News (207)

Q&A: Debian leader on not being in it for the money

The Debian GNU/Linux operating system continues to generate interest from developers around the world, keen to sign up and contribute code to the open-source project now in its 15th year. Read more »

Microsoft reaches out to developers with Live

Microsoft has launched a Web site to entice software developers to write "mashup" applications that connect to the company's Web properties, a move that reflects a companywide transition to hosted services. Read more »

Piggyback developers in a bind over IE

Internet Explorer's state of suspended animation has never much bothered Web entrepreneur Adam Stiles, but now he's worried. Read more »

Developers split from JBoss Group

The specialist in open source application server applications loses a handful of developers who set out to run their own venture, working with JBoss and other software. Read more »

SAP: Love those developers, hate that open source

Enterprise software giant SAP is making a renewed push to build ties to the developer community, but that enthusiasm isn't likely to extend to making the source code for any of its core components available. Read more »

Coders win from Android Market

Google officially opened its Android Market Wednesday in the US and promised that beginning next year, programmers would get the lion's share of revenue from applications sold on the download site for the company's mobile phone operating system. Read more »

Melbourne gets ready for open source codefest

If developing code in open source languages and spending time with luminaries in the local developer community sounds like a good way to spend a few days off work, you should probably consider spending early December in Melbourne at the inaugural Open Source Developers Conference. (OSDC) Read more »

Microsoft details Windows Live 'platform'

Microsoft has spelled out its strategy to make its Live Web services accessible to third-party developers, part of its push to capitalise on online services. Read more »

Developer Spotlight: Walker Royce

Walker Royce is the Vice President of IBM's Worldwide Rational Lab Services; he is also the author of Software Project Management, A Unified Framework. Builder AU caught up with him to talk about the process of software development and where we are heading as an industry. Read more »

Counting down to the iPhone SDK

While Australia waits for the iPhone, time is quickly closing in on the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the iPhone, one that could signal just how far Apple can take its maiden voyage into the smartphone world. Read more »

Features (236)

Herding a team of developers

Software development is rarely a solitary process, so integrating teams is a critical skill for any major project. We look at the processes and tools can be used to ensure that developers work effectively and productively. Read more »

Who owns your application code?

A company can get burned when it comes to deciding who owns the code to an application. Outside developers could cause trouble if the details aren't ironed out in the beginning. Read more »

Digging code: Software archaeology

At first glance, business software developers have little in common with Indiana Jones. But the emerging field of software archaeology applies some of the same skills, if not the dashing adventure. Read more »

Seven habits of effective developers

Sun engineer Lee Chuk Munn says writing applications is like writing a book -- keep it clean and keep it simple. Read more »

Will .NET kill off all the VB6 developers?

In addition to the confusion created by the many ambiguous dot-net labels, there's one big question that dot-Microsoft has yet to answer: What do we do with the vast army of VB6 developers? Read more »

Are key performance indicators a true measure?

Some managers love to look solely at numbers when assessing performance, and key performance indicators are right up their street. But how useful are they in the context of software development? Read more »

SuSE bundles Linux extras for biz

Linux is working with developers to release a uniform version of its operating system aimed at the business market Read more »

Do you really need a .NET cert to be a success?

As .NET leaves early adopter stage, many developers are considering picking a Microsoft certification. But do you really need an MCAD or MCSD? Read more »

The commercial salvation of Linux

According to Eric Raymond, every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch. But is it also the developers' interests that get served? Read more »

Secure your system with the TCB concept

New US legislation will make developers liable for security attacks. Cover all the bases by using this approach to implementing system security. Read more »

Blog (31)

Make money from free code

Chris Duckett [blogs:betaliving] -- The Open Source Developers conference began Wednesday morning at Monash University in Melbourne. Read more »

Flash vs. Silverlight

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- In this week's Roundup we take a look at the latest versions of Flash and Silverlight, Windows 7 and what's new in the world of open source. Read more »

Spellr.us needs a new dictionary

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- One of the only Australian start-ups to present at the recent round of conferences in the US was Sydney-based spellr.us, which has launched a Web-based tool to check and monitor websites for spelling mistakes. Read more »

Install usability practices in your shop with Silverback

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- 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. Read more »

10 PR 2.0 tips for startups

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- 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? Read more »

Do you trust data in the cloud?

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- 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? Read more »

Bootstrappr comes out of stealth mode

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- bootstrappr is a new blog that will track the fortunes of Australia's technology start-up scene. We'll hang out at Barcamp and keep an eye on twitter, test out the latest and greatest from Aussie entrepreneurs, and be the first to tell you when they fall in a heap. Read more »

Facebook's portal for the masses

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week, Facebook took a number of strategic steps toward its goal of giving people the "power to share and make the world more open and connected." That's how founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the mission statement for Facebook. Read more »

Gestation, robots and NASA hacking

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Firefox 3 made it out the door last week, and set a world record while doing so; after 15 years Wine 1.0 also hit the street. We also look at robots, google developer day and outsourcing in this week's Weekly Roundup. Read more »

You've got patched flaws!

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Patents and Symantec were made to look very silly this week. Microsoft said that open source was a bigger threat than Google and no prizes for guessing which month the final version of Firefox 3 will appear in. Read more »

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  • Staff Crying, mooning and leaving

    In this week's roundup we see that continuous whining can get results, Linux users get 64-bit Flash and Moonlight previews, the latest in the Yahoo/Microsoft relationship and Senator Conroy ducks and weave in Senate Question Time. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Brendon Chase 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. Read more »

    -- posted by Brendon Chase

  • Renai LeMay BarCamp buzz: Let the hacking continue

    Attending last weekend's BarCamp in Sydney, it was hard to escape the conclusion that a certain "dot-com bust" flavour had seeped into the kool aid previously being drunk by Australia's web 2.0 and early stage start-up sector. Read more »

    -- posted by Renai LeMay

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