65828465
submission
jfruh writes:
One of the trickiest jobs in programming is writing parallel code that can truly take advantage of the multiple processing cores common in today's computers. A CPU startup called Soft Machines now promises to solve this problem, with CPU-level virtualization that does that can run any code across multiple cores. While the hurtles of bringing a new chip architecture to market are huge, the potential upsides are similarly staggering.
65828243
submission
jfruh writes:
When a security researcher confronts binary malware of unknown origin, their first instinct is often to use a command-line tool called strings to try to extract text strings found inside of it, so as to better understand what it's doing and how it's doing it. But a security researcher at Google has found that strings itself is vulnerable to attack, and that a particularly malicious bit of malware could compromise a researcher's computer while they try to analyze it.
65828077
submission
jfruh writes:
IT has a reputation as a job where big raises are possible, but in truth a recent survey has shown that salaries across the board have been quite stagnant of late. If you're looking for compensation that spikes rapidly, IT staffing firm Modis recommends focusing on a few hot areas, including security and mobile.
65744805
submission
jfruh writes:
If you let your free webmail account expire and someone else takes the same username, they could get access to sensitive emails if you don't give your new address to your banks and other accounts. Facebook and Yahoo have developed a mechanism to mitigate this: a new header field that indicates how long the sender has known the address they're sending the message to.
65744577
submission
jfruh writes:
SanDisk has made some pretty grandiose claims about SSDs, boasting that they offer an annual cost savings of up to $608 per unit through an 18-month PC lifecycle extension, a 35 percent increase in employee productivity, an 86 percent reduction in IT Labor, and a 15x performance boost per system. And you can get those benefits without lifting a finger (except to write SanDisk a check). Their techs will now come to your workplace and replace all the hard drives in your corporate PCs with SSDs.
65721055
submission
itwbennett writes:
German publishers said they are bowing to Google's market power, and will allow the search engine to show news snippets in search results free of charge — at least for the time being. The decision is a step in an ongoing legal dispute between the publishers and Google in which, predictably, publishers are trying to get compensation from the search engine for republishing parts of their content and Google isn't interested in sharing revenue. The move follows a Google decision earlier this month — and which was to go into effect today — to stop using news snippets and thumbnails for some well-known German news sites.
65716933
submission
jfruh writes:
If you get into the TSA security line at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, you'll see monitors telling you how long your wait will be — and if you have a phone with Wi-Fi enabled, you're helping the airport come up with that number. A system implemented by Cisco tracks the MAC addresses of phones searching for Wi-Fi networks and sees how long it takes those phones to traverse the line, giving a sense of how quickly things are moving. While this is useful information to have, the privacy implications are a bit unsettling.
65689771
submission
itwbennett writes:
Oracle, Microsoft and Ask.com are facing suits alleging that they conspired to restrict hiring of staff. The suits appear to refer to a memo that names a large number of companies that allegedly had special arrangements with Google to prevent poaching of staff and was filed as an exhibit on May 17, 2013 in another class action suit over hiring practices. The former employees filing lawsuits against Microsoft, Ask.com and Oracle have asked that the cases be assigned to Judge Koh as there were similarities with the case against Google, Apple and others — and it maybe doesn't hurt that Judge Koh thought the $324.5 million settlement in that case was too low.
65687055
submission
jfruh writes:
Malware that creates a botnet has more than a passing similarity to fungi that alters ant behavior. Denial of service attacks work similarly to invasive kudzu plants. Two security researchers think that IT staffers can learn from nature in building more resilient networks.
65656965
submission
jfruh writes:
The code that runs Facebook isn't open source, but that hasn't stopped it from leaking out in dribs and drabs. One blogger has assembeled code snippets and hints from various sources, including PasteBin, Quora answers, and others.
65655697
submission
itwbennett writes:
A partnership between TV measurement company Nielsen and analytics provider Adobe, announced today, will let broadcasters see (in aggregate and anonymized) how people interact with digital video between devices — for example if you begin watching a show on Netflix on your laptop, then switch to a Roku set-top box to finish it. The information learned will help broadcasters decide what to charge advertisers, and deliver targeted ads to viewers. Broadcasters can use the new Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, as they're called, beginning early next year. Early users include ESPN, Sony Pictures Television, Turner Broadcasting and Viacom.
65639595
submission
jfruh writes:
While Google Glass has been positioned and recevied in the US as something of a geek toy, the Emirate of Dubai is putting it to work in law enforcement. The oil-rich state proposes to outfit police officers with Glass, beaming real-time video back to the station and providing help identifying suspects.
65639441
submission
jfruh writes:
Japan has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the world, and the authorities there aim to make sure that new technologies don't open any loopholes. 28-year-old engineer Yoshitomo Imura has been sentenced to two years in jail after making guns with a 3D printer in his home in Kawasaki.
65542417
submission
jfruh writes:
Google is still making billions in revenue every quarter, but its income is starting to slip a bit — and, worryingly for the advertising giant, it's making less money per ad click than it has in the past. The culprit is the shift to mobile browing, because mobile users tend to be less lucrative.
65542269
submission
jfruh writes:
You may have heard that Japan will deal with its aging population by relying more on robots. Osaka startup RT Works is showing what that might mean in practice: not humanoid robotic caregivers, but tech-enhanced versions of traditional tools like walkers. RT Works's walker automatically adjusts to help its user deal with hilly terrain, and can call for help if it moves outside an predefined range.
