Practical Technology

for practical people.

February 23, 2012
by sjvn01
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Intel distributes LibreOffice, can Microsoft be pleased?

LibreOffice, the OpenOffice fork, is a very popular open-source office suite. But, while it has great support from Linux distributors, like openSUSE and Ubuntu, LibreOffice has never had a major corporate backer on the Windows side… until now. Intel is now offering LibreOffice to Windows users via its AppUp application store. I wonder how Microsoft feels about this.

According to The Document Foundation (TDF), the newly incorporated group behind LibreOffice, “LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is available in Intel AppUp Center as a special, five-language version featuring English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. As a validated Intel AppUp Center app, LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE features a new, smooth, silent installation flow and improved un-installation cleanup.” This version of LibreOffice for Windows is now available from the Intel AppUp store.

Of course, LibreOffice has long been available on Windows, as well as Linux and Mac OS X. What’s different about this is that Intel, Microsoft’s long time ally, is now actively supporting Microsoft Office’s most active rival. Certainly, on the cloud, Google Docs is Office’s biggest enemy but on the good old PC desktop, LibreOffice is Microsoft’s Office main competition.

Intel distributes LibreOffice, can Microsoft be pleased? More >

February 23, 2012
by sjvn01
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Google’s new privacy rules: Get over it already

On March 1st, Google is going to combine its 70 different product-specific privacy policies and terms of service into one super-duper privacy policy. You’d think from all the screaming out there that Google was kicking in your door, ripping your credit cards out of your wallet, and taking your children hostage. Would everyone please chill already!

Here are some simple facts for you” Yes, Google, especially if you use a lot of their services, such as Google Docs, Gmail or Google+ knows a lot about you. If you just search a lot on Google, Google knows a good deal about what interests you. So what! It’s been that way since day one. If you use any Internet service or Web site a lot they know a lot about you.

How do most “free” Web sites pay for themselves? With advertising. How do they know what to advertise to you? By watching what interests you. Google does it. Microsoft does it. Everyone does it.

Google’s new privacy rules: Get over it already: More >

February 23, 2012
by sjvn01
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BYOD: Good for whom exactly?

A lot of people love the idea of bringing their own computer, Android phone or iPad to work. This trend, called “bring your own device” (BYOD), is catching on in the corporate world. At some companies, workers are no longer provisioned with laptops and cellphones. They just bring their own and add them to the corporate network. CEOs and CFOs in particular seem to love this concept. As for IT departments, they’re usually not thrilled that they have to support equipment they may not know a thing about and add new services to support a wide range of personal tech. Nevertheless, even technology giants like IBM, which is letting its 200,000 workers use their own tablets, iPhones or Android smartphones, are embracing the concept.

Hurray, right? Freedom of choice rules! Or does it? Let’s think this over.

I know I’m not the average user, but I have an iPad and several Android phones and tablets. I’m self-employed, so I had to pay for them myself. I also have to pay for my Internet and 3G data services. If I worked at a company with a BYOD policy, I would still have to pay for my devices and services. At many companies, I’d also have to load the official virtual private network client and programs for e-mail.

For me, all of that is fine. My tiny business has a four-figure IT budget and I’m a technology expert. What about you? Can you afford to buy your own equipment? Pay for your Internet and phone services? Do a lot of the support work yourself?


BYOD: Good for whom exactly? More>

February 22, 2012
by sjvn01
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Adobe abandons Linux

There was a time when I hoped that Adobe would port more of their applications to the Linux desktop. Those hopes have been dashed. Adobe has announced their roadmap for Adobe Flash and AIR and Linux is barely on it.

Adobe Flash Player 11.2 which is targeted for release in the first quarter of 2012 will be the last native version for Linux. This release include the following features:

  • Mouse-lock support
  • Right and middle mouse-click support
  • Context menu disabling
  • Support for more hardware accelerated video cards (from January 2008) in order to expand availability of hardware-accelerated content.
  • New Throttle event API (dispatches event when Flash Player throttles, pauses, or resumes content)
  • Multi-threaded video decoding pipeline on the desktop which improves overall performance of video on all desktop platforms

After that version comes out sometime soon that will be the end of the road for direct Linux Flash Player support. Thereafter, the Flash Player browser plug-in for Linux will only be available via a “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player for all x86/64 platforms supported by the Google Chrome browser. Google will begin distributing this new Pepper-based Flash Player as part of Chrome on all platforms, including Linux, later this year.

Adobe abandons Linux: More >

February 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Not so fast Microsoft! Google fires back at MS privacy claims.

On President’s Day, February 20th, Microsoft accused Google of bypassing Internet Explorer’s privacy settings in a Microsoft Software Developer Network posting by Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President of IE. Google’s Rachel Whetstone, Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, replied that, “Microsoft omitted important information from its blog post today.”

Specifically, Whestone states that “Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P” [Platform for Privacy Preferences Project]) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other Websites.”

Indeed, Facebook doesn’t work with Microsoft’s P3P policy either. A Facebook representative said, “P3P was developed 5 years ago and is not effective in describing the practices of a modern social networking service and platform. Instead, we have posted a public notice describing our practices that is consistent with Section 3.2 of P3P. We have reached out directly to Microsoft in hopes of developing additional solutions and we would welcome the opportunity to work with W3 to update P3P to account for the advances in social networking and the web since 2007.”

Not so fast Microsoft! Google fires back at MS privacy claims. More >

February 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu for Android: Linux desktop on a smartphone

You have to give Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company credit for thinking big. Today Canonical is unveiling Ubuntu for Android. What is in the world is that? It’s bringing the Ubuntu Linux desktop to to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. With it, Canonical claims you’ll be able to use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The company states that the phone experience will be pure Android–it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same Ubuntu Unity desktop many of you are already using and it will include all of Ubuntu’s current applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

These hybrid Android/Ubuntu smartphones and tablets will share all data and services between the environments. Both Android and Ubuntu run simultaneously on the device. So Android applications such as contacts, telephony and texting are accessible from the Ubuntu interface.

Ubuntu for Android: Linux desktop on a smartphone: More >