Codenamed ‘Darwin’ the Microsoft Installer bought to the software packaging industry a much needed element of competition. Before the Microsoft Installer (now known as the windows installer) the packaging and distribution of software was dominated by stand alone installation packages from InstallShield and WISE. With the windows installer engine, Microsoft has ensured that the monopoly that InstallShield had when it came to packaging and distribution of software ended. Many other companies have tried unsuccessfully to follow Microsoft’s lead and provide their own packaging and distribution engine. Today windows installer is preferred by all major software manufacturers to distribute their software packages and windows installer is expected to be the most popular packaging engine in coming time.
Windows installer allows end users to customize their installations at run time, in fact windows installer is well known for its high scalability when it comes to developing distribution packages. The basic unit of any windows installer package (MSI package) is a component. A component is comparable to an atom, and it is the building block of any MSI package. Sometimes a corrupt MSI package can be missing important components in which case the installation of the product cannot proceed. Windows installer has an inbuilt mechanism that verifies the contents of each MSI package to ensure that all important components of the package are available before the installation begins.
Similar to an inventory check, the windows installer has a list of all important components and every time an installation is initiated the windows installer checks the ‘manifest’ to ensure that no component is missing. The end user does not have direct access to the components and the windows installer manages the file associations and registration of key files. The key files can be registry components, ODBC connections etc. In a nutshell the windows installer takes care of the installation and registration of files without much user intervention.
In addition to components and key files, an important feature of the windows installer is allowing a user to customize the installation of a MSI package. Features are a group of components and key files that can be removed without effecting the installation of the software. Essential features of software are not customizable and the user cannot choose to not install essential features of a software. For example, during the installation of larger software packages the end user has a choice which features he wishes to install, however during the installation some features are greyed out indicating that they are essential features and the end user has to install them to ensure functioning of the software. Although windows installer is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based installer, a user can bypass the GUI installation by installing the software in command prompt by executing the file msiexec.exe, such an installation of the software is a called ‘installing the software in quite mode’. Quite mode installations are recommended for expert users only. The most common method of installing windows installer based software is to simply double click on the setup or msiexec.exe file. The windows installer kicks in and the installation of the software can be completed by following the instructions on screen.
The latest version of the windows installer is the windows installer 4.0. Windows installer 4.0 was shipped along with Windows Vista and is expected to offer more features when compared to the current version of windows installer. A big feature of windows installer 4.0 is that it allows installation of software without administrative privileges and the programmer can decide which features of the software can be installed by administrators only. Also the windows installer 4.0 will make use of the restart manager feature of Windows. Instead of restarting the computer every time software is installed, windows installer 4.0 will have the capability of restarting only specific programs thereby eliminating the need for a system reboot. In addition windows installer 4.0 will also clearly mention the programs that are affected by the installation of the MSI package.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Michael Hunt is the author of this article on MSI Application Packaging. Find more information about MSI Application Packaging here.

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

I visited the ruins of a Roman settlement, the other day that was set in a lovely valley in the middle of an island.

The setting was idyllic, sheltered from the winds and not too far from the main market town, it seemed an ideal spot to farm and bring up a family.

Its history was thoughtfully provided on signs around the ruins of a substantial dwelling, which had been expanded in Roman times to include a hot and cold bathroom and mosaic floors. All of this was very attractive and a considerable investment for the landowner. But the settlement was abandoned, and it occurred to me that there had to be a good reason since it was clear that someone had put a lot of effort and finance into their dream.

I wondered if Vikings, who were known to be active in this area after the Romans left, had attacked it but there were no signs of charred brick work or the aftermath of battle.

Looking around another sign revealed the problem. There had been more than one attempt to settle the area, but the land formed a natural point of drainage for the hills around, and successive buildings had each eventually succumbed to subsidence.

I was left in no doubt that the buildings were of a good quality and that the builders were competent at construction, but clearly it had taken a few generations to work out that this was not a suitable site for construction. If we really wanted to settle this place now we would drive piles deep into the ground to overcome the subsidence.

The point that this drove into my mind was that of developing software. It is all too often the case that Software development organizations and their customers make the same mistakes over again. If the foundations are shaky then there is no point in building, but with a little forethought someone will could solve the problem and provide a safe way of delivering a good foundation.

The biggest mistake that organizations make is to rush to cut code before they understand the problem they are solving. That doesn’t mean you have to be complacent and that sitting around in a few meetings will solve all your problems.

What should be done is: -

Ring fence what you know.
Ring fence what you don’t know.
Make sure you are developing the right product.
Build the software that you know will not change.
Check that what you are building is what is wanted.

Often the customer just doesn’t know exactly what they want, so you need to involve them in the development process. The earlier they get to know the product then the more likely they are to buy into the solution. Having said all of that..

Code should be built where it enhances the understanding of the problem both to the customer and the developer.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

For the last 20 years Rob Wendes has been helping Business owners and professionals to improve their software development. www.robsabloggin.com

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

By: Anthony Kristovich III

ASP .NET is a package of web application technologies delivered by Microsoft, nowadays being frequently utilized by various organizations in the IT Industry. ASP .NET is based on the Microsoft .NET platform (an extensive series of Microsoft products and technologies) and is the successor to Microsoft ASP (Active Server Pages), a pioneer in terms of IT technology. Compared to its predecessor, Microsoft ASP .NET is more versatile, reliable, stable and comprises a multitude of new features. ASP .NET has started to replace older programming technologies in recent years, opening up new possibilities for advanced web development. One of the most important characteristics of ASP .NET is that it was built on the Common Language Runtime (CLR), allowing programmers to write ASP .NET code using any programming language based on the Microsoft .NET technology.

