Tech Bytes - Daily Digest: November 2012

November 30, 2012

The CIO and CMO: An Integrated Approach
Technology now underpins and shapes the entire customer experience, from the delivery of marketing campaigns to the aggregation of analytics and insights. The amount of raw consumer data now available is a major challenge for today’s CMOs; making sense of it, while trying to justify their marketing spend to guarantee ROI, is even harder – especially without a strong bond to the CIO.

3 steps to HIPAA security in the cloud
The default response for those charged with HIPAA security is to say ‘no’ to cloud computing. There is a clear need, however, to rethink the role of cloud computing by those charged with HIPAA security. The efficiencies that can be gained by leveraging public, private, and hybrid clouds are just too compelling.

Citrix Foresees the Future
After establishing that virtualization has had a big impact on datacenter infrastructures, ... the company gets down with some virtual networking comments i.e. dynamic networks are the way to go as we constantly redefine traffic flow for individual users and VMs. As Citrix puts it, "The stage will be set in 2013 for SDN to become the dominant form of networking."

New Kendo UI Framework for Java Developers
Developer tools and solutions provider Telerik has released a new version of its framework for building applications and Web sites with HTML5 and JavaScript that supports Java. This version, the third release of the framework, introduces Java server-side wrappers, which make it possible for devs to use their existing JavaServer Pages (JSP) coding skills.

10 Hot IT Jobs for 2013
... beyond big data, the demand for IT employees keeps growing as well.According to Robert Half Technology, the pool of available talent continues to shrink, driving average salaries up as much as 9 percent from 2012. Here are 10 hot IT jobs predicted for 2013 and beyond

How Agile solves traditional pitfalls of IT Outsourcing
It is a misconception that agile IT cannot be outsourced. In fact, agile practices solve all the listed arguments against outsourcing. It is important to note that agile is not just about incremental deliveries, agile teams engineer software in a different way as compared to traditional software engineering practices.

Adidas Heads to the Cloud to Control IT Spending
Seeking to improve internal audit compliance and streamline spending, Bader evaluated several spending-management solutions and decided on Coupa for its multinational support, total cost of ownership, integration with the ERP system, and capacity for customization.

Three Mistakes to Avoid in your Business Intelligence Project
A Gartner study in 2005 reported that more than half of BI projects fail. Unfortunately, the situation hasn't improved since that survey was taken. A more recent Kognitio survey shows that two-thirds of businesses still fail to receive value out of the BI system they install.

Directory: Big data vendors in Asia
Data analytics isn't new, but the number of companies offering big data solutions has certainly risen in recent years. To help IT professionals and technology decision-makers navigate the big data landscape, ZDNet editors have compiled a shortlist of vendors in the Asia region. This is not a paid listing, nor is it an exhaustive list.

Big data projects make it to the drawing board, but no further
In a poll of TechRepublic’s exclusive CIO Jury, when asked “Does your organisation have big data as part of your budget and plans for 2013?” the response was no by a margin of eight to four, suggesting that big data still has a way to go to win over CIOs. In particular, CIOs seem reluctant to use the term ‘big data’ even if they have projects planned to look at unstructured data.

Quote for the day:

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." -- Robert Collier

November 29, 2012

Keynote: The New Application Architectures
Adrian Colyer, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for SpringSource and the vFabric Cloud Application Platform at VMware discusses the application architecture emerging these days defined by a departure from server-side apps to a model characterized by smart clients and services.

Top 3 Trends in Developer Testing
Most developers still do not unit test. Unit testing and test-driven development (TDD) are difficult to begin. The practice is still not taught in most computer science and engineering departments. (Though not yet mainstream, in 2012 the popularity and awareness of unit testing increased.)

The State of NoSQL
After at least four years of tough criticism, it's time to come to an intermediate conclusion about the state of NoSQL. So many things have happened around NoSQL that it is hard to get an overview and value what goals have been achieved and where NoSQL failed to deliver.

How Finding “Exceptions” Can Jump Start Your Social Initiative
Many senior executives still think of social media as something you do after hours for fun, says John Hagel, co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge — they haven't bought into the idea that social can drive the core performance of the business. He's committed to showing them why they're wrong.

After That What?
There are some opportunities for some nifty tools to help the ‘after that, what’ problem. As we switch more and more to mobile devices to help us cope with our life, more such tools will be useful. “After that what?’ is a good question to ask yourself, if you are looking for mobile product ideas.

Smartphones with unusual features (roundup)
These days, almost every smartphone contains the same bag of tricks, with little to differentiate handsets, apart from the hardware and maybe some software extras. There are some smartphones that stand out from the crowd for a certain physical or software feature. In no particular order, here's the current crop of unique handsets that have me looking twice

What on earth is OpenStack?
Together, NASA and Rackspace went on to create a kind of online fantasy world, where storage, resources and performance would be no object, and small startups could build their ivory towers in the clouds, knowing that when their day came, they'd be able to scale everything up, quickly and efficiently, before quickly selling their stock to Facebook.

Live and Learn
While money gets depleted over time, your experience remains with you for life. You’ll be able to leverage that know-how into a better position within your existing organization or offer it to your next employer. That being said, investing in yourself may be the best investment you’ll ever make. Period. And that begins with learning.

Hadley's guide to high-performance R with Rcpp
This guide comes from a book on writing reproducible code that Hadley's working on. You can browse the other sections of the book on GitHub — even though the book isn't yet complete there's a wealth of useful information there for any serious R programmer.

Microsoft's Free Security Tools - Summary
A good tool can save a lot of work and time for those people responsible for developing and managing software. In the series we discuss many of the benefits each tool can provide and include step by step guidance on how to use each. Given is a summary of the tools covered in the series and a brief overview of each.

A top ten for business leaders
There are growing levels of social unrest over rising inequality, austerity, unemployment, political ineptitude, institutional failure and more. And companies will continue to fail because they misread the future - like Kodak, which invented the digital camera but filed for bankruptcy after focusing on its core film business instead.

Quote for the day:

"Your job gives you authority. Your behavior gives you respect." -- Irwin Federman

November 28, 2012

Analytical Programming
The analytical engine is famously the first programmable computing machine, and there was much programming involved both in designing and operating it. In this post Christian Plesner Hansen takes a look at the various ways you could program the engine and the way programs were used to control the engine internally.

The Real Reason Teams Don’t Work
Overworked leaders don’t have time to help. They are too busy helping themselves. A corporate leader recently said, “My boss is buried. She doesn’t have time or energy to give me.” “Overworked staff results in turf wars and office politics,” Andy Stanley at Catalyst.

