ITI Daily News Roundup

Workforce

Lawmakers: Immigration reform path unclear.  A key issue continues to stymie lawmakers: whether to tackle reform in chunks or in one complete package.  (Politico Pro)

Immigration reform needed 'desperately.'  Technology companies have been leaders in the hue and cry to expand the visa program for high-skilled labor, particularly foreigners who earn advanced degrees at United States colleges. Tens of thousands of engineering jobs go unfilled, the companies say, because there are neither enough skilled labor among Americans nor enough visas to hire people from abroad. (Politico Pro)

Ryan, Rubio buddy up on immigration.  Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan, two possible contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, may be partners when it comes to one of the biggest wedge issues for the Republican Party: immigration.  (Politico)

Chamber, union leaders mull alliance to press for immigration reform.  Washington’s most powerful business lobby and prominent union leaders are discussing a joint push on immigration reform this year. (The Hill)

San Jose State partners with Udacity for groundbreaking online courses.  San Jose State University teams with online education startup Udacity to offer three math classes in pilot program that could lead to nationwide program by summer.  (San Jose Mercury News)

Regulation

UN plans Internet governance amid outcry to defund ITU.  U.N. telecom arm ITU coordinates new internet governance plans; a petition demands ITU's U.S. funding stop, including donors Apple, Verizon, Cisco and more.  (ZDNet)

Free telecom industry from 20th century regs.  Today regulations from the past century result in a misallocation of resources, the authors write.  (Politico Pro op-ed/Boucher and Mehlman)

India may clip telco regulator's powers on license enforcement.  India's department of telecommunications is looking at taking over some powers of sector regulator TRAI, including the monitoring of service quality and parameters for telecom network.  (ZDNet)

Murphy slams NRA, Apple for app.  He demands Apple reclassify an NRA-produced app.  (Politico)

Cybersecurity & Privacy

New 'Aaron's Law' aims to alter controversial computer fraud law.  Silicon Valley congresswomen wants to change a 1984 law that was used to prosecute Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last week.  (CNET)

For 1 in 3 teen girls, online meetings lead to offline encounters.  Study of 251 girls ages 14 to 17 also finds that abused or neglected teens are more likely to portray themselves online in a sexual manner.  (CNET)

'Active defense' benefits public sector more.  Leaking false information to lead hackers down the wrong path makes more sense for government agencies as they have more resources to do so and more sensitive information to protect.  (ZDNet)

Symantec: Rogue clouds cause confidential data exposure in business.  Symantec says that as demand grows for cloud computing, businesses need to be aware of the "hidden costs" associated with this technology.  (ZDNet)

Tech Business

ITI, TechNet stalemate spilling over.  Cisco's move is the latest shift as lobbying groups make changes after a failed merger.  (Politico Pro)

Facebook's new 'Graph Search' tools a potential challenge to Google.  In a potential challenge to much larger rival Google, Facebook said Tuesday that it's introducing new search tools that will let its 1 billion users scour the social network for information about people, photos, places and other interests.  (San Jose Chronicle)

Windows 8, media tablets stunt PC microprocessor demand in 2012.  Combined with macroeconomic uncertainty, disappointing demand for Windows 8 devices and media tablets replacing PC cut revenue for PC microprocessors last year, says IDC.  (ZDNet)

Innovation

Can ‘big data’ lift people out of cycles of debt?  To better gauge the arguments on both sides of this question, we ask a financial-technology investor and a big data entrepreneur.  (VentureBeat.com)

Breaking down the big data.  Data analytics is becoming one of the fastest-growing parts of the information technology industry.  (FT)

US Postal Service pushes the digital envelope in battle for its future.  Paul Vogel, the USPS's new digital guru, has his work cut out for him in the battle to upend mail delivery into the tech world. (The Guardian)

Global Trade

U.S. says to negotiate services trade pact with EU, Japan, others.  The United States said on Tuesday it plans to negotiate an agreement with the European Union, Japan and 18 other economies to remove trade and investment barriers in services ranging from finance to express delivery.  (Reuters)

New China leaders must steady economy in 2013 before driving reform.  China's new leaders must stabilize the economy this year to keep employment high while avoiding a surge in housing prices and inflation that could undermine reforms needed to overhaul the country's export-oriented growth model.  (Reuters)

