It’s official: HTML5 is a standard.

The World Wide Web Consortium today has elevated the HTML5 specification to ‘recommendation’ status, giving it the group’s highest level of endorsement, which is akin to becoming a standard.

But Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the W3C, was quick to point out that work on the Web is far from complete.

HTML5 is a critical piece in terms of importance to the next generation of Web technology in general, according to Jaffe. “I think back to what the Web originally was, which was accessing static documents from Web pages. Today, it’s what we call the Open Web Platform for building distributed applications, characterized by rich media – video, audio and graphics – natively available in browsers,” he said.

The Web, he pointed out, not only works on desktop and laptop computers, but is also doing well on television sets and eBook readers, and will be an automotive experience in the not-too-distant future. But, he cautioned, the Web only works well “if there’s interoperability, and you get there through the standards process.” Acknowledging that that can be a lengthy process, Jaffe said some organizations will implement the specification before it’s a standard, and the standards body learns from those implementations in advancing the specification.

One of the major hang-ups during the development of the HTML5 specification was the inclusion of a video codec for decoding video. Jaffe said the W3C did not select a mandatory codec for inclusion in HTML5. “H.264 is widely used but has a patent pool that is the complete opposite of royalty-free,” he said. “So to select something less popular [the WebM, or VP8 codec endorsed by Google and others] would be awkward.”

Jaffe went on to say he’s still negotiation with MPEG LA, holders of the patent behind the h.264 codec, to come up with a baseline interoperability level commitment that is royalty-free that could serve as a loss leader for their higher profiles for performance or clarity of image, but has not as yet made any progress. That royalty-free version, he said, would be extremely helpful for “people developing solutions in developing countries who are more sensitive to cost.”

Along with the announcement of the HTML5 recommendation, Jaffe introduced Application Foundations, to help developers writing applications for the Web. “At the end of the day, we still have a little bit of an engine room mentality,” Jaffe said. “We’ve been working up from the Web instead of down from the developers, and we ask if we’ve given them what they need to create these rich Web applications.”

Last Week Apple announced the release of a brand new language called Swift. This is a paradigm shift and one that was desperately needed by the community. Objective-C is a relic of the past which was showing its age. Apple has been trying to update the language but it had a long way to go. With Swift they made a clean break. Now we get a modern language that has features found in languages like Ruby, Python, Go, etc.

Here are some of the highlights of the language according to Apple:

Closures
Tuples and multiple return values
Generics
Enums and Structs
Optional chaining
These are some advanced features for a language that looks deceptively easy to learn. Swift is not just new syntax but it’s a completely new language from the ground up.

We’ve received several emails and tweets with questions about Swift. This post will try to address most of those questions. Feel free to ask any other questions that I may have missed.

Q. When will Treehouse have a course on Swift?

A. Apple has a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) on all new technologies they announce at WWDC, which means nobody can publicly talk about them until the official release of iOS in the fall. We could have a course ‘swiftly’, however if it falls under the NDA then we can’t release it until the public release of iOS.

Apple has released a book on Swift and our guess is that the language might be exempt from the NDA but not the tools. We cannot teach the language without being able to use the tool (Xcode). We are trying to get the official word from Apple.

Q. I just started learning Objective-C, should I just learn Swift instead?

A. As mentioned above, Apple has released a comprehensive Swift book so by all means start learning Swift. After glancing through the book I believe that on some levels Swift may be harder to learn because of the advanced features mentioned above. My suggestion would be to continue learning Objective-C, although it may look difficult syntactically but conceptually it’s a much simpler language and great for a beginner. Once you get the hang of Objective-C then switching over to Swift will be a lot easier because the two languages are quite similar.

Q. Will Swift take over Objective-C?

A. For now, Apple is supporting both the languages so Objective-C is not going anywhere. There are 1.2 million apps in the App Store and I’m pretty sure majority of them are written in Objective-C. Rest assured, if you are looking for a job then most probably your future employer has an existing app that is written in Objective-C which you will have to learn inevitably.

Eventually, developers will start switching over to Swift and you will see a wider adoption of the language but do not expect existing projects to completely overhaul their apps to use the new language. Swift is here to stay and Objective-C will ride into the sunset but this whole process will take a while.

If you think that developing an app is just a simple task, well its definitely not as you have to work on it deeply.

Meanwhile, if you are one of those aspiring app developer, you should focus first on your vision and goals before you go through in the complex world of developing an app and also consider the demand of your boss as well as the users expectations.

Regarding to this, famous developers including president of Pfeiffer Consulting Andreas Pfeiffer, president of Joe Zeff Design Joe Zeff and the co-founder of App Orchard Kevin Kim, impart their knowledge and give their various opinions which will help developers build apps that will sell during the recent TabletBiz Conference and Expo.

As Joe Zeff found that Apple’s tablet would be perfectly suited for publishing industry dubbed as “The tablet is the ultimate storytelling device,” he advice “It comes down to that core capability of that tablet device to present content. Take content that people already like and make it more likeable. Make it something that people want to spend more time with and present opportunities for them to interact with it.”

With Joe Zeff’s determination developing his app, he absolutely caught the attention of JP Morgan and Notre Dame Football as his clients in the world of publishing industry.

