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08 Jul 22:10

Average Joe on Virtualization Technologies

by linuxari

Article by Chris Pentago

I am one person who has been fascinated by the virtualization. The idea that software can be able to take a single machine and divide it up to act and feel like several independent systems has never ceased to amaze me. The geniuses that came up with virtualization environments must be some really bright minded individuals.

Well, I have particularly been impressed by the way it can be able to simulate an entire machine with that has all the required hardware such as memory, processors, networking and all the resources user can wish for.

I have a list of some of the virtualization technologies that I have been privileged to try out. Do not worry, I am not exactly the tech junkie that most IT enthusiast are so everything you get from me is nothing short of simple observations without really going into the deep technical stuff.



kvm

KVM

Let’s start with KVM, The Kernel-based virtual machine to me is simply a revolution of open source technology. I realized that it performs very well and is just better suited than others i tried. I loved the way it has been designed to take advantage of all the important features of Linux. It’s amazing the way it picks up the high performance of Linux and even the tight security that Linux has been able to keep up for many years now.

KVM requires a processor with hardware virtualization extension.
By itself, KVM does not perform any emulation. Instead, it simply exposes the /dev/kvm interface, with which a user-space host can then:

  • Set up the guest VM’s address space. The host must also supply a firmware image (usually a custom BIOS when emulating PCs) with which the guest can bootstrap into its main OS.
  • Feed it simulated I/O.
  • Map its video display back onto the host.

On Linux, QEMU versions 0.10.1 and later is one such host. It will use KVM when available to emulate guests at near-native speeds, but otherwise fall back to software-only virtualization.

I also discovered that it is far much cheaper (actually free) especially when you take into account the fact that it offers a great experience and the peace of mind you have knowing that it’s very secure.

KVM tutorials:
http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/HOWTO

Xen

One other virtualization tool that I tried out is Xen which I learned is pronounced ‘Zen’ (makes you wonder why they didn’t just go for the ‘Z’ in the first place).

Anyway, it an open source virtualization technology which means that you can also get it for free in your distro. One thing that I noticed about Xen is that it is built for both home and business use just as KVM. However, I had to use a separate entry in my distro’s GRUB menu since it requires a totally separate kernel to boot.

It has been divided into layers called domains. The one with the highest number of privileges which I guess is the hypervisor is called the Domain0. Noticed that when I run guest operating system on it, they would run in what is referred to as Domain U.

I think it’s amazing that I can be able to run it even when the processor I am using has not been enabled for virtualization. However, you get full features when you enable virtualization. Intel and AMD virtualization helps you achieve this through Hardware Assisted Virtualization (basically, any newer processor has these features).

Xen is a virtualization technology that you not only enjoy for free, but is also very powerful and easy to manage due to its easily scripted command line syntax. I swear, administration of a virtualization environment has never been easier. I would advise that you configure your processor for virtualization (usually a BIOS option, depending on your motherboard/CPU vendor), this is the only way you get to access the full features.

Xen tutorials and howto’s:
http://www.howtoforge.com/howtos/virtualization/xen

Virtuozzo

I have also tried Virtuozzo, while being proprietary (Parallels), one thing that I can tell you about it Virtuozzo is that it runs a single OS kernel and it enables me to export container to different partition in order to create an independent unit.

I noticed that it has a kernel service that is able to manage the entire system by stopping any single unit from crashing the entire server if it drains too much resources. Partitions are also fully isolated so one partition cannot affect data stored in other. However, I noted that I can still be able to move data between the virtual environments with ease.

The command line is pretty simple to understand too. With Virtuozzo, I have the choice of using a GUI interface for general management through its Virtual Management Centre and a more web based interface that allows for remote access known as the Virtual Control Centre. To me, this is a true virtualization tool.

Personally, I use OpenVZ on my site’s VPS which is basically opensource port of Virtuozzo but haven’t played with it locally..yet. From what i experienced they provide similar set of functionalities but not so sure about performance.

Hyper-V

Hyper-V which is a virtualization tool that I came to know is codenamed Viridian and was initially known as Windows Server Virtualization.

It is a virtualization tool that is exclusive to Windows and it can work with both 32bit and 64bit systems. It contains it’s hypervisor which is one of the drivers in Windows Server. I have particularly noted that it has very favorable virtualization capabilities and can support several components too.
One thing that it can surely do is effective consolidation of servers without wasting resources.

I think it has several features that I haven’t come to fully tryout. I can however point out that this tools has a more dynamic memory, its the only way it can be able to manage the high workload levels that I would not be comfortable trying with the other systems.

If you ask me of its benefits, I can say beyond any reasonable doubt that the Hyper-v is an excellent way to utilize the resources in your infrastructure at low cost. I think it is very simple and has the ability to work for organizations of any size. The performance is pretty impressive too given the workload that it can effortlessly handle.

When you try out Hyper-V, you immediately recapitalizes that all the knowledge you already have is fully relevant. I didn’t have to learning more than I already knew to be able to utilize this technology. Microsoft also offers helpful support so you can easily find solutions in case you come across any hitch with its applications or even the operating systems.

Collectively, these tools just increased system capability despite the physical resources available. All of them are unique in their own way and able to meet different needs.

I reckon most people would not read this to get idea on what to install next on their home boxes rather to try to understand these technologies more and possibly pick preferred one for their VPS or something.

One thing that can help (at least money wise) is ServerBear comparison chart which seems updated regularly and can help guiding you if you’re in hunt for new hosting solution.

Here’s how it looks (click image to enlarge):

As for recommendation, some budget solutions are Prometeus, IperWeb and BudgetVM where VPS with some of mentioned technologies can be bought for as low as 5$/mo. As for my people from Australia , i’m overly satisfied with Ninefold.

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08 Jul 21:53

How To Find The Cheapest Books Online

by Joel Lee

Cheapest Books Online Intro
I’ve written before about my love for reading, but I also have a side of me that loves bargains and hates spending unnecessary coin. What’s a man to do when he wants to buy and consume as many books as he can while preserving the health of his wallet? Use the Internet, of course! (Legally.)

Continue reading the article

Read full article: How To Find The Cheapest Books Online

08 Jul 21:52

Fix Untrusted Chain Issue With Firefox and GnuTLS

by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bauer)
I have GnuTLS setup on numerous Apache web servers. It's just better than OpenSSL because with GnuTLS I can use the more secure TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2. The only problem I've had with it, until now is that it's trusted by every browser I've used with the exception of Firefox.

When I browse to one of my GnuTLS enabled sites in Firefox I get an error saying The certificate is not trusted because no issuer chain was provided.


