Practical Technology

for practical people.

May 28, 2010
by sjvn01
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Is there a replacement for Facebook?

Facebook claims to have more than 400 million active users. In fact, according to Web analytics firm Alexa, only Google is a more popular site. So, with all that going for it, why are so many users unhappy, with one poll showing that more than half of Facebook users are thinking about leaving?

The one-word answer: privacy. By default, Facebook has made almost everything on your account open to the world. You can lock down your Facebook account, but it’s a tedious process.

New tools unveiled this week are designed to make this easier, but the next time Facebook changes its policies and system, you may need to do it all over again. There are also external tools that can check out just how secure your account is, but again, when Facebook changes its software, they may not work.

Last Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally admitted that Facebook has made some mistakes. Some users are staying put despite their distrust of the company. But others think it’s too little too late and are talking loudly about leaving. There’s even a group that has announced that May 31 is Quit Facebook Day.

Will a significant percentage of Facebook users actually leave? No matter its faults, Facebook has a huge user base, and those users, in turn, have all their friends on the service, all their photos and, yes, even all their Farmville farms. Will that many people really want to abandon Facebook and start all over with a new platform?

They have before.

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May 26, 2010
by sjvn01
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MeeGo, the new netbook Linux, arrives

Take one part Intel’s Moblin, mix with Nokia’s Maemo, bake for three months in the Linux Foundation oven, and you get MeeGo. Linux Foundation executive director, Jim Zemlin has called this new embedded Linux, the open-source uber-platform for the next generation of computing devices: tablets, pocketable computers, netbooks, automotive IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) and more."

Zemlin went on to say that "With MeeGo, you have the world’s largest chip manufacturer and the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer joining forces to create an incredible opportunity for developers who want to reach millions of users with innovative technology." That sounds great, except the world’s largest search engine company, a little business I like to call Google, already has an embedded Linux named Android that’s already out in the market and doing quite well.

Still interested? Well, don’t start downloading a copy of MeeGo right now though unless you’re a developer. Version 1.0 of MeeGo, as Imad Sousou, director of Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, blogged, "This release provides developers with a stable core foundation for application development and a rich user experience for Netbooks. The MeeGo Netbook user experience is the first to appear, with the development of the MeeGo Handset user experience moving to the open in June."

In other words, this 1.0 release is one for programmers, not ordinary mortals. I’d agree with that. I downloaded it and, after converting the MeeGo image file into a VirtualBox VDI (Virtual Disk Image) I was able to install it and run it in VirtualBox 3.20 to know that it’s not ready for mainstream user prime time… yet.

Still, in just playing with for a few minutes, I could see that I’d like it. Instead of Android’s View interface, MeeGo uses a more traditional Unix/Linux X 11-based and Qt 4.6 structure for its front-end. Combine this with other more common Linux desktop APIs (application programming interfaces) and you have a system that Linux desktop developers will be able to pick up more quickly than they can Android.

MeeGo is also built on the Linux 2.6.33 kernel and uses DeviceKit and udev for working with hardware devices. Thus supports gUPnP a universal plug and play framework. For voice and data connectivity, MeeGo uses the Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack, and BlueZ Bluetooth.

Since I was running this in a virtual machine, and not on a netbook, I wasn’t able to even kick the tires of the last three elements. But, since they’re all mainstream Linux projects, I’m sure they work just fine.

The operating system also comes with Google’s Chrome, complete with such goodies as its newly integrated Adobe Flash Player for is main Web browser. If you’d rather use the purely open-source Google Chromium, you can download and install it as a Chrome replacement.

All-in-all, I rather like MeeGo, silly name and all. But, heck, Google and Yahoo are both funny names too, so I won’t let that bother me.

That said, I do wonder if MeeGo is too little, too late. Yes, it will be much easier for Linux desktop developers, but Android is already out and quite popular. I suspect that the Linux developers who wanted to work in the mobile space have already put in quite a few hours with the Android SDK (software development kit) and aren’t looking to start work on another platform with a much smaller market. We’ll have to see just how much effort Intel and Nokia put behind MeeGo. If they put a lot of time and money into it, MeeGo may yet become a major embedded Linux player.

A version of this story was first published in ComputerWorld.

May 26, 2010
by sjvn01
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Revenge of the Facebook Users?

Sure, Google may know about you, but its Facebook opening up your private information to the world’s gaze, and their advertiser’s profits, that has people ticked off. So, it should come as no surprise that someone has finally done it: They’ve sued Facebook for violating their privacy.

As reported by MediaPost, Rhode Island Derrick Rose has sued Facebook for allegedly violating his privacy with the four-week-old “instant personalization” feature. Specifically he claims that the launch of instant personalization “violated users’ reasonable expectations of privacy. Users’ private lists of all the persons they want to share information with may be very different from what they may want to share for purposes of social networking through Facebook. Nevertheless, Facebook, without user authorization, accessed and made public the users’ profile information.”

