[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4596″ align=”left” quality=”90″] IN THE NEWS
Tech Toys For The Holidays
Let’s get unreal. How ‘bout this floating home? Really? The conceptual Trilobis 65 is both a sleek house and a sleek ride as featured in Doornob Design Ideas. It includes an underwater observatory so you can watch Jaws watching you, and worth a look, if only to dream about
On a more reasonable note, however, how about the new Nexus 4 Google Phone? Oh, I forgot, as of this writing (11/27) it’s sold out. Bummer. But when and if it comes back to play, it’s unlocked, very smart and priced to sell at $299 for an 8Gig, GSM, HSPA+. Operative word unlocked! It’s fast, capable, and gets great reviews.
Update Google Nexus4! It was literally just revealed that the Nexus 4 would be back in stock 11/27 at 12:00 PM PST. So depending on when you read this, you can pick one up.
Update 2! This is getting fun (ridiculous). Goggle’s Nexus Cart broke almost immediately with unprecedented demand! About 7:30 PM my cart finally went through. If you happened to order one, hopefully yours did too. So now the wait. For early orders it was 4 to 5 weeks. Now I see it’s up to 8 or 9.
Other phones getting huge press are the Samsung Galaxy III and the Galaxy Note 2 and the ever present iPhone. Unless you have a deep pocket, however, you’ll need to get them on contract, and you already know how that game plays.
There’s also the Sweet little Nexus 7 tablet, available now with 3G+ data. Great price for a great 7” tablet. For about $299 you can get a 32G with data. The other iterations cost less and get strong reviews as well. There is also the new Kindle Fire at a great price, but somewhat geared to the Amazon ecosystem.
And for you Apple fans, well, there’s the Apple ecosystem you know and love with the new Mini great, but feeling a little rushed and maybe a bit long in the tooth. A new mini is supposed to get the retina display.
Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance Gets New Web Presence By SiteVision
Roanoke, VA November 27, 2012: The Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance (NSPA) was created in 2004 to advance and improve the state of disaster preparedness for healthcare organizations within the jurisdictions of the Near Southwest Region. The new website, developed by SiteVision, was created to better communicate goals, events, current and ongoing projects with its members, board of directors, committees and the general public.
The Alliance is the identified regional healthcare emergency preparedness coordinating organization for the Near Southwest region as established by the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) and the Virginia Department of Health. The website is based on a content management system that permits NSPA users to easily update, add content and event notifications, as well as provide for future expansion as required.
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:
The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.
Veterinary Association Chooses SiteVision For New Content Management System
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4528″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width” quality=”100″] Roanoke, VA November 20, 2012: The West Virginia Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA) has implemented a new website to better meet organizational goals. The Content Management System was developed by SiteVision, Inc.
As a provider of education, resources and fellowship, WVMA (http://www.wvvma.org/) required a basic, easily maintained website that allowed them to communicate effectively with their professional membership and the community. SiteVision provided the enhanced design, coding and implementation. The new site features general information, as well as a membership e-commerce module, plus online event management. The primary purpose of the site is to present the organization – its goals and vision – while providing the ability to update membership and the 
public on available resources, news and legislation, board meetings, events and other matters of member and public interest. As a content management implementation, the new site allows the Association to update their site as required while providing the flexibility to enhance or grow the site as their internet requirements change.
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. also participates in, or is available through, the following state and federal contracting vehicles:
The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.
November Newsletter: Windows 8. Hot Mess or . . .
Windows 8. Hot Mess or Innovative Must Have?
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4452″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width” quality=”95″]Microsoft’s launch of Windows 8 is creating plenty of stir, and reviewers give it mixed (really mixed) reviews. Some call it a Schizophrenic mess. Others, not so harshly, say that because of Windows OS dominance worldwide and its legacy support, there’s really no getting around it – eventually – that appearing to be the operative word.
Information Week, quoting a Gartner analyst, claims that while Windows apps dominated by up to 95 percent in the mid-90’s, that figure has dropped to 50 per cent in the last years, and overall less than half of the most common enterprise apps are now OS specific. In other words, the world is becoming less PC centric and more vested in the cloud. Nevertheless, Gartner claimed, IT departments are almost forced to consider Microsoft Office first, since the alternatives are still a work in progress, and because MS Office has an enormous worldwide footprint.
