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Faster, higher, stronger: Big data will get Olympic workout

Posted May 29, 2012 - 8:00 am

Big data will help Olympic officials track athletes, attendees, and security, learn what didn't work, and then apply it to future Olympics.
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Red Hat CEO: The nuts and bolts of open source

Posted May 21, 2012 - 1:29 pm

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst lays out a compelling vision of open source's critical place in IT history and its future.
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Taking the measure of big data: More is more

Posted May 15, 2012 - 8:00 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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Screen-sharing BlackBerrys, face-tracking Apple TVs, and more

Posted May 9, 2012 - 9:09 am

BlackBerry 10 devices could let you show people what you’re seeing on your screen. Apple’s purported HDTV offering could see what you’re looking at. And you may not see any Verizon representatives pushing an iPhone on customers any time soon. This week’s Rumor Roundup is all about vision.
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Why SaaS has a reality gap with business

Posted May 4, 2012 - 12:33 pm

It's not just data accessibility and privacy that SaaS needs to keep open.
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Guy creates Android-based beer dispenser

Posted April 30, 2012 - 1:47 pm

When you love the Android operating system and beer, why not combine those loves into a single device? This guy did.
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If LinkedIn was invented in the '80s

Posted April 30, 2012 - 9:30 am

What would our favorite business social network / job hunting site look like if it had an '80s makeover?
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82% of data breaches due to staff errors; 4% of IT trusts users; IT is still to blame

Posted April 19, 2012 - 11:33 am

Only 4 percent of IT people surveyed by Sophos trust end users, and with good reason. Eight of 10 data breaches are due to their mistakes. Less than half of IT organizations even teach users about basic security and even fewer encrypt the data being lost. You decide who's to blame.
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Out of Africa: Analytics for a better world

Posted April 19, 2012 - 8:00 am

Analytics is just one more tool for policymakers and authorities to respond to a crisis. However, unlike other technologies, analytics delivers precise information to those who need it most, when they need.
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IETF goes to France, stays up all night rebuilding bad hotel WLAN; Xlnt vaca!

Posted March 29, 2012 - 11:49 am

Network World reports wryly on the 83rd annual IETF conference in France, where the gathered networking gurus ignored Paris in Spring in favor of an impromptu rebuild of a flaky WLAN.
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Online buyers value privacy, but not much

Posted March 23, 2012 - 3:29 pm

Despite surveys showing consumers put a high value on privacy, when push comes to shove, less than a third are willing to pay even 66 cents more to disclose less personal data.
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Robot barber creepier than Sweeney Todd

Posted March 22, 2012 - 10:53 am

Just a little off the top, if you please, Mr. Roboto.
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Survey shows many in high-tech healthcare prefer paper to PCs (and are fools)

Posted March 20, 2012 - 4:03 pm

A survey of decisionmakers in the healthcare industry (doctors and people who work for them) shows many still resist the long-overdue, forced upgrade to electronic health records and would return, if they could, to recording complex medical data on paper in med-school chickenscratch.
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Video: Man flies 100m with self-made wings

Posted March 20, 2012 - 1:34 pm

Cue the Superman music, we've seen a man fly like a bird (without getting on a plane).
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Watch a RC plane owner catch his plane over and over and over again

Posted March 20, 2012 - 10:39 am

Cool video features beautiful scenery and a bit of suspense.
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Big data and big Google

Posted March 20, 2012 - 8:00 am

Managing 60 different privacy policies, and potentially that many views of its constituents, is unsustainable, even for a company as big as and with the deep pockets of Google. But as more and more information flows into the company's myriad operations, attempting to manage it from 60 vantage points was a recipe for disaster. Google is smart to change the situation now.
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Microsoft acknowledges suckiness of its previous browsers

Posted March 16, 2012 - 10:54 am

If you can't beat the haters, win them back by admitting they were right before. And dress up a cat.
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Most web sites flooded by alien visitors

Posted March 15, 2012 - 11:19 am

A new study estimates 31% of web is from malicious sources, mostly automated hacking, spying or spam tools. It's possible to filter those out of Google Analytics results and block them from sites, but not without knowing how to tell 'good' 'bots from 'bad' ones.
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Macworld video review of new iPad

Posted March 14, 2012 - 9:34 pm

See the new iPad in action to see how good the screen is.
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Google sinks from 'Don't be Evil' to 'Do what I tell you or else'

Posted March 9, 2012 - 5:23 pm

Google may never have given more than lip service to the slogan "Don't be Evil," but it struck everyone else as pretty significant. Now that it appears to prefer effective exploitation of customers and bullying of partners, it's clear if Google ever was Good, it certainly isn't now.
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When creepy is worth it: tracking purchases with Slice

Posted March 9, 2012 - 9:01 am

Heard about personal data security and privacy lately? Oh, yes, you have. Allow me to provide a tonic, a refreshing change of scenery, or, at the very least, a neat app recommendation.
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Calling BS on cloud hype: Prediction that cloud will create 14 million new jobs is misleading

Posted March 5, 2012 - 1:46 pm

The news byte from an IDC report paid for and touted by Microsoft as predicting cloud computing would create 14 million new jobs doesn't tell the same story as the data in the report, which shows IT will get less relevant and the U.S. will get few new cloud-fueled jobs.
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Chromebooks are the electric car of laptops

Posted January 27, 2012 - 1:41 pm

The Chromebook looks right now to the average laptop buyer like an all-electric car looks to the average car buyer: full of what-if questions and untested theories of living
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Everyone is the new CEO of RIM!

Posted January 23, 2012 - 11:33 am

Lots of people have been talking for months about what a new CEO for the maker of BlackBerry should do. Now's as good a time as any to compile that advice into one handy guide.
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Microsoft's quietly huge moves into Apple's ecosystem

Posted December 16, 2011 - 9:00 am

Add up Microsoft's SkyDrive app for iOS, and the rumored Office suite for iPad, and they signal a marked shift in their mobile direction.
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