Tag Archive for HP

The Secret to F-Keying at Work

The Secret to F Keys at WorkWe use keyboards at home, work and the car. The first keyboard to feature function keys was the 1965 Singer/Friden 2201 Flexowriter Programmatic as a standalone word processing system. Each of the function keys was programmable. The familiar 12 F-Keys were introduced in 1984 with the second generation Model M keyboard for the original IBM PC. It had 12 function keys in 3 blocks of 4 at the top of the keyboard. Over the years, various operating systems and applications have made use of function keys in different ways.

After you learn this list of F-Key secrets, you can improve your fun at work by F-Keying around in your cube as you work on your project.

F1• F1 – Universal – Opens a help or support menu in most programs.
• F1 – Apple macOS X – Reduces the screen’s brightness.
• F1 – Some computers  – Used it to enter BIOS setup during startup.
• F1+WIN – Microsoft Windows –  Opens the Microsoft Windows help and support center.

F2

• F2 – Microsoft Windows – Renames a highlighted icon, file, or folder.
• F2 – Microsoft Excel – Edits the active cell.
• F2 – Apple macOS X – Increases the screen’s brightness.
• F2 – Some computers  – Used it to enter BIOS setup during startup (Acer, Asus, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony).
• F2+CRTL – Microsoft Word –  Displays the print preview window.
• F2+ALT+CTRL – Microsoft Office – Opens the Documents Library.

F3

• F3 – Microsoft Windows – Opens desktop search feature.
• F3 – MS-DOS or Windows command line – Repeats the last command entered.
• F3 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome and IE) – Launches the Find bar.
• F3 – Apple macOS X – Opens Mission Control.
• F3 – Other programs – Will find the next search value after an initial search is performed.
• F3+CTRL – Microsoft Word – will lowercase any highlighted text.
• F3+SHIFT – Microsoft Word – Toggles between capitalizing each word, lower case and upper case for the selected text.
• F3+WIN – Microsoft Outlook – Opens the Advanced find window.

F4

• F4 – Microsoft Windows 95 to XP – Open find window in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
• F4 – Apple macOS X – Accesses dashboard.
F4+ALT – Boss key – Microsoft Windows – Immediately closes the current program without saving. It can be used in an emergency to close browser windows you don’t want others to see.
• F4+ALT – Microsoft Windows – When no program is running it launches the Shutdown dialog box.
• F4+CTRL – Microsoft Word – Repeat the last action performed.
• F4+WIN  –  Closes the open window or tab in the active window.

F5

• F5 – Microsoft Windows – Reload the page, document, or contents list in a folder.
• F5 – Microsoft Office – Open the find, replace, and go to window.
• F5 – Microsoft PowerPoint – Starts a slideshow in PowerPoint.
• F5 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Refreshes a web page from the cache.
• F5 – Apple macOS X – Increases the keyboard backlight.
• F5+CTRL – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Forces a hard refresh of the web page from the server instead of the browser cache.
• F5+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Word – inserts a bookmark in Word doc.

F6

• F6 – Microsoft Windows desktop – Tabs from desktop files to the taskbar and the system tray icons.
• F6 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Move the cursor to the address bar.
• F6 – Apple macOS X – Decreases the keyboard backlight.
• F6 – Reduce laptop volume (on some laptops).
• F6+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Office – Opens to another document.

F7

• F7 – Microsoft Office Suite – Spell and grammar check a document.
• F7 – Mozilla Firefox – Places a moveable cursor in web pages, allowing you to select text with the keyboard (Caret browsing).
• F7 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to rewind media content.
• F7 – Increase speaker volume (on some laptops).
• F7+SHIFT – Microsoft Office Suite –  Runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.

F8

• F8 – Microsoft Windows – Enter the Windows Start Menu, to access Windows Safe Mode (if pressed during the boot process).
• F8 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to pause media content.
• F8 – Used by some computers to access the Windows recovery system, but may require a Windows installation CD.

F9

• F9 – Microsoft Word – Refresh document.
• F9 – Microsoft Outlook – “Send and Receive All folders” email.
• F9 – Reduce laptop screen brightness (on some laptops).
• F9 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to fast forward media content.

F10

• F10 – Microsoft Windows – Activates the menu bar of an open application.
• F10 – Browsers (Firefox and IE) – Shows the Menu bar.
• F10 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to mute the speaker.
• F10 – Some computers – Increase laptop screen brightness.
• F10 – Some computers – Used it to enter BIOS setup during startup (Compaq, HP).
• F10+SHIFT – Microsoft Windows – The same as right-clicking on a highlighted icon, file, or Internet link pops out the context menu.

