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Sunday, November 13, 2011

10 Steps to Moving to the Cloud

Virtualization and cloud computing increase efficiency and flexibility in providing data and applications to users, yet managing performance of applications and transactions in the cloud is neither simple nor easy. When you add another layer, particularly one that is highly dynamic in nature, assuring a high quality user experience gets trickier when applications misbehave. It’s harder to determine where an application or transaction was working when the failure or slowdown occurred, since virtual machines are provisioned and decommissioned continually according to business priority and demand. You can no longer monitor an application in the context of its server.

1. Think End-to-end
The traditional server-centric monitoring approach is no longer relevant. Focus on applications and transactions instead.

2. Fix First
Application problems don't go away in the cloud; address them before making the move.

3. Prioritize
Map out your business priorities by application so you can focus on infrastructure and monitoring.

4. Establish Baselines
Set performance baselines before migration, so IT can accurately characterize user issues in the cloud.

5. Define Metrics
Establish core metrics for the cloud, such as response time for critical transactions.

6. Monitor QoS.
Watch for degradation of quality of service during and after migration.

7. Watch for Contention
Resource contention on virtual machines is a common problem that IT should monitor.

8. Balance Java Clusters
Beware that adding nodes/capacity to an unbalanced cluster has detrimental effects.

9. Weigh Performance
Compare the performance history of your app in the cloud to the performance history while the app was "on iron".

10. Optimize Staff
Deploy IT staff according to business priority so you don't under-staff a critical application.

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Hiring Focus Turns to Military Veterans - Careers - News & Reviews - Baseline.com

Hiring Focus Turns to Military Veterans - Careers - News & Reviews - Baseline.com:

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10 Best Global Companies to Work For

 

What makes for a great workplace? Quality of life, access to senior managers, and clear career paths were among the attributes cited by workers in a “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces” survey from consultancy Great Place to Work. To be considered, companies must employ at least 5,000 people worldwide, with no less than 40% of them working outside of the home country. These are organizations that demonstrate a focus on improving the work and life experiences for the rank-and-file, and finding innovative ways to make good things happen. "This list recognizes global companies that have demonstrated a truly serious commitment to creating workplaces that foster trust, pride and camaraderie amongst their employees," said Jose Tolovi Jr., global CEO of Great Place to Work. The research is based on surveys in which more than 2.5 million workers took part. The top 25 can be found here; this slideshow includes the top ten companies, along with some perks from their global locations.

1. Family Affair

Microsoft
Microsoft invites its Norwegian employees on maternity and paternity leave—and their kids—to a quarterly “Junior Lunch.”

2. Business Education

SAS
SAS community-based education programs are used by more than 50,000 U.S. teachers at no cost.

3. Gracious Gesture

NetApp
Vice Chairman Tom Mendoza averages 30 “thank you” calls to employees a week.

4. Time to Innovate

Google
Engineers spend one-fifth of their time on projects of their own choosing, leading to innovations like Gmail, Google News and AdSense.

5. Career Opportunities

FedEx Express
European employees use the company’s Career Hub to manage careers and find new opportunities from within.

6. Front and Center

Cisco
CEO John Chambers invites workers for informal, candid group Q&A sessions that are held closely to their birthdays.

7. Accommodating Arrangement

Marriott
New hires in Mexico get to stay at a location for a night to experience its customer service first-hand.

8. Reaching Out

McDonald’s
McDonald’s UK works closely with the government and partners to provide jobs for the long-time unemployed, disabled, disadvantaged and military veterans.

9. Maternal Instinct

Kimberly-Clark
The company celebrates Mother’s Day with a catered breakfast or lunch for all moms in the company.

10. No Meeting Time Zone

SC Johnson
In Italy, directors/managers cannot call meetings before 9:30 a.m.

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Saturday, June 11, 2011

10 reasons why Chromebooks will be a huge success

As June 15th nears, the folks at Google must be busy biting their nails off. This is the big G’s first step into the world of operating systems, and they want everything to go just right. With the release of Chromebook, they will be competing with 3 operating systems which have been around for a very long time. Whether Google will manage to topple them or not, only time can tell; however, there are a few reasons that this might work out pretty well for them. Here are ten such reasons why Chromebooks will be a huge hit.

