Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 23, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Oracle is not buying Red Hat

Oracle is not buying Red Hat The rumor mill has it that Oracle may be buying Red Hat. Don’t believe it. All it took was one mention that Oracle might do well to own Red Hat, but that the timing wasn’t right, by Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert for people to start talking up Oracle buying Red Hat. Folks, it’s not going to happen. IBM will buy Sun. Oracle buying Red Hat? No.

This isn’t the first time that Egbert has dreamed up fantasies of Oracle buying Red Hat in the minds of silly investors. She was wrong then. She’s wrong now.

Why? The reasons why it didn’t make sense in 2006 are still the reasons the move makes no sense today.

More >

March 23, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

TomTom gets allies in Microsoft Linux patent lawsuit fight

When Microsoft first sued TomTom for patent violations in TomTom’s Linux-powered navigation devices, I wasn’t sure how much of a fight TomTom would put up. Legally TomTom was between a rock and a hard place. You can’t use restricted use patents in GPLed software. If Microsoft just wanted to use the lawsuit as a hostile takeover tactic, TomTom didn’t have anything like Microsoft’s financial resources to fight them with.

But, while TomTom may be out-gunned by Microsoft, the OIN (Open Invention Network/) isn’t. TomTom joined OIN on March 23. The OIN is an intellectual property company that was formed to promote Linux by using patents to create a collaborative ecosystem. Its members include IBM, Novell, Sony, and Red Hat.

One of OIN’s initiatives is Linux Defenders, which also brings the resources of the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) and the Linux Foundation to bear against anyone who wants to try patent lawsuits against Linux.

Now, neither TomTom nor the OIN is saying they’ll use the OIN and friends’ patent resources against Microsoft. But, you’ have to be an idiot not to see that that exactly what they’re implying will happen if Microsoft want to keep pushing forward with its patent lawsuits.

More >

March 20, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

GNOME 2.26’s 5 Best Features

ince I’ve grown disillusioned with the KDE 4.x interface to Linux, I’ve been spending more time using the GNOME desktop. With the recent release of GNOME 2.26, I’m really happy I made the move.

I started running GNOME 2.26 on the Ubuntu 9.04 alpha a few days ago, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. While the Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 6 is still very much a work in progress, GNOME 2.26 manages to run like a charm on it. I’ll soon be installing it on my other Linux distributions.

So why do I like it so much? Let me count the ways:

1) Exchange/Outlook mail compatibility.

The reason I hear the most anymore about why people don’t switch to the Linux desktop isn’t about the desktop itself or office applications. It’s always about not being able to get to Exchange or not wanting to leave years of Outlook mail in the virtual trash can. Those excuses won’t fly any more.

That’s because the latest version of Evolution, my all time favorite e-mail/groupware client, now has two killer features for users who might migrate from Windows and Outlook to Linux and Evolution.

The first one is that you can now directly import Outlook PST (Personal Folders) files directly to Evolution. That means you can bring your e-mail, contacts, appointments, tasks, everything from Outlook to Evolution. In the past, the only way you could move PST files, was to jury-rig an export/import system. This, by the way, isn’t just a Linux problem. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to help people move their PST data just from one PC to another with different versions of Outlook, and I don’t even want talk about the pain I’ve had in getting Outlook PST information into Microsoft’s Entourage for Mac.

The new Evolution, in my experience with Outlook 2003 and 2007 PST files, just does it. No fuss, no muss. Frankly, I found it easier to get PST data into Evolution than it is to move it from one version of Outlook to another.

Evolution also now has support for Microsoft Exchange’s MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) protocol. This is Outlook’s native protocol. You could always get Evolution to work with Exchange using its SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) protocol and OWA (Outlook Web Access), but older versions of Exchange didn’t support it and some system administrators didn’t enable this option. Now, no matter what version of Exchange you’re using, or how it’s set up, you’ll be able to replace Outlook with Evolution.

For business use, I think this may be the single most important update for the Linux desktop in years.

2) Improved and integrated CD/DVD burning

And, now for a completely fun change, Brasero, GNOME’s CD/DVD burner has seen some really nice improvements. The new feature list is impressive: audio CD burning with audio track preview, track splitting, and volume normalization; multi-session support; integrity checks; a cover editor; and support for multiple burning back-ends. But, what I really like is that the disc burning is now incorporated into the other GNOME application. So, if you’re enjoying the video you’re watching in the Media Player, you can just burn it right from the player on a DVD.

