Working Smart: What If One Is Unsmart?
March 10, 2012
Short honk: I read “Work Smart, Not Hard – An Introduction To Google Analytics Dashboards.” Three times this week I have heard “work smart.” Maybe this is a meme designed to make those who can use ATM perceive themselves as power users of advanced computing systems? Here’s the passage I noted:
[Google Analytics] saves me time, helps me look like I’m 100% on top of things when a client calls, and helps me add hours back into days that were previously spent hunting and pecking for information.
The idea is that a vendor creates a system which generates reports based on data. I do not trust data from sources which do no provide me with access to the who, what, when, and how those data were managed. When I buy carrots, I check out what’s on offer. The same approach does not apply to the use of data from Google or other sources.
But the key point in the write up is this phrase:
helps me look like I’m 100% on top of things when a client calls
I think appearances are important, but the notion of helping a person appear to know something when that person may not know whereof what he/she speaks is troubling to me.
As systems put training wheels on software, systems and services which “process” data and spit out answers, why are folks so eager to “look” smart. Why are those who are supposed to be data wizards so eager to give up the “hands in the dirt” approach which puts one in touch with the raw material?
I wonder if the clients know those who advise them are “working smart” by using systems that put up an appearance of insight when the reality may be quite different. ATM users may not quality as data analysts. If those individuals had the requisite skills to make sense of unverifiable data, would there be a shortage of analytics professionals?
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Exorbyte Chomps into Business Process Automation
March 10, 2012
Exorbyte creates high performance search and data match software for the enterprise. Dan Nicollet from he Exorbyte blog recently reported on a new target market that they have identified in the post “Reducing the Costs of Business Process Automation.”
the post states:
“Business Process Management is the discipline to which Business Process Automation belongs. BPA is a tactic organizations use to automate processes in order to contain costs (usually the ultimate goal of BPM). It involves integrating applications, restructuring labor resources and using software applications to automate routine tasks. Exorbyte has done deals with government agencies, insurance companies, online media and others that always involved the same scenario.”
The post then goes on and, in a list format, describes a scenario that leads Exorbyte to comes in to reduce business costs. It begins when an organization has already automated one or more processes and ends when the Exorbyte Matchmaker provides an easy to use, service oriented solution.
Exorbyte could be an interesting company to check out if your company wants to automate its business processes. Exorbyte once confined itself to ecommerce. What’s next for the company? Big data, customer support, business intelligence, or all of the above? We don’t know.
Jasmine Ashton, March 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Quote to Note: Google and Its Intent
March 9, 2012
I don’t have much to say about the quite remarkable write up “Why Search Engines Can’t Just ‘Fix’ Search Results The Way The MPAA/RIAA Want.”
Here’s the quote:
Google isn’t designed to prop up the entertainment industry’s old business model. It’s designed to provide people results for what they’re searching for.
Google is like to be quite pleased with this view of its purpose, which, I thought was generating revenue from ads. One learns something new each day.
Yebo, gaga.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint Is Adopted Worldwide
March 9, 2012
Texis 6 from Thunderstone
March 9, 2012
A new version of the time-tested Thuderstone search software Texis has been announced in the news release “Thunderstone Releases Texis Version 6” on its Web site. Nearly every feature has been overhauled or altered for this new version, with much care put into updating the presentation and functionality .
From the article:
“New features available in Texis 6 include:
- More intuitive searches, including Unicode support and accent-insensitive queries:
This improves non-English searches; e.g. “cœur” will also match “coeur”, “resume” will match “resumé”.- Improved XML/XSLT support, including a new API for building XML based applications more easily.
- HTTP/1.1 support including gzip compression to reduce crawl times and bandwidth utilization:
Reduces load on targeted servers, and potentially allows access to more content.- Enhanced options for showing search results, including multiple snippets and styled highlighting:
Shows more query-relevant text in results, and allows full customization of query term presentation.”
Also updated were the Webinator tools, which now allow for faster category searches, expanded language usage (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters), and a customizable thesaurus, to name a few key features. It should be noted that some of these changes are for the Texis program only, and not the main Thunderstone product. A full rundown of the changes is available here.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Missing Skills of Young SharePoint Developers
March 9, 2012
In a lighthearted blog entry, Jussi on SharePoint addresses the often forgotten fact that for all of our complaining, IT is well optimized and performs quite well in our current day. So what’s the problem with high performance you might ask? In, “The missing skillsets of future SharePoint rock stars,” Jussi argues that this has created a younger generation of developers, specifically SharePoint developers who neglect the basic IT skills of former days.
Jussi writes:
The problem is that mostly everything you use just works. You don’t need to worry whether or not the operating system is about to crash. You’ll have enough RAM most of the time, so forget about spending any time optimizing how your applications use memory. Your laptop? It boots in <30 seconds, or resumes from sleep in less than 2 seconds. Gone are they days when we had to write memos on a piece paper as a backup, ‘because the computer might crash sooner rather than later’.
This relative ease of use leads the author to propose that SharePoint developers need to make an effort to cultivate certain forgotten skills:
Any proper SharePoint specialist worth their salt should be fairly serene doing basic stuff like configuring Active Directory, debugging network and authentication issues, reading through code and Powershell scripts and troubleshooting weird errors.
