April 23, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

IPv6: It’s the end of the Internet as you know it, and I feel fine

On June 6, many Web sites and Internet providers will start supporting Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the next generation Internet protocol, as part of their regular service. But, don’t get into a panic; most users won’t have a thing to worry about.

To get you up to speed, IPv4, and now IPv6, are the core protocols that the Internet uses for pretty much everything. Without them, we wouldn’t have the Web, e-mail, YouTube, you name it. There was only one little problem with IPv4: it’s 32-bit 4.3 billion addresses, which looked like so many in the 1970s, aren’t even close to enough for today’s Internet. Those mobile devices that we love so much like Android phones, iPads, etc. etc. have been sucking down IPv4 addresses like a gas guzzling car from the time of cheap gasoline. For the longest time, we managed to avoid running out of IPv4 addresses with the use of technologies like Network Address Translation (NAT) and Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), but those haven’t been enough.

How to check on your Internet connection

As early as 1994, though, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) saw that we were going to run out of Internet gas. So, they came with IPv6. And, how many addresses can it handle? With its 128-bit address space it can have up to 2^128 addresses or 40,282,366,920 billion billion billion usable addressed. Come the day we need to thinking about interstellar Internet, we can start worrying about an IPv8.

IPv6: It’s the end of the Internet as you know it, and I feel fine. More >

April 23, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can

One of the great Linux desktop myths is that it’s hard to use. People still think that you need to be some kind of mad computer wizard to use Linux. What nonsense. Desktop Linux has been as easy to use as any of the mainstream desktop operating systems for over a decade. How easy is it? My 79-year old mother-in-law, Hulvia, can use it.

She arrived a few weeks ago with her Windows laptop, but without her power cord. So, she needed a computer of her own. As I went down to garage/server room/spare computer storage locker, “What the heck, if Jason Perlow’s father-in-law could pick up Ubuntu Linux in 2007 at the age of 71, why not my mother-in-law at 79 in 2012!”

So, I grabbed a Dell Inspiron laptop, and I installed the latest Ubuntu 12.04 beta on it. Canonical always claimed its Unity interface was easy to use and I thought it was too, but let’s see how someone who’s only used Windows could do with it.

If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can. More >

April 22, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Windows 8 tablets: Not open for business

think Windows 8 is doomed to failed on the desktop. But, much as I dislike Windows 8 and its Metro interface, I thought it had a chance on the business tablet. Oh, forget about Intel and Microsoft’s dream that the first wave of Windows 8 tablets will push the iPad’s global market share to below 50 percent by mid-2013. That’s not happening. But, Metro’s designed for tablet-sized displays and, I presumed, IT would be able to deploy and manage them with their existing Active Directory (AD) tools. Guess what? Microsoft won’t be supporting AD on Windows 8 on ARM (WOA).

When I first heard that Microsoft wasn’t enabling AD on Windows RT–the ARM-specific version of Windows 8–I thought there must be some kind of mistake. AD isn’t just a directory service, it’s the heart of business Windows authentication, authorization, security, and management. Every Windows system administrator, since Windows NT’s domain system was put out to pasture, knows AD.

Windows 8 tablets: Not open for business. More >

April 19, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Google+’s best feature: The power to shut fools up

Google’s social network. Google+ has many great features. Circles, which make it easy to talk to just your friends, co-workers, family, whoever and free video-conferencing via Hangouts. But it’s best feature, for those of us who’ve been on mailing lists, online forums, discussion groups and lately social networks for ages, is the ability the power to tell people to shut the heck up and make it stick.

Say hello to the new look of Google Plus (screenshots)

You know what I mean. There you are, talking with people online about Linux, the Cubs, whatever, and some jackass starts going completely off-topic; declares that someone else is an idiot, and on and on. We used to call people who did this trolls, and the arguments they could start, flame wars. Anymore though, I don’t know it we need special words for them. Trolls are everywhere and people flame others with no real reason what-so-ever. I guess these people’s dogs ran away so they kick people around online because they don’t have dogs to around to kick anymore.

Be that as it may, while I can’t do much about these twits in most online forums, Google+ gives me the power to enforce civil behavior in my discussions. First, Circles let me pick and choose who can see particular items I want to share. In those, if someone in say a circle about rock and roll can’t stand someone else in the same circle, I first ask them to not let their personal animosity spill over into the conversation. If they can’t, but they’re otherwise civil, I can just drop him or her from that particular circle.

But say you’re like me and you tend to put a lot of stuff up for anyone and everyone to see and comment on in your public steam, what can you do about J. Random Idiot from hijacking the conversation? Google Plus’ answer is a feature that my fellow writer buddy J.R. Raphael likes to call One-Click Jackass Control™.

Google+’s best feature: The power to shut fools up. More >

April 19, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Linus Torvalds wins the tech. equivalent of a Nobel Prize: the Millennium Technology Prize.

You can win Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry, and medicine, but technology? No. There is, however the Millennium Technology Prize. This is the world’s largest technology prize. It is rewarded ever two years for a technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future. This year, Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator, and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, maker of a new way to create stem cells without the use of embryonic stem cells, have both been rewarded the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.

This prize, which is determined by the Technology Academy of Finland, is one of the world’s largest such prizes with candidates sought from across the world and from all fields of technology. The two innovators will share over a million Euros. They will receive the reward from the President of the Republic of Finland in a special ceremony on June 13, 2012.

Gallery: The 20 most significant events in Linux’s 20-year history

Previous winners include Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web; Professor Robert Langer for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration; and Professor Michael Gratzel for his innovative developments in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Linus Torvalds wins the tech. equivalent of a Nobel Prize: the Millennium Technology Prize. More >

Practical Technology

for practical people.

IPv6: It’s the end of the Internet as you know it, and I feel fine

If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can

Windows 8 tablets: Not open for business

Linus Torvalds wins the tech. equivalent of a Nobel Prize: the Millennium Technology Prize.