ObjectRocket by Rackspace adds managed Elasticsearch

Try before you buy

To give DBAs and developers hands-on experience pairing the capabilities of Elasticsearch with their databases and data platforms, ObjectRocket is offering a free service for 30 days for a two data node, 256MB RAM and 2GB Disk instance.

"Most businesses utilse multiple types of databases to meet the specific needs of modern applications, but this diversity can bring complexity," said Nik Rouda, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

"Standardising on a bullet-proof, cloud-based infrastructure can simplify delivery without compromising quality. Rackspace has built a versatile yet tailored 'polyglot' platform to satisfy the most demanding requirements."

Rackspace is telling us that with the addition of Elasticsearch, the firm continues to expand the breadth and capability of its portfolio of managed databases, including Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Spark, MongoDB, Redis, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB.

Customers have the flexibility to deploy across private, public, bare metal and hybrid clouds with options to automate and reduce the time and money needed to scale, manage and help ensure the availability of production database applications.

ThinkPad users got excited about Lenovo's idea to produce a new "ThinkPad Classic" that would provide all the best features of this long-running premium brand. But with the results of the second survey, and the launch of the third survey, it looks like going wrong. Perhaps we need not one "Retro ThinkPad" but two: a lightweight X version for road warriors, and a T version for power users.

When I wrote about the project last month, I suggested that the highly-mobile X220 would be the best place to start, and in the survey, I voted for a 12.5 inch screen. However, it turns out that I'm in a minority of only 14.3 percent (graph above). More than half of the 6,555 respondents want a 14.1 inch or 15.6 inch screen, which might well eliminate me as a potential buyer.

In today's "Retro ThinkPad" blog post, Lenovo's David Hill says: "Related to that, we've been really good at being able to fit a 14.1 inch display in the footprint of a 13.3 inch ThinkPad."

That could tempt me, but I'd rather have a 13.3 inch screen in an 11.6 inch form factor - which is pretty much what you get with the Dell XPS 13 (2015).

The third survey may show a similar split between people who want a fast quad-core processor (even if it has a high TDP) and a low voltage battery-saving dual-core processor. Again, we're talking different use-cases. The power users want a workstation processor, while the road warriors want a thinner ThinkPad with a longer battery life.

It's hard to predict how this one is going to come out. Will Dave Hill be able to find a compromise that suits both camps, or will a compromise spec disappoint both camps, potentially leading to financial disaster?

Personally, I'd like to see the project result in two different Retro ThinkPads, each version optimized for its specific market. If not, then I'd recommend Lenovo go for the workstation market and ignore people like me. There are, after all, dozens of lightweight laptops and Ultrabooks already on the market.

Ask the audience: How crowdsourcing can help you tailor your messages

I'm giving a presentation on WordPress to our local Web Developers group in a few weeks. In the past I've given 60 min. talks geared towards users, but this is aimed at a more technical audience. I'd like to cover installation, theme development, plug-ins and other functionality, but I also realize that 90 min. isn't really enough time to cover the breadth and depth of the WordPress Codex. So I want to focus on whatever points would be most useful to a Web developer (someone comfortable with HTML, CSS and a bit of PHP) who is about to do his/her first WordPress site.

If you're thinking about using WP and haven't yet, what would be helpful to you? Or if you're already comfortable with WordPress, what do you wish someone had told you before you did your first WordPress installation? Thanks for your input!

In return I received 13 answers suggesting topics including:

•           Security
•          Search Engine Optimization
•         Parent/Child Themes
•         Theme Frameworks
•         Spam prevention
•         Hosting Requirements
•         Theme Customization
•         Client Training
•         Categories
•         Plug-ins

Trying your hand at a little Web development work? The task probably seems pretty daunting, as experienced developers are typically entrenched in a sea of scripting languages that make the layperson wrinkle their eyebrows in utter confusion. But hey, anyone can do it if they set their mind to it—and if you set your mind to learning one language at a time, it’s more than do-able for the average tech enthusiast who has an ample amount of fortitude.

Fortunately, the same technology that has made Web development such an essential part of the world today has also made it possible for skilled development gurus to share their tactics with the world at large through blogs. And there are plenty of developers who have chosen to share their hacks and tricks for the benefit of newbie developers. We’ve rounded up 25 of the most useful resources for beginning developers which include tricks, step-by-step instructions and a plethora of other essential information. Most of these blogs talk in easy-to-understand language, so even if you’re not up to par with developer lingo and you’re trying to figure out how to code a specific project, you can probably follow along. Listed in no particular order of importance, here are 25 blogs we suggest for beginner developers. Oh, and a little bonus section with five useful tutorial sites.

Lotus – An Open Source Framework for Ruby

Some people think that working for free or for very cheap is always the same as working on spec. This is most certainly not the case, and here’s why: when you work on spec, you’re providing the same level of service that you ordinarily would charge for.

This is bad. Really, really bad.

Designers who do this are not only devaluing their work, they’re also stunting the growth of their entire careers. When a client realizes that they can get thousands of dollars worth of work from you for mere hundreds, there’s a mentality that develops in their head about you, and about designers in general. Basically, they start to believe that your work just isn’t worth thousands of dollars, and you will be forever branded as a cheap, low-end designer.

Type design is visually complex as well as highly technical – however it is easier to begin making type now than ever, partly because of the availability of free tools like FontForge . FontForge is a free (libre) font editor for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU+Linux. Use it to create, edit and convert fonts in OpenType, TrueType, UFO, CID-keyed, Multiple Master, and many other formats. While being a handy tool with which to begin, FontForge is not just for beginners. It has an advanced toolset and is rapidly improving at the time this book is being written.

FontForge aims to offer technical help and general insight into planning a type design project, and also offers advice about how to make your workflow more efficient. If you wish to help them, you can contribute to making FontForge better by giving feedback or even by contributing content and fixes on GitHub. 

The key, like being on a diet or pushing yourself to finish a long, tedious project, is to think of free or low-paying work as a temporary arrangement, rather than an indefinite circumstance. If you give it all away for free or for very cheap, or you continue working for low rates for longer than is necessary to build your client network, your clients will never consider you for higher level work .

Why would they? If you’re lodged in the client’s mind as a $200 designer, why on earth would they automatically think of you when they have a $5,000 or $10,000 project? It’s just not going to happen.

On the other hand, if you’ve been providing your client with an appropriate amount of work for that $200, and they know you’ve been holding back on certain deliverables, they’ll be much more likely to consider you for higher paying work.

Manage Your Online Reputation with the Help of IT Company

Online reputation management is being adopted by most of the companies these days as it is directly affecting their sales or their branding in the market. Managing reputation is a trend adopted by so many companies.   Online reputation is all about public relations with company that’s why it matters a lot and most of the companies take these services. It doesn’t matter what kind of company it is small or giant firm or what product they are making. These days most of the people buy products and services according to the reviews and feedbacks by the customers for a particular product. Therefore managing the reviews is becoming an important task according to the market and if you are running an online portal, then it is better to do this instead of ignoring.

Customers are changing their buying habits. They are smarter and look for always better whether they are buying online or going to a shop to buy their products. Both market and customer has changed that’s why business cannot be run in a same way as it was running earlier. So, till now if you did not think about it, then you must start thinking about it and check out some good IT company to improve your business reputation. Once you have taken the services that don’t mean you should stop now. It is an ongoing process till your business exists. As you will update your product or services, you definitely need a person to handle your business reputation.

There are so many internet marketing companies working only for online reputation management. A business can hire any company for this or can hire an individual to improve their branding.  So, do not think much hire a good online reputation management services to improve business.

How to Escape From Social Media Failure by Using These Smart Tips?

Social Media is one of the trending marketing strategies most of the businesses are using for strong online presence. This not only gives traffic, but also improves social media presence and most of the time help to improves sales. Most of the businesses use social media marketing to improve sales and online presence. Every business whether a small and big firm must use social media to market their products as audience is using social websites and always like to save their time by doing shopping online. Busy Life is one of the main reason people want to shop online or to connect online. So, if one is doing social media campaign, then it should be successful campaign instead of A Big Failure. Here are some tips to follow to make your campaign successful-

Before campaigning must have some steps defined before start marketing like what kind of product they are marketing, what is the target audience? , the areas where audience is targeted and many more based on the marketing of the products doing social media.

To target your market is an important part. You must select it carefully like if your target audience age is around 18 to 30 years and you are targeting around 50 years then there will be a problem and your sales will be affected badly.

The posts on the social media post should regular and quite attractive. So that people would like to interact and engagement improves. Post should be like audience must wait for it. One must post the content which must be attractive and engaging.    One must try to give link only when it is really required instead of giving on every post gives negative effect.     

                            

One must try to make report for every week or for every month to check the improvement of traffic and engagement. One must try to make page fan according to the targeted audience, location and the age group according to the priorities of the business.

There are so many companies available in the market for the social media marketing. The only thing one needs to do is to choose among them wisely.