59015483
submission
itwbennett writes:
Oracle is gearing up for a fight with officials in Oregon over its role developing an expensive health insurance exchange website that still isn't fully operational. In a letter obtained by the Oregonian newspaper this week, Oracle co-president Safra Catz said that Oregon officials have provided the public with a 'false narrative' concerning who is to blame for Cover Oregon's woes. In the letter, Catz pointed out that Oregon's decision to act as their own systems integrator on the project, using Oracle consultants on a time-and-materials basis, was 'criticized frequently by many'. And as far as Oracle is concerned, 'Cover Oregon lacked the skills, knowledge or ability to be successful as the systems integrator on an undertaking of this scope and complexity,' she added.
59010277
submission
itwbennett writes:
When you think about tech products these days, you probably think 'refresh cycle' more than 'built to last.' But as it turns out there are plenty of tech products that put up with hard, daily use year after year. ITworld dug into the BuyItForLife subreddit to suss out 10 such products (some more strictly 'tech' than others). Among those with the strongest recommendations for their ability to outlast their peers: Logitech MX510 mouse, Brother black & white laser printer, Casio G-Shock watch, Alvin Draf-Tec Retrac mechanical pencil, Sony Dream Machine alarm clock. What's your longest-lasting, hardest-working device?
59009989
submission
jfruh writes:
Just because you're great at software development or system administration doesn't mean you know the ins and outs of a job search, and things that might seem unimportant to you might be holding you back. The reality is: spelling matters, resume organization matters, and personalized pitches matter.
58955069
submission
itwbennett writes:
If you haven't heard of Quark, you're not alone: 'It was introduced last minute at the most recent Intel Developer Forum and Intel people were literally pulling analysts aside minutes before the keynotes to give them the word, and then Intel proceeded to tell them nothing,' according to Jim McGregor, president of Tirias Research. 'They made the announcement but didn't give us any details, which is really unusual for them. You kinda got the impression the thing was half-baked at the time,' he said. 'Since then, a clearer picture has emerged,' writes blogger Andy Patrizio. 'Quark is a lower performance version of Atom designed for everything from industrial and automotive to wearables and the Internet of Things. This week, Intel added three more chips to the line: the X1001, X1011 and X1021D, which are the old chips but certified to operate from -40C to +85C while offering the same performance and feature sets as the prior models. The temperature certifications mean these chips will be going into industrial equipment, cars, and other mechanical devices that experience extreme temperature.'
58954633
submission
itwbennett writes:
Apparently Amazon thinks we want 3D screens on our phones. Yesterday Boy Genius Report leaked images of what is supposed to be a phone coming from Amazon (BGR has all the nitty-gritty — and not yet official in any way — specs). The phone apparently has six cameras.... One on the back and one on the front for traditional photos and selfies. Then there are 4 more on the front that are intended to do facial tracking in order to properly display a 3D user interface. As blogger Peter Smith points out, 'that's an improvement over the 3DS which requires you to hold the device in the 'sweet spot' for the 3D effect to work properly.' But it also sounds like an expensive system both in terms of hardware and processing cycles.
58952119
submission
jfruh writes:
The Wintel cartel appears to be well and truly dead, as Intel chases after ARM with grim determination into the rapidly growing world of Android tablets. "Our mix of OSes reflects pretty much what you see in the marketplace," the company's CEO said, a nice way of saying they see more potential growth from white-box Chinese tablet makers than from Microsoft Surface. Intel managed to ship 5 million tablet chips in the first quarter of the year, although plunging PC sales meant that company profit overall was still down.
58901577
submission
jfruh writes:
Back in Februrary, after a lengthy dispute, Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for network access after being dogged by complaints of slow speeds from Comcast subscribers. Two months later, it appears that Comcast has delivered on its promises, jumping up six places in Netflix's ISP speed rankings. The question of whether this is good news for anyone but Comcast is still open.
58901407
submission
jfruh writes:
Some surveys from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project have found, not suprisingly, that Americans are concerned about the privacy and safety of their personal data, worrying about everything from securtiy breaches to corporate misues of it. Perhaps the most striking data point from the survey: 79% of respondents want tighter government regulations that would restrict how their personal data is shared.
