Operating systems – PCIS Ltd.

Forbes. Slack and the future of workplace collaboration

September 5, 2019

I use Slack to help manage projects. It’s pretty useful. Apparently, others think so, too. After its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the company was worth $23 billion. But something about Slack’s rise had me thinking about how much further it could go — and if it’s not careful, how far it has to fall. Here’s an introduction to my commentary about workplace collaboration in Forbes. About five minutes after their triumph, it would be funny at best,…

How Twitter could become a real business again

Twitter. The should, the could, the would company

January 15, 2018

Thought Leadership

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Twitter, the decade plus old company is still trying to define what it is and how to make money. It is trapped in a business model of providing free service in exchange for our souls and friends. Based on the past performance there is little hope that Twitter’s future will be brighter. The number of free users is not growing fast enough (if at all) and the revenue from ads is not rising fast enough to stop the bleeding. What…

Facebook is on its way to dominate the world

March 27, 2015

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Facebook is now ready to dominate the online world of business with the latest announcement from its F8 conference. The company made it very clear that having 1.35 billion active users and allowing them to share bad selfies and cat videos is not their end game. I’m shocked. Really. True, Facebook is making some good money from advertising but hey – that’s just for the cash flow. Their strategy is to dominate businesses within the social networking site as well…

Even Jack Sparrow can have a copy of Windows

March 21, 2015

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How do you combat software theft? Give it away for free. Microsoft recently announced that anyone in China who has a copy of the Windows 7 Operating System (and up), legitimate or illegitimate, will be able to upgrade for free to the new Windows 10 version. The estimated number of users, who would be able to take the advantage of this offer, would be in the hundreds of millions! Why would Microsoft do such a crazy thing as giving their…

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…

What do real estate and dating have in common?

November 26, 2014

Thought Leadership

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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…

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.…

Hit hard by Shellshock? Why you should really be worried.

October 1, 2014

Thought Leadership

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Welcome to this week’s Technology Updates, a vibrant mix of hot topics and future trends. The future is here. We’ve got hit by Shellshock You might have heard by now about a new problem in the computer world – Shellshock. I’ll spare you the technical details. The one thing you should know is that this bug was discovered in a part of the Linux operating system. Linux, the free version of Unix, with numerous variations in distribution, is embedded in…

Facebank

April 28, 2014

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Facebook, the place where you can find everything about your friends, is applying for permission from the Ireland’s central bank to allow its users to store and exchange money. There are few details to be worked out, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume they manage to satisfy the regulator requirements. It will mean that Facebook will know: who your friends are; your favourite things; your sentiment about causes you care; and provide you with an offer you won’t…