It's not every day I come across positive sentiments about Comcast, so I thought I'd share this example that I stumbled upon in a local blog focused on, of all things, ghost stories.Author Liz Sower writes realistic but fictional accounts of the paranormal at "Ghosts in the Burbs," and she caught my eye with this recent headline: Xfinity vs. Verizon. I thought for sure she was going to dive into haunted DSL or eerie broadband experiences.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's not every day I come across positive sentiments about Comcast, so I thought I'd share this example that I stumbled upon in a local blog focused on, of all things, ghost stories.Author Liz Sower writes realistic but fictional accounts of the paranormal at "Ghosts in the Burbs," and she caught my eye with this recent headline: Xfinity vs. Verizon. I thought for sure she was going to dive into haunted DSL or eerie broadband experiences.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's not every day I come across positive sentiments about Comcast, so I thought I'd share this example that I stumbled upon in a local blog focused on, of all things, ghost stories.
Author Liz Sower writes realistic but fictional accounts of the paranormal at "Ghosts in the Burbs," and she caught my eye with this recent headline: Xfinity vs. Verizon. I thought for sure she was going to dive into haunted DSL or eerie broadband experiences.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
SplunkLive! in Boston
With a company and product name like Splunk, you’ve gotta hang a bit loose, as I found upon sitting in at the company’s SplunkLive! event in Boston this week. The first customer speaker of the day gave a frank assessment of his organization’s implementation (“the on-premises solution, we struggled with it…”) and his frustrations with the licensing model. You have to give Splunk credit for having enough confidence in its offerings to showcase such a kick-off case study.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
SplunkLive! in Boston
With a company and product name like Splunk, you’ve gotta hang a bit loose, as I found upon sitting in at the company’s SplunkLive! event in Boston this week. The first customer speaker of the day gave a frank assessment of his organization’s implementation (“the on-premises solution, we struggled with it…”) and his frustrations with the licensing model. You have to give Splunk credit for having enough confidence in its offerings to showcase such a kick-off case study.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The late Muhammad Ali was not only a champion fighter and cultural figure, but also no slouch in the advertising ring.
Ali sold pizzas, car batteries and even roach spray ("I can whup anything on two legs but even me, the greatest, needs help beating things with six legs...")
While many have used Ali's image or voice in their ads, including Apple (Think Different commercial) and Gatorade, I'm not aware of Ali hawking much in the way of technology. One exception was this 2004 IBM Super Bowl ad during which the company pushes Linux and open source computing, something it had been behind since the late 1990s. The ad features a young boy (depicted as "Linux" in related IBM ads) soaking up vintage video of Ali boasting "I shook up the world!" and then sitting face-to-face with the boxer, who urges the kid to "shake things up" and "shake up the world."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It can be painful enough stretching out iPhone rumors for a year or two, but a new report suggests Apple is changing its cycle for major iPhone refreshes from 2 years to 3. In other words, yes, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus could be as boring as headlines have claimed.Nikkei reports that a slowing smartphone market and a lack of room for enhancements have forced Apple to change its ways. Nikkei says look to 2017 if you want excitement:"On the other hand, the 2017 model will likely involve major enhancements and design changes, including adoption of an organic electroluminescent display. The new device will also be able to create more complex tactile vibrations on the display because of a tiny, but high-performance motor equipped inside."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Had enough of those perky and quirky wireless phone provider commercials from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile? Comedian Amy Schumer takes direct aim at these inane promos in a new episode of Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer (warning: a bit on the NSFW side of things...)
MORE: 6 Techiest Commercials from Super Bowl 50 | Wi-Fi hotspot block persists despite FCC crackdownTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Had enough of those perky and quirky wireless phone provider commercials from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile? Comedian Amy Schumer takes direct aim at these inane promos in a new episode of Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer (warning: a bit on the NSFW side of things...)
