Opinion

Get real: Oracle is strengthening — not killing — Java

Oracle has set Java on a progressive track with Java 8, and developers are looking ahead to Java 9

Is the robot revolution going to put us out of work?

With technology advancing at astonishing speed, 2,000 experts polled by the Pew Research Center weigh in on its impact on jobs

The rise of machines that learn

A new big data analytics startup, Adatao, reminds us that we're just at the beginning of a new phase of computing when systems become much, much smarter

The quiet before the next IT revolution

Now that the technologies behind our servers and networks have stabilized, IT can look forward to a different kind of constant change

On sale: False sense of Internet security, for the low, low price of $120

Is your name among the stash of 1.2 billion stolen passwords? An Internet security firm can tell you — for pennies per day!

New Windows 9 rumors: Can the charms, clone the Desktop

Independently confirmed Windows 9 rumors have Microsoft dropping Charms Bar and adding 'virtual Desktops,' an obscure feature from XP and Win7

Android has good reason to fear Apple’s resurgence

Suddenly, the punditocracy is saying Samsung's best days are behind, and Apple may dominate mobile again

Try again, cloud contenders: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have won

IaaS and PaaS markets will no longer support smaller providers, which now need to find new specialties or call it quits

Don’t panic: That Russian hack bombshell isn’t what you think

News of 1.2 billion stolen Web credentials raises key questions about the data — and the motives of the security researcher

Oracle hasn’t killed Java — but there’s still time

Can Oracle do more than capitalize on the Java platform that Sun built?

Oracle hasn’t killed Java — but there’s still time

Java core has stagnated, Java EE is dead, and Spring is over, but the JVM marches on. C'mon Oracle, where are the big ideas?

Adobe, Intel want in on Famo.us mobile app magic

Famo.us is providing its Apache Cordova refinements to Intel and Adobe to improve mobile apps overall

The battle against stupid software patents is on

Patent trolls extort millions from developers and entrepreneurs, but help is on the way from the EFF and the Supreme Court

It’s official: Windows 8.1 Update 2 is a dud

Microsoft confirms minor improvements in Windows 8.1 Update 2, which raises the question: Why all the infernal secrecy?

Overpromised, underdelivered — and the joke’s on them

Mishaps and misfires pile up when a vendor miscalculates badly on an IT project's scope and cost

The Azure-Active Directory connection just got easier

Microsoft releases AAD Connect, a new wizard-driven tool to help ease the connection

Microsoft Azure, the world’s biggest cloud? Someone’s fudging

Microsoft Azure is on a tear, but only bad math makes Azure's numbers add up to the industry’s largest cloud

The right cloud for the job: Multicloud database processing is here

Today's one-size-fits-all database processing will give way to a cheaper, but more complex heterogeneous approach

Why you need to deploy DNSSec now

Putting off updating your DNS servers to DNSSec? Do you really want to risk cache poisoning? DNS luminary Cricket Liu tells about the risks and why you can't wait

Books that have most influenced my software development career

A Java developer's list of essential reads for learning the basic craft and higher art of coding

No interruptions! Technologist at work

Mercifully toothless Windows 8.1 Update 2 due next week

Long-anticipated Update 2 will arrive as plain-vanilla patches, as speculation mounts about free upgrades to Windows 9

New JavaScript library adds facial detection, 3D projection to Web apps

Tracking.js means Web developers won't need C, C++, or plug-ins for computer vision apps

No interruptions! Technologist at work

A five-minute interruption can cause the loss of an hour of production for the dedicated techie — most of the time

What the enterprise startup surge really means

The billions are flowing again — by some estimates, at twice the investment rate in enterprise startups we saw last year. Could this actually be a sign of maturity?

5 ways to add machine learning to Java, JavaScript, and more

Here are the best libraries for four languages, plus Java on Hadoop, to help you turn machine learning into a business tool

Blame the iPad for the crash in tablet sales

The iPad is not new any more, and tablets are so good that you don't need a new one — but it doesn't mean PCs are back

Sneaky broadband data caps imperil the Internet’s future

A GAO report warns that ISPs' move to usage-based pricing could have a chilling effect on online innovation

The EPA doesn’t know what clouds it has — and neither do you

A federal audit shows what's probably true at most enterprises: Cloud services are hiding in the shadows of IT

Fresh attacks on open source miss the mark

Open source is entrenched and flourishing if you know where to look

PHP gets its own formal language specification

PHP scripting language, a critical cog in Web development, codifies its semantics and syntax to minimize divergence

Gartner gets the ‘data lake’ concept all wrong

For $200, Gartner tells you 'data lakes' are bad and advises you to try real hard, plan far in advance, and get governance correct

Fresh attacks on open source miss the mark

Critics are laying siege to open source, but their arguments both mistake what open source is and how companies benefit from it

The myth of slower iPhones and the truth of our upgrade addiction

Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft don't build shoddy products to force upgrades — they simply play on your deepest fears and desires

Happy 10th anniversary, Ruby on Rails — but watch your back

The Web framework remains popular, but competitors like Node.js have stolen some of its thunder

Microsoft looks to woo developers with Windows Phone upgrade

Windows Phone update improves security and messaging, but the platform still trails Android and iOS by a wide margin

LibreOffice 4.3 boosts document compatibility

Free and open source productivity suite improves interoperation with Microsoft Office, adds filters for legacy Mac formats

Company Casanova leaves trail of broken hearts, busted servers

The office Lothario is the most popular person in the company until his favors go too far — and catch the president's attention

Microsoft comes clean on ‘weird things’ in Windows Server 2012 R2, Server 2003

Microsoft issues a warning on a Windows Server conflict that's a model of clarity and insight. Yes, that Microsoft

Microsoft gets smart to the ‘dual user’ — and to reality

CEO Satya Nadella gets how the world has changed and how Microsoft needs to fit in the new tech landscape

The data dangers of free public Wi-Fi

New York's plan to turn pay phones into free Wi-Fi stations could be a template for other cities, and bad news for IT trying to protect corporate data and IP

SAP embraces opens source — sort of

Years of slow change are finally leading to new openness at SAP, at least in connection with SAP HANA

The Tizen smartphone flopped — and open source is to blame

A parade of failed open source smartphone OSes should cause the open source community to rethink its mobile strategy

Amazon is right to grow AWS at the expense of profits

Claims that Amazon is hurting investors by gaining market share instead of profits from the cloud miss the long-term payoff

Docker: The first true devops tool?

Docker VP James Turnbull discusses what the container technology means for devops, as well as planned improvements and VMware-like ambitions

V is for Verizon, void of values

Fresh from its anti-Net neutrality efforts, Verizon wants to change the rules again to the detriment of longtime users

Team of rivals: Hortonworks, Pivotal join up for Hadoop project

Competitors band together to contribute to Apache Ambari project for Hadoop provisioning, monitoring, and management

Surface Pro 3 problems linger despite three firmware patches in a month

Slow/dropped Wi-Fi, heating issues, and lockups persist, but Surface Pro pro's manual driver installation procedure may help

Another botched Microsoft patch: Office 365 ProPlus says ‘Something went wrong’

Microsoft took 12 days to fix a bug that locked out some Office 365 ProPlus customers after a silent patch automatically installed

Who’s managing your managed services? You, ultimately

Managed services aren't magic. Before your provider can provide relief, it will need some help from you