Tag Archives: Next Generation

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Verint Launches Integrated Audio and Video Solution for Enhanced Security, Safety and Operational In

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Verint Launches Integrated Audio and Video Solution for Enhanced Security, Safety and Operational Intelligence

Solution Combines Nextiva Video Management Software with Audiolog Insight Center to Improve the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Critical Investigations

MELVILLE, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Verint® Systems Inc. (NAS: VRNT) today announced the launch of an integrated audio and video intelligence solution that provides command, control and communications centers, as well as public safety answering points (PSAPs), with a unified application interface to investigate incidents leveraging information from voice, video and other security systems.

The solution serves as a forensic tool that can provide public safety organizations and other critical infrastructure entities with a 360-degree view of captured data for expediting investigations, debriefings and training. Its integrated interface and advanced analytics enable audio and video to be analyzed together by capitalizing on the robust functionality in two proven Verint solutions.

  • Nextiva® Video Management Software™ is a comprehensive video management solution that offers policy-based video distribution, networked video viewing and investigation management to help security staff rapidly detect, act upon and investigate security breaches and other threats. Its automated video system health monitoring helps IT staff manage large, geographically distributed video operations and streamlines video system uptime to help ensure video availability.
  • Audiolog™ Insight Center™ is a state-of-the-art, browser-based incident recreation application designed to help emergency response and public safety organizations meet mission-critical needs, including those arising from Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1). Part of the Verint Audiolog for Public Safety™ multimedia recording solution, it can search multiple channels and display data captured from a variety of media on a single screen, including audio, video, text, screen data, telematics, photos, telephone numbers and location data.

Featuring a timeline of all single and mixed-channel audio recordings, along with recorded video provided by Nextiva, the solution, which became generally available in December, can help public safety organizations investigate incidents using:

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Boeing Delivers 137 Commercial Jets in Q1

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By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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Boeing (NYS: BA) released its updated tally of commercial and military aircraft delivered in the first quarter of 2013 on Thursday.

In the first three months of the year, the aerospace giant delivered 137 commercial aircraft, including:

  • 102 737 “Next Generation” regional airliners
  • 24 777s
  • Six 747s
  • Four 767s
  • and just one 787 Dreamliner.

The company’s defense unit, in addition, delivered:

  • 24 helicopters, including 15 Apache attack choppers and nine Chinook transports
  • Three C-17 transport aircraft
  • 15 combat jets — three F-15s and a dozen F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18G variants
  • and two P-8 subhunters.

Finally, Boeing’s space division delivered exactly one satellite unit.

Boeing shares climbed 0.7% in response to the news Thursday, closing at $84.95.

The article Boeing Delivers 137 Commercial Jets in Q1 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned, and neither does The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The Next Computing Revolution Will Take Us Beyond the Screen, but in Which Direction?

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By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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There’s a war going on out there. It’s not the war for mobile between Apple and Google , with everyone else launching half-hearted sallies at an occasional exposed flank. No, this war may have more far-reaching implications: It’s over the delivery of your digital experience. Will the future be spread out before you in full 3-D like the iconic Star Trek holodeck, or embedded with your inner life, unique and unseen to anyone else? Let’s see where the major players stand on this battlefield, and what their stances might mean for the future of computing.

Open immersion: the holodeck approach
The holodeck was one of Star Trek‘s favorite plot-filling devices across multiple series after its introduction in the Patrick Stewart-led Next Generation. It’s easy to see why. When you can create virtually any environment, with nearly any possible cast of characters, a trek through the final frontier can easily become a musing on loyalty in the Old West, or the nature of artificial intelligence, or a way to get your favorite android to play poker with historical intellectuals — or anything else you can imagine, really. We’re nowhere near the total immersion experienced by Star Trek‘s characters on the matter-manipulating holodeck, but we do have the early underpinnings of immersion already in place.

