Make your signature style a consistent close
How risky is your signature style? According to the report, "CFO Narcissism and Financial Reporting Quality," a CFO's signature style can predict misreporting. The study suggests that large signatures are linked with "earnings management, less timely loss recognition, weaker internal controls, and a higher probability of restatements".
The report found that the connection between signature size and accounting misstatements is narcissism. Large signatures appear to characterize people who believe that they can "talk their way out of anything". This is clearly not the best characteristic for any CFO responsible for financial reporting.
Intel Compute Stick with Ubuntu finally available from next week
Forget desktops and laptops, the future of computing appears to be flash drive-sized sticks that you plug into a TV or screen. Quite a few companies are making these now, including ARCHOS, Lenovo and Intel.
Intel's Compute Stick, which comes with either Windows 8.1 or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on board, was first announced six months ago, with the Windows version going on sale in April. It’s taken a while, but Canonical announces the Ubuntu version will finally be available globally from next week, priced at around $110.
Business intelligence analysts spend too much time cleaning up data
We hear a lot about the potential benefits of big data, but a new study reveals that those benefits are won at a cost of considerable time spent in cleaning up and preparing raw information.
The study by data integration company Xplenty surveyed over 200 business intelligence professionals and finds that a third of them spend 50-90 percent of their time just cleaning raw data.
Smartphone porn consumption will explode
A wise man once said our phones started getting bigger when we realized we could watch porn on them. If you had the slightest doubt in your mind about these wise words, then the latest research from Juniper should put it to rest.
According to that research, each "each smartphone user (who access adult content) is expected to watch an average of 348 videos this year". That means, more than 136 billion porn videos will be watched this year alone. But don’t worry, it will grow. By 2020, estimates say that number will hit 193 billion, which is a growth of almost 55 percent.
Security pros lack faith in endpoint protection
Organizations face increasing numbers of threats today and a high percentage of security professionals now no longer trust traditional protection solutions.
A survey by enterprise security specialist Bromium reveals that 92 percent of respondents have lost confidence in the ability of traditional endpoint protection solutions, such as antivirus and white listing, to detect unknown threats like zero-day attacks. In addition 78 percent believe antivirus software is not effective even against general cyber attacks.
Reserved your copy of Windows 10? You may not get it on July 29
In a new blog post, Windows chief Terry Myerson has detailed how Microsoft will be rolling out Windows 10 to the world.
The process begins with Microsoft giving a build of the new OS to its OEM partners. If you thought getting the OS ready for a July 29 launch was going to be tight, bear in mind OEMs will have the OS quite a bit before then. After that, retailers around the world will get their copies in order to upgrade customer devices. And then Windows Insiders will get their copies, starting on July 29. Yes, Myerson says "starting" on that date. There’s no guarantee you’ll get the OS at the end of the month.
Battery drain on iOS 8.4? Blame Apple Music
The latest update to Apple’s operating system may have only been available to the public for a couple of days, but complaints are already starting to emerge.
Reports are circulating that iOS 8.4 is a huge drain on the user’s battery life and apparently Apple Music is to blame.
Motorola Moto 360 can now be had for just $149.99
While the competition is trying to catch up, Motorola's Moto 360 remains one of the best-looking Android Wear devices on the market despite being around for over nine months. It is also among the most refined, making it an attractive purchase for the smartwatch enthusiast.
The one thing that you may not like about Moto 360 is its price, which, considering that a successor is likely to be announced in the coming months, is a bit too high. Motorola has fortunately addressed this with a $100 price cut.
Can't remember your brother's phone number? You could be suffering from digital amnesia
When you can find a phone number with the swipe of a finger or resolve an argument with a quick trip to Google, why would you need to remember anything?
A new report from Kaspersky Lab calls this phenomenon 'digital amnesia'. It surveyed over 1,000 consumers across the US and finds that 91 percent of them say they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain.
Windows' WiFi Sense is a useful feature misunderstood by the media
Earlier this week The Register published a story about WiFi Sense, saying the feature "smells like a security risk". The publication is making a huge deal out of it, even though the way it works has been known ever since Microsoft introduced it in the Windows Phone 8.1 preview builds more than a year ago. So it is not news today, and acting like there is something noteworthy to say about it at this point seems disingenuous to me and, quite frankly, clickbait.
For those who are not familiar with it, WiFi Sense is a feature that allows Windows Phone 8.1 -- and Windows 10 -- users to easily share access to Wi-Fi passwords with their contacts and friends. In this day and age, if Apple or Google introduced such a feature the media would go crazy. But, no. Microsoft is criticized for trying to make things easy for its users. How silly is that? Some of the things The Register says about Wi-Fi Sense reveal no proper knowledge of the feature.
YouTube getting 60fps playback on Android, iOS
Google has been steadily updating YouTube to run high frame-rate (HFR) video, and the silky smooth 60 frames per second is coming to YouTube's iOS and Android mobile apps this month.
HFR was originally added to YouTube in October last year, allowing video game channels to stream videos at 720p 60fps or 1080p 60fps. The difference in the frame rate was quite astounding, compared to frame rate difference in a video game.
Shrink your PDFs with PDF to DjVu GUI
At first glance, PDF to DjVu GUI doesn’t sound like the most promising of programs. Convert documents from one of the most commonly supported formats ever, to something most people don’t know at all? If you need to share files with a wide audience then there’s no way that will ever be a good idea.
And yet, DjVu does have its advantages, especially with document size. We tried out the program with 12 PDF files, and while one DjVu version was fractionally larger, most were 25 percent -- 80 percent smaller than the original, and a couple dropped by around 90 percent.
Get a free $100 Google Play credit when you buy a Verizon HTC One M9
For consumers looking to buy an Android phone, it can be quite the daunting task. Why? There are too many good phones to choose from! While the Nexus 6 and Galaxy S6 are two very popular choices, don't forget the LG G4, Droid Turbo and HTC One M9.
Speaking of the HTC One M9, I have been testing it lately and like it very much. The problem, however, is that I like the Galaxy S6 more; Samsung's flagship is just the better device. With that said, if you can get a good deal on HTC's phone, it might make a great choice for some buyers. Today, HTC is giving 100 reasons to choose its phone on Verizon -- a $100 Google Play credit for free!
Online disruption after internet backbone cables are cut in CA
Vandals have struck in California's Bay Area leading to a disruption to web traffic. The FBI is investigating the incident which occurred when several fiber optic cables were severed in Livermore, around 50 miles east of San Francisco.
The attack took place at about 4.30 am PT Tuesday, and caused problems for ISPs as well as Microsoft Azure. Backbone providers were hit hard, and web users over a wide area suffered from reduced performance. This is far from being the first attack on internet cables in the area, and the FBI is seeking help from anyone with information that could bring the perpetrators to justice.
Netflix targeting 70 million subscribers
Netflix wants to reach 70 million subscribers by the end of 2015, adding an additional 13 million in 12 months. The ambitious goal follows several launches in Western Europe and South America, alongside Netflix’s saturation in the United States.
In January, Netflix reported 57 million subscribers in an investor’s call. Most of the subscribers, a large 43 million, are based in the US. The second largest region is the United Kingdom, where Netflix has five million subscribers.
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