Software Crisis

During the late 1960s and 1970s, there was an outcry over an impending software crisis. The symptoms of such a crisis surfaced then and are present even today. The symptoms are the following:

1. Software cost has shown a rising trend, outstripping the hardware cost. Boehm (1976, 1981) indicated that since the fifties, the percentage of total cost of computation attributable to hardware has dramatically reduced and that attributable to software has correspondingly increased. Whereas software cost was only a little over 20% in the 1950’s, it was nearly 60% in the 1970’s, and about 80% in the 1980’s. Today, the computer system that we buy as ‘hardware’ has generally cost the vendor about three times as much for the software as it has for the hardware (Pressman 1992).

2. Software maintenance cost has been rising and has surpassed the development cost. Boehm (1981) has shown that the bulk of the software cost is due to its maintenance rather than its development.

3. Software is almost always delivered late and exceeds the budgeted cost, indicating time and

cost overruns.

4. It lacks transparency and is difficult to maintain.

5. Software quality is often less than adequate.

6. It often does not satisfy the customers.

7. Productivity of software people has not kept pace with the demand of their services.

8. Progress on software development is difficult to measure.

9. Very little real-world data is available on the software development process. Therefore, it has not been possible to set realistic standards.

10. How the persons work during the software development has not been properly understood. One of the earliest works that explained to a great extent the causes of software crisis is by Brooks (1972). We shall get in the next section a glimpse of the work of Brooks.

Better Explorer Beta 1

Better Explorer is a replacement for the standard Windows Explorer with more features for more convenience. Among other features, Better Explorer has Tabs, Ribbon interface, additional conditional tabs and so on!

This Project is designed for use with Windows 7 (it WILL NOT work on older operating systems).

It also works on the Windows 8 Release Preview.

The main goals of this project are:

- Adding Ribbon Control UI like in Windows 8 (Implemented)

- Adding tab functionality together with use of standard explorer browser control (Implemented)

- Adding additional features like:

• Changing Library icons (conditional tab for Libraries) (Implemented)
• File operation with files and folders (Implemented)
• Synchronized command prompt
• Change of folder icons (conditional tab for folders)
• Extended Jump list support (Windows 7) (Implemented)
• Extended search conditional tab like extended search pane in Vista (Windows 7) (Implemented)

Beta 1 Changes

There were a lot of changes, including:

• Translations into 10 different languages (the translations are not complete and will be updated soon)
• Conditional Select
• new tools for managing archives
• Folder Tools tab
• new search bar and Search Tab
• new image editing tools
• update function
• many bug fixes, stability fixes, and memory leak fixes
• other new features as well!

Note: This is beta software. Do not install this if you don't know what you are doing!

Download: Better Explorer Beta 1 | 14.1 MB (Open Source)

View: Better Explorer Website

Dell Latitude E5430 and E5530 Business Notebooks Announced

Dell today announced the new Latitude E5430 and E5530 business laptops, the E5430 sports a 14” screen while the E5530 has a larger sized 15.6” screen. These two laptops will start at around $800 on Dell.com when they become available next month, which puts them below the asking price for the more premium $1,000 Latitude E6430. The Latitude E5430 will replace the currently available E5420, the style will be much the same as before but internally updates will include the new 3rd generation Intel Core i3 or i5 processors and the integration of Intel vPro system management technology. The E5430 will have a tri-metal design with a brush aluminum finish to provide for high durability even with the lower system price. The keyboard will also be spill resistant and hinges made of steel to add to the overall rigidness of the system. The standard screen for the E5430 will be a 14” 1366 x 768 resolution matte screen and there will be an option to upgrade to a higher resolution HD+ 1600 x 900 screen.

The look for the larger sized E5530 will be the same as that of the E5430, just larger with a 15.6” screen. There will be the option to upgrade to a Full HD 1920 x 1080 screen on this larger Latitude model and it will have a built-in number pad due to the larger size. Both models will offer an integrated web camera and an optical drive.