What CIOs Want In Their Successors
Rob Preston had a chance to participate in a panel discussion at Interop, Mumbai in which four leading Indian CIOs discussed the attributes they're looking for in a successor. In preparation for that session, I talked with four CIOs in the U.S. about the same subject. Here's what they say they're looking for in their top people.

EU's cybersecurity budget up 14%
Rik Ferguson, director of security research and communication at TrendMicro, who called the 14 percent increase "paltry," said that "the commercial security industry is already pooling resources with not-for-profit organizations, and government has made much of the risk from cybercrime. It's time to make the commensurate investment.

12 Ways To Fail In Goal Setting
I think we all have at least one thing we badly want to get. It could be popularity, power, friends, love, money, lasting marriage, children, or health. But unfortunately, not all of us successfully obtain even just that one thing though we may live up to 85 years. Why? Well, it is simply because most people do not set goals.

5 IT vs. Business Battlegrounds
It is common for the relationship between IT and the other departments to become strained over time. Many factors can contribute to the friction between company unit leaders and the IT group. Regardless of the causes for the interdepartmental tension, we have found that this stress plays out in common ways among the companies we have audited.

Micro Focus Introduces Free IDE for IBM Mainframe Application Modernization
A powerful integrated development environment (IDE) for IBM mainframe applications, Enterprise Developer Personal Edition is a simple-to use, entry-level version of the full Micro Focus Enterprise Developer product for IT development professionals and students. It offers a choice of Eclipse or Visual Studio IDE to develop enterprise-class mainframe and distributed applications.

Making Architecture Matter
As Architects, we want our architecture to matter. We want projects to implement our grand designs, one little step at a time, with each piece fitting perfectly into the big puzzle that is software architecture. We want to reach out to developers across the company and tell them to use a particular database software or Web server because we want their code to be easily maintainable and follow our sound architecture design principles.

Get Greater Performance Tuning Gains Using SQL Server Waits and Queues
Join SQL Server Sr DBA and performance expert, Neil Hambly, for a detailed examination of SQL Server waits types and how they impact performance. Neil will take you through real-world examples to help illustrate how to quickly identify the waits that are causing the greatest degradation of performance levels and how to use this information to drastically improve SQL Server performance.

How Much Poor Performers Cost You
There's an effective strategy for dealing with a poor performer without letting that employee take over your life or your mental well-being. And it's important to tackle the problem ASAP. "Don't put it off till the performance review in three months," McDonald advises. "Take care of it right now so it doesn't get worse."

Quotes for the day:

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." -- Dale Carnegie

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!" -- Henry Ford

November 27, 2012

Microsoft's client-access licensing and pricing changes to hit December 1
Business customers who purchase CALs from Microsoft for use with Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Windows Server, System Center and other products should be aware of licensing/pricing changes coming soon.

Why You Don’t Need a New Smartphone
How do you control your wants? Your guess is as good as mine, but think about this the next time you see a commercial for a new phone and decide right there and then that you have to have one. Do you really, or are you being played by science?

Will the future for Apple v. Google be decided in the iCloud?
Patrick B. Gibson thinks Apple has a blind spot when it comes to the Internet, and he believes the company's lack of innate understanding of how to deliver effective online services is giving Google an advantage in the technology arms race. You have to take the criticisms of any ex-company employee with a huge pinch of salt, but Apple's history does show provision of Internet-based services as one of its weakest points:

Analytics Must Be a Cultural Priority To Achieve Data Goals
Hiring (or designating) the right people is only the first step. Even at companies that already have significant analytical activities underway, doing the analysis is only about a third of the battle. The other two-thirds involve driving it into all current business workflows in a way that prompts your organization to use and act on your valuable conclusions.

HP may offer free analytics service with Autonomy technology
HP mentioned the idea of a free service during a webcast it held for customers on Wednesday to assure them it plans to keep investing in the Autonomy product line. A day earlier, HP said it would take a massive accounting charge due to alleged fraud that inflated Autonomy's value before it bought the company.

How to Respond to Negative Online Reviews
Everyone knows word-of-mouth advertising is still the best, but today’s word of mouth has many mouths talking on sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google, etc. It is in this arena where small businesses battle their competition. So, having assessed that reviews are a significant part of the way your company does business; lets look at some proper techniques for addressing that 1-star review you just got.

Intel Hybrid Cloud: Go Big or Go Home
Intel Hybrid Cloud essentially is an on-premises small business server that can link to a range of managed and cloud services. Special offers include a BDR (backup and disaster recovery) appliance running StorageCraft, and Level Platforms software that allows MSPs (managed services providers) to remotely manage and troubleshoot customer systems.

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. It can also help IT Professionals, who are responsible for managing the deployment of applications or the security of desktops and servers,

Guidance Regarding Methods for De-identification of Protected Health Information
The guidance explains and answers questions regarding the two methods that can be used to satisfy the Privacy Rule’s de-identification standard: Expert Determination and Safe Harbor1. This guidance is intended to assist covered entities to understand what is de-identification, the general process by which de-identified information is created, and the options available for performing de-identification.

Are You Letting Pink Elephants Hold Back Your Team’s Creativity?
Tanveer Nasser shares three strategies leaders can use to ensure that their words and actions don’t inadvertently activate these neurological responses that can limit your team’s creativity and willingness to collaborate with others in order to achieve your organization’s shared goals.

Quote for the day:

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life." -- Marcus Garvey

November 26, 2012

Changing times for web developers – 6 Tips You Should Read to survive
If you haven't yet started mastering your art and adapting to the changing trends, you should start today. Think about crafting your web applications properly. Use commonsense to mix and match based on scenarios. Here we go with 6 Tips to be a responsible web developer, and to stay on top of what you do.

Panasas Gets Real About Hadoop
According to the Panasas CTO, the real reason the Hadoop community doesn’t like NAS is that they’ve had bad experiences. “They run big Hadoop workloads against an NFS filer and the filer just gets creamed so, of course, the job doesn’t go well.”

Google Adds Indoor Maps for Iphone, Ipad and Other Web Users

Google has added indoor floor plans to the Web version of its Maps service, allowing any device with a browser to show the way in airports, rail stations, shopping malls and museums in nine countries.

The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)
These six factors can erode the grandest of plans and the noblest of intentions. They can turn visionaries into paper-pushers and wide-eyed dreamers into shivering, weeping balls of regret. Beware!

Competition keeps SaaS profits artificially low
Sabharinath Bala, research manager of enterprise applications at IDC Asia-Pacific, pointed to the increasingly big traction for SaaS-based products in the market which has resulted in significant top-line growth for the vendors. This is especially so in the small and midsize business (SMB) segment which has enticed major players to plunge into this space, he said.

