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NEWS ABOUT: information technology

We Need a Match.com for College Admissions

Our current system is badly outdated: Kevin Carey

(Newser) - It's time to bring the college admissions process into the modern age, writes Kevin Carey at the Atlantic . He doesn't mean the process by which elite students get into Ivy League schools—he means the real world, where the vast majority of students end up picking a school... More »

Getting Distracted Online Is Good for Humanity

We're all part of a burgeoning superorganism

(Newser) - Don’t worry if you can’t make it through these two paragraphs without checking your email in another tab. There are plenty of doomsayers warning that the Internet is rotting our brains and ruining our ability to concentrate, but they’re missing the point, writes Robert Wright in the... More »

Digital Spew Edges Into Zettabyte Zone

World output set to break mega barrier

(Newser) - The flood of digital information produced by the world is outgrowing even the language described it. "Zettabyte"—one million million gigabytes, or enough information to fill 75 billion iPads—has now entered the lexicon, and the world's digital output is expected to pass the 1 zettabyte mark for... More »

Next Year, You Might Actually Get a Raise

Ten jobs likely to benefit from the improving economy

(Newser) - Unsurprisingly, 2009 was a grim year for many an employee’s wallet, with 85% of big companies doing away with across-the-board merit pay, but 2010 already looks a lot brighter. More than half the companies who froze salaries this year tell Fortune they plan to defrost them next year. Here’... More »

IT Firm Puts Autism to Work

Software tester finds niche for those with the disorder

(Newser) - A Danish entrepreneur—and father of a son with autism—has figured out a profitable way to serve the needs of blue chip companies and the underemployed members of the autism community. Thorkil Sonne’s company, Specialisterne, does repetitive software testing, turning its employees’ disability into an asset. “This... More »

Let Employees Roam the Web

(Newser) - Protecting against viruses and encouraging productivity is all well and good, Farhad Manjoo writes on Slate, but “locking down” company computers isn’t the way to go about it. Companies that “block the Web and various other online distractions on the theory that a cowed workforce is an... More »

Barcode of Future Is Tiny, Shiny

MIT researchers design an alternative with 'Bokodes'

(Newser) - MIT researchers have designed a possible replacement for the conventional barcode, the BBC reports. Called Bokodes, the tags are made up of a powered light-emitting diode, a mask and a lens, and can store much more information than the black-and-white stripe variety. More, the scientists say, the Bokodes can be... More »

Virtual Desktops Brings Work Close to Home

Citrix, Intel system may make it easier to leave office behind

(Newser) - The line between work and home keeps getting blurrier. Citrix and Intel are teaming to create a system that will make it easier for people to access work files from their personal laptops or home computers, the Miami Herald reports. The files wouldn't be on the personal computer's hard drive,... More »

Our Economic Cure? Innovation

Innovation, and making it more efficient, can turn gray skies blue

(Newser) - Democrats and Republicans do have something in common: Both parties are wrong on how to resuscitate the flat-lining US economy, Michael Mandel argues in BusinessWeek. Tax cuts or increased government spending aren’t the cure. “Innovation is the best—and maybe the only—way the US can get out... More »

Intel Snubs Microsoft, Won't Adopt Vista in Offices

The thirty pieces of silver are on their way

(Newser) - Intel has decided not to upgrade the 80,000 or so computers its employees use to Windows Vista, seemingly betraying its longtime bosom buddy Microsoft, the New York Times reports. The latest Windows iteration has drawn jeers for being bloated and buggy. “This isn’t a matter of dissing... More »

Who's Afraid of Google Health?

Concerns over personal privacy "misguided"

(Newser) - Google's new health record-sharing service has privacy advocates' hearts racing. But the benefits outweigh the risks, both in costs and potential lives saved, James Gibney argues in the Atlantic. Ready access to personal health records could prevent medical errors like incorrectly prescribed meds while saving billions in related  costs. More »

IBM Raises Dividend 25%

Firm paying out $2.5B, expecting $12B in stock buybacks

(Newser) - IBM raised its quarterly dividend for the thirteenth consecutive year today after posting strong Q1 earnings two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. The firm expects to pay $2.5 billion to shareholders this year after raising its dividend 25%, from 40 to 50 cents. IBM also expects to... More »

Rogue Trader Gets a Job

IT company hires man behind biggest trading scandal in history

(Newser) - Jérôme Kerviel is working once again, despite having cost France’s Société Générale $7.68 billion in unauthorized trading. Released from prison a few weeks ago, the rogue trader is employed as an IT consultant for a French company specializing in networks and security, the... More »

Denmark's Economy 'Most Networked'

US takes 4th, behind Sweden and Switzerland

(Newser) - Denmark is the most IT-savvy country on Earth, according to the World Economic Forum, which today released its list of the world’s “most networked” countries. The list ranks 127 countries based on their ability to use new information and technologies, the BBC explains. It was Denmark’s second... More »

Files May Be Fleeting

As formats change, your digital data could be endangered

(Newser) - Cuneiform tablets have kept information safe across millenia, but hard drives have lifespans of just a few years. Even if your CDs survive the century, their players might have become obsolete, warns the Boston Globe. "Who knows how long they're going to last—how much time before the information... More »

Sinking Market Forces New Venture-Capital Strategies

Analysts don't see money drying up, just more scrutiny on where it's spent

(Newser) - Venture capitalists are watching economic indicators carefully, trying to find safer places to put their mountains of money, CNET reports. The stats on first-quarter VC activity will land soon, and though experts don't expect dollar totals to have waned, players are “under pressure to invest in quality companies that... More »

Silicon Valley's Prodigal Son Comes Home

Frank Quattrone seeks to repair his rep with new investment bank

(Newser) - Silicon Valley prodigal son Frank Quattrone is staging a comeback, poised to debut his new tech-centered investment bank Qatalyst—after years recovering from federal obstruction-of-justice charges. But now that he's back, the question is whether the industry will welcome home an errant child with open arms. Probably, BusinessWeek writes—if... More »

10 Life-Changing Innovations

These technologies may ultimately transform human existence

(Newser) - From omnipresent Internet to cloned donor organs, LiveScience picks 10 new technologies that, when fully developed, will transform our lives.
  1. Digital libraries: When all of humanity's texts are digitized, any factual question will be answerable online.
  2. Gene therapy/stem cells: The key to curing some of our nastiest afflictions.
  3. Ubiquitous wireless
... More »

Cheating Is No Longer Child's Play

Jobseekers flock to web for answers to professional exams

(Newser) - Crib sheets have gone high-tech, the Boston Globe reports, as legions of job seekers from would-be medical technicians to school bus drivers resort to the Web for a leg-up in passing professional qualifying exams. The result is a booming black market for “braindumps,” or exam answers. Some are... More »

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