Availability of the E5430 and E5530 should fall around July or August at which point further details will be revealed.

Vizio Laptops Coming this Month to Walmart

It looks like the Vizio laptops that were announced back in January at CES 2012 will be hitting the store shelves of Walmart this month. Vizio confirmed to Gizmodo that they would indeed be rolling out their first PC offerings to stores in mid to late June, but did not confirm any specs. In addition to a laptop, Vizio will also be launching an all-in-one desktop PC.

It is unclear whether the laptop Vizio intends to release will be the 14” Ultrabook that got displayed at CES. Vizio said at the time they would release an Ultrabook with a price that “doesn’t seem possible” according to the company CTO. Vizio is best know for its uber cheap LCD TVs and they’re hoping to beat the competition on price in the PC market as well. However, if you witness the 8” Vizio Tablet that was released last year, it has basically been following the price trajectory of other Android tablets – down. It’s about the same price as other cheap Android tablets, such as the Coby 8” Tablet andLenovo IdeaPad A1 7” that both cost under $200. So the question that remains is whether Vizio will walk the walk after talking the talk with their pricing here. If they truly want to win on pricing in the Ultrabook space, they’ll need to hit a price point under $700 as HP already has the Envy 4t Ultrabook priced at $699. Lenovo will be releasing their IdeaPad U400 Ultrabook priced at a similar amount too. All will be revealed in a few days and then we can all stop at aisle 4 when doing our Walmart shopping to check these out these new Vizio PC offerings in person. Should be interesting.

New HP Coupons for June, 33% Off ENVY and Pavilion Quad Edition Laptops

HP has yet another 33% off coupon for the dv6t and dv7t Quad Edition and ENVY laptops that has just been issued for June 3 – June 13, 2012. Here are the details to get this discount:

Use coupon code NBG5247 to get 33% off when purchasing a customized HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition, dv7t Quad Edition, Envy 15t-3200, Envy 17t-3200 or Envy 173D laptop at HP.com

Offer limited to 900 uses (1 per household), coupon expires on 6/13/2012

This means the dv6t-7000 is once again at the lowest price we’ve ever seen (or at least tied with). When you use the coupon NBG5247 at checkout the base configuration price of the dv6t Quad Edition drops to $770.49:

The configuration for the $770 price has the following specs:

Processor: 3rd generation Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)

Graphics: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 memory

Memory: FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

Storage: 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Screen: 15.6-inch diagonal glossy screen with 1366 x 768 resolution

Optical Drive: Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner

We recommend upgrading to the 1920 x 1080 screen and Nvidia 650M graphics which would bring the total price after coupon to $904.49 – again, a very good price for a fully loaded desktop replacement style laptop that would allow you to do gaming and run the most demanding of software applications. If you need something larger and prefer the dv7t Quad Edition the base starting price is $837.49.

The coupon for 33% off also works on the ENVY lineup, the ENVY 15-3200 and ENVY 17-3200 were released this weekend and include the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors. The ENVY 15-3200 starts at $887.74 with the Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5GHz processor, AMD 7750M graphics and 6GB of RAM.

If you’re interested in buying any of these laptops we have full reviews for all of them, just check out the links below:

HP Pavilion dv6t-7000 Quad Edition Review

HP ENVY 15 Review

HP ENVY 17 Review

In addition to this coupon there are two more new coupons HP has issued that are good June 3 – 13:

Use coupon code NBW3244 to get $75 off any custom laptop > $750 at HP.com

Excludes HP ENVY 4t, ENVY 6t, ENVY 14,and ENVY XT laptops

Expires 6/13/2012 or after 900 uses

Use coupon code NBV9964 to get $150 off the purchase of a Pavilion dm1z Ultraportable laptopat HP.com

