Stories by Bob Brown

Wyoming's open source enterprise code library a secret no more

Wyoming’s 250-person Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) group knew it had a good thing in its Enterprise Extensible Code Library, but it chose to keep things under wraps outside of the state until last week when members of that team attended an annual confab for state government CIOs.

Homeland Security issues call to action on IoT security

U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Robert Silvers says his purpose in speaking at the Security of Things Forum in Cambridge on Thursday wasn’t to scare anyone, but then he went ahead and called on everyone in the room to “accelerate everything you’re doing” to secure the internet of things.

Mobile apps still have long way to go in state governments

A new survey released this week reveals that while a little more than half of state CIOs surveyed consider mobile devices and apps an essential or high priority, relatively few state government apps are mobile ready or are being used by employees and external users on mobile devices.

FBI urges ransomware victims to step forward

The FBI has issued a plea for those who have been hit by ransomware to report this to federal law enforcement so that the country can get a better sense of just how bad this problem really is.

Today's supercomputers will get blown away by these systems

The Department of Energy says the the $40 million it is investing in nearly two dozen projects will result in exascale computing systems that perform calculations on data 50 to 100 times faster than today's most powerful supercomputers.

Lights out! Why IT shops are disabling wireless AP LEDs

Having seen all sorts of makeshift fixes – from post-it notes to bandages to condom wrappers – used to block Wi-Fi access point LEDs from beaming and sometimes blinking, some IT shops have begun turning off the lights altogether even though it can make their jobs a little tougher.

7 cool internet of things companies to watch

Industry watchers such as CB Insights show that venture capital funding of internet of things companies is actually on the decline. But we've seen enough fresh funding in the months since we rounded up 10 Internet of Things companies to watch back in April, to justify us doing this follow-up with 7 additional firms, most of them startups.

Taking stock of Apple's 2016 acquisitions

Apple’s acquisition this past week of Turi, a Seattle machine learning company that has its roots in the open source GraphLab project, brings to six the number of deals Apple has made this year that have gone public.

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