Metro zabije PDF?

Na konferencji WinHec zaprezentowano nowy projekt w Longhornie pod nazwą Metro, który jest porównywany do formatu PDF. Cele wdrożenia nowego formatu dokumentów w LH:

1. Możliwość zapamiętania danych w formacie wewnętrznym (wbudowanym w system oper.) innym od .TXT bez konieczności instalacji specjalnego oprogramowania
2. Wykorzystanie technologii wyświetalnia danych na ekranie Avalon (silnik do opisu i interpretacji danych w celu ich wizualizacji) do systemu drukowania zawartości
   

Pod tymi wzgledami Metro bardzo przypomina PDF, ale format PDF jest wykorzystywany dalej do prezentacji zawartości multimedialnej i w dodatku działa na różnych platformach.
Nie jest to pierwsza konfrontacji firm Adobe i Microsoft, wcześniej już bo w 2002 MS opublikował specyfikację XDOC i na jego bazie stworzył pakiet InfoPath (i włączył go do aplikacji MS Office). Inaczej zareagował Apple, który na bazie dokładnej specyfikacji formatu PDF (opubliowanego przez firmę Adobe) zbudował własny format dla natywnego drukowania i przechowywania (zapamiętywania) danych. Rynek produktów wykorzystujących PDF jest calkiem spory i agresywnie się rozwija np. firma Nitro z NitroPDF za 99 USD udostępnia pakiet do tworzenia PDF możliwościami zbliżony do pełnego pakietu Adobe Acrobat Professional.
Aby wdrożyć Metro MS musi przygotować sterowniki do drukarek, zebrac firmy trzecie do rozwoju aplikacji dodatkowych oraz przygotować rynek oprogramowania na inne platformy i urządzenia. Format Metro jest bezpłatny i MS spodziewa się (i nawet zachęca), że firmy trzecie wykorzystają go w innych poza systemem operacyjnym obszarach. Nie bez znaczenia jest też fakt, że format ten oferuje kompresję danych.

SAP

SAP, Microsoft to Link Business Apps in Joint Product

By Dennis Callaghan April 26, 2005

SAP and Microsoft will team up for a joint software offering that brings together SAP's business applications and Microsoft's Office desktop productivity applications, the two companies announced Tuesday. The software, which will be a separate product license, is being jointly developed under the code name "Mendocino." An early beta of the joint product is expected by the fourth quarter of this year, the two companies said. Mendocino will link SAP process functionality such as time management, budget monitoring, organizational management, and travel and expense management directly into Microsoft Office applications such as Excel, Outlook and Word. It's the first joint product-development effort by SAP AG and Microsoft Corp., and it will give users the familiarity of Microsoft Office as they access SAP's business processes and information through SAP-specific "smart panels" in Office applications. The idea is to extend SAP business applications to more users in an organization through the Office apps with which they are more familiar, company officials said. Mendocino will be a composite application, built on top of SAP's forthcoming business process platform, expected next year. SAP and Microsoft each will resell the complete solution, meaning SAP will resell Microsoft Office and Microsoft will resell licenses to SAP's business process platform, officials said. "For the first time, Microsoft and SAP are designing, developing, selling and supporting one joint product," SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said in an exclusive interview with eWEEK. Kagermann said Mendocino goes beyond existing integrations between business application software and Office. Virtually every business-application software developer offers some level of integration with Office apps today. "Everybody can link into something, but they don't offer a joint product that supports both products," said Kagermann, at SAP's Sapphire '05 international customer conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. "We'll bring innovation and design across both products, and users' productivity can be increased." The product that emerges from Mendocino will be a separate license, though the terms have not been determined, Kagermann said. In other news at Sapphire '05, SAP unveiled a preview of its ESA (Enterprise Services Architecture) that includes more than 500 live enterprise services that have been developed and deployed on the latest version of MySAP ERP. This ESA preview system will be available for partners, developers and customers to contribute to the definition and development of new business processes, SAP officials said.

