Apple News: And now for some good news… Why IBM and Apple were made for each other
About 30 years ago, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs raised his middle finger at an IBM sign in New York City. Today, the two companies, despite their differences and their radically varied approaches to their customers, are together, hand in hand, as the dream come true to many long-awaiting IT customers. The deal will see more than 100 custom-built applications written for more than a dozen vertical industries, including healthcare and finance, in order to solve a pain point that these companies suffer on a day-to-day basis. The end result? Make their lives easier. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less. ZDNet UK bureau’s Colin Barker took a look-back approach look at the deal, which, by all accounts, could be the deal that saves the Watson creator, but also dig the iPad maker out of the hole its found itself in during recent fiscal quarters.
Read full story => ZDnet
Technology News: NSA Reform Dies In The Senate
Well shit. A vote to proceed with the USA FREEDOM Act failed in the Senate after it did not collect the 60 votes that it needed. It failed 58 to 42. Before the vote, I noticed a slight change in the tone of people that I had on the phone: There was optimism that it could make it. It didn’t. You can stick a fork in NSA reform for this year, and this Congress. And, as I’ve said recently, given the current tone of GOP leadership in the Senate, it doesn’t appear that we’ll get much done in the next few years. I’m not alone in that pessimism. So up your encryption, everyone, the United States government doesn’t see fit to change.
Read full story => TechCrunch
Programming News: Open source is not a hardware store
Recently Zach Tellman and Factual open sourced several libraries that they wrote to handle specific needs where nothing else existed. In the comments on Reddit some people were griping about the possiblity that this software might be abandoned in a year or two, and if they depended on it then they would be stuck. I think this mindset comes from a misguided and selfish perception of open source. As a new software engineer, it can be attractive to treat open source libraries, applications, and frameworks like a hardware store. If you have a problem and the standard library doesn’t address it, then pull in a dependency. Need a util function? Do a search on GitHub, and add in a dependency. Want to take advantage of this new fangled single page app craze? Pull in another one. Need to process XML with Ruby? Just install Nokogiri in a minute and you’re away laughing.
Read full story => DanielCompton
Photography News: Traveling Light: Putting Together a Photography Kit for Travel
Taking photographs on holiday or whilst traveling for any other reason is one of the things many of us look forward to. The problem is travel, and in particular air travel, has become hard work – baggage weight and size limits, limits on liquids all add up to a potentially stressful journey. When you get to your destination, it may be hot and full of tourists, not the sort of place for carrying a heavy load of kit. Today we are going to look at some options for traveling light.
Read full story => LightStalking
