Is this it ?

Web 2.0 the Modern Day Web

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:19:31 +0000

We all know the Web 1.0 and have used it for much of our work and pleasure with ease. The modern day web is now the Web 2.0. This is not to replace the World Wide Web but instead it is to enhance it and make it even better for the users. Social Media is now top of the line giving the users a much better form of communication. Google who started out just like an encyclopedia is now much more advanced making it better for the user. We all like to have Google in our browser so that we can find information quickly.

Web 2.0 vs Web 1.0

Under the hood Web 1.0 logic was at the application server. With web 2.0 the application logic is spread across the client (browser) and server.

There are other things that the Web 2.0 provides for us that makes it even more technically advanced but using the Web 2.0 is very easy to do, allows the readers to actually interact with the Web pages more like you would with an application on your desktop, it also allows the readers to contribute to web in an easy way.

The first Web 2.0 conference was done in 2004 with O’Reilly Media and this made the popularity of Web 2.0 rise to the top. Everyone wanted to be able to conference or interact with one another. Netscape framed “the web as platform” with their flagship product the web browser. Now we use our web browsers without thought to the fact that it was just created in the recent years.

The software programs created to make Web 2.0 more users friendly is what has brought this new concept to light for the users. The Web 2.0 was not made to take the place of Web 1.0 but instead just enhance our user capability. IT Technicians all know that soon the desktop will be considered more like the “WebTop”. The Software programs are usually built upon the Web instead of the desktop now with the new Web 2.0 software programs have changed all that.

Web 2.0 does more for the end user by not only allowing them to retrieve information but they increase their abilities to interface. The user is now capable of providing data on the web page and controlling the data. Now the user is able to participate as well as gain information. This is a major step forward to future of the use of the World Wide Web. Some of the characteristics of Web 2.0 are a more openness, freedom and collective intelligence when there user participation is applied. This is viewed as important attributes for Web 2.0 end users.

Web 2.0 applications provide a rich user experience, but the parts you can’t see are just as important-and impressive. They use powerful techniques to process information intelligently and offer features based on patterns and relationships in data. Algorithms of the Intelligent Web show readers how to use the same techniques employed by household names like Google Ad Sense, Netflix, and Amazon to transform raw data into actionable information.

Web 2.0 has allowed developers creating applications that collect, analyze, and act on the massive quantities of data users leave in their wake as they use the web. Readers learn to build Netflix-style recommendation engines, and how to apply the same techniques to social-networking sites. See how click-trace analysis can result in smarter ad rotations.

With new techniques of Algorithms, developers are able to create recommendation systems, search and ranking, automatic grouping of similar objects, classification of objects, forecasting models, and autonomous agents. They also become familiar with a large number of open-source libraries and SDKs, and freely available APIs from the hottest sites on the internet, such as Facebook, Google, eBay, and Yahoo.

But there are challenges when developing applications based on web 2.0:

Due to over usage of web 2.0 capabilities’, no doubt web page becomes nicer and interactive but performance hits. Sites are overloaded with Advertisement plug-in, javascript libraries, css and images, and this leads to:

Lost revenue and reputation
Errors, Performance degradation, compatibility issues
Loss of customers: our client’s competitors are just click away
Site Abandonment: poor performance increases site abandonment risk
Slow performance may impact brand
People remember their experience when a site is slow, can make users reluctant to the site

It becomes necessary for developers and designers to test sites developed with web 2.0 technology. Developers should validate:

How long it takes to download html, via network and in the browser itself.
Browser compatibility with JS library’s being used.
Optimizing Ajax, JS, images, CSS.
Updating Old JS library with new ones for new browsers.
Not placing too many ads
Caching at CDN’s

Websites can be tested at http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/ and http://www.webpagetest.org/.

Other resources for web 2.0 development are:

http://ajaxian.com/

http://developer.yahoo.com/

http://code.google.com/

Web Algorithms & Filtering – Ethics

admin — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:42:24 +0000

Beware online “filter bubbles”

Let Your Smart Phone Work For You

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:45:02 +0000

Smartphone for Professionals

Smart phones are all about business. Or at least, they should be, but many professional business people are losing out on the increased business productivity that using a smart phone can bring. We’ve all heard the story that the computing ability of an iphone or android phone is more powerful than the technology that was used to power the Apollo rockets. But business has not tapped into the remarkable uses for the smart phone right here on earth. If you’re still staring at your smart phone in wonder and amazement, then you need to gear up so you can send your business productivity into the stratosphere.
Smart Phone Development

The constant technological development of mobile communications means that there are new applications and software being introduced on a continual basis. The iphone in particular has a slew of business applications that will save you time and money, and place your business dealings onto a global platform. Video conferencing is one of the iphone applications that means you are never out of the office. Scheduling a meeting used to have to take into consideration the availability of people to be in a certain place at a certain time. With an iphone and the video conferencing application, you need never have to cancel or re-schedule a meeting because you were snowed-in in Chicago and you need to be in New York to sign a contract.

Using the video conferencing application is one of the most basic technological developments of the iphone. You can use your iphone in a business context to manage and stream line your entire business operations. The use of CMS software and ERP software has now been introduced for iphones and android phones so that you are able to control and manage the activities of your business from a remote location. This is not about being in contact; this is about being able to be hands on all the time via your mobile phone. You need to look at your iphone as a bridge between yourself and your computer or other computerized aspects of your business. It is a business tool that is able to ensure that you remain in touch, in contact and in control of everything that is happening in your business today.

The amount of applications that you can find to enhance your smart phone is staggering. The largest platform at the present time is called Symbian which is an operating platform that has been developed by Nokia, Ericsson and Psion, which allows developers of applications for smart phones to use the platform to introduce new tools for business software and management. Android offers over 150 000 applications on their OS system. Windows7 is in the market as well, but the biggest and most efficient by far is the iphone applications available from Apple. With close to half a million paid and free apps, this mobile operator has everything you need to ensure better business productivity.

Mobile communication today is not about staying in touch. It’s about staying on top.

Why Contracting Staff is Beneficial in Today’s Workplace

admin — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:29:55 +0000

The belts have been cinched to the last notch, and it is impossible to bring on more full-time staff. Unfortunately, you still have full-time needs. Contracting staff has become an imperative for more corporations. Contracting enables a project manager to save on human resource categories—the usual cost to hire a new employee ranges in the $60K range, and also saves a company on the long-term overhead, non-billable costs of hiring a full time employee.

Contracting staff has the added benefit of pulling in a particular technical niche for the interim they are needed without retaining a skill set that you wouldn’t normally use in the course of your project work. For example, you are a WordPress shop but have a client who wants a website built using Joomla or Drupal. Do you force your web designers to quickly ramp up in a new technology? Maybe. Or you can bring on short-term staff that can build in the language requested, as well as, provide OJT for the development team that you currently employ. Many times a team can stagnate, and bringing in short term contract help will energize and revitalize a group of people who have developed possible a routine that impedes creativity or agile programming.

Great Deal

Many program and project managers will hire temporary employees to “test” their productivity or see how they fit within a group dynamic. It is easier to let go of temporary help that aren’t working out rather than a hired, full time exempt employee. It is the temporary company—or even the contractor himself who takes care of unemployment insurance.

Contracting is also beneficial for the contractor. Rather than stay bogged down in the same old type of jobs or client, they have the opportunity to refresh skills and grow a network of clients. It also allows them to call “quits” when a client or situation isn’t working out without a lot of fuss or fanfare.

If your business is in need of a short-term burst of help or even additional skills that you are deficient in, looking for contract help may be your best bet. You can look for companies that cater to a particular technical niche (open source) or companies with better rates. You may even want to hire a freelancer to work for you. Your options are limitless.

What is Systems Integration ?

admin — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:56:50 +0000

When individually tested software components are combined into an integrated whole, this is what is referred to as software systems integration. When subsystems become combined to form products, or when various components are combined to make subsystems, it means that the software has been integrated.

