Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » octobre 8, 2014

BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

Google Hangouts is great, but will it ever be finished?

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 9:35pm CEST par Dilraj Singh

A year ago Google released project Babel. The search giant shared with us a grand vision of a unified and improved messaging and video platform. This vision started becoming reality with Google Hangouts. But in classic Google fashion, it was never finished.

Before Hangouts, there was Google Talk. And it was great. It was simple, and to the point. You could use it in third-party applications, it worked in your Gmail, and complaints were hard to come by. However, Google had been working on Google+ and that also had a chat -- one that was not compatible with Talk. So, Google promised unification; and when the users of Talk looked at their perfectly working service, and then back at Google skeptically, Google promised an unrivaled experience across platforms.

And that is when Hangouts was released. It was there (optionally) in your Gmail, it was in your Google+ (well, for a significantly smaller population), and it was on your phone. It was also in your Chrome. And this is where the head-scratching starts. Google released a Hangouts extension for the Chrome store that put Hangouts on your desktop, and outside of Chrome. But Google also announced Chrome apps "for your Desktop". These apps run in a window outside of the browser, and Google nudged developers toward them. Google itself even made a Keep desktop app, but not one for Hangouts.

Unification was the theme of Babel, and was specifically aimed at Google+. If you have used the video call in Gmail or Google+ you will be familiar with the popup window that houses the call. There is an option in that window to chat with the members of the call. But this option doesn’t open a Hangouts dialog, it opens a blank, antique looking chat interface.

Imagine this: I am chatting with my friend in Hangouts in Gmail. She types, "Hey, I want to show you something real quick", so I click on the video button and we start a video hangout. Now, imagine she wants to send me a link, or just write something while we talk. Would we want a completely new chat window, or would we want to see the conversation we were just having? Google seems to say we would want a new, blank chat window.

Google seems like it just doesn’t care about these seemingly little things. For example the bazillion emoticons Google paraded so proudly aren't even bug free; the recent tab doesn't remember the ones I use most, doesn't sync across devices, and is sometimes just blank. Oh, and the new emoticons are obviously not present in the weird chat dialog that accompanies Hangout video calls.

Google did a lot of things right with Hangouts, but some things just seem like easily fixed oversights. Here's a bonus bug: in Google+ you can expand the Hangouts window so far up that you can't see the controls anymore. Resizing the chat window is a great, and relatively-unique, feature, Google just can't get it to be perfect.

You ever get a disappointed feeling, when watching team like the New York Jets, and think to yourself, I could run this better? Well, that’s how I feel looking at Hangouts. I certainly couldn't make it worse.

I am using this as just an example of a Google-wide problem. Googlers are so focused on 'the next big thing,' that they can't seem to get themselves to finish what they have already started. Even the Google redesign that spanned Gmail, Drive, Search, and more hasn't been finished. For example go create a new label in Gmail, you won't find a nice button like the UI would suggest, but a bland link. Developers can attest to many services, such as the App Engine, still stuck in the old UI. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

Google nurtures wonderful ideas, I wish it would just see them through all the way to the end.
BlackBerry's desperate attempts to revitalize the company are doomed to fail

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 7:55pm CEST par Russel Cooke

The age of the "crackberry" is past, and although BlackBerry is still alive and developing new products, the company hasn’t had a great decade.

Since the introduction of the iPhone, BlackBerry’s fortunes have plummeted. Recent failed or unimpressive efforts have included rebranding the company after its signature phone, which meant changing the name from the odd-sounding RIM to the recognizable BlackBerry name we have all loved and parodied. The company also released two touchscreen-only phones, ditching its physical keyboards in an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful.

But despite almost-negligible sales numbers, BlackBerry still exists. The reborn company is still trying to deliver another hit, and has tried again to disrupt the market with a new flagship phone. It’s a doozy.

The new BlackBerry Passport is, fittingly, the same size as your actual passport: a 4.5-inch, perfectly square screen with a physically keyboard stuck to the bottom edge. Your 1:1 Instagram photos will fit perfectly edge-to-edge (to-edge-to-edge) on this screen, assuming you were to use this professional business phone for such silly endeavors.

The size and sleek look is perhaps a nod to the high-productivity government- and business-sector personnel that got the company started so many years ago. However, the daring risk might be the width, even in this age of massive iPhones and even bigger Samsungs. One reviewer noted that by forcing the use of two hands, the “Passport forces me to risk my safety just to send an important text”. However, that being said, the physical keyboard is still prized by some die-hard BlackBerry fans and an important part of the phone company’s identity.

In the same review, Gizmodo said that despite decent technological specs and a nice screen, the phone was ultimately just “not enough,” that it was a good effort, but the phone’s strangeness wasn’t justified by any substantial innovation. Not good enough to save a brand: innovation can’t be imitated. Innovation often looks weird, but looking weird alone is not innovation. It takes a bit more than that to revolutionize and disrupt a market, and though the phone has some neat tricks, it’s nothing that amazing, and hardly groundbreaking.

Tech companies have a mixed reputation when it comes to rebranding. Some, like industry sweetheart Apple, have done it seemingly without effort: Apple Computer, with the launch of the iPhone, became simply Apple, and never looked back. It seems natural now, and indeed made sense at the time.

