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Great bytes from coffee [New Straits Time (Malaysia)]
[January 19, 2014]

Great bytes from coffee [New Straits Time (Malaysia)]


(New Straits Time (Malaysia) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MANY a tech innovation has been fuelled by this beverage, writes Rozana Sani.

Imagine this: You're stuck in a project with a deadline due tomorrow. It's already past midnight and you need just one more answer to complete your job before the sun rises.

Now what will you do? Grab a cup of coffee? That is the most common response in a situation like this for many of us. After all, caffeine - hot or cold - has been used for thousands of years to enhance mental alertness as well as focus and clarity. Whether you're fighting the urge to doze off or to heighten your alertness, coffee tends to be the magical potion of choice.



Many a software or application developer can attest to drinking coffee, and lots of it. Technology innovation is a 24-hour job. Code writing or programming often run on timelines that are now becoming more complex due to the global nature of business operations these days.

JAVA Coming up with a solution to a problem via programming, testing or trouble-shooting consumes the mind. Just ask any developer at the next hackathon you attend. Curiosity, pride and the challenge of pushing knowledge forward drive them. And coffee is the most likely fuel for meeting the challenges.


This was probably the case when Sun Microsystems decided on a coffee metaphor to trademark its lingua franca for a next- generation application in the mid-1990s.

Java is a computer programming language that is concurrent, class- based, object-oriented and specifically designed with as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to let application developers "write once, run anywhere" (WORA), meaning the code that runs on one platform does not need to be recompiled to run on another.

Developed by Sun Microsystems in 1991 and released in 1995, legend has it that the company had a roundtable meeting about renaming the "language" Oak, which was being used by another company for another product at that time.

Coffee was apparently constantly being drunk while they were developing the programming language, and was also served during the meeting. So, it was no surprise when Java was among the names nominated. Java was eventually chosen and the name has stuck.

COFFEECUP Coffee also features prominently in the set-up of one Atlanta- based American computer software development company. Founded in 1996, CoffeeCup Software has its origins in an Internet cafe owned by Nicholas Longo. The name CoffeeCup came from the domain name of the coffee house and since coffeecup.com was already paid for, the same name was used for the software company.

CoffeeCup has created over 25 software applications for creating, designing and editing websites and performs a number of online services for webmasters. It is recorded that the company's third product, CoffeeCup Direct FTP, was the first FTP program to incorporate text editing functionality into the interface in a "split screen" fashion.

Other than software named after things related to coffee, there are now numerous mobile apps developed for coffee lovers, obviously by people who also love coffee.

BUBBLE UP Percolator by John Balestrieri is a coffee-inspired app, made available by Tinrocket, LLC on iTunes for iPhones and iPads. It's an art/photography app inspired by coffee. You know those bubbles that naturally occur on the top of a freshly brewed cup of coffee? Yes, this app makes your photos look like that.

Percolator combines unique visual effects processing with a beautiful, retro, coffee-themed user interface and refined user experience design. The mosaic technology used in Percolator is based on a proprietary circle packing algorithm. Images by Percolator can be shared through email, Twitter, Facebook or the Instagram App.

GIVE IN TO CRAVINGS Meanwhile, Android-based Ice Coffee Maker by ICAW (I Can And Will) is a cooking game that allows players to treat themselves to a cup of sweet, creamy ice coffee. Players choose coffee beans, blend them and prepare frothy coffee.

And then they get to make some cool desserts to top it off. You can drink it up (probably virtually) or share it with friends and family. How's that for giving in to your coffee cravings? Coffee continues to be an important source of that extra "zing" to the creative process that drives innovation.

Hot or cold, coffee is here to stay.

* We are celebrating the senses. To touch, to see, to hear, to smell and to taste, these are the foundations of the human experience.

This week, the New Straits Times and Wonda Coffee ask you to delight your senses with coffee.

Go ahead? touch, see, hear, smell and taste the coffee in our pages.

Flip through these pages till you find coffee that you can touch.

(c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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