Battery-powered. Built-in satellite-based Global Positioning System receiver. Accelerometer. Ambient light sensor. High-resolution camera. Powerful processor. Gigabytes of storage. Radios for communicating with Bluetooth devices, WiFi networks and cellular data systems. And now, even an embedded gyroscope. The sensor and communications capabilities of today’s smartphones is astonishing. Each generation of device, whether from Apple or its […]
Speed matters. With most agile development methodologies, the faster you can push new code out into the source-code management system, into builds and onto servers, the faster you can evaluate your progress and chart your next moves. From monthly builds came weekly builds, then daily (or nightly) builds. In some shops, those builds are used […]
Salesforce.com intrigues me, and that’s a positive thing. The company keeps reinventing itself, and shows the type of innovation that used to be more common in Silicon Valley. If you thought that Salesforce was in the business of hosting customer relationship management software, you’re living in the past. CRM barely scratches the surface of where […]
It’s almost time to unveil the SD Times 100 – the top 100 companies, project and movements that are demonstrating innovation and leadership in the software development industry. This year, the SD Times 100 will be “officially” published in the June 1, 2010, issue of SD Times. It’ll also appear on that date on sdtimes.com. […]
Computer Associates. CA. CA Technologies. What are they thinking over there in Islandia? When Computer Associates changed its name to CA in 2006, it seemed like a lame move at the time. And indeed, while some people do refer the computer as CA, it appears to me that most people refer to it as Computer […]
Those of us in the technology world – call us nerds, geeks or software developers – expect a 1:1 ratio between personal email addresses and people. I’m not talking about business or workgroup addresses. I mean your home, non-business address, which might come from your cable TV company, DSL or wireless provider, or from a […]
There are three separate vectors relating to Apple’s mobile platforms buzzing in my cranium. They’re the SD Times iPhone application, the technical program for iPhone/iPad DevCon and my barely used iPad. I’m very proud of our new SD Times Newsreader iPhone app. It was written by our in-house IT team — here’s a big shout-out […]
VMforce is a good idea. Java is perfect for cloud computing: As the original “run once, run anywhere” platform, what VMware and Salesforce have announced has the potential to revolutionize the Cloud, and offer arguably the most compelling platform for many enterprises. I see VMforce – the fusion of VMware’s virtualization technology and Spring framework […]
Going agile makes sense. Navigating with traditional methodologies doesn’t make sense. I don’t know about you, but nothing sucks the life out of a software development project faster having to fully flesh out all the requirements before starting to build the solution. Perhaps it’s a failure of imagination. Perhaps it’s incomplete vision. But as both […]
If you follow the business-to-business publishing market, you know that last week Reed Business Information announced the closure of 23 publications. The company claimed that it couldn’t sell them… but it’s not clear if it really tried. Not familiar with the story? Don’t know what it means for the publishing industry? Here are three links: […]
Free mobile applications are great. If those free apps are supported by advertising, that’s a trade-off that I’m willing to make – and I suspect many users that would agree with me. Our feelings about advertising in software have changed. While we don’t expect our desktop software to contain ads – sorry, no pop-ups when […]
Yesterday was a great day — I got out of the office and spent the day down at 360iDev in San Jose. This is a grass-roots conference dedicated to iPhone developers; most of the couple-hundred folks in attendance seemed to be “indie” entrepreneurs. I suppose we fit into that category, with our SD Times Newsreader […]
Web developers like using Adobe’s Flash technology to deliver video, animations and interactive content over the Web. Apple doesn’t like Flash because it’s a proprietary system and because the runtime environment can be a resource hog. Apple, like Microsoft, only likes proprietary specifications when it can control the spec itself. Otherwise, the company prefers open […]
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” Gerald Ford spoke those words on Aug. 9, 1974, when taking the oath of office as President of the United States, after the resignation of Richard Nixon. The phrase, “Our long nightmare is over,” came to mind when reading yesterday that the jury in the District […]
Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
It’s April 1st, and you know what that means! It means that SD Times annual contributor I.B. Phoolen has made his, well, editorially questionable annual contributions. RAG unveils Mystic Sextant Mac developers embrace .NET with Visual Objective-C You can read more of I.B.’s writing on his blog. See also Larry O’Brien’s Windows & .NET Watch […]
What can you do with an old dead computer? A family member asked me how to dispose of his ancient no-longer-functioning Dell desktop PC. The good news is that it’s easy, and usually free, to recycle unwanted electronics, whether it’s a computer or cell phone, television or batteries. Here’s an generalized version of what I […]
If you’re building applications for mobile devices, are you an indie, a corporate or an enterprise IT developer? The mobile world is trifurcating into those specific communities. I spent most of this week at Microsoft MIX, the company’s annual technical conference for Web developers. This year, the event had a huge concentration on both Silverlight […]
If you buy lots of stuff from Amazon.com — as I do — you might be fooled by receiving a message like the one below. It certainly looks real, as it came from a legitimate-looking email address. However, a real Amazon order confirmation lists exactly what you ordered. This scam message does not. Also, a […]
Our next SharePoint Technology Conference will be Oct. 20-22, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge. We are conservatively projecting 750-800 registrants for SPTechCon Boston, but given the incredible growth of SPTechCon San Francisco from 2009 to 2010, and the fact that SPTechCon Boston will be the first event after the official release of Microsoft SharePoint […]
SPTechCon San Francisco (Feb. 10-12) had more than 1,000 registrants. That made the conference nearly twice the size of our previous SPTechCon San Francisco, held in January 2009. Attendees were drawn to SPTechCon’s outstanding faculty. While many attendees focused on SPTechCon’s classes and workshops about SharePoint 2010, many others went to classes on older versions […]
Let’s say that you can type 15 words per minute using a two-fingered method. You want to get faster, perhaps up to 40 wpm, using all ten fingers. During the learning process, as you suffer through unfamiliar motions, your typing speed and productivity speed will suffer for a few days, maybe even a few weeks. […]
Kent Beck and Ken Pugh are smart, smart fellows. Listening to them discuss the art and science of software development is guaranteed to excite the neurons… and leave you feeling supercharged with energy and ideas. Both Kent (pictured) and Ken were keynote speakers at this week’s Enterprise Software Development Conference. As the conference chair, I […]
How long should Dummies Month last? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? The correct answer, according to the For Dummies folks, is “two months.” It’s like an all-day Happy Hour! Celebrate For Dummies in March and April From fashion to Facebook, For Dummies is making everything easier! From March 1, 2010 through April 30, 2010, For […]
United Business Media is relaunching COMDEX as a virtual trade show. This is hysterically funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. Roll-on-the-floor funny. The benefits of attending COMDEX were talking to people, seeing and touching new products, talking to people, making deals with both exhibitors and other attendees, talking to people, discovering new companies, and talking to people. While […]
If you’re reading this on Monday, Mar. 1, today is the first day of the Enterprise Software Development Conference. As conference chair, I’m running around like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off. As I write this, however, we’re in the calm before the storm. Hundreds of enterprise software developers and development managers are […]
I’m not sure I believe everything the scammer says in this three-part interview with Scam Detectives, but this is interesting nonetheless. Read all three parts: Part 1: January 22, 2010 Part 2: January 26, 2010 Part 3: February 2, 2010 Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
We don’t aspire to be the next Industry Standard, Release 2.0, Fast Company or Wired. We simply want to be your favorite newspaper. The only paper that reports on what is happening in our growing, fast-moving industry—the software development industry. We’re Luddites of a sort, hoping to bring you the best in handcrafted journalism and […]
Wow, did Facebook blow it with its latest redesign. The new, simpler navigation system, unveiled on Feb. 4, was intended to make it easier for people to stay updated, discover content and interact with applications. Instead, the new nav structure is a “bag of hurt,” to borrow the phrase that Apple’s Steve Jobs uses to […]
We’re racing toward the finish line for SPTechCon San Francisco, BZ Media’s SharePoint Technology Conference. It’s next week, Feb. 10-12, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame. And it’s going to be huge… here’s why. • So many people! This year’s attendance is much higher than the 2009 SPTechCon SF — at least […]