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Over 300 iPhone Apps Use Location Look-Ups

By Brady Forrest
October 11, 2008

According to Skyhook Wireless over 300 iPhone apps are location-aware as of October 3rd. According to Mobclix there are over 4,000 apps in circulation. If these numbers are correct this puts the location-aware percentage at under 10% -- far, far less than I would have suspected based on my own experience. There were 5.5 location-aware apps released per day...

Tim In The LA Times On Getting Serious

By Brady Forrest
October 11, 2008

As Tim mentioned earlier this week during tough times it's important to work on things that matter. The LA Times dives into Tim's thinking with a piece published yesterday. From the story: O'Reilly argues that Silicon Valley has strayed from the passion and idealism that fuel innovation to instead follow what he calls the "mad pursuit of the buck with...

MVC As Anti-Pattern

By Brian Lesser
October 11, 2008

Recently I asked a group of developers to review how they build Web applications. With over 100 ColdFusion applications/sites in place, I wanted to see what we could do to reduce the cost of adding new applications and new features...

How to create Tabs with CSS and jQuery from scratch

By Eric Berry
October 11, 2008

Learn how to create a tabbed content window using CSS and jQuery from scratch.

Open Source in Defense

By Jim Stogdill
October 10, 2008

With recent events, open source software may be approaching a tipping point in defense. What comes after that tipping point is the really interesting part.

Seeing political links in color

By Marc Hedlund
October 10, 2008

Andy Baio and Joshua Schachter teamed up to create a totally interesting project for the political season: a way to immediately visualize the links from political blogs on Memeorandum based on how they tend to link -- to more conservative (shown with red tint) or more liberal (shown with blue tint) blogs. They write: ...we used a recommendation algorithm to...

Why is SPAM so hard to detect?

By FJ de Kermadec
October 10, 2008

Whether you opt for the nerdy designation of SPAM, prefer politically correct euphemisms such as unwanted messages, favor Apple's designation of junk mails or even, as we crazy Frenchmen do, nickname them pourriels, you have most certainly had the joy of dealing with unwanted pieces of data mudding the stream of information you swim in online. It used to be...

State-of-the-Art Websites Build an iPhone Web App and an App Store App

By Dave Aiello
October 10, 2008

When I started writing for Inside iPhone, I promised that I'd talk about why iPhone web apps are still important. I decided to make good on that threat this week. One of the reasons that I think its necessary to...

Programming with Safety Scissors and Glitter Glue

By Erica Sadun
October 10, 2008

Although the NDA is on the way out, not all is restored to sparkly brightness in the world of the iPhone SDK. Developers must still deal with day-to-day limitations built into Apple's development environment.

New Tip. Gary Bradski Talks about Perceiving is Deceiving, Illusions and the Nature of Vision , 8 of 10

By Sara Peyton
October 10, 2008

Dr. Gary Rost Bradski and Adrian Kaehler, the creators of OpenCV, have put their knowledge into a new book for O'Reilly. With Learning OpenCV: Computer Vision with the OpenCV Library developers and hobbyists can learn how to build simple or sophisticated vision applications. Over the next few days Gary--a consulting professor at Stanford, senior scientist at Willow Garage, a robotics institute research institute/incubator, and vision team leader for Stanley, the Stanford robot that won the DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous race across the desert--shares his Top Tips and Tricks for getting the most out of OpenCV. Read on for Tip #3: Perceiving is deceiving, illusions and the nature of vision.

Frightening transparency

By Simon St. Laurent
October 10, 2008

I'm not very fond of people who claim that markets can solve all of our problems, but at the same time, I think markets can be very effective at one key economic task: setting prices. Our current financial problems derive,...

US Library of Congress makes a step towards PRESTO

By Rick Jelliffe
October 10, 2008

The US Library of Congress Thomas project is making user-friendly, structured URLs available as permanent aliases for its legislation. I have been pushing a similar approach, but taking it further, in the PRESTO approach.

The REST in PRESTO

By Rick Jelliffe
October 10, 2008

Roy Fielding's characterizations of what REST is about, made discussing CMIS, is helpful for understanding what PRESTO is about.

