Archive for February, 2010

Truly Random Numbers

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

A new approach to generating truly random numbers could lead to improved Internet security and better weather forecasts, according to researchers writing in the International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems.

Random numbers are a critical part of computer and Internet security. They allow websites and browsers to encrypt the data sent between them using a session key. Weather forecasters, climate scientists, economists, and epidemiologists also use random numbers to generate simulated data for their predictive models. Such simulations can test theories of hurricane formation, climate change, and the spread of disease epidemics, for instance.

http://www.drdobbs.com/security/223100204

Die IE6! DIE!!!

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

It’s time for IE6 to die. Seriously. The funeral’s been arranged for March 1st, yet about 20% of the web still use this wretched browser.

Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.

As much as I’d like March 1st to be the last day that people browser the web with this browser, that’s not how it’s going to be. Despite being horribly out of date, people still use it.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7480&tag=wrapper;col1

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

In this unique technical book, today’s leading software architects present valuable principles on key development issues that go way beyond technology. More than four dozen architects — including Neal Ford, Michael Nygard, and Bill de hOra — offer advice for communicating with stakeholders, eliminating complexity, empowering developers, and many more practical lessons they’ve learned from years of experience. You’ll learn what top software architects think is important, and how they approach their projects.

To be successful as a software architect, you need to master both business and technology. This book tells you what top software architects think is important and how they approach a project. If you want to enhance your career, 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know is essential reading.

Richard Monson-Haefel

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596522704

Seminar ‘De Agile IT-organisatie’ op 12 maart 2010

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Voert uw organisatie agile projecten uit, maar kunt u de voorgespiegelde voordelen niet realiseren? Streeft u een agile organisatie na en wilt u leren van experts? Wilt u het agile werken opschalen van losse ontwikkelprojecten naar een strategie om uw hele IT-organisatie agile te maken? Dit seminar, gehouden op 12 maart 2010 in Bilthoven, gaat in op de essentie van agile werken, zodat u de voordelen in uw eigen context kunt evalueren. Aan de hand van ervaringen uit de praktijk leert u hoe u uw afdeling succesvol kunt transformeren. Interessant? Zie voor meer informatie:

http://www.dnv.nl/nieuws_events/events/2010/seminardeagileitorganisatie.asp
Aanmelden op
http://www.cibit.nl/site.nsf/page/ict_seminars_2010_seminar_12_maart_2010_agile

Service Integration Bus Performance

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

A tool that provides a quick and easy way to view the messaging performance statistics for WebSphere Application Server (6+) and WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus.

The tool is written entirely in Java™ using the PMI (Performance Monitoring Interface) APIs provided by the WebSphere® Application Server. The look and feel of the GUI is provided by the Standard Widget Toolkit, which was developed by the Eclipse foundation.

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/sibperf

Making the Most of Metrics

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Exposing Value with Metrics

Sometimes the toughest question to answer sounds very simple – “How are you doing?” When this question is asked of a CEO or CFO, the answer is usually a reflection of the financial state of the organization. However, when this same question is asked by the CEO to line of business leaders about initiatives and processes within the organization, it brings into play a complex set of interrelationships and dependencies.

Laura Mooney

http://www.information-management.com/newsletters/metrics_strategic_operational_performance-10017214-1.html

Trends voor 2010

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Virtualisatie en cloud computing zullen in 2010 de IT-agenda domineren. Maar er zijn meer ontwikkelingen van belang. Bedrijven zullen aandacht moeten besteden aan de transparantie van hun bedrijfsvoering. In het verlengde van die ontwikkeling zal BPMM (Business Process Maturity Model) regelmatig aan de orde zijn. Het begint uiteraard allemaal met de afstemming tussen business en IT. En tot slot, bij dit alles kan een digitale herbezinning geen kwaad. Want is alle informatie wel zo makkelijk vindbaar?

http://www.informatie.nl

Configuration Management Is Key to Robust Software

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Configuration management is crucial to the smooth development of a product; the time you spend setting configuration management up properly is time you will save later.

Sound configuration management is fundamental to delivering a capable product: How can you evaluate what you have if you don’t know what you have? We suspect that inadequate attention to configuration management is the reason for the quantity of changes that plagues some products during development.

Kim Pries and Jon Quigley

http://www.softwaremag.com/L.cfm?Doc=1251-12/2009

Bonjour Programming on the iPhone, Part I

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Bonjour is Apple’s implementation of the Zeroconf protocol, which enables the automatic discovery of computers, devices and services on an IP network. Bonjour is Apple’s implementation of the Zeroconf protocol, which enables the automatic discovery of computers, devices and services on an IP network. In this article, you will learn how to implement Bonjour on the iPhone by using the NSNetService class to publish a service. You will also use the NSNetServiceBrowser class to discover services that have been published. In the next article, you will learn how to communicate with another device that you have discovered using TCP/IP.

Wei-Meng Lee

http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/44126

Add entities in XML

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Many developers use entities in their XHTML for special characters, but in XML you can also define entities to make authoring easier, or to reference the content of external documents. Entities are also useful when you create a Document Type Definition (DTD) and want to reduce its apparent complexity to keep it readable by humans. This article will tell you all about XML entities and show you how to take advantage of them in your documents.

Chris Herborth

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-entities/

Build rich Java Web applications with Apache Wink and Ajax

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

This article introduces Apache Wink, which is a framework for building Representational State Transfer (REST)ful Web services. Apache Wink is an Apache Incubator project. Its goal is to provide an easier method of writing RESTful Web services by providing the ability to use Java™ annotations to define services inside classes.

Nathan A. Good

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-richjava/

Project Euler

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems.
The motivation for starting Project Euler, and its continuation, is to provide a platform for the inquiring mind to delve into unfamiliar areas and learn new concepts in a fun and recreational context.

http://projecteuler.net/