Posted by: Marius Constantinescu
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (commonly known by his username dmr) father of C and Unix, died on Wednesday after a long unspecified illness. His famous “hello, world” program, used in almost all programming textbooks, helped generations of programers to start coding in a new language.
C programming language, created by Dennis Ritchie, represents a giant step in information technology and remains even today the second most popular programming language in the world. Ritchie was also instrumental in the development of Unix along with Ken Thompson.
Ritchie is one of the most important engineers of the modern era. His work, specifically in relation to UNIX, led to him becoming a joint recipient of the Turing Award with Ken Thompson in 1983, as well as a recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1998 from then-president Bill Clinton.
RIP Dennis Ritchie and thank you for your vital contribution to the computer programming world!
Friday, 14 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Apple after Steve Jobs
Posted by: Marius Constantinescu
Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and former CEO died on Wednesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jobs revolutionized the way consumers use electronics and built the Apple brand by setting a new industry standard for products such as smart phones, tablets, PCs. His legacy is not only linked to Apple but also to Pixar - a company he acquired from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $5 million, invested another $5 million of his own money and in the end sold it to Walt Disney Company in 2006 for $7.4 billion in a transaction that made Jobs the single largest shareholder of Disney stock.
Market's first reaction to Steve Jobs death mirrors the modest selloff in August when Jobs stepped down as chief executive, however Apple stock may remain volatile as the company's new chief executive, Tim Cook, gains confidence from investors. Apple's strategic course for the next years is already in place and Cook's first big product introduction - iPhone 4S - got a lukewarm reaction from the markets as the general expectation was for a totally new iPhone 5.
While Apple currently dominates some key segments, the other competitors are faster closing the gap. Samsung is the first challenging Apple for the crown of the company selling the most smartphones worldwide. HTC brings EVO 3D smartphone to the market challenging the iPhone by coming with similar features and adding a cool 3D camera. On the tables side the iPad is clearly still dominating the market, however there are a lot of new choices recently ranging from Samsung Galaxy, Assus Eee Pad and recently Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet currently selling at a brisk pace. Google has recently acquired Motorola and will also soon challenge Apple on these fronts.
While in these consumer segments Apple is leading the way and the other are currently following, there are market segments that Apple was not able to significantly get into. In the business sector with the exception of publishing companies very few firms are using Apple computers/laptops. Not only the price of an Apple computer is significantly more expensive than a Windows based PC, but then you have license issues, employee's training issues etc. From a smartphone perspective Blackberry is still the preferred device in the business sector with its strong email security and its browsing capabilities.
Apple also claims that Mac is the best computer you can get for school and that the Apple products are perfect for education. We would agree that Mac is one of the best computers but also one of the most expensive ones. MacBook Air starts at $999 and that is significantly higher than a Windows based PC so a parent or student will obviously keep that in mind when making a purchase.
Apple after Steve Jobs will face stronger competition in the key segments where it is currently leading (smart phones, tables, PCs) so in order to keep the leading position Apple’s next generation products have to be at least as reliable, innovative and user friendly as the first generations products. Ability to lower down the prices for Apple’s next generation products will be a key factor in case Apple wants to increase their presence in the other market segments such as education and the business sector.
Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and former CEO died on Wednesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jobs revolutionized the way consumers use electronics and built the Apple brand by setting a new industry standard for products such as smart phones, tablets, PCs. His legacy is not only linked to Apple but also to Pixar - a company he acquired from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $5 million, invested another $5 million of his own money and in the end sold it to Walt Disney Company in 2006 for $7.4 billion in a transaction that made Jobs the single largest shareholder of Disney stock.
Market's first reaction to Steve Jobs death mirrors the modest selloff in August when Jobs stepped down as chief executive, however Apple stock may remain volatile as the company's new chief executive, Tim Cook, gains confidence from investors. Apple's strategic course for the next years is already in place and Cook's first big product introduction - iPhone 4S - got a lukewarm reaction from the markets as the general expectation was for a totally new iPhone 5.
While Apple currently dominates some key segments, the other competitors are faster closing the gap. Samsung is the first challenging Apple for the crown of the company selling the most smartphones worldwide. HTC brings EVO 3D smartphone to the market challenging the iPhone by coming with similar features and adding a cool 3D camera. On the tables side the iPad is clearly still dominating the market, however there are a lot of new choices recently ranging from Samsung Galaxy, Assus Eee Pad and recently Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet currently selling at a brisk pace. Google has recently acquired Motorola and will also soon challenge Apple on these fronts.
