parallel | Filome sharers have read the following articles about "parallel" | www.filome.com filome.com http://www.filome.com/key/parallel You're viewing shares 1-25 of 120 total shares for the keyword parallel This is a keyword feed for "parallel" from Filome read and shared items in Google Reader. If you would like to search or subscribe to category/keyword feeds for posts that are by shared with Google Reader users visit http://filome.com. en-us Copyright for these items belong to their original publishers. No filome, google reader, shared items, community knowledge organizer This is the keyword feed for "parallel" from my read items in Google Reader. This is the keyword feed for "parallel" from my read items in Google Reader. http://www.filome.com/images/feed_image.jpg parallel | Filome sharers have read the following articles about "parallel" | www.filome.com http://www.filome.com/key/parallel This is a keyword feed for "parallel" from Filome read and shared items in Google Reader. If you would like to search or subscribe to category/keyword feeds for posts that are by shared with Google Reader users visit http://filome.com. http://www.filome.com filome beta The value of naming things http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkNeedham/~3/dfDa9pBYzsw/ Shared item Mark Needham
First shared by - robdiana
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Nikhil and I were discussing some of the ideas around Test Driven Development earlier in the week and at one stage I pointed out that I quite liked Bryan Liles' idea of 'make it pass or change the message'.

Bryan suggests that when we have a failing test our next step should be to make that test pass or at least write some code which results in us getting a different error message and hopefully one step closer to making the test pass.

As I described this to Nikhil he pointed out that this is probably what most people are doing anyway and now the technique just has a name.

I think this is probably a fair assessment but then again I find it very useful when people give a name to common techniques/patterns as it makes them much easier to talk about without having to fill in a whole load of context.

For example Joshua Kerievsky has come up with some names to describe incremental refactoring techniques such as parallel change and narrowed change.

Parallel change describes a technique where we want to change a method signature but don't want to break all the clients of that method by directly changing it.

Instead we create the new method alongside the current one and gradually move the clients to call the new one instead. When they've all moved we can delete the original method.

Narrowed change describes a technique where we try to reduce the number of places where we have to make the change we want to make.

It's much easier to use the vocabulary that Kerievsky has come up with than to have to describe the techniques each time!

However I do think it is possible to go too far with naming things to the point that there are actually so many names that it's incredibly difficult to remember them all.

xUnit Patterns seems like an example of this to me.

There are an incredible number of patterns described in that book and while they do all describe slightly different scenarios I'm not necessarily convinced that having this many different patterns makes our discussions easier.

Overall though I think having names for common patterns in software development is a good thing and it does add value even though it seems like we've just 'given something a name'.



change patterns test method pass change patterns method test change describes narrowed change parallel change test pass ]]>Mark Needham
First shared by - robdiana
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Nikhil and I were discussing some of the ideas around Test Driven Development earlier in the week and at one stage I pointed out that I quite liked Bryan Liles' idea of 'make it pass or change the message'.

Bryan suggests that when we have a failing test our next step should be to make that test pass or at least write some code which results in us getting a different error message and hopefully one step closer to making the test pass.

As I described this to Nikhil he pointed out that this is probably what most people are doing anyway and now the technique just has a name.

I think this is probably a fair assessment but then again I find it very useful when people give a name to common techniques/patterns as it makes them much easier to talk about without having to fill in a whole load of context.

For example Joshua Kerievsky has come up with some names to describe incremental refactoring techniques such as parallel change and narrowed change.

Parallel change describes a technique where we want to change a method signature but don't want to break all the clients of that method by directly changing it.

Instead we create the new method alongside the current one and gradually move the clients to call the new one instead. When they've all moved we can delete the original method.

Narrowed change describes a technique where we try to reduce the number of places where we have to make the change we want to make.

It's much easier to use the vocabulary that Kerievsky has come up with than to have to describe the techniques each time!

However I do think it is possible to go too far with naming things to the point that there are actually so many names that it's incredibly difficult to remember them all.

xUnit Patterns seems like an example of this to me.

There are an incredible number of patterns described in that book and while they do all describe slightly different scenarios I'm not necessarily convinced that having this many different patterns makes our discussions easier.

Overall though I think having names for common patterns in software development is a good thing and it does add value even though it seems like we've just 'given something a name'.



change patterns test method pass change patterns method test change describes narrowed change parallel change test pass ]]> Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:55:24 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,1 In Russia, startups need angels, not bodyguards and now they may get them http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/ih-nRPCLxAM/ Shared item VentureBeat
First shared by - Avi
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Several proven Russian entrepreneurs have formed what looks to be the first promising seed-stage venture capital firm in Russia, called Runa Capital.

This is a significant development for the country, even if the sums involved are relatively small: The firm announced this week it has already raised $30 million and plans to raise more. The news is encouraging because the fund will provide the advice traditional angel investors in Silicon Valley have provided over the years: like how to rent an office, who to hire, and how to pay them.

Last month, I wrote that if you're hoping to invest in Russia, you may want to hire a bodyguard and lay low. Russia's lack of a rule of law and scant experience with capitalism has tragically set it behind many other countries.

But I also wrote that things are changing for the good, albeit gradually: The Russian government is slowly tackling corruption and thuggery; it's investing in high-tech startups may start to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil; and President Dmitry Medvedev is encouraging moves to bolster the legal system and business culture that could spark revival in all other parts of its economy and society.

Russia's size and wealth in both natural and human resources holds huge potential for investors. Right now, though, many sorts of businesses are vulnerable to shakedowns. While things have gotten more secure recently, hiring bodyguards to keep executives secure has been common in the past. But when angels wealthy, independent individuals with an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship start providing a different kind of protection, Russia could become very interesting very quickly.

Runa's launch comes amidst another important change. This week, Russia announced it would sell start selling off more state property, in what is reportedly the largest privatization program there since the post-Communist sell-off in the 1990s. The government will sell minority stakes in 11 companies, from its national oil company, to state banks, and a company controlling hydroelectric dams. It's not a tech boom by any means, but it will reverse the wave of nationalization over the past decade. More important, because new investors typically demand accountability in return for their investment, they'll bring more transparency to these companies. This, in turn, will reduce corruption something both U.S. and other investors have been lobbying for.

In my piece last month, I wrote it would take years for Russia to become interesting for outside investors. However, if they move carefully, laying down roots now may actually be smart for those with high tolerance for risk. Venture investments typically take years to nurture anyway. We're seeing that now in China, for example, where IDG's Patrick McGovern is reaping the benefits of that country's growth, after about three decades of patient investing.

There are other signs that Russians are starting to protest endemic corruption. Take the brave police officer Aleksei Dymovsky who stunned the country when he posted two videos on YouTube appealing to Russia's prime minister Putin about the rampant corruption in the police force, and begged him to explain what he was doing to stop it. The videos, uploaded in November, have been viewed millions of times. Of course, he was fired from his job, and thrown in jail, and continues to be harassed with relative impunity, the New York Times reported in a story this week about Dymovsky. Questions do remain about Dymovsky's character and motives, and there's clearly been no mass uprising against police. But he's since been joined by a handful of others calling for drastic reform, including a politician within Putin's party, Andrei Makarov.

What do these bigger trends have to do with small fry like Runa? There are a few early-stage venture funds in Russia, but most of them are run by investors with little experience. There's also Troika, a venture effort led mainly by one individual within a much larger investment banking operation. The emergence of firms like Runa is a crucial bolstering of Russia's move to an entrepreneur-oriented economy.

The fund is led by credible folks like Serguei Beloussov, founder and chairman of Parallels, the early virtualization company and one of only 10 or so homegrown Russian tech companies whose annual revenues have exceeded $100 million. He's joined by Alexander Galitsky, one of the earliest venture capitalists in Russia, and a founder of Almaz Capital, arguably the most credible early- to mid-stage venture firm there.

The fund will focus on software and Internet companies, and also focus on specific areas like cloud computing, machine learning, virtualization, and mobile. Runcap will limit its investments to $1.5 million into each company, and will invest mainly in pre-revenue companies or even ones that haven't formed their teams yet. It will invest in Russia and neighboring Ukraine.

I interviewed both Beloussov and Galitsky during my visit to Russia two months ago. They both seem to be in the business for the right reasons: They love entrepreneurship, and they're also realistic. While the overall return on investment in percentage terms can be high in early stage investing, it almost always yields smaller overall returns in absolute dollars than does later stage investing. Beloussov says he's ok with that, saying it is more fun. The later stage you invest in, the more money you make, but the less fun it is, he said.

Beloussov also says Russia is a much safer place than I depicted it in my original piece. High-tech, web-oriented businesses, the kind he invests in, are largely virtual. Without big physical infrastructure for corrupt fire departments to inspect, they can often escape the scrutiny of graft-minded officials. But another reason is because these businesses are puny compared to Russia's trillion-dollar oil and gas businesses. Hermitage Capital, an investor in the energy sector, now operates outside of Russia. In 2008, it claimed it was the victim of a $367 million fraud. The company continues to release new facts based in its own investigation. Despite the melodramatic tone of these recently released videos they're worth watching.

So yes, while you may need to hire a bodyguard to invest in some traditional, money-soaked sectors like oil and gas, you don't actually have to hire security to invest in technology startups. You do, however, need some lawyers. And that brings us to the real challenge for firms like Runa.

According to Runa's Beloussov, it's not corruption that stands in the way of Russian startup success as much as other Russian weaknesses. For example, his firm wants to help the Russian startups think globally early on, because Russians have tended to be slow on that front. Runa is seeking to work with other venture firms, including in the US, to join Runa in investments, to compensate for the relative lack of venture capital there. Investing in early-stage Russian companies has been extremely difficult for US firms. It entails several hundred thousand dollars in transaction costs, and that's on top of the already risky proposition of investing in a pre-revenue project. Traveling to Russia requires getting a visa. The legal and business framework in Russia can be daunting for foreign investors doing due diligence on companies, and hiring international lawyers is a must.

The firm is also seeking to build a business incubator called Runapark, where companies can grow, get mentorship and network all in the same place though Runa is still discussing ways to finance that project with its limited partners. Such an incubator is important because even basic things like renting office space are hard to do in Russia. And because Russian entrepreneurs are largely first-timers and have few role models in business in general, they need more help to sort through Russia's bureaucracy.

The fund is also considering investing in start-up efforts that get backing from Russian government's ambitious Skolkovo project, the multi-billion dollar plan to create a Silicon Valley-like high technology incubator city on the edge of Moscow.

Runa Capital's venture partners, who will help the firm source its deals, also include Andreas Gauger and Achim Weiss, co-founders of 1&1, a major hosting provider based in Germany, Ilya Zubarev, who was co-founder together with Beloussov of another company, Acronis, and Igor Borovikov, founder of the largest Russian software distributors Softline, which does about $400 million in revenue.

[Photo credit: Downtown Pictures, Flickr]

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russia runa russian venture companies russia runa russian venture companies capital investors investing beloussov stage invest firm company business million corruption founder firms businesses hire startups need fund tech start early stage venture capital runa capital stage venture stage investing later stage pre revenue russian government silicon valley russian entrepreneurs serguei beloussov ]]>VentureBeat
First shared by - Avi
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Several proven Russian entrepreneurs have formed what looks to be the first promising seed-stage venture capital firm in Russia, called Runa Capital.

This is a significant development for the country, even if the sums involved are relatively small: The firm announced this week it has already raised $30 million and plans to raise more. The news is encouraging because the fund will provide the advice traditional angel investors in Silicon Valley have provided over the years: like how to rent an office, who to hire, and how to pay them.

Last month, I wrote that if you're hoping to invest in Russia, you may want to hire a bodyguard and lay low. Russia's lack of a rule of law and scant experience with capitalism has tragically set it behind many other countries.

But I also wrote that things are changing for the good, albeit gradually: The Russian government is slowly tackling corruption and thuggery; it's investing in high-tech startups may start to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil; and President Dmitry Medvedev is encouraging moves to bolster the legal system and business culture that could spark revival in all other parts of its economy and society.

Russia's size and wealth in both natural and human resources holds huge potential for investors. Right now, though, many sorts of businesses are vulnerable to shakedowns. While things have gotten more secure recently, hiring bodyguards to keep executives secure has been common in the past. But when angels wealthy, independent individuals with an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship start providing a different kind of protection, Russia could become very interesting very quickly.

Runa's launch comes amidst another important change. This week, Russia announced it would sell start selling off more state property, in what is reportedly the largest privatization program there since the post-Communist sell-off in the 1990s. The government will sell minority stakes in 11 companies, from its national oil company, to state banks, and a company controlling hydroelectric dams. It's not a tech boom by any means, but it will reverse the wave of nationalization over the past decade. More important, because new investors typically demand accountability in return for their investment, they'll bring more transparency to these companies. This, in turn, will reduce corruption something both U.S. and other investors have been lobbying for.

In my piece last month, I wrote it would take years for Russia to become interesting for outside investors. However, if they move carefully, laying down roots now may actually be smart for those with high tolerance for risk. Venture investments typically take years to nurture anyway. We're seeing that now in China, for example, where IDG's Patrick McGovern is reaping the benefits of that country's growth, after about three decades of patient investing.

There are other signs that Russians are starting to protest endemic corruption. Take the brave police officer Aleksei Dymovsky who stunned the country when he posted two videos on YouTube appealing to Russia's prime minister Putin about the rampant corruption in the police force, and begged him to explain what he was doing to stop it. The videos, uploaded in November, have been viewed millions of times. Of course, he was fired from his job, and thrown in jail, and continues to be harassed with relative impunity, the New York Times reported in a story this week about Dymovsky. Questions do remain about Dymovsky's character and motives, and there's clearly been no mass uprising against police. But he's since been joined by a handful of others calling for drastic reform, including a politician within Putin's party, Andrei Makarov.

What do these bigger trends have to do with small fry like Runa? There are a few early-stage venture funds in Russia, but most of them are run by investors with little experience. There's also Troika, a venture effort led mainly by one individual within a much larger investment banking operation. The emergence of firms like Runa is a crucial bolstering of Russia's move to an entrepreneur-oriented economy.

The fund is led by credible folks like Serguei Beloussov, founder and chairman of Parallels, the early virtualization company and one of only 10 or so homegrown Russian tech companies whose annual revenues have exceeded $100 million. He's joined by Alexander Galitsky, one of the earliest venture capitalists in Russia, and a founder of Almaz Capital, arguably the most credible early- to mid-stage venture firm there.

The fund will focus on software and Internet companies, and also focus on specific areas like cloud computing, machine learning, virtualization, and mobile. Runcap will limit its investments to $1.5 million into each company, and will invest mainly in pre-revenue companies or even ones that haven't formed their teams yet. It will invest in Russia and neighboring Ukraine.

I interviewed both Beloussov and Galitsky during my visit to Russia two months ago. They both seem to be in the business for the right reasons: They love entrepreneurship, and they're also realistic. While the overall return on investment in percentage terms can be high in early stage investing, it almost always yields smaller overall returns in absolute dollars than does later stage investing. Beloussov says he's ok with that, saying it is more fun. The later stage you invest in, the more money you make, but the less fun it is, he said.

Beloussov also says Russia is a much safer place than I depicted it in my original piece. High-tech, web-oriented businesses, the kind he invests in, are largely virtual. Without big physical infrastructure for corrupt fire departments to inspect, they can often escape the scrutiny of graft-minded officials. But another reason is because these businesses are puny compared to Russia's trillion-dollar oil and gas businesses. Hermitage Capital, an investor in the energy sector, now operates outside of Russia. In 2008, it claimed it was the victim of a $367 million fraud. The company continues to release new facts based in its own investigation. Despite the melodramatic tone of these recently released videos they're worth watching.

So yes, while you may need to hire a bodyguard to invest in some traditional, money-soaked sectors like oil and gas, you don't actually have to hire security to invest in technology startups. You do, however, need some lawyers. And that brings us to the real challenge for firms like Runa.

