Archive for 'Computers and Internet' Category
Database Management System
15 June 2007 <A database is a collection of inter-related data, representing information about a specific domain. In other words, every time you group information that can be related to the same subject, you can say that you have a database. For example: a phone list, a CD catalog or a human resource control system of a company.
However, Database Management System (DBMS) is a software that has resources capable of manipulating database information and interacting with user. Some examples of DBMS’s: oracle, sql server, db2, postgresql, mysql, access, paradox, etc.
At last, we have to picture database management system as the set of four basic components: data, hardware, software and users. In other words, database system can be depicted as an electronic data room.
The main goals of a database system are isolating users from internal details of the database (to promote data abstraction) and making data to become independent from applications.
SWT versus Swing
21 May 2007 <Many Java developers fear to adopt a solution based on SWT, because of the possibility of losing the portability of Java applications and because of the necessity of generating different installations for each client platform.
Swing is only available in platforms that support J2SE, Windows systems (except CE), Unix (including Linux) and Mac OS. SWT is available in the same platforms, which is facilitated by its nature of free software. But SWT goes further, supporting Windows CE / Pocket PC with J2ME systems. In fact, it’s even easier to get an updated version of SWT than an updated Swing version, because in many platforms J2SE was not updated since version 1.3.0.
Another advantage of SWT is that Swing manages allocation and releasing of native resources in a transparent but inefficient way. SWT waits the application to do this management. The greater control and efficiency of manual releasing makes SWT lighter than Swing, especially in applications that run for a long period of time.
.NET, Connecting People
4 March 2007 <These days, information is everything. And more importantly, communication and connection is of an even greater importance especially since the modern society imposes us a certain level of knowledge and of professional instruction. And what can help you achieve all these in a comfortable, useful, fast and efficient way if not the Internet. This system is based on the Microsoft Web services that are meant to create a connection between the people, the information that is delivered or transmitted from one user to another, between devices that communicate through software. The name that encompasses all these services is .NET.
.NET offers business man the chance to better communicate with their partners, because the connection that is established between them through the Internet creates a facile, comfortable manner of doing business. .NET is the perfect business system especially if we take into consideration the most important aspect of this solution, namely the fact that the information is exchanged no matter the inconvenience of time, or place.
The .NET tool is therefore the perfect solution for the business because the Web services make possible the connection with the partners, with the employees, and, most importantly, with the customers. The Web services offer the businesses the chance to work in a more efficient manner with the partners and the customers, by keeping them in touch with all the novelties inside the company.
The strategy used in the .NET services is created on the process of sharing data across different hardware platforms, having the purpose of enabling an easier connection between companies and clients, and of diminishing the costs by reducing the time and money needed in the development of a business. The .NET services offers the chance to share information that can be easily adapted and transformed in order to satisfy the needs of both the businessmen and those of the customers or the partners.
Hot Stuff: Sun Transforms Java in an Open-source Project
4 March 2007 <Sun Microsystems, the producer of software and servers, have announced that they began to modify the Java technology in an open-source project that will be available for free on the Internet. This is very exciting and surprising news especially if we take into consideration the fact that this company has always protected its source code used in over 3.8 billions of cell-phones, supercomputers, medical devices, and many more. Apparently, Sun Microsystems will make their code available under the conditions of the General Public License, except for some small sequences of code that the GNU does not own.
I’m sure that this news will make a blast among the programmers all around the world because this project will allow them to examine, to modify, to improve the bugs and to add new functionalities in the source code of Java. But there is nonetheless a limitation to this initiative because any modification of the Java program will have to be made public.
Perhaps you wonder why Sun has adopted this strategy. This initiative is justified by the fact that Sun lost billions of dollars in 2000 when the stock market collapsed and when the dot-com crisis began. They needed a plan, and fast. The open source movement is the best solution in their case. The vice-CEO of the company said that Sun hoped to transform more programmers in Java developers who could create additional software in order to offer support for the Sun products. The official declaration of the representatives from Java states the fact that the Java code will be completely ‘launched’ by 2007, probably in March. This Java code refers to all the Java technologies that are used for the cell-phones, PC’s, and servers. The analysts believe that this wise movement will prolong the existence of Java which was launched more than ten years ago. This open-source project is believed to be a real gold mine as far as Sun Microsystems is concerned.