The Wall Street Journal thinks that this might be the week Yahoo finally names its long overdue replacement for CEO Jerry Yang and the latest name to surface as a possible is that of Autodesk executive chairman and former CEO Carol Bartz, a veteran of Sun and DEC and, like Steve Jobs, a cancer survivor. Her name was first bruited last week by AllThingsDigital, the Dow Jones blog that owns the Yahoo story, and repeated again by the Journal. Bartz, 60, knows how to grow a software company - when she took over Autodesk in 1992 it was a $250 million company and left it two years ago a $1.25 billion company - but she has little experience of either advertising or the web. It is also unclear whether she wants the job. Yahoo, like Novell before Eric Schmidt, has a long list of people like ex-Vodefone CEO Arun Sarin who've said no and may have to fall back on an internal cand... (more)

Changing where you work is changing your job

CNN.com has posted my op-ed about why where you work is not about the quality of your life so much as about the substance of it. Judging from some of the reaction, I should emphasize that if the only way to save Yahoo were to require everyone to come to work every day, that would certainly be the right decision. But it seems clear to me that Marissa Mayer was sending a signal with this policy, for surely there are some people who were working productively from home. So, if the new policy is a signal and is not actually required to save Yahoo, then I think she has underestimated how disruptive a signal it is. [To late to stick in a spoiler notice? That was the essence of my op-ed.] Also, CNN.com has stripped out the links, I’m pretty sure unintentionally. Here they are: On dispersed coding teams [pdf] Mayer gets to bring her infant to work For Mayer, family comes... (more)

Google’s ‘Offline Disk Support’ Lets US Cloud Users Mail Hard Drives for Manual Uploading

Good news for companies struggling to bring their massive data sets online: Google has announced the launch of Offline Disk Import, a service which lets Google Cloud Storage users send Google physical hard drives for manual uploading. Sadly, this feature is only available to US users at the moment. Offline Disk Import is only relevant for companies with truly massive amounts of data stuck offline; Google says its service is targeted towards companies that need to upload data “in the hundreds of terabytes and beyond.” Given that uploading such a large data set would be difficult, or even impossible on many connections in the US, Offline Disk Import could be an excellent option at only $80 per hard drive (regardless of the size). Of course, this isn’t a new idea. Amazon has offered similar services as early as 2009 for S3. Read the full story at The Next Web. ... (more)

Translate your handwriting with Google Translate’s iOS application

By Kimberly Kelly Google has released version 2.0 of Google Translate for iOS. This new version has a feature that can now read and translate your handwriting. This new feature now supports 49 different languages. I imagine this feature can be very helpful, especially if people are using a standard US keyboard. I say this because not all languages are based on the Latin alphabet that English speakers use. This tool can be very effective when someone is in a foreign country. Now the user does not need to pre-translate the unknown character before typing it in, instead they can use the original character. By using the original character you can hopefully avoid miscommunication and confusion. I know when I traveled abroad this feature would have come in very handy. For example my friend Lauren traveled to Thailand this spring, during her trip she was in a situation w... (more)

Mobility and Real-Time Capability Projection

This weekend I was clever.  That is newsworthy because it doesn't happen very often.  Our son is stationed at a military base that did not receive TV coverage of the Boise State football game on Saturday night.  It must have been the government shut-down.  I can't think of any other reason they wouldn't have shown it.  The solution was a three hour Google+ Hangout whereby mom and dad got to talk to our officer son while the laptop camera "inadvertently" captured and streamed the Broncos game showing on our big screen TV.  It was a nice Hangout - they won!  We tried Skype first, but the picture was blurry.  Google+ Hangout, however, was picture perfect. Our son is stationed a great distance away, however, using real-time communication and video we can communicate and share what is going on in our lives.  This same kind of technology can be used in the context of "cap... (more)

Searchmetrics partners with AirPair, the platform for expert on-demand online software developer support

