IT Executive news

• Procter & Gamble names Coke IT vet as new CIO

  19-04-2017 23:37
  
  Procter & Gamble today announced Javier Polit as its new CIO, replacing Linda Clement-Holmes, who is retiring after 35 years with the consumer packaged goods company. Polit, who assumed the position on April 17, joined P&G after working at The Coca Cola Company since 2003 and as global CIO of the beverage maker's Bottling Investments Group (BIG) since 2007.Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble's new CIO Javier Polit as its new CIO.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, p
  
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• Cisco issues 7 'high priority' security advisories; Firepower, IOS and ASA issues among them

  19-04-2017 23:04
  
  Cisco had a pretty large dump of security advisories today – seven “high priority” and one “critical” – impacting a variety of products many with the threat allowing a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.First up this week Cisco said a vulnerability in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) UDP throttling process of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) software could let an unauthenticated, remote attacker cause a denial of serv
  
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• 67% off Tribe Premium Water Resistant Cell Phone Armband - Deal Alert

  19-04-2017 23:03
  
  Tribe's armband cell phone holder regularly lists for $29.99, but with this 67% discount you can buy it now for just $9.98. It averages 4.5 stars out of 5 from over 11,600 people on Amazon (read reviews).Tribe's band is designed for activity. It's water-resistant, ultra-light, and made of high quality neoprene so it can flex, twist and bend without stretching or losing its shape. It features a key holder, as well as a reflective strip for increased outdoor visibility. Your touchscreen remains fu
  
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• Cisco certifications target business professionals eyeing software roles

  19-04-2017 22:04
  
  Trying to keep business professionals ahead of the rapidly changing technology environment, Cisco this week rolled out new business certificate and training packages.The package includes a certification-level offering for what’s known as a client advocate or a Customer Success Manager. The other certification has to do with helping business professionals learn how to build and transform corporations into the digital environment.+More on Network World: DHS warns on immigration spoofing scam
  
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• Face-off: ServiceNow vs. Zendesk for IT service management

  19-04-2017 22:01
  
  Face-off: ServiceNow vs. Zendesk for IT service management To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• How to run your small business with free open source software

  19-04-2017 21:57
  
  Editor's note: This article was originally published in November, 2013. It was last updated in April 2017.Take a look at the next desktop PC or laptop you come across. Odds are good it won't be running an open-source operating system. Microsoft's closed-source Windows has by far the highest share of the PC client operating system market, followed in a distant second by Apple's macOS. Linux and other wholly open source operating systems have only a tiny market share.It's not hard to see why. Desp
  
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• Microsoft plugs new power savings in Windows 10

  19-04-2017 21:40
  
  Microsoft yesterday touted operating system-wide power savings in a recent preview of Windows 10, claiming that the technology will reduce notebook battery consumption by 11% on laptops equipped with the newest processors.The technology, temporarily tagged as "Power Throttling," was enabled on all copies of Windows 10 Insider build 16176, which Microsoft released Friday. Insider is the beta program Microsoft runs for both enthusiasts and businesses. The latter rely on Insider to learn how the OS
  
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• A vigilante hacker may have built a computer worm to protect the IoT

  19-04-2017 21:16
  Is a vigilante hacker trying to secure your IoT device from malware? The mysterious developer behind a growing computer worm wants people to think so. The worm, known as Hajime, has infected tens of thousands of easy-to-hack products such as DVRs, internet cameras, and routers. However, the program so far hasn't done anything malicious.Instead, the worm has been preventing a notorious malware known as Mirai from infecting the same devices. It's also been carrying a message written from its
  
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• 19% off TaoTronics LED Dimmable Touch Control Desk Lamp with USB Charging - Deal Alert

  19-04-2017 21:09
  
  This desk lamp from TaoTronics features a sleek and minimalistic design with no buttons to speak of, thanks to its creative touch sensitive panel, for control over 5 brightness settings and another 5 color temperature settings (25 light combinations). Also features a USB port equipped with the iSmart technology for safer and faster charging. The LED reflects the light sideways and produces a strain-free light beam that doesn’t harm your eyes. The light averages 4.8 out of 5 stars from
  
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• Facebook launches tool for capturing 360 video inside VR

  19-04-2017 20:59
  
  Facebook is giving virtual reality developers the ability to embed 360-degree photo and video capture into their experiences with a new software development kit made available Wednesday.The 360 Capture SDK will let users capture the complete scene around them, for sharing to other platforms like Facebook. It's a tool that's designed to give people who don't have VR headsets a window into the action and also lets people with the right hardware replay moments in full VR.A key detail about the
  
