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Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
What is .NET RIA Services?
Yesterday at Mix we announced .NET RIA Services… We are very early in the development cycle for .NET RIA Services and we are eager to get your feedback and thoughts.
The marketing blurb catches the key points:
Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.
(shamelessly stolen from Nikhil’s talk)
Our thinking on the RIA Services work really grow out of the LINQ project a few years ago. LINQ integrates query semantics into the languages (C#, VB, etc) providing a common abstraction for working with data; whether that data is in memory CLR objects, XML, relational data, or anything else. With RIA Services we are extending this pattern by offering a prescriptive model for exposing your domain logic over LINQ. We think of domain logic as that part of your application that is very specific to your domain – that is the particular business problem you are solving. By following this pattern we are able to provide a number of features that help you focus on your domain logic rather than the plumbing in your code. For example, we offer a great way to write application logic on the server and display, validate the data, as well as supporting authorization, querying, sorting, filtering, paging, etc, not to mention providing a clean way to mock out the data layer to do testing (a la TDD, etc). All regardless of what data store you use (Entity Framework, Linq2Sql, nHibernate, Xml file, REST service, WCF-server, etc).
We think this pattern is useful in a wide verity of application types… a couple that we are talking a lot about here at Mix09:
N-Tier Access – By following the RIA Services pattern, we can make it very easy for you to build out a n-tier silverlight or AJAX application. We aim to make it nearly as simply as building traditional 2 tier applications. In this space, you should think of RIA services as a more perceptive layer on top of ADO.NET Data Services and WCF. For the data querying and updating aspects of the model we will be using ADO.NET DataServices… this means that you will be able to just “Add Web Reference” to your domain logic and get the standard REST and JSON based access that ADO.NET DataServcies offers. We also expect to eventually provide full access to all the power and flexibility from the underlying WCF services such as highly optimized binary serialization.
Another great benefit of this model is that you can use it directly within your ADO.NET Data Services. We believe this provides a more productive way of writing your domain logic than using the current interception-based patterns. We are hard at work on this now, look for this in a future CTP.
ASP.NET Access – By following the RIA Services pattern, you will also be able to build ASP.NET applications easily while taking advantage of all the built in features of RIA Services such as data validation, authorization, etc. In the March preview, we are offering a asp:DomainDataSource control that enables very easy ASP.NET WebForms access to your domain logic. Building on top of that is a future version of ASP.NET Dynamic Data that makes it very easy to generate common, standard UI based on your domain logic.
Back in Redmond, we are working on provide a very clean access to your domain logic via ASP.NET MVC. The pattern here is very cool, and I can’t wait to talk about it in a future CTP.
If you combine the verity of data sources with the variety of presentation options we are aiming for with .NET RIA Services…
What what is in the .NET RIA Services March ‘09 Preview?
I highly recommend going through the detailed walkthrough that we have
But few the geeky among us, let me break down what we have in the package by assembly…
Enhancements to the .NET Framework on the Server:
System.Web.DomainServices.dll – This assembly contains the core DomainService classes that handle the validation, query, etc.
System.Web.DomainServices.Providers.dll - the LINQ2SQL and EF provider… we hope between us and the community to provide much more in the future such as Azure, Dataset, nHibernate, etc
System.Web.DomainServices.Tools. dll – the VS support for building DomainServices
System.Web.DomainServices.WebControls. dll – the ASP.NET support for DomainServices (asp:DomainServiceDataSource and friends)
System.Web.DynamicData.dll – Update to the ASP.NET Dynamic Data support to work with Domain Services.
System.Web.Ria.dll – RIA Specific services such as authtication, user profiles, etc.
System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll – Updates to the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 set of data annotations. This is shared with Dynamic Data.
Microsoft.Web.Extensions.dll – Some additional support for patterns such as SEO, these will be folded more deeply into the platform in future previews.
Enhancements to Silverlight on the client (other clients such as WPF and Ajax coming soon)
System.Windows.Ria – Client data model for the DomainService.. handles change tracking, validation, etc
System.Windows.Ria.Controls.dll – DomainDataSource control that provides Xaml based control for accessing DomainService (layers on top of the client data model).
Again, we are early the development cycle for RIA Services and we’d love your feedback and thoughts on the model!
Check out DineshKu’s .NET RIA Services is now public post… the great walk through and samples, Beta News has a good overview as well.
Update 3-19:
here is a live demo of a web admin site in Silverlight\.NET RIA Services .
a few of “How Tos”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
More information on RIA Services
The marketing blurb catches the key points:
Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.
(shamelessly stolen from Nikhil’s talk)
Our thinking on the RIA Services work really grow out of the LINQ project a few years ago. LINQ integrates query semantics into the languages (C#, VB, etc) providing a common abstraction for working with data; whether that data is in memory CLR objects, XML, relational data, or anything else. With RIA Services we are extending this pattern by offering a prescriptive model for exposing your domain logic over LINQ. We think of domain logic as that part of your application that is very specific to your domain – that is the particular business problem you are solving. By following this pattern we are able to provide a number of features that help you focus on your domain logic rather than the plumbing in your code. For example, we offer a great way to write application logic on the server and display, validate the data, as well as supporting authorization, querying, sorting, filtering, paging, etc, not to mention providing a clean way to mock out the data layer to do testing (a la TDD, etc). All regardless of what data store you use (Entity Framework, Linq2Sql, nHibernate, Xml file, REST service, WCF-server, etc).
We think this pattern is useful in a wide verity of application types… a couple that we are talking a lot about here at Mix09:
N-Tier Access – By following the RIA Services pattern, we can make it very easy for you to build out a n-tier silverlight or AJAX application. We aim to make it nearly as simply as building traditional 2 tier applications. In this space, you should think of RIA services as a more perceptive layer on top of ADO.NET Data Services and WCF. For the data querying and updating aspects of the model we will be using ADO.NET DataServices… this means that you will be able to just “Add Web Reference” to your domain logic and get the standard REST and JSON based access that ADO.NET DataServcies offers. We also expect to eventually provide full access to all the power and flexibility from the underlying WCF services such as highly optimized binary serialization.
Another great benefit of this model is that you can use it directly within your ADO.NET Data Services. We believe this provides a more productive way of writing your domain logic than using the current interception-based patterns. We are hard at work on this now, look for this in a future CTP.
ASP.NET Access – By following the RIA Services pattern, you will also be able to build ASP.NET applications easily while taking advantage of all the built in features of RIA Services such as data validation, authorization, etc. In the March preview, we are offering a asp:DomainDataSource control that enables very easy ASP.NET WebForms access to your domain logic. Building on top of that is a future version of ASP.NET Dynamic Data that makes it very easy to generate common, standard UI based on your domain logic.
Back in Redmond, we are working on provide a very clean access to your domain logic via ASP.NET MVC. The pattern here is very cool, and I can’t wait to talk about it in a future CTP.
If you combine the verity of data sources with the variety of presentation options we are aiming for with .NET RIA Services…
What what is in the .NET RIA Services March ‘09 Preview?
I highly recommend going through the detailed walkthrough that we have
But few the geeky among us, let me break down what we have in the package by assembly…
Enhancements to the .NET Framework on the Server:
System.Web.DomainServices.dll – This assembly contains the core DomainService classes that handle the validation, query, etc.
System.Web.DomainServices.Providers.dll - the LINQ2SQL and EF provider… we hope between us and the community to provide much more in the future such as Azure, Dataset, nHibernate, etc
System.Web.DomainServices.Tools. dll – the VS support for building DomainServices
System.Web.DomainServices.WebControls. dll – the ASP.NET support for DomainServices (asp:DomainServiceDataSource and friends)
System.Web.DynamicData.dll – Update to the ASP.NET Dynamic Data support to work with Domain Services.
System.Web.Ria.dll – RIA Specific services such as authtication, user profiles, etc.
System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll – Updates to the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 set of data annotations. This is shared with Dynamic Data.
Microsoft.Web.Extensions.dll – Some additional support for patterns such as SEO, these will be folded more deeply into the platform in future previews.
Enhancements to Silverlight on the client (other clients such as WPF and Ajax coming soon)
System.Windows.Ria – Client data model for the DomainService.. handles change tracking, validation, etc
System.Windows.Ria.Controls.dll – DomainDataSource control that provides Xaml based control for accessing DomainService (layers on top of the client data model).
Again, we are early the development cycle for RIA Services and we’d love your feedback and thoughts on the model!
Check out DineshKu’s .NET RIA Services is now public post… the great walk through and samples, Beta News has a good overview as well.
Update 3-19:
here is a live demo of a web admin site in Silverlight\.NET RIA Services .
a few of “How Tos”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
More information on RIA Services
Microsoft to Unveil Open-Source Security Analyzer for Application Developers
Microsoft is launching a free tool to help enterprises prioritize program bugs that cause application crashes. The company is unveiling the open-source tool at the CanSecWest conference March 20.
Microsoft is releasing an open-source tool to help application developers examine the causes behind program crashes.
Microsoft plans to unveil the tool, called the !exploitable Crash Analyzer, on CodePlex March 20 at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. A Windows debugger extension, the heuristics-based tool is aimed at not only helping developers assess what is causing crashes, but also ranking the seriousness of a bug.
Resource Library:
The program works by examining crash data—information gathered when an application stops performing its expected function—to identify the unique issues that caused the crash. From there, the program provides guidance on how exploitable the crash is, and can be used by third-party developers to then prioritize the problem.
“As a tool, it can save developers time and effort,” said Roger Kay, president of tech industry analyst group Endpoint Technologies Associates. “A number of apparently different crashes can actually be caused by the same code. The analyzer isolates the offending block and essentially says, ‘Here, all these different crashes are actually the same failure, and it's an important one that you ought to fix right away because it presents an open attack surface.’”
The tool will be available starting March 20 as a free download on the Microsoft Security Engineering Center Website.
Microsoft is releasing an open-source tool to help application developers examine the causes behind program crashes.
Microsoft plans to unveil the tool, called the !exploitable Crash Analyzer, on CodePlex March 20 at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. A Windows debugger extension, the heuristics-based tool is aimed at not only helping developers assess what is causing crashes, but also ranking the seriousness of a bug.
Resource Library:
The program works by examining crash data—information gathered when an application stops performing its expected function—to identify the unique issues that caused the crash. From there, the program provides guidance on how exploitable the crash is, and can be used by third-party developers to then prioritize the problem.
“As a tool, it can save developers time and effort,” said Roger Kay, president of tech industry analyst group Endpoint Technologies Associates. “A number of apparently different crashes can actually be caused by the same code. The analyzer isolates the offending block and essentially says, ‘Here, all these different crashes are actually the same failure, and it's an important one that you ought to fix right away because it presents an open attack surface.’”
The tool will be available starting March 20 as a free download on the Microsoft Security Engineering Center Website.
Microsoft opens Azure to PHP developers
Specific improvements made this week include expanding beyond managed code to native code support; enablement of full trust, which is how most applications or services are written; and offering FastCGI support to allow PHP development.
"Basically, the Windows Server team has done a ton of work with FastCGI that allows Windows Server to now support programming languages beyond just .Net and Visual Studio," Ketkar said. Through the FastCGI interface, developers can take existing PHP skills and PHP applications and services and run them on Azure.
Developers might also be able to run other languages via FastCGI, said Ketkar. Microsoft, though, has done stress-testing for PHP but not for other languages. "There is no reason that Ruby won't work through that same FastCGI interface," he said.
Microsoft's vision is to open up the platform to more languages, Ketkar said. Microsoft wants Azure to offer a "frictionless" development platform beyond just supporting .Net development, he said.
With full trust capabilities, Microsoft is expanding Azure beyond the medium trust capabilities that it had had since its original launch at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in October 2008.
Another Azure capability revealed this week was support for geo-location, in which developers can pick a geography where they want an application or service to run. This helps with latency issues, enabling, for example, a service to run in an East Coast datacenter if the user is on the East Coast, Ketkar said. Also, storage and compute elements could run in the same place.
There are certain circumstances, though, when users would not want to run an application in the cloud, such as if there were specific compliance issues or control over physical assets was needed, Ketkar said.
Regarding the outage Azure recently suffered, Ketkar said Microsoft was learning from the experience, and he noted the technology still is in a pre-released, community technology preview format.
Azure will be commercially launched by the end of this calendar year. A business model, including prices and service level agreement rules, will be announced this summer.
"Basically, the Windows Server team has done a ton of work with FastCGI that allows Windows Server to now support programming languages beyond just .Net and Visual Studio," Ketkar said. Through the FastCGI interface, developers can take existing PHP skills and PHP applications and services and run them on Azure.
Developers might also be able to run other languages via FastCGI, said Ketkar. Microsoft, though, has done stress-testing for PHP but not for other languages. "There is no reason that Ruby won't work through that same FastCGI interface," he said.
