-right corner of the post and selecting “It’s a fake news story” as the reason you’re flagging it. Facebook will take those user-reported posts and
  
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• Ransomware fighting coalition adds new members and decryption tools

  15-12-2016 19:57
  
  The No More Ransom project, a coalition of law enforcement and security companies, has expanded with 30 new members and added 32 new decryption tools for various ransomware variants.The project, which consists of a website dedicated to fighting ransomware, was originally launched by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre in partnership with the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Netherlands police, Kaspersky Lab, and Intel Security.The website has a tool that allows users to determine whic
  
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• Lost an AirPod? It’ll be $69 to replace it

  15-12-2016 19:50
  
  Apple’s AirPods are now for sale for $159, and you might be interested in them because they’re completely wireless. Not only is there no wire connecting the earphones to your device, there’s no wire connecting the two earphones—which also increases the possibility that you’ll lose one of them.
  If you have the unfortunate habit of losing things like earphones and think losing a AirPod earphone will eventually happen to you, then you might want to start a lost AirPod
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: One way to be the change you want to see in your life

  15-12-2016 19:28
  
  A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.– Mark TwainI was a young professional on one of my first big business trips. I was attending a weeklong deep-dive professional development session on my own.The hotel where I was staying was imposing. The pillars in the lobby seemed like they went on forever. Was there even a ceiling?As I arrived and stepped out of my car at the hotel entrance, an employee asked if I would like to have him park my car.
  
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• NASA installs VPN to protect Deep Space Network

  15-12-2016 18:16
  
  AT&T will help NASA beef up its Deep Space Network by providing a high-speed VPN to connect giant radio antennas around the world.
  "Our technology helps NASA explore the furthest reaches of the known universe," said Mike Leff, an AT&T vice president. "The Deep Space Network is a powerful system for commanding, tracking and monitoring the health and safety of spacecraft at many distant planetary locales."
  The new network provides highly secure and reliable communications to transport tel
  
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• Reinventing the job of CIO in financial services

  15-12-2016 17:45
  
  This past summer, Daniel Pinto, JPMorgan Chase CEO for corporate and investment banking, remarked that, “Our industry is going through a transformational time, driven by competition, regulation and advancements in technology.” In any other industry Pinto’s remark would be a commonplace. In financial services his list of industry drivers was notable for its inclusion of technology.In every other industry the business impact of new technology — information technology to be
  
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• BrandPost: Proof Positive: Cloud ERP Gives Manufacturers the Visibility They Need

  15-12-2016 17:33
  
  Modern manufacturing is too complex for manual processes, and relying on disparate systems to run your business drains precious time. In fact, thirty-eight percent of manufacturers say they face serious delays in decision making because of lack of timely information.1Cloud ERP gives you the visibility and control you need to compete—without disruption to your business or heavy IT investments. Still not sure about the value of cloud ERP? Here’s some proof:Proof Point: ERP Automation a
  
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• Fitbit vows to keep Pebble smartwatches running through 2017

  15-12-2016 17:21
  
  Pebble owners were rightfully concerned about the future of their devices when Fitbit announced it was acquiring the Kickstarter-fueled smartwatch pioneer earlier this month, but the newly formed company wants users to know they have nothing to worry about until at least 2018.
  In a blog post titled First Steps with Fitbit, longtime Pebble developer Jon Barlow assured owners that all Pebble smartwatches will remain fully functional through the end of 2017, and Fitbit “is going out of its w
  
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• How to replace 5 major Yahoo services and delete your Yahoo account

  15-12-2016 17:03
  
  Oh, Yahoo. It was bad enough that the company already announced a breach exposing 500 million user accounts two years after it happened. Then late last night Yahoo revealed that it had uncovered another unrelated hack exposing the account details of one billion users. It’s not clear how much of that is overlap, but at this point does it really matter?
  I don’t know about you, but I’m done. I wasn’t much of a Yahoo user to begin with but the uses I do have for the com
  
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• FCC Chairman Wheeler to step down in January

  15-12-2016 16:54
  U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler will step down on Jan. 20, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to appoint a Republican chairman and majority at the agency.Wheeler, a Democrat appointed chairman by President Barack Obama in late 2013, was the architect of the FCC's strong net neutrality regulations, approved by the FCC in February 2015. Ajit Pai, a Republican commissioner who's mentioned as a possible successor to Wheeler, has vowed to repeal the net neut
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Nextcloud is the open source answer to mass surveillance

