Tech Bytes - Daily Digest: August 2012

August 31, 2012

Understanding Change Appetite in Organizations
The word change is the operative word. A Project Manager is responsible for delivering the outputs that will enable the desired business change to take place – within the tolerances afforded to him in the areas of – timeline, cost, scope, quality, risk and benefits. Are all organizations equal in their ability to accept change? How does it impact project management?

Improving PPM Maturity: Resource Leveling
The reality is that resource leveling needs to take multiple factors into account and can be anything but simple. And, like anything else that’s really complicated, most of us are looking for better tools to help us accomplish the task. That’s when the question about automatic resource leveling comes up.

Oracle's emergency Java patch blocks zero-day exploits, researchers confirm
"It appears that it's effective in blocking the exploit," Tod Beardsley, the engineering manager for Metasploit, said early Thursday. "We just finished testing it 10 minutes ago."

Google adds enterprise social networking features to Google+
On Wednesday, the company released in preview mode the first Google+ features tailored specifically for workplace use, aimed at Google Apps, the cloud email and collaboration suite for schools, companies and government agencies.

The White House BYOD toolkit is a great resource for federal agencies and businesses alike
The move is part of a larger digital strategy push by the Obama administration to modernize technology and increase the use of mobile technologies throughout the federal government.

The Problem with Projects [Infographic]
So whether you are a Project Manager looking for that extra career boost, or a business in dire need of project help, PMPs are the way to go. Check out the infographic below presented by Villanova University to learn more.

Three tips to escape the tyranny of IT metrics
IT metrics can be a curse against innovation and becoming a strategic partner with the business. Here are steps you can take to escape the tyranny.

Think Small Data Before Big Data, Healthcare Gurus Argue
Observers of health IT argue that instead of succumbing to the siren song of big data analytics, providers should focus on using "small" data better. In other words, concentrate on the clinical data already available in digitized form and use only those health IT tools that are directly applicable to care management.

Quote for the day:

"A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier." --Tom Stoppard

August 30, 2012

Management reserves and contingency reserves: what’s the difference?
Do you have contingency on your project? In Eliyahu Goldratt’s book Critical Chain he calls it safety, but whatever name for it you use, most projects have an element of budget provision put aside in case of emergency.

The Four Kinds of Burning Platforms
Contrary to how some people relate to the term “burning platform,” I don’t see it as a story of disaster. To me it’s a tale of courage and tenacity that illustrates the commitment necessary to face the risk and uncertainty inherent in departing from the current state of affairs.

The best interface is no interface
The author has tried to find out why and how the UI is a hindrance to the users and how to get away from it. Read on completely and I am sure, you will like it.

Hackers vow 'hellfire' in latest major data leak
A group of hackers has released a vast quantity of data from banks, government agencies, consulting firms and many others and promised more data leaks in the future.

Agile strategic planning and innovation at Pandora
Internet radio service Pandora’s CTO and VP Tom Conrad describes how the company’s agile strategic planning process diverged from the traditional, annual, all-hands product planning session.

Dell unveils XPS 10 tablet with ARM processor, Windows RT
The company's new tablet strategy revolves around Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 and RT operating systems. Also, with the consumerization of IT in the enterprise, Dell is also more on higher-margin mobile devices that can be used at work and home.

Innovation is the most abused word in tech
Most of what is called innovation today is mere distraction. But don’t take my word for it. Read this paper by Robert Gordon, written for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Financial Times assesses it and has a link to the 25-page PDF.

Samsung introduces first Windows Phone 8 device
According to Microsoft's blog post, the AVIV S has a 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display made from Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Other Samsung ATIV S specs inlcude 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB of onboard RAM, 8MP autofocus rear camera and 1.9MP front-facing camera

10 Tips For Starting Up A Successful Solution Provider Business
Creating a business can be nerve-wracking, but it also can be rewarding, both financially and emotionally. Here are 10 tips from Next-Gen 250 entrepreneurs on how to reap more of the rewards, and less of the anxiety.

Intel Teases Tech for Using Laptop to Wirelessly Charge a Phone
Imagine being able to charge a nearly dead smartphone battery just by putting the phone next to a laptop. Well, it turns out that feature is on the drawing board. Intel said on Wednesday that it is working with fellow chipmaker Integrated Device Technology to bring wireless charging capabilities to future Ultrabook laptops.

Quote for the day:

"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle." --Kahlil Gibran

August 29, 2012

No need for UN to take over internet, says EU digital chief Kroes
Neelie Kroes has told ZDNet that she does not favour changing the way the internet is governed, although she added that there was a case for hearing out governments who want a greater say.

Midata project plan for compulsory customer data
"Midata will allow consumers greater insight into their everyday consumption and lifestyle habits by using applications and intermediaries to analyse their actual behaviours and thereby empower them to make better spending choices and secure the best deals.

Big data analytics to touch $680 mn by 2015: EMC
IT solutions provider EMC today said the big-data analytics market in India, which it expects to more than double to around USD 680 million by 2015 from USD 320 million last year, presents a huge opportunity for the company.

Podcast on the Enterprise Architecture profession–Interview with CIPS’s Stephen Ibaraki
Stephen Ibaraki, focuses much more on the growth and progress of the Enterprise Architecture profession itself. Specifically this podcast reflects upon some of the questions like the role of Business Architecture in Enterprise Architecture, the value proposition of the Enterprise Architect, etc.

Deconstruct Business Process Model using Zachman Framework Principles – 5 part videos
Check this out to see the answers with samples to the questions, what’s the difference between primitive and composite? Why do you need primitive models ? how these concepts are helpful in the context of business process modeling? How to use the primitive to create the target business process diagram? What are the limitations of the approach which doesn’t consider the concepts of primitive models ?

Orange and T-Mobile sign with MasterCard for NFC mobile payments
As the UK mobile industry's plans for a mobile payments joint venture continue to hang in limbo, Everything Everywhere has revealed an 'exclusive' partnership with MasterCard.

Going for Speed: Testing Against Performance Expectations
In this infoQ presentation, Jay Harris offers tips on using unit testing to improve the performance of applications.

