Free practice test , mock test, driving test, interview questions » Tech news

How much big data is going to get ?

Vinay — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:07:57 +0000

As the world moves online organization, government, every one is adapting to technology and moving their records online . few years back there were 45 million web users . Today they stand more than 1 billion and count is increasing as more and developed countries make broadband cheaper and available and government moving toward e governance.

Google alone has petabytes of data which is increasing every day. There has been an article in NY times on New Ways to Exploit Raw Data May Bring Surge of Innovation. A report from MCkinsey is “Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity.” It makes estimates of the potential benefits from deploying data-harvesting technologies and skills.

This surge in data would fuel demand for mathematics majors or data crunchers and organizations would look to mine the data, crunch the numbers and make use of it.

Comparison of Google’s Honeycomb OS with Apple OS

techNews — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:39:05 +0000

Apple has enjoyed highest market share pie in its OS market for Tablets & Phones for the past few years. But Google’s Android OS is proving to be the tough contender for them by launching better version at consistent interval & Honeycomb OS version is the one such new product by them. Honeycomb OS version has many features which is unavailable in the Apple’s OS & is currently seen as the next biggest market player in OS market. Some of the comparison between Apple OS and Google’s Honeycomb OS are as follows:-

S.N	Features	Honeycomb OS	Apple OS

1.	Speed	Google’s Android Honeycomb OS is built on Dual Core processor platform & thus provides more RAM (around 1 GB) & faster speed, in comparison to Apple’s DOS OS.	While Apple’s OS based Ipad & Iphone generally run on 256 MB RAM & produces lower speed in comparison to honeycomb OS based devices.
2.	3-D feature	Android OS honeycomb version uses dual core processor as platform thus producing attractive visual graphics in 3-D. The 3-D enhanced feature would surely is going to be the biggest rival of Apple’s OS based products & would try to bank upon the high market share.	Apple DOS OS does not provide as smooth and fast 3-D gaming experience & other 3-D graphic features as of Honeycomb OS version, thus demanding more improved 3-D version in future.
3.	Multitasking Features	Although Honeycomb as well as Apple OS based products can do multitasking but honeycomb OS helps in slightly improved & smoother navigation on the home screen page of tablets as user have to click only once in order to view apps running preview.	While in Apple Ipad tablet you will face a little bit slow navigation as you have to do double clicking for all the apps feature running on the home page screen.
4.	Smart Widgets	Android honeycomb OS is full of smart widgets such as Gmail widgets, calendar widgets as well as notification widgets. Honeycomb notification widget bar will show popup with contact photo at bottom side of the page without disturbing your work & giving you quick glimpses of the notifications.	While In apple’s notification widget, users faces problem of annoying appearance of popup showing at your page while working & some time causing crashes of important pages.
5.	Syncing feature	Android Honeycomb version OS can sync the apps directly to device through USB cable, cord or through your computer at your ease.	While Apple OS based product can only be synced with the different apps by purchasing the application from apple store & then syncing it with device.

All these features comparison is definitely giving Google’s Honeycomb OS an edge over Apple OS but this will be definitely decided by the market share of these two OS giant in near future. For latest update keep watching this space.

Google Android Honeycomb OS Features

techNews — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:35:26 +0000

Google has recently released some new attractive features in the newly launched honeycomb version of Android OS and since then public is vying to get a glimpse of the newly introduced Honeycomb OS features. So if you are geekozoid & looking for the quick run down on Honeycomb features then the complete ready reckoner is here for you:-

Fastest version: Google other Android OS versions like Gingerbread is faster but the Honeycomb version gives you fastest speed, letting the customers to demand more such version.

Compatible with all previous apps: - Android Honeycomb OS version is compatible with all the previously launched application whereas this feature is unavailable in Google’s other Android OS version.

Compatible with Tablets & Phones: - You can run your Android honeycomb OS on your tablet with as much ease as on phone.

Button free Tablets: - Honeycomb version has completely removed the requirement of physical button in Tablets thus making the Tablets all the more light weight in comparison to previous Tablets. By installing honeycomb version button in tablets would appear on the tablets screen & its position is smartly designed so that it will always appear on the bottom side no matter in which direction you are rotating your tablet.

Widget Friendly: - Customers often complained about limited option in Android OS widget features but you don’t have to any more as Honeycomb comes with some very handy, smooth widgets full of customized graphics & range of attractive widget features. Email widgets, calendar widgets are some of the widgets you have to watch for in the honeycomb version.

Video chat in Google talk: - Android OS honeycomb version gives you option of doing video chat in your gtalk apps which has been much awaited by customers.

Smart notification popup: - In earlier version of Android OS you must have seen notification appearing just like a simple popup but in this newly introduced honeycomb version popup appears with the photo of person who is pinging you at the moment.

Flexible applications: - In Honeycomb version you can change your gmail inbox view setting to message view setting easily besides you can also switch over various features of other apps at much faster and easier mode.

Attractive 3-D graphics: - Android OS honeycomb version uses dual core processor as platform thus producing attractive visual graphics in 3-D. The 3-D enhanced graphic feature was not available in Google’s other Android OS version & hence Google would try to bank upon this feature extensively by doing better marketing.

To know more about the new features of Honeycomb keep watching this space.

