http://revjournal.com/blog.irv The latest news from the Revolution developer community en-us Wed, 4 Jan 2012 07:37:35 -0800 Wed, 4 Jan 2012 07:37:35 -0800 Fourth World Blogging Tool revjournal2009@fourthworld.net (Richard Gaskin) http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1325691401.610166 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1325691401.610166 From Linux Journal: LiMux, a project to convert local government institutions to Linux and open source software in Munich, has exceeded initial expectations. The project has done slightly better than projections of 8,500 and now boasts 9,000 Linux migrated workstations.... Wed, 4 Jan 2012 07:36:42 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321112242.499375 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321112242.499375 Scott Rossi, you're gonna love this: Being the geeks we are here in scriptingland, we all love weird tech, right? Well, kindly allow me to blow your mind, courtesy of Nokia. They've recently released materials describing new concepts they're exploring for radical new phone designs, but rather than recap them here this video communicates much more effectively than any words can describe:... Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:37:22 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321111713.295292 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321111713.295292 A panel discussion titled "Steve Jobs: A Legacy of Vision and Leadership" hosted by The Churchill Club this week had many interesting insights into Steve Jobs' legacy. But as The Mac Observer notes, perhaps the most interesting was that Apple's plans to switch from Motoral to Intel predated Jobs' return in 1996. In fact, this desire to move to Intel was one of the reasons Apple acquired Jobs' NeXT. Forbes provides this quote from Larry Tesler during the session: "It was actually one of the reasons that the company decided to acquire NeXT... We had actually tried a few years before to port the MacOS to Intel, but there was so much machine code still there, that to make it be able to run both, it was just really really hard. And so a number of the senior engineers and I got together and we recommended that first we modernize the operating system, and then we try to get it to run on Intel, initially by developing our own in-house operating system which turned out to be one of these projects that just grew and grew and never finished. And when we realized that wouldn't work we realized we had to acquire an operating system, either BeOS or Next, and one of the plusses was once we had that we could have the option of making an intel machine."... Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:28:33 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321111135.876713 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1321111135.876713 With Steve Jobs' passing this blog became stale. It seemed too important to post anything else, but in all honesty I have to admit I have nothing to contribute here in these modest pages that hasn't been said much better a thousand times around the Web. All I might add is my own "Thank you, Steve." Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:18:56 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1314813801.828246 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1314813801.828246 ...Knight-Ridder? Check out this video from 1994:... Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:03:22 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1314196673.686612 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1314196673.686612 Anti-virus vendor McAfee, who's had better luck with Macs than PCs, has issued their latest security report, noting an increase in malware threats on Android. As with nearly any issue, there are many ways to present the data. Here's another view of the same report: Malware becomes the measure of success in smartphone market Android takes the lead with disappointingly small number of threats, as iOS struggles with none (From IT World) In spite of the potential risk from such threats, the actual number of people affected by them is rather low. This should not be surprising to Mac users, since Android is inherently far more secure than is possible with OS X, which also has few affected people in spite of having been labeled "the most dangerous OS": With Android, the risks made possible by an app's use of APIs is presented to the user before install, so the user can make an informed decision based on the app's capabilities. In contrast, there's no way to know what any Mac... Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:37:54 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1311953300.756699 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1311953300.756699 In a recent post to the use-livecode discussion list, Alejandro Tejada raised a very thought-provoking question: Thinking about inventive users and open source software... When I first read about the Open Source movement, I though that it was a group of developers that wanted to create software in the same way that an artist creates his work: A lasting work of art that trascend time because of his many outstanding and unique qualities... Hmmm, looks like I was wrong in my first impression about Open source, but just in case: Could anyone show me these outstanding artistic qualities in Open Source software? Artistry takes many forms, some more subtle than others. The HTML5 site built for the OK Go Chrome app may be a good example: while the site itself was funded by a corporate record label to promote proprietary IP (OK Go's excellent music), the underlying technology that makes it happen is largely based on FOSS works, such as WebKit. FOSS contributors bring many things to... Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:28:21 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1310397018.990871 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1310397018.990871 As more of us LiveCoders build web apps and net-savvy standalones, security in client-server setups becomes an ever more important part of our daily work. While the LiveCode engine is almost completely immuine to buffer overruns, one of the key forms of exposure, keep in mind that our apps don't live in a vacuum. Modern client-server apps often integrate with MySQL, PHP, Apache, and other components, each of which has their own exposures. And even within LiveCode itself, no matter how solid the engine is there are plenty of ways we can shoot ourselves in the foot, such as accepting arguments to RevServer or our CGIs which are processed with the "do" command. Think about that one: it may be tempting to write an open-ended system that lets you control the engine remotely with such convenience, but processing any arguments with the "do" command or the"value" function are just an invitation for outsiders to control your server. Then there are things like storing passwords unencrypted,... Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:10:19 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1307545265.586975 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1307545265.586975 As much as I enjoy Ubuntu, it's not often that I find something in its design that I feel is truly better than its OS X counterpart. While the benefits of community process are well demonstrated for engineering, there's an argument that design and engineering processes are inherently different enough that what works for one doesn't always work as well for the other. An old blog post from Ubuntu developer Matthew Paul Thomas seems to acknowledge this. But as with much of life, sometimes the unexpected happens. With Windows 8, Mac OS X Lion, and Ubuntu Unity, there's an effort across the board to simplify the presentation of the user interface, removing any unnecessary clutter to bring the user ever closer to their data. While I believe each of these OS makeovers delivers many exciting benefits, and look forward to exploring those more here in the coming weeks, for now let's focus on just one small detail: the scrollbar. Scrollbars serve two goals: 1. They allow the user to move... Wed, 8 Jun 2011 08:01:06 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1299277551.689257 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1299277551.689257 Okay, the last post was far more ambitious than the expo actually allowed. The original aim was to post periodically during the conference, but the reality is that it was so fast-paced and deeply involving that blogging just wasn't possible. So it goes. Met some new friends there, including some who want to start an Ubuntu Hour in Pasadena with me, and a bright gentleman from San Diego who works on the Kubuntu project. And boy did I learn a lot, from scripting GIMP to tunnelling SSH and more. With six simultaneous tracks the hard part was having to pick only one at a time. On the exhibits floor I finally had a chance to put my hands on one of the Ubuntu-powered laptops from ZaReason. The Verix 1656 felt rock solid in my hands yet amazingly light for its high-res screen, and the good keyboard and excellent NVidia card make it a contender for my next laptop. All in all a truly great first SCaLE for me, one of the best conferences I've been to in a long time. Definitely going back... Fri, 4 Mar 2011 14:25:52 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1298743631.905216 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1298743631.905216 Yesterday's UbuCon pre-expo mini-conference was really great - got to meet some Canonical employees working on Unity and other projects, and met a lot of enthusiastic users of Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and the rest, including David Wonderly who works on the Kubuntu team. Today the expo proper begins, and it looks great so far. The exhibitors are still setting up for the 10AM opening, and they fill two large ballrooms here at the LA Hilton. All in all, this is perhaps a bit bigger than regional Mac conferences I've been too, maybe close to twice as large. SCaLE 9x is running SIX simultaneous tracks this year. With so much to choose from it's not always an easy choice to make. The keynote with Leigh Honeywell is about to start... More later....... Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:07:12 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1297808410.901914 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1297808410.901914 Just when we could begin thinking that everything we might want to see in a software category has been done, something comes along that completely changes the game. With web browsers, there are so many and they're all so much alike it's been tempting to stop thinking about them altogether, and indeed many have, focusing instead on what goes on inside the browser, like Google Apps, rather than asking any big questions about what the browser itself could be. And then there's Tab Candy. It's a lightweight name for one of the most heavyweight sets of ideas to hit the browser world since CSS. There's a video here: http://vimeo.com/13560319 I won't embed it. It's too big for that. You need to go to that page, turn off your phone, click the Full Screen button, sit back and enjoy. Really fresh thinking. Bravo, Mr. Raskin. Your father would be proud.... Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:20:11 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1295312942.775395 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1295312942.775395 Steve Jobs has taken medical leave, and like Woz said: "If Steve is tired and wants a bit more normal life, more power to him." Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:09:03 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1291302075.276158 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1291302075.276158 As Linux adoption continutes to grow, one of the biggest players in the field hit a very major milestone - from Forbes: Red Hat At $1 Billion Based on the run rates of the current quarter, Red Hat will likely reach $1 billion in annual revenue in 2011. Only a handful of companies, probably less than 20 software firms, have ever hit this milestone. Red Hat will be the first open source-focused company to break the billion dollar barrier.... Thu, 2 Dec 2010 07:01:15 -0800 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1287696062.654893 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1287696062.654893 So Apple's going to launch an App Store for Mac. Some developer responses have been cautiously concerned, others dreadfully sobering. It all just leaves me wondering if this is what we'll see in Lion when we click to download an installer package or DMG from any of the Mac software vendor sites we enjoy today:... Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:21:03 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1284048420.163477 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1284048420.163477 This morning Apple backpedaled on their unprecedented restrictions limiting iOS development to only four languages. This morning they issues a press release that finally allows developers to make their own choices about the languages they use to program apps for iOS: Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines RunRev CEO Kevin Miller responded with appropriate glee on the company blog. A sampling of the public response to the end of the madness: Apple Caves, Drops Ban on iOS Third-party Development Tools Apple loosens its chokehold on app development Apple Loosens Stranglehold On App Developers; Opens Door To Flash? Apple relaxes app dev rules, thrills Adobe fans Apple Opens Its Heart, App Restrictions Apple App Store Review Guidelines Are Funny As Hell So much for the infamous Thoughts on Flash. Or more likely the Board is finally asserting themselves in light of the FTC investigation. Possibly Related?: Android Apps Narrowing the Gap with Apple's App Store... Thu, 9 Sep 2010 09:07:00 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273671983.138462 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273671983.138462 At an investor's meeting Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that netbook shipments will grow more than 20% this year. He attributes the growth to a change in buying habits: at first netbooks were seen as a second computer, but are increasingly being purchased as a primary device. Intel's Atom processor for netbooks represented 20 percent of Intel's mobile PC processor shipments during the first quarter of 2010, according to an IDC study released last month. iSuppli last week said netbook shipments are projected to be 34.5 million units in 2010, up 30 percent from 2009. Total PC shipments are expected to be about 209.5 million units this year, an increase of 25.5 percent year-over-year. These stats may surprise some who've been following the Morgan Stanley report suggesting that Apple's iPad has reduced interest in netbooks. But a closer look at that report reveals that the iPad's effect isn't limited to netbooks but affects a broad range of devices, even cannibalizing sales... Wed, 12 May 2010 06:46:23 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273534386.855064 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273534386.855064 Well done, Kevin. Steve has spoken, you did your best, and now we can all move forward in good and strong company into this new mobile arena: I'm Abandoning iPhone Development. Mobile Orchard To Stop Publication. 70% of iPhone developers heading to Android, says AdMob Android catches up to iPhone in dev interest as iPad cools Android phones now outsell Apple's iPhone in US Android Jumps Past iPhone in U.S. Mobile Web Use Android Market app count surges 68% in March Steve Jobs has made a decisive move, and I'll be following his advice: I'm getting an Android-powered phone. :) Mon, 10 May 2010 16:33:07 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273533873.558139 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1273533873.558139 First Apple snubs Adobe with their Flash hateraid. Then Apple snubs all cross-platform developers with their iPhone SDK license change. Who will Apple snub next? Would you believe their own OS X developers?: Apple drops Mac category from annual design awards Excerpt: "I think it's a mistake for Apple to miss such an easy opportunity to acknowledge Mac developers," says Red Sweater Software proprietor Daniel Jalkut. "While the iPhone and iPad are understandably hot right now, the Mac is still a huge part of Apple's business, and Mac developers are important in sustaining that." Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis agrees. "Ultimately, I find these moves disappointing. Having an iPhone slant at WWDC is one thing, but completely cutting the Mac out of the ADAs? That feels like a snub to plenty of Mac developers who continue to do great work on a well-established, popular platform."... Mon, 10 May 2010 16:24:34 -0700 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1271027459.853063 http://livecodejournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1271027459.853063 ... Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:11:00 -0700