Code Monkey Business by Brendon Chase
The probability of a monkey typing a given string of characters to program together a meaningful application is so tiny that, were the experiment conducted, the chance of it successfully compiling during our lifetime is minuscule but not zero. Follow Brendon as he steers through the method behind the madness in software development and reports on the latest industry trends.
Dec 09
Is the Web cam the next input device?
We've all seen the future of interfaces in movies like Ironman and the Minority report but what can you do today? How about gestures via a Web cam? Since the 1980s the most popular human input devices have largely been the trusty keyboard and mouse. However, in the past few years we've seen quite more interest in new input devices and interfaces, and, unlike virtual reality and other promised [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: ui, input device, web cam, user interface
Dec 01
Bridging the gap between programmers and the vision
A successful project will have a hard time flying if you don't walk through the game plan before writing a line of code. Having worked in the media industry for a while now I've often heard grand plans based on fantastically clichéd adjectives mixed with vague ideas and plans. It's an easy area to pick on but I'm sure there are other industries with similar problems. If you've ever sat down [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: plan, communicate, collaborate, listen, stop, project management
Nov 20
Sun eye Web developers with Netbeans 6.5
Despite the recent employment axe hitting Sun the company has pushed out a new release of its Netbeans open source IDE with an eye to appeal more to Web developers. Sun released Netbeans 6.5, an upgrade from 6.1, overnight and includes a swab of features for Web developers using popular scripting languages, especially PHP. Traditionally an IDE for Java developers, the latest release shows a [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: groovy, jquery, netbeans, web development, php, sun, java
Nov 19
Will Microsoft build native Mac and Linux tools?
If the future is in Microsoft's online services why isn't the company building native tools for Mac and Linux developers? When Steve Ballmer recently visited Sydney and lead off with his "developers, developers, developers" cry, the crowd chuckled. Love or hate the guy, you can't deny his passion to woo developers and get them to develop with Microsoft tools and platforms. It's been the foundation [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Nov 14
Be wary of the rip and replace guy
Ever come across a consultant, developer, or manager who wants to rip everything up and start fresh? Change may be what your business needs but don't be afraid to question their convictions before embarking on the new plan. If you've ever watched a wildlife documentary about lions you may be aware of a common trait called Infanticide. Basically, it's when a male lion hunts down and kills offspring [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: consultants, soa, project management
Nov 10
Sun's JavaFX RIA platform MIA?
Adobe and Microsoft have taken the early lead in the RIA market but Sun is still waiting to get out of the starting blocks with JavaFX. Is Sun too late to the party? It's been a long hype cycle for Sun's RIA strategy. JavaFx was first touted in 2007 and a public beta took almost a year to reach the hands of developers. While the official release is scheduled anytime between now and December, I [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 4 comments
Oct 29
Azure: A matter of trust
Ray Ozzie hit the nail on the head when he said Azure's success will hinge on trust. Who outside (and inside) the core circle of ISV trust Microsoft? This week Microsoft revealed its cloud computing cards with "Azure" an infrastructure platform aimed at making applications easier to run and scale via a remote datacentre specialised with Microsoft's server-side tools. It's too soon to weigh [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: azure, cloud computing, microsoft
Oct 09
Apple's iPhone engineers to tour Sydney, Melbourne
Aussie developers will be able to get up close and personal with some of the iPhone engineers in November to learn how to build applications for the platform. (Credit: Apple)As part of a world tour, Sydney- and Melbourne-based developers are being offered a free day of tutorials to be led by Apple's evangelists and engineers. According to the Apple developer Website, the day will include: An [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Sep 30
Java pioneer joins Microsoft
Neal Gafter, one of the leading developers who influenced the Java language, has left Google to work on the .NET platform. After much speculation, Gafter has announced he has left the search giant to work at Microsoft. At Microsoft, Gafter said he will be working on "Visual Studio Managed Languages with Anders Hejlsberg, on C# and other languages". Gafter most recently worked on developing [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 3 comments
Sep 29
NICTA: Aussies should focus on embedded programming not VB
The CEO of the national ICT research centre says the future of Aussie developers should focus on building better embedded and wireless applications and focus less on technologies such as Visual Basic. NICTA CEO, Dr David Skellern, said Australia's large geographic coverage in contrast to its relatively small population meant that local innovation should come from wireless technology and writing [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 9 comments
Tags: nicta, embedded systems, visual basic, programming, .net
