Protect the Openness of the Internet. A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way.Sure, so terrorists can use it to plot against us? My friends, Senator Obama needs to understand that openness equals vulnerability. Apparently his idea of "spreading the wealth" is to risk everybody's security.
Obama will appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century.More big government. It appears that Senator Obama wants some "elite" to determine if you're good enough to use the Internets.
Lower Health Care Costs by Investing in Electronic Information Technology Systems. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records.Sounds like socialized medicine to me, which is the kind of socialist plot that only a true socialist could hatch. My friends, what do we really know about Barack Hussein Obama?
Encourage Diversity in Media OwnershipOther than he hates whites.
When Regulation Is Warranted, John McCain Acts. John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like net-neutrality, but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices.One can be certain that Senator McCain's idea of an "open marketplace" is an unregulated industry allowed to prey on gullible consumers by offering a "variety" of choices, such as subprime loans.
John McCain Will Pursue Protection Of Intellectual Property Around The Globe.In other words, Senator McCain once again will side with the powerful -- large corporations and unpaid singer/songwriters -- to thwart the constitutionally protected freedoms of YouTube users.
John McCain is uniquely qualified to lead our nation during this technological revolution.Having been around when they invented the cotton gin.
John McCain Will Protect The Creative Industries From Piracy.Who panders to Hollywood now?
It's not a bad time to be a mobile software developer, even in this economy.
Rare is the mobile device maker that is not advertising for application development talent.
Recent want ads by Research in Motion, Nokia and even Motorola, are just three examples. Demand for Apple's iPhone developers, for example, is up 500 percent in just the past six months, according to employment outsourcing company oDesk.
Indeed, the iPhone essentially has created a new job market -- one that has been drawing fervent interest among developers. Apple announced in March that more than 100,000 developers had downloaded the iPhone free software development kit.
The SDK was followed by the launch of a $100 million "iFund" that is dedicated to funding iPhone-related software and services.
For the period from March through September 2008, oDesk data shows an increase from less than 30 to more than 140 iPhone developer-related jobs per month. In demand are engineers, programming and consulting jobs.
Another company stoking the mobile software developer demand is Google, which is offering $10 million in total awards for "the best mobile apps built on the Android platform," the search giant's entry into the mobile software market.
The Cisco study found that on a global basis, 77 percent of respondents have security policies in place -- though only 41 percent stated they adhered to those policies all the time.I actually can understand organizations establishing security policies, only to have many employees fail to comply consistently. But the nearly one in four organizations that don't even have security policies to ignore in the first place are asking for big trouble in an increasingly mobile, wireless and borderless workplace.
One of the most significant findings was the difference in employee and IT perspectives on policy non-compliance. According to IT, employees defy policies for a variety of reasons, from failing to grasp the magnitude of security risks to apathy. However, employees said the top reason for non-compliance is their belief that policies do not align with the reality of what they need to do their jobs. More than two of five employees (42 percent) made this claim globally.Clearly the road toward business-IT alignment ubiquity is a long one.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo and a group of human rights and public interest organizations plan to introduce Wednesday a global code of conduct that they say will better protect online free speech and privacy against government intrusion.
The principles are the starting point for a new effort, called the Global Network Initiative, which commits the companies to "avoid or minimize the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression," according to a final draft of documents obtained by The New York Times.
Stating that privacy is "a human right and guarantor of human dignity," the initiative commits the companies to try to resist overly broad demands for restrictions on freedom of speech and overly broad demands that could compromise the privacy of their users.Granted, I don't have the final draft of the agreement in front of me, but from the description in the Times, weasel words abound. The Global Network Initiative "commits" the companies to "avoid or minimize the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression." So what's the commitment? Or more precisely, what's the penalty for failing to meet the commitment?
[T]he initiative will provide a non-governmental forum for the companies and human rights groups to jointly resist demands for censorship. It will also establish a system of independent auditors to rate the companies' conduct.Hear that, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo? You might get a bad report card! Wait'll that shows up in your 10-Q.