But one only needs to look at Myspace to see where this can go wrong. This was probably the chief inspiration for RIM’s rebranding itself to BlackBerry. Unfortunately, this fruit fell a bit too far from the tree, and the rebranding might have been more effective at the height of its popularity instead of a decade later. Done too late or ineffectively, rebranding can look desperate, fraught, and like a final hail-Mary pass at salvaging a doomed effort.

At the end of 2013 BlackBerry accounted for less than 1 percent of US smartphone sales, and posted similar numbers in other markets like China, Europe, and Japan, the sole exception being, strangely, the UK, where it accounts for about three times that proportion. Still not a very big deal.

It seems that the move has been made chiefly out of desperation: never a good sign. The Canadian company’s financial troubles have forced its hand, basically mandating drastic decisions like this strange, attention-grabbing phone. It’s hard to say what place there is in the modern market for the company that ostensibly developed the smartphone in the first place. The Passport seems unlikely to revitalize the company on its own. What else will it take?

Russel Cooke is a business consultant specializing in Customer Relationship Management. In his free time, he contributes predominantly business-related articles, something he enjoys doing tremendously. You can follow Russel on Twitter @RusselCooke2.
Internet and inequality: The digital divide gets personal

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 7:35pm CEST par John Dilley
Access to fast, reliable Internet empowers people to learn for themselves. It gives them the means to solve their own problems. It eliminates one of the obstacles that stands in the way of the oppressed knowing how others have freed themselves in the past. Unfortunately, we found that low-income areas with the most to gain from access to the world’s knowledge, continue to lag behind in Internet speeds.

On average, states whose populations are made up of people with lower incomes living in rural areas are likely to have the slowest Internet speeds. In order to gain a greater understanding of the role of wealth in regards to Internet speeds, we compared average Internet speeds for all 50 states with several financial factors.

The only economic factors we found that show any significant relationship with Internet speed were the ones that indicate wealth on a personal level. There was no significant relationship between Internet speed and a state’s Total GDP, its tax rates, or its unemployment rates.

The average Internet speed in a state is related to the average wealth of the people in that state, not to the wealth of the state itself (as shown in the chart below).

High Correlations with Population Distribution Found

One other place where we did see a significant correlation was the percentage of a state’s population living in a metropolitan area. We found that correlation to be 0.50. That relationship was also reflected in the 0.51 correlation we found between Internet speeds and population density.

This makes sense. It is more efficient to provide Internet to many people at once, than it is one at a time. It costs nearly the same total dollar amount to build the infrastructure of a broadband line whether it delivers Internet to one house or to a high-rise apartment building. But, with the apartment building, you get to charge everyone for the service. With the house you've only gained one customer. Under this paradigm, any savvy business owner would roll out their best services to metropolitan areas first.

The divide in economics and slow Internet access likely compounds problems that states like Wyoming and Montana have; 66 percent of the Montana population lives in rural areas, and they have the second slowest average Internet speeds. That combination is difficult to overcome.

Financial indicators correlated with average Internet speeds by state

Tough Questions Are Ahead for Rural and Low Income Communities

While seeing sub-par Internet speeds in places with poor and rural populations makes sense, it also raises questions about the future for such areas:
- If there is little business incentive for corporations to service these areas, then should the government provide the infrastructure?
- If so, then with which funds?
- If not, then are governments forsaking their people to involuntary ignorance?
These types of questions are already being debated in municipalities weighing the pros and cons of publicly-funded Internet. They will likely be answered differently depending on the values of each individual community.

Worldwide Correlations Are Stronger

The puzzle of high-speed Internet access and the role it plays in human advancement extends beyond the United States. In fact, the personal wealth correlation is even stronger on a global scale.

For the 125 countries on which we have data, we found a correlation of 0.79 between the percentage of the population with a broadband subscription and the GDP per capita. We also found a correlation of 0.78 between the percentage of the population using the Internet and GDP per capita. These finding coincide with the information we previously found about the digital divide and GDP.

The likely explanation for these huge correlations internationally as opposed to the smaller correlations from state to state is that there is such a huge variation in both categories from nation to nation. The variation of GDP per capita across the nations for which we have data was over $100,000, while the same variation across the states was just under $40,000. There was a similarly gargantuan gap in the variations in the percentages of populations using the Internet. That variation across our international data set was 94.91 percent, but it was only 24 percent across our state data.

Improving Internet Speed Is Important

It seems fitting that the population element plays a large role in the data. A population is made up of individual people. The importance of research like this lies in the effect it can have on individual people.

The Internet has the opportunity to be the great equalizer in our world. It creates a gateway to an enlightened global society and, as we've shown before, it relates to people's intelligence and happiness. Unfortunately, individual financial factors seem to limit Internet access and speed.

As communities across America decide whether they should publicly fund Internet infrastructure, they have the opportunity to make a statement about the importance of high-speed Internet. By understanding the cultural environment of the Internet, we can all work to remove the barriers that keep people from accessing the wealth of knowledge the Internet provides. Just as knowledge is power, enlightenment is empowerment.

This article first appeared at Internet and Inequality -- The Digital Divide Gets Personal

John continually offers unique insights and a fresh point of view. Along with writing, John has a passion for music. He is the lead vocalist and secondary guitarist for The Family Gallows in Salt Lake City.

