Why cloud computing will kill programming – and make us all developers
We've been promised all sorts of benefits from cloud computing: faster development, cheaper applications - and even a recession-friendly switch from capex to opex for IT projects.
All of this is marvellous news for the CIO, but could it be that the cloud is anything but good news for the humble techie?
Certainly those IT workers who spend their time taking care of rickety, homegrown enterprise applications will find their jobs automated when the business moves to cloud applications instead. But as cloud computing matures over the next few years, could the impact on tech workers be even greater? Could the cloud really kill off programming altogether?
In this new cloud computing world, so the argument goes, any element needed to build an application will already exist on the web somewhere, so all that will be needed is for someone to connect up this series of ready-made modules and APIs in order to create a new application. Read more...
Hire-car data scraper becomes Catcher in the Rye
Software used to target ads for rental cars has been successfully applied to keeping British youngsters in education or employment after leaving school.
The predictive risk modelling software from IBM was turned to an unusual use by the Kent-based Medway Youth Trust after an employee had a brainwave.
Aware that it is easier to help kids before they get into trouble rather than when they're unemployed, unqualified and dabbling in petty crime, Data Quality Manager Gary Seaman decided to apply customer behaviour algorithms to information about young people to predict who was likely to wind up in trouble so that the youth services could reach them before they did.
And they decided to use software bought by companies like Avis and life insurers. The result is the Hidden Patterns social enterprise that aims to rescue kids with data. IBM donate the charity their predictive behaviour software for free and the trial has been running since February. Read more...
Mozilla makes progress on Firefox silent updates
Mozilla is making progress on adding a silent update mechanism to Firefox, with plans to integrate the new service in Firefox 10 early next year.
But one of the developers working on the feature cautioned that silent update might slip.
"At this point, we're not quite sure which version of Firefox this will land in.... We're working to land it as soon as is safely possible," Ehsan Akhgari, a Firefox engineer in charge of one of the silent update components, said in a blog post last weekend.
Akhgari's part of the project is to minimize the amount of time it takes Firefox to launch after downloading an update.
To do so, he's come up with a way to stage the downloaded update -- essentially an updated copy of Firefox -- in a separate Windows directory, then swap the older edition with the newer one the next time the user starts up Firefox. Read more...
UK Internet Blacklist Censors Fileserve File-Hosting Service
UK users of the popular Fileserve file-hosting service are currently unable to download any files as the site is being blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation. Since early this week the blacklist, which aims to disable access to sexual child abuse content, has been preventing users from accessing their personal files and downloading those uploaded by others. Fileserve expects the issue to persist for at least a couple of days.
With hundreds of millions of page views each month, Fileserve is listed among the 10 most-visited file-sharing sites on the Internet. The site allows users to store files in the cloud for personal use or subsequent sharing with the rest of the world.
For the past several days, however, many Fileserve users from the UK have noticed they are unable to download files to their computers using the service. Read more...
New kernel patch slashes Linux’s power appetite
Linux users working on laptops and other portable devices may soon have cause to rejoice thanks to a new kernel patch that finally promises to fix power regression problems associated with recent versions of the software.
Affecting Linux systems using version 2.6.38 or later of the Linux kernel, the problems have dramatically increased the amount of power consumed by Linux, resulting in far fewer hours of use per each battery charge.
Power consumption on an Intel Sandy Bridge notebook running Ubuntu Linux with kernel 3.1, for example, has increased by 76 percent since earlier this year due to Linux kernel regressions, according to a report this summer on Phoronix. Read more...
Chinese hackers took control of NASA satellite for 11 minutes
Landsat-7 and Terra EOS satellites
Hacking is becoming a growing problem on Earth. It may seem strange to mention Earth, as there’s not much to hack outside of our planet’s atmosphere unless you count satellites. Even then, how feasible would it be to gain access to the systems running such devices?
Well, China not only has people working on such things, it has been discovered they actually managed to take control of two NASA satellites for more than 11 minutes. Read more...
Apple rumor watch: iPad 3 March, iPhone 5 LTE
The Apple [AAPL] rumor machine kicks into high gear this weekend, as veteran iWebsite, iLounge, claims a well-sourced rumor: that the iPad 3 ships in March while the iPhone 5 will boast a metal back and LTE support.
Can I take a little salt with that?
"It is certain because it is possible," wrote Tertullian way back in c.160AD. And that's the thing about rumor -- as he also wrote, "It is certain because it is impossible." Do these directly contrasting phrases offer enough subliminal suggestion that all these rumors could be misconstrued or false?
Let's take a look at the claims, first for the iPad 3:
The report claims the next iPad will be slightly thicker (an additional 0.7mm) but this thickness will be to hold a twin light bar system for the much higher-resolution display. The report claims we may see the device take a bow in January for a March release. Read more...
Apps to help organize Thanksgiving
It's my first autumn with both an iPad and an Android phone, and it's nice to be out of the webOS apps wilderness. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I was on the lookout for something to help me keep track of various holiday-week tasks across both my mobile platforms. Here are a couple I'm using now; I'd be interested to hear any additional suggestions in the comments below.
For groceries, I've settled on OurGroceries, available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry as well as on the Web (although the website was a bit less reliable than the app when I was putting together a Thanksgiving grocery list last week). You can share grocery lists across multiple devices and platforms, including with a spouse or other partner who splits your household chores. It's easy to add items and/or mark them off as you're shopping. For long-term use, you can enter recipes into the app and then add ingredients all at once to your list. Read more...