I’m excited to announce my first e-book, A Year of Change, is available to download here:

• A Year of Change - by Peter Clemens

The e-book includes my best articles from my first year of blogging both on Pick The Brain and my own personal blog, The Change Blog.

It is a free e-book, so feel free to do with it what you want: print it, review it on your blog, share it on Twitter, email it to your friends, sell it……. whatever you want.

Finally, I would love to hear your thoughts about the e-book, either in the comments below [at the link above -LG] or via email to peter [at] pickthebrain.com.

I will be pursuing what I pursue in my column in "Communications of the ACM", which is that software is a knowledge medium and that software development is primarily a knowledge acquisition process (rather than a product production process).

That said, of course I will be learning those aspects of WordPress's blog software for the immediate future.  The blog entries are not software of course, they are words in a book.  Some of how the words get into the book are software-ish.  Which prompts the first observation:

• Could "software engineering" be likened to the technological knowledge of, say, typesetting?

The term "software engineering" is a tad recursive.  Given that software is a knowledge medium, then the engineering of the thing would be the engineering of a medium, not the engineering of the knowledge in that medium.  In fact most of what we call "software engineering" is really "domain engineering".

If I'm building a battery monitor for a cell phone, I'm not particularly engineering the knowledge of software, I'm engineering the knowledge of the battery (its charge, capacity, drain characteristics), the phone, (its power requiements, how it drains the battery), and the display (how to tell someone what the battery status is).  Much of the knowledeg in the battery monitoring software is related to the operation of the physical device: how the interrupts work, how to recognize timer events, how to recognize that the voltage on the circuit (assumping I'm using a voltage-driven approach) is below a certain level, etc.  Little of this relates to the software.

"Software Engineering" in its most straightfoward form would be the knowledge of the knowledge format (in software), not the knowledge of the knowledge content.  This is why I think the concept of "software engineering" will disappear, or at least morph into something that more closely describes what we really do in building software-based systems.

Wow, thanks, that's very illustrative - can't you tell me *which* file?  Turned out the culprit was mozMapi32.dll, a file located in Thunderbird's program files directory.  Something (other than Thunderbird) was locking the file.

A little investigation showed that the root cause of the problem was likely my logitech web cam, killing off the web cam software enabled me to delete the file and do a clean install of Thunderbird 2.0.0.16.

What?  Why in heaven is my web cam software locking files in another program's directory?   Now, I'm not entirely positive that the root cause is the web cam software, I didn't test out this theory rigorously.  But a google search shows that logitech software has been suspected as the root cause of update problems for quite some time now.

So, if you have a logitech web cam (or possibly any logitech device; I'll try to replicate this problem with the web cam uninstalled and the wireless mouse plugged in), expect update problems.  Turn off your web cam software (annoyingly, the easily accessible logitech software does not provide "do not launch at boot" as
an option.

Nice going, dev squad at Logitech.  If in fact you're the root cause of this problem, you've managed to replicate bad behavior that I haven't seen since late Windows 98... and you've left it broken for quite some time now without fixing it.

I'll try to take the time to verify this post-haste.  If this is the case, I'd have to consider not recommending Logitech devices in general...

The distro isn't downloadable, but is available for OEM's.

Fortunately you can use the netbook remix repo to install some of the things the "ubuntu netbook remix" offers.

The eye-catching menu for one.

To install it, open up synaptic (system -> preferences -> synaptic package manager). Select "settings -> repositories". In the "third party software" tab, press "add".

Copy/paste this line:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/netbook-remix-team/ubuntu hardy main

After that, press the "reload" button in synaptic. It's in the left top corner of the screen.

Then press the "search" button and look for "ume-launcher".

Install the package.

You can launch it by pressing "alt + f2" and entering "ume-launcher".

It's best to disable compiz fusion (press alt+f2 and enter "metacity --replace", note that -- is two - -).

You could add the "ume-launcher" command in "system -> preferences -> sessions" in the command box, so it starts when you boot up the pc.

To fully transform ubuntu hardy to ubuntu netbook remix go here.

Buy this time I wanted to, if nothing more than to try and help those who are affected by this. I am ashamed that Apple is letting this happen. Come on, a week? Are you Microsoft?

Wait! That is it, Apple's dark secret is that Mobileme is based on Windows Vista. Ah it makes sense now!

Hoy era el día programado para anunciar la lista de ganadores de los Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards, los premios otorgados por la comunidad del famoso portal de software libre a los mejores y más importantes proyectos del año. Tal y como comentamos en Genbeta hace unas semanas, se ha aprovechado el contexto de la convención OSCON para hacer públicos los nombres de los elegidos en cada categoría.

La lista de ganadores es la siguiente:

'Serial bombs' hit India's IT hub

Vidio of Banglore bomb Blast Bangalore Blast- part 2

Seven bombs have hit the southern Indian city of Bangalore within minutes of each other, police say. One woman was killed and several people injured. Police say bombs were detonated with timing devices. The blasts have been described as low intensity and all are reported to have occurred in crowded areas. Bangalore is the information technology hub of India with more than 40% of the country's IT and software industry based there. Malls, schools and cinema halls across Bangalore have been shut and police have cordoned off the blast sites.

"We are conducting the investigation. Bomb squads have reached the scene. We appeal to the citizens to carry on their normal activities without any fear," Bangalore city police commissioner Shankar Bidri said. Mr Bidri said each of the explosions were of a similar magnitude to one or two grenades. Police said a woman died in the explosion at Madiwala area. Other blasts were in the areas of Nayanadhalli, Adugudi, Rajaram Circle, Anepallya and Ashok Nagar. The injured have been taken to Bangalore's St John's hospital. A large part of India's IT and outsourcing business is concentrated in Bangalore. Dozens of large international firms like Microsoft, Intel and IBM also have offices in the city which is often called the Silicon Valley of India. There have been a number of blasts in Indian cities in recent years. They are almost always blamed on foreign militants but there have been no significant arrests or convictions in any of the cases.

Police with sniffer dogs search one of the damaged areas

Bengaluru has been attacked. Low intensity blasts in a span of one hour in six different places rocked the IT capital of India on Friday afternoon in which two people died and several others were injured. While the first seven blasts took place between 1.30-2.30 pm, the eighth blast blast took place at Hosaguddahalli, near Gopalan Mall, on Mysore road at around 5.30 pm and the ninth blast took place near the R V Engineering College on Mysore Road at 6.30 pm. The Bengaluru police have termed it as an act of terror. The first two blasts occurred at Adugodi at 1.30 pm behind the famous Forum Mall, which is a major shopping destination in Bengaluru. The second bomb was placed near a granite factory under some granite slabs. The blast at Madiwala occured near the check post at 1.50 pm, which were followed by a blast at Nayandahalli in a bus shelter at 2.10 pm. Between 2.10 and 2.30 pm very low intensity blasts were reported near the Mallya hospital at a park and on Richmond and Langford road. A woman who died in the blasts has been identified as Lakshmi. She, along with her husband, was standing at the bus stop when the explosion occurred. Reports suggest that she was hit on the head by a bolt. He husband Ravi has also been injured in the attack. Five other persons have been injured in the blasts. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Shankar Bidri said the blasts were of low intensity and gelatin sticks were used. Preliminary investigations show that the bombs were attached to a timer device and were triggered off by a mobile phone. A similar pattern was used in the Hyderbad twin blasts and also at Jaipur and Ajmer. While various theories are being floated regarding the cause of the blasts, the police maintain that it was only to scare people and create law and order problems. While the Intelligence Bureau are not ruling out the hand of the Students Islamic Movement of India behind the blasts, the cops maintain that it is too early to blame anyone. The IB says that the attack could be three pronged -- one to scare the IT sector in Bengaluru, two to warn the Karnataka police in the wake of the arrests of SIMI cadres in Karnataka which led to the arrests of 10 supremos of SIMI in Indore and lastly as a retaliatory measure since the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power for the first time in south India. Looking closely at the manner in which the attacks were carried out, the IB says that it was more of an attempt to scare the people rather than kill. The bombs were of low intensity and the places in which they were hidden is a clear indication that the intention was more to scare the general public and in the case of the Madiwala and Adugodi explosions, the IT sector in particular. There are large number of IT professionals living in these two areas. Moments after the explosions, panic set in Bengaluru city. People were seen running helter skelter at the blast sites, while the rest of the city remained tense. What made matters worse was that all mobile lines were jammed and people were trying desperately to contact their near and dear ones. However, shops and establishments did not down shutters and offices and schools remained open even after hearing the news of the blasts. The only effect of the blasts were traffic jams all across the city. On the spot, people looked shaken up and were in a daze following the explosions. They said they heard a loud explosion and when they looked around there was dust that had kicked up and several window panes shattered. The police were quick to get into the thick of the action and both the dog squad and the forensic team were pressed into service. Bidri assured the people that the situation was under control and there was no cause for panic. He said that security had been beefed up and the police have taken stock of the situation. Gopal Hosur, joint commissioner, crime, said that there was nothing to worry. He said that the blasts were low intensity in nature. He assured the people that the situation was under control.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly condemned the serial blasts and asked the people to remain calm and maintain communal harmony. He announced Rs.One lakh ex-gratia to the next of kin of each of the deceased.
Blaming anti-national and anti-social elements for the serial blasts in Bangalore, the BJP government in Karnataka today said they seemed to be part of a pre-determined plan to malign it. Describing the blasts as a 'cowardly act' aimed at spreading panic and disrupting peace and normalcy, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today directed police to constitute a special team to probe the explosions.

