Ten Ways The Internet of Things Is Transforming Our Lives

How you can provision, deploy and process your Internet of Things applications with business automation by Chris Boorman

Whatever happened to those intelligent fridges we were promised? The ones that would send you a message telling you to order more oranges, or notify your online retailer to deliver more dairy. Those clever fridges were the most talked about example of how the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) was meant to transform our lives. But they never quite arrived. 

Is the IoT myth or reality? And if it is reality, what impact is it likely to have on our everyday lives? And why does business automation hold the key to IoT success in your organization? It’s time to find out. 

Will Artificial Intelligence Do Great Harm Or Great Good? — Interview With Marcelo Gleiser Of Dartmouth College

With Marcelo Gleiser, the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy, Dartmouth College 

We must consider the key moral and policy questions around artificial intelligence and cyborg technologies to ensure our innovations don’t destroy us.

How much do we really know about the impact of scientific breakthroughs — on technology or on society? Not enough, says Marcelo Gleiser, the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College.

Meet Your Digital Twin: Internet For The Body Is Coming And These Engineers Are Building It...

Let’s be honest: November isn’t the best time to visit Helsinki. But the gloom that envelops the Finnish capital every autumn didn’t stop some 15,000 visitors from descending on Slush, one of the world’s largest tech gatherings, which drew 1,700 startups this year as well as Google, Nokia and GE.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Although there are only 5.4 million Finns, they’ve had an outsized influence on the technology of our modern lives.

This technology is 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

By Donald Armbrecht

A new technology, known as Li-Fi, could one day offer internet speeds one hundred times faster than the Wi-Fi we use today. Scientists have achieved speeds in the lab of up to 224 GB per second. That’s the equivalent of downloading 18 movies in the blink of an eye. Li-Fi, or light fidelity, is now moving to trials in the real world, with office tests in Tallin, Estonia achieving speeds of 1 GB per second, 100 times the speed of traditional Wi-Fi.

The limits of Wi-Fi
For those who remember 56k modems, Wi-Fi feels like a rapid and liberating way to access the internet. Continuing to use Wi-Fi as a means to transmit data, however, has a number of challenges. As explained the world’s ever-growing desire for more data at faster rates is pushing Wi-Fi’s capacity to its limits. Wi-Fi is achieved by transmitting data through radio waves, but can only transfer so much at a time. By 2019, it is estimated that the world will be exchanging roughly 35 quintillion bytes of information each month. Because radio frequencies are already in use and heavily regulated, that data is going to struggle to find a spot in line. Wi-Fi is simply running out of space.

How To Sync Your Smartphone or Tablet on Your TV

It’s a pretty fantastic world we live in these days, especially when it comes to mobile technology. Hours upon hours of entertainment lay at our fingertips, available virtually any place, anytime, all from a sleek little device that fits in your pocket. However, as convenient and wondrous as smartphones are, there’s still something to be said for watching your favorite content on a big, flat-screen TV. And for those who access more content from their tablet or smartphone than anywhere else, that big screen in the living room can create some serious size envy.

So why can’t you have your cake andsee it too? You can, thanks to the magic of mirroring. A rapidly growing arsenal of devices now exists to allow anything on your phone or tablet to be mirrored on your TV. For those looking to marry the second screen with the screen that started it all, we’ve put together this list of the best, most convenient, and most affordable ways to do so. We’ve done all the research for you, so dive right in and pick your poison.

Set-top boxes

Business Opportunity - Microsoft Launches Fund to Improve Affordable Internet in Underserved Markets

Microsoft Corp. has launched a new fund to cultivate companies with solutions that bring affordable Internet access to underserved markets.

The fund is part of Microsoft’s Affordable Access Initiative, which invests in new last-mile access technologies, cloud-based services and applications, and business models that can reduce the cost of Internet access and help more people affordably get online.

Started on Monday, eligible companies can submit their application online at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/affordable-access-initiative/home.

White Space Spectrum Will Connect The Internet of Things

WHITE spaces in the radio spectrum can now be used for anything from wireless flood defences to city-wide Wifi. Services using white space technology could appear before the end of the year with surplus spectrum filling in gaps where Wifi and Bluetooth fail. The spare spectrum comes from bands currently shared by digital TV and wireless microphones. UK industry regulator Ofcom, which will oversee the use of the spectrum, said that companies could now also use the spectrum for certain low-powered networks.

Broadly the technology will allow internet of things devices to communicate with one another and the Internet. White space spectrum could also improve broadband coverage in rural areas and boost Wifi signals in crowded cities.

