Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 27, 2012
by sjvn01
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Apple working on Google Glass rival?

Oh sure, you want to know about the latest iPhone 5 rumor or if Apple really going to come out with an Apple TV that’s not just a little black box, but what’s more exciting still is that Apple’s taking out patents on wearable computers, ala Google Glass.

According to Patently Apple, a site that tracks Apple’s patents, Apple has been toying with the idea of wearable computers since at least 2006. Indeed, wearable computers are far from a new idea. I first played with them in the 90s. But those were niche devices. It wasn’t until Google showed off with Google Glass in June 2012 at Google I/O that the idea of a heads-up computer display in your glasses captured the publics’ imagination.

Apple working on Google Glass rival? More >

July 26, 2012
by sjvn01
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The Blessings of Open Source for Small Business

Portland, OR: You may not think of yourself as an open-source software user, but if your business has any kind of a Web presence, you owe thanks to open source. That was one of the messages that Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, delivered at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), in his keynote speech, “The Clothesline Paradox: How Sharing Economies Create Value.”

In particular, O’Reilly said that open-source software creates great value for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). “An economy is an ecosystem,” O’Reilly said. “If you take more out than you put in, the economy fails,” citing such infamous figures as Bernard “Bernie” Madoff and Charles Ponzi. Still others, such as Internet and open-source pioneers as Vint Cerf, Linus Torvalds, and Dennis Ritchie,  understood that “We all do better when we all do better.”

The Blessings of Open Source for Small Business. More >

July 26, 2012
by sjvn01
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Twitter apologies

In a blog posting, following Twitter’s Thursday meltdown, Twitter VP of engineering, Mazen Rawashdeh, apologized for the social network’s failure.

“We are sorry. Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20am and 9:00am PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25am PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter.”

So what happened? “The cause of today’s outage came from within our data centers.

Twitter apologies. More >

July 25, 2012
by sjvn01
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Microsoft profits from Linux patent FUD

Microsoft has long made some nice cash from convincing Android vendors that they should pay them for Linux-related patents. Now, for the first time, a company that uses Linux on its servers. Amdocs has publicly paid off Microsoft for patents covering Linux. Mind you, there’s never been any proof that Linux violates any of Microsoft’s patents. Despite that, several C level executives have made similar contracts and tell me that Microsoft has been shaking them down for Linux patent licensing agreements for years.

One involved attorney explained, “Microsoft has been doing this for years, although I don’t know whether a patent cross license, as compared to a monetary payment, has usually been part of the deal.” An executive added, “ In our case we had no patents of our own. We had to sign an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] barring us from revealing any of the Microsoft’s Linux infringement claims.”

Why would a company do this? A C level executive told me, “We use a lot of Microsoft software as well, and it was cheaper than fighting with them over our contracts. We want to do business, not fight over legal claims that have nothing to do with us.”

Microsoft profits from Linux patent FUD. More >