IT Executive news

• DIY vs. fully integrated Hadoop – What’s best for your organization?

  22-12-2016 22:27
  
  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.
  You don’t have to look far to see the amazing things that organizations are doing with big data technology: pulling information from past transactions, social media and other sources to develop 360-degree views of their customers. Analyzing thousands of processes to identify causes of breakdowns and ine
  
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• Solid state drives are now larger than hard disk drives: The impact for your data center

  22-12-2016 22:15
  
  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.
  The amount of data that is being generated on a daily basis is growing rapidly, placing more and more demand on data centers. Not only do we have connected users actively engaged in generating and storing large amounts of content, machines such as autonomous cars and connected planes generate greater amounts
  
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• Uber ships self-driving cars to Arizona after San Francisco spat

  22-12-2016 22:03
  
  A day after it was forced to halt self-driving car testing in California, Uber loaded its cars onto trucks on Thursday and shipped them to neighboring Arizona, where testing will continue with the support of that state.The cars were loaded onto trucks built by Otto, an Uber subsidiary developing self-driving trucks, and left San Francisco in the morning, Uber said in a statement."Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck," the company said. "We’ll be expanding our self-driving pi
  
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• Snapshot: NASA’s “Human Computers” and the Hidden Figures movie story

  22-12-2016 21:35
  
  A math storyImage by NASAThe film Hidden Figures details an inspiring story about three particular African-American women mathematicians who were highly indispensable to the achievement of early spaceflight. The movie also involves some cool old mainframes and other high tech gear. Take a gander.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• It's about time! Google to release a pair of Android Wear smartwatches in 2017

  22-12-2016 21:05
  
  Major manufacturers like Moto and Huawei may be rethinking their wearable strategies, but Google isn’t biding its time while they figure it out. In an exclusive interview with The Verge, Android Wear product manager Jeff Chang revealed that the company will release a pair of new flagship smartwatches in the new year, designed to take full advantage of Android Wear 2.0’s new features.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Black market medical record prices drop to under $10, criminals switch to ransomware

  22-12-2016 20:54
  
  The black market value of stolen medical records dropped dramatically this year, and criminals shifted their efforts from stealing data to spreading ransom ware, according to a report released this morning.
  Hackers are now offering stolen records at between $1.50 and $10 each, said Anthony James, CMO at San Mateo, Calif.-based security firm TrapX, the company that produced the report.
  That down a bit since this summer, when a hacker offered 10 million patient records for about $820,000 -- or ab
  
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• The group that hacked the DNC infiltrated Ukrainian artillery units

  22-12-2016 20:51
  
  The cyberespionage group blamed for hacking into the U.S. Democratic National Committee (DNC) earlier this year has also infiltrated the Ukrainian military through a trojanized Android application used by its artillery units.The group, which is known in the security industry under different names, including Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, and APT28, has been operating for almost a decade. It is believed to be the sole user and likely developer of a Trojan program called Sofacy or X-Agent that has varian
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Don't be afraid to stop talking during your presentation

  22-12-2016 20:50
  
  Most presenters are afraid to stop talking. They dread silence. They feel the need to fill every second of their presentation with sound. And that usually means the sound of them talking.
  There may be any number of reasons for this fear. They may be afraid that silence signals a mistake of some kind. Or uncertainty. Or a lack of mastery over their content. As noted in a previous post, sometimes it is because they are afraid that if they stop talking, someone will ask a question.
  But silence in
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Have you made professional new year’s resolutions for 2017?

  22-12-2016 20:28
  
  We all do it. Make personal resolutions we manage to keep for a few shiny weeks into the new year. Exercise more. Eat healthier. Spend less time at the office and more time with the ones we love. Then that irresistible dessert comes along at a dinner party, or a big project gets dropped in your lap at work, and all bets are off.  But what about professional resolutions? Your list may be extensive, so prioritization is essential to staying on track as you work your way through it. As a help
  
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• Nokia files even more patent lawsuits against Apple

  22-12-2016 19:47
  
  Nokia has filed new patent infringement lawsuits against Apple on Thursday, a day after it weighed in on a licensing dispute with the company by filing claims in Germany and the U.S.On Wednesday, the Finland-based mobile network vendor filed lawsuits in three German courts and two lawsuits in a Texas court, leveling infringement claims against Apple on the widely used H.264 video codec and other technologies. Those suits cover 32 of Nokia's patents.Nokia's first round of lawsuits came after
  
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• BrandPost: A 2017 New Year’s Resolution for Manufacturers

