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50 articles, 2016-03-14 12:01 1 Linux Mint website hacked – operating system download replaced with backdoored ISO Maintainers point finger of suspicion at three in Sofia, Bulgaria,Cloud and (2.00/3) Infrastructure,Open Source,Software ,Linux,security,malware 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.computing.co.uk 2 Seven steps to becoming a digital business leader Developing employees to embrace a digital-first approach can bring significant personal and organisational benefits. 2016-03-14 12:00 2KB www.computerweekly.com 3 PCIe SSD roundup 2016: Some stall while others progress The PCIe SSD market is still important but PCIE flash drive makers are split between those that continue to develop their products and those for whom product evolution has stalled 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.computerweekly.com 4 Microsoft offers free-to-use SQL Server Express on Azure cloud platform Monitoring for Azure Data Factory also thrown in,Cloud and Infrastructure,Software ,Cloud,Cloud and Infrastructure 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.theinquirer.net 5 Microsoft tempts Oracle customers with free SQL Server 2016 licences Microsoft says firms can save by switching, but they must be signed up for Software Assurance licensing,Applications,Licensing,Big Data and Analytics ,Microsoft,Oracle,SQL Server,databases,SQL,licence 2016-03-14 12:01 4KB www.computing.co.uk 6 Windows 10 Mobile gets another update, Windows Insiders get to taste a new ring Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586.107 delivers another bunch of bug fixes,Software,Mobile ,Windows Mobile,Microsoft 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.theinquirer.net 7 Google's AlphaGo AI smashes top professional at ancient game of Go First Chess, now Go. What next? Buckaroo? Ker-Plunk?,Software,Internet of Things ,Artificial Intelligence,Google,AlphaGo,DeepMind 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.theinquirer.net 8 Canonical to bake OpenZFS into Ubuntu 16.04 'Perfect' file system for containers to be fully supported in April's Ubuntu release,Software,Operating Systems,Cloud and Infrastructure ,Ubuntu,Canonical 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.computing.co.uk 9 Microsoft demos DevOps capabilities with updates to Azure Stack Technical Preview Microsoft previews developer services that will run on its Azure platform for inside customer data centres,DevOps,Developer,Cloud and Infrastructure ,Microsoft,Azure,DevOps 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB www.v3.co.uk 10 Is DevOps just a 're-branding' of ops? Interest in DevOps is intense, but have the roles and responsibilities, even within organisations that have adopted it, really changed?,DevOps,Developer ,DevOps,Puppet Labs 2016-03-14 12:01 4KB www.computing.co.uk 11 Canonical targets IoT projects with 64-bit ARM developer platform The Linux firm creates a reference platform using its Ubuntu Core,Developer,Internet of Things,Open Source ,ARM,Canonical,Ubuntu Core 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB www.v3.co.uk

12 Kaspersky warning over Android Triada Trojan 'as complex as any Windows malware' Some 60 per cent of Android devices at risk, claims Kaspersky,Security,Mobile Software,Threats and Risks ,Kaspersky,Android,security 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB www.v3.co.uk 13 Visa aims its secure payments tech at cloud-based banking apps The payments firm is expanding the scope of its tokenisation service ,Financial Solutions,Mobile Software ,Apple,Visa,smb-services,SMB Spotlight 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB www.computing.co.uk 14 Opera to add native ad blocker to desktop web browser Need for speed? Opera's web browser will come with a built-in speedometer ,Software,Internet,Internet of Things,Cloud and Infrastructure ,Opera,Opera Software,Browsers 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.theinquirer.net 15 Google offers free Project Shield tool to help combat DDoS attacks Project Shield has been released for use by news and human rights organisations,Security Technology,Threats and Risks,Systems Tools ,Google,hack,hacking,Hackers,DDoS 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB www.computing.co.uk 16 Blockchain: not the Messiah Blockchain is an ingenious technological development, but it's far from being the saviour many are looking for,Business Software ,Internet of Things,GBG,authentication,encryption,blockchain,identity and access management,Bitcoin,GDS,Fintech,Tom Loosemore,in-depth 2016-03-14 12:01 1KB www.computing.co.uk 17 Amazon Web Service's Ts & Cs upgraded for zombie apocalypse AWS EULA keeps all bases covered,Cloud and Infrastructure,Software,Applications ,Amazon,Lumberyard,AWS,EULA,zombie 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.computing.co.uk 18 Never learnt to program your Spectrum, Amstrad or BBC? Step this way... Publisher Usborne re-releases 15 computer coding books from the 1980s as free PDF downloads,Software ,software,BBC 2016-03-14 12:01 1KB www.theinquirer.net 19 Virtual reality on the rise as HTC Vive nets 15,000 pre-orders The Vive was sold at a rate of 25 per second despite its hefty cost ,Gadgets,Hardware,Software ,HTC,connected devices,Valve,video games 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB www.computing.co.uk 20 Blockchain-as-a-Service and open-sourcing of platform code among a slew of blockchain announcements from IBM IBM determined not to miss out on the predicted blockchain boom,Developer ,blockchain,Bitcoin,IBM,IBM Watson Internet of Things,Internet of Things,z Systems,London Stock Exchange,The Linux Foundation,Jim Zemlin,Bluemix,Cloud Computing 2016-03-14 12:01 4KB www.computing.co.uk 21 John Oliver dives into the iPhone FBI encryption debate If you were hoping that John Oliver would do a deep dive on the iPhone encryption debate: good news. Today's the day. 2016-03-14 12:01 1KB techcrunch.com 22 Marley Spoon, the cook-at-home food delivery service, expands across U. S. with $17M Series B Marley Spoon, the cook-at-home food delivery service that competes with the likes of Gousto, Blue Apron, Plated, and Rocket Internet’s HelloFresh, has.. 2016-03-14 12:01 2KB techcrunch.com 23 Alibaba-backed logistics firm Cainiao lands funding at a reported $7.7B valuation Cainiao, a three-year-old Alibaba-backed company specializing in logistics, has confirmed its maiden external funding round from Temasek Holdings and GIC in.. 2016-03-14 12:01 3KB techcrunch.com 24 Microservices for a Streaming World Embrace decentralization, build service-based systems and attack the problems that come with distributed state using stream processing tools, Ben Stopford urged in his presentation at the recent QCon London conference. 2016-03-14 11:46 3KB www.infoq.com 25 Upstream oil and gas companies spend smarter on digital technologies to drive value, reduce costs in downturn, Accenture and Microsoft survey finds HOUSTON — March 9, 2016 — As upstream oil and gas companies scrutinize every dollar invested, they’re spending smarter today on digital technologies, seeking to drive value and reduce costs amid low oil and gas prices, a new survey by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) reports. Respondents to the... 2016-03-14 08:37 6KB news.microsoft.com 26 FileHippo News - powered by FeedBurner The allegations were made using Google’s Google+ social networking platform, and also on Google Maps. When the reviews claiming that infants were not safe in the nursery were found by the small business, the owners originally approached Google and asked them to remove the offensive and untrue content. But the... 2016-03-14 03:36 24KB feeds2.feedburner.com 27 DOJ suggests Apple could be compelled to share iOS source code in San Bernardino case The latest update to the San Bernardino case suggests that law enforcement may be able to compel Apple into providing access to the iOS source code or the tech giant's private signature. 2016-03-14 08:54 2KB www.neowin.net 28 Only collaboration will solve the encryption dilemma “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”. So goes the quote from Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of… 2016-03-14 08:38 6KB betanews.com 29 Microsoft and Olio Devices announce patent licensing agreement REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — Jan. 25, 2016 — On Monday, Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC and Olio Devices Inc. signed a patent licensing agreement covering wearable devices. Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said, “Mutually beneficial and collaborative patent licensing agreements like this one promote innovation and lead... 2016-03-14 05:39 2KB news.microsoft.com 30 Microsoft and Wistron deepen collaboration with Android patent licensing renewal REDMOND, Wash., and TAIPEI, Taiwan — March 7, 2016 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. and Wistron Corp. announced a renewed Android patent licensing agreement covering Wistron’s tablets, mobile phones, e-readers, and other consumer devices running Android and Chrome platforms under Microsoft’s patent portfolio. This deal extends and expands a prior... 2016-03-14 05:39 2KB news.microsoft.com

31 E-School for Girls partners with NYU and Microsoft for entrepreneurship event NEW YORK — Feb. 4, 2016 — Pre-college entrepreneurship program E-School for Girls partnered with New York University, Microsoft Corp. and Natalie Zfat for an inspirational and educational event, What It Takes to Be a Successful Entrepreneur, on Feb. 3, 2016, at the NYU Stern School of Business. “Microsoft is... 2016-03-14 05:39 3KB news.microsoft.com 32 Microsoft delivers enterprise-class ERP to the cloud REDMOND, Wash. — March 9, 2016 — Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced that its next-generation cloud ERP solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX, built on and for Microsoft Azure, is now available in 137 markets in 40 languages. The enterprise-class business application brings the power, speed and intelligence of cloud computing to... 2016-03-14 05:39 7KB news.microsoft.com 33 Pi Day: Microsoft is offering 31.4% off select Dell notebooks, including new XPS 13 It's 3/14, and that means it's Pi Day - and Microsoft is celebrating by offering a massive 31.4% discount on select Dell notebooks, including the latest XPS 13 with 6th-gen Intel Skylake processor. 2016-03-14 07:03 1KB www.neowin.net 34 Microsoft Cloud strength highlights second quarter results REDMOND, Wash. — January 28, 2016 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended December 31, 2015: During the quarter, Microsoft returned $6.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends. “Businesses everywhere are using the Microsoft Cloud as their digital platform to... 2016-03-14 05:39 8KB news.microsoft.com 35 A Glimpse at the Future of Containers in the Enterprise As interest in containers continues to grow, industry experts gathered at the Container Summit to discuss the technology and its future. 2016-03-14 07:56 1KB www.eweek.com 36 Microsoft and NCAA® team up for NCAA® March Madness® REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2016 — On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. and the NCAA announced a comprehensive partnership to provide college basketball fans with the ultimate March Madness bracket experience along with a new Windows 10 NCAA app. In partnership with the NCAA, Bing, which returns as an Official Corporate... 2016-03-14 05:39 7KB news.microsoft.com 37 Hydroelectric charger set to be released in July Campers and environmentalists need to watch out for the new Enomad charger. The product will allow users to charge their phones via any running water source. Read on to get more details. 2016-03-14 03:48 1KB www.neowin.net 38 Best Desktop PCs of 2016 When buying a new computer you basically have two options: you can build one yourself or you can buy pre-built. The former will almost always result in better value and upgradeability. But if you need something that works out of the box, or are simply looking for something to recommend... 2016-03-14 00:10 14KB www.techspot.com 39 How to Use Android Data Binding - Developer.com Walk through how the new data binding library helps simplify working with data in Android applications. 2016-03-14 00:00 5KB www.developer.com 40 Using Java Regular Expressions - Developer.com Become proficient in using Java Regular Expressions and make your coding more efficient. 2016-03-14 00:00 6KB www.developer.com

41 Twitter topples CBS selection show with leaked NCAA bracket The first blockbuster upset of March Madness: Twitter over CBS on Selection Sunday. 2016-03-14 00:00 2KB phys.org 42 Pure aims at unstructured data with Flashblade flash system Pure Storage charts new waters with all-flash storage array that aims at unstructured and big data analytics workloads with a scale-out modular architecture. 2016-03-14 00:00 3KB www.computerweekly.com 43 Microsoft will no longer accept using Bitcoin to pay for content in the Windows Store An update on Microsoft's website suggests that Bitcoin will no longer be an option for users to purchase content on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft has given no reason for the change. 2016-03-13 23:08 1KB www.neowin.net 44 Another one bites the dust: Spotify ends support for its Windows Phone app Spotify will no longer support its Windows Phone application, according to a customer support representative for the firm. They did, however, hint at the possibility of a Windows 10 application. 2016-03-13 18:50 1KB www.neowin.net 45 Microsoft's Lumia 650 now available from £129.99 in the UK The Lumia 650 went on sale in the UK last month priced at £159.99, but you can now buy it from just £129.99 in the UK on a contract-free pay-as-you-go plan, and still unlocked for use on any network. 2016-03-13 18:24 2KB www.neowin.net 46 Best Buy will begin taking preorders for the LG G5 on March 18 On March 18, Best Buy will begin accepting preorders for LG's new G5 flagship. Release dates are still unknown, as those will most likely vary by carriers that will supply the device. 2016-03-13 18:06 1KB www.neowin.net 47 Google's AlphaGo finally succumbs to world champion Google DeepMind's AlphaGo program has finally lost a game of Go against world champion Lee Se-dol. The champion was able to cause the AI to make an irrecoverable move, losing it the game. 2016-03-13 17:04 1KB www.neowin.net 48 Microsoft knows what's best for you -- stop fighting Windows 10 Windows 10 is a wildly popular operating system in more ways than one. In one regard, it is installed on hundreds of millions of machines. In another, it is popular with technology pundits as something to portray in a negative light. Windows 10 is a wildly popular operating system in more... 2016-03-13 14:32 3KB betanews.com 49 How to say NO to Windows 10 Running Windows 7 or 8.1? Microsoft wants you to upgrade to Windows 10. What’s that? You don’t want to? You want to keep the using the OS you like and paid for? Well, tough. You don’t have any choice in the matter. Running Windows 7 or 8.1? Microsoft wants you... 2016-03-13 12:46 2KB betanews.com 50 First Microsoft Edge extension appears in Windows Store The feature that has been missing from Microsoft Edge for so long is just around the corner. We've known for a little while that extensions are due to make an appearance in an upcoming build of Windows 10, and ahead of this the first extension has made an appearance in... 2016-03-13 12:12 1KB betanews.com Articles

50 articles, 2016-03-14 12:01

1 Linux Mint website hacked – operating system download replaced with backdoored ISO (2.00/3) The Linux Mint website was hacked over the weekend and the regular ISO of the latest distribution of the popular operating system replaced by a version that contained a backdoor. The attack happened on Saturday February 20th, but the developers behind the operating system claim that it was cleared up by Sunday morning. Anyone who downloaded an ISO of Mint on the Saturday is advised not to use it. All users of the Linux Mint forums have also been advised to change their passwords. " We were exposed to an intrusion today. It was brief and it shouldn't impact many people ," admitted Clement Lefebvre, the head of the Linux Mint project in a blog post in the early hours of Sunday morning. "Hackers made a modified Linux Mint ISO, with a backdoor in it, and managed to hack our website to point to it. " He continued: "As far as we know, the only compromised edition was Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition. If you downloaded another release or another edition, this does not affect you. If you downloaded via torrents or via a direct HTTP link, this doesn't affect you either... It should only impact people who downloaded this edition on February 20th. " Lefebvre also provided advice on how to check whether a Linux Mint ISO might be affected, by checking its MD5 signature against the valid signatures. Intriguingly, the team behind Mint claim that they already have the name of three suspects they believe may have played a role - even if inadvertently - in the attack. "The hacked ISOs are hosted on 5.104.175.212 and the backdoor connects to absentvodka.com. Both lead to Sofia, Bulgaria, and the name of three people over there. We don't know their roles in this, but if we ask for an investigation, this is where it will start. "What we don't know is the motivation behind this attack. If more efforts are made to attack our project and if the goal is to hurt us, we'll get in touch with authorities and security firms to confront the people behind this," he concluded. 2016-03-14 12:01

2 Seven steps to becoming a digital business leader For more than a decade, business and IT have become increasingly inseparable and started co- evolving, and this unstoppable integration is altering the very nature of companies, competition and work. Along with globalisation, it is the defining economic transition of our time. To succeed in this world, senior executives must increasingly think digital first , while professionals and employees at every level must learn new skills and adopt new ways of working. Those who embrace this future will enjoy exciting career opportunities, but those who resist it will be increasingly marginalised. We see both patterns in many large organisations today. Nowhere is the impact of these forces greater than in the enterprise IT function. IT has always been among the most “ inside-out ” parts of the firm because developing and managing internal information systems has required – and still requires – a deep and sustained focus on the detailed nature of individual company operations and processes. This heads-down culture is so strong that companies often appoint dedicated business relationship managers (BRMs) who have the communications and consulting skills needed to keep IT’s efforts aligned with the overall goals of their firm. Although the need for traditional BRMs remains, to ensure their future relevance, they must become more than just effective internal business partners; they must also emerge as externally engaged digital business leaders (DBLs). The difference is one of orientation – while BRMs focus mostly on internal systems, processes and applications, DBLs primarily engage with the wider digital ecosystem: the startups, technologies, platforms and disruptive business models coming out of Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Finding the time, budgets, skills and bandwidth to make this inside-out to outside-in transition while still taking care of demanding internal work is the biggest and most difficult strategic challenge facing enterprise IT today. The following seven recommendations can help. 2016-03-14 12:00 David Moschella

