Happy New Year and here is a great way to Mega Improve Presentations

With the New Tear here (well tomorrow) i thought it would be awsome to share with you folks the best of best presenters in the Corprate world stage!

This presentation sums it all up!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Citigroup Denies Huge Cyber Theft Occurred

from the desk of Bank Tech News

FBI Investigates $10 million Citigroup Hack
It is not yet known whether thieves gained access to Citibank’s systems directly or through third parties, according to the Wall Street Journal.

By Melanie Rodier
More from this author
December 22, 2009

The FBI is probing a computer-security breach targeting Citigroup that resulted in the theft of tens of millions of dollars by hackers who seem to be linked to a Russian cyber gang, according to government officials.
The attack took aim at Citigroup’s Citibank subsidiary, which includes its North American retail bank and other businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported. It couldn’t be learned whether the thieves gained access to Citibank’s systems directly or through third parties, the paper said.

Getting intimate with a Mouse!

I hardly ever bring my amazon reviews into the mix of the website! But this expereince with a brilliant piece of hardware the  Logitech Performance Mouse MX This is a mouse like no other!

i had talked about several devices before but an extension from hand-to-Mouse i have yet to really really feel connected to a piece design marvel!

I love the feel and hold of it — it fits perfectly –it works on any surface — i feel as i move with it that its an extension of my hand and arm rather than a “pointing device”–the battery life is a awesome– 5 days of usage (9 hours a day) — to top it all the ultimate feature — UP AND DOWN SMOOTH SCROLL!   It lets switch between a truncated vs smooth mode which alters the  scroll  - -this thing delivers!

i think i will get another one for home use too! Mice aren’t one of those things which you change frequently but in this case an exception must be made! I had Previously used:

• Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical (Silver)
• Kensington Orbit Optical Trackball Mouse 64327
• Logitech V320 Cordless Optical Mouse for Notebooks – Mouse – optical – wireless – RF – USB wireless receiver – black, silver (this was the best before the MX)

You want serenity in using a mouse, get the Logitech Performance Mouse MX!

its amazing! and it will change your computing life

I say NeTbook and you say NotEbook! Why so many choices? (Part 2)

Welcome back — if you made it to part 2 that means you really like whats being suggested here. I wish to make it easier on everyone to make quick decisions in these purchases. Like many of family baring folk out there i understand that there is the kids, work and other obligations. There is very little room for making and investigating your next laptop of family computer. Just relax and watch this for a few moments

Enough rambling and reminiscing — lets go out (or online and get us a PC!)

For The Masses

email, internet surfing, word precessing, light spreadsheets, home finances, light multimedia (playing NO High Definition content / music is fine) Any of the following should be good enough :

• ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook – 10.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
• Acer AOD250-1584 10.1-Inch Blue Netbook – Up to 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
• Toshiba Mini NB205-N230 10.1-Inch Black Onyx Netbook – 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

For the Semi Masses

email, internet surfing, word precessing, corporate spreadsheets, home finances, multimedia ( High Definition content / music / watching movies / some light games) Any of the following should be good enough :

• Sony VAIO VGN-FW510F/B 16.4-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)
• HP Pavilion DV6-1354US 15.6-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)
• ASUS UL50Ag-A3B Thin and Light 15.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Professional)

Advanced Gaming and Desktop Replacement Warrior!

This is all the way and becomes the complete home PC which works off road and in the home/home business+ high end gaming or designing!

• ASUS G51J-A1 15.6-Inch Blue Gaming Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)
• Apple MacBook Pro MC226LL/A 17-Inch Laptop

The Family PC (the myth that finally lives)

Now there really is no such thing as a family shared notebook, there are alternatives i do like.

Most recently i had a chance to play with the Dell Inspiron Zino HD Piano Black Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium)

I really like this little tomato! its fast! its easy to use! and has an HDMI out (to connect to your existing HDTV) and 2 e-SATA ports (for super fast backup to your entire family) . Works very nicely with any standard LCD or Plasma.

For the family i highly suggest the following rig:

• Dell Inspiron Zino HD Piano Black Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium)
• LG W2486L 24-Inch LED Backlit Monitor (Gloss Black)
• Western Digital My Book Studio II – 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDH2Q20000N

and finally a keyboard/mouse combo that actually would work in your living room

• IOGear Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black)

Your well under 1000USD (3750 SAR) with this setup and i think with the new Windows 7 all those 3 or 6 family members would be relatively happy. Oh and you will need some backup software to backup all the Windows user accounts on this machine. I would suggest reading my Backup article

Now for all you die hard Mac folk out there, i am a bit reserved on the whole new Apple iMac MB950LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop
line from Apple. I would prefer a nicely loaded Apple Mac mini MC239LL/A Desktop + an  LG W2486L 24-Inch LED Backlit Monitor (Gloss Black) and a   PTC Mini-DVI to HDMI Adapter with 6ft HDMI Cable for Macintosh

Conclusions

So there you have it! a simple list of brands and names and of course my rants! if you have further questions, please drop me an email for more Q&A’s. These technology investments should not be complicated — i try to make it simple but even i get caught up in the mix of trends and glamour!

I say NeTbook and you say NotEbook! Why so many choices? (Part 1)

This one goes out to OB1 who asked me a question regarding ultra thin notebooks. Ironically the Mac Air he had purchased a while got nicked and thus now leaving him with am emptier wallet and the new ownership pain of finding another net vs note “book.”

Folks i don’t wana start on a rant here but i have a few observations before i actually round this up. I would like to summon the car industry tiering metaphor if i may.  Do you all recall something called a Corolla? (which costs a pretty penny now)  its from that mammoth Japanese company that sells cars.  Well over the years if you notice they have been upping the ante on that series and introducing other sub- Corolla models like the Yaris and the Yaris hatchback.  Of course the rest of the industry follows this approach as well.

The reason i make this analogy because in the Computing industry (laptops even more so) one sees the same tiering structure taking hold more and more. I recall back in the 90′s Dell’s cheapest computer would be no less than 800 USD. But the parts and specifications were not mediocre but average.  Thanks to the might of Intel and AMD they have led a charge of lower priced (and lower performance in some cases) Central Processing Units (or CPU’s or the brains of the computer– sorry about all the industry jargon folks) Thus we have a whole new category of laptops and low end home PC’s running well mostly Windows 7 Home Premium.  So to sum it up we now have:

Netbook:

usually does not have any extras (not even a DVD Drive)  ranging anywhere from 299-500USD like the Toshiba Satellite T135-S1300RD TruBrite 13.3-Inch Ultrathin Black/Red Laptop – 9 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)Or an ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-EU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook – 4 Hour Battery Life

Ultra thin notebook:

close cousin of the Netbook and sometimes the mid ground between supper high and price and super performance. I would include the Apple MacBook Pro MC118LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop, the Apple MacBook Air MC234LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop and even the Lenovo Thinkpad X301 13.3-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 5.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows XP Pro) (this one packs more features for the money)

Notebook:

which is your full scale notebook which starts as low as 599 all the way to 2700USD I would include the Toshiba Satellite T135-S1300RD TruBrite 13.3-Inch Ultrathin Black/Red Laptop – 9 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) or the Apple MacBook Pro MC118LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop

The Desktop Replacement

And the of course there is the desktop replacement workhorse! like the DELL GAMING LATTOP – Intel® CoreTM2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) , Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit, 17-inch WideXGA+ 1440×900 (900p) , Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) , 4GB Dual DDR3, 250GB SATA HD, Single NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M 1GB, Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n Wireless with MIMO Technology (wow that was a mouth full)

And then there is the Apple iMac MC413LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop These workhorses are “supposedly” the desktop class killers.I am not a big fan though.

Had enough! You don’t wana read anymore with all this jargon! Look no further! To make life easier across the board, i will give you a quick decision making options for a Laptop or desktop so you can quickly make up your mind and just start using instead reading reviews and rants like this one! Thats in Part 2

Quick Internet Statistics

Using Search Analytics to Diagnose What’s Ailing your Information Architecture

نظام العمل والعمال السعودي النسخة العربية – English version Saudi Labor Law

This is a very useful pair of documents that everyone working in GCC should know about. The rules are for Saudi but are also similar in other Gulf countries.

A special thank to HRM Group for posting this out.  I suggest for everyone to read these prior to coming to GCC or Saudi in specific.

Happy surfing!

النسخة العربية PDF
English Version PDF

The difficulty with Bank eChannels (Part 1)

I have been around the “e” block for a few years now. I was first introduced to Dr Jakob Nielsen (the father of Usability useit.com) back in 1999. Plus i have had a handful of projects between simple websites, corporate intranets, content management systems, and my favorite of them all eBanking services!

I must confess something, banking and financial services are typically viewed as these giant “risk” assessors in all aspects of their dealings. They have a certain inherent monotone that stems from them being a “money lender.”
In simpler terms: they are a dinosaur industry  and they like-s it that way! 

The sad part is with all the amazing innovations in the last 15 years (ever since the dawn of arpanet) in technology, podcasting, new media, usability, and of course the iPhone, they have had very little impact on the eFinancial side of things. This necessarily is not a bad thing but it certainly isn’t a good thing either in the long run.

If one would examine the sequence of tech vs business interactions in any bank,  one would appreciate the powerful dynamics of how an “e” intuitive goes from  design to production (meaning become live in the market.) Generalization Note:  of course the glorious whims of corporate politics almost always dominate the overall discussions when deciding anything.  Thus, leaving very very (thats not a typo!) little room for actual adapted innovations to seep through.

