Posts by easytoby 47 posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
I thought the biggest risk was associated with postal votes. But I cannot see anything on the release about that?
So my assumption is that this is a drive towards universal ID cards again, not securing voting.
I am a big fan of the convenience of postal voting, as I am often working away from home.
It's an anomaly in comparison to NHS and many public sector and large charity situations. Here the knowledge in the customer organisation to specify and enforce appropriate contracts is missing. Also missing in many cases is the leadership strength to demand proper action on 'difficult' situations.
Agreed. I thought for a moment that IBM was moving on differently, what with Watson and all. Seems on this evidence they are still a behemoth run by broad brush top line figures (what's the quickest way to cut X% of wage bill, etc) rather than insight.
Would have been better to turn the Watson engine to analysing the performance of the staff and contractors and cutting accordingly. But is would have required proper management so far and clear objectives and goals etc.... This way so much less legal challenge. There will be some, I'm sure (see other post about Euro person below), but will cost less overall than a US class action.
I have been in companies where an old school CEO or COO, always with grown up children who have left the home, I might add, 'suddenly' decides to stop remote working and get everyone in 'where they can be seen to be contributing' Totally misses the point about what managing performance is supposed to be of course. But proper performance management requires earning the respect and loyalty of the team, not being parachuted in from an MBA course. And that requires work.
The bigger cloud accompanying May's appointment (as opposed to election....) is her stance on encryption. I assume she is an intelligent person, however her past comments on encryption and her desire to see a state agency back door into private communications, point either to an ignorance of the facts or a deliberate ignoring of the implications
This feels like the Dinosaur incumbent squeezing the last drops out of an outdated business model. I think they need to see the writing on the wall, and accept that the current way of doing business does not have much longer to run.
The future has to be the customer paying for content to be delivered at their own convenience. The BBC iPlayer is, I think, the best current example of this. However, Netflix, Amazon and even IMDb feel like they are circling like vultures over the carcasses of the old media executives.
Perhaps when the fat cats have taken their comfortable retirement packages and retired to the coast the inevitable truth will become clear that change is not in the hands of the traditional controlling centre, but will be driven by the consumer ourselves.
The taliban still control Afganistan, Pakistan and Dagestan,,,,, No sign of air superiority achieving anything but longer lingering march of death (on both sides). The IED is still the 'killer' app. Once there is a way to find and destroy these, there will be another example of inimitable human ingenuity that will emerge from the minds of a desperate people with nothing left to lose.
A true stealth weapon would be something that crept in and created an an economy providing structure, reward of opportunity, and a hope of a future worth not dying for.
Perhaps this is actually the 'plan'
Let some tameable skiddies loose to stir up public opinion in support of regulation (e.g. French Pres. Sarkhozy's recent speach) - so there is something else to focus on (apart from gov having no money, no gold, no clue).
Once they get too damaging, reel them in and put them on show, then roll out controlling legislation.
(Mind you, our western record of controlling guerilla forces that we set up is not exactly spotless, so there may be a problem here)
The new ft.com site (http://m.ft.com) optimised for iphone/ipad to bypass Apple's restriction on the customer relationship is a great example of what can be done well. An optimised mobile experience instead of a platform specific app.
There are specific optimised versions for ipad and galaxy tab, so platform specialisation is still necessary and being done - but the FT / Pearson Group maintain the direct relationship with the customer; not Apple, Android, Samsung or the Carriers.
Content is still king in the end.
If you use a network with a captive portal to control security of access - e.g. conference centres, hotels, etc - the initial network is unsecured (no 'little padlock' icon), but you cannot go anywhere until you have put your voucher code / room number / username + password / etc.
In these cases, the network shows up as "unsecured" but _can_ be quite secure in fact, as you are being dumped into a walled garden (captive portal) first.
Trevor, OK, will wait for next instalment. Thanks for taking time to respond.
However, I am still with @Sebastian Brosig at this point - I am not yet convinced that it is worth the expense and overhead against ad-hoc others, especially for smaller teams.
Clearly the enterprise type functions, message archive retention particularly are important and missing from the free alternatives.
However, 37 Signals' Campfire product does well, and is integrated into Basecamp as a bonus. And does not require any setup, plus the conversations are filed against the project automatically.
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