BDPA Detroit TAC

Five apps for crapware cleanup

2012-01-24T11:17:00.001-05:00

Takeaway: You don’t have to put up with the aggravation of crapware. Here are several effective tools for removing it from your Windows PC.

If you buy new PCs from OEMs, you are probably all too familiar with the plague known as “crapware”: the useless applications that come installed with Windows. Crapware wastes space, often ties up your RAM and CPU power, and can be a major hassle to get rid up. Luckily, there’s a solution. These five applications will help you deal with the crapware quickly and safely.
Note: This list is also available as a photo gallery.

1: The PC Decrapifier

Well, it should be pretty clear from the name what The PC Decrapifier does. This zero-install application, shown in Figure A, easily removes the most common pieces of junk that clutter up a new Windows PC. You can run it from a USB drive (great for desktop support technicians), and it has two low-priced purchase plans, one for commercial use and one for individuals.

Figure A

The PC Decrapifier

2: SlimComputer

SlimComputer (Figure B) doesn’t just remove crapware. It also performs basic performance tuning, such as disabling services and reordering startup items. It can remove some of the less intrusive items, too, like links to trial offers. SlimComputer is interesting in that users can give feedback on what applications should be included in the scans, and it uses a cloud-based system to get this crowdsourced data when you run a scan.

Figure B

SlimComputer

3: WinPatrol

WinPatrol (Figure C) is not nearly as automated as some of the other tools on this list, but what it lacks in automation, it makes up for with control. WinPatrol provides extensive lists of the applications on your system and gives you the choice to disable or remove them. There is a feature-limited free edition as well as a paid version. Read TechRepublic’s interview with WinPatrol’s author.

Figure C

WinPatrol

4: Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller (Figure D) is an app in the tradition of the uninstallers that were popular in the Windows 9X era. It can show the installed applications on your system and remove them, of course. But more important, it can look at applications that are already gone, find the traces of them that were left over, and give them the heave-ho as well. In addition, it can monitor what occurs during an installation and use that data to completely uninstall an application. Revo Uninstaller has free and paid versions.

Figure D

Revo Uninstaller

5: CCleaner

After you have uninstalled the crapware, use CCleaner (Figure E) to make sure that no traces of it are left behind. CCleaner can also perform the basic tasks of uninstalling software and detecting what runs on startup. It comes in a free edition, a “home” edition, and a commercial user edition. There is also a portable version for running from a USB drive that does not require an installation of its own.

Figure E

CCleaner

Mobile Fuels Africa's Economic Growth

2012-01-19T09:38:00.000-05:00

Mobile Fuels Africa's Economic Growth

Salvatore Salamone

The mobile explosion in African countries is producing a number of benefits to businesses and the people of the continent.While China gets most of the attention, African economies are growing at some of the fastest rates in the world. Today, the continent is poised to transform the global economic landscape. Interestingly, mobile is seen as both a key enabler to sustain immediate and future growth, as well as a way to leapfrog ahead of many established economies in the use of new technologies.
To understand the role of mobile in Africa, one need only look at the raw numbers. Nearly 90 percent of all phones in Africa are mobile phones. And by the end of 2012, there will be 735 million mobile subscribers, according the GSMA, a group that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide.
Across Africa, mobile technology is becoming a cornerstone for industries such as health care and agriculture. And for millions of people, it is making banking truly accessible for the first time. For example, mobile payments have exploded in Kenya. In fact, the use of mobile payments is bringing a small revolution to everyday life in the country where many people do not use a regular financial institution—and fewer than 10 percent have everyday access to the Internet. (So logging in to an e-bank account to transfer funds is not usually an option.)
Today, close to 18 million Kenyans use mobile phones as a bank account, depositing and transferring money remotely to avoid excessive travel and wait times. Total African mobile money transfers are expected to exceed $200 billion in 2015, accounting for approximately 18 percent of the continent’s GDP, according to Pyramid Research.
Africa’s leading mobile network providers are helping to fuel the growth of the entire continent by equipping people with the tools they need to improve their lives and livelihoods in ways never before possible.
The mobile explosion in African countries is producing a number of benefits including:
1) Providing improved communication capabilities to people without computers or Internet access;
2) Empowering business owners with real-time market information;
3) Helping manage the response to natural disasters;
4) Connecting people to health information and services;
5) Making banking services more accessible to more people.

Schedule of 2012 trade shows and conferences in the U.S.

2012-01-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

By Ken Hardin

Takeaway: Interested in attending a trade show or conference in your area of IT? Here’s a list of some of the top ones and the information you’ll need.

Despite the grumpy headlines coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show this year, it’s easy to get excited about the prospect of hitting Vegas and checking out all the hip new gadgets, along with the occasional useful new piece of business technology.

For those of us who do tech for a living, there are of course a world of more focused and vertical-specific trade shows and conferences that are a little easier to rationalize in the expense budget. If you are considering attending a conference or two in 2012, here are some candidates where you can share ideas with peers and get courted by tech vendors. Oh yeah, there probably will be some neat chachkes, too.

We’ve broken the shows out by category, for review by your team. We’ve included only shows occurring in the United States, and some obvious candidates (such as Gartner’s Symposium/ITXPO) have yet to set their 2012 dates and locations. And of course this is only a small sampling of what continues to be a lucrative trade show industry. If you know of or are involved with a show you think would be useful to your peers, please add basic information and a link to the show’s site in the comments section of this post.

Security

SANS Security East

Jan. 17-26, New Orleans

A wide range of SANS Institute training programs are available in the Crescent City, ranging from Intrusion Detection to locking down virtualized environments. There’s also a “boot camp” if you have team members who need an overall refresher course.

SecureWorld Expo

10 Regional Sites in the U.S; two-day events in the Spring and Fall

This show promotes itself as being “:at the intersection of Information Security, Physical Security, Compliance, IT Audit, Computer Forensics, Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity and Security Management.” The focus is at the managerial and policy level, but the full range of security issues is covered.

Technology and Security Conference

February 14-16, Las Vegas

Tailored specifically for the federal credit union sector, this show obviously will take data security measures and operational lockdown more serious than most.

IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy

May 20-13, San Francisco

The 33^rd installment of this “flagship” conference promises once again to be about as serious as you can get about security. Much more about research papers and engineering updates than vendor pitches, this is a no-nonsense conference.

Business Design and Innovation

MicroStrategy World 2012

Jan. 23-26, Miami

Most companies know they must develop strategies around mobile, the Cloud and Big Data, and this show promises to help you tie these technologies together in an overall game plan.

Cloud Connect

Feb 13-16, Santa Clara, Calif.

Sept. 10-13, Chicago

“The Cloud” is here to stay, and this show will focus on key issues such as security, ROI, compliance and governance, and the continuing emergence of the “private cloud.”

American Bar Association TECHSHOW

March 29-31, Chicago

Gadgets (such as tablets and mobile tech) tend to be the focus at this event, but other issues such e-Discovery and the legal implications of social media are on the docket, as well.

Digital Signage Expo

March 6-9, Las Vegas

This show focuses on retail kiosks, interactive advertising and other commerce-oriented technology. Breakout sessions will focus effective digital content strategies.

Small Business Expo

May 10, New York

Nov. 8, Los Angeles

This one-day networking event spans every aspect of small business operations, but of course there will be a focus on technology - businesses spend a lot of money on technology, after all. “Innovation,” as always, is the keyword.

Networking and Infrastructure

Macworld Expo

Jan 26-28, San Francisco

Apple enthusiasts love to talk Apple, and there’s no better place than the venerable Macworld Expo (re-branded as iWorld). Topics and products range from consumer innovations (which always grab the headlines) to business applications.

IT Expo East

Jan. 31-Feb. 3, Miami

This show will focus primarily on networking issues related to IP-based communications, such as Telepresence, Convergent Billing, Broadband Wireless VoIP and QoS. Vendors and manufacturers offer seminars as well a peer-group events.

International Wireless Communications Expo

Feb. 20-24, Las Vegas

More than 330 exhibitors are expected on the trade show floor for this established event, most focused on convergent and mobile technologies.

Data Center World

March 18-22, Las Vegas

This show, presented by a professional association of data center managers, focuses on both technological and physical challenge of managing data farms, which just keep on growing.

isQED Symposium 2012

March 19-21, Santa Clara, Calif.

