Sree Nilakanta: My Profession

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:49:41 GMT

Lighthammer Software's composite application toolkit.

Last week I recorded a screen video with Rick Bullotta, who's the CTO of Lighthammer Software. He'd seen my Gmail column, and wanted to show me how he and his team are weaving HTML, XML, JavaScript, and Java applets to support data visualization and services-oriented application development in the manufacturing domain.

Today when I sat down to edit that video, I was dismayed to learn that I'd fumbled the audio and captured video only. But no use crying over spilled milk. I decided to forge ahead, highlighting the points I found most interesting and supplying my own narration.

In this seven-minute clip, you'll see how:

Lighthammer's toolkit connects Java widgets to data sources
The Java widgets can produce HTML and XML views of data, by exposing URLs
Composite applications made of Java and HTML widgets are wired together using a Dreamweaver plug-in that generates LiveConnect glue
Drawings of dials and gauges, exported in SVG format, can be animated by live data and used in dashboard displays

It took longer to put this video together than I'd have liked, but it does capture the key points I wanted to illustrate. I'm still sorting out the tools and methods I'll need to be able to edit these things in a more time-effective way. And next time, I'll make sure the presenter's voice is captured too!

[Jon's Radio]

This is a wonderful example of both data integration and process automation!

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 22:52:18 GMT

Study: Information security field to grow steadily. WASHINGTON - The number of cybersecurity professionals is projected to grow at an annual compound rate of nearly 14 percent from now until 2008, according to a study released this week during the Computer Security Institute (CSI) trade show in Washington, D.C. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Another piece of good news for our graduates!

Alliant Energy de-energizes its customers.

Tue, 02 Nov 2004 16:06:33 GMT

Alliant Energy recently sent their customers a letter inviting them to enroll in their new ePay, an electronic bill payment system. While that invitation is no big deal today, it also reveals the company's ignorance of customer value. Many Alliant customers who already had an on-line access to their bills were told that their on-line accounts are no longer valid and they too must re-enroll. Why? Because Alliant is moving to a new and improved system! System migration or system integration is an internal process. Customers, who are outside of the process should not have to change their tasks because the firm decided to make internal process changes! Alliant should transfer existing on line accounts to the new system and make the trransfer appear transparent to the customer. Any elementary process management class would teach that. Unfortunately, customers of Alliant are locked in. They can not go to a competitor.

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 23:39:07 GMT

EDS looks to business transformation services for growth. The 135,000-employee company sees its future in helping companies leverage and integrate existing systems and transform their business processes, instead of simply operating systems for clients. [Computerworld News]

I believe this is the new wave of business for IT consultants and IT professionals.