Considering the fact that ASP .NET is extensively used for web development at present, IT professionals who possess the knowledge and skills required for working with this popular set of Microsoft technologies are in high demand in the Industry. On the actual premises, individuals who have a good level of experience in working with ASP .NET can occupy great job positions in the branch.

If you are interested in acquiring the knowledge and skills needed for working with ASP .NET, then you should attend an appropriate ASP .NET training program. At present there are many different types of ASP .NET training, ranging from beginner-level ASP .NET courses (comprise sets of introductive ASP .NET classes which discuss the basics behind Microsoft web application technologies) to advanced ASP .NET courses (discuss the subtleties and intricacies of ASP .NET, and are usually focused on practical learning), so you should choose the type of training that matches your actual level of experience with ASP .NET. Once you complete the ASP .NET course of your choice, you will be able to validate your skills by passing the corresponding Microsoft Certified Professional - ASP .NET exams.

For individuals who want to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for working with ASP .NET in less time and for less money, a good option would be to book an intensive ASP .NET course. Many of these courses include both ASP .NET theoretical classes and ASP .NET practical labs, allowing students to acquire good levels of professional expertise in working with such Microsoft technologies. Microsoft ASP .NET courses can last from 3 to 5 days, are taught by the best instructors in the Industry using Microsoft official courseware materials design especially for classroom training and discuss a variety of topics.

If you are familiar with Microsoft ASP technology but lack the knowledge and skills required for working with ASP .NET, then you should choose the MS2640 - Upgrading Web Development Skills from ASP to Microsoft ASP.NET course, which also explains the new features of ASP.NET that can then be leveraged to improve an existing Web application.

If you already have a good level of experience with ASP .NET, then you can book any of the following ASP .NET courses: MS2310 - Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Web Applications Using Visual Studio .NET (during this ASP .NET class, students learn how to use Visual Studio .NET to create an ASP .NET application that delivers dynamic content to the Web); MS3201 - Developing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Web Applications (the class discusses the advancements from ASP.NET 1.x to ASP.NET 2.0 in creating applications and also focuses on the new features and functionality of ASP.NET); MS2366 - Developing High Performance and Scalable Web Applications Using ASP.NET 1.1 and ADO.NET 1.1 (this ASP .NET class teaches students how to use Visual Studio .NET 1.1 to create an ASP .NET 1.1 application that delivers dynamic content to the Web); MS2311 - Advanced Web Application Development using Microsoft ASP.NET (ideal for IT professionals with a good level of experience in working with ASP .NET).

For more information please visit http://www.unitek.com/portal/asp.php

IT Marketing Coordinator www.unitek.com
Article Source: The FREE Article Distribution Center

Keywords: ASP .NET training, ASP .NET course, ASP .NET class

Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

For more info please visit us at – .NET Application Development

By: Kevin Jordan

While the average web developer has a lot of options these days. It’s really more of a bi-partisan system between ASP.NET and PHP, the rest being just independents. The battle rages between the supporters of the two languages, with no clear winner every coming out. While both can be used to complete the same project, it really depends on what you’re looking for: price, speed, security, etc.

ASP.NET
If you program in ASP.NET you’ll typically get too responses from the other side. Either you’re rich (or your company is) or you’re a Microsoft lover. While the name comes from Microsoft’s old ASP technology, they made a huge leap with the .NET Framework, and the CLR allows you to use other languages for back end processing: typically Visual Basic.NET or C#.

ASP.NET’s strength lies in object oriented features, and it’s flexibility. Because of the CLR you can have C# programmers and VB.NET programmers working on the same project, or switch languages half way through and not have to rewrite all of your old classes. The .NET class library is organized into inheritable classes based around particular tasks, such as working with XML or image manipulation, so a lot of the more common tasks have been already handled for you.

Visual Studio .NET is a massive development IDE that (as long as your computer is fast enough) will shave tons of time of your coding. It has built in debugging along with IntelliSense, which allows for auto-completion of methods and variables so you don’t have to memorize everything.

On the down side, ASP.NET is expensive. One it uses tons more resources on the web server so you’ll require either better server or more servers in the farm. Windows 2003 and Visual Studio .NET are pretty tough on the pocket book as well. It’s extremely rare for an ASP.NET app not to be running on IIS. And if you pay attention to any of the bug reports, you’ll notice that Windows and IIS have had a bit of a history with vulnerabilities being exploited.

PHP
PHP works in combination of HTML to display dynamic elements on the page. PHP only parses code within its delimiters, such as . Anything outside its delimiters is sent directly to the output and not parsed by PHP.

PHP strength lies mostly in LAMP. The LAMP architecture has become popular in the Web industry as a way of deploying inexpensive, reliable, scalable, secure web applications. PHP is commonly used as the P in this bundle alongside Linux, Apache and MySQL. PHP can be used with a large number of relational database management systems, runs on all of the most popular web servers and is available for many different operating systems. This flexibility means that PHP has a wide installation base across the Internet; over 18 million Internet domains are currently hosted on servers with PHP installed.

With PHP 5 finally came exception handling and true OOP, but it still lack namespacing to prevent class naming collisions. PHP’s type checking is very loose, potentially causing problems. Another drawback is that variables in PHP are not really considered to have a type. Finally, for some reason big corporations feel that if they’re not paying for something, then it’s not worth buying. If that’s you’re company’s mentality, they just need to wake up and check out all the awesome free software that’s out there.

So Which Is Better?
We’ll I have my opinions and you may have yours as well. But in general, PHP is cheap, secure, fast, and reliable, while ASP.NET has quicker development time and is easier due to its class library system can probably be maintained more easily. Both are great languages, and it’s up to you to make the decision.

Kevin is a software engineer and the creator of Scratch Projects. A web site dedicated to teaching others to program through actual programming projects instead of just giving away code snippets.