Importantly, Michael Silver, the Gartner Analyst, felt that up to 90 percent of IT departments will skip a broad Windows upgrade for at least a few years. According to Silver, Microsoft knows it, and the new Windows iterations are really all about selling more tablets and extending share of the mobile market.
Now for the Schizophrenia. According to most reviewers, Windows 8 loves to be touched. If you’re a Win tablet user, that’s not so bad. If you’re a PC user, it can be really annoying and frustrating. This is because it’s a touch-oriented experience from the get go, and using your mouse in the traditional way is confusing and unappealing. Add another odd iteration for low cost tablets, the RT UI, and things get foggier yet. This version won’t run existing applications, uses only the Metro UI, and is only available bundled with the new device you’ll have to buy. You’ll need all new apps (whose and when?), and currently costs about as much as iPad. So, any big benefit is yet to be discovered. It does, by the way, come bundled with Office, but that’s it. Oh, and what about all the apps you’ve come to know and love?
In all, however, at least for the time being, it appears that some 600 million (plus) PC’s will eventually need an upgrade, and the some 400 million new units sold will come bundled with, you guessed it, Windows 8.
New Reviews are coming in fast. Several informative links are below to help you digest the pats and pans.
Information Week Coverage
PC Magazine Coverage
Cnet
Wired
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SiteVision Help Desk
Important Password Requirements for All New Users!
Visit our Help Desk to see the new requirements. We also strongly suggest existing users update their current passwords to meet this standard.
http://support.sitevision.com/News/16/email-password-requirements.aspx
Microsoft Offers Free Upgrades to Office 2013 for Those Who Buy 2010 Now
Visit this Help Desk link to find out the details:
http://support.sitevision.com/News/15/microsoft-offers-free-upgrades-to-office-2013-those.aspx
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Truly Awful Passwords!
Following last year’s hack of some major Internet sites, checking your password savvy makes sense. Right? In SplashData’s annual list of the worst passwords, a few “duhs” come to mind, but there are also a few new twists and turns, so don’t, really – do not – use any of these, and think about how secure your existing ones are. Our new requirements as mentioned above should help you avoid these, but check your other online passwords.
Here are the top 10 most awful. Some other new ones that made the list? welcome, jesus, ninja, mustang, password1
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Welcome New Customers!
Lawrence
Perry
& Associates
A 40-Year History of Excellence
Founded in 1975 by Lawrence (Larry) E. Perry, LPA is a 23 person consulting engineering firm concentrating in mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection design. Their portfolio includes educational, health, industrial and commercial facilities throughout Virginia and surrounding states.
You can visit them here
Beware Poison Ivy Trojan, $20 Tablets?, Top Tech & Infrastructure Trends, HTML 5.0? . . .
IN THE NEWS
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4369″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width”] Poison Ivy Trojan Exploits IE Flaw
Within the last week or so, researchers revealed a security hole in Microsoft Internet Explorer that can allow the takeover of a PC that happens to visit a site rigged to take advantage of the flaw. Dubbed a zero-day vulnerability, the hack, according to researchers, is being used by the Nitro Crime gang to install the Poison Ivy Trojan. The flaw affects hundreds of millions of users and includes IE 6-9 and systems running Win7 and earlier.
Microsoft has now issued an urgent emergency patch to replace some awkward workarounds they had first suggested.
Warning: If your system is not set for automatic updates, you will want to take action sooner rather than later or, perhaps, switch browsers until you have.
Top Tech Trends: Caution Baby Genius at Work
So what’s down the pike? While there may be some surprises, it’s likely that the trends we’re experiencing right now will solidify. But there may be a few twists.
Forbes believes that tablets are gonna’ get cheap – not just less expensive – but really cheap: like under $20. If this prediction materializes, it means tablets, phablets (mobile units in one form or another) will become as common as baby food. This kind of universal adoption will have huge global implications for education, business mobility, communications; literally all facets of our daily world — learning, communicating, interacting, buying, selling, — well you get the point. Forbes also thinks (and most agree) in the next year there will continue to be strong moves in mobile payments, Wearable computing, IT computing in the cloud, Software as a Service, and stronger TV to Internet integration.
On a more technical level, top infrastructure trends and issues as outlined by Gartner and published in Networking World are intriguing as well. Among them:
Out in the weeds? Google offline maps might save your bacon.