Sep 17
Gartner: Social software projects lack purpose
Social software projects fail because IT management’s deployment lack purpose according to Gartner, an industry analyst firm. As the software industry embraces social software such as wikis, forums, tagging, and collaborative Web tools, Gartner believes managers are failing to understand how successful communities form with the "install and they will come" practice rarely succeeding. According [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: gartner, project management, web 2.0
Sep 16
Google's browser ported to Mac and Linux
While Google works on an official port of the Chrome browser, another company has ported the browser for Mac and Linux users to try for free. Developed by CodeWeavers, a company that creates cross platform compatibility software, the browser is based on Google's Chromium code and runs on Wine.The project took just 11 days to complete and was released totally free to show off what the company could [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: chromium, codeweavers, chrome
Sep 10
Developer creates Mac UI for Java apps
Java developers may soon be able to get their apps looking less ugly and more Mac-like if a promising new project continues. Dubbed "Mac Widgets for Java", the project this week released a Java library to allow developers to create a User Interface(UI) that looks like Mac's across Windows, Linux, Mac, and other platforms with the Java runtime environment installed. Ken Orr, a developer from [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: user interface, app, java, mac, development
Aug 25
Blog against poverty
Worldwide Blog Action Day is 15 October. Who's in? This is a quick blog post to plug Blog Action Day which will be happening again this year on 15 October. In 2008 the goal is to raise awareness and conversation around the worldwide topic of poverty and in the process raise money for the cause. Blog Action Day is an initiative co-ordinated by Collis Ta'eed from Envato in 2007. The idea is to [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 4 comments
Aug 22
How to Lifestream with WordPress
Lifestreaming is the act of collecting and publishing all of your social networking activities in one stream. Here's the easy way to get started using your own install of WordPress. Is it just me or is Lifestreaming the hip, funky, new word the Web 2.0 kids (or is that 3.0) are flaunting around as the next big thing? After setting up all of those exclusive beta accounts to yet another social networking [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: micropublishing, twitter
Aug 11
Q&A with EditMe: A wiki for non-geeks
Finally, a wiki CMS solution that you can safely give to your clients to use. But ssshhhh...don't call it a wiki... Wikis are a fantastic way for businesses to collaborate ideas and publish information on an intranet or company website. The problem is they lack support from anyone who isn't in the tech team or a geek. Wiki syntax can seem too hard for many, navigating a wiki isn't exactly intuitive, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Aug 06
10 PR 2.0 tips for startups
You’ve got a great product and spent much of your budget on developing your software or service and now you’re left with a marginal budget for marketing and PR. Sound familiar? Spending money on good public relations, whether internal or external, can be extremely valuable on getting your message out to the public, and most importantly your potential customers. Reputable agencies and individuals [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Jul 28
Install usability practices in your shop with Silverback
Getting started with usability testing doesn't require an expensive lab full of equipment and science nerds in white coats to poke and prod your users. Cheap and accessible software is readily available to help your team create better software for end-users. Real usability testing is a myth in many software development shops. Instead of actually running usability tests during the course of the [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Jul 25
Do you trust data in the cloud?
Cheap hosted storage, app engines, and hosted code libraries. Can you really trust your data, or your client's data in the magical Web 2.0 cloud? Online services that take the hard yakka out of building Web solutions have popped up left, right and centre over the past two years. Instead of hosting a JavaScript library you can now call one from Google. Need cheap hosted storage for your website? [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: cloud computing
Jul 15
Aussie Web design awards open
Looking for recognition of your team's hot design skills? The McFarlane Prize is one of Australia's most premier industry awards for Web designers and is open for nominations until 31 August. The McFarlane Prize, named after the late Australian open source and Web standards advocate, Nigel McFarlane, "aims to recognise and encourage excellence in Web design by Australian Web professionals". [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Jun 25
Firefox 3 add-ons to make you a better Web developer
Firefox might be a fast browser (for speed, try out Opera or WebKir -- Ed.) but its extensions can transform it into a powerful development tool for Web developers and designers. Here are 10 of the best to get you started. Firefox's open platform makes it ideal to extend and turn it into almost anything you want. Hundreds, if not thousands, of developers have contributed to the platform and pushed [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: add-ons, web development, firefox
Jun 23
Do browsers need a Universal Edit Button?
