Time to declare victory and ask for more work?
By Sharky
Big call center hires this pilot fish to produce reports for management, and he's told that because there are so many reports to churn out, he'll be the busiest person in the office.
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TAGS:automation, reports
IT TOPICS:Applications
May 21, 2012 - 5:36 A.M.
NASDAQ FAIL as Facebook IPO stock price falters $FB
By IT Blogwatch
The NASDAQ exchange has revealed that a software SNAFU spoiled the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) IPO. The problems caused stock price quotes to be unavailable and orders to be canceled. In the end, $FB closed only just above the offer price, but there's some dispute over whether this failure to pop was caused by the glitch. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers ponder poor system design.
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TAGS:Facebook, FB, Mark Zuckerberg, NASDAQ
IT TOPICS:Applications
May 8, 2012 - 12:36 P.M.
OK, which is it?!?
By Sharky
This pilot fish's company has a standard questionnaire for handling performance issues. But one otherwise helpful user seems just a little unclear on, well, something.
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TAGS:help desk, pattern, performance issues, report, ticket, users
IT TOPICS:Applications
April 26, 2012 - 6:09 A.M.
Pretty sure that's a Microsoft trademark, right?
By Sharky
This vendor provides bookkeeping software for law firms, and the support calls are mostly from support staff with technical environment issues. Sometimes, though, an actual lawyer gets involved.
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TAGS:bookkeeping, integer, law, law firm, lawyer
IT TOPICS:Applications
April 25, 2012 - 6:09 A.M.
Somebody's unclear on a whole lot of concepts
By Sharky
Call from a client wakes up this IT pilot fish in the middle of the night: A key application won't start, and it needs fixing, pronto. Turns out SQL Server is seriously borked -- but that's not the only problem.
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TAGS:backup, SQL, SQL Server, UPS
IT TOPICS:Applications
March 14, 2012 - 2:04 P.M.
Firefox 11 shows the glory days of Mozilla are gone
By Preston Gralla
Once upon a time Firefox pointed the way towards the future of browsers --- it was faster, more innovative, and more feature-rich than the competition. That's no longer the case. Firefox 11 shows that the glory days of Firefox are over.
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TAGS:Firefox 11, Mozilla, Review
IT TOPICS:Applications
March 8, 2012 - 12:25 P.M.
Hadoop hype and data Yodas: Tales from Predictive Analytics World
By Robert L. Mitchell
Here are a few takeaways, interesting comments and other tidbits from the Predictive Analytics World conference.
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TAGS:analytics, conference, data scientist, Hadoop, Intuit, predictive analytics, SAS Institute
IT TOPICS:Applications
March 2, 2012 - 7:11 A.M.
The One
By Sharky
This team doing a major software upgrade of HR and financial software for this county government, complete with a weekend-long schedule and a consultant to help with the complex upgrade process -- and it turns out to be a very long process.
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TAGS:consultant, Management, software upgrades
IT TOPICS:Applications
March 1, 2012 - 7:10 A.M.
Making a hash of it
By Sharky
While this pilot fish is upgrading a customer's CRM software, he discovers he needs to use the old Hayes-modem command comma and pound-sign characters to properly route telephone calls to specific voice-message boxes.
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TAGS:crm, Hayes, Management, modem, pound
IT TOPICS:Applications
February 22, 2012 - 3:07 P.M.
Live blog: Data tools and tips from the Computer Assisted Reporting conference
By Sharon Machlis
If you deal with data, you'll likely find some of these tools and tips of interest -- whether or not you're a journalist.
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TAGS:business intelligence, data visualization
IT TOPICS:Applications
February 22, 2012 - 6:41 A.M.
MS Office on iPad soon (ignore Microsoft denials)
By IT Blogwatch
Here comes Microsoft Office for the iPad. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) appears to deny that it's close to release on the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tablet, but in IT Blogwatch, bloggers conclude that all is not as it may seem.
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TAGS:Android, Apple, IOS, iPad, Microsoft, Microsoft office, mobile, tablet
IT TOPICS:Applications
February 15, 2012 - 1:02 P.M.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: PC app innovation is dead, killed by the iPad
By Preston Gralla
Software innovation on PCs is dead, killed by the iPad and Android, Apple CEO Tim Cook claims. He adds that tablets will outsell PCs and Macs, although didn't give a date for when that will happen.
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TAGS:Apple, apps, iPad, Microsoft, mobile, Tim Cook
IT TOPICS:Applications, Devices, Linux & Unix, Macintosh, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Operating Systems, Web Apps, Windows
February 15, 2012 - 7:00 A.M.
RSA crypto: 'flawed', 'risky', 'quagmire of vulnerabilities'
By IT Blogwatch
A group of six academic researchers have concluded that real-world RSA encryption keys are riskier than Diffie-Hellman-based ones. It seems that some of the random numbers used to generate them weren't, errm, random. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if the sky is falling.
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TAGS:certificate, crypto, cryptography, Diffie-Hellman, encryption, key management, RSA, SSL
IT TOPICS:Applications, Cybercrime & Hacking, Financial IT, Government & Regulation, Internet, Privacy, Security, Security Hardware & Software
February 15, 2012 - 12:17 A.M.
20 steps to an iron-clad SaaS contract
By Robert L. Mitchell
Here are 21 battle-tested tips from the negotiating teams at the Guardian Life Insurance Co., Fox Entertainment Group and others.
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TAGS:SaaS, SaaS contracts, SaaS pricing
IT TOPICS:Applications, Cloud Computing, E-Business, Internet, Management, Web Apps
February 13, 2012 - 11:37 A.M.
Why Windows on ARM won't suffer from the Android fragmentation problem
By Preston Gralla
When information about Windows on ARM (WOA) was released last week, one important detail was overlooked -- in essence, each WOA device will require its own customized version, including drivers and firmware, unlike the Windows on PCs. While it may seem as if this might lead to fragmentation as on Android, that won't happen with WOA.
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TAGS:Android, Google, Microsoft, mobile, Windows on ARM, WOA
IT TOPICS:Applications, Devices, Linux & Unix, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Operating Systems, Windows
