Category — Technology

Being a programmer never was the first thing I imagined my life’s occupation to be growing up. I always had dreams of more adventurous jobs: test pilot, military soldier, doctor. But reality and an understanding of what avenues for success were available to me lead me to business school. Even then, I chose the more glamorous major of marketing with visions of being the key creative person in advertising or marketing campaigns. What I ended up doing after graduation was spending four years in the retail trade working as a retail manager. I did ok in that field but never really excelled as my heart was never in it and I always sought something different. When I left the trade and went home, I had to figure out what I was planning to do with my life. Some research let me to return to college to take up programming and receive a diploma in it. It forever changed my life.

When I first started out in programming, I specialised in the language PowerBuilder. At the time, 1996, it was considered to be the superior of fourth generation programming languages like Visual Basic and consequently it was in high demand. That skill led to jobs in Florida and Europe and I rode it for it was worth. But I always considered myself very forward looking. In this field, employers always were looking for the hottest new solutions to address their business problems. When I returned from Germany, I was aware of Java as the new language of choice for development. In quick fashion I started learning how to use it and for several years as the language grew in size and complexity, I grew along with it. It was with these skills that I found a position in Winston. But times are changing again.

It was two years ago that I sensed that as a leading edge language, Java was fading. That was typical of mature languages. The new trend was towards scripting languages like PHP, Python and Perl, a part of the LAMP paradigm where components were built on open source technologies. So I have a practice of doing my personal programming in PHP. This website and the sub sites run on a PHP engine using MySql as the database. Much easier to use than Java and more widespread today in running web sites. Knowing this language I hope to keep my marketability as a web programmer high in the face of outsourcing and off shoring the very skills that my family depends upon for keeping us comfortable.

Yet I sense a new shift now. These shifts happen way too fast now for me to keep up with them. Web 2.0 technologies are everywhere exemplified by AJAX applications like the ones behind Google Maps. Flash and now Microsoft’s new tool, Silverlight, are making web sites more immersive doing things that even AJAX sites can not do especially in video. As more people acquire faster connections, they yearn for more involved websites with all sorts of eye candy and immediate feedback. In my experience the most useful of websites are those that display information which is best handled through plain html.

So I have a decision to make: do I plunge in and try to learn as many of these various technologies as I can to diversify my skill set to stay competitive in the workforce as a computer programmer? Do I try to become a master of Google’s Web ToolKit APIs? Will it be similar to the experience I had in spending my free time learning the Mobile Java APIs (used in cell phones and PDAs) for several months back in 2000-2001 and then find out that the whole industry demand for the technology had collapsed? Or do I stay with the technologies I know and build on those for there is still a demand for applications that require basic functionality and nothing more.

I am now at an age that I do not have many re-inventions of myself left and with increased family responsibilities, my time is scarce. I may take the plunge or maybe not. For now, I am a computer programmer by trade and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Question is will I stay relevant?

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I am a big fan of iTunes and this was even way before I switched over to the Mac. It was perhaps three years ago that I made the iTunes my standard player for home and then later for work. Its blend of user interface aesthetic, the interface to the iTunes store and the ease of integration with the iPod devices make it hard to beat. I have had other players like WinAmp and MediaPlayer but those are now in the distant past and I have never look back.

I am not alone in thinking this way as the millions of people who own some variety of iPod device , a Mac computer or just have the player for their ripped CDs and non - Itunes downloads.

However, there is one feature many people overlook of iTunes and that is the streaming radio stations it provides. Pick a genre and there is likely a station for that somewhere in the world. Many of the stations originate overseas and one I like listening to on a regular basis is Virgin radio out of the UK. It is predominantly Top 40 but when I tune into it at around 10-11pm, the time is 4 am in London so what I get is “golden oldies” from the 60’s through the early 90’s. When they switch into the “morning ride”, that is when it gets interesting. It is kind of strange hearing about traffic conditions on M25 and the latest football (i.e. soccer) scores and highlights but I like it. It reminds me of the time when I lived in Europe. The format of the show is much like North American radio with the hosts bantering back and forward. The topics they discuss in blue collar British accents give it away as not your local radiocast. The voice over on intros and station break is actually an American voice, one that you hear at nearly every radio station in North America.

What is good about this station is that music that may take up to a year to cross the ocean, you can now hear as it is released in the UK.

There are other stations I like. Radio Fusion for electronica is a good choice especially for mixes you would not normally find anywhere else. A slew of NPR stations on the Talk category; plenty of stations that broadcast 80’s hits, the songs I grew up on are also available and the list goes on.

So I find it a chance of pace to listen to the radio via iTunes especially as I pretty much avoid listening to local radio stations with the exception of WFDD (local NPR) and Davision College for their classical music fare. I like having choice for my listening pleasure because I get so little of it here.

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I have been using at work and home, Firefox 3 for several days and I am quite satisified with the quality of the release. The memory leak issue seems to be much better now though I think for my part, I only worsen it with the variety of plugins I use.

The “Awesome Bar” I have found useful and not an impediment to my browsing as many others have complained.

