What do you consider a "real-time" transaction?

Image Courtesy of Eligible

There's a fantastic write-up from Eligible, a company I've had the pleasure of working with recently, on the state of "real-time" transactions in the health care sector.

With the passage of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), our government created a set of standards defining the kind of transactions that your doctor, your insurance company, Durable Medical Equipment Providers (DMEs) and a whole host of other participants in the health care sector carry out while delivering your health care to you (and making sure it's paid for...)

Image Courtesy of CMS

While most of the attention around HIPAA tends to be focused on the Security, Privacy, and Breach of Notification Rules, this legislation was the first time any of the participants in the health care sector attempted to create a single unified standard defining what types of information should be included, for example, when a doctor's office sends an electronic request to an insurance company to verify what kind of coverage you have before providing you with services.

Join me for a free webinar on making the most out of Git in your development workflow!

UPDATE 1/23/2014: Since the webinar has already come and gone, I've got the entire session's YouTube video embedded below!

I've been using Mercurial for a few years now, but have only recently tackled a serious software project using Git as my primary distributed software source control system.

The transition was easier than I thought it might be, but even after using it day in and day out for the last few months, I find every now and again I get tripped up on a command or two (or find myself Googling for Stack Overflow tips when I get stuck ;)

Fortunately for all of us, Atlassian (makers of BitBucket and SourceTree, two tools I use every single day of my professional life) is hosting a free webinar on Git best practices. Best of all, it's going to use REAL CODE EXAMPLES!

That's right, you'll be learning as Nicola Paolucci Developer Advocate @ Atlassian works a real bug report - from branch creation to code review to final merge!

Developing Zend Mobile Apps that utilize Cloud Web Services with Kent Mitchell

I recently wrote about the latest Zend Studio Release, version 10.0.1.  This video from Kent Mitchell covers using Zend Studio to develop apps that are connected to cloud web services.

Additional info at the Zend Developer Zone and the YouTube Page for the video below.

If you're a (free login) member of the site, you can also watch the higher-resolution flv version of the video at http://www.zend.com/en/webinar/studio/70170000000c17m-DevlpMobApps-20130320.flv

Ideum announces major updates for Gestureworks and Presenter Interactive Multi-Touch Wall Systems

Ideum releases revamped gestureworks.com sites

Even by my (sometimes tending to the over inflating . . . sometimes!) standards, what I am posting today is a Set of Major Updates on Ideum, about whom I've written on a few distinct occasions.

I also confirmed via email from CEO Jim Spadaccini and Nora Galler that in addition to the updates detailed below, the GestureWorks site & Wiki have received a facelift recently.

I can confirm after reviewing the links below that the site updates are not only clean and quick to load, but it's much easier to use the new layouts than it was with the old sites. Kudos to the team for investing in an improved user experience - the UI/UX changes will pay dividends with happier customers, like me!

Now, for the updates ...

Zend Studio 10.0.1 Released - Available for Immediate Free Download

Zend Studio Download Center

UPDATE: Bonus "Introducing Zend Studio 10" YouTube Video after the jump!

What's in this latest Zend 10.0.1 Maintenance Release? The announcement email gives a little background on what's included in the update:

"We are pleased to announce that Zend Studio 10.0.1 is now available for download.

This maintenance release includes several updated components including the latest Zend Framework 1.x and 2.x releases, support for Windows 8, integration with Zend Server 6 for IBM i, and a variety of other product improvements and bug fixes."

DeveloperForce.com hosts Mobile Code Talk Google Hangout on Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services with Sandeep Bhanot, Dave Carroll, and more.

DeveloperForce.com's Google Hangout : Mobile Code Talk

A few days ago, I wrote about Salesforce.com's latest announcement regarding their new Open Source Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services, Mobile Packs, and more.  Only two days later the team that put together most of the resources referenced in that post got together online for a Google Hangout and recorded it for YouTube.

It's a fantastic interactive Q & A and overview of the system and its use cases.  One of my favorite quotes comes pretty soon into the video from Dave Carroll (@dcarroll):

Salesforce.com turbo-charges Mobile Developer offerings with Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services

UPDATE 04-16-2013 : You can watch the DeveloperForce.com Mobile Code Talk Google Hangout on Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services with Sandeep Bhanot, Dave Carroll, and more right now!

It was only last month that I wrote about Salesforce.com & AT&T releasing a new Mobile SDK, the AT&T Toolkit for Salesforce Platform, but nonetheless Salesforce.com is at it again: this time releasing a serious upgrade to the mobile development toolkits available to software developers wishing to create applications that access the Salesforce.com platform.

Revolutionary Multi-Touch User Interface / User Experience Innovations from Ideum

Ideum has done it again - creating the world's largest multi-touch interactive table in production to date - the Pano, a 110" Multi-Touch Interactive Table.

For an unbelievale product demonstration, check out Ideum's latest VimeoPro upload after the jump...

Salesforce Tip - AT&T Toolkit for Salesforce.com / Apex

UPDATE 04-16-2013 :

1. You can watch the DeveloperForce.com Mobile Code Talk Google Hangout on Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services with Sandeep Bhanot, Dave Carroll, and more right now!
    
2. You can also see the latest updates on how Salesforce.com turbo-charges Mobile Developer offerings with Salesforce Platform for Mobile Services.

Recently, AT&T partnered with Salesforce.com to release the AT&T Toolkit for Salesforce® Platform.  It's a fantastic collection of resources designed to make it easy for developers leveraging Salesforce.com's Force.com platform and Apex Programming Language to develop apps that work with both Smart & Feature phones on the AT&T Network.

"The toolkit provides strongly-typed Apex wrappers for RESTful AT&T APIs like speech-to-text, SMS, location, payment and more." - Sandeep Bhanot

The video below from Sandheep Bhanot & Giridhar Bhaskara is a great Introduction to the AT&T Toolkit for Salesforce Platform:

You can learn a lot more about the release from the following resources:

Introduction to iOS / iPhone Programming - Developing a simple flashlight application with a custom logo

Introduction

I am enrolled in Technical Writing this semester at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ENGL 365) and for my final project I chose to do an instructional presentation on how to develop a simple iPhone application. Many of my fellow students were unaware of the free resources available to anyone who is interested in learning how to build an iPhone application. So I developed this brief instructional guide to cover 4 main topics:

1. Equipment & Supplies
2. Registration with the Apple Developer Program 
3. Downloading & Installing Developer Tools 
4. Creating & Testing Your iPhone Application 

I had originally also planned on covering how to transfer this application onto your iPhone for testing purposes, but I have to keep my presentation to between 10-15 minutes and also allow for Q&A so I'm going to provide a few links at the end that discuss testing applications on real devices.

Great new book - "Writing Secure Code" by David C. LeBlanc and Michael Howard

"Writing Secure Code" by David C. LeBlanc and Michael Howard.

I just got my copy of "Writing Secure Code" by David C. LeBlanc and Michael Howard. 

So far, I'm only at the chapter on Threat Modelling, but it has proven to be quite an enlightning read.

I heard about it in a course I took in training called, aptly enough, Developing Secure Software. 

It's a required course for all developers and testers at Dell which is where I am currently employed. It was presented in a lab format by a representative from St. Edwards University's Professional Education Center. 

The thing that really pulled me into the class was that it covered development of web apps, C/S database apps, and code in both C# and Java.
They walked us through both the apps in question, the techniques used to compromise said apps, and even the code / technical solutions to the vulnerabilities. Definitely the coolest training I've been able to attend to date here.

If you write and/or test code, even in non-Microsoft environments, you should check out this book. I got my copy on amazon for $7.95, so it's not even a particularly expensive learning tool. Don't you just LOVE a good sale ;) ?

There's a Kindle Edition, and a Paperback available.  Links to purchase them from Amazon included for your convenience.