Living the CES security farce
The new ‘enhanced’ security promised for CES turned out to be a joke, but the illusion of safety provided by security theater really fell away on the way home.
Stories by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
The dying technologies of 2016
To every thing there is a season, and for some technologies the time to die is almost upon us.
Security theater comes to CES
That same level of security that we love at airports will be at CES next year. This will not be pretty.
Yesterday’s technologies, today’s problems
It sounded like a joke: An airport in 2015 closing down because of a Windows 3.1 crash. It was real, though, and not that funny — and similar problems are hiding in your company.
Lies, damned lies and benchmarks
Volkswagen cheated on the emissions tests for 11 million vehicles. But it’s not the only company that has built lying into its testing and benchmarking.
Windows 10, the stealth OS
Whether we want it or not, Microsoft has been downloading Windows 10 to our Windows 7 and 8.x PCs. Friendly gesture, or intrusive power play?
Adobe Flash: Kill it now
It’s time to put Flash out of our misery once and for all. And, thanks to Google, it may finally happen.
Oracle, still clueless about security
Oracle Chief Security Officer Mary Ann Davidson let loose a long rant about people who dare to look into the security of the company’s products. Oracle quickly backed away from those remarks, but has it faced up to the fact that its CSO has some wrongheaded notions about her own area of expertise?
For Linux, Supercomputers R Us
Supercomputers are serious things, called on to do serious computing. They tend to be engaged in serious pursuits like atomic bomb simulations, climate modeling and high-level physics. Naturally, they cost serious money. At the very top of the latest <a href="http://www.top500.org/">Top500</a> supercomputer ranking is the Tianhe-2 supercomputer at China's National University of Defense Technology. It cost about $390 million to build.
Just give up on mobile already, Microsoft
How many ways can Microsoft fail with mobile technology? There was Windows CE -- a failure. Windows Mobile -- a flop. And, more recently, Windows Phone -- a fiasco.
OPM: The worst hack of all time
Hi, my name is Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and I had a security clearance in the 1980s. Because of that, my personal records are likely to have been revealed by the <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2931976/cybercrime-hacking/us-govt-reports-massive-breach-of-personnel-data.html">Office of Personnel Management hack</a>.
Windows 10: Who will jump on the upgrade train?
<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2925780/microsoft-windows/review-windows-10-insider-preview-a-nearly-finished-os.html">Windows 10 is looking pretty good.</a> No, really!
Will Windows 10 be ready this summer? No way. Will it ship? Count on it.
AMD CEO Lisa Su let the cat out of the bag: <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2912897/windows-pcs/windows-10-to-launch-in-july-seriously.html">Microsoft will be releasing Windows 10 in late July</a>.
What does HP think it's doing?
Winston Churchill once said of Russia, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." Now, I don't deal with international politics. I just write about technology. But when I've looked at HP lately I've been left thinking of its strategy as, well, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."
iOS 8 hate
Enough is enough. Apple's iOS 8 mobile operating system came out in mid-September. Since then, the company has delivered seven -- count 'em, seven -- patch releases, and iOS 8 still doesn't work that well. Argh!