Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 9, 2010
by sjvn01
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Socking it to the guilty: Billion dollar fine for LimeWire, $75-million for BP’s oil spill

f the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) gets its way, the file-sharing company LimeWire will get blasted out of existence with a billion dollar fine. Meanwhile, British Petroleum, with its oil spill, that’s on its way to the ecology disaster level of a Chernobyl, is liable for up to $75-million under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. What’s wrong with this picture?

That’s a best case estimate. The RIAA actually thinks LimeWire owes them $1.5 trillion.. They came up with that number on a fine of $750 dollars per copyright infringement multiplied by 200 million estimated occurrences of copyright infringement. Aren’t you sorry now that you didn’t just buy Barnes & Barnes’ Fish Heads from the iTunes Store for 99 cents?

Of course, BP may yet end up getting sued to death as well, but I think we can all agree that BP’s ‘mis-steps’ were just a wee bit bigger than LimeWire’s enabling users to share music files. So, why is LimeWire the one getting knocked about?

The court system is a train-wreck. But, anyone who follows the madness that is the U.S. patent system in the courts already knows that. All we can do is shake our heads in disgust.

LimeWire’s executives are hoping for some kind of deal that will let them survive. I can’t see that happening. The RIAA has asked for a permanent injunction on LimeWire’s services. Let’s face it, the RIAA has LimeWire where it wants them: On the way to bankruptcy court.

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June 8, 2010
by sjvn01
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Ten years of IBM mainframe Linux

How things have changed. Back in March 1991 (PDF), Stewart Alsop, venture capitalist and one-time editor-in-chief of InfoWorld, said, “I predict that the last mainframe will be unplugged on March 15, 1996.” In 2010, while IBM doesn’t break out its profits by individual server line, IBM’s systems and technology group, reported 1st quarter revenue of $3.4 billion. While IBM’s System z, aka mainframes, revenue fell 17%, a billion bucks or so of business still isn’t anything to sneeze at.

So what happened to give the mainframe a new lease on life? In a word: Linux.

Back in February 1999, IBM announced it would work with Red Hat to support Linux. By May 2000, Linux moved from being an experiment on mainframes to being a fully supported option. And in 2001, IBM announced it was spending a billion bucks that year on Linux. It wasn’t that big an expense; as Bill Zeitler, IBM’s senior vice president and group executive for eServer at the time, explained, “We’ve recouped most of it in the first year in sales of software and systems.”

Today, IBM and Linux go together like peanut butter and jelly — or, if you’re prefer a tech business analogy, Microsoft and Windows. IBM does it because Linux brings in billions for the companies not only on mainframes but across its server line and its consulting businesses.

Dan Frye, IBM vice president of the Linux Technology Center, said, “Back in 2000, Linux was mostly found at the edge of the IT infrastructure and we were careful to advise clients to utilize it appropriately. Today we advise our clients to use Linux confidently in the most demanding enterprise environments. Linux continues to be the world’s fastest growing operating system worldwide and is used across the entire IT infrastructure including in application and data serving, business critical workloads and as the foundation for emerging delivery models such as cloud computing.”

Looking ahead IBM sees Linux being used everywhere. Frye told me, “There are many growth opportunities as we continue to see Linux advance in areas aligned to client needs. In the short term, this includes virtualization, server consolidation and cloud computing. This also includes data intensive work loads such as high performance computing. Linux will also mature in the mid-market where it can reduce complexity and cost.”

And, while IBM has done very well by Linux on the mainframe and its other servers, Frye isn’t ruling out the desktop. Frye said, “We’re seeing tremendous interest in Linux on the desktop. A recent global survey showed that Linux desktops were easier to implement than IT staff expected if they targeted the right groups of users, such as those who have moderate and predictable use of e-mail and office tools. Netbooks with Linux provide a low-cost computing option to small businesses and emerging markets around the globe. This customer set–even those that typically cannot afford new, expensive personal computers–can now legitimately consider netbooks running Linux instead of PCs for business use.”

Over the years, IBM has also been very good for Linux and other Linux businesses. Historically, IBM has been one of the top contributors to the Linux kernel. And Novell has the lion’s share of IBM’s mainframe Linux business.

Even as Linux is getting into consumer and mobile devices everywhere, Linux still remains strong in the enterprise’s old IT core. Or, as an IBM tagline would have it: “Legacy systems are systems that work!” When it comes to IBM, Linux and the mainframe, that’s the gospel truth.


A version of Ten years of IBM mainframe Linux first appeared in ComputeWorld.

