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Scratch, a graphical programming language developed by MIT’s Media Lab, is an excellent tool for teaching programming. Daniel created an Arduino Sensor Shield to interface with Scratch, allowing for real-world input to the language. This board is a derivative of the Picoboard, which is designed for use with Scratch. Fortunately, the communication protocol was well documented, and Daniel used the same protocol to talk to the graphical programming environment. The shield includes resistance sensing, a light sensor, a sound sensor, and a sliding potentiometer. Learning to code gets more interesting every day.
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Microsoft's Windows Azure storage service went down worldwide just before 4 p.m. ET/9 p.m. UTC, apparently due to an expired HTTPS certificate.
All of this has happened before, and it will happen again.
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GetEmployeeWhoDidNotCheckTheCertificate().TerminateEmployment(TerminationSpeeds.Immediate);
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
 2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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Whoever entrusts his data to an outsider will be depending on that outsider.
Dependencies are a bad thing.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Does anyone remember the ads for, what was it, Vista? where Bill Gates was talking about how, if Windows booted even 1 second faster, it would result in hundreds of thousands of hours of increased productivity? Or something like that anyways.
Well.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: Well.
Statistically correct.
..because you start working a second earlier; negligible in the real world, but a huge argument if you compound the effects and present it on paper.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Quote The thing is, like many successful platforms, part of what makes Java so dangerous is also its main selling point: it's everywhere. Java's original stewards, the now-defunct Sun Microsystems, built it as an intermediary for cross-platform code deployment, and today its new owners at Oracle brag that Java runs on more than 3 billion devices — the allure is that you only need to write code once and you've got your software running on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, plus a whole host of other compatible devices to boot.
I'd rather write an App on the Qt framework[^] than I just could think about writing a Java app.
Qt (which initially has been launched by Nokia, by now it is owned by the finnish Digia company) supports - as Java does too - all important operating systems (Windows [mobile, embedded and desktop], Mac, Linux [embedded and desktop]) and some additional frameworks as Nokias Symbian. Because Qt does support the up-to-date C++ standard (C++ 0X AFAIK - corect me if I am wrong) it is no problem to export your business logic into another app - an android app or another application which is being developed with a C++ IDE.
If you ask me - there are enough possible alternatives to Java. The problem is that not many devs have found out about them yet.
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Thanks.
Add me to the list of people unaware of Qt. Time to look into it. Whenever I heard the name before, my brain kept hearing "Tcl".
It's kind of funny that way, my brain.
--------------
TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Add me to the list of people unaware of Qt.
It has a natural cause: Qt was first developed as a framework for Nokias' old Symbian system and just became in the past few releases a good framework for other (Desktop) environments. It has a steep learning curve at the start, but after you get familiar with the Qt Gui designer and IDE and learnt the basic of their Signals and Slots mechanism you basically can start developing your first simple app (took me about 8 working days - if you have any questions while exploring Qt feel free to leave a comment under any of my forum messages or below this forum message).
Kent Sharkey wrote: Time to look into it.
It is. Qt became somehow a platform independent .Net framework for Linux, Windows and Mac. The time you take for looking into is worth it because you'll learn a way of how you can develop an app which works platform-independent and without Java.
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Marco Bertschi wrote: Qt was first developed as a framework for Nokias' old Symbian system and just became in the past few releases a good framework for other (Desktop) environments.
As a long term Qt user, I believe this to be untrue. Qt started over ten years ago as a cross platform tookit for windows, linux, solaris, irix etc (I have used it to release on all these platforms). It was more recently (say five years ago) ported to Symbian (after Nokia bought the company) windows CE and Mac X. Then a year or two ago Nokia sold the company to Digia, who are more like the original development company Trolltech.
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M Towler wrote: As a long term Qt user, I believe this to be untrue.
You are right, I was plain wrong because I haven't known about Trolltech.
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probably a confusion with Tk ?
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Ah, yeah, not Tcl, Tk. Thanks.
--------------
TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Whenever I heard the name before, my brain kept hearing "Tcl"
Funny - my brain keeps hearing "QuickTime" 
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I actually like the Qt Framework, as it is rather easy to use and is VERY powerful.
I also like Python, and the PyQT bindings are super cool.
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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Nearly, but not quite.  Qt was created by Trolltech. It(Trolltech) was later acquired by Nokia, who have since sold it(Qt) to Digia.
Qt was my first foray into cross-platform UI development. It certainly makes Java look like the abomination that it is. (though it does have that funky way of setting out the code of the application's classes in hpp files, rather than cpp ones - though pre-compiled headers at least ease that pain somewhat)
Make it work. Then do it better - Andrei Straut
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How would that be a solution? The security issues with Java are exclusively with the browser plugin - AFAIK Qt has no equivalent. Also Qt requires that the program be recompiled for every platform, so it is cross-platform at the source code level, not the executable level.
-Shon
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svella wrote: Java are exclusively with the browser plugin
IMO Java Browser Applications will be replaced by newer technologies such as HTML5 and JQuery.
svella wrote: Also Qt requires that the program be recompiled for every platform, so it is cross-platform at the source code level, not the executable level.
This is not a real matter - In Qt you have no Virtual machine which uses additional power on the machine and you can redistribute all you need without verifying that there is Java installed on the users' machine. And you do not have to force your customer to install anything else than your software.
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Marco Bertschi wrote: which uses additional power
Nonsense.
There are many things wrong with the implicit ideas contained within it.
First of course is completely ignoring the fact that in the vast majority of business domains language choice has no impact on the solution. Business requirements and developer experience/skills moves language choice impact below the noise level.
Marco Bertschi wrote: And you do not have to force your customer to install anything else than your
software.
Nonsense as a general statement. There are business domains that require external sources, such as any busienss product that requires persistent storage and products that are intended to work with other products.
It also ignores the fact that complex problems require complex solutions which often require distinct products.
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I used Qt when I had a Nokia N8 and wanted to make a compass for it (which lacked from the Ovi store).
Symbian^3 main app development is done with Qt. Loved it! I never thought I would love C++ again as much.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson
----
Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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Ask toolbar.
Running on 2.9 billion devices.
Success. Ask toolbar is awesome. How could anyone live without it?
(super sarcasm, of course)
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I wonder if it is just the wide spread of Java which makes it a favorite target for hackers. If Java went away, and, say, QT took its place, QT might very well suffer the same fate. At least the fate of being targeted more frequently...
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Stefan_Lang wrote: QT might very well suffer the same fate. At least the fate of being targeted
more frequently...
Absolutely no doubt about it.
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It's funny that everyone "hung in there" with windows, even through all the patches and getting hacked, until finally they have a decent product (windows 8)... but most people I hear from these days are just ready to bail on Java.
I used to program in java almost exclusively. I really like the language. But, that was before Mono. Now I program in c# most of the time.
I just find humor in seeing long term windows users bashing Java.
If it moves, compile it
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