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Submission + - On the destructive nature of narcissist CEOs (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: You need a healthy ego to be a chief executive. But if a healthy ego spills over into narcissism, it can lead to all kinds of trouble for a company. Research shows that narcissist CEOs tend to spend more, overpay for acquisitions and ignore objective measures of their performance, creating a situation where shareholder value can easily be destroyed.
Security

Submission + - Is insourcing the new outsourcing? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "It would be a stretch to insinuate that outsourcing of all manner of work outside the US is subsiding substantially. In this warming political season the topic of American jobs and what is happening to them is getting the expected spin and this week the White House took its turn on the wheel saying that the growing trend is US companies are indeed keeping more jobs here rather than sending them abroad. In addition, at the White House's "Insourcing American Jobs Forum" hosted by President Barack Obama, the president said in the next few weeks his administration would announce proposals to encourage further job creation at home with a number of tax incentives to invest in US employment as well as to eliminate tax breaks for those companies who move jobs overseas — a long touted but never passed proposal."
Intel

Submission + - Intel's Ashlee Simpson moment at CES (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: Remember back in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson appeared on Saturday Night Live and a prerecorded vocal track started playing before the "singer" put the microphone to her mouth? Hilarity ensued. Intel's Mooley Eden, who runs the chipmaker's PC unit, experienced a similar embarrassing moment on the stage this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Fortunately, Eden spared us a clumsy jig.
China

Submission + - Microsoft Investigates Foxconn Protest (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "A Microsoft investigation of the worker strike at a Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China has found that the workers weren't threatening to jump from the roof over working conditions, but merely 'staffing assignments and transfer policies' — in other words, workers were upset that they had to choose between taking jobs in other locations versus having no jobs at all. 'Due to regular production adjustments, Foxconn offered the workers the option of being transferred to alternative production lines or resigning and receiving all salary and bonuses due, according to length of service,' Microsoft said in a statement. Well, that makes it all better."
Social Networks

Submission + - How to get unfollowed by me on Twitter (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: Everyone has their own Twitter pet peeves. Here are eight of mine, as well as one that seems to drive many other Twitter users crazy, but doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Networking

Submission + - Pro-SOPA Comcast Uses SOPA-Incompatible DNSSEC (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Since 2009, Comcast subscribers who have accidentally typed a non-existant URL into their web browser have not gotten a 404 error but rather been redirected to a "helpful" page with suggestions on the right URL, along with ads. That page has now vanished as the ISP has implemented DNSSEC, a set of security standards that, among other things, prevents the malicious redirection of DNS requests. But if SOPA passes, ISPs will be forced to redirect requests for blacklisted sites, which violates DNSSEC. And, oh yes, Comcast is an enthusiastic SOPA supporter."
Cloud

Submission + - Is AT&T Building the Ultimate Walled Garden? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "The announcement earlier this week that AT&T joined OpenStack, was greeted with much fanfare (of the 'woo hoo for open source' variety). But dig into why AT&T decided to sign up for OpenStack and things get a lot more interesting. 'AT&T is about to take on Amazon's EC2 and S2 cloud services, and OpenStack's technology is going to be the engine that drives it,' writes blogger Brian Proffitt. 'Leaving aside the potential problems for user privacy here--and oh, there are many to be addressed to be sure--a plan such as this would represent a stunning coup for AT&T, since they would be able to provide the one thing Apple and Google have not been able to have in their respective plans to own the entire stack: the network on which all communications must flow.'"
Piracy

Submission + - Reddit turning SOPA 'blackout' into a 'learn-in' (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: Reddit's planned 12-hour "blackout" on January 18 sounds like an ineffectual, if not self-defeating, strategy for opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act. But the social news site actually will use that time not to "go dark," but to educate visitors about the ramifications of the House legislation that many fear will lead to widespread shutdowns of Internet sites.
Hardware

Submission + - Qualcomm Wants A Piece Of The PC Market (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Much of Intel's story of the past few years has involved its so far fruitless attempts to break into the smartphone and tablet market. But as it keeps trying, it may find competition on its home turf: Qualcomm, which makes many of the ARM-based chips in those smartphones and tablets, wants to make PCs, too. The advent of Windows 8 for ARM and Android will make this possible."

Submission + - Is there a doctor in the house? WebMD share fall (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: Shares of medical information site WebMD plunged as much as 32% on Tuesday after the company announced revenue for 2012 would be lower than expected and that its CEO has resigned. Call 911!
Cellphones

Submission + - Data Hogs: The Monsters Carriers Created (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "A recent study claimed that the top 1 percent of mobile data users eat up 25 percent of the available bandwidth. But assuming it's true, who's at fault? Stats show that data usage has increased radically with each new model of the iPhone, and similar phenomenon are in place for Android phones — all of which are gleefully sold to the public by the same people who complain about 'data hogs.' Isn't this the equivalent of a car dealer that heavily promotes Cadillacs, then complains about poor fuel efficiency, then charges a ton for extra gasoline?"
Android

Submission + - Samsung Could Soon Start to Twist Google's Arm

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "For the past three years, Android has experienced a kind of free space expansion but as we enter 2012, it seems the game may be changing. Instead of the old “there’s more than enough room for every Android handset maker to be a winner”, we have a three-horse’s-length leader, Samsung shipping close to 55% of all Android phones, while Motorola and HTC lag behind. "[Samsung] could be in a position to twist Google’s arm," writes Jean-Louis Gassée."If last quarter’s trend continues — if Motorola and HTC lose even more ground — Samsung’s bargaining position will become even stronger." But what is Samsung’s ‘‘bargaining position’’? What could they want? Perhaps more search referral money, earlier access to Android releases, or a share of advertising revenue. Will Google let Samsung gain the upper hand? It's not likely because Motorola is about to become a fully-owned but “independent” Google subsidiary that with 16% of the android market could counterbalance Samsung’s influence to some extent. So what could Samsung do? "Consider the Kindle Fire example: Just like Amazon picked the Android lock, Samsung could grab the Android Open Source code and create its own unlicensed but fully legal smartphone OS and still benefit from a portion of Android apps, or it could build its own app store the way Amazon did," writes Gassée. "Samsung is a tough, determined fighter and won’t let Google dictate its future. The same can be said of Google. This is going to be interesting.""

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