April 2015 - SiteVision

Lawrence Companies Partners With SiteVision For New Intranet

30 April 2015

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Categories: Content Management Systems, Custom Web Applications, Custom Website Development, News

Lawrence Companies, with home offices located in Roanoke, VA, has teamed with SiteVision Inc. to launch a secure, employee only intranet to better serve their 380 plus employees. The company operates in the United States and Canada with offices throughout Virginia and North Carolina.

The new site is designed to fully engage all employees by providing an important hub for employee benefits and events. The site features wellness information, employee spotlights, a calendar of upcoming events, and a blog area. It also includes classified ads, safety guides, an employee directory and is optimized for mobile devices to accommodate their many traveling employees.

The intranet utilizes a content management system (CMS) designed to allow publishing, editing and modifying content from a core interface.The new CMS eliminates complex coding and creates client control over HTML-based content, files, documents, and the like. One or multiple employees at various permission levels may change content easily within a familiar word processing environment.

According to Mark Carter, IT Manager, “We were looking for a solution to improve employee communication that had to be secure, but easy to access and maintain. Needing to reach hundreds of employees and contractors, we turned to SiteVision for assistance. Within just a couple of weeks after providing our wish list, we were live. Needless to say, we were impressed and excited. It was a joy to work with a local development and hosting company. I am sure that as our site expands, SiteVision will be there to grow it with us.”

About Lawrence Companies: Lawrence Companies is an employee owned company based out of Roanoke, VA and has been in business since 1932. With six locations in Virginia and North Carolina, Lawrence is a multifaceted company with focuses on full truckload and flatbed transportation, corporate office moving, and is a dealer for CASE Equipment. As one of the founding United Van Lines Agents in the country, Lawrence continues to focus on moving household goods and offers a variety of Relocation Services. For more information, please visit www.lawrencecompanies.com

About SiteVision: SiteVision, Inc. (www.sitevision.com) is an Internet application development, consulting, design and hosting firm providing solutions for a broad spectrum of markets and industries, as well as for state, federal and international entities. Expertise includes custom, back-end dynamic applications, consulting to achieve unique goals, geographic information systems (GIS), content management systems, hosting services including, map and GIS application hosting, as well as custom and dedicated hosting solutions.

SiteVision, Inc. participates in, or is available through, the following state and federal contracting vehicles, and is a SOC 1 SSAE 16 Type II compliant firm:

The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.

May 2015 News & Tips

29 April 2015

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Categories: News, Security, Software As A Service Solutions

WordPress Users Should Update Plugins Now!

Even the latest WordPress 4.2 is vulnerable, so users are warned. In particular the most recent bulletin notes that the XSS flaw is executed through comments and permits the attackers to execute arbitrary code, or, in effect, become the administrator.

A quick fix is to eliminate comments until a patch is released, and to avoid logging in as an administrator.

Multiple WordPress plugins may be vulnerable to the persistent cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw. A list of the known plugins is available here, but WordPress users have been urged to update all plugins now.

Cross-site Scripting allows an attacker to embed malicious content into a vulnerable page to gather data. The use of XSS can expose and compromise private information, manipulate or steal cookies, create requests that can be mistaken for those of a valid user, or execute malicious code on the end-user systems.

You can also read more at Net-security.org.

**Note that because WordPress has particular security issues, SiteVision offers an update service on an as requested basis ($60) or as a monthly maintenance feature ($60 monthly, 1st month free). Just contact us.

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SiteVision’s Daria Norris to Speak at National Development Conference

Daria, SiteVision’s Lead Technical Architect, has been invited to speak at this year’s dev.Objective() conference, May 12-15 in Bloomington, MN. The web-centric conference covers a wide variety of topics relating to software development and skills with content geared toward mid-to-advanced-level developers.

Norris will deliver two sessions. The first, Feed Your Beans: From Anemic to Domain Driven Modeling, will cover four model patterns, their pros and cons, common anti-patterns, business logic in beans, and domain driven modeling. The second session, FW/1 3.0: Simplify Your Workload, will focus on Framework One (FW\1) and Inject One (DI\1) and how to simplify development workload while providing best practices.

The conference session list typically includes topics by speakers from companies such as Google, Adobe, Mozilla, Netflix, and IBM.

