View from the Edge

iPad? Not.

Mike, I'm also trying to find an excuse to buy the latest shiny new toy, but unlike you, I can't come up with any.

Although I'm quite sure that Apple will sell a boatload of them to other people, I don't see anything about the iPad that makes it compelling as "the ultimate Cloud client access device". I see it as a locked "consumption endpoint" for media corporations that want to give you controlled, limited access to overpriced movies, music, books, newspapers, games, and so on.

The device is closed and you can only run the software Apple decides you should be allowed. No vi, ssh, shell scripts, or my own programs. 3G data communication is available which in theory makes it so you can get to the cloud from anywhere -- except that AT&T has good signal only in the (not too big) cities. The device has very limited storage and gives no access to the file system. I can't turn off cookies and JavaScript in the browser. On the plus side though, Flash is not supported.

I'd rather have a laptop like the MacBook Air instead. Or a MacBook Pro. You have to use the iPad with another computer anyway, so why bother?

Apples' iPad, the Cloud in the palm of your hand?

Unless you've been living under a rock in the past 24 hours, it can't have escaped your notice that after months, if not years of speculation and rumor, Apple has finally announced its tablet device, the iPad.  And let me just say up front that my inner geek is showing definite signs of techno-lust!  Yesterday, as I watched the news come in on my iPhone while travelling, a colleague turned to me and asked 'What I'd use it for?'.  My initial response was, 'Use it for, that's not the point, I just want it.  I'll figure out a use for it later!'.

But later in the day, I sat down to watch the video of the launch event and did start to ask myself, 'What would I use it for?'  During the press event, the phrase 'Internet in the palm of your hand' was used repeatedly by Steve Jobs & co., and that got me thinking.  The way in which you can browse using multi-touch and gesture based input certainly offers an intuitive, simple and natural way to interact with a browser, let alone the native applications. The extra screen real estate of the iPad over the iPhone also makes it a more viable browsing device.  Add 3G into the mix along with Wi-Fi and you have a very viable, portable, gesture based, easy to use, always connected device.  Now doesn't that sound like the ultimate Cloud access device?  So not only do you have the 'Internet in the palm of your hand', you now have the 'Cloud in the palm of your hand'.

So what do you think? Am I simply trying to justify buying another device to add to my already long laundry list of iPhone, MacBook Pro, PSP, PS3, etc, etc...or is the iPad a genuine new class of device, the ultimate Cloud client access device.  Let me know in the comments below.

Mike

    

Join Me At BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two

The BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two conference is happening in two weeks! Coming live to your computer whereever you happen to be.

Thursday, February 4 and Friday, February 5 2010.

9:00 am to 5:15 pm (EST) both days.

I will be doing two sessions, one with Dan Foreman and one without:

0) Practical Progress OpenEdge Database Internals

Dan Foreman - BravePoint

Gus Bjorklund - Progress Software

In this talk Gus Bjorklund and Dan Foreman looks at selected OpenEdge database internals with a view to offering practical advice, knowledge, and tips to a Progress DBA. This talk is not just geeky insight into the workings of the database (though it will certainly have some of that). Our goal is enhancing the DBA's knowledge to optimize the DB and solve problems.

Some of our topics:

• Understanding create/toss limits
• Understanding records-per-block
• Using rfutil aimage scan verbose to understand and troubleshoot fast growing BI files
• Understanding the rules for BI cluster allocation and re-use and how to calculate how many clusters are actually in (or not in) use
• Why record deletes are typically expensive
• Understanding 'obscure' parameters such as pinshm, hash, etc.

1) The OpenEdge Schema Tables, Part 1

Gus Bjorklund - Progress Software

In this talk we describe the tables that comprise the OpenEdge database schema. These are the metadata tables that describe the logical and physical structure of a database. Topics include logical structure, physical structure, what schema tables exist, how they are related, how they are used, and example queries showing how to produce simple reports about the database.

In addition to Dan Foreman and and myself, there will be plenty of good stuff from other speakers like Tom Bascom, Adam Backman, Peter van Dam, Dustin Grau, Ken Wilner, Sunil Belgaonkar, Paul Guggenheim, Cameron Wright, and Mike Fechner.

You can see the agenda and session descriptions at:

    http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/schedule.html

The conference home page is here:

    http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/index.html

BravePoint Virtual Interchange Two will be broadcast live on the Internet from BravePoint studios outside Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

If you are in the area, you can attend in person. If you do, we can have a beer together.  You can get more information about that here:

    http://www.bravepoint.tv/vi/read_more.html

Don't miss this sure to be exciting event.

Quick OpenEdge on Amazon EC2 Update

Last September, at Exchange 2009, I talked about Cloud Computing in general and about Amazon Web Services (AWS) in particular. Since I first started experimenting with Amazon two years ago, Amazon has added many new things and made a lot of improvements. One of the most important is Elastic Block Storage or EBS. It is just the thing for database storage. In September I said we were going to support EC2 as an official OpenEdge environment in the future. Well, the future is (almost) here.

