GPUs or Graphics Processing Units were designed as “graphics accelerators”. They were a microprocessor, attached to a graphics card, for offloading floating point calculations. It allowed early 2D graphics to run much faster than by using the host CPU directly. The 1990s saw an explosion into 3D graphics with PlayStation and Nintendo 64 as early examples. GPUs were initially used to accelerate the memory intensive work of texture mapping. Later units were added to accelerate geometric calculations such as the rotation and translation of vertices.
In 2002 GPUs added programmable shading – where each pixel could be processed by a short program that included additional image textures as inputs, before it was projected onto the screen. Parallel GPUs had become as flexible as the CPU while they offered several orders of magnitude higher performance than a conventional CPU. This was particularly true in applications requiring massive vector operations.
It was a fact that did not go unnoticed for long. A new stream of development, the GPGPU or General Purpose GPU, has seen the GPU move out of the purely gaming graphics world and into fields such as scientific calculations and image processing, 3D reconstruction and Stock Option pricing determination.
To really go mainstream the programming for GPU’s needs to get easier. The July 22 2010 launch of Nvidia’s CUDA 3.1 Software Development Kit and the Parallel Nsight plug-in for Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE could be just the ticket…
“Networking”- When considered in a commercial sense, has historically centered around introductions and conversations at Conferences, lunches, golfcourses?! It was a flurry of business cards and briefcases and strategic handshakes. Nowadays, while these things certainly haven’t become archaic they are certainly playing more of a supporting act role to the nouvelle- vague of social networking sites and on-line user groups.
In the past, the elevator pitch was often discussed to prepare jobseekers, recruiters, or anyone looking to advance themselves commercially through a relationship. “You get into a lift, the CIO, the whoever of whatever is there. You have 30 seconds before they get out on their floor and you have 30 seconds to sell yourself to them”.
This is the classic example of what networking used to be. Your goals were to get in front of influential people who can help you advance your career or indeed, widen your business relationship circles. Now it appears that the focus is more on how interesting your on-line profile is, what blogs you contribute to, how many connections or “friends” you have on a plethora of social networking sites we have on offer to assist us in “business” networking. The question is now not about what would be your “elevator pitch”, it is what are you doing to maximize your “on-line presence”. Read more…
One of the most common questions being asked right now is “are salaries and contract rates going up in line with the increase in demand for IT resources?” My initial reaction is a resounding, ‘yes’, however looking a little deeper there are some interesting points of note starting to occur across the Technology Industry.
Using the relatively widespread salary benchmark reports that pop up on the internet from a variety of sources, I was surprised at how low some of the average salaries were being reported. They certainly didn’t match up with what I was seeing day-to-day but with any statistical data you cannot read too much in to it without carefully examining the small print i.e. Scope and reach of the survey and the number and class of respondents.
So digging a little deeper I used a matrix of tools to see if there really was any truth to the rate changes being reported. Using a number of major job boards and cross referencing our own candidate database information and job placement data I was able to refine my findings. Finally to add a further layer of reference I spoke to other IT recruiters and a number of my current clients. Read more…
A competency interview (also referred to as a situational or behavioral based interview) is a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate’s ability to perform a role or task. It is based on the premise that past performance is the best indicator of future ability and increasingly, companies are using competency based interviews as part of the selection process for experienced recruitment. It can give valuable insights into an individual’s preferred style of working and help predict likely scenario based behaviors which may occur in the role.
Most clients these days will use a competency or behavioral type interview, and this will most likely be combined with technical questions and questions about industry experience. Interviewers will ask questions that require candidates to demonstrate that they have a particular skill or a “key competency” the firm is looking for. Candidates will be asked to do this using situational examples from their life experiences, to illustrate their personality, skill set and individual competencies to the interviewer.
Competency interviews may also feature questions that probe candidates on their knowledge of the company and industry they have applied to. This type of interview question tests candidates on their motivation and commitment to career.
A typical competency based interview will last for one hour. At most major firms, competency interviews will also be standardised. Consequently all applicants can expect to be asked identical questions.
What are Competencies?
A competency is a particular quality that a company’s recruiters have decided is desirable for employees to possess for a particular role. During interviews and assessment processes competencies are used as benchmarks that assessors use to rate and evaluate candidates. Read more…
While it may be a little colder down south, things are certainly heating up in the Melbourne IT Market, with massive growth in the number of IT jobs across the board.
With two of Australia’s most prominent banks based in Melbourne and many head offices, and shared services teams it seems that if you’re in IT then Melbourne is the place to be.
Recent confirmation that the NBN (National Broadband Network) head office will be based in Melbourne, means an expected 25,000 positions will be generated during the projects lifespan. With majority of these jobs being IT centric, particularly in infrastructure fields, Melbourne will become a goldmine for the IT job hunter. Inevitably IT professionals from around the country and abroad will be called upon to lend their skills down south.
