Stories by Bob Brown

Apple yanks 'Baby Shaker' from App Store

Apple -- on the verge of celebrating its 1 billionth App Store download -- has pulled a controversial application called "Baby Shaker" from its virtual store shelves that generated public outrage.

Twitter attracting techie labs

As Network World's Alpha Doggs network research blogger, I've been searching Twitter in recent months for vendor, university and government labs and research operations using the popular microblogging service. While I've found a handful, I'm not impressed: For the most part they're just spitting out press releases or blog headlines.

12 CIOs who Twitter

Despite the availability of tools like Twitter Search, Twitter Advanced Search and Twellow, finding counterparts to follow on the Twitter social-networking site still can be a challenge.

M&A expert to CIOs: Be careful what you ask for

M&A industry veteran Paul Deninger, a vice chairman at Jefferies & Co., has made a living advising companies on mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and the like. But even he acknowledges that too much industry consolidation isn't a good thing for technology innovation. I spoke with Deninger this week about the state of the M&A market and what’s likely ahead.

Days numbered for standalone NAC, anti-data leakage firms?

Bargain hunting was all the talk of the 451 Group event this week in Boston, where one security pro quipped that vendors should be paying customers to install their software and where anyone remotely smelling of money became suddenly quite popular with other attendees looking to sell things.

Data shuffling: Safer way to analyze confidential data?

Oklahoma State University's Technology Business Assessment Group recently announced it will fund research on an approach to information protection called data shuffling. The project is led by Professor Rathindra Sarathy of OSU's Department of Management Science and Information Systems, who explains to us just what data shuffling is and why it could be coming to your network soon.

What spooks Microsoft's chief security advisor

Microsoft's US general manager/chief security advisor for its National Security Team thinks like a true security professional: In every bit of good news, Bret Arsenault wonders what bad news could be lurking behind it.

Behind the scenes of Internet2

You might think the network you oversee is big, but consider Chris Robb's new job: network operations manager for Internet2, which in October announced completion of a new research and education network boasting initial capacity of 100Gbps nationwide. Robb takes on his new position as an assigned staff member from the Global Research Network Operations Center (GRNOC) at Indiana University. Network World Editor Bob Brown interviewed Robb by e-mail to get an idea of what lies ahead for him and Internet2.

Open source's future: More Microsoft, less talent

The open source industry in 2008 will be marked by more news out of Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and other big IT vendors, less start-up funding, more M&A activity, and an increasingly serious talent shortage.

Five cool wireless research projects worth checking out

Wireless is one of the hottest research areas among academics, who are looking at ways to make networks faster, less expensive and more energy-efficient. Here's a whirlwind tour of some of the more intriguing projects underway at schools and labs across the United States (some of which are being presented at the <a href="http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Constantinos.Dovrolis/hotnets07/program.html">HotNets IV conference</a> being held in Atlanta next week.

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