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18 of the coolest, weirdest, and most important electric cars of all time
From the 19th century's first designs to the Tesla models we haven't even seen yet, here's the evolution of the electric car. Read More
WHITE PAPER: GT Nexus
Redefining Operational Excellence for Omnichannel Retail
The basic operating premise of retail is still the same –matching supply with demand in a way that builds sales and profitability. View now>>
WHITE PAPER: GT Nexus
Overcoming the Visibility Handicap in the Supply Chain
85% of companies have suppliers or customers overseas and 67% cite increasing complexity, requiring greater visibility. How do you stack up against Best-in-Class companies who are moving beyond the limits of enterprise-restricted supply chain visibility? View Now>>
F5's new CEO Manny Rivelo has big shoes to fill
Stepping into the shoes of someone who had a tremendous amount of success isn't easy. Sometimes the shadow created from the incumbent is so big that it's almost impossible to live up to expectations. Consider the flop that was Van Halen when Sammy Hagar took over from David Lee Roth. Or every Dolphins, Bills, or Jets QB since Marino, Kelly, and Namath.However, once in a while the person taking over is as good or better than the incumbent. A good example of this is when Manny Ramirez took over playing left field for the Boston Red Sox. The previous few left fielders included the likes of Mike Greenwell and Jim Rice, who were great in their own right, but Manny took it to another level.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
Crazy iOS security flaw lets attackers crash any iPhone or iPad nearby
At the RSA Conference this week in San Francisco, researchers Yair Amit and Adi Sharabani disclosed a dangerous and scary new iOS hack which can cause targeted iPhones or iPads to enter a perpetual reboot loop, effectively rendering the devices all but useless.Amit and Sharabani, who both work for the mobile security firm Skycure, note that the security flaw exists in iOS 8 and can be triggered via manipulated SSL certificates sent to a device over a Wi-Fi network. What's more, a previous iOS bug disclosed by Skycure, dubbed WiFiGate, enables attackers to create their own Wi-Fi network and "force external devices to automatically connect to it." Taken together, attackers can effectively create what is referred to as a "No iOS Zone."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
7 troubling similarities between the Apple Watch and Google Glass
Call it heresy, but now that I've had the chance to actually get my hands on the Apple Watch, I keep being struck by the parallels with the much-maligned Google Glass. That doesn't necessarily mean the Apple Watch will fail spectacularly the way Glass did, just that it will face many of the same challenges. Let's take a look at a few of them.(Note that I tried the Apple Watch only at the Apple Store. Actual deliveries don't begin until Friday, April 24. I have spent much more time with Google Glass… just not in public).They're both too expensiveThe Apple Watch starts at $350, but the "nice" ones start at twice that price and soar well into five freaking figures! Even more annoying, if you just want to upgrade the aluminum sport model with a slightly less-cheesy leather band, it'll cost you another $250. Really? $250 for a leather watchband?! In comparison, the $1,500 price tag on Google Glass no longer seems so outrageous.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
How your smartphone use could affect your credit
For prospective borrowers who have no credit history, a common problem for immigrants whose credit starts anew when they move to the U.S., economists and startups are using metadata from smartphones to see how reliable a borrower is in other areas of their lives to help determine their likelihood of paying back a loan.A recent article in the New Scientist cites research conducted by Brown University economist Daniel Björkegren and the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab which involved combing through cellphone data of 3,000 borrowers from a Haitian bank to identify such trends as how often they pay their cellphone bills, how quickly they return important phone calls, and travel behavior based on location data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
Enterprises failing to keep up with digital change, EMC study says
At a swanky dinner in San Francisco last week, execs from EMC and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) previewed the company's Information Generation report to a small group of journalists. And EMC President Jeremy Burton made it clear how the trends identified in the report played into the kinds of technology decisions made by his company's customers.Rachel Maguire, research director for the IFTF in Palo Alto, California, explained that the survey of 3,600 business leaders in 18 countries across 10 industries revealed the top business attributes essential for success over the next 5 to 10 years:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg talks privacy and open source
Recently, DuckDuckGo, the Internet search company with a focus on privacy, donated $125,000 towards open source projects. This made me realize that I knew next to nothing about the DuckDuckGo founder, Gabriel Weinberg.So I emailed the man a few questions. By the time I woke up the next morning, I had answers from him waiting in my inbox. Here are his (unedited) responses provided with absolutely zero commentary from me.Bryan: Give me the elevator pitch. Put another way: How do you convince people of the value of DuckDuckGo in as short a time as possible?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