"It is really very little more than a broad statement of support for a general principle without any concrete backup mechanism to ensure that the guidelines will be followed."Other than that, of course, it's positively ironclad!
George F. Colony, chairman and CEO of Forrester Research, takes a pragmatic and nerve-calming view of the current technology climate in his blog CounterIntuitive.
Colony says the current situation is different than the dark days when the Internet bubble burst. He writes:
For tech, this recession will be different than 2001-2003. ... I'm not an economist. But I've been present for a bunch of recessions and watched how technology markets survived. And I spend a lot of my time talking to management teams at large companies about economic conditions and their businesses. Here's my view of the effects of this recession on technology.
"We business technology users," Colony writes, have become "far more disciplined and have cut out the nonsense." Colony cites some excellent examples to back up his claims. I felt markedly more perky about the tech landscape after I digested his wise words. It was either that or digesting my third non-fat vanilla latte. Here are his three best points:
A) Transformation and innovation will lead recovery. CIOs and CEOs are telling me that they plan to change their way out of this mess. ... [For example] Wal-Mart is going to use social computing to increase customer responsiveness. FedEx is replacing its data centers with high-efficiency, green designs. When we come out the other side of this crisis, companies will look quite different -- and technology will have been a catalyst in those changes.
B) Tech is everywhere. It's seven years since the last recession. Technology has become markedly more pervasive in that time -- it's the air we breathe and the water we swim in. Cell phone penetration in the U.S. has tripled in that time; eCommerce has increased by 85%. ... IT has become Business Technology. If you don't believe me, start unplugging wires at your company and see how long you can develop, manufacture, deliver, sell, and service your products.
C) Customers live on tech. The consumer landscape is very different than it was in 2001. ... The delta between the Y generation (18-27) and the X generation (28-41) is extraordinary -- Y spends twice the amount of time on cell phones and half the amount of time reading newspapers. ... In a recession, the use of Facebook, Linked In, eCommerce, blogs will increase, not decrease, as people look for jobs, companies stay closer to their customers, and easier-to-ROI Internet advertising accelerates. Companies will have to stay focused on their web sites, social strategies, and eCommerce this time around -- or risk losing their next generation of customers.
The Obama campaign has linked arms with ChaCha, a free mobile answers service, to urge people across the USA to vote early. Until election day, people who use ChaCha will receive a prompt that offers the option of getting more information on how and where to vote early. The campaign is limited to states where early voting is allowed.
Despite the continuing "economic uncertainty" (that's code for holy crap, how much have I lost?), I saw three encouraging signs this week.
First, Microsoft posted another huge quarter, as Chris Nerney wrote about in the previous blog. In times of stress, people turn to comfort food, or comfortable technology. Or comfortable home entertainment. That's why Microsoft saw such a big jump in multi-year contracts to businesses. And that's why the movie downloading market is growing so fast (see below.)
On the other hand, Microsoft has also rushed out an urgent Windows fix. Check out this story and start patching, if you haven't already.
Juniper is another company with soaring profits. Why? It's all about the pipes. The company is the second largest maker of networking equipment, and it posted a 75 percent gain in third-quarter profit as phone and cable companies upgraded their systems to provide faster download speeds.
Finally, I continue to be amazed by the evolution in renting and downloading movies. Netflix said this week that it had agreed on a partnership to deliver movies and television shows over the Internet to owners of Samsung Blu-ray DVD players. Netflix will give owners of certain players access to more that 12,000 titles that can be watched on TVs.
And speaking of TV shows, we have a mantra around our house, which my son often recites: "Comcast sucks."
But I can't deny that Comcast's On Demand service continues to get more interesting. I thought I'd missed last Sunday's "Mad Men," which I didn't record. Then I remembered it was on On Demand. So I was able to catch up and enjoy some comfort TV and forget about that other show -- Global Financial Meltdown -- for a while.
