Oracle Buys AmberPoint To Boost Application Management And Performance Offerings
On the heels of the EU’s approval of Oracle’s $7.4 billion deal to acquire Sun Microsystems, the tech giant has opened up the purse strings to acquire application management software provider AmberPoint. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of this year.
AmberPoint’s software helps organizations diagnose and resolve issues in application performance and business transactions, such as insurance claims processing or account provisioning where multiple applications need to work together. AmberPoint’s software will be folded into Oracle’s Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) offerings.
Oracle says that the addition of AmberPoint’s software will help diagnose and manage the performance of business applications, provide monitoring for application performance and will enrich SOA design time with run-time metrics for SOA governance.
8330 Stock Precision Zen Theme
Stock Precision Zen theme works on the 8330 running 5.0.0.230.
Theme extracted from 5.0.0.238 for the 8520.
Extract the files from the zip folder and copy/replace the .alx file to the main C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\8330AMEA_v5.0.0.230_P3.5.0.30 folder with the .alx files then copy/replace the .cod file to the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\8330AMEA_v5.0.0.230_P3.5.0.30\Java folder then run loader.exe found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader and install the Precision Zen theme.
Download zip folder HERE
Why Ubuntu 9.10 – Almost Perfect
I can be a rather harsh critic.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve given a really glowing review of any Linux Distro on the Computer Action Show (previously the Linux Action Show).
In fact, I’m pretty confident most people on the Fedora team view me as the biggest-jerk-face-ever for my — let’s just say… “not overly glowing” — reviews of recent Fedora releases. And I’ve given folks on the Ubuntu team a fairly hard time over the years as well.
Keep that in mind when I state the following:
Ubuntu 9.10 is as close to perfection as any version of Linux I have ever seen.
A little background: Back in May I wrote an article titled “The Perfect Linux Distro” where I laid out what I would view as, well, the perfect Linux distro.
And, while Ubuntu 9.10 certainly doesn’t implement everything I’d dreamed of in that article, they hit some of the key points. Let’s take a few minutes and go over the good and bad.
The Good Things in Ubuntu 9.10
The Ubuntu Software Center
The new Ubuntu Software Center is (or will be) a combination of Synaptic (the current Ubuntu package manager) and an Ubuntu-specific Software Store.
At present it is merely a standard interface for installing packages from the Ubuntu repositories… with a little nicer look and feel than Synaptic.
Canonical has set the goal of developers being able to sell their own commercial software from within the Software Center by the Ubuntu 10.10 release (next year).
This is huge. Services that allow users to find and purchase software for their platform (such as Apple’s iPhone App Store) have become an almost necessity to support a thriving software ecosystem. For me, as an independent software developer focusing on Linux, this is a really big freaking deal.
Themes / Icons
I know, most of you probably don’t care what the default theme is for your OS. But, whether we want to admit it or not, the initial look and feel is critical. This is the first impression people get for a new piece of software.
In the past, let’s be honest, Ubuntu was lacking in this area. It was… orange. And brown.
Orange and brown don’t exactly scream “advanced, super-attractive, cutting-edge software”.
Well, I have to say, Ubuntu really stepped up their game in 9.10. The new default “Human” theme is a smidge darker and a lot classier than what we previously were seeing. The older, brighter, more “orange-y” Human-Clearlooks theme is still available for those nostalgic for the old days.
On top of this, the default icon set is the new “Humanity” icon design. Which look fantastic. Polished. Modern. Nice, understated gradients.
Desktop Backgrounds
I feel almost a little silly including something as simple as “Desktop Backgrounds” here. I mean, it’s just pictures, right?
Well, if you’ve been using past versions of Ubuntu, you’ll know that it has typically only shipped with a very small selection of background pictures. We’re talking like 2 or 3.
Now, in 9.10, they have a respectable collection of nature and space backgrounds that look as nice and polished as any you’d find shipping with systems from Microsoft or Apple.
The Live-CD Installer
The installer for Ubuntu 9.10 has not changed significantly. Functionally it is roughly the same as the one we have had in both Ubuntu 9.04 and 8.10.
