HTML5:Up and Running book out now
Posted by Alex Costa in Books on August 24th, 2010
HTML5: Up and Running
By Mark Pilgrim
Publisher: O’Reilly Media
Now Available at Amazon: U.S.A or UK
Even though work on HTML5 is ongoing, browsers such as Safari, Mozilla, Opera, and Chrome already support many of its features — and browsers for smart phones are even farther ahead, especially iPhone’s MobileSafari browser. With HTML5: Up & Running, you’ll learn how this new version enables browsers to interact with JavaScript much more easily than before. You’ll also learn how HTML5 can help you develop applications that:
- Display video directly in the browser, without having to rely on plugins
- Work even when a user is offline, by taking advantage of HTML5′s persistent storage
- Offer a drawing canvas for dynamically generated 2-D graphics
This concise guide is the most complete and authoritative book you’ll find on the subject. Author Mark Pilgrim writes the weekly digest for the HTML5 Working Group, and represents Google at conferences on HTML5′s capabilities. Stay ahead of the curve. Order a copy of this book today. (extracted)
LinuxCon 2010 Just for Fun Poll Results explained
Posted by Alex Costa in Linux on August 12th, 2010
The results of the “Just for Fun” Poll linux.com community have just been released. You may be wondering what some of those weird names actually mean, so here goes a short guide for those, like myself, who are not up to date with it all.
Best new Kernel Feature
- Btrfs: is a new copy on write filesystem for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration. Initially developed by Oracle, Btrfs is licensed under the GPL and open for contribution from anyone.
Linux has a wealth of filesystems to choose from, but we are facing a number of challenges with scaling to the large storage subsystems that are becoming common in today’s data centers. Filesystems need to scale in their ability to address and manage large storage, and also in their ability to detect, repair and tolerate errors in the data stored on disk. [extracted from https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page ]
- Dynamic Tracing: Dynamic event tracing is one of the newest feature on perf/ftrace. This allows users to dynamically add/remove additional trace-events with various arguments in the kernel. This feature consists of kprobe-based event tracer and ‘perf-probe’ user-space command which helps users to find probe points easily from source code by analyzing kernel debuginfo. Extracted from http://events.linuxfoundation.org/lfcs2010/tracing
- LogFS: is a Linux log-structured and scalable flash filesystem, intended for use on large devices of flash memory. It is written by Jörn Engel and in part sponsored by the CE Linux Forum. [extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LogFS ]
- Ceph Filesystem: Ceph is a distributed network file system designed to provide excellent performance, reliability, and scalability. [ extracted from http://ceph.newdream.net/about/ ]
Opencart simple and great e-commerce system
Posted by Alex Costa in Open Source on August 5th, 2010
For a long time I have been very frustrated with e-commerce systems, from my self built one all the way to Magento. That was until I came across OpenCart. It’s a great system, easy to use and to develop for. Installation takes 5 minutes, it has all the modules you need to run a successful e-commerce site straight out of the .zip. I nicknamed it the “WordPress of e-commerce”! Have a look for yourself at the Opencart demonstration page.
OpenCart features:
- Open Source
- Documentation
- Unlimited Categories
- Unlimited Products
- Unlimited Manufacturers
- Templatable
- Multi-Language
- Multi-Currency
- Product Reviews
- Product Ratings
- Downloadable Products
- Automatic Image Resizing
- Multiple Tax Rates
- Related Products
- Unlimited Information Pages
- Shipping Weight Calculation
- Discount Coupon System
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Module System
- Backup & Restore Tools
- Printable Invoices
- Sales Reports
Microsoft’s Street Slide View is so unMicrosoft
Posted by Alex Costa in Microsoft on July 30th, 2010
Microsoft Research Street slide View managed to do what Google’s Street View failed to do.. oops “is missing”. After watching the video my only comment was, wow this is so unMicrosoft, this is cool. Microsoft Research has not yet announced if and when it will be making it to the Bing Maps, or any Microsoft products. But for now you can see a quick demo of how it works.
Virginmedia has bad customer service
Posted by Alex Costa in Bad and Ugly, Connectivity on July 12th, 2010
Having had services from Virgin Media before I decide to go back with them for my broadband at my new place. I did that against all the bad comments from others about their bad customer services and slowness in getting your connection setup. Well here is how it went.
- Called Virgin Media to setup connection..
- VM: “oh sir we need first month payment up front and we can get you connected”
- ok Payment made
- VM: “Now let’s arrange your connection date … I am afraid the earliest available slot is on the 12th of July (in 3 weeks time)”
- ME: “How come? Can’t you do it sooner….”
- VM: “I am afraid not”
- Installation day ( 3 weeks later)
- VM Engineer: “Sorry mate we cannot connect your cable, it would have to go over someone else’s business sign,we cannot do that”
- ME (calling VM): “Can I get the account cancelled and upfront payment reimbursed to my card?”