Backing from vendors: One reason Ubuntu has failed (uptil now) to give Microsoft a tough time is that it lacks backing from enough vendors. We can blame Microsoft some other time for that, but for now, having good vendor support is a must for a new Operating System. And luckily enough, as with Android, Chrome OS has a good backing from reputed companies like Acer, Samsung, Toshiba and Dell. Having such a big backing is definitely a huge head start for Google Chrome OS, no matter what happens afterwards.

Faster bootup times: For people who are always on the run, nothing is more annoying than a device that boots really slow. Windows and Macs, despite being so popular haven’t been able to make any significant leaps in this area. Google Chrome OS on the other hand, boots in almost 10 seconds; which, to the less tech-savvy sounds like a huge miracle in computing. And considering a major chunk of the computing userbase is a guy/girl who doesn’t know what a browser is, Chromebooks might be just what they need.

Another option for frustrated Windows users: Viruses, fragmentation, malware, crapware, bloating, BSODs, Windows has got it all. Chromebooks on the other hand, don’t happen to suffer from all these problems. It is a novel device that gets rid of the vulnerable middle man, that Microsoft has been making money off of for years. Now, there’s a big debate whether this is a good move or a bad one, and honestly, only time will tell whether it will work as Google envisions it to.

Apps galore: The lack of cross-platform applications is one major reason Windows users haven’t switched to Linux yet. As of now, Chrome OS doesn’t include any major switch-worthy applications, but the amount of applications that have been added to the Webstore recently is making the naysayers take back their words. Also, among the apps that are essential for any desktop user, Google claims that it has them all. For office junkies, there is Google Docs as well as MS Office Live; for music lovers there is Google Music and for gamers there are popular games like Angry Birds. In other words, if you aren’t a stickler for feature-loaded desktop applications, Chromebook will be enough to get you through the day without calling tech support.

Android encore: When Apple announced the iPad, many tech enthusiasts derided the product. However, iPhone fanatics and Apple fanboys in general were going to buy the device no matter how it was. Android, like iPhone, has managed to gain quite a lot of popularity in a short time. For the Android and Google fanboys, Chromebook is a must-have device, no matter what the critics say.

Great secondary device: These days there has been a sort of buzz about secondary devices. Secondary devices like tablets and netbooks are not only convenient but also affordable for many people who already own a desktop or laptop. When it comes to choosing as to which secondary device is the best one, there are a lot of people who would prefer Chromebooks. The reason is Chromebooks are cheaper than the much coveted iPad. Moreover, they are easy on the pocket. The iPad does make a good secondary device; however, the heavy price point is a turn off for many.

Web addicts: If you spend your whole day in a web browser, Chromebook is something you should consider buying. Having the whole operating system wasted on a chronic web addict must have been a good motivation point for Google to come up with a product like this.

Cloudlust: Be it Apple, Microsoft or Canonical; everyone’s going crazy about the cloud. Google however, wants you to pack all your belongings and just move to the cloud right away. With almost every Google service including Music, Docs and Books running directly from the cloud, the big G expects to make big breakthroughs in this area with the release of Chromebooks. Moreover, Google offers some pretty cheap storage upgrades for normal Google accounts. For anyone who is itching to get a taste of the cloud life, Chromebooks are (hopefully) a perfect entry point.

Low price: Unless you are living in a mansion somewhere or are a fanatic Apple fanboy, price is probably the first thing you’ll see before buying any new product. And after looking at Chromebook’s price, many people won’t be disappointed. If you consider the wifi-only model Acer provides, 350 $ isn’t too costly when compared with the 16 GB Wifi-only iPad 2 which costs 500 $. So, if most of your usage happens at home or a coffee shop with wi-fi, Chromebook can be a great deal. As far as the 3G versions are concerned, they’re a bit on the costlier side.

Good Battery Life: The Samsung model boasts of a 8.5 hour battery life with continuous usage. Now, that can be quite useful for someone who travels a lot.

