David has been computing since 1984 where he instantly gravitated to the family Commodore 64. He completed a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from 1990 to 1992, commencing full-time employment as a systems analyst at the end of that year. Within two years, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Newcastle, as a UNIX systems manager. This was a crucial time for UNIX at the University with the advent of the World-Wide-Web and the decline of VMS. David moved on to a brief stint in consulting, before returning to the University as IT Manager in 1998. In 2001, he joined an international software company as Asia-Pacific trouble-shooter, specialising in AIX, HP/UX, Solaris and database systems. Settling down in Newcastle, David then found niche roles delivering hard-core tech to the recruitment industry and presently is the Chief Information Officer for a national resources company where he particularly specialises in mergers and acquisitions and enterprise applications.
Longtime readers know I am a strong advocate for DropBox, the cloud-based file-synchronisation service. For a limited time you can increase your free DropBox capacity by 5Gb following these simple steps.
If your desktop environment is littered with unnecessary icons or apps then dig deeper. Apply the Van Halen M&M test.
Xerox PARC, Apple, Microsoft: these companies and more have contributed to the ubiquitous but evolving WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointers) user interface. According to Mark Shuttleworth Ubuntu is poised to revolutionise the menu this April.
- Sponsored Editorial -What is Windows Intune?
Today an increasing number of employees are mobile – and need to be able to work effectively anywhere. And that means their PCs need to be always up to date and protected. To vastly simplify this task for businesses of all sizes, Microsoft has introduced a new cloud-based solution called Windows Intune™.
"Why won't the help desk just help us?" says many an office worker about their internal IT support. Yet, IT is similarly lamenting, "Why can't the user just log a ticket properly?". Never before has "help us help you" seemed so strained. Let me break away the tension and reveal just what your IT department wish you knew about logging a support request.
If you are like me you espouse a view that a good IT department should not be seen as a cost to the business, and that it ought rightly be considered a strategic and operational division. Yet, at the end of the day it is all about numbers. The smart and forward-thinking IT leader will get a grip on the concepts that matter, and knowing these will help your own agenda.
For six months I longed for the Motorola Atrix Android smartphone first announced in January. That was, until I got one and reality fell short of my utopian vision. Now I must beseech Motorola, telcos and Linux hackers alike to bring my dream to fruition.
You may not have considered it, but much of IT – from ad-hoc help-desk support to large-scale projects – follows a similar value chain. Understanding your value chain is a first step to enhancing your own productivity and performance.
A few weeks ago I spruiked the many reasons why IT must keep its company address book in top shape, as a single source of truth for many purposes. Today I’ll bring the how, with several automated tools to do the job.
Social media is an ever-increasing buzzword in the business world of today, and while some may consider it mollycoddling to generation Y, it is becoming apparent to CIOs and IT leaders that “none” is no longer an acceptable answer to the question “What is your social media strategy?”
