by Ron Miller

At GitHub You Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Office, But There Is A Nice One If You Do

GitHub is an unconventional company that encourages people to work however they like, wherever they like and whenever they like, but they also have cool digs for those who want a more formal setting. http://tcrn.ch/1PHs4lQ

Putting Watson to Delicious Use

IBM has been trying to commercialize Watson since its coming out party on Jeopardy a few years ago, and this year at South by Southwest they built an application that put the technology to delicious use. http://bit.ly/1iV9dDm

Photo Credit: IBM Research

Just when you thought IT was safe again, here come the wearables

IT has had to struggle with an ever-shifting variety of devices over the last few years. In part, the Bring Your Own Device notion rose because IT simply couldn't keep up with it all. Now, there is a new category about to enter business: wearables --and while you might think this is far fetched, chances are it's going to happen sooner or later. I report from South by Southwest.http://bit.ly/1hggWJf

Photo Credit: Keoni Cabral on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license

Looking for a database? Check out DB-Engines first

It's always difficult to separate marketing drivel from reality when making a technology purchase and databases are no different. That's why a site called DB-Engines, which ranks each database vendor according to a set of pre-defined metrics could be a useful resource for you when you make a database choice. http://bit.ly/1fg8KJd

Photo Credit: CanStockPhoto

We make technology so much harder than it has to be

We who are immersed in technology sometimes forget it's about solutions, not how it works. All most SMBs care about is that they have a business problem and they want a quick technology solution. Is it cheaper, faster or better? That's all that matters. The rest is discussion fodder for journalists and analysts.  http://bit.ly/1cK7tYp

Photo Credit: CanStockPhoto

Time to forgive Ed Snowden

My first column for Computerworld: When Edward Snowden walked out of the NSA with all those documents he's been releasing over the last several months, he did us all a huge favor by peeling back the curtain and showing us the extent of the surveillance state. And while he surely embarrassed the US government, he hasn't put US security at risk. It's time to drop the espionage charges and let him come home.http://bit.ly/HUn2mJ

Photo credit: CanStockPhoto

Ellen introduces several new wearable tech ideas

Here are few wearable tech ideas you might not have considered. Now this is funny. 

 

Marketing companies may think they know about me, but they don't

So just what do data brokers know about us and why are online ads are so laughably off? One company Acxiom has decided to open up their database and I took it for a spin. What I found was they got a lot of stuff wrong --and that was somehow very comforting to me. http://bit.ly/15ZnZTx

When machines talk...

Machine to Machine communication was all the rage during my recent visits to Mobile World Congress and CeBIT, and when machines talk, they might actually transform your business. The challenge is figuring out what's important -- and that could be the next big data challenge.

Read my full post on the Ness Software Engineering Services blog.

Photo Credit: CanStockPhoto

Video-Movie: A creepy look at a possible future of wearables

This movie is great. It looks at one possible future of wearable computers and in this vision it's fairly creepy, especially when the tool is in the hands of the guy who designed it. It's well worth the 7 plus minutes and kept me glued to it -- even though I should be doing other things.