My Windows 8 experience

Its been a while and I'm back. I just got a new PC and it runs on windows 8!!! *coughs* Windows 8.1 I mean. 
At the beginning, it looked complicated because of the new features mainly the Start menu and the App Browser. It was  quite discouraging and I had lots of people advising me to Uninstall immediately and revert to Windows 7. 

Personally I think you cant run away from the future forever, especially when it comes to technology. You have toUpgrade Some day. 
Another feature of  Windows 8 is the emphasis placed on Cloud Computing and virtualization. Skydrive at your fingertips which means Easy access to documents and goodbye to bulky and mini storage devices.

I thought to myself and I went Hey!! I'm SuperEma I can do anything and Yeah! Ithink. I have mastered Windows 8 and her Upgrade Windows 8.1. So many new features and once you get the hang of it its quite easy. 

I learnt how to access the BIOS today. I had a problem installing Ubuntu on virtual box and I discovered one of the main problems was because Virtualization is disabled by default on Windows.
The steps I took are listed below.
Basically I'm just showing you how to gain access to The System BIOS on Windows 8

• Click on the Start Icon

• Swipe to the left and click on settings
  
• Click on Change PC Settings
• Click on Recovery settings and Select Restart Now Underneath The Advanced Start Up Options Pane 
• The System automatically Restarts to BIOS mode 
• For the nerds and geeks all you need to do is go the command Line CMD and simply type shutdown.exe /r /o
• I'm sure nerds and geeks wont be checking out this blog though. lol

Windows 8 is a little bit complex if you are not adventurous but I think it is faster and exciting because I'm all about trying new technology

Have fun and Try Windows 8

xoxo

Open Source

A  Definition of Open Source

Open source technology is defined as the production and development philosophy of allowing end users and developers to not only see the source code of software, but modify it as well. Michael Tiemann is a true open source software pioneer. He made his first major open source contribution over a decade ago by writing the GNU C++ compiler, the first native-code C++ compiler and debugger. His early work created world-leading technologies and also informed the first open source business model. In 1989, Tiemann's technical expertise and entreprenurial spirit led him to co-found Cygnus Solutions, the first company to provide commercial support for open source software. During his ten years at Cygnus, Tiemann contributed in a number of roles from President to hacker, helping to lead the company from a fledgling start-up to an admired open source leader. Tiemann is now the CTO of Red Hat, a leading supplier of Linux and Open Source software. In addition to his responsibilities at Red Hat, Tiemann serves on a number of boards, including the Open Source Initiative, the Embedded Linux Consortium, the Jabber Technical Advisory Board, the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors of ActiveState Tool Corp. Tiemann also provides financial support to organizations that further the goals of software freedom, including the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ArsDigita Foundation. The Linux operating system is a one of the best-known examples of open source software technology.

Pros and Cons of Open Source for Developers
From a developer’s point of view, open source technologies provide a platform on which to build custom solutions. Rather than develop, say, an entire proprietary operating system, developers can build and improve upon the already existing open source Linux operating system platform. In this way, more time is spent on the specific task to be solved rather than getting the system up and running to the point where it is stable and reliable.Unfortunately, this means that other developers have access to the developer’s work and can easily create a competing product. One of the reasons why Microsoft has such a huge market share of the operating system industry is because its software operates on a closed source paradigm; no one but those people privy to the source code can customize Windows. In addition, developers must be prepared to have their work publicly scrutinized. Almost everything in open source is view-able by other developers. If a developer makes a major mistake, it can become public information and tarnish the developer’s reputation

What is open source software?
A software that is governed by a license that is either approved by the open source initiative or follows the open source definition can be considered to be an open source software. The basic principles of the open source definition are:
1.             Freedom to re-distribute software;
2.             Availability of source code;
3.             Freedom to copy and modify;
4.             License travels with the software;
No discrimination based on technology, field or hardware; and so on.
Business Utilization of Open Source Software

Open source software is used in many businesses and is used in more ways then people realize.   The idea behind open source is the development of high quality, reliable and low-cost software. Some of the organizations using open source software include Travelocity, Wikipedia, and the US Postal Service. Some the widely used applications include Apache web service, Vyatta, 7zip and Open Office.

Examples of open source software

   Web-related         

•              Apache Cocoon — a web application framework
•              Apache — the most popular web server
•              BookmarkSync — a tool for browsers
•              Web-Developer Server Suite — a package of web applications including Apache, MySQL, and PHP
•              Curl-loader - a powerful HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/FTPS loading and testing open-source tool

Communication Related

•              Asterisk — Telephony and VoIP server
•             Ekiga — Video conferencing application for GNOME and Microsoft Windows
•              FreeSWITCH — Open Source telephony platform
•              Twinkle — VOIP softphone

    Electronic health or medical record

•              IQCare is a robust patient management and monitoring system. It allows for users to create their own custom forms and indicators, create custom reports, automate backups. Its currently used in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.
•              CottageMed was the first free cross-platform open source electronic medical record. Gnu licensed since 1999, it is currently installed on a majority of continents and in several USAID programs in Africa. It is a frequent choice for those physicians most intimidated by the time and money needed to run more complicated electronic medical records.

