Why is choosing Adobe Flex?

Are you still struggling to find out which RIA solution is best for you? With so many frameworks to choose – AJAX, Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Microsoft SilverLight, OpenLaszlo, Curl, JavaFX, do you feel lost somehow?

You have seen all kinds of comparisons or reviews online, such as:

AJAX vs. Flex vs. SilverLight
10 reasons to love AJAX (or Flex, or SilverLight, or …)
10 reasons to hate AJAX (or Flex, or SilverLight, or …)
At the end of the day, you may wonder: “Now What?”

The good news is, life can be much simpler! You are not here to select the best movie for OSCAR. Your job is to simply find the most suitable RIA framework for YOU!

As an example, I’d like to share with you why Flex is good for me. My top 5 reasons are:

1. Easy to Learn and Use

Before Flex, I was a Java developer. Before Java, I was a C++ and COBOL guy on IBM Mainframe. So I know exactly how painful it is to learn a new programming language. Just like switching from a manual transmission to an automatic one, it takes time for you to get used to that.

Surprisingly, the first time I saw Flex code, I thought it was Java. Considering the similar syntax, structure, and style, it is like the same coffee with different cream. With no time, I built my first fully functional application in Flex and Wow my colleagues.

Another beauty of Flex is its development tool – Flex Builder 3. It is built on the same platform – Eclipse as my J2EE IDE. So I don’t have to learn a new set of settings, shortcuts, or tricks. Plus Flex Builder 3 provides many useful features, such as design editor, build tools, integrated debugger. It makes your job so much easier! You can get your copy of Flex Builder 3 here.

2. Mature Language and Framework

Unlike JavaScript Based AJAX, Adobe Flex is built on a strongly typed Objected-Oriented programming language. I believe the Flex development team extends a lot of goodies from Java, making it suitable for developing enterprise level applications.

In addition,there are some mature frameworks to support Flex at the architecture level. Like Struts and Spring for Java, command-driven Cairngorm and event-driven Mate are two frameworks to implement the MVC (Model-View-Control) design pattern for Flex. And they both are open sourced projects.

3. Cross Browser Support

XBMC 9.11 Alpha has been released

One of eyecatching computer media player for video, music, picture, and so on is XBMC. Free and open source media player that really observe in its improvement ti satisfy users. XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.

The so-called Camelot build is now available for download on Windows, OS X and Linux, with the most notable changes including a revamped user interface. In this newest version, some of improvement has been done such as :
* DirectX has replaced OpenGL for Windows
* Numerous skinning engine updates which allow for use of some fancy new skins
* Many improvements to the video player which allow for much smoother playback
* Switch to Core Audio on OSX
* Many VDPAU improvements under linux
* Many platform-specific customizations

Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.

Teknopreneur Award is held again

Ikatan Alumni ITB(Alumni Ties of ITB), Indonesia Teknopreneur, and Tekno Ventura, has started to open registration Teknopreneur Award 2009 contest, which is a tribute to the best business actor in technology in the homeland(Indonesia).

Teknopreneur Award 2009 will be held on 23 November -10 December 2009, will compete technology innovation that companies engaged in technology, ranging from information technology, communications, biotechnology, energy, or manufacturing nanotechnology.

This award is divided into two categories namely the Uprising Company and Corporate. “Until now many companies that have signed up online, and 58 companies have submitted data of their company,” says COO Teknopreneur Indonesia Adie Marzuki on November 18, 2009.

The committees are involving some of the country personage to do the judging of this event. They are Amin Sambodo (ITB Alumni Association & Teknopreneur Indonesia), Anindya Bakrie (KADIN Indonesia), Budi Gunadi Sadikin (Bank Mandiri), Cahyana Ahmadjayadi (HR Research and Kominfo), Dwi Larso (SBM ITB), Ilham Habibie (The Habibie Center) , and Retno Santi Ruwyastuti (Metro).

According to Adie, the jury could not simply keep score based on technological innovation alone, but also from a business model that can be developed, whether judged capable of continuing or not.

From the participants who signed up, said Adie, 80 percent of them came from information technology companies. Through this event, it is expected that companies have the best technological innovation reconcilable with a company engaged in the field of venture capital financing.

The reason, says Adie, innovations actual companies and SMEs in Indonesia was no less qualified when pitted with foreign companies. “Unfortunately, their appreciation of the domestic is still lacking,” said Adie.

Later, Adie said, Tekno Ventura and several other companies, will see the innovation potential for capital funding support. And capital will not be limited to the firms Teknopreneur Award winners only, Adhie explained.

First Award Teknopreneur held last year, with the number of participants reached 80 companies. As the first award was won by Zahir accounting software company.

