tsamsoniw - Slashdot User

Submission + - Test your SSDs or risk massive data loss, researchers warn (infoworld.com)

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tsamsoniw

on Friday March 01, 2013 @01:12PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Companies adopting flash-based SSDs as a cornerstone to the data center storage systems are risking "massive data loss" due to power outages, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Ohio and HP Labs. In exposing 15 SSDs from five different vendors to power loss, researchers found that 13 suffered such failures as bit corruption, metadata corruption, and total device failure. The paper did not specify which vendors' drives were used."

Submission + - Why a good green tablet computer is hard to find (infoworld.com) 1

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tsamsoniw

on Thursday February 28, 2013 @07:13PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Green laptops and computers were all the rage not long ago, with hardware makers such as Apple and HP crowing each time they rolled out a new machine that earned an EPEAT Gold rating. Now, though, if you peruse the EPEAT registry for a green "tablet notebook," you'll come up with one listing: the Xplore iX104C5 DMSR. No iPad, no Surface, no Kindle, no Galaxy. So what gives? For starters, the Energy Star spec briefly covered tablets, but not anymore, which means no tablet can be slapped with an Energy Star or EPEAT sticker. Energy Star is working on a new spec that will likely include tablets, while EPEAT is working on new criteria as well. But also potentially problematic is that some vendors — particularly Apple and Microsoft — aren't designing their tablets to be easily repairable, as evidenced by iFixit's Tablet Repairability scorecard. (Dell, by contrast, is doing an admirable job.)"

Submission + - Microsoft stealthily pilots Mac Office and Office 365 accredidation program (infoworld.com)

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tsamsoniw

on Thursday February 28, 2013 @02:45PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Microsoft has launched a pilot program to train and accredit Apple techs and consultants on Office for Mac and Office 365, but you wouldn't know it from perusing the Microsoft website or even reaching out to the company's public relations team. The Microsoft Office for Mac Accredited Support Professional accreditation is real, though it's currently being pushed only by MacTech, an Apple technology journal that's hosting the program at various events this year. It points to growing acceptance and usage of Mac products in the business world."

Submission + - Linux-savvy IT pros are in high demand, low supply (infoworld.com)

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tsamsoniw

on Wednesday February 20, 2013 @05:26PM

tsamsoniw writes: "IT professionals with Linux chops — particularly systems administrator — are in high demand and short supply, according to a new survey from Dice. Over 90 percent of hiring managers surveyed said they plan to hire at least one Linux professional in the next six months — though nine out of 10 respondents also said that it's "somewhat difficult" or "very difficult" to find experienced Linux pros. That demand — driven by trends such as open-cloud development, Big Data, and increasing migration to Linux — has helped push the average salary for Linux pros up 9 percent to this past year, to $90,853."

Comment Re:WHAT popular mobile developer Web forum? (Score 4, Informative) 148

by tsamsoniw on Tuesday February 19, 2013 @05:47PM (#42948947) Attached to: Apple Hit By Hackers Who Targeted Facebook

According to The New York Times: "But according to a person with knowledge of Facebook’s investigation, the compromised site, iPhonedevsdk, an online forum for software developers, is still infected. (In other words, unless you want to be owned by hackers, do not visit the site.)" http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/apple-computers-hit-by-sophisticated-cyberattack/

Submission + - Adobe hopes a pop-up dialog box will thwart Flash attacks via Office docs (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Friday February 08, 2013 @07:51PM

tsamsoniw writes: "In the wake of the most recent zero-day attacks exploiting Flash Player, Adobe claims that it's worked hard to make Player secure — and that most SWF exploits stem from users opening infected Office docs attached to emails. The company has a solution, though: A forthcoming version of Flash Player will detect when it's being launched from Office and will present users with a dialog box with vague warnings of a potential threat."

Submission + - Is Apple now the PC leader? Depends on your definition of PC (infoworld.com) 1

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tsamsoniw

on Thursday February 07, 2013 @11:23AM

tsamsoniw writes: "While research companies including IDC and Gartner deemed HP the PC leader for Q4 2012, Canalys has a different perspective. The analyst firm has declared Apple the top PC vendor for the past quarter, thanks in part to the booming success of the iPad and the iPad mini. By Canalys's reckoning, Amazon, too, now beats out the likes of Acer and Asus as a leading PC vendors, having shipped 4.6 million Kindles in Q4."