According to Runa's Beloussov, it's not corruption that stands in the way of Russian startup success as much as other Russian weaknesses. For example, his firm wants to help the Russian startups think globally early on, because Russians have tended to be slow on that front. Runa is seeking to work with other venture firms, including in the US, to join Runa in investments, to compensate for the relative lack of venture capital there. Investing in early-stage Russian companies has been extremely difficult for US firms. It entails several hundred thousand dollars in transaction costs, and that's on top of the already risky proposition of investing in a pre-revenue project. Traveling to Russia requires getting a visa. The legal and business framework in Russia can be daunting for foreign investors doing due diligence on companies, and hiring international lawyers is a must.

The firm is also seeking to build a business incubator called Runapark, where companies can grow, get mentorship and network all in the same place though Runa is still discussing ways to finance that project with its limited partners. Such an incubator is important because even basic things like renting office space are hard to do in Russia. And because Russian entrepreneurs are largely first-timers and have few role models in business in general, they need more help to sort through Russia's bureaucracy.

The fund is also considering investing in start-up efforts that get backing from Russian government's ambitious Skolkovo project, the multi-billion dollar plan to create a Silicon Valley-like high technology incubator city on the edge of Moscow.

Runa Capital's venture partners, who will help the firm source its deals, also include Andreas Gauger and Achim Weiss, co-founders of 1&1, a major hosting provider based in Germany, Ilya Zubarev, who was co-founder together with Beloussov of another company, Acronis, and Igor Borovikov, founder of the largest Russian software distributors Softline, which does about $400 million in revenue.

[Photo credit: Downtown Pictures, Flickr]

Tags: , ,

Companies: ,

People:






russia runa russian venture companies russia runa russian venture companies capital investors investing beloussov stage invest firm company business million corruption founder firms businesses hire startups need fund tech start early stage venture capital runa capital stage venture stage investing later stage pre revenue russian government silicon valley russian entrepreneurs serguei beloussov ]]> Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:55:31 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,2 Strange Loop 2010! http://tech.puredanger.com/2010/07/27/strange-loop-2010-2/ Shared item Pure Danger Tech
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I have released the full schedule for Strange Loop 2010 and it is (in my humble opinion) a truly mind-blowing set of talks and speakers.

Check out these keynotes:

  • Guy Steele (Oracle) How to Think about Parallel Programming: Not!
  • Douglas Crockford (Yahoo) Heresy and Heretical Open Source: A Heretic's Perspective
  • Billy Newport (IBM) Enterprise NoSQL: Silver Bullet or Poison Pill?
  • Hilary Mason (bit.ly) Machine Learning: A Love Story

Like language stuff? There are seven talks about Clojure! Four talks about Scala! Five talks about Groovy! A Java Puzzlers talk starring Josh Bloch (author of Effective Java) and Crazy Bob Lee! Other talks about Ruby, Perl 6, Lua, and Go!

Rethinking that old relational database? Check out some NOSQL talks about MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop, Riak, HyperGraphDB, Mark Logic.

Working on the web? Check out talks on JavaScript, jQuery, HTML 5, semantic web, RDFa, microformats, and node.js. Or talks about cloud infrastructure dev ops with Chef or Puppet, deployment with jclouds, and using EC2 for testing.

Maybe making mobile apps? Check out talks on Android, mobile HTML 5, background processing, or a case study in how Square built its Android application.

Interested in how to scale your app? Check out talks from developers at Twitter, eBay, Flickr, Flightcaster, and BackType. Or learn how to build distributed apps with Terracotta, Akka, Conduit, or Google App Engine.

There is also a party featuring the enigmatic Strange Passions track. The Strange Passions track features talks given by attendees on non-technical topics. The 2009 sessions included talks on astronomy, neurons, options trading, building houses in Mexico, and more. The winner receives a genuine Klein Bottle!

You can register for Strange Loop right now! The early bird price is just $150 (what?! that's crazy low) until August 6th, so don't miss out.



talks strange check loop crazy talks check strange strange loop passions track loop 2010 strange passions strange passions track strange loop 2010 ]]>Pure Danger Tech
First shared by - robdiana
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I have released the full schedule for Strange Loop 2010 and it is (in my humble opinion) a truly mind-blowing set of talks and speakers.

Check out these keynotes:

  • Guy Steele (Oracle) How to Think about Parallel Programming: Not!
  • Douglas Crockford (Yahoo) Heresy and Heretical Open Source: A Heretic's Perspective
  • Billy Newport (IBM) Enterprise NoSQL: Silver Bullet or Poison Pill?
  • Hilary Mason (bit.ly) Machine Learning: A Love Story

Like language stuff? There are seven talks about Clojure! Four talks about Scala! Five talks about Groovy! A Java Puzzlers talk starring Josh Bloch (author of Effective Java) and Crazy Bob Lee! Other talks about Ruby, Perl 6, Lua, and Go!

Rethinking that old relational database? Check out some NOSQL talks about MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop, Riak, HyperGraphDB, Mark Logic.

Working on the web? Check out talks on JavaScript, jQuery, HTML 5, semantic web, RDFa, microformats, and node.js. Or talks about cloud infrastructure dev ops with Chef or Puppet, deployment with jclouds, and using EC2 for testing.

Maybe making mobile apps? Check out talks on Android, mobile HTML 5, background processing, or a case study in how Square built its Android application.

Interested in how to scale your app? Check out talks from developers at Twitter, eBay, Flickr, Flightcaster, and BackType. Or learn how to build distributed apps with Terracotta, Akka, Conduit, or Google App Engine.

There is also a party featuring the enigmatic Strange Passions track. The Strange Passions track features talks given by attendees on non-technical topics. The 2009 sessions included talks on astronomy, neurons, options trading, building houses in Mexico, and more. The winner receives a genuine Klein Bottle!

You can register for Strange Loop right now! The early bird price is just $150 (what?! that's crazy low) until August 6th, so don't miss out.



talks strange check loop crazy talks check strange strange loop passions track loop 2010 strange passions strange passions track strange loop 2010 ]]> Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:35:25 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,3 Top 50 Free Open Source Classes on Computer Science http://www.mastersincomputerscience.net/top-50-free-open-source-classes-on-computer-science.html Shared item Comtechtor
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Computer science is an interesting field to go into. There are a number of opportunities in computer science that you can take advantage of. With computers increasingly becoming a regular part of life, those who can work with computers have good opportunities. You can find a good salary with a program in computer science, and as long as you are careful to keep up your skills. Here are 50 free opencourseware classes that can help you learn more about computer science:

Introduction to Computer Science

Learn the basics of computer science, and get a foundation in how computer science works.

  1. Introduction to Computer Science: Learn about the history of computing, as well as the development of computer languages. A great basic course on introductory computer science.
  2. Introduction to Computer Science and Programming: A series of video lectures from MIT about computer science, and the basics of programming.
  3. Introduction to Computers: UC Berkeley offers a course on the basics of computing and science.
  4. Artificial Intelligence: Learn about the basics of artificial intelligence and how it has been developed for computer applications.
  5. Breadth Topics in Computing Science: This class from Capilano University offers a wide view of computer science. Learn about design, programming and more for different opportunities in computer science.
  6. The Anthropology of Computing: This MIT course offers an interesting look into the development of computers and their impact on human society.
  7. Human Computer Interaction: Basic information on how humans interact with computers, and how to better design usability, from the University of Washington.

Comprehensive Computer Science Collections

If you are interested in courses that are a little more comprehensive in nature, you can get a good feel for computer science from the following collections:

  1. Computer and Computer Systems: An overall view of computers and how they are organized into systems.
  2. Science and Technology: Connexions, from Rice University, offers a comprehensive course on different types of computer science.
  3. Information and Technology: Many of the courses offered by the University of Tokyo include English translations, so you can get a good grasp of information and technology.
  4. Electrical and Computer Engineering: Choose from a variety of courses that can give you a good grasp of the principles behind computer engineering.
  5. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Learn about electrical engineering and computer science can be combined to create amazing technology.
  6. Science and Technology: Choose from a variety of courses on technology and computers, as well as science, from OER Commons.

Programming and Languages

Get a handle on computer programming, and learn about different computer languages used in programming.

  1. Building Programming Experience: Helpful hints for building up your programming capabilities.
  2. Computer Language Engineering: Overview of how computer languages are developed, and how to program them.
  3. Programming Languages: Provides a basic overview of programming languages, offering special insight into Scheme +.
  4. AJAX: Land of Code offers this tutorial related to programming with AJAX.
  5. C Programming: The University of Strathclyde provides this course on using the C programming language.
  6. Fundamentals of C++: This course is offered at free-ed.net, and provides insight and helpful hints on programming with C++.
  7. Java Programming: This course is written by a computer science professor at Orange Coast College, and is provided through the Sofia Open Content Initiative.
  8. Perl Lessons: Learn about Perl, and how to use it, especially with CGI.
  9. PHP Tutorial for Beginners: Get an overview of PHP, and how it can be used in a variety of circumstances.
  10. Ruby Programming: Learn about Ruby, and learn how to use it for your projects.

Computer Software

Learn about software development, and the importance of software in computer programming.

  1. Designing the user interface: This software design course from The Open University helps you learn the principles of usability.
  2. Modelling object-oriented software: Learn about object-oriented software, and how it can be used to structure systems.
  3. Software development for enterprise systems: An overview of how to design software meant for business.
  4. Software Engineering for Web Applications: Learn about how to design software for web apps.
  5. Elements of Software Construction: MIT takes you through the basics of constructing software.
  6. Software Engineering Concepts: Learn the fundamental concepts behind engineering and developing software.

Computer Systems and Information Technology

Learn how to construct computer systems, and get the basic outlines of information technology.

  1. Systems Design and Administration: Learn how to design and administer computer systems from Dixie State College.
  2. Applied Parallel Computing: Learn about how you can use parallel computing systems.
  3. Machine Structures: UC Berkeley offers a course on the structure of computers, and how they can interact in systems.
  4. Operating Systems and System Programming: Get a handle on operating systems, how they work, and how to program them properly.
  5. Information Technology and the Labor Market: Learn about IT, the demand for it, and how IT is reshaping the way things are done.
  6. Global Issues in Information Technology: Weber State University introduces different issues in IT.
  7. Finding information in information technology and computing: An overview of how information is arranged, and how to look for what you need.

Computer Processes and Data

Learn more about computer processing and data management.

  1. An introduction to data and information: The Open University offers a helpful course on data and how it works in a computer environment.
  2. The database development life cycle: A basic overview of how data development takes place.
  3. Introduction to Algorithms: Algorithms are necessary for processing information. This MIT course introduces you to them.
  4. Introduction to Communication, Control, and Signal Processing: Learn how computers process information and data.
  5. Data Structures: Learn how data is structured, and how you can create your own structures.
  6. Data and processes in computing: Follow data and processes development as part of computer science.
  7. Representing and manipulating data in computers: A course in how you can use data for specific purposes.

Web Development

Part of computer science is being able to develop programs, applications and systems for the Internet.

  1. Understanding Computers and the Internet: A look at computers and their importance to the Internet.
  2. Digital Typography: Get an understanding of how to design typography for the Internet.
  3. Information Visualization: Learn how to visualize information, and present it in a way that others can relate to.
  4. User Interface Design and Implementation: A course from MIT about how you can design a usable interface, and implement it.
  5. Communicating in Cyberspace: Learn how to communicate effectively using computers.
  6. Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business: Get a handle on how search engines work, and how important they have become to society and to business.
  7. Communications and Information Policy: Learn about different policies involved with communicating online.


computer science learn programming information computer science learn programming information software computers course systems technology data design engineering university development computing introduction offers overview languages basics different basic internet open courses computer science information technology science learn computer systems university offers computer languages search engines object oriented open university user interface oriented software software engineering parallel computing software development operating systems design software programming languages mit course artificial intelligence berkeley offers science introduction computer engineering electrical engineering basic overview helpful hints computer programming software learn computer science learn object oriented software computer science introduction ]]>Comtechtor
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Computer science is an interesting field to go into. There are a number of opportunities in computer science that you can take advantage of. With computers increasingly becoming a regular part of life, those who can work with computers have good opportunities. You can find a good salary with a program in computer science, and as long as you are careful to keep up your skills. Here are 50 free opencourseware classes that can help you learn more about computer science:

Introduction to Computer Science

Learn the basics of computer science, and get a foundation in how computer science works.

  1. Introduction to Computer Science: Learn about the history of computing, as well as the development of computer languages. A great basic course on introductory computer science.
  2. Introduction to Computer Science and Programming: A series of video lectures from MIT about computer science, and the basics of programming.
  3. Introduction to Computers: UC Berkeley offers a course on the basics of computing and science.
  4. Artificial Intelligence: Learn about the basics of artificial intelligence and how it has been developed for computer applications.
  5. Breadth Topics in Computing Science: This class from Capilano University offers a wide view of computer science. Learn about design, programming and more for different opportunities in computer science.
  6. The Anthropology of Computing: This MIT course offers an interesting look into the development of computers and their impact on human society.
  7. Human Computer Interaction: Basic information on how humans interact with computers, and how to better design usability, from the University of Washington.

Comprehensive Computer Science Collections

If you are interested in courses that are a little more comprehensive in nature, you can get a good feel for computer science from the following collections:

  1. Computer and Computer Systems: An overall view of computers and how they are organized into systems.
  2. Science and Technology: Connexions, from Rice University, offers a comprehensive course on different types of computer science.
  3. Information and Technology: Many of the courses offered by the University of Tokyo include English translations, so you can get a good grasp of information and technology.
  4. Electrical and Computer Engineering: Choose from a variety of courses that can give you a good grasp of the principles behind computer engineering.
  5. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Learn about electrical engineering and computer science can be combined to create amazing technology.
  6. Science and Technology: Choose from a variety of courses on technology and computers, as well as science, from OER Commons.

Programming and Languages

Get a handle on computer programming, and learn about different computer languages used in programming.

  1. Building Programming Experience: Helpful hints for building up your programming capabilities.
  2. Computer Language Engineering: Overview of how computer languages are developed, and how to program them.
  3. Programming Languages: Provides a basic overview of programming languages, offering special insight into Scheme +.
  4. AJAX: Land of Code offers this tutorial related to programming with AJAX.
  5. C Programming: The University of Strathclyde provides this course on using the C programming language.
  6. Fundamentals of C++: This course is offered at free-ed.net, and provides insight and helpful hints on programming with C++.
  7. Java Programming: This course is written by a computer science professor at Orange Coast College, and is provided through the Sofia Open Content Initiative.
  8. Perl Lessons: Learn about Perl, and how to use it, especially with CGI.
  9. PHP Tutorial for Beginners: Get an overview of PHP, and how it can be used in a variety of circumstances.
  10. Ruby Programming: Learn about Ruby, and learn how to use it for your projects.

Computer Software

Learn about software development, and the importance of software in computer programming.

  1. Designing the user interface: This software design course from The Open University helps you learn the principles of usability.
  2. Modelling object-oriented software: Learn about object-oriented software, and how it can be used to structure systems.
  3. Software development for enterprise systems: An overview of how to design software meant for business.
  4. Software Engineering for Web Applications: Learn about how to design software for web apps.
  5. Elements of Software Construction: MIT takes you through the basics of constructing software.
  6. Software Engineering Concepts: Learn the fundamental concepts behind engineering and developing software.

Computer Systems and Information Technology

Learn how to construct computer systems, and get the basic outlines of information technology.

