Harry Potter and the evolution of GIS
Developments in geospatial technologies include the geotagging of photos and, soon, SMS text messages. Geotags offer a lot of potential benefits, but there's also a potential dark side to anyone having a Marauder's Map.
Four IT execs earn GCN Awards
GCN's top executives of the year for civilian and defense agencies and industry, along with this year's Hall of Fame inductee, will be honored at the GCN Awards Gala in October.
Emergency crews get the message on social media
Emergency agencies across the country, from small cities to the state and federal government, are putting social media and Web 2.0 tools to effective — and sometimes life-saving — use as complements to established communications channels.
E-mail remains the top source of data loss, survey finds
A survey by Proofpoint finds that e-mail is still the leading source of data loss, but losses via social media channels are on the rise.
IBM supercomputer to challenge humans on 'Jeopardy'
IBM will put its natural-language processing research to the test this fall, when its Watson supercomputer goes up against human players on "Jeopardy."
20 IT projects to be honored at GCN Awards
The 10 projects selected for the 2010 GCN Awards, along with 10 honorable mentions, reflect the growing trends in government information technology toward open-source, cross-agency collaboration and transparency.
'War consists largely of endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides'
An Army Reserve colonel in Afghanistan is fired after writing a column slamming the military's use of PowerPoint, saying days are spent preparing, presenting and viewing slide shows.
Spurning the Internet; many Americans not online at all, by choice
A study released recently by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that broadband adoption in the United States has slowed considerably in 2010 after a decade of steady growth. And a surprising number of people still don't use the Internet and don't want to.
Think your Internet connection is fast? Don't count on it!
The Federal Communications Commission says the gap between advertised Internet download speeds and actual performance is so wide that we need a new, standardized way of presenting promised broadband speeds.
GPS devices could put American soldiers at risk
Geotags in smart phones and cameras with GPS receivers, and a malware program that uploads a user's location every 15 minutes, are two examples of the potential, often unseen, threats from compromised devices.
Password crackers have a surprising secret weapon
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute have found an unexpected tool for brute-force attacks on password-protected systems. Their findings: A seven character password is "hopelessly inadequate."
Android smart phones are on the move
The RIM BlackBerry still leads the smart-phone market. But others are catching up, especially phones using the Android operating system, which have outsold iPhones during the past six months.
Taking pi to new frontiers
Alexander Yee and Shigeru Kondo smashed the world record for computing the value of pi,taking the number to 5 trillion decimal digits on a single desktop PC.
Why can't DOD consolidate?
Readers responding to our coverage of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to cut $100 billion from the defense budget over the next five years discuss the potential obstacles to DOD IT consolidation.
Gates wants DOD IT consolidation, but the past isn't encouraging
A centralized network that gives the military a common IT environment would improve efficiency, cut costs and probably bolster security, too. But history is not encouraging.
Does your laptop's battery keep going and going?
If battery life is paramount to you, the length of time your laptop keeps running outweighs other factors. And, overall, manufacturers have been making progress.
Do geolocation tools put you at risk?
A recent survey by Webroot of more than 1,500 social network users found that more than half who use geolocation tools worry about loss of privacy, and nearly a quarter had been victims of a phishing attempt.
Making sense of exaflops
With supercomputers reaching the petaflop range -- a quadrillion floating point operations/sec -- the race is on to exaflops. How does a regular PC user put that into context?
Can you take a break from your vacation?
With mobile computing devices in hand, a lot of people take their work with them everywhere, even on vacation. Does this happen to you?
One cord for many devices: A dream or pipe dream?
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has gotten behind the idea of developing a standard for universal power supply units for laptops, tablets and netbooks. But is it a pipe dream?
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.