Opinion: So many platforms, how does a developer choose?

Developers are faced with more choice in platforms today than ever before. There are social networks like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and OpenSocial. There is the iPhone SDK, Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry. There are communications tools like Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.

There's the choice of development languages and associated tools. Do you choose Java? Ruby on Rails? Python? PHP? Flash? Django? .Net?

How about cloud computing infrastructures? Amazon? Google AppEngine? Do you risk some unknown start-up?

And the computing platform — Windows, Mac, Linux or some combination? Or Web-only?

So many choices. How does a developer decide?

The easiest way is to follow the money. That certainly drove development on the Windows platform 20 years ago. But what if there is no obvious money?

In a world of free products, you'll need to choose the path to the greatest reward. That usually means that the chosen route will get your product or service in front of the greatest number of people as quickly as possible.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a free offline blogging tool named Bleezer — just because I wanted to see if I could, and because I wanted to return the favor for all of the free software I've used over the years. For multiplatform support I chose Java, and I implemented the Blogger, Movable Type and Wordpress interfaces. That was my last real desktop application.

A year ago, when Facebook Platform was announced, I could see that Facebook was growing exponentially. I could see the potential for getting Web-based applications in front of groups quickly, and virally, so it was a simple decision to learn that platform. That decision in turn drove me to learn PHP and MySQL, since the platform provided a PHP API. My first app also required me to learn Flash, but I'm not happy with the exorbitant price of the development tools, so I've stopped working with it. I've also been doing some cross-social-network stuff, so I'm looking at OpenSocial.

Today I'm learning Ruby on Rails, because I've seen how quickly it can be used to build a Web application. However, I'm also keenly aware from the experience of Twitter that it may not be the most scalable choice. But I'm not building anything that big yet, and time-to-market is of greater concern.

And like many others, I have the iPhone SDK sitting on my laptop, though so far it is untouched. I'm in Canada, which doesn't have the iPhone currently, but I have an iPod Touch, and I can already see that this is going to be an important platform. So the iPhone is next.

Back before the days of the Windows platform, it was like the Wild West. Every application looked different, and acted differently as well. Windows standardized everything so you only had to create one product, and all of the products on the platform behaved similarly.

Today we have much greater choice of tools to use, but we're back on the frontier again: a different platform for every tool, and precious little standardization, except for efforts by Google such as Android and Open Social. And a new platform announced virtually every week.

Given a finite limit of development resources, maybe we should stop picking platforms and start pushing for some standardization. Is it really necessary to have so many different ways of working with so many products that, at their core, do much the same thing?

source:- computerworld.com/

Sitecore is Rated Positive in the MarketScope for Web Content Management Report by Leading Analyst Firm

The leading provider of .NET Web Content Management System (CMS) software, today announced at the 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference that top analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has rated Sitecore a “Positive” in the “MarketScope for Web Content Management” report by Mick MacComascaigh, Mark R. Gilbert, Toby Bell, Karen M. Shegda, and Whit Andrews published on June 26, 2008. This report covered the state of the market and evaluated 17 Web content management (WCM) vendors. Gartner notes, “The Web content management market is mature and expanding. Buyers are placing their increasingly demanding requirements in a more appropriate business context and vendors are rising to the challenge of meeting those requirements.”

Sitecore is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has won the Microsoft ISV of the year award previously. Sitecore CMS is based upon .NET technology and operates either standalone or smoothly integrates with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).

The Gartner report is available, compliments of Sitecore, here: http://www.sitecore.net/Products/Resources/whitepapers/Gartner- Marketscope.aspx (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

“We are proud to be recognized in Gartner’s report as, in my opinion, it demonstrates our success in the WCM market worldwide,” said Michael Seifert, CEO of Sitecore. “We believe this rating by one of the industry’s top analyst firms reflects our core strengths including usability and being able to rapidly meet the needs of our customers. I believe this further validates our continuing growth and ability of our team to offer our customers and partners a pioneering solution to advance businesses worldwide.”

About Sitecore

Sitecore’s Web Content Management System (CMS) and focused software solutions enable companies to deliver compelling web experiences. Sitecore’s award-winning CMS software makes it easy for businesses to create and keep up-to-date dynamic, full featured Web sites of all types. Sitecore’s industry leading flexibility and scalability allows companies to better leverage their content to improve customer experience and drive business growth.

Thousands of public and private organizations, including national governments and Fortune 500 companies, utilize Sitecore solutions for their Web sites. These organizations have created and now manage over 5000 dynamic Web sites with Sitecore including Microsoft, Sara Lee, Siemens, Toshiba, Omni Hotels, Computer Associates, WebTrends and Thomas Cook.

About the MarketScope

The MarketScope is copyrighted June 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

source:- businesswire.com/

How to get into e-business?

Q. I think I have the ideas and the dedication to be a successful internet entrepreneur, but my degree was not related to business or computing, so I have little technical know-how. Is there a postgraduate course that I could take?

The government-funded scheme Business Link (www.businesslink.gov.uk) helps budding entrepreneurs. The site has useful advice and information on finance and grants, links to other websites, and a section dedicated to IT and e-commerce. You could also try one of the workshops on how to set up your business.

From a technical point of view, much will depend on your ideas and what you need your website to do. If you know absolutely nothing about computers, the most basic qualification is the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), which will introduce you to most software used in business. Most colleges run an ECDL course: to find your nearest provider, visit www.ecdl.co.uk. Other similar courses focus on the software packages used to create simple websites, or offer training in more complicated programming skills. It all depends on how much – or little – you already know.

In terms of postgraduate courses, again, you're spoilt for choice. Coventry, London South Bank, Westminster and Plymouth universities have Masters degrees in e-commerce; institutions such as Birkbeck, Hertfordshire, Newcastle and Liverpool offer similar qualifications under the guise of e-business. Entry requirements vary though, so contact the course leaders before applying. A database of such courses can be found at www.prospects.ac.uk/links/pgdbase.

Right time for property?

Q. I'd like to become an estate agent with a view to becoming a property developer later in life. Should I do a course before I apply for a trainee position, or just hope for some on-the-job training?

Property development has always been a high-risk career, but currently it's riskier than ever, with talk of a long-term slide in house prices nationwide. You'll need a thorough knowledge of the housing market, as well as a sound understanding of economics if you're going to succeed.

Experience at an estate agency would be invaluable, giving you the chance to learn the basics about which properties sell and why, as well as what today's typical house-hunter is looking for. There are no specific entry requirements for estate agency, but it helps to have good people skills, a knack for sales and to be comfortable using a computer. While you work, you could take industry-specific qualifications through the National Association of Estate Agents (www.naea.co.uk), but because you're viewing the career as a stop-gap on the way to property developing, experiencing the industry first-hand will probably prove more useful.

On the other hand, you might actually be better off staying at university to train as a chartered surveyor. This would give you more professional credibility as a new property developer, which you'd need when it came to seeking investment for a project. For a list of undergraduate and postgraduate courses accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, visit www.ricscourses.org.

Drawing on talent

Q. I'm in the second year of my BA in fine art, but when I graduate I'd like to do a Masters degree in illustration. Could you tell me which courses are the most highly regarded?

There is no league-table system for Masters courses, but it could be worth checking your chosen department's score in its most recent teaching quality assessment. But before you start, think about what you actually want from your studies: is it a broad overview of the field you're after, or do you have a specialism in mind? Two institutions do a highly specific course in children's-book illustration, for example, while Edinburgh College of Art is the only place that offers a postgraduate degree in fashion illustration.

Ultimately, your ideal course will be the one that best meets your professional needs and learning style. Write down everything you want out of the degree – training in digital illustration or work in other disciplines, for instance – and see which course ticks all the boxes. A searchable list of the possibilities is available at www.prospects.ac.uk/pgdbase.

Once you've started your course, you might want to join the Association of Illustrators (www.theaoi.com), which offers special rates for its student members. Benefits include impartial advice on how to lay out your portfolio, and a handy directory of potential clients.

source:- independent.co.uk/

Armored Car Company Chooses Microsoft Dynamics CRM To Secure Increased Sales Effectiveness

Microsoft Corp. recently announced that Dunbar Armored, the largest independently owned American armored car company, has selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 to provide its sales teams with all prospect and customer information from an integrated database. Dunbar, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., will bring together data from its 80 facilities and 5,200 employees across the United States. In addition to its armored car operations, Dunbar also provides cash vault and cash management services.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides powerful, role-based customer relationship management capabilities. Dunbar will replace its current system with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be the repository for all the company's prospect information. The Microsoft solution will be integrated with Dunbar's legacy software, which houses current customer information, routing programs and other modules. Previously, Dunbar staff members needed to bridge the gap between prospect information and customer information with spreadsheets and a number of manual processes. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is expected to automate the process, eliminating manual operations and making all relative data available to Dunbar teams across the nation.

"We will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a sales force automation tool," said Seth McElroy, vice president for marketing and sales administration for Dunbar. "When a prospect converts to a win, the technology will feed that information directly into our customer data with no additional manual keying or replication of data entry.

"One of the main reasons for choosing the Microsoft solution was its integration into and synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, as well as the ability to customize the application," McElroy said. "We had migrated all of our sales team members to Outlook for e-mail and appointments 18 months ago, so adding a system that's similar in look and feel will speed adoption."

McElroy also cited Microsoft's reputation in the industry, his company's familiarity with Microsoft Office applications and a desire for an on-premise (rather than Web-hosted) solution as factors in the decision.

As its technology partner, Dunbar chose Ascentium Corp., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a 2008 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year finalist and the Overall Excellence winner of the 2008 Customer Excellence Awards. Ascentium's Baltimore office will lead the engagement, and it had recommended Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the right fit for Dunbar.

With Ascentium, Dunbar will implement the sales force automation capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "Seventy-four of our 80 offices have sales force teams that will tap into the integrated database," McElroy said. "Our Microsoft technology also will promote cross-selling. For example, when a franchise location in one geography chooses our services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will alert and share information with a Dunbar office in another part of the country that may apply that knowledge to similar franchise outlets in its locality."

Dunbar expects to gain a number of benefits from the new processes, integration and automation afforded by Microsoft Dynamics CRM:

• Increased sales effectiveness. Dunbar anticipates that the administrative load on its teams will be reduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, providing them more selling time and resulting in more revenue and more customer attention, which should increase retention. Many of the administrative functions now will be handled automatically within the integrated database, which is expected to eliminate the manual processes and spreadsheets previously used.
• Cost savings. Internal labor costs are expected to be lower with elimination of the need for multiple entries of data. Dunbar is examining whether the company's universal access to integrated data will increase the return on investment of travel costs accrued by sales teams traveling for face-to-face meetings.
• Improved reporting. The Microsoft technology will allow Dunbar to have a dashboard of its field activities, showing its pipeline, sales by services and other indicators in real time. It also enables salespeople to pull their own reports, rather than requesting them from headquarters, and pinpoint prospects that may be easily accessible on their routes.
• Time savings. Salespeople for Dunbar will save time because they can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for booking and recording appointments and tasks directly, rather than sending a spreadsheet to the headquarters at the end of each week to advise management of each individual's activity. At headquarters, management no longer will need to spend hours rolling up data from the company's eight regions into an aggregate snapshot. With a dashboard, all the data will be available in real time, with activity indicated by individual and service line.
• Better data accuracy. Microsoft Dynamics CRM aggregates and offers up all customer and prospect data automatically, doing away with the need for multiple people to send data to headquarters or to recompile that data into reports. In addition, the originators and users of the data -- the members of the sales force -- are the ones who will be entering it, further improving its accuracy. Data will be much timelier with the integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM technology than with the previous system, and management will have visibility into the system.
• Improvement in revenue. The company will use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide new cross-selling opportunities. For instance, the salesperson for a major retailer whose deposits are transported by Dunbar Armored can be linked with salespeople for a major bank where Dunbar provides cash vault services, bringing those relationships together and providing multiple revenue streams.
• Support for growth. By bringing together information from multiple offices, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will serve as a tool to help Dunbar determine where it should open new offices to serve a growing account base.
• Integration throughout the company. The company's marketing team will be tied into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database so that it can create e-mail campaigns for sales staff and mine the data for marketing information. For the first time, the client services team will be able to place its notes regarding resolution of issues directly on the same system with other customer information that is accessible to the field sales team.
• IT support and management. By automating reports and automatically moving information to the customer database when prospects turn into wins, Microsoft Dynamics saves time for the IT team. Further, with data feeding directly into CRM initially, the IT staff will avoid the considerable time devoted to a steep learning curve for users, troubleshooting and managing errors.

"We believe Microsoft Dynamics CRM can make a sales force far more efficient than less-integrated systems do," said Michael Park, corporate vice president for Microsoft's U.S. Dynamics business. "By effectively automating the sales and customer relationship processes, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can expose new opportunities for cross-selling, customer-service improvements and marketing that may not have been apparent with stand-alone or manual systems."

About Dunbar
The Dunbar Companies, America's largest independent, 100% American-owned, full-service security organization is composed of six operating companies, including Dunbar Armored -- America's largest independent armored transportation carrier serving major retailers, financial institutions and government entities nationwide; Dunbar Cash Vault Services -- state-of-the-art money rooms providing a complete line of cash management services to major banks and retailers; Dunbar Global Logistics -- providing secure transportation solutions for the movement of vulnerable cargo worldwide; Dunbar BankPak -- designer and distributor of the world's finest security containers; Dunbar Guard Services -- supplier of professionally trained, uniformed guards and Dunbar Security Systems -- designer and installer of electronic alarm and 24-hour monitoring systems supported by a UL-approved central station.

About Ascentium
Ascentium is ranked 27th largest digital agency in the nation according to Advertising Age's Top 50 Digital Agencies annual list. The award-winning company is focused on customer loyalty and branding through integrated creative and technical solutions. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Ascentium has offices across the U.S. and in the U.K. Clients include Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Dell, Expedia, InfoSpace, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo and Providence Health Systems.

About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

source:- http://www.crmmarketplace.com/

A New All-in-One Server

Almost exactly seven years ago, I reviewed four different "All-in-One" Internet appliances that included file, e-mail and Web servers and some other workgroup type utilities. A purple cube, eight inches on each side, called the Qube 3 from Cobalt (purchased by Sun) won the comparison. The review is here, but alas, none of the products are. The All-in-One market is tough, and many small businesses go with the flow and buy Microsoft's Small Business Server, which includes most of the All-in-One features.

Jumping into the fray is a new product from a fairly young company near Vancouver called Sutus. The system includes basic file server, e-mail server, Web server, and routing and firewall functions. Being modern, Wi-Fi adds to the network options along with Power over Ethernet (PoE) connections. Being very modern, Sutus also includes a small company phone system, running VoIP along with a gateway supporting three lines to the traditional telephone system. Any Polycom IP telephone, from the high-priced ones down to the affordable ones, will automatically work with the system.

Security issues make me wary of small businesses supporting their own e-mail and Web servers, especially when Microsoft servers are used since they attract so many attacks. Sutus avoids these issues by using a hardened version of Gentoo Linux with all non-essential services stripped out.

Sutus uses a managed service model, with all server functions managed by the Sutus reseller or other managed service provider, which also aids security. The level of support will be critical because Sutus aims its products at the 25 employees and under business market, and darn few of those companies have any full time technical support on the payroll. Of course, if the box crashes, phone service, e-mail, Web and Internet access all disappear.

Officially, I tested the Sutus Business Central 200 which came largely preconfigured, the way almost all units will arrive at their new homes. While this level of hand holding isn't always the norm in file servers, it is in telephone systems, and that's the primary foundation for the Sutus box. Functionally, you can't tell if it's a phone system with file services built on, or a file server with phone support added, but the Sutus folks have telephone backgrounds. More than that, the feature list leans toward more phone goodies than network and server goodies, although the goodies list is fairly even.

