New Version of Software Library PDF Direct & Quick View

Spreading of file formats PDF and PDF/A strongly increases during the last years, and this trend is stable. Since today the advantages of the file format for a safe and efficient exchange of electronic documents are universally recognized, PDF is established as a standard. Today at the document processing one must not renounce a platform covering retention of the representation quality and formatting of the original document, comfortable collaboration functions as well as independence from the original program with which the file was created.

New version of PDF Direct & Quick View 5
soft Xpansion takes into account the increasing significance of PDF format by the further development of new products. With PDF Direct & Quick View 5 the company publishes a new version of its developer library, which was firstly offered in 2002 to the implementing of PDF format in software applications.

With PDF Direct & QuickView 5, complicated developing projects can be realized in Visual C ++, .NET and in languages with COM support. Besides, the libraries allow a direct production and processing (PDF Direct) as well as announcement (PDF Quick View) of PDFs in software applications. This also concerns foreign, already created PDF files. The users of the application need therefore no additional programs to be able to produce, process, view and print PDF files. Both libraries offer a huge number of powerful options for a flexible implementing of PDF format.

Version 5 offers the following new functions and improvements:

• Support of 64-bit versions of Windows
• Production of PDF pages from content objects (text, vector and grid graphics)
• Processing of the contents of PDF pages (PDF Rich Edit)
• Combining of several PDF-pages in one page
• Import of HTML files and Web pages
• Import of GDI + metafiles
• Time stamp functions (insertion and validation)
• Trust-validation of signatures
• Improved import of pictures by the site production

The conceptual specific feature of PDF Direct & QuickView 5 lies in the modular construction of the library and in the adaptable price model linked with it: software developers can select PDF functions, which users of their application will need at their work with PDF files or to which they should have access. Cost-intense, unnecessary PDF functions should not be paid for.

Functional overview
Details about PDF Direct & QuickView 5 can be found in Internet on the product site in the area PDF Xpansion on http://www.soft-xpansion.com/.

Supported operating systems
PDF Direct and Quick View 5 can be used in applications, which run under the 32-or 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, XP (Home or Professional Edition), Server 2003 or 2000.

Price & availability
PDF Direct & QuickView 5 costs from €1.450,-.

The library is available from now on and is offered in several license models and component parcels, which allow an adaptation to the needs of the target group and the users of the respective purpose application. No other software components are required except for those, which are already installed with the operating system Windows.

The complete price list including a description of license models and component parcels can be downloaded on http://www.soft-xpansion.com/.

Demo-version and documentation
For a demo-version and the extensive documentation please send a short message to sales @ soft-xpansion.com.

About soft Xpansion
The company soft Xpansion is a international team of software developers, screen designers and product managers, which has developed more than 100 software products since its foundation in 1995. In addition to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, product markets are situated in a large number of other countries, in which localised product versions were published. Among them are Great Britain, France, Italy, USA, Benelux, Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Australia and Turkey. soft Xpansion offers solutions (individual development and out-of-the-box products), which are focused on the areas of PDF-technology, system utilities, document and database management systems as well as data and application security.

Further information about the enterprise and the products you can find onhttp://www.soft-xpansion.com/.

PDF3D Toolkit Adds Unified 3D File Conversion Architecture, Linux, Image Loading

PDF3D® technology enables publishing interactive 3D PDF documents, harnessing the free Adobe® PDF Reader. A new file conversion application and development tool architecture converts 3D models from 3DS, STL, VRML, IV formats to 3D PDF. In a significant advance, several Linux platforms are now supported including Red Hat Enterprise and Ubuntu, along with the latest Visual Studio 2008 suite from Microsoft. A new image file loader supports embedding TIFF, JPEG, PNG and BMP images in both the 2D and 3D PDF layers. This release from Visual Technology Services further empowers knowledge transfer and collaborative sharing of 3D technical analysis to teams across the enterprise through standard PDF documents.

PDF3D SDK version 1.5.0 includes the following new features:

• Red Hat Enterprise version 3.9 and Ubuntu 7.10 are now supported for C++ software development enabling 3D PDF generation. Developers may now integrate PDF3D into their own Linux applications, add their own user interfaces, or create command-line conversion services.
• A new unified 3D file conversion architecture streamlines and supports a number of interface types, where the PDF3D-SDK library services take care of most of the common functions. A new interactive application is supplied with the toolkit on Windows, allowing users to experiment with 3D PDF file generation.
• Image File loading from JPEG, PNG, BMP and TIFF format images may now be loaded directly from file, using PDF3DImageLoader class. Visual quality of texture images is enhanced by the addition of alpha-blending, enabling complex variable transparency on 3D objects, taking full advantage of hardware graphics features for displaying textures. Images may also be place on the PDF page, supporting logos, legends, or photographs.
• For users wishing to make presentations, a new component is included allowing 3D PDF interactive documents to be shown within a live PowerPoint presentation, along with a sample of such a presentation.

“Version 1.5 has many features requested by developers using 3D PDF functionality to their applications” noted Ian Curington, CEO of Visual Technology Services Ltd. “PDF3D models can now be generated on technical Linux desktops and servers; generating reports where users can rotate, zoom, pan, set transparency, explore and review analysis results on 3D models all within the Adobe Reader or PowerPoint presentation.”

PDF3D SDK 1.5.0 is used by scientists, engineers, researchers and software vendors to enable improved communication through the PDF standard, with immediate availability. The release comes with a complete suite of interfaces, ready-to-use applications, source code examples, and full documentation. PDF3D-SDK is available for OEM/ISV integration within commercial products and server deployment. Pricing on request.

