Custom Made Tie Company Launches Free To Use Design a Tie Service

  View as PDF  Print View   

Keltic Ties launches their new design-a-tie software on their website so designing a bespoke tie for groups, clubs, societies and organisations is made easy.

Birmingham UK, United Kingdom - November 29, 2015 /MarketersMedia/ --

Keltic Ties, a well-established supplier of custom made ties, announced the launch of their new design-a-tie software to businesses, clubs and societies. The free software creates a service that these organisations can use to have their own ties made so that members can wear their unique ties to functions, meetings, prize givings etc. Rugby clubs, Football clubs, cricket clubs, golf societies, old school groups, ex-military groups and many other organisations can have their own ties that they can wear to identify themselves and wear an item of clothing that represents their affiliation.

The Design-a-Tie software is a free service that allows users to design a bespoke tie using the normal array of single stripe, double stripe, triple strip, quartered design or plain tie with the logo or club badge set where chosen on the tie. The emblem can also be scattered across the tie in a multi logo design.

This service can be directly accessed through the Keltic Ties website as one of the main navigational options. Once clicked on, the full range of options will be there to be chosen and the completed design will show up. This can then be altered as required. If variations are needed to a design or fresh ideas are required then a free artwork service is offered where in-house designers will take thoughts and ideas and develop them into some artwork designs.

Aside from the design a tie feature the website provides a great resource for accessories that clubs, societies or businesses may require or like; things such as cufflinks, tie clips, cummerbunds, handkerchiefs, cravats, bespoke waistcoats, enamel badges, scarves and club blazers are all available and will be created with the required logo or badge.

Furthermore Keltic Ties have upgraded their website so it is mobile friendly so it is fully usable on a tablet or mobile phone and it should still have all the same functionality. Also added are some details on past orders with some glossy pictures to show what is achievable, there is also available a brochure which can be ordered online; perhaps if a committee or board need to view a prospective purchase before being ordered to enable a discussion on various designs.

Club or Society members interested in this service should visit the website and make contact, use the design a tie service or request a brochure. The goal is to get every club, society or businesses person adorned with great looking, matching, branded ties.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.kelticties.co.uk

Contact Info:Name: Barry SummersOrganization: Keltic TiesAddress: Bentley Business Park

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/custom-made-tie-company-launches-free-to-use-design-a-tie-service/95675

Release ID: 95675

Recently Released Brain Teaser Cube Family Wins Amazon Best Seller Badge (Mon 30th Nov 15)

MouseKeepers Appear on Thanksgiving Predicted by CRH Publishing (Mon 30th Nov 15)

Blog Post Announces Lunchtime Talks on MediShield Life for Singapore Companies (Mon 30th Nov 15)

Cure-Ex: The Ultimate at Home Nail Fungus Device Using Laser (Mon 30th Nov 15)

Best Cyber Monday Web Hosting Sales in 2015 Published by WhatsWP (Mon 30th Nov 15)

Bandage Dresses Launch by Hot and Stylish Save Up to 60% Off (Mon 30th Nov 15)

Source: Custom Made Tie Company Launches Free To Use Design a Tie Service

HTC wants you to test its new phones and software

HTC has announced a new preview program, aptly named HTC Preview, which will see it send unreleased devices and software to users for testing.

Following poor sales and the organization's declining revenue, it's unsurprising to see this type of project come about. It's a good way for HTC to open communications with its users.

The HTC Preview website says the company is interested in finding "people with an eye for design, a passion for technology, and a bunch of great ideas" to get involved. Everyone that registers will need to sign an NDA and commit to using the software or device as their main product while testing.

The program is available now in the US, Europe and Asia. If you are in the US, you'll need to be on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint or Verizon to participate.

➤ HTC Preview

Source: HTC wants you to test its new phones and software

Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing Market - PMR Market Insight Report 2015 to 2021

New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/27/2015 -- Business analytics & enterprise software publishing industry includes development and distribution of customer relationship management (CRM), business analytics, business intelligence (BI), predictive analysis software, collaboration software and other enterprise oriented software solutions. Additionally, it offers training and consulting services related with these softwares. The business analytics & enterprise software publishing market includes publishing activities for business analytics solutions such as predictive analysis software and enterprise software solutions such as enterprise resource planning. Recently, business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry has witnessed a steady growth and with technological advancements the market is anticipated to witness a steady growth throughout the forecast period. Owing to this IT companies are majorly focusing on design and development of effective business analytics tools including basic reporting to advanced and complex forecasting and data mining tools. These solutions allow businesses and data analysts to extract future insights from the provided corporate data which when transformed to actions, delivers high levels of profitability and efficiency to the enterprise. Technologically advances in business intelligence and analytics software such as Analytics Pro (by SAS) are driving this market. Small scale businesses look for software, including enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications and therefore are potential opportunities for this market.

Request Full Brochure of this report: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4703

Low rate of interest and one-time tax benefits to upgrade information technology (IT) infrastructure is luring corporations to incorporate changes in their existing IT services. This trend is a major driver for the business analytics & enterprise software publ ishing market. The business analytics & enterprise software publishing market is characterized by mergers and acquisitions wherein large companies acquire small competitors in order to expand their product and service offerings, and to escalate its sales revenue. Software companies are spending huge amounts for acquiring high performance cloud computing businesses and enterprise software vendors. For instance, Oracle acquired Hyperion Solutions Corporation, Siebel CRM Systems Inc., PeopleSoft, Nimbula, Inc. and Taleo Corporation. Similarly, IBM Corporation acquired SPSS Statistics, Cognos Inc., SoftLayer Technologies Inc. and Varicent Software Inc. These acquisitions have aided software vendors to increase its product offerings and in turn its customer base. Most of the companies have transformed from traditional software solutions to Software as a Service (SaaS). They are offering cost effective cloud models, in order to retain existing corporate customers. The latest web based pay-as-you-go service will allow firewall restricted business applications to access any secure internet connection.

The business analytics & enterprise software publishing market is concentrated with four firms controlling a majority of industry share (IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, and Microsoft Corporation). The market witnesses fewer products from the major companies competing among each other to obtain competitive edge. Moreover, various licensing schemes and government regulations have tend to lead customers towards brands.

The business analytics & enterprise software publishing market is in the dawn of its growth potential. With technological advancements, innovative predictive analysis tools are expected to get introduced in near future which will unlock new business avenues for this market.

Request Full TOC: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4703

Major players in the business analytics & enterprise software publi shing market are Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation, SAP AG and Tableau Software, Inc., QlikTech International AB , Tibco Software, Inc. MicroStrategy Inc., SAS Institute, Inc.

Key points covered in the report1) Report segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)2) The report covers geographic segmentationNorth AmericaEuropeAsiaRoW3) The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 20204) The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market5) The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.-

About Persistence Market ResearchPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technol ogy and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients' business needs.

PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients' business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMR's engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.

Source: Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing Market - PMR Market Insight Report 2015 to 2021

HTC wants you to test its new phones and software

HTC has announced a new preview program, aptly named HTC Preview, which will see it send unreleased devices and software to users for testing.

Following poor sales and the organization's declining revenue, it's unsurprising to see this type of project come about. It's a good way for HTC to open communications with its users.

The HTC Preview website says the company is interested in finding "people with an eye for design, a passion for technology, and a bunch of great ideas" to get involved. Everyone that registers will need to sign an NDA and commit to using the software or device as their main product while testing.

The program is available now in the US, Europe and Asia. If you are in the US, you'll need to be on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint or Verizon to participate.

➤ HTC Preview

Source: HTC wants you to test its new phones and software

Great New Website from Activia Training

Slough, Berkshire -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/25/2015 -- Activia is a leading provider of flexible tutor-led training. They offer courses in twelve locations across the UK, and they can also deliver on-site training at clients' offices.

New website launch

Activia is proud to announce the launch of a brand new website. Located on a state-of-the-art secure platform at http://www.activia.co.uk, the new design makes it even easier to learn more about what they provide, featuring a great Quick Course Finder, laid out in easy to follow categories.

There is also a handy "Free Tools" section that many visitors will find useful. For example, the Speedy Quote tool makes getting a price for any desired training courses a cinch. The Free Course Creator tool enables visitors to build a bespoke course for their needs. And the Skills Appraisal tool helps you avoid going on the wrong course!

Meanwhile, the Locations section lists all the venues where you can attend training courses. Of course, Activia also offers the option to provide on-site training. It's clear that Activia is a flexible training provider.

Software and IT courses

Activia provides a broad range of software and IT training courses, with their flagship software courses covering Microsoft's desktop Office software. There are many courses available, and training is available for different skill levels.

Because of Activia's business focus, content covers what you need at work, not an academic syllabus, so skills are usable as soon as you get back to the office.