MORE: 6 Techiest Commercials from Super Bowl 50 | Wi-Fi hotspot block persists despite FCC crackdownTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Rochester Institute of Technology
Vicki Hanson, a distinguished professor of Computing at RIT, now adds President of ACM to her resume
Against a backdrop of an IT industry pushing hard to more fairly represent women in leadership positions, the Association for Computing Machinery has announced that an all-female board has been elected to head up the society.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Just because your wireless equipment is authorized for use by the FCC doesn't mean you can do whatever the heck you please with it, according to an enforcement advisory issued by the commission just before the long weekend (see the entire warning below)."Authorized equipment must be used in a manner that complies with federal law and the Commission’s rules," reads the advisory, in part.While the advisory might appear to be stating the obvious, an FCC spokesman elaborates that "the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is taking proactive measures to decrease the number of complaints about the use of authorized equipment in a manner that is not compliant with their authorizations. Reducing complaint volume helps us handle those that do come in in a timely manner. The issue is an ongoing, steady problem."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The number of non-farm jobs added in the United States in recent months has inched up, and the unemployment rate has held steady at 5%, but that’s not to say the computer and networking industry hasn’t suffered its share of layoffs in 2016 to date.Here’s a rundown of some of the more notable layoffs, workforce reductions, resizings or whatever companies want to call them.MORE: Laid-off Abbott IT workers won’t have to train their replacements | Looking back at 2015 tech industry layoffsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We scratch and claw sometimes to find enterprise IT angles regarding the tiny and inexpensive Raspberry Pi computers, but this week, an item has fallen right into our lap.Citrix touts Raspberry Pi
Citrix’s latest attempt to disrupt the business desktop PC market is via its $89 HDX Ready Pi box, which combines with Citrix XenDesktop virtual desktop technology and XenApp virtual apps. That could come in cheaper even than such client devices as Chromebooks.Citrix VP of Emerging Solutions Chris Fleck writes on a company blog this week that the combination of the low-cost Raspberry Pi 3 platform with its own system-on-chip architecture, plus a locked down Linux OS, could widely expand the market for Raspberry Pi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Top-rated gamesAs we head toward summer 2016, it’s time to check in and see how the mobile gaming industry has fared for Apple iOS platforms, the iPhone and iPad. Here’s a look at top rated games issued so far this year, based on App Store user reviews and professional reviewers on Metacritic. We hope you’ll discover a few hidden gems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Perhaps we should have taken a week off from the iPhone 7 Rumor Rollup and given Google its chance to shine during the week of its Google I/O conference in Mountain View, where the latest Android this and that will be touted. But the Apple rumor mill does not rest, so neither will we.Connector rejector?
The iPhone 7 rumor mill for months has been buzzing with talk of Apple ditching the standard 3.5mm headset jack, but earlier this month the rumors reversed and everyone now thinks the jack will stay. The other sure thing was that Apple would be adding a smart connector, like it has on its iPad Pro for communicating with keyboard accessories, to the iPhone 7. But now that rumor is getting squelched as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers from the University of Houston and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) say drivers are more distracted when they text than when they are being absent minded or are upset while behind the wheel.The researchers, who based their findings on a study of 59 volunteers/drivers, say a mechanism in the brain automatically corrects for jitter in a driver's arms and hands while steering -- as long as the driver is watching the road. Reading or sending texts while driving takes the driver's eyes off the road, and that's where things becomes unsafe.MORE: Cellphone use involved in more than 1 in 4 crashes | 25 real-life ways people have been hurt using their phonesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers from the University of Houston and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) say drivers are more distracted when they text than when they are being absent minded or are upset while behind the wheel.
The researchers, who based their findings on a study of 59 volunteers/drivers, say a mechanism in the brain automatically corrects for jitter in a driver's arms and hands while steering -- as long as the driver is watching the road. Reading or sending texts while driving takes the driver's eyes off the road, and that's where things becomes unsafe.
MORE: Cellphone use involved in more than 1 in 4 crashes | 25 real-life ways people have been hurt using their phonesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Here's a brief look at three academic research projects that explore existing and future uses of wireless networking technology:Smaller RFID tags
North Carolina State University researchers have come up with ways to create passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that are not only 25% smaller but also cheaper than typical tags. The no-longer-secret-sauce: The tags don't need to convert AC radio signals from a reader into DC in order to respond to the transmitter.These AC-only RFID tags are the work of Paul Franzon, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, and Ph.D. students Wenxu Zhao and Kirti Bhanushali.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You're in luckWe've cobbled together a slew of things for the geeky among you to do on Jan. 13 -- Friday the 13th that isth. And we suggest you do it up because you won’t get another chance until Oct. 13, 2017.Don’t miss the day!Mobile apps exist solely for the purpose of reminding you when Friday the 13th is coming up. Pocketkai’s free iOS app will remind you of the one to three Friday the 13ths coming up each year for the next 50 years. The Bogeyman’s Android app will do likewise, for the next 10 Friday the 13ths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While iPhone users might want it all – thinner, faster, indestructible –iPhone 7 might not quite have all those things, with Apple making the usual trade-offs between power and elegance.BIGGER BATTERY
The latest rumors, started via leaked photos on the Chinese Twitter (Weibo), suggest Apple has higher capacity batteries in the works for its next flagship smartphones: we’re talking 1735 mAH and 2810 mAH for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus vs. 1715 mAH and 2750 mAH for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (the 6 and 6 Plus actually had smaller batteries than their predecessors).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown