Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 17, 2009
by sjvn01
4 Comments

Linux powers the fastest computers on the planet

Once upon a time, supercomputers used special vector model processors to achieve their then remarkable speeds. Then, at the turn of the 21st century, people began working out how to achieve record-breaking computer speed by linking hundreds or thousands of commercial microprocessors running Linux and connected with high-speed networking in MPP (massively parallel processor) arrays. The supercomputing world has never been the same. Today, Linux rules supercomputing.

The latest Top 500 supercomputer list of the fastest computers on the planet makes that abundantly clear. Broken down by operating system, this latest ranking has 469 of the Top 500 running one kind of Linux or another.

To be exact, 391 are running their own house-brand of Linux. 62 are running one version or another of Novell’s SUSE Linux, including such variants as UNICOS/lc and CNL (Compute Node Linux). Red Hat and its relatives, including CentOS, comes in second with 16 supercomputers.

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November 16, 2009
by sjvn01
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Googling for flu vaccines

When I went to the doctor’s office recently, I assumed I’d be getting my seasonal flu shot, and I’d hoped that I might get an H1N1, swine-flu, shot. I was wrong. It turns out that because of shortages, doctor offices aren’t being supplied with flu vaccines. Worse still, they didn’t know where I could get the shots. Fortunately, Google, yes Google, can help.

While Google has no computer anti-virus programs-well, not yet anyway-they’ve just released an add-on to Google Maps, Flu-Shot Finder. Just visit the site, put in your location-a zip code will work nicely-and you’ll soon get a map of the area with drugstores and pharmacies that carry the shots.

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November 16, 2009
by sjvn01
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Samba your way to network file sharing success

Getting a little tired of one Windows SMB (Server Message Block) security problem after another? Want a reliable and fast file and print server without the Windows server headaches? Then, may I strongly recommend that you give Samba on Linux a try? Samba is an open-source program that had provided file and print services to SMB/CIFS (Common Internet File System) clients for more than a decade. This is the same core functionality that Windows Server had provided since NT roamed the Earth. Thus, Samba can provide file and printer services for any version of Windows. Samba runs on essentially all Linux/Unix servers. Indeed, it’s a rare Linux distribution that doesn’t include the Samba server as a ready-to-run option.

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November 16, 2009
by sjvn01
4 Comments

The old vs. the new Linux desktop

You want to know the funniest thing is about looking back at Corel Linux 1.0, which I used when it was released in 1999, and a typical modern desktop Linux — say, Ubuntu 9.10? How much hasn’t changed.

It’s sort of like comparing the then-current Windows 98 Second Edition and today’s Windows 7: You wouldn’t doubt for a moment that the newer version is much more polished than the earlier edition, but you’d be able to get around in both operating systems and get work done.

What’s far more striking than the differences between, say, Corel’s early and crude KDE interface and Ubuntu’s slick GNOME 2.28 front end is the abundance of finished applications. For example, for practical purposes your only choice back in 1999 for Linux Web browsers was Netscape or a terminal-based browser like Lynx. Today you have your pick of Firefox, Chrome, Opera … heck, thanks to Wine you can even run Internet Explorer on Linux if you really had to.

No, major software vendors like Adobe haven’t brought over flag-ship programs like Photoshop to Linux, but they have brought over their applications that are used almost daily by most users such as Adobe Flash.

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November 13, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Microsoft does the right open-source thing

I’m staggered. Microsoft has admitted that it violated the GPL2 with its Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. That’s not too surprising, since the violation was about as clear-cut as you could get. What’s surprising, even shocking, is that Microsoft is going to re-release the tool under the GPL2!

In a note on Microsoft’s open-source Web site Port 25, from Microsoft’s Peter Galli, a former colleague of mine as it happens, said that “After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm (that GPL code from the ImageMaster open-source program had been put in Microsoft’s proprietary program) … although it was not intentional on our part.”

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool is meant to help netbook users upgrade from XP to Windows 7. It makes it possible to take a Windows 7 DVD image and place it on a USB stick. Since many netbooks don’t have a built-in DVD drive this was an essential program for users who wanted to install Windows 7 on their XP desktops-not an easy job on any PC. ImageMaster is a general-purpose tool for moving DVD images to USB sticks.

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November 13, 2009
by sjvn01
3 Comments

Lenovo returns to the Linux desktop

Lenovo might not describe their return to the Linux desktop like that, but that’s what they’re doing. Yesterday, November 12th, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs gave the world a sneak peak at the Lenovo ARM Snapdragon-powered smartbook, a cross between a smartphone and a netbook. Jacobs added that Lenovo Linux-based smartbook would make its debut at January’s CES (Computer Electronics Show.

We don’t know, at this point, what Linux it will be running. In an e-mail, Lenovo confirmed that it was developing a smartbook based on the ARM Snapdragon processor and that they expect to announce it at CES, but “Unfortunately, there are no further details at this point.”

Sources at Qualcomm were a little more forthcoming. The smartbook, which adds 3G data telephony technology and GPS, to a netbook design and size-factor, will be built on top of the 1 GHz Snapdragon chipset. This un-named Lenovo smartbook will be an instant-on design with 720p HD video, GPS for location-based services, and a large battery that can deliver power for 8 to 10 hours.

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