Kudos to Daria!

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VITA Renews Annual Service Contract With SiteVision & Adds Services

SiteVision will continue to serve as a provider for Hosting and Software as a Service (SaaS) for Virginia State Agencies, including all local government entities.

Vulnerability Scanning Added this year is a provision for Web Application Vulnerability Scanning. Application Vulnerability Scanning is a technique to identify and assess security risks before a possible or likely exploitation.

The process has become increasingly important as major intrusions escalate across all web stratifications.Virginia Agency and local government entities can contact SiteVision for consultation and pricing.

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) administers the contract awards and renewals as part of Virginia’s electronic government services program (eGov).

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Google in the News

Google Introduces “FI”

Google calls it a new way to say “hello.” Reviewers call it anything from a takedown of the big wireless providers, to a fairly underwhelming offering. But what seems to be consistent is “fi’s” potential to be a game changer.

So what is it? Google has confirmed plans to launch its own wireless service, Project Fi, which automatically switches between Wi-Fi and Wireless to give you the best possible coverage. Partnering with Google are T-Mobile and Sprint.

Fi comes with one plan at one price, Google says. For $20 a month, subscribers get the talk, text, visual voicemail, Wi-Fi tethering and international coverage. It’s $10 per gigabyte of data after that for cellular data while in the U.S. and abroad. In a nice twist, the plan refunds any data you don’t use.

In some studies, close to 30% of carrier paid-for data goes unused, suggesting consumers are considerably over-paying for unneeded data coverage.

Described as a “project,” Fi is by invitation only for the initial offering, and works only on Nexus devices.

You can read more at Google, USA Today, TechRepublic and Mashable.

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SEO Alert: MobileGeddon Is Here

Google has updated its algorithm to evaluate websites it classifies as “mobile-friendly” better on mobile search engines.

You can run a mobile-friendly test here

You can read more here:

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Quick Takes

My weekend with Apple Watch — and the verdict is . . .

Breach Outbreaks Fuel Encryption Adoption

New Windows 10 preview beefs up Mail app and more

Opening Windows Source Code Could Improve Security

Microsoft kicks off two-month Spartan bug bounty program

Daria Norris, Lead Technical Architect, To Speak At National Development Conference

22 April 2015

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Categories: News

Roanoke VA April 6, 2015 — Daria Norris has been invited to speak at this year’s dev.Objective() conference, May 12-15 in Bloomington, MN. Norris is Lead Technical Architect for SiteVision, Inc., a web application development, consulting and hosting firm located in Virginia. The web-centric conference covers a wide variety of topics relating to software development and skills with content geared toward mid-to-advanced-level developers.

Norris will deliver two sessions. The first, Feed Your Beans: From Anemic to Domain Driven Modeling, will cover four model patterns, their pros and cons, common anti-patterns, business logic in beans, and domain driven modeling. The second session, FW/1 3.0: Simplify Your Workload, will focus on Framework One (FW\1) and Inject One (DI\1) and how to simplify development workload while providing best practices.

Conceived in late 2005 by Jared Rypka-Hauer, dev.Objective() 2015 (http://www.devobjective.com) has grown from less than 100 attendees to some 300 and features more than 70 sessions. Now in its tenth consecutive year, the conference is designed to provide a forum for advance level programming. The conference session list typically includes topics by speakers from companies such as Google, Adobe, Mozilla, Netflix, and IBM.

About SiteVision: SiteVision, Inc. (http://www.sitevision.com) is an Internet application development, consulting, design and hosting firm providing solutions for a broad spectrum of markets and industries, as well as for state, federal and international entities. Expertise includes custom, back-end dynamic applications, consulting to achieve unique goals, geographic information systems (GIS), content management systems, hosting services including, map and GIS application hosting, as well as custom and dedicated hosting solutions.

SiteVision, Inc. participates in, or is available through, the following state and federal contracting vehicles, and is a SOC 1 SSAE 16 Type II compliant firm:

Virginia VITA CAI Supplier, Managed Staff Augmentation Services Contract (VA-051123-CAI)
Virginia VITA Supplier, Hosting Services Contract
Virginia eVa Procurement as a sub-contractor to various state and federal private contractor entities
State and Federal Sole-source Contracting
A SWaM business certified by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity

The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.