Microsoft's quarterly profit rose 2 percent, the company reported today, saying it was buoyed through economic uncertainty by corporate customers that renewed licenses for servers and other business programs.
The Redmond software maker said it earned $4.37 billion, or 48 cents a share, in the most recent quarter. Sales rose 9 percent to $15.1 billion.
Results for the company's fiscal first quarter (ended Sept. 30) beat street estimates, which forecast earnings of 47 cents per share on sales of $14.8 billion.
It wasn't all good, as Microsoft also lowered its full-year earnings forecast in a nod to economic reality. But investors had factored that in earlier this week, knocking down MSFT shares. The stock rose 5 percent in after-hours trading Thursday as the market reacted positively to the estimate-topping numbers.
Hiring Survey: The IT Skills In Highest Demand outlines which traditional tech skills, as well as expertise in emerging trends, are most in demand.
IT Job Hunt: Standout Cover Letters and Resumes discusses, well, I'm sure you can figure it out.
IT Jobs: The Growing Need For Business Skills reveals the great career opportunity staring IT pros in the face.
How To Not Get An IT Job: 10 Tips explores the most common -- and fatal -- mistakes made by job-seekers.
Esssential Tips For IT Interviews provides a handy checklist of things you can do to close the deal and get an offer you can't refuse.
The Best IT Job Boards is a good place to start if you want to get a handle on the online aspects of your job search.
One of the most talked about semantic web tools is Twine, from Radar Networks. Twine dominated many of the discussions at last week's successful Web 3.0 Conference & Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., (see "Semantic Web Turns to the Mainstream.") The cutting-edge solution was often lauded during the conference as a semantic web pioneer that's doing it right.
After a long and productive beta process, Twine went live today. Nova Spivack, CEO or Radar, says that Twine is on the road to serious "monetization," as Jennifer Zaino reported in her story today:
"We are a site where people go to discover stuff, but the level of engagement is more like a social network. That combination should monetize well with our new form of direct marketing," Spivack says.
In early 2009, Spivack, who says Twine has already signed up large national advertisers for testing, plans to deliver sponsored content -- whether for products or events -- right within interest feeds. Not in a sidebar, and not segregated at the top, where he contends they are easy to ignore.
"That's marketing, not advertising," he says, noting that sponsored content will be labeled as such. "I think ads are a pull-based model where you may or may not see them. Marketing is more push-based, where it gets sent to you," with the idea being that this is targeted content that a particular user will want to receive -- and have control over whether or not to receive it.
If, for example, Twine figures out from certain interests and bookmarks that you are looking for a new car, Twine can recommend things related to the kind of new car you want, but once you buy a vehicle you can indicate that new car updates are no longer an interest for you.
Twine now has a revamped interface, and features a ton of usability improvements, most of them suggested by users during the beta process. Improvements include: new, more intuitive navigation system; public content within Twine is now indexed by search engines; batch bookmark import from Delicious, Digg, and browsers; improved recommendation engine, and the ability to invite people to Twine from online email address books.
Check out Jennifer Zaino's coverage of this semantic web pioneer at Semanticweb.com.
A national survey has found that households with a married couple and minor children are more likely than other household types -- such as single adults, homes with unrelated adults, or couples without children -- to have cell phones and use the internet.
The survey shows that these high rates of technology ownership affect family life. In particular, cell phones allow family members to stay more regularly in touch even when they are not physically together. Moreover, many members of married-with-children households view material online together.Of course, a social criticism often heard about modern digital technology -- from computers to PDAs to the internet to video games -- is that it isolates users from the rest of the human race. Apparently not so.
"I think it would still make sense economically for their shareholders and ours."The "it" in this case is Microsoft's bid to acquire troubled Internet pioneer Yahoo, a deal that was buried in July after months of talks, resistance from Yahoo, at least one counteroffer, resistance from Yahoo, fingerpointing, speculation and resistance from Yahoo. The sticking point was the $33 per share offer, which Yahoo deemed insultingly low.