A New Science of Music: Digital Cantometrics and the Evolution of Music

By Timothy M. O'Brien
October 10, 2008

Armand Leroi is an Evolutionary Biologist with the Imperial College in London. Leroi is leveraging the ability of computers to analyze sound to create a Cantometric description of traditional music from various cultures. Leroi discusses his research and his new initiative to create a digital Cantometric survey of traditional music.

Ken Krechmer's Adaptability Standards

By Rick Jelliffe
October 10, 2008

I think Ken Krechmer's Adaptive Standards pre-suppose the kind of frameworking and support for modularity and plurality that I have been banging on about for the last decade. An interesting recent quote from him.

Radar Report on Where 2.0: The State of the Geospatial Web

By Brady Forrest
October 9, 2008

The amount of geocontent on the web is expanding. With it has come an increased ability to use this data to sell location-based services that are tied to the web. Andrew Turner and I cover this shift in our new report "Where 2.0: The State of the Geospatial Web". In the 55 page report we examine: How Web 2.0...

Did you read the book from that movie?

By Brett McLaughlin
October 9, 2008

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that media is changing the way books are viewed. In fact, video - and YouTube in particular - has already changed how books are sold. Most big fiction releases are heralded by short "book trailers" that give an almost movie-like feel to the contents of the book. But in a recent article published by the Christian Science Monitor, I was surprised to see that there's an even more notable link between movies and the sale of books.

VisualHub, AudialHub, and iSquint Discontinued & Open Source-d: Techspansion Shutting Down

By Todd Ogasawara
October 9, 2008

Developer Tyler Loch is shutting down Techspansion and discontinuing VisualHub and iSquint. But (having never met Tyler myself), he appears to be a class act by providing instructions to make sure customers can backup/migrate his software and Open Sourcing his apps.

Photoshop's New Era (at least for me)

By Derrick Story
October 9, 2008

I just loved reading Steve Simon's latest post about the abuses of Photoshop. Switching heads and adding fake moons has irritated me for years. So much so, that I've tried to swear off Photoshop many times. Then I started playing with the beta versions of the upcoming version of Photoshop CS4, and I fell in love all over again. Why?...

TOC Recommended Reading

By Mac Slocum
October 9, 2008

The Future Is A Foreign Country (Timo Hannay, Nascent) As with my journey to Japan, my personal response to all this internet-enabled weirdness was one of almost unadulterated joy....

First Frontlist O'Reilly Ebook Bundle (Including EPUB) Now Available

By Andrew Savikas
October 9, 2008

With today's release of iPod: The Missing Manual, Seventh Edition, by J.D. Biersdorfer and David Pogue, we're beginning the release of nearly all new (frontlist) titles as ebook bundles....

Flex Author Joey Lott on a User Group Tour

By Marsee Henon
October 9, 2008

Starting at Refresh Detroit earlier this month, author Joey Lott is on a cross country tour visiting as many user groups as he can. Stops include AS3 Apex (10/4) in St. Louis, Cleveland Flex User's Group (10/9), Central PA Adobe...

Coming Soon....David Pogue on The Basics

By Sara Peyton
October 9, 2008

"Nothing I've ever written has ever prompted a reaction like last week's e-column. In six days, over 1,150 of you added comments to the online version at nytimes.com/pogue." So writes David Pogue, in his e-column today. "The column was the...

Testing Rails Partials

By Philip C. Plumlee
October 9, 2008

Test Driven Development works best when each test case targets one aspect of a class's interface. So this post will demonstrate a simple and direct way to test a partial without testing the Views, layouts, and Controller actions surrounding it. On very complex projects, this technique keeps your partials decoupled.

oVirt, Open Virtualization Done Right

By Mike McGrath
October 9, 2008

One thing that most people don't realize with virtualization is that its not the actual virtualization layer that is important. It works, they all do. The important part is in the management tools and that's something that's been sorely missing from the Open Source arena for too long.

