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Emerging Technologies You Need to Know
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Jack La Lanne - anybody else remember him?!
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 1,908 Views
Jack is still around and says some funny-true things:www.jacklalanne.com. I found this Jackquote on a greetingcard:
"forget about what you Used To Do. this is the Moment you've been waiting for."
Appeals to me after a week on the road and with every in-basket bulging for attention.
Christopher Perrien
[Read More]
Unplugging from the Web & meeting with customers
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  banking secondlife web2.0 ibm wiki rss mobiledevices communitybuilding blog myspace youtube socialnetworking google iphone qedwiki 4,682 Views
I spent the past week in Chicago discussing Community Building andMash-Ups with a half-dozen of IBM's Financial Services customers. Just as it is good to get-away from the familiar to recharge one'soutlook, this week travels were enlightening for me to get away fromthe daily stream of technology scholarship and have a look at what ourfield teams and customers read and discuss everyday. ITdiscussions may presently be more about business and less abouttechnology, but they are not about Web 2.0. Customers are awareof iPods and YouTube and MySpace, but not Mash-Ups and Ajax and Wikisand iPhones.
They ask: What is Web 2.0?, What are my company's options deploying these technologies? How do I get started?
We all pay attention when we can personnally relate to Web 2.0 (oranything else for that matter). Mash-up or Situational Apps orQED Wikis seem, at first glance, to be little more than the latestgizmo. Ditto for Community Building experiments or CEOblogs.
Mash-Ups interest customers, both IT & LoBs, as theyenvision accessing back-end data without the need for an ITproject. IT execs agree that 60% of their app-developmentprojects won't be needed for as long as the time it took to buildthem. And business execs agree that they can make plenty ofuseful decisions by mashing-up two fields of data to create a thirdfield of information. The Blog and Wiki discussions gain tractionwhen we discussed blogs as a lower cost, more personalized one-to-manymodel of communication; wikis are intriguing as a many-to-many model ofcollaboration. Both offer lower-costs for implementationand support when compared to web sites and email streams and otherelements of MarCom.
At this stage of awareness (low) and customer adoption (lower), Iam convinced that Web 2.0 is a useful topic for connecting IBM's visionfor Innovation, On-Demand (open standards & systems), and even ourSoftware Group's recent acquistions, to technology trends in themarketplace that can enable the business objectives of ourcustomers. We must be cautious in the speed of our approach ascustomers are not ready to be Second Life-like or even ready topurchase a package of Web 2.0 from one of our IBM brands.
First steps are to show customers how the tools and techniques ofpopular culture (RSS & Tagging, mobile phones, Social Networking)might relate to their businesses; then we must show them how to evolvetheir business processes to take advantage of these emergingcapabilities. Customers are interested in this approach as theysense by watching Google that Web 2.0 can level the playing field.
Christopher Perrien
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IBM's QED Wiki & Yahoo Pipes
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mashups wiki yahoo qedwiki situationalapps 3,343 Views
Our team's project to develop a Mash-Uptoolkit that can reliably access enterprise data offers a demo of its
usefulness with Yahoo Pipes. Can be found on IBM's AlphaWorks site at: http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/qedwiki/
Christopher Perrien
[Read More]
David Brooks of NY Times and Google Apps Announcement
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  web2.0 microsoft google 3,256 Views
In this morning's New York Times on the Op-Ed page, David Brooksadvises those interested in the Republican Presidentialnomination. What interested me is his description of theelectorate: "They're anxious because there's chaos all around: foreignpolicy chaos, fiscal chaos, cultural chaos. The authoritystructures they rely on have let them down."
Yesterday I had lunch with the account management team at a well-knownadvertising agency. We discussed who we each call on in the sameenterprise sized accounts. As you might imagine, my contacts arethe CIO and IT staff; they speak to the CEO and SVPs when pitchingbusiness. And this makes sense given the strengths and offeringsof each of our organizations. What stunned me was their commentwhen I spoke of how IBM is trying to elevate the role of the CIO fromCost-Center Manager to Advisor to the Business (my descriptions basedupon my reading on w3). Reflexively, one said, "our contacts hatethe IT shop." Other heads nodded.
I think it is because our customers feel that their technologyinvestments are not bearing the returns sought and promised. Certainly speed to market and improved understanding of individualcustomer behaviour has not been commensurate with their costs.
Along comes friendly Google, offering to pay the customer first (a keytenet of Web 2.0), offering a variety of services that reduce thecomplexity and chaos of computing. Salesforce.com is not farbehind in the positive reception to its Software-as-Service Model. Today Google will announce the availability of an enterprise version ofits Communications and Productivity Apps.: e-mail, IM, Calendars, andWeb Pages, Word Processing, and Spreadsheets - plus programs to readand edit Microsoft Word and Excel.
We'll be reading more about this as IBM joined the fray by announcinglast week its own support of Open Docs etc for Linux and Mac-basedoperating systems. I don't expect that Microsoft Office with 450million users will vanish anytime soon. After all, legacy apps,whether hardware or software, are tough to displace. I predictthat customers, especially of the mid-market variety, will evaluateGoogle's latest as a way of reducing some of their Chaos.
Christopher Perrien
[Read More]
Paul Gilster (PG) praises Yahoo Pipes
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  yahoo userexperience wiki mashups qedwiki situationalapps rss 3,645 Views
Article in Feb. 21, 2007 Raleigh News & Observer, page 3D (althoughaccessing the article requires registration. I prefer the policyof the New York Times which is to permit access to today's news withoutregistration). Paul is based in Raleigh. When I read aboutemerging technology in the local paper, I am persuaded that it hasmoved from bleeding to leading principally for early adopters and now ready forwide-spread consideration.
In this article, he describes a technique or emerging capability forData Harvesting and summarrizes nicely the value of RSS (Really SimpleSyndication) feeds. His subject is Yahoo Pipes (pipes.yahoo.com) andhow it permits aggregation and sorting of these feeds by keywords such as author, date,and topics. Not too keen on the Pipes's interface, henonetheless praises it for "pointing to a direction that the Net istakiing, one that changes the game by giving the user more control overits vast and changing resources.' Here is the url if you can getto it without registration: http://www.newsobserver.com/1447/story/545355.html
Christopher Perrien
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Laszlo Webtop Preview
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  socialnetworking laszlo userexperience soa 2,464 Views
The Laszlo Webtop was announced recently by the Laszlo folks. It's a browser-based windowing framework along with a "server-based SOA framework that provides advanced data management APIs, manages authentication and single-sign on". Some of the use case examples might be:
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Enterprise mashups get ready for prime-time
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  qedwiki situationalapps wiki mashups web2.0 2,946 Views
Dion Hinchcliffe gives QEDwiki a very nice shout today in his article Enterprise mashups get ready for prime-time.
"..users have always had development tools they could use and understand, particularly the ubiquitous corporate spreadsheet. If we could only provide mashup tools as easy to use as the spreadsheet with automatic enterprise development best practices, along with access to all the services and content in the enterprise and on the Web, users might indeed use them to solve their business problems and not have to ask IT departments to deliver these solutions using older, (much) more expensive methods."
Well stated if I do say so myself.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Mashup Camp Links
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  microsoft ibm mashups mashupcamp wiki qedwiki web2.0 situationalapps 3,780 Views
Well, Mashup Camp is over and I'm way behind on the blog posts I wantto include here. But in the mean time, some news releases are startingto appear. Here's the best article so far:
At Mashup Camp, geeks plot future of Web: This article includes a shout about QEDWiki:
I will append additional articles to this post as new ones roll in.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Ajax for IBM WebSphere Platform
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  programming ajax eclipse applicationservers 3,321 Views
A release of the Ajax for IBM WebSphere Platform is available for download on this page. The files are packaged as Eclipse plugins, so I was able to install them into Eclipse 3.2 to just view the documentation. (it works with WebSphere Application Server Toolkit also) There are included samples and tutorials, although according to the forum, some samples may require WebSphere Application Server 6.0 or higher in order to properly deploy the EAR (enterprise application archive).
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
MS Virtual Earth does an amazing job of rendering 3D buildings
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mashupcamp web2.0 mapping mashups 3,154 Views
When you get a moment, check out the new stuff at Virtual Earth. I'm listened to a presentation yesterday on their SDKand the 3D rendering they do on details like buildings and such. Verycool stuff. There will apparently be a new version 4 of their SDK realsoon now that further enables the ability to embed their stuff in webpages. Of course to see the stuff in 3D you need to install theirruntime (same as with Google Earth) and run it in IE (sigh), howeverthe presenter just said they'd be supporting 3D rendering in Firefox in the near future.
But what I really want to know is Why Oh Why is this stuff not included in the new version of Flight Simulator???
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
The gap between data providers and the mashup makers who love them
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  kapow mashups situationalapps qedwiki wiki web2.0 strikeiron mashupcamp 4,014 Views
I attended a Mashup Camp session this morning on mashup development tools. Itstarted just as you might expect. The moderator asked us to list offtools that we were familiar with, which solicited a long collection ofprogramming languages, libraries, IDEs, etc. QEDWiki was listed as one ofthem. But the next issue was how those tools get access to anduse/display data. This gave rise to the traditional Model ViewController discussion and about the apparent disparity in how access tovarious data sources was achieved. After all, if you're a hard-coreprogrammer, writing code to interact with Joe's Web service is easy. But if you're not, unless it's a simple feed, you're stuck. What'sneeded of course is a widget standard that allows the data provider toallow his data to be used in a variety of mashup platforms. Someoneprotested that the various framework providers would be unlikely to support such a standard, but Iasserted that it was the content providers who had a vested interest inpursuing such a standard. The group seemed to agree. The group alsoseemed to understand the need for a standard interface between thewidgets and the frameworks that support them. Sounds good, right?