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eBook: IBM PureSystems PureApp Pattern Interactive
Register now for an interactive experience where you can learn more about specific patterns to meet their business needs. Patterns Include: Integration Bus, SOA, Portal, and BPM. Learn More
AdBlock Plus wins in German court, a setback for Microsoft, Google, and advertisers
A German court in Hamburg has ruled that the practice of blocking advertising is legal, throwing a wrench into the plans of advertising and publishing giants like Microsoft and Google to stop AdBlock Plus, the highly popular Web page ad blocker.German publishers Zeit Online and Handelsblatt brought the suit against Eyeo, the company that owns Adblock Plus, which is also based in Germany. The publishers filed suit against Eyeo last December, saying Adblock Plus should not be allowed to block ads on their websites.Microsoft, Google, and some French publishers were reportedly considering a suit against AdBlock Plus as well, with the chief of a French publisher's association telling AFP that its members lose 20% to 40% of revenue due to AdBlock Plus, which has 144 million users worldwide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
8 DEMO Traction products you have to see
Introducing DEMO TractionImage by DEMO Conference via FacebookThe long-running DEMO conference kicked off with a new twist this morning – rather than focusing solely on new startups, the DEMO Traction show is shining a light on the companies that are gaining momentum in the market. Here are 10 companies to keep an eye on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
IDG Contributor Network: Survey: Employees will only embrace smartwatches if they improve work environment
As Apple ships its first pre-order smartwatches to customers this week, a new people-analytics survey indicates that more than half of workers would consider wearing an enterprise-supplied smartwatch if it provided a better work environment. PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, surveyed over 2,000 adults in the UK and found that 40% would wear technology supplied by their employer. However, the number rose to over half, at 56%, if the information gathered was used to make the work environment better.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
Hackers 'crack' Microsoft's Cortana to create ported Android version dubbed Portana
Last month Reuters reported that after Microsoft ships a new desktop version of Cortana for Windows 10 in the fall, the company will make the Halo-inspired digital assistant “available as a standalone app” for Android and Apple phones and tablets. But a couple of Italian hackers going by “Orange Sec” chose not to wait and created Portaña by porting Cortana over to Android devices.VentureBeat reported that Portaña only speaks Italian and it doesn’t work offline. The latter, according to Android Authority, is the downside “of porting the app; instead of recreating the Cortana experience in Portaña, the hacker group is communicating with Microsoft’s servers and there is little direct integration within the Android OS.” Instead of porting the entire app, OrangeSec “used Cortana’s backend servers to create a basic Android assistant that is lacking the polish and shine of Cortana.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
RSA 2015: New ways IT security is staying ahead of the threat curve
The 2015 edition of the RSA conference is being held this week in San Francisco. It appears this year's show had over 30,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors, both up considerably from last year. Security is an interesting IT topic because it tends to ebb and flow between being really important to the most important thing IT leaders are working on. Right now, it's fair to say it's the top initiative for most organizations. A recent ZK Research IT priority survey shows that security remains the top IT priority again for 2015 (disclosure: I am an employee of ZK Research). ZK Research The difficulty for security professionals is that security has changed so much over the past five years. I'm not ready to come out and say that protecting the perimeter doesn't matter – of course it does – but security needs to extend past the edge of the network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
IDG Contributor Network: Why IBM's z13 microprocessor matters to analytics
In January 2015 IBM introduced the z13 microprocessor, which is regarded as the world's fastest. Speed is important, but as any devotee of Moore's Law knows, it's pretty transitory. So in a world of ever-quicker chips, why does z13 matter? To cop a phrase from the radio waves, it's all about the analytics.When I think of why the z13 matters, I'm reminded of Willie Sutton's often-cited (though probably apocryphal) response to the question "Why do you rob banks? Because that's where the money is." The z13 matters because "that's where the data is."The z13 delivers many value propositions, including speed, but the one that I think about the most is what it delivers to organizations in terms of analytical capability. As I said above, the mainframe in the modern enterprise has the data, and that feeds analytics. With the ability to have 10TB of memory with large memory frames/pages, the practice of bringing your analytics to the data (rather than copying the data, via ETL, to the analytics) has more relevance than ever before. z13 is designed for cloud, mobile and advanced analytics capabilities, which is a function not only of speed but of design.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
WHITE PAPER: IBM
