Practical Technology

for practical people.

April 26, 2011
by sjvn01
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Browser Wars: 2011

It wasn’t that long ago that things were as dull as used dishwater when it came to Web browsers. Then, along came Firefox and suddenly it wasn’t just an Internet Explorer world anymore. Today, in 2011, Google’s Chrome Web browser, not to mention Apple’s Safari and Opera Software’s Opera, are all good choices for your Web browser.

In particular, over the last few months, Chrome, Firefox and IE have all come out with great new versions. Today, you have a richer choice of top-quality Web browsers than ever before for your Linux PC, Mac, or Windows PC. So, how do you decide which browser is best for you? Well, I bravely installed the whole lot of the latest generation of Web browsers and this is what I found.

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April 26, 2011
by sjvn01
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Netflix: Bigger than cable. Too big for the Internet?

According to the DVD and online video rental king Netflix’s last quarterly report, Netflix now has more subscribers than Comcast, the largest cable U.S. TV operator. 7% of all U.S. citizens now subscribe to Netflix. That’s great for Netflix but what about the Internet, on which it increasingly relies for its video transport?

Back in October, Netflix, and other video content were already taking up more bandwidth than any other single Internet service Gaming, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, and Web surfing were all falling behind. It’s only gotten worse since then. When I recently looked at how much traffic IPv6 was transporting on the Internet, I found that Netflix, all by itself, was taking up 20%–the largest single share-of all Internet traffic.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but is there enough bandwidth on the Internet to support this if this video trend continues? I doubt it.

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April 25, 2011
by sjvn01
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Review: Barnes & Nobles’ Nook Color goes Android Tablet

If you must have a great tablet, and you’re willing to pay the price for it, Apple’s iPad 2 is still the one to get. But, if you’d like a good tablet at half-the-price, the newly firmware renovated Barnes & Noble Nook Color may be all the tablet you need.

Today, April 25th, as has long been expected, the Nook Color got its 1.2 update. This transforms the Nook Color from being an e-reader to being a low-end Android tablet by replacing its operating system with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and adding an App Store.

Since I’ve been waiting for the Nook Color update for weeks, I immediately downloaded the firmware, which for now you must do to make the jump and put it to work. If you’d rather not jump in where non-computer savvy users fear to tread you can wait for the download and upgrade to be made automatically.

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April 25, 2011
by sjvn01
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Big Apple, Big Google, Big Brother

In some ways, all the uproar about Apple saving location data on its iOS device users is old news. Guess what? Big Brother, or Big Google, also collects geo-location information from its mobile, Android-powered devices. It’s like anything else in computing: geo-location can provide great services and resources, but it can also be abused.

Take, for example, a woman who was recently robbed in Texas. Using her stolen iPhone, police officers were able to quickly find not only her stolen phone, but her wedding ring as well. Yea!

On the other hand, say another woman is in an abusive relationship and goes to a friend’s house or to a “safe-house” shelter. Her husband tracks her down using her smartphone and literally drags her back “home.”

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April 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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Idiotic Anti-Linux & Google Patent Decision

All good patent trolls know that you sue in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas (EDTX). It’s known for its pro-patent judges that speed patent cases along their docket to the patent holders’ victory. That’s not just me and my anti-patent buddies speaking. No less a figure than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has described the EDTX as a “renegade jurisdiction.” It’s no wonder than that patent troll Bedrock chose the EDTX as its battlefield for its attack on Google, and a host of other companies, over a violation of its patent, which appears to be used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

In the case, the EDTX jury on Bedrock Computer Technologies, LLC vs. Google, Inc., awarded Bedrock $5 million. That’s chump change by patent troll standards, but Bedrock has also sued, among others, Yahoo!, MySpace, Amazon, PayPal, Match.com and AOL There’s money in those companies and Bedrock wants it!

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April 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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Who has, and who doesn’t have, IPv6 Support

First things first. If you work in a small office/home office (SOHO) or are just interested in IPv6 at home, you don’t need to start switching over yet. Big businesses and large organizations are the ones that really need to get on the stick with IPv6. That said, I know many of you don’t want to wait to get your feet wet in IPv6 so here’s what’s what with IPv6 support in common SOHO server and desktop operating systems and network devices.

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