Google's move to a cheap tablet device (might be costly)

Taken from: 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228479/Google_s_Nexus_7_tablet_move_could_be_costly

Google has supported tablet devices for the past several years - but ... the reality is that nobody is really challenging Apple's iPad.  Amazon's Fire, Barnes and Nobel's Nook are weak sisters in the tablet field - but definitely cheaper at about $199 as compared to Apple's $499!!

The article notes:

"Computerworld - A $199 Nexus 7 tablet from Google would raise the stakes for Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet, which sell at a similar price and screen size.
But since the 7-in. touchscreen device is reportedly a quad-core tablet with other costly hardware, the Nexus 7 might also in some ways compete with the popular Apple iPad or perhaps the Microsoft Surface tablets unveiled last week. The iPad starts at $499; pricing for the Surface has not yet been announced.
To offer high-end features at a low cost with the Nexus 7, Google seems to be acknowledging that the Android strategy of having third-party companies make tablets hasn't worked. And that means Google must take aggressive pricing steps to make up the difference.
"If Google wants to jump-start the Android tablet market, which has been weak to date, then a low-priced, high-quality device could do that," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. "Google certainly has an incentive to make the Android tablet a competitive product in the market, and maybe driven more by wanting to capture a bigger share of the pie, than by supporting its OEMs.

"The big payback to Google from selling a $199 tablet would come from the sales of apps and the ads that Google sells for its search tool, analysts noted. "Considering that the tablet ecosystem war is getting heated now with Microsoft having a bigger role, Google might feel the need for a more aggressive [pricing] strategy," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

 So ... it sounds like Google is willing to sell their tablet cheaper than they can make it - but make up the difference through sales of apps and service.  


Can Google be a player in the tablet market?  Can Microsoft with the Surface also make a dent in the iPad world.  Seemingly if the cost is low enough, features are high enough, these tablets and strategic plans can level the playing field.  And ... will Apple - who has been enjoying record high profits from tablet sales - be forced to compete?  The battle has begun - and it will be very interesting to watch!!!

Microsoft to buy Yammer

Taken from: http://www.information-management.com/news/microsoft-yammer-esn-social-ballmer-10022761-1.html?ET=informationmgmt:e3326:2262124a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IM_Daily_062612


The article notes:

June 25, 2012 – Microsoft said it will pay $1.2 billion in cash for Yammer, the emerging enterprise social network provider it plans to sync up with its Office, Skype and cloud offerings.

Yammer enables on-demand portals to create and join private, in-house social networks with related analytics and collaborative tools. Microsoft, in a statement on the proposed deal, said it would continue to develop Yammer’s offerings as well as connect them to its own collaboration features for SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype, the video-phone provider which it purchased in the fall of 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Technology is fun - and it is fun to notice the various positions of the major players.  Facebook is the social media leader (at least in the United States); Google has tried Google Plus; Apple has a good lock on tablets and consumer devices; Microsoft just introduced its Surface tablet and a Microsoft phone (with the common operating system that is touch compatible).  So, getting a subsidiary that has "on-demand portals to create and join private, in-house social networks" would seem to be a natural thing for Microsoft to do!!!

Europe's IT jobs stagnating

Taken from:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228323/European_IT_spending_growth_grounds_to_a_halt_says_Forrester?taxonomyId=10

The article noted:

"IT spending in Europe will virtually grind to a halt this year and next due to economic uncertainty over the euro currency, according to a Forrester Research report released Thursday.
"The most likely result is either near-zero growth or economic recession in 2012, depending on the country," Forrester analyst and lead report author Andrew Bartels wrote. "The worse case is a possible collapse of the euro and a resulting depression."

Americans who have been following the economic crisis in Euro (while stressed by Greece, and Spain and others - and bolstered by Germany) - can see some very difficult times in the Euro zone.  That will impact almost everything - including IT jobs

More on IT jobs (retention of staff)

Taken from: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227908/John_Reed_Invest_in_your_IT_talent_it_s_the_key_to_retention


The article noted: 

If you want to attract top IT talent to your company, you'll need to offer meaningful professional development opportunities. The best IT workers no longer just want employers to invest in their growth; they're starting to expect them to do so.