Web 2.0 Expo CFP Extended One-Day; Now Closes 10/9

By Brady Forrest
October 8, 2008

Because of the emails, IMs, and phone calls asking about late submissions to Web 2.0 Expo SF we've decided to leave the CFP open an extra day. So if you wish to speak you'll be glad to know that the CFP for Web 2.0 Expo SF will be open until October 9th. We use this Call For Participation to...

eInk...

By Nick Bilton
October 8, 2008

Guest blogger Nick Bilton is with the New York Times R&D Lab during the day and NYC Resistor at night. Working in the R&D Labs at The New York Times, I'm constantly asked, "How long will paper be around?" or more to the point, "When will paper really die?" It's a valid concern, and a question no one can answer...

Thoughts on the Financial Crisis

By Tim O'Reilly
October 8, 2008

The other day, we received a blistering email from a Radar reader complaining about our silence on the subject of the economic meltdown. I wrote back: There are a lot of people bloviating about the financial crisis. It's outside of our area of expertise, so there didn't seem to be a lot of urgency to add to the hot air....

Voice Detective at Work

By Perry Norton
October 8, 2008

Whether you use audio to sell cheese, catheters, or to warn the world about epidemics, there’s an effective process for creating the right sound for your audience. I start with some detective work.

Watch the YouTube Video, Buy the Product

By Mac Slocum
October 8, 2008

YouTube's Content ID service, something we've covered in the past, gives publishers two options for handling unauthorized videos: the material can be removed from YouTube or it can be...

The Digital Generation and E-Readers are Tied Together

By Mac Slocum
October 8, 2008

Over on Radar, Nick Bilton from the New York Times R&D group weighs in on the future of paper and e-readers: A common response to the prospect of an eReader...

The (possible) rise of 4th-party developers and 3rd-party jumpers

By Dominique James
October 8, 2008

By now, almost everyone who has an iPhone and who have downloaded apps from the App Store, will most likely know what 3rd-party software means, and by natural extension, who the 3rd-party software developers are. And everyone also most likely...

A New Way to Learn

By Mary Rotman
October 8, 2008

One of the challenges in technical book publishing is finding ways to reach audiences beyond our core computer programming crowd. O'Reilly's publishing partner No Starch Press has recently implemented one such idea. Their newest series of books are Manga Guides, based on Japanese best sellers. These books will cover essential scientific and technical subjects like statistics, physics, molecular biology, calculus, electricity, and relativity in fun and entertaining ways, while still teaching the core principals of each topic.

Can you make a living creating iPhone apps?

By Kathryn Barrett
October 8, 2008

There's been rapid change in the iPhone development world, leaving many would-be iPhone app developers wondering where they stand. In this free, one-hour live webcast, Bill Dudney and Raven Zachary, co-chairs of O'Reilly's upcoming iPhoneLive Conference on November 18 in San Jose, share a preview of the presentations they'll give at the conference. Following this preview, you'll have plenty of time to ask questions about the current state and future of iPhone application development—and how it affects you...

Becoming a Sexy Programmer: Clean Forms

By Eric Berry
October 8, 2008

Learn how easy it is to stylize a form with CSS versus using table tags.

Does Hacking Closed Hardware Hinder Open Hardware?

By chromatic
October 8, 2008

I'm profoundly uncomfortable purchasing devices which, by default, do not provide the freedoms I desire. I'm starting to believe it works against my desire for open, unencumbered hardware.

Effect of the Depression on Technology

By Nat Torkington
October 7, 2008

Here's the state of play as I see it: it is expensive and difficult to borrow and this shows no sign of change; the US debt is rising instead of falling, propelled by the Iraq War and the reliance on China for material goods unreciprocated by a reliance from China on American goods; and this adds up to difficult times...

A Star is Born? NY Times syndicates outside blogs but that's not enough

By Joshua-Mich�le Ross
October 7, 2008

Recently the New York Times announced that it will be syndicating content from three well-known blogs, Read/Write Web, Giga Om and Venture Beat. The New York Times is using these blogs as an extra-sensory organ; they can dial into what is happening in the tech sector (and particularly the West Coast with this trio) without allocating a lot of internal...

