ReadWriteHack

Just a few short years ago, the problem of database size scaling to colossal capacities that exceeded the scope of entire network storage units, seemed insurmountable. Today, it's practically under control, with a wealth of open source technology emerging not from database engineers but rather from Internet architects. Hadoop has transformed the very nature of transformation, becoming one of the most readily adopted technologies in the history of the data center.

But is it mature? And will businesses have access to the right people with the skill sets necessary to master this new aspect of information management? After having spent five years as a senior engineer at Sybase, another six years as a development director at Informix, and over three years managing DB2 development for IBM, Anjul Bhambhri is arguably one of the most skilled plain data architects in the business. In September 2010, IBM promoted her to the new post of Vice President for Big Data and Streams. In an interview with ReadWriteWeb, we asked Bhambhri whether the big data tools developed in so short a time are mature enough to be used by IT workers everywhere, or whether they will truly require a scientist to master.

One other way to think of a "content management system" is as a database engineered to present data in a rich and navigable format. As such, a CMS doesn't have to be "the company blog;" and a business' communications - especially the kind that used to be logged on the intranet - don't have to look like WordPress.

A few months later than originally planned, the "RTM" code for version 5 of the open source Umbraco CMS has made its way to CodePlex, Microsoft's open source distribution channel. Now the hard part begins: updating, and in many cases replacing, existing documentation that goes back to version 3.

Google is trying to get developers interested in Dart with a technology preview of the Dart VM in Chromium, better known as Dartium. The plan is ultimately to include the Dart VM in Chrome itself, but no timeline has been given yet for that.

Google has been pushing pretty hard to move Dart forward. The company released a Rosetta Stone for JavaScript programmers called Dart Synonym at the beginning of February. However, developers have had to compile Dartium from source or find unofficial builds to test the code.

The developer version of Debian GNU/Linux ("wheezy") contains 17,141 packages of software, or 419,776,604 lines of code. With that figure, James Bromberger estimates that Debian would cost about $19.1 billion to produce. Bromberger also looks at the cost of individual projects like PHP, Apache and MySQL. Even at more than $19 billion, the figure is likely far short of what it would actually cost to produce.

The Chrome folks have put together a Field Guide for Web Applications that is almost as notable for its design as the content itself. The field guide is a short resource with four chapters on Web apps, and one devoted to "Bert Appward" – the fictitious author of the guide.

The guide is laid out as a book, and works as an offline application. For example, you can give the app permission to store itself on your mobile device and read it even if you're away from a data connection.

The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 3.5.0 today with a fair number of new features. Question is, where are all those contributions coming from?

According to the infographic released earlier this month, the bulk of contributors are volunteers, but the majority of work going into LibreOffice comes from SUSE, Red Hat, legacy code from OpenOffice.org and volunteers.

Here's a tip: If you want to gain traction with developers, having a name that calls caffeine to mind may not be a bad thing. OK, that may not be why CoffeeScript and Java are making gains on GitHub and Stack Overflow according to RedMonk's February 2012 language rankings, but it probably doesn't hurt.

RedMonk is using a ranking system developed by Drew Conway that pulls data from GitHub and Stack Overflow to gauge language popularity. They first looked at this in September of last year and came up with four tiers of languages.

Catching up to Chrome is just part of the Firefox roadmap for 2012. Mozilla's Asa Dotzler has updated the strategy and roadmap for desktop Firefox in 2012. While the Mozilla folks have several original ideas and goals, there's a lot in the first half of the 2012 roadmap that looks very familiar to Chrome users as well. The really interesting features come in the second half of 2012, and relate to user privacy and account management. Third party cookie management and tracking could be a killer feature for Firefox later this year.

If you have a look at the desktop feature roadmap, you'll see that Q1 and Q2 have quite a few features that are either already in Google Chrome. For example, there's sync for add-ons, assuming add-ons work across releases, silent update and a redesigned new tab page.

Alexia Tsotsis, who writes for TechCrunch, had this advice on Twitter earlier today: "Good tech blogger rule of thumb: Avoid using 'API' in headlines when/if you can." Usually, I'm all thumbs myself, but I can't find this particular rule on them anywhere. I suppose I'm not a blogger after all.

Or perhaps I just know my audience. The first rule of communication, as I have taught and been taught (both quite repeatedly, and often) is, "Know your audience." The API has become the principal communications tool of any company that does business digitally. Therefore, professes Netflix Director of Engineering Daniel Jacobson, when designing your API, you should identify, evaluate, and serve its audience just like with any other communications tool.

If you have kids (or you are one) and you're in or near the San Francisco area, you might want to sign up for the GitHub-sponsored CoderDojo coming on February 25th. CoderDojo is a free, not-for-profit movement with a strong open source emphasis on open source that seeks to teach young people how to code and make learning "a fun, sociable, kick ass experience."

The organization was founded by James Whelton and Bill Liao, and has focused mostly on Ireland until now. (There's also a CoderDojo in London.) The program is for kids between seven and 18, and according to GitHub's Cameron McEfee has been teaching "HTML, CSS, Javascript, iOS app development, and pretty much anything else they think sounds awesome." Kids also get guest lectures from tech mentors and tours of tech companies, in addition to instruction on development.