Keywords: php, asp.net, web development, programming

Web Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

For more info please visit us at – .NET Application Development

By: James Hunt

Software development and software engineering go hand in hand when it comes to the implementation of software. Software development deals more with the creation of the software and when this is complete, software engineering takes over with the creation of software systems. Both of these disciplines are at times interchangeable and without much difference to the layman. If you just want to have one specific piece of software designed, such as database software that will keep track of your bird watching hobby, then you’ll just need software development. If, however, you want your bird watching database to be able to support multiple functions, such as delivering a report with statistics and results, then you’ll more likely need the expertise of software engineering.

Software engineers will implement and design software applications through the use of many mediums. These software applications will then be used for a variety of purposes that include business practices to entertainment purposes. It is these software applications that allow users to make their time on the computer as functional and productive as possible. Types of software applications include language applications, office applications, entertainment packages, and applications for education.

The cost of hiring a software developer will be significantly less than hiring a software engineer. Before you make your final decision about what you want the software to do you need to plan you budget, your timeline, and determine what you want the end result to be. The industry of software development continues to grow each year as more and more businesses are having their own software developed for them that is specific to what they do and what they want the software to do. Most companies will already be using some type of software application, such as Office Suite, and most likely won’t need another application developed for them. For most intents and purposes you’ll be fine hiring a software developer for you and your business needs.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest. Read more at www.software-development-center.com

Keywords: software development, software engineering, applications, software design

Software Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

For more info please visit us at – Software development services

Blogging is a popular online activity nowadays. People simply want to share their experiences and outlook on life with everyone on the Internet. Teenagers run blogs to express themselves through an activity that is considered cool and ‘in’ by peers. Adults blog to share sentiments or to offer advice and guidelines to online readers.

Currently, many online entrepreneurs make use of the Internet for income opportunities. Modern blogs provide earning opportunities for bloggers. Thus, it is logical and practical that almost all regular Internet users are now aiming to have and maintain their own blogs. But the problem is, not all are willing and able to learn how to start up the initiative.

To begin with the activity, experts advise first time and would be bloggers to simply use desktop publishing software installed on their personal computers. Doing so will help make the task easy and less complicated. Here are several ways on how you can come up with blogs using desktop publishing software installed on your PC.

- For starters, aim using the Word processor. If you want your blog to be purely content-focused and really juicy on information, this is the desktop publishing program for you. Use the software normally and then post as a blog once you get your domain.

- For blogs that aren’t only dependent on text, use a desktop publishing for page layout. Page layout software facilitates the integration of images and pictures with basic text content. Thus, if you want to pose more photos and other kinds of images, this desktop publishing software is advisable for you. Simply choose the templates you like, fill in content blanks and post the images and photos using the browser menu.

- To use the Web publishing software, select the chosen template or modify existing template designs using the usual commands and programs. Follow instructions on how to include and post photos, audio files and videos. You can edit your initial Web publication output afterwards. What is best about this desktop publishing software is that it automatically converts all files into PDF and HTML formats intended for Web publishing.

To make your blog worthwhile, you should also make sure that the content you will be posting is worthwhile, engaging and very informative. Desktop publishing software is there to aid you create printable outputs. Now, use them to start up your own Website or blog and see how you can make a difference.

Article Source - http://www.freearticles.com/article/Using-Desktop-Publishing-Software-For-Blogging/2870

For more info please visit us at – offshore software development

Often, the hardest part of any search engine optimization or marketing campaign is getting changes made to the website. Figuring out what to do is often easier than convincing all the stakeholders—including marketers, IT departments, web developers—to take the necessary actions, and coaching them along the way as they apprehensively take baby steps forward. As search marketers, we also need to test web sites. We always want to tweak things and see if we do better, and if not, we go back and try something else. We also work in teams.

Success in search marketing campaigns often depends on the nitty-gritty details of execution. That is why I have spent a lot time investigating different tools that help automate our work flow and promote teamwork. One of my favorites goes by the apt and clever name of Subversion.

Subversion, also known as SVN, is free open source software that provides revision control of source code, web pages and other documents. Revision control means that all current and past versions of each file are saved, with notes about who edited them and what they did. If a bold change goes terribly wrong, a few clicks restores a prior version of the site. Revision control also permits multiple editors to work on the same files without wrecking each others’ work. After updating their local files, everybody can be confident that they have the latest versions. Most edit conflicts are automatically resolved.

Revision control software is much more efficient than ad hoc arrangements such as emailing files back and forth, or using Dreamweaver’s FTP synchronization feature. A web server is for serving web pages, not for syncing files. Our Subversion server provides much faster data transfer, and Subversion tracks changes line by line, so it only transfers the lines that have changed, rather than whole files, saving even more time.

Here are a few situations where Subversion helps most:

Eliminating the IT bottleneck. When a website is hosted in-house, the IT department often does not provide web server FTP access for security or management reasons. They usually want to control all changes, rightly so, because they are responsible. However, IT staff are busy or may lack experience in search optimization. It normally takes three times longer to teach a client how to fix their own website than to just do it for them. IT departments like Subversion because it saves them time, and provides an audit trail, as well as a reliable backup copy of the website in case the server ever suffers a meltdown. When a client is on Subversion, even if I do not have FTP access, I can still grab the latest copy of their website, make the necessary edits and commit them to the repository. Then I ask the client to pull updated files from the repository, review the changes on a development server, and release them to the live site. Verifying and releasing a website update is faster, and requires fewer skills, than editing.

Replacing content management systems. One of the selling points for content management systems is that clients can edit their own website, especially when multiple people are involved. Content management systems usually introduce design rigidity, causing website improvements to take longer and cost more. When websites have a catalog with thousands of parts, or a shopping cart, a content management system is obviously necessary, but when a website is just brochure-ware, content management systems can be a poor investment and an impediment to search marketing. With Subversion, we allow clients to use Dreamweaver or Contribute to edit sites themselves. Everybody on the team uses Subversion to coordinate changes, and if somebody wrecks the site, we can roll back to the prior version. With Subversion as a safety net, the editing process goes faster, and more people can have access.

Delegating work.When managing staff, I need to see what they are doing, and be able to jump in on a moment’s notice when help is needed. Having direct, immediate access to the source code makes it easy to fix a bug in the middle of the night when a client complains. I do not need to tell everybody “sync your files” or risk having them erase my change. Subversion handles that automatically. If a client emails a request, any employee can help themselves to the latest code from the repository, and make edits. Without Subversion, having more than one person working on a site risks confusion.

Backups and using multiple computers.My nightmare scenario used to be losing my computer. What if it breaks? I’ve switched most of my business management tools to cloud computing, such as Basecamp and Freshbooks. But I still have a few important files on my machine, plus all the websites I am working on. Subversion provides secure cloud storage for all those critical files. Subversion makes both of my computers interchangeable. I can right click on any folder to quickly synchronize files from the repository.

Subversion has two components: a server that stores sets files (called modules), and a desktop client for accessing the server. The Subversion server can be installed locally, or on a remote machine. I prefer to use a hosted service such as CVSdude, where they handle all the details for a nominal monthly fee. Tortoise SVN is the most popular Subversion client for Windows. Tortoise asks for the URL of the repository, a userid and a password. All files in a module can be checked out, edited as needed, and then changes are committed. Tortoise integrates into Windows’ File Explorer. Folders show a green check mark if they are current, or a red X when they have been changed.

In 2007 Forrester Research called Subversion “the sole leader in standalone software configuration management (SCM)”. When something that good is free, you think most people would use it. However, most search marketing professionals I speak with have never heard of Subversion.

Jonathan Hochman has two computer science degrees from Yale. He runs an Internet marketing consultancy and a web development shop.

Article source - http://searchengineland.com/080408-084516.php

If the file format does not become a standard, some governments could shy away from using Open XML — and therefore, potentially, Microsoft Office.

By J. Nicholas Hoover InformationWeek March 31, 2008 05:25 PM

After years of wrangling, Microsoft’s Office Open XML file formats are set to gain or lose approval as international standards. The ballots are in and being counted, but the world won’t know the verdict of the International Standards Organization until Wednesday.

The voting ended over the weekend, and it’s not clear exactly what is delaying the results. A total of 87 national standards bodies are voting. In at least one case, Steve Pepper, chairman of Norway’s committee on the approval of Open XML is reported to have filed a formal protest with his country’s yes vote, citing “serious irregularities” with the vote.

The voting process has been marked by jostling and sometimes open hostility on both sides of Open XML’s standardization, with Microsoft competitors like IBM repeatedly coming down hard on Microsoft and with reports of Microsoft’s heavy-handed lobbying for its format, including promising “marketing contributions” in exchange for votes in Sweden — a move that Microsoft later said wasn’t company approved.

If the file format does not become a standard, some governments could shy away from using Open XML — and therefore, potentially, Microsoft Office — in favor of something like Open Document Format, (ODF) which has already become a standard. However, Tom Robertson, Microsoft’s general manager for interoperability said in an interview, “most governments will come down on the side of choice.” The state of Massachusetts along with the countries of Switzerland and Denmark are among those that have said they’ll use either format.

Either way, Microsoft is pushing forward to get its formats used in more places. With Microsoft’s large market share in productivity software, Open XML isn’t likely to decrease in importance anytime soon.

Last week, for example, Microsoft announced that it would contribute to an Apache project that would let Open XML be used in Java apps. The formats have already been employed or supported in Apple’s iWork productivity suite, a productivity suite for Symbian mobile devices and a range of IBM products despite IBM’s efforts with its own ODF.

As Open XML moves forward, a few vital missing pieces need to be put into place. For example, there are no standard interoperability test suites available for Open XML. “It’s a real need,” said Robertson, who pointed out that Microsoft recently launched a Document Interoperability Initiative aimed at creating test suites and templates for forms that would be optimized for interoperability between Open XML and ODF.

Currently, Microsoft’s Open XML is a standard of ECMA International, where Microsoft is chair of the technical committee leading the standard’s development. However, Microsoft anticipates significant changes in the future course of the standard’s development if passed. Control of the standard will shift to ISO, where groups representing larger constituencies than in ECMA will be represented.

Microsoft has not yet said whether it will continue to use the standard version of Open XML for future releases of Office, and Robertson wouldn’t confirm its use in the upcoming Office 14. “I don’t know that there’s a company on earth that would say, into the future, we’re going to do X, Y or Z,” he said.

Article source- http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000830&subSection=All+Stories

Posted by Charles Humble on Mar 31, 2008 11:59 PM

Within 24 hours of Apple unveiling the iPhone SDK, Sun Microsystems announced their intention to port the Java ME JVM to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices. In a video announcement Eric Klein states that he sees no reason why the JVM would not work on the iPhone:

“We’ve spent the last 24 hours feverishly pouring through all the information that Apple made available about this SDK and we’re really excited that Apple has decided to open the iPhone and iTouch (iPod Touch) to third party development. One of our original visions for Java was to allow the developer community to create amazing content and applications for as many devices across the world as possible and the iPhone is an important platform in that regard.”

When Sun made its announcement a number of astute bloggers and forum posters pointed out two major issues that seem to preclude Sun’s Java port. The first is a clause in the license agreement:

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

The second appears at first glance to be a technical limitation in the SDK. According to Apple’s official iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (available from the Apple iPhone Dev Center, login required) only one iPhone application may run at a time, and third-party iPhone applications will not be able to run in the background:

“This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. It’s important to make sure that users do not experience any negative effects because of this reality. In other words, users should not feel that leaving your iPhone application and returning to it later is any more difficult than switching among applications on a computer.”

This is presumably not strictly a technical limitation - the iPhone runs the same kernal as Mac OS X which supports multiple concurrent processes. The iPhone itself can clearly multitask (otherwise it couldn’t, for example, ring when you were using Safari with it) so this restriction is most probably imposed to limit the amount of RAM consumed by third party background processes. It seems reasonable to speculate that Apple could therefore allow chosen third party developers the ability to run their applications in the background. However it seems quite unlikely that Apple would provide Sun such access. For one thing being able to install and Run Java ME applications on the iPhone and iPod Touch would make it harder for Apple to restrict distribution to their store as they intend, and for another Apple’s relationship with Java seems to have become increasingly negative over the last few years. Contrast Steve Job’s comments at a keynote at JavaOne 2000 in which he said:

“We want to bring Java back to the desktop in a really big way. I’m here today to personally tell you we are working hard to make Mac the best Java delivery vehicle on the planet. The biggest thing we are doing is we are going to bundle Java 2 SE into every single copy of Mac OS X [the upcoming Macintosh operating system] that we ship later on this year.”

with remarks he made last year to the New York Times:

“Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”

Eric Klein issued a further statement last week stating that Sun would like to talk to Apple if there are conditions blocking Sun’s intentions:

“Our announcement was based on our excitement to build a JVM for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, as well as our assessment of Apple’s publicly available information on the SDK and related business terms. If there are clauses in the iPhone beta SDK license agreement that potentially limit third party application distribution, then these are items that we want to have a positive discussion with Apple about. Sun and Apple have an ongoing relationship around Java SE on Mac OS X and we look forward to further discussions with Apple about a JVM for iPhone and iPod Touch. Sun definitely plans to deliver a JVM for iPhone and iPod Touch if at all possible!”

It will be interesting to see if Sun provide any more details during JavaOne.

Article source - http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/jme_iphone

For more info please visit us at – java application development & E-Commerce Solution

Despite a new owner and the potential for more competition in the future, MySQL and Oracle will continue to work together.

By Charles Babcock InformationWeek  March 31, 2008 10:00 AM

When MySQL AB was bought by Sun Microsystems, some knowledgeable observers said the first thing Sun would do is make MySQL free of its dependence on Oracle.

MySQL incorporated the InnoDB transaction storage system as part of its database system, then Oracle acquired its Finnish parent company, Innobase Oy, in October 2005. “Look for Sun to do more and more to make MySQL free of any third parties,” said Raven Zachary, open source analyst with the 451 Group, in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.

But Zack Urlocker, the executive VP of products, who supervises both engineering and marketing at MySQL, says such independence is still viewed as unnecessary inside Sun. Urlocker appeared on a panel on the state of the open source database market. Seated nearby was Ken Jacobs, VP of product strategy at Oracle.

MySQL’s strength has been in its ability to serve Web pages, and many Web applications are built with MySQL as the database of choice in the background. Oracle aspires to be the database of future applications as well, including Web applications, and it’s conceivable the two eventually will come into more direct competition.

But Urlocker says that doesn’t mean MySQL can’t keep using InnoDB. “We’ve always had a very good relationship with Oracle,” he said after the panel concluded.

“It’s absolutely a fact. We’ve always had a very good relationship,” affirmed Jacobs, one of the original employees of Oracle, who helped establish Oracle with the federal government from its new Washington office in 1981.

MySQL isn’t ready to announce anything yet, but the way Urlocker and Jacobs exchanged meaningful glances, it was as if to say they’re ready to sign a multiyear continuation of their agreement.

Meanwhile, another third-party piece of software on which MySQL used to depend, the SolidDB for MySQL that was under the sponsorship of IBM, has been pushed off to SourceForge. Dhiren Patel, IBM’s community relations manager for the overall SolidDB project, announced that IBM had acquired SolidDB in December for its in-memory database, technology that will help it compete with Oracle TimesTen.

“This in-memory technology, and not Solid’s open source offering, was the key driver behind IBM’s acquisition. As a result, I regret to inform you that, effectively immediately, we will not be continuing further development on SolidDB for MySQL,” he wrote March 3, six days after Sun completed the MySQL deal.

The open source community around SolidDB for MySQL will be free to continue work on the project, and the developer forums and bug tracking have been migrated to SourceForge as well, Patel noted.

Urlocker said both Jacobs and Charles Phillips, Oracle’s president, have assured him of continued, unfettered access to InnoDB. MySQL, initially developed as a read-only database, gets its key transaction handling characteristics from InnoDB and SolidDB for MySQL.

Article source - http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000559

For more info please visit us at - Oracle Database Application Development & Software development

Today onwards, the penguin too will get a taste of the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) alpha version. And, Adobe Systems has joined the Linux Foundation to focus on Linux for Web 2.0 Applications.

Adobe’s AIR is meant to enable developers create RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and take Web applications to the desktop and store data offline. AIR will enable developers to create RIAs on the desktop using Web technologies such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Flash, and Flex that they already employ. A free and open-source technology, it will allow companies with Websites to inhabit a permanent spot on people’s desktops, in a way similar to Google’s widgets. For consumers, AIR will reduce the wait time for downloading images and data, because the desktop is constantly updated while the computer is online.

Version 1.0 of AIR was made available last year for the Windows and Mac OS platforms, however release for Linux was deferred due to wait on the core Flash Player’s support for Linux to be finalized, as per the Adobe Web site (last year).

Major news that follows is Adobe collaborating with the Linux Foundation (LF), a non-profit organization that works towards the development of Linux. Through this association, Adobe plans to work with the involved community to ensure Adobe RIA technologies are compatible across the Linux software platform; support for RIA on Linux has been limited until now. Adobe deems LF as a valuable resource that provides a platform to be able to accomplish this mission, as quoted on the LF Web page.

In order to install RIAs for the browser and the desktop, Adobe currently provides major RIA technologies for Linux users such as Adobe Flash Player and now also Adobe AIR.

Article source - http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Now_AIR_for_Linux_Adobe_Teams_with_Linux/551-88069-580.html

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Users gain ability to strictly monitor who can access content they store on the social network

By Heather Havenstein

March 19, 2008 (Computerworld) After enduring withering criticism late last year for the lack of adequate privacy controls in its Beacon advertising system, Facebook Inc. today garnered positive reviews for new controls that let users more strictly monitor who can access the content they create on the site.

The privacy controls launched Wednesday let users limit access to information like photo albums or contact information to specific Facebook friends or friends lists, the company said. Facebook had rolled out the friends list feature in December as a way to help users communicate with groups of friends on the network.

Nick O’Neill, a blogger on All Facebook, noted that the new features

provide users with more granular privacy by specifying various settings for each friend list. “This means that, in theory, all of my professional contacts will no longer be able to access my photos, and I can start posting those photos of my crazy times in college,” he added.

“These new settings have theoretically transformed Facebook, making it possible to manage all of my contacts from one site,” O’Neill wrote.

The All Facebook blogger also noted that the social networking firm today also launched a new option that allows users to opt-out of personalized SocialAds that integrate into photos a notice telling his or her friends about recent purchases made at various online retailers.

“If you hadn’t noticed already, once in a while your friends’ photos have been showing up on ads promoting applications and fan pages,” O’Neill said. “Many were turned off by those ads complaining that making money off of our profiles is crossing the line. This is a significant step by Facebook, highlighting that Facebook has granted a higher priority to user privacy over monetization. This is an encouraging step and greatly welcomed, considering there wasn’t much controversy over the ads as they existed.”

Josh Catone, a blogger on ReadWriteWeb, said that when the friends list feature was rolled out in December, he called it a necessary first step in attracting the business networking crowd to Facebook. However, he also noted that the feature “had no teeth” because of a lack of privacy controls. That has changed because the new features give users the option of showing private information to only specific friends or “friends of friends,” which is similar to features in the more business-oriented LinkedIn professional networking site, Catone added.

“While going after the business networking crowd has never been an objective expressed overtly by the company, it does make sense,” he said. “As Facebook’s core early audience — college students — grows up, they’ll need a more secure environment to network with colleagues and friends. Facebook is slowly positioning itself to be a place where both casual and business networking can take place at the same time, which means that rather than maintaining two accounts — one at Facebook and one at LinkedIn or Xing — users could stay at Facebook and use the tools they grew accustomed to in college.”

Not all industry observers were pleased with the changes. Jeffrey Chester, founder and executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy — one of the strongest critics of Beacon’s initial lack of privacy controls — noted that Facebook still has to ensure that its members are candidly informed about any personal data shared with advertisers and marketers.

“Its incremental improvements — all due to the increasing scrutiny in the EU and U.S. and from privacy advocates — are occurring at a snail’s pace,” he said. “Facebook’s senior managers still have not come to terms with the need for them to ensure transparency and full user control.”

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The latest version of Apple’s browser adds some major enticements to switch.

By Seth Weintraub

Apple released Safari 3.1 on March 18 with an updated rendering engine that makes the fastest Internet browser even faster.

On top of that, Apple’s new browser includes some features that reflect the future of the HTML 5 specification: offline storage, media support, and CSS animations and Web fonts. It also adds some needed compatibility and bug fixes, as well as some other new features that really make it a great everyday browser.

For the uninitiated, Apple provides a great PDF overview of Safari. You can get the upgrade/installer from apple.com/safari/download/ (it’s about a 16MB download for both Mac and PC) or simply update from Software Update. The installation is easy but strangely requires a restart on Macs but not on Windows. By the way, Safari 3.1 is the first Windows version not to carry the “beta” tag.

The interface and the user experience are largely unchanged from those in Safari 3.0. Under the hood, however, Apple has made some significant changes that it has pulled from the latest builds of the open-source WebKit engine.

WebKit is the framework version of the engine that’s used by Safari. It is also the basis of the Web browsing engine in iPhone’s Mobile Safari, Symbian’s browser, the Google Android platform and Adobe’s new AIR platform.

Testing

To check out how well Safari 3.1 handles Web sites, I ran it through some popular standards testing — and found that it leads the pack. In the Acid3 Tests, which were created by the Web Standards Project to test dynamic browser capabilities, Safari 3.1 scored 75 out of 100, significantly higher than the previous version of Safari and other shipping browsers (Firefox 3 Beta 4 scored 68, while the most recent WebKit scored 92).

However, the big news is how fast the new version of Safari is. How fast? I tested Safari 3.1 on my first-generation 2-GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM. In MooTools’ SlickSpeed speed/validity test, Safari came out on top in almost every category on both Mac and PC.

It also did significantly better than any shipping browser on the SunSpider JavaScript speed tests (although since these tests are hosted at WebKit.org, they are perhaps biased). For example, on the Mac, Safari scored 4430ms, compared with 5048ms for Firefox 3 Beta 4.

While I spend 90% of my time on a Macintosh, I also installed Safari on my Windows XP box to see how it stacked up against Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox. In short, it worked extremely well for everyday browsing, offering speed and efficiency, especially on a four- or five-year-old machine. It also performed really well with lots of tabs open.

Although Safari 3.1 does perform much better than the shipping version of Firefox, the speed improvements in Firefox 3 Beta 4 are catching up with Safari 3.1 — though Firefox 3 did consume more CPU cycles during my tests.

One of the drawbacks of Safari has been the perceived “over-smoothing” or softening of fonts on the PC. While this hasn’t been completely fixed, Apple’s Safari 3.1 allows Web sites to specify fonts outside the seven Web-safe font families; these new fonts can be downloaded by the browser as needed.

Unfortunately, there are still prominent features that are part of rival browsers that Safari simply can’t match. For example, Safari doesn’t have all of the add-ons that Firefox enjoys, such as the Google toolbar.

Furthermore, if you need to use a site that employs Microsoft’s proprietary DirectX technology — like Microsoft Exchange’s Outlook Web Access, for example — you’ll find that the experience on Safari leaves much to be desired. In this case, you’re better off using Internet Explorer.

Finally, Opera offers features, such as direct BitTorrent downloads, that aren’t offered in Safari.

With the 3.1 release, Safari has become the fastest browser you can use. If that isn’t enough reason to make a switch, its strong adherence to Web standards and rapid adoption of new technologies might make you think again.

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Rumors of a new music service appear to be just that, but with iPod sales slowing and competition growing, now may be the time to pursue such a plan

by Arik Hesseldahl

Apple’s iTunes Store sells individual songs for download for 99¢ apiece, but a new unlimited-music service is rumored to be in the works.

Reports that Apple is discussing an “all-you-can-eat” subscription music service with major record labels are overblown, say people in a position to know. But giving customers access to the entire iTunes catalog in exchange for a premium on iPod music players isn’t a bad idea—and it’s one Apple may need to consider.

According to a story in the Financial Times, Apple (AAPL) would charge enough for iPod and iPhone devices to cover the cost of licensing entire music collections. It would use that premium to create a pool of revenue, a portion of which would be divided among the major music labels, the newspaper said.

Trouble is, no such talks are under way, according to people familiar with Apple’s plans. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. Insiders at major music labels were similarly dismissive. One person familiar with the matter said the idea of subscription plan has been “kicked around” for about a year, but said there have been “no meaningful discussions” on the subject.

Consumer Appeal

That doesn’t mean the music industry wouldn’t welcome the chance to distribute songs and albums through a subscription plan. The reason is simple. Unlike the existing 99¢-a-song iTunes model, subscriptions provide a reliable revenue stream. Customers who pay $10 a month for access to a music library contribute a predictable cash flow. At present an iTunes customer can buy 12 songs one month and no more for months on end. The music industry has long railed against Apple’s adherence to an à la carte model and its refusal to consider variable pricing, such as charging a higher price for songs deemed more valuable.

Consumers would probably welcome the chance to choose whether to keep buying songs one track at a time or pay a monthly fee for an unlimited number of songs. “There may be millions of people who would never buy into the iPod-iTunes ecosystem who’d be willing to pay $7 to $10 a month for all the music they can get,” says analyst Michael Gartenberg with JupiterResearch. “If anyone can explain the benefits of a plan like this, it’s Apple.”

So why won’t it? For starters, Jobs doesn’t have a lot of reason to change tack. The iTunes Store is wildly successful. It has become the second largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores (WMT). It boasts some 50 million customers and has sold some 4 billion songs since its inception in 2003.

More important for Apple, the online music store is a catalyst for sales of the highly profitable iPod and iPhone. So iTunes would be a success even if it operated at a loss, which it doesn’t. Apple has sold nearly 142 million iPods since the product family launched in late 2001, most of them since 2005, plus 4 million iPhones. Total them all up and you find that the average iPod or iPhone owner buys fewer than 30 songs and tends to fill the iPod with music from an existing CD collection or other means.

Keen Competition

Besides, some subscription services have struggled to gain wide acceptance. Jobs considers subscriptions more akin to rentals, because customers never permanently own the music they listen to. Purchasing a song on iTunes is more like purchasing a CD that enables the buyer to play it at will, the argument runs.

Here’s the rub: Growth in sales of the iPod is slowing. Despite having sold a record 22.1 million units in the quarter ended Dec. 29, the year-on-year growth rate was 5%, compared with 50% a year earlier. A new iTunes business model might appeal to a new batch of customers who have passed on the iPod-iTunes combo as currently offered.

New competition gives Apple additional reason to consider alternative sales methods. Social networking giants, including Facebook and News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace have their own music-store plans in the works. MySpace is said to be working on its own ad-supported service that would let users stream music for free, and pay to download MP3 music files à la carte, similar to a service introduced by Amazon.com (AMZN) late last year.

A strong competitive threat from MySpace, the labels hope, might spur Apple to reconsider its aversion to subscriptions. As an executive with an independent music label familiar with the thinking of counterparts at larger labels puts it: “They are fixated on not getting shafted by Jobs again.”

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Posted by Greg Sandoval

Protests break out in some nation around the globe and one of the first things a media-shy government does–just after sending in riot police–is pull the plug on YouTube.

The latest example is China’s handling of protests in Tibet. The Chinese government has blocked access to YouTube in that country after scores of clips showing violence between police and protesters were posted to the site, according to hundreds of reports found on Google News.

Scores of other media outlets have been blocked or partially blacked out in China, including broadcasts of CNN, the BBC World, and Google News. But it’s YouTube that gets all the ink.

In an example of YouTube’s influence, blocking access to the video-sharing site is now a sort of scarlet letter for governments. The site, which allows individuals to communicate with mass audiences, has become a symbol of free speech to many, and governments that forbid it are immediately branded around the world as repressive.

This kind of image can’t be welcomed by China as it prepares to host this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

In its report on China’s YouTube ban, The New York Times asks whether the Internet and its ability to enable individuals to communicate with large audiences can stand up to a “ruthless government.”