AirPair to deliver fast, pay-as-you-go external online advice on Searchmetrics integration tasks New York - March 03, 2014 - Digital marketing software and services company, Searchmetrics, has partnered with AirPair, an online platform which delivers live on-demand pay-as-you-go remote assistance from leading software engineers and developers. The partnership means customers of Searchmetrics Suite, the online marketing and enterprise level Search Engine Optimization (SEO) platform for companies and online agencies, have the option to call on remote external assistance from leading experts within AirPair's network using video chat and screen sharing. "The expert advice from AirPair could be useful if someone wants specialist external help with using our API to integrate Searchmetrics data and features into their own IT landscape, for example," explains Matthias Bach... (more)

Major Bug ‘Heartbleed’ Has Exposed Your Data for Years

A newly discovered security bug nicknamed Heartbleed has exposed millions of usernames, passwords and reportedly credit card numbers — a major problem that hackers could have exploited during the more than two years it went undetected. It’s unlike most of the breaches reported over the past few years, in which one Web site or another got hacked or let its guard down. The flaw this time is in code designed to keep servers secure — tens of thousands of servers on which data is stored for thousands of sites. That’s why some experts were calling Heartbleed the worst bug yet, something that should worry everyone who frequents the Internet or does business on it. It’s as if someone went on vacation not knowing the lock on the front door was broken. Could someone walk in? Yes. Will they? Did they? Who knows. Read the full story at The Washington Post. Also read: Google ha... (more)

Shelly Palmer Radio Report – April 24, 2014

If you’ve ever wanted to access your computer from your Android phone, your wish has been granted. Google recently launched a Chrome Remote Desktop app, which lets you control your PC or Mac from an Android smartphone or tablet, no matter where you are. Setting up remote access is easy, too. On your computer, download the Chrome Remote Desktop app from the Chrome Web Store, which generates a code. Plug this code into the app on your phone, and you’ll instantly receive remote access. The web version of the app has been around for about a year and a half, letting you access one computer from another through the same process. This new update brings that same power to your phone. There have been rumors of an iOS version of the app as well, but Google hasn’t announced anything about that version. But if you’ve got an Android and want remote access to your PC or Mac, the ... (more)

In 2014 Big Data Investments Will Account for Nearly $30 Billion - Eventually Accounting for $76 Billion by 2020 End

DALLAS, Aug. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Amid the proliferation of real time data from sources such as mobile devices, web, social media, sensors, log files and transactional applications, Big Data has found a host of vertical market applications, ranging from fraud detection to R&D.; Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140821/138541 "Big Data Market: 2014 – 2020 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies, Industry Verticals & Forecasts" Key Findings: In 2014 Big Data vendors will pocket nearly $30 Billion from hardware, software and professional services revenues Big Data investments are further expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 17% over the next 6 years, eventually accounting for $76 Billion by the end of 2020 The market is ripe for acquisitions of pure-play Big Data startups, as competition heats up between IT incumbents Nearly every large scale IT ven... (more)

Paglo Delivers Free SaaS Service for Monitoring Amazon EC2 Instances

MENLO PARK, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/09/09 -- Paglo (www.Paglo.com), the leading on-demand IT management company, announced today its new Amazon EC2 monitoring application. Information technology and cloud computing professionals can now automatically index, search, and visualize the health and performance statistics being generated from their cloud-based applications in real-time. The Paglo service works with the Amazon CloudWatch API to gather EC2 resource utilization, performance and overall user demand patterns. This includes critical metrics for ensuring operational excellence such as CPU utilization, disk reads and writes and network traffic. The new application is free to use and provides the following benefits: -- A single platform for monitoring on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure and applications -- Automated collection and secure storage of Amazon ... (more)

Philips Unveils Innovative Solutions At CES to Make Life Easier and More Entertaining At Home and On the Go

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today launched a range of new products at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), focused on making it easier and more enjoyable for consumers to work out, watch TV and movies, and listen to music, whether they are at home or taking their entertainment on the road. Among the products announced today are Philips Activa, a portable audio player with unique features to encourage more intense workouts; innovations for the home that include the Philips PVD900 portable LCD TV, Philips PET749 Portable DVD Player and Simply Straight wall mounts and Wireless HDTV link; and GoGear VIBE MP3 players, which start at a suggested list price of only $49.99. "The line of new products Philips is announcing today are designed to offer simple and innovative solutions that improve every pa... (more)