Stories by Ulrika Hedquist

Technology prevents kiwifruit from going pear-shaped

Making sure high quality fruit is actually high quality is quite an issue for the fruit industry not only here but all around the world. When you're working with hundreds of thousands of fruit per day, it can quickly become a nightmare.

Botnets and fuzzers make NZ a prime target

New Zealand is as susceptible to all kinds of cyber attacks as the rest of the world, says Rogan Mallon, principal systems engineer at Symantec New Zealand. This is despite our remote location and low population and is because of our increasing use of broadband.

Robots beckon: skilled automation staff needed

There is an opportunity for New Zealand’s automated manufacturing industry to compete with lower-cost countries, says Keith Nosbusch, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, a US-based provider of automated systems. The future for countries like New Zealand is in manufacturing high-quality, complex products.

Visa wants merchants to comply with standards

New research from Visa International has found that even though 66% of New Zealand merchants are concerned about protecting cardholder data, only a third are complying with the international standard for payment security — the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

Web-based solution cuts down IT support time

Auckland-based software company Activate Technologies has developed software that automates and delegates common IT tasks to users, allowing IT resources to focus on higher priority projects.

Open source tsunami disaster software promises help

The Sahana project was originally developed to help cope with the disastrous consequences of 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. A free and open source disaster management solution, the integrated system is a set of web-based disaster management applications for managing information before, during and after a disaster.

Dual-use disaster recovery systems cut costs

Disaster recovery systems are no longer something that only financial institutions are concerned with, says Jerry Vochteloo, principal technical architect at Symantec Asia-Pacific.

Online software directory coming soon

Sydney-based Software Choice is developing a New Zealand directory and plans to launch the service at the end of the year, says managing director Meredith Thompson.

Avoid best practices, says Gartner director

“If you want your organisation to be the leader in the industry, avoid ‘best practice’ processes,” says Mike Kennedy, Gartner’s senior programme director for executive programmes. Kennedy was speaking at the CIO annual conference held in Auckland last week.

[]