15 Android widgets that will make iPhone users jealous

15 Android widgets that will make iPhone users jealous

One of the biggest advantages of Android over iPhone is widgets. Android has them, iPhone does not.

Widgets are valuable because they give you an at-a-glance look at lots of different kinds of information and quick access to valuable apps and configuration settings.

I carry both an Android phone (for work) and an iPhone (my private phone), but there are some things where I always reach to whip out t...

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http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/15-android-widgets-that-will-make-iphone-users-jealous/5649

Revolutionary Paper Tablet Computer Is Thin and Flexible as Sheets of Paper

Revolutionary Paper Tablet Computer Is Thin and Flexible as Sheets of Paper
Queen's University (Canada)
(01/08/13)

Researchers at Queen's University, Intel, and Plastic Logic have developed PaperTab, a tablet computer that looks and feels like a sheet of paper. PaperTab is fully interactive with a flexible, high-resolution 10.7-inch plastic display and a flexible touchscreen. However, instead of using several apps or windows on a single display, users have 10 or more interactive displays or "PaperTabs," with one per app in use. "Using several PaperTabs makes it much easier to work with multiple documents," says Queen's University professor Roel Vertegaal. “Within five to 10 years, most computers, from ultra-notebooks to tablets, will look and feel just like these sheets of printed color paper.” The PaperTab project demonstrates how digital tablets could be used in the future, says Intel's Ryan Brotman. PaperTab has an intuitive interface that enables users to create a larger drawing or display surface by placing two or more PaperTabs next to each other. In addition, PaperTabs keep track of their location relative to each other, and to the user, which the researchers say provides a seamless experience across all apps.

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http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/revolutionary-paper-tablet-computer-thin-and-flexible-sheets-paper

Looking for work? Become a Java developer | Biz Beat Blog

http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/looking-for-work-become-a-java-developer.html/

Robot Master

Wired News (08/06/12) Christina Bonnington

Carnegie Mellon University professor Manuela Veloso has spent her career developing autonomous collaborative robots (CoBots).  The CoBots run a combination of C++, Python, and Java, and consist of a camera and laptop on a wheeled base, while a Microsoft Kinect is used for navigation and obstacle avoidance.  Users assign tasks to the CoBot via a Web interface, and once the task is completed, the CoBot can either return to its home base or move on to the next assigned task.  Veloso eventually wants to develop CoBots that can perform daily human tasks alongside their human masters.  "I decided that ... these robots ... need a symbiotic relationship with humans, and they need to proactively ask for help when they need help," Veloso says.  Her research is focused on symbiotic autonomy, in which robots move through the world by themselves, but if they come across uncertainties about their location, or if what they are doing surpasses the threshold of their capabilities, they stop and ask humans for help.  "The reason why I came up with symbiotic autonomy was exactly because I started looking at these robots performing tasks and services for humans as part of a team," Veloso says.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/worlds-most-wired-roboticist/

A full e-commerce tutorial for J2EE with netbeans

NetBeans E-commerce Tutorial

• Introduction
• Designing the Application
• Setting up the Development Environment
• Designing the Data Model
• Preparing the Page Views and Controller Servlet
• Connecting the Application to the Database
• Adding Entity Classes and Session Beans
• Managing Sessions
• Integrating Transactional Business Logic
• Adding Language Support
• Securing the Application
• Testing and Profiling
• Conclusion

Authenticate web applications BASIC, DIGEST, FORM, and CLIENT-CERT

Securing Web Applications

Web applications are created by application developers who give, sell, or otherwise transfer the application to an application deployer for installation into a runtime environment. Application developers communicate how to set up security for the deployed application by using annotations or deployment descriptors. This information is passed on to the deployer, who uses it to define method permissions for security roles, set up user authentication, and set up the appropriate transport mechanism. If the application developer doesn’t define security requirements, the deployer will have to determine the security requirements independently.

Some elements necessary for security in a web application cannot be specified as annotations for all types of web applications. This post point to links to give you a start for how to secure web applications using annotations wherever possible.

http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/tutorial/doc/gkbaa.html

In MLB.com Challenge, College Students Pitch Tech Ideas

From ACM TechNews:
In MLB.com Challenge, College Students Pitch Tech Ideas
InformationWeek
(12/06/12) Michael Endler

The MLB.com College Challenge, a competition cosponsored by the Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, offers participants a chance to solve some of MLB.com's real-world tech challenges, and an opportunity to pitch solutions to MLB representatives. The challenge encourages students from varied backgrounds to participate, serving as a model for helping students find jobs, as well as encouraging technological innovation to flourish in more places. In a previous competition, the winning project presented a way to merge all of the social media documents that a single game might produce, including smartphone photos, tweets, and Facebook status updates, into a single interface. This year's competition, which recently completed its third edition, focused on how MLB.com could harness the trend of "gamification" to engage fans. The winning project was a novel approach to fantasy baseball with gamification elements and competitive social challenges to share the experience with friends. Syracuse professor Jeffery Rubin, one of the competition's organizers, notes the hackathon is an interdisciplinary challenge. "It's not the most technical project that wins--but the best idea," Rubin says.

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http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/training/in-mlbcom-challenge-college-students-pit/240143942