With this week’s announcement of the 4th generation iPhone and the recent release of the iPad, Apple now looks well placed to lead the pack in the mobile computing world. Finally adding mulit-tasking, respectable push email services and document editing abilities, these two ultra desirable personal products can now seriously compete with the likes of the Blackberry’s of the business world (although I’m still baffled and annoyed by the lack of Java support!). In recent years, this technology has revolutionised mobile office functionality, to the point where it is very easy to work and communicate when on the move. Proving their popularity, it is almost impossible not to see these devices in the hands of every commuter on their way to and from work. Here at Ambition we are a recruitment company, therefore staying connected and contactable to each individual client and candidate is essential to our successful business, and these devices are radically increasing our service levels.
So where do we go from here? Originally published in a 1965 paper by Intel co-founder Gordon E Moore, Moore’s Law states that the number of components in integrated circuits used within any electrical device had doubled every year since these circuits were invented. Amazingly this law has proved precisely accurate to this day, allowing all electrical devices to shrink in size yet increase in power on a regular and predicable basis. While it remains hard to envisage what electronic products we will all be communicating with and utilising in the years to come, it is clear that they greatly increase our abilities to service our client and candidate requirements.
Read more…
The past few years have heralded what would seem to be the new era of off shoring here in Australia. Numerous large Australian corporations made the big decision to off shore a lot of their IT functionalities to various countries such as India and China in an attempt to capitalize on cheaper labor costs in those countries. I aim to explore the impact of such decisions in the Australian ERP market place and who is really affected by it.
The decision to off shore IT functionalities by Australian corporations created an influx of candidates primarily within the technical space. A lot of developers got relinquished back into the market place as companies off shored any ERP development work that they had. The combination of a decline in the Technical positions available, coupled with the increased number of candidates in the market resulted in not only a reduction on salary expectations but also an increasingly competitive job market amongst technical consultants. Luckily, and unlike their technical counterparts, Functional Consultants were not greatly affected by this as businesses chose to retain their consultants due to the necessity for them to work closely with business users and stakeholders on a regular basis. Read more…
1. Find a Mentor.
A recent study found that 4 out of 5 promotions are given to candidates who have a mentoring relationship with a senior colleague in the company.
2. Results / Statistics
While not every promotion is based upon statistics, those who keep a log of their measured results are more likely to be rewarded.
3. Acquire Certifications / New skills
One of the best ways to be considered for promotion is by showing the initiative to acquire new skills that are critical to the organisation.
For more information go to www.ecertit.com.au
4. Customer Service
Excellent customer service will be recognised and appreciated in all organisations. If your manager hears good feedback about your work and customer service, you will be forefront of their mind when promotions are being made.
5. Don’t get involved in Office Politics.
6. Volunteer.
Employees that go above and beyond the call of duty are more likely to be considered for promotion than those who are difficult and refuse to be flexible. Read more…
Social media provides real time, interactive dissemination via personal social interaction utilising accessible and scalable publishing techniques. It has gripped society and evolved from a novelty phenomenon to a part of our everyday life. How many people do you know that don’t have a Facebook account these days? Or perhaps have at least a few hundred loyal Twitter followers?
Not surprisingly, social media has progressively become more embraced by businesses forging a new era in business transparency and engagement, creating both new challenges and opportunities. Companies (particularly technology enthusiasts) no longer rely on carefully rehearsed press releases or cheesy ad campaigns to communicate brand awareness to convince customers of product and services offerings. In this age of social media, rules of engagement have fundamentally changed and demand for honesty and direct relationship building have increased.
Just how has social media influenced business operation? Here are a few examples:
1. Relationship Management vs. Hard Selling
An ever-increasing number of organisations are moving away from the “sell, sell, sell” approach to a more relationship driven connection with customers via social mediums including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Popular brands utilising social media tend to post less about their products or services and more about the attributes that make up an organisation’s personality. The fundamental goal has become less about “sales” and more about “engagement” and as a result, people are more at ease and more open to connect with businesses whose preference is building opportunities through relationship management and interaction. Read more…
Recently celebrating ten years with the Ambition Group and over 16 in the Industry, Nardia Allison-Nichol has an enviable record of success across the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market.
Nardia graduated with an Honours degree in Arts from Sydney University before gaining several years practical technology experience in a hands-on technology role. Joining a Technology recruitment firm, Computemp in August 1993, she started to build her career as a recruitment account manager. With a flexible approach to the Industry Nardia has worked within most of the sub-sectors; including government, commerce and industry and the banking and finance sectors.
In April 2000 Ambition acquired Computemp and Nardia continued her successful career under the new direction of the Ambition Group. Working as a team Manager, she built and developed internal teams who were skilled in client relationship development and first class recruitment delivery. Currently Nardia is focused on roles within Ambition Technology’s Business Information team, encompassing Business Intelligence, Business and Data Analysis, Data Warehouse and Architecture as well as Project and Program Managers, testers and technical writers.
Q & A session with Nardia:
What do you like about the technology recruitment industry?
The people. I really love understanding how businesses utilise technology and the way it is constantly changing. Read more…
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