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Sunday, December 6, 2015

Ballmer Points Out Error of Microsoft's Ways

Former CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday called out Microsoft on finance reporting and its app strategy for Windows Phone, according to press reports.

CEO Satya Nadella this summer laid out his vision for the company in an open letter to employees. It included a Windows 10 strategy founded on universal apps, software that could be scaled to Xbox One, Window Phones, tablets and desktops.

That's the wrong way to go, Ballmer asserted during Microsoft's annual shareholder's meeting.

Windows Phone needs to support Android apps, he insisted.

Nadella was responding to a question about the lack of popular apps on Windows Phone when Ballmer reportedly interjected.

The idea of universal apps won't work, and the correct approach is to support Android software, he maintained.

Ballmer, who holds the biggest Microsoft stake, also criticized the way the company reports finances relating to its cloud and hardware products.

Microsoft needs to start disclosing sales and margins for its cloud and hardware business, because those are key metrics, he argued.

It provides guidance on its cloud and hardware business with run rates, which essentially offer figures a company is on track to hit if everything goes as well, or better, as they have been going. Run rates are "bullsh*t," Ballmer reportedly said.

Be Together, Not the Same

Supporting Android apps would make perfect sense for Microsoft, said wireless analyst Jeff Kagan.

Directly supporting Apple and its apps also would make perfect sense, he told the E-Commerce Times. Taking it a step further, Microsoft could offer different devices that support one or the other.

"This is what BlackBerry is doing," Kagan said. "Sorry, Microsoft, you are not that much better than BlackBerry in mobile. This may sound crazy, but it's time to start sounding crazy if it will show some growth."

Support for Android apps technically would work as an extension of Microsoft's strategy to fast-track Android apps to Windows Phone, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Microsoft already banks big royalties from licensing its tech for Android, he told the E-Commerce Times. The company could rationalize "creating a full support layer" for Windows Phone inside Android, which already is fragmented.

"Typically -- and Microsoft tried this years ago when they tried to interoperate with AOL's Instant Messenger product -- there is a risk that Google would make changes breaking the related apps," Enderle said, "but Google was aggressively open source and doing this would break most of the derivative products as well, and given they are already under antitrust investigation, the result might be catastrophic for Google if it played out properly."

Making the Move

Played correctly, full-on support for Android could be "massively effective because it would be so unexpected," Enderle pointed out. It would be hard for Microsoft, however, given that the company is a tools and platforms vendor.

It's a "shame [Baller] didn't come up with this while he was running the company -- but he didn't have an idea problem, he had an execution problem, and executed badly this could also kill Windows," he said.

Under Nadella's management, it could be incredibly successful, Enderle added.

"The irony is Ballmer would take this risk but couldn't execute it. Nadella could execute but won't take the risk, so this will likely represent a missed opportunity," he said.

That could mean the continuation of Microsoft's failed moves in the wireless market.

"I think after more than a decade of trying but getting their nose bloodied time and time again, Microsoft should consider this suggestion of supporting Android apps on the Windows Phone as a first step," said Kagan. "If Windows Phone was a hit and was a viable third option, we wouldn't even be thinking of this question."

Quinten Plummer is a longtime technology reporter and an avid PC gamer who explored local news for a few years, covering law enforcement and government beats, before returning to writing about things run by ones and zeros and the people who make them. If it pushes pixels or improves lives, he wants to learn all he can about it.

Ballmer Points Out Error of Microsoft's Ways

8:27 AM

Former CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday called out Microsoft on finance reporting and its app strategy for Windows Phone, according t...

Friday, December 4, 2015

VTech on Thursday revealed it has hired FireEye's Mandiant to help improve security after reaction from parents around the world over news that its servers were hacked.

It also is cooperating with law enforcement agencies worldwide to investigate the incident and has temporarily shut down several websites, its Learning Lodge app store, and its Kids Connect service, which is similar to WhatsApp.

Mandiant will lead the forensic investigation into the breach, review all aspects of how VTech handles customer information, and define how VTech can better secure user data using its Incident Response Services.

Encryption Errors

VTech has taken heat for being lackadaisical about security.

