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Artificial Intelligence Firms You Should Know

Artificial Intelligence Firms You should KnowOn June 20th, 2024, artificial intelligence darling Nvidia surpassed $3 trillion in market cap. As a result, the chip maker became the most valuable company in the world, beating out Microsoft and Apple. Some are wondering if Nvidia’s current valuation is justified and sustainable. Some are arguing that we’re still just at the beginning of the Generative AI boom. However, others aren’t yet convinced that AI will deliver on the hype that tools like ChatGPT have created.

Generative artificial intelligence

In this context, Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) refers to a trending class of machine learning applications that are able to create new data, including text, images, video, or sounds, based on a large dataset on which it has been trained. Here are some other GenAI firms that could be some alternate firms to check out if NVIDIA is too rich to buy at this level.

Artificial Intelligence vendors

Adobe

Adobe is most famous for its creative software like PhotoShop. However, the company has expanded into artificial intelligence. Adobe planned to acquire Figma in a $20 billion deal announced in September 2022. They called off the deal in December 2023 due to antitrust concerns in Europe. Adobe’s latest image generation model, Firefly 3, announced in April 2024. The model brings a new level of high-quality images and better understanding of prompts given.

  • Key Products: Adobe Sensei, Adobe Firefly, AI Assistant
  • Company value: $200.86 billion

Alphabet (Google)

Google logoGoogle and its parent company Alphabet expanded into artificial intelligence with the formation of its Google AI division in 2017. In 2023, the company announced BARD. The company designed BARD to compete with Microsoft’s integration of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. The early release was marked by reported internal disapproval of the product. 

  • Key Products: Gemini, Vertex AI, Gemini for Google Workspace
  • Company value: $1.72 trillion

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web ServicesKnown for its scalable cloud infrastructure, Amazon has also thrown its virtual hat into artificial intelligence ring. Yet, the e-commerce and cloud giant finds itself playing catch-up in generative AI.

According to Business Insider’s sources, a stealth internal project code-named Metis, is it next step in AI.  “Metis” will be powered by an internal Amazon AI model called Olympus. The latter will power Remarkable Alexa, a new, more capable version of Alexa for a  monthly subscription fee

Metis will reportedly use a technique called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), according to BI. RAG will enable Metis to retrieve information from beyond the original data used to train the underlying model. This means Metis will offer more up-to-date responses like the latest stock prices or medical reaserach, while other chatbots still produce inaccurate or outdated information.

AWS offers a suite of AI services, including GenAI models for text, speech and image processing.

  • Key Products: Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Amazon SageMaker
  • Company value: $1.79 trillion

Anthropic logoAnthropic

Anthropic announced the third generation of its Claude generative AI chatbot, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Claude AI is a constitutional chatbot. It has been trained to make judgments based on a set of principles taken from documents including the 1948 UN Declaration and Apple’s terms of service, which expands to issues in the digital domain. Claude 2 has complex choice-making capabilities and scored 76.5% on the multiple choice section of the bar exam. While it hasn’t quite had the publicity of the big artificial intelligence chatbots it looks like Anthropic might have created a worthy competitor.

  • Key Products: Claude 3, Claude API
  • Company value: $15 billion

Cohere

Cohere logoCohere is a company which focuses on building artificial intelligence models for enterprise customers. Enterprise customers can use their own data to train their AI models, without sharing that data. Their primary focus is on creating AI systems that can: understand, generate and, interact with human language.

  • Key Products: Command, Embed, Chat, Generate, Semantic Search
  • Company value: $2.2 billion

IBM

IBM logoIBM’s Watson was the first artificial intelligence language model technology to attain global notoriety, as a result of its 2011 victory on the quiz show Jeopardy!. Watson was question-answering platform, initially developed from 2004-2011. Since then, its deep learning capabilities have been applied to a wide range of industries, including healthcare, cuisine, hospitality, water conservation, and more. IBM has continued to evolve it’s AI capabilities. In the past 5 years, IBM has filed 1,591 AI-related US patent applications. In April 2024, IBM announced its acquisition of HasiCorp. for $6.4 billion.

  • Key Products: WatsonX.ai, Code Assistant, Slate, Granite
  • Company value: $153.76 billion

Jasper

Jasper AIJasper uses artificial intelligence to help businesses write marketing content. They claim it can write the same content much faster than a human being can, in a tone of voice that customers relate to and find familiar. It helps businesses generate consistent and effective digital marketing content, from blog posts to social media updates.

  • Key Products: Jasper, Jasper API, Jasper AI Copilot
  • Company value: $1.2 billion

Meta (Facebook)

Meta logoMeta (formerly known as Facebook) has grown to where 3.14 billion people interact with one of their platform’s daily. The company is known for its social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. While the company has faced criticisms harmful misinformation, polarizing political content, and data leaks.

For years, Meta has used artificial intelligence to recommend posts in our feeds, moderate content, and target ads behind the scenes in Instagram and Facebook.

  • Key Products: Meta AI, Llama 2.0, Llama 3.0 (coming soon), Seamless Communication models
  • Company value: $1.252 trillion

Microsoft largest artificial intelligence company

Microsoft logoMicrosoft has claimed to be the world’s largest artificial intelligence company. MSFT has made a $10 billion investment in OpenAI in January 2023. They then integrated ChatGPT generative AI chatbot and Dall-E image generation into the Bing search engine and Edge web browser.

  • Key Products: Microsoft Copilot, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Copilot in Bing
  • Company value: $3.01 trillion

Midjourney

Midjourney.comMidjourney AI specializes in creating AI-powered tools that generate realistic and imaginative images from text descriptions. It offers tiered subscriptions and allows users to monetize their AI-assisted artwork. It’s integrated into various platforms, including Discord and Microsoft Edge.

In late March 2023, Midjourney suspended free trials due to people abusing the system.

  • Key Products: Midjourney AI
  • Company value: $10 billion

NVIDIA king of artificial intelligence

NVIDIA logoNVIDIA started working on 3D graphics graphics processing units (GPUs) for multimedia and gaming companies in 1993. The company also began creating artificial intelligence applications back in 2012. Today, NVIDIA is generally considered the leader in AI technology as it is at the forefront of AI and is developing software, chips and AI-related services.The company commands 87% of the GPU market and has had a hand in major AI technology advancements, including ChatGPT, which was trained using 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs. The NVIDIA NeMO LLM’s status as one of the most advanced large language models, along with a new partnership with Microsoft, further cement its place among prominent AI companies.

  • Key Products: NVIDIA AI, NVIDIA NeMo, NVIDIA BioNeMo, NVIDIA Picasso, various chips and GPUs
  • Company value: $2.14 trillion

OpenAI sparked the artificial intelligence boom

OpenAI logoOpenAI continues to lead the GenAI space with its GPT-4 model, widely used across industries for natural language processing tasks. OpenAI’s tools are integrated into numerous applications, from customer service chatbots to creative writing assistants.

In contrast, OpenAI has famously scooped up data from everywhere to train its chatbots, like Reddit. And, when a user uploads information into OpenAI to ask ChatGPT to do a task, OpenAI uses that data to train its models for everyone’s use. Users can opt out of that, but it’s one of the reasons why companies warn their employees not to share data with OpenAI.

  • Key Products: GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Sora
  • Company value: $80 billion

Stability AI

Stability.ai logoStability AI excels in creating advanced AI models, particularly the Stable Diffusion series, that generate high-quality, realistic images from text prompts. They offer models in multiple languages and for commercial use, emphasizing photorealism and complex prompt processing.

  • Key Products: Stable Diffusion XL, Stable Video Diffusion, Stable Audio, Stable Zero123

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Ralph Bach has been in IT for a while and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow me on Facebook. Email the Bach Seat here.

2023 Bach Seat Most Popular Posts

2023 Bach Seat Most Popular Posts2024 is here. We made it through another year. Some good, some bad, some questionable. 

The Good

 The markets ended up in 2023. Michigan football – the University of Michigan won the College Football National Championship and the surprising Detroit Lions are in the NFL playoffs

The Bad

The war in Gaza started and the war in Ukraine continues. Politicization of the Supreme Court. Trump. Climate Change.

The Questionable

Artificial Intelligence has gained widespread popularity for good or bad.

The OMG

In the OMG I’m old category, some things that turned 50 in 2023.

 Top 10 posts on the Bach Seat

Here are the top 10 posts on the Bach Seat in 2023, as voted on by you, the readers of the Bach Seat.

  1. Frank Lloyd Wright for the Work From Home Era
  2. Quick Microsoft Teams Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity in 2023
  3. What You Need to Know About MailChimp SecurityBill Nye the Science Guy
  4. 8 Upgrades to Elevate Your Work from Home Setup
  5. Why Meta Released Threads Now
  6. Climate Change and the Future of Coffee
  7. A Coffee Nap Can Boost Your Energy
  8. Rockin’ at the Office
  9. KOSA: A Bad Idea for Online Safety
  10. How the RESTRICT Act Will Ruin Your Online Privacy 

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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.

Earth Day 2023

Earth Day 2023 Earth Day is an annual event that raises awareness and promotes action on environmental issues. It was founded in 1970 and takes place every year on April 22nd. On this occasion, many IT companies showcase their efforts to reduce their environmental impact. In this blog post, we will look at how five of the biggest tech companies in the world – Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook – are addressing their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions are the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Earth Day 2023The classification system of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions was developed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative in 1998 to help measure, manage, and reduce business greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scope 1 emissions come directly from resources the companies own or control, such as furnaces or delivery vehicles. Emissions that come from the generation of purchased energy, such as electricity or heat are Scope 2. Scope 3 emissions include all other activities that take place beyond the companies’ direct operations. These include the production of packaging and devices, the use of products and services by customers, and the disposal of waste.

The Greenhouse effect

According to their latest sustainability reports, here are some of the highlights of how these tech giants are tackling their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions:

Apple

Earth Day 2023Apple (AAPL) claims to be carbon neutral for its global corporate operations since 2020. They plan to achieve net zero carbon across its entire business, including its supply chain and products, by 2030. This means that every Apple device sold will have zero climate impact. To do this, Apple plans to reduce its emissions by 75% by 2030 and invest in nature-based solutions to remove or offset the remaining 25%.

To achieve its 2030 goal, Apple has reduced its emissions by 40% since 2015. This is largely through improvements in energy efficiency, low-carbon design, becoming carbon neutral for corporate operations, and transitioning its supply chain to renewable electricity.

Apple uses 100% renewable energy for its operations in 44 countries and has helped over 110 of its suppliers switch to clean energy sources. As part of Apple’s supplier engagement, the company is partnering with its chain to accelerate the move to carbon neutrality.

The company requires reporting on progress toward these goals — specifically Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions related to Apple production. More than 70% of Apple’s direct manufacturing chain has committed to using clean power like wind or solar for all Apple production. Major manufacturing partners — including Corning Incorporated, LG Dispaly (LGLD), Samsung (005930), STMicroelectronics (STM) and TSMC (TSM) have committed to power all Apple production with 100% renewable energy.

Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT) announced its environmental goals in January 2020. The goals include being carbon-negative, water-positive, and zero waste by 2030. By 2050, Microsoft also intends to remove all the carbon it has ever emitted since its founding in 1975. To achieve this, Microsoft has committed to reducing its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by more than half by 2030.

According to its latest report, Microsoft has made progress on its environmental goals by reducing its direct emissions of direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions by 17%. They have invested in renewable energy projects, procuring carbon removals, improving water efficiency and conservation, advancing circular economy practices, and supporting ecosystem restoration.

Microsoft has not been as successful in reducing its Scope 3 impact. The indirect emissions of GHG that occur in Microsoft’s value chain, increased by 23%. This increase is due to the growth of its cloud and devices businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Google

Google (GOOG) says it has been working on sustainability since its founding in 1998. The search giant says that it became carbon neutral in 2007. However, some have questioned Google’s definition of carbon neutrality and its reliance on carbon offsets. Carbon offsets do not remove carbon from the atmosphere or prevent additional emissions.

In 2020, Google announced that it had not only reached net zero carbon for its operations but also offset all the carbon it had ever produced since its inception in 1998. Google’s next goal is to run its business on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030, which means that every Google service will be powered by clean sources at all times and locations.

Google does not provide historical data for its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. However, it does provide data for its carbon intensity and its carbon footprint. It is reported that Google’s carbon intensity decreased by 87% from 2007 to 2020, while its carbon footprint increased by 18% from 2010 to 2020. Google’s increase in carbon footprint is attributed to its business growth, data center expansion, and changes in scope 3 emissions boundaries.

Amazon

Amazon (AMZN) Amazon announced its Climate Pledge in 2019. They hope to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. As part of this commitment, Amazon has set a target to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025 and to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030.

According to Amazon’s plan, the online behemoth will reduce its environmental impact by investing in renewable energy projects, electric delivery vehicles, reforestation initiatives, and innovation funds. Despite these plans, Amazon’s carbon emissions rose by 19% during the pandemic.

Facebook

Facebook (META), now known as Meta, has set goals to reduce its environmental impact by 2030. These goals include net-zero emissions for its entire value chain by 2030. The goals are: Becoming water-positive by 2030; Eliminating single-use plastics in its operations by 2025; and advancing circular economy practices. Facebook relies on renewable energy to power its data centers and offices around the world and has reduced its energy intensity by more than 70% since 2011.

Meta does not provide historical data for its scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. However, it does provide data for its carbon footprint and its carbon intensity. According to these data, Meta’s carbon footprint decreased by 94% from 2019 to 2020, and its carbon intensity decreased by 96% from 2018 to 2020.