A tip from WorldStart: A recent update (for Android 2.2 and up) includes a feature which offers the ability to download maps into a mobile device. These maps (up to a 10 mile radius) can then be viewed without a data signal. Also, with GPS enabled, your location and orientation will be displayed (orientation is available if your device is equipped with a compass). However, a data connection will still be necessary for a satellite view, or to get directions. You can go to Google Maps and test the offline and download capabilities, or to WorldStart to see a walk-thru.
This might be particularly helpful if you’re being sent out on a snipe hunt with the requisite paper bag.
W3C Plans To Deliver HTML 5.0 by 4th Quarter 2014
The Worldwide Web Consortium has developed a plan that would see the HTML 5 Specs delivered as a Candidate Recommendation by the end of 2014. HTML 5.0 would be followed by HTML 5.1 by the end of 2016 according to the new initiative. HTML 5.0 would include only those features that are specified as stable and implemented in real browsers. In tandem, a draft of HTML 5.1 will be developed and include the HTML 5.0 Candidate Recommendation, plus all the unstable features that were excluded. The concept is to continue this process. The effort is part of an overall plan to break down a complete finished standard into more manageable and cohesive parts.
SiteVision Awarded Hosting Services Contract for Virginia Commonwealth Agencies and Localities
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”2167″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width”] Includes ArcGIS for Server and Other Specialized Hosting Services
Roanoke, VA September 19, 2012: SiteVision has been selected as a hosting service and Software as a Service (SaaS) provider for Virginia’s state agencies, including all local government entities. The new contract is part of Virginia’s electronic government services program (eGov). The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) announced the contract awards with the stated objective of modernizing the Commonwealth’s procurements and providing enhanced value to the state, greater transparency, broader participation by multiple suppliers, and cost-effective access to best of class technology services.
Contract awards followed in-depth, multi-agency evaluations of responses to VITA’s requests for proposals (RFPs) for eGov services. Awards were based upon demonstrated, measurable benefit to the Commonwealth and contract users. VITA is the Commonwealth’s central information technology (IT) agency. VITA’s statewide contracts can be accessed and utilized by all public entities, including Virginia counties, cities, towns, agencies, educational institutions and public safety providers.
The Hosting Contract is: VA-120416-STVN – Hosting and details may be found at: http://www.vita2.virginia.gov/procurement/contractDetail.cfm?contract_id=1000732
“We are delighted to be selected as a provider for advanced hosting and related technologies,” stated Patrick Maddox, President and CEO of SiteVision, Inc. “We will dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the transition for state agencies and public bodies will be as smooth and seamless as possible,” Maddox said. “We take pride in our service offerings, and will do what is necessary to ensure that the first impression in the transition process is a good one.”
As a provider, SiteVision has offered application design, development, and hosting solutions to federal, state, local, non-profit, and private sector clients for nearly fifteen (15) years. A dedicated hosting staff focuses purely on hosting services and solutions. The firm services several hundreds of customers and thousands of domain names and e-mail accounts across all of their hosting services. All major systems (ping, power, and pipe) are redundant, and all servers and required services are actively and consistently monitored for availability. In addition to conventional hosting technologies; the firm offers content delivery networking (CDN); media delivery and streaming services; failover, redundancy and disaster recovery services; Cloud storage solutions; and a variety of custom hosting options.
In addition, the firm has long participated in GIS application development and hosting. “Currently, many of our clients are realizing significant benefits in moving their systems to a distributed environment,” states Daniel Shaffer, Director of SiteVision’s Geospatial Systems Division. “This contract should be of particular interest to Virginia’s mapping and GIS community. With a minimal cost of entry, this contract allows organizations to take full advantage of distributed GIS and Internet map server technology.”
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 local, 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 server and GIS application hosting, as well as custom and dedicated hosting solutions. The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.
September News & Tips
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IN THE NEWS
Corning Flexible Glass Might Change Our Future:
As technology speeds along, there is, every now and then, an introduction that makes your heart beat a little faster simply because the implications could be so huge. Corning’s new high quality Willow Glass is just such a breed. It rolls up like a newspaper. It’s ultra, ultra thin (0.1 millimeters) – think of a human hair – and could be used, among a myriad of other possibilities, to create lightweight flexible Smartphones of the future. Other ideas include roll to roll processing of electronic circuitry; curved digital windows , walls and displays, and flexible solar cells, to name but a few of the possibilities. Watch the video. It seems entirely possible that our current computing DNA will be dramatically altered by innovation such as this!