3 PCIe SSD roundup 2016: Some stall while others progress Computer Weekly’s 2015 review of PCIe SSD products focused on consolidation in the market. At the time, a range of acquisitions had taken place and some suppliers left the market altogether. In 2016, we see a divide between suppliers that continually evolve their server flash products and those that appear to have stalled in provision of updates to their offerings. HGST, SanDisk and Micron appear to have slowed their product releases and instead focused on other product ranges – such as traditional flash drives – or on developing base technology for their products, which is the case for Micron with 3D Nand and 3D XPoint on the horizon. The other suppliers in our survey have pushed on with products that deliver increased capacity and performance. Only Samsung appears to have evolved to use new technology, with the PM1725 and PM953 based on 3D TLC Nand. NVMe support isn’t consistent. Typically, only suppliers releasing products have moved to support the NVMe standard. There do, however, seem to be more products available using the M.2 format, including Sandisk’s X400 M.2 2280 at only 1.5mm thick. The PCIe SSD market doesn’t seem to have evolved as fast as the traditional drive-format market. This is presumably because PCIe SSD hardware had a significant price mark-up over their SAS / Sata -format counterparts. Therefore, customers are more likely to push these products until the end of their useful lifetime. The more widespread adoption of TLC flash may see this change, as it offers suppliers the ability to deliver products to a lower price/capacity point. This refresh may coincide with more suppliers releasing NVMe supported products, as they play catch-up with leaders such as Intel and Samsung. 2016-03-14 12:01 Chris Evans

4 4 Microsoft offers free-to-use SQL Server Express on Azure cloud platform Microsoft has introduced a free version of SQL Server to its Azure cloud platform, enabling customers to use it for building applications, test and development, along with a monitoring and management app for the Azure Data Factory data integration service - paying only when their applications go live. SQL Server is one of the most widely deployed database management systems, and Microsoft is making it easier for developers to build apps for the cloud by making images of SQL Server Express with Tools 2014, 2012 and 2008 R2 available in the Azure Marketplace . SQL Server Express can be used at no charge for testing and development, and for web and mobile apps with lightweight relational database needs, or "micro workloads", Microsoft said. However, while licensing is free, customers will be charged for running any virtual machine instance that contains it. Microsoft advised customers to pause the virtual machine when they are not actively using it to maximise cost savings. Microsoft has also added a monitoring and management application for Azure Data Factory to make it easier for customers using the data integration service as part of a big data project to keep closer tabs on the status of the data pipelines feeding into it. Azure Data Factory is Microsoft's cloud-based data integration service that orchestrates and automates the process of ingesting, preparing, transforming and analysing data, using other services such as Azure HDInsight and Azure Machine Learning. "Based on customer feedback, we have re-imagined the monitoring and management experience in Azure Data Factory to make it more effective and intuitive for data developers and data scientists," said Gaurav Malhotra, Microsoft's Azure Data Factory programme manager, on the company's Azure Blog . The app is designed to present information in a simpler way and provide better insights into a customer's data pipelines, as well as letting data professionals enable batch processing actions in Azure Data Factory to improve developer productivity. The new Monitoring and Management App improves efficiency for new and advanced users, offering a more intuitive experience, Malhotra said. Computing's sister site V3 is hosting a Cloud and Infrastructure Live summit on 20 and 21 April discussing numerous aspects of the cloud and how to best use it in your organisation. Sign up now to find out more. 2016-03-14 12:01

5 Microsoft tempts Oracle customers with free SQL Server 2016 licences Microsoft is hoping to convince enterprise firms to migrate from other database platforms to SQL Server 2016 by offering free licenses as part of a new promotion. The catch is that they need to be signed up to Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing scheme to qualify. The new programme was disclosed at the firm's Data Driven event in New York this week, which kicked off a series of activities intended to build customer interest around SQL Server 2016 ahead of its general availability sometime later this year. Microsoft's new scheme, which aims to help more customers adopt SQL Server 2016, is billed as a programme for organisations currently running applications or workloads on 'non- Microsoft paid commercial relational database management systems' but is clearly targeted at Oracle database customers. The web page where customers can claim their free licences is headed "Break free from Oracle" and invites organisations to "Follow the leader and migrate from Oracle to SQL Server - with free licenses". On the surface, this could be a tempting proposal for many organisations, with Microsoft offering support services to kick-start their migration, plus access to its SQL Server Essentials for the Oracle Database Administrator training. Oracle's licensing has long been a bone of contention for many of its customers, not just because of high costs but with some customers claiming that licensing is often so complex that it is difficult to understand how many licenses they require. The firm is also often accused of strong-arm tactics, with Specsavers global CIO describing it as a "gun-to-the-head methodology". However, firms considering such a migration need to carefully weigh up the implications before signing up. Microsoft is making a condition of the offer that organisations must have signed up for its Software Assurance subscription licensing, under which customers pay an annual fee in exchange for the rights to new software releases and support services. Software Assurance has itself been criticised for offering poor value in some cases, especially as Microsoft does not guarantee that new versions of products will be delivered in the period covered by the subscription agreement. There are also additional restrictions, with Microsoft warning that to qualify for this offer, customers must have an SCE (Server and Cloud Enrollment) license for SQL Server. In other words, any customer that meets the criteria for free SQL Server licences will be an organisation that is already deeply committed to volume licensing of Microsoft products. It is also questionable whether the licenses are really 'free' in this case, although customers with Oracle license agreements may be able to save by switching. Meanwhile, SQL Server 2016 is expected to be a significant upgrade, bringing capabilities such as always encrypted data, expanded support for in-memory database operation, and the ability to take advantage of the increasing prevalence of cloud services in today's IT environment. "We built SQL Server 2016 for this new world, and to help businesses get ahead of today's disruptions," said the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Data Group Joseph Sirosh. "It supports hybrid transactional/analytical processing, advanced analytics and machine learning, mobile BI, data integration, always encrypted query processing capabilities and in-memory transactions with persistence. It is also perhaps the world's only relational database to be ‘born cloud-first,' with the majority of features first deployed and tested in Azure, across 22 global data centres and billions of requests per day. It is customer tested and battle ready," he added. Microsoft also disclosed this week that it is developing a version of SQL Server for Linux. This is due for availability sometime next year, after SQL Server 2016 for Windows ships. 2016-03-14 12:01

6 6 Windows 10 Mobile gets another update, Windows Insiders get to taste a new ring Microsoft has delivered the latest update to Windows 10 Mobile, Build 10586.107, which is now available to Windows Insiders in the Slow Ring and features a fresh batch of bug fixes amid a number of new features. The company has also added a third ring to its Windows Insiders programme, called Release Preview, enabling daredevil testers to get their hands on forthcoming software earlier. Windows 10 Mobile debuted on the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL handsets from Microsoft at the end of 2015, but owners of other Windows Phone devices wanting to upgrade have had to wait. Microsoft has struggled to bring to market Windows 10 Mobile, which it had initially planned to release at the same time as full-fat Windows 10 at the end of July. A stream of preview releases have brought fixes for numerous issues brought-up by testers on the Windows Insider programme. The latest release, Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586.107, delivers another bunch of bug fixes. These address problems such as some users experiencing missing tiles on the Start screen, changes to the device reset process when Device Encryption is enabled, and improved support in Narrator to speak in multiple languages. Build 10586.107 was released to Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring earlier this week, but has now been rolled out to those on the Slow Ring as well. Microsoft has has also added a new Release Preview Ring to the Windows Insider programme. This applies to Windows 10 releases on both the PC and mobile platforms. The software giant is inviting Windows Insiders who want early access to updates but with minimal risk to their device to try out its newly available ring. It is targeting those who want to stay on the Current Branch, which at present is made of releases that take the Build 10586 release as their base, but continue to receive early access to application and driver updates. The Fast Ring is for Insiders who enjoy being the first to get access to builds and feature updates, and who are prepared to accept some instability. The Slow Ring was for those happy to receive previews at a less frequent pace in exchange for greater stability. * from Microsoft's Windows blog: " The 3 Windows Insider rings are : 2016-03-14 12:01

7 Google's AlphaGo AI smashes top professional at ancient game of Go Google's AlphaGo artificial intelligence computer program has claimed its top human scalp at the ancient game of Go by beating challenger Lee Sedol in the first of five bouts. It follows a win in October last year for AlphaGo against Fan Hui, a lower ranked player, which was only publicised in January. While IBM's DeepThought beat a human at chess back in 1997, the wider range of branching moves makes Go a harder proposition for AI to master. Sedol had initially been confident of wiping the floor with his silicon challenger, although he seemed more apprehensive as the date approached. It was a close match, according to those who tuned-in to the live webcast, and many were surprised by the result, including Sedol himself. " I was very surprised because I did not think that I would lose the game. A mistake I made at the very beginning lasted until the very last ," he said, according to a report in The Guardian. Sedol conceded that AlphaGo played a very good game tactically. The latest four-hour contest was streamed on YouTube (see below) although it was, by all accounts a bit dull unless you're really into Go. AlphaGo may, perhaps, have been motivated by money. The winner will scoop a $1m prize. It's not known whether AlphaGo has been told that if it wins, the pot will be donated to charity. DeepMind, the unit of Google that developed AlphaGo, is based in London. Demis Hassabis, the founder and CEO of DeepMind, was full of praise for Sedol before the start of the match but very pleased with the win for artificial intelligence. Google has provided a short write-up of its victory, allowing some praise for the human. "AlphaGo takes the first game against Lee Sedol. They were neck-and-neck for its entirety in a game filled with complex fighting," said the firm in a Google Asia Pacific blog post. "Lee Sedol made very aggressive moves but AlphaGo did not back down from the fight. AlphaGo took almost all of its time compared to Lee Sedol who had almost 30 minutes left on the clock. " They may beat us at Chess and now Go, but the machines still have some way to go before they can challenge humans at football. 2016-03-14 12:01

8 Canonical to bake OpenZFS into Ubuntu 16.04 Canonical is planning to build ZFS, the resilient combined file system and logical volume manager originally developed by Sun Microsystems, into its forthcoming 16.04 release of the Ubuntu operating system, codenamed "Xenial Xerus". Support for OpenZFS was added as a technical preview to Ubuntu 15.10, which was formally released at the beginning of May 2015. Users will still need to download and install the appropriate package, though - zfsutils-linux. Xenial Xerus is scheduled to be released on 21 April and will likely include the Unity 8 graphical user interface and Mir. " ZFS is one of the most beloved features of Solaris, universally coveted by every Linux sysadmin with a Solaris background. To our delight, we're happy to make OpenZFS available on every Ubuntu system," revealed Canonical product and strategy team member Dustin Kirkland in a blog post this week. "Killer" features, according to Kirkland, include snapshots, copy-on-write cloning, continuous integrity checking against data corruption, automatic repair and efficient data compression. "These features truly make ZFS the perfect files ystem for containers," he added. However, these features come at a cost in terms of memory - ZFS can be highly resource intensive, requiring 1GB of memory, as a rule of thumb, for every 1TB of storage under management. Ubuntu 16.04 will also dump the not especially well-loved Ubuntu Software Centre in favour of Gnome Software. Unlike app stores for the Apple iOS operating system and the Google Play store, the sale of paid-for apps didn't prove to be a ginormous money-spinner for Canonical and the service has slowly deteriorated. ZFS was originally developed as open-source software, although the ZFS name is trademarked to Oracle. 2016-03-14 12:01

9 Microsoft demos DevOps capabilities with updates to Azure Stack Technical Preview Microsoft's Azure Stack was released as a Technical Preview at the end of January, but the firm is already extending its capabilities with extra platform as a service (PaaS) and DevOps tools for enterprise customers to evaluate. Azure Stack can be regarded as a version of the Azure public cloud packaged so that it can be deployed on servers running in a customer's own data centre. It is a key part of Microsoft's hybrid cloud strategy, as customers running Azure Stack will find it easier to extend to the Microsoft Azure cloud thanks to the large degree of consistency across the two platforms. In a new update, Microsoft has added extra that organisations can download and deploy onto the Azure Stack Technical Preview, including an updated Azure software development kit (SDK); a Web Apps capability in the Azure App Service; SQL and MySQL database resource providers; and Visual Studio support. Microsoft said that this update represents just the first instalment of a continuous innovation process planned for Azure Stack, and which will eventually lead towards enterprise customers being able to fully deliver Azure services from their own data centres. However, Microsoft said that the three PaaS resource providers it has now delivered, for Web Apps SQL and MySQL, are still only at the early preview stage. "We're making them available early to solicit community and early adopter feedback to help simplify the installation and configuration experience. We will then incorporate the feedback and release another public preview for these services before we release the next Technical Preview of Azure Stack," the firm said in a posting on its Azure blog. Meanwhile, adding Azure Stack support into the Visual Studio suite will help organisations move towards a DevOps strategy, enabling them to build and deploy cloud-like services from their own data centre. "Enterprises today must manage both hyper-scale web applications and complex requirements such as ensuring regulatory compliance and data sovereignty," said Microsoft's senior programme manager for Azure Tools, Jason Shaver. "To meet these needs, Microsoft lets enterprises approach the cloud as a model rather than a place: Azure and Azure Stack share a standardised architecture, portal, and application model, allowing developers to write once and deploy to public, private, or hosted cloud environments without code changes," he added. Computing is set to host a DevOps Summit event in London on 5th July 2016. Follow the link for more details. 2016-03-14 12:01

10 Is DevOps just a 're-branding' of ops? "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," goes the old saying - the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is certainly the risk with the way in which many organisations are approaching DevOps, warns Puppet Labs founder and CEO Luke Kanies. Appearing on a live Computing webcast from London, Kanies suggested that many organisations' were approaching DevOps in much the same way that they had approached cloud computing just a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago, he said, "every company had to have a cloud strategy. What we found was that most organisations' private cloud strategies was to rename their VMware vSphere infrastructure to be their private cloud. "In the same way, a lot of organisations have been implementing DevOps by taking all their ops teams and just calling them DevOps engineers. Or, hiring a slightly more senior ops engineer and giving them a different title, but with fundamentally the same role and the same dynamic. "That's not the right way to implement DevOps," said Kanies. Instead of genuinely implementing DevOps structures within IT, many organisations are simply taking the easy route and re-branding accordingly, he warned. "There is a cultural and organisational change that you have to go through and that change in a lot of organisations, especially mature organisations... if it's not painful you're probably not doing it right", he said. Iain McInnes, lead DevOps specialist at OVO Energy, on the panel of experts on the same live webcast, agreed. "The key skills stay the same [but] the direction and the cohesiveness of the teams working together is the key difference," he said. "And implementing such cultural change, especially in well-entrenched teams with equally well-entrenched practices, is never easy. " While to outsiders, the shift might seem logical, to those involved, the upheaval involved shouldn't be underestimated, warned Kief Morris, the author of Infrastructure of Code: Managing Servers in the Cloud and a cloud specialist at consultancy ThoughtWorks. "It's about finding ways for getting those [two] groups to work better together and various aspects in terms of team structure, culture and automation of working practices," said Morris. "It's about getting ops, the people managing the infrastructure, to align more closely with business outcomes," he added. Naturally, automation of working practices will make staff who could be affected nervous and, potentially, hostile. For Kanies, whose company's software has been instrumental to the spread of DevOps, a big bang approach - in which IT is re-organised from the top down - may not be wise. "Start with a small team," Kanies advised. "It's a huge mistake to have an executive-level strategic move to having a DevOps team and DevOps delivery. That's a great way to make sure that you get nothing done over three years," said Kanies. Instead, he advised, put together a "stealth squad" of people in a single business area to provide, effectively, a proof of concept to prove not only that it works, but that it will be beneficial for everyone working in both development and operations - or, if it doesn't work (for whatever reasons) it won't affect the wider business too much. "You want to do it in a place that gives your team the opportunity to learn and the time to learn. But you also want to pick an area that if it works, it's genuinely meaningful. So, pick a high- pressure area that has a real opportunity to deliver meaningful value and then, when that works you can take what you have learnt from that and 'spread success out'," said Kanies. Then, he suggested, the organisation can spread DevOps via the experts its cultivated team-by- team over the course of three or so years. Smaller organisations, he admitted, might not have much choice in the matter than to adopt a "big bang" approach. "But at larger organisations you don't want to try to do this in a way that means that failure makes the front page of the Financial Times," he added. Computing's DevOps Summit will be in London on 5th July, and is free to qualifying IT professionals. Hear from end users, including Sky, Hiscox and Ovo Energy , how they implemented DevOps in their organisations, as well as best practice seminars from Chef, Puppet, Splunk and other big-names in DevOps 2016-03-14 12:01

11 Canonical targets IoT projects with 64-bit ARM developer platform Canonical has unveiled a development platform for projects targeting the Internet of Things (IoT) based on its Ubuntu Core software platform and a 64-bit ARM-based DragonBoard single-board computer. The new development kit is touted by the company as the first ARM-based 64-bit development board available for Ubuntu Core. Detailed on Canonical's Ubuntu Insights blog , it offers an affordable but flexible environment for building IoT projects that can scale from ARM- based servers to embedded solutions, the company claimed. Ubuntu Core is a minimum footprint operating system that Canonical initially developed as part of its initiative to develop an Ubuntu smartphone, but which is versatile enough to be used in the cloud as a host for operating containers or in embedded applications such as devices targeting the IoT. One of the key features of Ubuntu Core is its Snappy mechanism for delivering updates to both the operating system and application code. This is transactional, meaning that updates can be easily applied or rolled back if required. The hardware comprises the DragonBoard 410c from Arrow Electronics. This is a compact single-board computer the size of a credit card, like the popular Raspberry Pi devices. It is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor that boasts four of ARM's Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU cores. Canonical said that the Dragonboard 410c forms its reference platform for Ubuntu Core on the ARM 64-bit architecture. This means that future updates of the operating system will be available first for the DragonBoard 410c, ensuring users a stable development environment. "Adopting the DragonBoard 410c as our ARM 64-bit reference platform is proof of our commitment to the open platform community surrounding the board. Via snappy Ubuntu Core and the DragonBoard 410c, developers will have an affordable, accessible and flexible way to create new IoT solutions," said Canonical's vice president for Commercial Devices Operations Jon Melamut. As well as its 64-bit CPU, the DragonBoard 410c has 1GB of memory and 8GB of eMMC flash storage, with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity, plus I/O including Two USB ports, SPI and I2C interfaces and a number of general purpose I/O (GPIO) pins for connecting hardware. Canonical said that its Ubuntu Core image for the Snapdragon 410 will be available for download from the website of the Linaro Linux project's 96Boards programme. The DragonBoard 410c itself is available from Arrow Electronics at a price of £53. Computing will be holding an Internet of Things Business Summit in London on May 12. Attendance is free to qualifying end users and places are already going fast. Visit the event page to peruse the agenda and to sign up 2016-03-14 12:01

12 Kaspersky warning over Android Triada Trojan 'as complex as any Windows malware' Security software company Kaspersky has warned that a new trojan targeting Android devices is as sophisticated as any Windows malware, and poses a threat to some 60 per cent of Android devices. Anyone running Android 4.4.4 or earlier is at risk, warned Kaspersky, who claimed that the malware was created by "very professional cyber criminals" and can enable in-app purchase theft and all the problems that come with privilege escalation. "Triada is as complex as any malware for Windows, which marks a kind of Rubicon in the evolution of threats targeting Android," the company said. "Whereas previously, the majority of trojans for the platform were relatively primitive, new threats with a high level of technical complexity have now come to the fore. " Android users are at risk if they download apps from untrusted sources, but Kaspersky said in a blog post that the apps can "sometimes" make their way onto the official Android store. "A distinguishing feature of this malware is the use of Zygote, the parent of the application process on an Android device that contains system libraries and frameworks used by every application installed on the device. In other words, it's a demon whose purpose is to launch Android applications," Kaspersky explained. "This is the first time technology like this has been seen in the wild. Prior to this, a trojan using Zygote was known only as a proof-of-concept. The stealth capabilities of this malware are very advanced. "After getting into the user's device Triada implements in nearly every working process and continues to exist in the short-term memory. This makes it almost impossible to detect and delete using anti-malware solutions. " The security firm added that the complexity of Triada's functionality proves that professional cyber criminals with a deep understanding of the targeted mobile platform are behind the creation of this malware. Kaspersky warned that it is almost impossible to rid a device of the malware if it is infected. "Once Triada is on a device, it penetrates almost all the running processes, and continues to exist in the memory only. In addition, all separately running trojan processes are hidden from the user and other applications. As a result, it is extremely difficult for the user and antivirus solutions to detect and remove the trojan. " To hear more about security challenges, the threats they pose and how to combat them, sign up for Computing 's Enterprise Security and Risk Management conference on 24 November. It's free for qualifying end users 2016-03-14 12:01

13 Visa aims its secure payments tech at cloud-based banking apps Payments giant Visa is looking to venture deeper into the cloud and connected devices space by offering its tokenisation service to a wider range of banking services. It will offer its tokenisation services, which help secure digital and mobile payments, to banks that offer their customers apps that store payment credentials in the cloud. Sandra Alzetta, executive director of product enablement at Visa Europe, said the expansion of the Visa Europe Payment Tokenisation Service (VEPTS) is a response to the forecasted growth of more digital payment technologies . “By 2020, our projections are for one in five consumers to pay for items using their smartphone on a daily basis and for payments on mobile or tablet to account for more than 50 percent of Visa transactions,” she said. “Looking at contactless as an early indicator, where adoption has doubled and spend has trebled in the last year, we believe this projection could well be a conservative estimate. “By expanding our service to make tokenisation available to our client banks through a number of new technology partners, consumers will have access to all manner of fantastic new payment experiences accessible through their mobile phones, tablets and all manner of other ‘connected’ devices.” To capitalise upon this forecast, VEPTS will also be offered to secure payment features in wearable and connected devices, such as smartwatches. It can also be used to secure internet browser-based wallets and payment services specific to retailers through the Visa Checkout service, along with "card on file" payment options commonly used by major online retailers. Many people fear the security risks from hackers swiping credit card details when carrying out digital payments online or via mobile devices, but Visa’s tokenisation services enable payments without surrendering credit card details on the route between payee and bank. It works by substituting credit card details and account information with a series of numbers. These "tokens" are then submitted to a payment service and eventually translated by the customer’s bank to authorise the payment. The system means that no financially compromising numbers are transmitted by the payment app, device or online service, so even if hackers were able to swipe the token they would not be able to translate it into any usable information. This secure form of payment helps to support Apple Pay , which launched in the UK last year. Visa is keen to find new ways to facilitate secure payments having recently teamed up with security firm FireEye to launch a threat intelligence portal designed to combat financial crime . 2016-03-14 12:01

14 Opera to add native ad blocker to desktop web browser Opera Software - currently the subject of a $1.2bn takeover bid by a consortium of Chinese investors - is including an ad blocker in the latest version of its desktop web browser that, it claims, will speed-up page loading times by up to 90 per cent. The browser pioneer presented a series of comparisons with other ad blocker and browser combinations, finding that even the next best result, Firefox with Adblock Plus enabled, is still 21 per cent slower than Opera's integrated offering. “Advertising fuels the internet, allowing many services to be free for users. But, as our new research shows, most web pages today are significantly slowed down by bloated ads and heavy tracking. We don’t accept it. We want the web to be a better place for us all as users,” said Krystian Kolondra, senior vice president of engineering at the company and head of Opera for computers. The speed boost is achievable because ads are blocked at a web-engine level, meaning that it's the browser itself that controls page loading without having to make outside calls to plug-ins or extensions for each element. To really rub it in, Opera also includes a benchmarking tool to show users and developers just how much difference the tool makes. The debate over ad blocking is currently raging as people sick of unwieldy and performance- reducing advertisements are flocking to block, leaving webmasters struggling to find a business model that works. Ad blocking has increased 41 per cent year on year worldwide, and 98 per cent of blockers are used on PCs. Three announced recently that it is to become the first UK carrier to block adverts at a network level, while Apple has allowed ad blocker apps in the App Store for a year. Opera announced a new version of its mobile browser earlier this week that brings many of the Chromium 49 features, such as physical beacon recognition and Bluetooth interaction, bringing it into line with the current Chrome mobile edition. 2016-03-14 12:01

15 Google offers free Project Shield tool to help combat DDoS attacks Google is offering Project Shield, a tool designed to help websites withstand distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, free to sites that help uncover corruption and controversy. Using an intermediate reverse proxy server, Project Shield enables websites to re-route traffic through Google’s web infrastructure so that they can stay online even in the face of a major DDoS attack. The primary focus is on small sites that do not have the infrastructure to manage a DDoS attack , but Project Shield is also available to larger news and information-based organisations. Project Shield forms part of Google’s Jigsaw division, which aims to create products and services that "help people investigate corruption". “Project Shield welcomes applications from websites serving news. Human rights and elections monitoring [organisations] are also welcome to apply. We do not provide the service to other types of content, including gaming, businesses or individual blogs,” the company said. Websites need to give Google visibility into the traffic they receive to allow the firm to use an intermediate reverse proxy server that can distinguish malicious traffic from genuine visitors. This may be seen as an intrusion of privacy by some, but it is arguably better than having websites knocked offline. Google will keep the data for only two weeks, after which it will be added to an aggregated pool of anonymous data for analysis about potential future attacks. “Project Shield only uses the data we obtain (such as logs from the Project Shield servers) for DDoS mitigation and caching and to improve the Project Shield service,” said Google. The Jigsaw division has a Digital Attack Map that displays the tens of thousands of attacks directed at the websites of news organisations, businesses and charities to provide a better understanding of the raw data behind DDoS attacks. Jigsaw also has a Password Alert service that can warn journalists and activists if they enter their Google account password into anywhere other than the account sign-in page. The idea is to avoid the password phishing attacks used by hackers. Google's Project Zero security research team, on the other hand, has the controversial objective of exposing flaws in the software of others, such as the glibc bug that exposed thousands of Linux apps and IoT devices to hacks . To hear more about security challenges, the threats they pose and how to combat them make sure you sign-up for the Computing Enterprise Security and Risk Management conference on 24 November . 2016-03-14 12:01

16 Blockchain: not the Messiah The word "disrupt" is never far away from any mention of blockchain; "revolutionise" puts in a regular appearance too. And so does the word "save", both as in saving money ("Here's how blockchain will... 2016-03-14 12:01

17 Amazon Web Service's Ts & Cs upgraded for zombie apocalypse People frequently complain about software and cloud EULAs - end-user licence agreements - but think about it from the side of the company: especially with cloud, it has to take account of every last stupid thing someone might be motivated to do with its software and/or services. That, perhaps, partly accounts for the latest changes to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ts and Cs. It has just thrown open its games development platform Lumberyard - based on Crytek's CryEngine so it ought to be good - and updated its Service Terms accordingly. "The Lumberyard Materials are not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat," it states. Fair enough. It continues: "This restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the US Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to re-animate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organised civilisation. " Some might argue that's already occurred, citing the US Presidential Election as proof, with all that's missing the certificate from the CDC. 2016-03-14 12:01

18 Never learnt to program your Spectrum, Amstrad or BBC? Step this way... Educational publisher Usborne has re-released 15 of its top computer programming titles from the 1980s - and made them available as free PDF downloads. The initiative was made to coincide with the launch of a new range of "learn to code" titles, so that parents can finish learning to program the Sinclair Spectrum they grew up with, while their children learn something a little bit more advanced. The programming titles offer instructions and type-in-yourself game listings for classic eight-bit computers from the 1980s. In addition to the Spectrum, Usborne has also re-released titles for the Commodore 64, Commodore Vic 20, MSX standard machines, Amstrad CPC-series and the BBC Micro. The publishing house, fondly remembered for its titles as broad as French phrase books and lessons in spycraft, has emphasised that the techniques in these books are, in essence, obsolete. But if your childhood ZX Spectrum 48k has long since been consigned to landfill, you could always buy the recreated ZX Spectrum , which was released last year and proved a big hit at Maplin. 2016-03-14 12:01

19 Virtual reality on the rise as HTC Vive nets 15,000 pre-orders HTC has sold 15,000 of its Vive virtual reality (VR) headsets in just 10 minutes when the devices went available for pre-order yesterday. Selling through the popular Steam games website and its own website, the Vive sold for a hefty £689 in the UK - plus £57.80 for shipping and tax - and at a rate of 25 per second for the first minutes, indicating that there is an eager appetite for VR despite the high cost of entry. Sales of the devices via Steam were helped by the work that Valve Software, owner of Steam, did to have new games software developed to work on the device in time for launch. The Vive package currently comprises the headset, two wand-like controllers, and external sensors to map movements in a virtual space. It also comes with three VR games: Google’s Tilt Brush, Job Simulator, and Fantastic Contraption. Early-adopters would appear not to be concerned that the Vive launches with only a few games and apps immediately available that have been specifically built for it. However, given the Vive is powered by SteamVR on the software side, more games with high- production values, and apps that enable content creation are likely to be on the horizon. The current suite of apps are still a solid introduction to the type of VR that enables people to move around in a virtual environment through movements in the physical world, rather than relying on a games console controller. That being said, the Vive is a rather challenging proposition is some ways, as even if the cost of the headset is removed from the equation, a gaming-grade PC or laptop is needed to power the Vive, costing anywhere between £600 to £1,500. Then there is the problem of space; to get the most out of the Vive, users will need to have around 10ft square of free space in which to move around. In an average city flat, finding such an area may be challenging. However, when Computing ’s sibling site The INQUIRER put the Vive to the test , it was very impressed with immersion the headset offers and the level of interactivity and physicality the system allows within a virtual setting. 2016-03-14 12:01

20 Blockchain-as-a-Service and open-sourcing of platform code among a slew of blockchain announcements from IBM IBM has made a slew of announcements around blockchain technology, demonstrating its intent to get in on the blockchain boom that began with the emergence of the crypto-currency bitcoin a few years ago and which is now attracting the attention of governments , finance, manufacturing and many other sectors. A blockchain is a type of mutual distributed ledger (MDL). All transactions written to it are visible to all, shared peer-to-peer across multiple machines and impossible to alter or delete. Because of the total number of developers working on blockchain and related applications it has been described as "the biggest IT company in the world". However, many areas of development are still at an early stage , and despite its potential in other areas, most use cases still revolve around crypto-currencies. IBM has released 44,000 lines of code to the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Project , a collaborative open-source endeavour that aims to promote a cross-industry open standard for the development of distributed ledgers. "As with any early-stage, highly complex technology that demonstrates the ability to change the way we live our lives and conduct business, blockchain demands a cross-industry, open source collaboration to advance the technology for all," writes Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation . IBM also announced a Blockchain-as-a-Service offering on its Bluemix cloud platform together with DevOps tools to allow developers to create, test and deploy blockchain applications in the cloud or on IBM z System servers. In addition, the firm's blockchain plans include its supercomputer-based Watson IoT Platform, which the company will deploy for Internet of Things applications including smart contracts - machine-to-machine transactions that are fulfilled automatically when certain conditions are reached. RFID information, barcode-scan events and other device-created data will be pulled together and used by blockchain-based ledgers to enable such smart contracts, IBM says. The company recently opened the Watson Internet of Things global HQ in Munich to drive cognitive computing research and develop the next generation of cognitive IoT apps, something that IBM has dubbed "Industry 4.0 innovation". The technology giant will also open a number of "IBM Garages" in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo to hot-house the creation of business-oriented blockchains, and IBM Global Business Services will expand its blockchain consulting practice for clients in finance and logistics. The financial sector has become particularly interested in blockchain in recent months, seeing the technology as a way to increase the security of transactions, reduce fraud, decrease costs and provide an incorruptible audit trail. Among the blockchain partners listed by IBM is the London Stock Exchange Group. "We believe this technology has the potential to drive change across the industry but will need to be developed in partnership with customers and industry participants under an open-source approach," said Moiz Kohari, EVP, group head of technology innovation of the LSE Group. Interested in open source? Come along to the Computing Enterprise Open Source Summit in July. Registration is free for most delegates. 2016-03-14 12:01

21 John Oliver dives into the iPhone FBI encryption debate If you were hoping that John Oliver would do a deep dive on the iPhone encryption debate: good news. Today’s the day. The main topic of this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight was encryption, particularly as it relates to the FBI’s demands to be let into an encrypted iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooters. Oliver starts with an oh-so-brief recap of why encryption is important in the first place, then uses historical examples to explain why the idea of forcing Apple to intentionally introduce a backdoor is such a risky one. I won’t say too much lest I spoil it, but it’s definitely worth a watch whether you’ve been following the topic or not. Come for the refreshingly insightful rant, stay for the never-not-going-to-be-funny auto-correct jokes. 2016-03-14 12:01 Greg Kumparak

22 Marley Spoon, the cook-at-home food delivery service, expands across U. S. with $17M Series B Marley Spoon , the cook-at-home food delivery service that competes with the likes of Gousto , Blue Apron , Plated , and Rocket Internet’s HelloFresh , has closed $17 million in Series B funding. Backing comes from QD Ventures, Kreos Capital, and existing investors, including Lakestar. It brings total funding raised by the Berlin-headquartered company to $32 million. Notably, Marley Spoon’s previous A round was led by Rocket Internet’s venture arm GFC — presenting another example of the German e-commerce behemoth and startup factory seemingly competing with itself. In addition, Marley Spoon is also disclosing that it has secured up to $44 million in media volume from GMPVC, a media-for -equity fund. This, I’m told, should see the recipe kit service able to significantly raise its brand profile in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. As CEO and co-founder Fabian Siegel told TechCrunch last April when the startup launched in the U. S., the biggest challenge faced by Marley Spoon and its competitors is creating awareness that such a service exists. He said that unlike other food e-commerce opportunities — referencing his time as co-CEO of online take-out marketplace Delivery Hero in particular — people don’t search online for a recipe kit service. Therefore online marketing and SEO isn’t as effective as more traditional media channels. To that end, Siegel told me in a call last week that Amazon’s entry into the grocery is good for companies like Marley Spoon as it helps to establish the online grocery space as a whole, with the e-commerce giant covering the pantry (ie the staples like breakfast cereal) and cook-at- home services handling fresh food delivery and cooking inspiration. That said, Amazon’s recent partnership with supermarket Morrisons in the U. K., for example, is seeing the company encroach on the fresh grocery delivery space too. Meanwhile, Marley Spoon says it will use its Series B funding for further U. S. expansion, spanning the West Coast, including opening a new San Francisco-based fulfilment facility, the East Coast, and South. Along with North America, the startup operates in the U. K., the Netherlands, Austria, and Australia. 2016-03-14 12:01 Steve