Registration Teknopreneur Award in 2009 still open until 22 November 2009. Further information can be obtained at http://award.teknopreneur.com.

source: vivanews.com

Indonesia Lead the Asia Pacific Economy Broadband Agreement

Indonesia is going to be a great developing country that really concern in development of Information Technology. This is proven in a big event like Asia Pasific Telecomunity that had been held in Indonesia. Indonesia has proven to the world that this developing country has a big willingness to improve Information Technology sector.

Indonesia be the host of 29th meeting of ministers of information and telecommunications technology in Asia Pacific in Nusa Dua, Bali, led agreements to strengthen regional cooperation in developing economy based on broadband technology.

Agreement is summarized in the Bali together declaration statement in the arena Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) in 2009 to encourage the establishment of regulatory cooperation, investment, and competition in the provision of broadband services.

“From the agreement of our meeting today will review the policies that are not pro-competition and pro-investment,” Chief Information Center Depkominfo, Gatot S Dewa Broto, said via a telephone line.

Indonesia itself in terms of broadband connectivity development plan to focus on the Palapa Ring and enhance the project of universal service obligation (USO) to broadband service obligation (BSO).

USO Fund will be developed to expand the use of broadband. USO project will not only basic telephony or village rang but the Smart Village that offers internet data access with broadband technology in the district.

“Palapa Ring will be a reference for the pilot project for other countries due to very high levels of difficulty,” Billy continued.

Billy explains member countries will also be encouraged to form a regulatory body that covers the main tasks and functions in the field of telecommunications regulation, IT, and broadcasting. Countries in the Asia Pacific region will also implement the licensing scheme is neutral and technology-based services using a convergence.

Gatot give special add on regional cooperation will be carried out studies and activities to share information in the use of radio waves, and planned to develop a network of APT Frequency Information System (AFIS).

sorce: detikinet.com

18-Button OpenOfficeMouse has been released

This is very unique feature that had been implemented in computer mouse. 18-Button in a mouse. WarMouse announced the release of the OOMouse at Orvieto, Italy, November 6, 2009, the first multi-button application mouse designed for a wide variety of software applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, and OpenOffice.org. With a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands, the OOMouse is intended to provide a faster and more efficient user interface for most complex software applications than the conventional icons, pull-down menus, and hotkeys presently permit.

The OpenOfficeMouse was designed with the goal of being the best and most useful mouse the digital world has seen to date. Initially inspired by the keyboards on the Treo smartphones, it was designed by a game designer who was annoyed with the paltry number of buttons available on high-end gaming mice. Because gaming mice have historically been designed primarily for FPS games, not MMO and RTS games, they do not possess sufficient buttons for the dozens of commands, actions and spells that are required in games that make heavy use of icon bars and pull-down menus. After discovering that the available World of Warcraft mice were nothing more than regular two-button mice decorated with orcs, dwarves, and Night elves, the idea of the OOMouse was born. After much experimentation, it was determined that 16 buttons divided into two 8-button halves were the maximum number of buttons that could be efficiently used by feel alone. In the process of design and development, it quickly became apparent that many non-gaming applications would also benefit from having dozens of commands accessible directly from the mouse, especially applications with nested pull-down menus and hotkey combinations. OpenOffice.org was selected as the ideal application suite around which to design this application mouse because the usage tracking feature of OpenOffice.org 3.1 permitted the assignment of application commands to mouse buttons based on the data gathered from more than 600 million actual mouse and keystroke commands enacted by users.

Over on the free-software side of the world, things are a little different. If the phrase “design by committee” ever sent an icy pang of fear into your heart, then look away now. The Open Office organization, behind the splendid free MS Word alternative of the same name, have come up with a mouse with not one button, but 18, all of which can be double clicked, if you can actually contort your fingers to reach them.

And of course, all these buttons can be configured, tweaked and customized as you’d expect from an open-source design. Here, in it’s confusing glory, is the (not even full) run down:

18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality

Three different button modes: Key, Keypress, and Macro

Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes

Clickable scroll wheel

512k of flash memory

63 on-mouse application profiles with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability

1024-character macro support.

Open source support software for creating, managing, and customizing application profiles

Import and export of custom profiles in XML format

Optional audio notification of profile switching with customizable wave files

PDF export of profile button assignments

Adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI

20 default profiles for popular games and applications, including OpenOffice.org
3.1, Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series.

One of those stands out: “PDF export of profile button assignments”. A mouse so complicated that you need a cheat-sheet to use it. What’s more, it is butt-ugly. looking like somebody cut holes in a generic dime-store mouse and inserted the plastic leftovers of pill-bottle lids.

The saving feature, if indeed this thing can be saved, is the analog control stick, very similar to the Nintendo 64 controller’s mushroom stick. Unlike the nodule on the mighty mouse or the tipping, clicking scroll wheels of any other mouse, the stick is on the side, under your thumb. This strikes us a dead handy.

The pictures you see are either mockups or prototypes, and the actual mouse should be available in February for $75. It’ll work with Windows, OS X and of course, Linux.

Nokia N900, first Nokia’s phone with Linux inside

The Nokia N900 is a mobile Internet device and phone, from Nokia based on the Maemo platform, superseding the N810. It was launched at Nokia World on 2 September 2009 and was expected to be released on 27 September 2009 (but this date has slipped to November 2009) in the United States and 9 European countries. It runs Maemo 5 Linux as its operating system and is the first Nokia device based upon the TI OMAP3 microprocessor with ARM Cortex-A8 core. Unlike the Internet Tablets preceding it, the Nokia N900 will be the first Maemo device to include phone functionality (quad-band GSM and 3G UMTS). It functions as a 5 mega pixel camera, a portable media player, and a mobile Internet device with email and web browsing.

The N900 is being launched alongside Maemo 5, giving the device an overall more touch-friendly interface and a customizable home screen which mixes application icons with shortcuts and widgets. Maemo 5 supports Adobe Flash Player 9.4, and includes many applications designed specifically for the mobile platform such as a new touch-friendly media player.

Meanwhile Reuters said…
Nokia CEO says starts delivery of top model N900

HELSINKI, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Nokia has started deliveries of its new top-of-the-range model N900, a key product for the world’s top phone maker in its battle against rivals iPhone and Blackberry.

Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a speech the company started deliveries of the phone on Tuesday.

The N900 model is Nokia’s first phone running the Linux Maemo operating system, which analysts see as a key for Nokia to regain ground in the coming years.

Nokia has kept its overall market share stable, close to 40 percent, but it has lost share among more expensive models to the likes of Apple and RIM.

High-end products are important for Nokia because the company has not only lost market share there, but its average selling prices have declined faster than the industry average.

Goldman Sachs has said it expects Nokia’s value share — a measure reflecting average prices and underlying market share — for phones costing more than $350 to decline to 13 percent this year from 33 percent just two years before.

Millions Facebook users opposed Facebook changes

In the recently days, facebook homepage interface has changed. Many Facebook users are surprised and feel less pleased with the changes in the social networking site homepage is. As a result, flow of criticism from more than one million accounts belonging in a protest group. Some users feel comfort with the previous interface because they have been accustomed, but in the other hand, facebook team do the changes because of there are some feedback from the other users who want to make a change in facebook homepage interface.

Because of that changes, not less than 1.1 million Facebook users unite to form a group called ‘Change Facebook Back to Normal’. Especially if their request is not the hope that Facebook could be like before. This is really phenomenal events that ever happen in facebook. Actually facebook developoer team just want to follow users will. But in some side, they must face some protest from the other users.

“Have you ever heard a phrase that says if something is not broken, do not fix it? Restore Facebook!” wrote a user named Eliza Williams in the group.

Some of the changes Facebook made it uncomfortable for some users. All the latest updates a list users who do now appear on News Feed and Live Feed. The reason is that Facebook users do not lose information about the activities of their friends.

Facebook own party claim they make changes based on advice given user. “When we redesigned the homepage and Facebook in March, we heard a proposal from the millions of users and to consider developing Live News Feeds and Feed,” the Facebook statement.

Now, Facebook party also encourage people to give constructive feedback about this change.

“Let’s Kill Berlusconi(PM of Italia)” in Facebook Group

Difference will of people encorage them to create some group where they can associate each other inside there. Many kind groups were exist in Facebook. One of group that have been created in Facebook is “Uccidiamo Berlusconi” or “Let’s Kill Berlusconi” in english. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi received death threats from the tens of thousands of people. They were joined in a few sites that formed a group on Facebook with a big theme ‘Killing Berlusconi’.

Hundreds of new members join this hatred group every day. Do not want this action to continue in the real world, the Italian authorities were investigating these groups. This group has more than 16,000 members and is growing in popularity.

Group administrators deny breaking any laws or wanting to harm anyone. Last month the US Secret Service intervened after a Facebook poll asked people if they thought President Barack Obama should be killed. Mr Berlusconi’s scandalous private life and legal troubles have recently put him at the centre of a heated controversy.

“Let’s kill Berlusconi” is just one of several groups established on Facebook in opposition to the Italian prime minister. Another Facebook group called “Death to Berlusconi” has around 300 members.