The Pragmatic Architect - To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before
Many architects have technical knowledge that’s both impressive and sound, which is indeed an inevitable basis for design success. Yet, a lot of software projects fail or suffer due to severe challenges in their architecture. The key to mastery is how architects approach design, what they value, and where they focus their attention and work.

Best BYOD management: Containment is your friend
But there's a catch: Not all employees are comfortable with the prospect of having their personal phones locked down and controlled as tightly as the BlackBerries that Perkins would like to phase out. That's where the notion of containerization comes in.

WePay Launches Buttons To Allow Any Site To Accept In-Line Payments With Just A Line Of Code
For site owners, adding a WePay Payment Button is as easy as embedding a YouTube video — they merely add a small cut-and-paste piece of code to the site. Those buttons also enable site owners to take payments directly on a site, without redirecting to a third-party payments site like PayPal

Body Language Secrets: What Self-Image Are You Broadcasting?
This article discussed the impressions speakers create through their body language. In Part Two, I'll examine some specific gestures and the messages they, intentionally or not, seem to be sending.

Quote for the day:

If you're not occasionally failing, you're not trying hard enough - Arthur Sulzberger Jr

August 28, 2012

Intel partners with VMware on cloud security
Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) said its hardware-enhanced security capabilities integrated directly into the processor combined with vSphere 5.1 would provide a hardened and high-integrity platform to run business-critical applications in private and public cloud environments.

As Microsoft gains, VMware insists that it maintains the upper hand
“Everyone in this room knows you cannot compete against Microsoft on price,” VMware Chief Marketing Officer Rick Jackson said in a press conference. “They are the world’s most profitable for-free company ever. You compete against Microsoft on value.”

Predicting the future ... in four parts
A four part articles on predictive analytics as published by IBM. you will also find lots of other reference links to predictive analytics in this site.

Google Has Had Enough: Files Lawsuit To Ban Multiple Apple Products
But something has changed: Google now owns Motorola, and aren’t wasting any time in defending their new acquisition, as they are now seeking a sales ban on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers in the US. This time, it’s personal, and contains a twist that could make this particular lawsuit a very dangerous one for Apple.

More Flash Goodness: VFCache 1.5 update
One particular focus area that's drawing a lot of attention is server-side flash caching. Fusion IO got to market first, resulting in an increasingly familiar compare between what they're doing and what EMC is doing with VFCache.

The “appliance” approach to Big Data and Private Cloud
In the appliance model we recognize that not all of the machines in our big data cluster or private cloud need to have a direct network path to the outside world. Many of these machines are worker “nodes” holding and processing sensitive data, or virtual machines.

Future Big Data: Getting A Grip On The Big Data Explosion
Big data’s getting bigger by the day, and unless we can get a handle on what to do with it all, it’s going to cause some real headaches for those in the data storage business.

Building WPF Applications with Self-Tracking Entity Generator and Visual Studio 2012 - Data Validation
Find out how to do data validation with the Self-Tracking Entity Generator for WPF/Silverlight. The purpose of using data validation is to make sure that any data is validated before being stored in the database. It provides users with the necessary guidance during their data input tasks and is an important part of any WPF LOB application.

Enterprise Security: Being your own worst enemy
From what I heard confirmed today security is largely disconnected from the business, largely dependent on technology, and unable to be anything more than a cost center... and it seems like the more we rant and wave our arms the deeper the hole gets. Security's inability to go back to the roots of why IT is around, is what's hurting.

The Human Algorithm: Making Information Overload Work
From business to education to government and everything in between, without studying how the undercurrent of behavior is evolving, organizations cannot effectively adapt to new trends and opportunities. Change, though, cannot be undertaken simply because of pervasive data.

Quote for the day:

"I always try to go hard on the issue and soft on the person." -- Henry Cloud

August 27, 2012

Three IT Best Practices for Better BI Integration
What usually happens is integration is done on a project-by-project basis, but all you have to do is look at business intelligence and analytics projects for proof organizations could benefit from a more thoughtful approach to integration.

How CIOs at Microsoft and Cisco Realigned IT For A New Era
Larger corporations with multiple operating companies, business units, or brands must confront a debate about the merits of centralized vs. federated organizational structures. The rationale for the former is often the desire to set common standards, create efficiencies, and leverage economies of scale by purchasing software and vendor services globally rather than locally, where possible. The rationale for the latter is often to have IT closest to where the business is done, to increase flexibility, and to efficiently deliver capabilities based on the unique needs of each individual entity.

Gartner: Cloud disillusions, NFC and big data to deliver on hype
‘Big data’ and mobile payments using NFC chips in smartphones are among the breaking technology set to deliver on their hype, while cloud computing is on “a path to disillusionment”, according to a study from Gartner.

A lesson in innovation from Apple's first interface trial
Apple last week won the first round of its patent fight against Samsung (and in the shadows, Google), and now the market questions whether there will be sufficient innovation in non-Apple mobile devices. Perhaps Apple's own history of innovation and legal fights over interface show that there are many ways to represent files and commands, and to do all the stuff we do.

Tapping into Consumer Sentiment on Social Networks
The basic technology employed for sentiment analysis, sometimes called opinion mining, is natural language processing, computational linguistics and text analytics. The idea is to both identify and extract subjective information from a variety of sources, including web pages, online news, internet discussion groups, online reviews, web blogs, and social media.

Java zero day allegedly spotted in the wild
Mushtaq was able to successfully test the exploit on a test machine running Firefox and the latest version of Java. He warned that it would be only a matter of time before a proof of concept was released for anyone to exploit the vulnerability, but it appears to have happened already.

OpenXava 4.5 Supports JPA Inheritance Mapping and Automated Business Logic
The latest version of OpenXava, a Java framework for rapid development of enterprise applications, supports all strategies of JPA inheritance mapping and the Automated Business Logic (ABL) library. OpenXava version 4.5 was released last month.

Do You Need a Chief Data Officer?
More organizations are selecting Chief Data Officers to help wrangle internal and external data. But is a CDO good for everyone?

