NEW PHONE NUMBER! 800.860.2179 |
Write it down! It's our new phone number. We've dropped the other number completely, and this is how you get to us. This actually is part of a major move we've been making over the past few months. We're using Web 2.0 technologies and sites to build an online, collaborative work environment. This phone system we're now using also provides fax, maintains messages, lets us print out voice messages, share them with others online or in print, etc. Those of you who have attended the Web 2.0 session know how excited I get about Web 2.0. And certainly excited enough to be using this stuff wherever we can! I have to add though please let us know if you have any problems (our emails haven't changed). After all, it is a new system!
Here's the schedule note TR (Technical Recruiting) is coming up in November! And, REMEMBER: 800.860.2179
CSTA Web sessions:
October 8, 9
November 12, 13
December 10, 11
UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) Web sessions:
November 13
TR Web sessions:
November 6
Keep in touch and keep up with technology!
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Macs - Are they moving to the office?
We've all seen the PC/Mac ads, and they're pretty good. Did you see the rebuttal? The ads from Microsoft with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? There were only two of them, and they didn't really look like ads, and they were really long, and I'm not quite sure what they were saying
But I really liked them (and I never was a huge Seinfeld fan). They were the introduction to Microsoft fighting back watch for their "I'm a PC" ads which are starting to appear.
The cause for all this is the potential move of the Macs into the business world. For many years, Mac has been the choice of individuals (what's called the consumer market), and PCs have been the choice of the business (or enterprise) market. Macs were accepted as being better on graphics, video, etc., easier to use, providing better security and they cost more. PCs worked just fine in the business world. The business world didn't need extensive graphics, everyone got used to the interface, security for the Macs could conceivably be as bad with more users, and PCs didn't cost as much. A very important issue when you're buying in bulk!
Things are changing, and changing fast. One big difference is that the business world does in fact need graphics, video, etc. the Internet is not the only influence here BI (Business Intelligence) and BPM (Business Process Management) systems need graphics to present their analytics. Dashboards need graphics. Modeling (software design) needs graphics. Both Microsoft and Apple have introduced a new UI (user interface) surface technology is the 3rd generation of UIs following commands (1st) and GUIs (2nd). Security was kind of a wash anyway. Another factor is that Windows now runs on Macintosh systems, which means that all that business software still works. And, a very big point, Macs and PCs are now financially competitive.
Here's several things to think about:
IBM has disclosed that 100 of its researchers are using Macs to find out whether they are a strong option for use within IBM. They want to know whether some workers would be happier running a MacBook than a PC, and whether the computer can run the necessary corporate applications. The pilot program started late in 2007 and some researchers have already provided positive feedback on the MacBook. If IBM, one of the founders of the PC, moves toward Macs this would be a strong signal of future Macs in the business world.
According to a survey by Yankee Group Research, nearly 8 out of 10 businesses have Macs in place today twice what was being used two years ago. Might not mean anything, but
Net Applications monitors 40,000 Web sites and produces analytics on various usage including operating system usage. Mac OS X usage has increased by 32% and accounted for 7.94% of the operating systems on the systems that accessed these Web sites. A year ago, Mac OS X's usage share stood at 6.03%.
Maybe next time you're looking at a PC or a laptop you might consider the Mac. I've never done so because I need to interface with business software and products, but now that's not a problem, so we all have another option. And, I do have an iPhone . . .
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1.What's the Inspire Community?
2. Which of the following does not belong?
a. android
b. automatron
b. cyborg
c. robot
3. Which of the following does not belong?
a. chrome
b. platinum
c. silver
d. steel
4. What's the hottest product in the individual computer line?
5. CRM is not enough anymore what do we need (according to some)?
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Do you know that we customize training for customers who schedule dedicated sessions? We thought everyone knew that, but had a recent conversation with a customer that made us wonder. We want to make sure you know what you can ask for.
When you contract for dedicated CSTA training, we will:
Adjust the training schedule to emphasize the technologies that are important to you. We spend the most time on the topics most important to you.
Add topics from other courses UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs), TR (Technical Recruiting), and specific technology sessions. The training time can be maintained by eliminating topics, or lengthened to accommodate the extra coverage your choice.
Add information about your technical environments and the software products you use throughout the training. With each topic, you recognize the names you hear at work and see how they fit into IT.
Add charts and diagrams that explain your company's internal systems in the training materials. You just need to provide them to us, and we will include them in the coverage of the appropriate technology.
Schedule classroom training for the dates and time you want. We've done training on the week-ends, mornings, evenings your choice. We'll schedule an instructor for the times that work best for your people. You choose the location, your office, a local hotel or conference center.
Schedule instructor-led Web training so people from multiple locations attend the same sessions. Dedicated Web training can be held over two mornings (or afternoons, or any combination), or divided into shorter daily sessions and spread out over a week.
We create a personalized and confidential session guide for your company's dedicated training. It contains all the material you want included, and is only used for the specific session(s) stated in the contract. We do need enough lead time to do the customization, but that's all we need. There is no charge! While we reserve the right to charge for customization if we have to research new topics, we've never actually done so. Remember, we've been providing this training for almost 20 years so we're basically ready with whatever you might need!
Dedicated training makes sense when your company has several people who need to understand IT. You pick the dates, the times, the method (classroom or Web), and the specifics of the coverage. You can't get better training!
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Modeling
Modeling is one of the hottest buzz words around. Every time you start to talk about design, the conversation moves into modeling. While the definition of modeling is fairly simple, the numbers of models used in today's IT can be confusing.
Model, modeling A model is a representation of the architecture of a data structure (data model), or of the steps and work done in an application process (process model). A model can be conceived independently of any notation, hardware, or software. In one sense, it is the essential information expressed through the use of a notation. Modeling is a design process used for large and/or complex systems, and current tools allow the developer to build models, then the tool generates the program code.
data modeling A design technique used heavily in systems that need to integrate data from different databases. A data model is built that describes all the data and the relationships between data. The model also identifies redundant data and describes the processes that generate the data. The model is converted into physical database designs and interfaces. All maintenance is done through the model.
process model, processing modeling A process model is an abstract of the steps in a process, and the movement between steps. Various notational techniques are used for process modeling including flowcharting, use case, action diagrams, interaction diagrams, activity diagrams, and simulation. Process models are used to describe the excutable segments of a software system (programs, modules, objects, components), when and how they will execute, and the interactions with people, software, and organizations. Business process modeling works with business activities and describes the actions and interactions of people, activities, other business processes, and information.
BPM (Business Process Modeling) Application development technique. Activity performed by business analysts to depict both the current state of an enterprise and the desired future state. The activity of modeling a business process usually is undertaken when there is a need to change processes or identify issues to be corrected. IT's also used in business process management and BPM tools are often designed to be used by non-technical people and do not require IT involvement.
CIM (Common Information Modeling) Communications. Standard that defines a model for network devices, systems and applications to display information about themselves and pass this information to management tools. Information includes static information from desktop systems such as serial numbers to dynamic data such as traffic on router ports.
modeling tool Application development tool used to build design models of data and/or process. These programs provide a graphic interface to allow developers to build models in the correct notation by using point-and-click methods. Many of these tools then generate code from the model, and many provide reverse engineering features which will generate a model from code. Modeling tools are heavily used in data warehousing, object-oriented and CBD (Component-Based Development).
prototype, prototyping A model of a program and/or system that is used to evaluate the design, performance, and potential of the product. Ideally the prototype can be added to until it becomes the full working system.
topic modeling Data management. Text mining technology used to search large volumes of text. The software extracts useful information from unstructured text by looking for patterns of words that occur together, then automatically categorizing these words into topics. For example, a model generated a list of words that included "rider," "bike," "race," "Lance Armstrong" and "Jan Ullrich." From this, researchers were easily able to identify that topic as the Tour de France. By examining the probability of words appearing in stories about the Tour de France, researchers learned that Armstrong was written about seven times as much as Ullrich. Charting information over time, researchers discovered that discussion of Tour de France peaked in the summer months but decreased slightly year to year.
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1. The Inspire Community was started by Intel in August, 2008 to "raise awareness and support for improving education around the world." Another example of using the collaborative nature of the Internet to accomplish great goals. Visit their Website.
2. This is actually a stretch all to point out Android, Google's operating system for mobile systems (smartphones). It's a Linux based system and the first smartphones running Android was just released. The phone is THC's Dream phone. To answer what doesn't belong that would be b) automatron. At least I can't find any IT definitions. Cyborg is an IT vendor, and there are a few robots Rational Robot probably the most known.
3. This time it's c) silver. Although we're following a theme here, and this question is written to mention Google's Chrome, their just released browser. Chrome was just released this September and it's already made a dent in the number of people using both IE (Internet Explorer) and Firefox a very small dent to be sure. As to the other two choices, there are many platinums, and Ruby in Steel is a fairly new IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Web development.
4. This one's really interesting. It's subnotebooks or ultraportables, netbooks, mini-notebooks, and ultrasmall laptops. Lots of names for this newly popular type of computer. These devices weigh 3 lbs or less, and measure around 10 by 8 by 1 inches in size. They're intended for travelers as a second computer and are not meant to replace a laptop or a desktop system at home or at work. As such, they're priced in the $500 range.
5. CRM is being augmented by CEM (Customer Experience Management). It's not enough to know what customers do, companies need to know how they felt about their experience, and use this information to build customer loyalty. We've just added CEM as a category in TechRefฎ to capture these products.
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