Archive for February, 2009

File Under: Uncategorized

Feb

2009

Google Scales App Engine, New Pricing Structure

By Scott Loganbill

Google’s App Engine recently revealed a new pricing structure for those wanting to rent computing power from Google beyond its free quota. The pricing structure is in response to those applications that scaled beyond that of the free quota, often shutting down service once the quotas were hit.The downside to the announcement is the quotas for using the service for free are being reduced on February 24th to make way for the more pricey options.According to Google’s announcement, the pricing plan beyond the free quotas are:

$0.10 per CPU core hour. This covers the actual CPU time an application uses to process a given request, as well as the CPU used for any Datastore usage.
$0.10 per GB bandwidth incoming, $0.12 per GB bandwidth outgoing. This covers traffic directly to/from users, traffic between the app and any external servers accessed using the URLFetch API, and data sent via the Email API.
$0.15 per GB of data stored by the application per month.
$0.0001 per email recipient for emails sent by the application

Ultimately, the pricing structure to use App Engine is competitive with Amazon’s EC2. Google’s only leg up is the free quotas practical for young sites or those just starting.After February 24th, the new free quotas will be 6.5 hours of CPU time and 1 Gigabyte of data transfer per day. That’s down from 46 hours and 10 gigabytes in and 10 gigabytes out per day. The full list of quotas is available from the App Engine siteGoogle App Engine is a way for developers to rent out computing resources from Google. Relying on Google’s systems bypasses the need for doing it yourself by renting from expensive data centers and also relying on Google to take care of reliability and uptime. Google is more or less known for being able to handle scalability well, so in many ways App Engine allows developers to spend more time developing, and less time babysitting web servers.See Also:

File Under: Software & Tools

Feb

2009

Fast Safari Beta Boasts Chrome-Like Features

By Scott Loganbill

The public beta of Safari 4 is now publicly available for download. The public beta most noticeably features a new interface that shares a lot of the design elements with its closest competition, Google’s Chrome browser, and several user experience features found in other Apple products.

Safari users will also find the browser a little more speedy using web applications like Gmail as Safari 4 boasts faster speeds using its new JavaScript engine, dubbed Nitro. Meanwhile, web developers will be excited with the latest graphic and offline advancements to its Webkit rendering engine, as well as several new developer tools built into the browser.

New User Experience

After loading the browser up for the first time, you’ll see a fancy Apple animation screen and then be transported to a Top Sites page. Top Sites takes from Google Chrome’s New Tab ability by drawing from your web history to display thumbnails of the 12 most visited web pages.

Also in common with Chrome is the way Safari now handles its tabs. The tabs are now displayed at the very top of the window above the address field and you are able to reorganize and drag tabs out into its own window.

The Top Sites design shares many visual elements in common with other design elements found in Apple products. For instance, the Top Sites page looks a lot like iTunes’ Cover Flow, a display method that allows you to flip through web pages. Cover Flow itself is also available in Safari as a method to browse through website history. The Top Sites page itself is editable to display 24 or 6 thumbnails, reorganize and “pin” based on taste or remove pages similar to how you would remove widgets in Mac OS X’s dashboard or applications from the iPhone.

Along with Chrome Opera and Firefox browsers, Safari now sports “smart address fields” capable of recommending pages from history while you type.

Behind the Scenes Power

Where Safari 4 really shows its strength and leads the pack is behind the scenes. The browser uses its new Nitro JavaScript rendering engine. The engine purports to be 30 times faster than the latest version of Internet Explorer, 4 times faster than the Safari 3.1 and three times faster than the current version of Firefox.

Safari also includes the latest build of the Webkit rendering engine, which makes it the first publicly available browser to pass the Acid 3 test — a test designed to stretch the outermost goals of web standards in order to allow browser bragging rights for being the most standards-compliant browser. It should be noted that Google’s Chrome browser also uses the Webkit rendering engine, which means it will be toe to toe in rendering speeds and standards in upcoming versions.

Webkit has expanded its lead in CSS 3 support, meaning it can include customizable web fonts in pages and do basic animations without the need for plug-ins like Flash. The new version adds CSS effects, allowing developers to apply professional Photoshop-like effects to images and photos. Other built-in Flash-like abilities include Scalable Vector Graphics and Canvas allow developers to create dynamically generated graphics on the fly. These abilities are built into most modern browsers today, but Safari 4 extended the feature by allowing the developer to manipulate Canvas elements using CSS.

Finally, the new browser has built in HTML 5 offline support; offloading some of the more intensive application elements off of the internet and on to your computer’s hard drive. Offlining web applications let you search and process data through the browser faster. Downloading the applications locally also allows you to utilize web applications even when you lose internet connectivity.

Developer Tools

Developers will also be happy to find new developers tools built into Safari 4, presumably to compete with applications like Firefox’s Firebug extension. The tools allow developers greater insight into the bugs and limitations of their websites as they are built.

The Competition

Safari 4 is available for both Mac and Windows, but follows Internet Explorer and Firefox in terms of users. Safari, Chrome and Opera round out the bottom 10 percent of browser usage according to Net Applications.

However, despite being one of the underdogs, the kind of features found in Safari 4 show that Apple has a few tricks under their sleeve. By utilizing the best of what’s around, and the including the kind of user experience Apple products are known for, Apple shows it may have what it takes to make users switch.

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File Under: Software & Tools

Feb

2009

Mac Chrome Starting to Look Like a Real Browser

By Scott Loganbill

Google’s Chrome launched September of 2008 without even an inkling of Mac and Linux support. Time has passed and it looks like open-source development of a Mac version has seen a lot of action. In fact, a skeleton version of the browser is now working on Macs. According to the developers’ site:

As of mid-Feb 09, we now have an application that looks a lot like our vision for Chromium on Mac OS X and can create windows and tabs using the same cross-platform infrastructure used by Windows and Linux, but using a Cocoa UI layer on top. As tabs are created, new renderer processes are created (you can see them in Activity Monitor), and they go away when the tab closes. Pages correctly render in their respective tab and the “sad tab” page appears when a renderer crashes. Typing in the URL bar works to surf the web, as does clicking links.

It’s starting to look and feel like a browser!

Even the speedy V8 JavaScript engine is working on all non-PowerPC macs.

Google Chrome is being ported under open source licenses from the Windows version codenamed Chromium. The browser is designed to be both fast and uber stable, but based on the same rendering engine (read: it draws web pages the same) as the Mac OS built-in browser, Safari. Linux Chrome progress is looking to be far worse than the Mac version’s progress. The only Linux builds available are infrastructure tests — practically where it started when Chrome was first announced.

This is exciting for Mac users, like Google co-founder Sergey Brin. You may be asking yourself why the Mac or any other operating system needs another browser. As Chrome developer (and former Mozilla developer) Ben Goodger claims “browsers suck.” In the search for a better browser, Chrome is concerned with making web content its focus rather than the browser itself and its related bells and whistles.

But don’t start downloading Mac Chrome yet; Recent builds are still buggy and error-prone. The current iteration is going to be more frustrating to use than any other Mac browser available now, even Firefox 3.1 betas nicknamed “minefield.”

[A tip of the hat to ReadWriteWeb for its interview with Goodger, ]

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File Under: operating systems

Feb

2009

Party Like It’s Unix Time 1234567890

By Scott Loganbill

Linux users of the world unite; Today is 1234567890 day. At 3:30pm PST Friday, Unix time will equal exactly 1234567890. It’s the geek version of the year 2000.

If you already know what Unix time (UTC) is, then you probably should head over to one of the parties happening before the big event today in cities all over the world. The list of parties and a countdown timer is available at 1234567890day.com. Catch party and countdown updates at the UTC watch on Twitter.

If you aren’t in the know but still want to participate, you should come equipped knowing that Unix time is the amount of seconds elapsed since January 1st, 1970 (not counting leap seconds) — a relatively arbitrary date that is used by Unix-based systems to keep time. So 1234567890 in Unix time is a great excuse to get together with other like-minded penguin lovers, boogie down and debate the merits of GNOME or KDE, FreeBSD versus Ubuntu, Emacs versus Vi… you get the picture.

More on this and how to keep track of UTC over at Wired’s Gadget Lab.

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File Under: Visual Design, Web Basics

Feb

2009

Draw the World With Canvas HTML Element

By Scott Loganbill

Want to draw a World Map but don’t want to deal with Flash? An enterprising engineer behind JAWStats, a Google Analytics competitor, that uses HTML’s <canvas> element to draw a world map.

If there was any doubt what the canvas element can do, a World Map should clear it up. The solution was developed in order to compete with Google Analytics fancy world maps, but without depending on Flash to do it. With a web form, you can zoom in, change color schemes, highlight countries. It’s almost as good as the Flash equivalent except that the engineer promises to tackle the Google Maps-like click and drag functions “someday.”

