Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 12, 2012
by sjvn01
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Can Apple really beat Android in the courts?

If you buy the analysis of Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore, Apple is almost certain to beat the stuffings out of the Android vendors. I beg to disagree.

While Apple has been attacking Android smartphone and tablet vendors in the courts around the world, I don’t see any reason to think, as Whitmore does, that Apple will be able to slam dunk their way to victory. Indeed, Apple’s number one smartphone rival, Samsung, expects record profits despite Apple’s lawsuit attacks from Germany to Australia and back again.

Whitmore, who has long been very bullish on Apple, proclaimed in his note there are four possible outcomes to Apple’s intellectual property (IP) attacks.

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January 11, 2012
by sjvn01
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Google search: This time it’s personal

Well, we saw this coming. Google is integrating its social networking site, Google+ and its photo-sharing site Picasa with Google search. What this means is that in “Search, plus Your World” when you do a Google search your results will be personalized for you.

Specifically when you do a search you’ll see:

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts-both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;

2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,

3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Not everyone can see this new search method yet. Google is still rolling it out.

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January 11, 2012
by sjvn01
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Reddit’s anti-SOPA “Nuclear” protest is a good start

Reddit, the popular link-sharing and social networking site with over 2 billion page-views and 35 million active users a month, is taking the nuclear option in protest about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP draft laws by shutting down on January 18th for 12 hours. During that time, Reddit will suspend its normal operations

“Instead,” the Reddit administrators state, “of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos of reddit, we will be displaying a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action. We will showcase the live video stream of the House hearing where Internet entrepreneurs and technical experts (including reddit co-founder Alexis ‘kn0thing’ Ohanian) will be testifying. We will also spotlight community initiatives like meet-ups to visit Congressional offices, campaigns to contact companies supporting PIPA/SOPA, and other tactics.”

The social network isn’t, according to Reddit, doing this lightly. “We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it. Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.”

Good for Reddit!

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January 10, 2012
by sjvn01
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Winners and Losers in Business Open-Source Software

We all know that Linux, Apache and Samba are vital for business data center servers, Web servers and file and print servers respectively in businesses both large and small. What you may not know though what’s trending below the top-tier of open-source software. That’s where OpenLogic, an enterprise open-source software provider and consultants comes in. In their recent study 2011 Open Source Adoption Trending Report, OpenLogic looks at the winners and losers in open-source software adoption.

According to the company’s analysis, the fastest growing open-source projects from 2010 to 2011 in terms of business adoption were:

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January 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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802.11ac: Gigabit Wi-Fi Devices will be shipping in 2012

To network equipment we used to drag yellow cable about the size and flexibility of garden hose through buildings’ plenum spaces. It was an ugly job. It got better. Then, we got wireless networking and setting up networks got much easier. Still, physical networking usually delivered faster speeds than Wi-Fi networking. Now, things are changing. Broadcom is promising us that the first 801.11ac chipsets will bring us Gigabit wireless speeds without any cables at all.

Mind you, 802.11ac is still a standard in the making. Still, that hasn’t stopped Broadcom from announcing that it’s building 802.11ac chipsets, under the trademark name 5G WiFi, that will be “three times faster and up to six times more power efficient than equivalent 802.11n solutions.” How fast is that? Rahul Patel, Broadcom’s VP of mobile and wireless, promises that their implementation of 802.11ac will be able to deliver speeds of up to 1.3 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Now, that’s fast!


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January 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Microsoft is finally making good products — but it’s too late

you’ve read many of my articles over the past 20 years, you may have noticed that I don’t care for Microsoft or its products. That isn’t because I think open-source software or Apple products are unbeatably great. It’s because Microsoft’s products are usually awful.

A lot of you are thinking I can’t possibly be right about that. After all, you work and play with Windows, Office and other Microsoft offerings every day. You’re hardly in the minority. But has Microsoft enjoyed its enviable market position because it produced the best products? Nah.

Microsoft became No. 1 because, in business, Bill Gates had the morals of a great white shark in a feeding frenzy. By the time the courts finally slapped Microsoft down in the Netscape case, it was too late. The great monopolist had either killed off or bought out its competition.

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