Archived Technology Notes
Published in 2013
Permanent URLUsers offer 10 security tips to IT staff
by susan miller
The opinion many IT security people have of end users runs a narrow gamut, somewhere between lack of trust and healthy skepticism, according to a survey commissioned by Akamai Technologies. A commentary on the poll in GCN’s CyberEye blog sparked a number of comments from readers, including several recommendations on how to maintain this uneasy truce. Here’s a roundup.
1. Make it usable: If a system is secure but does not allow getting the work done, people will do an end-run around the policy. continued…
first published week of: 12/02/2013
Permanent URLWhat chip designers will do when Moore’s Law ends
by dean takahashi
If technological progress, known in the chip industry as Moore’s Law, had ended a decade ago, as some people predicted, we wouldn’t have had smartphones or tablets.
The electronics world would have been very different. It would have been more primitive than it is today, and we might not have cool apps like Angry Birds, according to Bob Colwell, director of the Microsystems Technology Office at the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). continued…
first published week of: 09/02/2013
Permanent URLWhat to do when data's too big to just transfer to the cloud
by susan miller
As government agencies consider moving their enterprise data to the cloud, their first question might be: How does it get to the cloud? In most cases, data can be transmitted via FTP or HTTP protocols, but for some applications — like life sciences, sensor and video surveillance applications — the data is just too big to fit through the pipe. What’s the best option? continued…
first published week of: 08/12/2013
Permanent URLWhat upcoming technology trend will change your role the most?
Computer Weekly editor in chief Bryan Glick hosted a panel debate on the future of IT leadership at the recent Azzurri Connect user conference in London. Speakers on the panel were:
- Brian Horsfield, CIO, OCS
- David Gooding, IT Director, Biffa
- Jon Watkins, Head of Live Services, Clear Channel
- Ian Turfrey, CIO, City & Guilds
- Phil Baker, Head of Operational Change, Endsleigh Insurance
In this video, the speakers give their response to the question: What upcoming technology trend will change your role the most?
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first published week of: 12/09/2013
Permanent URLWhere does Microsoft expect to find its next $1 billion business?
by mary jo foley
Microsoft sales execs like nice, round numbers, like $1 billion. So it's little wonder that these officials tend to look at budding businesses in terms of their potential to join Redmond's $1 billion business club.
There are already more than a dozen distinct products/services generating more than $1 billion a year in sales at the company. Those include Windows, Office, Xbox, SQL Server; System Center; Unified Communications; SharePoint; Developer Tools; Dynamics (ERP & CRM); and Online display and search advertising. SharePoint actually crossed the $2 billion a year threshold in 2012.
So where does Microsoft's sales team see the next potential billion-dollar contributors? A January 2013 job post on the Microsoft Careers site for the Sales, Marketing & Services Group (SMSG) Incubation sales team -- the group "accountable for building the next billion dollar businesses for Microsoft" -- includes these products and services on the list: continued…
first published week of: 04/08/2013
Permanent URLWhite-Hat Hacker Barnaby Jack Dies
by robert westervelt
Barnaby Jack, a prominent white hat hacker and embedded systems expert with a penchant for pulling off spectacular hacks of devices at conferences globally, has died just days before a scheduled presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
Jack most recently was the director of embedded security research at IOActive. He had worked in the security industry for more than a decade, serving in various roles at McAfee, Juniper Networks , eEye digital Security and FoundStone.
Reached by phone, IOActive's Gunter Ollmann said he was unprepared to speak publicly about the researcher. A message on Twitter from IOActive praised Jack for his research over the last decade. continued…
first published week of: 07/29/2013
Permanent URLWho's actually writing your favorite celebrity's tweets?
by evan dashevsky
Now in his mid-70s, actor George Takei has found new fame as a beloved social media maven boasting millions of followers across his various social networking accounts. That’s some heavy digital mojo for an actor best known for a supporting role on a short-lived 1960s TV series and occasional guest appearances on The Howard Stern Show. There’s a very good reason for his newfound digital popularity, though: Takei’s meme-orific posts are absolutely delightful!
