Thursday Nov 20, 2008
One of the great things about open source technologies and communities is the transparency associated with development and release cycles. So the release of NetBeans 6.5 does not come as a surprise. Yet, it's still fun to proclaim that NetBeans 6.5 has been officially released and is available for download.
NetBeans IDE 6.5 offers simplified and rapid development of web, enterprise, desktop, and mobile applications with PHP, JavaScript, Java, C/C++, Ruby, and Groovy. Here's a summary of the new features in NB 6.5:
- Robust support for PHP and JavaScript
- Debugging for Firefox and IE
- Support for Groovy and Grails
- New enhancements for Java™, Ruby and Rails, and C/C++ development
- Built-in support for Hibernate, Eclipse project import, and compile on save
If you're new to NetBeans, you'll also appreciate the IDE editing capabilities and the famous Swing GUI Builder (Matisse).
Here are some good resources for you to learn about NetBeans IDE 6.5:
Students will love all the time-saving features that will make coding your class projects so much easier. Have fun with NetBeans 6.5.
Download NetBeans IDE 6.5
Monday Nov 17, 2008
The latest Sun Studio Express release with updated features and enhancements is now available for download. Sun Studio Software delivers a high-performance, optimizing C/C++/Fortran developer toolchain for Solaris, OpenSolaris, and Linux OSs, including support for multicore x86- and SPARC-based systems. The toolchain includes parallelizing compilers, code-level and memory debuggers, and performance and thread analysis tools. With a NetBeans-based IDE developing parallel applications for the mutlicore era has never been easier!
Sun Studio is supported on OpenSolaris 2008.05, Solaris 10 and Linux (RHEL 5/SuSe 10/Ubuntu 8.04/CentOS 5.1)
Download a free unrestricted copy today!
If you register your Sun Studio installation, you will also receive access to the following content:
- Sample chapter from the book Solaris Application Programming by Darryl Gove titled, "Correctness and Debug"
- Guide to selecting the best compiler options
- Booklet on using Sun Studio to develop parallel applications
For more information on this latest release of Sun Studio Express join Ikroop Dhillon, Product Marketing Manager for Sun Studio and Vijay Tatkar,Senior Engineering Manager in the Developer Tools Organization, both with Sun Microsystems, as they discuss the feature highlights of Sun Studio Express 11/08.
Listen to the podcast.
Friday Nov 14, 2008
If you are a student, professor or researcher and haven't heard of Sun SPOTs, you've been missing out.
Sun SPOTs are small, wireless, battery powered devices (a platform really) that include built-in sensors that can easily interface to
external devices. Here's what makes Sun SPOTs extra cool. They are programmed in Java. This means that programming for embedded systems is no longer limited to low level programming languages. But it just gets better. The entire SunSPOT technology stack (SW & HW) is completely open source. This opens up tremendous new possibilities to enhance curriculum, instruction and research.
Project Sun SPOT was developed by the smart researchers at Sun Labs as one of the foundation technologies that will enable the "Internet Of Things" in which everything with an electronic pulse (cars, appliances, etc.) can be connected over the Internet. Think of this as the ultimate realization of Sun's vision that the network is the computer.
In fact, Time Magazine just recognized The Internet Of Things as one of their Best Inventions of 2008. For ultimate Geek appeal, however, it's hard to beat the recognition bestowed upon Sun SPOT as the InfoWorld #1 Must Have Gadget for the Discerning Geek.
Sun SPOT World has all the info you need including a good resource for getting started and info on special discounted pricing for education.
Monday Nov 10, 2008
Most everyone has heard of Sun's support for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) by now. But can you open source hardware? Well, that's exactly what Sun has done with OpenSPARC. Perhaps a bit more background is in order.
Through the OpenSPARC Community, Sun has made the hardware source code of the UltraSPARC T1 & T2 processors available under an Open Source license. The code along with the development tools which are available through the OpenSPARC community, provide the essential components to develop a new chip. Of course, what makes this all really interesting is that OpenSPARC represents the bleeding edge of multi-core, multi-threaded chip architecture or CMT as we say at Sun.
So what does all this have to do with college professors? Well...alot. To understand why, it's appropriate to reflect on the quote by that famous professor of computer architecture who said "I skate to where the puck is going to be,..."
We all know that this quote is really by Wayne Gretzky, but here is why the quote applies to chip architecture. If you are a professor, you want your courses to be relevant today, while you are teaching them and still be relevant for your students once they graduate. Multi-core, mult-threaded architectures are not only the current state-of-the-art, but the future as well.
Professors have their choice of chip platforms to include in their curricula. But, why not select the platform packing the most cores and threads and one that integrates all the key functions of a server on a
single chip? If you combine the benefits of an open source platform with the technical benefits, OpenSPARC is a compelling choice. So to once again paraphrase the Great One, professors selecting OpenSPARC as an instructional platform are "skating to where the puck is going to be"
In Europe, universities and professors can now benefit from a new collaborative relationship between Sun and Europractice, a European Union-backed non-profit microelectronics design stimulation project. This new collaboration is designed to cultivate Europe's future engineering talent and provide researchers, professors and students with an end-to-end solution to help create next-generation multithreaded microprocessors. Sun and Europractice will work together to promote curriculum adoption beginning with a series of OpenSPARC technology workshops this autumn. Professors attending the workshops will then be able to incorporate OpenSPARC in their courses.
Another helpful resource are the OpenSPARC Slidecasts consisting of 12 modules which participants through the process of developing their own OpenSPARC designs. The twelve chapters cover the different aspects of OpenSPARC and together are equivalent to a 2 day technical OpenSPARC workshop.
Also take advantage of the free download of the newly published OpenSPARC Internals, edited by David Weaver. Register and download a free PDF copy.
And, here's something for all you SW developers. We need software optimized to leverage the benefits of multi-core, multi-threaded architectures. A great resource is the White Paper: Multithreaded Application Acceleration with Chip Multithreading (CMT).
Wednesday Oct 29, 2008
Sun announced the Open Source University Meetup (OSUM - pronounced "awesome") today at EduCause so I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you. If you're interested in an audio version, you can check the OSUM segment on Sun News Radio.
OSUM is a global community of students that are passionate about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and how it is Changing (Y) Our World. Before you ask, this is not a typo. We say that FOSS can Change Your World because it opens up great new opportunities for student learning, collaboration and career advancement. We say it can Change Our World because FOSS promotes digital freedoms, opportunities and innovation that benefits our global community. Hence, Change (Y) Our World. We call it a ‘Meet-up to encourage collaboration between student groups to create an even stronger open source community. I'll be blogging later on the Change (Y) Our World theme.
The OSUM Community lives online and on hundreds of university campuses around the world. These OSUM Clubs work to educate students about the benefits of FOSS. OSUM Clubs typically conduct monthly meetings through which they provide technical demonstrations of open source software and conduct hands-on labs and student projects. They also inform students about about free students resources such as the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI) which offers online web courses so that students can get trained and certified to prepare them for new careers in the IT industry.
The OSUM Community is also a social networking site that enables all of the OSUM Clubs to connect with tens of thousand student developers to learn, share and collaborate as a community. OSUM members also have fun making friends with other coders with the same passion for FOSS.
All students coders are invited to join this global social networking community and connect to thousands of students from around the world. Just go to osum.sun.com, register and get started with Changing (Y) Our World.
Tuesday Oct 28, 2008
Nuestra Comunidad OSUM sigue creciendo en todo el mundo! Hoy, me complace reconocer OSUM dos nuevos Clubes en Chile que se han sumado al Club Siglos- OSUM clubes con 100 o más miembros. El OSUM Clubes en la Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María y la Universidad de Concepción superó cada uno de los 100 miembros marca el día de hoy.
Como ustedes saben, es nuestra tradición en la Comunidad OSUM de adjudicación de la primera OSUM Club en cada país que se une al Club Siglo con una Pizza Meetup (Fiesta) para celebrar este importante ocasión. En este caso, hemos tenido dos OSUM Clubes de Chile llegar a los 100 miembros de marca dentro de una hora el uno del otro. Por lo tanto, Sun se complace de conceder OSUM cada Club con una Fiesta de Pizza.
Gran trabajo Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa y la Universidad de Concepción OSUM. Que se diviertan en su Pizza Party!
Saludos,
Gary
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Our OSUM Community continues to grow around the world! Today, I am pleased to recognize two new OSUM Clubs in Chile that have joined the Century Club - OSUM Clubs with 100 or more members. The OSUM Clubs at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria and the Universidad de Concepción each surpassed the 100 member mark today.
As you know, it is our tradition in the OSUM Community to award the first OSUM Club in each country that joins the Century Club with a Pizza Meetup (Party) to celebrate this important milestone. In this case, we had two OSUM Clubs from Chile reach the 100 member mark within an hour of each other. Therefore, Sun is pleased to award each OSUM Club with a Pizza Party.
Great job Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa and Universidad de Concepción OSUM. Have fun at your Pizza Party!
Saludos,
Gary
Friday Oct 24, 2008
The OpenSolaris Ignite is the new monthly newsletter by, for, and about the OpenSolaris community. OpenSolaris Ignite features news, how-to articles, tech tips and reviews. This is a great resource for students using or developing on OpenSolaris. Check it out.
Thursday Oct 23, 2008
Let's face it. The job market for new college grads is getting tougher by the day. My advice - graduate with a degree from your university and a certification from Sun.
Through the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI), Sun provides students with valuable resources to pursue this career enhancing strategy and get a competitive edge as you enter the workforce. Sun certification is recognized industry-wide and demonstrates competency in high-demand technologies, such as the Java programming language and the Solaris Operating System. In other words, certification is tangible proof to employers of skills and knowledge needed for certain jobs.
Of course, there is this other important benefit - higher pay. According to a Certification Magazine Salary Survey, Sun Certification increases earning power:
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Sun Certified Programmers earn on average 8.3% more than the average programmer
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Sun Certified Developers earn on average 14.3% more than the average developer
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Sun Certified System Administrators earn on average 31% more than system administrators certified on other operating systems
Professional certifications are available to SAI participants in these key areas:
Sun certification exams are heavily discounted for students participating in the SAI program. For example, exams that normally cost $160 for professionals are
$60 in the U.S. and $40 in Latin America and Asia.
The SAI provides access to free web-based courses to learn Sun technologies at your own pace at times that are convenient for you. SAI students also have access to ePractice
Certification Exams. These no-cost web based practice exams include sample test questions, the correct answers with
explanations, and provides the test taker with suggestions for future study.
Click here to register for the SAI. We will email you the information you need to create your personal user account on the SAI Learning Connection, Sun's learning portal for students.
For more information or to join the SAI - visit the SAI Website.
Wednesday Oct 22, 2008
Managing the Sun Campus Ambassador Program is one of the best parts of my job here at Sun. In fact, I'll be devoting much of my blog to all the cool stuff that they do on a day-to-day basis. In case you haven't heard, Campus Ambassadors are student interns that work for Sun and evangelize our Open Source technologies and communities to students at their university. They focus on educating students about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and how it is Changing Our World and the particular benefits that it has for students to Change Your World. That's why we say that FOSS will Change (Y) Our World (more on that in a later blog). Since Sun is the FOSS leader, Campus Ambassadors have plenty to talk about.
Today, I'd like to highlight a cool project by Denis Magda, Sun Campus Ambassador from Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University in Russia. Denis and his fellow students from the Open Source University Meetup (OSUM - pronounced "awesome") at Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University, just created a remote controlled car using Sun SPOTS. Their car even has headlights that turn on automatically when it gets dark.
Of course, this cool student project is enabled by Sun SPOTs which are Java programmable embedded devices that include an accelerometer, temperature and light sensors,
radio transmitter, eight multicolored LEDs, 2 push-button control switches,
5 digital I/O pins, 6 analog inputs, 4 digital outputs, and a rechargeable battery. Since SPOTs are based on Java, they are easily programmed and much more robust than other embedded devices. They are also a great platform for student innovation as exemplied by the SPOTCar created by Denis and his classmates.
Check out Denis' blog for all the details.
Tuesday Oct 21, 2008
NetBeans is 10 years young and is celebrating with a Decathlon that is of special interest to student developers. The Decathlon consists of ten interactive tasks for the NetBeans community to show and share what the NetBeans Project means to them. These are simple and fun tasks such as writing a Birthday Blog, posting a video or doing a NetBeans Demo. The first 300 participants to complete events that add up to 50 points will receive a limited edition NetBeans 10th Anniversary Shirt. So get started today!
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