Posted on Fri, May 11, 2012
It's Friday and that means it's time for our weekly feature where we search the Web looking for 5 interesting, funny and poignant links for developers and IT Pros.
If you missed our other post this week,
The Changing Face of Enterprise Software, please check it out. The ways we are buying, developing and using software are changing and this post looks at some of the trends driving that change.
Please consider subscribing if you like what you see here, and if you have something to say, please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.
And without further delay, here we go with this week's links:
Big Data Vendor Roundup | CIO Update
All you hear these days is Big Data this and Big Data that. It's marketing's favorite new buzz word and you have a right to be leery, but don't forget behind every buzzword is a real trend and this article takes a look at some of the vendors and what they really have to offer.
Want good programmers? Then PAY them. | Irrlicht3d.org
There's a simple law of supply and demand. If programmers are in demand, it means the going rate should go up, but for some reason that's not happening everywhere. If you want to solve your programming shortage, seems simple enough. Pay them!
Is Microsoft blocking Chrome and Firefox from native Windows RT a big deal? | ZDNet
On its face, a company that once got in serious trouble for giving preference to its own browser over the competition probably shouldn't do it again in a new context. In a world of heightened browser competition, even more so, but this is Windows RT is for tablets where Microsoft barely has marketshare, never mind a monopoly and that's the big difference.
16 Questions to Ask Mobile App Developers | Input Output
There's a lot of folks out there claiming they are mobile developers, but how do you find the really good ones? This articles gives you a list of crucial questions you want to ask when you're hiring your next mobile app developer.
Meet Silk, the Semantic Web for the rest of us | GigaOM
Tim Berners-Lee designed the page-based web, but for years he's been trying to drag us into developing the semantic one. Trouble is, it's a lot more complicated than connecting pages, even if it's much more useful to connect data. Silk is a new search tool that's supposed to take advantage of semantic underpinnings to help you answer questions instead of just finding results based on a few keywords. Looks interesting.
Photo by Tomma Henckel Used under Creative Commons Share Alike/Attribution License.
Posted on Wed, May 09, 2012
Have you noticed the way you buy and develop software is shifting. There are a lot of trends that are forcing a change, and of course, some companies are moving more slowly, but over time it's happening.
There is the cloud of course, which is having a profound impact on the way we think of software. Instead of buying boxes of software or packs of licenses (many of which we may never use), we're buying only what we need. Instead of complicated updates that completely undermine the way we work and cause months of preparation and pain, we now have regular updates that happen seamlessly in the background.
And it's not just pure-play cloud vendors who are changing. Even traditional boxed software vendors are changing. If you look up on the shelves above my desk, you'll see a long history of desktop computer software going back to the early 1990s. It's a veritable museum. What's interesting is that in the future, no such record will exist.
That's because companies like Apple are doing away with boxed software. Now you get your apps through the Mac App Store, just as you do with apps on your iPhone or iPad. When OSX Lion was released, it was download only. There wasn't a boxed version available. You no longer have to track that physical disc because there isn't one. You download the software and updates to the OS and related software are done over the air too.
Just last week in fact, Adobe announced with the release of Creative Suite 6, it was offering a boxed version and a subscription version. This seems to be a transition period for the company as it moves people away from the boxed set. You get what is essentially the $2500 Master Suite for $49 or just $588 a year. The updates come automatically and you don't have to put out another huge chunk of money with each passing upgrade. Your software becomes a fixed cost. It makes much more sense.
Another factor driving change in the enterprise is the notion of simplification. Box CEO Aaron Levie recently wrote a piece about this for Fast Company called The Simplicity Thesis. His premise is that people don't need bloated enterprise software packages that are difficult to buy, install, configure and maintain -- and worse they are harder to use. They lop on more and more features when most people only use a few. What we need is simpler software that's easier to use and maintain.
He's right. Feature bloat has become a huge problem with software, and that's one of the reasons people like cloud solutions because they tend to be easier to use and don't get bogged down into too many features. Companies like Levie's have made it easy to build applications on top of the Box platform to add functionality where needed without bogging down the core Box product.
