Ablog

Don’t Confuse the Container with the Task

PhilWilson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:36:42 +0000

I don’t know if this is just something that happens for installs, but there’s frequently a question in many forums that’s something like “I can’t update my database because I’m getting error xyz”, or “How can I detect whether Splurgy Product 1.0 is installed?”. Another favorite is “How do I create a scheduled task?”
In all these cases the questioner is confusing what they’re doing with when they’re doing it. Just because you’re doing (more...)

MouseOver Grrrrr

PhilWilson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:24:16 +0000

I’ve realised that I thoroughly hate the MouseOver behavior that appears to be showing up in more and more web pages and apps in general. A lot of people, including me, have the habit of moving the mouse when reading something. Sometimes this is merely scrolling with the wheel. I’ve also seen people use the mouse like a finger following the text they’re reading. And if you’re not precise with your mouse (or you don’t avoid the hot spots) you’ll trigger something right in your face. It used (more...)

2010 CES - A Conference Report

Steve Anglin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:00:44 +0000

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES): A Conference Report is a summry of what I think were the most important bits of news, observations and more, at least for me, from last week’s 2010 CES, held in Las Vegas, NV.

News/Announcements
* ~120,000 attended this show, the largest trade show in the U.S. and maybe the world.
* LG planning at launching many Windows 6.5 and 7 phones this year.
* LG has 1 dark brown colored mobile phone of theirs has a 4 inch (more...)

Installs Don’t Violate Security

PhilWilson — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:08:36 +0000

Security is one of those things that some people “get” and others don’t. One of the areas in which some people don’t get it is MSI-based installations. There seems to be a belief that installs can be made exempt from security so that a limited user can just install a setup that does all kinds of things that only administrators are allowed to do. This is an example of what Raymond Chen (”The Old New Thing”) refers to as “What would the world be like if that were true?” In this (more...)

How Far Have We Come?

PhilWilson — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:57:53 +0000

Ok, I’m sitting writing high-level code, a stack-oriented language on hardware that has more than 32-bits to the word. This system is secure in the sense that it has administrators and security tags that indicate what files and actions on the system need privilege to access. It’s also secure in the sense that buffer overruns are not possible because memory words are tagged and bounded so a program cannot overrun memory or the stack. Incidentally, memory is managed automatically and garbage collected on this (more...)

Top 10 IT Predictions: Nokia, IBM, HP, Oracle Acquisitions and More… for 2010

Steve Anglin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:47:15 +0000

Here are my top 10 IT industry predictions for 2010, from most likely to possible…

10. Apple releases iPad or iTablet, and replaces Macbook Air with it.
9. The demise of NetBeans as Oracle integrates into an open source version of JDeveloper.
8. Oracle spins off MySQL into separate entity, mostly owned by Oracle still.
7. Amazon.com starts selling Apps for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, etc.
6. RIM BlackBerry offers Windows Mobile / .NET option, on top of Web Apps and native Java (more...)

Is Web 2.0 a “dead horse” these days?

Steve Anglin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:50:15 +0000

Web 2.0 Expo: A Conference Report
* Javitz Center, New York, NY

Key News
* Sony Ericsson Launches an Android Web Apps development SDK for building Mobile Web Apps along with Android Wrappers as needed.
* Tim O’Reilly keynote… Web War where vendors control much of the Web, and it will be less open and free, etc.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/web2.0/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221800396
* Intelligent, Social (more...)

Did RIM BlackBerry kill JavaFX?

Steve Anglin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:37:19 +0000

Did you hear that loud thud at this week’s BlackBerry Developer Conference, in San Francisco, CA? Listen closely… I did. That sound you hear may be the door closing on JavaFX, the Oracle, Sun and Sony-backed Java RIA platform. The question for JavaFX… does BlackBerry’s adoption of Flash for RIA in its platform spell the likely death nail in JavaFX?

JavaFX Platform is a great, dynamic visual presentation tier with lots of promise, (more...)

Beginning BlackBerry Development @BlackBerry Developmer Conference

Steve Anglin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:54:54 +0000

Beginning BlackBerry Development has published! Author and speaker, Anthony Rizk, will be doing a Book Signing for his new Book, being given away for qualfied attendees, at the BlackBerry Developer Conference on Thursday Nov 12 at 2:30pm PDT-US at the Conference Services Desk, which is same level as where the Keyonte was down the hall from Registration Area.

Anthony’s book is the first introductory (more...)