Managing Cloud for the Enterprise
Senior IT executives from enterprises adopting cloud technologies shared their experience and advice last week at a summit forum held by research and management consulting firm Saugatuck Technology.

Mouse Control via Webcam
This application uses emguCV, a .NET wrapper for openCV, to perform image processing, through which we try to recognize hand gestures and control mouse using these gestures. In this app, cursor movement is controlled by the movement of hand and click events are triggered using hand gestures.

Mozilla suspends work on 64-bit Firefox for Windows
The x64 edition of Firefox for Windows had been stalled in the build channel Mozilla calls "Nightlies," a label for the unpolished daily versions, for months. Mozilla maintains three general-public build channels -- Aurora, analogous to an alpha; Beta; and Release -- but the x64 browser never made it to Aurora, much less the more stable Beta or final code.

The Three Axioms of Application Delivery
Of late the term “application delivery” has been creeping up into the vernacular. That could be because cloud has pushed it to the fore, necessarily. Cloud purports to eliminate the “concern” of infrastructure and allows IT to focus on … you guessed it, the application.

Can SOA liberate the cloud?
Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corporation, says it's high time for a new vision in the evolution of cloud computing. That is, to bring in the experience and sensibilities of service oriented architecture, essentially building a cloud architecture on what he calls "Distributed SOA."

Quotes for the day:

"Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be." -- Jack Welch

"Always acknowledge a fault. It throws those in authority off their guard and gives you an opportunity to commit more" -- M. Twain

November 25, 2012

Big Data Conundrum: Show Me the Money!
Companies have not yet grasped the business potential of all the data pouring in from hundreds of sources—think apps in the cloud, on-premise partner software and from their own enterprise. In effect, businesses haven’t figured out how to make money from this fire hose of disparate data sources.

NEC is Working on a Suitcase-sized DNA Analyzer
The company said it aims to launch the device globally in 2014, and sell it for around 10 million yen, or US$120,000. It will output samples that can be quickly matched via the growing number of DNA databases worldwide.

5 Areas for CIOs to Instill Innovation
A new-age CIO shoulders the responsibility of not only identifying the most viable trends for an enterprise but also to increase revenue for the business. Here is a list of 5 innovative ideas that can boost a CIO in keeping pace with the changing trends.

Indian firms urged to buy struggling global tech vendors
In a report by The Hindu Business Line Thursday, an unidentified senior official from the Department of Electronics and IT (DietY) said at least three presentations last week were made to the Ministry of Communication and IT and its minister, Kapil Sibal, proposing initiatives meant to "excite Indian companies for such opportunities as the market cap of many global companies [including] Nokia, Research In Motion (RIM) and Ericsson are at a very low level".

Multi-Channel Attribution: Definitions, Models and a Reality Check
Multi-Channel Attribution is a red hot topic in our industry, and yet it is so poorly understood. I'm convinced that the resulting problems (confusion, FUD, angst, daily prayers, and wasted budget) are due to the lack of a clear framework that can help clearly define the problem.

Brightcove, Application Craft, launch cloud-based development tools
Brightcove's native plug-in architecture for its App Cloud and Application Craft's launch of Mobile Build are the latest examples of how cross-platform development tools for mobile apps are becoming increasingly cloud-centric.

Sony Vaio Tap 20 review:
The appeal of this desktop-tablet hybrid is that it addresses a problem that has nagged all-in-one makers for years. Often pitched as a kitchen PC, a secondary home entertainment center, or some kind of family organizational kiosk, the all-in-one has always fallen short of its ambition to elevate the humble desktop PC.

TDD the Anagrams Kata
A Kata is a form of deliberate practice. Katas are small coding exercise that a programmer completes on a daily basis. Rather than attempt a new Kata each day the programmer should work on the same Kata repeatedly until completing the Kata is almost automatic. The benefits include greater efficiency in the way you use your development tools, Better understanding of features of your programming language, and a better grasp of TDD.

PCI DSS Risk Assessment Guidelines
The information supplement outlines the relationship between PCI DSS and risk assessments; the various industry-recognized risk methodologies and key components of a risk assessment, including developing a risk assessment team and building a risk assessment methodology; risks introduced by third parties; as well as the risk reporting process and critical success factors.

Dream or Die, That’s Just How the World Turns
Many people have fears about the next 4 years. I have fears about the next 4 years. If we spend too much time worrying about those fears, and worrying about what we cannot control, we will be spending less time in making our dreams a reality.

Quotes for the day:

"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust." -- ZigZiglar

"You aren't learning anything when you're talking." -- Lyndon B. Johnson

November 24, 2012

Southampton uses GCHQ funding for biometrics research
"The new thing we're looking at is soft biometrics," said Professor Mark Nixon, an academic at the university, working in the new cyber security centre. "You can describe someone as tall, thin, or fat and then use that information to retrieve people from a video."

IT sector likely to grow at 11 pc this fiscal
"Global economy is going through challenging times, it will have some impact (on IT industry growth). The projection for IT industry growth is 11 per cent for current fiscal," Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of an IT event held here. Slow growth in IT sector will also also cause slowdown in employment generation in the industry, though the industry will add jobs, he said.

Amazon's dead serious about the Enterprise Cloud
All the talk about big companies not wanting to put workloads on Amazon Web Services is hot air. The biggest companies already deploy workloads beyond test-and-dev on AWS. The question is: can AWS sustain that momentum as new options come online?

US school tag tracker project prompts court row
Religious reasons led Andrea Hernandez to stop wearing the tag that revealed where she was on her school campus. The tags were introduced to track students and help tighten control of school funding. A Texan court has granted a restraining order filed by a civil rights group pending a hearing on use of the tags.

Let's get together

"In the wider market economy people, customers and suppliers collaborate all the time. It's kind of the norm. Inside organisations, however, the way people are managed and led tends to discourage collaboration. When the team can't agree on something, power is delegated to the leader to make a decision."

CIOs to Look Towards Cloud for Future Business Operations
Companies across the world are incorporating cloud based solutions in their work dynamics. Given the benefits that cloud strengthens security, reliability, transparency of cost and integration, CIOs are increasingly relying on it for delivery of IT services.

Security Guru Pledges to Strengthen Critical Computers
The prospect that malware like Stuxnet could infect and disrupt critical pieces of infrastructure worries government officials and computer scientists like Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of the Moscow-based antivirus company Kaspersky Lab. He has been talking about building secure operating systems for industrial systems, a subject he discussed with MIT Technology Review.

How To Apply Emotional Intelligence At Your Workplace?
When it comes to the workplace, emotions can fly. More often than not, bosses judge the staffs while customers always have to the right to complaint. You can’t underestimate the power of emotion. They will simply overwhelm you when you’re not in-charge of yourself.