These groups were exacerbated by the images depicted Berlusconi was in the red circle with a diagonal line across his face that said ‘Berlusconi’s Get Lost’. One member even wrote, “Silvio, you’ll end up like Kennedy”.

A number of parties from the political parties who do not approve of these groups ordered it all removed because assessed as ‘hate campaign’.

Despite the administrators’ protestations, Italian authorities say the tone of the dialogue places the group on the wrong side of the law.

“These groups foment hate for Berlusconi, they call for his murder,” Italy’s Justice Minister Angelino Alfano was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“I expect magistrates to do their duty.”

Even opposition leader Dario Franceschini, has called for the group to be shut down.

Facebook, Twitter, & Last.fm in Xbox ?

Microsoft Xbox, one of some popular game console in the world would add new feature on Xbox Live. They aware the technology trend nowadays that tends to social network. Like Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said when he writes in his E3 2009 preview that the video game trade show should be “full of news and useful information for video game fans.” Microsoft want to create a social gaming console. Because of many user who really need more information and communication with their friends, not just play game. It marked a definitive expansion into social networking for the console and a strategy of broadening the Xbox brand into a wider entertainment realm beyond gaming.

As promised in early June at the E3 event, 360 Live users will see Twitter, Facebook and streaming radio service Last.fm available to their community as downloadable apps. Additionally, the existing Netflix application is expected to be updated to allow users to browse through titles directly from Live. With the promise of on-demand games, streaming videos, music and a new social media component, the Xbox community is about to look a lot like open source media center Boxee. Jennifer Puzio-Brooks an Entertainment Manager for Xbox has mentioned that the public beta for Xbox’s latest update that will include Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration will be going public this month. No solid date has been set for beta except it should go public sometime later this month. It doesn’t look like this beta will run like the last beta Microsoft had for their Dashboard update, it looks like you will not have the chance to sign up, but rather invites will be sent out to the community and to the press.

Facebook Integration
The Facebook integration may even have improved on the photo album browsing interface of the actual Facebook.com site, with snappy loading times and full-screen images making it even easier to browse through you or your friends’ photo galleries.
There’s also a very nice feature coming with the Facebook implementation as well: the ability to see which of your Facebook friends have Xbox Live accounts. Of course, you may already be Xbox Live friends with some of them, but what about the folks you might not have had the chance to exchange gamertags with, or even the friends you don’t even know are gamers? The new Dashboard update will solve that problem by identifying your Facebook friends on XBLA that haven’t friended you there yet.

Twitter and Last.fm
The Twitter implementation is a bit more bare bones, but nevertheless provides a way to update your status, see updates from those you’re following, and also see trending topics and perform searches. As Joystiq notes, without an on-board web browser with which to follow links and view Twitpics though, it almost calls to attention the glaring omission of web browsing on the Xbox 360.
The Last.fm implementation also gets high marks for user interface design, with most of the functionality users are familiar with brought into the Xbox Live integration. You can listen to your various stations, create new ones, skip tracks, add favorites, and get more information about individual tracks and artists.

Yahoo Meme, a Twitter clone that will compete Twitter !

Yahoo released its new product that almost same with Twitter. The product is so called Yahoo Meme. Yahoo is inviting users to test out the alpha version of a competitor to Twitter. The front page of Yahoo Meme says “Do not have time nor patience for blogging? So Meme is tailored for you. Wait” Yahoo Meme’s mascot is a dog instead of the Twitter bird. What is Meme means ? borrowed from a word coined by Richard Dawkins (he used the word to describe a human gene that causes selfishness). In here, Yahoo want to compete Twitter by create new concept of social networking. They want to give more space to users by uplhoding users’ selfishniess.

Meme users will find the main Meme page to exhibit many of Twitter’s standard features. Users create a name and can follow other users and gain followers, much like Twitter. They can also share photos, videos (currently only via YouTube), and music, in addition to sharing text updates (limited to 140 characters.)

A feature unique to Meme that many believe will enhance its popularity is the “repost” button, which appears next to every feed. Other users can click the repost button and the story will appear in their own feed (similar to Facebook’s friend feed in their most recent update), which is required for commenting on a story. Meme also contains a sidebar indicator that displays how many times a story has been reposted. The repost feature adds a dimension to networking potential that could be particularly useful in viral marketing.

While Twitter Tweets, Yahoo’s Meme Barks. Also like Twitter, Meme uses an animal for its mascot. But this animal doesn’t tweet! It barks! On the current front page, there are three individual dogs. If Twitterers tweet, what will Meme users do? ofcourse barks !