NextGate Webinar on Integration Options for Sun Customers; Convert your Monk Code to Java

Back in February just after Oracle's acquisition of Sun closed, I wrote a few thoughts on the strategy for Sun's middleware.  Something I didn't go into detail on is what the plans were for Sun's MDM and legacy integration products like DataGate, e*Gate, TRE, SRE, and ICAN.  Thankfully for those customers that have a lot invested in those products or technologies they included like Monk, NextGate is holding a series of webinars on what the options are.

The first one was held last week and there is another this Wednesday.  If you want to learn more, join one!

links for 2010-06-28: iPhone 4 doubles 3G bandwith speeds; iPhone wish list = Android; Google Voice goes GA; AWS in the enterprise

• iPhone 4 upgrades to HSDPA and HSUPA can double 3G bandwidth speeds - I wonder why these upgrades to HSDPA and HSUPA weren't advertised?  This is probably the benefit some are most interested in.
  
• An iPhone wish list looks more like an Android feature list - A survey says iPhone users want choice of wireless networks, a 4G network, 8 megapixel camera, and FM radio tuner, all features available on some Android devices.
  
• Google Voice: Will the masses adopt it? - It's been in private beta for a long time and is now GA for the masses.  I've indicated before I've a big fan and user and use it as my primary number for business.
  
• 10 things: Using Amazon Web Services in the enterprise - Looking to leverage the cloud?  Things to think about.
  

links for 2010-06-25: iOS4 vs Android Multitasking; Tiered Data Pricing; AWS SNS User Survey; eGate and Java CAPS future options

• Apple iOS 4 vs. Android Multitasking: Which Approach Is Better for Users? - A good highlighting of the pros and cons.  What it fails to note is that the con against Android (grace and vision?) can and will be addressed while the con against Apple will likely not be as it goes against Apple's approach of dumbing it down for the user.
• Report on AT&T's tiered data pricing forgets the innovation factor - It is interesting how the cycle seems to be going back to tiers and not unlimited.
  
• AWS SNS User Survey - An opportunity to give feedback to Amazon on their Simple Notification Service.  I'd advise not simply asking for all the features of your favorite JMS provider, think Cloud!
• NextGate webinar for Sun Integration customers - Good information on what the options are for future strategies around eGate, ICAN, SRE, and Java CAPS.  They are holding it again next week.

links for 2010-06-24: iOS 4 missed on multi-tasking; iOS4 vs Android; History of Communication; Oracle see Sun profit

• Multitasking With iOS 4 is Horrible: Apple Blew It - One person's view of one of the key features of iOS 4.  It seems only select apps can do it and/or developers have to write special code for it.  Also see this: "on day one, this feature is a mixed bag, and appears to be best left to Apple's own core apps--as opposed to third-party apps--which largely defeats the purpose of the feature."
  
• iOS 4 ... All you need to know! - One persons review, another here comparing an iPhone with Android.
• A Modern History of Human Communication - Interesting chart, and yes I'm a Google Voice user and love it.
• Oracle Beats, Sees Sun Profit - They say Sun contributed $400M to operating income.

links for 2010-06-22: Flash goes Mobile; Java's Future; Java CAPS Future;

• Adobe launches Flash 10.1 for Mobile: More than half of all smartphones by 2012? - There may be issues at first (battery life?), but pushing the envelope is how issues get resolved, not by constraining innovation.
  
• Why I'm Worried About Java's Future - John highlights the 2GB JVM memory limitation as a key issue.
  
• Wondering what to do about your integration strategy as it relates to Java CAPS? - NextGate to hold 2 webinars on what options Java CAPS (and eGate and DataGate) customers have now that they are Oracle's customers.
  
• The Economics of Open Source: Why the Billion Dollar Barrier is Irrelevant - As he's mentioned before, Stephen says data is the key: "Data is likely, in my view, to be more profitable longer term than mechanisms such as dual licensing (coverage). Telemetry (coverage) is the obvious next revenue source for open source entitites."
  

links for 2010-06-21: CSC's Cloud; SaaS Adoption Discrepancies; Tiered mobile data plans; Verizon's 4G network; Finding zip code areas; Sybase says iPhone 4 to grow in enterprise

• CSC Launches Cloud Collaboration, SaaS - CSC evolving their datacenters to the Cloud.
  
