The worst US cities to work in IT

A few weeks back, I posted a link to an article listing the best places to work if you’re in the IT industry. I recently ran across an article on CIO.com that lists the exact opposite: “The worst U.S. cities to work in IT.”

I don’t think it’s as bad as they (or their depressing picture selection) make it out to be, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Do you work in one of these cities, and if so, what do you think of it?

Modernization in a bad economy

Should we modernize or stick with what we’ve got until the economy recovers? I know that question has been asked by many companies these days. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

I recently read a study by Aberdeen which examines the modernization methods used by best-in-class organizations. According to the study, companies that take the right approach to modernization see substantial cost savings and performance improvements over companies that stick with the status quo.

What is the best approach to legacy modernization? The study finds that a tools-based approach to modernization combined with well planned processes leads to the greatest success.

Those findings certainly fall in line with what I’ve seen over the years. Take this company for example. Their tools-based approach to modernization resulted in 6-figure savings.

Overview of CSS3

I’ve been following the latest CSS3 developments for a while now, and must say that I’m pretty excited about what it can do for web applications. CSS3 adds much more functionality while including many time-saving features.

In case you haven’t heard about all the great new features of CSS3 yet, I just read an article in smashingmagazine.com that lists and describes 13 of the best features. You can find the entire article here.>>

100 best places to work in IT 2009

In a bad economy, top IT talent is more important than ever. The good news (at least for companies) is that there is plenty of great IT talent available right now. So, if your company has trouble attracting great talent, you need to ask: “Why?”

How do you attract the best talent? Take a lesson from these companies: Computerworld recently published their “100 best places to work in IT 2009.” Not only do they explain why each company made the list, but they list a few ways your company can attract and retain highly skilled IT workers.

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How To: Build better, faster web apps with CSS sprites

Have you ever noticed how images on some websites flicker when you hover over them? It’s like the image disappears for a split second before the hover image is displayed. That happens because the hover state of the image isn’t loaded into the browser cache until you hover over it.

You can fix this problem when you use CSS sprites in place of the typical methods for creating rollover buttons. We’ve written up a brief tutorial on CSS sprites which can be found in our forums.

15 nifty Blackberry apps for IT pros

The good people at CIO.com have posted another list of Blackberry apps, but this time they’re aimed at the IT professional. Unfortunately, not all of the apps in this list are free.

However, there are some pretty useful apps in there, so I’d recommend you check it out if you’re a Blackberry owner and an IT professional. Click here to see the list>>.

It's funny in real life, but not in business

If you asked me and my wife to describe the same event, our descriptions would be so different you might not be able to tell we were even talking about the same thing. It’s not that either of us is dishonest, we just notice different things.

The same thing can happen with business data and reports. If two people are asked to create reports on similar data, the results may be anything but similar. They might emphasize different points, or even use different formats in their reports.

Here’s a company that was dealing with this exact problem, only multiplied by 9. They had 9 separate plants, running on 9 separate databases, with 9 separate managers, who had 9 separate ways of doing things. Comparing business data across the plants was like comparing apples to…mangos.

They managed to fix their problems by creating a web-based executive dashboard, even though no one on staff had experience with web application development. Find out what they did>>.

The future of computing

What is the future of computing? According to Google, it’s web-based applications. At their recent I/O convention, Google showed off a few new features of HTML 5, and explained how web applications will be able to take advantage of these features.

Personally, I think Google is spot on. Web-based apps offer multiple advantages over standalone apps, but I think it all comes down to instant information. Web-based apps can be accessed from anywhere at anytime, allowing businesses to operate faster and more efficiently than ever before.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Companies that operate at anything less than real-time are at an extreme disadvantage in this day and age.

Top 10 industry-changing applications

When you look back at the history of computer applications, what stands out to you? Which applications truly affected the way you worked, or even lived?

Once you’ve thought of a few, check out this article on itnews.com, which lists the top 10 industry-changing computer applications. It’s an interesting read, and I think they did a good job overall—most everything on that list is in fact, industry-changing.

I’m sure many may disagree with the list, and I’m curious to hear why. What would you change about this list, and why?

Failure and what you can learn from it

When it comes to failure, there are two types of people in this world: People who learn from their failures and people who won’t admit they have failed. Everybody fails at one point or another, but only some learn from their mistakes. Here’s a great article in CIO.com details real stories of IT failure, and the lessons learned from them.

