February 2012
6 posts
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“The API is designed to tackle high-value use cases related to gaming, and is not...”
– Vibration API Working Draft from W3C
Try it out at html5do.com
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Keep IT quiet
First time I heard the term Consumerisation of IT I thought, “Oh no, someone found me out!”
You see; new to my technician post I was greeted by the folks who never got on with the last guy, and who saw an opportunity to get their ideas aired and their most trivial of problems fixed.
Suggestions came as blunt as, “We need guest wifi in reception”, or as subtle hints like, “I’ve always said - we...
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6 key skills new IT grads are lacking
“It’s a horrible thing to say, but there’s just not enough time [in college to learn] all the skills that people need to be successful. We are expecting more and more, and universities are supplying more, but we’re asking for still more”
So says Greg Taffet, CIO of U.S. Gas & Electric in North Miami Beach, in a recent article in ComputerWorld which has...
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Computers have feelings too
Sensing input devices are a recent innovation, perhaps seeming like a flash in the pan. Microsoft Kinect made quite an impression, dominating in the press, and soaking up many many weekends for enthused hackers.
I admire the stance Microsoft took open sourcing the Kinect drivers. It takes courage to embrace any resulting crazy ideas born of your technology. Some truly inspirational hacks came...
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“The higher take-up rates for tablet owners make sense for an app such as Mint’s....”
– Why Mint on Android tablets could boost its user base - GigaOm Mobile
See also - Curl up with cloud computing
January 2012
4 posts
4 tags
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Mobility - #ByteIT
by @mled
“How do I get email on my iPhone?” - so popular, it’s top of the intranet FAQ.
The abuse that email gets never ceases to amuse me. It’s a repository for many thousands of attachments, it’s a To Do list that others love to add items to in passive aggressive tones, and much more. We seem to crowbar in new uses for it all the time.
I hate the phone call that chases an email, probing...
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Site down for maintenance
We will be carrying out some site maintenance on Saturday 4 February 2012.
This will require a temporary shutdown of our e-Books section between 12pm and 6pm.
Should you have any comments, concerns or questions, then please contact us.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.
The National Skills Academy for IT
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Make IT Happy 2012
e-skills UK has just announced this year’s Make IT Happy, the annual technology competition for primary schools.
This year’s theme is Make IT Healthy, and we’re challenging pupils and teachers to show us how they’re using IT to improve their own or others’ health – whether that’s physical, mental or emotional. Any project on a health-related topic that uses technology could be a winner – why not...
December 2011
1 post
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November 2011
8 posts
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“Unfortunately for its practitioners, the perception of IT isn’t on the reform...”
– Contractor UK
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“…the only way out of the cybersecurity skills crisis is for a massive...”
– When the Cybersecurity S**t Hits the Fan - Computer Weekly Blogs
October 2011
27 posts
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“IT contractors, it seems, are rather more ‘cuddly’ in their approach to working...”
– Job Stability Tops the Wish List of IT Contracting Specialists - Crystal Umbrella
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Lenny Zeltser on Information Security: How... →
lennyzeltser:
Though endpoint antivirus tools may differ in their implementation of malware-detection approaches, the tend to incorporate the same 4 essential techniques. In an article for SearchSecurity, I described at a high level how these techniques function, covering:
Signature-based detection
Heuristics-based detection
Behavioral detection
Cloud-based detection
Read the full...
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Beyond the call of duty
by @mled
The job title “sysadmin” commands respect in certain circles, and symbolises a devotion to duty. XKCD illustrates this beautifully. As a young technician, I was inspired by war stories from the battle-scarred heroes of corporate IT.
Evenings in the pub saw these unassuming yet admired few recite tales that could have us hanging on every word, chuckle at the fate of the unfortunate...
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“The combination of new devices with pervasive connectivity and plentiful online...”
– Beyond the PC - Mobile digital gadgets are overshadowing the personal computer, says Martin Giles. Their impact will be far-reaching.
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Computeractive survey finds office workers lack...
Source: Computeractive
British office workers struggle with computers and other office equipment because they have a lack of basic IT know-how.
