Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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Is Facebook already running scared of Google+?

I’ve only been using Google’s new social network, Google+ for a few days, but I already like Google+ a lot. I’ve already said Facebook had reason to worry about its users leaving it for Google+. It looks like Facebook agrees. Facebook has blocked Facebook Friend Exporter.

Facebook Friend Exporter, like the name indicates is an open-source Chrome Web browser extension that lets you export your Facebook friend data. Or, rather it briefly did that anyway. Facebook has blocked it.

If wasn’t perfect. All it really did was export data–such as names, e-mail addresses, and birthday– that your friends had shared with you as a comma separated value (CSV) file. You could then import this into Google+. It wasn’t easy. Now it only sort of works.

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July 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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The Open-Source Car

Besides a V6 as your engine, your car is very likely to soon be running Linux under the hood. The Linux Foundation will be announcing today that Toyota is joining the Foundation.

Some of you may be wondering, “What the heck is a car company doing joining the Linux Foundation?” The answer is easy. As the Foundation puts it, “A major shift is underway in the automotive industry. Car-makers are using new technologies to deliver on consumer expectations for the same connectivity in their cars as they’ve come to expect in their homes and offices. From dashboard computing to In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI), automobiles are becoming the latest wireless devices – on wheels.”

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July 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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Picking the Right Web Server for the Right Job

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.

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June 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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Five Things to love about Google+

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

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June 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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E-Books readers sales rise, but are tablets really lagging?

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,

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June 29, 2011
by sjvn01
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Firefox tries, and fails, to make business amends

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.

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