Conclusion: Despite having absolutely no experience in the field of operating systems, Chromebook promises to bring a completely new concept to the desktop users. Only time will tell whether they’ll be as successful as Google wants them to be.

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Friday, April 01, 2011

Software Update News

Scribus 1.4.0 RC3

Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:44 AM PDT

Scribus is an open-source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows.

Flash Player 10.3.180.65 Beta 2 (Non-IE)

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 10:19 PM PDT

Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.

Flash Player 10.3.180.65 Beta 2 (IE)

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 10:18 PM PDT

Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.

Adobe Air 2.7.0.19200 Beta 1

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 10:13 PM PDT

The Adobe® AIR, runtime enables you to have your favorite web applications with you all the time. Since applications built for Adobe AIR run on your desktop computer without a web browser, they provide all the convenience of a desktop application.

uTorrent 2.2.1 Build 25154

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 09:09 PM PDT

µTorrent is a small and incredibly popular BitTorrent client.

The Bat! Home Edition 4.2.44

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 04:53 AM PDT

The Bat! mail client has a lot of vital benefits and useful features that make your email experience simple and convenient. All these features perfectly fit any Windows OS. Moreover, The Bat! is the first and only email client Certified for Windows Vista by Microsoft Corporation. “Certified for Vista” logo guarantees the highest level of compatibil...

Orbit Downloader 4.0.10

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 04:51 AM PDT

Orbit Downloader, is a download manager specifically designed for the new generation Web (Web 2.0). You can use Orbit to download video/music/files from Myspace, YouTube, Imeem, Pandora, and Rapidshare, or on any site to make general downloading easier and faster.

ooVoo 3.0.2.6

Posted: 29 Mar 2011 04:23 AM PDT

With ooVoo, you can connect with anyone, anytime, with video calls, video messages, phone calls, text and more. Use ooVoo to get face time with people you can't meet in person (and save travel time and money!). ooVoo makes life easier and more fun.

Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.9

Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:23 PM PDT

All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

EA Download Manager 7.3.5.7

Posted: 28 Mar 2011 10:14 PM PDT

EA Download Manager (formerly EA Link or EA Downloader) is an application that enables you to download games and related content directly to your computer. This application also provides one location for you to manage and organize your EA digital content.

Recuva 1.40.525

Posted: 28 Mar 2011 05:48 AM PDT

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been del...

FileZilla 3.4.0

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 10:45 PM PDT

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.

FastPictureViewer 1.5 Build 182 (32-bit)

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 10:41 PM PDT

FastPictureViewer, an image viewer designed for photographers. Now with powerful workflow tools helping to automate file management duties like copy, move, delete, save-for-web and more.

Rainlendar 2.9 Beta 104

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 10:12 PM PDT

Rainlendar is a customizable calendar that displays the current month. It is a very lightweight application that doesn't use much system resources or take much space on your desktop.

ZoneAlarm Free 9.2.106.000

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 10:06 PM PDT

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall blocks hackers from infiltrating your home PC by hiding your computer from unsolicited network traffic. By detecting and preventing intrusions, ZoneAlarm Free Firewall keeps your PC free from viruses that slow down performance, and spyware that steals your personal information, passwords, and financial data.

WinZip 15.0.9411

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 12:06 AM PDT

WinZip is the most trusted way to work with compressed files. No other compression utility is as easy-to-use or offers the comprehensive and productivity-enhancing approach that has made WinZip the gold standard for file-compression tools.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.4

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 11:31 PM PDT

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments.

FluffyApp 1.0 Beta 6

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 11:24 PM PDT

FluffyApp is a simple and lightweight utility that was designed to help you instantly upload your pictures or other files to CloudApp. You only have to sign into your account and drag the files onto the application’s icon. CloudApp is a simple app which sits on the menu bar and allow drag-and-drop file uploading complete with an auto-shortened URL ...

Any Video Converter 3.21

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 11:02 PM PDT

Any Video Converter is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for i...