Management courses

It isn't just desktop computer software that Activia provides training on. Their range of management courses is also very popular. Activia offers training on a range of management topics. They help employees increase their effectiveness in the workplace.

Examples of topics covered include:

* Management Skills* Managing People* Supervision and Teams* HR and Coaching* Accounts and F inance* Project Management

It's crucial for managers to be effective leaders for their teams. Activia helps them gain the skills they need to achieve that goals.

Staff Development courses

Part of being a good manager is helping employees reach their potential. Activia offers many courses that give managers the support they need for staff development.

From Sales and Business Development to Business Skills, there is a course to suit all needs. Activia also provides skills to help employees offer better customer service. And several courses are available that help workers develop their interpersonal skills.

About Activia TrainingEstablished in 1995, Activia Training has helped over 30,000 clients develop their skills. The company boasts an impressive 266 active training courses in their portfolio. And one can learn from any of their 12 UK-wide training centres or on-site.

Each course is both affordable and flexible. All training gets provided by qual ified tutors in easy to follow courses. Activia works with both individuals and groups of people from all walks of life.

For more information, contact:Activia TrainingRegus House268 Bath RoadSloughBerkshireSL1 4DXUnited KingdomTelephone: +44 (0)333 6000 111Email: sales@activia.co.ukWebsite: https://www.activia.co.uk

Source: Great New Website from Activia Training

Ramon's Tire & Auto Service Announces New Website Design

Shopping for tires and auto repair from Ramon's Tire and Auto Repair just got easier! Visit their newly renovated website to see all the new features and improved user experience to improve vehicle maintenance and safety from the best mechanics in Mendota, CA.

Mendota,    CA (PRWEB) November 24, 2015

Ramon's Tire & Auto Service of Mendota, CA is pleased to unveil a ground-up redesign of their website. The new website layout features easier shopping for tires, either by brand or by vehicle year, make and model. In addition, the website overhaul offers easier navigation of the auto repair services that Ramon's offers and a new button to enable drivers to request a quote on auto repair work. It's also easy to set up an appointment for service or tires through the new website.

In addition to online shopping, estimates and appointment-setting, Ramon's Tire & Auto Service also offers a blog for drivers. This blog can be found under the "About" tab on their website and offers useful information on driving, auto service and tires. It's part of their commitment to customers and is offered to help keep drivers informed and up-to-date on tips for care and maintenance on their vehicles.

Ramon's Tire & Auto Service has been a fixture in Mendota, CA since 1994, with tires from brands like Michelin, Uniroyal, BF Goodrich and Pirelli. This locally-owned and –operated business also offers preventive maintenance and repair services such as oil changes, brake repair, cooling system service, wheel alignments, batteries and more. In addition, Ramon's Tire & Auto Service offers farm tires for the Mendota, CA area and 24/7 roadside service for heavy-duty trucks.

http://ramonstireandservice.com/ is powered by TCS Technologies. TCS Technologies, a Microsoft Certified Partner, develops and markets both off-the-shelf and custom tire software solutions, web applications, ecommerce platforms, and support and consulting services to tire companies across the US and Canada. TCS has built a product base which continues to prove itself as a revenue-increasing, business-streamlining asset to any size tire business. TCS Technologies has tools unmatched in the industry, and customization within each of its products to cater to the way tire dealers and retreaders do business. TCS' home office is located outside Nashville, TN in Cookeville with a second location in Salt Lake City, UT. Visit TCS Technologies' website for more contact information at http://tcstire.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/11/prweb13093779.htm

Source: Ramon's Tire & Auto Service Announces New Website Design

Blog Powerhouse WordPress Launches Mac App And Redesigned Open-Source Website

WordPress has a new Mac desktop app and a brand new open-source interface design. Everything you can do on WordPress.com, you can now do using the Mac app. 

WordPress powers 25% of websites on the internet. The new website design and app have a much cleaner, modern user experience. The Mac app updates pages and responds to comments right from inside the app. WordPress already has apps for iOS and Android, so the addition of a desktop app make WordPress accessible on nearly every device.

Many of the advantages to the Mac app don't have much to do with the app itself. OS X features such as full-screen app mode, push notifications, and shortcut key commands make it easier to complete tasks.  The upgraded interface also includes a "Discover" feature. Follow "Discover" to view posts recommended by the WordPress editorial team.

The new WordPress interface makes it easier to manage all WordPress and Jetpack-enabled sites in one place. Developers built the site, codenamed Project Calypso, with JavaScript and REST API, separating the website from the WordPress core using Single Page Application. The redesigned website makes real-time changes. No page refresh necessary.

Lead software developer and WordPress owner Matt Mullenweg said his decision to put the codebase on GitHub was easy because open-source is "the most powerful idea of our generation." In the official announcement, Mullenweg also said the spirit of sharing is the reason WordPress has achieved such success."I'm proud to take our intellectual property crown jewels and open Calypso up to the world for the community to hack on, play with, poke, prod, and extend and make their own."

WordPress is working on an app for Windows and Linux, but hasn't set a release date yet. 

Source: Blog Powerhouse WordPress Launches Mac App And Redesigned Open-Source Website

On the web: Take advantage of email marketing

Clint Lanier, crlanier@gmail.com 1:03 a.m. MST November 22, 2015

Clint Lanier(Photo: Courtesy photo)

LAS CRUCES - Are you taking advantage of email marketing?

As a business owner or marketing professional you have a multitude of avenues for engaging or attracting customers. Merely 15 years ago this wasn't the case. At that time you were limited to traditional advertising methods – print and TV ads, direct mail, radio spots and billboards.

But today you can harness digital means, like social media, blogging, web-based campaigns, or even video spots on your YouTube channel.

But I want to focus on a method that's unfortunately not used nearly often enough: email marketing.

Unless you are a complete Luddite you have some experience with email marketing, because if you're like me you're sent numerous promotions throughout the day from places you've purchased from or even viewed online. Think about these emails you get. Undoubtedly you delete many without opening, but every now and then one catches your eye, doesn't it? The same is true for your customers: though they probably delete most of the email promotions they receive, they do occasionally open them too.

You might ask, "so what?" If you know that most people may delete the emails, why bother running an email campaign?

Well the answer is in the proven return on investment (ROI) of email marketing.

There are a slew of studies demonstrating that email marketing has one of the highest ROI's of any other marketing medium. An experiment published in the Harvard Business Review for example suggested that in an analysis between direct mailing and email marketing, the ROI of email marketing was 2,600 percent  while for direct mailing it was only 27 percent.

The experiment's caveat was that it just analyzed the cost of the actually sending each message (which worked out to 60 cents for mailers and 006 cents for emails). This doesn't take into account any of the work involved in gathering emails, designing templates, etc. (which I discuss in a bit), however the same must be undertaken for direct mailing as well.

Other studies report the results of surveys of businesses that use email marketing. In every study, businesses rank ROI of email marketing as consistently being the highest when compared to the other methods of marketing they use.

So if it's so valuable, why don't more small businesses use it?

The problem with email marketing is that it can seem a bit intimidating. First you have to gather email addresses. Next you need to design an email and use special software to send the emails out. Finally, you have to have something to say.

Here I'll address each and provide some tips to make it a bit easier for you to get started.

Gathering email addresses does take time (unless you simply purchase an email list, which could be expensive and at the same time completely worthless), but it is time well spent. You can ask visitors to your website to sign up, you can ask them through your various social media outlets, you can even include a request for their email address on any paperwork they have to fill out and then add those to your mass email list. With time, though, the list that you send to will grow and you will have a dedicated pool of people to contact on a frequent basis.

However, you probably will need special software to design and send the emails. You cannot create html-driven graphic emails in most email programs, like Gmail. And while Outlook allows you to structure information, it will only keep that structure in other Outlook clients, not on other email systems. Further, if you have a large list your email provider will most likely not allow you to send the emails, and if they did send they probably would not all be delivered.

There are a number of companies that provide both templates and mass email ability. Some might be well known, like Constant Contact and MailChimp, but these aren't the only two (Google mass email campaigns to see more). Price models will vary, with some charging by the number of emails sent, some offering subscriptions etc. What's nice is that all of these take care of the legal aspects: the spam laws that could get you in trouble. Also, each of these tracks the email campaigns, allowing you to see things like how many people opened the emails, what links they clicked on, etc.

As to what you should say? Well I would advise not to simply send advertisements. Remember these people gave you their email address so they want to hear from you, do you really think they want to read an ad? Instead, send them tips or tricks of the your trade, discounts or news about events or sales. Send them information they might actually want to read. If you can, try to create a monthly newsletter to always stay in their inbox.

In the end it really isn't a big investment to get started with an email marketing campaign, and with (potentially) a 2600 percent ROI, what have you got to lose?

Clint Lanier is an associate professor at New Mexico State University.

Read or Share this story: http://lcsun.co/1jdZmw0

Source: On the web: Take advantage of email marketing

Renderforest Animation Maker Launches New Website

  Renderforest Animation Maker Launches New Website

Renderforest hit the web in Jan. 2015 with the new innovation of letting their customers design professional quality slideshows with intuitive tools and without the use of expensive software.

Now, just 11 months later, Renderforest is taking on a fresh new look when they redesign their website with a modern overlay, even more options for users, and integration with popular media sharing social networks.

The update, which hits on Nov. 25, will be most apparent in the new design for the web page. Every page and subpage has a clean new coat of paint, with motion graphics running in the background and a new streamlined interface for users.

Classic users will notice that their profile has been upgraded with a media library where they can organize their uploaded files. Batch uploads have been introduced, as well as the ability to automatically add those files to a project. For example, if a new project has 100 slides, automatically inserting photos will take only seconds and be completely automated. This is a sharp contrast from the old method of uploading each media file one by one into each slide.

Another new media upload feature allows for side loading files from popular media websites like Facebook, Flickr, and Dropbox. And now, for the first time, Renderforest will support video file uploads, so users can have motion within the motion of their slideshow project.

More options are available as well, with 20 new project templates being added by the end of the year. Each week, three more templates will be added to the website to help users always have something new to choose. With the introduction of video uploads, new video templates will be available as well; some featuring classic themes like our introduction and outro videos. Users need only upload their videos, interviews, podcasts and more and Renderforest will put on a professional polish. Up to 10 minutes of video can be uploaded at a time and utilized in a project.

Renderfore st is putting more attention on music as well, and will feature new project templates to cater to music lover; specifically, their new Equalizer Visualization videos can read user uploaded music for dynamic results. Renderforest's own music library has also expanded, and now features more than 15 additional tracks.

Renderforest is committed to always giving their users the best possible experience, and is actively improving that experience all the time. The website revamp is just one example of this, and new additions will be arriving frequently. Be sure to come check them out.

Contact informationNarek Safaryan, CEOnarek@wildek.comhttps://renderforest.com+374 93 777 095

Published on: 2015-11-20

Limited copyright is granted for you to use and/or republish any story on this site for any legitimate media purpose as long as you reference 7thSpace and any source mentioned in the story above. Please make sure to read our disclaimer prior to contacting 7thSpace Interactive. To contact our editors, visit our online helpdesk. If you wish submit your own press release, click here.

Discussions

Source: Renderforest Animation Maker Launches New Website

ZigBee home automation design kits use RPi-based gateway

Silicon Labs unveiled reference designs for home automation and lighting networks, based on its ZigBee SoC and middleware plus a Raspberry Pi-based gateway. Silicon Labs, which bills itself as the ZigBee market share leader, has integrated its ZigBee "Golden Unit" Home Automation (HA 1.2) software stack, "EM358x" ZigBee mesh networking SoC, and various ZigBee sensor and lighting technologies in several reference designs for home automation. The Dimmable Light Switch, Connected Lighting, Door/Window Contact Sensor reference designs work with a WiFi and Ethernet ready ZigBee Gateway Reference Design that runs Linux on a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B SBC.

ZigBee Wi-Fi/Ethernet Gateway Reference Design with Raspberry Pi inside (click image to enlarge) The "cost-effective" ZigBee reference designs are intended to reduce the complexity of connecting ZigBee devices, such as lights, dimmer switches, and door/window contact sensors. The Golden Unit ZigBee middleware, which connects all these gateways, enables LED lights to reliably join, interoperate, and detach from a mesh network, says Silicon Labs. The Golden Unit stack can scale from a few light nodes to hundreds on the same network, says Silicon Labs. Complete schematics, layout, and bill of materials (BOM) are offered for all reference designs.

The only embedded Linux based element here is the ZigBee Wi-Fi/Ethernet Gateway Reference Design. Other ZigBee HA1.2 certified gateways and hubs could also be used, such as the Linux-based Wink, says the company. However, its homegrown gateway has been pre-tested and configured for all the Golden Unit connected devices, and ships with an easy-to-use graphical web UI.

The company also offers an alternative "plug-and-play" USB virtual gateway that runs on PCs. It includes an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine, as well as VirtualBox for supporting Windows and OS X.

The embedded Linux gateway includes the Raspberry Pi 2 in a case with a power supply and a microSD card pre-loaded with Linux and the ZigBee gateway application. An Edimax USB WiFi adapter provides a WiFi soft access point for demonstration purposes.

The RPi-based gateway also includes a USB ZigBee adapter dongle built around one of Silicon Labs's Cortex-M3-based EM358x network coprocessor SoCs: the CEL EM3588. This "ZigBee SoC" also integrates a 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 transceiver.

Lightswitch reference design (click image to enlarge) Both the hardware and virtual gateway options allow developers to control and monitor ZigBee HA 1.2 compliant end nodes with any device via WiFi using a web browser, including a mobile browser. Developers can create rules between ZigBee end devices including the operation of lights, dimmable light switches, and contact sensors.

The ZigBee firmware supports standard ZigBee commissioning, and lets developers view ZigBee cluster library (ZCL) communication from ZigBee end devices, as well as send ZCL data to ZigBee endpoints. You can easily create bindings between ZigBee end devices from the web server, says the company.

Connected Lighting reference design (click image to enlarge) The wireless, battery-powered light switch reference design is touted for advanced color, color tuning and dimming control capabilities. The switch design is built around a Silicon Labs EFM8 capacitive sensing MCU that can detect gestures such as touch, hold, and swipe.

The connected lighting design, which works with the switch, includes a wireless lighting board and a plug-in demo board. The contact sensor reference design provides all the tools needed to create wireless, battery-powered sensors for monitoring the state of door and window positions, which can be used to trigger room lighting, says the company.

Contact reference design

According to Silicon Labs, which is a founding member of the Thread Group, the reference platforms will eventually support the 6LoWPAN-based Thread wireless standard in addition to ZigBee. The secure, IPv6-compatible Thread protocol can work with Nest Labs's Weave networking protocol.

Silicon Labs cites an IHS Technology study that forecasts shipments for connected home devices to expand at a 48 percent compounded annual growth rate from 59 million units in 2015 to 193 million units in 2018.

 Further information

Silicon Labs's connected lighting, home automation and smart gateway reference designs are available today at the following prices:

RD-0020-0601 connected lighting — $49

RD-0035-0601 connected lighting — $49

RD-0030-0201 contact sensor — $39

RD-0039-0201 capacitive-sense dimmable light switch — $29

USB virtual gateway — $49

Wi-Fi/Ethernet gateway (Linux) — $149

More information may be found at the Silicon Labs Connected Home site.  

Related posts:

New wireless mesh standard hatches from Google's Nest

Configurable IoT gateway runs Linux on Intel Quark

Home automation kit includes Arduino, RasPi dev boards

Gesture-controlled home automation hub runs Linux

ZigBee-certified software supports Smart Grid devices

Wink adds touchscreen-based home automation hub

Open IoT alliance to tackle smart, connected LEDs

Linux's domination of home automation gizmos continues

Nest Labs advances its Weave home automation ecosystem

IoT SBC runs Linux on Quark

Source: ZigBee home automation design kits use RPi-based gateway

Software Programmer #28942

PLEASE JOIN OUR TALENT NETWORK: http://bit.ly/vhatalentnetworkJoining the Talent Network with VanderHouwen & Associates (VHA) will enhance your job search and application experience. Job listings are mobile-friendly and easy to review, share, or apply. Whether you choose to just leave us your information or apply, we look forward to connecting with you.

SummaryThis full time contract Software Programmer position is within our client's OpInfo (TOT) organization. TOT provides data historian tools and analysis/regulatory reporting services to engineering staff and Transmission management. This position will fulfill a combination of software support and data analysis needs within the team. Skills required for this position require a diverse mix of Windows application development, Windows server administration, SQL database modeling, PI development, and PI server administration.

ResponsibilitiesAssist statisticians in using Microsoft Excel VBA macros to expedite production o f ad-hoc reports for regulatory oversight bodies, agency management, and engineering personnel.Utilize OSIsoft Data Link and Process Book clients to query and present a variety of information from agency's Plant Information (PI) system.Design, code, and test complex applications that include batch, data access, data validation, and user interface components. Design and create SQL database objects that support the application.Serve as secondary PI Administrator to troubleshoot PI collective and interface nodes.Perform PI archive fills from alternate data sources due to data loss events.Configure new web applications using Microsoft Server's IIS administration tool.Utilize least-privilege model to set user access for files, folders, and shares.Troubleshoot and maintain Windows servers.Create scripts to automate maintenance, assure security controls remain intact and help coordinate patching activities.Support North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)/Western Electrici ty Coordinating Council (WECC) compliance through adherence to Standard requirements and documentation measures.Apply NERC CIP cyber-security methods to assigned work.

QualificationsBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a directly-related technical field is preferred.10+ years' experience with IT/Network Support and programming with Energy Management System data is required.Minimum 2 years' experience in administering a PI high-availability collective is required.Minimum 2 years' experience administering Windows stand-alone and clustered servers is required.Microsoft MCSE certification preferred.Minimum 2 years' experience using the Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and high proficiency in using the C# programming language is required.Strong MSSQL query and data modeling skills required. Ability to design schemas for new applications and establish relevant relationships between fields in highly normalized data.Demonstra ted solid understanding of object-oriented programming concepts and techniques is required.Advanced skills and experience in the use of Microsoft Excel is required.Experience with Microsoft Office Suite software including MS Word, Excel, Outlook is required (MS Office 2010 proficiency required).Experience in data mining procedures for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), metering, and outage data is preferred.Experience using and installing OSIsoft PI Process Book and Datalink client applications is preferred.Familiarity and experience with electric utility operational data systems is preferred.Ability to plan, design, document, code, test, implement, and maintain complex applications including console executables, web forms with embedded code, web services, and Windows services.Good communication skills and ability to share knowledge with others.Experience developing applications designed to run on enterprise batch job schedulers.Ability to produce results in a timely and efficient manner.Proven experience working both independently and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment is essential.Ability to simultaneously handle multiple assignments.

VanderHouwen & Associates, Inc.For over two decades, VanderHouwen & Associates, Inc. (VHA), a Women Owned and nationally certified WBENC organization, has been a premier staffing provider of IT, Engineering, and Accounting professionals in the Pacific Northwest. While it might seem unusual for a rapid-deploy, results-driven business like ours to take that responsibility personally, we do. Our President's work ethic not only serves as the foundation of our company, but drives the commitment to individual attention which infuses our culture. Our dedication is to the satisfaction and success of our clients and consultants. We're committed to providing outstanding service to a uniquely demanding industry in a straightforward, ethical, highly personal, and always-responsive manner.

6 342 SW Macadam Ave. • Portland, Oregon 97239P| 503.299.6811  TF| 888.299.6811  F| 503.224.6181 | http://www.vanderhouwen.com

Source: Software Programmer #28942

ATO says web development costs should be claimed over five years

Productivity

In case you were looking for further evidence that the Australian Tax Office has little idea of how businesses operate, they've offered up some advice on developing your business' web site.

"If you spend the money before your business starts, you claim the costs over five years once you start operating."

So, you have an idea for a business, start creating the website for it and then claim the cost over five years.

I'm not an accountant so you should get your own advice. But as someone who operates a small business, I find the ATO's advice to be somewhat divorced from reality.

Let's say your site is for a small business. Anyone who's started a business knows the effort you put in early on is quite massive and you need to watch the cash-flow closely.

Most of the people I've spoken to and worked with develop their first website using relatively inexpensive tools. Given basic hosting with support for open source tools for design, shopping carts, product catalogues and other components is reasonably inexpensive, most of the cost is in labour.

What makes this even more confusing is the following information from the ATO.

"If you spend the money after your business starts, there are different ways of claiming a deduction. Depending on the cost, you'll either be able to claim the full deduction in that year, or you'll need to claim it over a number of years."

In other words, register your business, conduct at least one transaction and then you can claim the development and operational costs as per normal capital and operational expenses.

The ATO has provided some examples of how this might work here. But this presupposes your business sets aside money in a "software development pool".

The trouble is, websites are live. They change constantly, not just in terms of content but also with design. The simplest way to mange this would be to separate the website into two components: hardware and software.

If you run your own physical web servers, these can be handled just like any other fixed asset. If you use a hosting provider that you pay each month for supply of services, that's an operational expense.

Assuming development and maintenance of the website are ongoing then software you buy, that's over the ATO's thresholds for capital assets, are handled as any other capital assets with ongoing development and maintenance covered as operational expenses.

What all this points to is website establishment, development and maintenance are something the ATO is struggling to understand in a real-world context. When starting out – make sure you document all your costs and get your accountant's advice as to the best way account for everything.

Source: ATO says web development costs should be claimed over five years

Web scale vs. hyperconverged: Understand the differences

Recently, many vendors have championed hyperconverged architectures by arguing that Web-scale titans, like Google and Facebook, take similar approaches. This is incorrect. There may be commonalities between Web-scale and hyperconverged architectures, but there are also huge differences.

Now, simply because Web-scale companies don't use hyperconverged systems doesn't mean that you shouldn't consider the approach. In fact you probably don't want a Web-scale data center unless you need to reach that scale. However, you should approach hyperconverged architectures with careful technical reasoning -- rather than looking to Google or Facebook for guidance.

Before discussing Web-scale architecture, we should remember that as the right design for a small environment clearly won't work in a large environment, the inverse is often true. Systems designed for large-scale environments often work poorly in small-scale environments. The system you design should fit the task you need. Many of the techniques used by Web-scale vendors would be inefficient if attempted by those with smaller environments. What is optimal for Google may very well be unworkable for a large enterprise.

Hyperconverged systems are marked by a few main architectural decisions. They provide a reliable hardware abstraction (the virtual disk) by replicating between machines. They consolidate storage and compute on the same machines. They design for an environment that is free of custom hardware. They design for a decoupling of software and hardware.

As I outline below, Web-scale titans do not make any of these architectural decisions.

Web-scale companies don't use reliable hardware abstractions

Hyperconverged systems provide a reliable hardware abstraction (the virtual disk over SCSI or SATA) using replication across systems. This reliable hardware layer sits below the application software.

In contrast, Web-scale vendors provide reliable software abstractions: object, filesystem, and so on. They do this because hardware abstractions, which were built for centralized environments, are extremely difficult to scale, as they impose strong consistency requirements. Meanwhile, Web-scale vendors can create software abstractions that provide reduced consistency tuned for a specific workload and thus scale while retaining performance and availability. Amazon S3, Google File System, and HDFS are all examples of distributed storage systems that provide interfaces specifically tuned for particular kinds of workloads. For example, S3 provides eventual consistency for read-mostly data, while HDFS is tuned for sequential processing compute frameworks like MapReduce.

NoSQL databases provide one of the best-known examples of this trade-off. NoSQL databases (like MongoDB, HBase, and Cassandra) relax consistency to provide highly available large-scale systems and expect unreliable individual nodes. In contrast, most traditional SQL databases (like Oracle or MySQL) provide strong ACID consistency but often have problems scaling beyond a certain point.

The use of unreliable hardware abstractions to provide reliable software abstractions leads to an application design often called "cattle applications." In such an application, the hardware abstractions provided by virtual machines (or containers) are unreliable. To provide reliability, cattle services build reliability into the application layer itself. For example, HDFS stores multiple copies of each piece of data, but the data is separated at the file system layer, not at a drive layer.

Web-scale companies sometimes combine compute and storage ...

... but often separate them into different services.

Hyperconverged vendors argue that the storage for an application should be internalized with the compute for that application and run together on a common hardware base. While Web-scale vendors certainly place the computation and storage for given services together, they divide applications into microservices, which are separated by the network. Web-scale vendors generally make a strong distinction between services that store persistent state and services that are compute heavy and more or less stateless.

In many cases different services may have completely separate hardware to suit a particular application. For example, Amazon makes a clear distinction between instance storage, which is stored as part of EC2 and is ephemeral, and storage services. Both EBS (a block service) and S3 (an object service) are separate services accessed by EC2 instances over the network. While Amazon is not explicit about the hardware used to run them, it is clear there is at least no effort to run EBS and EC2 on co-located nodes.

Similarly, Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all stated publicly that they use heterogeneous hardware for their services to fit the appropriate hardware to the appropriate service.

While Web-scale vendors certainly co-locate the compute and storage for each service, they employ a variety of approaches for application creation, often customizing the hardware platform for one kind of service separate from others.

Web-scale companies use custom hardware

Hyperconverged vendors argue that customers should only buy off-the-shelf, mass-produced servers from a hardware integrator in order to reduce cost. This is a trade-off between cost and performance gains from using more customized hardware. Almost all vendors, whether they are appliance vendors, hyperconverged vendors, or Web-scale titans, use mass-produced, commodity components -- drives, CPUs, RAM, and so on -- to drive down the cost of acquisition and design.

However, Web-scale titans are actually the most likely to use either custom-built or heavily customized appliances. They tend to use custom appliances either because it allows them to reduce their overall cost or because it meets a specific need. Since they consume large volumes of hardware, they can afford the initial development costs.

For example, Google has publicly disclosed that it constructs its own servers with batteries built into the motherboard and hardware synchronized clocks, and it fashions its own custom networking switches.

Facebook has gone so far as to create an open compute project that discloses the custom hardware designs the company currently runs, in an attempt to create a community of other companies that use and produce the hardware they need.

Amazon has disclosed that it uses custom processors, many hardware configurations, and custom switches to integrate tightly with its data center environments.