While in these consumer segments Apple is leading the way and the other are currently following, there are market segments that Apple was not able to significantly get into. In the business sector with the exception of publishing companies very few firms are using Apple computers/laptops. Not only the price of an Apple computer is significantly more expensive than a Windows based PC, but then you have license issues, employee's training issues etc. From a smartphone perspective Blackberry is still the preferred device in the business sector with its strong email security and its browsing capabilities.
Apple also claims that Mac is the best computer you can get for school and that the Apple products are perfect for education. We would agree that Mac is one of the best computers but also one of the most expensive ones. MacBook Air starts at $999 and that is significantly higher than a Windows based PC so a parent or student will obviously keep that in mind when making a purchase.
Apple after Steve Jobs will face stronger competition in the key segments where it is currently leading (smart phones, tables, PCs) so in order to keep the leading position Apple’s next generation products have to be at least as reliable, innovative and user friendly as the first generations products. Ability to lower down the prices for Apple’s next generation products will be a key factor in case Apple wants to increase their presence in the other market segments such as education and the business sector.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Social networking and people careers
Posted by: Laura Ilie
Recently we received a notification from one of our recruiting partners that they decided to stop using their current job search engine in favor of LinkedIn. We were not very surprised as social networking sites attract today both head hunters and job seekers and they become an excellent tool not only for recruiting but also for a complete background checks for job candidates.
By now a great majority of people have already joined a social network or two in order to stay in touch with people they care about and be able to share information, news, photos, video clips with the various groups that they belong to. All the information is public, posted online and can be searched for and this allows recruiters to be able to find the right candidate and do complete backgrounds check.
This may sound as good as it gets for both recruiters and job seekers. However there always are two sides of the coin as the privacy issue might have some repercussions about people careers. People entries in today's social networking sites may haunt them in the future, when they will enter (or re-enter) the job market. These entries may seem temporary to them because they can be deleted, but once public, other people that saw these entries may have printed or saved a copy of the pictures, posts, and videos, and re-post them again on their pages.
People should use common sense to determine what should be posted or not, but while some things may be obvious (for example party photos showing you drunk and/or hugging other people will definitely not help your career), others often involve more consideration and a clear understanding that once you joined a social network your private live is not longer that separate from your public/work life. You need to be aware that if you post information related to your current place of employment or about your current coworkers or your boss, you could end up divulging confidential information or creating a legal liability for yourself or the company where you work. Or in case you have a high profile position in your company you should make sure that your posted opinions are in line and not in opposition to your current company culture and image.
These are just a few examples about the potential impact of your social network activity on your career.
If you want to find out more, please visit us at: http://www.rcibgroup.com/.
Recently we received a notification from one of our recruiting partners that they decided to stop using their current job search engine in favor of LinkedIn. We were not very surprised as social networking sites attract today both head hunters and job seekers and they become an excellent tool not only for recruiting but also for a complete background checks for job candidates.
By now a great majority of people have already joined a social network or two in order to stay in touch with people they care about and be able to share information, news, photos, video clips with the various groups that they belong to. All the information is public, posted online and can be searched for and this allows recruiters to be able to find the right candidate and do complete backgrounds check.
This may sound as good as it gets for both recruiters and job seekers. However there always are two sides of the coin as the privacy issue might have some repercussions about people careers. People entries in today's social networking sites may haunt them in the future, when they will enter (or re-enter) the job market. These entries may seem temporary to them because they can be deleted, but once public, other people that saw these entries may have printed or saved a copy of the pictures, posts, and videos, and re-post them again on their pages.
People should use common sense to determine what should be posted or not, but while some things may be obvious (for example party photos showing you drunk and/or hugging other people will definitely not help your career), others often involve more consideration and a clear understanding that once you joined a social network your private live is not longer that separate from your public/work life. You need to be aware that if you post information related to your current place of employment or about your current coworkers or your boss, you could end up divulging confidential information or creating a legal liability for yourself or the company where you work. Or in case you have a high profile position in your company you should make sure that your posted opinions are in line and not in opposition to your current company culture and image.
These are just a few examples about the potential impact of your social network activity on your career.
If you want to find out more, please visit us at: http://www.rcibgroup.com/.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Outsourcing - weighing the benefits and risks
Posted by: Marius Constantinescu
Lately, the upper management from all companies has been under a lot of pressure from shareholders to cut down costs by outsourcing. Stories of other companies’ success in dramatically cutting down costs have also helped the frenzy, overshadowing the unsuccessful stories. No matter if the current process has be running successfully for years at a relative low cost or we are talking about a brand new project, if there are chances to save more, why shouldn’t we also try it? - this is the question.
