Web Development Live

Openbravo, the leading developer of web-based open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Point-of-Sale (PoS) solutions, has announced today the launch of its updated open source web-based ERP software, Openbravo ERP 2.40.

With the release of Openbravo’s beta version of ERP 2.40, which is available for download from SourceForge.net, Openbravo continues its innovations in user experience. Openbravo ERP 2.40 has updated the product with numerous enhancements focused on two distinct key areas that users care about most: increased user productivity and improved global functionality.

The new release also includes several additional improvements in other areas. The functional scope has been broadened with an enhanced projects and services module, with newly introduced features such as a historical salary category, goods receipt by PO number and purchase requisitions support. Reports have been revamped, including a new payment ageing balancing, budget and Pareto reports with a broadened payments report for more than one business partner at a time. Infrastructure has been upgraded with significantly revised security and more control over user roles, audit to review who created and updated each transaction, additional web services, and better reporting back to Openbravo to help the development process and PostgreSQL 8.3 support.

“The release of Openbravo ERP 2.40 is the product of generous effort from our community to simplify enterprise resource planning,” said Paolo Juvara, Chief Products Officer of Openbravo. “With all the enhancements contained in this update, the fundamental advantage to 2.40 is that it simply makes the end user’s business run more efficiently and effectively. It is with great support and feedback from our community that we have made our best web-based ERP system to date.”

To learn more about Openbravo products and services visit the Openbravo website, and to download and install Openbravo ERP 2.40 beta visit the download page. Openbravo Network 2.40, the commercial subscription service Openbravo offers to clients looking for professional support for a complete solution, is expected to be released in September.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, drawing up a balance sheet of his week long visit to the northern province of Cabo Delgado, told reporters that the most visible result of the Local Initiative Development Fund is that flour mills are now appearing throughout the countryside.

Under this fund, annually each district receives at least seven million meticais from the state budget for initiatives intended to increase food production and generate jobs. The money is supposed to be lent to businesses and individuals with viable projects: repayment of these loans will produce a revolving fund that can be continually invested in district development.

The increase in the number of small flour mills, Guebuza said, meant that peasant farmers did not have such long distances to travel to mill their maize, and the time they saved could be used in other activities.

He was also impressed by the increase in the number of small brick factories, producing construction materials that can be used to build better homes that are more resistant to heavy rains and high winds.

Guebuza claimed that the fund had also stimulated the rise in the number of associations of peasants producing rice, vegetables and cotton.

But the President warned against imagining that handing over seven million meticais to each of the 128 districts would solve all problems. It might solve an immediate problem of shortage of funds for development, but other challenges soon arose - such as the need to train those who receive the money in business management.

“We have insisted on the need to train the people who ask for loans”, said Guebuza. “This is our current challenge”. Such training was needed to ensure that the beneficiaries would be able to repay the interest-free loans.

Asked whether the state would recover the old state farms as a way of contributing to a Mozambican green revolution, Guebuza said that running farms was not the state’s job.

Instead the state “takes responsibility for creating a healthy environment so that agricultural production occurs”. It would encourage producers, including the commercial farming sector, and was concerned to train the necessary high level specialists who could play a key role in increasing production.

Tartaglia Marketing  offers effective marketing solution for various businesses. Tartaglia Marketing develops websites for business with main focus on improving the online impact on products and services. Tartaglia Marketing’s team of qualified professionals provides innovative range of solution that meets all requirements that are specified by the client. Tartaglia Marketing provides solutions that matches with all the needs and adheres to the specified budget.

Tartaglia Marketing offers convenient monthly service plans which allow the client to match desired result with respect to budget. Google management solutions are also made available which makes 95 percentages of products and services online. These products and services can be located by the use of search engines. Tartaglia Marketing works with customers in every step for maximizing the marketing impact.

Tartaglia Marketing provides web development solutions which involves the planning, development and ongoing support of business websites. Tartaglia Marketing develops website with maximum required marketing technology that support the marketing strategy. The web packages offered by Tartaglia Marketing incorporate complete technical support and access to advanced technologies.

New Bamboo to build interactive website to encourage and support young people to read and to be creative…

Reading Agency, an independent charity which inspires young people to read more has appointed New Bamboo, the specialist in bespoke software development using Ruby on Rails, to create an online young people’s website to encourage reading and creativity.  The contract value was not disclosed.

The new site, yet to be named, will invite young people aged 13-18 years old to showcase their own creativity, create their own groups, display what’s on their virtual shelves and rate titles; and also gain access to valuable resources such as advice from expert writers, artists and lyricists.

The company also uses Agile methodology which is particularly suited for our complex project and is based around setting objective metrics, stake holder involvement, feedback and managed processes. We have ambitious plans with a fairly tight budget and timeframe - so getting things right first time is crucial”.

