Practical Technology

for practical people.

May 7, 2012
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: Five points of comparison

2012 has already seen a major update of what’s arguably the most important Linux desktop: Ubuntu 12.04 and we’re also seeing the most radical update of Windows with Windows 8 Metro coming since Windows 95 replaced Windows 3.1. So, which will end up the better for its change?

1. Desktop interface

Ubuntu replaced the popular GNOME 2.x interface with Unity when their developers decided the GNOME 3.x shell wasn’t for them. Some people, like the developers behind Linux Mint, decided to recreate the GNOME 2.x desktop with Cinnamon, but Ubuntu took its own path with Unity.

In Unity’s desktop geography, your most used applications are kept in the left Unity Launcher bar on the left. If you need a particular application or file, you use Unity’s built-in Dash application. Dash is a dual purpose desktop search engine and file and program manager that lives on the top of the Unity menu Launcher.

Its drawback, for Ubuntu power-users, is that it makes it harder to adjust Ubuntu’s settings manually. On the other hand, most users, especially ones who are new to Ubuntu, find it very easy to use. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has made it clear that regardless of whether you use Ubuntu on a desktop, tablet or smartphone the Unity interface is going to be there and it’s going to look the same.

Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Windows 8: Five points of comparison, More >

May 6, 2012
by sjvn01
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Five Internet TV cable cutting considerations

I’ve been watching video over the Internet since its first days. And, I’ve been pushing that video from the net to televisions for almost as long. It wasn’t until late year though that I finally cut my cable and went to just watching television over the Internet and with a little bit of over-the-air (OTA) for good measure. If you’re considering cutting the cable or satellite cord too, here are some things you should know.

Five Internet TV cable cutting considerations. More >

May 4, 2012
by sjvn01
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Linus Torvalds likes the Google Chrome OS Linux desktop

Linus Torvalds, Linux’s primary creator, hasn’t been happy with the direction his formerly favorite Linux desktop interface, GNOME, has gone. In fact, Torvalds downright hates GNOME 3.x. He’ll get no argument from me. I hate GNOME 3.x too. Recently though, Torvalds has start toying with Google’s new Chrome operating system’s Aura interface and, guess what, he kind of likes it.

Torvalds wrote, “And I haven’t really played around with it all that much, but as a desktop it really doesn’t look that bad. I could name worse desktops (cough cough). [That would be GNOME.]

Torvalds continued, “It allows such radical notions as having easy mouse configurability for things like how to launch applications. Things gnome removed because those kinds of things were “too confusing”, and in the process made useless. And an auto-hide application dock at the bottom. Revolutionary, I know.”

Linus Torvalds likes the Google Chrome OS Linux desktop. More >

May 3, 2012
by sjvn01
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Court slaps down the use of IP addresses in file-sharing cases

The MPAA, RIAA and other copyright holding companies have long used Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to identify users for their lawsuits. They’ll find that people at various IP addresses have used BitTorrent or some other peer-to-peer (P2P) service seem to have downloaded copyrighted video or music and then sic their lawyer attack dogs on them. They may not be so quick to unleash the hounds though after they read U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown’s Order & Report & Recommendation (ORR).

As first reported by Fight Copyright Trolls, a legal news and opinion blog that follows Internet copyright issues Judge Brown wrote that accusing someone of stealing copyrighted material purely on the basis of an IP address is simply wrong. Brown noted that it “is no more likely that the subscriber to an IP address carried out a particular computer function — here the purported illegal downloading of a single pornographic film — than to say an individual who pays the telephone bill made a specific telephone call.”

He continued, “[M]ost, if not all, of the IP addresses will actually reflect a wireless router or other networking device, meaning that while the ISPs will provide the name of its subscriber, the alleged infringer could be the subscriber, a member of his or her family, an employee, invitee, neighbor or interloper.”

Court slaps down the use of IP addresses in file-sharing cases. More >

May 3, 2012
by sjvn01
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Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton thinks Google+ is becoming an annoying mistake

Google is increasingly using its social network Google+ as the glue that binds its other Google services together. Wil Wheaton, the writer and actor probably best known for his role as Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, recently wrote, “I like Google Plus. Some of the smartest people I’ve ever read are on Google Plus, and the Hangout is amazing. But Google is doing everything it can to force Google Plus on everyone, and it’s pissing me off.”

Wheaton rants on, “Yesterday, I tried to like a video on YouTube. I wasn’t signed in to my Google Plus account, and this is what I saw: Where the thumbs up and thumbs down used to be, there is now a big G+ Like button. When you go anywhere near it, you get a little popup that tells you to ‘upgrade to Google plus’ for some reason that I don’t remember, because the instant I saw it, I made a rageface.”

He continued, “Oh, go f–k yourself, Google. This is just as bad as companies forcing me to “like” something on Facebook before I can view whatever it is they want me to ‘like.’ The worst part of this? For a producer like me, I’m going to lose a crapton of potential up-votes for Tabletop, because the core of my audience is tech-savvy and may not want to ‘upgrade’ to yet another f–king social network they don’t want or need.”

Say hello to the new look of Google Plus (screenshots)

To all of this, I can only say, “Deal with it.

Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton thinks Google+ is becoming an annoying mistake. More >

May 2, 2012
by sjvn01
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Amazon tries to catch up in personal cloud storage and falls further behind

Google Drive isn’t the holy grail of personal cloud services. But, Google Drive’s introduction has forced all the other players to up their game. Microsoft added paid storage options to SkyDrive. Dropbox doubled the free storage you got for bringing friends and families on board. And, Amazon introduced a desktop client for its Amazon Cloud Drive. Unfortunately, it’s just not that good.

First, if you don’t know the Amazon Cloud Drive, like the other personal cloud storage services, it offers you 5GBs of free storage for starters. You can also store any MP3 music files you buy from Amazon in it without those counting towards your limit.

You can also buy more Amazon Cloud Drive storage at the rate of a dollar a GB per year. All the paid plans also offer unlimited music storage. Before you upload every MP3 in your collection to the Amazon Cloud you’ll want to take a close look at the service’s terms of service. They’re disquieting.

But, until today, to use any of that on a desktop you had to go through a browser. One of the best features of the new big three of cloud storage, Dropbox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive is that they have desktop clients that make moving files around on Windows and Macs as easy as moving files around on your hard drive. So, when Amazon released its desktop client that’s what I expected to get. I was disappointed.

Amazon tries to catch up in personal cloud storage and falls further behind. More >