6 Revolutionary Technology Trends for the Next 20 Years
by sam volkering

In our world technological advances open many opportunities, including investment opportunities and the potential to improve your lifestyle.

That means it’s the most exciting time to be alive as new technology hits the market and finds its way into your hands.

Below I identify (after extensive research) the six key technology trends that are happening right now in the world and which are set to shape our future… continued…

first published week of:   06/10/2013

7 Infamous Google Slip-ups
by manish singh

Despite being one of the most successful and profitable companies, Google inc. has had its fair share of failures. Let’s rewind our clock back to five years ago when Google was everything its competitors weren’t. Everything they launched added a paragraph to their success story. The whys and wherefores of this could be accounted by the class, meticulousness, innovation and trustworthiness we find in its services. Not to forget we get to use all its super awesome services for free. We didn’t realize when that 10 MB of our Gmail space grow out to become 10 GB.

It isn’t that Google has failed; I think it will never fail, but some of its products aren’t something the company will be proud of. Google is known for creating impeccable products; it has revolutionized the way we search, no matter what Microsoft says. Bing is not even close to what Google search engine is. Google also industrialized the online adverts developing personalized ad – catering you with the ads which are more relevant to you.

But, things have changed, not everything they dish out is gold, anymore. Here are some examples where Google failed to hit the bull’s eye. continued…

first published week of:   04/22/2013

7 Worst Tech Predictions of All Time
by robert strohmeyer

Predicting the future ain't easy. That's why astrologers and fortune tellers tend to keep their forecasts as vague as possible. But in the high-stakes world of high technology, the future belongs to those who see it coming well in advance.

Of course, even the most successful tech prognosticators make their share of foolish predictions, multiplying the candidates for inclusion in this article. In any case, here are a few of my favorite forward-looking flubs of the past 65 years.

Foolish Tech Prediction 1

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." continued…

first published week of:   09/23/2013

85,000+ HP Printers Found to Be Publicly Accessible via the Internet

Adam Howard, a software engineer from the UK, has found that over 85,000 HP printers are publicly accessible on the Internet. The number has been determined via a “well crafted” Google search.

“There's something interesting about being able to print to a random location around the world, with no idea of the consequence. Lock down your printer,” Howard noted.

“There are security concerns here, as many printer models have known exploits which can be used as an entry point to a private network,” he added.

Experts from Sophos agree that there are some serious security risks.

“There's a security risk implicit in letting untrusted outsiders connect to internal devices. Printers these days have their own OS, network stack and often rather powerful firmware. A lot could go wrong,” explained Paul Ducklin, Sophos's head of technology, Asia Pacific.

Details Here

first published week of:   02/04/2013

9 Tech Trends That Will Make Someone Billions Of Dollars Next Year
by julie bort

2014 is right around the corner.

Most of us can look into our crystal balls and see that a handful of tech trends which became big in 2013 will probably get bigger next year: cloud computing, big data, the rise of tablets, the Internet of Things.

But market research firm IDC has gone one better by predicting how these trends will unfold next year — and generate billions of dollars. continued…

first published week of:   12/09/2013

9 Top Threats Facing Cloud Computing
by antone gonsalves

Cybercriminals and the mayhem they can cause have become the leading concern of security experts in cloud computing. That's the takeaway from the Cloud Security Alliance's latest poll on the top nine threats the industry faces.

The nonprofit's latest survey found a reshuffling of security priorities pointing to the growing danger posed by cyberattacks aimed at stealing corporate data. Data breaches and account hijackings that were in the middle of CSA's 2010 list of top threats rose to the number one and three spots, respectively, this year. At the same time, denial of service attacks made their debut as the fifth most worrisome threat.

The CSA report is meant to give cloud service providers and their customers a snapshot of what experts see as the greatest dangers to storing data and conducting business with customers in the cloud. Fueling fears is a steady stream of break-ins at service providers and Web sites owned by businesses, government and educational institutions.

So far this year, 28 breaches attributed to hackers have been made public, resulting in the loss of 117,000 data records, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Service providers hacked included Zendesk and Twitter. In 2012 there were 230 publicly disclosed breaches for a loss 9 million records. Service providers that suffered breaches included Yahoo, eHarmony and LinkedIn.

Details Here

first published week of:   03/11/2013

iOS 7 Development: Everything You Need To Know To Get Started
by dan rowinski

OK, so you have downloaded the iOS 7 beta and are ready to get to work. Now what?

There are some new things you are going to want to check out in iOS that directly inform how you develop your next app for the release of the next iPhone later this year. Mostly, Apple has hundreds of new SDKs to check out that govern many different functions of the device. These are going to take some time to learn as they cover the new multi-tasking features, games and various design features.

Before you get started with iOS 7 though, you'll want to load the latest version of Xcode, the integrated developer environment for iOS development. With iOS 7 comes Xcode 5, which is currently in developer preview. You will not be able to use Xcode 5 unless your Mac is upgraded to the most recent version of Mas OS X – Mountain Lion 10.8.3. 

When learning how to develop for iOS 7, those are the two primary features that you are going to need to study – the new development frameworks and the new features in Xcode 5.  continued…

first published week of:   06/17/2013

African Bus Routes Redrawn Using Cell-Phone Data
by david talbot

Researchers at IBM, using movement data collected from millions of cell-phone users in Ivory Coast in West Africa, have developed a new model for optimizing an urban transportation system.

The IBM model prescribed changes in bus routes around the around Abidjan, the nation’s largest city. These changes–based on people’s movements as discerned from cell-phone records—could, in theory, slash travel times 10 percent.

While the results were preliminary, they point to the new ways that urban planners can use cell-phone data to design infrastructure, says Francesco Calabrese, a researcher at IBM’s research lab in Dublin, and a coauthor of a paper on the work. “This represents a new front with a potentially large impact on improving urban transportation systems,” he says. “People with cell phones can serve as sensors and be the building blocks of development efforts.” continued…

first published week of:   05/13/2013

Agile gains, but executives are completely clueless, survey finds
by joe mckendrick

First, the good news: Adoption of agile methodologies continues to climb. Now, the not-so-good news: Management has no idea what agile is, or what it's supposed to accomplish.

That's the finding of a new survey of 4,048 software developers, conducted by VersionOne, a provider of agile project management tools. This is the seventh year this survey has been conducted, and, alas, the business isn't any wiser to the agile way of doing things.

The survey found that a majority of developers are doing things the agile way. Those who plan to implement agile for future development projects increased from 59 percent in 2011 to 83 percent in 2012, VersionOne reported. In addition, the number of respondents using agile practices across five or more teams grew from 33 percent in 2011 to 48 percent in 2012.

However, only 2 percent of respondents felt that executives are knowledgeable about agile practices at all. The survey also shows that in more than two thirds of failed agile programs, respondents felt it was either because they failed to integrate the right people, or did not effectively teach a team-based culture. For agile to truly succeed in an organization, everyone has to be dedicated to the initiative — especially the executive team.

Details Here

first published week of:   03/04/2013

Agile software development tests the mettle of IT managers
by matthew weigelt , camille tuutti

Government and industry experts alike predict the role of agency IT managers will expand in 2013, as business analysis and requirements management become crucial to bringing projects to successful conclusions. As agencies increasingly adopt an agile development approach for IT projects, they will rely more heavily on managers’ interpersonal skills and knowledge of a program’s evolving requirements, said Bill Damare, vice president of government markets at ESI International, a project management training company.

“Agile is really kind of the talk of the town right now,” he said. Agencies are moving beyond the curiosity stage and will adopt the approach more frequently in 2013. “Once it takes hold, it can run like wildfire.”

Details Here

first published week of:   02/11/2013