Web-scale companies tightly couple software and hardware

Hyperconverged vendors argue that infrastructure software (written by a software vendor) should be decoupled from the hardware running beneath (designed by an integrator), and application software (written by an app developer) should be decoupled from the virtualization infrastructure underneath it.

This is the inverse of most Web-scale companies. Not only do Web-scale companies customize their hardware, but they build hardware, infrastructure, and applications that are heavily coupled and specifically designed for their environment.

For example, Google's Spanner is built with a specific requirement on hardware-level synchronized clocks. Kubernetes assumes that every compute node is given its own subnet. Resource allocation in Google Borg is tied to Google's capacity planning, while cluster definitions in Borg rely on Google's network topologies, among other factors.

Facebook's load-balancing approaches are heavily tied to a set of site-specific services. Memcache (used by Facebook and others) assumes hardware with huge amounts of RAM (or more recently, high-performance flash).

Amazon's reliability designs are built around synchronous replication between geographically close data centers.

This kind of software is an "installation" in contrast with enterprise (and hyperconverged) models that think of hardware and software as portable, composable units. I borrow the term "installation" from contemporary art, where some recent artists design site-specific "installation artworks" that are intimately tied to the location where the art resides.

Installation-style design is financially challenging for companies without immense scale. However, for those with the scale to allow it, an installation approach simplifies software and hardware management because it gives the application and infrastructure software designers the ability to tune to a narrow set of hardware. This allows software designers to squeeze the most performance from the hardware they have and solve challenging software problems by using appropriate custom hardware. By customizing their entire environment, Web-scale companies can create full data center appliances (also called "data center as a computer"), rather than using individual storage or compute appliances.

For example, Google structures its infrastructure around shipping containers full of hardware. Each container has cooling, compute, storage, and networking, all built to the specific requirements of Google's infrastructure and applications. The designers of Google's software frameworks, like Borg, can both impact the layout and benefit from customized hardware for that specific configuration.

Web-scale companies are not hyperconverged

In conclusion, Web-scale design is different from hyperconverged design in at least four significant aspects.

Hyperconverged architectures use replication across nodes to provide reliable hardware abstractions, while Web-scale architectures build reliability into custom software abstractions provided by applications.

Hyperconverged architectures co-locate storage and compute. Web-scale architectures often co-locate compute and storage resources, but they use a variety of techniques to combine and separate storage and compute resources as necessary.

Hyperconverged architectures are built around commodity hardware, while Web-scale architectures are built around heavily customized hardware.

Hyperconverged architectures provide strong separation between software and hardware, while Web-scale architectures aggressively fit software to a specific data center design.

This doesn't mean that hyperconverged architectures are a bad idea, only that they are very different from the architectures used in Web-scale environments. The systems in use at Web-scale vendors also come with trade-offs. In deciding what kind of architecture you need in your data center, you need to think carefully about what you need, not merely about what Google or Facebook is doing.

Brandon Salmon, Office of the CTO, has been at Tintri since 2009. He is a systems guy who loves to think about user experience, which he picked up from his doctoral work at Carnegie Mellon on distributed file systems for the home. He designed and implemented Tintri's initial algorithms for moving data between flash and disk, and he has worked on a number of areas since, most recently cloud technologies.

New Tech Forum provides a venue to explore and discuss emerging enterprise technology in unprecedented depth and breadth. The selection is subjective, based on our pick of the technologies we believe to be important and of greatest interest to InfoWorld readers. InfoWorld does not accept marketing collateral for publication and reserves the right to edit all contributed content. Send all inquiries to newtechforum@infoworld.com.

Source: Web scale vs. hyperconverged: Understand the differences

Become a Design Genius at the Memphis Public Library for Free

When I was fresh out of college and in search of gainful employment, I applied to a bunch of jobs that required me to know Adobe Photoshop without my actually having any idea how to use Photoshop. I figured that it couldn't really be that hard, since various tween-age members of my family seemed adept at it. I figured I'd fake it until I made it. But when I got my first assignment that required me to know how to lasso pixels (what is this, really?) I panicked. I had about 24 hours to figure out what I was doing or else look dumb. So I got a subscription to Lynda, a website that has tons of very useful tutorials that teach you how to use everything from architectural design software to Adobe products. It is an extremely useful tool for both beginning and veteran designers who want to keep up with fast-changing software (note: this is not being paid for by Lynda. It is a great website.) It isn't design focused, either; there are tutorials on business and coding as well. The downside is that at $25 per month, the site is relatively expensive for people on a limited budget. 

Which is why it rules that the Memphis Public Library announced recently that it will provide Lynda to library cardholders for free, thanks to support from the Memphis Library Foundation. 

From the Library's blog post about the new development: 

"Customers can customize their own curricula with more than 122,000 individual tutorial videos, covering a range of topics from desktop and office software to photography, web development, graphic arts, recording and audio engineering, marketing, technical skills, business strategies, creative techniques, career development and more. Customers interested in computer programming, coding, computer-aided drafting, IT management, web design, music, 3-D animation, and other related areas of study will find courses to match their interests as well. Certificates of completion are available for customers who want to measure progress or build their resumes.

... 'The Library's mission has always been about providing customers access to the information they need and want, in whatever format works best – books, audio, video, or online,' noted Collection Development Manager Alan Stewart. 'We're delighted to be able to extend and enhance our mission by offering these high-quality e-learning resources from Lynda.com.'" 

Time to learn all the Adobe products on the cheap. Thanks, MPL! 

Source: Become a Design Genius at the Memphis Public Library for Free

Digitally design your future

A future in the dynamic tech industry has got people shedding their past and turning to a plethora of software opportunities.

Canadian coding schools like Bitmaker Labs, BrainStation, HackerYou and CodeCore are offering accelerated technology training to equip a pool of talent with the tools and skills to digitally design the future.

A complement as well as an alternative to traditional learning, coding schools are providing an on-ramp to creative and lucrative careers, attracting the best and brightest, and graduating thousands to fill job openings not only in the growing tech sector, but with companies developing or expanding their digital game plan.

Grey Thompson rebooted his life with a coding course at BrainStation. The 27-year-old Torontonian loved working as a real estate analyst but loves working in technology even more. "I am now a consultant at Konrad Group — a role that perfectly blends my business experience with my technical understanding of application development. "

Thompson says a coding course is easily the fastest way to learn to code, especially if you commit to a full-time immersive program. ‹You do not have to be tech savvy to get started. Learning to code will get you up to speed very quickly."

According to Jason Field, founder of BrainStation, the demand for digital builders and creators has never been so high "and it's only going to become larger as more traditional industries continue to be disrupted by technical innovation."

He says that those that know how to utilize technology as a tool are the ones that will be defining the future and in a powerful position that comes with fantastic financial opportunities.

BrainStation has grown their student body by over 600%, are operating in six new cities in three different countries, and have quadrupled their course offering, says Field. They train junior mobile developers, junior full-stack web developers, user experience designers, and digital marketers.

Coding school Bitmaker Labs will graduate their 1000th student this year. "Our students are looking for the shortest path into the technology industry," says Bitmaker Labs founder Craig Hunter, adding that more than 90% of their graduates start their career in technology within three months of graduating.

Hunter sees people combine their core skillset with the ability to code. "That pairing makes for a very desirable candidate in today's job market," says Hunter, adding that code.org estimates that there will be a one million-person job gap in programming by 2020 in North America alone.

He adds that offers range from $40,000 all the way to over $60,000, and as junior developers and designers reach the intermediate or senior level, they can command very large salaries with a lot of autonomy over their work.

Alessia Bellisario ditched her political path for programming. The 24-year-old political science major did some freelance web design while in university, as well as worked for City Hall in the summers.

Upon graduation, Bellisario ditched politics and philosophy, and set off in an entirely new direction "to build richer, more dynamic experiences on the web." She took a coding course at Bitmaker Labso and then moved to Montreal to join Breather, which creates "on-demand private spaces that you can reserve and unlock on the go using our web and mobile apps."

Going to work every day is exciting, says Bellisario: "we're building something that technologically hasn't been possible until now and have big plans to disrupt the workspace and meeting space industries."

Meanwhile, she admits that disrupting a pre-defined career path can feel like you're taking a step backwards, but adds that if you love programming, there really is no better time to start climbing the hill to peak opportunities.

Drew Minns loves "the amount of new blood that is joining the industry." The lead instructor at HackerYou says that with "every new member of the community, comes a world of experience in a different field which makes the industry as a whole stronger."

Coding is a great pathway to opportunities: "Coding is not strictly about websites. The skills and concepts learned are transferable throughout all facets of technology including design, mobile applications and management," he says, adding that HackerYou focuses on training in Front End development of websites.