Government announced Rs one lakh for the family of the woman who was killed in the blasts. The injured would get between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, he said and appealed to the people to remain calm and maintain peace. ]]> http://macregios.wordpress.com/?p=363 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:51:08 +0000 macregios http://macregios.wordpress.com/?p=363 Si eres de aquellos como yo, que requiere usar el Office por alguna razon y se lo instalaste a tu Mac, pues les tengo la noticia que hace unos dias salio una actualizacion ( 2008 ) para dicha suite.

I learnt the sad news via FriendFeed.com, here is a link to a news item.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—July 22, 2008— SpringSource, the company behind Spring, the de facto standard in enterprise Java, and a leading provider of infrastructure software, today announced the general availability of SpringSource Enterprise.

"The application landscape is undergoing significant change, as developers and architects demand a combination of powerful capabilities and simplicity in the next generation of enterprise applications,” said Peter Cooper-Ellis, SpringSource senior vice president of engineering and product management. “The commercial release of SpringSource Enterprise, coupled with the recent introduction of the SpringSource Application Platform, delivers more flexible and modular alternatives that the market is looking for in their application infrastructure.”

SpringSource has published some months ago the SpringSource Application Platform, currently in beta.

As Eberhard Wolf posted in Google's Spring User Group Germany :

SpringSource is a fully modular environment for
* Enterprise Java applications, that based on modern concepts
* it is based on OSGi as underlying system for module coordination
* it contains tomcat for support of web applications
... and supports Spring as programming model of course

He invites everybody to take part in SpringSource beta program: Register here ...

Both : SteeLsWrapperD3D.dll and SteeLsWrapperD3D.exe MUST BE in same folder.

Just RUN the SteeLsWrapperD3D.exe & click OK.

and then Start WarRock
The Hack will automatically get INJECTED [Hooked] in WarRock.exe process

Ingame Press INSERT to enable Hacks.

Ingame Press DELETE to Disable Hacks.

-----

IF USING "Winject.exe"

1. RUN Winject.exe

2. Select DLL

3. START Warrock Game

4. Before LOGIN press ALT + TAB & select Process = WarRock.exe

5. CLICK INJECT & PRESS INSERT key on keyboard

Download

Both : SteeLsWrapperD3D.dll and SteeLsWrapperD3D.exe MUST BE in same folder.

