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New tech advice: don't learn to code

flickr/D.Begley

Jeff Atwood says "Please Don't Learn to Code," for a variety of reasons. Angry commentary erupted immediately.

10 reasons your Wi-Fi speed stinks (and what you can do about it)

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Is your 802.11n router not keeping up with your 100Mbps downpipe, dropping HD video streams and copying files at mindboggingly slow speeds? We've got 10 remedies that will help.

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Moving from CouchDB to MySQL, or vice versa
- Posted May 14, 2012 - 10:40 am
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Sauce Labs decided they needed to dump CouchDB and move to MySQL. Two years ago, a different blog detailed how and why to move from MySQL to CouchDB.
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Startup uses DDOS to confuse BitTorrent sites
- Posted May 14, 2012 - 10:51 am
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New "Pirate Pay" Russian-based startup, partially funded by Microsoft, monitors illegal files and stops the download process.
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Adobe backpedals, will now patch software for free
- Posted May 13, 2012 - 8:35 pm
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Changes tune after customers, security pros condemned Adobe's advice to spend hundreds on upgrades to get fixes.
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more stories

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Facebook proposes more changes to privacy policy
- Posted May 13, 2012 - 8:58 pm
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Critics are skeptical about the move's timing just before the company's IPO.
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Inside the Google v. Oracle courtroom drama
- Posted May 10, 2012 - 11:19 am
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The trial pitting Google vs. Oracle on the claim of intellectual property infringement by Google in Android has reached almost a tabloid like feel. Outside the courtroom feels like the red carpet as tech giant after tech giant emerge from limos and town cars to testify.
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CTIA 2012: A non-stop spectrum beg-a-thon
- Posted May 10, 2012 - 11:34 am
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No one will ever say that America's wireless carriers are too proud to beg.
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'Old people' icons: why do we still use them?
- Posted May 10, 2012 - 11:23 am
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The save icon is a floppy disk, now gone for years. Carbon copy for emails, and reel to reel tapes for voice mail icons. Why do we still use these?
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ICANN targets May 22 for reopening gTLD application system
- Posted May 10, 2012 - 12:30 am
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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) hopes to reopen on May 22 its system that will allow people to apply for a variety of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
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Lynda.com: self-funded for $20k, now $70 million revenue
- Posted May 10, 2012 - 11:09 am
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Many want to hack education, but Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin did it back in the 90s, with their own money. They were profitable within a few weeks.
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U.S.-Israel project with Motorola leads to security-hardened industrial control system
- Posted May 9, 2012 - 9:26 pm
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The security associated with industrial control systems (ICS) is facing heavy criticism this week at the ICS Joint Working Group 2012 Spring Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS is concerned cyberattacks could disrupt America's energy, water and manufacturing facilities.
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The Big Deal About Big Data

by Irfan Khan

Taking the measure of big data: More is more

Posted May 15, 2012 - 08:00 am

Some believe that 99.9% of big data is worthless, but I disagree. What you might discard as worthless today, may be useful to another analyst tomorrow. It depends on the questions you ask the data, how you ask them, and when.
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The TechnoFile

by Peter Smith

Rdio rolls out its new design to free users

Posted May 15, 2012 - 08:30 am

Back at SXSW streaming music service Rdio introduced a redesign to paying customers. Now free users have it, too.
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Open for Discussion

by Brian Proffitt

Pondering the future of Skype

Posted May 15, 2012 - 09:19 am

Skype for Linux seems poised for movement after many months of stagnation. But with all the competition, is Skype itself about to fade away?
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Thank You For Not Sharing

by Dan Tynan

This is the golden age of Facebook privacy

Posted May 15, 2012 - 12:19 pm

After Facebook's IPO, the only way the company can boost revenues is by sharing more and more of your data. So enjoy what little privacy you have left before it's gone.
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Unix as a Second Language

by Sandra Henry-Stocker

How to enforce password complexity on Solaris

Posted May 12, 2012 - 07:44 pm

Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength. The /etc/default/passwd file contains a series of parameters -- most commented out when a system is first installed -- that allow you to exercise some fairly rigorous constraints on the passwords your users may select.
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Tech Business Today

by Chris Nerney

Facebook IPO sucker scheme task list almost complete

Posted May 15, 2012 - 11:00 am

Facebook's long campaign to set up suckers for its IPO is nearly complete. Suckers, please report to the starting gate.
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CoreIT

by Kevin Fogarty

Occupy to get earful of sound cannon at Chicago NATO protest

Posted May 15, 2012 - 08:04 pm

Chicago police plan to use a pair of LRAD sound cannon only as communication devices to broadcast instructions to protesters expected to pack downtown Chicago this weekend to protest the NATO summit, not as the painful crowd dispersers as they were designed to be.
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ITworld.TV

by Keith Shaw

Google network admins wear blue short pants, according to this video

Posted May 15, 2012 - 03:04 pm

It must be hot in the Google data center, everyone's wearing shorts (at least in this animation).
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Sounding Board

by CIO Executive Council

Business leaders spearhead BI decisions

Posted Mar 25, 2012 - 03:35 pm

Members from the CIO Executive Council weigh in on why they are putting IT in the background on business intelligence. Add your opinion and advice.
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Your IT Career

by Eric Bloom

7 Ways To Talk With Business Users

Posted May 15, 2012 - 05:57 pm

As much as we love the technologies we use and how they work, most of our business users don’t. Business users are looking for solutions to their problems and not necessarily the behind-the-scenes technologies that make it work.
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Mobilize!

by Kevin Purdy

The enemy of SMS is my ... ?

Posted May 14, 2012 - 10:58 am

As previously noted in this space, text messaging, or SMS, is a scam and it needs to die. I suggested that Google Voice, Kik Messenger, and Apple’s iMessage could help kill it off. Yet it’s really a fourth, much more obvious service that will be the death of SMS.
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Data Center Diaries

by Beth Bacheldor

Greenpeace questions the green in clouds

Posted Apr 30, 2012 - 11:45 pm

That apple ain’t green.
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