As websites allow more user-generated content, do browsers need a way to better inform users that pages are editable? A group of Wiki providers think the solution is adding in a green pencil icon in the URL bar to indicate a Web page can be edited, similar to the RSS icon to represent an RSS feed is available. Under the banner universaleditbutton.org, a group of more than 25 Wiki providers, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 3 comments
Jun 19
Install Web stacks in an instant with BitNami
Need to set up a server environment to run Web applications such as WordPress, MediaWiki, Joomla, Trac, DocuWiki, or Drupal? Here's how to do it in less than two minutes with free software. Setting up a localhost Web server environment such as LAMP, MAMP, JRuby, WAMP, or Django seems to be getting easier each time I try. The BitNami project has stepped up to the crease and made it extraordinarily [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: web server, web apps, lamp
Jun 13
Railo to go open source with JBoss
Railo have announced they will be open sourcing their alternative engine for the ColdFusion Markup Language(CFML). Railo, which compiles code programmed in CFML into Java bytecode to run on a Java servlet engine, are readying to expose their code for developers to use. The catch is developers will have to wait for the next release of Railo, due out in late 2008 according to the company. The new [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: lgpl, jboss, java, coldfusion
Jun 11
Adobe lead charge for a Java SWT port to Apple's Cocoa
Reports out of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference this week indicate a port of Java SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) to Mac OS X Cocoa is being readied. The Mac Observer reports Scott Kovatch, Senior Computer Scientist of Adobe Systems, will be leading the project. He stated Adobe engineers will be working on the project and the company will be making use of the technology in future Adobe projects. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Jun 06
Google to allow third party code in Gmail?
According to executives from the company, Google is preparing to open Gmail to developers outside the Googleplex labs. As the Web giant prepares to unleash new features upon the popular email client, the company also hinted to the future -- where third-party developers can code new Gmail features or add-ons. Keith Coleman, a Gmail product manager, told CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland: "We'd [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: outlook, thunderbird, gmail, mozilla, microsoft, google
Jun 04
Are your Web apps ready for the next-gen browser war?
Webkit, Firefox, and Internet Explorer are all scheduled to update their engines in 2008. Are you ready for Web dev test fest 08? The Web as a platform for development has always been a rocky road. Remember the early days when there was one browser, which made testing easy. One platform means less points of failure and less support and more time to spend optimising pages to load under 50Kbps of [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: ie, opera, web development, safari, testing
May 28
Adobe previews new Web dev tools
Want to see what's in store for Adobe CS4? Public betas of Dreamweaver and Fireworks are available for download at Adobe Labs. The release of the Dreamweaver and Fireworks betas this week is the first public outing for the new tools and a chance for developers outside the Adobe community to offer feedback, or as the company put it, "kick the tyres and ensure that it meets your needs". Dreamweaver [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: web design, dreamweaver, fireworks, adobe
May 26
China poised for 3G
A major overhaul of the telecommunications industry in China will clear the way for 3G services to possibly over half a billion mobile phones. Announced by the Chinese government over the weekend, the country's phone companies will merge from six to three groups in a bid to compete with China Mobile, the company that dominates the industry. While no time frame was given for the completion of the [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: 3g, mobile development
May 26
Six video podcasts to help you ace Photoshop
Mastering Photoshop and other image manipulation programs can be a handy addition to your toolbox of skills as an IT pro. Traditionally, learning a new technical skill like a programming language or getting a grip of a complex tool like Photohop required buying a 500-page reference manual as a primer and probably taking a short course or two. Within the past couple of years this has changed considerably. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
May 22
Dealing with the ego elephant in the room
Egomaniacs, swell-heads, know-it-alls, showboats, show ponies, narcissists, ego-trippers, big heads, and peacocks – work with one of these? Before starting this post let's be clear – a healthy ego is one with genuine confidence and drive but are realistic in that the world wasn't created by themselves. In Australia, showboats shouldn't be misinterpreted as Tall Poppy Syndrome either – where [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: team, management
May 16
How to manage a team of geniuses
Hiring a team of developers and techies that are smarter than you is inevitable. As a manager how do you cope with this and keep things on track? I've always been a fan of hiring smart, and not necessarily the right people. It's much easier to train a smart person to do an amazing job than hire an average person to be smart. Successful rugby union coach, Rod Macqueen, took this approach when [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
May 09
Will China produce the next GTA?
China's middle class with expendable income is increasing and so is the country's ambitions to become a world class gaming and animation development hub. Is it only a matter of time before the next big gaming hit in the west is built in the east? This week representatives from powerhouse studios such as Pixar and DreamWorks, LucasArts, and Virgin are in Suzhou, China to attend the inaugural X [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: games, development
Apr 18
Conference season open for Web developers
Are Adobe Air, Microsoft Silverlight, Google Gears, AJAX, and the semantic Web some of your favourite things? Now's the right time to put in that training request because May and June are full of great local Web developer conferences. Remix 08 Microsoft's second annual Remix conference will this year see designer and developer sessions on new possibilities working with Silverlight 2, Internet [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: remix, air, web directions south, web development, webdu
Apr 10
Aussie software pros code for the Fred Hollows Foundation
Software professionals in Australia have coded together a blitz Web-based charity campaign to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation -- donations are now open. The campaign, dubbed the "Million Eyes of Sight", allows visitors of the Web site to purchase a pixel AU$2 each. As more people buy pixels the image will become clearer. The group hopes to raise over half a million dollars. The [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 3 comments
Tags: charity, coldfusion, adobe
Mar 20
Quote of the year (so far)
Hats off to James Gosling for this corker about developers who insist on using Emacs for their developer needs in the face of better tools. Recently, Builder AU editor, Chris Duckett caught up with the founder of Java and one of the innovators in the Emacs scene. It seems Gosling isn't as nostalgic about Emacs as some who continue to use it day-to-day. Surely this will ruffle the feathers of [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 3 comments
Feb 14
Builder AU widgets for all
Want the latest Builder AU tips, tutorials, news and blogs in widget form? Here's Builder AU's cross platform widget to insert on your Web site or blog, Netvibes account, Windows Vista, Apple's Dashboard, or your favourite social networking Web sites. Under the hood the nifty little widget was built using the Netvibes Universal Widget API(UWA). The creation used common and open languages that [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: igoogle, netvibes, windows live, opera, widgets, dashboard, sidebar, vista
Jan 30
2008 iAward nominations open
Seeking recognition in the field of excellence for one of your recent projects? It might not be the Oscars, or even the Logies, but nominations for the iAwards are open this week. The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) iAwards seek to recognise outstanding Australian information and communication technology (ICT) innovators of the year open to all dev shops big and small. According [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Dec 05
Adobe release H.264 video support for Flash player
In a bid to stay relevant in the world of high definition video Adobe's new Flash player has officially shipped with the H.264 video standard included. Released this week, Flash Player 9 Update 3, which went under the code name Moviestar during beta, includes the H.264 standard video support, making way for better quality pictures and the HE-AAC standard for increased audio quality. H.264 and [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Nov 29
Drupal gets a Second Life framework
Objects in the Second Life virtual world can now be more easily integrated into Web sites running the Drupal content management system thanks to a new third-party module creator released this week. The new framework, created by third-party Drupal developers 2bits, allows objects inside Second Life to interact with applications running on the popular Drupal content management system. The framework [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: content management, second life, drupal
Nov 14
Newbie guide to Google's Android
Google's platform for mobile devices has been announced and ready for developers to get their hands dirty. Here's the basics of what it's all about and the core architecture overview. Let's take it from the top. Android a mobile phone platform based on Linux. It's open source and will be developed by a consortium called the Open Handset Alliance, which is basically Google and a some interested [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 4 comments
Tags: android, mobile development, google
Nov 07
OS X Leopard source code released
The core set of components under the hood of Apple's Leopard operating system has been released to developers. The source code for Darwin, the centre of Apple's UNIX-based operating system is now available to developers, as previous versions of the components have been since OS X 10. While the release gives developers and interested parties a look under the hood of Apple's latest operating [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Sep 03
Is facesquatting becoming a problem?
