About once a decade, the tech industry experiences a fundamental shift in the way software is built and delivered. From batch jobs running on mainframes to applications running on PCs, and then on to Web-based and mobile apps, we’ve all lived through these shifts firsthand.  Most are driven by disruptive changes in hardware coupled with new kinds of applications.

Today, the tech industry once again finds itself staring down the barrel of two related secular trends: the arrival of massively multicore commodity processors and the unprecedented scale of cloud computing applications. Programmers know intuitively that this shift is happening, and they are already feeling the pain of trying to apply their old tools in this new world. Now that every programmer must be a parallel programmer, we need to embrace new models for building software that reflect this reality. Enter Typesafe.

This morning Greylock Partners announced a million Series A investment in Typesafe, the Scala company. Founded by Martin Odersky, the creator of the Scala programming language, and Jonas Bonér, the creator of the Akka middleware project, Typesafe integrates Scala, Akka and developer tools to simplify and modernize software development.

If you were to take the lid off of the datacenter of every large company in the world, you might be surprised to discover that the most demanding systems are those that run some of the friendliest consumer businesses: Facebook, Zynga, Twitter and the like. Web sites that serve up games about farm animals or photos of your buddies from college may seem like fun and games, but serving up billions of unique interactions a day across hundreds of millions of consumers around the world is serious business. Many fail whales can be traced back to systems that weren’t prepared for massive scale. To improve the reliability and scalability of its service, Twitter became an early adopter of Scala. Many others, including LinkedIn and Foursquare, have followed suit.

Our old friend Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors on a CPU doubles every two years. In the past, that meant more gigahertz, but we’ve now reached the physical limits of clock speed. So from now on, those transistors, still delivered by Moore’s Law, go towards additional CPU cores that run software applications in parallel. As a result, we are on the verge of having hundreds and then thousands of cores in our mainstream processors. And as any self-aware programmer will tell you, writing parallel software using traditional tools is hard.

For the challenge of multicore, Scala provides a better concurrent programming model that blends aspects of the object-oriented and functional programming traditions, enabling developers to be more productive while creating reliable software that scales up on multicore systems. For cloud workloads, Scala-based Akka middleware implements the actor programming model, enabling developers to write fault-tolerant software that scales out in distributed cloud environments. Scala and Akka are combined with supporting development tools in the easy-to-use Typesafe Stack.

The Typesafe Stack runs on the Java Virtual Machine and works seamlessly with existing Java environments, while rejuvenating the Java platform for modern computing architectures and workloads. With Typesafe, any Java programmer can easily take advantage of advances in multicore and cloud computing.

By giving developers the right abstractions and hiding the implementation details, Scala and Akka can make developing software a lot simpler. Typesafe provides packaging, tooling, documentation, training, and services to ease the learning curve for Scala. If you can program in Java, you can use the Typesafe Stack.

When we first met the Typesafe founders Martin and Jonas last year, their deep understanding of the fundamental challenges of modern software impressed us. And when we saw that leading companies like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare had bet their businesses on Scala, we knew that we wanted to be in business with them. We feel that the team at Typesafe – and the Scala and Akka open-source communities – are bringing developers the tools they need to create the next generation of powerful software applications.

Bill Kaiser has been with Greylock Partners for 25 years, after holding down real jobs at Hewlett Packard and Apollo Computer. He has invested almost exclusively in software companies selling to enterprises.

Donald Fischer is a principal at Greylock Partners, focusing on enterprise software, software-as-a-service, open source, mobile and cloud computing.

Image courtesy of Flickr user JanneM.

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www.ted.com Golan Levin, an artist and engineer, uses modern tools — robotics, new software, cognitive research — to make artworks that surprise and delight. Watch as sounds become shapes, bodies create paintings, and a curious eye looks back at the curious viewer.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com
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A great number of people are interested in painting for beginners. Unfortunately, not every eager learner gets to make his dream come true. One possible stumbling block is the thinking that only naturally talented people can succeed. Even those however who aren’t born to seemingly have the natural flair to wield a brush can become accomplished painters. The only real requirements are commitment, zeal and good instruction.

Learners today will still be better off with the old method of learning. The easiest way to become good at painting is to learn from a master. These days however, it is no longer common for students to seek apprenticeship opportunities. The better way to learn to paint is to join structured art classes that tackle theoretical and concrete aspects of painting.

Keep in mind though that many learners don’t do very well in formal classes or courses. Students for example who are required to paint in groups with fellow students may be driven away by their inability to deal with public scrutiny. This however is not the only looming concern. There is also the issue of expensive fees. If it’s not about being publicly criticized, the reasons for leaving class might have something to do with the cost of learning to paint.

The great news is that modern tools are now available to give students the chance to learn painting outside of formal classes and at their own pace. These tools come in the form of guides, manuals or e-books that can be obtained online. There are also some websites that provide free tips. Most beginners however will learn better with a properly structured manual. A number of great guides don’t cost a fortune and don’t even cost half as much as formal classes.

Before you buy an online manual or guide, you need to evaluate your prospects first. As a beginner, you need to look into whether you are already at a slightly higher level than absolute first timers. Knowing where you are will help you decide whether a particular resource has content that is relevant to you.

There are some general points that real starters should look into to learn how to paint. Before even starting, beginners need to be taught first how to prepare the canvas; what other painting surfaces can be used; what brushes and other tools can be used for coloring; and how brushes should be cared for and preserved.

Learners who know more should receive instruction on the proper use of colors and which colors are ideal for use. There should also be a couple of chapters on paint thinning, scene composition, lighting, perspective and techniques with brushes. Painters who are already fairly good with watercolors should also look for manuals that offer tips and insights on working with pastel and oil.

There are no real restrictions on who can learn art. Even if you and everyone else think you have no talent, you can become a true artist. What you really need to do first is to look for the right resources to work with.

Surveillance with the help of the hidden cameras and the spy cams are on the track with great success and they have gained recognition among many people of different professions all over the world. People with almost the professions have started using the hidden cameras for surveillance and security purposes. Earlier the regular types of cameras were used only by the professionals for their use. The photographers used them to capture the images of the models or the photography during the weddings or any other occasions. But today with the introduction of so many latest cameras, they are being used in every field of work by one and all. Many people have started using the hidden cameras for various purposes.

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