SQL Server i CLR jako język proc. wbudow.

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER
An introduction to SQL Server 2005's CLR functions
Serdar Yegulalp, Contributor
05 May 2005
Rating: -2.33- (out of 5)

Among the many highly touted features in SQL Server 2005, the one that probably has the most relevance for programmers who work with SQL Server is the Common Language Runtime, or CLR for short. CLR allows programmers to create stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions, aggregates and types directly inside SQL Server. CLR has a lot of promise, but it also has some pitfalls.

There are several big reasons why CLR is important. First, as SQL Server programming has matured, coders are running into the limits of what's possible in SQL Server itself and relying heavily on external code to do a lot of the heavy lifting. T-SQL (Transact-SQL) is great at returning data sets, but it's not good for much else beyond that. CLR makes it possible to solve problems and produce data manipulations inside SQL Server that would normally require a completely separate program to pull off. .NET handles code and execution speeds a lot better than SQL Server/T-SQL; the same bit of code in .NET would run many times faster as a binary than if it were built as a stored procedure.

Another big advantage of using CLR: safety. All code is checked for type and permissions safety before it's run. For instance, memory that has not been written to previously is not read by the code in question. CLR is also quite complete; everything in .NET's framework can be accessed from within a stored procedure, trigger or user function -- except for classes that deal with things like the user interface, which wouldn't be useful in SQL Server anyway.

To keep CLR code from running amok, Microsoft created a three-tier security model for how CLR code can be invoked: SAFE, EXTERNAL_ACCESS and UNSAFE. The SAFE permissions set is essentially the same as what a conventional stored procedure would be able to do. It can't modify anything outside of SQL Server itself. EXTERNAL_ACCESS allows access through .NET to the Registry and the file system. UNSAFE is aptly named. Code marked as UNSAFE can't do anything, and it should really not be used outside of a debugging or experimental context. Most programmers should never need to use anything higher than EXTERNAL_ACCESS. (If you need to talk to the file system or the Registry from within the context of a stored procedure or function, it's probably a sign that you should rethink the logistics of what you're attempting to do.)

CLR is not suitable for everything, however. For one thing, it is probably best suited for situations that are not easy, programmatically, to accomplish in T-SQL. Many simple operations can be done as stored procedures in T-SQL and don't need to be farmed out to an external process. That implies context switching and additional transactional overhead, either of which alone might kill whatever speed benefits you get from using CLR in the first place. CLR is best used for replacing extended stored procedures -- i.e., things that must be close to the database but are too cumbersome to be handled elegantly in T-SQL and can't be moved easily into the business logic end of things.

Another possible downside: As SQL guru Rod Paddock pointed out in his blog, if you move certain elements of the business logic closer to the database, that may cause scalability problems. SQL Server, after all, is better suited to being scaled up on a single big machine rather than across several smaller ones (which is how business logic is typically scaled). This points out how important it is to be very selective about what CLR is used for. T-SQL is compact and efficient; CLR/.NET is expansive and inclusive. The right job will demand the right tool, although it is nice to have that many choices.

"Programmers may find more freedom to choose between putting logic close to data, while retaining their familiar high-level languages, or keeping their logic located on middle tiers while retaining robust database protections." źródło

Piękno w PHP

Today's focus:  A quick and easy to install open-source bulletin
board package

By Mark Gibbs

Over the past few years, I have become more and more impressed
with the scripting language PHP (although my favorite is still
Python). What is so interesting about PHP is that developers
have produced some remarkable products (free open source and
commercial), and for some reason these products usually have
great presentations: Their output tends to look good and they
almost always function elegantly.

Today's topic is a product that is no exception to this trend.
PhpBB (see editorial links below) is a "high powered, fully
scalable, and highly customizable open source bulletin board
package" that is one of the best bulletin board systems I have
seen.

PhpBB has a great interface, is quick and easy to install and
configure, is simple to administer, and is well documented and
supported, and runs with MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or
Access/ODBC database servers.