The Reading Agency has a number of complex requirements in allowing end users and social groups to easily interact.  There was a strong focus on social networking and rich media which are areas where we have successfully delivered solutions in the past. Additionally, we will be developing the site iteratively to get valuable feedback and make sure it lives up to expectations. ”

Williams concludes, “Ruby on Rails makes a particularly compelling proposition for organisations when combined with Agile processes: where Ruby on Rails makes development very fast, Agile makes it very flexible.”

Timeshare buyers are cautioned about labeling their weeks as “investments.” Think of it as prepaid vacations, timeshare developers famously say.

While an investment, especially in real estate, often stands an excellent chance of making money, the usual return on a timeshare typically centers on enjoyment rather than cash.

Timeshares continue to be big business — more than $8 billion a year — despite the sluggish economy. The American Resort Development Association reports that more than 4.5 million U.S. households own one or more timeshares in 1,604 resorts.

A growing number of entrepreneurs, with an exceptional grasp on how to purchase, close and sell timeshares have begun to acquire inexpensive weeks at upscale resorts via resale channels. They then rent out the properties at a weekly or a per-night rate comparable to what a nice hotel would charge.

“We have people who will go to our Web site and buy 10 weeks at a time,” said John Locher, vice president of sales and marketing for Redweek.com, an online conduit for timeshare buyers, sellers, landlords and renters. “They have studied certain resorts and markets and know what’s possible as far as rental income during a majority of the year.”

Steve Shermoen, a self-described “small-town attorney” from International Falls, Minn., said he now controls about 100 timeshare weeks and plans to spend most of his retirement years rotating through some of them in different parts of the world. Is he concerned about owning so many pieces of the only real estate asset class that always loses money when resold?

“You cannot make the rental concept work if you buy directly from the developer,” Shermoen said. “You have to be sure of what you are buying and purchase only on the resale market. The cost from the developer simply is too high for it to become a rental that will pencil out.”

Shermoen and others like him typically stick to Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and other upper level properties that they can pick up at a fraction of the original purchase price. They often seek sellers who are extremely eager, often desperate, to dump a timeshare contract because of unexpected circumstances including loss of job, divorce or death. Many timeshare bargains can be found online right after the annual fees are announced for the coming year. As an attorney, Shermoen also offers to close the transaction at a discounted fee.

“Many people are grateful that there is a buyer who is willing to take the week off their hands,” Shermoen said. “They simply are tired of paying the annual fee and can’t wait to get out from under it.”

I was one of them, yet I didn’t even consider renting it out. Nearly 20 years ago, I spent hundreds of dollars marketing the timeshare and considered myself extremely fortunate to get back most of my investment. While some people swear it’s the only way to travel with a family and that the international “bank” of resorts not only offers flexibility but also destinations they normally would not consider, it didn’t happen for us. Basketball tournaments, family reunions, budget restraints and four different school schedules, coupled with the fact that we are very picky about accommodations, led to a three-year timeshare shutout. We owned the “points” for three years and never spent one night in a timeshare resort.

Timeshares come in a variety of packages, including a points program where owners exchange a specific number of accumulated points for a week, weekend or individual nights at resorts that participate in the points arrangement. Some of the larger timeshare companies now offer a point system, permitting owners to split the traditional week into smaller segments. The concept has worked very well for out-of-town family reunions, weddings or simply a needed weekend getaway.

The idea of breaking up the timeshare week into a few one-or-two night stays can also make sense for vacationers traveling a country by car. The average worker typically receives two or three vacation weeks each year and often prefers not to spend a large percentage of that time in one location.

The value of the points can vary greatly. For example, weekend nights will require more points than weeknight stays, and popular resorts will demand more points than a run-of-the-mill getaway. In addition, the future value of points also can be a consideration — not unlike trying to predict the future value of money.

Similar to dollars, timeshare points can be worth a lot more today than they will be down the road. If a resort continues to increase the number of points necessary to rent the unit you covet, the value of your allotted points will decrease. You will need more annual points than the number you are receiving now to reserve the same unit. Seniors and other consumers on fixed incomes may not be getting the perpetual week they initially purchased, which could seriously curtail their dream vacations down the road.

Properly applying points and a resort’s bonus time are just two pieces to successfully renting timeshares. There’s also a huge caveat when shopping.

“Some people try to sell you weeks they don’t really own,” Shermoen said. “It’s another one of the pitfalls to consider when buying and selling. Acquiring and renting out timeshares is complicated and not for the unwary. If you are going to jump in, you have to do your homework.”

CollabNet recently announced the launch of CollabNet OnDemand, a hosted solution of distributed development tools. This release means that the power of an enterprise-class integrated suite of development tools is now available to teams of all sizes.

