Computing – Page 2

Forget the measles. There’s no vaccination for this problem.

February 18, 2015

Back from an evening out you open your front door to discover that your house has been broken into, many valuables are stolen. You take out your phone and dial the police. To prevent this startling scenario, most people protect their homes with deadbolt locks, alarms, angry German Shepherds, and perhaps cameras. What most people don’t understand is that all of those things do precious little to secure their computers and their information on the Internet. Most people have likely…

50 Shades of Samsung – Privacy, Security or Convenience?

February 12, 2015

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Samsung has been very naughty. And not the 50 shades of Grey kind. Over the last weekend we discovered that Samsung has been playing “peeping Tom” in our homes. Through privacy disclosure, Samsung revealed that its TV sets might listen to our conversations and even share them with third parties (http://g3t.ca/Fii9y2). All the pundits and defenders of privacy are now racing to find the right adjectives to properly scold Samsung and demand higher levels transparency from the company. The Samsung…

How much debt does your IT department owe?

February 4, 2015

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The future is here…. Accumulating IT Debt This is a story about IT debt, and it begins with the recent request by the Chinese government asking all foreign companies to disclose the source code for their software (http://g3t.ca/tCIB7P http://g3t.ca/740LW7) According to the Chinese, these rules should ‘only’ affect software and hardware meant for the financial sector. Their given reasons are that the financial sector is so very important for China and they wish to: a) make sure there is no…

DropBox goes to the office

December 17, 2014

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DrobBox the cloud-based hard drive service with unlimited storage (for a price) offering convenient synchronization between all your devices. You get started with few free gigabytes to get you going and few extra gigabytes when you sign up a friend. It has quickly become the nightmare of IT departments around the world. The zero-barriers entry, ease of use, and ease of sharing files with colleagues, customers and friends makes DropBox the new Trojan horse of IT. Once again, IT managers…

Google is Breaking Bad

December 4, 2014

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The European Union (EU) decided the time has come to break up Google http://g3t.ca/vyBTFr – Why? Because Google has more than 90% of market share in Europe and the EU does not like the fact that the internet giant is trying to offer the best user experience and capture the majority of the advertising euros. To the EU, Google is for lack of a better word, a monopoly. Let’s consider for a moment the possibility that Google would be broken…

What do real estate and dating have in common?

November 26, 2014

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As mentioned in the previous post, last week I attended the Data Leadership Summit – http://www.datasummit.ca in Vancouver. It brought together a diverse audience to see speakers from different industries with different perspectives and experiences. In my opinion, there were two presentations which were particularly compelling. One was from real estate brokerage Redfin, the other from the online dating service Plentyoffish. I found it interesting that both shared many common themes. For instance, the level of exaggeration when one describing…

IBM is betting big on Watson

November 12, 2014

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There were two news stories from IBM in regards to Watson last week. The first one was about a partnership between IBM and Twitter. The news release is full of great promises – Analytics Services on Cloud, which should deliver cognitive services in the palm of your hand; predictive analytics; visualization. Between Twitter and Watson, you’ll be able to keep the pulse on the planet. Unleashing Watson’s mind on the endless stream of Tweets, reminds me of a quote from…

RIP Nokia

October 28, 2014

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Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here…. RIP Nokia? Microsoft is killing Nokia. The brand that is. Microsoft announced that it is changing the phone name from Nokia Lumia to Microsoft Lumia. Rebranding will take some time, but with this move, it is evident that the brand is dead. Nokia was the synonym for mobile phones. However, not many people know that the company was named after village…

Big Data or Hype?

October 20, 2014

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Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here…. Big Data or Hype? The Globe and Mail reported that the Maple Leafs are betting big on Big Data. It is surprising that it has taken them this long. Other sport organizations, notably the MLB with its sabermetrics (http://g3t.ca/q1hK49), have been doing it for quite some time. The Maple Leafs started pouring resources into gathering data, analysis, visualization and predictive analytics.…

Are you healthy enough?

October 6, 2014

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Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. Are you healthy enough? Have you heard of Wello or AliveCor? These are a new breed of devices which attach to your smart phone and claim to detect atrial fibrillation, track your blood pressure, temperature and even more. You can also get other devices that can measure your sleep patterns, oxygen level in your blood, and your overall physical activity. Our…