Well,maybe not. This morning I proposed leading a discussion on whatstandards might be needed to facilitate the lifecycle of and interactionsbetween widgets. The person passing the microphone around basically took the microphone from me while I wastalking and said to me "You're talking about standards? It will be amiracle if anyone shows up for that!" Also, I've spoken to a couple other folks who have said much thesame thing. This group may not yet be interested in talking standards,even if it is in their interest. A few folks get it. The StrikeIronguys do. So do the Kapow guys. But of course they are both contentproviders. The AOL guys seem to get it too based on their microformatwork. I'll be participating in a session with them on microformatstomorrow morning. And in fact, microformats are of course a form ofstandard. Maybe it's best to just stay away from the term "standard". I need to think about how I might better state things for thisaudience. Anyway, it will be interesting to see who shows up to mysession this afternoon. I'll let you know.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
A new way to aggregate microformat data
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  gadgets widgets mashupcamp technorati web2.0 3,118 Views
One of the big problems to be solved in the world ofwidgets/gadgets/modules/components/etc. is how to publish, discover andingest them. OpenSearch is one such method for searching for widgets that makes sense. But I just heard about another site called Pingerati. Pingerati is effectively a pub/sub mechanism for web pages containing microformatdata. It is a push mechanism, in that a page that is updated must tell(ping) Pingerati about the update. Pingerati then crawls the site andforwards the microformat updates to registered subscribers formicroformats of that type. Listeners can subscribe to all microformatupdates or just microformats that they are interested in. Further,there is an API that a web developer could use to automate this processfor catelogs or personal sites. Lastly, if the name sounds alot like Technorati, that's with good reason given it's a Technorati project.
Thiscould be a key piece of the widget lifecycle puzzle in that widgetspublished to a personal site or catalog, could then easily publicisethat update to other catelogs or interested parties, such as installedinstances of widget frameworks.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
SOAP-based Web services are dea
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices gadgets web2.0 3,249 Views
Well, not really. But you'd never know that by listening to the folksat this conference. Here, every time WSDL is shown or mentioned it'streated as a joke and everyone laughs. The concensus here is that WSDLis just WAY to complicated and convoluted to be useful as a programmingmodel. Of course that part is true. The WSDL editor in RAD stillgives me a headache. However SOAP still has a place in the enterpriseas a method for enabling access to data and services. ...Doesn't it?
I'dbe interested in what you're hearing from the broader technicalcommunity inside and outside of IBM about the long term viability ofSOAP. Why SOAP and not REST or microformat delivered gadgets?
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Some good news from Adobe
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  google gadgets firefox web2.0 2,960 Views
I'm watching a presentation on Adobe Apollo -- their new platform forserving web content directly to the desktop. They've created a runtime(<5 Meg) that sits on the desktop that in effect blurs the linesbetween apps on the desktop and apps on the web. The runtime feelsalot like RCP and the delivery model feels alot like a Google Gadget,but they are doing some interesting things with it that I've not seen agadget ever do. Apps can be full screen, but totally clickthroughable. So an app can be interactive (a car driving around yourscreen that you can control for instance) but you can still work withanything on your desktop in the usual way.
They also mentioned that the JIT compiler for Apollo has been donated to Mozilla for inclusion into the next version of Firefox.
Perhapsmost notable part of this presentation is that they've removed therequirement for a server side component to serve this content. Wherethere used to be an expensive server product that had to be purchasedto deliver flex apps, that is no longer the case. Very smartchange IMHO.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Mashup Camp -- The Challenge
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  web2.0 mit situationalapps wiki mashupcamp mapping mashups qedwiki 3,475 Views
There are a collection of folks here from MIT who are involved in a project called "Future Boston",which is tasked with building tools to facilitate the upcomingchallanges facing the city. In particular the MIT Department of UrbanStudies and Planning and Boston.com are sponsoring contests to see who can build the best mashups in the following areas:
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Kewl! Kapow is here
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rss web2.0 mashupcamp kapow databases mashups situationalapps 3,356 Views
Just found out Kapow Technologies will be doing a session here atmashup camp. I'm quite jazzed by their technology. They do dataextraction from web sites that can then be returned via an Atom or RSSfeed. Once in that form, that data is easily used in situational appsoftware such as QEDWiki. They do really good stuff. You can checkout a free version of their latest release at OpenKapow.com.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Welcome to Mashup University
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mashupcamp situationalapps wiki qedwiki mashups 2,887 Views
I've not blogged for a while, but it's time to get started agains. I've been given the opportunity to represent IBM at mashup camp and universitythis week, so I'll be blogging from here with interesting tidbits alongthe way. Sam Thompson and I are here to show off QEDWiki and todiscuss mashup and situational application technologies.
So farthis first session this monring is just a review of mashup-relatedtechnologies. Not much new, except a curious new phrase. Whendiscribing the various ways to say JSON, John Herron, the speaker,described the correct pronounciation as being dependent on "where inthe Net you're from". I've never thought about locale applying theinternet -- afterall, on the web, everything is everywhere and everyonehas access to everything. But I guess from a technology or interestgroup perspective, locale might well apply in that fashion. Interesting to think about anyway.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
A Dojo Build Tool for Eclipse
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  eclipse blog ajax 3,843 Views
Browser Cache Usage - Exposed!
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  userexperience yahoo firefox 2,793 Views
The Yahoo User Interface Blog did an interesting study of how useful browser caching really is. When the Yahoo page is cached, load time drops from 2.4 seconds to just 0.9 seconds. But before you spend time optimizing your web pages for maximum caching, it turns out roughly half the users won't see any gain. And there's a significant number of users with caching permanently disabled. Here's a nice chart of their results:
Jim Hsu
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Business and Technical Trends for 2007
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  wiki qedwiki webservices soa socialnetworking ajax mashups 3,446 Views
A recent article on CRN on Seven Business and Tech Trends for '07 stress the importance of capturing core knowledge and empowering business analysts to do their job better.
This article lists the following trends for 2007:
John Feller
Manager, Emerging Technologies Development, IBM Software Group
[Read More]
Introducing Dojo Offline Toolkit
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax programming 2,274 Views
Brad Neuberg's Dojo Offline Toolkit has the potential to allow for disconnected use in a lot of common web applications, such as email, calendering, and more. To the users and developers out there, how would you use such a technology? (Post a comment to respond)
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Fast, like Ninja
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax userexperience 2,265 Views
Okay, I'm definitely bookmarking this site, ninjawords.com. Build a better online dictionary and the world will beat a path to your URL, perhaps?
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Have a safe and happy holiday season
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 1,872 Views
Happy Holidays from the IBM Emerging Technologies Team!
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ADIEU for PHP now available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  php demo webservices 3,298 Views
The newly released PHP version of ADIEU (Ad Hoc Development and Integration Tool for End Users) is now available on alphaWorks. The web service creation tool still lets you develop web applications without programming knowledge (neither PHP nor Java knowledge is needed).
There are a couple of online demos to help people get started.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
XQuery heating up
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  databases xml 3,097 Views
At XML 2006 this week, there was a lot of attention given to XML Queryor XQuery. The W3C XQuery specifications are now Proposed Recommendations and there are a numberof implementations available. One of those is included in DB2 9,part of the pureXML feature which adds native XML support to theserver. In earlier versions, XML could be stored in relationaltables by being "shredded" into columns or stored as Character LargeObject (CLOB) or Binary Large Object (BLOB). In DB2 9, XMLdocuments are stored in their native form and can be directlymanipulated. In supporting native XML DB2 introduced support forXQuery.
XQuery is a very powerful query language that can do more than justquery XML data. It can perform transforms and introduce new XMLelements to the output, much like XSLT. In fact, some adventurousdevelopers have used it as a stand-alone programming language. Itemploys XPath expressions to address XML structures and supports the"For, Let, Where, Order, Return" (FLWOR) style. As more andmore data is stored in XML documents, the need for storing them in anXML database is being recognized. This is what I heard from manypeople at the conference and what we have heard from companies in avariety of industries. The combination of an XML database like DB2 9, and the XQuery language will be very powerful and open the door tonew ways of processing and deriving value from XML.
I know that some people had given up on XQuery due to its extremelylong gestation period in the W3C. But, now it is time to takeanother look. That is what many going away from the conferencedecided to do.
Here are some places to get started.
An introduction to XQuery
DebunkingXQuery myths and misunderstandings
Joel Farrell
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AccuWeather.com to Utilize QEDwiki
The AccuWeather.com website is planning to use QEDwiki technology to provide timely, localized weather information. More details can be found in the MarketWatch.com article.
Jim Hsu
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Firefox 2.0
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  firefox 2,919 Views
Firefox 2.0 is now out. I know all the first adopter folks will want to rush out and install it. You'll be happy to know it installed easily and painlessly for me. The Halfnote demo from my earlier post works great with it.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Semantic Tools Update Now Available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices semantics 2,771 Views
The Semantic Tools for Web Services update runs on WebSphere Integration Developer (WID) and has a number of new features. I am particularly happy with the BPEL generation support (which I had a hand in coding), because of the rich Business Process support in the WID environment. It is now possible to run a semantic match against your WSDL interfaces, generate a BPEL from the composition results, and edit the BPEL in WID's Business Process Editor.