     Programming language support

•              Dragonfly — newLISP based web development framework
•              GCC — a set of compilers for multiple programming languages and platforms, including
•              C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, Java,Pascal, Fortran
•              Harbour — compiler for the xBase superset language often referred to as Clipper
•              Jikes — Java compiler
•              OpenJDK — Sun's Java Development Kit based completely on free and open source code
•              Parser — a language for dynamic website creation
•              Perl — a programming language strong on text processing
•              PHP — a scripting language designed for web site applications
•              Python — a high-level scripting language
•              Ruby — a high-level scripting language
•              Ruby on Rails — Ruby-based web development framework
•              Spidermonkey — C/C++ JavaScript engine of the Mozilla project

And lots more

Open system vs. closed system.
 Closed systems such as Microsoft products are the property of the company who developed and is protected under patents or copyright laws. The codes and languages that the products are based on are kept secret and the source codes are not visible. With closed source it is also illegal to copy, redistribute or change the code in any way. Open source however, is the opposite. Open source software must fall under certain licensing conditions and the codes are able to be viewed and changed by users and developers in order to meet there needs. There are pros and cons to both open and closed source though, for instance with a closed source application support can be more easily obtained and updates can be quickly distributed. The cost of these applications and software can be much greater then that of open source. With Open Source programs and software can be freely downloaded but the support is what the user may need to pay for. For instance you can download a program for free but in order to get some updates you may need to pay a subscription fee or a fee for support. Open source - the source availability model used by free and open source software (FOSS) - and closed source are two approaches to the distribution of software.
Under the closed source model source code is not released to the public. Close maintained by a team who produces their product in a compiled executable state, which is what the market is allowed access to. Microsoft, the owner and developer of Windows and Microsoft Office, along with other major software companies, have long been proponents of this business model. Although in August 2010, Microsoft interoperability general manager Jean Paoli said Microsoft "loves open source" and its anti-open source position was a mistake.
The FOSS model allows for able users to view and modify a product's source code. Common advantages cited by proponents for having such a structure are expressed in terms of trust, acceptance, teamwork and quality.
FOSS can and has been commercialized by companies such as Red Hat, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Mozilla Foundation, VMware and others

Open Source Operating Systems – Linux Distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top ofthe Linux kernel. Such distributions (often called distros for short) are Operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications. The operating system will consist of the Linux kernel and, usually, a set of libraries and utilities from the GNU project, with graphics support from the X Window System. Distributions optimized for size may not contain X and tend to use more compact alternatives to the GNU utilities, such as Busybox, uClibc, or dietlibc. There are currently over six hundred Linux distributions. Over three hundred of those are in active development, constantly being revised and improved.

Because most of the kernel and supporting packages are free and open source software, Linux distributions have taken a wide variety of forms — from fully featured desktop, server, laptop, netbook, Mobile Phone, and Tablet operating systems as well as minimal environments (typically for use in embedded systems or for booting from a floppy disk). Aside from certain custom software (such as installers and configuration tools), a distribution is most simply described as a particular assortment of applications installed on top of a set of libraries married with a version of the kernel, such that its "out-of-the-box" capabilities meet most of the needs of its particular end-user base.
One can distinguish between commercially-backed distributions, such as Fedora (Red Hat), openSUSE (Novell), Ubuntu (Canonical Ltd.), and Mandriva Linux (Mandriva), and entirely community-driven distributions, such as Debian and Gentoo.

The Rise of social media(Social Networking)

Media is an instrument of communication, like newspaper and radio, that’s why social media act as social instrument of communication.

Social Media is media for social interaction as a super-set beyond social communication. In web based terms we can also say Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content

The earliest forms of social media on the internet include examples such as The WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995) . Today there are lots of social media sites e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, tumblr etc.

This is the Jet age and the world is a global village.

Historically, it used to be enough to have an online presence on the Internet for the one-way broadcasting and dissemination of information. Today, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are driving new forms of social interaction, dialogue, exchange and collaboration. Social networking sites (referred to more broadly as social media) enable users to swap ideas, post updates and comments, participate in activities and events, while sharing their wider interests. From general chit-chat to propagating breaking news, from scheduling a date to following election results or coordinating disaster response, from gentle humour to serious research, social networks are now used for a host of different reasons by various user communities.

When we talk about Social Media we can’t avoid the topic of social networking. The current Social network sweethearts of our day are Facebook & twitter. According to World Demographic (Population) numbers are based on mid-year 2011 data from the US Census Bureau Facebook has about 162,104,640 users worldwide while twitter has a whooping 106million users according to digital Surgeons.

To read more about twitter statistics you can visit Marketing Gum by clicking Here.

To read more about Facebook user statistics you can click Here

These sites attribute the large increase in the amount of users recently to the simultaneous rise in mobile technology Facebook claims to have a 182% increase in mobile usage over the past year . 

A brief Introduction

Emamoke is a Software Developer, Database Administrator, Web Applications Architect and Cloud Computing Practitioner. She finished Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering with Distinction at Aptech Worldwide Computer Education. She has been licensed by Sun Microsystems as Sun Certified Java Programmer and also licensed by Microsoft Corporation as Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer. Her Technical skills include Java, C#, VB, MS SQL Database, Macromedia Suite, .NET Architecture, ASP.NET, Open Source Technology such as My SQL, PHP, and Perl etc. She is an aficionado of social media, social networking and cloud computing applications. She communicates fluently in English and Russian Languages. She resides in Ukraine.