Microsoft’s Free Security Tools – Portqry
This tool is a TCP/IP connectivity test tool, port scanner, and local port monitor. Portqry is useful for troubleshooting networking issues as well as verifying network security related configurations. Because of this broad functionality, I have heard some Information Technology (IT) Professionals refer to this tool as a “Swiss army knife” of tools.

There Is No Such Thing as Work-Life Balance
Employees should stop trying so hard to balance their work and life because it’s simply impossible. In this social economy, everyone is connected all of the time and there is no 9 to 5 workday anymore. When you get home from work, you still have work on your mind and are answering work-related emails. Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, is famous for saying “There’s no such thing as work-life balance.

Quote for the day:

"Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are." -- Maxwell Maltz

November 23, 2012

Make It a Habit to Give Thanks
While Thanksgiving in the U.S. is celebrated with sports events, family dinners, and time off from work, its real purpose is to reflect on everything that we have to be thankful for ... It's also a good reminder that "thankfulness" and "appreciation" are important managerial behaviors in effective organizations — behaviors that need to be fostered throughout the year, not just when there's a holiday.

Symantec spots odd malware designed to corrupt databases
The company discovered the malware, called W32.Narilam, on Nov. 15 but on Friday published a more detailed writeup by Shunichi Imano. Narilam is rated as a "low risk" by the company, but according to a map, the majority of infections are concentrated in Iran, with a few in the U.K., the continental U.S. and the state of Alaska.

Breaking Analysis: Big Data Hits the Bigtime?
“I think what this report is really saying is that the reality today is that we all create a lot of data. There’s really no way to have it be forgotten . . . frankly, it’s just not feasible.” Kelly commented that in order to allay these concerns to a certain degree, consumers have to see their data being put to good use, not just to the benefit of business, but to their benefit as well.

Practical Cloud Economics
Here is a short deck on ‘Practical Cloud Economics’, focussed on outlining some of the principles of Cloud Economics, as well as going through common myths surrounding the kind of monetary benefits the Cloud brings.

Server-side Google Analytics Transactions
Google Analytics Ecommerce is a great way of tracking transactions made in your webshop. Google provides us with an easy way to add this feature to our websites using a piece of javascript and the ga.js library. ... In this article I’ll provide you with a code sample and a working and tested code library (C#) which will handle the posts for you. I’ll briefly explain my code in the article, the entire code will be available for download.

Online Backup Vs. Cloud Storage
The real question you should ask yourself is whether online backup of more than 100 GB really makes sense for you. It's possible that you have a large music or image or video library you'd like to back up; if so, a pure backup service is probably your best solution. But maybe not your only solution.

Laptop buying guide
Most buying guides and shopping advice tends to get bogged down in the specs, mechanically listing sub-categories within sub-categories. Instead, Dan breaks out the most important things to know when looking for a new laptop, with deeper explanations available in any of our in-depth system reviews.

6 TED Talks Every Entrepreneur Should Watch
TED.com is just about the best place to hang out online if you have a few minutes to kill. That's because it offers free recorded lectures given by brilliant people doing amazing things in areas including technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues. Here are a handful of insightful TED talks posted this year that every entrepreneur should check out.

The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand
Whether you’re on the job hunt, a student, or gainfully employed, you must think, act, and plan like a business leader. With the surge of social media, you have not only the ability, but you now have the need to manage your own reputation, both online and in real life.

Euro MPs: Do not let the ITU take control of the internet
On Thursday, members of the European Parliament backed resolutions criticising proposals to give more power to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The UN group is looking to revise existing regulations to cover the internet and draw up a new worldwide treaty at its closed-door Dubai conference in December.

Quote for the day:

"Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too." -- Robert Half

November 22, 2012

Modern Programming Languages
It's probably a sign of insanity, but for those of us who studied in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the obsession du jour was to come up with the next awesome programming language or operating system.

Best Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras of Late 2012
These cameras each share a common bond in that they have no mirrored viewfinder, yet they boast a very DLSR-like interchangeable lens system. Some of them have cropped sensors that match that of their larger entry-level DSLR cousins, but others simply act as a step up from the world of point-and-shoot compacts.

Microsoft reportedly allows pirates to activate unlicensed installations of Windows 8 Pro
The relatively simple technique that essentially allows users to get Windows 8 Pro for free was described late Tuesday on Reddit by a user named "noveleven" who claims to have successfully tried it out. At least one other Reddit user confirmed that it works in the same discussion thread.

Why Jakob Nielsen's Windows 8 critique is old-school thinking
For its part, Microsoft said it conducted usability tests in more than 127 countries, refining the operating system to one where users can find the information most relevant to them. And in a recent video reported by longtime Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott, Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Windows User Experience Team, acknowledged the need for a significant shift.

4 Ways to Improve Your Hiring Process to Help Retain Employees
Employers often waste countless amounts of time and money through unproductive hiring processes. They either end up missing out completely on highly qualified candidates or let under-qualified candidates make it too far into the hiring process.

This Week in Cybercrime: What Threats Will Computer Users Face in 2013?
Websense Security labs told Business Standard thattraditional tools used to thwart attacks will no longer get the job done because attackers’ techniques and targets are evolving. For instance, cybercriminals are already working out how to sidestep virtual machine defenses such as sandboxes.

Coaching Employees is Job #1
Whether you’re a team leader, a supervisor, or contact center manager, coaching—giving feedback to your employees—is one of the most important thing you do leader. As a leader, your job is to set goals, and guide your team toward those goals as you inspire them toward new heights.

Unhackable telecom networks come a step closer
Researchers have come up with a way of protecting telecoms networks using quantum cryptography without the need for expensive dedicated optical fibre links. The technique, developed by Toshiba's European research laboratory in Britain and Cambridge University engineers, is a step towards perfect security for everything from credit card transactions to private health records.

4 Tips to Manage Your Online Reputation
An effective social media presence involves a lot more than whether or not you have a Facebook or a Twitter account. Like any type of public interaction, it demands a thoughtful and strategic approach to make it work for you and your organization.

Data Challenges for FATCA Compliance
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was signed into U.S law in March 2010 and is coming into effect on January 1, 2014. In this video, Peter Ku, director of solution marketing, Global Financial Services, Informatica, discusses the data challenges associated with FATCA compliance.

Quote for the day:

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another." - Helen Keller

November 21, 2012

Etsy become Certified B Corporation
B Corps are certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The certification provides a framework to measure success for all stakeholders — including employees, community, and environmental interests — not just for shareholders.