Could name squatting on Facebook applications become a new litigious area for the Web? Lately I've been involved in the world of developing Facebook applications in the current gold rush or downhill derby in social media Web development. Popularity is the aim, annoyance is largely the game. If you're a Facebook user then you're probably getting a flood of invites to use these new applications. For [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: facebook, cybersquatting, trademarks
Jul 19
Don't bother with the counter offer
While Australia is currently in a tight labour market should you really bother with a counter offer when an employee already has one foot out the door? This week Hayes Information Technology recruiters released their annual salary survey. For many, it's depressing to see what the so-called average peer is earning on a so-called greener pasture. For others, it's a point to state their market [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: salary, recruitment, management
Jul 12
Ivar Jacobson acquires Aussie consultancy company
The consultancy company led by the software pioneer, Ivar Jacobson, announced overnight it has finalised the acquisition of the consultancy arm of Crag Solutions Pty Ltd. In a bid to rapidly grow Ivar Jacobson International's (IJI) customer base in Australia the company have acquired the services division of Crag Solutions Pty Ltd, who are based in Melbourne. “Asia Pacific is a market under [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 1 comment
Tags: acquisition
Jul 05
iPhone Web development guide released
It's going to be a while before we see an iPhone that works with official Apple support but there's no reason why Aussie developers can't get ahead of the curve and be up with their US counterparts. Apple has just released a Web development guide for the iPhone. Inside the guide are tips on the iPhone's abilities, how to create apps that are optimised for the phone, create mash-ups, and make [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
Tags: iphone, google maps, widgets, apple, safari
Jul 03
Take off your suit pants and jacket -- It's Web 2.0
It's time to take off that uncomfortable suit and put on those comfy jeans you left at home during the dot-com crash. And while you're at it, grow that tidy corporate haircut out, let your facial hair run wild, and visit your local tattoo parlor so you can show off some visible ink. The word is out. IT rock geeks are back in demand and stereotypical "dot-com" culture (and smell) is back in [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 25 comments
Tags: web 2.0, human resources
May 31
Google Gears screenshots
Google Gears was released today which promises to allow developers to create offline Web apps through a browser plug-in. Here is a bit of eye candy I took while checking it out. If you're looking for more information check out the Builder AU news piece by Chris Duckett, ZDNet Australia's video interview with Google Australia, and the Google Gears Developer Web site. Screenshot 1 Google's [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Tags: gears, screenshots, google
May 15
CodeGear ready Ruby release
CodeGear have announced this week they will be releasing an integrated development environment(IDE) for Ruby on Rails developers in the second half of 2007. The development tools company owned by Borland Software Corporation have released snippets of information on the upcoming IDE, dubbed "Ruby IDE" including: * Full support for Ruby and Rails, enabling development features such as Code Completion, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 0 comments
Apr 20
Microsoft release Orcas beta and .NET framework 3.5
After two community previews Microsoft have released the first beta of their new Visual Studio development tools, code named "Orcas". The new tools which were released overnight focus on developing applications on Windows Vista, Office 2007, and AJAX Web applications. Included in the release is LINQ, Windows Communication Foundation, and Visual Studio Tools for Office. To accommodate the new [...] Read more »
-- posted by Brendon Chase | 2 comments
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Space pr0n, patent karma and Yang out -- Club Builder
On Club Builder this week: how NASA plans to get the Internet into space, Jerry Yang is out the door at Yahoo and Brendan Eich discusses javascript engine competition.