Can VR make the jump from oddity to mainstream? I’m having doubts

In virtual reality’s latest iteration, it’s clear that 2016 and the first part of 2017 (based on the number of companies and products displaying at CES) is seeing the beginnings of mainstream interest in the concept.But after having tried several different VR headsets and offerings, I’m starting to have doubts about whether the technology can make the jump from a niche audience and market (mainly gamers) into the larger space held by the rest of the world. The rest of this year (and possibly 2018) could determine whether VR becomes as prevalent as the smartphone, or whether it becomes another gadget that gets placed in the recycling bin labeled “fads.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kansas City rolls out online map using traffic, parking data from sensors

One of the trickiest parts of proving the value of emerging smart city technology is showing how city residents could benefit from data being picked up by sensors located on light poles and along streets.On Tuesday, officials in Kansas City, Mo., took steps to connect how such real-time data gathered by sensors provides benefits to its citizens.City officials unveiled an online interactive map for the public that shows available parking, traffic and KC Streetcar locations in real time with data gathered from 122 video sensors along a two-mile segment of Main Street in the downtown.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kansas City rolls out online map using traffic, parking data from sensors

One of the trickiest parts of proving the value of emerging smart city technology is showing how city residents could benefit from data being picked up by sensors located on light poles and along streets.On Tuesday, officials in Kansas City, Mo., took steps to connect how such real-time data gathered by sensors provides benefits to its citizens.City officials unveiled an online interactive map for the public that shows available parking, traffic and KC Streetcar locations in real time with data gathered from 122 video sensors along a two-mile segment of Main Street in the downtown.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

State of the CIO 2017: The new reality

As technology grabs the lead role in modern business, all eyes are on the CIO's ability to lead initiatives that radically transform how companies sell products, reach customers and drive opportunities for new revenue streams. At the same time, the digital era's wholesale dependence on technology means there's little room for the slightest hiccup in operations -- resulting in another mandate on the CIO's agenda.One functional responsibility that CIOs don't expect to spend less time on in the future is security management: 26 percent of the respondents to this year's survey said they expect to devote more time to that task in the next three to five years, up from 21 percent in last year's survey.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

4 tips for managing multiple teams

Managers juggle a lot -- besides day-to-day business tasks, they're also responsible for ensuring everyone on the team is working to their full potential. And for managers who oversee multiple teams, it gets even more complicated."Managers have a tough job. They must bring out the best in the individuals on their team. They are responsible for coaching each individual to become a better employee, while also driving the success of the team as a whole," says Kim Duggan, CEO of Betterworks, a company that offers employee performance and feedback software.But there are a few ways you can set yourself up for success if you're faced with the difficult position of managing multiple teams. The key is building teams of workers who are so motivated, happy and engaged that they practically manage themselves.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft plugs continuous delivery into Visual Studio, Azure

Microsoft is adding continuous delivery capabilities to its Visual Studio 2017 IDE. The Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio extension, announced this week, lets developers set up an automated build, test, and release pipeline on the Visual Studio Team Services cloud ALM platform. It works with ASP.Net 4 and ASP.Net Core applications targeting the Azure App Services and Azure Container Services. Developers can monitor their pipeline with notifications in the IDE that alert them of any build failures in a continuous integration run.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open source users: It’s time for extreme vetting

Open source software is the norm these days rather than the exception. The code is being written in high volumes and turning up in critical applications. While having this code available can offer big benefits, users also must be wary of issues the code can present and implement proper vetting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Open source users: It’s time for extreme vetting

Open source software is the norm these days rather than the exception. The code is being written in high volumes and turning up in critical applications. While having this code available can offer big benefits, users also must be wary of issues the code can present and implement proper vetting. Josh Bressers, cybersecurity strategist at Red Hat, emphasized this point during a recent talk with InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill.[ Expand your security career horizons with these essential certifications for smart security pros. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security Report newsletter. ] InfoWorld: Why is Red Hat getting on the soapbox about open source security?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

AMD reveals another edge for Ryzen vs. Intel’s Skylake: It will be smaller

AMD’s upcoming Ryzen CPU will occupy less space and offer twice the amount of cache of Intel’s 6th-generation CPU, according a news report. Oh, and there will indeed be a quad-core model.AMD engineers made the disclosure in a paper this week during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, according to EE Times' Rick Merritt.The engineering paper said a quad-core Ryzen chip built on a 14nm process would be about 10 percent smaller than a comparable 6th-generation Intel Skylake CPU built on a 14nm process, while offering twice the L2 cache of the Intel chip. The paper appears to count only the amount of space used for the x86 cores on an Intel CPU in its comparison. Like other mainstream CPUs, Intel’s Skylake chips also include graphics cores aboard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What company execs can learn from Trump’s tweeting

Like him or hate him, there's no debating that President Trump loves to tweet. What is up for debate, though, is whether his tweet storms will complicate what is already stressful work for the Secret Service. Enormous effort goes into protecting the President and his staff from hackers, and any tweets that could be deemed argumentative, hostile, or reactionary could elevate the risk of a targeted cyber attack on the White House. In the same way, executives at major enterprises also need to be cautious in how they choose to represent the company through social media. This type of security, said Larry Johnson, ex Secret Service agent and CSO of CyberSponse, is not just protecting the individual. Whether it's the Secret Service or the security team, "They’re protecting the company, the country, the assets."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What company execs can learn from Trump’s tweeting

Like him or hate him, there's no debating that President Trump loves to tweet. What is up for debate, though, is whether his tweet storms will complicate what is already stressful work for the Secret Service. Enormous effort goes into protecting the President and his staff from hackers, and any tweets that could be deemed argumentative, hostile, or reactionary could elevate the risk of a targeted cyber attack on the White House. In the same way, executives at major enterprises also need to be cautious in how they choose to represent the company through social media. This type of security, said Larry Johnson, ex Secret Service agent and CSO of CyberSponse, is not just protecting the individual. Whether it's the Secret Service or the security team, "They’re protecting the company, the country, the assets."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Our favorite Android apps for tracking and trading stocks

You don’t have to be a day trader to keep a close eye on the stock market. With the Dow crossing the 20,000 threshhold and tech stocks hitting record highs on a seemingly daily basis, watching the market can be as exciting as the Super Bowl, with ebbs, flows, peaks, valleys, and of course, a whole lot of money to be made (or lost!).While Google doesn’t supply a standalone stocks app in Android, it does provide a way to track stocks in Google Now (or, if you prefer, the Google app). To monitor a particular stock, tap the menu button in the top left corner, then select Customize, and finally, Stocks. From there you can search for the symbols you want to follow, and they’ll be added to a new card.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Datanomics 101: The economics of data in a digital enterprise

The transformation of businesses to digital enterprises was supposed to create an enormous market opportunity for the storage industry.As companies such as Netflix and Rosetta Stone transformed from DVDs and CDs to online data delivery models, their data footprint increased exponentially every year. In fact, digital transformation is increasing the data we store by over 2.5 exabytes every day. That’s equivalent to 530 million songs or 250,000 libraries of congress or 90 years of HD video! Each and every day. 100% growth every year.+ Also on Network World: How the 'digitization of everything' will become a reality + Conventional wisdom held that all this data needed to be stored somewhere, and the market outlook for the storage industry never looked better. Instead, there has been a rapid commoditization, consolidation and implosion of the storage market over the past three years, culminating in Dell’s acquisition of the market leader, EMC, in September of last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Save the date for 3 days of sharing, learning and networking at the 5th Africa Domain Name System- DNS Forum 2017!

Date: 26-28 July 2017

Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Venue: TBC

What is the Africa DNS Forum?

The Africa Domain Name System Forum is an annual open event for stakeholders in the Domain Name Industry in Africa organized by Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Society. The objective of the three-day event is to help the African domain name industry in Africa to grow at a competitive rate and ensure that the continent is on par with the rest of the world.

Who should attend?

Betel Hailu

How to root out bias in your data

Human beings are inherently biased. So when companies began using computer algorithms to guide their critical business processes, many people believed the days of discriminatory hiring practices, emotion-fuelled performance reviews and partisan product development were coming to an end.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)