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The article examines modular application (MAPP) technology and its integration to automated manufacturing systems. It notes that MAPP requires less structured programming processes and features configurability of automation software objects. It cites that the Boolean interface of MAPP technology also provides ease of use with ladder logic programming. It mentions that MAPP software technology also enables the use of a web browser for viewing status information and function blocks.

The article discusses developments in microprocessors manufacturing as of July 2015. Topics discussed include the growing demand by machine builders for control systems with much higher performance and connectivity, features of some products launched in the market like the industrial server hardware C6670 and the TwinCAT 3 software from Beckhoff Automation, and the applications of such industrial servers like in machines with multiple complex machine modules.

The article offers information on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems software that provides a hub for collecting, storing, and interacting with data from the plant floor and offers better integration with other systems. Topics discussed include SCADA packages that offer remote access through apps and browsers, multi-touch technology offered by SCADA that is available on fixed display screens and mobile devices, and use of SCADA for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

The article focuses on the development of the computer-aided design (CAD) software called CAD 2.0 and how it has evolved. Information is provided on the history of CAD and CAD software. The applications enabled by hardware and software advancements are discussed. The next phase in the development of CAD is described.

The article discusses the factors to be considered in implementing a wireless sensor network (WSN) which include software and data access, signal interference potentials and protocol selection. It states the importance of WSN in bringing intelligence and decision making closer to the sensing location making the system smarter in reacting to environment changes. It cites that WSN allows the users to remotely access data from their distributed wireless sensor network using Web service technology.

The article discusses the issues which lead to a confusion affecting a contemporary multicore taxonomy, including classifications of processor and the use of the term multicore. The classification process permits various versions of each type of processor to follow the same techniques on implementation, without confusion on its target. Moreover, it explains that the coverage of multicore should go beyond digital media, networking, and application servers.

The article focuses on the Android cellular phone software developed by Google Inc. It states that Android platform uses Java and its application frameworks are Java-based, which offers the possibility of porting field-tested Java Micro Edition (ME) applications to the platform. It explains Android's application lifecyle, also known as "Activity," as well as the comparison of the lifecycle of Java ME Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) and Android. Information derived from the testing of Android software is also presented.

The article describes a procedure for creating native applications for Windows CE operating system using Qt, a C++ application framework from Trolltech. An image viewer called "Qt Image Viewer" that had been internationalized for three different languages is presented to demonstrate how one could use Qt. The Image Viewer application is around 150 lines of code, which can be compiled to any of the platforms that Qt supports, and will run natively with the platform's custom look. The requirements for creating a native Windows CE application in Visual Studio 2005 are discussed.

The article reviews the Web application software ZK from Potix.

The article proposes a solution that utilizes several aspects of the Google Map Application Programming Interface (API) to provide a usable, robust, cross-platform web maps. Geocoder tools like Google Earth can be used to get the precise geographical location for specific sites. In initializing the Map API, one has to sign up for an API key which is generated in real time and is required to import the core library in the JavaScript code. To add elements on an embedded map use the coordinates that are contained in the Keyhole Markup Language.

The article discusses the use of Adobe AIR applications to develop desktop based Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Adobe AIR targets systems based on the traditional desktop applications written in C, C++ or Objective C languages. However, applications with extreme size and system requirements might not be suitable to operate in Web-based platforms like Adobe Air. Adobe AIR application developers could combine various scripting languages in a single application. Various development work flows of Adobe Air and its security features are discussed.

This article describes the use of the Microsoft NT Symbolic Debugger (ntsd) and Application Verifier (AppVerif) in resolving a few problems. An access violation, the most common cause of application crash, is where the application tries to read from or write to an invalid memory location. When one run this program, Windows terminates it at the point of the violation and releases the expected message that there was a problem with the program. In order to debug this, one can run ntsd.exe from the command line. Another option, AppVerif, effectively provides a verification layer between a running application and the operating system. Heap overruns, memory leaks and double initialization of critical sections are some of the common issues highlighted by using AppVerif.

