Java in 2008 - What just happened?

Year in Review: Java in 2008 - What just happened? When high-tech history is inscribed for the ages, 2008 may be remembered as the year Java tipped from a language-centric to a platform-centric technology. Andrew Glover kicks off JavaWorld's Year in Review series with a look back over the last 12 months in Java development, when alternate languages for the JVM took center stage, new directions emerged in the enterprise space, and Sun Microsystems staked its claim on the client side -- with or without Swing. http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2008/jw-12-year-in-review-1.html Best regards, _______________________________________ Hassan Tahhan Software Engineer, CSC Arabia Mobile: 966-50-685-5749 Email: hassantahhan@gmail.com

Google

Does Google Have a Secret OS?

By Andy Patrizio
December 4, 2008

Net Applications caused a bit of a stir this week with a report that showed Microsoft's operating system share had dipped below 90 percent. This played very well where anti-Microsoft sentiment was strongest, not surprisingly.

Net Applications uses software sensors at 40,000 Web sites around the world to measure traffic and come up with its stats. These stats include operating system, browser, IP address, domain host, language, screen resolution, and a referring search engine, according to Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for Net Applications.

However, Net Applications noticed something unusual with stats from Google.com, which would represent Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) employees, not the public at large that use its search engine. Two-thirds of the visitors from Google.com did not hide what operating system they were running, which Net Applications recorded in its survey.

One-third, however, were unrecognized even though Net Applications' sensors can detect all major operating systems including most flavors of Unix and Linux. Even Microsoft's new Windows 7, which is deployed internally at Microsoft headquarters, would show up by its identifier string. But the Google operating systems were specifically blocked.

"We have never seen an OS stripped off the user agent string before," Vizzaccaro told InternetNews.com. "I believe you have to arrange to have that happen, it's not something we've seen before with a proxy server. All I can tell you is there's a good percentage of the people at Google showing up [at Web pages] with their OS hidden."

A proxy server shouldn't cause such a block because it would block everything, which Net Applications sees all the time. With the one-third obfuscated Google visitors, it was only the OS that was removed. Their browser, for example, was not hidden. And two-thirds of Google systems surfing the Web identified their OS, mostly Linux.

Internal deployment would make sense, as that's the best way to test an operating system or anything else under development. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has Windows 7 deployed over certain parts of its Redmond campus, using its staff as testers by making them work with it daily. The company refers to this as "eating their own dogfood."

Google's secret OS?

So what's Google hiding? When asked, the company sent InternetNews.com a statement that it would not comment on rumor and speculation. But some Silicon Valley watchers think they know: the long-rumored software-as-a-service-oriented Google OS.

"I think they could be working on an application infrastructure, because an operating system really connotes the stuff that makes the hardware and software talk to each other, and they are not in that business," said Clay Ryder, president of The Sageza Group.

"But as an infrastructure for building network apps, I would think Google would be working on something like that," he continued. "They've been rolling out more and more freebie apps and I would think they would eventually want to make some money the old fashioned way. It would make a lot of sense that they would want to have a network app infrastructure that they could roll out most anywhere."



source:http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/print.php/3788821

ITdigest

Google slips from list of top companies on privacy

Posted by Dawn Kawamoto

Google has stepped off the top 20 list of the most trusted U.S. companies for privacy, according to a report in theSan Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

The Internet search giant was ranked No. 10 last year, but slipped off into the ether this year as the 6,500 people surveyed by the Ponemon Institute may have associated Google with "big company syndrome," the Chronicle story reported. TRUSTe co-sponsored the survey. The company aims to serve as the gold housekeeping seal of the Internet, by identifying various Web sites as trustworthy through its Web Privacy Seal, Email Privacy Seal, and Trusted Download programs.

In the fifth annual survey, people were asked to name "which companies they thought were most trustworthy and which did the best job safeguarding personal information," according to a press release Monday.

The Chronicle story, citing the Ponemon Institute, said:

"Google (and Microsoft) suffer from big company syndrome," Dr. Larry Ponemon said. "People figure that if you're big and collecting data, there must be an issue."

A number of technology companies, however, saw their ranking change, including eBay and Yahoo, according to the press release.

While the financial services sector slipped amid industry-wide woes, the technology sector showed marked improvement as eBay, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and HP all bettered previous rankings. Also of note, Facebook moved into the top 20 for the first time, signifying an increased trust in social networking as a mainstream communications tool.

Here are the top companies as ranked in the survey:

1. American Express (remained No. 1)
2. eBay (+6)
3. IBM (no change)
4. Amazon (+1)
5. Johnson & Johnson (+ 1)
6. Hewlett Packard (+10)
6. U.S. Postal Service (+1)
7. Procter & Gamble (+2)
8. Apple (new to the top 20)
9. Nationwide (remained the same)
10. Charles Schwab (-8)
11. USAA (+4)
12. Intuit (+7)
13. WebMD (-1)
14. Yahoo (new to the top 20)
15. Facebook (new to the top 20)
16. Disney (-1)
16. AOL (-12)
17. Verizon (new to the top 20)
18. FedEx (new to the top 20)
19. US Bank (-2)
20. Dell (-7)
20. eLoan (-9)



source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10123251-93.html



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AwalNet

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