Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 18, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google wants you to buy a Chromebook: Should you? (Review)

Judging from all those Chromebook ads you’ve been seeing pop up on every tech. Web site known to man. Google really, really wants you to buy a Chromebook. Should you?

I like my Samsung Chromebook, but it looks like not many people fell in love with these Chrome OS powered netbooks. So, Acer and Samsung have reduced their price from a high of $499 to $299 and Google started banging the advertising drum for Chromebooks. So, should you let the new price tempt you into getting one?

I say yes.. My Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, which I’ve been using for months now, is the perfect grab and go laptop. It’s weights just over three-pounds, the battery lasts for about ten hours, and the lightweight Linux desktop with a Chrome Web browser interface is all I need for work out of the office.

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December 15, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google Zeitgeist 2011: It’s Apple’s World

Every year Google takes a look at what we’ve been searching for on the Internet in 2011 in its Google Zeitgeist list. A lot of it shows that we love our dumb stuff. For example, Rebecca Black, whose fame rests entirely on one awful song and video, Friday, was the number one search. Looking deeper into the lists you’ll see that when it comes to technology, we couldn’t get enough of Apple.

On Google’s master list of the 10 fastest-rising global queries, you’ll find three Apple subjects represented: the iPhone 5 (whoops!), Steve Jobs and the iPad2. Of technology-related subjects, only Google’s new social network, Google+ and the hot new game Battlefield 3 placed higher.

You might think Apple got so much attention because of Steve Jobs’ death. You’d be wrong. While Jobs death placed him ninth on the overall search list, the Fastest Rising Technology list was filled with Apple searches.

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December 15, 2011
by sjvn01
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OwnCloud: An open-source cloud to call your own

Everyone likes personal cloud services, like Apple’s iCloud, Google Music, and Dropbox. But, many of aren’t crazy about the fact that our files, music, and whatever are sitting on someone else’s servers without our control. That’s where ownCloud comes in.

OwnCloud is an open-source cloud program. You use it to set up your own cloud server for file-sharing, music-streaming, and calendar, contact, and bookmark sharing project. As a server program it’s not that easy to set up. OpenSUSE, with its Mirall installation program and desktop client makes it easier to set up your own personal ownCloud, but it’s still not a simple operation. That’s going to change.

According to ownCloud’s business crew, “OwnCloud offers the ease-of-use and cost effectiveness of Dropbox and box.net with a more secure, better managed offering that, because it’s open source, offers greater flexibility and no vendor lock in. This makes it perfect for business use. OwnCloud users can run file sync and share services on their own hardware and storage or use popular public hosting and storage offerings.” I’ve tried it myself and while setting it up is still mildly painful, once up ownCloud works well.

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December 12, 2011
by sjvn01
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Internet BitTorrent Spies

People have privacy delusions about the Internet. They seem to think that just because they don’t sign their real name to a site that no one can see what they’ve been doing on it. Oh dear. So dumb, so wrong.

The latest example of what you do on the Internet is no where near as “private” as you think it is comes from a new Russian site, YouHaveDownloaded. This site claims to track 20 percent of all public BitTorrent downloads… and tell the world who they’ve found downloading what. So, that final episode of Dexter? The DVD rip of Cowboys & Aliens? That copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare? And, that illicit video of Smoking Hot Grannies that you really, really don’t want to talk about? Yeah, your permanent record of what you’ve been downloading off BitTorrent sites may all be available for the amusement of your friends, neighbors, and, oh yes, the copyright owners.

Happy downloading!

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December 12, 2011
by sjvn01
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Open-source webOS is dead on arrival

When HP first announced that webOS and Enyo its application framework, would live on as an open-source project I thought it might have a chance to be successful. Now, after listening to HP’s slightly more detailed plans and due consideration, I think webOS is a dead operating system walking. Here’s why

1. Plan? What Plan?

HP hasn’t decided on a license, a governance plan, or even what they’ll do with their existing webOS staff. Does HP CEO Meg Whitman really have any kind of clue as to what the company will be doing with webOS? Simply open-sourcing a project means more than just saying that eventually you’ll dump-ah release-the code to the public. Without commitment, resources, and, oh yes, a plan, webOS will only end up in a technology grave-yard along side Maemo, BeOS, and OS/2.

2. Where’s the hardware?

To avoid an untimely end, webOS needs its own tablet hardware. Sure, hackers will run it on iPads and Android-tablets, but that’s not a viable market. So, where’s the hardware for webOS customers? Whitman has said that “HP could make WebOS-powered tablets in 2013.”

Could? Could!? In 2013!! Come on HP, get with it!

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December 9, 2011
by sjvn01
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HP open-sources WebOS, but will anyone develop for it?

You know those HP TouchPads that are sale right now, the ones that didn’t look that interesting after Amazon and Barnes & Noble released their Android-powered tablets? Well, you may want to get one anyway. WebOS, its operating system, isn’t dead after all.

Today, HP announced that webOS would live on as an open-source project. In addition, Enyo its application framework is also being open-sourced.

That’s the good news. The bad news is we’re lacking a lot of details. Here’s what we do know

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