Africa strategy is imperative for IoT companies

From a global perspective, some of the companies that are active in the IoT space have already established a presence in Africa, while others are keeping their Africa strategies close to their chests.

WITH many companies underlining the critical place of IoT to their businesses, analysts believe what is currently happening is that these firms are using the African market to sell their products and services instead of having a real presence as IoT original equipment manufacturers.

Lions go digital: The Internet’s transformative potential in Africa, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute (2013) on Private-sector opportunities states: “The growth of the internet in Africa opens the door for established companies to expand their reach and add new business lines. But the competitive dynamics are intensifying. The internet gives start-ups the ability to scale up rapidly, and some may be sources of low-cost innovation that can disrupt entire industries.

“In addition, multinationals increasingly realise that Africa’s growing Internet penetration presents an opportunity to reach untapped markets. If local companies do not innovate quickly, they could lose out to multinationals that import solutions,” the report goes on.

Is Africa shaping up to Internet of Things (IoT)?

The Internet of Things is opening up a world of real opportunities and rapidly transforming communities, cities and the daily lives of people worldwide. Today, the IoT encompasses more than 14 billion things connected to the internet, providing the technology foundation for the Internet of Everything (IoE), which it is believed improves business outcomes through the intelligent networked connections among people, processes, data, and things. The question arises: is Africa ready to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in connecting things, extracting information, connecting people and enhancing systems – and, ultimately, society?

AFRICA has bright prospects in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, according to a new report by the Internet Society. The report wants to position African countries to help them reap the full benefits of the internet. Released at the Africa Internet Summit 2015 in Tunis, it provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the internet in Africa and highlights the importance of the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance as an essential part of Africa’s internet ecosystem.

USB inventor Ajay Bhatt did not make a dime from it - but here's the reasons...

Intel’s calling November 15, 1995, the 20th birthday of USB. But it’s not enough to have a birthday anymore; you need an origin story, too. And for USB, one of most popular technology standards of the PC era, that story is a humble one: printer problems at home. That’s what drove Intel Fellow Ajay Bhatt’s multi-year obsession to make the Universal Serial Bus a reality. 

The USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, turned 20 on Sunday and apparently, the man who invented it hasn’t made a single penny from it! Ajay Bhatt, Intel’s Chief Systems Technologist, who is said to be largely responsible for inventing the USB technology believes that he did it to bring about change.

“Anytime (my family) wanted to do something simple like print a letter for my daughter’s school, I would get a phone call from my wife that she just can’t print it,” Bhatt said. “She does something, but nothing happens to the printer.”

Affordable House! Built in a day!

This House Can Be Built In A Day, At An Affordable Price. A recipe for very quick, modular construction could help solve housing needs in the developing world.

Need to build a house quickly? Or build a lot of houses quickly to shelter a growing population? This plastic mold framework is filled with cement and sand, with plumbing, electricity, window, and door frames placed "between the formwork." The shell of the house is ready overnight.
Moladi, from South Africa, is aimed at the huge need for affordable housing in that country. It's featured in the Cube, a recently opened design museum in the Netherlands, that promises "design for human needs" in its first show this month.

The main idea: very quick construction. "The question is whether conventional building methods are able to cope with the ever-increasing demand for quality homes," says Moladi founder Hennie Botes, in an email.

Wifi - How to get it right

Location, location, location—that  adage definitely applies when it comes to coaxing stronger Wi-Fi from your router. In fact, all those things that make your home, well, a house—doors, walls, windows—are impediments for Wi-Fi signals. Here are a few router placement tips to keep those signals moving along.

Higher is better. If you live in a two-story house, placing the router on the second floor promotes wider reach. The device's antennas

How to face the challenges of operating in emerging markets such as Africa

When it comes to global economics, uncertainty is about the only certainty businesses can prepare for. From future shocks to the Eurozone, to shifts in global economic power or unexpected environmental events, multi-nationals need to be ready to explore new markets and scale-up or adjust operations at any given time.

With European economies on the slow road to recovery, businesses are looking to emerging countries the east and south for new opportunities. If businesses are going to fully realise the potential of these markets, however, they need reliable fixed, mobile and mobility capabilities to empower their people with information and data, improve

Nigeria’s ICT industry set to explode

The leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have called on local and foreign investors to key in to its economy as the telecoms sector prepares for another quarter of growth.
According to NCC, the sector has recorded an 11 percent gain in the total number of active internet subscriptions on the domestic mobile communications network.

While GSM operators exhibit higher growth rates than CDMA companies, stakeholders attribute the increase in market share to the flourishing investments in technology carried out by major telecoms operators.

