“SOA is something you do,” while cloud “is a computing model or a way of leveraging computing resources where those resources can be provisioned and released as required from a set of resources pooled locally in a private cloud or remotely in a public cloud.”

Is SOA a vendor-driven fad? What isn't? Sound architectural philosophy is not a throw-away.


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/service-oriented/soa-was-an-artificial-marketing-concept-vmware-vp/7403

Labels: cloud, Service oriented architecture

posted by Tom Termini at 8/03/2011

My brother had an interesting thought - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is a real life version of Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.
posted by Tom Termini at 12/05/2010

Rather unbelievably, the vendor who said they would send me parts for my RANCILIO SILVIA ripped me off!

I will be updating my complaint against MR CAPPUCINO -- Ordered parts for my espresso machine. PRE PAID with international Money Order. Recieved ONLY ONE of the parts vis USPS. Other part never arrived, as their crappy packaging job caused it to fall out. Then they have the temerity to claim CUSTOMS lost it!

They are ripping off the insurance carrier by telling me to punt and file a claim. The delivery is F.O.B., so they are responsible for filing the claim.

In fact, I have already ordered the parts from another REPUTABLE supplied. I discovered that MRCAPPUCINO significantly overcharged me -- the same parts from another supplier cost only US$32.

I want a refund from MRCAPPUCINO. They misrepresented the total cost, incorrectly packaged the parts for shipment causing the loss, and then LIE about shipping a replacement.

I will be posting the entire documentation and communications on my BLOG, for all to find with Google, when looking for repair vendors.
posted by Tom Termini at 7/06/2007

Did i mention the green home (or green house) presentation i gave to the county?

See the site, here, http://www.mc-mncppc.org/goinggreen/

and download my PPT here:
http://www.mc-mncppc.org/goinggreen/images/Green_Home_Nov_15_2005.ppt

read more case studies

Why should you care?
Geothermal heat pumps (sometimes referred to as GeoExchange, earth-coupled, ground-source, or water-source heat pumps) have been in use since the late 1940s. Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) use the constant temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature. This allows the system to reach fairly high efficiencies (300%-600%) on the coldest of winter nights, compared to 175%-250% for air-source heat pumps on cool days.
posted by Tom Termini at 6/23/2007

Services oriented architecture (SOA) done incrementally -- that's the gist of this article on Government Computer News. They quote me (tom termini) on some efforts Bluedog has been instrumental on, as architects and developers.

According to the author,

"SOA can help with all that, but if you’re getting started on it, experts have two words of advice: Start small. Incremental change and gradual improvements are better than trying to SOA-enable your entire IT infrastructure.

SOA is a design approach that integrates business and IT strategies to provide users with common services that leverage existing and new functionality. A key goal is the development of a business and technology architecture that can support changing regulatory, business and customer needs."

Full article:

http://http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif www.gcn.com/print/26_16/44547-1.html

Of course, they mention some good stuff, like the FTC SOA effort.
posted by Tom Termini at 6/23/2007

Three-tier architecture means high availability, low cost, high security. Not held hostage by any single vendor. Expand capacity, come up with new ways to services users, quickly and economically.
posted by Tom Termini at 6/23/2007

I found some excellent case studies on the web, there's info on all the SOA (services oriented architecture), web services, Java / WebObjects projects done by Bluedog since 1998.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Labels: Some SOA case studies

posted by Tom Termini at 6/23/2007

Working on our encryption service that is deployed on an appliance. Bluedog's lead developer has come up with a nifty hash plug-in. The question remains, how difficult is it to enable others to use the service?
posted by Tom Termini at 10/10/2006

As we know, web services, and SOA in particular, represents an approach to distributed software that provides an abstraction that exposes business functionality as abstracted services that are both location independent and discoverable, possibly even on the intenet. Two considerations to application security should be considered. Primarily, the identity mechanism and policies might vary among legacy or back-office systems. Users might have different passwords and privileges for each system, so when users access a composite service, they may still need to be authenticated to each back-end system. Of course, Single Sign On is meant to address this.

Also, because the service layer acts as a mask of the details of the underlying technology implementation from the users, each service abstracts the user identity context as well. Connecting the particular users to overall functionality can be problematic, as SOA itself provides no overall security context. That is why we emphasize architecting with security (and single-sign-on) in mind.
posted by Tom Termini at 10/10/2006

Read about Bluedog's project management application (tool) for earned value management, CMMI and ISO9001 certification, and agile development. It's called Workbench, and is a J2EE web application written in WebObjects.

