(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10)
Loading ...YouTube Fridays: Apps folders as the medicine cabinets of IT
If Andy Warhol were alive and watching YouTube (and boy, would he have loved YouTube), this is the kind of clip he would have tagged for himself. It seems pretty banal — a Mac guru talking about the software he uses — but it’s also an indication of how personal the choice of applications can become. It’s something we don’t always share with each other, and this candid inventory is almost like a self-assessment of sorts. If everyone did this, we might have a great jumping-off point for a discussion on the effective use of technologies and tools in development.
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(1 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Kids aren’t the IT power users we thought they were
It was enough that John Kenneth Galbraith, the great Canadian economist who died last year, came up with the term “conventional wisdom.” He couldn’t possibly have known what it would include, or how long it would take to disprove it.
An Ipsos-Reid study released this week tried to debunk one of the longest-held pieces of conventional wisdom around IT, and particularly the Internet: that kids are better at it than we are. In Inter@ctive Teens: The Impact of the Internet on Canada’s Next Generation, researchers show that most young people spend only 13 hours a week online, compared to adults, who spend 19 hours surfing. More significant is the stat that only 28 per cent of online teens consider themselves “expert” or “skilled” in such technology. The assumption was the opposite – that growing up digital was an onramp to success in the working world. Gen Y kids, we all hoped, will enjoy a shorter learning curve and a more intuitive ability to embrace electronic business processes.
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(2 votes, average: 9.5 out of 10) Loading ...The top 10 ballads never heard at IT product launches
Every time I go to a product launch of user conference keynote I think the same thing: Why does that devil music have to be so damn loud?
You never know what’s going to happen once an executive takes the stage and a demo gets underway, but you can pretty much guarantee the soundtrack beforehand will be fast-paced yet impossible to dance to, repetitive and played at full volume. In some cases they play actual songs, which makes you feel you’re walking into a hip club rather than a faceless convention centre. A lot of the time it’s the aural equivalent of stock art: synthesized drumbeats and a tune that sounds like it was designed for some sort of corporate version of a rave. Microsoft’s launch of Windows Server, SQL Server and Visual Studio 2008 was no different.
Hearing this stuff first thing in the morning is presumably supposed to get everyone excited, energized about buying the products and putting them to good use, but the effect once the music dies and the event actually begins is pretty deflating. Then, when the music picks up again once the event’s over, you kind of feel like you’ve reached the end of a game show, except that no one is rolling the credits.
As I waited for Microsoft to walk through its enterprise software lineup today I imagined how much better the world (or at least the IT industry) would be if some innovative company were to take the opposite tactic. That is, what if they used ballads, instead of dance music, to introduce their breakthrough products? Sure, a lot of IT guys are metalheads, but even the heaviest thrash-rockers have been known to take it down a notch or two occasionally.
I tend to have the musical tastes of a pre-teen girl, but the following is a list of suggestions that could help set the tone for a new kind of relationship between vendors and the kind of IT managers they hope to woo.
“Wish You Were Here” (Pink Floyd) – the yearning in the chorus would be a perfect fit for remote access technologies connecting branch offices to corporate headquarters, or even mobile workers operating somewhere in the field.
“All By Myself” (Eric Carmen) – Yes, it’s a little dreary, but can you think of a better way to pitch collaboration software to siloed enterprise users?
“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” (Aerosmith) – systems management and application monitoring tools have never had the anthem they deserved. Until now.
“Inspiration” (Chicago) – The whole point of business intelligence is sifting through data to come up with great ideas. Peter Cetera probably never realized the real context of this tune.
“Imagine” (John Lennon) – Sounds so much like something Apple would use to unveil a personal computing device I’m surprised they haven’t yet (as far as I know). Would also fit for application development tools.
“I’ll Stand By You” (The Pretenders) – Network vulnerabilities can give you a lonely feeling. Here’s the jingle Symantec, McAfee and other security specialists should use.
“I need you now” (Alias) – Outsourcers only wish their customers felt this way.
“Hello (Is it me you’re looking for)” (Lionel Ritchie) – enterprise search is a journey, not a destination.
“Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” – Okay, it would only be good for Sun Microsystems, but at least they’d be able to tell a story about how mission-critical their infrastructure is.
“Fallin’” (Alicia Keys) – It’s about a roller-coaster relationship. Just like the one Microsoft has with its customers.
I’m open to other suggestions, of course. The point is that vendors aren’t necessarily conveying the right message with their fast-paced musical numbers. They should be aiming for the slow dance – the one where you really get to know each other.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Microsourcing, or personal assistant 2.0
It’s a cliché, but when I need some personal outsourcing, I usually turn to my wife.
After less than two years of marriage, it’s almost embarrassing how many elements of my life she takes care of, including my income tax return, daily lunches and sourcing replacements for a lost toque. She would probably bristle at the term “outsourcing,” but it’s better than calling her a personal assistant. Plus, she outsources her fair share of work to me, including typing, laundry and vacuuming. It seems to be the rest of the world that turns to actual businesses to handle such tasks, an approach I’m calling, for lack of a better term, “microsourcing.”
