Syslog by Staff
Turning the verbosity up one debug level, Syslog is where tidbits of information that are usually sent into the bit bucket reside. If it is interesting, a quick snippet or something downright entertaining that fits nowhere else, this is the place for it.
Oct 16
Making the new Firefox Beta even faster
Mozilla fans can now play with the anticipated speedier JavaScript engine in the first beta for Firefox 3.1, as well as explore improvements to the Smart Location Bar and a slick interface for hotkey tab switching. Now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users, the new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, is not turned on by default. The latest Firefox beta introduces a visual tab switcher and [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: javascript, open source, mozilla, firefox, beta
Oct 10
XP stays on life support for longer
Microsoft has decided to make XP available for longer to PC makers, as businesses continue to reject Windows Vista. The company was to cease distributing XP after 31 January 2009, but has now pushed that date to 31 July. More on the subject of Microsoft, if you're a fan of Surface and are planning to attend the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in LA at the end of October, you can get [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: surface, xp, yahoo, sdk, vista, microsoft, firefox, adobe
Oct 08
Google launches Mail Goggles to save you from yourself
Just a quick post to mention a silly (or is it?) experiment that Google has released to the public: Mail Goggles. This feature is designed to prevent you from sending stupid e-mails in the small hours, when you're most likely to be inebriated and at risk of making a complete idiot of yourself. Don't drink and email.When enabled, Mail Goggles kicks in at the time you specify (default is between [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Oct 03
Microsoft prescribes more REST
Details have begun to emerge about the next versions of Visual Studio and Windows Server this week -- and the message from Redmond is to REST up. Visual Studio 2010 will incorporate a "TiVo for developers" feature that will be able to record testing sessions in an attempt to avoid the all too frequent "can't reproduce" reply to bugs. JQuery will also be incorporated into Visual Studio 2010. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: nda, jquery, rest, visual studio, iphone, stallman, microsoft, adobe, flash
Sep 29
Scott McNealy's tips for a successful start-up
If you're itching to take your struggling start-up to the big time, you could do worse than take Sun Microsystems' Chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy advice to heart. After all, in three months, McNealy and the three others of his cohort turned their start-up profitable and brought us Java, Solaris, and OpenOffice.org. Besides, how could you not want to listen to a guy who, when flummoxed over [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: scott mcnealy, tips, start-up
Sep 26
Windows 7 is Vista--
The prevailing consensus is that Windows 7 will be Vista++, but it may actually be Vista--, as Microsoft confirmed that they would be removing the built-in programs for email, photo editing and movie making. Late October is the date we will supposedly know what all the Windows 7 fuss is about; attendees of Microsoft's PDC will have a pre-beta version of Windows 7 in their goodies bag. Another [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: neutrality, android, web directions, internet, windows, vista, linux
Sep 19
Hack attack week
It wasn't a good week to be an Alaskan vice-presidential candidate, an online publication or even a multinational science project -- as all were compromised by hackers this week. The hysteria surrounding the launch of the Hadron Collider last week was very Luddite-like, it got even worse as one of the systems that analyses the data from the experiment was hacked into. Social engineering returned [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: hack, sarah palin, hp, hewlett packard, mark shuttleworth, mitchell baker, yahoo, ubuntu, firefox, linux
Sep 17
Is Apple alienating App Store developers?
These are heady times for Apple's App Store. The online marketplace for third-party iPhone and iPod Touch apps is reporting huge sales since its launch in July. Just a month after go-live, the App Store had sold more than 60 million applications with an estimated revenue of $30m. Since then, users have downloaded an estimated 100 million apps and raked in $70m for Apple and its developer partners [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: apple, developers
Sep 12
Ubuntu gets jaunty
For all you Linux enthusiasts, the next version of Ubuntu -- Jaunty Jackalope is due to be released in April 2009. As the name suggests, Ubuntu 9.04 will endeavour to speed up boot time and offer more integration between desktop apps and Web apps. Furthermore, Canonical is to hire a team of specialists who will improve the interface for open source desktop apps. Rules of the virtualisation game [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: jaunty jackalope, symbian, chrome, opera, ubuntu, ibm, firefox
Sep 05
Apple to developer: Fart jokes aren't funny
Apple apparently doesn't think fart jokes are very funny. The developer of Pull My Finger, an iPhone application, told MacRumors that Apple decided to reject his application from the App Store because it was of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community". Pull My Finger does pretty much what you would expect it to do, generating about five or six different sounds of flatulence [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Sep 05
Chrome is just another browser
Hands up if you missed the Chrome release -- didn't think anyone did. Google's browser arrived with all the fanfare and hype that only Google can produce. The words that will stick out in my mind from the launch are that their javascript interpreter is an "order of magnitude" faster than anything else on the market. For the Builder AU audience that statement should immediately ring alarm [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 2 comments
Tags: jacobson, fashionable, gnu, chrome, strike, webkit, process, browser, ibm, firefox, google
Sep 01
Is software development international?