Microsoft's vision is to open up the platform to more languages, Ketkar said. Microsoft wants Azure to offer a "frictionless" development platform beyond just supporting .Net development, he said.
With full trust capabilities, Microsoft is expanding Azure beyond the medium trust capabilities that it had had since its original launch at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in October 2008.
Another Azure capability revealed this week was support for geo-location, in which developers can pick a geography where they want an application or service to run. This helps with latency issues, enabling, for example, a service to run in an East Coast datacenter if the user is on the East Coast, Ketkar said. Also, storage and compute elements could run in the same place.
There are certain circumstances, though, when users would not want to run an application in the cloud, such as if there were specific compliance issues or control over physical assets was needed, Ketkar said.
Regarding the outage Azure recently suffered, Ketkar said Microsoft was learning from the experience, and he noted the technology still is in a pre-released, community technology preview format.
Azure will be commercially launched by the end of this calendar year. A business model, including prices and service level agreement rules, will be announced this summer.
Thirty Free Image Resources on the Web
Looking for free images? Here are thirty sites where you can find completely free images, available for use on your blog or web site. All of these sites offer royalty free images for your use (be sure to check each site for specific guidelines that they request you follow in order to use their images).
1. Fotogenika
Fotogenika offers over a dozen distinct image categories; their images may be used freely for personal, educational, and non-profit purposes.
Fotogenika
2. Mayang's Free Textures
Over 3400 free use, free to download, high resolution texture images. There is a limit of 20 downloaded textures per day; other than that, everything here is fair game.
Mayang's Free Textures
3. Nations Illustrated
Over 7000 absolutely beautiful images taken from all over the world; free to use for personal or non-commercial use only.
Nations Illustrated
4. Stockcache
Hundreds of high quality free stock images; all are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which means you can use the photos freely as long as you cite where you got them.
Stockcache
5. Amazing Textures
Hundreds of high resolution textures for free non-commercial use; divided into very intuitive categories so you can know exactly what you're looking at.
Amazing Textures
6. Yellowstone Digital Slide File
View amazing nature photography at the Yellowstone Digital Slide File, a repository of over 13,000 high quality images for personal or non-commercial use.
Yellowstone Digital Slide File
7. Big Foto
Free images available for your personal use; lots of really beautiful nature photographs here.
Big Foto
8. Free Images
More than 2500 original and high quality stock photographs here; tons of great categories to choose from.
Free Images
9. Every Stock Photo
EveryStockPhoto is a search engine for Creative Commons licenses photos. Over one million photos available here.
Every Stock Photo
10. Open Stock Photography
Literally millions of free images available here via Wikimedia Commons and free to use for any purpose.
Open Stock Photography
1. Fotogenika
Fotogenika offers over a dozen distinct image categories; their images may be used freely for personal, educational, and non-profit purposes.
Fotogenika
2. Mayang's Free Textures
Over 3400 free use, free to download, high resolution texture images. There is a limit of 20 downloaded textures per day; other than that, everything here is fair game.
Mayang's Free Textures
3. Nations Illustrated
Over 7000 absolutely beautiful images taken from all over the world; free to use for personal or non-commercial use only.
Nations Illustrated
4. Stockcache
Hundreds of high quality free stock images; all are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which means you can use the photos freely as long as you cite where you got them.
Stockcache
5. Amazing Textures
Hundreds of high resolution textures for free non-commercial use; divided into very intuitive categories so you can know exactly what you're looking at.
Amazing Textures
6. Yellowstone Digital Slide File
View amazing nature photography at the Yellowstone Digital Slide File, a repository of over 13,000 high quality images for personal or non-commercial use.
Yellowstone Digital Slide File
7. Big Foto
Free images available for your personal use; lots of really beautiful nature photographs here.
Big Foto
8. Free Images
More than 2500 original and high quality stock photographs here; tons of great categories to choose from.
Free Images
9. Every Stock Photo
EveryStockPhoto is a search engine for Creative Commons licenses photos. Over one million photos available here.
Every Stock Photo
10. Open Stock Photography
Literally millions of free images available here via Wikimedia Commons and free to use for any purpose.
Open Stock Photography
Ballmer: IBM-Sun Deal Could Help Microsoft
A union between IBM and Sun Microsystems would give Microsoft a competitive advantage during the time IBM worked to incorporate Sun's copious assets into a combined company, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said Thursday.
"We have a lot of competition with IBM and I don't think it will change strategically," he said during an appearance in New York. "I think it gives them a year or two where all they're doing is digesting it. I relish that year."
Ballmer commented on a possible IBM-Sun deal -- reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday -- at the 2009 Media Summit during a keynote in which he responded to questions from BusinessWeek Editor in Chief Steve Adler.
Microsoft's CEO called a purchase by IBM a good "exit strategy" for Sun shareholders, but questioned why IBM might want to purchase Sun. The company has a complex product portfolio, which includes a range of hardware and software products, many of which overlap with IBM's existing portfolio.
"I think you pick up a lot of stuff when you buy Sun," he said. "I think you have to decide if you want everything."
Microsoft has long been a competitor of IBM and Sun, but less so with the latter as the company has floundered over the last several years. Microsoft and IBM compete on a range of business software products, including middleware, application-development infrastructure, database technology and collaboration and workgroup software.
Microsoft's most famous association with Sun is a bitter, seven-year antitrust lawsuit over the Java software-programming language. The two companies resolved the suit in April 2004, with Microsoft paying Sun US$2 billion to license Java.
As for the possibility of more acquisitions in Microsoft's future, Ballmer said the company will likely make "10, 15 or 20" small acquisitions -- which he characterized as sub-$500 million and which he said don't necessarily even need his approval -- in the foreseeable future. But Microsoft will probably continue its traditional strategy to keep acquisitions under $1 billion for the same reason that he thinks IBM will struggle with absorbing Sun -- big acquisitions are extremely complex, he said.
An exception to that rule -- Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to purchase Yahoo last year, which so far has not been successful -- was also on the discussion table Thursday.
Ballmer reiterated his stance that Microsoft is open to some kind of search deal but not a full acquisition. Though they have spoken on the phone, Ballmer said he has not met face-to-face to discuss such a deal with new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz since she took over in January.
"I'm sure when it's appropriate we'll have a chance to sit down and talk," he said. "I've known Carol for years. She's very straightforward, no question about it, she's very friendly, and when she makes up her mind, when she's ready, we'll have a real discussion [about a deal] because she is that kind of person."
Ballmer also stopped short on acknowledging that a new search engine Microsoft is testing internally, called Kumo, will indeed be the next iteration of Live Search, though he hinted that it's likely the case.
Microsoft confirmed earlier this month it was testing Kumo, long rumored to be the new brand for its Live Search engine and a major update based on technology Microsoft purchased from San Francisco startup Powerset last June. Powerset developed semantic search-engine technology that attempts to understand the full meanings of phrases people type in while searching, returning results based on that understanding.
"I think we could use a set change, as they say in organizational behavior classes," he said of Microsoft's Live Search product and search strategy in general. "When we're ready to announce one we will; whether it's called Kumo -- that's an interesting name."
Microsoft has lagged far behind leader Google in share of Internet searches despite significant investment in its online services business, which would better position the company for online advertising revenue.
In February, according to research by comScore, Microsoft's share of searches in the U.S. hit a 12-month low with 8.2 percent share; Google had 63.3 percent of U.S. search queries and Yahoo had 21 percent during that month.
Ballmer acknowledged that Google has an even larger market share outside of the U.S. "We still have a lot of work to do," he said. "It's a challenge, but also an opportunity."
"We have a lot of competition with IBM and I don't think it will change strategically," he said during an appearance in New York. "I think it gives them a year or two where all they're doing is digesting it. I relish that year."
Ballmer commented on a possible IBM-Sun deal -- reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday -- at the 2009 Media Summit during a keynote in which he responded to questions from BusinessWeek Editor in Chief Steve Adler.
Microsoft's CEO called a purchase by IBM a good "exit strategy" for Sun shareholders, but questioned why IBM might want to purchase Sun. The company has a complex product portfolio, which includes a range of hardware and software products, many of which overlap with IBM's existing portfolio.
"I think you pick up a lot of stuff when you buy Sun," he said. "I think you have to decide if you want everything."
Microsoft has long been a competitor of IBM and Sun, but less so with the latter as the company has floundered over the last several years. Microsoft and IBM compete on a range of business software products, including middleware, application-development infrastructure, database technology and collaboration and workgroup software.
Microsoft's most famous association with Sun is a bitter, seven-year antitrust lawsuit over the Java software-programming language. The two companies resolved the suit in April 2004, with Microsoft paying Sun US$2 billion to license Java.
As for the possibility of more acquisitions in Microsoft's future, Ballmer said the company will likely make "10, 15 or 20" small acquisitions -- which he characterized as sub-$500 million and which he said don't necessarily even need his approval -- in the foreseeable future. But Microsoft will probably continue its traditional strategy to keep acquisitions under $1 billion for the same reason that he thinks IBM will struggle with absorbing Sun -- big acquisitions are extremely complex, he said.
An exception to that rule -- Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to purchase Yahoo last year, which so far has not been successful -- was also on the discussion table Thursday.
Ballmer reiterated his stance that Microsoft is open to some kind of search deal but not a full acquisition. Though they have spoken on the phone, Ballmer said he has not met face-to-face to discuss such a deal with new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz since she took over in January.
"I'm sure when it's appropriate we'll have a chance to sit down and talk," he said. "I've known Carol for years. She's very straightforward, no question about it, she's very friendly, and when she makes up her mind, when she's ready, we'll have a real discussion [about a deal] because she is that kind of person."
Ballmer also stopped short on acknowledging that a new search engine Microsoft is testing internally, called Kumo, will indeed be the next iteration of Live Search, though he hinted that it's likely the case.
Microsoft confirmed earlier this month it was testing Kumo, long rumored to be the new brand for its Live Search engine and a major update based on technology Microsoft purchased from San Francisco startup Powerset last June. Powerset developed semantic search-engine technology that attempts to understand the full meanings of phrases people type in while searching, returning results based on that understanding.
"I think we could use a set change, as they say in organizational behavior classes," he said of Microsoft's Live Search product and search strategy in general. "When we're ready to announce one we will; whether it's called Kumo -- that's an interesting name."
Microsoft has lagged far behind leader Google in share of Internet searches despite significant investment in its online services business, which would better position the company for online advertising revenue.
In February, according to research by comScore, Microsoft's share of searches in the U.S. hit a 12-month low with 8.2 percent share; Google had 63.3 percent of U.S. search queries and Yahoo had 21 percent during that month.
Ballmer acknowledged that Google has an even larger market share outside of the U.S. "We still have a lot of work to do," he said. "It's a challenge, but also an opportunity."
Tit for tat: TomTom sues Microsoft for patent infringement
TomTom, the GPS vendor Microsoft sued last month for patent infringement, has filed a patent-infringement suit against Microsoft.
TomTom is alleging in its suit, filed on March 16, that Microsoft infringes with its Streets and Trips program on four TomTom patents.
Microsoft sued TomTom for for allegedly infringing on eight of its patents. Three of those patents centered around FAT, Microsoft’s patented file-allocation-table technology — and TomTom’s implementation in the Linux kernel involving FAT.
It looks like TomTom isn’t backing down from its refusal to become one of the growing list of companies signing cross-patent licensing agreements with the Softies…. And it looks like TomTom’s suit isn’t deterring Microsoft from its original complaints, either, based on the company’s statement on TomTom’s countersuit.
TomTom is alleging in its suit, filed on March 16, that Microsoft infringes with its Streets and Trips program on four TomTom patents.
Microsoft sued TomTom for for allegedly infringing on eight of its patents. Three of those patents centered around FAT, Microsoft’s patented file-allocation-table technology — and TomTom’s implementation in the Linux kernel involving FAT.
It looks like TomTom isn’t backing down from its refusal to become one of the growing list of companies signing cross-patent licensing agreements with the Softies…. And it looks like TomTom’s suit isn’t deterring Microsoft from its original complaints, either, based on the company’s statement on TomTom’s countersuit.
Take it back: Gmail gets 'Undo Send' Labs feature
Adding to its arsenal of features that can save you from yourself, Google is launching a Gmail Labs feature called "Undo Send," that lets you abort the sending of any Gmail message--if you use it within five seconds.
Get back to where you once belonged.
(Credit: Google)
Other user-preservation features already available include Gmail's capability to watch for words like "attached" in the body of an e-mail and to alert you if there are no attachments to the message; and a feature in Google Apps (the corporate version of Gmail) that puts orange borders around the names of e-mail recipients that are not inside your company--to alert you to not send confidential information where you shouldn't.
