Mozilla’s Open-Source, Mobile Answer To ChromeOS

 

Straight from the heart of Mozilla’s developer newsgroup comes news of an ambitious new project: a standalone, web-based operating system. If that concept sounds familiar, I’ve also just described the core of Google’s Chrome OS which we’re beginning to see pop up on netbooks. The big twist?

It’s currently being developed for mobile devices. And it’s partially Android-based.

According to Dr. Andreas Gal, researcher at Mozilla, the impetus behind the Boot to Gecko project is to “make open web technologies a better basis for future applications on mobile and desktop alike”. A lofty goal to be sure, as the core underpinnings would ultimately extend beyond just mobile devices. Should Gal and his colleagues (and really anyone who wants to help) succeed, Boot to Gecko would have the potential to change how we interact with the web, regardless of platform.

Gal breaks the process down into actionable steps. First, the Boot to Gecko project aims to take the primary functions of a mobile device (i.e. “Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC”) and create web APIs to handle them. From there, they intend to develop a way for web pages and applications to safely access those components as needed. They hope that by doing this, they (and other intrepid developers) will be able to create native-grade apps that run directly on the web instead of only being available on certain devices.

As I’ve mentioned, the open-source project is based partially off of Android — nothing terribly high-level though, just the kernel and the drivers so as to ensure that whatever progress they make can actually boot. It also doesn’t hurt that Android works (and in many case, has been made to work) on plenty of different hardware configurations, which is exactly what they need to see if the concept pans out. As it stands, development is in such a nascent stage that we have no idea what to expect visually, so no images yet folks.

Personally speaking, this idea has me on the edge of my seat. It will take a lot of work, and a lot of time, and there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see a complete release. That’s the funny part though: I don’t think it really matters. If all they ever did was finish the API for telephony and SMS messaging, that would still signal a tremendous shift in how we use the web. Boot to Gecko will inevitably draw comparisons to ChromeOS (and I was guilty of this just a few paragraphs ago), but we stand to gain a much richer online experience if B2G comes to be. Only time will tell if these gentlemen succeed, but we’ll be certain to keep you up to date during the ride.

چین انٹرنیٹ استعمال کرنے والا سب سے بڑا ملک

بیجنگ : چین دنیا میں انٹرنیٹ استعمال کرنے والا سب سے بڑا ملک بن گیا۔چین میں رواں سال کے پہلے چھ ماہ کے دوران انٹرنیٹ صارفین کی تعداد 6.1 فیصد اضافے سے 485 ملین تک جا پہنچی ہے۔

چین کے انٹرنیٹ نیٹ ورک سینٹر کے جاری اعداد و شمار کے مطابق دسمبر 2010ء سے جون 2011ء کے دوران 27.7 ملین انٹرنیٹ صارفین کا اضافہ ہوا ہے، جو کہ ملائیشیاء کی مجموعی آبادی کے برابر ہے۔

اس کا مطلب یہ بھی ہے کہ ایک ارب 30 کروڑ آبادی کا ایک تہائی حصہ انٹرنیٹ استعمال کررہا ہے۔
اعدادوشمار کے مطابق ٹوئیٹر کے طرز پر کام کرنے والی سماجی رابطے کی ویب سائٹ وائیبو کے صارفین دسمبر سے جون کے درمیان 63 ملین سے بڑھ کر 195 ملین تک جاپہنچی۔
اعدادوشمار میں بتایا گیا ہے کہ موبائل فون پر انٹرنیٹ استعمال کرنے والے افراد کی تعداد بھی چھ ماہ کے دوران 14.94 ملین سے بڑھ کر 318 ملین ہوگئی ہے۔
اس کے علاوہ انٹرنیٹ کے ذریعے آن لائن شاپنگ میں 7.6 فیصد اضافہ بھی دیکھا گیا۔