Understanding Virtual Application Patterns
This paper shows how IT organizations can use patterns of expertise provided by virtual application patterns to speed deployments, reduce the risk of error, and help simplify and automate tasks across the management and maintenance lifecycle. Learn More
More law enforcement jumps on encryption-is-evil 'friendly to terrorists' bandwagon
It seems like I found more bad news steeped in absolute stupidity than good news today. It’s the same old encryption is evil yada yada from various intelligence agency spokesmen as well as a bill that was introduced to reauthorize the flipping Patriot Act. The good news? The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared that mass surveillance doesn’t prevent terrorist attacks.UK CT cop claimed tech firms are “friendly to terrorists”Although a UK police chief didn’t name names or say the word ‘encryption,’ he claimed that some technology firms are “friendly to terrorists.”Reuters reported that Britain’s top anti-terrorism cop Mark Rowley chided tech companies for their lack of “corporate social responsibility.” He said, “Some of the acceleration of technology, whether it's communications or other spheres, can be set up in different ways. It can be set up in a way which is friendly to terrorists and helps them ... and creates challenges for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Or it can be set up in a way which doesn't do that.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
IDG Contributor Network: An entire country's data is getting backed up
We've all been experimenting with the cloud, if not adopting it fully with open arms. And we've all been performing local hard-drive backups. I ran my first backup onto half-a-dozen 3.5-inch floppy disks back in the early '90s, I'd guess.Well, if you think your backup schedule and procedures have gotten bigger over the years, just think of poor Estonia.Estonia is in the process of backing up its entire government. It's also building a cloud-based network for operating seamlessly if things go south, or east in its particular case.Here's what's going on:Digital embassies Stage one of the precariously positioned country's plans has been the creation of "digital embassies," which are basically sets of computers located in diplomatic consulates and embassies abroad. Data is backed up there.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
A tip for Windows 7 re-install (and other consumer tech upkeep suggestions)
To cap off this Friday, I thought I'd offer up some experiences from the front of consumer technology to help make your buying, deciding, and upgrading easier. It's like some reviewers like to say: we go through this so you don't have to.First up is a Windows install tip. I had come to the point where Windows 7 needed to be reinstalled. My system was a mess after almost three years. So after a largely careful backup (I forgot my Rainmeter skins), I wiped my SSD clean and did the reinstall. The actual Windows install took 20 minutes. The updates I had to download took three hours.But there was a problem. Performance had degraded. Everything from Windows itself to apps were slow to respond. It felt like trying to use a PC at full CPU utilization, even though it wasn't. Plus there were all sorts of app problems, like Chrome failing to load sites or properly render them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
How an uploaded JPEG or a photo nabbed via smartphone can get a company pwned
Here are two different scenarios that deal with how a photo could get a company pwned; one involves uploading a malicious JPEG and another involves how one photo nabbed via smartphone could take down a company. Both will be presented at the RSA conference.The Little JPEG That Could Hack Your OrganizationDuring an awareness session at the RSA conference, TrueSec security manager Marcus Murray will demonstrate how an attacker can get around the security mechanisms of a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 by using one specially crafted JPEG. Once an attacker has breached the perimeter, then he or she can move laterally, leveraging elevated privileges until compromising a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller and thereby pwning the entire domain. RSA posted a quick look of Murray’s “The Little JPEG That Could Hack Your Organization.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
IDG Contributor Network: How connected cars will optimize traffic flow
It has been hard to miss the buzz circulating that the so-called "driverless car" is just around the corner. Futurists have even speculated that one day humans won't be allowed to drive cars—it's just too dangerous, and computers will do a better job.Well, the driverless car is clearly on its way, and I, for one, am looking forward to creeping along in one. But in the meantime, we're just going to have to make do with "connected cars" for our entertainment.And connected cars have a lot to bring to the future road party. Tangled traffic at intersections will be on its way out if scientists at the Urban Dynamics Institute (UDI) at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory get their algorithms correct.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
You can download your Google search history, but you should delete it instead
There's been a lot of Internet buzz this week about the "news" that Google lets users download their search histories. Many Web commentators seem to find this capability fascinating, even though it's been in place at least since 2014 without anyone really noticing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
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