Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

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

November 12, 2012

Signs It Might Be Time To Consider Hiring A CEO
This can be an incredibly difficult decision to make, but it’s better for you to make the decision yourself than to be told by your board that they’re hiring one whether you like it or not. That situation is avoidable both by minimizing the chance the hire needs to be made, and also making sure communication lines with your board are wide open so you’re part of the process in picking a CEO complementary to you.

An Innovation Strategy is Critical
Braden Kelley, a popular innovation speaker had the opportunity to interview Susan Harman, Manager of Open Innovation, about open innovation strategy, importance of an innovation culture, some of the barriers to innovation success, and even some thoughts on the educational system.

IP Australia stops the brain drain through teleworking
Almost 15 percent of the agency's 1,000-strong workforce telework for some part of the week on a regular basis, whether that is home-based for one or two days a week, or out-posted to another city. Victor Portelli, general manager of patents at IP Australia told ZDNet that the organisation had started allowing staff to work remotely from around eight years ago.

What Data Can't Tell You About Customers
Across industries, companies are using the vast amounts of user-generated data to guide innovation of new products and services. But data mining does not equate to developing "customer intelligence." Human behavior is nuanced and complex, and no matter how robust it is, data can provide only part of the story.

Gartner sees shift to hybrid cloud unified communications
Today, 95 per cent of businesses’ unified communications are kept on premise, including telephony, email, messaging and videoconferencing, Johnson told Computerworld Australia, ahead of this week’s Gartner Symposium on the Gold Coast. The trend now is to move more of these services to the cloud and companies are thinking carefully about which ones, he said.

Sharing Information and Knowledge
There are many ways to share information. Some of them may take just a few minutes. You can choose to spend as little or as much time as you want. By sharing, you are not going to lose it and instead, you will only get enriched. Feel free to share information and knowledge.

8 Perspectives on Software Vendors to Watch in 2013
SandHill’s questions on predictions as to how the software vendor landscape will change in 2013 found agreement among industry observers about the changes facing legacy software powerhouses. The questions also sparked tirades about Microsoft. Dive into their perspectives on the difficult challenges and necessary “rebooting” ahead.

Australia escapes the Asia-Pacific IT skills shortage: IDC
The Asia-Pacific region is being hit hard by an IT skills shortage, but Australia may have escaped the full force of the epidemic, thanks to its sunny beaches and carefree lifestyle.

VMware CTO: Adapt, Enable Choice, or Die
VMware CTO Stephen Herrod: We have to continuously be reinventing ourselves and continue to push the envelope quite hard. We've been working on this strategy of the software-defined data center for a while now, although we've just coined the phrase earlier this year.

CHAPLIN - An Application Architecrtue Using Backbone.js
Chaplin is mostly derived and generalized from the codebase of moviepilot.com, a real-world single-page application. Chaplin tries to draw the attention to top-level application architecture. “Application” means everything above simple routing, individual models, views and their binding.

Quotes for the day:

"Information is the oxygen of the modern age." -- Ronald Reagan
"In the power to change yourself is the power to change the world around you. " -- Anwar Sadat

November 11, 2012

If, When, And How To Avoid Hiring A CEO
You don’t have to be good at everything if you build the right team and have the self confidence to learn from it. Be willing to hire people who are better than you and who have skills or experience in areas that you don’t.

Why It Makes Sense To Move Finance, Accounting To The Cloud
Many small and midsize businesses end up relegating the bulk of their financial operations to underpowered accounting and financial packages that will begin to eat into the quality of services and the speed at which transactions are processed. That’s not good for business.

Visitor Tracking Without Cookies (or How To Abuse HTTP 301s)
To illustrate one of the ambiguities in the law, I’ve implemented a tool which tracks site visitors almost as effectively as cookies (or similar technologies such as Flash Objects or Local Storage), but which must necessarily fall into one of the larger grey areas. My tool abuses the way that “permanent” (301) HTTP redirects are cached by web browsers.

First Rule of Management: No Whining
Yet most managers don’t utilize the “no whining” rule. Today it’s easy to whine and deflect responsibility, because so much seems out of our control — the economy, regulatory requirements, technological changes, costs of raw materials, and many others.

An inside look behind Romney's loss: An epic failure of its Orca big-data app
The system was designed to identify likely Romney voters who had not yet voted on Election Day, and then get them to vote. But it continually crashed and people didn't know how to use it. Here's what Politico has to say about the consequences

Innovating India: Government to Set Up Rs 5000 Crore Fund
The money will probably be provided under the National Entrepreneurial Mission headed by Prime Minister and could also be linked with National Skill Development Mission also headed by the Prime Minister. Currently India provides only about INR 1,200 per year for innovations which is nothing in front of US’s INR 29,000 crore and China’s INR 3,000 crore. Even smaller European countries provide more for entrepreneurs than India.

Team Unmotivated? Get Out a Clean Sheet of Paper
The clean slate approach works when an employee is has issues, that is, in a current position or even a former position. Such issues include behaviors that rub people the wrong way, or prevent the employee from getting along with others including a boss. Behaviors are rooted in poor communications, lack of respect for others, and often an outsized ego.

LED Glasses Make Programming Fun and Fashionable [VIDEO]

Though these LED glasses might look like something rapper Lil Wayne would wear, they’re meant to encourage people to get involved in the process of coding — something that has become an important language in today’s ultra-tech society.

SEO Smackdown: Information Architecture vs. Technical Architecture
Believe it or not, many SEO professionals, developers and other IT professionals do not understand the role of information architecture (IA) in the SEO process. In fact, this group often does not understand the role of IA in the Web development process. These misunderstandings and misconceptions lead to bruised egos and frustrated clients. To get all web professionals on the proverbial same page, let’s review some of the differences and sources of confusion.

Quotes for the day:

"Execute like there's no tomorrow, strategize like there will be" -- Aaron Levie

"The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed." -- Lloyd Jones

November 10, 2012

Break: The Most Important Part of Breakthrough
We hear a lot about disruptive business models, but if you look at them what they essentially do is break a pattern of behavior, or break a piece off of an industry--and then do it better.

Multicore Programming is Harder than it Looks
“The hardware is advancing, but software hasn’t kept up,” said Joe Hummel, who taught a recent three-day IEEE Computer Society class in parallel processing. “The crux of the problem is it’s important for a growing minority of people to know about this. But it’s hard to create that software.”

Panel session: 7 Essential Elements for Maximizing Application Security
It is important for all IT professionals to develop a comprehensive understanding of the underlying principles for designing, engineering, and managing secure applications.Attend this session and learn from industry experts how to know better your threats, efficiently secure the network, host and applications and incorporate security into your software development process.

Manufacturer sues IBM over SAP project 'disaster'
IBM has been slapped with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by chemical products manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials, which alleges that IBM lied about the suitability of an SAP-based software package it sells in order to win Avantor's business.

Can Enterprise Software Innovation Be Industrialized ?
There is a simple reason I worry about this topic. I get paid for actual execution of projects. When unrealistic expectations are set for my clients, my job gets harder because a lot of my time will be spent in convincing people to let go of fantasies and get realistic. That is time that I should have spent in executing the project.

Constitutional validity of IT Act challenged
A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act under which a Puducherry businessman-cum-India Against Corruption volunteer Ravi Srinivasan was booked last week for having tweeted against Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti.

Evolving security standards a challenge for cloud computing, expert says
Any enterprise looking to use cloud computing services will also be digging into what laws and regulations might hold in terms of security and privacy of data stored in the cloud. At the Cloud Security Alliance Congress in Orlando this week, discussion centered on two important regulatory frameworks now being put in place in Europe and the U.S.

Intel gears up for enterprise push with next-gen Ultrabooks
“When we first launched Ultrabooks, we focused on the consumer market and this impacted business uptake. There was a lot of confusion with CIOs as to what Ultrabooks were, so that delayed the ramp up a little bit. Although you still saw execs buying them,” he said.

Predictions: Enterprise Architecture in 2020
So what do I think? While there is a lot that can happen in the next seven years I do think EA is here to stay. However, I believe that it will look a bit different than it does today. I believe that there will be a natural evolution to its eventual state.

New Paradigms for Application Architecture: From Applications to IT Services
Anne Thomas Manes highlights the importance of adapting to the current trend marked by the convergence of mobile, social and cloud, moving away from app-centric design to service-based solutions.

Quote for the day:

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot