Archive for November, 2011

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Microsoft to train local software developers

November 28th, 2011
Share

THE Government has signed an agreement with computer giant, Microsoft Corporation and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for the establishment of two innovation centres in Uganda.

Under the programme, students will develop specialised software applications, which will be sold and used globally.
According to the agreement signed at the information and communications technology ministry in Kampala recently, Microsoft will provide training, technology and technical support to the two centres based at Makerere University and at the Uganda Green Computer Company in Kampala.

Microsoft will also link the centres to Microsoft innovation centres worldwide for skills transfer and advise on policy.
Two other computer firms, Dell and Hewlett Packard will supply hardware, software and specialised fittings for the centres.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, ICT minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said the centres would create jobs and address the country’s development challenges.

“Uganda’s development is in information technology. It is in the ability to create and use software not the number of hoes and tractors we have,” he said.

The Government’s role in the programme will include reviewing the ICT education policy, providing incentives for patents and reviewing and implementing laws relating to the use of refurbished computers.

The Government will also be a member to an advisory board and shall mobilise resources to support the centres.
UNIDO will promote the use of local software by small and medium enterprises and guide the implementation of the programme.

Rugunda promised government support to the programme and urged stakeholders to ensure its successful implementation.

“It is common for people to sign documents and pile files on shelves. Let this one be different so that it helps young people to develop skills to change their world,” he said.

Source:http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/45633-microsoft-to-train-local-software-developers.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

NEVEX launches channel program for its optimized flash caching software

November 28th, 2011
Share

Toronto-based NEVEX Virtual Technologies has announced the launch of its Channel Partnership Program to assist in selling its application-optimized caching solution, Cacheworks.
NEVEX is a startup which recently announced its flagship CacheWorks 1.0 product. But the team behind it is an experienced one, which has worked at four successful startups over the last 20 years. Nevex’s objective is to solve the storage I/O bottleneck that limits how fast an application can talk to I/O storage through an innovative approach to Flash caching while enabling better utilization of both VM and physical storage infrastructures.

“Slow application performance from I/O bottleneck is typically solved in two ways,” said Andrew Flint, Product Manager at NEVEX. ” One is tuning applications to get incremental boost in performance, and the other is upgrading servers, which gets a performance boost from the additional memory.”

Flint said NEVEX is able to improve on these solutions and stand out from the competition in this space because they sell a software solution that manages devices on Flash.

“It gets higher performance and because it’s local on a server, there is less latency,” he said. “This combination of more performance from Flash, and lower latency from storing locally, is what solves the I/O bottleneck.

“Our competitors come from a storage background — hardware type people — and think from a hardware perspective,” Flint added. “We take it from the side of the application, which is protected in our cache and that is industry unique. Our unique architecture delivers selective optimized caching. That sets us apart from the other players. The way our cache is implemented gives us an unfair competitive advantage.”

Unlike most start-ups, NEVEX plans to move quickly to a channel model.

“All of the team’s different startups started in missionary direct sales and then moved quickly to the channel,” Flint said.

“Our objective is to build out a channel of distributors and VARs who have a relationship with datacenter people, which is our target market,” said Nigel Miller, NEVEX’s VP Business Development. “We are looking at specific VARs who do business level applications, data optimization, virtualization, and server and storage infrastructure. They should have a product or service offering based on Windows and using SQL server, so we are tapping into the Microsoft partner network.

“We want VARs with the ear and trust of companies, and who sell into SMB space as well as midmarket and enterprise,” Miller said. “The solution has special value in the enterprise because you don’t have to upgrade all your servers to get performance.”

At this stage, NEVEX is offering an Early Adopter Program, available now through to end-Q4, which includes special pricing and incentives, and sales and technical support. NEVEX’s pricing model is per server, and their plan is to offer the channel 35% gross margins.”

“We have about 20 core partners targeted, and plan to roll out the full program early next year, with details to be finalized based on their needs,” Miller said.

Miller thinks the team’s past experience and channel relationships will overcome the typical channel reluctance to invest in a product right out of the gate.

