UNLIMITED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

What Your Music Taste Says About How You Think Researchers at the University of Cambridge studied the music choices of 4,000 participants to distinguish systemic thinkers from empathic ones. What kind of thinker are you? Do you like rock or jazz? How about country or pop? Like Donnie and Marie, you might be a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll. How about a different line of questioning? Within the same big genres, which artists do you like? In rock, do you prefer Billy Joel or AC/DC? In jazz, do you choose Glenn Miller or John Coltrane? Most people would generally accept that the answers to those questions show a lot about your personality. According to a  study by professors at the University of Cambridge , these answers show a lot about the way you think as well. (Image:  Guitartricks.com  via Musiciansare.blogspot.com) Generally speaking, most of us are either more empathic or more systemic in our thinking. According to the study, "Empathy is the ability...

Smartwatches Could Become New Frontier for Cyber Attackers Every single smartwatch tested in a recent study by HP had serious security weaknesses. Watches with network and communication functionality are opening up a new frontier for cyber attackers thanks to a largely cavalier attitude towards security by manufacturers, a new study by HP warns. HP assessed the available security features on 10 smartwatches along with their Android and iOS cloud and mobile application components and found every single device to have significant vulnerabilities such as insufficient authentication and lack of data encryption. As part of the study, HP looked at smartwatch management capabilities, network communications, their mobile and cloud interfaces and other potentially vulnerable components. All of the watches that HP evaluated collected personal data in the form of names, addresses, birth dates, weight, gender and heart rate. Yet not one of them had adequate controls in place for ensuring the priva...

Moto G Details Leak Ahead Of Motorola Event Motorola is holding a splashy event in NYC July 28, and leaks have provided a solid look at what's in store. Motorola's handset lineup for the last few years has consisted of three main devices: The flagship Moto X, the mid-range Moto G, and the entry-level Moto E. The invitation sent to media for next week's event alluded to new variants of the X and G smartphones, which falls in line with Motorola's annual update schedule. Motorola's mid-range handset,   the Moto G , has leaked in full before Motorola had a chance to formally introduce it. The company's media event, scheduled for July 28, may still have a few surprises in store, however, including other smartphones and wearables . New details from several sources have revealed almost all there is to know about the Moto G. Motorola itself accidentally published a website containing information aplenty. For example, Motorola will let people design their own Moto G via ...

Cisco Drops Invicta All-Flash Storage Arrays Cisco's troubled venture into storage with its 2013 acquisition of Whiptail ends. Cisco announced on Friday that it's halting production of its Invicta all-flash storage product line, giving up on the storage business it acquired in 2013. "Cisco is prioritizing the elements of our portfolio to drive the most value for our customers both now and in the future, and today we are announcing the End of Life (EoL) for the Invicta Appliance and Scaling System products," the company said in an email statement. Cisco will continue to support existing customers who have deployed Invicta products. Cisco made a big splash when it moved to acquire all-solid-state array vendor Whiptail for $415 million about two years ago.  In a blog post at the time , Deepstorage Chief Scientist and Network Computing Contributor Howard Marks wrote that the storage deal put Cisco one step closer to becoming a one-stop IT shop. In January 2014, Cisco laun...

Sony Drone Venture Targets IoT By entering the drone business in a joint venture with Aerosense, Sony aims to expand its involvement with cloud services and the Internet of Things. Sony Mobile and ZMP, a Japanese robotics company, are planning to work together to develop drones for businesses. Next month, the two companies said, they'll form  a joint venture called Aerosense  that will lease unmanned aerial vehicles to enterprises for applications that require aerial imagery. Sony said Aerosense reflects its effort to develop new business opportunities, particularly those related to the Internet of Things. The company said it intends to add value for its customers by developing and managing cloud services related to its drone-based data gathering. Aerosense will employ imaging, sensing, telecommunications, networking, and robotics technology from Sony Mobile, alongside autonomous navigation and robotics technology from ZMP. The jointly owned firm intends to develop systems cap...

Emerging Web Infrastructure Threats A secure cloud relies on some weak Internet infrastructure with some new BGP vulnerabilities that will be disclosed at Black Hat USA. The cloud services industry is beginning to sort out some of the concerns that have kept security-conscious organizations away (for example, by creating new technology like bring-your-own-key encryption schemes). Unfortunately, these improvements still don't do anything to repair some of the very worst threats to cloud security -- vulnerabilties buried in the very underpinnings of the Internet.   At the  Black Hat USA conference  in Las Vegas next month, researchers will bring to light even more threats lurking in Web infrastructure. Here's a glimpse at what's to come. Leaks in the Router Plumbing Attacks on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) -- the fabric that all routing on the Internet is based on -- have become so popular that Dan Hubbard, CTO at OpenDNS says  "BGP is the new black." For exam...