12 IT Certifications That Deliver Career Advancement
In today's competitive IT job market having the right certification can help push your resume to the top of the stack or push you ahead of your colleagues when the opportunity for a promotion arises.

14 Things You Should Do at the Start of Every Work Day
“Having a good start to the day where you have greater control is critical in achieving better results, and ultimately greater career success,” says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert

Quote for the day:

"Success is one thing you can't pay for. You buy it on the installment plan and make payments every day." –-- ZigZiglar

August 26, 2012

Overview of 'Who is best to own the data?' podcast - Talking Big Data
In this “Talking Big Data” podcast, Tom Deutsch, program director of IBM's Big Data Portfolio, spoke with IBM's social media lead for big data, David Pittman, on the question: “Who is best to own the data?”

Big Data Is Important, but Open Data Is More Valuable: Gartner
Open data, according to the research firm, refers to the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other forms of control.

'Big Data' Becomes Big Tool For Democrats And Republicans In 2012 Presidential Race
The pace of e-politics is picking up, with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney betting heavily on the Internet’s unprecedented power to capture voter eyeballs.

Top 5 Myths About Big Data
With the amount of hype around Big Data it’s easy to forget that we’re just in the first inning. More than three exabytes of new data are created each day, and market research firm IDC estimates that 1,200 exabytes of data will be generated this year alone.

The Future of Digital Analytics, 'Big Data' and Marketing
"71% of CMOs feel unprepared to deal with the data explosion over the next five years. 68% feel unprepared to deal with social media. 65% feel unprepared to deal with the growing number of channel and tech device choices."

The Future of Video from a Cloud Perspective
While TV-everywhere solutions may not explore the cloud as yet; monitoring solutions like surveillance, motion detection, medical or speciality care are good cloud use cases for streaming, video delivery and disaster management. Archiving and video data policy compliance are other viable cloud use cases for organizations.

The Venerable, Vulnerable Cloud
Certainly, a lot has been done to bolster cloud security, reduce the perceived risks associated with cloud deployments and even with security concerns, organizations are moving to the cloud for business reasons.

DevOps: The Changing Face of Application Engineering
The delays in software development lifecycles are causing pain. The result is reputation loss, erode market share and impact business. Fortunately, automation is emerging as a solution to the changing demands of application development and testing. Technologies such as cloud and virtualization are assisting organizations to embrace automation.

CQRS Guidance Project On MSDN
The project is built mainly on the .NET stack and uses various components of the Windows Azure platform. The walkthrough does go into details including various optimizations such as using snapshots, asynchronous calls, dynamic throttling of messages, filtering of messages, partitioning the service bus and selective caching of data.

Quote for the day:

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." -- Michael Jordan

August 25, 2012

Ucoming episodes of the Briefing Room
Check out these upcoming Briefing Room episodes to learn from veteran Analyst Rick Sherman how new database technologies can change the manner in which analytics are done, veteran Analyst Robin Bloor explain how data flows are changing rapidly these days, due to a number of technological advances and veteran analyst and practitioner Rick Sherman of Athena IT Solutions, who will explain how advances in data virtualization have opened up new ways of designing, building and maintaining analytic sandboxes

How Master Data Governance Is Evolving
Modern MDM has developed innovative concepts, methods and controls that are not routinely used by more generic Information Governance or Data Governance methodologies. Here are just a few examples illustrating the point

Social networking just got real
A company called Egobook will download the content from your Facebook profile and print a hardcover book called a Likebook.

When IT Meets Politics
Today, thanks (in part) to the success of films like The Bourne Trilogy and television series like Person of Interest they are being seen as either a threat to society or the "answer" to a whole range of problems facing central and local government government.

Make communication, purpose priorities in a data governance program
In this interview with SearchDataManagement.com, McGilvray offers advice on what to do -- and what not to do -- in setting up and leading a governance initiative. One of her top keys to success for data governance managers: making sure you know the reasons why your organization is looking to create a data governance process, so you can ensure that the program addresses those issues.

Will Nokia and Microsoft be the winners after Apple - Samsung verdict?
Apple won big over Samsung in the latest patent infringement case and if devices are pulled from shelves then Microsoft may be the big winner with Windows Phone 8 coming soon.

7 Frugal Startup Tips from Millionaire Entrepreneurs
You don't win in business by wasting money. Even the most successful entrepreneurs pinched pennies in the early days--and many still do. Here, several multimillionaires share their best cost-cutting tips when you're trying to get your startup off the ground.

Cloud BI: Why You Need It, Where It’s Going

Steve Dine, managing partner at Datasource Consulting LLC, discusses the benefits of cloud for BI and data warehousing, the validity of concerns around cloud and the synergy with big data and analytics with cloud.

Oracle broadens support for open-source R analytics
R has its roots in academia but has been subject to increased attention from enterprise tech vendors of late, even SAS Institute, which is known for its own widely used, proprietary statistical-analysis software.

Data Centers: a Crystal Ball for IT Market?
What is Happening? Buried in the somewhat disappointing financial reports from Dell and HP this week is something that Saugatuck sees as an indicator of a significant shift in how we see and measure IT markets.

Quote for the day:

"The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today." - Les Brown

August 24, 2012

IT managers are learning the art of fine-tuning the data centre to align it with business expansion
All IT managers are of the opinion that the data centre is not just expected to ensure availability or keep the lights on, but drive more business flexibility and reduce capital investments and ensure higher utilisation.

The State of Dashboards in 2012: Pathetic
The graphics have gotten better, and we can interact with charts in what is commonly called visual discovery so you can drill into and page through data to change its presentation. So some progress has been made, but the basic presentation of a number of charts on the screen has not improved significantly and worse yet neither has the usefulness of the charts

Amazon Web Services launches low-cost storage service
Areas that are a good fit for Glacier include media archives, financial and healthcare records, raw genomic sequence data, long-term database backups, and information that has to be retained for regulatory compliance, it said.

