Is it just me, or has the quality of mainstream tech new sites really begun to drop? Specifically, CNET, Yahoo News and big sites like that. Being very interested in the Internet and the Web, its seems like these sites are morphing into poor copies of Engadget. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I think not.
If you have any good sites you think I should be reading, please offer some suggestions. My current favorites are TechCrunch and ajaxian. But I need more than that.
Omar Khan, who works on Google Desktop when he's not working on his PhD, says: "The Twitter gadget makes it easy for me to follow my friends and post updates while I'm working at my computer. No need to open the browser. I just click and go."Infoworld posted this story last week, Java is Becoming the New Cobol.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. With technologies like JRuby, which allow you to run Ruby code in a JVM, I think Java technology will be around for a long time. Whether Java the language will be the most popular I'm not sure. Languages are constantly evolving and falling in and out of favor. When I was in school, C was king, then came C++ to replace it, and then Java to replace that.
As scripting languages go, Ruby is the best one I have seen so far. And if you just look at what new tech books are coming out, it is definitely on the upswing. Probably not a bad idea to pick it up. :)
kengell -- A data-center efficiency metric.
An application on a server processes 500,000 messages in one second. The server consumes 160 watts (160 Joules/sec). The application has a data-center rating of 3,125 kengells or 3.125 kilokengell (kK)
500,000 messags/sec / 160 J/sec = 3125 messages/Joule = 3125 kengells (or 3.125 kilokengell)
| SI prefixes (decimal) | IEC prefixes (binary) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000^-8 = 10^-24 | yoctokengell (yk) | ||
| 1000^-7 = 10^-21 | zeptokengell (zk) | ||
| 1000^-6 = 10^-18 | attokengell (ak) | ||
| 1000^-5 = 10^-15 | femtokengell (fk) | ||
| 1000^-4 = 10^-12 | picokengell (pk) | ||
| 1000^-3 = 10^-9 | nanokengell (nk) | ||
| 1000^-2 = 10^-6 | microkengell (�k) | ||
| 1000^-1 = 10^-3 | millikengell (mk) | ||
| 1000^-2/3 = 10^-2 | centikengell (ck) | ||
| 1000^-1/3 = 10^-1 | decikengell (dk) | ||
| 1000^0 = 10^0 | kengell (k) | ||
| 1000^1 = 10^3 | kilokengell (kK) | 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1.024�10^3 | kibikengell (KiK) |
| 1000^2 = 10^6 | megakengell (MK) | 1024^2 = 2^20 � 1.049�10^6 | mebikengell (MiK) |
| 1000^3 = 10^9 | gigakengell (GK) | 1024^3 = 2^30 � 1.074�10^9 | gibikengell (GiK) |
| 1000^4 = 10^12 | terakengell (TK) | 1024^4 = 2^40 � 1.100�10^12 | tebikengell (TiK) |
| 1000^5 = 10^15 | petakengell (PK) | 1024^5 = 2^50 � 1.126�10^15 | pebikengell (PiK) |
| 1000^6 = 10^18 | exakengell (EK) | 1024^6 = 2^60 � 1.153�10^18 | exbikengell (EiK) |
| 1000^7 = 10^21 | zettakengell (ZK) | 1024^7 = 2^70 � 1.181�10^21 | zebikengell (ZiK) |
| 1000^8 = 10^24 | yottakengell (YK) | 1024^8 = 2^80 � 1.209�10^24 | yobikengell (YiK) |
If you get a chance, take a look at the new Blue Sky Workshop main site. I got frustrated with the Wiki I was using, so I redesigned the site using HTML, CSS, and a little Javascript. (I'll write more about that as I get the design where I want it.) But I think it looks MUCH better.
Tools like wikis and blog software are all basically content managment systems. They are tools designed to make it easier for you to write and publish content and not worry much about managing the content. If you have ever written a pure HTML site, you know what kind of pain in the rear end it is to manage things likes headers and footers, links, and change generally.
So why did I switch. There are several things that frustrate me about the wiki I was using, the old self written CMS I used before, and some of the previous blogging tools I used like Wordpress.
In the end I find myself coming back to, "why don't I just do this in XHTML?" But then there are all those headers, footer, and links to deal with. Yuck!
Well over the break, I came up with some simple Javascript techniques to templatize each of my web pages. So that problem is solved. Now I'm working on how can I break content into discrete units that are stand alone, but yet can relate to each other. And some tools to automate the creation of the Javascript code for templates, linking individual pages together, and meta data to describe what is contained in a content chunk.
We'll see where it goes.
Should have sent this out during the break, but between having company over and being sick most of this week, it just didn't happen.
Still living and working in the Denver area. I'm back with Sun Microsystems working in education again. An exciting time there as we are really beginning to look at new ways to deliver learning.
Still get to see a lot of my sister and her family. Mom and Dad made it up for the Christmas break and we all had a nice visit.
In the tech area, I finally splurged over the break and bought a 37" Widescreen LCD TV made by Vizio (price was under $800). Having never spent much time with one these sets, I'm really impressed at how good DVDs look on the new set. The 480i image coming from the DVD is great. Can't wait to try some real high def stuff.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
