Graduations – Dad's Day – Weddings – the beach – such a busy month, but there's still time for technology!
Web 2.0 keeps growing according to the news. Ziff Davis research in May stated that 82% of respondents are implementing Web 2.0 technologies (mostly blogs and wikis) this year (Check out the Web 2.0 session on June 5th).
According to CompTIA, skills related to Web 2.0, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) are needed in the next five years. (Note that sentence – it stresses that we have to know both the acronym and what it represents. All easily explained in TechRef®).
According to a survey from the Center for Strategic Research, a survey revealed that wireless and radio frequency mobile technology are expected to be the most important IT skills sets globally over the next five years. Only two countries disagreed - France and South Africa ranked wireless skills second to Web-based technologies and security, respectively (CSTA hits it all!).
Don't fall behind…
Here's the schedule (or you can view the complete Schedule on our website).
CSTA Web sessions:
June 4, 5
July 9, 10
August 6, 7
September 10, 11
October 8, 9
November 12, 13
December 10, 11
UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) Web sessions:
July 10
September 11
December 13
Web 2.0 Web session:
June 5
TR Web sessions:
September 24
Keep in touch and keep up with technology!
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Individual Computers - Which Do You Want?
This area has become confusing, and will get even more confusing as new sizes and styles become available. An individual computer is any machine that has a screen and a keyboard (or touch screen, or…) for an individual to provide input and receive output from programs running on the machine. This ranges from the largest desktop to the smallest smart phone. Many people feel that the desktop machine has become outdated; that even in the business world there's no need for a system comprised of a processor/disk with a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse. In others words, even at work we should use laptops. That gets us into, what's a laptop now? I just purchased a full size laptop – and it just seems huge; I can't get used to it. So what are my alternatives?
First of all, individual computers are typically referred to as PCs and Macs. PCs are the dominant machine in the business world, and are built with Intel chips. Or lately, AMD chips. And by the way, the latest Macs are built with Intel chips. So, is there really any internal difference? Not to us. When we look at an individual machine the things we consider are speed, memory size, disk size, I/O capabilities, and physical size.
Speed. We'll look at this as meaning processor speed because that's always one of the criteria used to describe a machine. Basically, they're all faster than we are, so actually this is the least important attribute.
Memory size. Let's move straight here. In my opinion, this is the most important attribute. All programs and all data must be in memory for processing. So, the more memory you have, the more you can hold in memory, which means the less I/O you need to do. I/O is what slows you down. Pick the machine with the most memory.
Disk size. This is where your programs and data sit permanently (or at least until you get rid of them). Look carefully at disk size if you do a lot of multi-media. Video, audio, and graphics take a lot of space. If you don't use any of these, you'll never fill even the smallest disk that comes with any of these machines.
I/O capabilities. A lot of this is wireless capability. Look for Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G technologies. You could see others, but right now this is what you want and this definitely depends on the last attribute – physical size.
Physical size. Remember, your smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry Curve, etc.) is an individual computer! This is the attribute that only you can determine. How big and how heavy should a machine you're carrying around be?
o Smartphones – cell phones with computer capabilities.
o PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) – the size of cell phones without phone capabilities.
o MIDs (Mobile Internet Device) – this device is sized between a laptop and a PDA and is designed for the consumer (home) market rather than for the enterprise (business) market. Typically these systems have 5" to 7" screens (diagonal measure).
o UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer) - this is the term for enterprise machines with the same general description.
o Tablet PC – larger than the MIDs/UMPCs, with screen size typically 9" to 14" (diagonal). These systems often have touch screens and/or pen or stylus input.
o Ultrathin notebooks – thin systems that weigh 3 lbs (plus or minus) but are only a little smaller than traditional notebooks.
Remember, as systems get smaller they get lighter but they lose functions and cost more.
This is a quick overview, you still have to look at individual specifications – but remember, physical size and memory – and look for what's on sale!
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1. How long did it take to put on this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show)?
2. Which of the following does not belong?
a. Cloud
b. Rain
c. Sun
d. Wind
3. What do RHEL and SLES have in common?
4. What's the difference between S+S and SaaS?
5. What's the latest adjustment to relational databases?
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Keeping Up is Getting More and More Difficult! |
How are you doing in keeping up with technology? Just a quick look at the changes in development show how quickly IT is changing. News reports state that Ruby on Rails is expected to quadruple its growth during the next year, yet it's new technology to most of us. A survey of over 1600 people from 71 countries showed that over 80% are implementing or planning to implement Agile development techniques, yet this was barely mentioned last year. How do you keep up?
Keeping up is our job – that's what we do. And we incorporate the results of our research into our products – seminars and TechRef®. Even into our blog. The latest blog entry covers a study by Evans Data Corp. on what IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) are most popular. We use the blog to quickly publish information when we find it. Then it works its way into TechRef® and the seminars – CSTA, UITJ, TR, and the specific modules: Web 2.0, Embedded Systems, BI (Business Intelligence), Wireless Technology, and Networking. We update our materials daily so you know when you use SemCo™, you're getting up-to-date information.
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Agile
Agile development, while not new, is certainly newly popular. More and more companies are using this methodology, more and more job requirements include Agile development as a skill, so we all have more and more question. As is often the case, there is no definitive definition or list of attributes for Agile. Next month we'll spend time on it.
agile development Software development methodologies, often called "lightweight methodologies." Agile is not a single method, but a number of systems which emphasize: team development, individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, responding to change. Agile methods develop software in iterations, which typically last one to four weeks. Each iteration is like a miniature software project of its own, and includes all the tasks necessary to release the mini-increment of new functionality: planning, requirements, analysis, design, coding, testing, and documentation. While an iteration may not add enough functionality to warrant releasing the product, an agile software project intends to be capable of releasing new software at the end of every iteration.
AM (Agile Modeling) Application Development methodology which provides a collection of values, principles, and practices used during development particularly during design/modeling. Agile modeling stresses simplicity and flexibility, not the actual techniques. It stresses that the modeling focus should be on: individuals and interactions (not processes and tools); working software (not comprehensive documentation); customer collaboration (not contract negotiation); responding to change (not following a plan). Agile modeling includes UML (Unified Modeling Language), XP (eXtreme Programming), use case, and CRC (Class Responsibility Collaborator) cards. Agile modeling is supported by the Agile Alliance, a non-profit organization of individual members.
BDD (Behavior Driven Development) Development technique. Agile software development that emphasizes collaboration between developers, analysts, and the business men and women using the software. Developers use their native language in combination with the appropriate business language to describe the purpose and benefit of their code. BDD uses examples to describe the behavior of the application, and automates these examples to provide quick feedback. Originally defined in 2003 as a response to TDD (Test Driven Development).
iterative development Development methodology that builds software by starting the development with a base solution, then constantly enhancing the solution with additional functionality and/or revisions. Each step, or software release, in the process is a "build" and each build is a functional program which may or may not be released. The time for each iteration is usually one to four weeks, and each goes through the entire development cycle: analysis, design, programming, testing. Iterative development has been in use for decades, is used in open source development, and is part of Agile development.
TDD (Test Driven Development) Development methodology. Instead of writing code first and following it with testing, testing starts the process. A test is written which will fail (because there is no code for it). Code is then written and corrected until the first test is passed. Only then will a next test be run for the next functional step. This requires developing software in very small steps as each step tests only one function. TDD is based on the theory that code should not be written until the task is understood enough to write a test for it - so write the test first! Uses XUnit testing frameworks to develop automated testing as the tests are constantly rerun as each step is added. Also called Test-First Design, Test-First Development. It's a technique commonly used in XP (eXtreme Programming) and part of Agile development. Introduced in the early 2000's (although it's been tried on and off for many years).
XP (eXtreme Programming) A development methodology that uses programming teams, constant testing, and collaborative ownership of programs and systems. At every step, analysis and design are reviewed to keep errors out of the code. Operates on the principle of not allowing errors into systems. Uses pair programming. TDD (Test Driven Development) is an extension to XP. XP is considered a lightweight methodology, or an Agile methodology, because it really has few rules and more defines a programming environment in which developers can operate. Developed by Kent Beck and Ward Cunningham in the mid 1990's.
XUnit Application development testing tools. Family of testing frameworks used in XP (eXtreme Programming) development environments. Used to build automated testing as part of TDD (Test Driven Development) - also part of XP. Frameworks include:
JUnit - Testing framework for Java,
DUnit, for Delphi,
NUnit, for all .NET languages,
PHPUnit, for PHP.
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1. It depends on how you look at it. It took nearly 92,000 hours of work to put on CES – that would take over 23,000 people if it had to be done in one day. Or, at the other extreme, it would take almost 66 years if done by one person.
2. The answer is a. cloud, although we must admit we're stretching it here. The other three are all names of IT vendors, although you probably haven't heard of Rain software as it is Japanese only. And, Wind is actually Wind River. Sun's pretty honest – Sun Microsystems is well known. All this to reinforce the coming importance of cloud computing. From TechRef®: Cloud computing is technology that relies on hosting and the Internet. Anything, including development tools and environments, storage management, and database processing and management, can live in "the cloud." This means that users will subscribe to hosted functions and the host will supply the resources needed - disk space, servers, etc. Various vendors are providing cloud systems ranging from hosting disk space to complete IT environments with network management and data center capabilities. The word "cloud" refers to the fact that users have no idea where their programs or their data actually resides.
3. This is an easy one: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) are the two major commercial distributions of the Linux operating system.
4. S+S is Software plus Service and SaaS is Software as a Service. And they really are different. SaaS refers to hosted (usually over the Internet) software. Customers simply subscribe to the software which runs on the host's site. This is becoming more and more popular as customers learn to appreciate letting someone else do the backups, the security, support growth, etc. S+S is Microsoft's terminology and identifies their approach to the question of buy or rent. They want customers to purchase and install the software, but subscribe to the services that support the software such as installation software, upgrade software, etc.
5. Adjustment might not be the right word, but columnar databases are becoming more and more common. This is a relational database where the structure is based on the columns, not the rows. This means data is retrieved by columns, putting all the like data together. Column-based databases are up to twenty times faster and require up to 90% less table storage space than traditional RDBMSs. Designed for read-intensive workloads such as data warehouses and BI (Business Intelligence).
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