Opinion

SOPA backers seek to restrict online rights again — but this time outside the law

Stop Online Piracy Act may return as series of voluntary agreements among copyright holders, payment processors, and service providers

BrandPost: What’s your Microsoft licensing strategy?

Make sound decisions with Microsoft Licensing Optimization

‘Dad, we want toys, let’s go to the Apple Store’

Times have changed, and when today's kids want a treat, no toy store can match up to Apple's tech temples

Create mobile apps that are actually part of your business

Building iOS and Android apps only outside your core systems means you're not getting the value you could from mobile

2014 is the year of the Linux desktop

Linux has unexpectedly made it to the desktop through mobile and cloud, but the unintended consequences are troubling

The top 3 reasons to fire your public cloud provider

Once the honeymoon is over, the day-to-day relationship can decline or stagnate — and companies will look for someone new

White House to geeks: Get covered by Obamacare and start something

Coders, startup workers, Web entrepreneurs, listen up — your geek colleagues want you to sign up for health insurance

Red Hat’s Fedora 21 brimming with security, crypto upgrades

Changes to Fedora, like smart card access control and systemwide policy for cryptography, could end up in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Google? Evil? You have no idea

Google's claim to do no evil is wearing thin. Is it time, yet, for a Googlebots revolt?

Windows Phone is free in India — and worth every penny for Microsoft

Two India-based Android phone makers are getting Windows Phone software for free. It's a smart play in light of the Nokia acquisition

Brendan Eich: Web development is tough, developers are tougher

The JavaScript founder also says the language is approaching its endgame: performance parity with native code

Cloud computing’s future: Bigger, with fewer options

Lots more cloud data centers will be coming online, but the cloud computing space will be dominated by a few major players

Android exploit eats up WhatsApp chat databases

Bad programming practices open up WhatsApp chat database backups to Android malware attack

Your quick guide to better JavaScript testing

Testing JavaScript code without tools is a slog, but choosing the right tools is complicated — unless you use this handy tutorial to get you started

How tech giants beat H-1B visa cap: They call ’em students

A program to bring science and tech grads to the U.S. for training has been abused by companies seeking low-cost labor

Google? Evil? You have no idea

Brace yourself for an exhaustive rundown of Google's master plan and the company's ultimate goal

Deis doubles down on Docker, for app deployment and its own delivery

Docker expands its influence as Heroku-inspired application platform transforms into a series of Docker images

Phone foolery: Caught between a malcontent and a merger

After a company takeover, cold shoulders and closed ranks greet a techie trying to figure out the phone and Internet bills

Two tricks to automate the export of live VMs in Windows Server

A little-known Hyper-V export feature and Jeff Hicks' free PowerShell script can make an admin's work a lot easier

Google primps Docs and Sheets with third-party add-ons

Third-party developers can now add functions like mail merge or bibliographies to Google Docs and Sheets via new ecosystem

Intel’s 800Gbps optical cable could be copper’s death knell

Intel's MXC optical connector promises better-than-PCIe speeds and is set to eliminate copper — eventually

Only Microsoft knows the true Windows XP numbers — but isn’t telling

There's a lot of angst about the 30 percent of Windows users who haven't switched, but how many PCs does that actually mean?

IT job market stuck in a slow-hire rut

IT jobs are on a climb, but the sluggish overall pace reflects what might be the new normal for the economy in general

Red Hat fast-tracks Docker apps for Enterprise Linux

Mutual admiration: Red Hat extends certification program to include Docker apps, and Docker expands support for RHEL 7

Thought Obamacare was messy? Wait until electronic health records come online

EHRs' laudable openness goals will slam into reality of highly proprietary, secretive, and risk-averse health care industry

Health care revs up for big drive into the cloud

Raw need is why health IT spending on the cloud will quadruple by 2018

Inside the muddled, misguided mind of a Windows XP holdout

Windows XP users have had six years to upgrade. It's time they stop schvitzing over the OS's end of life and move on

Video: Watch out, Google Glass — Sony SmartEyeglass wants developers too

Sony's entry into enhanced eyewear market aims to provide all the functionality of Google Glass in a more discreet form

VMware one-ups Amazon for Windows desktops as a service

VMware Horizon DaaS claims to be the first hybrid desktop as a service, deliverable from both public and private clouds

How PaaS is changing enterprise app dev

PaaS is the new app server — and the enterprise is catching on

Xen 4.4 is now fully armed for 64-bit ARM

The newest release of the Xen hypervisor project claims big boosts in performance and scalability, plus enhanced support for ARM processors

Hey Verizon, we’re not as stupid as you think we are

We definitely understand how networks function — and why Verizon is blowing lots of hot air

How PaaS is changing enterprise app dev

'Platform as a service' may be the least understood cloud type, but enterprise dev shops are catching on big time, bringing cloud scalability and availability to their portfolio of applications

RIP, RadioShack — we don’t know how good we had it

Supergeeks may scoff at brick-and-mortar stores, but these tech meccas were integral to hands-on interaction and discovery

Mounting BITCOIN mystery — Social gaming decline rocks DISNEY — DRONES free to fly — SPOTIFY’s checkmate move — Ex-NSA official’s MEA CULPA

ATMs will still run Windows XP — but a bigger shift in security looms

Banks caught in a major transition to embedded chip cards are sticking with XP and uninterested in upgrading to Windows 8

Don’t count your Amazon drones before they fly

Federal judge dismisses FAA ban on commercial drone use, but issues still stand in the way of U.S. airspace opening for business

5 changes BlackBerry must make to have a ghost of a chance

The company that once defined the smartphone needs to look elsewhere for its future

In the PR war over security, the cloud is losing

Security vendors are stoking near-religious fears among some IT pros, creating false fears over cloud security

CFOs say companies will hire more techies in 2014, but not in IT

Many CFOs are optimistic about jobs in tech-oriented companies, but the hiring picture for IT-specific positions remains poor

My great bitcoin adventure: 6 months, 5 exchanges

Bitcoin's open source foundation is sound, but Bitstamp, CEX.IO, Coinbase, Kraken, Mt. Gox exchanges are uneven at best

GitHub Developer Program emphasizes integrations

Participants will get notice about API changes and early access to new features

Has the face of bitcoin really been unmasked?

Newsweek's investigation into Satoshi Nakamoto, the man alleged to have created bitcoin, has inspired ire and skepticism

Man behind BITCOIN revealed — APPLE pushes accounting innovation — Nokia was BALLMER’s Waterloo — You own TOR’s vast darknet mall

Railroads, superhighways, and the fight for fair access

How can we save Net neutrality from today's robber barons? By looking at strategies against yesterday's robber barons

Splunk’s big data promise: Google for your visual analytics

Splunk, nominally used for system logs, shows signs of evolving into a data processing platform via Tableau Software partnership

Techies: Take a congressman and a cop to work with you

From distracted driving to virtual money, the law and lawmakers can't keep up with technological change. Let's clue them in

7 truths about data in the cloud

Fresh from the IBM acquisition, Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle offers his take on how the migration of data to the cloud is changing IT

Get real, IDC — PC sales will plummet in 2014

IDC's current prediction of a 6 percent decline in PC shipments this year doesn't pass the smell test

BrandPost: The Microsoft Licensing Corner, #4

Your rundown of the latest releases, reviews, news, and more