Mathew Landers Joins SiteVision As Web Developer

13 April 2015

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Categories: News, Personnel

Roanoke VA April 6, 2015 — Mathew Landers has joined SiteVision, Inc. as Web Developer reporting to Philip Molaro, Development Manager. He will be responsible for developing web applications and websites in cooperation with web designers, database administrators, project leaders and other personnel as required.

Landers was most recently a ColdFusion programmer working with Emergency Management Planning on contract for Milwaukee Area Technical College. He was prior with Other World Computing and was an Engineering Product Specialist and Web Programmer for MBX Systems in Libertyville, Illinois. Landers has an Associate’s Degree in Computer Programming and System Analysis from Northwest Arkansas Community College and is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Computer Programming.

In his position at SiteVision, Landers will have a variety of responsibilities within a team environment including project analysis, demo and prototype development, writing and debugging code, database design and manipulation and providing client interface and support as required.

About SiteVision: SiteVision, Inc. (www.sitevision.com) is an Internet application development, consulting, design and hosting firm providing solutions for a broad spectrum of markets and industries, as well as for state, federal and international entities. Expertise includes custom, back-end dynamic applications, consulting to achieve unique goals, geographic information systems (GIS), content management systems, hosting services including, map and GIS application hosting, as well as custom and dedicated hosting solutions.

SiteVision, Inc. participates in, or is available through, the following state and federal contracting vehicles, and is a SOC 1 SSAE 16 Type II compliant firm

The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.

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SiteVision April News & Tips

6 April 2015

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Categories: News, Technology

Windows 10 Summer Release & Free To All

This issue we’re focusing in on Windows, because lately the news is pretty much all about, you guessed it: Windows 10, and for good reason. While newer form factors munch away on traditional MS marketshare, Windows OS PC shipments worldwide still accounted for some 400 million new units in 2014 (Gartner), while billions of units are in use from XP through current.

Plus, as you may have noticed, Microsoft has been busy recharging not only its software, but its entire outlook. And the good news is that the old “head in the sand,” mental now has Microsoft aggressively presenting a totally fresh perspective. MS is dedicated to universal apps that work across iOS, Android, and, of course, Windows OS – whether in the cloud, or on PC, Tablet, Hybrid or Mobile form factors.

The Best Features of Win 10

As we discussed recently, Windows 10 appears to be what Windows 8 should have been – one reason they skipped Win 9 and went straight into Win10. You can review a quick take of the best of Win 10 features at SiteVision News. And there’s a lot of good news.

Update: Free Now Includes Pirated Versions

The company now plans to deliver Win 10 to all customers, even those running pirated versions of Windows.

Speaking to Reuters from the WinHEC conference in China, Microsoft’s operating system chief Terry Myerson said, “We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10. This means that everyone running Windows 7 or 8.1, irrespective of whether you pirated the operating system or not, will be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10.”

The announcement not only acknowledges the 70-80 plus percent of Chinese pirated copies, but confirms that its new universal Windows approach requires a common operating system fed, updated and maintained through the cloud.

Update: Upgrade Matrix

While free, there are some restrictions as noted in this update matrix provided by Microsoft.

Biometric Authentication. Show Your Face or Finger.

With hacking intrusions becoming ever more frequent and sophisticated, Microsoft has decided to include biometric authentication in its upcoming Win 10. MS will offer a login option called “Hello,” and “Passport” for web applications and services. Users may opt in or out. While mobile has developed biometric applications, Most PC users still login using passwords. You can read more at Microsoft and ComputerWorld. A video is here.

Baked in AR with HoloLens

While many are also actively engaged in 3d augmented reality applications and devices, Microsoft has elected to bake it right into the Windows 10 OS and has developed HoloLens headgear as the visualization device. You can see the Video here.

It’s pretty exciting conceptually, as is the entire spectrum of the technology. The HoloLens is said to be lightweight, untethered, adjustable and moves dimensionally with you as you walk. Spatial sound, and the ability to print are other touted features.

Internet Explorer Out. Spartan Browser In.

The predicted demise of the bloated IE browser comes none too soon. While Project Spartan hasn’t received an approved name, it is expected to mostly replace IE with a leaner, universal application that can run on mobile or PC, etc.
Touted features include: