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This year’s 25 geekiest 25th anniversaries

This is the eleventh year I’ve compiled this particular collection of trivia, which will come in handy someday if I’m ever on Jeopardy and the category is 1980s/1990s technology and related stuff.  A big year for such stuff, 1992 saw the release of Linux under GNU, the sending of the first SMS message, IBM trotting out the ThinkPad and Simon, which was the first mobile phone to include PDA features (smartphone). The year also saw the launch of iconic videogame franchises Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat. And, perhaps worst of all, Microsoft unleashed upon the world the scourge that is PowerPoint. Here’s the full list:IBM debuts ThinkPad Raymangold Known for its minimalist design, the ThinkPad laptop was launched by IBM in 1992 and became a  workplace staple for Big Blue before it sold the line to Lenovo in 2005. For years the ThinkPad was the only laptop allowed aboard the International Space Station and there are reportedly some still in use up there. I am typing on a practically new Earth-bound model right now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CES 2017: More hot gadgets and cool stuff

Even statues love CESImage by Keith Shaw / Network WorldHere are some more products and hot technologies that were showcased last week in Las Vegas during the International CES trade event. Even the MGM Grand lion statue was into VR.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft fires back on reports of CMD prompt’s demise

Last month there were several articles about the news that Microsoft was making PowerShell the default command line in Windows 10, and also claiming that this would be the end of the venerable cmd.exe, also known as the Command Prompt.  Like Mark Twain said, a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. The articles spawned reactions all over the web, such as one lengthy thread on Reddit. This led to protests from IT professionals who still need to use that command prompt we've known since 1981. Microsoft must have gotten an earful and then some. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cybersecurity Pros to Trump: Critical Infrastructure Is Very Vulnerable to a Cyber-Attack

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump received a comprehensive briefing on Russian hacking related to the 2016 Presidential election.  In response, Trump released a statement that included the following:"Whether it is our government, organizations, associations or business we need to aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks. I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office.” These “teams” tend to be made up of a combination of Washington insiders with intelligence and/or military experience as well as an assortment of industry folks.  For example, President Obama’s recent Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, included former NSA director Keith Alexander, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, etc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

When we weren’t looking, smartwatches became niche items

It became pretty clear when the Apple Watch Series 2 focused on athletes and exercise. If even Apple knew it couldn’t make a smartwatch that appealed to everyone, what hope did all the other market contenders have? And at this year's CES, you could see this trend playing out from tech outfits to traditional watch brands to athletic wear and shoe manufacturers.When the Apple Watch 2 came out in September of 2016, it struck a fine balance in terms of new features and continuity—at least in terms of the product itself. But Apple’s positioning of the device changed dramatically. Instead of trying to be the perfect device for everyone to wear on their wrists all the time, it was now focused primarily on workouts and activity tracking. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Network World covered the original iPhone announcement from Jan. 9, 2007

While Network World writes a lot more about Apple these days than we did 10 years ago, we didn't skip over the original iPhone announcement on Jan. 9, 2007.Here's a look back at how we covered the story, and you can check out the recorded Facebook Live video below, which features a couple of physical Network World magazine issues from early 2007 (we converted to an online-only publication in mid-2013).MORE iPHONE 10TH ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE: Whirlwind look back at every iPhone model | iPhone prototypes that never saw the light of day | 10 iPhone features that rocked the smartphone world | A look back at prognostications that the iPhone would be a flopTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia returns to smartphones at long last, but you can’t buy it (and probably don’t want to)

In December, Finland-based HMD Global announced to some fanfare that its first Nokia-branded Android handsets would be landing in early 2017. Less than 10 days into the new year, the first model has already arrived, but those in the U.S. looking to get their hands on the first Nokia phone in years will have to wait a little longer.If the Nokia 6, as HMD is calling it, is any indication of what’s to come from its licensing deal, there isn’t too much to get excited about. Squarely aimed at the budget market, the phone features a 5.5-inch LCD screen, 4GB of RAM, a 16MP camera, 64GB of storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. Under the screen is a Snapdragon 430 processor, and while the phone does run Nougat, it remains to be seen what kind of skin HMD has applied to it. It will sell for around $250 in an exclusive deal with China’s Jingdong Mall online shop. The My Nokia Blog also also uncovered a commercial for the phone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russia: US fueling ‘witch hunt’ with election hacking claims

Russia dismissed an intel report claiming that the Kremlin meddled with the U.S. presidential election, saying the accusations were "amateurishly emotional" and driving a "witch-hunt.""There was nothing in this report that deserved to be read in detail," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday, according to the Russian news agency TASS.The U.S. intel report, published on Friday, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering a secret campaign meant to influence last year's presidential election.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Turks point to U.S. as source of cyberattacks, but don’t level blame

Figuring out who’s behind cyberattacks is always difficult, and responsible security analysts are reluctant to point fingers without a smoking gun, which seems to be the case with recent disruptions of the power system in Turkey.News sources here and here say the Turkish Energy Ministry blames storms and sabotage of underground power lines for outages around the country. It also says coordinated cyberattacks originating in the United States have been thwarted but also been keeping security teams busy. It doesn’t like the outages directly to the cyberattacks, the sources say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tool can help weed out hard-coded keys from software projects

