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