On the other hand, as part of Kevin Kim’s advice while discussing about developing an app, he said “Some of the best, most innovative developers aren’t working in the trenches of corporate America, Instead, the best ideas are mostly coming from independent developers and they are the ones who are pushing the envelope when it comes to technology.”

Moreover, Andreas Pfeiffer also give his statement regarding with the Apple’s App store, which developers should be aware of, saying “There are 1,000 to 2,000 app submissions a day. The real problem isn’t the distribution, but the promotion. You cannot count on Apple.”

Since developing an app is not that easy, your patience, hard work, and self-motivation will be the main keys for you to be able to achieve your goals while developing an app that will sell.

The main advantage on this career as an independent software developer is having yourself as a boss, no corporate policies should be followed but considering limitations.

As an independent software developer there are at least 15 steps to be followed according to infoworld.com in order to attain accuracy and to maximize the free source job:

1. If your working in a corporate company and opted to resign, list down the things you must consider in becoming an independent software developer.

2. Before putting oneself as independent software developer or programmer as a chosen job, plan first in order to assure success in the chosen career which involved consultations and training.

3. After you resign in the previous job, find yourself a time to adjust.

4. Expand attributes on technical knowledge and software programming.

5. Maximize time working efficiently as if becoming a software developer offers convenient time.

6. Attest on small things considering its effect if not given attention.

7. As an independent software developer marketing and advertising is an essential part in order to obtain progress.

8. Organize your work and set up priorities.

9. Identify difference between promotion and being independent,to become independent signifies that a certain individual must also take managerial concerns while being promoted is just transferring into another job but with specifications.

10. As a programmer do not limit yourself for investing as long as you can manage your work in which defines to accept technical inputs and apply it into work for an expected outcome.

11. Know when your going to expand or lessen your business.

12. Set up product quality as an element for considerations in your business.

13. Work out for your product to be recognized such as linking your business into informative sites, merging and post educational drive about your product through social media.

14. Dividing responsibilities may be an assurance of success or failure but before you are going to establish a work for a certain person make sure his/her working capacities.

15. Take care of yourself as an asset in your business and be reminded to make use of your time not only in working on the entire week but also to exercise rest, relax and recreation.

بعد از ناهار احساس سنگینی می‌کنید؟ بعدازظهرها‌ حوصله کار ندارید؟ راه حل شما «چُرت مرغوب» است! اصلا هم نباید به خاطرش خجالت بکشید چون بدن انسان بعدازظهرها به پایین‌ترین نقطه کارایی‌اش می‌رسد و یک استراحت کوتاه دوباره کارایی را بالا می‌برد.

راز چُرت مرغوب چیست؟ اینکه موقع چُرت زدن نباید سنگین بخوابیم. محققان به این نتیجه رسیده‌اند که اگر چُرت کوتاه بیشتر از ۳۰ دقیقه طول بکشد وارد فاز خواب سنگین می‌شویم و هنگام بیداری حالت خستگی و خواب‌آلودگی پیدا می‌کنیم.

این چُرت با خوابیدن دو ساعته بعد از ناهار فرق می‌کند و البته موقع آن نباید تلویزیون یا موبایل‌تان روشن باشد. خوشبختانه زمانش هم طولانی نیست و بین ۱۰ دقیقه تا نیم ساعت طول می‌کشد. چطور چُرت مرغوب بزنیم؟ روی زمین یا تخت‌خواب یا پشت صندلی فرقی نمی‌کند، بدن را در حالتی قرار دهید که راحت باشد و آماده‌ی استراحت. بعد چشم‌ها را ببندید و نفس‌های عمیق بکشید تا آرام‌تر شوید. به خودتان فشار نیاورید که حتما خواب‌تان ببرد چون هدف چُرت مرغوب این نیست، قرار است در این نیم‌ساعت بدن انرژی از دست رفته را بازیابد. (اگر ذهن‌تان مشغول بود برای آرام‌ شدنش فشار نیاورید، بگذارید هر جا که می‌خواهد برود.)

برای بیدار شدن از چُرت مرغوب می‌توانید ساعت کوک کنید، اما بدون ساعت بهتر است چون اصولا زنگ ساعت یا موبایل به آدم استرس وارد می‌کند. می‌توانید به جای زنگ ساعت از کلید استفاده کنید. چطور؟ اگر روی صندلی یا کاناپه چُرت می‌زنید یک کلید دست‌تان بگیرید. هر وقت کلید از دست شما پایین بیفتد یعنی در حال ورود به مرحله خواب سنگین بوده‌اید. به هر حال نگذارید چُرت مرغوب بیشتر از نیم‌ساعت طول بکشد.

اگر قبل از چُرت یک فنجان قهوه یا چای هم بنوشید بهتر است، چون اینها عموما بعد از نیم ساعت عمل می‌کنند و این‌جوری سرحال بیدار می‌شوید. بعد از بیدار شدن هم یک دقیقه قدم بزنید تا سرحال‌تر شوید.

چُرت‌تان مرغوب!

(منبع: کتاب «چگونه صبح‌ها سرحال‌تر باشیم» اثر کریستا گبهارت / و تجربیات تحریریه «روزنامه»)