Technology – ThinkInBig

Spotting influencers and VIPs in LinkedIn with PowerShell – Part 1: “The How To”

Published March 16, 2014 by Carlos Veira

Spotting influencers and VIPs in LinkedIn with PowerShell – Part 1: “The How To”

Liking, commenting, tagging, bookmarking or defining something as favorite are all common on-line activities these days. However, most of us don't realize the depth of information we leave behind each time we perform them and what we can actually do with that information.

This is perfectly understandable in a world that hides all those details behind APIs that regular people can't use. Fortunately, this is no longer the case anymore. Today I would like to show you how to leverage the Social Media Scripting Framework to extract meaningful information from those that connect with you or your brand in LinkedIn.…

Social Media Scripting Framework v0.5 BETA, has been finally released!

Published January 27, 2014 by Carlos Veira

Social Media Scripting Framework v0.5 BETA, has been finally released!

Social Media Scripting Console - v0.5 BETA

It's been a while since my last blog post. I know it. But, I have been focusing on “Getting Things Done”. This new version of the Social Media Scripting Framework has been quite a challenge and, in fact, it has taken longer than expected. Anyway, it is finally here!

But let's start from the beginning. Once the previous version was on the street, I have started collecting feedback from different sources. Many were exited with the possibilities that this tool was bringing to the table.…

The Limits of Shared Hosting

Published July 27, 2012 by Carlos Veira

Have you ever wondered which is the real difference among different offerings besides the fact that your applications run on a shared server? In fact, most of the times, this seems to be a tricky question because most service providers describe the boundaries and limits of their services based on the following common parameters:

The resource type and quota: storage, bandwidth, mail boxes, mail lists, FTP accounts, database instances, etc.
The underlying platform: Windows (IIS/Apache) or Linux (Apache) under whichever version.

… 5 Comments

“Cloud Computing: Vision or Reality”

Published January 28, 2012 by Carlos Veira

“Cloud Computing: Vision or Reality”

Past week I flew to Lisbon to participate in a Cloud Computing Event from IDC: “Managed Services, Outsourcing & Cloud Computing”. The place they chose to host it was the “Centro Cultural De Belém”, which is located on a beautiful neighbourhood. If you don’t happen to know Lisbon, as I don’t, I can promise you will be surprised :).

My talk was a pretty conceptual one covering the following topics:

The deep economic forces that drive this paradigm shift.

… One Comment

Thinking about Cloud Strategy

Published May 12, 2011 by Carlos Veira

Thinking about Cloud Strategy

Cloud Computing has been a buzz topic for a while. I understand it: it promises exciting benefits and, therefore, everyone wants to be there. Obviously, that’s not new. Nevertheless, I happened to attend several Cloud Computing events recently and I couldn’t help having a strange feeling of “déjà vu”:

both Skeptics and Believers keep saying the same things over and over again.
there seems to be some confusion or lack of understanding about how different concepts and components relate to each other.

… 2 Comments

The role of PowerShell in IT-aware Services and Applications

Published January 15, 2011 by Carlos Veira

Several months ago, I happened to share a nice conversation about the potential of PowerShell as part of the IT/Enterprise Architecture. Then I discovered that the benefits of architecting IT-aware Applications are still widely unknown or misunderstood. That’s the reason I would like to share my thoughts on this subject pointing out the special role that PowerShell can play in this field.

IT-aware Services and Applications

IT-aware Services and Applications incorporate the necessary instrumentation so that IT and Operations Teams can control, monitor, diagnose and operate them using the same semantics that the business uses in addition to the classic IT constructs and abstractions.…

Productivity, Cloud and The Red Pill

Published June 20, 2010 by Carlos Veira

I remember, back in 1.999, when The Matrix showed us the “Blue Pill – Red Pill Dilemma“. Since then, those Pills have become a popular metaphor for the choice between the blissful ignorance of illusion (the Blue Pill) and embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (the Red Pill).

I don't know what you think, but I feel that, most of the times, we behave like Matrix Citizens. Things change and happen so quickly that we often don't realise what is actually going on.…

One Comment

Ramblings of a 64 bit Desktop User

Published April 11, 2010 by Carlos Veira

Now that I have taken some time to feel how someone deals with a 64 bit desktop, I have certain “confidence” to write about this. Of course, this is only my experience and, obviously, doesn't pretend to be a universal opinion. The following notes and comments refer mainly to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

First of all, it's safe, usable and seems mature enough. The drivers diversity is more than acceptable and, finally, you take advantage of the hardware you have purchased for.…

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APIs and the “Technology Mix”

Published April 11, 2010 by Carlos Veira

Today I would like to recall a really nice conference I saw last January: “Infrastructure in the Cloud Era”. This presentation was performed at O'Reilly Velocity Conference 2009 by Adam Jacob (Co-Founder at OpsCode) and Ezra Zygmuntowicz (Co-Founder at EngineYard).

They cover the theory of how you should be thinking about building a Fully Automated Infrastructure classifying their analysis in the following areas:

Bootstrapping: Corporate Approvals, Agile Approvals, Cloud.
Configuration: Manual, Ad-Hoc, Infrastructure as Code.

… 3 Comments

Hans Rosling and Data Visualization

Published January 16, 2010 by Carlos Veira

I would like to start this year with a couple of videos. They show, besides the main subjects of both conferences, several important questions:

the key role that data visualization plays when we need to learn how a very long-term process behaves.
the importance of having a right perspective when you have to deal with long-term issues.

Both talks took place at TED and the first one, back in 2006, was presented with this words:

You've never seen data presented like this.

… Leave a Comment

Category: Technology

IT-aware Services and Applications