Google bypasses admin controls with latest Chrome IE
Google has released a new version of Chrome Frame – the Internet Explorer plug-in that turns Microsoft's browser into a Google browser – letting users install the plug-in even when they don't have administrator privileges on their machines.
The new version runs a "helper process" when IE starts up that can then load the Chrome Frame plug-in when it's requested, and you don't need admin privileges to do so. "Yay for clever technical hacks that help users circumvent ossified IT bureaucracy," said one commenter on Hacker News. But admins aren't likely to feel the same.
Google is well aware of this. But the company says that if admins don't like it, they can use separate admin Google tools to stop it from happening. Read more...
Open barbarians poised to storm Apple’s gate
Open...and Shut Open source has a tendency to cannibalize and commoditize – and not just surrounding proprietary projects. As described by researcher Dirk Riehle, open source involves a process of continuous innovation and commoditization as communities form to wring inefficiencies from software markets. Interestingly, this same phenomenon happens all the time in the wider software world, and it forecasts diminished importance of closed platforms like Apple's iOS in favor of more open platforms like Android.
Riehle's research plays off the excellent analysis of The 451 Group's Matt Aslett on the rise of permissive licensing in open-source communities. As Aslett points out, GPL licensing has been in relative decline compared to Apache- and MIT-licensed projects. Read more...
Japan answers China’s supercomputing surge
A new supercomputer from Japan whose performance passed the 8 petaflop milestone ended China's brief period atop the list of the world's fastest supercomputers.
The Japanese system also set another all-time Top 500 record -- a 10 megawatt power rating while running the Linpack test used to determine system performance. Despite the significant power consumption, the K Computer achieved "extraordinarily high computing efficiency," said RIKEN and Fujitsu, in a statement.
The new Top 500 leader, the K Computer housed at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, runs 68,544, eight-core Sparc chips made by Japan-based Fujitsu. The system is expected to eventually run some 80,000 of the Sparc processors. Read more...
Atlanta hospital looks to cloud for email fix
A few years ago, one of the largest public hospitals in the U.S. had a big problem and it was hampering the way it was getting work done.
The problem, though, wasn't with the health care staff. The problem was email, which had become a nightmare for the doctors, nurses and administrators at Grady Health System, a 1,000-bed hospital in Atlanta that also runs seven neighborhood clinics, along with an infectious disease clinic.
Most companies or organizations experience occasional email downtime. However, at Grady, email was an ongoing headache for the hospital's users, as well as for Debbie Cancilla, the hospital's senior vice president and CIO.
Cancilla told Computerworld the IT staff was fighting an email outage about once a week. Read more...
No. 1 Place To Work in IT: USAA
Just how great is it to work at USAA, Computerworld's No. 1 Best Place to Work in IT for the second year in a row?
"Well, I don't want to make it sound like it's all candy and rainbows, but it really is pretty nice," says Brett Lewis, a lead technical architect and 23-year veteran of the San Antonio-based financial services company.
First he ticks off a long list of generous benefits, which include an annual holiday bonus equal to two weeks' base pay, health insurance subsidized at the rate of 87.5%, access to any of three state-of-the-art fitness centers on campus at minimal cost, 24 days of vacation after a year on the job, and a tuition reimbursement benefit of $10,000 annually. "What keeps me here is that you couldn't ask for a better place to work," says Lewis. Read more...
The evolution of BI: Applying real-time analysis to unstructured data
To help businesses get smarter and stronger, BI (business intelligence) systems analyze and synthesize huge pools of corporate data to create terabytes of performance-enhancing information for enterprises of all sizes.
BI can quickly pull critical information out of those huge data streams and serve it up in ways that can improve, grow, and transform operations, sales, and marketing. In fact, so much data can be drawn out of great BI applications today that it's even establishing a bigger need for a new kind of IT worker -- data scientists who are trained to make the most of all that information.
So how do businesses keep up with the improvements that are constantly happening in the BI marketplace so they can take advantage of new innovations? And how can businesses do more with the critical customer and process data they are collecting using their BI systems? Read more...
Sound-based system promises chipless NFC now
While NFC (near-field communication) gradually emerges to turn mobile phones into payment devices, Silicon Valley startup Naratte is introducing a system it claims can do roughly the same thing without adding a chip to the handset.
On Monday, Naratte introduced Zoosh, a technology that lets phones exchange transaction information via inaudible sound waves. As with NFC, the phone user would just put the phone near to a point-of-sale terminal to redeem a coupon or make a purchase.
Naratte's approach might allow for faster deployment, but some observers raised questions about its technical and market potential. Read more...
NSA wants bulletproof smartphone, tablet security
The National Security Agency, America's high-tech spy agency, which also plays a key role in approving hardware and software for use by the Department of Defense, wants to be able to outfit military personnel with commercial smartphones and tablets -- but based on a NSA security design.
The forces in the Department of Defense, including the U.S. Army and Air Force, today are piloting several different commercially available smartphones and tablets which the NSA is working to harden and secure, said Debora Plunkett, director of the NSA's information assurance directorate, speaking at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit 2011 here today. "It's not our intention to rely on any one platform," she said. The goal is to have perhaps four main devices, plus a couple of infrastructure support services, and let U.S. forces pick the one they like best, she said. Read more...
PayPal persists in sending phishing-friendly emails
In the past week I've received three email messages from PayPal, and I'm ready to chew nails.
The messages included multiple hot links, with persuasive marketing drivel urging me to click on the links and log on to my account. In fact, in all respects they were just like high-quality phishing emails with the single exception that the links go to the email0.paypal.com and email-edg.paypal.com websites. Read more...
Skype executives depart after Microsoft buyout
Eight Skype executives have departed the company following Microsoft's $8.5 billion buyout in May, a Skype spokeswoman confirmed on Monday.
"Skype, like any other pragmatic organization, constantly assesses its team structure to deliver its users the best products," the company said in a written statement. "As part of a recent internal shift Skype has made some management changes."
The spokeswoman declined to say whether the eight executives were laid off or resigned. Read more...
Nokia to launch Microsoft platform phones in 2011
Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp. plans to introduce its first mobile phones using the Microsoft Windows operating system this year, the company's chief executive said Tuesday.
Nokia is facing steep competition from competitors in several products. At the top end of the market it is struggling against smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry as well as Android, and on the lower end against emerging market phone makers who are dropping their prices.
Nokia will start to deliver the Windows-based mobile phones in bulk next year, CEO Stephen Elop said in a speech at a technology trade show in Singapore. Read more...