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Title: How Does Google's Search Algorithm Learn From You?
Posted: February 23, 2010 at 3:04 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Wired Magazine has an interesting piece on how Google's fabled search algorithm works. If you want to get noticed, here's some meaty information you'll need. Read More
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Title: The Emotion of Technology Change
Posted: February 16, 2010 at 1:43 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
I began my career in Information Technology back at Wright State University in 1974. I didn't know anything about computers when I started, but a friend that was at WSU at the time showed me some programs and I was attracted by the logic, their math-like quality and the promise of avoiding a bunch of annoying liberal arts classes. But little in my college experiences prepared me for how much emotions play in the technology field, either good or bad. I've collected a few of those experiences in this article to share with you. And if you're ever needing an ice-breaker when in the land of techies, just ask then about their most hair-raising experience. You're sure to hear an earful and get the conversation going.
I'll start with the worst feeling I've ever had. I was new with a company back in 1980 and was working hard at getting something or another to work. I was sitting at the master console of the company mainframe and realized I needed to stop any new work from starting in the system. My brain instantly stormed two possibilities. I could "purge the initiators" or I could "hold the queue". Unfortunately my fingers interpreted... Read More
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Title: The Outcome-Value Statement
Posted: February 2, 2010 at 10:17 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
This article describes a concise and effective method to communicate a project, a requirement or even an organization's purpose to multiple audiences, each listening for their part of the message. It does this by linking the work being done to the value being delivered through its expected outcome or outcomes.
The work being done can be the list of various projects or the major components of projects. It can a list of requirements for a new service or a new set of rules being considered. This is the place to begin creating the Outcome-Value statement. Simply write them down in a list with the most significant items first. While the list could be very lengthy, it's best to summarize enough to keep its size to ten or less.
The next step is to write down the Values you expect to gain. These fall into three categories: cost, service and risk. It's not time yet to link the value to the work being done. Just list the values for the entire effort. It's okay to make these somewhat fuzzy for the purpose of this effort. It's not intended to replace a business case analysis. So a statement of "reduce maintenance costs" or "improve... Read More
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Title: The Non-Standard Desktop
Posted: February 1, 2010 at 9:28 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Paul Moorman and I often talk about different software we use and web sites that we visit. I liked his blog posts about what he uses but I did not think that anyone would care what I used. I am in a unique position of being close to the IT industry, without the need to answer to regulations or an IT department, and without sensitive data on my computer. That gives me the unique freedom to try new software. Additionally, I have a great computer that lets me clog my registry with these new programs. Credit for most of these finds goes to Lifehacker.com. Here is what I use.
Basics:
My machine runs XP with Office 2007. I have OpenOffice on my system, in case someone sends me an OpenOffice document, but I prefer Office 2007. Adobe Reader’s sluggishness and security problems make it a poor choice for a PDF reader, so I use Foxit Reader with no hesitation or problems. For an internet browser, I use Firefox but may switch to Chrome. I use 7-Zip for .zip files and do my searching in Windows Search 4.0, because it integrates into Windows better than the Google Search does.
Windows Explorer... Read More
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Title: My Web Site List
Posted: January 9, 2010 at 5:00 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
You might think from my earlier blogs that I don't spend all that much time on the Internet. Nothing could be further from the truth. I write this blog on Google Docs, so I can work on it wherever and whenever. I have a Google Chrome browser up at all times with seven Google services always open. I have Firefox up at all times to handle RSS feeds and Google searches. I regularly seek information from the three sources of all knowledge (Google, Wikipedia and YouTube). Take my browsers away and I stumble upon this Earth.
We all have our favorite web sites and I'll share mine with you. Most you're probably familiar with, but even one new winner is worth perusing the list. Here goes....
- Kayak.com - I use this for all my travel planning. It is by far the best web site I've found for quickly finding good airfares. It works like this: (1) pick your cities and pick your date, (2) all the data for all the flights is sent to your browser, and (3) by using check boxes, sliders and buttons you can narrow or widen your search criteria and never go back to the... Read More
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Title: Need some Tech Advice
Posted: January 8, 2010 at 2:46 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Can you please provide any solutions to this in the comments? The company is not in the Dayton region.
I’m wondering if you could steer me to someone who would be willing to chat about our IT needs. I just don’t seem to be up to speed on what is available anymore. There has been soooo much proliferation!
Basically we are VERY small with not a very big budget. I will be joining one other therapist/coach whose business is growing by leaps and bounds and is more than he can keep up with.
He has asked me to help automate the administrative functions (scheduling, tasks, client contact information and business data). We don’t want to hire someone to do all that administrative stuff and we don’t want to spend all our time doing it either. We’d like a system to support us and make it as easy as possible.
I started down the path of OUTLOOK but we are frustrated with our inability to share contacts and to put contact information seamlessly into the calendar. Our accountant suggested we get QUICKBOOKSPRO – which we did -- but it does not seem to cooperate very well with... Read More
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Title: CIO Wisdom: Taking Care of Business
Posted: January 6, 2010 at 8:11 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Contributed by Kevin Kampman
At the Dayton Technology First CIO Forecast on December 9th, there were a number of key insights set forth about what firms should expect in 2010. The Forecast was facilitated by Burton Group Executive Strategist Jack Santos; participants included Rob Whittington of WorkflowOne, Jim Bradley of Motoman, John Huelsman of Midmark, and Jon Russell of Kettering Health Network. While these executives’ companies are all based in the Dayton Ohio area, their perspectives correspond to those of other organizations that Burton Group interacts with:
- Notably, initiatives such as “Cloud Computing” and “Business Alignment” weren’t mentioned by the panel. Next year’s focus is conservative: Delivering practical, tactical, measurable capabilities is on everyone’s agenda.
- Generally, IT hiring will be cautious yet optimistic, in lockstep with the economy. Use of contingent and contract employment will often precede hiring in order to keep staff levels in line with business velocity. An exception will be in healthcare; Jon Russell indicated hiring will be aggressive to deploy capabilities like electronic patient record systems. Qualified NCR talent that doesn’t relocate to Georgia, for example, may be leveraged for these efforts.
- Globalization is a continuing theme for these companies, especially those in the manufacturing and services sectors. Outsourcing... Read More
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Title: IT in Competition
Posted: December 30, 2009 at 3:41 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Internal IT departments faced almost no competition in the mainframe era and most of the client/server era. This inevitably led to problems as competition was introduced and at least some backlash from their previously captive audience. This is not unique to IT people, but just look around to other examples such as the 1983 breakup of the AT&T monopoly or the introduction of significant foreign competition in the steel and automobile industries. Initial efforts attempted to put the world back to the "good old days", then moved on to casting as much fear, uncertainty and doubt on the newcomers and finally reducing prices to hold back the flood waters. None address the fundamental lack of skills and perspective required to survive.
Internal IT faces an expanding competitive threat from an increasing number of sources. These include:
- Outsourcing - In other words, buying IT from another company. The economics of this are the most puzzling to grasp. Can I really buy the same thing I've been doing myself for less, and the outsourcer still can make a 15%-20% profit? Some of this can be accomplished by larger scale, but outsourcers live with competition every day and it simply makes them... Read More
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Title: Password Standards
Posted: December 12, 2009 at 4:30 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Does anyone know if there is an official standard (e.g. FIPS, ANSI, W3C. etc.) for what an application or directory service must provide in the way of password standards (e.g. length, composition, revocation, duration, etc.)? I'm looking for something that I can use in RFPs to vendors to get them all on the same page.
Currently the implementations within Active Directory, SAP and other systems and applications use a mismatched set of criteria. For example AD can except a special character as the first character of a password, but SAP can't. Given the number of systems and wanting to use a common Password Reset tool (which has its own quirky implementation) leads to adopting a Least Common Demoninator approach. Read More
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Title: Any Questions?
Posted: December 1, 2009 at 3:22 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
On December 9th, Technology First will hold the CIO Forecast Luncheon at Sinclair Community College. Discussion will be moderated by Jack Santos, an executive strategist for the Burton Group and panelists will include Rob Whittington from WorkflowOne, Jim Bradley from Motoman, John Huelsman from Midmark and Jon Russell from Kettering Health Network.
This should be a great event, offering you an opportunity to learn from some of the most successful IT professionals in the region. Additionally you can enjoy a great lunch while networking with other area professionals. And, of course, everyone's favorite host, Andy Hickey, will be there making sure all goes well - that in and of itself is worth the price of admission.
Whether you come or not, you can still participate in the event. How? Well, that is simple. Use the comments section to pose your question to the panelists. I can't guarantee that all of them will get used, but it will offer some direction to both the moderator and the panelists as to what is important to you - the Dayton area IT community.
I am curious as to how they believe technology can create jobs for our region. Specifically, how this might result in a net... Read More
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Title: Password Craziness
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 5:22 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
There is a light at the end of the password tunnel. The only question is when will the endless craziness of longer and more complex passwords finally be tamed, for surely, either by reason or futility, it will end.
Surely you've seen the current craze, eight character passwords containing a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers and special characters. Let's say for the sake of argument that this is truly needed and worth every bit of aggravation. How long will it last? The basic math says about 10 years, given that Moore's Law holds and computing gets one-half as expensive every eighteen months, and that there are about 80 possible characters to choose from when building a password. To keep the same relative immunity, in 10 years it will take a 9 character password, in 20 years a 10 character passwords, etc., until such time that users revolt, or hopefully, start to question why in this world of marvelous technological innovation they must increasingly carry the security burden.
But why wait until the fires are burning around your feet and the smoke is rising to take a fresh look at the problem and solve it sooner rather than later. A few... Read More
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Title: Y2K retrospective
Posted: November 17, 2009 at 2:12 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
I really liked this Y2K retrospective on Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2235357/entry/2235359/. The article makes a point that it is one of the few times in recent history where people worked pro-actively to work on something. The article asks the question if we spent too much time and money worrying about the problem. I wish that the article had deleved into that answer deeper.
What do you think of that question: Was our avoidance of problems with Y2K a sign of successful problem solving or something closer to Chicken Little? Please give your thoughts in the comments below. Read More
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Title: My Home PCs – Part 4 – Toys for Geeks
Posted: November 17, 2009 at 1:45 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
The final installment of this four-part blog contains some utilities that most home users will never need, but I find them indispensable. With the exception of WinDirStat, these toys take a reasonable amount of technical knowledge to use, although they are unlikely to cause your PC any problems if you want to give them a whirl. If nothing else, it's interesting to run Wireshark and Process Monitor to see the sheer volume of what's going on inside your PC. It's a much busier beast than you probably think.
- Wireshark - This program captures all network data packets coming into and going out of your PC, very similar to the professional Sniffer tool. Although having a network background is useful to understand all the packet headers, it's more useful to understand how an application works to make the best use of the data captured. It's a good idea to shutdown as many applications as possible before running Wireshark to reduce the data being captured. You can download Wireshark at http://www.wireshark.org and there are some very good introductory videos and other documentation at http://www.wireshark.org/docs. You'll also be installing WinPCap, included in the Wireshark download, which is the component that interfaces between Windows and... Read More
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Title: My Home PCs – Part 3 – Media and More Media
Posted: November 9, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
The first two parts of this four-part blog covered the not-optional portions of most home PCs, since handling email and feeding your web-browsing habit is probably the reason you bought a PC in the first place. But a PC is a computer and not just an average piece of furniture. And the best thing about owning your own computer is that it can run other software. In my case, most of that software handles various media, from music and pictures to video and audio. This list contains the ones I use most often.
- Apple's iTunes - A must for those of us that have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, although Songbird (see below) is a strong contender for basic iPod music players. iTunes allows you to buy, rent or download music, videos, movies, TV shows, 100,000+ applications, and my favorite, podcasts. My personal podcast favorites (all free of course) include GeekBriefTV, The Jazz Suite, Dilbert, The Welch Way and TikiBar TV. You can find iTunes at http://www.apple.com/itunes. You'll also get QuickTime in the download (see blog part 2 for more info) and Bonjour, which allows various Apple devices to find each other without a lot of messy configuration. You might... Read More
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Title: Taste of IT attendance
Posted: November 6, 2009 at 1:28 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Taste of IT attendance is going great! This conference is going to be huge and with 40 exhibitors, we are going to have a lot of great information sharing.
Thanks to the Dayton and Cincinnati IT communities for so strongly supporting this event! Read More
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Title: My Home PCs – Part 2 – Office and Web Must-Have’s
Posted: November 3, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Having completed the five-step PC protection plan detailed in Part 1, it’s time to add some software that will make using your email system and web browser a more complete and pleasant experience. We’ll start with handling the most popular email attachments: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, pdf and zip files, all without costing you a dime. Every program listed below are 100% free for both commercial and non-commercial use.
- OpenOffice is found at http://www.openoffice.org. This is an excellent option if you need an office suite, which many people do, particularly if you have school-age children. OpenOffice can open and save files in its native formats and in Microsoft’s formats. OpenOffice does a nice job opening Microsoft documents and spreadsheets, but struggles with some PowerPoint presentations. It’s a good idea to upgrade your Java Runtime (see below) before installing OpenOffice. An alternative to OpenOffice is Lotus Symphony from IBM, available at http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home. Based on OpenOffice, it's limited to documents, spreadsheets and presentations, whereas OpenOffice includes database, drawing and math programs.
- Microsoft’s free viewers for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. These viewers allow, as you might suspect, you to view attachments you receive, but does not allow you to change them. They do an... Read More
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Title: Ballmer Predicts IT Spending to Recover Slowly
Posted: November 3, 2009 at 1:40 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
Here's a sobering article on Steve Ballmer's view of spending in IT in the near term. If he's right, we'll have to gird our loins for the long haul, it seems. Read More
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Title: Speedway SuperAmerica
Posted: October 29, 2009 at 9:26 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
I got to go to the CIO Council meeting today. The meeting was at Speedway SuperAmerica's headquarters with Marty Inkrott hosting. It was a great location and a really interesting company.
SSA's headquarters is in Enon and is visible from I-70. It is a huge glass building and has great architecture. City Barbecue catered the food (thanks again!). Marty and the President of SSA welcomed everyone to the meeting and they discussed the company's history and goals. SSA is wholly owned by Marathon Oil but, by itself, had over $11 billion in revenue last year!
After the meeting, Marty gave us a tour of the campus. The visit included a "labratory" of a typical store. They use the facility to try out new products and we got to sample. The food was really good! I tried a pork egg roll from the rolling heater thingy, an ice coffee and a non-dairy ice cream (all small portions). I would definitely purchase all of those things at a real Speedway SuperAmerica.
There were almost 40 people at the CIO Council meeting and it was great to see some people that I had not seen in a while (Dave Gies, I'm talking about you) and some... Read More
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Title: My Home PCs – Part 1 – The Basics
Posted: October 28, 2009 at 8:36 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
A number of years ago I was messing around with partitioning my hard drive and managed to completely destroy my home PC. As I was trying to remember all the software I needed to install again, I decided to take the opportunity to document them all, figuring I would do something else stupid again in the future. That started the list, I shared it with a few folks, added some of their suggestions and it grew into a nice reference. I’ve also added some good tips and techniques to protect a PC from the bad guys. Several folks, after rebuilding their kid’s PCs every few months, adopted these suggestions and all the feedback I get indicates it’s pretty solid. I decided it might be of interest to others, and hence I begin this multi-part blog, broken down into collections of related components. Part 1 starts with the basics, those things I recommend be done before you wonder off to email-land or surfing the web.
- Apply all maintenance via the Windows Update facility, including all optional maintenance. The trick here is to run it, run it again, run it again, etc. until Windows Update is totally out of new patches. ... Read More
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Title: https://twitter.com/technologyfirst
Posted: October 27, 2009 at 4:01 am
Source: http://www.technologyfirst.org
We have a twitter account and I'm excited about it. https://twitter.com/technologyfirst Please follow our Twitter account and I will follow yours.
The hashtag for Taste of IT is #tasteIT. Read More
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