snydeq - Slashdot User

Submission + - 7 Ways To Find And Foster Hidden IT Talent (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday March 18, 2013 @09:49AM

snydeq writes: "Everyone knows the secret to business success is to hire great talent. But some of the most talented employees around might already be working for you — and you may not even know it. From holding a hackathon to identify closet geeks, to establishing extracurricular projects for employees to show off their skills, IT managers and business leaders offer 7 tips for finding and fostering hidden IT talent within your organization."

Submission + - Gosling: New Java Proposal Could Ease Ports To iOS (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Tuesday March 05, 2013 @05:01PM

snydeq writes: "Java founder James Gosling sees promise in JNI, which modifies standard Java to package runtime, as well as native and Java application code on iOS devices, InfoWorld reports. 'Java has been on iOS for quite a while' via Oracle ADF Mobile, Gosling notes. 'The catch is that to deal with an arcane nit in the Apple terms of service, the JIT code generator has to be turned off. I'm not at Oracle, and I'm not involved, but I'd be willing to wager that JEP 178 can be used as a part of complying with the Apple TOS (terms of service) without turning off code generation.'"

Submission + - The Long Odds On 8 Upstart Mobile OSes (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Tuesday March 05, 2013 @04:55PM

snydeq writes: "Ubuntu, Firefox, Tizen, Sailfish, WebOS, Nokia Series 40, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone want a piece of the pie, but it won't be a cakewalk. 'With iOS and Android dominating the mobile ecosystem so thoroughly, the other eight — yes, eight — wannabe players are seeking ways to stand out. Most are targeting what they hope are niches that iOS and Android won't take over, though a couple still have dreams of displacing Android or iOS, or at least becoming a significant No. 3. Realistic? No — most will fail, though we won't know which for a while. In the meantime, here's who else is vying for your attention as a user or developer and how they hope to convince you they're worth adopting.'"

Submission + - Dev Shop Boot Camp: 7 Programming Languages In 7 Days (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday March 04, 2013 @02:02PM

snydeq writes: "Interested in vetting the cost of switching programming languages, Andrew C. Oliver ran an experiment on his firm's developers: learn a new language and developer a simple CRUD app in a day. 'Here are the results of this attempt to teach our developers seven languages in seven days. Armed with a pre-prepared PostgreSQL database and AJAX-y HTML, we implemented Granny [the CRUD app] as a "quintessential application" in Java, Kotlin, Ruby, Scala, Clojure, JavaScript (Node.js), and Go. You can find the list of GitHub URLs and basic instructions here. These aren't necessarily "best practices," and with a 24-hour deadline, there are bound to be mistakes. Still, the code is a good idea of comparative implementations in the various languages, as you'll see.'"

Submission + - Dirty IT Security Consultant Tricks (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday February 25, 2013 @03:42PM

snydeq writes: "The IT security world is full of charlatans, and all of us have been 'advised' by at least one of them. From big-ticket items that solve tiny problems you don't have, to surprises about the feature set after you've already signed the dotted line, here are 14 underhanded techniques that security consultants use to drain IT security budgets and avoid accountability."

Submission + - Apple Hit By Hackers Who Targeted Facebook (reuters.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Tuesday February 19, 2013 @03:27PM

snydeq writes: "Apple was recently attacked by hackers who infected the Macintosh computers of some employees, the company said on Tuesday in an unprecedented disclosure that described the widest known cyber attacks against Apple-made computers to date, Reuters reports. 'The same software, which infected Macs by exploiting a flaw in a version of Oracle Corp's Java software used as a plug-in on Web browsers, was used to launch attacks against Facebook, which the social network disclosed on Friday. ... A person briefed on the investigation into the attacks said that hundreds of companies, including defense contractors, had been infected with the same malicious software, or malware. The attacks mark the highest-profile cyber attacks to date on businesses running Mac computers.'"

Submission + - Microsoft At The Crossroads: Evolve or Divide (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Tuesday February 19, 2013 @02:45PM

snydeq writes: "As PC prospects decline, Microsoft has been moving toward a hybrid, cross-platform future with an eye toward opportunities in the server closet and the cloud. But the question remains, How might Microsoft evolve to get there? 'It's tempting to say the past five years has seen Microsoft's desktop-centric strategy slowly give way to a pell-mell free-for-all made up of equal parts desktop, server, mobile hardware and software, cloud services, and auxiliary systems like the Xbox. Truth is, intention has always been present. It's only now, thanks to major upheavals in consumer tech and the cloud, that Microsoft's broad-spectrum plays are becoming more evident and critical. ... What may be new for Microsoft is the need to better cohere its strategy around an ever-widening array of services and technologies, especially as the breadth of competition it faces widens. Most of all, if there ever comes a time to stop being a consumer-oriented company, Microsoft shouldn't flinch. A future where Microsoft doesn't make hardware or end-user programs seems remote, but there was a time when IBM abandoning its PC business seemed jarring, too.' And if Microsoft can't quite cohere its strategy, the best means to this end may be to divide."

Submission + - Office 2013: Microsoft Cloud Era Begins In Earnest (businessweek.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @01:15PM

snydeq writes: "Microsoft's release of Office 2013 represents the latest in a series of makeover moves, this time aimed at shifting use of its bedrock productivity suite to the cloud. Early hands-on testing suggests Office 2013 is the 'best Office yet,' bringing excellent cloud features and pay-as-you-go pricing to Office. But Microsoft's new vision for remaining nimble in the cloud era comes with some questions, such as what happens when your subscription expires, not to mention some gray areas around inevitable employee use of Office 2013 Home Premium in business settings."