Building a Camera App in Mono for Android
The Android SDK provides the ability to use the built-in camera within your applications. Whether applying photo filters and creating the next Instagram, scanning QR codes, or simply allowing the user to share what they're seeing with friends, Android's camera API takes care of the hard work for you.

Hacking humans: Building a better you
Do you have a cochlear implant? An intraocular lens in your eye? A prosethetic leg with microservos? You may not realize it, but you're standing on the front line of a new age of medical augmentation, one that's raising a host of complex questions.

Reading and Writing a Book With DNAHarvard University researchers converted a 53 000-word book into DNA and then read the DNA-encoded book using gene-sequencing technology, the researchers report this week in Science. The project is by far the largest demonstration of digital information storage in DNA and the densest consolidation of data in any medium, the authors say.

The No. 1 rule of business relationships
Unexpressed communication sinks into people like industrial dumping sinks into the dirt. It leeches into the groundwater, makes plants die and children get sick. Unexpressed communication withers relationships, builds up hostilities and finally erupts, often in a way that is almost never helpful.

California state legislature approves Location Privacy Act
California's state legislature passed the Location Privacy Act of 2012 (SB-1434) on Wednesday, which would make it mandatory for law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before gathering any GPS or other location-tracking data that a suspect's cell phone might be sending back to its carrier.

Chennai Angels Invest in an Online Learning Network Classle.net
The website is used by more than 45,000 students and professionals across the country and reputed engineering colleges like IIT Madras, IIT Patna and PSG college of Technology Coimbatore have been associated with the company.

Rackspace tool checks the health of clouds
Rackspace Cloud Monitoring, released on Wednesday, is designed to let businesses monitor their IT infrastructure "irrespective of where it's hosted", the company said. This infrastructure includes other clouds or even on-premises systems.

Quote for the day:

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence in how you react.If you're in control,they're in control ~Tom Landry

August 23, 2012

5 Open Source Softwares up-and-comers to watch
From open source management and Web application frameworks to big data and IT provisioning using the DevOps model, ZDNet Asia spotlights some of the hottest open source software entities in these spaces now.

5 Tips for Creating an EA Assessment Model Quickly
... what starts as a simple over-the-weekend project quickly becomes a frustrating struggle. The criteria pile up quickly – after all, EA does a lot of things. The granularity is inconsistent - one can measure a piece of a process or the larger process it belongs to.

EA Quick Start Guide (Part 4): "Application" - Reclaiming the Noun
... the layer in which we apply the components, systems and sources from our infrastructure layer to provide solutions to the needs we have articulated in our business layer. To properly understand this layer those of an IT bent must throw off their belief that an application is a piece of software.

Bill Gates Part of $12 Million Round for Satellite Mobile Broadband Start-Up
Kymeta’s technology uses something called “metamaterials,” artificial materials that can manipulate electromagnetic radiation that can steer a radio signal toward a satellite, thereby creating a continuous broadband link.

50 Wireless Quick Facts - US Wireless Industry
Here is a compilation of 50 quick facts all about the US Wireless industry.

How to be a Leader in a Crappy Culture
Most of the top companies, while not perfect, tend to have great hiring and promotional practices, and invest in succession planning and leadership development. If you somehow slipped through the dragnet and got hired or promoted as a lousy manager, the cultural antibodies would eventually find and dispose of you.

U.S. looks into claims of security flaw in Siemens gear
The U.S. government is looking into claims by a cyber security researcher that flaws in software for specialized networking equipment from Siemens could enable hackers to attack power plants and other critical systems.

Amazon Releases AWS Cloud Security Practices
That Amazon has made its security practices is significant in its own right. However the fact that Amazon did so in line with the CSA's detailed questionnaire and filed it in the registry could motivate numerous other holdouts to answer the same questions.
Download here: Amazon Web Services Overview of Security Processes whitepaper (pdf)

Can CIOs be Replaced?
With disruptive technologies on the fore, one can safely assume that a sound structured IT organization will be vital for the success of the business and that it will be imperative for CIOs to oil their network with C-suit peers on a regular basis.

'Talking' smart cars begin year-long test aimed at accident reduction
With the devices, drivers are alerted to potentially hazardous situations, such as a nearby vehicle unexpectedly braking, a sudden lane change or merging traffic, by a visual or audible warning in their vehicles.

The convergence of mobile and social: The next IT battleground
As smart mobile devices and social media have become first-order ways in which we interact with the world and each other, they are becoming intertwined in ways that will have far-reaching impact.

Quote for the day:

"Though bitter, good medicine cures illness. Though it may hurt, loyal criticism will have beneficial effects." - Sima Qian

August 22, 2012

Plastic SCM – DVCS at Enterprise Level
Fully distributed is key in the enterprise to enable a wide range of possible working scenarios: from developers working with their local replica (at home, roaming, at the customer site), to distant teams using servers at different locations for speed and flexibility, but always considering the flexibility required by enterprises: distributed when required, and fully centralized when not, with the two models coexisting in harmony.

Cybercrime Bill passes Senate, set to become law
The Bill passed with some amendments by the Labor Party, after taking into consideration some of the recommendations made by the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety. These include privacy protections and how assistance is provided to foreign agencies.

ITC launches patent investigation into top tech firms
On the firing line include technology giants Samsung, Acer and Nintendo, according to PC World. The corporations and their subsidiaries will be investigated due to a complaint filed in July by three companies in California -- one of which is intellectual-property licensing company Patriot Scientific.

Reasons to Use a VPN
Corporate employees will most likely know the definition of a VPN (virtual private network). For everybody else, it’s just a way to watch Hulu from all over the world. Joking aside, there are quite a few compelling reasons why one should have VPN set up. The main and most compelling reason would be increased security.

File Renamer Basic
File Renamer Basic from Sherrod Computers is a free tool that can rename, copy, and move your files and folders based on a wide range of properties and options. It can scan thumbnails, filter files by extension, and add prefixes, suffixes, and other elements, including unique parameters.

Microsoft warns of 'man-in-the-middle' VPN password hack
Microsoft yesterday warned Windows users of possible "man-in-the-middle" attacks able to steal passwords for some wireless networks and VPNs, or virtual private networks.

Data Governance E-Book
Have you recently been involved with a major initiative such as MDM, BI, or CRM, and data quality or data governance seemed to be just an afterthought? It becomes clear to you that data quality was never included in the project in the first place. Here is an ebook for you and you may have to register to get this.

How to stop negativity from poisoning your team
Trying to manage people who have a poor attitude can feel like a losing battle. Negativity, left unchecked, will eventually stunt team performance. The first step to reinstate the positive? Learning to distinguish real negativity from someone who simply doesn't agree with you.

Nikon releases Android-powered compact camera
"The challenge for the camera manufacturers at the lower end is that smartphones have become so capable, so a product like this may just be too late to the market," said Martin Gill, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Node.js set to land on Engine Yard's PaaS
The addition of Node.js sees Engine Yard close its language gap with platform-rival Heroku. It now lacks Scala, Clojure and Python, compared with Heroku, but it has PHP, and shares Java, Ruby and Node.js with its rival.

Quote for the day:

"I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheeps led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep."~Charles Maurice

August 21, 2012

Implementation options for Android ads in code or layouts
You can choose to set up the ad request in the layout files (XML), or you can implement the ads entirely in code. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so it might be appropriate to use one or the other in different situations.

India backtracks on domestic networking tech rule
The revised draft, which was completed on Aug. 3, was then updated to say India will "progressively develop indigenous capacity to manufacture electronic telecom equipment and software [to be] inducted into the network

HTC Signals Focus on Business Market with Investment in Enterprise App Provider
HTC announced the investment on Monday in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing, stating that the company was buying a 17.1 percent stake in the Silicon Valley-based Magnet Systems. "The investment will bring social, mobile, and cloud capabilities to HTC's portfolio of service offerings to its mobile enterprise customers," HTC said in its filing.

20 Must See CSS3 and jQuery Tutorials
Although, HTML5 will not be fully implanted until 2014 , many web designers/developers, companies and web enthusiasts are using HTML5 and CSS3 in their products and apps. In this post we are sharing 20 recent web design tutorials that explore the true potential of HTML5, CSS3 and with a mix of good old jQuery.

NetApp adds Flash server caching, forges Fusion-io partnership
According to Paul Feresten, senior product marketing manager of NetApp's intelligent caching products, the company's strategy is to bring end-to-end caching including server-level Flash. Moving to the server, NetApp argues that it can provide better performance and granularity to requirements and serve databases.

Compuverde pitches object storage at cloud, big data
The company's Linux-based gateway works as a network attached storage (NAS) head to expose CIFS, NFS, Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) and open source OpenStackinterfaces to the object storage software. The gateway can also host virtual machines (VMs) and cache data on solid-state drives and NVRAM.

Preparing your teams for software defined networking
SDN provides the means to automate networks to better support different workloads, but I&O professionals also need to understand how SDN can support turning networks into a virtual network infrastructure.

In India, a time of flux approaches
Two news items from the tech startup ecosystem broke through the clutter of politics, cricket, Bollywood, and more politics news in India earlier this month. The first was good. The second was just grim.

Communicating Cybersecurity Risk to Business Leaders
Communicating cybersecurity risk effectively to business leaders depends on your ability to answer the question "How much risk do we have?" with a credible financial metric familiar to risk management decision makers. Here is a webinar on the topic.

Automaticly localizing applications with Google Translate
Google does offer a web service that provides that ability to programmaticly translate strings, however this does require a purchase of a license where this application allows for the use of the web site for free.

Oracle pays $2 million SEC fine to settle India corruption case
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Oracle under the Foreign Corrupt Practices act for failing to keep its India subsidiary from creating a slush fund used to pay phony vendors.

Quote for the day:

"The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old." - Rosalyn S. Yalow

August 20, 2012

Feedback - The #1 Thing Leaders Suck At
... nearly two million people had taken their 360-degree feedback tool. The statement that consistently receives the lowest rating is, “Asks for feedback on how his/her actions affect other people’s performance.”

AMD blog taken offline amid hacking claims
AMD has removed its blog after hackers claimed to have hacked and dumped its user database.

How These Small-Time Brands Made It Big
If you're an entrepreneur, you know that things rarely go as planned. Many don't survive the "Valley of Death" stage, when start-ups scramble for funding, resources, and customers, while still trying to get traction for their business idea. And yet some entrepreneurs hit it big and transform a business idea into a big brand. What do they do differently?

Announcing AWS Elastic Beanstalk support for Python, and seamless database integration
Elastic Beanstalk supports Python applications that run on the familiar Apache HTTP server and WSGI. In other words, you can run any Python applications, including your Django applications, or your Flask applications. Elastic Beanstalk supports a rich set of tools to help you develop faster.

What is the Difference Between Bridges, Hubs, and Switches?
Back to school: May be, most of you would be very familiar about this, but still, this would help some of you who have been doing application development for long and forgotten about the hardware devices.

Ethernet's future: How fast is fast enough?
"For 2015, we (IEEE engineers) expect the bandwidth that needs to be supported to be 10 times what it was in 2010, and in 20120, 100 times what it was in 2010," said John D'Ambrosia, chair of new Higher-Speed Ethernet Consensus group that will lay the groundwork for the actual standard.

Silver Peak builds WAN optimization directly into major hypervisors
"I can't tell you how thrilled we were when we realized that VMware was purchasing them, because this work that we've been doing, sort of just as a demo or proof-of-concept, instantly became extraordinarily relevant," Tinsley says.

Lessons learned from the recent Find My Mac remote-wipe attack
The recent remote wipe attack through Apple's Find My ... service on a Wired reporter's Mac, iPhone and iPad shows that local backups, system clones and strong passwords are more important than ever.

Prepare for the era of the data center in a box
Today, start-up SimpliVity came out of development phase with its first product, an all-in-one array that can act as a VMware server, deduplication appliance and as primary and backup storage.

Instilling collaboration
Teamwork is essential to getting things done, and to do it effectively managers need to draw upon the talents of individuals who have a stake in the outcome. There might be no “I” in team, but as Michael Jordan, whose singular play powered the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles, used to say, “But there is in win!”

