Blogs
A Reflection on AS2 and Timeline Development
By Tom BarkerDecember 15, 2009
This past weekend I assisted my director at my university with a project he was working on for the president of the school. It was a fun project, and the time line was essentially by the end of the weekend...
Four short links: 15 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 15, 2009
Opticks -- Opticks is an expandable remote sensing and imagery analysis software platform that is free and open source. Hugely extensible system. (via geowanking) Best Buy, Samsung, And Westinghouse Named In SFLC Suit Today (Linux Weekly News) -- the Software Freedom Law Center is suing them for selling GPL-derived products without offering the source. They've been unresponsive when contacted...
RIA Adventure Conference/cruise
By Amy BlankenshipDecember 14, 2009
Something terrible has happened. I've just returned from the RIAdventure Conference. Yes, I've said it. This is the only conference I've ever been to where it felt tragic that it was over. I don't think I'll be able to convey...
The Top 5 Reasons to Attend Flash and The City
By Kevin SuttleDecember 14, 2009
Flash and the City is a little less than 6 months away, but preparations are being made around the clock to ensure it will be the premier Flash conference in 2010. The conference's main organizer, Elad Elrom, along with Jose...
Innovation from the Edges: PayPal Taps the Developer Community to Build Next-Gen Payment Apps
By James TurnerDecember 14, 2009
Two enduring tenets of Web 2.0 are "A platform beats an application every time" and "All the smart people don't work for you." Companies that take those bits of wisdom to heart find ways to engage developer communities to extend their products--and the result can be creative, surprising new applications that would never have been developed from within. Online payment giant PayPal recently announced the PayPal X APIs, a new group of developer APIs designed to enable new applications that can more tightly integrate with PayPal services. To encourage developers to create some awesome applications with the APIs, PayPal is offering prizes $100,000 and $50,000 (in cash plus waived transaction fees) for the best new applications. We caught up with PayPal's director for their Developer Network, Naveed Anwar, as he prepared to deliver a talk in Beijing, and he filled us in on what the new PayPal APIs bring to the table for application designers, and laid out the details of the challenge.
Saxon's author writes open letter to UK MP on patents
By Rick JelliffeDecember 14, 2009
Michael Kay has posted on his blog a letter to his MP Patents: an Open Letter to my MP. Why are patents in the software business bad? * Firstly, they reward failure and penalise success......
5 Tips For Version Controlled Site Deployments
By Jesse FreemanDecember 14, 2009
In this AFT I will go over - 5 Tips For Version Controlled Site Deployments. After relaunching my own blog I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the techniques I have used on larger sites and how they can be applied to smaller ones. Blogs and small sites are excellent times to practice version controlled deployments. This post will discus what I have learned and recently implemented.
Apps Per Seller Across the US iTunes Categories
By Ben LoricaDecember 14, 2009
Measured in terms of number of unique apps†, the Top 5 categories in the U.S. app store have been Games, Books, Entertainment, Travel and Utilities. But comparing categories in terms of number of apps doesn't capture the challenge of developing applications in different categories. As I noted in an earlier post, it's much easier to develop a Book app than...
Four short links: 14 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 14, 2009
Videos from the vault of the National Archives -- the public domain US government videos that public.resource.org have been scanning. Check out China's Great Leap Forward (the Beijing landscape has changed!), John James Audubon's Birds of America, and Nature's Half-Acre. Browser Market Share -- fantastic circular visualisation of browser share over time. (via Mike Loukides) NYT Year in Ideas...
How Do You Handle Rejection?
By Gene McCullaghDecember 13, 2009
How do you handle rejection? Rejected images, that is. When you import new images into Lightroom you are faced with the initial task of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. If you haven't had a chance to read my previous article on using the flags, Do You PUX?, I recommend you jump over there and read that first.
Four short links: 11 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 11, 2009
Real Time Text Taskforce -- standardising live typing ala EtherPad and Google Wave, for accessibility reasons. NoSQL Required Reading -- papers and presentations to get up to speed in the theory and practice of scalable key-value data stores. (via Hacker News) It's Official, data.gov 2.0 is Coming -- pointer to the design and philosophy document for the next iteration...
Happy Birthday Internet!
By Sarah SorensenDecember 10, 2009
The Internet, as you probably know, turned 40 this month. I would like to take a moment and reflect on how far it has come since its infancy...
