April 15, 2011

Red Hat Submits New Data Caching Spec to Java EE 7

Does Java EE 7 need another data caching specification? Red Hat thinks so, and today submitted a new request to the Java Community Process (JCP) to push their data caching ideas forward into Java EE 7. The JCP approved JSR 342 last month, getting the ball rolling for the full

PC Makers Get Their First Taste of Windows 8

According to posts in online forums, Microsoft has provided some PC manufacturers with its first test build of Windows 8. If this launch follows previous patterns, that means the operating system would become available to the general public late next year or early in 2013. Reports say that the software

Microsoft Rebukes Developers for Poor App Security

In its latest Software Development Lifecycle (SDL) Progress Report, Microsoft says it has done its part to make operating systems and browsers more secure, but third-party developers have not taken basic steps to secure their applications. The report finds that only 43 percent of the applications surveyed, including 20 percent

Majority of Application Development Projects Run Behind Schedule

A new survey by Evans Data Corp. found that in North America, 49 percent of application development projects finished after their deadline. That’s not as bad as in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where only 36 percent of projects completed on time. However, Asian developers did much better, meeting

Will PaaS Solve All Developer Ills?

As companies increasingly move towards cloud computing, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings may help simplify the task of creating cloud-based custom applications. Bob Bickel, an advisor at CloudBees and chairman at eXo, explains, “PaaS is for developers what virtualization was for system administrators. Virtualization let sys admins forget about the underlying servers

Android Expected to Win Smartphone Four-Horse Race

Two different market research firms–Ovum and IDC–have recently released reports which predict that Google’s Android will be the clear leader among mobile operating systems in the next four to five years. However, they disagree on who will be number two. Ovum predicts iOS will take second place, while IDC says

ISO Finalizes C++ Update

The ISO steering committee for C++ has approved the final draft of the latest version of the language. That means C++ 2011 could be released later this year if ISO/IEC Information Technology Task Force (ITTF) approves the draft as expected. “Perhaps the most heartening thing to me is that this

Security Manager’s Journal: Helping Out the In-House Developers

This post from a security manager using a pseudonym recounts the story of an application developer asking for help on a project. “I only learned about this software development project when one of the programmers approached me to ask about the best way to store usernames and passwords in the

Multicore Coding Standards Aim to Ease Application Development

The Multicore Association says that it is working on developing a new set of APIs that will make it easier for developers to create applications for devices that use processors with more than one core. So far the group has finished its MCAPI (multicore communication API) and MRAPI (multicore resource