Submission + - Amazon to mint virtual coins that can be spent only Kindle apps (infoworld.com)

Submitted by tsamsoniw on Tuesday February 05, 2013 @04:16PM

tsamsoniw writes: Amazon has announced that later this year, it will start offering Amazon Coins, a form of digital currency customers can use to buy apps, games, or in-app content for the Kindle — but not, say, music or videos or subscriptions or anything else for the device. The company said it will dole out millions of Amazon Coins to customers when the program goes live, so developers should get their apps submitted and approved by April 25th. Each coin is worth one cent, and developers will still get the same 70 percent cut they would per sale as they would if a customer used standard currency. Or to paraphrase an old episode of "The Simpsons, "It's money made just for Kindle apps, and it works like regular money, but it's, er, fun."

Submission + - Apple ticks off Mac users with silent shutdown of Java 7 (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Friday February 01, 2013 @01:24PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Apple yesterday silently blocked the latest version of Java 7 from running on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher via its XProtect antimalware tool. Mac users in the Apple forums expressed confusion and irritation over the company's decision to abruptly kill Java without warning, explanation, or guidance on how to reenable it. "This is a nightmare for enterprise Java users," wrote one forum user. "Oracle EBusiness uses Java as a Web application. For Apple to do this, and not even give a heads-up to their customers who utilize Macs for enterprise, is horrendous customer service.""

Submission + - Dice's Open Web spawns dossiers about IT pros from their social networking data (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @05:18PM

tsamsoniw writes: "IT job site Dice.com has launched a search tool for recruiters called Open Web that automatically generates "super" profiles about prospective job candidates. It does so by drawing on data mined from around 50 social-networking sites about candidates' job experience, work history, and skills — as well as their "passions and interests." It's supposed to help recruiters find passive job seekers who are a good professional and cultural fit more quickly and easily. But some IT pros may not feel comfortable with the knowledge that anything they post to Facebook, Google+, Quora, GitHub, and so forth could make the difference in landing a job."

Submission + - Consumers now trust Microsoft more than Apple with their privacy (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @06:02PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, and Mozilla are among the 20 organizations ranked in the Ponemon Institute's annual survey of organizations that consumers trust most with their privacy. Meanwhile, companies who've made the list in years' past — such as Apple, Google, and Facebook — didn't make the cut. Ironically, the survey also found that consumers claim to be increasingly concerned about their private data — but 60 percent admit to handing over personal info to unknown or untrusted third-parties for the sake of convenience."

Submission + - Review: Office 2013 is the best Office yet (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @10:44AM

tsamsoniw writes: "In a hands-on review of Microsoft's newly released Office 365 Home Premium, InfoWorld Test Center reviewer Serdar Yegulalp found that the software giant has succeeded in bringing excellent cloud features and pay-as-you-go pricing to its popular productivity suite. Some of the new features are better than others (e.g. the new Apps for Office are hit and miss) — but overall, the reviewed deemed the package "the sweetest Microsoft Office suite yet.""

Submission + - Compare50 brings a taste of big data to the masses (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Thursday January 24, 2013 @06:22PM

tsamsoniw writes: "A nonprofit called Next10 has unveiled a simple, elegant, free web tool called Compare50 that demonstrates how the power of big data can be delivered to the masses. It's an interactive website that draws on an array of government and third-party data sources — from unemployment numbers or venture capital investments to GDP figures — and lets users generate graphs to make meaningful side-by-side comparisons. Data junkies, beware: You may never want to leave."

Submission + - Privacy advocates demand some transparency from Skype already (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Thursday January 24, 2013 @05:46PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Dozens of privacy advocates, Internet activists, and journalist have issued an open letter to Skype and Microsoft, calling on the companies to finally get around to being clear and transparent as to who has access to Skype user data and how that data is secured. "Since Skype was acquired by Microsoft, both entities have refused to answer questions about exactly what kinds of user data can be intercepted, what user data is retained, or whether eavesdropping on Skype conversations may take place," reads the letter, signed by such groups as the Digital Rights Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Submission + - Google Maps loses top mobile app slot to Facebook, thanks to Apple Maps (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @06:05PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Though Apple Maps was a debacle from a technical standpoint, it was still something of a success in that it cost rival Google Maps the top spot among U.S. mobile apps for 2012. With Apple running interference, Facebook secured the No. 1 position for the year, according to newly released data from comScore. However, Google lays claim to four of the top ten mobile apps for 2012, including Google Maps, Google Play, Google Search, and Gmail."

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