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project management approach that tracks physical accomplishment of a project in progress. EVM has the unique ability to combine measurements of technical performance, schedule, and cost aspects (in other words, are we under or over budget) within a single integrated methodology.

Bluedog's Workbench was written to support Government CIOs and CTOs in the portfolio management approach to guiding enterprise architecture and on-going project development.
posted by Tom Termini at 9/08/2006

When using WebObjects for web services, it's a good idea to read up as much as possible on the tricks and techniques.
posted by Tom Termini at 8/08/2006

Bluedog recently completed a project for the FTC, doing a technology refresh. Check out this recent article.

Interesting, especially the part about Agile married to government SDLC.
posted by Tom Termini at 8/08/2006

What is the web service platform? The basic platform is XML plus HTTP. HTTP is a ubiquitous protocol, running practically everywhere on the Internet. XML provides a metalanguage in which you can write specialized languages to express complex interactions between clients and services or between components of a composite service. Behind the web server, the XML message gets converted to a middleware request and the results converted back to XML.

Bluedog (located at this place is one of the best WebObjects development firms around, and the biggest in Washington DC.
posted by Tom Termini at 7/18/2006

According to TechDirt, it appears that tech IPOs are starting to heat up. Most of the IPOs that are being launched seem to be doing well. More and more companies are at least lining up to go public next year. The profiles, though, are a bit different than they were in the boom years, and look a lot more like what a typical IPO should look like: a profitable company that has a long enough track record to understand where the business appears to be heading. These are less speculative IPOs and more expansion IPOs, which seems healthier. Meanwhile, the biggest hitter on the IPO bench is, of course, Google, who may be timing their IPO with the presidential election season, noting that the economy seems to get a lift during election years. Update: In related news, Salesforce.com, has just filed to go public.
posted by Tom Termini at 12/20/2003

From a PCWorld Article...

Simpler Surfing
The user facing an unfamiliar system wants the answer to several standard questions, says Mander: What is this thing I am looking at, and what can I do with it? Icons should be designed to give some clear indication of what sort of application or document they will give access to if clicked, just as buttons on a physical device should be appropriately captioned.

Web page text and graphics elements often give little indication of which are page links, which are application links, and which are inert.

"You get people running their cursor over a page to see where it turns into a hand." Complex processes should have an "inductive" communications style, the "wizard" type that leads you through step-by-step, rather than the still prevalent "deductive" style, "where you have to look at the available tools and deduce what you can do and how you do it."

Where am I? A user should have a clear picture of their progress through a process, or their current location in a Web site map.

How do I get back to where I was before? "Press the back button" is not always the answer.

When Things Go Wrong
And, perhaps most crucially, when things go wrong: How do I make it stop? For example, if you want to stop a print job, it should have minimal consequences in terms of requiring other stages of the process to be redone.

Simple pages in "good basic HTML" are not just for disabled users and those out in rural areas with slow links, he says.

"Some of the slow modem users might be the very people you most want to communicate with. Venture capitalists sometimes stay in hotel rooms, and it would be embarrassing to hear 'we're having second thoughts about financing your venture because your Web site [response time] sucks'."


posted by Tom Termini at 3/19/2003

Did .NET Really Beat J2EE Flat? Can It?
http://www.fawcette.com/javapro/2003_03/online/j2ee_bkurniawan_03_11_03/

.NET and J2EE Battle for the Enterprise
http://www.fawcette.com/dotnetmag/2002_05/magazine/features/pokelly/default.asp

A few other interesting J2EE and .NET articles from that issue:
http://www.fawcette.com/dotnetmag/2002_11/magazine/departments/guestop/default.asp
http://www.fawcette.com/javapro/2003_04/magazine/features/dsavarese/

posted by Tom Termini at 3/14/2003

BlueDog | The Premier WebObjects ASP

We're on a brief break...more soon!


Worked in a Health and Human Services project here.
posted by Tom Termini at 11/09/2001

BlueDog is 100% UNIX...and our systems keep on running!