Cloud computing: 1 lakh additional jobs by 2015

The cloud market in India is expected to create 1 lakh additional jobs by 2015, creating  a huge demand for skilled manpower to address cloud computing  implementation in India, according to a recent study.
The number of jobs in the private cloud market, which is  around 10,000 today will jump up significantly following  increased preference in cloud adoption in the next five years in India, a study by EMC Corporation and Zinnov Management   Consulting, a leading management consulting firm said.
The $400-million cloud market in India is expected to reach a market value of $4.5 billion by 2015, of which private cloud adoption will dominate and account for $3.5 billion in revenues, growing at over 60  per cent.
Cloud spend of IT is expected to grow from 1.4 per cent in 2010 to 8.2 per cent by 2015. IT/IES, Telecom, BFSI,  Manufacturing verticals and government is expected to lead spends in this, as per the study tittled "Private Cloud  Landscape in India".
Going forward, Indian IT services will be called on to  provide private cloud to global enterprises. 
However, getting skilled manpower to address this huge  opportunity is going to be a challenge. Companies today are under-skilled in addressing the cloud  computing implementations in India, according to Pari  Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov Mangament Consulting.
Companies will have to invest in competency building internally to take advantage of cloud computing technologies.  They would also need to train senior talent pool to leverage these opportunities, he said. Manoj Chugh, President EMC India and SAARC, said job creation would demand re-skilling of manpower, creating huge opportunities for cloud training vendor.
Early training for cloud computing will come from organisations itself, which would train their manpower  internally. It will later move to tie up between training vendors and  academia and be followed by academia itself introducing   courses in the subject.
The career prospects would include being a cloud  architect and moving on to being a specialist in storage and networks among others, said Chugh from EMC, a leader in enabling  businesses and services providers to transform their operations.
"Cloud computing is expected to reshape the Indian IT market by generating new opportunities for IT vendors and  driving in traditional IT offerings. Chances are high that companies that are not adopting IT today and don't have a major investments in data centres and server farms will directly move into the cloud  model," Pari said.
In the government sector, cloud computing is expected to  see greater adoption. The rollout of the UID programme and  various services linked to UID is expected to create a huge  opportunities in the government sector, said Pari. 
According to the study, private cloud is expected to see an increased preference over public cloud over the next five  years as the latter was being hindered by issues related to  data security, latency, corporate governance and auditing and   vendor lock in.
Deployment of private cloud is expected to deliver upto 50 per cent saving to Indian enterprises on IT investment    on  average compared with a legacy IT model, with cost  optimisation in some of the areas.
Currently, IT/ITes contributes to 19 per cent of the   total cloud market in India, followed by Telecom at 18, BFSI  at 15 per cent, manufacturing at 14 per cent and government at   12 per cent.


Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/cloud-computing-1-lakh-jobs-additional-jobs-by-2015-164833?ch=dfkll&cp

The top 10 features missing from Google Plus

There’s a lot to like about Google+ and it has the potential to make a major impact on the future of the Internet. After just two weeks in closed beta, it already has 10 million users. Still, it’s far from perfect. I’ve put together my list of the top 10 things Google needs to fix or add in Google+. Take a look at the list and then jump into the discussion and argue with me by adding the fixes that you think deserve more attention in Google+.

1. Let us mute someone from the Stream

On Google+ it is a lot easier to find friends and people to follow than any social network that has been built so far. And, with Circles, you can divided them into groups and then easily jump between the various streams of your Circles. However, there is also the big “Stream,” which aggregates all of the people you have in Circles and this is the default view you see on Google+. The one feature missing here is the ability to mute a person from the Stream (while still being able to see their updates in their Circle). You can mute individual posts from the Stream, but you can’t currently mute a person. This is badly needed so that you can stay connected to interesting people but not have the overly chatty people monopolize your Stream.

2. Show list of my +1 items from Google+

The +1 button allows you to gives the thumbs up to really good Google+ posts and updates. However, this should also work like a list of favorites or bookmarks. Right now, there’s no way to see a list of the things where I have clicked +1. If I go to my profile there is a +1 tab, but that’s the list of external items (from web sites or Google search results) where I’ve clicked +1. The items from Google+ itself need to be added to this list.

3. Fix the share and re-share issue

One of the stickiest issues Google needs to figure out is the Share functionality. If you’re familiar with Twitter, this is like a Retweet (RT). However, when you share a post on Google+, it removes all of the comments and +1s, allows you to add your own comments above the post, and then your followers can add their own plusses and comments. That can be pretty cool, except when a bunch of the people you follow all share and re-share the same post. With the approach Google has taken to sharing, there may not be an easy answer, but something will need to be done to sort this out, at least for stuff that gets shared more than 2-3 times in your stream.