"We are not in any discussions with them. We'll see. They want to remain independent. There are probably still opportunities around search."Other than some unintelligible grunts, Yahoo offered no comment. However, at the mountaintop castle in Redmond,
...but scientists at UCLA know that I'm really exercising my mind with The Google!
A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning.
The researchers say this might even help to counteract the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.
Compared to simple reading, the internet's wealth of choices required people to make decisions about what to click on in order to get the relevant information, according to the UCLA team.
This, of course, is great news for people addicted to seemingly aimless web surfing. Unfortunately, the benefits of your rigorous online workout may be offset if you like to have a glass of beer or wine while riding The Google. Such is life.
My colleagues and I were speculating today on how the new Oliver Stone movie "W" would do. Based on the commercials, and Josh Brolin's rising star (he was great in "No Country for Old Men"), I think it'll be huge ... but on the other hand, have you heard what the No. 1 movie in America is? For the past two weeks it's been that lovable chihuahua from Southern California.
You just can't go wrong with dogs in these dog days of Indian summer. Then, during today's conference call, my fellow managing editor James Maguire wondered if there were any "dogs-in-hi-tech" angles, and he was lamenting that he didn't think there were any such stories. Luckily, there IS an elephants-in-technology story, regarding GPS tracking, text messages, and farmers in Kenya. (Read Chris Nerney's blog on the subject.)
Then a memory hit me like a big slurpy dog lick in the chops. There is indeed a dog-in-tech saga. I remembered reading a couple years ago about sniffer dogs being used at airports in Asia to detect pirated DVDs. It sounded insane at the time.
Well, I Googled the story. Turns out there was an important update to the story on Tom's Hardware. This is a very old update, but I had not heard this development, as I regrettably was not following the story as closely as I should. The ominous title is, "Malaysian movie pirates put out hit on sniffer dogs."
How has this flown so under the radar? With the huge success of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," and with the growing legion of young geeks and DVD pirates out three -- not to mention all the dog lovers -- how has this idea not been optioned for a movie? Is Benji still available?
Anyway, here's part of the story from Tom's Hardware.
It appears that a pair of very successful anti-piracy sniffer dogs have been too successful for Malaysian crime lords. Mob bosses who specialize in distributing pirated DVDs and CDs are offering a reward for anyone who kills "Lucky" and "Flo," two black Labrador retrievers who busted a huge counterfeiting ring.
The dogs found over a million counterfeit CDs and DVDs in the city of Johor Baru which is near Singapore. Police estimate the discs to have a street value of three million dollars. The police also seized high-speed duplicators and other equipment. Six people were arrested.
The dogs have been trained to sniff out the smell of CD and DVD dyes typically used in mass piracy. ... Police are taking the threat seriously and have put the dogs in protective custody. Crime bosses often put out hits on successful sniffer dogs, although this is the first time we've heard of such a bounty placed on piracy dogs. The hits are usually ordered against drug dogs who find cocaine and other drugs.
Now before you discount this treat on the dog's lives, consider this tidbit from another story on the subject, this one from the Telegraph.co.uk.
Manny, a third dog who had been working with Lucky and Flo, died soon afterwards of unknown causes.
All joking aside, this is an excellent example of using simple technology to protect both wildlife and people who rely on agriculture to survive. Of course, it's only a matter of time before the elephants will want their own MySpace pages.There are no boundaries to technology these days, and as strange as it may sound, even elephants heard of text messaging. It's true, elephants in Kenya are the first among their kind to send text messages to rangers, oddly enough, to announce them they are heading for villagers' crops.
The method of implementing a SIM Card into the elephants' collars was meant as an alternative to shooting the animals in order to stop them from destroying the crops that farmers highly depend on in Kenya.
