65946809
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Apple design chief Jony Ive has spent the past several weeks talking up how the Apple Watch is an evolution on many of the principles that guided the evolution of timepieces over the past several hundred years. But the need to recharge the device on a nightly basis, now confirmed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, is a throwback to ye olden days, when a lady or gentleman needed to keep winding her or his pocket-watch in order to keep it running. Watch batteries were supposed to bring “winding” to a decisive end, except for that subset of people who insist on carrying around a mechanical timepiece. But with Apple Watch’s requirement that the user constantly monitor its energy, what’s old is new again. Will millions of people really want to charge and fuss with their watch at least once a day?
65863569
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
What’s the minimum that some companies are trying to pay workers in Silicon Valley? If you guessed “the required minimum wage for the state of California,” you’d be wrong: Electronics for Imaging Inc. paid eight Indian technicians $1.21 per hour, for as many as 122 working hours per week, with no overtime. The company claimed that the low salary was “unintentional,” and that it originally paid the IT workers what they earned as their regular salary in Bangalore. The Associated Press quoted Michael Eastwood, a Department of Labor assistant district director, as saying that the situation was 'worse than anything that I ever saw in any of those Los Angeles sweatshops.' Electronics for Imaging will need to pay more than $43,000 in penalties and back wages, which shouldn’t be much of a problem, considering the company expects to pull in just under $800 million in revenue for its fiscal year 2014.
65823711
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Everybody knows that Apple runs a tight ship when it comes to approving iOS apps for its App Store, rejecting software because it features porn, allows gambling, installs types of executable code, etc. But Apple also denies apps for some pretty esoteric reasons, many of which are only just coming to light. Want to have an App that uses GPS to automatically control a real-world aircraft or automobile? Sorry, that’s not allowed, presumably because Apple doesn’t want iOS to serve as a drone controller. (Imagine the liability issues.) Also, apps that report your location to emergency services are forbidden, as well as any that misspell Apple product names (“iTunz” will never make it through, no matter how much you beg). Even if Apple's not sharing the exact reason why it just rejected your app from its store (what the heck does "Not enough lasting value" mean?), you can check out Apple's own page on the top reasons for iOS app rejections.
65744209
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Every company needs employees who can analyze information effectively, discarding what's unnecessary and digging down into what's actually useful. But employers are getting a little bit worried that U.S. schools aren't teaching students the necessary critical-thinking skills to actually succeed once they hit the open marketplace. The Wall Street Journal talked with several companies about how they judge critical-thinking skills, a few of which ask candidates to submit to written tests to judge their problem-solving abilities. But that sidesteps the larger question: do schools need to shift their focus onto different teaching methods (i.e., downplaying the need for students to memorize lots of information), or is our educational pipeline just fine, thank you very much?
65686113
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Traditionally, database administrators (also known as DBAs) have been at the center of the data-management universe: There was always a need to have someone optimize the performance of applications by making sure data was well structured. But with the rise of Hadoop and other Big Data platforms, there’s no longer a premium on structure. In fact, many programmers are choosing to write their applications to Hadoop or other classes of so-called NoSQL databases to specifically eliminate the need to rely on having a DBA. That's not to say the "classic" DBA is going away, as there will always be transaction-processing applications invoking structured data; but even there, the rise of NoSQL alternatives such as Apache Cassandra is changing the way processing is done. Database administrators are going to need to evolve to meet this brave new world — but what else is new?
65624217
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Software development and IT remain common jobs among those in the higher brackets, although not the topmost one, according to a new study (with graph) commissioned by NPR. Among those earning between $58,000 and $72,000, IT was the sixth-most-popular job, while software developers came in tenth place. In the next bracket up (earning between $72,000 and $103,000), IT rose to third, with software development just behind in fourth place. As incomes increased another level ($103,000 to $207,000), software developers did even better, coming in second behind managers, although IT dropped off the list entirely. In the top percentile ($207,000 and above), neither software developers nor IT staff managed to place; this is a segment chiefly occupied by physicians (in first place), managers, chief executives, lawyers, and salespeople who are really good at their jobs. In other words, it seems like a good time to be in IT, provided you have a particular skillset.
65510713
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
With "GamerGate" and all the debates over who counts as a "gamer," it's easy to forget that games are created by people with a genuine love of the craft. Journalist Jon Brodkin sat down with Armin Ibrisagic, game designer & PR manager for Coffee Stain Studios, the Swedish studio that made Goat Simulator, to talk about why they built that game and how it turned into such a success. Brodkin also talked to Leszek Lisowski, founder of Wastelands Interactive, about the same topic. While these developers might debate with themselves (and others) over whether to develop games for hardcore gamers, or jump on the mobile "casual gaming" bandwagon, they'll ultimately in it because they love games — a small but crucial detail that seems too easy to forget these days.
65296833
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
As developers embrace new programming languages, older languages can go one of two ways: stay in use, despite fading popularity, or die out completely. So which programming languages are slated for history's dustbin of dead tech? Perl is an excellent candidate, especially considering how work on Perl6, framed as a complete revamp of the language, began work in 2000 and is still inching along in development. Ruby, Visual Basic.NET, and Object Pascal also top this list, despite their onetime popularity. Whether the result of development snafus or the industry simply veering in a direction that makes a particular language increasingly obsolete, time comes for all platforms at one point or another. Which programming languages do you think will do the way of the dinosaurs in coming years?
