Windows Marketplace for Mobile opens up
In a long overdue move, Microsoft opened up Windows Marketplace for Mobile. This should have been available… oh… five years ago, cutting Apple off at the pass. Now, it may be a case of too little, too late, as Apple and BlackBerry slowly push Windows Mobile out of the market.
Google moves to index AJAX
Google is proposing to index AJAX. I applaud this idea, since the lack of indexability is a major problem in AJAX apps. It is a little disappointing that the proposal, as I see it, does not help the huge accessibility issues around AJAX though.
Accessibility and indexability are often closely linked, as search engines are incapable of doing many of the things that accessibility tools cannot do. As a result, sites that try to be search engine friendly often end up being slightly more accessible, and this proposal would take away another incentive that leads to more accessible Web sites.
Microsoft publishes papers about TDD methodologies
Microsoft has published a number of papers regarding development methodologies, and the results are quite interesting. Test-driven development (TDD) resulted in a 60% - 90% reduction in bug density but increased development time by 15% - 35%. What’s even more interesting is that organizational structures could predict the likelihood of a piece of software failing with a whopping 85% accuracy — that is significantly better than any other metric previously used. Also of note is that software written with assertions was better than code without it — although that is attributed to the skill level of the programmers who are more likely to use assertions.
Palm opening its developer program in December
Palm is also shooting for mobile developer mindshare with plans to open its developer program in December. Palm is even further behind Microsoft in this game when you consider that PDAs used to be known to everyone as PalmPilots, regardless of brand.
uTest’s test community continues to grow
uTest, which provides crowdsourced QA and software testing, announced that it has more than 20,000 testers in its community. I recommend that anyone with some spare time and a desire to make extra money look into becoming one of the company’s testers.
A few details on Windows 7 development
New jQuery book receives praise
Engine Yard taps additional funds
Engine Yard has raised additional VC money. Right now, a substantial portion of the Ruby development is done by Engine Yard, so this is good news for the entire Ruby community.
J.Ja
Disclosure of Justin’s industry affiliations: Justin James has a contract with Spiceworks to write product buying guides. He is also under contract to OpenAmplify, which is owned by Hapax, to write a series of blogs, tutorials, and other articles.
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