Google Wave Invitations

I just got my invitation to Google Wave tonight so I'll be trying it out over the next few days. I'll do a blog post about it once I familiarise myself with it.

Also, I'm allowed to send out a limited amount of invitations to people so leave a comment with your email address if you'd like an invite.

CCleaner

In today's lecture, Simon mentioned that he uses a program called CCleaner to free up space on his laptop. I've been using this myself for a few months now and I find it works quite well. It's a free download too, so you can't really go wrong with it.

Here's the link for the download.

NetBeans Intro. for IS6115

If you're anything like me then you probably felt a bit lost in the NetBeans tutorials during the week. My main problem was that I didn't understand the terminology or the grammar/vocab/syntax of Java. Also, the results of what we were doing weren't immediately apparent, unlike our HTML tutorials, so what we were doing felt out of context to me and I didn't know what it was leading to. I came across a few bits and pieces that might be helpful and I've listed them below.

Wikipedia has an article on the "Hello World" program. This explains what the program does and why it's used.

Sun Microsystems, the company behind Java, have their own set of tutorials, including a handy section that explains the basic concepts of object-oriented programming.

Here are a few introductory video tutorials on NetBeans.

This video shows how to download and set up NetBeans on your home computer or laptop. You don't really need to watch all of this one.



This second video is short and is similar to the material we covered in the IS6115 tutorials during the week and shows how to create the "Hello World" program.




In this third video, Tim Layton also demonstrates the "Hello World" program. It's worth watching the whole thing because he looks at some small applications that he made with NetBeans.



I hope all of this makes the whole thing seem a little less daunting.

World Community Grid

Bill Emerson mentioned the SETI at home project in today's lecture. I participate in a similar project called World Community Grid. Both projects are a form of distributed computing. World Community Grid uses the world's largest computing grid to conduct scientific research projects for the benefit of humanity, such as fighting childhood cancer. It is funded and operated by IBM. I use it on my laptop at home and it runs whenever the laptop is idle. I recommend getting involved as it's an easy way to do some good without any financial or time commitment.

Larry Ellison on Cloud Computing

This video features Larry Ellison, the co-founder and CEO of Oracle, giving his take on the cloud computing phenomenon. Ellison is of the opinion that cloud computing is merely a buzzword to re-brand existing technologies. While I can't say I agree with him fully, there might be a kernel of truth in what he's saying. So is cloud computing the future of e-business or just a buzzword? Have a look at the clip and decide.

Welcome

This is a blog I've set up as part of my masters, the MBS e-business in UCC. I'm not sure what direction it's going to go in terms of content but I'll try to stay focused on e-business topics and avoid going on tangents. Mainly, I'll be putting up links to interesting e-business-related articles or videos I come across on the web and also commenting on some of the readings for the various modules.

I think the blog will be useful to me during the year for keeping track of my own reading and I'd be very happy if it helps anyone else on the course during the year.

Enjoy!