3) Media Player extender support

Speaking of Media Player, the GNOME 2.26 version can now play video and music from UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) or DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compatible servers. So, for example, you can use your GNOME desktop to watch say a movie from your TVersity, TwonkyMedia, or even Windows Media Player 11 video library. Apple’s iTunes, however, is neither UPnP nor DLNA compatible so you can forget about streaming media from it to your GNOME desktop.

I was, however, able to easily stream media to my GNOME desktop with the other three media servers mentioned. GNOME makes this happen with the Coherence DLNA/UPnP client. I have no doubt that many other Linux audio and video player programmers will shortly be adding Coherence to their back-end. Since its open source and use the DBus API (application programming interface), it’s easy to implement in other media programs.

4) PulseAudio/Sound Preference integration

Going hand-in-hand with the improved Media Player, GNOME has integrated the PulseAudio audio server with a new Sound Preferences tool. The result is that you not only get great sound, you get a remarkable level of control over your audio system. It makes it much easier to pick and choose which devices you’ll use to play or record audio and how each device will handle the audio signal.

You could do this in the past, but it usually involved a lot of manual tweaking to get things just right. Now, you do it on the fly from an easy to use GUI. This may be a small thing, but, to me, it’s a very useful one.

5) Improved support for multiple monitors.

I don’t often use multiple monitors. Multiple computers with KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switches, yes; multiple monitors, no. Except, and this is a big one, when I’m making a speech or teaching a class. Then, I really, really want to be able to see both my computer’s display and the one that everyone else is seeing.

With the revised Display Settings tool, I not only get a lot more control over my displays, the system will automatically reset each display individually to its last known good setting if something goes terribly wrong. And, as anyone who’s done much public speaking knows, something always goes terribly wrong with projectors when you most need them to work flawlessly.

Finally, GNOME 2.26 just looks good and it’s faster than its immediate ancestor. I’m running it on a Gateway 503GR. This PC uses a 3GHz Pentium IV CPU, 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon 250 graphics card, and a 300GB SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drive. It is not, by 2009 standards, anything like a fast computer. Even so, I could tell in just a few minutes that the new GNOME was much more responsive on it than the last version had been.

Put it all together and you have an outstanding Linux desktop experience. If you’re already a GNOME user, I’d switch over as soon as your distribution supports it. If you’re a KDE user, you might want to give it a try, or at the least, look at its applications like Evolution and Brasero. I think you’ll like what you see.

A version of this story was first published in ComputerWorld.

March 19, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Writing a Linux shell book the community way

There are several ways you can learn how to use the Linux command line. The way I took was the traditional one. I read the, ahem, fine manual, RTFM as we like to say, and I used the ‘man’ command a lot. That was well back before O’Reilly started publishing its great Unix and Linux technology books. Now, the FSF (Free Software Foundation), is having a community ‘write-in’ to create a new, free book “Introduction to the Command Line” for Linux beginners.

‘Write-in’ is my phrase for what the FSF and FLOSS Manuals are up to. They’re running a community project “to collaboratively produce a new free software textbook for GNU/Linux users.” This book will be focusing on the BASH shell.

The project is well under way, but in what the FSF is calling a ‘sprint,’ they’re planning on doing a lot of the work during this weekend’s, March 21st-22nd, GNU/Linux conference LibrePlanet. FLOSS Manuals’ Adam Hyde said in a statement that, “This is an exciting opportunity to work with the FSF and help build a sustainable model for the production of more textbooks for free software users. I encourage volunteers to start contributing text and ideas immediately. This new book will be available online for free download immediately after LibrePlanet finishes on Monday, March 23, and two hundred copies will be available for sale in book form from the FSF web site.”

More >

March 19, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Google Voice makes your phone life better. Period.

Google makes headlines if it sneezes, so it isn’t surprising that the company’s latest announcement, a revision of a Web app called GrandCentral now renamed Google Voice, has caught the attention of the Webverse.

What is it? Google Voice, which is currently available only to former GrandCentral customers, is a free Web-based application that lets you control all your various phone numbers — work, home, mobile, you name it — from a single, central phone number. And it adds most of the features of a PBX — call forwarding, voice mail, call recording — for free.

How does it work? The first thing you’ll need to do is set up your own phone number. You can use any area code; I made mine a local number in an area code where I have a lot of friends and family.

That’s pretty much it for the basic setup. With that number, you can access the kind of advanced features that would normally require either paying fees to your local phone company or setting up your own office PBX. For example, you can forward calls to up to six other phones, make free text messages and U.S. phone calls, take voice mail messages and set up four-person conference calls.

ou can also make calls using the Google/Gmail phone directory. And you can record incoming calls with a press of a button. This last feature is killer for me as a journalist — Google, if you can just let me do that with outgoing calls too, I’ll be your buddy for life.

