Intelligence Agents Borrow Wall Street Trading Technology

NEW YORK—Wall Street often guards its high-frequency trading strategies as if they were matters of national security. Yet the worlds of the quants and the spymasters share more than a penchant for secrecy.

The defense and intelligence fields have long relied on computers to help collect and organize data. But a new cross-pollination has flowered with the super-fast automated systems developed by Wall Street. That technology is now being used to search the Internet's message boards for security threats, comb through bank records for unusual flows of money and gather information used in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Microsoft toppled as world's largest tech firm

Microsoft has been toppled as the world's largest technology manufacturer, based upon market capitalisation at least.

Long-term rival Apple has forged ahead of the Seattle-based software giant in Q1 2010, with its value rising to £154 billion, compared to Microsoft's £150.98 billion.

The success of the Apple iPhone, and the new iPad, has led to a surge in the company's market worth in recent years.

Shares in the company now cost ten times more than they did in 2000, while Microsoft has seemingly struggled to maintain the industry dominance it established during the 1990s.

Microsoft is still the better performing company based on profits alone, clearing £10 billion in the first quarter of 2010 compared to Apple's £9.3 billion.

However, with the Apple iPad shifting more than one million units in its first month in the US, and the tablet device's global launch taking place today (May 28th), the next quarter's figures will be particularly interesting.

Commenting on the news, Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer noted that the company has "good competitors", but is continuing to perform "very well".

Posted by Jon Aspinell

Technology Executives to Provide the "State of Technology" at NCTA's Statewide Conference in RTP

Event to Focus on Technology's Impact on Communications, Energy/Smart Grid, Government Solutions, Healthcare and Supply Chain/Logistics

RALEIGH, N.C., May 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA), the primary voice of the technology industry in North Carolina, announced its lineup of presenters for the organization's annual RTP conference, to be held Wednesday, May 26 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham. The event, titled "State of Technology: Transforming the Way We Live, Work and Play" will feature presentations from companies whose solutions are revolutionizing their respective industries. Executives from the following companies are confirmed as speakers: Gigabeam, NWN Corporation and Sony Ericsson in communications; Accenture, Elster Solutions, and Progress Energy in energy/smart grid; Cisco, Raytheon and SAS in government solutions; Allscripts, CSC and d-WISE in healthcare; and Flextronics, GXS and Inmar in supply chain/logistics.

Dr. John Kelly, senior vice president and director of IBM Research, will provide the opening keynote presentation. As the global leader for IBM Research, Dr. Kelly is focused on stimulating innovation that delivers new technologies and services and opens new markets for IBM. At the State of Technology Conference, Dr. Kelly will discuss IBM's smarter planet agenda and what it means for the future of business and society.

"IBM is applying its deep research skills to help our clients address some of the world's most formidable and exciting challenges," said Dr. John E. Kelly III, senior vice president and director of IBM Research. "As the ability to monitor and analyze the physical and natural systems that run our world increases, technology holds new promise to make the world work better. IBM scientists and engineers are working on these things around the world."

"Technology plays such a key role in nearly every aspect of our daily lives," said Brooks Raiford, NCTA president and CEO. "The five presentation areas on which we will focus during this year's conference are industries that are especially important in our state. We are pleased to have executives from some of the leading companies in these industries to present and discuss ways in which technology will continue to shape the way we do business and live in North Carolina."

Title sponsor for this year's event is IBM. Additional sponsors include: EMC(2), Cisco, Hosted Solutions, Accenture, Beacon Technologies, Triangle Business Journal, Time Warner Cable Business Class, SAS, Hudson IT, AT&T, Business Wire, CSC, DPR Group, Grant Thornton, SunGard, tw telecom, Vaco, AllScripts, CA, DataChambers, Peak 10, Railinc, Elster Solutions, GXS, Level 3, New Horizons Computer Learning Center, NWN Corporation, Project Right Track, Raleigh Economic Development, Computer Service Partners and Red Hat.

For more information or to register for the State of Technology Conference, please visitwww.nctechnology.org, or contact Marc Montoro at mmontoro@nctechnology.org or 919-856-0393 ext. 225.

SOURCE: North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA)

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