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• Humans are (still) the weakest cybersecurity link

  19-04-2017 20:56
  
  Humans remain the weak link in corporate data protection, but you might be surprised hat it isn't only rank-and-file employees duped by phishing scams who pose risks. Some companies are lulled into a false sense of cybersecurity by vendors. You read that right:Some enterprises believe the shiny new technologies they've acquired will protect them from anything.Just ask Theodore Kobus, leader of BakerHostetler’s Privacy and Data Protection team.BakerHostetler Theodore Kobus, BakerHostetler&r
  
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• Here's everything announced at Wednesday's AWS Summit

  19-04-2017 20:39
  
  Amazon CTO Werner Vogels took the stage at the company’s AWS Summit Wednesday to announce a smorgasbord of new features for Amazon Web Services.The functionality included new billing for software-as-a-service applications, a new continuous integration tool, and enhancements to the company’s database services. Here's the rundown of what was announced:SaaS Contracts in AWS Marketplace
  SaaS Contracts give companies the ability to pay for subscription software through the AWS Marketplace
  
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• Facebook updates Workplace as enterprise collaboration gets hot again

  19-04-2017 20:38
  
  Just as the enterprise takes another swing at figuring out how to help employees work better together, Facebook continues its push to entice companies to adopt its collaboration service.[ Related: Facebooks claims Workplace success ]During the company's annual F8 developer conference in San Jose, Calif. yesterday, Facebook rolled out updates to its Workplace collaboration tool."Here at Facebook, we've used Facebook to get work done for years," wrote Simon Cross, the product manager for Facebook'
  
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• Wunder no more: Microsoft releases new task managing app called To-Do

  19-04-2017 20:17
  
  It’s been almost two years since Microsoft bought the cross-platform task master Wunderlist, but you wouldn’t know it to look at it. Unlike Sunrise and Accompli, which were shuttered and combined into Outlook mobile, Wunderlist has mostly been left alone. But now Microsoft is finally ready to show off what it’s been working on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• SnapLogic's AI simplifies enterprise software connections

  19-04-2017 18:35
  
  SnapLogic wants to make it easier for users of its enterprise software integration platform to connect components of their business systems. The company has unveiled a new feature that uses machine learning to suggest what users may want to do.The idea behind the new feature, announced this week, is to make it easier to connect and move data between enterprise software systems. SnapLogic's service lets companies take a data source like a Concur instance, and synchronize that with
  
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• Docker wants to help put old enterprise apps into containers

  19-04-2017 18:21
  
  Docker is offering enterprises an easier on-ramp to using containers with a new consulting program aimed at taking a legacy application and migrating it to a container in five days.The idea behind the program is to show companies the concrete benefits of moving older applications over to containers, without asking them to undergo a massive transformation effort. Docker is working with Cisco, Avanade, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the Modernize Traditional Applications program
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why CIOs should care about robots stealing jobs

  19-04-2017 18:11
  
  There’s a lot of talk these days about how robots, software, and artificial intelligence will (or won’t) steal jobs. On one side of the debate you find denialists, like U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who believes that widespread impact on jobs is “50 or 100 years” away. On the other side, you find steadfast pessimists: Analysts who believe that robots will replace as many as half the jobs in the economy, like Oxford scholars Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, or Mart
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: PR nightmares that were disasters waiting to happen

  19-04-2017 18:07
  
  This week’s PR disasters have certainly been covered ad nauseam, I realize that. But I want to make a point I haven't yet seen made in other posts or stories: The real root cause. Let’s start by taking a look at what the week dealt us.First there was Pepsi with its ad depicting a model at a protest, handing a police officer a Pepsi, missing the mark entirely and called on cashing in on demonstrations. It wasn’t even an original idea -- it’s been done before and really wel
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What is LinuxKit and why does it matter?