23 Alibaba-backed logistics firm Cainiao lands funding at a reported $7.7B valuation It looks like March 2016 is a good time to be an Alibaba affiliate company. Last week, it emerged that Ant Financial — which runs Alipay among other businesses — is raising a billion dollar financing round at a valuation of up to $60 billion. Now Cainiao, a three-year-old Alibaba-backed logistics firm, has confirmed its maiden external funding round from Temasek Holdings and GIC in Singapore, Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional and China-based Primavera Capital. The size of the deal is undisclosed and an Alibaba spokesperson declined to provide details when we asked, however financial news site Caixin reports [ Google Translate ] that it is upwards of 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) at a 50 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) valuation. Alibaba is famous for being one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and, among many feats, holding the largest U. S. IPO in history. But it also has a number of affiliate companies that cover related verticals and are not included in the parent company. Cainiao is logistics. It was founded in 2013 with the goal of creating a UPS-style backbone to enable deliveries across China and international markets while tapping into big-data and other technology to increase efficiency. Today, it claims to have 128 warehouses and 180,000 express delivery stations in China, offering same day delivery in seven Chinese cities and next day delivery in a further 90. To give some idea of scale, Cainiao handled 278 million packages just from the 11/11 shopping sale in 2014 alone. And this is just the start. Cainiao president Judy Tong told Freight Week last year that the company will spend $16 billion over the next five to eight years “to make it easy to deliver goods to anywhere.” That’s worldwide, not just China. Cainiao was formed by a consortium of existing logistics players to give the project a running start with resources and customer bases. Alibaba itself took a 48 percent stake but it isn’t clear how the business of that is panning out. Since, as the New York Times points out, this (and other Alibaba investments in logistics and online-to-offline) are “opaque” since the retail giant isn’t required to disclose financial details. Beyond handling packages from e-commerce sites and merchants, Cainiao covers everyday logistics too, with fresh groceries among its verticals. Tie-ins with retailers like Suning, which Alibaba invested $4.6 billion into last year , could help physical retailers improve their use of the web to grow their customer base and engagement. Cainiao has flown under the media radar thus far — perhaps because logistics isn’t sexy to some? — but it is developing into a hugely important project for Alibaba since logistics are central to the success of Alibaba’s core e-commerce businesses. Alibaba’s services don’t hold inventory, which is where Cainiao’s delivery footprint can be complementary. Further, Cainiao’s efforts to build a global network are aligned with Alibaba’s own focus on growing its retail network outside of China. Here’s more on Cainiao for those who appreciate videos: Hat tip Barons 2016-03-14 12:01 Jon Russell

24 Microservices for a Streaming World Embrace decentralization, build service-based systems and attack the problems that come with distributed state using stream processing tools, Ben Stopford urged in his presentation at the recent QCon London conference For Stopford, working with Kafka at Confluent, there are many good reasons for building service-based systems, loose coupling, bounded contexts, ease of scaling etc., all allowing us to build systems that can evolve over time. But doing that we are inherently also building distributed systems, which brings its own complexity, like latency, failure etc. Two fundamental patterns of distributed systems Stopford describes are: These can also be combined, using request-response for a REST interface and events for background processing. Looking into asynchronous and event-based communication, e.g. using queues, Stopford sees this as a very simple model, and as long as only one message is pulled at a time the ordering of messages can also be guaranteed. This can scale to a certain degree while still retaining the ordering guarantee, but Stopford notes that at some point we will lose either availability or the ordering guarantee. Another disadvantage he notes is that messages are transient, thus lacking the possibility to go back in time and read old messages after failures. Stopford believes that a better approach is using a distributed log as a service backbone, with Kafka being one example. Kafka is based on the concept of a Log, which is an append only data structure. This makes both reads and writes efficient, for reads it’s a matter of a single seek to a position followed by sequential reads and for writes it’s just an append. Some advantages for microservices that a distributed log enable includes: One problem not solved is keeping services consistent. After e.g. failures it’s hard to avoid duplicate messages (“ at least once ” delivery) making it necessary for services to be idempotent regarding messages they receive, logically creating an “ exactly once ” delivery mechanism. Stopford notes that this is not yet available in Kafka (but work is ongoing). Martin Kleppmann addressed the service consistency problem in his presentation at the same conference. Stopford’s presentation is already available for QCon attendees , and will later be available for readers of InfoQ. He has also published the slides of the presentation. 2016-03-14 11:46 Jan Stenberg

25 Upstream oil and gas companies spend smarter on digital technologies to drive value, reduce costs in downturn, Accenture and Microsoft survey finds HOUSTON — March 9, 2016 — As upstream oil and gas companies scrutinize every dollar invested, they’re spending smarter today on digital technologies, seeking to drive value and reduce costs amid low oil and gas prices, a new survey by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) reports. Respondents to the “ 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey” included international oil companies (IOCs), national oil companies (NOCs), independents and oilfield services firms. Over the next three to five years, 80 percent of upstream oil and gas companies plan to spend the same, more, or significantly more (30%, 36%, and 14%, respectively) on digital technologies as they do now, according to the survey, now in its fifth edition. This continued investment in digital is due to respondents’ confidence that digital technologies can continue to help them drive leaner, smarter organizations. More than half (53 percent) of respondents said digital is already adding high to significant value to their businesses. Cost reduction was identified as the biggest challenge that digital technologies can most address today, respondents said. In addition, respondents reported that making faster and better decisions was the greatest benefit digital technologies can deliver (56 percent) and that one of the biggest barriers to realizing value is the lack of a clear strategy or business case, not the technology itself. Today’s digital investments focus more on mobility, with almost three-fifths of respondents (57 percent) reporting having invested in mobile, compared to 49 percent of the respondents in last year’s survey. Next is investing in the Internet of Things (IoT) (44 percent) this year vs. 25 percent in 2015 and the cloud (38 percent), up 8 percent from last year. Over the next three to five years, these investments are expected to shift more to big data and analytics (38 percent), IoT (36 percent) and mobile (31 percent). “In the current challenging environment, the upstream oil and gas industry is focusing digital technologies on areas that help them work smarter and deliver significant efficiencies and savings in the short term while enabling them to make better decisions faster,” said Rich Holsman, global head of Digital in Accenture’s Energy industry group. “So, in the short term we expect these companies will continue to invest in areas that help lower operations costs through technologies like increased worker productivity with mobility, lower infrastructure costs through the cloud and drive better asset management through analytics.” Respondents said digital’s biggest impact to date on the upstream oil and gas workforce has been increased employee productivity and engagement followed by better training and reskilling opportunities. They see the greatest impact from IoT in enabling connected field workers, with 60 percent of respondents planning to have field workers and assets digitally connected with smart devices. The use of the cloud, respondents said, has shifted from being used primarily for infrastructure to an enabler of mobile tools. This trend is expected to increase in the next three to five years, as companies keep using the cloud to get faster and more value from other digital technologies. “By taking advantage of the intelligent cloud, greater use of analytics and IoT go hand in hand with what we are seeing in our business today — the advent of the industrial Internet enabling the power of digital across the oil and gas landscape,” said Craig Hodges, general manager of the Gulf Coast District at Microsoft. “You can see this trend gaining traction from connected wells and intelligent pipelines to highly- efficient digital refineries.” While two thirds (66 percent) identified analytics as one of the most important capabilities for transforming their company, only 13 percent felt their firm’s analytical capabilities were mature. Almost two-thirds (65 percent) plan to implement more analytic capabilities in the next three years to help address this need. The “2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital and Technology Trends Survey,” sponsored by Accenture and Microsoft and conducted by PennEnergy Research in partnership with the Oil & Gas Journal, surveyed upstream professionals worldwide, including engineers, geologists and mid-level and executive management. About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 373,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. Accenture Digital , comprised of Accenture Analytics , Accenture Interactive and Accenture Mobility , offers a comprehensive portfolio of business and technology services across digital marketing, mobility and analytics. Learn more about Accenture Digital at www.accenture.com/digital . About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 2016-03-14 08:37 By Microsoft

26 FileHippo News - powered by FeedBurner The allegations were made using Google’s Google+ social networking platform, and also on Google Maps. When the reviews claiming that infants were not safe in the nursery were found by the small business, the owners originally approached Google and asked them to remove the offensive and untrue content. But the search titan refused to do so, using the argument that the posted material came under the auspices of freedom-of-speech, and therefore they were not obliged, or could find a justification for removing them. The unnamed nursery’s lawyer told TechCrunch that: “The judge balanced the interests of privacy against the interest of reputation (of this nursery). However, it considers the interests of protecting the reputation more important than the interests of Google to the interest of privacy of the Google Reviewers.” Speaking after he made his ruling, the judge in the case, CM Berkhout, differed substantially with the US firm’s point of view, instead finding that the reviews were indeed fake and damaging. He ordered Google take down the reviews. Berkhout also made a provision in his ruling that Google would have to provide details about the reviewers so that the nursery could, if it so wished, face the posters of the reviews and allegations in court. He said afterwards: “In my opinion, it was stunning that Google allowed this, as the practice of using someone else’s profile picture without consent is unlawful and infringing on portrait rights… and it only helps fake reviewers to hide behind a ‘trusted face.’ Hopefully, this decision will make Google rethink their own policies and the way they enforce their policies.” Google’s response was characteristically brief , utilizing their normal brevity in matters that have gone against them: “We’ve received the ruling and are currently reviewing it.” The post Dutch Court Orders Google To Hand Over Fake Reviewers IP Addresses appeared first on FileHippo News . It seems like you can’t do anything these days without dealing with the bureaucracy of it all. Forms to fill out, regulations to follow, miles and miles of red tape…and of course, the ever- present and usually outdated technology. Everyone from schools to retailers to even the government has to suffer under the weight of policies and procedures. Unless you’re a terrorist organization, in which case you can apparently toss all your information on a memory stick and leave it lying around an office somewhere. That’s the case with an ISIS faction, at least, and the end result was the loss of 22,000 registration forms for its members after a memory stick with the information was taken from the office of their head of security. These forms contained names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, even blood types on individuals who’d been recruited or volunteered for the terror organization. According to the Guardian , “The documents, thought to be from a border crossing into Syria , are questionnaires of each would-be recruit. There are 23 questions, including names, date and place of birth, hometown, telephone number, education and blood type.” Two different sources both claim to have possession of the information. A German intelligence agency acquired the forms, and Sky News reports being given the unencrypted memory stick after it was stolen by a former member who became disillusioned with the terror network’s practices. While security watchers were aware of a number of the names on the registration forms, there were also more than a few surprises. What is known is there were specific numbers of US, UK, and Canadian citizens who’d signed on to join ISIS’ efforts. Members from more than forty different countries were included in the leaked data. As with any data breach, the real concern now is what happens with the information. In a standard consumer data breach, citizens have to worry about monitoring their credit reports for any signs of suspicious financial activity; it’s not hard to imagine what the repercussions will be after handing over the names and addresses of known ISIS members and their families to the government. The post ISIS Struck By Internal Data Breach appeared first on FileHippo News . At more than a trillion dollars and what sometimes seems like a trillion glitches, and a trillion bad headlines, the latest issue with the F-35’s software has been found in the software responsible for the Radar it uses. The solution however is quite simple and straightforward, and one that IT Support staff have relied upon for years to solve problems in first line troubleshooting: Turning it off, and then on again. In the latest publicly released report on the joint strike fighter, US Air Force major general Jeffrey Harrigian states that: “What would happen is they’d get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail— something that would force us to restart the radar.” The latest report into the troubled development of the new fighter jet has been described as damning, listing as it does a multitude of deficiencies that seem to routinely being found as development of the fighter plane creeps ever closer to deployment. Many of the failures causing headaches for the US military and its designers is the fact that many of the issues are primarily due to buggy software. Not as crazy as it sounds It really isn’t. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, built by Lockheed Martin, is currently one of the most advanced and heavily software-driven warplanes ever designed and built. It is therefore also one of the most complicated and difficult IT projects ever undertaken. But it’s not just the software and onboard computer systems that Lockheed Martin have struggled with. The plane has also struggled with its apparent vulnerability to lightning strikes, landing gear issues, weight issues, and bomb bay door faults, depending on climatic issues in the hotter areas of the world. Hacker proof? Apparently not. The F-35 has yet to undertake any serious cyber security testing, something that could be a real possibility with cyber warfare an increasing threat across the world. something that has caused concern among buyers who have the joint strike fighter on back order, including branches of the US military, and the United Kingdom The latest Pentagon report quoted above stated that glitches were found … “…in fusion, electronic warfare, and weapons employment result in ambiguous threat displays, limited ability to respond to threats, and a requirement for off-board sources to provide accurate coordinates for precision attack.” Speaking to the Guardian newspaper , Keith Joiner, the man responsible for the final evaluation for procurement by the Australian Defence Force, said that “the only system that has done cyber security, vulnerability and penetration testing is the logistics software. So ordering spares. And it didn’t go very well.” The post F-35 Radar: Have You Tried Turning It On And Off Again? appeared first on FileHippo News . Google’s DeepMind division has pulled off an unforeseen victory that goes far beyond the rules and strategies of any game. Its AI software AlphaGo, which made headlines for its pending match-up against the reigning world champion of the ancient Chinese strategy game Go, has now defeated its human opponent in the first of five scheduled games. South Korean Lee Sedol has long been considered the world’s Go master, even from his prodigy status as a professional player at age twelve. His loss on Wednesday was a shock to both game fans and AI experts, who’d originally predicted that the complexities and required human emotional aspect of the game would mean artificial intelligence would require years of fine tuning in order to beat a human opponent at this level. Interestingly, the factor that may have most helped AlphaGo defeat Sedol could be those same human emotions that critics argued are vital to winning the complex game. Reportedly, both the software and the human player made critical mistakes early in the game, but unlike a human opponent, AlphaGo was unhindered by its error and (oversimplifying things, here) simply readjusted its strategy. That ability to remain emotionally detached from a mistake–something that could easily cause a human player to overadjust or question every further move–could have played a role in the software’s strategies moving forward. While Sedol has been very gracious about what many experts predicted would be a non-event, Google’s DeepMind has got to be ecstatic. Its “reinforcement learning” concept has meant that AlphaGo has a mechanism other AI attempts haven’t had, and that’s the ability to teach itself through intense trial and error. That innovation has certainly proven itself worthy for now, but there are still four more Go matches ahead of it. The post Game-Changing Victory For Google’s AI Software appeared first on FileHippo News . “Today I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined Google.” Commonly known as “moot” online, Poole began building the 4chan site in 2003 at the tender age of just 15. In the 12 consecutive years, he turned his bedroom enterprize into a 22 million active user image-sharing community with topics that were as diverse as pictures of cute kittens to hardcore porn. The idea behind the channel was that it was all anonymous. While 4chan was a winner for online freedom of expression, it also led to the common association with 4Chan and offensive and abusive material. It was also widely credited as being the epicentre of 2014’s leaking of images of nude celebrities following the now famous hack of Apple’s iCloud service. The incognito 4Chan however also served as a focal rallying point for online activism from groups such as Anonymous, and others. RickRolled The diverse and often anarchically themed 4chan community was also responsible for some the web’s more memorably popular and creative memes over the years, including both LOLcats, and the it was funny once, Rickrolling phenomenon that at one point seemed to dominate virtually every YouTube video going. In September 2015, 4chan was sold to a Japanese entrepreneur. Impressed “When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm — as well as a universal desire to share it with others. I’m also impressed by Google’s commitment to enabling these same talented people to tackle some of the world’s most interesting and important problems.” Chris Poole retired as administrator of 4chan back in January 2015. While no details of his actual job role have been released or confirmed, other than that he has been hired by Google, he is expected to be involved with the social networking side of Google, an area where the browser giant has failed to compete with the likes of Facebook, et al. “I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company.” The post Google hires 4chan Creator appeared first on FileHippo News . A spokesperson for the Raytheon Company, Mike Doble, where Tomlinson still worked as a principal scientist said that Tomlinson was a… “true technology pioneer… the man who brought us email in the early days of networked computers.” Tomlinson was one of the early inductees to the Internet Hall of Fame, with his biography on the site stating that his invention of the modern style email program was: “…a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate, including the way businesses, from huge corporations to tiny mom-and-pop shops, operate and the way millions of people shop, bank, and keep in touch with friends and family, whether they are across town or across oceans. Today, tens of millions of email-enabled devices are in use every day. Email remains the most popular application, with over a billion and a half users spanning the globe and communicating across the traditional barriers of time and space.” Tomlinson created and amended the protocols that allowed him to send the first email in 1971, on the ARPANET system. ARPANET was a computer network created for the US government that is widely considered as an essential forerunner to the internet. “I chose to append an at sign and the host name to the user’s (login) name. I am frequently asked why I chose the at sign, but the at sign just makes sense. The purpose of the at sign (in English) was to indicate a unit price (for example, 10 items @ $1.95). I used the at sign to indicate that the user was ‘at’ some other host rather than being local.” Ray Tomlinson was the recipient of several awards for his work and held electrical engineering degrees from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and MIT. He is also ranked number 4 on the MIT list of the top 150 innovators to have studied at MIT. He began work for Bolt Beranek and Newman, known as BBN, in 1967. When the company was later aqquired by Raytheon Co, Tomlinson stayed on. The post Ray Tomlinson, Inventor Of Email, Passes Away @ 74 appeared first on FileHippo News . You know what’s missing from your workday? Losing access to a number of your key files after accidentally downloading some ransomware. Nothing makes the day go smoother than receiving a message, telling you to pay the Bitcoin ransom if you want to get your files back. Unfortunately, that was the reality for some users who’d downloaded Transmission BitTorrent Installer. This software for MacOS X (Linux version available, bundled with Ubuntu) doesn’t take up a lot of space so it runs in the background to install torrents quickly. It can even be operated remotely via the web. Sadly, versions of the software that were downloaded anytime on March 4th and 5th may have also been infected with KeRanger ransomware. First discovered by Palo Alto Networks, this ransomware was found on two versions of Transmission 2.90. Since Transmission is a fully open-source project, the researchers have speculated that the download website itself was compromised. According to their post on KeRanger by Claud Xiao and Jin Chen, the ransomware encrypts individual files to lock you out of them, a process that they’ll undo for a fee. The encryption process itself is pretty slick: “To encrypt each file, KeRanger starts by generating a random number (RN) and encrypts the RN with the RSA key retrieved from the C2 server using the RSA algorithm. It then stores the encrypted RN at the beginning of resulting file. Next, it will generate an Initialization Vector (IV) using the original file’s contents and store the IV inside the resulting file. After that, it will mix the RN and the IV to generate an AES encryption key. Finally, it will use this AES key to the contents of the original file and write all encrypted data to the result file.” But be warned: further investigation into the mechanism behind KeRanger uncovered an alarming feature, namely that it looked like there were processes involved that hadn’t been completed. Undetected, it’s possible these features could have been activated at a later date. “It seems like KeRanger is still under development. There are some apparent functions named ‘_create_tcp_socket’, ‘_execute_cmd’ and ‘_encrypt_timemachine’. Some of them have been finished but are not used in current samples. Our analysis suggests the attacker may be trying to develop backdoor functionality and encrypt Time Machine backup files as well. If these backup files are encrypted, victims would not be able to recover their damaged files using Time Machine.” Fortunately, Transmission’s developers have released a new version that fixes this vulnerability. For those who may already have been infected, Palo Alto Networks has complete clean up instructions here. The post Transmission Installer Update Fixes Ransomware Flaw appeared first on FileHippo News . With near-daily headlines about hacking events, data breaches, and new forms of internet scams, it’s a wonder anyone can go online anymore. Sadly, data is already showing that the majority of tech users have resigned themselves to the fact that their identities will probably be compromised, which is backed up by the reports that show most individuals’ identifying information is already floating around “out there.” Fortunately, there are steps individuals can take to minimize the impact of any compromising internet activity. While groups like the Identity Theft Resource Center push vigilant account and credit card monitoring and a number of software developers promote strong tech protections against malicious software, Avira Scout is working to keep your everyday internet activity from causing you further harm. According to the company’s plan for its secure browser, “Scout is built with your security and privacy as a central focus. Our award-winning technology, directly integrated into the browser, automatically blocks infected and phishing websites for you.” By calling on its extensive database of suspicious websites, Scout warns users before entering a potentially malicious site or phishing scam. Even more interesting than just warning you of scammy-looking websites, Scout automatically forces websites to use the https protocol. That’s especially important for one of the other warnings that security experts give: using public wifi. While internet users have long been warned not to connect in a coffee shop or airport for anything more sensitive than downloading an update for Candy Crush, Scout rewires your internet activity to help you safely take advantage of available public connections. Best of all, the privacy protections this browser affords you means no more tracking and no need for an add-on ad blocker. While it stops major-name tech giants from gathering up your activity data to see what you shop for and what you’re searching online, the browser itself is one of the few that does not gather and store any user data. The overall stated purpose is to produce a cleaner, worry-free web experience that protects your privacy and secures your internet use. The post Avira Scout Browser: Provides A Safer Web Experience appeared first on FileHippo News . This is the news that all Locally stored data on Amazon Fire devices using the latest Fire OS is no longer encrypted, and hasn’t been since last year. Anyone upgrading a Kindle Fire, or any Fire OS device to Fire OS 5 will be left really vulnerable to attacks from hackers. As well as this, any information left by users on their Fire device will be stored in plain text. While Amazon’s Fire OS 5 garnered generally positive reviews and was praised for its refreshing new look and extra features, it now seems that Amazon also removed device encryption support. Amazon contend that it has maintained security features between Amazon’s cloud service, and also device communication, but that will come as scant consolation for anyone concerned about the protection of their own personal and private data stored on Fire devices themselves. Amazon have responded to recent criticism with the following statement: “ In the fall when we released Fire OS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using. All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud meet our high standards for privacy and security including appropriate use of encryption.” Users do not, unfortunately, have many options available to them if they want to keep their Fire devices encrypted. They can if they want, not update to Fire OS 5 and retain device encryption, something that will not help anyone who has already upgraded. But this then leaves them vulnerable as they will not receive security updates. Another option is to, well, just upgrade, and hope that nothing bad happens. And of course, users could just stop using Fire devices. I appreciate this last option won’t help anyone who actually has a Fire machine. Amazon’s move seems to have gone against the current grain considering that almost all of its competitors are moving in the other direction and are making encryption on their devices as standard, and available as default. However, drawing a connection with Fire OS 5, and the current Apple and FBI iPhone legal battle, as several other websites have, would be wide of the mark, as Amazon released the OS a good few months before Apple fell foul of the FBI. Amazon’s decision to remove encryption protocols may however seem somewhat ironic given that Amazon has answered Apple’s call to arms against government intrusion, though unlike Google, and Microsoft, has itself failed to file an amicus brief in support of the iPhone maker. The post Amazon Disabled Encryption For Latest Fire OS appeared first on FileHippo News . Social media photo and video site Snapchat has had its share of headline-grabbing, embarrassing security issues over the years, some intentional and some due to its own inability to plan. When a hacker warned and then exposed nearly 5 million users’ accounts because of a bug that left the info vulnerable, that was bad enough. But when 100,000 or so shared videos and photos were accessed and released online (despite the company insisting that it doesn’t store the messages its users send, while forgetting that the cellular providers’ servers do store that information) some experts wondered if that might have been enough to seal Snapchat’s fate as an untrustworthy platform. But the news last week that Snapchat has experienced a whole new data breach only highlights what too many companies refuse to accept: your biggest security threat may very well be someone on your payroll. In an apology post on February 28 , Snapchat admitted that an employee had willingly handed over highly sensitive information on the company’s employees–everything needed to steal their identities–because of a phishing attack. The email appeared to come from the company’s CEO Evan Spiegel, requesting the payroll records of all employees. Unfortunately, at this time of year, that’s not an unheard of request since the tax filing deadline for individuals is next month. The recipient dutifully submitted the information; four hours later, Snapchat was on the phone with the FBI to report the breach. If Snapchat can take any consolation from this, it’s that human error is behind an increasing number of breaches, especially now that more and more companies are realizing (and believing) the need for tighter antivirus and anti-malware software across their entire networks. This is largely why “boss phishing” is becoming more and more common; as low-level hackers find themselves blocked at every turn, what’s easier than masquerading as the boss and getting an hourly-wage employee to hand over the information they want? A phishing email was behind one of the most infamous recent data breaches, the Target retail chain breach that affected as many as 121 million customers. The source of the bug that infected the store’s POS credit card system (thereby stealing credit card information) was spread via a link in a malicious email sent to one of Target’s air conditioner repair companies. Who needs to worry about pesky security protocols and tightened cybersecurity when you can get a secretary to install the bug for you by clicking on a link to a cat video? Unfortunately, the response in these cases is almost always the same: we’re shocked…we don’t know how this happened…we never thought one of our employees would do this. But that begs the question: Why not? Why don’t more companies realize that their workforce is made up of individuals who may or may not have the necessary training to prevent an attack or the right motivation to keep company data secure? More importantly, why are companies still surprised? The post Snapchat Breach And The Biggest Security Flaw Ever appeared first on FileHippo News. 2016-03-14 03:36