Pricing makes sense for this market: $3,995 for nine and fewer users, and $5445 for 10 or more. There are no user license fees like with Microsoft. Phones are not included in the base price.

My test system arrived with 250GBs of disk space configured as RAID 1 (two redundant disks to protect against disk failure), eight 10/100 PoE ports, one 10/100/1000 GigE port, and 802.11b/g wireless, the most common Wi-Fi option today. The router and firewall came configured intelligently, meaning insecure network access is blocked while allowing normal connections. Client connections worked flawlessly from Windows XP, Windows 2000, Apple OS X and Ubuntu 8.04 Linux.

Biggest surprise? The router function automatically configured my AT&T DSL connection. No router I've tested has done that; usually I have to provide name, password and other details. Clients connected immediately through the BC 200 to the Internet.

The browser-based administration screens are all done in Flash and take longer to load and change than any other comparable admin utilities on similar systems. Sutus Executive VP Shawn Chute admitted the laggard screens, and said internal discussions were long and detailed, but the company decided to use Flash because of workflow and usability. The company will soon move to the newer Flex architecture to speed things up.

Private workspace folders, created for departments and users, aren't the most refined structure, but at least they give companies a workable folder system to start with. Public workspaces support different departments, and include features such as group addressed e-mails and phone services.

The world can find your server by routing through Sutus using an address like YourCompany.SutusCentral.com, or you can work with your reseller to point your own domain name to the Web and e-mail servers. The Web server works well enough for basic Web sites, but e-commerce players will need more.

One sales outlet for Sutus will be large telephone companies and ISPs that want to serve more small businesses but can't afford to send techs out for initial installation and support. Sutus handles those issues by shipping preconfigured models and by making the administration wizards simple enough for any power user. Remote management capabilities should carry remote support the rest of the way, meaning only hardware failures require personal visits by technicians.

While computer support calls have a reputation for high fees, phone vendors tend to be worse. Moving, adding or changing extension phones and numbers within companies can cost well over a hundred bucks per phone. The intelligent VoIP system included with the Sutus BC200 makes all of that disappear. Want to move your extension? Unplug it from the Ethernet connection, then plug it in at your new location. Done.

The Sutus Business Central 200 looks to include just about everything a small company needs, supplying both computer and telephone services. And if you look at it just the right way, you get a free file server system with your new telephones, or free telephones with your server system.

source:- http://www.pcworld.com/

IDS Scheer Announces Successful Integration of ARIS Platform and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2

At ARIS ProcessWorld Europe in Berlin IDS Scheer, the leading international solution provider for Business Process Management, announced the availability of its integration of the ARIS Platform with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2. As a preferred Business Process Management (BPM) modelling and monitoring partner for the Microsoft Business Process Alliance, IDS Scheer will be presenting the details of the integration at the conference on June 17 and 18, 2008

"With this integration, companies can accelerate their return on business process management improving their business performance. They are able to seamlessly model and design business processes using ARIS, and then execute them through Microsoft BizTalk Server and respective web services", said Allen Johnson, Director Partner/ Alliances at IDS Scheer. The integration of the ARIS Platform with Microsoft BizTalk Server offers time and cost savings not only in the development of individual software and implementation of middleware; it also enables the orchestration of business processes through industry standard web services and BPM protocols. Moreover it features complete, always up-to-date documentation for better communication between technical and development departments.

Based upon our joint collaboration and innovation, we are delivering on our vision of taking business process management mainstream. The integrated offering allows businesses to design, simulate and execute business process dynamically through BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and also enables Process Analytics and Intelligence to be built into the business process which in turn enables a continuous improvement capability with a dashboard for process based decision making for the business.

"We are very pleased about the launch of ARIS for Microsoft BizTalk Server, which represents our deepening strategic relationship with IDS Scheer through the Microsoft Business Process Alliance. This is a significant step along the path toward the vision for delivering model-driven SOA and BPM capabilities to our customers," said Volker Rosendahl, Worldwide Director of Sales, SOA and Process Platform Solutions at Microsoft Corp. "Based upon our joint collaboration and innovation, we are delivering on our vision of taking business process management mainstream."

About IDS Scheer
IDS Scheer is the market leader in Business Process Management (BPM) software, solutions and services for corporations and public organizations worldwide. With its unrivaled ARIS Platform for Process Excellence, the company offers an integrated, comprehensive solution portfolio for the strategy, design, implementation and controlling of business processes. Utilizing the ARIS Value Engineering (AVE) approach, IDS Scheer consultants bridge the gap between corporate strategy, business processes, IT solutions and process controlling. Approximately 3,000 employees in over 70 countries serve the company's 7,000 customers. In 2007, IDS Scheer's revenues reached 393.5 million Euro. Established in 1984 by Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, IDS Scheer is listed in the TecDAX on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Germany).

source:- http://www.prweb.com/

Search Engine Optimization Firm Develops New Methodology

Everyone wants to create more web traffic, but finding a very progressive and forward thinking search engine optimization firm that is fast, dependable and affordable is not an easy task. Simply put, most SEO firms are still using antiquated methods that no longer work to get clients highly ranked.

ThinkBIGsites.com (www.thinkbigsites.com) based in NY, WA and AZ is on the cutting edge of a newer and more effective Search Engine Marketing strategy that is comprised of four powerful components, 1) Search Engine Optimization 2) Strategic Inbound Linking 3) Blog Marketing and 4) Social Networking. ThinkBIG's co-founder and Managing Partner, Marc Arner has formulated a unique and valuable understanding of how the various search engines such as Google, Yahoo & MSN respond to various social networking/Inbound linking strategies. The architect of this proven strategy, Mr. Arner has developed a state of the art, leading edge internet marketing process that is routinely getting 95% of clients a page 1 organic ranking on the major engines within 90 days. This proprietary method has its roots firmly planted in Web 2.0 using corporate blog marketing, strategic inbound linking and social networking strategies that are now gaining a great deal of popularity around the world. When asked about this technique, Marc Arner said, "Most SEO firms are experts in one, two or even three areas of internet marketing, but very few if any have a deep understanding of how all the important components that make up a solid Internet Marketing campaign should be seamlessly woven together in sync. It's that broad level of understanding that really separates ThinkBIG from the pack."

"Many organizations of various size and scope throughout industry have struggled for years trying to figure out how the search engines operate, what criteria is used to rank websites and most difficult of all, how to get a website highly ranked 'organically' on the major search engines such as Google. ThinkBIGsites.com has mastered this technique and is now one of the fastest growing Internet Marketing companies in the world with revenues increasing at a staggering rate of 20% per month," said Managing Partner PJ Cammarata.

Web 2.0 or the "humanization of the internet" has changed everything when it comes to Internet Marketing. With the advent of blog marketing, video blogging and social networking in general, an entirely new industry has emerged lead by many new popular, social media websites such as: YouTube, My Space, Facebook, Craigslist, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn and Wikipedia to name just a few.

Unlike in years past, website owners around the world can now rest easy knowing that there are knowledgeable experts in the Internet Marketing field such as ThinkBIGsites.com who can help them with all of their web related needs especially the most formidable of which is increasing their online visibility via the major search engines. Creating value in a website, putting it front and center so that potential customers can find you within seconds has forever changed the way the world does business.

source:- http://sev.prnewswire.com/

Hyper-warped-visor-consolidation Confabulation

Excuse me if I sound stupid but consolidation and virtualization could be two separate processes or system management criteria. Depending on the application, having a SQL server of some type or other could conceivably serve multiple database applications. Consolidation could be as simple as just moving a database application(s) onto a partially utilized SQL server and not require any virtualization at all.

Likewise virtualization might allow for some special applications to run that don't have heavy usage or limited appeal. Like using a backup server as a network monitor for instance.

I have seen tremendous amounts of IT-spam recently in the last 6 months advertising, announcing or proselytizing virtualization software. And yes its going to be the browser wars all over, especially if they give it to us free and expect us to buy either support or "enhanced performance" professional versions. Snake oil all of it.

Yes I have used Virtual PC 2007 and tried VMWare and they are fine for what they are and do. But no matter how you cut it, there is a cost of power that can be associated with every bit and byte forced through a Hypervisor/virtual machine/root kit or OS. The CPU is going to run hotter and harder and probably won't last as long. Yes you might save some money by combining tasks or applications onto fewer servers ONLY if you haven't ALREADY installed them onto their own servers. If the servers are still running, do they really use that much AC power and cooling to justify replacing them with something that will run hotter and cost more? Maybe you should have replaced or shutdown those servers and applications already?

What's it going to cost to buy a high powered server, install an OS on it, install a hypervisor (huh? Since when is that a software application or component?) and then install all the not-so-virtual OS licenses onto the system? Then test it to make sure it doesn't bring down the entire house of cards you've made by putting multiple applications onto one system. You want to try and monetize that and then justify it to management? Try generating/calculating a legitimate ROI for an application that doesn't evidently see much usage. If its significant enough to be more than 1% of your total system bandwidth or gross product, I wouldn't screw with it. If the application is generating more than 1% of your business traffic on the network or Internet, you might want to seriously consider mirroring or clustering instead of using virtualization.

If it's generating less than that, WHY RUN IT AT ALL? Give your customers a copy of the software and show them how to run it locally on their server and then offer a remote service contract to maintain it if you have to.

If you're worried about security threats from it, GET IT RE-WRITTEN to eliminate the threats.

I am amazed that the latest buzzword or fad software becomes an answer to all sorts of questions that should have more intelligent answers than just shoving it into a virtual machine.

If the code is buggy, it stays buggy on the VM.

If its a security threat, that doesn't change much either. How long do you think it will take for the malware miscreants to find holes in MS or anybody else's VM software and take advantage of it?

I think that like Vista for Microsoft, virtualization has become the cash-cow everybody can own. All they have to do is buy some software or hire some programmers for the project and then white-paper/advertise the crap out of it and then bingo the cash starts coming in, no Microsoft required. Now Microsoft wants a piece of the market.

The mechanism all of the virtual-fan-boys use is a survey.

One of the problems I have run into answering surveys is that the preset expectations or mindsets of the testers has a tremendous impact on how well designed the survey is and how effective it is at soliciting meaningful and unbiased data. I have given up answering the damn things because its obvious in most cases that the selections set as possible answer choices in most cases will force or bend the survey to a specific goal.

The flood of babel-speak is tremendous. Grab a bunch of buzzwords jam them together in questions that sound more like pick one from column A and 2 from column B and poof you have a tech-geek survey. Its like picking or writing your own set of benchmark tests to demonstrate your CPU is better than a CPU from somebody else. Likewise I don't bother reading the reports from them any longer for the same reasons.

Combining virtualization and consolidation in the same answer selection block prevents finely defining or allowing the difference between the two. Consolidation doesn't require virtual-anything in all cases. The reason I jumped on this specific phrase is that I've seen this combination cited or offered as an answer in more than one survey in the past and more recently as word-fodder in an article promoting or announcing the (now 2 week old) potential release of a Microsoft Hyper-Visor management tool.

source:- http://community.zdnet.co.uk/

Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint Hit the Cloud

Microsoft is heading deeper into the cloud with a new suite of online business applications that will be available to individual subscribers for a monthly fee.

The offering, dubbed Microsoft Online Services (MOS), is being targeted to those customers who might be more tied to their BlackBerry than their workplace PC. For $3 per month, a user can get access to Microsoft's new Deskless Worker Suite, which includes Web-based access to Exchange and SharePoint.

"Today we are taking an important next step in delivering Microsoft Online Services, and we're doing so with a broad set of Microsoft partners, that are crucial to bringing this solution to our customers," Elop said at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. "Microsoft Online Services is a key component of the software plus services initiative, and we're seeing customers, partners and even competitors embrace this flexible approach to the cloud."

Exchange subscribers will get e-mail, calendar, address book, anti-virus and anti-spam filters, and company e-mail access via Outlook Web Access Light, Microsoft said. Those with a SharePoint subscription will have access to SharePoint portal and team sites and search functionality.

Users can subscribe to the "deskless" versions Exchange and SharePoint together or separately, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is also offering a productivity suite for $15 per month, which includes Exchange Online, Office SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online for instant messaging, and Office Live Meeting for videoconferencing.

Partners selling the services will get a 12 percent cut of the first-year contract and 6 percent of the ongoing subscription fee, in addition to their own fees for setup and support.

Eight Microsoft customers are currently participating in a beta of MOS, while another four customers – including Nokia – are using MOS for messaging and collaboration, according to Microsoft. U.S.-based companies can sign up for the beta at www.mosbeta.com. Partners such as Accenture and Unisys have become authorized resellers of the online services. Microsoft has set up a Quickstart for partners wanting to get on board, with information at www.quickstartonlineservices.com.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it would offer a subscription-based version of Office by late July. A one-year subscription will cost $69.99, and each subscription can be activated on three home computers.

source:- http://www.pcmag.com/

Acquia Update: Network Services and Drupal Certification

Acquia presented at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston last week, and Jeff Whatcott, who manned the Acquia stand, writes in a blog entry that most of the corporate types swinging past his booth had no idea what Drupal was.

Acquia’s mission, or course, is about changing all that, and making the open source Social Publishing (… as they insist on calling it…) platform a viable Enterprise content management/community product. If you remember, the company told us at Drupalcon Boston in March how they intend to achieve that. The first step consists of professional wrapping of the Drupal product, and will come in the shape of the subscription-based ‘Carbon’ product. Carbon consists of Drupal 6.x core and about 30 modules, some of which have been developed by the Drupal community and then vetted and tested by Acquia, with a sprinkling of modules developed by the company itself. The result is calculated to be analogous to a Red Hat enterprise subscription; a cast-iron, bug-free and supported version of a community-built product.

The second major product announcement in March was ‘Spokes’, and is a network service. Spokes will offer subscribers automatic updates, security updates and patches, personalized alerts and other remote services.

We were wondering how things were progressing along these lines, so we talked with Director of Marketing Bryan House, and got a progress report and picked up some details on upcoming products. The good new is that things are on schedule for the announced Fall launch of the company’s first products. The (ever-growing) Acquia team is beavering away on building the eCommerce store, on Network Services and on testing and packaging for the Carbon product. We talked about some cool new ideas for Acquia’s network services, and about a whole new departure for Acquia: Drupal certification and training.

The Acquia Cloud: Drupal Network Services

There has been much speculation about what Acquia will ultimately do with network services. They already told us about automatic updates, security patches and so on, and Bryan shed some light on other forthcoming features.

Mollom and Caliper

Our own Barb Mosher was wondering what Dries Buytaert was up to earlier this year when he set up Mollom with an old university friend… and now we get to find out.
Mollom is an anti-spam framework which learns from its own community and enables CAPTCHA-free posting for clean content. Definite spam and bot-generated content is rejected. Content which the system deems to be clean is posted without a CAPTCHA challenge. And the remaining content — the ‘Maybes’ — get issued with a CAPTCHA trap. When false-positives occur and the filter allows spam onto your website, reporting it to Mollom makes the system smarter.

Akismet, the ubiquitous anti-spam system, has suffered some bad press in recent weeks with claims that breaches are becoming more common as bots learn better ways to circumvent it, so the time might be ripe for next-gen anti-spam systems. Mollom is going head-to-head against Defensio in the self-learning anti-spam stakes, so it will be interesting to see how this battle plays out. The technology also enables automatic screening of your website or community for profanity and garbage content, and despite the obvious links to Drupal (there is already a Drupal module), an open API has already seen a Joomla! module developed (Jollum), and a WordPress equivilent is in the works.

And, getting back to the point, Mollom technology will also drive Acquia’s network-based Caliper service, which will ” protect the integrity of user comments, forums, and other forms of user generated content”. Given Drupal’s community-building credentials, it’s a fair assumption that Acquia’s customer base will comprise many community website owners with serious user-generated content volume. In which case Caliper/Mollom will be a non-trivial addition to the Acquia package.

Heartbeat

Heartbeat is another utilization of the network service, which will track downtime and offer reports on activity and problems with the website, intranet or whatever you’re running off Drupal/Carbon.

Open Calais

Open Calais may or may not make it to the dancefloor, so to speak. It’s an interesting possible utilization of network services which Acquia is playing with and which may or may not make it onto the ticket. Open Calais is some kind of ‘auto-tagging’ generator with a semantic edge. And… that’s about all we know for now. Watch this space.

One final point on the network: as you might expect (if you’re a Drupal user), connection to the Acquia network services will be achieved through a couple of module add-ons.

Drupal Certification : Yellow Jersey

We mentioned earlier that Acquia is in the business of making Drupal a viable enterprise software product. Approaching this theme from another angle, the company hope to launch a training and certification structure for the Social Publishing platform. The provisional name for this program is Yellow Jersey (Dries is from the land of Eddy Merckx… and if you have to Google that name to make the connection, shame on you.)

Old hands at Drupal development and administration are not being targeted by the Yellow Jersey program. Instead, as the number of implementations grows, Acquia would like to see higher quality Drupal developers and administrators coming up through the ranks. There are three target audiences for Yellow Jersey training and certification: Developers, System Administrators, and Theme builders. You can expect developments on Yellow Jersey after the Fall or maybe into 2009, once Carbon and Spokes are out.

On a related subject, work continues on building guides on building specific implementations like how to build Wikis or corporate Intranets using Drupal/Acquia.

source:- http://www.cmswire.com/

EstHost: Script Installation Made Easy

(PRWEB) EstHost, Inc (esthost.com), a US-based hosting provider, announces that its virtual hosting customers can now install in seconds popular blogging, portal and message board scripts with Fantastico De Luxe, a powerful automatic installer for most popular scripts. The extensive list of supported scripts features popular open source projects, such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, phpBB, PHP-Nuke, and many more.

Pre-made, open source web scripts for popular web site types (like blogs, message boards, or content portals) enable to take ideas and businesses online without major development investments. These solutions are massively popular among virtual hosting customers. EstHost, Inc is now offering virtual hosting products powered by a combination of cPanel, an account management software, and Fantastico De Luxe, a popular automatic installer that allows the users to set up their script-powered sites in a matter of seconds.

Fantastico De Luxe makes installation process easy and quick, it also handles directory structures, MySQL databases, file access rights and all other details needed to power a web site with one of the leading scripts on the market. No technical expertise is required to install dozens of scripts for a variety of purposes, including blogging (WordPress, Nucleus), content management (Drupal, Joomla, PHP-Nuke), message boards (phpBB), image galleries (Coppermine Photo Gallery), and more. The total list of scripts supported by Fantastico De Luxe is available here: http://www.netenberg.com/fantastico_scripts.php.

By implementing Fantastico De Luxe, a widely used script autoinstaller, EstHost, Inc (esthost.com) enables its virtual hosting account owners to get their sites up and running in a matter of minutes without having to learn the technical details and hire web experts. More information about Fantastico De Luxe is available here: http://www.netenberg.com/fantastico.php. You are welcome to contact EstHost, Inc to find out more about Fantastico De Luxe and ways how you can make your online business benefit from the script.

Started in 2004, today EstHost, Inc offers professional, reliable virtual hosting, dedicated server and Virtuozzo-powered virtual private server solutions. Test EstHost, Inc services before becoming a customer by using the company's free 5-day trial period. Domain-related services can be obtained from http://estdomains.com, including registering new domains, setting up email forwarding or managed DNS. In addition, customers are welcome to auction their domains at http://bakler.com or purchase old unused domain names from other webmasters. If needing more information about EstHost, Inc, contact the company's customer support department by creating a ticket at https://support.esthost.com.

source:- http://www.prweb.com/

Rare Earth Elements: A Beginner’s Guide

Rare earth elements consist of a group of 15 metals. In most cases and usage patterns in the modern economy, these 15 elements are oxides. The names of the elements are Cerium, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Gadolinium, Holmium, Lanthanum, Lutetium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Samarium, Terbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, and Yttrium.

The bulk of the world's supply of rare earth elements comes from the mineral bastnasite. Bastnasite is a mixed lanthanide fluoro-carbonate mineral (Ln F CO3) that is found in rocks called carbonatites.

Carbonatites are igneous carbonate rocks. Specifically, this means that the rock masses contain more than 50% carbonate minerals, and cooled from a melt. Despite extensive research, no one is entirely certain about the origins of carbonatites. The general viewpoint is that carbonatites are carbonate rocks that were buried deep enough to melt via metamorphic processes or in the presence of igneous intrusions. Some geochemists have speculated that carbonatites can form when mantle rocks melt in the presence of carbon dioxide. There is almost always significant calcite in carbonatites.

Most carbonatites are intrusive igneous rocks. Structurally, they occur as volcanic plugs, dikes and cone sheets. Carbonatites often occur as smaller components of large igneous intrusions of silicate rocks, such as nepheline syenite. In these cases the general term is to refer to a "carbonatite complex."

According to the geological literature, there are about 330 known occurrences of carbonatites worldwide, but almost all are small and noncommercial. There are only a few carbonatite deposits of commercial significance in the world.

Currently there are two deposits that are up and running. One is at Mountain Pass, California and operated by Molycorp, a subsidiary of Chevron (formerly owned by Unocal). The other major deposit is at Baiyun Ebo in Inner Mongolia, China. Mount Weld, Australia is also a large commercial body in development stages.

Major Uses of Rare Earth Elements

Lanthanum comes from the mineral bastnasite, and is extracted via a method called "solvent extraction." Lanthanum is a strategically important rare earth element due to its activity in catalysts that are critical in petroleum refining. By one estimate, lanthanum "cracking-agents" increase refinery yield by as much as 10%, while reducing overall refinery power consumption.

Cerium is the most abundant of the rare earth elements. Cerium is critical in the manufacture of environmental protection and pollution-control systems, from automobiles to oil refineries. Cerium oxides, and other cerium compounds, go into catalytic converters and larger-scale equipment to reduce the sulfur oxide emissions. Cerium is a diesel fuel additive for micro-filtration of pollutants, and promotes more complete fuel combustion for more energy efficiency.

Neodymium is a critical component of strong permanent magnets. Cell phones, portable CD players, computers and most modern sound systems would not exist in their current form without using neodymium magnets. Neodymium-Iron- Boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets are essential for miniaturizing a variety of technologies. These magnets maximize the power/cost ratio, and are used in a large variety of motors and mechanical systems.

Europium offers exceptional properties of photon emission. When it absorbs electrons or UV radiation, the europium atom changes energy levels to create a visible, luminescent emission. This emission creates the perfect red phosphors used in color televisions and computer screens around the world. Europium is also used in fluorescent lighting, which cuts energy use by 75% compared to incandescent lighting. In the medical field, europium is used to tag complex biochemical agents which helps to trace these materials during tissue research.

Praseodymium comprises just 4% of the lanthanide content of bastnasite, but is used as a common coloring pigment. Along with neodymium, praseodymium is used to filter certain wavelengths of light. So praseodymium finds specific uses in photographic filters, airport signal lenses, welder's glasses, as well as broad uses in ceramic tile and glass (usually yellow). When used in an alloy, praseodymium is a component of permanent magnet systems designed for small motors. Praseodymium also has applications in internal combustion engines, as a catalyst for pollution control.

Yttrium is rare in bastnasite, so is usually recovered from even more obscure minerals and ores. Still, almost every vehicle on the road contains yttriumbased materials that improve the fuel efficiency of the engine. Another important use of yttrium is in microwave communication devices. Yttrium- Iron-Garnets (YIG) are used as resonators in frequency meters, magnetic field measurement devices, tunable transistors and Gunn oscillators. Yttrium goes into laser crystals specific to spectral characteristics for high-performance communication systems.

Other Rare Earth Elements

Most of the remaining lanthanides fall into the group known as the "heavies" and include: Samarium, Gadolinium, Dysprosium, Terbium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, and Lutetium.

Samarium has properties of spectral absorption that make it useful in filter glasses that surround neodymium laser rods.

Gadolinium offers unique magnetic behavior. Thus this element is at the heart of magneto-optic recording technology, and other technology used in handling computer data.

Dysprosium is a widely used rare earth element that helps to make electronic components smaller and faster.

Terbium is used in energy efficient fluorescent lamps. There are various terbium metal alloys that provide metallic films for magnetooptic data recording.

Holmium is exceedingly rare and expensive. Hence it has few commercial uses.

Erbium has remarkable optical properties that make it essential for use in long-range fiber optic data transmission.

Thulium is the rarest of the rare earth elements. Its chemistry is similar to that of Yttrium. Due to its unique photographic properties, Thulium is used in sensitive X-ray phosphors to reduce X-ray exposure.

Ytterbium resembles Yttrium in broad chemical behavior. When subject to high stresses, the electrical resistance of the metal increases by an order of magnitude. So ytterbium is used in stress gauges to monitor ground deformations caused, for example, by earthquakes or underground explosions.

Lutetium, the last member of the Lanthanide series is, along with thulium, the least abundant. It is recovered, by ion-exchange routines, in small quantities from yttrium-concentrates and is available as a high-purity oxide. Cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) is currently used in detectors in positron emission tomography (PET).

Byron King
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

P.S. to get The Daily Reckoning direct to your inbox sign up to our free e-mail newsletter or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.

sourse:- http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/

Joomla! A User's Guide

"Of all the content management systems (CMSs) from which a Web developer can choose for creating a new Web site, Joomla is generally considered to be one of the top choices -- partly because an experienced developer can create an attractive site faster with Joomla than with the majority of other CMSs. However, Joomla's online documentation leaves much to be desired, as is true for most if not all CMSs. Intermediate and especially new developers need a clear and comprehensive resource that can explain the terminology, customization, administrative panel, and other aspects of Joomla. A promising candidate is a book written by Barrie M. North, titled Joomla! A User's Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website."

It was published by Prentice Hall, under the ISBNs 0136135609 and 978-0136135609, on 21 December 2007 (although page 233 confusingly suggests that the material was written in November 2006). The book is available not only in print, but in electronic form as well, as part of the Safari Books Online library. On the publisher's Web page for the book, visitors can read the table of contents, the preface, and the index. Also, they can download a sample chapter -- "Creating a Pure CSS Template" -- as a PDF file. Lastly, visitors can check for updates to the book's content, i.e., reported errata, of which there are more than half a dozen, as of this writing.

The majority of the book's 480 pages are organized into 12 chapters, covering a number of topics: an introduction to CMSs and Joomla; installing Joomla; administration basics; content management; menus; extensions; WYSIWYG editing of content; search engine optimization (SEO); building a table-less template; and how to build Joomla sites for a school, a restaurant, and a blog. Four appendices cover: getting help on your Joomla problems; case studies; SEO basics; and installing WAMP5. The book offers plenty of screenshots, which make it possible for someone to follow the discussion even when away from their computer. Sadly, much of the text shown in the illustrations is extremely small, and could prove very difficult to read for anyone with diminished vision. Even some of the captions are so small as to almost require the use of a magnifying glass. Moreover, the illustrations are printed in light gray, which makes the situation even worse.

The intended purpose of the book is "to guide a non-technical user step-by-step in learning how to create and manage a website powered by Joomla" (page 7). The book is definitely geared towards people new to Joomla, and even new to Web development, given the amount of elementary material covered, such as the author's explanation of Joomla's need for a Web server.

In the preface, the author touches upon the growing popularity of Joomla for a wide variety of Web sites. He also mentions that PHP and CSS are not prerequisites for understanding the book; however, readers not well experienced in those technologies will struggle in implementing everything described in the book -- especially templates -- and this is substantiated by readers' comments online. Admittedly, a book that provided adequate coverage of PHP, CSS, and then Joomla, would likely be overwhelming in length. Readers unfamiliar with PHP and CSS should first secure a basic grounding in those technologies, prior to trying to create their own templates or other Joomla extensions. On the other hand, if a reader has no intention of creating any extensions of their own, then they can still use Joomla to build a new Web site, and use this book to learn how to do so.

In the first chapter, the author provides a valuable introduction to CMSs and the advantages they offer in separating content from the Web pages themselves. However, he refers to Joomla as a rebranding of Mambo, while it would be much more accurate to characterize it as a derivative project, having forked from Mambo, which still exists (sort of). The author also lists Joomla's major features, and the basic elements of a Joomla-powered Web site. Installing and configuring a CMS -- particularly for the first time -- is oftentimes a major stumbling block for any Web development newbie. Chapter 2 steps the reader through the process of downloading and installing the latest version of Joomla (the book uses version 1.5 RC1).

In the third chapter, the author explains the most commonly used administrative tasks, and how to accomplish them in the Joomla 1.5 administrative panel. He intentionally does not cover all of the administrative settings, and this may prove frustrating to some readers who are looking for comprehensive coverage. Yet he does note that such readers should consult the official Joomla User Manual. Also available is the Administrator Manual. The fourth chapter describes in detail how Joomla displays content in pages, how it organizes that content in sections and categories, and the role played by the Front Page component. It concludes with a discussion of how to create menu items and how to connect them to components, as well as how to use module content. Especially valuable to Joomla beginners is the explanation of the two methods of deciding what content appears on a site's homepage.

As noted in the preface, the relationship among menus, menu items, pages, and modules, is one of the most confusing aspects of Joomla -- even after the improvements with version 1.5. In Chapter 5, the author explains this relationship, and then the major menu layouts and how to control them using the various sets of parameters. He mentions the overriding of global settings, and this points up how, prior to this, the book should have explained where to change those global settings, and recommended values. The index is of no help, because they are not mentioned. In Chapter 6, the author shows how to install and manage extensions, which comprise components, modules, plug-ins, templates, and languages. (Templates were missing from his list presented in the book's preface.) Chapter 7 examines the use of WYSIWYG editors for changing content on the back-end and front-end.

The most functional and attractive Joomla-powered Web site will be of little value if it receives few visitors. Thus, search engine marketing (SEM), discussed in the eighth chapter, is of critical importance, and the author's largely sensible advice is worth reading -- despite the nonsensical reference to cowboys and cowgirls (on page 198), and his reference to the "miserable failure" Google bomb, which was diffused back in January 2007. Note that the links provided to the SEM tools strongly recommended by the author -- WordTracker, PR Prowler, and Perry Marshall -- are affiliate referral links. Thus it seems disingenuous when he writes "...this might be the place I would have a few affiliate links!" (emphasis added). Speaking of emphasis, it seems as if too much weight is given to resources from which the author would receive affiliate compensation. This is not what readers typically expect in a book for which they have paid good money. Also discussed in the chapter are the important topics of Web standards, accessibility, keywords, referral traffic, pay-per-click traffic, Google AdWords, e-mail traffic, and common SEM mistakes. He correctly points out the low SEM value of Joomla's native "Read more..." anchor text. But his recommended solution, a mambot from Run Digital, does not appear to work with Joomla version 1.5.

Most of the templates written for Joomla and Mambo have used tables for page layout, instead of the more accessible and efficient CSS approach. CSS- based templates are only now becoming increasingly available, and Chapter 9 furthers this worthy goal by stepping the reader through the development of a pure CSS template. As noted earlier, readers unfamiliar with CSS will most likely find this chapter quite daunting, if not disheartening. The book's overall tutorial approach kicks into full gear in the last three chapters, in which the author shows in great detail how to create Web sites for a school, a restaurant, and a blog site. This material could prove very helpful to readers who wish to review and put into practice the more theoretical ideas introduced in the earlier chapters.

In general, readers should be pleased with this book. Even though the author is clearly a fan of Joomla, and the tone of the book is positive, he does not hesitate to point out Joomla's flaws, such as the misleading name of a module type. This is rare among technical authors nowadays, and for this Barrie North should be commended. Yet it is odd that he does not mention the obvious misspelling, "Imagess," in Extensions > Module Manager > module > Other Parameters.

Sprinkled throughout all of the chapters, the reader will find short paragraphs, with a dark background, labeled "The Least You Need to Know." These summarize the preceding paragraphs. This could perhaps be justified after a significant number of paragraphs, but unfortunately they also appear after just a couple paragraphs, which makes these "LYNTK" boxes redundant and unnecessary. Even worse, every chapter ends with a summary, which further repeats the boxes' content. With the book nearing 500 pages, the chapter summaries and even the LYNTK boxes should be excised, to good effect. Also, most of the chapters contain at least one footnote, which are not located at the bottom of the page or collected in a special section at the end of the book (as is traditional), but instead listed at the end of the chapter. Such material should instead be integrated into the text, if it is important enough to be included in the book, or left out entirely.

The writing quality of the book is generally solid, and the writing style is straightforward and friendly. Yet it does contain some blemishes that should have been caught by the publisher's editors, e.g., multi-word adjectives missing hyphens; misuse of the terms "that" versus "who"; inconsistent use of lowercase and title case for Joomla roles, even in the same paragraph; the same inconsistency in menu names, such as in Chapter 4; and the inexcusable "try and explain" (should read "try to explain"; page 19, among others). Thankfully, the author intentionally leaves off the silly exclamation mark from the Joomla name, starting after the preface, for greater readability. The book contains some misspellings/errata, such as "eXtensible" (page 2), "Wordpress" (pages 7 and 8), "over writing" (page 22), "Cpanel" (pages 27 and 29), "php html" (page 148), "api" (page 150), "flash" (page 209), "sight" (should read "site"; page 221), and "add fee" (should read "ad fee"; page 225). The author incorrectly states that the acronym PHP stands for only "Hypertext Preprocessor," but it actually is now a recursive acronym of "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor."

Overall, the book's production quality is up to snuff. The book stays open fairly well, despite the absence of any special lay-flat binding. The pages were produced using recycled paper, which is always encouraging to see. Unfortunately, the pages are thinner than in any other technical book I have ever seen, thereby allowing the text on the other side of each page to show through. This exacerbates the aforementioned problem of the text within the figures being difficult to read. Moreover, all of the copies that I have seen have an unusual diagonal ridge along the bottom edge, suggesting that the page cutting machinery was malfunctioning -- at least for one batch of copies produced, and perhaps more. In addition, some of the pages have small ink blotches. At a list price of almost $45, the book might seem a bit pricey. But online bookstores are fully discounting it, such as Amazon.com's current price of under $30.

The book may have some minor weaknesses, noted above, but otherwise, Joomla! A User's Guide is a logically organized and potentially quite valuable resource for beginning and intermediate Joomla developers -- perhaps the best Joomla book currently available.

Michael J. Ross is a Web developer, writer, and freelance editor.

You can purchase Joomla! A User's Guide from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

sourse:- http://books.slashdot.org/

New! GWT 1.5 Release Candidate 1 - Java 1.5 Support, Compiler Improvements, UI Library Enhancements, and more!

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) makes it easier to write high-performance AJAX applications. You write your front end in the Java programming language and GWT compiles your source into highly optimized JavaScript. Writing web apps today is a tedious and error-prone process. You spend 90% of your time working around browser quirks, and JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile. It doesn't have to be that way.

High performance JavaScript.
GWT produces AJAX apps that:

• Load faster than hand-written JavaScript apps
• Use smaller, more compact, cacheable code
• Automatically support IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, and Opera
• Use the browser's "back" button correctly

Better development tools.
Since you're writing in Java, you can use:

• IDEs that you love like Eclipse, IntelliJ, and NetBeans
• Full-featured debugging, with variable watches and breakpoints
• Unit tests (based on JUnit) both in a debugger and in a browser

Google APIs and reusable UI components.
GWT comes equipped with useful libraries:

• Built-in UI components serve as cross-browser building blocks for your app
• RPC helps with client-server interaction
• JavaScript Native Interface (JSNI) simplifies integrating GWT code with existing JavaScript code.

source:- http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

Opening new doors with Open Source

From consumer desktop software to enterprise-wide solutions, Open Source presents a significant opportunity for channel players prepared to stake a claim in this new frontier

If your customers aren’t already asking you about Open Source, they soon will be.

Religious fervour is taking a back seat as Open Source comes of age. It is also shaking off the “free’’ tag as more people come to appreciate Open Source is free as in ‘’free speech,’’ not as in “free beer’’.

There’s more to Open Source than just the Firefox browser and Linux operating system. There’s now a viable, business-ready Open Source alternative for practically every piece of software available today.

Open Source lets the channel build new business models around enhanced support and services, rather than merely lining the pockets of the proprietary software giants. It also offers greater control over the underlying stack and allows you to build more tailored solutions to meet clients’ individual needs – thus strengthening the relationship.

The Open Source development model operates mostly under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Often referred to as “copy-left’’ as opposed to copyright, software covered by the GNU GPL is available free of charge to the general public. Developers have access to the complete source code, making it easier to build customised solutions. If a programmer modifies software covered by the GNU GPL, then those modifications must also be made freely available.

While the underlying code may be “free”, the profit for the channel lies in providing integration, training, support and other services. In an industry where hardware and even software are becoming commodity items, such services are where the decent margins are
to be found.

Although some Open Source applications are designed to run on proprietary foundations such as Microsoft’s Windows operating system and SQL Server database, the beauty of using Open Source software is you can build a complete Open Source stack from the bare metal up. This gives you complete control over your environment, letting you modify any part of the stack to develop a customised solution. The vast majority of Open Source applications are designed to run on the LAMP stack of Open Source applications – Linux, Apache, MySQL and the PHP scripting language (see breakout).

A wide range of business-grade applications have been developed on top of this Open Source foundation, such as SugarCRM for customer relationship management, Compiere for enterprise resource planning, OrangeHRM for human relations management and Asterisk to replace the traditional PABX. Middleware also gets a look in, with JBoss offering a Java-based Open Source applications platform.

The stack of Open Source applications allows channel players to expand their offerings whilst weaning themselves and their customers off reliance on the proprietary software giants, said Gartner research vice president Brian Prentice.

“In general, one of the things we see with Open Source is a move away from a software licensing type of structure, towards a service delivery type of structure. This creates opportunities for channel partners to link Open Source into the primary part of their business today, which is service delivery,” Prentice said.

“The question here is what is the value proposition to the end customer? We see that one of the reasons customers like to buy Open Source is it removes critical dependencies that they have on software suppliers. Most channel partners should be looking to add some form of Open Source to their kit bag. It’s a combination of being both an opportunity and a risk mitigation. If I am a channel partner and I can’t accommodate the Open Source requirements of a customer then that may be a problem. If I am a web developer and I don’t know how to do anything around Ruby or PHP that could be a problem. If I am focused on middleware and I don’t know anything about JBoss, that could be a problem.”

Forewarned is forearmed and, like any technological advancement, channel players need to keep abreast of how Open Source is impacting their market space. The rise of Open Source is providing the channel with a wide variety of business opportunities, said Red Hat Australia general manager Max McLaren. Red Hat provides commercial-grade support, service and training for the Red Hat distribution of Linux, as well as JBoss.