  19-04-2017 18:05
  
  Most open source projects are the outcome of someone scratching their own itch.  LinuxKit is no exception.Around a year ago Docker was getting huge demand from users to bring native Docker support for the environments they were using.Solomon Hykes, the founder and CTO of Docker, said during DockerCon 2017, that as they started building Docker for these platforms they hit a technical challenge. They realized that many of these environments didn’t provide a Linux subsystem, which is nee
  
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• Samsung ready to make chips faster than the ones in Galaxy S8

  19-04-2017 18:00
  
  Samsung is now ready to produce faster and even more power-efficient chips than the ones it uses the latest Galaxy S8 smartphones.In the fourth quarter, Samsung will start producing chips on the 10-nanometer LPP (low-power plus) process. These chips are faster than existing chips because of an enhanced 3D structure.On average, the new chips made on the new process will be 10 percent faster and 15 percent more power efficient than the first wave of 10-nanometer chips like the Samsung Exynos
  
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• Rumor suggests the Note8 will be a bigger S8+ that adds a missing feature

  19-04-2017 18:00
  
  The Galaxy S8 has barely begun shipping, but we’re already thinking about the Note8. Even with a 6.2-inch screen on the S8+, Samsung has already confirmed that a new phablet is on the way later this year, and from what we’ve heard, it looks like it will be even better.Reliable flagship phone analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI has weighed in on the Note8, saying that the device will likely pack a 6.4-inch screen and the same Snapdragon 835 chip as the S8. As 9to5Google reports, the premier f
  
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• Riverbed absorbs Wi-Fi vendor Xirrus, reaches for the edge of the network

  19-04-2017 18:00
  
  Network management company Riverbed Technology today announced its intent to acquire enterprise Wi-Fi equipment vendor Xirrus for an undisclosed fee.Riverbed touted that the acquisition, which it expects to close by the end of the month, will expand its software-defined WAN solution, and integrate Xirrus’ robust Wi-Fi products into the broader Riverbed ecosystem.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: New FCC web portal opens for 5G experimenters + Trump's cybersecurity mystery: 90 days in, where's the pl
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The state of the industry: the biggest regional tech trends of 2016

  19-04-2017 18:00
  
  It’s become a cliché, but still rings true: 2016 was yet another milestone year for the U.S. tech industry. Employment rose nearly 3 percent, according to CompTIA’s Cyberstates 2017 report, our annual comprehensive analysis of the nation’s tech industry. IT sector hiring accounted for approximately 10 percent of all jobs added to the U.S. economy last year.Even with a net gain of 182,000-plus jobs, U.S. employers posted job openings for more than 626,000 core technology
  
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• 39% off Exploring Raspberry Pi: Interfacing to the Real World with Embedded Linux, Paperback - Deal Alert

  19-04-2017 17:32
  
  The Raspberry Pi's most famous feature is its adaptability. It can be used for thousands of electronic applications, and using the Linux OS expands the functionality even more. This book, Exploring Raspberry Pi, is the innovators guide to bringing Raspberry Pi to life. The book favors engineering principles over a 'recipe' approach to give you the skills you need to design and build your own projects. You'll understand the fundamental principles in a way that transfers to any type of electronics
  
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• Surveys show high hopes, deep concerns about IoT

  19-04-2017 17:17
  
  Industrial IoT's big future is starting to become a reality, but many companies still don't think they're ready for it.Those are some of the findings in surveys released on Tuesday by the Business Performance Innovation Network and the Eclipse IoT Working Group. They reflect the views of hundreds of executives and developers from a range of industries.More than half of the executives think their industries are already adopting IoT through either pilots or large-scale deployments, and 57 percent
  
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• Oracle adds attention analytics to its data cloud with Moat buy

  19-04-2017 17:16
  
  Oracle's online advertising analytics platform will soon know even more about what you are watching, where and when: The company has agreed to buy Moat, which aims to track how much attention consumers are paying to online media.Moat's platform tracks browsing and viewing habits on desktop and mobile devices, and even connected TVs. It touts its ability to separate out non-human traffic so advertisers don't pay for clicks from bots, and to quantify the audibility and visibility of ads.Oracle pla
  
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• Can the enterprise save Facebook bots?

  19-04-2017 16:46
  
  Facebook's bumpy introduction of bot capabilities inside its Messenger service may be saved by an unlikely candidate: business users.While the company's bot platform for consumers has been more widely discussed than its business counterpart, support for automated conversation partners also extends to the company's Workplace service for businesses. In that context, users can interact with bots to perform functions at work, like getting a budget approved by their supervisor.Business-focused bots h
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How a CIO shifted IT’s role to enable growth through digital innovation

  19-04-2017 16:15
  
  Imagine you’re the new CIO at a global vehicle manufacturing company (with industry-leading products) that now faces stiff competition from new players in its market. The CEO brought you in to lead the company transformation to enable dramatic growth quickly. The management committee had already developed a vision of its future state and developed broad, ambitious goals including doubling top-line revenues by 2020 while reducing working-capital requirements.But the true level of commitment
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Enhanced productivity through vendor management analytics

  19-04-2017 15:46
  
  I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Saibal Sen, author of the book Next Generation Service Contract Management: An Analytics-Driven Approach and the president of Zenesys Consulting. Our discussion centered around how vendor analytics can be used not only to properly measure and manage IT vendors, but also to enhance the productivity of the service delivered by the outsourcing vendors.Mr. Sen said "Compared to how much outsourcing has evolved over the years — from body shopping to
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What went wrong with Apple’s 2013 Mac Pro?

