Tuesday 30 July 2013

IT Department Priorities for 2014

If asked for my own personal view for the priorities for a typical IT department for medium to large organization to focus on for 2014 [it is now Q3\2013], without regard to any specific area or industry;

[Revised, Q3/2014]

I would answer:

1) Measuring and monitoring IT performance.
[This should cover both staffing and activities. Moreover, this should have already been established; however, but the metrics for measuring have to be updated on annual basis due to the changes in the priorities themselves.]

2) Business Intelligence.
[Its value is very clear as the tools have evolved so much over the last 10 years, and making best use of these tools is a quick win.]

3) H\W Virtualization.
[To make sure that no H\W servers still exist, and when done, the reporting and logging needs to be optimized to minimize the overhead and to maximize the insight into the machines operations.]

4) Agile development.
[No more time or resources to waste on a classical S\W development model within an IT department.]

5) Cloud computing.
[Seeking a hybrid approach, private and public]

6) Security Management and privacy.
[It is always among my priorities, the only weapon here is that knowledge within this area has to be always up-to-date]

7) Information Assets Management.
[$ missed here are usually more than one can imagine, especially with the ubiquitous of small and handheld devices. These assets must be probably managed and maintained]

8) Project Management Office.
[Strengthening the project management capacity can greatly improve all of the rest but with different ratios.]

9) Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.
[The value of the investments here is only considered a value in the worst situations!]

10) Training.
[Being at the end of the list of priorities should not be read as not that important, but rather should be read as one of the priorities. It is only at the very bottom, since it is a recommended common practice to do first things first.]





References for opinions on that same topic for 2013:
http://www.protiviti.com/en-US/Documents/Surveys/2013-IT-Priorities-Survey-Protiviti.pdf
http://www.computerweekly.com/guides/IT-priorities-survey-2013

N.B.
I might update my list based on feedback.

Sunday 21 July 2013

Feature I would like to see in: Google Hangouts on iOS

Ring tones for incoming calls.

Currently at the time of this writing, there is only a default sound which plays on receiving calls. From my own experience, it is rarely noticed since for most times, me and my recipients who are using iOS devices miss our calls!



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hangouts/id643496868?mt=8

Google Hangouts version 1.1.1.2672
iPhone 4s
iOS 6.1.3

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Errors in the high-level relational engine. A connection could not be made to the data source with the DataSourceID of , Name of .

This error appears on tryinging to deploy\process the cube.

Open the Data Source properties:


This should solve it although I entered the current user credentials, although when I selected the third option in the dialog box it didn't!


MS SQL Server Data Tools 2010
MS SQL Server 2012


Thanks for vinu!

Sunday 14 July 2013

Performance Tip: ASP.NET HTTPResponse.Redirect(newURL, FALSE) is the way to redirect

Try to always use the second parameter endResponse for the method:

   HTTPResponse.Redirect(newURL, FALSE)

endResponse when set to true results in throwing the exception ThreadAbortException. Typically, exceptions propagations are expensive with respect to processing and results in performance degradation. Alternatively, it is recommended whenever possible to set endResponse to false and provide a graceful logical end to your thread following the redirection procedure.


Thanks goes to Mike Volodarsky's blog.
For details: MSDN

Friday 12 July 2013

Feature I would like to see in iOS 6: Identifying the e-mail sender for group mailboxes

This concerns MS Exchange mailboxes for groups.

What is required is a way to be able to view the exact account sender who sent on behalf of the group mailbox.

The current behavior in iOS mail is that it only displays the sender as the group mailbox only, with no specific account.

Feature I would not like to see in Facebook version for iOS: Draging friends icons to hide chat window

Throwing my friends photo icons to the hide icon to close a chat is not the most adorable way to do so.

For a number of reasons from my point of view:
-  It is usually a long move  from the default icon location in the top to the fixed location hide icon, which is more significant with devices with larger screens like the iPad.

- Throwing the icons away to hide resembles, in my mind, throwing something to trash which is not a favorable resemblance for doing that with a friends icons to end a conversation.

Current Facebook Version 257209
iOS 6

Thursday 4 July 2013

Simple way to create Video DVD

First I tried Windows DVD Maker (Windows 7 native application), and after 2 trials each for 2 hours which both end by a message I could recognize its significance, then I searched online for some suggestions.

My recommendation is that simple application: DVD Flick


- Set the project settings to your desierable media size and other options you prefer.
- Add your video files as titles and set whichever
- Create DVD

For video editing:
Movie Maker is the simplest tool I have used before, no much sophisticated options but free and does the job.
Movie Maker is part from Windows Live Essentials



Good article about that topic:
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/burn-wmv-to-dvd/