  22-12-2016 19:41
  
  2017 is almost here, and it’s time to get your manufacturing business resolutions in order!So, what’s on your list for manufacturing in the new year? Lowering costs, focusing on more strategic IT initiatives, or maybe improving connectedness and visibility? One thing is for sure: 2017 is the year to swap your legacy ERP system for native cloud ERP.Manufacturers who rely on cloud ERP are quick to share their success stories.“Because we put the system in place from the very begin
  
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• BrandPost: Is Your ERP Solution Helping or Hurting your Business? 5 Warning Signs That It’s Floundering

  22-12-2016 19:35
  
  Food and beverage manufacturers are facing tougher challenges than ever before. Massive food recalls have led to an unquenchable demand for greater inventory traceability, visibility and precision in the global food supply chain. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by customer requirements and government regulations while continuing to minimize costs and maximize profitability.The systems that run your business, in this case an ERP solution, can either help or hurt your food processing busines
  
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• Do You Need a Traditional Office Phone Anymore?

  22-12-2016 19:24
  
  It has always been a given: When you get a new phone system, you also get new desk phones for every employee. But with today’s mobile, geographically dispersed workforce, it’s possible your employees don’t need an office phone anymore. If you’re looking for a phone system replacement, consider these five questions that will help identify the types of phones you need in a new communications solution.1.      Where do employees do most of their work?
  
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• BrandPost: Do You Need a Traditional Office Phone Anymore?

  22-12-2016 19:24
  
  It has always been a given: When you get a new phone system, you also get new desk phones for every employee. But with today’s mobile, geographically dispersed workforce, it’s possible your employees don’t need an office phone anymore. If you’re looking for a phone system replacement, consider these five questions that will help identify the types of phones you need in a new communications solution.1.      Where do employees do most of their work?
  
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• Analytics 50: How big data Innovators reap results

  22-12-2016 18:46
  
  Data and analytics are reshaping organizations and business processes, giving organizations the capability to interrogate internal and external data to better understand their customers and drive transformative efficiencies.Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia John Martin, senior director of enterprise
  analytics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.Intel Mani Janakiram, Intel’s director of supply chain strategy and analytics.To read this article in full or to leave a comment,
  
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• Event-driven infrastructure and the move to higher worlds

  22-12-2016 18:26
  
  At Amazon Web Services' (AWS) re:Invent conference two years ago, the company introduced AWS Lambda, a mind-blowing service that allows developers to specify and set up specific functions that would run in the event of particular events.This was a remarkable development, for it heralded the ability to move beyond servers for specific processes and move to a model where the operation was the unit of measure. Functions would run only in the event of the particular triggers and would set in a idle
  
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• Carriers tee up plentiful Google Pixel deals for the holidays

  22-12-2016 17:48
  
  Whether you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift or just a little treat for yourself, you may be able to score a great deal this week on one of the best phones around: Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile are each offering customers savings of up to $400 on a brand new Pixel.
  The catch is you need to be willing to stick with the same company for at least 24 months to get the full savings. The best deal we could find is at Verizon, Google’s exclusive partner for the Pixel. While you&r
  
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• CIOs eye automation, platform strategies, cybersecurity for 2017

  22-12-2016 16:55
  
  As 2016 draws to a close, it's fair to ask what CIOs plan to spend their money on for 2017. So we did: IT executives polled by CIO.com say they plan to automate more business processes, facilitate platform strategies and beef up their analytics capabilities.Cloud migration and cybersecurity continues to be a major emphasis, with CIOs renting more software via the internet and investing in more proactive approaches for defending their corporate castles.And as CIO.com noted Tuesday, digital remain
  
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• LG heads to CES armed with a bevy of new smartphones

  22-12-2016 16:48
  
  While most of the attention surrounding LG is focused on the G6, the presumed follow-up to the modular G5, the company is planning to bring a slew of phones to this year’s CES aimed at bringing flagship features to its more affordable line of handsets.
  The primary focus is on building its K series line of phones, with no less than four new models ranging from 4.5-inches to 5.3-inches. The top-of-the-line K10 is a relatively minor update to the existing model, bringing a 1.5Ghz octa-core M
  
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• Dos and don'ts of company party etiquette

  22-12-2016 16:10
  
  The company holiday party is a time to let loose, have a little fun and celebrate the spirit of the season with your colleagues. But it's also a minefield of potential disaster; one false move, and your workplace reputation could be ruined. With the advent of social media, the chances of your exploits going viral raises the stakes even higher.
  We asked three etiquette experts for their dos and don'ts of holiday party etiquette. Here are their top tips for balancing fun and good cheer with profes
  
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• Encrypted messaging app Signal uses Google to bypass censorship

  22-12-2016 16:06
  
  Developers of the popular Signal secure messaging app have started to use Google's domain as a front to hide traffic to their service and to sidestep blocking attempts.Bypassing online censorship in countries where internet access is controlled by the government can be very hard for users. It typically requires the use of virtual private networking (VPN) services or complex solutions like Tor, which can be banned too.Open Whisper Systems, the company that develops Signal -- a free, open-source a
  
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• No place like home for the holidays

  22-12-2016 15:27
  
  I remember years ago, on my first full-time writing job, submitting a request for time off between Christmas and New Year's and having my request denied. "You're new," I was told. "We need to have adequate staffing over the break, and everyone else put their requests in first thing after the new year … "
  I spent that Christmas break writing stories to fill an arbitrary quota of "fresh content." My sources were mostly on vacation. My editor was lounging on a beach somewhere. Senior leaders
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Innovation and emergent strategies for competitive advantage

  22-12-2016 15:00
  
  Strategies broadly fall into two categories: Corporate strategy, or “where to compete,” and business strategy, or “how to compete.” Often companies trip and fall awkwardly somewhere between where to compete and how. Today, we’ll adjust that trip to more of a fashionable skip.Innovation strategies are emergent, not planned.Finding a strategy
  Articles that highlight concepts of strategy are plentiful, but there are few that define the boundary between having a strateg
  
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• 12 great PC games holding festive holiday events

  22-12-2016 15:00
  
  Get jollyImage by BlizzardElves and flying creatures aren’t anything special in digital worlds, but that doesn’t mean your favorite PC game can’t get into the spirit of the season. These games are decking the halls, letting it snow, and even reviving Home Alone for the holiday 2016 season—and many of them are handing out unique in-game gifts for folks who join in on the festivities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Top 5 VPN services for personal privacy and security

  22-12-2016 14:00
  
  Virtual private networks (VPNs) encrypt internet connections between two points, to secure them from casual snoopers and hackers. These VPN services are particularly useful when accessing the internet from an untrusted location, such as a hotel, café or coworking space.A plethora of modern VPN services, with dedicated connectivity apps, have put an end to the maddening manual configuration VPNs once required. No two VPN offerings are alike, however, and it can be a challenge to find the r
  
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• Should Google buy Slack to bridge messaging gap?

  22-12-2016 14:00
  
  A lot changed in the enterprise messaging and collaboration market during the final months of 2016. Facebook formally entered the space with Workplace and the accompanying Work Chat app, for example. Microsoft released Teams. Google rebranded its portfolio of apps for business as G Suite.
  Google does not, however, appear to have a clear strategy or blockbuster app for messaging or group chat in the enterprise. Google is likely capable of overcoming this challenge on its own, but experts suggest
  
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• Every Apple user should download the new Support app

  22-12-2016 14:00
  
  Consumer Reports readers rank Apple laptops and desktops as the industry's most reliable. The hardware maker's tech support is tops, too, but if something goes afoul with your sleek, expensive Apple product you now have an easier way to get help: the new Apple Support app.After you launch and sign into the app with your Apple ID, a list of all your Apple products appears. To start a support call, you tap the product that's giving you trouble. From there, you can use a keyword search to find a so
  
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• The 10 best free Android games of 2016

  22-12-2016 13:00
  
  Free, fantastic funThe vast majority of new Android games released nowadays are free, whether they’re ad-supported, loaded with in-app purchases, or just offer a taste before you have to pay for the rest. If you download something from the Play Store, there’s a good chance that it won’t be very satisfying unless you spend some cash… or deal with obnoxious ads or timers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Experts split on how soon quantum computing is coming, but say we should start preparing now

  22-12-2016 13:00
  
  Whether quantum computing is 10 years away -- or is already here -- it promises to make current encryption methods obsolete, so enterprises need to start laying the groundwork for new encryption methods.
  A quantum computer uses qubits instead of bits. A bit can be a zero or a one, but a qubit can be both simultaneously, which is weird and hard to program but once folks get it working, it has the potential to be significantly more powerful than any of today's computers.
  And it will make many of
  
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• Tech luminaries we lost in 2016

  22-12-2016 12:30
  
  In MemoriamImage by Derrick Nauflett, Intel, New York TimesIn 2016, the world got a little bit smaller as we said goodbye to many of the tech industry's founders. Yet those innovators left behind legacies and technology that brought us all closer — whether it's the Internet we use daily, digital artwork that inspires us or a futuristic vision we still strive to realize. They were scientists, astronauts, artists and code-breakers; some connected the world, while others flew beyond it. Here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Continuous learning tools help leaders stay ahead of the curve