A quick glance across the developer agenda for the next couple of months sees a number of our industry favourites hosting the European versions of some of the events and meetings that have been staged stateside this summer. This got me thinking -- I used to be involved with an Australian developer magazine (which was so named) at the time of us needing to change the title to “International” so that [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: international, frank arrigo, australia, vista, development
Aug 29
Shadow chasing in browsers
The punching and counterpunching continued in the ongoing web browser development bout. Each time one browser closes a feature gap, a new feature appears in one of the others -- how we ever put up with the years of browser stagnation, I'll never know. A second beta of Internet Explorer appeared on Wednesday, with the main addition being a new safe browsing mode dubbed InPrivate. Another handy [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: ubiquity, switch, space, virus, iss, browsers, internet explorer, safari, mozilla, microsoft, testing
Aug 22
Facebook developers to factor in age, location
Facebook has announced modifications to its developer application programming interface so that the creators of third-party applications can restrict their reach by demographic -- more specifically, by age or location. The update is designed to help developers who may run into legal issues if they make their applications available to all Facebook users, regardless of how old they are or what countries [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: legal, social networking, facebook, licensing, developers
Aug 22
Confirmation: Vista is about nothing
The man who has made a career from making humourous observations on the mundane things in life, is bringing his skills to promoting a slighted OS. It looked good on paper: get Jerry Seinfeld, one of the world's most successful clean comedians, to promote Vista. But was it really thought through? Take the following clip for instance and replace the word "show" with "Vista". The intertubes [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: threading, emotiv, seinfeld, nothing, multi-core, cell, intel, sun, ibm, vista
Aug 20
Share a keyboard and mouse with Synergy
Even in the era of virtualisation, many IT pros (including myself) have a small army of computers sitting on, under, and around their desks. Controlling this menagerie usually requires multiple keyboards and mice or a KVM switch. But, that was before Synergy -- an open-source utility that lets you control multiple machines (each with its own monitor) using a single keyboard and mouse. Even better, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: hardware, synergy, mouse, keyboard, os x, windows, apple
Aug 15
Android devs less than gruntled
Yet more discouraging news on the Android front. Having hacked off its developer community by releasing updated SDKs to just a small group of chosen devs, Google has now given the brush-off to a petition that called for more to be given to the wider community. A developer called plusminus/Nicolas organised the petition on the anddev.org website: I'm starting this petition, to express my personal [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: relationships, service, android, google, developer
Aug 15
VMware shows how not to do it
As a developer there will be a time when you ship a bug -- be it a stub that you left in, or a flaming, crashtastic segfault. The next time this happens and your bosses come baying for blood, point them in the direction of VMware, who this week gave the developer world a great example of how to ship a showstopper bug. Due to some code dealing with licensing making it from the beta builds into the [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: spook, us, bug, semantic web, bill gates, vmware, microsoft
Aug 13
Microsoft services VS2008 & .NET 3.5
Microsoft has just announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1(SP1) and Visual Studio 2008 SP1. Microsoft is feeding us these coding condiments not much more than nine months after the release of the .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. The company says that now was the right time to ladle this extra layer of sauce on the products as it has now had [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: visual studio, .net, microsoft, .net
Aug 11
Targeted for hacking by reporters at my table
I should have known it was only a matter of time. I've been covering security conferences on and off for about 14 years and considered myself lucky not to have been hacked, that I knew of. Until Thursday. Here's what happened. I was in one of the press rooms at the Black Hat security conference trying to upload some video to the Web. It was a slow process using my Sprint wireless air card, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Aug 08
Lack of turn out shows Linux's crossover
It may seem counter-intuitive but the proof that Linux is now a mainstream technology is the lack of excitement surrounding LinuxWorld this year. In his blog post Charles Cooper wrote: "There was a time when LinuxWorld was one of -- if not the -- hottest technology conferences around. [...] That now seems like ancient history. The roster of keynotes during this week's LinuxWorld conference reads [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: linuxworld, startup, dns, twitter, facebook, ibm, firefox, linux
