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Paradigma Software shipped Valentina 4.7, including updates to the core columnar database, Valentina Reports and server specific improvements. There were a few really annoying issues put to rest with this release, and more improvements to SQL Explain functions. For Mac OS X developers though, this also brought 64 bit versions of Valentina for Cocoa, Valentina C++ for Mac OS X and Valentina PHP (Client and Standalone) on Mac OS X. Not to be ignored, Valentina PHP Client is also available in a 64  bit version for Linux.

At its core, Valentina DB is a columnar database, but you can treat it much like a traditional relational database.  With its columnar roots, you’ll find your database operations, especially complex queries against databases with records numbering hundreds of thousands or more, far faster than a relational database – with some operations, it may be only twice as fast. With others, its hundreds or thousands of times faster. This is especially meaningful if you are pulling large data sets for analysis with your custom applications. Valentina DB is a long time favorite with financial service application providers.

Firefox 2.x now alerts you to the availability of Firefox 3, however it is a siren song that can run you up against some sharp and IE style rocks in compatibility. Don’t upgrade until you understand these significant issues with Firefox 3.

You cannot easily run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 at the same time, without significant and non-intuitive playing around with profiles. What are the Mozilla developers thinking? Web developers have to test their web pages with multiple browsers – who does not know this?  What makes web developers howl about every new version of Internet Explorer? Let you users decide how many installations they want to run at one time.

Firefox 3 deactivates incompatible Firefox 2 compatible plug-ins, and does not offer any sort of emulation mode. This would be a non-issue if you could run Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 on the same computer without the hoop jumping. It was only after installing Firefox 3 that I discovered it deactivated the wonderful Addthis bookmarking tool. I use this tool many times a day because it allows me to not only bookmark pages using DIGG, Google Bookmarks and other services, but also to easily link a page to my Twitter profile. Nothing Firefox 3 adds replaces this, and its more important to me than the upgrade.

Why didn’t I visit the Mozilla user other community forums first? Because this is my first disappointment with Mozilla.

As of this date, the forums are packed with unhappy upgraders looking to downgrade to Firefox 2.  If you are considering upgrading – read the firefox forums first.

Once again – Valentina is not only the fastest developer database but also the first-to-market to support the new, Universal Binary version of Adobe Director 11 – with Valentina for Director 3.5.2. Adobe Director 11 was recently announced at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. You can’t buy Director 11 yet, but you can pre-order the upgrade.

For Mac OS X developers, Valentina for Director 3.5.2 offers both a Carbon and Universal Binary version, with the former – and the Windows version – supporting back to Director 8.

I sometimes get asked what the difference is between Adobe Director and Mirye Runtime Revolution. They are different in so many ways – except that they both offer cross-platform solutions for building rich media applications. Director does fall short, in that Revolution also supports Linux and Solaris. But Director has Shockwave on its side, for playback through the Shockwave browser plugin. Good thing that there is a Valentina solution for both platforms.

Fans of the Apple Mac Mini have banded together to petition Apple to continue to update the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is a small, consumer oriented version of the Macintosh computer. It has a very small form factor that is exactly compatible with the Apple TV. This little computer has a far greater potential for use outside of just being an entry level machine. Its small form factor lends itself to being a very stackable, portable server, especially with attached network drives. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple released Quicktime 7.2 today. This release is highly desirable since it adds full screen viewing of video, a feature long missing from the general release of Quicktime and widely available in free video players from other companies. Previously you had to purchase Quicktime Pro from Apple for $29.99 to get this functionality. This is an interesting study in forcing end users to upgrade by requirement. Read the rest of this entry »