I'm feeling particularly melancholic this week as 2009 rolls in and we bid farewell to 2008.
The past year wasn't a great one, most of us would agree with that, and the new year isn't expected to be much better. The economic landscape remains bleak, and employees are shifting nervously in their seats as they read about yet another company..... Read more »
Electronic services have long been touted as a way for governments to improve operational efficiencies and facilitate better communication with their citizens. Offering government services over the Internet not only provides cost savings, it also allows for better service delivery.
So why do some e-services come at an additional cost for consumers?
Over dinner with my cousin on Christmas Day, she..... Read more »
I'm back in Germany for another stopover this week, after catching a quick flight from Vienna, and staying with some friends in Cologne.
It's my first visit to the city, the fourth-largest and one of the oldest in Germany, founded by the Romans in..... Read more »
I'm chilling out in wintry Vienna this week, home to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and where boutique cafés can be found at almost every street corner.
There's probably nothing more Viennese than to sit in a cozy little café, tucked away in a small side street, sipping a warm cup of coffee as you watch the world go by.
Imagine my..... Read more »
Plenty, it seems, especially in tougher economic times. When the chips are down and almost every company in the market is clocking negative growth, some tech buyers rely on reputation to decide which vendor to invest in.
A company's financial stability is typically a key consideration in most buyers' decision-making process--nobody wants to be left stranded in the middle of..... Read more »
The TV was running in the background the other night when U.S. actor Ben Affleck appeared on screen, urging viewers to download their music online.
No, he wasn't plugging a BitTorrent ad. Affleck was driving a green campaign to get people to buy their music via the Web, instead of consuming them on polycarbonate CDs that have to be shipped..... Read more »
A CNN report this week discussed the likelihood that the country's first tech-savvy president will have to give up the one thing that differentiated him from his predecessors--his BlackBerry.
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama is the country's first government head whose hand seems glued to the mobile device. Various video clips show Obama constantly peering at his BlackBerry, so much..... Read more »
Back in 1997, Apple Computer was far from the revered company that it is today. The company was bleeding cash and then-CEO Gil Amelio was booted out after a boardroom coup.
Steve Jobs, who himself was ousted from Apple in 1985, returned to the company and guided it back to profitability--and beyond. With the introduction of iconic products such as..... Read more »
In a typical newsroom where every journalist is fighting for a space on the front page, there are often days when you don't really want to be a tech reporter. Why?
How do you convince the chief editor that your piece about Asia becoming a breeding ground for..... Read more »
Over coffee a couple of weeks back, I had an interesting chat with a Singapore-based CIO who listed a string of deployments and potential projects that he was either working on or currently evaluating.
He works for a company that has the biggest share of the market it plays in. And in my opinion, while the technologies it has implemented isn't..... Read more »
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