The article focuses on desktop widgets and rich Internet applications (RIA). Desktop widgets are small components executed within a larger engine application running on client platforms and typically provide simple, commonly used utility functions like calculators or battery-life meters. Widget specification files are based on extensible markup language (XML) and start with the standard XML processing instruction followed by a widget element that contains one or more window elements. It is inferred that integrating a RIA with small desktop applications can greatly enhance the overall user experience, but it is often impractical to develop a fully functional utility program from scratch.

The article analyzes changes brought about by the revolution in mobile computing and application deployment. The improved application responsiveness and the growth in sophisticated middleware due to faster wireless networks are causing shift in the status of the mobile industry. There is a possibility that mobile operator networks will support a much wider range of services in the next couple of years. Deployment of mobile applications is accelerated by several technology drivers. The companies are making powerful mobile devices, improved user interface, applications designed to support mobile devices and good management and security options. INSET: TACTICAL OR STRATEGIC: WHAT'S YOUR PLAN?.

The article reports on how to clean up Rich Internet Applications (RIA) weakness. Instead of focusing on just the web application scanners, the decision-making process is also considered. Ajax applications share the RIA stage with Adobe's Flash and Apollo, Sun's Java, Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation and Active X. Asynchronous Javascript or Ajax and XML has become a key in the Web 2.0 scene, and its use has grown beyond just applications that actually use Asynchronous Javascript and XML. INSET: HEAD OF THE CLASS..

The article presents the author's opinion on the significance of holistic application-performance management (APM) to an IT manager. It is argued that APM products that understand the components of the application and automatically correlate and integrate with them have an immediate value. It is opined that holistic approaches to APM should locate and predict performance problems across all components of the application and supporting infrastructure, including system and network performance. INSET: QUANTIFYING APPLICATION PERFORMANCE.

The article focuses on the efforts of information technology companies to ensure application security. It is reported that after $45.6 million credit and debit-card number theft from TJX Cos. Inc., companies like Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. have enhanced their application security. It informs that data security and application-software security were chosen as important issues through 2008 in the 2006 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey. It was revealed in the survey that despite the availability of several automated source code analysis tools, no tools can ensure network security without adequate developer training and software development lifecycle.

The article presents guidelines for writing the software COUNTOF so that it produces a compile-time error if one accidentally passes it a pointer or anything else other than the built-in array. One notable application of initializer lists is in defining cases for automated unit testing. The goals for designing COUNTOF are to preserve the good features of the traditional COUNTOF, to present users with a type-safe interface and to generate error messages that hint at the problem when an inappropriate argument is passed.

The article describes the programming scripts used for MyMap portable application program interfaces (API) to display maps in a Web site with either Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth. MyMap API enables Web sites to create maps, set map modes, set a position on the map and display marker information, among other capabilities. To get the result for geography-oriented coding, the callback command can be used for specific classes used by Google and Yahoo. Both Google Maps and Yahoo Maps also create icon and market objects.

The article reports on the different approaches of Adobe Systems Inc., the Dojo Foundation and Google Inc. on rich Internet applications (RIA) for efficient service in data transmission. It cites that the Dojo Foundation's Dojo Toolkit uses tools provided by the browsers that include JavaScript, the Document Object Model (DOM) and cascading style sheets (CSS) to build on most common web development tools like HTML and JavaScript. On the other hand, the Google Web Toolkit purchases Java knowledge to let developers code in Java while the RIA is distributed using JavaScript and HTML. The Flex toolkit of Adobe, which creates Flash objects to encapsulate the RIA, develops its applications using ActionScript and special markup codes.

The article focuses on third-party tools to encapsulate development work that is utilized in COM-compliant applications such as Visual Basis 6 (VB6). An SQL Server database was built for Logbook Pro pilot logbook with a Web-service middle tier allowing its own update service to drive Web applications, VB6 applications and the new editions developed in Visual Studio 2005. Making a web service call is involved in the software update system using the IP*Works! system, which requires adding the SoapRpcMethod attribute to the web methods. The DataSet storage makes XML data persistent, readable and ideal for the Logbook Pro Pocket PC Companion.

The article evaluates several modeling software application tools, including Rational Rose Technical Developer software from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Rhapsody Visual Programming Environment from Telelogic AB, and the Simulink from MathWorks Inc.

