IT Executive news

• Leaked Fitbit photos show new devices in need of a redesign

  01-05-2017 23:45
  
  Fitbit is working on a follow-up to last year’s Blaze fitness watch, and a series of leaked photos show the Apple Watch rival isn’t going to win any design awards.The watch, which Fitbit has reportedly codenamed “Higgs,” is rumored to have a spec list that can certainly stand up to Apple’s Series 2 watch. According to Yahoo Finance’s unnamed sources, Fitbit’s second-gen Blaze will feature GPS, heart rate-monitoring, NFC payments, on-board music storage,
  
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• Digital disruption is coming but most businesses don't have a plan

  01-05-2017 23:34
  
  Most business leaders agree that digital transformation — a wave of business innovation fueled by technology — is disrupting their business or soon will be, but fewer than half have enacted a digital strategy, according to a new report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.The report, sponsored by Microsoft, found that 80 percent of the 783 survey respondents (from a range of industries, job functions, global regions and organization sizes) believed that digital disruption is
  
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• Cisco grabs-up SD-WAN player Viptela for $610M

  01-05-2017 23:33
  
  Cisco has padded its SD-WAN portfolio with fellow player Viptela for $610 million.The deal will be a homecoming for Viptela’s top execs as current CEO Praveen Akkiraju is a former Cisco and Dell EMC. Co-founders of Viptela Amir Khan and Khalid Raza were engineers at Cisco.“Cisco has been providing SD-WAN technology and services to customers for several years; the Cisco IWAN solution delivers an on-premises SD-WAN solution for customers needing advanced routing features and other adva
  
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• 43% off Moonrays Solar Weatherproof Outdoor LED Landscape Lights - Deal Alert

  01-05-2017 23:15
  
  If you're looking for curb appeal after the sun goes down, or an added element of safety along pathways, you may want to consider this deal. This stylish set of 8 landscape lights is solar powered and designed for all-weather operation. Its internal batteries charge during the day, and is completely removable and replaceable if needed (standard rechargeable AA's). The list price of $43.99 has been reduced by 43% to just $24.90 for a set of 8. And right now an additional 10% off coupon can be app
  
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• 42% off Moonrays Solar Weatherproof Outdoor LED Landscape Lights - Deal Alert

  01-05-2017 23:15
  
  If you're looking for curb appeal after the sun goes down, or an added element of safety along pathways, you may want to consider this deal. This stylish set of 8 landscape lights is solar powered and designed for all-weather operation. Its internal batteries charge during the day, and is completely removable and replaceable if needed (standard rechargeable AA's). The list price of $43.99 has been reduced by 42% to just $25.53 for a set of 8. And right now an additional 10% off coupon can be app
  
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• CIO.com honors the 2017 CIO 100 winners and Hall of Fame inductees

  01-05-2017 22:20
  
  Every year, we look forward to honoring the CIO 100 winners. It's our Super Bowl, World Series and Stanley Cup playoffs rolled into one, but the 2017 installment of our awards program is especially exciting for us as we celebrate 30 years of recognizing IT innovation and business leadership. We've included the list on honorees below but we'll be featuring the winners in greater detail on CIO.com and in our digital magazine on August 14. We'll also be launching our searchable database of all 100
  
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• Microsoft's enterprise phone strategy flops as revenue evaporates

  01-05-2017 22:13
  
  Microsoft last week quietly acknowledged that a year-old plan to focus phone sales on the enterprise market is dead."We had no material Phone revenue this quarter," said Amy Hood, the company's CFO, during an earnings call with Wall Street on Thursday.In fact, phone revenue amounted to just $5 million for the three-month stretch, representing a massive decline of 99% from the same period of the prior year. Assuming each Windows smartphone brought $500 to Microsoft, that was a sluggish pace of ju
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Making us all into makers

  01-05-2017 22:00
  
  The concept of Creative Hacking is something that a lot of technology startups have been exploring in order to address the increasingly pressing issue of the widening digital skills gap. This essentially refers to the problem that not enough children are learning the skills they need at school to function in—and contribute to—the digital economy.This was, in fact, one of the hot topics of debate at the recent Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, where an initiative was launche
  
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• Finance and government veteran Mark Morrison joins OCC as chief security officer

  01-05-2017 21:41
  
  The equity derivatives clearing organization OCC has hired Mark Morrison asOCC Mark Morrison, senior vice president and CSO, OCC In this new position, Morrison will report to OCC’s executive vice president and chief risk officer John Fennell. "To deliver world-class risk management, clearance and settlement services, we must ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of our systems on behalf of market participants in our role as a Systemically Important Financia
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Maplight data analytics helps 'follow the money' in politics.

