IBM will open the first of four new UK data centers next month

IBM is opening four new data centers in the U.K., despite some of the gloomy forecasts for the country's economy following its vote to leave the European Union.It's five years since the company began offering cloud services in the U.K., and two years since it opened its second cloud data center there.The new data centers will raise the U.K.'s share of IBM's cloud capacity in Europe from one-sixth to more than one-third. That's an interesting bet on the U.K.'s future outside the E.U.Following June's "Brexit" vote, the U.K. is set to withdraw from the 28-country bloc in a little more than two years, once the U.K. government makes up its mind when and how to leave. After that, it's anybody's guess what role data centers in the U.K. will play in the broader European economy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM will open the first of four new UK data centers next month

IBM is opening four new data centers in the U.K., despite some of the gloomy forecasts for the country's economy following its vote to leave the European Union.It's five years since the company began offering cloud services in the U.K., and two years since it opened its second cloud data center there.The new data centers will raise the U.K.'s share of IBM's cloud capacity in Europe from one-sixth to more than one-third. That's an interesting bet on the U.K.'s future outside the E.U.Following June's "Brexit" vote, the U.K. is set to withdraw from the 28-country bloc in a little more than two years, once the U.K. government makes up its mind when and how to leave. After that, it's anybody's guess what role data centers in the U.K. will play in the broader European economy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: The long decline of online freedom

“Freedom on the Net,” Freedom House’s annual study on internet freedom around the world, sheds light on the fact that in many parts of the world, access to the free and open internet is simply not a reality. While this is due to a number of factors, for many people government-mobilized access restrictions and shutdowns present a significant barrier to the tremendous benefits of the internet. —The Internet Society

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Nate Silver shares the secrets of accurate predictions

Statistician extraordinaire Nate Silver won fame for correctly predicting the outcome of the 2008 U.S. presidential election in 49 out of 50 states. And he followed that up in 2012 by nailing the winner in all 50 states.How did he do in 2016? Well, let’s just say he wasn’t as wrong as most statisticians, as he gave Clinton a little more than a 70 percent chance of winning (not far from the Trump campaign’s own predictions), while others gave her odds of up to 99 percent.So, in the wake of a continually surprising election season, what did the founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight.com have to say to an audience of software and analytics professionals at New Relic’s FutureStack16 conference in San Francisco last week? Plenty, as it turns out. (Disclosure: My day job is editor-in-chief for New Relic, where I also wrote about Silver’s presentation.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Companies use IoT tech to personalize products, enhance consumer appeal

Personalized vitamins? Sneakers that tell you how to run better? T-shirts that request help if you collapse while running?Welcome to the future where products both help and watch out for you.How are such products designed? How can thousands of products be personalized?How do such hybrid products impact the bottom line and improve customer retention?Designing the next big hit Consumer goods have changed. The old approach of mass production is changing to mass personalization. Discrete products are provided in the form of services instead. When you do that, customer loyalty and retention improves.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cutting the cable TV cord: Roku private channels and fully loaded Kodi box

It’s been a year since I joined the ranks of cord cutters, so I thought I’d share a few tidbits learned along the way and opinions on streaming devices.ChromecastI first dipped my toe into the water by starting out with Chromecast; it was a first-generation clearance item, making it an inexpensive experiment. While it was easy to use, the device would overheat and lock up within 25 to 45 minutes of using it. Since it was plugged into a TV which was mounted against the wall, I moved Chromecast to another TV with better airflow around it. The device would still get hot, but it took longer to do so. Newer Chromecast models are supposed to be decent devices, but I can’t say that firsthand, since I switched brands.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How career mobility programs improve retention

New research from HR executive network and research firm Future Workplace reveals that companies are increasingly investing in career mobility programs to improve employee engagement, productivity and teamwork.The Future Workplace Forecast: Navigating the Future of Work surveyed 2,147 global HR leaders and hiring managers and highlighted an emerging trend: Employers are offering internal career mobility opportunities to allow employees to "test drive" new roles and prepare them for the future workplace, according to the research.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why a cross-platform Microsoft is good for your business

Microsoft has joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member. Google is joining not just the .NET foundation but the steering committee, alongside RedHat and Samsung, which is supporting .NET code on all of its Tizen devices, from smart TVs to wearables and IoT devices, running on ARM. The preview of SQL Server on Linux is ready for IT teams to try out and it has key security and data warehouse features, not just the basics. A version of Microsoft’s premier development tool, Visual Studio, has even come to Mac OS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Generating Documentation for TypeScript Projects

Documentation for JavaScript projects has traditionally been generated via annotations inserted as code comments. While this gets the job done, it seems far from ideal. In this post, I’ll explore how to use TypeScript to generate documentation from source code alone.