Photo Credit: kentoh/Shutterstock
.com and .net? Fuhgeddaboudit! Register a .nyc domain name instead

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 6:11pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

Back in the day, people thought they could get rich from .com domain names. As a teen, I remember spending hours trying to register the names of popular companies in hopes of squatting and reselling. Unfortunately, I never found anything good, and never flipped a domain for millions.

What's really sad is when a website has to choose something like .org because the .com they want is taken. It is hard to take a website seriously when it isn't an organization and uses .org. Well, if you own a business in New York City and the .com domain you desire is taken, you may be able to register .nyc instead.

"Residents living in New York City now have a place online to call home with the newest domain name extension, .NYC, now available for public registration. With the availability of the new, geo-specific generic top level domains (gTLD), small business owners in New York City have a unique opportunity to own a piece of the Web that quickly and efficiently tells their location", says GoDaddy.

GoDaddy Senior Vice President and General Manager Mike McLaughlin explains, "New York City is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country. The 21st century real estate boom will also be online, with .NYC playing a key role in that boom. The .NYC extension gives anyone in New York City a chance to display their New York pride online. With the domain name extension just launching, there are a tremendous number of quality names available for any New Yorker to purchase".

Unfortunately, the .nyc domain is limited to New York City residents and businesses -- specifically the five boroughs. As a Long Islander I am unfortunately not eligible. This is disappointing, as Long Island is often considered an honorary member of NYC, but oh well.

At $24.99, all business owners in the five boroughs should rush to register before it is too late. Hell, even if you do not need a website now, you never know what the future holds.

Will you register a .nyc? Tell me in the comments.

Photo credit: ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock
Brave the sands and visit the Arabian desert with Google Street View

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 6:07pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

There seems to be no place the intrepid Google Street View team will not go. From oceans to canyons, the team has tackled everything. The latest location is the sands of the United Arab Emirates, a rather desolate place for any person.

You won't need to ride a camel to make your trip to the Liwa Desert, as you can see it all from the comfort of your seat. Google has already braved sand storms and unbearable heat to bring you the images.

"On your virtual trip through the desert, you’ll find sand dunes that reach an astounding height of 25-40 meters. These rolling sandy hills were home to early settlers back in the Late Stone Age, making Liwa one of the oldest sites in the United Arab Emirates", says Najeeb Jarrar, Product Marketing Manager for the Middle East and North Africa.

The desert is also home to the largest oasis on the Arabian peninsula. Needless to say the camera crew made their way to this, as well.

How Google manages to collect these images is an interesting story in itself. "To bring this stunning desert to Street View, we fashioned the Trekker to rest on a camel, which gathered imagery as it walked. Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment".

Head over to Google to begin your exploration of the area. It won't even cost you any travel expenses.
XYplorer Free provides you with a multi-paned, multi-tabbed alternative to Windows Explorer

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 6:00pm CEST par Nick Peers

If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in Windows it’s the fact that -- even now, almost 20 years after Windows 95 was released -- Windows Explorer still requires you to open separate windows for each folder you wish to access.

Navigating folders using multiple windows can be a nightmare, but if you’re running out of patience, it’s time to make the switch to a Windows Explorer replacement called XYplorer Free.

Windows Explorer replacements aren’t exactly thin on the ground, but typically fall into one of two categories: the first offers a multi-paned approach, giving you access to two or more folders from a single window. The second is inspired by modern-day web browsers, placing each separate folder path in its own tab, making it easy to switch between them.

XYplorer Free takes the best of both worlds, offering two multi-tabbed panes, plus throws in a traditional file tree to the left for even more flexibility when navigating. Now copying and moving files between far-flung locations on your computer just got a whole lot easier, particularly as XYplorer remembers your previous settings.

Each pane offers lots of juicy goodies too, incorporating functionality such as breadcrumbs, thumbnails, visible sort headers and more -- some of these features have made their way into the improved File Explorer found in Windows 8.1, but not all. One handy new feature even allows you to color-code your tabs for even easier identification.

Other useful tools include a batch rename function (with preview), the ability to calculate folder sizes, a Panes menu that makes it easy to transfer files from one pane to the other, directory print option, duplicate file finder, customizable interface, info panel, quick file compare tool and more powerful search tools. The list is almost endless.

Better still, XYplorer Free doesn’t automatically toss Windows Explorer to one side -- although it ships with an installer, everything’s self-contained inside its own folder, allowing you to store it on your portable thumb drive. That allows you to run it alongside Windows Explorer should you wish to, although if you want to replace Explorer completely, you can do so via XYplorer’s Tools > Configuration > Shell Integration menu.

A commercial version is also available with even more features, including the ability to queue up file operations. But for most people, the Free edition has all the time-saving functionality you need. Five minutes with this, and you won’t want to go back.

XYplorer Free 14.50 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. A trial version of XYplorer 14.50, offering additional features, is also available.
Updating your backup approach -- from physical servers to virtualized environments

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 5:48pm CEST par Bill Andrews
Backup is often at the bottom of the list for IT teams -- an afterthought even -- but having an effective backup and disaster recovery plan in place means considering backup as an important piece of the IT strategy. Over the past two decades, IT departments have hosted dedicated physical servers per application, but as companies move to virtual environments, backup approaches must evolve too.

