Cloud terminology handbook – Databarracks
The cloud security provider Databarracks has published a Cloud terminology handbook that is available after registering for it (it is free!). It provides a very brief but comprehensive explanation of various cloud terms (old and new), such as BaaS, hypervisor or a fourth cloud deployment model after public, private and hybrid cloud – the community cloud. This white paper is a good resource to have.
Bringing retro back! – How the cloud delivers old games to a new generation
When I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, I was a very avid video gamer, playing on the Commodore C64, Atari, and MS-DOS based video games. Like many that played back in the day, I have fond memories of very pixellated sprites (= game characters), point-and-click adventures like Monkey Island and Indiana Jones, and games that were spread over several floppy disks. For a game afficionado (that I still am to this day), it was almost tragic that with changes in technology and ever-increasing computer processing power, it was almost impossible to play these old games because they required the old systems. Floppy disk slots for instance have entirely disappeared from computers years ago.
However, after many years of weak emulations that rarely ran properly, the cloud once more provided the means to distribute old games via the internet. The (legitimate) website Software Library: MS-DOS Games enables retro-gamers to play the classics via web browser, a majority of them free of charge. In fact, many young gamers re-discover these old games, as user statistics of this website show. As such, it is an almost perfect marriage of new and old technology.
Making investments in technology
More and more, accountants and CFOs are involved in key decisions on what information technology to invest in. They may or may not have a level of technical knowledge to make a fully informed decision. This article from CGMA provides some useful guidance, providing some questions accountants need to ask.
Y2K and 2038
An article in the Economist a while ago reminds us that not matter how complicated computers are, all they really know is 0 and 1- the binary system. Using the binary system, it is easy to represent these two numbers as on or off on various media.
Back in 2000, the date field on many systems could only hold two digit years, so the year could be 1900 or 2000. As the article explains, the Gangnam Style video on YouTube broke the counter for similar reasons – the counter field had a limited length. In 2038, the date field for many operating systems will also run out. It’s unlikely to be an issue – the Y2K problem wasn’t either – but it does remind us of what underlies all computing devices.
Types of cyber attack
We have all heard of cyber attacks on business and they are increasingly a security issue for businesses. Some attacks can be a nuisance, while others can actually hit business revenues or costs. This article from CGMA magazine give a useful summary of the various types of attacks out there.
Learning Excel 2013 online – free resources
I have posted a few weeks ago about the new Office 2013. In this post, I would like to focus a more on Excel 2013, a great piece of software in my view. Here is a link to a great website that lists free Excel tutorials and reference websites for the 2013 version.
Comics in the cloud – the re-awakening of a struggling genre
I have to admit – I am a massive comic book fan. Have been for the major part of the last 37 years, and will continue to do so because – well, why not?
As a young bloke, I was often unable to get my hands on the latest Batman or Spider-Man outing, and getting access to the original English versions was nigh impossible in Austria back in the 1980s. It got better with the likes of Amazon to order these comic books online, but a struggling genre was re-awakened by an adequate cloud-app based offering of comic books old and new ready to read immediately on tablets and computers. Although the old-school comic book reader in me was cautious at first (“It’s not the same unless it’s printed!”), I have to admit that it has its benefits. A well-adapted online comic book that for instance allows zooming into individual panels is quite a nice thing to use.
Here is an interesting article about the market leader in this segment, Comixology.
The internet of things and the cloud
As the “internet of things” (e.g. the microwave, the fridge and one’s favourite sweater going online) is being promoted as the next big hype, here is an interesting blog by David Linthicum on InfoWorld how the public cloud could boost the advance of the “things” that could become accessible online.
Microsoft Office 365 – Office 2013 discovers the cloud!
The latest version of Microsoft Office, Office 2013, has an entirely cloud-based life called Office 365, indicating that a subscription to it (and not a one-off payment for the software suite) is valid for one full year.
The good news for all students and university teachers is: Microsoft offers a subscription model for university use, aptly named Office 365 University, with a four-years-for-the-price-of-one subscription, one terabyte of online storage, and the benefit to be able to access and work on your Word document or Excel spreadsheet on a tablet on the go (as I do). I found it incredibly useful to have a software that I used for the last two decades in the cloud now.
More information on Office 365’s features can be found in this Business Insider blog by Julie Bort.
Wifi security
image from tinker-tailor-solider-spy.com
While networks have many advantages – the key one being connected systems and data – their key problem is security. The only way to be absolutely certain that data transmitted on a network is secure is secure is to encrypt it – and this is an issue of much debate in recent times.
While a wired network may offer some physical security – hackers have to get one the premises effectively – wireless networks have always had an issue in that they can be “scanned”. Many of use have probably used unsecure/free public wifi on a bus or in a coffee shop. This is fine once you are not sending confidential information.
And I am sure many of us have used the sometimes costly wifi in hotels. We may think as we pay, it is more secure. A recent blog post on the Economist suggests otherwise. The post notes a report by Kaspersky Labs, which found that specific persons staying in hotels were targeted and their hotel wifi connection snooped. This was down to some clever malicious software, but the lesson to be learned for a business might be – assume all wifi you do not control is unsecure.
Business information systems for accounting students 