"There have been multiple industry breaches that could have served as a warning to evaluate their defenses," asserted Kymberlee Price, senior director of researcher operations at Bugcrowd, pointing to Risk Based Security's quarterly Data Breach Intelligence report, which said there were more than 3,000 data breaches worldwide in the first three quarters of 2015.

VTech repeatedly has pointed out that it uses AES-128 encryption for some data, including photos.

AES-128 is "a reasonable security defense approved by the United States government in use up to the Secret level of classification, [but] VTech's problem is that it appears they did not properly implement encryption, using constant values in the MD5 hashes employed," Price told the E-Commerce Times.

MD5 has been "widely denounced as a known weak password hash algorithm since 2010," she pointed out, and SHA-2 is now recommended instead.

Why Did VTech Stumble?

To be fair, VTech is suffering from a systemic problem plaguing the consumer electronics industry.

This industry "has been slow to invest in security," Price said. "Presumably they underestimate security risks because they aren't dealing with financial transactions or business intelligence, [so] they believe they aren't an attractive target for hackers."

There is hope, however -- the Sony PlayStation Network hacks between 2011 and 2014 have spurred the gaming industry to improve security, and public reports of the security threat posed by the Internet of Things has led IoT vendors to look more closely at security, she noted. The VTech breach and news that Mattel's Barbie can be hacked may spur change in the kids' electronic products sector.

What Else Should VTech Do?

VTech "should have been encrypting all user data both in transit and at rest, not just some of the content," Price said. "The problem isn't the consumer using technology insecurely, but the vendor's inadequate protection of the data."

The hacker who breached VTech got the idea from a thread on hacking the VTech Innotab, and other websites carrying similar content probably exist, so VTech should conduct ongoing monitoring of potential threats to their customers, Price suggested.

VTech did not respond to our request to provide more details.

How to Keep Kids Safer

Parents "must now make conscious decisions about what data on their children to trust companies such as VTech with," Péter Gyöngyösi, product manager at Balabit, told the E-Commerce Times.

Read vendors' privacy policies, Price urged, and find out how data is transmitted and stored before making a purchase.

Parents should consider setting up an anonymous email account to use for account registration that doesn't identify either them or their kids, disable location services in the application, and refrain from linking third-party apps to social media or accounts affiliated with their personal information.

Buy American

Electronic toys from non-U.S. companies pose a greater threat to kids than those made in this country.

"There is zero legislation to address non-U.S. companies gathering information on kids," said Ted Collins, CTO of Playrific.

"The FTC has no jurisdiction over anything outside the 56 states and territories of the U.S.," he told the E-Commerce Times. "We don't even have an appropriate agency tasked with protecting kids."

Richard Adhikari has written about high-tech for leading industry publications since the 1990s and wonders where it's all leading to. Will implanted RFID chips in humans be the Mark of the Beast? Will nanotech solve our coming food crisis? Does Sturgeon's Law still hold true? You can connect with Richard on Google+.

high tech news technology news VTech Hires Mandiant to Shore Up Security for Kids

VTech Hires Mandiant to Shore Up Security for Kids

2:22 AM

VTech on Thursday revealed it has hired FireEye's Mandiant to help improve security after reaction from parents around the world...

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

What if I told you that this protocol will make your site bears on the user's browser more quickly, and that the performance of the server that hosts your site will improve significantly, using this new protocol developers will not have one location to spend hours and hours to make your site faster in order to improve rankings in the search results, What is this protocol if the magic? It's the HTTP / 2, my dear.

What is the Http / 2 ?
The Http / 2 is the latest version of your Web Surfing sites protocol the Http, this protocol is being developed periodically by the IETF Foundation (Internet Engineering Task Force), the current version currently in use of this protocol is Http / 1.1, which was released in 1999 and since that time there has been no update on this protocol, but with the growing and evolving in the world of the Web and the Internet had to be developing this protocol to show Pencchth later, this update includes many of the features most important of speed and safety.

The roots of the Http / 2 :

Built the new development of this protocol a protocol called SPDY, a protocol of the Internet was invented by Google and go back patent for Google Inc., this development took a lot of advantages of Google's Protocol, it was found that there are many features and common improvements between Http / 2 and SPDY, We will not get into the technical details of this protocol, but we will discuss all the points that concern us as workers in the field of search engines.