“Our solution is unique, but this is also not our first time on the block, as we have built channel programs in the past,” he said.

A distribution deal is also expected for next year. Miller said they have had discussions with both broadline distributors and VADs but nothing has yet been finalized.

Source:http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=27323

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

Software developed to harmonize implementation of Rio Conventions

November 28th, 2011
Share

The Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) of the Ghana Environmental Conventions Coordinating Authority (GECCA) has developed software to link-up agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on environment related issues.

The software, called dBase Manager, is to help to ensure effective implementation of projects under the Rio Conventions, which cover the areas of climate change, bio-diversity and environmental degradation.

Consequently, the PCU of GECCA, which operates under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, organised a day’s workshop in Tamale, to enhance the capacity of stakeholders, especially civil society groups in the northern part of the country, on database management, on Friday in Tamale.

The workshop was also to create opportunity for the PCU to collate data on activities related to the Rio Conventions.

A component of the GECCA project relates to access to and sharing of data and information among stakeholders on activities and programmes directly or indirectly related to Rio Conventions through the establishment of database and capacity building on database management.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr Raymond Babanawo, technical assistant at Ministry, called on environment related NGOs and stakeholders to embrace the system to prevent duplication of work.

He said due to the down-turn of European and American economies, most donor agencies were considering cutting down sponsorship for projects in developing countries.

Dr Babanawo said this called for harmonization of activities to reduce cost, to ensure good results and value for money to the benefit of the people.

Source:http://www.modernghana.com/news/363397/1/software-developed-to-harmonize-implementation-of-.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

Mid-sized IT cos go for buyouts

November 28th, 2011
Share

Mumbai-based software products and services provider Infrasoft Technologies has mandated three investment banks including Avendus Capital to look for acquisitions in the US in the range on $10-15 million. This comes on the heels of Infrasoft’s acquisition of the financial services business of KPIT Cummins in October this year.

Infrasoft is amongst a host of small-sized companies that are making acquisitions despite global economic conditions looking uncertain. Srividya C G, partner, valuation services, in advisory firm Grant Thornton, said the IT sector has done the most number of M&A deals this year.

Companies say that technology services with evolved business models and pricing mechanisms are vital for customers even during difficult times. They have become partners as opposed to pure vendors to clients. Grant Thornton data shows that overall M&A deals in the first 10 months of this year amounted to $33.6 billion, a fall of over 21% from the year-ago period. The number of deals fell to 523 from 662. The corresponding figure for IT stood at $3.3 billion compared to $0.68 billion in the previous year. The number of deals fell marginally from 102 to 99. This includes some large-sized deals concluded by companies like Wipro, iGate and Genpact.

While acquisitions by larger technology companies have slowed down, smaller sized companies have kept up the momentum.

Investment bankers say that falling valuations are helping sustain the interest for acquisitions. Srividya said tech players have not been very successful in developing capabilities organically and are thus looking to make buys to fill these gaps.

Cloud technology for instance has been a focus of many acquisitions in recent times with companies like Aditi Technologies and Vembu Technologies making acquisitions in the space.

IBS Software, an IT solutions provider catering to travel, transportation and logistics industries, acquired Moveo Systems to drive its enterprise mobility offering. “With this, IBS can widen its service offerings and speed up innovative practices,” said CEO of IBS, Rajiv Shah.

Hanuman Tripathi, group MD of Infrasoft, said that it is easier for smaller companies to make acquisitions. For large companies, managing scale is difficult. Also, it is an easier decision for a niche player to add specialized capabilities through acquisitions than for a larger generalized player. It is not only the pure technology players that are making acquisitions. Internet startup Flipkart and BPOs like EXL and Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) have also bought companies over the last few months. HGS in August acquired Canada-based customer relationship management company Online Support (OLS) for $78 million.

