Oracle ports DTrace to Oracle Linux
Oracle has ported one of its most coveted Solaris tools to the Linux platform, a real-time debugging tool called DTrace, though the company has made it officially available only for its own Oracle Linux distribution.
With the release of Oracle Linux 6.4, Oracle announced that participants in its Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) -- available with a paid Oracle support license -- can download a copy of DTrace for Linux.
Many Linux developers and administrators have pined for a version of DTrace to run on Linux, a few even citing DTrace -- along with the ZFS (Zettabyte File System) -- as a major reason for not moving from Solaris to Linux. Red Hat's SystemTap, among other alternatives, duplicates some of DTrace's functionality for Linux, but doesn't offer the same level of granularity. Read more...
With Windows ‘Blue’ rumored, the Windows 8 fire sale begins
The mainstream media has picked up Mary Jo Foley's report about a public preview of Windows "Blue" -- the next version of Windows -- arriving soon. Foley quotes the Chinese-language Win8China site (which has consistently provided good insider information about Windows 8), saying RTM for Windows Blue is planned for June 7, with retail availability in August. She also quotes the site as saying the next Windows Blue milestone will include a public preview -- "MP" for Milestone Preview -- in the coming months. Read more...
You’ve made an app for Android, iOS, Windows – what about the user interface?
Cross-platform development is a big deal, and will continue to be so until a day comes when everyone uses the same platform. Android? HTML? WebKit? iOS? Windows?
Maybe one day, but for now the world is multi-platform, and unless you can afford to ignore all platforms but one, or to develop independent projects for each platform, some kind of cross-platform approach makes sense, especially in mobile.
Sometimes I hear it said that there are essentially two approaches to cross-platform mobile apps. You can either use an embedded browser control and write a web app wrapped as a native app, as in Adobe PhoneGap/Cordova or the similar approach taken by Sencha, or you can use a cross-platform tool that creates native apps, such as Xamarin Studio, Appcelerator Titanium, or Embarcardero FireMonkey. Read more...
Microsoft’s own code should prevent an Azure SSL fail: So what went wrong?
Sysadmin blog Server 2012 is the Microsoft operating system that, in my opinion, makes cloud computing a reality. As far as I am concerned it is as big a leap over Server 2008 R2 as that OS was over Server 2003. With it you can build anything from a small cluster to a service as big as Microsoft's own Azure platform.
Which is why I am completely baffled as to how it is possible that Azure was knocked offline by last week's SSL cock-up.
Let me start out by saying that I have the utmost sympathy – and respect – for the poor bastards working behind the scenes to fix this particular embarrassing incident. I'm not too proud to admit that I have done the exact same thing; like Microsoft, I've accidentally let a HTTPS certificate lapse more than once. Read more...
Hadoop Hive stung into action, swarms around SQL
Hortonworks has unveiled the Stinger Initiative, a project to make Hadoop’s Hive data warehouse friendlier with SQL and faster.
Hortonworks has also unveiled two accompanying Hadoop projects, which it’s submitted to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) in the hope they become community-supported projects. They are a runtime called Tez and a sign-in and authentication system called Gateway. Both Tez and Gateway are ASF incubator projects.
Hadoop services startup Hortonworks said Stinger would “enhance Hive with more SQL and better performance” for what it called “human-time use cases”. Read more...
New Groundwork Web dev framework shows promise
Although it shares a name with a systems monitoring tool and a content management system, the Groundwork software development framework could make a name for itself in mobile Web development.
The open source project, introduced earlier this month, is an HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript framework for rapidly prototyping and building websites and applications, said Gary Hepting, founder of Groundwork and an engineer at online television show provider SideReel. Currently in beta release, Groundwork leverages the Sass CSS preprocessor, which extends CSS3 by adding nested rules, variables, selector inheritance, and other features. "Groundwork offers an extremely flexible fractions-based grid system that can utilize halves through twelfths and two strategically targeted break-points, or media queries, that enable the ability to adapt layouts for mobile and handheld devices," Hepting said. Read more...
Ubuntu Preview alpha arrives for fondleslabs and phones
As promised, Canonical has released the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, complete with full source code and installation images for supported devices. The company warns, however, that this early, alpha-quality release is strictly for developers and enthusiasts only.
"While a huge amount of Engineering and Design work has been put into ensuring that the foundations for our user experience vision are in place, we want to stress that the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is currently work in progress," Canonical's David Planella wrote in the official announcement on Thursday. "It is not intended to replace production devices or the tablet or handset you use every day." Read more...
