Category Archives: Technology

Microsoft IT Academy Provides Critical Technology Skills and Changes the Life of One Young Student

*Roundtable Q&A: North Carolina student Miranda Hill and former teacher Jennifer Tyndall discuss their experiences with the Microsoft IT Academy and winning recognition in a global competition.*

REDMOND, Wash. — The 21st-century workplace is driven by information technology, and in today’s competitive job market, employers are seeking candidates who can hit the ground running with IT skills in place.

The Microsoft IT Academy provides a complete IT education solution to help students gain the skills they need to be successful in college and career. The program helps drive employability, digital literacy and 21st-century workforce development for students. At the same time, educational institutions are provided with the structure for a program that has the instant recognition and credibility of the Microsoft brand. (more…)

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W3C Announces First Draft of Standard for Online Privacy

*Do Not Track Approach Balances User Preferences with Personalized Web Experiences*

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – 17 Nov 2011: To address rising concerns about privacy on the Web, W3C has published two first drafts for standards that allow users to express preferences about online tracking:

  • Tracking Preference Expression (DNT), which defines mechanisms for users to express cross-site tracking preferences and for sites to indicate whether they honor these preferences.
  • Tracking Compliance and Scope, which defines the meaning of a “Do Not Track” preference and sets out practices for websites to comply with this preference.

These documents are the early work of a broad set of stakeholders in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisers, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. W3C invites review of these early drafts, which are starting points of work to come. W3C expects them to become standards by mid-2012. (more…)

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Xtranormal: Movie-Making for Everyone

Microsoft BizSpark One startup aims to make animated movies as easy as typing

REDMOND, Wash. — Xtranormal’s tagline, “If you can type, you can make movies,” describes both the company’s mission and how to use its text-to-speech system to create animated movies. The Microsoft BizSpark One member is working to transform movie-making into an everyday activity, as simple and commonplace as composing a text message. (more…)

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Xbox at 10: A Decade of Gaming

*A decade after its introduction, Xbox has grown into a global gaming phenomenon. A selection of highlights from the past 10 years.*

REDMOND, Wash. (Nov. 15, 2011) –– It’s hard to believe, but 10 years ago today, Microsoft introduced the world to Xbox, noting that the gaming system was “erupting” on the scene. The gaming system set sales records, with 100,000 units per week shipping to retailers in the first weeks after its launch. According to NPD Group, Microsoft sold 1.5 million Xbox units in North America between the Nov. 15 launch and the end of calendar year 2001, making Xbox the best-selling video game console launch on record. (more…)

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IBM Announces Supercomputer to Propel Sciences Forward

*Blue Gene/Q tackles major challenges of the day, delivers up to 100 petaflops at peak performance*

ARMONK, NY – 15 Nov 2011: IBM today announced its next generation supercomputing project, Blue Gene/Q, will provide an ultra-scale technical computing platform to solve the most challenging problems facing engineers and scientists at faster, more energy efficient, and more reliable rates than ever before. Blue Gene/Q is expected to predict the path of hurricanes, analyze the ocean floor to discover oil, simulate nuclear weapons performance and decode gene sequences.

When it is fully deployed in 2012 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the system, named “Sequoia”, is expected to achieve 20 petaflops at peak performance, marking it as one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The capabilities this system represents will help ensure United States leadership in high performance computing (HPC) and the science it makes possible. Moreover, Blue Gene/Q is expected to become the world’s most power-efficient computer, churning out 2 gigaflops per watt. (more…)

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comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage in September 2011

30 Percent of European Internet Users Seek Career Information Online
Russia Overtakes Germany as Market with Largest Online Audience

LONDON, UK, 14 November 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing 373.4 million unique visitors went online in September 2011 for an average of 26.4 hours per person. This release highlights internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Amongst its findings, the study showed strong growth in September 2011 for the Career Services and Development category with a 14 percent increase in unique visitors from the previous month. (more…)

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Tune in — Only on Yahoo!: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 World Premiere Official Live Stream on Yahoo! Movies

See Your Favorite “Twilight Saga” Stars LIVE from the Red Carpet Premiere During the Official Live Stream TODAY Monday, November 14th

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)-– Yahoo! Movies, (https://movies.yahoo.com) in conjunction with Summit Entertainment, presents the Official Live Stream of the red carpet premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1″ today Monday, November 14 at 5:00 p.m. PT on Yahoo! Movies: https://movies.yahoo.com/twilight (more…)

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Preventing Problems: Georgia Tech Helps to Develop System That Will Detect Insider Threats from Massive Data Sets

When a soldier in good mental health becomes homicidal or a government employee abuses access privileges to share classified information, we often wonder why no one saw it coming. When looking through the evidence after the fact, a trail often exists that, had it been noticed, could have possibly provided enough time to intervene and prevent an incident.

With support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Office, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are collaborating with scientists from four other organizations to develop new approaches for identifying these “insider threats” before an incident occurs. The two-year, $9 million project will create a suite of algorithms that can detect multiple types of insider threats by analyzing massive amounts of data — including email, text messages and file transfers — for unusual activity. (more…)

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