Category: general

We wrapped the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge last week at OpenWorld, and this week, I’ll be sharing all the entries. All the teams that entered our challenge did a ton of work and built really interesting integrations with Oracle Social Network, and I want to showcase their hard work and innovative ideas. Today, I… Read More

I teased this before OpenWorld, and for those of you who didn’t make it to the show or didn’t come by the Office Hours to take the Oracle Social Network Technical Tour Noel (@noelportugal) ran, I give you the Flying Monkey Smart Target. In brief, Noel built a target, about two feet tall, which when… Read More

Now that OpenWorld 2012 has wrapped, I have time to tell you all about what happened. Maybe you recall that Noel (@noelportugal) and I were running a modified hackathon during the show, the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge. Without further ado, congratulations to Dimitri Gielis (@dgielis) and Martin Giffy D’Souza (@martindsouza) on their winning entry, an integration… Read More

Yesterday, I told you about the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge we’ll be hosting at OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) next week. If you’re attending OpenWorld or JavaOne (@javaoneconf) and want to get hands-on experience with Oracle Social Network and show off your coding chops, this is the event for you. Go ahead and register. I’ll wait. But wait,… Read More

Noel (@noelportugal) and I have been working on something new for OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) for quite some time, and today, I got the final approvals to go ahead with the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge. The skinny. The Challenge is a modified hackathon, designed to run during OpenWorld and JavaOne (@javaoneconf), and attendees of both conferences are welcome to join and… Read More

If you’re reading this, you probably know that Oracle ADF is. If you don’t, ADF stands for Application Development Framework and is a Java development framework for building enterprise applications. If none of that mades sense, you should stop reading, but thanks for coming. Today, Oracle ADF Essentials, a free version ADF released under the… Read More

Wow, that sneaked up quickly didn’t it? Suddenly, there’s less than a week to go before the start of Oracle OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) and JavaOne (@javaoneconf), the annual mega-conference in San Francisco, September 30 through October 4. I assume many of you will be attending and are furiously pouring over the hundreds of sessions and events… Read More

If you’re heading to San Francisco later this month for JavaOne and are interested in learning about building social applications for your enterprise, you should plan to check out the Social Developer Program, organized and hosted by Roland Smart (@rsmartx) who recently joined Oracle after the Involver acquisition. The program runs from 10 AM to 3:30… Read More

Amy Jo Kim (@amyjokim), one of my favorite voices in software, not just game, design has emerged from a long hiatus and begun blogging again. All her work is worth studying, but one post in particular, Happy Habits: Engagement Design Meets Positive Psychology, hits home. I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with social applications, specifically Facebook, and… Read More

Ever since I got a new Macbook Pro about a year ago, I’ve had wonky issues with wifi at home. First, they seemed to be related to the dual-band router I also bought last year, but over time, they persisted. I’d lose connectivity and have to reboot the router; that probably wasn’t the best solution,… Read More

I’ve been mum about our plans for OpenWorld, but that should change this week, fingers crossed. Noel (@noelportugal) posted a picture today, and I figured I’d share it as a teaser for those of you attending the show who might be interested to see what we’ll be doing. If you read here, you’ll know that… Read More

So, now that Apple has officially announced the iPhone 5, how many of you plan to upgrade? I’ve been pondering a return to iPhone for more than a year. Getting Ice Cream Sandwich on my Nexus S placated me for a while, but that was a mixed bag for me. Earlier this week, I got… Read More

My fellow WebCenter (@oraclewebcenter) evangelist and friend, Peter Reiser (@peterreiser) has been a very busy dude lately, churning out a new series for the official WebCenter blog, the WebCenter Customer Spotlight. This series is pretty self-explanatory, focused on highlighting WebCenter customers and what each of them is doing with the WebCenter suite of products. Here are… Read More

Another day, another Internet of Things, um, thing. This one is SmartThings a Kickstarter, already funded, that aims to make your everyday things smart and collect them into a single platform for monitoring. They also have a maker program for tinkerers like Noel (@noelportugal), a smart move. There aren’t a ton of details beyond pretty… Read More

I know several people, e.g. Noel (@noelportugal) and Ultan (@ultan), who were stoked to receive their Raspberry Pis. For the uninitiated, the Raspberry Pi (@raspberry_pi) is a fully functional ARM GNU/Linux machine for $25, or in longer form: The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s… Read More

I’m a fan of IFTTT, which connects various APIs together to create useful channels that make services coexist better. It’s a user-centric approach; of course, reliance on APIs is a slippery slope, but that’s another discussion for another day. I’m also a huge fan of anything Internet of Things, so this TUAW post on IFTTT… Read More

Here’s another use for that rectangle packed with sensors you carry in your pocket or purse, restaurant pager. You know those vibrating hockey-pucks you get at chain restaurants to tell you when they’re ready to seat you? Well, now a startup called NoWait is replacing them with an iOS app that the restaurant can use to text… Read More

How do you solve the problem of locking a gate that many different parties need to open, each with a different schedule and all unaffiliated? With a shared lock of course. This lock on a ranch gate is designed for shared access by independent parties: Seen at ranch gate outside of Lasalle, TX. Removal of any… Read More

A quick glance at my router’s list of attaches devices shows that my interest in connected devices, a.k.a. the Internet of Things, is work I take home with me. I recently bought a Withings Smart Baby Monitor. I love my Sonos PLAY:3. My wife loves her FitBit Tracker, not itself connected to wifi, but synced wirelessly to… Read More

If you like design, typefaces and understanding why something is visually appealing, do yourself a favor and set aside 40 minutes to watch “Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See.” At one point, Inge describes the written letter as “the memory of motion,” which caused me to stop and ponder. Writing is, in large part, muscle memory.… Read More