A two-day summit between President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is being described as a "unique, positive and constructive" meeting that reportedly produced broad agreement on handling North Korea and put the thorny issue of cybersecurity at the forefront.
Thursday, 5 September 2013
How to Secure Mobile Devices for Government and Military Use
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In spy movies, it always seems that government agencies are equipped with the most futuristic mobile gadgets imaginable. In the real world however, government lags behind the private sector in adoption of the newest commercially available mobile technologies. Instead of the edgy devices of the movies, you and your colleagues may be carrying around something that looks like a 2003 vintage Palm Treo. The big concern, of course, is security. Most commercial devices are not secure enough for government. But here at Aruba, we don’t think it needs to be this way. So we have created WorkSpace to meet the demands of the mobile government enterprise. In a single-platform, WorkSpace offers mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM), offering enterprise IT control of government issued mobile devices (GFE), or government applications and data resident on privately owned devices (BYOD).
For those agencies who want their employees to use the most modern equipment available: their own devices, or are considering BYOD, WorkSpace MAM is the perfect solution. WorkSpace creates a container on the personal device, allowing IT to automatically download and install business applications, data, and network settings. When you want to use the device for work, you simply connect to any network, enter credentials and password, and the WorkSpace applications become available in a dedicated screen. When finished, close WorkSpace, and it returns to being an unobtrusive, unassuming icon. Yet WorkSpace also maintains privacy for the device owner; enterprise IT cannot see anything outside the WorkSpace container, so your private data remains private.
What about security? The contents of the enclosure, as well as the data streams between it and the corporate network, are encrypted. If the device is captured by another faction, enterprise IT can remotely wipe the contents of the WorkSpace container by sending a command to the device. WorkSpace can even be configured to erase itself after a specified amount of time has passed without connecting to the corporate network, so corporate data is secure even if the device has been taken to a subterranean stronghold without cell or network access. Once rescued, the data, applications, and settings can be easily restored to the device.
For some agencies, however, GFE is still the only way to go. For GFE mobile device deployments, WorkSpace MDM allows enterprise IT total control of the entire device, with centralized configuration of all network, device, and application policies, as well as the ability to remotely track, lockdown, or wipe the device in case of loss or capture, rendering the device useless to other factions. Unfortunately, self-destruct is not yet a WorkSpace feature, however.
So, whether you allow your agents to bring their mobile devices to work, or assign GFE equipment to them, in one solution Aruba WorkSpace secures enterprise data and applications on these mobile devices. By eliminating the security issues of BYOD and GFE and making the government workplace much more mobile friendly, WorkSpace could be cooler than the gadgets in the movies.
Yahoo rolls out its new logo
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(CNN) -- After an extensive amount of build-up, Yahoo has finally unveiled its brand new logo.
Overall the look is cleaner and thinner, and it is a new sans-serif typeface created by Yahoo. The logo is still purple, though a shade darker, and features all the usual uppercase letters in the same order finished off by the signature enthusiastic exclamation point, which dances around in some versions. The new logo is probably not different enough to raise much ire (or eyebrows) among regular visitors.
Yahoo posted two flavors of the new look to its Tumblr at midnight on Thursday. One is white text on a purple background, the other purple text on white background. Both have a slight beveled effect, though it's more noticeable on the purple text. It has already replaced the logo that appears on the top left corner of Yahoo.com.
"We wanted a logo that stayed true to our roots (whimsical, purple, with an exclamation point) yet embraced the evolution of our products," the company said on Tumblr.
Yahoo managed to turn a simple rebranding into an impressive marketing push by dragging it out for 30 days. For the past month, the company has rotated out the logo on its homepage daily with one of the runners up. Some of the 29 logos were a lot more unusual there than the final choice, perhaps to make fans appreciate the reserved simplicity of the final look.
"Sharing these logo variations prepares people for change, so there's less risk of what happened to Gap," said David Airey, a graphic designer specializing in brand identity.
When Gap tried changing its logo in 2010, there was an outcry among Gap loyalists and logo enthusiasts. The clothing company eventually caved and switched back to its old logo.
Yahoo's logo redesign was headed up by an in-house brand design group and product designers, according to AdAge. It is likely just one of the more noticeable elements of a larger rebranding effort for the company.
"The logo is only part of a brand new branding and image campaign. It signals to consumers, investors and employees that change is coming," said Columbia business school professor Bernd Schmitt.
On Twitter, the reaction to the logo was less than enthusiastic. "The new Yahoo logo looks like it got run through Alien Skin Eye Candy on Photoshop 4.0.," said Justin Williams.
"A bad logo is all it took for Yahoo! to make everyone talk about it,"tweeted Preshit Deorukhkar, editor of design publication Beautiful Pixels.
Yahoo hasn't updated its logo since 2009, and it has been mostly the same since 1995. The move to change it now is logical given its new CEO Marissa Mayer and her attempts to breath new life into the brand.
"More often than not, when a company's identity looks a little tired (or more likely when new leadership wants to put their own stamp on things), what's already in place won't need to be thrown out. It'll just need to be freshened up," said Airey.
Microsoft is AAA; Nokia is junk
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Microsoft's AAA credit rating could be at risk after buying Nokia, which carries a junk rating.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
It's a marriage of unequals: A U.S. firm with the highest credit rating is coupling with a company technically known as "junk."