About PDF3D
PDF3D is a specialized technical publishing technology from the dynamic and innovative Visual Technology Services with unique visualization skills specializing in the delivery of customer solutions with specialized analysis, leveraging skills and IP in interactive graphics, novel display techniques and data visualization with clients in mechanical engineering analysis, defense, aerospace, nanotechnology, microelectronics, material science, geology and geophysics. The ISO9001:2000 certified professional services team is available for enhanced solution development.

Source: PRWeb

Continuent Announces New uni/cluster 2008 for PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB

Continuent, Inc., the leading provider of commercial open source middleware solutions for database high availability, today announced Continuent™ uni/cluster 2008. This newest version of Continuent's uni/cluster software provides the highest levels of availability and scalability for database applications built using PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB™ Postgres Plus databases.

Continuent uni/cluster offers a multi-master approach to replication. Data is committed and available to all nodes in the cluster simultaneously, effectively eliminating data latency and providing increased reliability through redundancy. Continuent uni/cluster includes a build-in load balancer, which allows any database server to be used to process user queries, providing near-linear scalability, and optimal resource utilization, throughput and response time.

New features in Continuent uni/cluster 2008 include:

• Simplified installation and configuration,
• Faster performance by supporting for more than two cluster controllers,
• Better management tools with new platform-independent Adobe® AIR™-based GUI, and
• SUN Solaris™ support and Red Hat® 5 certification.

"I'm very glad to see Continuent uni/cluster now available on Solaris," said Josh Berkus, the leader of Sun Microsystems' PostgreSQL team. "High availability is often the highest priority of our PostgreSQL for Solaris customers, and the new uni/cluster gives them another powerful tool for 99.999% uptime."

"We are pleased to have Continuent in our new Blade Partner Program," said Bob Zurek, CTO of EnterpriseDB. "Built-in failover and redundancy are essential in today's scale-out data centers that run Web 2.0 applications and demand unparalleled availability and scalability."

"With Continuent uni/cluster 2008, organizations have insurance against outgrowing the capacity of their system," said Eero Teerikorpi, CEO of Continuent. "They can add new database servers on the fly and take advantage of uni/cluster's load balancing, where database activity is directed to the least busy server. This can be vital to maintaining continuous data availability for maximum productivity and meet customer expectations."

For more information about Continuent products, visit http://www.continuent.com. For information on Continuent's involvement in the open source community, visit http://www.continuent.org. More information about the Postgres Plus family of database products is available at www.enterprisedb.com.

About Continuent
Continuent provides continuous data availability. Continuent develops and markets commercial Continuent uni/cluster products and services based on Sequoia, a database-neutral, open source database-clustering project (www.continuent.org). Continuent's commercial open source solutions are currently available for EnterpriseDB™, MySQL® and PostgreSQL. Continuent's Sequoia open source solutions are available for Microsoft® SQL Server, Oracle®, IBM® DB2®, and Sybase®. Continuent is headquartered in San Jose, CA, with research labs in Finland and France. For more information, please visit www.continuent.com.

Source: PRWeb

Sun Microsystems Introduces MySQL Workbench

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced the availability of MySQL(TM) Workbench, a new visual database design tool that integrates data modeling, physical database design, database creation, change management and documentation capabilities into a single, seamless environment for MySQL developers and DBAs.
MySQL Workbench is available for download in two versions: an open source Community Edition and a (US) $99 commercial Standard Edition. Both are available now for Microsoft Windows, with future cross-platform support for Linux and Macintosh OS X under development.

The announcement was made this morning at the sixth annual MySQL Conference and Expo. With nearly 2,000 attendees, it is the world's largest community event for open source database developers, users, DBAs, vendors and corporate IT managers.

"We are very happy to deliver a powerful open source database design tool for the MySQL ecosystem," said Michael G. Zinner, Sun's team lead for database developer tools and the original developer of the popular DBDesigner4 open source software project. "The two editions are designed to meet the needs of the do-it-yourself community developer, while providing a very affordable and compelling commercial product for the corporate database professional."

The MySQL Workbench Community Edition is freely available for download under the open source GPL license at dev.mysql.com/workbench. This full-featured tool provides a base framework for data modeling and physical database design.
The MySQL Workbench Standard Edition is a commercial extension to the community edition that adds specialized plug-in modules that can boost productivity and save time. These include reverse- and forward-engineering capabilities, synchronization to and from live databases, HTML and text-based documentation, built-in validation of models and security management for modeled objects. At the MySQL Online Shop (http://shop.mysql.com), users can purchase a (US) $99 subscription for a perpetual single-seat license and software updates for a full year.
As a special introductory promotion, customers who purchase or renew MySQL Enterprise(TM) silver, gold and platinum level subscriptions by June 30, will receive a complimentary one-year subscription for MySQL Workbench Standard Edition*.

More information and a feature comparison chart is at www.mysql.com/workbench. Volume license discounts for multiple seats are also available for purchase.

MySQL Workbench Improves Productivity for Users

"MySQL Workbench SE has allowed our team to improve productivity and deliver products on time and within budget. The tool is very intuitive and we find our new staff can ramp up quickly. This tool has significantly reduced the task-time of our data modeling, leaving more time to concentrate on quality. It also helps eliminate defects early in our development phase."
Jamie Schultz, vice president of Operations
B Three Solutions, Inc.

"We've looked at many applications to manage database development, and MySQL Workbench is the best. It's an amazingly powerful database management front-end that's also easy to learn. I use it exclusively now for most data design tasks -- from advanced data modeling to general database administration. I recommend it."
Kevin Haas
OpenBI, LLC

"MySQL Workbench SE is a powerful visual design tool. I have tried other modeling tools, but the learning curve was too steep. With Workbench, I was up-and-running within minutes. From now on, MySQL Workbench will be an integral part of my development toolkit."
David Alsbury, CEO/President
Alsbury Media Group

About Sun's MySQL Database

MySQL is the most popular open source database software in the world. Many of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, critical business systems, and packaged software. At www.mysql.com, Sun provides corporate users with commercial subscriptions and services, and actively supports the large MySQL open source developer community.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer"(TM) -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, MySQL, MySQL Enterprise, and The Network is the Computer are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems in the United States and other countries.