US students get cracking on Chinese malware code
Wesley McGrew, a research assistant at Mississippi State University, may be among the few people thrilled with the latest grim report into a years-long hacking campaign against dozens of U.S. companies and organizations.
But McGrew's interest is purely academic: He teaches a reverse engineering class at the university, training 14 computer science and engineering students how to analyze malicious software.
Part of the curriculum for his class will involve analyzing malware samples identified in a report from security vendor Mandiant, which alleged a branch of the Chinese military called "Unit 61398" ran a massive hacking campaign that struck 141 organizations over the last seven years. Read more...
Yahoo! ‘OPTIMISES’! website! for! fondleslabs! AND Facebook!
Yahoo! has once again redesigned its website as the ailing internet company attempts to squeeze more ad juice out of its online estate.
The Purple Palace's CEO Marissa Mayer announced the latest makeover in a blog post on Wednesday that was peppered with words netizens might normally associate with Facebook.
Mayer, who took to the helm of Yahoo! after quitting her high-ranking job at Google, has slapped on the Web2.0rhea paint by integrating the site more closely with Mark Zuckerberg's free content ad network. Read more...
Red Hat has BIG Big Data plans, but won’t roll its own Hadoop
Let's get this straight. Red Hat should package up its own commercial Hadoop distribution or buy one of the three key Hadoop disties before they get too expensive. But don't hold your breath, because Red Hat tells El Reg that neither option is the current plan. Red Hat is going to partner with Hadoop distributors and hope they deploy commercial Hadoop clusters on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Java and use the Gluster File System, known now as Red Hat Storage Server 2.0.
Red Hat is hosting a Big Data and open hybrid cloud briefing today, laying out how Red Hat fits into the emerging Big Data arena and how its various products come together to help support workloads like the Hadoop Big Data muncher. Greg Kleiman, director of business strategy for the storage business unit, chatted with El Reg about the possibilities for Red Hat in Big Data while going over what the company is actually announcing today in addition to its overall strategy. Read more...
Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER
Microsoft has clarified the licensing for retail versions of its Office 2013 productivity suite, confirming that boxed editions of the software are licensed for a single PC only and that the license may never be transferred, even if the user upgrades to a new PC.
Over the past week, Office users around the web have expressed dismay over new, draconian-sounding terms in the Office 2013 retail license that seem to severely curb what customers can do with the software. Specifically, this paragraph raised the most eyebrows:
You may not transfer the software to another computer or user. You may transfer the software directly to a third party only as installed on the licensed computer, with the Certificate of Authenticity label and this agreement. Before the transfer, that party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software. You may not retain any copies. Read more...
Big data shines at Demo 2012
At this week's Fall 2012 Demo conference, big data was in a category by itself -- and for good reason. In an event typically dominated by consumer-facing technologies, Demo organizers created a separate panel of executives from Cisco, Google, and venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz to analyze each of the nine presenters with products based on big data.
The newfound focus on big data tools was a result of innovative applications in both the home and the enterprise, which were exemplified by two Demo presenters in particular.
A young company called Ube harnesses big data and the ever-growing "internet of things" in an attempt to extend Wi-Fi connectivity to home appliances. Through a combination of a free mobile app and Ube's custom-designed appliances, such as a remotely activated light dimmer, electrical outlets and even plug-in adapters for standard outlets, Ube enables users to remotely control the power to almost any household device. That means that from any location the user can shut off the lights, the television, and even the iron, if the device's cord is plugged into one of Ube's smart plug outlets. Read more...
Paul Allen: Windows 8 ‘promising’ yet ‘puzzling’
Billionaire investor Paul Allen says he's bullish on Windows 8, but it seems even the co-founder of Microsoft has struggled with what he describes as some of the more "puzzling aspects" of the new OS.
In an in-depth review posted to his personal website, Allen says he has been working with a preview release of Windows 8 for a few months, and that while he has been "impressed" and "excited" by it, the experiment hasn't been entirely painless.
"Windows 8 does certainly require a brief adjustment period before users become familiar and comfortable with the new bimodal operating system," Allen writes.
"Bimodal" is the word Allen uses to describe the new OS's twin user experience, which offers both a traditional, Windows 7–like desktop environment and the blocky, touch-centric UI of Windows 8's new Start Screen. Although Allen says he appreciates both modes, like most of us he found it disconcerting how the OS kept bouncing him between the two. Read more...