You can test out the Business Process within the WID environment and when it's ready, you can then export your new web application to deploy to a production application server. With this update, one can develop a fully end-to-end semantic web services scenario.
There are online demos available to let you preview the new update.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Halfnote: An Online Note Editor
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax userexperience 2,511 Views
Halfnote is a bare-bones online notepad application that uses Ajax. It features some interesting innovations:
Now, this is how you write an online document editor. The UI is utilitarian, but there's no reason the same principles couldn't work with the fancier editors out there.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Boloker's developerWorks Podcast
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  web2.0 ajax qedwiki 2,299 Views
David Boloker's AjaxWorld Interview
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  qedwiki web2.0 ajax 2,528 Views
Here is a link to a recent Application Development Trends article:
Boloker to Web 2.0 Developers: Focus on Business Value
David Boloker discussed Web 2.0 adoption and demoed QEDWiki at the Santa Clara AjaxWorld Conference.
"As developers begin looking at this thing we're calling Web 2.0," Boloker said in a pre-keynote interview, "they need to define exactly what it is they want to do with it. Ask yourself, Who is going to end up getting the business value of what I'm about to produce? That's the first thing. The second thing they need to ask is, What are the tools available to me? I don't care if you're a .NET developer, a Java jock, or whatever; there are tools out there that can make your life easier."
Jim Hsu[Read More]
AJAX Demo from Software AG
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  openajax ajax opensource 2,908 Views
Software AG, a member of the OpenAJAX alliance as mentioned earlier in this blog, has a slick online AJAX demo that shows a lot of interesting things that can be done with AJAX technology.
Jim Hsu
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Does it really matter whether the "Web 2.0" label exists?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax blog socialnetworking web2.0 wiki 3,068 Views
There's been a lot of discussion about Web 2.0 lately. In fact, most people would agree that "Web 2.0" is currently at the peak of the hype cycle. Recently, IBM developerWorks released a podcast interview from Tim Berners-Lee in which he stated that "Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means."
In my opinion, there is no question that the Web is being used novel ways, and that new technology is being built on top of what was already there. Also the speed of innovation has increased because it is so much easier to collaborate with one another partly because of the "Web 2.0" tools and web sites now being made available to the general public (blogs, wikis, AJAX front ends, social networking sites). People could debate on and on whether or not there is enough substance to warrant a "Web 2.0" label for these new technologies and social networking/collaborative sites. (How about we split the difference and call it Web 1.5?! - Just kidding.)
The point I'm trying to make is that it is getting easier to find people and collaborate on a project than it was before. "Web 2.0" is a convenient way to label the current set of leading edge methods for people to connect to each other on the Internet. I'm fine with that idea. Heck for all I care, someone could have called today's web environment to be the "Quaternary Period of the Web" and the Web circa 1998 to be "Jurassic Period of the Web". But the term "Web 2.0" seems to have caught on so let's just continue to use it as a convenient way of talking about today's environment. Whatever we call this current period of the Web, it sure is fun to be part of it. It's evolutionary, not revolutionary. Internet technology is changing quickly and there are lots of business opportunities being created. I enjoy learning about new technologies and web sites such as ProgrammableWeb, MySpace, del.ic.ious, Flickr, and JotSpot. Let's just enjoy the "Web 2.0" ride for now. In just a few years, "Web 2.0" will actually be considered old/stale and some new label will be invented.
On a side note in regards to labeling periods of time, did you notice how people just avoid the issue of calling this decade anything?! Is it the "oh-ohs", the "zeros", or "double naughts decade"? We all seem to be surviving just fine without a decade label. So regardless of whether we label this period in web history as "Web 2.0" or not, let's have fun working with these emerging technologies!
John Feller
Manager, Emerging Technologies Development, IBM Software Group
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Satellite Tracking Mashup
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mashups ajax 2,035 Views
This Ajax-powered mashup uses GoogleMaps to do real-time satellite tracking. Clicking the satellites listed at the top changes which is tracked for you.
This recent developerWorks article gives a good introductory-level discussion of Mashups.
Jim Hsu
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A new company enters the enterprise mashup space
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  web2.0 situationalapps qedwiki mashups 3,021 Views
Dion Hinchcliffe asserts in this post that enterprise mashupsare becoming increasingly important to IT organizations and thebusiness they support. However tools to enable the creation ofenterprise mashups are few and far between. In fact, while he notes "Not sure about any of this? IBM has clearly identified mashups as a key enterprise trend as well", he only cites one tool that meets all his criteria:
"However,I've recently come across one product that clearly shows almost thefull potential of enterprise mashups in a single package, despite a fewrough edges.Looks likeI've got a new lunchtime research project for the week. The company responsible for DataMashups.com is Applibase, Inc. On their site they have some additional background material on their offerings and what they are trying to accomplish. Anyone outthere messed with this site? If so, please comment and let me knowwhat you think.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
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AjaxPatterns Wiki
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax wiki 2,778 Views
There's a sizable repository of Ajax design patterns organized into an easy to use Wiki format over at AjaxPatterns.org. I was glad to see a link to the AJAX Toolkit Framework was already in the tools section.
Jim Hsu
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Raven Update
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  java accessibility eclipse 2,728 Views
The Raven team has released an update to the IBM Rule-basedAccessibility Validation Environment with improved Eclipseintegration and simplified install. It is now easier than ever tomeasure the accessibility of a Java or Eclipse user interface.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Sametime 7.5 reported as "certifiably cool"
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  instantmessaging web2.0 2,578 Views
Here is just a quick pointer to some good press for Sametime 7.5 from a very good technical blog, Ars Technica:
Not to be outdone, IBM recently announced the upcoming launch of Sametime 7.5. Sametime, the leading enterprise instant messaging platform, will get an upgrade this fall that mirrors many of AIM's new features. At the top of the list is integration with Outlook, Office, and SharePoint, but Sametime will also gain the capability to connect to Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices. The client is also truly cross-platform, with versions available for the Mac, Windows, and Linux, and it's well-integrated with Lotus Notes.
And it's certifiably cool—it uses Web 2.0 tech. IBM says that "users will be able to take advantage of plug-ins and Web 2.0 technologies such as mashups to create new applications on the fly. For example, a Lotus Sametime 'mashup' could combine the location and status of team members on a contact list and display it on an online map." Companies also have more control over the technology because they can host their own Sametime server.
Thoseare words I haven't heard to describe an IBM software product in thepress in, well perhaps forever. The good news is that it really is "cool". I'm looking forward to the rollout. Watch for details in this space.
John Gerken
[Read More]
Zend Developer Zone and QEDwiki
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  situationalapps qedwiki wiki 2,549 Views
Zend's Developer Zone site had an article on QEDwiki recently.
It gives a nicely concise description of Situational Applications: "Situational applications are a way for people with domain expertise to create applications in a very short time. Many IT shops have a backlog of small little projects that their customers want. If it takes 3 weeks to get to a project, the need is gone before the developer even starts coding. We want to give knowledge workers the tools to solve their own problems."
Dan Gisolfi provided some interesting thoughts about how IT departments retain control over the available library of widgets available, thereby acting as "the gatekeeper" rather than "the gardener". I like the analogy.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Virtual XML Garden: Taking XML to the Next Level
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mashups xml 2,660 Views
The Virtual XML Garden joins the ETTK family today, with the version 2 update. If you ever thought about trying to do XPath or XQuery scripts, the Virtual XML Garden implementation does the processing fast and does it well. This version lets you mix and match data retrieved from different data sources in order to create derived views or "XML mash-ups". There are plenty of good samples with XML scripts included for users to try out and experiment with.
Jim Hsu
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More good press from Rod Smith's keynote at NY PHP Con on QEDWiki and situational apps
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  qedwiki web2.0 rodsmith situationalapps mashups 3,357 Views
The good press regarding Rod Smith's keynote last week at NY PHP Conference keep rolling in. Consider this article from Dion Hinchcliffe on his blog:
ZDNet blog colleague Joe McKendrick beat me to the punch earlier this week with an excellent analysis of the fascinating ramifications of IBM's recent statementsat the New York PHP Conference aimed mainstreaming mashup and Web 2.0technologies. If IBM is getting seriously involved in this, there mustbe something to it, and certainly Rod Smith's comments are receiving considerable attention.
Check out the "considerable attention" link above. Rodseems to have really gotten the media's attention this time and thereviews seem to be pretty consistent that IBM has landed on somethingreally good here.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Socialtext to distribute wiki spreadsheet tool
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  wiki qedwiki web2.0 opensource 2,650 Views
Just a quick reference: Looks like Socialtext is getting into the act with WikiCalc:
Social software company Socialtext will redistribute and co-developWikiCalc, an online collaborative spreadsheet created by PC softwarepioneer Dan Bricklin.Microsoft seems much more concerned with getting WGA into Office than with dealing with the Web 2.0 implications to their Suite. I wonder how they'll ultimately respond.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Google Spreadsheet - Everyone raise you're hands if you're surprised!
