The 2013 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders: On the fast track

Editor's note: Each year, Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders awards program honors the best and brightest IT executives. This year's class of 100 men and women are no different, moving their businesses forward with potent technology and ROI-rich projects. Explore the full package by viewing the listing of this year's honorees, along with their photos, predictions, cool projects and more. This year's class joins a fellowship of hundreds of Premier 100 alumni, each of whom has demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities throughout their careers. To revitalize your own IT career, check out the best management advice from Computerworld's editors and learn more about the 14th annual Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, which draws together these IT leaders, alumni and other top IT executives to network and exchange ideas. It started as a research project to explore how Steelcase's customers might benefit from products with built-in collaboration technologies. What emerged is Media:Scape, a line of high-tech multimedia office equipment that is now on the sales fast track at the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based office furniture manufacturer. Steelcase's IT department was front and center in the innovation effort, developing, building and managing the first prototypes of the products, which feature high-definition videoconferencing capabilities. "You have to show the business the possibilities," says Steelcase CIO Bob Krestakos, who with another colleague holds the patent for the HD video technology. "One of the big insights IT was able to bring [to product development] is the power of video in sharing data and collaboration." Show -- don't tell -- the business how to capture a competitive lead: That's the mantra of today's IT leaders, who increasingly are making their mark by devising new products and services that generate revenue and set their companies apart from the competition. Rather than simply proselytizing about innovation, the 2013 class of Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders and their teams are bringing to life what IBM CIO Jeanette Horan calls "the art of what's possible with IT." At $8 billion W.W. Grainger, CIO Tim Ferrarell's team is the driving force behind cost-cutting inventory management processes and services that the Lake Forest, Ill., industrial supply giant first used internally and is now selling to customers as an application. Over the years, Grainger's catalog, which contains more than 900,000 products, has grown to the point that it is no longer easily portable, Ferrarell explains. Now, thanks to inventory management services provided at customer locations and via mobile technology, Grainger can insert itself directly into a customer's purchasing process. "These technologies are fundamentally changing how we serve customers and how we do our work," Ferrarell says. "We are the first in our industry to offer mobile apps to customers and are rapidly expanding mobile capabilities into new features designed to save customers time and money and to ensure Grainger's offer is accessible real-time and closest to the point of need." The upshot: Over the past year, mobile traffic to Grainger's site has increased 400%. At Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels, IT is "the real thought leader" in developing new services that differentiate the hotel chain in what John Prusnick, director of IT innovation and strategy, calls "the sea of sameness" permeating the hospitality industry. One recent innovation: an airport-based check-in service that lets guests bypass the front desk and go directly to their rooms on arrival. The iOS application, which was designed and built by IT, can scan credit cards and encode room keycards at the airport shuttle center. "Guests became quickly enamored with the experience. They felt like they received VIP treatment," says Prusnick.screencast o matic for chromebook linksys lne100tx v5 1 driver skype per lg t310i sunage battle for elysium remastered skype app blackberry z10 hp laserjet 1320 pcl5 driver windows 7 64 bit lexmark t420 driver for win7 uc browser for samsung corby plus gt b3410 bluesoleil crack windows 7 freedom fighters 2 soldiers of liberty pc

Google may go from Google Glass to Google Robot

Google, the worldwide leader in online search, is also the company behind the dominant Android mobile platform, Google Glass wearable technology and the Google Maps app. Are Google Robots the next move? That's right. Google today confirmed to Computerworld that it's been buying up robotics companies for the past six months as part of an effort to develop its own robotics technology. As first reported today in the New York Times, Google is developing robotic technology for use by its manufacturing operation, which conducts electronics assembly among other things. Google officials told the newspaper that the robotics effort will be led by Andy Rubin, the man behind the creation and worldwide adoption of Google's wildly successful Android software. Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, says it's not surprising that a company like Google would seek to venture far afield from its core technology, in this case Internet search tools. The company has already moved into several new businesses, including browsers, Chromebook computers, mapping software, autonomous cars and computerized eyeglasses. "I expected Google to ultimately get into robots, as it's not too far from an autonomous vehicle, only more flexible in its use cases," said Moorhead. The technology used to make "a very good robot would be similar to that in a super-sophisticated autonomous vehicle." While he adds that Google risks losing focus by continuing to go far afield from the core search business, the company can easily use some of its existing technology in the new products. "Technologies behind search and targeted advertising can play a part in robotics," said Moorhead. "Object recognition can be used by a robot and for visual search. Google Now uses predictive analytics to determine what you want to see and when you want to see it, and can also be used by robots to become more autonomous." Nonetheless, Google must walk a fine line between taking risks and getting lost in the weeds.temple run in corby 2 free cooking academy 2 full game free online hotspotshieldlaunch17 dragonvale free gems hack online java jdk for windows xp 32 bit adobe photoshop cs6 crack picasa mobile android apk enlga-1320 driver windows 8 puffin web browser apk full audio c3dx cm18738 device driver pci

Researchers create graphite memory only 10 atoms thick

Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a new data storage medium made out of a layer of graphite only 10 atoms thick. The technology could potentially provide many times the capacity of current flash memory and withstand temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and radiation that would make solid-state disk memory disintegrate. The team, lead by professor James Tour, included postdoctoral researchers Yubao Li and Alexander Sinitskii. In an interview, Tour said laboratory tests started a year and a half ago but his team only recently published a paper on the results. Laboratory tests showed that they were able to grow graphene, which technically is 10 or fewer layers of graphite, atop silicon and use it to store a bit of data. The sheets were roughly 5 nanometers in diameter. Graphene is a form of carbon. "Though we grow it from the vapor phase, this material is just like graphite in a pencil. You slide these right off the end of your pencil onto paper. If you were to place Scotch tape over it and pull up, you can sometimes pull up as small as one sheet of graphene. It is a little under 1 nanometer thick," Tour said. The new solid-state memory is one of many next-generation technologies that could someday replace NAND flash memory at the 20 nanometer (nm) node size. Others include race track memory and phase-change memory. Currently, NAND flash memory can be as small as 45nm in size, but projections show the technology will reach its limit of 20nm by around 2012. By using graphene, Tour said, bits could be made smaller than 10nm in size. Unlike NAND flash memory, which is controlled by three terminals or wires, the graphene memory requires two terminals, making it more viable for three-dimensional or stacked graphene arrays -- multiplying a chip's capacity with every layer, according to Tour. But like flash memory, chips made with graphene will consume virtually no power while keeping data intact. Tour also said graphene generates little heat, making it more suitable to three-dimensional or stacked memory. Graphene also distinguishes itself from future storage mediums through its "on-off ratio" or the amount of electricity a circuit holds when it's on compared with when it's off. "It's huge -- a million to one," Tour said. "Phase change memory, the other thing the industry is considering, runs at 10-to-1. That means the 'off' state holds, say, one-tenth the amount of electrical current than the 'on' state.special enquiry detail full crack apk blast thru game full version wechat terbaru untuk s60v3 angry birds kindle fire walkthrough edimax rt6x wireless lan card driver gateway 450rgh ethernet controller driver pingchat for android tablet do adobe flash player gratis Brazilian heroes of might and magic 4 the gathering storm