  15-12-2016 16:53
  
  The Nextcloud team has released version 11 of the fully open source file sync and storage platform. This release boasts a plethora of security features.
  Frank Karlitschek, co-founder and managing director of Nextcloud, told me in an interview that the “privacy of a self-hosted solution depends on its security, and staying in control of data is the main motivation for our customers to deploy Nextcloud. Security is thus obviously a core focus for us. Second to that is reducing the costs of
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The employee happiness advice no one is giving

  15-12-2016 16:48
  
  A company cannot succeed or thrive without a healthy corporate culture, and a company’s culture cannot be truly healthy if any portion of the workforce is feeling left out or unhappy.
  Unfortunately, plenty of business owners seem to brush over their labor-skilled employees. White-collar positions tend to command the conversation when we’re talking about employee satisfaction and engagement, which can leave a lot of people feeling left out and dissatisfied with their careers.
  Granted
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The best (and worst) tech products of 2016

  15-12-2016 16:42
  
  2016 is wrapping up and we saw a lot of tech gadgets come and go. I use and own most of these products (and paid for them out of my own pocket), but not all are great. Here is my list of some of the hits, misses and “meh” products of 2016.Apple Watch 2
  If you are already an Apple Watch user, then the Apple Watch 2 upgrade can be skipped depending on what your needs are. Two major improvements include waterproofing, which allows you to wear the watch during activities like swimmi
  
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• BrandPost: How Much MFA is Too Much MFA?

  15-12-2016 16:30
  
  In today’s sophisticated IT world, relying on simple username and password authentication is no longer enough to ward off the growing volume and variety of cyberattacks. Because multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires multiple methods for identification, it’s one of the best ways to prevent unauthorized access to corporate data.At the same time, however, MFA must be reasonably easy to use to ensure high acceptance—adding too many steps can limit widespread adoption. In order
  
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• Samsung Pay will be bundled on nearly all Galaxy phones in 2017

  15-12-2016 16:14
  
  Samsung has been working to improve its mobile payments service ever since it launched on a small number of devices last year, and now the company feels the service is ready for prime time. Starting in 2017, Samsung Pay will come pre-installed on nearly every Galaxy smartphone, and even other Android phones will be able to get in on the act.
  In a statement to Business Korea, Samsung confirmed that it will begin bundling the app on all Galaxy phones that include a fingerprint scanner, which will
  
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• Citrix is building your workspace of the future

  15-12-2016 15:46
  Citrix is a bit like the pachyderm in the proverb about the blind men and the elephant. How customers describe the company depends a lot on which of Citrix’s diverse products they touch. It’s a desktop and app virtualization company. It’s a networking company. A secure file sharing company, a mobility management firm.Mobility and networkingTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• 5 things you should do following the Yahoo breach

  15-12-2016 15:29
  
  Internet giant Yahoo announced a massive data breach Wednesday that affected over one billion accounts, making it by far the largest data breach in history. This follows the disclosure in September of a different breach that affected more than 500 million of the company's customers.What stands out with this new security compromise is that it occurred over three years ago, in August 2013, and that hackers walked away with password hashes that can be easily cracked.To read this article in ful
  
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• AP: ‘nieuwe wetsvoorstel inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten gaat te ver’

  15-12-2016 15:22
  De Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP) vindt dat de voorgestelde ‘Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten’ met meer waarborgen moet worden omkleed. In haar huidige vorm voldoet het wetsvoorstel niet aan de voorwaarden uit het Europees Verdrag voor de Rechten van de Mens (EVRM).“Dit wetsvoorstel... lees meer
  
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• Despite risk, 1,000 in tech pledge not to help Trump's data efforts

  15-12-2016 15:12
  
  As President-elect Donald Trump met with high-tech business leaders in New York Wednesday, some of their employees were affirming, in tweets, a decision to join the resistance.
  The Neveragain.tech pledge passed more than 1,000 signatures, it announced late Wednesday, hours after Trump had wrapped up his meeting with a dozen tech executives. Participating in the pledge means agreeing not to help the government create a database that can be used to target people based on race or religion or "faci
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Innovation’s duel: how to time the launch of innovative ideas

  15-12-2016 15:00
  
  Old west cowboys personalized the concept of honor. In a refined society, the art of politeness demanded the withdrawal from overt acts of violence. The solution? The western duel. Where do you stand? When do you start? What are the rules? The code of honor of a duel and the code of innovation have remarkable similarities. Let's explore a few.Game theoryGame theory is the study of strategy decisions. Understanding the other player’s perspective is central to game theory. Dueling swordsmen
  
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• Feds frustrated by constantly crashing apps