The Web publication for British newspaper The Times wrote Monday: “YouTube has been blocked in the past, and the so-called Great Firewall of China prevents discussion of and searches for many sensitive topics, such as the Tiananmen Square protests.”

The ban was reported in newspapers in a host of other countries including Russia, Turkey, Canada, and Ireland.

China is obviously no fan of user-generated content. In January, the Chinese government tried to impose a rule whereby only state-run companies could post videos to the Web. The measure was quickly altered after people began raising questions about freedom of speech.

The country’s authorities routinely block sites such as Wikipedia, the BBC, and even live TV transmissions to hinder publication of stories on the Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, or even stories critical of leaders or governments that China is trying to build better relationships with. Last May, while reporter Michael Kanellos watched a CNN story on Myannmar from a hotel in Beijing, the screen went blank. CNN only returned when a the news station was broadcasting a different story.

The Great Firewall of China isn’t perfect, and it will alternate between blocking particular sites and allowing particular sites, but it does make it more difficult for Chinese citizens to get full information or news stories, according to some analysts.

The Firewall also seems to allow Westerners to view objectionable material in China, while blocking it for Chinese readers. Conceivably, this could be a technique to blunt criticism from the West.

On an Internet connection from a room in a Western-owned hotel, censorship was fairly light, Kanellos reported. Hundreds of images of the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989 popped up on Google Images, particularly images of “Tank Man.” News stories, or at least headlines, on controversial subjects came up as well. In an Internet cafe, far fewer images of “Tank Man” appeared, but they could still be found. A few videos of the riots also were available on second-tier video sites like Veoh Networks.

But those results came when the search is conducted in English. Searching for Tiananmen Square on Google’s Chinese Image site with Chinese characters revealed no pictures of the riots in 14 pages of images. The only one–on 14 pages of results–that relates to the 1989 riots was a picture of the Goddess of Liberty. On Baidu, the more popular Chinese Web search site, not even that came up.

In the latest controversy, the Chinese government may have been spooked by what happened in Myanmar last year. Clips of troops clashing with protesters were widely videotaped and posted to YouTube before the site was blacked out in Myanmar. By then it was too late. World condemnation of the crackdown was only spurred on by the YouTube ban.

Perhaps the poster child for bans gone wrong is Pakistan. The government there was angered over videos it found disrespectful to Islam and demanded YouTube be blocked. An ISP in Pakistan goofed and erroneously shut down access to YouTube around the world. The government lifted the ban soon after.

The other important issue in all this is how Google will respond to China’s ban. A representative said that the company is “looking into the matter,” and trying to “ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible.”

But what happens if China wants Google to begin self censoring videos or wants to know the names of the people who posted the clips of the Tibet violence?

Yahoo can be used as a model of what can go wrong when negotiating with the Chinese government. The portal handed over information about a journalist who was later sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence for posting comments critical of the government online. Yahoo’s action has been widely condemned ever since.

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by Jim Dalrymple

When Apple introduced the iPhone, CEO Steve Jobs claimed the ability to surf the “real Internet” as one of its strongest features. However, one technology missing from the iPhone since day one is Flash. Although many users want Flash support, analysts don’t see the missing feature as harming Apple’s position.

“There is no question the iPhone delivers a compelling Web experience and there are good reasons to want Flash in there, but Flash Lite [Adobe’s scaled-down version for mobile devices] wouldn’t give you the Web experience you’re looking for,” said Avi Greengart, Research Director for market research firm Current Analysis.

Apparently Jobs agrees. During the annual shareholders meeting earlier this month he said the iPhone “needs something much better than the current Flash player that Adobe makes for cellphones. The Flash Player option that fits the bill is made for devices like laptops that are larger than the iPhone; as a consequence, it performs too slowly on the iPhone.”

In fact, Greengart points out that Flash Lite will work with some Web sites that use basic Flash, but it won’t work with YouTube or any other site that extensively uses the technology. Flash Lite will not load content that is made with the most recent incarnation of Flash, version 9, either.

Companies such as Vodafone and Nokia have used Flash Lite to build interfaces for their handsets, which the technology is well suited for.

However, not everyone agrees with Apple’s position of eschewing the technology altogether. Microsoft, just this morning, announced that it would support Flash Lite in addition to its Silverlight multimedia framework in its Windows Mobile operating system.

Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG are all shipping Flash-enabled devices, but it doesn’t appear Apple will join them anytime soon. But Adobe isn’t giving up — the company is looking to the recently released Software Development Kit (SDK) as a way of delivering the technology.

“We’d love to see Flash come to the iPhone,” said Anup Murarka, director of technical marketing for mobile and devices at Adobe. “Hopefully when we have the opportunity to review the SDK, and if it’s a vehicle to deliver a solution, we would look forward to working with Apple.”

In the meantime, Apple isn’t likely to be losing any customers because it doesn’t have Flash Lite implemented on the iPhone. According to Greengart, most consumers look at the touchscreen and don’t dig down into included technologies.

However, as long as Apple continues to bill the iPhone as having the “real Internet” people are likely to complain about the lack of Flash support.

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SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The iPhone Dev Team, a group of independent software developers, say they are close to unleashing a new product that undoes the tight control Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to have over the flow of the software to its iPhone.

The developer team is working on a feature it’s calling Pwnage, which lets iPhones download and run other software programs that haven’t gone through any official, Apple-controlled software distribution channels.

“You can do things like installing custom-made files, straight from (Apple’s) iTunes,” according to comments attributed to one of the iPhone Dev Team’s developers, who goes by the name MuscleNerd, posted on the team’s Web site, iphone-dev.org. “The tools are undergoing intensive developing and soon will be ready for public consumption.”