However, what I will see from FF3 will be speed in rendering and better security along with other under the hood improvements, not so much in the interface portion of the app which in reality I do not forsee to change much in the next few releases as people are comfortable in the way the browser is set up.

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In another great looking advance in web 2.0 technology, Google has enhanced their Maps application with Street Views for more cities across the United States.

Now Winston-Salem is available to have another view of an address along with the standard map view, satellite photo (which seriously needs to be updated) and the terrain view. Quite easy to use actually. Streets that have the new view are outlined in blue and you have a liitle man that you can move around the screen, click on him and see the view from the street of the location you selected.

The photos themselves are fairly recent. Most of the shots were taken last autumn. Because of the route taken by the specially equipped cars, there could be some jarring discepancies from one address to the next as when the shot was taken especially around construction sites.

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With all of the going ons in my life, one thing that has been put on the back burner has been my oft-discussed move to the new iMac computers. As a priority in my life, it has been downgraded quite a bit. But like many other things in life, sometimes waiting for something may prove more advantageous than rushing in.

This week the iMac received a bit of an upgrade with faster CPUs and more default RAM for the same price pints as before. Apple also released a new top-end version of the iMac, a 24″ monitor version with a 3.06 GHz CPU and a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics card making it more a gamer’s machine than anything else.

Considering that the desktop line received a major overhaul last summer, it is premature to expect any significant upgrades for the iMac. This year, it is the MacBooks that will get the overhauls as we have seen first with the Air version.

The Leopard version of the Mac OS will be getting a new update in the very near future and may get another one yet by the time I get to buying the iMac. So far I am still comfortable with my decision to switch but holding back for a bit looks like a prudent decision if not a totally voluntary one.

The new 20-inch 2.66 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:

• 20-inch widescreen LCD display
• 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus
• 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory
• built-in iSight video camera
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately)
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.

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I have been musing of late on upgrading my computer and I wonder it is time for a radical break with the past.

I have a Dell PC that is five years ago and while it is still quite functional, it is severely lagging in several areas like memory and processor speed that impede what I primarily use the computer these days which is photograph processing and storage. Secondary uses are simple document creation like Word documents and some web work mostly with maintaining this blog but those uses do not near tax the system as trying to edit several large images in a row.

From time to time I have been fixated on what I call my Dream Machine of the moment but eventually the need will pass and I will try to make do with what I have. The machine has been upgraded in a few areas: better graphic card, more hard drive space but eventually, if I need more performance out of my machine, I will need to upgrade. The question is what machine do I upgrade to?

As usual, I looked at the Dell machines and for a change of pace HP boxes as well. I go to the customizer screens, pick my options and usually get a machine that is nearly the top performance machine generally for $1400. But every time I did one of this custom jobs, I do not feel very enthused about the machine.

This past year has been the year of Apple. With the successful launch of the iPhone and updates of its iPod lines, people have been giving Apple quite a bit of attention. It is more than just computers but computers remain the central focus of its business. As such, Apple also rolled out an updated line of computers and releasing today an update to its OS, nicknamed Leopard, which features significant improvements to the software.

Now my buddy Jerry uses a MacBook computer at work and I must admit, whenever I see it in action, I am quite impressed. While much of it is eye candy, what makes it a viable alternative to Windows Vista OS is that it is much more logically capable for the individual user than a Windows Machine. You want to look for something and two clicks there it is. Things are where you think they should be unlike Windows and its emphasis on file hierarchy.

I like the fact that such tools as the Dock and Finder greatly improve productivity.

One knock against moving to iMacs from Window machines is that for so long, Macs tend to be somewhat underpowered compared to the top of the line PC machines. With the migration to the Intel processors, Macs have essentially caught up in that regard and you will find Macs of all sorts with comparable technology in RAM, Hard Drive space and Graphic capability.

The second knock against Macs are the smaller number of applications available for the Macs as compared to Window machines. Most software developers can not afford to port their software to Macs. But there is a way around it now. With the move to Intel, Macs can run Windows applications in one of two ways: Boot Camp which allows the user to choose which OS to boot up in or Parallels, a software package that allows the user to run Window apps natively in concert with Mac OS. I have seen Parallels in action through Jerry’s machine and it seems to work just fine and it is compatible with Windows XP or Vista. So if I need to run an application that is written only for Windows, I can start Parallels within the Mac and all will be fine.

I like the compactness of the iMac. The all in one machine where all of the components are incorporated into the monitor. Few cables, easier transportability, less noise and heat are quite attractive features. The white case does certainly stand out in its environment.

The machine I am looking at, the 20″ monitor version, runs at $1500 which is comparable to PCs I have configured in my custom jobs online. I certainly makes me think but as the Leopard OS is only just released, as with all software, it is good to wait awhile to allow the inevitable bug fixes and patches are sent out though as Apple keeps a tight rein on its computer components, there is less likelihood of incompatible hardware and software problems as there are for Window PCs.

It may be months before I make decision on my computer upgrade but there is a good chance that an iMac may be in my future.