  22-12-2016 12:30
  
  Leadership is the “exercising of influence over others on behalf of the leader’s purposes, aims or goals.” The debate about leaders “being made” or “being born” is quite old, and both sides have equally strong points in their defense. But plain logic makes us infer that some people are born with certain natural traits that help them become better leaders.
  This, however, doesn’t mean that every person with such traits becomes a great leader. It mea
  
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• What the infosec jobs sector will look like in 2017

  22-12-2016 12:25
  
  (Insider Story)
  
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• Free security tools to support cybersecurity efforts

  22-12-2016 12:04
  
  There are more free information security tools out there than you can highlight with a fist full of whiteboard pointers. While many are trial ware-based enticements designed to lure decision makers to purchase the pricey premium counterparts of these freebies, many are full-blown utilities. A few important categories include threat intelligence tools, tools to build security in during the development stage, penetration testers, and forensics tools.To read this article in full or to leave a comm
  
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• Virtual reality, one year out: What went right, what didn't

  22-12-2016 12:00
  
  After years of teases, tantalizing promises, and Kickstarter campaigns, virtual reality finally became actual reality in 2016, with VR’s mere existence thrusting the entire PC industry into glorious, wonderful turmoil. Despite being around for just a handful of months, virtual reality has already inspired totally new genres of computers, wormed its way deep into Windows, and sent the price of graphics cards plummeting.
  Not too shabby for VR’s first real year on the streets, though t
  
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• Outlook vs. native apps in Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android

  22-12-2016 12:00
  
  Microsoft is now more than a year into reworking its Outlook clients and server software to truly support its mission to bring its Office communications tools everywhere: the Mail, Calendar, People (contacts), and Notes components in Outlook.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Cancelable JavaScript promises cancelled

  22-12-2016 12:00
  
  In a twist of irony, a cancelable promises capability has been cancelled as a planned addition to JavaScript itself.
  The proposal had been championed by Google's Dominic Denicola but had remained in an early stage of development, according to Mozilla. Denicola declined to comment on the proposal's withdrawal except to say it was a "difficult subject." In recent comments in GitHub repo, he said the proposal had met "significant opposition from within Google."[ Give yourself a technology career a
  
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• Trump threatens electronic rights, EFF warns

  22-12-2016 11:58
  
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation is keenly worried that President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress will step up surveillance activities and pass laws to curtail electronic rights.
  As a result, the EFF is advising the tech sector to use end-to-end encryption for every transaction by default, and to scrub logs. "You cannot be made to surrender data you do not have," the EFF said.
  [To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page.]
  "We need to start securing
  
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• How artificial intelligence can eliminate bias in hiring

  22-12-2016 11:00
  
  Diversity (or lack of it) is still a major challenge for tech companies. Poised to revolutionize the world of work in general, some organizations are leveraging technology to root out bias, better identify and screen candidates and help close the diversity gap.That starts with understanding the nature of bias, and acknowledging that unconscious bias is a major problem, says Kevin Mulcahy, an analyst with Future Workplace and co-author of The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules for Managing Dis
  
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• Despite big data, Alibaba’s Taobao back in US blacklist

  22-12-2016 08:32
  
  Alibaba’s Taobao.com marketplace is in the eye of a storm after the U.S. Trade Representative included the vastly popular online Chinese marketplace in the list of ‘Notorious Markets’ for 2016, after a long break.
  The list identifies markets that are allegedly "engaging in and facilitating substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting.” The listing carries no penalties but will likely be an embarrassment for Alibaba, which has been trying to burnish its image
  
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• Honda hopes to collaborate with Waymo on self-driving cars

  22-12-2016 04:51
  
  Honda Motor's research and development subsidiary is in talks to integrate Waymo’s self-driving technology with its vehicles, suggesting that working with car makers as a technology partner is key on the agenda of Alphabet’s autonomous car unit.
  A collaboration between the two companies will focus on the integration of Waymo's fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles, the car maker said Wednesday.
  The Waymo tie-up will “allow Honda R&
  
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• Uber relents and suspends self-driving car tests in San Francisco

  22-12-2016 02:46
  
  Uber has halted its self-driving car trials in San Francisco and agreed to work with state regulators on obtaining proper permits for 16 test cars. The move amounts to a climbdown by Uber, which had last week argued it didn't need to obtain the permits.That sparked a demand from the state that the cars be pulled off the roads immediately and a threat of legal action if they were not.Uber had argued its cars didn't require autonomous car permits because they didn't meet the law's definition of be
  
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