Computing

Hit hard by Shellshock? Why you should really be worried.

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. We’ve got hit by Shellshock You might have heard by now about a new problem in the computer world – Shellshock. I’ll spare you the technical details. The one thing you should know is that this bug was discovered in a part of the Linux operating system. Linux, the free version of Unix, with numerous variations in distribution, is embedded in…

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Watson goes SaaS, Alibaba does IPO

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. Watson goes SaaS. As you may remember, IBM nominated its computer ‘Watson’ to compete in the game Jeopardy against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. (You can watch short reminder here –> http://g3t.ca/8hPHFP ) Watson is a mash up of various IBM and open source technologies, both hardware and software. In IBM’s words, it is an advanced natural language processing, information retrieval,…

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Things to consider before saving nude pictures to the cloud.

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. What sparks your interest more? The theft of 1.2 billion user names and passwords, or a few nude pictures of celebrities? Perhaps the nude pictures received more attention, but you should be concerned about both. This time the target was iCloud. The cloud storage built by Apple, available on Apple’s all the devices and computers. Highly convenient for content synchronization, application…

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Siri will get sister

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. Siri will get a sister. The team that built Siri, left Apple and started a new company called Viv. Google and Microsoft are working hard to make their devices smart. The device which you carry around everywhere and from nostalgia you still call a phone albeit a smart one, is becoming an information hub. Myriad of sensors measuring your body functions,…

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How to harvest 1.2 billion usernames and passwords

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. Last week it was revealed that Russian hackers harvested 1.2 billion usernames and passwords from numerous websites. You should get really upset. People are continuously lectured by security experts on how to create a secure password with upper case, lower case letters, special characters and numbers. Yet, the lack of security of these websites is outrages. The simplicity of the attack…

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You will need a smart phone to get to your hotel room

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. Hilton is going mobile. This is a big deal. 80 countries, 4 000 properties, 650 000 rooms, and you will be able to book online, customize your room and unlock the door. This is a $500 million project. It points to the fact that the penetration of mobile devices is such that they expect guests have a smart phone. Hilton is…

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The right to be forgotten – is not working that well.

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. Omission from the last week. I apologize for not mentioning an important historic event last week. It was on July 20, 1969 when man stepped on the moon for the first time. The crew of Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were the first ones. More on that at —> http://g3t.ca/b7lrY5 The future is here. The unintended consequences of being forgotten…

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An “i” for an IBM

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. What is Really Happening on the Internet The tragedy of Malaysian flight MH17 is on everybody’s mind. It is impossible to comprehend why anybody would commit such an act. While all parties are quick to point fingers at each other, the simple fact remains – there are close to 300 people dead. The propaganda campaign is raging. To get information from around the world, follow…

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Security breach into PharmaNet.

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is – still – here, unfortunately Last Friday, CTV reported yet another security breach –> http://g3t.ca/aqcdF6 This time, the stolen information resides in PharmaNet. To provide context for the story, here is a description of PharmaNet provided by Medinet, the Integrated Electronic Health Solutions entity responsible for managing the system. Out-patient prescriptions filled in British Columbia are entered into PharmaNet, the province-wide pharmacy…

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Facebook is taking advantage of your emotions

Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here Do you have a Facebook account? If so, you may be one of the almost 700,000 people Facebook used as their very own lab rats. Facebook decided to test how negative stories can influence your inclination to write negative posts. According to the authors of the study: “We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states…

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