Technology

Enterprises have a short-lived opportunity to slow the Microsoft upgrade train by skipping one of this year's Windows 10 refreshes, as well as one of the two slated to ship in 2019, according to Gartner and Microsoft's own support scheduling.

Company is evaluating financial software from three different vendors, and one of the reviews is assigned to this pilot fish.

"The one I was given to look at was originally written for Microsoft SQL Server, but was recently ported to Oracle," fish says. "All the source code was provided, along with a non-disclosure agreement, of course.

"It relied heavily on a large number of database-compiled PL/SQL packages and stand-alone procedures/functions, which is usually a good design. All the SQL needed was embedded in the database, and the front-end only needed to call these routines."

But as fish quickly discovers when he peruses the source code, all those packages have been compiled under the SYSTEM schema, which means they're running with almost all available administrative privileges.

The upstarts of crypto aren&t just aiming to disrupt the startup status quo,some are rivaling traditional venture capital investors, too. Thatparticularly evident today afterBinance, the worldlargest crypto exchange based on daily trade volumes, announced a $1 billion fund to back blockchain and crypto startups.

The ‘Community Influence& fund, which will be denominated in Binance BNB coin, will be aimed at nascent startups and also funds themselves, Ella Zhang — who heads the Binance Labs division — revealed today in an online web broadcastheld today in Chinese. For fund of funds investments as an LP, Binance is looking to back funds with at least $100 million in capital and, of course, a focus on blockchain and crypto.

The firm will also launch aBinance Ecosystem Fund which it said will include 20 partners.A Binance spokesperson told TechCrunch that further details of both initiatives will be released soon.

Data from Coinmarketcap.comranks Binance as the worldmost active crypto exchange, with over $5 billion of crypto traded in the past 24 hours hours at the time of writing. The company calls Hong Kong home but it is in process of relocating to Malta, where it has been welcomed by regulators after it was forced out of Japan when regulators cracked down on its business.

This isn&t Binancefirst run at investment, it hasalready made deals via its Labs division, which was unveiled earlier this year and is described by Zhang as a &social impact fund.&It led a $30 million investment in MobileCoin— a startup thatadvised byMoxie Marlinspike, the founder of encrypted messaging app Signal and Open Whisper Systems — and it is establishing an incubator that will nurture ideas and young projects with financial backing and mentorship.

The company revealed today that its first incubation project will beDache Chain, a new blockchain-based ride-hailing service in China. The company is already getting hype because one co-founder is Chen Weixing, the CEO of app development startup Funcity who initially founded Kuaidi Dache, a Chinese ride-hailing startup that eventually became Didi Chuxing, the countrydominant service that forced Uberexit from China.

&This project will utilize blockchain technology to redesign the relationship between the interests and power of entrepreneur, labors, consumers, investors, and organizers. Dache Chain will establish a community ecosystem with value anchoring, and it is expected to achieve a pure shared ecosystem and solve the problem of unfair distribution of productivity and wealth,& Binance said in a statement.

Binance also revealed that, besides MobileCoin, it has made investments in smart contract startupOasis Labs, verification serviceCertik, andcrowdfunding platform Republic.

This initiative is another example of a major crypto company using its wealth to become an investor and grow its platform through deals with younger companies. I wrote about the trend earlier this year, and since then we&ve seen some notable vehicles emerge including the Ethereum Community Fund, RippleXpring initiative and EOS-creator Block One$1 billion commitment, which has birthed multiple funds that cover some $600 million.

Note:The author owns a small amount of cryptocurrency. Enough to gain an understanding, not enough to change a life.