Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 2, 2013
by sjvn01
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Windows 8 continues to fail

The real take-away from Net Applications’ May 2013 release of NetMarketShare monthly operating system statistics is that, as PC sales continue to collapse, Microsoft’s Windows 8 could be a factor behind the plunge.

While Microsoft apologists focus on Windows continuing to be the dominant desktop operating system, they keep missing the two elephants in the room: Windows 8 continues to fall behind Microsoft’s previous top operating system failure, Vista, and Windows is no longer the dominant end-user operating system when PCs, smartphones and tablets are considered.

Windows 8 continues to fail. More >

May 31, 2013
by sjvn01
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Wireline networking groups merge to form HomeGrid Forum

Wi-Fi is fine for ease of use and category 6 Ethernet cable is great for when you need real speed, but sometimes you just want to network a building without Wi-Fi’s perpetual security concerns and without dragging cable. For those times, you need wireline networking, which uses powerlines and other existing wired infrastructure for networking. Alas, wireline technologies have been ham-strung because of competing standards for years.

In late May, two of the major factions finally buried the hatchet to work together on G.hn technologies.

G.hn, which was pioneered by Marvell, promises to bring up to 1Gigabit per second speeds over your existing powerline, co-ax, and phone lines. G.hn, is “any wire” technology defined by ITU-T open international standards to help with small office/home office (SOHO) networking.

Wireline networking groups merge to form HomeGrid Forum. More >

May 30, 2013
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu declares bug #1 — ‘Microsoft has a majority market share’ — closed

Give major Linux company Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth credit for chutzpah. In the Ubuntu bug-tracking system, LaunchPad, he just announced that bug number one “is now closed.” The bug, which dates from Ubuntu’s first days in 2004, was: “Microsoft has a majority market share.”

Ubuntu declares bug #1 — ‘Microsoft has a majority market share’ — closed. More >

May 29, 2013
by sjvn01
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The top two cloud-using companies are…

Let me first define my terms. I’m not talking about who deploys the most cloud instances or who has the most customers. There’s no mystery there. For now, it’s Amazon with Amazon Web Services – and Google, Microsoft, RackSpace and VMware. But, no, what I’m talking about today is large companies that live and die by their cloud deployments… and that’s a much harder question.

By my count, the answer is: Intuit and Netflix. What’s that, you say? How can an accounting software company and a video-entertainment company possibly be the top cloud-using companies? Easy – they bet big on the cloud early and they’ve doubled down on their bets since then.

The top two cloud-using companies are… More >

May 29, 2013
by sjvn01
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Google revises Gmail inbox

Google announced on May 29th that “Gmail is getting a brand new inbox on desktop and mobile that puts you back in control using simple, easy organization.” That’s a bit of an overstatement, but Gmail’s new cateogories will make it easier for some users to organize their mail.

Gmail has long enabled users to organize their mail by using labels. With labels you can organize your messages into categories–work, family, to do, read later, jokes, whatever. Google claims that is better than the very similar idea of folders because you can assign multiple labels to a message.

Google revises Gmail inbox. More >

May 28, 2013
by sjvn01
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10 years of defending Linux’s legalities: Groklaw

Ten years ago, SCO decided to sue IBM and started a series of legal attacks on Linux. Their cases were pathetically weak, but CIOs and CFOs didn’t know that. Thanks to paralegal turned legal journalist, Pamela “PJ” Jones and her Website Groklaw, executives who wanted to know what was really what with SCO’s multitude of lawsuits soon learned of the FUD behind SCO’s claims. SCO and its silent backer Microsoft hope for profits and slowing down Linux’s corporate success would come to nothing, and SCO ended up in bankruptcy. 

Now, in late May 2013, SCO’s last, dying twitches continue in the courts and Groklaw continues to cover technology related intellectual property (IP) legal issues. Outside of the courtroom, Linux has become a completely mainstream technology, and Microsoft, thanks to its Android-related patent claims, actually profits greatly from Linux.

10 years of defending Linux’s legalities: Groklaw. More >