Visualizing and Categorizing the 911 Wikileaks Data Set
By Brady ForrestDecember 10, 2009
On November 25th, Wikileaks released 500,000 text pager intercepts from the 24 hours surrounding the horrific 9/11 attacks. The personal, corporate and governmental come from the Washington D.C. and New York City areas. These can be found on their own subdomain at http://911.wikileaks.org/ and are released under the CC-BY-SA license. As with the AOL search logs and the Enron...
RIA Radio Episode 3 - Jonathan Snook
By Garth BraithwaiteDecember 10, 2009
Jonathan Snook joined us to talk about the future of font embedding, CSS resets, HTML5, and general awesomeness. Kevin Suttle and Zach Stepek were the panel of experts for the episode. Elad Elrom and Kevin also gave us an...
28 Rich Data Visualization Tools
By Theresa NeilDecember 10, 2009
We're currently working with a dozen different clients, all web application (re)designs. All of these clients have data rich applications and need equally rich data visualizations to help their end customers analyze data quickly and effectively. What makes my job really interesting is that these clients are in different industries and are using different technologies. So we have pulled together a set of 25 tools for creating graphs, Gantt charts, diagrammers, calendars/schedulers, gauges, mapping, pivot tables, OLAP cubes, and sparklines, in Flash, Flex, Ajax or Silverlight.
The Watering Hole - Where's Charlton Heston When You Need Him? - I, for one, welcome our new cellular overlords!
By James TurnerDecember 10, 2009
Before we go and make our portable devices too smart, we might be wise to think about the kind of data that they have access to...
Four short links: 10 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 10, 2009
Scriblio -- open source CMS and catalogue built on WordPress, with faceted search and browse. (via titine on Delicious) Useful Temporal Functions and Queries -- SQL tricksies for those working with timeseries data. (via mbiddulph on Delicious) Optimal Starting Prices for Negotiations and Auctions --Mind Hacks discussion of a research paper on whether high or low initial prices lead...
eSeminar: "The Open Screen Project: A Fundee Speaks"
By Alessandro PaceDecember 10, 2009
The Boston Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group is holding an eSeminar on Thursday 17th December at 12 PM EST. Speaker for this eSeminar is Max Antinori and topic is “The Open Screen Project: A Fundee Speaks”. More information here....
How to set up your InDesign files for ePub export
By Ron BilodeauDecember 10, 2009
This morning, I had my first professional speaking gig hosted by the Association of Canadian Publishers. I traveled to Toronto to give a presentation and workshop on how to set up InDesign files for ePub export. I have included a...
Charles Platt on the Basics of Electronics - Make: Electronics and Learning Through Discovery
By Mary RotmanDecember 10, 2009
Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun, hands-on way? Author Charles Platt (@charlesplatt) has created a book in which you will explore all of the key components and essential principles through a series of fascinating experiments. I asked him a few questions about Make: Electronics earlier this week so I could understand a little bit more about electronics (and why he wrote this book) for myself.
Requirements Development Techniques and Agile Projects
By Ed WillisDecember 9, 2009
This article is about developing requirements for agile projects. I've used a number of different techniques and have recently happened upon one that's been the best of the bunch for me - hopefully it will prove useful to you as well. Along the way, I'll sketch out a couple of other techniques for comparison.
Mutually Assured Detraction
By James TurnerDecember 9, 2009
In a distant post-apocalyptic future, an aged Ruby relates how the battle between AT&T and Verizon led to our downfall...
Inside the E-book Wars: Sony Turns up the Heat
By William StanekDecember 9, 2009
William Stanek here, delivering a new installment in my "Inside the E-book Wars" series. As I let you know in earlier posts, Barnes & Noble began shipping the Nook and Sony began shipping the Reader Daily Edition (PRS-900) in time...
Top security threats to Flash/Flex applications and how to avoid them - Part 1
By Elad ElromDecember 9, 2009
In the series of articles I will be posting on InsideRIA, you will gain knowledge about security in regards to Flash and Flex applications. In each article I will be covering specific security vulnerabilities, showing examples of how an attacker can abuse Flash/Flex applications, and pointing out ways to help prevent these attacks. The purpose of these articles is to increase awareness so you will take security into consideration when building your applications.
