UILayout

Google is making its Translation Service available for free as part of its Google API: Paris Le Monde newspaper Hamburg’s Die Zeit newspaper Buenos Aires Chronicle Sydney Australia’s Morning Herald As it turns out the Google automated translations are a little loose. But in the next few weeks I shall show the code to do

Back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Microsoft engineers and developers prided themselves on being on the right side of “Just Good Enough” while delivering its new features and software to market faster and with more glitz than any other vendor. The rest is business history. Perhaps this “Just Good Enough” mantra emerged from

I have been waiting patiently for Google Mail to support embedded images in emails for 5 years. But  now that Gmail has transitioned from beta to full time Google app – I have given up. I have switched my client to Mozilla Thunderbird – and what a relief! And the transition was so easy as

One my favorite references for PHP over the past 5-7 years has been PHP Functions – Essential Reference by Greant et alia. It is still available on Amazon.com and I  refer to its MySQL functions from time to time. But of late I am having ever more problems. There is no coverage of PDO, OB,

Apple’s announcements today just did not have sustaining interest– especially given the buildup. First return to the presentation stage by Steve Jobs. Yes, the on stage presence of Steve Jobs to a long standing ovation was impressive. There were price reductions, selected video+voice recording+pedometer add-ons plus memory enhancments to half a dozen iPod models. There

One of the problems with the host of good JavaScript Frameworks available is the  sheer richness of offerings . During the course of the Summer I have started to test some of the frameworks to determine a)which are robust enough for use with other JavaScript Frameworks+widgets and b)which offer any styling and development advantages. In

Just as Apple’s Snow Leopard hits the streets I just saw the Microsoft attack ad material – Apple 13.3″ MacBook 2Ghz procesor, 160GB Drive for $1200. $1200 when Walmart is offering on its website for $348 an Acer Aspire 11.6″ Netbook : Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Home Edition Processor: Intel Atom Processor Z520 [much

Foghorn T. Leghorn has always been one of my favorite cartoon characters, as much for his Down-South voice as well as for his pithy observations – “I say I say – I keep tellin you and you keep duckin” . I am tellin you there is going to be a Shootout of Major ComeFlagourNation in

With the Shootout at the IT Corral set to go off this Fall, the Apple and PC vendors have started with their back to school sniper shots. Apple has Snow Leopard out a head of schedule  and Speed is the Apple motto: Above is an example, Apple is trumpeting the Speed of Mac/OSx 10.5 Snow

MoonLight, the Linux version of Microsoft’s Silverlight is well named – it is a distinctly lesser Light in comparison to the original SilverLight. This is the classic Microsoft approach to cross platform development of Windows programs: 1)Do not guarantee and do it yourself, have others do so [Novell]; 2)Delay the start-up so the cross platform

Google has been putting together some of the finest tools for manipulating and displaying stock results. I suspect they will be giving Yahoo Finance and MSNBC’s Money a run for their … ahem, Money. The newest Google Finance Jewel is the Stock Screener: Try it out and be sure to add your own screening criteria

The Big Fall ShootOut at the IT Corral Listen up folks, specially you Stock Investors looking for Big Gains – they is going to be a big and bloody ShootOut at the IT Corral this Fall. And them thar Whipper Snappers are in such a fowl mood this BloodBath may continue write to the Winter.

We have titled this note a la Steve Ballmer mode [you know “developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS”] as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pledged allegiance to Microsoft’s developers. I suspect that ordinary Windows users, including most businesses, wish that Steve had made an equivalent pledge to Windows users. Nope – instead he delivered Vista which is slower, more

It is your last chance to do naked shorts of Apple – for two reasons. First, the SEC is working hard to eliminate naked shorts from market trading. Second, Apple will be vulnerable as its stock  is skyrocketing towards Fall when the great PC/Laptop/Netbook/Smartphone conflagaration will unfold. But I suspect that after the correction by

If this Indian website is right, Apple has certainly taken the gloves off in its fight for smartphone market share. The basic facts: Bill of materials = $172.46 Manufacturing cost = $6.50 Total cost before distribution = $178.96 AT+T Price of  iPhone 3GS 16GB version = $199 32GB version = $299 So if the Tech2