4. Let us sort the stream by raw timeline

By default, the big Stream (and the Circle streams as well) are sorted by relevance and popularity, based on the number of +1 votes and shares, so that the most interesting stuff rises to the top of the Stream. However, Google should also give us the option to sort the stream based solely on timestamp, so that we can see the stuff from people who post interesting things but don’t have as many followers to buoy their posts.

5. Allow comments to be threaded

This is an issue of intense debate, but I think Google should allow threaded commenting on Google+ so that people can comment on and respond to comments, and not just the original post. That would make the threads a lot easier to follow when they get a lot of comments. And, comments on comments could be collapsed by default and users could simply click a plus sign to expand and view them. However, the threading would only need to go three layers deep to allow a response and a counterpoint.

6. Add more functionality to mobile

It’s impressive that Google had its Android app for Google+ ready to download the moment that it launched the “Field Trial” of the new service, and shortly thereafter it submitted an iPhone/iPad app to Apple for approval in the App Store. Even better, the Android app for Google+ is veyr well done. However, it’s not perfect and it could make the mobile Google+ experience a lot better by adding key functionality — e.g. the ability to +1 a comment, the ability to join a hangout, the ability to easily flip between the big stream and circle streams, etc. While they’re at it, Google should add more core functionality to its HTML app as well. That would be a great way to drive more participation and get a jump on Facebook, which still doesn’t have a great mobile experience.

7. Open it up to Google Apps users

In order to get into the Google+ beta you need a Gmail address (or a Google Account). It does not currently work for the Google Apps domains, which are business accounts where the company is using a corporate version of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other Google web apps. Google has stated that Google+ pages for businesses and brands are coming soon. Hopefully, Google+ for Google Apps users won’t be far behind. Since some people may end up having separate Google+ accounts for personal (Gmail) and business (Google Apps) use, Google should also consider options for letting those users log in to both accounts from different tabs in the Chrome web browser.

8. Integrate private messaging

One of the biggest things Google+ is missing compared to rivals Facebook and Twitter is the ability to send a private message to a mutual contact. Sure, there are a few workarounds and hacks that let you do it, but Google needs to make this part of the product’s primary functionality. It also wouldn’t hurt to integrate GoogleTalk (instant messaging) as well.

UPDATE: Google has added a “Send an email” button in Google+ profiles. So, you can now send an email to anyone with a Google+ profile (by default), even if they don’t have you in one of their circles. This is different than private messaging, which I still think would be useful.

9. Set up verified accounts

Since there are already celebrities showing up on Google+ — and a lot of people who are impersonating celebrities — Google needs to set up something similar to Twitter’s Verified Accounts. Just do a search for “Mark Zuckerberg” or “Lady Gaga” on Google+ and take a look at how many accounts there are. There are also plenty of sneaky imposters, like the person who pretended to be Apple’s Jony Ive (the account has been deleted).

10. Show list of interactions with each user

Another useful feature that Google should add is the ability to go to a user’s profile page and see all of that person’s interactions with you — their +1s and comments on your posts, as well as your +1s and comments on their posts. This would help figure out if you should add a person to your Circles, and if so, which Circles you should put them in or add them to.

 

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271
 

Firefox world loses Web dev guru to Chrome

For years, an extension called Firebug has been a powerful tool that kept Web programmers loyal to Firefox.

But now, as browser makers add their own tools geared to attract those who build Web sites and applications, the lead Firebug programmer has taken a job with Chrome, CNET has learned.

"Monday, I start work on next-gen Web dev tools at Google on the Chrome browser team. Consequently I will no longer be contributing routinely to the development and maintenance of Firebug for Firefox," John J. Barton told members of a Firebug mailing list yesterday.

The change reflects the new rules of the browser market in which Firefox no longer holds such a central location.

Firebug was dominant in the days when Mozilla's Firefox was the dominant challenger of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but now the browser market is as competitive as it's ever been. Chrome is steadily gaining usage share at Firefox's expense. On top of that, the use of mobile browsers is exploding, and the scope of what people do with a browser has expanded tremendously.

Web programming is a hot area as the era of static Web pages gives way to the era of dynamic Web applications with animated elements, interactive user interfaces, and heavy-duty software written in the JavaScript language. That makes the task of creating developer tools harder.