And

In the recent downturn, the best companies held on to their most valued IT workers during the downturn by providing employees with technical training, supporting their efforts to pursue continuing education and giving them challenging assignments.

The article goes on to suggest:

• ask staffers what they want
• allow for autonomy and promote teamwork
• help workers develop other skills'

In today's IT job market, it is the smart employer who helps employees get master's degrees in IT; allow for flexible (or work from home if reasonable) time; and pays for training and certifications.

Best IT places to work (2012)

Taken from: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227166/100_Best_Places_to_Work_in_IT_2012

The top ten best IT places to work according to the article:

1. USAA - (I've seen USAA at conferences - and have been impressed - plus $10,000 tuition reimbursement
2. Career Builder
3. Commonwealth Financial Network
4. General Mills
5. Quicken Loans
6. Verizon Wireless
7. Lehigh Valley Health Network
8. Salesforce.com
9. Chesapeake Energy
10. Securian Financial Group

From visiting interns this summer, the prime aspect of who to work for is 'attitude' (in my opinion, of course).  If you like working for the particular company, you like your boss, your associates, the environment - go with it!!!  I love what I do - and I do what I love!!!  (which is partially my attitude)

You do get to choose your attitude - and you can work in a lousy place (and love it - see the FISH video from the Pike's Place Fish Market) or in a great place (and hate it).

Data Center Fabric

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center_fabric

From Wikipedia:

Fabric computing or unified computing involves the creation of a computing fabric consisting of interconnected nodes that look like a 'weave' or a 'fabric' when viewed collectively from a distance.
Usually this refers to a consolidated high-performance computing system consisting of loosely coupled storage, networking and parallel processing functions linked by high bandwidth interconnects

There are times when I know it all (after all, I have been in IT for over 30 years).  But, then <pow> I learn something new - like "fabric computing" - (wow - where did that come from).  In many respects, it is an extension of the virtualization concept  - combining servers - but also combining nodes, switches, routers, etc.  

Where once the hardware world was 'buy from the same company / supplier' - it now is following the BYOD (bring your own devices) concept to the data center.  Integration is the key!!!!

A new tablet (ho hum) ... except this one is from Microsoft

Taken from: http://www.gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/technology/gadgetbox/microsoft-announces-surface-tablet-834465 and http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228216/First_look_Microsoft_Surface_tablets?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2012-06-19

You knew it was coming, that it had to happen.  Now it is here (well ... almost here) - a Microsoft Tablet called the Surface.  It seems bigger than the iPad, with an almost real keyboard (yeah!!).

I think the author of one of these articles nailed it when he(she) said:

I think much of the success of these tablets will come down to price and how well users like Windows 8, either the Pro edition or in Windows RT. Nothing in the design is a fatal flaw. But unfortunately, I can't say that they're dream machines, either.

Yes, Windows 8 - the touch screen interface from Microsoft is out soon - and could be the ultimate for cross platform usage (especially if you are a regular Microsoft user).

I think I'll have to keep my eye on this.  Will this be like the HP Galaxy - a tablet that lasted only a few months - or will it be a 'keeper' in the new Tablet race?  Microsoft can sometimes be slow in releasing - but can do a good job with their products - or .. it can also make big mistakes.  We shall see!!! 

Storage devices

Article is from: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228126/Hybrid_drives_already_passe_as_SSD_sales_skyrocket?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2012-06-15

It wasn't all that long ago that storage (aka 'memory' was on internal hard drives - with a read/write head and with disks that rotated underneath the read/write head to pull in information (or .. to write information).

Now, as this article suggest, SSD - solid state devices (aka - things like USB memory sticks) are in - faster, more reliable, no moving parts, and more capacity.  

Think of your own music storage devices - from cassette tapes; to CD rom; to MP3 players - talk about disruptive (or innovative) technologies.  So ... faster, cheaper, more reliable ... what's NOT to like in SSD devices!!!  While not quite appropriate, think of Moore's Law in a parallel university of storage!!

Linked In security breach - revisited

Taken from:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228122/Have_LinkedIn_s_security_woes_permanently_damaged_the_social_network_

The author(s) wrote:

Computerworld - After hackers last week breached the LinkedIn site, stealing more than 6 million user passwords, analysts are debating whether the attack will cause long-term damage to the social network.

In the attack, users' passwords were posted publicly to a Russian hacker forum. The incident garnered a lot of headlines, both in the trade and mainstream news media, and LinkedIn was accused of using lax security and having nothing more than light encryption to safeguard its users' data.

What is interesting is that LinkedIn makes its money in data - about people, executives, positions, networking - and yet, they didn't protect that most important asset to their business adequately.

I don't think that it will permanently damage LinkedIn, but it should cause them to step back and secure what they have quickly!!!

Nook passes Fire in Tablet Wars

Taken from:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228143/Nook_passes_Fire_in_Web_traffic_in_June

The article notes:

Computerworld - The Barnes & Noble Nook tablet's Web traffic overtook that of the Kindle Fire for the first time in early June, while Apple's iPad maintained its overall dominance of the market, according to Chitika, an online ad network and data analytics firm.

The Chitika report is based on a study of hundred of millions of ad impressions (where a user visits a page with an ad) on several tablets from June 4 to June 10.

Chitika found 91.7% of tablet Web traffic comes from iPad devices. The June iPad total is down from the 94.64% that Chitika found in May.

Meanwhile, Nook users accounted for 0.85% of all tablet Web traffic in the June study, ahead of the Fire's Web traffic share of .71%. 

Now ... point 85 (0.85%) is less than 1 percent and is larger than point 71 (0.71%) - but really insignificant as compared to the 91.7% coming from iPad devices.  To say that Nook passes Fire in tablet usage is likened to saying "More elderly people in Howard South Dakota [population about 1,000] read the Sioux Falls Argus Leader as compared to the New York Times"  it isn't very relevant ... yet.

COBOL Brain Drain

Taken from:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227263/The_Cobol_Brain_Drain

While I don't like to take longer quotes, here is a long quote from the article:

Computerworld - David Brown is worried. As managing director of the IT transformation group at Bank of New York Mellon, he is responsible for the health and welfare of 112,500 Cobol programs -- 343 million lines of code -- that run core banking and other operations. But many of the people who built that code base, some of which dates back to Cobol's early days in the 1960s, will be retiring over the next several years.

"We have people we will be losing who have a lot of business knowledge. That scares me," Brown says. He's concerned about finding new Cobol programmers, who are expected to be in short supply in the next five to 10 years. But what really keeps him up at night is the thought that he may not be able to transfer the deep understanding of the business logic embedded within the bank's programs before it walks out the door with employees who retire.

More than 50 years after Cobol came on the scene, the language is alive and well in the world's largest corporations, where it excels at executing large-scale batch and transaction processing operations on mainframes. The language is known for its scalability, performance and mathematical accuracy. But as the boomer generation prepares to check out of the workforce, IT executives are taking a fresh look at their options.

In a recent Computerworld survey of 357 IT professionals, 46% of the respondents said they are already noticing a Cobol programmer shortage, while 50% said the average age of their Cobol staff is 45 or older and 22% said the age is 55 or older.

As a former Cobol coder  - the language is not all that difficult to learn and master the real importance of Cobol is the embedded business logic - and the clarity of that logic.  COBOL was originally an acronym - "Common Business Oriented Language" - and that was its best claim.  When you look at a statement:  Multiply HOURS-WORKED-IN by RATE-OF-PAY-IN giving GROSS-PAY - you really understand what is going on.  Business logic can be convoluted - with mergers / acquisitions / special accounts, and more - the late fee for regular accounts is X, but for preferred accounts, the late fee is Y, but for accounts that we acquired from the XYZ company, the late fee is Z, etc.

The Cobol programmers have a wealth of business knowledge - and that is what is walking out the retirement door.

At Citibank, we kidded that the accounts receivable application would stop if Bob Bivor would retire.  Bob was the architect, the person who KNEW the system inside-and-out; the go-to-guy for problems.  Yes, the application could be written in Java or C++ or some other programming language, but the business expertise is the important part!!

New Macbook Retina Display

Taken from: http://www.gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/technology/gadgetbox/growing-pains-macbook-pros-new-retina-display-825138

The new Macbook has a retina display similar to what is on the iPad and iPhone.  Now, I like the display on my iPad and iPhone - so ... why are people not necessarily liking the retina display on the Macbook?

The article notes:

The OS X desktop is a considerably more complicated and varied environment than iOS, and early reports suggest early adopted might face a slightly uneven experience.

The complications arise, ironically, because of Apple's decision to hide the complications of a higher resolution from the user.

The result? Websites look great in Safari, but (as of this writing) highly pixellated in Chrome. And some games, for instance "Diablo III," let you select the highest resolution available, while others don't even detect it. And who can say what will happen with the myriad programs available for download all over the net, many of which don't have graphics teams to address these issues? For power users, it could be something of a minefield.

The article suggests (actually good advice) that using version 1 of a new product sometimes is a little rough - and while we all need version 1 of things, being on the 'leading edge' (or 'bleeding edge') sometimes means that not quite everything is perfect!!!

A new approach to Gmail

Taken from:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227899/Fluent_review_An_innovative_new_interface_for_Gmail

While my primary email is Microsoft Outlook - for Campus Email.  (And ... my contacts, calendar, groups, archives, etc.).  My secondary email - for non-professional communications is GMail by Google.

Now, to me, gmail is functional - it seems to filter out a whole lot of spam (you should check the spam folder periodically for junk - and for recipes for using SPAM - the spiced ham / meat product).  Okay ... not flashy - but functional.

This article talks of three Google employees who left Google and have developed "Fluent" as a new interface for Gmail:

The second you get into Fluent, you see Gmail in a whole new way. Fluent shows your messages as a stream of conversations, making the experience more like browsing through Facebook than trudging through email. While Gmail requires you to click on a message to open it before replying, Fluent's Reply box is right on the Inbox screen, akin to a comment thread on a Facebook post.

You never have to open a message to view responses or add your own response.
Gone are the increasingly superfluous functions Google has tacked onto Gmail, such as "Invite a friend," Google+ functions, etc. -- not to mention the ads. In their place, Fluent provides a minimalistic gray navigation bar on the left of the screen and a simple white toolbar on top.

According to the article, there is  a two month wait to be able to get the interface and it seems like a nice approach (as they say more like Facebook, than email).

Maybe I can try it out (get on their list for two months first).

There's an app for that (ACLU app for stop and frisk)

Taken from:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/08/12124572-app-records-reports-controversial-police-stop-and-frisk-practice?lite

Various police and law enforcement groups have used "stop and frisk" activities to identify potentially troublesome problems.  On the other hand, various civil liberties group feel these are unlawful.  Now there is a new app (on Android - soon for iPhone) to record such stop and frisk events.

The article notes:

Believe you are witnessing an unlawful police stop and want to record the moment? There's an app for that, courtesy of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The group released a free smartphone application on Wednesday that allows people to record videos of and report police “stop and frisk” activity, a practice widely denounced by civil rights groups as unjustified stops that they say mostly target minorities and almost never results in an arrest.

The app was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals.

What do you think?  The questions of security and personal privacy are always going to be at odds.

Apple / Google War - heats up

Taken from:

http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/apples-war-google-heats-820591

Two of the biggest names in technology are battling.  Google is the leader in the Search Engine area; and Apple the leader in consumer electronics.

Apple is hosting its annual software developers conference - with expectations for its new Apple mapping utility (as compared to Google Maps).  Likewise a tighter ecostructure with Apple (and other apps) more tightly conjoined - and also interfacing with Apple's iCloud storage.

Apple is noted for having a lot of control over its products - like only selling 'approved' apps from the Apps Store (and keeping 30% of the revenue).  Google's environment is much more open - find an app - get it.  

The article notes:

"It's all about loyalty and basically leveraging the opportunity of selling more to them," she said. "I don't think the consumers in the mass market are necessarily tied into the Android ecosystem in the same way that consumers on the Apple side are."

Battling in many arenas, the rivals employ different weapons. Apple's vise-like grip on its ecosystem — with the closely managed app store and its seamless integration with the hardware — stands in sharp contrast to Google's free-for-all approach. 