Fresh View 8.16

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 10:38 PM PDT

Fresh View gives you the ability to organize and view multimedia files (images, audio, video). Watch movies, listen to music, and view graphics in a slide show. Image files in a folder can be displayed using a number of views, including a thumbnail view that lets you quickly see what your images are without having to open them.

Miranda 0.9.18

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 12:08 AM PDT

Miranda IM is a multi-protocol instant messenger client for Windows. Miranda IM uses very little memory and is extremely fast. It requires no installation and can be fitted on a single floppy disc. Its powerful plugin system makes Miranda IM very flexible. Only the most basic features are built in, but there are currently more than 350 free plugins...

Maxthon 3.0.22.1000 Beta

Posted: 25 Mar 2011 04:57 AM PDT

Maxthon Internet Browser software is a powerful tabbed browser with a highly customizable interface. It is based on the Internet Explorer browser engine (your most likely current web browser) which means that what works in the IE browser will work the same in Maxthon tabbed browser but with many additional efficient features:

Google Chrome 12.0.712.0 Beta

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 11:29 PM PDT

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Freemake Video Converter 2.1.1.1

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 10:56 PM PDT

Freemake offers free program for video converting - developed as alternative to popular paid software. “Free, easy and of high quality” are the fundamental principles of Freemake.

Sandboxie 3.54

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 10:30 PM PDT

Tired of dealing with rogue software, spyware and malware?

CCleaner 3.05.1408

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:27 AM PDT

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that...

Foxit Reader 4.3.1.0323

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 02:49 AM PDT

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

VLC Media Player 1.1.8

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 10:37 PM PDT

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols without external codec or program.

uTorrent 2.2.1 Build 25130

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 10:07 PM PDT

µTorrent is a small and incredibly popular BitTorrent client.

SeaMonkey 2.0.13

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 09:41 PM PDT

SeaMonkey is a web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple -- all your Internet needs in one application.

FrostWire 4.21.5

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 02:46 AM PDT

FrostWire, a Gnutella Peer-to-Peer client, is a collaborative effort from many Open Source and freelance developers located from all around the world.

Firefox 4.0

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 05:59 AM PDT

The Web is all about innovation, and Firefox sets the pace with dozens of new features to deliver a faster, more secure and customizable Web browsing experience for all.

Google Chrome 11.0.696.16 Beta

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 11:31 PM PDT

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Orbit Downloader 4.0.9

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 02:06 AM PDT

Orbit Downloader, is a download manager specifically designed for the new generation Web (Web 2.0). You can use Orbit to download video/music/files from Myspace, YouTube, Imeem, Pandora, and Rapidshare, or on any site to make general downloading easier and faster.

Adobe Air 2.6.0.19120

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 10:30 PM PDT

The Adobe® AIR, runtime enables you to have your favorite web applications with you all the time. Since applications built for Adobe AIR run on your desktop computer without a web browser, they provide all the convenience of a desktop application.

EA Download Manager 7.3.4.4

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 10:17 PM PDT

EA Download Manager (formerly EA Link or EA Downloader) is an application that enables you to download games and related content directly to your computer. This application also provides one location for you to manage and organize your EA digital content.

Soluto 1.1.1445 Beta

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 10:12 PM PDT

Soluto's goal is to bring an end to the frustrations PC users encounter. Soluto developed technology that tackles this problem from two different directions:

Flash Player 10.2.153.1 (Non-IE)

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 09:54 PM PDT

Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.

Flash Player 10.2.153.1 (IE)

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 09:52 PM PDT

Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.

Sandra Lite 2011 SP1a (17.43)

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 05:19 AM PDT

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

GPU-Z 0.5.2

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 04:34 AM PDT

GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

Vista Codec Package 5.9.2

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:23 PM PDT

All the codecs you need for Vista to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

FileZilla 3.4.0 RC1

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:15 PM PDT

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.

Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.8

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:08 PM PDT

All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

Foobar2000 1.1.6 beta 1

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:56 PM PDT

foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.

phpMyAdmin 3.3.10

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:32 PM PDT

phpMyAdmin is a free software tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the World Wide Web. phpMyAdmin supports a wide range of operations with MySQL.

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