Get hardwired at this leading conference for engineering and design for semi-conductors and other backbone technologies.

iBusiness Expo

March 21-April 1, Denver

This regional show promises a business-centric focus on Apple technology, including round-table discussions with solutions developers and coverage of virtually every business vertical.

Design West

March 26-29, San Jose

An extention of the well-established Embed Systems Conference, this umbrella of various shows will focus on education in a variety of arenas, including embedded hardware and software design, total systems integration, power management, android and embedded security. There also will be a Black Hat security breakout.

The Green Data Center Conference & Exhibition

March 27-29, Dallas

Efficiency is the catchphrase for the broad range of technologies - from virtualization to cooling systems - that will be discussed at this show.

COMPTEL PLUS Convention & Expo

April 15-18, San Francisco

Oct. 7-10, Dallas

This networking event is targeted for communications companies and their suppliers, with a traditional show floor as well as in-depth seminars and peer groups.

HDI Conference & Expo

April 24-27, Orlando, Fla.

Tech services providers get highly targeted content in a promised 80 break-out sessions. VPs and analysts are on the suggested attendee list, as well as contact center professionals - the full gamut.

Interop

May 6-10, Las Vegas

October 1-5, New York

If it’s tech, it’s probably at Interop. The venerable trade show (this year is the 26^th edition) remains largely devoted to serious business tech, and so this year’s menu includes the Cloud, Desktop Virtualization, Enterprise 2.0 and “Future of Work” - whatever that means.

Cisco Live!

June 10-14, San Diego

The networking giant offers a series of educational programs for developers all the way to executives at its annual conference. An IT Management Program promises to focus on the business impact of tech decisions.

Microsoft TechEd

June 11-14m Orlando, Fla

Face it - everybody is a Microsoft customer or partner on some level, and TechEd (this year in its 20^th edition) is a one-stop bonanza to get informed on what is coming next for the tech behemoth. Sessions range from hind-on labs with new releases to primers on the Microsoft professional certification process.

Enterprise & Business Software

Vendor Shootout for ERP

February 22-23, 2012, Miami

Best-of-breed Enterprise Resource Planning vendors will be on hand to present in-depth walk-throughs of their offerings, all in one location.

SuperStrategies 2012

April 24-26, Las Vegas

Auditing wonks, rejoice - this show is just for you. Topics covered will include social media, building a risk-based annual audit plan, and other course a general discussion of IT Governance practices.

Technology Service World Expo

May 7-9, Silicon Valley

This business-to-business show focuses on services relationships in sectors including Knowledge Management and PSA tools to Customer Relationship Management solutions.

SAPPHIRE NOW + ASUG Annual Conference

May 14-16, Orlando, Fla.

A stalwart of Enterprise Software tradeshows, this year’s SAP event again caters primarily to C-Suite-types who are serious about spending big money on big tech.

California Accounting & Business Show & Conference

June 4-5, Los Angles

Technology will be one of the leading topics at the largest show for accountants in the Golden State. A free trade show floor is accompanied by a paid conference session.

CRM Evolution

August 13-15, New York

This show, presented by CRM Magazine, will focus on the role of Social Media in Customer Relationship Management, as well as ways to extend the payback on this sizable investment.

Software & Web Development

Pubcon

Feb. 14-15, Honolulu, Hawaii

As is you needed another reason to attend one of the best Web search marketing and optimization tools, this year it is moving to Hawaii. Social Media is obviously high on the agenda, as well as tactics to get on the good side of an increasingly grumpy Google.

Search Marketing Expo - SMX West 2012

Feb. 28-March 1, San Jose, Calif.

The art of getting found in search engines is ever-evolving, and presentations by Google and other leading search providers are just part of the value you’ll find at this show.

Open Source Business Conference

May 21-22, San Francisco

Sessions at this cross-platform conference will include the state of Hadoop, trends in mobile app development and HTML5, and using Open Source tools to track and mine unstructured data.

OSCON Java

July 16-20, Portland, Or.

The O’Reilly developer show is a staple for coders in the leading go-anywhere platform. This year’s agenda has not been set, but it is sure to be packed with serious tech from folks who enjoy that kind of stuff.

Public Sector

FOSE 2012

April 3-5, Washington D.C.

Focusing on Government IT sector, this event promises “in-depth” workshops on Cybersecurity, the Cloud, Records and Information Management and Defense Innovations, among other issues.

GSA Training Conference and Expo 2012

May 15-17, San Antonio, Texas

Government officials who make or influence procurement decisions may be interested in this three-day show, which includes a certified Continuous Learning Point instructional program.

Just Plain Cool

Nano Live USA

March 7-8, Chicago

About as micro-niche as you can get, this show will focus on precision manufacturing technologies down to a microscopic level.

Spacecraft Technology Expo

May 8-10, Los Angeles

Unless you have an incredibly cool job, you probably won’t be able to justify putting this show in your budget, but how cool would it be to attend a conference about launching satellites and space planes?

Intelligent Cities Expo

Oct. 8-10, San Francisco

This global conference will cover a wide range of municipal topics, from mobility to

12 effective habits of indispensible IT pros

2012-01-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

Ditch the slackers, take on dirty work, do it with data -- here's how to get the inside track on a highly rewarding career in IT

By Dan Tynan

How do you keep your job -- or get a better one -- in an era when hiring is in a freeze and budgets are perpetually squeezed? Follow these 12 maxims and find out.

Some of these ideas are practical advice you've probably heard before (and ignored). Being familiar with the business objectives and how technology can improve the bottom line is more important than ever. But so is expanding your portfolio of IT skills. Mastering cloud services or data management will help ensure your relevance in a rapidly changing work environment. You'll also want to reach out and communicate with your colleagues across the aisle and the organization, and take on dirty jobs nobody else wants. Eventually it may even mean leaving the comfort of a big organization and branching out on your own.

But remember: Becoming "indispensable" can be a double-edged sword. Get too indispensable and you might find yourself unable to move beyond your niche.

