The fastest brwoser on earth for windows platform has been released & you can download it from here.
Just a reminder of what’s new in this release:
1- New Look
2- HTML 5 + CSS 3 support
3- Private browsing
4- Superfast JavaScript engine
5- Smother graphic rendering
6- Privet browsing
7- Fully integrated with windows 7 superbar
Yesterday, Opera team released Opera 10.5 beta 2
no major changes only bug fixes as far as i can see
if anyone interested in detailed change log it can be found here.
Benchmark Results by Betanews
Opera team released a new version of my favorite browser opera (Opera 10.5 beta 1). I really love the new GUI it’s simple and beautiful. Yes, there is some similarity between the look & feel of opera 10.5 and Google chrome but to me opera looks more elegant.
The benchmarks that i saw today says that Opera 10.5 beta 1 is the fastest browser it’s even faster than chrome v5 dev version. here is a short list of what’s new in Opera 10.5 beta 1
1- Redesigned interface (much better than opera 10.1)
2- HTML 5 + CSS 3 support
3- Private browsing
4- Much Much faster JavaScript engine
5- Smother graphic rendering
You can download it and try it from here ( http://www.opera.com/browser/next/) just rememeber it’s a beta version so don’t expect it to be bug free. Currently, Opera 10.5 beta 1 only available for windows platform.
Side Note: Sorry for the podcast delay i’m really really sorry but i’m busy with projects that I’m comittieted to deliver on time so it’s taking all my time for now the minute I have a space to breath I promise you that I will release the first episode of whatiknow podcast 
. Thank you for your understanding.
This an amazing video that I would love to share with you
I hope you enjoy watching it as I did
Ok I’m planning with my friend Gavin to release a podcast on weekly bases or monthly bases still not decided yet but the idea will see the light very soon I promise. The podcast in general will be about technology but some episodes will be more about risk management & information security.
Of course during the podcast we will have some amazing knowledgeable guests so stay tuned.
Hi and سلام to All
Or rather, why there should be a Planning Phase in the project plan?
From all the staff at whatiknow.net a great Eid Muburak to all our Islamic readers and greetings to all others.
I have been asked to blog about the requirement for planning in IT, that is; what is planning? what does it do? and why should I do it? The reason for this topic is extremely funny (to me that is) but not to my fearless project manager friend who eats, breathes and sleeps according to PMBOK. Yes, I would like to call him ’grasshopper’. His story goes along the line of (from the horse’s mouth so to say);
I am engaged at a client who wanted some documentation done, simple stuff. Operational processes and procedures, you know what I mean? How difficult is it to run a project for and to deliver documentation?
At this stage, I nearly drowned on the sip of tea I had taken. Ha, a project that has the deliverable ‘documentation’ hidden somewhere in it’s Charter and Scope is more of a nightmare than say meeting your bank manager in the unemployment queue. So, how is documentation related to planning? Well, put it this way, remember the carpenter/dress making saying; ‘Measure twice, cut once’?
Planning allows you to do this. Measure what is expected and plan the delivery.
Now, the client has a Quality Management System (QMS) in place (ISO 9002) which stipulates certain requirements for documentation, how it is created, stored, distributed and communicated. Yes, the company actually has a ‘template’ for an operational process and procedure that was signed off by the QMS board. So? What’s the problem? Nothing if you are the client, aches and pains if you are my friend!
My friend then went on to tell me that his company had been given the work to ”Compile, Approve and Implement” the processess and procedures and you guessed it, the sales person did not even ask the subject matter expert for expected time frames. After all, you can write a process in say 3 days, 10 processess equals 30 days less 5 as you will not have to do all from scratch. So, total man-days is 25 (including discount). And the deliverables? Draft, Approve and Implement 10 business processes and procedures (process and procedure seen as 1 document).
Simple? Yes. Understandable? Yes. Doable? Yes!
The question is, will it meet the client’s expectations? No. Why? The client’s QMS requires all documents to be reviewed by relevant internal parties and to follow a change management process. One of the requirements of the change management process is the ‘Reason to create and/or modify the document’ and this is where the tremors started, went to 9.5 on the Richter Scale and ended up with a Tsunami with the different departments at the client getting along like a house on fire, No survivors!
Lets see, my friend has been there for 4 months now, he is running the project at a loss and his company can not withdraw due to contractual obligations. I estimate that they will be at the client for another 3 months.
So, what will planning have told us?
.So, what would the planning phase have included?
Taking this into account, what do you charge the client? I believe that all work done at a client for the client is chargable, maybe at a lessor rate as no intellectual property should be required. Shjould it be free? No, as the client may see this as a business process management exercise and delay the start of the project resulting in a delay to your payment.