Aug 08
Facebook gives developers more detailed analytics
Facebook is announcing later on a complete revamp of the analytics system it offers to developers for measuring the performance of their applications on its platform. It's more extensive than the company's recent decision to switch from publicly reporting daily use to monthly use. It'll be officially announced on the Facebook developer blog. The new analytics are available only to the developer [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: analytics, statistics, facebook, developers
Aug 07
The best news Linux could ever receive: LinuxWorld's a bust
The latest proof that Linux has conquered the corporate data center crowd: LinuxWorld is a dud. LinuxWorld 2008? (Credit: US National Park Service)There was a time when LinuxWorld was one of--if not the-- hottest technology conferences around. This show used to be jammed. The curious would hang on the latest pronouncement from Linus Torvalds. Jon Maddog Hall would hold court on why Linux was headed [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: linuxworld, linux
Aug 01
Software in the courts
The ongoing case of Google vs Boring has brought an interesting point of view out of Mountain View; in lieu of the chewbacca defence, Google has instead made the point that there is no such thing as complete privacy. "Today's satellite-image technology means that ... complete privacy does not exist," Google said in its response to the complaint. Google isn't completely stomping privacy into [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: ato, military, uk, us, asf, nasa, mac, apache, windows, microsoft, google, linux
Jul 25
Facebook's portal for the masses
This week, Facebook took a number of strategic steps toward its goal of giving people the "power to share and make the world more open and connected." That's how founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the mission statement for Facebook. With that mission statement, similar to Google's mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Facebook [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: mark zuckerberg, facebook
Jul 25
The future remains yesterday
Remember when MySQL was blazingly fast and cared little for SQL standards? When MySQL regarded a view as something nice from your window and a trigger was treated as a weaponry component? Those days are set to return with a MySQL fork called Drizzle being announced this week. Drizzle will have a micro-kernel architecture with code being removed from the Drizzle core and moved through interfaces [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: drizzle, perl, openssh, ascii, omnidrive, keynote, mysql, google
Jul 24
Google App Engine sort of getting Perl support
Google programmers are adding support for the Perl programming language to its App Engine service for hosting Web applications, but so far it's not really an official project. The work is the project of Google employee Brad Fitzpatrick, who disclosed the project on his blog. But he's not a member of the App Engine team, and Google isn't promising Perl support, he said. By going public with the [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: perl, python, cloud computing, google
Jul 18
Sysadmin hijacks San Francisco while Torvalds attacks security circus
You know the sort of sysadmin that I'm about to talk about. The one who gets so drunk on the power of controlling a network that he/she offers to replace you with a shell script or will decide to read other people's email, just because they can. If ever proof was needed of the ability for power to corrupt, look to San Francisco. This week Terry Childs, a network administrator for the city of San [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: start-up, sysadmin, power, package, openbsd, web directions south, linus torvalds, network, australia, security, linux
Jul 16
Introducing the new "nerd whistle"
Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. (Credit: CNET Networks)I picked up the iPhone 3G yesterday. Maybe "picked up" is a little too light and airy for what happened -- it's more like I slogged through a 3-hour line along with several other iPhone fans with waning patience and sore feet, dying to get their hands on Apple's latest device. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jul 16
WordPress updates to 2.6, adds Gears support
Blogging platform WordPress updated to version 2.6 yesterday. It's the latest major release since 2.5, which debuted back in late March and adds nearly as many new features as it does bug and security fixes. The video above outlines some of the major new features. The most useful of the bunch is aimed at bloggers on the go who can now take advantage of the same Google Gears integration introduced [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: blogging
Jul 11
Repent Open Sourcerers
If you've been in Sydney's CDB this week, you would have noticed the beginning of the buildup for the event that makes annoyance illegal -- World Youth Day. I'd guess that there wouldn't be a piece of open source to be seen at that event. Yet pick the other dominant Christian denomination in town, and it's fast becoming an open source paradise. George Lymbers, CIO of the Sydney Diocese of the [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jul 09
