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Will the Google Chromebook Revolutionize the Accounting Industry?

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Isn’t technology great when you simply push the power button and it’s instantly ready for you to be productive?

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If you agree, then you have experienced the euphoria that results from the synergy of human and machine interaction. However, if you disagree, it is most likely due to a kink in the system anywhere between your fingertips and the cloud. Fortunately, Google has introduced a product called the Chromebook that will move us one step closer to seamlessly integrating technology into our lives.

The Chromebook is designed specifically to work with the Cloud environment and will alleviate some of the headaches associated with traditional personal computers, such as crashes, program updates, viruses, outdated hardware, etc. Even though this device may not be ready for enterprise-wide deployments in the accounting industry today, this compact 10-inch laptop has a battery life of over seven hours with built-in WiFi and optional 3G (100 megabytes of free access from Verizon each month) for connectivity to business resources.

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This product is a great complement to existing cloud or Citrix clients as a laptop replacement that will reduce the overall cost of ownership by eliminating the variables associated with locally installed operating systems.

via Will the Google Chromebook Revolutionize the Accounting Industry?.

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U.S. Carriers Begin Blocking Android Tethering Apps

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some Google Android users are reporting that they can no longer download Internet tethering apps from the Android Marketplace, especially those with AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile service.

The mobile applications in question give Android devices owners the ability to access the Internet on their laptops using the wireless connections on their phones. These apps, most of which are free, include PDAnet, Wireless Tether and MyWi. Most of the big American carriers offer Internet tethering, but it typically costs $15-$25 per month, depending on data usage and carrier.

Reports say that Internet tethering apps have disappeared for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile customers. Sprint seems to be the lone exception in the U.S. Our own testing shows that many Internet tethering apps have simply disappeared, at least on the Verizon and AT&T networks. This doesn’t mean users can’t run them, though — they simply can’t download them from the Android Marketplace. Anyone can still download the apps directly from the web or install them on a rooted phone.

Google told ZDNet that it isn’t officially blocking tethering apps. However, Google does say that Android users on specific carriers may not be able to find the app in the Android Marketplace. In other words, Google isn’t denying that certain apps are being blocked by the carriers.

via U.S. Carriers Begin Blocking Android Tethering Apps.

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Google: China hacked Gmail

March 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Once again, Google says China has tampered with Gmail in an attempt to squash Chinese political dissidents.

Google says the Chinese government hacked its Gmail service in an attempt to quell a social uprising in the country, reports the Guardian. The tampering has caused an array of problems for Chinese Gmail users.

For the past month, Chinese customers and advertisers have informed Google of problems related to sending messages. Marking messages, unread messages, and other functions have also reportedly caused issues.

The problem, says Google, isn’t with Gmail — it’s with the government of China, which designed an attack on the email system to look like the problem was with Gmail itself.

“Relating to Google there is no issue on our side,” a Google spokesman told the Guardian. “We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.”

via Google: China hacked Gmail.

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Sanctions Over e-Discovery Increase, More Oversight Needed

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

e-Discovery is Only as Good as its Oversight

Theoretically, e-Discovery should establish a workflow so that data can be searched, collected, reviewed and analyzed in a manner that is both efficient and effective. However, considering that companies have more data than ever to comb through and classify, as well as conflicts between those implementing the e-Discovery infrastructure and those managing the workflows, e-Discovery isn’t always the magic bullet many believe it to be.

According to the study authors, one of the reasons that sanctions may be increasing is that often “more attention is focused on e-discovery than on the merits with a motion for sanctions an increasingly common filing.” Additionally, of the cases in which sanctions were awarded, the most common misconduct was failure to preserve ESI.

While the study doesn’t offer much advice about how e-Discovery solutions can help solve the problem, it does highlight the need for more uniform standards and guidelines to steer counsel through the complex tasks of discovery.

Ultimately, no matter the e-Discovery platform in use, companies need to take more control of how data is managed across the EDRM. Like most tools, e-Discovery is not magic, but if used effectively, it can help to manage risk and limit sanctions.

via Sanctions Over e-Discovery Increase, More Oversight Needed.

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Twitter Puts Spotlight on Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas – NYTimes.com

January 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

THE news that federal prosecutors have demanded that the microblogging site Twitter provide the account details of people connected to the WikiLeaks case, including its founder, Julian Assange, isn’t noteworthy because the government’s request was unusual or intrusive. It is noteworthy because it became public.

