IT Leadership, Architecture & Engineering. Cloud, AI, Data, Cybersecurity

Goggle labs have offered a Firefox plug-in that promises to automatically synchronize the state of the browser across machines. To download it Click here I installed the plugin on 2 Firefox browsers (1) Firefox 1.5.x on a Windows 2000 SP4 2.5GHz 1.5GB RAM (2) Firefox 1.5x on a Windows Home SPx 1.60GHz 760MB RAM (3) Firefox 1.5x on a Windows 2000 SP4 1.8GHZ 1GB RAM The first machine was run behind a firefall and proxy server, the other was connected to the internet with no proxy. Depending on the network I connected the first machine in I was disappointed by a major flaw in the plug-in. If the browser cannot connect the Internet, then it will not work. Uninstalling the browser is easy, but once you re-install it the Google browser synch is not uninstalled. YOu can delete it from the extensions either because to do that you will have to start the browser, but the browser does not start.

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life According to Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power , reputation is the cornerstone of power. Reputation alone can intimidate and win. Vulnerability will invite attacks from all sides. Reputations should be unassailable; one should be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. According to Greene, one should destroy enemies by opening holes in their own reputations and after the holes are opened, stand aside and let public opinion take over. Notably a person in recent political history was a victim of such reputation damage. He was not able to recover from it and finally offered his resignation; of course a different reason was cited for this. Colin Powel is a highly decorated military personnel. Before Operation Desert Storm was executed, he publicly opposed several of George H.W. Bush's administration officials who advocated the deployment of troops to the Middle East to force Iraqi president Sadd...

The Eccentrics Versus the Uncouths. This article is inspired by this one . I argue that the difference between a Geek versus Nerd is the same difference that separates the eccentrics from the uncouths. Also, most often the nerds are the ones that are geeks, the geeks are often nerds, some nerds are not geeks, and some geeks are not nerds. A nerd is an uncouth person a geek is an eccentric. I think geeks are odd, and are not really the talented few who run the show in corporate America. The genius may be a nerd, a geek, neither, or both. The leader in corporate America may not be nerdy nor geeky, unless the leader is a perceived genius. Eccentricity. Webster defines someone who is eccentric as: a: deviating from an established or usual pattern or style b : deviating from conventional or accepted usage or conduct especially in odd or whimsical ways Take notice that an eccentric is not uncouth, just bizarre. Oddities in behavior are often traits of the genius. The reverse does not work. ...

Leadership has been studied from various perspectives. The first recorded approach to leadership was embedded in traits. It was believed that leaders are born not made, "Kings are born, not made", it was said. "Greatness is in the blood", was commonly believed. Several views on leadership emerged as our civilization evolved. Over the past 30 years our understanding of leadership went through a major shift. Our collective new understanding of leadership has been presented nicely by Peter Northouse . He provides a very good overview of leadership in his book Leadership Theory & Practice (LTP). Various perspectives on leadership have been acquired over time through scientific research. Northouse writes about several approaches to leadership in his book including the trait approach, skills approach, style approach, situational approach, contingency theory, path-goal theory, leader-member exchange theory, transformational leadership, and team leadership. The boo...

The thesis defense was succesful. I was looking forward to it. Tanya and Nikhil accompanied me for the presentation. Mark set up the projector, Dr.Newton, Dr.Latif, and Dr.Newton entered Knoy 569. I introduced all to Nikhil and Tanya. Dr.Elliott played with Niknil and said that they were gathered to meet with him and my presentation was just a side show. After everyone settled, the proceedings began. The light was dimmed, and I began. After about three slides into the presentation Nikhil started acting up. Tanya took stolled him out and waited in the lobby. For the next hour I was in the groove, slide after slide I talked and answered questions interactively. At one point, during the presentation Dr.Newton murmed, "This is important work". The professors were satisfied. At the end of the presentation, the lights were switched back on. Everyone was beaming with satisfaction. Dr.Newton asked if she could use the statistical part of my paper to teach her six hundered level cours...

Almost every engineer I talk with is riddled with apprehensions about EJBs. I can understand why they would consider Entity Beans as "useless", "c One benefit of SFSB is that they can receive transaction notifications by implementing SessionSynchronization interface. The transactions can span multiple methods, across multiple calls (with BMT). The interface provides 3 hooks "afterBegin","beforeCompletion", and "afterCompletion", these methods provide significant control over the transactions. Horizontal application functionality can be placed in these hooks for transactions. Several applications of this interface come to mind, one could log certain transactions, notify support on all rollbacks, add a simple layer of authorization etc.

According to Paula Caproni, author of "Management Skills For Everyday Life", there are six universal forms of influence. Reciprocation Committment & consistency Authority Social proof Scarcity Liking Power emanating from these forms of influence can be considered ethical. Founding principles: You should tell people explicitly what you want. Organization's interest and others' interest is at par or above your own. You treat everyone fairly, follow process and do not abuse. You leave yourself reasonably open to be influenced by others. You back your points with valid data. These founding principles and ethical form of influence is in direct contrast to the Robert Greene's "The 48 Laws Of Power" in which he shockingly suffocates any breath of ethics. The book is laced with a dark sense of human power perversion. For instance, #31 Control the options: Get others to play with the cards you deal. #32 Play to people's fantasies and #36 Disdain things yo...