Microsoft has been an early proponent of the projected display, which resulted in the OmniTouch project in 2011, and, more recently, the IllumiRoom, which is the closest thing to a “holodeck” our 21st-century technology can come to Star Trek‘s 24th-century wizardry. Here’s a video of the IllumiRoom in action:

Other tech companies are hard at work on ways to create holograms, which would help expand IllumiRoom beyond the wall and into the room itself. Hewlett-Packard , for example, unveiled a 3-D display technology from its HP Labs that attempts to create holograms with LCD technologies already available. It’s not quite as exciting as Microsoft’s project, and it appears further away from commercialization (to say nothing of video production values), but you can see a video of HP‘s display in action as well:

Apple has apparently been working on a less-immersive form of projection that simply links devices to a projector, for which it received a patent in 2011. Apple has the resources and the technical expertise to pursue either a room-projection or a 3-D holographic projection system — or both. The question is: Does anyone at Apple really want to?

Inner experience: the wearable approach
If Microsoft is leading the charge on projected immersion, Google is taking the opposite path and has staked out a claim as the undisputed early leader of wearable displays with Project Glass. Google recently began accepting a small group of people into what amounts to a highly public beta test for the devices. Will their experiences look anything like this early Project Glass concept video?

Or are its first public users more likely to experience …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can Ford Secure the Next Generation?

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By Daniel Miller, The Motley Fool

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Ah, millenials… we’re an intriguing generation to say the least. My generation has absorbed technology so fully it is a seamless part our daily lives, and we have a superior confidence in ourselves – maybe to a fault. Typically research shows we’re a generation of people that are highly educated, tech savvy, ambitious, and entitled. We grew up with cell phones, the Internet, and a explosion in media advertising. Cutting through all the noise to grab our attention – and sell us your products — grows more difficult with each passing day.

To attract the younger consumer it takes a much different approach – one that Ford is excelling at. I’ll show you an example of how it’s working with Ford’s Fiesta, which is attracting more millenials than any other Ford vehicle. But, that’s just the first step in Ford’s big plan. Ford is thinking much bigger and further into the future. Millenials are the key to reviving its luxury Lincoln brand. I’ll show you why that is the case, and what investors’ need to watch out for.

Millennial buying power
The millennial generation represents more purchasing power now than people realize, and it will only increase as we age. We represent nearly 80 million people with a purchasing power estimated at $170 billion. That makes us the largest generation since the baby boomers, and much larger than the 48 million Gen Xers out there. It won’t be long before we are ready to outspend any other generation, leaving those companies unable to attract our attention left in the dust. Ford appears to understand my generation pretty well, so let’s look at why Ford is already way ahead of its rivals in attracting my generation, and why it’s so important for Lincoln’s future. 

Fiesta campaign
Ford’s first unique marketing campaign targeting the millenials was groundbreaking in 2009. It gave consumer-agents a Fiesta, gas, insurance, cameras and any equipment needed to create unique content from their user experiences. The agents combined to tally up over a million miles in the Fiestas and create more than 50,000 pieces of original advertising content. That content, used by Ford for commercials or paper ads, generated almost 30 million views. Here is an explanation why it worked so well, according to Keith Koeppen, Ford’s advertising and media manager: “Consumers — millenials in particular — like being a part of the brands they feel represent them. … This demographic is accustomed to creating content about their lives, so it just makes sense to give their creativity a bigger platform with greater scale.”

The 2009 advertising campaign created enough buzz through social media for over 132,000 Fiesta inquiries at dealerships. Even more impressive was that 83% of those inquiries came from consumers who had never owned a Ford vehicle! In an industry that’s known for brand loyalty, attracting that many potentially new customers is huge. On top of that, 30% of those inquiring were younger …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Boeing Gets Order Worth $15.6 Billion From Ryanair

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By Dan Radovsky, The Motley Fool

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Boeing has received an order from Ryanair to buy 175 Next-Generation 737-800 airliners, both companies announced today.

The agreement is worth $15.6 billion at list prices and represents the largest order ever from a European airline, according to Ryanair. The airline’s fleet will grow to more than 400 planes when the last plane is delivered. About 75 of the new planes will replace existing aircraft in Ryanair’s fleet of 305 Boeing 737s. Ryanair shareholders must approve the Boeing purchase.

Ryanair says the new airplanes will allow the low-cost airline to create more than 3,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers, while helping it grow at around 5% annually over the next several years. Ryanair’s goal is to have more than 100 million passengers by March 2019.

“These 175 new airplanes will enable us to lower cost and airfares even further, thereby widening Ryanair’s cost and price leadership over other airlines in Europe,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary in a statement.

