Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 13, 2011
by sjvn01
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The first Chromebook Review: Samsung Series 5

If you want a Windows laptop, get a Windows laptop. But, if you want an easy-to-use, Web-based laptop, consider getting a Chromebook. So long as you realize that the Samsung Series 5 and its brother from another company, the Acer Chromebook, is not a full-featured Windows or Linux notebook computer you’ll be fine.

So it is that I’m pretty happy with my brand new Samsung Series 5 3G. While neither Chromebook will be generally available until June 15th, I was able to get my hands on one a week early. I’ve been working with mine for several days now and this is what I’ve found.

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June 10, 2011
by sjvn01
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Free Software Foundation favors LibreOffice over OpenOffice

When Oracle, IBM, and the Apache Software Foundation jointly announced last week that OpenOffice.org would become an official Apache project, some open-source developers were not happy. The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice programmers were really not pleased. Now, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is coming out against the deal.

In a statement that will be released later today, June 10th, 2011, the FSF states that the “OpenOffice.org is an important piece of free software, and many of its supporters suggest that this change will give them more control over the project’s future direction. However, users and contributors should be aware that, as part of this transition, it will become easier for proprietary software developers to distribute OpenOffice.org as non-free software.”

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June 9, 2011
by sjvn01
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Software Patent Blockbuster: Microsoft loses to i4i

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled today against Microsoft in its appeal of a $290 million jury verdict for infringing Canadian software company i4i’s patent. It wasn’t close. SCOTUS unanimously upheld a U.S. appeals court’s ruling against Microsoft.

Microsoft had argued that the courts should adopt a lower burden-of-proof bar for patent violations. Previously, if you’ve been accused of violating a patent you must show “clear and convincing evidence” that the patent is invalid. Microsoft wants the burden of proof to be lowered to “a preponderance of the evidence.” The SCOTUS didn’t buy this argument for one minute.

In the Court’s unanimous decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote (PDF Link), “We consider whether [a section of the Patent Act of 1952] requires an invalidity defense to be proved by clear and convincing evidence. We hold that it does.”

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June 8, 2011
by sjvn01
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Linux Foundation’s t-shirt competition

Normally, I look at serious subjects, but what the heck, Linux is turning 20 this year–although as its creator Linus Torvalds is the first to say deciding exactly when Linux turns 20 is a matter of debate–so why not tell you about the Linux Foundation’s “20th anniversary of Linux” t-shirt contest.

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June 8, 2011
by sjvn01
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The World IPv6 Day report card

Internet administrators were 99.9999% sure that World IPv6 Day would go by without any real problems. Of course, when you’re dealing with something as big as the Internet, even six nines of up-time could mean hundreds of thousands of users with trouble. So far, though, all is well.

At noon Eastern time, all the dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 sites on the Réseaux IP Européens’ (RIPE, French for “European IP Networks”) IPv6 Eye Chart are checking in green. This means that these major Web sites are working correctly both for people using the traditional Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) Internet and users working with IPv6. This was one of the project’s major goals. The last thing Internet network system operators wanted was to find that their IPv6 support was breaking the Internet for the vast majority of users.

Breaking the Internet would have been “Bad.” There’s a lot of network administrators out there now who are no longer holding their breath.

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June 7, 2011
by sjvn01
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LibreOffice motors right along with a new release

OK, so Oracle did give OpenOffice’s intellectual property (IP) to The Apache Foundation. So what! The Document Foundation (TDF), which forked OpenOffice into LibreOffice, isn’t waving the white flag. Instead, the group has released its next major LibreOffice version: LibreOffice 3.4.

TDF proudly boasts that the latest LibreOffice “incorporates the contributions of over 120 developers (six times as many as the first beta released on the launch date).” And, that, “The majority of these contributors have started to hack LibreOffice code less than eight months ago, and this is an incredible achievement if one recalls that the OOo [OpenOffice.org] project has attracted a lower number of contributors in ten years.”

How does LibreOffice do it? In a statement, Italo Vignoli, a TDF Steering Committee member said, “We care for our developers, and it shows. Our core developers have invented the mechanism of the easy hacks, which makes it simple and enjoyable for volunteer contributors to get to know LibreOffice code challenging their development skills with basic or elementary tasks.”

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