27 DOJ suggests Apple could be compelled to share iOS source code in San Bernardino case If Apple does not obey the recent court order to unlock the iPhone that belonged San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Farook , the US Department of Justice may be able to compel the company to share the source code of iOS—the operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad—and the tech giant's electronic signature with the FBI, according to a legal filing reported by The Guardian. Farook was one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in last December, which killed 14 people and injured an additional 20. The FBI, as part of its ongoing investigation, has previously requested Apple to develop an alternate version of iOS that would enable the agency to access the contents of Farook's encrypted iPhone. The request was made because Apple's iOS software includes an auto- erase function that deletes all content on a device after a number of unsuccessful passcodes have been entered on a locked phone, which has impeded the FBI's efforts. Apple has previously denied the agency's request , arguing that it would set a dangerous precedent for law enforcement agencies to violate the privacy and security of its customers in the future. The recent legal filing by the Justice Department indicates there is an even greater threat to privacy than simply unlocking a single iPhone. If Apple were to provide the FBI with access to the iOS source code and its electronic signature, the agency would potentially have the ability to unlock any iPhone as it would see fit—without Apple's assistance—by modifying the software itself. The agency would also be able to exploit undisclosed vulnerabilities in iOS or even masquerade as Apple while sending software to its intended targets. The news of the recent filing occurred only a day after Apple executive Eddy Cue argued against efforts to provide a loophole in iOS for law enforcement agencies in order to protect personal privacy and security. Apple's continued stance on the matter should represent a victory for privacy advocates. Source: The Guardian via SlashGear | Phone theft lock image courtesy of Shutterstock 2016-03-14 08:54 Ian Ginos

28 Only collaboration will solve the encryption dilemma "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". So goes the quote from Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, in 1755. Little did he know that over 250 years later, his words would be frequently cited in one of the most complex debates of modern times. In a world where data is collected, shared and sold as the norm, the liberty vs. security question has never been so relevant. The topic has been brought into the public eye by the UK Home Secretary’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill -- or Snoopers’ Charter -- and honed-in on the issue of encryption. More specifically, whether government agencies should be given the power to access encrypted, private communications, by forcing service providers to hand them over. Since many communications providers use end-to-end encryption to protect user privacy and operate with zero knowledge of what is being communicated, the only way for law enforcers to obtain this level of access would be to weaken encryption or change the way users’ private keys are stored. There is no way for the mediator to simply decrypt content; they would have to fundamentally change the way the system works, creating a backdoor of sorts. The revised bill, published this week, comes as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, publicly fights a court order to build an encryption backdoor to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists in the San Bernadino attacks. To do so, argues Cook, would "be equivalent to a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks" and would "undermine the very... liberty our government is meant to protect". The Problem with Encryption At the heart of this issue, as Franklin’s quote articulates so well, is the idea that the actions being taken by governments on both sides of the Atlantic come at the expense of our own freedom and progression. On the one hand, encryption makes the communications of potential terrorists more difficult to intercept, but on the other it protects the privacy of every other British and US citizen, safeguarding against data thieves and other malicious activity. Fundamentally, encryption underpins just about every platform for collaboration, connection and communication that exists today. Reforming how it functions could have far-reaching consequences and requires careful management. A Question of Trust It is thanks to encryption that we, as consumers, can shop online or pay monthly bills with the click of a button, assured that our personal details are safe. From a business perspective, encryption enables organizations to work across enterprise boundaries in the cloud, sharing commercially sensitive data or legal documents without gambling on security. The trust that we put into the Internet -- the smartphones and tablets that we carry, and the platforms we communicate through -- is a key driver for economic growth. If the UK is to maintain its global role and influence, protecting business interests against potentially massive economic espionage is essential. If we weaken encryption, we weaken trust in the entire system. An Exodus of Service Providers Yet, the proposals outlined in the draft Snoopers’ Charter in particular seem to ignore this -- the end goal being that ISPs or other organizations providing a service protected by encryption must be able to bypass it. Downgrading algorithms in this way would set a global precedent that technology providers must assist law enforcement in breaking users’ security, which would eventually make private data more vulnerable and visible. This could have the effect of forcing service providers to jurisdictions outside the scope of the Charter in order to be able to provide the type of secure services their customers want and expect. The nature of the Internet accommodates this free movement, to the potential detriment of the British technology sector and wider economy. Taking Back Control With the spotlight firmly on privacy and a rapidly evolving threat landscape, businesses must implement solutions to ensure the confidential and personally identifiable data they control remains secure across all the countries and jurisdictional boundaries they need to operate. The increasingly dynamic and globalized nature of business has brought rise to innovative technology solutions that can enable strong protection and encryption to travel with content wherever it needs to be shared in the course of doing business. With state-of-the art Information Rights Management solutions, content can effectively protect itself. We need trust in these systems to enable global trade and collaboration. Companies and individuals are becoming more aware of the need to protect their information and we see an increase in requests for self-ownership of encryption keys used by service providers regardless of the physical location of the data -- a model known as "Customer Managed Keys" (CMK). We now stand at a crossroads in the encryption debate, and the only way forwards will be through collaboration between governments, global technology companies, and wider business. Decisions taken now could have profound consequences on the future growth of the Internet globally. At the same time, individual jurisdictions are at risk of eroding the critical element of trust in services provided within their domestic markets and simply pushing the most secure services to operate beyond their borders. Let’s hope that as new legislation unfolds, policy makers remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, and deliver solutions that strike the right balance between freedom and security. Richard Anstey, CTO EMEA, Intralinks Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: Cory Thoman / Shutterstock 2016-03-14 08:38 By Richard

29 Microsoft and Olio Devices announce patent licensing agreement REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — Jan. 25, 2016 — On Monday, Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC and Olio Devices Inc. signed a patent licensing agreement covering wearable devices. Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said, “Mutually beneficial and collaborative patent licensing agreements like this one promote innovation and lead to better products and experiences for consumers.” Microsoft’s commitment to licensing IP The patent agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant technology ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, it has entered into more than 1,200 licensing agreements. More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing . About Olio Devices Inc. Co-founded by Steven Jacobs, Evan Wilson, and AJ Cooper, Olio aims to empower the classic wristwatch with custom technology designed by Olio to help simplify and manage our everyday lives. The company combines high-end materials with proprietary hardware and software to create finely crafted connected timepieces for the busy modern lifestyle. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. To learn more visit: http://www.oliodevices.com or follow @oliodevices on Twitter. About Microsoft Technology Licensing Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC was formed in 2014 to acquire, manage and license Microsoft’s patent portfolio. About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Note to editors : For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts . 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

30 Microsoft and Wistron deepen collaboration with Android patent licensing renewal REDMOND, Wash., and TAIPEI, Taiwan — March 7, 2016 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. and Wistron Corp. announced a renewed Android patent licensing agreement covering Wistron’s tablets, mobile phones, e-readers, and other consumer devices running Android and Chrome platforms under Microsoft’s patent portfolio. This deal extends and expands a prior Android intellectual property (IP) license between the companies. “We’re looking forward to continuing to enhance consumer experiences through our renewed and strengthened partnership with Microsoft,” said Eric H. Ma, head of Wistron’s Legal Division. “Combining access to Microsoft’s cutting-edge technologies with Wistron’s impressive engineering capacity is a powerful recipe for improved customer solutions,” said Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing. “Our partnership with Wistron highlights the kind of opportunities created through mutual respect and alignment on intellectual property.” Microsoft’s commitment to licensing IP The patent agreement is another example of the important role IP plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant technology ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, it has entered into more than 1,200 licensing agreements. More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing . About Wistron Corp. Wistron Corporation is a Fortune Global 500 company and a Technology Service Provider supplying ICT (information and communication technology) products, services and systems to our global customers. We are devoted to increasing the value of our services through developing innovative solutions in the areas of display vertical integration, cloud and green recycling. For more information, please visit: www.wistron.com . About Microsoft Technology Licensing Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC was formed in 2014 to acquire, manage and license Microsoft’s patent portfolio. About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