The open system approach, reminiscent of Microsoft's hugely successful strategy of creating standard-setting software that runs on a variety of hardware, has allowed Android to capture the market lead in smartphones (albeit with nothing close to Apple's profit margins).

So ... the battle is on - with strengths in different areas - and appealing to consumers!!  

My opinion, is that eventually Google's strategy will ease ahead.  Apple's pricing is almost always at the high end (my wife wanted an iPhone when she upgraded a month ago, and was swayed by the lower price and faster processor and features of an Android phone).  

LinkedIn Security Breach

LinkedIn - professional networking site - has reported that they may have lost up to 6 million passwords.

Brian Kelly, Chief Security Officer at Quinnipiac has this to share:

Many media outlets are reporting over 6 million passwords were stolen from the social network site Linked In.While Linked In has said affected customers will also receive a note from LinkedIn with more information on what happened, please consider changing your Linked in password as soon as possible.
We have analyzed the publicly available table of compromised Linked in passwords and found some of our own passwords.
To change your password on Linked in· Log into Linked in from a web browser
· click your name in the upper right hand corner of the browser· Select "Settings", then Account Settings,
· and finally "Change Password"

Good advice (and advice that I took yesterday and did change my LinkedIn password.

any.do

Taken from:

http://blogs.cio.com/iphone/17141/anydo-do-app-android-makes-noteworthy-ios-debut

The article noted:

Even if you're already using a to-do app on your iPhone or iPod touch, you'll want to check out Any.DO thanks to its slick interface and attractive price tag: Free.
Pretty soon, I'm going to need a to-do list app to keep track of all the to-do list apps available for iOS and Android.You may already have a favorite, such as Cultured Code’s Things, which I’ve used for several years and recommend. But Things isn’t cheap. The iPhone and iPod touch app is $10; the separate iPad app is $20; and the Mac app is $50. And it has limitations. For example, you can sync to-do items between all the various apps—as long as your devices are connected on the same Wi-Fi network.

So ... this might be my next app - we'll see.  I do need to make 'to do' lists periodically (like:  [1] Grade papers; [2] grade papers; [3] create new assignments; [4] grade papers)  I've used Microsoft Outlook most of the time for real time reminders to do things on my 'to do' list.  

Check back in a week - to see if I've tried this new (and free) app!!!

Firefox13 arrives - to challenge Chrome

Taken from:
http://blogs.cio.com/browsers/17135/firefox-13-arrives-snazzy-features-rival-chrome

The author notes:

"There are three things in this release you ought to know about:

• The new start page, which has a bunch of useful gadgets on it.

• The "load tabs on demand feature" that will save you from a crash if you’re one of those folks that leaves scads of tabs open.

• The new tabs page, which looks a lot like the one in Chrome, but is still a worthwhile change.

In addition, I’ve noticed that Firefox, which had been notoriously crash prone in the past, has been getting more stable. For instance, it used to be that when I closed Firefox for some reason while Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client was running, Firefox wouldn't open again unless I went into the Windows control panel and stopped the process manually, or rebooted the whole machine. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case."

While that seems significant - I'm not sure I"m going to try it.  I have Firefox on my computer - and open it (maybe) once every other month.  I use Chrome most of the time and resort to Internet Explorer (especially as I can't get the right look of "Words with Friends" from Facebook in Chrome - and I don't want to disappoint my sister by not making my plays!!!)

Chrome loads fast, has a spell checker (which helps as I write these blogs postings), and is part of the Google Empire - and it seems like that is where I am at more and more.  I used Google Sites for student webpages, I use Google Docs and Google Music - and (of course) Google Blogger.  So ... Firefox has a new release - woo - but not all that exciting to me!!!

So ... who is checking my video

Taken from: 

http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/airtime-yes-we-look-your-video-chats-your-own-good-816686

The article notes:

It's shiny, new and created by Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. It's also prone to taking snapshots of your video chats and sending them to trained Airtime employees, who review them for inappropriate content.

So, Airtime takes snapshots of your video chats?  Why?  Seemingly on a similar site (Chatroulette), there was some issues: "The trouble with Chatroulette, of course, was that many users — ahem — exposed themselves on camera."

So ... chatting is good, but ... more than chatting might not be so good!!!