This discussion wouldn't be complete without talking about the impact of mobile on enterprise software. Increasingly, employees want access to enterprise software and repositories wherever they happen to be. The cloud certainly makes that easier, but you also need to be thinking about developing apps to let your users acccess content securely from wherever they are.
Beyond that there are related trends including consumerization where people are looking for software that's as easy to use as what they use at home. That plays directly into the cloud, mobile and simplicity ideas. In addition, employees are increasingly bringing their own devices, the ones they feel comfortable with.
As the enterprise shifts and changes, the way it buys and uses software is changing too. Are you ready? How far along is your organization? Leave a comment and let us know.
Posted on Fri, May 04, 2012
It's Friday and that means it's time for our weekly feature where we search the Web looking for 5 interesting, funny and poignant links for developers and IT Pros.
If you missed our other post this week,
Financial Times says buh-bye to iOS. Should you?, please check it out now. The Financial Times of London recently took the unusual step of shutting down its iOS app in favor of a HTML5-only approach. It works for them, but would it work for your company too?
You may also want to have look at
The Apple Profit Machine infographic we published earlier this week, which lays out Apple's monstrous profits for all to see -- and it's impressive.
Please consider subscribing if you like what you see here, and if you have something to say, please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.
And without further delay, here we go with this week's links:
Should the CIO Know How to Code? | Javalobby.
Some CIOs do know how to code, but given everything a CIO needs to do today, is it really the best use of his or her time? This writer thinks it is. Do you agree?
4 Things I’ve Learned From Flying That Help in IT | Input Output.
What do flying an airplane and IT have in common? Well, apparently a lot. This article looks at the common ground between these seemingly incongruent activities.
RIM Explains BB10 Launch Expectations in Exclusive Interview | FierceMobileIT.
Remember the Monty Python Movie, The Meaning of Life where the doctor comes to take the guy's liver before he's dead and he pleads, "But I'm not dead yet." In this interview a RIM executive comes out fighting (and it's good to see) and claims there's more to RIM than its fading American market.
Innovation is Alive and Well in IT, At Least in the Midwest | Toms IT Pro.
Veteran technology journalist David Strom took a trip to the Gateway to Innovation conference and he shares some of the broad themes being discussed there including the role of IT in innovation, the current state of outsourcing and understanding agile methodology.
Mobile Fusion: Power Play or Meltdown? | CIO Update.
It was a big week for RIM with its annual user conference in Orlando, Florida and one of the big stories to come out of the conference was the update to RIM's MDM product. The good news: it's going to support more competing products. The bad news is that it could hurt Blackberry handset sales as consumer-driven trends bring other more popular competing handsets into the enterprise.
Photo by Tomma Henckel Used under Creative Commons Share Alike/Attribution License.
Posted on Thu, May 03, 2012
In a move I found somewhat surprising, PaidContent reported that The Financial Times of London is shutting down its iOS app in favor an HTML5-only approach. It got me wondering, should other developers consider going this route or is it something that only a niche player like FT could pull off?
PaidContent reports that FT took this step because its numbers supported the move. It actually began the transformation last Fall, starting a transition period in which it let its existing users continue to use the app. But with the release of an HTML5 web app, FT watched the pure iOS app numbers plunge.
With only a small percentage of users left using the iOS app, it made little sense for it continue to support a dual approach. And if you're thinking about this approach, you may want to learn from FT's experience.
Glenn Gruber, AVP of mobile solutions at Ness says it's a strategic decision that each company needs to make on its own based on its own experiences, which won't necessarily mirror FT's.
"Some publishers are more concerned with maximizing reach, other for maximizing profit. Hearst is very happy with the results they're getting from being on iOS. Recently Distimo published a report showing that Newsstand has been very successful for both publishers and Apple. Conde Nast saw a 268% increase in digital subscriptions and Future Publishing 750%," Gruber explained.
Gruber is careful to point however, that developing for HTML5 does not necessarily mean you would drop iOS or even Android. It is possible to develop in HTML5 and then move the app to an iOS container to make it behave as though it were an iOS app. This is the approach that the cross-platform development tools PhoneGap or Appcellerator take.