The feature list of phpBB is extensive and includes a
comprehensive access control and management system; support for
cookie and URI-based sessions; an unlimited number of forums
that can be organized into as many categories as needed;
unlimited user accounts and groups; personal profiles; a private
messaging system; forum moderation facilities; private forums
that can be optionally restricted to specified user groups; and
a search facility.

In addition, forum messages can be formatted using fonts, styles
and sizes with quoting, code display, image posting and
automatic URL linking, and support standard and extended BBCode
tags (phpBB's own tagging system) and controlled HTML tags.
Polls can be added to posts and e-mail notification of replies
to topics can be generated. In short, there's little in the way
of creating, running and managing forums that you can't do with
phpBB.

As the phpBB site accurately and immodestly notes: "phpBB is
open-source software so it has no fees, no subscriptions and no
restrictions on modifications. Couple this with a thriving and
friendly phpBB community and you have a killer solution for
creating communities on your site!"

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

phpBB home
http://www.phpbb.com/

phpBB user guide
http://www.phpbb.com/support/guide/

phpBB features
http://www.phpbb.com/features.php

phpBB user demonstration
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/

phpBB administrator's demonstration
http://www.phpbb.com/demo.php

phpBB FAQ
http://www.phpbb.com/support/documents.php?mode=faq

Warto czytać (realpublisher)

Today's focus:  How to keep on top of new free e-books

By Dave Kearns

I often recommend the free electronic books from
realtimepublishers.com as an inexpensive way to build up a
library of tips, tricks and techniques for IT professionals. The
books are free because they are sponsored by vendors. The
vendors typically have products covered in the area of the
book's subject, but they're far from being "infomercials" hyping
some overpriced tool.

Disclaimer: I have written a couple of e-books for the company,
but I was recommending realtimepublishers.com long before I
became one of its authors.

Typically, one of the books will explain a technology or service
in detail while the sponsor (separately) gives you a message
that its product can help you do the job more quickly or
efficiently. As an example, there's the recently published "The
Definitive Guide to Securing Windows in the Enterprise" by Dan
Jones, sponsored by ScriptLogic. Jones says of his book: "You
can spend a lifetime attempting to master Windows security and
spend much of your free time discussing and debating the topic
with other IT professionals. However, this guide will
concentrate on security as more than just philosophy and
policies - security is a practical topic with real-world
impact." ScriptLogic's message is that its tools will make the
job easier.

A recent development at realtimepublishers.com should make the
job of keeping on top of new titles even easier. Content Central
(  ) is the portal to all the
company's publications. Here you'll find news about upcoming
e-books, recently released chapters and a complete listing of
all previously published works. Click on "Windows Enterprise"
and a cascading menu of the four different series appears:
Definitive Guide, Tips and Tricks Guide, Administrator Shortcut
Guide and Developer Shortcut Guide. Clicking any lists the
titles in the series currently available. For example, clicking
on the "Tips and Tricks" entry brings up links to:

1. "Tips and Tricks Guide to Active Directory Troubleshooting"
2. "Tips and Tricks Guide to Windows 2000 Group Policy"
3. "Tips and Tricks Guide to Windows 2000 and Active Directory Administration"
   

Each of these links, in turn, brings you to a description of the
book, a bio of the author, the table of contents and links to
all chapters currently available.

No longer do you need to visit each sponsor's Web site to
register or download a new chapter, you now can do all that at
the Content Central site. You can even get an XML/RSS feed to
use in your favorite aggregator so you can be kept informed
about new developments without having to visit Content Central
every day!

Check it out, it's all free. And while you're there, sign up for
the latest publications:

1. "Tips and Tricks Guide to Network Configuration Management 2005 Edition"
2. "The Video Guide to Protecting Internet Access and Communications"
3. "The Definitive Guide to Securing Windows in the Enterprise"
4. "The Shortcut Guide to Network Compliance and Security"
5. "The Definitive Guide to Active Directory Troubleshooting and Auditing"

I did.

Błąd Torvalds-a

Pierwsza demonstracja na żywym jądrze Linuksa praw intelektualnych (IP) oprogramowania closed-source!

Linus Torvalds' BitKeeper blunder

Neil McAllister, InfoWorld

03/05/2005 11:27:42

Open source developers, as you might expect, typically use free compilers, editors, and other tools to build their software. But three years ago Linux creator Linus Torvalds began using a proprietary, closed-source software version control system called BitKeeper to maintain the source code for the Linux kernel. It was a controversial decision, to be sure, and one that appears to have finally -- and perhaps predictably -- come back to bite him.

Version-control systems facilitate collaborative software projects by maintaining a central repository of source code. Developers can "check out" a copy of the code from the repository, make their changes, and then check their modified versions back in. The system resolves discrepancies between the different versions so that all the changes are eventually worked into a unified whole.

To check out code from a BitKeeper repository, you must use the proprietary, closed-source BitKeeper client software. Although BitKeeper's creator, Larry McVoy, offered the client to open source developers free of charge, provided they complied with his license agreement, this arrangement didn't sit well with those who preferred to maintain the spirit of free software in everything they did. Nonetheless, Torvalds felt BitKeeper was the best tool for the job, so he brushed these complaints aside.

Enter Andrew Tridgell, uber-hacker and Samba creator. Tridgell felt that if the Linux kernel source was to be kept in a BitKeeper repository, there ought to be another way to access it using open source tools. So he wrote a tool of his own after reverse-engineering the BitKeeper protocols. That's when McVoy called foul.

McVoy claims Tridgell's client violated the noncompete clause of BitKeeper's license agreement. He says you must use the no-cost version of the official BitKeeper client, the commercial version, or nothing at all.

Tridgell protested. He hadn't violated any license, he said, because he'd never agreed to one. He'd never even used McVoy's BitKeeper client; he merely intercepted the server's communications as they went across the wire and decoded them. But ultimately McVoy, still annoyed, chose to recall the free version of his client software in late April. From now on, open source developer or not, if you want to use BitKeeper, you must pay.

Let's ignore who's right or wrong in the McVoy/Tridgell debate for now. The upshot is that the Linux kernel project needs a new version-control system. And that makes Torvalds unhappy. The problem is, he should have known better from the start.

Torvalds seems to have fallen for the "free beer" argument: He didn't have to pay for BitKeeper, so he figured it was good enough. But not having to pay is not, and has never been, the real purpose of free software. The point is to avoid the situation Torvalds eventually found himself in: McVoy didn't like how his product was being used, so he took his ball and went home. Could you afford to switch gears in the middle of a project if one of your key software vendors did the same?

The business community likes to distance itself from the ideological debates surrounding free and open source software, but the BitKeeper case is a prime example of why enterprise IT management can't ignore software licensing issues. You don't want your PBX vendor telling you how to use your phone system, or your printer vendor telling you what to print. Wouldn't you prefer software that didn't tell you how to run your business either?

Różności

Organizacja obiegu dokumentów w każdej firmie (nawet naszej) zaczyna się od:

1. Wprowadzania do obiegu elektronicznego wszystkich dokumentów papierowych (no, może na początek dokumentów przychodzących). Mamy w firmie zakupiony pakiet PaperPort Pro, który wg. ocen czasopism komputerowych świetnie się do tego nadaje. Zadanie konwersji powierzyć sekretariatom.
   
2. Do tego należy dorzucić oprogramowanie do przekształcania PDF w inny format np. DOC (do ustalenia wybór pakietu).
3. Zaopatrzenie każdego pracownika w narzędzie do konwersji plików aplikacji biurowych do formatu PDF (bezpłatne pakiety PrimoPDF lub Tomahawk PDF)

Warto przejrzeć (COMING SOON)

Here's a preview of just some of the articles you'll find in the June issue of asp.netPRO:

• Alvin Bruney shows how ASP.NET developers can leverage Microsoft Office technology in their Web applications.
• Ken McNamee introduces a couple of free tools you can use to debug your WSE-enabled Web services.
• Dino Esposito looks at some practical implications of programming with a disabled viewstate.