Windows 8 — Disappointing Usability for Both Novice and Power Users
Jakob Nielsen, one of the world’s foremost web usability experts, slammed Windows 8 in a lengthy blog post today. He calls out the OS for hiding features, reducing discoverability, low information density in “Modern” apps, overly active live tiles, and overall reduced power using a single-window interface.

Asian companies resisting BYOD due to cost
Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives might be more costly than was previously thought, and the extra expenditure is one reason why Asian companies are holding back from embracing the idea of allowing consumer devices into the workplace.

Indian police arrest student for a political Facebook post
After a medical student writes a mild message of protest on the social network, she is arrested for hate speech. She has now become the symbol of the country's intolerance of free speech.

Coordinating the Right Enterprise Architecture Journey
The start point is complicated by the team’s perception of the stakeholders they serve (to whom they deliver value) and the ultimate objectives for their initiative. Not only are the start points and journeys themselves different, but the challenges met on the road also differ. So in a very real sense, working out which mountain you are scaling is just as important as the route to get there and the team required for success.

Hadoop Virtual Panel
Today, Big Data and Hadoop are taking computer industry by storm. Its usage is on the mind of everyone, from CEO, to CIO, to developers. In this virtual panel, InfoQ talks to several Hadoop vendors and users about their views at current and future state of Hadoop and the things that are the most important for Hadoop’s further adoption and success.

How to Ignore Others
Like most leadership skills, ignoring others isn’t universal. But, it may apply to you. Have you heard team members say, “Just leave me alone so I can do my job.” It’s one thing to support, encourage, and enable; it’s another to meddle.

Easily encrypt Gmail
In light of the General Petraeus scandal, and the ease with which the feds can access your email and drafts stored in the cloud, then you may be looking for "keep it simple, stupid" solutions specifically to encrypt Gmail. Here are several Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions that are free, yet so easy to use that even your technically-challenged friends or family could use them.

Security Metrics: Critical Issues
Knowing what to measure, how to measure it and how to communicate those metrics can help improve security's efficiency, effectiveness and standing in the business world. These in-depth CSO online and CSO Magazine articles will help you get up to speed on state-of-the-art security metrics.

Quotes for the day:

"Delegation requires the willingness to pay for short term failures in order to gain long term competency." -- Dave

"When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve. " -- Napoleon Hill

November 20, 2012

Methanol can power mobile networks when electricity is out, says Nokia Siemens
The need for base stations to be able to run without electricity was once again highlighted after super storm Sandy hit the U.S. east coast. Methanol-powered fuel cells could provide an alternative to today's batteries and diesel-powered backup generators, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ballard said Monday.

Managing Your Windows 8 Enterprise Apps with Windows Intune
In this Microsoft Channel 9 content, Jerry Nixon welcomes Sr. Program Manager Mark Williams from the Windows Intune team as they discuss how developers can deploy and manage their Windows 8 Enterprise Apps with Windows Intune.

Wearable computers: The next generation
Computing devices you can wear are still in their infancy, but a host of clever new designs are in the works. Get a peek at the brave new world of wearable computers, from sensor-laden surgical gloves to workout clothes that monitor your moves.

The 3 Pieces of Startup Advice That Actually Matter
All sorts of people start offering their words of wisdom — experienced executives, college students, and even people who’ve never actually done anything with that good business idea they won’t tell you about, because you’ll steal it. While people generally do mean well, their advice often misses the mark.

The Middle East Could Be a Cradle of Innovation
As Dartmouth Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble argue in their new book on innovation in emerging markets, Reverse Innovation: "It is easy to understand why a poor man would want a rich man's product. But why would a rich man ever want a poor man's product? The answer is that under certain circumstances, it offers new, unexpected or long-overlooked value."

A Long Look at JVM Languages
Why have so many languages, including Ruby, Groovy, and Python, been ported to Java? Mainly because it's much easier to target one platform (Java code, in this case) and rely on the multiplatform JVM to host it than it is to write interpreters for each operating system.

NAB touts voice as superior biometrics over fingerprints
The National Australia Bank (NAB) has focused its biometrics attention on voice recognition instead of fingerprinting for customer identification, because it's much more secure and reliable. NAB has been dabbling with voice recognition since 2009, running a trial in which customers using telephone banking could opt to use their voice as an identifier in lieu of a PIN. Today, there are around 140,000 customers using voice recognition for phone banking.

COBOL – Demystified
Analysts, programmers and reporters alike say that COBOL is old fashioned and no longer appropriate – often stating that the language lacks structure, compatibility and brevity. This view, however, is not supported by the reality of modern COBOL, but is based on a negative outlook of the mainframe era that existed over twenty years ago.

Redesign your business for customers
Having a clear vision and roadmap for aligning and redesigning your customer touch points and overall experience to meet both the business and customers’ needs is critical to achieving customer centred transformation. It should paint a clear picture of where you are now, where you want to get to and how you’ll know you’re on track in redesigning and delivering your customer experience.

Five ways to reward consulting referrals
Do you compensate people who bring you business by way of a referral? I feel like it would be a nice thing to do. But seeing how almost all of my business comes by way of referral, I am not always sure what is appropriate. Sometimes an email introduction turns into a $20,000 project. What is an appropriate way to compensate the person who made the introduction?

Quote for the day:

"Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others." -- John Maxwell

November 19, 2012

The Web engineer's online toolbox
Here is a list of useful, free to use, live, generic tools useful for web engineers compiled by Ivan Zuzak. The current version of the list is shown below and is based on tools which he use or have used. He says, the list will be a "live list", updated as the set of available tools changes. If you know of some tool you can suggest for inclusion through comments.

VB.Net Global Try Catch in the Application Framework
This example shows how to setup a global try-catch block using the .Net Application Framework. The example code is in VB.Net but can easily be converted to C# as well.

Singapore's cybersecurity amendments opens questions on compliance
The amendments also make provisions for the Minister to ask for information on the design, configuration, operation or security of any computer, computer program or computer service. Some balance has been added in requiring compliance, unless with reasonable excuse.

Cloud backup app supports Amazon Glacier
Haystack Software's $29 Arq backup software previously supported backups to Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and recently added backups to Amazon Glacier archival storage. The utility supports a number of interesting functions, including backup versioning that stores multiple "versions" of files; intelligent backups that de-duplicates backups automatically; and a wide range of scheduling options.

The Importance of User Experience to Cloud Integration Adoption
There are a number of user experience enhancements with this upgrade, so Ashwin sat down with Joshua Vaughn, Principal User Experience Designer for Informatica Cloud, to learn more about the impetus behind the new design and features, what’s on the horizon for the future releases, and why user interface (UI) design is so important for cloud applications.

