Simple Tabs in jQuery

Simple jQuery Tabs I have been looking for leaner jQuery code for a number of widget apps. Here is a simple jQuery tabs implementation by Jack Moore. I have modified the CSS and minor changes to the script. Here is the JSFiddle: [iframe src=”http://jsfiddle.net/jbsurveyer/SD2R4/2/” width=”100%” height=”480″] And here is the standalone file with working code: […]

jQuery Image Display Toggles

A consistent need in web display is to be able to show selectively more details of an image+description triggered by either a click or mouseEnter/mouseLeave event. True, jQuery-powered lightbox and popups can deliver the same functionality; but many of these jQuery scripts are slow to fire up or may be complex to code. The following […]

Will the PC Not Just Revive But Prevail over Mobile Devices?

The world of computing has been turned topsy turvy by mobile devices – light, mobile, long-battery life and most important – touch screen operable. Smartphones and tablets  from Apple have lead the way; but now the Wintel Empire Strikes Back with ultrabooks , convertibles and 2-in-one PCs. But what may shape this latest twist in […]

Blackberry’s New Found Agility?

During most of 2011 and 2012 the Financial Aanlysts mark against RIM and its Blackberry phones and software was slowness in responding to changes in the market. The Playbook tablet update took 6-8 months to respond to the iPad onrush and fell far short. The smartphones were being hobbled by the update to the BB10 […]

Leap in 3D UI Development?

Microsoft and Apple are racing to implement the next UI breakthru – 3D gestures. These are are already of course available in various implementations of Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect. Microsoft’s announcement  today of its intentions to miniaturize its Kinect hardware for laptops. It comes at a strange jumcture in time – no big announcements from major […]

WP Sliders: M-vSlider

jQuery based image slider plugins for JavaScript and WordPress have gotten so good that there are now at least 50 slider plugins that would easily pass  our laundry list test of slider attributes. By the way, just 6-12 months ago, this was state of the art for the best features for  WordPress slider plugins: Slider […]

Whose Muckier – Windows 8 RT, Apple iOS, Google Android?

Google Plus is a great place for discussing technology trends. Here is an example: ZDNet’s Steven Vaughn-Nichols picks up a Wayne Rash post who in turn is commenting on how eMail support may be one of the reasons behind Windows 8 Surface RT [the ARM version of Windows hardware ] flagging sales and relatively high return   […]

Chinese Hack Attack Super Highway

The spate of recent Chinese hacks into major US media at NYTimes and the Wall Street Journal among others  are a cogent reminder of how vulnerable US organizations and institutions are to Chinese Hack attacks. The underlying problem is the Chinese hack attacks on Google in 2009-2010 revealed that the Chinese hackers likely have the complete Internet Explore […]

The Economists Superfast Broadband Webinar – Mushy at Best

The Economists’s Intelligence Unit sponsored today a free webinar on Superfast Broadband with telecom equipment provider Huawei. The instant grade for the webinar is Mushy and not because of the telecom delivery. On 3Mbs Rogers Cable in Canada, the reception was on the whole quite good – maybe 4-6 dropouts, but to my surprise no […]

Metamaterials Change Telecommunication

In an earlier report, TheOpenSourcery advised readers that a major revolution in WiFi services was arriving with new 802.11ac and then 802.11ad wireless standards reaching ratification. The key to this order of magnitude improvementsover the next 2-5 years is that  underlying WiFi providers already prepared to deliver major improvements in routers and delivery while client […]

802.11ac : How 5G WiFI Is Fast Emerging

Wifi over the next 3 years has two technologies which will treble and then treble again WiFi performance; however there are some caveats. But lets see how this plays out with the existing standards: 802.11n – is the basis for 4G WiFi networks. Its improves range and speed over earlier 3G 802.11 WiFi Standards. 802.11n […]

Windows 8’s Three Android Advantages

Windows 8 will have 3 advantages derived from Google’s Android and two homegrown ones. The first is below: Lenovo’s 360 pivot convertible – use as a tablet or a laptop. Google’s Android leads the smartphone market [53%US market share to Apple’s 34% according to Comscore] because it has  many hardware suppliers and Google has periodically released […]

Powerpoint Presentations on the Web

Now use Scribd shortcode on a WordPress Blog. Powerpoint on  WordPress self-hosted webblogs First try is with  WordPress [ embed ] statement Note the Powerpoint Presentation on  Scribd has been made public. Ooops –  no cigar for a live embedded Powerpoint; but the link will take you to the proper page. Second try using iPaper […]

Computing’s Big 3 and the Continuing Dissatisfaction with Microsoft

When proposing that Windows 8 would be a smash hit, the highly negative reaction to Windows 8  I discovered on commentary sites like Reddit  and Digg was a bit surprising. Many of the reactions to Windows 8  were pure scorn. It appears that Microsoft  has a lot of make-up still to do for such sore points as […]

Windows 8 Will Be A Smashing Hit

For the past half year I have secretly  held the notion that Windows 8 will be a  smashing hit. But the problem has been that my access to full multi-touch screen Windows 8 test machines has been limited. But not so for  multi-touchpad and touch mice equipped Windows 8 PCs which I, clients and many Windows […]

Ultrabook Touchscreen Scam

Its the dog days of summer, PC sales are flat or declining, and Windows 8 is a long 3 months away for retailers. So what is the latest scam – selling Ultrabooks with admittedly much improved battery life,  improvements in weight and size, mixed improvements in performance as the PC steal deal. Minor problem. Many […]

The Big 3 in Computing – Apple, Google, Microsoft

The Big 3 in Consumer Computing for the next 3-8 years have declared themselves all in. Just as in the auto industry from 100 years ago, the consolidation in computing has begun and the OS software makers have emerged as the top 3. Each has approached the hardware side of computing from different angles because […]

On the Verge of Greatness – LeapMotion’s 3D Touch Tool

TheVerge gadget website finally caught onto to what theOpenSourcery readers have known about 3 weeks ago. The next dynamite NUI-Natural User Interface that is going to sweep the Consumer Computing scene is LeapMotion’s SuperKinect, 3D pointer tool which will hopefully do away with  both the mouse and  all variety’s of trackpads in the near future.. […]

Mozilla WebMaker Project: Xray-Goggles

Mozilla WebMaker Project is an endeavor to get more people programming and using the Web in a variety of ways. It is generally well intended but has some mixed software made available to budding web developers. I will have a separate write up on Thimble for creating Web pages. But the Hackasaurus Xray-Googles is review […]

Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface : Linux Last PC Opportunity?

The DOJ-Department of Justice when it won its Antitrust case against Microsoft  also lost it at that moment because the officials involved had not agreed on a remedy for controling Microsoft.  In the end it was $3 billion in fines and kid glove  supervision by the Bush DOJ for 5 years. However, one remedy which […]

Consumer Computing Monopolies Surface

With the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface, Consumer Computing has surfaced 3 Big OS vendor monopolies. Apple, Google and Microsoft  have become the Consumer Computings  monopoly vendors.By the fact that their OS  are vital to both software and hardware vendors plus their ownership of  increasingly vital hardware and software companies, the Big 3 OS Vendors now dictate […]

Ballmer on Weed

Just to make things interesting, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is predicting that by the end of 2013 there will be 500 million units of Windows 8 sold – that is 500 million in about 15 months. Whew! Talk about living dangerously. And here is why: The Guardian newspaper has been following total Worldwide PC Sales and noting […]

Windows 8 as a Repeat of the Vista Disaster

There is mounting evidence since the release of  the Final Release Preview that  Windows 8 is shaping up to be a repeat of  the Vista Disaster.  The basic ingredient is that Redmond feels it can do a Steve Jobs – and force its users to accept wholescale changes that they might not normally agree with. […]

The Next Wave of NUI – Natural User Interfaces

New Devices+UI Software that change the UI game decisively are starting to come to market. They are referred to as Natural User Interfaces or PostWIMP – succeeding GUI interfaces that use WIMP- Windows Icons Menus and Pointers. There is a whole community of different Natural User Interface designs from Tangible UI that have inspired the Microsoft […]

Windows 8 Goes Bipolar

Personal Computing is forking between a Consumer Computing UI and a Busines or Operational+Creative Computing UI.  The new trend  has been called  the Post PC era and the description of two separate and distinct UIs for Computing could not be more appropriate. Now some will argue that PC UIs have already split. For example,  the Web […]

Windows 8 Touch Tensions

This post explores in details some of the Windows 8 Development Tensions. As with any massively new system, tensions inevitably develop as new features are enabled and some older APIs and programming libraries  are deprecated and even abandoned.This is particularly true in the case of Windows because for well over a decade the Windows goal has […]

Seeking A Robust JavaScript UI Framework

For many developers, the decision on choosinga a JavaScript framework is tough. There are many good ones from Dojo thru DHTMLx to jQuery and MooTools among the  many UI based JS frameworks plus  backbone.js and qooxdoo on the MVC side. So to filter the large set of choices,  the following  criteria are proposed: 1)support for […]

Google Blogger vs WordPress.com

In the past few years two Blog providers have emerged as the best free Website creation tools – Google Blogger and WordPress.com. Note That I say Website because the page, widget, theme and menu features of these two tools added to the blogging features allow one to create more than a blog but a full web […]

Project Management – the SaaS Natural

I have always wondered why SalesForce.com with its CRM system has been the pioneer in SaaS applications. Yes there is the need to communicate in a mobile fashion among all members of a scattered marketing team. Yes, SaleForce has great mail and messaging capabilities. essential for marketing collaboration. Yes, tieing things together with SalesForce AppXchange […]

Two Superb Free Stanford Univ. Courses – DEADLINE TODAY

This is the first of two excellent free online Stanford University courses whose registration expires March 18th 2012. Design and Analysis of Algorithms looks at how to approach the many solution and coding data stuctures  used in modern search, storage and database operations. Prof. Roughgarden has a clear and well measured approach to the problem […]

Apple’s new iPad 3 in Business: Wins and Losses

On First Glance Not Much Different from iPad 2 You are not supposed to call it  the iPad 3, rather the Resolutionary new iPad. The new iPad specs show that it has the same dimensions, weight, battery life of the previous iPads. The winning feature is  the fabled retina screen, 2048 x 1526 pixels on 9.7 inch […]

The Plus PC World: Client Computing Directions

The Technology pundits have it all wrong – calling for a Post PC World. Over on Reddit, we are having a small debate on the Post PC World versus the Plus PC World. The Post PC World see the decline of the PC as they are replaced by smartphones, tablets, games and other mobile devices […]

The Importance of the Windows 8 beta on Feb 29th

Here is framed the invite at Barcelona’s Mobile World Conference Windows 8 beta is important for Microsoft. Judging by what Microsoft is doing under Steven Sinofsky, this is a bet the farm edition of Windows. And if you see some of the details at the Windows 8 blog, Redmond keep doubling down on its feature […]

What is Missing in Apples iBook Author? Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash. iBook Author got a lot of fan fair on its intro with many trial software runs. The video below shows iBook Author in action: Steve Jobs Unfair Rant on Flash Steve Jobs has had a well deserved legacy of continuing top rank innovation. But Steve also had a darkside. He believed he could […]

Mozilla and Opera: Signs of Open Source Problems

ZDNet is running a series of much too early obituary articles  for Firefox and Mozilla – and by implication, Opera. Ed Bott sees the money supply running out because  a search sharing deal with Google [80%+ of Mozilla’s revenues] has run out and the negotiations have not produced a new accord. Steven Vaughn-Nichols picks up […]

Adobe AIR Baby Flies Out with the Flash Bath Water?

If you had any doubts, Adobe is clearly abandoning Flash with the annoucments of the discontinuance of Flash development on Mobile OS plus  the new declaration of the outsourcing of Flex, the Flash Enterprise Development tool, to  the Apache Foundation. These actions should dispel any misconceptions. True,  Apache is a major enterprise Open Source provider […]

HTML5 Insights: Fall 2011

Infoworld has a good overview of HTML5 from earlier this year. See here [ and for real insight compare it to an InfoWorld Html5 Deep Dive report from a year earlier]. Combined with HTML5test this is a great combo for finding out a)what is important in HTML5, b)who is implementing what among the many sections […]

Adobe Abandons Flash!

