barbara haven: My Profession

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:27:47 GMT

California Law Requires Linking to Privacy Policy from Home

Google bows to pressure, adds 'Privacy' link to home page. For Google, ready Privacy: That could be the subliminal message Google wants to send by replacing its name in the homepage footer. [Latest from Computerworld

Last month, privacy organizations wrote to Google CEO Eric Schmidt asking the company to link to its privacy policy from its home page. Including the link on the home page is good practice -- and also mandated by California law, the organizations said.

On Thursday, Google acceded to the request, putting the word "Privacy" at the foot of its home page and linking it to its privacy information pages. The link replaces the company's name next to the copyright notice, leaving the number of words on the home page unchanged.

I don't think laws should address homepage content as specific as links to privacy policies, or to public records request process (for State Departments and Agencies). Page Contents and placements are in the domain of information architecture, user experience design and usability not legislation.

I'm actually relieved that Google.com stays famously uncluttered. I joke that some of my colleagues would put 3 or 4 paragraphs explaining what you can type in the Google search box and add a paragraph about Google's history.

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:27:07 GMT

Computer History Museum Overview

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:33:52 GMT

IT Skills for Tomorrow and Thereafter

Are you ready for the CIO's 2008 'must call on Monday' list. Forrester Research lists the capabilities IT workers will need to meet the requirements of their CIOs in 2008. [Computerworld Breaking News]

Simon Yates, an analyst at Cambridge-based Forrester, said IT workers should develop cross-technology skills and become more business and application savvy as executives look to IT to boost their capabilities while cutting costs. [emphasis mine]. The State of California is certainly trying to cut costs. Reducing costs has been a constant in government IT.

Yates said data center professionals can better serve CIOs in 2008 by evaluating virtualization tools, helping to sharpen IT best practices and helping to improve disaster recovery capabilities.

Forrester interviewed its CIO clients and concluded that mounting business continuity and disaster recovery demands will drive server, storage and management technology investments in 2008.

Compare with California "new" IT classifications "for state jobs, still "DRAFT Information Technology Specialist (Skills-Based) Series Specifications" on the State of California CIO's website.

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:18:47 GMT

Diddy Rants on YouTube to Recruit New Assistant. Sean Combs is looking for a helper to fill the shoes of his former assistant. But instead of résumés, Mr. Combs is accepting only video applications uploaded to YouTube. By ANGEL JENNINGS. [NYT > Technology]

Thu, 24 May 2007 03:41:33 GMT

Stupid Cellphone Tricks

State of the Art: How to Make Your Cellphone Act Like a BlackBerry. Three new services from Google, Yahoo and Teleflip can forward e-mail to ordinary cellphones. By DAVID POGUE. [NYT > Technology] Teleflip might be helpful for a low-volume inbox, that gets messages urgent enough to care to see on a cellphone.
Last week David Pogue spoke at our local government technology conference, GTC West in Sacramento. He played the piano and sang a few parodies. He was funny. I took a photo and here it is:

You won't see the photo if flickr.com is blocked where you work.

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:59:25 GMT

Project Software: Cages Arrive at the Zoo Before Animals

Planning helps things to arrive in the right order. At some point, project software become necessary to see the order and dependencies of many tasks.

Microsoft looks to boost Project software's appeal. Microsoft didn't include Project in any of its eight official Office 2007 product bundles. But it did add some welcome new features to the project management software, users and analysts said.

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:28:57 GMT

Recruiting Well-Rounded Candidates

Google's Answer to Filling Jobs: New Algorithm. Google is starting to look for well-rounded candidates, like those who have published books or started their own clubs. By SAUL HANSELL. [NYT > Technology]

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:01:49 GMT

The Year Ahead: Once Again More Change

Web users driving change in 2007. The web will be at the heart of the big changes that loom in 2007, say a trio of hi-tech veterans. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] I'll do more with the web in 2007.

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:49:23 GMT

Are Data Centers Prepared?

Data center quarantines might not be workable. Gartner analysts recommend that data centers be readied for possible quarantines of IT workers during a pandemic. But some IT managers dont think quarantines will prove to be workable. [Computerworld Breaking News]

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 04:55:05 GMT

Collaboration Tool

Start-up brings glitch wiki to IT pros. Splunk believes tech administrators deserve a Wikipedia equivalent for tracking system data center errors and events. [CNET News.com]
Also, Socialtext seems like a help for IT project teams. It would avoid problems with overflowing emails from large attachments, as well as version control problem.

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 01:54:45 GMT

FBI Pushed Ahead With Troubled Software . Report indicates bureau ignored warnings on flawed project that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $100 million in wasted expenditures. By Dan Eggen. [Technology - Industry News, Policy, and Reviews]

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 04:04:09 GMT

File under security later

Boston College, Calif. State University computers hacked. A computer used for fund-raising activities at Boston College was hacked into last week, and in a separate incident, hackers broke into California university system containing data on about 59,000 current, former and prospective students, faculty and staff. [Computerworld News]

At California State University Chico AKA Chico State

On Monday, officials at California State University in Chico disclosed that hackers had broken into a housing and food service system containing personal information -- including the names and Social Security numbers -- of about 59,000 current, former and prospective students, faculty and staff.

A statement on the school's Web site said the intruders apparently installed rootkit software on the system for storing music, movie and game files. They also attempted to break into other university computers, the school said.

Detecting and Understanding Rootkits