Here are five stories you might have missed while trying to stick to your New Year’s Resolutions:

1. 30 Years of TCP/IP Dominance Began with a Deadline
   On January 1st 1983, the ‘old’ Internet (aka ARPANET) shut down connectivity to all hosts running the NCP protocol. That’s right, a total shutoff, a ‘flag’ day where one service just ended. NCP had to die for the modern Internet to be born.
2. 2013 IT outlook: Innovation trumps cost-cutting
   IT leaders have talked for years about the need to better align IT with the business objectives. Now there’s a sense of urgency.
3. 10 Ways To Maximize Your Professional Impact In 2013
   The New Year is a propitious time for businesses to re-prioritize their objectives and start afresh with renewed vigor and a clear mission. Setting – and following through on – thoughtful and apposite resolutions is an effective way to maximize results and impact for your company.
4. University builds cheap supercomputer with Raspberry Pi and Legos
   Inspired by the low-cost computing power of the Raspberry Pi, a team at the University of Southampton has used the ARM-based Linux computer-on-a-board as a building block for a low-cost supercomputer—racked and stacked using Lego blocks. And they’ve published a step-by-step guide for anyone interested in creating their own Raspberry Pi high-performance computing “bramble.”
5. How to Leave the Office at 5PM (Really)
   Every morning you set a goal to leave the office in time to spend the evening hanging out with your loved ones. And every evening around 5 or 6PM, you look at the mound of not-done work and realize it’s not happening.

What’s on your reading list? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed while waiting to see if the Mayans were correct:

1. 13 APM Predictions for 2013
   In APMdigest’s annual list of APM predictions, industry experts – from analysts and consultants to users and the top vendors – offer thoughtful, insightful, and sometimes controversial and contradictory predictions on how Application Performance Management (APM) will change and impact business in 2013.
2. Cloud Computing: Best And Worst News Of 2012
   What were the key developments for enterprise cloud computing this year? Let’s look at four big wins — and three setbacks.
3. Why you should expect more online outages but less downtime
   Gmail went down for 18 minutes during prime email checking hours on the West Coast thanks to a routine software update conducted Monday morning. But in an era of continuous code deployment Google’s mid morning update isn’t unusual — it’s the future.
4. Interview with a fearless cyber crime journalist
   Brian Krebs has single-handedly broken open cyber crime cases, leading to perps’ arrest and conviction. Here’s his story.
5. End of an era: Kodak sells patent portfolio for $525 million
   With an eye toward emerging from bankruptcy in 2013 Kodak today said it sold its formidable patent portfolio for $525 million to a consortium that will ultimately license pieces of the collection to other companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed this week:

1. The unbridled use of synthetic application monitoring
   This has really been a pet peeve of mine going back many years. As soon as I discovered the use of real user monitoring (RUM) data for performance measurements of actual users (probably around 2003) I was destined to eliminate all but the basic monitoring that was done synthetically.
2. IT hiring on the rise, CIOs say
   Nearly twice as many CIOs are planning to expand their IT departments in the coming quarter than were three months ago, according to Robert Half Technology.
3. Employment survey says IT job satisfaction is all about the work
   A recent TechTarget employment survey revealed the factors that motivate talented IT professionals to grow and excel in their roles.
4. 5 Ways Social Media Will Change The Way You Work in 2013
   In the nine short years since Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, social media has evolved from dorm room toy to boardroom tool. Last year, 73 percent of Fortune 500 companies were active on Twitter, while more than 80 percent of executives believed social media engagement led to increased sales.
5. Maps App for iPhone Steers Right
   It was one of the biggest tech headlines of the year: in September, Apple dropped its contract with Google, which had always supplied the data for the iPhone’s Maps app. For various strategic reasons, Apple preferred to write a new app, based on a new database of the world that Apple intended to assemble itself.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed while paying attention to the Gartner Data Center and TM Forum Management World shows this week:

1. IT spending will grow 5.7 percent in 2013, IDC predicts|
   Worldwide IT spending in 2013 will be driven by mobile devices, cloud computing, big data, and emerging markets, predicts IDC.
2. How the fiscal cliff affects IT
   The so-called fiscal cliff has the potential to send the U.S. economy into a tailspin. Here are the specific changes that could hit the IT industry.
3. 7 Traits of Extraordinary Bosses
   Great bosses understand what employees truly need and then provide it to them.
4. Why I’m writing on the iPad
   When I first got my iPad, I immediately changed the email signature to read, “Lovingly handcrafted just for you by Jason Snell.” I did it to remove Apple’s baked-in self-promotion from every email I sent, but in hindsight I think there’s something to the idea that words that spring from an iPad are not necessarily the same words that would come from other devices.
5. A Tale of Two Antennas
   The lowly antenna – perhaps the most important but also most ignored part of the radio value chain – is benefitting from a huge amount of innovation in this space, and those benefits will accrue ultimately to us users. Here are two examples.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet your suggestions to @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed while busy shopping for the holidays.

