Microsoft adds intelligent cloud collaboration features to Office 365

At the 2016 Ignite Conference, Microsoft announced several new features made possible by intelligent cloud technology. Should you be excited?

By Mark Kaelin | October 10, 2016, 11:49 AM PST

When information technology companies like Microsoft talk on and on about the merits of artificial intelligence and the power of an intelligent cloud, what are they really talking about? Certainly, there must be more to the intelligent cloud than merely another place to store data. Well, after several news stories released at the 2016 Microsoft Ignite Conference, it turns out there actually is more to it for Office 365 subscribers after all.

The Microsoft Office 365 Team announced several new features for its flagship productivity suite that rely on the company's intelligent cloud technology. The new tools are included in the latest update and are designed to help IT professionals drive digital transformation within their organizations. Digital transformation is a major tenet of Microsoft's mobile-first, cloud-first vision for enterprise businesses.
Tap for Word and Outlook

Finding pertinent published information within an enterprise can often be a bit of a time sink. You know that table of important statistics—the very thing you need for your report—was in a presentation. But which presentation was it? Searching for the information you need to complete your project can waste precious time and sap your productivity, neither of which is conducive to a well-run enterprise.

Microsoft's latest update to Word and Outlook may help solve this

How tech can help seniors 'age in place,' save money, and be independent

At the Louisville Innovation Summit, health and tech experts explored how big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things are helping older adults stay healthy and independent.

By Hope Reese | October 10, 2016, 11:57 AM PST

Laurie Orlov, principal analyst, aging in place, for Technology Watch, spoke at the Louisville Innovation Summit.


"Aging care is one of the most aggressive industries in innovation," said Keisha Deonarine, economic development manager for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Deonarine, speaking at the third annual Louisville Innovation Summiton Monday, hit on a key point: The rise of big data, IoT, and AI have enormous implications for the improvement of the US healthcare system.

It's a system ripe for innovation—already this year, $6.5 billion has been invested in digital health startups.

And it's an industry with critical implications for seniors. In the US, there are 46 million people over the age of 65, and 20 million over the age of 75, saidindustry analyst and former CIO, Laurie Orlov. Where do they all live? Almost half (46%) of women over 75, live alone.

So how can we use technology to help those at home live well? It's becoming a "crisis," said Orlov. According to a 2013 AARP report, the caregiver gap is growing, and by 2030, there will be a 4:1 ratio of caregivers to older adults—a drop from today's 7:1 ratio.

And a major obstacle is that the assisted care industry is still private, said Orlov, and many aging Boomers don't have the funds to cover assisted living.



The telehealth market, which Orlov said is "hot, hot, hot," will grow to $1.9 billion by

How IBM Watson expanded its repertoire to become a virtual job trainer

Learn how Signature HealthCARE partnered with Cognotion to create a tablet-based Certified Nursing Assistant training program using IBM Watson to improve healthcare outcomes.

By Alison DeNisco | October 10, 2016, 12:35 PM PST

As technology continues to disrupt the healthcare industry, IBM Watson is helping provide better training for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) thanks to a new partnership between long term health and rehabilitation companySignature HealthCARE and digital training provider Cognotion.

CNAs represent the largest employment job segment in the nation, with anestimated 5 million of these caregivers needed in the US by 2020. While these healthcare workers are the primary point of care for patients at skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, they are often overworked and underpaid, with poor training programs leading to jobs that make $12 an hour on average. That's according Dr. Mary McNevin, chief learning officer of Signature HealthCARE, during a Monday session at the 2016 Louisville Innovation Summit.

Technology can offer a better way: Signature HealthCARE, with 143 locations across 11 states, partnered with Cognotion to leverage IBM Watson and online learning capabilities to create a more effective and engaging CNA training program.

The new training—called ReadyCNA—involves a 60-hour, tablet-based course that acts as a virtual internship based on patient cases, similar to medical school training, McNevin said.

A benefit of tablet-based learning is the user's ability to self-pace, said Jonathan Dariyanani, president and co-founder of Cognotion. However, this model makes it difficult to ask questions.

Enter IBM Watson, which the team embedded into the course. A student can chose to "Ask Nurse Watson" a question at any time, about any subject, phrasing it however they prefer. Watson will read through every textbook and study ever written about CNAs, and return a quick and understandable answer for the student.

"Watson is so terrific at mastering a corpus of material and being able to

Why data center managers shouldn't overlook object storage backends

Object storage is mainly associated with web-based applications and the cloud. But, the backend is proving to meet the needs of traditional NFS use cases as well.

By Keith Townsend | October 7, 2016, 7:49 AM PST

When hearing the term object storage, the first thing that comes to mind may be cloud. Amazon has made S3 synonymous with the term, and it's common to see object storage in cloud-native applications. However, outside of cloud-native applications, there is plenty of interest to the enterprise. Enterprise data center managers would do well to pay attention to object storage backends.
A matter of perspective

It's tough to make a case for object storage at the presentation layer in the enterprise. Solutions such as Dropbox utilize object storage on the backend. However, the front end is a traditional, tree-based presentation layer. Even the web interface for Dropbox presents the common file/folder view of your data.

It's the backend that offers an interesting objection for enterprises. I asked storage expert and consultant Enrico Signoretti of Juku.IT about enterprise use cases, and he said that the API nature of object storage is an awkward fit within the enterprise. Signoretti advised to look beyond the front-end, as object storage offers many advantages for backend systems. And, IT vendors have started to pay attention to the qualities of object storage for enterprise solutions.
Scalable backend

Object storage doesn't carry with it the burdens of a file system. Object storage relies on the application to present data in an organized manner to end users. As such, object storage systems don't

😄😄😄 Samsung Galaxy note 7 used as a bomb in GTA 5 ...so funny "Video"

CIA ‘Siren Servers’ can predict social uprisings 3-5 days in advance

The CIA claims to be able to predict social unrest days before it happens thanks to powerful super computers dubbed Siren Servers by the father of Virtual Reality, Jaron Lanier.

CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Andrew Hallman announced that the agency has beefed-up its “anticipatory intelligence” through the use of deep learning and machine learning servers that can process an incredible amount of data.

“We have, in some instances, been able to improve our forecast to the point of being able to anticipate the development of social unrest and societal instability some I think as near as three to five days out,” said Hallman on Tuesday at the Federal Tech event, Fedstival.

This Minority Report-type technology has been viewed skeptically by policymakers as the data crunching hasn’t been perfected, and if policy were to be enacted based on faulty data, the results could be disastrous. Iraq WMDs?

Read More: Partnership on AI vs OpenAI: Consolidation of Power vs Open Source

The CIA deputy director said that it was “much harder to convey confidence for the policymaker who may make an important decision from advanced analytics with deep learning algorithms.”

JARON LANIER’S SIREN SERVERS

Computer science philosopher and author of “Who Owns the Future?” and “You are not a Gadget,” Jaron Lanier, coined the phrase “Siren Servers” to describe these types of giant computer networks that can crunch huge amounts of data.

“A siren server is the biggest and best computer on a network. Whoever has the most powerful computer would be the most powerful person, whether they plan to be or not,” said Lanier in an interview with the Huffington Post.

Lanier’s siren server definition was conceived to describe how companies with the most powerful computers can gain wealth by

--breaking news--Samsung Galaxy Note 7 production permanently ended after battery explosions

Tuesday 11 October 201611.53 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 11 October 201612.03 BST

South Korean electronics company to kill off its flagship smartphone after failing to fix problems with batteries catching fire


Samsung has confirmed that it is permanently stopping production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after it was involved in dozens of fires and explosions worldwide.

In a regulatory filing in South Korea late on Tuesday, the firm said it had made the decision to stop production, for the sake of consumer safety.

The move comes the day after Samsung said it was “adjusting production”, an admission that many saw as the first steps towards killing the phone entirely.

It said in a statement: “Putting consumer safety as the top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s.” A spokesperson confirmed that the suspension was “permanent”.

Samsung said customers will still be allowed to apply for a full refund or to swap their Note 7s for other Samsung products. It also advised all customers with an original or replacement Galaxy Note 7 to “power down and stop using the device” immediately.

In discontinuing the phone, Samsung follows the advice of many analysts who saw it as a lost cause, and who argued that the company’s priority should be protecting the rest of its brand.

“If it’s once, it could be taken as a mistake. But for Samsung, the same thing happened twice with the same model so there’s going to be a considerable loss of consumer faith,” said Greg Roh at HMC Investment Securities.

“The reason consumers prefer brands like Samsung and Apple is because of product reliability … so in this case brand damage is inevitable and it will be costly for Samsung to