Expires after 500 redemptions or 6/13/2012, whichever comes first

HP Envy Spectre XT Ultrabook Now Shipping for $999

HP today threw up for sale the Envy Spectre XT 13” screen Ultrabook that they had announced last month, so it’s a few days earlier than the June 8th released they had said earlier. As expected, the starting price is $999 and at that base price you get the following specs:

Screen: 13.3" diagonal HD BrightView LED- backlit Display (1366 x 768)

Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3317U Processor

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000

Memory: 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)

Storage: 128GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)

OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Wireless: Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth

Battery: 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery for Up to 8.0 hours of battery life

Backlit Keyboard

Included 2 Year Warranty

The Spectre XT has a few upgrade options, you can select a larger 256GB SSD for a whopping $300 extra. You can also bump the processor up to a Core i7-3517U or Core i7-3667U which costs $100 and $225 respectively. For most people the magic $1,000 mark is going to be what you’ll go with, there’s not a whole lot of point upgrading to Core i7 as the Core i5 should offer ample performance for most users. The 256GB SSD upgrade is very expensive, but for those that really need the capacity it may be worth it.

The build quality of the Spectre XT should be top notch, it uses an all aluminum case. Despite the generous use of metal, the weight will only be 3.07lbs and it will have a wafer thin thickness of 0.57”. Battery life is quoted at 8 hours, making this an all day use battery should you be stranded and away from an outlet. Ports included are an essential USB 3.0, HDMI and Ethernet jack – there is no media card slot though.

The ENVY Spectre XT and Envy 14 Spectre both now offer the new Intel Ivy Bridge 3rd generation of Core i5 and Core i7 processors, but the starting price tag of the XT is $400 less than the ENVY 14 Spectre. However, the screen resolution on the Envy Spectre XT maxes out at 1366 x 768 while the ENVY 14 Spectre has a higher resolution 1600 x 900 screen which is certainly worth something. The ENVY 14 also has a unique design that integrates Gorilla glass into the case. Outside of that these are two premium built Ultrabooks with very similar performance specs so that under $1K price tag is likely going to steer more toward the 13” XT.

HP ENVY 17t-3200 and ENVY 15t-3200 Sport Intel’s Ivy Bridge

HP has quietly updated their ENVY 15 and 17 series with the 3rd generation of Intel’s Ivy Bridge and given them the respective model numbers of Envy 15t-3200 and Envy 17t-3200. Indeed this is the only update for the popular 15” and 17” premium performance notebooks. To the chagrin of many, the IPS display in the Envy 15 that so many reported as having reds show up as orange, is still unchanged. No word on when that “fix”Engadget reported will be seen.

The good news? The price is still the same for both models despite the improved processors, so you’re essentially getting something better for nothing compared to those that bought earlier in the year. There’s actually a 33% off coupon (NBG5247) on both models right now that bumps the starting price of the Envy 15-3200 down to $887 and Envy 17t-3200 $988.

So what do you get for the $887 starting price on the ENVY 15? An Intel Core i5-3210M Ivy Bridge processor, the new AMD 7750M graphics (make sure to upgrade from the AMD 7690M for $0), 6GB of RAM and a 750GB 7200RPM hard drive. The upgrade to an IPS 1920 x 1080 screen is $150 – yes, that’s the panel with the red color display issues but it’s still going to be appealing to many given the advantages of a higher resolution. If you want to upgrade to a Quad Core i7 processor it’s +$100. The new AMD 7750M graphics and Intel Core i7 processors should provide a very nice performance bump over the previous generation. The AMD 7750M is reportedly on par with the Nvidia 650M graphics. We recently reviewed the dv6t-7000 Quad Edition with Intel Ivy Bridge and Nvidia 650M graphics and it scored 10,108 3DMarks in 3DMark Vantage versus the 6,970 3DMarks our Envy 17-3000 with Intel Core i7-2670QM Sandy Bridge and AMD 7690M graphics – a performance bump of nearly 40%.