• Research Report: How SaaS Adoption Trends Show New Shifts In Technology Purchasing Power - A huge disparity between business and IT on how SaaS is being used.
  
• Tiered mobile data plans accelerate: Verizon Wireless to follow AT&T's lead - Once AT&T did it, you knew Verizon would too.  But will Sprint and T-Mobile?  As the smaller players, they may have incentive (and capacity to support it) to keep unlimited.
  
• A step closer to 4G: Verizon moves to 'user trials' in LTE - Sounds like AT&T is investing, but will still be behind Verizon and folks like Clear on rolling out 4G.
  
• Find Zip Codes With This Useful Map - Nifty utility.
  
• Sybase: Apple's iPhone 4 likely to solidify enterprise traction - Some interesting data.
  

links for 2010-06-17: iPhone to Verizon? (again); Emerging Cloud Wars; YouTube video editing

• Apple iPhone to Verizon drumbeat picks up (again) - The rumors (or wishes) continue.
  
• The Emerging Cloud Wars - A good discussion of the move to and strategic value of PaaS.
• YouTube Video Editor: A nice start but hardly ready for prime time - They aren't impressed, but my guess is this is just a start and more features will come.
  

links for 2010-06-16: Scott McNealy on 25 years of .com; Oracle cutting more Sun jobs; NetBeans 6.9 released; Twitter outages; Linux share increases; JPL in the clouds

• Scott McNealy’s Top 15 Reasons He’s Surprised We’re Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Web - It is always great to see Scott on stage, especially when he has a top-10 (errr 15) list.
  
• Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math - I blogged most of his individual entries earlier this year, now you can get them all in one place.  Good stuff for those curious about math.
  
• Oracle Cutting More Jobs Tied To Sun Deal; Taking Big Charge - Seems to be tied to LEC completing in European and Asian countries, but still sad to see.
  
• Oracle Delivers NetBeans IDE 6.9: Expanding Support for JavaFX 1.3 and OSGi - It is good to see that NetBeans doesn't seem to be withering away.  But the preferred IDE for Fusion is still JDeveloper and Eclipse.
  
• Twitter: Sorry, but outages come with bigger improvement plan - Interesting analogy to road construction.
  
• Linux inches up on desktop, holds steady on servers - The only OS to gain share in May.  I can understand Windows dipping but I'm surprised Mac OS dipped too.
  
• NASA JPL, robots and the AWS cloud - Some interesting applications of EC2, SimpleDB, and S3.
  

links for 2010-06-13: AT&T flaw exposes iPad owners e-mail addresses; iPhone vs Android vs webOS?; Multitenancy risks; AT&T's new data plans

• Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed - It is shocking that a RESTful Web service for retrieving e-mail addresses would be completely unsecured.
  
• iPhone vs. Android vs. webOS: A Counterpoint - What HP does with webOS is going to be interesting and is the wildcard in the mobile OS battle.
  
• WordPress and the Dark Side of Multitenancy - Yes, with multi-tenancy the failure of one machine/datacenter can mean multiple sites go out, but that risk is still outweighed by the benefits in many scenarios.
  
• The bottom line: iPhone 4 vs. Android’s best (does Nokia, Microsoft, RIM have a chance in getting into the game?) - Another comparison, this one liking the iPhone 4 on everything other than voice quality, carrier, tethering, and synch, or everything other than being a phone! :)
  
• The Problem with AT&T’s New Data Plans - I'm glad I'm still grandfathered in on the unlimited, but did change my wife's to a new plan to save a little money.
  

Eclipse Community Survey 2010 Published; Interesting OS, app server, and open-source results

The Eclipse Community Survey 2010 is now available, and as a big fan of surveys and data, I couldn't help but dive in to take a look at what the community had to say.

First, as is the case with all surveys and data, one has to consider the audience when looking at the results to understand the context, and in this case, the survey was promoted on the eclipse.org web-site and related blogs/tweets.  It was also only available in English and 1,696 respondents completed it.  And over 50% of the respondents listed themselves as programmers.