  01-05-2017 21:09
  
  “Follow the money - and it’ll lead you to the truth”. That’s the advice given to reporters investigating the Watergate scandal in the movie All The President’s Men.The advice still applies, though it’s much harder to track money flow in politics today. How do you track who donated to whom? Who’s lobbying for what? What legislation may be influenced?Data analytics, visualization and new datasets help analyze how money and lobbying influence politics.
  
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• Appeals court won't rehear a challenge to net neutrality rules

  01-05-2017 20:58
  
  A U.S. appeals court has denied a request by broadband trade groups to rehear its decision last June to uphold the Federal Communications Commission's controversial 2015 net neutrality rules.The court's decision on Monday is a hollow victory for net neutrality supporters. Just last Wednesday, new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to repeal the rules at the agency, without a court ordering him to do so.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Is your phone system hurting your marketing efforts?

  01-05-2017 20:44
  
  Businesses focus significant money and effort into their marketing efforts in the hopes that it will send new customers their way. However, as that traffic starts to come in, it’s important that they have an experience that impresses them enough to come back later. But if a business doesn’t deliver the high-quality products or friendly service promised, all that effort will be wasted.A business’s phone system is often the face of a company. Before making a purchase decision, cu
  
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• Star Wars Holochess can become a reality thanks to Vuforia and Tango

  01-05-2017 20:29
  
  Over 25 percent of the 500 companies surveyed by IDC are testing augmented reality (AR) prototypes. Much of this interest, however, is stuck in the prototype stage because most hardware platforms are prototypes and many of the tools needed to build the killer app to move into production are still under development.Vuforia adds an important piece to the AR toolchain puzzle, though, with its announcement today of Smart Terrain for Google’s Tango tablet.Smart Terrain, announced in conjunction
  
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• Trump seeks to upgrade US government IT services

  01-05-2017 20:16
  
  President Donald Trump is launching a special council to upgrade the U.S. government’s IT services at a time when some systems more than 50 years old. Americans deserve better digital services from their government,” the"Americans deserve better digital services from their government," said an executive order from Trump, released on Monday.The order seeks to "promote the secure, efficient and economical use" of IT. As part of that goal, Trump is establishing the American Te
  
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• 'May the Fourth' remind users to choose a stronger password

  01-05-2017 19:35
  
  May 4 is coming up and has been designated as World Password Day to remind enterprise workers and consumers everywhere to use strong, updated passwords to protect cybersecurity.The date was picked to align with one of the silliest puns yet: "May the Fourth Be with You" -- also known as Star Wars Day. (Get it?) Well, maybe when Thursday, May 4 rolls around, it will still be a reminder for end-users to choose a stronger password and redouble security steps.Security firm BullGuard cited recent stud
  
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• 20% off Site-Wide At Griffin.com With Code, For Mother's Day - Deal Alert

  01-05-2017 18:46
  
  Protect, power and connect Mom's tech with products from Griffin. Get 20% off anything you find at Griffin.com with this Mom's day code applied at checkout: LUVURMOM. This site-wide Mother's Day promotion runs for a limited time and is good for Griffin tech products in categories such as (click a category to see more) Cases, Power, Cables, In-car, Wearables Accessories, Stands & Mounts, Audio, Stylus & Keyboards, Toys, and more. Visit Griffin and get your shopping done now while there's
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Foundation of digital transformation

  01-05-2017 18:38
  
  The tech world has seen some amazing success stories, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.Though all three are known for helming companies that made some great business decisions at the right time and made a lot of people a lot of money, some of their biggest achievements are how they structured their companies to keep on thriving, with or without their presence.Gates’ organizational leadership abilities allowed him to retire and focus on philanthropic efforts. Jobs, who died,
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Enterprise analytics is about finding better problems

  01-05-2017 18:04
  
  Enterprising Analytics
  To be “enterprising” is to be eager to undertake or prompt to attempt. To show initiative and be resourceful. These are leadership traits, so to be enterprising is to lead. “Analytics” is how we use data to inform decision-making, in the context of achieving business objectives. These are management practices, so analytics is about management.“Enterprising Analytics” is about being creative, resourceful and adventurous with decision maki
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 7 successful ways marketers battle and beat media burnout

  01-05-2017 17:31
  
  Whether it is Facebook or Twitter, scores of people join social networks every day and get addicted to them.While being on social media is one of the most effective ways of being in the know about worldwide affairs, there can come a time when you feel like you’ve had enough.However, the phenomenon of FOMO (fear of missing out) is very real, which is why most teens and millennials are often logged into their accounts for hours; and eventually experience what is called social media burnout.I
  
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• Three shades of hackers: The differences among the white, grey, and black hats

  01-05-2017 17:00
  
  The infographic below provides good, entertaining definitions of the terms white hat, grey hat and black hat hackers courtesy of Exigent Networks. As the infographic explains, there are some, well, grey areas between categories—for example, there is sometimes a fine line between grey hats and black hats.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• What is TensorFlow, and how are businesses using it?