Keeping Your Data Safe: Hardware Encrypted Drives
You’ve heard about (or worse, experienced) the theft of critical customer, personal, or corporate data loss on external drives. Until recently, reminds PC World, encrypting an external drive through software was a difficult and cumbersome project. Enter the newer hardware encrypted drives. They scramble and crunch data as it’s written. They are fast. They eliminate the need for special software. And should you fall victim to a theft – not to worry – as long as your password is securely in your possession.
Is It Time To Review Your Failover And Redundancy Solutions?
Does your website or application require near zero downtime and availability? We want to remind you that SiteVision offers custom failover, redundancy, and disaster recovery services. While most sites do not require these solutions, for those that do, it is a mission critical business priority. If you require this capability, whether you currently host your site with us or not, please give us a call. We’ll help you through the process and provide a custom “continuity of operations” contingency for your organization’s systems and data.
Office 2013: Does It Have Its Head In The Cloud?
Oh yeah. Files now save to the cloud (SkyDrive) by default. It’s also oriented to a subscription based experience, though you can still purchase via the traditional software method. With a subscription, you download the various desktop apps and they follow you to various devices (depending on your MS ID). As with Win 8, touch becomes a part of the experience. To some the touch integration is half-hearted and confusing. To others, it’s a welcome addition with positive implications. According to some reviews, the same might be said for Win 8. Time will tell! Engadget has a comprehensive overview, as does Techradar
August News & Tips: iPhone Apps Snatching Data,Win8, Yahoo Hack & More
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4221″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width” quality=”85″] Is Your iPhone Snatching Your Data?
According to WebPro news, about 20% of your iPhone apps are accessing your personal data without ever asking, and of 65,000 apps 41% can track your location data without your consent. According to Apple, nothing will change until iOS 6 is released. WebProNews
Windows 8 – IT Professionals Not Feeling the Love?
According to a Gartner analyst, Windows 8 isn’t even on the IT radar. The more likely upgrade path? Enterprise will probably go straight from Windows 7 to Windows 9. Among the reasons: lackluster desktop handling, and fear of being burned by technical and performance problems. TechRepublic
Has Your Yahoo Password Been Hacked?
About 450,000 passwords have been hacked and now posted online. Is yours among them? Tech Republic says you can check at Sucuri Malware Labs. Just type in your email address and search. And, because there may be other unannounced hacks, it’s definitely time to change your passwords for, say, Gmail or other important sites you use. SiteVision earlier published, “Was Your Password Hacked Today?” (Go here) It’s definitely worth a second look. After all, is it really worth compromising your Identity, your bank account, or other financial information? Also See TechRepublic
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CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
Name: Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association Hospital Alerting and Status System (VHASS)
Type: Hosting & Development
About: The Virginia Hospital and Health Care Association’s (VHHA) Emergency Operation Center (EOC) is a pivotal tool of its Virginia-wide Hospital Alerting and Status System (VHASS). VHASS was created to enhance the distribution of critical emergency management information needed by Virginia hospitals and healthcare providers. Likewise, the system is designed to provide Virginia residents with superior interoperability of communication and response efforts during a time of crisis.
SiteVision has closely assisted in the development of the web browser based system, and has created a hosting solution that duplicates the entire application and data infrastructure at a geographically separate data center. The sites and databases are continuously synchronized and replicated to be up and running in a matter of minutes were there to be a critical outage. The VHASS browser based application allows all Virginia members to maintain and update emergency status information in real time and as required.
The system is a statewide cooperative effort that includes Virginia hospital members, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. It is a members only website.
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August Maintenance
Maintenance for August will be:
Tuesday August 21st
@ 5:00pm.
If you experience any problems, please don’t hesitate to
contact us.
SiteVision to Develop Phase II of the Georgia Hospital Association Emergency Preparedness Program – GHA911
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4146″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width”] Roanoke, VA June 25, 2012: The Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) has chosen SiteVision to continue its development of the Association’s Emergency Preparedness Program – GHA911. The online website portal is a web browser-based application created to enhance the distribution of critical emergency management information needed by Georgia hospital and healthcare providers, as well as other local and state agencies.