It's worth noting that in his biography, Steve Jobs indicated how much he disliked these cross-platform approaches because he felt it watered down the development environment Apple had worked so hard to build for developers. Of course, Jobs always hated any products that he saw as interfering with Apple's unified approach.
Gruber says your development decisions are going to depend on your audience and even the publishing tools you choose.
"HTML5 content can be used within native apps, though HTML5 alone is not the way one would design a native app. But it can provide a better alternative than some of the traditional publishing tools. David Wheeler on his Just a Theory blog reviewed Conde Nast’s The New Yorker mag on the iPad and panned it because of huge download sizes and adherence to the traditional print magazine layout," he said.
Gruber adds, "The huge file sizes were attributed to the shortcomings of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite that CN uses, which resulted in using images, rather than text for the articles. Conde Nast has indicated its plan is to move to HTML5 in the future to resolve this," he explained.
In the end, FT's approach made sense for it given its audience make-up and where it wanted to devote its development resources. Whether you decide to go a similar route depends a great deal on your own unique circumstances, keeping in mind the huge reach that Apple has with its devices.
Photo courtesy of Apple.
Posted on Wed, May 02, 2012
We've all heard about Apple's incredible profits over the last several years, but to see it laid out is indeed impressive. But beyond the sheer amount of cash this company is generating quarter after quarter, as developers and IT pros, you have to be paying attention to the breadth of their reach.
Because of Apple's increased popularity, you have people bringing iPhones and iPads into work and this is driving the Consumerization of IT and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movements. As people get familiar with one Apple product, they want to use others -- and that could mean supporting more Macs.
From a development perspective, it means you need to build apps for iOS for your employees and for your customers. Apple is a juggernaught and it's not clear what if anything can slow it down.
Have a look:
Created by:
BusinessDegree.net
Posted on Fri, Apr 27, 2012
It's Friday and that means it's time for our weekly feature where we search the Web looking for 5 interesting, funny and poignant links for developers and IT Pros.
If you missed our other post this week,
Flash May Not Be Dead, But It's Not Feeling Well, please check it out now. When Adobe abandoned Mobile Flash last Fall, it was a shot across the bow for Web developers. A recent Wall Street Journal article indicated Adobe was ready to focus on marketing departments and seem to be moving on from Flash. It may be time for your company web site to do the same.
You may also want to have look at
The RIM Rise and Fall infographic we published earlier this week, which traces the rise of RIM to its recent troubles, all of which can be traced directly to the introduction of the iPhone in 2007.
Please consider subscribing if you like what you see here, and if you have something to say, please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.
And without further delay, here we go with this week's links:
Google Drive SDK announced, but APIs are only for Web apps right now | Ars Technica.
Google announced the release of the long-awaited Google Drive this week and along with it some APIs that could make the service even more interesting than it appears to be at first glance. The APIs are limited at least for now, but it's a start and it should be interesting to see how people build services on the top of Google Drive.
NY datacenter leads with the Green | ZDNet.
One Albany company shows how to be green including using solar panels to generate a vast majority of the required electricity to run the data center. Read the article to see what other techniques the company is using to be green.
Effectiveness of Teams - .NET Code Geeks
This article looks at the importance of teams in the Agile development process. Overall, when you have multiple programmers attacking a problem, of course, you are more likely to solve issues than leaving it to one person.
2 more cloud myths busted: Lock-in and locked up | InfoWorld
This article attempts to attack two persistent myths about cloud computing use. First of all, that it locks you in -- the author argues that just about any choice is locks you in on a certain level -- and that you can't be compliant in the cloud. He argues that the compliance card is being way overplayed.
End of Life Quick Sand | Genuitec Blog
What happens when your big enterprise software system reaches the End of Life? It can make your life complicated in a hurry. You've put time and effort into customizing this huge and important system. What happens now?
And this week's bonus post:
Yahoo's genius content strategy | The Oatmeal
This Oatmeal cartoon nails why Yahoo! is failing.
