Friday, August 31, 2012

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived - The Oatmeal

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived - The Oatmeal


Printers From Hell - The Oatmeal

Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell To Make Us Miserable - The Oatmeal


Let's Build a Tesla Museum

Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum -- Indiegogo



Nikola Tesla was the father of the electric age. Despite having drop-kicked humanity into a second industrial revolution, up until recently he's been an unsung hero in history books. If you don't know who Tesla is, go read this.

Tesla's final laboratory is located in the sleepy town of Shoreham, New York. It's known as Wardenclyffe and it's where Tesla attempted to build a tower that would provide free wireless energy to the entire earth. Unfortunately, Tesla lost his funding before the project was completed and in 1917 the Wardenclyffe tower was demolished. Subsequently, the land was sold to a film and paper manufacturer.

However, the land, laboratory, and foundation beneath the tower are still there and very recently went up for sale. And right now a non-profit is trying to buy the property and turn it into a Nikola Tesla Museum. The property is listed at $1.6 million, and this non-profit has received a matching grant from New York State of up to $850k. This means that if we can raise $850k, New York State will match us for that same amount -- putting the total raised at $1.7 million.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Windows (8 Enterprise) To Go (from USB drive)

Windows To Go - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise that allows Windows 8 Enterprise to boot and run from USB mass storage devices such as flash drives and external hard drives.[1] It is a fully manageable corporate Windows 8 environment."

podcast Run As Radio: Stephen Rose (from Microsoft) Deploys Windows 8 in the Enterprise

Samsung Ativ S, first Windows Phone 8

Samsung unveils Ativ S, world's first Windows Phone 8 device | Mobile - CNET News


"The Ativ S (Ativ is "Vita" spelled backward) features a slim design, a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. There's also compatibility for HSPA+42

Ativ S packs in a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, and a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera.

Taking full advantage of new software capabilities announced for Windows Phone 8 in June, there's a microSD card and support for NFC (think file-sharing and, soon, payment).

Samsung has also added a very large 2,300mAh battery that should promise longer life, and 1GB of RAM. It'll come in 16GB and 32GB storage versions, and will feature a host of Samsung apps, like the Music Hub and the Media Hub for the U.S. market."


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Pinning Useful and Obscure Stuff to the Windows 8 Start Menu - Scott Hanselman

Pinning Useful and Obscure Stuff to the Windows 8 Start Menu - Scott Hanselman


Announcing Windows Azure Mobile Services - ScottGu's Blog

Announcing Windows Azure Mobile Services - ScottGu's Blog


"Windows Azure Mobile Services makes it incredibly easy to connect a scalable cloud backend to your client and mobile applications.  It allows you to easily store structured data in the cloud that can span both devices and users, integrate it with user authentication, as well as send out updates to clients via push notifications."

JavaScript Data Binding with AngularJS

JavaScript Data Binding with AngularJS Part I – Getting Started - Dan Wahlin's WebLog

Part II

Windows 8 HTML5 WinRT App: RSS reader in 30min

Windows 8 HTML5 WinRT App: How to create a small RSS reader in 30min (part 1/2) - David Rousset - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Windows 8 Start Screen: Group & Manage App Tiles

How To Resize, Group & Manage App Tiles In Windows 8 Start Screen


"You can also move apps into different columns, with noticeable space between adjacent columns. Just drag an app’s tile horizontally and you will see a gray bar appear in the direction you are dragging it. Drop the tile on that gray bar and it will get a column of its own, into which other tiles can then be added the same way to make a group of apps."

Internet Domains Expanding (for no good reason?)

ICANN's Boondoggle - MIT Technology Review

"There is no general shortage of Web addresses. If there were, we might have seen businesses flocking to other new domains ICANN has already introduced over the past decade

What amazing new benefits will all this spending bring to consumers? None whatsoever, at least in the eyes of venture investor Esther Dyson, who served as chair of ICANN from its inception in 1998 until 2000. Dyson once supported the idea of allowing companies to create arbitrary top-level domains, but she says she came to believe that the change would be unnecessary and confusing for the public. "

Monday, August 27, 2012

Windows 8 Keyboard shortcuts

23 new keyboard shortcuts for Windows 8 | How To - CNET:

Getting around in Windows 8 @ Windows Experience Blog


Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows 8 by Kent Walter @ Google Drive

Win+X: Open system utility settings menu
Win+PrntScrn: Take screenshot and save to Pictures
Win+Tab: Open switch list
Win+T: Preview open windows in taskbar
Win+U: Open Ease of Access Center
Win+Spacebar: Switch language and keyboard
Win+Enter: Open Windows Narrator

Win+D: Open Desktop
Win+,: Peek at desktop
Win+B: Back to desktop

Win+Z: Get to app options
Win+.: Snap app to the left
Win+Shift+.: Snap app to the right
Alt+F4: Close an app
Win+Q: Search apps
(tip: an even easier way to search apps is to just begin typing from the Start screen)
Win+W: Search settings
Win+F: Search files
Win+C: All charms
Win+Q: Search charm
Win+H: Share charm
Win: Start charm
Win+K: Devices charm
Win+I: Settings charm


Saturday, August 25, 2012

Windows Azure and Office 365, Office 2013, SharePoint 2013

Windows Azure and Office 365 - ScottGu's Blog


Standard ASP.NET (Web Forms or MVC) can be used for extending Office and SharePoint 2013.

Windows 8: Who moved my cheese

An excellent introduction to new Windows 8 navigation...

Windows 8 productivity: Who moved my cheese? Oh, there it is. - Scott Hanselman



Windows 8 does need a brief "users guide".

Use "Windows Key" to move to "Start Tiles" view
"Just start typing" in tiles view to find a tool or app,
Ctrl/Alt/Del to logout or shutdown.
"Windows-Key" + "X" to bring admin menu.

There is also "move mouse to corners of the screen",
and that is only message while installing OS,
but it is not very practical: moving mouse to very corner of screen is too much compared to "old style" Windows navigation...


Windows 8 UX (User Experience) is two steps forward, one step back...


Windows 8 Developer Camp - Redmond | Channel 9

Windows 8 Developer Camp - Redmond | Channel 9

Recorded full-day Microsoft "Developer Camp" event about Windows 8 platform,
recorded in Redmond, August 3, 2012, available in variety of formats...

It would be even better if there was an option to "speed up" videos, and if content was available faster for download...

One of "big new" features of Silverlight 5 is ability to "speed up" media content, but apparently this requires a web site that embeds Silverlight content to enable such feature?

Microsoft DevCamps

A year of Apple

Tim Cook Completes First Year as Apple CEO | PCWorld Business Center

Current Apple's stock price is $663.22, compared to $372.12 a year ago

And it is a company with highest market value in US.

Imagine if all "smart" retirement (or other) investment are put in Apple's stock a year ago...

Most of other technology (and other) companies are directly or indirectly trying to imitate Apple...

Climate Change Prediction Charts

The Carbon Capture Conundrum - Technology Review


No action to reduce greenhouse gases could produce temperature increase of 6C (=13F) by 2050...

From the chart it appears that China is already producing almost twice more CO2 than USA...

In a Fast World, Think Slowly

In a Fast World, Think Slowly - HBR IdeaCast - Harvard Business Review:

An interview with Frank Partnoy, professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego 
and author of "Wait: The Art and Science of Delay."

Even in automated stock market trading, fast sometimes can be too fast.

... idea that what you really want to maximize... time that you get before you have to make the decision

SQLite for Windows 8 apps

UPDATED HOWTO: SQLite with Windows 8 apps:

WinRT core of Windows 8 does not support any embedded database tool.
The expectation is that data are used as a service.

SQLite open source embedded database is packaged in Android and iOS,
as well as Chrome, Firefox and Opera web browsers, HTML5 web storage,
Skype, Adobe Reader and many other tools.

SQLite is also ported for Windows 8 (but not included in Windows install).
The security restrictions required code changes done by SQLite developers.  
The database is also available as pre-compiled DLL
that can be used from C++, .NET and JavaScript.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Jury orders Samsung to pay $1B to Apple

Jury orders Samsung to pay $1B to Apple - CBS News:

"After 21 hours of deliberation, a nine-person jury has sided with Apple on a majority of its patent infringement claims against Samsung Electronics.

Among other findings, the jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion because of copyright infringements it found in Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 (and most of Samsung smartphones)"


Apple’s $1 Billion Verdict May Lead To Samsung Sales Ban @ Blumberg

What the Apple v. Samsung Verdict Means for the Rest of Us @ Wired
In layman’s terms: expect Android phones to cost more. “This will drive many Android consumers over to Apple. Next to Samsung, the biggest loser today is Google.”

Windows 8 Boot Manager

Multiple versions of Windows could co-exist on same computer,
but sometimes (often?) this gets complicated.

When computer is able to boot, a tool to manage OSs is "bcdedit"
(Vista, 7 and newer Windows verions)

Dual Boot - Change OS Name in Windows Boot Manager - Windows 7 Forums:
bcdedit / ?
bcdedit / enum
"bcdedit /set {current} Description "Windows 7 (build 7000)""

When the computer is not able to boot, from install DVD there is a "recovery" option,
and from command prompt call
bootrec /?
bootrec /fixboot 
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /ScanOS
bootrec /RebuildBCD

This could be a risky business, so always backup first.

Repair / Fix MBR in Windows 8 using the Command Prompt

Windows 8 app samples - C#, VB.NET, C++, JavaScript

Windows 8 app samples - C#, VB.NET, C++, JavaScript in C#, VB.NET, C++, JavaScript:
"Last Updated 8/16/2012"


Downloads for Metro style app development

Microsoft's new logo

Microsoft's new logo: This took 25 years? | Technically Incorrect - CNET News



Thursday, August 23, 2012

CorkaMIX.zip - PE/PDF/HTML/JAR(CLASS+ZIP)/PY file

CorkaMIX.zip - corkami - a PE/PDF/HTML/JAR(CLASS+ZIP)/PY file - reverse engineering experiments and documentations - Google Project Hosting:

"CorkaMIX.exe is simultaneously a valid:
* Windows Portable Executable binary
* Adobe Reader PDF document
* Oracle Java JAR (a CLASS inside a ZIP)/Python script
* HTML page"

It serves no purpose, except proving that files format not starting at offset 0 are a bad idea.

Many files (known as polyglot) already combines various langages in one file, however it's most of the time at source level, not binary level.

Amazon Cloud Drive

Learn More About Amazon Cloud Drive



Another 5 GB free online storage...

but apparently no API, and no direct access to data - only by tools provided by Amazon.

That is very different than Google and Microsoft "Drive", that both have modern RESTful web APIs...

Slow Installing .Net 3.5 on Windows 8

Why is installing .Net 3.5 SP1 so slow? - Super User:

Final Windows 8 is finally available, and it comes without "old" versions of .NET framework.
There is only .NET 4.5 pre-installed, and it "backward compatible" with .NET 4.0.
But there is many programs that are written in .NET 3.5, 3.0 or 2.0 that is not pre-installed.
And installing .NET 3.5/2.0 is super-slow on Windows 8. It could be 10 minutes on "normal" PC.

Windows 7 had .NET 3.5 pre-installed, that is "backward compatible with .NET 3.0 and 2.0.
.NET 4.0 that came latter had to be installed, and there are MANY (security) updates.
All in all, Windows in not quite .NET friendly. And that is main development platform for Windows.

Maybe recent improvements in C++ and JavaScript, along with their integration to WinRT,
will make a better alternative...

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Microsoft Building 3 Million Surface Tablets?

IDC Says Microsoft is Building 3 Million Surface Tablets


If Microsoft is hoping to shift million of Surface tablets in the first few months, the pricing is going to have to be very aggressive. Perhaps Microsoft plans to offer subscription-based pricing, or partner with carriers to subsidize 3G-equipped versions of the tablets.

We have seen results of too ambitious high-volume attempt by HP...
Hopefully Microsoft has learned that lesson...
On the other side, HP TouchPad is a great device for the money paid :)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Modernizr - Detecting HTML5/CSS3 Features

Detecting HTML5/CSS3 Features using Modernizr - Dan Wahlin's WebLog


A nice tutorial article...

JavaScript Data Binding Frameworks

The JavaScript Cheese is Moving: Data-Oriented vs. Control-Oriented Programming - Dan Wahlin's WebLog


move more and more functionality to the client. Data binding is a key aspect of client-centric programming that can significantly minimize the amount of code written, simplify maintenance, and ultimately reduce the number of bugs that crop up in an application. Without data binding you have to locate each control in a page with code and then assign or extract a value to/from it – something I call “control-oriented” programming...

KnockoutJS


James Clark's Random Thoughts: MicroXML

James Clark's Random Thoughts: MicroXML:

MicroXML - by this I mean a subset of XML 1.0 that is not intended to replace XML 1.0, but is intended for contexts where XML 1.0 is, or is perceived as, too heavyweight.

Namespaces. This is probably the hardest and most controversial issue. I think the right answer is to take a deep breath and just say no.

http://www.w3.org/community/microxml/ Introducing MicroXML

Monday, August 20, 2012

Why You Should Use Computer Sleep Mode

Why You Should Use Sleep Mode | PCWorld:

Time to Sleep: 0:18 Time to Wake: 0:02

"high-end system uses some 120-130 watts just sitting at the desktop (not including monitor), and uses 1 watt when powered off (most computers draw a very small amount of power, even when off, so they can do things like turn on when you press the power button). In sleep mode, my system draws a whopping 5 watts. Five. What does that different of 4 watts mean to you?

let's just suppose your system is turned off 16 hours a day. That 4W difference works out to a whopping 1.92 killowatt-hours (kWh) per month. According to the Department of Energy, the average price for electricity in the U.S. is 11.59 cents per kWh, so sleep mode costs you 22.2 cents per month. The average home in the U.S. uses 936 kWh per month, so 16 hours of sleep mode a day would be a 0.21% increase in monthly power usage. That's what we call a "rounding error."

Important:

system BIOS should support the S3 ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). The S1 mode leaves the CPU and RAM powered up, the S3 mode powers those down.

Stock Market a Ponzi Scheme?

PIMCO | Investment Outlook - Cult Figures


A detailed analysis by bond-market guru Bill Gross questions if stock marker is sustainable.

"​The long-term history of inflation adjusted returns from stocks shows a persistent but recently fading 6.6% real return since 1912.
The legitimate question that market analysts, government forecasters and pension consultants should answer is how that return can be duplicated in the future.
Unfair though it may be, an investor should continue to expect an attempted inflationary solution in almost all developed economies over the next few years and even decades."

Bill Gross Wants You to Know That the Stock Market Has Been a Ponzi Scheme

Apple Now Biggest-Ever U.S. Company - WSJ.com

Apple Now Biggest-Ever U.S. Company - WSJ.com



Inflation adjusted value of Microsoft in 2000 was still higher...
Highest worldwide stock value was of Chinese oil company, briefly more than $1 trillion.

Windows 8 Camp in a Box

Download: Windows 8 Camp in a Box - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details7/18/2012

Windows 8 Camp in a Box, Release Preview Edition

Downloads for Metro style app development

SkyDrive SDK

Sunday, August 19, 2012

"you belong where you are appreciated"

Nationwide add Belong - YouTube
"Whoever you are, you belong where you are appreciated — in a place where you come first."

Sound as a generally useful wisdom...



15 Ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist

Designing Windows 8 Apps

Designing Windows 8 Apps | Windows 8 Developer Camp - Redmond | Channel 9

Apparently there IS some deeper logic and structure behind "modern UI".
Trouble is, that is not obvious. Small things, such as "how do I log out from this thing now" really leave bad taste... I am afraid that Windows 8, the way it is now, will not be liked very much, despite quite good technology and huge effort behind it. Like Vista was...

There may be a way to adjust the system, with some simple "guides".
That could be a "compromise" for "designers in the clouds",
but for "normal people" as well as for Microsoft bottom line, that would help.

For example, "Windows Button" on keyboard, as well as left/right errors, Ctr/Alt/Delete to logout and turn off device, "just start typing" in Start Tiles mode to search etc...

JavaScript for Windows 8 development

JavaScript project templates for Metro style apps

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Best SSDs For The Money

Tom's Hardware's SSD Hierarchy Chart : Best SSDs For The Money: May 2012




list @SSDreview.com

Computer Science @ Khan Academy

Computer Science | Khan Academy:


JavaScript, as I observed many years ago, IS the language of the future.
It fits perfectly as a tool for teaching programming ("Computer Science")
at Khan Academy, where primary audience are middle school level students...
Conveniently, JavaScript works even on iPad, a platform of choice for many schools.

Khan Academy Launches The Future of Computer Science Education

Khan Academy Enters Next Era With iPad App


How Bill Gates' Favorite Teacher Wants to Disrupt Education

Compare Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Editions

Compare Editions | Microsoft Visual Studio 2012


Thursday, August 16, 2012

World's Tallest Building... In Just 90 Days?!

Sky City: Chinese Company BSB to Build the World's Tallest Building... In Just 90 Days?! | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building


"Even since the current world’s tallest builing – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – was completed, there has been a constant battle to build the world’s next tallest building. The current record holder stands tall at 828 meters and took five years to build, but a Chinese company called Broad Sustainable Building (BSB) aims to smash that record by building the 838 meter eco-friendly Sky City tower, in Changsa, China in a mere 90 days – and they’re planning to use prefab building techniques to construct the skyscraper so quickly!"

Giant 3-D Printer to Make An Entire House in 20 Hours | Popular Science

Giant 3-D Printer to Make An Entire House in 20 Hours | Popular Science


"Storage Spaces": new feature in Windows 8

Features new to Windows 8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Storage Spaces is a storage virtualization technology which succeeds Logical Disk Manager and allows the organization of physical disks into logical volumes similar to Logical Volume Manager (Linux), RAID1 or RAID5, but on a higher level.

A storage space will behave like a physical disk to the user, with thin provisioning of available disk space. The spaces are organized within a storage pool, i.e. a collection of physical disks, which can span multiple disks of different sizes and different interfaces (USB, SATA, SAS). The process of adding new disks or replacing failed or older disks is fully automatic, but can be controlled with PowerShell commands. The same storage pool can host multiple storage spaces. Storage Spaces have built-in resiliency from disk failures, which is achieved by either mirroring or striping with parity across the physical disks. Each storage pool on the ReFS filesystem is limited to 4 PB (4096 TB), but there are no limits on the total number of storage pools or the number of storage spaces within a pool."

This feature is included in "classic" versions of Windows 8 (Basic, Pro, Enterprise), not in tablet (Windows RT)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Windows Phone 8 SDK "leak"

podcast @ The Tablet Show

So far the only sure thing about WP8 is that it will be based on same or similar WinRT at Windows 8 (in fact Windows RT, since WP8 is also running on ARM CPU).

From this "leak" info, apparently there are many differences from Windows RT. Carl and Richard mentioned that WP8 is using WinPRT
(Phone RT?). There is no XAML for C++, and there is no WinJS.
Essentially, .NET is similar enough to WP7, and there is some C++.

Common sense is that .NET/XAML is Windows "portable platform",
and that HTML5 + PhoneGap is general portable platform.
Where performance is critical, and "native" GUI is expected,
Mono Touch / Mono for Android is the solution.

Too many unnecessary choices, Microsoft... and too much variation...

Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8 Released @ MSDN

Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8 Released to Developers -- Visual Studio Magazine:

As planned, Microsoft has released final version of Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 @ MSDN.

This is still x86 and x64 only, no version "Windows RT" that runs ARM CPU.
That is only available for tablet manufacturers...

This time there are 3 versions of Windows 8, "standard/basic", "Pro" and "Enterprise".

Windows 8 Editions @ Wikipedia

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

(Web) Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013

Introducing the new Office cloud app model - Apps for Office and SharePoint Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Microsoft Debuts Cloud App Model for Office, SharePoint

Marketing people have hard time accepting web technology as-is.
They need to "invent names", such as "cloud".
Next versions of Microsoft Office and SharePoint, both called 2013,
will have new "cloud app" platform...

Videos

Build apps for Office and SharePoint @ MSDN

podcast: Sahil Malik Digs Into SharePoint 2013 @ DotNetRocks

Monday, August 13, 2012

2012 Summer Olympics - Statistics

London 2012 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

stats by country @ official site
medal count @ london2012

@sports-reference

Most Successful Countries of All-Time - Per Capita
It is "easy" to have many excellent athletes from hundreds of millions or billion+ people... If Europe would count as one "entity", it would be no contest (maybe?)...

London 2012 Olympic Games: Medal strike rate – Final count medals per million population (Excel, 2 sheets, 2.22mb)

Personalized Education is Sweden

podcast @ Stanford Social Innovation Conversations
Peje Emilsson | Case Studies in Real World Innovation - Kunskapsskolan:
the difference: catering to different students with different learning styles in different ways.

the result: significantly better test results, for same price of public education

the trend: expanding to UK, NY, and other places

Kunskapsskolan

"Kunskap" means learning or knowledge in Swedish

Students develop ownership of their learning by being allowed to have an influence over their time, progress and workplace in school. The purpose is to stimulate each person's motivation to learn and get more out of the time spent by students and teachers in school. How does it work? In "Why we choose Kunskap", Kunskapsskolan examines its own belief - that all people are different, even in school, and get to learn at their own pace and in different ways.





Garbology | Book about Trash

podcast @ TechNation / IT Conversations:
Ed Humes | Our Love Affair with Trash



Trash is, by volume, the biggest export "product" of USA, and it goes to China.
Containers bring products, and some of them go back empty, some carry trash for recycling (i.e. packaging or broken products), and then some carry genuine export products... But the trash wins!

Denmark is now energy independent, and they convert all non-recycled trash to energy....

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Windows 8 App in 30 Days

Microsoft "final push" for Windows 8 apps before the launch...

Windows 8 App Development | Generation App:

Begin your 30-day journey to create a Windows 8 Metro style app. Sign up to get started and receive:
  • Insider tips and tricks on Windows 8 application development.
  • Personal on-the-phone access to a Windows 8 architect*.
  • An exclusive one-on-one Metro style design consultation*.
  • An opportunity to get expert help from a Microsoft Services Engineer at an App Excellence Lab.

Ups... Not "Metro style" but "Modern UI"...

Microsoft "Reality Show"

Be the Next Microsoft Employee

Apple license offer to Samsung

2010 Apple license offer to Samsung: $30 per smartphone, $40 per tablet | Apple - CNET News:

To sweeten the deal, Apple offered a 20 percent discount if Samsung would cross-license some of its patents back to Apple as part of the arrangement. In addition, Apple wanted royalties on Samsung's Windows-based phones. In the document, Apple said Samsung would have owed it $250 million in 2010.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Microsoft Outlook.com vs hotmail.com

Microsoft Launches New Outlook Website - Business Insider:

Outlook.com overhauls Microsoft's earlier take on personal email (Hotmail) and adds an airy design that matches Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Outlook will eventually replace Hotmail.

Microsoft also packed in some social features, letting you connect your email account to LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Skype. (You can chat on Skype within Outlook.com.) It'll also automatically sort your email.

Microsoft "Build 2012" is sold out

Microsoft Build 2012
October 30 - November 2, 2012, Redmond, Washington, USA

Build 2012 is sold out. Tune in online. | C9Team | Channel 9:

Price (was) about $2000. Expectation is that attendees will get new Surface tablet,
new Nokia Windows 8 phone, and maybe something else (Xbox with Kinect)

Those who attended Google IO 2012, for price of $900, received
The goodsRetail price
Nexus 7 tablet$199
Nexus Q$299
Galaxy Nexus phone   $349
Chromebox$329
Total$1,176

Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi

The Pragmatic Bookshelf | Raspberry Pi

"The Raspberry Pi is a $35, full-blown micro computer that runs Linux. Use its video, audio, network, and digital I/O to create media centers, web servers, interfaces to external hardware—you name it. And this book gives you everything you need to get started."

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Apple to Remove YouTube App From iPhone and iPad

Apple to Remove YouTube App From iPhone and iPad - NYTimes.com:

"...iOS 6 operating system, which powers iPads and iPhones, 
and developers promptly noticed that the YouTube app was missing 
from its lineup of built-in apps.
...
Google has never had much control over the YouTube app for iOS, 
because Apple built the app using technology 
that YouTube makes available to software developers..."

iPhone Caused "Crisis of Design" at Samsung

iPhone Caused "Crisis of Design" at Samsung (Memo) - Mike Isaac - Mobile - AllThingsD:

Monday, August 06, 2012

Scaling Dropbox: from 4k to 40 million

Scaling lessons learned at Dropbox: from 4k to 40 million

UTC

Keep everything in UTC internally! Server times, stuff in the database, etc. This will save lots of headaches, and not just daylight savings time. Some software just doesn’t even handle non-UTC time properly, so don’t do it! We kept a clock on the wall set to UTC. When you want to display times to a user, make the timezone conversion happen at the last second.

NASA Mars Curiosity landed

@Wikipedia

NASA mission to Mars: Rover Curiosity touches down - The Washington Post
"NASA’s rover Curiosity touched down deep in a Martian crater early Monday after a picture-perfect descent and landing, beginning what promises to be one of the most ambitious planetary missions in history."

@NASA


@MSNBC

SVG World Map

@CodeProject

SVG World Map

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Consia by Qualcomm @ YouTube

Consia™ - YouTube created in collaboration with Mobile Web Experience (MEX)

very nice music...

Wirefy | The Responsive Wireframe Boilerplate

Wirefy | The Responsive Wireframe Boilerplate:
"Wirefy is a collection of CSS & JS files to help you rapidly experiment with responsive wireframes. Whether you keep them to yourself or use them to help educate your clients, Wirefy is flexible and here to help. Wirefy has been built from the ground up. Following the philosophy of mobile first, Wirefy will respond to the proper viewport. Go ahead, resize this page to see how it works. Wirefy is style agnostic so that clients don't get hung up on colours, fonts, other design elements. It's meant to be another tool for your development kit that provides the most basic styles as a foundation."


HTML5 and Modern Web Development

HTML5 and Modern Web Development | FoxIE | Channel 9



Progressive enhancements (new style, escalator - stairs) vs. Graceful degradation (old style, elevator - lift)
The metaphor is that escalator is useful even when not moving,
while with elevator there needs to be a second, backup system, stairs:
"your browser does not support this feature" is obsolete - start with basic features, enable features that are supported, based on media queries.


Microsoft 2012

Microsoft's radical new business plan is hidden in plain sight | ZDNet
  • Services
  • Surface
  • Speed-up
Observations / predictions are based on Microsoft 10-K public disclosure for 2012.

Microsoft Dropping 'Metro' Name in Windows 8

Microsoft Dropping 'Metro' Name in Windows 8 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com


"Microsoft was notifying its developers not to use the word "Metro" within their apps and swap that term for "New User Interface."
Despite the insistence from Redmond that Metro is simply a code name that it always planned to phase out, there are reports that the move was prompted by a trademark challenge from Germany-based Metro AG."

Passive house

Passive house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pasivhouse Institut (Germany)

Passivhouse for beginners

Ground-coupled heat exchanger

Heat Pump

Heat Exchanger

Passive solar building design

HTML5 & CSS3 Fundamentals: Channel 9

Styling Your First HTML5 Web Page with CSS3 - 03 | HTML5 & CSS3 Fundamentals: Development for Absolute Beginners | Channel 9

Friday, August 03, 2012

HTML5 Canvas World Map SVG Path with KineticJS

HTML5 Canvas World Map SVG Path with KineticJS

"Canvas" is very efficient, since everything is a bitmap, and SVG is very flexible, but "expensive" because it is using DOM. With KinecticJS library, Canvas gets some of features of SVG. It can detect "mouse over" and highlight selected state... The site has 10 great examples...

Windows 8 HTML5 Geospatial Apps

podcast The Tablet Show: "Jason Follas Builds Geospatial Apps in Windows 8"

A great overview of IE10 and WinJS platform in Windows 8.
Besides "native" integration of JavaScript with WinRT,
there is also "classic" embedded web browser option as an "iframe"
that can be used in same way as with PhoneGap on any mobile platform.
So this in fact could be "the best of both worlds".
Good job, Microsoft and Windows team!

Very knowledgeable guest, and very useful show links!

Graphics on the Web: Canvas vs. SVG

MSDN: Web Dev Report - Working with Graphics on the Web: Canvas vs. SVG

Example difference of "zooming" a bitmap (Canvas) vs. vector graphics (SVG)

Windows Server 2012, PowerShell 3.0 and DevOps

RunAs Radio: "Windows Server 2012, PowerShell 3.0 and DevOps."

Flash is dead. Long live Adobe AIR

Adobe AIR | Adobe AIR 3 | Deploy applications:

Another way to build portable mobile applications, from Adobe.
Adobe AIR / Flash Builder could build "native" apps from ActionScript code.
One option is to embed web browser, and make HTML5 app look like native.
So this is an alternative to Phone Gap, now also owned by Adobe.

podcast @TheTabletShow, Carl and Richard talk to David Bates about the state of Flash.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 "Released to Manufacturing"

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Released to Manufacturing!!! | Channel 9



Dost this mean Steven Sinofsky is likely next CEO of Microsoft :) He delivers on time...

Win8 will be available for developers on August 15... Why this 2 weeks delay?
Maybe because final Visual Studio 2012 will also be available then...

Windows 8 Developer Camps and Hackathons - Coming July to September

Devhammer's Den - Windows 8 Developer Camps and Hackathons - Coming July to September

Apple vs Samsung "Proxy War"

Apple to jury: iPhone changed everything—then Samsung built knockoffs | Ars Technica

"It was a presentation that would have made Steve Jobs proud. Just as Jobs knew how to stun the public and the press with a shiny new Apple product, Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny was smooth and direct in his presentation. Using big bold slides, and a bit of video to show off the best features, he laid out a simple version of smartphone history that put his client at the center: Apple came first. Imitators like Samsung followed. And now it's time for them to pay up."

The most interesting part is that this in fact is a proxy war with Google's Android.
Like Vietnam and Korea proxy wars between USA and USSR...
Who wins such wars?