1. Business, Not IT, Now Driving Increased Focus On APM
   According to a recent survey from InformationWeek,  application performance management is seen as less important than it was two years ago. However, another report from Gartner said the APM market will grow  9% in 2012 to $2.14 billion, which is 50% more than the 6% rate IT budgets are expected to grow this year. {Shameless plug}
2. Mobile Productivity and BYOD – 9 Experts Weigh In
   As with any good argument there are usually at least two possible outcomes: The Good and The Bad. Such is the case with the Bring Your Own Device (B.Y.O.D.) trend that has come to business mobile.
3. Amazon Web Services Slashes Storage Prices
   Amazon, at its first developer conference Re:Invent, announced plans for significant price reductions. Amazon Web Services Senior VP Andy Jassy said the cloud supplier will cut storage prices 24% to 27% on Dec. 1.
4. The Cult of Amazon: How a Bookseller Invented the Future of Computing
   In most of corporate America, you write the press release when your creation is finished. But at Amazon, you write it before you’ve even begun.
5. After Sandy: Datagram Recovers From ‘Apocalyptic’ Flood
   As SuperStorm Sandy came ashore on the evening of Monday, Oct.29, the staff at Datagram believed they were as ready as they could be, and hunkered down for a busy night. They had no idea how busy.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed while being distraught over the death of the Twinkie.

1. IT employment is still soaring, and so are bonuses
   With unemployment in the IT industry at historically low levels, bonuses are up as employers scramble to fill open positions.
2. Wired and Wireless: Two Worlds, One Enterprise
   If past is truly prologue, then 2013 will be the year that enterprise mobility kicks into high gear. But the challenge facing most CIOs is not to support one, or all, of the various mobile platforms on the market, but how to integrate them into existing data infrastructure.
3. Researchers claim performance fix for overused Wi-Fi points
   Three researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a software protocol that better manages high traffic loads on a Wi-Fi router when too many users connect, the university said on Tuesday.
4. An Amazon Engineer Had a Little Idea That Turned Into a Billion-Dollar Business
   Ten years ago, if asked what company would revolutionize computing, a book merchant with a tech edge probably did not come to mind.
5. An App That Turns Any Surface Into An iPhone Keyboard
   We have virtual keyboards, clip-on keyboards, magnetic keyboards and even laser keyboards. But what if your keyboard wasn’t a keyboard at all?

What’s on your reading list? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here five stories you might have missed while watching the US election results:

1. Facebook Wants to Build Dissolving Data Centers
   Are cardboard computers in our future? Facebook and Purdue University are partnering to take green IT a step further by developing the first biodegradable server chassis.
2. A Clever Hack Turns Wi-Fi Signals Into Digital Graffiti
   The next time your neighbors open their wireless network drop-down list, greet them with a very special message.
3. Our civilization depends on electricity … and the repair crews who keep it flowing
   Our civilization rests in the hands of an anonymous man wearing awkward rubber gloves, a man with the smarts, guts and grit to get up in a bucket truck on a cold Sunday night in November, putting his life at risk to make sure that the Promethean Flame of power and knowledge keeps burning in our homes and businesses.
4. Surveys – the silly season continues
   When some suppliers don’t have exciting new products to launch or technology to hype, they conduct surveys that are the painful study of the obvious designed to promote their product, service or viewpoint rather than shining a new light on the industry.
5. Astronaut Drives Lego Robot Via ‘Interplanetary Internet’
   Astronaut aboard the International Space Station used a new NASA-developed deep space networking technology to drive a small robot in Germany.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here five stories you might have missed this week:

1. A Look Inside Verizon’s Flooded Communications Hub
   Eleven years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Verizon Communications Inc. is once again scrambling to repair severe damage to a key switching facility inside its historic headquarters building in lower Manhattan.
   {Ed. note: The damage and property loss in New York and New Jersey is unimaginable. If you’re looking to help the Red Cross is accepting donations for relief efforts.}
2. How one business uses social networking to handle disasters
   Brian Flynn, CIO at Crawford & Company, an insurance claims outsourcer, knew that the company’s processes needed updating when he saw in person how its catastrophe team operated during an emergency.
3. Designing The Employee Experience
   In the dozens of conversations I have each week with companies charting their paths to a better customer experience, the role of employees often comes up. We talk about the importance of employee empowerment, and how critical it is that employees feel free to make decisions that are right for customers. We discuss tactics like hiring, socialization, and rewards that can help organizations build corporate cultures that reinforce customer-centric attitudes and behaviors. But rarely – if ever – does anyone ask me about actually designing the employee experience.
4. Visibility: Keystone to Rapid Recovery Everywhere
   Questions like “Why did the web application become available” can’t simply be answered with “because the database stopped responding” because that isn’t the root cause of the actual incident. The actual root cause might end up being a failed NIC on the database server, or a misconfiguration in a switch that caused responses from the database to be routed somewhere else. Simply knowing “the database stopped responding” isn’t enough to definitely resolve the real problem.
5. Embracing Ignorance and Failure to Innovate
   What drives scientists to venture unflinchingly into the unknown without any guarantee of discovering the next big breakthrough that will generate headlines? Ignorance, according to Stuart Firestein, author of a compelling book, Ignorance: How It Drives Science.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five articles you might have missed while watching the track of Hurricane Sandy:

