July 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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Once upon a time, the decision was easy. If you needed a Web server, and you used Windows on your servers, you used Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS). If you used anything else — and sometimes even if Windows Server was running in your data center — you used Apache. Simple.
Things are a little bit more complicated in these Web 2.0 days of 2011. Here’s what you should know to pick the right web server for your needs.
June 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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First things first: I don’t have any Google+ invites. Sorry Ken! I had some, but only minutes after I got into Google+, Google closed the doors saying “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest! ”
I’m sorry about that. I’d give you all invites if I could. Why? Because why Google+ is still just beta, it has several features I really like
June 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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Recently one of my readers asked me how I felt about my prediction a year ago that dedicated e-readers were doomed to decline. This was before the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that “The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011,” while “roughly the same percentage” of people were using tablets in May 2011 as had been using them in November 2010. You know what? I still feel good about my prediction.
You see, if you take a closer look at the Pew report, E-reader Ownership Doubles in Six Months (PDF Link) you’ll see that tablets still gained 3% more owners. True, the growth rate for tablets has slowed down some and e-book readers appear to be growing faster, but has it really.
You see I’m also on record as saying that the Android Linux-powered e-readers were quickly evolving into tablets. Like what tablets you ask? Try the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color: they’re both powered by Android,
More >
June 29, 2011
by sjvn01
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This was not one of Mozilla’s most shining moments. In response to business complaints about Firefox’s accelerating release schedule Firefox evangelist Asa Dotzler responded:
Enterprise has never been (and I’ll argue, shouldn’t be) a focus of ours. Until we run out of people who don’t have sysadmins and enterprise deployment teams looking out for them, I can’t imagine why we’d focus at all on the kinds of environments you care so much about.
Whoops.
June 29, 2011
by sjvn01
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I’ve played with Office 365. I’m not impressed. Office 365’s pricing and requirements schemes are a nightmare. I can”t see myself–or anyone else–moving to Office 365 if they’ve already tried Google Docs. But, that said, that’s not Office 365’s real problem. No, Office 365 shares with Google Docs, the Chromebook, and all other cloud-based applications and devices, the problem that there’s not enough bandwidth to go around.
If you’ve been around Internet technology circles for a while, you’ve heard this song before. As best I recall it dates back to 1995. Then, Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet, predicted that consumer demand for Internet bandwidth would exceed the available network capacity. When these “exafloods” of data demands happened they would cause “giga-lapses.” These Internet “brownouts” or even complete service interruptions would leave users unable to use the Internet.
Well, as we all know, Bob was wrong. Since then though a year doesn’t goe by without someone proclaiming the End of the Internet. Short of the collapse of civilization, that’s not going to happen. But, I do think we might start seeing Internet brownouts. The rise of Internet video services, especially Netflix, means that video alone now takes up 40% of all available Internet bandwidth. That number is only going to keep going up.
June 27, 2011
by sjvn01
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While I wasn’t there from the very start of Linux. I was an early adopter. Even before Linux, though, I was a Unix desktop user ranging from the early character interfaces such as the Bourne shell to graphic Unix desktops such as SCO’s Open Desktop—better known back in the day as Open Deathtrap—and Solaris’s Looking Glass. In the last twenty years I’ve used almost every significant Linux desktop out there, and was the editor-in-chief for many years of Desktop Linux. In short, I know what I’m talking about.
Before giving you my list of favorites though, if you don’t know my work, you should know where I’m coming from. First, I’m a big believe in What Works. I use Linux on my desktop not because I find its free and open-source software foundations morally superior to the proprietary competition from Apple and Microsoft. I use it because it works better for me. When it comes to technology, I’m a pragmatist, not an idealist.