TechMiso
Tech evangelism and Miso soup like no other
Jan 15th
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Articles
With a 10% drop in Apple shares [after Steve Jobs announced his step down through June], it’s painfully obvious that the smart investor is keen to the problems surrounding his exit. Or for that matter — any CEO’s exit.
Losing the quarterback, the innovator, the game saver of the #1 ranked company on FORTUNE’s top 50 list — could it end up being a recipe for disaster?
Jan 15th
There’s a lot of talk lately about Obama’s Blackberry and what choices he will have once he enters his presidency. What initially shocked me was the lack of understanding by the general public when it comes to secure devices.
Engadget shed some light on the only two devices NSA has approved for use by government and DoD personnel.
Jan 14th
When you walk towards my cubicle at work, you are greeted by a 16×20 print of the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) I shot. I get the usual “what camera did you use to take that shot,” followed up by the “what camera should I buy since I am in the market now?” After this happened for the third time I realized I was basically giving out the same advice to everyone. Now I am sharing this helpful assistance with the masses.
Let’s first start out with my background in photography. A friend of mine got me interested in shooting during our off-time. I bought a Sony DSC-V1 and was also using a friend’s Canon EOS-3 film camera with slide film. I was torn between the ease of use on digital and the system flexibility and lens choice on the SLR. After a few weeks doing this balancing act I decided to purchase a DSLR.
Jan 14th
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles
Twitter, the highly popular micro-blogging site, is decidedly not a niche service. It has general purpose usability with far reaching appeal. Twitter might as well be considered mainstream – Israel and Hamas have coordinated their propaganda campaigns using Twitter as a centerpiece for broadcasting their views to the world. Contrast that to FriendFeed, a social aggregation facility which has only truly found love from the technologically savvy early adopter crowd. But the question most people find themselves asking is this – should I use Twitter, Friendfeed or both? My time is valuable and both services compete for that time, so which service should I spend it on?
Jan 14th
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Articles
‘Print is dead’ — This cliche phrase echos through the print industry, and has now for a few years. There is no doubt that print [specifically newsprint] could follow the way of the dinosaur — a more likely scenario now with a worldwide recession in full swing.
With a large number of media organizations facing threats and ultimatums to drop print altogether, will print eventually disappear? Not likely. For some, the news is grim. For others, their star is rising.
Jan 13th
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Articles
Probably one of the coolest things to hit the web in recent years is the sensationally huge network — Twitter. Everyone from little old ladies to full fledged pop artists [aka Britney Spears] give up their status via Twitter. From the President of the United States to Israeli Defense Forces pounding Gaza — all are Tweet’ing like mad.
First on the scene in spring 2006 via a small side project out of San Francisco, Twitter brought simple yet effective real-time communications to the web in the form of shouts (also affectionately known as Tweets). From this small side project [as Twitter puts it] developed a full fledged real-time short messaging service that interfaces globally across a mix of networks and devices.
Jan 13th
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles
Another day, another fine example of an IT contractor unnecessarily fleecing the government. This time we have EDS, the technology services company who administers the Navy/Marine Corp Intranet (NMCI), severely overcharging for “classified spillage” cleaning efforts.
The Navy report from October disclosed that in fiscal 2008 there were 52 incidents of classified data being placed on unclassified electronic systems, about half of them Pacific Fleet and Naval Education and Training Command systems, and a total of 37 were on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, the massive unclassified computer network used for command and control on more than 350,000 military computers.
Current reports have EDS charging the Navy to the tune of approximately $5 million annually, a figure roughly 10 times the cost of merely replacing the infected hard disk drives with new ones.
Jan 12th
Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles
Like most folks in the beltway, President-elect Barack Obama is a Blackberry addict. Obama lives on his handheld, using the device to stay in touch with the “outside” world. With all the idle time sitting in a vehicle, transiting in helicopters and airplanes, a Blackberry is an essential device for staying in touch with everything from information to important people. Unfortunately for the President-elect, government lawyers are poised to issue an opinion may ultimately force Obama to give up the one habit he should be allowed to keep, even if such a policy is completely asinine!
Jan 11th
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Articles
In most industries, the process of hiring qualified technical staff is tied closely [if not solely] to an individual’s technical qualifications and past performance. But, not completely so within U.S. Defense contracting.
A large portion of information technology positions inside U.S. Defense (DOD) rely on security clearances — a must-have requirement to ensure personnel are properly cleared for positions that need access to sensitive information. For potential employees without clearance, establishing one can come with a high price tag.
Jan 10th
Posted by Rich Chuckrey in Articles
Consider the cost involved with upgrading an email system for the company with a thousand mailboxes. Add up software, storage, servers, engineering and days [or weeks] of implementation, well, you’re staring down a bill close to $150K or more. On top of that add recurring maintenance, disaster recovery, and sys admin — you’re looking at almost doubling costs in the first year alone.
Then, you’re married to this system for 5 to 7 years. [Same goes for corporate productivity software like word processors, company portals, IM and so on.]
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