We are now in the midst of our certification testing, which has been going well so far and is nearing completion. Assuming all goes well, you can expect an announcement of support fairly soon. We will also be publishing some white papers that explain step-by-step exactly how you can get started in this new world of on-demand computing.

Our New Year’s Gift to You…

Now that the holiday rush is over (phew!), we wanted to remind you that the latest version of OpenEdge is now available!   This release, version 10.2B, builds on previous OpenEdge 10 releases to further increase developer productivity, while still reducing the total cost of ownership of the business application.  We’ve added capabilities to fortify application security and compliance – a must have for SaaS. Other new features and enhancements will enable you to: 

·     Deliver applications that comply with the latest data privacy regulations

·     Simplify the deployment of applications via the Web

·     Increase visibility into operations

·     Accelerate delivery of service-based applications  

Making the upgrade is a no brainer. As one customer, Carl Verbiest from CCE NV says “As always what I love most about a new version, is you just change the executable and you’re up and running with existing code in a new OpenEdge version. You can use the new 10.2B features where needed without the need to rewrite you existing application – the migration is quick and easy”. 

So check it out.   Contact your account rep for more information or visit Progress.com.

New video series on PSDN on Visual Designer and GUI for .NET

Coordinated with the release of OpenEdge 10.2B, I have posted a new series of short educational videos on PSDN on using Visual Designer in OpenEdge Architect, and the OpenEdge support for the GUI for .NET. These fifteen videos, some with accompanying PDF documents that let you review the content and code samples in a bit more detail, cover many of the most important basic topics around using this very powerful new user interface development technology, including creating forms, using data management controls like the UltraGrid and the ProBindingSource, creating inherited controls and user controls, and many others. The videos are intended to complement the online help and other documentation, and to provide you with a more animated and visually oriented way to get to know this important part of OE 10.2.

These videos are in addition to the set of introductory videos that cover a lot of the basic topics related to using OpenEdge Architect. They're all available directly from the OpenEdge home page on the PSDN area of Progress Communities:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/community/psdn/openedge

The landing page that summarizes all the new videos, and gives a recommended viewing order if you want to look at all of them, is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-103435

There's also a landing page for five introductory videos to get you started using Architect for the first time, covering topics such as creating your first Architect workspace and project, defining database connections for your workspace, setting project properties, building and running your project, and using the ABL Editor that's a central part of the value of developing in OpenEdge Architect. That page is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101140

And then there's a continuing series of topics that go beyond the Getting Started series covering Architect subjects such as defining and using perspectives and views, maintaining structured procedures created in the AppBuilder, using the ABL Debugger, and various more advanced features of the ABL Editor. This includes two new videos on the support for ABL classes in Architect. Those sessions are all available here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101504

The videos are designed to be fairly self-contained, so that you can view what's of interest to you, though there is a recommended sequence to them that's indicated by their organization on the site. And they're kept to around seven to ten minutes each so that you're not overwhelmed with content, and so that you can try out what you've learned in each video before proceeding.

We're very interested in your feedback both on this specific set of presentations and on the general format that they use. We'll keep adding material on these are other product areas as time goes on. Keep us posted on your comments and recommendations, either as comments on this blog entry or messages directly to me at john@progress.com.

Coordinated with the release of OpenEdge 10.2B, I have posted a new series of short educational videos on PSDN on using Visual Designer in OpenEdge Architect, and the OpenEdge support for the GUI for .NET. These fifteen videos, some with accompanying PDF documents that let you review the content and code samples in a bit more detail, cover many of the most important basic topics around using this very powerful new user interface development technology, including creating forms, using data management controls like the UltraGrid and the ProBindingSource, creating inherited controls and user controls, and many others. The videos are intended to complement the online help and other documentation, and to provide you with a more animated and visually oriented way to get to know this important part of OE 10.2.

These videos are in addition to the set of introductory videos that cover a lot of the basic topics related to using OpenEdge Architect. They're all available directly from the OpenEdge home page on the PSDN area of Progress Communities:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/community/psdn/openedge

The landing page that summarizes all the new videos, and gives a recommended viewing order if you want to look at all of them, is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-103435

There's also a landing page for five introductory videos to get you started using Architect for the first time, covering topics such as creating your first Architect workspace and project, defining database connections for your workspace, setting project properties, building and running your project, and using the ABL Editor that's a central part of the value of developing in OpenEdge Architect. That page is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101140

And then there's a continuing series of topics that go beyond the Getting Started series covering Architect subjects such as defining and using perspectives and views, maintaining structured procedures created in the AppBuilder, using the ABL Debugger, and various more advanced features of the ABL Editor. This includes two new videos on the support for ABL classes in Architect. Those sessions are all available here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101504

The videos are designed to be fairly self-contained, so that you can view what's of interest to you, though there is a recommended sequence to them that's indicated by their organization on the site. And they're kept to around seven to ten minutes each so that you're not overwhelmed with content, and so that you can try out what you've learned in each video before proceeding.

We're very interested in your feedback both on this specific set of presentations and on the general format that they use. We'll keep adding material on these are other product areas as time goes on. Keep us posted on your comments and recommendations, either as comments on this blog entry or messages directly to me at john@progress.com.