Web Development Software If you’ve never heard of CollabNet, here’s the background: The company’s roots come from the land of open source as the company was founded in 1999 by Tim O’Reilly and Brian Behlendorf, gurus with ties to the early days of the open source movement. When it released Subversion in 2000 it was the result of applying open source principles to the arena of software development. Subversion is the software code control piece of the puzzle and has over 2 million current users.

CollabNet’s distributed software development platform integrates tools for version control, requirement, issue, and other things in a collaborative development environment. With 1.3 million users, it is one of the leading platforms for geographically distributed software development organizations.

Many traditional source-code-control configuration management tools are installed applications, geared toward development teams who work within the same company. They were initially designed to handle non-web-based software development projects, and many teams have simply adapted them for use within a web-based-development environment the best they could. CollabNet Subversion was designed specifically with the web-development environment and global, distributed-team model in mind.

CollabNet Enterprise Subversion took things further, adding in a full suite of distributed development technologies to the mix including issue tracking, file release, project management, reporting, and collaboration tools. Role-based access control allows different team members to have varying levels of permissions across a project.

Now virtual teams could work as effectively as a local group in a conference room because all the basics of distributed development could be managed centrally through the web. Because the suite itself is web based, it is specifically designed for the way web architecture and development software projects work. Teams could be in synch over various time zones and large distances. Leveraging the power of collaboration technologies like wikis, project information and knowledge that would normally be inaccessible while one half of the globe is asleep is now available to teammates during their peak productive hours.

According to Rob Cheng, director of product marketing at CollabNet, “OnDemand allows small startup teams to get all the advantages of an enterprise solution. The features are identical and only the service level agreement (SLA) and degree of support varies. Larger teams of 50-60 users and up will still benefit more from using the full enterprise product either hosted or onsite.”

OnDemand is basically a hosted version of the SourceForge Enterprise suite. What it means though is that even small startup teams of a few folks scattered geographically can benefit from the power of a full arsenal of development and collaboration tools usually only available to larger teams with big budgets Web Development Software.

F5 Networks, a provider of Application Delivery Networking, recently announced that it has extended its Application Ready Network (ARN) for Microsoft to include Windows Server 2008.

Building on the previously announced solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office Communications Server 2007, F5 is the only Application Delivery Networking vendor to offer validated, application-specific solutions to optimize end-to-end performance, availability, and scalability for key Microsoft applications, claimed the company.According to F5 Networks, the F5 ARN for Windows Server 2008 will help enterprises achieve powerful deployment advantages including support for the updated versions of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and Terminal Services, as well as Microsoft technologies such as Windows PowerShell and SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol).

With ARNs, F5 delivers application-specific products, tools, templates, and deployment guides to reduce the costs associated with application deployment, management, and operation. F5 ARNs offer step-by-step procedures with thorough deployment and application guides to help facilitate cooperation across organizations application and networking groups, reducing the risk of missed deployment deadlines, over-budget projects, and failed or poorly adopted application deployments. F5 long-standing relationship with Microsoft has resulted in several key achievements on the development side, yielding significant features that differentiate F5: New Terminal Services Engine Ensures enterprise-class user persistence on both IPv4 and IPv6 networks, shielding users from the consequences of unanticipated network drops; Unique IIS acceleration technologies Enables the F5 solution to deliver more content faster to users.

This is accomplished through the BIG-IP product intelligent browser level caching, compression, and HTTP/TCP optimizations; New flexible Windows PowerShell tools Provides customers with a much wider variety of useful options to maintain and configure their F5 devices. For example, customers can integrate their BIG-IP system configurations with third-party applications for seamless management.

The Nordic countries, with Sweden and Denmark, have really taken it to an amazing level, Gates told a conference on Latin American government, ahead of an annual Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Miami.
Whenever a (Nordic cabinet) minister goes out to lunch, you can see how much he spent for lunch and how much on the cab. It literally goes up (on the internet) within a few hours, he said.
He was referring to detailed postings tracking daily business on government websites, which include everything from cabinet ministers calendars to budgets and real-time accounts of the bidding for lucrative government contracts.
Every bid thats ever done, the bidders come up on the networks, you see the terms they offer, said Gates, still referring to the new, Web-savvy operating procedures in places like Sweden.
Its a very open, transparent bidding process, he said, adding that the things about government that really count were now accessible to anyone with a personal computer.
Theres still a lot that can be done there, Gates said. He credited Nordic countries with ensuring, however, that virtually all key government information was now posted online for viewing by the general public.
I think its been phenomenal. I think the quality of governance has improved, and can improve a lot more, because of that internet transparency, said Gates.
He said a lot of government data are also available in the United States online, but they are often too complicated by jargon and difficult to navigate through for most users.
This is one where the Nordic countries are the best… Were not the model for that particular effort, said Gates.
Gates is due to leave his day-to-day functions at Microsoft and dedicate himself to the philanthropic efforts of the Gates Foundation in June.