The SIM-equipped collars work like a GPS system, warning the rangers every time an animal heads for any of the crops. This way, people and elephants can make peace: Villagers will no longer lose their crops, and elephants will not longer have to be shot.
If you're of a certain age, you no doubt remember the commercials from the (long-gone) E.F. Hutton. "My broker is E.F. Hutton. And he says ..." (Men standing nearby snap their well-coiffed heads around to listen.)
Fast forward to 2008. This is what you'll likely hear -- something I actually heard in a bathroom yesterday: "My broker says ... don't even look."
This current free fall of the markets is so big it's hard to know what to feel, besides numb. And despair. GM drops 31 percent? Worst week ever for the S&P, potentially?
With the financial channel on the telly, and me chewing my fingernails, I decided today to check my 401k balance at Morganstanley.com. It's almost Halloween, so I figured I could handle a little scare.
Before I got to the frightful figures, Morganstanely.com kindly greeted me with a sort of "please step back from the ledge" screen before I got to my account. I imagine this type of message is appearing on all financial services web sites.
ALERT MESSAGES
PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT PLAN ALERT INFORMATION BEFORE YOU CONTINUE
Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed a historic transformation in the financial landscape. While the tremendous speed and magnitude of these events may be unsettling, it is important to evaluate their potential impact on your retirement account based upon accurate information. In that regard, here are answers to some commonly asked questions. Click here.
I didn't bother to check the link, but yeah, Morganstanley.com, we got some frequently asked questions out here in the hinterland. Like, what the hell is going on? What's up with that $700 billion bailout, I mean "rescue plan?" Where should I stick my money, other than my mattress?
The scariest thing is just how far this "historic transformation" will go. What will happen next week? Do I have Columbus Day off? Stay tuned.
Of those polled by Kelton Research, 84 percent of workers said the top advantage to working remotely is being productive during travel time. The study, commissioned by Fiberlink Communications, a mobility platform provider, also states that 80 percent enjoy the freedom that comes in a telecommuting work environment.
The Fiberlink study queried 300 employees at companies with 500 or more employees who work remotely using mobile computing devices. Three out of four said the biggest benefit of working remotely is a flexible work schedule with nine out of 10 reporting a better work-life balance as a result.
I'd have to concur with the vast majority on those two benefits, and I'd even join the majority that say it'd be easier for them to to give up their car for a week than their Internet access. But other than occasionally emailing in a request for someone to unlock my VPN account, this telecommuter is fairly low-maintenance for my company's IT staff (or so this telecommuter thinks).
Not so some of you others...
Remote workers admit to risky online behavior and insecure data practices, with:
24% admitting they've altered security settings
23% saying they delay security updates on devices
43% reporting they've downloading personal photos and videos
31% acknowledge downloading software for personal use
25% cop to clicking on blacklisted or banned Web sites on company devices
Telecommuting peeps, what are you doing? You're creating nightmares for your IT department, you're opening up your enterprise to risk (thus endangering the organization from which you draw a paycheck), and you're making it hard for telecommuters everywhere by confirming the negative connotations many corporate types have about telecommuting. In other words, your sloppy practices could ruin it for all of us. Shape up.
Research in Motion is positioning the trusty Blackberry for a major battle with Apple's upstart iPhone in 2009.
The company revealed its first touch-screen Blackberry, the Storm, on Tuesday. As Ryan Kim in the San Francisco Chronicle reported, the Storm will be the biggest challenge to the iPhone as RIM tries to expand its user base to Joe Six-Pack and hockey moms (a paraphrase).
Regarding the Storm's impressive specs and features, Kim writes:
It features a bright 3.25-inch touch screen and a host of consumer-friendly features along with e-mail and security capabilities that are familiar to BlackBerry corporate customers. The price has not been announced.
The phone adds some oomph to the fall line-up of RIM, the leading smart-phone manufacturer in the United States, which has held its own against the popular iPhone. Now, in addition to offering devices with traditional keyboards, RIM has a touch screen worthy of comparison with the iPhone 3G.
