All About IoT

Introduction.

IoT or Internet of Things is a blazing point nowadays. But what precisely is IoT? Explanation in the simplest way is that, it can be regarded as a virtual internet connection between everything present in our surroundings can be operated & monitored over the internet. It depicts a circumstance where everything encompassing our surroundings is made and prepared to do consequent interactions with one another with no inter-human or human-to-machine contact.

In technical terms the Internet of Things (IoT) is the arrangement of physical things or "things" embedded with equipment, programming, sensors, and framework accessibility, which enables these articles to accumulate and exchange data. The Internet of Things licenses things to be distinguished and controlled remotely transversely over existing framework foundation making open entryways for more clear compromise between the physical world and PC based structures. These contraptions accumulate significant data with the help of diverse existing advances and a while later freely stream the data between different gadgets. Current business division cases consolidate splendid indoor controller structures and washer/dryers that use Wi-Fi for remote watching.

Advantages of IoT

Transportation:
We are familiar with the term GPS. For instance we have been using it to track the movement of delivery trucks from considerable length of time now. IoT eases and simplifies this whole process of tracking of trucks as it uses a monitoring sensor which helps to track distance and time locations along with other contributing factors.

Promotions:
Use of IoT is possible in businesses for sending mobile promotions to regular shoppers. So what IoT does is it keeps a track about what is the ongoing trend or what shoppers are more interested in by tracking shopper's history. It smartly utilizes location-based tracking of the physical shoppers as well as those who shop over the internet.

Vending technology:
IoT has played a big role in enhancing the working of vending machines by enabling them to communicate to monitor inventory levels, determine pricing, etc.

Time:
In today's modern world, everyone around us is rushing to reach somewhere and even after rushing so much, still 24 hours is just not enough. But because of IoT Singapore, the amount of time saved could be quite large. So we all can use that time, saved by IoT.

Money:
The biggest advantage of IoT is saving money. If the price of the tagging and monitoring equipment is less than the amount of money saved, then the Internet of Things will be very widely adopted.

Environmental monitoring;
In this case, IoT uses sensors to assist in the protection of the environment by monitoring air or water quality, atmospheric or soil conditions and also be used to monitor the movements of wildlife and their habitats. It can also be used to detect earthquakes or early warning of tsunamis or other such calamities through which emergency services can be prepared with more effective aid.

Disadvantages of IOT

Compatibility:
Currently there is no international standard of compatibility for the tagging and monitoring equipment.

Privacy:
With all of this IoT data being transmitted, the risk of losing privacy increases. Having more information accessible on the web to government agencies, data aggregators, and hackers may not be a comforting thought for members of the public. Take, for example, toilets that measure blood sugar in urine and convey that information to a doctor's office. That information, if accessed by non-intended recipients could be used against the connected toilet owner when applying for insurance or a job.

Potential of widespread malware:
The interconnection of devices done by IoT system could make it much easier for malware to spread throughout a home's integrated system, with results ranging from complete corruption to minor inconveniences. Because of this, rather than having one device to fix, there could be numerous devices requiring a sweep of the infecting malware.

Intrusion:
Imagine all your appliances are connected by the web to manufactures and businesses that deal in the related products gets your data. This will result in unwanted offerings and advertisements on the LED screens of refrigerators, washers, dryers, etc. These unwanted advertisements may keep on growing as the data of your appliance gets shared across numerous business.

Future of IOT

In future, maybe till 2020 IoT Singapore will become the most essential part of our life as it will connect different sources of information such as sensors, mobile phones and cars in an ever tighter manner. The number of devices which connect to the Internet is increasing. These billions of components produce, consume and process information in different environments such as logistic applications, factories and airports as well as in the work and everyday lives of people.

Conclusion

IoT is the new upcoming technology with numerous advantages and certain assumed disadvantages but those advantages can be transformed in to advantages by little bit of more research and advancement into the system as it is going to be the most effective part of are lives in the near future.

The IoT and the Day the Internet Died, Almost

A little over a week ago, the Internet almost died.

Starting on Thursday, October 20, much of the U.S. and parts of Western Europe experienced a massive outage. Some of the most popular and heavily used websites in the world went silent. Poor Donald Trump couldn't tweet for a few hours.

And it was all because of cheap webcams and DVD players... perhaps even one of yours.

Making Connections

To understand how this happened, you need to understand how Internet of Things (IoT) devices work.

