What to Do if You Are Bored Out of Your Mind

Everyone at one point of another was utterly bored. Maybe your software development project just ended or it is a slow season for your business. The problem could be that you are looking at it the wrong way. Boredom can be a great motivator and a place for creativity. You could use that time to make something, anything. It could be a blog post or a side project that you have going on. There are hundreds of free resources dedicated to improving skillsets and expanding horizons for people all around the world. Take advantage of them. Subscribe to a podcast within your industry, or even one dealing with your own personal interests. Take the extra time to learn a new skill. There are so many different course as well as resources online that are free. If you find yourself suffering from boredom every day, or most days, it's probably a symptom of an ill-fitting job. Your skills might be underutilized or your work culture might be toxic, so it might be time to start job hunting. Either way, being bored is your mind on the natural ebb and flow of work.

Some Things to Know About Virtual Reality

First of all, I need to make it clear that there is a very important distinction between virtual reality and augmented reality. Virtual reality is being immersed completely in another world where you are blind and deaf to the real world. Augmented reality creates an overlay on the real world so that you can interact with both. I would argue that VR is more suited for gaming and experiences where you are completely immersed while AR can be used in education and engineering. All this is of course not for sale yet and will not be till next year. That will give you enough time to save up because it will be fairly expensive since it will need some serious graphics. This might also mean you will be updating your computer in order to run the software. That wonderful laptop will probably not work out too well. Lastly, you might want to take some anti-nausia pills before putting on the head gear because studies have shown that people tend to get really queasy after several minutes. One of the solutions to that problem is to add a virtual nose to the screen.

Last Interface: The Brain

The last frontier in software development is going to be an interface with the human mind. This sounds like the stuff of science fiction but if you really look at where we are today, it appears that we are getting closer and closer to that reality. Neural implants could accomplish things no external interface could: Virtual and augmented reality with all five senses; augmentation of human memory, attention, and learning speed; even multi-sense telepathy – sharing what we see, hear, touch, and even perhaps what we think and feel with others. There have already been interfaces with the mind, just look at DARPA and what scientists are able to do with rat memory. The current reality is that these devices are not tuned and the resolution, so to speak, is very low. The possibilities here are endless but you have to look at the other side of this sword. What will happen to privacy and hacking and what will be the value that we place on information? Then we can throw in the ultimate symbol that humans have come up with, money, into the mix and we will get all sort of class divisions. Are we really ready for this technology?

Some Cloud Computing Stats

Cloud computing is on the rise and the technologies are evolving extremely fast. Here are a couple stats to consider: 82% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy which is up 9% since 2014. 10% of businesses use a single public cloud and 5% use a single private cloud. The public cloud is more for companies that prefer a pay-as-you-go type of plan. The private cloud is for businesses with privacy concerns and who need to meet certain standards and compliances. The hybrid cloud is a mixture of both. There is a lot of data but they still have certain privacy concerns. One of the things that you should remember when deciding to go with one cloud over the other is that if you do not hold your data, most likely you do not own the data. This distinction can sometimes lead to legal disputes. What are your thoughts on cloud services?

Dropbox: Some Changes

Dropbox rolled out an update Tuesday that makes it easier for users to collaborate on shared files with a new commenting feature that allows people to have conversations within individual documents. This is one of the reasons that cloud services have become so great when it comes to collaborators and small businesses. You will be able to communicate with people on the go or if you are working from home. I have found that it saves a lot of time and even money being able to work on documents and data this way. Another great part of the new features is that you will be notified if other people make comments on the documents that you own. Dropbox also supports Office Online so all your documents can easily be synced and you will never have to worry about losing any data or information. Currently, the features are available on the website but not on the mobile applications, although the updates should be coming soon.