“This a good trajectory for the ICT sector,” says Paul Midy, chief executive officer of Jovago.com. “It shows that the market is ready for strategic foreign direct investments. With the greater adoption of internet services, businesses

West African firms urged to invest in smart business management solutions - Sage WA

West African enterprises that want to keep pace with a changing consumer, employee and business landscape need to invest in the right business management solutions that will enable them to digitise their business processes.

Regional Director for Sage West Africa, Magnus Nmonwu has warns that companies in Nigeria and the rest of the region who do not embrace the digital world will be at a serious disadvantage to their competitors. Nmonwu’s comments are coming on the heels of the recent Connect Commerce Conference where Netplus Advisory claimed that e-commerce and online businesses in Nigeria attracted investments worth US$200m over the past three years.

“With more than 93 million Internet users in Nigeria

The Need to Shape the Future of African Start-ups for Global Competitiveness

Successful Start-ups and Companies are celebrated no matter their country of origin, from Waze to Google to Alibaba and many others. They end up becoming international brands but their countries pride. For Africa her future will largely depend on the growth of entrepreneurship and the building of companies by African young people, who make up the greater part of the population, companies that can compete globally and be listed in the NASDAQ or the NYSE. We need to build companies across the African nations that will impact on the overall economy of the continent.It is a good development that Africa is getting more attention in the Global start-up arena. This is evident in the increased attention to African start-ups.

Thanks to

Google & Etisalat highlight e-Commerce opportunities for Nigeria SMEs

Etisalat has called on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and startup businesses in the country to embrace the electronic commerce model of business to boost their capacity and efficiency.
Head of Enterprise Marketing, Etisalat Nigeria, Bidemi Ladipo made this call while speaking on the ‘Role of Mobile Penetration in Online Commerce’ at the recent Webmall Connect Commerce Conference 2015, sponsored by the telecommunication company, in Lagos. He said startup businesses and SMEs would benefit immensely from having online presence because it is a cost effective and faster way to increase their reach.

  

To underscore the huge opportunities in e-Commerce

Business Networking: Is it who you know and who knows you that matters?

IT people tend to network only when they need something. You should be like your business counterparts and never stop networking.

You may have noticed that your business counterparts talk about the people they know and that you talk about the things you have done. Business people do not do this by accident. They never stop networking because knowing the right person opens the door to success for them via a new vendor relationship, a foot in the door, or even a sale.

IT people, on the other hand, tend to network only when they need something, for example, a new job. The feeling seems to be that we have what we need inside our own company because we know our DBAs, our infrastructure team,

PERCEPTION IS NOT ALWAYS EQUAL ~ By Brad Egeland

We have a large family. A very large family. Over the past 7 years, we have adopted multiple babies, thus the large family. We also get lots of items every month from Amazon.

Diapers, laundry detergent, apple sauce-you name it. If it can come cheaper and faster with free delivery through Amazon, then my wife has it set up as a rotating standing order. We often get 1-2 packages per day. It also means we don't have to drive out in the hot 110° Las Vegas weather to buy it. Win-win.

One day we found our

HOW 20 MINUTES EACH MORNING CAN TRANSFORM YOUR DAY AS A MANAGER ~ By Sebastian Bos

Before you can be an inspirational leader and effective manager of your dynamic and energised team, you need to get your own game in shape first. Improving your personal time management skills is a lot easier said than done however, and the difference between being busy and being constantly stressed can sometimes feel paper thin.

Like most of us you probably start each morning by speed-showering, stuffing toast into your mouth and running out the door at 1,000mph. If every morning is starting to feel like a Monday, it may be time to consider doing things a bit differently.

See how setting your alarm just 20 minutes earlier could transform your day.

Don't Start Your Day by Worrying About Yesterday

A good start begins the night before and going to bed in the right frame of mind. It is crucial to getting a great night's sleep. When people get stressed at work, proper sleep is often the first thing that suffers, either because you can't switch your buzzing mind off or because you take your work home at nights. Make sure you get the recommended hours but also make sure you go to bed without a brain that's heavily laden with worries. Don't take your work home, stop preparing for that client meeting and actually take charge of your overflowing emails once and for all.

Try: Make sure you clear your diary at the end of each day.

Time to Make Some Plans

This 20 minutes is for you. It's like winning a time lottery so don't waste it by starting your day checking through yesterday's emails and scanning news websites. Once you've cancelled your alarm on your mobile leave it alone. Instead use your newly found time to establish daily goals. Map out a simple task list that feeds into completing your short and long-term goals. Maybe you want to work toward a promotion: if so, now is the time to plan how you can take one step closer to achieving it.