Give the NYTimes David Pogue full credit – he was one of the first pundits to recognize the value of the iPhone’s API and apps creation capabilities. Listen to what he said a year ago: “It’s no big secret that the big tech news next week will be the July 11 release of the new

eWeek has published under Darryl Taft’s signature a homage and effusive homily to Microsoft as the developer’s “heaven” or dream organization to collaborate and work with. It should be an embarrassment. The 20 page online slideshow looks like a PowerPoint presentation direct from Redmond’s PR headquarters. The thesis is that Redmond has been in the

I have been tracking the wave of smartphones as being the the true delivery agents of Information at Your Fingertips. Talk about missing the obvious implications. And right next door the Browser monopoly situation is collapsing. Well so too the client OS monopoly. No no no – its is not a full frontal assault from

Apple showed Monday at its developers conference that it has become conscious of its weakest link in the New Economy – a flock of new competitors. The enemy is not just Microsoft but Google with the Android Netbook and Mobile Phones, Amazon with the Kindle and Cloud Computing; Palm with the Pre and WebOS; and

Philippe Kahn was the founder of Borland software – the developers that “prospered through the help of Redmond” in the 1908’s and 1990’s. He is involved now with a company called FullPower which is involved in motion recognition software+hardware engine. This engine can be embedded in Netbooks, mobile phones, games and other specialized devices. This

Linguists and English teachers would identify “Microsoft Linux” as an oxymoron. No, oxymoron  is not a phantasmagoric  cross between an oxe and a moron …. well maybe it is. The classic definition is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms like Microsoft and Linux. And the amazing phenomenon is that I am

The E3 and Ciomputex shows just eneded this past week in Taiwan .. and major innovations in games, screen technology and computing software and hardware were introduced here. In this era of globalisation, Taiwan with the help and heft of mainland Chinese electronic factories has become a major power in the merging of PC, mobile

This blog is on record as saying that the first vendor that delivered a laptop with a fast and efficient touch screen laptop, they would a)have my dollars faster than a speeding bullet and b)probably gain significant market-share especially within the business community. So HP has delivered its HP SmartTouch machines and yet no money

Wouldn’t you know, just a day after someone had the temerity to proclaim Google as the new King of Software, the Redmond Empire Strikes Back with what appears to be a most impressive announcement in gaming hardware and software.  Microsoft’s Project Natal is a hands free game controller (does this help explain all those gaming-themed

All sorts of Windows 7 benchmarks are beginning to show up – and it appears, if ZDnet is to be believed, Windows 7 is a barn burner relative to Windows XP. Finally, the performance that was missing in Vista is to be rectified by Windows 7. In every one of 31 tests Windows 7, in

This blog has been saying that Netbooks and Smartphones is where all the most vigorous innovation and action is taking place in computing today . Need I say various Androids, Blackberries, iPhones and Palm Pre to sustain my position for Smartphones. But in the case of Netbooks it has been a case of take my word for

In a previous posting, I described the Tipping Point that Apple and microsoft are going through due to the huge success of Netbooks on the computing scene. The argument was that two factors – 1)the rise of non-MacOS nor Windows OS would be a factor both vendors would have to contend with and 2)the rise

Its just 3 short months since the launch of Kindle 2 and for $130 more here is what you get for the Kindle DX over the smaller Kindle 2: 1)Bigger screen which is nearly double the size. From Kindle 2’s 42 sq inches viewing to Kindle DX 75 sq.inch screen; 2)More than double the storage

Despite denials from Steve Jobs and interim CEO Tim Cook, Apple appears to be working on a Netbook-like, so called Media Tablet. This may be a 10inch touchscreen tablet without a keyboard. The Seeking Alpha reviewers are raving and already talking $300 price for Apple stock. Now our companion blog has already written extensively on

Here is another comment on Linux and the Netbook scene . It is inspired by the article – Is Linux dead in the netbook water? over at Dani Web. Again some very good observations in the DaniWeb article prompted this reply. Hi – I think you have essentially defined the problem and opportunity for Linux.

Keir Thomas at Infoworld has raised the question of inward-looking and brittleness to criticism in the Linux Community. The article is titled Why Linux Needs Critics – and comments on the spirit and civility of Linux supporters across their various sites, blogs and forums. I added this largely supporting comment: Keir – I am writer

Linux UIs are pro-status The question of why Linux is a whimp against Windows Vista even when several Linux distributions  has already been raised in this blog here. Then the IT and Linux blogosphere was searched for a better answer to why Linux whimps even  when several Linux versions  best Vista in 16 of 18