  01-05-2017 16:53
  
  Google caused a stir when it open sourced its TensorFlow software back in November 2015, and the technology is starting to make its way into the mainstream.The machine learning software library is the next generation of DistBelief, which was internally developed by the Google Brain team at the search giant for a multitude of tasks such as image search and improving its speech recognition algorithms.TensorFlow is a deep neural network, so it learns to perform a task through positive reinforcement
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Building a Hackintosh without the help of tonymacx86

  01-05-2017 16:19
  
  Tonymacx86 is without a doubt the most useful site around for anyone who wants to build a Hackintosh. The site is chock full of useful tools that will help speed up the process of building your dream Hackintosh.But what happens when a writer decides to forego the tools at tonymacx86 and wing it when building a Hackintosh?Jeff Benjamin reports for 9to5Mac:
  In a previous article, posted shortly after Nvidia announced its new Pascal Mac drivers, I briefly discussed my plans to build a new Hackintos
  
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• Bixby Voice goes live in Korea on the Galaxy S8 as Samsung eyes U.S. launch next

  01-05-2017 16:13
  
  The Galaxy S8 is shipping all over the world, people are raving about it, and it’s breaking all sorts of sales records. But it’s still not complete. Samsung’s AI assistant Bixby wasn’t quite ready to launch when the Galaxy S8 did, so Samsung held back its biggest feature, voice commands, with a vague promise that it will launch “later this spring.”[ Related: A deeper look at Samsung's Galaxy S8 ]But we could be getting to know Bixby sooner than we think. Samsu
  
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• Twitter will stream video news from Bloomberg all day, every day

  01-05-2017 16:11
  
  Bloomberg news will soon be reporting for Twitter. The news organization and the social network are teaming up to create a 24/7 news channel available on Twitter. The two companies are expected to announce the new effort later on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.The as yet unnamed news channel will cover a wide variety of topics beyond Bloomberg’s preference for financial news and politics. It will be “focused on the most important news for an intelligent audience around
  
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• NSA suggests using virtualization to secure smartphones

  01-05-2017 16:07
  
  The U.S. National Security Agency is now suggesting government departments and businesses buy smartphones secured using virtualization, a technology it currently requires only on tablets and laptopsThe change comes about with the arrival of the first virtualization-based smartphone security system on the U.S. Commercial Solutions for Classified list.CSFC is a program developed by the NSA to help U.S. government agencies and the businesses that serve them to quickly build layered secure systems f
  
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• Save $45 on Amazon Echo Right Now When You Buy Certified Refurbished - Deal Alert

  01-05-2017 15:42
  
  You can pick up Amazon Echo for far below list price, if you're comfortable buying refurbished. Which you can be -- certified refurbished products are tested and certified to look and work like new, and come with warranties. Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly. All you have to do is ask. Echo has seven microphones and beam forming t
  
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• Report: Bad policies and practices put data at risk [Infographic]

  01-05-2017 15:03
  
  Almost every company has data stored in its systems that is overexposed and at risk. That’s the finding of the recently released 2017 Varonis Data Risk Report. The report is based on assessments that Varonis conducts for its customers and prospects to determine which data is at risk. The report data is aggregated and anonymized.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Robotic process automation market poised for explosive growth

  01-05-2017 14:57
  
  Robotic process automation (RPA) technology typically uses artificial intelligence to handle repetitive, rules-based, back-office tasks. And the market is about to experience a period of "explosive" growth, according to an Everest Group study.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Class of 2017 may be in for a rude awakening

  01-05-2017 14:31
  
  The Class of 2017 graduates in just a few weeks and will enter the IT job market, but they may be in for a rude awakening, as new iCIMS research reports that their skills and education aren't aligning with what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for in entry-level talent.
  The research, the Class of 2017 Job Outlook Report, which polled 401 U.S. college seniors and 401 recruiting professionals between March 6 and 17, 2017, reveals that while 91 percent of college seniors polled think they
  
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• Is Donald Trump right about H-1B visa abuse?