But many of Takei’s virtual admirers might be disappointed to know that Mr. Sulu is not solely responsible all that delightfulness. A few months back, the world learned that some of the humorous quips posted under his name were written by a ghostwriter being paid ten bucks per Facebook post.
As it turns out, Takei’s use of outside help for his social media work isn’t unique among celebrities. continued…
first published week of: 09/16/2013
Permanent URLWhy Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
by richard stallman
It is now 30 years since I launched the campaign for freedom in computing, that is, for software to be free or “libre” (we use that word to emphasize that we’re talking about freedom, not price). Some proprietary programs, such as Photoshop, are very expensive; others, such as Flash Player, are available gratis — either way, they subject their users to someone else’s power.
Much has changed since the beginning of the free software movement: Most people in advanced countries now own computers — sometimes called “phones” — and use the internet with them. Non-free software still makes the users surrender control over their computing to someone else, but now there is another way to lose it: Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, which means letting someone else’s server do your own computing activities.
Both non-free software and SaaSS can spy on the user, shackle the user, and even attack the user. Malware is common in services and proprietary software products because the users don’t have control over them. That’s the fundamental issue: while non-free software and SaaSS are controlled by some other entity (typically a corporation or a state), free software is controlled by its users.
Why does this control matter? Because freedom means having control over your own life. continued…
first published week of: 09/30/2013
Permanent URLWhy Waze Is Worth More Than $1 Billiona
by rebecca greenfield
The Israeli mobile GPS startup Waze has another mega-suitor in Silicon Valley, with Google reportedly joining the bidding war and topping the $1 billion offer rumored to be coming from Facebook earlier this month. What is it, really, about this mapping app that's drawing acquisition prices as high as — if not higher than — Instagram and Tumblr? And why haven't you heard more about it? Well, unlike those two high-profile startups, Waze isn't a social network, even though its community is more powerful, and it has much more than that to offer potential buyers — certainly more than filtered photos and GIFs. Here's the true gold inside Waze:
Like any good startup waiting to be acquired, Waze, with over 40 million users, has just about as big a user base as Instagram had when Facebook scooped it up a year ago. (Since, Instagram's following has ballooned to 100 million.) But even with all those people using the service, it kind of feels like Waze came out of nowhere, doesn't it?
That might because the New York and San Francisco tech press uses it a lot less. Seriously: What Instagram was to brunch for the tech set, and what Tumblr was to their personal blogs of meaninglessness, what is Waze? At its best, Waze is a driver's mapping tool, especially popular in areas notable for their terrible drivers. Namely: Israel, a country known for the world's worst drivers. (During my first 30 minutes in the country earlier this month, my driver ran into a guy on his scooter.) Waze works more or less like any really good turn-by-turn mapping tool, but it has much better real-time traffic and construction data that it gets from all of those millions of users. Don't know the best way to navigate a confusing and often under construction city? Just Waze it, as so many Israelis do. continued…
first published week of: 06/03/2013
Permanent URL“How can they be so good?”: The strange story of Skype
by Toivo Tänavsuu
"I don't care about Skype!" millionaire Jaan Tallinn tells me, taking off his blue sunglasses and finding a seat at a cozy open-air restaurant in the old town of Tallinn, Estonia. "The technology is 10 years old—that's an eternity when it comes to the Internet Age. Besides, I have more important things going on now."
Tallinn has five children, and he calls Skype his sixth. So why does he no longer care about his creation?
On August 29, 2003, Skype went live for the first time. By 2012, according to Telegeography, Skype accounted for a whopping 167 billion minutes of cross-border voice and video calling in a year—which itself was a stunning 44 percent growth over 2011. That increase in minutes was "more than twice that achieved by all international carriers in the world, combined." That is to say, Skype today poses a serious threat to the largest telcos on the planet. It also made Jaan Tallinn and other early Skypers rich.
But something changed along the way. Skype is no longer the upstart that refused to put signs on its offices, that dodged international lawyers, and that kept a kiddie pool in the boardroom. This is the real story of how a global brand truly began, told in more detail than ever before by those who launched it.
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first published week of: 09/09/2013
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