The PlanetRecruit Blog

100% Virtualization - Should It Be Done?

Virtualization, from server to storage to desktop, has become the norm for many companies today. However, is there such a thing as too much virtualization? What does it mean to be 100% virtualized and should organisations be doing it? 

Join this expert panel as they discuss the benefits and issues that may arise from completely virtualizing an environment, and if it is a viable option for organisations today.

 

Booming industries in the Thames Valley

Over the past few years, the economic crisis has dominated the mind of every businessperson in the country. Regardless of size and industry, every company has been forced to make cutbacks and to streamline their businesses; however, as the market comes back to life in the Thames Valley region, some industries are flourishing more than others. But which ones should job seekers be looking to for new opportunities?

Traditionally referred to as 'Silicon Valley', the Thames Valley region is occupied by some of the largest well-know brand names within the hi-tech industry, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. It is no wonder then that these household names have made the Thames Valley a flagship region for larger companies looking to expand to Europe, and smaller companies looking for somewhere to house their headquarters.

Facial recognition software too creepy for Google

You know something's wrong with the potential application of some technology when Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, says the Cookie Monster won't build a giant database able to recognise and identify individual faces. It is well known that the company has, in the past, worked on such a system but now it will not be deployed.

Eric Schmidt, was speaking to an audience at Google’s 'Big Tent' gathering on the growth of the internet and the ramifications this may have for the privacy of the individual in a world increasingly dominated by huge databases containing information on billions of people.

Schmidt opined that facial recognition technology is one of the developments that has "most surprised" him and added that the “surprising accuracy of these systems is very concerning”.

Video Killed the Interview Star

I posted on PlanetRecruit previously about Google Books now containing over five million books, which is pretty impressive. But even more impressive are YouTube’s growth figures, which have reached frankly terrifying levels. Every single day, YouTube receives and hosts another six years' worth of video. That’s 36.5 hours of video added every minute.

Start watching nothing but YouTube videos today and you’ll be five years, eleven months and 30 days behind before the end of the day. Tomorrow, you’ll be 12 years behind; the next day, 18 years. So perhaps we can all be forgiven for having missed the latest must-see viral sensation.

Video is everywhere on the web these days, in all kinds of formats and places. For instance, if you’re reading this then you’re probably a user of Skype or Oovoo or one of the many other VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) services on the web. However, as the parent of two small children whose relatives live some on the other side of the world, I can personally vouch for the value of these services. VoIP joins the family together like no other technology I’ve seen before. Children today are growing up seeing nothing unusual in talking to real-time moving images of people on a screen when it’s late at night, even though it’s early morning here.

The UK Needs LTE

LTE – or Long Term Evolution – is the next generation in wireless internet. With speeds rivalling BT fixed broadband, the prospect of super high-speed mobile broadband may finally become a viable alternative to its fixed line counterpart. And for those who live in South Korea or the US you may well already been enjoying the benefits of LTE in your area.

Verizon has recently unleashed its 4G LTE network in the US, with blistering download speeds being reported at between 5Mbps and 20Mbps. In the UK, such networks would revolutionise the broadband market and would allow mobile devices to compete against fixed line networks. Increased competition would mean better pricing and further innovation...but us Brits may be waiting til beyond 2012.

So what is the hold up in the UK? Frequencies formerly safeguarded for analogue TV are now being repurposed for LTE signals. This process involves a government auction to the telecoms industry, where parts of the spectrum are sold off to each. The process is only due to start in 2013 when the Digital Switchover comes to a conclusion.

Exploring mobile device and app development trends

We've all been hearing the chatter about mobile applications. It seems 2010 has been an astounding year for development in mobile technology, both hardware and software. Apple’s iPhone & iPad along with Google’s Android OS and Microsoft Windows Phone all prove just how large the market currently stands.

Trends have been forming over the recent years which might show us where our future is heading. It’s clear the amount of mobile users are increasing daily, and there appears to be no sign of slowing. As an app developer or business owner these are some great trends to check out regarding mobile devices.

Mobile Software Industry

We can see a rise in the amount of users accessing the App Store every day. Apple checks each submission for quality and carefully searches for possible bugs. The Android development team has a similar application retail store, although not as developed and lacking a strong market share.

Through the Looking (Local) Glass

The public sector may not be cool, sexy or even well-funded for much longer, but it still serves countless essential functions, and has just been given a technology boost via an iPhone interface (that’s right – an interface, not a full app; that’s coming later in the year) which provides access to a wealth of information from local authorities, Transport Direct, NHS Choices and Jobcentre Plus.

Developed by Looking Local – an organisation set up to provide local government services through DiTV (digital interactive TV) and mobile devices – the interface, or ‘iPhone solution’, as Looking Local call it, is plugged as a money-saving solution for councils, in that it saves them from having to develop their own iPhone ‘solution’. They can simply continue uploading information and allow Looking Local to be the middleman in providing the info to local residents.

Seems sensible enough, and as 120 UK councils are already partnered with Looking Local, there’s no financial motive at work here.

30 CSS and Javascript Tabs Solutions

Tabs have been around for a long time. They are nothing new. But with so many sites (blogs, ecommerce sites, web apps…) needing to show as much content and navigation as possible, they have never been so relevant.

Tabs are the perfect web page tidying up solution for organising cluttered content in a space-limited web page. Separating content into tabs keeps everything nice and compact, clutter-free and the content is always at the ready should a user need it.

In this round-up from Speckyboy Design Magazine, we have a variety of easy to use modern tabs solutions, techniques, tutorials and plugins, most of them make use of a variety of Javscript libraries (MooTools, jQuery…), but you will also find some innovative pure CSS solutions as well.

Pure CSS Tabs Tecniques & Tutorials

Sweet Tabbed Navigation Bar using CSS3

Sweet Tabbed Navigation Bar using CSS3 →
Demo →

Essential Joomla! extensions

For those of you who might not know, Joomla! is an open-source content management system for websites. It allows people to quickly build medium-to-large sized websites and maintain them from within an administration interface.

I am going to look at one of Joomla!'s core strengths: its community developed extensions. For all the latest and approved extensions visit http://extensions.joomla.org, and for those new to Joomla! and who are looking to take their first steps, visit http://www.joomla.org/download.html.

Google Android's ten great apps

With the Android platform now outselling the iOS (iPhone) platform, app developers are quickly building great apps for our beloved new smartphones.

Every app featured in the list is totally free to download from the Android marketplace.