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As we can see from these examples, these tech companies are taking steps to address their environmental impact scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions this Earth Day. However, there is still room for improvement and collaboration across the industry and beyond.

 

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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.

Are You Ready for the Metaverse

Are You Ready for the MetaverseThe metaverse is a vision of what the tech bros (think biased stakeholders with a personal interest in the success of the metaverse Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk) want the next iteration of the internet to be. Their vision of the metaverse is a collection of interconnected virtual worlds. The virtual worlds are shared immersive, persistent, 3D virtual spaces. In this metaverse, they believe humans can experience life in ways they could not in the physical world (of course for money). McKinsey predicts that the metaverse can generate up to $5 trillion by 2030.

CNN Russian dairy farmers gave cows VR goggles with hopes they would be happier and make better milk The Verge has a more cynical vision. The “metaverse” lets companies dodge negative baggage associated with social media. “As long as you can make technology seem fresh and new and cool, you can avoid regulation,” researcher Joan Donovan told The Washington Post. “You can run defense on that for several years before the government can catch up.

The Metaverse requires improvements

Despite the media hype that the metaverse has received, it still requires improvements to become a reality. A recent survey by network gear maker Ciena found that 71% of professionals can see the metaverse becoming part of existing work practices in the next two years. The study also found that businesses see problems getting into the metaverse. They stated “... unreliable network performance and associated costs were cited as the top concerns holding organizations back …” Daniel Pimental, from the University of Oregon, explains that advances in several technologies are needed to make the metaverse real. He explained, “… advancements in artificial intelligence – computer vision – blockchain technology, and increased bandwidth with 5G connectivity, will form the foundation…

It needs better networks

Loading spinnerOur current networks won’t work. They take too long to deliver data. Dan Rampton of Meta says the metaverse experience will need a customer latency of less than 20 milliseconds. Latency is the delay when moving data from one place to another. In the metaverse, latency is the total delay of signal between the user and the data center that is controlling the metaverse experience. Are you old enough to remember the dreaded “buffering” screen? PCMag found that the best 5G latency in 2022 ranged from 39 – 47 milliseconds from the major carriers. Doug Dawson put the 10-20 millisecond latency into context.

  • Transmission delay is the time required to get packets from a customer to be ready to route to the Internet. He cites some of his clients who say that the latency on their fiber network typically ranges between 4 and 8 milliseconds. Cable systems are slower and can approach the 20 ms limit. Older technologies like DSL have much larger latencies. Low-orbit satellite networks, will not be fast enough to meet the 20 ms goal established by Meta. Some wireless technologies also have low latency as long as there aren’t multiple hops between a customer and the core.
  • The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance says that 5G networks should offer 10ms latency in general.
  • Processing delay is the time required by the originating ISP to sort between all of the packets received from users and route each appropriately.
  • Propagation delay is due to the distance a signal travels. It takes a lot longer for a signal to travel from Tokyo to Baltimore than it takes to travel from Baltimore and Washington DC.
  • Queuing delays are the time required at the terminating end of the transmission. Since a metaverse connection is almost certainly going to be hosted at a data center, this is the time it takes to receive and appropriately route the signal to the right place in the data center.

Bach Seat - Latency

The Metaverse needs to be better

Forbes - Five Ways The Metaverse Is Impacting CorporationsThe metaverse’s virtual environments will require high-end computers, gaming consoles, and VR headsets. These can be expensive. In 2021, Bill Gates noted that most people don’t have VR goggles and motion capture gloves to accurately represent their expression, body language, and the quality of their voice. Harvard‘s Eileen McGivney writes:

The hardware that is currently used to access metaverse experiences, like VR headsets, are not affordable and are difficult to wear for many people from groups who are underrepresented in the technology industry.

People with mobility issues will find navigating a real-time 3D avatar in the metaverse frustrating. Ms. McGivney offers some examples like people with limited mobility in their hands who will struggle with controllers. Others might have difficulty if they wear glasses. Also, most current headsets can’t be worn over head coverings or many hairstyles, like religious headscarves and natural Black hairstyles.

The metaverse is expensive

Acquiring the hardware to get on the metaverse can be expensive. Head-mounted devices (HMDs), can range from a DIY Google Cardboard that requires the user to provide a mobile phone to the Meta Quest 2 – formally known as Oculus Quest 2 which costs $1500. Mid-range devices are pricey, the HTC Vive costs $569, and the Valve Index VR costs $999.