Earlier in the millennium the top issue we used to hear was  ”security and Y2K” and how online transacting is a “taboo” and must not be touched. Then slowly (thanks to dare devil online merchants and credit card companies ) this type of “fear” sort of was evaporated and “e” became part of everyday business.   However after all the progress involving, in a banking setup,  PCI, Y2K, BASIL, ISO etc etc. when you still look at the top eBanking sites or brands, they still look like something from the 90′s era of the web!

Today, while the tech populous is debating standards for Web x.0 or podcasting, the banks almost always are behind in terms of cutting edge; not to mention several security events we read about.   I have  mixed views on this entire domain and i know some bankers would say: but wait we are a bank! we are not google or Facebook!   To that i say TRUE  but but — what has been “the” breakthrough in online banking within the last 15 years?

Small venture companies kill for the types of budgets and resources the banks carry and yet they never innovate anything out of the ordinary!   Hence the inherent approach i just eluted to a while ago persists and we in eBanking stay followers rather than leaders.   Furthermore  majority of banking customers have gotten used to this idea that a “bank” has to do thngs “the old fashioned way” and thats how “i” the irate customer have done it for years and “i” the customer am sticking with it.

Contrasting view :    banking products and websites are not really a changing platform for most people. For a person to switch banks, there is a huge “User Interface switching” mind set cost. Unless a bank really would offer something tangible like a car or house loan which forces the consumer to switch, he/she will not come around and waste time on another bank just because it has a better or more fancy looking UI. Sometimes old fashion works just fine.

I would like to share a real live example of this thinking. Certain relatives of mine (whom you could find on dubaidudes.wordpress.com) have baffled me for years as to their banking behaviors and patterns. I consider these guys somewhat tech-savvy.  I posed the question that why in the world they go around Dubai (a very mature financial hub with allot of services) trying to pay your bills with offlineestablishments! Don’t you have some eChannel you could use and avoid the commuting?

Just guess what their reply was: “well my

bank is really poor when it comes to services but they have the best overdraft rates and loan rates in town!” and “i could live with a certain level of inconvenience if all the fancy banks can’t keep up” My mind wandering: so this “bank” apparently figured that in a market of 35+ banks with varying degrees of services; offering allot of other services but charge an arm and a leg for services to make up. This “ideal” bank figured that rather to invest in ATM’s locations and branches and eChannels, i would use the same amount of funds to corner the market with lower rates and possibly less risk.

Of course this is an oversimplification of this idea but i hope you can appreciate that whats involved in this. There are tons of costs behind the scenes of any “e” initiative. Especially if the objective becomes to have a consistent and coherent feel and experience across ATM’s, internet, PDA (mobile), Phone Banking, and of course Branches.
(more on this from Alternative Delivery Models: The First Taxonomy )

In Part 2 of this article i will showcase some design ideas that may or may not appeal to allot of traditionalists. But i just wanted to get it out there and get possibly some feedback. The rule of thumb before you go and buy  Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites or the infamous Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition and finally the original Prioritizing Web Usability

The Kindle design is a perfect example of this notion. When amazon dominates a big chunk of online print media, magazines, and pretty much everything else, that “content” in itself becomes “the” reason to go light on reader design.   I really like the simplicity of this device as i highlight in my  article. But if one takes a pragmatic look at it, in the world of iPods, iPhones, and Android touchy feely designs, the Kindle really looks like something which came from the 80′s!  I am a big fan of the Kindle but i am only comparing the design element and what went into the thinking of a simple eBook reader.

To wrap things up here in this article i just wanted to exit with 2 ideas in mind before i hit everyone with design and GUI talk:
1.  It the offline experience of anything is what should dictate any virtual experience.  (to a degree –even this has its flaws)
2. Having all the tech inside your project ONLY will doom it! if the content or the user action is not clear, be assured all that $$$ is better off being donated!

These 2 design analogies will set the tone for Part 2 of my observations in eBanking web design.
Till then happy surfing!

the new Work Cycle!

these are the lyrics to all those people working behind a desk and there are things in the office that resemble the following:

Tumble outta bed
And stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn, and stretch, and try to come to life
Jump in the shower
And the blood starts pumping
Out on the streets
The traffic starts jumping
with folks like me on the job from 9 to 5

Working 9 to 5
What a way to make a living
Barely getting by
Its all taking
And no giving
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

They let your dream
Just to watch em shatter
You’re just a step
On the boss mans a ladder
But you got dream hell never take away

your On the same boat
With a lot of your friends

Waiting for the day
Your ship will come in
And the tides gonna turn
An its all gonna roll you away

Working 9 to 5, For service and devotion
You would think that I
Would deserve a fair promotion
Want to move ahead

But the boss wont seem to let me

I swear sometimes that man is out to get me

Working 9 to 5
What a way to make a living
Barely getting by
Its all taking
And no giving
They just use your mind
And you never get the credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

Working 9 to 5
Yeah

Good to you all!  and happy hunting!