Several years ago, Java was introduced. It was slow. Now,
computers have beefed up, the internet is a lot faster, and Java
is a serious language. It can lower costs, and REALLY get people
talking about your website! I’ll cover:
1) WHAT is Java, and how can it help me? 2) WHY Java NOW? 3) WHY
is Java the next BIG THING? 4) CONCLUSIONS
. . .
1) WHAT is Java, and how can it help me?
. . .
Java is basically a programming language that can be integrated
into browsers, and add spice to a website. One beautiful thing
is its ‘reusability’, and ‘ease of use’.
For example — I will use the classic ‘Lake’ example, where you
have a picture of a mountain on top of a lake, and the water
ripples.
Before Java, you needed expensive graphics software and several
hours to make it ripple. Using a Java applet, all you have to do
is include something like:
in your webpage, and now you now have a picture of a lake that
ripples! To change the image, simply change the name of the file
(the “lake.jpg”)!
So — Java makes it VERY easy to add and change functionality in
your website.
. . .
2) WHY Java NOW?
. . .
About five years ago, Java was introduced, and ran it really
slowly. The main browsers (Netscape & Internet Explorer) that
supported Java were ‘brand’ new. And, the computers they ran on
were slow. If you had a ‘top of the line computer’, it meant you
had a Pentium-133 machine (and friends were usually jealous that
you could afford such a ‘fine’ piece of hardware). Most people
were just learning what E-Mail was.
All that has changed.
Microsoft & Netscape have re-written their browsers’ JVM (java
virtual machine), and optimized it to make Java lightning fast.
Pentium-III 550 MHz machines cost less than the Pentium-133
models did. Plus, they are more than three times faster, because
of faster graphics accelerator cards, increased RAM and so
forth. And most people have one of these newer machines, because
of the low cost (or special ‘package’ deals that ISP’s made with
computer makers for ‘free’ or ‘low cost’ computers)
So, now Java is fast, and can be easily used, with low
development costs.
. . .
3) WHY is Java the next BIG THING?
. . .
A) NO PLUGINS ARE REQUIRED! Most internet users find it
EXCEPTIONALLY annoying to have to wait 3 or 4 minutes to
download a special plug-in to hear audio, another special
plug-in to see 3D images, and so forth. JAVA DOES NOT REQUIRE
PLUGINS! Practically 99% of all internet browsers ALREADY
SUPPORT JDK 1.0.2, (which is the ‘main’ version of Java in use
today).
B) SPEED Complex mathematical calculations (for 2D & 3D games,
visual special fx, data processing, etc) are fast because of
fast computers and optimized browsers.
C) RE-USABILITY! Say you bought a program that simply did
special transition FX. You decide to use for banner
advertisements, and it works as follows:
So, YOU SAVE TIME AND MONEY, because all your development team
has to do is spend five minutes deciding which banner
advertisements to use. Now, say you have a big corporate
presentation to make. YOU CAN RE-USE THAT PROGRAM! Simply
replace each image with the corporate slide image! For example,
And that is IT!
D) INCREDIBLY SMALL APPLET SIZE! Most ’sophisticated’ applets
are less than 50K. Popular and useful tools such as Macromedia
Flash create animations that are usually at least 100K for
simple ones, and upwards of 500K for high profile/professional
sites. So think about it — if a individual has no problem
waiting for a 500K for a Macromedia Flash animation, they are
certainly not going to have a problem with a small, 50K Java
applet. Most Java applets are even smaller than this!
. . .
4) CONCLUSIONS
. . .
1) You customers are happy (NO PLUGINS required!) 2) Runs FAST!
3) YOU save time & money, because of RE-USABILITY! 4) Customers
will talk about how ‘GREAT’ your site it is, because of all
amazing functionality!
So, where do you want to use Java today?
CSS is a new option for website designers that have been using HTML and tables for most of their web designing careers. Of course, it is a huge change and requires learning a new language and skill, however most people are saying CSS is worth it and it will give you more control, options, and is easier to edit. Consider the following 7 reasons why using CSS is a must and see if it convinces you to change your method of web design.
Reason #1 Present Data Logically When you use CSS in the layout of your website you can present your data in a logical way and CSS can then manage how the information appears. This is significantly easier than other methods and is one reason why CSS is a must.
Reason #2 More Options With CSS you have more options for changing the location of information on your screen. This is important for a variety of reasons, especially if you anticipate the need to change columns or links at some time.
Reason #3 Complements HTML Another reason CSS is a must is because it complements HTML. HTML and CSS alone both have weaknesses, but when used together your website design will be significantly stronger.
Reason #4 Editing You can edit your website design if you need to for whatever reason without that much hassle if you are using CSS. All you do is go in and edit the definition. This is a lot easer than searching and replacing of years past.