F11

• F11 – Microsoft Windows Explorer – Enter and exit full-screen mode.
• F11 – Microsoft Excel – Adds a graph of highlighted cells.
• F11 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Enter and exit full-screen mode.
• F11 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to decrease the speaker volume.
• F11+CTRL – Microsoft Excel – Adds a new macro to the workbook.
• F11 –  Used to access the hidden recovery partition when pressed during boot (Compaq, HP, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo).
• F11+SHIFT – Microsoft Excel – Adds a new sheet to the workbook.

F12

• F12 – Microsoft Office –  Open the Save as window.
• F12 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Opens browser debug tool.
• F12 – • F11 – Apple macOS X – Can be used to increase the speaker volume.
• F12 – Used to access the list of bootable devices on a computer when pressed during boot, allowing you to select a different device to boot from (e.g., hard drive, CD or DVD drive, floppy drive, USB drive, and network).
• F12+CTRL – Microsoft Word – opens a document.
• F12+SHIFT – Microsoft Word – Saves the Microsoft Word document (like Ctrl+S).
• F12+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Office – Prints a document (Like Ctrl+P).

Newer Apple keyboards have F13, F14, and F15 keys for even more F-Keying around – in place of the Print Screen, Lock key, and the Pause key. They also have F16 – F19 keys above the number pad. Early IBM keyboards had F13 through F24 keys, but these keyboards are no longer used.

To access all the fun of F-Keying you may need to access Fn Lock key or the “Fn key”+“Fn Lock” key to strike F-Keying gold.

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Even Superman uses a keyboardThere’s nothing like F-Keying at  work to make you more efficient. It may feel somewhat strange the first time you try to control your computer from the keyboard since we’re so used to navigating with the mouse. But, you can’t beat the ability to keep your hands on the keyboard.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

PC’s Meh

PC's MehWe are almost midway through 2018 Q2 and the 2018 Q1 PC sales numbers were meh. The good news is that IDC called the PC market flat. That’s good news because they had predicted a 1.5% decrease for the quarter. IDC reports worldwide 60.4 million PC’s sold in the January-to-March period driven mostly by businesses moving to Windows 10. 

PC market experienced a 14th consecutive quarter of declineGartner (IT) is less meh and more blah. Gartner saw slightly more PC’s shipped in 2018 Q1 at 61.7 million units for a 1.4% decline. The PC market experienced a 14th consecutive quarter of decline, dating back to the second quarter of 2012.

Gartner Principal Analyst Ms. Mikako Kitagawa affixed the blame primarily to the Chinese market. “The major contributor to the decline came from China, where unit shipments declined 5.7 percent year over year.” Ms.Kitagawa continued, “This was driven by China’s business market, where some state-owned and large enterprises postponed new purchases or upgrades, awaiting new policies and officials’ reassignments after the session of the National People’s Congress in early March.”

Dell logoThe top three Gartner vendors — DellHP, and Lenovo — accounted for 56.9% of global PC shipments in Q1 of 2018. Up slightly compared with 54.5% of shipments in Q1 of 2017. Dell experienced the strongest growth rate among the top six vendors worldwide, as its shipments increased 6.5%.

HP‘s (HPQ) worldwide PC shipments increased 2.8% in the first quarter of 2018 versus the same period last year. In EMEA, HP Inc. recorded double-digit growth in both desktop and mobile PCs. Gartner says HP Inc. was adversely affected by declining demand in the U.S., which generally accounts for one-third of its total shipments.  

Lenovo’s (LNVGY) global PC shipments remained flat in the first quarter of 2018. Lenovo achieved 6 percent growth in EMEA and double-digit shipment growth in Latin America. However, in Asia/Pacific (its largest market), PC shipments declined 4 percent.

After record holiday sales for consumer and gaming products in the fourth quarter of 2017, Dell continued to do well in the first quarter of 2018. With double-digit shipment increases in EMEA, North America, and Latin America, Dell grew in all regions except Asia/Pacific. Desktop and mobile PCs grew in equal measures, showing Dell’s strength in the business segment according to Gartner.

HP logoIn the U.S., PC shipments totaled 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 2.9% decrease from the first quarter of 2017 according to Gartner. Dell moved into the No. 1 position in the U.S. based on shipments, as its market share increased to 29.1%. HP Inc. moved into second place as its shipments declined 4.8%, and its market share totaled 28.4%in the first quarter of 2018.