  01-05-2017 14:22
  
  As part of his “America First” campaign, President Trump has set his sights on the H-1B program, in which temporary visas are granted to foreign workers with college degrees and “highly specialized knowledge,” so that they can fill gaps in the U.S. workforce. The tech industry is a big supporter of the H-1B program, claiming that there’s a shortage of workers with in-demand tech skills. Hiring these foreign workers, the industry says, is good for the economy because
  
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• A deeper look at Samsung's Galaxy S8

  01-05-2017 14:08
  
  The Samsung Galaxy S8 has redefined smartphones -- it's all curves, no bezels and truly one of a kind. Samsung needed to create a device that would make everyone forget about the Note 7's exploding batteries and it accomplished that. The S8 and S8+ are two of the best smartphones on the market. They aren't perfect, but Samsung came close.What might be most exciting about the latest Galaxy flagships is that Samsung has made smartphones fun again. Smartphone design has grown tired, with every devi
  
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• How the insurance industry could change the game for security

  01-05-2017 14:07
  
  The recent growth in the cyber insurance market is already improving cybersecurity in some industry segments, and has the potential to do more -- if the industry is able to address its data problem.One area where cyber insurance has already made an impact is in the retail space, said David White, founder and COO at Axio Global, a cyber risk company.After the 2013 Target breach, it became very difficult for retailers to get a decent price for cyber insurance unless they had completely switched ov
  
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• Ecosysteem: oude wijn in nieuwe zakken?

  01-05-2017 13:38
  Door Anneke Burger-Tebbens Torringa – In de IT en daarbuiten heeft tegenwoordig iedereen de mond vol van ‘ecosystemen’. Maar wat zijn dit eigenlijk en wat is er anders dan wanneer we spreken over zakenpartners of ketensamenwerking?En waar gaat het in essentie over: over processen of over een... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How Facebook is taking the fight again fake news seriously

  01-05-2017 13:24
  
  Facebook has been making waves recently with the roll out of its campaign to tackle the influx of fake news appearing on its newsfeeds.The contemporary political, social and economic climate is largely influenced by social media. It impacts a large cross section of the population—1.23 billion people according to Facebook’s statisticians—and, according to studies performed by the Pew Research Center, 62 percent of adults derive their news directly from social media and not from
  
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• Dan Geer: Cybersecurity is 'paramount national security risk'

  01-05-2017 13:21
  
  Dan Geer probably wouldn't call himself a prophet. But he may come about as close to it as anyone in IT security. And his view is that while current trends in the online world are not necessarily irreversible, they are headed in a dystopian direction.Geer, CISO at the venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, who gave the closing keynote at SOURCE Boston 2017 this past week, even made a biblical reference early on – I Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: As smartphone time dominates, branding imperatives shift

  01-05-2017 13:00
  
  Brand marketers have long debated the merits of TV, with its massive reach and engaging video, versus the combination of email and the web, which offers interactivity and increasing degrees of personalization. But a third leg of the cross-media table is emerging, and that’s smartphones, where tech development is evolving from user-driven to agent-led initiatives.Buoyed by speedy 4G networks and larger screens that make them a more natural platform for video, smartphones offer a level of ac
  
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• 17 tips and tricks to make your Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+ even better

  01-05-2017 13:00
  
  With so many features, where do you start?Image by Ryan Whitwam/IDGSamsung has packed a crazy amount of features into the Galaxy S8 and S8+. It's nowhere near the insane level of software bloat we have seen in some past Samsung devices, but there are a great many options to explore here. You could tap through menus for hour after hour, hoping to stumble upon all the cool stuff the phone can do. Or you could read this guide to learn all about the best tips and settings to make the most of your ne
  
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• Network monitoring tools: Features users love and hate

  01-05-2017 12:51
  
  Managing the health of the corporate network will directly affect the productivity of every user of that network. So network administrators need a robust network monitoring tool that helps them manage the network, identify problems before they cause downtime, and quickly resolve issues when something goes wrong.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Cybersecurity is one of the top risks organizations must manage in 2017

  01-05-2017 12:35
  
  Cybersecurity and privacy continue to make headlines. Experts have more questions than answers addressing risk management concerns in the evolving cybersecurity market.High-profile data breach incidents
  On March 7, 2017, the CIA got doxed by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks. Nearly 9,000 documents appeared online showing the CIA sought to observe conversations, online browsing habits and other activities by infiltrating the systems that contained them, such as Apple and Android smartphone
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Ditching passwords and increasing ecommerce conversion rates by 54%