31 E-School for Girls partners with NYU and Microsoft for entrepreneurship event NEW YORK — Feb. 4, 2016 — Pre-college entrepreneurship program E- School for Girls partnered with New York University, Microsoft Corp. and Natalie Zfat for an inspirational and educational event, What It Takes to Be a Successful Entrepreneur, on Feb. 3, 2016, at the NYU Stern School of Business. “Microsoft is committed to empowering entrepreneurs at all stages of their lives, and excited to see more girls and women taking advantage of the rapidly changing technology landscape to bring their ideas to reality,” said Kristina Libby, consumer public relations lead at Microsoft. Speakers at the event included Teaching Garage CEO Janice Chong, Microsoft Consumer PR Communications Lead Kristina Libby, Council of Economic Education CEO Nan J. Morrison, Motivate Design CEO Mona Patel, E-School for Girls Founder and Program Director Allison Wright and entrepreneur Natalie Zfat, who gave lightning talks to a crowd of 100 decision- makers, media, faculty and students. “Over the past three years, E-School for Girls has developed into a premier pre-college program serving the community and our young women as they become female entrepreneurs and our future leaders,” said E-School for Girls Director Allison Wright. “It is my personal mission to ensure that our students get to experience entrepreneurial success, build their skills and confidence, and learn how to support themselves and each other no matter their gender or socioeconomic background. We are developing a new group of female entrepreneurs and leaders in each E-School for Girls class, and I’m excited to grow the program even further in partnership with Microsoft.” Now approaching its third year, E-School for Girls was created in partnership with NYU College Advising Corps and provides underserved high school juniors and seniors with a premier summer pre-college program. The experiential two-week program takes young women through a journey of self-exploration while developing an entrepreneurial enterprise, which includes ideation, business planning, team building, personal branding, pitching, and an introduction to a network of academics, businesspeople and mentors. Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. E-School for Girls/NYCPromise Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions to E- School for Girls/NYCPromise Inc. in the United States are tax-exempt to the extent provided by law. Note to editors : For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts . 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

32 Microsoft delivers enterprise-class ERP to the cloud REDMOND, Wash. — March 9, 2016 — Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced that its next-generation cloud ERP solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX, built on and for Microsoft Azure, is now available in 137 markets in 40 languages. The enterprise-class business application brings the power, speed and intelligence of cloud computing to people and organizations to achieve more. “Customers from around the world are using the cloud in incredible ways to accelerate and transform their business,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise. “Today’s release is an exciting milestone extending Microsoft’s business cloud offerings. It’s now possible for organizations to run their entire business in the cloud with Microsoft — from productivity with Office 365, to business analytics with Power BI and Cortana Analytics Suite, customer engagement with Dynamics CRM and business operations with Dynamics AX.” Customers across the globe are already using Dynamics AX to run their business processes in the cloud — from single domains like human resources and manufacturing to end-to-end business. Companies already live in production include Hagler Systems , Haldex , Icon , Renault Sport Formula One Team , Priva , Smiles , Travel Alberta and Umbra Group. The new Dynamics AX moves beyond traditional business solutions and brings ERP, business intelligence, infrastructure and database services together in a single offering, empowering organizations to run industry-specific and operational business processes that are extendable with specific solutions from partners. Wednesday, Microsoft announced more than 50 ISV solutions that are available on the Azure Marketplace. These Microsoft-curated, pre-configured industry and vertical solutions help customers discover and implement the solution they need quicker than ever before and, like Dynamics AX, enable fast consumption of updates and improvements. In addition to the 50-plus solutions already available, hundreds are in development today. The new Dynamics AX takes the capabilities of Lifecycle Services (LCS) to the next level. Businesses will be able to combine the best practices for their mission-critical apps with the flexibility and simplicity of upgrade via the cloud. With LCS, Dynamics AX will formalize the concepts of development, test and production, making the ongoing upgrade quicker to implement and deploy and easier to manage. “Lifecycle Services represents a shift in how companies manage the life cycle of an ERP system in a way that’s never really been done before,” said Josh Greenbaum, principal analyst, Enterprise Application Consulting. “The ability to test in the cloud and use the cloud’s natural elasticity and functionality to take the test, flip a switch and make it the actual production environment, that truly is magic.” Harnessing the power of the Azure cloud, Dynamics AX provides enhanced security along with global availability and scale, enabling businesses and people to work more safely anywhere, anytime while respecting the data sovereignty requirements of global customers no matter where in the globe they operate. “We do everything through Dynamics AX now; we manage virtually all of our operations,” said Thomas Mayer, chief operating office, Renault Sport Formula One Team. “Having what I need to run my business available anywhere in the world is invaluable.” “We are bringing massive amounts of data into our business to help control building climates and horticulture environments. That is a huge business transformation, and the cloud was the only way forward for us to make that real,” said Paul Ossewold, vice president, Digital Operations, Priva. “To manage our company with 10 offices around the world, we need systems that are fast. That is what Dynamics AX in the cloud is giving us, and we couldn’t be more excited to be one of the first customers on board to take advantage of this new solution.” Modern solution for modern businesses Dynamics AX delivers a simple, beautiful, and modern user interface that is touch-enabled for the devices people use today. People can interact with the system with ease, as Dynamics AX works like other Microsoft applications that people are used to, increasing adoption and usage. The new intelligent user experience is also optimized to deliver value to organizations through the ability to make smarter decisions with increased speed. “ERP is core to our business operations and critical to building and delivering products to our customers,” said Ben Hagler, co-founder, Hagler Systems. “We chose Dynamics AX because of its robustness. The UI is amazing and available anywhere. It makes us device-independent. We can get work done everywhere with increased speed.” Dynamics AX delivers the proven business logic of a complete business suite, enhanced with new constructs such as Workspaces that provide a collaborative canvas unifying key performance indicators, business intelligence, views of critical data, processes and actions to power business user productivity. The Financial Period Close Workspace, for example, dramatically streamlines this critical, complex process. Software vendors that partner with Microsoft have expressed their excitement over the potential this new solution offers the industry, representing a turning point in the ERP industry as cloud ERP solutions are adopted by customers to run their business-critical operations. “This release is further proof that Microsoft is leading the charge with innovations not just in ERP but in cloud,” said CEO Peter ter Maaten from Microsoft partner HSO. “Dynamics AX will be a game changer for enterprise customers.” Customers can sign up for the service today as the new release is available as a monthly subscription in three simple versions that include a self-serve user, a Task user and an Enterprise user. Businesses can get up and running quickly and match their business growth easily by adding business processes and users with this simple and transparent pay-as-you-go model. More information can be found by visiting the Dynamics AX website. Those who want to see the product in action and the impact it is having for businesses can view the Dynamics AX virtual launch event. Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts . 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

33 Pi Day: Microsoft is offering 31.4% off select Dell notebooks, including new XPS 13 Today, 3/14, is Pi Day , an annual celebration of the mathematical constant that we all know and love... or at least vaguely remember from our school days. To celebrate this magnificent occasion, Microsoft is offering discounts of a whopping 31.4% ( get it? ) on a selection of Dell notebooks: Notably, while the Microsoft Store site says that the offer will be available on the first two notebooks for one day only - Pi Day itself - the small print for the XPS 13 states that the promotion will continue through to March 27. The XPS 13 certainly features the most dramatic design of these three notebooks thanks to its 'InfinityEdge' display, which has an ultra-thin bezel that takes the screen almost to the edge of the device. All three laptops feature the latest 6th-generation 'Skylake' Intel Core processors, and all are Microsoft Signature Edition devices , leaving them free from pre-installed bloatware. 2016-03-14 07:03 Andy Weir

34 Microsoft Cloud strength highlights second quarter results REDMOND, Wash. — January 28, 2016 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended December 31, 2015: During the quarter, Microsoft returned $6.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends. “Businesses everywhere are using the Microsoft Cloud as their digital platform to drive their ambitious transformation agendas,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Businesses are also piloting Windows 10, which will drive deployments beyond 200 million active devices.” The following table reconciles our financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to non-GAAP financial results. Microsoft has provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company’s performance. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. “We delivered double-digit operating income growth in non-GAAP constant currency while investing in key strategic areas that position Microsoft for continued long term growth,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes declined 2% (up 5% in constant currency) to $6.7 billion, with the following business highlights: Revenue in Intelligent Cloud grew 5% (up 11% in constant currency) to $6.3 billion, with the following business highlights: Revenue in More Personal Computing declined 5% (down 2% in constant currency) to $12.7 billion, with the following business highlights: “It was a strong holiday season for Microsoft highlighted by Surface and Xbox,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Our commercial business executed well as our sales teams and partners helped customers realize the value of Microsoft’s cloud technologies across Azure, Office 365 and CRM Online.” Business Outlook Microsoft will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call and webcast. Webcast Details Satya Nadella, chief executive officer, Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Frank Brod, chief accounting officer, John Seethoff, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary, and Chris Suh, general manager of Investor Relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time (5:30 p.m. Eastern time) today to discuss details of the company’s performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/investor. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on January 28, 2017. Adjusted Financial Results and non-GAAP Measures During the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, GAAP revenue, operating income, net income, and earnings per share include the net impact from revenue deferrals. For the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, GAAP revenue, operating income, net income, and earnings per share include the recognition of previously deferred net revenue and charges related to integration and restructuring expenses. These items are defined below. In addition to these financial results reported in accordance with GAAP, Microsoft has provided certain non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company’s performance. Presenting these non-GAAP measures gives additional insight into operational performance and helps clarify trends affecting the company’s business. For comparability of reporting, management considers this information in conjunction with GAAP amounts in evaluating business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Non-GAAP Definitions Revenue Deferrals. Microsoft recorded a net $1.9 billion revenue deferral during the three months ended December 31, 2015, primarily related to Windows 10 and Halo 5. Microsoft recognized a net $326 million of previously deferred revenue during the three months ended December 31, 2014, primarily related to sales of bundled products and services. Integration and Restructuring Charges. Integration and restructuring expenses were $243 million during the three months ended December 31, 2014. Integration and restructuring expenses include employee severance expenses and costs associated with the consolidation of facilities and manufacturing operations related to restructuring activities, and systems consolidation and other business integration expenses associated with the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services business. Constant Currency Microsoft presents constant currency information to provide a non-GAAP framework for assessing how our underlying businesses performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. To present this information, current and comparative prior period non-GAAP results for entities reporting in currencies other than United States dollars are converted into United States dollars using the average exchange rates from the comparative period rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods. The non-GAAP financial measures presented below should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this release that are “forward-looking statements” are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as: For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/investor . All information in this release is as of January 28, 2016. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations. For more information, press only: Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, [email protected] For more information, financial analysts and investors only: Chris Suh, general manager, Investor Relations, (425) 706-4400 Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news /. Web links, telephone numbers, and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information, as well as today’s 2:30 p.m. Pacific time conference call with investors and analysts, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/investor . 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

35 A Glimpse at the Future of Containers in the Enterprise With containers gaining increasing popularity in enterprise environments across a variety of industries to automate the deployment of applications, Joyent and others in the container ecosystem got together to give a state-of-the-state event at the Container Summit conference Feb. 10 in New York City. Although the cloud native world is adopting container technologies, such as Docker, only 8 percent of enterprises are using them in production, said Dave Bartoletti, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Yet curiosity about containers is soaring. Bartoletti said questions from clients about containers and when and how to deploy them have increased by a factor of 10 in the last two years. Indeed, many of the speakers at the Container Summit said they were introduced to container technology in a previous job and moved it to their current role. Others simply adopted it as the proper thing to do. This eWEEK slide show looks at some of the scenes from the Container Summit and what industry experts had to say about the technology. 2016-03-14 07:56 Darryl K.

36 Microsoft and NCAA® team up for NCAA® March Madness® REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2016 — On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. and the NCAA announced a comprehensive partnership to provide college basketball fans with the ultimate March Madness bracket experience along with a new Windows 10 NCAA app. In partnership with the NCAA, Bing, which returns as an Official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will be the Official Bracketologist of the NCAA for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and will leverage over a decade of extensive NCAA statistical data to help inform an immersive bracket experience complete with Bing Predicts data and matchup analysis. The bracket will be made available online after Selection Sunday™, on Bing.com and NCAA.com. Bing named Official Bracketologist of NCAA As the Official Bracket Data Partner of the NCAA, Bing is bringing its Bing Predicts technology to the NCAA Division I Championship to give college basketball fans a leg up on their brackets. Whether you are an avid fan who follows all 68 teams in the tournament, or a loyalist who has one favorite, the Bing bracket will offer intelligent features that bring unique insights on the over 9 quintillion possible outcomes. “Partnering with the NCAA as the Official Bracketologist of the NCAA is a perfect match for Bing,” said Derrick Connell, corporate vice president, Bing at Microsoft. “Pairing our Bing Predicts rich machine learning with sports analyst data that only the NCAA can provide is enabling a whole new bracket experience for all types of college basketball fans.” “The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship is an exciting time for fans to watch their favorite teams while they have fun selecting who will advance to the Men’s Final Four ® and ultimately win the championship title,” said Mark Lewis, NCAA executive vice president for championships and alliances. “We’re excited that Bing returns to the NCAA corporate family and brings its intelligence to our official NCAA bracket, which gives college basketball fans a robust bracket experience online today. Completing a bracket for the fun of the games is how we want fans to engage and support all of the teams.” Bing Predicts combines search data and social sentiment with access to over a decade of the NCAA’s historical data as well as stats on team history, tournament performances, win-loss ratios, and home versus away stats to create tournament data for fans. This is the second year that Bing Predicts has been used during March Madness, coming in at the top 30 percent of all brackets last year. Bing Predicts has a proven track record for accurately predicting many winners in many important events including the 2014 World Cup and mid-term elections, award shows, reality shows, and more. “Fan interaction with our official NCAA Tournament bracket games at CBSSports.com, NCAA.com and Bleacher Report grows deeper and more sophisticated every year,” said Chris Simko, senior vice president, sports sales and marketing, CBS. “As an NCAA Corporate Partner, Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, continues to provide invaluable research and data analytics tools to enhance this experience for our users.” “March Madness is an incredibly exciting time of year with fans nationwide passionate about making the smartest possible bracket decisions,” said Will Funk, senior vice president of Sponsorship Integration and Business Development for Turner Sports Ad Sales. “This year, Bing Predicts will bring the power of data to fans’ fingertips for better informed bracket decisions.” Watch the NCAA Tournament live with Windows 10 For fans who want to live stream the games and follow along with all the March Madness action throughout the tournament, the NCAA is also launching an all-new universal Windows 10 app, which will be made available before the tournament. The app, which will be supported on Windows 10 phones, tablets and PCs, allows fans to take the excitement of the tournament with them whenever and wherever they are. The app will include exclusive Windows 10 features including Live Tiles, allowing fans to pin their favorite teams to their Start menu, as well as live alerts, including upsets, overtimes, close games and live video streaming of all 67 tournament games. About the NCAA The NCAA is a diverse association of more than 1,100 member colleges and universities that prioritize academics, well-being and fairness to create greater opportunities for nearly a half a million student-athletes each year. The NCAA provides a pathway to higher education and beyond for student-athletes pursuing academic goals and competing in NCAA sports. More than 54,000 student-athletes experience the pinnacle of intercollegiate athletics by competing in NCAA championships each year. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association and the corporate partnerships that support the NCAA and its student- athletes. About Turner Sports Turner Sports, a division of Turner, is an industry leader in the delivery of premium sports content across all multimedia screens. Turner Sports’ television coverage includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, ELEAGUE, boxing and professional golf. The company also manages some of the most popular sports destinations across broadband and mobile platforms including Bleacher Report and its top-rated Team Stream app, NCAA.com and the critically-acclaimed NCAA March Madness Live suite of products, PGA.com and the Sports Emmy Award-winning PGA Championship LIVE, as well as an accompanying collection of mobile sites and connected device apps. Turner Sports and the NBA also jointly manage NBA Digital, a robust collection of offerings including NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA Mobile, the NBA Game Time App, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com. About CBS Sports CBS Sports, a year-round leader in television sports, broadcasts a portfolio of events on the CBS Television Network, including THE NFL ON CBS; “Thursday Night Football;” college basketball, including the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship; golf, including The Masters ® , PGA Championship and PGA TOUR; college football, including the SEC ON CBS; and CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR. In addition, the division includes CBS SPORTS NETWORK, the 24-hour home of CBS Sports; produces INSIDE THE NFL for SHOWTIME; and partners with CBS SPORTS RADIO and CBSSports.com in creating recognized leaders in sports radio and digital. About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 2016-03-14 05:39 By Microsoft

37 Hydroelectric charger set to be released in July If you love camping but also want to stay connected to the modern world, then the Enomad charger might be for you. The South Korean company Enomad is looking to release its hydroelectric battery charger on Kickstarter in early July. Announced at the still- running South by Southwest in Texas, the Enomad uses four propellers which can be placed in any flowing water source. Approximately the size of a thermos, its 5200 mAh capacity will take two hours in an average stream. The propellers can then be removed to reveal USB ports, which can completely charge the equivalent of two iPhone 6’s. The concept was originally conceived during their installation of mobile charging stations powered by the Cheonggyecheon River in the capital of Seoul. The company says the idea started as a way to help poverty-stricken areas where energy is hard to get. The product also has an in-built lantern. The self-contained hydroelectric plant is expected to be sold for $180. Source: Gizmag | Image: Michael Franco/Gizmag 2016-03-14 03:48 Matthew Sims

