LinkedIn to Launch Job Application Tool

Lookout job boards! You are soon to be extinct! LinkedIn's got the network, got the money from their IPO and will now proceed to put hooks into everything else.

http://gigaom.com/2011/06/01/apply-with-linkedin/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OmMalik+%28GigaOM%3A+Tech%29

If they bring on some additionally functionality like this their market cap might actually become justifiable.

Gary Hoke

German scientists beat data transfer record - 26 Tb/sec!!!


This seems fairly newsworthy. Maybe we'll be bouncing lasers off satellites for WAN connections in the near future?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110523/tc_afp/germanysciencetelecomdata

Gary Hoke

Is a storm brewing for cloud computing???

Outage of Amazon Web Services won't help adoption, but will hopeful drive some changes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110422/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_amazon_outages

Gary Hoke

Dice Tech Salary Survey for 2010-2011 is out...

http://salary.dice.com/Documents/Dice_2010_11_TechSalarySurvey.pdf

Some surprise results with regards to salary drop for some roles and skills.

Gary Hoke

Here's a great use of RFID to prevent theft. As RFID costs continue to fall things like this will only become more prevalent.

"That hotel towel you're stealing might have an RFID chip in it"

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/20/that-hotel-towel-youre-stealing-might-have-an-rfid-chip-in-it/

Maybe they'll start putting it on the shampoo bottles and in the bars of soap as well?

Gary Hoke

Lots of patches out recently from Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and Adobe.

Read more about them here: http://www.informationweek.com/articles/229401762

Don't become a victim to these vulnerabilities! Install your patches today.

Gary Hoke

Freebie after Rebate: McAfee Internet Security 2011 - 1 User @ Newegg

Gary Hoke

I just ordered "The Real Business of IT" this past weekend and I'm looking forward to reading it. I heard lots of positive feedback and it appears to have numerous positive reviews.

http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/media_products/REAL_IT/home.jsp

If you would like a preview Chapter 1 and Chapter 5 are available online. I'll post a review once I'm finished.

Gary Hoke

So what if you could take a pill and it could report back to your doctor when you took it, what was your heart rate, body temperature or other physiological information? Well that day is here (or at least really close). Proteus Biomedical has developed ingestible sensor technology that does just that.

http://www.proteusbiomed.com/proteus_technology.html

Imagine if you got a text message reminding you to take your medication, but only if you forgot to take it. This technology has the promise to significantly increase drug adherence thereby allow physicians to better determine if a drug was not effective as a result of poor drug adherence versus efficacy. This could be especially of interest in clinical trials when the assessment of efficacy is most critical.

Gary Hoke

Congrats to all you software engineers out there! Best job in America for 2011 per CNBC.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40950977?slide=11

1. Software Engineer

Average Salary: $87,140
Scored High On: Hiring Outlook, Salary, Work Environment

If you had any doubt that technology was king, this No. 1 ranking should erase it. Software engineers, those who research, design and maintain software systems, are in great demand as mobile technology and computer networking grows. Plus, the need to secure and update those systems gives an added spike to demand.

Employment of computer software engineers is expected to jump more than 30 percent in the next decade, according to the Labor Department.

The pay is highest at scientific-research, computer-equipment manufacturing and software-publishing companies.

Gary Hoke

So I'm thinking about buying a Apple iPad to run Microsoft Windows on. No really. So if you had to choose would you go with a Windows Tablet or an iPad with VM access to the Windows client in a business environment? Please share your thoughts!

The article below discusses how the newly released VMware View™ Client for iPad is being planned for use in the healthcare industry.

http://emrdailynews.com/2011/03/09/apple-ipad-means-business-for-healthcare-with-vmware-view%E2%84%A2-virtual-desktops/

Gary Hoke

Investors: Get your free subscription to Kiplinger's magazine here.

http://www.freebizmag.com/emailkipfinnl01welcome.htm

Gary Hoke

So have you signed up for the Amazon Cloud Drive yet? Amazon's offering is pretty nice. You get 5 GB for free and can purchase more space. You can upload up to a 2 GB file, which way exceeds the 50 MB limit allowed by Microsoft Skydrive. Give a try, it's free.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

Gary Hoke

Looking for ITIL v3 Foundation Certification on a showstring budget?

