September 24, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Iran starts closing Internet as saber-rattling continues

In New York City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is talking softly, while his government has started blocking Google services and a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards is threatening a pre-emptive strike on Israel.

While saber-rattling has long been part of Iran’s foreign policy towards the West, Iran does finally seems to be making good on its promises to break Internet ties with the rest of the world. According to reports from Tehran in Al Arabiya, an Iranian official has stated that “Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice.”

Other reports agree that Iranians can no longer reach Google search and Gmail. Your Middle East, a self-declared independent source of news on the Middle East, reports that a high Iranian official in charge of Internet access said that closing the door to Google was in response to the recent YouTube video mocking the prophet Mohammad.

Iran starts closing Internet as saber-rattling continues. More >

September 23, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu Linux integrating Amazon

You’d think someone had just kicked some Ubuntu Linux fans’ puppy. Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, has added Amazon search results to the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10 Unity Dash search function. Some users hate this and have declared Ubuntu to be adware. Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu’s founder, has replied that this response is FUD. Here’s what’s really happening.

First, yes, when you do a search from Unity Dash in Ubuntu 12.10, besides the usual search results you’ll also see a More Suggestions results box. This will contain, not ads, but search results from Amazon. This is part of the integration of Web apps into the Ubuntu desktop. In addition to the Amazon integration into Ubuntu search, there’s also a separate Amazon search app. More than 40 other “Web site apps” such as BBC News, Facebook, and Reddit also will be available.

Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu Linux integrating Amazon. More >

September 23, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

A la carte TV channel choice is coming to the Internet

Watching TV on the Internet is cheaper than watching it by cable or satellite, but it’s also messier. Some shows aren’t available at all. Many sporting events, like football, come with costly restrictions. And, often programs are available on one Internet TV network, but not on another. Some shows, for example, are available on Hulu on your PC, but not on Hulu Plus on your TV. However, your Internet TV choices may be improving soon.

For the first time anywhere, HBO will be offering its programming to TV watchers in Scandinavia without requiring that they subscribe to HBO on satellite or cable. In the US, HBO makes some of its programming available over the Internet on HBO GO, but you have to be a conventional HBO subscriber to get it. In Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, HBO Nordic AB will be available for just under 10 euros a month.

A la carte TV channel choice is coming to the Internet. More >

September 21, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Ubuntu Linux adopts new UEFI boot problem approach

Windows 8 PCs will come with Microsoft’s UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Secure Boot. This “feature” will make it much harder to boot Linux or other operating systems. Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, is going to take a new approach to address this problem.

When Canonical first announced its plan on dealing with Microsoft’s Secure Boot in the next version of Ubuntu, 12.10, it ran into objections from the Fedora Linux developers and the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In an ideal world, the FSF wants PC vendors to not let users be locked in by Microsoft’s Secure Boot.

Failing that, the FSF dislikes both Fedora and Ubuntu’s plans on how to deal with Secure Boot because both require that a user trust in a Microsoft-generated key. With Ubuntu, the FSF also opposed Ubuntu dropping the Grub 2 bootloader “on Secure Boot systems, in favor of another bootloader.” A bootloader is the program that lets you boot your system and, if you have multiple operating systems, choose which one to boot.

Ubuntu Linux adopts new UEFI boot problem approach. More >

September 20, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

What went wrong with iOS 6 Wi-Fi

Yesterday was a big day for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad fans. The latest and greatest version of iOS 6, the operating system for late model Apple devices, was out. Millions of eager users upgraded… and then their Wi-Fi failed. What went wrong?

It was ironic. The update itself went amazingly well for many users. IOS 6 also fixed many security problems. And, most users were very happy with this update. Well, except for the ones that couldn’t connect with the Internet. They were none too happy.

Fortunately for them, Apple was able to quick fix the problem.

So what happened? A network configuration blunder? Some glitch in the code itself? Something odd in the IOS 6 default Wi-Fi setting? No, no, and no.

The problem turned out to be that when you turned your device on and you tried to connect with a Wi-Fi network, the first thing iOS 6 did was to try to connect to an Apple Web page. All that page does is return the word, “Success.” If the device couldn’t reach that page, it returned a 404 error. The Wi-Fi connection routine then presumed you must be behind a login page for a public or corporate Wi-Fi network, say your local coffee-shop or your office, and it then allowed the local login page to load.

What went wrong with iOS 6 Wi-Fi. More >

September 19, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Red Hat plans to do for OpenStack what it did for Linux

In 2002, Linux was on its way to becoming a major business operating system, but it wasn’t there yet. Then, Red Hat dedicated itself to make Linux an enterprise operating system. Ten years later Red Hat was the first billion dollar pure play open-source company. Today, Red Hat announced a similar plan for the OpenStack cloud.

Just as with Linux, Red Hat knows there’s no way it can make OpenStack the de facto cloud software of choice for the enterprise by itself. In a blog posting, Red Hat’s OpenStack team wrote, “A huge community is contributing to OpenStack. More than 180 participating companies and 400 contributing developers have produced six software releases in just a little over two years. Some organizations will choose to leverage all that innovation directly by implementing, testing, patching and supporting community releases on their own.”

Others, such as Boris Renski of Mirantis, a major OpenStack system integrator, worry that new OpenStack member VMware will undermine OpenStack. Red Hat certainly has no love for VMware. In 2011, Red Hat declared VMware its biggest enemy. But, Red Hat isn’t worried. It has faith both in OpenStack and its plan on how to turn it into a profitable business as well as great software.

Red Hat plans to do for OpenStack what it did for Linux. More >

Practical Technology

for practical people.