IT Executive news

• 39% off Vastar Professional Breathalyzer Digital Breath Alcohol Tester - Deal Alert

  10-04-2017 23:05
  
  The Vastar breathalyzer is used to measure the concentration of alcohol in the human body. With a sensitive semi-conductor sensor, it takes only 5 seconds to show whether you can drive or not after drinking. It will show you high accuracy test results (up to 0.01mg/l). Four units of measurement can be converted (%BAC , ‰BAC, mg/l, mg/100ml). This breathalyzer is space-saving, lightweight and portable. Just put it in your pocket.  With the current 39% off deal you can pick i
  
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• Raspberry Pi 3 gets Microsoft Cortana with Windows 10 Creators Update

  10-04-2017 22:49
  
  You will very soon be able to use Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant with the Raspberry Pi 3 and make cool devices that can accept voice commands.But for that, you'll need to upgrade the popular developer board, which can run Windows 10 IoT Core, to the Creators Update of the OS.You'll be able to use Cortana on Raspberry Pi similar to the way it works on PCs. You'll be able to ask for weather, time, traffic, or stock prices.Users will also able to build smart devices using Raspberry Pi 3 t
  
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• Latest Shadow Brokers exploit dump poses little threat

  10-04-2017 22:42
  
  A group of hackers that has been trying to sell exploits and malware allegedly used by the U.S. National Security Agency decided to make the data available for free over the weekend.The security community was expecting the password-encrypted archive that the Shadow Brokers group unlocked Saturday to contain previously unknown and unpatched exploits -- known in the industry as zero-days. That was not the case.As researchers started to analyze the exploits inside, it became clear that while some o
  
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• CW@50: A half-century of data storage (PDF)

  10-04-2017 22:04
  
  When Computerworld was founded in 1967, a 1-megabyte hard drive would have set you back by $1 million.Today, that same megabyte of capacity on a hard disk drive (HDD) costs about two cents.Through those five decades, data storage was seen as little more than a support technology, when in actuality has always been one of five tech pillars -- like processors and software -- underpinning our modern computer systems, said Owen Melroy, vice president of Media Components at Western Digital Corp. (WD).
  
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• AMD to cut wires from VR headsets with Nitero acquisition

  10-04-2017 21:45
  
  In AMD's world, a virtual reality headset that wires you to a PC isn't fun.So the chip company has acquired Nitero, which provides technology for VR headsets to be wirelessly connected to PCs or mobile devices.Nitero's technology will help device makers build VR headsets that wirelessly connect to devices in the multi-gigabit throughput range, according to AMD.With the technology, users will be able to take advantage of powerful graphics processors on PCs. At the same time, users will be able to
  
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• 35% off Universal Waterproof Dry Phone Bag for Devices, 3-Pack - Deal Alert

  10-04-2017 21:45
  
  Bring your phone and use it when you go swimming in the summer or skiing in the winter.  This waterproof bag (3-pack), currently discounted by 35% on Amazon from $19.99 down to just $12.99.  Great for using during outdoor activities including boating and swimming. It's flexible clear waterproof bag allows you to use your smartphone while keeping it safe and secure in the bag. They are IPX8 Certificated: Fully submersible and waterproof, it is designed for extreme condition.&n
  
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• US FCC kills plan to allow mobile phone conversations on flights

  10-04-2017 21:06
  
  Imagine a fellow airplane passenger sitting next to you and yelling into his mobile phone for six hours during a cross-country flight.If simply thinking about that scenario gives you a headache, you're not alone. On Monday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission killed a plan to allow mobile phone calls during commercial airline flights.Since 2013, the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration have considered allowing airline passengers to talk on the phones during flights, although t
  
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• Foxconn said to offer $27B for Toshiba's memory chip business

  10-04-2017 20:25
  
  Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer best known as the maker of iPhones and iPads for Apple, is said to be preparing a US$27 billion bid to acquire Toshiba's computer chip assets.Toshiba is most commonly recognized for making NAND flash and memory chips, with all of its factories in Japan. However, chip manufacturing in Japan has slipped as rivals in South Korea and China gain in strength.The news of the potential offer was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Foxconn is th
  
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• Could Amazon become an enterprise collaboration contender?

