Technology

De Beers and other jewelry industry giants create blockchains to verify gems

Leading jewelry companies that have struggled with proving the authenticity of their goods have launched an online distributed ledger based on blockchainto improve global provenance in the diamond and jewelry supply chain.

De Beers announced it has succesfully tracked from mine to jeweler 100 "high-value" diamonds on its new blockchain-based electronic ledger called Tracr now being piloted; De Beers hopes to go live with Tracr later this year.

In December, De Beers, which controls about 35% of the world's diamond production, announced its intention to launch what it called an industry-wide blockchain network to track diamonds. Along with verifying a diamond's authenticity, the De Beers blockchain network will be able to prove the gems are not mined in war-torn areas where the sale of the gems could be used to finance violence.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (97 Comments)

Office 365: A guide to the updates

Office 365 subscribers always have the latest version of Microsoft Office — currently Office 2016. They also get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office 2016 without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they&re available. We&re doing for you, so you don&t have to.

Following are key updates to Office 365 for Windows since Office 2016 was released in September 2015 — all the 2017 updates and the most important ones from 2016 and late 2015, with the latest releases shown first. We&ll add info about new updates as they&re rolled out.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (98 Comments)

Windows 10: A guide to the updates

The launch of a big Microsoft Windows 10 update like the April 2018 Update isn&t the end of a process — itreally just the beginning. As soon as a major update is released, Microsoft quickly gets to work on improving it by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features.

Here we&ve summarized what you need to know about every Windows 10 update being released to the public. First come updates to the currently shipping version of Windows 10 — version 1803, known as the April 2018 Update — with the most recent updates on top. (Note that the April 2018 Update is on a phased rollout, so you may not have received it yet.) Below that are updates to version 1709, known as the Fall Creators Update, and below that updates to version 1703, known as the Creators Update. For each build, we&ve included the date of its initial release and a link to Microsoftannouncement about it.

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (90 Comments)

Windows 10 Redstone: A guide to the builds

Microsoft never sleeps. Even before the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) started to roll out, the company began work on the next major update to Windows 10, code-named Redstone 5 and due to be released this autumn. As it did with the April 2018 Update, Microsoft has been releasing a series of public preview builds to members of Microsoft's Insider Program.

What follows is a list of every preview build of Redstone 5, starting with the most recent. For each build, we've included the date of its release, a summary of whatin the build and a link to Microsoft's announcement about it. After that you&ll find summaries of all the preview builds that led up to the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (Redstone 4), the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Redstone 3) and the Windows 10 Creators Update (Redstone 2).

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (94 Comments)

Pilot fish has an urgent problem: There's a major system outage at this company, and it needs to be escalated at once to Support Team A.

But the outage has knocked out the automated alarm-monitoring system, so that can't alert Team A about the problem.

"Team A is notoriously difficult to contact by phone, and today is no different," says fish. "Impact of the outage is rising rapidly, so as a last resort, I created a trouble ticket in their queue.

"The reason this is a last resort is that Team A uses two different ticket systems, and the only one I have access to isn't their preferred one -- it's only used for external escalations, such as mine."

Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (98 Comments)

Weighing a move from Windows 10 to macOS An IT checklist

Although Windows 10 has been available for nearly three years, many large organizations still run Windows 7 or 8. But with the end of extended support for Windows 7 less than two years away, many IT departments are only now getting their arms around what will be a necessary upgrade.

(Insider Story)
Details
Category: Technology

Write comment (91 Comments)
  1. WWDC: AltConf reveals London, San Jose alternative designer conferences
  2. In depth: 13 things to understand about Android P gesture navigation
  3. Two suppliers now sell iPhone breaking innovation-- and authorities are purchasing
  4. Slack touts 8M users as team partnership competition intensifies
  5. IDG Contributor Network: Are software application audits still required in the age of cloud computing