Programmers in India prefer Google's Orkut
Google's Orkut social network isn't just big in Brazil. It's also popular in India, especially among software developers, according to a new survey. Despite Facebook's efforts to promote that social network as the platform of choice for third-party application developers, Orkut is used by twice as many software programmers in India than either Facebook or MySpace, according to an Evans Data [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: india, social networks, orkut, google
Jul 08
Discounted entry to Web Directions
Web Directions 2008 returns to the Sydney Convention Centre in September for four days of workshops, conference, networking, expo, parties and more. Web Directions are offering BuilderAU discounts off their entry prices. Sign up before July 19th and you'll pay $795 (RRP $850); cost before September 6th is $895 (RRP $950); or just before the conference, and you'll pay $995 (RRP $1050). To take [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: web directions south, discount
Jul 04
Perils of outsourcing
Few companies want, or can afford, to handle all of their human resources functions internally -- so naturally it is outsourced to external parties. Both Google and CNET Networks (corporate overloads of Builder AU) would be feeling a little sorry for themselves after it was revealed that some employees' personal data was taken in a burglary of Colt Express Outsourcing Services. The kicker is that [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: cnet networks, privacy, theft, outsourcing, yahoo, microsoft, google, adobe
Jul 02
Google's new foray into image search
R.J. Pittman, Google's director of product management for Consumer Search Properties, shared some details of future versions of image search. In the interview with Beet.tv's Andy Plesser, Pittman said that Google is developing visual crawling software that can be used for facial recognition and scene analysis. In addition images can be matched with display ads and utilise geotagging information for [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: image search, web 2.0, google
Jul 01
Windows XP's last hurrah
The mere fact that Microsoft will stop widespread sale of Windows XP at the end of the day has been a topic here and elsewhere for months. So, rather than rehash things, I thought I would take a look at the Windows landscape. The most immediate question is, with Windows XP moving off the stage, just where is Windows Vista? On the plus side, the newer operating system has sold 140 million [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: windows xp, windows vista, microsoft, windows
Jun 30
Google data-sharing gets authentication option
Google now supports the open OAuth standard for sharing data through its Google Data interface, a move that could make it easier to tap into information stored at Google property. TheGoogle Data API -- GData for short --provides a conduit whereby other Web sites can slurp out data stored at Google. For personal information, such as photos at Picasa or contacts at Gmail, access to that information [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jun 27
Screw-ups, Mobile Linux shakeup and kthxbai Bill
Without doubt, the most popular story of this week on Builder AU was Sun's admission that they "screwed up" their open source relations back in 2001/2002. The argument that Sun makes is that by open sourcing Solaris and Java, that they are making amends for past wrongs. Some of the talkback disagreed and pointed out Sun's involvement with SCO in the past. Up in Redmond there will be much wailing [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: domain name, icann, bill gates, internet, sun, java, open source, microsoft
Jun 24
Google plans new Internet measurement tool
Google is expected to unveil a tool on Tuesday that measures Internet use to help advertisers identify the best places to buy ads that will reach its target audience, according to a report Monday on the Wall Street Journal website. The measurement tools, which will be offered to advertisers and their agencies for free, will compete with services offered by established leaders Nielsen and ComScore. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: advertising, google
Jun 20
Gestation, robots and NASA hacking
After an extended gestation period of betas and release candidates, the official release of Firefox 3 finally hit the Internet this week. Coupled with a world record attempt for most software downloads in a 24-hour period, this release was always going to be big. It does help your propaganda if there is not a current world record to try to pass, but this new record is a good benchmark and will take [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jun 18
Outsourcing made wrong – a real case
A few days ago I wrote about how outsourcing goes wrong. Now I will explain more in detail with a real case. A couple of weeks ago I was in the US and visited a state government. They had outsourced the development of their new Enterprise Software to a US based international software house here called Smarty for the nice sum of several hundred million dollars. Smarty would develop the enterprise [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 2 comments
