69638203
submission
alphadogg writes:
These days, making a call across the U.S. is so easy that people often don’t even know they’re talking coast to coast. But 100 years ago Sunday, it took a hackathon, a new technology and an international exposition to make it happen.
The first commercial transcontinental phone line opened on Jan. 25, 1915, with a call from New York to the site of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Alexander Graham Bell made the call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Just 39 years earlier, Bell had talked to Watson on the first ever phone call, in Boston, just after Bell had patented the telephone.
69571493
submission
alphadogg writes:
SkyMall, the quirky airline catalog, looks as though it may be grounded before long. Parent company Xhibit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection http://www.xhibitcorp.com/inve... and seeks to sell its assets. In an SEC filing, Xhibit explains that it has fallen victim to an "intensely competitive" direct marketing retail industry that now includes the likes of eBay and Amazon.com. Smartphones and tablets are largely to blame for SkyMall's downfall, according to the SEC filing. "Historically, the SkyMall catalog was the sole in-flight option for potential purchasers of products to review while traveling. With the increased use of electronic devices on planes, fewer people browsed the SkyMall in-flight catalog."
69078353
submission
alphadogg writes:
Network World’s analysis of publicly listed sponsors of 36 prominent open-source non-profits and foundations reveals that the lion’s share of financial support for open-source groups comes from a familiar set of names.
69071245
submission
alphadogg writes:
The leap second is the rare and obscure practice of occasionally adding a second to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) system that most of us use to set our watches. It’s necessary, but not exactly computer friendly. In 2012 it crashed websites such as Reddit and Yelp and snarled up airline departures in Australia, so you’d think most computer experts would really hate them. After all, we have perfectly accurate timekeeping systems, such as the one used by GPS, that don’t futz with leap seconds. But it turns out many computer folks are OK with the leap second, including Linux’s creator, Linus Torvalds.
68365431
submission
alphadogg writes:
The FCC will soon decide whether to lay down rules regarding hotels’ ability to block personal Wi-Fi hotspots inside their buildings, a practice that recently earned Marriott International a $600,000 fine. Back in August, Marriott, business partner Ryman Hospitality Properties and trade group the American Hotel and Lodging Association asked the FCC to clarify when hotels can block outside Wi-Fi hotspots in order to protect their internal Wi-Fi services.
68159021
submission
alphadogg writes:
A serious vulnerability in an embedded Web server used by many router models from different manufacturers allows remote attackers to take control of affected devices over the Internet. A compromised router can have wide-ranging implications for the security of home and business networks as it allows attackers to sniff inbound and outbound traffic and provides them with a foothold inside the network from where they can launch attacks against other systems. It also gives them a man-in-the-middle position to strip SSL from secure connections and hijack DNS settings to misrepresent trusted websites. The new vulnerability was discovered by researchers from Check Point Software Technologies and is located in RomPager, an embedded Web server used by many routers to host their Web-based administration interfaces.
67785631
submission
alphadogg writes:
The Federal Aviation Administration has taken a hard line so far against most commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e.,drones) for safety and privacy reasons. But one other good reason for taking things slow is that the software for managing such drones has trailed hardware development. A new company called PixiePath launched by Ping Identity co-founder Bryan Field-Elliot seeks to address the software shortage by delivering SaaS-based tools for controlling fleets of commercial drones. Because of the FAA taking its time outlining rules, PixiePath could find its biggest early opportunities up North or overseas.
67677067
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alphadogg writes:
The mechanical engineering alum and Obama's top techie returns to MIT to deliver speech to Class of 2015. Before taking on her government role, Smith lead new business development at Google and worked on early smartphones at General Magic.
67519307
submission
alphadogg writes:
Cisco Systems' General Counsel Mark Chandler, explaining Friday's blockbuster patent and copyright infringement lawsuits against switching rival Arista Networks, http://www.networkworld.com/ar... emphasized that "I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve initiated suit against a competitor, supplier or customer." Chandler might be right, but he's probably pretty close to having to resort to his second hand for counting lawsuits. And when Cisco does sue, it makes a splash. Remember when the company lawyered up vs. Apple seven years ago over the name of a brand new little device dubbed iPhone?
67511373
submission
alphadogg writes:
Cisco today filed two lawsuits against data center switch competitor Arista Networks for allegedly violating its intellectual property. One suit is for patent infringement, which charges Arista with violating 14 Cisco patents for 12 features in the Arista EOS operating system. The second suit is for extensive copying of Cisco’s user manuals and command line structures, right down to the grammatical errors within them. “This is not an accident but a strategy,” says a source familiar with the matter. “It was a deliberate, brazen and blatant intellectual property violation in order to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. Arista’s shortcutting to get to market and win share.”
67464935
submission
alphadogg writes:
In 2014 the worlds of technology and science lost many influential contributors, from inventors of key technologies like LEDs and GPS, to leaders of companies like IBM. Here's a look back at them.
67343701
submission
alphadogg writes:
When you have an organization the size of UPS – with 99,000 vehicles and 424,000 employees – every single little bit of efficiency that can be squeezed out of daily operations translates into a big deal. UPS has been using analytics to do just that for a long time now, and keeps getting better and better at it. Network World caught up with UPS Senior Director of Process Management Jack Levis for an update on their latest achievements.
67018145
submission
alphadogg writes:
Word that the Federal Aviation Administration might take a very hard line on commercial drone use has those with designs on such activity nervous. But as for big enterprise IT vendors, it's really hard to tell what they think because they're keeping any plans in this field very hush-hush. More consumer oriented companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google are active, but companies like IBM and HP are quiet, while Microsoft affirms it has nothing doing. A former FAA lawyer says sitting on the sidelines even during this unsure regulatory period is probably not a great idea. "I have a hard time believing they don't have some sort of programs in place," attorney Mark Dombroff says.
66804621
submission
alphadogg writes:
Debian developers voted down a proposal that would have weakened the Linux distribution’s integration with a controversial system software package on Tuesday, in a victory for systemd supporters. The proposal, promulgated by former Debian project leader Ian Jackson, called for all Debian software to be effectively init-system-agnostic – the aim being to limit just how tightly bound to and dependent upon systemd Debian could become.
66705013
submission
alphadogg writes:
It was a familiar top 10 released today by the authors of the twice-annual Top500 ranking of world supercomputers, http://www.top500.org/blog/blo... most entries largely unchanged from this summer’s list. China retains top spot for fourth consecutive Top500 list as the annual SuperComputing conference kicks off in New Orleans.