Why outsourcing? From a historical perspective, not such long time ago the global economy was mainly driven by the consumption fueled by developed countries markets and customers. This was a relative low percentage compared to global population, so the need to open new markets/customers and lower the production cost was the obvious answer in order to increase the profits. The main candidates would be countries with large population, mainly the emerging economies Asian countries: China and India. But in order to open these new markets, another major show stopper had to be resolved first: the big difference between the high price costs of the products/services compared to the relative low income of these new potential consumers from these emerging economies.
The outsourcing was the answer to both problems: move the production/support to these emerging developing countries and this will first lower the price cost of products/services by taking advantage of cheaper work force and secondly in time this will increase the income level of these countries population until the point they become themselves consumers of these products.
While China was the preferred country for outsourcing production manufacturing, it did not succeed in attracting services due to the fact that the majority of the people did not have English language skills. This might be different in the future as now Chinese pupils take compulsory English lessons from third grade in primary school all the way to college. India had a great advantage of a highly educated fluent English speaking nation and was chosen for outsourcing first the support & customer service. This was just the beginning as the savings attracted almost everything from development, testing, R&D up to full implementation of projects and recruiting services.
RCIB Group Consultants recognize that each case scenario is different and there are a lot of factors to be weighted in when management looks at the possibility of outsourcing a specific process/project. Is this a mission critical project/service, what is the targeted reliability, what is the vendor’s track of record for similar implementations, how much will company save overall, how much control will have during the whole process etc.
There may well be equally compelling arguments against any sort of outsourcing arrangement, but in the end, the upper management will need to carefully factor in the short and long term cost and benefits as well as the risks always involved before embarking upon the outsourcing course.
If you want to find out more, please visit us at: http://www.rcibgroup.com/.
Lately, the upper management from all companies has been under a lot of pressure from shareholders to cut down costs by outsourcing. Stories of other companies’ success in dramatically cutting down costs have also helped the frenzy, overshadowing the unsuccessful stories. No matter if the current process has be running successfully for years at a relative low cost or we are talking about a brand new project, if there are chances to save more, why shouldn’t we also try it? - this is the question.
Why outsourcing? From a historical perspective, not such long time ago the global economy was mainly driven by the consumption fueled by developed countries markets and customers. This was a relative low percentage compared to global population, so the need to open new markets/customers and lower the production cost was the obvious answer in order to increase the profits. The main candidates would be countries with large population, mainly the emerging economies Asian countries: China and India. But in order to open these new markets, another major show stopper had to be resolved first: the big difference between the high price costs of the products/services compared to the relative low income of these new potential consumers from these emerging economies.
The outsourcing was the answer to both problems: move the production/support to these emerging developing countries and this will first lower the price cost of products/services by taking advantage of cheaper work force and secondly in time this will increase the income level of these countries population until the point they become themselves consumers of these products.
While China was the preferred country for outsourcing production manufacturing, it did not succeed in attracting services due to the fact that the majority of the people did not have English language skills. This might be different in the future as now Chinese pupils take compulsory English lessons from third grade in primary school all the way to college. India had a great advantage of a highly educated fluent English speaking nation and was chosen for outsourcing first the support & customer service. This was just the beginning as the savings attracted almost everything from development, testing, R&D up to full implementation of projects and recruiting services.
RCIB Group Consultants recognize that each case scenario is different and there are a lot of factors to be weighted in when management looks at the possibility of outsourcing a specific process/project. Is this a mission critical project/service, what is the targeted reliability, what is the vendor’s track of record for similar implementations, how much will company save overall, how much control will have during the whole process etc.
There may well be equally compelling arguments against any sort of outsourcing arrangement, but in the end, the upper management will need to carefully factor in the short and long term cost and benefits as well as the risks always involved before embarking upon the outsourcing course.
If you want to find out more, please visit us at: http://www.rcibgroup.com/.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Wellcome to RCIB Group blog!
Wellcome to our blog!
RCIB Group is a global company that offers recruiting, consulting, investing and brokering services. RCIB Group was founded in 2003 in Toronto, Canada.
RCIB Group Business
RCIB Group offers a results-oriented approach assisting our clients to:
- Build an effective organization by acquiring and retaining good people.
- Optimize operations and maximize the return of technology investments.
- Develop a winning investment strategy for both short & long terms.
- Successfully complete business transactions or mergers & acquisitions.
RCIB Group Principles
- Our client's interests always come first, so we focus on delivering client results.
- RCIB Group consultants are direct, clear and always present the facts "as is".
- Integrity, confidentiality and honesty are always at the heart of our business.
- We work with our clients as one team so we can deliver client results faster
For more information, please visit us at: http://www.rcibgroup.com/.
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