AutoCAD on Mac OS X

AutoCAD is returning to the Mac this fall (including some apps for iPad and iPhone).  This pretty much completes the list of critical industry software that needs to be available to keep Macs from looking like they are not ready for the Enterprise.  The article speculates about “why now?” (and that’s interesting) but I’ve snipped some interesting figures that will pretty much explain it.

Hell Freezes Over: AutoCAD Returns to Mac

Since that switch to Intel, Mac marketshare has exploded. Just last week, Needham’s Charlie Wolf asserted that in the second quarter, business shipments for the Mac grew 50%, more than three times the market average of 15.7%. Mac shipments in government also grew 200% in the second quarter, sixteen times the market growth of 12.1%.

Priority Inbox Coming Soon to GMail

Google will be rolling out the priority inbox today (its not here yet).   From the description here it sounds great.  It tries to predict which email’s you’ll find high priority and tacks onto the list the inbox items you’ve starred.  You  can add filters that automatically mark emails as high priority as well.   As a result of using the new inbox, Google measured that on average 16% less time was used reading through useless email.  

Gmail Priority Inbox Launches: Your E-mail Will Never Be the Same

Today, Google will begin rolling out Priority Inbox for Gmail, a new feature for managing massive amounts of e-mail. Your inbox will never be the same again.

MariaDb for Mac OS X

Not for prime time, this is a developer alpha of the open source fork of MySQL which has gained new momentum in the wake of Oracle’s Java law suit.

MariaDB 5.1.49 for Mac OS X | Hakan Küçükyılmaz

Caution: this is the first installer I ever wrote on a Mac, so use it on a test system only!

Goolge won’t be at JavaOne

Just thought I’d pass along this note from the Google Blog.  It’s not a surprising announcement, but the tone speaks volumes.   Oracle may end up being cast as the new open source bogey man.  Hard to believe Microsoft could sink so low as to lose that title.  How sad is that?

An update on JavaOne – Google Open Source Blog

So we’re sad to announce that we won’t be able to present at JavaOne this year. We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally.

Interesting assessment of Scala

The author makes the point that Scala (like VB) counts on libraries to abstract away its complexities in hopes of gaining widespread appeal.   He also observes that tends to lead to a cast system in the programmers that use the language that is not productive.  

Erik Engbrecht’s Blog: Scala is for VB programmers

I’ve seen this type of thinking before. A few years ago I had a bout of insanity and lead an ASP.NET project using ASP.NET 2.0. I had no .NET experience prior to this project. The project failed, although the reasons for that failure are legion and unimportant here. But I noticed something about ASP.NET developers: they have no clue how the technology works.

Google Calendar adds “Find a time” for new events

The who edit event page has been revamped, but the big addition is the tight integration of the meeting scheduler feature.  If you can persuade all your coworkers to use Google Calendar, your job of scheduling a one-off meeting is going to be simpler.  Its not clear (to me) which of a person’s calendars the scheduler will take into account to determine availability, but requests have popped up to add a settings option that allows any subscribed calendar to be considered.

Google Simplifies Event Scheduling in Calendar

The other new addition is the “find a time” feature, which appears as a new tab on the event page. Here’s how GoogleGoogleGoogle explains the new feature:

“When your friends or coworkers give you permission to see their calendars, you can click this tab to see a preview of their schedules and hover over their events to see what conflicts they might have.”

Today’s update is a set of simple but useful additions to Google’s popular schedule-managing product. The “find a time” feature is especially useful for companies or organizations using Google Apps on a regular basis.

New Digg Went Live

And its dead to me now.  The little blurb below is so wrong.  Because (just like in the beta phase) the RSS feeds don’t seem to work.

New Version of Digg Goes Live For Everyone This Morning

But fear not, Digg diehards — the Digg you’ve come to know and love is still readily accessible at the top of the page, via the ‘Top News’ section. Clicking this tab will transition over to a version of Digg that’s much more like the current version, with recent news and Top News as submitted across all of Digg.

Google Voice Integrated with GMail Chat: Like Skype; Only Free

This got added to the Scotsman’s GMail today.  It works great.  Just like Skype, but free (for now).   When you make the call from GMail Chat, you show up on caller id as the Google Voice number tied to that GMail account.   

When you go to your Google Voice account, under settings, you can now elect to forward your Google Voice number to Google Chat as well as to any other phones added to the account. 

The result is pretty sweet.  And the price can’t be beat.

Google testing voice calling in Gmail | Relevant Results – CNET News

Google could be ready to turn Gmail into a communications hub by adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface.

CNET has learned that Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It’s launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice.

Firefox 4 beta 4 has Panorama and Sync by default.

Firefox 4 is starting to shape up.   With the addition of Panorama (previously Tab Candy), tabs for Firefox have again surpassed Chrome.  Sync has been available as Weave for quite some time, but in Firefox 4 it “just works”. 

Firefox Panorama: Tab Candy Evolved « Aza on Design

I am happy to announce that Tab Candy is coming to Firefox 4. Starting today, Tab Candy will be called Firefox Panorama and be available as a feature in Firefox betas. Head to the Firefox 4 feature list, or watch the video below, to learn how to organize your tabs into groups and reclaim your browsing experience from clutter and information overload.

Dell and 3PAR not yet done deal

It looks like a bidding war is on.

3PAR had three suitors • The Register

So, everything was done and dusted – except that HP decided to re-enter the game and make a hostile bid on August 23, with a substantially increased offer of $24/share, totalling $1.6bn compared to Dell’s $1.13bn. Our understanding is that Dell is now preparing a counter bid, possibly in the $20/share area. A headless HP has made a decisive re-entry into the bidding race for 3PAR and Qatalyst partners now has the circumstances it needs to get as high a valuation of Dell as it can, engaging in a bid price shuffle dance, exchanging partners and testing price proposals in a what has become a 3PAR auction.