If you're reading this, you have an Internet connection. To make that connection, your computer or smartphone needs to have three things:

A piece of hardware designed to connect to the Internet through a cable or wirelessly
Software to run that hardware, which contains its unique Internet "IP" address
A way to tell the difference between authorized and unauthorized connections
The last requirement is typically met by a username and password to connect to your Internet service provider. But it's also possible for other devices to connect remotely to your computer across the Internet - "incoming connections." Some of those are good (e.g., incoming Skype calls), and some are bad (hackers). Having passwords for IoT devices achieves the same thing - but only if they're strong passwords.

The tech industry has worked hard to develop common techniques to identify and stop unwanted incoming connections to computers. Operating systems are constantly updated to deal with the latest threat. Specialized companies do nothing but watch for viruses, bots, malware and other dangers and design software to fight them. Guys like me write about how you can maintain good digital hygiene. That's why we have far fewer virus outbreaks than we used to.

When it comes to Internet connections, IoT hardware has pretty much the same setup. But there are three big differences.

One is that the username and password setup may be hard to alter - it may even be hardwired by the manufacturer, as seems to have been the case with the devices that contributed to the recent Internet outage.

Another is that IoT devices are always on and rarely monitored. Unlike a computer, they could be infected and you'd never know.

Above all, there is no collective effort to monitor and prevent hacking of IoT devices. Nobody is sending out general security updates, like a McAfee or Norton antivirus service. They can't, since IoT devices are all different. There's no common language or protocol that could address threats to all IoT devices at once.

Instead, it's up to the manufacturer of each IoT device to secure the device and to update its "firmware" when threats become known.

We tried that approach with computers... and it didn't work.

How This Led to Last Week's Outage

In the recent outage, IoT hardware made by a Chinese manufacturer - including those cheap bundled home-security webcams you see advertised at Home Depot - was hacked by someone using software called Mirai. It searches the Internet looking for IoT gadgets that use default passwords or simple passwords, infects them and then assembles them into a "botnet"- a collection of devices that can be made to do the hacker's wishes.

In this case, they instructed IoT devices to send "tens of millions" of connection requests to the servers of a U.S. company that provides crucial Internet routing information. Overwhelmed, the company's servers crashed... and with it, the Web pages of sites like Twitter, Facebook, The New York Times and others.

This was possible because the software running the Chinese IoT hardware used a single hardwired username and password for all of them - which couldn't be changed by the user. Once the hackers got the username and password, it was easy to program them to do what they did.

Roland Dobbins, principal engineer of Internet security company Arbor Networks, blames this on the failure of manufacturers to work together to develop a common security approach to IoT. Instead, each company pursues its own designs and ignores the PC industry's painful experience in this respect.

"I'm not concerned about the future; I'm concerned about the past," he said recently. "If I could wave a magic wand, I would make it so there are no unsecured embedded devices out there. We still have a huge problem; we still have tens of millions of these devices out there."

Don't Disconnect From the IoT

Does this mean that positive predictions about the IoT are misplaced?

Not at all.

First, companies like Samsung, which plans to make all its products Internet-connected soon, now have an incentive to develop ways to fight this. Otherwise we won't buy their products.

Second, consumers aren't going to stand for a situation like the old Betamax versus VCR wars - competing approaches to a common need. The IoT is a platform, like the Internet itself, and everyone needs to be on the same one. Manufacturers will sit down and come up with common protocols to secure IoT devices, even if they're kicking and screaming all the way.

Third, the same market forces that produced Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab and all the other security companies in the computer space are going to produce solutions for the IoT Singapore. And there will be money to be made investing in those as well as the IoT itself.

In the meantime, here's my advice. Get IoT devices... but only the top of the line. Avoid cheap mass-produced off-brands. Ask salespeople about security protocols and whether you can set your own username and password easily. If not, walk away. They'll get the picture soon enough.

After all, that's the way "market forces" are supposed to work.

Does Your Car Really Need 3M Paint Protection?

Your car's paint is tough enough to remain in good condition but if you take a closer look at it, you will find out that it is far from perfect. A car can be maintained in excellent condition solely if it is kept in a garage and never taken out.

What causes minor car paint damage? A lot of harmful influences will be capable of scratching or nicking the coating. Something as simple as tiny flying rocks can cause a lot of damage. The same applies to sand, gravel and other kinds of roadside debris.

