Alas poor Parallels, I knew it well? August 7, 2006
Posted by James Webster in : apple, virtualization , add a commentSmall software vendors have a history of getting shafted at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference; remember the kerfuffle over Konfabulator when Apple announced Dashboard in Tiger? In the end I guess it worked out okay for those guys as they flipped to Yahoo. On the eve of WWDC 2006 it looks like the 600lb gorilla of virtualization is releasing a beta of VMware Workstation for Mac. Which perhaps puts Parallels Desktop Mac in a somewhat precarious position if a version of the free VMware Player for Mac is shortly behind. I sincerely hope not, as Parallels’ product is damn impressive; I have been using it for a few weeks since getting a MacBook and would be pretty lost without it at this point. Parallels does have the advantage of being priced more aggressively: $79USD to the $189USD that VMware’s Mac product would be priced at if Windows and Linux pricing is any guide. The feature set of VMware Workstation is definitely more higher-end but it will be interesting to watch how pricing of both of these products on both PC and Mac platforms may change over the coming months. About the only thing that I wish Parallels supported was the ability to open VMware virtual machine images, simply because there are just so many of them out there.
Incidentally Codeweaver’s Crossover Office for Mac is also scheduled to go into beta this month, possibly an announcement to coincide with the WWDC will be made in the next few days. I would be impressed to see them add the betas of Office 2007 to their list of supported applications but I am probably dreaming.
Modelling with ‘UML Dominoes’ August 6, 2006
Posted by James Webster in : development , 2 commentsOur team at work did a bit of impromptu UML modelling around a whiteboard this week (i.e.. the GOOD kind of UML modelling, as opposed to the ‘out-of-touch architect in an ivory tower using Rational Rose’ kind). It struck me, as I am sure it has struck someone else before, that a much more tactile and literally hands-on approach might be to model the domain using index cards.
Prepare in advance a stack of index cards containing a mixture of the typical connecting arrows used in UML to indicate different kinds of object relationships; aggregation, composition, depends, generalisation, etc. Here is an example:
Have on hand a plentiful supply of blank index cards on which to write the names of classes that you wish to include in the model. Then simply lay them end-to-end with the relationship cards as you would with domino pieces:
I have been rereading Eric Evan’s Domain Driven Design and this would be a great way to illustrate a project’s Core Domain; UML Dominoes are one way of demonstrating the Highlighted Core via a Big Visible Chart.
Print, press & publishing’s impending seismic shift August 3, 2006
Posted by James Webster in : gadgets , 1 comment so farI have yet to see an e-paper/e-ink reader in the flesh. But I am so ready to buy one if its properly executed. And I believe many other people are as well, such that wide-take up of these devices will significantly change the way the print, press & publishing industries work.
The Sony Reader that was demonstrated at CES 2006 last January was originally slated for release in the northern hemisphere spring; before being subsequently delayed to summer and then autumn. Apparently now it will be ready for “the holidays”. Meanwhile the iRex iLiad has been released but is only being made available via specialized channels which are generally pre-loading the device with expensive vertical-specific content, such as aviation maps or medical journals. Sony have taken the bold step of asking Phil Torrone of MAKEzine to canvas his readers for their questions about the delayed product which is a welcome sign of openness after Sony’s DRM root-kit debacle. I can only hope Sony don’t attempt to encumber the device with too much loathsome DRM and is capable of rendering PDF and TXT files. There are tantalising rumours that Apple may also be working on an e-book reader. I have more faith in Apple’s ability to enter this market with a category-defining device than Sony. Maybe we’ll see one at the WWDC next week?
At the same time more technical publishers are embracing DRM-free PDF’s as a distribution format. And thank goodness, technical books are heavy man! At the moment it is mostly indie or smaller outfits like The Pragmatic Programmers and 37signals with Getting Real (from which the revenue of $215,000 is almost ‘pure profit’) that have fully embraced this idea but more ‘traditional’ tech publishers such as Manning and O’Reilly (read Tim O’Reilly’s piece on PDF distribution) are waking up as well. Not to mention many other non-technical publishers which distribute some of their catalogue, mostly in DRM-encumbered and frequently platform-specific formats, through a variety of online ebook vendors.
Savvy newspapers are also waking up. Witness the recent launch of UK newspaper The Guardian’s G24; several automatically generated DRM-free PDF’s of key articles straight from their newspaper, updated every 15 minutes. But why rely on traditional media outlets for a PDF newspaper? Check out Jonas Martinsson’s FeedJournal which generates a PDF ‘newspaper’ from the RSS or ATOM feeds you provide it. Who would like to read Techmeme in newspaper format on the bus/tube/subway to work?
As soon as we have a range of e-paper readers that are relatively affordable, support a wide-range of platforms and formats (albeit with the inevitable but hopefully not egregious DRM), the publishing business will change just as rapidly as the music business has been changed by the iPod.
Where’s the iPod of e-ink? Apple? Sony?