Developers’ conscientiousness key to limiting software bugs, researchers say

University researchers have found that organizations looking to clean up their IT systems need to pay more attention to the moods and personalities of those people working on them."Organizations focus too much on the technical and mechanical aspects of IT errors, rather than the human and environmental aspects of the errors," said Sumantra Sarkar, assistant professor of information systems at Binghamton University’s School of Management, in a statement. "Our study suggests the mood and personality traits of the software development team affect how they report on self-committed errors in IT projects. A minor glitch in design or programming can have devastating consequences."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Who Let the Pandas Out? Zeus, Zeus, Zeus, Zeus

A few months ago Proofpoint released a blog post about a new banking trojan called Panda Banker. They credit Fox-IT with the discovery and both companies indicate that it is another variant based on the Zeus banking trojan source code. Under the hood Panda Banker certainly feels Zeus-like, but it has plenty to distinguish itself […]

Ten Years of Cisco Live – Community Matters Most of All

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Hey! I made the sign pic this year!

I’ve had a week to get over my Cisco Live hangover this year. I’ve been going to Cisco Live for ten years and been involved in the social community for five of them. And I couldn’t be prouder of what I’ve seen. As the picture above shows, the community is growing by leaps and bounds.

People Are What Matter

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I was asked many, many times about Tom’s Corner. What was it? Why was it important? Did you really start it? The real answer is that I’m a bit curious. I want to meet people. I want to talk to them and learn their stories. I want to understand what drives people to learn about networking or wireless or fax machines. Talking to a person is one of the best parts of my job, whether it be my Bruce Wayne day job or my Batman night job.

Social media helps us all stay in touch when we aren’t face-to-face, but meeting people in real life is as important too. You know who likes to hug. You find out who tells good stories. Little things matter like finding out how tall someone is in Continue reading

White boxes are now ready for prime time

White box switches have been around for years, but adoption has been limited to niche companies that have large engineering departments. The rise of software-defined networking (SDN) has brought them into the public eye, though, as a lower-cost alternative to traditional network hardware. In fact, some of the early messaging around SDN revolved around using white boxes as a complete replacement for all network hardware.Despite the promise that SDN brought, the use of white boxes has been limited for a couple of reasons. The first is that historically, any organization that wanted to leverage a white box switch needed to have a number of technical specialists that many enterprises do not have. This would include network programmers and engineers fluent in Linux. These skills are commonly found in companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, but not so much in your average enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

First look: Google Cloud Machine Learning soars

In the 2016 Google Founder’s Letter, CEO Sundar Pichai cited Google’s long-term investment in machine learning and AI. “It’s what allows you to use your voice to search for information,” he explained, “to translate the web from one language to another, to filter the spam from your inbox, to search for ‘hugs’ in your photos and actually pull up pictures of people hugging ... to solve many of the problems we encounter in daily life. It’s what has allowed us to build products that get better over time, making them increasingly useful and helpful.”Beyond that, the translation API is straightforward. Supply the source and target language codes, as many source strings as you wish, your API key, and optionally specify the output format. Options include HTML or plain text, pretty printing (using indentations and line breaks), and supplying a callback function.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Windows Server 2016 licensing and servicing options explained

On July 12, Microsoft announced it will release Windows Server 2016 to the world as a final RTM edition at the company's Ignite conference in late September. The software, now in its fifth technical preview, continues to mature, and this date matches the estimations previously released from Redmond regarding the OS's completion date. There were other recent announcements regarding Windows Server as well, and this piece aims to demystify them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Windows Server 2016 licensing and servicing options explained

On July 12, Microsoft announced it will release Windows Server 2016 to the world as a final RTM edition at the company's Ignite conference in late September. The software, now in its fifth technical preview, continues to mature, and this date matches the estimations previously released from Redmond regarding the OS's completion date. There were other recent announcements regarding Windows Server as well, and this piece aims to demystify them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How to avoid burnout

Strategy 1: After major incidents, take time for self-rejuvenation Image by PexelsAfter a significant incident or breach, take the appropriate amount of time to recharge. When things go wrong in this job, and they do, the days are long, stressful, and thankless. But similarly to first responders, it’s important to take time for self and center oneself and recharge after the dust has settled. It’s the only way to live to fight for another day.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How to take control of your Android notifications

Nothing exemplifies the double-edged sword of life with a smartphone like notifications. Staying connected with push notifications is essential, but if you're like me, you probably get pinged way too often. All of those games, apps, and system notices add up.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch Android gives you a ton of controls to tweak notifications just to your liking. However, you have to put in a little bit of work in order to get the experience just the way you want. If you just want to give yourself a little breathing room, it’s worth it to put in the time to get things just right.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Will the Olympics ‘payment ring’ jumpstart NFC demand?

Near Field Communication (NFC) – the “mobile wallet” technology – hasn’t exactly gone mainstream yet. And experts don’t expect it will anytime soon, even with some high-profile promo at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio.While it has been available to consumers for a couple of years from mega-vendors like Google, Samsung and Apple, it is a long way from displacing the legacy credit card. Google even dropped support for its Google Wallet Card last month (Android Pay is still available).But, perhaps hearing about, or seeing, Olympic athletes using an NFC device will get the masses more interested.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Will the Olympics ‘payment ring’ jumpstart NFC demand?

Near Field Communication (NFC) – the “mobile wallet” technology – hasn’t exactly gone mainstream yet. And experts don’t expect it will anytime soon, even with some high-profile promo at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio.While it has been available to consumers for a couple of years from mega-vendors like Google, Samsung and Apple, it is a long way from displacing the legacy credit card. Google even dropped support for its Google Wallet Card last month (Android Pay is still available).But, perhaps hearing about, or seeing, Olympic athletes using an NFC device will get the masses more interested.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 must-have ‘smart’ gadgets for your connected office

Must-have smart gadgets for your small officeImage by ThinkstockAre you setting up a new small office? Simply looking to revamp an existing location with some spiffy "smart" automation technology? We combed through piles of today's novelty IoT tech to find practical gadgets that can transform your workspace into a smart office that's sure to be the envy of all your coworkers and clients.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

IDG Contributor Network: Identity Finder rebrands and comes out with a fear-inducing report

First, the easy part:Identity Finder, a company focused on helping organizations reduce the risks they face when it comes to the leakage of sensitive data, is rebranding as Spirion. At the same time, it has named Dr. Jo Webber as its new CEO. Webber, who previously headed up Energy Solutions International among, comes on board at a good time for the company. It has seen 250 percent growth in customer adoption across many different verticals. That customer growth is fueled in part by concerns around recent high-profile cases of data leakage from retail, health, insurance and other sources. These leaks have meant that both boards and CEOs are increasingly putting huge pressure on CIOs to ensure data is safe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Identity Finder rebrands and comes out with a fear-inducing report

First, the easy part:Identity Finder, a company focused on helping organizations reduce the risks they face when it comes to the leakage of sensitive data, is rebranding as Spirion. At the same time, it has named Dr. Jo Webber as its new CEO. Webber, who previously headed up Energy Solutions International among, comes on board at a good time for the company. It has seen 250 percent growth in customer adoption across many different verticals. That customer growth is fueled in part by concerns around recent high-profile cases of data leakage from retail, health, insurance and other sources. These leaks have meant that both boards and CEOs are increasingly putting huge pressure on CIOs to ensure data is safe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here