Car paint will also be permanently damaged through staining. Some of the roadside stains are exceptionally stubborn and impossible to remove. These are usually caused by tar and grease buildups. Bug stains, although removable, can be a true pain to handle. They demand a lot of effort to be taken out of the paint.

Most vehicle owners visit car shops to deal with minor damage like paint scratches. Although far from very expensive, fixing such problems on a regular basis can lead to some undesired expenditure. This is why the 3M paint protection film is a truly practical solution.

3M clear bra is a very thin polyurethane film that is very tough and nearly 100 percent transparent. This paint protection film will absorb the shock and deflect small flying objects. Thus, the car paint located underneath will remain unharmed.

The clear bra is just one of the options available on the market. Other bras are made of vinyl and leather, for example. They are much heavier and more difficult to install. The only advantage that such car bras come with is that they are capable of deflecting larger objects precisely because of the fact that they are heavier.

Apart from the fact that it absorbs shock, the clear bra film is water resistant. This is one of the biggest differences between it and the older kinds of car bras. No moisture can get trapped underneath, which means that the clear bra can remain in its place when the car is getting washed or whenever a rainfall is expected. The fact increases its practicality because other kinds of car paint protection need to be removed and re-installed each time.

Once installed, 3M paint protection will remain in excellent condition for at least five years. This is the duration of the product's warranty. Many vehicle owners have, however, reported that the clear bra will offer reliable protection over a much longer period of time. Proper maintenance of the car and the usage of a garage will extend its longevity.

Do you need a paint protection film for your car? The answer depends on the manner in which you maintain your car. Every vehicle suffers some damage, even if the driver is very careful and using solely the best of roads. The usage of 3M paint protection will minimize maintenance costs, which makes it highly affordable and very practical. To sum it up, everybody can benefit from the product, even the owners of motorcycles, bicycles, boats and private jets. Does 3M paint protection work? It does and it can prevent the appearance of ugly scratches from some of the most common types of roadside influences.

Auto Painting Tips - Auto Paint Protection and Care

Auto Painting Tips - Auto Paint Protection and Care

I remember when I first bought my new car, I was astonished at the look of a new paint job and I knew that from then on I would keep the paint looking great. Well, 3 years later I am looking at a car that has massive overspray and dirt all over. For a car enthusiast, it is at the utmost importance to keep your paint maintained and protected. Here are a few tips on how you can protect and maintain your vehicles paint job:

The Obvious: Wash Your Vehicle!

The most obvious tip in this article is going to be washing your vehicle. I know that it probably shouldn't be mentioned but even I get lazy every now and then and fail to get out there and wash my car. I would refrain from using car washes as they can accidentally scratch your vehicles paint. Most of the time, you will need to wash your car before doing anything else to it such as waxing or using compound and/or clay.

Keeping Your Vehicle Safe:

If you can keep your vehicle in the garage when you are at home, by all means drive her in there! You can save your paint job from random debris and overspray that the neighbors didn't tell you about. I have had this happen a few times. Also, try to keep your vehicle out of the sun as much as possible. After all, you wouldn't deliberately sit in the sun all day knowing it would be painful, would you?

Keeping your Paint Waxed:

A lot of people don't realize that your paint is just like the skin on your body. When it's hot outside the pores in the paint open up causing dirt and debris to fill in, easily damaging the paint on your vehicle. By Waxing your vehicle, you can ensure that the dirt and debris will not get in the pores of the paint when they are opened up by heat. If you are going to wax your vehicles paint, make sure you wash your vehicle first so that you can remove all the dirt and debris. Waxing your vehicle will also prolong the clear coat life and keep you semi protected from minor scratches.

Applying a Good Sealer:

Car Sealant became popular around the late 1980's and since then people have been using what is known as "clear coat" to coat over their vehicles paint for added protection. I guess you could consider it the skin on the apple. After a while of wear and tear, your paint will begin to lose its sealer or clear coat and you will have to add more. Now, you can go to a paint shop and paint boat loads of money to do this or you can do it yourself (it's not very hard). You want to make sure you always have a good paint sealant so that if you get overspray or a scratch on the paint, it won't hurt the paint.

In conclusion, you can always keep your vehicles paint protected. It's always better to be overprotective of your paint if you want to keep it in show room floor quality.

