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Cisco And HP At Odds Over Catalyst 6500
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It appears that HP is calling Cisco out on its advertisement that it’s new improved Catalyst 6500 switch is better than anything HP has to offer. As many IT professionals already know Cisco finally introduced the long-awaited upgrade to the very popular Catalyst 6500. The new Catalyst it equipped with Cisco’s Supervisor Engine 2T, a 2-terabit card which can manage 80 Gbps and triples the 6500′s throughput from 720 Gbps to 2Tbps and quadruples the number of devices that can connect to the network. These stats are based on literature from Cisco’s point of view. Cisco also states that an upgrade to Supervisor 2T on existing Catalyst switches would cost customers around $38,000. However, Cisco is saying if you went the same upgrade path with a comparable HP switch architecture; it would cost the customer more than $100,000 and would only give the customer 720 Gbps of throughput.
Cisco To Cut Thousands Of Jobs
Word the street is that router giant Cisco is about to cut 14 percent of it’s worldwide workforce which is thought to be around ten thousand people.
The reports are saying that seven thousand people will be given pink slips by the end of August; and the other three thousand unfortunate souls will take an early retirement option.
It seems as though many companies go this route when the executive team does not adjust to the changing technology market; they try to boost profits in the short-term by firing those who have worked so hard for the company. That said, the massive cuts are expected to save Cisco about $1 billion in 2012. A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that additional cost cutting procedures will also be instituted.
Twitter Toying With Money Making Ideas
June 29, 2011 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
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Twitter is considering the option of placing ads into the live stream of messages, according to the Financial Times. The addition of “promoted tweets” — a more palatable way to say advertising — within the live Twitter stream is bound to turn off many users, at the same time as it attracts businesses looking to reach some of the company’s 300 million users.
Twitter’s executives have been in discussions with strategists at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France this week to find a way to increase revenues, which disproportionately trail those of social media companies such as Facebook.
Twitter is expected to generate revenues of about $100 million this year. Facebook, by contrast, reaps $3.5 billion from display advertising, according to a forecast by Enders Analysis.
A few other ideas leaked out of these meetings. One was that Twitter would offer mass coupon deals, which hold potential given the real-time nature of interacting on Twitter. A brand profile, which would allow advertisers to pre-schedule their company’s Tweets, is also being considered.
Apple’s iCloud Could Have A Secret Objective?
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Many analysts have come to the conclusion that Apple’s iCloud may not be designed to appeal to new customers. Apple’s iClouds service true objective is to keep existing customers locked into Apple’s iOS environment. Forester’s Charles Golvin went on to say that for people who own one or more iOS devices, they’re going to discover an even better experience.
Charles Govin also said Apple’s iCloud will keep customers because once they’ve used the service; they will hesitate to leave the Apple ecosystem because they will lose all the data they have stored. Since they do not have to worry about where their content is stored, it will make them feel that much more satisfied with their smartphone or tablet, and means that the next time they go to buy one, they’re more likely to buy from Apple.
Furthermore, Carolina Milanesi of Gartner told Computerworld, “The most important thing is that it is a complete cloud package. It shows the benefit of living in the Apple ‘house. It will be a way for Apple to retain customers in the face of a rising tide of Android-based smartphones, and growing competition from media tablets that run Google’s operating system.”
Cell Phones Can Be Dangerous
June 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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It appears that an Australian brain surgeon has called the latest report in reference to the report on the potential harmful effects of mobile phones as a wake-up call to users and the telecommunications industry.
Dr Teo, said he was “pleased” that at last there came conclusive proof that mobile phones caused brain tumours. He also went on to say that the report should serve as a ”wake up call’ that should alert both the public and the mobile phone industry to the link between mobile use and cancer.”
As you know a report was released by the World Health Organisation’s cancer research wing that said radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans” and heavy usage could lead to a possible increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer.
Microsoft’s IE Latest Flaw: ‘Cookiejacking’
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A technology security researcher has discovered a flaw in Microsoft Corp’s widely used Internet Explorer browser that he said may allow hackers to steal credentials to access FaceBook, Twitter and other websites.
He coined the technique as ”cookiejacking.”
“Any website. Any cookie. Limit is just your imagination,” said Rosario Valotta, an independent Internet security researcher based in Italy.
Hackers can exploit the flaw to access a data file stored inside the browser known as a “cookie,” which holds the login name and password to a web account, Valotta wrote.
Once a hacker has that cookie, he or she can use it to access the same site, said Valotta, who calls the technique “cookiejacking.”
The vulnerability affects all versions of Internet Explorer, including IE 9, on every version of the Windows operating system.
To take advantage of this flaw, the hacker must first persuade the victim to drag and drop an object across the PC’s screen before the cookie can be hijacked.
That sounds like a difficult task, but Valotta said he was able to do it fairly easily. He built a puzzle that he put up on Facebook in which users are challenged to “undress” a photo of an attractive woman.
“I published this game online on FaceBook and in less than three days, more than 80 cookies were sent to my server,” he said. “And I’ve only got 150 friends.”
Microsoft said there is little risk a hacker could succeed in a real-world cookiejacking scam.
“Given the level of required user interaction, this issue is not one we consider high risk,” said Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant.
Bill Had A Hand In Microsoft Buying Skype
One of the world’s richest people, Bill Gates had given his blessing for Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion dollars. Actually, Bill Gates pressed other executives on the board of directors to support or back the idea of gobbling Sky which has yet to turn a profit.
Word on the street is that Bill told the Gates BBC in an interview which will be televised this weekend that he played an instrumental role in getting this deal approved by the board of directors. So this really squashes any rumors that Steve Ballmer was the force behind the deal getting approved by the executive team.
AOL Launches Professional Division
May 19, 2011 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
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AOL Inc is launching a professional division called AOL Industry on Monday geared towards capturing the government, energy and defense executives attention.
The idea is to bring the use of social media, video and design from consumer-oriented sites and apply it to media for business professionals.
“(Trade media) hasn’t done as good a job at innovating as consumer media,” said Jay Kirsch, vice president and general manager of AOL Industry, who pitched the idea to AOL at the end of last summer.
“If you look at most of the innovations that have really changed media most of them have been consumer facing and not business-to-business.”
AOL Energy rolled out first and will be followed by AOL Government and AOL Defense in June. AOL Industry is not charging a subscription for access and will not have a print component.
Facebook’s Users Info Was Leaked
May 12, 2011 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
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Facebook users’ personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, in particular advertisers, over the past several years, Symantec Corp said in one of its blog postings.
Third-parties would have had access to personal information such as profiles, photographs and chat, and could have had the ability to post messages, the security software company stated.
“We estimate that as of April 2011, close to 100,000 applications were enabling this leakage,” the blog post said.
” … Over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties,” posing a security threat, the blog post said.
The third-parties may not have realized their ability to access the information, it said.
Facebook, the world’s largest social networking website, was notified of this issue and confirmed the leakage, the blog post said.
It said Facebook has taken steps to resolve the issue.
“Unfortunately, their (Symantec’s) resulting report has a few inaccuracies. Specifically, we have conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user’s private information being shared with unauthorized third parties,” Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said in a statement.
Facebook Growth Very Good
May 3, 2011 by Mike
Filed under Around The Net
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Facebook Inc’s business is growing faster than forecast several months ago and the social media company is on track to surpass $2 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2011, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook’s growth is above the growth projections that circulated when Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies invested in the closely held Internet company, the newspaper said in its online edition.
The newspaper did not indicate by how much Facebook may exceed those original expectations.