China FDI Shows Full-Year Decline as Economic Expansion Slows.  China’s foreign direct investment declined for the first full year since 2009 as economic growth slowed and manufacturers relocated to markets with cheaper labor, contrasting with outbound spending that surged to a record.  (Bloomberg)

Energy & Sustainability

How smart batteries create efficient data centers.  Akamai looks into powering data centers with batteries to help reduce energy costs during peak demand periods.  (GreenBiz.com)

Google Builds Offshore Wind Line to Feed Jersey.  A Google -backed undersea power line that will connect offshore wind farms to the U.S. eastern seaboard will begin construction in 2016 with its first segment off the New Jersey coast.  The first phase of the Atlantic Wind Connection will span the length of New Jersey and carry 3,000 megawatts of electricity, the Princeton, New Jersey-based project said today in a statement. The offshore cable is expected to be operational in 2019.   (Bloomberg)

How Stonyfield Farm is using SAP to measure its carbon footprint.  Specialized software has enabled the yogurt company to measure the carbon footprint for all of its products.  (GreenBiz.com)

PayPal strikes a deal with in-store tech company NCR.  PayPal's deal with NCR will help the company add new features and functionality to its in-store shopping app.  (CNET)

Dell:  From PC King to Buyout Fodder.  Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners was in discussions with Dell on a buyout at about $13 to $14 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter. The buyout group would include Michael Dell.  (WSJ)

Momentum Seems to Build for Gargantuan Buyout of Dell.  Dell appears to be hoping that going private can help ease its woes. But the hurdles to completing a big leveraged buyout and to solving its business problems aren’t going away anytime soon.  (NYT)

Facebook on Collision Course With Google.  After years of collecting photos and personal data from its billion-plus members, Facebook unveiled a search tool that sifts through people's profiles—and pushes the social network deeper into Google's home turf.  (WSJ)

SAP's Software Innovations Drive Sales.  The German business software giant delivered strong fourth-quarter sales growth, driven by demand for its web-based and database products, showing the company's investment in new technology is paying off.  (WSJ)

Alcatel wins $1 billion deal with India's Reliance Comms.  Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA has won an eight-year contract valued at more than $1 billion to manage Reliance Communications Ltd's mobile and fixed networks in the east and south of India.  (Reuters)

Apple retail executive resigns.  Apple's retail division has taken another hit with the resignation of a top executive once thought to be a candidate to head the unit.  (Reuters)

Apple Lets Buyers on China Site Pay in Installments. Apple introduced installment payment plans for buyers of iPhones and MacBook laptops in China as it struggles to compete with low-cost devices in the world’s largest computer and mobile-phone market.  (Bloomberg)

Symantec Puts Altiris Unit on the Block.  Security software company Symantec Corp. has put Altiris Inc., a business it acquired for about $800 million in 2007, up for sale and is drawing interest from private-equity firms, people familiar with the process said.  Altiris, which provides IT management software that helps companies manage so-called “end point” connections such as laptops and mobile devices, is expected to fetch less than the amount it sold for, the people said.  (WSJ)

4 top carriers to sell new BlackBerry 10 phones.  Research In Motion isn’t out of the woods yet, but at least one obstacle to the success of its new BlackBerry 10 phones is out of the way.  (GigaOM.com)

EBay Stock Causes Nonbuyer's Remorse.  A glance at eBay's share price, up 73% over the past year, is enough to give skeptics pangs of nonbuyer's remorse.  (WSJ)

AMD alleges former managers copied 100,000 confidential files before joining Nvidia.  AMD believes that a former vice-president and three managers handed trade secrets to Nvidia, after they jumped ship to join a rival hardware-making firm.  (ZDNet)

At 11:55 a.m. ET, the President and Vice President will hold an event at the White House to unveil a package of proposals to reduce gun violence.  They will be joined by children from around the country who wrote the President letters in the wake of that tragedy expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety, along with their parents.  

There is no session in either the House or Senate today.  The House returns to work on January 18 at 3 p.m. ET.  The Senate is adjourned until Monday, January 21, for the presidential inaugural.