November 01, 2013

With big data, the DNC turns politics into political science
To learn more about how the DNC pulled vast amounts of data together to predict and understand voter preferences and positions on the issues, join Chris Wegrzyn, Director of Data Architecture at the DNC, based in Washington, DC. The discussion, which took place at the recent HP Vertica Big Data Conference in Boston, is moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions.


The workplace holy grail: Successful collaboration
Collaboration at its core is harnessing the differences that each person brings and leveraging the contributions of individuals to create a greater sum. This is the fastest, most efficient way for organizations to accelerate growth. The greater sum is an exponential factor that moves companies forward at a rate that can never be achieved by singular individuals.


6 dirty secrets of the IT industry
"There are no secrets for IT," says Pierluigi Stella, CTO for managed security service provider Network Box USA. "I can run a sniffer on my firewall and see every single packet that comes in and out of a specific computer. I can see what people write in their messages, where they go to on the Internet, what they post on Facebook. In fact, only ethics keep IT people from misusing and abusing this power. Think of it as having a mini-NSA in your office."


Challenges facing the CIO in 2014
With factors like the cloud, BYOD, and big data making waves in a big way, the CIO needs to start reevaluating his or her role. What can you do to make yourself valuable in this changing environment? Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you step into 2014 and encounter some big changes.


Gartner: Cloud-based security as a service set to take off
According to its “Market Trends: Cloud-based Security Services Market, Worldwide, 2014,” Gartner is predicting growth is likely to come because of the adoption of these cloud-based security services by small- to-mid-sized business (SMB) in particular. Certain market segments mentioned in the report will see higher overall sales and year-over-year growth.


To Build a Great UI, Test the Experience, Not the Code
Because usability testing involves end users, it can be confused with "end-user testing." You should use end-user testing to test your code because users are cheap and available, and because users have some understanding of the business, so they're easier to train to do the tests (and their feedback makes more sense than what you'd get from strangers off the street).


Red Hat Targets OpenShift PaaS Tools for Enterprise App Development
The tooling is aimed at helping JBoss developers build apps for PaaS clouds without having to learn new development techniques, Cormier said, describing xPaaS as "a developer interface to the operating system of the cloud." He added, "There is a real, real gap between low-level services provided by existing PaaSes and what is needed for composite enterprise apps of today."


The CIO as technologist, strategist, business executive — and diplomat
When CIOs approach challenges, a practical approach is advisable, he adds: "It starts with some humility, some under-promising and over-delivery. It starts with some consistency in that regard. It also starts with developing a vision, strategy and roadmap that you follow and execute over a period of time." Strategy counts for a lot, says Carter, and not only in IT but in the business you serve.


Game over: Microsoft Office is killing Google Apps and anemic iWorks
That Computerworld article mirrors what analyst research is finding: Office dominates, especially in the enterprise. A recent Forrester Research study found that Microsoft Office 2010 is used in 85% of companies surveyed, Office 2007 by 51%, and Office 2003 by 28%. (Many companies use multiple versions of Office.) The survey found that Google Docs is used by only 13% of companies.


Applying the scientific method to software testing
The scientific method is based on observation and experimentation. Testing is the same thing. We set up tests that are very much like experiments, and then we run them and observe what happens. That's the same way scientists test their hypotheses. We run experiments, measure the results and analyze the data to figure out what's really happening.



Quote for the day:

"Developing a passion for learning something new every day expands your capacity to become exceptional at everything you do" -- A. Bellemare

No comments:

Post a Comment