Web applications are nice. They’re useful, they’re cross-platform, users need no installation, no upgrades, no maintenance, not even the computing or storage power to which they are used. As weird as it may sound, I’ve even seen announcements for web applications supposed to run your games on distant high-end computers so that you can actually play on low-end computers. Go web application!

Of course, there are a few downsides to web applications. Firstly, they require a web connexion. Secondly, they are largely composed of plumbing. Finally, ensuring their security is a constant fight.

How many pipes do you need?

If you have ever developed a web application, you know what I mean by plumbing: just writing an online TODO list — the equivalent of maybe twenty minutes of work in Visual Basic, in Python, Java or Objective-C — requires mixing an insane amount of languages, to define your user interface (HTML, JavaScript, CSS), to define your storage (DDL, DML, DCL, plus possibly an ORM language), to get your server and your client to communicate (XML, more JavaScript, PHP or one of its competitors, as well as some HTTP and a little MIME configuration), to launch your application (whichever configuration languages are used by your server). Of course, if your application is a bit more complex and requires something like compatibility with smartphones, or like distant storage, or distributed computing, or backups, or modularity (in the world of the web, it’s called “web services”)… well, you will probably require a few additional languages.

All of this is just plumbing. Only once you have written it can you concentrate on the core of the application. And once the application is written, the pain is just starting, because chances are that your application can be attacked by hijacking the link between your user interface and the core (cross-site scripting) or between the core and the storage (SQL injection) or by keeping the user interface and replacing the application core (man-in-the-middle attacks) or by replacing the user interface by a malicious client or by taking the place of a currently connected user to steal some of its credentials (rebinding) or by taking advantage of low-level bugs (buffer over/underflows), etc.

None of this is a show-stopper, of course — just take a look at the web and you will see thousands of web applications. Just like the complexity of Software Development Kits in the early days of Windows, MacOS or X didn’t stop adventurous hackers from developing desktop applications. But of course, if twenty-five years of desktop application development have taught us one thing, it is that the life of developers can be made easier. Nowadays, a few generations of SDKs later, Windows developers have .Net, C# and Visual Studio, Macintosh developers have Cocoa, Objective-C and XCode, while X-based developers have the libraries of Gnome/KDE, Python and a variety of programming environments. The growing popularity (and libraries) of Haskell, F#, OCaml, Scala and other functional programming languages could mean that one of the next generations of SDKs will increase safety and security.

The web hasn’t quite reached that stage yet. Even the state-of-the-art in web frameworks only provides features slightly more advanced than early Windows/Mac/X SDKs: low-level bindings for low-level mechanisms, designed to ensure low-level properties. Or, rephrased differently, in the current state of web development, GMail, Google Maps or Facebook are still considered complicated applications, although they are conceptually quite simple and should therefore be equally simple to implement.

We can do better. How? By removing the need for plumbing. By providing automated mechanisms for ensuring high-level security properties. By providing language support for common patterns.

Enter OPA

Let me introduce OPA. OPA, or One Pot Application, is a complete development platform for web applications and web services. Development in OPA requires no plumbing. Applications developed with OPA are automatically checked for safety and security before they are executed. Applications developed with OPA are automatically (and provably) immune to cross-site scripting, to SQL injections and to most existing forms of attacks. And OPA provides language support for storage, communication between client and server (Ajax and Comet), concurrency, distribution, mobility, etc.

With OPA, we intend to skip several generations of SDKs and provide right now a high-level and modern programming platform. OPA has been 6 years in the making: 4 years of sketches, mockups and prototypes as part of academic research projects and 2 years of actual implementation at MLstate. A few days ago, OPA has officially entered demonstrable status. Not quite ready for prime time, but definitely usable for development. Do you want to write an online note-taking application? That’s about 20 lines of code, from scratch. A minimal chat? About 30 lines. A multi-channel, distributed chat? About 80 lines. A minesweeper? About 100. We’re using it to develop utilities, content management systems, tools for administrations and games.

Pre-alpha builds of OPA have been distributed to selected partners. A public version will be made available within a few weeks, as well as commercial applications developed with OPA. In the meantime, we are busy improving the syntax, completing the standard library, making error messages intelligible, fixing the bugs and extending the range of safety and security checks.

In the meantime, you can take a look at a video recorded during ICFP presenting OPA and MLstate.

Stay tuned.