Try: Consider a diary or planner to document your progress toward a specific goal.

Don't Skip Breakfast

Okay, so you've heard it a thousand times but you still end up skipping breakfast anyway because you don't have the time. Find the time! Even if you need to go to bed a bit earlier to make it happen, it's worth making sure you fuel yourself properly. Breakfast improves your metabolism, regulates weight better, improves your mood and fuels your ability to manage your team effectively. Speaker and writer James Clear says: Manage your energy, not your time and encourages you to understand your best creative or analytical times of the day.

Try: If you absolutely cannot fit in a sit-down breakfast, consider instead a low-fat, high protein breakfast smoothie.

Adopt a Mini Workout

It's true that even a 10-minute exercise routine can have an amazing impact on your day. Use some of your new time to get your body up and running with a quick workout or a simple stretching routine. A quick workout can help you feel more focused, more creative, less tired through the week and much less stressed.

Try: Ever heard of Tabata training? It's a 20-minute high-intensity workout that is designed for time-poor people.

Give Your Brain a Break

It's probably not something you have ever even considered but meditation isn't only for tree-hugging hippies and ass-kicking Kung Fu masters. Forget what you think you know about meditation, it's just project management but for your life. It's an exercise in stepping back from your day and viewing it objectively. You evaluate what's working for you and what's not. As Andy Puddicombe, founder of Headspace, says: The very act of meditation or mindfulness is honesty itself, seeing the mind exactly as it is, without judgement or criticism, not chasing one thing or resisting another.

Try: 10 minutes of quiet reflection, no phone, no TV, no radio, no newspaper. Just you and your brain.

For more inspiration on managing your time better check out the blog of Time Management Ninja. 

I'd love to hear your time management tips. How do you deal with stress and the pressures of work? Please share in the comments!

BEST PRACTICE: A Little Thank You Goes A Long Way..

Thank you very much!

Sincerity matters, so don't overstate a person's contribution. But, for those people who truly were helpful, let them know.

Thank you very much!

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU INHERIT A PROJECT MESS

We all inherit project's that are already underway from time to time. And sometimes they are a mess. It's what you do with that mess - quickly - that makes a difference.

How many of us have inherited a project in mid-stream? Show of hands? Everyone? Sounds about right. If you haven't yet...you will. And, much like buying a used car, there will be surprises. The question is, did you inherit something in decent working order or did you inherit a lemon?

Sometimes you can tell by the reason the previous project manager gave up the reins to the project. If he left the company

Need Professional CCTV Installation Service

If you’ve invested in a new CCTV system, why not let Dekeem help you get it installed professionally?

Dekeem has teamed up with professional installer to provide this new service to customers who purchase CCTV systems and bespoke packages. Our installation service now means Dekeem can help you get up

Can Video Surveillance boost safety and security in hospitals?

Hospitals, globally and within Africa are faced with a number of security challenges, from ensuring the safety of patients and staff to preventing theft, with the added complication of very limited budgets for security solutions.

Surveillance solutions are a critical component of hospital security, particularly in high-risk areas such as maternity wards, pharmacies and parking lots. Implementing 4K or Ultra High Definition (UHD) surveillance can assist hospitals to ensure effective monitoring in essential areas while improving cost effectiveness, reducing management and maintenance fees and improving overall safety and security.

One of the most significant security challenges in hospitals is their layout. Buildings are often large and sprawling, with many different floors and areas linked by corridors, as well as large hallways and reception areas, entrances, parking lots and more. Hospitals also operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, so there is no downtime and as such, security solutions must be constantly operational. People are constantly moving in and out of the various areas, from doctors and patients to visitors, deliveries, maintenance and cleaning staff and more, creating a complex and constantly busy environment.

Managing the common risks in cyber security

Cybercrime is hitting epidemic proportions. 2015 has already seen a large increase in the volume of global cyber security incidents with the likes of Sony and AshleyMadison.com amongst the high profile victims.

However, a recent PWC Global State of Information Security Survey found that despite the number of detected cyber-attacks increasing 66 per cent year on year since 2009, global cyber security spending has decreased by four per cent in the same period. Cyber security provisions are not being factored into business planning and budgeting, when they could protect against massive data breaches.

So, what practical approaches can business implement to protect themselves against the most common threats?

The Internet of Things is the Land of Opportunity

The worldwide web most of us are familiar with is a place populated by about 2.5 billion people who go online to find information, entertainment and shopping, or to stay in touch with friends and share ideas with colleagues. The internet was made by people, for people.