A security researcher has developed a tool that can automatically detect sensitive access keys that have been hard-coded inside software projects.The Truffle Hog tool was created by U.S.-based researcher Dylan Ayrey and is written in Python. It searches for hard-coded access keys by scanning deep inside git code repositories for strings that are 20 or more characters and which have a high entropy. A high Shannon entropy, named after American mathematician Claude E. Shannon, would suggest a level of randomness that makes it a candidate for a cryptographic secret, like an access token.Hard-coding access tokens for various services in software projects is considered a security risk because those tokens can be extracted without much effort by hackers. Unfortunately this practice is very common.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Atlassian acquires team-management software vendor Trello

Atlassian, the company behind HipChat and the JIRA software development tool, plans to acquire Trello, a vendor of the eponymous collaborative project management software.The deal will give Atlassian users new ways to organize, discuss and complete their work, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian's co-founder and co-CEO, wrote in a blog post Monday.  "By adding Trello to the Atlassian family, we're giving teams more choice in the tools they use to support the way that they want to work," he said. Trello will offer "a fun new way for teams to organize the often messy range of information that feeds into great teamwork."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Huge spike in ransomed MongoDB installs, doubled to over 27,000 in a day

In the span of a day, the number of MongoDB installations that were erased and replaced with ransom notes has more than doubled, spiking to 27,000 as more cyber thugs jump on the ransom bandwagon. Niall Merrigan It started last week when security researcher Victor Gevers discovered that about 200 MongoDB databases had been erased and held for ransom. By Tuesday, 2,000 databases were effected; the number climbed to 10,500 by Friday and kept climbing. Then the ransomed databases jumped from 12,000 to 27,000, according to security researcher Niall Merrigan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

28% off DryGuy Travel Dry DX Boot and Shoe Dryer – Deal Alert

The DryGuy Travel Dry DX Portable Boot Dryer and Shoe Dryer combines traditional convection drying with forced air to create a hybrid system that dries boots and shoes in less time than it takes most other portable dryers, to help prevent bacteria, fungus, and mildew that causes odors and eventually leads to deterioration. An integrated fan at the front of the DX helps draw fresh air over the thermal heating elements, venting warm air throughout the toe box and removing any moisture. The DryGuy Travel DX features an AC/DC power adaptor which means it works in the home or from the car. It will not damage fragile materials. The DryGuy Travel Dry DX Portable Boot Dryer and Shoe Dryer weighs just 1.25 pounds and fits easily into carry-on luggage. Its typical list price of $32 has been reduced to just $23. See it on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

42% off Mr. Beams Motion-Sensing Stick-Anywhere Nightlight, 3-Pack – Deal Alert

Stick these bright battery-powered lights anywhere indoors or out (they're weather-proof). They'll light up when motion is detected within 15-feet, and shut themselves off after 30 seconds of inactivity. Currently a best-seller on Amazon with 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 4,000 reviewers (read recent reviews). Its typical list price of $26.55 has been slashed 42% down to just $15.49 for a set of three, its lowest price. See the discounted Mr. Beams nightlights at their rock-bottom price on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM scores most patents in 2016, Apple just misses top 10

The five companies that earned the most U.S. patents last year are the same five companies that dominated the 2015 ranking of top patent recipients: IBM, Samsung, Canon, Qualcomm and Google. IBM earned the No. 1 slot for the 24th consecutive year with 8,088 patents granted to its inventors in 2016. Samsung, again ranked second, earned 5,518 patents, and Canon came away with 3,665. Rounding out the Top 5 just as they did in 2015 are Qualcomm with 2,897 patents and Google with 2,835 patents. Overall, 2016 saw 304,126 utility patent grants, which is the most on record in a single year, according to data compiled by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services.  IFI, which specializes in patent analysis, tracks utility patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and each year it releases its annual ranking of the top 50 recipients.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to land the job you want

If finding a new job is one of your New Year's resolutions, you're in luck -- 2017 should bring a healthy employment market, and there's no better time than now to turn your career-related resolutions into reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

11 predictions for the future of programming

The only thing that flies faster than time is the progress of technology. Once after lunch, a chip-designing friend excused himself quickly with the deft explanation that Moore’s Law meant that he had to make his chip set 0.67 percent faster each week, even while on vacation. If he didn’t, the chips wouldn’t double in speed every two years.Now that 2017 is here, it’s time to take stock of the technological changes ahead, if only to help you know where to place your bets in building programming skills for the future.[ Give yourself a technology career advantage with InfoWorld's Deep Dive technology reports and Computerworld's career trends reports. GET A 15% DISCOUNT through Jan. 15, 2017: Use code 8TIISZ4Z. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] From the increasing security headache of the internet of things to machine learning everywhere, the future of programming keeps getting harder to predict.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Japanese insurer to replace humans with A.I.

A Japanese insurance company reportedly is replacing 34 workers with an artificial intelligence system, and industry analysts say the same could start happening in the U.S. this year.Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Company, a 94-year-old company based in Tokyo, is getting ready to replace human workers with an IBM Watson artificial intelligence-based system, ABC News in Australia reported.A spokesperson for Fukoku Life could not be reached and IBM did not respond to a request for comment, but ABC News said that 34 employees will lose their jobs by the end of March, when the Watson system takes over handling insurance payouts by culling hospital records, patient medical histories and injury data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York gets smarter, one tech trial at a time

Smart city technology beta projects and pilot programs are gaining ground in New York City. Walk around the Big Apple, as Computerworld did recently, and you encounter everything from free public Wi-Fi to smart park benches and even sophisticated listening devices that can detect gunshots to allow a quick police response.Much of this wide-ranging tech focus goes back to 2014 when Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed the city's first Chief Technology Officer. He picked private sector tech veteran Minerva Tantoco for the role. During her tenure, she made a practice of pushing for small tech trials that could be modified and adjusted before being expanded.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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