For most IT departments, the rotation for physical servers is: do a full backup of email and databases Monday -- Thursday; move to disk only the changed unstructured data files (incrementals) on Monday- Thursday; and then on Friday do a full backup of all data in the environment.

In some cases, IT departments perform changed-block backups, but the vast majority is a full file incremental during the week with a full backup on Friday. In the physical server world, you back up the data only. In some cases, you may do a complete image-based backup for bare metal restores but the vast majority of backup is data only.

For more than 20 years, IT departments have only had to worry about one thing when backing up their systems: data. As we move into an increasingly VM-dominated data center, there are many factors that need to be considered.

The move to a virtual environment and what it means: IT data centers are rapidly moving to a virtualized server world using VMWare, Hyper-V, and other hypervisors. While virtual servers still use direct attached storage, network attached storage, or storage area network storage, the backup application no longer backs up just the data -- now it backs up the entire virtual machine (VM).

This includes the guest operating system, the application, all associated system files, and the data. When you're backing up more than just data and preparing it for a recovery point at a later time in the event of a disaster, the way you think about backup needs to change too.

In the past, if a primary server failed for any reason, you would obtain a new server, load the server software or copy an image onto the server, and then restore the most recent data backups to ensure that the most up-to-date data is on the system. In the virtual world, VM backups are typically written to disk. Since the VM is sitting on backup disk, you can simply boot it from the backup system.

If the primary systems fail, you can boot a VM off the backup system and users can continue to work directly off the backup system. Once the hypervisor is used to make the primary systems operational, the user activity is transparently moved back to the primary systems through a VM instant recovery, allowing your recovery time to be minutes versus hours.

If a third-party auditor is auditing your business continuity, you can boot a VM of the backup system in order to demonstrate that you have a working copy of the entire VM, including data. In the past, it was almost impossible to show an auditor that you could recover from a failure. In the VM world, you can simply boot the VM off the backup disk, show the auditor that it is running, and the audit is complete through a "verified" or "sure backup".

Since VMs are sitting in the backup system, you can also boot the VM, apply a patch, and perform tests in a "virtual lab" before rolling it out in the primary virtualized environment to minimize risk.

The critical role VMs play in a DR-plagued landscape:

Backing up VMs changes how you recover, how you pass internal audits, and how you test outside of the production environment. Changing backing up just the data to backing up the entire VM also changes your backup infrastructure and process. With the need to boot VMs for instant recoveries, boot VMs for auditors, boot VMs to test software changes and updates outside of production, and the need to perform weekly synthetic fulls, disk is required in the virtualized backup world as you cannot boot from tape and you cannot easily read/write with tape.

For disaster recovery instead of building servers, loading system/application and then recovering the data all you have to do is simply boot the VM as the VM has everything needed, including data, to make the replacement systems production-ready.

In virtualized environments, the changed storage blocks are tracked by the hypervisor via changed block tracking (CBT). The backup application picks up the changed blocks and copies them to the backup storage target. Unlike traditional physical server backup where a full backup is performed every Friday night, in the virtualized world each backup is the changed blocks only. There are backup window benefits to only backing up changed blocks but there is also risk to keeping only changed block backups. If you retain too many CBT backups, the time to restore is painful. In addition, if a block is damaged or corrupted anywhere in the chain, reconstituting a full backup will fail. To overcome this, IT must create a full backup, sometimes called a "synthetic full" backup, at least once a week.

With the need to boot VMs for instant recoveries, boot VMs for auditors, boot VMs to test software changes and updates outside of production, and the need to perform weekly synthetic fulls, disk is required in the virtualized backup world as you cannot boot from tape and you cannot easily read/write with tape.

With CBT, most VM backup applications with a weekly synthetic full will see a storage reduction of 2:1 to as much as 6:1. As the retention period grows, so does the disk storage. With retention periods of four to six copies or greater, the amount of disk storage required becomes quite costly very quickly. Therefore, for four to six copies of retention or less, straight disk can be used. With a larger number of copies, disk-based backup appliances with data deduplication are required. Data deduplication appliances can raise the rate of deduplication in a virtualized environment to as much as 20:1. As a result, far less disk is used, and the cost to store a larger number of copies for retention is far less using dedicated appliances with data deduplication versus using straight disk.

Using a disk appliance with data deduplication requires a high-speed disk cache in order to store full version VMs in order to be able to boot for many scenarios or to be able to easily perform a synthetic full backup. There are two types of disk-based backup appliances.
- The first deduplicates the data inline, which means deduplication occurs on the way to disk and therefore only stores deduplicated data. In order to be able to boot a VM, you need to put a straight disk storage cache in front of the appliance in order to have full VMs ready to boot and then have the longer-term deduplicated storage in the appliance.
- The second type of appliance has both built in to a single integrated appliance. These appliances have a disk cache or "landing zone" in order to maintain the most recent VMs in their full form ready to be booted or restored and then store all the deduplicated data behind that.
Over the years, backup has changed from backing up data to backing up complete virtualized machines with a critical acknowledgment of how DR affects it data center infrastructure. All in all, the move from physical servers to virtualized environments is changing how you prepare, set up, and store backups.