Another killer feature: You can set up Google Voice so that it automatically filters your calls and routes them to different phones. When my daughter calls, every phone I’ve got rings. If someone I don’t know gives me a buzz, they automatically get sent to voice mail. If someone from work calls, my work and business cell phones ring, but my home phone stays silent.

But here’s my favorite: Google Voice transcribes my voice mail and sends me the transcript via e-mail. I’d say that it delivered with about 90% accuracy — I’ve paid money for worse. With this, I’ll never need to check voice mail again; I can either just read it from my e-mail box or listen to it over the Web. I love this feature.

Google Voice

Google Voice offers easy setup for its many features.
Click to view larger image

What’s cool about it? This product gives you the type of control over your communications that can make your life incredibly easier, especially if you’re running your own business (which a lot of us are these days).

What needs to be fixed? There are some features that could still use a bit of tweaking. For example, while I’m able to sort my phone connections into family, friends and workgroups, the program is still a little confusing when it comes to assigning people to each group. And the voice mail transcription isn’t perfect. But hey, let’s get real — I just want something that will let me know who called me, when and what number they left for me to call them back at.

There’s been a lot of privacy panic over Google Voice, but I don’t see it. You can pull out more information from any active Facebook user’s account than you can from Google Voice. What I see is a killer, do-it-all phone app.

Final verdict: Google Voice is, as far as I’m concerned, a great application. It makes managing my phone calls much easier, and it’s free. What’s not to like?

You’ll get to decide for yourself in a few weeks when Google opens it up to everyone. I’m already sure, though, that you’re going to like Google Voice a lot. It’s that good.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

March 19, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Internet Explorer 8 is better than Firefox 3

If you know anything about me, you know I have no fondness for Microsoft. If you really know me, though, you know that, much as I like open-source software and dislike proprietary programs, I’m a pragmatist. What I really like best in technology is what works best. That’s why I put up with Apple’s closed door policies and use an iPod, and why I now have to say that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is better than Firefox 3.0.7.

How can I say that? I can say it because I’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 on my Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 systems for several months now and it Just Works Better. Of course, working better than IE 7 wasn’t much of a trick. IE 7 was a dog. But after years of lagging behind Firefox, IE has finally caught up with Firefox’s current production version.

Specifically, IE 8 does a great job of handling tabs. I can all too easily get lost in a forest of tabs with Google Chrome or Firefox. With IE 8, when you open one tab from a link in another, the ‘related’ tabs have the same color. By automatically organizing the tabs by color-coding, managing tabs just became a lot easier. This is one of those incredibly useful ideas that, after it arrives, you wonder how it ever could have taken so long for it to appear.

Microsoft has also included three useful new privacy tools in IE 8. The one that I’ve no doubt will see the most use is InPrivate Browsing, aka “porn mode.” With it, you can launch a browsing session that will leave no traces behind of where you’ve been-cookies, browsing history, temporary files, etc-after you ended the session.

InPrivate Filtering sounds like InPrivate Browsing, but its purpose is quite different. With it you can block the site you’re visiting from accessing other sites. While this will make many mash-up sites blow up, it helps make sure that your information is going to only the site you think you’re visiting.

Finally, the anti-phishing filter, now named SmartScreen, has also been improved.

IE 8’s overall performance has also been enhanced. It can now keep up with Firefox 3.

Internet Explorer 8 is far from perfect. I find it more than a little amusing that it can’t render sites that have been ‘enhanced’ for IE 7. All of which goes to show, as I’ve long thought, that anyone who writes a site specifically for a version of Internet Explorer is an idiot. Web sites should be usable to anyone with a standards-compliant Web browser.

That said, IE 8 actually is, I think, better than Firefox 3. I’m not, however, switching from Firefox as one of my main two Windows browsers.

Why not? First, while Firefox has been lagging lately in its upgrades, it still has dozens of powerful extensions that make it more useful. In particular, Firefox with the Google Toolbar and Foxmarks goes from a good Web browser to being a great Web browser. Google Chrome, while it doesn’t have Firefox’s extensions, is the fastest Web browser around.

So, I think, we have a real three-horse race in Windows Web browsers: IE 8, Firefox 3.x and Chrome 2.x. For the first time in ages, Microsoft has a real contender. I’m looking forward to seeing how Mozilla and Google’s developers address this challenge.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.