  10-04-2017 20:23
  
  Microsoft has for decades owned the intersection of collaboration, productivity and communication. However, as these services shifted to the cloud, it opened pathways for greater competition and flexibility in how organizations deployed applications for their workforce. Through G Suite, Google has stretched its resources and refined its family of apps for enterprise. The market is far from locked up, however, and analysts see at least some room for new players to emerge to challenge Google and M
  
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• Windows 10 beta testing resumes after briefest break yet

  10-04-2017 20:09
  
  Microsoft last week restarted deliveries of Windows 10 to beta testers, weeks sooner than it has resumed previews in the past.Windows 10 build 16170 was released Friday to the Insider program's "Fast" track, one of three that testers can select. It was the first for the operating system's next feature upgrade, which Microsoft has promised will debut in 2017 but has not scheduled.[ Further reading: Support family and friends with Windows 10’s new Quick Assist app ]The appearance of build 16
  
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• How design thinking drives Marriott's digital strategy

  10-04-2017 19:50
  
  Marriott International has overhauled its mobile application to emphasize personalization and guest services, underscoring the fact that millennials are driving companies to put digital natives at the forefront of their software development process. The hotelier has embraced design thinking for the digital era, a key strategy in a competitive industry loaded with choice, including Airbnb and other home-sharing startups."Where you're going to win the game is in the stay itself," says George Corbi
  
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• UK launches Data Science Campus to boost digital economy

  10-04-2017 19:44
  
  The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) has launched a new data science campus in Newport to develop world-leading expertise to help policymakers, researchers, and businesses.It will deliver five research programmes under the themes of urban future, society, sustainability, evolving economy and the UK in a global context. It will also offer funding opportunities for PhD candidates and deliver joint projects with partners in the UK and abroad.Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns and Minis
  
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• What it takes to become a security systems administrator

  10-04-2017 19:41
  
  downloadWhat it takes to become a security systems administrator
  CSO
  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Microsoft acquires Deis to boost its Kubernetes chops

  10-04-2017 19:37
  
  Microsoft is acquiring Deis, a company that makes tools to work with the Kubernetes open-source container orchestration system. The deal, announced Monday, marks Microsoft’s continued interest in container orchestration.Deis creates tools that aim to simplify the development of modern, containerized applications. Containers allow developers to write an application for an isolated, portable runtime that is supposed to be easily transferrable from a workstation to a server environment.Tools
  
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• Suspected CIA spying tools linked to hacks in 16 countries

  10-04-2017 19:36
  
  The suspected CIA spying tools exposed by WikiLeaks have been linked to hacking attempts on at least 40 targets in 16 countries, according to security firm Symantec.The tools share “close similarities” with the tactics from an espionage team called Longhorn, Symantec said in a Monday post. Longhorn has been active since at least 2011, using Trojan programs and previously unknown software vulnerabilities to hack targets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click
  
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• The ability to make audio calls in Duo is rolling out worldwide

  10-04-2017 19:16
  
  Back in March, Google unveiled audio-calling in Duo but limited it to users in Brazil. At the time of the announcement it promised to bring the feature to the rest of the world “in the coming days,” but the global rollout took a little longer than expected. Nearly three weeks later, it’s finally arrived.To make an audio call, simply switch the toggle at the top of the screen from video to audio. Like video calling, audio calls works over cellular and Wi-Fi, and is meant to be u
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The opposite of agile

  10-04-2017 19:16
  
  In the IT industry, everyone has witnessed the continued increase of Agile (with a capital A) adoption over the past 16 years since the Agile Manifesto was written. Everyone who has led an organization under Agile has discovered that Agile is easy to understand but hard to master. Delivering Agile takes hard work.What can we learn from comparing Agile versus agile? That question came up recently in my delivery oversight, especially when it came to identifying Agile anti-patterns.  That is,
  
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• Utah is the first Power Five school with its own varsity video games team

  10-04-2017 19:09
  
  The University of Utah announced last week that it had become the first school in a Power Five athletic conference to field its own varsity esports team.+More on Network World: Most notable tech leaders delivering 2017 college commencement addresses+Adding League of Legends and several other as yet unconfirmed games to the varsity list, alongside football, baseball, basketball, track and so on, Utah said that it hopes to prod other schools into following suit, creating a flourishing college espo
  
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• Cisco’s first big developers conference to zero in on IoT, cloud

  10-04-2017 19:06
  
  Cisco initially scheduled its inaugural DevNet Create developers’ conference in San Francisco for what turned out to be the same week in May as Google's wildly popular I/O event in Mountain View (that coy old Google didn't reveal its show dates until late January). So Cisco wound up bumping its event to the following week “to make sure we don’t take audience away from Google I/O. Okay okay — maybe it’s the other way around…” quipped Susie Wee, VP &
  
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• 50% off Dishonored 2 Limited Edition, PC, Xbox One and PS4 - Deal Alert

  10-04-2017 19:06
  
  Reprise your role as a supernatural assassin, and play your way in a world where mysticism and industry collide. The story responds to your choices, leading to intriguing outcomes, as you play through each of the game's hand-crafted missions. The game is currently discounted 50%.
  
