As a software guy it is always interesting to attend a "hardware/network" conference such as Interop in Las Vegas, NV. This year Kaazing's Brian Albers will have the pleasure to meet with the network people at the Interop conference and exchange ideas on how to improve the Web. During the Interop Unconference Brian will also have the opportunity to brief the Interop audience about the direction of the software industry and emerging technologies for the World Wide Web. Brian is scheduled for two sessions: Beyond Web 1.0 - an unconference session His unconference talk will bring up the promises of emerging RIA technologies such as Flash, Silverlight, and real-time Web technologies. He will also discuss potential issues and how these emerging technologies may impact the Web and undermine your ability to meet availability and performance targets. See Session Details S... (more)

Get off your fat apps!

I saw a report written by the UPI recently that described a program, the Future Combat System (FCS), that will have more lines of code than Windows XP. Here's an excerpt: “The number of lines of software code required by the project has more than doubled in only the past five years. The Army originally reckoned it needed 33.7 million lines of code. Now it reckons it needs 63.8 million. The paper also cited Dennis Muilenberg, Boeing's project manager on the FCS, as maintaining that the original estimate was 55 million lines of software, not 33 million.” As far as I could tell this was something the project team was proud of. And here’s the part made me laugh out loud: they originally predicted 33.7 million lines of code but in fact will likely end up with 55+ million lines of code. They were only off by 20 million lines of code. How could anyone possibly think to sp... (more)

The Case For WYSIWYG Ajax Tools

[This article is based on a talk by Scott Miles, WaveMaker architect and module owner for Dojo Grid, and Steve Orvell, WaveMaker engineer and core committer for Dojo, that they gave at the Visual Ajax User Group] Ajax developers expect too little of their tools! Why do we put up with endless code/debug cycles with our favorite Ajax library just because there is no way to visualize a UI while you are developing it? Imagine life without Firebug. Now estimate the amount of time you spend in Firebug just trying to figure out why a particular widget didn’t render the way you wanted it too. A WYSIWYG Ajax editor takes away a great deal of needless widget layout pain. Just as importantly, a WYSIWYG Ajax editor provides a much easier on-ramp to learning Ajax programming, opening up a much larger market opportunity. Today, the perceived difficulty of learning Ajax can drive d... (more)

Buzzwords 2.0: What is Web 2.0? What is RIA? What is Ajax?

The much-hyped but poorly defined terms Web 2.0, Rich Internet Application (RIA) and Ajax are best understood when they are defined together. Buzzwords represent job security for entrepreneurs like me who would be practically unemployable were it not for our secret knowledge of the true meaning of words like Web 2.0. However, even I must admit that these Buzzwords 2.0 get in the way of clear communication. In addition, while there are many standalone definitions of terms like Web 2.0, it is much easier to understand these buzzwords mean by considering them together. With that in mind, here are my definitions of Web 2.0, Rich Internet Application and Ajax, complete with helpful graphics: Web 2.0 represents a market shift in consumer attention from expert-generated content (Yahoo) to user-generated content (Google)Rich Internet Applications represents a requirements shift... (more)

Get off your fat apps!

I saw a report written by the UPI recently that described a program, the Future Combat System (FCS), that will have more lines of code than Windows XP. Here's an excerpt: “The number of lines of software code required by the project has more than doubled in only the past five years. The Army originally reckoned it needed 33.7 million lines of code. Now it reckons it needs 63.8 million. The paper also cited Dennis Muilenberg, Boeing's project manager on the FCS, as maintaining that the original estimate was 55 million lines of software, not 33 million.” As far as I could tell this was something the project team was proud of. And here’s the part made me laugh out loud: they originally predicted 33.7 million lines of code but in fact will likely end up with 55+ million lines of code. They were only off by 20 million lines of code. How could anyone possibly think to sp... (more)

Goodbye, BitTorrent. Hello, Streaming.