Quote for the day:

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success." -- Henry David Thoreau

August 19, 2012

Survey: CIOs Bullish on Cloud Benefits, But Worry About SaaS Data Silos
CIOs continue to grow more and more bullish about cloud solutions, with a whopping 92% saying that cloud provides business benefits, according to a recent survey. Nonetheless, IT execs remain concerned over how to avoid SaaS-based data silos. The survey was conducted by Dimensional Research and commissioned by Host Analytics.

KPMG: Why is the SaaS cloud market expanding rapidly?
It’s a reasonable enough assumption – companies moving to the cloud often do so in the hope of reducing cost, after all – and it appears SaaS is the best model with which to achieve that aim, although there are still some worries for CIOs to consider.

A Study in Leader Humility
Colin’s story reminds me of the vital role humility can play in leading a business organization. It also tells me that if there is one Colin, there have to be many more like him, quietly working away, not for the glory, but for the pleasure of being part of something great, something much bigger and more important than themselves.

Oracle Makes More Moves To Kill Open Source MySQL
It’s pretty clear that Oracle is trying to make it as difficult as possible to use MySQL. The result is a wave of unsettlement in the developer community about what Oracle considers open and what it sees as closed. The move is causing problems for developers in all manner of ways as expressed here and here.

It Takes Guts To Start A Company--So How Do You Get 'Em?
The willingness to take risks is born of a combination of elements. Your personality, your experiences, your “training” to deal with risk, and your support network all factor into your readiness to accept and embrace the risks that entrepreneurship requires.

Data Loss Prevention Is Better -- And Cheaper -- Than The Cure
Do yourself a massive favor and go check the state of your backups. Make sure that your precious digital data is safe. Do it before you’re faced with a massive recovery bill.

Quest Software unveils Foglight for Windows Azure applications Available immediately as a beta, the newest addition to the Foglight APM portfolio enables IT administrators to monitor performance and understand what end users are experiencing with Windows Azure-based applications.

Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) Unveiled, to Replace C2DM Framework
GCM offers the ability to introduce a broker in between an application server and Android devices, guaranteeing cloud-type scalable communication between the two parties. GCM defines the contract so both a server and Android applications register for the GCM service and Google GCM servers maintain communication between them. The GCM servers handle all aspects of queuing messages and delivery to the target applications running on Android devices.

IG Group Open-Sources RESTdoclet
RESTdoclet is available for download as Open Source on GitHub, or in binary form from Sonatype, both under the terms of the Apache 2 license. Be sure to check out the project wiki for usage instructions, and do feel free to email IG Group at (open.source@iggroup.com) if you have any questions or feedback.

Quotes for the day:

"Management is a position that is granted; leadership is a status that is earned." ~K. Scott Derrick

"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them." ~Robert Jarvik

August 18, 2012

Implementing COBIT 5—An IT practitioner’s view eight months later
Vector took a chance last year and decided from the get-go to adopt COBIT 5 whilst it was still in exposure draft. ... So what have been the biggest challenges for us so far? Three come to mind...

Deep Data and the Semantics of Local
Surely local search can do better. Businesses want to provide rich information about their products and services, and consumers want and need that information in order to turn local search from a frustrating experience into a useful and productive one.

Doing business in India difficult: Dell
A combination of power blackouts, uncertain tax rules and contracts that are not honoured make India a difficult place to do business, a senior Dell Inc executive said on Friday in unusually blunt comments by a foreign investor.

Rackspace Launches OpenStack-based Private Cloud Software
Rackspace, a hosting and cloud computing provider, yesterday announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud Software, powered by OpenStack - making it simple and easy for companies to install, test and run a multi-node OpenStack based private cloud environment.

Heroic Leaders and Passive Followers
As leaders, if we take too much control and do not encourage others to take responsibility, we set ourselves and others up for failure. Roger Martin calls it the responsibility virus and it always begins with the germ of fear.

Microsoft’s Free Security Tools - Attack Surface Analyzer
Attack Surface Analyzer can help software developers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) understand the changes in Windows systems’ attack surface resulting from the installation of the applications they develop.

The Big Data Definitions Merriam-Webster Forgot
The lexicographers had clearly missed several opportunities to capture the big data zeitgeist. As a certified word nerd, it is my sworn duty to aid them. Herewith is an abridged list of new words and their official definitions, supplemented by my additional definitions in italics.

Malware wars heat up: Shamoon steals, wipes and leaves PCs unbootable
There is speculation that it spreads via an executable hidden in an email attachment that if opened on a Windows computer, "It can be difficult getting anything working again," warned Symantec researcher Liam O Murchu. “If your computer gets hit and you can't reboot, you have a real problem,” Techworld reported.

Researcher finds serious SMS spoofing flaw on iOS
A security research who goes by the handle "pod2g" has found a serious security vulnerability in the way iOS devices handle SMS messages, warning that this could be exploited by online criminals. The flaw, which the researcher describes as "severe," exists since the beginning of the implementation of SMS in the iPhone, and is still there in iOS 6 beta 4.

Quotes for the day:

"You got to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there." ~Yogi Berra

"You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" ~Donald Trump

August 17, 2012

Microsoft Makes Case for Upgrading to IIS 8.0
On the security side, Microsoft added dynamic IP restrictions, as well as an improved clamp-down process on FTP log-on attempts that doesn't shut out legitimate users so readily. In addition, a server name indication (SNI) capability was added to IIS 8.0 that's designed to allow hosted headers and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to share the same IP address.

Apple has its eyes on your fingertips, for security apps
Apple spent a lot on the firm — $356 million — and appears to be in a hurry to commercialize AuthenTec’s technology, which uses fingerprint sensors to authenticate mobile users as a security application.

Google chows down on 3D-printed pasta
Google's staff benefits are renowned in the IT industry, and along with the scooters, free time for personal projects, slides and game machines, the search giant's employees have been enjoying something else — 3D-printed pasta.

