November 26, 2014

Google Glass Is Dead; Long Live Smart Glasses
Despite Google’s missteps, the technology isn’t going away. The idea that Glass represents—allowing you to ingest digital information at a glance—has appealed for decades to die-hards like Thad Starner, a Glass technical lead who has been making and wearing these kinds of gadgets since 1993. Researchers are going to keep plugging away until we get to a point where the technology blends into the glasses themselves, rather than sitting so obviously atop them. So imagine that in a few years someone comes out with smart glasses that are pretty much unnoticeable. They have a tiny display in the lenses; the electronics and battery are neatly concealed in the frame.


Don't forget charisma when hiring an IT leader
Charisma often gets a bad rap in technical circles. It's perceived as the sizzle without the steak, or the "empty suit" who shakes the hands and kisses the babies, but underneath it all has no idea what he or she is talking about. In IT we often evaluate our peers and managers by their technical acumen, and anyone who doesn't make the cut is dismissed as incapable. However, these "soft skills" can be critically important, although they're rarely bundled with deep technical competence, requiring IT leaders to evaluate where to deploy their charismatic leaders vs. their strongest technicians.


What’s the Value of IT Security Investments for Security Intelligence?
Given the maniacal focus of senior executives on stock values, an alternative approach to expressing the value of IT security might be to use an event study approach. Eugene Fama, an American economist and Nobel laureate in economics, established the event study methodology based on his efficient market theory. This theory assumes stock market prices always immediately reflect all available information. Simply stated, event studies reflect the stock market reaction to a public announcement.


An Unconventional Solution to a Big IT Problem
No matter how you slice it, the user community believes that we will somehow divine the perfect system for them. And as much as we wish this unrealistic expectation would go away—or that we could just go ahead and write the systems without our users’ involvement—we all know that’s not possible. (At least, not if we want to have a hope of actually delivering on their real needs.) So what’s an IT professional to do when faced with the ever-present burden of unavailable stakeholders? Here’s a real-life story that may cause you to not only think a little differently, but to act a little differently in the coming year.


7 Leadership Tips for Women Tech Executives
"Female executives face the challenge of presenting themselves accurately in their first 90 days on the job. They need to balance proving both their competence and skill set with showing their true work persona. Male executives are judged first and foremost on how they do a job, and perhaps secondarily on their office demeanor and appearance. Women are immediately judged on both, and therefore need to set goals around performance in both areas," says Danielle Tate, founder and CEO of MissNowMrs.com, an online name change service.


The Gap Between Big Data and Big Insights: Turning data into engaging stories
It’s not that big data isn’t important. Believe me, it’s the foundation for the future of business. It’s just that every time I hear about big data, it’s either in the context of social media, The Internet of Things, data technology, Nate Silver, or a combination of all of the above. What I don’t hear enough is the human side of data, the questions asked, the insights that are drawn, and the ways that insights are then executed against at every level that matters (internally and externally). The problem with big data is we think that by saying “big,” we automatically convey importance and urgency up, down, and across our organization.


Hybrid cloud growth leaves enterprises scrambling for control
Cairns explained that the reason why there has been such a quick uptake in such a short period of time is because enterprises have realised the advantages a cloud environment can provide, such as the increased freedom to be agile and innovative. "It's almost the freedom to fail quietly. So you can go out and be innovative, and if it does work, you can expand madly on public and on private. It's just so much more accessible," she said. But because the uptake has been so rapid, Cairns said many enterprises are now wrangling with multiple cloud accounts, while learning how to balance shifting workloads from legacy and into the cloud.


Review: Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro
Using the pico projector is a mixed bag. It's more of a gimmick than a useful feature. It projects the image out of the left side of the cylinder, and tablet placement is critical to get a level projection on a wall or screen. The stand must be in a low angle position, and tilted just right to get a good projected image. There is a slider next to the lens for focusing the projected display, which can be as big as 50 inches. This slider is stiff to move, making fine adjustments very difficult. This turns using the projector into an exercise in frustration. A button on the left side of the tablet toggles the pico projector on and off.


Making the Case for an API Roadmap
Access is often a significant API adoption barrier, so provide a self-service, resource-rich environment. Use API management infrastructure (e.g. WSO2 API Manager, Apigee, 3Scale) to expose an “API store.” The API Store application will establish your own API marketplace and promote APIs. Application developers easily find, explore, subscribe, and evaluate APIs within a marketplace experience similar to the Apple AppStore or Google Marketplace. The venue lets developers register as a potential API consumer, obtain API access credentials, and match project requirements to API capabilities.


Target Wants Data Breach Bank Claims Dismissed
"Target's gross security deficiencies enabled the breach, and Target's inaction and omissions worsened the breach's effect on plaintiffs," the lenders said in a court filing. The banks are relying in part on a Minnesota law — the Plastic Card Security Act — to support their claim that Target had a duty to shield them. The retailer contends the lenders aren't covered by the measure. The law prohibits the company from retaining certain card data after a sale is completed. Target's lawyers say the data theft happened at the point of sale and that the statute doesn't apply. Bank attorneys counter the company has said it retained card data and that the retailer voluntarily disabled data system security functions that would have detected the breach.



Quote for the day:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” -- John Quincy Adams

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