Archive for: corporate
- January 31, 2011 12:23 pm
The latest update in the India vs. RIM debate shows us that the argument rages on, with RIM promising end users that corporate email won’t be cracked, and that it is in fact impossible to do so. The Indian government on the other hand has stood their ground, stating that either access will be granted or BlackBerry services will be shut down in the country. From a business standpoint, being blocked from providing services in India is a bad thing considering the tens of millions (and more) potential customers. On a human level, the government doesn’t need or deserve access under the false guise of “security”.
I guess we’ll find out who cracks soon — the deadline was set for the end of January. And so far, neither side is budging.
- December 16, 2010 6:45 am
Since Chrome’s release, getting it to work (or even install) in an uber secure business setting was hard enough. Between proxies, firewalls, and administrator privileges, installing said browser on such a machine is near impossible with the local IT department’s grace. Compounding the issue is the fact that Chrome’s main installer is a web one meaning it’s not all that conducive to a large company rollout. But that changes today.
Announced today via the company’s blog, Google product manager, Glenn Wilson, and software engineer, Daniel Clifford, had the following to say:
Today, we’re announcing that Chrome offers controls that enable IT administrators to easily configure and deploy the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux according to their business requirements…”
“We’ve also added support for managed group policy with a list of policies and a set of templates that allow administrators to easily customize browser settings to manage security and privacy,”
The new .msi installer method of installing Chrome will give picky IT departments the necessary means in which to customize and secure Google’s browser with standard tools of the trade. Of course, now you have to convince the IT department that merely sitting by and “making do” with IE 6 or 7 isn’t going to fly, and that you need a browser that’s actually useful.
Good luck.
Ask someone you know their idea of the ideal employer. I’m sure that out of all the responses, one of the most popular would be “self employed”. Ask a techie however and you’ll hear a few common names — Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, etc., etc. Tonight, the spotlight is on Google — the company known for their difficult, impossible, and “out there” hiring questions.
But none of that really matters because Google is simply an awesome place to work. How else would you describe a surprise, holiday cash bonus of $1,000 and a 10% raise. Yup, Google just committed to some $20 million up front in bonus and a solid $1 billion/year figuring in the new raises. The cherry on top: Google is covering the tax on that $1,000 bonus, allowing employees to keep the full grand. Nice. Want to rethink your employer choice?
Private, internal email detailing the increased employee cash flow after the break…
Update:
Google responded to TechCrunch regarding the leaked email with the following:
“While we don’t typically comment on internal matters, we do believe that competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company,” a Google spokesperson tells us.
Thoughts?
Emailing Steve Jobs is now about as synonymous with writing Santa for presents. If you have a wish/problem, Steve will respond. Sort of different than your parents posing as the man himself. But hey, you get the picture.
A French Xserv user who was saddened and upset by Apple’s decision to nix the high-end hardware shot off an email to none other than Steve Jobs. Hopefully he wasn’t looking for a long, detailed explanation, because as we all know, Steve Jobs’ responses are anything but. On that note, the official word according to Steve: “Hardly anyone was buying them.”
Shocking — I know. Sarcasm aside, it’s sad to see such a powerful piece of hardware die. Not to mention, Mac Pros just don’t fit into server racks quite as nicely.
Hop inside for a picture of the actual email exchange.
RIM just can’t catch a break this week, can they? The corporate stronghold the Canadian-based company once held appears to be slowly slipping away. Today, Reuters reported that Bank of America and Citigroup were both testing the iPhone as an official, company supported communication device. Thus far, the duo as well as countless other high security corporations have flocked to RIM as they offered the tightest security of the bunch. But now with the mobile market becoming increasingly consumer-focused as well as the applications and platforms rapidly exceeding what the BlackBerry OS is capable of, companies are starting to look elsewhere.
The involved parties wouldn’t comment on the story themselves (save for RIM), though the quoted sources maintained their position. RIM however, emailed a statement to Reuters stating:
The opportunities for both corporate-issued and employee-purchased smartphones are growing. RIM provides the best overall platform for chief information officers to address both scenarios without compromising security or manageability.
Times are a changin’…
- September 7, 2010 11:28 am
Straight up: How’s RIM’s new BlackBerry Torch? If you’re looking for something short and sweet, take this — Late. That’s pretty vague, however. But the BlackBerry Torch is so much more than that as it perfectly illustrates RIM’s ability to improve quickly and decisively while at the same time coming off looking worn down and tired. How can that be?
I’ll come right out and say that the Torch is hands down RIM’s best BlackBerry. Ever. It’s an awesome BlackBerry in fact. But therein lies part of the problem — it’s still a BlackBerry. Yes, some backwards compatibility/familiarity needs to be maintained as well as an overhaul of the platform. But where do you draw the line?
That’s precisely what I set out to do a week and a half back. Over these last 10 days, I’ve put my Droid down as much as possible and made the Torch my daily driver, fully immersing myself in it’s abilities and shortcomings. It’s been quite a ride for sure. Come on in and check it out…
Speed, like drugs, hobbies, food, and smoking is addictive. With speed, the adrenaline rush that follows is the natural high for some. In the tech world, while we ourselves may not be moving hundreds of miles per hour in the dopest ride, we do have certain objects that move at high velocity — hard drives. As far as old spinners go, the general rule of thumb is that the faster the drive spins, the faster it will perform. Now, this isn’t exact as a few other factors such as connection interface, number of platters, and cache size also affect the end result. But if you want to soon move from merely “fast” to really fast, Western Digital has a new set of VelociRaptor hard drives they’d love you to take a look at.
While not technically revealed “officially” yet, the announcement is due soon..as in within the next couple weeks soon. The new found speed will come courtesy of the drives utilizing the newer, faster data SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) protocol. Other notable mentions that have no tie to speed include a small 2.5″ form factor wrapped in the 3.5″ “IcePack” cooler allowing easy installation in your standard sized drive bay. Another nod goes to the 3ms average latency time which I might add is pretty damn fast for your standard “moving” hard drive.
Like many other hard drives coming onto the market, the new VelociRaptors will also feature a “NoTouch Ramp” technology which simply means the drive head never touches the actual drive meaning longer life all around and less chances for hard drive failures — yay.
Finally, one corporate-grade feature that is moving down to this prosumer drive is that of “Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF)” This little spiffy piece of tech will help the drive cope with high vibration situations. In the corporate world, certain environments such as the drive being stuffed in a large drive array within a server farm is the most obvious image that comes immediately to mind. For consumers who won’t really ever move their computer or face the same levels of vibration in the home environment, this feature likely won’t return any investment. Still, it’s nice that WD included it.
In my personal experience with a few VelociRaptor drives currently on the market as well as seeing countless reviews, benchmarks, and hands-on videos comparing these drives to comparable SSD’s has left me rather unimpressed. The price premium for the ‘Raptors doesn’t come anywhere close to balancing out on any return in investment (read: speed). Even still, these new drives will no doubt win over countless geeks and speed freaks for yet another generation.
Will WD actually hit that claimed 15% increase in speed on this next generation of ‘Raptor drives?
Bright Side of News
- February 22, 2010 5:03 am
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time criticizing Internet Explorer 6′s continued lingering in the public sector. For consumers, IE6 is at the very bottom of the totem pole of relevance. The corporate sector however, is an entirely different story. My personal opinion was that the reason for the reliance on old software and technology was simply because of legacy hardware and software dependent on the outdated browser. Well, I was right — partially. There’s actually several good reasons as highlighted by Esther Schindler in her article: “Why You Can’t Pry IE6 Out of Their Cold Dead Hands”. Now before you start jumping on this as another anti-IE6 rant, take note that this is actually a well laid out explanation.
So why exactly do businesses stick with IE6?
- Companies simply don’t know, or don’t feel like upgrading.
- One or two company dependent programs hinder upgrades.
- “Why fix it if it isn’t broken?”
- “User control”: Most popular sites these days (ie: Facebook and YouTube) rely on modern web browsers to work properly. Why spend extra money upgrading software and paying for web filtering software on top of it when a broken, standards deficient browser does all of the work for you?
When you sit down and think about it, the reasons above make sense. Though at some point, relying on outdated IT equipment will come back to bite you. Whether it be in the form of greater upgrade costs when the company is finally doing a massive upgrade or a catastrophic hardware/software failure, staying complacent with old junk just isn’t a good idea.
So do I have more respect for the companies who do hold off for such reasons as highlighted above? No. Regardless if it’s a decision of the individual company or because of a 3rd party program developer that refuses to upgrade and support newer browsers, it all comes down to cheap and/or lazy people. Update or whither out of existence.
Read the full article at IT Expert Voice
Slashdot
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- February 19, 2010 10:50 am
It isn’t too often we see a corporate minded gadget get us all hot and bothered. I mean, the differences between the corporate world of gadgets and the consumer world of gadgets are like comparing the a horse and buggy to flying cars. But every once in a while, a gem makes it’s way past our visual receptacles and excites us. In this case, it’s the CubeTube.
Everyone knows what a solar panel is and what it’s main function in life is — to recycle solar particles into usable energy for whatever plugs into it. An office uses a ton of energy but has generous amounts of worker bees crammed into tiny cubes, away from the outside world (and sun) meaning any solar advancements have to typically be thrown outside or on the roof of the business costing eye bleeding amounts of money. And we all know how giving your typical business is with modern tech. That’s where CubeTube comes in.
Taking solar recycling and giving it back to the people, the CubeTubes sit atop your cubicle or desk and actually draw the ambient light from indoor lighting — not solar/sun light — to recycle into usable energy. Color me thoroughly impressed yet skeptical. I mean, even the best solar panels have a pretty paltry efficiency rate with real sunlight let alone a few fluorescent lights. Are the photovoltaic cells really that good at their job? I simply don’t think so. Michael Trei of Dvice thinks the same too. Also, if these photo cells are so efficient with light (and can run off of indoor lighting no less), I’m pretty sure we would have seen a much larger media presence and more implementations already, wouldn’t you say?
In the end, I’m highly intrigued though still a fence sitter at this point. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until “sometime next year” before getting our hands on some. What do you think: Do these seem plausible or do you see “late-night infomercial” written all of this?
Dvice