  19-04-2017 15:37
  
  When the history of Apple is written, the 2013 Mac Pro will be considered a major disaster for the company. There’s no way to sugarcoat this fact to make it more palatable, and the company now has no other choice but to release a killer new Mac Pro as quickly as possible.So what went wrong with the 2013 Mac Pro? Well according to Marco Arment, plenty. In a fascinating post he takes a look at how Apple screwed up with the 2013 Mac Pro and what the company needs to do to fix it.Marco writes
  
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• You can now sign into your Microsoft Account without a password

  19-04-2017 15:32
  Microsoft’s war on the password continues with a handy addition to the Microsoft Authenticator app for Android and iOS. Instead of using Microsoft Authenticator for two-step authentication, you can use the app to sign into your Microsoft Account without a password.This doesn’t mean you can use Authenticator to sign-in to your Microsoft Account anywhere—it doesn’t work for logging in to Windows 10 PCs, for example. But for website sign-ins that require your Microsoft Accou
  
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• 5 ways to keep virtual assistants from sharing your company's secrets

  19-04-2017 15:25
  
  Virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Now have the potential to make enterprise workers more productive. But do “always listening” assistants pose a serious threat to security and privacy, too?Nineteen percent of organizations are already using intelligent digital assistants, such as Siri and Cortana, for work-related tasks, according to Spiceworks’ October 2016 survey of 566 IT professionals in North America, Europe, the Middle East a
  
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• Stack Overflow: Like sleep? Don't code in C

  19-04-2017 15:00
  
  When it comes to developers' work habits and the languages they use, C# programmers tend to start and stop work earlier than C programmers, who stay up later. But for programming outside of the common 9-to-5 workday, Haskell gets the nod.In analysis of programming traffic on the Stack Overflow online community over for four weeks last August, Stack Overflow Insights data scientist David Robinson, found that traffic spikes during the workday—unsurprising since the site is used by programmer
  
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• Report: Cybercriminals prefer Skype, Jabber, and ICQ

  19-04-2017 15:00
  
  The most popular instant messaging platforms with cyber criminals are Skype, Jabber and ICQ, according to a new report released this morning.Meanwhile, consumer-grade platforms like AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo IM have fallen out of favor, while newer, more secure consumer oriented platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp are also gaining popularity.The newer platforms are more user-friendly and more convenient, but also offer greater security, said Leroy Terrelonge, Director of Middle East and A
  
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• Hands-on: Oculus Rift's Spaces shows Facebook doesn't understand social VR

  19-04-2017 15:00
  
  Facebook has made no secret of its reasons for buying Oculus VR, the company that kickstarted the virtual reality craze: Mark Zuckerberg and co. see virtual reality as yet another outlet for social interactions at some far-distant point in the future. Can’t get the family in one room? That’s fine, just load everyone into VR and you can all hang out. It’s a cyberpunk dream, straight out of Neuromancer—albeit a dream that’s a long ways off.But Facebook is forging ahea
  
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• New FCC web portal opens for 5G experimenters

  19-04-2017 14:53
  
  Got a fantastic, futuristic 5G wireless application you need to try out, but you need an FCC license to start testing? It’s about to get easier to get a program experimental license, thanks to a new web portal announced days ago by the FCC, in partnership with NYU and the University of Colorado Boulder.The idea is to make it simpler for research labs, universities, manufacturers and others to obtain the necessary permission to test new devices, while also ensuring that existing services ar
  
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• Oracle fixes Struts and Shadow Brokers exploits in huge patch release

  19-04-2017 14:37
  
  Oracle has released a record 299 security fixes for vulnerabilities in its products, including patches for a widely exploited vulnerability in the Apache Struts framework and a Solaris exploit supposedly used by the U.S. National Security Agency.The Struts vulnerability allows for remote code execution on Java web servers and was patched on March 6. Attackers have quickly adopted it and have used it in widespread attacks since then.Oracle uses Apache Struts 2 in several of its products, which is
  
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• Mobile device strategies catch on among hospitals