Barton had been an IBM employee. IBM made Firefox its default browser a year ago, a major endorsement for the open-source browser, but evidently IBM's priorities don't extend as far as Firefox these days.

"I think our current drive to re-architect Firebug is on the right track, but I could not obtain another year of support from IBM to contribute to that work," Barton said.

Web developer tools in browsers are under rapid development as browser makers court Web programmers. Chrome has its suite of developer tools. Apple's Safari has its Web Inspector and other tools. IE has the F12 developer tools. Firefox has a developer tools group, too.

Firebug is an elaborate extension for Firefox. But it's been a lot of work at times to keep Firebug updated as new versions of Firefox arrived. That was the case two years ago when Mozilla was trying to turn the new-version crank faster, and it's even more the case now that Firefox is fully engaged in Mozilla's new rapid-release program for Firefox.

Windows 8 to spawn new breed of low-cost laptops

The pairing of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 with processors from companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia is expected to spawn a new kind of low-cost laptop, according to IHS-iSuppli, possibly threatening Intel's overwhelming dominance in laptops.

"After more than 30 years of domination by a single microarchitecture--Intel Corp.'s X86--the PC microprocessor...market finally is set for some real competition," Matthew Wilkins, an analyst at IHS-iSuppli, wrote in a research note today.

This will happen as shipments of ARM processors soar in the coming years, eventually shipping in about one out of every four laptops in 2015, according to Wilkins.

And those ARM processors won't be running in systems with Linux operating software or Google's Chrome OS necessarily. The lion's share will be inside Windows 8 laptops, according to Wilkins.

"Spurred by next year's introduction of [Microsoft's] new ARM-enabled Windows 8 operating system, ARM-based systems will account for 22.9 percent of global notebook PC unit shipments in 2015, up from 3 percent in 2012," Wilkins said. "Shipments will reach 74 million ARM notebooks in 2015, compared to 7.6 million in 2012."

(Credit: IHS-iSuppli)

They won't break the bank, either. Systems will be priced below $700--the same "value" segment today dominated by Intel's Celeron M and Atom processors as well as Advanced Micro Devices E-series chips, wrote Wilkins. And those laptops are typically well below $700, with many in the sub-$500 segment.

Windows-8-on-ARM will, of course, require PC vendors to break from Intel and AMD--at least at the low end of the market. But they already have to some extent with tablets. Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad runs its WebOS software on top of Qualcomm processors and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Acer's Iconia Tab 500, for example, run the Android OS using chips from Nvidia. It wouldn't be a leap of faith to envision PC vendors bringing out inexpensive laptops with ARM processors.

Intel, of course, is not standing still. It has a strategy for a MacBook Air-like laptop design called the Ultrabook that PC vendors are expected to adopt. By 2013, the Ultrabook is expected to be low-cost and run on Intel's first system-on-a-chip for mainstream laptops codenamed Haswell. And if the price-performance balance of power doesn't shift dramatically one way or another in the next few years, Intel will maintain the coveted performance advantage over ARM.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271

Operating Systems

The most important piece of software on any computer is the operating system. The operating system gives the framework upon which all other services and applications run. The majority of home users use a Windows based machine. Most of today’s applications and games are designed to run solely on Microsoft systems.

Microsoft Windows is extremely popular in schools and colleges, many businesses also use Windows.

Introduction to Microsoft Windows

The oldest of all Microsoft’s operating systems is MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System). MS-DOS is a text-based operating system. Users have to type commands rather than use the more friendly graphical user interfaces (GUI’s) available today. Despite its very basic appearance, MS-DOS is a very powerful operating system. There are many advanced applications and games available for MS-DOS. A version of MS-DOS underpins Windows. Many advanced administration tasks in Windows can only be performed using MS-DOS.

The history of Microsoft Windows dates back to 1985, when Microsoft released Microsoft Windows Version 1.01. Microsoft’s aim was to provide a friendly user-interface known as a GUI (graphical user interface) which allowed for easier navigation of the system features. Windows 1.01 never really caught on.  (The amazing thing about Windows 1.01 is that it fitted on a single floppy disk!). In 1987 Microsoft revamped the operating system and released Windows 2.03.   The GUI was very slightly improved but still looked too similar to Windows 1.01. The operating system again failed to capture a wide audience.

Microsoft made an enormous impression with Windows 3.0 and 3.1. Graphics and functionality were drastically improved. The Windows 3.x family provided multimedia capabilities as well as vastly improved graphics and application support.

Building on the success of Windows 3.x, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows For Workgroups 3.11. This gave Windows the ability to function on a network. It is not uncommon to find companies still using Windows 3.11.

 

In 1993 Microsoft divided the operating system into two categories; Business and home user. Windows NT (New Technology) was a lot more reliable than Windows 3.x. Windows NT provided advanced network features. On the business front, Windows NT continued to develop with the release of version 3.51. Different versions were provided which offered different functionality. Server provided the higher network functions and Workstation was mainly for the client machines.

In 1995 Windows went through a major revamp and Microsoft Windows 95 was released. This provided greatly improved multimedia and a much more polished user interface. The now familiar desktop and Start Menu appeared. Internet and networking support was built in Although Windows 95 was a home user operating system, it proved to be very popular in schools and businesses.

After the success of Windows 95, Microsoft improved the GUI interface of Windows NT and released Windows NT 4.0. NT4 could be tailored to the size of the business, NT4 Server for small to medium sized businesses and Enterprise Server for larger networks. Microsoft continued to improve the Windows format. Although Microsoft Windows 98 was very similar to Windows 95, it offered a much tidier display and enhanced multimedia support.

Breaking with its own  naming conventions, Microsoft released Windows 2000 (initially called NT 5.0) for the business market. It appeared in 4 models: Professional  -which replaced Workstation, Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server catered for differing business requirements.

Although Windows 2000 had a greatly improved user interface, the best of the enhancements appeared on the server side. Active Directory was introduced which allowed much greater control of security and organisation. Improvements to the overall operating system allowed for easier configuration and installation.

One big advantage of Windows 2000 was that operating system settings could be modified easily without the need to restart the machine. Windows 2000 proved to be a very stable operating system that offered enhanced security and ease of administration.

The last incarnation of the Windows 9x family was Windows Millennium Edition (ME). There were many different versions of Windows floating around at this stage that Microsoft decided the next release of Windows would consolidate both the business and home versions. Although Windows ME was visually similar to Windows 2000. Windows ME was based on the Windows 9x line. Windows 9x/ME systems are not as secure and stable as Windows NT and 2000 systems.

Because of the stability of Windows NT/2000, Microsoft decided to end the development of the Windows 9x line, and merge both the consumer and business products. Microsoft Windows XP comes as the Home Edition and Professional, each is based on Windows 2000. Windows 2000 Server has been upgraded to Windows 2003. This appears in four variants: Web Server, Standard Server, Enterprise Server and Datacenter Server, each fulfilling a different business role. Windows XP has a very polished look, but the overall functionality is very similar to Windows 2000.

 

Other Operating Systems

The Windows family is the most widely used Operating System. There are other operating systems in the computing world, and some are a lot older than Microsoft Windows. Luckily most operating systems can interoperate with each other. Many of today’s larger networks contain a variety of operating systems.

UNIX

A big advantage of UNIX is that it can be run on nearly every computer hardware platform including Apple Macintosh machines. The UNIX operating system is one of the oldest and most powerful operating systems. It was developed by Bell Laboratories. There are many variants of UNIX available.

Novell NetWare

Novell NetWare is an advanced network operating system. It has an advanced directory service structure similar to Microsoft’s Active Directory. Fortunately both directory services are interoperable as both directories use the x500 directory service standard.

Linux/FreeBSD

Two of the most popular variations of UNIX come in the form of Linux and FreeBSD. A big advantage of both Linux and FreeBSD is that they are both open-source, that is, any user can contribute to the development of the OS. Versions of both operating systems are completely free.
Linux and FreeBSD can easily take the role of a server or client machine. However, they are considered to be more difficult to master as both utilize the command line rather than a user friendly GUI. There are several different distributions of Linux, but for each the underlying operating system remains the same.
Apple Macintosh machines offer high performance sound and graphics editing and are therefore extremely popular in the design industry. Apple have developed their own operating system, the newest version of which is the Mac OS X, which is based on UNIX.
Mac OS X is a very user friendly operating system and is increasingly popular for home PCs
 

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271