As we are hooked up to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and many more social/professional networks, is it even possible to keep up with all the data and information ? And more importantly, are we able to use it effectively and make sense of  various bits of information.

I . . . → Read More: Information overload, can we effectively handle it ?]]> Looks like information highway is just getting bigger and faster…

As we are hooked up to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and many more social/professional networks, is it even possible to keep up with all the data and information ? And more importantly, are we able to use it effectively and make sense of  various bits of information.

I have 2600+ LinkedIn connection. I get around 2 updates a minute on LinkedIn and Facebook updates stream looks movie or stock trading streaming as it consntatly keeps updating…

This is TMI – Too Much Information. We will discuss more on TMI later.

Coming back to original topic, here is an immediate test.  Let’s see, how many people have time and interest to read this on LinkedIn, Facebook or other place.

If you have read this , just put a Comment or  do  Facebook ”like” !  Let’s see how many people actually notice it.

Feedback will decide and reflect, whether such networks updates even make sense or are they effective.

What do you think ?

Range varies from 5 weeks to infinite  Successful startups have been able to do that in upto 25 . . . → Read More: Your first million registered users for web start-up]]> How much time it takes on average for any new consumer facing web start-up/application ( be it in any vertical or social space ) to achieve its first million users ?

What do you think ?

Range varies from 5 weeks to infinite  Successful startups have been able to do that in upto 25 to 30 months !

• What are most important factors for achieving those million users ?
• What strategies companies can adopt to expedite the process ? And where do they fail ?
• What marketing strategies work and which one’s dont !

It’s up for debate. We may discuss and differ in our opinion, but I am sure that there is no doubt or disagreement in the statement that “Getting your first million users is  THE hardest part of the deal” Once you cross that, the  biggest hurdle seems to be over  and you start getting used to with being called  ”successful start-up”  :-)

Solution: There is a long way and a short !

I have tried both of them.  I will give you better solution first !  And the other one, you can google and try to find out

A Google product without proper support of  APIs ? This is not usual Google style.

As I read about it, developers anxiously awaiting the Google+ API (application programming interface) will have to wait a little while longer. Although Google is hard at work on building the tools which . . . → Read More: How long we need to wait for Google+ APIs ?]]> It’s killing me ! 

A Google product without proper support of  APIs ? This is not usual Google style.

As I read about it, developers anxiously awaiting the Google+ API (application programming interface) will have to wait a little while longer. Although Google is hard at work on building the tools which would enable developers to build third-party applications for the new social networking service from the search giant, the API’s launch is still “months” away.

Techcrunch reported that the timeframe, amorphous and vague as it is, was revealed by a Google+ project manager to a Google+ developer, who has asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

And it’s certainly disappointing news for anxious Google+ enthusiasts and developers itching to launch or use apps that leverage the network’s unique capabilities, like Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddles.

There is huge anticipation about Google+ APIs.

Let’s face it, there is some serious business to be done with G+ APIs apart from  addition to features for existing products and  some more innovation and creativity for bringing new products/services.

• All  News and Social media aggregator ( like  LinksAlpha.com ), will immediately support G+.
• All social media business analytics products will be working very hard to integrate G+. This is good news in general as there is even more data to analyze 

Our first use of  G+ APIs will be to integrate our media feed to Google+ using  APIs. No brainer there !

Note:

Even without API support, it is possible to post to your Google plus account ! And yes, it can be automated or triggered on an event.  If you want to know the answer, just ping or put a comment. Or may be you are aware of it already   Trick is to use post by “SMS” !

If you think of adding any comments, please feel free !

These are some of the common questions and situations, we face in any web development technology set. So at the end, it is not related to PHP only, but some of semantics and syntax for answers will be applicable to PHP in . . . → Read More: Interesting PHP Questions. Got answers ?]]> If you are a PHP Developer, you may find following interesting !

These are some of the common questions and situations, we face in any web development technology set. So at the end, it is not related to PHP only, but some of semantics and syntax for answers will be applicable to PHP in this case.

Any takers ?  Answers to follow in coming posts ! Stay tuned

1. How do you prevent SQL injection attacks in PHP? What if you are dealing with a PHP 4 legacy app?
2. What are some mechanisms for preventing cross-site scripting attacks?
3. What’s the best way to store password information in a database?
4. What are some methods to defend against spambots? Which ones are least burdensome on users?

How will you define Cloud computing in Summary ?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet)

Once an internet . . . → Read More: Cloud Computing by definition]]> Let’s goto basics !

How will you define Cloud computing in Summary ?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet)

Layers

Once an internet protocol connection is established among several computers, it is possible to share services within any one of the following layers.

Acronyms for services available in each layer/Component

• Application –>  SaaS – Software As Service
• Platform  -> PaaS -  Platform As Service
• Infrastructure – IaaS – Infrastructure as Service

Much more coming on each of above layers in this blog !!

CloudStack, is for Service Providers and Enterprises to build, manage and deploy IaaS (Infrastructure As Service) offerings similar to Amazon EC2and S3. It is developed from Cloud.com, which is a venture-backed startup based in heart of Silicon Valley. It develops an open source . . . → Read More: Cloudstack – Infrastructure As Service(IaaS) from Cloud.com (Now part of Citrix)]]> Infrastructure As Service(IaaS) is an important component of complete Cloud offerings.

CloudStack, is for Service Providers and Enterprises to build, manage and deploy IaaS (Infrastructure As Service) offerings similar to Amazon EC2and S3. It is developed from Cloud.com, which is a venture-backed startup based in heart of Silicon Valley. It develops an open source cloud software product for the implementation of public and private cloud computing environments.

CloudStack is available in three editions:

• the Enterprise Edition,
• the Service Provider Edition and
• the open-source Community Edition

The company changed its name from VMOps to Cloud.com on May 4, 2010 when it emerged from stealth mode.

Cloud.com is acquired by Citrix now. And that’s good thing for both companies.

Company already has good list of customers like Zynga, Nokia, Edmunds, TATA etc.

Core Features of  CloudStack are :

• Open Source, available under the GPL version 3   ( The reason, why this is mentioned on this  Blog/site     )
• Multi-Tenant cloud computing platform
• Compatible with Commodity or Enterprise Components
• Broad Hypervisor Support (Xenserver, KVM, VMware vSphere)
• Scalable Architecture (manage thousands of hosts and virtual machine guests)
• High Availability configurations to provide automatic fail-over for virtual machines
• Easy-to-Use AJAX-enabled web interface
• Configurable to deploy public, private and hybrid clouds 
• Virtual Networking to segment network traffic into VLANs
• Robust API 
• Amazon EC2 Compatibility layer
• Written in Java for proven reliability
• Ability to define service level definitions with specific resource footprints

Like any other open source company it hopes to penetrate market using community editions and make its way up using enterprise editions. I am yet to evaluate or even dive deeper into different offerings they make. But it is matter of time, I get my hands on it !

Cloud Foundry is an open source cloud computing platform as a service (PaaS) software developed by VMware released under . . . → Read More: Cloud Foundry – Platform As Service(PaaS) from VMWare]]> Platform As Service is an important component in complete Cloud offerings. In terms of Stack , it goes in order of   Server, Infrastructure, Platform, Application ! At the end, Client will access the application.

Cloud Foundry is an open source cloud computing platform as a service (PaaS) software developed by VMware released under the terms of the Apache License 2.0. It is primarily written in Ruby. ( Way to go Ruby lovers! )

Although the source code offers an Apache 2.0 license, contributions are governed by the VMware contributors license for individuals and corporations. These license grant both copyright and patent access and protection to the VMware corporation, which is the same model that VMware has followed with the Spring Framework from SpringSource, which it acquired in 2009.

Cloud Foundry supports the following application development frameworks:

• Spring
• Ruby on Rails
• Ruby and Sinatra
• Node.js
• Grails

I will love to see PHP or Python based framework there, but well, Zend has PHPCloud after all.

As of today, Cloud Foundry  supports following Services.

• MySQL, the open source relational database.
• vFabric Postgres, relational database based on PostgreSQL.
• MongoDB, the scalable, open, document-based database.
• Redis, the open key-value data structure server.
• RabbitMQ, for reliable, scalable, and portable messaging for your applications.

More information is available here -  http://www.cloudfoundry.com/

Sign-up for free and try it out -  https://my.cloudfoundry.com/signup

Other languages with automatic variable declaration – like PERL – have a strict mode. By activating this strict mode, variable declaration is required, and in PERL, it throws an error as soon as you try to use an . . . → Read More: “Strict” mode in PHP]]> Many times, I am asked this question and it often comes up in discussions as well.

Other languages with automatic variable declaration – like PERL – have a strict mode. By activating this strict mode, variable declaration is required, and in PERL, it throws an error as soon as you try to use an undeclared variable.

Does PHP offer any similar feature?

Answer is Yes and No.

PHP doesn’t have formal strict mode, you can always get exact same functionality, which works like “Strict”. So final answer is “Yes”.

Solution:

You can activate the E_NOTICE level in your error reporting. (List of constants here.)

Every instance of usage of an undeclared variable will throw a E_NOTICE.

You can also use error_reporting(-1); This will show every possible error, including E_STRICT and even when new levels and constants are added in future PHP versions.

The E_STRICT error level will also throw those notices, as well as other hints on how to optimize your code.

If you are really serious, and want your script to terminate instead of just outputting a notice when encountering an undeclared variable, you could build a custom error handler.

Working example that handles only NOTICEs with “Undefined variable” in them and passes everything else on to the default PHP error handler:

Example

<?php

error_reporting(E_STRICT);

function TerminateMissingVariables($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline)
{
if (($errno == E_NOTICE) and (strstr($errstr, “Undefined variable”)))
die (“$errstr in $errfile line $errline”);

return false; // Let the PHP error handler handle all the rest
}

set_error_handler(“TerminateMissingVariables”);

echo $test; // Will throw custom error

xyz();  // Will throw standard PHP error

?>