Feb 21, 2008 

It's time for the latest issue of the Developer Shed newsletter. February is flying by, and no doubt many of you can hardly wait for winter to end. The days are already starting to get noticeably longer here at the Shed, so sit tight. With our tools for geeks, we'll help you get your work done faster so you can make the most of that gradually increasing daylight time!

First, let me tell you about the latest article we're highlighting from eWeek. If you work in a hospital, and especially if you handle their IT, you won't want to miss this piece. It focuses on one of the most overlooked weak links in a hospital network -- the printer. Such an infiltration, though unlikely, can break a hospital's HIPAA compliance. Fortunately, there are defenses; read the article today to learn what they are.

Of course, we also have an excellent collection of articles for you this week -- slightly fewer than usual because of the President's Day holiday on Monday, but we certainly didn't skimp on quality! On Dev Shed, you'll want to read the final article in our series about working with Yahoo Web Services and PHP 5, as well as the latest piece from a group of articles covering the basics of Python. ASP Free featured an article on C, an important programming language. We also covered lossless image resizing in C#, a follow-up to last week's article on lossless image converting in C#.

We aimed at beginning and intermediate web designers this week on Dev Articles. Our two original items covered working with images in HTML and JavaScript date objects. Hardware enthusiasts reading Dev Hardware, meanwhile, were treated to a review of an EVGA motherboard and a comparison of Gateway One with the iMac.

On SEO Chat, readers learned about the advantages of targeting their web site to the right demographic. They also read about a variety of ways they can further their SEO education, including online courses, conferences, and so on. Finally, we've highlighted some really useful (and fun!) tutorials from Tutorialized. You can learn how to secure the images on your web pages, how to make a mouseover popup window in Dreamweaver, how to turn a parrot into a dragon, and more!

Web development with Eclipse Europa, Part 1: The Java EE for Eclipse
It's a good time to be a Web developer. You've never had more choices in terms of technologies. There are so many great open source Web servers, databases, programming languages, and development frameworks. No matter what combination of technologies you prefer to work with, there is an integrated development environment (IDE) that can increase your productivity: Eclipse. In this tutorial, Part 1 of a three-part "Web development with Eclipse Europa" series on how to use Eclipse for Web development with Java technology, PHP, and Ruby, we'll see how the latest release of Eclipse -- Europa -- can be used to rapidly develop Java Web applications. We'll use Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE) for Eclipse to build a Web application for tracking and calculating baseball statistics.
Learn more.

Web development with Eclipse Europa, Part 2: The Java EE for Eclipse
No matter what combination of technologies you prefer to work with as a Web developer, Eclipse is a single integrated development environment (IDE) that can increase your productivity. In Part 2, we'll see how easy it is to develop PHP applications using a different set of Eclipse plug-ins, collectively known as the PHP Development Toolkit (PDT.)
Learn more.

Web development with Eclipse Europa, Part 3: Ruby Development Toolkit and RadRails
It's a good time to be a Web developer. You've never had more choices in terms of technologies. There are so many great open source Web servers, databases, programming languages, and development frameworks. No matter what combination of technologies you prefer to work with, there is a single integrated development environment (IDE) that can increase your productivity: Eclipse. Here in Part 3, we introduce the RDT and RadRails Eclipse plug-ins and show you how to get these plug-ins and start using them. You will learn how to use RadRails to do many common Ruby on Rails development tasks.
Learn more.

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Developer Search

Introducing Tech News by Developer Shed. News you can't use.

It's edgy! It's irreverent! It's all about technology! It's news you can't use, and you won't want to miss it! View this week's edition to learn the answers to these burning questions:

If these gloves don't fit, should you acquit? Plus new OJ freshly squeezes you! Can looks really kill? Now that our soldiers have been equipped with laser eyes, yes- yes they can. What do you do in Tokyo if a giant moth attacks? Hop into these levitating buses, that's what. Could Windows Vista prerequisite updates cause your computer to enter into an infinite loop loop loop loop loop Why would Aquaman open up his own gas station? The sQuba submarine car might be a clue... Watch the video!

Building a Complete Web Searching Class with Yahoo Web Services and PHP 5 by Alejandro Gervasio, 2008-02-20 -- Welcome to the final part of the series “Using Yahoo! Web Services with PHP 5.” As the title claims, this series walks you through the basic concepts surrounding the correct utilization of the most relevant web search services provided by Yahoo! and puts the corresponding theory into practice by utilizing both procedural and object-oriented approaches. Read the full article.

Python: Count on It by James Payne, 2008-02-19 -- We touched on how numbers work in Python a while back in the beginning of our series on Python. In the past few tutorials we discussed strings and how to manipulate them and some of the string methods. Here, in this article, we will go over some of the math modules and discuss different uses for numbers in Python. Read the full article.

Authentication in Samba by O'Reilly Media, 2008-02-14 -- In this second part of a four-part series on handling authentication and authorization in Samba, you will learn about pluggable authentication modules, a challenge/response authentication algorithm developed by Microsoft, and more. This article is excerpted from chapter five of Using Samba, Third Edition, written by Gerald Carter, Jay Ts and Robert Eckstein (O'Reilly, 2007; ISBN: 0596007698). Copyright © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media. Read the full article.

Lossless Image Resizing in C# by Barzan "Tony" Antal, 2008-02-20 -- This is the second segment of the two-part article series focusing on the creation of a lightweight image manipulation application that is able to perform lossless image conversion and resizing. The programming language is C# and we rely on .NET’s GDI+ and graphics because our project is designed in Visual Studio. Read the full article.

C: More Operators and Arrays by James Payne, 2008-02-19 -- In our last article we left off discussing some of C's Operators and how to use them. We will pick up on the same subject in this article, and cover arrays as well. As always, there is a lot to cover, so let's get to it. Read the full article.

Working with Data with the MapPoint Web Service Find APIs by O'Reilly Media, 2008-02-14 -- In this second part of a five-part series on MapPoint's Find Service, you will learn how to handle data sources and queries. It is excerpted from chapter six of the book Programming MapPoint in .NET, written by Chandu Thota (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596009062). Copyright © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media. Read the full article.

HTML Working with Images by James Payne, 2008-02-20 -- In our last tutorial we discussed working with forms in HTML. In this episode we will cover how to work with images, such as floating images, image maps, and background images. Read the full article.

JavaScript Date Objects: Universal Coordinated Time by James Payne, 2008-02-19 -- We previously left off discussing a smattering of JavaScript Date Objects. In this tutorial we will continue the discussion, picking up with the GetUTCHours() Method. There's a ton of Date methods, so let's get started. Read the full article.

Controlling Information Access with the Rails Action Controller by O'Reilly Media, 2008-02-14 -- In this conclusion to a four-part series on the Rails Action Controller, you will learn how to restrict access to controller methods, use filters for authentication, and more. This article is excerpted from chapter four of the Rails Cookbook, written by Rob Orsini (O'Reilly, 2007; ISBN: 0596527314). Copyright © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media. Read the full article.

EVGA 680i LT SLI by jkabaseball, 2008-02-20 -- Once again we have an in-depth review of a motherboard. This time it's the nForce 680i LT SLI chipset. Keep reading for what you've come to expect in these analyses, a thorough examination with testing. We'll see if this board can match performance with other top of the line chipsets. Read the full article.

Gateway One Desktop PC Rivals the iMac by Joe Eitel, 2008-02-19 -- It seems that the battle of computer supremacy between PCs and Macs is never-ending. Apple controlled the computer market with the introduction of their computers in the mid-1980s. PCs then took over in the mid-1990s and have controlled the computer market up until recently, when the newly designed Macs began to become popular again. Gateway has taken a page from Mac's design, while adding some of their own features to the new Gateway One. Read on to find out more. Read the full article.

Canon PowerShot SD950 IS Compact Digital Camera by Joe Eitel, 2008-02-14 -- Canon has had a long line of successful "digital ELPH" cameras, which goes back over 10 years. The latest in this line of digital cameras is the Canon PowerShot SD950 IS (IXUS 960 IS in Europe). Read on for an in-depth review of this product. It's a doozy! Read the full article.

Getting an SEO Education by Terri Wells, 2008-02-20 -- Unlike western medicine, SEO is mostly “self-taught.” Students read books and articles, visit SEO forums and attend conferences, and then apply what they learn to their sites. They observe the results, tweak, and repeat the cycle. Is there a better way to learn the subject? Read the full article.

Site Target Marketing by Akinola Akintomide, 2008-02-19 -- In this article, we will look at some things site target marketing will help us focus on, the importance of knowing who to target when optimizing a site, the probable pay offs of knowing your target demographics, and then the factors to ignore. Read the full article.

Domains Take On the Economy by Michael Lowry, 2008-02-20 -- I'm no economic expert, but with America on the brink of recession (or so they say) it's probably a good time for web hosting connoisseurs to examine how the domain industry might be affected. Is it truly a cause for panic, like the possibility of gays getting married? Or is it simply incessant fear mongering, like those loonies spouting the dangers of “climate change?” [Or reverse those depending on your politics]. Hopefully this article will help you decide for yourself. Read the full article.

More Malware? by Michael Lowry, 2008-02-13 -- Malware has grown to the point where the attackers no longer seek out the victims directly through email, but instead let the victim come to them through an enticing website advertisement. They hide within the sites like a crime syndicate using waste management as a front to run their criminal organization, only these guys aren't as lovable as Tony Soprano. Read the full article.

File Sharing, Break It Down! by Michael Lowry, 2008-02-06 -- For all the Internet has done to benefit both business and the individual, there are some corporations that would have you think the Internet has been the biggest burden to capitalism since Karl Marx. They think of it as a world that caters to thieves and ne'erdowells, while they, being oh so chaste, are forced to survive without rules or protection of any kind. It's time we see how dangerous this “Internet” really is when it comes to intellectual property rights. Read the full article.