Photo by Tomma Henckel. Used under Creative Commons Share Alike/Attribution License.
Posted on Thu, Apr 26, 2012
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A Wall Street Journal article this week suggested that Adobe may be finally ready to give up on Flash as a centerpiece of its software strategy. We already know that Adobe gave up on Mobile Flash last Fall. in favor of HTML5.
Adobe has to decided to focus on marketing teams using its strengths around Adobe Day CQ5 web content management software and Omniture analytics tools. So what does that mean for all the Flash and Flex developers out there? Is Flash dead or just not feeling very well -- and how long does it really have?
It's worth noting that when Adobe released Creative Suite 6 this week, it included updated versions of Flash Builder and Flash Professional, but even so, you have to be wondering how your company should be handling its strategy around Flash when Adobe's giving signals that it's not the darling of the company it once was.
Glenn Gruber, AVP of mobile solutions at Ness, says it really depends on your audience. If your site analytics show you still have a lot of web traffic, you should be OK using Flash for the time being on your web site, but you need to be paying close attention to how your audience accesses your content.
"You should be tracking site statistics by device type to give you a clue if you’re not doing this already. You’re thinking is a lot different if your user base is 90% desktop web than 90% mobile. And you have to know which direction that trend is going -- and be ahead of it, " Gruber said.
As for Mobile Flash, that's clearly dead and Gruber says you should just accept it and move on. "But on mobile, Flash is really a non-starter. It’s not just on iOS devices. Back in November Adobe announced that it stopped development of Mobile Flash. So Flash is persona-non-grata on Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry too," Gruber said.
Gruber suggests having auto-redirects for mobile devices to steer users away from Flash content if you are using it on the company web site. "You must auto-sense and do redirects for mobile devices so that you provide a proper experience to users," he said.
He adds, "It’s not just Flash or no Flash, but that the site is designed for a touch experience and page weight is reduced dramatically to compensate for lower bandwidth on mobile and users aren’t waiting for the page to load. This is particularly important for companies who want to transact over the web (make a reservation, book a flight, buy a book). Delays in page load time are bad for conversion."
As for Flex, it's clear Adobe has completely abandoned it, leaving it to the open source community at the end of last year.
While Flash still lives at Adobe, it's clearly been relegated in importance and as that happens, you may want to carefully consider your Flash strategy moving forward. As Gruber said, "So if it’s not time to de-Flash your site, it’s at least time to re-evaluate it." You would be foolish not to be paying attention.
Photo by flyheatherfly on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.
Posted on Tue, Apr 24, 2012
We all know that RIM has taken a plunge in popularity, but if you want to know just how far it has fallen, take a look at this infographic from MBA Online, which traces RIM from its humble beginnings as the world's first "smart phone" and business darling through its meteoric rise and finally to its steep decline.
If you want to know why, look at what happened in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone and the corporate inertia that followed. It was precisely at that moment in June, 2007 -- although we didn't know it at the time, of course -- that marked the beginning of RIM's downturn.
The title itself might be a bit melodramatic. RIM's not dead yet, but it's not resting comfortably either.
Created by:
MBAOnline.com
Posted on Fri, Apr 20, 2012
It's Friday and that means it's time for our weekly feature where we search the Web looking for 5 interesting, funny and poignant links for developers and IT Pros.
If you missed our other post this week,
Ellison Testimony Could Leave Java Developers Confused, please check it out now. When the Oracle CEO testified this week he wasn't sure if Java was free, he might have unknowingly released a hornet's nest of angst among Java developers, who were left to wonder what plans Oracle has for Java in the future.
Please consider subscribing if you like what you see here, and if you have something to say, please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.
And without further delay, here we go with this week's links:
“
But, Boss! I Have to Work at Home! The President Said So" | Input Output.
The US government has mandated telework. It relieves traffic congestion, reduces pollution and lowers the cost of doing business. If it works for the federal government, it might work for your business too. You have to click through for the accompanying infographic alone.
Report Says IT Worker Confidence is at the Highest Level on Record | TechTarget.
A new report oozes with optimism regarding IT workers. Why are you all feeling so good? It turns out it's because there's a high demand for your unique talents around the world. You can even learn what one employment expert considers to be the best countries for IT workers. It's all good news!
Ubuntu wants to be your cloud and data-center Linux | ZDNet.
Sure Ubuntu wants to be your Linux desktop of choice, but it also wants to run your cloud and data center. In fact, it has an interesting strategy to straddle both both Amazon EC2 and Open Stack with an awesome service that uses the acronym AWESOME. What's it mean? You'll have to read the article to find out.
Amazon Low Prices Disguise a High Cost | NYTimes.com.
The New York Times wants to know how the Justice Department could have missed Amazon in its ebook anti-trust law suit. Instead it goes for Apple, which has just a tiny piece of the eBook market. My favorite line: "That’s the modern equivalent of taking on Standard Oil but breaking up Ed’s Gas ’N’ Groceries on Route 19 instead."
Little Games, Big Business (infographic) | BusinessDegree.Net.
For games developers, the programs may be small, but there's a ton of income out there to be made beyond Zynga and Rovio. This infographic explores the mobile gaming industry and what's at stake economically.
And a bonus for you this week:
If Microsoft Made Google Glasses (video-humor) | Socmedianews.com.
Imagine if Microsoft made Google's augmented reality glasses. This is a bit brutal, but still humorous parody of the
Google Glasses video that came out a couple of weeks ago.
Photo by Tomma Henckel Used under Creative Commons Share Alike/Attribution License.
Posted on Thu, Apr 19, 2012
At the Google-Oracle trial earlier this week, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was asked by the Google attorney Robert Van Nest if Java was free. According to CNET, Ellison hesitated, but when pushed by the judge, admitted he didn't know. I'm sure that answer left Java developers everywhere feeling warm and fuzzy.
As a matter of fact, given the prevalence of Java use, it had to leave CIOs wondering just what Ellison meant, but for now it's not clear if Ellison's words will translate into wholesale changes around Java.
Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier, a journalist and frequent contributor at ReadWriteWeb, who has written extensively about open source over the years, finds the statement disturbing and bizarre. "If Larry doesn't know, who does? That should be a disturbing statement on many levels coming from the CEO of the company that controls the Java process," Brockmeier said.
But Ness AVP for mobile solutions, Glenn Guber thinks this might be confined more to the trial and Google's use of Java more than anything that can be applied to Java use in general (although he's careful to point out, this is his opinion only). "I don't believe that there is any threat to web development or application development that stems from this lawsuit. But there is a big potential issue with Android as a platform if it does not go well for Google," Gruber opined.
He added, "I don't think that Oracle is saying that Java is not Open Source, but that Google did not honor the GPL license by essentially forking Java with Davlik and not appropriately licensing some the underlying APIs," Gruber explained.
Brockmeier's not sure what's going to happen, but he says Oracle can't simply un-open source Java, although it could make it more difficult to use in the future. "I'm really not sure what will happen if Oracle wins or tries to fence in what's considered open or not. They can't completely un-open Java, what's been GPL'ed stays open," Brockmeier said.
Brockmeier worries though that Ellison's statement could cause confusion -- although for now at least, Java is alive and doing better than ever. "It would introduce some uncertainty in the process, but how much impact that will have is unclear. Oracle's suit against Google hasn't - so far - had much of an impact on Java's popularity. Oddly enough, it seems like Java is on the upswing," he said.
As Alex Armstrong pointed out on the I Programmer blog, when Oracle bought Sun (and along with it Java) there was much hand wringing in the developer community. This simple statement at a trial couldn't be making those same programmers feel much better about Java's future.
As Brockmeier said, it's a bit too late for companies to simply give up on Java given the significant investment many have made already. "Too much money has been invested in Java, too many companies have too much code written in Java to just chuck it all," he said.
That means that Ellison could be sitting in the catbird seat when it comes to Java -- and that's not a position that can make Java developers feel very confident at this point.
Still, it's hard to know if this was an isolated statement, answered honestly under pressure or a shot across the bow that perhaps Oracle has other plans for Java down the road. Only time will tell.