ALTOM: Stashing your assets? Find out which safe is best
It turns out that safe sales have blossomed recently, because investors fleeing the thrashing stock market are now often sitting on gold, jewelry and even cash.
Return on Technology
Articles
ALTOM: Most phone hacking is a low-tech, fast-talking scam
Given the events of the past couple of months with News of the World and Rupert Murdock, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write about phone hacking.
ALTOM: Ready to toss your old cell phone? Think again
Today, the typical cell phone has the productive life of a cockroach: about 18 to 24 months. It’s not that the phones stop working.
ALTOM: Podcasts still have a place in cyberspace
A few years ago, podcasts were all the rage on the Web. It seemed like every site had a podcast, and often more than one. Podcasts threatened to replace e-mailed newsletters.
ALTOM: Smartphone makers rarely flip ‘kill switch’
When you bought your new smartphone, did the dealer tell you it had a remote “kill switch” that could summarily wipe out apps you’d downloaded to it? Probably not.
ALTOM: Don’t sweat the cancer risk of cell phones
The evidence strongly shows that, for the business user, cell phones are the least of our worries, unless we’re in the habit of answering them in dense traffic.
ALTOM: Will WiFI remote revolution help business?
Google is already staking out its territory by writing Google @Home, an ambitious attempt to make Android into a one-place home remote-control station.
ALTOM: Time digging into Excel ‘goodies’ will pay off
To me, when it comes to business power, it’s hard to find more of it in one relatively cheap package than Excel.
ALTOM: Is unwanted software loading on your machine?
One of the biggest drawbacks to the march of technology is how often it lets others dictate how you use your own devices.
ALTOM: The New York Times reinvents the ‘paywall’
The New York Times has decided to once again huddle behind a “paywall,” a decision that’s galvanized the Web world. But this paywall is different from ones the paper has tried in the past.
ALTOM: Maybe laptops should come with safety warnings
My laptop has been my willing companion when putting numbers through the centrifuge or springboarding me out into cyberspace.
ALTOM: Business analysts pack more punch than they used to
The numbers are astounding, even after all these years. A full quarter of all IT projects are canceled before they’re done.
ALTOM: Supermarkets simplify life for grocers, not customers
I have a fetish for efficiency. It pains me to watch people doing things two, three or more times when they should be doing it only once.
ALTOM: Are iPods in the workplace music to an employer’s ears?
It’s rare to visit a workplace nowadays without seeing at least a few employees with tiny little earbuds trailing thread-sized wires down to a music player the size of an infant’s thumb.
ALTOM: High-tech crime sometimes does pay
Credit cards and ATMs are rapidly becoming lucrative targets of hackers.
ALTOM: Why Microsoft Word has so many questionable features
The out-of-the-box, standard interface wasn’t primarily for boosting productivity, but for giving demonstrations. It was marketing, and not usability, that was driving interface design.
ALTOM: How to measure seemingly ‘incalculable’ risks
My goal in life isn’t pushing technology, but applying appropriate technology to workplaces. Every decision about replacing or updating equipment or software has both a cost and risk component.
ALTOM: Does Bing have a chance of catching Google?
I can’t help it; every time I see the Microsoft search engine “Bing,” I hear Bing Crosby’s voice crooning in my head.
ALTOM: 2010 meltdowns, missteps and breaches … oh my
Welcome to the annual Christmas snafu edition of this column. This year’s crop of meltdowns, missteps and breaches reminds us once again that technology is a fickle friend and unreliable ally.
ALTOM: Just because it’s on the Web doesn’t mean it’s free
Surfing the Web is like being the parent of multiple kids. You hear the rowdiness in a far-off room all day long and learn to take it for granted, but once in a while there’s a great crash and a howl that sounds like a civil defense siren.