Tutorialized is dedicated to programming, designing, and many other tech related tutorials.

Image Security
Learn how to secure your web pages.
Read the tutorial.

Water on text mask effect
Apply a water effect to some text using the mask layer.
Read the tutorial.

From parrot to dragon
This tutorial will show how to create a dragon using a parrot.
Read the tutorial.

How To Make a Mouseover Popup Window Easily in Dreamweaver
Learn how to make a mouseover popup window easily using Dreamweaver's Behaviors feature.
Read the tutorial.

Great magnifying glass effect
How to apply a great and fun magnifying effect to an image.
Read the tutorial.

Scripts is dedicated to developer and programming related scripts both commercial and free, and for all OS platforms.

Clouds animation
A clouds animation clip, with images in timeline, easy to edit, you can put it as a header or a background in Flash/HTML websites.
Learn more.

Peel Away Advertisement Script
We've all seen it, the little peel tab in the corner of the web page. Well, now you can use this feature. Learn more.

Max's AJAX Rating System
Max's AJAX Rating System is a simple, easy to install script which allows your visitors to rate any item on your page. Put as many rating boxes as you want. Learn more.

Registry and Spyware Cleaner
Netcom3™ is a recognized global leader in internet security. It's focus is online interactions. Learn more.

Contact form 1
A very useful Flash contact form. Data will be sent via a PHP file that's included in the download package. Form validation also included. Learn more.

Gatt XML Calendar
Fully customize 46 properties of the calender. Change styles by a Custom UI in flash IDE - design your own header and background. Learn more.

Internet Marketing For Online Business Internet marketing for your online business can be confusing, especially if you are not familiar with all of the different aspects of website marketing. Read the full article.

Make Profit From The Internet - A Fairytale?
Is there any difference between the idea of working from home at the Internet and the believing that there is gold at the end of the rainbow? Read the full article.

Tips To Increase Website Conversions
One of the biggest myths online is that it’s acceptable to have a conversion rate of 1% or 2%. Read the full article.

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Weird and Cool

New York's Worldwide Connections
Read more about this

In an interesting combination of science and art, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created several maps to show how residents of New York City reach out to the rest of the world via telephone and Internet - and vice versa. The project, dubbed the New York Talk Exchange, examined only traffic and not the content of the activities. The project proved what we've known for a long time: New York is a global city.

The surprises come in the details. For example, those living in Manhattan frequently contact Frankfurt, Tokyo, and London, while Queens residents are more likely to have those in the Dominican Republic on their speed dial. Columbia University professor Saskia Sassen, upon examining the data, noted that "global talk happens both at the top of the economy and at its lower end…the middle talks mostly nationally and locally."

The Museum of Modern Art in New York will display graphical interpretations of the data from February 24 through May 12. The 18-month-long project compared New York to London as a global communication hub, and produced three maps of data. These maps can also been seen online at MIT's web site. Carlo Ratti, leader of the project, said its aim was "to reveal some hidden structure of the city that wasn't possible to see before."

Even on the Moon, No Escape from Cell Phones
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NASA and the British National Space Centre want to make sure that eventual colonists on the moon have at least one of the conveniences (or annoyances) of home. They're collaborating on a satellite system that will give a full four-bar signal for a lunar mobile phone network. The system will go live later this century, and is meant to serve the base NASA hopes to build at the moon's south pole after 2020.

A trial version of the system will be launched after 2012. Dubbed the MoonLite mission, it will test the technology by having a lunar astronaut send information about the moon's structure back to earth. The astronaut will get the information from scientific instruments buried on the moon.

The actual system will use only one or two satellites to start with, to cover the south pole of the moon. More satellites will be added as needed to cover a larger area. Don't expect blazing speeds; data throughput is expected to reach 3kbps for the downlink and 2kbps for the uplink. So far, there is no word as to how the system will deal with annoying telemarketers.

Microsoft Gives Away Free Software
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No, the headline is not a joke, so as you would expect, there are certain restrictions on Microsoft's giveaway. First, it's limited to students, and second, it doesn't include the software giant's operating systems. It does include many of Microsoft's tools for web designers. So Visual Studio Professional Edition, Expression Studio, and XNA Game Studio 2.0 can be downloaded by students. The give away also includes SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server Standard Edition.

Microsoft calls the offering DreamSpark, and says it is doing it because earlier initiatives to give educational discounts on these programs still limited their availability. The move challenges both Adobe Systems, which makes competing software, and the popularity of open source software. It will also, according to Microsoft, put their tools in the hands of 1 billion students.

Microsoft apparently hopes the move will make their software more relevant in the future. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates noted that "We give up some revenue, but we…get more startups where kids are familiar with Visual Studio, Expression Studio and SQL Server." The programs are now available to college students in the US, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. High school students will be able to access the programs starting in the fall.

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