The Storm's screen matches much of the responsiveness and capabilities of the iPhone, but adds a twist. The screen itself functions as a large button that confirms a user's selection when pressed. Unlike the iPhone, where a swipe or errant tap can launch an application or action, the Storm waits for the click before initiating anything. ...
Similar to the iPhone 3G, the Storm provides a full HTML browser, GPS, a music and video player, a motion-sensing accelerometer, and a menu that responds to swipes and taps for panning and zooming.
Meanwhile, RIM continues to attack on another front: Blackberry certifications, which IT Career Planet wrote about recently.
RIM offers several certifications this year, with more to come in '09. It's a welcome move, because it's a wireless world now. Plus, with all the job concerns out there, it's a good idea for IT workers to keep current with the most relevant new certifications.
As Bill Hughes, principal analyst at In-Stat, told It Career Planet:
"The horse has left the barn. Our data indicates that it won't be too long before enterprises are paying more for wireless than wired-line communications. ... It's time companies get proactive managing and supporting smartphones the same way they support laptops."
Google released a useful new Gmail feature yesterday in its labs, which could help prevent the intoxicated from sending embarrassing late-night emails they might regret in the morning.
When activated, the program will force a user to solve a series of math problems before allowing any message to be sent.
Here's an example of the math problems, taken from Google's official Gmail blog:
Boy, Google really is challenging its Gmail users to step up! 11 x 2? 2 x 5? Even Sarah Palin could blow through this list of brainteasers, though maybe not in the allotted time.
[eBay] said (on Monday) it would spend more than $1.3 billion to buy companies that bolster its online payments and classifieds businesses as it seeks to improve its performance in a weak U.S. economy.The bad news, for some of you, is that you won't be around to enjoy our renewed prosperity:
eBay plans to cut its workforce 10 percent and sees third-quarter revenue hitting the low end of its forecast. The company said (on Monday) the job cuts would affect about 1,000 employees and several hundred temporary workers.But you're welcome to buy or sell on the world's No. 1 online auction site any time!
"Our industry is not immune to what goes on in the global economy. And yet as I travel ... given the current circumstances, people still see a certain buoyancy in the market," Ballmer told a meeting of Silicon Valley civic leaders.
"At least, for now, people are feeling, I won't say optimistic, but better than you would be feeling if you are watching CNBC all day."
Or, presumably, if you are planning to apply for a job at Microsoft...
Microsoft has instituted a hiring freeze, likely spurred by the worsening economic conditions in the U.S., according to a source close to the company.
On Friday, the software giant started sending a note to employees informing them of the decision, according to an employee who saw the letter but asked not to be named.
A new study from Nart Villeneuve and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab made a stunning revelation that the U.S.-owned and Estonia-based VoIP company Skype appears to be colluding with the Chinese government to monitor chat messages sent on the Chinese version of Skype, known as Tom-Skype.Communications companies colluding with a government to secretly monitor the phone calls, email and other Internet activity of its citizens. Good thing that can't happen here.
Microsoft is now giving away prizes every time you use its Live Search engine.
The company launched the rewards promotion called SearchPerks on Wednesday to lure Internet users away from Google. SearchPerks, which runs through April 15, is similar to airlines' frequent flyer programs. Every time you use Live Search you earn points that can be redeemed for prizes like ringtones, Xbox games, and t-shirts.
If anything's going to buy loyalty, it'll be a free ringtone. I'll be impressed when you can earn enough points to get a Prius or your own congressional earmark.
Redmond's move carries with it a whiff of desperation, but a look at search market share in the U.S. makes clear why: Google
dominates with 63 percent of all searches in August, according to
comScore, while Yahoo is second with 19 percent. Microsoft's Live
Search is a distant third, with only 8 percent of the U.S. search
market.
It'll take a lot of free ringtones to close that gap.