Why not find out more by visiting ExaGrid at IP EXPO Europe 2014 on STAND E18 or joining one of ExaGrid's seminar sessions, and see Andy Palmer, VP of International Sales and Graham Woods, VP of International Systems Engineering explain the importance of the right backup architecture to achieving stress-free backup and recovery, and how a scale-out GRID architecture with landing zone can solve your biggest backup challenges.

Bill Andrews is CEO at ExaGrid

ExaGrid will be exhibiting at IP EXPO Europe on 8-9 October 2014, STAND E18, Excel, London E16 1XL.

Seminar sessions:

Wednesday 08th October, 14:20 -- 14:50

Theatre: Enterprise Storage & Data Management

Thursday 09th October, 15:00 -- 15:30

Theatre: Backup & Recovery

Register for IP EXPO now!

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Stop poking us! Cops say Facebook arguments hinder crime solving

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 4:17pm CEST par Claire Woffenden

Petty Facebook rows are preventing police from "reducing and detecting crime", according to a policing team in Wiltshire, UK.

A sergeant for the neighborhood policing teams of Wootton Bassett, Malmesbury and Cricklade has urged people not to call for help with Facebook incidents and rows unless it relates to domestic disputes/crimes or other serious issues.

Sergeant Martin Alvis, writing on the Malmesbury Police Facebook page, advised: "Please do not call us for Facebook incidents where you or someone else has had a falling out and then written something in the heat of the moment".

"If you dislike someone enough to report them to the Police why would you have them as a friend on FB? If you don’t like a person, if you don’t know a person or they are not your friend why would you have them on your FB?"

Sergeant Alvis made the comments after "spending three hours" reviewing crime and anti-social behavior reports for the areas that he covers.

He added: "We can deal with and will deal with evidence on FB relating to domestic disputes/crimes or other serious matters. I am talking here about matters that do not need the police and can be controlled by the click of a button and some common sense. Help begins with you, so press the unfriend button and have nothing more to do with the person. Then we can direct more of our resources to reducing and detecting crime, using your taxes to the community’s best advantage".

Photo credit: Tashatuvango/Shutterstock
HERE beta officially available for Samsung Galaxy smartphones

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 4:02pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Today, Nokia officially brings HERE to Samsung Galaxy smartphones, expanding the reach of its powerful mapping software outside of Windows Phones and handsets that bear the Nokia branding. For the time being, the app is exclusively available in the South Korean maker's app store for Galaxy devices, but, later, it will make its way to other Android smartphones as well.

The HERE app may currently be labeled as a beta, but it does not skimp on features. It arrives with pretty much all the major features that Windows Phone users are enjoying from the HERE suite, which says a lot about Nokia's plans post-Lumia. Let's take a look.

Naturally, HERE can display information in multiple views, like Map and Satellite, and show traffic and transit data. Live traffic information is provided for more than 40 countries, while public transportation is covered in more than 750 cities from more than 40 countries.

It also gives users the option to download entire regions, countries and even continents' maps for offline use. Up to 200 country maps can be downloaded on the device, with the only limitation being the amount of available storage. The whole USA map takes up more than 4,700 MB, for instance. That is a lot, but the ability to know where you are and how to get to the destination, without having to connect to the Internet, will more than make up for it, based on my experience with the software. Offline maps are also touted to be faster than their online counterparts. Also, if there is an update, you can get it on your device as soon as it is offered.

Speaking of destinations, you can get turn-by-turn directions, when using navigation, in nearly 100 countries, using your choice of roads (paved, unpaved, free, with tolls, and so on) and navigator (man or woman, with voices available in a generous number of languages). You can also easily search for points of interest, which will help you get right where you want to go.

While relying on HERE, all my trips have been mostly uneventful. That's probably the best thing about the software. Unlike Google Maps, it works anywhere, even on top of a mountain without cellular coverage, and it has all the right features to ensure that you find your destination and get there in time. The only downside that I have noticed is that it may not be updated to take into account all the most-recent roadworks.

HERE is available to download from Samsung Galaxy Apps. It works on Galaxy smartphones with at least 1 GB of RAM and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and newer.
The Star Wars approach to business agility

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 2:56pm CEST par Paul Cooper
Business agility is the "ability of a business system to rapidly respond to change by adapting its initial stable configuration". So far, so Wikipedia -- and I'm pretty bored already. But what if we can look at the concept from a slightly more interesting angle, and work out some business agility tips you can use? Star Wars, anyone?

There are few examples of non-agile organization greater than the Galactic Empire. It's huge, sprawling and paralyzed by bureaucracy. It loves enormous, costly prestige projects and is controlled top-down by what can only be described as the Universe's worst micro-manager. And in the end, it's defeated by a bunch of what are basically teenagers. Remind you of anyone? Let's take a look at what we can learn about business strategy through the medium of Star Wars. I can at least promise that it's not nothing.

Work in small increments

There's a lot we could learn from the Empire's failed attempt at building a planet-destroying laser space station, known as the Death Star. There are few projects that suffer from slowpoke business strategies more than infrastructure projects, and this is possibly the biggest infrastructure project ever imagined. If you're building a space station the size of a small moon, you have a lot of teams butting heads, I can tell you.

That's why the agile process could have come in handy, if Emperor Palpatine had got his head around the startup mentality. The agile process is completely different from the traditional or waterfall process for developing projects or software, not just slightly different.