Just RUN the SteeLsWrapperD3D.exe & click OK.

and then Start WarRock
The Hack will automatically get INJECTED [Hooked] in WarRock.exe process

Ingame Press INSERT to enable Hacks.

Ingame Press DELETE to Disable Hacks.

-----

IF USING "Winject.exe"

1. RUN Winject.exe

2. Select DLL

3. START Warrock Game

4. Before LOGIN press ALT + TAB & select Process = WarRock.exe

5. CLICK INJECT & PRESS INSERT key on keyboard

Download

You can edit cross-hairs in program folder: uCross-Hair 1.0\User
Open one bitmap in Paint, use ZOOM and press CTR + G. You will have grid to help.

Download

You can edit cross-hairs in program folder: uCross-Hair 1.0\User
Open one bitmap in Paint, use ZOOM and press CTR + G. You will have grid to help.

Download

Muchos fueron los ports que saltaron de PS2 a PSP, algunos incluso con conversión directa desde la negra de SONY. Ahora le toca el turno al salto de una de las sagas pioneras de PlayStation3 a PSP y se trata de Resistance. Mientras se prepara la segunda parte para la mayor, podremos disfrutar de intensos combates contra alienígenas en la calle con nuestra portátil.

Gameplay Resistance Retribution E3 2008

Trailer Resistance Retribution E3 2008

Questo premio va al software dell'agenzia delle entrate, in particolare a quello dell'unico PF 2008, a Gerico 2008 e a File Internet (serve autenticarsi per scaricarlo!). Sono i peggiori software che io abbia mai installato. Per dare un'idea, non essendo un utonto alle prime armi (anche se qualche scivolone capita anche ai migliori), ho impiegato due (!) ore a spedire la dichiarazione di mia moglie già pronta per essere spedita.

Segnalo solo tre chicche:
1) il sudetto software è scritto in Java, ma è compilato solo per Windows e Mac. Non dovrebbe esserci nessun impedimento tecnico per averlo subito disponibile per Linux e tutti i sistemi operativi Solaris. Appena qualcuno avviserà l'uomo giusto al ministero sul perché si usa Java e cosa sono Linux e Solaris.
2) è scritto in java, ma con java 1.5.0_14/15/16 (e solo quella versione!), a seconda delle varie versioni rilasciate durante l'anno. Un bel passo in avanti rispetto agli anni scorsi, quando si usavano varie paleo-versioni di Java.
3) è a sorgente chiuso e quindi gli errori vengono trovati e corretti in tutta calma, possibilmente dopo che uno ha spedito la dichiarazione.

Tutti ciò comporta il controllo e l'aggiornamento di 4 software per fare una cosa sola: la dichiarazione dei redditi. (E una certa dose di imprecazioni da parte del sottoscritto.)

ilcomiziante

PS: un commercialista che ha lo studio in una zona dove non arriva l'ADSL è obbligato a chiuderlo: non può scaricare 50 MB di software ogni pochi giorni a 56 kbps! E non bisogna andare in alta montagna per essere in questa situazione. Basta andare a Poasco, nella modernissima S. Donato Milanese.

Um nome que está na moda e poderíamos trazer ao mundo do software é "orgânico". Software orgânico. Sem aditivos, sem conservantes, sem licenças escrotas. Puro, natural, saudável.

Do mesmo autor do nLite, vLite é um programa, capaz de remover permanentemente componentes do Windows Vista e a configuração de pré-instalação do Windows. Após a remoção há uma opção para fazer imagem com boot, prontos para gravação em CD/DVD ou teste em máquinas virtuais. Com o vLite o utilizador poderá ter a instalação do Windows de forma automática, ou até mesmo que alguns passos sejam ignorados... (continua)

Para ver o resto da descrição e/ou fazer download clique aqui

Nota: Ao clicar irá ser redireccionado ao nosso fórum, abrindo uma nova janela ou novo separador!!! Todos e/ou a maioria dos nossos posts irão ficar no fórum " Tudo O Que Precisas "!