Tools to monitor your website

Vinay — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:13:28 +0000

Here are some tools that can help you diagnose website issues:

Check for possible network issues with ping from over 50 locations worldwide: just-ping.com.
Another way to see if the network is the cause is by using trace route: watchmouse.com/traceroute.php.
If the DNS is not working, nothing works, so check your site with: intodns.com and just-dnslookup.com.
Check if there are general Internet issues here: internettrafficreport.com.
Your site might work in some browsers, but not in all. Find out here: browsershots.org.
Slowness might be the cause of the problems, take a speed exam for your site: gtmetrix.com.

Apache resigns for Java Executive Committee

Vinay — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:13:18 +0000

In another blow in trying to bring Java Open source , Apache has resigned from Java SE/EE executive committee.

Why Apache took this step ?

The recent Java SE 7 vote was the last chance for the JCP EC to demonstrate that the EC has any intent to defend the JCP as an open specification process, and demonstrate that the letter and spirit of the law matter. To sum up the issues at stake in the vote, we believe that while continuing to fail to uphold their responsibilities under the JSPA, Oracle provided the EC with a Java SE 7 specification request and license that are self-contradictory, severely restrict distribution of independent implementations of the spec, and most importantly, prohibit the distribution of independent open source implementations of the spec. Oracle has refused to answer any reasonable and responsible questions from the EC regarding these problem

The Apache Software Foundation concludes that that JCP is not an open specification process – that Java specifications are proprietary technology that must be licensed directly from the spec lead under whatever terms the spec lead chooses; that the commercial concerns of a single entity, Oracle, will continue to seriously interfere with and bias the transparent governance of the ecosystem; that it is impossible to distribute independent implementations of JSRs under open source licenses such that users are protected from IP litigation by expert group members or the spec lead; and finally, the EC is unwilling or unable to assert the basic power of their role in the JCP governance process

This is very big step and it will again raise questions , Can java be open sourced or Oracle will try to control all aspects of Java and its licensing.

Is Java on path to lose its stature as open source programming language ? Although Java was not clearly open sourced but it was also not under so much control as Oracle is trying to exert on it.

Google Search Appliance and OneBoxes

smitha — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:27:14 +0000

Nowadays Searching right data withing an organization is becoming very important and Google – The most popular search engine provider, is also providing this within an organization. GSA – Google Search Appliance is a product from Google , which provides fast and relevant search within intranet.
GSA like Google site, would croll all the listed intranet sites, and some known data sources like content management systems, user portals and indexes all the documents for search. It also exposes an Google search interface to end users. One can also customize the front end according to their company needs. GSA can also be configured to pull some real time data using special applications called ‘OneBoxes’ which fetch real time data during the search.
According to google :

Google OneBox for Enterprise brings the power and simplicity of search as a “fast front door” to information into the enterprise network. OneBox Modules provide secure real time access to information on the Google Search Appliance or external data sources. On Google.com, OneBox modules display specially formatted information like movies, weather and airport information. Imagine accessing critical information like your business calendar, your business contacts or even sales reports from an easy to use search interface.

Altogether Google is showing how a simple search could add value within an enterprise also.

After Microsoft , adobe move to wordpress

Vinay — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:36:22 +0000

It is getting bigger for wordpress community and wordpress fans. After Microsoft decided to shut down its microsoft live blogging platform and switch to wordpress , it is now adobe’s turn to do same.

ou can see the collection of blogs over on blogs.adobe.com:

Go Wordpress Go!!

Drupal vs wordpress

JSON Data Interchange Format – Approved by ECMA

Vinay — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:14:23 +0000

The Ecma General Assembly has approved the fifth edition of ECMAScript, according to Istvan Sebestyen, secretary general of the organization. Included in this new version of ECMAScript, of which the popular JavaScript is a dialect, is native support for using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

This inclusion “will certainly have a big impact on developers,” said Douglas Crockford, the Yahoo software architect cited as the creator of JSON.

“JSON is already pretty widely-used in Web applications. By having JSON built into the ECMAScript language, [JSON] implementations will get faster and safer,” Crockford said. The approval is also a sign that the Web application development community is edging away from using XML as the sole desired standard for exchanging data among disparate systems, in at least those cases where delivery of relatively simple structured data is required

Want to learn programming in Scala ?

Vinay — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:03:02 +0000

Java programmers, interested in learning about Scala ? If you have missed our earlier posts on scala

Twitter has been written in which programming language

Why did twitter dumped Ruby on Rails

For new England residents a chance to learn Scala with Venkat Subramaniam who will be presenting on Programming Scala on Aug 12 2010 at NEJUG.

Venue : Sun Microsystems, Burlington , MA

Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects, and speaks frequently at international conferences and user groups. He is author of “.NET Gotchas,” coauthor of 2007 Jolt Productivity Award winning “Practices of an Agile Developer,” author of “Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer” and “Programming Scala: Tackle Multi-Core Complexity on the Java Virtual Machine” (Pragmatic Bookshelf).

New features in wordpress 3.0

Vinay — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:20:57 +0000

Wordpress is yet to release version 3.0 and there are some major enhancements coming up. Some important changes

Merge of WordPress MU + WordPress.org

Header Panel in WordPress 3.0

WordPress 3.0 Background Customization

Link Shortener

One of the new features which I really like is the ability to customize header using header cpanel. For the reader of Skill-Guru , you might have noticed that although we are using iNove them , we had to change header and footer in lines with our site. These new features would definitely help us out in customization of your blog

More details here at sixrevisions.