The article reports on the significance of enterprise application software for application service providers. The use of computer architecture helps in increasing customer satisfaction and aids towards efficient operation of an enterprise. The enterprise application performs business functions hosted on a server that provides services to users mostly over a computer network. Computer applications include the enterprise mashup technology, adopting the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services that formally specify business processes and interaction protocols. On the other hand, the service-oriented architecture expresses a perspective of software architecture that aims to achieve loose coupling among interacting software agents.

The article discusses the incorporation of multiple computer software and hardware to build security policies in database protection. Built-in access control can generate logs that tell who is the user, however, it is programmatic, rights-oriented and sometimes subject to tamper. Web application that uses database login can find all known and unknown locations of data and can monitor for anomalies. The procedure is also powerful in keeping critical data in the hands of legitimate users. Placing the appliance that watches network protocols makes it difficult for malicious insiders to cover tracks and tamper log files.

The article discusses the use of aggressive compiler optimization through which performance of many applications are increased. The first step which uses the compiler is the characterization of application. The second step is to prioritize testing of compiler optimization settings. Selection of a benchmark which involves choosing of small input set for the application is the third step. The last steps include building of application using the desired optimizations, running the tests and evaluation of performance. Characteristics of a database application, the MySQL and its optimization process are also discussed.

The article focuses on the operating system (OS)-neutral networking and polling application program interface of Apache Portable Runtime (APR). APR developers focus on the OS-specific oddities so users can focus on their applications. APR has been developed as part of the Apache web server. Differences between the network stacks of operating systems can hinder efforts to writing portable native-code applications. APR can bring this goal to a reality and in a fashion that does not litter the code with #IFDEF statements.

The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of computer security software host intrusion prevention system (HIPS). It is an antivirus (AV), an anti-malware and a network intrusion-prevention tool. It has been showed to be the most comprehensive desktop-protection product in 2006. What makes HIPS worth the cost of upgrading from AV is it buffer-overflow protection. Core HIPS functions which protect the host system include port protection, memory protection, AV and file/registry protection. However, it is unable to normally notify the user that a remedial action was taken or that a process is stopped or a port is shutdown, but rather relies on the application to notice the failure and notify the user. INSETS: NWC REPORTS: HOST INTRUSION- PREVENTION SYSTEMS;HIPS VS. NAC.

The article discusses the features and safety usage of a wide range of computer application programs including blogs, wikis, and podcasts. With the progressive growth of information technology (IT), it reminds of how personal digital assistants and instant messaging came into the business. It claims that the success of any new media initiative is dependent upon the building communities of producers and consumers. In a reader poll, several respondents said they have personal blogs. However, a weak blog can be easily syndicated, thus protecting confidential data is needed. It likewise added that IT departments must educate blog and wiki users about security issues. INSETS: YES, WE EAT OUR OWN DOG FOOD;READERSPEAK: NEW MEDIA;THE TOOLKIT;WHO ARE YOU?

The article presents the author's explanation of how to securely synchronize files on multiple machines using the S3 Web services from Amazon.com Inc. and the FtpWebRequest technology from .NET 2.0. The author used Visual Studio 2005 program in order to illustrate file synchronization. The features of the S3 Web service are given including the its ability to organize data that are similar to disk folders. Most of the time, computer users who have access to an FTP site prefer to host their files there. The author, however, warns users of its disadvantage if the FTP site is running over SSL.

The article answers the question of whether agility conflicts with the security or reliability of a computer software application. For those applications that need agility, a high assurance process can be employed that keeps file agility that the business needs to be able to respond to market changes and organizational changes. Precise steps must be taken to ensure that the required assurance will be provided by the software application for it to hold up under the stresses of high-usage, high-visibility and mission-critical dependence that is characteristic of so many Internet-facing applications in large organizations.

The article provides information on db4o database. db4o can be defined as an open-source object database. Moreover, this database features easy-to-grasp application program interface and lucid persistence model. The universal identifier that db4o constructs is composed of two parts including an object identification number and a database signature. Under db4o, replication is a three-step process. These include the initiation of a Replication-Process object and a query that guides the replication process.

