Practical Technology

for practical people.

February 22, 2012
by sjvn01
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Adobe abandons Linux

There was a time when I hoped that Adobe would port more of their applications to the Linux desktop. Those hopes have been dashed. Adobe has announced their roadmap for Adobe Flash and AIR and Linux is barely on it.

Adobe Flash Player 11.2 which is targeted for release in the first quarter of 2012 will be the last native version for Linux. This release include the following features:

  • Mouse-lock support
  • Right and middle mouse-click support
  • Context menu disabling
  • Support for more hardware accelerated video cards (from January 2008) in order to expand availability of hardware-accelerated content.
  • New Throttle event API (dispatches event when Flash Player throttles, pauses, or resumes content)
  • Multi-threaded video decoding pipeline on the desktop which improves overall performance of video on all desktop platforms

After that version comes out sometime soon that will be the end of the road for direct Linux Flash Player support. Thereafter, the Flash Player browser plug-in for Linux will only be available via a “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player for all x86/64 platforms supported by the Google Chrome browser. Google will begin distributing this new Pepper-based Flash Player as part of Chrome on all platforms, including Linux, later this year.

Adobe abandons Linux: More >

February 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Not so fast Microsoft! Google fires back at MS privacy claims.

On President’s Day, February 20th, Microsoft accused Google of bypassing Internet Explorer’s privacy settings in a Microsoft Software Developer Network posting by Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President of IE. Google’s Rachel Whetstone, Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, replied that, “Microsoft omitted important information from its blog post today.”

Specifically, Whestone states that “Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P” [Platform for Privacy Preferences Project]) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other Websites.”

Indeed, Facebook doesn’t work with Microsoft’s P3P policy either. A Facebook representative said, “P3P was developed 5 years ago and is not effective in describing the practices of a modern social networking service and platform. Instead, we have posted a public notice describing our practices that is consistent with Section 3.2 of P3P. We have reached out directly to Microsoft in hopes of developing additional solutions and we would welcome the opportunity to work with W3 to update P3P to account for the advances in social networking and the web since 2007.”

Not so fast Microsoft! Google fires back at MS privacy claims. More >

February 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu for Android: Linux desktop on a smartphone

You have to give Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company credit for thinking big. Today Canonical is unveiling Ubuntu for Android. What is in the world is that? It’s bringing the Ubuntu Linux desktop to to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. With it, Canonical claims you’ll be able to use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The company states that the phone experience will be pure Android–it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same Ubuntu Unity desktop many of you are already using and it will include all of Ubuntu’s current applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

These hybrid Android/Ubuntu smartphones and tablets will share all data and services between the environments. Both Android and Ubuntu run simultaneously on the device. So Android applications such as contacts, telephony and texting are accessible from the Ubuntu interface.

Ubuntu for Android: Linux desktop on a smartphone: More >

February 21, 2012
by sjvn01
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Apache releases first major new version of popular Web server in six years

The Apache Software Foundation has just announced the release version 2.4 of its award-winning Apache HTTP Server. This is the first major release of the Apache Web server in more than six years. Long before the release of Apache 2.2 in December 1st, 2005 though, Apache was already the most popular Web server in the world. Today Apache powers almost 400 million Web sites.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4?, said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project in a statement. “This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We’ve added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features.”

The Foundation claims that numerous enhancements make Apache HTTP Server v2.4 ideally suited for Cloud environments.

Apache releases first major new version of popular Web server in six years: More >

February 20, 2012
by sjvn01
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First IPv6 Distributed Denial of Service Internet attacks seen

The clock is running out on IPv4 on the Internet, but even so the next generation of Internet traffic protocols, IPv6, is being adopted very slowly. But, it seems IPv6 is finally making it to broad acceptance. Arbor Networks reports that the “latest milestone in IPv6 development: the first observations of IPv6 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

This can only be happening because the number of IPv6-based end-points have grown large enough that possible injection points for IPv6-based attacks is now large enough for attackers to use it. At the same, time they’re finding targets on the IPv6-enabled Internet worthy of the effort needed to craft and execute attacks.

We could have expected this. Besides human nature, Arbor Network’s Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report had predicted IPv6 DDoS attacks. “This is a significant milestone in the arms race between attackers and defenders,” stated the report. “We believe that the scope and prevalence of IPv6 DDoS attacks will gradually increase over time as IPv6 is more widely deployed.” And, now, they’ve started.

First IPv6 Distributed Denial of Service Internet attacks seen: More >

February 20, 2012
by sjvn01
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What will Apple’s iPad 3 ‘retina display’ mean for you?

The rumors appear to be true. The next model Apple iPad 3 will have a ‘retina display’ display. MacRumors has their hands on what appears to be the iPad 3’s display component With four-times the pixels of the earlier iPad displays, the reputed iPad 3, screen with its 2048×1536 resolution, will have twice the resolution of the iPad 1 and iPad 2, which can only boast 1024×768 resolution. That’s all well and good, but what will it mean for you?

Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, the world’s leading display and display tuning company, isn’t in the least bit surprised at Apple’s move. Soneira wrote: “The next generation iPad will quadruple the number of screen pixels with a resolution of 2048×1536.” This in turn, will indeed give the iPad 3 a Retina Display [because it] does not require the same pixels per inch (ppi) as the iPhone 4 Retina Display because it is typically held much further away from the eye, whose visual sharpness is based on angular resolution rather than linear ppi resolution. The iPad is typically held 15-18 inches away as opposed to the iPhone 4’s 12-15 inches. As a result, to meet the 300 ppi Retina Display specification made by Steve Jobs at WWDC for the iPhone 4, an iPad Retina Display would need only 240 ppi. So an iPad Retina Display could start anywhere above 1862×1397 pixels.”

What will Apple’s iPad 3 ‘retina display’ mean for you? More >