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  google situationalapps web2.0 2,595 Views
Well now, here's a shock. Via Between the Lines comes this post from Dan Farberabout Google's plans to add a spreadsheet to its collection of on-lineoffice applications. If you're quick, you can sign up for it here. I still maintain that Google's approach has twosignificant flaws:
Istill think Zimbra and others still have the correct answer here inoffering both a free, or low cost public hosted service along with apurchaseable, enterprise installable product that companies can putbehind their corporate firewall. Unfortunately, I think Google's stuffwill by definition be very popular and most typical web users will notrealize the sensitivity of using Google's services for their work.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
An update on OpenAJAX and ATF
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax openajax opensource eclipse 3,304 Views
Here is an update on the current state of the Open AJAX Alliance:
Though two notable hold outs to OpenAjax still exist (Microsoft andSun), the ranks of OpenAjax continues to swell, with originalsignatories including well-known industry notables such as IBM, Adobe,and Oracle. Recent additions to membership now include over a dozen new members including SAP, TIBCO, Backbase, and JackBe. ...The article also notes that Boloker announced that the Alliance now has a new web site. There isn't anything useful on the site yet, but its worth bookmarking for future reference.
I'm glad to see this alliance continue to grow and develop. Kudos to Craig Becker and his team for continuing to make this stuff real. Nice job, gang.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
IBM Partners with Dojo on Ajax
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  accessibility opensource ajax 2,608 Views
According to this Marketwire.com article,IBM is partnering with the Dojo Foundation to contribute to the Ajaxopen source community. One thing I found interesting was themention of "Dynamic Web Accessibility", which is great for getting thelatest rich internet applications out to the widest possible audience.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
Introducing Google Notebook - Is this a good thing?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  google socialnetworking firefox 3,085 Views
I just found this reference to a new Google service called Google Notebook. It's a Firefox extension that feels very similar to Scrapbook (one of my all time favorite Firefox extension thanks to my colleague Stefano Pogliani), however it is different in a couple important respects:
So what do you guys think? Is a tool like this a good idea or not? would it be useful to you?
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Microsoft is considering joining OpenAJAX
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  web2.0 opensource rodsmith ajax eclipse microsoft openajax 3,502 Views
eWeek is reporting that Microsoft is considering joining the Open AJAX Initative underway on Eclipse and Apache.
Havingseen what can happen when IBM teamed with Microsoft on standardizingWeb services, this would be a terrific thing if it happened (IMHO).
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
Sun finally gets the Open Source religion
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ibm java rodsmith opensource 3,429 Views
Wow. Get a load of this:
"At this point, it is not a question of whether, but it is a questionof how" Sun will open-source Java, Rich Green, the company's newexecutive vice president of software, said at Sun's annual JavaOnedeveloper conference here.After years of reading articles and open letters from Open Source advocates, including my VP, Rod Smith,it sounds like Sun is finally figuring out what we've been trying totell them for years: that Open Source is good for Java and good for theindustry.
Let's hope we see this happen sooner, rather than later.
Thanks for reading,
John Gerken
[Read More]
developerWorks article on when to use AJAX
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax 2,292 Views
Here's a link to a recent developerWorks article, Considering Ajax, Part 1: Cut through the hype, with some good tips on security and improving the user experience.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
OpenAJAX Roster Grows
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  opensource openajax ajax 2,646 Views
There were a couple of announcements this week about OpenAJAX:
Infoworld article AJAX initiative adds backers
eWeek article OpenAJAX Looks to Advance with New Members
In particular, 11 new OpenAJAX members were announced: Adobe,Backbase, Fair Isaac, ICEsoft, Innoopract, Intel, JackBe, Opera, SAP,Scalix, Software AG, Tibco and XML11. It's good to see such broadsupport for AJAX technology.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
PHP vs. Java: What does Digg think?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  php databases java 3,934 Views
Brian Fioca from ONLamp.com posts an interesting articleregarding the scaleability and performance of PHP vs. Java. Inresearching his article he talked at length with "Owen Byrne, cofounderand Senior Software Engineer at digg.com" to learn how he addressed any problems they encountered during their meteoric growth.
Byrneasserts that "none of the scaling challenges we faced had anything todo with PHP," and that "the biggest issues faced were databaserelated." The article also makes some simple recommendations on Apachetuning and MySQL database configuration strategies to address commonproblems.
Fioca concludes with the following assertion:
It turns out that it really is fast and cheap to develop applications in PHP. Most scaling and performance challenges are almost always related to the data layer, and are common across all language platforms. Even as a self-proclaimed PHP evangelist, I was very startled to find out that all of the theories I was subscribing to were true. There is simply no truth to the idea that Java is better than scripting languages at writing scalable web applications. I won't go as far as to say that PHP is better than Java, because it is never that simple. However it just isn't true to say that PHP doesn't scale.
What'cha think?
John Gerken
[Read More]
Eclipse and Microsoft Battling for AJAX Leadership
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax microsoft eclipse 2,904 Views
The AJAX Toolkit Framework got a nice mention in this Information Week article about a showdown between AJAX development tools. Microsoft's offering is called Atlas. Post a comment if you've tried either of these development tools; it would be interesting to compare user experiences.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Wikis and blogs in the Enterprise
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  blog wiki 2,924 Views
I just published an article on the IBM developerWorks site called Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the enterprise. It elaborates on some of the points I made in my previous post on this subject. I tried to show that all the emerging social and community tools have a role in fostering teamwork and collaboration These new tools in some cases may replace enterprise document management based solutions, but in general will complement them and reach teams that are not adequately served currently. Wikis in particular are based on a new set of assumptions that say as much about the way people want to work as about the tools they need.
Take a look. There is much more to be learned and reported on this topic and I will be posting more as we gain more experience using all these tools in combination.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
PHP IDE approved by Eclipse Foundation
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  eclipse php 3,391 Views
You can read about the announcement here. It's good to see the Eclipse Foundation, Zend Technologies, and IBM coming together on this and it will be interesting to see the reaction from the PHP community.
I would probably have a lot of use for such an IDE. How about you? Post your opinions in the comments.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
XForms 1.0 Second Edition
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ajax xforms xml 2,358 Views
The W3C announced on March 14 that the XForms 1.0 Second Edition is now a W3C Recommendation. XForms is a very important way to use XML to express forms in XHTML documents and has a close synergy with AJAX. The new XForms Recommendation includes an XSLT-based XHTML to XForms Converter and an updated test suite. Previous posts in this blog have introduced two IBM technologies that are part of the ETTK family. The XForms Generator and the Compound XML Document Toolkit aid in the tasks of creating the XForms definitions and integrating them into an XHTML document. Combined with another ETTK technology, the AJAX Toolkit Framework, developers can create XHTML pages that contain XForms and interact with outside services via AJAX.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
The Importance of Accessibility
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  eclipse accessibility xml java 3,540 Views
Developers of rich-client interfaces tend to focus on the latest whiz-bang features, but we shouldn't forget the importance of accessibility in reaching the widest possible audience. IBM Rule-based Accessibility Validation Environment (RAVEN) is an application that inspects Java-based interfaces and evaluates how accessible they are.
RAVEN uses an innovative Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) technique to inspect the application as it is executed; no source code is required. RAVEN was previously packaged with the Reflexive User Interface Builder (RIB), which generates user interfaces from XML-based RIB documents.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Emerging Technologies You Should Know
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid socialnetworking wiki blog opensource ajax soa 3,703 Views
Today, we kick off a new feature of the IBM Emerging Technologies Blog. The IBM Emerging Technologies team is experimenting with several technologies which we believe will have a significant impact on future IT solutions. The IBM Emerging Technologies team or invited IBM Research team members will discuss issues and opinions about several topics including (but not limited to) Wikis/Blogs, Social Networking, Knowledge Mining, Open Source, Rich Client Applications (AJAX), SOA, RFID, etc.
John Feller
IBM Emerging Technologies Team
[Read More]
Space Applications for RFID
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,658 Views
The future of RFID technology could go as far as the Moon or Mars, according to a recent Technology Review article. RFID tags hold great promise for tracking inventory, which could turn out to be a huge timesaver to astronauts that need to deal with supplies and equipment. You definitely do not want to embark on a lengthy mission only to discover you left a key piece of equipment behind, but you also don't want to spend valuable mission time double-checking supplies on your exploration vehicle. Also, RFID could prove useful if NASA stockpiles supplies in space, for use in future missions.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
BEEPLight continues to evolve
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml network 2,927 Views
We haven't talked about BEEPLight lately on this blog. BEEPLight is a technology that addresses lower level protocol concerns that are important for many of the other emerging technologies we are exploring. It is a generic application protocol kernel for connection-oriented, asynchronous interactions experimental support for SASL anonymous authentication and SASL OTP authentication according to RFC 2245 and RFC 2444, respectively. This new release also introduces support to help simplify the implementation of profiles - an experimental XML parser based on format strings. The integrated XML parser now enables profile developers to focus on their message processing.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
RFID Fears Create Their Own Market
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,838 Views
From the "Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean Their Not Out To Get You" department: e-Week has an article discussing the market rising up from concerns about the potential for invasion of privacy due to RFID technologies.
From the article:":...retailers are fighting the desire to gather more sophisticated and usable CRM (customer relationship management) data for fear of the possible backlash from privacy advocates. This state of affairs prompted one Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute grad student to use some simple ingredients to craft an RFID-proof wallet. ... The wallet is just one avenue. What about a device for a shopping cart that deflects or confuses any RFID inquiries, sort of like torpedo countermeasures for the shopping aisle? Or perhaps a room-wide device to prevent household snooping? When it comes to consumer confidence, we're engaged in a clear perceptions opposed to realityattle. Even if no retailers ever decide to use RFID for tracking products or credit cards that consumers are carrying, the fact that they could theoretically do so is enough to cut confidence."
So is this a jutifiable concern? Clearly the next frontier for RFID is moving it more to the consumer. Do you think this is a good thing? Post your comments below.
