Practical Technology

for practical people.

February 27, 2013
by sjvn01
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Chromebook wars: Pixel vs. Samsung Series 5 550

On my test machine table, I have Google’s brand new Chromebook Pixel. Beside it, I have what had been the fastest Chromebook before it, the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook. Is the Pixel better? Yes. No question about it. But, here’s the real question: Is it $850 better?

That’s not a mistake. The Pixel lists for $1,299. Some people are still reeling from Chromebook Pixel sticker shock.  The Samsung Series 5 550 costs just $449. Yow! All that for a Chrome OS-based laptop which just has the Chrome Web browser running on top of an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.

Some people are convinced that there’s no way that anyone will buy a Pixel. I find it hard to believe myself so I decide to compare and contrast my Samsung S5 550 with the Pixel to see if I could justify the Pixel’s price tag.

Chromebook wars: Pixel vs. Samsung Series 5 550. More >

February 26, 2013
by sjvn01
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The best Windows browser today: IE 10 or Chrome 25?

Microsoft has just released its newest browser for Windows 7: Internet Explorer (IE) 10. Days earlier, Google had released Chrome 25, its latest browser, for all platforms. So, now that both are available on the most popular desktop operating system, Windows 7, which is better for Windows 7 users?

The best Windows browser today: IE 10 or Chrome 25? More >

February 26, 2013
by sjvn01
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To Surface or not to Surface

According to Bob O’Donnell of research firm IDC, “The day they introduce Office for iOS and Android, they’ll start printing money.” And he added this cautionary note: “If they wait too long, they risk people finding alternatives, or workarounds.”

The thing that has turned Microsoft, prince of Redmond, into a vacillating Hamlet is the thought that an Office suite for iPads and Android tablets might well tank already anemic sales of the Surface RT and keep the Surface Pro from taking off.

Its hesitation is understandable. Office on iOS and Android would kill Microsoft’s Surface tablets. That means that the choice Microsoft is facing is huge: whether to continue its foray into being a hardware vendor or go back and shore up its software roots.

To Surface or not to Surface. More >

February 26, 2013
by sjvn01
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Torvalds strongly objects to Windows 8 secure boot keys in the Linux kernel

It started innocently enough. Red Hat software engineer David Howells asked Linus Torvalds, Linux’s founder, to move on code that would let Microsoft-signed binary keys be added dynamically to a kernel while running in secure-boot mode on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML). Torvalds wasn’t having it. “Quite frankly, this is f*cking moronic.”

Torvalds strongly objects to Windows 8 secure boot keys in the Linux kernel. More >

February 25, 2013
by sjvn01
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Preventing your own Azure networking flop

Oh the shame of it all! Microsoft’s worldwide cloud service, Azure, had a critical failure — and for about 12 hours the service was down. The cause? An expired Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate.

First, this was an incredibly stupid mistake. Sure, everyone can make blunders, but it’s hard to take Microsoft’s cloud offerings seriously after a misstep like this one. What makes this fiasco especially hard to take is that this is the second time Microsoft Azure has tripped over an SSL certificate problem. Last year, Microsoft had an even worse SSL-certificate-related Azure meltdown. That one was traced back to an SSL certificate that expired at the end of February… which Microsoft had renewed as of February 28th even though 2012 was a leap year and thus February’s last day was February 29th.

This one though? It wasn’t some programmer forgetting about leap day. It was just a failure to make sure that a vital SSL certificate had been kept up to date. Idiots. The certificate expired and suddenly every SSL connection to Azure storage was blocked. That, in turn, lead to one Azure service after another failing in a cascading avalanche of disaster.

Preventing your own Azure networking flop. More >

February 25, 2013
by sjvn01
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The top 10 personal cloud-storage services

It is possible to have a free/cheap, good, and fast personal cloud storage service? Believe it or not, it is.

While remote file storage has been with us for decade—I had remote storage on a Unix server using file transfer protocol (ftp) and NFS (Network File System) in the 80s—cloud storage for the masses didn’t really get going until 2007 when Drew Houston, Dropbox‘s CEO and founder, got sick and tired of never being able to “remember to keep my USB drive with me. I was drowning in email attachments trying to share files for my previous startup. My home desktop’s power supply literally exploded one day, killing one of my hard drives, and I had no backups.”

So after he “tried everything I could find but each product inevitably suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or just made me think too much,” he came up with the idea of the first popular cloud-based personal file storage service. In the six years since then it seems like everyone is offering some kind of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud storage

Gallery: Browse 10 cloud storage services

These services are popping up everywhere and they’re changing prices, amounts of free storage, and additional services almost every day. Here’s what’s what with them in early 2013.

The top 10 personal cloud-storage services. More >