All About Software Engineering And Development

All About Software Engineering And Development

Software engineering, known as SE, is the development, design, maintenance and documentation of software by applying practices and various technologies from fields such as computer science, engineering, application domains, project management, digital asset management and interface design.

The conception, development and verification of a software system is what software engineering is all about. It is necessary to identify, define, realize and verify the resultant software’s required characteristics. Necessary testing is required for attributes such as reliability, functionality, testability, maintainability, ease of use, availability and portability. In software engineering, software can be verified to meet these requirements by having design and technical specifications prepared and implemented correctly. The characteristics of the software development process are also important in software engineering. Development itself, development duration and risks in software development are examples of such characteristics.

A computer uses software as part of its system that allows the hardware to operate properly. Software can be system software or application software. System software includes the main operating system and a variety of other utilities that enable the computer and its applications to run. Application software includes the computer programs and relevant documentation responsible for end-user data processing tasks. This kind of software is developed for such tasks as word processing, payroll, inventory and production control.

Software Development

A series of processes undertaken systematically to improve a business through using computerized information systems is what is known as software development. There are two major components to software development, which are systems analysis and design.

Systems analysis is the specification of what exactly the system is required to do, or the main objective. Design is about how to make the system do what is required of it. For system analysis, it is required to study the current system by certain procedures in order to gather and interpret data and facts, identify any problems and use this data to improve the system currently in use. System design refers to the process of developing a new system, concentrating heavily on the technical specifications and other specifications that make the system operations.

Software Development Life Cycle

Software Development Life Cycle, or SDLC, is a sequence of events done by designers, analysts and users to develop and execute an information system. There are a number of stages to this practice, which can overlap. The stages are Preliminary investigation (which is feasibility study), Determination of system requirements (which is analysis), Design of system, Development of software, System testing, System Implementation and System Maintenance in that order.

A Brief History of Tablet PCs

A Brief History of Tablet PCs

In the late 1980s, early pen computer systems generated a lot of excitement and there was a time when it was thought they might eventually replace conventional computers with keyboards. After all, everyone knows how to use a pen and pens are certainly less intimidating than keyboards.
Pen computers, as envisioned in the 1980s, were built around handwriting recognition. In the early 1980s, handwriting recognition was seen as an important future technology. Nobel prize winner Dr. Charles Elbaum started Nestor and developed the NestorWriter handwriting recognizer. Communication Intelligence Corporation created the Handwriter recognition system, and there were many others.
In 1991, the pen computing hype was at a peak. The pen was seen as a challenge to the mouse, and pen computers as a replacement for desktops. Microsoft, seeing slates as a potentially serious competition to Windows computers, announced Pen Extensions for Windows 3.1 and called them Windows for Pen Computing. Microsoft made some bold predictions about the advantages and success of pen systems that would take another ten years to even begin to materialize. In 1992, products arrived. GO Corporation released PenPoint. Lexicus released the Longhand handwriting recognition system. Microsoft released Windows for Pen Computing. Between 1992 and 1994, a number of companies introduced hardware to run Windows for Pen Computing or PenPoint. Among them were EO, NCR, Samsung, Dauphin, Fujitsu, TelePad, Compaq, Toshiba, and IBM. Few people remember that the original IBM ThinkPad was, as the name implies, slate computers.
The computer press was first enthusiastic, then very critical when pen computers did not sell. They measured pen computers against desktop PCs with Windows software and most of them found pen tablets difficult to use. They also criticized handwriting recognition and said it did not work. After that, pen computer companies failed. Momenta closed in 1992. They had used up US million in venture capital. Samsung and NCR did not introduce new products. Pen pioneer GRiD was bought by AST for its manufacturing capacity. AST stopped all pen projects. Dauphin, which was started by a Korean businessman named Alan Yong, went bankrupt, owing IBM over million. GO was taken over by AT&T, and AT&T closed the company in August 1994 (after the memorable “fax on the beach” TV commercials). GO had lost almost US million in venture capital. Compaq, IBM, NEC, and Toshiba all stopped making consumer market pen products in 1994 and 1995.
By 1995, pen computing was dead in the consumer market. Microsoft made a half-hearted attempt at including “Pen Services” in Windows 95, but slate computers had gone away, at least in consumer markets. It lived on in vertical and industrial markets. Companies such as Fujitsu Personal Systems, Husky, Telxon, Microslate, Intermec, Symbol Technologies, Xplore, and WalkAbout made and sold many pen tablets and pen slates.
That was, however, not the end of pen computing. Bill Gates had always been a believer in the technology, and you can see slate computers in many of Microsoft’s various “computing in the future” presentations over the years. Once Microsoft reintroduced pen computers as the “Tablet PC” in 2002, slates and notebook convertibles made a comeback, and new companies such as Motion Computing joined the core of vertical and industrial market slate computers specialists.
The primary reason why the Microsoft-specification Tablet PC is reasonably successful whereas earlier attempts were not has two reasons. First, the technology required for a pen slate simply wasn’t there in the early 1990s. And second, the pen visionaries’ idea of replacing keyboard input with handwriting (and voice) recognition turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated. There were actually some very good recognizers that are still being used today, but they all require training and a good degree of adaptation by the user. You can’t just scribble on the screen and the computer magically understands everything. With the Tablet PC, Microsoft downplayed handwriting recognition in favor of “digital ink” as a new data type. This was a very wise decision.

Mobile Blogging Made Easy

Mobile Blogging Made Easy

Cellular phones are exclusively for voice call functions before. It is used in places where there are no available telephone services. But with the advancement of communication technology, several innovations on the analog cellular phones were made. If before it is only used for calling purposes, now you can used it to sent text messages through its short messaging services (SMS).

After the introduction of SMS, multimedia messaging follows, where you can incorporate images, audio contents, and animations in your text messages. Mobile e-mail services innovates the traditional PC e-mail services, interactive gaming, capturing images using embedded camera, and other services are also taking place in the cell phone industry—thanks to the different communication specialist and experts.

The latest addition for new models of cell phones is the mobile blogging where you can now update your web blog even without logging in your personal computer. All the things you can do on Internet blogging—adding a photo from your cell phone or posting your thoughts or experiences on a new neighborhood, movie, concert, game console, or coffee shop—are done through your phone.

Barak Berkowitz, the chairman and CEO of Six Apart, a California-based company that is also pioneering in cell phone blogging, commented that this new feature will surely be a click especially phone manufacturers have already introduced the wireless Internet (WAP) and camera-equipped phones. He agrees that with WAP, people will be able to post or update their blog. At the same time, they can post pictures at the spot using their camera phone.

For those individuals who are still unfamiliar with blogging, it is a home page on the Internet that takes a form of a personal journal. All the entries in the blog are compiled chronologically which contains comments and thoughts on everything; in other words, your point of view about different topic.

Traditionally, you need to create your blog from your personal computer and post it on your own website or on a blogging community. But with the introduction of cell phone blogging, you can now use the service of your mobile network to transfer blogs to the web server. In other words, you can now post your blogs even when you are in your car or you are on a remote location.

Because of this development, computer specialists prompt to develop different software suited for such purpose. A certain software is developed to let you send images and text from your cell phone directly to a website. Another one combines cell phone blogging with location-based services. In other words, you will be able to use your phone not only to locate for areas of interest on a particular place; you will also be viewing comments that other people have left on their blogs regarding such areas of interest.

Currently, different mobile networks and other small start-up pioneer in mobile blogging are hitching the net. But Internet giants such as Yahoo and Google are now planning to enter the mobile blogging arena. Yahoo is now starting to test its cell phone blogging services and will be commercially releasing it in coming months. It just only shows that cellular phone blogging is becoming popular to mobile phone users.

There you go the newest innovation for your mobile phone. It is just a manifestation that your phone is not just for calling or texting functions; it can now be used for your blogging activities.