IDE for Laszlo has graduated
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  eclipse laszlo opensource 3,262 Views
The popular ETTK technology, IDE for Laszo, has graduated to an open source project on Eclipse. This is a tool for writing and testing browser-delivered applications written in the LZX declarative mark-up language. This is an example of how the ETTK shepherds and incubates new technologies that have the potential for significant impact, and moves the technology to the next step. That next step could be integration in to a product, creation of an open source project or additional research.
Joel Farrell
[Read More]
New Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) support available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices 2,369 Views
As we draw to the close of a big year for the ETTK, we would like to announce the release of another package on alphaWorks. The new package is the WSDM Browser for CIM and OSGi. WSDM is an OASIS standard for Web services management. This new ETTK package uses WSDM to show how a single application can manage disparate types of resources without requiring any special knowledge of the types of resources, their models, or their implementation technologies. This package also demonstrates WSDM interoperability by managing both WebSphere and .Net resources.
Even though Web services technology is not usually regarded as being in the emerging category, some aspects of it still are. Using a Web services model to manage a Web services solution is one of those areas - one with tremendous potential to simplify the information technology landscape.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
New W3C Working Group Being Chartered for Web Services Semantics
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices semantics 2,605 Views
The W3C has started public discussions on the charter of a new working group. It is called the Semantic Annotations for WSDL working group. It references the WSDL-S spec as an input document to the working group. I have discussed that specification several times on this blog since I am a co-author. There is already a good deal of discussion on the Semantic Web Services Interest Group list. It should be interesting to get the community together to start standardizing this area. This is a fist small step.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
RFID deadline hits defense industry
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,371 Views
From ZDNet, this article describes how the US military is pushing the adoption of RFID technology by its suppliers to "more closely monitor the distribution and consumption of supplies, such as ammunition and fuel, to reduce loss and waste." Starting today "...certain suppliers to the U.S. Defense Department must include in new contracts an agreement to attach RFID tags to shipments of goods to two major military distribution centers. The order, which the agency announced in September, applies specifically to packaged rations, clothing, personal-care items and weapon system repair parts..."
Like Wal*Mart's insistence that its suppliers adopt RFID, this seems to be another instance of a heavyweight forcing innovation and adoption of key technologies in a given industry.
Seems like a good thing..., if the technology is really mature enough to handle it. What do you think? Please reply below.
John Gerken[Read More]
WSDL-S Specification has been acknowledged by the W3C
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices semantics 2,761 Views
I have written a few times about our work in Web services semantics and the specification we jointly authored with a group of colleagues from the University of Georgia. We submitted this specification, called Web Services Semantics- WSLD-S, to the W3C which has acknowledged receipt and has published it as a member submission. WSDL-S defines how semantic annotations can be added to WSDL documents to define the meaning of the inputs, outputs, preconditions and effects of the operations described by the Web service interface. Other specifications have also been submitted to the W3C including OWL-S, WSMO and SWSF. However, WSDL-S is the only one that takes the existing WSDL and XML schema-based Web services standards as the starting point. This is not to preclude work on initiatives that have a wider scope, like OWL-S, WSMO and SWSF, since WSDL-S could act as a bridge to those approaches. It give semantic Web services a basis in the currently deployed base of services.
At the W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services, held this past June in Innsbruck, the attendees agreed that linking a Web service description to a domain ontology was the initial requirement for semantic Web services. It is also a concept in common among all the approaches presented at the workshop. As one of the authors of the WSDL-S specification, I hope it helps move this area forward and serves as a way to help focus discussions on getting a good first step under way.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Updated XML Forms Generator package available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xforms eclipse xml 3,301 Views
An updated XML Forms Generator package is now available at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xfg
Major new features of the XML Forms Generator package include:
This release continues to demonstate the momentum and commitment behind XFORMS for IBM. IBM recently acquired PureEdge Solutions adding electronic forms capabilities to the IBM Workplace portfolio.
John Feller
[Read More]
RAMPing up on Reliable Messaging
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  network 2,418 Views
Today, the Reliable Asynchronous Message Profile (RAMP) Toolkit joins the ETTK. This technology provides an early implementation of the WS-Reliable Messaging specification and updates it on WAS 6.0 to provide asynchronous support. See the RAMP FAQ for more details.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Pervasive Devices and Applications - New Opportunities
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  mobiledevices network 2,705 Views
I would like to talk about pervasive devices and applications. There are a variety of devices, each designed to satisfy different needs and reflecting different trade-offs, such as ease of use, ease of wear, functionality, speed and connectivity. People use a number of devices based on these design points and trade-offs. These devices, including a PC, Notebook, Tablet-PC, PDA, cell phone, and in some cases even a watch, can run applications. This leads to the possibility of having important applications, like your calendar, available no matter what device you happen to be carrying or using at the time. Another interesting scenario involves a group people using copies of a common application and needing to see common view of the data. The problem is how to keep the data in sync between this disparate application instances.
A solution to this problem is proposed by a new ETTK technology called Fluid Sync. It provides a model in which data flows between applications like a "fluid." If all devices are connected, data changes are sent directly to the devices. If a device is not connected, it can get the update the next time it connects. Likewise if a person makes updates while disconnected, the updates will be distributed later, once the device connects.
Fluid Sync provides code that runs on a small server and on each of the devices. It is a light-weight application enablement middleware that provides very sophisticated support using open standards wherever available. Fluid Sync will allow us to explore new models of application usage and team collaboration. I'll give more information in future postings.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Semantics, Web services and business
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices semantics 2,154 Views
A topic we are exploring in the ETTK group is the use of semantics in Web services. We hope to release a major upgrade of the Semantic Tools for Web Services package in the not to distant future and we have published a proposal on alphaWorks for adding semantics to Web services descriptions. It is called WSDL-S and is a joint effort between IBM and the University of Georgia. We believe that the use of Web services in support of application and business integration will soon reach a point where the problems being attacked are so complex that additional help will be needed to solve them.
Many, including our team, have been exploring the potential of attaching semantics to WSDL so the data being exchanged and the operations being performed are well understood by the two sides of the integration. This enables (semi) automation of discovery, composition, mediation and monitoring of services. Still while there are enthusiastic supporters of this notion, many in the Web services community are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
One of our colleagues in the development of the WSDL-S proposal is Dr. Amit Sheth of the University of Georgia. He has take up the issue of how and when semantics will make a difference to Web services. His latest blog entry, Can semantics make Web Services more useful for business contains some interesting observations that I encourage you to read.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Reflexive User Interface Builder and Fluid Sync
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  network accessibility eclipse xml java 3,891 Views
Two technologies joined the ETTK today.
The IBM Reflexive User Interface Builder is a technology that builds GUIs from an XML description document. The GUI can use Java Swing or the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT). The resulting interface can be validated or checked for accessibility. The version 1.2 update is integrated into the Eclipse development environment as a plugin. As with many other ETTK technologies, there are plenty of online demos that help to quickly get a sense for the technology.
Fluid Sync also joined the ETTK today. This Java framework facilitates the development of collaborative and multi-device applications. Applications become fluid in the sense that the state of a running application can be spread to a new device.
Jim Hsu
[Read More]
New version of XJ available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml java 3,130 Views
A technology we have been featuring in the ETTK is XML Enhancement for Java (XJ). It integrates XML, XML Schema and XPath support into the Java language. The XJ team has just released an update to this package that improves the efficiency of XPath compilation. XML processing is something Java programmers do a lot, in all types of applications, so Java support for XML is an important topic. So far, feedback on XJ has been very positive. If you have not tried it yet, I encourage you to do so.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
IBM, Maersk to equip ship cargo with sensors
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,872 Views
From the "Its Good To Hear That Someone Is Working On This" department, comes this article from ZDNet discussing how "IBM and Maersk Logistics are taking the concept of radio frequency tags to the world's ocean shipping lanes and ports" by equiping "large shipping containers with wireless tracking devices, which they call Tamper-Resistant Embedded Controllers, or TREC. Combined with back-end software and a wireless network, the sensor system will allow shippers to get a remote view of cargo's movements".
TREC is a cigar box-sized computer that has 8 different sensors attached to it that track, log and transmit everything from altitude and temperature to obvious security aspects such as when the door is opened. But beyond security, the business value comes from the visibility of the supply chain.
John Gerken[Read More]
Updated PMAC release available
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  databases autonomic 2,855 Views
An updated Policy Management for Autonomic Computing (PMAC) release 1.2.1 is now available with security enhancements and support for JDBC to all database vendors at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/pmac .
If you want to check out some of the basic features of PMAC and get a good feel of how it works, check out the Quick Start section of the readme file. Quick Start will take you through a basic command line tutorial and explains how to write and run a simple decision point sample.
John Feller
[Read More]
Vendors Form RFID Consortium
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,630 Views
As a software developer working to foster and encourage the growth of RFID, my single biggest gripe has been the dearth of standards-related work in this space. Every hardware vendor has its own view of the world such that designing software solutions that work across RFID device vendors requires specialized treatment for almost each and every device supported. Now, finally some good news via this article in eweek (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1846877,00.asp?kc=EWRSS04069TX1K0000697)
describing a new "group of 20 companies that develop RFID-based products -- chips, tags, labels and readers...". Hallelujah!! However, nothing is perfect. In this case, Intermec is reportedly not currently part of the new "RFID Consortium". While reminiscent of the "Eclipse vs. Sun" kerfuffle, one can only hope Intermec will join up and the industry will begin to coalesce around some common standards and those of us in the software world can focus more on the functionality of our solutions, rather than the idiosyncrasies of any given vendor's particular device.
