programming

Update your software automatically with SUMo

SUMo is short for Software Updates Monitor. It's a handy, free tool that scans all your programs and automatically checks online for program updates. It can help you find the updates, too, though you have to install them individually since each is different.

SUMo's simple, list-style interface and controls make it very easy to use. The Scan button scanned our PC for installed software, though we could also drag and drop executables directly into SUMo as well as use Add and Remove buttons and configure an Ignore list. SUMo displayed all our programs listed alphabetically or by program … Read more

Mozilla wants app submissions for its open-Web plans

Mozilla's Marketplace has begun accepting app submissions, looking toward the ultimate goal of building a standalone operating system for the open Web.

As part of the company's Boot to Gecko project, these apps would allow for cross-device and multi-operating system integration, which means anchoring the apps to the user and not to the device or platform.

"Using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, a developer can build an app using responsive design, and that app can offer the same look and feel as a device-native app, without having to rewrite for every desired target platform," Joe Stagner, Mozilla'… Read more

Why business co-founders ought to learn code

In the new Internet economy, code is king. Taking the time to learn the basics of programming will help you succeed in business and entrepreneurship.

A few days ago, an aspiring entrepreneur e-mailed me with a simple question:

"Do you need to be an expert in coding to build a successful startup, or can you employ experts to do the technical work for you?"

This person has demonstrated success as a businessman and a salesman, but he caught the entrepreneurship bug and couldn't shake it. He wanted to start his own company.

I knew what he wanted … Read more

Adobe vows 5 to 10 more years of Flash advances

Last year, Adobe Systems narrowed Flash Player's scope. It canceled the browser plug-in for mobile devices. It shifted development resources toward competing Web standards.

But it's not giving up on Flash.

In an attempt to patch up communications with Flash programmers, Adobe yesterday published a Flash Player road map that promises many improvements this year, with versions code-named Cyril and Dolores. Then the document adds, "We are also modernizing the Flash Player code base in order to ensure that the Flash runtimes meet the needs of developers over the next 5 to 10 years."

"Runtime&… Read more

Google's Dart language arrives in Chrome test version

Google has released a test version of its browser with the ability to run programs written in Dart, the company's language designed to improve on JavaScript.

"This release of Chromium with Dart VM integration is a technology preview, and should not be used for day-to-day browsing. After more testing and developer feedback, we plan to eventually include the Dart VM in Chrome," said Google programmers Anton Muhin, Vijay Menon, and Pavel Podivilov, in a blog post yesterday.

Google developed Dart as a way to improve Web programming, for example with better performance and with a language it … Read more

Unity game engine embraces Google's Native Client

Startup Unity Technologies released version 3.5 of its video game engine that now includes support for Google's Native Client browser-boosting software.

Unity's software is a cross-platform tool that lets game programmers reach a wide range of devices--everything from iPhones to Windows to browsers. Cross-platform tools are only worth it if they reach a broad number of platforms, though, so it's important to expand, and the company has been working on Unity 3.5 for months.

Native Client is Google software built into Chrome that lets programmers run lightly modified C or C++ software directly in the … Read more

W3C co-chair: Apple, Google power causing Open Web crisis

The dominance of Apple and Google mobile browsers is leading to a situation that's even worse for Web programming than the former dominance of Internet Explorer, a standards group leader warned today.

Daniel Glazman, co-chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) group overseeing the formatting and effects standard called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), said that programmers are overlooking other browsers when they use newer CSS features--even when those other browsers support the features.

The result is that those other browsers--Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera, chiefly--might have to essentially masquerade themselves as other browsers. When that happens, the "… Read more

Comcast expands Internet access for more poor families

Comcast is ramping up its Internet Essentials program to cover more low-income families and students eager to get online.

Launched last September, the program provides cheap Internet access, low-cost computers, and literacy training to poor families and their school-age children.

Families who have at least one child getting a free lunch through the government's National School Lunch Program (NSLP) have been able to receive 1.5-megabit-per-second broadband Internet for only $9.95 a month, compared with the $41 that Comcast typically charges.

Detailing the program in a blog post this week, Comcast noted several accomplishments, such as promoting the … Read more

Android screen chaos: A feature, not a bug

One of the pesky fragmentation issues Android programmers must worry about is different screen sizes.

With resolution changing from one phone to another, programmers have to figure out exactly how much room they can devote to icons, photos, video game backgrounds, dialog boxes. But, Google argues, paying the price upfront pays programmers back in the long run--and helps them avoid the fixed-resolution difficulties that afflicted Palm.

Indeed, even before the first Android phone hit the market, Google had set on an approach designed to accommodate not just different pixel resolutions, but also pixel densities--the number of pixels per inch. Android … Read more