Also, last year Google launched the "Mail Goggles" Labs feature that prevents you from sending e-mails during the small hours of the morning unless you pass a simple math test. It's designed to prevent drunk e-mailing.
Undo Send is a much smarter feature. We've all regretted pressing "send" on e-mails. Sometimes we realize, too late, that our message is a "reply all" when it shouldn't be. Or that we spelled something wrong. Or that we were angry and shouldn't have sent it at all. Undo Send lets you snatch an e-mail back before it gets sent out. But you have to act fast.
Google product manager Keith Coleman told me that internal testing of the feature, which was created by a Google engineer in Japan as a side project, indicated that five seconds was an appropriate compromise between the ability to recall an errant message and the need to not introduce lag to e-mail conversations. "Adding a delay could be potentially frustrating," Coleman said. I'm not sure the rest of the world is as agile with the mouse as Google's internal testers, but Coleman also told me there's an option to increase the un-send time window to 10 seconds. "We may decide to add longer options," he said.
I'm one person who'd like the option to introduce a longer waiting period, or an "outbox" where queued messages reside for a minute or two before being sent. This is what I do with my desktop e-mail client, Outlook, and Gmail users can get a similar function if they switch to offline mode before they start composing messages. But for most users, who run Gmail in online mode, Undo Send is a good emergency valve.
To activate the Undo Send option, click on "Settings" in Gmail and then the "Labs" tab.
Read more on the Official GMail blog.
Get back to where you once belonged.
(Credit: Google)
Other user-preservation features already available include Gmail's capability to watch for words like "attached" in the body of an e-mail and to alert you if there are no attachments to the message; and a feature in Google Apps (the corporate version of Gmail) that puts orange borders around the names of e-mail recipients that are not inside your company--to alert you to not send confidential information where you shouldn't.
Also, last year Google launched the "Mail Goggles" Labs feature that prevents you from sending e-mails during the small hours of the morning unless you pass a simple math test. It's designed to prevent drunk e-mailing.
Undo Send is a much smarter feature. We've all regretted pressing "send" on e-mails. Sometimes we realize, too late, that our message is a "reply all" when it shouldn't be. Or that we spelled something wrong. Or that we were angry and shouldn't have sent it at all. Undo Send lets you snatch an e-mail back before it gets sent out. But you have to act fast.
Google product manager Keith Coleman told me that internal testing of the feature, which was created by a Google engineer in Japan as a side project, indicated that five seconds was an appropriate compromise between the ability to recall an errant message and the need to not introduce lag to e-mail conversations. "Adding a delay could be potentially frustrating," Coleman said. I'm not sure the rest of the world is as agile with the mouse as Google's internal testers, but Coleman also told me there's an option to increase the un-send time window to 10 seconds. "We may decide to add longer options," he said.
I'm one person who'd like the option to introduce a longer waiting period, or an "outbox" where queued messages reside for a minute or two before being sent. This is what I do with my desktop e-mail client, Outlook, and Gmail users can get a similar function if they switch to offline mode before they start composing messages. But for most users, who run Gmail in online mode, Undo Send is a good emergency valve.
To activate the Undo Send option, click on "Settings" in Gmail and then the "Labs" tab.
Read more on the Official GMail blog.
Expert: Hackers Penetrating Control Systems
The networks powering industrial control systems have been breached more than 125 times in the past decade, with one resulting in U.S. deaths, a control systems expert said Thursday.
Joseph Weiss, managing partner of control systems security consultancy Applied Control Solutions, didn't detail the breach that caused deaths during his testimony before a U.S. Senate committee, but he did say he's been able to find evidence of more than 125 control systems breaches involving systems in nuclear power plants, hydroelectric plants, water utilities, the oil industry and agribusiness.
"The impacts have ranged from trivial to significant environmental damage to significant equipment damage to deaths," he told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "We've already had a cyber incident in the United States that has killed people."
At other times, Weiss has talked about a June 1999 gasoline pipeline rupture near Bellingham, Washington. That rupture spilled more than 200,000 gallons of gasoline into two creeks, which ignited and killed three people. Investigators found several problems that contributed to the rupture, but Weiss has identified a computer failure in the pipeline's central control room as part of the problem.
It could take the U.S. a long time to dig out from coordinated attacks on infrastructure using control systems, Weiss told senators. Damaged equipment could take several weeks to replace, he said. A coordinated attack "could be devastating to the U.S. economy and security," he said. "We're talking months to recover. We're not talking days."
The industrial control system industry is years behind the IT industry in protecting cybersecurity, and some of the techniques used in IT security would damage control systems, Weiss added. "If you penetration-test a legacy industrial control system, you will shut it down or kill it," he said. "You will be your own hacker."
Part of the problem is that there are only a handful of control systems suppliers, and their architectures and default passwords are common to each vendor, Weiss said. In addition, there are probably fewer than 100 experts in control system cybersecurity worldwide, and U.S. universities don't have curriculums focused on control system cybersecurity, he added.
Attacks are coming from outsiders, but also from employees or former employees, Weiss said. "I believe the threat is increasing not only because of nation states ... but because the economic downturn has created many disgruntled but knowledgeable antagonists," he said.
Weiss gave three examples of cases involving disgruntled employees, including a recent case in California, where an employee disabled the leak detection systems in three oil derricks off the coast.
Senators called for an increased focus on cybersecurity in the U.S. government and private industry. "It's very important for people to know that cybersecurity is not just about protecting our government networks from countries with terrorists or hackers who want our secrets," said Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and committee chairman. "It's about protecting our nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks that could severely impact commerce and the economy that are absolutely devastating."
Too many U.S. residents don't think or know about the ongoing cyberattacks, Rockefeller added.
However, James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also called on Congress to focus on traditional IT security in addition to control systems. Right now, intellectual property in the U.S. is being compromised, and those losses will hurt the long-term competitiveness of the nation, he said.
While control systems represent a potential for attack, "we're under attack right now," Lewis said. "I worry more about the loss of information. Right now, we are being robbed by foreign entities of our most valuable technology, and we have to stop that."
Joseph Weiss, managing partner of control systems security consultancy Applied Control Solutions, didn't detail the breach that caused deaths during his testimony before a U.S. Senate committee, but he did say he's been able to find evidence of more than 125 control systems breaches involving systems in nuclear power plants, hydroelectric plants, water utilities, the oil industry and agribusiness.
"The impacts have ranged from trivial to significant environmental damage to significant equipment damage to deaths," he told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "We've already had a cyber incident in the United States that has killed people."
At other times, Weiss has talked about a June 1999 gasoline pipeline rupture near Bellingham, Washington. That rupture spilled more than 200,000 gallons of gasoline into two creeks, which ignited and killed three people. Investigators found several problems that contributed to the rupture, but Weiss has identified a computer failure in the pipeline's central control room as part of the problem.
It could take the U.S. a long time to dig out from coordinated attacks on infrastructure using control systems, Weiss told senators. Damaged equipment could take several weeks to replace, he said. A coordinated attack "could be devastating to the U.S. economy and security," he said. "We're talking months to recover. We're not talking days."
The industrial control system industry is years behind the IT industry in protecting cybersecurity, and some of the techniques used in IT security would damage control systems, Weiss added. "If you penetration-test a legacy industrial control system, you will shut it down or kill it," he said. "You will be your own hacker."
Part of the problem is that there are only a handful of control systems suppliers, and their architectures and default passwords are common to each vendor, Weiss said. In addition, there are probably fewer than 100 experts in control system cybersecurity worldwide, and U.S. universities don't have curriculums focused on control system cybersecurity, he added.
Attacks are coming from outsiders, but also from employees or former employees, Weiss said. "I believe the threat is increasing not only because of nation states ... but because the economic downturn has created many disgruntled but knowledgeable antagonists," he said.
Weiss gave three examples of cases involving disgruntled employees, including a recent case in California, where an employee disabled the leak detection systems in three oil derricks off the coast.
Senators called for an increased focus on cybersecurity in the U.S. government and private industry. "It's very important for people to know that cybersecurity is not just about protecting our government networks from countries with terrorists or hackers who want our secrets," said Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and committee chairman. "It's about protecting our nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks that could severely impact commerce and the economy that are absolutely devastating."
Too many U.S. residents don't think or know about the ongoing cyberattacks, Rockefeller added.
However, James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also called on Congress to focus on traditional IT security in addition to control systems. Right now, intellectual property in the U.S. is being compromised, and those losses will hurt the long-term competitiveness of the nation, he said.
While control systems represent a potential for attack, "we're under attack right now," Lewis said. "I worry more about the loss of information. Right now, we are being robbed by foreign entities of our most valuable technology, and we have to stop that."
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Ping Your Website
I created a ping services on flickclicks.com , so if you ping to your website :
Go to http://www.flickclicks.com/ping.asp?url=albertball.blogspot.com this page contain a ping informations about albertball.blogspot.com
you have to remove after url= and just type your website name , that it.
Server of Flickclicks.com located on U.S. so Your site will ping from U.S.
Albert Ball
Go to http://www.flickclicks.com/ping.asp?url=albertball.blogspot.com this page contain a ping informations about albertball.blogspot.com
you have to remove after url= and just type your website name , that it.
Server of Flickclicks.com located on U.S. so Your site will ping from U.S.
Albert Ball
Ultimate Round-Up For Version Control with Subversion
Subversion is a version control system that many Web developers and designers use to back up their work. Subversion was started in 2000 and is quite popular in the open-source community; major repositories such as Google Code use it to distribute source code.
While other version control systems, like Git, have become quite popular among developers, Subversion (SVN) is still considered the standard for version control systems and is used for the majority of projects on the Web that need something like it. SVN provides the ability to share source code in a collaborative way, making it popular with teams for sharing and contributing to projects. It’s also a great choice for designers who want to keep versions of their personal work environments.
There are quite a few resources available for those who want to learn about SVN-like tools, tutorials and SVN clients, so that you can get started working with the popular version control system.
Getting Started with SVN
If you’re just getting started with SVN, the hardest part is the learning curve. Here are a few tutorials to get you started on the right track and ease the pain.
Subversion Cheat Sheet
If you’re looking for a more concise version of how to set up SVN, this quick cheat sheet will get you well on your way.
Subversion Cheat Sheet (PNG)
If you want this concise page of SVN functions and commands, an image (in PNG) and PDF version is available.
The Subversion Book
Version Control with Subversion is an excellent book to start with. It covers every topic related to SVN, from what SVN is to how to use it to advanced usage.
Subversion Official Documentation
Once you’ve gotten the basics, check out SVN’s official documentation. The documentation contains just about everything you’ll ever need and is a great reference tool.
SVN 1-Click Setup
If you’re on a Windows machine, SVN 1-Click Setup will do just what the name implies: set up your SVN environment in one click with an installer.
Subversion Clients
SVN clients allow you to bypass more advanced tools such as the command line by providing a graphical interface. Here are a few of the most widely used SVN clients.
Tortoise SVN (Windows only)
Tortoise SVN is probably the most widely used Windows shell for SVN and is open source.
Cornerstone (Mac only)
Cornerstone is an elegant SVN client for Mac users. It’s not open source and requires a commercial license ($69 USD), but it has an excellent UI to work with.
Workbench
Cross-platform SVN client built in Python. Open source.
SmartSVN
SmartSVN is another cross-platform SVN client, but targeted more at professional developers. The client comes in free and professional versions, with the professional version starting at $79 USD.
Versions (Mac only)
Versions is another SVN client with a beautiful interface. Versions is unique because it syncs with the online SVN repository Beanstalk. Approximately $49 USD.
Subclipse
An open-source Eclipse plug-in providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE. Among its features are local history cache, various visualization tools and merging assistant.
Subcommander
Subcommander is a cross-platform, open-source client that makes basic SVN functions quite easy to use.
FSVS
FSVS stands for “Fast System Versioning”, and this open-source command-line client does exactly that.
Syncro SVN Client
A cross-platform SVN client with a fantastic UI. One of the stand-out features of Syncro SVN is its ability to let you quickly see revisions in the same pane. $59 USD.
scplugin (Mac only)
Scplugin, also open source, is much like Tortoise SVN in that it uses the Finder on the Mac as an SVN interface.
Psvn.el
Psvn.el is an SVN client for eMacs, a popular open-source text editor.
iPhone SVN Log Viewer
While not technically an SVN client, the iPhone SVN Log Viewer allows you to keep track of commits and changes to your SVN repository in an iPhone app.
IDE Plug-Ins
If you already use an integrated development environment (IDE), then plug-ins are available to interface with SVN.
Subclipse
Subclipse is a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE for Java.
AnkhSVN
AnkhSVN is an SVN client for Microsoft’s Visual Studio.
VisualSVN
VisualSVN for Visual Basic by Microsoft isn’t open source; a license costs $49.
How to Ignore IDE Project Files in Subversion
If you’re going to use an IDE on your project with SVN, check out this article on how to exclude project files from your repository.
SVN Repository Browsers
Trac
Trac is much more than an SVN browser: it’s a complete project management tool. Aside from letting you browse SVN repositories, Trac allows you to create wikis, track bugs and much more. Trac is used in many open-source projects to manage workflow and is considered the standard for this purpose.
SVN repositories are pretty plain and don’t let you browse the code very easily. By default, SVN just dumps source code into the most basic form of HTML and links. Here are a few scripts you can upload to your server to get a better interface for your project’s source code.
Warehouse
Warehouse is a beautiful open-source application that allows you to browse SVN repositories.
WebSVN
WebSVN is in PHP, it’s portable, and it’s easy to install.
Insurrection
A simple repository browser that allows for multiple repositories without browser or platform-specific extensions.
Polarion WebClient for SVN
If Java is your bag, Polarion offers a platform-independent Java Web browser for SVN.
Hosted SVN
For those wanting a little more control over their repositories and a public face for their projects, hosted SVN might be a good solution. Hosted SVN takes the guesswork out of creating your repository and installing an SVN browser for it.
Google Code
You can easily host your project’s source code for free using Google Code.
CVSDude
CVSDude is a popular CVS and SVN repository hosting service. Plans start at $5.99 per month.
Beanstalk
Beanstalk is similar to CVSDude except that it syncs seamlessly with Versions (mentioned above) and has a much more elegant design. A free version for a limited number of users and 100 MB of upload space is available. Personal plans start at $15 per month.
Unfuddle
Unfuddle hosts SVN and Git, manages bug tracking, and offers 200 MB of storage for free. Premium plans start at $9 per month.
Assembla
Assembla is more of a team collaboration website, but it features hosted SVN as well as bug tracking, ticketing and other collaboration features. Plans start at $2 per user per month.
Subversion Community Websites
Looking for answers to your SVN-related questions? Check out some of these community websites. Many have forums, mailing lists, training centers and more to get you primed for SVN.
SVNForum
If you need help on a Subversion-related topic, look no further than SVNForum. SVNForum has a community of over 14,500 members, posting questions and answers on virtually any topic.
openCollabNet
CollabNet is from the same organization that manages the SVN project, so it provides training resources and means of connecting with CollabNet’s SVN engineers.
Subversionary
Subversionary has a bevy of tutorials and articles in the areas of configuration and working in most environments.
Subversion Books
If you want a few books to browse offline, then here are a few titles sure to help you understand all things SVN.
Subversion in Action
While it may be a tad dated for a technology book, Subversion in Action provides an excellent overview of how to use SVN in everyday scenarios. It is an excellent starter book for SVN newbies.
Practical Subversion
Practical Subversion, Second Edition is authored by two Subversion project contributors and is the most up-to-date book on the version control system. You can preview the first chapter in Google Preview.
Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion
Part of the critically acclaimed Pragmatic Programmers series.
Subversion Version Control: Using the Subversion Version Control System in Development Projects
Perfect for Web developers who want to learn more about SVN.
SVN Articles
Given SVN’s popularity, it’s no surprise there are plenty of tutorials and articles on how to wield it. Here are a few of the best.
Subversion for Web Projects
Many Web developers still don’t use some kind of version control for projects. Here’s an informative article on how Web developers can get started with SVN in a local environment.
Making the Jump to SVN
A somewhat dated but still highly relevant article on the benefits of SVN, complete with an in-depth overview of how SVN works.
Keeping Your Life in Subversion
Go beyond backing up your work to backing up everything on your computer with SVN.
How to Set Up a Personal Home Subversion Server
Lifehacker has a great article from 2006 giving a thorough rundown of how to get SVN rolling on your home machine for personal use.
How to Set Up Subversion and websvn on Debian
HowtoForge has an excellent tutorial on how to get running with the popular Linux distribution Debian.
Mirroring a Subversion Repository
This guide helps you create a Subversion utility, “svnsync,” that allows you to clone a read-only repository.
Configuring Subversion to Use a Proxy Server
Sometimes the only work environment in which you can set up SVN is on a proxy server. This article explains the extra bit of manual configuration needed to do that.
Maintaining an SVN Mirror Directly from Git
While Git is becoming more popular every day, many developers are still most comfortable with SVN. If you run a Git repository, you can create a read-only SVN repository from it.
Top 10 Subversion Tips for CVS Users
There was a time when CVS was the most used revision control system. Even though SVN has taken the reigns, some CVS users out there might benefit from learning the reasons why one would switch to SVN.
Mergeinfo - Understanding the Internals
Everything you ever wanted to know about SVN 1.5’s important mergeinfo command.
While other version control systems, like Git, have become quite popular among developers, Subversion (SVN) is still considered the standard for version control systems and is used for the majority of projects on the Web that need something like it. SVN provides the ability to share source code in a collaborative way, making it popular with teams for sharing and contributing to projects. It’s also a great choice for designers who want to keep versions of their personal work environments.
There are quite a few resources available for those who want to learn about SVN-like tools, tutorials and SVN clients, so that you can get started working with the popular version control system.
Getting Started with SVN
If you’re just getting started with SVN, the hardest part is the learning curve. Here are a few tutorials to get you started on the right track and ease the pain.
Subversion Cheat Sheet
If you’re looking for a more concise version of how to set up SVN, this quick cheat sheet will get you well on your way.
Subversion Cheat Sheet (PNG)
If you want this concise page of SVN functions and commands, an image (in PNG) and PDF version is available.
The Subversion Book
Version Control with Subversion is an excellent book to start with. It covers every topic related to SVN, from what SVN is to how to use it to advanced usage.
Subversion Official Documentation
Once you’ve gotten the basics, check out SVN’s official documentation. The documentation contains just about everything you’ll ever need and is a great reference tool.
SVN 1-Click Setup
If you’re on a Windows machine, SVN 1-Click Setup will do just what the name implies: set up your SVN environment in one click with an installer.
Subversion Clients
SVN clients allow you to bypass more advanced tools such as the command line by providing a graphical interface. Here are a few of the most widely used SVN clients.
Tortoise SVN (Windows only)
Tortoise SVN is probably the most widely used Windows shell for SVN and is open source.
Cornerstone (Mac only)
Cornerstone is an elegant SVN client for Mac users. It’s not open source and requires a commercial license ($69 USD), but it has an excellent UI to work with.
Workbench
Cross-platform SVN client built in Python. Open source.
SmartSVN
SmartSVN is another cross-platform SVN client, but targeted more at professional developers. The client comes in free and professional versions, with the professional version starting at $79 USD.
Versions (Mac only)
Versions is another SVN client with a beautiful interface. Versions is unique because it syncs with the online SVN repository Beanstalk. Approximately $49 USD.
Subclipse
An open-source Eclipse plug-in providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE. Among its features are local history cache, various visualization tools and merging assistant.
Subcommander
Subcommander is a cross-platform, open-source client that makes basic SVN functions quite easy to use.
FSVS
FSVS stands for “Fast System Versioning”, and this open-source command-line client does exactly that.
Syncro SVN Client
A cross-platform SVN client with a fantastic UI. One of the stand-out features of Syncro SVN is its ability to let you quickly see revisions in the same pane. $59 USD.
scplugin (Mac only)
Scplugin, also open source, is much like Tortoise SVN in that it uses the Finder on the Mac as an SVN interface.
Psvn.el
Psvn.el is an SVN client for eMacs, a popular open-source text editor.
iPhone SVN Log Viewer
While not technically an SVN client, the iPhone SVN Log Viewer allows you to keep track of commits and changes to your SVN repository in an iPhone app.
IDE Plug-Ins
If you already use an integrated development environment (IDE), then plug-ins are available to interface with SVN.
Subclipse
Subclipse is a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE for Java.
AnkhSVN
AnkhSVN is an SVN client for Microsoft’s Visual Studio.
VisualSVN
VisualSVN for Visual Basic by Microsoft isn’t open source; a license costs $49.
How to Ignore IDE Project Files in Subversion
If you’re going to use an IDE on your project with SVN, check out this article on how to exclude project files from your repository.
SVN Repository Browsers
Trac
Trac is much more than an SVN browser: it’s a complete project management tool. Aside from letting you browse SVN repositories, Trac allows you to create wikis, track bugs and much more. Trac is used in many open-source projects to manage workflow and is considered the standard for this purpose.
SVN repositories are pretty plain and don’t let you browse the code very easily. By default, SVN just dumps source code into the most basic form of HTML and links. Here are a few scripts you can upload to your server to get a better interface for your project’s source code.
Warehouse
Warehouse is a beautiful open-source application that allows you to browse SVN repositories.
WebSVN
WebSVN is in PHP, it’s portable, and it’s easy to install.
Insurrection
A simple repository browser that allows for multiple repositories without browser or platform-specific extensions.
Polarion WebClient for SVN
If Java is your bag, Polarion offers a platform-independent Java Web browser for SVN.
Hosted SVN
For those wanting a little more control over their repositories and a public face for their projects, hosted SVN might be a good solution. Hosted SVN takes the guesswork out of creating your repository and installing an SVN browser for it.
Google Code
You can easily host your project’s source code for free using Google Code.
CVSDude
CVSDude is a popular CVS and SVN repository hosting service. Plans start at $5.99 per month.
Beanstalk
Beanstalk is similar to CVSDude except that it syncs seamlessly with Versions (mentioned above) and has a much more elegant design. A free version for a limited number of users and 100 MB of upload space is available. Personal plans start at $15 per month.
Unfuddle
Unfuddle hosts SVN and Git, manages bug tracking, and offers 200 MB of storage for free. Premium plans start at $9 per month.
Assembla
Assembla is more of a team collaboration website, but it features hosted SVN as well as bug tracking, ticketing and other collaboration features. Plans start at $2 per user per month.
Subversion Community Websites
Looking for answers to your SVN-related questions? Check out some of these community websites. Many have forums, mailing lists, training centers and more to get you primed for SVN.
SVNForum
If you need help on a Subversion-related topic, look no further than SVNForum. SVNForum has a community of over 14,500 members, posting questions and answers on virtually any topic.
openCollabNet
CollabNet is from the same organization that manages the SVN project, so it provides training resources and means of connecting with CollabNet’s SVN engineers.
Subversionary
Subversionary has a bevy of tutorials and articles in the areas of configuration and working in most environments.
Subversion Books
If you want a few books to browse offline, then here are a few titles sure to help you understand all things SVN.
Subversion in Action
While it may be a tad dated for a technology book, Subversion in Action provides an excellent overview of how to use SVN in everyday scenarios. It is an excellent starter book for SVN newbies.
Practical Subversion
Practical Subversion, Second Edition is authored by two Subversion project contributors and is the most up-to-date book on the version control system. You can preview the first chapter in Google Preview.
Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion
Part of the critically acclaimed Pragmatic Programmers series.
Subversion Version Control: Using the Subversion Version Control System in Development Projects
Perfect for Web developers who want to learn more about SVN.
SVN Articles
Given SVN’s popularity, it’s no surprise there are plenty of tutorials and articles on how to wield it. Here are a few of the best.
Subversion for Web Projects
Many Web developers still don’t use some kind of version control for projects. Here’s an informative article on how Web developers can get started with SVN in a local environment.
Making the Jump to SVN
A somewhat dated but still highly relevant article on the benefits of SVN, complete with an in-depth overview of how SVN works.
Keeping Your Life in Subversion
Go beyond backing up your work to backing up everything on your computer with SVN.
How to Set Up a Personal Home Subversion Server
Lifehacker has a great article from 2006 giving a thorough rundown of how to get SVN rolling on your home machine for personal use.
How to Set Up Subversion and websvn on Debian
HowtoForge has an excellent tutorial on how to get running with the popular Linux distribution Debian.
Mirroring a Subversion Repository
This guide helps you create a Subversion utility, “svnsync,” that allows you to clone a read-only repository.
Configuring Subversion to Use a Proxy Server
Sometimes the only work environment in which you can set up SVN is on a proxy server. This article explains the extra bit of manual configuration needed to do that.
Maintaining an SVN Mirror Directly from Git
While Git is becoming more popular every day, many developers are still most comfortable with SVN. If you run a Git repository, you can create a read-only SVN repository from it.
Top 10 Subversion Tips for CVS Users
There was a time when CVS was the most used revision control system. Even though SVN has taken the reigns, some CVS users out there might benefit from learning the reasons why one would switch to SVN.
Mergeinfo - Understanding the Internals
Everything you ever wanted to know about SVN 1.5’s important mergeinfo command.
Microsoft details changes coming to SQL Data Services
After acknowledging a couple of weeks ago that it was changing direction with SQL Data Services (SDS), Microsoft officials are filling in the gaps about exactly what will be changing when.
Microsoft execs detailed the forthcoming changes to Microsoft’s hosted database service — one of the mid-tier layers of its Azure cloud-services platform — in a couple of new blog posts on March 10.
From the SQL Data Services Team blog posting:
“If we flash back about a year ago to Mix 08, Nigel Ellis got up on stage to introduce the community to SDS which, at the time, was a flexible entity based cloud database that you accessed using standard internet protocols. We made this announcement with the promise that more relational capabilities would be coming - and they did. But the universal feedback we received from our TAP partners and other early adopters was the need for a relational database delivered as a service.”
The end result? From that same posting from SDS Senior Program Manager David Robinson:
“(G)iven the feature set we are planning to support in SDS v1, a majority of database applications will “just work”, allowing developers to target on and off-premises deployments with essentially the same code base.”
The revamped SQL Data Services seemingly won’t be delayed by the move. According to the SQL Server News Blog, the revamped SDS (with the added Tabular Data Stream suupport) will be out in public Community Technology Preview (CTP) test-build form by mid 2009 and available commercially in the second half of this year.
Microsoft execs detailed the forthcoming changes to Microsoft’s hosted database service — one of the mid-tier layers of its Azure cloud-services platform — in a couple of new blog posts on March 10.
From the SQL Data Services Team blog posting:
“If we flash back about a year ago to Mix 08, Nigel Ellis got up on stage to introduce the community to SDS which, at the time, was a flexible entity based cloud database that you accessed using standard internet protocols. We made this announcement with the promise that more relational capabilities would be coming - and they did. But the universal feedback we received from our TAP partners and other early adopters was the need for a relational database delivered as a service.”
The end result? From that same posting from SDS Senior Program Manager David Robinson:
“(G)iven the feature set we are planning to support in SDS v1, a majority of database applications will “just work”, allowing developers to target on and off-premises deployments with essentially the same code base.”
The revamped SQL Data Services seemingly won’t be delayed by the move. According to the SQL Server News Blog, the revamped SDS (with the added Tabular Data Stream suupport) will be out in public Community Technology Preview (CTP) test-build form by mid 2009 and available commercially in the second half of this year.
Intel wants developers to think parallel
Speaking during a keynote presentation at the SD West 2009 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., James Reinders, director and chief evangelist for Intel software development products, emphasized the budding trend of parallelism and noted the company's tools products in this space.
[ Related: Multicore chips mean new challenges for developers. ]
"One of the phrases I've used in some talks is it's time for us as software developers to really figure out how to think parallel," Reinders said. Designing parallel programs is becoming fundamental to the programmer's job and those who do not figure it out will have a limited career path, he said.
Intel, he said, is in its fifth year of shipping multicore processors and will ship a many-core processor this year. "While we're still wrestling with how do I use two, four, eight cores, we’re going to throw into the mix a processor with dozens of cores," said Reinders. He defined processors with more than 16 or 32 cores as many-core processors and added that these require different design techniques.
Referring to an article he had published in 2007, Reinders cited eight rules for parallelism: think parallel; program using abstraction; program tasks, not threads; design with the option to turn off concurrency; avoid locks when possible; use tools and libraries designed to help with concurrency, use scalable memory; and design to scale through increased workloads.
"It's very important to make sure, if at all possible, your program can run in a single thread with concurrency off," Reinders said. "You shouldn't design your program so it has to have parallelism. It makes it much more difficult to debug."
Citing Intel efforts, Reinders said the Intel Parallel Studio toolkit, geared to parallel application development in C/C++, was in a beta release and has thousands of people using it. "The idea here [with] this project was to add parallelism support to [Microsoft's] Visual Studio in a big way," said Reinders. Components of Parallel Studio include Intel Parallel Composer, for compiling and debugging; Intel Parallel Inspector, to find synchronization errors; and Intel Parallel Amplifier, to find bottlenecks and tune applications. It also finds problematic locks.
As part of Intel Parallel Studio, the company also offers Intel Threading Building Blocks, an open source technology to extend C++ for parallelism. On the horizon is the company's Parallel Advisor tool, due in the second quarter of this year, providing design phase capabilities. It combines capabilities of Inspector and Amplifier. Either later this year or early next year, Intel plans to extend Amplifier and Inspector to Linux, Reinders said.
Reinders also noted Intel's planned many-core processor, codenamed Larrabee, for high-performance graphics capabilities
[ Related: Multicore chips mean new challenges for developers. ]
"One of the phrases I've used in some talks is it's time for us as software developers to really figure out how to think parallel," Reinders said. Designing parallel programs is becoming fundamental to the programmer's job and those who do not figure it out will have a limited career path, he said.
Intel, he said, is in its fifth year of shipping multicore processors and will ship a many-core processor this year. "While we're still wrestling with how do I use two, four, eight cores, we’re going to throw into the mix a processor with dozens of cores," said Reinders. He defined processors with more than 16 or 32 cores as many-core processors and added that these require different design techniques.
Referring to an article he had published in 2007, Reinders cited eight rules for parallelism: think parallel; program using abstraction; program tasks, not threads; design with the option to turn off concurrency; avoid locks when possible; use tools and libraries designed to help with concurrency, use scalable memory; and design to scale through increased workloads.
"It's very important to make sure, if at all possible, your program can run in a single thread with concurrency off," Reinders said. "You shouldn't design your program so it has to have parallelism. It makes it much more difficult to debug."
Citing Intel efforts, Reinders said the Intel Parallel Studio toolkit, geared to parallel application development in C/C++, was in a beta release and has thousands of people using it. "The idea here [with] this project was to add parallelism support to [Microsoft's] Visual Studio in a big way," said Reinders. Components of Parallel Studio include Intel Parallel Composer, for compiling and debugging; Intel Parallel Inspector, to find synchronization errors; and Intel Parallel Amplifier, to find bottlenecks and tune applications. It also finds problematic locks.
As part of Intel Parallel Studio, the company also offers Intel Threading Building Blocks, an open source technology to extend C++ for parallelism. On the horizon is the company's Parallel Advisor tool, due in the second quarter of this year, providing design phase capabilities. It combines capabilities of Inspector and Amplifier. Either later this year or early next year, Intel plans to extend Amplifier and Inspector to Linux, Reinders said.
Reinders also noted Intel's planned many-core processor, codenamed Larrabee, for high-performance graphics capabilities
Free ASP.NET MVC eBook Tutorial
There has been a lot of excitement in the community about the new ASP.NET MVC framework that is about to ship (literally any day now – announcement coming soon). As with anything new, people are also asking for more tutorials/samples/documentation that cover how to get started and build applications with it.
Over the last few months I’ve been helping to contribute to an ASP.NET MVC book that Scott Hanselman, Rob Conery, and Phil Haack have been writing for Wrox. The book is now in production, and will be available to buy in stores soon (you can pre-order it on Amazon today).
I wrote the first chapter of the book – which is a 185 page end-to-end tutorial that walks-through building a small, but complete, ASP.NET MVC application from scratch. The agreement I made with Wrox was that I’d write it for free in return for them also making it available as a free PDF download.
I’m excited to announce that you can now download this free end-to-end tutorial chapter (it is a 14mb PDF file). It’s licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives” license – which means you can share, distribute, print, or hand it out to anyone.
NerdDinner ASP.NET MVC Tutorial
The tutorial starts by using the File->New Project command in Visual Studio to create a brand new ASP.NET MVC project, and then incrementally adds functionality and features. Along the way it covers how to:
Create a database
Build a model with validation and business rules
Implement data listing/details UI on a site using Controllers and Views
Enable CRUD (Create, Update, Delete) data form entry
Use the ViewModel pattern to pass information from a Controller to a View
Re-use UI across a site using partials and master pages
Implement efficient data paging
Secure an application using authentication and authorization
Use AJAX to deliver dynamic updates
Use AJAX to add interactive map support
Perform automated unit testing (including dependency injection and mocking)
The application the tutorial builds is called “NerdDinner”. It provides an easy way for people to organize, host and search for new topic-based dinners online:
Scott Hanselman has been hosting NerdDinners for years, and came up with the idea of building the tutorial around an application that facilitates this. He is also now hosting a live custom-skinned version of the application at www.nerddinner.com)
Download Links
Download the free end-to-end tutorial chapter in PDF form
Download the source code + unit tests for the completed application
Learn more about the book from the official Wrox page
Purchase the full book from Amazon.
Hope this helps,
Scott
P.S. The book is entering production now and so is officially in un-edited status (meaning professional editors haven’t gone through it yet). We’ll update the PDF with any important edits once the text is final.
P.P.S. And yes – this is one of the reasons my blog has been more quiet than normal the last few months. Expect more regular blog posting again soon once I recover from this. :-)
Over the last few months I’ve been helping to contribute to an ASP.NET MVC book that Scott Hanselman, Rob Conery, and Phil Haack have been writing for Wrox. The book is now in production, and will be available to buy in stores soon (you can pre-order it on Amazon today).
I wrote the first chapter of the book – which is a 185 page end-to-end tutorial that walks-through building a small, but complete, ASP.NET MVC application from scratch. The agreement I made with Wrox was that I’d write it for free in return for them also making it available as a free PDF download.
I’m excited to announce that you can now download this free end-to-end tutorial chapter (it is a 14mb PDF file). It’s licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives” license – which means you can share, distribute, print, or hand it out to anyone.
NerdDinner ASP.NET MVC Tutorial
The tutorial starts by using the File->New Project command in Visual Studio to create a brand new ASP.NET MVC project, and then incrementally adds functionality and features. Along the way it covers how to:
Create a database
Build a model with validation and business rules
Implement data listing/details UI on a site using Controllers and Views
Enable CRUD (Create, Update, Delete) data form entry
Use the ViewModel pattern to pass information from a Controller to a View
Re-use UI across a site using partials and master pages
Implement efficient data paging
Secure an application using authentication and authorization
Use AJAX to deliver dynamic updates
Use AJAX to add interactive map support
Perform automated unit testing (including dependency injection and mocking)
The application the tutorial builds is called “NerdDinner”. It provides an easy way for people to organize, host and search for new topic-based dinners online:
Scott Hanselman has been hosting NerdDinners for years, and came up with the idea of building the tutorial around an application that facilitates this. He is also now hosting a live custom-skinned version of the application at www.nerddinner.com)
Download Links
Download the free end-to-end tutorial chapter in PDF form
Download the source code + unit tests for the completed application
Learn more about the book from the official Wrox page
Purchase the full book from Amazon.
Hope this helps,
Scott
P.S. The book is entering production now and so is officially in un-edited status (meaning professional editors haven’t gone through it yet). We’ll update the PDF with any important edits once the text is final.
P.P.S. And yes – this is one of the reasons my blog has been more quiet than normal the last few months. Expect more regular blog posting again soon once I recover from this. :-)
Microsoft Still Has Eyes for Yahoo
More than a year after Microsoft first bid for Yahoo and nine months since the courtship unraveled, yet another Microsoft executive dropped a hint this week that the software titan would still like to work out some kind of search relationship with Yahoo.
Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kevin Turner told London's Times Online in an interview on Monday that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is still open to a deal.
"They have a new CEO, and she’s formulating her business plans," Turner told the Times Online reported.
A Microsoft spokesperson verified what Turner is quoted as saying.
The intrigue between Microsoft and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) began 13 months ago when Microsoft launched a $44.6 billion hostile takeover of the number two search engine company,in order to prop up its own limping, single-digit search market share.
Yahoo, under co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, successfully warded off Microsoft's attack and Microsoft abandoned the bid. Since that time, there have been repeated reports of the two firms negotiating over some kind of relationship regarding Yahoo's search assets. However, no deal has emerged so far.
That may change under new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who previously was CEO of Autodesk.
"We've certainly made her aware and the Yahoo board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we'd like to sit down and at least have the conversation. It has to make economic sense to both parties," the article went on to say.
Two other high-level Microsoft executives, CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell, have both recently said publicly that they would be interested in some kind of business relationship with Yahoo under Bartz. They have not given any details of what a deal might look like, though.
Bartz, to date, has given no solid indications of whether she will or won't pursue a relationship with Microsoft. Still, some analysts expect a deal eventually, simply because of their joint adversary – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
"Microsoft and Yahoo sort of need each other," Michael Dortch, principal analyst and managing editor of DortchonIT.com. "It's like that old saying that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'."
Whether or not Microsoft's continued wooing of Yahoo and Bartz will work, however, it's obvious that Microsoft is still looking for an advantage.
"This is the time to buy almost anything at a discount," Dortch said. "I think he's [Turner] serious and his intentions are honorable but don't confuse honor with altruism," Dortch added.
Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kevin Turner told London's Times Online in an interview on Monday that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is still open to a deal.
"They have a new CEO, and she’s formulating her business plans," Turner told the Times Online reported.
A Microsoft spokesperson verified what Turner is quoted as saying.
The intrigue between Microsoft and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) began 13 months ago when Microsoft launched a $44.6 billion hostile takeover of the number two search engine company,in order to prop up its own limping, single-digit search market share.
Yahoo, under co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, successfully warded off Microsoft's attack and Microsoft abandoned the bid. Since that time, there have been repeated reports of the two firms negotiating over some kind of relationship regarding Yahoo's search assets. However, no deal has emerged so far.
That may change under new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who previously was CEO of Autodesk.
"We've certainly made her aware and the Yahoo board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we'd like to sit down and at least have the conversation. It has to make economic sense to both parties," the article went on to say.
Two other high-level Microsoft executives, CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell, have both recently said publicly that they would be interested in some kind of business relationship with Yahoo under Bartz. They have not given any details of what a deal might look like, though.
Bartz, to date, has given no solid indications of whether she will or won't pursue a relationship with Microsoft. Still, some analysts expect a deal eventually, simply because of their joint adversary – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
"Microsoft and Yahoo sort of need each other," Michael Dortch, principal analyst and managing editor of DortchonIT.com. "It's like that old saying that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'."
Whether or not Microsoft's continued wooing of Yahoo and Bartz will work, however, it's obvious that Microsoft is still looking for an advantage.
"This is the time to buy almost anything at a discount," Dortch said. "I think he's [Turner] serious and his intentions are honorable but don't confuse honor with altruism," Dortch added.
Get a Free Evaluation of the DotImage SDK
Included in the package are all DotImage and Add-On SDKs, Codecs, Sample Demos with Source Code, and all Product Documentation.
During the download process, you will need to provide a valid e-mail address in order to activate the SDK.
http://www.atalasoft.com/download/downloadDotImage.aspx
During the download process, you will need to provide a valid e-mail address in order to activate the SDK.
http://www.atalasoft.com/download/downloadDotImage.aspx
How to Autoinstall Required Software after a Windows Reinstall
Anyone who has been using Windows for any length of time knows reinstalling it is unavoidable. Some people call technical help and some do it themselves. If you reinstall on your own, you know it takes a little time but the most annoying part of reinstalling Windows is that you have to reinstall all your software one by one all over again. Software like Firefox, Winamp, VLC and other indispensable programs that don’t ship with Windows.
Windows Post-Install Wizard allows you to take care of such situations and automatically install all the software that you would like to install on a fresh install with a minimum of input. There are a few steps involved in getting it to work as we shall see:
Download and extract the package to a location of your choice.
Let’s start by adding the applications you need to be installed, post-Windows installation. You must download the applications and save the setup inside the “WPI\Install” folder which can be found under the location where you extracted the contents of the download from step 1.
Now run the WPI.hta file. This will launch a HTML application. Click on the config button to enter the configuration section. This is where we will build the script to install all the software that we require, automatically.
Click on the ‘add’ button and fill in the appropriate details in the ‘Description’ tag at the bottom. Enter the name, description and install order. UUID gets filled automatically, choose “Default” if you want the current application to be included in the default set of apps available during installation. Choose a category under which the current application should appear, should the user want to choose the applications to install.
Now hop over to the command tab. Click on the “Add” button towards the right. A command section appears at the bottom. Click on the folder icon to browse for the setup file. This will fill in the command section automatically with the required path. Now you need to add any switches that you want to run the installation program with. A common switch used in slipstreamed or unintended installs is the /s or /silent or -quiet switch. This suppresses all questions and proceeds with the default install of the application. You might have to search for the switches available for the particular application that you are working with!
Add in any dependencies, in the ‘Dependencies’ tab. A common example is software that requires the .NET framework. In such cases you would not want to install software that depends on the .NET framework to be installed without the user checking the .NET framework entry first. Such conditions can be specified from within this tab.
Select ‘Save’, add other applications or choose ‘exit’.
Now that you have configured your script, next comes the task to include it on your Windows installation disc or as a standalone disc that you can run during the installation of the post installation after booting on to the desktop. WPI has plenty of options to help you achieve this, best of which (because its ready made) is the $oem$ folder that you can download from the WPI site and place it on your installation disc. This is the structure we are looking to achieve on your final installation disc:
With this done, use something like nlite, vlite or the MakeISO tool that you can download from the WPI download section to make the disc bootable. Pop it in and sit back and watch your system being configured according to your needs. WPI also offers advanced options you can use to customize the look of the installer and even playback some music while it’s doing its thing!
Since you can run almost any command using WPI, it is also an excellent way to apply some tweaks that you had before formatting and you would like to include in the next install. It is always a good option to check your newly created disc on a virtual machine before you try to go all ballistic and format your computer. You might be able to find a quirk or two and fix them.
You might be also interested in a couple of alternative ways to do the same thing as recommended by other MakeUseOf authors.
- How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data
- How To Create An Unattended Windows XP Disk
Do you know of any other tools to accomplish similar tasks? Have you built your own custom install CD? What did you include? Share in the comments!
Windows Post-Install Wizard allows you to take care of such situations and automatically install all the software that you would like to install on a fresh install with a minimum of input. There are a few steps involved in getting it to work as we shall see:
Download and extract the package to a location of your choice.
Let’s start by adding the applications you need to be installed, post-Windows installation. You must download the applications and save the setup inside the “WPI\Install” folder which can be found under the location where you extracted the contents of the download from step 1.
Now run the WPI.hta file. This will launch a HTML application. Click on the config button to enter the configuration section. This is where we will build the script to install all the software that we require, automatically.
Click on the ‘add’ button and fill in the appropriate details in the ‘Description’ tag at the bottom. Enter the name, description and install order. UUID gets filled automatically, choose “Default” if you want the current application to be included in the default set of apps available during installation. Choose a category under which the current application should appear, should the user want to choose the applications to install.
Now hop over to the command tab. Click on the “Add” button towards the right. A command section appears at the bottom. Click on the folder icon to browse for the setup file. This will fill in the command section automatically with the required path. Now you need to add any switches that you want to run the installation program with. A common switch used in slipstreamed or unintended installs is the /s or /silent or -quiet switch. This suppresses all questions and proceeds with the default install of the application. You might have to search for the switches available for the particular application that you are working with!
Add in any dependencies, in the ‘Dependencies’ tab. A common example is software that requires the .NET framework. In such cases you would not want to install software that depends on the .NET framework to be installed without the user checking the .NET framework entry first. Such conditions can be specified from within this tab.
Select ‘Save’, add other applications or choose ‘exit’.
Now that you have configured your script, next comes the task to include it on your Windows installation disc or as a standalone disc that you can run during the installation of the post installation after booting on to the desktop. WPI has plenty of options to help you achieve this, best of which (because its ready made) is the $oem$ folder that you can download from the WPI site and place it on your installation disc. This is the structure we are looking to achieve on your final installation disc:
With this done, use something like nlite, vlite or the MakeISO tool that you can download from the WPI download section to make the disc bootable. Pop it in and sit back and watch your system being configured according to your needs. WPI also offers advanced options you can use to customize the look of the installer and even playback some music while it’s doing its thing!
Since you can run almost any command using WPI, it is also an excellent way to apply some tweaks that you had before formatting and you would like to include in the next install. It is always a good option to check your newly created disc on a virtual machine before you try to go all ballistic and format your computer. You might be able to find a quirk or two and fix them.
You might be also interested in a couple of alternative ways to do the same thing as recommended by other MakeUseOf authors.
- How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data
- How To Create An Unattended Windows XP Disk
Do you know of any other tools to accomplish similar tasks? Have you built your own custom install CD? What did you include? Share in the comments!
Amazon Exposes 1 Terabyte of Public Data to Developers
Amazon.com changed the retail world. In the process the company built up so much surplus computing power that it started a dirt cheap "computing in the cloud" business that changed the computing world. This week the company's newest project Public Data Sets on Amazon Web Services began offering more than 1 Terabyte (1000 GB) of fascinating public data for developers to access on the fly through Amazon's cloud computing service.
We're talking about an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences, including the Human Genome, huge amounts of chemistry data, machine readable encyclopedic entries about millions of different topics and an entire dump of Wikipedia. US Census data, data from the US Department of Transportation and more. It's all accessible by web applications in no time at all. What do you think this is going to change?
The company made a blog post last night announcing the availability of four new public data sets.
This includes data from:
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
DBPedia Knowledge Base - which "currently describes more than 2.6 million things including 213,000 people, 328,000 places, 57,000 music albums, 36,000 films, and 20,000 companies." All in handy semantic markup.
The Freebase Data Dump - the giant collaboratively build semantic database on a wide variety of topics, data that high profile startup Metaweb has spent millions of dollars assembling.
The entire English section of Wikipedia, dumped into a machine readable format.
A number of large genetic and scientific databases.
We counted all the databases up and it passed 1 TB of available data. The company says that accessing this data is "trivial" for developers.
What are developers going to do with this data? We can't wait to find out. The prospect of mashing up, cross referencing and user interfacing with this amount of data is nearly unfathomable. Really. This data will be leveraged by all kinds of different web applications, for a long time.
You've read, or can imagine, the impact that the first Public Libraries had on human culture. Now imagine the opening up of not just this, but other libraries of data, so huge that economies of scale blast the project off beyond any analogy that could be drawn with our everyday experience or historical memories. It won't just be Amazon that offers up this kind of data - it will be relatively commonplace soon, we imagine.
It will be like a network of libraries - for robots. Robots that go to the library frequently, read very fast and make serious use of what they've learned.
Congratulations, Amazon, on passing 1 TB of public data made available. May all our robots of the future please live in peace.
We're talking about an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences, including the Human Genome, huge amounts of chemistry data, machine readable encyclopedic entries about millions of different topics and an entire dump of Wikipedia. US Census data, data from the US Department of Transportation and more. It's all accessible by web applications in no time at all. What do you think this is going to change?
The company made a blog post last night announcing the availability of four new public data sets.
This includes data from:
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
DBPedia Knowledge Base - which "currently describes more than 2.6 million things including 213,000 people, 328,000 places, 57,000 music albums, 36,000 films, and 20,000 companies." All in handy semantic markup.
The Freebase Data Dump - the giant collaboratively build semantic database on a wide variety of topics, data that high profile startup Metaweb has spent millions of dollars assembling.
The entire English section of Wikipedia, dumped into a machine readable format.
A number of large genetic and scientific databases.
We counted all the databases up and it passed 1 TB of available data. The company says that accessing this data is "trivial" for developers.
What are developers going to do with this data? We can't wait to find out. The prospect of mashing up, cross referencing and user interfacing with this amount of data is nearly unfathomable. Really. This data will be leveraged by all kinds of different web applications, for a long time.
You've read, or can imagine, the impact that the first Public Libraries had on human culture. Now imagine the opening up of not just this, but other libraries of data, so huge that economies of scale blast the project off beyond any analogy that could be drawn with our everyday experience or historical memories. It won't just be Amazon that offers up this kind of data - it will be relatively commonplace soon, we imagine.
It will be like a network of libraries - for robots. Robots that go to the library frequently, read very fast and make serious use of what they've learned.
Congratulations, Amazon, on passing 1 TB of public data made available. May all our robots of the future please live in peace.
97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know - The Book
The following are the original, unedited contributions for the book 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know, which is available at O'Reilly Media , Amazon.com and your local book stores.
Don't put your resume ahead of the requirements by Nitin Borwankar
Simplify essential complexity; diminish accidental complexity by Neal Ford
Chances are your biggest problem isn't technical by Mark Ramm
Communication is King; Clarity and Leadership its humble servants by Mark Richards
Architecting is about balancing by Randy Stafford
Seek the value in requested capabilities by Einar Landre
Stand Up! by Udi Dahan
Skyscrapers aren't scalable by Micheal Nygard
You're negotiating more often than you think by Michael Nygard
Quantify by Keith Braithwaite
One line of working code is worth 500 of specification by Allison Randal
There is no one-size-fits-all solution by Randy Stafford
It's never too early to think about performance by Rebecca Parsons
Application architecture determines application performance by Randy Stafford
Commit-and-run is a serious crime. Respect your Colleagues by Niclas Nilsson
There Can be More than One by Keith Braithwaite
Business Drives by Dave Muirhead
Simplicity before generality, use before reuse by Kevlin Henney
Architects must be hands on by John Davies
Continuously Integrate by Dave Bartlett
Avoid Scheduling Failures by Norman Carnovale
Architectural Tradeoffs by Mark Richards
Database as a Fortress by Dan Chak
Use uncertainty as a driver by Kevlin Henney
Scope is the enemy of success by Dave Quick
Reuse is about people and education, not just architecture by Jeremy Meyer
There is no 'I' in architecture by Dave Quick
Get the 1000ft view by Erik Doernenburg
Try before choosing by Erik Doernenburg
Understand The Business Domain by Mark Richards
Programming is an act of design by Einar Landre
Time changes everything by Philip Nelson
Give developers autonomy by Philip Nelson
Value stewardship over showmanship by Barry Hawkins
Warning, problems in mirror may be larger than they appear by Dave Quick
The title of software architect has only lower-case 'a's; deal with it by Barry Hawkins
Software architecture has ethical consequences by Michael Nygard
Everything will ultimately fail by Michael Nygard
Context is King by Edward Garson
It's all about performance by Craig L Russell
Engineer in the white spaces by Michael Nygard
Talk the Talk by Mark Richards
Heterogeneity Wins by Edward Garson
Dwarves, Elves, Wizards, and Kings by Evan Cofsky
Learn from Architects of Buildings by Keith Braithwaite
Fight repetition by Niclas Nilsson
Welcome to the real world by Gregor Hohpe
Don't Control, but Observe by Gregor Hohpe
Janus the Architect by Dave Bartlett
Architects focus is on the boundaries and interfaces by Einar Landre
Challenge assumptions - especially your own by Timothy High
Record your rationale by Timothy High
Empower developers by Timothy High
It is all about the data by Paul W. Homer
Control the data, not just the code by Chad LaVigne
Don't Stretch The Architecture Metaphorsby David Ing
Focus on Application Support and Maintenance by Mncedisi Kasper
Prepare to pick twoby Bill de hOra
Prefer principles, axioms and analogies to opinion and taste by Michael Harmer
Start with a Walking Skeleton by Clint Shank
Share your knowledge and experiencesby Paul W. Homer
Make sure the simple stuff is simple by Chad LaVigne
If you design it, you should be able to code it by Mike Brown
The ROI variable by George Malamidis
Your system is legacy, design for it by Dave Anderson
If there is only one solution, get a second opinion by Timothy High
Understand the impact of change by Doug Crawford
You have to understand Hardware too by Kamal Wickramanayake
Shortcuts now are paid back with interest later by Scot Mcphee
"Perfect" is the Enemy of "Good Enough" by Greg Nyberg
Avoid "Good Ideas" by Greg Nyberg
Great content creates great systems by Zubin Wadia
The Business Vs. The Angry Architect by Chad LaVigne
Stretch key dimensions to see what breaks by Stephen Jones
Before anything, an architect is a developer by Mike Brown
A rose by any other name will end up as a cabbage by Sam Gardiner
Stable problems get high quality solutions by Sam Gardiner
It Takes Diligence by Brian Hart
Take responsibility for your decisions by Yi Zhou
Dont Be a Problem Solver by Eben Hewitt
Choose your weapons carefully, relinquish them reluctantlyby Chad LaVigne
Your Customer is Not Your Customer by Eben Hewitt
It will never look like that by Peter Gillard-Moss
Choose Frameworks that play well with others by Eric Hawthorne
Making a strong business case by Yi Zhou
Pattern Pathology by Chad LaVigne
Learn a new language by Burk Hufnagel
Dont Be Clever by Eben Hewitt
Build Systems to be Zuhanden by Keith Braithwaite
Find and retain passionate problem solvers by Chad LaVigne
Software doesnt really exist by Chad LaVigne
Pay down your technical debt by Burk Hufnagel
You can't future-proof solutions by Richard Monson-Haefel
The User Acceptance Problem by Norman Carnovale
The Importance of Consommé by Eben Hewit
For the end-user, the interface is the system by Vinayak Hegde
Great software is not built, it is grown by Bill de hora
Don't put your resume ahead of the requirements by Nitin Borwankar
Simplify essential complexity; diminish accidental complexity by Neal Ford
Chances are your biggest problem isn't technical by Mark Ramm
Communication is King; Clarity and Leadership its humble servants by Mark Richards
Architecting is about balancing by Randy Stafford
Seek the value in requested capabilities by Einar Landre
Stand Up! by Udi Dahan
Skyscrapers aren't scalable by Micheal Nygard
You're negotiating more often than you think by Michael Nygard
Quantify by Keith Braithwaite
One line of working code is worth 500 of specification by Allison Randal
There is no one-size-fits-all solution by Randy Stafford
It's never too early to think about performance by Rebecca Parsons
Application architecture determines application performance by Randy Stafford
Commit-and-run is a serious crime. Respect your Colleagues by Niclas Nilsson
There Can be More than One by Keith Braithwaite
Business Drives by Dave Muirhead
Simplicity before generality, use before reuse by Kevlin Henney
Architects must be hands on by John Davies
Continuously Integrate by Dave Bartlett
Avoid Scheduling Failures by Norman Carnovale
Architectural Tradeoffs by Mark Richards
Database as a Fortress by Dan Chak
Use uncertainty as a driver by Kevlin Henney
Scope is the enemy of success by Dave Quick
Reuse is about people and education, not just architecture by Jeremy Meyer
There is no 'I' in architecture by Dave Quick
Get the 1000ft view by Erik Doernenburg
Try before choosing by Erik Doernenburg
Understand The Business Domain by Mark Richards
Programming is an act of design by Einar Landre
Time changes everything by Philip Nelson
Give developers autonomy by Philip Nelson
Value stewardship over showmanship by Barry Hawkins
Warning, problems in mirror may be larger than they appear by Dave Quick
The title of software architect has only lower-case 'a's; deal with it by Barry Hawkins
Software architecture has ethical consequences by Michael Nygard
Everything will ultimately fail by Michael Nygard
Context is King by Edward Garson
It's all about performance by Craig L Russell
Engineer in the white spaces by Michael Nygard
Talk the Talk by Mark Richards
Heterogeneity Wins by Edward Garson
Dwarves, Elves, Wizards, and Kings by Evan Cofsky
Learn from Architects of Buildings by Keith Braithwaite
Fight repetition by Niclas Nilsson
Welcome to the real world by Gregor Hohpe
Don't Control, but Observe by Gregor Hohpe
Janus the Architect by Dave Bartlett
Architects focus is on the boundaries and interfaces by Einar Landre
Challenge assumptions - especially your own by Timothy High
Record your rationale by Timothy High
Empower developers by Timothy High
It is all about the data by Paul W. Homer
Control the data, not just the code by Chad LaVigne
Don't Stretch The Architecture Metaphorsby David Ing
Focus on Application Support and Maintenance by Mncedisi Kasper
Prepare to pick twoby Bill de hOra
Prefer principles, axioms and analogies to opinion and taste by Michael Harmer
Start with a Walking Skeleton by Clint Shank
Share your knowledge and experiencesby Paul W. Homer
Make sure the simple stuff is simple by Chad LaVigne
If you design it, you should be able to code it by Mike Brown
The ROI variable by George Malamidis
Your system is legacy, design for it by Dave Anderson
If there is only one solution, get a second opinion by Timothy High
Understand the impact of change by Doug Crawford
You have to understand Hardware too by Kamal Wickramanayake
Shortcuts now are paid back with interest later by Scot Mcphee
"Perfect" is the Enemy of "Good Enough" by Greg Nyberg
Avoid "Good Ideas" by Greg Nyberg
Great content creates great systems by Zubin Wadia
The Business Vs. The Angry Architect by Chad LaVigne
Stretch key dimensions to see what breaks by Stephen Jones
Before anything, an architect is a developer by Mike Brown
A rose by any other name will end up as a cabbage by Sam Gardiner
Stable problems get high quality solutions by Sam Gardiner
It Takes Diligence by Brian Hart
Take responsibility for your decisions by Yi Zhou
Dont Be a Problem Solver by Eben Hewitt
Choose your weapons carefully, relinquish them reluctantlyby Chad LaVigne
Your Customer is Not Your Customer by Eben Hewitt
It will never look like that by Peter Gillard-Moss
Choose Frameworks that play well with others by Eric Hawthorne
Making a strong business case by Yi Zhou
Pattern Pathology by Chad LaVigne
Learn a new language by Burk Hufnagel
Dont Be Clever by Eben Hewitt
Build Systems to be Zuhanden by Keith Braithwaite
Find and retain passionate problem solvers by Chad LaVigne
Software doesnt really exist by Chad LaVigne
Pay down your technical debt by Burk Hufnagel
You can't future-proof solutions by Richard Monson-Haefel
The User Acceptance Problem by Norman Carnovale
The Importance of Consommé by Eben Hewit
For the end-user, the interface is the system by Vinayak Hegde
Great software is not built, it is grown by Bill de hora
Hackers still driven by urge to vandalize Web sites
February 26, 2009 (IDG News Service) A study of 57 Web-site hacks carried out last year showed that the largest block of them — 14, or 24% — were aimed at defacing sites rather than seeking financial gain or causing monetary losses to the organization being attacked.
The findings in the annual report gleaned from the Web Hacking Incidents Database, which is maintained by the Web Application Security Consortium (WASC), suggest that stealing money or data still may not be the biggest motivating factor for hackers, although attacks involving data thefts certainly have been on the rise in recent years.
"While financial gain is certainly a big driver for Web hacking, ideological hacking cannot be ignored," said the report, which was sponsored by Breach Security Inc., a Carlsbad, Calif.-based security software vendor, and prepared with support from the WASC.
Although hundreds of thousands of Web-site attacks took place in 2008, strict criteria were set for the incidents analyzed as part of the study: The researchers looked only at attacks that were publicly disclosed, involved problems with Web application security and had an identifiable impact on the organization whose site was hit. Those requirements enabled the researchers to examine the potential business impact of attacks as well as the technical failures that allowed them to happen, according to the report.
Most of the Web-site defacements among the studied attacks "were of a political nature, targeting political parties, candidates and government departments, often with a very specific message related to a campaign," the report said. "Others [had] a cultural aspect, mainly Islamic hackers defacing Western Web sites."
The second most popular motivation for attackers, according to the report, was stealing sensitive information, which occurred in 11 of the 57 hacks (19%). That was followed by planting malware, which was cited in nine incidents (16%), and causing monetary loss, which was deemed to be the motivation in seven attacks (13%).
The most common style of hack was SQL injection attacks, which involve inputting commands into Web-based forms or URLs in order to steal information from databases or plant malware in an attempt to infect the computers of users visiting a Web site. Seventeen of the 57 attacks, or 30%, involved the use of SQL injection methods, the report said.
Last spring, a wave of attacks was carried out by hackers who used automated tools to seek out Web sites that were vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. At the time, security vendors estimated that as many as 500,000 Web sites fell victim to the attacks.
Such incidents indicate that SQL injection hacks have displaced cross-site scripting attacks as the most widely used method of breaching sites. Cross-site scripting flaws are easier to find than SQL injection errors are, but it is "somewhat harder to take advantage of them for profit-driven attacks," the report said
The findings in the annual report gleaned from the Web Hacking Incidents Database, which is maintained by the Web Application Security Consortium (WASC), suggest that stealing money or data still may not be the biggest motivating factor for hackers, although attacks involving data thefts certainly have been on the rise in recent years.
"While financial gain is certainly a big driver for Web hacking, ideological hacking cannot be ignored," said the report, which was sponsored by Breach Security Inc., a Carlsbad, Calif.-based security software vendor, and prepared with support from the WASC.
Although hundreds of thousands of Web-site attacks took place in 2008, strict criteria were set for the incidents analyzed as part of the study: The researchers looked only at attacks that were publicly disclosed, involved problems with Web application security and had an identifiable impact on the organization whose site was hit. Those requirements enabled the researchers to examine the potential business impact of attacks as well as the technical failures that allowed them to happen, according to the report.
Most of the Web-site defacements among the studied attacks "were of a political nature, targeting political parties, candidates and government departments, often with a very specific message related to a campaign," the report said. "Others [had] a cultural aspect, mainly Islamic hackers defacing Western Web sites."
The second most popular motivation for attackers, according to the report, was stealing sensitive information, which occurred in 11 of the 57 hacks (19%). That was followed by planting malware, which was cited in nine incidents (16%), and causing monetary loss, which was deemed to be the motivation in seven attacks (13%).
The most common style of hack was SQL injection attacks, which involve inputting commands into Web-based forms or URLs in order to steal information from databases or plant malware in an attempt to infect the computers of users visiting a Web site. Seventeen of the 57 attacks, or 30%, involved the use of SQL injection methods, the report said.
Last spring, a wave of attacks was carried out by hackers who used automated tools to seek out Web sites that were vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. At the time, security vendors estimated that as many as 500,000 Web sites fell victim to the attacks.