I recently found this offering by ThoughtRock for ITIL study materials and the exam through Loyalist for only $150. It sounds quite compelling, but I'd be interested in feedback from anyone who has purchased it. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

http://www.thoughtrock.net/theitilexam/

Gary Hoke

I recently had an opportunity to see a demo of Microsoft PowerPivot. I was quite impressed by this tool, especially given that it is a free add-in to Excel 2010. There are numerous competing technologies out there that provide in-memory business intelligence capabilities, but I think this could be a game changer for Microsoft. Specifically, many business users already rely on using Excel to perform data analysis activities, yet usually in a manner whereby the datasets are disconnected from the source of record. PowerPivot pulls a snapshot of the data locally, but can update this snapshot periodically such that models, graphs, calculations, dashboards, etc. can be dynamically updated over time and support analysis of very large datasets without placing persistent load on a production database server. The other compelling offering is the same technology for SharePoint allow for the ability to distribute the analysis in a dashboard format to other users in your organization.

To learn more about Microsoft PowerPivot visit http://www.powerpivot.com

If you are already on Office 2010 it is a free add-in, so give it try.

Gary Hoke

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for Students $59.95


http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Triangle

Inc. Magazine recently released their list of the top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America. Below are the companies which are located in the Triangle area.

Rank Name
85 iContact
87 Rockett Interactive
270 Mainline Contracting
283 Canvas On Demand
288 Oak Grove Technologies
322 Media Two Interactive
363 The Select Group
375 USfalcon
448 Bandwidth.com
552 Professional Builders Supply
580 Surety Systems
704 Sageworks
1417 Hosted Solutions
1594 Catalyst Manufacturing Services
1629 Eco Turf
1808 SciQuest
1928 Greene Resources
2281 Matai
2839 WorkSmart
2893 Geomagic
2918 Frankel Staffing Partners
3491 iT People Corporation
3537 Fleet Feet, Incorporated
3706 MetaMetrics
3880 Burt's Bees
4032 Timberline Acquisition
4151 NStar Global Services
4254 Signalscape
4291 Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties
4558 FMI
4799 HumanCentric Technologies
4842 Capital Investment Companies
4912 Fowler Contracting

To view the complete list of all the companies along with links to more information about them please visit http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/the-full-list.html?sort=rank&order=ASC

Gary Hoke

Today, I heard about a cool new web service on CNBC called Jott. It provides a speech-to-text engine for you to interface with custom lists, reminders, your blog, a user group or a custom application of your own by calling a toll free number. Additionally, the service provides the capability to read any "feeds" that you specify to you via their toll free number.

Try it out for yourself at http://jott.com

Additionally, I highly recommend that developers checkout the developers page. The possibilities seem endless.

http://jott.com/jotters/index.php/developers

Have fun "jotting"!

Gary Hoke

The battle for supremacy in the online brokerage market continues; however, one online broker is setting itself apart for the pack. It's Zecco! They provide access to $0 online stock trades at Zecco Trading. It's not an introductory offer either -- you get up to 10 free trades/month, every month, as long as you have $2,500 minimum balance. Otherwise, it's just $4.50/trade!

I've found Zecco especially useful for purchasing ETFs which usually have a much lower operating expense than mutual funds. Plus with so many new ETFs on the market it allows individuals investors to diversify their portfolios with specific sectors, regions or commodities which most mutual fund families may not provide. The 10 free trades per month is by far the best feature. This could save an semi-active trader $800-$1200 a year based on the commissions charged by brokerages like Scottrade, E*Trade and TD Ameritrade.

To learn more about Zecco and how to setup an account click on the image below.

Enjoy and good luck trading!

Gary

NCSU MBA Program jumps 15 places to 59th in the nation in U.S. News and World Report rankings...

http://mgt.ncsu.edu/news/2008/march/jenkins-mba-us-news-world-rankings-report.php

Gary Hoke