Java and Embedded devices

Java has such promise for use in embedded devices: Just download the JVM on the client device and access the embedded device from whatever client OS or platform you wish. Unfortunately the truth is rather less than the promise. Read More...

ITIL

After a 2 day ITIL Foundation boot camp I strangely find myself still enthusiastic about enough process. Read More...

Do you have Foxtel ...

The power saving power board people have been around … yet another piece of equipment fails due to their poor training.

There is an Australian government program which allows electricity users to receive standby power saving power boards in exchange for the carbon credits the devices are estimated to deliver. Unfortunately, the training given to the people who deliver the boards is poor. The only question they appear to ask is “Is that device for Foxtel?”, and that is the only device they plug in to an outlet that stays on all the time. Read More...

Are Spreadsheets the new filing cabinets?

“You can’t grep dead trees” implies that paper documents are not dynamic and hard to search, but should we go further and suggest that filing cabinets are where documents go to die? Documents in a filing cabinet are:
  • Retrievable only through reference to a single linear index (unless someone creates a cross reference)
  • Often only accessible to one viewer at a time
  • Subject to the whims of their guardians
So much so that paper documents are being recognised as liability in organisation - certainly a cost to store and retrieve.

However, business’s obsession with the spreadsheet may be creating the new filing cabinet filled with spreadsheets on file servers. Read More...

Technology and Organisation

So many organisations install Exchange for its calendaring features. But is this a path to organisational heaven or hell? Read More...

Campaign to Kill Captcha

Most of us would like to see CAPTCHA gone - and now there is a petition calling for it (http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/it-s-time-to-finally-kill-captcha-2). CAPTCHA is inconvenient if you have full use of your senses and impossible for people with some disabilities. However, at least one of the alternative solutions is worse than the disease. The e-mail activation link. Read More...