Effective IT habit No. 1: Get down to businessYou may be your organization's most talented developer or dedicated systems administrator. But if you don't know what the business is selling or what service it's providing, you're an unemployment statistic waiting to happen.
First step: Learn as much about the business as you possibly can, advises Mark A. Gilmore, president and co-founder of Wired Integrations, a strategic technology consulting firm.
"Ask yourself, 'How does it make its money? What are its strengths and weaknesses?'" Gilmore says. "Once you understand how the company works, you can use your IT knowledge to improve the company -- thus making yourself more valuable and less dispensable."
It helps to have a deep understanding of the company's critical infrastructure and to keep abreast of tech trends, he adds. But this may also require broadening your worldview.
"Don't look at things from strictly an IT perspective," he says. "Widen your vision to see how things relate to the business world around you. That will make you more valuable than 20 technical certifications and a master's degree."
Effective IT habit No. 2: Keep your eye on the bottom lineYour job isn't just to keep the lights on and the data center humming. It's to help your organization use technology to improve the business -- especially by trimming costs and increasing efficiency.
Servers running at a fraction of their capacity? If you haven't already virtualized your data center, now's the time. Software licenses dragging down your budget? You have an increasingly broad choice of low-cost cloud-based apps that let you pay only for what you use and only for as long as you use it. That's barely scratching the surface.
"IT professionals need to focus on areas which either drive down costs, such as virtualization, cloud computing, and converged networking, or on areas that help to generate revenue, such as social media, mobile marketing, and SEO," notes Rick Mancinelli, managing partner for IT consultants Cloud Computing Concepts. "Ultimately, those IT professionals that have a positive impact on the bottom line will be the most valuable to their employer."
Effective IT habit No. 3: Keep your head in the cloudBecause so many traditional IT functions are moving to the cloud, which any business user can procure with a phone call and a credit card, your company may no longer need you to flip switches, connect cables, or troubleshoot machines. But they will still need someone who can tell them what services are available, which ones are worth looking at, and which ones they should avoid.
"If your organization plans to rely more on public cloud providers, especially for basic infrastructure needs, you may find you need fewer in-house operations people to maintain, patch, and upgrade systems," says Mark White, chief technology officer of Deloitte Consulting's technology practice. "But you'll still require people with expertise in managing a catalog of cloud services, handling subscribers, brokering agreements with cloud providers, and intervening when problems arise.
"The cloud puts greater demands on both your technical and your business-of-IT skills. If you're CIO, it's an opportunity to take your capabilities up to the next level."
Effective IT habit No. 4: Broaden your tech horizonsBesides mastering their own tech domains, savvy IT pros broaden their skill sets to include other areas of expertise. If a crisis arises in one of those areas -- and the persons responsible for handling it aren't available -- you may be able to step in and save the day."This helps employers view them as valuable team players who can easily branch out to handle other jobs," says Dr. Issac Herskowitz, dean of the Graduate School of Technology at Touro College. "And an employee who has more than one area of expertise is more valuable when a department is downsizing."
The easiest way to develop new skills (and impress your boss) is by volunteering your services to other areas of IT and to stay on top of emerging tech trends, Herskowitz adds. The more you know about the latest and greatest tech, the more likely you'll be invited into the conversation when those technologies are being considered for adoption.
Effective IT habit No. 5: Teach your co-workers to speak geek (and learn to talk biz)Want to break down the walls between IT and the business side, as well as earn a little goodwill in the process? Start a series of casual teaching sessions where you bring less savvy coworkers up to speed about the latest in tech, suggests Ben Dunay, founder of Sixthree Technology Marketing, a consulting firm that helps facilitate sales of technology to the military. You might also learn a thing or two about the business along the way.
"Even if you start small and informally over brown bags in the break room, it is a very cool way to step outside the norm and boost your career," he says. "By making the technical terms clearer to the business people, and by making the business terms clearer to the technical people, you can quickly become the go-to guy for your boss when he needs something technical explained to save the day," he says.
The opposite is also true. By meeting with the business side, you'll grow more familiar with their needs and concerns, as well as how they communicate, says Jay McVinney, CEO of DBA in a Box, a provider of on-demand support for Microsoft SQL Server databases.
"The most common failure of technical people is the lack of understanding of the business side," he says. "To be effective in the future, a technical person must learn key business concepts, learn the industry language spoken by their business units, and be able to translate freely and fluently between technical and business units."
Effective IT habit No. 6: Ditch the slackers, find a mentorHanging with a crew that likes to take long lunches and knock off at five (or earlier)? You're not doing your career any good, says David Maxfield, author of "Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success," a book about alter your career-limiting habits.
"The habits that hold you back are likely enabled, tolerated, or encouraged by others," he says. "Use positive peer pressure by surrounding yourself with hardworking friends who share your career goals. Distance yourself from the office slackers."
Instead, Maxwell advises you seek someone with more experience to steer your career in a positive direction. "Find a trusted mentor," he says. "That will help you navigate the career development opportunities that exist within the organization."
Effective IT habit No. 7: Do it with dataIf your business users aren't drowning in information now, they will be soon. Taming the data deluge will make you invaluable to any organization.
"IT people who can make sense of business data, safely store it, categorize it, retrieve it, and especially analyze it are highly valuable," notes Scott Lever, a managing consultant with PA Consulting Group. "These are the people who are using customer data to help drive business decisions."
George Mathew, president and COO of business analytics platform vendor Alteryx, predicts one of the hottest jobs in tech over the next few years will be the "data artisan," a hybrid role that mixes data analysis with business savvy, pulling market insight, competitive information, and customer data into business intelligence systems.
"Data artisans will be asked to pull from structured and unstructured sources to drive the most important decisions within an organization -- like where it should open its next retail location, whether to pursue a new market, and which products to push," he says.
Effective IT habit No. 8: Take on jobs no one else wantsSafe, predictable jobs won't get you into trouble, but they won't earn you any glory either. It's the tough jobs where you can prove your value, says John Paul Engel, principal for Knowledge Capital Consulting, a boutique management consulting firm.
"The best career advice I ever received was from then president of Citibank California who told me, 'Look for the biggest problem and solve it because there in lies your greatest opportunity'," he says.
Take on a project that's already going well, the best you can hope for is that it will continue to go well. Take on something that's a disaster and turn it around -- even just a little better -- and you get a reputation as somebody who gets things done, Engel adds. "If you make a problem even a little bit better, you are making progress."
Effective IT habit No. 9: Don't be a jerkYou might be the world's most brilliant coder or the industry's leading expert on user interface design. But if nobody likes you, your head is on the chopping block. Given the often challenging personality types drawn to technology, this is especially true for IT.
"Personality goes a long way when it comes time to make cuts in an organization," notes Nathan Letourneau, director of marketing for PowerWise USA, makers of PC power management software. "Companies prefer people with positive attitudes and a good work ethic, even if they aren't as highly skilled as another. Don't be a pain in the butt or overly negative. This isn't to say you shouldn't speak your mind, but just make sure you're respectful when doing it."
Ultimately, managers like to get rid of the troublemakers and malcontents first, says Engel: "At the end of the day, it's the person that makes the work environment of the other coworkers better that gets promoted and is the last to leave in a layoff."
Effective IT habit No. 10: Go publicThat doesn't mean issuing your own personal IPO (though if you could pull one off, more power to you). The more people who know and rely on you -- especially outside your department or organization -- the harder it is to fire you, notes Engel.
If you have a client-facing job, you're less likely to feel the ax on your neck because companies don't generally like to fire people who have relationships with key accounts, he says -- provided, of course, you obey Rule No. 9.
If your job doesn't bring you into regular contact with clients, you can strive to become well known across different departments, especially in larger, more siloed enterprises.
"Look for projects and opportunities that cut across departments because this builds your internal network -- thus making you more valuable to the company," he says.
Effective IT habit No. 11: Don't become literally "indispensable"The problem with being labeled indispensable is that it can become a trap. Your talents can become so critical to an organization's survival that you can never leave or rise to a new position within your company, says Steven A. Lowe, CEO of Innovator LLC, a consulting and custom software development firm.
"A friend of mine is an excellent developer who has created a few critical software systems for the company that employs him," Lowe says. "No one else can step in and do what he does, and the company can't 'afford' to promote him to a more senior position or pay him much more money. So he's frustrated and miserable -- but he's certainly indispensable!"
The way to avoid this trap: Don't hoard information or expertise. Delegate responsibility. Start training your own replacement now, or find ways to outsource your current responsibilities so that you can take on more challenging assignments.
"I have been both indispensable and dispensable, and I had better job security and was happier when I was dispensable," says Jen Hancock, author of "The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom."
Hancock says, "When I was indispensable, things fell apart. If I tried to take a long weekend I came back to a mess I had to clean up. The longer I was away, the worse the mess. When I finally got my act together enough to manage the work and delegate it out properly, everything ran more smoothly."
Effective IT habit No. 12: Know when to fire yourselfSometimes the best way to become indispensible as an IT pro is to step away from a stifling career path, even if that means branching out on your own.
"I boosted my career by starting my own company," says Lowe, of Innovator LLC. "I doubled my take-home pay immediately, set my own hours, and got to work on really interesting things with highly motivated people."
The notion that a "successful career" implies a steady progression of higher-paying jobs within a company or industry just doesn't apply any more, he adds.
"A successful career today is a journey on which you discover and do what you love," he says. "If that happens to be offering businesses innovative ways of changing their work flow to achieve new levels of productivity and efficiency, that's great. If that happens to be giving guided tours of canyons in Utah (instead of applying the advanced math degree you earned at university), that's also great."
When you're out on your own, being indispensable means solving problems and letting others reap the rewards, Lowe says. "That's pretty much the essence of my consulting career. I innovate, they prosper, we both win. The next time the client has a challenge, they call me first."

How a Baptist pastor in Florida became the go-to IT guy

2012-01-13T14:49:00.000-05:00

NorthRidge Church pastor Terrill Gilley installs security gateways, watches for network attacks

By Ellen Messmer

As a Baptist pastor, Terrill Gilley says his work calls for him to help worshippers and provide support to the senior pastor at his Florida church located in a rural area outside Orlando. And oh, he's also the network administrator for the church and the school it established.

"When I took over for the guy who left, we had 10 users sharing a network," says Gilley, who has education in theology but picked up knowledge about information technology mostly as he went about expanding the network for NorthRidge Church and Christian Academy in Haines City, Fla., over the past five years. It's now wireless, connected to a wireline backbone supporting about 300 students and teachers in the school and the church, with Internet access, email and applications for school administration. His humble title as net admin doesn't fully describe his role, which includes network design and configuration, vendor negotiations, security and trouble resolution.

Budget constraints precluded NorthRidge from bringing in full-time IT staff, but Gilley appears to be rising to the challenge as he makes information-technology choices based on the budget and approval process in the church. Gilley, who administers passwords to students even as he ministers to the church flock, acknowledges he's glad to be able to make use of cloud-based services for some things.

Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) offering has been useful, especially with its special pricing for not-for-profit organizations at $2.50 per mailbox per month. "It's been reliable, and includes Forefront security built-in," Gilley says. But he's not looking forward to the migration to Microsoft's updated platform, Office 365.

NorthRidge also uses cloud-based application services from ACS Technologies with its applications for school and church administration that were once only available as programs that ran on servers locally. Switching to cloud-based services turned out to be an advantage when the church suffered a fire a few years ago, Gilley says.
But NorthRidge also operates its own network, and within the last two years Gilley deployed the Sophos Astaro Security Gateway, a combined firewall, VPN, Web and e-mail gateway. NorthRidge also uses a wireless network based on Astaro Access Points. Gilley says he sought out a technology partner to help administer the security gateway, but being in a fairly remote rural area made it difficult to find. But he says the business partnership he established with firm Data Integrity in Lakeland is working out, since the company has been amenable to the idea of sharing technical duties with him.
"It's a trust issue," Gilley says. He undertakes security-event monitoring, noting the barrage of daily attacks bouncing off the gateway every day, from all around the world.
New pleas for more technology keep coming in. Now it's iPhones, which Gilley would like to sync up with an older Microsoft server for e-mail, but is having trouble doing. But for Gilley, figuring out what to do next often simply seems to be a matter of faith.

Technology Transforming IT in 2012

2012-01-12T09:20:00.005-05:00

R. Colin Johnson

Smartphone and tablet mania will transform the IT industry in 2012 by redistributing the wealth among cloud-based services accessed using ubiquitous WiFi and 4G wireless connections.As users shift from desktop PCs and laptops to tablets and smartphones as their main computer, the IT supply chain will shift from stand-alone devices with expandable local memory to lighter mobile platforms that dovetail with novel new cloud services.

Ultrabooks will capture 43 percent of global notebook PC shipments in 2015, up from 2 percent in 2011 and 13 percent in 2012, according to IHS iSuppli.

Manufacturers of semiconductors, storage devices, displays, wireless connectivity and manufactured electronics are scrambling to keep up with the massive shift from desktop and laptop computers to smartphones and tablets, according to IHS iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.), which predicted 10 major transformations for 2012.
1) Cloud Services to Dominate: Just as Apple seems to have anticipated first the smartphone and then the tablet markets with its iPhone and iPad, respectively, Apple's iCloud seems to have anticipated a mass migration to cloud-based services that enable small mobile devices to outperform traditional desktop and laptop PCs. The devices that bundle the most desirable cloud services will win in 2012, according to IHS iSuppli.
2) Generation Gap Widening: Younger users are already increasingly turning to smartphones and tablets as their main computing device, a trend that IHS iSuppli predicts will expand to older age groups until mobile devices become the predominant method of accessing the Internet.
3) Wireless Business Models Reign: As users increasingly access the Internet from their mobile devices, novel new business models that capitalize on ubiquitous wireless connectivity will emerge. Examples include buying devices that offer their favorite sports live, rather than on TV, to coupon and other buying services that aggregate savings opportunities.
4) LTE to Mushroom: As buyers clamor for faster connections to their cloud-based services, the 4G wireless standard called Long-Term Evolution (LTE) will finally begin to dominate, according to IHS iSuppli, which predicts that LTE subscribers will grow from 12 million in 2011 to over 60 million by the end of 2012.
5) ODMs Shifting to Clouds, Too: Today, the majority of laptop computers are actually manufactured by contractors called original device manufacturers (ODMs), who in 2012 will begin shifting their business to making tablets and the cloud-based servers to which they connect.
6) Intel Losing to ARM: As users shift to less expensive computing devices like smartphones and tablets—as opposed to desktop and laptop PCs—the x86-based processors made by Intel will increasingly lose ground to cheaper, lower power processors licensed from ARM. In 2012 Windows 8 will accelerate this trend by running on ARM as well as x86. IHS iSuppli predicts that ARM-based PCs will rise from just 3 percent in 2012 to more than 22 percent by 2015.
7) Ultrabook Saves Intel's Bacon: Intel's ultrabook specification was already anticipated by Apple in its line of MacBook Air computers. In 2102, a half-dozen traditional laptop makers turn to making MacBook Air-like ultrabooks running Windows 8, ditching the optical drive, slimming down with flash instead of hard disks and extending the battery life. IHS iSuppli predicts that Intel-based ultrabooks will soar from less from 29 million units in 2012 to over 136 million units by 2015.
8) Memory Shifts to Flash: Most smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks are too small and lightweight for the memory slots necessary for DRAM upgrades. This is depressing sales of memory upgrades. Instead, the devices will gobble up high-performance flash memories both for hard-disk replacement and as caches to speed up disk access. IHS iSuppli predicts that flash-based solid-state drives for cache in ultrabooks will rise from half a million in 2011 to over 22 million in 2012.
9) Hard Disk Drives Shrink to Grow: The hard-disk drive (HDD) market is dangling from a thread regarding the shift to smaller mobile computers. To keep pace, HDDs will have to slim down from 9.5 millimeters in 2011 to 7 millimeters in 2012, and eventually to 5 millimeters in order to stay competitive.
10) Higher-Fidelity but Smaller Screens: Just as Apple anticipated the smartphone, tablet and ultrabook, the company has also anticipated a move to higher-fidelity, but smaller displays, with its Retina display for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Element Electronics: America Matters

2012-01-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

Reporting Matt Roush

DETROIT — Element Electronics Tuesday announced the grand opening and initial production of its new flat screen TV factory in Detroit.
With production scheduled to begin in March, Element Electronics will be the only TV company assembling TV’s in the United States.
Element Electronics made the decision to manufacture products in America to shorten its supply chain and related lead times and to be more responsive to consumers. Utilizing an American factory will allow Element to get the right products, at the right price, to the right place at the right time — as well as reduce waste and increase the quality of the consumer’s out-of-box experience.
“This was also an emotional decision for the company, maybe even a patriotic choice,” said Element president Mike O’Shaughnessy. “Element Electronics is an American company. Personally, I grew up in a small, blue-collar Ohio town. Our business is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are rooted in the Midwest. We have watched for years as jobs have left America for other countries. We have wanted to and planned for producing TV’s here, at home. Element Electronics wants to pioneer a resurgence of creating quality manufacturing jobs in the USA.”

Element Electronics believes global economic trends will make American production more economically viable over time and the company is scheduled to continue increasing production over the next few years. This will lead to increased job creation within Element Electronic factories and their suppliers.
“When we started the project we knew that we wanted to produce in the Midwest,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Practically speaking, the Midwest held advantages in terms of a qualified labor pool and distribution efficiencies based on population across the U.S. We settled on Michigan as a result of the partnerships established in Michigan. With the help of partners Tongfang Global and Lotus, we were able to make our American dream come true.”
In the short term, the plant will provide jobs for about 100 people, and the plan is to substantially grow job opportunities in their Michigan factory in the future.
Element Electronics is able to produce its larger screen size LCD and LED television in the United States for the essentially the same prices as units made in China (when comparing same sizes and features). The consumer will get a great quality, exceptionally featured television at an exceptional value, and it will come from a factory just outside Detroit, Michigan.
Also timed with the opening of the Michigan factory, Element Electronics has teamed up with JBL by Harman to launch a premium sounding flat screen TVs. The unique Element/JBL branded flat screen TV’s boast home theater quality sound by combining advanced proprietary technologies, cutting-edge components, and years of industry expertise.

Technology Alters Politics as Usual

2012-01-11T08:40:00.000-05:00

Alison Diana

Slowly but surely, some states adopt the Internet and tablets to simplify Election Day. They may have difficulty deciding whom to vote for—but election officials in several states are simplifying the process through the integration of new and consumer technologies.
During a November 2011 special election, Oregon allowed people with disabilities to vote using iPads, a practice it plans to continue during the presidential elections this year.
“By 2012, we expect to see dozens of states, territories and countries implementing some form of electronic voting system,” said Lori Steele, chairman and CEO of Everyone Counts, the company responsible for implementing this new electronic voting system for Oregon. “It’s mainstream. It’s here now, and we’re going to see great progress in the 2012 elections.”
Along with 10 other states, Oregon either lets or plans to soon let residents register to vote online as long as they have a valid state driver’s license or ID card, Politico reported. In all other states, individuals must register either in-person or via mail.
The Pew Center on the States is sharing tools it developed internally and with partners to expand voter technology. To date, 35 states have partnered with the center to use at least three tools, including an app to help military and overseas voters complete Federal Write-in Absentee ballots, a multilingual polling place finder and an expansion of the center’s existing smartphone app to make it available on more platforms. The center’s goal is to become a central location for voters, where residents can find states’ online registration portals and other data people need in order to vote, Matthew Morse, Pew Center on the States' senior associate, told Politico.
Policymakers interested in alleviating some of the administrative burdens presented by a presidential election year may want to look at the way some states are harnessing technology to improve elections. The states that are leading the way are doing things such as registering voters electronically, using new technological tools to reach military and overseas voters, finding better ways to connect with other agencies in their states and even in other states, and constantly looking for ways they can get information to voters at the time and in the place voters are looking for it. Industry experts expect that at the end of the next election cycle, states using these technologies and approaches will be able to demonstrate efficiencies and reduced costs.
At least one area is turning to a technology that helped transform retail. City officials in Long Beach, Calif., are installing radio frequency identification (RFID) chips on ballot boxes to track their movements after the polls close, according to various reports.
In 2013, it’s anticipated that residents of Washington—home of Microsoft—will be able to register to vote via a special page on Facebook, Politico said. “Facebook is looking for a way to link in or tie in our online voter registration service with Facebook and use the advantages Facebook offers to get the social aspect of registering to vote and telling friends they registered to vote online,” Washington co-director of elections Shane Hamlin said. “Microsoft is doing the tech work of developing the connection between our online registration tool and Facebook.”
Security and cost are states’ major concerns, however.

Social Media Boom
While they may not—yet—enable voter-registration via Facebook, politicians and voting officials are turning to social media for many other tasks.
Of course, all campaigns have Facebook pages and Twitter handles. In addition, some election officials are using social media for advertising and awareness.
In Seminole County, Fla., election officials plan to design ads to reach residents within the correct area, as well as those who update their status with specific keywords that indicate they are qualified voters, Mike Ertel, supervisor of elections, told Politico.
“It’s target marketing on steroids,” he said.
The media, too, is using traditional social media to keep audiences informed. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, NBC, for example, has partnered with location-based service Foursquare on its NBCpolitics.com Website. In real time, users can see where candidates are making campaign stops, and will display check-ins from NBC reporters. The media company plans to offer Foursquare users unique, co-branded political badges this year, according to Technology News. CNN allows viewers to share their opinion in 1-minute, user-created video clips, via its “Sound-off” page.

IT pros lament: Low pay, no perks

2012-01-05T08:26:00.000-05:00

Dozens of Network World readers chime in on why IT turnover rates are soaring among 20-something IT staff

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Non-competitive pay is the main reason for high turnover rates among IT pros in their 20s and early 30s.

That's the consensus from dozens of comments posted on Network World's Web site in response to an article published over the holidays entitled, "The CIO's Lament: 20-something techies who quit after one year."
In this article, Harry Fox Agency (HFA) CIO and Vice President Louis Trebino said that one of his biggest challenges is dealing with high turnover rates on his Web development team, particularly among Java developers in their 20s. He said all six members of his Java development team have less than one year's worth of experience with HFA, which is the nation's leading provider of rights management, licensing and royalty services for the music industry.
Trebino said that critical IT knowledge "keeps walking out the door. We invest in training people and bringing them up to speed to where they need to be, and boom they're gone. That has been my biggest struggle and concern."

Network World readers who commented on the article had little sympathy for Trebino.
"It seems fairly clear that the VP has the answers he needs, he just doesn't want to act on them," one reader said. "The obvious ones are the pay, the workload and the ability to work from home. Those should all be easy to fix."
Proclaimed another reader: "This guy's employees are leaving because they're not paid competitively [and] their boss doesn't listen to them when they say that crappy code should be rewritten...They have no opportunity for advancement, no flexibility with their jobs, they have no incentives to stay like pension plans or stocks, and he thinks they should be grateful for not having to work around the clock."
Another reader said bluntly: "If you are losing your people to other employers that pay more and offer better benefits, you either have to match market or settle for staff that are either not good enough to get a better job or too unmotivated to find a better job."

Overwhelmingly, readers said that CIOs should pay market rates to their IT staff to avoid turnover.
"I manage an IT team. There are plenty of developers everywhere if you pay them in line with local wages [and] if you treat them reasonably," claimed an IT executive.
"I never set out to switch jobs after a year, but in each situation where this took place, it just seemed like the right move," wrote one 20-something IT professional. "A 30 percent increase in salary is tough to resist, as well as the ability to learn more."
But there are other things CIOs can do in addition to raising pay in order to keep good employees.
"If you're losing so many employees, it's not them, it's you," wrote a 30-year-old IT pro who has stayed with his employer for six years because he feels appreciated, has had the opportunity to learn new specialties, and likes his co-workers. "After promotions and a bad economy, I'm decidedly underpaid for my position, but it's about more than money for me here," he added.
A female reader offered a different suggestion to Trebino: Hire mothers. "We are supreme in staying with you, having no attitudes, and some of us are really smart and technical," she said.

Many readers said U.S. companies no longer have loyalty to their IT staff, so they shouldn't expect loyalty from their IT staff.
"After the 2008 business crisis, some of the 20-year-olds got it, and they know they have to be responsible for their own survival for no one else is, especially from a company," said one older reader, who pointed to layoffs and outsourcing as reasons for the shift. "So, they have adjusted and learned to take matters into their own hands."

Several older readers cheered the bravery of their 20-something co-workers to so readily change jobs for new opportunities.
"I, too, cheer these young people in their choice to go where they are rewarded either monetarily or with other incentives," an older IT pro said. "I feel that the management level is so far disconnected on what motivates the younger workforce today. No longer is money the only incentive for people to stick around. Old ways of thinking need to leave the work arena and be replaced with more creativity."
Wrote one weary IT pro: "If I were still in this reported age group, I, too, would bolt if offered a better deal. I spent years at various companies that turned around and laid me off as soon as they needed to give the CEO a bonus."

Motivational Moment

2012-01-03T09:13:00.002-05:00

"All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination."

— Earl Nightingale: was an American motivational speaker and author

New Years Message from the BDPA Detroit President

2012-01-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

Message from the BDPA Detroit President:

“Thank you to everyone for the well wishes as I begin a new chapter in my life as BDPA Detroit Chapter President. I am excited and honored to hold this position. I am looking forward to 2012, and I am elated about our unlimited possibilities.”

This year is going to be an amazing year for BDPA Detroit Chapter. Let me tell you how I know. Last year our new 2012 Chapter Board came together and in less than 45 days, we delivered the most successfully Holiday Mixer Event, on December 15, 2011 that the Chapter has held in years. The event started as a Holiday Celebration to announce our newly elected board and to raise funds for the chapter. Shortly after, we selected a venue to hold the event; I was invited to attend a meeting hosted by the President of the Detroit Chapter of National Black MBA Associations. In attendance at this meeting was leadership from National Association of Black Accounts, National Society of Black Engineers and the Urban Financial Service Coalition. The topic of discussion was a Holiday Mixer event. BDPA Detroit Chapter offered to share our selected venue. This was the official beginning of The Detroit Black Professional Affinity Group. With the support of GE, who by the way is looking to hire hundreds of IT professions in the Detroit area, the event exceeded everyone’s expectations. The event was attended by over 100 people. Every organization increased is membership as a result of this event. If we can come together as a board and as a professional community with this type of success, the possibilities for 2012 are limitless.

Let me tell you, this is just the beginning. The networking opportunities at BDPA Detroit activities and events will be unbelievable. If you are looking for a new IT opportunities this year, BDPA Detroit Chapter will be the place to be. We will have hiring managers and staffing organizations at every event. Our monthly exchange meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month from 6:30 – 8:30 PM EST. BDPA Detroit will be the “IT Job Connection” this year. If you have not renewed your membership, now is the time to and time to get involved. BDPA is more than a volunteer opportunity; we are changing people’s lives and advancing their careers!

Our new 2012 Detroit Board is fired up and ready to go. Let me introduce you to them:

Mathew Gillery - VP of Business Management / President Elect

Justin Roebuck - VP of Finance

Jenelle Hale - Secretary

Rebecca Holland - VP of Programs and Professional Development

Clifford Samuel Jr. - VP of Technology Automation Committee (TAC)

Michelle Harris - VP of Strategy and Planning

Markita Payne - VP of S.I.T.E.S. and Past President

Loraine Steward-David - Outside Director and National VP of Finance

Dr. Jay Harrison - Outside Director and President of Harrison Technology

The energy and excitement is higher than it’s been in years. On behalf of the BDPA Detroit Chapter we wish you and your family a happy and prosperous New Year and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming activities and events.

Sincerely,

Beverly A. Moore, MBA, PMP

BDPA Detroit Chapter President

20 Tips for a Positive New Year (Updated for 2012)

2012-01-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

20 Tips for a Positive New Year (Updated for 2012)

1. Stay Positive. You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.

2. Take a morning walk of gratitude. I call it a "Thank You Walk." It will create a fertile mind ready for success.

3. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

4. Zoom Focus. Each day when you wake up in the morning ask: "What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?" Then tune out all the distractions and focus on these actions.

5. Instead of being disappointed about where you are, think optimistically about where you are going.

6. Remember that adversity is not a dead-end but a detour to a better outcome.

7. Don't chase success. Instead decide to make a difference and success will find you.

8. Get more sleep. You can't replace sleep with a double latte.

9. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

10. Mentor someone and be mentored by someone.

11. Live with the 3 E's. Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.

12. Remember there's no substitute for hard work.

13. Believe that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.

14. Implement the No Complaining Rule. Remember that complaining is like vomiting. Afterwards you feel better but everyone around you feels sick.

15. Read more books than you did in 2011. I happen to know of a few good ones. :)

16. Don't seek happiness. Instead decide to live with passion and purpose and happiness will find you. www.Seed11.com

17. Focus on "Get to" vs "Have to." Each day focus on what you get to do, not what you have to do. Life is a gift not an obligation.

18. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:

I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished____________.

19. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.

20. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

-Jon

Download, Print and Share these tips as a PDF flyer.

Entry-level IT jobs will be plentiful in 2012, experts predict

2011-12-19T10:37:00.000-05:00

Help desk, app development, analytics among the hottest prospects for college grads

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Here is good news for college seniors with technology skills: The entry-level job market for IT workers looks solid in 2012.

"If you're in IT, you couldn't be coming out of college at a better time," says Matt McGee, vice president of technical staffing services for Cincinnati-based Pomeroy, who points out that the unemployment rate for the U.S. IT industry was 2.7% in November. "You can get a job somewhere, but you need to choose wisely. ... You need to get someplace where you can see a growth path and where you're going to learn a lot over the next year or two."
Dice.com reports a shortage of IT workers in 18 states and Washington, D.C., with the biggest gap between job postings and recent grads in California, New Jersey, Texas and New York.
This shortage is likely to drive entry-level IT salaries up in 2012, experts say.
"We've seen falling entry-level salaries for the last few years, but that's boding for a turnaround," says Alice Hill, managing director of Dice.com. "It was $47,000 in 2010. ... My advice to new college grads is to negotiate hard. Don't just take a job. Really try to get a good salary as you start your career in tech."
Traditionally, entry-level IT positions have involved customer service, such as help desk or desktop support. Job openings in these areas appear to be holding steady.
"Most of the entry-level work is going to be some form of interacting with other people, such as a desktop support technician," McGee says. "If you have some good interpersonal skills and the ability to learn from a technical standpoint, you're desired in a service desk. ... With a college education, you can be a team leader or a process analyst."
College seniors interested in pursuing desktop support or field support positions should consider getting an entry-level certification from CompTIA, such as A+, Network + or Security +, experts say.
"Entry-level workers don't need previous experience because they'll be trained on-the-job in the first few weeks," says Elizabeth Sias, recruiting manager for Randstad Technologies, a Boston IT staffing company. "Some companies will pay for employees to get the CompTIA certifications before they start working. Those certifications are very thorough and very well rounded and not too expensive compared to some of the other certifications in the IT industry."
But tech support roles aren't the only option for college seniors to pursue. There is also strong demand for application developers in such emerging areas as smartphones and social media. Because these technologies are new, employers are willing to consider recent college grads who are hobbyists.

"You don't have to have years and years of experience developing apps for smartphones or social media, because they've only been out and really popular for a few years," Sias says. "I use Facebook as an example. It's developed with a language called PHP. If you can get the basics of that language down, there are entry-level positions for companies like Facebook to develop Web pages."
Sias says she would hire a recent graduate with a computer science degree who has developed an application for a smartphone that is available at an app store. "That's definitely something of interest whether the person is just getting into IT or has a lifetime of programming experience," she says.
Gartner anticipates entry-level opportunities for techies with service providers, particularly those providing cloud-based applications.
"The purely technical roles will not necessarily be in IT but more in technology providers and vendors, including traditional outsourcing or cloud companies," says Lily Mok, vice president at Gartner for CIO Research.
CIOs will be looking for entry-level workers with communications and business skills who can manage IT service providers and who can bridge the gap between the IT department and lines of business.

"We're also seeing different kinds of jobs that are not pure IT," Mok says. "We see organizations not just hiring computer science majors, but hiring people who have a business or even arts background who can work in these roles and can be trained in the tech aspects of the jobs."

These hybrid jobs bringing together technical and business skills will be available in many industries, including healthcare, financial and retail.
"People who are looking to get into a particular industry will see a lot of IT-related opportunities," Sias says. "We see a lot of IT related to healthcare such as electronic medical records analysts. In retail, we see entry-level positions for installing point-of-sale systems and troubleshooting those systems. There are IT opportunities in marketing around search engine optimization."
Another area that's ripe for newly minted college grads is business analytics, which is being taught in more colleges such as Northwestern University, which recently inked a partnership with IBM.
"No longer are analytics skills limited to those studying computer science. Regardless of their area of study, students need a solid understanding of how analytics technology can transform their industry by unlocking critical insights hidden in data," says IBM's Deepak Advani, vice president of predictive analytics. "Students with a combination of industry/topic expertise and an understanding of analytics will be well positioned for jobs of the future."
Sias recommends that CIOs look to recent college grads to find IT workers who might replace baby boomers retiring in the next few years. They also may be more loyal and less likely to leave in one or two years compared to those in their late 20s and early 30s.
"If you start bringing on college grads now and start developing them by putting them in programs to educate them, you can let the baby boomer generation do the handholding for them," Sias recommends.
Some companies are turning to internships to find college grads for their IT departments. Louis Trebino, CIO and senior vice president at the Harry Fox Agency in New York City, has developed an internship program to attract at least one entry-level person to his 37-person IT shop each year.
"Last year, we had an intern who was stellar. We hired her after graduation," Trebino says. "We have another intern who is working part time while he is still in college, and we hope to bring him on in May. I've very eager to get them fresh out of school. That may help with IT staff turnover. It's a win-win for both of us."

Motivational Moment

2011-12-19T09:06:00.000-05:00

If you don’t want your life to be “messed up,” don’t fool around with those who have messed up theirs.

It is a peculiarity of human relationships that it is virtually impossible for one individual to have a lasting positive influence upon members of a group of negative thinkers. Usually, it works the other way. You cannot maintain a positive, productive attitude if you spend all your time with negative people. Those who have wrecked their own lives (and usually blame their misfortune on others) are not the kind of people who will help you achieve success in your own life. Choose your friends and associates carefully, and refrain from complaints about your job, your company, or any individual. Spend your time with positive, ambitious people who have a plan for their lives. You will find that their optimism is infectious

Combining GPS, Cameras and More to Chart Health

2011-12-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice

A new device from the University of Pittsburgh tracks all aspects of a user's health—from exercise to TV-watching time to meals consumed at restaurants. The tool might just change how people go about losing weight.Plenty of weight-loss devices exist, from calorie-tracking iPhone applications to pedometers, but a new tool from the University of Pittsburgh is an all-in-one tech tool that monitors every aspect of health. Called eButton, the device could help minimize obesity and other serious problems related to food and activity.

Although it contains several different sensors, eButton is smaller than a cell phone. (Source: University of Pittsburgh)

Although it’s smaller than your smartphone, eButton contains many of the same technologies, including a tiny camera, an accelerometer, a GPS and other sensors that track data about daily activities. The tool, which is worn on the chest like a pin, eliminates the need for self-reporting of events like meals and exercise.
“eButton was created to combat obesity, which has become a widespread problem in the United States,” Mingui Sun, who led the project, said in a statement. Sun is a Pitt professor of neurosurgery and electrical and computer engineering. “This disease affects 60 percent of people and costs our country upwards of $225 billion in direct and indirect costs.”
The high-tech sensors of eButton can also chart time spent sitting and time spent outdoors. Its GPS lets users track where they buy food and in which restaurants they dine. It can even detect what menu items are ordered.

The device uses a camera to chart quantities of food eaten. (Source: University of Pittsburgh)

The tool does raise some privacy concerns—its camera, for example, takes footage of the people whom wearers see throughout the day—but all the data is securely coded. Results cannot be seen until a user’s computer has automatically blocked out human faces.
“This multidimensional approach looks at the overall health of eButton wearers, which is more important than just food and exercise alone,” said Sun. “We have to take into account how people live, not only what they eat or how they exercise at the gym.”
According to the CDC, more than 30 percent of the adult population of the U.S. is obese. Factors like overeating and sedentary lifestyles are major contributors to the epidemic. While studies have shown that tracking various activities can help people lose weight, accurate data is hard to estimate. Tools like eButton could help lower obesity rates around the world.
Still in its testing phases, eButton is not yet commercially available. The research behind the prototype was developed in part by a four-year grant from the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative.

HP Does The Right Thing In Open Sourcing WebOS

2011-12-12T10:14:00.000-05:00

By Alan Shimel

Every once in a while things go the right way. Today's announcement by HP that they will open source WebOS [1]is an example. The venerable OS seems to have more lives than a cat. After Palm nearly went under, only to be rescued by HP for a mere 1.2 billion dollars, PalmOS/WebOS seemed to have a bright future again. Then HP after probably pouring in another couple of hundred million dollars decided to pull the plug on their mobile business after just a few weeks out in the market. It seemed that the promising WebOS would die a quiet death.
Of course when HP did this they blew out all of the Touchpads they were sitting on, which created a bit of a gold rush as people snapped up the tablets for a hundred dollars, with many paying much more than that. As a result Touchpad became probably the 2nd or 3rd leading tablet in the market.
Not to be an I told you so, but let me be an I told you so. I wrote last August [2] when HP first announced they were exiting the mobile market that the right thing for HP to do was to open source WebOS.
As part of the announcement HP said that they will continue to develop and devote engineering resources to WebOS. But now developers and other manufacturers can also work with the code. I cannot wait to see the community reaction to this. The Palm/WebOS community was small, but fanatical.
Of course real success will come when we see more mainstream apps for WebOS devices. Having used a Touchpad for months now, that is the biggest thing I see. It just doesn't have the depth of apps that Apple and Android do. The OS itself is actually pretty good. Having used both Apple and Android phones, WebOS is great. It could be better, but it is a major league mobile OS right now.
For those worried about Android's patent problems, WebOS may be just what the doctor ordered. Part of the reason HP paid so much for Palm was the patent portfolio that came along with it. I have not seen anything about those patents being part of this deal, but with WebOS being open source, you would have to assume HP is not going to enforce patent claims on WebOS. The icing on the cake would be for HP to donate those patents to be used only defensively.
I would assume it won't be long until we see phones, tablets and other devices sporting WebOS out in the market. Also this could open the door for HP to start making WebOS devices again too.
All in all what a nice Xmas present for the open source mobile community. Now lets see what comes of it!

FAQ: CNET's "Trojan" installer

2011-12-08T08:34:00.000-05:00

Popular download site under fire for wrapping open source software in meddlesome packaging

By Tim Greene,

CNET is under fire for downloading more than just open source software with the open source software that it makes available on its Web site.

It wraps the software in an installer that also alters the browsers on the computers that pull down the open source code, and this has angered many in the open source community as well as others who just don't like having their browsers messed with when they're downloading something for free.

What is CNET up to?

CNET's download site offers a range of open source tools including anti-virus software, anti-malware, Flash players and Nmap, the open source security scanner. The creator of Nmap, Gordon Lyon, wrote a blog post Monday ripping CNET for wrapping its download of Nmap in an installer that also changes the default search engine to Bing, makes Microsoft MSN the homepage and installs a StartNow toolbar with buttons for Facebook, multimedia search and local weather. It also floats an ad for third-party software in the middle of the install process.
What's wrong with that?
According to Lyon, it's a bad thing. He writes: "Then the next time the user opens their browser, they find that their computer is hosed with crappy toolbars, Bing searches, Microsoft as their home page, and whatever other shenanigans the software performs! The worst thing is that users will think we (Nmap Project) did this to them!"
Anything else?
Lyon again: "In addition to the deception and trademark violation, and potential violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, this clearly violates Nmap's copyright."
What bad things does this do to your computer?
Nothing destructive has been reported.
But there's talk of malware and Trojans. Isn't that bad?
The Web site Virus Total says that 22,524 of its members describe the CNET-wrapped Nmap as malware. Malware scans by security companies including F-Secure, McAfee and Panda identify the installer as a Trojan.
How long has this been going on?
CNET started using the installer in July.
Why is it getting all this attention now?
Mainly because Lyon's bluntly worded blog post caught a lot of attention. "F**k them!" he writes. "If anyone knows a great copyright attorney in the U.S., please send me the details or ask them to get in touch with me."
What can I do to avoid it?
There's an opt-out button on the download page. Part of Lyon's beef is that many people trust CNET's download page and skip right over the opt-out notification.
Why would CNET do this?
On its FAQ page, CNET says: "By downloading with the Download.com Installer the user is guaranteed that the file they install on their system came directly from Download.com. Only software that is tested spyware-free and hosted on Download.com's secure servers may be delivered via the Installer.
"In addition, thanks to the clear steps provided by the Installer, the percentage of users who are able to complete the download process increases significantly when using the Installer for their downloads.
"Finally, Download.com is supported primarily by advertising, and we include offers for additional downloads from advertisers as part of our Installer process. Unlike other download sites that employ similar ad-supported technologies, however, our Installer is limited to a single offer that is carefully screened to ensure compliance with the Download.com Software Policies

The Strangest Secret Earl Nightingale 1950's - YouTube

2011-12-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

The Strangest Secret Earl Nightingale 1950's - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

10 Commandments of Networking by DetroitNet.org

2011-12-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

10CommandmentsofNetworking_DetroitNet_12-02-2011

Motivational Moment

2011-12-05T09:28:00.000-05:00

Drifting, without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure.

Without a plan for your life, it is easier to follow the course of least resistance, to go with the flow, to drift with the current with no particular destination in mind. Having a definite plan for your life greatly simplifies the process of making hundreds of daily decisions that affect your ultimate success. When you know where you want to go, you can quickly decide if your actions are moving you toward your goal or away from it. Without definite, precise goals and a plan for their achievement, each decision must be considered in a vacuum. Definiteness of purpose provides context and allows you to relate specific actions to your overall plan.

Motivational Moment

2011-12-02T08:48:00.005-05:00

The average person would have quit at the first failure. That’s why there have been many average men and only one Edison.

Thomas Edison once observed that the reason most folks don’t recognize opportunity when it comes knocking is that it is often dressed in coveralls and looks like work. Edison knew that anything worthwhile never comes easily; if it were easy, anyone could do it. Because he persisted far beyond the point the average person would consider reasonable and rational, he produced inventions that even the most learned people of the day considered impossible. Great advances in knowledge are often achieved by people with an almost fanatical devotion to finding the solution to a problem. Flashes of inspiration alone are not enough to ensure success; they must be followed by determined, persistent action.

Is Voice Microblogging the Next Social Media Trend?

2011-12-01T08:54:00.000-05:00

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice

Companies such as Bubbly and Qwips are rolling out voice-based messaging platforms. Could voice messages be the Tweets of the future?Many people scratched their heads when Twitter was first created, yet the social media tool has grown to be one of the most popular Websites among individuals and businesses. A new type of microblogging in the form of voice messages sounds just as weird as those 40-word tweets once did—but could it be the next big thing for Web 2.0?
Bubbly, a voice-based messaging service, lets users—known as bubblers—record short messages read in their own voices. “It’s like Twitter with a voice,” the company’s slogan touts.
According to the microblogging site, voice media provides a more personal connection between a blogger and his or her fans. Voice messages ensure authenticity, especially important for celebrities, whose staff often manages Twitter and other social sites. With voice blogging, fans can hear directly from the stars.
Voice-based messaging also allows for more emotional and effusive broadcasts—ideal for religious leaders and motivational speakers. The tool might prove useful for businesses by enabling them to reach out more personally to customers.
Bubbly was introduced in India in 2010 and is now available in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. More than 100 million bubblers have exchanged more than a billion voice messages through the service.
A recent article in The New York Times discusses the new technology. “Voice SMS technology is one-to-one communication and has existed for some time,” Krishna Baidya, an industry manager at Frost & Sullivan, told The Times. “But voice-blogging, one-to-many, is newer.”
Qwips, a New-York-based start-up company, is also on the frontier of the social voice trend. With the service, users can record 30-second voice clips to share on social media outlets, including status updates and comments on Facebook and Twitter. They can also email and text voice messages.
Despite the simplicity of voice-based messaging, several setbacks may prevent the technology from taking over at Twitter-like speed. With recordings, users can’t quickly filter out uninteresting content the way they can while reading through a Facebook feed. And many social mediaphiles may prefer rounder forms of communication, such as video.
Still, according to The Times, Bubbly is gaining 100,000 new users each week.

Chattanooga Builds a Smart City

2011-11-28T09:01:00.001-05:00

Frank J. Ohlhorst

Smart technology permeates the streets and parks of Chattanooga.What started out as a project to improve the electric grid has grown into a high-tech solution that brings Gigabit Ethernet to the residents and businesses of Chattanooga. EPB, Chattanooga's community-owned electric utility, began installing a 100 percent fiber-optic network some time ago to meet smart-grid initiatives and bring better control to the electrical grid.
Now completed, EPB's fiber-optic network has brought with it several other benefits, including helping the city build a high-speed Internet-connected management and control system, which incorporates everything from street-light control, to IP surveillance cameras, to a city-wide symmetrical WiFi grid.

Chattanooga’s riverfront

Today, fiber permeates the city and county of Chattanooga, delivering what may be the most impressive benefit of all--Gigabit Ethernet to homes and businesses, which can now leverage voice over IP technologies, telepresence systems, cloud services and other bandwidth-consuming technologies.
EPB claims that it has built America's first true Smart Grid--a grid that offers residential high-speed Internet, video and telephone services. EPB's Gigabit Ethernet service has also created a type of a renaissance for technology startups, entrepreneurs, and other tech-savvy businesses--something that the city has taken to heart with the announcement of an application competition, called the Gig Prize. The competition is backed with $350,000 in prize money from Alcatel-Lucent.
“Last year, Chattanooga became America’s first and only city to complete a community-wide network capable of delivering up to 1G bps Internet speeds to every home and business in EPB’s 600-square-mile service area,” said Robert Vrij, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Americas Region. “We’re proud to partner with Chattanooga as this extraordinary city establishes a groundbreaking model for demonstrating the direct linkage between investment in telecommunications infrastructure and economic growth.”
Vrij made his announcement as part of his keynote address during the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit of Innovation luncheon where community leaders announced an initiative to position Chattanooga as the Gig City and unveiled the Gig Prize, a competition in which students and entrepreneurs will create and test next-generation Internet applications and launch businesses using Chattanooga’s Internet services.
Chattanooga, the city and county, has benefited greatly from the fiber backbone and city-wide WiFi implementation. The city has seen reductions in crime, improved public safety, reduced operational costs (thanks to LED lighting and controls), and brought high-tech solutions into patrol cars, city service vehicles and other agency assets.
For example, police can now access security cameras in public places, and even increase lighting levels in parks or on roads where they may anticipate trouble. Add to that automated power-grid monitoring and controls, and blackouts and brownouts are becoming a thing of the past, further improving public safety.
Chattanooga is proving to be a perfect example of how a city can leverage technology to improve quality of life, meet public safety needs and serve a technology-hungry market, all while bringing high-speed Internet and services right into the home or business at competitive prices.

Cisco User group meeting

2011-11-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the Great Lakes Cisco Users Group!

Following is a link to download this month's GLCUG flyer: flyer-11-2011
Please be advised of the location that we will meet in for this month.
Computer Data
29299 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
Click here for a map and directions to this location.

This month's presentation will be :

NetScout: nGenius Enterprise Intelligence and Voice Video Manager

Presented by:
Sean Snyder; Sales Engineer, NetScout Systems, Inc.

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
6:30 PM

Hope to see you there!

Chris Gierula - CCNP +voice, CCNA
Hewlett Packard Technologogy Consultant II
Public Relations Chair: Great Lakes Cisco Users Group
public.relations@glcug.com

Great Lakes Cisco Users Group - www.glcug.com

NASA launching 'dream machine' to explore Mars

2011-11-23T09:21:00.000-05:00

By MARCIA DUNN

— As big as a car and as well-equipped as a laboratory, NASA's newest Mars rover blows away its predecessors in size and skill.

Nicknamed Curiosity and scheduled for launch on Saturday, the rover has a 7-foot arm tipped with a jackhammer and a laser to break through the Martian red rock. What really makes it stand out: It can analyze rocks and soil with unprecedented accuracy.

"This is a Mars scientist's dream machine," said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Ashwin Vasavada, the deputy project scientist.

Once on the red planet, Curiosity will be on the lookout for organic, carbon-containing compounds. While the rover can't actually detect the presence of living organisms, scientists hope to learn from the $2.5 billion, nuclear-powered mission whether Mars has — or ever had — what it takes to nurture microbial life.

Curiosity will be "the largest and most complex piece of equipment ever placed on the surface of another planet," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars exploration program.

Ten feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall at its mast, Curiosity is about twice the size of previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity, weighs 1 ton and is loaded with 10 science instruments. Its formal name: Mars Science Laboratory, or MSL.

In a spacecraft first, Curiosity will be lowered to Mars' surface via a jet pack and a tether system similar to the sky cranes used by helicopters to insert heavy equipment in inaccessible spots on Earth. No bouncing air bags like those used for the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover in 1997 and for Spirit and Opportunity in 2004 — Curiosity is too heavy for that.

It is the kind of precision landing that officials said will benefit future human explorers on Mars.

The rover is scheduled to arrive at the mineral-rich Gale Crater next August, 8½ months after embarking on the 354-million-mile voyage aboard an Atlas V rocket.

It's a treacherous journey to Mars, and the road is littered with failures. In all, more than three dozen missions have aimed over the decades at the most Earth-like planet known, and fewer than half have succeeded. Of this flotilla, only one lander is still working on the dry, barren, cold surface — Opportunity — and only three craft still are observing the planet from orbit.

In fact, Russia's latest Mars probe remains stuck in orbit around Earth two weeks after its botched launch. NASA has had better luck at Mars, although it has lost a few spacecraft there.
"Mars is difficult, and so many things have to go right for a mission to work," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program.
Curiosity is the capstone of what NASA calls the year of the solar system. A spacecraft is en route to Jupiter after lifting off last August from Cape Canaveral, and twin lunar probes launched in September will arrive at the moon New Year's weekend.
A huge crowd — 13,500 invited guests — is expected for Curiosity's Thanksgiving weekend send-off.

There will be more anxiety than usual over the launch. Curiosity holds 10.6 pounds of plutonium, more than enough to power the rover on the Martian surface for two years. A nuclear generator won out over solar energy because it allows for a bigger workload and more flexibility. The plutonium is encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.

Once safely down on Mars, the rover will survey the landscape with high-definition and laser cameras mounted like eyes atop its mast. The laser will aim at soil and rocks as far as 23 feet away to gauge their chemical composition.

The rover also has a weather station for updates on Martian temperature, humidity and wind, as well as a radiation detector that will be especially useful for planning human expeditions.

Despite all its fancy upgrades, Curiosity will go no faster than the one-tenth-mile-per-hour logged by past Martian rovers. But it is expected to venture more than 12 miles during its two-year mission. If it's still working after that, it will keep on trucking, possibly all the way up the crater's 3-mile peak.
This mountain is composed of geologic layers similar to what one might find in the Grand Canyon, said project scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology.

"Our rover is going to be like John Wesley Powell going down the Grand Canyon," Grotzinger said, referring to the 19th-century explorer who led an expedition down the Colorado River.

The next logical step in Mars exploration, said Cornell University's Steve Squyres, who led the science team for Spirit and Opportunity, would be a robotic mission to deliver Mars samples to Earth for analysis. NASA hopes to pull that off later this decade, but the project is on Congress' chopping block.

Squyres warned that without such missions, U.S. leadership in science won't just be challenged — "it's going to go away."