JC Penney brought in the best, but, sadly...

JC Penney brought in the best, but, sadly, it has little to show for its effort.

With Apple's former chief retailer Ron Johnson hired as CEO and the eminently likable Ellen DeGeneres acting as high-profile spokeswoman, JCP early this year launched a new branding and pricing strategy to shed its stodgy and profitless past. Alas, it appears that former customers are staying away, new ones aren't showing up, and the company president has just quit.

Read the rest of my blog post JC Penney Stumbles: Can It Recover?

War driving made easy

Sharing Internet access in networks of cars via WiFi | KurzweilAI

A new algorithm that would allow Wi-Fi-connected cars to share their Internet connections has been developed by engineers at MIT, Georgetown University,

No publication does better headlines than The Register

No publication does better headlines than The Register, not even The Onion. Oh, and the content is brilliant, too.

Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world • Reg Hardware

 

Bring it on, space alien h@k3rz. We've got the DMCA.

Even though researchers are worried that signals captured by search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) might carry a virus-laden payload, we're getting even in the best way that we know how. We've put copyright-protected music and text on the interstellar missionary Voyager.

 

One more thing that we'll need as casino...

One more thing that we'll need as casino gambling comes to Massachusetts

Casino Gives City a Citizen Alerts App

In return, free promotion for the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire is displayed in the emergency app.

The downside of the big push to STEM education...

The downside of the big push to STEM education and IT credentialing in colleges is that we're preparing people for careers that they don't want. (They don't want IT careers because they watch us and hear us complain about how boring the work is.)

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros • The Register

According to the polled professionals, the most attractive areas to youngsters are social networking (39 per cent reckon so) then mobile (21 per cent) and gaming (17 per cent). Half (49 per cent) said...

New blog community for developing and deploying applications on the cloud.

New blog community for developing and deploying applications on the cloud. I'll be a regular contributor

Develop in the Cloud - Keith Dawson - Welcome to Develop in the Cloud

Notes on cloud development resources

Notes on cloud development resources

Develop in the Cloud - Karl Hakkarainen - Mobile App Developers Rely on Cloud Services

There's no guarantee that you'll be successful with the cloud, but it's pretty clear that you won't be successful without it.

When a bank suffers a major IT disaster,...

When a bank suffers a major IT disaster, it can get ugly really fast. A failure during a software upgrade at RBS led to a four-day outage. The CEO did say that he was sorry and that it wasn't caused by the bank's outsourcing program. And, besides, he said, it was CA's fault.

Read more at Better Bank Systems - Karl Hakkarainen - Passing Blame on Core System Failures

HR professionals increasingly rely on mobile...

HR professionals increasingly rely on mobile apps to give them access to enterprise systems and productivity tools wherever their offices might be at the moment. To protect this sensitive data, app vendors must provide solutions with multi-level security that protects this sensitive data on the device, in transit, and in the API.

The Mobility Hub - Karl Hakkarainen - Securing Mobile HR Apps

Mobile HR apps need robust security features and users who understand that data security is essential.

More on warning labels

Ever helpful that they are, manufacturers are always trying to make sure that we use their products in the proper manner. Therefore, in the case of my Samsung Network Extender (aka a Femto cell), I've been cautioned to keep the gadget upright, cautioned by way of a warning printed on the bottom.