Okay Adobe only abandons Flash on Mobile OS – iOS, Android and Playbook. Adobe  will continue to develop Flash on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Here is the crux of the announcement: Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all […]

Whither Goes PC OEMs

Tim Bajarin has been an astute observer of the PC and Server scenes. His comments at TechOpinion imply that Windows 8 is gaining momentum on PCs and tablets especially among large PC OEMs like HP. No argument there because  the PC OEMs, who have lost market to the tablets and smartphones because users who want […]

The Dockable Tablet Great Reveal

On November 9th, Asus will release its latest dockable tablet, the Asus Transformer Prime onto the market with Tegra3 processor and a host of other goodies[see here for detailed specs]. Transformer Prime will be running Android Honeycomb, not the latest Andoid 4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Also given the pricing of the Amazon Kindle Fire at […]

HP Gets Back into Tablets and PCs

HP has announced that it will be back in the PC and Microsoft saddle again. It will be  delivering a Windows 8 tablet according to yet another new CEO, Meg Whitman. But this was a necessary but not sufficient condition for HP’s survival. Abandoning the PC and tablet businesses was a disastrous decision. HP like Microsoft has to be […]

Sencha HTML5 Animator

Because of its HTML5 output, Ye Editor has been following Adobe’s HTML5 Animation tool, Edge,  with two looks at the evolving preview edition. So it was a surprise when Sencha appeared in Mid-September with the first completed HTML5 based tool called Sencha Animator: The Sencha IDE for Animator At first glance Sencha Animator appears to be an Adobe […]

Steve Jobs: Saint and Sinner

God knows Steve Jobs was prolifically inventive. Millions of users can thank Steve for changing PCs with the  first fullscreen GUI interface when Steve took Xerox Parc’s Alto and showed it could not only work but be spectacularly successful on a consumer PC. This happened   first with Lisa and then a Mac.   Millions […]

Newest Browsers HTML5 Benchmarks

There has been  an almost  complete new set of browsers released  in the last two months from all the major browser vendors. So these new browsers are included in these tests using the revised HTML5Test.com 450 item benchmark. The browsers are ranked by their % compliance  scores with Google Chrome the best and IE 9 […]

Virtual Sign of the Times

This ad for VMWare underlines some themes that are beginning to percolate to the top in IT in general. First, is the OS Mess. There  are now roughly double the number of operating systems today that have to be programmed for. But second, there is  nary any cross platform tool that will produce write once […]

Amazon Shakes IT Markets

At a time when Apple is considering retiring its iPod, Amazon is shaking the whole IT industry to  its core. Amazon is doing a Google Android and Apple  selling software and hardware cheap to enable its online business to profit from many more tightly linked customers. Amazon is selling for cheaper than ever before a […]

Update on Apple vs Windows Graphics Performance

One of the most popular posting on theOpenSourcery.com has been Apple vs Adobe: Are Apple’s MacOS/X Graphics Drivers to Blame. Well there is a new set of benchmarks as promised by Phoronix [but uploaded to openBenchmarks.org] and they compare MacOS/X Lion vs the latest Windows 7 update. Fortunately the benchmarks are done in the same […]

It is now Google’s Linux

Ye Editor received a link to a post from Linux Desktop guru Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols yesterday and it was a bit of surprise. The story on ZDnet’s Linux and Open Source is entitled “The Linux desktop is dead. Long live the Linux desktop”. It certainly caught my attention. In the post Steven argues that the […]

Java as a Legacy Language

Can you believe that Java has become a legacy language? The writing has been  on the wall – attacked early and  viciously by Redmond after Bill Gates and company reversed themselves and instead out innovating Sun’s  Java; they  attempted to kill it by not updating the JVM on Windows and creating a rival .NET runtime [CLR] […]

Why Google Bought Motorola – Day Later Update

Well right off the mark, TheOpenSourcery.com got the principl reasons for the buyout – right on Denmark. See here – 1)Google is going to operate the company as is and not bring Mototrola into the Google fold – this means minimal disruptions and has later advantages; See here – 2)Google has got its major other […]