Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• The Most In-Demand Tech Skills: Why Java And The Classics Ruled 2013 - ReadWrite

  • Java’s popularity may indicate employers’ rising interest in mobile development. But due to the language’s wide number of development uses
  • employers listed Java as the number-one developer skill they’d be seeking out over the course of 2013. Likewise, ReadWrite also predicted that Java would be one of the seven most in-demand technology skills for the upcoming year
  • What should job seeking developers take from this? Trendy skills and languages may come and go, but employers are still boosting for the classics. 

• What mattered at CES 2014 -- Day 1 | CES In Depth - CNET Blogs

  • Sony also (sort of) unveiled an upcoming cloud-based video service, through which customers will be able to watch TV and movies whenever they want and on whatever device they want, including, yes, game consoles, but also devices such as the  iPad and smartphones. No name or launch date were given.

• Verizon cloud will let you buy your Oracle by the hour - Tech News and Analysis

  • Oracle and Verizon are teaming up so that Oracle shops can run their databases and Fusion middleware on the Verizon Enterprise Cloud and pay for all that by the hour
  • This is a pretty important enterprise software deal for Verizon which is billing its new cloud as a safe, secure, highly-available home for enterprise applications
  • What Verizon is doing is help those Oracle customers move some or all of their work off of physical CPUS and let them run Oracle across a spectrum from managed services to the existing Verizon Terremark enterprise cloud to the new super-duper Verizon cloud,

• TiVo Moves Storage Of TV Shows Into The Cloud With New Network DVR Service | TechCrunch

  • DVR manufacturer TiVo has spent most of the last 15 years building hardware that would allow consumers to record their favorite TV shows and watch them later. Now the company is working toward building products that would let consumers save their favorite shows not on a hard drive in a box, but up in the cloud.
  • With the network DVR, TiVo will be able to deliver the same consistent UI to users without having to have a hard drive in its set-top boxes. That will dramatically lower the cost of producing hardware, and it offers all sorts of new pricing and business models on top of its service.

• 25 Game-Changing Hard Trends That Will Create Both Disruption and Opportunity on a Global Level | Flash Foresights from Daniel Burrus | Big Think

  • Big Data as-a-Service (BDaaS) will emerge this year as cloud providers offer midsize and smaller organizations access to much larger streams of relevant data they could not tap into otherwise
  • this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity.
  • As individuals increasingly use personal mobile clouds, we will see a shift to services and less of a focus on the devices we use to access our services. This shift will also help us address the three limiting factors of mobility: battery life, memory, and processors.
  • Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) is increasingly joining Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), creating what some have called “IT as a service.” The rapid growth of Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS), Security-as-a-Service (SaaS), Networking as-a-Service (NaaS), and many more are all giving birth to Everything as-a-Service (XaaS).
  • These services will help companies cut costs as they provide access to powerful software programs and the latest technology without having the expense of a large IT staff and time-consuming, expensive upgrades.
  • continue to see the virtualization of processing power, allowing mobile devices to access supercomputer capabilities and apply it to processes such as purchasing and logistics
  • Intelligent Electronic Agents
  • This is the year we will see sales organizations using this to enhance communication and collaboration, gaining new competitive advantages.
  • Geo-Spatial Visualization combines geographic information systems (GIS) with location-aware data, RFID (radio frequency identification), and other location-aware sensors (including the current location of users from the use of their mobile devices) to create new insights and competitive advantage
  • By 2020, there will be well over a billion machines talking to each other,

• T-Mobile to buy unused Verizon spectrum in deal worth over $3 billion | The Verge

  • Licenses for the spectrum were last purchased by Verizon for $2.4 billion, but the airwaves sat unused. Verizon CFO Frank Shammo indicated the carrier was willing to sell the license to the spectrum for a reasonable price, with both AT&T and T-Mobile reportedly looking into bids.
  • The company will use the new low-band airwaves to support its aggressive rollout of LTE services across the US. Although it's reportedly vulnerable to interference from TV operators, the spectrum offers better building penetration and rural coverage than many other bands

• Companies, Shifting Production, Expand to Accommodate Robots - NYTimes.com

  • hey shift more production to robotics. Many are expanding their commercial footprint with a new addition or in some cases, excavating for a lower floor to accommodate the recent influx of extremely heavy live-in machines

• Always On Real-Time Access

  • As we peer into 2014, we will see the total number of cellular subscriptions eclipsing humans on the planet for the first time
  • The inefficiencies of a middlemen can be overcome by algorithms. The concept is not new but society expects more each year to narrow the gap between the thought and task execution.

• Happy New Year? Here's What 33 CEOs are Worrying About in 2014 - Corporate Intelligence - WSJ

  • There are two issues in the wireless industry today that need to be decisively and transparently addressed. Beyond aging infrastructure and a rising demand for spectrum, the issues of data security and data collection are critical to protecting the safety and peace of mind of consumers when using their mobile devices
  • The sustainability of the economic recovery, particularly as it relates to employment and the % of workforce participation.

• Should Governments Mandate Videoconferencing?

  • should take the next step and mandate videoconferencing in lieu of travel for employees.
  • However, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives this summer, H.R. 2643 (also known as the "Cut the Waste, Stay in Place Act of 2013” bill) takes it a step further, by mandating the reduction of the federal government's travel expenditures by 50 percent in 2017. The U.S. federal government spends about $15 billion each year in travel expenses
  • While videoconferencing and telecommunications technologies save money on travel expenditures, there are other costs to consider. Security and bandwidth requirements are the top of the list, and government official will need to spend money to ensure their networks will meet the increased demand.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.