May 04, 2013

NoBackend: Front-End First Web Development
Gregor Martynus gave a talk entitled "Look ma, no backend!" about developing applications primarily from a front-end perspective, falling back to using server-side components only to implement the features the browser does not yet support. This approach is the opposite of how web applications have traditionally been developed: focusing primarily on the server-side part of an application, and then enhancing the application with front-end techniques. A website named noBackend was launched to further evangelize this idea.


Clients Like It When We Grow
Growth is good for us and for our clients. The good news is that our customers usually recognize our bias towards growth. Some clients are scared of it. Some embrace it. The ones who embrace and value growth are the people we usually enjoy the most. It makes sense for us to appeal to and sell to those customers. When I say “sell,” you know that I’m not talking about money. To be effective as a practitioner, you need people to buy your ideas, your questions, and your challenges. They need to invest enthusiasm and time.


Outside info adds to big data challenges on integration projects
Damoulakis warned that data integration efforts are complicated by the addition of external sources of information, such as demographic data and text-based data collected from social networks. In addition to ratcheting up the technical challenges of integrating data, he said external information can create data quality, security and privacy issues for IT managers and integration teams.


Local, state gov CIOs underprepared for attacks
“Insufficiently secure information networks of state and local governments create the potential for major crises ranging from identity theft to inaccessibility of the public to government services,” Consero CEO Paul Mandell said in a media release. “Governments must defend themselves and their constituents against any forms of data-security beaches.”


Google: The future of search is Now
Google Now, arguably not the most compelling name, makes the point: Google wants to tell you what you need to know "now," quickly and accurately. It works by turning natural language queries -- speaking to computer as if to another human -- into precise answers delivered from Google's servers.


Are Older Programmers More Knowledgeable?
A recent study based on Stack Overflow’s data attempts to answer if programming knowledge is related to age, if older programmers are more knowledgeable and if they acquire new skills or not. Patrick Morrison, Ph.D. Student, and Emerson Murphy-Hill, Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department of North Carolina State University, US, have recently published the study Is Programming Knowledge Related To Age? An Exploration of Stack Overflow (PDF), researching the relationship between programming knowledge and age.


10 Technology Skills That Will No Longer Help You Get A Job
If you want to know the most in-demand tech skills, that info is readily available. Want to learn the programming skills most coveted by employers? Done. But what are the skills and specialties that no one wants any more? What core competencies raise red flags instead of call backs?


Federal CIOs Fret Over Budget Pressures, IT Talent and Cybersecurity
"When budgets are tight, you have to get really serious about what you're spending money on," McClure says. "I think that's a healthy exercise to go through, because every year if you get your budget you don't ask yourself those questions." ... "CIOs are resigned to that fact," DelPrete says. "The budgetary situation has really worked to help them find new ways to save and invest."


IT departments: Compete with consumer cloud apps or risk a security breach
“The only way we can get the business on side is to up our game, to be more accommodating, more agile or they will carry on doing this until something really bad happens. I see it as a bit of a failure of the IT organisation. We’ve had the business going out and procuring cloud services and platforms that we really should have provided for them as part of our enterprise offering.”


Two Strategy Questions That Matter
Strategy is a heavy topic. Either it requires a seemingly infinite time commitment, or it is easily mistaken for an organizational vision or (perhaps worse) a short-term operational plan. If you’re trying to build a solid strategy, then there are a number of resources you can draw from. No matter what tools you use, ultimately you’re strategy has to answer two questions, brilliantly posed by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley: “Where will we play?” and “How will we win?”



Quote for the day:

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. " -- Jack London

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