Hectic Eclectic

Been having a look at some of the Tivoli appliances...

...and they look not bad.  Not seen the commerical propositions yet so they may be pricey... some of the Tivoli stuff just is - in my opion.

Anyway - check this out - we are waiting on a trial unit and commercials here at Seric Towers...  Will report back once the demo has been ... well ... done!

IBM could reduce its workforce by 299,000 in seven years

IBM has told Personnel Today that it could reduce its workforce from 399,000 today to 100,000 in 2017.2017 is the planned completion date of the completion of its its HR transformation programme.Tim Ringo, head of IBM Human Capital Management, told Personnel Today IBM would re-hire the workers as contractors for specific projects and when necessary use crowdsourcing. He said it was only being considered at present."There would be no buildings costs, no pensions  and no healthcare costs, making huge savings," he said.Sounds like what in India is known as "The Bench."

via www.computerweekly.com

SWMBO gets published in Emergency Medicine Journal...

My clever missus just got published - much excitement in our house.

Readability of information leaflets given to attenders at hospital with a head injury

In case you are wondering why this matters to me... why not get a little insight by reading my favourite Woody Allen Short. Anyone quoting the title at SWMBO and referencing me will be shot.

And in case you are wondering why this matter more generally... head injuries are serious, people die yall!

Know anyone with a connection to PSYBT (The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust)?

Folks...   PSYBT on linkedin... now with 140 members

Almost a year ago I posted a link to the PSYBT site I had set up on linkedin.  Well we had 64 members then and now have 140.  More than doubled but if I'm honest I had my heart set on a random number somewhere between 500 and 1000 and so 140 is pretty poor to my money.  So I need your help...  The Trust is looking to reconnect with other PSYBT contacts and I see linkedin as a cost effective way of reconnecting and directing folks to their own PSYBT content in a simple and unintrusive fashion....

Do you know anyone who...

1) Started up through PSYBT?

2) Is or was an aftercare advisor?

3) Is interested in becoming an aftercare advisor to young business....?

We could do with your help....  Checkout the group here

Since it was formally constituted in 1989, PSYBT has supported some 11,000 individuals to start almost 9000 businesses and provided £31.7 million in funding alongside a whole package of other assistance tailored to the needs of each individual.

Last year PSYBT invested £2 million in 665 young people involved in 559 businesses and the average PSYBT investment per business during financial year 2007/08 was £3203.

Having spent some time at LCTY2010 in Edinburgh...

At times reduced to a Barcode...

I may still just agree that Lotus Knows...

At the event there were some great speakers, for me the Highlights being (I've retitled)

Stuart McRae a Collaboration Evangelist - Connections plus with special sauce

John Schumacher a Director of Development at Lotus - It's the ROI stupid

and

Eliza Manningham-Buller, from the Bond movies - on being in MI5

So there was a lot to see...

Stuart's demo showcased a load of little 10second savers (widgets) being used in concert and in context within Lotus Connections and Domino (yes you could have used outlook for this bit).  Widget shown were either Business Partner e.g. Snapp, Big publically available stuff like linkedin and TrippIt and some internal IBM tools, or publically available stuff from the IBM Lotus Labs.

If you can save people 5mins every day through smarter working.  That is about 1% of a working day.  So with hundred staff you can have 100 staff doing the work of 101.  With a 1000 staff you are getting the work of 1010.  So for a 1000 employee business you save 10 average salaries... Think about you average company salary for a moment....  think you should be considering this stuff?  I do.

For a £20k average salary

1000 staff equates to savings of £200k p.a. 

For a £40k average salary

500 staff equates to savings of £200k p.a.

or

1000 staff equates to savings of £400k p.a.

Powerful stuff ... but who believes the 5mins right?  Well Stuart showed one example after another of how time could be saved.... if you couldn't easily find AT LEAST 5mins you are probably doing something mad.

Stuart McRae also touched on some of the stuff I've mentioned already about Blackberry and the iPhone but it was cool to see some iPad announces too and to hear reinforced that IBM's view is - you choose the device and we'll work with anyone.  Some really cool announces on how people are working well with Alloy by IBM & SAP (wee blog on that), Connections, Quickr and the rest on the Blackberry.

Amongst other things I was reminded by a colleague to check out Ed Brill's blog - where I hadn't been for a while, which led me to some Lotus Protector articles.  Zero false positives at 99% effective... not bad and ICSALabs certified.  If you don't know it much check out these videos with Arthur Fontaine

Don't be evil...?? Cyber attack on Google hit password system, says insider - 20/04/2010 - Computer Weekly

Cyber attack on Google hit password system, says insider - 20/04/2010 - Computer Weekly.

Bummer - looks like the old gmail account needs a password refresh!  And not 3 months too soon...

Don't be evil ... might that include full and open disclosure on information breech?  Thank goodness failure to disclose will most likely carry a fine in the UK from April 2011... but what if the server isn't UK hosted (like most of google tax avoiding UK business) will they be subject to the legislature...

#verymessycloudness

Good old fashioned fun from xkcd.com

 

From the love of maths to the futility of technology...

You can find out more about xkcd here see he's done some stuff for IBM's Smarter Planet - which I like but I suspect someone in IBM's marketing dept will be shot for going this far out there

The Trouble with IT

Well more like... the trouble many businesses have with their IT departments generally...  This is a pitch I've given to quite a number of clients.  Why?  Not because they don't know but to help them understand the issues IT can present to a business and to make sure they are avoiding falling into those common pitfalls...

I like this pitch because it gives a taster of how we work with clients...

The Trouble With It

View more presentations from Stuart Macdonald.

£500k Data loss fines come into Law

Hi, I mentioned earlier that some fines were likely to come in to law - well they just have.  So if you haven't got your house in order you probably should be thinking about it.

Whether you are governed by PCI, FSA or anything else this is the catchall - so make sure you are on top of it. 

Oh, and it lok like a few guys

Zurich Insurance

(who lost 46,000 unencrypted records)

Royal London

(who had over 2,000 stolen)

just missed out on being the first big fine... good old post ex-facto...  ;-(

Watch out all you data protection guys...  call us if you need a hand...