Practical Technology

for practical people.

September 3, 2009
by sjvn01
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New Red Hat Linux’s top five features

Red Hat has released its latest version of its flagship operating system RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5.4 and there’s a lot to like in this new business Linux.

I’ve been using RHEL, and its twins, CentOS and Oracle Unbreakable Linux since day one, and I like them a lot for business server use. Of all these releases, I think RHEL 5.4 is the most impressive of the lot. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

1) Baked in virtualization. This edition of RHEL incorporates KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine). KVM, unlike VMware or Citrix Systems’ XenServer, isn’t an add-on virtualization program. It’s actually part of the operating system. Indeed, as the name suggests, it’s built right in the Linux kernel.

As Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s CEO told John Fontana of NetworkWorld, “KVM makes RHEL Linux deployments look the same whether they are virtual or physical.” So, “All of those thousands of man years of work put into processes and management for Linux can be applied to virtual instances.”

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September 2, 2009
by sjvn01
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Even Microsoft wants you to get rid of IE 6

Internet Explorer isn’t anything like as popular as it used to be. Many users of Internet Explorer have moved from IE to Firefox or other browsers. In fact, in July 2009, Internet Explorer fell to an all time low of 66.6% But, even so, 24.8% of people are still using IE 6, a real contender for the planet’s most insecure Web browser. Come on people!

Don’t believe me? Would you believe Amy Bazdukas, Microsoft’s general manager for Internet Explorer then? Bazdukas recently said, “Friends don’t let friends use IE6.”

I’d say that’s a pretty clear sign that’s it’s time to get rid of IE6. Personally, I think Firefox is the best choice for most users. I can also recommend Google Chrome, and the latest version of Apple Safari.

On the other hand, I’m not happy at all with Opera’s security. But, some users think Opera’s security is just fine. I think these people are confusing security by obscurity with real security.

Be that it may, even Internet Explorer 8 is much, much better than IE 6. It’s a quick download and it works fine with any modern version of Windows.

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September 1, 2009
by sjvn01
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Linux powers world’s fastest stock exchange

Day trading is so passe. Today’s sharp traders make their cash by trading milliseconds ahead of the other guy. To do that you need really fast stock exchanges, which is where Linux comes in.

The Deutsche Borse Group manages the International Securities Exchange, an equity options exchange in New York, as well as the Eurex and Deutsche Borse’s own Xetra cash exchange. The Xetra stock exchange platform is also used by the Irish Stock Exchange, the European Energy Exchange, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange among others. It has long used Linux as the basis of these high-speed stock exchanges. Later this year, it is launching a next generation. The new trading infrastructure will use IBM WebSphere MQ Low Latency Messaging and Linux to make it the fastest stock exchange software on the planet.

How fast is it? A Deutsche Borse representative claimed that their Linux-powered exchange software can "easily execute more than a million trades per second, dwarfing even the mighty NY Stock Exchange."

This isn’t speed just for the sake of speed. The Deutsche Borse spokesperson told me, "As the financial markets continue their recovery efforts, the world’s stock exchanges — 161 in all — are in a fierce battle to win and keep clients by delivering what customers want most: the fastest, most secure and highest reliability trading possible. This has led to a technology ‘arms race’ among the exchanges who are using computerized algorithms to bundle hundreds of thousands of stocks into single, split-second transactions."

He continued, "Speed, or ‘low-latency,’ is everything for these exchanges. A fraction of a second can mean mega gains or losses to investors. Transactions that once took minutes and seconds to complete are now processed in thousandths and millionths of a second, with the fastest trading engines reaping the biggest benefits."

He’s not making that up to puff up his company. As the New York Times recently reported, this new high-frequency trading "enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense."

The flip side of being plugged into a high-speed exchange is you can make billions. The NYT quoted Joseph M. Mecane of the New York Stock Exchange Euronext, another Linux-based exchange, who said it best: "It’s become a technological arms race, and what separates winners and losers is how fast they can move."

If you fall behind this race, you’re at a competitive disadvantage. It’s like running a race with one foot in a bucket. As the Deutsche Borse spokesperson pointed out, "for exchanges who lose the latency race, failure can be disastrous, as the London Stock Exchange learned last September when a much-publicized glitch in its Windows-based system shut down trading for a full seven hours, leading to enormous losses for listed companies, investors and the exchange itself."

What’s true for exchanges is also true for investors. If you’re not invested for the long-term and you’re trying to day-trade or invest in the short run, you’re quickly falling behind investors who use high-frequency methods on the high-speed, aka Linux-based, exchanges.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is leaving Windows behind. The exchange hasn’t announced yet what it will be moving to. If I might suggest that if Linux is good enough for the Deutsche Borse, the NYSE, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, it’s good enough for the LSE.

Deutsche Borse’s new system will become the backbone for all the Xetra-based exchanges. The International Securities Exchange will be the first to make the switch. The others will then quickly follow.

The system itself is built primarily on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). IBM’s MQ Low Latency Messaging is also an important part of the package. Indeed, according to Dr. Michael Kuhn, CIO of Deutsche Borse. Version 2.2 of this low-latency, high-speed messaging protocol includes new features designed specifically for the demands of high-frequency traders.

Don’t blink, but Linux, the "free" software darling, is what is powering the meteoric rise of the new world of capitalism. We’re in for some interesting, and very fast, times ahead.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

August 31, 2009
by sjvn01
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Five messages to never trust in your e-mail box

I love Dr. Gregory House. As a journalist, I can really appreciate his view that “Everybody lies.” That may be too cynical for most people, but when it comes to dealing with your e-mail I’m not sure it’s possible to be cynical enough.

Every day, and I mean every day, I get not only spam messages, but notes trying to trick me into going to a site that will infect my Windows PC with malware or con me into giving up my bank account or credit-card numbers. You simply can’t trust anything you find in your e-mail box.

Here are some of the most common scams. Many of you might think, “How could anyone fall for these?” The sad truth is that people fall for them every day. That’s why thieves use them. If you already know them, think about your friends and relatives who aren’t as smart as you are and send the URL to this story to them. You might save them a lot of money or, at the least, a busted computer.

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August 30, 2009
by sjvn01
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The easiest operating system to update is…

Over the weekend, I decided to see which of the major operating systems would be the easiest to update. The answer may surprise you.

First, I took several of my Windows systems and tried to upgrade them to Windows 7 Ultimate. It was… interesting.

With Windows XP, I found, as I expected, that there is no easy way to upgrade. The only way to do is what Microsoft calls a “custom install.” I, though, call it a cut and burn install. The be-all and end-all is that you have to let the Windows 7 installation DVD delete everything on your hard drive.

Microsoft provides a tool, Windows Easy Transfer, aka migsetup, on the DVD that will let you transfer files and settings to an external drive. This is a pain in the neck, but it does work. What it doesn’t do, however, is transfer programs, fonts, or drivers. So, once Windows 7 was setup, I had to reinstall every, last application, fonts and drivers. I found it hard to believe that a modern operating system actually made it so hard to upgrade it.

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August 28, 2009
by sjvn01
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What happens next in SCO vs. Novell

Earlier this week, a Federal Appeals Court ruled that the U.S. District Court had overstepped its grounds in ruling that SCO had never bought Novell’s Unix IP (intellectual property) rights. Without those IP rights, SCO didn’t have a leg to stand on in all its other anti-Linux lawsuits against IBM, Novell, Red Hat, et. al. So, now SCO can start again right? Ah wrong. It’s much more complicated than that. Here’s what really going to happen next.

First, SCO doesn’t own Unix’s IP. The Court rules that Judge Dale Kimball overstepped his authority, to make that decision and that the question of who owns Unix should be decided by a jury, but that’s not the same thing as deciding who owns Unix’s IP. That question is up in the air.

According to SCO CEO Darl McBride this decision enables the company to continue its Novell and IBM lawsuits. Not really. You see McBride no longer has any control of SCO. The day after the Federal Appeals Court made its decision, the Bankruptcy Court put SCO under the control of a Chapter 11 Trustee, Edward N. Cahn. Cahn, a former judge who has no connection with SCO’s management, is now the man in charge, and his priorities have nothing to do with SCO’s manic self-destructive drive to spend every dollar it can beg, borrow and steal on anti-Linux lawsuits.

So, the real question isn’t what McBride wants to do. What he wants doesn’t matter any more.

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