Articles by Nick Kolakowski
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Facebook Outage Illustrates Dangers of Ultra-Connected Web
For a few minutes on the evening of Feb. 7, it seemed as if most of the Internet had imploded: users trying to access CNN, Gawker, NBC News, The Huffington Post, and other popular Websites found… -
MySQL 5.6 Reaches General Availability
MySQL 5.6, which Oracle bills as “the world’s most popular open-source database,” has reached its general-availability milestone. Any number of developers rely on MySQL for a variety of Web appli… -
GE’s Proficy Vision Pushes Its “Industrial Internet” Idea Further
General Electric has made no secret of its plans to create what it calls an “Industrial Internet,” in which old-school manufacturing is improved by the addition of sensors and the latest analytic… -
Online Privacy Tools Could Wreck the Web's Economic Model
A widespread interest in online privacy tools—including the Do Not Track (DNT) feature finding its way into Web browsers—could end up undermining the Internet economy. That’s the suggestion of re… -
Microsoft’s Surface Pro Team Faces Hard Questions on Reddit AMA
Microsoft’s Surface Pro will go on sale Feb. 9, and the company decided to drum up some publicity for the big event by sending the Surface team to answer questions from the Reddit community. The… -
Dropbox Launches New Sync API for iOS, Android
Cloud-storage provider Dropbox is aiming to make developers’ lives a little easier with a new Sync API for iOS and Android, which seeks to eliminate at least a portion of the complexity around ca… -
Continuum Analytics Using DARPA Funds to Explore Python
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) researches a lot of interesting stuff in the name of national security: extreme long-range missiles, drones, powered exoskeletons, even thoug… -
PayPal Strides Ahead in Digital Wallet Space
Tech companies and pundits have emphasized the coming of the digital wallet, when consumers will have the ability to pay for items without cash or keeping credit-card numbers on-hand. Whether the… -
What Does IBM Want with Star Analytics?
IBM announced Feb. 1 that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the software assets of Star Analytics, a privately held analytics firm based in Redwood City, California. Financial terms wer… -
Oracle’s Acme Packet Acquisition Could Make Life Interesting for Cisco
Oracle has started off 2013 with yet another acquisition, purchasing Acme Packet for roughly $1.7 billion. The acquired company builds VoIP and data-transmission services and applications; it cou…