Philippines to set up cybersecurity operations center
This project will help keep the armed forces up to date with current cybersecurity trends, Galedo said, adding they will also monitor the "changing threat landscape and its implications for defense, security management and building cybersecurity core personnel".

New Sharepoint Development Model Triggers Hopes, Questions
The new platform, consistent with Web application standards, is designed to simplify and make more flexible and secure the creation and deployment of applications for the on-premise and cloud versions of SharePoint 2013, due in the first quarter next year.

Self-Organized Systems
In this InfoQ presentation, Harrison Owen argues that human systems are open, can’t be controlled, organizational agility is a natural act, and the best thing to do is to not stay in its way.

Data Protection and Microsoft Exchange 2013
With the coming launch of Exchange 2013, some organizations are exploring whether its new features could be sufficient to address their specific data protection needs. Unfortunately, making the wrong choice now can result in lost time, effort and expense – as well as exposure to litigation and regulatory risk. How can you assess whether new features within Exchange 2013 can adequately meet your needs for data security, privacy, and information control? Join this webinar to find out.

Enterprise IT Spend to reach $2.7 trillion by 2013
The banking and securities sector will have strong growth in 2013 and is expected to reach $460 billion in 2013, up 3.5 percent from $445 billion in 2012. Banking and securities is an IT-intensive industry, spending approximately three times as much on IT as a percentage of revenue than the average of all industries.

A Distributed Access Control Architecture for Cloud Computing
The design of this architecture is based on the principles from security management and software engineering. From a security management perspective, the goal is to meet cloud users’ access control requirements. From a software engineering perspective, the goal is to generate detailed specifications of such requirements.

Quotes for the day:

"A leader is best when people barely know that he exists." -- Lao Tzu

"Your company's most valuable asset is how it is known to its customers." -- Brian Tracy

November 18, 2012

Encryption of Data-in-Use to Harness the Power of the Cloud
According to the Cloud Security Alliance's Encryption Implementation Guidance, organizations should implement encryption of data-in-use to ensure that data is secured for the entire duration of its lifecycle (at-rest, in-transit and in-use).

Enterprise Android Adoption: A CIO’s Big Dream Or Worst Nightmare?
There are now more than 550 Android device types, 48 manufacturers, and a multitude of carriers worldwide. ... This is great news for consumers as it offers them choice, but it sends chills up the spines of CIOs who have relied for years on efficient management through standardizing only a few devices.

Why MOOCs are as disruptive to college education
The possibility MOOCs hold out is that the educational parts of education can be unbundled. MOOCs expand the audience for education to people ill-served or completely shut out from the current system, in the same way phonographs expanded the audience for symphonies to people who couldn’t get to a concert hall, and PCs expanded the users of computing power to people who didn’t work in big companies.

Vuzix Smart Glasses to take on Google Glass
Vuzix has unveiled details of its wireless headset display, the Vuzix Smart Glasses M100. The headset projects a color display to the user’s field of vision, showing data generated by a smartphone. It also has an HD camera, a noise-canceling microphone, and an ear speaker.

How surprises make you stronger
WHAT is the opposite of fragility? Though not quite right, “resilience” and “robustness” are two words that come to mind. If fragility means something that breaks under stress, its exact opposite should mean something that grows stronger under pressure.

German City Says Openoffice Shortcomings Are Forcing it Back to Microsoft
"In the specific case of the use of OpenOffice, the hopes and expectations of the year 2007 are not fulfilled," the council wrote, adding that continuing use OpenOffice will lead to performance impairments and aggravation and frustration on the part of employees and external parties. "Therefore, a new Microsoft Office license is essential for effective operations," they wrote.

Microsoft Releases SkyDrive SDKs for .NET, Windows Phone 8
There are two versions of the .NET SDK: client and server. The client SDK enables developers to build console, Windows Form or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications for end users, to help them better integrate SkyDrive with their daily tasks. The server version is more about building ASP.NET Web sites and Web server components.

10 vital habits to develop
Samuel Johnson wrote that ‘The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.’ It’s a pessimistic view, but it’s a strong belief of mine that habits can be changed – bad habits can be dropped and healthy habits can replace them. With gentle persistence and time, amazing changes can take place. Here are ten habits which I’ve tried to develop over the years.

Java's Atomic and volatile, under the hood on x86
The Java memory model is known to offer looser guarantees than some real hardware implementations. Most modern desktops (and most current servers) are powered by x86-family processors, which have fairly predictable memory behavior, especially compared to some other processor families. Despite these stronger guarantees, volatile int doesn't behave like AtomicInteger, even on x86 and even for a very simple operation like counting.

The Founder Quotient: How To Measure Founder Strength
We know that high-impact companies are able to constantly face adversity and navigate changes in markets, technology and competition over extended periods of time (years – not months!). The key to this capability is outstanding founders. That is what drives our business.

Quotes for the day:

"Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences." -- Marcus Garvey

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." -- Auguste Rodin

November 17, 2012

6 Questions for Cloud Services Providers
While the decision to offload certain workloads to the cloud is a good one, spotting and understanding the fine print of what each services provider offers will be the determining factor between a successful cloud project and a disappointing one. So what are the questions you should be asking your cloud services providers? Here are a few I think are imperative.

Parents not liable for son's illegal music sharing, German court rules
A German couple are not liable for the filesharing activities of their 13-year old son because they told him unauthorized downloading and sharing of copyrighted material was illegal, and they were unaware the boy violated this prohibition, the German Federal Court of Justice ruled on Thursday.

Interoperability, costs among top concerns for health IT professionals
More than a quarter of respondents (26 percent) indicated that interoperability was a primary concern when it came to utilizing technology in their healthcare system, with overall costs closely following at 22 percent. Medical staff alignment and adapting to industry changes also were among the top concerns for providers.

Business Intelligence Adoption to Double by 2013
Leading the pack of the firm’s newly released predictions for 2013 is the expectation that BI adoption will double. Nucleus sees the coming year as a “watershed” in terms of BI and enterprise analytics use, prompted by lower-cost SaaS and cloud options, the increasing ROI “data hoarders” find in big data tools and analysis, and the existing pool of non-technical data talen

How to Organize a Data Science Team
Before you start looking to hire a data scientist, you need to know what you’re looking for. Aron Clymer, data scientist at salesforce.com, oversees a team of about a dozen data scientists and business analysts for the SaaS vendor’s product lines that touch on about 1 billion behavioral data transactions per day.

War of the virtual wallets
ANOTHER milestone on the journey towards digital cash was passed on November 13th. That date marked the emergence from beta-testing in America of V.me, a “digital wallet” that holds multiple payment cards in a virtual repository. Instead of providing their personal details and card numbers to pay for stuff online, customers just enter a username and a password.

How Relevant Are Leadership Lessons from an Ancient Indian Classic?
In his recent book, Timeless Leadership: 18 Leadership Sutras from The Bhagavad Gita, Debashis Chatterjee, director of the Indian Institute of Management in Kozhikode, has tried to glean universal principles of leadership from the ancient classic.

Standing Up
Like many developers, I spend an inordinate amount of time in front of a PC monitor, and the long hours sitting in an office chair were taking a toll. Sore back, stiff neck, aching right shoulder, numb legs—by the end of the day I felt like I had aged 20 years.

LEAD EA – Business Architecture – The Missing Link To Strategy And Business Model
This presentation describes the principles of Business Architecture and points to the missing link to strategy and Business Model.

An Alternative to Agile Coaching
An alternative model that could work very well is having trained and experienced Agile Practitioner Managers (APMs) build the capability. These could be Team Leaders, Project Managers, Delivery Managers, Change Managers or Iteration managers (read Scrum Master), in charge of and running the Agile teams and this would deliver the best outcome for the project and the best capability uplift for the whole team.

Quote for the day:

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." -- Erica Jong

November 16, 2012

Spring Framework 3.2 RC 1 Released
Among other things, this version of the popular Java application framework enables loading WebApplicationContexts in the TextContext framework, supports the HTTP PATCH method, allows custom injection annotations, and will be included in the Spring MVC Test project.

Mobile workers health threatened by spending weekends online
A new survey found 63% of mobile workers are spending at least six hours each weekend online -- and nearly one-third are online for up to 20 hours over the two days. The findings pose a potential health dilemma for workers and employers, since the weekend hours extend a busy work week and keep employees from getting a needed retreat.

Virtual Conference: Cloud Security and Risk Management: Back to Basics.
Whether you're considering moving to a cloud provider, or have already made the move, you can sanity check your initiatives and your hard-fought security spending dollars to simplify the road ahead. Just in time for 2013 planning. Discover how the cloud differs from an enterprise's network, and where the pros, cons and cost savings lie.

An Agile Talent Development and Adaptive Career Framework
Roughly 70% of our learning happens realtime – on the job. 20% comes from the benefit of working closely with, and learning from role models, experts, communities of practice and peers who know more about a specific topic or domain area than we do. And 10% of our leaning comes from formal classroom training, e-learning, reading, workshops, conferences etc. Interesting that most organizations invest their focus and limited learning and development budget on the 10%.

Maluuba Launches Natural Language Processing API, Brings Siri-Like Powers To Any App
The API means that app builders can easily integrated support for NLP queries and commands into their products, so that a Yelp could offer users a text entry or voice-powered search that returns accurate results for “Find me good Chinese places nearby,” for instance, or weather apps can field queries like “How cold is it outside right now in Chicago?”

Understanding and Implementing Chain of Responsibility Pattern in C#
This article talks about the Chain of responsibility pattern. We will try to see when this pattern can be useful and what are the benefits of using this pattern. We will also look at a rudimentary implementation of Chain of responsibility pattern in C#.

Create virtual FTP servers with Xlight FTP Server
Many businesses still rely on FTP. Why not? It’s reliable, it’s flexible, and in many cases it’s easier than deploying cloud services. In fact, an FTP server can be set up on a standard desktop with not much effort and not a lot of time.

WordPress begins accepting Bitcoin for service upgrades
WordPress has announced it will begin accepting payment for upgrades via the controversial peer-to-peer currency Bitcoin, a move it promises will break down geographical and corporate boundaries

CIO role bloated, NAB takes step in right direction: analyst
"CIOs have traditionally been too concerned about the infrastructure component of their companies, so the role will split off to somebody who is going to worry about the infrastructure," IBRS analyst Sue Johnston told ZDNet.

5G mobile broadband on the horizon as Ofcom prepares to free up 700MHz spectrum
The spectrum, in the 700MHz band, will most likely be used for '5G' services, the regulator said, given that it will take until 2018 for international agreements on its usage to click into place. In the US and Asia, it is already used for 4G services — the iPhone 5 famously supports 700MHz rather than the 800MHz spectrum coming up for auction in the UK — and a decision was taken at the World Radio Conference in February to free it up for mobile broadband across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Quote for the day:

"I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

November 15, 2012

BI Strategy: BI Competency Centers Take Center Stage… Again!
As data grows in size and complexity, organizations are struggling to meet the ever increasing demand for analytics and BI Competency Centers (BICCs) are in the spotlight – once more. Ironically, despite the projected 80% annual growth in data and the projection of 50% of enterprise employees use of analytics by 2014 (and 75% by 2020), most organizations today only have a 10% BI adoption rate.

Keyloggers: The Most Dangerous Security Risk in Your Enterprise
Keyloggers are on the rise and they are no match for even the most security-conscious organizations. Just look at some of the names done in by a tiny chunk of code in the last 12 months: RSA, Lockheed Martin, Epsilon, Oakridge Nuclear Weapons Lab, Sony, Iranian Nuclear Program and Linked-In to name just a few. Keyloggers have been around for a long time, but today they may be the most dangerous threat an enterprise faces.

How IT fails PM
In his previous blog, Michael Hatfield blathered on about how project management techniques often fail to perform as advertised in the information technology world, and for what reasons. Now, he wants to examine how information technology fails project management in general, and for what reasons.

NASA scrambles to encrypt laptops after major breach
Keegan told employees that the stolen laptop contained sensitive "Personally Identifiable Information" (PII) about a large number of NASA employees, contractors and others. "Although the laptop was password protected, it did not have whole disk encryption software, which means the information on the laptop could be accessible to unauthorized individuals," Keegan warned.

Ballmer decided Windows chief Sinofsky was too divisive
A Microsoft executive familiar with the thinking of senior management said there was no single event that led to Sinofsky's exit. Instead, relations between Ballmer and Sinofsky frayed as development on Windows 8 progressed.

Windows Virtual PC VHDs for testing websites with Older IE versions
In order to help web designers and web developers test their websites in older versions of Internet Explorer, we've provided the following VHD with Windows set up with the specified version of Internet Explorer. The images are patched with the latest security updates and are otherwise clean installs of the operating system with very few modifications.

Texas Cloud Computing Lessons Learned
Late last week the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) released an important whitepaper that reviewed it's multi-year Pilot Texas Cloud Offering (PTCO). This project was designed to allow a small group of agencies to choose a virtual private cloud-based infrastructure as a service from a marketplace of service providers made available by a cloud broker

First All-Carbon Solar Cells
Using a grab bag of novel nanomaterials, researchers at Stanford University have built the first all-carbon solar cells. Their carbon photovoltaics don’t produce much electricity, but as the technology is perfected, all-carbon cells could be inexpensive, printable, flexible, and tough enough to withstand extreme environments and weather.

Employees Engage in Rogue Cloud Use Regardless of Security Policies
"I don't think IT realizes how much the way we live life as individuals has completely permeated the enterprise," says Margaret Dawson, vice president of product management at Symform. "This is happening whether you want it to or not."

Think like a data journalist
While prepping for my Strata keynote with Simon Rogers, editor at the Guardian Datablog, Kathryn Hurley had the amazing and unique opportunity to sit with his team for a week and experience first hand how they do their work. Kathryn Hurley shares with you what she learned and show you how you can apply some of their data analysis techniques to your own work.

Quote for the day:

"Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed." -- George Bernard Shaw

November 14, 2012

Five solid FTP clients that also happen to be free
There are plenty of tools available that range in the simple, single-minded FTP application to the feature-rich, more complicated tool. With that in mind, here are the five FTP clients that should fit nearly any situation and do so without costing you or your department a penny.

Performance Tips for Asynchronous Development in C#
In a recent online C# Corner column, "Exceptional Async Handling with Visual Studio Async CTP 3", Patrick Steele showed how the Visual Studio Async CTP (version 3), which extends Visual Studio 2010 SP1, handles aggregating exceptions that happen in background, asynchronous methods. In this column, the author covers the mechanics of the Async framework and offer some tips on maximizing its performance.

Nokia debuts Here, cross-platform location service
The move is being backed with the acquisition by Nokia of Earthmine, a California-based provider of street-level 3D imaging data, and will see Nokia going head-to-head with Google, Apple and dedicated mapping companies like TomTom.

Jaspersoft BI suite gets a new visualization engine
With the commercial release of version 5 of its self-named reporting and analysis suite, Jaspersoft has revamped the software's visualization engine, doing away with an Adobe Flash-based visualization engine in favor of one using HTML5 Web standards.

Can Machines Really Think?
Some have argued that artificial intelligence is impossible (Dreyfus), immoral (Weizenbaum) and perhaps even incoherent (Searle). And yet, despite the cynicism of those before him, Alan Mathison Turing, the dubbed father of computer science, posed his famous challenge in the mid-1900s: is it possible to create a machine so intelligent that we cannot discern any difference between human and machine intelligence?

Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, real-world speeds at 700 Mbps
After months of fanfare and anticipation, gigabit home Internet service Google Fiber finally went live on Tuesday in Kansas City. The search giant is offering 1 Gbps speeds for just $70 per month—significantly faster and cheaper than what any traditional American ISPs are offering.

How CMOs Can Work with CIOs to Gain Customer Insight
One of the key challenges CMOs face is figuring out how to partner with other internal functions. But given that today's CMO is often the main connection between the consumer and the company, a strong relationship with the CIO can allow her to leverage technology to better understand those customers.

Skype disables password reset page to deal with email-based security 'vulnerability'
Skype has taken down its password reset page as it deals with a password reset exploit that can give suspicious types access to your account with only your email address.

Project Portfolio Management – A Strategic Activity
Organizations that excel at portfolio management, typically complete projects on time and under budget while increasing ROI, according to Aberdeen Research. In fact, an effective portfolio management program can enable companies to achieve up to 25% more revenue from new products when compared with less successful competitors, according to Aberdeen.

Google India fined $13.8M for false accounting
Search giant's Indian arm accused of misleading tax authorities by underdeclaring revenue from AdWords and evading taxes through international transactions, but Google India denies the claim.

HTML5's weakness is Qt's opportunity, says Digia
Tommi Laitinen, product chief at Finnish software firm Digia, told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that businesses still want cross-platform development capabilities for creating user interfaces, and claimed that Qt would be well-placed to deliver. Laitinen was speaking shortly after the unveiling of Qt 5.0 and Digia's roadmap for the toolkit, which should see Android and iOS support added around the autumn of 2013.

Quote for the day:

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." -- Michelangelo

November 13, 2012

Everspin ships first ST-MRAM memory with 500X performance of flash
The new memory type has about 500 times the speed of NAND flash but the endurance of DRAM. ST-MRAM is seen by industry analysts as complementary technology to NAND flash memory, which is used to make solid-state drives (SSDs).

PPM - Project Categorization
Projects, programs and portfolios share a common life cycle formed around four key stage gates, which are Create, Select, Plan and Manage. In the context of portfolio, an important and first task is to determine the investment types or categories with which the project or program are categorized.

Foster Big Data expertise in-house
Big Data is becoming a strategic technology across a number of industries right now. If you are starting to make some Big Data moves for your own organization, a key first step is to foster your Big Data expertise in house before involving outsourcing providers or consultants.

Shareholders kept in dark on data breaches
It happened more than three and a half years ago. So it presumably would be old news that Chinese hackers broke into soft-drink behemoth Coca-Cola's computer systems and stole confidential files relating to its effort to acquire the China Huiyuan Juice Group for $2.4 billion.

Why CIO success comes down to just three things
When average time in post for a CIO is between only four and five years — and with trends showing that figure is likely to fall — it's no surprise that the role of a CIO requires instant success in minimal time and typically with minimal budget. Nearly every CEO's mandate for a CIO is for IT to be better, faster and cheaper.

Microsoft Surface edges out Samsung in display tests
"On-screen text is significantly sharper, it has a better factory display calibration, and also significantly lower screen reflectance than the iPad 2 and all full size 1,280x800 Android tablets," Soneira said in a statement.

The Eight Pillars of Trust
Author David Horsager, explains that trust is tangible, learnable, and measureable. Trust is a confident belief in someone or something to do what is right, deliver what is promised, and to be the same every time in spite of circumstances.

Directory of common test tools and utilities
One of the common challenges with getting started with a new technology is discovery of the tools and resources that can help you get started and increase your productivity…With that in mind the team has collected their list of favorite test tools:

Start-up brings social collaboration to caregivers
Facebook and Twitter have made sharing things - like pictures, news, and even thoughts - extremely efficient. A San Francisco start-up co-founded by former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz is applying similar technology toward helping caregivers of seniors and special needs children to meet their family’s needs.

Agile Performance Reviews
By and large, the annual performance review process at most companies is broken. The very idea of having a meaningful conversation about performance once per year is laughable. Unfortunately, this mentality persists in many of today’s corporations. Most people simply don’t know a better way, and despite constant grumbling and cynicism from the staff about the process, few companies are willing to change.

Quotes for the day:

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

"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities" -- Jean Houston