What they have done, however, is polish things up. The installer window now fits properly on smaller Netbook screens. And they’ve added a series of pictures that show you what you can do, with various applications within Ubuntu, as the installer progresses. Other software makers have been doing this for years (with varying degrees of class)… the Ubuntu team has done this very, very well.
This is a critical piece that has been missing — as many “non-nerd” users will not know to launch something called “F-Spot” to manage their photos. Now the installer helps these users over that initial learning curve.
New Instant Messaging Client
Pidgin has been the defacto IM software for many Linux distros for years now. However, it has stalled a great deal and was feeling a big long in the tooth.
It has been replaced by Empathy (which is something I recommended back in May and am incredibly happy to see this is the route they have gone down), which looks and works great.
Built-In Ubuntu One
Ubuntu One, a service that currently offers file storage and synchronization between different Ubuntu powered computers, has been in beta since earlier this year. With Ubuntu 9.10 this service is now shipping by default.
What’s so great about this? Two things:
- It’s a great piece of functionality that both Apple and Microsoft are providing in various forms for their customers.
- It provides a critical revenue stream for Canonical. (Which is kind of an important bit… considering the system itself is 100% free of charge.)
This, to me, is a sign of maturity. And I quite like the direction this (combined with the Ubuntu Software Center) is heading.
The Things Missing In Ubuntu 9.10
Notice I didn’t say “bad things”. Because, in my opinion, the main problem with Ubuntu 9.10 is that it’s missing a few key pieces of functionality.
The Games Are Weak
There are so many great, free games that could be included in Ubuntu.
Yo Frankie, Hedgewars and Frozen Bubble all are great open source games that could give a good representation of some of the great quality of games that are available.
Sure, shipping with a simple solitaire and sudoku game is great. But let’s step it up a notch!
Video Editing
I don’t fault Ubuntu for not having a built-in audio editing suite. Sure, I might use it, but it’s not something that most people are going to need.
But video editing? Windows and OS X both have their defacto tools to let people do at least basic video editing out of the box (or, at least, semi-out of the box).
Grab PiTiVi and either include it as a default application or make it a featured application to install. The lack of video editing on Linux is often given as a reason why people don’t “switch from Windows”… so take away that reason.
Banshee
Rhythmbox is an okay music player and manager. That’s what Ubuntu ships with right now… and it does the job.
But it’s no Banshee.
Banshee is the bees-knees of music players. Make haste and get that application in there by default.
As you can see, not exactly a big list of “problems”!
Overall I’d call this release polished, smooth, easy to install and with an improved feature set (new applications that are incredibly promising).
Is it perfect? No. But so, so close.
I’d take it so far as to say I see very little reason that Ubuntu 9.10 would not be an excellent choice for the vast majority of computer users.
… Other than PC games. But that’s a different story…
Cocodle – Google Search – helping underprivileged
Filed under: Featured, General, Google, Google API, Technology News
Cocodle , powered by Google Custom Search, is an initiative towards helping underprivileged and
differently-abled children with the revenue generated through online search.
What all we are asked for is to just use the site, nothing more. With Cocodle, you will get the
same results you get in Google for any particular search, but it gives you one more
good reason to search with your favorite search engine – and that is ” helping underprivileged
and differently-abled children across the globe “.
We finally have got the chance to help these children without having to donate any
money or do any extra work.
If you think internet is one of the biggest boon to mankind, let’s share a little of it with those
children who never got to see it .
http://www.cocodle.com/
How to Install Mplayer and Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs,w64codecs) in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
Filed under: Debian, Featured, Karmic Koala, Kernal, Linux, OpenSUSE, RedHat Linux, Ubuntu
MPlayer is a movie and animation player that supports a wide range of codecs and file formats, including MPEG 1/2/4,DivX 3/4/5, Windows Media 7/8/9, RealAudio/Video up to 9, Quicktime 5/6, and Vivo 1/2. It has many MX/SSE (2)/3Dnow(Ex) optimized native audio and video codecs, but allows using XAnim’s and RealPlayer’s binary codec plugins, and Win32 codec DLLs. It has basic VCD/DVD playback functionality, including DVD subtitles, but supports many text- based subtitle formats too. For video output, nearly every existing interface is supported. It’s also able to convert any supported files to raw/divx/mpeg4 AVI (pcm/mp3 audio), and even video grabbing from V4L devices.