Reason #5 Faster When you use CSS your pages not only load faster but they also can be scrolled quicker than ever before. This is a huge deal to most web surfers as well as webmasters because speed is a huge implication in whether someone stays on your page or moves on. CSS increases speed, and as a result is a tool you must learn how to use.
Reason #6 Print When you use CSS you can also include a printer friendly version of the website that makes it easier to print and can eliminate color, images, and other things that do not print easily.
Reason #7 Control If you have been working with tables for layouts you are probably tired of the guessing that goes on. However, with CSS you have more control and can issues commands and know exactly where the result will appear, rather than guessing. This is in itself makes CSS a must have.
Now that you have some information on CSS, you are probably interested in knowing more details about how it works and above all how you can learn to use CSS. Fortunately, there is tons of information available online that will provide you with the answers to your many questions on CSS and how it can help you.
Most of the employers cutting across geographical boundaries go through the common - even though too an unwanted - process of hiring new employees, training and investing in them only to later find some such employees ditch them for another company(s) with, perhaps, better benefits and attractive incentives. Employees in America are switching jobs at a rate not seen in the past three years, according to the third quarter 2005 survey on the manpower statistics conducted by the American Institute of Human Resource Management.
A total of 240 companies participated in this survey, covering over 98,000 employees. The overall turnover rate in the third quarter of 2005 was 1.92%, higher than the second quarter and 8.64% higher when compared with the same period last year. The Information Tech. (14.7%) and Retail (12.5%) sectors recorded the highest turnovers.
What choices do an average employer really have? Go through the same painful ordeal of hiring new employees, training them only to later find such a thing take place once again! One solution to such a problem can be: Employee Leasing. There are two major kinds of Employee Leasing: Onshore and Offshore Employee Leasing. Onshore Employee Leasing company is a Professional Employment Organization (PEO). A PEO provides employees, and since these are the direct employees of Employee Leasing Company, a PEO saves the operating company the money that it otherwise may have to spend for creating an HR department for the purpose of hiring and managing employees. In order to provide financially conservative solutions and make profits, Onshore Employee Leasing Company often excludes or avoids hiring excellent salaried workers.
What’s Offshore Employee Leasing? Offshore Employee Leasing is nothing but a gradual development and smart progression of an old idea that has been in existence since the last few years. In a layman’s language, one can say that Offshore Employee Leasing is the hiring of new or additional work force from abroad at much cheaper rates, and, possibly on less obligatory and more accommodating and liberal terms.
Of all recruiting options and all professional employment organizations, the Offshore Employee Leasing is the best option of hiring employees, as it gives one the best value for one’s money at little or no obligations. Since the work force, by and large, are highly qualified and competent professionals from countries like India, and since they are often hired at cheaper rates, the hiring company stands to gain a lot from such an excellent system.
Stephen Seinfeld is a renowned expert on outsourcing and employee leasing, who writes extensively on these and related subjects for various websites and e-magazines.
In this small article we would like to concentrate on legacy tools, especially on such issues as strategic Microsoft Dexterity customization, integration, reports upgrade and switch to the current of future customizations technologies. As you know Microsoft Great Plains or former Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise was renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP and current version Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 so-called “fat” client still uses Great Plains Software legacy programming language or shell - Microsoft or Great Plains Dexterity
• Legacy Features. Great Plains Dexterity was designed on several fundamental idea, popular in the beginning of 1990th - computer graphical platform and database platform independence, and logically as you might remember the stake was on C programming language, as the hybrid of assembler and at the same time more generic programming or high level language. Obviously if you decide to stake on one - you have to sacrifice or disregard the other. In the case of Great Plains Dexterity we see the following problems: lack of Unicode support (making it not a good choice for international expansion), DEX_ROW_ID - in SQL Server database - each dexterity table must have this field, used by Dexterity engine internally, inflexibility in ReportWriter or Dex reports, where you have to use only key-based links. Plus graphical interface is kind of outdated - again it is based on C transferable graphics
• eConnect & web services. With the progress of Project Green or now Microsoft Dynamics project, there is the potential need to resolve multiple database kernels for several Microsoft ERP: Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon with unified interface, utilizing .Net or its successor. eConnect allows developer to manipulate Microsoft Dynamics GP objects through programmable .Net interfaces. If you will deploy web service envelopes then you potentially can be independent from programming language and computer technologies, and so manipulate Microsoft Great Plains business logic from your front end application of choice, including eCommerce, EDI, J2EE, Oracle, Business Intelligence (BI), etc.