Four short links: 9 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 9, 2009
The Mythology of Bioinformatics -- worth reading this (reprinted from 2002!) separate of hype from history. Policy and Internet -- new journal, with articles such as The Case Against Mass E-mails: Perverse Incentives and Low Quality Public Participation in U.S. Federal Rulemaking: This paper situates a close examination of the 1000 longest modified MoveOn.org-generated e-mails sent to the Environmental...
Perplexed by Smoking Gun - Santa never made it to Yamba?
By Rick JelliffeDecember 9, 2009
Averaging data from a monsoonal tropical coastal town near the Timor and Arafura Seas, a town in the middle of one of the driest deserts, and a fishing village 3,000km away on the Pacific with a famously equitable climate (or perhaps the South Australian grape-growing town) and then saying it looks nothing like the IPCC graph for Darwin leaves me a little baffled about what point is being made.
GWT Now With SpeedTracer
By Brady ForrestDecember 9, 2009
Google is releasing v2 of GWT (pronounced "Gwit") tonight at a Campfire One in Mountain View. The open-source Google Web Toolkit enables developers to code Ajax web apps in Java. This latest release is focused on speed (just like the latest iPhone) and improved dev-designer collaboration. I was on a call with Bruce Johnson and Andy Bowers to learn...
News! ECMA, Google, Adobe, etc...
By Andrew TriceDecember 8, 2009
A few highlights that came across my RSS reeds today: Adobe AIR 1.5.3 and Flash Player 10.0.42.34 Released (includes scroll wheel support on macs: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ http://blogs.adobe.com/air/2009/12/adobe_air_153_coming_soon.html ECMA Script 5.0 Approved http://developers.slashdot.org/story/09/12/08/1416202/ECMAScript-Version-5-Approved You can access the spec directly at: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm New...
Poll Revisit: What mobile platform are you most interested in programming for?
By Rich TretolaDecember 8, 2009
Back in October of 2008, I posted a poll that focused on the many mobile platforms and asked which platform you were most interested in developing for. Since that time Android and Palm WebOS have matured a bit and Apple...
This World of E: A Look Back to Look Forward...
By William StanekDecember 8, 2009
So the Atari 2600 debuted in 1977 and remained the world's most popular video game system through 1984. I bought one around 1978 and happily shelled out pretty big bucks for the privilege of having popular arcade games available for...
Getting Real with LCDS 3, Part 2
By Justin ShackletteDecember 8, 2009
In Part 1, we experienced the joy of model driven development and built a complete LCDS 3 backend using the new Modeler plugin. Amazingly, no Java was needed to create a full production-ready backend. In Part 2, we will build a complete Flex 4 frontend while exercising some of the cooler client-side LCDS 3 features along the way. And once again, I won't skimp on the details.
Four short links: 8 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 8, 2009
Python's Moratorium -- Python language designers have declared a moratorium on enhancement proposals (feature requests) while the world's Python programmers get used to the last batch of New And Shiny they shipped. I'm reasonably sure that the ALGOL designers went through exactly the same discussions, and I know Perl did too. So, don’t be afraid of it - don’t...
Japanese Standard for ODF
By Rick JelliffeDecember 8, 2009
Based on a cryptic twitter from Dr Murata, it looks like the Japanese standard for ODF has been released. Congratulations to all involved, it is a good step forward to enable competition, substitution and industry in this area. The ODF...
Flex 101: Creating a Swipe/Slide Effect With Flex
By Andrew TriceDecember 8, 2009
In this example, we will walk through the creation of a swipe/slide effect inspired by the transitions that you often see in touch-capable devices when you use a finger to swipe from one screen to the next. One piece of content slides off to one side, and another piece of content seamlessly slides in from the opposite side.
Twitter Approval Matrix - November 2009
By Mike HendricksonDecember 7, 2009
This is the sixth post for the Twitter Approval Matrix with data that spanned the month of November and different sources such as klout.com, tweetsentiment.com, twopular.com, scraping archives, and observations. This month I received help from Joe Fernandez the CEO of Klout.com. I have included Twitter Trends which is simply the raw trend found on Twitter. The matrix shows four quadrants used to describe trends found on Twitter.