Tech supporting BYOD 'not quite there'
Lack of control over employees' mobile devices and people's propensity to weaken security when deployed by uninstalling programs means bring-your-own-device trend a liability.

Medical Cybercrime: The Next Frontier
Eastern European gangs stealing computer files with Americans' health insurance information for resale? Remotely hacking insulin pumps to kill patients? A look inside the scary and shockingly unsophisticated world of medical cybercrime.

Bank of America Shows Progress in Six Key Areas
Bank of America launched its CSR report this week with a focus on six key areas: responsible business practices, strong economics, environmental sustainability, leadership and service, arts and culture, and diversity and inclusion.

5 Toxic Beliefs That Ruin Careers
People who hold these beliefs tend lack the energy required to create their own success. Don't be one of them.

Developing the brain of a driverless car
A team of researchers with Stanford University’s Revs Program will be scanning professional racing driver Brian Redman’s brain in an effort to improve computer algorithms used in driverless cars.

In a Fast World, Think Slowly
An interview with Frank Partnoy, professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego and author of Wait: The Art and Science of Delay.

Twitter edges out third party clients with tighter API rules
Twitter has revealed upcoming changes to the next versions of its API, which will tighten the restrictions around what a developers build for the microblogging platform can and can't do.

Quote for the day:

"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success." ~M.Forbes

August 16, 2012

Politics of Enterprise Architecture
Because EA is challenging the status quo of the Enterprise by altering its normal course for the sake of the future: EA is about strategic planning which inherently collides with the tactical thinking and action of Today - perhaps because the change is coming today at tactical speeds.

EyeRing: a point-and-speak camera for the visually impaired
... is described as a finger-worn device made with a 3D printer that consists of an embedded camera. It works in conjunction with a mobile phone as the computational device, and an earpiece that the user wears. A single button on the finger-worn device initiates the interaction between the camera and the mobile phone via Bluetooth. The phone then processes the information and sends it to the headset.

A Navigational Guide To 6 Paradoxes of Leadership
Leaders have to “be” many things, and a lot of them are seemingly contradictory - paradoxes that hover over our daily decisions and interactions. How we deal with these paradoxes can be the difference between good and great.

Why Do Products Fail? – Picking the Wrong User Goals
Even if you have picked the right users, you may have picked the wrong goals – creating a product your customers don’t really need, or solving problems that your customers don’t care about solving.

Bambuser DDoS attack may be connected with Assange embassy stream
The live-streaming service Bambuser, which is popular with activists, came under a distributed denial-of-service attack in the early hours of Thursday morning. Its proprietors suspect the attack targeted a stream from outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London

Explore the benefits of customer and supplier partnerships
Partnering like this can take the supplier-customer relationship to a new and higher level and improve each partner’s work processes. Here are five questions that you and your partners should ask one another in order to work together more effectively:

HP aims three-part effort at network virtualization

Hewlett-Packard is readying three new software capabilities that are designed to help enterprises pool their computing and storage resources across a network.The advances should make it easier for IT departments to link data centers spread around the world, shield multiple tenants' virtual machines from each other and control storage from virtualized appliances.

Exploiting the growing value from information
SMAC and other emerging technologies create the possibility for new ways to develop products, interact with customers, partner with others, compete, and succeed. More than a strategy for any individual technology trend or for combining more than one of them, companies need a systematic approach to engage with these technologies. Companies that have the most success engaging with SMAC are, in PwC’s view, rethinking their business and enterprise architectures and emphasizing three fundamental changes.

Android 4.0: The ultimate guide (plus cheat sheet)
This guide has all the info you need to get comfortable navigating through Android 4.0 and utilizing its updated features. And the accompanying cheat sheet provides quick reference charts that show you how to perform an array of tasks in Android 4.0.

Going social part II: Fight for the users
In the new business landscape IT must, as Tron would say, “fight for the users,” making the technology serve people, and not the other way around. This holds doubly true in the realm of social media, which many companies are leveraging to connect globally dispersed workforces and clients.

Quote for the day:

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

August 15, 2012

Don't SCIM over your Data Model
The older XML-based trio of SAML for authentication, XACML for authorisation and SPML for provisioning have achieved only mixed success, with only SAML having gained some traction in enterprise systems. But in the new world of the cloud, more lightweight alternatives are in demand. The "OAuth2 family" of protocol standards promises to deliver what the industry is asking for.

The Evolution of Integration
Paul Fremantle discusses the evolution of EAI, comparing the latest approaches, suggesting using Async Messaging, EDA, APIs, and doing high volumes, and underlining that evolution is not monotonic.

How to Make Licensing Audits Less Painful
License compliance is tough, especially after a merger or acquisition. The secret to success of any license audit just may be normalization technology.

9 popular IT security practices that just don't work
The truth is most common IT security products and techniques don't work as advertised, leaving us far more exposed to malicious code than we know. That's because traditional IT security takes a whack-a-mole approach to threats, leaving us to catch up with the next wave of innovative malware, most of which rolls out in plain view on the Internet.

A Prescription for Health Care Information Certainty
Fasano, CIP & EVP at Kaiser Parmanente recently discussed some of the high-level approaches he said need to be in order before any IT implementation goes out for a bid, and what, if anything, health agencies can do to plan for requirements and pools of new patients from federal health care reform.

WinZip Courier 4: First Take
This affordable utility provides an easier way to compress and email large files, and integrates well with Microsoft Office applications.

Radical IT Transformation
At its core, the transformation takes us from a technology-centric business/IT relationship to a business-centric business/IT relationship. This transformation includes a number of strategic shifts, each playing a role in the bigger transformation.

'Gaming as a Service': it was inevitable
Oracle's Bruce Tierney points to a recent case study exhibiting Electronic Arts'move into the online delivery space, and coins this spiffy new term: "Gaming as a Service" (yes, GaaS...)

Triple Crown Leadership
Triple Crown leaders have the goal of building and sustaining organizations that are excellent (high performance), ethical (do the right thing), and enduring (stand the test of time). As with the Triple Crown in thoroughbred horseracing, it is an epic quest that is audacious but not impossible.