Those with the drive for knowledge and creativity succeed, he says, especially those that aren't afraid to try new things. "Ultimately though, anyone can get involved in this industry at any level."

joanne.richard@sunmedia.ca

Source: Digitally design your future

Software Engineer #28872

PLEASE JOIN OUR TALENT NETWORK: http://bit.ly/vhatalentnetworkJoining the Talent Network with VanderHouwen & Associates (VHA) will enhance your job search and application experience. Job listings are mobile-friendly and easy to review, share, or apply. Whether you choose to just leave us your information or apply, we look forward to connecting with you.

SummaryThe Software Engineer carries out all small feature and sustaining software development processes to include software design, implementation, debugging, unit testing, and sustaining. The primary focus of this position is to develop quality software that is released in our web based applications installed in our Production Environment.

ResponsibilitiesConfiguration managementInvestigate, fix, debug, and unit test software defectsDesign, implement, unit test, debug minor features for our web based applicationsWrites external and internal design specifications

Qualifications RequiredBachelor's degree in Compute r Science or Information Systems (or related field) or the equivalent combination of education and experienceMinimum of 1-2 years of experience working directly in Software EngineeringProficiency in Java and .NETWorking knowledge of software development and execution on LinuxExcellent written and verbal skillsSuperior attention to detailStrong interpersonal and communication skillsAbility to follow complex instructionsAbility to prioritize multiple workloads and lead projects to a timely conclusionSelf-directed and creative problem solverProductive in group and solo project environments

Qualifications Preferred3-5 years of experience working directly in Software Engineering a plusWorking knowledge of XML and XSLTWorking knowledge of RDBMS and SQLSoftware Development Life Cycle process proficiencySource code control proficiencySQL ServerRedhatGUI designAntWorking Knowledge of JBOSS, AMQ, ApacheExperience developing software in a Windows environment

VanderHouwen & Asso ciates, Inc.For over two decades, VanderHouwen & Associates, Inc. (VHA), a Women Owned and nationally certified WBENC organization, has been a premier staffing provider of IT, Engineering, and Accounting professionals in the Pacific Northwest. While it might seem unusual for a rapid-deploy, results-driven business like ours to take that responsibility personally, we do. Our President's work ethic not only serves as the foundation of our company, but drives the commitment to individual attention which infuses our culture. Our dedication is to the satisfaction and success of our clients and consultants. We're committed to providing outstanding service to a uniquely demanding industry in a straightforward, ethical, highly personal, and always-responsive manner.

6342 SW Macadam Ave. • Portland, Oregon 97239P| 503.299.6811  TF| 888.299.6811  F| 503.224.6181 | http://www.vanderhouwen.com

Source: Software Engineer #28872

You Software Majors Should Minor in Zumba

Nov. 10, 2015 3:25 p.m. ET

Thomas Tunstall's belief that software jobs are "only beginning to emerge" may prove dangerously wrong ("Where the New Jobs Will Come From," op-ed, Nov. 5). As a software product manager for over 20 years, I've seen our field boom. I now see the rapid emergence of technical tools that may automate many of the tasks done by programmers today, or ones that will move software workers down the food chain. To build a great looking website 10 years ago, you needed an HTML designer and coder. Today Wix, Squarespace and other tools make this an easy task for any computer-literate person anywhere. Much more powerfully—programming tool sets, libraries, cloud services, development systems, plug-ins replacing programs and as yet unimaginable AI programming interfaces may replace a vast army of software developers.

The teams making these new tools will succeed fabulously. And those who can see ways to construct ever more powerful applications using these tools also will succeed. A lot of others may be looking to teach those Zumba classes Mr. Tunstall mentions.

Larry Taymor

San Rafael, Calif.

Mr. Tunstall is correct. The pleas to "save the family farm" while farm employment fell from 70% to 2% of the workforce were as misguided as similar concerns about manufacturing employment are today. But the real reason not to ever worry about employment is that, metaphysically, there is an unlimited amount of work to do. No cave man was ever "unemployed."

Barry Milliken

New York

Source: You Software Majors Should Minor in Zumba

Google gives software away to influence AI research

The release of TensorFlow means anyone can download and modify the development software that underpins RankBrain, the AI powering part of Google's search engine and new features such as its Smart Reply e-mail tool, Google wrote in a blog post.

Companies ranging from Google to Facebook Inc. to Microsoft Corp. are seeking to influence AI development by staffing up research labs, publishing academic research papers, giving presentations at conferences and even guest lecturing at universities. They're betting that by being open they can entice talented academics to work for them, while encouraging the wider community to work on new AI technologies. Other companies, such as Apple and Amazon.com have been more secretive in the past, but are seeking to be more open.

The companies are also trying guide AI development. Facebook has released free code for Torch, an AI development tool used by Google's DeepMind subsidiary, AMD, Intel, and others. Twitter announced its first contribution to Torch on Friday. Microsoft, meanwhile, has published numerous AI programs and datasets as open source.

By releasing TensorFlow, Google aims to make the software it built to develop and run its own AI systems a part of the standard toolset used by researchers, said Jason Freidenfelds, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google. It may also help Google identify potential talent.

Google has shared TensorFlow ahead of its release with a few people, he said. Christopher Manning, a professor of Linguistics and Computer Science at Stanford University, has --- along with two students -- been writing AI programs using TensorFlow. He says the system can perform operations much faster than other tools, and includes features that take a long time to program, like fine-tuned systems that work with graphical processing unit chips from companies such as Nvidia Corp.

The main factor that could make or break TensorFlow is Google's involvement with the open-source community that adopts it.

"As a researcher, if a tool makes you faster that's pretty compelling," Manning said. "Based on the evidence available to me now I think it will be widely adopted."

Source: Google gives software away to influence AI research

Modmacro Awarded Seventeen MarCom Awards at the 2015 Creative Competition

  November 09, 2015 --

Menifee, Ca (PRWEB) November 09, 2015

Modmacro, a boutique web design and digital marketing firm in Southern California, announced today that it is the recipient of 17 Platinum, Gold, and Honorable Mention distinctions at the 2015 MarCom Awards. The MarCom Awards is a prestigious international competition for marketing and communication professionals that recognizes companies and individuals for excellence in design, writing, and the creation of visual, audio, and web materials and programs.

The MarCom Awards received more than 6,500 submissions from all 50 states, as well as from 34 countries. Entries came from corporations, marketing agencies, PR firms, design shops, and freelance designers.

Of the 17 MarCom Awards received by Modmacro, three were Platinum awardsthe highest distinction available, eleven were Gold awards, and three were Honorable Mention awards. The three Platinum awards were for the web design of Businessing Magazine, the content on Businessing Magazine, and the logo design for BM Windows. The other winning submissions were in categories such as landing page design, blog writing, and video production. A full list of the MarCom Awards received by Modmacro can be found here.

Commenting on his companys excellent showing at the 2015 MarCom Awards, Modmacro CEO Matthew Smith said, We are so honored to be the recipient of these awards from a well-respected organization like MarCom. Looking through the list of winners, we noticed that we are in some pretty impressive company! To be listed among international advertising agencies and multi-million dollar companies is exciting for this small Southern California boutique digital marketing firm!

To find out more about the MarCom Awards, and to see a complete list of the 2015 winners, visit their website at http://marcomawards.com/.

About Modmacro, Inc.

An award-winning web design and marketing firm, Modmacro partners with select small businesses to strategically grow their companies. Their integrated marketing approach is based on a healthy mix of original creativity (design), visual appeal (branding), authentic story sharing (PR), driving targeted traffic (SEO), original content creation, user experience design considerations (UX), and practical data insights (analytics).

Now in their sixth year, the company delivers tailor-made marketing solutions whose results illustrate clear value to profit-minded decision makers. Through a simple, proven process, Modmacros approach often challenges established thinking and reboots the status quo. The team invests in educating clients, as well as themselves, with the goal of developing lasting, partnership-level relationships that foster candid, productive dialogue. Learn more about Modmacro web design and marketing at http://www.modmacro.com/.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/modmacro-wins/2015-marcom-awards/prweb13070074.htm.

Related Keywords:

Source:PRWEB.COM Newswire. All Rights Reserved

Source: Modmacro Awarded Seventeen MarCom Awards at the 2015 Creative Competition

The Non-Designer's Guide to Hiring a Great Freelance Web Designer

Searching for a top-notch web designer to build your next website, but clueless about the difference between CSS and CSI? You may be uneducated as well about other criteria for good web design.

Related: A 7-Point Hit List to Hiring an Exceptional Web Designer

That's the point of the following guidelines. By covering some common design and front-end development considerations, these five topics may help you you grasp the important things to keep in mind as you begin your search for the right freelance designer.

Communication

This one doesn't need much explaining. Having a good line of communication is important in every area of your business, especially when it comes to nailing down a UX design that meets your business goals effectively. Some people, however, let this fall by the wayside when choosing a web designer, which can lead to trouble later on.