58855859
submission
itwbennett writes:
Following the contentious and ultimately failed appointment of Brendan Eich as CEO last month, the Mozilla Corporation has appointed board member Chris Beard as interim CEO. Beard starting working as chief marketing officer for Mozilla in 2004, and oversaw the launch of its current browser, Firefox, in 2005. Beard also managed the launches of Firefox on Android and the Firefox OS for mobile phones.
58814435
submission
jfruh writes:
'So-and-so is about to release a smartphone' is one of the oldest tech rumors around, and most of the time nothing comes of it. But Stephen Lawson of the IDG News Service argues that if anyone non-phonemaker were going to dip their toes into that treacherous water, it'd be Amazon. The company hasn't been afraid to take on incumbents in the tablet and TV set-top box markets, and the financial rewards for breaking out of the content ecosystem imposed by other providers are too great to ignore.
58702803
submission
itwbennett writes:
According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, people who text and drive increase their chances of 'safety-critical events' by a multiple of 23.2. And new research is constantly rolling out, showing the same thing: 'We can't handle the visual, manual, and cognitive commitment of using a phone while driving,' writes blogger Kevin Purdy. What's needed, Purdy suggests, isn't more laws that will go ignored, but phones that know enough to stop giving us the distractions we ask them for:I think the next good phone, the next phone that makes some variant of the claim that it "Fits the way you live," needs to know that we don't know what is good for us when it comes to driving. We want to be entertained and shown new things while doing the often mundane or stressful task of driving. More specifically, those phones should know when we are driving, quiet or otherwise obscure updates from most apps, and be able to offer their most basic functions without needing to turn on a screen or type a single letter.
58691261
submission
jfruh writes:
While much criticism and praise for Apple comes with its engagement with the larger world — politics, charity, labor practices, and so on — there hasn't been much discussion of how Apple contributes to the open source and standards communities of the tech world. It turns out the world's most valuable company doesn't give back much. Despite widespread reliance on open source software, Apple isn't a major corporate sponsor of any open source proejcts — for instance, Microsoft gives more to the Apache Foundation, despite selling a Web server that competes against Apache's free flagship product. Considering the fact that open source and open standards were all that kept Apple from extinction during the dark days of Microsoft dominance, you'd think they'd be more grateful.
58687999
submission
jfruh writes:
One of the intriguing angles of Facebook's multi-billion dollar acquisition of WhatsApp was in the realm of privacy: Facebook is a free service that makes all its money by selling user information and attention to advertisers and marketers, while WhatsApp is a paid service that makes extravagant claims about protecting the privacy of its users. Now the FTC is telling Facebook that it must make good on WhatsApp's current privacy promises. Doing otherwise would constitute a deceptive or unfair practice under the FTC Act.
58648115
submission
itwbennett writes:
When Jose Vildoza's father became the victime of ransomware, he launched his own investigation. Diving into CryptoDefense's code, he found its developers had made a crucial mistake: CryptoDefense used Microsoft's Data Protection API (application programming interface), a tool in the Windows operating system to encrypt a user's data, which stored a copy of the encryption keys on the affected computer. Vildoza and researcher, Fabian Wosar of the Austrian security company Emsisoft, collaborated on a utility called the Emsisoft Decrypter that could recover the encrypted keys. In mid-March Vildoza had launched a blog chronicling his investigation, purposely not revealing the mistake CryptoDefense's authors had made. But Symantec then published a blog post on March 31 detailing the error.
58607571
submission
itwbennett writes:
Intel and SGI have built a proof-of-concept supercomputer that's kept cool using a fluid developed by 3M called Novec that is already used in fire suppression systems. The technology, which could replace fans and eliminate the need to use tons of municipal water to cool data centers, has the potential to slash data-center energy bills by more than 90 percent, said Michael Patterson, senior power and thermal architect at Intel. But there are several challenges, including the need to design new motherboards and servers.