Ray Conner, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, was quoted as saying, “This agreement is an amazing testament to the value that the Next-Generation 737 brings to Ryanair.”

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The article Boeing Gets Order Worth $15.6 Billion From Ryanair originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Dan Radovsky has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Ryanair Places Big Boeing Order

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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London-traded Ryanair Holdings, a low-cost European airline, has ordered 175 new Next Generation 737-800 aircraft from Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA). At current list prices, the order is worth $15.6 billion to Boeing.

The Next Generation 737-800 planes entered service in 2007, so the name might be a bit misleading. One of the planes costs about $89.1 million. The comparable 737 MAX 8, Boeing’s newest, most fuel-efficient model in the venerable 737 family, is not scheduled for delivery until the end of 2017 and costs about $100.5 million.

Had Boeing been able to make up its mind in a more timely way on whether to add a new member to its 737 family or to build a completely new airplane, Ryanair may have spent an additional $11 million or so per plane to buy the more fuel-efficient 737 MAX, which might have been available at least two years earlier. Just another instance of how valuable CEO Jim McNerney is to Boeing.

Boeing shares are up about 0.6% in premarket trading this morning, at $85.66 in a 52-week range of $66.82 to $86.49.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Aerospace, Airlines Tagged: BA

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Starwood Hotels' Sizzling Aloft Brand Debuts in Silicon Valley

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Starwood Hotels’ Sizzling Aloft Brand Debuts in Silicon Valley

Catering to the Next Generation of Travelers, Aloft Cupertino Boasts Prime Location Adjacent to Apple Computer’s World Headquarters

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.® (NYS: HOT) today announced that its leading-edge Aloft brand has debuted in Cupertino, California. Aloft Cupertino is the brand’s third hotel in California and its first in Silicon Valley, reflecting the rising demand for Aloft in vibrant markets worldwide. Owned by Shashi Corporation and managed by Azul Hospitality Group, Aloft Cupertino offers 123 spacious, loft-like rooms, forward-thinking technology and a vibrant, social atmosphere.

“We are thrilled to bring Aloft to Cupertino where we expect it will emerge as a favorite with savvy travelers and area professionals in a community that buzzes with excitement, innovation and thought leadership,” said Brian McGuinness, Senior Vice President, Specialty Select Brands for Starwood.

Located in the heart of Cupertino’s business district, Aloft Cupertino is adjacent to the Apple campus and walking distance to the City Center. Also nearby are the offices of Hewlett Packard, Google and IBM, Santa Clara University, HP Pavilion, Winchester Mystery House, the upscale shops and eateries on Santana Row, and a selection of wineries and world-class golf courses. Hotel amenities include an indoor pool, w xyzsmbar, 24-hour fitness center and 1,350 square feet of flexible meeting space, ideal for both business meetings and social gatherings. Aloft Cupertino is also pursuing LEED certification and offers many environmentally friendly programs and design elements.

“We are thrilled to introduce the Aloft brand to Cupertino, the epicenter of global innovation,” said Dipesh Gupta, CEO of Shashi Group. “With its flair for design and dynamic social scene, Aloft Cupertino is a great match for the energy of Silicon Valley.”

We are excited to join forces with Shashi Corporation and Starwood Hotels & Resorts on this unique opportunity,” said Christopher Herthel, Executive Vice President of Somera Capital Management

Los Angeles-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors (CCRA) provided the senior construction loan for the project, which was used to purchase the land and construct the brand new hotel.

“Canyon’s hospitality group has been active for many years, helping to facilitate complex transactions across the United States,” said CCRA Principal Jonathan Roth. “We are proud to expand our reach to Cupertino, and to lend our expertise to help make the beautiful and innovative Aloft …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Analog Devices' Next Generation of Digital Power Controllers with PMBus Interface Targets Highest De

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Analog Devices’ Next Generation of Digital Power Controllers with PMBus Interface Targets Highest Density, Energy Efficient Isolated Power Converters

NORWOOD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal-processing applications, today introduced the ADP1051 advanced digital power controller with PMBus™ interface targeting ultra-compact, high density isolated DC-to-DC power supply systems with parallel/redundant capability. The ADP1051 is an extremely versatile digital controller with six PWM (pulse width modulation) logic outputs that can be programmed using an easy-to use graphic user interface (GUI) via the PMBus interface. The device enables high energy efficiency topologies including full bridge and active clamp forward variants with precision drive timing and control of secondary synchronous rectifiers. Energy efficiency is further optimised using adaptive dead-time compensation to improve the efficiency over the load range and programmable light load mode operation combined with low device power consumption (<100mW) to reduce system low power standby losses. The ADP1051 implements an extensive PMBus command set including the ability to accurately read input and output power measurements and enable the end-user to make intelligent system management decisions to optimize energy efficiency. The tiny size 4 x 4 mm LFCSP package makes the ADP1051 ideal for high density, ultra-compact isolated DC-to-DC power module or embedded designs for networking, communications and industrial applications ranging typically from 100 W upwards.

The ADP1051 power controller is easily programmed using an intuitive graphical-user interface which enables customers to design and store settings in the high reliability, internal EEPROM memory. The ADP1051 implements several features to enable a robust system of parallel and redundant operation for customers that require high availability for increased current scaling. The device includes master/slave synchronization, reverse current protection and pre-bias start-up, accurate passive or droop current sharing between power supplies and a patented technique to identify and safely shutdown an erroneous power supply in parallel operation mode.

Key ADP1051 Features and Benefits:

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Dow's Big Shift and the Next Generation of Big Oil

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By Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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On this day in economic and financial history …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average made a big change on March 17, 1997. Four companies exited that no longer exist in the same form today — Texaco (absorbed), Woolworth (changed name and business model), Westinghouse (also changed name and business model), and Bethlehem Steel (went bankrupt) — were removed. All four were longtime components. Bethlehem Steel, the “newcomer,” had been a member since 1928, and gray-haired Texaco was the earliest of the foursome to join, becoming the last addition of the 12-member Dow in 1915. In place of these stalwarts, the Dow’s overseers added Hewlett-Packard , Johnson & Johnson, Travelers, and Wal-Mart.

Three of the four new additions have remained in the Dow ever since. Travelers was out in the next Dow shift as a consequence of its historic merger with Citigroup , which brought Citi into the index as a replacement. Travelers managed to regain its spot on the Dow in 2009, after Citi spun off the insurance giant in 2002 and then nearly collapsed during the financial crisis. Here’s how the foursome has performed in the 15 years since they were first added, against the performance of the Dow itself:

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: 109%
  • HP total return: 23%
  • Wal-Mart total return: 523%
  • Johnson & Johnson total return: 291%
  • Dow return until Citigroup removal: 26%
  • Citigroup total return (to 2009 removal): (71%)
  • Dow return, Travelers reinstatement to 15-year anniversary: 66%
  • Travelers total return since 2009 reinstatement: 107%
  • Travelers hypothetical 15-year total return: 262%

The 1997 shift turned out to be rather hit and miss, but the Dow rarely has perfect timing. The 1997 replacements have more going for them, thanks to Wal-Mart and J&J’s outperformance, than an ill-considered tech-heavy shift made in 1999 at the very height of the dot-com bubble.

HP joins the Big Board
Hewlett-Packard moved on up in a different way decades before it joined the Dow, as its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 17, 1961. This was four years after the company’s successful IPO and was later recounted by co-founder David Packard in his book The HP Way:

The first day of our public listing on the New York Stock Exchange did not start smoothly. A few of us flew to New York the day before the event and stayed uptown at the Essex House. Early the next morning, we set off for Wall Street. It never occurred to me to take a taxi; instead, we jumped on the BMT subway and headed downtown. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much of a subway navigator; after much debate, we made the wrong connection at Times Square. We arrived at Wall Street several minutes late and were immediately ushered into a huge corner office and greeted by the chairman of the exchange, Keith Funston. He chuckled when I explained that we’d gotten lost on the subway. I …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is National Oilwell Varco One of the Best Companies in America?

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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The Motley Fool recently released its list of The 25 Best Companies in America, naming the best businesses the nation has to offer. Yet even among companies that didn’t make the final cut, some stocks distinguished themselves with their high quality and promise. National Oilwell Varco is one of those companies, and it definitely deserves at least an honorable mention for its achievements.

The case for National Oilwell Varco
National Oilwell Varco is a huge player in the energy industry. But you won’t see its name plastered on the side of gas stations or listed among companies making big oil and gas discoveries, because Varco is neither an exploration and production company nor a downstream marketer of energy products. Rather, Varco is the company that oil and gas producers go to in order to get the equipment they need, including derricks, blowout preventers, mud pumps, and other drilling components, as well as the control systems and instrumentation necessary to monitor and guide drilling operations.

Unlike most areas of the energy industry, in which a large number of competitors vie for dominance, Varco has already captured market share of 60%, thanks to acquisitions of rival firms. Its recent offer to buy Robbins & Myers for $2.5 billion, for instance, will add pump technology and flow control capacity to Varco’s arsenal. Moreover, because its equipment is useful for drilling of all kinds, the vacillations between oil, natural gas liquids, and dry gas drilling that producers have made in recent years don’t have an impact on Varco. As long as drilling is occurring, Varco can profit from it.

How National Oilwell Varco treats its stakeholders
It’s important to look at National Oilwell Varco from the perspective of all of its stakeholders, including not just investors but also workers, customers, and the broader community. For its more than 40,000 employees, Varco has turned its massive growth into job opportunities around the world, offering careers in North America, Europe, and Asia. Moreover, its Next Generation program of training college graduates about the ins and outs of the oil and gas industry ensures a steady flow of well-qualified candidates who can serve the company throughout their careers.

Where Varco truly shines, though, is in how it serves its customers. By acting as a one-stop shop for exploration and production companies of all sizes, Varco has done an excellent job of getting its customers in the habit of looking to the company anytime they need something related to their oil and gas operations. The company counts Petroleo Brasileiro as a big customer, and with Petrobras having made huge discoveries off the Brazilian coast in recent years, that relationship will likely gain in significance in the years ahead.

For investors, National Oilwell Varco‘s stock has been mired in some of the same trends that have held many exploration and production companies back. As prices have plunged, many producers have had to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Schwab and Texas Tech Celebrate Opening of Newly Remodeled Charles Schwab Personal Financial Plannin

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Schwab and Texas Tech Celebrate Opening of Newly Remodeled Charles Schwab Personal Financial Planning Technology Complex

New Schwab Study Finds Next Generation Financial Professionals Drawn to Relationship Management Roles and Want to Create Careers on Their Own Terms

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Charles Schwab and Texas Tech University celebrated the opening last week of thenewly renovated Charles Schwab Personal Financial Planning Technology Complex1 at a ribbon cutting event attended by university faculty, students and financial professionals currently studying at Texas Tech for CE credits. Over the past several years, Schwab has contributed millions of dollars in support to universities and has developed programs to help mentor, train and provide hands-on learning experiences for future financial services professionals.

Schwab’s Bernie Clark addresses the crowd at ribbon cutting event at Texas Tech. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Charles Schwab Personal Financial Planning Technology Complex at Texas Tech, originally constructed in 2009, is used today by more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students in the University’s Personal Financial Planning Department. It is an approximately 4,500 square foot facility that now includes two state-of-the art classrooms, a 16-unit technology lab, a high-tech conference room, and a recording room to produce high-quality distance education modules.

“Attracting young people to the RIA space is critical to the channel’s success going forward,” said Bernie Clark, head of Schwab Advisor Services. “We are honored to be working with Texas Tech and other universities to provide support for young people entering the business so that they can be strong champions for the independent advice model in the decades to come.”

In early February, Schwab conducted a study with students at Texas Tech to gain their perspective on the financial services industry.

Schwab Study Findings: Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation

Today’s developing financial advisors are gravitating to a career where they can interact daily with people and have a role in relationship management (69%), as well as do work that matters and help others achieve their goals (63%), according to a recent survey conducted by Schwab Advisor Services among more than 100 students studying Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University.

Additional study findings include:

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I’m An “Allen West American”; Are You?

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By capblack

Allen West Im An Allen West American; Are You?

Allen West makes liberals mad!

And God Bless him for it!

They hate seeing American Black men loudly, proudly defend America, free markets, the Judeo-Christian ethic, and traditional values.

Doing this means no need for central management from the DNC and other communist controllers.

Liberals see Black folks as goose-stepping goons and basket cases on speed dial for their latest “Anything Goes!” schemes.

I often compare him to Malcolm X, another pugilistic plain talker who, unlike the former Congressman, aggressively promoted racial separation before renouncing it.

West promotes racial unity as part of a muscular American nationalism anyone can join.

Every group’s uphill climb, ours included, was so we could be citizens, not flunkies liberals use to extort money and sovereignty from America’s shrinking majority.

Allen West, like the aforementioned Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, shows how one vocal visionary can impact society.

Our generation had barriers swept from our path, which many forefathers died thinking they would never fall.

I call us the first free generation of American Blacks, and we frankly should be much more like West than agitators mumbling division and criminality.

As the first February observance of what I’ve re-named American History Month (aka Black Liberal History Month) approaches, I’ve dedicated it to US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, his generation’s conservative standard bearer.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t add I’m an Allen West American- loud and proud when need be!

Allen West answers a rhetorical question I’ve had for years. I ask, “When do we Black folks born here finally call ourselves Americans?”

How about now?

Cap Black, The Hood Conservative
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Content and Context Will Drive the Next Generation of Advertising

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By Alan McGlade, Contributor I was sitting at the counter of the Brooklyn Diner next to a 15 year old kid who was playing a racing game on his iPhone. He was holding the phone in both hands like a steering wheel, twisting it up and down to navigate around obstacles at high speed. The car engine sound abruptly stopped and shifted to a sappy instrumental with a male voiceover. “What the ….”, he shouted a little louder than necessary. His phone was playing a video spot for toilet paper. It was an ad network algorithm gone mad, but the damage was done. The kid immediately deleted the game app and swore that it would never intrude again.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Articles of Interest

Video: Allen West On The Next Generation

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By Daniel Noe

Col. Allen West explains the importance of the Next Generation project, especially for his own family. Hear why he wants to deliver both fiscal and economic freedom to his daughters and the next generation.

Related posts:

  1. Allen West: Why We Need To Stand Up For Our Future Allen West, Director of Next Generation Programming, discusses his plans…
  2. Video: Allen West To Obama, Fire Holder Or You’re Complicit! As always, Allen West is the man.… Continue to Post…

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Linux

The Road to KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 2

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KDE’s Next Generation user interfaces will run on top of Qt5, on Linux, they will run atop Wayland or Xorg as display server. The user interfaces move away from widget-based X11 rendering to OpenGL. Monolithic libraries are being split up, interdependencies removed and portability and dependencies cut by stronger modularization.

For users, this means higher quality graphics, more organic user interfaces and availability of applications on a wider range of devices.
Developers will find an extensive archive of high-quality, libraries and solutions on top of Qt. Complex problems and a high-level of integration between apps and the workspace allow easy creation of portable, high-quality applications.

The projects to achieve this goal are KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 2. In this article, you’ll learn about the reasons for this migration and the status of the individual steps to be taken.

As this article is going to be a bit long, due to its level of detail, you can just skip to the end of every subsection to get the executive summary. Also, I would like to thank Blue Systems for their sponsoring of a lot of the work that is going into the future of KDE’s products, among which, mine.

Status Frameworks 5

Development of KDE’s Frameworks5, which focuses on modularization of APIs currently contained in kdelibs and kde-runtime, loosening its internal structure and making it possible to only use specific parts by splitting it into individual libraries and solutions.

The entire work to be done for Frameworks 5.0 is split into 7 topics. Three of these “Epics” are done:

  • Initial communication and documentation (Kevin Ottens),
  • Merging of code into Qt 5.0 (David Faure)
  • Reduction of duplication with Qt by removing classes and using their Qt alternatives (Stephen Kelly)

Four Epics are currently work in progress, three of them are monstrous:

  • Build system (Alex Neundorf, Stephen Kelly)
    • CMake (upstreaming some stuff, modularization, porting)
    • Modularization of CMake KDE settings (work in progress)
    • Modularization of macros
    • Review and inventarize Find* CMake modules
  • kdelibs cleanups (David Faure)
    This is a large Epic, containing many bite-sized tasks. Roughly 50% of them are done, 37 tasks remain open and 7 are being worked on, an extensive list is on the wiki.
  • Qt 5.1 merging (David Faure)
    This is the list of things that we haven’t been able to merge upstream into Qt 5.0, so we hope we can upstream as much as possible into Qt 5.1. This can potentially cause timing problems, if we can’t get all the necessary things we need into Qt 5.1. 9 tasks are work in progress by David Faure, Thiago Maciera, Richard Moore and others. 52 tasks are on the todo list, most of them currently unclaimed.
  • Splitting kdelibs (blocked) (Kevin Ottens)
    Another large Epic, in bigger chunks, meaning going through all libraries one by one, porting their build system to the changes in Frameworks5, cut out certain library dependencies and changing the translation system. 13 tasks are done, 12 work in progress and 8 on the todo list, not all of them assigned.
    An extensive list of libraries and their status can be found on the wiki.

Frameworks 5 currently compiles on top of Qt 5.0 and basic system services run (kdeinit5), although not all of its dependencies have been ported to Qt 5. Work on Frameworks5 is ongoing, so it is currently quite a moving target, and will remain so for a while.

Plasma and KWin Direction

An architecture based on Qt5 and Wayland makes it possible to use a more modern graphics stack, which means moving from X11-based rendering to OpenGL graphics rendering. QtQuick2 (which is the QtQuick shipped with Qt5) makes it possible to offer a very nice and extensible development API, while using the full power of the graphics hardware to produce excellent visual possibilites. Plasma offers development APIs that make it easy to create well-integrated applications as well as workspaces that are flexible, extensible and fully featured on top of QtQuick, and in the future QtQuick2.

As KDE moves forward towards Frameworks5, Plasma is taking the opportunity of the source and binary compatibility break of Qt5 to do necessary updates to its architecture. The goal is to have a leaner Plasma Development API and depdendency chain and achieve a better user- and developer experience by moving the UI fully to Plasma Quick, which is QtQuick plus a number of integration components for theming, compositor interaction, internationalization, data access and sharing, configuration, hardware, etc..

This constitutes a major refactoring of the Plasma libraries and components. First, their UI needs to be done in QML. This effort of porting workspace components to QML is already well underway. Second, the Plasma library and runtime components need to be ported from the QGraphicsView-based canvas to QML. This means cutting out dependencies on classes such as QGraphicsItem and QGraphicsWidget to their equivalent in QML. In the case of painting and layouting code, it means porting this code to QML.

Detailed Status Plasma Framework

The first bigger set of tasks is done:

  • API changes have been made in libplasma2 (done)
  • De-QGraphicsViewification of libplasma2 (done)

The open tasks are:

  • Remaining libplasma2 design tasks
    • Out-of-process dataengines
    • Dataengines as models
    • More fine-grained data retention in dataengines
    • Improved remote widgets
    • Change libplasma2 directory structure to reflect Frameworks5 policies
  • Create a scenegraph-based shell, make it load a QtQuick2Corona, Containments and Applets
  • Port QML Scriptengine to QtQuick2
  • Port scriptengine from QScriptEngine to QDeclarativeEngine
  • Remove dependency on graphics backend (QGraphicsView, or scenegraph) (Marco Martin)
  • Port imports to QtQuick2
    • Plasma Core (containing Theme, FrameSvg, DataSource, etc.)
    • Plasma Components (containing a basic QtQuick widget set)
    • QtExtras (containing components missing in Qt, such as MouseEventListener)
    • PlasmaExtras (containing additional UI widgets for better integration, such as animations, text layout helpers, Share-like-connect integration, etc.)
  • Making scriptengines (such as the Python scriptengine) only export QObject-deriven classes to the QML runtime (needs investigation right now)
  • Port of widgets away from QGraphics*, also necessary for some QML code

Plans for KWin Plasma Compositor

Plasma Compositor refers, in a Wayland world, to the compositor used for Plasma workspaces, which is essentially KWin in disguise as Wayland compositor.
In KWin, we benefit from an ongoing effort to modularize and clean it up architecturally. For most of its UI, KWin already supports QML (Window decorations, tabswitcher, etc.). Some mechanisms which currenty work through XAtoms will need to be ported, the API impact of that will likely be quite limited for application developers.
The strategy for KWin is to port KWin to Qt 5, then make it possible to run KWin outside of an X server on top of KMS, using the graphics hardware more directly. The next step is to use KWin as compositor for Wayland display servers. The dependency of X11 can be removed once it is not needed anymore to provide compatibility with X11 applications, or can possibly be made optional.
Milestones for KWin (Martin Graesslin):

  1. KWin on Qt5 (work in progress, planned for 4.11)
  2. on top of KMS (planned for 4.11)
  3. KWin as Wayland compositor (planned for 4.12)
  4. no X11 dependency (planned for the distant future)

Plasma Workspaces

The porting strategy of the workspaces is to port plasmoids and containments to QML, in order to make them ready to run on top of the new infrastructure. In the case of C++ and Python, Ruby, JavaScript and “Web API” applets, it means rewriting them in QML. For portability and maintainability reasons, pure QML widgets are preferred. For some complex use cases, that can not be easily done in QML, we ship a combined C++ QML applet. For Plasma2, the only way to do the UI is using QML. QGraphicsWidget based Uis will not be supported anymore.

Once we have a working libplasma2 and a useful set of QML Plasmoids, we can think of running an entire workspace in QML and on top of QtQuick2, either on top of X11, or with KWin’s plans in mind, on Wayland.

Porting status of important widgets to QML / Plasma Quick needed for the workspace:

  • Taskbar (close to first review, target: 4.11) (Eike Hein)
  • Folderview (work in progress) (Ignat Semenov)
  • Desktop containment (second revision close to review, target: 4.11) (Sebastian Kügler)
  • Calendar (work in progress, target: 4.11) (Davide Bettio, Sebastian Kügler)
  • Kickoff (about to be merged into master, target: 4.11)
  • KRunner (work in progress, target: 4.11) Aaron Seigo, Aleix Pol
  • Done: System tray, pager, notifications, device notifier, battery, lock/logout, weather, Wallpaper, Containment support
  • Open:
    • Digital Clock
    • Icon
    • Picture Frame
    • others from kdeplasma-addons
    • and more (see wiki)

Conclusion

KDE’s Framework 5 project is well underway. It will allow us to move to a more modern graphics rendering engine, make our development platform more portable, and make it easier to reuse solutions KDE has built. The work does not happen by itself, however, yet it is time-critical. With Qt5.0 being released, 3rd parties are porting their code already. These people will only consider using KDE’s technologies if they are actually available — and that means we need a Frameworks 5 release.

So is this going to be KDE 5? The answer to this question is still “No!”, for a number of reasons:

  • KDE is the community, not the software
  • Frameworks 5, apps and the Plasma workspaces are not one singular entity. These parts are only released together (which might change in the future), and cobbling them up under one name really is really not helpful. (3rd party developers will think we’re only targeting Plasma workspaces, Plasma users will think you’ll only be able to run “KDE apps”, potential users of applications will assume that you can only use them inside Plasma workspaces — all of them untrue, all of them taken right out of my daily experience)
  • Within the Plasma team, we tend to use the abbreviation PW2 to refer to the next generation of Plasma workspaces. It stands for Plasma Workspaces 2, and it will probably be named differently in the future.

So, now you’re fully up to date on the status, isn’t it time to get cracking?

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE

Styles & Fashion

Can You Feel It Coming?

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New Year’s resolutions were surely broken at the New Museum‘s second annual Next Generation party, but what the heck, the future was being planned for. The kickoff event for the museum’s 2015 Generational, a triennial exhibition of emerging artists, the benefit drew the sort of young and irreverent crowd that’s often in short supply at fundraisers.

Of course, that’s what the Generational is about. (Previous editions have been called Younger than Jesus and The Ungovernables.) The most sought-after man in the room was artist Ryan Trecartin, who is co-curating the exhibition with the museum’s Lauren Cornell. “I’m extremely honored that they asked me,” he shouted, barely making himself heard above the noise.

Trecartin revealed that one Generational contributor had been confirmed: Dis magazine, which had models in promotion-friendly white bodysuits (“YOUR LOGO HERE”) posing animatedly with guests against an illuminated backboard. Many eagerly jumped into the frame, but not Terry Richardson. “The lights freak me out,” he said.

As the gin and vodka started running low at the bar, cohosts Brian Wolk and Claude Morais of Ruffian said they understood why the New Museum was working so far in advance. “Part of being a fashion designer is knowing what people are going to do, being able to feel the air du temps,” Wolk explained. The MAC collaboration they released this summer was more than two years in the making. But Wolk conceded that he and Morais hadn’t done much future-divining—or anything else, for that matter—on New Year’s Eve. “We were babysitting our friend’s cats.”

—Darrell Hartman
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Style Features