Integrating Social Media and Recruitment Together

Facebook has over 750 million users; Twitter has about 200 million and 100 million on LinkedIn! What are we doing just making friends, following each other and people or institutions we admire or update our professional profile just to let people know? Here we are, at a point in time where these social networks are being exploited for recruitment purposes. And not just for doing background checks on applicants but companies are utilizing these virtual spaces to establish themselves, create positive brand image, post about job openings, and search for relevant candidates and of course, to finally take a look at their profiles before processing the applications.

When using social networks for recruiting, information asymmetry exists between employers and prospective employees. It is important for candidates to take a step forward and bridge this gap. Apart from following/becoming a fan of all the companies that are on the list and applying whenever a relevant job posting come your way, there are some more things that can be done.

The first and foremost important thing is that being a potential candidate, you need to know your future employer better and also give him a chance to understand you. Begin with getting as much information about the companies as you can. And not just about the role and the salary but also understand what the philosophy of the company is, what are the work ethics like, the hierarchical nature. While finding out what the employees think about their company and taking interview tips from them, try and also find out what the customers of the company think about their product/services. Are they satisfied? Do they have any trouble? If so, has the company taken due cognisance and improved their customer relations?

In the sector that you might be looking at entering, it will also be interesting to observe closely the social network presence of competitors. On the outset all of them might be big companies but understanding the intrinsic differences in functioning can help a candidate carve out his/her own preferences better and understand where he/she can fit the best.

All the three social networks function fundamentally differently. It can be helpful to understand that as well. Each of them has pros and cons. Facebook might not be the best place for indiscretion but it is the best for mass recruitment. LinkedIn might be the best network while searching for a person to work in one particular role but the power of community is non-existent on LinkedIn reducing its utility if next year some company wants to employ a handful of HR professionals. Twitter’s most constraining feature is the 140 characters limitation but on the brighter side, it allows connect on on-on-one basis.

The essence is that one must become knowledgeable. And only holistic information can lead to such knowledge. Gathering information from all possible sources about every little thing matters is a must! It is not enough to only have the details that immediately matter in the recruitment process. Clear understanding of what one is getting into will maximize the benefits of this process for both the parties.

This is only one side of the story! Alongside these efforts, it is obviously important to create a strong brand and make yourself sellable. Candidates should carefully put down their profile details. If you are looking at getting a job through a social network, it is essential to put in as much effort as it is required to prepare a good CV. Past experiences and learning need to be concise but put down in a way such that it would appeal to all the prospective employers; across industries and companies. No scope to customize it for every placement! It is also important that the profile comprise of the most important keywords that would be potentially ‘searched’ for. If you are linking this to your blogs, articles or any other mention of you on the worldwide web, make it a point not to let it put you in any dimmer light than it should! Also be careful as to where that particular link might lead them. Google works in amazing ways! So do not try to hide anything.

But do not show too much also. Yes there still a bit more to do! Don’t overdo it. Too much noise and not sufficient substance can kill it for sure. But even if you do have the substance, don’t make it obvious and overtly visible. On the technical end; just a tip! The Corporate Recruiter Tool of LinkedIn favours the passive jobseekers over the desperate ones. And otherwise, it creates a very strong impression. You do not want the recruiters making judgements such as you are a show-off, even before they interview you. Right?

Yes, it is more difficult to know how much to balance out, even more than actually balancing the information. You never know if the company will appreciate your openness and frankness or think of you as careless and show-off. And therefore another suggestion, if you are looking for a job real bad, you might have to take more efforts than just putting all your hopes into the social networks. As mentioned above, the LinkedIn tool while selling information to employers, actually puts you down in the list.

Too much pressure is being built. The social recruiting methods build some amount of pressure on the candidates. I might not be an alcoholic, but a few photos here and there of my socially taken drinks can potentially tick me off the list. Ideally, the companies must make a fair judgement by looking at the photos carefully and making fair decisions. But really, the world is not ideal and the HR people have enough work to do. So what? Social network is about being the way I would be with my friends; I am myself there to the degree of introversion/extroversion that I am in the real life. It is not easy to behave on social networks the manner in which I would present myself in the workplace (Except on LinkedIn may be!). Alas! Given that this process is meant to be beneficial to both parties, the best we can do is to hope that in the long-run it will be all well.

KPI Recruitment for Recruitment Agencies

KPI Recruitment - How to set?

Many new recruitment agencies that have started their own recruitment agencies are having the basic problem of setting a KPI for their recruitment consultants. There are concerns that whether the KPI set is either too high or set at a level that is too low.