There is no search engine in the metaverse. There is no way to find out more about what the content creators are sending you. The cost of creating content for the metaverse will keep many from presenting information that the big content creators don’t want out there. The cost to develop a metaverse social app is estimated to cost $25,000-$400,000 according to the marketing firm Appinventiv.

Interoperability

There is no unified metaverse. Companies are developing their vision of the metaverse in a vacuum. Major players are developing their own technology for the metaverse.

Then there’s the need for interoperability. Interoperability will allow you to take virtual items like clothes or money from one platform to another. Many experts believe this is vital for the metaverse to work. Most VR software is based on a “virtual world generator,” which is from a specific VR headset vendor. This kit provides the basic programs, drivers, data, and graphic-rendering libraries. There will be legal and commercial challenges too, apart from figuring out who will act as the police in the metaverse.

Cybersickness

Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Versus Augmented Reality There are real-world concerns about physical and mental health in the metaverse. There are physical risks from tripping or falling while wearing metaverse headsets. But people are also reporting symptoms of “cybersickness.” Cybersickness is described as unpleasant symptoms caused by being in the metaverse. Symptoms include:

  • Nausea (sweating, difficulty concentrating, stomach awareness),
  • Oculomotor disturbance (headache, eyestrain, blurred vision), and
  • Disorientation (dizziness with open and closed eyes, vertigo).

These are caused by the delay between actual head movements and the generated image.

Mental health risks 

There are also mental health risks. Because VR provides a much more realistic experience than watching something on a computer screen, the emotional and mental impacts are more intense. Plus, all the downsides of the current internet like violent pornography, the black market, sex trafficking, and criminal activities are magnified in VR.  Finally, people who are immersed in digital worlds often are doing so at the expense of exercising, breathing fresh air, and socializing physically.

The metaverse must be private

The metaverse must be privateDespite the promise of the metaverse, there remain risks. As Charlie Bell, Microsoft’s executive vice president of security pointed out in a recent blog post: “The problems of yesterday’s and today’s internet—impersonation, attempts to steal credentials, social engineering, nation-state espionage, inevitable vulnerabilities—will be with us in the metaverse.” Harvard’s McGivney concurs, “Many of these technologies are also designed in a commercial environment that prioritizes profit over things like data privacy

The metaverse is being developed by corporations whose business
models rely on collecting an increasingly detailed and wide range of data on every user. The technologies can track people’s
movements (e.g., movement, eye tracking) and emotions. The data collection will create a “motion signature.” A motion signature will connect some tracking data to a name, for example, now tracking data in many other places are attached to the same name. This increases the effectiveness of threats based on the inference of protected health information from tracking data.

Is that your boss

Microsoft warns that in the metaverse, fraud, and phishing attacks targeting your identity could come from a familiar face – literally. A metaverse attacker can create an avatar who impersonates a coworker, or a teller in a virtual bank lobby asking for your information. It could be an impersonation of your CEO inviting you to a meeting in a malicious virtual conference room.

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TNero connected to the Matrixhe dystopian vision of a future where we are constantly connected to the metaverse to feel good is looming. Elon Musk’s implanted brain-machine interface Neuralink, can link the metaverse directly to a user’s mind which can cause the release of dopamine. Research shows that the brain may eventually begin to rely on that experience to release dopamine and feel good. As a result, people can become addicted to the metaverse to feel “normal.”

I agree with Scientific American. Given the world’s unpredictability, I have a hard time ruling out the possibility that an unholy alliance of big tech and the military will foist an implant-enabled metaverse on us. After all, as the real world gets scarier, the metaverse might become more and more appealing. In our frightening future, the metaverse, not religion, might serve as the opiate of the masses.

How you can help Ukraine!

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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.

Clippy Christmas Sweater from Microsoft

Clippy Christmas Sweater from MicrosoftRemember Clippy? Well the annoying animated Microsoft Office virtual assistant is back for the holidays! The paperclip would pop-up at just the wrong time to offer suggestions that were only slightly useful. Microsoft has brought back Clippy in a an ugly Christmas sweater available from the X-Box store for $74.99.

The sweater includes the annoying dialog boxes that would interrupt your work that “helpfully” assisted users if they were typing up a Word document, making a PowerPoint, or working on an Excel Spreadsheet seemingly the exact second you were working on something important.

Windows Ugly Sweater: Clippy Edition

According to The Verge, Clippy first popped into Word document in  offered its assistance from 1997 until 2001. Those were the Windows XP days over 20 years ago. More recently, Clippy has shown up in Microsoft Teams. Clippy has also returned to replace the standard paperclip emoji in Windows 11.

How you can help Ukraine!

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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.