The article discusses the efficacy of incorporating the OpenGL ES applications programming interface for full-function 2D and 3D graphics in handheld devices. The Gizmondo handheld gaming unit developed by NVidia was used as a sample project, a valuable prototype as well as an evaluation tool whether OpenGL ES interface supports 3D games. The project illustrates that porting existing OpenGL programs to the Gizmondo renders playable frame rates and optimizes the resolution of a 3D model. It also indicates that a 50-percent boost in graphic performance can be attained if the standard OpenGL lightning model will not be used.

The article presents information on Ruby on Rails 1.0, a fully integrated web application framework developed by David Heinemeier Hansson. The software automatically and dynamically integrates the model, view and controller (MVC) components of a web application. Rails uses the Ruby computer language that combines the uncompromising object orientation of Smalltalk with the immediacy of Perl, Python or PHP. Rails interfaces with a database by implementing the model component of an MVC application via the ActiveRecord class which wraps database records and adds logic relevant to the data.

The article explores how to accelerate application processing using a software-configurable architecture to achieve hardware-accelerated performance in C. To illustrate, a real-world example of a hardware-accelerating Finite Impulse Response filter is presented. Most high-performance markets are in a constant state of flux, chasing evolving standards and ever-changing system requirements. Application specific integrated circuits-based architectures, while offering the needed performance, cannot quickly or cost-effectively meet changing application specs.

The article uses Oracle JDeveloper 10.1.2 to examine the problems you must overcome when consuming ATL/.NET Web services in Java clients that rely on Apache SOAP. The first step is to create a Web service proxy. This is done by creating an empty Application Workspace with an empty project and then adding a Web Service Proxy, located under Business Tier, Web Services, from the New Gallery dialog. Then you enter "Web Service WSDL URL" and finish the dialog. At this point Oracle's code-generation wizard generates the source code necessary for consuming the specified Web service.

This article focuses on ResourceMonitor, a resource status monitoring component for the .NET framework, and shows how it can be used to develop resource-aware, smart-client applications for Pocket PC devices. ResourceMonitor, aside from presenting an asynchronous callback mechanism, provides a managed application program interface to determine the status of device resources. CResourceMonitor is the main class that initiates a background thread, that monitors the status of the configured resources at the configured frequency. Effective designs of smart-applications requires that applications be aware of available memory on the device. A prominent technique to determine the network availability status is to determine the Internet Protocol address of the host. The SetPollingInterval approach lets applications set the polling interval to seconds.

This article provides information on the LogChipper application software designed as a plug-in framework to view and organize log file contents for the .NET platform. Its framework consists of interfaces that contains definitions of some common enumeration types and exposes the definition of the plug-in parser interface. The .NET framework defines the IComparer interface in the Systems.Collections namespace. It is used to specify how pairs of objects are compared for sorting and searching purposes.

The article presents information on APSolute product suite from Radware which provides a comprehensive computer architecture for accelerating applications. Key features and advantages of the product line are highlighted. The company is targeting the enterprise through its introduction of the first integrated application delivery architecture. Other application architectures developed by several information technology companies.

Reviews the GraphViz, a software package used for drawing directed and undirected graphs, from AT&T.

The article focuses on designing a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Web services. Web services use Web Services Description Language and the Simple Object Access Protocol for system-to-system messaging. According to the author, applications programmed using web services should be agile enough to adapt and withstand process changes. The author adds that web services still suffer from performance and security issues but both problems are slowly being solved.

The article tests five dependency mapping tools on NWC Inc.'s business applications network. The tools that were tested were BMC Topology Discovery (TD) 1.2, Cohesion 3.5, Confignia 3.1, InSight 4.0 and Clarity 4.1. Clarity showed processes communicating through applications to other servers, rather than relying on well-known TCP/IP ports. TD and InSight offer the best graphical representations. These products are behind-the-scenes players, providing data to CMDBs and service-mapping products. Relicore Clarity 4.1 provided unmatched application-process granularity and determined which of NWC Inc. components, applications, services and servers were communicating. InSight uses an active agentless approach to log onto Unix systems using SSH, to Windows over Windows Management Instrumentation and SNMP for both. Cendura Cohesion 3.5 provided good change auditing and documented dependencies for the applications and application components on a periodic basis. Topology Discovery is part of the larger BMC suite designed for BSM. INSETS: HOW WE TESTED BSM TOOLS;THE NWC INC. BUSINESS APPLICATIONS LAB;MAPPING: COUNT THE WAYS.

The article reports that over the last several months, networking giants Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. have gone on a buying spree, snapping up Application Front End and traffic management vendors in an effort to make good on their promise of delivering application-aware networks. Perhaps most important, however, is Cisco's announcement of its Application-Oriented Networking initiative at its June user conference in Las Vegas. IT architects need to lighten the load on overtaxed servers and deliver over slow WAN links applications that were built for the LAN.

This article examines some of the challenges faced by computer programmers as of June 2005 when creating a single version of .NET web applications, so that they function the same way no matter which server it's deployed to, and whichever client it's downloaded to. Running .NET web applications in the enterprise means accommodating a myriad of servers and browsers, many with distinct behaviors. The traditional approach to building complex web apps for such environments is for programmers to write separate versions of their code--each meant to run correctly with an individual server and browser pair. Thin clients, in which data is managed and stored centrally, are being adopted for a number of reasons. For one thing, federal regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley, the Homeland Security Act, and HIPPA, among others) dictate that internal documents and communications be secured to a heretofore-unseen level, and security is easier to achieve when data is managed and stored centrally. Second, there's the high total-cost-of-ownership of the PC desktop. The bottom line is that .NET applications have now followed Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition applications into the world of multiplatform deployment, which calls for a new and expanding skill set on the part of .NET developers.

This article presents information on the concept of the Performance Application Programming Interface (PAPI) and its use in performance monitoring (PM) in computer programming. Contrary to widely held misconceptions, performance is portable. Virtually every optimization effort initially involves tuning for architectural features found on most nonvector processors. In the high-performance computing (HPC) community, optimization is of critical importance as it directly translates to better science. At HPC centers, computer time is "sold" to various parties of each institution. However, the hardest part of the optimization process is understanding the interaction of the system architecture, operating system, compiler, and runtime system and how that affects the performance of the application. All these elements must be taken into consideration when attempting to optimize an application. There are two methods of using the PM hardware--aggregate (direct) and statistical (indirect). PAPI is intended to be completely portable from an application programming interface standpoint. That is, performance tools and instrumentation that work on one platform, seamlessly work with a recompile on another. While the interface is portable, the generated data is not. Data from the PM hardware rarely has the same semantics from vendor to vendor, and often changes from model to model.

The article focuses on the Web service protection from attack. As Web services become more pervasive, attackers are taking aim. Forum Vulcon, a subscription service offering notification of XML vulnerabilities using a Web services interface, is tracking more than 100 vulnerabilities. Because XML is a self-defining format, parser and content-based vulnerabilities are ever evolving and nearly impossible to predict. Therefore, a well-rounded XML security device not only must act as a firewall in the conventional sense-granting or denying access based primarily on Layer 4 information, such as IP address and port-it also must secure back-end services against threats specific to XML and against Web and database servers. Forum Systems cited scheduling conflicts, while Digital Evolution and Vordel both said they don't consider their products firewalls. Although most conventional firewalls can provide user-based authentication and authorization to services, they are rarely set up to do so, rather, these products control generalized access to services, and their packet-processing mechanisms are not data-aware. INSETS: XML FIREWALLS.;THE NAME GAME..

This paper considers the implementation of desktop-management suites and the merits of adopting such a strategy for companies. Any desktop-management suite lacking extensive patch management and a vulnerability reporting engine is worthless to enterprises. Most desktop-management vendors strive for modularity, mainly over licensing, so features can be activated as needed. For example, a small company could purchase a desktop-management suite with only patch management and minimal inventory capabilities enabled. Another vital element of desktop management is tracking software licenses. Software audits typically are initiated by a vendor or the Business Software Alliance, whose agents act as lawyer proxies and are tasked with investigating piracy claims, performing audits and recovering lost revenue for members. Software metering, yet another useful desktop-management feature, lets one see how often a program is used by a given individual or department, or across an organization. Bottom line, all but the smallest shops can benefit from an asset-management or desktop-management suite and from enacting a standard software-purchasing process. Even open-source software can come with contract agreements, especially if one buy service and support. INSET: DESKTOP MANAGEMENT.

This article focuses on customizing Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), a web-based team collaboration and document management software, by creating custom web parts. Web parts are create using Visual Studio .NET and are similar to a Web Control Library project. It is easiest to do web part development on a server with WSS installed because the projects need references to the SharePoint DLL and there is no programming SDK available. An alternative approach is the use Web User Controls, which lets you add multiple controls and their functionality into a single control that can be added to a Web Form page, or in the case of SharePoint, a web part. SharePoint requires that web parts be strongly named. To strongly name a web part, you must create a strong name key file using Visual Studio .NET. Once the strong name key has been generated, reference it in the AssemblyInfo file of the web part strongly named. Add an AssemblyKeyFIle attribute to the AssemblyInfo file pointing to the strong name key, making sure the web part has a specific version number. One more thing to do before compiling the project is to edit the DWP file by renaming to PubsSearch.dwp so that it ore accurately describes the web part. Then, open it for editing. Save all files and compile the web part project in Release mode.

This article describes what is involved in building client applications for the MapPoint Web service in C++ data structure. The Microsoft MapPoint Web service provides methods for looking up addresses, rendering maps, calculating routes, and a number of other useful mapping functions. To fully implement the techniques and code presented in this article, one must have MapPoint developer credentials. Mobile devices such as the Smartphone, present challenges above and beyond a normal C++ based web-service client, namely keeping the application as small as possible, dealing with a sometimes-connected environment, and calling an authenticated web service. As an extreme programmer, the author always starts with a couple of spikes to get the lay of the land. The idea is to get a thin slice of the functionality working. In this case, the author wanted to create a small C++ application that calls the Web service and returns some information. Luckily, Web services such as MapPoint are easy to use. Essentially, they are HTTP calls that send and return text files. In the time it would take to learn to use the toolkit, the author could have written most of the solution. If one is using a small subset of what is provided by a Web service, then one can write simple code that gets what one wants from the Web service without using a toolkit.

This article shows how to ask for compressed responses, capture and optionally modify simple object access protocol (SOAP) requests/ responses and debug web-service calls with a network packet analyzer program. SoapEx is a .NET Windows Forms program written in C#. The SOAP request/responses are displayed in the Results test box. Many web services can return results in compressed format to conserve bandwidth. The first step is to create a new class derived from the web-service proxy class. The Accept-Encoding header specifies the compression formats that the client can cope with. When the server returns the results, they are in gzip format, deflated format or uncompressed. A BinaryReader object is created to read bytes from the inputStream. A SoapExtension enables a program to wiretap web-service calls and even change the SOAP requests and responses. To modify a response, take the original response stored in oldStream, change the Extensible Markup Language, and store it in newStream. One can see SoapEx capture and display SOAP requests and responses by pressing the Call Web Service button and looking in the Results test box. For Windows Forms applications, put the configuration settings in a file with the same name as the executable, with an extra .config on the end.

This article examines the process of designing and deploying a report using Structured Query Language (SQL) Server Reporting Services and shows how to stream the report as a Portable Document Format document from a web service in ASP.NET applications. Microsoft implements Reporting Services through a series of .NET web services and a form of Extensible Markup Language called the Report Definition Language (RDL). All report definitions and metadata are defined in an RDL document. When a report instance needs to be created, the Reporting Services Server retrieves the RDL document, interprets the design elements, retrieves the data and then renders the report in the requested format. One will have two folders in the project--Shared Data Sources and Reports. Records from the database are bound to Reporting Services reports through Datasets. Datasets are results of a query or stored procedure against a Shared Data source or a report-specific data source. To add Report Parameters, click the Reports item on the Standard Menu Bar and select Report Parameters. Tables such as ASP.NET DataGrid objects are a tabular way to represent data bound to a set of records. When one receive the byte array back from the render method, the only task left is to stream that to the requesting client.