When the KPI recruitment is set too high, the problem is that the recruitment consultants will feel very pressured and not able to hit the KPI, if they are not able to hit the KPI, then there will be possible that they are not able to receive any commissions and of course when money is on the line, it will affect their own performance and morale too.

When KPI recruitment is set too low, it will not be able to bring in good profit margins for the company and eventually the company overheads will be higher than the sales in total and that will be a possibility that company will face a financial crisis.

Let’s look at what is KPI recruitment– Key Performance Indicator

Key Performance Indicator is a set of numbers or target set for the salesperson, in this case, is the recruitment consultant where they will need to achieve in a specific period, usually within the calendar month itself.

KPI can be measured in the total sales generated, total resume send to clients, total interviews arranged with the clients or even the total number of new clients secured. The type of KPI will be fixed by the boss of the company or the General Manager of the company where it will be set and to be followed by the consulting team.

Most of the time, many companies will use the total sales of the recruitment consultant as their KPI, which is to say that in this case, they will set a multiplier to their salary earned per month and that will be their sales target or we called it the KPI.

For example, if the salary of the recruitment consultant is $3,000 gross monthly and if the company set the KPI as 4 times the salary, then the KPI will be $3,000 x 4 = $12,000. That will be the KPI every month.

Some recruitment companies will use a lower multiplier such as 3 times, 2.5 times or even 2 times the salary and if the recruitment consultants reached their KPI, then they will be entitled to additional allowances or commissions. Other companies will set the KPI based on a fixed figure such as $6,000 or $10,000 to make calculation easier.

There are no hard and fast rule to set what will be the KPI for the recruitment consultants, it will very much depend on the direction of the company, whether to squeeze the most dollar from the recruitment consultants or create a non-KPI environment where people will be free and easy to bring out more from the consultants.

Regardless of whether it is based on sales figures or other indicators as a KPI, what most important is that KPI is a basic benchmark for a company and the consultants. As such the level of KPI will need to be managed properly so that the company survival and consultant morale will be balanced.

What Questions to Ask Clients When You Meet Them? For Recruitment Consultant.

For many new recruitment consultant that have chosen this very interesting career in the recruitment industry, one of the most important and frightening event is to meet up with potential clients and to convince the clients to give them the business so that they can work on the deals.

So when you meet up with the clients, done the presentation, what happen after that? You will need to ask further questions with the potential clients on the jobs and requirements.

Well, let me tell you a secret before you actually go and see your client – this is very important, not many people in the recruitment industry will tell you the secret, many instance, not many people actually does not knows it exist. The formula below only comes from people who have many years of experience in seeing and talking to people.

The Secret is : The QUALITY of your question is = How the clients PERCEIVED you = Whether they will GIVE you the business.

Many recruitment consultants will ask the basic questions such as:

-          What will be the salary range of the position?

-          Does your company works on weekends?

-          How are the working hours?

-          What are the job duties of this position?

-          What are the minimum qualifications needed for this position?

Well, I would say that whoever had asked these questions, the possibilities of the recruitment consultants not able to get the business had shot up to 70-80%, that means the recruitment consultant is losing the business!

Why am I saying this? The reason is very simple, let me ask you a vey straight forward question, the very client that you are meeting, are they meeting with you only? Will they be meeting with some other agencies that are your competitors? Have they meet someone before meeting you? The answer is YES, under normal situation, they would have met someone of the same industry and they are your competitors. Will your competitors ask the same questions as above? Very likely they have! So if you are queue number #5 meeting the client and you are asking the same questions the first 4 recruitment consultant had asked, what would that make you to become?????

I am sure you get my point, you are just the SAME, no difference, no spice and blend….sorry to say but this is what the other party will feel and they DO NOT like to see something that is the SAME, BLEND and TASTELESS….

YOU NEED TO BE DIFFERENT!!!!!

You need to impress them with something different, let me ask you another question what is the purpose of meeting with your client? To discuss about the job requirement or something else? If you are meeting with the client, your job is to IMPRESS the client, not to talk about the job description and requirement. Period! Get the fact right, you need to make them feel good, make them think that you can do the job, let them have higher confidence on you and your company….the point is, YOU ARE THE FOCUS, not the job order!

In the event that the company is confident on you, trust that you will be able to get the job done, will that make them give you the job order, requirements and also anything and everything you need to know without you asking? YES they will! They will be so anxious why you never ask those “Golden” questions!

My friend, you need to be different, unique so that it can impress the clients….

A recruitment Agency article by Dougles Chan