Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Top story: Trump gushes for ‘King of China’ Xi Jinping

Hello – it’s Warren Murray separating the wheat from the chaff for you today.

Donald Trump has heaped fawning praise on Xi Jinping, sending congratulations for his “extraordinary elevation” after the Chinese president was given exalted status by the Communist party this week.

Trump will arrive in Beijing on 8 November for a three-day visit and it is pretty obvious he is seeking to curry favour with Xi – most of all, the US president needs his help in dealing with North Korea. Trump continued his charm offensive in an interview with Fox Business Network: “Some people might call him the King of China,” he said of Xi.

Experts say Trump’s words are unlikely to ingratiate him with the Chinese leadership. “He’s a two-faced man … Beijing might be happy but they know very well in their hearts [what Trump is like],” said Shi Yinhong, a Renmin University international relations expert. Trump, though, says we’ve got him all wrong.

There is further scrutiny, meanwhile, of team Trump’s election tactics. His campaign’s data-mining contractor Cambridge Analytica tried to get its hands on Hillary Clinton’s missing emails by going to WikiLeaks, according to a report. Julian Assange has confirmed an approach was made and rejected – he did not say what the request concerned. It would be the closest known connection between Trump’s campaign and Assange, and is reportedly being looked at by the congressional Trump-Russia investigation.

Continue here to the full article on the Guardian  ||  October 26,  2017   |||

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has published a commentary on initial coin offers (ICOs) and cryptocurrency services, alongside online resources for investors.

The FMA said it wanted to facilitate responsible innovation, and ensure that the regulatory regime remain relevant and agile. The FMA said this was supported by the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, that sets out one of its principle purposes is to “promote innovation and flexibility in financial markets”.

The FMA said it regularly engages with other regulators and industry bodies (both locally and internationally) on innovation and market flexibility. The FMA said its work in this area was part of an “ongoing effort to better understand, and share our views, on the risks and opportunities associated with technological change and innovation.

FMA said investors must understand the risks involved with cryptocurrencies and associated services before they invest.

“Most online exchanges are unregulated and operate exclusively online, with no connection to New Zealand. This means it is hard to find out who is offering, exchanging, buying or selling. It also makes it unlikely investors will recover their money if things go wrong. Using cryptocurrencies may make investors a target for scammers.

“Consumers need to be aware that cryptocurrencies are volatiles, their value can change quickly and they aren’t widely accepted in the same way as legal tender. The currency held in digital wallets is at risk of being stolen, just like a real wallet.”

| An NZ|Advisor release  ||  October 26,  2017   |||

26 Oct:  After just 18 months in business, PS Duo – a professional services company which sprung from distributor Duo – is celebrating multiple wins, including its inclusion on the New Zealand Government ICT Security and Related Services Panel.

Jackie Hatchwell, PS Duo director, says the business – which operates separately from Duo and provides contractors for brands not represented by Duo, as well as those that are – is ‘a huge growth area for us’.

PS Duo has just been appointed to the ICT Security and Related Services (SRS) panel, is in discussions with vendors about whitelisted professional services and has a growing stable of contractors with the service being adopted by increasing numbers of resellers.

The SRS panel, designed to help government agencies manage privacy and security issues, has seen 40 service providers contracted to provide services for eligible government agencies across the five categories of ICT security and related services.

PS Duo was appointed as a primary vendor across infosec risk management and assessment, infosec governance and strategy and infosec assurance on the panel.

It was also appointed to provide ancillary services across source code, application review and technical testing and ICT forensics, investigation and security incident response.

“It shows that we have resource available in each of the categories and what we can deliver with that resource,” Hatchwell says. “There’s a lot behind a government tender and it’s great to be part of that panel now.”

The appointment to the panel follows a busy year for the company which has added a minority shareholder and director, with Clint Revell joining the team, and built out a network of around 60 contractors nationwide to call on, with the aim of providing a skilled resource, almost on tap for reseller partners.

Hatchwell says the service has been well received, with 18 contractors currently out on long term engagements of eight to 12 months, and another seven or eight out any given week on short term engagements.

Hatchwell says the company is also seeing increasing diversity in its reseller partners.

Initially used primarily to backfill resource for Tier 1 resellers with their own security practices, PS Duo is increasingly being called on to help Tier 2 resellers who don’t have their own in-house security resource for projects.“We’ve got a number of Tier 2 reseller partners across both the North and South Island now, which just shows the conversation around security is widening.

“Their customer base is more aware of what is happening so when someone wants someone to come in and look at their system and do a health check on it, if you’re a Tier 2 you may not have that resource available.

“Rather than independently going out and finding someone to do it for them or going to one of the big four, the resellers are coming to us.”

But it’s not just resellers and some end users looking to take advantage of PS Duo’s resources, with the company in discussion with several vendors about whitelabelled professional services – essentially providing vendors with a local professional services arm.

Hatchwell says discussions are underway with two vendors currently on the logistics of providing the service.

“We’ve been approached by a number of vendors about that. A couple are vendors Duo already represents here in New Zealand, but others are vendors that we don’t distribute.

“At the moment they’re having to bring people in internationally because they don’t have access to any skill set here.”

The contractors would be trained up at the vendor’s cost.

“It’s another added benefit for the contractors,” Hatchwell says.

Hatchwell says a large priority for her is making the contractors, who are spread across New Zealand, feel like they are part of a team, rather than independent contractors.

The company has built a collaboration tool to ensure contractors can communicate with each other and ask for help from other contractors.

“We’re encouraging everyone to use it and it’s paying for itself in the sense of being a fantastic way for the contractors to not only help each other out, but get to know each other,” she says.

Hatchwell says the company is also building out an education calendar to enable its contractors to quickly locate training – which can be spread across multiple providers depending on who distributes a product – and upskill.

| A ChannelLife release   ||  October 26,  2017   |||

26 Oct: From the Mantra5 Blog - What initially began as a six month project has turned into a life changing experience for all involved. The Hydrofoil Bike was nominated, and won, Gold in the ‘Concept’ category at the 2017 New Zealand Best Design Awards.   The win was great piece of validation for our design team. The whirlwind of attention we have had as a result of the awards has been all the more encouraging – especially given that was only our most recent prototype. Rest assured we will be entering the new and improved model into the 2018 Best Awards’ Consumer Product category.

For us, the awards ceremony was us a chance to take a step back from the pressures of finalising our pilot production model – to take a moment and reflect on the last six years. Over that time we’ve made some groundbreaking accomplishments, such as waterproofing electric bike motors and batteries, achieving hydroplaning efficiencies at high and low speed, and successfully performing the world’s first underwater submerged launch. It’s also a testament to a diehard Kiwi resilience and innovation.

“So many times we’ve had people tell us what we we’re trying to achieve couldn’t be done. That kind of feedback can really hit you hard…especially when it’s coming from an hydrodynamic expert.”Guy Howard-Willis | Co-Founder.

Now, with all the positive interest we’re really excited to begin our pre-sales and development of future models and components. But, we know we have to continue to be laser focused on production and commercialisation – to make this dream a reality.

The next step for us is revealing the pilot production model, the Hydrofoiler XE-1 at Big Boys Toys on November 10-12th, at Auckland Domain.

A final thank you to the Designers Institute of New Zealand for giving us a reason to reflect, and celebrate our successes to date.

| A Mantra5 Blog  ||  October 26  2017   |||