The download is available under the MIT license. Installation on your page is as simple as downloading a little JavaScript code. Canvas works in Webkit-based browsers (Safari and Chrome), Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer (with a download).

[via Ajaxian]

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File Under: Software & Tools

Feb

2009

Opera Adds Carakan to Browser JavaScript Engine Wars

By Scott Loganbill

Opera announced its answer to the JavaScript engine race Monday. The JavaScript engine is in its early stages, but promises to improve JavaScript processing performance in the Opera browser anywhere between 5 and 50 times.

Improving JavaScript speeds will drastically improve the user experience of some of the more interactive web applications which depend on JavaScript for its user interfaces — a method of programming generally put under the umbrella of AJAX.

Carakan supposedly runs some of the more intensive elements of JavaScript natively, breaking down a layer of processing behind the browser. Whether this method improves upon those being developed by Webkit’s SquirrelFish, Mozilla’s Tracemonkey, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Google’s V8 JavaScript engines remains to be seen. Carakan results run using SunSpider JavaScript benchmarking tools look promising so far — already improving JavaScript speeds by up to 2.5 times compared to that of the Opera browser’s current JavaScript engine despite its very early stage of development.

Given the competition’s focus on improving JavaScript speed in 2008, it was only a matter of time before Opera announced its own attack. It is possible, given the delay in Carakan’s arrival, that Opera may have been caught off guard by sudden industry interest in improving JavaScript speeds. It was even suggested Opera might borrow from some of its competitor’s open-sourced solutions (V8 and Tracemonkey are both under open source licenses) in order to make up for lost developing time.

In case you were wondering, the name Carakan derives from the pre-colonial alphabet of the people of the Indonesian island of Java. In other words, it is the name for the original Java script.

For more details on how Carakan will beat the competition for fastest ECMAScript engine in the world, check out the Opera Core Concerns Blog. Unfortunately for programming comic book fans, Opera’s announcement comes in the typical technical writing blog format.

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File Under: Other

Feb

2009

7 Ways to Spend 7 Billion of the Stimulus Package Improving the Internet

By Scott Loganbill

The United States Senate passed a stimulus package Tuesday which reportedly has $7 billion earmarked for expanding high-speed Internet access. The stimulus is intended to keep the United States competitive during and after the current global financial crisis.

7 Billion is a lot of money, and there is a lot needed in order to keep our industry competitive. If it were up to me, I know exactly where I’d put it.

Internet Ubiquity — I want to turn off my toaster from anywhere around the world. Is that too much to ask? Access to high-speed broadband, like municipal wi-fi and 3G networks, is simply too unreliable and expensive. Efforts towards expanding the reach of networks have been hot and cold. WiMax seems to be a questionable technology at best. There needs to be a solution to bring the internet to everyone, everywhere and it will take some substantial investments to get it going.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster — Plans by broadband providers in America to increase speeds are infantile compared to those in other countries. It’s striking that the place where the internet was invented pales in comparison to places like South Korea, where average download speeds are almost 50 mbps.
Online or Offline. It doesn’t matter — Connection is one reason, but keeping a copy of your data locally is another. Google Gears makes it easy to access the internet online or offline. For the most important services this is a great band-aid. Now it is up to the rest of the web to fill in the gaps.
The Mobile Web — Computers are expensive, but cell phones aren’t. If you put the power of the internet in these devices, it means empowering families that may not be able to afford broadband internet at home, but might be able to start that business or buy from the palm of their hand instead.
One account for everything, on your server, on your terms — OpenID and Google Friend Connect says your data is your property, but is it really? Facebook Connect is another way to consolidate your online information, but seems to be holding on to your data until they can figure out how they are going to make money off of it. Courageously, all of these companies seem to be working together to make OpenID work, well, openly.
Open-Source Everything — Open-source projects are usually free to the public, which means the projects themselves don’t make much money (if any) and usually operate underbudget or on a shoestring. However, these projects provide the infrastructure and interoperability it would take to stimulate businesses and save them from inventing the wheel innumerable times. In many ways, this isn’t any different than what the entire stimulus package was intended to do.
Give it to Webmonkey — Okay, maybe not just Webmonkey. Educating web developers with the skills they need to make them competitive is a tremendous stimulus. Making the internet easier to use and program will mean more professionals, more ideas, more businesses and a better internet. Besides, imagine the amount of tutorials we could entice writers to write with 7 billion dollars? If you’re looking to stimulate the economy in your own little way, contribute your own tutorial to Webmonkey.

Vote for your idea on how to use the stimulus package on internet related ideas or add your own ideas after the break

Continue Reading “7 Ways to Spend 7 Billion of the Stimulus Package Improving the Internet” »

File Under: Uncategorized

Feb

2009

Facebook Joins OpenID in Quest for Universal User Accounts

By Scott Loganbill

Facebook officially put its hand in OpenID’s ring by joining its board, according to an announcement by Facebook’s own Mike Schroepfer. Facebook’s inclusion means the company will have a hand in designing the future of the open standard which promises to put internet users’ identity and personal information in their own control while also making it universally accessible.

The movement is slightly surprising considering its own answer to OpenID, dubbed Facebook Connect, is considered by many to be the model competing technologies should adopt. Other notable competing technologies include Google’s Friend Connect and Microsoft’s Passport.

While surprising as a competitive strategy, Facebook’s representatives were particularly enthusiastic in OpenID User Experience summits in October. Also included in the summit were MySpace, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft — many of whom have already adopted OpenID technology in some way.

Facebook’s involvement and Thursday’s announcement is vague as to what the company intends to do with Facebook connect and OpenID, and in particular whether the two technologies will be compatible in the future.

However, it is clear that Facebook wants to show its support and lend a hand to the widely growing open standard. According to Schroepfer:

The future of an open and social Web will be measured not by protocols, but by how much we collectively improve the standards and technologies that enable us and others to give people more powerful ways to share and connect.

This should prove to be the boost OpenID needs to spur further development. With increasing enhancements by Google and Facebook, it could have been easy to forget OpenID. However, now with Facebook officially on board, it seems the big league companies won’t let that happen — a move uncharacteristic for two companies who should be battling for user data. In the end, this is a win for users with privacy concerns who want the ability to control this data themselves by making the data and the technology behind it portable and controllable under open source licenses.

More on Facebook’s announcement over at Wired’s Epicenter blog.

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File Under: operating systems, Programming

Feb

2009

PreDevCamp Aims to Burgeon Palm WebOS Development

By Scott Loganbill

A group of mobile software developers in Austin, Texas, have announced the arrival of PreDevCamp, a hacking event centered around software development for the WebOS platform on Palm’s new Pre smartphone.

PreDevCamps are taking place in over 60 cities around the world, including Austin, San Francisco and New York. Also on the list are some unsuspecting mobile development hotbeds such as Vietnam, Croatia and Kenya. The event is currently accepting registration and will be held exactly one week after the U.S. release of the Palm Pre — “coming soon” according to the offical Palm Pre website.

PreDevCamp is already generating some excitement on Twitter and among Palm developing groups, some of which weren’t seeing much action before the announcement of the Pre at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in January.

The organizers hope the event will mobilize the development community around Palm’s web-based operating system, WebOS. The operating system and device is set to compete against Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems. It’s selling point is software that incorporates Linux and existing web application technologies, such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

William Hurley — more commonly known by his hacker nickname “whurley” — is one of the developers in charge of organizing PreDevCamp. He also had a hand in starting iPhoneDevCamp, a nonprofit meet-up that helped mobilize third-party application development for Apple’s mobile. The first two iPhoneDevCamps were considered a success (and the organization continues to hold mini-DevCamps), but according to Hurley, he and his associates were eager to help provide a legit challenge to the iPhone throne.

That is, if Apple doesn’t put the kibosh on its competition first. The company is threatening to introduce a number of patent lawsuits in order to challenge Pre’s technology before it hits the market. The lawsuits are somewhat limited to certain aspects of the operating system’s scrolling and multitouch capabilities.

Regardless, give or take a few features, it is unlikely Apple’s actions will hold up WebOS from hitting the market entirely. The next challenge would be to see how it will stack up next to the other contenders such as Google’s Android and Nokia’s Symbian operating systems. Both systems are being offered as open source, and there is no word yet as to whether Palm’s WebOS will follow suit.

“Hardware manufacturers come and go, but the company that controls the smartphone OS market is going to control the market, period,” wrote Hurley on his blog. “Watch the developers, they’re the key. The largest, most active developer network is going to win, because consumers want applications.”

The PreDevCamp is the Pre’s first chance at cultivating that community, and thanks to the buzz introduced after Palm’s announcement at January’s CES, it looks like the event is already getting considerable traction.

To see if the event is happening in your city, check out the PreDevCamp event guide. Registration is handled by the organizer of the event closest to you. If there are no nearby events, the organizers have also made it easy for you to set up a camp in your city.

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