60 seconds later, I have written my first app...

I just ran into a cool comparison article at the SAP Community Network: Top 5 Database Platforms - the Developer Experience Exposed. I was searching for something completely different, and yet, it was a fun revelation, a good read, and it lead me to a surprising visit at a development source I haven't tried yet.

After meddling with Saleforce's developer website, I can say that it was an interesting experience and that I can imagine myself giving it more time, sometime in the future. The headline tells it all: the time it takes to create a first working app (not of the hello world" variation) is amazingly short. Most definitely worth the experience. 

This got me rethinking about cloud-based-development. I'm still letting it sink in, but considering what one could choose in the past in comparison to the vast and rich possibilities waiting out there for anyone entering web development, made me green with envy. 

So, if you haven't tried it yet, why don't you try out Saleforce's developer website? 

the fears most ambitious start-up ideas bring along

Reread Paul Graham's piece about the most ambitious startup ideas, and the fears and feelings they bring along, to entrepreneurs, VCs and everyone around. Definitely worth the time to read. Something anyone interested in innovation or entrepreneurship would find an interest, in my mind.

The one idea I connected to the most was - "Don't worry if something you want to do will constrain you in the long term, because if you don't get that initial core of users, there won't be a long term. If you can just build something that you and your friends genuinely prefer to Google, you're already about 10% of the way to an IPO"

Why did Sinofsky go ?

Both the technical and the financial communities are somewhat puzzled about the departure of the President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky, so near the Windows 8 launch.

A lot of explanations and suggestions have been made (you can check one and another to form your own view on the matter) . Personally, I thought that news of senior management leaving shortly after a major product launch and before a crucial business period (the holidays season), is  an indication for internal politics, and not for the realization of a technical failure. Why ? because such departures have their own impact, sending signals to the entire market of the corporation's products, and any sound management would prefer to avoid such signals until after a crucial business period. Microsoft's inability to prevent that, has to mean this act is politically motivated.

But now I no longer have to use circumstantial evidence logic. Steve Ballmer's letter informing Microsoft workers about this managerial change (which TheVerge was kind enough to bring to the world's attention), tells it all. Go ahead - Read it.

Didn't you see it ?

Lets compare the way Ballmer refers to Sinofsky and to the person replacing him:

Julie Larson-Green

Steven Sinofsky

will lead Windows engineering. She will be responsible for all product development for Windows and Windows Live, in addition to Surface. Julie has been a stalwart leader of building compelling “experiences” from her time on Internet Explorer, through the evolution of Office and most recently to the re-imagination of Windows. Her unique product and innovation perspective and proven ability to effectively collaborate and drive a cross company agenda will serve us well as she takes on this new leadership role.

has decided to leave the company. Steven joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software development engineer has contributed to the company in many ways from his work as a technical advisor to Bill Gates, to leading the evolution of the Microsoft Office business, to his direction and successful leadership of Windows and Windows Live as well as Surface. I am grateful for the work that Steven has delivered in his time at our company.

Notice anything interesting ?

See how the "ability to effectively collaborate and drive a cross company agenda" is stated, marking the clear distinction between the person who leaves the role and the person entering it ?

Yup. Sometimes the sensitive reading of internal company memos can tell it all.

Does it mean that Microsoft will put an end to the somewhat ridiculous competing fiefdoms model  ? Are different departments within the organization actually going to work together under a unified managerial vision, being able to reconcile competing departmental interests ?

Only time will tell if this is going to work, but the risk of changing management while trying to retake the leading role of the changing technological world is a clear indication of Microsoft's determination to change. One has to give them credit for that, don't you think ? 

Do laptops impact positively or negatively on classes and students?

I've been meaning to read this Techdirt  piece of an interesting empirical research on the impact of laptops in classrooms (by Professor Kim Novak Morse of Saint Louis University School of Law) and finally got round to it. It sheds some interesting results on this somewhat painful subject:

• Roughly  69% of first years, 50% of second-years  and 82% of third-years, were not distracted because of their laptops, and concentrated on the lesson at hand.  
• No correlation was found between distracted student laptop usage and final course grade. Either they absorbed the relevant material much quicker than the lecturer thought, or they learned outside the framework of the lesson. 
• Students who are laptop users tend to get distracted when the lecturer is monotonous (suprise!); When the same activity is being carried for more than 4 minutes; When the professor talks to one student or approaches students by a known order; When the lesson reaches the 40 minutes mark. 
• Students who are laptop users tend to re-focus when The lecturer provides definitions, summaries, conclusions, exams references or stresses; When they are asked to turn their attention to a new item in the study material; When the lecturer  intentionally CHANGES INTONATIONS; When the lecturer provides information by a Q&A/Problem solving process directed at the entire class; When the lecturer does not spend more than 4 minutes on a single teaching process (processes can be - provision of information, questions,  usage of different teaching aids - books, presentations, movies, etc); When the lecturer moves around the "students' space" of the lecturing hall/class;

As a firm believer in the importance of computers to the learning process, I think this is stuff any teacher should know. 

