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News

Advanced GIS Maps in Adept Enterprise®

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We have been working on many new features with GIS. One of many exciting new features is document and photo management in GIS. These features have in been in the Adept Enterprise ® systems for years, and with GIS we would just link back to the Adept system to view the documents and photos, and the information saved with them.

Adept Enterprise GIS 01
(Document and photo tab in GIS giving us a list of all attached files on the selected property record.)

Now, we just stay in the Adept GIS Mapping system which views ESRI maps, via published ARCGIS Servers. We write the mapping systems. We used to work with 3rd party GIS companies, but as ESRI provided better tools, we don’t need 3rd party GIS companies anymore, smart move by ESRI. Which helps us to deliver pure coded GIS enterprise systems at very cheap prices. In most cases we provide these GIS maps for free as long as you have an ESRI licensed GIS system.

Adept Enterprise GIS 02
(We select a file to open, we click the big open button, out in the field we use our fingers to click on buttons, so it is good to have finger sized buttons to click.)

We work with many government clients across the USA, and many utility corporations globally. GIS is a must have tool. When a huge project has been completed, such as a huge utility line, or gas line across many states is now going live and the contractors deliver all their project documents to you from the 8-10 plus year project that is now completed, odds are these documents are going into your Adept Enterprise® system. GIS tools makes it easy to locate that needed document, map, plan, image, by simply clicking locate me by the structure, or tool you need to find that document for.

Adept Enterprise GIS 02
(Here is the document I need.)

Adept’s Clients can consolidate multiple databases with GIS into one manageable location, automate manual processes, prioritize work and cut expenses by eliminating paper-based procedures. Productivity increases and errors are virtually eliminated.

We have been working on many new features with GIS and are expanding these features weekly. We love to code and coding GIS is challenging, but very rewarding!

Contact us today toll free 1-888-392-9623 to find out more on how Adept Technologies can save you money by utilizing our services and technology.

Energy Department Announces $10 Million for Marine Energy Research and Testing Program

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The Water Power Technologies Office has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement to select a network director for a new program to support testing and research for marine energy technologies—the U.S. Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) Program. TEAMER will bring together capabilities from universities and the national laboratory system to provide marine energy developers ready-access to unique, world-class testing facilities and expertise. Through its network of facilities and testing protocols, the program will simplify access and reduce costs of testing for MHK technology developers – ensuring access to the appropriate facilities at the appropriate time. Reducing costs, accelerating technology development, and decreasing testing and development timelines of marine energy technologies can help realize the nation’s potential for future growth in marine energy resource extraction. The Water Power Technologies Office is committed to investing in early-stage R&D that enables the domestic marine energy industry to advance toward becoming more cost competitive while also helping to promote economic prosperity and energy security. Read more

Is Blockchain Technology Seriously Overvalued?

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Is Blockchain Technology Seriously Overvalued?

What amazes me these days is how people can take an idea and place a value on it, without fully understanding the idea. Then numerous 3rd parties leverage this idea into new ideas and package them into speculative instruments and trade them. When the idea in the first place is really not an idea, but an educated guess, with secrets you get the Bitcoin.

What is Blockchain Technology?

Please it was not invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, this technology has been around since software was invented. There is nothing new or cutting edge with it. In fact I would argue Napster was one of the first to leverage this type of technology in the mainstream, but who remembers that? Just look at the word itself “Block” and “Chain”. For the non-tech people out there which means most of everyone, Blockchain is a chain of blocks that continuously grows. Think of opening a Microsoft Word document, then force your cat or dog to jump up and down on the keyboard, now look at the word document…there you just created a blockchain. The cat and dog is the encryption. Now this chain of blocks is saved across multiple computers (nodes) all over the planet. Each time the cat or dog is forced to jump up and down on the keyboard the block is updated and this chain grows and must be verified on ALL the nodes in the chain at the same time, if one computer fails the process must start all over. Nothing in the Chain of blocks can be deleted it just grows on forever. I am not going to get into the all the bells and whistles of the processes but in a nutshell that’s it.

Cryptocurrencies

This creates major problems when we deal with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, along with all the other stupid guesses being thrown around right now. As the chain grows it consumes more resources. Each transaction would require more energy than the previous one, because the chain has grown.

There really is no value to Cryptocurrencies when the core technology continues to grow in size. Kicking the can down the road hoping that we technology people will fix it or write temporary fixes hoping that other factors of the industry will create software and hardware systems in the future to keep up with the chain demand is nuts. Does anyone remember Y2K?

What I find very upsetting is that the cryptocurrencies idea was to bring free money transfers to everyone on the planet, and to remove the trusted 3rd party from the transaction. Sadly the trusted 3rd parties that cryptocurrencies where supposed to remove have embraced this technology. Private Blockchains VS Public Blockchains boy sounds like a cloud computing conference. Obviously Blockchain technology was flawed from the beginning when it came to Cryptocurrencies for the individual.

I do agree that fiat currencies are under a lot of pressure, yes the markets appear to be fixed, yes the paper gold and paper silver markets are overleveraged, but I will tell you Blockchain Technology is Seriously Overvalued and it is NOT the answer in the long term. Unless you want to wait 30 to 45 minutes for your Bitcoin mastercard to process your peer to peer transaction block for your lunch or dinner, and have huge amounts of servers consuming huge amounts of energy for your transaction, say goodbye to your bandwidth too. The internet crawls to a stop…

Good luck out there.

We do use Blockchain Technology in systems that track transmission of encryption cycles of network communications between groups of nodes, so this technology is useful. If speed is of no issue, and security is, then this type of Technology is interesting, but then again other technology does a better job. I wouldn’t give huge amounts of value on Blockchain Technology, and have industries be able to borrow large sums of venture capital based solely on this technology, remember the .COM crash?

Good luck out there!

Social Media Disinformation Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls the new additions to Cyber Security

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The problem for Cyber Security with social media these days is the huge amount of disinformation spread to you by Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls.

A bot is a computer program that behaves like humans. It performs automated tasks, and were developed to help you feel more comfortable when interacting with automated software systems.

But all too often, automated bots have been built to deceive, especially within the social media software systems. Not only do these bots pretend to be real people, but they spread misinformation, malware and ransomware. These bots are well known for coordinating social media harassment campaigns.

Hacker Software

Not only have individuals been victims to these coordinated bot attacks, but corporations and governments too. In addition to bots, there are two other categories you have to watch out for; sockpuppets and trolls.

A sockpuppet account is created by one individual in order to appear like the account is controlled by a second, distinct individual. The second individual could be a real person, or is a poser that simply masks the identity of the real account creator. What distinguished a sockpuppet from a bot is that the sockpuppets are at least partially controlled by a human, where bots are fully automated via software code. Often a human controls multiple sockpuppet accounts, writing different content from each one, or sending or resending the same content from all of them. There are various tools available to someone who wants to coordinate mass content across multiple accounts.

A troll is an account setup that starts quarrels or just upsets people by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic content in social media systems.

By leveraging all three of these Cyber Attack account systems, Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls; one human can overwhelm the information seeking public quit easily.

A good example of this is the Delta Airlines over reaction decision to end their NRA relationship based on what they believed was a main stream demand by the majority of Americans to do it. Their decision cost them $50 million dollars in lost sales tax savings by upsetting the Georgia conservatives. To think that a few people can leverage these Cyber Attack account systems and suddenly your targets (Delta Airlines and others) believe you have every American Citizen on the planet supporting you. These are very valuable cyber attack tools!

FedEx did not follow Delta Airlines because they were obviously protected by very good Cyber Security experts that confirmed the Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls that attacked them with misinformation and who these human attackers where. Which probably saved Fedex millions of dollars in not upsetting individuals, governments and businesses for unnecessary actions at that time. Information is power.

What can you do when attacked?
Rule number 1 – do not get excited.
Rule number 2 – do not over react.
Rule number 3 – you will need to add protection from Social Media Disinformation Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls to your Cyber Security Planning and software systems.

Contact us today to see how Adept Secure can help your organization with these problems and many more.

Learn More About Adept Secure

Call us toll free 1-888-392-9623

Adept Workflow A. I. Based Technology

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Adept Workflow is a flexible work management system built into all the Adept Enterprise modules.

Customized workflows allow multiple users to track and manage deadlines, requested inspections and tasks that are automatically assigned based on the type and subtypes of all record activities. Staff can easily monitor action items and task outcomes and track project status, meeting agendas and correspondence that has been sent.

Photographs, documents and other materials are easily linked to individual records so all relevant information is instantly accessible within the system.

Whenever an activity record is generated, a user simply can select workflow options for a particular activity record or the system can be set-up with pre-defined timelines to automatically activate when a record is generated.

Setting-up a customized workflow for an activity record takes 5 easy steps. The workflow is labeled, the main task folders created, specific tasks are outlined in a task sequence, users assigned and lastly, the appropriate status for each task is selected.

Adept Workflow

Adept Workflow Features

 ~ Template designed and attached to projects
 ~ Data is centralized and shared between multiple departments
 ~ Search tasks and workflows by User, Status, Tracking number, Start and End dates
 ~ Changes in a specific task status updates all other member’s tasks in the workflow
 ~ Email directly from the workflow application
 ~ View complete task history
 ~ Alert notifications for task due dates, changes and critical information
 ~ Updates to documents and photograph records which are automatically linked
 ~ Assign user authentication levels for permissions
 ~ Quick search by Pending, Current, Behind Schedule, Stopped and Completed tasks

Bottom Line, the Adept Workflow is an A.I. based system that automatically routes tasks to the person, group, department or division responsible for the completion of the task based upon triggers in the Adept Enterprise system. This saves a huge amount of time in completing mission critical jobs, by the Adept system assigning, routing and alerting tasks to the correct responsible party.

Contact us today toll free 1-888-392-9623 to find out more on how Adept Technologies can save you money by utilizing our technology.