Ok, with that out of the way, what are some of the interesting results or observations?

• Nearly 40% of developers now use Linux (32.7%) or OS X (7.9%) for their primary development OS.  The audience is clearly the reason this is much higher than you'd expect for the general desktop population, but both the Linux and OS X numbers are growing at the expense of Windows which is down 6% to 58.3% from last year.
• Linux (46%) is ahead of Windows (41%) for deployment OS.
• Sun Hotspot (69.8%) and Open JDK (21.7%) still dominate the JVM used for deployed applications.
• Scrum (15.4%) and iterative (10.9%) are the leading development methodologies.
• Hudson (21.8%) is the 3rd most used release management tool behind Ant (50.4%) and Maven (28.3%).
• There is a nearly even split among the primary types of apps being developed between RIAs (26.9%), Server-centric apps (26.9%), and desktop client apps (21.0%).
• For server frameworks, in something of a surprise given all the bashing EJBs have taken over the years, EJB (18.6%) and Spring (19.7%) use is nearly on par and ahead of Servlets (10.1%).
• It is no surprise that MySQL (31.8%) is the leading database used, but Oracle (21.6%) is not far behind and well ahead of the others.
• Tomcat (33.8%) far and away the most used app-server and disappointingly, GlassFish (2.9%) is last listed behind WebSphere, Jetty, and WebLogic.
• Nearly 60% have no plans to use the Cloud!  This is somewhat surprising given all the hubbub we are hearing about the Cloud.

What is perhaps most interesting (and gets its own paragraph, not just a bullet :)) is the section on open-source maturity.  There has been a gradual shrinking of companies that have a business model that relies on open-source and a pretty big decline in companies that use open-source and contribute back.  There is a pretty big increase in those that use open-source but don't contribute back, so it would seem that use has not declined, but engagement and collaboration with the communities has certainly suffered.  And somewhat alarming is that, while still a very small percentage, the number of companies not allowing the use of any open-source software is growing.

What does this all mean?

• I believe that the growth of non-Windows platforms for development and deployment continues although it is probably getting closer to the ultimate balance point.
• Developers continue to use and adopt new tools and technologies that enhance their productivity but are not abandoning prior technologies that have had significant improvements (EJB with Java EE 6).
• Developers are taking a pragmatic or perhaps more pessimistic approach to the Cloud and open-source.  Perhaps due to the economy and companies having to tighten their belts, use of open-source continues but there is no longer the resources to fully buy into the model and contribute back.

What do you think?

track links for 2010-06-05: Lagat sets new 5000m AR; Bryan Clay wins Gotzis

• Lagat sets American record in Diamond League Oslo 5000m - A great run, but his son is disappointed he finished 3rd!  The 5000m at Pre could be very interesting if Lagat, Solinsky, and Rupp all run.
  
• Nike Elite Stories: Bryan Clay - Good article on Clay.

links for 2010-06-04: iPhone to Android switch; Open standard, but only in Safari; AT&T Data Pricing

• So You Want to Switch to Android…One Man’s iPhone to Nexus One Migration - Stephen makes the switch and shares his thoughts.
  
• Only Apple can do open standards, apparently - This is laughable.  Yes, HTML5 is fairly new and so it is still being fully implemented in browsers, but Chrome and Firefox have been near or at the lead in those implementations so demonstrating and open standard but requiring Safari kind of defeats the purpose.
  
• AT&T's data plan pricing: Bringing confusion back to the game - It may be confusing, but I check my usage and it was actually quite low due to being on WiFi most of the time.  But I haven't been traveling much so it may be artificially low.
  

links for 2010-06-01: Apple pulled previously approved apps; Primer on "HTML5"

• It's Groundhog (Software) day again as Apple rejects already-approved app - This is what is really frustrating, an app that was approved being pulled with no recourse or direction on what to change.  "The problem lies, absolutely, in the shifting goalposts of Apple's rules on what it is going to allow on its platform."
  
• A HTML Primer for the Overwhelmed - Not sure what exactly HTML5 is (and isn't)?  This is a good read and introduces the "HTML5 Family".