• Dexterity Customization Upgrade. It is probably not reasonable to spend large budget to switching to new technologies in one step, however you should consider step-by-step switch. We recommend you to deploy eConnect and web service interfaces as much as you can, plus try to switch reporting from Dexterity to SQL Server Reporting Services
• Crystal Reports. As you can conclude - Microsoft will be recommending SRS versus Crystal Reports, and you probably remember, that Crystal was the reporting tool of choice for older Microsoft Great Plains versions: 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 and 7.5
• New Tools. Extender, Excel, Explorer and other “end-user-friendly” tools. In this article we definitely recommend you to do your intuitive discovery, but we concentrate on programmer approach and instruments.
Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027 help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.ronix-systems.de http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
Probably the most common technique used traditionally to extract data from web pages this is to cook up some regular expressions that match the pieces you want (e.g., URL’s and link titles). Our screen-scraper software actually started out as an application written in Perl for this very reason. In addition to regular expressions, you might also use some code written in something like Java or Active Server Pages to parse out larger chunks of text. Using raw regular expressions to pull out the data can be a little intimidating to the uninitiated, and can get a bit messy when a script contains a lot of them. At the same time, if you’re already familiar with regular expressions, and your scraping project is relatively small, they can be a great solution.
Other techniques for getting the data out can get very sophisticated as algorithms that make use of artificial intelligence and such are applied to the page. Some programs will actually analyze the semantic content of an HTML page, then intelligently pull out the pieces that are of interest. Still other approaches deal with developing “ontologies”, or hierarchical vocabularies intended to represent the content domain.
There are a number of companies (including our own) that offer commercial applications specifically intended to do screen-scraping. The applications vary quite a bit, but for medium to large-sized projects they’re often a good solution. Each one will have its own learning curve, so you should plan on taking time to learn the ins and outs of a new application. Especially if you plan on doing a fair amount of screen-scraping it’s probably a good idea to at least shop around for a screen-scraping application, as it will likely save you time and money in the long run.
So what’s the best approach to data extraction? It really depends on what your needs are, and what resources you have at your disposal. Here are some of the pros and cons of the various approaches, as well as suggestions on when you might use each one:
Raw regular expressions and code
Advantages:
- If you’re already familiar with regular expressions and at least one programming language, this can be a quick solution.
- Regular expressions allow for a fair amount of “fuzziness” in the matching such that minor changes to the content won’t break them.
- You likely don’t need to learn any new languages or tools (again, assuming you’re already familiar with regular expressions and a programming language).
- Regular expressions are supported in almost all modern programming languages. Heck, even VBScript has a regular expression engine. It’s also nice because the various regular expression implementations don’t vary too significantly in their syntax.
Disadvantages:
- They can be complex for those that don’t have a lot of experience with them. Learning regular expressions isn’t like going from Perl to Java. It’s more like going from Perl to XSLT, where you have to wrap your mind around a completely different way of viewing the problem.
- They’re often confusing to analyze. Take a look through some of the regular expressions people have created to match something as simple as an email address and you’ll see what I mean.
- If the content you’re trying to match changes (e.g., they change the web page by adding a new “font” tag) you’ll likely need to update your regular expressions to account for the change.
- The data discovery portion of the process (traversing various web pages to get to the page containing the data you want) will still need to be handled, and can get fairly complex if you need to deal with cookies and such.
When to use this approach: You’ll most likely use straight regular expressions in screen-scraping when you have a small job you want to get done quickly. Especially if you already know regular expressions, there’s no sense in getting into other tools if all you need to do is pull some news headlines off of a site.
Ontologies and artificial intelligence
Advantages:
- You create it once and it can more or less extract the data from any page within the content domain you’re targeting.
- The data model is generally built in. For example, if you’re extracting data about cars from web sites the extraction engine already knows what the make, model, and price are, so it can easily map them to existing data structures (e.g., insert the data into the correct locations in your database).
- There is relatively little long-term maintenance required. As web sites change you likely will need to do very little to your extraction engine in order to account for the changes.
Disadvantages:
- It’s relatively complex to create and work with such an engine. The level of expertise required to even understand an extraction engine that uses artificial intelligence and ontologies is much higher than what is required to deal with regular expressions.
- These types of engines are expensive to build. There are commercial offerings that will give you the basis for doing this type of data extraction, but you still need to configure them to work with the specific content domain you’re targeting.
- You still have to deal with the data discovery portion of the process, which may not fit as well with this approach (meaning you may have to create an entirely separate engine to handle data discovery). Data discovery is the process of crawling web sites such that you arrive at the pages where you want to extract data.
When to use this approach: Typically you’ll only get into ontologies and artificial intelligence when you’re planning on extracting information from a very large number of sources. It also makes sense to do this when the data you’re trying to extract is in a very unstructured format (e.g., newspaper classified ads). In cases where the data is very structured (meaning there are clear labels identifying the various data fields), it may make more sense to go with regular expressions or a screen-scraping application.
Screen-scraping software
Advantages:
- Abstracts most of the complicated stuff away. You can do some pretty sophisticated things in most screen-scraping applications without knowing anything about regular expressions, HTTP, or cookies.
- Dramatically reduces the amount of time required to set up a site to be scraped. Once you learn a particular screen-scraping application the amount of time it requires to scrape sites vs. other methods is significantly lowered.
- Support from a commercial company. If you run into trouble while using a commercial screen-scraping application, chances are there are support forums and help lines where you can get assistance.
Disadvantages:
- The learning curve. Each screen-scraping application has its own way of going about things. This may imply learning a new scripting language in addition to familiarizing yourself with how the core application works.
- A potential cost. Most ready-to-go screen-scraping applications are commercial, so you’ll likely be paying in dollars as well as time for this solution.
- A proprietary approach. Any time you use a proprietary application to solve a computing problem (and proprietary is obviously a matter of degree) you’re locking yourself into using that approach. This may or may not be a big deal, but you should at least consider how well the application you’re using will integrate with other software applications you currently have. For example, once the screen-scraping application has extracted the data how easy is it for you to get to that data from your own code?
When to use this approach: Screen-scraping applications vary widely in their ease-of-use, price, and suitability to tackle a broad range of scenarios. Chances are, though, that if you don’t mind paying a bit, you can save yourself a significant amount of time by using one. If you’re doing a quick scrape of a single page you can use just about any language with regular expressions. If you want to extract data from hundreds of web sites that are all formatted differently you’re probably better off investing in a complex system that uses ontologies and/or artificial intelligence. For just about everything else, though, you may want to consider investing in an application specifically designed for screen-scraping.
As an aside, I thought I should also mention a recent project we’ve been involved with that has actually required a hybrid approach of two of the aforementioned methods. We’re currently working on a project that deals with extracting newspaper classified ads. The data in classifieds is about as unstructured as you can get. For example, in a real estate ad the term “number of bedrooms” can be written about 25 different ways. The data extraction portion of the process is one that lends itself well to an ontologies-based approach, which is what we’ve done. However, we still had to handle the data discovery portion. We decided to use screen-scraper for that, and it’s handling it just great. The basic process is that screen-scraper traverses the various pages of the site, pulling out raw chunks of data that constitute the classified ads. These ads then get passed to code we’ve written that uses ontologies in order to extract out the individual pieces we’re after. Once the data has been extracted we then insert it into a database.
Todd Wilson is the owner of screen-scraper.com (http://www.screen-scraper.com), a company which specializes in data extraction from web pages.
This season Anthony Loeff medical volunteer is reporting software applications for visually impaired Most legally blind people 64 percent do not use computers.
The console-based Oralux Linux distribution ships with three screen-reading environments: Emacspeak, Yasr and Speakup. Only a small fraction of this population, when compared to the sighted community, have Internet access.
Access technology such as screen readers and Screen magnifiers enable the blind to use mainstream computer applications. The primary audience for such applications is those who have difficulty reading because of learning disabilities or language barriers. Experimental approaches in sensory substitution are beginning to provide access to arbitrary live views from a camera.
There are also open source screen readers, such as the Linux Screen Reader for GNOME and NonVisual Desktop Access for Windows.
Linux distributions for the blind include Oralux and Adriane Knoppix. A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. Approximately 20 percent of those deemed legally blind, by any measure, have no vision. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Web browsers, word processors, icons and windows and email programs are just some of the applications used successfully by screen reader users. The movement towards greater web accessibility is opening a far wider number of websites to adaptive technology, making the web a more inviting place for visually impaired surfers. While Apple Mac OS X includes VoiceOver, a more feature-rich screen reader. The open source GNOME desktop environment long included Gnopernicus and now includes Orca. Screen readers can be assumed to be able to access all display content that is not intrinsically inaccessible.
The Macintosh OS also comes with a built-in screen reader, called VoiceOver. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers. A persons choice of screen reader is dictated by many factors, including platform and the role of organizations like charities, schools, and employers.
The rest have some vision, from light perception alone to relatively good acuity. Later versions of Microsoft Windows include an Accessibility Wizard and Magnifier for those with partial vision, and Microsoft Narrator, a simple screen reader. Screen reader choice is contentious: differing priorities and strong preferences are common. Therefore functionality remains limited compared to equivalent desktop applications, the major benefit is to increase the accessibility of said websites. Increasingly, screen readers are being bundled with operating system distributions. Indeed, using a screen reader is, according to some users, considerably more difficult than using a GUI and many applications have specific problems resulting from the nature of the application. The latter developed in part by Knopper who has a visual impairment. Recent versions of Microsoft Windows come with the rather basic Narrator.