Think I'm overstating the importance of the RFID Consortium announcement? Please post your comments below.
John Gerken[Read More]
Informal Web Poll
The ETTK encompasses a number of technology areas, such as Laszlo and Semantics.
Which ETTK technology area do you think will have the biggest impact in the next five years?
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Enterprise Wikis
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  wiki ibm 3,258 Views
The usage of Wikis is growing at what seems to be a fairly rapid rate. For those not familiar with the term, a wiki is a Web site where anyone can change or add to the site. Sometimes update authority is restricted, but in general, a wiki is a site that is collaboratively created by those who read it. There are many examples of wikis on the internet, the most famous being Wikipedia. Now, we are seeing a substantial roll-out of wikis by businesses. There are a few external enterprise wikis, but most of the usage seems to be behind the company firewall. Those wikis are used for project management, creating knowledge bases to support communities of interest, maintaining documentation of processes or tools and the collaborative authorship of documents like specifications or requirements documents.
IBM has made available to its employees facilities for creating wikis in an attempt to see what ways they might be used by our employees to support their activities. The ETTK team has an internal wiki we use to manage our projects, provide documentation to new ETTK technology developers and develop new ideas. This has worked out very well and we are experimenting with other ways to apply internal wikis.
We are also experimenting with an external enterprise wiki for the ETTK community. We are evolving it now to try to facilitate content that can be collaboratively created by communities of interest that form around some of our technology packages or the problem areas they address. An external enterprise wiki, in my view, is an experiment in community building and cross enterprise collaboration. I'll report on both our internal and external wiki activities, but I hope some interested parties will monitor our external ETTK wiki and contribute to it as it evolves.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
IBM, Microsoft Invest in RFID Despite Lull
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  rfid 2,842 Views
We've not talked much yet about RFID in this space, but it is clearly an emerging technology deserving attention. So with that in mind and given the likelihood that there will be RFID-related ETTK toolkits in the future, here is a brief introductory article from eWeek discussing why software companies such as IBM and Microsoft are investing so heavily in RFID.
Please watch this space for more about RFID in the not-so-distant future.
John Gerken[Read More]
Faces for Laszlo
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo 2,626 Views
Faces for Laszlo, a new ETTK technology, lets Laszlo controls and FacesClient components work together on a web page. This is done using a technology known as SDO4JS (Service Data Objects for JavaScript), which allows the data sharing between components on a page and can also reduce the number of client-server interactions that needs to take place. You can install Faces for Laszlo on RAD 6 and it comes with four code samples.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
XML Schema and Web Services Workshop Results
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  semantics xml 3,373 Views
The ETTK includes several technologies associated with XML and Web Services. These are both active areas at the W3C, which has held workshops in both areas. XML Schema has been used extensively for several years and the W3C has gotten people together to share experiences with it. The W3C Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences has recently been summarized in a Summary Report that includes many interesting recommendations including a type library and a W3C published best practices document. The W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services has not published a report, but the workshop minutes have been recently published. I participated in that workshop and there was considerable support for a W3C pre-standardization activity for Web services semantics, but not for immediately starting a work group.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
IDE4Laszlo Headed For Open Source
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo eclipse opensource 3,045 Views
The Integrated Development Environment for Laszlo is now a proposed open source project under the Eclipse Technology Project. One of the big draws of OpenLaszlo is the advantages of an open source platform over other proprietary rich client solutions. No doubt many Laszlo users will be happy to hear that the IDE4Laszlo will be heading toward open source.
Here is an article in Information Week with more information. (added 8/2/05)
So, what does everyone think about this? Post your thoughts by clicking the comments link below.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
ETTK Wiki
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  wiki 2,488 Views
ADIEU - "Goodbye" to complex web sevices programming and "Hello" to easy access to web services
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  webservices 2,423 Views
A new ETTK package is now available on alphaWorks. ADIEU - Ad Hoc Development and Integration Tool for End Users is a radically simplified tool for rapid development of Web applications and Web Services. By using this tool, end users can develop Web services and Web applications without any Java or J2EE knowledge. Users can develop these applications by using collections of "cards," each of which act like single-function applications in a form-based, desktop-like environment. The data fields in cards can be used like cells in a spreadsheet and can contain either data or an expression that determines the data at run time.
This ADIEU utility can change the way people do web services programming. Think of how things were before the spreadsheet was introduced by VisiCalc and later refined by Lotus 1-2-3. Most "non-technical" sales staff, business analysts and executives had to rely on their IT staff programmers to generate various reports they needed. Once these executives and sales staff were empowered with the easy-to-use spreadsheets, they could create unique reports and not have to ask a programmer for help.
Similarly, ADIEU can bring web services to the "everyday user". Select what services you need from a library of available web services, compose them together, and then publish it for your use and for use by your team members. Better yet, you can share your "web services composition" so others can expand or enhance the functionality. It's similar to when someone creates a spreadsheet with a format I like or does a calculation that I need to do, I "copy" that spreadsheet and make my own unique additions. I don't start a new spreadsheet from scratch, I base my work on top of others. And with ADIEU, you could share your ADIEU "cards" with others and keep building more functions.
So say ADIEU (Goodbye) to the old method of depending on your IT shop to program your Web services applications. You can now do it by yourself! Welcome to the new "end user empowered" world of Web services.
John Feller
[Read More]
Application Protocols
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  network xml 3,053 Views
An increasing problem in networking today concerns application protocols. An application protocol is something like HTTP, SNMP and FTP that layers on top of the network transport layer. The problem is that although many new application protocols are very similar, they continue to proliferate. Developers usually approach them in one of three ways. First, if HTTP or SNMP is close enough, just use it with a few conventions. If not, define one on top of Web or e-mail. And finally, some develop a new one from scratch.
BEEP, which stands for Block Extensible Exchange Protocol, is a framework to allow application protocols to be built from a common base framework. BEEP's protocol characteristics are connection-oriented (reliable, ordered, congestion sensitive), message-oriented (structured data) and peer-to-peer (allowing client/server). It's protocol mechanisms include framing (delimiting msgs), encoding (representing msgs), reporting (status information), asynchrony (independent exchanges), authentication (verify user ids), and privacy (protecting against 3rd parties).
The ETTK includes an framework for implementing application protocols via BEEP. We call it BeepLite. It is a Java implementation of the main IETF RFC's concerning BEEP: RFC 3080 (BEEP Core) and RFC 3081 (TCP Binding). There is also an RFC for SOAP over BEEP that is interesting. We find that for some cases SOAP over BEEP performs better than SOAP over HTTP, but in other cases, HTTP proves to be better. This is a fruitful area for further experimentation as a possible application of BEEP.
Joel Farrell
[Read More]
Explaining XJ
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 2,425 Views
XML Enhancements for Java (XJ) is an ETTK technology I have discussed several times on this Blog because I have had to do a lot of XML parsing and processing. I can see the benefit of the XJ approach to making XML a native part of Java. If you want to better understand the approach and see how it compares with the existing ways of processing XML in Java programs, see the excellent article on IBM developerWorks on this subject at http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-awxj.html .
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Growing Laszlo Use
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo 2,496 Views
Sylantro Systems recently announced its use of Laszlo for its Voice over IP customer portal. Earlier this year, Earthlink announced the use of Laszlo in its latest web e-mail client. These announcements are certainly good news for the Laszlo platform, but are they also heralding a growing trend toward Rich Internet Applications?
Jim Hsu[Read More]
XML Processing in Java - What is the best way?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 3,121 Views
Mukund Raghavachari from IBM Research is the leader of the team that wrote the XML Enhancements for Java (XJ) package that is part of the ETTK. I talked to him about the motivation for the approach taken by XJ - to put XML support natively in to the programming language. Here are his thoughts:
Given the increasing importance of XML in today's world, people have come up with different ways of simplifying XML processing. The drawbacks of runtime APIs such as DOM is that it leads to verbose and fragile code. Imagine programming in Java with just the java.lang.Object class and reflection; you'd have to access fields of a class by passing the names of the fields as strings to the reflection API and perform several 'instanceof' checks to make sure that the class actually had a field of its name. If the class structure changed, you'd have to search through your code to find which portions to change. In some sense, DOM programmers are in this situation.
Another way of integrating XML support into the programming model are data binding tools such as JAXB. You give the tool a schema (perhaps, annotated) and it generates a bunch of Java classes from the Schema. The advantage of this approach over DOM is that the generated classes are based on the XML Schema. So, you get some static typechecking and access XML data using standard Java idioms. The disadvantage of this approach is that there are clear distinctions between the XML Schema type system and the Java type system. The Java type system cannot express XML Schema constructs such as order between element children, differences between attributes and elements, etc. Recently, there was a nice summary of the drawbacks of data binding approaches from HP Labs (http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-83.html).
We believe that the HP Labs folks didn't go far enough in their solution to the data binding problem. By integrating XML support into the language itself, you get the benefits of all approaches. You get XML fidelity because language understands XML and the XML Schema type system, you get ease of use because the programmer can access XML data in a natural manner, and you get good performance because the compiler can optimize accesses to XML data. This, in essence, is the motivation behind the XML Enhancements for Java project, which integrates XML into Java in an intuitive and clean manner. A language-based solution avoids the restriction that runtime solutions (which both DOM and data binding solutions are) face --- it does not have to fit a square peg into a round hole (XML into Java). A language solution can reshape the hole (hopefully, cleanly) so that it is square.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Semantics and Web Services: To Standardize or Not
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  semantics 2,680 Views
Last week, the W3C held its Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services in Innsbruck, Austria. People who have been working on all the major approaches to semantically enhanced Web services were there, along with other interested parties from industry and the public sector. The major questions were when to go to the W3C to form a Working Group to standardize this area and how to decide what should be standardized. There are several competing (in a friendly way) proposals on the table. I was there as one of the co-authors of the WSDL-S proposal. Our position is that it is too early to start standardization of semantic Web services. We need to gain experience with this technology attacking real-world problems to quantify the benefits and the impediments. This is why we proposed a simple approach like WSDL-S. It allows us to cover the basic needs in a way that we can use in proof-of-concept projects. That is also why last week we release on alphaWorks the Semantic Tools for Web Services, that support WSDL-S and can be used to implement such projects.