Tina Roth Eisenberg's 8 Mantras For Success
In the second Build-A-Business mentor lesson, the founder of Swissmiss--a creator of everything from apps to temporary tattoos--shares the principles that have led to her success.

Malaysia Reviews Controversial Internet Law Following Online Protest
Malaysia will review a controversial Internet law following a day-long blackout of prominent websites over concern it could be used to silence government critics. Prime Minister Najib Razak wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night that he has asked his cabinet to discuss section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950. "Whatever we do, we must put people first," he wrote.

Quote for the day:

"If you have more than 3 priorities then you don't have any." ~Jim Collins

August 14, 2012

How does technology support Enterprise Architecture?
Through the creation, communication and improvement of principles and models that represent an enterprise’s desired future state, one can enable an enterprise’s evolution. The tool that helps one move toward that desired future state is the use of different technologies. The idea is to improve corporate agility, accelerate the time-to-market of new products and services and improve operational efficiency by reducing the total cost of ownership.

Building a Better ERP Estimate
There are many explanations out there to explain why these ERP implementations did not meet budget or timeline. Instead of repeating common information out in the ERP blogosphere, the author of this blog post speaks to a root cause that is typically overlooked by our industry – inaccurate ERP implementation estimations.

What Doesn't Motivate Creativity Can Kill It
You really can manage for innovation, but it starts by knowing what drives creativity in the people who generate and develop the new ideas that, when implemented, will become tomorrow's innovations. Unfortunately, too many managers unintentionally kill innovation because they rely too heavily on carrots and sticks to motivate employees.

Data Science in India: meeting requirements, not just budgets
It struck me that educational values and approaches in India might make Data Science skill sets there more abundant than in the U.S. and other developed countries. Perhaps Data Science will help India transcend the stigma/typecast of a tech talent center that is merely lower in cost.

Pixar open sources production animation code, patents
The code released as open source is called Open SubDiv, and “... implement high performance subdivision surface (subdiv) evaluation on massively parallel CPU and GPU architectures.” .... Which means this release is not something for everyone. But Pixar has released the software under a licence permitting any commercial or non-commercial use.

Universal M2M network coverage a 'major challenge'
The machine-to-machine (M2M) market presents huge growth opportunities and revenue-generating possibilities, but service providers and telecom operators will need to resolve fundamental issues of ensuring global network coverage and lower roaming costs in order for the potential to be realized.

BI Experts: Relieving Agile BI Choke Points
Organizations must discover why and where their systems are inflexible and how they can apply new methods and technologies to increase agility. These three tips can help you get off on the right foot.

Tougher electronic waste rules come into force in Europe
Much more electronic and electrical waste will have to be collected and recycled under the revised Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which was set in stone on Monday

BlackBerry 10 will 'win' against iPhone and Android says RIM
Research in Motion boss Thorsten Heins reckons BlackBerry 10 will rescue the ailing company. "We’re here to win," he told Bloomberg, and apparently he wasn't even joking! "We’re not here to fight for third or fourth place," he continued, which is just adorable.

All needed resources on SWOT analysis
There are many analysis tools used in supporting strategic planning in businesses, among them is the SWOT analysis. swot for management consulting Arguably one of the most commonly used and misused tools. Visit this page for all the help you may need on SWOT analysis.

Quotes for the day:

"Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well. " - Kenneth Hildebrand

"There is little success where there is little laughter." ~Andrew Carnegie

August 13, 2012

JackBe’s Mashup Engine Enables True Real-Time Business Intelligence
Being effective and competitive today requires that organizations respond to customers now; and that requires business intelligence (BI) in real time. In this interview, Rick Pitts, CEO at JackBe, discusses the shrinking decision window and how JackBe addresses that challenge with the next-generation Presto real-time operational BI platform.

Government to migrate critical IT infrastructure on cloud computing
Department of information technology, India is planning to set up a national cloud based network that connects all state data centers which would make that the backbone of national e-governance plan, which when completed would deliver many government to citizen and government business services via the internet.

Privacy law may hit cloud adoption: AIIA
One of the proposed Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), outlined in the proposed Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill 2012, will limit the adoption of the cloud in Australia, according to the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).

Side-by-side comparisons of IaaS service providers
Thoran Rodrigues compares the major players and some of the newcomers in the increasingly competitive IaaS space, examining both their service offerings and how well they meet user cloud concerns.

Go Daddy angles to become bigger cloud apps provider
Before its CEO resigned in July, Go Daddy snapped up small business accounting software company Outright. Is this its next step to becoming a broader cloud provider?

The iPhone Has Passed a Key Security Threshold
It's still possible for a hacker to take over a phone, but it's increasingly difficult, largely because each app runs in its own isolated "sandbox." The phone even verifies its operating system when it boots.

Indian Outsourcing Firms Hire in U.S.
The recruitment drive comes as Indian outsourcing companies, which have long been accused by critics of stealing jobs from the West, are now encountering intensified scrutiny ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Improved Server Performance and Reliability
The new Aberdeen Stirling 277, a 2U VMware-Ready server powered by the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 series CPUs and built on the Intel Romley platform, is but one of countless examples of how Aberdeen has solidified its reputation.

Choosing a Version Control System - A Beginners Tour of the Options
If you are beginner to version control, then read on, hopefully this will help you choose a Version Control System for yourself and whilst I can't guarantee it'll make your life better, if you find one that does indeed 'work for you' then it won't make it harder and I'd wager a decent bet that you'll find benefits you weren't even looking for!

Call Me (Or Email Me), Maybe?
Do you prefer to communicate via phone or via email? What makes you decide to get off the computer and make a phone call, instead?

How Hellboy Helped me be an Inspirational Leader & 5 Keys to Inspirational Communication
Let’s face it, work is not always fun. That, compounded with the grim hope that many feel in this economy, i.e. that they might never see a brighter future because of the poor performance of their organization, can cause many employees and even leaders to forget about what they are capable of. They lose sight of their objectives and wallow in the drudgery of daily firefighting.

Quote for the day:

"One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears-by listening to them." ~ Dean Rusk

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