CC BY-SA 2.0 image by David Joyner

TypeScript is JavaScript with optional types. Here’s a simple example:

// Sends some data to some analytics endpoint
function sendAnalyticsJS(data) {  
  if (typeof data.type !== 'string') {
    throw new Error('The `type` property is required')
  }

  navigator.sendBeacon('/beacon', JSON.stringify(data))
}


// Results in run-time error
//    The `type` property is required
sendAnalyticsJS({ foo: 'bar' })

The JavaScript code will result in a run-time error. This is fine if the developer catches it early, but it would be better if the developer were warned as the bug was introduced. Here’s the same code written using TypeScript:

// Describe the shape of the data parameter
interface IAnalyticsData {  
  // Type is required
  type: string
  // All other fields are fair game
  [propName: string]: string
}


// We don’t particularly need the data.type check here since
// the compiler will stamp out the majority of those cases.
function sendAnalytics(data: IAnalyticsData) {  
  if  Continue reading

Trump to attack visas that ‘undercut the American worker’

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday sent out the strongest signal yet that the H-1B visa program is going get real scrutiny once he takes office.Trump listed five executive actions he plans to take on his first day in office. They  include asking the Department of Labor to investigate "all abuses of the visa programs that undercut the American worker."Trump did not get into details and didn't specifically mention the H-1B visa, but his intent is clear. During the campaign, he was critical of the H-1B visa program and invited displaced IT workers from Disney to speak at his rallies. He said the visa is being used to undercut workers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump appoints critics of net neutrality rules to FCC transition team

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed two opponents of current net neutrality rules to his team charged with overseeing the transition in the Federal Communications Commission.The FCC voted in February last year by 3-2 to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, thus prohibiting providers from selectively blocking or throttling or offering paid prioritization of traffic. The new president, who will be sworn in January, will likely undo some of the policies in the 2015 Open Internet Order, as both his nominees to the transition team - Jeff Eisenach and Mark Jamison – have previously opposed the new FCC rules.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump appoints critics of net neutrality rules to FCC transition team

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed two opponents of current net neutrality rules to his team charged with overseeing the transition in the Federal Communications Commission.The FCC voted in February last year by 3-2 to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, thus prohibiting providers from selectively blocking or throttling or offering paid prioritization of traffic. The new president, who will be sworn in January, will likely undo some of the policies in the 2015 Open Internet Order, as both his nominees to the transition team - Jeff Eisenach and Mark Jamison – have previously opposed the new FCC rules.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who has the most impact in driving security advancement?

Depending on the size of the organization, the person who has the most impact on driving security advancement could be a C-level or board member, but non-executive administrators, and sometimes the one man IT/security show is the person paving the path.Whoever it is, every business needs someone who makes security not only a line item on the budget but also a part of the overall culture. More often than not, though, organizations prioritize security for one of two reasons.Josh Feinblum, vice president of information security at Rapid7 said,"Companies that care about security have either a progressive leadership team that believes it is important, or it is a company that has gone through a major event."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who has the most impact in driving security advancement?

Depending on the size of the organization, the person who has the most impact on driving security advancement could be a C-level or board member, but non-executive administrators, and sometimes the one man IT/security show is the person paving the path.Whoever it is, every business needs someone who makes security not only a line item on the budget but also a part of the overall culture. More often than not, though, organizations prioritize security for one of two reasons.Josh Feinblum, vice president of information security at Rapid7 said,"Companies that care about security have either a progressive leadership team that believes it is important, or it is a company that has gone through a major event."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Beware of fake apps and bad Wi-Fi hotspots while shopping by mobile phone

Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shoppers using smartphones should beware of fake commerce apps and fake Wi-Fi hot spots inside malls, two security firms have warned.Hackers use these fakes to grab account numbers and sensitive personal information."Cyber criminals are increasing our risk of using mobile devices while shopping, whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday," warned Brian Duckering, mobility strategist for Skycure, an enterprise security firm, in a blog. "Going to physical stores and connecting to risky Wi-Fi networks, or shopping online both pose increasing risks we should all be aware of."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Beware of fake apps and bad Wi-Fi hotspots while shopping by mobile phone

Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shoppers using smartphones should beware of fake commerce apps and fake Wi-Fi hot spots inside malls, two security firms have warned.Hackers use these fakes to grab account numbers and sensitive personal information."Cyber criminals are increasing our risk of using mobile devices while shopping, whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday," warned Brian Duckering, mobility strategist for Skycure, an enterprise security firm, in a blog. "Going to physical stores and connecting to risky Wi-Fi networks, or shopping online both pose increasing risks we should all be aware of."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why an iPhone could cost double under Trump

President-elect Trump campaigned on a promise to get Apple to start manufacturing the iPhone in the U.S. But would you pay double the price for an iPhone if it helped make America great again?In this week’s episode of The iPhone Show, we break down why it’s unfeasible for the iPhone to be made in the U.S., instead of in China. Based on the labor costs alone, a new iPhone under Trump’s plan could cost upwards of $1,300. And that’s assuming the U.S. has the skilled workforce to assemble iPhones stateside and that all these workers would work for minimum wage.Trump has also campaigned for a 45 percent tax increase on all products manufactured outside of the United States. That alone could make the iPhone $100 more expensive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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