What’s next for open-source Spark?

Boston — A conference focused on a single open source project sounds like the sort of event that will feature a lone keynote speaker speaking to maybe 100 interested parties in a lecture hall at a local college. Spark Summit East was very much the opposite. A total of 1,503 people watched the five keynote…

Renewables missing from Trump's energy plan

The nation’s energy policies appear to be ready to change drastically under President Donald Trump’s administration. The President’s “America First Energy Plan,” published yesterday, appeared to focus almost exclusively on increasing fossil fuel production and rejuvenating the coal industry. The plan called for accessing “the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas…

Microsoft taps Touch Bar in Mac Office preview

Microsoft yesterday released a refreshed beta of Office 2016 for Mac that includes support for Apple’s latest hardware innovation, the Touch Bar that debuted in October on new MacBook Pro notebooks. On those laptops, Apple replaced the static row of function keys at the top of the keyboard with an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display…

AT&T, IBM, Nokia join to make IoT systems safer

Some big players in security and the internet of things, including AT&T and Nokia, are joining forces to solve problems that they say make IoT vulnerable in many areas. The IoT Cybersecurity Alliance, formed Wednesday, also includes IBM, Symantec, Palo Alto Networks, and mobile security company Trustonic. The group said it won’t set standards but…