“Despite the economic uncertainty, several clients are in discussion to grow existing relationships. We also have strategic plans to grow newly acquired businesses and verticals,” said Partha Sarkar, global CEO of HGS. However analysts warn that there have been instances in the past of acquisitions going sour, especially during downturns. Subex is a reminder of how chasing growth has risks.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Mid-sized-IT-cos-go-for-buyouts/articleshow/10898955.cms

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

Student Developed Software Helps To Detect Near Earth Asteroids

November 28th, 2011
Share

An asteroid impact with the earth can really ruin your day: just consider the dinosaurs. Most asteroids, also known as minor planets, orbit the sun beyond the planet Mars and present no danger, but there is a class of asteroids whose orbits cross the orbit of the earth. If one of these asteroids and the earth are at the same point in their orbits at the same time, a collision could occur.

Called Near Earth Objects (NEOs), astronomers are interested in discovering as many of these as possible, and then tracking them in order to compute more accurate orbits. In this way, if a potential future collision were to be identified many years in advance, space probes could carry out steps to tweak the path of the NEO and deflect the collision.

A program to track NEOs is being carried out at NOAO by Mark Trueblood with Robert Crawford (Rincon Ranch Observatory) and Larry Lebofsky (Planetary Science Institute). And last summer, a Beloit College student, Morgan Rehnberg, has developed a computer program (PhAst), available via the web, to help with this effort.

Asteroids move quickly across the sky, so in order to recover and track them, fast and accurate data reduction and analysis is essential.

Unlike most of the data that astronomers work with, tracking a fast moving asteroid requires that the observer view multiple digital images obtained at the telescope by blinking between them, almost like a movie.

In addition, accurate coordinates locating the NEO in the sky need to be computed. (Termed right ascension and declination, these are similar in concept to the latitude and longitude of a position on earth.)

While there are many software packages that amateur and professional astronomers use (Maxim DL, Astrometrica) none did exactly what the group required. Seeing the need for better software but not having the time to devote to the task of writing it, Trueblood saw this as an ideal project for a summer student.

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) has a long history of hiring college students for the summer.

Through this Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, supported by the National Science Foundation, undergraduates learn what an astronomical career is really like. Many of these students go on to become professional astronomers after a summer spent at the National Observatory.

Morgan Rehnberg, who attends Beloit College in Wisconsin, had the required computer skills and was selected to work in the very competitive REU program by Mark Trueblood, Ken Mighell, and Robert Crawford.

His task involved modifying an existing image viewer program (ATV, written in the code IDL) so that it could examine as many images as desired, and in any order, and perform the astrometric (positional) as well as photometric (brightness) analyses.

Although Morgan tested his new software on existing data, the first actual trial occurred in October, during an observing run at the 2.1m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

The group observed a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), designated NEO2008 QT3: these are asteroids with orbits that bring them within 50,000 km of the earth (the earth-moon distance is about 385,000 km).

Morgan’s software program was able to correctly compute the position and brightness of this object with half the measurement errors in the previous software. The results were submitted and accepted by the clearinghouse for all such observations, the Minor Planet Center.

Source:http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Student_Developed_Software_Helps_To_Detect_Near_Earth_Asteroids_999.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

Is free antivirus software good enough?

November 28th, 2011
Share

For example, last week alone 1.13 million people scooped up AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, 772,215 folks downloaded Avast! Free Antivirus, and nearly 400,000 choose to install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Avira Free Antivirus apiece.

Microsoft Security Essentials is also a popular pick and will be bundled with Windows 8, as well (but could be uninstalled, if desired).

Given the fact premium software packages usually cost between $40 and $60 a year — from security software leaders like Norton and McAfee – should you download the freebies and trust they’ll protect your PC and perhaps more importantly, the data that resides on it?

Generally speaking, based on my experience using many of these free tools over the years, they don’t work quite as well as the paid packages.

That is, some spyware has slipped through on occasion, causing pop-up windows, browser toolbars I don’t want and overall slower performance. Again, this is just my experience on various Windows PCs using some of the free products available. I did have a good run on a spare laptop with Avira as it ran quietly in the background and didn’t impact its overall performance, while on another (older) desktop in a spare room I’ve been running Microsoft Security Essentials without any issues.

