For anyone following JavaBlogs, you’ve probably skimmed over a bunch of Sri Lankan shirtlifters cooing recently about a highly dodgy benchmark that somehow proves that Axis2 is faster than XFire.

What’s interesting about this benchmark is that it manages to compare apples with oranges, and yet has its proponents drawing some truly perplexing conclusions.

There are some, ahem, issues with this benchmark. Like any vendor driven benchmark desperate to compete, It manages to compare wildly different things, just to find a case whereby they ‘win’. Instead of comparing the stacks fairly, they focussed on comparing the data binding parts. What they proved in fact is that ADB (a proprietary Axis2 data binding framework) is faster than JAXB (data binding specification). OK, not so surprising. If you wanted to be fair and picked the fastest data binding for XFire too, you could test Axis2/ADB against XFire/JiBX (JiBX being a frightfully fast OSS data binding framework).

In fact, buried in the so called benchmark, you’d find the results themselves prove that XFire is faster than Axis2 when the comparison is fair and uses the same binding framework. Somehow though, this rather crucial fact is lost in the conclusions.

What’s more impressive is that no sooner than the company issues this highly dodgy report, its employees all start blogging about it and bragging that they finally managed to concoct a benchmark whereby they beat their competition.

I thought that with JBoss being bought out and the old cabal being effectively neutered, we’d seen the end of the snide slimey comments by OSS against OSS, but our Sri Lankan friends seem keen to assume the throne of corporate fuckwittery in the name of OSS.

I hope this benchmark is taken as what it is, a company defending its own product against what is obviously a superior OSS solution. Friends don’t let friends use Axis2. Do you want to base your webservices infrastructure on a product from a company desperate to take your money, written as a student project, with a bunch of incompetent weasels at the helm trying very hard not to look like used car salesmen? Do you want something that integrates and embeds well withint your existing infrastructure, or do you want something that hijacks it instead?

Still, good thing we have the goodship Apache; that thriving haven of open communities, that final refuge for corporate flotsam and jetsam, that last bastion against whored solutions foisted on an unwilling and uninterested public, eh?

I used to create a mess consisting of invalid markup, multiple levels of nested tables, and tons of spacer images. When Netscape 3 and 4 ruled the browser world there really was no other way of creating a decent looking website. And I didn’t know any better.

This does feel a little embarrassing, but I think it’s important not to hide the fact that many of the standardistas that keep talking about web standards and accessibility have once been guilty of many of the mistakes we now want to see abolished. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the ugly old-skool hacks were invented by the same people who are now trying to make people stop using them.

I’ve been looking through some documents on coding conventions and recommendations that I wrote years ago. Here are just a few of the hacks I found:

Using the border attribute only lets you control the width of a table’s borders. Most of the time I used tables for layout, and removed the border by specifying border=0. But for the times when a border was required, I didn’t want that ugly default grey and beveled border. I wanted a one pixel black border around every table cell. And to achieve that effect I used to create a table containing a single cell with a black background, put the table that I wanted to have a border in that cell, and use cellspacing to push the table cells apart and reveal the black background.

So I used a little bit of JavaScript that detected which browser the visitor was using and then used document.write to load an appropriate CSS file. No JavaScript? Sorry, you don’t get any CSS. CSS?

And that’s just scratching the surface. I’ve been guilty of many more markup-horrors through the years, as I’m sure many of you have.

So, care to share your worst crimes against HTML and best practices in web design and development? Come on, don’t be ashamed. Bring them all out!

Carriers who sell this sort of phones, have certain appealing features involved: no long term contracts aimed for the pre-teen market. Now the ideal marketplace for children, I imagine it as ALice in Wonderland with a tweek: cell phone communication, Internet TV coverage and multiplayer XBOX 360 games. Maybe it sounds a bit freaky, but services nowadays offer such flexible customized features destined for children, that you as a parent cannot say no to your children’s most inner desires.

There is also that sense of competition between you and other parents, those who chose to educate their kid by spoiling them to be the bone.

Now the problem still remains: can children handle the responsibility of owning a cell phone?
Are they too young?
But, as I’ve stated earlier that aspect remains up to the parents who must educate their children apropriately. If that means turning your child into an apprentice of high standard technology, I’ll pass.

Cell phone can add peace into the households of men and women, by making these affordable devices the perfect way for communication. But as you know, cell phone can create that sort of depedency, and children are still children, who still become fanatics for downloading the latest game or song.

However, buying kids cell phone can send the wrong message. A cell phone seems to be a symptom of a larger societal issue; parents need to learn to say no when their children beg for things they don’t need.

It’s up to every open-minded parent to look for the well-being of their child.
But we musn’t overdo it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not all to fired up for the cell phone industry. Especially if destined for younglings. Don’t get me wrong, kids should possess a cell phone for contacting their parents at all costs(emergency calls etc) but not just for the pleasure of having a cell phone. Furthermore, I’m not all too confortable when I see preteens with the latest type of Nokia for example… Really people, do kindergarden children need the latest high-tech device? I mean, they’ll be fed up with the whole business later on in life, they don’t need to become fanatics from this early stage in life.

A recent study in America showed that by 2010 more than 50% of the children ( 8 to 12 year olds) will be using cell phones.
That’s sounds pretty freaky, if you ask me. A study conducted by Jupiter Research found that nearly one-half of children age 12 or13 will have a cell phone by the end of 2007, while one-third of children age 10 or 11 will have a one in the same period. Boosted by these findings, carriers are developing new ways to reach the SpongeBob set—and to convince skeptical parents that it’s a good idea.

Being in the company of adults all the time, children have the tendency to become infatuated by other people possesions. That is the of mobile phones. I can easily portray the every day 7 year old begging of his parents, for a little bit of that mobile feel.
Now, let’s hope they don’t camp out outside Iphone carriers!

But there are certain differences involved, meaning cell phones designed for pre-teens. These type of cell phone can be programmed for having only emergency numbers and programmed numbers.
Sure safety is definetely a big part of all this charade, more parents wanting to know exacly where they are, what are next moves, but a long time commitment to a cell phone is just wrong.

Usually, computer screens use progressive scan. But in some cases and some television sets, each frame is made up of 2 fields that are interlaced. TV sets that use plasma or LCD technology convert the interlaced picture to progressive frames before displaying them. But the vast majority of people are still using CRT televisions, so that’s what you’ve got to design for.

Because of the problems of distance incorporated in a TV set, you will want larger text on a TV that on a computer display. What about interlacing? The best thing is to use a typeface that is specially designed for TV. If that is not an option, go for a sans serif or slab serif font that is designed for on-screen reading. You will also want to increase line height a bit and add a little bit of letter spacing.

The main device for the ITV is the remote control; the default remote control remains the most important up to now. Fly out menus and other stuff that rely on accurate mouse use should be excluded.

Websites rarely use sound. Television uses sound a lot. Speech needs to be made available to people who can’t hear. You can use captioning or by translating the speech to sign language. Also make sure that any sound that contains speech is clear, with no distracting noises or background music. If that isn’t acceptable, provide an option for the user to choose a “clear” sound channel with no distractions.

Finally but not least, the viewing distance is quite significant. You’ll need to make text and important graphics larger than if the application would have been viewed on a computer display.

Lately more and more research has been conducted on accessibility for television, especially ITV. Mostly, specialists have been concerned over applications that are based on web technologies like CSS or JavaScript. Basically these are web applications displayed on a television set by a set-top-box running a custom browser based on Mozilla Firefox. Considering how hard it was to find information on accessibility and usability in the context of interactive TV, I’d like to share some of what I have found to help others that may be looking for this kind of information.

The purpose of the whole thing is to provide instant and throughout easy access to services and information to all people, not specifically to people which have a PC with a broadband connection. By turning this into latest web standards and best practices for accessibility, you’ll be pleased to find out that we’re on the right track. The only difference is that they are displayed on a TV screen instead of a computer monitor, and you can use a remote control to navigate them instead of a keyboard.

There are big differences compared to the World Wide Web, when developers are trying to create web pages which work with applications for ITV.

Firstly, TV pixels are rectangular. If by chance you use Photoshop for creating graphics, you need to be conscious of the fact; however, the latest updates for Photoshop supports non square pixels, which can switch view modes.

Secondly, you will want to design content around screens. The resolution of a PAL TV is 720 by 576 pixels (the NTSC system used in the US has a slightly different resolution, but that is outside the scope of this article). Then there’s the title safe area you need to take into account; that removes another 20% of the available width and height. What you’re left with is an area of 576 by 460 pixels which you can be confident that the user can see on their TV screen.

When speaking clearly about accessibility, most discussions end up in controversy regarding disabilities. The way the World Wide Web is implemented, the visions encountered and the number of questions regarding screen readers and magnifiers tends to extend its horizons to new means. There are people who have a certain amount of vision, who are not completely blind when confronting this specific topic.

Basically: how does assistive technology used by people with vision impairments, work?
Starting of, we can observe how professionals who are experienced screen reader or screen magnifiers clients; can really communicate with their computer desktop and the World Wide Web.

Many have talked about the endless possibilities of using a screen reader or magnifier, how the screen reader or magnifier really works, and how it can transform your World Wide Web experience.

The history of screen reading software and how they analyze what is displayed on the screen in order to speak to the user can be tricky.

In the aid of our problems, there appeared YUI Theater videos; educational videos which instruct each client on how to use screen magnifiers and screens.

What about deafness? None of the YUI Theater videos have been captioned.

Captioned videos seem very rare, and I suspect it’s because of a combination of unawareness and lack of time. Not valid excuses though.

The problems encountered using a screen reader on a site that was quite poorly designed, are mainly quite horrible. The screen zooming in 10.4 does get blocky at high magnification, but when 10.5 arrives the screen zooming should be resolution independent - so the quality will equal or surpass Zoom Text.

Many of today’s developers care about accessibility.

I am certainly looking forward on expanding my horizon in terms of accessibility.

They device doesn’t interfere with transactions between the customer and the merchant, so the store can’t catch the intrusion. Instead, the board sits inconspicuously in place, recording the data from each transaction on the fly until the person who planted it retrieves it. Scammers may create a diversion to swap the rigged device in or out while store employees are not looking.

That’s what happened in Rhode Island, police say: The scammers visited one Stop & Shop grocery store at around 10:30 p.m. when only one cashier was on duty. Then, while one of the conspirators diverted the cashier with a request for help finding shampoo, the other went to a keypad in a closed checkout aisle and swapped out the keypad machine.

After removing the poisoned keypad, criminals extract the stolen data and create a phony credit or debit card that they use to make purchases and cash withdrawals far from where the theft took place, according to authorities.

“The merchants are never the wiser,” says Sergeant Joe McNiff of the Alameda Police Department. There is no indication that anyone working for Albertsons or Stop & Shop knowingly participated in the breaches, according to authorities in California and Massachusetts. Las Vegas police, however, say that an insider may have helped set up the rigged keypad devices in their jurisdiction.

Companies need to get better at identifying vulnerabilities, says security expert Frank. Companies must protect not only transaction data, but physical equipment as well. “It doesn’t matter how well you encrypt the data if you can’t secure the machines that collect it,” Frank says.

Police in the city of Alameda, California, just outside San Francisco, are investigating compromised point-of-sale keypads in their city after receiving more than 100 complaints from people who shopped at a local Albertsons supermarket and subsequently reported that money was missing from their checking accounts. Authorities suspect that the thefts are related to similar criminal activity involving an Albertsons in San Lorenzo, California, several towns away.

A spokesperson for Save Mart Supermarkets, the company that owns the Albertsons stores in question, says that it has taken steps to prevent further fraud and has examined its stores’ keypads to verify that they have not been tampered with. “At this time we have no suspects,” says Charles White, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service office in San Francisco.

Each scam follows the same basic pattern. Crooks target point-of-sale keypads at grocery and convenience stores. Police believe that scammers enter the store carrying the compromised keypad machine, which they have outfitted with a data capture device that records transaction data surreptitiously.

Authorities are tight lipped about how the device works to capture transaction data. What is known is that the keypads have been tampered with. Inside a keypad device extra equipment–described in one instance as a “circuit board”–has been installed. The keypad is then installed at the point-of-sale checkout aisle or counter.

Using your debit or credit card to pay for goods could be expensive if a scammer is bugging your store’s keypad. It’s happened in six states in America so far.

Living cashlessly is convenient. We swipe our credit and debit cards to buy gas, lunch, coffee, and groceries. But now, data thieves–eager to exploit U.S. consumers’ dependence on plastic–are targeting keypads that we don’t think twice about swiping our cards through.

Authorities in a number of states have reported local instances of a new high-tech crime: Crooks replacing or “bugging” checkout keypads at grocery and convenience stores. The rigged keypads record your credit card number or the personal identification number (PIN) that you key in when using your debit card. The crooks later return to collect the keypads–sometimes by ripping them from checkout aisles–and use the intercepted data to siphon large sums of money from unsuspecting store patrons.

Usually, the keypad devices show no outward signs of tampering. But inside, authorities say, scammers attach skimming devices that pass along customer data to the merchant (just as a normal keypad would), but also collect and store every credit card number, name, and debit card PIN entered on them.

The amounts that authorities suspect keypad thieves of stealing vary. Las Vegas police say that the total take in a crooked keypad scam in their jurisdiction may have been in the “millions of dollars”; representatives from the other affected states–California, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island–put the estimated cost to consumers at around $100,000 in each case. The magnitude of the actual losses may never be known, authorities say.

In Las Vegas, for example, hundreds of people had their financial information stolen when they stopped at convenience stores to grab a snack or fill up their gas tanks, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Both in-store point-of-sale keypads and gas-pump keypads were compromised in a number of locations in the city, police say. Law enforcement officials are still investigating complaints, but no arrests have been made.

So how many people are there in China? One of the most habituated countries on the planet. You would expect a grotesque petition, online or whatever, if something was bothering them.

That is the case in Beijing, where online players of the popular online game World of Warcraft, have made serious allegations against the company, stating that bones and skeletons have disappeared from the Chinese version of the game.

Chinese mainland gamers have waited half a year longer than their U.S. counterparts for the upgraded version of WoW, only to find the appearances of familiar skeletons have been fleshed out. The skeletons, regular characters, grow flesh in the new version and the bones symbolizing dead characters have been changed to graves.

Chinese officials have stated that the changes have been made according to China’s strict “communist” regulations. Furthermore, they say that without bones and skeletons, it would promote a healthier and harmonious online environment.

I don’t know about this weird strategy, but people all over the world who have seen the trailer, aren’t too be pleased finding out that certain features disappeared from the game. Come to think of it, why not open certain forums? You’ll see infinite pages filled with criticism.

Many online fanatics say that they’re going to boycott the game, due to the goody too shoes appearance. But considering China’s long battle involving internet campaigns, illegal lotteries, I might approve at a certain point this measure.

However, I’m not into WoW, so…

Apple executives launched the idea that they’re planning to launch a cheaper version of the iPhone in the upcoming quarter. That’s doesn’t come as a surprise, but what is a surprise is that the product could be based on the iPod Nano music player.

Apple filed a patent application document that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad control, similar to the Nano’s scroll wheel.

The price for a cheaper version of the Iphone(that would be converted into a Nano player) would be at $300 or lower. Usually, the iPhone sells for $500 and $600, depending on storage space. Actually this is quite a nice move for Apple, converting their iPhone and iPod Nano into a brilliant device.

This would be a much larger volume than is expected of the first iPhone, Apple has targeted sales of 10 million units in 2008, which would give it a 1 percent share of the global market. Sales of the iPhone are expected to be limited to a small percentage of the market due to its high price tag, particularly in the United States where 85 percent of consumers tend to spend $100 or less on cell phones.

But analysts predict that a cheaper phone from Apple, which leads the digital music player market, could pose a much bigger threat to long-established phone makers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics and so forth.

Should be taking into consideration recent battery replacement programs for the iPhone? Most of the customers and cell phone exclusive carriers spoke out in outrage of the iPhone’s battery status. The iPhone’s battery is apparently soldered on inside the device and cannot be swapped out by the owner like most other cell phones.

Users would have to submit their iPhone to Apple for battery service. The service will cost users $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, and will take three business days. However Apple is offering a loan for an iPhone which cost $29 while your iPhone is under repair.

Nowadays, when big budgets movies hit the big screens (especially in the U.S) there is that specific trend, which video games appear practically at the same time. For example, “Transformers” hit the big screens on July 4^th (a coincidence?), and the video game appeared exactly at the same time. If you’re a fanatic of the genres or a little bit interested, go see the movie and buy the video game, to see what the fuss is all about. Only then you’ll be able to really experience the thrill of video games.

Back in the early 1980s, video games developers were inspired by brilliant pictures and movies; they were a flexible and sufficient inspiration. Certain companies have also launched video games based on popular movies of the 80s, aspiring at a market they few have access.

According to recent reviews and poles, video games hover across the 60% mark. So, if the ratio of good-to-bad movie-based games seems tipped toward the negative, why do video game publishers continue to roll the dice and release summer after summer of tie-in games?

Basically, licensing a movie is a productive idea. Mass-market products have vast potential in the marketplace. Many companies stride to incorporate certain features, that are not available in the movies, which is pretty down to earth actually. Depending on the popularity of the upcoming movie and the facilities that the video game should integrate, I’m pretty sure people would be eager to find out if the video game’s spectacular.

Whilst many made up their minds already regarding upcoming blockbusters, and do not take into consideration bad reviews, I tend to regard the whole industry very promising (botch ethically and financially).  I don’t know exactly the percentage of many professional game reviewers which are hardcore players.
Nevertheless, reviews can directly affect the charting of a game after the game’s initial explosion at retail. Developers need to attract new customers by incorporating high tech designs and insightful ideas throughout their games.

Basing the video game solely on the movie may put fans closer to their characters in the movie, but on the long run it doesn’t prove sufficient in terms of exploration and unpredictability.