Mobile Advertising: You're Doing It Wrong

By Nat Torkington
October 7, 2008

Don't miss this great post by Chris Heathcote deconstructing Google's first steps into map advertising on the web and mobile map apps. There's still some usability and use-case work to be done, but it's interesting to see their initial take. As many people have predicted, text ads are difficult to make work on the mobile screen; in Chris's words, "On...

The Connected Economy

By Nat Torkington
October 7, 2008

As the financial markets battle the fallout of years of poorly regulated unwise greed, the language of analysis is revealing. Commentators talk of "contagion spreading", financial "gears jammed", and "turbulent" markets. This is the language of non-obvious connection, where it's theoretically possible but impossible in practice to predict the future state. Listening to This American Life's new episode on the...

Behind the Scenes of the Digital Media Weekly Report

By Derrick Story
October 7, 2008

A few weeks ago, my General Manger, Dan Brodnitz, asked me to create a new feature for our Digital Media site. He showed me a sample video of an online editor chatting about recent topics his site was covering. Dan wanted something like that for O'Reilly Digital Media. "But," he said, "I don't want you to spend a lot of...

A Trio of Album Artwork Utilities for iTunes

By Jochen Wolters
October 7, 2008

Whether it's List view, Grid view, or Cover Flow -- finally, with iTunes 8, album cover art is available in whichever view you look at your digital music collection. High time to fill the remaining cover art gaps in your library, if you haven't done so yet. There are numerous software tools available to help you with this task, and this blog post will present three rather different, yet equally noteworthy representatives of that software genre.

Amazon Launches UK POD Service; Partner Unknown

By Mac Slocum
October 7, 2008

TheBookseller says Amazon is launching a print-on-demand service in the United Kingdom: Amazon.com owns POD publisher BookSurge in the US, but the UK business has not divulged who will be...

[TOC Directory] Recent Additions

By Mac Slocum
October 7, 2008

20 new listings have been added to the TOC Directory in the last week, including: Sonibyte Astak Turnhere.com Lexcycle Zapptek Visit the TOC Directory to add your own listings...

Maker Faire Earns a Coveted American Magazine Vanguard Award

By Sara Peyton
October 7, 2008

The first American Magazine Vanguard Awards recognizes magazines that are innovating, extending their brands, and finding new exciting ways to connect with their customers. And O'Reilly Media's Make snared an AMVA award because of the creation of Maker Faire, which celebrates DIYers and crafters of every persuasion. "Considering that some of the greatest leaps forward in American technological history have been scrappy homebrews (Apple Computer was a literal garage start-up), it's really kind of exciting to think that, given its explosive growth, the Maker Faire might well help along an invention or two that's truly important," writes Simon Dumenco. Read on to find out more about Maker Faire Austin, which opens Oct. 18.

How many mavericks does it take to change a lysp�re?

By Rick Jelliffe
October 7, 2008

Thirteen members of the Norwegian standards body's technical committee walked out recently... If we take these 13, and subtract people who either work for competitors of Microsoft or affiliated with the NUUG/FOSS industry/community, we get...1 person (the esteemed Steve Pepper) by my count...

vCloud: VMware adapts to cloud computing

By Andy Oram
October 7, 2008

Virtualization has been the hottest trend in computer administration for the past decade. But what happens to any administrative software provider, including VMware, if large numbers of major companies move to the cloud? The recent vCloud announcement, coinciding with VMWorld conference, shows why VMware manages to keep its top place.

Yum Plugins - security

By Mike McGrath
October 7, 2008

I'm the type of admin that gets into a tool and as long as it keeps doing what I use it for, I don't often bother to learn much more about it. Yum is a good example of this. Since...

Numbers for Digital's Rise

By Nat Torkington
October 6, 2008

I talk a lot to people who don't quite understand the scale of the media shift from bits to atoms, so I always have my eyes open for numbers and anecdotes that illustrate the point. The latest I found are from an article on Apple's threat to shut the iTunes store if it has to pay more to songwriters: Digital...