58055363
submission
itwbennett writes:
Late to the cloud game, Cisco Systems said Monday it plans to invest over $1 billion to expand its cloud business over the next two years, including building a global, OpenStack-based 'network of clouds' that it has dubbed the 'intercloud'. The Intercloud will support any workload, on any hypervisor and interoperate with any cloud, both private and public, according to Cisco.
58050519
submission
jfruh writes:
Most security experts agree that Linux is one of the most secure OSes out there. But to listen to some media reports, you'd think it was a security nightmare. Tech commentator Jim Lynch thinks the disparity comes from a sensationalist press's tendency to tear down a winner: because Linux is so secure, its (few) security problems seem like bigger news. It's the same logic behind stories about Apple's impending financial implosion.
58050359
submission
jfruh writes:
Americans are often suspicious of internet attacks originating from China, but the National Security Agency seems to be aiming to prove that things can go both ways. It appears that the NSA hacked into the servers of Chinese network equipment manufacturer Huawei, and placed backdoors into Huawei's products.
57957581
submission
itwbennett writes:
Oppo Electronics has taken off the wraps on its first LTE phone, and it packs more technology than most if not all laptops. The Find 7 is a 5.5" phone and is the first to support 2560 x 1440 resolution (by comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S5 has 441 PPI). 'Another striking and unique feature of the phone is its 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor,' writes blogger Andy Patrizio. 'This is Qualcomm's first chip to feature its Gobi True 4G LTE World Mode, supporting LTE FDD, LTE TDD, WCDMA, CDMA1x, EV-DO, TD-SCDMA and GSM4. Translation: this phone will work on LTE all over the world.'
57944069
submission
itwbennett writes:
A pair of Google's Project Tango phones, the prototype smartphone packed with sensors so it can learn and sense the world around it, is heading to the International Space Station on the upcoming Orbital 2 mission where they will be used to help develop autonomous flying robots. Work on the robots is already going on at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, and this week the space agency let a small group of reporters visit its lab and see some of the research (video here).
57943707
submission
itwbennett writes:
China's Lenovo is buying up patents related to 3G and 4G technologies from U.S.-based Unwired Planet for US$100 million, as the company sets about expanding with its proposed Motorola Mobility acquisition. In addition, Unwired Planet is licensing its patent portfolio to Lenovo for an unspecified number of years. The Nevada-based company develops mobile technologies in use by carriers including AT&T and Sprint. After its deal with Lenovo closes, Unwired Planet said it will have about 2,500 issued and pending international patents in its portfolio.
57931865
submission
strikethree writes:
BBC — Bankrupt Japanese firm MtGox said in a filing that it has found 200,000 lost bitcoins.
The firm said it found the bitcoins — worth around $116m (£70m) — in an old digital wallet from 2011.
That brings the total number of bitcoins the firm lost down to 650,000 from 850,000.
MtGox, formerly the world's largest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy in February, after it said it lost thousands of bitcoins to hackers.
57916241
submission
itwbennett writes:
For the past several months Tor developers have unsuccessfully been trying to convince Apple to remove from its iOS App Store what they believe to be a fake and potentially malicious Tor Browser application. According to subsequent messages on the bug tracker, a complaint was filed with Apple on Dec. 26 and the company reportedly responded on Jan. 3 saying it will give a chance to the app's developer to defend it. More than two months later, the Tor Browser app created by a developer named Ronen is available still in the App Store. The issue came into the public spotlight Wednesday when people involved in the Tor Project took to Twitter to make their concerns heard. Apple did not respond to IDG News Service's request for comment.
57909509
submission
itwbennett writes:
Anyone who wants to see how convoluted Microsoft licensing can be should check out the company's Licensing How To blog, where officials answer questions from customers and explain policies, concepts and how to apply usage rules in specific scenarios. A particularly illustrious example from October addressed confusion over whether and how Office 365 users can also access servers running on premises. The problem here is that, technically, end users need to have Client Access Licenses (CALs) to hit on-premises servers, but CALs aren't included with Office 365, which instead comes with User Subscription Licenses (USLs). So how does this work? 'The short answer is, it depends,' reads the post, which goes on to explain that Office 365 users can access on-premises servers that are 'equivalent' to the cloud servers they're licensed to tap. To map the equivalent Exchange, Lync and SharePoint on-premises and cloud products, the post includes a table with about 45 bullet items.
57908305
submission
itwbennett writes:
The software driving Bitcoin's network was upgraded Wednesday, with security fixes addressing a problem that defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox blamed for losing nearly half a billion dollars worth of bitcoins. The latest version of bitcoin's software, 0.9.0, contains more than a half dozen fixes for transaction malleability, according to the release notes for the software. Bitcoin Core also contains a new feature for payment requests. Previously, merchants couldn't attach a note describing an invoice, and people also could not supply a refund address to a merchant. The latest version automatically supplies a refund address.
57843239
submission
itwbennett writes:
Carolyn Lawson, the former CIO for Oregon's troubled health care insurance website, is alleging that state officials engaged in a 'substantial cover-up' meant to deflect blame away from themselves and onto herself and the project's contractor, Oracle. Lawson, who was forced to resign in December, this week filed a tort claim notice, which is a required precursor to filing a lawsuit against the state.
57795339
submission
itwbennett writes:
An archive containing transaction records from Mt. Gox that was released on the Internet last week also contains bitcoin-stealing malware for Windows and Mac, say researchers at Kaspersky Lab who have analyzed the 620MB file called MtGox2014Leak.zip. The files masquerade as Windows and Mac versions of a custom, back-office application for accessing the transaction database of Mt. Gox. However, they are actually malware programs designed to search and steal Bitcoin wallet files from computers, Kaspersky security researcher Sergey Lozhkin said Friday in a blog post.
57710007
submission
itwbennett writes:
The trouble with Google Voice is that the way we use phones has changed — and it hasn't kept up with the times: 'Fewer people have a mobile phone and a business line and a home line that might make One Number For All so. Text message costs (which are actually close to nothing) are almost always bundled into contract costs. Automatic voice transcription, while still a mean feat, is no longer such a magic trick,' writes Kevin Purdy in a blog post explaining why he's breaking up with Google Voice. The main problem is that, despite some very cool features, Google Voice doesn't play well with others — even apps in its own family. And it doesn't look as though that's going to get better anytime soon.
57699367
submission
itwbennett writes:
Everybody lies to themselves now and again in both their personal (My scale probably need to be recalibrated) and professional (This code doesn't need commenting). ITworld has a light-hearted look at some of the common lies programmers tell themselves.
57659273
submission
jfruh writes:
For years, paid links returned from Google search queries have been set off from 'real' search results by their placement on the page and by a colored background. But some users have begun to see a different format for these ads: a tiny yellow button that reads 'AD' at the end of the link is the only distinguishing feature. Google is notoriously close-mouthed about this sort of thing, but it may begin rolling the new format out to more users soon. 'Does Google want to increase its click-through rates as much as possible? Yes,' said a VP at one digital marketing agency."