  19-04-2017 14:00
  
  Nearly two-thirds of hospitals now have formal mobile device strategies, a big jump from just five years ago, according to the latest survey by Spok, a healthcare communications company focusing on the acute-care sector. To a large extent, observers say, this growth reflects hospitals’ recognition that their doctors and nurses are already using or wish to use mobile devices at work.From 2012 to 2017, Spok found in its survey of more than 300 healthcare professionals, the percentage of hosp
  
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• 10 best cities for women in tech

  19-04-2017 13:39
  
  Despite increasing media attention and awareness, the gender pay gap is widening across the U.S., according to new research from financial services research and advisory firm SmartAsset. The pay gap between men and women isn't as pronounced in tech as it is in other fields, but it still exists.
  There are some metro areas (e.g., Indianapolis and Washington, D.C), however, that offer a better quality of life for women in tech, based on the pay gap, cost of living and percentage of tech jobs filled
  
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• Today 42% off Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands - (XBOX ONE, PS4) - Deal Alert

  19-04-2017 13:37
  
  Today you'll see the price drop an extra 42% on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. Experience total freedom of choice in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, the ultimate military shooter set in a massive open world setting.  The Santa Blanca drug cartel has transformed the beautiful South American country of Bolivia into a perilous narco-state, leading to lawlessness, fear, and rampant violence. With their corrosive influence growing, the cartel plagues the citizens of Bolivia but al
  
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• Buyers’ Guide: Prices dropping for data visualization software

  19-04-2017 13:14
  
  Market conditions are "highly favorable" for buyers of data visualization software because of "steady price drops," according to procurement analysts at IBISWorld Inc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Five tips and tricks to improve your WhatsApp experience

  19-04-2017 13:00
  
  WhatsApp is the closest thing we have to a universal chat client. All you need is someone’s phone number to start gabbing away, just as easily as you can with traditional SMS messages.This has helped WhatsApp become the dominant messaging app on the planet, with more than one billion users. As popular as it is here, you’ll see the phenomenon is far more pronounced when you travel outside the United States. In many other countries texting plans aren’t free, so smartphone users h
  
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• Privacy for everybody means privacy for pedophiles

  19-04-2017 12:46
  
  Pedophiles have the same right to privacy as everyone else.That is almost surely a losing political argument. But privacy advocates contend that if it is not a winning legal argument, then everybody’s privacy will be in jeopardy.It is an argument that is especially intense now, regarding the so-called Playpen cases. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is prosecuting a reported 137 people who they allege visited a now-defunct child porn website called Playpen in 2015, while it was under the
  
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• Baidu will share autonomous vehicle technology

  19-04-2017 06:15
  
  Hoping to get self-driving vehicle companies to share a common platform rather than design from scratch, Baidu said Tuesday it would offer its technology for autonomous driving to other companies, while also partnering in the sourcing of components and hardware.Baidu will offer a vehicle platform, hardware platform, software platform and cloud data services, and will open source code and capabilities in obstacle perception, trajectory planning, vehicle control, vehicle operating systems and othe
  
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• Baidu to share autonomous vehicle technology

  19-04-2017 06:15
  
  Hoping to get self-driving vehicle companies to share a common platform rather than design from scratch, Baidu said Tuesday it would offer its technology for autonomous driving to other companies, while also partnering in the sourcing of components and hardware.Baidu will offer a vehicle platform, hardware platform, software platform and cloud data services, and will open source code and capabilities in obstacle perception, trajectory planning, vehicle control, vehicle operating systems and othe
  
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• These grippers are giving bots a helping hand

  19-04-2017 01:04
  
  You know the old saying, scratch my back and I'll scratch yours? It basically means that if you want a hand, you have to lend one first. That's exactly what Paul Ekas has set out to do with his company, Sake Robotics, which manufactures grippers for industrial robots.“As robots move into unstructured environments, and can start doing useful work, like clean the house someday, one of the big markets is just the ability to pick stuff up and put it down,” Ekas says. Sake Robot
  
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• Trump's cybersecurity mystery: 90 days in, where's the plan?

  19-04-2017 00:47
  
  On Jan. 6, weeks before he was due to become president, Donald Trump sat down with U.S. intelligence officials for a two-hour briefing at Trump Tower on cyberattacks conducted during the U.S. election. The meeting resulted in a pledge: a plan to counter cyberattacks against the U.S. within 90 days of taking office.On Wednesday, President Trump marks his 90th day in office with no sign of a report or indication that one is on the way. That’s a surprise, given the recent string of successful
  
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