BlackBerry does Web Apps, too

Steve Anglin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:32:03 +0000

RIM’s BlackBerry operating and software development platforms are not just Java anymore. Today, at RIM’s BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco, CA - RIM’s CEO announced that BlackBerry will also support the creation of Web Apps for its platform via WebKit, a new Browser, Widgets support, and overall Web Standards support for HTML, JavaScript and more. A BlackBerry Web Apps development environment should be firmly in place by early to (more...)

6 Things Apple Should Change on the iPhone–and What You Can Do Until They Do

Rob Warner — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:37:19 +0000

Salespeople may live from a suitcase, but I’ve lived from a PDA for over a decade. I’ve bounced from Palm to Windows Mobile to BlackBerry before landing on my iPhone about six weeks ago. I love the big, crisp screen, the usability touches, and the abundance of apps–I tap the App Store icon far too often for my bank account’s viability. This is my favorite PDA so far.

However much I fawn over my iPhone, though, I still bump against its limitations and cringe when its flaws puncture my desires. (more...)

Graphic Mania Best Content Contest Extended

Rafiq R. Elmansy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:23:14 +0000

Due to some issues about comments, some people was not able to join the contest and comment on it. So, I would like to extend the contest for the deadline of the contest to next Thursday August 13, 2009.

Read more information about the contest and join it here.

Stuck on the Wrong Solution

PhilWilson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:16:57 +0000

There’s a situation that turns up in many forums that I think of as “Second Chance Exception”, although it’s nothing to do with actual exceptions. Typically there’ll be a question something like “I’m trying to get squiggle done, so I’m nurgling this code and fiddling with that, but it doesn’t work. Can someone help?”

Then there’s a reply that goes something like “You don’t need to do all that. Just set the dingdong to boing and it will all (more...)

Creat Atomic Background in Photoshop

Rafiq R. Elmansy — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:45:10 +0000

In this tutorials, We will see how to create atomic background in Photoshop. If you try to create and effect or mimic one, it is always a good idea to think in the effect as parts or simple steps and collect these steps in one complicated effect.

This tutorials is simply based on two circle shapes withe different effects that are repeated with different opacity, sizes and intersect with each other. And for more clarification, I have attached to this tutorial the Photoshop source file at (more...)

Ten Vector Tutorials that Every Designer Needs

Rafiq R. Elmansy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:55:49 +0000

There are some Illustrator and vector tutorials that are commonly needed and used in the illustration field. In this post, I collected some of the useful vector tutorials that is commonly used in many vector effects and artwork.

Find out about this collection tutorials here as well as other vector tutorials.

The Failure of Programming

PhilWilson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:43:57 +0000

Programming in high-level languages is 50 years old, as near as dammit, picking Algol-60 as a starting point. Considering that length of time, I have to ask whether any real progress has actually been made in this previous half-century of programming. Look at it this way: the vast majority of developers still produce code as line by line text, aggregate it into a program module of some kind, then do whatever testing is thought to be necessary. The notion that this is “engineering” and that we’ve made progress (more...)

Pro Linux System Administration

James Turnbull — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:53:49 +0000

Very pleased to announce a new book - Pro Linux System Administration - written with Peter Lieverdink and Dennis Matotek.

We can all be Linux experts, provided we invest the time in learning the craft of Linux administration. Pro Linux System Administration makes it easy for small to medium�sized businesses to enter the world of zero�cost software running on Linux and covers all the distros you might want to use, including Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. (more...)

Graphic Mania Network Calls for Contributors

Rafiq R. Elmansy — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:49:52 +0000

Do you have a very strong love and passion for design and writing design related tutorials? Then, this is the time and the place to let the creative monster inside you to go and spread the word for thousands and thousands of Graphic Mania visitors by joining Graphic Mania Contribution Program. Graphic Mania is looking for designers and tutorial writers to (more...)

Interview: Robert Fischer of Grails Persistence Book

Steve Anglin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:27:41 +0000

Groovy/Grails trainer, contributor and activist, Scott Davis of ThirstyHead, interviews Robert Fischer, author of the firstPress brief, Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL.

Interview: NetBeans Geertjan Wielenga

Steve Anglin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:16:09 +0000

Groovy/Grails trainer, contributor and activist, Scott Davis of ThirstyHead, interviews Geertjan Wielenga, lead of NetBeans translators on the newly published and official NetBeans endorsed book published by Apress, The Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform.