A large number of people on the internets are craving the new Mac Mini – the $500 “headless mac”, unveiled at Macworld two days ago – trying to figure out what the business implications are and the role the Mini might play as a home (or car!) based entertainment platform.
The general consensus is that the Mac Mini is the camel’s nose under the tent, a way for apple to rapidly gain entry into the mass market computing space.
One application for a small computer like the Mini is to use it as a personal server (PS). The need for such a device is driven by the increasing size and importance of the digital data that consumers are archiving and sharing, and the trend towards laptop-only, wireless households (which lack the option of using the family desktop PC as a de-facto file server).
Author: jonathanboutelle
Working together when you’re not
Working closely with people that aren’t in the same physical space is never easy: much communication is nonverbal, and not being able to read body language and facial expression data means that everybody has to work hard to prevent misunderstandings. That hard work slows down communication. The tools for supporting this kind of work ARE improving every day, however.
Software Architecture and Usability
An article that I co-authored was just published in the Oracle Technology Network (as part of their “Mastering J2EE” series).
The topic was usability and software architecture.
spammers scammers and it just gets wierder
We live in an age of constant spamming and scamming. First it was email spam, then it was comment/trackback spam and spyware. Phishing attacks and Nigerian identity grifters and … it’s enough to make you long for the good old days of face-to-face con men.
This is a new one for me though. What is soapthyme.com, and why are they maintaining a url that redirects to my website?
I only found out about this when I looked at my server logs. If anyone has the answer please email me or post a comment. I’m way curious.
RIAs for data visualization: Electoral Maps
Most major news organizations are using RIAs in their election guides this year. The common factors are: one page design (multiple summary views with drill-down options), animated transitions from one piece of information to the other, and exceptional graphic quality. Anyone working on using RIAs to visualize large data sets should have a look at these various sites and how they approached the problem. What follows is a quick review!
Laszlo open-sources their presentation server!
The press release says it all. Additional coverage in the server side and david’s blog. The code will live here.
Latency Must Die: Reducing Latency by Preloading Data
Rich Internet Applications are fast. When you click a button or push a lever, things tend to happen right away. That fast user experience is a primary reason that developers and designers are attracted to RIAs. Latency is reduced (after the initial download) for two reasons
1) Because the UI is inherently preloaded: it is not being shipped back and forth every time the user performs an act of navigation.
2) Because data can potentially be preloaded: the application can download data in the background that it thinks you will use, before you request it.
Upcoming Events: Flash Seminar in New Delhi
The Delhi Flash User Group is putting on a seminar on RIA development this Thursday. Owas (from GE) is going to be giving an indepth treatment to skinning in Flash, and Arpit (also from GE) is going to be talking about how to use ActionScript as a proper programming language. Simon Horwith (from eTrilogy) will be introducing FLEX.
Managing the development of a Flash RIA: better practices
I’m currently involved in the development of an ambitious RIA that is coded in Flash. I’ve brought new engineers into the project at various stages. I’ve found that I can get an experienced Java engineer productive developing client-side Actionscript in about 2 weeks, if the project is structured a particular way. Since real Flash uber-coders are as rare as hen’s teeth, this is a serious advantage.
Affordance and the API
Geeks spend a lot of time talking about what’s possible with a particular technology. We pride ourselves in being able to wring every drop of interactivity out of a platform, of doing things with the tools that the toolmakers never would have thought possible. As a result, any argument about software platforms often falls into the following pattern: Detractor of Platform A will say something like “you can’t do drag and drop in Platform A”. Supporter of Platform A will respond that you can so drag and drop in Platform A, and will post the code to prove it. Score one for the supporter: the detractor simply wasn’t able to use the tool.
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