  1. Systems Design and Administration: Learn how to design and administer computer systems from Dixie State College.
  2. Applied Parallel Computing: Learn about how you can use parallel computing systems.
  3. Machine Structures: UC Berkeley offers a course on the structure of computers, and how they can interact in systems.
  4. Operating Systems and System Programming: Get a handle on operating systems, how they work, and how to program them properly.
  5. Information Technology and the Labor Market: Learn about IT, the demand for it, and how IT is reshaping the way things are done.
  6. Global Issues in Information Technology: Weber State University introduces different issues in IT.
  7. Finding information in information technology and computing: An overview of how information is arranged, and how to look for what you need.

Computer Processes and Data

Learn more about computer processing and data management.

  1. An introduction to data and information: The Open University offers a helpful course on data and how it works in a computer environment.
  2. The database development life cycle: A basic overview of how data development takes place.
  3. Introduction to Algorithms: Algorithms are necessary for processing information. This MIT course introduces you to them.
  4. Introduction to Communication, Control, and Signal Processing: Learn how computers process information and data.
  5. Data Structures: Learn how data is structured, and how you can create your own structures.
  6. Data and processes in computing: Follow data and processes development as part of computer science.
  7. Representing and manipulating data in computers: A course in how you can use data for specific purposes.

Web Development

Part of computer science is being able to develop programs, applications and systems for the Internet.

  1. Understanding Computers and the Internet: A look at computers and their importance to the Internet.
  2. Digital Typography: Get an understanding of how to design typography for the Internet.
  3. Information Visualization: Learn how to visualize information, and present it in a way that others can relate to.
  4. User Interface Design and Implementation: A course from MIT about how you can design a usable interface, and implement it.
  5. Communicating in Cyberspace: Learn how to communicate effectively using computers.
  6. Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business: Get a handle on how search engines work, and how important they have become to society and to business.
  7. Communications and Information Policy: Learn about different policies involved with communicating online.


computer science learn programming information computer science learn programming information software computers course systems technology data design engineering university development computing introduction offers overview languages basics different basic internet open courses computer science information technology science learn computer systems university offers computer languages search engines object oriented open university user interface oriented software software engineering parallel computing software development operating systems design software programming languages mit course artificial intelligence berkeley offers science introduction computer engineering electrical engineering basic overview helpful hints computer programming software learn computer science learn object oriented software computer science introduction ]]> Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:10:37 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,4 gebhard sengmuller: parallel image http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/10810/gebhard-sengmuller-parallel-image.html Shared item Designboom - Weblog
First shared by - Mariela
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'parallel image'


the technology of transmitting images with electricity was first introduced by
french engineer maurice leblanc in 1880. now austrian artist gebhard sengmller
has collaborated with franz buchinger to create an installation project called 'a parallel image'.
it features 2500 copper wires which connect photo-conductors to small light-bulbs, transmitting
real-time images in the same way that an electronic 'camera obscura' does.





this interactive sculpture is based on the fictive assumption that the principle of electronically transmitting moving images, namely by breaking them down into single images and image lines,
was never discovered. the result is an apparatus that attempts a parallel transmission of every
single pixel from sender to receiver. this is only possible by connecting camera and monitor
using about 2,500 cables.




demonstration of 'a parallel image'



projected 'betty boop' video transmitted via wires in real time


gebhard sengmller is currently featured in the international bi-monthly graphic design
publication IdN as part of the 'retro graphics' issue which looks at the creative
counter-revolution against the 'perfection' of modern technology.








detail







copper wires



copper wires








photo resistors



photo resistors



screen of small light bulbs



screen of small light bulbs



switches



switches



copper wires




sketches of wires




schematics of 'a parallel image'


parallel wires image copper images parallel image wires images copper parallel image copper wires light bulbs small light photo resistors gebhard sengmller small light bulbs ]]>Designboom - Weblog
First shared by - Mariela
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1


'parallel image'


the technology of transmitting images with electricity was first introduced by
french engineer maurice leblanc in 1880. now austrian artist gebhard sengmller
has collaborated with franz buchinger to create an installation project called 'a parallel image'.
it features 2500 copper wires which connect photo-conductors to small light-bulbs, transmitting
real-time images in the same way that an electronic 'camera obscura' does.





this interactive sculpture is based on the fictive assumption that the principle of electronically transmitting moving images, namely by breaking them down into single images and image lines,
was never discovered. the result is an apparatus that attempts a parallel transmission of every
single pixel from sender to receiver. this is only possible by connecting camera and monitor
using about 2,500 cables.




demonstration of 'a parallel image'



projected 'betty boop' video transmitted via wires in real time


gebhard sengmller is currently featured in the international bi-monthly graphic design
publication IdN as part of the 'retro graphics' issue which looks at the creative
counter-revolution against the 'perfection' of modern technology.








detail







copper wires



copper wires








photo resistors



photo resistors



screen of small light bulbs



screen of small light bulbs



switches



switches



copper wires




sketches of wires




schematics of 'a parallel image'


parallel wires image copper images parallel image wires images copper parallel image copper wires light bulbs small light photo resistors gebhard sengmller small light bulbs ]]> Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:50:34 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,5 Big Data Clouds Are Here EMC Acquires Greenplum A Move To Counter Oracle http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/07/06/big-data-clouds-are-here-emc-acquires-greenplum-move-counter-oracle/ Shared item SiliconANGLE
First shared by - StephenFoskett
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world's leading provider of information infrastructure solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire California-based Greenplum, Inc. Greenplum is a privately-held, fast-growing provider of disruptive data warehousing technology, a key enabler of "big data" clouds and self-service analytics. Upon completion of the acquisition, Greenplum will form the foundation of a new data computing product division within EMC's Information Infrastructure business.

EMC announced today that they are acquiring Greenplum a company that makes disruptive data warehousing technology that enables "big data" clouds with self service analytics. I was sensing something was brewing from EMC but didn't expect this to happen this fast.

Competitive Moves - Smart EMC

We all remember Data Domain and the bidding war after Net App wanted to fill that hole in their product line. For those who don't remember EMC won the day with money to prevent NetApp from that product advantage. To this day EMC has a product advantage over NetApp because of the Data Domain acquisition.

Just last week I wrote a post talking about the role of big data in the enterprise when Cloudera announced that they were releasing the new enterprise "big data" platform and business model.

With Greenplum we see some similary good moves by EMC. Instead it's not a takeaway from the competition (NetApp), but a counter against the big bad Oracle who has Exadata. Exadata has been getting good reviews of late and so has Greenplum. Greenplum has success all around the ecosystem from open source to the big commercial vendors.

This is the EMC statement loaded with quotes (usually a PR gesture that means that it's a big deal) -- enjoy

Today, new forms of data -- massive amounts of it -- are emerging more quickly than ever before thanks to always-on networks, the Web, a flood of consumer content, surveillance systems, sensors and the like. In a recent report, IDC predicted that over the next 10 years the amount of digital data created annually will grow 44 fold. Companies are increasingly turning to new architectures and new tools to help make sense of this "big data" phenomenon.

Regarded by industry experts as a visionary leader, Greenplum utilizes a "shared-nothing" massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture that has been designed from the ground up for analytical processing using virtualized x86 infrastructure. Greenplum is capable of delivering 10 to 100 times the performance of traditional database software at a dramatically lower cost. Data-driven businesses around the world, including NASDAQ OMX, NYSE Euronext, Skype, Equifax, T-Mobile and Fox Interactive Media have adopted Greenplum for sophisticated, high-performance data analytics.

Pat Gelsinger, President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure Products, said, "The data warehousing world is about to change. Greenplum's massively-parallel, scale-out architecture, along with its self-service consumption model, has enabled it to separate itself from the incumbent players and emerge as the leader in this industry shift toward 'big data' analytics. Greenplum's market-leading technology combined with EMC's virtualized Private Cloud infrastructure provides customers, today, with a best-of-breed solution for tomorrow's 'big-data' challenges."

Bill Cook, Greenplum CEO, said, "EMC and Greenplum bring extraordinary potential to customers at the intersection of 'big data' and sophisticated analytics. As technology and business partners, EMC and Greenplum witness daily the enthusiasm with which customers embrace how together we impact their businesses in very tangible, positive and meaningful ways. The technology speaks for itself. What energizes us most now is EMC's ability to open new doors of opportunity and accelerate delivery of our joint vision for the future."

Scott McNealy, executive advisor to Greenplum, said, "EMC's strength in the enterprise, and Greenplum's push to fully transform data warehousing and business analytics, makes for a perfect fit. Together they are brilliantly bringing together the power of cloud computing, virtualization, and social collaboration to help customers as they venture into the next phase of computing and business analytics."

Jeff Wiggin, Vice President of Enterprise Systems at T-Mobile USA, said, "Greenplum and EMC have the potential to be a powerful and transformational combination. It could present many opportunities for T-Mobile USA to deliver new innovative technology solutions that have an impact on our ability to be more efficient, effective and provide better service to our customers."

The acquisition of Greenplum will be an all-cash transaction and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year. Upon close, Bill Cook will lead the new data computing product division and report to Pat Gelsinger. EMC will continue to offer Greenplum's full product portfolio to customers and plans to deliver new EMC Proven reference architectures as well as an integrated hardware and software offering designed to improve performance and drive down implementation costs.

Here is Pat Gelsinger at SAP Sapphire talking about competition landscape and more

Enterprise 2.0 - Done Deal - It's Happening Folks - It's not Social Media - It's Data

The biggest and fastest growing trend we are monitoring here on SiliconANGLE is the new Enterprise 2.0 around "converged infrastructure" meets "virtualization and cloud computing" - driving all that is users, applications, and data (both big data and little data).

It's not about SaaS any more. In fact, Marc Benioff said publicly that he is completely re-engineering this entire product to meet the new forces in the market. Salesforce is basically throwing away a decade of development because it's outdated. That speaks volumes because Salesforce is a leading cloud vendor, can you imagine how out of touch most corporate enterprises are?

How CIOs Think - Levis Strauss CIO Talks About Competition With Big Vendors

Tom Peck talked with me about his view as CIO and how acquisitions changes how he evaluates vendors. He talks about support SLA etc but clearly the stack wars are affecting them to build large enterprise so that they could grow and drive value for their company.

CIO Video - Tom Peck CIO of Levis Strauss

Big Problem - Too Much New Data Too Fast

The big problem facing growing enterprises is that they are flooded with more new types of data. Application and new user data from mobile devices and applications, are changing the mandates from CEOs and CIO of medium and large enterprises. This new world of "big data" is putting pressure on the enterprise to develop both business and technical model innovation strategies like nothing seen before. Hence the traction of the public and private cloud debate.

Data = Better User Experience; Better User Experience = Monetization

As we've been saying at SiliconAngle for over a year now, data is becoming the most important thing for developers and now for advertisers especially in mobile. Data drives a better user experience and a better user experience drive monetization. Data and data analysis is at the heart of this value proposition.

Look at the search industry in say Google. Having access to data enabled Google to build a quality search product and ad network. With Google constantly iterating their data quality they were able to consistently build better algorithms to present users with a compelling search product.

In mobile and smartphones search doesn't really work like on the wbe due to the screen size and real time nature of mobility. So display advertising hold the best seat at the table with respect to the search opportunity on mobile. The display ad and applications will be the vehicle where innovation (e.g. like search in late 90s) around consumer experience will occur.

The result for consumers will look like some automated cloud service that will do most of the work and then just show up in the display of the smartphone.

My Angle: It's All About Data - Data Innovation Cycle - Example: SmartPhones Enabled This Phenomenon

With the creation of the iPhone and the iPad the industry is seeing massive change. A paradigm that I haven't seen since the disruption of the browser. I expect to see some major game changing user experiences over the next 10 years. I call it the mobile innovation cycle - enabled by Apple's iPhone a few years ago.

My analogy: What the iPhone will do for mobile today is what the original Macintosh did for computing back in 1984- change the game in terms of user expectations around the required experience. Enterprise computing is changing to look more like the iPhone and iPad market.

Below is an illustration of what is happening. Rapid innovation around applications that is spawn new data. This new data is the powerful new disruptor or Data Is The New Developer Kit of which I've written in the past many times. How developers leverage data will determine how to make their applications more successful.

How they iterate the data feedback cycle is key. I call it the Mobile Application Innovation Cycle.

UPDATE: David Vellante Industry Analyst at Wikibon Project has his angle on this deal here.

Dave Vellante says:

The market has shifted as of late moving toward integrated appliances and this move gives EMC a very important arrow in its quiver to compete with the likes of Oracle/Exadata, HP/Microsoft, IBM and others.

My quick take:

*Business analytics is becoming a mission critical discipline within organizations
*Peformance is critical
*The workload (BI/Data Warehousing) is a memory, CPU and disk hog
*Practitioners indicate performance constraints are a huge gate to achieving desired business value
*The holy grail of the business is real time analytics

Bottom line: EMC recognizes the importance of the BI/analytics/data warehouse space and is making moves to guarantee that its storage doesn't get squeezed out of the picture.

Users will want to see:
*Optimized sytems
*Smokin' fast performance
*Reference architectures (or what EMC calls Proven Solutions)
*Scale
*Federation capabilities; not just big honking systems.

Good move by EMC even if it did pay a premium. The value of this asset will only go up in my view.

Big Data Clouds Are Here EMC Acquires Greenplum A Move To Counter Oracle is a post from: SiliconANGLE
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data emc greenplum big mobile data greenplum mobile analytics product enterprise cloud computing business user innovation customers service infrastructure search technology experience enterprises applications exadata world acquisition clouds industry oracle warehousing angle iphone cycle value market netapp siliconangle enabled fast big data data warehousing user experience better user data clouds cloud computing private cloud pat gelsinger big deal originally posted emc acquires information infrastructure acquires greenplum innovation cycle self service search product big problem buys greenplum deal counters counters oracles oracles exadata ae10kb big tom peck deal emc emc buys acqusition deal bill cook data computing computing product service analytics warehousing technology counter oracle disruptive data product division data domain mobile usa corporate enterprises business analytics massively parallel product advantage levis strauss better user experience emc acquires greenplum big data clouds emc buys greenplum deal counters oracles counters oracles exadata big deal counters data computing product disruptive data warehousing data warehousing technology self service analytics computing product division ]]>SiliconANGLE
First shared by - StephenFoskett
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EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world's leading provider of information infrastructure solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire California-based Greenplum, Inc. Greenplum is a privately-held, fast-growing provider of disruptive data warehousing technology, a key enabler of "big data" clouds and self-service analytics. Upon completion of the acquisition, Greenplum will form the foundation of a new data computing product division within EMC's Information Infrastructure business.

EMC announced today that they are acquiring Greenplum a company that makes disruptive data warehousing technology that enables "big data" clouds with self service analytics. I was sensing something was brewing from EMC but didn't expect this to happen this fast.

Competitive Moves - Smart EMC

We all remember Data Domain and the bidding war after Net App wanted to fill that hole in their product line. For those who don't remember EMC won the day with money to prevent NetApp from that product advantage. To this day EMC has a product advantage over NetApp because of the Data Domain acquisition.

Just last week I wrote a post talking about the role of big data in the enterprise when Cloudera announced that they were releasing the new enterprise "big data" platform and business model.

With Greenplum we see some similary good moves by EMC. Instead it's not a takeaway from the competition (NetApp), but a counter against the big bad Oracle who has Exadata. Exadata has been getting good reviews of late and so has Greenplum. Greenplum has success all around the ecosystem from open source to the big commercial vendors.

This is the EMC statement loaded with quotes (usually a PR gesture that means that it's a big deal) -- enjoy

Today, new forms of data -- massive amounts of it -- are emerging more quickly than ever before thanks to always-on networks, the Web, a flood of consumer content, surveillance systems, sensors and the like. In a recent report, IDC predicted that over the next 10 years the amount of digital data created annually will grow 44 fold. Companies are increasingly turning to new architectures and new tools to help make sense of this "big data" phenomenon.