Such incidents indicate that SQL injection hacks have displaced cross-site scripting attacks as the most widely used method of breaching sites. Cross-site scripting flaws are easier to find than SQL injection errors are, but it is "somewhat harder to take advantage of them for profit-driven attacks," the report said
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
VSLive Microsoft has invited the open-source community to build plug-ins for Visual Studio 2010, and has improved database support to help build partner backing for its planned integrated development environment (IDE).
The general manager for Microsoft's Visual Studio told The Reg he'd like to see open-source developers contribute their best ideas to Microsoft's next IDE.
which developers will find is woven tightly into the IDE's fabric through the existing IntelliSense feature. Microsoft demonstrated JQuery's integration with IntelliSense along with the planned Visual Studio 2010 interface and tighter integration between testing and development features at its VSLive show in San Francisco, California on Tuesday.JQuery is an open-source JavaScript library that greatly simplifies the task of HTML development. Microsoft expects it will reduce the workload for Microsoft coders building web pages using its ASP.NET AJAX and MVC frameworks.
Visual Studio general manager Jason Zander called JQuery a "good example of open-source contributed code" for Visual Studio 2010. "We will look for opportunities for things like that," he said.
He also signaled his openness to greater integration between Visual Studio 2010 and MySQL, the dominant open-source database - among web developers, at least. Microsoft also announced a plug-in for Oracle to the planned Visual Studio 2010 Team System (VSTS), completing the closed-source database troika for Visual Studio that includes SQL Server and IBM's DB2. The planned Oracle plug-in from Quest Software should let you use Oracle as a data and workflow repository for VSTS.
Missing, though, is an open-source database option.
Zander said that the Visual Studio 2010 features demonstrated at VSLive would work on "another database," and that it "would just take another vendor to go ahead and do the work".
"We will keep looking at what the market looks like and the demand looks like," he said.
Licensing hurdles
Licensing could prove to be a sticking point, particularly in the case of open-source components for Visual Studio. Microsoft decided early on that it can't ship external open-source code with Visual Studio that uses a license that could expose it to IP litigation down the line.
This limitation could be navigated, however, should projects come with a license that's considered business-friendly - JQuery, for example, is under MIT in addition to GPLv2. Alternatively, code could be downloaded for use with Visual Studio instead of being shipped by Microsoft with the IDE, a step that would protect Microsoft from legal blow-back in any potential IP action.
A harder problem for Microsoft would be to persuade members of the open-source community to want to help, given the history of competition and animosity between them and Redmond.
Zander said Microsoft has tried to work closely with the open source community to prove its good intentions. He listed as positive moves the inclusion of the OSI-license compatible Dynamic Language Runtime (http://www.codeplex.com/dlr) in Visual Studio, allowing its IronRuby (http://www.ironruby.net/) to be hosted on Ruby Forge (http://rubyforge.org/), along with its willingness to take feedback on the scripting language and the fact Python author Jim Hugunin works on Zander's team on IronPython (http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython).
"We also know that to be a first-class member of that community - Ruby and Python are an example - it requires for us to work in that kind of way," Zander said.
The appeal to open-source comes as Microsoft takes steps to make it easier for the 200 partners in the official Visual Studio Industry Program (VSIP) to build plug-ins for Visual Studio 2010. This will be the first version of Microsoft's IDE with the shell written in its Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms754130.aspx)) graphical subsystem, which separates the interface from the business logic.
According to Zander, WPF will let partners write plug-ins without focussing overly on the interface, since WPF will take care of that. He already expects partners to take the Visual Studio SDK and build components.
Windows 7 Includes Three New Games
Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system offers three new timewasters for bored cube dwellers, bumped airline passengers, or people who just like games.
Windows 7 screen shot
(Click for larger image and for full photo gallery)
Included in the OS, which is expected to be available in final form later this year or early next, are new Internet-based versions of backgammon, checkers, and the card game spades.
"The new versions of these games have been completely redesigned and improved over their old-school predecessors," wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a recent post. "Tired of Minesweeper? Definitely give these games a try and join the thousands of other players online who are playing too."
The games can be played solo or with other players over an Internet connection. If a live opponent drops out, the games' AI routine will automatically take over. All the games feature three skill levels.
Windows 7 appears to be nearing completion.
Microsoft plans to launch an upgrade program beginning in June that will allow consumers who purchase a Vista PC to upgrade to Windows 7 for free when the new operating system becomes available, according to company documents obtained by a popular tech blog.
Under the program rules, consumers who purchase Vista-based computers from June 28 onward will be eligible for the upgrade, according to documents posted this week on Tech Arp. Vista Home Professional users will have the option to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Professional, Vista Business users will be able to migrate to Windows 7 Professional, and Vista Ultimate users will be able to move to Windows 7 Ultimate.
All upgrades must be complete by April 2010, according to the blog. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment.
Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a hit. Vista, the company's current OS, has failed to catch on with mainstream computer users, while businesses have shunned it outright. Many users have complained about Vista's hardware requirements, intrusive security measures, and lack of compatibility with older applications.
Dissatisfaction with Vista has allowed Apple to gain share against Microsoft in the computer operating system market in recent months. Windows' market share in November fell below 90% for the first time in years, while Mac OS is now flirting with the 10% mark, according to market watcher Net Applications.
Windows 7 screen shot
(Click for larger image and for full photo gallery)
Included in the OS, which is expected to be available in final form later this year or early next, are new Internet-based versions of backgammon, checkers, and the card game spades.
"The new versions of these games have been completely redesigned and improved over their old-school predecessors," wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a recent post. "Tired of Minesweeper? Definitely give these games a try and join the thousands of other players online who are playing too."
The games can be played solo or with other players over an Internet connection. If a live opponent drops out, the games' AI routine will automatically take over. All the games feature three skill levels.
Windows 7 appears to be nearing completion.
Microsoft plans to launch an upgrade program beginning in June that will allow consumers who purchase a Vista PC to upgrade to Windows 7 for free when the new operating system becomes available, according to company documents obtained by a popular tech blog.
Under the program rules, consumers who purchase Vista-based computers from June 28 onward will be eligible for the upgrade, according to documents posted this week on Tech Arp. Vista Home Professional users will have the option to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Professional, Vista Business users will be able to migrate to Windows 7 Professional, and Vista Ultimate users will be able to move to Windows 7 Ultimate.
All upgrades must be complete by April 2010, according to the blog. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment.
Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a hit. Vista, the company's current OS, has failed to catch on with mainstream computer users, while businesses have shunned it outright. Many users have complained about Vista's hardware requirements, intrusive security measures, and lack of compatibility with older applications.
Dissatisfaction with Vista has allowed Apple to gain share against Microsoft in the computer operating system market in recent months. Windows' market share in November fell below 90% for the first time in years, while Mac OS is now flirting with the 10% mark, according to market watcher Net Applications.
Microsoft to Launch Experimental Search Site
In the next several months Microsoft expects to launch an experimental search site called Viveri, designed to allow the company's researchers to easily roll out new search ideas.
Currently, it's difficult for researchers to try out their ideas in the real world, said Robert Rounthwaite, software architect at Microsoft Research. He showed off Viveri on Tuesday in Redmond, Washington, at the company's annual TechFest event, where researchers demonstrate and discuss their latest developments.
Microsoft researchers working on new search technologies will be able to quickly and easily load their developments on Viveri and anyone in the public can try them out. After an initial spike in users, Rounthwaite expects that a regular set of technology enthusiasts will continue to use the site because they'll be interested in experimenting with new developments.
The site will serve Live Search results and is being built using Silverlight, Microsoft's technology for designing online user interfaces.
Rounthwaite expects that initial innovations will be rolled out in a staggered fashion, but he showed off a few that users can expect to see.
One technology aims to better deliver search results from vertical search engines. When a user types a search item into the field, a typical list of results pops up. But on the right hand side of the screen several boxes appear. Each box contains results from within a specific domain that is relevant to the search term. The domain could be, for instance, Amazon.com, Craigslist, Consumer Reports or WebMD, depending on relevancy.
One problem with that idea is that some of those sites don't use standard query mechanisms so Microsoft can't return results. Rounthwaite optimistically said that if the sites knew that Microsoft was hoping to deliver such information, they'd make the necessary changes to be included.
Another test feature is a box that appears at the top of the right column that includes related search terms scattered around the box in bold multicolored text. Microsoft hopes that users will be more apt to see and click on those terms than if they were arranged in a simple list.
The researchers are also working on a new take on the "similar pages" link that appears in Google search results. Rather than using that vague description, the researchers have developed a way to display a more specific phrase. For example, if a user searches for "Disney," rather than seeing a link to similar pages, the user will see specific search phrases like "Disneyland" in highlighted text. Clicking on that word will bring up a new search specific to Disneyland.
Rounthwaite couldn't say specifically when the site will go live, but he said he expects it to launch some time this summer.
Taking AJAX
Taking AJAX literally, using JavaScript and XML to create a Web site or application, is not a best practice. Far from it. Developers coming to the Web from C-like languages stumble into the AJAX trap, and the result is bloated JavaScript payloads, page load delays for every page refresh, browser and client platform incompatibility, and user frustration. If putting too fine a point on it is what's required to put my point across, so be it: Web site developers should consider JavaScript to be their last resort, and where it is used, it cannot be used the way it typically is today.
The fact that you can write a Web page in a text editor makes some people believe that it's easy. Free JavaScript libraries and templates for wicked cool stuff like DHTML menus, browser type forking, forums, and AJAX animation make Web site and Web app authors think that no matter how big it is, if a page loads from their desk, all's well. In the majority case, no debugging, code coverage, testing, profiling, and other validation steps are applied to JavaScript. In all other languages, these things are not holstered until a page won't load. They're essentials that you use throughout a project.
[ JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and other dynamic languages are remaking the Web and bringing programming to the masses. Where should developers place their bets? See Dynamic programming futures. ]
I realize that such tools are hard to come by. A commercial tool, like those from Adobe and Microsoft, affords JavaScript developers facilities for traditional debugging, but at the cost of injecting unpredictably large amounts of client-side code into the project that only the specific tool can understand. Altering the page by hand can make the tool useless for further work on the page. And a commercial tool can't always follow you from one project, host, or employer to another.
Free JavaScript development environments do exist. One of them is even commercially validated, and unexpectedly, it's a browser. Apple's Safari and the open source WebKit browser are operationally identical not only as Mac and Windows browsers, but both have freshly acquired and uncommonly good JavaScript debugging and code profiling facilities (see my Safari 4 preview). These browsers also share a stellar accelerated JavaScript interpreter that makes the edit/run/debug cycle go faster. They are also the only browsers that deliver on CSS4 and HTML5 standards (with some elements that are proposed to the W3C standards body). Sites that are visually rich may start sprouting "best viewed with Safari" banners until other browsers catch up. The banner would also let users know that your site is optimized for iPhone.
You’re still waiting for me to explain what I meant when I referred to JavaScript as a last resort. I hinted at it in the preceding paragraph. Not the part on JavaScript debugging, but my reference to CSS and HTML. These do a lot more than paint screens. They are a browser's client-side framework. Everything they do is handled as native code. In other words, they're fast. CSS3 and HTML5 are too inconsistently implemented (if at all) across browsers to design to unless you're specifically targeting Safari, iPhone, or other WebKit-based browsers. For the time being, it's best to learn HTML4 and CSS2. And learn them you must. Being a JavaScript god is nowhere near as useful for Web sites and apps as knowing HTML4 and CSS2 inside out. If you want to be a Web app god -- a far more prized and employable deity -- follow this simple program.
First, put your JavaScript reference away. What you already know of it is sufficient for now. Learn HTML4. Second, after you’ve put locked up your JavaScript manual, set aside your HTML4 manual as well. Consume, live, and memorize CSS2. Anything that can be accomplished similarly in JavaScript, HTML, or CSS must be done in CSS. HTML is derived from a static layout language. CSS is all about dynamic and adaptive. As you learn it, you’ll marvel at the amount of JavaScript and HTML it replaces.
If you intend to alter your content dynamically, which, if you get it right, allows you to reduce expensive and visually jarring page reloads and refreshes, you'll find that giving CSS first preference makes dynamic changes infinitely easier to make. If you make preferential use of CSS, it will allow you to prune away a lot of JavaScript browser sensing and code forking. Once you master it, CSS will let you create just one page that adapts itself to screen resolution and responds correctly to users' font size adjustments and browsers' zoom feature.
I love the uniquely expressive and flexible JavaScript. I adore its accelerated form in Safari 4 beta and WebKit. XML is the right way, a human readable and readily alterable way, to represent small quantities of data. As a coder, AJAX makes me a happy camper because it describes the way I've always used these technologies. But no Web site or app should use JavaScript as the means to all ends. If you must have an acronym that describes Web site and app authoring best practice, AJAX should be ACHJAX.
Monday, 2 March 2009
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