*Standard subscription terms apply.

Source: PRWeb

Nitobi Uprades Ajax Component Suite with Safari Support, Dreamweaver Extensions and New Grid Component

Nitobi Inc. enhances its Ajax component suite today with the release of Complete UI Q2 2008. Today's release strengthens the popular Ajax development tools with Safari 3 support, a new hierarchical grid component, a variety of new themes, and multi-component Dreamweaver extensions that make use-cases like master-detail grids even easier. Complete UI is available for download at www.nitobi.com/download/.

Complete UI is a suite of Ajax-powered components that significantly improve user experiences for any web application. Complete UI is designed to help developers build great user experiences on the web. Powered by Ajax, Complete UI off-the-shelf components save developers the time and effort of building their own UI interactions from scratch. Nitobi components have been popular with Ajax developers since Nitobi Grid and ComboBox first launched in 2005. Complete UI solves web app usability challenges with easy user interactions powered by Ajax. In addition to delivering web apps with exceptional UI design, Nitobi's off-the-shelf components save developers hundreds of hours of development time.

"Adding good usability to web applications is difficult, even for senior developers. With Complete UI, we've packaged a suite of out-of-the-box, easy to implement Ajax components that immediately make sites more usable, even sites built by beginner developers," said Andre Charland, Nitobi CEO.

"Nitobi Grid allowed our development team to immediately configure and utilize a mature, production-ready component. Any attempt to custom build a grid component would likely result in a lengthy development process," said David Huffman, Senior Developer at Corporate Technology Partners.

• Grid -- A cross-browser spreadsheet with Excel 'copy/paste', LiveScrolling, and more.
• TreeGrid - A new, hierarchical grid component.
• ComboBox -- A drop-down menu with autocomplete functionality, similar to Google Suggest.
• Calendar -- A high-performance calendar picker that can be used with Nitobi Grid or in standalone web applications.
• Callout -- A rich, skinnable tool-tip that prompts users with real-time feedback and helpful instructions as they navigate through an application.
• Fisheye -- A tool bar menu featuring fisheye magnification, similar to Apple OS X tool bar.
• Spotlight -- A tool for creating stylish guided tours of websites and applications.
• Tabstrip -- Folder tabs for navigating to different sections of a web application via Ajax or iFrame requests.
• Tree -- A hierarchical data view, similar to the folder view in Windows Explorer.
• Ajax Toolkit -- A library of fully-documented tools used in Nitobi components that can be re-used in your own applications, or to build your own components.

The Complete UI suite is platform-agnostic and works with a variety of development frameworks, including Java, PHP, ASP.Net, Classic ASP and Coldfusion. Pricing for Complete UI starts at US $429. For more information on Complete UI, visit www.nitobi.com. Download a 30-day free trial at www.nitobi.com/download/.

About Nitobi Inc.
Nitobi Inc. (www.nitobi.com) has been creating web-based software components and enterprise solutions for customers around the globe since 1997. Nitobi's customers include Bank of America, Time Warner, KBR and NASA. Nitobi is an active member of the OpenAJAX Alliance and has recently authored a book on Ajax entitled, Enterprise Ajax published by Prentice Hall PTR.

Source: PRWeb

Sun Microsystems Announces MySQL 5.1

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced the pending general availability of MySQL(TM) 5.1, a new version of the world's most popular open source database, designed to improve performance and simplify management of large database applications. A near-final release candidate of the GPL software is available for download now at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/.

The announcement was made this morning at the sixth annual MySQL Conference and Expo. With nearly 2,000 attendees, it is the world's largest community event for open source database developers, users, DBAs, vendors and corporate IT managers.

“If our users initially choose MySQL because of its low cost, they continue to use MySQL for its high performance, scalability and broad platform support,” said Marten Mickos, SVP, Database Group, Sun Microsystems. “MySQL 5.1 continues this tradition by performing up to 15 percent faster than previous versions in our own internal tests – making it a compelling solution for demanding Web-based enterprise applications.”

"We're using MySQL 5.1 in production for a Weblog discovery code database which indexes approximately 18 million URLs per day," said Kevin Burton, founder and CEO of Spinn3r.com. "The new features in 5.1 extend the ease-of-use, scalability, and performance that MySQL is already famous for, so it can continue to meet the increasingly-demanding requirements of today's database applications."

MySQL 5.1 features a number of new enterprise enhancements, including:

• Table and Index Partitioning – MySQL 5.1 supports five forms of horizontal data partitioning: range, hash, key, list, and composite (sub-partitioning). By partitioning table and index data, faster query response times can be achieved as only the relevant partitions of data need to be scanned, instead of the entire table or index. Further, various storage and other maintenance operations are made much easier and accomplished more quickly via partitioning.
• Row-Based and Hybrid Replication – new replication options are now available in MySQL 5.1. Row-based replication replicates the data changes (rather than the actual SQL statements) between a master server and its slave servers, and hybrid replication uses either statement-based or row-based replication depending on the individual SQL operations – these achieve and maintain the most efficient and safest replication scheme for the application.
• Event Scheduler – This new tool allows developers and DBAs automatically schedule common recurring SQL-based tasks to execute on the database server. It provides greater support for database-specific tasks than is available through CRON in Linux or Unix(R) or the Microsoft Windows task scheduler.
• New Upgrade Advisor in MySQL Enterprise Monitor – Available to MySQL Enterprise(TM) subscribers, the new Upgrade Advisor provides automated rules that monitor and advise DBAs about specific bugs that can might impact their deployed versions of MySQL 5.1. When potential issues are detected, subscribers are given recommendations how to upgrade their database servers to correct the problem.

