Development by Davis: mayo 2013

viernes, 31 de mayo de 2013

Posted: 31 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT

Higher Ed's in trouble, in case you hadn't heard.

Burdened by runaway costs, unsustainable infrastructure, outrage over tuition increases, declining public dollars, and outmoded degree programs, colleges and universities are struggling to satisfy the needs of their current patrons, let alone cater to a global student population that is expected to double by 2025.

The Dave and Gunnar Show: Episode 10, Go Ugly Early

Posted: 31 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

The Dave and Gunnar Show is a new podcast series talking about government, open source, and a sprinkling of Red Hat projects. I recently discovered it and thought the opensource.com audience might enjoy it too. What do you think?

Episode 10, Go Ugly Early particulary struck me. Give it a listen:

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Watch Android @ Google I/O 2013

Posted: 30 May 2013 11:31 AM PDT

Posted by Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead

We had a lot to talk about this year at I/O. We launched Google Play services 3.1 with Google Play games services, improved Location APIs, and Google Cloud Messaging enhancements; Android Studio: A new IDE for Android development based on IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition; and Google Play Developer Console improvements such as app translation service, revenue graphs, beta testing & staged rollouts, and optimization tips.

With the excitement of these announcements behind us, it's time to sit back, relax, and watch all the sessions we missed during the event. To make that easier, we've collected all the Android sessions together in the Android @ Google I/O 13 page on the developer site.

We've also created the Google I/O 13 - The Android Sessions playlist (embedded below), as well as playlists for each developer category: design, develop, and distribute.

For those of you who prefer listening to your I/O talks without the distraction of watching speakers and slides, we're also making the sessions available as part of the Android Developers Live Podcast.

Google I/O is always a highlight on the Android Developer Relations team's calendar, so we'll be keeping the magic alive with our Android Developers Live broadcasts.

This week we resumed our regular broadcasts with Android Design in Action offering a review of Android Design sessions at I/O. Next week will see the return of This Week in Android Development and The App Clinic, and stay tuned for more episodes of Table Flip, GDG App Clinics, and more!

We'll also continue to add new DevBytes and BizDevBytes to offer tips and tricks for improving your apps and making them more successful.

As always you can talk to us and keep track of our upcoming broadcasts, Android Studio news, and other Android developer news on the +Android Developers Google+ page.

Join the discussion on

+Android Developers

jueves, 30 de mayo de 2013

Development by Davis: “Could California bill mandate open access to research?” plus 3 more

Could California bill mandate open access to research?
Thoughts on the White House Executive Order on open data
Handling Phone Call Requests the Right Way for Users
Open source project management on the rise

Could California bill mandate open access to research?

Posted: 30 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT

Champions of open access to publicly funded academic research had something to celebrate last week. Creative Commons is reporting (with just a touch of cautious optimism) the progress of California's Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (AB 609, for short), which has successfully moved through the State's Assembly Appropriations Committee and is ready for a vote.

Thoughts on the White House Executive Order on open data

Posted: 30 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

As those steeped in the policy wonk geekery of open data are likely already aware, last Thursday the President of the United States issued an Executive Order Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information.

Handling Phone Call Requests the Right Way for Users

Posted: 29 May 2013 02:48 PM PDT

Posted by Dirk Dougherty, Android Developer Relations

One of the things users like most about Android is the flexibility to choose which apps should handle common tasks on their devices — from opening a web page or sending an SMS to playing a music file, taking a picture, or making phone calls. This flexibility is provided by Intents.

Intents give you a powerful way to integrate your apps deeply into the system — users can even choose to let your apps replace functionality provided by system apps. In those cases, it's essential to make sure that anything your app can't or doesn't handle can still be handled properly by the default system app.

Proper implementation and testing are especially important for apps that provide telephony services. Make sure that your app doesn't interfere with emergency calling by listening for the wrong intent — CALL_PRIVILEGED. Follow the best practices below to handle outgoing calls the right way, using the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL intent.

Listening for outgoing call requests

Apps that provide phone calling services (such as VOIP or number management) can set up Intent filters to handle outgoing call requests, such as those made from the Dialer or other installed apps. This provides a seamless integration for the user, who can transition directly to the calling service without having to redial or launch another app.