Learn phenomenal information about comets you’ve never heard of before learn about electrical plasma and reasons why things are the way they are in space and how it defines the way we look and see space.

Absolutely amazing. Check it out!

This information was brought to me by Root.Man you can find his website link under perma links. Also he shared this website with me check it out after you watch these videos.

thunderbolts.info

Peace
-Simranjeet Singh

Hey fantagians! Canada here. Today the Comet and Co building is now open on Mt. Fantage were you can take a test to see if you are qualified to become a reporter.

To take the test, you have to be a premium or normal member and you have to have played fantage for over a month.

For the test, there are 10 questions that you have to answer correct. If you pass, it will tell you and you will get your camera on monday.

This is the interior of the Comet and Co

On monday you will get your first assignment

Hey Fantagians!

You can now become a reporter for the Comet! Just go to mount Fantage, and you can take the ‘Become a Reporter’ quiz.

Hey all! We have good news for all of you Comet readers! From now on you will no longer have to wait an entire month for a new issue of the Comet. Starting tomorrow, the Comet will be published weekly! Every week, we will post that week’s Fan Art, Comic, and Writing contest winners as well as showcase the top work from our soon-to-be reporters! Each edition of the Comet will feature the best of the best in Fantage news writing, so be sure to work hard on those articles once you become a reporter!

Don’t forget to head over to Mt. Fantage tomorrow to take the test to become a reporter! You never know—your work might be featured in the next Comet!

Attention job seeking Fantagians!  Starting Friday, Fantage will be hiring news reporters to cover interesting news and events around Fantage! On Friday, there will be a NEW building on Mt. Fantage called Comet & Co. and they need your help! Go there to take the test to become a reporter. Pass the test and you will receive your reporter’s camera which will be available for pick-up on Monday.

Each month, reporters will receive 4 different themes that they will be assigned to cover. Reporters will take a snapshot of an interesting event that matches the theme and then write a short blurb describing the action. Don’t worry about having the equipment for this task, we will provide everything for you! Those who write the best reports will have their work featured in the new weekly Comet.For each submission, you will be paid in StarS!

Comet & Co. needs your help!

If you think you have an eye for the unique and a talent for news writing, then take the quiz Friday!

I took it, and I passed!  I can’t tell you the answers, because it’s really to show if you understand what it is like to be a reporter!

Hey fantagians! M has posted on the fantage blog that on friday there will be a new building in Mt fantage called Comet & Co. They will be hiring reporters to take pictures and cover events. you will take a test and if you pass you will get a camera on monday.

every month there will be 4 themes to cover. If you find something that happens that relates to the theme, you can take a picture of it and cover it.

People with the best articles will get stars and they will be put in the comet.

Canada

Each morning I go for a swim in the sky
I float on the currents of comets
and bask in the warm glow of a million suns
the occasional meteor shower doesn’t get me down
because I know that I too was once a rock
hurtling through the sky to some unknown destination
only to millions of years later find myself here
as the sand crunches beneath my feet
and the solar wind rustles my hair
I wonder who and what that meteor will one day become

I woke at three this morning with some friends to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower pass over the Austin skies. The cloud of cosmic debris following the comet Swift-Tuttle completes it’s orbit every 130 years. Call me a Debbie-downer but it was so cold I think that 130 years would be about all I could bear.

It took a little while to find an are dark enough to see the sky well, but we finally settled at the Hyde Park Pool and gazed up. It took a little while to spot the first one but once we knew what to look for, we began to catch them darting across the sky more frequently. I’m sure I’ll tick of a few astronomers, but the next time you have an opportunity to see a bunch of space rocks that only fly by every hundred years at three in the morning in the freezing cold, stay in bed! But if you’ve got nothing to do the next day and have a few warm jackets and a little patience, you’ll have a good time.

Sound on the Sound
In honor of Benny Hills’ memory and in support of his family and roommate (who survived the fire that killed Hills but left him homeless), there are two memorial concerts this weekend. Hills was the drummer of The Shy Ones and The Knast, Comet Tavern door guy and dear friend of many is the Seattle music community. The Comet will hold a celebration of Hills’ life this Sunday, November 22 starting at 2:00 pm and lasting through the night. Several bands will perform, including Champagne Champagne, The Absolute Monarchs, Shiny Beast, Tiny Light, Wildildlife, Hotels, The Greatest Hits, Broken Nobles, Tosten from See Me River and DJ Darryl.

