IBM announces Hyperledger Fabric-based Blockchain-as-a-service
It was a big day for IBM today, as it unveiled its first Blockchain-as-a-service. Unveiled at the Interconnect conference, this commercial blockchain service is based on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric 1.0, built by The Linux Foundation.
In a nutshell, IBM Blockchain allows customers to build their own secure blockchain networks. It took the company a year to bring it from the initial announcement to a finished product.
Microsoft teams up with Adobe to create an industry standard for marketing, sales and services data
Adobe and Microsoft are joining forces to create new solutions for marketing, sales and services. Microsoft Dynamics and Adobe Experience Cloud will work with a shared data format to allow the two systems to work side by side together.
Ahead of today's Adobe Summit, the two companies revealed their plans to collaborate on another project: creating a new industry standard data model. By standardizing data structure, it is hoped that data can be gathered and processed from customers more quickly, and in-depth data analysis can be performed more efficiently.
Google says it will 'raise the bar' for ad policies after controversy over extremist content
Google has announced plans to introduce safeguards for advertisers after complaints from many big names that their advertisements were appearing next to extremist content. The Guardian, the BBC, and the UK government are among those to have withdrawn advertising from Google and YouTube, and the company has been battling to get companies back on side.
Google's Chief Business Officer, Philipp Schindler, has admitted that while there are policies in place controlling the ad network, "at times we don’t get it right." He says he understands that advertisers don't want their ads to appear next to content that is not in keeping with their values, and more will be done to ensure this doesn't happen.
Windows 10 Creators Update Build 15063 for PC and Mobile arrives on the Fast ring
Windows 10 Insider Builds really are coming thick and fast now. Microsoft rolled out three new builds for PC last week -- 15058, 15060 and 15061 -- and today we get yet another new build -- 15063.
Unlike the three previous builds, this one is for both PC and Mobile. Here's what's new.
Now's the time to buy Xbox One S -- Microsoft Store offering two free games with purchase
The Xbox One S is probably the best media device on the market from a value perspective. Not only does it play top-quality video games and offer streaming video apps, but it comes with an integrated 4K Blu-ray player too. Quite franky, many standalone UHD disc players cost more than Microsoft's game console, making it a no-brainer.
Today, Microsoft sweetens the deal even further, by bundling two free games when you buy from the company directly. These two games are in addition to the ones that may already be included. In other words, starting at $299, you can get the Xbox One S and at least three games!
SAS: Open source software comes with hidden costs and problems
Open source technologies are great for organizations, but they're far from perfect. As a matter of fact, many of the open source technologies in use today come with hidden costs and problems. This is according to a new report by SAS, which was created on a poll of 300 executives across the UK and Ireland.
These costs and problems mostly revolve around training staff, as well as recruiting, or replacing employees with essential data science skills.
Open source-focused Google Summer of Code 2017 student applications now being accepted
Today is the first official day of spring. With that said, Google wants us to look towards the following season -- summer. You see, starting today, application entries are being accepted for Google Summer of Code 2017.
If you've never heard of this program, please know that the search giant pairs students with organizations to get real-world experience working on an open source project during summer break. Google even pays them some money -- it is not an unpaid affair. Pay, experience, and knowledge aside, participating will look excellent on a résumé.
The challenges and promise of the connected car
The data from connected cars could reach a revenue potential of $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to a study from McKinsey. This connectivity will have a transformative effect on both consumer and commercial vehicles, well beyond previous advancements such as on-board diagnostics or airbags. Employers such as cable companies and delivery firms are very eager to further implement connectivity to monitor drivers and improve safety.
In the coming years connected cars will be a standard, acting as both hotspots and sending out information to other vehicles, toll booths, and various other sensors.
Seven year-old Linux vulnerability now patched
An old vulnerability was just discovered in the Linux kernel, potentially allowing hackers to gain privilege escalation, or cause a denial of service. The vulnerability was quickly fixed and there have been no signs of it in the wild, although that does not necessarily mean it went unnoticed.
According to Positive Technologies expert Alexander Popov, the CVE-2017-2636 vulnerability is seven years old and has affected the majority of popular Linux distributions, including RHEL 6/7, Fedora, SuSE, Debian, and Ubuntu.
Employees are a major security risk, say IT pros
Almost a third of companies have suffered either data loss or a security breach because their employees use mobile technologies to work. This is according to a new report by Apricorn. The company polled 100 IT decision makers in the UK for the report.
Almost half (44 percent) expect mobile workers to expose their company’s data to risks of breaches and theft. Nearly half of respondents also agree that employees are the biggest security threat to their company.
What are the most popular programming languages?
The software space is incredibly diverse and this is reflected in the sheer number of programming languages that you can learn today. If you are just starting out choosing one can seem daunting -- this list of the most-popular programming languages should help narrow down your options.
Each of the major programming languages has its fair share of fans, as you might have realized by now, but JavaScript, Java and Python have the most followers. RedMonk, which just posted its latest Programming Language Rankings, looked at both GitHub and Stack Overflow to give you an answer that reflects what developers are using and talking about in 2017.
eBay takes aim at Amazon with 'Guaranteed Delivery'
I shop at Amazon a lot. Is it because the prices are the lowest? No, actually. Quite often, I pay a bit more at Amazon compared to other online retailers. Why would I choose to spend more money? Shipping time. As a Prime member, I get guaranteed free two-day shipping. For a few extra bucks, I can get one-day shipping. In other words, the guaranteed delivery is worth the premium for me. Saving a few bucks but not knowing when my order will arrive is simply a bad deal -- for me at least (and I am guessing many others too).
eBay might be feeling the pressure from Amazon, as today, the company announces that it will be introducing "Guaranteed Delivery" this summer. eBay promises that certain products can be received in 3 business days or less. It is not available for all items, however, but more than 20 million products will be eligible.
Organizations remain vulnerable to brute force attacks
Gaining access to accounts is often done the old-fashioned way, using brute force guesses, but a new report reveals that many devices and accounts still have default usernames and passwords.
The study from visibility and testing company Ixia shows the top five username guesses as root, admin, ubnt, support, and user -- ubnt being the default username for AWS and other cloud services based on Ubuntu.
Consumers know apps are insecure, but they do little to protect themselves
Once again, an urban myth turns out to be true. People know mobile apps can be targeted by hackers, they fear the scenario, yet they’re doing very little to protect themselves from such potential attacks.
The confirmation was released by F5 Networks, in a study into the UK’s app-centric society and consumer behaviors.
Ahead of the Galaxy S8 launch, Samsung officially announces its virtual assistant, Bixby
There have been so many leaks about Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 that, come launch day, there will be nothing new to learn. One of the features that slipped out a little earlier than planned was news of Samsung's own virtual assistant called Bixby. Now Samsung has officially unveiled its take on Siri and Cortana.
Drawing on artificial intelligence and deep learning, Samsung describes Bixby as "a new intelligent interface." But what makes Bixby any better, or different, than any other virtual assistant on the market? Samsung says that "completeness", "context awareness" and "cognitive tolerance" are the keys to its success.
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