Overview

On Feb 23, 2014, Comcast announced a multi-year deal with Netflix aimed at improving the viewer experience of Netflix customers who use Comcast broadband services.

Comcast Press Release

http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/comcast-and-netflix

Although details are very limited at this point, the press release states:

…the companies have established a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast…

There are those who are either concerned that this violates the concept of net-neutrality, or speculate that this is a “game changer” from an internet economics perspective.

In reality, this is an incredibly smart move for Netflix, and a tremendous win for Netflix / Comcast customers.

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Overview

The Adobe 2013 data breach, in which about 40 million account user names and other details were disclosed, as well as other data breaches in which cleartext passwords are disclosed, underscores the need for password hashing, as opposed to cleartext or encryption.

Encryption is reversible, where hashing is not.
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Background:  Even with top notch architecture, coding, and Quality Assurance (QA), it’s easy to make these simple mistakes, that once introduced in to production, can be quite costly to fix.

Production issues can cause down time, brand / reputation impact, loss of customer / end-user confidence, loss of productivity, loss of revenue, and wasted resources.

This article describes some of the more common mistakes that can be made, going from development in to production.

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Thesis:  Microsoft is innovating beyond their market relevance.
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Who is Dvorak, and why do we care?
Wikipedia: John C Dvorak
I read Dvorak through the late 80’s and early 90’s. This particular response refers to Dvorak’s principle of the “Killer App”

In response to:
“Downgrading your computer – Why less is more”
Scott Raymond, 8/18/2010 on zdnet.com

Thesis: You don’t need the latest and greatest hardware for most computing needs

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-Forward-

I attempted to post this rather verbose response, and it was excluded as “potential spam” on submission.

I feel like the response needs to be heard, I think I am making valid points, and I thought this would make an excellent inaugural post for my “Business of IT” blog. Please read and enjoy… I welcome (appropriate) comments and feedback.

-Justin Parr

This post is in response to the following article:

Sharon Machlis, “Opinion: Let’s impeach e-voting”, ComputerWorld, 9/8/2008
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=325032

Article summary: “It’s time to outlaw any voting machine that doesn’t offer the possibility of a paper-based recount.”

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