Web facing new Code Red attack today / Second coming may be worse Unlike other major systems attacks, which spread via e-mail, Code Red mostly infects servers than run Web sites. So ordinary computer users -- who might thwart a virus by avoiding suspicious-looking e-mails -- can still catch the worm if they run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating systems on their home or work computers, said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer at EEye Digital Security, the Aliso Viejo (Orange County) company credited with identifying Code Red.
posted by Tom Termini at 7/31/2001

Welcome to the DigitalGuru Computer Bookshops How can you use ASPs for your business? The Application Service Provider-market is on the verge of becoming a multibillion-dollar business, from its position as a niche market. Hiring an application instead of buying one means that the network (i.e. the Internet) becomes crucial.
posted by Tom Termini at 7/30/2001

The Key to Encryption Encrypting data that passes over the Internet from customers to e-commerce sites is a good thing. But it's not necessarily enough.

In fact, personal data used in online transactions is often encrypted at the least significant time.

Virtually all cases of credit card theft happen when a malicious hacker gains access to an e-commerce site's server, and is then able to access the database that contains customer information -- which by then is often unencrypted and exposed.

posted by Tom Termini at 7/16/2001

Here's a good sidebar on the same topic....


ASPs: Things to consider, 03/12/01 When deciding whether to go with a multiproduct ASP or an ASP aggregator, there are several key things to keep in mind
posted by Tom Termini at 7/14/2001

Choosing an aggregator? Read over two companies' experiences...

ASPs and multiple apps: Tying things together, 03/12/01 One chose a traditional ASP, while the other chose a so-called ASP aggregator, a company that provides a range of ASP services through a single, secure portal.
posted by Tom Termini at 7/14/2001

Reason enough to use a BlueDog solution, because ALL important data -- custoemr, product, transaction -- are well out-of-reach of prying eyes. All information in BlueDog-deployed applications are behind firewalls within secure database servers. Even the content visitors see on a BlueDog-powered website is generated by compiled applications.

Small Business Computing Magazine - Online Shops Expose Customer Order Data Several small online shops are exposing their customer order data, including credit card numbers, because of improperly installed online shopping cart software.

Also check out some stuff on my home page.
posted by Tom Termini at 6/20/2001

PSINet, C&W spat causes Net disconnect | Computerworld News & Features Story PSINet, C&W spat causes Net disconnect

Internet traffic between the networks of Internet service provider PSINet Inc. and carrier Cable & Wireless PLC (C&W) came to a screeching halt for four days during the past week after the two companies couldn't come to an agreement on a "peering" contract.


posted by Tom Termini at 6/08/2001

FT.com | News and Analysis | World Article Good intentions that could kill e-commerce
A treaty to enforce laws in cross-border disputes threatens an unwieldy solution to a manageable problem.
posted by Tom Termini at 5/31/2001

An interesting interview...a meal-delivery service, using WebObjects to run the e-commerce apps.

E-Commerce Times: Success Stories E-Commerce Success Story:
Cybermeals, Inc.

posted by Tom Termini at 5/30/2001

Another reason to stick with industrial-grade Unix... we do!

News: Insurer: Windows NT a high risk Microsoft's server software is easy to install, loaded with features and fairly reliable. It may also be more costly to insure against hack attacks.
posted by Tom Termini at 5/29/2001

The single biggest threat to your servers on the net....this is an interesting study on the number of attacks on the net.

Abstract - Inferring Internet Denial-of-Service Activity - CAIDA : OUTREACH : papers : backscatter Inferring Internet Denial-of-Service Activity
posted by Tom Termini at 5/23/2001

As the premier WebObjects ASP, we are lookikng forward to a bright future with Apple's enterprise technology forming the underpinnings of our solution set.


Mac OS Rumors Another exciting chapter in the history of the Mac platform has begun today; virtually all of today's announcements and whisperings are setting the stage for future developments (more drivers and more applications for Mac OS X, a powerful new server platform, Apple moving entirely to flat-panel displays, more pervasive user of nVIDIA accelerators, etc.)....and from where we stand, the future is looking bright.

posted by Tom Termini at 5/22/2001

We're at WWDC with our developer team. Lots of big news that will impact our clients....in a good way!!

Mac OS Rumors WebObjects 5 premiered, with an emphasis on its Java technologies and the ability to merge existing Java applications and expertise into Mac OS X Server (among several other WO-friendly platforms).
posted by Tom Termini at 5/22/2001