Platforms & Availability

MySQL 5.1 is scheduled to be generally available this quarter for a wide variety of hardware and software platforms, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Enterprise Linux Server, Microsoft Windows, Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System, Macintosh OS X, Free BSD, HP-UX, IBM AIX, IBM i5/OS and other popular Linux distributions.

The MySQL 5.1 GA release will be available in three ways to serve different audiences:

• The MySQL Community Server – The freely-available, open source version of Sun's MySQL database. Licensed under the GPL, this full-function software is targeted to a technical, do-it-yourself audience, who does not require commercial support or premium add-on services.
• The MySQL Enterprise Server – Available as part of a MySQL Enterprise subscription, this is the most reliable, secure, and up-to-date version of the MySQL database, targeted to corporate IT users. Subscribers receive monthly rapid software updates and quarterly service packs with the latest fixes -- along with access to proactive monitoring tools and 24x7 production technical support.
• The MySQL Embedded Server – This commercially-licensed version of the MySQL software allows ISVs and OEMs to embed or bundle a high-speed, small-footprint database with their own products, without the free-distribution requirements of the GPL license.

For downloads and more information on MySQL 5.1, please visit http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/.

About Sun's MySQL Database

MySQL is the most popular open source database software in the world. Many of the world's largest and fastest-growing organizations use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, critical business systems, and packaged software. At http://www.mysql.com/, Sun provides corporate users with commercial subscriptions and services, and actively supports the large MySQL open source developer community.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer"(TM) -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com/

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, MySQL, MySQL Enterprise, Solaris, and The Network is the Computer are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd.

Source: PRWeb

Continuent Announces New uni/cluster 2008 for MySQL

Continuent, Inc., the leading provider of commercial open source middleware solutions for database high availability, today announced Continuent™ uni/cluster 2008. This newest version of Continuent's uni/cluster software provides the highest levels of availability and scalability for applications built using the MySQL® database.

Continuent uni/cluster offers a multi-master approach to replication. Data is committed and available to all nodes in the cluster simultaneously, effectively eliminating data latency. The elimination of data latency also allows uni/cluster to offer more effective load balancing because any database server can be used to process user queries.

New features in Continuent uni/cluster 2008 include:

• support for more than two cluster controllers and
• platform-independent, Adobe® AIR™-based GUI cluster management tools.
• official MySQL 5.1 certification,
• Solaris™ support and Red Hat® 5 certification,

"As organizations continue to adopt MySQL and other open source technologies for business-critical applications, high availability solutions such as Continuent uni/cluster are increasingly important," said Mårten Mickos, senior vice president, Database Group, Sun Microsystems. "Continuent uni/cluster addresses what many enterprises need - a cost-effective, reliable way to ensure that MySQL database applications are available 24/7."

"With Continuent uni/cluster 2008, organizations have insurance against outgrowing the capacity of their system," said Eero Teerikorpi, CEO of Continuent. "They can add new database servers on the fly and take advantage of uni/cluster's highly efficient load balancing, where database activity is directed to the least busy server. This can be vital to maintaining continuous data availability for maximum productivity and meet customer expectations."

At the conference, Continuent will be exhibiting its Continuent uni/cluster for MySQL in booth #101, and educating attendees on how to build highly available, scalable online database applications with MySQL

Robert Hodges, CTO at Continuent, will be delivering two talks at the conference. His first talk titled "Continuent Tungsten: Proxies on Steroids for HA and Performance!" on Tuesday, April 15, demonstrates how Continuent's new architecture rides new technology trends to create data services with high availability and performance using commodity hardware and off-the-shelf MySQL databases. His second talk "Portable Scale-Out Benchmarks for MySQL" on Wednesday, April 16, presents new open source tools that allow users to set up and run database scale-out benchmarks easily.

For more information about Continuent products, visit http://www.continuent.com. For information on Continuent's involvement in the open source community, visit http://www.continuent.org. Learn more about MySQL Conference & Expo by visiting http://mysqlconf.com.

About Continuent
Continuent provides continuous data availability. Continuent develops and markets commercial Continuent uni/cluster products and services based on Sequoia, a database-neutral, open source database-clustering project (www.continuent.org). Continuent's commercial open source solutions are currently available for EnterpriseDB™, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Continuent's Sequoia open source solutions are available for Microsoft® SQL Server, Oracle®, IBM® DB2®, and Sybase®. Continuent is headquartered in San Jose, CA, with research labs in Finland and France. For more information, please visit www.continuent.com.

Source: PRWeb

LEAD Technologies Announces the Release of the First Imaging Specific WPF SDK

Today, LEAD Technologies, Inc. announced the release of the first imaging specific WPF SDK, with WPF functionality in our LEADTOOLS product line.

LEADTOOLS WPF Module will have WPF support included with LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging Pro and up. With this new release, LEAD has created LEADTOOLS for WPF and LEADTOOLS for WPF Express. The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation environment provides a consistent programming model for building applications. Directly related to XAML, it provides a clear separation between business logic and the user interface, enabling you to build applications that blend the user interface, documents, images, and other content for delivery on the desktop or across-the-web.

"LEADTOOLS for WPF takes full advantage of The WPF framework, to provide you with out-of-the-box support for displaying, loading, saving, converting or processing all image formats supported by the Microsoft Windows BitmapSource class in the WPF environment, as well as the 150+ formats supported by LEADTOOLS Raster Imaging toolkits", stated Rich Little, LEAD Technologies' President.

LEADTOOLS includes WPF source code examples making the integration of many years of LEADTOOLS imaging expertise into the latest Microsoft WPF technology a simple task.

New WPF Imaging SDKs in v15:

LEADTOOLS for WPF Express includes everything a designer or developer needs to start adding imaging elements to WPF applications, including a WPF Viewer that supports the Microsoft .NET BitmapSource object. It also includes full documentation for all Windows Presentation Foundation functionality supported by all LEADTOOLS products.

LEADTOOLS for WPF Standard contains full featured versions of the WPF Viewer and ImageList controls, Bitmap Effects, and 40+ WIC Codecs.

LEADTOOLS WPF Module leverages the features and power of LEADTOOLS 15 including OCR, image processing and all of the other features available in LEADTOOLS 15. It includes everything from Standard plus a RasterImageViewer control that has support for the LEADTOOLS 15 RasterImage class and Load/Save methods.

Developers can harness the robust power of LEADTOOLS extensive file format support and image processing features, while taking advantage of the newest UI development features provided by WPF. LEADTOOLS includes WPF source code examples making the integration of many years of LEADTOOLS imaging expertise into the latest Microsoft WPF technology a simple task.

Availabilty and Pricing
LEADTOOLS v.15 SDKs are available for immediate purchase through the LEADTOOLS website or by calling LEAD sales at 704-332-5532. Purchase may also be made through one of LEAD's authorized resellers or distributors.

Full Imaging evaluation toolkits are available free of charge from LEAD's website http://www.leadtools.com

About LEAD Technologies
Since 1990, LEAD Technologies, Inc. has been a global leader in the imaging developer toolkit market, providing programmers with feature-rich tools to "image-enable" their software applications. LEAD Technologies pioneered the fastest software-only image compression and continues to lead the field in advancing new imaging technologies and offering those technologies to programmers world wide.

Source: PRWeb

DiscountASP.NET Partners with Telerik

DiscountASP.NET, a leader in advanced ASP.NET hosting, announces a partnership with Telerik, an award-winning vendor of advanced ASP.NET user interface components and .NET reporting solutions.

"We specialize in ASP.NET hosting and are always interested in partnering with the vendors that provide our customers with the most useful tools that make their life easier and their sites stand out," said Takeshi Eto, Vice President of Marketing at DiscountASP.NET. "Telerik is a well known leader in UI components for rich user experiences."

Under this partnership, DiscountASP.NET customers can receive a $50 discount on Telerik RadControls and Reporting solutions. Telerik users can get 6 months free hosting for the first year of DiscountASP.NET's base ASP.NET hosting annual plan.

"The DiscountASP.NET and Telerik partnership is a natural fit," said Nadia Terzieva, VP Business Development at Telerik. "DiscountASP.NET is focused on offering advanced ASP.NET hosting for developers and we provide the tools that take their web applications to the next level."

About Telerik
Telerik is a leading vendor of developer tools and components for .NET. Building on our expertise in interface development and Microsoft technologies, Telerik helps customers build applications with unparalleled richness, responsiveness and interactivity. Created with passion, Telerik products help thousands of developers every day to be more productive and deliver reliable applications under budget and on time. For more information on Telerik, visit http://www.telerik.com.

About DiscountASP.NET:
DiscountASP.NET is an innovative leader in Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET and SQL database hosting. A Microsoft Gold Certified partner, DiscountASP.NET was one of the first hosts to launch Windows 2008 hosting, and .NET 3.5 hosting supporting LINQ and ASP.NET AJAX hosting. Through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET and SQL technology, DiscountASP.NET has become the choice for affordable enterprise-class ASP.NET web hosting. For more information, visit http://www.discountasp.net.

Source: PRWeb

WhitePages.com Makes Free Search API Available to Developers

WhitePages.com, a leading Web site for finding contact information, today announced that it is making its data available for free in a beta Web services API. To kick off development, the company is sponsoring a contest awarding either a 50" HD Plasma TV or a 15" MacBook® Pro* computer for the best iPhone™* application and the best social networking application.

WhitePages.com provides free access to contact information for millions of people. In 2007 the company more than doubled the size of its database to nearly 180 million people which equals 80 percent of the U.S. adult population. Included in the company's database are 25 million at work listings which give consumers the flexibility to connect with others during the workday and offers an alternative to calling a home number when it is not convenient.

"WhitePages.com has always been focused on helping you find contact information for the people you care about," said Scott Ruthfield, vice president of engineering and technology at WhitePages.com. "The API enables people-centered developers to integrate the high quality data we provide into their own user experiences. Providing contact information in the context of other applications helps make the Internet a more connected place."

WhitePages.com is making available virtually all of the same data available on the Web site for free to developers as part of the beta Web services API. Included are the company's core search types including people search, reverse phone and reverse address. Developers can use the API to create consumer applications, Web sites, and mashups, including integrating into existing applications or combining with other Web service APIs.

More information on the API can be found on the WhitePages.com Developer Blog, and contest details and API documentation can be found at the WhitePages.com Developer Portal. Contest entries must be received no later than May 15, 2008. Winners will be notified on or around May 31, 2008.

To deliver the API to developers, WhitePages.com partnered with Mashery to provide core API management features including credential management, throttling, and metrics. Mashery is the leading provider of Web services and API management solutions, enabling companies to accelerate their web distribution channel.

About WhitePages.com
WhitePages.com, a privately held company based in Seattle, is the most trusted and comprehensive source for consumers to quickly and easily find relevant, accurate contact information in North America. The company's network of sites include WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com), WhitePages.ca (www.whitepages.ca), 411.com (www.411.com), Address.com (www.address.com), PhoneNumber.com (www.phonenumber.com), and its 1,300 partner sites including Superpages.com, YellowPages.com and Canada411. The on-the-go user can also access contact information via cell phone, Blackberrys and other Web-enabled mobile devices.

*MacBook is a registered trademark and iPhone is a trademark of Apple, Inc.

Source: PRWeb

Murach's C# 2008 published March 20

Mike Murach and Associates has just published a 2008 edition of their core C# book, "Murach's C# 2008." It's described in detail at the Murach web site:

http://www.murach.com/books/cs08/index.htm

It teaches how to develop Windows forms applications for business the way the best professionals do. To do that, it incorporates the features that have made earlier editions such popular choices among developers.

#1: It focuses on the essential skills that C# developers need every day

That may sound obvious. But too often, critical skills are glossed over or ignored in C# training.

So as this book teaches how to use Visual Studio 2008 and C# 2008 to create business applications, it covers the skills that developers need most on the job. That includes skills like how to validate input data, how to work with different data types, how to use arrays and collections, how to do structured exception handling, and how to read and write text, binary, and XML files.

#2: The OOP section deals with business objects, not cats and dogs

Many books explain object-oriented programming by using examples that are meant to be easily understood, like illustrating objects by creating animal classes such as mammals, cats, and dogs. However, the analogy breaks down as developers try to figure out how to apply it to business applications.

So this book presents business objects like customers, invoices, and products to show how OOP is applied in the real world. Likewise, it explains critical concepts like inheritance, polymorphism, and interfaces within the context of business applications so there's no confusion.

#3: There's a 4-chapter section on database programming

Because database handling is so critical in business applications, this book presents more coverage than is usual in introductory texts.

To begin, it teaches how to prototype database applications using rapid application development tools like the data sources feature, datasets, and bound controls. But beyond that, it shows developers how to start using ADO.NET to work directly with databases for more processing control than the RAD tools offer.

#4: It provides practical coverage of new features, especially LINQ

LINQ is the big news in C# 2008. Using constructs that are built into the C# language, developers can now use the same language to access a variety of data sources from their applications, from databases to arrays to XML files. The introductory chapter on LINQ in this book gives you a practical overview that will prepare you for more in-depth LINQ training.

#5: Complete applications show how all the pieces interact

One key to mastering C# development is to have plenty of applications that show how the features you're learning interact and what problems you might run into as you work on your own. So this book shows complete Windows forms applications for everyday business functions. These can be downloaded for free from the Murach web site, along with coding starts for the practice exercises in the book.

#6: The paired-pages format lets developers set their own pace

Murach books have a distinctive format, where each two-page spread presents a single topic. Both beginning and experienced developers find that this format makes it easy to focus on the information they need, whether they're using the book for training or reference.


"Murach's C# 2008" is available from all major retail outlets and directly from the publisher at the Murach web site:

http://www.murach.com

iPhone SDK Beta 2 released

The second beta version of the iPhone SDK is now available and includes Interface Builder, a powerful tool that allows you to visually build your interface and makes creating a UI as simple as drag and drop.

Apple also added new sample code and updated documentation to the rich set of resources available to you in the iPhone Dev Center.

For more information, the SDK, and source code examples, visit the iPhone Dev Center.

Embarcadero Releases New Eclipse SQL Development Tool

Following on its recent series of announcements of key hires from the Eclipse community, Embarcadero is debuting its new professional-grade SQL development tool, PowerSQL, today at EclipseCon 2008. PowerSQL dramatically improves productivity for Eclipse application developers charged with SQL development.

"With the growing sophistication of J2EE, Ruby on Rails and other development frameworks increasingly dependent on databases, application developers require more depth in knowledge and tooling for the underlying DBMS technologies," said Greg Keller, vice president of product management, Embarcadero Technologies. "PowerSQL brings developers what they expect in an IDE with tremendous depth equaling hundreds of man-years worth of experience in database SQL parsing, connection, debugging and general optimization to produce high-performance SQL."

Embarcadero PowerSQL, the company's fourth tool built on the Eclipse framework, is a SQL IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that can be installed as a standalone application (Eclipse RCP) or as an Eclipse plug-in. It offers native support for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase and DB2 for LUW, as well as JBDC support for other prominent DBMSs such as MySQL. PowerSQL runs on both Windows and Linux operating systems. Its flexibility and compatibility, in addition to a low price-point, make it a must-have tool for application developers who are increasingly working with databases.

"We are seeing an upsurge in the number of traditional developers who are taking on more database work and using SQL on a somewhat regular basis," said John F. Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data Corporation. "In fact, according to research we conducted in September 2007, SQL is the second most popular language among Eclipse users, with 64 percent using it at least some of the time."

Features of the new Embarcadero PowerSQL tool include:
• SQL Code Assist ensures 100% object name accuracy, even when not connected to a database, plus real-time SQL syntax validation
• SQL Project Insight provides project-level SQL file cataloging and search features to help streamline project organization and maintenance
• Migration Wizard imports data sources from Eclipse DTP (Data Tools Project) or Quest TOAD
• Data Source Explorer enables users to easily navigate, search, extract DDL, execute commands, and even browse an outline view without opening the SQL file
• Formatting Profiles ensure consistent, quality code layout for easy review and extension. Profiles can be customized and shared.

"Embarcadero continues to deliver on its commitment to Eclipse," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director, Eclipse Foundation. "By bringing new Eclipse-based tools to market like PowerSQL, more developers are able to experience the many benefits offered by Eclipse. Embarcadero is a great example of a company that is providing innovative solutions to the Eclipse community."

Pricing and Availability
Embarcadero PowerSQL is now available in three versions worldwide: Personal, Standard and Professional. North American pricing for Personal Edition begins with annual subscription-based options as low as $8.25 per month per developer. Embarcadero PowerSQL can be purchased online at www.embarcadero.com/store. For more information, visit www.embarcadero.com/products/powersql.

About Embarcadero Technologies
Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. delivers professional grade database tools that companies use to design, develop and manage databases and the data they contain. More than 12,000 customers worldwide and over 90 of the Fortune 100 rely on Embarcadero's cross-platform tools to reduce complexity, improve productivity and strengthen security. The company's flagship database tools include: ER/Studio, DBArtisan, Rapid SQL and Change Manager. Founded in 1993, Embarcadero Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Melbourne, Australia, Munich, Germany and Maidenhead, United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.embarcadero.com.

Embarcadero, the Embarcadero Technologies logos and all other Embarcadero Technologies product or service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Source: PRWeb

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling Launches Windows Software Development Kit

LightScribe today announced the immediate release of publicly available Windows software development tools for its Direct Disc Labeling technology. These downloadable tools significantly simplify the creation of LightScribe DVD/CD labeling applications, expanding LightScribe integration beyond general data mastering software. The LightScribe Windows public software development kit (SDK) allows individual application developers to integrate LightScribe support into Windows-based software with a standardized LightScribe application user interface. LightScribe is a no-hassle way to burn professional, silkscreen-quality labels on CDs and DVDs right in the drive. The LightScribe Windows public SDK is available at (http://www.lightscribe.com/go/downloads/windows).

The new Windows SDK gives documented access to new LightScribe software components that provide all the standard functionality a labeling application needs to support LightScribe printing. Because the LightScribe System Software includes a standard set of user-interface components, end users will now have a consistent and accurate user-interface for the print operations no matter what application is used. This greatly simplifies application development, provides a consistent user interface to all users, standardizes end-user messaging and enables rapid application development by all software developers. With this SDK, LightScribe also supports localized applications for most common languages and has simplified its licensing process for software developers.

With the existing broad embrace of LightScribe across more than 90 optical drive and media manufacturers, software developers, and media and computer brands, new software developers can leverage this widely-available embedded disc labeling technology.

"The LightScribe Windows public software development kit allows any Windows developer to enable LightScribe capability," said Kent Henscheid, marketing manager for LightScribe."Thousands of downloads occurred in the first several weeks of the public Windows SDK posting, and we anticipate many new market applications to emerge with LightScribe labeling support."

LightScribe-enabled CDs, DVDs, software, desktops, notebooks, aftermarket optical disc drives and duplicator systems are available at major retailers worldwide, as well as through most leading brands online.

About LightScribe
LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling offers consumers and businesses a simple, no-hassle way to burn professional-looking, silkscreen-quality labels on their CDs and DVDs. LightScribe extends optical media, recorders and software through an integrated system of media with special laser-sensitive coating, laser control and imaging drive modifications, and labeling software enhancements. LightScribe uses the same laser that burns data in the disc drive to create precise, iridescent labels. LightScribe technology was developed and patented by HP. A business unit of HP, LightScribe licenses its technology to optical industry leaders in drive and media manufacturing and to hardware, media and software brands. Additional information about LightScribe is available at www.lightscribe.com.

Source: PRWeb

Java for iPhone

Infoworld is reporting that Sun will be making Java Micro Edition (JME) available for iPhone. Sun says they try to provide as much native functionality as possible. Sun plans to release it sometime after June.

Although Sun has made this announcement, there maybe legal issues with this. In the iPhone SDK Agreement, it states:

No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and builtin interpreter(s).

I hope that Apple and Sun can getting the legal issues resolved, so the release of JME isn't prevented.

For the full article, visit InfoWorld.

iPhone SDK Released

Apple has released their SDK for iPhone and iPod Touch. Here's are the main highlights from the news release:

• Release version of the SDK will be in June
• Requires an Intel based Mac
• Applications are developed in Objective-C using Xcode
• A new tool called Interface Builder will help developers create interfaces (not yet available)
• Full access to the multi-touch API
• Full access to the accelerometer. This could really push the creativity of games.
• There is a simulator for testing on the Mac
• There is a tool called Instruments that helps measure performance of your application on the iPhone
• Support for standard APIs like OpenGL and OpenAL
• Applications can be purchased through the App Store directly from the iPhone
• It will cost developers $99 if they want to distribute their application
• The revenue split for applications sold through the App Store is 30% to Apple and 70% to the developer
• Applications can only run in the foreground

For more information, the SDK, and source code examples, visit the iPhone Dev Center.

Murach's Visual Basic 2008 Published

Mike Murach and Associates has just published a 2008 edition of their core Visual Basic book, "Murach's Visual Basic 2008." It's described in detail at the Murach web site:
http://www.murach.com/books/vb08/index.htm

It teaches how to develop Windows forms applications the way the best professionals do. To do that, it incorporates the features that have made earlier editions such popular choices among developers.

#1: It focuses on the essential skills that VB developers need every day
Although that may sound obvious, some skills tend to be glossed over or ignored in VB training. But in teaching how to use Visual Studio 2008 and VB 2008 to develop Windows forms applications, this book covers skills like how to validate input data, how to work with different data types, how to use arrays and collections, how to do structured exception handling, how to read and write text, binary, and XML files...the kinds of skills needed to develop the applications that businesses rely on.

#2: There's a 4-chapter section on database programming
Because database handling is so critical in business applications, this book presents more coverage than is usual in introductory texts.

To begin, it teaches how to prototype database applications using rapid application development tools like the data sources feature, datasets, and bound controls. But beyond that, it shows developers how to start using ADO.NET to work directly with databases for more processing control than the RAD tools offer.

#3: It teaches the OOP skills that many developers miss out on
Visual Basic is an object-oriented language, yet many VB developers have only a hazy understanding of OOP. So this book includes 5 chapters that clearly explain OOP features like inheritance and interfaces in the context of database applications. The intent is to provide the kind of background that makes you a more savvy, confident developer.

#4: It provides practical coverage of new features, especially LINQ
LINQ is the big news in VB 2008. It allows you to query a data source using constructs that are built into the VB language. That way, you can use the same language to access a variety of data sources, from databases to arrays to XML files. The introductory chapter on LINQ in this book gives you a practical spin that will prepare you for more in-depth LINQ training.

#5: Complete applications show how all the pieces interact
One key to mastering VB development is to have plenty of applications that show how the features you're learning interact and what problems you might run into as you work on your own. So this book shows complete Windows forms applications for everyday business functions. These can be downloaded for free from the Murach web site, along with coding starts for the practice exercises in the book.

#6: The paired-pages format lets developers set their own pace
Murach books have a distinctive format, where each two-page spread presents a single topic. Both beginning and experienced developers find that this format makes it easy to focus on the information they need, whether they're using the book for training or reference.

"Murach's Visual Basic 2008" is available from all major retail outlets and directly from the publisher at the Murach web site:
http://www.murach.com/

PostgreSQL Version 8.3 Released

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of version 8.3 of the high-performance object-relational database management system. This release includes a record number of new and improved features which will greatly enhance PostgreSQL for application designers, database administrators and users, with more than 280 patches by dozens of PostgreSQL contributors from 18 countries.

"The continued evolution of the open source PostgreSQL database gives users the option of deploying a non proprietary database, allowing them to save money, improve performance and increase productivity. PostgreSQL 8.3 is an impressive new release and we encourage customers around the world to explore it," said Rich Green, executive vice president of Software at Sun Microsystems.

Version 8.3 provides greater consistency of performance than previous versions, ensuring that every user can depend on the same high performance demonstrated in recent benchmarks for every transaction, whether in peak hours or not, seven days a week, 52 weeks per year. Major performance enhancements include:

• Heap Organized Tuples (HOT), which eliminate up to 3/4 of the maintenance overhead of frequently updated tables
• Spread checkpoints and background writer autotuning, which reduce the impact of checkpoints on response times
• Asynchronous commit option for much faster response times on some transactions

These changes also significantly accelerate transaction processing throughput, between 5 percent and 30 percent, depending on the workload.

"PostgreSQL just got smarter," said Bruce Momjian, PostgreSQL Core Team member.

PostgreSQL is the first open source database to implement Synchronized Scan, which greatly reduces I/O on large data mining databases. The Windows team has enabled Visual C++ compilation of PostgreSQL, improving stability and performance on Windows, as well as accessibility to the project to Windows contributors. New logging options have been added and the overhead of the statistics collector has been diminished in order to make it easier to monitor your servers.

Of course, this wouldn't be a proper PostgreSQL release without providing lots of new features for application developers, among them:

• ANSI-standard SQL/XML support, including XML export
• Text search: our advanced full text search tool, TSearch2, has been merged into the core distribution with better management and new dictionaries and languages
• GSSAPI and SSPI authentication support
• New data types: UUIDs, ENUMs and arrays of composite types

"We process over 18,000 queries per second on over 300GB of user data on our PostgreSQL servers, and those numbers go up every month," said Gavin Roy, CTO of social networking site MyYearbook.com. "We're very excited about HOT, shared buffer scan improvements and integrated tsearch indexing. Preliminary testing shows that 8.3 will improve our database load profile while decreasing response times. We're really looking forward to it."

In addition to the many new core features, several new optional components have matured and released 1.0 versions during the 8.3 release cycle. These include SNMP support, horizontal scalability options such as PL/Proxy, pgPool2 and Bucardo, a graphical debugger for stored procedures, and a scalable connection pooler called pgBouncer. These add to the rich set of accessories already available.

Download PostgreSQL from our download page: Downloads

Source: PRWeb

Learn SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005 with new book from Packt

Specialist IT publisher Packt is pleased to announce a new book which teaches SQL using Visual Studio 2005. It is a step-by-step, hands on guide into the Visual Studio 2005 Integrated Development Interface. This book will help users understand how Business Intelligence Projects and Packages are created using the Visual Studio designer.

Sql Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a comprehensive ETL tool that made its debut with SQL Server 2005. It is an improved tool tightly integrated with the Visual Studio 2005 having all the functionalities that its forerunner DTS (Data Transformation Services) had in SQL Server 2000.

Beginners Guide to SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005 provides users with the basic knowledge needed before moving on to more advanced ETL [Extraction, Transformation, and Loading]. In each chapter users will get a background of the SSIS task that they are going to create. The book will also provide users with a comprehensive description of the many designer windows that they may encounter while working with the designer.

This book is written for beginners in the developer track who are looking to get an exposure to SQL Server Integration Services; DBA's who are testing water with the Visual Studio IDE but without a wide programming experience and SQL 2000 Data Transformation Services users who are trying to move into SQL Server 2005 Integration Services.

This book is out and is available from Packt. For more information about this book, please visit: www.packtpub.com/sql-server-integration-services-visual-studio-2005/book

Learn to master the standard ASP.NET Server Controls with new book from Packt

Packt is pleased to announce a new book on ASP.NET that covers Data Presentations Controls. This book shows users how to get the most from the ASP.NET data presentation controls to easily display and manage complex data in their web applications.

ASP.NET is a web application framework marketed by Microsoft that programmers can use to build dynamic web sites, web applications and XML web services. It is part of Microsoft's .NET platform and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is built on the Common Language Runtime, allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using any Microsoft .NET language.

The ASP.NET Data Presentation Controls are server controls to which users can bind data to organize and display it in different ways. This book will show users how to get the most from these controls to easily display and manage complex data in their web applications. It takes users through each of the major data presentation controls in ASP.NET, gets them started and then shows how to use them in the applications for managing the data.

For more information on this book, please visit www.packtpub.com/asp-net-data-presentation-controls/book