Project Updates

It is time for a retrospective now that we have gone through the first half of the year. Projects are coming along and I will be updating  TDPE (Thundax Delphi Physics Engine)  and  PZaggy (Graph tool)  which will have the source code available by the end of the year. I have been working on side projects like ATOM Monitor to keep track of your atom leaks (and yes, Delphi has atom leaks) and my personal repositories where you will find Delphi code snippets and small utilities I have been developing throughout the years and you will be able to download them and use them for free. This is the way to make Delphi community grow and improve the way we develop Delphi apps using the power of the language using: fluent interfaces, delegates, mock objects, Unit tests, etc.

I will be redesigning as well, the entire website to make it more functional with an emphasis on Open Source projects and other really interesting stuff.

So, stay tuned and I look forward to your comments!.

Jordi

The rules of a creator’s life (the secret formula)

(source creativesomething.net). Rules created by Tanner Christensen of Creative Something showcases a recipe for success.

Today is my last day at AEtech

After 8 years of working with the most talented group of people I have ever met, I have decided to turn over a new leaf, working for a dynamic multinational delivering financial solutions Software in the UK. Today is my last day at AEtech.

I can’t say enough good things about the friends I have made and the talented people who have taught me so much. When I started here I never could have guessed that I would be creating cutting-edge software for the Industrial Automation sector. The experience working in multidisciplinary teams with very skilled Engineers is something to be a reminder of the very well done work.

Leaving AETech is different than any other job I have left. Joining AETech in 2003 was an easy decision and more strange was to have found success there. I felt like home, and even though it sounds stranger, AETech is the first place I have worked where I feel I am part of the company instead of working for the company.

I am confident that this new step in my career will bring new outcomes. The time will tell. Meanwhile, I will go on blogging, telling you my bests and being in touch.

Many thanks to all of you who have filled with joy the past eight years. I am looking forward to what comes next and don't forget to follow me!.

-Jordi
London, UK ~ 2011

DIASPORA* the new distributed social networking service

Diaspora (stylized DIASPORA*) is a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. The project is currently under development by Dan Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer, and Ilya Zhitomirskiy, students at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

The group was inspired to create Diaspora by a February 5, 2010 speech from Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen to the Internet Society's New York Chapter, "Freedom in the Cloud", in which Moglen described centralized social networks as "spying for free." In a New York Times interview Salzberg said "When you give up that data, you’re giving it up forever ... The value they give us is negligible in the scale of what they are doing, and what we are giving up is all of our privacy."

The project was announced on April 24, 2010 on Kickstarter and reached its initial $10,000 fund-raising goal in 12 days. In the weeks that followed, it raised $200,641.84 from 6479 backers, making it the second most successful Kickstarter project to date.

source: wikipedia.

Do you think that facebook will tremble with this new social service?

Technologies of the past

This video brings me back very good memories, where there were still floppy disks and other storage devices. I still can remember how fragile was the 5 1/4-inch floppy disk and my first installation of the MSDos 6.22 with a bunch of disks. In a short time they won't be remembered. In the video shown there are few children in front of various relics  from 20 years ago and they are asked what they were for.

Follow us on Facebook

Few days ago I set up the Facebook fan page just to let my followers be updated with my latest news. and posts. I hope you enjoy my posts and thanks for following.

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization

This is an interesting video from TED talking about the beauty of data visualization. David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.

Presentation of the new Rad Studio XE and the new Visual Studio 2010 in Barcelona

On November 24 will be held this seminar in Barcelona, which conveniently will show us the new features of the new RAD Studio XE, Delphi XE, C++ Builder XE, Delphi Prism XE and RadPHP XE. I'll take this opportunity to learn in a practical way the latest additions, see examples of operation, contact other users, chat with the team and meet interesting Danysoft promotions. I'm also attending the Visual Studio 2010 presentation which will show us practical themes that are awakening the community of developers. The new ASP.NET , the MVC Framework and the new features included in the WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) will be the discussed topics.

I'll see you there!.

Related topics:

• New Rad Studio XE in Barcelona.
• New Visual Studio 2010 in Barcelona.

The conversation Prism

The arts of listening, learning and sharing:

Source: 

• www.theconversationprism.com

Entrepreneurs can change the world

A very inspiring video!.

Reflexion time - Adaptation is the Key

First of all, I would like to thank all the positive comments I've received for my Blog. I'm truly happy because they inspire me to keep publishing interesting topics related with Delphi, Technology and Science. I can see that the page is widely visited throughout the world and the rate of daily visitors is quite good, but the users don't leave any feedback and sometimes this is a little disappointing. Anyway, I'll keep writing and doing my own research in order to improve myself and sharing my knowledge to the world.

Now I'm immersed on a reflexivity's period, thinking about job opportunities, new projects and new interesting articles to publish. This month I've been working on new interesting projects, migrating versions from Delphi 2007 to Delphi 2010, doing a big rewrite of code due to its internal changes with Indy10 and other new features like generics and working with parameters (I'm eager to test the new Delphi XE, but as soon as I finish the other projects). I've been as well working on a new system to improve the usability of working with Microsoft Office 2007 files such as Excel files (.xlsx) and Word files (.docx),  and some other projects as a photographer doing a catalogue for a company!. As you can see this month has been pretty hectic and I never stop running. I have other projects in mind that I need to put into gear, but I need some time to meditate about them, but I'll keep you posted!.

