DPL Reading List – October 19, 2018
Here are some of the new and interesting articles we found this week.
Paul G. Allen, Microsoft’s Co-Founder, Is Dead at 65 – “Mr. Allen was a force at Microsoft during its first seven years, along with its co-founder, Bill Gates, as the personal computer was moving from a hobbyist curiosity to a mainstream technology, used by both businesses and consumers. When the company was founded, in 1975, the machines were known as microcomputers, to distinguish the desktop computers from the hulking machines of the day. Mr. Allen came up with the name Micro-Soft, an apt one for a company that made software for small computers. The term personal computer would become commonplace later.”
IBM Takes Cybersecurity Training on the Road – “Starting Monday the company is introducing its mobile cyber command center, tucked into a heavily customized semitrailer truck. What IBM calls its “cyber tactical operations center” will make stops at college campuses and security-focused events before heading to Europe for a lengthy tour. Officially, the trailer is intended for cybersecurity education and as a mobile response unit. Unofficially, it’s also a playground packed with tech bling where geeks can experiment with ways to combat cyberattacks that have yet to be imagined.”
Why We Can’t Quit the QWERTY Keyboard – “We have so many ways to input data — by voice, touch screen, stylus, you name it — and yet we still rely heavily on something that looks a heck of a lot like the first commercially successful typewriters, released nearly 150 years ago. We can make powerful computers that fit in our pockets. So why haven’t we quit the keyboard?”
Microsoft Calls a Truce in the Linux Patent Wars – “But by joining the group, Microsoft is essentially giving the Linux community permission to use 60,000 patents free of charge without fear of lawsuits. That could mean that if an OIN member, such as Google, adds functionality patented by Microsoft to the Linux kernel, others can use that open source code—regardless of whether they are members of OIN, without fear of lawsuits from Microsoft.”
Pantone’s latest colors are the ultimate sign of the times – “Whether it’s a rose gold iPhone in your hand, a pair of cherry-red Beats on your ears, or something like the matte-black Echo in your home, Pantone has watched the metallic finishes of our gadgets impact the design world at large. “It has become normalized,” says Pressman. Five years ago, the company began developing its own color line focused around metal.”
Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla come together to end TLS 1.0 – “TLS (Transport Layer Security) is used to secure connections on the Web. TLS is essential to the Web, providing the ability to form connections that are confidential, authenticated, and tamper-proof. This has made it a big focus of security research, and over the years, a number of bugs that had significant security implications have been found in the protocol. Revisions have been published to address these flaws.”
I Used Only Bing for Three Months. Here’s What I Found—And What I Didn’t – “Bing has some things going for it, and it genuinely tries to advance the conversation of what search can do, particularly in its app. Good! Google needs whatever competition the rest of the world can muster. But in terms of day-to-day usability, at least in my experience, it too often added confusion rather than strip it away. It kept me cloistered within Bing, when all I wanted—what I explicitly told it, with every query—was to go somewhere else. In search, the journey is not the reward; it’s just a journey.
