North Korea, for the first time, has denied involvement in the recent cyber attack that hit Sony Pictures. The country is a suspect in the attack, partly because of Sony’s upcoming release of “The Interview,” a comedy in which two TV reporters travel to North Korea on a secret mission …
Microsoft took a big loss on its 2012 investment in Barnes & Noble, getting less than half of its original upfront $300 million back when the two firms parted ways today. Its loss, in fact, may have been even larger than at first glance, since Microsoft was obligated to pay …
A major problem with the H-1B debate is the absence of displaced IT workers in news media accounts. Much of the reporting is one-sided — and there’s a reason for this. An IT worker who is fired because he or she has been replaced by a foreign, visa-holding employee of …
Cisco is getting a lift from apparent momentum behind its Nexus 9000 switches and Application Centric Infrastructure fabric. Investment firm UBS boosted its Cisco stock price targets after discussions with EMEA chief Chris Dedicoat yielded numbers UBS found encouraging. Cisco has 900 – 1,000 Nexus 9000 customers and 120 customers …
IBM Watson, apparently not content with its Jeopardy winnings, is looking for work. After a lot of buildup, Watson Analytics, the natural language business intelligence tool based on Big Blue’s famed AI, is now available in beta under a freemium model where it’s free to get started — but the …
In an attempt to get ahead of cybercriminals, 16 banks have donated between $50,000 and $500,000 each to a build a new platform for sharing threat information. That platform is going live today — and it’s not just for banks. The Soltra Edge software is free for anyone to download, …
Apple Apple on Dec. 11 will welcome to its stores around the world those wanting to take part in the Code.org Hour of Code programming initiative. If you’re interested in taking part in an Apple Store workshop, act fast since slots are filling up already. Apple will be hosting engineers …
The U.S. National Security Agency should have an unlimited ability to collect digital information in the name of protecting the country against terrorism and other threats, an influential federal judge said during a debate on privacy. “I think privacy is actually overvalued,” Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of …
Recent privacy concerns surrounding Uber haven’t soured investors on the ride-sharing startup, which just raised US$1.2 billion from investors in its latest funding round. In 2014, Uber launched operations in 190 cities and 29 countries, and is six times larger than it was a year ago, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick …
Recent privacy concerns surrounding Uber haven’t soured investors on the ride-sharing startup, which just raised $1.2 billion from investors in its latest funding round. In 2014, Uber launched operations in 190 cities and 29 countries, and is six times larger than it was a year ago, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick …
The switch/software disaggregation derby has begun. Juniper Networks this week rolled out a switch based on hardware from the Open Compute Project designed to run its Junos network operating system software, and others. Juniper claims the OCX1100 is the first to combine OCP hardware design with an established vendor’s operating …
Microsoft today announced it will release seven security updates on Tuesday, three of them critical, to patch Internet Explorer (IE), Windows, various pieces of the Office suite, and the SharePoint and Exchange server software. The Exchange update was originally intended to ship last month, but Microsoft pulled it at the …
Microsoft’s shareholders on Wednesday approved CEO Satya Nadella’s multimillion-dollar pay package but by a margin much smaller than similar votes in the past. Last month, Institutional Shareholder Services, the institutional investment adviser, urged its clients to vote against Nadella’s compensation, calling a February stock grant given to him a “mega …
CNN used it for polling during the recent gubernatorial debates in Florida and on the “Magic Wall” on election night; Fox News uses it to follow the mood of the U.S. during the president’s State of the Union addresses. Now Microsoft is launching its Bing Pulse real-time polling service as …
Amazon Web Services is providing more payment options for its cloud-based virtual machines, allowing users to lock in a price and pay either entirely upfront, or throughout the life of a one- or three-year contract. AWS has a variety of ways customers can pay for using its cloud-based virtual machines. …
Remembering Editor’s Note: If you are unable to advance to the next slide, try disabling adblock. We apologize for the inconvenience. 2014 has been a particularly tough year for those of us at IDG who mourn the loss of Patrick McGovern, founder and chairman of the company, this past March. …
Ashton Carter, now widely considered to be the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), shares something with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. All four have a doctorate in physics. Although Carter has not pursued physics as a career, he has emerged in his …
Docker fever continues to spread across the enterprise IT landscape. Following similar moves by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google, IBM is equipping its enterprise cloud services to run the Docker virtualization containers. Delivered as part of its Bluemix platform services, the IBM Containers service is currently in beta and …
An unidentified North Korean official has denied that his country was behind the hack of Sony Pictures, an online report claimed. According to Voice of America (VOA) — the U.S. government’s official foreign broadcaster — a New York City-based North Korean diplomat refuted charges that its hackers, or those it …
In November, President Obama outlined a sweeping executive order that would overhaul the immigration system with provisions that would provide work permits for up to five million undocumented workers and provide for more software engineers and entrepreneurs to work in the U.S. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has been pushing for immigration …
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a penny stock promoter in Montana with orchestrating a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme involving the stock of a Northern Virginia-based company that claims to be in the airport security business. The SEC alleges that Matthew Carley, who lives in Bozeman, Mont., engineered a reverse …
GUI firewall tools in Linux The command line is a powerful tool for any Linux user, but there are times when a GUI can also be quite useful, particularly when it comes to managing firewalls. There are a number of GUI-based firewall tools available, but some Linux users might be …
Today wasn’t the day for NASA’s next-generation spacecraft Orion to lift off on its first test flight. A variety of issues, including a boat that strayed into a dangerous area, wind gusts and a valve problem, repeatedly put different launch times on hold this morning until NASA finally scrubbed today’s …
Google will try to boost the enthusiasm, commitment and sales of its enterprise partners with a revamped, consolidated program that offers more incentives and rewards. Google’s seven enterprise partner programs, organized around products and geographies, will be fused into one designed to simplify and intensify the company’s relationship with resellers, …
A Nook deal Microsoft and Barnes & Noble struck with much fanfare less than three years ago has deflated, after failing to achieve its lofty goals in the e-reader market. After plunking down $300 million for an almost 18 percent stake in Nook Media in April 2012, at a stratospheric …
With as much time as I spend in my inbox, Gmail is like a virtual home. So when Google announced Inbox, a reimagined Gmail interface aimed at making email easier to manage, I was immediately intrigued. My first impressions of Inbox were mixed, to put it mildly. But with anything …