Basic improvements that have been added in the Http / 2 protocol:

- Open one connection: open one connection and only one between the browser and the server to download location on the user's browser, and this contact is open remains as long as this open the site to the user's browser and this has its benefits and is better than open multiple channels of communication between the user and the server.

- Multiplexing: a feature that allows the user to send more than one application in the same moment to the server and within the same channel of communication, in the previous version of this protocol you had to wait until the completion of the previous application so you can send the following request, but in this update you can send several requests together .

- Server Push: This feature enables you to send different types of Aldata and developed for future use.

- Priority: In the last update to this protocol, it became every request sent to the server is given priority to show its importance, and based on these priorities are coming orders are processed so that the top priority is addressing the demand by the other.

- Binary: feature enables the server to process headers of the Http / 2 protocol largest and reduce the likelihood of errors occur easily, Protocol sets HTTP sends Aldata in the form of the text of the text and then the server converts this text to zeros and the units of Binary, the new update sends content in the form of Binary directly, which speeds up the treatment process on the one hand the server.

- Headers CD-ROM: using this technique Protocol in pressure information called HPACK, this technique reduces the communication between the server and client processes for the transfer of Aldata, which in comparison between the two cases (before and after updating the Protocol) and in order to send the same amount of Aldata between the server and the client You'll need to km less than headers Headers and applications in Headers Http / 2 protocol, compared to Http.

Maybe all the previous speak for you Hungary words theoretical and want to see something practical shows you the difference between the two protocols, well, I will give you proof that will make you take an immediate decision to move to Http / 2, please enter the following locations and notice the difference in speed between the protocol http and http / 2:

- Https://http2.akamai.com/demo
- Http://www.http2demo.io/

Browsers that support Http / 2 :

The proportion of browsers that support the technology the Http / 2 currently 67.89% of the browsers used by users, there are some things that must be taken into account and for this harmonic things, for example, Internet Explorer 11 browser that supports the Http / 2 only in Windows 10, and both Chrome --Firefox --Opera supports Http / 2, but under special conditions and is to be used with the Https.
You can examine how your site's compatibility with various browsers after moving to the Http / 2 by drawing on google analytics through access to the Audience Technology and then Browser & OS. On this page you can see how browsers and agree to the web as well as special software (NGINX - IIS - Apache) with this protocol, the last thing I want to mention that all the CDN networks began to support this protocol.

Comparison between HTTP / 2 and HTTPS :

Of important advantages in this protocol that supports secure communications and telecommunications is safe, that is, it combines the advantages of the Http and the Https in one protocol, unfortunately, that some browsers do not support this protocol unless the https any support you certificate makes it reliable, from He converted his from http to https fully aware of what I am talking, let it explained more: If you want to move to Http / 2 and want your site to be supported by most browsers, you buy certificate certificate.

In fact, this is not the case that are worth thinking about for several reasons: First, most of the site is currently moved to Https and thus have the certificate and will not worry about this topic, if you have not yet passed and you want to buy Vsaaraa Cheap certificate does not exceed $ 100 per year, and if you want to obtain a certificate for free you can resort to the Let's Encrypt, which grants certificates for free, this project is currently beta and a copy will be given free certificates.

The benefits of the Http / 2 user :

For the user, it will get the most important benefit is the speed, where will notice the difference in speed and admire the speed with which it opens your site, which relies Http / 2 protocol.

The benefits of the Http / 2 developer:
For the developer will no longer need to be a lot of techniques that were previously used in order to speed up the site, which relies on Http 1.1, some expensive and some of these technologies need time, but with the new update of the Http goodbye to these technologies.

The benefits of the Http / 2 for servers:
For the servers that host the sites use http / 2 protocol, these servers will improve performance significantly because of the low number of incoming requests and the limited number of communications and lack of need for the conversion of text to zeros and the units and other benefits that make the transition to this update is very useful.

The benefits of the Http / 2 to improve rankings in the search results
For the field of SEO and the order in search results, dependence on http / 2 with the use of a certificate proving that a secure site means that your site is a secure site and fast in loading in the Filter Results browser, and safety and download speed of Google's algorithm factors, so expect improvement in your site's ranking If I moved to the Http / 2, Add to that the expectations that the use of the site by adding Google Protocol Http / 2 as a factor of Juzimaitha factors, so you will notice begin to move to this Protocol soon.

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