Thursday, October 31, 2013

Dreams Big Enough?

Are Your Dreams Big Enough? Dare to Dream Bigger!

by Brian Tracy

If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Amazon Products Visualization - YASIV

Amazon Products Visualization - YASIV:
Yasiv is a visual recommendation service that helps people find the right product from Amazon's catalog; be it a book, a movie or a video game - Yasiv finds anything and everything which is sold on Amazon.com.

VivaGraph.js + Neo4j

Visualizing the news with Vivagraph.js | Max De Marzi:
"VivaGraphJS – a JavaScript Graph Drawing Library made by Andrei Kashcha of Yasiv. It supports rendering graphs using WebGL, SVG or CSS formats and currently supports a force directed layout. The Library provides an API which tracks graph changes and reflect changes on the rendering surface which makes it fantastic for graph exploration."

neo_news

VisualSearch.js

DocumentCloud's VisualSearch.js:
"VisualSearch.js enhances ordinary search boxes with the ability to autocomplete faceted search queries. Specify the facets for completion, along with the completable values for any facet. You can retrieve the search query as a structured object, so you don't have to parse the query string yourself."

VisualSearch

visualizing.org | Data Visualizations

visualizing.org | Data Visualizations, Challenges, Community:
"A community of creative people
making sense of complex issues
through data and design "

World Bank Global Development Sprint | visualizing.org



Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Motorola "Ara" + Phoneblocks


Motorola Unveils DIY Smartphone Project With Phonebloks - Forbes

Building A DIY Phone: A Q&A With The Founder Of Phonebloks - Forbes

The Official Motorola Blog: Goodbye Sticky. Hello Ara.



"Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines."



Phonebloks

Samsung Android SDKs

Samsung's Next Big Android Play - Businessweek:
"Samsung is releasing five new SDKs (software development kits) for various devices ranging from phones to tablets to televisions.

To give an idea of what Samsung is doing, just look at the new Mobile SDK: It supports Samsung’s pen, gestures, multi-window, and motion features with 800 APIs (application programming interfaces) available to developers... "

Max De Marzi | Ruby + Graphs with Neo4j

Max De Marzi | Ruby + Graphs with Neo4j

Neo Visual Search

Giant Global Graph (GGG)

Giant Global Graph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Giant Global Graph is a name coined by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee in 2007, to help distinguish between the nature and significance of the content on the existing World Wide Web, and that of the next-generation web, or "Web 3.0""

Web 3.0: GGG, WWW, 123

Giant Global Graph | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Architecture: Geodesic Dome House

Interesting house design, good for energy efficiency
and for protecting from strong wind (i.e. hurricane)
Mathematically, sphere has maximum internal volume for surface.

Hunterdon County Homes for Sale, Stockton Real Estate Listings, 22 Seabrook Road, MLS #6280666 Luxury Homes, Condos, Estates for Sale






Timberline Geodesic Domes


This is still all wood construction.

Timberline Geodesics Product Info


It would be interesting if modular homes could be build by using some of this design...
Plus, there may be a way to use more advanced materials instead of wood...

Geodesic Dome: Fuller's Homes for the Future
Developed by Buckminster Fuller in 1954, the Geodesic Dome was promoted as the world's strongest, most economical, lightweight structure. The ingenious engineering of the geodesic dome allows it to cover a wide stretch of space without using internal supports. The geodesic dome design was patented in 1965. Geodesic Domes are ideal for emergency housing and mobile shelters such as military camps. However, the innovative geodesic shape has been adopted for elegant, upscale housing.

Geodesic Dome houses - photos

25 Incredible Personal Biodomes | International Listings Blog


ASP.NET MVC 5 attribute based routing

ASP.NET MVC 5 brings attribute based routing | ITworld:
"Microsoft has been busy the past couple weeks. Hot off the heels of the .NET framework 4.5.1 release comes the launch of Visual Studio 2013, Entity Framework 6, MVC 5, WebApi 2, and more. One of the most subtle new features in MVC 5, attribute routing, is also one of the best improvements."


Announcing the Release of Visual Studio 2013 and Great Improvements to ASP.NET and Entity Framework - ScottGu's Blog

Telerik Everlive: Backend As A Service (BaaS)

More "buzzwords" :)

Telerik Backend As A Service (BaaS) | Everlive

"Everlive is Telerik's backend as a service (BaaS), which links your applications to backend cloud storage while also providing user management, push notifications, integration with social networking services, and more! "

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Tesla Model S: Google Chrome, Third-Party Apps

Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Model S To Get Google Chrome, Third-Party Apps:
"The Model S from Tesla may also be integrated with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chrome, which would be an advanced version compared to the current one, primarily for web apps. Musk talked about an Android emulator that can be featured into the Model S to benefit from its Linux platform. Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model S is already equipped with an AT&T network with an infotainment screen
...
At present, Model S software is based on Linux and Qt application development framework. So, the new framework will facilitate software developers to create a hassle free apps or port existing apps from Android."

The Scala Programming Language

The Scala Programming Language


Demystifying Scala with Netflix's Dianne Marsh on the Hanselminutes Technology Podcast: Fresh Air for Developers

Dianne Marsh presenting "Dr Scalalove" at ScalaBay Netflix - YouTube
(start about 8:00)

Windows 8.1 Jittery Mouse Solution?

Windows 8.1 comes with some nice improvements, but some changes are problematic:
a new "high DPI" handling makes many applications (including Windows Explorer!) look "fuzzy",
and likely for same reason mouse movement is not smooth, it is jittery, almost unusable sometimes.
That may be result of set scalling to 125% or 150%, but is a real problem anyway.
The issue with mouse movement may be less pronounced if this option is disabled:
WINDOWS 8.1 WARNING FOR GAMERS: ISSUES WITH UNPLAYABLE MOUSE LAG IN MANY GAMES : windows:
"Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Options > 'Enhance pointer precision' checkbox : OFF"



Windows 8.1 mouse issues FIX | Fluxbytes

Mouse pointer stutters or freezes when you play certain games in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Windows 8.1 HID (USB) WinRT API

More on the Windows 8.1 HID WinRT API | Coding4Fun Blog | Channel 9:
support this protocol over the USB, Bluetooth, and I2C transports.

(Videos from Build 2013)

iPad Air, Surface 2, Lumia 2025

Apple unveils lighter iPad Air - CNN.com:
"iPad Air will weigh 1 pound, down from 1.4 pounds.
It's 20% thinner and 28% lighter than the current fourth-generation iPad.


The iPad Air will have the same 9.7-inch screen as previous iPads and pack the same A7 processing chip that's in the iPhone 5S.
That will make it 72 times faster than the original iPad"


new iPad Mini starting at $399.. will pack a speedy A7 processor
and the same high-resolution "Retina display" as bigger iPads.

The older iPad Mini is still around and will cost $299.
And the full-size iPad 2, launched in 2011, is still available for $399.



Microsoft officially launched its Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tabletson Tuesday morning, as did Nokia with its own Windows 8 device,the Lumia 2520.

The Surface 2 starts at  $449, while the more powerful Surface Pro 2 will start at $899.

Monday, October 21, 2013

High-speed 802.11ac Wi-Fi

High-speed 802.11ac Wi-Fi finally taking off | ZDNet

"In theory, 802.11ac protocol enables speeds of up to 1.3 Gbps as well as better coverage than 802.11n."

D3.js: charting dynamic JSON Data

D3.js: How to handle dynamic JSON Data | (SVG charts)


Mapstraction (common maps JS API)

Mapstraction - Home:
"Mapstraction is a Javascript library that provides a single, common interface for a wide variety of Javascript map APIs. It’s designed to enable a developer to switch from one maps API to another as smoothly and as quickly as possible."

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Fix bluriness of Chrome in Windows 8.1

How to fix bluriness of Chrome in Windows 8.1 Preview and keep it usable on a high DPI touchscreen | Sertac Ozercan:

"First, right click on Chrome shortcut in the taskbar and go to Properties.
Under Compatibility, check “Disable display scaling on High DPI settings”.


Saturday, October 19, 2013

AngularJS on top of ASP.NET

AngularJS on top of ASP.NET: Moving the MVC framework out to the browser – Simple-Talk:

In this article we will see how Angular JS, a new JavaScript framework by Google can be used effectively to build web applications where:

1. Views are pure HTML

2. Controllers (in the server sense) are pure REST based API calls

3. The presentation layer is loaded as needed from partial HTML only files.


GOOG > $1,000

2013-10-18

Google joins Wall Street's $1,000 club:
"Google's stock jumped $122.61, or 14%, to $1,011.41 "

The company's market value gained more than $40 billion just on Friday, which exceeds the entire market value of rival Yahoo, at $34 billion, and approaches Hewlett-Packard, at $45 billion.

Google remains the third most valuable U.S. company, with a market value of $296 billion, but it has narrowed the gap with No. 2, ExxonMobil, at $385 billion. Apple remains No. 1, at $462 billion.

Glassdoor: Software Engineers highest salary (2013)

25 Highest Paying Companies For Software Engineers (2013); Glassdoor Report | Glassdoor Blog

"In Glassdoor’s latest report, we uncover the 25 Highest Paying Companies for Software Engineers (2013)¹, identifying employers offering the highest average annual base salary for software engineers over the past 12 months."

Where the Software Engineer Money Is: Juniper - Global Cio -

Microsoft's iOS and Android Windows Remote Desktop apps

Microsoft's new iOS and Android Remote Desktop apps let you control a PC from a phone | The Verge

"Microsoft is providing a new way for iOS and Android users to access their Windows PCs today. A new Remote Desktop app is now available for both operating systems, letting you simply connect to a Windows PC and control it. While a number of third-party solutions have existed previously, including Citrix and others, Microsoft's native support is the latest in its continued push to provide apps across Windows, Android, and iOS."

Perfectly Irrational (Stock Market)

Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Price Drop After Fire 'Perfectly Irrational':

"...back in August when the Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model S received five stars in every category from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pushing its stock price up 2 percent. 

Then on October 1 a driver ran over a metal object that punctured the car’s battery, starting a fire and forcing the driver to pull over and flee the vehicle, and stock prices fell 10 percent over the next two days. 

On October 4, Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk explained that the car had alerted the driver that there was a problem, that no one was hurt, and that gas cars also catch fire from time to time, pushing stock prices back up 3 percent.

The bad news had a bigger impact than either positive news story. “From a psychological perspective, this overreaction... is nothing new. It is a consistent way that we react to salient news, and it is perfectly irrational "

Friday, October 18, 2013

Playback speed in Windows Media Player

Change playback speed in Windows Media Player

You can change the speed at which content plays in the Player. For example, you can slow down the playback speed if you are taking notes while watching a training video, or you can speed up the slow sections of a presentation.

Begin playing a file.

Click the arrow below the Now Playing tab, point to Enhancements, and then click Play Speed Settings.

Move the Play Speed slider to the speed at which you want to play the content, or click the Slow, Normal, or Fast link.

To select speeds between the labeled play speeds, in the Enhancements pane, clear the Snap slider to common speeds check box.

Yahoo / Alibaba

How Much Is Yahoo Worth Without Alibaba? Not Much - Businessweek:
"Yahoo has a stock market value of $34.1 billion, and owns a 24 percent stake in Alibaba. Estimates for the current value of Alibaba, which is planning an IPO, range between $75 billion and $125 billion. If it comes in at the low end of that range, that means that Yahoo’s stake is worth $18 billion, or just over half of Yahoo’s total market value. At the high end, Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba would be worth $30 billion—which would imply that the rest of Yahoo’s enterprise is worth as little as $4 billion, or 12 percent of its current value."

Visual Studio 2013, One ASP.NET

Announcing the Release of Visual Studio 2013 and Great Improvements to ASP.NET and Entity Framework - ScottGu's Blog


http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/10/17/visual-studio-2013-available-for-download.aspx

Google Alerts - Monitor the Web for interesting new content

Google Alerts - Monitor the Web for interesting new content:
"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.

Enter a search query you wish to monitor. You will see a preview of the type of results you'll receive. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

monitoring a developing news story
keeping current on a competitor or industry
getting the latest on a celebrity or event
keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"


Windows 8.1 released

Windows 8.1 is here: Can it win over skeptical PC buyers? | ZDNet:

Windows 8.1 and the Desktop: A modest improvement we still can’t recommend | ExtremeTech

Upgrading: Steps 5-8 - How to Upgrade to the Windows 8.1 Preview | PCMag.com

It is somewhat unfortunate that Microsoft have merged tablet OS with desktop OS,
while Apple and Google mixed phone OS with tablet OS, and keep "desktop/laptop" separate.

While all those environments have similarities, so a common "base" OS can be (and is) used,
the market expectation now is defined by iOS and Android, and Windows has much harder challenge
to change public expectation and to deliver a good OS.

The best option would be a "virtual" OS that plugs on server, desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, watch...
Microsoft have essentially created this by WinRT...
It should just not be "a window" in desktop/laptop OS.

There is another option now: a web browser + wrapper as an app-platfrom...


Accidental DBA Series - SQLskills.com

Accidental DBA Series - SQLskills.com:
"An Accidental DBA (also sometimes called an Involuntary DBA) is someone whose primary role or job description is not strictly the administration of SQL Server, but is still expected by the company to maintain one or more of the company’s SQL Server instances properly. Many server, network, or application administrators, and even developers, find themselves in this role at some point in their career. This series of posts is focused on helping Accidental DBAs keep SQL Server running with minimal problems, which will allow them the maximum amount of time for other responsibilities in their role."

Thursday, October 17, 2013

SQL Server 2014: In-Memory (vs NoSQL)

second Community Technology Preview (CTP2) of SQL Server 2014 which features breakthrough performance with In-Memory OLTP and simplified backup and disaster recovery in Windows Azure.
SQL Server 2014: Pushing the Boundaries of In-Memory Performance - SQL Server Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Data Plants = Data Centers + Power Plants

The idea: put Data Centers where the energy is available,
since fiber optics cables are much cheaper to install that power cables...

Microsoft Data Centers Blog : Thinking Off the Grid: Independence for today’s Data Centers via Data Plants?:
"... can significantly reduce our carbon footprints and make our data center operations more efficient...."





Microsoft to build a biogas-fueled data plant, keeps DeLorean dreams alive

Microsoft Data Plant Biogas Fuel cell | MIT Technology Review

Microsoft Uncovers Special Bond Between Computers and Toilets | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com


AngularJS in one day

Ultimate guide to learning AngularJS in one day:
"Angular is a client-side MVC/MVVM framework built in JavaScript, essential for modern single page web applications (and even websites). It's a huge leap into the future of HTML and what HTML5 brings, and is a breath of fresh air when dealing with the modern web. This post is a full end to end crash course..."


Lego calendar by Vitamins on Vimeo

Lego calendar by Vitamins on Vimeo:
"The Lego calendar is a wall mounted time planner that we invented for our studio. It’s made entirely of Lego, but if you take a photo of it with a smartphone all of the events and timings will be magically synchronised to an online, digital calendar. It makes the most of the tangibility of physical objects, and the ubiquity of digital platforms, and it’s also puts a smile on our faces when we use it!"


Lego calendar by Vitamins from Vitamins on Vimeo.

LEGO CALENDAR | Vitamins, Design and Invention Studio, London

Groovy on Grails

Getting Started with Grails


Groovy on Grails with Netflix's Clay McCoy on the Hanselminutes Technology Podcast: Fresh Air for Developers

Grails and the World of Tomorrow @ InfoQ

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Windows "Dynamic" Themes (RSS)

"Dynamic" Themes - Microsoft Windows


Windows themes (desktop background pictures) that get new images by RSS.


This is not dynamic, but is very nice
Landscapes on Earth, by photographer Michael Breitung

landscapes 2 by photographer Michael Breitung

Calling, Career, Job

How I Hire: Are You Looking for a Job or a Career? | LinkedIn:
by Daniel Burrus

Calling: "...people who have found what they were put on the planet to do"
...they have identified their unique gift and they have discovered the power in directing their talents to support the gift"

Careeer: "...who knows their talents and has focused them on a career. A person who knows their career is interested in learning more and getting to a higher level within their profession. They have a genuine interest in their work, and they’re in it for the long term..."

Job: "...where people are just there to make money. Often, they don’t care what the actual job is as long as it’s something they can do and that provides a paycheck"


Breeze.js

Home | Breeze.js: "
/* Query like LINQ */
// Define query for customers
// starting with 'A', sorted by name,
var query = breeze.EntityQuery
           .from("Customers")
           .where("CompanyName", "startsWith", "A")
           .orderBy("CompanyName");

//... execute it later ..."

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Neo4j Videos

Watch Neo4j

define: BYOD, MAM, MDM


Mobile Application Management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Mobile Application Management (MAM) describes software and services responsible for provisioning and controlling access to internally developed and commercially available mobile apps used in business settings on both company-provided and “bring your own” smartphones and tablet computers.

Mobile application management differs from Mobile Device Management (MDM). As the names suggest; MAM focuses on application management, it provides a lower degree of control over the device, but a higher level of control over applications. MDM solutions manage the down to device firmware and configuration settings and can include management of all applications and application data.[1]"

The BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) phenomenon is a factor behind mobile application management, with personal PC, smartphone and tablet use in business settings (vs. business-owned devices) rising from 31 percent in 2010 to 41 percent in 2011.[3] When an employee brings a personal device into an enterprise setting, mobile application management enables the corporate IT staff to download required applications, control access to business data, and remove locally cached business data from the device if it is lost, or when its owner no longer works with the company.[4]



To market and sell to "Enterprises", a steady stream of buzzwords
is created every year by "Market Research" companies...
SOA is old, BigData is getting old, MAM is in :)

Friday, October 11, 2013

CoderDojo

About - CoderDojo - CoderDojo

"At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. Dojos are set up, run by and taught at by volunteers."

CoderDojo Twitter Bootstrap: Lesson 3 – Create the Tables and Accordions Page – Task Messenger Blog

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Task.Run vs BackgroundWorker (.NET)

Stephen Cleary (the blog): Task.Run vs BackgroundWorker: Conclusion:
"most common aspects of running background tasks"

Free Book: Data Access for Highly-Scalable Solutions

Just Released – Data Access for Highly Scalable Solutions: Using SQL, NoSQL, and Polyglot Persistence - Andrew Oakley's Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs


Download Book Download: Data Access for Highly-Scalable Solutions: Using SQL, NoSQL, and Polyglot Persistence from Official Microsoft Download Center:


Open Data Made Simple

Web Essentials for Visual Studio: Open Data Made Simple - Canadian Developer Connection - Site Home - MSDN Blogs:

Copy XML or JSON file, paste as C# class for direct access to data.

Bootstrap in Visual Studio

[#VS2013] HowTo: Create a website project in Visual Studio using Bootstrap | El Bruno

x-ms-webview from WinJS in Windows 8.1 Apps

Blending apps and sites with the HTML x-ms-webview:
"The x-ms-webview is a powerful control that lets you embed web content directly in your app’s UX. This control has been available to XAML Windows Store apps since Windows 8, and in Windows 8.1 ... the control is now available for apps written in HTML and JavaScript!"

This enables embedding web browser view into web-based WinRT apps.
Nice.

PhysicsJS: physics engine for javascript

No much need for using C/C++ for games anymore...

PhysicsJS - A modular, extendable, and easy-to-use physics engine for javascript: "A modular, extendable, and easy-to-use physics engine for javascript"

64-bit JIT compiler for .NET

RyuJIT: The next-generation JIT compiler for .NET - .NET Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs:
"The world is moving to 64-bit computing even though it isn’t always faster or more efficient than 32-bit. A lot of programs run faster on 32-bit than on 64-bit, for a variety of reasons. One example of this is the 64-bit JIT compiler in .NET. It does a great job of making your program run fast, but it’s not a fast program itself. All that’s about to change: a new, next-generation x64 JIT compiler that compiles code twice as fast is ready to change your impressions of 64-bit .NET code.
...
The .NET 64-bit JIT was originally designed to produce very efficient code throughout the long run of a server process.
This differs from the .NET x86 JIT, which was optimized to produce code quickly so that the program starts up fast."

Windows: Snap, Peek, Shake

Windows 7 have introduced useful feature for viewing 2 windows side by side.
It works the same in Windows 8.

Snap - Microsoft Windows:

related features: Peek and Shake.


Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Android more secure than iPhone

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chariman Google at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013 in Orlando - YouTube:

Full session on Gartner Events On Demand
http://www.gartnereventsondemand.com/...

Eric Schmidt declares Android more secure than iOS @ ZDNet

Information Asymmetry: The Market for Lemons


"The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" is a 1970 paper by the economist George Akerlof. It discusses information asymmetry, which occurs when the seller knows more about a product than the buyer. A lemon is an American slang term for a car that is found to be defective only after it has been bought. Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz jointly received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesin 2001 for their research related to asymmetric information."

Thesis

" Because many important mechanical parts and other elements are hidden from view and not easily accessible for inspection, the buyer of a car does not know beforehand whether it is a cherry or a lemon. So the buyer's best guess for a given car is that the car is of average quality; accordingly, he/she will be willing to pay for it only the price of a car of known average quality. This means that the owner of a carefully maintained, never-abused, good used car will be unable to get a high enough price to make selling that car worthwhile.

Therefore, owners of good cars will not place their cars on the used car market. The withdrawal of good cars reduces the average quality of cars on the market, causing buyers to revise downward their expectations for any given car. This, in turn, motivates the owners of moderately good cars not to sell, and so on. "


Critical reception

Both the American Economic Review and the Review of Economic Studies rejected the paper for "triviality," while the reviewers for Journal of Political Economy rejected it as incorrect, arguing that if this paper was correct, then no goods could be traded.[2] Only on the fourth attempt did the paper get published in Quarterly Journal of Economics.[3] Today, the paper is one of the most-cited papers in modern economic theory (more than 8,530 citations in academic papers as of May 2011),[4] and has profoundly influenced virtually every field of economics, from industrial organisation and public finance to macroeconomics and contract theory.

Samsung Galaxy Round, Curved Smartphone

Samsung Unveils Curved Smartphone in Challenge to Apple - Bloomberg


"Samsung Electronics Co. will start selling what it called the world’s first smartphone with a curved display as the largest handset maker adds another device to help win users from Apple Inc.

The 5.7-inch (14 centimeter) Galaxy Round will go on sale starting tomorrow in South Korea and cost 1,089,000 won ($1,010), Samsung said in an e-mailed statement today. The 7.9 millimeter thick device will only be available in the Suwon, South Korea-based company’s home market and comes in brown.

...

Samsung shipped about 32 percent of global smartphone deliveries in the second quarter, more than twice its nearest competitor, Apple, according to researcher IDC.
...
Samsung is also the world’s biggest maker of chips and televisions."

3D Printing from Windows 8.1

3D Printing Support in Windows 8.1 Explained



Microsoft @ Maker Faire 2013 NYC | The Windows Blog | Channel 9

CEO Bre Pettis on MakerBot History, Windows 8.1 Integration | The Windows Blog | Channel 9

3D Printing | 3D Printers | MakerBot

Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

ASP.NET: OWIN + Katana

ASP.NET - Getting Started with the Katana Project: @ MSDN magazine


MOOC Masters Degree: $6600

Likely the first "real" degree to be offered by MOOC:

Udacity, Georgia Tech, and AT&T Partnership - Udacity:
"...Online Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in collaboration with AT&T. Beginning in January 2014, this degree will be offered at an affordable price, and later next Spring individual courses will also be available for students to take for free or for individual certification. Our mission with each single course is to help students advance their knowledge and careers. Cost of the degree: $6,600"

at&t is likely a sponsor... or will students also get always connected phone or tablet?

FAQ"AT&T will also tap into the program to train its own employees and will recruit graduates"

Monday, October 07, 2013

"Semantic UI"

Getting Started | Semantic Publish PostUI:
"UI is the vocabulary of the web.
Semantic empowers designers and developers by creating a language for sharing UI."

An alternative for Bootstrap and similar tools.
Interesting idea...
Bootstrap is already considered to have "semantic naming", so this is a step-up.

And how about "semantic programming language?"

In-memory (SQL) Databases

Oracle enters in-memory database market - SD Times: Software Development News:

  • Oracle 12c
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2014
  • Oracle TimesTen
  • SAP HANA

Oracle vs SAP



It may be that NoSQL will be "folded in" SQL database systems,
same as Objects and XML did before...


Sunday, October 06, 2013

Using SVG on Android 2.x

Using SVG on Android 2.x (and Kendo UI DataViz):
"Android (2.x)'s native browser may lack SVG, but it does support the HTML5 canvas element. That's good news. With the help of some crafty JavaScript, we can take any SVG, parse it, and then render the results to a canvas. The process may sacrifice some fidelity and interactivity that native SVG provides, but it will deliver a functional result.

There are (at least) two popular polyfills that I found to make the process of converting SVG to a Canvas surprisingly trivial:

canvg.js (~13KB minified, compressed)
Fabric.js (~37KB minified, compressed)

These libraries are open source MIT (which means you can use them anywhere), and both can take SVG and spit-out a canvas rendering. By simply adding one of these JavaScript files to your project, you can easily swap-out the SVG with an identical canvas rendering when a browser lacking SVG visits your page."

SQL Server 2014 | Microsoft

SQL Server 2014 | Microsoft: (CTP)
SQL Server 2014 delivers mission critical performance across all workloads with in-memory built-in, faster insights from any data with familiar tools, and a platform for hybrid cloud.

SQL Server 2014: A Closer Look ~ DBA Consulting Blog


Saturday, October 05, 2013

Story of creation of iPhone

Story about the creation of the iPhone in the New York Times Magazine.
This is the best, most in-depth look at everything Apple went through to deliver the iPhone. 

Why Apple Can't Just 'Innovate' A New Product Every Other Year - Business Insider:
"Here's an excerpt that sums up what Apple faced when it built the iPhone:

Many executives and engineers, riding high from their success with the iPod, assumed a phone would be like building a small Macintosh. Instead, Apple designed and built not one but three different early versions of the iPhone in 2005 and 2006. One person who worked on the project thinks Apple then made six fully working prototypes of the device it ultimately sold — each with its own set of hardware, software and design tweaks. Some on the team ended up so burned out that they left the company shortly after the first phone hit store shelves. “It was like the first moon mission,” says Tony Fadell, a key executive on the project. (He started his own company, Nest, in 2010.) “I’m used to a certain level of unknowns in a project, but there were so many new things here that it was just staggering.”"

Internet of Everything

A presentation is about using JavaScript/node.js
on small devices connected to Internet of Everything (used to be "Things")
as declared by Cisco...

Instead of using Web developers hardware devices,
the idea is to teach devices web tools known to developers...

Tessel: The End of Web Development (as we know it) 
from TechnicalMachine


Friday, October 04, 2013

Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming

For about a decade or more, Java was a primary language for teaching programming.
That was an improvement over previous C/C++.
For example, Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach (@ Princeton)

With increased focus on web and JavaScript,
it may be time to consider JavaScript as a primary programming language.
That is, if there was a way (web editor?) to restrict to "good parts" only.
TypeScript?

book: Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming









Windows Phone + Android ?

Microsoft Reportedly Looking To Put Windows Phone On Android Devices, Starting With HTC | TechCrunch

"Microsoft has reached out to HTC to see if the company would be interested in adding Windows as a second OS to its Android handsets, a new report by Bloomberg claims. It isn’t clear exactly how the two operating systems would share the handset, in terms of allowing dual-booting or making a user choose a default at device setup, but it’s a sign Redmond may be thinking about pulling out all the stops to get people using its mobile OS."



Thursday, October 03, 2013

Windows 8.1 Feature Guide: Multimedia

Multimedia (Preliminary):
Develop an app that’s ready to help users both create and play back exciting media experiences. This is now easier to do in Windows 8.1 Preview, with new properties for capturing media in different environments, a simple way to add playback controls to apps that use XAML, and native support for Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for HTML5 playback.