Tags: outsourcing, project management
Jun 17
Jonathan Schwartz's free software foundation
Sun has become its own free software foundation, open sourcing everything from Java to Solaris, and acquiring the open source MySQL database for $1 billion in January of this year, as a way to grow its revenue. It seems counter-intuitive, but Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has been betting the company on that strategy. Speaking at the Supernova 2008 conference, Schwartz explained that free software brings [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: jonathan schwartz, zfs, sun, mysql, open source
Jun 16
Outsourcing made wrong
Outsourcing is hot! Every major corporation around the globe is outsourcing all or part of their software development. Examples come from all industries: banking, insurance, utilities and government. And unfortunately the result is lots of unsuccessful projects. However, the failures are often never talked about because the vendor has got a fantastic contract and the customer won’t speak up [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 4 comments
Tags: outsourcing, project management
Jun 13
When software becomes an entertainment report
The software industry's latest on-again, off-again relationship is officially off again. Microsoft's efforts to reach some sort of arrangement with Yahoo have broken down with Yahoo claiming that Microsoft was only interested in the search component of the business and not its entirety. In a case of the freedom to do good also means the freedom to do bad, Richard Stallman hit out at the use of [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: windows live, yahoo, moonlight, stallman, apple, microsoft, firefox, linux
Jun 12
Microsoft's Surface goes to Vegas
This might not be what Bill Gates originally envisioned with his "information at your fingertips" concept. On Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Rio hotel will unveil a new Surface computer application called Flirt, that will let bar patrons "interact" with each other through video cameras and text messages. Another, called Mixologist, will let guests design their own cocktails and send drinks to friends [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jun 06
Bracing for Applefest
It's that time of year again, Steve Jobs' reality distortion field (RDF) is about to extend throughout the internet and consume your favourite tech news sites for days. To Apple fanboys it is more than Christmas -- to others it is WWDC and you cannot escape it. Open source followers will forgo their principles and embrace a proprietary platform; Microsofties will wonder how to get into the iPhone [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: steve jobs, webkit, iphone, apple, security
Jun 04
When it comes to Apple, proprietary, 'schmaprietary'
After taking over as Apple CEO for the second time, Steve Jobs pulled the plug on a program to license the Macintosh operating system to clone makers. No surprise, as that was consistent with his approach since the debut of the Macintosh. Keeping everything under one roof worked to Apple's advantage, and it found later expression in the development of the iPod and iTunes. So it is that in the run-up [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: proprietary, closed, profit, apple
May 30
You've got patched flaws!
Strutting down the corridors of Symantec this week, one very proud security researcher was on top of the world. A flaw had been found within Adobe's Flash player and therefore the entire Web was ready to reel in horror. One small issue with that premise though: the flaw in question had already been patched and everything continued as normal. Well, maybe not normal within the walls of Symantec, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: symantec, patents, open source, microsoft, firefox, google, adobe
May 29
Everyone wants to be agile
The last month I gave four public presentations with around 100-200 people each. I met with about twelve companies. At every occasion, I asked what really is new with agile. Here are typical unfiltered answers: "rapid iterations", "working software", "coping with change", "communication", "flexible", "adaptable", "eliminate waste", "accepting changes", "small iterations", "feature-driven", [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 23
A new coat of varnish
While the journalists were out covering all the conferences this week, the Builder design gnomes were busy giving us a coat of paint here and a spruce-up there -- no terribly large and daunting changes, but after a time the make-up does need to be reapplied. The most obvious changes were on our homepage, we'd love it get your feedback on the new look especially if there are places that need improvement [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: twitter, ego, remix, opera, email, microsoft, security
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CSI Tracing, Ballmer hunting and Bobcats -- Club Builder
In this week's Club Builder: Gary Sinise shows how to trace IPs in VB, Microsoft attempts to kill off XP again, Google tries to prevent drunk emails, and we see how to properly spend $1800.
