Who's Got the Power?

by Brenda J. Christie

IBM System 3090

I recently took a Php/MySql class.  Upon my asking a question which was probably beyond his knowledge-base, he smugly replied something to the effect that it was the type of question only a mainframe programmer would ask. Yes, I am guilty.

Being polite, I did not respond to his sarcasm, but shortly after found this IBM article which shows that while web facing applications are sexy, attractive and all the rage, the heavy lifting (order processing, financials, payroll, inventory, etc.) is still done by mainframe computers.

Here's the article, "Who Uses Mainframe Computers Today?" and here's to the persistence and longevity of Big Blue!

More Freebies - Yeah!

by Brenda J. Christie

The author of this TechRepublic article thinks so highly of these open-source apps that he recommends the vendors charge for them, or that users donate.

They must have some intrinsic means of covering their operating expenses, after all not much in life is truly free.

The 10 apps, including a few such as PhpMyAdmin and Apache are ones I use, but I also found some others which I plan to use in the near future such as LibreOffice, a free alternative to MicroSoft Office, Audacity for creating Podcasts, Clementine, a super-charged music player (read, alternative to iTunes) and GIMP, a free Photoshop-like app.

Read the complete article here then you can decide whether they should be licensed, as Jack Whalen suggests, supported more often by donation or left as is.


I also came across demo version of an alternative to Visio, SmartDraw, which is supposed to be easier to use and more powerful than Visio.  Check it out!

Free or Low-Cost Web Development Tools

by Brenda J. Christie

Five handy web development tools which are either free or low-cost appeared in a recent article in TechRepublic.  Read it here.

The article mentions

1. NotePad++, which I've used for editing pages containing HTML, Php and MySQL;
2. HTML-Kit, similar to NotePad++ but comes a long with a Preview mode instead of going the http://localhost route, which can be cumbersome;
3. Funduc Search and Replace;  Performs search and replacements across multiple files;
4. Offline Explorer for downloading web sites for offline viewing and editing; and
5. HTML Converter.

All except Funduc and Offline Explorer are free.  However, there is a free 30-day trial of Offline Explorer and a shareware version of Funduc Search and Replace.


Check back soon for an in-depth comparison and elaboration of each.

Brenda Christie

Five IDEs for building better applications

by Brenda J. Christie

In addition to the PhP/MySqp and HTML5 classes which I'm taking at Baruch this summer, I also plan to investigate these 5 IDEs mentioned in this article which appeared in TechRepublic.  Read it here.

The article covers:

1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Pro
2. Oracle Netbeans 7
3. Eclipse ( I already Use this One, just not this version)
4. Code::Blocks
5.  Aptana Studio 3

Top 5 Reasons Organizations Fail at Project Management

by Brenda J. Christie

An article on why organizations fail at project management.  It lists 5 top reasons which contribute to failure using project management.  Read it on TechRepublic:  Top five on reasons organizations fail at project management