Category: Comments & opinions

Interview The host of India’s popular online chat show, Chai with Lakshmi, talks about technology and her focus on “people making a difference.” She’s the face behind Chai with Lakshmi, an online chat show about people and ideas shaping India for the future. Former model, marketing consultant and social worker Lakshmi Rebecca started the show in 2011, at age 30. Since then, her YouTube-only show has had over 110 ‘webisodes’ and 2.8 million views, mostly from within India, and has won several awards. This girl from Hyderabad grew up in Chennai, studied…

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Nowadays quick updates of fragments of code or systems are a key mechanism for maintaining high level of protection of users and their data The number of zero-day exploits has risen sharply in 2013, impacting the security of individual users as well as whole organizations. As the day when Microsoft ends support of Windows XP draws near, the discussion about the necessity of elimination of IT vulnerabilities using expansions, patches and additional software which protect systems from zero-day exploits becomes more heated. Virtual patching is one of the mechanisms that…

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Smart technology – the favorite invention of the 20th century for many gadget geeks. If you type ‘smart’ in your Google, first thing that comes up is an information regarding technology, not human intelligence. No doubt – we started living in the sci-fi movies we skeptically watched, until recently. It seems like everything is developing so fast, that we quite soon we will have to ask ourselves – can we compete with our smart devices? Okay, let’s see. Vacuum cleaning, everyone’s favorite chore. You can hardly wait for weekend to…

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The lack of phone calls, texts or social media postings from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has raised a number of questions about how cell phones work on airplanes. A U.S. official told CNN a cell tower in Penang, Malaysia, detected the co-pilot’s cell phone searching for service before the flight vanished. Here’s a quick primer on how and when phones can make a connection from the air: How high in the air can a cell phone work? Despite the urgings of flight crews to turn off all phones or put them…

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Dropbox has long provided a solid cloud storage platform for individuals. Now a new subscription option improves the platform’s offerings for small businesses. The new version of the service, dubbed Dropbox for Business, adds better security and additional ways for administrators to manage employee accounts. It costs $795 per year for a five-person team, and an additional $125 per year for each additional user. Subscribing means your business can use Dropbox for collaboration and file backup, with less risk of private and sensitive data being compromised. Dropbox for Business also makes…

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Whether it’s a pre-roll ad on YouTube or some original promotional content, online video advertising can offer value to businesses of all sizes. Small businesses in particular have found that digital videos can boost awareness, website traffic and sales in a cost-effective, budget-friendly way. “Almost everyone watches online videos in some form today,” said Tim Jensen, senior Web strategist at digital marketing firm Overit. “You can reach people at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV advertising, with much more segmented opportunities for targeting. You can target videos based on…

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Cloud-based customer resource management (CRM) can be complex when providing CRM services on a global scale. From managing tiered administration of supply chain portals to creating user roles for employees in disparate locations and providing multiplatform customer support, the configuration options present a complex set of alternatives. Three technologies simplify the number of configurations and data handling required to facilitate global CRM in the cloud: clustering, user roles, and social networking capabilities. Clustering  Clustering facilitates parallel, distributed computing by linking multiple computers together so that they operate as a single computer. As…

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Integrating enterprise resource planning (ERP) into the inventory and supply chain has many advantages. One of the greatest is that ERP can help an organization extend its budget by allowing cost reductions in existing processes. Here are six ways that ERP in the inventory and supply can help companies get more value from their investments. 1. Improved Forecasting Accuracy When integrated well, ERP provides organizations with increased visibility across the supply chain. Customer demand, inventory, procurement, and production are more visible, and the information gleaned from seeing these processes clearly allows for…

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Microsoft’s support for Windows XP ends yesterday, April 8, 2014. However, Gartner estimates that one-third of enterprises currently have more than 10 percent of their systems remaining on XP. In today’s blog post, Neil MacDonald, vice president and Gartner Fellow, says the issue is not whether the continued use of XP entails risk. It does. The issue is whether the continued use of XP represents manageable and tolerable risk to the enterprise. Mr. MacDonald said: Any system, supported or not, carries risk. For the majority of use cases, XP can…

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IT managers need clear, effective common-sense advice and practical guidance for IT service management (ITSM) and IT service delivery. While there is good advice and knowledge in the many best practice frameworks, the key messages can get lost in the sheer quantity of information, guides and certification programs. The special value of ITSM Goodness (part of web site of Barclay Rae) resides in simplifying and summarizing this knowledge and providing practical guidance. Barclay Rae delivers simple, fast & inexpensive consulting services to help customers achieve success with ITSM & service…

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