1. 15 Top Reasons Why APM Deployments Fail
   This is an epic list of mistakes. These are the top reasons why APM deployments fail, according to many of the industry’s top experts – including consultants, analysts, vendors and users – and also some of the solutions that help you overcome these challenges.
2. What It Will Take to Sell Cloud to a Skeptical Business
   The other week, I covered a report that asserts Fortune 500 CIOs are seeing mainly positive results from their cloud computing efforts. The CIOs seem happy, but that doesn’t mean others in the organization share that enthusiasm.
3. Public Data: Where to Test Your Next Big Data App
   When building Big Data apps, you need to conduct a test run with someone else’s data before you put the software into production. Why? Because using an unfamiliar dataset can help illuminate any flaws in your code, perhaps making it easier to test and perfect your underlying algorithms.
4. 10 things you can get from Windows 8 that Windows 7 just doesn’t have
   Microsoft’s radical shift to touch-centric computing in Windows 8 is far from the only difference between the new operating system and its predecessor.
5. IT budgets up, but salary cuts still a concern: study
   Among CIOs and IT executives surveyed, 13% expect to see salary cuts in 2013, reports the Society for Information Management (SIM).

What’s on your reading list? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur or leave a comment below.

Here are five stories you might have missed while awaiting the official release of Windows 8:

1. Six habits of highly efficient data centers
   Organizations are raising the bar for energy efficiency with free cooling, DC power, modular data centers, and better collaboration.
2. New security threat at work: Bring-your-own-network
   Even as IT pros wrestle with the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, corporate security is being further complicated by another emerging trend: bring your own network (BYON).
3. How Big Data and Cloud Computing Are Pushing Networks to the Brink
   The old way — running networks mainly by just adding more bandwidth — won’t get the job done.
4. 18 strange things spotted inside a Google data center
   Here’s a roundup of some of the best things when taking the Google Data Center Street View tour.
5. AOL May Have Invented Email’s Next UI Paradigm
   AOL Alto, a new Web-based email client, is filled with grand ideas, including a Pinterest-like system for organizing your inbox. Yes, that AOL.

What’s on your reading list? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you may have missed this while enjoying the Major League Baseball playoffs:

1. Career Suicide and the CIO: 4 Deadly New Threats
   A Twitter comment yesterday quoted a CIO as saying, “It’s hard to be strategic with your pants on fire.” No doubt about it–unless that CIO’s wearing asbestos long-johns, that’s definitely a tough maneuver to execute.
2. Why Don’t We Make Learning A Computer Language A Requirement In High School?
   I’m not a language instructor, nor do I have any interest in figuring out the best way to teach a language – computer or otherwise – but it seems to me that we are shifting into a different period where learning how to write software is just as important – and probably more so – to a high school student as learning to speak French.
3. NH man creates fonts for dyslexics
   If you are reading this in print, the words appear in a font called Olympian. If you’re reading online, they appear as whatever font chosen by your computer/tablet/smartphone. If you are dyslexic, however, reading either one might not be all that simple.
4. Facebook shows IT how to build apps because users insist on it
   Corporate developers should also take lessons in user-interface design from Facebook, or risk losing the confidence of end users for whom learning a new user interface is a real chore.
5. Cloud careers: It’s a seller’s market
   IT professionals who have learned to work across traditional borders are the hot ticket in the current cloud-crazy job market.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur.

Here are five stories you might have missed this week while awaiting the three-day Columbus Day Weekend (if you get Monday off…):

1. The new era of startups focused on design
   Startups that are focused on design are emerging as the web and mobile industry’s most successful companies. What does it take to make a commitment to design? Mike McCue, Flipboard’s co-founder and CEO has some ideas.
2. 7 Ways To Stimulate Your Capacity For Creativity
   Your most creative insights are almost always the result of taking an idea that works in one domain and applying it to another.
3. How to Create Custom iPhone Vibration Patterns
   Apple debuted customizable iPhone vibration patterns with iOS 5. It lets you create your own vibration pattern and assign it to a contact or alert. It’s easy to do and more useful than you might think.
4. Adoption of augmented reality accelerates
   Attempt to find alternative to display advertising on mobile phones is driving adoption, according to Qualcomm.
5. 9 Data Centers: Unexpected Beauty And Creativity
   Most data centers are boring boxes–but not all. Take a look at a data center that houses a supercomputer in a chapel, or an underground data center with James Bond-styling, or a solar-powered data center, and much, much more.

What’s on your reading list this week? Tweet us @CAsvcAssur or leave a comment below.