Climate Changers - Plus some quotes on climate change from the most cited authors
By Rick JelliffeDecember 7, 2009
What is interesting to me is that each of these positions have pretty clear policy ramifications: if you are Know-Nothing, the appropriate policy is Do-Nothing: invest in more studies perhaps, but don't base any policy on it. If you think CO2 is by far the most important thing, then carbon schemes are the only game in town.
Four short links: 7 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 7, 2009
3D Touchscreens -- Japan Science & Technology Agency and researchers at the University of Electro-communications have made a "photoelastic" touch screen. The LCD emits polarized light, picked up by a camera over the screen. Transparent rubber on the screen deforms when pressed, and the camera can pick this up. Interesting hack, though it's not yet a consumer-grade product. Eureqa...
PyCon 2010 Invited Speakers
By Doug HellmannDecember 6, 2009
The list of invited speakers for PyCon 2010 has been announced, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them.
Linux Regaining Netbook Market Share
By Caitlyn MartinDecember 5, 2009
ABI Research published some new data last month and the results may surprise you. They place the 2009 market share for Linux on netbooks at 32% with 11 million units preloaded with Linux shipping this year.
Handling Delayed Instantiation in Flex 3 (part 2 of 2)
By Amy BlankenshipDecember 5, 2009
Last week, we talked about what delayed instantiation is in Flex and why it's used, as well as how to make sure all of the children of a Container are created before you try to address them. If you missed...
Example of paginated content loaded via AJAX (2)
By Raymond CamdenDecember 5, 2009
A followup to my previous entry on handling paginated data within AJAX loaded content.
Four short links: 4 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 4, 2009
Readability -- bookmarklet that takes the crap out of a web page, resizes, and reformats so it's easier to read. Doesn't work for all sites, but it's a hellishly interesting idea. An In-Depth Look at Pivot, Microsoft's Newest Data Visualization Tool (TechCrunch) -- When turned on, Pivot can also make sense of your own browsing history (if you are...
Rolling out Android .apk Files in Ebook Bundles
By Andrew SavikasDecember 4, 2009
A distinguishing feature of Google's Android Market compared to the App Store is that it's a non-exclusive agreement. That means Android app developers are free to sell their apps...
The Lessons We Don't Learn
By Dale DoughertyDecember 4, 2009
In my Twitter stream today, Sylvia Martinez (@smartinez) retweeted a link to Seymour Papert's 1980 paper written for a Presidential commission that proposed that we provide a computer for every child in America. Long before One Laptop Per Child, Papert saw that computers should not be an "auxiliary" aid to learning but "fundamental" to changing how we learn. He understood...
You'll be the most alert diabetic on the planet! - If you don't spontaneously combust first...
By James TurnerDecember 3, 2009
I'm going on the principle here that, much like using uppers on ADHD kids calms them down, enough sugar and caffeine will be a depressant. At least that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it!
Inside the E-book Wars: Best E-Reader?
By William StanekDecember 3, 2009
William here. On 12/3, Business Week picked the Kindle 2 International Edition as the Best Gadget of 2009 because of it's "inclusion of free, high-speed wireless access that lets users download books on the go." But is it really the...
Google Android: on Inevitability, the Dawn of Mobile, and the Missing Leg
By Mark SigalDecember 3, 2009
If for no other reason than the 'Anyone but Apple' crowd needs an alternative, there is an 'inevitability' meme associated with Google's Android initiative. But, is their success in the market really inevitable? Over a year after Android's launch, the jury is still out. Read more.
Example of paginated content loaded via AJAX
By Raymond CamdenDecember 3, 2009
A simple example of dealing with paginated content with Ajax loaded divs.
Climategate and XML
By Rick JelliffeDecember 3, 2009
One interesting artifact to come out of the stolen Climategate material is an epic file HARRY_READ_ME.txt. It seems to be a year long log by a programmer (Harry?) who has to port old data and various old FORTRAN (and MATLAB?)...
Four short links: 3 December 2009
By Nat TorkingtonDecember 3, 2009
How Robber Barons Hijacked the Victorian Internet (ArsTechnica) -- cautionary tale of the exploitation of a monopoly. Once installed as the dominant proprietor of the nation's telegraph system, public trust in the confidentiality of Western Union transmissions evaporated. Gould "scanned the telegraph, or manipulated it, as an open book to the secrets of all the marts," Josephson wrote. 350...
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