Regarded by industry experts as a visionary leader, Greenplum utilizes a "shared-nothing" massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture that has been designed from the ground up for analytical processing using virtualized x86 infrastructure. Greenplum is capable of delivering 10 to 100 times the performance of traditional database software at a dramatically lower cost. Data-driven businesses around the world, including NASDAQ OMX, NYSE Euronext, Skype, Equifax, T-Mobile and Fox Interactive Media have adopted Greenplum for sophisticated, high-performance data analytics.

Pat Gelsinger, President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure Products, said, "The data warehousing world is about to change. Greenplum's massively-parallel, scale-out architecture, along with its self-service consumption model, has enabled it to separate itself from the incumbent players and emerge as the leader in this industry shift toward 'big data' analytics. Greenplum's market-leading technology combined with EMC's virtualized Private Cloud infrastructure provides customers, today, with a best-of-breed solution for tomorrow's 'big-data' challenges."

Bill Cook, Greenplum CEO, said, "EMC and Greenplum bring extraordinary potential to customers at the intersection of 'big data' and sophisticated analytics. As technology and business partners, EMC and Greenplum witness daily the enthusiasm with which customers embrace how together we impact their businesses in very tangible, positive and meaningful ways. The technology speaks for itself. What energizes us most now is EMC's ability to open new doors of opportunity and accelerate delivery of our joint vision for the future."

Scott McNealy, executive advisor to Greenplum, said, "EMC's strength in the enterprise, and Greenplum's push to fully transform data warehousing and business analytics, makes for a perfect fit. Together they are brilliantly bringing together the power of cloud computing, virtualization, and social collaboration to help customers as they venture into the next phase of computing and business analytics."

Jeff Wiggin, Vice President of Enterprise Systems at T-Mobile USA, said, "Greenplum and EMC have the potential to be a powerful and transformational combination. It could present many opportunities for T-Mobile USA to deliver new innovative technology solutions that have an impact on our ability to be more efficient, effective and provide better service to our customers."

The acquisition of Greenplum will be an all-cash transaction and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year. Upon close, Bill Cook will lead the new data computing product division and report to Pat Gelsinger. EMC will continue to offer Greenplum's full product portfolio to customers and plans to deliver new EMC Proven reference architectures as well as an integrated hardware and software offering designed to improve performance and drive down implementation costs.

Here is Pat Gelsinger at SAP Sapphire talking about competition landscape and more

Enterprise 2.0 - Done Deal - It's Happening Folks - It's not Social Media - It's Data

The biggest and fastest growing trend we are monitoring here on SiliconANGLE is the new Enterprise 2.0 around "converged infrastructure" meets "virtualization and cloud computing" - driving all that is users, applications, and data (both big data and little data).

It's not about SaaS any more. In fact, Marc Benioff said publicly that he is completely re-engineering this entire product to meet the new forces in the market. Salesforce is basically throwing away a decade of development because it's outdated. That speaks volumes because Salesforce is a leading cloud vendor, can you imagine how out of touch most corporate enterprises are?

How CIOs Think - Levis Strauss CIO Talks About Competition With Big Vendors

Tom Peck talked with me about his view as CIO and how acquisitions changes how he evaluates vendors. He talks about support SLA etc but clearly the stack wars are affecting them to build large enterprise so that they could grow and drive value for their company.

CIO Video - Tom Peck CIO of Levis Strauss

Big Problem - Too Much New Data Too Fast

The big problem facing growing enterprises is that they are flooded with more new types of data. Application and new user data from mobile devices and applications, are changing the mandates from CEOs and CIO of medium and large enterprises. This new world of "big data" is putting pressure on the enterprise to develop both business and technical model innovation strategies like nothing seen before. Hence the traction of the public and private cloud debate.

Data = Better User Experience; Better User Experience = Monetization

As we've been saying at SiliconAngle for over a year now, data is becoming the most important thing for developers and now for advertisers especially in mobile. Data drives a better user experience and a better user experience drive monetization. Data and data analysis is at the heart of this value proposition.

Look at the search industry in say Google. Having access to data enabled Google to build a quality search product and ad network. With Google constantly iterating their data quality they were able to consistently build better algorithms to present users with a compelling search product.

In mobile and smartphones search doesn't really work like on the wbe due to the screen size and real time nature of mobility. So display advertising hold the best seat at the table with respect to the search opportunity on mobile. The display ad and applications will be the vehicle where innovation (e.g. like search in late 90s) around consumer experience will occur.

The result for consumers will look like some automated cloud service that will do most of the work and then just show up in the display of the smartphone.

My Angle: It's All About Data - Data Innovation Cycle - Example: SmartPhones Enabled This Phenomenon

With the creation of the iPhone and the iPad the industry is seeing massive change. A paradigm that I haven't seen since the disruption of the browser. I expect to see some major game changing user experiences over the next 10 years. I call it the mobile innovation cycle - enabled by Apple's iPhone a few years ago.

My analogy: What the iPhone will do for mobile today is what the original Macintosh did for computing back in 1984- change the game in terms of user expectations around the required experience. Enterprise computing is changing to look more like the iPhone and iPad market.

Below is an illustration of what is happening. Rapid innovation around applications that is spawn new data. This new data is the powerful new disruptor or Data Is The New Developer Kit of which I've written in the past many times. How developers leverage data will determine how to make their applications more successful.

How they iterate the data feedback cycle is key. I call it the Mobile Application Innovation Cycle.

UPDATE: David Vellante Industry Analyst at Wikibon Project has his angle on this deal here.

Dave Vellante says:

The market has shifted as of late moving toward integrated appliances and this move gives EMC a very important arrow in its quiver to compete with the likes of Oracle/Exadata, HP/Microsoft, IBM and others.

My quick take:

*Business analytics is becoming a mission critical discipline within organizations
*Peformance is critical
*The workload (BI/Data Warehousing) is a memory, CPU and disk hog
*Practitioners indicate performance constraints are a huge gate to achieving desired business value
*The holy grail of the business is real time analytics

Bottom line: EMC recognizes the importance of the BI/analytics/data warehouse space and is making moves to guarantee that its storage doesn't get squeezed out of the picture.

Users will want to see:
*Optimized sytems
*Smokin' fast performance
*Reference architectures (or what EMC calls Proven Solutions)
*Scale
*Federation capabilities; not just big honking systems.

Good move by EMC even if it did pay a premium. The value of this asset will only go up in my view.

Big Data Clouds Are Here EMC Acquires Greenplum A Move To Counter Oracle is a post from: SiliconANGLE
Subcribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.

3 Comments

Related Stories



data emc greenplum big mobile data greenplum mobile analytics product enterprise cloud computing business user innovation customers service infrastructure search technology experience enterprises applications exadata world acquisition clouds industry oracle warehousing angle iphone cycle value market netapp siliconangle enabled fast big data data warehousing user experience better user data clouds cloud computing private cloud pat gelsinger big deal originally posted emc acquires information infrastructure acquires greenplum innovation cycle self service search product big problem buys greenplum deal counters counters oracles oracles exadata ae10kb big tom peck deal emc emc buys acqusition deal bill cook data computing computing product service analytics warehousing technology counter oracle disruptive data product division data domain mobile usa corporate enterprises business analytics massively parallel product advantage levis strauss better user experience emc acquires greenplum big data clouds emc buys greenplum deal counters oracles counters oracles exadata big deal counters data computing product disruptive data warehousing data warehousing technology self service analytics computing product division ]]> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:55:16 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,6 10 Reasons I'm Switching from TweetDeck to HootSuite http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/webappstorm/~3/tYpR6qiz7bA/ Shared item Web.AppStorm
First shared by - robdiana
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TweetDeck is a fantastic app, don't get me wrong. However, HootSuite offers the candy that's more satisfying to my taste buds. My Twitter apps are what I call always-on because they're one of the few apps I leave running and visible at all times. So, switching apps isn't something I take lightly.

With that said, here's ten reasons I've decided to switch from TweetDeck to HootSuite.

Fluid & Adobe AIR

Before I get started, I should note that HootSuite is running as a desktop app via Fluid on OS X. TweetDeck, on the other hand, runs via Adobe AIR, which is known to be somewhat of a resource hog.

1. System Resource Usage

An important aspect of apps I run at all times is their resource usage. I won't use any app that uses more resources than I feel is worth the benefits I get from the app. This was a relatively significant factor in my switch from TweetDeck to Hootsuite.

I found that TweetDeck regularly used over 200 MB of RAM and a consistent ~1% of CPU, spiking to 26-35% when refreshing Tweet streams. TweetDeck used ~115 MB of RAM on a fresh startup (what HootSuite used after several days of usage).

TweetDeck System Resources

Hootsuite, running via Fluid, uses significantly less system resources. I found that running Hootsuite 24/7 used ~115 MB of RAM with a consistent 0.2% of CPU, spiking to 15-25% when refreshing Tweet streams. Hootsuite uses less than 90 MB of RAM on a fresh startup and took several hours to reach 100 MB RAM usage.

Hootsuite System Resources

Although these are quite small amounts of RAM and CPU usage, it all adds up. I frequently use apps like Photoshop, multiple browsers and Parallels, so saving system resources where possible keeps more available for those more important and resource hungry apps.

2. Themes

If you're going to use an app frequently, you'll probably want it to look great, but you'll definitely need it to be very usable and reliable. While I don't necessarily have anything against TweetDeck's interface design, I just like Hootsuite's better.

TweetDeck Interface

In defense of TweetDeck, I didn't like Hootsuite's interface design all that much until their recent full redesign. Hootsuite's recent redesign, however, gave the app a much needed face-lift.

Hootsuite Interface

While both apps have a few theme options, Hootsuite's themes are more to my taste, even though you can customize TweetDeck's colors. As a designer, I'm much more drawn to Hootsuite's fresh and sexy design.

3. Column Widths

Aside from general appearance, column width options are a desired, yet generally lacking, feature I sought. TweetDeck's column width is fixed, whereas Hootsuite's columns dynamically adjust to fit the browser (or Fluid) window. With a 1680px width screen, I found Hootsuite's dynamic column width made better use of screen real-estate.

Hootsuite also provides a nifty slider (top right) that you can use to quickly adjust the number of columns in view, which the app will automatically adjust column widths to fit the space available.

4. Drag & Drop with Columns and Tabs

Hootsuite let's you drag and drop columns and tabs to quickly reorder them however you'd like. Drag and drop functionality is much more intuitive than trying to find a button to accomplish the same thing (as in TweetDeck).

Drag and Drop

5. Threaded Conversations

Threaded Conversations

It's pretty easy to loose track of a Twitter conversation if you run multiple accounts and talk with lots of people about lots of different things. Hootsuite offers threaded conversations, which you can quickly show/hide to make sure you're on top of it all and you keep everything straight.

6. Tabs

If you're a Twitter power user that prefers apps with column views, it's likely you use piles of columns. I personally use five columns that are always visible, with several others I routinely check via Hootsuite's tabs. While the tabbing feature of Hootsuite may seem insignificant, it really helps organize your social network information for more than just Twitter and multiple accounts (Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare, etc).

Tabs

Again, this is a feature that comes back to keeping information organized so you can stay on top of it all.

7. Scheduling & Saving Tweets

Though TweetDeck now has Tweet scheduling, it wasn't available for a long time. This was a must-have feature for me when I became Editor of Web.AppStorm. If I was unavailable or traveling, it's important to publish tweets at the same time (or soon after) posts are published. Sometimes the only way this is accomplished is via Tweet scheduling.

Tweet Scheduling

Hootsuite also offers an option to email you once the message is set, a great feature when you're traveling and want some extra assurance. This is something TweetDeck doesn't yet offer.

Hootsuite also lets you save drafts for later, which I don't really use but it may be useful for others. Yet another feature TweetDeck doesn't offer.

Drafts

8. Access Anywhere

Though both TweetDeck and Hootsuite offer apps for the iPhone, iPad and desktop (Windows, Mac & Linux), Hootsuite is currently the only one between these two apps that offers web access. Though I don't use it often, I love the ability to jump on any computer with internet access and immediately access my Twitter client as if I were on my home system. Themes, columns, settings, etc., all available exactly as I left it at home.

The big point here is that it's immediately accessible. No software to install. This would be great for students and employees who can't install software on their employer's work systems.

9. Google Analytics & Stats Tracking

If you use your social networks for more than just fun, you'll likely want to track traffic stats. Hootsuite offers Google Analytics integration so you can easily view your site stats as well as stats for shortened links using Ow.ly and Ht.ly, directly within the app.

Site Analytics

10. Team Collaboration

Organizations with teams of people working together can take advantage of Hootsuite's team collaboration features, even allowing assignments. Though most average users won't need this capability, it's nice knowing I'm using a platform with these capabilities should they ever be necessary. For teams, this would be invaluable.

Team Collaboration

Final Thoughts

Both TweetDeck and Hootsuite are fantastic apps for enjoying and managing your social networks, specifically Twitter. At first I wasn't too keen on switching to Hootsuite but after I gave it some time to give it an honest chance, it quickly won me over (especially with it's latest redesign and new features).

Both apps offer a list of features a mile long and which app fits you better will just depend on what you want and need. However, I think Hootsuite will likely better fit a larger number of people due to its flexibility and extra capabilities.

If you have any questions about Hootsuite, leave a comment and I'll get back to you asap. I'd also love to hear your thoughts and experiences of these apps. Thanks!



hootsuite tweetdeck apps app columns hootsuite tweetdeck apps columns system column feature twitter tabs resources tweet offers usage scheduling offer access stats drop running resource interface width fluid used drag system resources tweet scheduling team collaboration column width hootsuite offers multiple accounts threaded conversations resource usage google analytics via fluid social networks cpu spiking column widths used ~115 tweet streams fresh startup adobe air interface design refreshing tweet refreshing tweet streams ]]>Web.AppStorm
First shared by - robdiana
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TweetDeck is a fantastic app, don't get me wrong. However, HootSuite offers the candy that's more satisfying to my taste buds. My Twitter apps are what I call always-on because they're one of the few apps I leave running and visible at all times. So, switching apps isn't something I take lightly.

With that said, here's ten reasons I've decided to switch from TweetDeck to HootSuite.

Fluid & Adobe AIR

Before I get started, I should note that HootSuite is running as a desktop app via Fluid on OS X. TweetDeck, on the other hand, runs via Adobe AIR, which is known to be somewhat of a resource hog.

1. System Resource Usage

An important aspect of apps I run at all times is their resource usage. I won't use any app that uses more resources than I feel is worth the benefits I get from the app. This was a relatively significant factor in my switch from TweetDeck to Hootsuite.

I found that TweetDeck regularly used over 200 MB of RAM and a consistent ~1% of CPU, spiking to 26-35% when refreshing Tweet streams. TweetDeck used ~115 MB of RAM on a fresh startup (what HootSuite used after several days of usage).

TweetDeck System Resources

Hootsuite, running via Fluid, uses significantly less system resources. I found that running Hootsuite 24/7 used ~115 MB of RAM with a consistent 0.2% of CPU, spiking to 15-25% when refreshing Tweet streams. Hootsuite uses less than 90 MB of RAM on a fresh startup and took several hours to reach 100 MB RAM usage.

Hootsuite System Resources

Although these are quite small amounts of RAM and CPU usage, it all adds up. I frequently use apps like Photoshop, multiple browsers and Parallels, so saving system resources where possible keeps more available for those more important and resource hungry apps.

2. Themes

If you're going to use an app frequently, you'll probably want it to look great, but you'll definitely need it to be very usable and reliable. While I don't necessarily have anything against TweetDeck's interface design, I just like Hootsuite's better.

TweetDeck Interface

In defense of TweetDeck, I didn't like Hootsuite's interface design all that much until their recent full redesign. Hootsuite's recent redesign, however, gave the app a much needed face-lift.

Hootsuite Interface

While both apps have a few theme options, Hootsuite's themes are more to my taste, even though you can customize TweetDeck's colors. As a designer, I'm much more drawn to Hootsuite's fresh and sexy design.

3. Column Widths

Aside from general appearance, column width options are a desired, yet generally lacking, feature I sought. TweetDeck's column width is fixed, whereas Hootsuite's columns dynamically adjust to fit the browser (or Fluid) window. With a 1680px width screen, I found Hootsuite's dynamic column width made better use of screen real-estate.

Hootsuite also provides a nifty slider (top right) that you can use to quickly adjust the number of columns in view, which the app will automatically adjust column widths to fit the space available.

4. Drag & Drop with Columns and Tabs

Hootsuite let's you drag and drop columns and tabs to quickly reorder them however you'd like. Drag and drop functionality is much more intuitive than trying to find a button to accomplish the same thing (as in TweetDeck).

Drag and Drop

5. Threaded Conversations

Threaded Conversations

It's pretty easy to loose track of a Twitter conversation if you run multiple accounts and talk with lots of people about lots of different things. Hootsuite offers threaded conversations, which you can quickly show/hide to make sure you're on top of it all and you keep everything straight.

6. Tabs

If you're a Twitter power user that prefers apps with column views, it's likely you use piles of columns. I personally use five columns that are always visible, with several others I routinely check via Hootsuite's tabs. While the tabbing feature of Hootsuite may seem insignificant, it really helps organize your social network information for more than just Twitter and multiple accounts (Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare, etc).

Tabs

Again, this is a feature that comes back to keeping information organized so you can stay on top of it all.

7. Scheduling & Saving Tweets

Though TweetDeck now has Tweet scheduling, it wasn't available for a long time. This was a must-have feature for me when I became Editor of Web.AppStorm. If I was unavailable or traveling, it's important to publish tweets at the same time (or soon after) posts are published. Sometimes the only way this is accomplished is via Tweet scheduling.

Tweet Scheduling

Hootsuite also offers an option to email you once the message is set, a great feature when you're traveling and want some extra assurance. This is something TweetDeck doesn't yet offer.

Hootsuite also lets you save drafts for later, which I don't really use but it may be useful for others. Yet another feature TweetDeck doesn't offer.

Drafts

8. Access Anywhere

Though both TweetDeck and Hootsuite offer apps for the iPhone, iPad and desktop (Windows, Mac & Linux), Hootsuite is currently the only one between these two apps that offers web access. Though I don't use it often, I love the ability to jump on any computer with internet access and immediately access my Twitter client as if I were on my home system. Themes, columns, settings, etc., all available exactly as I left it at home.

The big point here is that it's immediately accessible. No software to install. This would be great for students and employees who can't install software on their employer's work systems.

9. Google Analytics & Stats Tracking

If you use your social networks for more than just fun, you'll likely want to track traffic stats. Hootsuite offers Google Analytics integration so you can easily view your site stats as well as stats for shortened links using Ow.ly and Ht.ly, directly within the app.

Site Analytics

10. Team Collaboration

Organizations with teams of people working together can take advantage of Hootsuite's team collaboration features, even allowing assignments. Though most average users won't need this capability, it's nice knowing I'm using a platform with these capabilities should they ever be necessary. For teams, this would be invaluable.

Team Collaboration

Final Thoughts

Both TweetDeck and Hootsuite are fantastic apps for enjoying and managing your social networks, specifically Twitter. At first I wasn't too keen on switching to Hootsuite but after I gave it some time to give it an honest chance, it quickly won me over (especially with it's latest redesign and new features).

Both apps offer a list of features a mile long and which app fits you better will just depend on what you want and need. However, I think Hootsuite will likely better fit a larger number of people due to its flexibility and extra capabilities.

If you have any questions about Hootsuite, leave a comment and I'll get back to you asap. I'd also love to hear your thoughts and experiences of these apps. Thanks!



hootsuite tweetdeck apps app columns hootsuite tweetdeck apps columns system column feature twitter tabs resources tweet offers usage scheduling offer access stats drop running resource interface width fluid used drag system resources tweet scheduling team collaboration column width hootsuite offers multiple accounts threaded conversations resource usage google analytics via fluid social networks cpu spiking column widths used ~115 tweet streams fresh startup adobe air interface design refreshing tweet refreshing tweet streams ]]> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:40:35 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,7 PayPal introduces PayPal X Platform Toolkit for Google App Engine http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppEngineBlog/~3/n2RmmGMAmt4/paypal-introduces-paypal-x-platform.html Shared item Google App Engine Blog
First shared by - ScottS
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Hello App Engine Developers!
My name is Praveen Alavilli (@ppalavilli) and I work as a developer evangelist for PayPal's X Platform at PayPal.com. I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to our new open source toolkit for Google App Engine that provides an easy way to integrate your Java apps running on App Engine with the new PayPal's Adaptive Payments API. Currently this is a Java toolkit explicitly for App Engine Java, but a Python version will be coming out soon.

Background
The Adaptive Payments API provides a set of core services offered by the PayPal X Open Global Payments Platform to enable developers to embed payments into their applications, services, and platforms. The Adaptive Payments APIs offer several new payments functionality like Split Payments and Preapprovals, that enable developers to implement a variety of monetization models - freemium, subscriptions, pay-per-use, value-added-services, micro-transactions, e-commerce, etc. in their applications built and running on the App Engine. Whether you are building an application for Businesses to process back-end disbursements or payouts to affiliates, or building a social or gaming app for Facebook / Twitter / Open Social, or building a Desktop gadget for premium content, or building a Geolocation app that only helps users find places and people around where they are but even help in transacting them, or building a Web2.0 AJAX app that mashes up content and services, or several more use cases enabled by App Engine, now you can use the PayPal X toolkit to enable payments in them as it fits the needs.

Using the Toolkit
Getting started with App Engine toolkit is easy. You can either checkout the source code from svn and import it into your Eclipse project or simply download the prebuilt jar file and include it in your application's class path (/WEB-INF/lib). Similar to other APIs that you might have used, you would need PayPal API Credentials to authenticate your API requests. With the toolkit you simply create an "APICredential" object from one of your application initialization methods (in most cases from your Servlet init() method) and load the API Credentials that you have obtained from the PayPal Sandbox. (Please refer to PayPal's Sandbox guide for more detailed information on how to obtain them). 
// Obtain the credentials from your configs (in this case servlet init params)
credentialObj = new APICredential();
credentialObj.setAPIUsername(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPIUsername"));
credentialObj.setAPIPassword(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPIPassword"));
credentialObj.setSignature(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPISignature"));

// setup your AppID from X.com
credentialObj.setAppId(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAppID"));

// setup your Test Business account email - in most cases this would be associated with API Credentials
credentialObj.setAccountEmail(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAccountEmail"));

// add required error condition checks
//....

Once the APICredentialObj is initialized successfully, save it in the application's local context so you do not need to reinitialize it on every request.
At its core, the Adaptive Payments API provides 5 generic API methods: Pay, Pay Details, Preapproval, Preapproval Details, Cancel Preapproval, Refunds, and Convert Currency. The toolkit provides the base API Request classes required to make those API calls. To make it even simpler, the toolkit also provides a few functional API wrapper classes that not only abstracts the APIs in terms of the functionality exposed (SimplePay, ChainedPay, ParallelPay, CreateSimplePreapproval, CreatePreapprovalForPeriodicPayments, PreapprovedChainedPay, etc.) but also provides a few exceptions that helps in handling errors more easily than the generic API Responses.

A Simple Example
To give you an example, let's say you are building a SaaS model application on App Engine that you charge your customers based on their usage. While on-boarding customers to use your app, you can use the Preapproval API to obtain authorization from your customers to charge them for the app/service based on their usage in the future. In this case you can simply use the 'CreateSimplePreapproval' to create and send a request as below: 
    try {

      // CreateSimplePreapproval request to setup a simple preapproval with no Payment Period Set
      CreateSimplePreapproval simplePreapproval = new CreateSimplePreapproval();

      // set the API Credentials object (as given in the sample code above)
      simplePreapproval.setCredentialObj(credentialObj);

      // starting date in yyyy-MM-dd format
      simplePreapproval.setStartingDate("2010-06-25");

      // ending date in yyyy-MM-dd format - in this case it's for an year from the starting date
      simplePreapproval.setEndingDate("2011-06-25");

       // set max total amount of all Payments
      simplePreapproval.setMaxTotalAmountOfAllPayments(52.00);

      // set max amount for each payment - let's say $1
      simplePreapproval.setMaxAmountPerPayment(1.00);

      // set max number of payments allowed - let's say 52 for 1 year (52 weeks)
      simplePreapproval.setMaxNumberOfPayments(52);

      // set where to send the user in case of a cancellation
      simplePreapproval.setCancelUrl(req.getRequestURL() + "?action=preapproval&cancel=1");

      // set where to return the user after successful approval by the user
      simplePreapproval.setReturnUrl(req.getRequestURL() + "?
          return=1&action=preapproval&preapprovalKey=${preapprovalKey}");

      /* Set other required fields */
      // ... //

      // set memo for user's transaction history
      simplePreapproval.setMemo("Preapproval for Sample app on GAE");

      // send the request
      PreapprovalResponse preapprovalResponse = simplePreapproval.makeRequest();

      } catch (//...exceptions go here...//) {
      // handle exceptions as necessary

    }

In this case, when the 'AuthorizationRequiredException' is thrown, your application would need to redirect the user to PayPal for authorizing the preapproval. The 'getAuthorizationUrl' method takes care of building the PayPal authorization url along with the Preapproval Key returned by the Preapproval API. Once the user authenticates and authorizes the preapproval request on PayPal.com, the user will be redirected back to your 'returnUrl' along with the preapprovalKey, which your application can verify by using the 'PreapprovalDetailsRequest' and store it in it's own app engine data store securely. From that point onwards, whenever the user needs to be charged for their usage of the application, the application can use one of the 'PreapprovedSimplePay' or 'PreapprovedParallelPay' or 'PreapprovedChainedPay' classes to make a payment on behalf of the user. Please refer to the sample apps to understand how to use the other classes provided by the toolkit to make Parallel,Chained or Simple Payments. For eg. the PicMartServlet.java in the PicMart sample app shows how you can make a parallel payment to two receivers at the same time.

Further examples
As mentioned earlier, if you are building a social game where users can buy digital goods (eg. micro-payments) and virtual currencies while playing a game, you can use the same Preapproval API to obtain authorization from them so you could charge their PayPal accounts as and when needed, without requiring them to re-enter their payment information or redirect to PayPal for authorizing the payments.
Other examples of using the toolkit can include:
  • An application that lets merchants or enterprises pay their suppliers, or manage affiliate networks
  • Applications to enable property owners to collect rental payments from tenants
  • With a mult-merchant marketplace, a simple payroll app enables employee salary payments in multiple countries
  • ...

As you can see, the toolkit's support of the Adaptive Payments APIs can easily enable all of these usecases.

Where to find more info Please look at the sample code provided in the samples directory. The AdaptiveRequests.java class in AdaptiveSample and AdaptiveSampleFnAPI shows how to use the helper classes to send and receive requests. The PicMart sample app provides a simple example of how the Parallel Payment can be used in a Photo Printing app that let's users to buy prints of the pictures from Picasa Album of the photographer. This sample app uses the Picasa APIs to fetch the album and picture information from Picasa.
To learn more about the PayPal X Toolkit for App Engine, please visit: http://code.google.com/p/paypalx-gae-toolkit/ and to learn more about Adaptive Payments, please visit: https://www.x.com/community/ppx/adaptive_payments. You can find a lot of resources for developers like documentation, technical spec, sample apps, code, sdks, technical forums, technical support, etc.. on PayPal X Developer Network web site (https://www.x.com).
Posted by Praveen Alavilli (@ppalavilli), PayPal X Developer Network.


app payments paypal api toolkit payments paypal toolkit preapproval engine simplepreapproval application user sample building adaptive credentialobj provides request payment getinitparameter simple createsimplepreapproval classes credentials enable java getservletconfig apis case code developers obtain send services app engine adaptive payments getservletconfig getinitparameter sample app api credentials payments api preapproval api starting date action preapproval req getrequesturl sample apps developer network parallel payment picmart sample sample code generic api api provides alavilli @ppalavilli praveen alavilli enable developers payments apis simple example google app servlet init obtain authorization adaptive payments apis praveen alavilli @ppalavilli ]]>Google App Engine Blog
First shared by - ScottS
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Hello App Engine Developers!
My name is Praveen Alavilli (@ppalavilli) and I work as a developer evangelist for PayPal's X Platform at PayPal.com. I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to our new open source toolkit for Google App Engine that provides an easy way to integrate your Java apps running on App Engine with the new PayPal's Adaptive Payments API. Currently this is a Java toolkit explicitly for App Engine Java, but a Python version will be coming out soon.

Background
The Adaptive Payments API provides a set of core services offered by the PayPal X Open Global Payments Platform to enable developers to embed payments into their applications, services, and platforms. The Adaptive Payments APIs offer several new payments functionality like Split Payments and Preapprovals, that enable developers to implement a variety of monetization models - freemium, subscriptions, pay-per-use, value-added-services, micro-transactions, e-commerce, etc. in their applications built and running on the App Engine. Whether you are building an application for Businesses to process back-end disbursements or payouts to affiliates, or building a social or gaming app for Facebook / Twitter / Open Social, or building a Desktop gadget for premium content, or building a Geolocation app that only helps users find places and people around where they are but even help in transacting them, or building a Web2.0 AJAX app that mashes up content and services, or several more use cases enabled by App Engine, now you can use the PayPal X toolkit to enable payments in them as it fits the needs.

Using the Toolkit
Getting started with App Engine toolkit is easy. You can either checkout the source code from svn and import it into your Eclipse project or simply download the prebuilt jar file and include it in your application's class path (/WEB-INF/lib). Similar to other APIs that you might have used, you would need PayPal API Credentials to authenticate your API requests. With the toolkit you simply create an "APICredential" object from one of your application initialization methods (in most cases from your Servlet init() method) and load the API Credentials that you have obtained from the PayPal Sandbox. (Please refer to PayPal's Sandbox guide for more detailed information on how to obtain them). 
// Obtain the credentials from your configs (in this case servlet init params)
credentialObj = new APICredential();
credentialObj.setAPIUsername(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPIUsername"));
credentialObj.setAPIPassword(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPIPassword"));
credentialObj.setSignature(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAPISignature"));

// setup your AppID from X.com
credentialObj.setAppId(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAppID"));

// setup your Test Business account email - in most cases this would be associated with API Credentials
credentialObj.setAccountEmail(getServletConfig().getInitParameter("PPAccountEmail"));

// add required error condition checks
//....

Once the APICredentialObj is initialized successfully, save it in the application's local context so you do not need to reinitialize it on every request.
At its core, the Adaptive Payments API provides 5 generic API methods: Pay, Pay Details, Preapproval, Preapproval Details, Cancel Preapproval, Refunds, and Convert Currency. The toolkit provides the base API Request classes required to make those API calls. To make it even simpler, the toolkit also provides a few functional API wrapper classes that not only abstracts the APIs in terms of the functionality exposed (SimplePay, ChainedPay, ParallelPay, CreateSimplePreapproval, CreatePreapprovalForPeriodicPayments, PreapprovedChainedPay, etc.) but also provides a few exceptions that helps in handling errors more easily than the generic API Responses.

A Simple Example
To give you an example, let's say you are building a SaaS model application on App Engine that you charge your customers based on their usage. While on-boarding customers to use your app, you can use the Preapproval API to obtain authorization from your customers to charge them for the app/service based on their usage in the future. In this case you can simply use the 'CreateSimplePreapproval' to create and send a request as below: 
    try {

      // CreateSimplePreapproval request to setup a simple preapproval with no Payment Period Set
      CreateSimplePreapproval simplePreapproval = new CreateSimplePreapproval();

      // set the API Credentials object (as given in the sample code above)
      simplePreapproval.setCredentialObj(credentialObj);

      // starting date in yyyy-MM-dd format
      simplePreapproval.setStartingDate("2010-06-25");

      // ending date in yyyy-MM-dd format - in this case it's for an year from the starting date
      simplePreapproval.setEndingDate("2011-06-25");

       // set max total amount of all Payments
      simplePreapproval.setMaxTotalAmountOfAllPayments(52.00);

      // set max amount for each payment - let's say $1
      simplePreapproval.setMaxAmountPerPayment(1.00);

      // set max number of payments allowed - let's say 52 for 1 year (52 weeks)
      simplePreapproval.setMaxNumberOfPayments(52);

      // set where to send the user in case of a cancellation
      simplePreapproval.setCancelUrl(req.getRequestURL() + "?action=preapproval&cancel=1");

      // set where to return the user after successful approval by the user
      simplePreapproval.setReturnUrl(req.getRequestURL() + "?
          return=1&action=preapproval&preapprovalKey=${preapprovalKey}");

      /* Set other required fields */
      // ... //

      // set memo for user's transaction history
      simplePreapproval.setMemo("Preapproval for Sample app on GAE");

      // send the request
      PreapprovalResponse preapprovalResponse = simplePreapproval.makeRequest();

      } catch (//...exceptions go here...//) {
      // handle exceptions as necessary

    }

In this case, when the 'AuthorizationRequiredException' is thrown, your application would need to redirect the user to PayPal for authorizing the preapproval. The 'getAuthorizationUrl' method takes care of building the PayPal authorization url along with the Preapproval Key returned by the Preapproval API. Once the user authenticates and authorizes the preapproval request on PayPal.com, the user will be redirected back to your 'returnUrl' along with the preapprovalKey, which your application can verify by using the 'PreapprovalDetailsRequest' and store it in it's own app engine data store securely. From that point onwards, whenever the user needs to be charged for their usage of the application, the application can use one of the 'PreapprovedSimplePay' or 'PreapprovedParallelPay' or 'PreapprovedChainedPay' classes to make a payment on behalf of the user. Please refer to the sample apps to understand how to use the other classes provided by the toolkit to make Parallel,Chained or Simple Payments. For eg. the PicMartServlet.java in the PicMart sample app shows how you can make a parallel payment to two receivers at the same time.

Further examples
As mentioned earlier, if you are building a social game where users can buy digital goods (eg. micro-payments) and virtual currencies while playing a game, you can use the same Preapproval API to obtain authorization from them so you could charge their PayPal accounts as and when needed, without requiring them to re-enter their payment information or redirect to PayPal for authorizing the payments.
Other examples of using the toolkit can include:
  • An application that lets merchants or enterprises pay their suppliers, or manage affiliate networks
  • Applications to enable property owners to collect rental payments from tenants
  • With a mult-merchant marketplace, a simple payroll app enables employee salary payments in multiple countries
  • ...

As you can see, the toolkit's support of the Adaptive Payments APIs can easily enable all of these usecases.

Where to find more info Please look at the sample code provided in the samples directory. The AdaptiveRequests.java class in AdaptiveSample and AdaptiveSampleFnAPI shows how to use the helper classes to send and receive requests. The PicMart sample app provides a simple example of how the Parallel Payment can be used in a Photo Printing app that let's users to buy prints of the pictures from Picasa Album of the photographer. This sample app uses the Picasa APIs to fetch the album and picture information from Picasa.
To learn more about the PayPal X Toolkit for App Engine, please visit: http://code.google.com/p/paypalx-gae-toolkit/ and to learn more about Adaptive Payments, please visit: https://www.x.com/community/ppx/adaptive_payments. You can find a lot of resources for developers like documentation, technical spec, sample apps, code, sdks, technical forums, technical support, etc.. on PayPal X Developer Network web site (https://www.x.com).
Posted by Praveen Alavilli (@ppalavilli), PayPal X Developer Network.


app payments paypal api toolkit payments paypal toolkit preapproval engine simplepreapproval application user sample building adaptive credentialobj provides request payment getinitparameter simple createsimplepreapproval classes credentials enable java getservletconfig apis case code developers obtain send services app engine adaptive payments getservletconfig getinitparameter sample app api credentials payments api preapproval api starting date action preapproval req getrequesturl sample apps developer network parallel payment picmart sample sample code generic api api provides alavilli @ppalavilli praveen alavilli enable developers payments apis simple example google app servlet init obtain authorization adaptive payments apis praveen alavilli @ppalavilli ]]> Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:01:32 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,8 Product: dbShards - Share Nothing. Shard Everything. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighScalability/~3/EGCUdBRY6Yc/product-dbshards-share-nothing-shard-everything.html Shared item High Scalability
First shared by - robdiana
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I met the CodeFutures folks, makers of dbShards, at Gluecon. They occupy an interesting niche in the database space, somewhere between NoSQL, which jettisons everything SQL, and high end analytics platforms that completely rewrite the backend while keeping a SQL facade.

High concept: I think of dbShards as a sort of commercial OLTP mashup of features from HSCALE (partitioning) + MySQL Proxy (transparent intermediate layer) + Memcached (client side sharding) + Gigaspaces (parallel query) + MySQL (transactions).

You may find dbShards interesting if you are looking to keep SQL, need scale out writes and reads, need out of the box parallel query capabilities, and would prefer to use a standard platform like MySQL as a base. To learn more about dbShards I asked Cory Isaacson (CEO and CTO) a few devastatingly difficult questions (not really).

Who are you, what is dbShards, and what problem was dbShards created to solve?



dbshards sql mysql query need dbshards parallel query ]]>High Scalability
First shared by - robdiana
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I met the CodeFutures folks, makers of dbShards, at Gluecon. They occupy an interesting niche in the database space, somewhere between NoSQL, which jettisons everything SQL, and high end analytics platforms that completely rewrite the backend while keeping a SQL facade.

High concept: I think of dbShards as a sort of commercial OLTP mashup of features from HSCALE (partitioning) + MySQL Proxy (transparent intermediate layer) + Memcached (client side sharding) + Gigaspaces (parallel query) + MySQL (transactions).

You may find dbShards interesting if you are looking to keep SQL, need scale out writes and reads, need out of the box parallel query capabilities, and would prefer to use a standard platform like MySQL as a base. To learn more about dbShards I asked Cory Isaacson (CEO and CTO) a few devastatingly difficult questions (not really).

Who are you, what is dbShards, and what problem was dbShards created to solve?



dbshards sql mysql query need dbshards parallel query ]]> Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:45:36 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,9 Scvngr shows that location-based services are about having fun, not just checking in http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/u5PtzjSUlgs/ Shared item VentureBeat
First shared by - ScottS
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Quit obsessing about the check-in.

Companies in the hot location-based services space are frantically trying to come up with the next step beyond the very simple act of getting users to check in or announce their presence to friends when they arrive at a bar or a restaurant or a subway train. It's generally agreed that location services need to create a deeper experience. But no one agrees on what that should be. Coupons, special deals, stories, and games are just some of the ideas being batted around.

The check-in, as popularized by companies like Brightkite, Booyah, Foursquare and Gowalla, has worked in introducing users to the whole concept of sharing their locations. It has helped push Foursquare to over a million users and Booyah's MyTown iPhone game to over two million. But the momentum will grind to a halt if there's nothing beyond becoming a mayor of a bakery.

This is a sentiment shared by Booyah's CEO Keith Lee, who said the company is looking beyond the check-in to create an experience people can be loyal to. And Gowalla CEO Josh Williams says the term check-in is, well, nerdy.

But it is what it is, said Williams. It is something that people understand. The big picture is what happens after checking in. It's the story I can tell. It's the basketball game I went to, the pictures I took, a way to share that moment. And if all the people who went to the same ballgame share their pictures and stories kind of like in a collective scrapbook, it's a way to re-live the experience, or live it vicariously.

So, the question is how to connect the real world with an application that runs on your smartphone. One angle is to make the world into a game, which is what a whole bunch of companies is doingthink of I spy with my little eye variation iSpyApp, role-playing game Parallel Kingdom, and Zombie, Run which makes players move in the world outrunning virtual zombies. A classic example in the pre-digital world is the scavenger hunt, where people look for a treasure in the real world.

This is also the approach of Scvngr (pronounced scavenger), a company putting out a series of challenges for physical locations which the players can complete. The idea is that when you are at a location, say, a diner, Scvngr gives players a challenge like building a tower out of salt and pepper shakers and taking a picture of it. Upon completion, the player is awarded points. And, according to Scvngr CEO and chief ninja Seth Priebatsch (right), this is the way to go for all location companies.

It's a question of the check-in versus the challenge, said Priebatsch. The challenge is a whole new core unit in location. I think a lot of the check-in only' services will realize that they have not picked the right core unit and will migrate toward the challenge.

Priebatsch's argument is as follows: The check-in is always the same, whether you're at Grand Central Terminal or the Statue of Liberty. The challenge, however, is always unique to a location. Players will know the mechanics of the challenge, ie. what they are and how they are to be completed, but there's always an element of discovery to the specific challenges at a given location.

The approach seems to be going well for the Google Ventures-backed Scvngr, which is earning steady revenue on its product, which is both a game and a gaming platform. Scvngr has been selling it's product to different entities like museums and companies who can build their own challenges (the platform part). A museum can have challenges for visitors finding works of art in their exhibitions, a natural park can make finding landmarks into a game, a company can use it for team-building exercises, and so on. Earlier this week, the electric-car maker Tesla launched a promotion with Scvngr where completing challenges at a Tesla dealership can earn the player a special Tesla badge. (Tesla certainly needs help getting people to its dealerships.)

Scvngr also released a consumer-side version of the app, which means that everyone can create challenges for free for other players to complete. Priebatsch says that move has caused a ridiculous spike in the number of users, but he wouldn't disclose any actual figures.

But how do you take a game or, in the case of Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown, a game-like service, and break it out of that niche? People in the business and smartphone enthusiasts are well aware of these companies, but the vast majority of people with cell phones have never even heard of them, and maybe wouldn't even care to hear about them. Priebatsch says it is in the ability for everyone to build their own challenges, at their locations, for their audience.

By enabling everyone to do this, we'll get tons of users from all walks of life, said Priebatsch. Think about how many people visit the City of Philadelphia or the Museum of Fine Arts or Patriots Stadium. All of them will be invited to play SCVNGR at those locations, and those institutions had a hand in building Scvngr. And that's a really powerful concept which will translate into a ton of people.

Monetization is important, says Priebatsch, but he is dismissive of advertising or location-based coupons which a lot of the other companies are trying out. Priebatsch said Scvngr will not do advertising because it's not fun: And until we crack the code on making it fun, we won't do it. Period.

We'll see if the challenge vs. check-in approach will be the definitive game-changer in location services, but at least it testifies to the fact that the time of the check-in seems to be passing. For next-level location services, we are going to need next-level applications.

[This story is part of a weekly series on location-based services, written by VentureBeat's JP Manninen. If you have an idea for a story you would like to see in this series, drop a line at jp@venturebeat.com]

Don't miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat's conference on the future of mobile. The theme: The year of the superphone and who will profit. Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Early-bird pricing is available until May 31. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

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People: , ,






location scvngr check priebatsch game ]]>VentureBeat
First shared by - ScottS
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Quit obsessing about the check-in.

Companies in the hot location-based services space are frantically trying to come up with the next step beyond the very simple act of getting users to check in or announce their presence to friends when they arrive at a bar or a restaurant or a subway train. It's generally agreed that location services need to create a deeper experience. But no one agrees on what that should be. Coupons, special deals, stories, and games are just some of the ideas being batted around.

The check-in, as popularized by companies like Brightkite, Booyah, Foursquare and Gowalla, has worked in introducing users to the whole concept of sharing their locations. It has helped push Foursquare to over a million users and Booyah's MyTown iPhone game to over two million. But the momentum will grind to a halt if there's nothing beyond becoming a mayor of a bakery.

This is a sentiment shared by Booyah's CEO Keith Lee, who said the company is looking beyond the check-in to create an experience people can be loyal to. And Gowalla CEO Josh Williams says the term check-in is, well, nerdy.

But it is what it is, said Williams. It is something that people understand. The big picture is what happens after checking in. It's the story I can tell. It's the basketball game I went to, the pictures I took, a way to share that moment. And if all the people who went to the same ballgame share their pictures and stories kind of like in a collective scrapbook, it's a way to re-live the experience, or live it vicariously.

So, the question is how to connect the real world with an application that runs on your smartphone. One angle is to make the world into a game, which is what a whole bunch of companies is doingthink of I spy with my little eye variation iSpyApp, role-playing game Parallel Kingdom, and Zombie, Run which makes players move in the world outrunning virtual zombies. A classic example in the pre-digital world is the scavenger hunt, where people look for a treasure in the real world.

This is also the approach of Scvngr (pronounced scavenger), a company putting out a series of challenges for physical locations which the players can complete. The idea is that when you are at a location, say, a diner, Scvngr gives players a challenge like building a tower out of salt and pepper shakers and taking a picture of it. Upon completion, the player is awarded points. And, according to Scvngr CEO and chief ninja Seth Priebatsch (right), this is the way to go for all location companies.

It's a question of the check-in versus the challenge, said Priebatsch. The challenge is a whole new core unit in location. I think a lot of the check-in only' services will realize that they have not picked the right core unit and will migrate toward the challenge.

Priebatsch's argument is as follows: The check-in is always the same, whether you're at Grand Central Terminal or the Statue of Liberty. The challenge, however, is always unique to a location. Players will know the mechanics of the challenge, ie. what they are and how they are to be completed, but there's always an element of discovery to the specific challenges at a given location.

The approach seems to be going well for the Google Ventures-backed Scvngr, which is earning steady revenue on its product, which is both a game and a gaming platform. Scvngr has been selling it's product to different entities like museums and companies who can build their own challenges (the platform part). A museum can have challenges for visitors finding works of art in their exhibitions, a natural park can make finding landmarks into a game, a company can use it for team-building exercises, and so on. Earlier this week, the electric-car maker Tesla launched a promotion with Scvngr where completing challenges at a Tesla dealership can earn the player a special Tesla badge. (Tesla certainly needs help getting people to its dealerships.)

Scvngr also released a consumer-side version of the app, which means that everyone can create challenges for free for other players to complete. Priebatsch says that move has caused a ridiculous spike in the number of users, but he wouldn't disclose any actual figures.

But how do you take a game or, in the case of Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown, a game-like service, and break it out of that niche? People in the business and smartphone enthusiasts are well aware of these companies, but the vast majority of people with cell phones have never even heard of them, and maybe wouldn't even care to hear about them. Priebatsch says it is in the ability for everyone to build their own challenges, at their locations, for their audience.

By enabling everyone to do this, we'll get tons of users from all walks of life, said Priebatsch. Think about how many people visit the City of Philadelphia or the Museum of Fine Arts or Patriots Stadium. All of them will be invited to play SCVNGR at those locations, and those institutions had a hand in building Scvngr. And that's a really powerful concept which will translate into a ton of people.

Monetization is important, says Priebatsch, but he is dismissive of advertising or location-based coupons which a lot of the other companies are trying out. Priebatsch said Scvngr will not do advertising because it's not fun: And until we crack the code on making it fun, we won't do it. Period.

We'll see if the challenge vs. check-in approach will be the definitive game-changer in location services, but at least it testifies to the fact that the time of the check-in seems to be passing. For next-level location services, we are going to need next-level applications.