GHA911 is among the ways GHA is helping Georgia Hospitals plan for traditional disasters, as well as the potential for terrorist attacks that would include the use of chemical, biological or nuclear warfare. The website includes disaster readiness information to healthcare members, and provides tools and resources to assist in disaster preparedness and mutual aid planning.
Phase I of the project, which was designed and implemented by SiteVision, was patterned after a highly successful Virginia state-wide program also developed by SiteVision for the Virginia Healthcare and Hospital Association (VHHA). The Georgia portal (members only) for participating hospital and healthcare participants provides a comprehensive overview of each hospital’s capabilities such as its general profile, type of facility, emergency contacts, regular bed counts, ICU bed counts and more.
The Crisis Care Module is designed to capture each hospital’s readiness and capability in a crisis environment. Members can access bed availability, diversion status, important medical supplies, staffing, etc. in an emergency. In addition to cataloging critical physical and administrative capabilities, each facility can identify the tactics (such as prepare, substitute, adapt, conserve and reallocate) that they would be using during a disaster. Data may also be shared with Federal and State agencies. Phase II of the program builds on Phase 1 to provide other user enhancements such as additional calendar functions, status board and transaction report updates, map views, as well as numerous other reports and capabilities.
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 or is available through the following state and federal contracting vehicles:
• Virginia VITA CAI eGov IT Contingent Labor Contract (VA-051123-CAI)
• Virginia VITA Supplier, eGov Hosting Services Contract
• Virginia eVa Procurement
• As a sub-contractor to various state and federal private contractor entities
• State and Federal Sole-source Contracting
The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.
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SiteVision Chosen for Hurricane Mapping Project
[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”4048″ align=”left” size=”Small 150 width”] Roanoke, VA April 26, 2012: Sea Island Software, developers of the Hurricane Evacuation Program (HURREVAC) utilized by government emergency managers around the world, has chosen SiteVision, Inc., to enhance and streamline its website user registration and access features. SiteVision developed the original web portal system for the software company, and has partnered in upgrades as emerging technologies have evolved.
Sea Island Software’s HURREVAC program (www.hurricanemapping.com) is a highly-regarded storm tracking and decision assistance software program. The mapping site offers real-time tracking of storms worldwide using official forecast data. From its origins in 1988, HURREVAC has grown into a feature-rich program currently used by more than 6,000 government emergency managers worldwide. The website is a comprehensive storm tracking service for Google Earth and ESRI’s ArcGIS. HurricaneMapping.com’s datafeeds are designed to be both an extended service to our existing customers in the public sectors as well as a stand-alone service to new private-sector customers. The data feeds are a subscription-based service that delivers live hurricane, tropical storm, and typhoon tracking data quickly and efficiently to the desktop. The firm also offers various training, exercise services, risk profiles and custom programming related to hurricane management information. SiteVision was originally responsible for developing all of the backend capabilities, as well as a full fail-over redundant capability for 24-7 emergency access.
In the new project, SiteVision will provide alternative user processes for streamlining the way HRVC registers HURREVAC users and grants access to the program. New registration features and security measures, as well as a comprehensive administration section will be designed to enhance and automate the expedient flow of information to and from the users.
A seasoned veteran in the geospatial sector, SiteVision has been planning, developing and hosting GIS Internet applications since the mid 1990’s. The firm’s experience ranges from evaluating, recommending, and designing local, regional, and state GIS applications and related infrastructures, to developing national systems designed to store and access multiple petabytes of geospatial Information.
SiteVision, (www.sitevision.com) also offers Internet application development, consulting, design and hosting. The firm provides 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 (CMS), hosting services including map and GIS application hosting, as well as custom and dedicated hosting solutions.
SiteVision, Inc. participates or is available through the following state and federal contracting vehicles:
.Virginia VITA CAI eGov IT Contingency Labor Contract (VA-051123-CAI)
.Virginia VITA Supplier, eGov Hosting Services Contract
.Virginia eVa Procurement
.As a sub-contractor to various state and federal private contractor entities
.State and Federal Sole-source Contracting
The firm has its home office in Roanoke, VA, with sales offices in Charlottesville, VA and Miami, FL.