Новости за 24.12.2015

Don't have a robot working in your home? In a few years, you just might.

You know all those times you've vowed to never waste another minute on Facebook?

More than half (56%) of IT pros will be on-call or working during the holidays to troubleshoot tech problems, according to network management vendor Ipswitch. Past experience shows it’s necessary: among 378 IT pros surveyed, 38% say they’ve experienced a major network outage during a holiday break.

There was certainly no shortage of new tech products in 2015. Many of them were predictable and/or long anticipated, like Google’s update of the Nexus phone line or the introduction of the long-rumored Apple Watch.

I launched a new security-related service a few weeks ago. I spent many hours working on the website, including the service description, and what I thought was a good explanation about why people needed it. I then sent the Web link to my trusted inner circle. To my surprise, the nearly universal response from those I sent it to, including some very bright folks, was that they did not understand what it was. This was a humbling experience, and cause for reflection.

It's a frightening moment to watch and a sober reminder of the danger of drones.

CSC

Jim Houghton, Chief Technology Officer for the Americas Region, CSC

Hyatt Hotels has asked customers to review their payment card account statements closely, after it detected malware on the computers that run its payment-processing systems at locations it manages.

If you can't beat them, buy them: Salesforce.com is snapping up SteelBrick, a startup that builds quoting and billing functions for SMEs on the Salesforce cloud platform.

If you work in finance or accounting and receive an email from your boss asking you to transfer some funds to an external account, you might want to think twice.

In Memoriam

Image by IEEE History Center, Reuters/Ralph Orlowski, NASA

Star Wars technologies that are closer than you might think

Image by Wikimedia

This VIP user likes to order products he never finds time to learn to use, says an IT pilot fish who has to provide support for him.