Working in smaller increments is a big part of the agile process, and it can take some time to adjust to, especially if you've been doing traditional business analysis for some time.

For instance, don't peg all your success on completing your moon-sized battle station without putting some smaller, more achievable goals in place along the way. Why not set out some realistic time-based goals and have several teams working towards those over allotted periods? After all, some more agile organization might just come and make your enormous costly prestige project somewhat... redundant.

Hold agile meetings, with no strangling

In many businesses, meetings are a source of serious wheel-spin. They start late, run long, don't achieve much in between and have poor follow-up. The Galactic Empire holds some of the worst meetings we've ever seen. They're full of people failing to listen to each other’s opinions, butting heads and failing to use time effectively. Also, one guy gets strangled using the power of the force. Extremely non-agile.

Make sure to time-box the meeting overall (for example, set a time limit of 45 minutes), individual agenda items and especially presentations. Get people used to the fact that you will guillotine anything which runs over -- be ruthless, but you know -- not force-strangling ruthless.

Frame the purpose of the meeting as a question: for instance, "how do we best ...?" -- don't just waltz into a room and declare that you've disbanded the Galactic Senate.

Deftly-facilitated individual meetings and a well-designed portfolio of recurring meetings are essential. Their absence means every hot-potato issue which comes up has to be handled through ad-hoc meetings, which is what typically tips most organizations into meetings overload in the first place. The key is little and often -- but most importantly, regular.

Ask the tough questions early

Sometimes it's not easy to ask the tough questions. For instance:
- How much experience does your team have?
- Have you ever built a project of this kind before?
- Do you foresee any problems with employing two analysts and over thirty developers?
- Does your project contain a small exhaust vent that could allow a well-placed missile to turn it into a supernova of plasma and twisted metal?
You want to get all the skeletons out of the closet and into the open as early as possible in any project, before it's too late. What's the single most important thing this project needs to do? Anything keeping you up at night? Everyone clear on what success looks like?

Check out the Agile Inception Deck for ten questions you'd be crazy not to ask before beginning an agile project. Something the Emperor would have done well to consider.

Let teams work independently

The Galactic Empire isn't known for giving its employees a lot of leeway. Maybe if there'd been more freedom to operate effectively and ask the right questions, they could be happily demolishing unruly planets left, right and center. But no: the Emperor and his lackey Darth Vader go around ordering people to do this, commanding them to do that, strangling them and worse when they don't obey. This isn't how you should run your agile business.

Teams work best when they can take initiative, solve their own problems, and think for themselves. They can't and won't do that if they are highly dependent on you.

It might seem intuitive, but as a team leader, the best thing you can hope for is that you make yourself obsolete.

Switch off your targeting computer

Everyone remembers the scene where Luke Skywalker is flying down the Death Star trench, and the voice of the deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi tells him to switch off his targeting computer. He has to learn to trust his instincts, and the force and whatever. Agile business processes can be a bit like that.

Start with the minimum of requirements, and anticipate changes. Iterate your project over and over, and automate as much as possible. This is about responding to change rather than slavishly following a plan. It's about recognizing the limits of planning in a turbulent environment. So you might have set yourself targets to guide you to where you want to be, but somewhere along the line you might have to switch off your targeting computer. All we can say is that when that moment comes, we hope the force is with you.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
How to enable the notifications center in Windows 10 Technical Preview

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 2:06pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

When Microsoft took the lid off Windows 10 in late-September, the software giant showcased some of the new features that its new tiled operating system offers in the Technical Preview build. Chief among them was the revival of the Start menu, but virtual desktops, a beefed-up Command Prompt, and Task View were also demoed during the presentation. However, even though it has been an oft-requested addition, there was no mention of a notifications center being baked-into Windows 10.

That was a major disappointment in my book, as a notifications center is a must-have feature for any modern operating system, let alone one that is supposed to run on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones (perhaps, even wearables). But, rest assured, Windows 10 does come with a notifications center. Microsoft may not yet want us to see it, but it can be enabled. And here is how.

A Twitter user who goes by the name Adrian has created a hack for Windows 10 Technical Preview which exposes the notifications center in the early preview build, working on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the tiled OS. Here is how you can leverage it.

First and foremost, you have to download the zip file linked above, in order to extract the necessary files. The extraction will create a folder called "notificationcenter". Depending on your Windows 10 Technical Preview version, you then have to copy the "notificationact.dll" file from either the "x64" or "x86" folder, found in "notificationcenter", to a folder called "stuff" on the root of the "C" drive.

Then, to trigger the notifications center, simply open "notification.exe", from the "x64" or "x86" folder which matches your Windows 10 Technical Preview version. Doing so, on my Oracle VirtualBox virtual machine, a window called "Notifications" pops up in the lower-left corner of the screen.

As you can see in the screenshot that is posted at the top of the article, the notifications center is virtually unusable right now. There is no settings menu and no button which reveals/hides it, even though notifications do show up, which means that you will have to trigger the aforementioned executable every time you wish to see it in action. Also, trying to clear notifications results in a crash of the notifications center.

There is much to be done to make the notifications center usable in Windows 10, judging by what its Technical Preview installment offers right now, but Microsoft should be commended for finally giving us a feature that has been missing for ages. This should certainly make notifications impossible to miss in Windows 10, which is something that I have been waiting for since Windows 8 came along.
Big data helps with detection of cyber attacks

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 1:20pm CEST par Ian Barker

The main problem that organizations face when combating cyber attacks is that they don't know what to look for and find it difficult to interpret all the data they get from their networks.

Big data analytics company Exabeam has a new product that can cut through the forest of data to make it easier to detect attacks and insider threats in real time using existing security information and event management (SIEM) details.

What Exabeam does is to add a layer of user behavior intelligence on top of existing SIEM and log management data to give IT security teams a complete view of the attack chain. This helps to spotlight valid attack indicators which currently risk getting lost in a sea of security noise.

According to research from Verizon 76 percent of network intrusions in 2013 used authorized credentials to impersonate legitimate users. This is something existing SIEM technologies struggle to detect, Exabeam provides access to real-time data which makes it easier to spot suspicious behavior.

"For too long, security teams couldn’t get ahead of hackers because they didn't know what to look for, had too many security alerts to process and didn’t get the complete picture of what was happening in their network," says Nir Polak, Exabeam's CEO and co-founder. "Exabeam fundamentally changes the way that cyberattacks are managed by addressing these challenges in an automated way and giving security teams the intelligence they need in real time. The future of cyberattack management starts with Exabeam, and the future is now".

Capabilities of the Exabeam platform include extraction and enrichment of existing log feeds, such as Windows, Unix, VPN and security events. It also allows tracking of all user activities regardless of the IP, devices and accounts used.

It uses machine learning to carry out behavioral analysis to automatically and continuously learn user and peer group behavior. By applying risk scoring it can assess the importance of a threat taking into account user access, assets exposed and threat intelligence.

You can find out more and request a demo of the product on the Exabeam website.

Photo credit: Tashatuvango/Shutterstock
Lack of modern technology on the menu means UK restaurants are letting diners down

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 12:36pm CEST par Aatif Sulleyman

While new technologies have transformed a number of sectors, including healthcare, sport and finance, it seems that at least one industry is lagging behind. A new report commissioned by Berland and released by Velocity has revealed that UK restaurants are missing out on a collective £5.6 billion per year in revenue, due to their relative ignorance of modern tech.

According to the results, UK diners typically have to wait 11 minutes to pay in restaurants. This adds up to a staggering month of thumb-twiddling over the course of a lifetime, says Velocity. 76 percent of diners also said that inefficient service is a huge downside of eating out, and can have a more negative effect on the overall experience than receiving the wrong food order (48 percent).

What's more, 59 percent of participants involved in the survey said that quick service is more important than variety of food (49 percent) and ambiance (23 percent).

From a business perspective, 50 percent of respondents said that they would eat out at least once more each week if they could pay for food through mobile restaurant apps, and 64 percent said that they would use restaurant loyalty schemes if they came bundled into an app. Just 20 percent currently make use of such promotions.

"New technology is increasingly empowering consumers to take control, enhancing our experiences with immediate gratification. We are already seeing this in the transport, hotel and home entertainment sectors... but these advances aren't happening in a meaningful way in the UK dining sector yet," said Alex Macdonald, Velocity's co-founder.

"These technological advances have the potential to transform the dining sector resulting in quicker bill payment, personalized service and increased customer loyalty and sales, a rare win-win for both consumers and restaurants".

We recently caught up with Bradley Duke, the UK MD of Zapper, a company that allows consumers to quickly pay for restaurant bills using QR codes.

"The key to restaurants actually saving money through technology is making operations run more efficiently," said Duke. "Empowering a customer to pay on their own terms with a smartphone means that not only are they getting a great experience but waiters are freed up to handle more covers in one evening and provide better service -- rather than standing around with a card reader.

"The reason restaurants are slow to embrace modern technology is often the high barriers to entry. If you need to set up a whole new POS and there's little benefit then you're simply not going to. Besides just saving money, technology well-used can actually build revenues by driving footfall and promoting loyalty".

Having seen the app in action at a branch of the Burger and Lobster restaurant chain in London, it's a wonder such software isn't already in widespread use.

Image credit: BGR

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Professionals believe their Java apps are secure despite relying on third-party code

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 11:50am CEST par Ian Barker

Almost two-thirds of senior IT professionals say that their enterprise Java applications contain 50 percent or more third-party code.

These are findings from application security company Waratek based on a survey of attendees at last week's JavaOne conference. However, despite recent high profile vulnerabilities in third-party code, like Shellshock and Heartbleed, nearly 80 percent of respondents still believe their java apps are secure.

"It's a well-known fact that custom developed Java applications are largely constructed with third party software libraries that provide no assurances of security or timely vulnerability mitigation," says Brian Maccaba, CEO of Waratek. "What we found surprising was the high degree of confidence that software developers have in the security of Java applications that use open source components, especially given the widespread threats posed by the recent 'Shellshock' and 'Heartbleed' software flaws".

Further results from the survey show that of those polled 33 percent believe their Java applications are very secure, 46 percent somewhat secure and 13 percent not very secure. When asked about the proportion of third-party or open source code used in their applications, 27 percent say it makes up more than two-thirds of applications, 30 percent say it's more than half and 16 percent more than a quarter with only 19 percent saying less than that.