This reminds me of a manufacturing company we worked with in the past. They had poured over a million dollars into creating a web-based order entry system, only to find the project half done after 2 years. They realized that they needed to do something different, and soon hired an m-Power consultant. Ten weeks later, the project was finished.

This situation turned out well, but can you imagine what would have happened if they had stubbornly pushed forward on that project? It would’ve been a disaster.

Are you stuck in a project that is taking longer and costing more than expected? Maybe we can help. Let us know a little about the lemons you have on your plate, and we’ll show you how to turn them into lemonade.

Modernization: Which language is best?

Anyone considering modernization must decide which programming language to modernize with. I've heard arguments for nearly every language, but I still believe Java is the most powerful and best suited for enterprise application development.

To learn more, including the advantages of modernizing with Java, I encourage you to check out this short presentation.

6 game-changing features of Google Wave

I’m very intrigued by the announcement of Google Wave. Specifically, I’m intrigued by new applications that can increase productivity and save time (and integrate with m-Power). From the looks of things, Google Wave does all of the above.

If you want to know more, check out this informative article on Mashable.com entitled, “The Top 6 Game-Changing Features of Google Wave.”

IT gets ready for the recovery

Amid all the budget cutting and economic turmoil, it’s important to still plan for when the economy turns around. In other words, if you must cut back, do so in such a way that you will be in good position for an increase in business when the economy recovers.

Need some ideas? This article in Computerworld.com looks at a few different ways that IT can cut-back while simultaneously prepping for future growth. Or, maybe you can learn something from this company, who used new technology to both fight the current economic problems and prepare for the future.

Could you use some additional ways to save money? Check out our short presentation entitled, “7 ways to save money with web applications”.

Modernization in 5 practical steps

This white paper details 5 steps you should take when modernizing your legacy applications. It even takes a practical look at the steps we took to modernize the character-based mrc-Productivity Series into the Java-based m-Power, why we chose Java over .Net, and a few tips to help you modernize quickly.

You can read the white paper here.>>

10 Cities with the most available IT jobs

I think the IT industry is a great one to be in. There’s always something new and interesting to learn that can help you in your career. Better yet, despite the economy, the need for IT professionals is still high in many areas.

The good folks at CIO.com have put together a list of the 10 cities with the most available IT jobs. They’ve even included salary information and a few ways each city is unique.

Doing more with less

I know that many are being asked to do more with less these days, but before you get overwhelmed, just think about Boise Cascade. Their IT department was instructed to develop a sophisticated web reporting system that could interface with multiple host systems. The kicker: They had to do it in 3 weeks, despite being short a developer.

Sound impossible? It sure did to them, but despite the general lack of resources and time, they still managed to meet their deadline. Find out how.>>

First there was validity checking . . . and now, server based magic?

If you've built many web apps with m-Power, you already know how to validate data entered into a form the traditional way. When the user presses the accept button, the server validates the entries and either returns with error messages or posts the update,

But this forum post will show you how to make your web apps validate the data in the form as the user is entering it. On the right app, it can be almost magical!

Top 10 free Blackberry applications

One the great aspects of owning a smart-phone these days are all the external applications you can download and run. The best part: Many of these applications are free! In fact, I just ran across a top 10 list of free Blackberry applications that you might want to check out. Make sure you read the comments too, as many readers have listed their favorite free applications as well.

Of course, when using your smart-phone for business purposes, please take extra security precautions. I can’t stress this enough. A lost smart-phone can be deadly to a company if it contains sensitive information.

The best way to avoid a smart-phone security breach? Create web applications that can be accessed via smart-phone. It’s the best of both worlds: You get access to information from anywhere, and don’t run the risk of a security breach should your phone get lost or stolen. Here’s an example of one such application.>>

Is real-time the future of the web?

Here’s a great article on mashable.com that asks the question, “Is real-time the future of the web?” My opinion: Without a doubt, but not just when it comes to news and information. I’ll take it one step further into the business realm. These days, if your business is operating at anything less than real-time, you are at a great disadvantage.

Let me ask you a few questions:

• How long does it take to run a business report?
• How long does it take for you to view crucial business information?
• How long do your customers have to wait to get status updates, tracking info, or reports?

If the answer to any of these questions is anything other than "instantly", then you’re not operating as quickly as you should in this day and age.

Many of our customers faced these problem, but quickly fixed them with m-Power. If you’re not operating in real-time, m-Power can help you. Feel free to fill out this short form for more information, or take m-Power for a spin with our free online lab.