For clarification, it should be noted that a system is a collection of subsystems that cooperate so that the entire system can deliver greater functionality. Systems integration entails the integration of existing, sometimes disparate subsystems. These subsystems will all have interfaces. The integration process involved connecting the subsystems together by adhering their interfaces together. If the interfaces fail to connect directly, the adhesive qualities between them can provide any mappings that might be required. In other words, systems integration concerns the act of determining the required adhesive.

Systems Integration

After components are tested and implemented as in a “big bang” approach, they may be integrated. Systems integration can be thought of as a small step toward the end of integration testing and component development. There is far less risk with continuous integration.

There are a number of advantages to continuous integration over the approach taken with regular systems integration. Developers divide a produce into partial products that are capable of being integrated individually. These partial produces may be lumped into increments that are referred to as, “vertical,” as they cover subsystems. Increments are capable of crossing subsystem boundaries and, in doing so, produce a partial product. Systems integration is reoccurring in that incremental build yields results sequentially and closer to the product.

With systems integration, customers have an advantage in observing a product early in its development stages. Developers can then verify quality factors such as performance, in a work environment instead of having to rely on simulations or models. Integration that is continuous decreases the risk inherent in integrations, because the developers can identify any problems that may arise with the integration. The early problems are often the most difficult to address during early reoccurrences of software integration.

The person who is interested in becoming a systems integration engineer should have a very broad skill set that include such things as hardware engineering, software engineering, general problem solving skills and also be well-versed on the various interface protocols. The problems that may arise in systems integration may not have come up previously, other than in the broadest sense possible .Therefore, the engineer must be inventive, over all other characteristics.

Idea or Execution

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:41:37 +0000

It’s easy to say, I have got an Idea and we will implement in this or that way and will get capital from VC’s and then sell our product to one of the big giants and exit with lot of cash, etc .. but the reality is different, when the time comes for the rubber to meet the road everything starts falling. As per my understanding a great Idea is only 10 %, rest is the execution of that Idea, building a team and sharing your vision with the team, making them partners in achieving that vision is critical to success of the product development, at least it will take you to the doorsteps of the VC’s who can direct your team in achieving the success you deserve for your great IDEA.

I have got an Idea

You need guts for putting lots of time and money, being away from your loved ones, missing family events and above all being in good shape of health. Attitude of never giving up is of prime importance, and also you should be ready to let the attachment with product go, once you have that inner feeling it’s not worth and you are forcing it to work, better to rethink and pivot from one vision to the next.

Have a look at these start ups, learn from their humble beginnings and how they managed to succeed :

http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html

At HumberSys, we are always looking for start up partners who are honest and hardworking, let us know if you are interested in working together. You can visit our website www.humbersys.com for company contact details.

OPENFILER NAS SOLUTION

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:15:48 +0000

Having a centralized storage is easy to achieve in a home/ small business environment using open source software. If you want your files to be available to all computers, there are several ways to accomplish this. The easiest way is to turn on file sharing on windows environment. It’s good enough for the occasional file transfer. For mixed environments which use multiple OS such as Mac OSX and Linux this is not an option.

Here we are going to discuss making a small NAS using open source software and old PC and

Pros

· It’s Linux which means it’s robust, secure, and free.

· Reuse old PC to power and run Openfiler. It requires a 32 bit 1 GH CPU with 512 MB of RAM.

· Supports multiple network cards bonding for increased performance.

Cons

· Large footprint and possibly large power requirement compared to a small NAS in a box.

Openfiler, uses the rPath Linux distribution. The installation is 320 MB and requires a separate boot drive in addition to the storage drive. That means you must run a minimum of two hard drives at all times.

Openfiler notes:

· During installation, select a root password. This is for access to the console, not the GUI web interface of Openfiler.

· Use the auto partition, After auto partitioning, edit this partition to 100 MB and leave the rest as unallocated.

· Access the openfiler configuration setup at https://ip-of-openfiler:446 ; username openfiler and the password password

· Do not log in using the root credentials as it will not give you the required configuration options from the web interface.

