Facebook is building a new data center in Fort Worth, Texas, that will be powered entirely by renewable energy. The company will invest at least US$500 million in the 110-acre site, which is expected to come online late next year. The new location will be the social-networking giant’s fifth such …
An online petition calling for Reddit CEO Ellen Pao to be sacked now has more than 200,000 electronic signatures. The protest began last week when hundreds of Reddit’s popular sections, known as subreddits, were set to “private” by moderators, who oversee postings and comments. By changing the status to “private,” …
Windows 10 won’t help the struggling PC business out of its multi-year slump in 2015, researcher Gartner said today. But it might next year. “The release of Windows 10 on 29 July will contribute to a slowing professional demand for mobile PCs and premium ultra-mobiles in 2015, as lifetimes extend …
The iPod was Apple’s original rock star. Back before the iPhone became a global sensation and the iPad led the post-PC revolution, the iPod was the device generating long lines and record-breaking sales. Apple’s annual music event–where the latest in iPod technology was unveiled to much fanfare–created enough buzz to …
The lines, they are a-blurrin’. That’s what Bob Dylan said in his classic 1964 song, right? Okay — maybe I’m blurring ol’ Bobby’s words with the title of that Weird Al-parodied monstrosity (The Song That Must Not Be Named — yes, I’m looking at you, Mr. Thicke). But questionable pop …
As we hurtle towards the cloud, it is becoming increasingly crucial that we remain in charge of our data, of our cloud. And that’s where ownCloud comes in. This Open Source project, which was founded in Germany, is now a well funded, full-fledged company headquartered in the US and Germany. …
Google has picked Austin, Texas, as the second location to test its self-driving vehicles, expanding the trials beyond Mountain View, California. One of Google’s self-driving Lexus sport utility vehicles is already on Austin’s streets, the company said Tuesday. The vehicle, which has a driver onboard, is driving around a few …
EMC is selling its Syncplicity file-sharing and collaboration business to private investment company Skyview Capital for an undisclosed sum. EMC bought Syncplicity in May 2012 in response to the growth of mobile computing and bring-your-own-device policies in enterprises. Syncplicity is one of a host of cloud-based file services, including Box, …
A disagreement between the founder of Kubuntu and the Ubuntu Community Council has roiled the Linux community and left the project rudderless, as Jonathan Riddell left Kubuntu’s governing body late last month. A month before, Riddell was forced out of his post as the de facto head of the governance …
It’s no secret that security has been a tripping point for enterprises considering cloud storage, but OwnCloud on Tuesday took a fresh step toward alleviating such concerns with the addition of a new encryption framework. OwnCloud’s file, sync and share service offers an open-source and self-hosted alternative to platforms such …
The “possibility exists” for the U.S. Department of Justice to cut a deal that would allow surveillance leaker Edward Snowden to return to the U.S., a former attorney general said in a media interview. Snowden, who leaked information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, “spurred a necessary debate” about …
Mozilla will accelerate the release of new features for its Firefox browser, dumping its current 18-week development schedule for something nimbler, a company manager told contributors last week. The firm will also deliver a browser for Windows 10, a reversal of a 2014 decision to stop work on a touch-based …
Cisco this week announced intentions to acquire privately held MaintenanceNet, a provider of cloud-based software to manage recurring customer contracts. Cisco will pay $139 million in cash and retention based incentives to acquire MaintenanceNet. +MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco to buy OpenDNS to boost Security Everywhere initiative+ Cisco says the …
Will Firefox changes win back users and developers? Firefox has gone through a rough time over the last couple of years, with increased competition from Chrome and other browsers. Now the browser’s developers are planning big changes to Firefox. Will these changes win back users and developers who have abandoned …
The BBC has finalized the design of the micro:bit, the tiny computer it will give to 1 million British schoolchildren later this year to help them learn about computing. With its technology partners, the U.K. public service broadcaster unveiled the micro:bit’s final design on Tuesday, and gave more details of …
Researchers sifting through 400GB of data recently leaked from Hacking Team, an Italian company that sells computer surveillance software to government agencies from around the world, have already found an exploit for an unpatched vulnerability in Flash Player. There are also reports of exploits for a vulnerability in Windows and …
Privacy group files FTC complaint to push Google to extend right to be forgotten to US First they ignore you, then they laugh at you…. After a year of ridiculing a European court’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, it seems that some Americans at least are beginning to think it’s …
Server admins and developers beware: The OpenSSL Project plans to release security updates Thursday for its widely used cryptographic library that will fix a high severity vulnerability. OpenSSL implements multiple cryptographic protocols and algorithms including TLS (Transport Layer Security), which underpins encryption on the Web as part of protocols like …
Flashback to the era when computing means room-size machines, and this pilot fish and his co-workers are trying to get a spooling program running on one of them. “In those days, a fatal error would trigger a dump of everything in RAM, a whooping 65K that needed to be waded …
Image by flickr/Trevor Mattea Last year NASA published a catalog of software code it has developed over the years which you can now access for free. While NASA has a history of making technology it develops available to the public, other developers of proprietary software will sometimes also lift the …
Nvidia hopes to bring artificial intelligence to a wider range of applications with an update to its Digits software for designing neural networks. Digits version 2, released Tuesday, comes with a graphical user interface, potentially making it accessible to programmers beyond the typical user-base of academics and developers who specialize …
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has asked for a “robust debate” on encryption of communications, saying that the technology could come in the way of his doing his job to keep people safe. The recruitment and tasking of Americans by the group known as the Islamic State, …
Google’s refusal to implement the EU’s controversial right to be forgotten rules in the U.S. amounts to an unfair and deceptive business practice, a frequent critic of the search engine giant said. Consumer Watchdog will file a complaint against Google with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Tuesday, said John Simpson, …
A former Goldman Sachs programmer saw his second criminal conviction dismissed on Monday in a long-fought, technically challenging legal battle that centered on 32MB of copied code. The dismissal marks a significant victory for Sergey Aleynikov, who was a highly paid programmer for Goldman’s high-frequency trading operation, designing complex code …
Samsung Electronics expects to report lower-than-expected earnings for the second quarter after supply shortages kept down sales of its Galaxy S6 smartphone. Operating profit for the quarter will likely be around 6.9 trillion won ($6.1 billion), Samsung said, below the 7.2 trillion won analysts had been expecting. Sales are estimated …
Samsung Electronics expects to report lower than expected earnings for the second quarter after supply shortages kept down sales of its Galaxy S6 smartphone. Operating profit for the quarter will likely be around 6.9 trillion won (US$6.1 billion), Samsung said, below the 7.2 trillion won analysts had been expecting. Sales …