Stories by Katherine Noyes

Adware turns a tidy profit for those who sneak it into downloads

If you've ever downloaded software, chances are you've experienced an all-too-common surprise: ads or other unwanted programs that tagged along for the ride, only to pop up on your PC uninvited. Turns out there's a highly lucrative global industry making it happen, with "layers of deniability" to protect those involved.

This new Skype bot lets you chat with Spock

Microsoft has made no secret of its grand plans for chat bots, and this week it rolled out five new ones for Skype. Surely the most fun is "Spock," a bot that promises to help you "learn the ways of Vulcan logic."

Four US firms rule the world's cloud infrastructure

There are plenty of companies vying for a piece of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market, but the top four -- all in the U.S. -- currently dominate by such a wide margin as to effectively leave their competitors in the dust.

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