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Office attendance forms need an upgrade
I never thought I would miss Checkpoint Charlie, but I do.
A few companies ago, we had a PC set up at a small station near the elevator. This machine ran a time and attendance system developed by our president, which was involved punching in an employee number (I was 121, I think) and choosing from options that ranged from “Coffee Break” to “Maternity Leave.” We all hated it, but eventually it became as regular as brushing your teeth. Checkpoint Charlie, as we called the system, is long gone, and I sometimes can’t believe the lengths to which I now have to manually prove I was present and accounted for.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...YouTube Fridays: Privacy and cloud computing
When I recently appeared on TVO’s The Agenda to talk about cloud computing we barely touched on the privacy issues. This panel discussion, which was hosted by the Centre for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, digs a lot deeper. This is a fairly long clip and fairly egg-heady, but worth a look if you have the time. My favourite panelist is Timothy B. Lee, blogger at Technology Liberation Front, whose almost teenage youthfulness belies some impressive insights about the future ownership of data.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Bring on the new bloggers: IT World Canada’s latest recruits
User generated content is great, as long as you can find the right users. And we have.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve introduced some new voices to our blog network, and a few more are just about to start posting. I thought this might be a good time to formally welcome them to Blogs.ITWorldCanada.com and to offer some background about why we invited them in the first place.
Paul Rummell has been a great resource to me for several years, going back to my days working on ITBusiness.ca. He brings a unique mix of public and private sector expertise in managing IT, including stints with firms such as EDS and as a former federal CIO of Canada. Now a consultant, Paul has already weighed in on topics such as virtualization and the possible Microsoft-Yahoo deal, and I can’t think of a better person to represent our community of senior technology executives.
Russell McOrmond should be well known to anyone who cares about free/libre open source software, digital copyright and sound public policy. Based in Ottawa, Russell has emerged as the go-to guy we approach for commentary on all kinds of stories. He was also one of the most frequent letter-writers, to the point where it made sense to give him a regular platform for his analysis and ideas. As policy coordinator for the Canadian Linux User’s Exchange and manager of Digital Copyright Canada, he will serve as our conscience on controversial issues such as intellectual property and non-proprietary business models.
Ross Chevalier is the CTO of Novell Canada. Normally we would have avoided hosting executives from a vendor organization out of fear the posts would become too self-promotional (note to P.R. people: blogs are not the new bylined articles), but Ross is a different story. For one thing, he’s been around forever, and he knows better than most how the media game is played. For another, his expertise goes well beyond Novell technologies and he has a wide range of interests – always a good character trait for this particular medium. I think you’ll be surprised by his first, and unexpectedly provocative post when it shows up over the next day or two.
Paul, Russ and Ross will all be posting to our Enterprise Insights blog, but we recognize the need for a regular look at data protection issues, which is why I asked Brian Bourne to contribute to the Security Insider blog. Brian was one of the driving forces behind last year’s hugely successful Security Education Conference Toronto (SecTor) event, which brought a Black Hat-style focus to the staid trade show circuit. A consultant with CMS, Brian has the on-the-ground experience to back up his opinions.
I should note that we don’t pay our bloggers for the content they produce. This is a volunteer opportunity where we give them the chance to connect directly to thousands of Canadian technology professionals. I’m so grateful to them for their time and talent. Our goal at ComputerWorld Canada is to lead the IT conversation, and this group has the makings of a terrific dialogue.
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(1 votes, average: 9 out of 10) Loading ...Meet Canada’s newest small-screen IT stereotype
Everybody keeps telling me I have to watch it. But I just can’t.
CBC Television, Canada’s national public broadcaster, may have a rare hit on its hands with The Border, which follows the espionage and drama associated with policing our gateway to the United States. I’ve been told it’s as close as we’ve got to 24. I’ve been told that people are surprised by how gripping the storylines are. All I can focus on, though, are the images I’ve seen of a character called Heironymous Slade, who manages to capture every cliché you’ve ever deplored about the IT industry.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...There’s logic in Sybase’s RAC attack
The whole idea of innovation is to build a better mousetrap, but Sybase’s latest product shows you can also focus on simply building a better piece of the mousetrap.
Sybase is a database management company so boring it’s almost never included in the same breath as Oracle, IBM’s DB2 or SQL Server. What it lacks in hype, however, it makes up for in sheer survival. The company maintains a strong development presence in Canada, where its focus has primarily been on the iAnywhere line of mobile enterprise products. This week’s launch of its Adaptive Server Enterprise Cluster Edition is as close as it’s come to shocking the industry by a) drawing attention to itself at all and b) going up more directly against a key Oracle technology.
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(1 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...YouTube Fridays: Meet the company IT manager
I’ve decided to devote the end of the week to must-see videos on YouTube related to our readership.
This one takes place at an Internet search marketing firm called Pepperjam and appears to be one in a series in which employees from various departments are profiled. I love this guy — not because he’s such a good sport about the whole thing but because you get an impression of what a well-rounded person he is — the employee directory he created, the kind of music he likes the video games he plays. Then there’s the spontaneous dance party that breaks out around him!