38 Best Desktop PCs of 2016 When buying a new desktop computer you basically have two options: you can build one yourself or you can buy pre-built. The former will almost always result in better value and upgradeability -- with perhaps the only exception being when buying a basic entry-level computer. But going the DIY route also requires a fair bit of knowledge, research and free time. If the process of picking parts and building something yourself sounds right up your alley then our PC Buying Guide is a great place to get started. But if you just need something that works out of the box and is backed by its manufacturer’s service and warranty, or you are looking for something to recommend to your less DIY-inclined friends and family, then this is for you. We've weighed dozens of expert reviews against our own research and tests to bring you our picks for best pre-built all-on-one PCs, gaming systems, small form factor PC and budget PC. The iMac family is known for its stylish design among all-in-ones and that hasn’t changed in its latest iteration. The aluminum enclosure remains as impressive as the day Apple redesigned the lineup in 2012 and as slim as last year’s model. No change is not bad at all in this case. What you do get in this revision is Intel Skylake processors, upgraded AMD graphics and an upgraded display with a wider DCI P3 color gamut. This is said to offer 25% more colors versus the standard sRGB gamut, which is important if you're doing professional photo, video, and illustration work. The 27-inch display boasts a remarkable 5,120-by-2,880-pixel (5K) resolution that’s unmatched in this category. Images are incredibly sharp and it's possible to run multiple apps simultaneously without feeling cramped for space -- you can display a 4K video image at full size while still having additional space for editing tools. The only complaint here would be the bezels surrounding the display which look rather large compared to monitors like the Dell UltraSharp U3415W. In terms of connectivity you get four USB 3.0 ports and two Thunderbolt 2 connections, a SDXC slot and a Gigabit Ethernet jack -- all located on the backside toward the bottom so you can keep your cables under control. The base configuration starts at $1,799 with a 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon R9 M380 GPU with 2GB video memory and 1TB hard drive. In general this will be more than capable at handling everyday tasks, though we would recommend spending an extra $200 to get the faster Fusion Drive storage and M390 graphics. A traditional hard drive just doesn’t cut it anymore. As usual, Apple is stingy with Flash storage, so that 1TB Fusion Drive contains just 24GB of SSD space which is still enough to make OS X and its core apps run fast but not the same as having a large SSD for all your apps. The iMac is among the more expensive all-in-ones in the market but it’s without competition when it comes to display and build quality. Furthermore if you’ll be doing professional photo and video editing work, it will get the job done for less than a Mac Pro and a standalone 4K monitor. The Zen AIO Pro is one of the most stylish desktop all-in-one PCs in the Windows camp and there’s no hiding where the inspiration came from. The exterior is all metal and glass with a curved back panel that tapers to a sharp edge all around, it has an L-shaped stand and neatly positioned ports in the back. Yep, it’s pretty much an iMac clone with a darker brushed aluminum finish. The 23.8-inch touch screen display is crisp and vibrant sporting a 3,840 by 2,160 pixel (UHD) resolution -- not in the same league as Apple’s 5K Retina Display but very good nonetheless. Under the hood a quad-core Intel Core i7-6700T CPU, 4GB to 32GB of DDR4 memory and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M discrete graphics card give the Asus AIO Pro the power to breeze through everyday tasks and handle some gaming too, as long as you back the resolution down to 1920 x 1080. Hot hardware , TomsGuide and ExpertReviews managed decent frame rates on games like Thief , Bioshock Infinite , and DiRT: Showdown by tweaking graphics settings a bit. On the storage front Asus offers a variety of options including a traditional hard drive up to 2TB in size, as well as a combination of SSD for speed and HDD for storage, or even a super speedy 512GB PCIe-based M.2 Samsung SM951 SSD. As for connectivity, ports include 4 USB 3.0, 1 USB 3.1 Type-C, 1 USB 2.0, and 2 HDMI out. The Zen also ships with a standard- issue wireless keyboard and mouse combo which aren’t anything special but will get the job done. Other highlights include Intel's RealSense 3D camera, which supports a variety of neat 3D- scanning and motion-tracking apps. You probably won’t be doing much with this after the novelty wears off, but Windows 10’s Hello feature to log into your Windows account with facial recognition can certainly be convenient. The Zen AIO Pro can be had for as little as $1,399 for a "Signature Edition" base model at the Microsoft Store. You get 8GB of RAM and a 1TB SSHD. If you can spend a bit more a step up model doubles the RAM to 16GB and trades the SSHD for a 1TB HDD + 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD combo for $1,900 . The C40 keeps things simple with a glossy black front, thick bezels around the screen, and a Y- shaped base offering tilt adjustments. It looks clean and feels durable. With a starting price at around $430 , the Lenovo C40 offers plenty to like in a basic touch-screen PC for getting online, light productivity and media consumption. Its 21.5-inch full HD display offers decent color accuracy and on offer are various models featuring either 4GB or 8GB of RAM as well as an AMD A6-7310, Intel Pentium 3825U or Intel Core i3 5005U CPU. We recommend going with the Core i3 for a bit more performance. Right now you can get this model with 4GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $617 on Amazon, or the AMD A6-7310 model with double the RAM for $607. Don't expect blazing performance from either but for your average day to day computing tasks you're certainly covered, you also get dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Lenovo even added an HDMI-in port so that your all-in-one can double as a standalone display. Not everyone who appreciates powerful hardware has the time or skill to build their own -- and this is where boutique PC builders such as Origin come in. Their Genesis gaming system is among the prettier and more flexible we’ve found. Rather than using an off the shelf case, Origin designed its own full-size case featuring a steel frame and plastic enclosure, which can be tuned to your liking with three factory color options and custom paint options for both interior and exterior. On the inside back panel and ceiling and on both sides of the top front are rows of LED lights, which can be controlled and customized with a smartphone app. Origin is going all the way with customization on this one. The motherboard can be oriented in one of four ways, depending on how you want to cool the system and which of its components you want to show off. You can also decide the orientation in which the front panel opens, and there’s easy access to USB ports on the top. As you would expect hardware options are aplenty and how much you spend depends on how crazy you go with components. You can get up to an Intel Core i7 6700K CPU, four Titan X GPUs, 64GB of RAM, and many, many storage combinations. To put things into context, we configured the Genesis as close to our PC Buying Guide’s Enthusiast build and it cost almost twice as much -- though it did have some higher end components by default. The gap narrows down the higher end you go. Configuring the Genesis closer to our Luxury build 'only' resulted in a 44% premium. Part of that premium you are paying is justified -- aside from labor -- by the inclusion of a 1-year subscription to Origin's warranty program with 24-hour phone and online support, and 1-year part replacement. You can also enroll in their Evolve Part Upgrade Service for an extra $40, which lets you return your old system parts to Origin for their current market value when upgrading to a newer or better component. The Origin is a handsomely crafted rig and a terrific contender in the cost-no-object arena. Though at the end of the day we’d choose to build something as powerful for less, if you can foot the build for one of these we doubt you’ll be disappointed. There are many different systems billed as budget gaming PCs and yet most of them skimp on the single most important component: the GPU. For our budget pick we wanted something with at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 and the Alienware X51 not only delivers, but does so in a sleek mini-tower that will look just as good on your desk or in the living room. Although $1250 for our customized build is not exactly cheap, this is the least we would consider for serious gaming on a pre-built system, short of buying a cheap desktop PC and upgrading the graphics card on your own -- which is also an option and you can read more about it in our budget PC pick. The Alienware X51 R3 performs admirably for its size and price point, equipped with a GeForce GTX 970 you’ll be able to play any modern games at 1440p with graphics settings set to high -- gaming benchmarks here. Our configured build also includes a Core i5-6400 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB PCIe SSD. Keep in mind that you’ll need to factor in the cost of a monitor and peripherals. In terms of design the X51 has a glossy front panel with a single illuminated Alienware logo power button and access to essential port as well as an optical drive. The left and right side panels both sport sharp LED triangles that can light up in various colors. There is no shortage of connectivity options, especially when you consider its size. In total you get six USB 3.0 ports (two on the front panel and four on the rear), two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, one full-sized HDMI port, 3 DisplayPorts, one DVI-D port, audio in and out ports with optical output and Dell's graphics dock port for an external Alienware Graphics Amplifier, if you want to add another graphics card down the road. The X51 keeps it clean on the software front, running Windows 10 Pro with just a few preloaded programs that let you customize how the machine looks and performs. If you are willing to make some compromises on the graphics department, the Alienware X51 actually starts at $699 with a Core i3 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 745 graphics card, with other configurations in-between offering a GTX 750Ti GPU, Radeon R9 370 or GeForce GTX 960. Key components – including the GPU, CPU, memory and hard drive – are also easy to access on the Alienware X51, so you can make upgrades on your own. A cheaper, similarly spec’d option would be the Asus G11CD starting at $1,050 -- with a 1TB HDD instead of an SSD. But if you like the idea of being able to perform upgrades, the G11CD is not the machine for you, rather it's an alternative built to be a hassle-free, plug-and-play gaming PC, so there's no easy way to swap out its components. If you're comfortable buying and installing your own RAM, storage and operating system, the barebones Intel NUC provides a fantastic starting point for a capable small form factor system. The Core i5 5250U powered NUC5i5RYK with Intel Graphics HD 6000 retails for $344 , while a version with a 2.5-inch drive bay in addition to the M.2 slot is just $5 more . At 4.5 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches and just 1 pound, the NUC5i5RYK is tiny enough to sit on any desk or media center cabinet, or simply hide behind a monitor using the bundled VESA mounting bracket. Its silver and black design doesn’t make much of an impression and could be easily mistaken for a router, but the metal chassis and plastic enclosure feels solid and well built. Ports include four USB 3.0, one Mini HDMI 1.4a, one Mini DisplayPort 1.2, and an Ethernet jack. With a high-capacity drive inside or attached via USB, the NUC5i5RYK can serve as an excellent home-theater PC, or even as a secondary PC for everyday productivity and multimedia tasks. You basically get a high-end Ultrabook in a desktop form factor. All told after adding a pair of RAM modules and storage you would have a very capable system for around $600 -- before factoring in the cost of the OS, monitor and peripherals if necessary. You can find pre- configured systems on Amazon for around this much if you’d rather have a working system out- of-the box. The Asus M32CD is Amazon’s best selling desktop computer and with good reason -- it provides a solid plug and play solution for those looking to purchase a computer package with minimal setup. Priced at $450 you get a 6th-gen Intel Core i5-6400 processor with integrated 530 HD Graphics, 8GB DDR4 RAM, a 1TB hard drive, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity options. In terms of value for money, it’s definitely an excellent all-rounder, with plenty of power for your everyday home computer needs. It also looks pretty sleek with a brushed metal finish and a clean, subtle design. The front and back offer a decent array of ports, including two USB 3.0 (front) ports, two USB 3.1 (rear), three USB 2.0 (rear) ports, 8-channel audio, single VGA and single HDMI port -- with support for 4K displays. The lack of a dedicated graphics card means you won’t be doing much gaming out of the box, beyond perhaps some less demanding titles on medium to low graphics settings. Fortunately, the M32CD can be easily upgraded. In addition to an extra hard drive and RAM module, there’s also one PCI-e x16 expansion slot available. The included 300W PSU will be able to power a budget card like the $150 GeForce GTX 950 , which will run many modern titles at 50-60fps when gaming at 1080p. If you want to take it up a notch to yield a cost-effective gaming computer, you could get a GeForce GTX 970 inside provided you also upgrade the PSU. In all you’re looking at a ~$400 investment, or a total cost of $850. That’s not bad at all for a budget PC that can handle serious gaming. That said, if you were to swap in an SSD and more RAM, you start getting closer to our best value gaming PC pick, which is an overall better system. If you are thinking of purchasing this with the intention of upgrading it, just be aware that by opening the case you void the manufacturer’s 1-year warranty. 2016-03-14 00:10 TechSpot Staff

39 39 How to Use Android Data Binding - Developer.com Most applications typically work with data. Until recently, Android developers had to write a lot of code because of no first-class platform support for data binding. Developers need to get the data for a database or user input and then assign values to the elements that present it to the user in the UI. This made Android data binding a pretty laborious, non-intellectual exercise for developers. We need to repeat this for each element in the layout that involves data. That is a lot of code that is repeated, and gets in the way of writing core application logic. All this is required to support data binding because there is no first-class support. In Google IO 2015, a new data binding library was demonstrated; it removes the need to write such code. This library helps change the data binding development into the following three steps: This reduction in code authoring is powered by code that is generated by the data binding library that analyzes the layout file. The Gradle plugin then creates a binding class file and then creates binding methods in the class file. To use data the binding library, you will need to use a newer version of Android Studio and associated build tools. We also need to update the Android Plugin for Gradle to version 1.3 or later, and add the latest Data Binding plugin. You can get these by installing or updating the Android Support Repository and Android Support library to the latest version. Let us create a simple application to illustrate data binding. Fire up Android Studio and Start a new Android Studio Project. Figure 1: Starting a new Android Studio Project Provide DataBindingDemo as the Application Name and click Next. Figure 2: Naming the application On the next screen, leave the default values and click Next. Figure 3: Leaving the default values in place On the "Add an activity to Mobile" page, choose "Blank Activity". This creates an application with a single activity. Figure 4: Adding a Blank Activity We then are prompted to customize the activity. We will leave the default values unchanged. Figure 5: Again, leaving the default values in place Click Finish to creating the project files. The first thing we will do is to verify that the Gradle dependencies are correct. Open build.gradle (Project:DataBindingDemo) and verify the classpath dependencies. Figure 6: Opening build.gradle to verify the classpath dependencies In our case, we should see the following: If you are upgrading an older project, you would want to ensure that the Gradle library version is updated to atleast 1.5.0. Next, we open the Gradle file for our app (build.gradle Module:app). Figure 7: Opening the Gradle file The default content is as shown here: We make the following changes. We are now ready to use data binding. Next, we will add a couple of textview controls on activity_Main. (We will also delete the default TextView - Hello World - that Android Studio creates). The layout file will look as follows: Next, we will power one of the textviews without data using the data binding library and one with data. Make the following changes. Add a new class to the project, called MyDataBindingHelper. Figure 8: Adding a new class This is the helper class that will help with data binding the elements with data. To use data binding library, we need the layout files to have the root tag of layout followed by a data element and a view root element. The layout files will change as shown here: Next, we will make changes in the onCreate method: we will show both methods, one without using data binding library and one with. One can see from the preceding example the simplicity of the approach of using data binding library. For every additional control, we would have to write three lines (Lines 1-3) without using a data binding library, However, with a data binding library, we only have to write one line (Line 5) for each additional control. That is a much simpler developer experience. We can see that Android Studio has done the heavy lifting by opening up activity_main from the intermediate files folder and checked out its contents. On my computer, this file was located at C:\Users​ipul\AndroidStudioProjects\DataBindingDemo​pp​uild\intermediates es\merged\debug\layoutctivity_main.xml. Check out the copy of file on your system to see what magic Android Studio cooked up. In this article, we learned about how to use a data binding library to make things simpler to hook up to data in Android applications. I hope you have found this information useful. You can download the sample code from here. Vipul Patel is a technology geek based in Seattle. He can be reached at [email protected]. You can visit his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/pub/vipul- patel/6/675/508 . 2016-03-14 00:00 Vipul Patel

40 Using Java Regular Expressions - Developer.com A regular expression is a sequence of characters arranged in a fashion to represent a template that matches a specific pattern of character symbols. Pattern matching comes in quite handy in validating a string formation that adheres to a certain specification norm. Regular expression eases the strenuous job of a substring matching with nested loops and compacts the logic in favour of better readability and code clarity. This almost unnoticeable mechanism can better be appreciated by its usage. In view of its advantages, most modern programming languages integrated various forms of support for regular expression into their tool suite. The article mainly focuses on the package java.util.regex which provides much needed support for pattern matching operations through Java regular expressions. The structure of regular expression consists of normal characters, special constructs, quantifiers, boundary matches, character classes, and so forth. A normal character sequence, say "earth," would match as is whereas "e.+h" would match any word that begins with e followed by any character represented by the wild card dot (.) and then one or more of any characters represented by + (plus) after dot (.) symbol followed by h as the last character. To match any of the characters, we can use a character class such as [abcd] (within angular braces) to match either a, b, c, or d. Now this can be inverted; in other words, not to match any of a, b, c or d by [^abcd ]. Similarly, if we want to match any of the vowels, both uppercase and lowercase, we may write as [aAeEiIoOuU]. To match all the alphabet [a-z] , to match numeric values 0 through 9, we may write [0-9]. There can be numerous such combinations. Java documentation provides comprehensive details of many regular expression constructs. Java provides a simple way to integrate regular expression in a program. The package contains two classes, Pattern and Matcher , one interface— MatchResult , and an exception— PatternSyntaxException. The pattern instance helps in creating a compiled pattern from an input string that adheres to regular expression norms and is replicable to more than one such string. This class does not have a constructor to instantiate an object; instead, it has two static methods that return an object of this class. These factory methods take a string object as an input sequence representing a regular expression and transform into a Pattern object. The flags represent a bit mask to regulate some variation during compilation, such as enabling case-insensitive matching, Unicode-aware case folding, Unicode version of Predefined character classes, POSIX character classes, and so on. Once the Pattern object is created, it is used to call another factory class, called matcher(CharSequence input) , to create a Matcher object. CharSequence is an interface that represents a read-only set of characters values. Because the String class implements this interface, the matcher method has no problem in taking a string object as an argument. The Matcher instance takes up a single instance of the pattern and applies it to the target string. This class also does not have a constructor. It is instantiated with the help of the matcher(CharSequence input) factory method of the of the Pattern class. The Matcher class provides numerous factory methods to perform a variety of matching operations such as finding a pattern, replacing a matched pattern with a target string, getting the offset of pattern matches, and the like. MatchResult encapsulates the outcome of a successful match. Because Matcher implements the MatchResult interface, the resultant data is readily available through a Matcher instance. However, the MatchResult interface is useful in saving the outcome of in-between successful matching attempts. PatternSyntaxException raises an exception if the regular expression is not formed properly. To put it in very simple words, Though not a comprehensive guideline, a few code examples would give an idea of its implementation in Java. There are many factory methods to supplement the needs of the developer. Here we'll try a few of the frequently used ones. The idea of the preceding code is to create a pattern containing an input sequence. The subsequent creation of a matcher object determines whether or not the pattern is available in the sequence. The find() factory method looks for a subsequence of characters from beginning to end of the input sequence and returns a boolean value true if found and false otherwise. If we want to find all the matches with start index and end offset, we may replace if with the while statement, as follows: The real power of regular expression comes from using wildcards and quantifiers. Suppose we want to match "doesn't" in the above example. With the help of wildcards and quantifies, we may write the regular expression as shown in the next code snippet. These patterns match the "doesn't" string pattern in the preceding code but is not limited to this pattern only. Ply a little thought on the pattern below to find out what other subsequence it matches. If we want to replace a specific pattern with another, we may do so with the help of the replace() method as follows. Java regular expressions support is simple with pretty straightforward classes to implement them. The key area to focus on to master regular expression is the syntactical structure of regular expression itself where Java as a language is just a means of implementation. The idea is similar for any other language such as JavaScript, Perl, C#, and so forth. The implementation process may vary slightly from one programming language to another, but the basic concept remains the same. Java's take on in integrating this mechanism into its tool suite is its implementation simplicity that eased the life of Java programmer on many occasion, a tool worth learning for every Java programmer. 2016-03-14 00:00 Manoj Debnath

