Oracle shrugs at Salesforce acquisition rumors Oracle executives say an acquisition of Salesforce.com by a rival would help it, by distracting its competitor with culture clashes and other integration issues (and if anyone would know about that, it would be those oh-so-acquisitive Oracle executives). Co-CEO Safra Catz wouldn’t comment directly …
Non-IT C-levels love absolutes on security. They want to know that if they approve those 50 more security staff and $200 million in additional equipment and software, breaches can be blocked. IT knows that it’s a silly question, that the best one can ever hope from security is to make …
Music pirating streaming service Grooveshark has just shuttered its doors, never to open again. Today, all that remains is a contrite-hanging-head-in-shame message posted on a scrap of what used to be Grooveshark’s web page. Bloggers explain why it all happened, and how they could see this coming from a mile …
Tesla Motors last night announced a new line of commercial and residential-grade batteries for storing electricity on site and to supplement power from the grid. While the news was expected after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the announcement last week, what did come as a surprise was the price: …
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Mozilla is planning to gradually favor HTTPS (HTTP Secure) connections over non-secure HTTP connections by making some new features on its browser available only to secured sites. The browser developer decided after a discussion on its community mailing list that it will set a date after which all new features …
Problems with the new Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone have infuriated some early adopters, but they still stay loyal to their favorite brand. Some have taken to user forums and tweets with expletive-deleted missives. This post Wednesday on an Android Central forum by Edge smartphone user Ajay …
Flashback to the days when this IT pilot fish is still young, foolish and working for a communications company that regularly sends him out of town for work or training. “Part of my job often included sharing lunch with venders or clients, and I had suffered through enough bad ones …
A botnet designed for Web advertising fraud was also used to nudge up the number of views of some pro-Russian videos on the website DailyMotion, according to security vendor Trustwave. An investigation into what appeared to be strictly ad fraud turned out to have a surprising political angle, wrote Rami …
Streaming music service Grooveshark has closed down as part of a settlement with major record companies that had sued it for many years for copyright infringement. The music service, which started in 2006, is ceasing operations immediately and will erase all the copyrighted works of the record companies, besides surrendering …
A Utah-based startup has launched a subscription model for buying SSL certificates, an essential but at times onerous task. SSL and its successor, TLS (Transport Layer Security), are cornerstones of Web security, encrypting data exchanged between two machines. It underpins virtually every kind of transaction that requires privacy on the …
Something big is up in the cloud. Google’s Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle says in five years you will barely be able to recognize what today’s cloud looks like. + MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: IDC’s state of the network at Interop: Change or be left behind | …
Oracle will probably come out ahead if one of its rivals buys Salesforce.com, because it would turn Oracle’s superior focus into an even greater advantage, Co-CEO Safra Catz said Thursday. “If it’s acquired by somebody else, it’s probably good for us, to be honest,” Catz told reporters at a media …
IT organizations have been virtualizing compute servers for years, and now it’s time for network admins to have their turn at virtualization. A panel at Interop in Las Vegas this week that included network executives from Dell, HP and VMware said that software-defined networking (SDN) will usher in big changes …
A security flaw in a common Unix software component remains unpatched in one of the most popular Linux distributions, more than a year after an official fix was published. “Super do,” which is universally shortened to “sudo” is a ubiquitous app that’s been a part of Unix systems for decades. …
With the release of Application Insights, Microsoft could help organizations learn more about how well their applications are performing, how often they are used, and how to fix them when they are not operating correctly. The debut of the service marks Microsoft’s entry into the rapidly evolving market of application …
“OK Google, where are the open houses in Chicago?” That’s a question that might yield a useful response for Android users, now that Zillow’s real estate service is integrated into Google’s voice search. Several new integrations hit Google’s voice search system for Android devices on Thursday, which lets people conduct …
Dell’s updated wireless dock, when paired with new Latitude laptops with WiGig chips, is a step towards reducing reliance on cables and ports in PCs. The PC maker on Thursday starting shipping the Dell Wireless Dock, which removes the need for compatible laptops to be cabled up to peripherals like …
Users are getting greater choice over what information is shared with websites and apps when they log in using their Facebook ID. A new version of Facebook Login, which begins its wide roll out this week, will present users with a prompt to “Edit the info you provide.” Clicking that …
With the release of Application Insights, Microsoft could help organizations learn more about how well their applications are performing, how often they are used, and how to fix them when they are not operating correctly. The debut of the service marks Microsoft’s entry into the rapidly evolving market of application …
Microsoft shared some additional details about the components inside its augmented reality HoloLens headset during the companys Build conference. Like a traditional PC, HoloLens contains a CPU and GPU, said Alex Kipman, a technical fellow in Microsoft’s operating system group, on Thursday. But the headset also uses a custom built …
To demonstrate the new machine learning capabilities in its Azure cloud, Microsoft has set up a Web site that guesses the ages of people in uploaded photos. The site, How Old Do I Look, is meant to show how easy it is for developers to use machine learning algorithms to …
A House panel overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency. The 25-2 vote in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sends the USA Freedom Act to the House floor for a vote. The two votes against the bill came …
A U.S. Congress committee has overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency. The 25-2 vote in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sends the USA Freedom Act to the House floor for a vote. The two votes against the …
Access, a global human rights group, has appealed to the United Nations and the African Union to intervene in the Burundian government’s decision to block mobile social media amid protests aimed at stopping President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third-term bid. The government of Burundi on Monday ordered the shutdown of social media …
Microsoft yesterday updated Windows 10 with the third refresh in the last 30 days. Build 10074 followed quickly on the heels of last week’s 10061: The seven-day interval was the shortest so far between updates. Last month, Microsoft vowed to pick up the pace of Windows 10 preview updates, and …