I stayed up last night to see if I could catch a couple of Leonids. After all, some of the news stories were predicting the possibility of a half storm (as many as 500/hr). Well . . . truth to tell, by the time yesterday rolled around the reality was that if it was going to be that strong anywhere on the planet it would be in Asia, but they were still saying there should be 25 – 30/hr in North America, with the possibility of as many as 200/hr. I don’t live in the darkest part of the world, but Simi Valley is a somewhat sleepy little town and my back yard is reasonably dark.

My first experience with a meteor shower was about thirty years ago, out in the Mojave Desert where some friends and I had gone to view the Perseids, one of the more spectacular showers that usually peaks on or about the morning of August 12. It’s a good time to view them – the weather at night in the desert can be quite pleasant and it was. I saw some beautiful bolides; a couple being bright enough to cast faint shadows on the desert floor. Spectacular! Wondrous! Unfortunately, life intervened and I was never able to get out to that spot again, but I’ve attempted viewings many times since; just never in a really dark location. Now that I have more time, or at least my time is more flexible than it’s been for the last couple three decades, I’m beginning to wonder if my eyes are giving out. Surely my patience is wearing thin.

This year I’ve so far attempted both the Perseids and the Orionids and haven’t seen a damn thing! Last night (this morning) was no exception. I did see two meteors, but neither was a Leonid. One came out of the West and was bright and extremely fast. The other came out of the Northwest and was a bit slower and quite a bit fainter. However, the Leonids were a no-show for me. Perhaps I should have planned to stay out all night, but I just couldn’t afford to give up all of today. I guess I’ll have to content myself with the knowledge I have seen at least one spectacular showing and, perhaps, that will have to be good enough. I’ll probably try again; the Geminids are coming up next month. <sigh>

Sky fans: An exciting meteor shower is headed our way. Anyone who lives in the Northern Hemisphere may be in for a good old-fashioned sky show, just by looking up.

The Leonids are debris from a wandering comet that appear as shooting stars each November. They often provide one of the best shows of the year, if the skies are clear and the moon is not full.

This year promises a stellar show, if clear skies hold, because the moon is almost new.

Peak Leonid viewing should occur early Tuesday, November 17, around 1 a.m. PST. There are expected to be fine shows for hours, and even days before and after that.

Just before dawn is generally a good time to catch some shooting stars, especially because Leonids generate from the constellation Leo, which is visible in the east before dawn.

You won’t need any special equipment to see the Leonids. The naked eye is actually best. If possible, get to a high spot, away from city lights. A backyard or front porch can work just as well. Just be sure to give your eyes some time to adjust to the dark. So bundle up, get a comfortable chair, and hope for a good show!

For more info: Visit this NASA web site.

Photo: AP File Photo/ Leonids over Joshua Tree National Park.

Almost 2 years ago we moved from a Toshiba CRT tv to an all singing and dancing LCD tv from Toshiba. As it was a bit on the expensive side, we opted for the Extra-care offered by Comet.
Almost a year to the day from buying it, the screen went, called out the engineer, and surprisingly he came out a second time and fitted a new screen. For the next 12 months all was well, until a few weeks ago, when the screen went again, same area of the screen, maybe a fraction wider with a more colourful problem this time, many vertical lines covering the right 1/4 of the screen sometimes it would vanish, but more often than not it wouldn’t.

Called Comet extra care line, an engineer came out and confirmed that the screen had gone again. He said that he would be back a week later if they had found a new screen, else I’d receive a call from Comet telling me that the tv would be written off. So I worked from home on that day to only have a no-show, you can imagine my disappointment when I called to find out what was going on. It took a further 10 days to finally get this all sorted out, after being told so many different things from Comet and their suport lines.

We chose a new tv to the value of the one we bought just under 2 years ago, and also got a 5.1 surround sound upscaling, iPod-docking system as part of the tv package.
The tv is a Panasonic 42 inch Plasma screen with a 600 Hz refresh rate and Freesat HD also. When showing Sky HD the picture is fantastic. As I’m away from home this week on an MSP training course I’ll not be able to post many more comments at the moment.

I will be writing a letter of complaint to Comet as you may expect.

More of a detailed review on the whole tv package later.

OK, nine games.

Not bad, New York Jets. Nine games in, and I can officially call it a season.

