Optimizing the mobile experience

Mindful of the increasing number of its customers who access its site through smartphones, Simplyhealth enhanced its mobile application delivery.

As a major health-cash-plan provider that serves nearly 3.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, Simplyhealth has to keep track of the pulse of its customer base in order to meet their needs effectively. Knowing that about 40 percent of its Web traffic comes through mobile devices, the organization has to ensure that its content works on a range of different units.

In the past, Simplyhealth underwent a lot of time-consuming testing that didn't accurately replicate the user experience. Determined to forestall any possible glitches in its mobile service, the organization started looking for a solution in 2013.

- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/mobility/testing-responsive-design-on-mobile-devices.html#sthash.qjHcgp3u.dpuf

Don't you recognize my voice?

What's your mother's maiden name? 
Which street did you live on when you were growing up? 
What's the name of your first pet? 
In what city was your parent born?

Sound familiar?
These are standard identity authentication questions that all have to be answered before you get to bring up what you really called about. Certainly, we want measures of security, though it is possible to authenticate the caller other ways.

Voice biometrics is becoming increasingly popular. It's not a complete solution on its own, as all security experts insist single-step authentication are not secure enough for anything you really wish to protect. But it offers the advantage of convenience and likely better security than questions whose answers can often be obtained with some online searches and a view of your Facebook profile.

Read more in  Securely Yours: Voice Biometric Authentication Gains Traction

Related: Detecting Fraud With Voice Analytics

Data for better job matches

How do you know that a new hire will work out? Even a perfect resume doesn’t guarantee it because there are many other factors that determine if an individual will be happy and productive at a particular organization. That’s the premise of job matching startup called Ideal.com. It takes in a lot more data from both employee and employer to predict compatibility for sales positions.

Credit: iStock

If that sounds rather like online dating, it should, because that's the model that Somen Mondal, Ideal.com’s CEO, invokes. I spoke to him on the phone about how his approach works. He also revealed what made him realize that there is a need for a better way to match candidates with companies.

Read more in 

Data-Driven Hiring Takes Command

Writing for free is not tax deductible

Recently I brought down my auto insurance premium significantly and wanted to find  a media outlet that was a good fit for the topic and that would pay me for writing about it. In the course of hunting around for sites of that sort and came across one that said it does want guest bloggers. But the pay is so low, it recommends you can consider the writing a donation. Here's the exact wording:

• Small fee of $20 per post.  If you normally charge more, ask your accountant if the rest of your fee is considered a donation. We'll be happy to send you our 501c3 letter.  Please also let us know if you would just like to donate the full amount, and not receive payment.

This is not just laughable but dangerous. In my eyes, the site lost all credibility if the editors actually believe what they're saying or are low enough to deliberately lure people into doing work for free or for far less than they deserve because they can gain a tax advantage.

I do volunteer work regularly. Sometimes it's writing, sometimes it's packing up food for people in the neighborhood, and sometimes it's covering phones as a dispatcher for a local roadside assistance service. It's voluntary work that I do to help, but it is not tax deductible. I looked this up once and discovered that in the views of the government, the only deductible expense associated with volunteer work would be out-of-pocket expenses -- not the value you place on your time. See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf That is explicitly stated as item #4 on "Contributions You Can't Deduct."

So if anyone tries to sell you on donating your time with the compensation of a tax deduction, be aware that the IRS will not allow it. It could possibly work for those who sell products -- say food for an event or possibly even physical books, but not for the articles you compose for a site.  

Related posts: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2016/02/save-me-from-resume-advice.html

The post that got the most comments

That's the most comments to date of any single blog on that site, already topping 145.

Like much of the tech featured in the original Star Trek and other futuristic shows, communicating with a computer directly through speech has long been a reality via an interface dominated by Nuance, the company behind the virtual assistant female voice many hear on their smartphones and computers. But Google is upping the game with software that promises to deliver more than its competition does now and down the road.
See more in 

Google Cloud Speech API: A Step Forward for Voice Activation

Amazing visualization for sports

You don’t have to be a sports fan to be impressed by what real time analytics can do for sports. With

new offerings from Intel, we can now know exactly what speed and what heights a snowboarder achieved, and we can get a 3D view of basketball that goes far beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.....

 for data capture in basketball, Intel applied something completely different, 360-Degree freeD Replays. In February Intel partnered with the National Basketball Association to deliver 3-D experience to the fans watching live on TNT or on NBA.com, or through the NBA App.

Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich said the “sweeping views of top plays from virtually any angle” make it possible for “people to experience NBA All-Star like never before.” The way it works is by setting out 28 ultrahigh-definition cameras to capture video images that can then be combined for 3D views from any position.

An article inThe Cauldron, "Digitization Is Upon Us — The Biggest Change In Sports In Over 100 Years," explained that the court is rendered into “a series of "voxels," small cubes to make up the volume of the area. Then, a computer can virtually place a viewer anywhere, providing a complete 360-degree view. See the videos here 

Read more in 

Sports Data Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Trading places the high tech way

A high tech approach to barter promises to make getaways more affordable. That’s the concept behind Nightswapping.com. It allows you to offer your home in exchange for staying at someone else's without limiting you to staying in the town of the specific person who wants to come to yours.

The business was founded in Lyon, France in 2012, though it also has offices in New York, London, and Sydney. The listings on the service extend much further, with accommodations in 160 countries.

In a way, the service mirrors the monetary solution to the problem of barter. What if you don’t want the eggs your neighbor offered in exchange for your wheat? Likewise, perhaps you don’t want to go to London on the same dates the person in London wishes to come to your hometown. Through Nightswapping, all parties get a consistent medium of exchange, measure of value, and store of value through points. Points are earned by giving nights in your home, and redeemed by staying at another’s place. The service brings the two together and provides some information in the form of reviews from visitors and its own scale of ranking.

You go here...
Credit: Pixabay

The price for each night’s stay is determined by Nightswapping’s scale that ranges from 1 to 7. The number on that scale is based on the Nightswapping algorithm, which takes into account the popularity of the area, the square footage, the number of bedrooms, the comfort level, and the type of accommodation -- there’s more value in having a whole apartment than a bedroom within a house. A shorter stay at a place with a higher standard can cost the same number of points as a longer stay at a place closer to the bottom of the scale.

Read more in Swipe to Swap and Go