http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/
Silverlight 4 is targeted for release next year. The first three versions of Silverlight were released within 22 months. Micorosft is on the same clip with Silverligth 4.
Also released are public betas of products such as Microsoft Office 2010, Project 2010, Visio, 2010, and SharePoint 2010. You can find more on these at:
http://www.microsoft.com/2010/en/
I predict a decrease in developer productivity today....
]]>
Google also isn't one to leave money on the table. They seem to have taken their Monopoly game way too seriously. Or, maybe they just spent too much time at McDonalds eating Big Macs and playing their Monopoly game. The popular phrase, "Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200" is just a step in a game. It isn't a directive to take over Go in order to get all the money!
With my goofy references out of the way, it should be obvious at this point that Google is presenting a new programming language dubbed Go. This is yet another C-based language proposing to make system programming easier. As stated in the Go Language FAQ, "Go is an attempt to combine the ease of programming of an interpreted, dynamically typed language with the efficiency and safety of a statically typed, compiled language."
Go is attempting to make programming easier. It is trying to reduce the number of concepts &mdash and exceptions to those concepts -- that a developer has to understand. It is trying to reduce type complexity by eliminating type hierarchies. It is trying to reduce code complexity by doing things such as eliminating forward declarations, header files, and such. It is also attempting to make networked and multicore computing easier.
It is always interesting to hear that a first-generation language is trying to simplify development. By the third or fourth generation, it is likely to be just as complicated as all the others. For example, things like pointer arithmetic, generics, exceptions, assertions, method overloading, and type inheritance all missing from Go. In time, as some of these are added, or as work-arounds are created, we'll see if Go continues to be simply or if evolves into just another C, C++, Java type of language. After all, these languages all started much simpler too....
So what do you think? Is a new C-based programming language really needed?
]]>Wow.
Their entire marketing campaign for Windows 7? That is a bold statement.
InformationWeek states that Microsoft is pushing the idea that the community helped to make what Windows 7 is. They state that Microsoft is indicating that customers shaped what Windows 7 is. InfoWeek then goes on to state that this is not true. That Microsoft had a solid understanding of what they wanted Windows 7, Microsoft didn't really bring on people until later, and that they are on record as ignoring feedback and requests for earlier access.
So did customers shape Windows 7?
InfoWeek goes on to make an even bolder statement. They take credit for shaping Windows 7.
Windows 7 is a better version of Vista. I believe nearly everyone will agree to that. I agree that feedback on Windows 7 was late in the process and had limited impact on the final product. I do believe, however, that most of the changes for Windows 7 were decided before a lot of the public input was obtained from the betas. I believe most of the public feedback on the product was obtained with the release and use of Vista. I believe the community did drive Windows 7, but that they did it as feedback on the horrible issues that Windows Vista presented. I believe Windows 7 is more like a new release of Windows Vista, only done better because little things are fixed and drivers already exist.
Did we shape Windows 7 like Microsoft stated? I'd argue that we had a big impact on it. I surely wouldn't give InfoWeek all the credit, nor would I state that Microsoft ignored its community. After all, ignoring your community is a quick way to failure.
What do you think? Is Microsoft lying?
]]>So what's the downside?
Tilera is a relatively new company that was started around 2004. While that could be a negative, they seem to have funding to keep them going. More on the downside is that the architecture of the chips is different. It doesn't use the x86 architecture that Intel and AMD use.
]]>Also reported was the reduction in the number of different editions of Visual Studio 2010. The plan is to reduce the number to four: Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition without MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.
]]>In truth a lot of ColdFusion is still in use today. In fact, one of our sites, DevX, is written in ColdFusion. As a product, it continues to deliver new features and new editions. Today's new edition was announced is Adob e ColdFusion 9. It was announced along with Adobe ColdFusion Builder Beta 2 and a private beta of ColdFusion 9 in the Cloud that runs on Amazon Web Services.
Adobe made the following comment on ColdFusion 9 in their press release:
ColdFusion 9 accelerates the development cycle by reducing complex and powerful business logic into a few lines of code. ColdFusion 9 applications easily access data from existing enterprise infrastructure including Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office files and Java J2EE portlet standards. New ColdFusion 9 features include an Adobe® AIR® application for managing multiple ColdFusion servers from one location, saving performance time and reducing redundant tasks. ColdFusion 9 also offers local and remote database synchronization with Adobe AIR, giving users access to applications regardless of Internet connectivity. Also, deep integration with Hibernate's object relational mapping (ORM) provides developers with database independent applications.
You can find more information on the Adobe ColdFusion releases at http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion.
So are you using ColdFusion? If so, are you doing maintenance or new development?
]]>But I contend that today's eBooks are a fad.