June 7, 2010
by sjvn01
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Help! I’m out of bandwidth and I can’t get my demo up!

In a way, it’s funny. First, Google had to ask people to turn out their smartphones and computers to do their recent Google TV demo and now Apple’s Steve Jobs, the master of the demo, has run into the same kind of bandwidth problem with the iPhone 4 release demo. What’s going on here when two of the biggest and brightest technology companies on the planet can’t get a demo to work because of lack of bandwidth? I’ll tell you what’s going on: We don’t have enough Wi-Fi/3G/4G bandwidth. Period. End of statement.

Most of this problem stems from a lack of infrastructure. When thousands of people want MBs (megabytes) of bandwidth for video streaming or real-time applications like Twitter even when the pipe bringing in the signal is an OC-192 with its 9.4Gbps (Gigabits per second)isn’t going to be able to keep up. Besides, even if you have an OC-192, you still can’t deliver all that bandwidth to a limited area with the fastest common version of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, with its maximum burst throughput of 600Mbps (Megabits per second).

Even if you made the best possible use of your 802.11n AP (access points), you’d still have too much demand trying to share the same limited resources. You can’t get around the problem by throwing more APs at it because their signals will interfere with each other.

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June 7, 2010
by sjvn01
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Five reasons Apple gets the lion’s share of attention

Today, June 7th, 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will once more hold the attention of the technology world when he speaks at Apple’s annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference). We already know that Jobs is going to announce: a new iPhone. And, thanks to Gizmodo’s reporting on a swiped iPhone prototype, we already have a good idea about what’s going to be in this model. So, why the heck are there currently over 1,100 news stores and 696,000 (!) blog postings according to Google about Apple’s WWDC announcement?

I mean, it’s not like there isn’t other important technology news today. For example, Microsoft has announced that the beta for Windows 7 SP 1 will be coming out in July. By my and Google’s count, there are currently less than a handful of news stories about Windows 7 SP1.

What’s going on here? Why does Steve Jobs grab our attention so even for people who can’t stand Apple? Here is, for what it’s worth, my list of reasons why Apple gets the limelight.

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June 4, 2010
by sjvn01
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Canonical to offer new Ubuntu Linux business support options

Linux is great, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, Linux like any operating system, can be a pain. Enter Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux. On June 7th, Canonical will start offering new Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop “Ubuntu Advantage” business support services

Ubuntu Advantage will offer more than just technical support. Canonical has long offered excellent business and individual technical support. What makes Ubuntu Advantage different is that it also offers systems management tools, access to online resources, training and legal assurance. According to a company representative, “It is built to help businesses who have deployed Ubuntu as a desktop and/or server solution to become more successful in their adoption of the platform. The new subscription package gives organizations a single service to underwrite their investment in Ubuntu and is split into different service levels to cater to the different uses of Ubuntu in business.”

So, say your company’s in-house counsel has questions about a Linux’s intellectual property issue? No problem. Ubuntu Advantage Assurance will “take care of intellectual property (IP) infringement legal claims brought against customers in their use of Ubuntu.” Further, “Canonical will provide legal compensation for any claim brought against you worldwide so you can deploy Ubuntu without complicated legal concerns.” Take that Microsoft with your endless, bogus Linux patent threats.

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June 4, 2010
by sjvn01
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Steve Jobs blunders on the Internet TV market

When the rumor went around that Apple would be releasing a new iPhone-OS based Apple TV, there was a lot of excitement. I didn’t really buy into the new Apple TV hype. Now, we know it’s not coming, or if it is, it’s not going to amount to much. We know this because Steve Jobs told us so.

At the D8 Conference, Jobs said, “The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy. The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set top box for free. So no one wants to buy a box. Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us … ask Google in a few months. The television industry fundamentally has a subsidized business model that gives everyone a set-top box, and that pretty much undermines innovation in the sector. The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it. But right now, there’s no way to do that … . The TV is going to lose until there’s a viable go-to-market strategy. That’s the fundamental problem with the industry. It’s not a problem with the technology, it’s a problem with the go-to-market strategy … . I’m sure smarter people than us will figure this out, but that’s why we say Apple TV is a hobby.”

Jeeze Steve, wake up already. The old satellite/cable model is ready to die a horrible death. That’s why TiVo, Roku, and, yes, soon Google are all in the TV set-top business. It’s why Sony and all the other Blu-Ray DVD and high-end TV companies are sticking Wi-Fi into their devices as fast as they can so users can get to Netflix and the other Internet video sources.

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