2018 Q1 - Gartner Global PC Shipments

Company2018 Q1 Shipments2018 Q1 Market Share (%)
Dell3,44029.1
HP Inc.3,36328.4
Lenovo1,63213.8
Apple1,49112.6
Acer Group3212.7
Others1,58613.4
Total11,833100.0
Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.. Thousands of Units.Source: Gartner (April 2018)

PC shipments in EMEA totaled 18.6 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 1.7% increase. driven by Enterprise shipments increased as many Windows 10 projects and the fast approach of the compliance deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe.

PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 21.9 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 3.9% decline from the first quarter of 2017. As previously mentioned, the PC market in China drove the decline in Asia/Pacific.

IDC says the U.S. market saw a promising opening quarter for the year with almost all major vendors reporting increases in notebook sales. Overall, total PC shipments for 2018 Q1 stood at 13.5 million units.

IDC reports that HP Inc. maintained a comfortable lead over all others in the market with its eighth consecutive quarter of overall growth (up 4.3% year on year) and growth in all regions except Latin America.

Lenovo saw a flat quarter in 2018 Q1, the third consecutive quarter in which the company saw year-on-year volume stabilize with flat global growth and a slower pace of decline in the U.S. Dell Inc. posted the strongest year-on-year growth out of all the major companies, growing 6.4% and buoyed by strong performances in nearly every region.

Acer (TPE:2353) held onto fourth place. Its ongoing expansion into gaming and continued investments in Chromebooks have paid dividends for the company but also caused some tough going in other areas. Apple (AAPL) finished the quarter in fifth place with a year-on-year decline in shipments of 4.8%.

2018 Q1 - IDC Global PC Shipments

Company2018 Q1 Shipments2018 Q1 Market Share (%)
HP Inc.13,67622.6
Lenovo12,30520.4
Dell Inc.10,19016.9
Acer Group4,0856.8
Apple4,0006.6
Others16,12826.7
Total60,383100.0
Preliminary results. Shipments are in thousands of units. Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, April 11, 2018

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PC’s used to be a leading indicator of the health of the tech sector. That is not the case anymore. Economic stress has lengthened the life span of PCs from 3 years to nearly 5 years in many firms and even longer in the home market. Increased smartphones capability and cloud-based applications and storage have taken another bite out of the PC market.

But looking into the tea leaves, many think PCs are on the rebound. Driving the PC market is a demand for premium notebooks in the mainstream and commercial markets. Gaming systems are also part of the equation. IDC expects overall smartphone shipments to decline by 0.2% in 2018 after falling 0.3% last year, the thought is that those dollars would be used to upgrade their PCs.

Mmmm – we’ll see. I say not likely. Can you say “new normal?”

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

A Printer for Rocket Scientists

A Printer for Rocket ScientistsWe all dream about the elusive paperless office. Seems even rocket scientists can’t figure it out. Mashable is reporting that the rocket scientists aboard the International Space Station (ISS) research laboratory which orbits 254 miles above Earth and travels at more than 17,500 miles per hour print a lot. The astronauts print roughly 1,000 pages a month on two printers; one is installed on the U.S. side of the ISS, the other in the Russian segment. They print critical mission information, emergency evacuation procedures, and sometimes, photos from home on a 20-year-old printer.

The international space station is one of humanity's great engineering triumphs. washingtonpost.comNASA IT techs just ordered new printers for the International Space Station (ISS) to replace the Epson 800 Inkjet printers which have been on-board the ISS since the people moved in, in November of 2000. ISS told the author, “When the printer was new, it was like 2000-era tech and we had 2000-era laptop computers. Everything worked pretty good … the printer’s been problematic for the last five or six years.”

Stephen Hunter, Manager of ISS Computer Resources, called the Epson 800 Inkjet printer, “a museum piece.”  NASA had dozens of this printer and, as one failed, they’d send up another one.

Epson 800 Inkjet printerBut now it’s time for something new. In 2018, NASA will send two brand new, specialized printers up to the station. Mr. Hunter, who has been updating the ISS’s office technology for the last two years, told Mashable that the ISS printers have needed to be replaced for a long time. However, he can’t drive over to Best Buy, buy a new printer, and launch it into space.

He started working with HP (HPQ) on an ISS IT overhaul, replacing over 100 existing ISS workstations with HP Gen 2 Z-Book laptops for the crew, so it was only natural they would turn to HP again for the printer project. Enrique Lores, President of HP’s Imaging, Printing, and Solutions business welcomed the opportunity, “We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do this … It was an incredible technical challenge.”