I've been providing services as a technological consultant to some companies in order to improve their IT departments in a wide range of aspects like: security, collaborative work and documentation. And all these experiences have been very rewarded to put into practise all the things learned during the last three years.

With all of this, I just want to motivate you, and remember to do what you love to achieve all what you want. I've been following this simple rule and everything is working fine. I can't complain of anything!.

Here you can see a very interesting video showing the power of adaptation:

Don't hesitate to comment in the blog and feel free to contact me through the web.

If you have time, you can take a look at my portfolio and check out my passion for photography!.

Symphony of Science

The Poetry of Reality is a music video that gathers sentences of 12 scientists and science enthusiasts, including Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins and Richard Feynman and others. There is real poetry in the real world and science is the poetry of reality.

Source: La reserva.com.

Delphi XE preview videos

Here you can see the latest videos from embarcadero talking about the new version of Delphi called Delphi XE.

First preview:

this second preview covers some of the third party tools that will be part of Delphi XE:

• FinalBuilder, used to manage the build process

• The ability to invoke IDE operations (like audits, metrics, code formatting) from the command line, and so invoke them from external tools like FinalBuilder

• The integrated version of profiling tool AQTime

• The logging support provided by CodeSite, a nice tool written by Ray Konopka.

Source:

• http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/delphi_xe_first_video.html
• http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/delphi_xe_second_video.html

Google success!

This is an interesting Google video: Inside the Mind of Google: "Most successful company in the history of the world".

I hope you enjoy it!.

Free ebook: Petzold’s Programming Windows Phone 7 (Special Excerpt 2)

Now you can get the free ebook from Charles Petzold’s called "Programming Windows Phone 7!" You can download the PDF or the XPS here, and download the sample code here. I hope you enjoy it.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/08/02/free-ebook-petzold-s-programming-windows-phone-7-special-excerpt-2.aspx

A headset that reads your brainwaves

Today I bring you an incredible presentation of Tan Le, the head of Emotiv Systems, which is developing the next generation of human-machine interface -- a headset that takes input directly from the brain. This new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications.

I hope you enjoy the video.
Source: TED (Ideas worth spreading)

Zaluum : The first open source platform for industrial automation part I

Zaluum is the first open source platform end-to-end for Industrial Automation. This solution is brought up by Frederic Perez who I was honoured to work with. This disruptive idea wants to move the industry in a radical new direction: the public domain, community driven and the free automation software. For many years I have been working with endless and incompatible PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) and DCSs (Distributed Control Systems) from proprietary vendors like Siemens, Schneider Electric, ABB, etc., and with the growth of these new and free technologies, the overview will change within a few years. Zaluum is based on Java with plug-in architecture. Despite being in an early stage of development, the design allows quick customization and implementation. This multi OS platform framework aims to create an open-source PLC alternative that runs on a standard Industrial PC RT with tools for FSM (Finite State Machine), logic (with Boxes), scripting with Groovy and Ethernet communication drivers like: modbus TCP.

This alternative will enable engineers to build control systems with a free, growing knowledge base, and to receive support from and contribute to improvements in the Open Source community. The project is hosted on Launchpad and uses bazaar as a version control software. The IDE is based on the very well known Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) and Frederic has come up with the idea of using the power of the Object Oriented Programming in order to create a more scalable and maintainable code.

Frederic says: "This solution will have knock-on effects and will revolutionize the industrial automation world." and I totally agree with him that if this idea reaches to the right targets and spreads throughout the planet, we will change the Industrial automation world. I have seen a lot of people who doubt about the reliability of PC-based control, but they will not resist the attractiveness of Zaluum.

Frederic invites readers, vendors, and OEMs to jump in, saying that when you contribute to an open source community, parallel teamwork drives improvement and comes right back to you. "Our next steps are trying to expand our community, recruiting more developers and putting forward the idea to spread the message."

"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible."

M.C. ESCHER.

Jordi Coll.

Feel free to give it a try and give feedback: http://www.zaluum.com/download or https://launchpad.net/zaluum/+download.

The future according to microsoft

The company that runs Steve Ballmer gives us his vision of the near future set in 2019. It's really fascinating to see how many of the concepts shown in the video are already in development and we only need to expect the releasing of this interesting technology.

Thundax p-Zaggy presentation

You can check it out from Prezi. A very interesting web tool where you can maximize the impact of your presentations by embedding different elements and using its interactivity to show the slides. This presentation is still being improved, but I would like to share it with all of you!.

Thundax P-Zaggy on Prezi

Related Links:

• Share Power Point Slide Share - Prezi.

New skills for new jobs for a more competitive Europe

In April took place in Barcelona a conference in how to concretely advance a comprehensive skills and jobs agenda in the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy, focusing both on skills upgrading in line with future needs, and the better matching of skills and jobs. Here you can see the introduction by Eduard Punset:

Eduard Punset, Economista i divulgador científic from Treballcat on Vimeo.

Valoracions Eduard Punset from Treballcat on Vimeo.

Source:

• http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=88&langId=es&eventsId=254&furtherEvents=yes
• http://www.eduardpunset.es/5552/punset-en-los-medios/videos/el-sistema-educativo-actual-no-da-trabajo-a-los-jovenes