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Chrome

Google Chrome: The New Web Platform?-> 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "The Chrome dev team is working toward a vision of Web apps that offers a clean break from traditional websites, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister, in response to Google's new Field Guide for Web Applications. 'When you add it up, it starts to look as though, for all the noise Google makes about Web standards, Chrome is moving further and further apart from competing browsers, just by virtue of its technological advantages. In that sense, maybe Chrome isn't just a Web browser; maybe Chrome itself is the platform — or is becoming one.'"
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Microsoft

15 Free Tools For Every Windows Desktop-> 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Woody Leonhard rounds up 15 powerful free Windows utilities for a fast, productive desktop environment. 'Some people collect Windows utilities like windshields collect bugs. But for most of us, the word "utility" is key. If we find ourselves not using the tool a few times a week, we give it the heave-ho. Utilities change all the time — and not always for the better. Newcomers usurp entrenched old favorites. Some find themselves in the news for the wrong reasons. And so you have to refresh your set of tools time and again. Here are 15 utilities that belong in every Windows user's bag of tricks. They're all free for personal use, and many are free for corporate use as well.'"
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Microsoft

Microsoft's Killer Tablet Opportunity->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis sees ripe opportunity for Microsoft in the tablet market: Forget about outdoing Apple's iPad and give us the features that finally improve the way we work. 'The game isn't beating Apple at its own game. The magic buzzword is to "differentiate" and show what your technology will do that Apple won't even care about, let alone beat you at. One possible answer: Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,' Lewis writes, outlining four business features to target, not the least of which would be to provide UI variance, enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work."
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IT

Why Aren't We Finally Rid Of Patch Cables?-> 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia suggests it's high time we drastically reduce the number of patch cables in the data center. 'I suppose laypeople are impressed when they see an aggregation switch overflowing with hundreds of patch cords that run from RJ45 modules to RJ45 patch panels in the same rack, but all I see is a pain in the ass. It's difficult to trace out bad cables, it's difficult to run new cabling if the cable management trays are overrun with existing wires, and god help you when you need to replace a failed module when all 48 Ethernet interfaces need to be disconnected and reconnected to the exact same port on the new blade in order to maintain VLAN membership and other individual configuration elements.'"
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IT

IT's Worst Addictions -- And How To Cure Them->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Jargon, data, power — InfoWorld's Dan Tynan discusses IT's worst addictions, and what IT pros and organizations can do to cure them. 'Are you a jargon junkie? Got an insatiable appetite for information? Do you rule over your company's systems with an iron fist, unwilling to yield control until someone pries the keyboard from your cold, dead hands? Fortunately, there are cures. But first you must admit you are powerless over your addiction to acronyms, your dependence on data, and your cravings for power.'"
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Microsoft

Why Microsoft Developers Need a Style Guide-> 2

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "What your interface communicates to users can be just as important as what your software does, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister in discussing the latest edition of the 'Microsoft Manual of Style,' a style guide aimed at designers and developers who create Microsoft software, as well as those who write about it. 'The gist of much of Microsoft's advice is that a user's relationship with computer software is a unique one, and it's important to craft the language of software UIs accordingly,' McAllister writes. 'Occasionally, Microsoft's recommendations verge on the absurd. For example, you might not think it necessary to admonish developers to "not use slang that may be considered profane or derogatory, such as 'pimp' or 'bitch,'" but apparently it is.'"
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Google

Google To Pay Users To Track Online Activity->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Amid widespread concern about its new privacy policies, Google is now facing criticism over an offer to give users Amazon gift certificates if they open their Web movements to the company in a program called Screenwise. 'Google is asking users to add an extension to the Chrome browser that will share their Web-browsing activity with the company. In exchange, users will receive a $5 Amazon gift when they sign up and additional $5 gift card values for every three months they continue to share. (Amazon is not a partner in the project.) Users must be over age 13, and minors will need parental consent to participate. The tracking extension can be turned off at any time, allowing participants to temporarily close their metaphorical shades on Google.'"
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IT

MongoDB In Review->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Andrew Glover provides an in-depth look at MongoDB, one of several NoSQL data stores filling the voids left by traditional relational DBs. 'Working with MongoDB is not without challenges. For starters, Mongo requires a lot of memory, preferring to put as much data as possible into working memory for fast access. In fact, data isn't immediately written to disk upon an insert (although you can optionally require this via a flag) — a background process eventually writes unsaved data to disk. This makes writes extremely fast, but corresponding reads can occasionally be inconsistent. As a result, running Mongo in a nonreplicated environment courts the possibility of data loss,' Glover writes. 'The relational database is still the staple data store for the vast majority of applications built today. But for some applications, the flexibility offered by Mongo provides advantages with respect to development speed and overall application performance.'"
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Programming

The Road Ahead For Rising Node.js->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "Node.js is gaining traction as an application development platform among the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo, but questions remain about JavaScript's appropriateness on servers and developers' readiness to use it, InfoWorld reports. The project's event-driven, nonblocking I/O model makes it ideal for data-intensive, real-time applications running across distributed devices, according to Node.js advocates, and Node.js creator Ryan Dahl sees Node.js even displacing Java on servers. But others, such as eBay's Ted Dziuba, see Node.js as a "scalability disaster waiting to happen." A formal 1.0 version should arrive this summer, according to Dahl, who recently stepped down as gatekeeper of Node.js. Among features planned for Node.js are binary modules to allow developers to interface with system libraries written in C."
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IT

IT Guy Wanted -- Must Have Own Tools-> 2

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "If you work in IT, you not only put your heart and soul into your job, you often sacrifice your own hardware to the cause, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. 'Often, small-but-critical parts slip from personal stores into the corporate maw. Sometimes I feel like a teacher who has spent his own money on school supplies — and I'm certain I'm not alone. Who knows how many IT folks have used their own gear to get projects completed on time or to save the day while troubleshooting, only to leave those parts behind because they've become indispensible?'"
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It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like. -- Jackie Mason