  15-12-2016 14:55
  
  Imagine if Twitter was offline for an entire day. Sure, some might be happy for the break, but the uproar that would greet a day with no access to the internet's public square would no doubt be loud and angry.Within the federal government, however, seeing collaboration, communication and database applications go offline for a day or longer is commonplace, a new survey has found.[ Related: Not dead yet: 7 of the oldest federal IT systems still wheezing away ]To read this article in full or to lea
  
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• Android apps on Chromebook aren't ready for prime time

  15-12-2016 14:43
  
  At the moment, three different Chromebooks can run Android apps on the Chrome OS. However, that doesn't mean the apps work well. 
  I recently tested Acer's Chromebook R 13 ($429), and it is among the current crop of Chromebooks that let you install Android apps. Google has a list of current and future Chromebooks that work with Android apps, and plenty more are in the pipeline.Android apps on Chromebook very much a beta experienceChromebook support for Android apps is still in bet
  
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• Nokia to buy network analytics vendor Deepfield to fight DDoS attacks

  15-12-2016 14:37
  
  Cloud providers and large enterprises don't know enough about what's going on in their networks, according to Nokia.The networking equipment vendor wants to remedy that by enhancing its products with technologies from U.S. IP network analytics vendor Deepfield, which it has just announced plans to acquire. Deepfield provides real-time information about application demand and data flows that Nokia intends to use to help its SDN (software-defined networks) steer traffic.Nokia sees Deepfield's anal
  
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• 2017 IT forecast: Budgets will rebound

  15-12-2016 14:20
  
  TEKsystems 2017 IT forecast shows IT budgets rebounding from a slump in 2016, and IT leaders' confidence high going into the new year. But challenges around talent acquisition and organizational alignment will persist.The research, which polled 700 CIOs, IT hiring managers, directors and vice presidents in October 2016, found that almost half, 49 percent, expect their IT budgets to increase in 2017. Only 12 percent of respondents say their IT budgets will decrease, and 39 percent say their budge
  
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• The reason women don’t ‘lean In’ (it’s not just the commute)

  15-12-2016 14:13
  
  A few weeks ago, I was on a train heading downtown to meet some friends for a happy hour drink when we screeched to a halt. After a few minutes, the conductor announced we were delayed because a car broke down on the tracks at a crossing.
  The woman seated across from me groaned and swore under her breath before pulling out her phone and sending a text. When, after about 20 minutes, it became clear we weren't moving anytime soon, her demeanor changed from slightly annoyed to genuinely worried. Mo
  
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• Privacy protections for wearable devices are weak, study says

  15-12-2016 14:00
  
  The rapidly expanding wearable device market raises serious privacy concerns, as some device makers collect a massive amount of personal data and share it with other companies, according to a new study.Existing health privacy laws don't generally apply to wearable makers, the study says. While consumers are embracing fitness trackers, smart watches, and smart clothing, a "weak and fragmented" health privacy regulatory system in the U.S. fails to give consumers the privacy protections they may ex
  
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• AirPods FAQ: Everything you need to know about Apple's wireless earbuds

  15-12-2016 14:00
  
  The AirPods are here! After a couple months of delays, Apple is taking orders for the $159 AirPods. But even though they’re technically on sale, the AirPods will be scarce for a while—the Apple online store is estimating six weeks’ delivery time, but you might be able to track down a pair at an Apple retail store. Maybe call ahead first.
  We’ll have our review up on Monday, but until then, here’s how to get the AirPods set up (it’s so easy!) and use them to co
  
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• 4 tips to help you resign without burning bridges

  15-12-2016 13:56
  
  No matter where you rank on the totem pole in your company, it's important to resign from your job gracefully. However, for executives, the resignation process looks slightly different. There is a lot to consider before leaving an executive position and going about it the wrong way can quickly become career-damaging down the road.
  "The tech industry may be large but it's also a community, so as difficult as this sounds, you need to try and make this a win-win for both you and the organization yo
  
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• Protecting more than privacy in K-12 sector

  15-12-2016 13:29
  
  Larger enterprises have the resources to not only afford the technology needed to grow in the digital age, but they also have the budget and manpower to build security into their overall ecosystems.
  Does the K-12 education sector have the means to do the same? As the use of technology becomes more prevalent in public schools, will collecting more data potentially increase the cybersecurity risks for the K-12 sector?
  Earlier this fall, the Center for Data Innovation released a report, Build
  
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• The iPhone switcher's guide: Move from iOS to Android and keep all your stuff

  15-12-2016 13:00
  
  So you’ve decided to switch to Android. We can’t say we blame you—as you’ll soon see, the grass over here is as green as our bots—but we know that starting from scratch can be a scary experience. There’s all sorts of information on your old iPhone that you’re going to want to transfer to your new one, and let’s face it, Apple isn’t exactly going out of its way to help. But we are!
  Whatever your reason for getting your head out of the iClouds
  
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• Walking Dead can teach you valuable security lessons

  15-12-2016 12:38
  
  Since early 19th century West Africa, the word “Zombie” has struck fear into the hearts of people. With the evolution of technology, and the rise of hit shows like “The Walking Dead,” zombies are more popular than ever, but the most terrifying thing about the world of
  The Walking Dead isn’t "Walkers", it’s other people: Walkers, as they are referred to on the show, are predictable; they’re hungry, and they want to eat your brains. Humans on the other ha
  
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• Tips for maintaining security while employees are out of the office for the holidays

  15-12-2016 12:33
  
  Ho-ho, whoaImage by ThinkstockThe downtime created by the holiday season is a fan favorite for enterprise employees and hackers alike. As workers are enjoying time away from the office for vacations or working remotely, hackers are viewing this slow down as an optimal time to attack corporate systems. To avoid having your organization turn into this holiday’s victim, security professionals provide tips for IT managers to protect corporate data, as well as share recommendations for using th
  
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• 14 eyebrow-raising things Google knows about you

  15-12-2016 12:32
  
  Google may know more about me than I know about myself.
  I'm not just saying that, either: I recently started poking around in Google's personal data repositories and realized that, between my wide-reaching use of the company's services and my own brain's inability to remember anything for more than seven seconds, Google may actually have the upper hand when it comes to knowledge about my life.
  From face-tagged photos of my past adventures (what year did I go to Nashville, again -- and who went
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How chatbots like Siri will get smarter

  15-12-2016 12:30
  
  Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and other A.I.-based chatbots provide subpar interactions that are far from being capable of having a conversation with a real-life human assistant. These tentpole features of the Apple, Amazon and Google platforms perform quite well when asked about the weather or when instructed to add a calendar invitation, but they look inept when asked context-specific questions or when needing to carry on a dialogue.
  Colin Allen, a professor of cognitive science at Indiana Un
  
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• Win-win: Open source .Net pays off for devs

  15-12-2016 12:00
  
  Two years ago Microsoft did the unthinkable: It declared it would open-source its .Net server-side cloud stack with the introduction of .Net Core. The announcement was surprising, thanks to Microsoft’s long-running feuds with open source projects, as well as its history of portraying open source as a threat to the software economy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Web-friendly Smalltalk gets JavaScript upgrades

  15-12-2016 12:00
  
  Melding Smalltalk and JavaScript for web development, the Amber language will get user experience improvements, better performance, and support for current JavaScript loaders.
  Debuting in 2011, open source Amber is a Smalltalk-inspired language that compiles to JavaScript and offers interaction with JavaScript objects. “Smalltalk has a minimal and very clean syntax. It is a pure object-oriented language where everything is an object,” Amber founder Nicolas Petton said. “Its de
  
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• The top 10 PC technologies and trends to watch in 2017

  15-12-2016 12:00
  
  Though some critics love to knock PCs as dinosaurs, laptops and desktops have gotten sexier, faster and even smarter. For every blue screen of death, there are droves of technological enhancements driving PCs into the era of virtual reality, 4K video and 5G connectivity. Here are the top 10 PC technology and trends to watch next year.VR PCs on your head
  Intel/IDGNS An Intel employee demonstrates the company's Project Alloy headset on stage during IDF 2016 in San Francisco on August 16, 2016.To r
  
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• Zorgen bij gebruik privé aanmeldgegevens op werk

  15-12-2016 09:34
  Negen op de tien ICT-professionals hebben zorgen over medewerkers die persoonlijke aanmeldingsgegevens voor applicaties op het werk gebruiken. Tegelijkertijd voelt een meerderheid van organisaties de druk om populaire authenticatiemethoden uit de consumentenmarkt toe te laten. Daarop duidt onderzoek door Gemalto.Twee... lees meer
  
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• California mandates energy-efficiency standards for computers

  15-12-2016 09:02
  
  California has become the first state in the U.S. to mandate energy-efficiency standards for monitors and a variety of computers, including notebooks, desktops, workstations and servers.The standards, which come into force starting from from Jan. 1, 2018, focus on the performance of computers in idle, sleep and off modes rather than putting limits on when they are in active operation, said the California Energy Commission, which on Wednesday adopted the new standards.California has more than 25
  
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