Microsoft develops Python

Microsoft develops Python:

Microsoft is developing its own version of the open source Python scripting language to run on its .net framework, which is used to develop Windows applications.

Called 'IronPython', the Microsoft version is seen by the company as a way to make software development easier. Microsoft also claims IronPython is 1.8 times faster to use than the original Python when used in the .net environment.

IronPython is currently at version 0.7 and Microsoft is working on version 1.0. IronPython 0.7 can be downloaded from Microsoft's gotdotnet.com developer site."

Z innej beczki Windows 2003 Server jest dostępny na platformie 64-bitowej.

BetaNews | Google App Speeds Up Web Surfing

Idea wstępnego pobierania stron wg. zapytania uzytkownika jest szczytna, ale nie zawsze użyteczna. Pomijając sprawy prywatności, chodzi o to, że zwykle szuka się informacji w znanych źródłach (miejscach, serwisach) a nie po całym Internecie. Do tego celu lepsze są czytniki RSS.
BetaNews | Google App Speeds Up Web Surfing: "Google App Speeds Up Web Surfing
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
May 4, 2005, 6:33 PM

Now that it's mastered loading search results in fractions of a second, Google has opened up its massive computing power to the masses with one goal in mind: to speed up Web surfing. The company has released the Google Web Accelerator, which routes browser activity through Google machines to make Web pages load faster.

Google Web Accelerator employs a number of different methods to speed up Web browsing, including caching frequently looked at pages to make them more accessible. Google will only refresh a Web page when it has been updated, saving the user from reloading content when unnecessary.

The application only benefits broadband users, Google says, because it utilizes techniques such as prefetching, which involves downloading a Web page that Web Accelerator assumes will be visited -- such as the top search result -- even if it is not. Google has implemented similar functionality on its Web site for Mozilla Firefox users.

Google admits there are some potential privacy concerns associated with the application. Although it does not handle requests for secure sites, cookies and passwords submitted via an unencrypted Web page, may be temporarily cached by Google. The company has setup a privacy page specific to the new application that outlines what information is collected.

On the client side, Google Web Accelerator uses a cache separate from the Web browser, which it may be emptied at any time. Additionally, acceleration may be disabled for a specific page.

To prove the application does indeed work, Google Web Accelerator breaks down the time it has saved users. The Performance Statistics page lists the number of pages loaded and the time it would have taken without acceleration enabled.

'One mundane time-waster we all contend with, for example, is waiting for web pages to load. The tantalizing promise of a web page is only seconds away. But even on broadband, the wait's too short to do something else - and just long enough to be irritating,' says Google engineer Marius Eriksen. 'Let's face it, those seconds add up.'

Google Web Accelerator, currently in beta, works automatically with Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows XP and Windows 2000. The application does work with other browsers, but they must be manually configured to use the program for HTTP connections."

SAP Allies with Oracle's Competitors

SAP Allies with Oracle's Competitors: "
Updated: Enterprise applications customers reap the benefits of SAP's competition with Oracle; meanwhile, the software company announces partnerships with IBM, Siemens, Microsoft and Macromedia.


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SAP is emitting a dizzying flow of news from its Sapphire users conference in Copenhagen this week as it partners with giants in the tech world: IBM, Siemens, Microsoft and Macromedia. At this rate, analysts say, Oracle better learn how to partner like its arch rival, lest it wind up the wallflower at the enterprise applications dance.

To wit: On Tuesday, SAP AG announced that it will jointly develop software with Microsoft Corp., combining SAP's business applications and Microsoft's Office desktop applications.

SAP capabilities such as time management, budget monitoring, organizational management, and travel and expense management will hook directly into immensely popular desktop applications such as Excel, Outlook and Word—a combination that analysts say will set the bar for Oracle Corp., whose productivity tools have to compete with the popular Office software, and IBM, which could stand to integrate its various software offerings better."