Install Mplayer in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
You nned to make sure you have enabled universe,multiverse repositories
Now you need to run the following command to update the source list
sudo apt-get update
Install mplayer using the following command
sudo apt-get install mplayer
or
Click on the following link
If you want to open mplayer go to Applications—>Sound&Video—> Mplayer Movie Player
Install w32 video codecs and libdvdcss2 in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
Support for WMV, RealMedia and other formats has been bundled into the w32codecs package. This package is not available from the Ubuntu repositories due to licensing and legal restrictions.To play encrypted DVDs, the libdvdcss2 package is essential.
The following command adds Medibuntu’s repository to Ubuntu. It also adds Medibuntu’s GPG key to your keyring, which is needed to authenticate the Medibuntu packages.
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list
--output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
sudo apt-get -q update
sudo apt-get
--yes -q--allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring
sudo apt-get -q update
For i386 Users install Codecs using the following command
sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2
For amd64 Users install Codecs using the following command
sudo apt-get install w64codecs libdvdcss2
Using above download locations you can install most of the mutimedia codecs for ubuntu.
Mplayer Plugin for Firefox
If you want to install Mplayer with plug-in for Mozilla Firefox run the following command
sudo apt-get install mozilla-mplayer
or click on the following link
Facebook- Flips The Switch On Its Improved Photo Uploader
It’s no secret that Facebook Photos is massively popular, with the company boasting that it receives a whopping 2.5 billion photos uploaded every month. And as the site continues to grow — it just passed 400 million users — that number is only going to get more staggering. Unfortunately, the photo uploading experience hasn’t always been smooth; you’ve to wait for the photo uploads to finish, and the entire process was just sort of clunky. Today, the company announced that it’s rolling out an improved photo upload browser plugin.
The new plugin includes a new photo navigator that should make it easy to choose the photos you want. And once you’ve started the upload process, you can browse to another page — the plugin will keep uploading the files in the background.
This plugin has actually been available for the last few months in Facebook’s Prototypes section, and has even been rolled out to a very small number of users before now. Starting today it’s getting released to everyone, though the rollout will take a few weeks. Before now Facebook has offered an upload plugin based on Active X and a Java applet, but the company says this one was built entirely in-house. One important thing to note: because this was built by Facebook, the company could potentially add more functionality in the future, including things that aren’t related to photo uploads.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to upload photos to Facebook. The functionality has been integrated into iPhoto, you can download a Picasa Uploader, and there are plenty of unofficial apps available too
workflow ||geog 483 penn state workflow, or workflow analysis||
purchasing department workflow pdf workflow engine workflow persistence … windows workflow 4 rules engines jono french workflow despatch …
Recent Changes to: opensource : del.icio.us tag/opensource : Open …
Utilities. Recent Edits · Edits for "del.icio.us tag/opensource" · Edits for Open Source Workflow Engines in Java – Zebra …
Workflow Engines | Get Job For Research and Science Application
Posts Tagged 'workflow engines' … based around a set of rules developed in the project), and the underlying workflow and backend supporting engines. …
The Smashing Book: Already Got Yours?
Filed under: Featured, Technology News, Web Doctor
Have you gotten your copy of The Smashing Book yet? If not, it may still be worth spending $29.90 for this printed book. The book shares technical tips and best practices on typography, usability, UI design, marketing and color usage. It contains interviews with high profile designers and developers. And you will also get a peek behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine. You can buy the book now, it is available and can be shipped right away! And you can also check more details about the book.
Also, in this post we are giving away 35 exclusive Smashing Book Posters (folded, limited edition), and if you want to win one, just leave a comment on this post and tell us what you would do with it! So, let’s find out who are Smashing Magazine’s biggest fans?
[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]
Bonus: New Free Chapter Of The Book
Need an appetizer? Here are two free chapters of the Smashing Book (Chapter 1 was released a couple of months ago). You can download them as a PDF:
- Chapter 1: User Interface Design in Modern Web Applications
- Chapter 7: Design To Sell — Increasing Conversion Rates
Smashing Book Around The World
Many things have been happening with and around The Smashing Book in recent weeks. You must have read or heard that it would fall apart immediately upon being opened (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). In fact, the pages loosened quickly, and the reading experience was anything but ideal (the adhesive binding was the culprit). The verdict from many users was thus: brilliant content, very poor binding. And yes, let’s face facts: we indeed did a poor job in our first attempt at offline publishing, but we are willing to learn from our experience and do it better the next time. In fact, the next time has already come.