No playoffs, certainly not at 4-5 with the Pats coming up next week. No Super Bowl (ha!). No real reason to expect things to change in this, my 28th year of fandom (I was too young the first six years of my life to really appreciate this lovely franchise).

I really don’t feel like re-hashing all the things the Jets did wrong in their excruciating 24-22 loss to Jacksonville Sunday, but a few must be brought up:

– The defense is off for TWO weeks, and the Jets play like that? Awful tackling. Pressure on the QB in the second half, but not much in the first. And the pass defense on the final drive was atrocious.

– Braylon Edwards, you want a big contract? You HAVE to make that catch on the 2-point conversion the 4th, after the Jets put together a fantastic drive to take the lead. Don’t give me any garbage about the hit knocking the ball out; you have to make that play. If he does, I think the Jets lead by 3 and the game goes to overtime.

– I know it didn’t cost them any points, but Mark Sanchez, what the hell was that throw on the second interception, when the Jags’  defensive end, Quinton Groves was RIGHT THERE in front of your face, and you threw it anyway? Thankfully Groves forgot how to run at the end there, and tripped over his own feet at the 4-yard line. But still, terrible decision by our franchise QB. He did, however, have a great 4th quarter to redeem himself.

–Only my beloved Jets can try to let a guy score at the end of the game, which was the right thing to do, and fail at that, too.

– Rex Ryan, you’re a defensive coach. A brilliant coach, we’ve been told. One of the great minds in the NFL. Yet this is now twice in the last six weeks, when your offense gets you the lead, all you need is one stop to win the game, and your defense, which talks more trash than any team has a right to, can’t get it done. This was the freakin’ Jaguars, for God’s sakes, not the 1989 49ers or the 1998 Minnesota Vikings!

– More timeouts burned needlessly by the Jets in the second half. Didn’t we already go through this during the Herm Edwards Era?

Ugh. Just awful. This team is just not that good. The rookie QB is learning, the rookie head coach is learning, and it looks like 7-9 is in our future.

Thank God Duke basketball is getting underway. I need a good team to root for this winter.

**Some other NFL thoughts from a wacky Week 11:

– Bill Belichick made one of the craziest coaching decisions I’ve ever seen this side of Ray Handley and Art Shell Sunday night. After his Patriots pretty much dominated Indianapolis, Belichick decided to go for it, up 34-28, on 4th and 2 from his own 28-yard-line. Why? Clearly, he had no faith in his defense stopping Mr. Peyton Manning, but still, they’d stopped the Colts a few times already, and don’t you at least have to try?

Of course, the Pats didn’t make it on 4th down, and the Colts had great field position, and of course Peyton Manning made a superb throw on the score that won the game. Doug Hennig never made as many escapes as Indy’s No. 18. My friend Pearlman just wrote a blog about his greatness.

**Fantastic, hard-hitting Bengals-Steelers game Sunday. What an amazing turnaround by Cincy. Quick, someone call Ickey Woods and see if he still knows how to shuffle.

**OK, everyone who thought the one-win Rams would have a pass attempt that could beat the undefeated Saints on the last play of the game Sunday, please raise your hand. This is yet another reason I don’t gamble on the NFL.

**Finally, I love supermarkets. Always have. There’s just something about food shopping that makes me feel like a grown-up. Seinfeld has said this before, and he’s totally right: As a kid in the supermarket, you have to beg your parents for food. As a grown-up, you can buy whatever the hell you want.

Anyway, two ruminations from my Sunday evening trip to the store:

– One way I always know the new year is coming is when the milk’s expiration date is past January first. This is the earliest I ever remember it happening, but I got a carton with a “Jan. 6, 2010″ date on it. I was excited.

– It’s 2009. Hasn’t anyone at the company that makes Comet (Prestige Brands, I just learned) figured out a way to put a real, closeable top on the bottle yet, instead of that stupid adhesive tape that never sticks after you open the bottle? I mean, seriously, is this really so hard?

This is the stuff I think about. And you wonder why I have trouble sleeping…

El márketing tiene tanto las semejanzas como las diferencias del márketing convencional. Ya antes hemos hablado de los 4 F’s:

FLUJO

FUNCIONALIDAD

FEEDBACK

FIDELIDAD

Al plantear la estrategia de márketing  combinando diferentes medios, uno tiene que darse cuenta de que TV, Internet, Radio, prensa escrita – todos – tienen cobertura y público diferentes, por lo tanto la simple replicación del contenido no aporta mucho valor aunque puede servir para mejor memorización de las marcas.

El espacio el internet ofrece un montón de oportunidades, pero al mismo tiempo es aun más dificil para las empresas diferenciarse y crear una llama de atención entre millones de terrabytes de información de todos tipos (texto, video, imagenes, etc.). El posicionamiemto tiene que ser muy claro, y a parte – diseño llamativo, capaz de atraer usuarios. Dicho esto, el contenido y el diseño no es suficiente para aportar valor. Lo importante es llevar el usuario a la acción (la compra o reserva). En el mundo digital el famoso modelo AIDA de siempre:

pasa a ser AAIDA, con la otra A de acción.

He asistido al seminario de L’Oréal y Google en Budapest. Google ha dado una corta presentación con ciertos datos estadísticos e información acerca la colaboración de forma consultoria con sus clientes (a continuación me voy a referir a esos ejemplos). Así, el modelo de AIDA/AAIDA no funcionaba bien para sitio de Comet: a la hora de hacer la compra los usuarios se distraían por otra publicidad, otros productos, por lo que la empresa tuvo que rediseñar el sitio para aumentar ventas. Se trata de la mejor funcionalidad.

Para crear interés, es vital la visualización. Luego para llegar a la acción, la infraestructura del web debe apoyar las decisiones del usuario. Las empresas cada vez lo hacen mejor. El 24 % de los usuarios adultos de la UE compran en internet (según Google), y el 45 % buscan en internet para luego comprar en las tiendas reales.

La interactividad también juega papel importante en crear ese tipo de infraestructura. Las muchas aplicaciones para PC y para móviles  que son por cierto la tendencia del desarrollo del marketing digital. Entre las aplicaciones voy a citar una:

Pizza Hut

Con solo tener el movil en la mano casi que puedes preparar tu pizza.

El grado de realidad del contenido digital cada vez crece mas. Por ejemplo, el nuevo producto LAYAR que te proporciona toda la informacion de los objetos que salen en tu foto.

http://layar.eu/

“A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache”

Catalina II la Grande

About 14 months ago me and Clay started taking little walks together.  We’d walk up Edith to Sunset Memorial Park and take a few spins around before coming home.  Menaul runs past the park, east-west.  Apollo College is right there. 

Back when we started we had no idea where we were going.  It felt good to walk and that’s what mattered.  Those walks led to finding the Nature Center and the bosque bike trail.  And that led to 5-milers and changing the way we eat.

Ending jobs, unemployment, hope, disappointment, losing molars, death, birth, poverty, uncertainty, sickness and health, consciousness.  Walking has taken us both through everything.  Walking is the one thing we’ve been able to count on this whole time.  Uncertainty is real, I can rely on that too, but I prize walking because it’s pleasurable.  Pleasure is a powerful motivator.

Yesterday Clay enrolled at Apollo College for the Fitness Trainer program.  He begins classes on the 24th and graduates in September.  He came home and surprised me with the news.  I couldn’t have imagined this happening back when we started our walks, but it makes sense.  We let walking carry us into new lives.  Fitness Trainer fits. 

Walking has been a conscious experiment to see what effect it would have on us.  This is where we are right now.  Walking brought us here.  The best part is that it’s been effortless, finding our way.  We had no idea what Life had in store for us.  We still don’t.  Now there are more details on the canvas.  It’s completely enjoyable watching all of this stuff unfold.  All we are doing is showing up each day for The Walk.  We tune in for each episode.  Uncertainty abides.

I wonder what September will look like.

Its the AVATAR

Scientific Serendipity

1. A guide to recent dinosaur discoveries
2. The link between poor sleep and diabetes
3. How to make a winning science fair chemistry project
4. An overview on behavioral genetics
5. An introduction to quantum physics and the law of attraction
6. Biology science fair ideas
7. The difference between a scientific discovery and a scientific observation
8. Understanding static electricity
9. A review of embryonic stem cell research ethics
10. An explanation of Newton’s three laws of motion

Look for God in an Atom Smasher

Cell phones and cancer

Signature Litter

Sneezing 12000 times a day

8,700 miles from earth

Golf balls killed the Loch Ness Monster

How to survive the end of the  world

Aphrodisiac

Water on the Moon

MARXIST MEDICINE

COMMIE CARE

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Online Job Search

Government Work

Job Search

Job Search for the Older Worker