Visual Basic developer of Inventory and accounting software is shifting to Visual Basic dot Net to enjoy the benefits of the dot net platform. If you still using VB 6, it is time for you to move on to the new dot net platform, and this year Visual Studio 2008 introduced many breakthrough technologies such as LINQ and N-Tier RAD tools. What does this mean to the developer of VB Net Inventory Accounting software? Let me show you the impacts:

Impact #1 - Distribute or update your software faster.

With smaller footprint, software vendor can easily distribute their system through Internet or low bandwidth network, or even add more features, templates and sample data without compromising the download time!

Impact #2 - Design your software into multiple platform.

You can expand your software to support the web client, even port to Linux and Mac OS! Visual Studio 2008 increase support for 3-tier application, you can extract your business logic into middle server, define the proxy to interface with back end server.

Impact #3 - Shift to SQL database.

Shift from conventional file base system such as MS-Access and DBF file system into true database server, developer can write data processing code in the database without affecting front-end client.

Impact #4 - Powerful 3rd Party tools.

Powerful datagrid and reporting tools available to accelerate development time, some even include source code in their product. If you are looking for Inventory, Accounting and Point of Sales system with source code, remember to check out Cynics Software - VB Net Inventory Accounting Source Code later…

With so much more benefits, developer can deliver the project faster to the market, lowering overall development cost and increase competitive advantages! Just beware about source code based products, if you need to modify, enhance or extend the system, you need the source code to be written and structured in the form of OOP, RAD and Plug-in architecture!

(C) Copyright 2008 CYNICS SOFTWARE - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

VB Net Point of Sales has better support for Microsoft .Net POS (Point of Service) peripherals, remove the needs for conventional Point of Sales system that direct communication with the hardware. Moving from conventional POS to dot net Point of Sales allows developer to migrate from their system into the dot net platform. Let’s see what advantages developer may enjoy in the dot net platform:

Advantage #1 - More tools to use.

Developer can utilize Microsoft POS service, or powerful 3rd party components and RAD tools to speed up the overall development time, deliver the software faster to the market!

Advantage #2 - Powerful .Net Remoting.

Point of Sales developer needs to provide offline capability to the software, allow data to be synchronize back into the server at the end of the day, and the .net remoting provides the best solution with minimum coding!

Advantage #3 - Easier to update.

Program size is everything when comes to upgrade and updating! With smaller footprint in .net framework, software vendor can easily provide frequent updates even in dial-up environment, which most retail store today still rely on!

Advantage #4 - Powerful database.

SQL 2005 Express provides the best storage available, software vendor can easily migrate from the database to SQL Server 2005 professional, provide higher capacity for the retail company without upgrading their software!

Advantage #5 - Multiple platform availability.

Software vendor can provide more platform support than ever! From desktop, web client, Windows, Linux to Mac OS, you name it! And the support for more platform expected to grow over time. The most important part is share codes between Windows and web interface, developer can share the source code effort and create different types of user interface.

With these 5 advantages, there are no reason for conventional vendor not to migrate into VB Net Point of Sales! Some source code provider even integrates VB Net Point of Sales into their Accounting; With source code based point of sales, developer will save time on migrating, integrating, modifying and expanding the functionality, deliver the project to the market faster than before!

(C) Copyright 2008 CYNICS SOFTWARE - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Presently, the latest handsets are designed to satisfy the communication as well as entertainment needs of the mobile phone users. With the advancement in technology, there are special phones made for business and personal use. Also, there are devices which are image focused and others which are music focused. The sophisticated phones have made our lives comfortable and convenient.

One of the top mobile players in the market, Samsung is famous for its slider phones. Samsung is offering great designs in its sleek and slim devices. Features like high quality music players, impressive displays and highly capable multimedia features are common in these handsets. The two popular phones from Samsung which have attracted the users worldwide are: Samsung i620 and Samsung i640.

The Samsung i620 appeals to the masses as it is incredibly stylish and boasts of smart phone capabilities. The handset offers multitasking capabilities with the help of 3G HSDPA technology. The second camera allows the user to enjoy video calling. Experience fast data transfer rates with the help of EDGE & GPRS. This 3G smart Samsung i620 phone supports a high resolution 65k colour screen in both open and slide closed positions. The impressive features of the handset include smooth touch sensitive call & option keys. The QWERTY keyboard can be accessed even in slide open position. The handset supports a Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system version 6.

Samsung i620 is a powerful business focused phone that comes with superior quality media & imaging features. The built in music player, 2 megapixel camera, Java games and messaging features are some of the outstanding applications of the device. The music player feature of the handset lets you play music in MP3, AAC, AAC+, OGG & WMA formats. The camera comes with excellent video recording capabilities.

Question: When Funambol first released software, it was released under your own license - the Honest Public License. How does the AGPL differ from the HPL?

