Web Concepts

JsHttpRequest is powerful cross-browser library for creation AJAX-sites on PHP. It can be used as separately and as a PHP-part for popular library Prototype JS from which there is a full compatibility. The library supports a unique opportunity - downloading files on a server without reloading pages (in style AJAX), and even in the event that you use interface Prototype JS. JsHttpRequest has excellent cross-browserness (for example, works even in IE 5.0 with forbidden ActiveX, i.e. in a situation when XMLHttpRequest it is inaccessible). You can work with any codings (including national - for example, Russian-speaking windows-1251) “is transparent” - forget about manual code conversion in scripts, all is done automatically and imperceptibly for the program! You can also continue to use habitual debugging functions and receptions PHP (for example, the library automatically intercepts and correctly processes нотисы PHP and even fatal mistakes in a code). At data transmission between the client and a server probably to use multivariate structures (for example, the enclosed associative files or objects), even in case of an involvement of interface Prototype JS; thus transformations of PHP-files to JavaScript-objects and on the contrary occur completely automatically. The library itself chooses an optimum method of loading of data according to opportunities of a browser (for example, it uses XMLHttpRequest in case of its availability, or other way if XMLHttpRequest it is not supported). To work with JsHttpRequest it is very easy: You can apply or functions from Prototype JS (if this tool is used on your site), or own functions of library, or even the interface compatible on semantics with XMLHttpRequest. You can use or the full version of library (14К), or one of “cut down” (for example, with support only cross-browser loader SCRIPT - 8К). Thus, the library is rather compact.

Program Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 represents the “cut down” version of well-known “Photoshop”. For example here there is no opportunity to work in color palette CMYK but it also is not necessary for the majority. It is less filters, however and that are, will quite satisfy any photographer. In the rest the full order. Differently, all is available tools of “adult” Photoshop plus ordering of photos and their preparation for the publication in the Network. And also a number of new “chesspieces”, such as pasting of panoramic pictures, simple imposing of similar fragments from one photo on another (if in one picture the person has better turned out, but the background has suffered, and on other? On the contrary, the corresponding tool from two bad pictures can be made one good), fast elimination of effect of ” red eyes “, batch operation of images and many other things.

System requirements Adobe Photoshop Elements 6:

Operational system: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2; Windows Vista
The processor: Intel Pentium 4, Pentium M or Intel Centrino 1,3 GHz (or compatible)
Operative memory: 256 Mb (512 Mb are recommended)
The disk drive: DVD-ROM
Free space on a hard disk: not less than 1,5 Gb
Established ON: Internet Explorer 6.0 (Mozilla Firefox 1.5), Microsoft DirectX 9

The one who worked with early versions Adobe Photoshop earlier, will long not get used to the new program. Logic Adobe was kept and in Elements.

Salesforce.com Inc.’s online software service is becoming a showcase for Google Inc.’s e-mail and other widely used applications, deepening a relationship that has spurred speculation Google eventually will buy its smaller partner.

Besides selling Google’s programs to its 41,000 business customers, Salesforce.com will integrate the suite of applications into its own service, which helps companies track and identify customers’ needs.

The agreement to be announced Monday builds upon several years of collaboration between Salesforce.com and Google, which are trying to persuade more businesses to subscribe to software services over Internet connections instead of buying programs that must be installed on individual computers.

The online approach, sometimes called “cloud computing,” represents a potential threat to bigger software makers like Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG that make most of their money from selling individual licenses and then charging additional maintenance fees.

Salesforce.com Chief Executive Marc Benioff has become cloud computing’s chief evangelist since he left Oracle to found his San Francisco-based company nine years ago. He believes his preaching will resonate even more with Google applications in Saleforce.com’s platform.

“This will make it easier for us to convince more businesses to stop buying Microsoft Office and switch to better services like this that are emerging in the cloud,” Benioff said.

The additional applications will help make Salesforce.com’s service more attractive, but “the real winner here is Google,” said Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann. “This gives them a (business) sales channel” at no additional cost.

Salesforce.com also intends to sell customer support for Google’s applications later this year.

Reports that Salesforce.com wanted to plug Google’s applications into its service surfaced nearly a year ago, triggering chatter about a possible acquisition.

The takeover talk then cooled after Salesforce.com disclosed that it had merely retooled its service to make it easier for its customers to distribute their ads through Google’s Internet-leading search engine.

Benioff declined to comment about a possible sale to Google. Dave Girouard, who oversees Google’s applications, also declined to comment about the company’s interest in buying Salesforce.

Salesforce.com and Google have more in common than a passion for cloud computing.

Both companies have cultivated fun-loving cultures and set up philanthropic foundations funded by a portion of their profits.

And the stocks of both companies have soared more than fivefold since their initial public offerings in 2004.

With annual sales of $749 million, Salesforce.com currently has a market value of more than $7 billion.

That’s well within the means of Google, which has a market value of $145 billion and $14 billion in cash. The Mountain View-based company’s most expensive acquisition so far has been its recently completed $3.2 billion purchase of Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc.

Google’s suite of applications includes word processing, spreadsheets, calendaring and instant messaging, as well as e-mail. All the programs are hosted over the Internet, which Google views as an advantage because users can access the applications from any computer with an online connection.

But the convenience hasn’t won over most major companies, many of which worry about security issues and the ability to use the programs off-line. “There is still a big trust issue, rightly or wrongly,” Wettemann said.

Google offers free basic versions of its applications and charges an annual fee of $50 per worker for a deluxe package with more options.

More than 500,000 businesses and millions of people use the programs, according to Google. The company hasn’t specified how many of the businesses pay fees for the premium applications.

The programs haven’t been a big moneymaker so far. Last year, Google collected less than $200 million from software licensing while raking in $16.4 billion from advertising sales.

Adobe will be introducing a feature many user have requested with the next version of its Creative Suite – 64-bit support. But only if you’re running Windows.

In a volte-face that will anger many Mac users, Adobe has announced that the Windows port of CS4 – the package containing such creative essentials as Photoshop and Illustrator – will be available in a 64-bit binary for users running compatible builds of Windows. The Mac version, by contrast, will only be available as a 32-bit executable until the next release, CS5.

The 64 bit support enables users to work on massive images easily, with the biggest speed gain seen on Windows systems running 32GB or more of RAM. For us mere mortals struggling long with quantities of RAM that don’t require a second mortgage, the speed increase will still be a not inconsiderable 8-12 percent over the 32-bit build.

The reason for Adobe to seemingly snub its core market of Mac users is, ironically, all Apple’s fault. Last June, Apple announced that they would not be providing a 64-bit version of their Carbon procedural API. Any applications based on Carbon that would like to enter the 21st century with 64-bit support will need to be re-written for Cocoa which can produce both 32 and 64 bit code. Adobe was just one of the companies taken by surprise when Carbon all but bit the dust.

With the additional speed gains and better support for massive images, Photoshop houses are facing the choice of running Windows in order to get the most from their software. Although it wouldn’t have been enough to make users buy an entirely new system, the fact that Windows can be installed on existing Intel-based Mac equipment and run the new Creative Suite applications better than their ‘native’ Mac ports will be giving people pause for thought.

HP has offered $3.39 a share for the privately held Tower Software.

Major shareholders Quadrant Private Equity, company founder Brand Hoff and chief executive Martin Harwood, who together own 90 per cent of the business, have said they will accept the bid in the absence of a higher offer from another party.

Quadrant Private Equity took a 63 per cent stake in Tower in early 2007.

Tower has aggressively pursued the public sector markets in Britain and the US in recent years and makes more than 60 per cent of its revenue offshore.

HP South Pacific managing director Paul Brandling said the acquisition would bolster HP’s credentials in the regulation and compliance software arena.

“What it does is gives HP end-to-end solutions in a market segment that’s booming,” Mr Brandling said.

“Analysts say this segment is growing well in excess of 20 per cent per annum and one of the exciting opportunities here is to apply HP’s global muscle and global customer footprint as a growth lever.”

In the absence of suitors with better offers, the deal is slated to be completed in this quarter. Mr Brandling expects the integration of Tower to be completed by the end of the year.

The deal is conditional on 85 per cent of Tower’s staff accepting employment offers from HP. Mr Hoff expects these offers to be tabled later this month or early May and be open for about a month. “The HP people have been speaking to our senior managers and I would expect in the next couple of months (when) the process is open that these things will be finalised and all the employees will be taken care of,” he said.

Mr Brandling would not rule out redundancies among Tower’s 240 staff as part of the acquisition process, and declined to say whether current CEO Martin Harwood would survive the transition. “I can’t answer that one specifically … (but) we want the workforce and the senior team,” he said.

In the 2007 financial year Tower increased its revenues by over 30 per cent to $45.2 million.

Founded 22 years ago, Tower has about 1000 customers.