But now it has become the Internet of Things (IoT). Experts predict that in a few years there could be 100 billion devices—actual physical things—connected to the web. Some of these devices are online today and more, many more, are coming soon.

In the IoT, devices equipped with sensors, hardware and software are networked together through the internet, where they can communicate with one another, machine-to-machine (M2M). Intelligent devices are changing the way we eat, drive, communicate, receive medical care, light our cities and consume energy.

Nigeria to leverage ICT for economic growth - ComTech Ministry

The Nigerian government says it will leverage on information communication technology (ICT) to boost the economy.

This is in the light of dwindling revenue from oil, no thanks to consistent fall in its international prices.

Dr. Tunji Olaopa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, said ICT has become an enabler for all sectors of the economy, adding that its application to human problem has become inevitable.

He said the Federal Government is aware that ICT is one of the sectors that have steadily contributed to the growth of the national gross domestic product (GDP) from 5.46 per cent in 2011, to 112.25 per cent in the second quarter of this year with 6.26 per cent growth in real terms.

Dr. Oloapa who spoke at the last DEMO Africa 2015 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, said: "This has not happened magically without

Wireless Security Cameras for Law Enforcement Police – Think SN2 camera from eLine Technology

Policing and Wireless Camera

Surveillance cameras have proved to be a necessary tool for police and other law enforcement professionals. They create strong evidence for convictions and can also aid in protection for the officers themselves.

Now, as wireless router strength has increased and 4G cellular service areas have grown, wireless security cameras have become practical.

Wireless cameras are easy to move to new locations in minutes

On-the-fly portability allows for temporary situations such as urban police surveillance, monitoring critical situations, and public events. When the need for surveillance changes, simply unplug the camera and move it to a new location. Choose the 4G model for use in 4G cellular service areas, or WiFi. (You will need internet access for the router). With a fully charged SN2 Series camera you have a complete solar powered wireless cloud recording solution perfect for mobile surveillance.

Officers can watch live or recorded video from anywhere

If you have access to the internet you can access your surveillance cameras. Use your computer, tablet, or smart phone. No special software is required. Simply use Internet Explorer, your cell phone’s browser, or an app.

High resolution video so you can zoom in and capture evidence

The SN2 camera series has 720p video recording options, and offers up to 5 mega pixel time-lapse photography still images that gives enough added resolution to zoom in and capture license plate numbers, faces, equipment parts and other critical details.

Custom covert cameras without the tell-tale cables

No Cables, No DVR, and 100% Wireless

A truly unique product in the U.S. market – eLine Technology’s 4G and WiFi wireless cloud cameras are easy to install in almost any location without cables and without a DVR. Each camera stores its video right inside the camera until the user uploads the video to the cloud saving you on 4G and 3G data. Cloud storage keeps video and images safe and secure.

THE FUTURE OF INTERNET PROTOCOL

THE FUTURE OF INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)

Internet Protocol, or simply IP address has been standardize ways of assigning names to the computers/devices on any network. Inasmuch as we have IPv4 there is also IPv6 - Internet Protocol version 6 on board, though which had not been given much hype.

So what is "IPv6", and why do I need to know about it?

IPv6 or IP version 6 is the next generation Internet protocol which will eventually replace the current protocol IPv4. IPv6 has a number of improvements and simplifications when compared to IPv4. 

The primary difference is that IPv6 uses 128 bit addresses as compared to the 32 bit addresses used by IPv4. This means that there are more available IP addresses when using IPv6 than are available with IPv4 alone.

Evolution of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras can produce images or recordings for surveillance purposes, and can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras. Marie Van Brittan Brown was the inventor of the CCTV camera.

Video cameras
Video cameras are either analogue or digital, which means that they work on the basis of sending analogue or digital signals to a storage device such as a video tape recorder or desktop computer or laptop computer.

Analogue
Can record straight to a video tape recorder which

Building A Video Surveillance Network

Introduction

The shift from analog to Internet Protocol (IP) surveillance cameras has changed the way that video surveillance systems are built. Instead of running lengths of coax cable from multiplexers out to cameras, an IP-based surveillance system involves plugging the cameras into an Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN).

There are numerous benefits to using an IP-based system, including simplified cabling, power reticulation over the cabling, native digital video, and greater camera control. Taking full advantage of these benefits requires making the right choices in the configuration of the underlying Ethernet LAN. In addition, using an Ethernet LAN presents its own challenges, as it is a significantly more intelligent and dynamic environment than a collection of coax cables.