China could reportedly use its ‘unwritten’ tech rules as an ‘invisible tool’ against US firms

With Sino-American trade tensions escalating, China’s cybersecurity standards could be used as an “invisible tool” for retaliating against Washington’s tariffs, according to one expert. Such standards are government-issued operational guidelines that are technically voluntary, but are oftentimes treated as mandatory by foreign firms’ Chinese business partners. If Asia’s largest economy were to weaponize the listing […]

The most franchised company in the world isn’t McDonald’s or Starbucks

Despite the seeming ubiquity of McDonald’s Golden Arches and the Starbucks’ twin-tailed mermaid, sandwich chain Subway actually has the most locations of any restaurant worldwide. In 2017, Subway had 43,912 stores around the world, beating second-place McDonald’s at 37,241 and third-place Starbucks at 27,339 locations. This number, however, belies the economic reality: while McDonald’s and […]

Farsight Security COO Alexa Raad: ‘Be Your Own Champion’

Alexa Raad is chief operating officer of Farsight Security, based in San Mateo, California. Farsight Security is a provider of real-time actionable Internet threat intelligence solutions. In this exclusive interview, Raad discusses methods of curbing cybercrime by tracking bad actors through the trails they leave in the domain name system. She also offers some encouraging […]

Oracle Releases Second Half of Autonomous DB

A lot of people might have thought Oracle’s announcement of the autonomous database at last year’s OpenWorld and its subsequent release earlier this year were the whole story, but there’s a lot more, and Tuesday’s webcast featuring Larry Ellison was proof. Ellison must find his CTO role — since he handed the CEO reins to […]

Microsoft Gives Productivity Tools More AI Chops

Microsoft on Wednesday announced new artificial intelligence features and functionality for several of its flagship products and services, including Office 365, Cortana and Bing, at an event in San Francisco. Harry Shum, EVP of Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research, demonstrated some of the new capabilities Building on the progress the company has made in integrating […]

Ubuntu Budgie Whistles Up a Better Remix

If you have yet to try the developing Budgie desktop, the latest release of Ubuntu Budgie is a perfect opportunity to experience a classy and user-friendly computing platform. Budgie is one of the first home-grown Linux distros to release its latest version based on Ubuntu 18.04. The independent developer announced Ubuntu Budgie 18.04 last week, […]