So, if you are finding a freelance web designer on your own, pick up the phone and call before making any decisions.

Sure, it sounds old school, and tools like email and gChat are great, but you want to make sure this is a person you can have a conversation with, will listen to your concerns along the way and will follow up with questions of his or her own regarding the project's specifics.

If the designer spends the whole conversation speaking over your head, using confusing tech jargon, this scenario probably won't change and will cause problems for you down the line. A great designer will be deeply interested in you, the client, and your business and its needs, and will explore early on how those concerns can be worked into the eventual solution.

If you are using a freelancing site to find your designer, choose one that screens for communication skills in addition to technical design ability. Because these sites source from developers all over the world, sometimes something as important as language comprehension can get in the way of your project.

Related: 5 Tips for Hiring a Great Web Developer

Your best bet here is to use a service like the recently announced Toptal Designers, which screens all applicants for language and personality from the beginning (before getting to more intense design tests later on). This way, you know the designer you get matched with will have the communication skills you need.

Languages

Speaking of languages, let's talk about coding languages. A lot of the time, it can seem like web designers are speaking an entirely different language than you -- and this is actually true for many designers who also have a little front-end coding experience.

Designers often broadcast their web design abilities by advertising their experience with popular front-end coding languages. Different languages are used for different products, and knowing the basics here will help you find the right freelancer for your project. For designers, the key languages to know are HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Web design

The best place to start looking for what you want in your website is -- surprise -- the internet. As you are browsing, take note of other sites you like, so that you can show them to your designer. Don't simply find a site you like and instruct your designer to build you a replica; instead, share a list of the specific features of the site that you're drawn to.

Also, make sure to explore the websites of other businesses in your industry. What works and doesn't on these sites? Finally, remember that while you do want a website that is aesthetically pleasing, having a nice design is not the sole purpose of your site.

You want to be able to sell your product or service. In other words, you don't want visitors to view your site, see how nice it is and leave; you want your site to help users realize that they need whatever it is you are selling.

Function

Always consider user experience when you're working with your designer to build your site. Is it easy to navigate between all the pages on the site? Is the site's setup intuitive? Is it easy to find your contact information? Can users browse without having to scroll too much? Side note: You never want them to have to scroll horizontally. And, digging deeper, is the site built on a functionally reliable CMS, such as WordPress? These are key things to find out before you go searching for a designer.

When you do select one, the functionality of past sites he or she has worked on is just as important as its look. Always ask for a portfolio and look through it online if you can. See if this person's past work is still being used by past clients, and if not, try to contact the owner and ask why he or she switched. Can the designer communicate the story of the design?

What problems did it solve? How was the solution unique? You do not want a designer who habitually creates sites that are hard to use or employs technology that is behind the times.

Pricing

Unfortunately, there is no standard price for how much contracting out your website will cost you. Plenty of software price estimation approaches exist, but a wide range of things affect price, including the skill set of the designer, his or her location, the amount of time your project will take and the specific features you require. You may also have to pay to bring in any additional freelancers or subcontractors needed to bring in to complete the project.

Plenty of articles will tell you to avoid paying too much or too little (you already know that!), but how do you determine what that means?

As you determine the budget for your site, remember to see it as an investment. A great website is a crucial marketing tool that will be available to answer users' questions 24/7 without your having to pay overtime. Therefore, try not to view the money you spend as mere cost.

That said, it will be rare that you need to invest six figures into your site.

Determine how much you have to set aside for the development of your site, and be realistic about your goals. Get in touch with a variety of different designers to explain your project and get an average quote. If you find that designers are too expensive for your price range, turn to freelancing sites. You can find lots of articles online that list the best freelancing sites, so explore these options and find the best one that fits your budget.

Conclusion

Finding a great freelance web designer can feel like a big undertaking, especially if you are unfamiliar with the expectations and terminology of the tech or design industries, but this should not be cause for worry. People with all levels of technological experience hire freelance web designers all the time, and there are lots of tools out there to help you navigate the process.

The most important thing is to do your research, and that starts with understanding what a thorough research process should entail.

Source: The Non-Designer's Guide to Hiring a Great Freelance Web Designer

Mobile Labs Publishes Mobile Website eBook Providing Solutions to Development and Testing Challenges

Mobile Labs, a leading provider of enterprise-grade mobile testing solutions, has published an ebook featuring insights on how to combat the challenges of mobile website development and testing.

"When it comes to mobile web design and testing, mobility plays by a far different set of rules than the desktops of years past," said Mike Ryan, CTO of Mobile Labs. "Today we are challenged by the variety and multitude of mobile browsers, devices, OS types and OS versions at consumers' disposal. This eBook is designed to help mobile developers and testers combat the challenges of the mobile web."

The eBook, "Mastering Mobile Web with 8 Key Rules," addresses the challenges mobile developers and testers face and offers solutions to overcome them. Identifying the browsers, devices and environments the majority of your customers use, testing for compatibility issues and making sure websites have sufficient performance headroom are just some of the tips discussed in the mobile website eBook.

"A mobile experience can solidify brands, drive sales and give your company a competitive edge," said Don Addington, president and CEO of Mobile Labs. "Making sure your mobile website performs reliably and can adapt quickly to various devices and operating systems is critical to mobile success."

By using automated mobile web testing, Mobile Labs' customers are able to remotely interact with a mobile device while creating test cases, leverage existing UFT skills and software, get detailed run results and test case videos and increase productivity with powerful cross-platform scripts. To learn more about mobile website testing best practices, download the full eBook here: http://mobilelabsinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/MLAB-Mobile-Website-Testing-Ebook-10-20-15.pdf.

About Mobile Labs

Mobile Labs provides enterprise-grade mobile device clouds that improve efficiency and raise quality for agile–based, cross-platform mobile app and mobile web deployments. The company's patented device cloud, deviceConnect™, is available in both public and on-premises configurations. deviceConnect provides affordable, highly-secure access to a large inventory of mobile devices across major mobile platforms to developers, test engineers, and customer support representatives, among others. At the heart of enterprise mobile app deployment, deviceConnect enables automated continuous quality integration, DevOps processes, automated testing, and manual app/web/device testing on managed devices. deviceConnect supports all major integrated app development environments (IDEs), such as Xcode, as well as automated app and web testing on real mobile devices using a wide variety of mobile UI test automation tools. For more information, please visit www.mobilelabsinc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151105005865/en/

Source: Mobile Labs Publishes Mobile Website eBook Providing Solutions to Development and Testing Challenges

Mobile Strategy: Responsive vs. Adaptive Web Design

  November 05, 2015 --

DALLAS (PRWEB) November 05, 2015

Broadleaf Commerce, the award-winning, open source software provider for building customized eCommerce solutions, will be exploring mobile strategy during the Mobile Strategy: Responsive vs. Adaptive Web Design web event on November 10, 2015 at 10am CST. During the web event, based on Broadleaf architect Elbert Bautistas blog, Broadleaf Commerces Phillip Verheyden will discuss why maintaining a well-designed mobile story should be of the utmost priority when developing and designing an effective mobile story and the frameworks role in providing great eCommerce experiences.

Web Design Glossary:

Responsive Responsive web design permits content to adjust and adapt depending on the size of the device on which it is being viewed, providing the optimal viewing experience of a website.

Adaptive Adaptive web design varies from responsive web design in that there is not a single layout that adjust and changes to fit each device, but rather individual layouts built to fit each device.

RESS Responsive design plus server-side components combines the layouts of adaptive web design with server-side component optimization. A particular set of layout templates defines an entire site for all devices, but specific components within the site maintain device-specific implementations that are rendered server side.

"Weve always recommended that clients thoroughly understand and evaluate the pros and cons of mobile design approaches upfront," stated Elbert Bautista, Software Architect at Broadleaf Commerce. "When working with customers on their mobile strategy, weve found the most successful results come from a combination of design principles. This is important as evidenced in a number of studies, including research done by Criteo, in which the top quartile retailer sees 64% of their mobile transactions via smartphones.

Our clients are building great solutions to improve mobile experiences for their customers, added Brian Polster, CEO of Broadleaf Commerce. Our job at Broadleaf is to continue to provide tools to help our clients innovate at faster pace.

Registration for the Mobile Strategy: Adaptive vs. Responsive Design web event may be found here.

For additional eCommerce news and updates follow Broadleaf on Twitter, handle @broadleaf, or like Broadleaf on Facebook.

About Broadleaf Commerce, LLCBroadleaf Commerce is the owner of an open-source eCommerce framework targeted at facilitating the development of enterprise-class, commerce-driven sites by providing a robust data and services model, a rich administration platform, and specialized tooling that takes care of core commerce functionality providing the framework for companies such as The Container Store, Pep Boys, and Vology. For more information, visit: http://www.broadleafcommerce.com/

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/broadleaf/mobile/prweb13055597.htm.

Related Keywords:

Source:PRWEB.COM Newswire. All Rights Reserved

Source: Mobile Strategy: Responsive vs. Adaptive Web Design

Red Cherry Calgary Web Design Explains Why Static Website Generators Are the Next Big Thing

Calgary, AB -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/03/2015 -- The aim of this article is to help people of all skill levels understand exactly what static site generators are, acknowledge their advantages, and understand if their limitations are a deal-breaker or if, on the contrary, they can be overcome. With that, we'll hopefully be able to make an informed decision on whether or not a static site can be the solution for our next project.

How dynamic sites workTry to imagine for a second that the only way for people to know what's happening in the world is to go to the nearby news kiosk and ask to read the latest news. Yes, I know it's silly but it will all make sense in a bit, please bear with me.

The attendant has no way to know what the latest news are, so he passes the request on to a back room full of telephone operators — picture a big telephone switchboard room in the 1950s. When an operator becomes available, they will take the request and phone a long list of news agencies, as k for the latest news and then write the results as bullet points on a piece of paper.

The operator will then pass his rough notes on to a scribbler who will write the final copy to a nice sheet of paper, arrange them in a certain layout and add a few bits and pieces such as the kiosk branding and contact information. Finally, the attendant takes the finished paper and serves it to the happy customer. The entire process will then be repeated for every person that arrives at the kiosk.

That is essentially how a dynamic website works. When a visitor gets to a website (the kiosk) expecting the latest content (the news), a server-side script (the operators) will query one or multiple databases (news agencies) to get the content, pass the results to a templating engine (the scribble) who will format and arrange everything properly and generate an HTML file (the finished newspaper) for the user to consume.

How static sites workThe proposition of a static site is to shift the heavy load from the moment visitors request the content to the moment content actually changes. Going back to our news kiosk metaphor, think of a scenario where it's the news agencies who call the kiosk whenever something newsworthy happens.

The kiosk operators and scribbles will then compile, format and style the stories and produce a finished newspaper right away, even though nobody ordered one yet. They will print out a huge number of copies (infinite, actually) and pile them up by the store front.

When customers arrive, there's no need to wait for an operator to become available, place the phone call, pass the results to the scribble and wait for the final product. The newspaper is already there, waiting in a pile, so the customer can be served instantly.

And that is how static site generators work. They take the content, typically stored in flat files rather than databases, apply it against layouts or templates and generate a structure of purely static HT ML files that are ready to be delivered to the users.

Switching to a static site can potentially save us time and money, as it requires less maintenance and less server resources. They're reliable, scalable and can handle high volumes of traffic quite well.

It's one-stop shopping for everything related to our site. Design, development, maintenance, security updates — even website updates if we don't have designated in-house marketing capabilities. Invictus Local also includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to ensure our business can be found on more search sites, mobile services, and social networks.

About Red Cherry Calgary Web DesignWe are a digital marketing and software agency that stands out from all other agencies. Our team of talented and creative individuals work closely with us to deliver rich and engaging solutions that drive qualified traffic to our website and convert that traffic into sales. Red Cherry has offices in both Kelowna, BC and Calgary, A B. We work closely with them to develop a comprehensive digital marketing campaign for Facebook, Google, Twitter, Remarketing (largest ad network), Pay Per Click, SEO, and more. Providing website design in Calgary for over 10 years.

We are also a full scale software development firm specializing in web development and apps development.

Let's chat 888-401-6668 or visit http://www.redcherryinc.ca/

Source: Red Cherry Calgary Web Design Explains Why Static Website Generators Are the Next Big Thing

Software Review: Xara Designer Pro X11

Xara Designer Pro X11 is an all-in-one design tool that handles bit maps, vector illustration, photo editing, page layout, and website design/publishing. It combines the features found in Xara's stand-alone products — Xara Web Designer 11 Premium, Xara Page & Layout Designer 11, and Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 11 – into one package. Xara, founded in 1981, one of the oldest independent software developers in the U.K., became part of Magix AG in 2007.

I installed Designer Pro X11 and compared it to the competition in terms of user experience, features, and cost.

Installation

The download was fast and the installation offered a custom mode which allowed you to choose a destination for the program. Whenever possible, I install my programs on a separate physical hard drive from the operating system to maximize performance. This is supported. There is an option to check required versus available disk space before committing. Creating a desktop shortcut is optional. The installer is set to install Simpliclean, a junk data remover, but does give you the option to reject this. I did. You should never install software you didn't ask for. Once all the questions were answered, the installation completed in less than a minute.

After registration, the software takes you to the Welcome to the Xara Community screen which points you to a wide range of leaning, example, resource and support. The amount and quality of the help is impressive. I checked out the YouTube channel which has close to 300 videos available arranged around the products and their features. Xara also maintains a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and their own website.

User Experience

Many complex functions for photography and web design are accomplished with a single click

One major difference between Xara and most graphics software, I've used is a methodology for applying changes to objects they call "Direct Action Tools." For instance, if you want to create a custom color to apply to an object in the workspace, you select it. Then you open the color picker and drag across the pallet to find the color you want. There is no "preview check box." The color is applied as you go. Similarly, there are no "Apply" or "Cancel" buttons. When you do it, it's a fait accompli. If you don't like the result, you can click the "Undo" button.

Depending on how used to using other software you are, this could take some getting used to. It will, however, save you a lot of clicks and may save time in the long run.

Another difference in the interface is using right and left clicks to create alternative actions. With an object selected, if you left click on a color swatch, it sets the fill color. If you right click it sets the line color.

Features

I opened both Xara Designer Pro X11 and Photoshop. Xara loaded in a third of the time. I then opened the same photo in both programs. As one might expect, the range of options in Photoshop were much deeper and offered more fine tuning options. The controls I was looking for were sometimes harder to find in Xara, but that is understandable given its one-product-does-everything purpose. There is certainly an advantage, however, to having multiple types of documents, such as a photo, a webpage, a document, and an animation open at once in one interface. Using Adobe, you would need four open programs to manage this.

By default, Xara reopens the last file you were working on. Again, this could be a time saver.

Demonstrations of the features of the software are provided by Xara in an article called First Look. Not only is the web posting about Xara Designer Pro X11, it is created with its web tools. The page is very interactive, showing you new features and letting you play with them, not just telling you about them.

The web design features are optimized for creating modern, flexible interfaces, as this example site demonstrates.

A photo manipulation feature I particularly liked, because I run into this a lot, involves preparing photos for display online. For example, a photo may not be wide enough for the requirements of a particular website. Most software will allow you to stretch the photo to make it wider, but then you have two new problems. If you stretched it in only one direction, you have distortion. If you locked the proportions of the photo, it might then be too tall and you'd need to crop it, perhaps ruining the composition. Xara allows you to protect certain areas of the photo, and then stretch the rest without distorting the protected area. I could do this in Photoshop, but it would take many more steps and a lot more time.

In this view a web developer can see both a monitor and cell phone version of the same page

Speed is important in preparing graphics for online use and this is Xara's strongpoint. Even though I own all of Adobe's current software, I still use Adobe Fireworks CS6 (which Adobe stopped updating in 2012) to prepare most online photos, because I can do it rapidly, with keyboard shortcuts and almost without thinking. Xara also has this kind of ease-of-use and if Fireworks ever stops working for me, Xara will be first in line as a replacement.

In the text and page layout areas, new or improved features are not as exciting. Text highlighting, styles, and automatic hyphenating are things I've taken for granted in other software for years.

In the collaborative sphere and working with others online, Xara lags behind Adobe. It does support saving to the cloud, and if you are not supporting client websites or working with a geographically dispersed team, this may not be an issue for you.

Cost

Xara Designer Pro X11 costs $299. An upgrade to the current version is $99.

Its functionality is similar to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Muse. A subscription to Adobe's Creative Cloud which would include these applications, and everything else Adobe makes, costs $49.99 per month. That's twice as much, but you get more, and updates are delivered all year long.

Alternatively, Adobe offers a photographer's option that includes only Photoshop, Lightroom, and the related online and mobile tools. This costs only $9.99 per month, but you would not get the vector editing, publishing, or web design options that Xara offers. Xara also comes with a free website.

Which to Choose

Xara Designer Pro helps you create publications from invitations to books

Ultimately, the decision whether Xara Designer Pro is a good choice for you depends on your objectives, work environment, and budget. It provides modern, web oriented tools in a fast loading, intuitive interface with lots of help, examples, and templates. If, for instance, you were preparing technical documentation, you could easily jump from your document to your website to your photo collection with one click. If you are a graphic designer with a wide variety of clients, it is a good choice. If you are more specialized, or work with a larger team, Adobe might be a better option.

To try it for yourself, you can download a trial copy of Xara Designer Pro here.

Please enable JavaScript to view the discussion by Sidelines.

Powered by Sidelines
Source: Software Review: Xara Designer Pro X11