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Subscribe to Backblog  How often should we change passwords? June 30, 2009 By Vaclav Vincalek Categories: General Security The conventional wisdom from identity management and security wonks is that you should change your passwords frequently. WiseGeek puts it at once every three months. Some say as often as every day. But is it practical? With an ever-growing number of work applications, social networking and cloud... Axum - New Parallel Programming Language from Microsoft June 29, 2009 By Charlie Bess Categories: General Software Companies I mentioned last week that I am trying to develop a better understanding of parallel coding issues and approaches. Microsoft has a new language for parallel programming in the works named Axum. It was formerly known as "Maestro". There is a channel 9 video on the MS site about the effort from last... CMPA: Legal Risks of Using Email to Communicate with Patients June 26, 2009 By Alan Brookstone Categories: General eHealth The Canadian Medical Protective Association has published an Information Sheet for Canadian physicians regarding the use of email to communicate with patients listing in detail the legal risks from the perspective of confidentiality, privacy and security, the timeliness of responses and the clarity... Passwords and Secret Questions June 25, 2009 By Vaclav Vincalek Categories: General Security If I know you, I bet I can guess your password within five guesses. The truth may set you free, but honesty will get you into trouble when it comes to your security questions for banking, social networking and other applications. Once again, Bruce Schneier has come upon some excellent research... A Tour of the Healthcare New Media Marketing Landscape June 24, 2009 By Shahid N Shah Categories: General eHealth Last week I had the privilege of chairing and keynoting the Healthcare New Media Marketing Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. I really liked the event because the attendees were actual practitioners from the provider space (many hospitals, health systems, etc). It was great talking to people who were... When Should Government Work Be Outsourced? June 23, 2009 By consider the source Categories: General Outsourcing Professional service contracts are a relatively small part of the services brought in by governments, but the impact can be high and widespread use of consultants can quickly result in a very large expenditure on presentations and reports. To curtail this practice, the Department of Homeland... 90 the new 60 - and what can technology do about it? June 22, 2009 By Charlie Bess Categories: General 've heard this phrase a few times over the past months as a way of putting how long people are going to be living in context. Now that I am 50, 60 doesn't seem so far away so it's a good thing we're moving the signposts and shifting our perspectives. When I was growing up, 60 was old, now it seems... Trading Up to A Tech Hub Requires Accountability June 19, 2009 By Vaclav Vincalek Categories: General Security If BC wants to compete globally, we need to focus on knowledge based industries through better education and training that goes beyond support for traditional trades. Of course, this has been a longtime goal of BCTIA members. It was emphasized again by BCTIA President Pascal Spothelfer in his pre... Enstream: A Mobile Moneris or Dexit Revisited? June 18, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Yesterday, Telus (T), Bell, and Rogers (RCI) launched mobile payment solution branded Zoompass, which is developed and operated by Enstream, a new mobile payment solution platform, which also just happens to be a three-way joint venture among them. This post will attempt to contextualize Enstream ... HP's Personal Video Mailbox - Gabble June 17, 2009 By Charlie Bess Categories: General Social Networking Web 2.0 Back in March, I looked at a beta project HP had underway called Gabble. Since then it has improved tremendously. This site allows for individuals to create Twitter-ish small (2 minutes to so) video entries that others can subscribe to. You can define sub-groups related to specific topics... It... Whitepaper on list rental characteristics for IT Markets June 16, 2009 By Ben Bradley Categories: General Because an organization’s investment in information technology is more a function of vertical market and organization culture (as opposed to gross revenue or total employment), it is important to use demographic characteristics that are statistically equivalent to a target market size demographic.... Podcast: The Benefits of Primary Health Care Teams. An Interview with the CEO of the Health Council of Canada June 15, 2009 By Alan Brookstone Categories: General eHealth Podcast: The Benefits of Primary Health Care Teams. An Interview with the CEO of the Health Council of Canada In many provinces across Canada, the development of Primary Health Care Teams have been a significant part of provincial primary care reform strategies. Recently, the Health Council of Canada... Top 5 Actions to Heighten the Strategic Impact of Your Procurement Organization June 12, 2009 By consider the source Categories: General Outsourcing During tough economic times, procurement is often called upon to “win” price and payment term concessions from suppliers and service providers in order to boost the bottom line. While there is no question that part of procurement’s role is to ensure that a company is paying the best price, the... Why are there so many new search engines? June 11, 2009 By Charlie Bess Categories: General Google has dominated the search space for a while but there are a number of "new" players that approach the problem from a different perspective. Microsoft has a new search engine called Bing, which is supposed to be more semantics based. With features like: -Best Match: All the relevant results are... Connected … For Better and Worse June 10, 2009 By Jon Husband Categories: General Social Networking Web 2.0 Just noticed this piece (extracted below) while I breezed through the NY Times this morning. I must say that this brief extract mirrors my experience. I have any number of friends and colleagues who have worked hard to eliminate or give up email … always because of the jam-ups they experienced, always... Game-Changer Startup Alert: Phybridge and the rebirth of the twisted pair. June 9, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment VoIP Most who follow this blog anticipate updates about publicly listed technology Companies. Going forward investors are likely to see a select few earlier stage private tech startups profiled. The criteria for such a profile is simple: potential game-changers. Phybridge is an early-stage startup (and... Microsoft Zune HD – how could these kinds of devices be used in business?? June 8, 2009 By Charlie Bess Categories: General ICT Hardware and Infrastructure Microsoft recently announced a new version of its Zune music player, a touch-screen player called the Zune HD. They also announced a Zune extension into the Xbox Live platform, with goal to “create a game-changing entertainment experience”. The Zune HD features a built-in HD radio receiver -- the... Why your organization should be using open document standards June 5, 2009 By Neil McIntyre Categories: General Software Companies Microsoft has the enterprise market cornered with its Office productivity suite. Skill with Outlook, Excel and Word is pretty much required in the corporate world. As a result, most companies have significant data tied up in the proprietary binary file formats doc and xls. This is not to mention all... Guestlogix (GXI.V) Introduces OnTouch - What does it mean? June 4, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment Software Companies Earlier today, Guestlogix announced that it has deployed an new onboard suite of services branded OnTouch, which packages 5 product bundles into value-added destination services for passengers. GXI has essentially organized its platform to allow airlines to bundle services with maximum appeal to... Twitter squatters creating brand confusion June 3, 2009 By Ben Bradley Categories: General Social Networking Web 2.0 Now what? A Twitter land rush? Fantastic article here by Julian Lee. http://business.theage.com.au/business/squatters-creating-twittering-confusion-20090429-andk.html "Trademark Twitter identities are being snapped up. "Some companies such as Billabong have been quick off the mark, snapping up names.... Descartes (DSG.TO) continues to march on with another strong quarter. June 2, 2009 By Ron Shuttleworth Categories: General Investment The Company continues to show exceptional margin growth. Gross margins increased for the the fifth consecutive quarter to 70%, up 5% from Q1, 2009. Increasing gross margin should be considered a good indicator of the health of the business. Adjusted net income margin for the quarter, a proxy to... Tim O’Reilly Dissects Implications of Google Wave for (by extrapolation) the Knowledge Workplace June 1, 2009 By Jon Husband Categories: General Web 2.0 (cross-posted at the AppGap blog) Basically he takes it apart and discusses how and why Google Wave could be an order-of-magnitude leap forward in enabling effective collaboration. In other news, I’ve heard this past week that Microsoft will plug in, or layer over, Sharepoint with the old Lotus... Please select a category:
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