F5 Networks, a provider of Application Delivery Networking, recently announced that it has extended its Application Ready Network (ARN) for Microsoft to include Windows Server 2008. Building on the previously announced solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office Communications Server 2007, F5 is the only Application Delivery Networking vendor to offer validated, application-specific solutions to optimize end-to-end performance, availability, and scalability for key Microsoft applications, claimed the company.According to F5 Networks, the F5 ARN for Windows Server 2008 will help enterprises achieve powerful deployment advantages including support for the updated versions of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and Terminal Services, as well as Microsoft technologies such as Windows PowerShell and SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol).With ARNs, F5 delivers application-specific products, tools, templates, and deployment guides to reduce the costs associated with application deployment, management, and operation. F5 ARNs offer step-by-step procedures with thorough deployment and application guides to help facilitate cooperation across organizations application and networking groups, reducing the risk of missed deployment deadlines, over-budget projects, and failed or poorly adopted application deployments. F5 long-standing relationship with Microsoft has resulted in several key achievements on the development side, yielding significant features that differentiate F5: New Terminal Services Engine Ensures enterprise-class user persistence on both IPv4 and IPv6 networks, shielding users from the consequences of unanticipated network drops; Unique IIS acceleration technologies Enables the F5 solution to deliver more content faster to users. This is accomplished through the BIG-IP product intelligent browser level caching, compression, and HTTP/TCP optimizations; New flexible Windows PowerShell tools Provides customers with a much wider variety of useful options to maintain and configure their F5 devices. For example, customers can integrate their BIG-IP system configurations with third-party applications for seamless management.

Mundie, who took over as Microsofts lead visionary from co-founder Bill Gates in 2006, is preparing the company for a technology shift that he expects will be as big as the rise of the personal computer or the internet: parallel computing.
Its a lot easier for us to have a fairly accurate sense of what will happen and even make good technical progress toward achieving it, Mundie said in an interview last week. Almost everything we tried to do took longer than we expected.
The overseer of Microsofts $US7 billion ($NZ8.7 billion) research and development budget, Mundie knows firsthand how even promising technologies can take time to develop. After all, he has led Microsofts efforts in Web-based television and nontraditional forms of computing.
Parallel computing has been hyped for years as the next big thing in technology, allowing computers to run faster by dividing up tasks over multiple microprocessors instead of using a single processor to perform one task at a time.
The technologys full potential is almost unfathomable today, but it could lead to major advances in robotics or software applications that can translate documents in real time in multiple languages.
The computer industry has taken its first steps toward parallel computing in recent years by using multi-core chips, but Mundie said this is the tip of the iceberg.
To maximize computing horsepower, software makers will need to change how software programmers work. Only a handful of programmers in the world know how to write software code to divide computing tasks into chunks that can be processed at the same time instead of a traditional, linear, one-job-at-a-time approach.
A new programming language would be required, and could affect how almost every piece of software is written.
This problem will be hard, admitted Mundie, who worked on parallel computing as the head of supercomputer company Alliant Computer Systems before joining Microsoft. This challenge looms large over the next 5 to 10 years.
The shift to parallel computing was born out of necessity after processor speeds ran into heat and power limitations, forcing the semiconductor industry to assemble multiple cores, or electronic brains, on a single chip.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices have already assembled chips with as many as four processors on a single chip. Tilera Corp, a Silicon Valley chip start-up, foresees a 1,000-core chip by 2014.
KILLER APPLICATIONS
Mundie, who assumed half of Gates job almost two years ago, sets the long-term technological direction for the company as the co-founder moves to a part-time role in July to focus on philanthropy. Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, sets the shorter-term agenda.
Mundie has at his disposal Microsofts research department with over 800 PhD researchers working on the new technology.
The research focuses on everything from Web search to simultaneous translation to touch-screen technology, but parallel computing is certainly among its top priorities because it will likely affect every part of Microsoft.
Computers about 100 times more powerful than now will emerge within 20 years, Mundie estimated, packing the capabilities of a corporate data center into a single die sitting inside a mobile phone or laptop.
A killer application will bring this computing power to the forefront, he said, just like what word processing and spreadsheets did for the PC and how e-mail and the Web browser popularized the internet.
Pushing a company as big as Microsoft %26ndash; with about 80,000 employees %26ndash; to look past historical strengths and traditional ways of doing things to focus on new technology is not easy.
Bill (Gates) and I have both talked at times over the years that you cant do these jobs unless you are an optimist, almost an extreme optimist because in a way you are fighting so many forces that are resistant to change, said Mundie.