Submission + - Perl Isn't Going Anywhere -- For Better Or Worse (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday January 28, 2013 @03:19PM

snydeq writes: "Deep End's Paul Venezia waxes philosophical about Perl stagnancy in IT. 'A massive number of tools and projects still make the most out of the language. But it's hard to see Perl regaining its former glory without a dramatic turnaround in the near term. As more time goes by, Perl will likely continue to decline in popularity and cement its growing status as a somewhat arcane and archaic language, especially as compared to newer, more lithe options. Perhaps that's OK. Perl has been an instrumental part of the innovation and technological advancements of the last two decades, and it's served as a catalyst for a significant number of other languages that have contributed heavily to the programming world in general.'"

Submission + - Unseen, All-Out Cyber War On The U.S. Has Begun (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday January 28, 2013 @02:00PM

snydeq writes: "Security pros and government officials warn of a possible cyber 9/11 involving banks, utilities, other companies, or the Internet, InfoWorld reports. 'A cyber war has been brewing for at least the past year, and although you might view this battle as governments going head to head in a shadow fight, security experts say the battleground is shifting from government entities to the private sector, to civilian targets that provide many essential services to U.S. citizens. The cyber war has seen various attacks around the world, with incidents such as Stuxnet, Flame, and Red October garnering attention. Some attacks have been against government systems, but increasingly likely to attack civilian entities. U.S. banks and utilities have already been hit.'"

Submission + - Java madness: Is Oracle neglecting customers it picked up from Sun? (infoworld.com) 5

Submitted by

tsamsoniw

on Wednesday January 16, 2013 @03:52PM

tsamsoniw writes: "Mere days after Oracle rolled out a fix for the latest Java zero-day vulnerabilities, an admin for an Underweb hacker forum put code for a purportedly new Java exploit up for sale for $5,000. Though unconfirmed, it's certainly plausible that the latest Java patch didn't do the job, based on an analysis by the OpenJDK community. Maybe it's high time for Oracle to fix Java to better protect both its enterprise customers and the millions of home users it picked up when it acquired Sun."

Submission + - Microsoft (MS)'s 13 worst missteps of all time. (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

antdude

on Monday January 14, 2013 @04:28PM

antdude writes: "This eight pages/one print page InfoWorld article on "Microsoft's 13/thirteen worst missteps of all time ... the landmarks among 25 years of failures Redmond-style..."

Seen on OSNews."

Submission + - Microsoft's Worst Missteps Of All Time (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Monday January 14, 2013 @02:47PM

snydeq writes: "DOS 4.0, Zune, and Windows 8 are but a few of the landmarks among 25 years of failures Redmond-style, writes InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard in a round-up of Microsoft's 13 worst missteps of all time. 'Over the years, Microsoft's made some incredibly good moves, even if they felt like mistakes at the time: mashing Word and Excel into Office; offering Sabeer Bhatia and cohorts $400 million for a year-old startup; blending Windows 98 and NT to form Windows 2000; sticking a weird Israeli motion sensor on a game box; buying Skype for an unconscionable amount of money. (The jury's still out on the last one.) Along the way, Microsoft has had more than its fair share of bad mistakes; 2012 alone was among the most tumultuous years in Microsoft history I can recall. This year you can bet that Redmond will do everything in its power to prove 2012 naysayers wrong. To do so, Microsoft must learn from the following dirty baker's dozen of its most dreck-laden decisions, the ones that have had the very worst consequences, from a customer's point of view.'"

Submission + - Chinese Smartphone Invasion Begins (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Friday January 11, 2013 @03:57PM

snydeq writes: "Tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft were no-shows at CES this week in Las Vegas, which worked out just fine for Chinese vendors looking to establish a name for themselves with U.S. consumers, InfoWorld reports. 'Telecom suppliers Huawei and ZTE, in particular, have set their sights on breaking into the U.S. market for smartphones and tablets. ... Whether these Chinese imports can take on the likes of Apple and Samsung remains to be seen, but as Wired quotes Jeff Lotman, the CEO of Global Icons, an agency that helps companies build and license their brands: "The thing that's amazing is these are huge companies, and they have a lot of power, but in the United States nobody has heard of them and they're having trouble gaining traction, but it's not impossible. Samsung was once known for making crappy, low-end phones and cheap TVs. Now they're seen as a top TV and smartphone brand."'"

Submission + - Who Controls Vert.x: Red Hat, VMware, Neither? (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Friday January 11, 2013 @03:45PM

snydeq writes: "Simon Phipps sheds light on a fight for control over Vert.x, an open source project for scalable Web development that 'seems immunized to corporate control.' 'Vert.x is an asynchronous, event-driven open source framework running on the JVM. It supports the most popular Web programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Groovy, Ruby, and Python. It's getting lots of attention, though not necessarily for the right reasons. A developer by the name of Tim Fox, who worked at VMware until recently, led the Vert.x project — before VMware's lawyers forced him to hand over the Vert.x domain, blog, and Google Group. Ironically, the publicity around this action has helped introduce a great technology with an important future to the world. The dustup also illustrates how corporate politics works in the age of open source: As corporate giants grasp for control, community foresight ensures the open development of innovative technology carries on.'"

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