The workshop participants agreed that some practical business implementation projects need to be done as the next step and some proposed that one or more challenge problems should be defined and solutions implemented using the major semantic Web services proposals. After that, the relative benefits can be evaluated. Not everyone agreed that we need to wait for this step. Some felt that there was a window of opportunity that is open now. I think we need to have more people trying the semantic technology before we proceed. The possibilities it presents to speed integration projects, promote higher quality solutions and enable better service reuse need to be tested and understood.
Joel Farrell
[Read More]
Three New ETTK Technologies
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  semantics network 2,992 Views
Wow, three in a day! The ETTK team must be working overtime, because the Emerging Technologies Explorer, Semantic Tools for Web Services, and BeepLite Networking Layer all became ETTK technologies today.
The Emerging Technologies Explorer is great way to look at what's going on in the ETTK from within an Eclipse environment. You can use it to quickly learn about new technologies, see screenshots, or look at demos. You can even use it to install certain technologies directly into your Eclipse environment.
The Semantic Tools for Web Services introduces a way to automate the lookup of compatible web services. Sometimes, the answer you need is the composition of two web services. For example, suppose you want to know the population of the capital of Texas. You might be able to use two existing services: one that returns the capital city for a state and one that returns the population for a city. The semantics approach offers a way to do these types of searches.
The BeepLite Networking Layer was updated to Version 0.9.4 and joined the ETTK today. It's a Java implementation of BEEP (Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol) and helps you more easily implement a secure, multi-channel, asynchronous set of network connections that adhere to standard protocols.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
On Cinematic Interfaces
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo ecommerce 3,119 Views
Humans love to interact with well-made things. A well-made toy will have kids jumping at the chance to spend hours playing with it. A well-made motor vehicle will have customers paying a premium in order to own it and interact with it daily.
People are also willing to pay to spend hours interacting with video games. This is partly due to the game content and escapism that is offered. But a large part is also because the successful games are designed to be fun to interact with. Very few video games these days offer an HTML-type interface, even if a game task (such as clothing your avatar in a role-playing game) is functionally similar to a browser task (ordering an outfit from an e-commerce website).
Laszlo describes its interfaces as "cinematic". It's based on a simple concept: movement plus fade morphs = eye candy and interface goodness. In other words, make it easier to implement little cinematic touches in web interfaces!
The generation of folks who grew up with Playstations are rapidly becoming an important market demographic. A cinematic interface can do much to attract not only this customer base, but people in general. But I don't think it is limited to just e-commerce. Can you imagine what a more cinematic Eclipse might be like?
Thoughts? Opinions? Post them!
Jim Hsu[Read More]
How to Add Semantic Information to Web Services
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  semantics 3,501 Views
A government IT group told me how it took six months for them and another organization to figure out how their XML schemas matched up so they could decide how to integrate some of their interactions. They were going to send XML documents back and forth using Web services. The project almost collapsed. This is one example of why many groups in industry and academia are looking into how to add semantic information to Web services descriptions. They want to be able to describe the meaning or intent of the inputs and outputs and define the effect of calling the service. There are a number of motivators for adding semantic information to Web services that I can talk about in later posts, but right now I would like to talk briefly about how adding semantics could impact the Web services standards.
There are two general approaches. The first, being pursued by groups like OWL-S http://www.daml.org/services , The Semantic Web Services Initiative and the Web Services Modelling Ontology group http://www.wsmo.org , involves creating a semantic model (or Ontology) of what a Web service interface is. Then, this ontology references another ontology that defines the domain in which the inputs and outputs are defined. This approach largely replaces WSDL, although binding definitions can be reused. It also generally uses the ontology language to define data, rather than XML Schema. The second approach, being investigated by IBM and the University of Georgia maintains WSDL and XML Schema as the center of Web services descriptions. Our spec (WSDL-S) is published on IBM alphaWorks http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/g/g.nsf/img/semanticsdocs/$file/wssemantic_annotation.pdf and is implemented by the IBM ETTK for Web Services and Autonomic Computing and by the University of Georgia METEOR-S project http://lsdis.cs.uga.edu/Projects/METEOR-S/ . We are also working on other tools based on this approach that may be posted to alphaWorks in the near future.
There is much really good work being done on Web services semantics, but we need to consider how the Web services community can get from where we are today to a point where all Web services are semantically described. As a co-author of the WSDL-S spec referenced above, I believe that this process must be an evolution and that the other approach does not account for the current industry momentum around Web services. Software vendors have made major investments in WSDL and have achieved a high level of interoperability. Application developers are creating an ever expanding set of WSDL-based services. Web Services-based integration projects are primarily based on the exchange of existing business documents in their XML representation. I think we have to evolve this existing base, not introduce an approach to semantics that changes the fundamental Web services description technique just to be able incorporate this new metadata. An approach that does not evolve the WSDL/XML Schema-centric Web services world risks being seen as unusable or even irrelevant by the implementation community. Nobody wants that.
This issue will be discussed June 9th and 10th at the W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services. There are middle ground positions that I think will come out. Some have proposed using WSDL-S as a bridge to approaches like WSMO. They key is for everyone to try to answer the question, "How do we get there from here?"
Joel Farrell
[Read More]
XML Enhancements for Java
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 2,687 Views
XML Enhancements for Java (XJ) are a set of extensions to Java 1.4 that integrate support for XML,XML Schema and XPath 1.0 into the language.
The advantages of XJ over existing mechanisms for XML development are:
In XJ, one can import XML schemas just as one does Java classes. All the element declarations in the XML schema are then available to programmers as if they were Java classes. Programmers can write inline XPath expressions on these classes, and the compiler checks them for correctness with respect to the XML schema.
I'd love to hear about your experiences using the XJ technology. You can write your experiences using the XJ technology on the ETTK Wiki pages at http://awlinux1.alphaworks.ibm.com/wiki/display/ettk/ETTK .
John Feller[Read More]
ETTK Community Wiki
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  wiki 2,328 Views
A new Wiki just went live at http://awlinux1.alphaworks.ibm.com/wiki/display/ettk/ETTK. It is dedicated to supporting the community of developers who use ETTK technologies by providing a place where developers can share experiences, document "how to" information and build up reference information about the areas being explored by ETTK packages. IBM researchers and developers will also contribute. This Wiki is also a good avenue for the community to propose enhancements to ETTK packages or to propose new areas to be explored. I think we can all help each other through this on-line resource.
A few members of the ETTK team and I have created an initial structure for the Wiki and added some content in a few areas. We will continue to add content, but the Wiki is intended to be driven by the user community. Take it in whatever direction you think is best. You can view the site without registering first, but if you want to edit the Wiki to provide content, you must register to get a user ID. I think that over the next month or so, it will really start to take shape, so check every so often to see how it is progressing. I'll post some information here every once in a while to point out significant developments.
This represents the first time IBM has created a public Wiki as part of ibm.com. Since the ETTK's purpose is to incubate and explore new technologies, it makes sense that our team would be the one looked to for this experiment. We are going to learn how wikis can best be used to foster collaboration with our developer community. It is up to ETTK uses to decide how this will go. I hope you will join in this effort.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
IBM acquires Gluecode Software and OASIS WS-Reliable Exchange
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  ibm webservices opensource autonomic 3,766 Views
Today, IBM acquired Gluecode Software. Gluecode develops open source application infrastructure software based on Apache Geronimo, the open source Web application server platform. This acquistion is another great example of IBM's commitment to open standards and open source software.
As James Snell mentioned a few days ago, IBM released new version of the ETTK For Web Services and Autonomic Computing (ETTK-WS). The ETTK-WS package makes use of open standards such as WS-Reliable Messaging (WS-RM) and WS-Distributed Management. Why is the use of open standards so important for Web Services products? Without using standards, products from different companies will be unable to communicate with each other - which defeats the primary value of Web Services in the first place. I realize that there are some competing specs in the WS-* space championed by different companies. For example, there is the WS-RM spec that IBM, Microsoft and others have backed. There is also a competing spec - WS-Reliability backed by other companies. Today, OASIS announced the formation of the new OASIS Web Services Reliable Exchange (WS-RX) Technical Committee. Hopefully, this TC will be able to work to converge the WS-RM and WS-Reliability specifications so that customers will not have to choose sides. It would be a win for everyone to use just one open standard for Reliable messaging.
John Feller
[Read More]
Emerging Technologies Toolkit for Web Services and Autonomic Computing version 2.3
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  autonomic webservices 2,740 Views
I'm happy to report that there is a new version of the ETTK For Web Services and Autonomic Computing available over on the alphaWorks site. New in this release are a bunch of updates to our implementations of WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Distributed Management, WS-Resource Framework, WS-Transactions, the Generic Manageability Library, and WS-Agreement. Go take a look! No, really, go ahead and look, I don't mind. ;-)
James Snell[Read More]
Compound XML Document Editor and XML Forms Generator
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 2,248 Views
Two new ETTK packages are now available: Compound XML Document Editor and XML Forms Generator.