When the user initiates a call, the system notifies interested apps by sending an ordered broadcast of the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intent, attaching the original phone number, URI, and other information as extras. This gives apps such as Google Voice and others a chance to modify, reroute, or cancel the call before it's passed to the system's default phone app.

If you want your phone calling app to be able to handle outgoing call requests, implement a broadcast receiver that receives the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intent, processes the number, and initiates a call as needed. Make sure to declare an intent filter for NEW_OUTGOING_CALL in the receiver, to let the system know that your app is interested in the broadcast. You'll also need to request the PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS permission in order to receive the Intent.

Note that the system broadcasts NEW_OUTGOING_CALL only for numbers that are not associated with core dialing capabilities such as emergency numbers. This means that NEW_OUTGOING_CALL can not interfere with access to emergency services the way your use of CALL_PRIVILEGED might.

Here's an example broadcast receiver declared in an app's manifest file:

<manifest>      <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS" />        <application>          ...          <receiver android:name=MyOutgoingCallHandler">              <intent-filter>                  <action android:name="android.intent.action.NEW_OUTGOING_CALL" />                  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />              </intent-filter>          </receiver>          ...      </application>  </manifest>

The implementation of the corresponding broadcast receiver would look something like this:

public class MyOutgoingCallHandler extends BroadcastReceiver {    @Override    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {      // Extract phone number reformatted by previous receivers      String phoneNumber = getResultData();      if (phoneNumber == null) {        // No reformatted number, use the original        phoneNumber = intent.getStringExtra(Intent.EXTRA_PHONE_NUMBER);      }      // My app will bring up the call, so cancel the broadcast      setResultData(null);      // Start my app to bring up the call      ...    }  }

Because the NEW_OUTGOING_CALL broadcast is ordered, your app can choose whether to consume the call request itself or simply process the number and pass the result data on to other apps that may be interested. In this example, the broadcast receiver brings up a phone call on it's own service and sets the result data to null. This prevents the call request from reaching the default phone app.

An anti-pattern

Rather than listening for NEW_OUTGOING_CALL Intents, some apps have mistakenly set up intent filters for CALL_PRIVILEGED Intents as a way to handle outgoing calls. This is not a recommended approach, because the system may send a CALL_PRIVILEGED Intent for any number, including emergency numbers. Since non-system apps can't reformat emergency numbers or place emergency calls, attempting to handle CALL_PRIVILEGED could inadvertently interfere with access to emergency numbers.

CALL_PRIVILEGED should only be used by apps that have the necessary signatureOrSystem-level permission — it is not designed for use by any third-party apps.

Check your apps for proper use of NEW_OUTGOING_CALL

If your app provides phone calling services and already uses intent filters to handle outgoing call requests, take a few minutes to make sure it is listening for the proper Intent: NEW_OUTGOING_CALL.

If your app includes intent filters that listen for CALL_PRIVILEGED Intents, make sure to remove those filters and related code from the app (in favor of NEW_OUTGOING_CALL) and publish the updated app as soon as possible.

Open source project management on the rise

Posted: 29 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT

Frank Bergmann, founder of ]project-open[, talks with us about the open source project management solution and how the company strives for an open culture at the office. He says maintaining communication is essential, and it entails complete transparency and honesty.

The community will quickly punish you if this doesn't happen. This is at the core of open source.

Frank also tells us who his open source hero is. Read on for more insight into ]project-open[ and how this open company operates.

miércoles, 29 de mayo de 2013

Development by Davis: “Civic coding strengthens open source skills” plus 2 more

Civic coding strengthens open source skills
AMD Launches the AMD Opteron X-Series Family: the Industry’s Highest Performance Small Core x86 Server Processors
New AMD-based Tablet PC Processor Wins 2013 “Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI” Award

Civic coding strengthens open source skills

Posted: 29 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

I've been thinking a bit too much lately about GitHub and Drupal.org. More broadly, I've had my mind on open source + community. Sometimes this is called social coding.

Social coding can take on a variety of shapes and sizes but is short-hand for what I can describe as loosely coupled, sometimes geographically distributed collaboration and coordination around open source projects. Civic coding is a form of social coding focused on municipal projects. Civic coding is a big part of what we do in the Brigade and why we're running The Great American Civic Hack this summer.

AMD Launches the AMD Opteron X-Series Family: the Industry’s Highest Performance Small Core x86 Server Processors

Posted: 29 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today unveiled a new family of low power server processors: the AMD Opteron™ X-Series optimized for scale-out server architectures. The first AMD Opteron X-Series processors, formerly known as "Kyoto," are the highest density, most po...

New AMD-based Tablet PC Processor Wins 2013 “Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI” Award

Posted: 28 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its lowest-power accelerated processing unit (APU) for tablet, hybrid and clamshell notebook PCs is the winner of the 2013 Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI award, the

martes, 28 de mayo de 2013

Development by Davis: “A lesson from Tumblr: Who's in control?” plus 2 more

A lesson from Tumblr: Who's in control?
Migrating to open source needs a plan
The Next 10 Starts Now

A lesson from Tumblr: Who's in control?

Posted: 28 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT

It's no surprise that many Tumblr users are less than pleased with Yahoo!'s recent acquisition of their favorite personal publishing platform. The news is a sobering reminder that creators who don't control the tools of their trade are at the mercy of those who do.

Migrating to open source needs a plan

Posted: 28 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT

Perhaps you've considered migrating your company to an open source desktop productivity suite? There are a host of good reasons for such a move. The most obvious one that comes to mind is to save on license fees, but don't be fooled. For the migration process to be a success and the full benefits to be reaped, you must invest in the changeover itself. Don't believe that because you want to save money long term you should skimp short-term. A look at the City of Freiburg's attempted migration reveals the dangers of treating the new software as a drop-in replacement.

The Next 10 Starts Now

Posted: 27 May 2013 01:47 PM PDT

All around the globe today, people are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first WordPress release, affectionately known as #wp10. Watching the feed of photos, tweets, and posts from Auckland to Zambia is incredible; from first-time bloggers to successful WordPress-based business owners, people are coming out in droves to raise a glass and share the "holiday" with their local communities. With hundreds of parties going on today, it's more visible than ever just how popular WordPress has become.

Thank you to everyone who has ever contributed to this project: your labors of love made this day possible.

But today isn't just about reflecting on how we got this far (though I thought Matt's reflection on the first ten years was lovely). We are constantly moving forward. As each release cycle begins and ends (3.6 will be here soon, promise!), we always see an ebb and flow in the contributor pool. Part of ensuring the longevity of WordPress means mentoring new contributors, continually bringing new talent and fresh points of view to our family table.

I am beyond pleased to announce that this summer we will be mentoring 8 interns, most of them new contributors, through Google Summer of Code and the Gnome Outreach Program for Women. Current contributors, who already volunteer their time working on WordPress, will provide the guidance and oversight for a variety of exciting projects this summer. Here are the people/projects involved in the summer internships:

Ryan McCue, from Australia, working on a JSON-based REST API. Mentors will be Bryan Petty and Eric Mann, with a reviewer assist from Andrew Norcross.
Kat Hagan, from the United States, working on a Post by Email plugin to replace the core function. Mentors will be Justin Shreve and George Stephanis, with an assist from Peter Westwood.
Siobhan Bamber, from Wales, working on a support (forums, training, documentation) internship. Mentors will be Mika Epstein and Hanni Ross.
Frederick Ding, from the United States, working on improving portability. Mentors will be Andrew Nacin and Mike Schroder.
Sayak Sakar, from India, working on porting WordPress for WebOS to Firefox OS. Mentor will be Eric Johnson.
Alex Höreth, from Germany, working on adding WordPress native revisions to the theme and plugin code editors. Mentors will be Dominik Schilling and Aaron Campbell, with a reviewer assist from Daniel Bachhuber.
Mert Yazicioglu, from Turkey, working on ways to improve our community profiles at profiles.wordpress.org. Mentors will be Scott Reilly and Boone Gorges.
Daniele Maio, from Italy, working on a native WordPress app for Blackberry 10. Mentor will be Danilo Ercoli.

Did you notice that our summer cohort is as international as the #wp10 parties going on today? I can only think that this is a good sign.

It's always a difficult process to decide which projects to mentor through these programs. There are always more applicants with interesting ideas with whom we'd like to work than there are opportunities. Luckily, WordPress is a free/libre open source software project, and anyone can begin contributing at any time. Is this the year for you? We'd love for you to join us as we work toward #wp20.

Development by Davis