While these are not glamorous jobs, they are necessary. There may also be another option for SharePoint developers wanting to maximize their time and energy. Many third-party enterprise solutions can improve performance and user experience without a great investment in time and training. A smart solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze can brings a suite of solutions together to make everyone happy, users and developers alike. Check into Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise and see if their offerings can increase your organization’s efficiency and performance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Cloud-Based PLM a Growing Trend World Wide
March 9, 2012
Across the globe companies are looking for ways to encourage growth while simultaneously reduce spending. This is a tall order for every industry but there is one area where it can be accomplished – PLM. A recent article on Manufacturing.Net, The Rise Of Cloud Computing Extends To PLM, explains how PLM solutions employed with cloud technology not only is the wave of the future but helps reduce expenses and has a proven ROI.
By adding the cloud to traditional PLM platforms companies are able to reduce their dependency on physical storage facilities for data. As the article explains of the trend toward combining cloud and PLM services,
“Most industry analysts (Forrester, Gartner, Frost & Sullivan, ARC and The Yankee Group) covering IT agree that the power and potential of cloud computing, properly leveraged and deployed, can have a significant impact on the PLM industry. PLM customers are giving serious consideration and evaluating their PLM business processes in regard to how to run them seamlessly and securely connect them to cloud-based data sets. This is to say that today still few are fully deployed. It is still in the infancy stages of use even if the technology has matured. It is still curing.”
Despite the many benefits cloud computing offers traditional PLM solutions there is a concern regarding accessibility and security, and rightly so. Companies taking the time to convert operations and data to the cloud need the assurance that the right employees will be able to access the right files easily and securely. By choosing platform providers well-versed in cloud computation and how it relates to PLM companies can rest assured that employees will be able to find, re-use and share data without threats to security.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 9, 2012
Browse with Vintage Ad Browser
March 9, 2012
Sometimes search is not going to deliver the nostalgia payload.
Here’s an interesting service for finding print advertisements: tap into the Vintage Ad Browser and step back in time. The site presents, by category, “100,000+ vintage advertisements to explore”, going back nearly to the turn of last century. The site’s About page explains:
“Vintage Ad Browser was created in 2009/2010 and released in 2010, by Philipp Lenssen from Germany, currently living in China. This site aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, your submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more. At the moment, this site contains 123,311 ads. Vintage Ad Browser has a sister site called Cover Browser, started in 2006 – please have a look.”
Interesting project. We find that here search gives way to browsing, just like in 1993. Reminisce with ads for everything from Airlines to Xmas.
The geek in me thinks the Cover Browser site is pretty nifty, too. It is a collection of cover art, mostly from comics but from books and other sources as well. You may recall Mr. Lenssen. He developed Google Blogoscoped, an interesting news service.
Cynthia Murrell, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Tools for Mobile Sites
March 9, 2012
The unstoppable adoption of smartphones has led to a need for drastic mobile web site optimization according to the article “Mobile Site Mania” on RetailSolutionsOnline.com. The push to develop either exclusively mobile sites or main pages that are simplified to view on a smartphone has almost reached a frantic pace as competitors race to be the first and best in mobile business.
This article suggests that growing use of phones and tablets have necessitated tweaks to sites in the form of simplification and tools especially intended for mobile users. Simple changes included confining menus to the margins and imbedding fewer photos and text on pages that once strove to be elaborate. Tools that are gaining more use include buttons to call or email the business directly and GPS to automatically provide the nearest relevant location.
Many are going a step further with software to ease the transition to mobile and allow for customization to fit specific customer needs.
From the article:
“Some vendors have released technology for mobile that provides interchangeable brand encounters across touchpoints to reduce frustration and accelerate cross-channel sales. For example, Oracle Endeca for Mobile allows your mobile customers to search and browse your entire product catalog, watch videos, create wish lists, download PDFs, read and write user reviews, and proceed through checkout — all from their mobile devices.”
Specialized software vendors like Endeca will allow for such ease of use that we will likely continue to see a merging of web and mobile features and functionality. It will be interesting to see if one platform overshadows another in the near future.
Derek Clark, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Hadoop and Excel: A Delightful Pairing
March 9, 2012
Gizmo Crave recently reported on Microsoft combining forces with the big data analytics firm Hortonworks for a new Apache Hadoop project in the article “How About Accessing Hadoop Data Through Microsoft Excel?”
According to the article, the purpose of the partnership is to make Hadoop data analyzable to developers and business people via both a JavaScript framework and Microsoft Excel. Microsoft has committed to trying to make Hadoop a million dollar market within the next couple of years.
The articles states:
In an attempt to get Hadoop to work nicely with Windows, Microsoft has moved ahead of its computing tool called Dryad. This new strategy includes Hadoop distributions for Windows Servers and the Windows Azure cloud computing platform, as well as a connection to SQL Server.
For those interested in trying it out, Hadoop on Azure is available in developer preview mode this quarter and rumors say it will be generally available by June of this year. You have to admire the vision of Microsoft centric thinkers. Microsoft adherents are getting more open sourcey I believe.
Jasmine Ashton, March 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