By Hewlett-Packard Company [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsHP couldn’t just suggest that NASA launch any ordinary laser printer into space. Its friable toner dust and significant power consumption would make it a poor fit for life in micro-gravity. Ronald Stephens Research and Development Manager for HP’s Specialty Printing Systems Division explained, “NASA had a very unique set of requirements that we had to meet.”

NASA wanted a printer that could:

• Print and handle paper management in zero gravity – On Earth printers rely on gravity for paper management. Whatever HP provided would have to hold the paper, so it didn’t jam in the printer or float away when the printer’s done with it according to Mashable.

NASA• Handle ink waste during printing – NASA’s Hunter explained that typical inkjet printers do deposit some extra ink during the printing process. With gravity in place, the ink typically stays in the printer or even on the printed sheet. In zero gravity, it floats out. The NASA IT expert said astronauts could ingest the ink or it could contaminate the crew’s numerous onboard experiments.

• Be flame retardant – HP replaced the printer’s shell with fire-retardant plastic.

• Be power-efficient – The ISS generates all its own electricity through solar panels. That means they must tightly manage power consumption. The article says any new device they bring on board must be power efficient. One bit of good news: HP doesn’t have to change the power configuration on the printer. The ISS can supply a standard 110 AV outlet.

Instead of building a specialized printer from scratch. HP recommended the HP Envy 5600. It’s a standard, all-in-one device you can buy at retail for $129.99. But the printers heading up to the ISS underwent significant modification.

We removed the capability to do scanning, fax, and copy out of it to reduce weight and remove glass portions,” said NASA’s Hunter.

Removing what could weigh the printer down or break and become a space disaster was only the start. The most challenging part was related to zero gravity. Ultimately, HP went through every printer system and component to analyze how it would be affected by zero gravity.

HP turned to 3D printing and developed, experimental 3D material — nylon filled with glass beads. Its unique properties allowed HP to swap out the multiple parts that make up the printer output tray and turn it into one that’s both lighter, flexible, and more reliable.

HP ISS PrinterAfter all the modifications, the HP space printer still looks like a printer. It’s 20 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and five inches high. There’s no lid or glass, but, aside from the 3D printed materials, the ISS’s next printer looks pretty unremarkable. The HP ENVY Zero-Gravity Printer still uses standard inkjet ink.

To work out the kinks of the new ISS printer, HP worked with a small team from NASA that included Pettit and three other astronauts. Astronauts’ concerns about printing in space are much the same as they are on the ground. “You want it to be uneventful… you want to hit print and have a hard copy,” said Pettit.

The Vomit Comet flies a parabolic flightUp to this point, all of NASA and HP’s work was theoretical. They did all they could to make the space printer space-ready. However, the only way to know if this printer is suitable for use on the space station before actually sending it to space is by testing it in zero gravity and the only way to do that is on NASA’s Vomit Comet.

The Vomit Comet is a plane that flies a parabolic flight. As it loops up and down, passengers achieve, at the peak of the curve, about 20 seconds of near-weightlessness. During those times, the team tested printing and that the paper flowed through the printer and ejected in the right way. NASA’s Hunter said, “It went flawlessly. Everything works to our expectation.”

By SpaceX (transferred from English Wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsNASA plans to send the first two printers up to the station on Elon Musk’s Space-X Dragon C16 rocket as part of Space X mission CRS-14 scheduled for launch in February 2018.

NASA and HP have retrofitted roughly 50 HP Envy printers and expect each one to last roughly two years. “We want to use this through the remainder of the ISS program. Officially through 2024, with plans through 2028,” said NASA’s Hunter.

This will be the last printer they get in the space station,” predicated HP’s Stephens.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Wearables – Growing Enterprise Risk

Wearables - Growing Enterprise RiskMarket research firm Tractica predicts that the high levels of interest will drive worldwide shipments of wearable computing devices for enterprise and industrial from 2.3 million in 2015 to 66.4 million units by 2021 and could reach 75.4 billion by 2025. This means there will be a total of 171.9 million wearables in the wild by 2021.

The report at FierceMobileIT cites a large number of trials or deployments with a diverse set of wearables across a variety of industry sectors for the growth.  Tractica research director Aditya Kaul explained the prediction,

diverse set of wearablesIn the past year, the enterprise and industrial wearables market has moved into an implementation phase, with the focus shifting from public announcements to the hard work that needs to be done behind the scenes to get wearables rolled out at commercial scale.

Tractica noted a range of new IoT use cases are emerging for workplace wearables. The new uses are focused on application markets like; retail, manufacturing, healthcare, corporate wellness, warehousing and logistics, workplace authentication and security, and field services.Estiamted wearbable device shipments

The market research firm believes the primary wearable device categories will be; smartwatches, fitness trackers, body sensors, and smartglasses, There will also be other niche categories that will play a role for specialized use cases.