What are your thoughts, next up, planning for technology roleout.
These days, the word “hybrid” gets tossed around like a rag doll. We’ve got hybrid cars, hybrid SLI and hybrid image stabilization — and that’s just for starters. But friends, this hybrid is one worth paying attention to. DFI has been working overtime in order to concoct the next great mainboard, and if this thing can really deliver as advertised, we’d say the gurus responsible for it will succeed greatly. The Hybrid P45-ION-T2A2 motherboard can actually house a complete Atom / Ion-based system on one side, while handling a traditional Socket 775 CPU system on the other. In other words, this single motherboard can power — let’s say — a low-power server system and your next gaming setup. At the same time! We’re still waiting on a firm release date and price, but ’til then, hop on past the break for a swell demonstration vid.
Source: Engadget.com
Hi and سلام to All
To all Islamic readers, Happy Ramadan!
Thanks to all who have asked me to post other subjects and have enjoyed the posts?
I have a question for the people out there; what is the difference between and Ethics and Morals? Look further down for the answer. 
This subject is something close to my heart as I have two different opinions on the subject.
If you look at the economic climate today and the amount of people who have been retrenched you could say that there is not. Why do I say this? Easy, it was caused by the hunt for more money and higher profits which would result in more money in the person’s pockets. So, the rich got richer, the poor become poorer and the middle income lost a lot.
On the other hand, if you look at companies that have a social responsibility programme, such as Vodafone which made the decision not to install cellular masts in certain areas and is in the process of making a decision on whether it will remove all mats from major motorways to prevent people from talking and driving at the same time. Or the case of BHP Billiton who chose to close a very profitable mine as there was a chance of loss of life.
When I talk to people about ethics, I have always told them that in my opinion. When you live at home, you get and learn your ethics and morals from your parents, when you reach your teens; you get it from your friends and from your parents. However, when you leave home and you go to work, this changes. You, if you choose to, now get your business ethics from your management. Why? To further your career.
Taking all of this into account and from experience, the ethics of the business is determined by the appetite for risk that management have. If management is willing to discuss and act on the requirement for Risk Management and Corporate Governance, you will find that the company has a high level of ethics However; if management is not bothered you will find that the company has low or no ethics. You can also see it in the way that the company deals with its staff, do they treat them well or are they just paid slaves? Does the company put social responsibilities before profits or put profits before anything else?
This brings the question of how do you improve profits? Many financial people will give you a formula on what it is and how it is made but most seem to miss out on the ‘Human‘ factor. To increase profits, you must lower your costs or improve the efficiency of your work force. One way of lowering your costs is to automate the processes or to simply retrench some employees and get the remaining staff to work harder. This is what I call the cost of service, service in this instant could be a physical object, a call centre or customer support. When a company starts losing profits what is their first reaction? Yes you have it! Retrench, Retrench, Retrench. Look at what the major banks have done, they caused the current financial problem and their first action was to retrench. They do NOT retrench management; they did retrench the normal employee. On the other hand, some companies have, when faced with a loss of profits have chosen to keep the staff and cuts the salary and perks of management as management should have seen it coming over the horizon.
The European Union and especially the French have started to look at limiting the salary and perks of senior management. Why? They identified the fact that a company loses its ethics when management have the opportunity to increase their salary and perks. I hear the UK is about to do the same. Will it work? I believe so! Do you?
In summary I believe that there is ethics in business but that it is shown in few companies as the majority of companies are after the profits and the ability of management to improve their salary and perks. The companies that want profits but are will to limit their expectation based on their social responsibilities prove that there is ethics but unfortunately, these are few and far between.
Will governments be able to regulate and enforce social responsibility in companies? Only time will tell. I will not hold my breath and neither should you.
An ethical person is like a married man who knows he should not cheat on his wife. A moral man will not. I got it from NCIS which is a great show. Do you agree with the statement?
Cheers and We Aleichem As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
1. The primary function of a supplier,
2. The primary function of a consultant,
3. The differences between client and supplier,
4. The differences between supplier and consultant,
5. The differences between client and consultant,
6. Ethics as a consultant,
7. Ethics as an employee and
8. Is there ethics in business.
Hi and سلام to All
In this post, the use of the male ‘him/he‘ is used for easy reading and can be replaced by ‘her/she‘ depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
I have been asked by reader to give examples of situations I have been in that have or may have impacted upon my ethics.
I must comment here that not all of you will have experienced all of them but I am sure you have experienced at least one.
The first example goes back to my time in the military where I was a corporal; I was in charge of a platoon and was responsible for their health and well being as well as their discipline. During an inspection by the commanding officer, he noted that the one toilet bowl was a bit ‘grey’. I checked it and the bowl was stained but not dirty, so, the toilet bowl would never be ‘white’. I informed him about this to which our Lieutenant took exception to. After the inspection was over, the commanding officer said that it was good and to continue. The Lieutenant on the other hand, must have thought it had cost him his name ‘good’ versus ‘excellent’. He told me to punish the platoon by taking them for a forced march (20 Kms) and to drill them for at least 2 hours after the march. I disagreed with him and told him so, I even refused to do it and ended up in front of the commanding officer who stated; ‘Ferreiro you are an un-commissioned officer who will take orders from officers and carry them out EVEN if you do not agree with them.’ I again refused to do it and asked for a transfer to another unit (32 Battalion) which was approved. I left the unit 3 days later. I actually saw the Lieutenant a few years later to his surprise when I was a sergeant, he lost this time as we were working with mature soldiers aged 25 and up which you treat differently to soldiers who are 16 thru 18 years. He tried the same stunt, telling his platoon sergeant to punish the platoon, again the sergeant refused and took it to the Regimental Sergeant Major who agreed with him, the end result is that the officer ended up doing a lot of extra duties to teach him about leadership. I do not believe to this day that he did.
The second example skips a few years ahead when I worked for a supplier. I was responsible for a security tool called ESM from Axent Technologies (who were later bought by Symantec). We were tasked by the client to perform a comparison test between 3 products which measured baseline security compliance to a standard, these being; Axent, Computer Associates and Digital. In the review following a testing methodology, it was found that the CA product was not up to scratch and may meet 30% of the client’s requirement. The Axent and Digital products were very much the same mainly due them both being created by Raxco which developed tools for VAX VMS. Both products would meet at least 90% of the client’s requirement. The sales person who was responsible for the account, told me to bias the report to show that the Axent product was better. In doing so, he could make the sale. I disagreed and he went to the MD who also told me to do it. Again I refused and told them I would give them the report and that they could change it to suit their requirements. Needless to say, the client had actually expected me to bias the report and when they received the report were pleasantly surprised that it was not. The MD had chosen not to change the report as his name would have had to be put on the report. We got the sale as the opposition were tasked to do the same investigation and they biased their reports. We received other work from the client and the company made money. I resigned from the company and cited the experience as one of the reasons. The MD promised me that it would not occur again, but once bitten twice shy.
The third example skips a few years ahead to when I was a manager at a big company. The company made a great deal of money so I thought they would have a feeling of better responsibility for compliance. In this instance, I found that some people are motivated only by money and not what is ‘right’. ‘Right’ in this sense being the fact that you do not contravene laws such as Intellectual Property and Copyright or report back to management about instances that are cannot be proved. In this case, I was told not to answer a vendor’s request for licensing information on their product. Along the same lines, I was told not to tell management about a report that I compiled showing the serious lack of licence management and the associated cost to ensure licence compliance. I was also told by management that I was to do an investigation into an employee to prove that they had done ‘something’ wrong. After doing all the checks and verifying the balances, it actually identified that the manager’s ‘friend’ had planted the evidence against the employee. When I reported this with facts and figures, the manager told me that I must have been wrong and that his ‘friend’ would not do anything of the sort even thought the evidence showed differently. I was moved to another division so had nothing else to do with the manager again other than to audit his operations and raise comments and associated risks. I have since left the company after understanding that even in a large company ‘ethics’ is based on how much money ends up in your back pocket. I have since heard that the company is under investigation by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and that they face legal litigation both civil and criminal.
The last comes from a project that I was involved in where the client was informed that the contractors knew what they required and to accept the deliverables. When prompted by the lead consultant and myself about best practices and frameworks such as 27001, eTOM, COBIT and TOGAF we were told to keep quiet and do the work which we were tasked to deliver. When asked to design a solution which following all practices requires the client’s input, we were told to ‘just deliver’ and not to trust the client. Again, this is against all principles of client engagements for each of the multi-nationals involved in the project with perhaps one not even having one. The lead consultant was removed from the project for I quote ‘bringing the consortium into disrepute’. In a later meeting, I was informed that the solution must meet the client’s requirements of a 360 degree Information Security view. When I prompted the consortium of what was required to deliver this, I was told by the multi-national that this could be discussed and that they would ‘HACK’ their product to deliver a 360 degree view even though it was not able to do it. I have since left the project.
There are many other examples that I could use but I believe that highlight what I have been saying in my posts.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
Fahad on Twitter