Nicholas Merrill filed a constitutional challenge over the national security letter the F.B.I. sent to a company he founded, the Calyx Internet Access Corporation.

Even as Web sites, social networking services and telephone companies amass more and more information about their users, the government — in the course of conducting inquiries — has been able to look through much of the information without the knowledge of the people being investigated.

For the Twitter request, the government obtained a secret subpoena from a federal court. Twitter challenged the secrecy, not the subpoena itself, and won the right to inform the people whose records the government was seeking. WikiLeaks says it suspects that other large sites like Google and Facebook have received similar requests and simply went along with the government.

via Twitter Puts Spotlight on Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas – NYTimes.com.

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More e-Discovery Trends for 2011

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Since we published our e-Discovery predictions for 2011, one more industry vendor has added their predictions to the mix. With only a few days left until 2011, there isn’t much longer until the future is now. Yet, from early case assessment to GRC, it’s apparent that the future of e-Discovery holds many opportunities.

ECA Moves Left

Let’s start with early case assessment. While it wasn’t addressed specifically in our previous list, Steve d’Alencon, Chief Marketing Officer of CaseCentral thinks that in 2011

Software on the “left-side” of the EDRM, concerned with information management, continues to get smarter, meaning that analysis of data can now occur ‘in the wild’ and with this increased intelligence, subsequent collections are getting smaller.

Until now, the primary application of ECA has been to quickly analyze collected data sets to provide insight before moving to full-scale review. According to d’Alencon, early case assessment is better than that and can be expanded to include more analysis and a more narrowed collection of data.

via More e-Discovery Trends for 2011.

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When one translation just isn’t enough – Google Translate Blog

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When you come to Google Translate, we always do our best to give you the most accurate translation our system can produce. However, sometimes translation can be pretty tough. Language is full of ambiguities and our system has to do its best to make the right choices. So why choose?

We’ve launched a new feature to provide you with alternate translations for each phrase in the translated text. Just click the translated phrase and you’ll see a pop-up menu of possible alternates for that phrase, as well as the original phrase highlighted in your original text. Not only can these alternative translations give you a better understanding of a confusing translation, but they also allow you to help Google choose the best alternative when we make a mistake.

This new feature is powered by harnessing the vast knowledge within our statistical machine translation system. Typically, when we produce a translation, our system searches through millions of possible translations, selecting the best — that is, the most statistically likely — translation. With this feature, we expose more of those possible alternatives. For more information about how our system works, check out http://translate.google.com/about/.

By using this feature, you can help improve Google Translate. Selecting phrase-level alternatives gives us feedback that fits well within the our system’s statistical models. We hope to incorporate this structured feedback into our system, improving translation quality over time.

We hope this makes our translations even more useful to you, and allows you to help us help you find the best translation possible!

via When one translation just isn’t enough – Google Translate Blog.

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Cisco May Be Making A Run For Skype | Techcrunch

August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Cisco has made an offer to acquire Skype before they complete their IPO process, says one of our more reliable sources. We have not been able to confirm this rumor one way or another via other sources, which isn’t surprising. A company in lock down during the IPO process is usually even more tight lipped than normal.

via Cisco May Be Making A Run For Skype.

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British forensic audio analysis tool has been passively monitoring London for five years

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This isn’t really a gadget, but the technology on display is rather impressive, and it’s probably good to know about anyway, in case you make a lot of clandestine audio recordings. British scientists have determined a way to authenticate audio recordings (or prove they’ve been tampered with), by matching infinitesimal variations in the sound that correspond to variations in the power grid. They claim it’s the biggest advance in audio forensics since the analysis of the Watergate tapes.

The technology, called electrical network frequency analysis (ENF) was made possible largely by the move to digital recording in video and audio devices, which keeps perfect time — unlike analog devices, which suffer from microscopic changes in recording rate as the batteries get low, the device is jarred, or the tape reel runs out.

Digital recordings and their accurate timestamps allowed researchers to reliably detect in a given recording the tiny, tiny background noise created by the electrical grid; this pattern is then compared to a central pattern database, at which patterns from all over London are recorded and stored. If the patterns don’t match, or there are multiple patterns, it suggests tampering.

The slightly scary part: they’ve been making recordings of the grid patterns every one and a half seconds for the last five years. I mean, it’s not like they were covertly installing microphones in everyone’s bedrooms or anything, but it’s a little creepy to know that a sort of really grainy snapshot is being taken forty times a minute, wherever you are in the city.

via British forensic audio analysis tool has been passively monitoring London for five years.

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