If you think about it for about one second, it should be obvious as to why they are a fad. In today's world of Internet Connectivity, why would you want a device that costs several hundred dollars that does only one thing. For the same price you can by a netbook that not only let's you read books, but also surf the Web as well as run your own programs. What is to prevent an eBook reader from surfing the Web? Why can't it work as a touch screen browser? Why can't it have color? Why can't it store my documents or also do the things a PDA does such as keep my calendar and show me my emails? I believe eBooks will do all of this. When netbooks take on the ebook format-- thus being more of a micro-tablet, then today's simplistic ebook readers will fade away like an oversized CRT monitor.
The technology today doesn't seem to be fitting netbook/tablet functionality into the eBook format, but it is getting closer. Of course the rumors of the Applet tablet have been circulating for months.
Another device that has the potential to send current eBooks to the history book can be seen on Gizmodo. This is the Microsoft Courier device that is in the late prototype stage. The device is more of a book format and really takes the features of PDA, eBooks, and tablets and combines them into one. Take a look at the following video and see if you don't agree that today's eBooks just don't cut it anymore!
]]>Have you seen the salary surveys posted around the internet and in magazines? If so, then A second article published on Datamation is worth a quick look. Are These Developer and IT Salary Figures Accurate? asks a question worth considering as you look at the numbers posted in these surveys.
]]>Also released yesterday was the Microsoft BinScope Binary Analyzer. While this name isn't as fun as File Fuzzer, it still rates high on the geek scale for product names. In brief, the BinScope Binary Analyzer provides analysis of binary code to help you understand if your applications are vulnerable to common security coding errors.
You can download both tools freely from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc421514.aspx along with a number of other Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) tools.
]]>We updated Developer.com today. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think! We are still working out a few minor bugs, but overall it seems to be up and running cleanly.
Take a look!
The center of the issue coming form the EU commission is that Oracle is the largest database company and it is taking over the largest open soruce database. According to the newsreport, The EU commission has noted that the database market has 85% control in the hands of only three companies — Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. Thus, they are weighing the risk that a high visibility, open-source database could be hurt by the Oracle purchase.
It will be interesting to see what safeguards are required to keep MySQL in the hands of the open-source community—if any
]]>Comments that I've seen around the internet have not said the improvements were bad; however, they have indicated that they aren't overly great either. One of the guest comments on WinProNews summed it up the 6.5 release interestingly. To quote:
As a developer on windows mobile this is about as useful as a poke in the eye. New front end to the tired old backend....wow. Nice one Microsoft, you'll only be a couple of years behind the pack when this comes out. Pull your finger out and get Win Mo 7 released then you will have something to shout about, but until then you've got no business trying to hock this off to anyone.
Sounds like at least a few people will be waiting for Windows Mobile 7.0.
]]>Shameless Plug: I have a new book that will be releasing in about two weeks called Windows Live Essentials and Services: Using Free Microsoft Applications for Windows 7 . I devote one of the longest chapters to Movie Maker. In fact, I was able to cover the features of this newest release — which is good because the previous release was a huge step backwards from the prior Movie Maker program Microsoft had working with Windows Vista. (Note that the applications covered in my book work on Vista too.)
This new Movie Maker gives you the ability to create movies using a storyboard, using transitions, using titles, captions, and credits, using visual effects, and much more. You can also animate your photos with panning and zooming to create some really cool movie effects from what were still images. If you have video clips from a camera, cell phone, or other video device, you can knit them together, or even break them into pieces.
Movie Maker will also let you generate movie files when you are done. More importantly, you'll be able to save in a variety of sizes. This includes saving for the Internet, for television resolution, or even in High Definition (HD) including HD 480, 72, and 1080P.
I know this blog entry sounds a bit like an ad, but this is actually a very good program for the price of free. In fact, for many people this does as much as they would want when working with home movies and those clips of the kids and of vacations. If this is the standard for free applications, then as developers, we are once again going to have to step up as the bar for basic applications is again rising.
You can download Windows Live Movie Maker from the Essentials download page: http://download.live.com/
]]>You can find more informaiton at Microsoft's "The New Efficiency" site. Word is that the IT Pro tracks are filling (or filled), but at the time of this post I was told there is still space in the developer tracks.
Of course, I'm from Indianapolis, which is not on the list. We are working on an event in Indianapolis for October 8th. Stay tuned for more information on what the Indianapolis event will be!
]]>My response, however, was that interest in Delphi is not what it use to be. In fact, if you look on sites such as LangPop.com, you see that Delphi is indeed pretty far down on the "popularity" chart, although it is ahead of technologies such as ColdFusion and COBOL.
The interesting thing about these three languages/tools is that they at one time were extremely popular--so popular in fact that if you knew how to use them, you could find a job even if you weren't an expert. Today, they are obviously not as popular and you'd be much harder pressed to find a job.
The change in popularity of programming languages generally leads to a discussion on learning new stuff. Today's more popular technologies are .NET, C#, Java, and a several others. Of course, there is always new stuff to learn. Beyond that, there is always new concepts and technologies you need to know just to keep up.
In my conversation the owner of AstraDigital, he made an interesting comment. It was interesting enough that I thought I'd write this entire blog post to simply share it with you.
Jeff's words (he may have taken these from somewhere else):