Microsoft is one of only four U.S. companies that currently holds a top-tier AAA credit rating. And on Monday, it said it would buy Nokia, which carries a "junk" rating.
Nokia's (NOK) phone division isn't small potatoes.Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) will be adding about $20 billion in annual revenue and 32,000 new employees to its ranks, increasing its headcount by a third and its sales by a quarter.
But will the purchase impact Microsoft's credit rating? Standard & Poor's said the acquisition "does not materially alter our view of Microsoft's excellent business risk profile."
Moody's (MCO) and Fitch Ratings, the other two largest credit rating agencies, declined to comment.
Credit ratings help bond investors determine the likelihood that a company will repay its debts. A lower rating means a company is more likely to default, typically forcing those companies to pay higher yields on money they borrow.
If Microsoft does get taken down a couple of notches, it will be because Nokia is a deeply troubled company. It lost €3.3 billion ($4.3 billion) over the past eight quarters and is rapidly losing relevance in the mobile market it once led for 14 straight years.
When Fitch first downgraded Nokia to "junk" status last year, it cited "the deterioration in the company's core devices and services division" and its continued losses. Fitch reaffirmed that rating last month, noting that Nokia's situation hasn't vastly improved.
S&P also rated Nokia as junk, but Moody's placed the company's credit on the low end of "investment grade." Both companies gave Microsoft's credit a perfect AAA rating, while Fitch placed it one notch below at "AA+."
Microsoft is joined by Automatic Data Processing (ADP, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil(XOM, Fortune 500) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) as the only U.S. companies to hold a AAA rating. 
This is How Not to Build Your Own Bugatti Veyron 16.4
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File this under: Epic FAIL. Sure, owning a 1990s Honda Civic Coupe isn't the most glamorous of vehicles, but properly maintained, it will get you from point A to B in gas-saving fashion. If you get the modification or tuning bug, we recommend changing out the suspension for coilovers and / or getting new wheels at most. This owner however, went the extra yard, and decided to turn his vehicle into a Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Continue reading to see the disaster that ensued.
How 12 Famous Websites Used to Look Way Back in the Day
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Remember when YouTube used to look like this? For most people, probably not, but that wasn't the only famous website that looked a bit bland to say the least. We've rounded up twelve more notable sites that used to look quite plain, but have aged very well. Continue reading to see them all - bonus videos included.
Even the greatest among us had humble beginnings. This is just as true for websites, however, as it is for people.
Even online giants like Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were once itty-bitty websites with monochrome homepages, poorly-thought-out logos and boring or stark turn-of-the-century design.
Bonus Video 1 - Facebook in the 90s
Bonus Video 2 - YouTube in the 90s
Japanese Man Spends 11-Years Building Massive 36-Foot-Tall Beetle Robot
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Hitoshi Takahashi always wanted to build a giant robot and that dream became a reality once he turned 50. He's the owner of a machine shop in Ibaraki Prefecture and used the tools as well as the resources available to him to build KABUTOM RX-03. It's 11 meters (36 feet) tall, 3.6 meters long, weighs 17-tons and is powered by a pair of diesel burning engines. Continue reading for a video and more information.
18 Strange Examples of How Not to Retouch a Photo
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The worst thing you can do is post your photo in a public forum and ask users to retouch it. Let's just say that there are more Photoshop trolls than you can count. This person thought asking for a quick retouch would mean an edited picture worth of a magazine, but she was very wrong. Continue reading to see the hilarity that ensued.
Geeky Dad Sends His Childrens' Toys to Space, Awesome Trip Video Ensues
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It's safe to say that children have a wild imagination, and Nicholas L. from France didn't want to let his 3 children down, so he actually sent a couple of their toys into outer space - recorded with a GoPro Hero. According to Oddity Central, "last December, Nicholas' three children asked him to send their favorite toys into space. Without giving much thought to what he was getting himself into, the young father agreed." Continue reading to see the awesome trip video that ensued.
On a sunny day in July, Nicholas L. took his whole family to the outskirts of their village in Ain, France for the big take off. He inflated the balloon with Ballonium (a special mix of helium and air), attached it to a basket carrying his kids two favorite toys, a Hello Kitty and a Bad Piggy from the popular Angry Birds video game, an iPhone and an external battery, and let it fly.
The toys flew all the way up to 20,000 meters above sea level, before coming back down, 50 kilometers from the launch site, and the GoPro cameras recorded the whole trip. Recovering the toys was the hardest part of the project, because the GPS tracker had been damaged by the cold at high altitude and failed to indicate the right coordinates.
Samsung Galaxy Gear SmartWatch Officially Unveiled, Can Be Used as a Phone
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At $299, the Samsung Galaxy Gear is more than just a watch, as emails, text messages, calls, and other notifications will pop up on the device's 1.63-inch, 320 x 320 display. That's not all, this SmartWatch comes with Samsung's S Voice (Siri-like app), which lets users initiate a call, send a text, or set a reminder just by speaking. Continue reading for a hands-on video, pictures, and more information.
It isn't often that we get excited about a 1.9-megapixel camera, and perhaps we shouldn't here either. But the convenience that you get (and perhaps the intrusiveness that others get) from having a camera on your wrist makes this significant.
There is, however, no front-facing camera for video chat, so that's one area where Dick Tracy still has a leg-up on Samsung's engineers.
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