A compound document combines XML markup from several namespaces into a single physical document. A number of standards exist, and continue to be developed, that are descriptions of XML markup within a single namespace. XHTML, XForms, XML Events, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), VoiceXML, and MathML are a handful of prominent examples of such standards, each having its own namespace.
To authors of content, each of these standards is useful and important. However, it is the combination of elements of any number of these standards that lends true flexibility and power. A document may exist to be displayed within a Web browser, to display an input form, with a scalable graphic and a bit of mathematical notation, all on the same page. XHTML, XForms, SVG, and MathML, respectively, serve these needs, and would therefore be combined into a single multi-namespace, or compound document.
Recently, the Opera and Firefox browser teams announced plans to add native SVG support in their upcoming browsers. I think as more and more browsers natively support SVG, XFORMs, MathML, etc., Compound documents will be used extensively.
John Feller[Read More]
XJ Discussions
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 2,516 Views
There are some interesting discussions on the XJ Forum on the IBM alphaWorks site. XJ makes XML processing native to the Java language and as such is related to research done for other languages like C-omega, mentioned on the forum. There is some support for the contention that the mismatch between XML and Object-oriented models requires native language support to best support XML document processing. XJ is a good example of doing just that for Java, and one for which we are very interested in developer feedback.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Smallest Laszlo App?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo 2,419 Views
I am always amazed by how tiny my Laszlo apps turn out. Tiny in terms of lines of code (LOC). It's remarkable how sophisticated an application just 100-200 lines can produce. Of course, the smaller your app, generally, the easier it is to debug and maintain.
How many LOC do your Laszlo apps usually turn out to be? Hit the 'Comments' link to post a reply. As always, bragging is welcome here.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
XML just got easier for Java programmers
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  xml 2,415 Views
Java programmers working with API's like the XML DOM or with schema-to-object mapping tools often wish there was a better way. We even see convenient support for XML being added to ECMAScript (E4X) and PHP (SimpleXML). Finally, there is a Java alternative. Check out XML Enhancements for Java (XJ), just released on IBM alphaWorks. It extends Java by supporting XML, XML Schema and XPath in a convenient, natural way. It allows you import an XML schema file as you would a package or class and process the XML document like a Java object, without requiring any external schema mapping.
This topic is extremely important to the Java community and feedback on this technology would be very valuable. I think we need to know if developers see this model as the right one for Java and what further requirements the Java XML community thinks should be addressed. The technique for including XPath expressions in Java statements is something in particular for which feedback would be useful. Syntax can be changed.
Maybe most importantly, I would like to see you post comments to this entry with descriptions of the types of applications you built with this technology. If you had to interact with existing classes that are based on DOM
or JDOM, did you have any problems?
Let's try this out and discuss the future of XML processing in Java. I think XJ is a good place to start the discussion.
Joel Farrell[Read More]
Cool IDE4Laszlo Trick
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo 2,688 Views
Phil Berkland showed me an interesting (and probably undocumented) editing trick for using the IDE for Laszlo. If you are trying to fine tune the positioning attributes of a component, you can edit the X and Y values directly in the Properties view without switching between the Source and Preview tabs. Your changes will be visible almost instantly in the Preview tab. This is really useful for doing layout, and the trick also works for other attributes like colors.
Jim Hsu[Read More]
Neatest Laszlo App?
JohnFeller 110000RUW6 Tags:  laszlo 2,532 Views
One of the best parts of creating a technology such as IDE for Laszlo is hearing about the interesting applications that people are creating (or thinking to make). If you'll pardon the bragging, I'd like to go first.
On Valentine's Day, earlier this year, I used the IDE for Laszlo to create an e-greeting card for my sweetheart with a number of personalized pictures, music, text, and animations. Did it work? Let's just say I am now happily married to that woman.
But I think this application has me beat. It's a Laszlo-powered web email client being deployed by EarthLink.
What interesting Laszlo applications are being created out there? Hit the 'Comments' link to post a reply. Bragging is ok here. :)
Jim Hsu[Read More]


text:
Dr. Laurel Braitman is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and anthropologist of science. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a Contributing Writer for Pop Up Magazine. Braitman's latest TED talk has been watched by over a million people and her talks on navigating chaos and uncertainty pack theaters around the world. She holds a PhD in Science, Technology and Society from MIT and is a Senior TED Fellow. Her last book, Animal Madness (Simon & Schuster 2015) was a NYT bestseller and has been translated into seven languages. Her work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Wired and other publications. She's taught popular interdisciplinary courses at Harvard, MIT, Smith College and elsewhere and is passionate about collaborating with musicians, physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and artists. She lives on a houseboat in Sausalito, CA with her dog Cedar. Her next book is about family, medicine and mortality.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Hosa CPP-845 is an 8-Pack of 1.5 ft TS to TS patch cables. This pack comes with assorted colors. This cable is most commonly used to patch together guitar pedals or 5U modular systems.
Questions on CPP-845 1/4" Mono TS Patch Cable - 8 PACK - 1.5FT
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- CPP-845 Unbalanced Patch Cables, 1/4 in TS to Same, 1.5 ft


text:
Gay Friendly Denton?
On Monday, a case goes to trial in Denton County that might answer a question brought up last year: Can a crime against a homosexual be successfully prosecuted there?
The case involves Christopher McKee, a mental health caseworker who, on December 3, 2005, was badly beaten outside a Denton club by two men. McKee believes they attacked because they saw him kissing another man goodbye in the parking lot. Ten days later McKee identified one of his assailants as George Clifton Young, but the case dragged on without going to trial.
McKee, 28, refused to acquiesce in a plea bargain that would reduce the charge against Young to a Class C misdemeanor. McKee claims that a prosecutor told him it would be difficult to get a conviction in Denton because the area wasn't "gay friendly." I posted a story about the case last October, shortly after the charge against Young was dropped because McKee's name was misspelled on the indictment. The case was refiled but not under the Texas James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, which enhances punishment if the victim is singled out for race, color, creed or sexual orientation.
A regime change at the Denton County Courthouse brought in Paul Johnson as district attorney. In one of his first acts as district attorney, Johnson announced that his office would be prosecuting the case against Young as a hate crime, a first for Denton County. It's a gutsy move. As of last October, only eight of the 1,300 hate crime cases filed in Texas resulted in convictions.
Upcoming Events
McKee sees the upcoming trial as an "historic and life changing event," a major victory for gays and lesbians in search of justice, and he's issued a plea for a show of solidarity. "This case not only involves me any longer but the entire Denton community and even more so, the gay community and our rights at large! The trial will last all day and I expect some to come out and rally for support outside, and of course my closest friends and family will be joining me in the courtroom during the trial. This could be a precedent [setting] event and I ***REALLY REALLY*** need all of your support."
He also has a Myspace page where supporters of the cause can learn more about him. Against a "Devil Wears Prada" red stiletto, McKee has posted a picture of himself bare-chested with a pugnacious look on his face and a cap twisted to one side.
"My Interests include: Working out, shopping (for clothes and boi's), listenig to music, throwing cocktail parties, going out to bars, dancing, working (yeh --go figure), Internet, chatting, wine tasting (though the bottle always seems to get emptied), making new friends, and of course SEX...Honesty right? *AND DID I MENTION THAT I ONLY LIKE THE HOTTEST MEN IN THE WORLD? IT'S TRUE, I ONCE LONGED FOR FREDDIE PRINCE JR., BUT NOW I HAVE REPLACED THAT OLD FLAME WITH A NEW LOVE, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN ON SCREEN THAT HAS WARMED MY HEART AND MADE ME HARD LATELY!!!*"
His list is accompanied by a photo of a nice clean-cut Naval officer. I gotta say he's got good taste in men.
The trial starts at 10 a.m. Monday at the Denton County Courthouse. --Glenna Whitley
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text:
Screw Mach Drill, EXO, 2.7mm, 140 Deg
OSG| Zoro #: G1535624| Mfr #: 3320270
Zoro #: G1535624Mfr. Part #: 3320270
Technical Specifications
|Zoro #: G1535624 Mfr #: 3320270
|Drill Bit Point Angle: 140 Degrees
|Application: For Alloy, Carbon And Tool Steel, Aluminum, Cast Iron, Stainless Steel And Hardened Steel Up To 50 HrC
|Grade: High Performance
|Flute Type: Spiral
|Item: Screw Machine Drill Bit
|Drill Bit Grouping: Drill Bit
|Point Type: Notched Point
|Drill Bit Material: Solid Carbide
|Drill Bit Dimension Type: Metric
|Drill Bit Size: 2.70mm
|Shank Dia.: 4.00mm
|Overall Length: 62.00mm
|Decimal Equivalent: 0.1063
|Drill Bit Finish: WD1
|Flute Length: 14.00mm
|List Number: 5400
|Country of Origin (subject to change): Japan
Product Description
Screw Machine Drill, Standard, List Number 5100, Number of Pieces 1, High Performance Grade, Solid Carbide, EXO(r) Finish, Notched Point, Drill Point (Deg.) 140, Metric Size 2.70, Decimal Equivalent 0.1063, Flute Length (mm) 16, Overall Length (mm) 50, Shank Dia. (mm) 3, For Alloy, Carbon And Tool Steel, Aluminum, Cast Iron, Stainless Steel And Hardened Steel Up To 50 HrC
Restrictions and Compliance
- *2 : California Proposition 65 : This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer.