63858877
submission
jfruh writes:
Amazon is already in just about any business you can think of, from selling diapers to running cloud servers — so why not advertising? Reports indicate that Amazon is preparing an ad network that will compete with Google's near omnipresent AdWords. Since there are plenty of Google ads that run on the pages on Amazon's own website, that seems like a logical place for the new service to roll out.
63858843
submission
jfruh writes:
If this were 1999, anti-trust authorities would be furious: Microsoft is letting OEMs sell Windows PCs without paying royalties for the OS as long as everything is set by default to use Bing as the main search engine. But this is 2014, and Microsoft's stranglehold on the computer industry is nowhere near as tight as it once was, and it's mostly an attempt to fend off Chrome machines at the low end.
63802411
submission
itwbennett writes:
Back in June, the New York Times ran an article (which was picked up by Slashdot) about how Tim Cook is putting his own stamp on Apple. That article, though, focused mainly on personality and style, and ITworld's Andy Patrizio has followed up with a collection of some of the technical, business, and product decisions Cook has made — from embracing the enterprise to dumping Objective C — that let us know we're firmly in the Tim Cook Era.
63747879
submission
jfruh writes:
Some people want to break out of just an ordinary nine-to-five life, and would rather turn their tech skills into a path to superstardom. While this sort of gambit is always a long shot, career expert Eric Bloom outlines some possible strategies: You can become a true expert in a psecific technology, make yourself an authority on a specific application area, hitch your start to an emerging tech field, or wade into the more nebulous world of being a "futurist."
63723795
submission
jfruh writes:
Simple.TV is a DVR for over-the-air television programs with a lot of nifty functionality, and it just gained a new one: the ability to share recorded content with friends over the Internet. The question is, how long will media companies tolerate the ability to stream media to other people, even media that arrived for free over the publicly owned airwaves?
63723595
submission
jfruh writes:
Intel, trying to work its way into the hobbyist market revealed by enthusiasm around the tiny Raspberry Pi computer, has come up with its own credit-card-sized Arduino-certified gadget, the Galileo. Now Microsoft is getting in on the game by offering a customized version of Windows 8.1 that can run on the hardware.
63722467
submission
itwbennett writes:
In a follow-up to yesterday's story about the Chinese hackers who stole hospital data of 4.5 million patients, IDG News Service's Martyn Williams set out to learn why the data, which didn't include credit card information was so valuable. The answer is depressingly simple: people without health insurance can potentially get treatment by using medical data of one of the hacking victims. John Halamka, chief information officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network, said a medical record can be worth between $50 and $250 to the right customer — many times more than the amount typically paid for a credit card number, or the cents paid for a user name and password. 'If I am one of the 50 million Americans who are uninsured ... and I need a million-dollar heart transplant, for $250 I can get a complete medical record including insurance company details,' he said.
63709173
submission
itwbennett writes:
On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a research report on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology and is seeking input from the public and industry. In the report, it estimated the safety benefits of just two possible applications of V2V, called Left Turn Assist and Intersection Movement Assist. Together, they could prevent as many as 592,000 crashes and save 1,083 lives per year, the agency said.
63704287
submission
itwbennett writes:
A Web-based app called "Baidu Recycle Station" launched Monday as part a new joint lab established by Baidu and the United Nations Development Program that will use Baidu's Internet services and data analytics to develop programs targeted at helping the environment, health care, education and more. The app is meant to help streamline the recycling of e-waste in China by helping users easily sell their old electronics to legitimate recycling factories. And none too soon: The country is the second largest producer of electronic trash, creating over 3.6 million tons of it each year, according to a U.N. study.
63703957
submission
itwbennett writes:
Community Health Systems said the attack occurred in April and June of this year, but it wasn't until July that it determined the theft had taken place. Working with a computer security company, it determined the attack was carried out by a group based in China that used 'highly sophisticated malware' to attack its systems. The hackers got away with patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of the 4.5 million people who were referred to or received services from doctors affiliated with the company in the last five years. The stolen data did not include patient credit card, medical or clinical information.
63696363
submission
jfruh writes:
Su Bin, a Chinese citizen arrested in Canada, has been indicted over a series of hacks of Boeing's network in which documents pertaining the C-17 military aircraft and F-22 and F-35 fighter planes were stolen. Su allegedly communicated with hackers in China to direct the attacks using free Gmail accounts, excerpts from which were included in FBI affidavits on the case.
63696109
submission
jfruh writes:
As part of its so-called "Hacienda" program, the British spy agency GCHQ ran port scans for vulnerabilities across the networks of at least 27 entire countries, a German news site reveals. The site also reported that the Canadian spy agency CSEC has indentified a number of computers it could take over and use as operational relay boxes to launch attacks.
63637053
submission
itwbennett writes:
Telecom equipment vendor Adtran has developed a technology that will make it easier for operators to roll out broadband speeds close to 500Mbps over copper lines. Adtran's FDV (Frequency Division Vectoring), enhances the capabilities of two technologies — VDSL2 with vectoring and G.fast — by enabling them to better coexist over a single subscriber line, the company said. VDSL2 with vectoring, which improves speeds by reducing noise and can deliver up to 150Mbps, is currently being rolled out by operators, while G.fast, which is capable of 500Mbps, is still under development, with the first deployments coming in mid-2015. FDV will make it easier for operators to roll out G.fast once it's ready and expand where it can be used, according to Adtran.
63632369
submission
jfruh writes:
In September of 2012, SmartThings took to Kickstarter with the promise of delivering an "Internet of things" package to backers, including a hub device that would control various home gadgets via the user's smartphone. They aimed to raise $250,000. They got $1.2 million. And now they've been bought by Samsung for a reported $200 million, as the South Korean electronics market tries to get a foothold into this emerging market.
63607633
submission
itwbennett writes:
Leo Polovets, a former LinkedIn and Google engineer turned VC, recently examined data from AngelList, an online community for startups, looking at the self-reported use of technologies by startups. Here's a sampling of what came out on top: JavaScript is by far the dominant programming language choice, followed by Ruby and Python. MongoDB is tops in databases, followed by MySQL. And AWS was the clear top choice for infrastructure and hosting.
