7 Reasons to Use Ubercart!

1) Big names are using it
Prominent companies such as AOL and Warner Brothers Records has been using Ubercart for a while. More recently, Lullabot launched an Ubercart site for their conference registration.

2) Stable release for Drupal 5, significant progress on Drupal 6 version
Ubercart for Drupal 5 has been at a stable 1.x branch since the beginning of June. While it’s not yet stable, there is a dev version out for Drupal 6, and I know of at least one brave soul using it on a live site already. This is a testament to the active development community of Ubercart.

3) Ubercart is highly represented at Drupal events
There have been sessions on Ubercart at the last three Drupalcons, numerous local Drupal camps, FrOScon, etc. Ubercart even held their own Ubercamp this summer, for developers and interested parties to get together for a weekend of coding and planning.

4) Very active community
Dozens of new forum posts a day from its 3500 registered users, numerous code commits every week, and several community-contributed modules added or updated each week. The support time for issues and forum posts is very quick.

5) High visibility outside of the Drupalsphere
This is nearly unheard of for Drupal modules, but given Ubercart’s high visibility, it’s actually been a big draw for users coming into Drupal itself for the first time. They also recently had a mention in PC Magazine.

6) Full time developers with commercial backing
While the Drupal project itself has been proof that full time, funded developers aren’t needed to create a great product, in the world of e-commerce, it’s certainly helped. There are currently two (soon to be three) full time Ubercart developers, and an estimated dozen or so more from other organizations who also do only Ubercart development.

7) Focus on being user friendly
The Ubercart developers don’t want you to have to be a developer to set up an online store. There are a million settings and configuration possibilities for creating an online store, but they’ve put a strong focus on the UI, simple checkout, and intelligent defaults. This goes a long way in deploying a site right the first time, that looks great.

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ANDROID BASED GOOGLE MOBILE FUTURE

Google has made its clear ambitions with his 1st phone which is launched by Google with co-operation of HTC and will sell by the T-Mobile as T-Mobile G1. The mobile is touchscreen and has great features in the competition of iPhone.

Android has been created by Andy Rubin who is the Google's director of mobile platforms. Mr Rubin says, "What Android enables for third party developers is the kind of programming we see on the Internet. What it enables is agility and rapid innovation and the same kind of innovation that happens on the Internet”. He announced that Android is a Open source operating system and with it developers have more freedom to innovate, and more scope also.

Andy Rubin also announce that Symbian and Microsoft also two companies that also build mobile operating systems and announced that the operating system which they have launched are also open. But Mr Rubin says the reality of that, “There's a distinction we have to make - and it's an important one - between open source and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). APIs are essentially documentation, they're the way that somebody like Symbian or Microsoft will allow third party developers to develop for their platform.” Mr. Rubin says all the things with news.bbc.co.uk in a interview.

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6 Easy Ways To Get Started Programming Open Source

Open source projects can be a good way to geek out and do what you love, and having a side project can keep you at the top of your game, build your reputation, and often leads to other opportunities. The problem is many people want to start writing open source, but have trouble making that first step because they aren’t sure where to start. Here are 6 easy tips to get started programming F/OSS software.

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Open source begins to beat brand in business

OPEN source software, which holds a central place with computer programming enthusiasts who oppose proprietary control over software code, has quietly been winning recognition in Australia's enterprise sector.

Surveys of Australian open source development companies indicate that the software, which is developed co-operatively under non-proprietary licensing schemes, supports an industry worth $500 million and is becoming better understood.

Marc Englaro, general manager of open source software company Fonality, said companies had developed a good grasp of the open source model.

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6 Easy Ways To Get Started Programming Open Source

Open source projects can be a good way to geek out and do what you love, and having a side project can help improve overall job satisfaction, keep you at the top of your hacking game, and can often lead to other opportunities. The problem is a lot of people have trouble making that first step because they don’t really know where to start. Here are 6 easy tips for getting started with F/OSS.

1. Get Involved With the Projects You Use

This may seem obvious, but don’t try to jump into a project that you don’t use and don’t know anything about. Make a short list of open source software projects you might like to contribute to based on the software you are already using. Don’t forget about the potential for contributing to libraries and modules - there are advantages to developing on a project used by other developers. Do you use a framework, file converter, graphing library, or build tool that is open source and in need of bug squashing, optimization, or new features? These are prime candidates for a first F/OSS project.

2. Do What You Love

Look for a place to contribute where you can do something you are genuinely interested in. If you have a special place in your heart for parsers, a compiler isn’t necessarily the first project you want to start with. Don’t rule out parsing configuration files in a webserver or build tool.

3. Learn the tools

Every project uses different methods for version control, bug tracking, patch submission, coding convention, feature requests, user troubleshooting issues, building, and development discussion. Take the time to learn about them and how they work. A developer mailing list is not the place to ask how SVN works. A user forum is not the place to submit a bug report. Reading the developer docs and learning the tools saves everybody time and gives contributions a better chance of being accepted.

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Intellectual Property and Open Source

The Open Source movement makes software available free for people to use or even to pass on to others. This flies in the face of normal commercial practice, where people jealously guard their intellectual property rights. Traditional laws support these rights - so when new open source projects come into being, often as a result of work done collectively, it can be difficult to disentangle issues of ownership and control. Van Lindberg's new book is an amazingly thorough guide to the whole business. He explains the legal niceties without resorting to too much jargon, and supplies practical support materials in the form of sample licences and agreements. The first part of the book has eight chapters giving an introduction to intellectual property law, then the second part is six chapters offering an intellectual property handbook for developers, particularly those working in the field of open sources.

He warns that it's a book of general principles, not specific advice, for the very good reason that cases of copyright, patents, and intellectual property rights are very case specific. Nevertheless, he does discuss lots of instructive individual cases, and I imagine that anybody with a need to know in this complex field of legislation will find what he has to say both instructive and chastening.

He explains the law on copyright, patents, and inventions by comparing it to computer programming, which it turns out to resemble remarkably closely. One new ruling (or code) is bolted on to that which already exists, and the whole statute grows by a process of accretion.

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Open Source Alternative for Microsoft OneNote

Easily take all sort of notes
Collect research results and share them
Centralize your project data and reuse it
Quickly organize your thoughts in idea boxes
Keep track of your information in a smart way
Make intelligent To Do lists
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Open Source Mobile Platform

Your existing “desktop” website, written for the browser: desktop website adaptation (also called transcoding)fetches the content and style from an online webpage in real-time and transforms it to each mobile device according to the device capabilities.

An XML or RSS feed from a Content Management System (CMS): feed adaptation fetches an online feed in real time, adds pre-defined styling (also called a template) to the content and transforms it for each mobile device according to the device capabilities.

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ASP.NET Vs Others

What is ASP.NET?
The latest incarnation of ASP, ASP.NET, is not completely backward-compatible with previous versions of ASP, as it is a complete rewrite of the software. Previous ASP technology actually has a lot more in common with PHP than with ASP.NET, which is a complete framework for building Web applications. One of the principal features of this model is the flexibility to choose your programming language. ASP.NET works with scripted languages such as VBScript, JScript, Perlscript, and Python, as well as compiled languages such as VB, C#, C, Cobol, Smalltalk, and Lisp. The new framework uses the common language runtime (CLR); your language source is compiled into Microsoft Intermediate Language code, which the CLR then executes.

The framework also provides for true object-oriented programming (OOP), and true inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation are supported. The .NET class library is organized into inheritable classes based around particular tasks, such as working with XML or image manipulation.

Besides the programming language and the methodology, database access is a significant concern. When you program in ASP.NET, integration with databases can be accomplished through ODBC, which provides a consistent set of calling functions to access your target database.

What is PHP?
PHP is a scripting language based on the model of preprocessing HTML pages. When the PHP preprocessor in your Web server notices a PHP language tag like the following, the PHP engine is invoked to execute that code:

some code here
?>

PHP will be familiar to any programmers who have worked with imperative programming languages; you'll notice syntactical similarities with Perl, C, and Java. Strictly speaking, Java is an imperative programming language, but it also makes use of object-oriented constructs and concepts. PHP borrows from this structure when it is convenient, but it is not a pure OOP language.

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MySQL: World’s Most popular Open Source database

What is MySQL?
MySQL is an Open Source database management system(DBMS) that one can download for free from MySQL Website (www.mysql.com). MySQL is one of the world’s most popular systems for Java web applications because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use. MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware, giving the developers right kind of flexibility.

MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, which holds the copyright to most of the codebase. The project’s source code is available under terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as under a variety of proprietary agreements.

Why is MySQL more popular among Web Developers?

1. Inexpensive: MySQL is free for most of the uses and relatively inexpensive for other enteroprise support
2. Fast: MySQL is one of the fastest relational databases currently available.
3. Easy To Use: MySQL is easy to use and install when compared to other DBMS
4. Portable: MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware, giving the developers right kind of flexibility.
5. Supports Strutured Query Language(SQL) and provides most of the features that one would expect from a modern RDBMS.

What does MySQL Provide?

1. SQL Support: MySQL supports SQL which is the standard language for working with relational databases.
2. Multiple Client Support: MySQL supports access from multiple clients and also supports multiple programming langauges including PHP, Java, Perl, Python, and C.
3. Connectivity: MySQL can provide access to data via Internet or intranet
4. Security: MySQL provide security so that only authorised users can view the data.
5. Referential Integrity: MySQL provides support for referential integrity just like commercial databases such as Oracle Database or Microsoft SQL Server.
6. Transaction Processing: MySQL 5.0 provides support for transaction processing just like other commercial databases
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Mozilla Releases Open Source Geode

Just some few months back, the Firefox folks released a record breaking web browser, Firefox 3, that is not only user friendly but also offers more functionalities than the other web browsers with a Wi-Fi based positioning capability to the browser, and promises more positioning options in upcoming releases, including GPS. The talk of the moment is its Geode developed by Mozilla Labs, the open-source project's development arm.

Geode is an experimental plug-in based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) emerging geolocation specification for the Web. It uses Skyhook Wireless technology, which determines location based on Wi-Fi signals. Skyhook has been in the news lately with the debut of its hybrid GPS/Wi-Fi positioning technology.

As stated by the company, "Geode provides an early implementation of the W3C Geolocation specification so that developers can begin experimenting with enabling location-aware experiences using Firefox 3 today, and users can tell us what they think of the experience it provides. It includes a single experimental geolocation service provider so that any computer with Wi-Fi can get accurate positioning data."

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Microsoft Puts Weight Behind Open Source Projects With Web Platform Installer

Microsoft isn’t exactly known for championing open source projects. So it’s rather surprising (in a good way) to see the company release something called the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, which makes it possible to batch install a set of open source projects on Windows Vista or Server 2008.

These projects include DotNetNuke, Drupal, Gallery, Graffiti, osCommerce, PHPBB, and Wordpress. As InfoWorld points out, Microsoft itself isn’t technically the distributor of these projects since users are merely obtaining them from third party developers through Microsoft’s new installer.

The platform is capable of running both ASP and PHP-based applications, and it consists of a suite of tools including Visual Web Developer for creating websites, Microsoft SQL Server for administering databases, and IIS7 for serving webpages. As such, the bundling of these open source packages is a rather clever way for Microsoft to promote the use of its proprietary server software over popular open source alternatives such as Apache and MySQL. Ironic, yes, but selective promotion of open source is better than none at all.

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PHP AJAX Framework & Libraries

To deliver powerful web application using PHP AJAX development framework for developing new generation Web 2.0 applications you can use PHP Frameworks. There are various PHP AJAX Frameworks available for use, few are FREE and some are with commercial license. You can choose any of them based on your requirements.

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PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)

PHP is a programming language that originally designed for developing dynamic web design, by Rasmus Lerdorf 1995. PHP was created on C programming language (I think most high level languages written in C), and duplicated C language’s syntax, function and some other advantages. Nowadays, PHP is widely used language that so many web sites created by it. I’m not sure, but I would say PHP is biggest language that used for web design. The reason why it became famous is PHP works on most web servers and operating systems, also its platform is free of charge. Like 4,5 year ago when I found to know about PHP, it used to run on only linux server. Now, PHP is being developed very fast and lots of content management framework (e.g joomla) are created for PHP. For me, the biggest advantage of PHP is it comfortably works with both access and sql databases.

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Beginners in Freelance Web Development

Today Freelance Web development in India stands as one of the most moving field to be in. Apart from the regular companies offering web development in India, there are several freelance Web developers in India.

These freelance website developers jump into the field by creating their own website. Later they volunteer to create sites for others. This volunteering eventually let them find their customers. Slowly people approach them to do sites for them. Though the money would not be much appreciable in the beginning, it will help one get acknowledged in the field.

Freelance Web development does not require one to fulfill conditions. They don’t need to include high tech equipment, high speed internet, or a computer science degree to stand up in the crowd. Moreover, they don’t necessarily know all the world knowledge. For example, one can also farm out for the technology they don’t understand.

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A practical Use Of Open Source Code Softwares

As we started the project of a web site, we knew that the proprietary software costs would be too high for the financial resources. The only option then was to make use of Open Source Code softwares.

However, within the Open Source Code there are lots of softwares to choose from, and it’s up to the system analyst/programmer to pick the ones that best suit the project goals.

In this case, we picked Linux as the operating system. However we faced a big question: Which Linux distribution ? There are dozens of linux distributions, each one with specific advantages, sometimes with or without paid services.

We chose linux Slackware because we thought that it would suit better our needs, in terms of stability and reliability. Slackware is a conservative distribution, meaning that it only offers in its distribution package kernel versions and third party libraries, once it’s been proved to be stable and reliable. As a result, Slackware is one the most stable Linux operating system on the market. If the user wishes the most recent Linux kernel and libraries, we recommend to look for a different distribution.

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First Version of an Open Source API for Multiplayer Flash Games Development

There are times that you may want to use collections library other that the one provided by Java natively. Here are some alternative.

Commons-Collections seek to build upon the JDK classes by providing new interfaces, implementations and utilities. There are many features, including:

Bag interface for collections that have a number of copies of each object

Buffer interface for collections that have a well defined removal order, like FIFOs

BidiMap interface for maps that can be looked up from value to key as well and key to value

MapIterator interface to provide simple and quick iteration over maps

Type checking decorators to ensure that only instances of a certain type can be added

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The best open source programming language

Is Perl, PHP, Python, or Ruby best? Do Java and JavaScript count?

Then we wondered whether it was fair to compare system-level programming languages with scripting languages. We went on to wonder whether various individual languages qualified as open source. It's clear that Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tk/Tcl are open source languages; it's not so clear whether Java and JavaScript are. Is it enough for a subset of a language to have an open source repository and an ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) or ISO standard, or should we consider only languages that are completely open source and have community-driven development cycles?
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Why should open source software be used in schools?

It is indeed a strange world when educators need to be convinced that sharing information, as opposed to concealing information, is a good thing. The advances in all of the arts and sciences, indeed the sum total of human knowledge, are the result of the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies and research. Yet throughout many school systems, the software in use on computers is closed and locked, making educators partners in the censorship of the foundational information of this new age. This software not only seeks to obscure how it works, but it also entraps the users' data within closed, proprietary formats which change on the whim of the vendor and which are protected by the bludgeon of the End User License Agreement. This entrapment of data is a strong, punitive incentive to purchase the latest version of the software, regardless of whether it suits the educational purposes better, thereby siphoning more of the school's limited resources away from the school's primary purpose. The use of such closed software in education may be justified only where no suitable open source solution exists. Read More...

Php is an Open Source Server Side Programming Language

PHP stands for PHP: Hyper Type Preprocessor. PHP is a very famous open source server side language. If has gained high popularity in few year. Besides no strong backing from big corporate, PHP has proved that it can deliver serious programming concepts and thereby can big web application can be build on PHP. These days PHP is getting string support from many big companies who believe the open source is the better way to deliver software knowledge. Companies like Sun Micro systems, IBM, Red Hat, etc has developed full working programming environment based on PHP on their operating systems.

PHP has been designed to make is a very fast and quick deployment web programming language. Other competitors of PHP are JSP, ASP, Cold fusion, etc. They all have big support from companies like Sun Micro systems and Microsoft.

PHP has been design using the design structure of C++ and JAVA. If someone is familiar with any of these programming he or she can learn PHP in very short time. There are many companies, government houses that are using PHP exclusively. Few companies that are using PHP extensively are NASA, US Military, Lufthansa, YAHOO, etc. Such big name proves that PHP code has strong capabilities and can deliver extraordinary products. PHP gives it best performance when it is combined with Linux, Apache and MySQL.