Capobianco: The HPL essentially added one paragraph to the GPL v2 license, to address the ASP loophole. AGPLv3 does the same thing to the GPL v3 license i.e. it is based on the more recent GPL v3 rather than HPL being based on the older GPL v2. But conceptually, both licenses were intended to address the ASP loophole. Funambol was involved in the definition of AGPLv3, switched to it as soon as it was released, and had it OSI-approved.

Question: Why did the company find it necessary to change licenses? In other words, why move to the AGPL and see it through the OSI approval process?

Capobianco: When Funambol introduced the HPL, we said right from the beginning that as soon as there was an OSI-approved version of the license that addressed the ASP loophole, we would switch to it. This is because there is a concern about the proliferation of too many different yet similar open source licenses confusing people. So that is why we pushed to have the AGPLv3 approved by the OSI and why we switched to it the second it became OSI approved, because the world really does have quite a few different open source licenses and by virtue of using an OSI approved license, it cuts down on the number of proprietary vendor-written licenses.

Question: How do you respond to those in the media or other industry observers who say the AGPL doesn’t adequately address the ASP Loophole?

Capobianco: I believe the discussion in the media is not if the AGPL adequately addresses the ASP Loophole. That is a given. It does. The question is if closing the ASP Loophole will be a benefit for open source in general or not, or if the AGPL will limit adoption of open source software by enterprises. I personally do not think there is an issue. Enterprises are not affected by the ASP Loophole, because it is targeted to people running software as a service to the public. Enterprises that run services internally do not have to expose their changes to the public. It is a non-issue.

Question: Some say that rather than requiring service providers to contribute the code that builds on open source back to the community, the community should simply work to create something like what the proprietary service provider is offering. What do you think of that approach?

Capobianco: I believe the best approach is dual-licensing. Having an open source project that is AGPL and forces service providers to decide if they want to behave as good open source citizens (returning the modifications on the code) or if they prefer to keep their intellectual property for themselves, therefore licensing a commercial version of the same code. It is a model that made MySQL one of the most successful open source projects, but also a one billion dollar company with many enterprises very happy to have great code and no open source requirements.

Microsoft doesn’t actually sell an application server, so what the heck is it doing in this roundup? Well, a great many sites are using Microsoft technologies to do the very things that application servers do. One advantage to this approach is that if you’re using Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, you’ve already got the engine for application server functions.

Other pieces of Microsoft’s solution are Visual Studio, Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA), and Application Center. The Microsoft equivalent to J2EE’s EJB components is COM+ objects, and instead of JSP (Java Server Pages), we have ASP (Active Server Pages). One advantage of COM+ objects is that they can be built in several languages, and multilanguage programming is common in COM+ systems.

ISA can improve the performance of a Web site by caching frequently accessed static content. It handles requests directly, without having to contact an upstream Web server. ISA servers can also be configured in arrays, for fault tolerance and load balancing. Application Center helps administrators work with clusters, letting them, for example, change configuration settings on all servers or perform rolling upgrades of applications.
At the heart of COM+ is a simple premise: Write the code and declare what services it requires. Developers can write code using RAD (rapid applications development) tools such as Visual Basic (VB) or Delphi and package it into COM+ components, or they can get more control over components by coding in C++.

One of the key innovations in COM+ is the concept of attributes. An attribute is data that declares what services a component needs at runtime. In practice, different people decide on a component’s attributes. In one case, a developer declares that one component must have a transaction. In another case, an administrator declares which groups of users are allowed to access a given component.

Attributes are the key to extending COM+; developers can add future services by defining new attributes. Alas, only Microsoft can add new attributes today. This limitation is removed in the .NET Framework, where developers can define their own attributes. Visual Studio.NET is currently in beta, and Microsoft says it will ship this year.

Equipment maintenance

TRADITIONALLY, BANK ADMINISTRATORS TEND TO REMAIN WITH MANUFACTURERS LONG AFTER THE INITIAL EQUIPMENT PURCHASE FOR MANY REASONS, NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH IS THE “SAFE CHOICE” RATIONALE.

I recently had lunch with Bill D., a senior vice president of a major regional savings bank. I’ve known Bill for almost five years. During this time, my firm has submitted annual service and maintenance proposals for his bank’s item processingbranch and IT eQUipment with estimates we believe were lower than what he was paying. Six months before our lunch, he called to tell me the bank decided to accept our latest proposal.

“Would you believe that we were hit with increases ranging from thirty to fifty percent every year from the various manufacturers of our equipment, and the service got worse each year,” he said. “And before you ask why we stayed with them for so long, bear in mind that my bank’s management has a policy of going with the ’safe choice’ whenever possible.”

THE FINAL STRAW
He explained that each year, the three manufacturers whose equipment the bank operates sent less experienced field personnel to service his equipment. Service had slipped and downtime increased alarmingly. The final straw was hearing from one of the manufacturers that it was time to upgrade to a new platform. This meant a major investment in equipment or skyrocketing maintenance bills.

“If I knew then that by switching to a third-party provider I would get better and faster service at a significantly lower price tag, I would have made a stronger argument against selecting the `safe choice,”‘ he told me.

This is a fairly accurate recounting of a real event. Is this always the case? Do “third parties” always wear a white hat? Absolutely not. Just ask anyone responsible for a financial institution’s equipment who has had a third-party provider suddenly close his doors and disappear from the face of the earth, leaving the bank scampering to find a replacement. In fact, many third-party service providers-increasingly referred to as alternative service providers, or ASPs-have caused untold bank executives to conjure up images of ghastly medieval tortures as a result of bad or slow service.

TATA Internet Services, ISP subsidiary of industrial giant Tata Industries, plans to offer corporate clients ASP services.

The services offered will include value added services such as network management, messaging solutions, information backup and recovery.

The companies marketing focus will be on clients in the fields of finance, retail, manufacturing and automobile.

The program is now in initial testing and is expected to be offered commercially within the next couple of months.

The services will be offered initially in Mumbai and later in cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi.

What is an ASP (Application Service Provider)? In my town, it is no longer necessary to cook in order to eat at home. Two chefs, a father and a son, will contract to bring your family’s food to your home each and every night. You just choose from a menu the day before, and you pay a fixed fee every month. If we were talking about software instead of dinner entrees, that would be an ASP. In an ASP arrangement, you pay a monthly fee for the use of a software application, and the vendor takes care of everything else: acquiring the software, hosting and operating it, and delivering it to your doorstep, either via a private WAN or the ‘Net.

The ASP industry was invented during the dotcom boom, and went through some rough times during the shakeout. Certainly, it has learned some lessons and taken some new directions since the wild and crazy days. What the ASP model has to offer to higher education institutions right now is a challenge to the way we have traditionally thought about owning and operating software.

ASP-ING A WHOLE CITY
The City of Houston is blazing a trail that may prove instructive. Any Houston resident, armed with a free Houston Public Library PowerCard, can tap into a suite of office applications to write a resume, maintain a personal calendar, or keep records for a business. The city signed a contract with Internet Access Technologies (IAT) in June 2002 to provide the SimDesk and SimMedia applications from an Internet server and to provide remote storage for citizens’ documents. In effect, the city (through its contractor) has become an ASP on a wide scale. In the first phase, over 60,000 people have used SimHouston and have stored over a quarter of a million documents on the city’s servers.

If the SimHouston project can flourish, it may introduce the ASP model to more ordinary people than ever before. Of course, one could argue that Web-based e-mail services, or even eBay, also deserve to be called ASPs. But somehow, complex as they may be, Web e-mail and online auctions feel more like front ends to services, rather than complex software applications that are being delivered into users’ hands remotely and without an up-front purchase.

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Clickit, an Italian based direct e-mailing company and IN3-Incube, a distributor for 2G streaming video technology developer oplayo, have teamed to develop on-line advertising ASP services for the Internet.

The services will use oplayo powered streaming video technology to develop advertising services focused on videobanners - an online banner featuring TV images and sound. The oplayo-powered MVQ streaming technology will also be used for e-mail and video-based marketing campaigns.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

SOUND INTERNET SOLUTIONS

Should you delegate running your software to someone else?

When computers first arrived on the scene, they were too expensive for agencies to buy and operate, so service bureaus arose to allow agents to share computers, software, and data center infrastructure. Mini-computers, then networked PCs running DOS, then Windows software put management system, rating, and other software in reach of most agencies, and conventional wisdom had it that the right approach wasn’t to share but to have your own system.

However, in the last two years the picture has changed. Some vendors are now offering their customers a choice: Install and run the software locally or have the vendor host the software, then you access it through the Internet. And as a further development, a few vendors have developed packages that can be run only from the Internet; you can’t install the software and run it in your agency. Typically, vendors that offer their software through the Internet are called ASPs-application service providers.

Some agencies have made the switch to ASP-but most aren’t ready Are the early adopters on to something? Or are their more conservative peers right to wait and see?

A few years ago, during the Internet Bubble, experts predicted that shortly everyone would “rent” hosted software rather than bother buying and installing it. There were clear advantages to the ASP option-or so it seemed. The ASP would keep the software up to date, do backups, upgrade server hardware as needed, and generally take over many of the increasingly complex technical duties businesses found themselves saddled with.

The Internet Bubble burst and with it the prospect that the world would move wholesale to hosted software services. But interestingly, over the last two years, the ASP concept has caught on with at least some agencies, and scores are migrating monthly. Still, most agents aren’t planning to outsource their software hosting anytime soon. After a long struggle, they’ve gotten to a point where things seem to work pretty well with in-agency software. Why do something new-and look for trouble?

So what’s the truth about the ASP alternative? Is it something all agencies should be interested in? This article will focus on four central questions:

* What is an agency ASP?

* What are the dangers with an ASP?

* Can an ASP save you money?

* Do ASPs have important advantages over traditional in-house hosting?