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Recent blog posts

Now That's Innovation!

Posted Thu, 07/02/2009 - 19:53 by wirtes

Following Apple patents can be a mind-warping experience, but everyone once in a while they patent something so compelling that I just have to mention it.

Here's how Information Week describes some of Apple's new touch screen patents:

The fingerprint detector would make it possible for a person to initiate commands on a device through the use of a particular finger. For example, the system could detect the unique fingerprint on the middle finger to play music, or the touch of a person's pinky could fast-forward or rewind music. The variety of commands could be increased by launching functionality by double tapping with a particular finger.

The Future Is Closer Than You Think

Posted Wed, 06/17/2009 - 06:59 by wirtes

This is an excellent post from Jason Hiner over at ZDNet about why the world will change very quickly to a cloud computing infrastructure:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19733&tag=nl.e539

What all of these vendors will argue is that they can save organizations from overprovisioning and overspending on server capacity while also adding 24/7/365 monitoring, scalable load management, and a high level of IT service management (ITSM). Of course, the trade-off is that IT departments give up some control, and usually some staff positions as well.

Leveraging Free and Open Source Tools to Improve User Experiences

Posted Sun, 03/22/2009 - 08:47 by wirtes

Today's successful web companies are building tools and environments that give non-programmers the ability to quickly add professional, interactive functions to their websites.

For example, here's an interactive map of a hike my family took yesterday. My total time investment in this map is under ten minutes. Not only is this map fully interactive, but you can view a larger map on the the Google Maps site. There you have access to additional options such as launching this map in Google Earth, where can follow our trail in a three-dimensional Earth simulator or roll back the clock on the satellite photography to see the surrounding terrain as it looked years ago.

View Larger Map

Technology As Commodity vs. The Value of Strategic Alignment

Posted Sat, 02/21/2009 - 15:59 by wirtes

It's happening everywhere. IT budgets are being slashed and outsourcing is becoming increasingly attractive when compared to a full-time staff of IT professionals.

While it is still true that you can get a developer overseas for one-third to one-fourth of price of hiring one to sit in a cube in your office, you should think long and hard about an outsourcing strategy before you tout a significant cost savings.