IT industry '3rd Platform'

According to Gens ( Chief Analyst with IDC ), the ICT industry is in the midst of a 'once every 20 to 25 years' shift to a new technology platform for growth and innovation. IDC calls it the '3rd platform', and it is one that is built on mobile devices and applications, cloud services, mobile broadband networks, big data analytics and social technologies.

IDC defines the first platform as the mainframe computer, following by the second platform of the PC, which greatly impacted computing from 1985 to 2005.

Time Management Grid

Quadrant 1 represents things which are both urgent and important. We've called this "firefighting". The activities need to be dealt with immediately, and they're important.
 
Quadrant 2 represents things which are important, but not urgent. We've termed this one "Quality Time". Although the activities here are important, and contribute to achieving the goals and priorities - they don't have to be done right now. As a result, they can be scheduled in when you can give quality thought to them. A good example would be the preparation of an important talk, or mentoring a key individual. Prayer time, family time and personal relaxation/recreation are also part of Quadrant 2.
 
Quadrant 3 are distractions. They must be dealt with right now, but frankly, are not important. For example, when you answer an unwanted phone call, - you've had to interrupt whatever you were doing to answer it.
 
The final quadrant, Quadrant 4, are things which are neither urgent nor important. Some meetings could fall into this category - they've been scheduled in advance, but if they achieve nothing, or you don't contribute to them, then they have simply wasted time. Other examples could include driving time and low quality relaxation or family time

Acid Test

A test that is conclusive of the value or success of something, derived from the original use of nitric acid as a test for gold.

Gold is tested against Nitric Acid for being soluble , if it does not dissolve then it is tested against nitro-hydrochloric acid and if it gets dissolved then it is gold.

'Touch wood' / 'knock on wood'

'Touch wood' and 'knock on wood' are used as a charm to bring good luck or to avoid 'tempting fate' after making a boastful statement. Some believe it has to do with knocking on the wooden cross. Another explanation stems from the pagan belief that spirits lived in trees and that knocking on wood would prevent the spirit from hearing the boastful words. The superstition has not been traced beyond the 19th century children's tag games.

STARBUCKS - History & Fact

The first Starbucks outlet opened in 1971, March 30 in Seattle , Washington.
English teacher Jerry Baldwin , history teacher Zev Siegl and writer Gordon Bowker started the company.
The name Starbucks comes from the book , Moby Dick.

In 1982 Baldwin hired Schultz as the new head of Marketing and sent him to Milan , Italy for a business trip . Schultz Loved that Italy was full of coffee.
Schultz has his first Caffe Latte during his trip . He also noticed how lattes & coffeees relaxes people.
When he returned to Seattle , he told Baldwin about how he should expand into a full service coffee shop.

COPE

some companies are turning the whole concept of BYOD on its head in favor of Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) policies.

BYOD places new burdens on IT as it tries to deal with an infinite variety of platforms and profiles. COPE takes the opposite approach - instead of making corporate functions work on personal devices, it sets up a framework to support and allow personal uses of company devices.
COPE essentially works like this: the organization buys the device and still owns it, but the employee is allowed, within reason, to install the applications they want on the device, be it smartphone or traditional computer.
For BYOD, the question for IT is "How do I secure information on a device that I don't own?" With COPE, the question becomes, "How can I loosen my grip for my employees to use their devices for personal use?"

BYOD

The idea behind BYOD ( Bring Your Own Device ) is to let end users choose the devices, programs and services that best meet their personal and business needs, with access, support and security supplied by the company IT department - often with subsidies for device purchases.