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• Hack of Dallas emergency sirens prompts more warnings to bolster cybersecurity

  10-04-2017 18:39
  
  Dallas emergency management officials continue to investigate a hack that activated all 156 emergency tornado sirens citywide for about 90 minutes early Saturday.The city declared the sirens were activated Friday night in a hack that officials believe came from the Dallas area.The event was a warning that businesses and organizations, including cities and emergency operations centers, need to guard against similar breaches, whether they may come from disgruntled employees, hackers trying to pull
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Angry Mac users lash out at Apple over Pro debacle

  10-04-2017 17:58
  
  Apple recently had a small press conference with a few select journalists and talked a lot about the Mac. The company admitted that it had made a mistake with the design of the current Mac Pro and vowed to release a redesigned version.Juli Clover reports for MacRumors:
  Apple executives this week made an unusual and surprising announcement, detailing the company's work on an entirely revamped high-end modular Mac Pro that's set to be released sometime after 2017.Apparently, the negative response
  
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• 50% off OxyLED Mini Stick-on 6-LED Wireless Motion Sensing Night Light - Deal Alert

  10-04-2017 17:42
  
  This tiny motion-sensing strip contains 6 bright LEDs, and sticks anywhere. Just the trick for illuminating an entryway door-lock, a kitchen cabinet, drawers, closet or the glove box in your car. Simply turns on when somebody is there, and turns off when no motion is sensed. And the part that sticks is actually a magnetic base, so you can pop the light off and take it with you as a torch if needed. Currently priced at 50% off, so right now you're paying just $14.99 for a two-pack. See this deal
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Bringing consumers back into the fold

  10-04-2017 17:00
  
  Some technology companies have sworn off consumers. They have short attention spans, an endemic unwillingness to pay for things they think should be free, and just plain poor judgment, as illustrated in stellar fashion by the results of our recent election. Enterprises are much better at figuring out what’s in their own best interests. They’ll pay for demonstrated value.But consumers are, like, "oh, that’s nice," and they keep on moving. Preventing their minds from wandering aw
  
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• Email-based attacks exploit unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word

  10-04-2017 16:26
  
  Attackers have been exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word for the past few months to compromise computers and infect them with malware.The first report about the attacks came Friday from antivirus vendor McAfee after the company's researchers analyzed some suspicious Word files spotted a day earlier. It turned out that the files were exploiting a vulnerability that affects "all Microsoft Office versions, including the latest Office 2016 running on Windows 10."The flaw is relate
  
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• Spain arrests accused Russian spammer at US request

  10-04-2017 16:24
  
  A Russian man long connected with sending spam emails has been arrested and is being held in Spain, with a law enforcement source contracting news reports saying he was involved with a computer virus linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent election victory.The arrest of Piotr Levashov at the Barcelona airport on Friday was not tied to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, said the source, who is close to the investigation. That contradicts news reports from Agence France-Pr
  
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• Google primes Home for a major new feature: multiple account support

  10-04-2017 16:17
  
  While Google Home might be a great first-gen product, there’s a lot about it that still frustrates us. We’re still waiting for it to get support for reminders. We can’t yet add events to our Google Calendars. And we’d like it to integrate with more of the smart devices in our home.But it looks like one of our biggest gripes is finally being addressed. Inside the app’s Discovery tab users will now see a message that says, “Multiple users now supported. Now, you
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How a data-driven culture enables innovation and empowerment in an adaptive enterprise

  10-04-2017 15:58
  
  Data is the fuel for the digital economy and is at the core of driving insight-driven business transactions—from decision-making to cross-departmental collaboration. Organizations deal with an abundance of data across the enterprise, creating an opportunity to deliver insights and drive material outcomes to gain a competitive advantage.For example, automobile companies rely on consumer, competitive, financial and market data to determine which new features and technology to add to next gen
  
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• How to improve Dynamic Lock in Windows 10 Creators Update

  10-04-2017 15:44
  
  When Microsoft released Build 15031 of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on February 8, 2017, it added a new OS feature for Bluetooth-equipped devices. It's called Dynamic Lock, and lets you control access to your PCs based on how close they — and your Bluetooth-paired phones — are to them. That is, if the phone you've paired with your PC (it works for laptops, notebooks, tablets and desktops) is not found within radio range of your PC, Windows 10 turns off the screen and locks the PC a
  
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• ZTE's first Android smartwatch is here

  10-04-2017 15:00
  
  ZTE is trying its hand at making smartwatches for a second time with the ZTE Quartz. Quartz is the company's first smartwatch to run on Android Wear and offer Google Assistant compatibility.The company's first smartwatch, Axon Watch, launched back in 2015 but only in Chinese markets. Quartz has a 1.4 inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass display and a built-in speaker and microphone. The watch also comes with WiFi and 3G, which, along with the mic and speakers, allow for users to answer and make calls
  
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• How to deal with the bot crisis on Twitter

  10-04-2017 14:44
  
  You may have run into these bots a few times. What looks like an actual human being could have been a bot sending you Twitter spam...or even worse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How tech activists harness purchasing power to bring about change

  10-04-2017 14:24
  
  Money talks. Companies listen when millions of customers boycott their products and services.Peaceful, economic mass-protests aren’t new. Gandhi and Martin Luther Kings Jr. used them. Activists launch bigger, more effective protests using social media and online commerce. The purchasing power of millions of followers’ becomes a powerful tool to demand change.How are such campaigns organized? When do they work best? What technology is involved?Background
  Groups with little political p
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Masterful marketers do things differently — do you?

  10-04-2017 14:00
  
  Poor and wealthy. Failure and success. Negativity and positivity. The difference between these isn’t as big as you may think. In most cases, we’re all just one good or bad decision away from falling on the other end of the spectrum. So when you see other marketers who are absolutely killing it, the good news is that you can too.Masterful marketers merely do a few things differently. Once you see what they are, you’ll realize that you can implement them in your own career.How to
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Database elasticity: The primary challenge for digital transformation

  10-04-2017 14:00
  
  Under the banner of digital transformation, businesses large and small are making strategic commitments to technology as a primary driver of competitive success. There is broad acceptance that every company is a software company.Like so many of these things, it sounds right, and it’s a valuable insight. All of us need to take seriously the idea that we need to engage energetically and relentlessly in digital transformation. But embracing the concept is a lot easier than translating it to e
  
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• EBay folds Indian operation into local retailer Flipkart

  10-04-2017 13:42
  
  Facing fierce competition from Amazon.com, eBay has sold its Indian operation to local retailer Flipkart, while joining Tencent and Microsoft in investing US$1.4 billion in the Indian company.In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay will make a $500 million cash investment in the local startup to whom it will also sell its eBay India business, the e-commerce giant said in a statement. Flipkart will run the eBay India business as an independent entity upon the close of the transaction.In
  
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• Despite political uncertainty, employers bullish on hiring

  10-04-2017 13:31
  
  U.S. employers are optimistic about the second quarter, with the vast majority planning to increase hiring or maintain current headcounts, according to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey 2017, released on March 14.ManpowerGroup surveyed 58,000 employers in 43 countries and regions, across multiples industries and asked whether "they intend to hire, fire or maintain your headcounts in the quarter to come?" Of those employers, 11,000 were U.S. based; 22 percent say they plan to increase h
  
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• Buffooning yourself: Are you jargoning and acronyming your audience to death?

  10-04-2017 13:00
  
  Most of us tailor our language to our audience. We choose different words when talking to our child than when talking to our spouse, our pastor or our boss. We may not even notice that we are doing it. It’s often automatic and unintentional.At work, knowingly or not, people choose words for specific purposes beyond just conveying an idea. They want to impress, show deference, take credit, look smart, intimidate, dominate or avoid blame. They want to cover up their own incompetence or avoid
  
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• Predictive analytics can stop ransomware dead in its tracks

  10-04-2017 12:39
  
  This past February marks the two-year anniversary when Livingston County, Michigan, was hit by ransomware. The wealthiest county in the state had three years’ worth of tax information possibly at the mercy of cybercriminals.As a local government, county CIO Rich C. Malewicz said they have been a target of ransomware, but in this instance they had backups at the ready. He said the most memorable ransomware attack was a result of a watering hole campaign using malvertizing to infect use
  
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• Fight firewall sprawl with AlgoSec, Tufin, Skybox suites

  10-04-2017 12:32
  
  New and innovative security tools seem to be emerging all the time, but the frontline defense for just about every network in operation today remains the trusty firewall. They aren’t perfect, but if configured correctly and working as intended, firewalls can do a solid job of blocking threats from entering a network, while restricting unauthorized traffic from leaving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• AI player AlphaGo to play Chinese Go champion

  10-04-2017 12:25
  
  DeepMind’s AlphaGo program will test its artificial intelligence capabilities in May against top Go player Ke Jie.The match of three games in Wuzhen, China between AlphaGo and the Chinese player comes about a year after the computer program beat by 4-1 a key player, the South Korean Lee Se-dol, in a game that is regarded as involving more complex strategy than even chess.During the game, players take turns to place black or white pieces, called “stones,” on the 19-by-19 line gr
  
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• Enterprises get to work in the cloud

  10-04-2017 12:01
  
  Enterprises are finding all sorts of reasons to moved their data and business processes to the cloud.Capital One Financial Corp., for instance, is using the cloud as it advances from a financial services provider to a tech company with collaborative workspace, IT workers with new skill sets, fast-paced apps, and a focus on leading with cutting-edge technologies.The American Heart Association is working with Amazon Web Services to set up a cloud-based system where scientists from around the
  
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• Windows Embedded's future looks rocky

  10-04-2017 12:00
  
  Ah, Windows Embedded. The Microsoft operating system that millions of devices and machines are running, typically with a custom application or skin running on top of it so that users don't automatically notice the OS. The operating system that underpins hundreds of thousands of medical devices, automatic teller machines, kiosks at airports and other crowded public places, industrial machinery and control planes, set top boxes, game consoles.Windows Embedded is a relatively unheralded version of
  
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• New functional language champions type-driven development

  10-04-2017 12:00
  
  Functional programming has added a new language in its ranks with the recent 1.0 release of Idris.The language is positioned as general purpose, with dependent types. "Dependent types allow types to be predicated on values, meaning that some aspects of a program's behavior can be specified precisely in the type," documentation on the language said. Idris also leverages eager evaluation for compilation, in which an expression is evaluated right when it is bound to a variable.[ Get started: A deve
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How small businesses sell themselves short on accounting

  10-04-2017 12:00
  
  Every now and then your assumptions can be challenged by an unexpected dose of reality. For example, a recent accounting study by Viewpost revealed that over a quarter of SMBs have no plan in the near future for a streamlined, end-to-end payment process. Even more surprising, this poll of 5,000 U.S. decision makers revealed that 18 percent of SMBs don’t use accounting software at all and that only one in five (21 percent) have integrated their accounting software with an invoicing and
  
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• Android Gboard smartens up with federated machine learning

  10-04-2017 12:00
  
  Google has begun using a machine learning approach to learn from user interactions with mobile devices.Currently under testing in the Gboard on Android keyboard, Federated Learning lets smartphones collaboratively pick up a shared prediction model while keeping training data on the device. This way, the need to do machine learning is decoupled from the need to store the data in the cloud.[ Jump into Microsoft's drag-and-drop machine learning studio: Get started with Azure Machine Learning. | The
  
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• 21 hot programming trends—and 21 going cold

  10-04-2017 12:00
  
  Programmers love to sneer at the world of fashion where trends blow through like breezes. Skirt lengths rise and fall, pigments come and go, ties get fatter, then thinner. But in the world of technology, rigor, science, math, and precision rule over fad.Hot: AndroidTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Linux Mint 18.1: Mostly smooth, but some sharp edges

  10-04-2017 11:29
  
  We’ve been fond of Linux Mint for its ability to present a friendly interface to the average end user, while having a stable foundation of Debian and Ubuntu underneath. In this review, we looked at LinuxMint 18.1, dubbed Serena. We found a solid operating system that can run into problems in edge case scenarios.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Angry Shadow Brokers release password for suspected NSA hacking tools

  10-04-2017 08:19
  Annoyed with the U.S. missile strike last week on an airfield in Syria, among other things, hacker group Shadow Brokers resurfaced on Saturday and released what they said was the password to files containing suspected National Security Agency tools they had earlier tried to sell.“Is appearing you are abandoning ‘your base’, ‘the movement’, and the peoples who getting you elected,” the group wrote in broken English in a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump pos
  
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• Arista gets important win over Cisco in patent battle

  10-04-2017 00:04
  
  In yet another twist to the ongoing patent and copyright infringement case between Cisco and Arista, Arista has landed a significant win that will let it once again import redesigned products to the US that have been under import embargo since January.Specifically, according to a post on Arista’s site, on “April 7, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) completed its review and once again ruled that Arista’s redesigned products do not infringe the ’5
  
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