  01-05-2017 12:30
  
  According to the latest data by the U.S. Department of Commerce, ecommerce sales jumped 15.1% last year, while total retail sales increased by only 2.9%. Admittedly, ecommerce as a percentage of total retail sales is only 8.3%. The implication is that most people still shop in physical stores, but the ease and simplicity of ecommerce continues to fuel its growth at a much faster clip. Credit: U.S. Census BureauScreenshot of a chart that appeared in the U.S. Census Bureau report on quarterly
  
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• Career Watch: Be wary of IT employment contracts

  01-05-2017 12:30
  
  Q&A: Attorney Jeffrey Scolaro
  Jeffrey Scolaro, an attorney at Daley Mohan Groble PC in Chicago and a member of Legal Services Link, answers questions about employment contracts.Are employment contracts for IT workers negotiable, or are they one-size-fits-all? The axiom that “everything is negotiable” should be where all IT professionals begin their assessment of proposed employment contracts. However, the IT industry in particular can be especially rigid in its collective enforce
  
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• Believe your employer doesn’t know about your legal problems? Think again

  01-05-2017 12:25
  
  An employee gets stopped over the weekend for a DUI. Unbeknownst to him once his name hits the police’s public database, his employer will know about it soon after – whether the conviction has any impact on the employee’s job performance or not.That is just one scenario in which enterprises are checking up on their employees to make sure their private lives don’t impact the companies bottom lines. It is not uncommon for companies to do background checks on prospective emp
  
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• Cloudflare wins managed DNS shootout

  01-05-2017 12:12
  
  An effective DNS (Domain Name System) infrastructure is a critical component of system uptime, which is essential to the viability and continuity of web services. For complex websites, a third of page load time can be attributed to DNS lookups. Inadequate or improperly configured DNS can have a potentially catastrophic impact on a company’s online presence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Strategy first: How to do mobile dev right

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a company that was finally doing business on the web. Its developers were exhausted after spending years learning about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery, and dealing with all the various browsers the company’s silly partners and customers wanted to use instead of the company’s Gold Standard, Internet Explorer 6.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Public clouds are calling to IT engineers -- and their wallets

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  Less than one-fifth of enterprise IT assets are in the cloud, but it looks like more are on the way.One-third of data-center professionals and IT practitioners plan to deploy workloads in the cloud in the next year, according to a survey by the Uptime Institute, an advisory group focused on improving critical infrastructure.Companies still rely mostly on their own infrastructure and multi-tenant data centers, including collocation facilities, the survey found. Sixty-five percent of IT assets are
  
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• JavaScript framework smartens up Firefox

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  With its Fathom JavaScript framework, Mozilla wants to extract meaning out of web pages and produce a more intelligent browser.Positioned as a "mini language" for writing semantic extractors, Fathom already is in production with Firefox's Activity Stream web traffic tracker, picking out page descriptions, images, and other items, said Mozilla's Erik Rose. Still in an early stage of development, Fathom "enables Firefox to understand the structure and content of a web page," he said. The framework
  
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• Google offers voice and language SDK for Google Assistant

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  Google is now offering a software development kit for its Google Assistant platform so that developers can build hardware prototypes that use the technology.The SDK enables developers to create devices that allow users to talk to them and get questions answered. Still in a preview form, the kit includes a gRPC API, a Python open source client to handle authentication and access to the API, samples, and documentation. There are gRPC API and bindings for languages like Java, Python, C#, Node.
  
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• FAQ: Can BlackBerry/TCL get back its smartphone mojo?

  01-05-2017 12:00
  In the mid-2000s, the BlackBerry dominated handheld computing. That was before the iPhone was introduced in 2007.Then began an era when slick touchscreen smartphones with fast browsers and gobs of apps commanded the market, led by Apple and Samsung.In the past three years, BlackBerry has struggled. Despite a devoted global base of 275 million enterprise users who want bullet-proof security on their BlackBerry Bolds and other models with hardware keyboards, BlackBerry slipped almost to obscurity.
  
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• CSO50 winners remain a step ahead

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  In reviewing this year’s pool of CSO50 award applicants, it was clear just how much security has evolved and matured. Projects submitted this year ranged from awareness initiatives, to threat analytics, to collaborative security, to identifying vulnerabilities and specific insider threats.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Cloud vs. on-premises: Finding the right balance

  01-05-2017 12:00
  
  Greg Downer, senior IT director at Oshkosh Corp., a manufacturer of specialty heavy vehicles in Oshkosh, Wisc., wishes he could tip the balance of on-premises vs. cloud more in the direction of the cloud, which currently accounts for only about 20% of his application footprint. However, as a contractor for the Department of Defense, his company is beholden to strict data requirements, including where data is stored."Cloud offerings have helped us deploy faster and reduce our data center infrastr
  
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