65262257
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
The Boston Consulting Group and The Network recently surveyed 200,000 people in 189 countries to figure out the global willingness to work abroad. Their conclusion? People will indeed set down professional roots in another country—although younger workers seem far more willing to expatriate than their older peers. Where do the majority of global workers want to head? The United States, which 42 percent of respondents listed as their top potential work destination, followed by the U.K. (37 percent), Canada (35 percent), Germany (33 percent), Switzerland (29 percent), and France (29 percent). But citizens in the United States seemed a bit more reluctant to return the favor—less than 50 percent said they either lived abroad or would consider doing so for work. That’s in sharp contrast to countries such as France, where a significant majority of citizens seemed willing to explore jobs in other nations. Of course, those who work in tech already know that globalization is a huge issue.
65200979
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Every year, approximately 250,000 military personnel leave the service to return to civilian life. When the home front beckons, many will be looking to become IT professionals, a role that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is among the fastest growing jobs in the country. How their field skills will translate to the back office is something to ponder. With the advent of virtualization, mobile, and the cloud, tech undergoes rapid changes, as do the skill sets needed to succeed. That said, the nature of today’s military—always on the go, and heavily reliant on virtual solutions—may actually be the perfect training ground for IT. Consider that many war-fighters already are IT technicians: They need to be skilled in data management, mobile solutions, security, the ability to fix problems as they arise onsite, and more. Military personnel used to working with everything from SATCOM terminals to iPads are ideally suited for handling these issues; many have successfully managed wireless endpoints, networks, and security while in the field. Should programs that focus on placing former military personnel in civilian jobs focus even more on getting them into IT roles?
65112631
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
A look at some of the Shellshock-related reports from the past week makes it seem as if attackers are flooding networks with cyberattacks targeting the vulnerability in Bash that was disclosed last week. While the attackers haven’t wholesale adopted the flaw, there have been quite a few attacks—but the reality is that attackers are treating the flaw as just one of many methods available in their tool kits. One way to get a front-row seat of what the attacks look like is to set up a honeypot. Luckily, threat intelligence firm ThreatStream released ShockPot, a version of its honeypot software with a specific flag, “is_shellshock,” that captures attempts to trigger the Bash vulnerability. Setting up ShockPot on a Linux server from cloud host Linode.com is a snap. Since attackers are systematically scanning all available addresses in the IPv4 space, it’s just a matter of time before someone finds a particular ShockPot machine. And that was definitely the case, as a honeypot set up by a Dice (yes, yes, we know) tech writer captured a total of seven Shellshock attack attempts out of 123 total attacks. On one hand, that’s a lot for a machine no one knows anything about; on the other, it indicates that attackers haven’t wholesale dumped other methods in favor of going after this particular bug. PHP was the most common attack method observed on this honeypot, with various attempts to trigger vulnerabilities in popular PHP applications and to execute malicious PHP scripts.
65095415
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
There’s a reason why Microsoft executives spent the bulk of their Sept. 30 presentation emphasizing Windows 10’s security, app store, and management features—i.e., everything usually glossed over in presentations—and it’s that the new operating system isn’t a revolutionary step forward. If anything, It seems more like an iterative upgrade to Windows 7 than anything else. That could satisfy business customers, who usually aren’t enthused about change, but it’s unlikely to generate much excitement among consumers, many of whom increasingly rely on other operating systems such as Android and iOS. Is Windows 10 a step in the right direction for Microsoft, and a way to fix the ill reception and anemic upgrade rate of Windows 8? Or is Windows' peak years behind it, even if Microsoft seems determined to place it on as many tablets, smartphones, and PCs as possible?
65087691
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
There are various reasons to adopt REST as the underlying layer and build RESTful APIs for data access, Espresso Logic CEO Paul Singh argues in a new column on Dice (yes, yes, we know). 'While connectivity is the obvious focus for building a RESTful API, it’s not enough. It’s critical to address factors like API usability, app server functions and performance.' Pagination, discoverability, app server functions, integrity logic, security, and performance are just a few of the laundry list of things to watch out for. While Singh is obviously pushing a commercial framework as a way to make building a RESTful API simpler, a skilled database developer could probably cobble together open-source technologies to perform many of those same functions.
65041217
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
There are various reasons to adopt REST as the underlying layer and build RESTful APIs for data access, Espresso Logic CEO Paul Singh argues in a new column. "While connectivity is the obvious focus for building a RESTful API, it’s not enough. It’s critical to address factors like API usability, app server functions and performance." Pagination, discoverability, app server functions, integrity logic, security, and performance are just a few of the laundry list of things to watch out for. While Singh is obviously pushing a commercial framework as a way to make building a RESTful API simpler, a skilled database developer could probably cobble together open-source technologies to perform many of those same functions.
65039815
submission
Nerval's Lobster writes:
Apple touts the Swift programming language as easy to use, thanks in large part to features such as Interface Builder, a visual designer provided in Xcode that allows a developer to visually design storyboards. In theory, this simplifies the process of designing both screens and the connections between screens, as it needs no code and offers an easy-to-read visual map of an app’s navigation. But is Swift really so easy (or at least as easy as anything else in a developer's workflow)? This new walkthrough of Interface Builder (via Dice) shows that it's indeed simple to build an app with these custom tools... so long as the app itself is simple. Development novices who were hoping that Apple had created a way to build complex apps with a limited amount of actual coding might have to spend a bit more time learning the basics before embarking on the big project of their dreams.