Internet of ThingsThe report does concede that in terms of unit volumes and revenue, enterprise and industrial wearables are still a very small part of the IoT overall market. Wearable’s share of the total market will grow over time, according to Tractica.

Wearables proliferation does not bode well for IoT or enterprise security. A recent survey of 440 IT pros by IT networking company Spiceworks found that enterprise wearables are most likely to be the cause of a data breach out of all Internet of Things devices connected to a workplace network.

IoT most likely to be source of a security threatAccording to FierceMobileIT, the survey found that 53% of IT pros believe wearables are the least secure of all IoT devices. Overall, 90% of those surveyed think IoT makes workplace security more difficult. Spiceworks also found that only one in three of those surveyed are preparing for the tidal wave of these devices.

IoT security threatThe number of companies allowing wearables on the network has jumped from 13% in 2014 to 24% in the current Spiceworks survey. That’s a significant jump, and especially worrisome for the two-thirds of organizations putting off a proper security protocol. 41% of those surveyed said that their organizations have a separate network for connected devices, 39% allow them on the corporate network and 11% don’t allow IoT in any capacity.

Enterprise IoT devices aren’t the only reason IT pros should worry, as Andrew Hay, CISO of DataGravity, told FierceMobileIT at the RSA conference this year. Workers are bringing consumer-grade IoT devices into enterprise environments, too. In other words, IT pros don’t have a choice at this point but to seriously consider security measures for IoT.

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I first covered IoT security holes in 2011. In 2014, I wrote about HP research which found on average 25 security flaws per device tested. If these stats are right, there will be almost 4.3 billion security flaws in the wild.

Some of the security flaws HP pinpointed in wearables during 2015 included:

  • Mobile interfaces lack two-factor authentication or the ability to lock out accounts after login failed attempts.
  • Watch communications to be easily intercepted.
    • Firmware is transmitted without encryption.
    • Half of the tested devices lacked the ability to add a screen lock, which could hinder access if lost or stolen.
    •40% were still vulnerable to the POODLE attack, allow the use of weak ciphers, or still used SSL v2. Transport encryption is critical because personal information is being moved to multiple locations in the cloud.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

How Much Cash Do Tech Firms Stash Overseas

How Much Cash Do Tech Firms Stash OverseasA new report (PDF) from charity Oxfam says American companies stash a significant part of their cash overseas to take advantage of more favorable tax laws in other countries. They claim that tech companies take particular advantage of this practice, also known as “tax havens.” Oxfam which is crusading to get the U.S. government to crack down on this practice says tax havens costs the United States more than $100 billion a year in lost tax revenue.

Tech firms are hoarding nearly $500 Billion overseasThe Business Insider brought us this Statista chart, based on the Oxfam report. Tech firms are hoarding nearly $500 Billion in cash overseas. The chart shows how much money major US tech companies have stashed overseas, and how many subsidiaries they have set up in countries that Oxfam defines as tax havens, “which can be characterized by secrecy, low- or zero-tax rates, and the almost complete lack of disclosure of any relevant business information.

U.S. tech firms with most cash held overseas

While tech is the most prominent sector on Oxfam’s list, the article claims tech is not alone — large companies in other sectors like General Electric ($119 billion), Pfizer ($74 billion), Merck ($60 billion), and Exxon Mobile ($51 billion) also have lots of cash stashed overseas.

There’s nothing illegal about this practice. But Oxfam believes it contributes to income inequality. They are urging U.S. lawmakers to make it harder for companies to use international tax laws to their advantage in this way.

money stashed overseasOverseas tax havens have been the focus of recent revelations about tax scams by wealthy people, based on the leak of the “Panama Papers,” documents from a single Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, involving 214,000 offshore shell companies. The firm’s clients included 29 billionaires and 140 top politicians worldwide, among them a dozen heads of government.

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This list looks a lot like the one for the top lobbying spender firms. I wrote about the tech titans lobbying efforts just a couple of weeks ago here.

RankFirmCash $ held off shoreLobbying rankLobbying $ spending
1Apple181.1B104.5M
2Microsoft108.3B78.5M
3IBM61.4B114.6M
4Cisco52.7B142.7M
5Alphabet/Google47.4B116.6M
6HP42.9B
7Oracle38.0B134.5M
Related articles
  • Obama urges Congress to take action on corporate tax reform (bnn.ca)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.