In the Apache config files using OpenSSL it's easy, you can specify a chain file, but in GnuTLS you can't. There is a way of making it work though.

Just open your server certificate with your favorite text editor, and open the intermediate certificate in another text editor, then copy the contents of the intermediate certificate to the end of your server certificate and save it. Restart Apache and you should be right as rain now!

If you are doing this on your server you can append the end of the intermediate cert to your server cert by running the following command:
cat intermediate.crt >> server.crt
If you have any questions, let me know. For some reason there isn't a lot of documentation out there for GnuTLS yet.

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08 Jul 14:38

The Illusion That Seduces and Bewitches Magicians

I had never heard of the magician, Dynamo, until I read about how he floated alongside a double-decker bus in London recently. I watched the video. Personally, I think it was legit. I believe this was a paranormal event and an authentic example of levitation. But it's not like this sort of thing is completely unheard of today.
05 Jul 17:45

Justice Department: Anti-Home-School Law Aids Tolerance

by CBNNews.com Staff

The Obama administration has filed another brief against the Romeike family, German home-schoolers seeking asylum in the U.S.

The brief argues that Germany’s laws forbidding home-schooling actually promote tolerance. The U.S. Justice Department defends Germany’s opposition to religious “parallel societies.”

The government’s pleading reads, “The goal in Germany is for an ‘open, pluralistic society.’”

At the same time, the brief contends that the Romeike family cannot claim religious persecution.

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals previously agreed, but the Home School Legal Defense Association argues the panel ignored critical evidence that the German high court specifically targeted religious home-schoolers.

The association filed a request for a hearing by the entire appeals court. The Justice Department is asking the court to reject the appeal.

The Romeike family fled Germany in 2008 because they didn’t want their children exposed to witchcraft and graphic sex education taught in German schools.

05 Jul 14:56

iPad App Helps TSA Agent & Pilot to Safely Land Plane After Instruments Malfunctioned

by Dianna Dilworth

A cellphone and an iPad helped pilot Raymond Cody land safely after the single-engine plane that he was flying across western Colorado to Grand Junction Regional Airport malfunctioned and his communications and navigation system failed on him.

After the pilot experienced technical issues he picked up his cell phone and called the Transportation Security Administration’s customer service hotline. Gene Manzanares, the TSA Agent on the other end, used his iPad to help Cody navigate his position and land the plane.

The Daily Sentinel has the story: “While maintaining contact with Cody on one phone, Manzanares called on a second phone to the tower, alerting controllers they had an inbound plane flying electronically blind. Cody had the advantage of an iPad app that showed him his position, which he could then pass on to Manzanares, who relayed it to the tower and the tower passed along instructions to Cody via Manzanares.” (Via The Huffington Post).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

05 Jul 14:40

Cox & Fanhattan Test Selling Cable TV to Internet TV Users

by Dianna Dilworth

Cox Communications is testing a new lower-priced TV and cloud-based video streaming service which targets cord-cutters — people who don’t pay for cable but instead get all of their programming from connected devices.

Variety has the story: “The operator’s flareWatch service is $34.99 per month, with access to 97 live channels and 30 hours of network DVR storage. The service is currently available to Cox broadband subscribers in the Orange County market.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

05 Jul 14:39

‘What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?’: INFOGRAPHIC

by Dianna Dilworth

National Penn has created an infographic called, “What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?” that examines personality types based on their handwriting.

According to the graphic, the way you write can indicate more than 5,000 personality traits. The infographic explains that everything from the size of your letters, the spacing in between words, and the slant you put on your letters says something about your personality.

Check it out: “Handwriting analysis (also known as graphology) can even be used for detecting lies and revealing possible health ailments.” We’ve embedded the entire graphic after the jump for you to explore further. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

04 Jul 23:42

Watch Family Movies on SpiritClips from Hallmark App

by Dianna Dilworth

Looking for something wholesome to watch with your family over the holiday weekend?

Check out SpiritClips from Hallmark, a movie streaming app that is similar to Netflix, but features only family-friendly content. The app includes Hallmark Hall of Fame movies, Hollywood classics, as well as original documentaries. The app has no R-rated movies and no films that contain political agendas, irreverence or excessive violence, nudity and language.

The app is available online, as well as on stream-to-tv devices such as the Roku box and Google TV. There is also an iOS app edition. The app will be updated on July 11th with an upgraded user interface and new search functions, as well as with new content. The service costs $4.99 a month, or $35.99 a year. You can sign up for a free week to try it out.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

04 Jul 13:17

‘Declaration of Independence’ is Free App of the Day

by Dianna Dilworth

Download the Declaration of Independence to help you remember what tomorrow’s holiday is all about.

The free iPhone app from Clint Bagwell Consulting includes the entire text of the decree, along with historical notes, images of original document and images and biographies of the signers. The free Android app from MTC apps includes the Declaration of Independence along with the Constitution, the United States Military Ranks, and The Bill of Rights among other documents.

For more free eBooks, check out our 10 Websites to Download Free eBooks list, as well as our Free eBook of the Day archive.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

04 Jul 03:33

Get Off The Free Teat of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo by Setting Up Your Own Linux Email Server Using iRedMail

by noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bauer)


In this final episode of Tech Chop, I talked about how I decided to give up my free Google Apps email account and setup my own email server on an Ubuntu Linux VPS using iRedMail.

As you can see in the video, iRedMail is probably the easiest email server you will ever setup. You basically stand up a plain Ubuntu server with no other applications, then you run the install script from iRedmail which installs just about everything you need.

I am personally doing this to avoid the NSA's PRISM program, as well as to stop giving Google unfettered access to my private email information that they can then turn over to the feds, or sell to marketers.
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04 Jul 03:32

READ or DOWNLOAD Newspaper 2.0: Your Guide To RSS

by Justin Pot

rss-300
What's RSS? And should you use it? Find out with our latest manual, "Newspaper 2.0: Your Guide To RSS". This guide, from MakeUseOf staffer Kannon Yamada, explains everything you ever wanted to know about RSS. You'll find what this powerful information gathering tool is, its surprising history and its future in a post-Google Reader world.

Continue reading the article

Read full article: READ or DOWNLOAD Newspaper 2.0: Your Guide To RSS

04 Jul 03:32

Extreme Jet Stream Bringing U.S. Record Heat, Record Cold, and Flash Flooding

The jet steam is exhibiting unusual behavior over the U.S., a pattern we've seen become increasingly common in summertime over the past decade. There's a sharp trough of low pressure over the Central U.S., and equally sharp ridges of high pressure over the Western U.S. and East Coast. Since the jet acts as the boundary between cool, Canadian air to the north and warm, subtropical air to the south, this means that hot extremes are penetrating unusually far to the nor...<br /><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2452">Read More</a>
04 Jul 03:31

Radio Ward: 1924

by Dave
Washington, D.C., 1924. GI tunes: "Walter Reed Hospital. Scene in ward where the bed of every soldier is equipped with a set of radio earphones. This is the first hospital in the country to be completely equipped." View full size.
04 Jul 03:30

200-Year-Old Rockfish Caught in Alaska; Could Be Record Catch (PHOTO, VIDEO)

A 200-year-old rockfish has been caught by a fisherman in Alaska, amazing locals.
04 Jul 03:29

Quinoa Avocado Tabbouleh

by Tori Avey

Quinoa Avocado Tabbouleh on TheShiksa.com #healthy #recipe #glutenfree

Lebanese tabbouleh salad originated in the mountain region of Zahlé, according to Claudia Roden’s The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. In the Bekáa Valley of Lebanon during the 1920s, open-air cafés served various local mezze to tourists from all over the Middle East. Tabbouleh became a regional favorite. Originally, it was made with lots of bulgur wheat and bits of fresh herbs. Over time the preference shifted, and bulgur became a side note as fresh green herbs took over. Today, tabbouleh is more often made with lots of fresh parsley and mint, with bulgur and other additions like tomatoes included as mere accents.

In this modern take on tabbouleh salad, I’ve lightened up on the chopped herbs and replaced bulgur with quinoa. Inspired by a salad I enjoyed at Le Pain Quotidien café, I’ve added ripe avocado and grated cucumber to the mix. Toasted pine nuts and a creamy dairy-free basil dressing take this salad from tasty to entrée-worthy. It’s a seriously satisfying meal, packed with protein, healthy fats and lots of flavor. It’s my new favorite lunch recipe!

Recommended Products

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Note: Any purchase you make from The Shiksa Market helps to support my website, my recipes, and the free content I provide. If you have an Amazon login, it’s even easier to make a purchase. Thanks for browsing!

Quinoa Avocado Tabbouleh

Salad Ingredients

  • 2 cups quinoa
  • 3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes (12 oz. total), diced
  • 1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
  • 1 Persian cucumber, peeled and grated
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, fresh basil or mint
  • 4 cups salad greens (arugula, spinach or spring greens work well)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp honey or agave nectar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

You will also need

  • saucepan, salad bowl, blender
Total Time: 1 Hour
Servings: 4 entree portions, 8 side portions
Kosher Key: Pareve

For Salad

  • Rinse the quinoa thoroughly in a mesh strainer, then cook according to package directions. Fluff with a fork, transfer to a large salad bowl, and allow to return to room temperature. Stirring the quinoa every few minutes will help it to cool faster.
  • Gently stir in the avocado, grated Persian cucumber, toasted pine nuts and chopped herbs. Season the salad with salt and pepper to taste.

For Dressing

  • In a blender or food processor, combine the chopped basil leaves, lemon juice, mayonnaise, honey and salt. Cover the blender. Pulse a few times till the ingredients are chopped and combined. Scrape the sides of the blender with a spatula. Put the lid on, open the pour spout, and turn on the blender. Drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil very slowly, pausing to scrape the sides of the blender as needed, till the dressing is creamy and emulsified.
  • To serve, place a portion of salad greens on each serving plate to create a bed for the salad. Scoop the salad onto the top of the greens. To mold the salad as seen in the picture, gently pack the salad into a measuring cup or small bowl, then unmold onto the top of the salad greens. Drizzle with dressing to taste. Serve.
  • Quinoa Avocado Tabbouleh on TheShiksa.com #healthy #recipe #glutenfree

Other Great Recipe Ideas

100 Days of Real Food: Lime-Cilantro Quinoa Salad

Simply Recipes: Cucumber Salad with Grapes and Almonds

Kalyn’s Kitchen: Southwestern Quinoa Salad

04 Jul 03:28

Key West DSL in trouble

by Bote Man
UPDATE: 17:32 - That was quick! The telephone man got the line rearranged so things are back up and running. I hope it stays up for a good long time now.

***

The Key West feed is down. Its DSL pair must have gotten a surfeit of H2O yesterday with the rain storms training over Key West. I hope to get it repaired by the end of the weekend.

If Sol comes out and dries it out before then it might come back on its own, who knows?
04 Jul 03:25

Boston University Patent Lawsuit Targets the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air

by Harry McCracken
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned my alma mater, Boston University, in a article I’ve written about technology. But BU is all over Techmeme today: It’s suing Apple over a 1997 patent. The university says that display technologies used by the iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air, among other products, violate the patent. It’s seeking damages and an injunction which would ban sales of the products in question. (Further full disclosure: Multiple family members other than myself also attended the university, and my parents worked there for a combined total of something like sixty years.) Unlike certain pundits, I cheerfully admit that I don’t know enough about patents to have a well-informed opinion about every news story that involves them. BU’s suit does seem to involve a patent on something specific invented at the university. That sets it apart from the trolls which acquired bizarrely broad software patents they can use to shake down everyone in sight. But whether Professor Theodore Moustakas’s  patent on “highly insulating monocrystalline gallium nitride thin films” is a genuine landmark which deserves to stand up in court, I do not know. So I’m not rooting for either side. I am willing to make one prediction, though: Whether it wins, loses or settles out of court, BU will take a public-relations hit as it sues Apple and asks the feds to force the company to pull some of the world’s most popular consumer-electronics devices off the market. (The school had already filed suits against Samsung and Amazon, among others, without attracting much attention.) However the lawsuit turns out, BU can continue to brag that it helped make not just the iPhone but all phones possible. Alexander Graham Bell was a professor at the university when he invented the telephone in in 1876. You can, um, learn more about that connection in the Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoon below, which further reveals that Mr. Peabody deserves at least as much credit for the telephone as Bell did. Come to think of it, everyone who grew up on Rocky
04 Jul 03:00

Wireless IP Power 9258W2 Brings Wi-Fi Control of Mains Devices

by Mark McCall

Aviosys have launched the second generation of the their  IP Power unit.  The new model has upgraded components for more reliablity and integrates WiFi 802.11n-b/g as well as Ethernet.  Aviosys say that typical uses include server / appliance remote operation and even some basic lighting control… Five years after its initial launched, the IP Power 9258W has [...]
04 Jul 02:51

Sentrifying a Nerf gun

by Brian Benchoff

vulcan

[Brittliv] made the mistake of getting her friends into Nerf weaponry, and so began the race to mutually secured destruction via foam darts. She may have the upper hand in this war, because her Nerf Vulcan sentry gun is both incredibly powerful and is able to be operated autonomously with a webcam featuring a friend or foe identification system.

The azimuth and elevation mount for the gun is made out of plywood, with each axis controlled by a single servo attached to an Arduino. Of course a stock Nerf gun would be fairly boring, so [BrittLiv] increased both the voltage going to the gun’s motor and the strength of the gun by replacing a 2kg spring with a 5kg spring.

Targets are tracked with a webcam using Processing and a bit of code from Project Sentry Gun. One interesting feature is a friend or foe tracking system; if the gun sees someone wearing a t-shirt with the Instructables logo, the target is identified as a friend and is not brutally mowed down with plastic darts.


Filed under: toy hacks
02 Jul 03:44

R.I.P. Google Reader, Hello Four Best RSS Reader Replacements

by Matt Peckham
So you need an RSS reader, or maybe you don’t because a zillion sites have been mourning Google Reader’s demise for months (it’s alive for a few more hours, then sayonara) and you’ve already found your lemonade-out-of-lemons substitute. Or maybe you’ve never used RSS, content to flick through a social feed like Twitter for your daily digest. Let’s talk about why you might want to rethink that strategy, then run through the top RSS services in a post-Google Reader world. What’s RSS again? RSS, aka Rich Site Summary, aka Really Simple Syndication (but never Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu nationalist paramilitary group), is a way to keep tabs on news sites, blogs or anyone else publishing in the abbreviated notification-oriented format, eliminating the need to revisit websites throughout the day and manually scan for new content. When an RSS-enabled website updates, it generates an RSS-specific view that an RSS reader can scrape, proactively notifying you with a stack of headlines and (usually) short summaries and links to the content. You configure the client to scrutinize and pull story info from each site (or a subcategorized feed within a site), then sit back and watch the content roll in. Yes, you can sort of do this with alternate tools like Twitter Lists, but it gets tricky. If you care about timeliness, you need to be certain your sources are updating their Twitter feeds simultaneous with the site update (many don’t, including TIME). Others don’t use Twitter at all, or do so inconsistently, piping only some of their content over. If you don’t care about immediacy, or you’re sure the sites you follow are Twitter-synchronous, Twitter Lists may be for you. Otherwise you’ll want to think about an RSS reader, which remains one of the only dependable mechanisms for grabbing published content from sites in near-real time (depending on your settings). How do you subscribe to a site’s RSS feed? Everyone handles this differently, but in most cases, you’re looking for a button (usually orange) on each site that reads “RSS” or an icon
02 Jul 03:31

Ask an Expert: All About Buying and Selling on Craigslist

by Tessa Miller

Ask an Expert: All About Buying and Selling on Craigslist

Say hello to Ryan Finlay, the entrepreneur behind ReCraigslist.com, a site dedicated to helping people buy and sell on Craigslist. For the past three years, Ryan has earned his entire living on Craigslist. He's now building a thriving appliance business and writing a blog to chronicle what happens along the way. Ryan has seen a little bit of everything over his thousands of transactions, and is here to field your Craigslist-related questions. He's hanging out for the next hour, so ask away!

Read more...

    


02 Jul 03:19

Transaction Library for DynamoDB

by AWS Evangelist

Today we are introducing a new client library that will reduce the development effort needed for you to perform atomic transactions that can encompass multiple DynamoDB items in one or more tables. This allows you to develop those applications more easily on DynamoDB that until now either required relational databases (with their attendant scalability issues) or required you to do a lot of work in your application tier to implement atomicity.

Let's review the concepts of atomicity and transactions before digging in...

In many cases, several related database storage operations must be treated as a transaction. Within the scope of a transaction, all of the storage operations must succeed or fail as a unit. This is referred to at Atomicity. When all goes well, a transaction proceeds as follows:

  1. Begin transaction.
  2. Put item #1.
  3. ...
  4. Put item #N.
  5. Commit transaction.

If an error is detected before step 5 completes, or if the program terminates unexpectedly, then the transaction fails and the Put operations (Steps 2 through 4) are undone, leaving the database items in the state that they existed in prior to step 1. If you are writing code that transfers money from one bank account to the next, you'd definitely encapsulate the operations in a transaction, otherwise you could lose money (and prevent the accounts from balancing) if an interruption or fault occurred at an inopportune time.

The DynamoDB Transaction Library
The new library has been implemented as an extension to the existing DynamoDB in the AWS SDK for Java. This library tracks the status of ongoing transactions using a pair of DynamoDB tables. The first table stores the transactions and the second one stores pre-transaction snapshots of items modified within a transaction. You must call the verifyOrCreateTransactionTable  and verifyOrCreateTransactionImagesTable functions from the TableManager class to create the tables before you initiate any transactions.. Be sure to provision sufficient read and write capacity to avoid undue delays.

Here's a code sample that creates the necessary tables:

AmazonDynamoDB client = new AmazonDynamoDBClient(); // pass in your AWS Credentials, and configure which DynamoDB endpoint / region you're talking to

TransactionManager.verifyOrCreateTransactionTable(client, "Transactions" /*tableName*/,
10 /*readCapacityUnits*/, 10 /*writeCapacityUnits*/, 10 * 60 /*waitTimeSeconds*/);

TransactionManager.verifyOrCreateTransactionImagesTable(client, "TransactionImages" /*tableName*/,
10 /*readCapacityUnits*/, 10 /*writeCapacityUnits*/, 10 * 60 /*waitTimeSeconds*/);

Here's some code that performs a transaction on the Thread and Reply tables, as described in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.  In the example Forums application, there is a Thread table, which stores one item for each question that has been asked on the forum, and a Reply table, which stores one item for each response to each question.  The Thread table also contains a count of the number of total replies for each question and whether or not the question is answered.  The following transaction both adds a new Reply, and increments the “Replies” counter in the associated Thread item:

// Create a new transaction manager (do this once, potentially at the same time as making a new client object)
TransactionManager txManager = new TransactionManager(client, "Transactions", "TransactionImages");

...

// Create a new transaction from the transaction manager
Transaction t1 = txManager.newTransaction();

// Make a PutItem request to add a new Reply to a Thread asking about DynamoDB Transactions
Map<String, AttributeValue> reply = new HashMap<String, AttributeValue>();
reply.put("Id", new AttributeValue("Amazon DynamoDB#Transactions?"));
reply.put("ReplyDateTime", new AttributeValue("(the current date and time)"));
reply.put("PostedBy", new AttributeValue("DavidY@AWS"));
reply.put("Message", new AttributeValue("Transactions are now available!"));

t1.putItem(new PutItemRequest()
.withTableName("Reply")
.withItem(reply));
// At this point the new Reply item is in the table, but is not yet committed

// Add second request for a different item to the transaction object
Map<String, AttributeValue> thread = new HashMap<String, AttributeValue>();
thread.put("ForumName", new AttributeValue("Amazon DynamoDB"));
thread.put("Subject", new AttributeValue("Transactions?"));

Map<String, AttributeValueUpdate> threadUpdates = new HashMap<String, AttributeValueUpdate>();
threadUpdates.put("Replies", new AttributeValueUpdate(new AttributeValue().withN("1"), "ADD"));

t1.updateItem(new UpdateItemRequest()
.withTableName("Thread")
.withKey(thread)
.withAttributeUpdates(threadUpdates));
// At this point the new Thread item is in the table, but is not yet committed

// Commit the transaction
t1.commit();
// Committed transaction. The Thread and Reply writes are now both committed

// Delete the transaction item
t1.delete();

In addition to atomic writes, the transaction library offers 3 levels of read isolation: fully isolated, committed, and uncommitted.  Fully isolated reads are performed through obtaining locks during a transaction, just like writes.  Committed reads provide a consistency guarantee similar to eventually consistent reads, and are performed by reading the old copy of the item if a lock is detected.  Uncommitted reads (also known as “dirty reads”) are the cheapest, but are the most dangerous, since they may return data that will later be rolled back.  Here’s some code that performs a read operation at the “committed” isolation level:

// reusing the txManager variable from earlier

Map<String, AttributeValue> key = new HashMap<String, AttributeValue>();
key.put("ForumName", new AttributeValue("Amazon DynamoDB"));
key.put("Subject", new AttributeValue("Transactions?"));

// Uncommitted reads happen on the transaction manager, not on a transaction.
Map<String, AttributeValue> item = txManager.getItem(new GetItemRequest()
.withKey(key)
.withTableName("Thread"),
IsolationLevel.COMMITTED).getItem();

More code examples are available in the README file distributed with the transactions library.

A single transaction can span one or more DynamoDB tables. Transactional puts are more expensive (in terms of read and write capacity units). A put that does not contend with any other simultaneous puts can be expected to perform 7N + 4 writes as the original operation, where N is the number of requests in the transaction.

Getting Started
To get started, download the AWS SDK for Java, pull the DynamoDB Transactions library off of the AWS Labs GitHub repository, read the documentation, and start coding!

-- Jeff;

02 Jul 03:14

Firefox OS devices launched

by donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)
"Mozilla today announced that the regional launches of Firefox OS smartphones will begin soon. Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica will release the first Firefox OS devices, the ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fire and the ZTE Open, soon. Individual partners will announce specifics about launches in each market soon." Lots of soons in there.
02 Jul 03:01

20+ Apps to ‘Feed’ Your Addiction in a Post-Google Reader World

by Nathan Snelgrove

As I’m sure most of you know by now, Google Reader is being shut down. With the service gone and our feeds exported — you did export them, right? — it’s time to find other ways to get our RSS Feeds and news fix. Or maybe you’re new to the RSS game and wondering about the best way to get started now that Google Reader is gone.

Well, fear not, we’re here to help you out. Our colleagues at Web.AppStorm published a fantastic article detailing five great online RSS services you ought to try but we’ve also compiled an exhaustive list of great RSS Readers and news solutions specifically available for your Android device. Whether you’re new to RSS or a seasoned veteran, this list should get some ideas generating and help you move on from Google Reader.


Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on twitter.

News Curators

There are several apps that aren’t necessarily traditional RSS readers, but can still help you find great reading material. Maybe you don’t need RSS or maybe you just want a great way to discover fantastic content without having to look for it. These apps should do the trick.

Currents

Google Currents

Google Currents is one of those services that hasn’t gained as much traffic as some of the other Google services, but thanks to Google’s powerful search, it’s one of the best ways to discover the biggest breaking global news. The app is fantastic on Android phones and tablets, as is expected with Google, and it makes it easy to both subscribe to popular news sources and discover new ones.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Google Currents
Developer: Google

Flipboard

Flipboard

Flipboard is my personal favorite among the curators. It’s got my preferred design and its digital page flipping is simply unforgettable. It’s cross-platform for both Android and iOS, and recently gave users the ability to create and publish their own magazines, complete with potential subscriptions. It’s one of the first things I install on every new device, and whether you need to track your RSS feeds or not, Flipboard is worth using for user-created magazines alone.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Flipboard
Developer: Flipboard

Taptu

Taptu

Taptu is different in that, instead of being the massive feed subscription that Google Reader was, it tries to organize your interests and is best used by lightweight RSS users instead of junkies. Taptu uses a DJ feature to mix your interests up and make them easily categorized, but importing your Google Reader data is a bit of a pain. Taptu is designed to be more of a completely fresh start for casual readers, so if you’re one of them, Taptu is worth trying.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Market Link: Taptu
Developer: Taptu

Pulse

Pulse

Pulse has a handy-dandy Google Reader service, but might best be known as the Apple Design Winner of 2011. These guys have indeed crafted a beautiful app that even Steve Jobs thought was wonderful — and he went so far as to say so during an iPad keynote. Pulse is cross-platform, user-friendly and supports many of the services we already rely on, like Pocket and Instapaper. Not only that, but it’s a great website discovery service. It’s hard not to recommend it.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Pulse
Developer: Alphonso Labs

Eldonreader

Eldon Reader

When I tried EldonReader, my interest was quickly dissuaded by its odd website. Its Android app is an improvement, but I still think it makes a better curation service than it does an actual RSS reader. It tries to reinvent the RSS language we’re all used to, adding bookmarks to the list instead of stars and incorporating its own attempt at a Read Later service. EldonReader isn’t an app I’d recommend to those looking to replace Google Reader, but it’s another should-try for people new to the game or those of us wanting to start completely fresh.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Eldon Reader
Developer: Eldon Reader

News360

News360

News360 is a downright beautiful, elegant way to keep up with news feeds on phones and tablets alike. The app is truly cross-compatible in the sense that it not only supports Android and iOS, but also Windows devices. What makes News360 unique is that it’s an intelligent app: It learns what you like to read as you use it. With time, the app becomes tailor-made specifically to your tastes, which makes it one of the most interesting curation-style apps available today.

Price: Free
Requires: Varies with device
Market Link: News360
Developer: News360

Other news curators worth considering include newscover, NewsWhip, Flud News, MATERIAL, Zite and Vu. You can also look at umano, which uses human voices to read important news items to you.

Feedly

Feedly [read the full Web.Appstorm review] has quickly become the most popular Google Reader alternative around. It offered an easy one-click import of Google Reader and kept most of what made that service so popular — including similar keyboard shortcuts! The web service uses a clean, easy-to-use layout that offers lots of simple customization. What makes Feedly so interesting, however, is that it not only has its own great apps, but a very open API. And in a lot of ways, Feedly is already way nicer than Google Reader ever was.

The only real warning I could give about Feedly is that there is no way to export your feeds right now, so you’re locked in to the service even if you want to try something else. The developers say exporting data is on their roadmap, but if it never happens, don’t say we didn’t warn you. If you’re switching to Feedly, give some of these Android apps a whirl.

Feedly

Feedly

The stock Feedly app for Android gets a lot of things right. It works great on any device, but is custom tailored for 4″, 7″ and 10″ screens (read: the Nexus family). It’s not as beautiful as apps like Reeder for iOS, but it’s highly functional and — even better — completely free. It comes with all the benefits that being made by the first-party developer always come with: it’s fast, reliable, feature-packed and should always get new features implemented fast.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Feedly
Developer: Feedly

Press

Press

Press has my vote for the best RSS client on Android. It has a beautiful design and loads of functionality that really put it beyond any other app out there, including support for offline reading. A special amount of care has been put into the little things, like animations when jumping through articles. Press also has its own widgets, DashClock integration and is suitable for phones and tablets. Not only that, but the app integrates perfectly with Feedly, Feed Wrangler, Feedbin and soon, Fever — more on those later.

Price: $2.99
Requires: 4.0 and up
Market Link: Press
Developer: TwentyFive Squares

gReader

gReader

With Google Reader’s demise, gReader now supports Feedly Cloud. The app is jam-packed with tons of features and supports almost every major third-party service you could imagine, including Pocket, Readability and Instapaper. It even has podcast streaming built-in, which is a nice touch for people who want to use it as an all-in-one solution for their subscription needs.

Another unique feature is its ability to search inside any article or feed — a feature even Feedly Cloud hasn’t implemented yet — so you can always find that one article you read a while back. gReader is also tablet optimized and, of course, it has a widget. The pro version has better podcast management and is ad-free.

Price: Free/$4.99 for pro
Requires: 2.1 and up
Market Link: gReader
Developer: noinnion

FeedMe

Feed Me

FeedMe is a really simple RSS reader for Feedly. Unlike some of the other apps, the user interface is stripped down, which I think makes reading easier. It removes the clutter of the official Feedly app and pares the interface down to its essentials. FeedMe supports Pocket and Instapaper, has three themes to choose from and lets you star and tag posts. Those of us who relied on Google Reader’s tag feature might want to check it out. FeedMe is free and doesn’t have ads. Not only that, but it also supports offline reading.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.1 and up
Market Link: FeedMe
Developer: dataegg

Many other Google Reader third-party Android clients have also switched to Feedly’s API, including Reader and D7 Google Reader.

Other RSS Services

Whether Feedly doesn’t hit the right notes with you, or whether you prefer to use a paid service that will likely stick around, there’s a wealth of RSS options that are currently supported on Android.

Newsblur

Newsblur

Newsblur [read the service's full review on Web.Appstorm] is a proprietary piece of software that has come up to replace Google Reader. By proprietary, I mean it’s a closed system and requires using the first-party Newsblur app on the web, iOS and Android. It has no available API that a developer could include in a third-party app, at least not yet, which makes it similar to apps like NetNewsWire for Mac.

Newsblur is a free service for up to 64 subscriptions, but then it’s $24 a year — certainly not a bad price, but not the best I’ve seen either. It’s free to check out, so there’s no harm in giving it a shot.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2 and up
Market Link: Newsblur
Developer: NewsBlur

fever-fluid

Fever

Fever [read the service's full review on Web.Appstorm] is the famous self-hosted RSS reader for tech geeks. You’ve probably heard of it many times: it has a one-time purchase fee of $30 and can be installed on your own servers without much hassle. I don’t use it, but many people I know do and they love it. The service is maintained by Shaun Inman, who’s currently behind in development thanks to other business obligations and some family matters, but for what it’s worth, I expect the service to continue growing.

Fever takes a look through your RSS feeds, finds the hottest articles, and can put them near the top of a Hot List for your reading pleasure. Fever is supported by Android apps like Chills and Meltdown, and the Press team says they’re integrating the service soon as well.

Price: $30
Requires: Web hosting
Developer: Fever

74e01c864c70f25b5efad42a1c324c69

Feedbin

Feedbin [read the service's full review on Web.Appstorm] is a subscription-based service that costs $2 per month, a small and easy number for many of us to handle. For a while, the service was having trouble keeping up with all the new subscribers and was responding slowly. Feedbin was recently moved to new servers, which should make it really zippy.

Feedbin doesn’t require your own hosting or anything like that. As far as a feature list goes, it’s simple and very similar to Google Reader itself. For those reasons, I’m considering switching to it. As for Android, Feedbin is right now compatible with Press, Deer Reader and a Feedbin Reader BETA app.

Price: $2/month
Developer: Feedbin

new-rss-xml-feed-icon

Tiny Tiny RSS

Tiny Tiny RSS epitomizes everything people love about products that run on Google’s services: it’s an open source RSS feeder that works like Fever and requires web hosting. But because it’s open source, anybody can change the code or build their own app for it. It’s a really cool idea for developers, and I’m interested in seeing what happens with it and what kind of apps the community builds.

Currently, there’s an official Tiny Tiny RSS app for Android, but I’m sure third-party apps are on the way.

Price: Free
Requires: Web hosting
Market Link: Tiny Tiny RSS
Developer: Tiny Tiny RSS Wikistart

Icon-512

Feed Wrangler

Feed Wrangler [read the service's full review on Web.Appstorm], the service that I’m personally using, is $19 per year and created by an iOS developer named David Smith. It’s fast and reliable, but what I like the most about it is that I’m guaranteed it’ll still be around this time next year thanks to my subscription.

Feed Wrangler’s twist on RSS Reading is that it supports Smart Streams, which are similar to folders but based on search terms. I’ve used them to create basic folders for some of my feeds (like my AppStorm feeds), but admittedly, I do miss having basic folders. Feed Wrangler is supported in Press, which is just another reason to pick up the app, but it has an incredibly open API which makes it easy for almost any developer to pick up — and a lot reportedly are. In case you’re wondering, if I was to switch to any other service from Feed Wrangler, I’d choose Feedbin.

Price: $19/year
Developer: Feed Wrangler

Here are some other RSS services with Android apps released, in beta, or potentially coming:
Ridly is in beta and currently working with Reader on Android
The Old Reader has an optimized website for mobile devices and an open API so third-party apps might be coming soon
Bloglovin is more visually oriented and has an Android app
FeedHQ has an open API so third-party apps could be coming soon
Rolio has a first-party Android app in the pipeline
Bazqux is currently integrated with the beta Android app News+ from the maker of gReader.

Local RSS Readers

Sometimes, you don’t need apps that sync with web services or other devices, and you just want to get your reading done on your Android phone or tablet. Here are some local RSS readers for Android.

Aggregator

Aggregator

Aggregator isn’t pretty, but it is functional and does do the basic job of aggregating your RSS feeds. What I like about it, despite its lacking visuals, is that it offers support all the way back to Android 1.6. It requires importing an OPML file, and doesn’t sync directly with Google Reader (of course) or any other online service, but once you get it set up, it should work locally on your phone as you’d expect.

Price: Free
Requires: 1.6
Market Link: Aggregator
Developer: Tughi

Rivers

Android Rivers

Android Rivers is the kind of software that deserves kudos for daring to be different. Instead of relying on cloud sync like most RSS readers, there is none. Instead of saving every single article for you to read, it just presents what’s recent. Android Rivers is like a Twitter for RSS feeds.

If you have 1,000 subscriptions, this is an app you might be interested in: skim through your news feeds, read the important ones or listen to pressing podcasts, send the long articles to Readability or Pocket and then move on. The app has no ads, no pro-purchase tricks and no login. Color me impressed.

Price: Free
Requires: 2.2
Market Link: Android Rivers
Developer: Android Rivers

Also worth considering are these other local RSS readers for Android: RSS News Reader, RSS Junkie, Holo Reader, FeedEx and PaperBoy.

The services and apps mentioned above should help you move on after Google Reader’s demise. There’s a lot of choice, many different approaches to RSS and news reading, and most of the companies have worked quickly and relentlessly to be ready before Reader shuts down, but have also promised a lot of innovation once the dust settles.

Did we miss any other important RSS and news service or Android app? Did you decide what option you’ll be using to replace Google Reader? Let us know in the comments!

    


01 Jul 02:39

9 Daily Habits that Often Cause 90 Percent of Our Relationship Problems

by Angel Chernoff

9 Daily Habits that Often Cause 90 Percent of Our Relationship Problems

There’s something to be said for slow and steady progress, but there’s also something to be said for decisive and sweeping action. When it comes to negative relationship habits, there’s no time like today to quit cold turkey. Of course that’s a lot easier said than done, but with practice we can do better almost immediately.

Lately I’ve been making it a point to bring more awareness to the specific negative relationship habits our coaching clients have been repeatedly complaining about or engaging in. And perhaps more importantly than that, I’ve also been noticing how frequently many of the same habits and behaviors surface in my personal relationships. I mean let’s be honest, we all misbehave in our relationships sometimes. None of us are immune to occasional negative mood swings. But that doesn’t excuse what we do to each other on a daily basis. 

Over the years, through our coaching practice and live events, Angel and I have literally worked with hundreds of individuals looking to fix or strengthen their relationships, and we’ve learned a lot about what it takes to make that happen. One of the most significant realizations, again, is the fact that most problems in our relationships (both intimate and platonic) arise from the same basic negative habits and behavioral issues. Here are some of the more prevalent ones to be aware of… (more…)

01 Jul 01:52

ReadKit Update Adds RSS Syncing Through Various Services

by Shep McAllister

ReadKit Update Adds RSS Syncing Through Various Services

OS X: Previously-mentioned ReadKit has always been a great way to catch up on your Instapaper, Pocket, or Readability queues, but the app recently expanded its scope to include support for several RSS syncing solutions to help ease the transition from Google Reader.

Read more...

    


01 Jul 01:51

Fix for Firefox not displaying contents directly in the browser

by Martin Brinkmann

Have you ever encountered situations in Firefox where supported file types like text were not displayed directly in the browser but only offered to be saved to the location system? While that makes sense for file types the browser does not support, like executable files, there is no real reason to display a save dialog for text files or images.

The web browser decides usually whether to display files right away or display a save option instead. This can be partially customized by the user, for instance to automatically save files of a certain type to the system whenever they are requested.

Web servers can however use the Content-Disposition header to override this behavior of the browser. This is sometimes used to force the browser to ignore that it is capable of displaying the contents right away so that a save or open dialog is shown instead.

firefox save instead of show

The user of the browser has no say in the matter, and there is no option to ignore the header on the user's site, at least not when it comes to the default options the browser makes available.

Firefox users can install the InlineDisposition add-on for the browser to ignore the header so that supported file types can be viewed again directly in the browser.

The extension works automatically once you have installed it in Firefox. A good way to find out if it is working is to open the following link in Firefox or another web browser. When you do that,  you will notice that a text file is offered for download or downloaded directly to the computer.

With InlineDisposition installed, the text file is displayed in Firefox so that you can read it right away. You can still save it then by right-clicking the page and selected to save it to the device.

The extension works well for all file types that the browser supports internally. This includes text files, pdf documents, image formats and other media types.

Please note that servers can still prevent the inline viewing of file types if they specify a content-type that the browser does not support.

Other extensions of use in the situation:

  1. Open in Browser adds an option to Firefox's save window that enables you to open the selected file type directly in the browser.
  2. Force Content Type enables you to change the content-type of urls in Firefox. Useful if the server is mis-configured or using the wrong content type on purpose.
  3. Web Page Fixer fixes a number of annoyances including fixing the "do this automatically from now on" checkboxes in Firefox.

The post Fix for Firefox not displaying contents directly in the browser appeared first on gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials.

01 Jul 01:42

Github tool extracts all your Google Reader data, including starred items, tags and more

by Kelly Hodgkins

Google Reader is shutting down and you, hopefully, have backed up your Reader data for future import into your reader app of choice. As pointed out by Mihai Parparita of persistent.info, Google's Takeout service creates a backup of the RSS subscriptions, but fails to include all the data like starred items, tags, comments and more.

To grab all your data, Parparita has created a tool that uses Google's API to pull down everything but the kitchen sink from your Reader account. You can download the reader_archive tool from github and check out the article on persistent.info. The article details other tools like CloudPull and the readerisdead.com website that compiles tools, tips and tricks on extracting all your data from Google Reader. Happy Google Reader backup weekend, folks!

Github tool extracts all your Google Reader data, including starred items, tags and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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01 Jul 01:38

The Plasticky BlackBerry Q5 Is Not The Mid-Tier Hero Handset BB10 Needs To Save It

by Natasha Lomas
blackberry-q5-

In some ways the Qwerty-packing Q5, with its throwback BlackBerry looks, is a far more important device for BlackBerry than its current flagship, the all-touch Z10. Or the premium-priced Qwerty-clad Q10. The mid-tier Q5 should be priced to shift — because that’s what BlackBerry needs to happen to start regaining the ground it lost when it was forced to pause and reboot its OS to play catch-up with rivals. That’s what the Q5 should do, but will it?

The problem for BlackBerry is it may already be too late to turn things around. BlackBerry’s latest results, out late last week, made grim reading as the company missed analyst expectations, and its share price took a battering. It shipped just 2.7 million BlackBerry 10 handsets in its Q1. But it has only had two BB10 devices to sell, one of which (the Q10) only made it to market in the U.S. earlier this month. Which makes the Q5 even more important: BlackBerry needs more handsets in its portfolio attacking different price points to have a chance of ramping up sales.

The problem is the Q5 doesn’t feel like a saviour. It feels closer to a kludge. Likely it isn’t going to be cheap enough to really hit Android where it hurts (it’s mid-tier, not budget after all). Nor does it feel like enough of a leap forward to convert a new generation of users to BlackBerry. BB10 is still Blackberry playing catch-up with competitors, rather than streaking ahead in the innovation stakes.

Of course many Blackberry loyalists and long-time users aren’t going to be unhappy with the Q5′s old school Qwerty form factor. But that staid staple means it necessarily offers a crimped OS experience versus the full-touch Z10. On the Q5 — as with the Q10 — the touchscreen has had to be squashed into a square to accommodate yesteryear’s physical Qwerty keys. Which is a problem because BlackBerry’s new platform needs room for the user to manoeuvre.

BB10 is built around gestures and layering content — and that whole “peek and flow” dynamic comes into its own on a full touchscreen. But on the Q5′s small square it’s inevitably constrained. Yet, despite this squeezed screen, the Q5 is surprisingly big for a Qwerty BlackBerry. Certainly compared to past generations of RIM hardware — those ever-so-popular Curves and Bolds it apparently succeeds.

As well as being constrained by having to make room for the keyboard, space has to be found to accommodate the bevels where BB10′s gestures have to start. This makes the overall front footprint a bit, well, hefty. It looks like an oversized, top-heavy BlackBerry, which will feel like a step backwards to those accustomed to BlackBerry’s traditionally highly pocketable handsets. And who else is this Qwerty-packer really trying to woo?

Android users have so much choice when it comes to keyboard software that even if they don’t get on with the stock Android virtual keyboard they can switch to Swype, or Swiftkey or any one of the growing number of Qwerty alternatives cooking up interesting new ways to type. The Q5′s immutable plastic keys feel terribly dumb phone in comparison.

Even the BlackBerry exec demoing the Q5 at the press event I attended to pick up a review device described the physical keyboard as “infamous”  (Freudian slip?). And said he found typing on it “a bit strange” because “I’m used to typing on the [full touchscreen] Z10.” That says it all really.

The Q5 is a deeply conservative device. It continues to look backwards to BlackBerry’s legacy keyboard-chained past — a compromise between old technology and new software. And like most compromises, it’s unlikely to entirely please anybody. It’s not that it’s terrible, it just doesn’t feel good enough to make an impact — and that means it’s not good enough because BlackBerry needs something remarkable to stand out in this crowded mid-tier segment.

Yet you can see exactly how and why BlackBerry has arrived here. In its current shrunken state, as its user base and revenues have diminished, the company has had to retrench. It can’t afford to lose any more users, yet it can’t afford to ramp up the number of devices in its portfolio quickly enough — making it super important that it retains its one remaining heartland: corporate users. Those are the last really sticky BlackBerry users, even as fickle consumers have wandered off elsewhere.

So BlackBerry can’t cut its ties with the past as it’s now even more dependent on its most conservative demographic. Its focus has to be on servicing that existing corporate user-base — because their loyalty is locked up far more than the average consumer. Some 90 percent of the Fortune 500 are BlackBerry customers, according to the company. And some 60 percent are apparently trialling BB10. BlackBerry needs those bulk-buyers to migrate to BB10 and continue pumping money into its coffers. If they abandon ship BlackBerry really will be an adrift ghost ship.

Selling mobile email to corporates is how BlackBerry built its original mobile empire. And selling to corporates is where BlackBerry has had to retrench to now. An army of cheap Androids is sweeping away its other former stronghold: teens. While free, over-the-top messaging apps like WhatsApp have eroded the appeal of BBM (BlackBerry’s licensing of BBM to Android and iOS this summer also feels like too little, too late). Now, with the mid-tier-priced Q5, BlackBerry is apparently hoping to woo those kids back. But the Q5 compromises on target demographic, too.

On the one hand BlackBerry says it’s aiming the Q5 at younger users. But it also cites SMEs and corporates as targets — flagging up the Balance feature that allows segmentation of work and personal content on the device. Little wonder then that, design-wise, the Q5 looks like it’s trying not to be too much of anything, so no one feels like disowning it. If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be generic. Or plasticky. It’s as if it’s been deliberately left as blank as possible to be as inoffensive as possible — to try to appeal to as wide a group as possible. In other words: another compromise.

The other problem BlackBerry has is that corporates are famously conservative about technology upgrades, which explains why it has no plans to sunset BB 7 any time soon. Corporate investments in BES 7 “have to be protected,” as one BlackBerry spokesman put it. Which means the company has to keep supporting BB 7 and producing devices running that last-gen OS for the foreseeable future. Which stymies change, and hampers BB10′s progress as a portion of resources have to go on the old platform.

Plus, if BB 7 devices are still on offer, why should corporates risk the upheaval of upgrading to a device like the Q5? They’ll stick with what they know, and leave this compromise on the shelf. So while BlackBerry youth users are going — or have already gone — elsewhere to check out shinier hardware, its business users are foot-dragging and in no hurry to move on. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No wonder turning this tanker is so hard.

Pricing will of course play a key role in whether the Q5 sits on shelves or not. The mid-tier is where the largest Android army roams. But carrier tariffs for the Q5 are going to need to be a lot lower than the early EE pricing of £26 a month to be competitive enough to win over consumers. That price is pitting the Q5 against iPhone 4S or Galaxy S3 tariff prices. Which makes BlackBerry’s mid-tier offering a tough sell, whichever tech camp you prefer to sit in.

Regardless of whether this middling handset ends up selling well or not, it may make little material difference to BlackBerry’s prospects. The perception that the mobile maker is now locked in a death spiral will only increase shareholder pressure on the management team, and make acquisition a more likely end. BlackBerry would need to sell an awful lot of Q5s to calm that spin.