Here are the steps required for adding a drive and share for a home Windows network with no login required to access NAS:

1. Change default password of ‘Openfiler’

2. Configure the system time in ‘Clock setup’ on the right side of the System tab.

3. Configure the network either manually or via DHCP.

4. Add host name or IP number of client computers under Network Access. Using IPCONFIG from a DOS window on your clients to see the ip number.

5. Since I don’t want user accounts, I skipped right over ‘Accounts’ tab. It’s best to do this initially to get things working.

6. Enable SMB/CIFS in Services

7. Create one or more volumes (use simple names with no spaces. Linux does not like spaces in folder names) Use Ext3 file system. To do this, go to the volumes tab and click create new physical volumes. Click the appropriate device under Edit Disk.

8. Create one or more shares. Make sure you give RW permissions.

How to share drives with windows users.

Open Windows File Explorer and type in https://ip-of-openfiler:446, it will display all the visible share names and you can right click on it and map a logical drive to it.

Evaluation of Database Management System (DBMS)

rajeev_kalia — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:56:47 +0000

I still remember the days of early 90 when we were studying Database Management system for the first time. We were using 286 computers where one floppy was used to run the DBMS software and other floppy was use to store the data files. With the evaluation of disk storage, computer science has done remarkable in the field of DBMS.

In the early days of computing, disk storage was extremely expensive. Most application systems ran in batch mode using data that was stored on magnetic tape. Data had to be read sequentially from flat files. As the cost of disk storage knock down, opportunities to store data for real-time access arise.

Specialized DBMS software emerged for the sole purpose of managing data. Application systems were then able to focus on the user interface, screen navigation etc. and could leave the data management tasks to the specialized DBMS technology. The application system simply had to call the DBMS when it needed to read or store data. As a result both front-end and back-end technology was able to flourish.

As the cost of data storage fell, it became feasible to store data in tables. This eliminated much data redundancy and provided much more flexible data access. Then there was the era of RDBMS and no looking back.

Web Basics

admin — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:53:18 +0000

As a programmer, we implement complex solutions with complex technology but miss some basic knowledge of web protocols.

TCP / IP is state-full and session oriented connection: TCP / IP is the most commonly used internet protocol, also called Internet Protocol Suite. When we open a Telnet session from a laptop to a Linux server, we initiate a persistent connection – the connection is persistent in that a connection between our laptop and Linux server is established at the very beginning of the telnet, and is never torn down unless the telnet session is terminated.
HTTP is stateless by design and not connection persistent – although, HTTP 1.1 protocol enhances and improves on the previous version by keeping established connections alive using Keep-alive messages – all of that is handled by our favorite web browsers under the covers.
Common HTTP response codes:

Response Codes	Description
200	Success; response header “Content-type” will elaborate on the content type mime-type (such as text/html, application/pdf etc.) Response body will contain the appropriate content
404	Resource not found; no such resource found; URL contains an invalid path value
500	Internal Server Error; request could not be understood
302	Page has been moved; response header will contain the new location of the page in a separate “Location” header
304	File not changed since; this response is sent back to a web browser when a conditional request was made by the browser in the form of “If Modified since” in the request header.

Web 2.0 Expo.

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:28:05 +0000

Recently, I had the privilege of visiting WEB 2.0 expo in SFO to understand what are the opportunity’s that lies ahead for entrepreneurs in the coming years. Here are some of my observations:

Apple is the winner, all should learn from it, whether it’s product design, UI design or Product checkouts on iPad, iTouch and iPhones, there simply is no answer (it’s like showing an Ice cream to a kid (all of us have that kid inside us)). We will see more products coming from the competitors but all the cream will be gone.
Concept of lean startups is picking and Entrepreneurs have to build their company’s on this new concept. Steve Blank, a professor at Stanford/UC/Columbia is describing in detail about the concept in his book Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Another exciting conversation was from Dave MCclure, with all abusive adjectives and verbs he uses, he just wants to explain what is WEB 2.0, it’s all about consumer / customers of your website, that’s all learn from Facebook, Youtube, etc .. no need to re-invent the wheel use their API’s. You can visit his blogs at http://500hats.typepad.com/