http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/it/ en-us Fri, 2 Oct 2009 00:31:33 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2352963/posts The US government appears to be loosening its grip on the governance of the Internet, a move welcomed by many. But critics see the government shirking its obligations to support free expression and free trade. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the private corporation that coordinates the technical oversight of the Internet's Domain Name System through a longstanding agreement with the U.S. government, on Wednesday announced a new agreement with US Department of Commerce designed to make Internet governance less unilateral and more open to international input. Questioning NTIA's statutory authority, Auerbach suggests that if NTIA can... Information Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2352963/posts#comment Fri, 2 Oct 2009 00:31:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341595/posts US Government recommends weighing laptop before and after each visit. Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China. Mark Bregman, chief technology officer at security firm Symantec said he left his MacBook Pro behind in the US and took his MacBook Air whenever he flew to China. Bregman said he only ever used the Air in... CRN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341595/posts#comment Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:23:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2313714/posts This is Congressman Eugene Green (HT to an e-mailer), Democrat from Texas, telling the world that if you're not from his District, you're not welcome at his future town hall meetings -- oh, and how he'll enforce his new rule (bold is his): Newsbusters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2313714/posts#comment Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:49:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2307435/posts U.S. IT providers continue to push jobs offshore, while Indian firms work to refine the amount of work they complete overseas. Although Congress may force the Indian firms to hire more Americans -- and Indian companies have been telling investors that they may have to indeed do that -- the change won't likely affect the overall trend and the shift in jobs outside the U.S. Okay, so where are U.S. jobs going? What's the data show? Data prepared by Everest Group Inc., a research and outsourcing consulting firm, shows in broad brush fashion the shift of jobs overseas by some... Computer World http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2307435/posts#comment Mon, 3 Aug 2009 22:06:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2298660/posts WASHINGTON -- Federal agencies are facing a severe shortage of computer specialists, even as a growing wave of coordinated cyberattacks against the government poses potential national security risks, a private study found. FoxNews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2298660/posts#comment Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:46:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2297881/posts One of the challenges of working in the IT field is staying on top of emerging technologies - while letting go of those that are becoming obsolete. This Global Knowledge article lists 10 areas that are fading into obscurity. There are some things in life, like good manners, that never go out of style. And there are other things, like clothing styles, that fall in and out of fashion. But when an IT skill falls out of favor, it rarely ever comes back. Here’s our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any of these skills is your main expertise,... Tech Republic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2297881/posts#comment Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:31:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2286447/posts U.S. citizens have a brand-new tool to gauge how well their government is performing -- at least, when it comes to IT. Cringely says it's about time. Want to know exactly where all those ducats you reluctantly turned over to our Uncle in Washington are going? Things just got a little clearer today, at least in terms of our tech taxes. Today at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City, federal tech czar Vivek Kundra unveiled the new IT Dashboard at USAspending.gov, which shows you exactly where all those sawbucks are flowing, in dollar amounts that could make you... Info World - Adventures in IT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2286447/posts#comment Mon, 6 Jul 2009 13:33:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283395/posts A powerful new film, The Stoning of Soraya M., is calling public attention to the Islamic practice of stoning adulterers in a way that only Hollywood can; while at least eight women await death by stoning in Iran today, none of their cases have drawn any significant protests from human rights organizations, and Western governments have remained largely indifferent. With a genocidally inclined nuclear Iran looming on the international stage, the victimization of women by Islamic laws prescribing stoning for adultery and other sexual crimes may seem to be the least of our worries. The Stoning of Soraya M., however,... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283395/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:28:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267679/posts Tech layoffs will continue through year-end, survey says. The real impact of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package on shrinking IT employment remains in the future, despite President Obama's plan, announced today, to expedite hiring of some 600,000 people over the next 100 days. Many of the jobs in this summer boost will be aimed at the construction and education fields and at young people. Meanwhile, the forecast for the next six months is for more tech sector layoffs, according to a new survey. Of the 1,900 technology recruiters and hiring managers queried about the tech labor market by jobs... Computer World http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267679/posts#comment Tue, 9 Jun 2009 01:59:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266980/posts CurtMonash writes "The Indianapolis Star reports that Tuesday Morning, Methodist Hospital turned away patients in ambulances, for the first time in its 100-plus history. Why? Because the electronic health records (EHR) system had gone down the prior afternoon — due to a power surge — and the backlog of paperwork was no longer tolerable. If you think about that story, it has a couple of disturbing aspects. Clearly the investment in or design of high availability, surge protection, etc. were sadly lacking. But even leaving that aside — why do problems with paperwork make it necessary to turn away patients?... slashdot http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266980/posts#comment Mon, 8 Jun 2009 04:45:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2265505/posts The last five years have taught me that I bring only three skills to the anti-jihad movement. The first is a knack for writing propaganda. By “propaganda” I do not mean the 20th-century version as practiced by the Nazis, the Soviets, the New Deal, and other huge and repressive state enterprises. I use the word in its original sense, which was derived via the Romance languages from the Latin verb propagare, “to cause to increase or spread, as of a plant”. In the 18th century it referred to the work of a committee of cardinals (congregatio de propaganda fide, “the... Gates of Vienna http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2265505/posts#comment Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:45:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2263549/posts May 13th, 2009 China's 'secure' OS Kylin - a threat to U.S offensive cyber capabilities? Posted by Dancho Danchev @ 6:23 am Categories: Browsers, Complex Attacks, Governments, Hackers, Kernel-level Exploits... Tags: China, Operating System, Operating Systems, Linux, Software... Picture a cyber warfare arms race where the participating countries have spent years of building offensive cyber warfare capabilities by exploiting the monoculture on one another’s IT infrastructure. Suddenly, one of the countries starts migrating to a hardened operating system of its own, and by integrating it on systems managing the critical infrastructure it successfully undermines the offensive cyber warfare capabilities developed... Blogs.ZDNET.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2263549/posts#comment Wed, 3 Jun 2009 06:58:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2247345/posts Staff unwittingly give usernames to someone posing as IT support: Have you ever wondered whether that unfamiliar face in the office is actually an intruder about to steal your data? Probably not, but maybe it is time to think again. At one FTSE-listed financial institution the managing director himself opened the door to a stranger who, within 20 minutes of gaining entry to the building, had found a highly sensitive document outlining a half a billion pound merger lying on a desk. Luckily, on this occasion, the data was not used for nefarious purposes because the intruder was Colin Greenlees,... bbc http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2247345/posts#comment Sat, 9 May 2009 02:18:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236695/posts China to put squeeze on foreign firms / IT companies must reveal product secrets The Yomiuri Shimbun The Chinese government has decided to launch a system next month to force foreign manufacturers of digital household appliances and other items equipped with computing devices to disclose key information, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday. The move is aimed at controlling the makers' products when their goods are made or sold in China. Beijing likely has informed Tokyo and Washington that detailed provisions to enforce the system will be announced by the end of this month. The Chinese government likely will give manufacturers... Yomiuri Shimbun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236695/posts#comment Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:02:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2235001/posts These two videos staring Blendtec founder, Tom Dickson, tackle the Bailout and Global warming, while showing off the Blendtec Total Blender: Will It Blend? - BailoutWill It Blend? - Skis & Global Warming For those who don't know what Blendtec is, they are a Blender and Food Preparation Appliance company. This is from their "about" section: See what the Total Blender can do in the Blendtec test lab, as we ask the question, Will It Blend? Enjoy! Blendtec http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2235001/posts#comment Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:05:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2214868/posts The Obama administration has picked Boston physician David Blumenthal as national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services, making him a critical part of the effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. In the short term, Blumenthal will oversee distribution of about $19 billion of stimulus act funds for getting doctors and hospitals to computerize their records. The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2214868/posts#comment Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:54:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2201093/posts Unknown before 2008, the Indian Mujahedeen (IM) has emerged as a well-organized jihadi terrorist group in India, claiming responsibility for a number of terror attacks perpetrated in various urban centers of India during 2007-2008. Even though the exact moment of IM’s formation is not known, the recent arrest of a number of IM operatives has revealed its possible existence and involvement in terror strikes in India as far back as late October 2005. The name “Indian Mujahideen” was reportedly conceived at a terrorist conclave attended by top leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) in Pakistani-administered Kashmir in... JAMESTOWN.org - JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2201093/posts#comment Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:54:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192231/posts Remember the favorite dodge of politicians asked how they plan to pay for their latest pie-in-the-sky program? “We’ll eliminate fraud, waste and abuse,” they’d promise. Right. Well, move over, FW&A, there’s a new dodge in town–improved information technology. And it will apparently save enough to go a long way toward paying for the health care insurance of 46 million Americans! At today’s White House press corps briefing, CBS’ Chip Reid asked this surprisingly good question: “For people not terribly sophisticated about all this like me and average viewers out there, it just seems counter-intuitive that you would insure 46-some million... FinkelBlog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192231/posts#comment Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:25:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2180334/posts French fighter planes grounded by computer virus French fighter planes were unable to take off after military computers were infected by a computer virus, an intelligence magazine claims. by Kim Willsher in Paris Last Updated: 11:43AM GMT 07 Feb 2009 The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been warned about several months beforehand. At one point French naval staff were also instructed not to even open their computers. Microsoft had warned that the "Conficker" virus, transmitted through Windows, was attacking computer systems in October last year, but... The Daily Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2180334/posts#comment Sat, 7 Feb 2009 12:46:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2178338/posts Terry Childs, the man whom prosecutors allege hijacked San Francisco's municipal computer network, will get another chance to meet with mayor Gavin Newsom. And this time the tête-à-tête will be in court instead of jail. Childs, a network engineer, was hired by the city to work on the municipal network, which is used for city employee payroll and other services. When a dispute arose with his boss, Childs was jailed and refused to turn over critical system information such as passwords to anyone but Newsom. Defense Attorney Richard Shikman has as the court to have the criminal charges of felony... NBC Bay Area http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2178338/posts#comment Wed, 4 Feb 2009 19:12:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165959/posts Mobile broadband users in Stockholm will soon be able to surf the internet on a new high speed 4G network, following the signing of a deal between Ericsson and TeliaSonera. The order from Finnish-Swedish telecom provider TeliaSonera marks the first commercial deployment of Ericsson’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technology and will provide mobile internet users with data speeds up to ten times faster than those offered on current networks. "LTE brings the highest possible performance and network capacity, which is needed to meet the needs of the fast growing group of mobile broadband users around the world,” said Ericsson’s... www.thelocal.se http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165959/posts#comment Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:28:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160473/posts Satyam Computer Services, a leading Indian outsourcing company that serves more than a third of the Fortune 500 companies, significantly inflated its earnings and assets for years, the chairman and co-founder said Wednesday, roiling Indian stock markets and throwing the industry into turmoil. The chairman, Ramalinga Raju, resigned after revealing that he had systematically falsified accounts as the company expanded from a handful of employees into a back-office giant with a work force of 53,000 and operations in 66 countries. Mr. Raju said Wednesday that 50.4 billion rupees, or $1.04 billion, of the 53.6 billion rupees in cash and bank... The New York Fishwrap Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160473/posts#comment Wed, 7 Jan 2009 21:02:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2130240/posts Kevin Roddy, vice president of information technology for 3rd Federal Bank in Newtown, Pa., didn't specifically set out to create a socially responsible IT department, but common sense technology and business practices led him in that direction anyway. "The IT decisions we make are designed to help us better serve our customers, and they usually turn out to be beneficial to a wider community as well," he says. IT World http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2130240/posts#comment Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:47:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2112047/posts No job cuts in India's IT industry: Infosys co-chair 22 Oct, 2008, 1304 hrs IST, IANS Print EMail Discuss Share Save Comment Text: TOKYO: There will be no pink slips in the Indian information technology industry as it has countered the impact of the current global financial tsuna mi well, according to Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies. "The fundamentals in the information technology sector are strong. I do not see any job cuts," Nilekani, who is a member of a business delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, said on the margins of a meeting here. "At Infosys, we... The Economic Times (India) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2112047/posts#comment Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:38:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2092595/posts I was just watching Fox News and they have looks at the latest Fed Data and it turns out that 92% of Banks are fine and issuing credit to safe and moderately safe credit applicants. This is a bailout for business and consumers with Bad credit! This is a bailout to encourage the issuing of more loans and credit to HIGH RISK individuals and businesses. Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place? http://www.foxnews.com/ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2092595/posts#comment Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:04:30 GMT