41 Twitter topples CBS selection show with leaked NCAA bracket The NCAA said Sunday night it is looking into how a copy of this year's tournament bracket got leaked online during the network's extended selection show on Sunday. The bracket was being shared on Twitter about 20 minutes after the start of the two-hour broadcast, generating thousands of retweets as Charles Barkley fumbled around with a touch screen monitor making picks. "We go through great lengths to prevent the tournament field from being revealed early and the NCAA took its usual measures to protect this from happening," the NCAA said Sunday night in a statement. "Unfortunately, and regrettably, the bracket was revealed prior to our broadcast partners having the opportunity to finish unveiling it. We take this matter seriously and we are looking into it. " CBS declined comment. The broadcast drew wide criticism on social media for drawing out the selections. Some Kentucky players fell asleep during the show at the home of coach John Calipari. And others waiting for their draw found out about their matchups early as news of the leaked bracket went viral. At Notre Dame, coach Mike Brey said he got a text from his son, Kyle, a tight ends coach at Youngstown State, saying the leaked bracket showed the Irish playing the winner of the Michigan-Tulsa game in Brooklyn. "I thought he was messing with me," Brey said. "So I just deleted it. Fifteen minutes later we show up, and then I found out we had a little leakage going on. Nothing's secure, huh? That's great. That is so typical. It's so typical of college basketball. " At Pitt, Sterling Smith set the Panthers at ease early during the selection show, sharing the leaked bracket that showed them as the 10th seed in the East Region. "We were wondering what we were going to do for that entire time; all of a sudden we knew rather quickly," coach Jamie Dixon said. Xavier forward James Farr said he saw the leaked bracket on his phone while the Musketeers were still waiting to learn their seeding and opponent, but he didn't say anything to his teammates. "I didn't want to ruin anything," Farr said. "I thought it was somebody's prediction of the bracket. " It's not clear who posted the tweet, which was labeled "Spoiler alert. " The account used a Kansas logo as its avatar photo, with the name "Sarcastic" followed by a vulgar word. The user later changed the name and protected the account, shortly before the account appeared to be deleted and turned over to a different user. Explore further: US safety agency may expand Hyundai air bag recall 2016-03-14 00:00 phys.org

42 Pure aims at unstructured data with Flashblade flash system Pure storage has added the Flashblade, a scale-out big data-targeted file and object-access all- flash array to its portfolio, plus an entry-level addition to its //m series all-flash arrays , the //m10. The products aim to fill what Pure Storage marketing vice-president Matt Kixmoeller called “an expanding addressable market for flash”. While the company’s core //m arrays are targeted at structured data , Kixmoeller said the Flashblade aims at “a wide range of other types of data, such as file, object and container ” and data generated by analytics, and the internet of things. “It’s a big opportunity for flash to revolutionise that part of the market,” he said. The Flashblade system is designed to accommodate “up to 100s” of 8TB or 52TB blades, but initially will be limited to 30 blades in two 4U chassis. Pure’s proprietary Flashblade blades comprise flash storage, NVRAM memory and Intel Xeon CPUs with an architecture designed to cope with potentially large amounts of metadata plus 40GbE connectivity. Flashblade blades are then knitted together as a scale-out system with Pure’s new Elasticity controller operating system (OS). This provides NFS, CIFS, object storage and Hadoop (HDFS) access across the hardware, which can be added to non-disruptively. Kixmoeller said: “We have had a really big focus to develop hardware and software to be truly scale-out .” Flashblade will be generally available in the second half of 2016, but is available now on beta programmes. To date, most all-flash arrays have addressed the block access market and are aimed at high- performance transactional processing and performance-intensive virtual machine farms. Pure’s Flashblade, in targeting unstructured , file-access workloads, marks a new direction in flash storage. The //m10 is an entry-level all-flash array aimed at SMEs. It uses MLC and 3D TLC flash drives and comes in two base capacities of 5TB or 10TB raw, which provides 15TB and 30TB, respectively, with data reduction applied. Latency is quoted at less than 1 millisecond and 100,000 32k IOPS. The //m10 is aimed at SMEs, can be upgrades to any of the other //m products and will sell for less than $50,000. Pure Storage moved from startup to established business with its initial public offering in October 2015. In June 2015, the company launched a revamp of its FlashArray platform based on new hardware, with three new models under the FlashArray//m brand. The //m20 (5TB to 40TB raw), //m50 (30TB to 88TB raw) and //m70 (44TB to 136TB) models scale to in excess of 120TB, 250TB and 400TB, respectively, after data optimisation. Performance scales from 150,000 IOPS at the low end with the //m20 and up to 300,000 IOPS for the //m70, all with less than 1ms latency ...... 2016-03-14 00:00 Antony Adshead

43 Microsoft will no longer accept using Bitcoin to pay for content in the Windows Store We reported in 2014 that Microsoft would allow users to redeem the digital currency Bitcoin to purchase content on the company's various digital distribution platforms. However, a recently discovered page on Microsoft's website states that the company will no longer allow users to redeem their Bitcoins: While the new page does not offer many details, Bogdan Popa of Softpedia, who originally reported the news , has speculated that for Microsoft, "the number of transactions based on Bitcoin and performed in the store was probably very small," and that the company most likely decided to discontinue support based on this. For those of you who still have Bitcoin in your Microsoft account balance, you can still use it for new purchases, but you will not be able to redeem new Bitcoin going forward: Bitcoin is one of the world's most popular forms of digital currency, but recent developments have certainly reduced its appeal. In January, a report sponsored by the U. S. government suggested that the currency's ability to preserve privacy may aid antagonistic groups and a later study suggested that it is a subject of numerous misconceptions . Source: Microsoft via Softpedia | Bitcoin mining image courtesy of Shutterstock 2016-03-13 23:08 Ian Ginos

44 Another one bites the dust: Spotify ends support for its Windows Phone app Another Windows Phone application has bitten the dust. This time it's Spotify, the popular music streaming service ; however, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. The web site WishAppList is a site that's dedicated to Windows phone users who want to vote for apps that they'd like to see on the platform. An update to the Spotify app was suggested, and this was the response: As we can see, the Windows Phone app is clearly no longer supported; however, Tsvetan does hint at the possibility of a Windows 10 app. It also notes that if Spotify does release a UWP app, it will be available as an update to the existing Windows Phone app, rather than releasing a separate app. Spotify joins a growing list of Windows Phone apps that are no longer supported. The good news is that while many apps have actually shut down the service , at least users can still use Spotify. Source: WishAppList via WinBeta 2016-03-13 18:50 Richard Woods

45 Microsoft's Lumia 650 now available from £129.99 in the UK Microsoft opened pre-orders for the Lumia 650 in the US and Canada a few days ago, and it will soon be available in Mexico too. Over in the UK, the new Windows 10 Mobile handset went on sale three and a half weeks ago, priced at £159.99 SIM-free and unlocked, but its price has already begun to fall . Various retailers have recently reduced their SIM- free pricing to around the £150 level, but you can now get the Lumia 650 for considerably less. Leading independent device retailer Carphone Warehouse had been selling the Lumia 650 on contract-free pay-as-you-go (PAYG) plans with several networks, priced at £149.99 for the handset, plus a minimum £10 purchase of PAYG credit, bringing the total cost to the same as that of buying the device SIM-free. Now, though, Carphone Warehouse is offering the 650 on PAYG from £119.99 + £10 top-up , bringing the total cost down to as little as £129.99. To qualify for that price, you’ll have to buy the device with £10 of PAYG credit on Vodafone – which includes 150 cross-network minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data – but given that almost every handset that Carphone Warehouse sells is not locked to a specific network , you should be able to use it with SIMs from other operators without any problems. The Lumia 650’s key specs include: We’re currently testing the Lumia 650 ahead of our full review, but in the meantime, you can find out more about it in these recent articles: Source: Carphone Warehouse 2016-03-13 18:24 Andy Weir

46 Best Buy will begin taking preorders for the LG G5 on March 18 For those who can't wait to get their hands on LG's latest flagship offering , your wait is about to be over. Best Buy will begin accepting preorders for the G5 on March 18. The page recently appeared on the retailer's web site, although there's nothing noted about pricing and availability. Of course, like most Android phones that launch in the US, pricing and availability will vary by carrier, although the device is expected to be released in April, and LG will be offering a free extra battery and charging cradle with it for a limited time. The LG G5 features a modular design - allowing users to swap out various additional hardware components to expand the capabilities of the device - along with a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4 GB RAM, and a 16 MP camera. Check out our first impressions after 24 hours with the device. Source: Best Buy via UberGizmo 2016-03-13 18:06 Richard Woods

47 Google's AlphaGo finally succumbs to world champion Following four losses, one of the world's top Go players - Lee Se-dol - has beaten Google DeepMind's AlphaGo program. Lee Se-dol, who has been described as the Roger Federer of Go , has so far only managed to beat this AI once out of his four played games , so overall, AlphaGo has already won the set. Back in October, AlphaGo played against and beat the three time European Go champion Fan Hui, winning all five games. It also looked like Lee Se-dol would lose all five of his games as well but managed to turn AlphaGo's winning streak on its head by causing the AI to make a mistake that it couldn't recover from. The AlphaGo AI program is different from "expert" systems which use hand-crafted rulesets. AlphaGo instead uses machine learning techniques to work out how to improve its playing style, essentially playing games of Go over and over again until it got to a state where it can play competitively against world class players. Developing an AI for Go was considered to be a difficult task because of the immense amount of positions a player can make. In Chess, the amount of moves a player can make is around 20 for the average position (current state of the board), in Go however it's around 200. In Go there are many positions the board can be in. In fact, there are more positions than there are atoms in the Universe - or 2.08×10^170. Source: BBC News | Image: Artificial Intelligence via Profit_Image / Shutterstock 2016-03-13 17:04 Paul Hill

48 Microsoft knows what's best for you -- stop fighting Windows 10 Windows 10 is a wildly popular operating system in more ways than one. In one regard, it is installed on hundreds of millions of machines. In another, it is popular with technology pundits as something to portray in a negative light. While it isn't perfect, Windows 10 is the best version of Microsoft's operating system ever. It is fast, reliable, and pretty. Best of all, it runs an endless amount of classic Windows programs, plus the new universal Windows apps too. True, there are some privacy concerns, but if you don't trust Microsoft with your data, why are you using any of the company's software? Sorry, y'all, Microsoft knows what's best for you -- stop fighting Windows 10! Sticking to an older version of the OS is asinine. When it comes to software -- especially an operating system -- newer is better. Even if you prefer an older UI or functionality, it simply isn't safe to run outdated or unsupported software. Using outdated software can get your machine compromised by an exploit. True, Windows 7 and 8.1 are still supported and safe to use, but sticking to these operating systems is just prolonging the inevitable. Look, not trusting Windows 10 because of privacy concerns makes sense, but if you don't trust Microsoft with your data, you should switch to something Linux-based or OS X. Not trusting Microsoft while using an older version of Windows doesn't add up -- it is senseless. BetaNews has covered Microsoft's arguably shady Windows 10 tactics, including how to block upgrades. You can see some examples below. Some of Microsoft's tactics are questionable, but the ends justify the means. The company is simply doing its users a favor. If you want to stick with Windows 7 or 8.1 -- hell, XP -- that is totally your right. However, it just isn't smart. Look, car analogies are a cliche, and I generally detest them, but I'll use one anyway. Some people prefer driving older cars for style, and other reasons, but newer cars have better features -- including safety. Backup cameras, curtain airbags, and Bluetooth are just a few things that can make modern cars better. Windows 10 is like a fully-loaded 2016 sedan, while Windows 7 is your reliable 2009 Toyota Corolla. Even if you love your existing car, if you were offered a free upgrade to a new car with more features, wouldn't you take it? Windows 10 has many enhancements, such as an improved start menu, access to the Windows Store, Cortana and the Edge browser. The SmartScreen functionality works brilliantly to keep users safe. This is just scratching the surface of new features -- some of these are on Windows 8.1, so Windows 7 users in particular will benefit the most by upgrading. If Windows 10 had a monetary upgrade cost for home users, I'd understand people clutching to Windows 7 or 8.1 because they couldn't afford to upgrade. But with Windows 10 being a free upgrade, not upgrading is foolish. When it comes to upgrading to Windows 10, be like Nike and just do it. Photo Credit: Tudor Catalin Gheorghe / Shutterstock 2016-03-13 14:32 By Brian

49 How to say NO to Windows 10 Running Windows 7 or 8.1? Microsoft wants you to upgrade to Windows 10. What’s that? You don’t want to? You want to keep the using the OS you like and paid for? Well, tough. You don’t have any choice in the matter. Except, you do. While Microsoft’s nasty methods mean it’s getting harder to reject the new operating system, it can still be done. This is what you need to do. Block the Recommended Update Firstly, if Microsoft hasn’t already downloaded and started installing Windows 10 without your knowledge, make sure recommended updates are turned off on your Windows 7 or 8.1 PC. We’ve covered how to do this in a previous post , and you can hide the update too, which will prevent you accidentally installing it yourself by mistake. Reject the Windows 10 Upgrade with a Group Policy setting or Registry Tweak Microsoft forcing Windows 10 on people without their consent is a running theme, so naturally we’ve covered how to stop this previously. You can block the Windows 10 upgrade using Group Policy (only available on Pro, Business and Enterprise editions) or a registry tweak, by following the instructions we posted here . Disable 'Get Windows 10' Popups Make no mistake, Microsoft will find new ways to nag you into upgrading to Windows 10, but you can block the Get Windows 10 pop-ups on your PC using GWX Stopper. We covered this here. Use GWX Control Panel Finally, we’d definitely recommend you install the excellent GWX Control Panel. Launch this and it will tell you if the Get Windows 10 app is running and enabled, whether Windows Update OS upgrades are enabled, and whether Windows 10 download folders were found on your PC and, if so, how much space they are wasting taking up on your system. The tool will let you disable the Get Windows 10 app, block OS upgrades in Windows Update, and delete Windows 10 download folders. If you really don’t want Windows 10, then this is your best line of defense against it. 2016-03-13 12:46 By Wayne

50 First Microsoft Edge extension appears in Windows Store The feature that has been missing from Microsoft Edge for so long is just around the corner. We've known for a little while that extensions are due to make an appearance in an upcoming build of Windows 10 , and ahead of this the first extension has made an appearance in the Windows Store. Page Analyzer is an extension aimed at developers, so it's arrival in the Windows Store is a little odd. It's likely that extension support will be added in the next Windows 10 Redstone build , although there's no official timeline for this release at the moment. While the appearance of the Page Analyzer extension will please those who have been waiting for Microsoft Edge to come of age, you'll have to wait a little longer to try it out. As noted by WindowsBlogItalia , although it is possible to install the extension, it is not possible to activate or use it at this stage. Page Analyzer may not be the most exciting of extensions -- it appears to just give web developers advice about how their sites meet accessibility needs and comply with web standards -- it marks the end of a long wait. Also noteworthy is the fact that the extension offers support for ARM processors, indicating that it will be compatible with mobile devices as well. Photo credit: WindowsBlogItalia 2016-03-13 12:12 By Mark

Total 50 articles. Created at 2016-03-14 12:01