- VM: “Just hold the line a second.”
- 15 min later
- VM: “Sorry about the wait, yes that can be done, your reimbursement will take 3 weeks”
- ME: “How come? I had to pay it on the spot. Why do I have to wait 3 weeks for my money back?”
- VM: “Sorry sir, but that’s how it is. Have a good day!”
So I had to log this here. It’s appalling that as a customer I can get treated this bad. Now I am wondering if I should go with Sky, I heard that they are just as bad. Can anyone share any light on their experiences with Sky and other broadband providers in the UK?
Facebook privacy
Posted by Alex Costa in Social Networking on May 26th, 2010
Facebook makes a wise and intelligent u-turn in their privacy tools.
extract from a letter from FB.
Starting today, Facebook will:
* Provide an easy-to-use “master” control that enables users to set who can see the content they share through Facebook. This enables users to choose, with just one click, the overall privacy level they’re comfortable with for the content they sh
re on Facebook. Of course, users can still use all of the granular controls we’ve always offered, if they wish.
* Significantly reduce the amount of information that must be visible to everyone on Facebook. Facebook will no longer require that users’ friends and connections are visible to everyone. Only Name, Profile Picture, Networks and Gender must be pub
icly available. Users can opt to make all other connections private.
* Make it simple to control whether other applications and websites access any user information. While a majority of our users love Facebook apps and Facebook-enhanced websites, some may prefer not to share their information outside of Facebook. Users can now opt out with just one click.
New Pandigital Novel eReader with android OS
Posted by Alex Costa in Itechlog News on May 25th, 2010
Coming soon.. the new Pandigital Novel eReader has a 7in Colour Touch screen and runs Google’s Android OS. It comes with some very nice features:
- ebooks (integration with Barnes and Noble’s eBook store)
- Built-in WiFi
- SD/MMC card slot
- up to 6 hours battery (reading)
- Email access
- Browser
- Music and Video Player
- Calendar
- Games
- and everything else you can find in the Android OS
Pandigital Novel. More than a Good book.
With a full color, touch screen display, the Pandigital Novel brings dynamic multimedia to the eReader world. (extracted)
Mobile Apps overload?
Posted by Alex Costa in Mobile Phones on May 24th, 2010
The “There’s an App for that” claim for the iPhone makes me cringe. How many of the Apps we have in our mobile devices do we actually use?
I am not a good exmaple to start with as I am not an early adopter of anything technical and I tend to stay away from what the crowd goes for, so any Apple device is a no go area for me. I have though not too long ago acquired an Android powered device which I really like. I have browsed the Android App store up and down and tested a number of Apps, some cool stuff but I only keep the ones I actually use.
Here is my humble short list of favourites
- Gmail App (native to Android)
- Peep (for Twitter)
- Facebook (on the mobile browser)
- Orkut (on the mobile browser)
- Google Maps (use it a lot in conjunction with GPS)
- Google Calendar sync (native to Android)
- Music player (native to Android)
- File Browser
- gStrings (Guitar tuner)
- Youtube (native to Android)
- Droid Locator
- A couple of games
- Daily Sudoku (Embarrassing I know, but great for calming my ADHD)
How overloaded is your mobile? What are your must have Apps?
The Facebook privacy fuss
Posted by Alex Costa in Social Networking on May 22nd, 2010
Facebook is facing massive exodus over the latest change on its privacy settings. Why are you worried? Do you have a Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Flickr, a Blog or have you applied for a job online, bought anything on any website, filled in any online survey, downloaded white papers? Your information is all over the web already anyway, and most sites do not delete your information, they mark it as disabled or unsubscribed but hardly delete all the data.
Facebook has made it a little more complicated for users to set their privacy but with a little bit of work you can tighten your privacy on FB. Start by reading the privacy recommendations on Facebook. Then use the tool provided on that page to check how your profile looks to everyone on Facebook (non-friends), and adjust your privacy settings accordingly.
Avoid giving access to unnecessary applications and only use Facebook connect to sign up to an external site when you are sure you want to share your information with that website.
According to SOPHOS security, around 60% of users are considering leaving Facebook. Really?
Are you considering leaving Facebook?
- Will not leave (60%, 6 Votes)
- Haven't though about it (20%, 2 Votes)
- Already have (10%, 1 Votes)
- I am Considering (10%, 1 Votes)
- Definitely will (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 10
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Create your own Linux distro with Suse Studio
Posted by itechlog.admin in Linux, Open Source on May 22nd, 2010
With Suse Studio you can build a custom Linux distro, with your own software and branding and package it to run as a live CD\DVD, Bootable USB, VMWare, VirtualBox, Zen or a bootable intall CD\DVD.