According to PC Mag, AVG, Avira and Avast! are three of the highest rated free computer security software offerings.

But on my main computer, I’ve been using Symantec’s Norton Internet Security faithfully for the last three years (prior to that I wasn’t a fan of the software as I found it bloated and it bogged down my PC quite a bit). Another advantage to paid security software is they’re usually updated often to safeguard from the latest threats — usually handled automatically, such as Norton’s Live Update.

So, what if you can’t afford premium security software or don’t want to pay for it?

While it might not be as good as paid options, using free antivirus software is better than nothing at all.

If you’re going to use one of these no-cost solutions, take heed to the following advice:

* If you pay for a high-speed Internet connection your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might give away free antivirus and antimalware software, too, so ask if it’s available before resorting to freebies. Some are licensed versions of the biggies like McAfee, Norton and Kaspersky.

* If you’re using free antivirus software, be sure to check for virus definition updates regularly – in case it’s not an option to do it regularly (Windows Security Essentials can stay updated automatically, with your consent). Because threats change often, be sure to protect your PC and files with frequent updates.

* Always back up your important files on a regular basis – just in case your PC gets infected. It doesn’t really matter how you back up – external hard drive, recordable DVD or online storage, for example – but be sure to do it before it’s too late. Important files to back up include documents, irreplaceable photos, bookmarks, contacts, calendar entries and important emails.

* Steve Hilton, vice president for SMB and enterprise research at the Yankee Group, says to ask around before you go with free security software. “Try out free solutions and talk with someone who’s already used the product to avoid any gotchas.” For example, Hilton says the software company probably doesn’t offer technical support the free version, plus you’ll probably see “nag screens” to upgrade to the full suite and you might not get access to all its features.

* Even with software that can catch malicious threats, exercise some common sense when you’re spending time online. For example, don’t click on suspicious attachments in an email, delete phishing attempts, stick with legitimate websites and be sure to create strong passwords for all your online activity.

* Spam, or unsolicited junk mail, isn’t just a productivity drain as you can spend a lot of time deleting these unwanted messages per week, but often they contain viruses, spyware or phishing attempts that try to lure you to authentic-looking websites to steal your identity for financial gain. If you use Microsoft Outlook, however, a free plug-in program called SPAMfighter dramatically reduces the amount of junk mail you get by segregating suspicious messages and dropping it into a folder.

Source:http://www.moneyville.ca/blog/post/1093340–is-free-antivirus-software-good-enough

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

SAS rolls out first BI software for social media in PH

November 25th, 2011
Share

Saying that data from multiple devices across different social networking sites could be overwhelming, software firm SAS recently unveiled in the country the first customer intelligence software that can analyze data from online conversations and relationships in social networking sites.

SAS global senior product marketing manager Ken King said in a press briefing that the new software is a comprehensive tool that can monitor and analyze data from social media – a capability that ordinary statistics services such as Facebook analytics cannot provide.

The SAS Customer Intelligence, which is deployed at the client side, includes a range of applications from bolstering customer insight through customer analytics, forecasting, and credit-scoring to choreographing multi-channel marketing strategies and gathering marketing data from social media.

“Customer data is everywhere, especially now that social networking sites are becoming more and more part of our everyday lives,” said King.

“SAS Customer Intelligence makes it possible for companies to harness these gold mines of customer information and translate, for example, online conversations and social relationships, to data that can help them understand the behavior patterns of their best and worst customers,” added King.

Through the software, SAS said organizations can gain deeper customer insight, create and manage a customer-centric data repository, predict customer behavior, and give accurate customer profiles.

“SAS Customer Intelligence also helps boost customer retention by guiding companies on how to treat customers consistently and make them feel that they are understood,” said King.

Source:http://newsbytes.ph/2011/11/25/sas-rolls-out-first-bi-software-for-social-media-in-ph/

Comments Off »

Posted in Software News

Tags:

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes