Software Engineering, Not Computer Science
What is the best way to think of software development? Is it science? Is it art? Is it craft? Is it something else entirely? Read Steve McConnell's article here.
‘Java Is Dead, Long Live Java!’ – the Future of Java
Although, because of its prominence, Java gets a lot of attention and with it much criticism (some of it valid), many don't realize that some big breakthroughs have arrived and that the Java development landscape is solving important problems. Also, Developer.com posted their "product of the year" awards for 2006. Java related products have the strongest showing with the largest number of awards.
IBMs Renewed Cell Collaboration with Sony Pressures Intel
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"While the press brouhaha happily follows Apple about and co-conspirator Intel looks on, smugly hoping its tie-up with the much-loved computer maker will bring it some added kudos in its assault on the consumer electronics market, IBM, the giant ousted from the party, is getting on with business. Big Blue may have been dumped by Apple but its compensation is plentiful. Its Power chips form the heart of upcoming console offerings from Sony and Nintendo as well as the XBox from Microsoft. And let's face it, the press might like Apple and the kids might dig iTunes but sales of a million or so computers annually is pretty small beer in the grand scheme of things."
GNOME 2.12 Released for AIX; GTK+ 2.8.10 Released
Pegasos II Schematics Released
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With a delay of a few days, Genesi has released the schematics to its Pegasos Rev.2b5 motherboard. You can download it from here, but you'll need to sign up (free) on Power.org. They even blogged about it, stating: "If you are just along for the ride you can stop reading now. Your challenge: be the best you can be. That is the competition. We are in the human line that stretches behind and beyond us. We all can have a role to play. To participate we have to start within ourselves, find firm footing, and launch into the world around us."
Open Source Darwin for Intel a No Go?
Possibly in fear that hackers will be able to find backdoors in the Intel Darwin version and allow OSX to run on PCs other than Macs, Apple has only posted the sources of Darwin for PPC for the latest version.
Just how Different are Intel-Macs from Intel PCs?
The very first Apple computers, distributed nationwide in 1977, had a hood you could pry off to reveal the CPU, the memory, and the motherboard. But almost three decades later, the company that pioneered "open architecture" with the Apple II, even with thousands of admirers looking on, was reluctant to pry the back panel off its new Intel Core Duo-based iMacs and MacBook Pro portables.
GNU/Linux vs Microsoft on R&D: Answering the Microsoft
Linux News raises questions about Microsoft's alleged $6 billion per year investment in R&D. Is it money well spent, or are they just throwing it away?
Music Stops for Mac Windows Media Player
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Microsoft has officially halted development of its Windows Media Player for the Mac and plans no future Apple Computer versions of its music-playing software, CNET News.com has learned.
"It's basically a business decision for Microsoft," Anderson said. "Like any other company, we have business priorities. Our focus really is in delivering the best experience to Windows customers." Instead, users should now use this, which has a few problems though, according to some Mac users.
Running Commercial Linux Software on FreeBSD
"One of the more intriguing capabilities of the BSD operating systems is their ability to run binaries for other Unix-like operating systems. I recently found myself requiring the commercial PGP Command Line for a project. Rather than install a Linux box just for this one piece of software, I jumped through some hoops and made it work perfectly on one of my existing FreeBSD systems. Getting a random piece of commercial Linux software running on a FreeBSD system isn't always as transparent as you might like, but you can do it with a minimum of fuss if you have a few extra troubleshooting skills".
Google – Tomorrow The World
"As the managing director of an Internet company people often (wrongly) assume that I’m an expert about everything to do with the Internet. So it is that I’m often asked whether Google is worth its currently high share price. I try to be diplomatic in my response, and point out that I’m neither a stockbroker nor an accountant, so what do I know? continue reading."
REALbasic 2006 Release 1 Released
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REAL Software announced today that REALbasic 2006 Release 1 is shipping. This new product features enhanced compatibility with Visual Basic, simplified localization and improved reliability and stability.
Intel Macs May Boot Windows XP After All?
Reports spreading across the web that Intel Macs can’t boot Windows XP might be inaccurate. Intel Australia, while being careful not to comment on Apple’s hardware specifically, says motherboards based on the Intel 945 chipset already support EFI and can boot Windows with no problems. The key appears to be whether Apple has included a "compatibility support module". Explored in more depth
in this article at APC Magazine.
FAT Patent Fight Not Over Yet
On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reaffirmed Microsoft's FAT patents (covering the File Allocation Table), but sources close to the Public Patent Foundation indicate that this is not the end of the story of efforts to overthrow these patents. According to sources cited by Linux-Watch.com, the re-issuance of the patent was based on the examiner's having accepted an argument previously advanced by Microsoft, and previously rejected.
RHEL4 and Windows Integration Using Samba-3
Follow Ken Milberg as he sets up Samba-3 on RHEL4 server, so that Wintel clients can access file and print services like Wintel servers.
Sun and Apple Almost Merged Three Times – Bill Joy
Sun Microsystems tried to acquire Apple once and then almost merged with Apple on two other occasions, according to Sun co-founder Bill Joy. Beyond these deals, the two companies almost teamed on three other projects including sharing a user interface and the SPARC architecture.
Remote Desktop Apps Compared
Together with sharing files over a network, being able to control another computer remotely is particularly appealing to users with their own networks - especially when printers, scanners and other gadgets are connected to the alien machine. RISC OS has a number of applications to achieve this and while each are very similar, they have their own individual features that make them stand out in different ways.
Secure Java Apps on Linux Using MD5 Crypt
If you are a security developer and need to interface a Java application with the local operating system user registry, what do you do? This article gives you the answer: UNIX/Linux PAM-compatible systems that use authentication based on the GNU MD5 extensions to the crypt() system call. A pure Java implementation of MD5 crypt can provide a simple interface that can be used by Web applications to authenticate against the local UNIX registry.
The ABCs Of Programming Windows Communication Foundation
WCF is a new step in distributed programming for developers using the .NET Framework. If you currently build systems using any of today's .NET distributed technologies, it's time to start paying attention to WCF and the future it holds. It's only a matter of time before all .NET-targeted code related to communications will be written using WCF.
Microsoft Installs Patch Without Permission
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Users of Windows who have set the Automatic Updates option to "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them" were surprised to find that the latest WMF patch had overridden these settings and not only installed the patch, but rebooted the machines as well.