Practical Technology

for practical people.

April 6, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Beyond Wi-Fi: WiMAX, LTE, and Windows 7

You might think that you wouldn’t need to worry with any new wireless technologies for your laptop, after 802.11n, with its 100-Megabit per second (Mbps) speeds, finally became a standard. You’d be wrong. Two new technologies, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), also called 802.16e, and Long Term Evolution (LTE), already are beginning to offer computer road warriors new wireless choices.

However, neither one will bring users a significantly faster network experience. In practice, both WiMAX and LTE top out at around 100Mbps. The real difference between these technologies is that instead of access point ranges measured in dozens of meters, these two standards can reach over 50 kilometers. How would you like to use a single “Wi-Fi hotspot” that can keep you connected at home, at the office, at your favorite coffee shop — and on the road between all these places? That’s the promise of both WiMAX and LTE.

Of the two technologies, WiMAX is the more mature. Numerous vendors have already released WiMAX network interface cards (NICs), which are certified by the WiMAX Forum industry consortium as compliant with IEEE standards and thus interoperable. WiMAX is already well accepted in Asia and, with the support of many smaller telecomm firms and the Intel, Google, and Sprint-supported Clear, it’s moving into major U.S. cities.

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April 6, 2010
by sjvn01
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What’s coming in the new Ubuntu Linux Desktop?

I’m already using the beta of the forthcoming version of Ubuntu 10.04 and I like it a lot. I decided to ask the good people at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, what they thought about the new Ubuntu, scheduled to arrive on April 29th, and this is what Gerry Carr, head of platform marketing had do say.

One thing I noticed in looking at the beta of Ubuntu 10.04 was that Ubuntu, more than ever, is becoming the Linux desktop distribution for new users. I was right. Carr said, “We want new users.” Ubuntu has never been the distribution for Linux purists or experts. “We’ve always felt that one of the most important things that we can bring, hopefully, to open source is popularity as a desktop OS.”

Carr continued, “Open source projects have found success but are delivered on proprietary formats, which is great but not ideal. Delivering great open source or proprietary experiences but on an open source platform, and in a way where new users feel they are getting the best experience (not just best for free), is the real win-win.”

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April 5, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Three things the iPad is, and isn’t

I’ve been playing with the iPad for a while now, and I quite like it. But, I’ve also noticed that there’s a lot of misconceptions about what the iPad is, and isn’t.

1. The iPad is the greatest new tech device ever! / The iPad is an ancient idea.

Some would claim that the iPad’s concept is 38-years old. Sure, the idea of an iPad is ancient. I’ve been using Fujitsu tablets off and on for over a decade. And, I’ve been fiddling with touch computing for even longer. So what?

You can argue that cars go back to 1769. And, if one-off experimental vehicles don’t work for you, by the 1880s two guys named Daimler and Benz were producing cars. But, it wasn’t until Henry Ford combined advanced technology and the production line to start turning out Model T Fords in 1908 that cars become commonplace. The iPad, ladies and gents, is the Model T of tablet computing.

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April 2, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

The iPad’s Linux Competition

I get all the excitement about Apple’s iPad. Even if it is just an iPad Touch writ large, that would be enough to make me want one as well. But, the $499 price-tag give me pause, and I’m not crazy about Apple’s locked-door policy towards developers and their iPad applications. That’s why I’ve been looking forward to the other cheaper, more open, and Linux-based tablets.

Now that the iPad is being shipped, it’s becoming clearer who’s going to be shipping Linux-powered iPad competitors first. You can expect to see a flood of Google Android devices coming to the world from many of the Taiwanese computer vendors. These will include tablets from Acer, Asustek, BenQ, and MSI.

Yes, I know that earlier this year Acer said that they weren’t going to compete with the iPad. They fibbed. You can expect Acer, and many other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), to be showing off their Android Linux-powered tablets at the Computex show in Taipei Taiwan in early June. You’ll see these Linux iPad clones in stores by the 3rd quarter of 2010. You can expect these to be available in the $299 to $399 price-range.

Before those arrive you may see Marvell Technology’s iWonder available in online stores. Despite the embarrassment of having the first pre-production models show up displaying upside-down Android logos. With an expected price of about $100 though this Android-based tablet with its 10.1-inch screen and USB ports may well overcome its early stumble.

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April 2, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

It’s time to update your Web Browser

First things first. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, stop reading this story and update your Web browser Right Now. But, it’s not just IE. Firefox also has a slew of security problems, which need to be addressed.

Internet Explorer, which has been getting slapped silly with security problems lately, received an emergency patch earlier this week. In this latest update, more than two-dozen problems have been fixed for versions of IE ranging from the almost unused IE 5 to the latest and greatest versions of IE 8. What’s even more important is that about half of these problems are rated ‘critical.’

Indeed, at least some of these holes are already being used in attacks. And, we’re not talking just any attacks; we’re talking massive assaults on millions of IE 6 and 7 users from at least half-a-dozen different viruses.

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March 30, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Novell Wins! SCO Loses!

Ding dong! The SCO is dead. Which old SCO? The wicked SCO! Ding dong! The wicked SCO is dead!

It’s true. After just more than seven years of SCO lawsuits, SCO has lost its last real chance of causing Linux and the companies that support it — IBM; Novell, and Red Hat — any real trouble.

In a U.S. District Court decision delivered on Mar. 30, 2010, the jury confirmed that Novell, not SCO, own Unix’s copyrights. Without the copyrights, SCO has nothing.

Had the decision gone the other way, I was afraid that SCO could continue to annoy Linux with its bogus Linux copyright violation claims. Anyone with any sense knew that there was no Unix code in Linux, except, of course, for any code that SCO itself placed there. And even that wasn’t code that mattered.

No, the only real purpose of SCO’s lawsuits was to spread anti-Linux FUD on the behalf of its financial backers such as Microsoft.

Now, tens of millions in wasted legal fees later, the jury has decided what those of us who have followed the SCO saga like a hawk knew ages ago: SCO never owned Unix’s IP (intellectual property) in the first place, so it had never had a leg to stand on its rounds of anti-Linux lawsuits.

To quote Pamela Jones, editor of Groklaw and the world’s foremost expert on SCO’s legal saga, "Thank you, Novell, for never giving up, and never giving in. Those of us who love to use Linux will forever be thankful to you."

I second her statement. While some Linux fans have real trouble with Novell thanks to its partnerships with Microsoft, they should never forget that Novell ended up doing the heavy legal lifting needed to defeat SCO’s Linux attacks.

You’d think this would be the end of it all — but you’d be wrong.

According to a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune, former U.S. District Judge Edward Cahn, the trustee for SCO’s bankruptcy filed in Delaware, said that "SCO intends to continue its lawsuit against IBM, in which the computer giant is accused of using Unix code to make the Linux operating system a viable competitor, causing a decline in SCO’s revenues. The copyright claims are gone, but we have other claims based on contracts."

I can’t imagine what Cahn is thinking. There are some lingering issues over SCO’s, formerly Caldera’s, contract with IBM concerning Project Monterrey, a stillborn effort to create a Unix that would run on both Intel and POWER processors, but when I think about all the money that’s been poured down the rathole of SCO litigation, I can’t imagine that SCO or its attorneys ever getting out of the red with anything that might result from those matters.

In any case, no matter what Cahn or anyone else might think, SCO no longer has even a feeble claim that can be made against Linux. SCO is dead.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.