[This story is part of a weekly series on location-based services, written by VentureBeat's JP Manninen. If you have an idea for a story you would like to see in this series, drop a line at jp@venturebeat.com]

Don't miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat's conference on the future of mobile. The theme: The year of the superphone and who will profit. Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Early-bird pricing is available until May 31. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

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Companies: , , , ,

People: , ,






location scvngr check priebatsch game ]]> Fri, 28 May 2010 15:31:41 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,10 The Definitive Guide to WTF Just Happened on Lost' http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FilmSchoolRejects/~3/s71T8eJr3LQ/what-happened-lost-finale-explanation.php Shared item Film School Rejects
First shared by - spavis
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Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for last night's series finale of Lost. It is intended only for readers who watched the episode. Seriously, if you continue reading on for another paragraph, it will all be ruined for you. We wash our hands of this.

Face it: LOST is over. And whether your eyes are puffy from a night of post-reunion crying or simply one to many Dharma beers, chances are you're now searching for the meaning behind those last two-and-a-half hours or at least confirmation that you're not crazy in your interpretation of them.

So whether you loved it or hated it, here's your Definitive Guide to WTF Just Happened on LOST.

Who's dead now?

Everyone and yet only the people you saw die during the course of the series. Let me explain.

When Jack meets his father, Christian, in the last few moments of the finale, he suffers the revelation that they both are now dead. But as Christian explains to him, they're not the only ones dead in the church, with everyone currently awaiting him in the pews having undergone their own deaths either before or long after Jack. The Sideways World has no time (As Christian said, There is no now here), and thus everyone, regardless of when they died is there to meet with each other even though for people who died long ago, like Jack, it might seem like just seconds have passed between his death and him taking his seat on the non-doomed Sideways Oceanic Flight 815.

Supporting Evidence: When Juliet and Sawyer meet in Sideways World, their exchange matches the one-sided conversation that Juliet had with Sawyer while she died in his arms on the Island. This could be interpreted as Juliet experiencing everything in the Sideways World in the few moments before her death. (See: British TV series Life on Mars for more on that perspective.)

More Evidence: Hurley and Ben's convo outside the church in which they compliment each other on being the best Number Two and Number One respectively. Since the last the audience saw of the two they were committing themselves to protecting the Island with Hurley in the top spot and Ben as his assistant, this exchange supports the idea that the pair had long Island lives before they eventually died and entered the Sideways World.

So everything that happened on the Island was real?

Yep. Christian pointedly says to Jack, Everything that's ever happened to you is real. The Sideways World is the existence that never happened for them on Earth. So enough of the whole Hur hur, we were right; the Island is purgatory! Stupid creators because the Island was real.

What is the Sideways World?

Some people are calling it purgatory, but you could also call the Sideways World a way station as it stands somewhere between life and whatever afterlife the Losties are heading to after they've found each other. But instead of just being a place to chill out and listen to Drive Shaft's greatest hits, the Sideways World is where the characters can work out their remaining issues (if they have any) while they experience the necessary Island-parallels to jumpstart their memory of their lives together and let go of any remaining guilt or complexes.

Unfortunately, for the guiltiest consciences amongst them, the Sideways World becomes a place where they encounter pain and humiliation. Sayid and Ben, both men with way too much blood on their hands, have less than idyllic lives in the Sideways World. While Sayid is tortured by his true love Nadia's marriage to his idiot brother, Ben, former Napoleonic leader of the Others, regularly swallows his pride to help the one person that does mean something to him, Alex.

If everyone's dead, then why are Aaron and Ji Yeon still, respectively, a baby and in utero?

As Christian explains, the time on the Island was, for the characters in the Church, the most important time of their lives and a shared experience amongst them. From the perspective of the viewer, and likely the characters, the Sideways World begins with their turbulent moment on Oceanic 815 because that was the first moment the majority of them shared on what became a crazy journey. The rest of the Sideways World revolves around the characters overcoming their issues and reaching an epiphany with their Island loved ones. For Charlie and Claire, even though she likely lived for many more years after getting off the Island and raised Aaron to be a rock demigod, the moment they shared that meant everything to them was becoming a family unit with the birth of her child.

As for Sun and Jin, their shared experience was the miracle of the conception of their child, Ji Yeon, especially as Jin never actually got to meet her. We don't need to see Ji Yeon in the church because her life was not as defined by the Island.

But if the Sideways World was where the Losties met up and moved on, where were Ana Lucia, Michael, Walt, Ben, Mr. Eko, Rousseau, etc.?

This is where it's important to remember that for the characters in the Church, the Island was the most important time in their lives and they were ready to move on. For someone like Walt or Mr. Eko, the Island may not have been the most important time in their lives and they never quite had the shared experience that the main characters who suffered through six seasons together did. Walt likely had a full and complicated life after the Island, while most of Mr. Eko's issues are with his home country. As for the likes of Ben, Ana Lucia, and Rousseau, their absence from the church likely has to do with their reluctance and inability to move on. Hurley actually says at one point that Ana Lucia isn't ready, while Ben turns down Hurley's invitation to join them in the church, as he still seems wracked by guilt for his Island past. Meanwhile, someone like Rousseau or Alex may still be sorting out things and making up for lost time by pursuing the mother-daughter relationship they never got to have in life.

Why did they meet up in a church? Christian agenda much?

LOST has never gone easy on the religious metaphors and imagery but for once we have something from them that appears to strive for an inclusive spirituality despite taking place in a church (see: the stained glass window behind Jack that featured symbols from various religions and the donkey wheel). The only reason why the final moving-on-to-the-afterlife scene took place in a church was because, as Kate told Jack, it was where he was going to have his funeral for his father. And for Jack, the one thing keeping him tied to his life was his guilt over his father and his death. The funeral was where he had to say goodbye and gain the power to move on.

What happens to Jack's son?

I'm sorry to tell you, but he's not real. Jack's son was just a prop and a tool for him to have the father-son relationship he always wanted to share with his own father. Creating a kid for himself in this Sideways World is what enabled him, in part, to move on. As for Juliet, she was the mother as a matter of convenience and a nod to her and Jack's Island brief would-be Island romance. Note how little interaction she actually has with her son as further proof of how he was only important to Jack as a way of overcoming his issues.

So the Island really was a cork on a bottle then?

Yeah, can you believe that? The one time Jacob gives a straight answer.

What are your unanswered questions from last night's finale?

Related Reading:



island sideways world jack lost ]]>Film School Rejects
First shared by - spavis
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Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for last night's series finale of Lost. It is intended only for readers who watched the episode. Seriously, if you continue reading on for another paragraph, it will all be ruined for you. We wash our hands of this.

Face it: LOST is over. And whether your eyes are puffy from a night of post-reunion crying or simply one to many Dharma beers, chances are you're now searching for the meaning behind those last two-and-a-half hours or at least confirmation that you're not crazy in your interpretation of them.

So whether you loved it or hated it, here's your Definitive Guide to WTF Just Happened on LOST.

Who's dead now?

Everyone and yet only the people you saw die during the course of the series. Let me explain.

When Jack meets his father, Christian, in the last few moments of the finale, he suffers the revelation that they both are now dead. But as Christian explains to him, they're not the only ones dead in the church, with everyone currently awaiting him in the pews having undergone their own deaths either before or long after Jack. The Sideways World has no time (As Christian said, There is no now here), and thus everyone, regardless of when they died is there to meet with each other even though for people who died long ago, like Jack, it might seem like just seconds have passed between his death and him taking his seat on the non-doomed Sideways Oceanic Flight 815.

Supporting Evidence: When Juliet and Sawyer meet in Sideways World, their exchange matches the one-sided conversation that Juliet had with Sawyer while she died in his arms on the Island. This could be interpreted as Juliet experiencing everything in the Sideways World in the few moments before her death. (See: British TV series Life on Mars for more on that perspective.)

More Evidence: Hurley and Ben's convo outside the church in which they compliment each other on being the best Number Two and Number One respectively. Since the last the audience saw of the two they were committing themselves to protecting the Island with Hurley in the top spot and Ben as his assistant, this exchange supports the idea that the pair had long Island lives before they eventually died and entered the Sideways World.

So everything that happened on the Island was real?

Yep. Christian pointedly says to Jack, Everything that's ever happened to you is real. The Sideways World is the existence that never happened for them on Earth. So enough of the whole Hur hur, we were right; the Island is purgatory! Stupid creators because the Island was real.

What is the Sideways World?

Some people are calling it purgatory, but you could also call the Sideways World a way station as it stands somewhere between life and whatever afterlife the Losties are heading to after they've found each other. But instead of just being a place to chill out and listen to Drive Shaft's greatest hits, the Sideways World is where the characters can work out their remaining issues (if they have any) while they experience the necessary Island-parallels to jumpstart their memory of their lives together and let go of any remaining guilt or complexes.

Unfortunately, for the guiltiest consciences amongst them, the Sideways World becomes a place where they encounter pain and humiliation. Sayid and Ben, both men with way too much blood on their hands, have less than idyllic lives in the Sideways World. While Sayid is tortured by his true love Nadia's marriage to his idiot brother, Ben, former Napoleonic leader of the Others, regularly swallows his pride to help the one person that does mean something to him, Alex.

If everyone's dead, then why are Aaron and Ji Yeon still, respectively, a baby and in utero?

As Christian explains, the time on the Island was, for the characters in the Church, the most important time of their lives and a shared experience amongst them. From the perspective of the viewer, and likely the characters, the Sideways World begins with their turbulent moment on Oceanic 815 because that was the first moment the majority of them shared on what became a crazy journey. The rest of the Sideways World revolves around the characters overcoming their issues and reaching an epiphany with their Island loved ones. For Charlie and Claire, even though she likely lived for many more years after getting off the Island and raised Aaron to be a rock demigod, the moment they shared that meant everything to them was becoming a family unit with the birth of her child.

As for Sun and Jin, their shared experience was the miracle of the conception of their child, Ji Yeon, especially as Jin never actually got to meet her. We don't need to see Ji Yeon in the church because her life was not as defined by the Island.

But if the Sideways World was where the Losties met up and moved on, where were Ana Lucia, Michael, Walt, Ben, Mr. Eko, Rousseau, etc.?

This is where it's important to remember that for the characters in the Church, the Island was the most important time in their lives and they were ready to move on. For someone like Walt or Mr. Eko, the Island may not have been the most important time in their lives and they never quite had the shared experience that the main characters who suffered through six seasons together did. Walt likely had a full and complicated life after the Island, while most of Mr. Eko's issues are with his home country. As for the likes of Ben, Ana Lucia, and Rousseau, their absence from the church likely has to do with their reluctance and inability to move on. Hurley actually says at one point that Ana Lucia isn't ready, while Ben turns down Hurley's invitation to join them in the church, as he still seems wracked by guilt for his Island past. Meanwhile, someone like Rousseau or Alex may still be sorting out things and making up for lost time by pursuing the mother-daughter relationship they never got to have in life.

Why did they meet up in a church? Christian agenda much?

LOST has never gone easy on the religious metaphors and imagery but for once we have something from them that appears to strive for an inclusive spirituality despite taking place in a church (see: the stained glass window behind Jack that featured symbols from various religions and the donkey wheel). The only reason why the final moving-on-to-the-afterlife scene took place in a church was because, as Kate told Jack, it was where he was going to have his funeral for his father. And for Jack, the one thing keeping him tied to his life was his guilt over his father and his death. The funeral was where he had to say goodbye and gain the power to move on.

What happens to Jack's son?

I'm sorry to tell you, but he's not real. Jack's son was just a prop and a tool for him to have the father-son relationship he always wanted to share with his own father. Creating a kid for himself in this Sideways World is what enabled him, in part, to move on. As for Juliet, she was the mother as a matter of convenience and a nod to her and Jack's Island brief would-be Island romance. Note how little interaction she actually has with her son as further proof of how he was only important to Jack as a way of overcoming his issues.

So the Island really was a cork on a bottle then?

Yeah, can you believe that? The one time Jacob gives a straight answer.

What are your unanswered questions from last night's finale?

Related Reading:



island sideways world jack lost ]]> Wed, 26 May 2010 09:50:37 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,11 'Lost' Possibly Still Airing In Parallel Dimension, Desperate Fans Report http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~3/lMVYc5tl3ig/ Shared item The Onion
First shared by - spavis
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NEW YORKDesperate fans of the recently concluded television series Lost are speculating that the program is continuing on in a parallel dimension somewhere, and that alternate versions of showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are currently writing new episodes of the series. "It's very possible that a sideways world running concurrent to our own exists, and that a facsimile of myself is happy, fulfilled, and already gearing up for the season seven premiere of Lost," said 36-year-old Kevin Molinaro, who, along with more than 20 million other hopeless fans, has recently booked multiple roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles to Australia in hopes of traveling through a vortex in the space-time continuum. "I just have to find a way to get there. We all do." According to data from Google analytics, searches for "How to build/detonate/use a hydrogen bomb to open up a multidimensional wormhole" have increased 10 millionfold since the episode aired.

lost fans series recently dimension ]]>The Onion
First shared by - spavis
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NEW YORKDesperate fans of the recently concluded television series Lost are speculating that the program is continuing on in a parallel dimension somewhere, and that alternate versions of showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are currently writing new episodes of the series. "It's very possible that a sideways world running concurrent to our own exists, and that a facsimile of myself is happy, fulfilled, and already gearing up for the season seven premiere of Lost," said 36-year-old Kevin Molinaro, who, along with more than 20 million other hopeless fans, has recently booked multiple roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles to Australia in hopes of traveling through a vortex in the space-time continuum. "I just have to find a way to get there. We all do." According to data from Google analytics, searches for "How to build/detonate/use a hydrogen bomb to open up a multidimensional wormhole" have increased 10 millionfold since the episode aired.

lost fans series recently dimension ]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 13:05:36 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,12 Crisis on That Other Earth Over There on Fringe http://www.toplessrobot.com/2010/05/crisis_on_that_other_earth_over_there.php Shared item Topless Robot
First shared by - BrandonMendelson
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While we all continue to freak out in contentment, anger and ambivalence to the Lost finale last night, it's worth remembering there are other finales going on. For instance, Fringe's excellent season ender happened last week, which took place mostly on a parallel world where DC made the above comics (note that no one gives a shit about Wonder Woman, even in a parallel universe). It's one of the many little easter eggs Fringe fills itself with without getting bogged down into major series mythology like Lost, and that's why I'll be live-blogging Fringe once it comes back on. I don't think the fact that Fringe is actually pretty good will be problem, but I'm looking forward to finding out; a live-blog that doesn't make me want to give myself alcohol poisoning sounds pretty nice. (Via Comics Alliance)

fringe parallel lost comics pretty ]]>Topless Robot
First shared by - BrandonMendelson
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

While we all continue to freak out in contentment, anger and ambivalence to the Lost finale last night, it's worth remembering there are other finales going on. For instance, Fringe's excellent season ender happened last week, which took place mostly on a parallel world where DC made the above comics (note that no one gives a shit about Wonder Woman, even in a parallel universe). It's one of the many little easter eggs Fringe fills itself with without getting bogged down into major series mythology like Lost, and that's why I'll be live-blogging Fringe once it comes back on. I don't think the fact that Fringe is actually pretty good will be problem, but I'm looking forward to finding out; a live-blog that doesn't make me want to give myself alcohol poisoning sounds pretty nice. (Via Comics Alliance)

fringe parallel lost comics pretty ]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 12:35:55 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,13 'Lost' Possibly Still Airing In Parallel Dimension, Desperate Fans Report http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/daily/~3/lMVYc5tl3ig/ Shared item The Onion
First shared by - spavis
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NEW YORKDesperate fans of the recently concluded television series Lost are speculating that the program is continuing on in a parallel dimension somewhere, and that alternate versions of showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are curre...

dimension lost parallel fans versions ]]>The Onion
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NEW YORKDesperate fans of the recently concluded television series Lost are speculating that the program is continuing on in a parallel dimension somewhere, and that alternate versions of showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are curre...

dimension lost parallel fans versions ]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 11:00:43 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,14 Parallels launches easy way to upgrade to Windows 7 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/EcI24eZZogs/ Shared item VentureBeat
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Windows 7 is the fastest-selling operating system in history, giving a boost to sales of new PCs. But only 10 percent of existing Windows Vista and XP users have upgraded to it. That's why Parallels is launching software today that makes it dead simple to upgrade to Windows 7.

The Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7 software walks users through easy-to-use instructions on how to upgrade software safely. It shows you how to upgrade without losing data or having to reinstall programs. It does the latter with a system that will automatically install your existing programs on Windows 7 and then enter the necessary certification codes to make them run.

Microsoft ought to be grateful for this. A survey that Parallels did showed that nine out of 10 people worried about problems relating to upgrading to a new version of the operating system.

We make it simple enough so that you don't need to be a Windows 7 expert, said Peter Bauert, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Renton, Wash.-based company, in an interview. The virtualization is seamless to the user. It happens automatically and silently.

Normally, you have do a clean install wiping out your data and programs and then reinstalling them from scratch in eight of 15 different installation scenarios. With Parallels, you don't need to do the clean install. You can use Parallels to upgrade from Windows XP or Windows Vista to any version of Windows 7.

To install it, you put in your Parallels CD and click on the right option. Then you put in your Windows 7 disk and enter the authentication code. After that, it's all automatic. If you need to roll back the installation, you can do so. It costs $39.95 for the software, or $49.95 if you want a high-speed universal serial bus cable to speed the transfer of data from the old computer to the new one. There are discounts for five or more copies of Parallels. The software will be available today on the company's web site and on May 31 in retail stores. It is available in English, French and German.

Parallels uses its virtualization software to get around a lot of typical problems. The company already has 10 million customers in 125 countries. It also has 500 partners, including Microsoft. It is the No.1 desktop virtualization company, with 70 percent share of the market.

Parallels was founded in 1999 and is now a $100 million-plus company in annual revenues. It has more than 700 employees and is profitable. Rivals include VMWare, LapLink and Microsoft.

In 2005, Parallels raised outside money for the first time, with $12.4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and Intel Capital. At the time, annual revenue was just $7 million.

Companies: , , ,







parallels windows software upgrade company ]]>VentureBeat
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Windows 7 is the fastest-selling operating system in history, giving a boost to sales of new PCs. But only 10 percent of existing Windows Vista and XP users have upgraded to it. That's why Parallels is launching software today that makes it dead simple to upgrade to Windows 7.

The Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7 software walks users through easy-to-use instructions on how to upgrade software safely. It shows you how to upgrade without losing data or having to reinstall programs. It does the latter with a system that will automatically install your existing programs on Windows 7 and then enter the necessary certification codes to make them run.

Microsoft ought to be grateful for this. A survey that Parallels did showed that nine out of 10 people worried about problems relating to upgrading to a new version of the operating system.

We make it simple enough so that you don't need to be a Windows 7 expert, said Peter Bauert, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Renton, Wash.-based company, in an interview. The virtualization is seamless to the user. It happens automatically and silently.

Normally, you have do a clean install wiping out your data and programs and then reinstalling them from scratch in eight of 15 different installation scenarios. With Parallels, you don't need to do the clean install. You can use Parallels to upgrade from Windows XP or Windows Vista to any version of Windows 7.

To install it, you put in your Parallels CD and click on the right option. Then you put in your Windows 7 disk and enter the authentication code. After that, it's all automatic. If you need to roll back the installation, you can do so. It costs $39.95 for the software, or $49.95 if you want a high-speed universal serial bus cable to speed the transfer of data from the old computer to the new one. There are discounts for five or more copies of Parallels. The software will be available today on the company's web site and on May 31 in retail stores. It is available in English, French and German.

Parallels uses its virtualization software to get around a lot of typical problems. The company already has 10 million customers in 125 countries. It also has 500 partners, including Microsoft. It is the No.1 desktop virtualization company, with 70 percent share of the market.

Parallels was founded in 1999 and is now a $100 million-plus company in annual revenues. It has more than 700 employees and is profitable. Rivals include VMWare, LapLink and Microsoft.

In 2005, Parallels raised outside money for the first time, with $12.4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and Intel Capital. At the time, annual revenue was just $7 million.

Companies: , , ,







parallels windows software upgrade company ]]> Wed, 19 May 2010 06:10:49 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,15 Technical Computing http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2010/05/17/technical-computing.aspx Shared item Somasegar's WebLog
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Today, Microsoft announced our Technical Computing initiative.

Through the Technical Computing initiative, we will enable scientists, engineers and analysts to more easily model the world at much greater fidelity. The Technical Computing initiative will address a wide range of users. One of the most critical elements is to help developers create applications that can take advantage of parallelism on their desktop, in a cluster, and in public and private clouds.

The Technical Computing initiative builds on investments and inroads we're already making in areas like simplifying parallel programming. For example, Visual Studio 2010 contains the Parallel Patterns Library, user level tasks, a parallel debugger and profiler, and other tools. These features enable the developer to extract maximum performance from multicore and many-core systems. You can learn more about some of our parallel developer features in my recent blog post.

For those building multi-core and many-core applications for Windows HPC Server, the highly-tuned Message Passing Interface (MPI) implementation allows developers to create applications that span multiple systems, and Visual Studio supports debugging MPI applications as well.

As with everything we do, partners are an essential part of our solution, and the challenge of parallelism is no different. The leading tools in the industry are part of the Visual Studio ecosystem. For example, NVIDIA's Parallel Nsight allows the developer to debug and analyze codes running on GPUs and Intel's Parallel Studio lets developers extract full performance from multicore systems.

To better understand our vision and get more details, you can read the announcement.

We're also bringing together some of the brightest minds in the technical computing community across industry, academia, and science at www.ModelingTheWorld.com to discuss trends, challenges and shared opportunities. If you are interested in this space, I invite you to tune in and join the conversation.

Namaste!



technical parallel computing applications initiative ]]>Somasegar's WebLog
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Today, Microsoft announced our Technical Computing initiative.

Through the Technical Computing initiative, we will enable scientists, engineers and analysts to more easily model the world at much greater fidelity. The Technical Computing initiative will address a wide range of users. One of the most critical elements is to help developers create applications that can take advantage of parallelism on their desktop, in a cluster, and in public and private clouds.

The Technical Computing initiative builds on investments and inroads we're already making in areas like simplifying parallel programming. For example, Visual Studio 2010 contains the Parallel Patterns Library, user level tasks, a parallel debugger and profiler, and other tools. These features enable the developer to extract maximum performance from multicore and many-core systems. You can learn more about some of our parallel developer features in my recent blog post.

For those building multi-core and many-core applications for Windows HPC Server, the highly-tuned Message Passing Interface (MPI) implementation allows developers to create applications that span multiple systems, and Visual Studio supports debugging MPI applications as well.

As with everything we do, partners are an essential part of our solution, and the challenge of parallelism is no different. The leading tools in the industry are part of the Visual Studio ecosystem. For example, NVIDIA's Parallel Nsight allows the developer to debug and analyze codes running on GPUs and Intel's Parallel Studio lets developers extract full performance from multicore systems.

To better understand our vision and get more details, you can read the announcement.

We're also bringing together some of the brightest minds in the technical computing community across industry, academia, and science at www.ModelingTheWorld.com to discuss trends, challenges and shared opportunities. If you are interested in this space, I invite you to tune in and join the conversation.

Namaste!



technical parallel computing applications initiative ]]> Mon, 17 May 2010 21:45:40 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,16 Exploring Differentiation Among Cloud Service Providers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elasticvapor/~3/RTeA2rdN0zU/exploring-differentiation-among-cloud.html Shared item ElasticVapor - Life in the cloud
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I just got off our weekly Enomaly Webex in which I filled in as the host in place our product manager Pat Wendorf. I've become notorious for getting off topic when I do our Webex presentations and this week was no different. Actually doing these presentations really does help me think through some of my ideas as well as helping me get the temperature of the IaaS / hosting market of potential customers. Lately it seems that the questions have shifted from does your product have ABC or XYZ feature to how do we build a differentiated cloud service. These are the kind questions that I enjoy the most. So I'm going to explore this a bit today.

One of the biggest transitions in the hosting space over the last decade has been that of Virtual Private Servers (VPS)-- a market controlled effectively by one company, Parallels. A critical problem with the Virtuozzo Containers product line and approach has been that there is effectively no difference between any VPS hosting company. The lack of differentiation among the various VPS hosting firms has meant that the only real way to set your service apart from that of the other guys is based purely on price. This price centric approach to product/service differentiation creates a commodity market for all the providers. Basically they're sales pitch is "We're cheaper". This means you're now competing based on a low margin, high volume business, not on any real value proposition. Effectively the VPS space has become a race to zero. So in this market you'll find that most VPS hosting companies are now charging roughly the same low price, a few dollars a month, with the same low margins for same basic service. The only one making any real margin is Parallels at the expensive of their customers.

What's interesting about the emerging cloud service provider segment is the opportunity to differentiate based on the value you provide to your customers. It's not that you're cheaper than the other guy, but instead that you have an actual solution to a problem they have -- today. Maybe your platform can scale more easiliy, or you're in a specific region or city, you possibly you have a particular application deployment focus. In the case of Enomaly ECP when we developed our platform we focused on developing a cloud infrastructure with the capability to define various economic models that run the gamut from pure utility offering to quota or even tiered quality of service centric approaches. By doing so, we understand that there may still be multiple ECP deployments in a particular region, but from an end customer point of view (The customer of our customers) they can be significantly different from one another. This allows for competition based on business value not purely on price. I'll choose ECP cloud provider A because they solve my particular pain point, even though they may be more expensive than cloud B who doesn't.

My position has always been to create a shared success model, one that is mutually beneficial. The better our customers do, the better we do. A model that doesn't cannibalize our service provider customers margin in return for higher margins for us. A shared success value also provides an incentive to buy more licenses based on our customers growth. At the end of the day those 500 customers City Cloud in Sweden have now effectively become my responsibly too. (The customer of my customer is my customer) I win because my customers wins and they win because they're different, they're compelling and they have a service people need and more importantly want to buy.

Announcing The Enomaly Cloud Service Provider Edition | Twitter Me | Get Linkedin | Contact Reuven | Disclosure Policy


service customers cloud customer vps ]]>ElasticVapor - Life in the cloud
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I just got off our weekly Enomaly Webex in which I filled in as the host in place our product manager Pat Wendorf. I've become notorious for getting off topic when I do our Webex presentations and this week was no different. Actually doing these presentations really does help me think through some of my ideas as well as helping me get the temperature of the IaaS / hosting market of potential customers. Lately it seems that the questions have shifted from does your product have ABC or XYZ feature to how do we build a differentiated cloud service. These are the kind questions that I enjoy the most. So I'm going to explore this a bit today.

One of the biggest transitions in the hosting space over the last decade has been that of Virtual Private Servers (VPS)-- a market controlled effectively by one company, Parallels. A critical problem with the Virtuozzo Containers product line and approach has been that there is effectively no difference between any VPS hosting company. The lack of differentiation among the various VPS hosting firms has meant that the only real way to set your service apart from that of the other guys is based purely on price. This price centric approach to product/service differentiation creates a commodity market for all the providers. Basically they're sales pitch is "We're cheaper". This means you're now competing based on a low margin, high volume business, not on any real value proposition. Effectively the VPS space has become a race to zero. So in this market you'll find that most VPS hosting companies are now charging roughly the same low price, a few dollars a month, with the same low margins for same basic service. The only one making any real margin is Parallels at the expensive of their customers.

What's interesting about the emerging cloud service provider segment is the opportunity to differentiate based on the value you provide to your customers. It's not that you're cheaper than the other guy, but instead that you have an actual solution to a problem they have -- today. Maybe your platform can scale more easiliy, or you're in a specific region or city, you possibly you have a particular application deployment focus. In the case of Enomaly ECP when we developed our platform we focused on developing a cloud infrastructure with the capability to define various economic models that run the gamut from pure utility offering to quota or even tiered quality of service centric approaches. By doing so, we understand that there may still be multiple ECP deployments in a particular region, but from an end customer point of view (The customer of our customers) they can be significantly different from one another. This allows for competition based on business value not purely on price. I'll choose ECP cloud provider A because they solve my particular pain point, even though they may be more expensive than cloud B who doesn't.

My position has always been to create a shared success model, one that is mutually beneficial. The better our customers do, the better we do. A model that doesn't cannibalize our service provider customers margin in return for higher margins for us. A shared success value also provides an incentive to buy more licenses based on our customers growth. At the end of the day those 500 customers City Cloud in Sweden have now effectively become my responsibly too. (The customer of my customer is my customer) I win because my customers wins and they win because they're different, they're compelling and they have a service people need and more importantly want to buy.

Announcing The Enomaly Cloud Service Provider Edition | Twitter Me | Get Linkedin | Contact Reuven | Disclosure Policy


service customers cloud customer vps ]]> Fri, 14 May 2010 23:20:38 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,17 Back to (Parallel) Basics: Do you really want to do that? or Why doesn't the new Parallel.For support BigInteger? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ScottHanselman/~3/WHKYoX2eFF0/BackToParallelBasicsDoYouReallyWantToDoThatOrWhyDoesntTheNewParallelForSupportBigInteger.aspx Shared item Scott Hanselman
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Got an interesting question on Twitter, and got a fabulous answer in email from Stephen Toub, who happens to be my most favorite multi-threaded person. Here's the question. "why doesn't the new parallel.for support BigInteger?"

It's an interesting question for a few reasons. First, it's interesting because it's a question about the new parallel stuff in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 that lets the developer take parallel problems that would be very hard and makes them extremely easy. For example, you can basically take a straight for loop and often make it run in parallel on multiple-cores. This is huge.

Second, speaking of huge things, BigInteger is huge. Extremely. How big? Unbounded. Like, arbitrarily large. I'd have preferred BigAssInteger, but that's offensive, so stop asking for it. ;)

Here's Stephen's emailed answer with my added commentary.

"I know of no real scenarios that require such a large, dense iteration space and that could stay running for long enough on a single box. Parallel.For does provide built-in support for Int64, which affords up to 2^64 iterations. If you were able to run such a loop where each iteration of the loop took a nanosecond to process (i.e. a billion iterations per second), it would take something like 500 years to complete on a single core. Even with a hundred cores in a single box this would take five years to complete."

He is extremely kind. Notice how he says "why the hell would you want to do that" without making me feel bad? The man's a teacher. Not only that, he offers an alternative that would run for a half-millennium without any judgment that my problem space might be wrong. He should be a college professor.

Second, if you really do need this support, it's achievable with Parallel.ForEach and either iterators or a custom Partitioner<T>. For example, with iterators, you can write a handy method:

static IEnumerable<BigInteger> Range(BigInteger fromInclusive, BigInteger toExclusive)
{

    for(int i=fromInclusive; i<toExclusive; i++) yield return i;
}
What? After telling me it's not desirable and I don't really want to do it, he actually DOES it. That's hot.

and then consume it in a method like:

public static void ParallelFor(BigInteger fromInclusive, BigInteger toExclusive, Action<BigInteger> body)
{
    Parallel.ForEach(Range(fromInclusive,toExclusive), body);
}

which you can then use like:

ParallelFor(new BigInteger(from), new BigInteger(to), i=>
{
    // ... loop body here ...
});

Finally, I'd love to understand if lack of BigInteger support is actually causing this customer issues, or if they're just curious. And if it's actually problematic, what's the scenario?

Then, after all this he asks if there's a scenario for this that he might not have thought of. You can't know everything, so he wants to double check to make sure the library he worked on does everything the customer wants.

My man-crush on this dude couldn't be any bigger. Now if Stephen would just return my calls. The bromance continues. ;)

Hope you enjoyed this sample, and big thanks to @amarciniec for the great question.


2010 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.



biginteger parallel question support gt ]]>Scott Hanselman
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