“With small to medium businesses, there is a lot of demand for Linux implementation and management,” McLaren said. “We see lots of opportunities for system integrators and for hosting partners in that space. For the enterprise there is a requirement for organisations to do a reasonable amount of systems integration, especially with third-party applications, and that
is where the whole middleware space is providing a great opportunity for systems integrators.

sourse:- http://www.crn.com.au/

Zend Releases Studio 6.0.1

Technologies recently released another version of its integrated development environment for PHP platform called Zend Studio 6.0.1. This maintenance release adds new features and fixes bugs reported in Version 6.0.0. Zend Studio is the only Integrated Development Environment (IDE) available for professional developers that encompass all the development components necessary for the full PHP application lifecycle.Zend Studio’s main feature is the added support for Zend Framework 1.5.2, allowing developer to chose between Zend Framework 1.0 or 1.5 when creating projects. The interface of version 6.0.1 is translated into German, French and Italian languages. This release also features improved tools of formatting code and enhanced performance. In Version 6.0.1 various PHP extensions (such as php_mysql, php_mysqli and others) were also added to the bundled PHP binary that is used on Windows for locally debugging PHP scripts.

source=http://www.sda-india.com/

Drupal Camp 2008 in Gandhinagar India

Drupal Camp 2008 invite you to attend the DRUPAL CAMP - INDIA which is an International event going to be held from 8th to 10^th August at the DAIICT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. This is the first ever Drupal Camp in India.

Drupal Camp is an event for local and global Drupalers. Like other camps, this Drupal Camp India is defined by the people and it is for the people, who are interested in DRUPAL, in particular for the learning and sharing knowledge and ideas with each other among the local and global Drupal community. This drupal camp is beneficial for all IT professionals, Freelancers, Companies, Colleges and Students who want to secure their future with latest Open Source Technologies. The benefits with attending with Drupal Camp are:

• Learn about Drupal and other Open Source technologies
• Network with other Drupal Developers and Companies
• Business Partnership with Indian and International Companies
• Job fair where major Technology Companies will tap on Gujarat’s Talent

The Drupal Camp India will be having different tracks (Developer, Marketing & Student), planned sessions, as well as Job fair and Code Sprint for the community. We are expecting many international delegates and speakers to share their knowledge among students. We hereby cordially invite you, and looking forward to your attendance and participation.

DC have different types of Sponsorship package for promoting your Organization in this drupal Camp. For more information regarding Sponsorships, Speakers and Registration visit on DRUPAL CAMP -INDIA

This Attachment shows many Multinational Companies and famous Celebrities are using Drupal.

Here I am looking for a positive response from yours side.
Best regards

Vaibhav Shah

Drupal Camp India : +91 79 4004 3367

Source: topseo.org

SEO Solutions for Small Business or Small Websites

Now days, Most of the Business has website. Some businesses sell their products or services through internet and some business developed their website with their company profile and their services just to demonstrate to their users.

It doesn?t matter whether website is used for selling online products/services or company profile and services demonstration, every business want their website should be found in all search engine like Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.

What do you do when you need to find something on the Internet? In most cases, you open any search engine such as Google or Yahoo and type in the term or phrase that you are looking for and then click through the results, right? Even now days, if you need to buy a digital camera, most of the people don?t go to market and find the cheapest and best digital camera shop to shop.

I have got a very small business, do I need website?

Yes, of course you need a website. At lease a very basic website. Because if you look back 5 years, you will find only 10% people use to find products or services online and now the percentage is more than 40% and within 3 to 4 years it will cover almost 80%. Therefore, if you don?t introduce your website now, it might be very late for you for finding the exact domain for your business.

What is the use of your web site if it cannot be found in any search engine?

Well, it is a very interesting question. If you have a very nice website but no one can find you and your services in Google or Yahoo etc. what is the use having the nice website then? Search Engine Optimization is the solution for that.

Offshore Software Development India Offers Search Engine Optimization Services like search engine marketing, social media optimization, forums discussion, group posting, blog-xml marketing, link exchange, link building, press release submission, article marketing and link navigation.

Contact Search Engine Optimization Solutions

About OffshoreSoftwareDevelopmentIndia.com

Offshore Software Development India offers to Php development, .Net Development, programming, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design, Web Development, Content Management, B2B B2C Portal, Software Development article, news and information | Offshore Software Development in Ahmedabad, Gujarat India.

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Object Oriented Programming - PHP and Drupal

Object Oriented Programming (OOP) without classes C++, JAVA, PHP and Drupal. OOP’s Power in Drupal, an Open source application for content management system (CMS) and using Oriented Programming features without classes.

As all the OOP languages use CLASS or similar data structures for Object Oriented Programming, we have considered that without a "CLASS", OOP is not possible.

Object oriented programming (OOP) is quickly taking place over the traditional procedure oriented programming (POP). Programming languages like C# and Java are successful because of OOPs Power.

After gone through the code of "Drupal" - One of the most popular open sources content management system and framework built with PHP language, summary is - Drupal doesn’t use a single Class in its code base. Whole Drupal code base is based on just functions. As PHP, with which programming language Drupal itself is built, is also implementing many powerful OPP features, but Drupal is not using these features.

Actually, the OOP concept is not based on uses of data structures like CLASS. It is based on the fundamentals of features like Objects, Abstraction, Encapsulation, Polymorphism, Inheritance etc. If these fundamental features are included in programming then it can be considered in OOP.

There is no keyword 'class' in Drupal code. Drupal is as non-OOP as many programmers do. But that is not true. Drupal doesn’t contain any class like data structure; still it is still Object Oriented.

Drupal covers all these features without classes. Power of Drupal is hardly depends on this programming structure only. The way, how the hook system has been implemented in Drupal would never been possible with the use of Classes.

See more details about how Drupal implements Object Oriented Programming (OOP) without using Classes, visit: http://api.drupal.org

See More Articles: - http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com/blog

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Sharepoint - the Ideal Platform For E-learning

The Return of E-Learning

Many companies and organisations are following the Microsoft led trend and installing SharePoint. They have employed consultants, given the project a witty name, uploaded documents from the last century, designed forms for every task and become SharePoint groupies. Everyone in their organisation is now using SharePoint with information now freely available and presented in a more 'funky' way. But now these businesses they want more from this powerful application. What else can it do now they have invested so much in it?

One interesting area where SharePoint can excell and something that all Corporate and Public Sector organisations need is - 'Training'. Whether it is the correct way to climb a wooden ladder or how to use the new Purchase Order system people will always need training. The cost of instructor led training is not always cost effective though, so a few years ago buzz word became 'E-Learning'. It was going to be the next big thing in Training, but in many ways it failed to really take off, much to the relief of many Training Managers. PCs and especially slow internet connections were just too unreliable. Also the standard of courses, were to say the least, uninspiring with often just very basic multiple choice questions and graphics that were about as appealling as the Testcard in black and white.

PC, internet connections and flash animated courses have moved a long way forward in the last few years making E-Learning yet again a very appealling proposition, but still many companies have not taken the step forward. The reason for this standoff so often is cost because they need to buy expensive Information Management platforms like Knowledgebridge from Websoft. Very good systems capable of producing very good E-Learning systems, but what else can they do? Try to get them to store your Management Meeting Minutes or perform workflow on your expense forms and you realise that it is just an E-Learnign system.

Microsoft sees SharePoint as the ideal platform for E-Learning and have worked with a number of Partners to try to fill this gap. They developed the SLK (SharePoint Learning Kit), but even the most skilled SharePoint Engineers would find it difficult to turn this into a working E-Learning system.

Enter Competentum and their award winning product ShareKnowledge. A fully Microsoft Integrated solution that takes SharePoint and the SLK and makes a complete E-Learning system. It can design courses, assign course to employees, mark tests, manage training, monitor employee career development and all on a front end, 'SharePoint', that the user is comfortable to use. It really is the training tool of the future and so easy to use. You don't need to be an 'IT Geek' or an 'Arty Design' to create courses. The software does most of the clever stuff all you need to do is know the answers to the questions.

Officetalk is now bringing this software, which is already used in Moscow University, to the UK and you can find out more about it at http://www.office-talk.com/pages/shareknowledge.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Dale