From the Blogosphere

Ulitzer vs. Ning - a Quick Review

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:30:00 EDT

Having used both sites for about two weeks, there is still a great deal I am learning to do with both Ulitzer and Ning, but a reader asked if I would do a quick comparison, so I will.

IT Lessons from the King of Pop

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:45:00 EDT

CIOs and IT professionals can take a few pages from the Michael Jackson playbook. By looking at some of the best practices the King of Pop used to change the face of music, IT managers might find inspiration to change perceptions about IT in their organization.

Build Once, Deliver Anywhere, No Objective C Required

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:15:00 EDT

The concept was very well received by non-developer IT Pro's and developers that are experts in other platforms, now trying to get their head around Objective C and other iPhone specific considerations. For the existing iPhone Developers the concept was foriegn and they remained skeptical. Thats OK, there is lots of room for more native iPhone apps and reason's to go mobile. As soon as users get the taste of leaving their laptop home there will allways be all those other app's or docs they will want access to.

WebMail Pro v4.6 Is Out

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:00:00 EDT

Why are we so confident about the first point? Because IMAP support in WebMail Pro now includes quotas for automatic mailbox size management, direct search on IMAP server, and new easy-to-use approach to deleting e-mails. And what's so special in cPanel support? Because it's now really easy for the server admin to add WebMail Pro into the list of applications available for installation by domain admins. And, for the domain admin, it's just a matter of typing URL and license key for the application in order to have it installed for the particular domain.

Can The Cloud Save The World?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:45:00 EDT

I'm currently at a wedding, killing time reading various blog feeds. In that task, I just read a generally insightful commentary thanks to particularly ridiculous question in a post by Eric Knipp at Gartner. In the post he asks if The Cloud Will Save The World?

Security Soapbox – Decompile Flash/Flex

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:15:00 EDT

Having built/architected/developed/consulted many Adobe Flex applications and being one of the first certified Flex instructors in the world, I've seen a lot of Flex applications. Some good, some bad. But no matter how many applications or who I'm talking to, I always stress the importance of securing proprietary information. By securing, I mean don't put it [...]

A Quick Career Advice For Edward Zander

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:30:00 EDT

When I saw the press release about Ed Zander's recent career move , I could not help myself from thinking about Ed's last 20 year professional life. His reputation since the Sun Microsystems days was that Ed was not a very technology-enabled executive. I am not sure even today if he personally uses an email account or any intercation with technology beyond his cell phone. Ed should look at President Obama's video clips with his blackberry in hand and ask himself as one time president of Sun Microsystems, then as the CEO of Motorola, if he was any closer to Obama's passion with technology. The answer is NO. You must always be passionate about anything you do in life. How successful can you be as a technology executive, if you hate the idea of email, not to mention, not even using it? You can't.

SYS-CON's iPhone Developer Summit Day One ROCKS

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Today was the first day of SYS-CON's iPhone Developer Summit, in the Roosevelt Hote in NYC.

I Have Three Free Guest Passes for the iPhone Developer Summit

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:00:00 EDT

As a speaker at the upcoming AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo, June 22-23, in New York City, I just received an email from Lindsay over at SYS-CON Events, that I can invite three guests with full conference passes to attend the two-day iPhone Developer Summit. She just informed me about the coupon code "iPhonespeakerguestexpo" (case sensitive) that I can use to invite three guests with. I am not planning to bring anyone with me from Sydney, Australia, so here it is for you to take advantage of. The registration page can be found here. If you have any registration problems, you can contact Susan at 201 802 3020 or by email events (at) sys-con.com. See you in New York City on Monday! --Yeshim

From Tehran to You Live on Ulitzer: The Wind of Change is Blowing

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:45:00 EDT

I have been waiting for a worthy topic to make my first Ulitzer post and the events taking place in Iran are sweeping the Internet and world by storm. Below is an email providing a first hand account of the events that took place in Tehran on June 15th, 2009. My sincere hopes and wishes are with the people of Iran in this tumultuous time.

What Is Server Offload And Why Do I Need It?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:07:00 EDT

One of the tasks of an enterprise architect is to design a framework atop which developers can implement and deploy applications consistently and easily. The consistency is important for internal business continuity and reuse; common objects, operations, and processes can be reused across applications to make development and integration with other applications and systems easier. Architects also often decide where functionality resides and design the base application infrastructure framework. Application server, identity management, messaging, and integration are all often a part of such architecture designs.

Adobe AIR Has Been Installed On Over 200 Million Computers In Just 16 Months

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EDT

I've missed the Flash Camp Keynote in San Francisco where Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch mentioned that AIR reached over 200 million installs. The Adobe AIR Team blog wrote that the Acrobat.com application provided with Adobe Reader continues to be one of the most popular applications. Unfortunately in Italy AIR applications are not so populare and well accepted by enterprise companies (this is the market I work for) and I guees we'll have to wait more time in order to see the same penetration you're reporting in US.

Did You Notice Our Subscribers List?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:15:00 EDT

Did you notice our subscribers list update? Now, you can receive Graphic Mania all posts and and free resources updates right to your email address, in full HTML and images. You can save the images and backgrounds you need directly to your computer and get the free resources download links saved to your email for further [...]

Adobe Flash Kindle Books Selections

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:30:00 EDT

If you still can not adopt reading books from your computer screen, or do not like to waste your laptop battery charge for just reading a book, then I think Amazon Kindle is the best solution for you. I myself still can't give up reading from paper books as it is much comfortable for eyes.

Ted Weissman and Lois Paul & Partners PR Firm

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EDT

I just read SYS-CON's response to the recent attacks in Fuat Kircaali's Social Media Terrorists blog entry. I realized the email quoted at the end of Kircaali's blog was also copied to Ted Weissman of Lois Paul & Partners, a public relations firm with clients in technology. If this email was sent to SYS-CON based on Weissman's advice to his client, then, in my humble opinion, Ted Weissman and his firm are not qualified to operate as a PR agency to serve technology markets and provide advice to any technology client until they sort out their facts from the Twitter mob fiction. After reading Kircaali's response, it sounds like this pr man is getting his news from Twitter feeds of Al Jazeera instead of reading the facts in a magazine such as Forbes before advising his clients about the "documented questionable business practices" of one of the most respected tech media companies in the world. My question is "Is this man in the business of providing public relations or creating public relations disasters for his clients?"

New Visual WebGui Webcast on MSDN June 16th

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:11:00 EDT

In this webcast we'll show off the new point and click Visual WebGui Control & Theme Designer. This designer joins the well known drag and drop Visual WebGui Form designer. It offers the fastest, most intuitive way (no Javascript, no HTML, no CSS, no XAML) of developing and designing. It allows you to develop fully customizable and extendable line of business applications with DHTML or Microsoft Silverlight presentation layers.

GM's IT Restructuring Does Not Convince Me

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:40:00 EDT

Information Week has published an interview with GM’s CIO discussing the impact of the bankruptcy on the two-billion-IT operations of this huge corporation. After reading this article, I’m pretty sure that GM’s IT is doomed. The chances are slim that they will turn themselves into leaner and agile organization as it should be in 21st century.

Ellison at JavaOne: Myths About JavaFX, Android, and J2ME

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:50:00 EDT

At JavaOne, Larry Ellison has made some very encouraging statements about Oracle’s commitments to Java, JavaFX, and the mobile developer market. It is certainly good news that Oracle (i.e., Larry) sees the significance of the Java platform in its integrality. However, there are many misunderstandings about the relationship between Java, JavaFX, and Android that even confuse the new Java owner. Here are some clarifications.

Morgan Stanley Raises the Bar for RIAs Using Adobe Flash Platform

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:15:00 EDT

Morgan Stanley have launched a comprehensive online trading tool called “Matrix” which allows their customers to get closer to the trading floor than ever before; the application enables them to view live pricing, get informed opinions for market professionals, review historical market data and make derivatives and foreign exchange trades in real-time, directly from their [...]

Introducing AskBing The PowerShell Bing Twitter Proxy

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:05:00 EDT

Last week I posted a PowerShell function library for Microsoft’s newly introduced search engine at Bing.com. The function library was appropriately named PoshBing. There was a log of interest in the script so I quickly moved it off my blog and onto a CodePlex project under PoshBing.

Visual WebGui Launches Weekly Online Show

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:49:00 EDT

“Geeks on a Role,” hosted by Visual WebGui creator Guy Peled and Eyal Albert, VWG’s developer experience manager, will provide a platform for information and knowledge sharing for the Visual WebGui community by discussing the latest company news, product announcements, technology demos and general development topics. In addition, each week Geeks on a Role will choose questions sent in from the audience or posted on the Visual WebGui forums to provide on air answers and solutions.

Data Access for RIAs

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:22:00 EDT

ZapThink just produced a good report on the state of Web 2.0 tools entitled "Evolution of the Rich Internet Applcation Market." In the report, Jason Bloomberg and Ron Schmelzer of Zapthink highlight a critical gap in most RIA solutions: the inability to access data from within the UI. They then point to this as a major source of competitive advantage for Adobe

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Productivity

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Pushing the boundaries of integration and productivity New Adobe Creative Suite 4 software features radical workflow breakthroughs and hundreds of innovations to advance the creative process across print, web, mobile, interactive, film, and video production.

Say Goodbye To Bad UI Thanks to the Cloud

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:45:00 EDT

New entrants, however, have a great opportunity to leverage UI and user experience to make their management apps more sticky and to appeal to a broader market. For example, the Bluebear guys have built a snazzy, intuitive multi-hypervisor virtualization management tool written in Adobe AIR. If I’m an SMB who is dipping my toe into the waters of virtualization, maybe a tool like this makes it easier for me to get started. Or take a company like Cloudkick, that is looking to “make the cloud easier to use an accessible to everyone.” That’s a great misson statement, and one that’s certainly achievable given the software development technologies available today.

Rejected MAX Proposals and Advanced Flex Events

Sat, 30 May 2009 08:06:00 EDT

Yesterday, my colleague and I received notifications from MAX 2009 (the main Adobe annual conference) organizers that started with words “We regret to inform you…we were forced to make difficult decisions, which topics would

AJAX Usage Among .NET Developers in 2009: Survey

Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:00 EDT

A couple of years ago Simone Chiaretta did a survey of .NET Developers usage of Ajax. I just saw that he is refreshing that survey to see what has changed in the industry. Are people still actively moving to Ajax? Are they using MVC or WebForms with their Ajax?

Adobe's New Flex Presentation Tool: Acrobat Presentation

Thu, 28 May 2009 16:00:00 EDT

I've just discovered (don't know how old it is) this new presentation web tool released by Adobe on Acrobat.com Labs. Acrobat Presentation is a Flex application that adds to Adobe's online collaborative offerings (with Buzzword). Presentation allows you to create slides using the PowerPoint metaphor with the following features

AJAX World RIA Expo: Flash Builder Sounds Good To Me

Tue, 19 May 2009 11:00:00 EDT

So I'm back from a trip to Tokyo and the first news I read is that Flex Builder 4 (codename Gumbo) will be renamed to Flash Builder! Ryan have written an explanatory post (read the full "Flex Builder “Gumbo” is Being Renamed Flash Builder" article)about the motivations that drove Adobe to this change. And I totally agree with him when he has said that it's now clearer that the tools for creating Flash content are independent of frameworks or other parts of the Flash Platform. Moreover I trust Adobe's decision. It demonstrates us many times that it knows what it does. But you know what it means to me ?

How to Get a Professional Corporate Blogging Job

Tue, 19 May 2009 09:00:00 EDT

The Secrets of Corporate Blogging. I would like to begin with defining what corporate blogging is. There are actually four types of blogs that can be considered corporate blogs; I will list these definitions later. For now, suffice to say that I am most interested in corporate blogging as “professional blogging on behalf of a company”. So first I have to explain: what is professional blogging? And to do that, I first have to explain: what is blogging?

Adobe Flex: Prefixing Fx

Sat, 16 May 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Flex framework’s current stable version is 3.x and the Flex team at Adobe is actively working on getting the version 4.x ready this year. At this time, the core SDK of Flex 4, codenamed Gumbo, is evolving through an open source process. From peeking into its initial version, it looks promising as there are serious attempts to create a clean separation of behavior and presentation in the components, apart from the tons of nifty enhancements throughout the framework. (I promise to write about some of the forthcoming features soon)

AJAX World RIA Expo: .NET RIA Services May 2009 Preview

Tue, 12 May 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Today we posted a minor update to .NET RIA Services. This release is mainly focused on addressing bug fixes we have heard in the forums and delivering on a few key areas… There are a lot of other long lead work items that will fall into future releases.

Cloud Computing Expo: Clouds Have Layers

Tue, 12 May 2009 09:15:00 EDT

SaaS has been around for many years - first known as ASP (application service provider) in the 1990’s. The most famous has been Salesforce.com’s CRM/SFA application suite. In fact, any application delivered over the internet and hosted remotely can be called SaaS - including ADP’s hosted payroll services, QuickBooks online, and tens of thousands of applications from thousands of vendors.

Citrix Receiver For the iPhone Closes the Gap on Enterprise Adoption

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Citrix announced the formal release of the Citrix Receiver for iPhone 1.0, now available in the App Store. The new app allows instant access to company resources behind the firewall including apps, documents, and internal web sites.

Cloud Computing Is Not Burger King

Mon, 11 May 2009 03:15:00 EDT

There is a very real difference between on-demand computing and on-demand infrastructure. What the cloud provides now, and is described by just about every cloud pundit as the benefit of cloud computing, is on-demand compute resource provisioning. Central to this theme is provisioning, but also relevant to the discussion of that provisioning is applications, not infrastructure. Even when we confine the discussion strictly to IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) we aren’t really talking about on-demand infrastructure services, we’re just talking about on-demand infrastructure as a whole.

Ulitzer’s Amazing First 30 Days in Public Beta

Fri, 01 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Even with these impressive first stats, Ulitzer users for the next 12 to 24 months will only be a fraction of the early adopters of tomorrow's social media tools. Ulitzer offers quality content under a managed environment. Google News keyword alerts are already contaminated with meaningless garbage largely due to its automated nature. Instant access to quality content will get more difficult as this erosion escalates. Sites such as Ulitzer will be the only answer to one-stop access to quality content on any subject.

Compiled Web vs. Interpreted Web

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:57:00 EDT

Software technologists tend to learn by oscillating. We never arrive directly at the right solution; we just come closer to it by going back and forth. We always think (or like to think) that our current solution is correct; only to realize, some years later, that we overshot and need to take a few steps back. The evolution of the software application model is a great example of this syndrome. Every technologist knows about the three main application model phases—Mainframe, Client/Server, and Web [1.0]—and many of them think they know what the next phase will be. In fact, two models are currently being promoted. In order to better understand the current trend, it is important to first understand the three original model phases.

New Adobe Video Component for Flex

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Alongside the release of Flash Media Server 3.5, we also shipped a Flex-compatible version of the FLVPlayback component. If you've ever looked at the VideoDisplay component in the Flex SDK you'll know that it's not exactly feature-packed, so it’s great that we now have an enhanced version - the FLVPlayback component has the

Menu Interaction in Adobe AIR

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:00:00 EDT

This is the third part of the series dedicated to AIR menus (Chapter 6 of the Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development). The book is oriented to Flash developers interested in building desktop applications via Adobe AIR. You can preorder The Essential Guide to Flash CS4 AIR Development on Amazon or buy it on local bookstore starting from 22nd December.

Amazon EC2 Reserved Pricing Changes the Equation

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:15:00 EDT

Things are changing fast in the world of Cloud Computing, however one question remains the same. Will it save me money and how much? To follow up on a previous post on Cloud Economics Part One, I looked at a fairly simple example of 5 Servers for a dev/test environment and identified the incremental costs of buying 5 servers and running them on premise or a Colo and then compared that to Amazon EC2. The analysis did not include many variables such as real estate costs and labor savings which may or may not apply to the particular situation. The results indicated that a Premise based deployment could provide the lowest "incremental" cost when compared to EC2 if the servers were running continuously. On the other hand EC2 provided significant savings for short term workloads with no upfront costs.

Business Challenge: Garmin International Satellite Navigation Web Content Management

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:15:00 EDT

Garmin International uses Enterprise Web Content Integration software that neatly integrates DMS and portal features, allowing enterprises to deliver "mashups" and a variety of value added applications such as CRM, ERP, online shops or product information to one single level