Comcast’s decision to cap monthy broadband usage at 250GB is being decried as the end of the Internet as we know it. Maybe so, but it can also be seen as the dawn of the Streaming Era. As the Olympics drew to a close with big numbers - 75.5 million streams (NBCOlympics.com), 40 million (BBC), another 130 million from the European Broadcasting Union, and 100 million Chinese viewers - the networks were already moving on by serving the Democratic National Convention in HD. CBS offered an after-convention netcast with Katie Couric, and CNN promoted “full and complete” streaming coverage of all speeches. The Comcast move seems more focused on the politics of the FCC decision to rule out Comcast’s filtering of P2P traffic. But BitTorrent and other such traffic is all about downloading, not streaming, and the advent of new look-ahead streaming capabilities in Silverlight ... (more)

My next book SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 will be published soon

In the present day information-centric world we live in, the success of an enterprise depends enormously on how its information is generated, handled, and disseminated. With ample screenshots and over 65 hands-on exercises, this book will guide you effortlessly through creating cutting edge reports using SQL Server Reporting Services 2012, native and fully integrated with SharePoint Server 2010 including new features like Power View and Data Alerts. "Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012" will get you started right from installation and then move on to configuration of SQL Server Reporting Services 2012. Start learning right from Chapter 1 and build your skill to create reports using the latest tools and deploy them to the latest servers, both Native and SharePoint. No guessing; you will learn all—Power View, Data Alerts, SQL Azure Reporting,the latest Reporti... (more)

Monitor Analytics Releases Silverlight Based Location Intelligence Solution

Monitor Analytics and Clearway Technology Partners Inc. today announced the release of Monitor Analytics GeoAnalyzer, the world’s first Enterprise mashup for Location Intelligence built with Silverlight and Microsoft Virtual Earth. “Organizations large and small collect tremendous amounts of data about their interactions with customers, partners and suppliers. The geographic element of this data is critical to better understand business performance and to gain competitive advantage”, said Raheel Retiwalla, Vice President of Information Management for Clearway. “However, most users use a spreadsheet as their primary tool to analyze geographically oriented data when a map is better suited for that purpose. GeoAnalyzer allows users to visually see and analyze corporate data on a map, exposing patterns and trends across geographies while making it easy to spot correlat... (more)

Electric Buses and Taxis 2012-2022

NEW YORK, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Electric Buses and Taxis 2012-2022 http://www.reportlinker.com/p0330428/Electric-Buses-and-Taxis-2012-2022.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Road_Passenger_Transport This is the world's first report forecasting the global market for electric buses and taxis both hybrid and pure electric. It separately forecasts the market in the most important country, China, and it takes a detailed look at technologies present and future with a blunt assessment of reasons for failure and threats for the future, not just the positive aspects. The market for electric buses and taxis will rise 8.7 times from 2012 to 2022, approaching $60 billion not long after that. The buses will be designed exclusively for purpose, though some will hav... (more)

TopThat Launches Ultimate Online Combat Arena For Socially Competitive People To “Put up or Shut Up!”

Do you think you have what it takes to be called the “best in the world?” Now you have a chance to prove it, as today TopThat announced the official launch of its online combat arena, TopThat.com. The free site, which is built for trash talking, in-your-face, socially competitive people, allows members to create, compete and judge 1-on-1 or group-based competitions to see who can out-do the other for ultimate recognition from other TopThat members from around the world. TopThat has developed the first global online platform that calls on trash talkers to “put up or shut up!” Featuring a clean, fast, and easy-to-navigate interface, members create their own personal profile where they can add photos, URLs, descriptions and their success rate – all with the goal of creating their own compelling story, brand, or TopThat personality. Once on board, they can then browse cu... (more)

Where Are RIA Technologies Headed in 2008?

I am always being told off by i-technologists for quoting Picasso as having said that computers are useless. But I still love his reasoning? "Because they can only give you answers." Picasso, like AJAXWorld Magazine, liked questions. So we thought we would share with you what some of the world's leading rich Internet application pioneers are thinking may be the next questions that we need to see answered. From that readers can themselves infer where AJAX is headed. What are the top questions to ask next about AJAX? Eric Miraglia of Yahoo! 1.  (From March'08) How do I calculate the ROI of building my RIA on the iPhone SDK vs using AJAX? 2.  How do I assess the performance of my app and decide what to do next to make it faster?  3.  When it comes to accessibility, how do I know what's required of me for my rich web apps?  Beyond what's required, what makes good business se... (more)