Aptana acquired by Appcelerator

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

Aptana, the company behind the popular programming Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Aptana Studio, announced today that they have been acquired by Appcelerator. Aptana has been the choice for many web development professionals for quite some time. It is an advanced open source programming environment built on the very well established Eclipse platform that has advanced greatly in recent years. Their IDE provides advanced functionality for developing HTML, CSS and Javascript applications with enhanced code-assist features and extensive debugging. It supports Javascript libraries as well as the many plugins available for Eclipse. More recently the Aptana code contributed to Adobe’s new ColdFusion builder IDE released last year.

Appcelerator is an industry leader in cross-platform development with tens of millions of users and over 10,000 applications. Their Titanium Mobile suite is a professional set of tools that can be used to develop native iPhone , Android and desktop applications. What makes Titanium different from other development platforms is its ability to cross-compile or convert standard web code including HTML, JavaScript and CSS to the native code used by these mobile devices. Essentially this means that any web developer can begin programming apps for mobile devices without having to learn a new language.

The acquisition means that the entire Aptana Studio team has joined Appcelerator and according to the announcement, the acquisition “moves the company to the next level by extending the capabilities of Appcelerator’s popular development platform to include world-class development tools that significantly improve developer productivity, integration and cloud connectivity.” They are committed to continuing to provide enterprise-grade development tools that include client and server site development. In addition, Aptana 3 is on schedule for release during the first quarter of this year.

As mobile development continues to grow, application development tools are becoming more advanced. Cross-compiling, which is the ability to write an application one time and deploy it over many different mobile and desktop platforms has opened the door to rapid, cost efficient software development. Applications like Titanium will continue to cater for this need and their partnership with the existing Aptana web community will help bring these tools to more developers. For more information on the acquisition, be sure to visit Aptana,org.

New Joomla 1.6 Pushes Enterprise Level Features

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

The new version of the popular Joomla Content Management System (CMS) was released early last week and has already reached over 115k in downloads. 1.6 has been in the making for some time and earlier beta versions have been tested over the last few month. The first release candidate (RC1) was made available for download on December 14th, 2010.

Among the many new features that have arrived in this new version come finer access controls, improvements in content categories and removal of the sometimes confusing section management. Now instead of setting up site sections and assigning categories to each, a new nested category approach will make content management easier to handle. Nested categories provide greater flexibility, removing the limitation of the traditional two levels of site management (sections & categories) to unlimited sub-categories / levels.

Improved installation features, expanded language support and better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) have also been at the forefront of this release. The new template and style system will enable designers and developers to produce fresh new templates with semantic markup “to please the eye as well as the search engines” according to the press release. Joomla 1.6 also brings major improvements on user management and access permissions bringing it more in line with other enterprise CMS solutions. Earlier releases provided limited access and user management; however the latest version takes this to a higher level making it a more tempting solution in the corporate world.

With all of these new features readily available many existing users are already beginning to upgrade their 1.5 sites. Limited documentation is currently available (which will increase in the weeks ahead) for those looking to upgrade at the main Joomla support site. One of the more pressing concerns for existing users is the change in template structure, which have been briefly outlined at the Joomla documentation wiki.

For more information on Joomla 1.6 and to download your own copy, please be sure to visit http://www.joomla.org/16. If you are already using Joomla 1.6, please be sure to share your own opinions on the new release in the comments section below.

Get the Latest on ColdFusion at CFHour

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

One of the challenges of having a long commute to work is finding new and interesting ways to make the morning and evening drives more interesting. Over the last year I have found the perfect answer by subscribing to podcasts that I am interested in, which have also served to advance my own personal development and education. Much of my professional work involves programming large databases backed web systems using the Adobe ColdFusion. Last summer I discovered CFHour, which is a weekly ColdFusion podcast available for free subscription through iTunes or directly downloadable at their website CFHour.com.

CFHour is presented each week by Dave Ferguson and Michael Sean Becker. Dave Ferguson brings many years of back-end software development and management experience to the podcast, while Michael Sean Becker’s strengths lie in interface design and client-side systems development. Both Dave and Michael provide insight and updates on the latest happenings in the ColdFusion community. Each week new and interesting topics are discussed and the balance of humor and information make this both an entertaining and educational podcast. Over the past year, CFHour has hosted many interviews with people such as Adam Lehman (Product Manager for ColdFusion at Adobe), and many other key people in the ColdFusion and open source community. The podcast provided extensive coverage of the Adobe MAX conference last year, where Dave Ferguson presented at one of the sessions.

When I first started looking for programming podcasts, I realized there many available covering different languages, however very few that were solely aimed at ColdFusion. CFHour was the only ColdFusion podcast I was able to find at the time that was still actively publishing episodes. I went back and listened from the beginning where I have learned about very important subject areas such as current ColdFusion frameworks, Object Relational Mappers (ORM), programming techniques dos and don’ts, coverage of conferences, extensive reviews and coverage of new releases of ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder. The podcast also provides a lot of information on the open source ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) engines, which I knew nothing about until I started listening to the show.

If you are a web developer who uses ColdFusion, you owe it to yourself to check out this podcast. For more information please be sure to visit CFHour for a listing of the latest episodes available for download.

