Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 5, 2012
by sjvn01
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You can now run Arch & Debian Linux on a Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi, a credit-card sized computer that retails for $35, finally has some operating systems ready to run on it. A remix of Fedora Linux is still the “official” operating system for Raspberry Pi, but it’s been delayed. In the meantime, versions of Arch and Debian Linux are ready to go.

The Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, which is based on the older Fedora 14 distribution, was designed to fit on a 2GB SD card. It will include the LXDE and XFCE, two popular lightweight Linux desktops and an assortment of popular open-source software. A version, using the more up to date Fedora 17, is also in the works.

Several problems have delayed both releases. This includes pushing audio out the HDMI and analog ports via PulseAudio and Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). In addition, Chris Tyler, the man responsible for assembling the Raspberry Pi Remix, has been sick.

That said, there’s been no further word on the Raspberry Pi Fedora actual release for almost two weeks. On March 4th, Liam Fraser, who’s in charge of distributing the Raspberry Pi Fedora image, said he was “still waiting for an image from Chris but I do think that it is nearly ready.”

This delay has understandably annoyed some Raspberry Pi fans.

You can now run Arch & Debian Linux on a Raspberry Pi. More >

March 5, 2012
by sjvn01
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The number one mobile Web browser: Google’s native Android browser

On the PC, Internet Explorer (IE), while declining for years, is still the top Web browser. On mobile devices, though, IE has never mattered, and Opera has long been the top dog. But, that’s no longer the case. According to StatCounter, Android’s built-in Web browser is now number one.

Android’s browser appears to have taken first place for the same reason that IE still dominates PCs-it’s what built into the most popular systems. True, the iPhone is the world’s single most popular smartphone, but taken all together Google’s Android devices accounted for over 50 percent of all smartphone sales, up by 30 percent only a year ago.

True, some vendors, such as Samsung, have long pre-loaded Opera on its feature phones. But, on the higher-end smartphones, Opera has had to reply on individual users downloading it. For years, this was enough, but no longer.

The number one mobile Web browser: Google’s native Android browser. More >

March 2, 2012
by sjvn01
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Microsoft’s Azure cloud leap-day meltdown

Sometimes, Microsoft can make great programs, Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 SP1. And, sometimes they can blow it, Vista and, from what I’ve seen so far, Windows 8. But every now and again Microsoft fouls up in such a spectacular fashion that I’m left to wonder how anyone can use them for mission-critical work. There was the London Stock Exchange failure, which is one reason why almost all the world’s leading stock exchanges now use Linux. Microsoft’s Azure cloud collapse may prove to be a similar turning-point for Microsoft’s cloud service.

In case you missed it, on the same day Microsoft fans were slapping themselves on the back for Windows 8 Consumer Preview getting out the door, Microsoft’s Windows Azure Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud suffered a worldwide meltdown. For almost 36-hours, Windows Azure Service Management was down.

Even after Microsoft had a fix in, faults continued to spread across the Azure cloud in America and Northern Europe. As some areas came back up Compute functionality in the North Central US, South Central US and North Europe regions, functionality was downgraded or even turned off on a range of Azure services.

What caused Azure to fall down and go boom? Microsoft hasn’t really spelled out what happened yet but, according to Bill Laing, Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Server and Cloud, “Yesterday, February 28th, 2012 at 5:45 PM PST Windows Azure operations became aware of an issue impacting the compute service in a number of regions. The issue was quickly triaged and it was determined to be caused by a software bug. While final root cause analysis is in progress, this issue appears to be due to a time calculation that was incorrect for the leap year.”


Microsoft’s Azure cloud leap-day meltdown. More >

March 2, 2012
by sjvn01
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Web browser measurements changed and Google’s Chrome rating suffers

After months of gaining Web browser market share, Google’s Chrome Web browser numbers have gone down according to Net Applications. It’s not however that Chrome has grown any less popular, it’s how Net Applications is measuring Web browser usage.

Google’s Web browser, starting with Chrome 13, uses a technique called ‘pre-rendering’ to speed up Web page loading. This pre-loads page or pages “while the user is typing in search queries in order to load that page faster when the user clicks on the associated search result link. Chrome pre-renders pages based on either HTTP headers inserted by the site creator or based on an algorithm that predicts the likelihood the user will click on the search result link.” Google started using this technique more aggressively in the latest version of the browser, Chrome 17.

This results in faster page loads for users, but Net Applications believes “this traffic varies significantly by browser and should not be included in the usage share for the browsers.” At this time, “Chrome is the only major desktop browser that currently has this feature, which creates un-viewed visits that should not be counted in Chrome’s usage share. However, the pages that are eventually viewed by the user should be treated normally. Therefore, “Within the sites in our network, pre-rendering in February 2012 accounted for 4.3% of Chrome’s daily unique visitors. These visits will now be excluded from Chrome’s desktop browser share.”

The bottom line is Chrome is still in third place, by Net Applications’ measurement.

Web browser measurements changed and Google’s Chrome rating suffers. More >

March 1, 2012
by sjvn01
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Linus Torvalds snarls at openSUSE desktop Linux’s security

Linus Torvalds was not a happy man. He’s been using openSUSE Linux as his desktop Linux, he explained in a Google+ posting, “because it worked so well at install-time on the MacBook Air, but I have to say, I’ve had enough. There is no way in hell I can honestly suggest that to anybody else any more.” What enraged Mr. Linux? OpenSUSE’s demand that you use the root password to make what Torvalds thinks are trivial desktop setting changes.

Torvalds started by saying that “I don’t think I can talk about “security” people without cursing, so you might want to avert your eyes now.” A long time Fedora user, Torvalds recently switched to openSUSE [German link], because of his intense dislike for Fedora’s GNOME 3.x desktop.

Sharing, as I do, his feelings about GNOME 3.x, I’m sure he still doesn’t want to go back to Fedora with GNOME. But, he’s sure not happy with openSUSE, which uses the KDE desktop by default, either.

Torvalds was enraged that it took weeks of “arguing on a Bugzilla that the security policy of requiring the root password for changing the time zone and adding a new wireless network was moronic and wrong. I think the wireless network thing finally did get fixed, but the time zone never did – it still asks for the admin password.”

Linus Torvalds snarls at openSUSE desktop Linux’s security. More >

February 29, 2012
by sjvn01
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What is a Raspberry Pi and why you should care

Today, February 29th, 2012, the technology world’s eyes are on the release of the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 or on the latest iPad 3 rumors. We don’t know exactly how these products will turn out but we can be sure of one thing: They’ll cost a pretty penny. On the same day, the non-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation released a bare-boned, Linux-powered computer that costs between $25 and $35.

When I say “bare-boned,” I mean just that. The Raspberry Pi, which is the creation of UK-based academics and technology companies, is a credit card sized board with a Broadcom 700Mhz BCM2835 System-On Chip running a lightweight Remix of Fedora Linux for ARM. It doesn’t come with a keyboard, mouse or monitor. Heck, it doesn’t even come with a hard drive or a case. It’s a single board computer without even a case for the bare board.

What is a Raspberry Pi and why you should care. More >