Why, yes, yes they did. While you can lock your Facebook account from snoopers and Facebook claims they’re going to be making it easier to bar unwelcome visitors from your information, the company isn’t backing off from letting any Tom, Dick, or Harry into your information by default.

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May 25, 2010
by sjvn01
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A PowerShell 2.0 Introduction for System Administrators

No matter how we try to get away from the command line, for many administrative and maintenance jobs for both individual PCs and for an office full of Windows 7 computers, when push comes to shove you can’t beat individual shell commands or reusable batch or script files. That’s why I was very happy to see Microsoft’s new PowerShell 2 baked into Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The single most important change in PowerShell 2 is that it is not just for individual computers, retro-fitted for administering multiple PCs. No, this version of PowerShell was designed from the beginning to manage networked PCs. In short, PowerShell is just as much for network administrators as it is for system administrators or PC technicians.

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May 24, 2010
by sjvn01
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Has Asus Abandoned Netbook Linux?

It wasn’t even three-years ago that Asus took the concept of a cheap, small notebook and turned it into a revolution: the Linux-powered netbook. Today, netbooks continue to sell well. Indeed, Linux netbook sales forced Microsoft both to fire employees and to bring XP back from the dead. But, now, without any fanfare, Asus seems to have closed down its Linux lines at least in the United States.

I found out about this annoying development when some readers wrote to me to say that they’d been trying to get new Asus Linux-powered netbooks and that they’d gotten no-where. Some of the more persistent ones kept pestering Asus and this is what they heard from Asus sales:

“I show that this model is still in production and should be available to purchase through some of our online vendors such as Newegg, Tiger Direct, Zip Zoom Fly, Etc. Also we have just become retail and you may find our units in Target, Fry’s Electronics, Best Buy, Etc. I apologize I don’t have more information about what stores have how many units, but at least you know that this model is still in production. Thank you and have a great day!”

How nice, except it turned out that none of these retailers actually had any Linux-powered ASUS Eee PC 1000 line for sale. Or, any other netbooks with Linux pre-installed.

Another Asus sales message went: “I have just been informed that we do not have any netbooks that are loaded with Linux at this time. We do have a model that will be coming out but I do not have an ETA on that as of yet. I apologize for the wrong information.” That sounded promising, but the next message poured color water on his hopes of getting an Asus netbook with Linux: “This information is not going to make you happy and for that I apologize. This model has hit its end of life and they are no longer producing them. I have also found out that our Eee PC line will no longer be sold with Linux. I am not sure for what reasons but I am sorry. Have you tried to look for the units that are either refurbished or sold from companies as used?”

So, what’s really going on here? I contacted Asus representatives and asked: “Is Asus indeed no longer offering Linux on its lines? If so, why? Does the company plan to offer other netbooks/notebooks with Linux in the future?”

I haven’t heard a peep out of Asus since then. It sure looks to me like Asus, which started the Linux netbook movement, has dropped out of it.

Why? Well, it’s not sales. Netbook continue to sell well in general and netbooks with Linux has about 32% of the market. And, since Linux costs less than Windows, the profit margin should be higher for Linux netbook vendors.

I’m sure that the real reason is Microsoft has pressured Asus into abandoning Linux. On ASUS’ site, you’ll now see the slogan “ASUS recommends Windows 7” proudly shown. Never mind that, while Windows 7 is a good operating system, Windows 7 is awful on netbooks.

That’s by design. Microsoft’s chief poobah Steve Ballmer has said, “Our license tells you what a netbook is. Our license says it’s got to have a super-small screen, which means it probably has a super-small keyboard, and it has to have a certain processor and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

So you can forget about running Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional on a netbook. Instead, if you want to buy, say an Asus Eee PC 1005PE, you’re stuck with Windows 7 Starter Edition, aka the trash version. Windows 7 Starter Edition only reason to exist is to act as a bait and switch to get you through the virtual sales door so the vendor can try to sell you a more expensive computer.

Fortunately, while Asus may want us to join it in drinking Microsoft’s Windows 7 Starter Edition kool-aid, other vendors like Dell, System76, and ZaReason still make it possible to get computers with the full-powered operating system that’s the right netbook size: Linux.

A version of “Has Asus Abandoned Netbook Linux” was first in PC World.

May 24, 2010
by sjvn01
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Want to buy a Linux company?

Want to buy your very own Linux company? Two important ones, Mandriva and Novell are looking for buyers.

There’s a world of difference though between the two. Mandriva, which at one time was a major Linux distributor, is in serious financial hot-water. Novell, which has been targeted by two hostile takeovers attempts in the last few years, seems to have decided that to either cash out or to wrestle control back from some of its stockholders. At this point, it’s hard to tell which goal Novell actually has in mind.

Mandriva’s goal is clear though: it’s simple survival. The French-based company has never had an easy time of it. In 2004, Mandriva went through a bankruptcy. Mandriva followed this with a failed attempt to take on Red Hat and Novell in corporate servers. The company also fired its co-founder, Gael Duval, which lead to a bitter fight that did the company little good.

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