MySpace More Layoffs and Reflecting on What Went Wrong

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

Last July, Inside the Webb reported on new changes coming to MySpace in an effort to streamline the overall design of the social networking giant. As reported at the time, the changes were long overdue, however overhauling such a large organization was no easy task. The once reigning king of the social networking world has suffered in recent years and failed to keep up with the Facebook phenomenon.

Techcrunch reported only a few hours ago that the MySpace has cut 47 percent of staff (nearly 500 employees). According to the article, CEO Mike Jones said that the cuts were necessary to “provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability.” MySpace has been on a decline for several years and has lost millions of their once faithful members. Their redesign attempt last year (internally known as Futura) was a major change for the company but it looks like it may not have been enough.

So where did MySpace go wrong? Only a few years ago it was the number one social network and one of the most popular sites among teenagers and younger adults. Its flexibility meant that anyone could effectively sign up and customize their own part of the web with many options including the ability to connect with other MySpace users. Unfortunately this came with an arguable lack of moderation that soon led to problems of increasing signups by spammers and people promoting porn. According to an article reported at .eduGuru in late 2009,

MySpace is like the wild wild west or Las Vegas of social media, dirty and ghetto.

In 2005 MySpace was acquired by News Corp for $580 million. News Corp came in with an underlying focus on generating profits, rather than concentrating on growing and improving MySpace. MySpace maintained a strong profit for a long time, however while News Corp continued to push for more advertising, the social network started to look like a huge compilation of unorganized Internet ads. This unfortunately lead to more members signing on less frequently and eventually not at all. According to an article by Intelligent Spectator arguing why Facebook is succeeding where MySpace failed, by May of 2010, My Space had lost 109 million users (down 13%) from its previous year.

MySpace was once the world’s largest social network and while it still maintains popularity, it is fighting to stay relevant in the social networking arena. While the social network will unlikely disappear overnight, it does seem more likely that over time MySpace will eventually fade away and share the fate of many other large Internet success stories of the past, that grew and burned out too quickly.

New Cybersecurity Programs begin Second Semester at UMUC

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is getting ready to begin its second semester of offering their new Cybersecurity programs, which opened to students in the fall of 2010. Two masters programs as well as an additional specialization in one of their existing information technology degrees were introduced last semester, along with an undergraduate program. These very popular degree paths are aimed at individuals pursuing careers in information technology security, cybersecurity analysis, digital forensics and many others. This semester three new graduate certificate programs have been added in the Foundations of Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Policy and Cybersecurity Technology.

The Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity policy programs are designed for midcareer professionals to help meet challenges posed by increasing cyber-threats. The programs are designed to provide a broad analytical framework for evaluating and solving cybersecurity problems.

All of the new cybersecurity courses are delivered online through the University’s online Course Management System WebTycho, which offers working professionals greater flexibility in their studies. The online system also provides students with advanced virtual security labs to enable them to combat simulated cyber attacks.

Cybersecurity is a hot topic these days with many concerns over privacy rights and online security threats. We just have to look in the headlines of recent weeks with regards to the issues of leaked documents via the Wikileaks website and the government’s commitment to providing more funding for cybersecurity initiatives. Threats such as identity theft, malware and viruses, are on the rise. Other areas of concern include the increase of cyberterrorism and theft of corporate intellectual assets. The formation and growth of cybercrime organizations, similar in many ways to the mafia are also on the rise.

UMUC is located in the heart of the Washington DC Metro area where many federal positions, especially within Homeland Security, are opening up for cybersecurity professionals. For more information on the programs available, visit UMUC.

Government Cybersecurity Initiative for a Universal Internet ID

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Ian Carnaghan

The U.S. Commerce Department has been handed the authority from the Whitehouse to create an Internet ID for Americans as one of the latest efforts in Cybersecurity policy. The idea is that everyone would have one secure login to access many services online to increase security and privacy and reduce the need to remember numerous passwords.

The idea of a central login is not new. There have been several attempts over the years by different organizations to implement something similar, anyone remember Microsoft Passport? In recent years companies like Google have implemented a single sign-on for all their services. The OpenID, which is an open standard to authenticate users across different websites has also gained ground in recent years, however it is not without its critics. In a recent episode of .Net Rocks, Rob Conery discusses why he has stopped using OpenID due to problems outlined in his blog post, OpenID is a Nightmare, including authentication issues and working with the specification. One major concern with any single sign-on approach is the possibility of those credentials getting into the wrong hands with the potential of all online accounts being compromised.

Along with the existing fears of a single login, many are worried about the government managing their usernames and passwords. CNET reported on the event at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research where US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke stated, “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.” It was also made clear that users will not be forced to sign up for the new Internet ID, this will be completely optional and that the project would be managed by the private sector.

Many of us use the same password for multiple websites currently, which is often frowned upon by security specialists, so perhaps the move to a single login could be a positive one. Until more details are shared concerning the new ‘Internet ID’ it will be difficult to determine whether it will become a long term success for increased security and convenience, or if it will have a similar fate to Microsoft’s Passport.

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Monthly Archives: January 2011

Aptana acquired by Appcelerator

New Joomla 1.6 Pushes Enterprise Level Features

Get the Latest on ColdFusion at CFHour

New Cybersecurity Programs begin Second Semester at UMUC

Government Cybersecurity Initiative for a Universal Internet ID