We have thoroughly monitored the feedback and heard your complaints, which is why we have produced a Corrected Edition of the book, with stable, high-quality stitched binding. Nothing will fall apart here… guaranteed. And the price remains the same.
The release of the Smashing Book has been very exciting. We’ve seen many photos, videos and even unboxing galleries. We have even seen the books being explored by cats, pancakes, cactuses and babies!
A Word On The Shipping
We are of course not a postal service, and because we are located in Germany, we had to rely on the German postal service (Deutsche Post) to deliver the books to you. This usually works fairly well, but the first weeks in December certainly weren’t our preferred shipping time. Logistics companies were already busy with the Christmas season, and so delivery of our books went very slowly. And because we have been shipping the books worldwide, delivery times have varied significantly. No wonder it took as long as a couple of weeks for the books to be delivered, slowed down as they were by the holidays.
It’s truly astonishing what can happen to books when you ship a large number of them. There are hundreds of stories: the labels got messed up, damaged, loosened or stuck together; the book was delivered but is sitting in the apartment of a neighbor who has gone on vacation; the mail carrier delivered the book to the wrong house or misread the label; the label has a printing error; my address has changed; the book was left sitting in a delivery container; the postal service sent the book to the wrong state and is in the process of rerouting it; the book is being held up in customs. The list goes on and on. Every day we learn of a number of such cases. If you purchased your book a long while ago but still haven’t received it, please send your order details to our support team at orders@smashingmagazine.com. We’ll be in touch right away and will investigate.
Was It Worth The Wait?
Well, we can’t answer that question because we are obviously biased. But our readers and book reviewers can answer that question for us. Many book reviews are out there, sharing both positive and negative impressions. In our forum, murphyslaw has published a long, very detailed review of every chapter of the book. What do other readers say? Here are a few snippets:
“The advice is pitched at what I would call intermediate-to-advanced level. It’s aimed at web designers, doesn’t include any coding details, and focuses on notions of good practice. Elegant solutions for common problems are offered on almost every page. The book has also been written by a group of professional designers – so they know what they’re talking about.” — Roy Johnson
“The Smashing Book is a great, really great book for everybody who is interested in design and web-development. Especially the typography and learning from the experts chapters where inspirational resources to me. The content is great but I believe the layout of the pages should be as a book. Support the Smashing Magazine Book by ordering your copy and I hope SM will continue the concept of bringing the content by book.” — Sander Baumann, Designworkplan
“The book is basically all of SM’s best articles condensed into a book. This is what you’d expect, as it would be hard to top what they have on the website already. The content is very detailed, perhaps even too much in some cases, but it is like a ‘bible of web design’ covering all the things you should know.” — Lee Munroe
“I think the Smashing Book is a perfect book for web designers and developers of all levels, and I am excited that it lives up to the hype. It provides very comprehensive information that is both useful and essential for designers and developers who want to make the quailty of their websites improve.” — admixweb
“I think the book is a great buy for the price. For all you people still waiting for it to be delivered, it’s worth it!” — ThatDeadPixel
“Overall, this is a great effort from the Smashing Team and all the authors. The book features good web design theory and many practical techniques backed up by real world examples in the form of colourful screenshots. This book will not become obsolete in the short term, and should be placed in everyone’s library. Overall score: 8.5/10 – A Smashing Book!” — Hixdesign
Please note that all errors and inaccuracies are being collected in the Errata, which can be found through our Smashing List of Links (only a few errors have been found so far).
Buy The Book Now!
The Smashing Book is a printed book about best practices in modern Web design. The book shares technical tips and best practices on coding, usability and optimization and explores how to create successful user interfaces and apply marketing principles to increase conversion rates. It also shows how to get the most out of typography, color and branding so that you end up with intuitive and effective Web designs. And lastly, you will also get a peek behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine.
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