Thursday, June 04, 2009

MIcrosoft installs annoyance (and severe vulnerability) on Firefox!

Remove the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant (ClickOnce) Firefox Extension

Intended For

Windows 2000

Windows 7

Windows XP

Windows Vista

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 update, pushed through the Windows Update service to all recent editions of Windows in February 2009, installs the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant firefox extension without asking your permission.

This update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for websites to easily and quietly install software on your PC. Since this design flaw is one of the reasons you may've originally choosen to abandon IE in favor of a safer browser like Firefox, you may wish to remove this extension with all due haste.

Unfortunately, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has taken steps to make the removal of this extension particularly difficult - open the Add-ons window in Firefox, and you'll notice the Uninstall button next to their extension is grayed out! Their reasoning, according to Microsoft blogger Brad Abrams, is that the extension needed "support at the machine level in order to enable the feature for all users on the machine," which, of course, is precisely the reason this add-on is bad news for all Firefox users.

Here's the bafflingly-convoluted procedure required to remove this garbage from Firefox:

Open Registry Editor (type regedit in the Start menu Search box in Vista/Windows 7, or in XP's Run window).
Expand the branches to the following key:
- On 32-bit systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Mozilla \ Firefox \ Extensions
- On x64 systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Wow6432Node \ Mozilla \ Firefox \ Extensions
Delete the value named {20a82645-c095-46ed-80e3-08825760534b} from the right pane.
Close the Registry Editor when you're done.
Open a new Firefox window, and in the address bar, type about:config and press Enter.
Type microsoftdotnet in the Filter field to quickly find the general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet setting.
Right-click general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet and select Reset.
Restart Firefox.
Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation.
Delete the DotNetAssistantExtension folder entirely.
Open the Add-ons window in Firefox to confirm that the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant extension has been removed.

More detail here from TechRepublic..

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

GE breakthrough: 100 DVDs on a disk

General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs.
Enlarge This Image
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Brian Lawrence leads G.E.’s holographic storage program.
The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices.

Devices for the new technology will be able to read CD, DVD, and BluRay, too. Holograms are not just for kids stickers anymore, I suppose.

I wonder how long it will be before a disk like this can project messages from a cell phone?

How to remove scratches from DVDs and CDs

This is great.
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Monday, April 27, 2009

The hottest demographic on the Web: Over 70s!!

"Older adults are the fastest growing demographic on the internet," said Professor Vicki Hanson of the School of Computing at Scotland's University of Dundee on the opening day of a global World Wide web conference in Madrid.

While just over one-fourth, or 26 per cent, of 70-75 year olds went online in the United States in 2005, the proportion was 45 per cent last year, according to data from the Pew internet & American Life Project, she said.

The percentage of those aged 76 years and over who surf the web rose during the same period from 17 per cent to 27 per cent.

Britain has experienced similar sharp gains in internet use by people in this age group, said Andrew Arch of the World Wide web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organisation for the web.

The nowwearetalking blog is usually a Telstra propoganda center. Some of the posts are so blatantly avaricious and Telstra-centric as to be painful. It's rare to find something of common interest, but here is one.

Obviously, this subject has a marketing aspect to it promoting Telstra. It can only be assumed Telstra will launch some sort of campaign to target old folks - but it may be too late. The over-70s are already solidly on the Net.

The over-70s will probably use the Netscape browser. It renders H1-H3 tags in huge black letters no matter what the CSS formatting. - A sort of built in accessibility.

What most young people will find hard to swallow is that's the age group that envisioned and provisioned the Internet in the first place. There is room for a great dialogue here. The irony would be delicious!

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

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Friday, April 24, 2009

fon means WiFi everywhere

The Fonera 2.0 made by FON, (the Spanish WiFi sharing people) is released today (barring the occasional retail glitch) for 45 euros. It comes complete with OLPC's mesh-networking system. You can plug it into Ethernet or a 3G dongle. Share your bandwidth with any other router in range that implements OLPC's mesh-networking standard. The Open WRT software is designed to run on just about any hardware so you do not actually have to buy a Fonera to join the fun. The software is based on Open WRT, which in turn is based on the Linksys WRTG54G firmware which the community forced Cisco to open-source (since it made use of Busybox + Linux Kernel). As a result of this we now have a router far more featured than the most expensive access point you can get in the shops, costing a fraction of the price and based on entirely free firmware. With a few of these we could all build community networks like the one from Cory's book."

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Training ROI from scribd

Measuring ROI of Training

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Business-Management

Thursday, April 16, 2009

G20 London Summit - The top ten outcomes

The Prime Minister’s Office has released a statement of the top ten outcomes from the G20 London Summit:

The top ten outcomes from the G20 London Summit - a Global Plan for Recovery and Reform.

EnergyAustralia and IBM Unite for Large-Scale Smart Grid Implementation

"Only through the creation of a smart grid that can sense, communicate, analyze and respond, can Australia build the energy infrastructure it needs to meet the challenges of climate change, globalization, and changing consumer demand."
IBM Smart Grid
IBM is working with clients in nearly 50 Smart Grid engagements across emerging and mature markets around the world. More about IBM's 'Smarter Planet' initiative: its vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works -- how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here:http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/26094.wss
EnergyAustralia Intelligent Networks
EnergyAustralia began its intelligent network program in 2006. It was the first utility in the world to build and operate a communications network using carrier grade Internet Protocol (IP) technology. EnergyAustralia has also rolled out 800 kilometres of fibre optic cable to its 200 major substations and depots, installed hundreds of communications switches, and built a trial telecommunications network to allow two-way communication across its electricity network. For more information seehttp://www.energy.com.au/energy/ea.nsf/Content/Splash (

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27116.wss

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Australia Moves to Build High-Speed Network

By MERAIAH FOLEY

Published: April 7, 2009

SYDNEY — The Australian government said on Tuesday that it would create a publicly owned company to build a national high-speed broadband network worth 43 billion Australian dollars, or $31 billion, in one of the largest state-sponsored Internet infrastructure upgrades in the world.

Enlarge This Image

Daniel Munoz/Reuters

The Australian government plans to build a $31 billion broadband network that would upgrade systems like the one this woman is using in a store in Sydney.

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the eight-year project would create up to 37,000 jobs at the peak of construction, giving a lift to the economy as retail spending slumps and mining companies cut workers amid weakening demand for Australian metals.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Training for Business pt4

Before we discuss the time frame for measuring ROI, let's consider what training means to a business.

One of the most difficult decisions in an economic downturn is whether to keep staff or let them go.

In small and home based business, there may really be no decision: there just isn't money to pay the staff. A business that loses staff loses resources. Commonly, the staff going is only a little ahead of the customers going - and the business closing won't be far behind.

A wiser decision would be to retain the staff. It might mean cutting back hours. How can a small business make up the difference to their personnel economically. - The answer is training.

Training accomplishes the goals of the business and the staff.

Costs of Training

If you think you can't afford the time and expense of training, think again and consider this:
Untrained users take up to six times longer to perform the same tasks.
Training enhances employee retention. A Louis Harris and Associate Poll says that among employees who say their company offers poor or no training, 41% plan to leave within a year. Of those that say their company offers excellent training, only 12% say they plan to leave.
Studies show that in-house training costs 73% more than outsourced training.
A four-year study by the American Society of Training and Development shows that firms who invest $1500 per employee in training compared to those that spend $125, experience on average: 24% higher gross profit margins and 218% higher income per employee!
Just a 2% increase in productivity has been shown to net a 100% return on investment in outsourced, instructor-lead training  (Shane Warren, Director at International Resilience Institute Sydney citing Training ROI. Avatech Solutions.)

Good Business

When staff or staff time has to be reduced, the business will need the staff to be ever more productive. Generally, remaining staff lose motivation because they "see the handwriting on the wall", and begin looking for other employment.

A business can reverse that attitude and increase productivity of the remaining staff and working time by training staff. It's only good business.

Having calculated the direct financial value of the performance enhancements, it is also necessary, wherever possible, to estimate the value of the more “intangible benefits”, such as:

Increased job satisfaction, and the benefits of increased staff retention and reduced recruitment costs
Increased organisational commitment
Improved teamwork
Improved customer service
Reduced problems and complaints
Reduced conflicts
(from Summary ROI on Training for CEdMA Europe)

Riding out an economic downturn is tough. Businesses that rely on backward-looking planning will fail. Those that look at the downturn as a opportunity to add value to their business have a better chance of being there when its over.

(more to come...)

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Google Chrome takes a little getting used to

Google Chrome takes a little getting used to, then you realize it's doing all the things you wished all browsers would do.

Google Chrome is now my default browser. And I don't make that sort of change lightly!

While IE is trying to catch up with Firefox and Safari, Chrome has breezed past them all when it comes to easy browsing and usability.

Remember, this is Google, so expect minimalism. It takes a little getting used to things being out of the way and doing multiple functions. The address bar, for example, is also the Google search bar.

Bookmarking a page is one click, and it goes to the last folder you used. One more click lets you pick the folder. That's quicker and easier than Firefox!

The best way to understand the sort of changes Chrome offers is to look at the Keyboard Shortcuts.

Chrome makes browsing and researching so much easier and quicker. - Not to mention the fact Chrome is the fastest browser around, bar none.

Keyboard Shortcut Function

This stuff is pretty much standard now:

Ctrl+N Open a new window.

Ctrl+T Open a new tab.

But not this:

Ctrl+Shift+N Open a new window in Incognito mode.

Incognito mode allows you to surf without adding history, cookies, or any tracking.

Ctrl+O then select file Open a file from your computer in Google Chrome.

These are unique to Chrome and make browsing much easier. Most Firefox users will recognize the functions they use from buttons.

Crtl+click a link Open link in a new background tab while
remaining on the current tab.
Ctrl+Shift+click a link Open link in a new tab and switch to the newly opened tab.
Shift+click a link Open link in a new window.

Alt+F4 Close current window.

And these are just for Chrome users:

Ctrl+Shift+T Reopen the last tab you closed. Google Chrome remembers

the last 10 tabs you closed. Drag link to tab

Open link in specified tab.

Drag link to space between tabs

Open link in a new tab in the specified position on the tab strip. Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8 Switch to the tab at the specified position number.

The number you press represents the position of the tab

on the tab strip.

Ctrl+9 Switch to the last tab.

Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown Switch to the next tab.

Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp Switch to the previous tab.

Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 Close current tab or pop-up.

Alt+Home Open your home page.

You can move through your History, forward and backward.

Backspace or press Alt+left arrow Go to the previous page in your

browsing history for the tab.

Shift+Backspace or press Alt+right arrow Go to the next page in your

browsing history for the tab.

And do some things with the address bar never available before:

Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E Place a question mark in the address bar.

Type a search term after the question mark to perform

a search using your default search engine.

Place your cursor in the address bar then press

Ctrl+left arrow Jump to the previous word in the address bar.

Place your cursor in the address bar then press

Ctrl+right arrow Jump to the next word in the address bar.

Place your cursor in the address bar then press

Ctrl+Backspace Delete the previous word in the address bar.

Easy scrolling without the mouse is especially handy.

Space bar Scroll down the web page.

Home Go to the top of the page.

End Go to the bottom of the page.

Why is Chrome so fast?

What is Chrome's secret? After all, Chrome is using Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is hardly revolutionary, right? Wrong! Google created a souped-up version of JVM for use with Chrome called the V8 JavaScript Engine. If you're into cars, or simply even own a car, you can appreciate the message that Google is sending with the V8 moniker.
(from Web Geek's Guide to Google Chrome By: Jerri Ledford; Yvette Davis)

NBN!! $43B and all get it on!

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Tuesday the individual bids from Optus and four other groups were not economically viable.
Instead, the NBN will be rolled out by a public company, with up to 49 per cent private investment, resulting in a wholesale open-access network.
Up to $43 billion will be invested over eight years to build a fibre-to-the-home network reaching 90 per cent of Australians.
(Optus director of government and corporate affairs Maha) Krishnapillai said Optus was not disappointed with its failed tender.
"What the government has done is picked up ours and other recommendations and gone straight to the end gains. We think that is a visionary and bold thing to do," he said.

How can I not blog this?

The Rudd government has finally got it right. Don't go for a cheap upgrade from Telstra. Don't bother doing the job half-way with FTTN (fibre to the node).

Just get in there and do it right the first time.

Bravo, Mr Rudd!!

Australia may have finally found itself a real leader.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Technology proves a heart doesn't have to stay broken

Technology is truly a wonderful thing.

It's long been considered a medical fact that the heart doesn't regenerate. Once the damage is done, it's done.
If the heart would regenerate, then the risks of heart attack and a number of other diseases that affect the heart would be considerably lowered.

The way researchers determine the rate of cell regeneration has been to irradiate the cells, then watch how many die and are replaced over time. Unfortunately, irradiating a person's heart is both medically unethical and illegal, so there was no practical means of testing if heart tissue regenerated.
Dr. Piero Anversa of the Harvard Medical School realized that most of the hearts in the world had already been irradiated. The above-ground nuclear tests before 1963 pushed radioactive material into the atmosphere, and that material was consumed in food and water into nearly everyone's heart.

Dr. Anversa did some extensive research to prove heart tissue does regenerate. Based on his research, the heart may regenerate completely up to 7 times by age 80.

.. (from the NY Times) “Now let’s discuss the magnitude of the process, and that will let us think about how we can apply this concept to heart failure,” Dr. Anversa said.
Dr. Frisen said he did not agree that the rate of regeneration had been underestimated. He said it would now be worth trying to understand how the regeneration of heart muscle cells was regulated.
A zebrafish, for instance, can regenerate large regions of its heart after injury, and possibly a similar response could be induced in people. ..

Sounds like all we need to do is capture the hormones or enzymes from the zebrafish to inject into a human heart; or produce clonable cells from stem cells and zebrafish hearts for the regenerating cells to use for a pattern.

All Dr. Anversa proved is something everyone knows: Broken hearts do mend.
Ain't technology wonderful?

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Training for business pt3

In part 1 and 2 of this Training for Business series, we turned Risk Assessment inside out to assess perceived value.
Perceived value is a tricky thing to put into dollars and cents. But the reality is most businesses should look not just at the cost of an upgrade or software project, but to its value. The problem is, it's very, very hard to estimate that value.
Somewhere, you have to find a dollars-and-cents value to work from or the estimate is meaningless.

The usual method takes the cost and assumes the business will have to find that much increased value in the project or upgrade. Although this concept is easier on the accountants, it's counter-intuitive to the perceptions of the users - and the business.

In the previous articles, we suggested estimating the increased value as an ROI goal. Let's look at the ROI in another way, from the perspective of risk. This is an excerpt from ZDNetAsia article "Create a risk contingency budget with Expected Monetary Value" By Tom Mochal.

We will need two numbers for each risk:

P--probability that the risk will occur.

I--the impact to the project if the risk occurs. (This can be broken down further into the cost impact and the schedule impact, but let's just consider a cost contingency budget for now.)

If you use this technique for all of your risks, you can ask for a risk contingency budget to cover the impact to your project if one or more of the risks occur. For example, let's say that you have identified six risks to your project, as follows:

Risk

P (Risk Probability)

I (Cost Impact)

Risk Contingency

A

.8

US$10,000

US$8,000

B

.3

US$30,000

US$9,000

C

.5

US$8,000

US$4,000

D

.10

US$40,000

US$4,000

E

.3

US$20,000

US$6,000

F

.25

US$10,000

US$2,500

Total

US$118,000

US$33,500

Based on the identification of these six risks, the potential impact to your project is US$118,000. However, you can't ask for that level of risk contingency budget. The only reason you would need that much money is if every risk occurred.

Here, the cost of the risk impact is evaluated (I), then a value judgment is made about the probability of it happening (P). Multiplying those two numbers produces an amount to be added to a contingency budget (Risk Contingency).
Mr Mochal states that the costs of all the risks happening would cost $118,000; but since that's probably unlikely, a contingency budget of $33,500 should be added to the project to protect against whatever risks may occur.

Value instead of Risk

If we were to assess value to the company instead of risks, we might come up with similar numbers as in the first two articles in this series. Of course, we'd have to estimate the probability of each value, which is where the survey comes in.

We could use Mr Mochal's contingency planning to compare with the perceived value estimate, and to the actual cost of the project. With these three numbers, we have a means of estimating ROI not only in accounting terms but in terms of the overall value to the company of any training, upgrade or software project.

With Mr Mochal's table, we can even assess the cost of not doing the project. All we need to do is add one more element: a time frame.

(more to come...)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

HP does Vanity Publishing

With a new Web service called MagCloud, Hewlett-Packard hopes to make it easier and cheaper to crank out a magazine than running photocopies at the local copy shop.
Charging 20 cents a page, paid only when a customer orders a copy, H.P. dreams of turning MagCloud into vanity publishing’s equivalent of YouTube. The company, a leading maker of computers and printers, envisions people using their PCs to develop quick magazines commemorating their daughter’s volleyball season or chronicling the intricacies of the Arizona cactus business.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Are your IT projects a house of cards? : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia

Are your IT projects a house of cards? : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia: "The paper's authors offer several questions organizations should ask to help integrate business value planning with IT:

The paper's authors offer several questions organizations should ask to help integrate business value planning with IT:

Why do we have to improve?
What improvements are necessary or possible? These have to be agreed by the key stakeholders and become investment objectives.
What benefits will be realized by each stakeholder if the organizational objectives are achieved? How can each benefit be measured?
Who owns each of the benefits and will be accountable for its delivery? The benefit owner will be responsible for the value assigned to the benefit in the business case.
What changes are needed to achieve each benefit? This the key to realizing benefits through identifying explicit links between each benefits and required changes.
Who will be responsible for ensuring each change is made successfully?
How and when can the changes be made? This requires an assessment of the organization's and specific stakeholder group's ability and capacity to make the changes.

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

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Study: 68 percent of IT projects fail : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia

Study: 68 percent of IT projects fail : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia: "Key findings from the report, The Impact of Business Requirements on the Success of Technology Projects from IAG Consulting, include (emphasis added):

Key findings from the report, The Impact of Business Requirements on the Success of Technology Projects from IAG Consulting, include (emphasis added):

Companies with poor business analysis capability will have three times as many project failures as successes.
Sixty-eight percent of companies are more likely to have a marginal project or outright failure than a success due to the way they approach business analysis. In fact, 50 percent of this group's projects were "runaways" which had any 2 of: taking over 180 percent of target time to deliver; consuming in excess of 160 percent of estimated budget; or delivering under 70 percent of the target required functionality.
Companies pay a premium of as much as 60 percent on time and budget when they use poor requirements practices on their projects.
Over 41 percent of the IT development budget for software, staff and external professional services will be consumed by poor requirements at the average company using average analysts versus the optimal organization.
The vast majority of projects surveyed did not utilize sufficient business analysis skill to consistently bring projects in on time and budget. The level of competency required is higher than that employed within projects for 70 percent of the companies surveyed.

Garbage HTML: Five theories why developers write it : TechGuides : Software/Web Development : ZDNet Asia

Garbage HTML: Five theories why developers write it : TechGuides : Software/Web Development : ZDNet Asia: "Why do developers crank out this junk? Here are my theories:

Here is some really sad news: less than 7 percent of the Alexa Top 500 validate! It's just a problem with those pages, right? ...

Why do developers crank out this junk? Here are my theories:

Ignorance: A good number of developers don't know better, whether because they did not seek to learn good HTML, or where they learned it from did a lousy job of teaching HTML. The folks who "learned" HTML by copy/pasting other people's junk code fall into this bucket.
Poor tools: Many developers count on a tool to produce their HTML, whether it's some sort of HTML WYSIWYG system, or maybe a framework/library that is cranking out bad code. There are reasons why some of these tools can't generate code. For example, until recently, those on-screen, Web-based HTML editors had a much easier time rendering the font tag than a CSS class or even an inline style. The end result? HTML widgets that were generating the font tag for HTML nearly 10 years after font had become deprecated. Another problem is that there is not a 1:1 mapping of stylistic effects and the way to make the effects happen. Without editors that are strictly contextual driven, there is no good way for the tool to know that [Ctrl]I should result in the em tag as opposed to a CSS style that makes something italic.
HTML is too semantic: HTML is transitioned to being as purely semantic as possible without completely breaking backwards compatibility. In general, this is a good thing. But for a developer who is trying to finish their work and go home, it is a nightmare. Which tag does the developer use? What if the developer wants the effect that a tag produces, without the meaning of the tag? It's enough to drive anyone insane. So what happens? Developers stop caring about what the HTML "means" and just do enough to make the page render the way the client wants it to look. In the shuffle, the HTML ends up being a mess.
Developers who never updated their HTML skill sets: This is a huge problem. I know developers who this very week probably used the font tag or maybe a frameset. Maybe they learned HTML in 1997, or the book they bought on the bargain bin in 2002 was from 1997. Who knows? But their HTML is stuck in the HTML 3 years, and they haven't updated it since.
Server-side technologies: In my opinion, using print statements (or the equivalent) to produce large amounts of HTML is asking for trouble. The page can't be "visualized" as HTML without first mentally executing software. That is a sure way to not be able to get the code right.

Implementing multithreading in .NET: Two major factors to consider : TechGuides : Software/Web Development : ZDNet Asia

Implementing multithreading in .NET: Two major factors to consider : TechGuides : Software/Web Development : ZDNet Asia: "Justin James responds to an interesting question about multithreading in .NET from a reader, and includes downloadable sample code.

Justin James responds to an interesting question about multithreading in .NET from a reader, and includes downloadable sample code.

A reader recently e-mailed me a really good question about multithreading, and I thought other developers might find our exchange useful. Here's the reader's question:

I recently learned about multithreading and found it's extremely interesting. I came across your articles about multithreading applications and think they are very useful. However, I want more complicated examples and projects so that I can really explore this subject and can make full use of its functionality.

Actually, I have several past projects that were programmed single-threaded, but would be much better off if programmed multithreaded. I have a feeling that it's not easy to implement but would be easier if I had better examples. So would you like to share some of yours with me?

Here's my response:

You are right that it is not easy to implement. However, it does not have to be as hard as it used to be, either.

10 predictions for Linux and open source in 2009 : TechGuides : Open Source : ZDNet Asia

10 predictions for Linux and open source in 2009 : TechGuides : Open Source : ZDNet Asia

The year holds a great deal of promise for the Linux OS and open source software--from an explosion in the mobile arena to widespread adoption of OpenOffice 3, says industry watcher.

I don't like to look back; I like to look ahead. So I offer you this list of what I see in the year to come for the Linux operating system and open source software.

Seven benefits of virtual desktop infrastructure : TechGuides : Enterprise Servers & Storage : ZDNet Asia

Seven benefits of virtual desktop infrastructure : TechGuides : Enterprise Servers & Storage : ZDNet Asia: "For IT administrators with a lot to deal with in today’s corporate infrastructure, here are some of the benefits of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI):

For IT administrators with a lot to deal with in today’s corporate infrastructure, here are some of the benefits of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI):

Management: In a typical corporate infrastructure, you manage desktops using remote software technology such as Altiris or some other push technology. It is really hard to manage hundreds of desktops as you are well aware if you administer desktops in your corporate infrastructure.
Using technology such as VDI allows you to have central management of all your desktops and really control what is being installed and used on the desktops. Deployment of virtual desktops is lightning fast as opposed to using imaging technology such as Norton or other antiquated technologies. Would you like to manage 500 desktops all over the United States or Europe or manage them from one data center?
Security: Security is a key factor in rolling out VDI. With VDI, you have greater control of how you secure your desktop. You can lock down the image from external devices or prevent copying data from the image to your local machine; I'm a big fan of this feature of VDI. Remote users or road warriors also benefit as sensitive data is stored on the server in the data center and not the device. If the device is stolen, the information is protected.
OS migrations: Let's say you want to roll out Windows Vista to a select few managers. Prior to VDI, you would have to look at their equipment and most likely upgrade hardware, memory, disk space, etc. With VDI, you can just push out a Windows Vista image from a central location to the group of managers.
VDI image: You can create a library of VDI images to meet all of your company needs. If your company is seasonal, you can have extra images to handle the increased employee traffic. If you use third-party vendors/contractors/consultants, you can use secure/encrypted locked down images to allow them to work in your environment.
Snapshot technology: With VDI, you have the ability to roll back desktops to different states. This is a great feature, and it allows you to give a lot of flexibility to your end users.
Go green: A thin client VDI session will use less electricity than a desktop computer. Using VDI is a way to reduce your carbon footprint on our planet and save your company money in power costs.
Independence: With VDI, who cares what device you use? A thin client, a PC, Apple, Linux, etc. As long as you can connect to your VDI with ICA or RDP, you are golden.

Define your project's vision with this exercise : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia

Define your project's vision with this exercise : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia: "One technique used to guide this exercise is the old journalism advice of asking Who? What? When? Where? Why?

One technique used to guide this exercise is the old journalism advice of asking Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Who? By guiding the team to describe the audience for this product, you help clarify the target customer and ensure that the language used is intended for that audience rather than for the technical team.
What? By describing what the product is, you spell out some of the look and feel questions that accompany every IT effort.
When? This question begins the process of project scheduling by illuminating the stakeholders' time expectations regarding the project. It also helps you dig into their expectations by defining the circumstances in which the new product would be used.
Where? This question helps the team articulate the scope of the project. For instance, will the new product be used by everyone in the organization, or only in the tax department, or somewhere in between?
Why? This is the most critical question to answer. Why would the users and stakeholders make the painful effort to change their existing habits and migrate to this new product? This question is also expanded to explain why you're developing this particular product as opposed to another one that some stakeholders may champion, or that might be bought off the shelf in, well, a package.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The 10 stages of software development (Really??)

The following disclaimer applies: "Although you and I may be able to relate to this, this is a joke. Enjoy it as such."

from Webcomic: The 10 stages of software development | Geekend | TechRepublic.com: This oldie but goodie has been found in software engineering cubicles for years. For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, we give you: Software Development as Explained by a Tire Swing."

This oldie but goodie has been found in software engineering cubicles for years, but for those of you who haven’t yet seen this all-too-true treatise on the coding business, we give you Software Development as Explained by a Tire Swing.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

LIM from another perspective

Legacy IT Modernization

Legacy IT Modernization, or LIM, has become the new marketing buzzword. The term has been appearing increasingly since about 2002.

LIM refers to businesses running applications on mainframes. Some businesses running on mainframes spend between 75 percent to 80 percent of their total IT budget just on the maintenance of these legacy systems, leaving only a fraction of the budget for innovation.
LIM may be the new marketing buzzword, but for most of Australian businesses, LIM has little meaning. Only very large organizations, such as Telstra or Optus, are using COBOL applications. Even fewer rely on aging mainframes.

For most of Australia, in fact, it's meaningless.
Most Australian businesses are small businesses – over 94% of them - that came to automation late relative to most of the world business community. They don't have to worry about aging mainframes and legacy applications running on COBOL. Australian small businesses are using microcomputers on networks.

Small business sees it differently

All Shortcut Computers' small business clients run peer-to-peer networks or networks controlled by Microsoft Small Business Server. A very few run a file server on Linux.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have their limitations, of course. P2P is limited to 4-8 workstations, depending on the network load. More than that and the network becomes too slow for a modern work environment. We try to move businesses onto a Small Business Server if there are more than 6 computers using the network.

Security is always a consideration.

For small businesses in Australia, mission-critical applications run on microcomputers – not mainframes.
P2P networks, where one of the workstations doubles as a file server, are inherently easier to hack. Because someone is using the server as a workstation means the password protecting everyone's business data is repeated day after day.
If the shared computer goes down for any reason, the whole network goes down. Valuable, irretrievable data may be lost. The need for a backup plan and virus protection cannot be over emphasized.

We look forward at Shortcut Computers. Shortcut Computers is a small business.
We understand the needs of small business.

Wireless

For home networks, we recommend wireless networking. It's fun and easy to use.

Shortcut Computers was a pioneer in wireless networking in homes and small businesses in Australia. We've done our small part in providing Internet access to everyone, anywhere. Shortcut Computers set up free wireless access in cafes and motels long before McDonald's. We're still waiting to see when other hospitality companies see the light.

Increasingly, businesses are moving to wireless too. The convenience is hard to beat. Being able to securely log into a network anywhere in a building or across a site means freedom from many time consuming hassles in a business day.

A wireless router connected to a couple of access points can open up wide areas of a business site to wireless communications. As the industry moves forward to the 802.11n standard, wireless connections will cover more area more reliably.
We're looking forward to the new 11n standard at Shortcut Computers.

Business-critical applications

Small businesses run critical applications that are rarely shared. The file system may be shared.
For many small businesses, business-critical applications may be as simple as a Word template with the company logo for communications.
Networked software is rare. Most networked software in small businesses is outdated. Too often, the only networked software is dependent upon embedded, proprietary data structures. The cost of releasing the business from these proprietary systems is perceived as too great in terms of conversion and learning new methods.

Collaborative systems are rarely used simply because the software is too complicated. Simply: No one knows how to do it.

Don't just drop it off

One client said recently: “Don't just drop this stuff off and hook it up. -- How do we run it?”
It's not surprising that many small businesses choose not to upgrade. Or only upgrade software and hardware when they're forced to do it.
A new system may be very impressive visually, but if it doesn't deliver in terms of efficiency and convenience, it will be perceived as a waste of money. And it will be until someone at the company learns it.

Microsoft Vista is a good example. There were just too many changes in the interface. It looked great, very 21^st century. But many users simply sat looking at the new fancy graphics wondering how they were going to do their daily work.
The result was a worldwide rebellion. Microsoft was forced to extend the support for XP because Vista failed. - It didn't help anything that Vista required so much new hardware either.

Software has become too complex. It takes too long to learn how to do simple tasks; and most of the Wow-factor capabilities of the software are never used. In some cases, no one can even find them!
Modern servers, like Small Business Server, require a great deal of knowledge to manage and maintain. Most small businesses simply do not have the money to learn this stuff – much less keep someone on staff who knows it.
Every installation of new software and servers should come with the cost of training built in.

It's cost, not ROI

One of the hardest lessons for consultants and large software firms to learn about small business is that technology is seen as a cost. Small businesses don't have time to track or measure ROI (return on investment). There just aren't enough hours in the day. If the hardware and software work, - meaning it does what it supposed to do – that's all that matters.
ROI is just another sales term to small business owners.

That doesn't mean small businesses don't expect performance from new, upgraded systems. It's the perception of effectiveness that defines the value to small businesses.

How to deliver that perception and real effectiveness is the question. One answer is the concept of PPTIT. -- But that's the subject of another article.

Microsoft, Small Business Server 2003/2007/2008, Vista, XP, MSWord, and MSOffice are recognized trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Do you Hadoop?

How do you get 200 software engineers to agree on something?

Hadoop.
...huh?

Do you Hadoop?
Hadoop is a technology that makes old, worn-out computers into supercompters.
Besides Yahoo! and Google, these companies seem to agree:

The key to Hadoop is proximity management, and the Hadoop filesystem - HDFS. The idea of making supercomputers from microcomputers is not new.

Not a new idea
Over 20 years ago, the University of Arizona Astronomy Department wanted to study the motion of the universe. To do that, they needed to make some..well, .. astronomical.. calculations.
The university approached the supercomputer manufacturers, like Cray, to buy a supercomputer. The price was a little beyond the academic interest: $20,000,000. The study of heavenly bodies, --other than in Playboy--, might have to wait. But these guys were determined.
The students came up with the idea of linking microcomputers together using Linux. For a cost of just over $100,000, the UofA had a supercomputer!

MapReduce
To index the whole Web, Google had to come up with some new ideas. There was just too much of it in every way. (Sorta like what modelling agencies said of Raquel Welch...) In 2003, Google came up with the MapReduce technology:

The MapReduce technology makes it possible to break large sets of data into little chunks, spread that information across thousands of computers, ask the computers questions and receive cohesive answers. Google rewrote its entire search index system to take advantage of MapReduce’s ability to analyze all of this information and its ability to keep complex jobs working even when lots of computers die.
MapReduce represented a couple of breakthroughs. The technology has allowed Google’s search software to run faster on cheaper, less-reliable computers, which means lower capital costs. In addition, it makes manipulating the data Google collects so much easier that more engineers can hunt for secrets about how people use the company’s technology instead of worrying about keeping computers up and running.
“It’s a really big hammer,” said Christophe Bisciglia, 28, a former Google engineer and a founder of Cloudera. “When you have a really big hammer, everything becomes a nail.” (from the New York Times)

Ain't it the truth! The idea became very popular.

Bad systems engineering

A couple of keys to Hadoop is some bad system engineering and the idea that every computation was aware of where it was being done. And Hadoop takes really big chunks of data, 64Mb at a time, into those calculations.

Calling it bad system engineering is tongue in cheek, of course. The designers of Hadoop were willing to allow a single point of failure in a couple of places, which is a system No-No. By breaking the rules, Hadoop reinvents the rules.
The single points of failure allow the computers linked with Hadoop to be rack aware. As they're chugging along, the computers are aware of othe computers nearby doing the same or similar calculations.
In other words, the hammers only hammer nails they can reach (-- to stretch the metaphor a little.)

Because sending data across wires is one of the ways multicomputing systems slow down, being aware of where you're computing is important. Stuff moves around inside a processor or RAM very fast. It moves much slower across wires.

The best part: It's free.

That's right. A core technology of companies like Yahoo! and Google is free. Cloudera, the company formed by the inventors of Hadoop, are giving it away.
In the spirit of Google, they want to see Hadoop installations in biotech, human genome projects, oil exploration, and sales data. All those applications require digesting huge amounts of information.

I wonder how long it will be before UofA upgrades?

“What if Google decided to sell the ability to do amazing things with data instead of selling advertising?” Mr. Hammerbacher asked.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Training for business pt2

Training isn't really what they want

In the first part of this series, I suggested using a simple poll to determine if the company's network needed some work.

Network management:

Fine as is
Needs improvement
Needs a lot of improvement

Based on the responses to that question, I suggested that the target ROI - $9250.00 - on improving the network would be nearly twice the budgeted cost of $5000.

A little on-the-ground testing
I showed this simple calculation to the crowd at the local coffee house, and the rolls of derision were sometimes couched in four-letter words. Most of my deriders were business people, students or finance workers. In most cases, the four-letter words (if any) were replaced by three-letter acronyms like ROI, NPV, and IRR - or some sort of derivation.
A couple of small business owners looked, thought a moment, then said, "It's about right."

I let the regaling go on for a while, then defended my calculations with two statements:

This was a value judgment. There is no right or wrong;
It translated into dollars and cents the perceived value of upgrading the network.

To be more accurate there are a lot of things that could be added to the scenario.

First, I could have stated the number of surveys that were handed out. If it had been 20, for example, then the percentages and multipliers would have been lower.
Second, more questions. It would have been much more accurate to ask about the software, network speed, downtime or how many times the person's work had just hung. If I kept relatively the same level of response for more questions, I'd have had a lot better idea what needed fixing in the judgment of the employees and customers.

I wanted to make a simple example of how to convert value judgments and opinions into hard numbers about an investment decision.

Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment
The most interesting reactions though were the two small business people who effectively said, "It's about right. I expect to get more out of any investment in my business than I put into it." - And they were right.
"One of the important things this calculation showed," they said, "was it gave a dollar value to not upgrading the network."

But they had no answer to the question: "How would you measure it?"

Actually, the answer is pretty simple. You give the same survey to the same people after the upgrade. You measure the perceived value again. You'll have to wait a while until the respondents have had a chance to experience the upgraded network though.

IOW, you pre-assess as a means of making the decision; then post-assess.
And what do you do with the figures? Subtract one set of calculated values from the other to see how close you came to achieving your (calculated) goals.

And this is where this process ties into IT training.
Within reason, business owners at all levels are not really interested in what something costs. What business needs to know (read: make manageable) is how much value it adds to the business.

Suddenly, that simplistic calculation begins to make a lot of sense. You do have to think outside the box to get it though.

(More to come..)

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

Short Cut Computers for quick installation and service at your home or office

Barcode Solutions for quick-turnaround barcodes and innovative ideas.

Weight Online is the ultimate weightloss website in Australia. Why not take a look and join the membership program today and get back in charge of your body.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

10+ tools you should have in your support tech repair kit

(from TechRepublic)

We checked with our technicians. None of them had half this stuff.

From this list, it looks like we should spend about $100 per technician to bring their technical equipment in line with industry standards.
(This is sorta tongue in cheek. -Ed.)

When a trip to an end user's machine is necessary, there's no time for fumbling for the right tool. But many times, you arrive at the user's desk and find yourself unprepared to fix the problem.
In an ideal world, you'd have everything needed at your fingertips—a sort of ultimate toolkit.
In the real world, you can still arrive prepared if you stock your toolkit with a few essential hardware items. Some of these tools may require some creative shopping, but you can find most of them in your local hardware store. The prices listed here are approximate.
Multibit screwdriver with nut drivers. Get a ratcheting grip if you use these a lot or find yourself in tight places with limited movement. A nut driver is handy when someone buggers up the case screws before you get there. (These can cost anywhere from $6 to $25.)
Needlenose pliers/cutters (straight and curved). Even if you have great dexterity, these multipurpose tools will help you manipulate little wires and straighten tiny prongs. (These can cost from $6 to $30.)
Hemostats. These function like needlenose pliers but have a locking mechanism, which is great for hanging onto jumpers or other small parts. (You can find these for $3 to $8 a piece at places like Widget Supply.)
Parts claw/retriever. Never leave a dropped screw rattling around in a computer case. (You can get a 3-claw parts retriever as part of a $12 toolkit from Business Supply or check your local hardware store.)
Small flashlight (optional accessories include headband holder, optic fiber extension). One of these can put a little light on the subject. Or use it to read those small part numbers. (You can find these for $10 or less at most electronics or hardware stores.)
Small mirror on telescoping handle. This helps you to look around corners in tight spaces. (These are available for around $6 at Autopart.com.)
Tin or bottle with assortment of cable and PC screws along with motherboard jumpers. Support techs usually need plenty of screws and jumpers. Either they're missing from the user's PC when you arrived on the scene or they just got away while you were working. (You can usually scrounge some screws and jumpers off old equipment to save money. Reuse film cases or other small containers to hold them.)
Multimeter. There are times when using one of these is the only way to find out if a part is working as it should. (These can cost from $5 to $25 for a basic analog style at mulltimeterwarehouse.com and upwards of $400 for a high-end digital Fluke.)
Electrostatic discharge strap or pad. Save yourself the embarrassment of frying a chip with your electric personality: Use one of these. (They can cost between $6 and $70, depending on whether you buy a strap or a pad.)
Paper clip. This is a multiuse tool for ejecting CDs and disks or prying key caps off stubborn keyboards (Check the office supply cupboard for a box of these.)
Pen and paper. For recording preferences and other settings, drawing jumper diagrams, or doodling while waiting for Windows to restart, a trusty pen and pad are indispensable. (This is another handy tool you can usually find in the office supply cupboard.)
Phone and AC line testers. These are particularly useful in areas where utilities are questionable. (These can cost from $5 up to $99.)

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

Short Cut Computers for quick installation and service at your home or o ffice

Barcode Solutions for quick-turnaround barcodes and innovative ideas.

Weight Online is the ultimate weightloss website in Australia. Why not take a look and join the membership program today and get back in charge of your body.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

An Obituary for Common Sense, well received

Obituary of the Late Mr. Common Sense

Posted on March 31, 2007
Filed Under Humor, Contributing Editors | |

By Allen Jesson - Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn’t always fair; and
Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6 year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouth wash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, which only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their misbehaved children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or a plaster to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

But let us not get too despondent. If we believe in reincarnation then surely Mr Common Sense can be resurrected. To be honest, I think the pendulum swings throughout life and we are just in the middle of one of those swings. There is never a right or wrong way but there is always a better way and we all need to be vigilant in finding that way.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Allen Jesson writes for several sites, making sense of internet marketing strategy and shows you how to make money online with a home based net marketing business.

(Reproduced here with permission and all references from the ArticleRich website. The opinions and views expressed in the article are not wholly shared by Shortcut Computers or any of its affiliates.)

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

Short Cut Computers for quick installation and service at your home or office

Barcode Solutions for quick-turnaround barcodes and innovative ideas.

Weight Online is the ultimate weightloss website in Australia. Why not take a look and join the membership program today and get back in charge of your body.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The lastest on barcodes

The latest barcode news from Australia. Note that all but one of these blogs is on Blogger?

Nielsen Consumer Panel | The Freebies Blog
By Teresa
Members earn gift points for scanning and transmitting barcodes. Gift points can be redeemed at any time for items in the Gift Catalogue which include; electronic equipment, household items, jewellery and toys. ...
The Freebies Blog - http://www.thefreebiesblog.com/

Australian Health Information Technology: Useful and Interesting ...
By Aus HIT Man
This blog provides a commentary on the progress (or not) of e-health in Australia from the perspective of some-one who has worked in the field for over 20 years and has become a bit jaded with the lack of apparent progress in a very ..... Patients, who need to opt in to the system, will be given a script which includes a barcode. Using the barcode the pharmacy will access an e-script from a central database. GPs will be able to alter details of the prescription without ...
Australian Health Information Technology - http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/

Sports Journalists’ Association newsblog » Blog Archive » Locked ...
By Steven Downes
In that Lord’s Test of ‘56, Keith Miller claimed 10 wickets to lift Australia to victory by 185 runs. Less than 10 years later Keith was my colleague on the Daily Express as a non-ghostwritten journalist. He used to hold us enthralled at ... Oh yes, and there’s also extras like the barcode and four-colour jacket. And dare you fly without a legal check? Amazon have several deals worth considering, too complicated to go into here. Their website has in-depth information. ...
Sports Journalists' Association newsblog - http://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/blog/

Sydney Commercial Kitchens: NRA announces 2009 Kitchen Innovations ...
By Sydney Commercial Kitchens
Hobart - Hobart's Bluetooth-enabled Combi Oven with Barcode Scanner: Bluetooth-Enabled Combi Oven with barcode scanner automatically controls the cooking program and features wireless exchange of recipes. ...
Sydney Commercial Kitchens - http://sydneycommercialkitchens.blogspot.com/

21st Century Regenerative Technology: xFruits - 21st Century ...
By noreply@blogger.com (Chad S)
One such company, eFormic, launched a product on Monday at the Demo conference called CO2Code, which combines a barcode and an online service to take a deeper dive into carbon neutral products. The company was founded by Moriz Vohrer and ... The new car (and the team behind it) will already be road-tested by the time it gets Down Under — the team plans to drive Eleanor across the U.S. this summer in preparation for the Australia race. And even though there’s only room for ...
21st Century Regenerative Technology - http://21st-century-techno.blogspot.com/

Times will change

One of the questions that popped up recently is How does a central bank support the value of a currency?
The classic way to support a currency is to raise the interest rates. If the same value of money, no matter what the denomination, will earn 5% in one currency and 10% in another currency, it's obviously advantageous to be in the latter currency - all things being equal.

Another way for a central bank to support the value of a currency is to buy their own currency on the world market. Usually, that means using euros or US dollars, since those currencies are the strongest.
The goal here is to create artificial demand for the currency, leaving less and less of it on the market.
That's how Russia maintained the value of its currency, and exports, during the time of the communist collapse. Russia was crazy for dollars for nearly a decade.

In the (1990) Asian financial crisis, countries at the center of the storm were particularly vulnerable because the values of their currencies were mostly pegged to the dollar. Once central banks ran out of dollars to exchange for their own currencies, they lost their ability to influence the exchange rate. As a result, their currencies fell, turning already large debts into impossible debts.
...
In ordinary times, the rise of the dollar would provoke American worries that it would crimp exports by making goods more expensive on world markets. But for American policy makers, what matters now is attracting enough buyers of American debt to finance the rescue plans, and if the dollar must rise along the way, that is a cost worth paying.

“The fact that we can still borrow at lower interest rates is saving us from much more severe adjustments,” Mr. Rogoff said. “We’re really still staring down an abyss.”

When the country runs out of 'hard' currency it loses the power to bolster the immediate value of its currency.

A weak currency is not necessarily a bad thing though. The Aussie dollar is one of those currencies pegged to the American dollar.
The stronger American dollar has had a positive effect on the outlook for Australian agricultural products - beef, pork, wheat and poultry - sold to Japan and the US. In real dollar terms, the products are cheaper.

The markets are already established, and will not just go away, so there will be an influx of US dollars into Australia resulting in a stronger Aussie dollar - supposedly.
Linking the fragile banking structure to a national guarantee is really rolling the dice. Then again, there's not much more anyone can do at this point.
The recent catastrophic floods and fires effect on agricultural production in Australia will only cause Aussie goods to be more valuable - because there will be fewer of them.

The Aussie dollar is dropping largely because of the banks.
The credit card bubble is still supporting the economy, and the rest of the world is wary of an economy based almost wholly on consumption - only for good reason. The massive weight of the credit card debt in Australia has not been dealt with by economists or government. Economists don't have good models for this sort of debt. Governments are afraid to touch it because it is what is keeping the banks (apparently) solvent.

It's the second financial crisis in waiting. Like the 800-lbs gorilla in the corner... No one wants to mention it

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

Short Cut Computers for quick installation and service at your home or office

Barcode Solutions for quick-turnaround barcodes and innovative ideas.

Weight Online is the ultimate weightloss website in Australia. Why not take a look and join the membership program today and get back in charge of your body.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Small business ripples

If you want the news in Australia, you turn to The Age or The Australian.

The Herald Sun has the largest circulation but is worthless to tell you what's happening around the world. It's all fluff. The Herald Sun has been forced back into the news business by the recent catastrophic bush fires. But it will soon forget all that "bad stuff".
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is much more important, supposedly, because it affects "real Australians" who only care about sports.

What affects small business affects us at Shortcut Computers. What is happening around the world indicates where the future of all business in Australia is heading

The Wall Street Journal recently published a defense of limitless executive pay entitled “Greed Is Good.” The resulting letters to the editor suggest that readers are not convinced.
Nor is President Obama, who recently promised to impose a $500,000 cap on the pay of C.E.O.’s at companies receiving large subsidies from taxpayers. Stock options will be allowed only in a restricted form that potentially rewards long-term performance.

Mr. Obama also praised a Florida banker who shared profits with his workers and observed that values related to (though not exactly the same as) greed have sentenced us to the purgatory of recession: “We have lived through an era where, too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
His words recall those of President Franklin Roosevelt’s second Inaugural Address in 1937: “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.”

I left the links in.
Australia's largest trading partners are the ASEAN nations and China. Most of the money to support that trade, 60% or so, comes from the United States. Even with the government guarantee of all deposits and loans to banks, Australian banks are slipping below the AA rating. That money is drying up fast.

The changes occurring in the US will ripple around the world.

Mine the pockets of the middle class the pollies are told. They can bloody well keep their minding to their own business!

Short Cut Computers for quick installation and service at your home or office

Barcode Solutions for quick-turnaround barcodes and innovative ideas.

Weight Online is the ultimate weightloss website in Australia. Why not take a look and join the membership program today and get back in charge of your body.

Risk	P (Risk Probability)	I (Cost Impact)	Risk Contingency
A	.8	US$10,000	US$8,000
B	.3	US$30,000	US$9,000
C	.5	US$8,000	US$4,000
D	.10	US$40,000	US$4,000
E	.3	US$20,000	US$6,000
F	.25	US$10,000	US$2,500
Total		US$118,000	US$33,500

Steve Trim's Short Cut Computers

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G20 London Summit - The top ten outcomes

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Legacy IT Modernization

Small business sees it differently

Security is always a consideration.

Wireless

Business-critical applications

Don't just drop it off

It's cost, not ROI

Monday, March 16, 2009

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Saturday, March 07, 2009

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