Interestingly enough, it seems that the research did not refer to the usage of humor in teaching. My personal experience has taught me time and again that humor is one of the most powerful tools a teacher can have. Sadly, humor is not something that can be taught. 

setting EPEL and RPMFORGE repositories on CentOS 6

RPMFORGE and EPEL are two very useful repositories for the CentOS user. To a certain extent, one might find his usage of CentOS very limited without products offered by these repositories. 

How to add RPMForge ?

You can read more about RPMFORGE here.
The CentOS Wiki suggests a detailed guide (useful for both CentOS 5 and 6). 

If you seriously consider using this repository for production environments follow the CentOS Wiki methodically. I personally use the following minimal process, for development environments: 

1. Log on as root. 
2. cd to a working directory where you will keep configuration files for the setup (not /etc or the likes. something used for files that assist you in configurations. Every admin makes his own choices, but if you have no past experience, create a folder under your home folder with a name such as "admin files" and cd to that folder. 
3. from the command line, type:
   wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm   (this url is used for 64bit installations. if you use a 32bit o.s, then type     wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686.rpm)
4. to verify the the package we've just downloaded, type the following commands:
   rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
   rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.*.rpm
5. and if everything is ok, from the command line, type:
   rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.*.rpm     (you can replace the '*' with x86_64 or i686, if you wish to be accurate, and you have to if you have downloaded  both rpm files)
6. that's it. RPMFORGE is set up. you can verify taking a look at /etc/yum.repos.d/    or by typing at the command line: yum install htop and after the process ends successfully, by running htop from the command line. 

How to add EPEL ?

You can read more about EPEL here.
A detailed guide about installing EPEL can be found here. (it also discusses the REMI repository).

1. Log on as root. 
2. cd to a working directory where you will keep configuration files for the setup.
3. from the command line, type:
   wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
   sudo rpm -Uvh epel-release-6*.rpm

Some remarks:

1. Repositories management can be tricky. For production environments YOU HAVE GOT TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. The professional norm, once using more than one third-party repository, is to use the yum-plugin-priorities. 
2. As you can see, no verification of the epel-release*rpm is performed. Every repository has its norms, and one has to be willing to adapt in order to gain access. EPEL has verification during installation of packages, as you'll see as soon as you start using it. What is more imporant for to to convey here, is that repositories trust is an issue that must be considered. ONLY YOU KNOW THE RISKS AND SECURITY NORMS OF YOUR ORGANIZATION. 
3. If you take a look under /etc/yum.repos.d/ you can see that the configuration files of the repositories are set so that only the main section of the repository is set as enabled. For example, if you seek sources of EPEL packages, you will need to make that section enabled in the configuration files. 
4. Don't forget to have fun ! 

[Update: this post has been originally written for previous versions of CentOS; it has been recently verified with CentOS 6.3; October 2013] 

another change of times

It has been fun for a while, but it is time to move on.... no longer a technical-news-discussions-blog, this blog shall now return to being a primarily documenting method for myself (and others), assisting in recalling how stuff can be done. That means there will be much (MUCH) less focus on technical news. I assume this would mean, just as in the past, that most of what is written in the blog as "draft" shall not be published. But who knows ?

For those few who wonder how they may carry their lives without the news updates of this blog, I advise to seek alternatives among the following excellent technical news sources:

• ZDNET
• Engadget
• Gizmodo
• Mashable
• LinuxInsider

I also advise to do some going-to-the-source:

• Oracle news room
• Microsoft news center
• Google's blog
• Apple's hotnews
• Linux Distro watch
• Linux Kernel 
• GNU

For my loyal and potentially disappointed readers, I wish to suggest a message of inspiration and hope, spoken by one of the greatest technological prophets of our age  - 

Inspirational Speech By Steve Jobs At Stanford University 2005

When the late Steve Jobs gave that Inspirational speech, he could not know that his cancer will return. His words echo much stronger nowadays, when we can view his life in all its fullness:

 "If today were the last day of my life"

So, what would you do, if today were the last day of your life?

at long last, Microsoft is joining the current computing age

Microsoft's anouncement of its new brand of tablets is really big news. Considering -

• The ripeness of this new product (surface being a very long term project in Microsoft); 
• Redmond's past ability to price products competitvely; 
• Amazon's Kindle Fire failure to stand up to the iPad as a truly equal competitor; 
• Unlike other dominant players, the new tablet on the block is not suspiciously similar to Apple's stuff. 

The surface tablet appears to be the real thing, and for us - consumers, users and technology-philes, this is great news.The age of pervasive computing, at least at this early stage, duplicates the old Apple-Microsoft enmity, but this time the competition is both on Hardware and Software. Real technological compeition is here. It can only benefit us all.