A survey of 2,000 office workers commissioned by Computeractive found that instead of making working life easier, technology can make it more difficult and a very large proportion of people blamed faulty IT devices for many of their woes.
A quarter...
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“The new fabrication process is said to increase the size of the LEDs available,...”
– Samsung makes LED breakthrough that turns windows into display screens (via thenextweb)
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.NET programmers in demand
Source: I Programmer
Are you a newbie programmer looking for a job? It seems your best bet is to opt for .NET.
According to technical jobs website, Dice.com, companies in the US have posted more than 10,000 positions requesting .NET experience - a 25 percent increase compared to last year’s .NET job count.
Alice Hill, managing director at Dice.com, describes Microsoft .NET as,...
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The Five Identity Management Settings Every Cloud...
Source: kinvey.com
Here is a list of the basic permission settings we think each cloud management portal should have:
1. Multiple user accounts/groups within a company account that can have different permissions
2. Permissions based on resource type (database, VMs instances, load balancers)
3. Permissions based on action severity (adding capacity or assets vs removing, read-only...
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“Happy employees who have lives outside of work are better than unhappy employees...”
– How to find, hire and keep top technical talent - The Next Web (via thenextweb)
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If Google’s Management Doesn’t Use Google+, Then...
Source: Mashable
One of the most important rules in software is to eat your own dog food. The concept is simple: If you have confidence in your product, you use it.
Perhaps somebody should tell that to Google’s senior management, because the people in it are not eating their own dog food when it comes to Google+.
During the madness that was the launch of the iPhone 4S, we stumbled across an...
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The rise and fall of the Windows Desktop Gadget
Source: InfoWorld
In a move that took many by surprise, Microsoft dropped support for new Windows Desktop Gadgets.
Once hailed (or at least marketed) as a key new feature in Windows Vista, Desktop Gadgets are going the way of the dodo. In their stead? Windows 8 Metro, of course.
Microsoft’s official death certificate for Windows Gadgets hawks, “With Windows Developer Preview,...
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Google’s Schmidt Says Acquisition of Motorola...
Source: Bloomberg
Google Inc. (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt said the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. may spur competition among phone makers using its Android software, and the company won’t play favorites with its partners.
“The Android ecosystem is the No. 1 priority, and that we won’t do anything with Motorola, or anybody else by the way, that would screw up the...
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Microsoft board gives Ballmer a 2% pay increase,...
Source: GeekWire
CEO Steve Ballmer received an increase in pay to $682,500 for fiscal 2011, up about 2 percent, and a bonus of the same amount — bringing his total compensation to 1.365 million.
Under the company’s incentive plans, Ballmer had the potential to receive a bonus as large as twice his salary, if he had knocked it out of the park. But the the filing describes the bonus as “100% of...
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“The disconnect between “software developer”, “tester”, “support engineer” and...”
– Developers Must Feel the Pain of Operations - Recursivity.blog()
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Symbian Now Officially No Longer Under The Wing Of...
Source: mocoNews.net
Another loose end being tied up by Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today. The company announced that Accenture has now fully taken over Symbian, the operating system that Nokia had developed, owned and been using as the basis of its smartphones for years—a strategy that changed in February this year when it announced it would be making devices based on Microsoft’s Windows Phones in the...
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Project Management: A Simple Way to Identify...
Source: CIO.com
Too often, problems with IT projects go unrecognized until it becomes impossible to ignore them, such as when the project budget has grown wildly overblown or the schedule is careening off track.
Identifying potential problems with IT projects—problems simmering below the surface of your pristine project plan—may seem impossible. After all, who has time to step back and assess...
September 2011
34 posts
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What good Web Developers should know about sending... →
Source: Diary of a Ninja
“Sending E-mail from your website is not a complicated task (as your probably already know). Trying to assure that your email messages get to their recipients is not too hard as long as you stick to a couple of simple rules.
Hopefully the list above, will allow you to get back to doing what you do best – rocking the web.”
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The API in layman's terms →
Using how you drive a car as an analogy.