Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 17, 2011
by sjvn01
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WebOS: The Other Smartphone/Tablet Linux

I think that you can have too much of a good thing. I mean, I like that there are so many significant Linux distributions to choose from for servers and desktops. And, OK, I can see there being room for both Android and MeeGo on smartphones and tablets, but, really HP, do we need yet another Linux-based operating system, webOS, for tablets, phones, and netbooks? I don’t think so!

Regardless of what I think, the rumor-mill is going full-speed ahead that, on February 9th, HP will be showing off new smartphones, tablets and maybe even netbooks running webOS. Some folks, like James Kendrick, think that this news would be the cat’s meow. “Of all the product categories HP is considering for webOS, the tablet has me excited as I believe the OS is so fitting for the tablet form that it can take the competition by storm.” Really? Much as I like the idea of Android on tablets, once Google clears up exactly what it’s doing for programmers with Android for different platforms, I can’t see anyone storming Apple’s iPad anytime soon.

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January 16, 2011
by sjvn01
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Dropbox and Google Docs Integration may be on its way

Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud services that lets you store, sync, and share files over the Internet. Google Docs is one of the most popular cloud services that lets you create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the Internet. For years, people have thought that these are two good services that would work great together. Now, it looks like Dropbox may be giving us this functionality.

During the first annual Dropbox Hack Week, a happy developer was able to set up a way to “sync files between your Google Docs and your Dropbox.” There’s no word on when this feature will show up in Dropbox, but “many of the breakthroughs made during the past week will probably be making their way to a Dropbox near you.”

Since this is a feature that users have been asking for, I suspect we’ll see it sooner than later.

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January 15, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google Defines the Sides in the HTML5 Video Fight

A few hundred words from Google Product Manager Mike Jazayeri announcing that Google would be supporting WebM and Ogg Theroa instead of the H.264 video codec in Google Chrome for the HTML5 video tag has lead to enormous controversy in browser and video circles. Now, Google has explained in more detail what’s its trying to do, and ends up defining the sides in the HTML5 video fight.

In his latest post, Jazayeri said that the prior “announcement was solely related to the HTML “Video” tag, which is part of the emerging set of standards commonly referred to as “HTML5.” We believe there is great promise in the tag and want to see it succeed. As it stands, the organizations involved in defining the HTML video standard are at an impasse. There is no agreement on which video codec should be the baseline standard. Firefox and Opera support the open WebM and Ogg Theora codecs and will not support H.264 due to its licensing requirements; Safari and IE9 support H.264. With this status quo, all publishers and developers using the tag will be forced to support multiple formats.”

This last point has been ignored by some critics who say that “H.264 is what we need.” While Jazayeri acknowledges “that H.264 has broader support in the publisher, developer, and hardware community today (though support across the ecosystem for WebM is growing rapidly). However, as stated above, there will not be agreement to make it the baseline in the HTML video standard due to its licensing requirements.”


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January 13, 2011
by sjvn01
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I, for one, welcome our Linux Penguin, Jeopardy Overlords

“I’ll take evil, science-fiction computers for $2,000,” Alex. OK, we’re not quite there yet, but in the early going, IBM’s Watson supercomputer beat Jeopardy super-champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a practice round. And, what is Watson running? Linux, of course.

There’s nothing surprising about that. The fastest of fast computers have long used Linux In the latest TOP 500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, 459 of the Top 500 supercomputers were running Linux.

Watson is made up of ten racks of IBM POWER 750 servers running Linux, and has 15Terabytes of RAM; 2,880 3.55GHz POWER7 processor cores and operates at 80 Teraflops. You’re not going to find one of these at your local Best Buy.

Watson isn’t just an ordinary supercomputer though crunching linear equations, the Linpack Benchmark, at ever faster speeds. By comparison, that’s easy. No, IBM has been working on Watson for almost four years on solving the problem of ‘understanding’ natural language questions.

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January 13, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google removing H.264 from Chrome does nothing to HMTL5

In some technology circles, you’d think Google was proposing throwing cats into a wood-chipper from the way some people are reacting to Google’s announcement that it was focusing its support on its own open VP8/WebM and Theora video codecs, and dropping support for H.264. This is not a step back for openness; any kind of new road-block for HTML5; nor is it going to ruin the Chrome browser. It’s just another chapter in the Web’s video standard wars.

Let’s start from the top: How can Google’s move be a step back for openness when both WebM and Theora are the only video codecs that actually are open source? H.264 while extremely popular is a proprietary format and its encumbered by patents held by MPEG LA, a patent holding company. Historically, MPEG LA hasn’t charged much for the use of H.264, but who’s to say that MPEG LA is always going to stay that generous?

Ed Bott thinks that Google may be moving into possible patent troubles by relying VP8/WebM. He’s right. Of course, they are. Welcome to technology post Bilski.

Today, as the patent lawsuit madness surrounding smartphones shows, technology innovation is starting to take a backseat to patent litigation. Even the open-source favorite Theora isn’t completely clear of patent issues.

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January 12, 2011
by sjvn01
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World IPv6 Day has Facebook, Google & Yahoo Support

Yes, we all know we need to convert our networks and Web sites over to IPv6, but no one wants to be the first. Well, now the Internet Society, the non-profit organization supporting Internet standards, education, and policy-making, is trying to solve the problem for us by getting many major Internet Web powers such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo! and important content delivery network (CDN) providers, including Akamai and Limelight Network to use IPv6 on June 8, 2011.

According to The Internet Society, “The goal of the Test Drive Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.”

Today, only a few Web sites, ISPs, and CDNs support IPv6. Martin Levy, director of IPv6 strategy for Hurricane Electric, an IPv6 specialist that provides ISP backbone and co-location services, said today that there are only a handful of sites and CDNs that support IPv6. These include Google; Netflix, to a degree; Germany’s Heise Online; Facebook at ipv6.facebook.com; and Limelight.

Specifically, the Society hopes World IPv6 Day will “expose potential issues under controlled conditions and address them as soon as possible.

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