When asked about the most important considerations when moving Java applications to the public cloud, 71 percent cited security, 54 percent stability and up time, and 28 percent portability and migration. Almost half (46 percent) of respondents said the ability to run Java applications in a secure container would accelerate their plans to move to the public cloud.

You can find out more about Waratek's Application Security for Java platform on the company’s website.

Image Credit: isak55 / Shutterstock
iPhone 6 users encounter a painful new problem -- hairgate

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 9:16am CEST par Darren Allan

Apple has had more than its fair share of problems with the new iPhones (and its fresh operating system, iOS 8) but it seems that one "gate" type scandal isn't enough for Cupertino this time around.

Following "bendgate" -- the allegation that the iPhone 6 can be bent too easily by, for example, sitting down for long periods while it's in a tight pocket -- we now have "hairgate".

Apple's new iPhone 6 isn't causing folks to pull their hair out with frustration, it is just simply and literally pulling people's hair out -- or that's the allegation. Apparently, the thin seam between the display glass and aluminum body is snagging on long hairs (and beard hairs, too) when people are making phone calls, and being yanked out when the handset is moved away from the caller's face.

Twitter is predictably alive with #hairgate chatter, and of course the obligatory jokes ("the new iPhone 6 not only has NFC, but it doubles as a shaver").

Edgar Alvarez tweeted: "#HairGate is very real. Have experienced it a few times myself with the iPhone 6. Didn't know that was a thing until today".

And Steven ‏(@Airwaysfoodie) observed: "The iPhone 6 turns out to be a great anti hipster weapon. Bends in tight hipster jeans AND pulls out ugly hipster beards! Love it!"

Others doubt whether this is a real issue, while slipping a gag in at the same time, of course. Jen Dudley-Nicholson noted: "Two weeks in and I have yet to experience iPhone 6 #Hairgate. Perhaps it's a bald-faced lie?"

Have you experienced hair loss at the hands of your new Apple smartphone? We're just waiting for Samsung to get going on a new trolling Galaxy phone advert now...

Photo credit: Alan Poulson Photography / Shutterstock

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Twitter walks the walk -- sues the United States Government

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 4:35am CEST par Brian Fagioli

I am a very patriotic American; my love for my country is unending and unwavering. However, nothing is perfect and no entity is without mistake, including the United States Government. Sure, there are times when being transparent is not possible, such as telegraphing military movements -- soldiers should never be put at risk. With that said, American citizens arguably deserve full transparency on other things, such as government requests that can impact their privacy.

Twitter is trying to be as open and transparent as possible; however, the US government is blocking that desire. Previously, the company talked the talk, saying "we are weighing our legal options to provide more transparency to our users". Today, the social network walks the walk and sues the government, fighting for the right to be open with its users -- free from government intervention.

"It's our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance -- including what types of legal process have not been received. We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges", says Twitter.

The social network further explains, "today, we have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to publish our full Transparency Report, and asking the court to declare these restrictions on our ability to speak about government surveillance as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is already considering the constitutionality of the non-disclosure provisions of the NSL law later this week".

This turn of events both breaks my heart and makes me proud. Of course, I wish the government was not fighting Twitter on being open, but I am glad to live in a country where a company has the right to fight. Again, no government is perfect, but at least America allows its citizens to strive for perfection.

Is Twitter right to sue the USA government? Tell me in the comments.

Photo credit: Nejron Photo / Shutterstock
Microsoft wants you to go on a movie date with Bing

Publié: octobre 8, 2014, 2:17am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Going to the movies is one of my favorite things; however, the crowd can make or break an experience. A film is art and deserves respect, regardless of the nature of the content. Whether I am seeing a slapstick comedy, cartoon or serious drama, I demand silence and for children to be kept under control. Sure, I am sounding a bit cranky, but the reality is, movies are very expensive and I am not interested in overhearing phone calls and having kids run up and down the aisles.

Seeing a film aside, finding one to see can be quite the ordeal too, especially when out with a group of friends. No one can ever decide on a theater, film or showtime, so the end result if everyone on their smartphones arguing as they look for movie times. Today, Microsoft announces a new way to find movie times using Bing. While it may not settle an argument over what movie to see, it should at least help the situation.

"Finding show times and theater for a movie you want to see is easy on Bing. Simply type in the movie and voila, we will display the information right in the search results. But what about those times when you don’t know which movie you want to see? Or those times when you have no idea which movies are even out?", says the Bing Team.

The team further explains, "today were making that part much easier with a carousel experience that will dynamically display all of the movies playing in your area. If one looks interesting, simply click on the thumbnail and Bing will refresh the results while maintaining the carousel at the top of the screen. You can use the arrows to browse all the movies in your area".

I decided to test the new feature and did a Bing search for "movie times". Sure enough, the carousel view worked as promised:

If you are away from home and using a smartphone, simply visit m.bing.com to quickly access the search engine. Besides "movie times", you can also search for "show times" and "showtimes" to get the results. As great as this is, it is more impressive to see how fast and furious Microsoft is lately at adding features to Bing. If you haven't tried the search engine in a while, you might want to give it ago; you may be pleasantly surprised.

Photo credit: CREATISTA / Shutterstock