Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 15, 2011
by sjvn01
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OwnCloud: An open-source cloud to call your own

Everyone likes personal cloud services, like Apple’s iCloud, Google Music, and Dropbox. But, many of aren’t crazy about the fact that our files, music, and whatever are sitting on someone else’s servers without our control. That’s where ownCloud comes in.

OwnCloud is an open-source cloud program. You use it to set up your own cloud server for file-sharing, music-streaming, and calendar, contact, and bookmark sharing project. As a server program it’s not that easy to set up. OpenSUSE, with its Mirall installation program and desktop client makes it easier to set up your own personal ownCloud, but it’s still not a simple operation. That’s going to change.

According to ownCloud’s business crew, “OwnCloud offers the ease-of-use and cost effectiveness of Dropbox and box.net with a more secure, better managed offering that, because it’s open source, offers greater flexibility and no vendor lock in. This makes it perfect for business use. OwnCloud users can run file sync and share services on their own hardware and storage or use popular public hosting and storage offerings.” I’ve tried it myself and while setting it up is still mildly painful, once up ownCloud works well.

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December 12, 2011
by sjvn01
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Internet BitTorrent Spies

People have privacy delusions about the Internet. They seem to think that just because they don’t sign their real name to a site that no one can see what they’ve been doing on it. Oh dear. So dumb, so wrong.

The latest example of what you do on the Internet is no where near as “private” as you think it is comes from a new Russian site, YouHaveDownloaded. This site claims to track 20 percent of all public BitTorrent downloads… and tell the world who they’ve found downloading what. So, that final episode of Dexter? The DVD rip of Cowboys & Aliens? That copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare? And, that illicit video of Smoking Hot Grannies that you really, really don’t want to talk about? Yeah, your permanent record of what you’ve been downloading off BitTorrent sites may all be available for the amusement of your friends, neighbors, and, oh yes, the copyright owners.

Happy downloading!

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December 12, 2011
by sjvn01
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Open-source webOS is dead on arrival

When HP first announced that webOS and Enyo its application framework, would live on as an open-source project I thought it might have a chance to be successful. Now, after listening to HP’s slightly more detailed plans and due consideration, I think webOS is a dead operating system walking. Here’s why

1. Plan? What Plan?

HP hasn’t decided on a license, a governance plan, or even what they’ll do with their existing webOS staff. Does HP CEO Meg Whitman really have any kind of clue as to what the company will be doing with webOS? Simply open-sourcing a project means more than just saying that eventually you’ll dump-ah release-the code to the public. Without commitment, resources, and, oh yes, a plan, webOS will only end up in a technology grave-yard along side Maemo, BeOS, and OS/2.

2. Where’s the hardware?

To avoid an untimely end, webOS needs its own tablet hardware. Sure, hackers will run it on iPads and Android-tablets, but that’s not a viable market. So, where’s the hardware for webOS customers? Whitman has said that “HP could make WebOS-powered tablets in 2013.”

Could? Could!? In 2013!! Come on HP, get with it!

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December 9, 2011
by sjvn01
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HP open-sources WebOS, but will anyone develop for it?

You know those HP TouchPads that are sale right now, the ones that didn’t look that interesting after Amazon and Barnes & Noble released their Android-powered tablets? Well, you may want to get one anyway. WebOS, its operating system, isn’t dead after all.

Today, HP announced that webOS would live on as an open-source project. In addition, Enyo its application framework is also being open-sourced.

That’s the good news. The bad news is we’re lacking a lot of details. Here’s what we do know

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December 9, 2011
by sjvn01
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Android’s Revenge on Apple’s iPhone & iPad

I wonder if Apple is beginning to regret its world-wide war on Android and Samsung? After all, Apple’s just been hit in the chops by a German court injunction that blocks the sale of all iPhones and iPads in the European Union.

In yet another chapter in the mobile patent wars, this time around Android-power Motorola Mobility, soon to belong to Google, used a patent to smash the competition. Considering how Apple is using design and software patents to try to crush its rivals, I have to say I don’t think it could happen to a nicer company.

That said, the patent in question, Method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system is another perfect of a stupid software patent. Just like Apple is trying to block anyone from creating a phone or tablet that’s rectangular in shape because it would breech their “unique” designs, this bit of intellectual property (IP) blackmail material has nothing unique about it.

Read U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898 and its European Union equivalent, EP1010336 (B1) ? 2003-03-19 for yourself. It describes a way to perform a countdown function over a 3G connection. You know, “Ten seconds to complete your download, three, two, one, download complete.”

Oh yeah, that’s a unique idea alright.

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December 8, 2011
by sjvn01
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Red Hat moves into Big Data with Storage Software Appliance

One of the reasons why Red Hat will be the first billion dollar open-source company is that the company has also looked beyond just Linux to what you can do with Linux on the cloud and thin-client desktops; Java Enterprise Edition and now, with the release of Red Hat Storage Software Appliance, big data.

Big data you ask? Businesses have recently woken up to the fact that, according to IBM we’re being deluged with big data. “Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data-so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: from sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, transaction records of online purchases, and from cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data.”

So how do you manage that level of data? In Red Hat’s case, you buy Gluster, an open-source storage solutions, and use it to build a big data software product built on Linux. As Red Hat stated in its press release, Red Hat Storage Software Appliance “extends the Red Hat solution portfolio with industry-leading capability for managing the storage of unstructured data.”

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