Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 21, 2009
by sjvn01
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Dell introduces best Ubuntu netbook ever?

Dell has long been desktop Linux’s best friend in the big-time computer vendors, and it’s proving it again with the introduction of the latest version of its Mini 10 netbook with Ubuntu.

Yes, it’s true that the new Mini 10 will also come with XP Home and Windows 7 Starter Edition. But, XP Home is showing its age and while I actually like some of Windows 7’s features, I don’t know anyone who has a kind word to say for Windows 7 Starter.

Microsoft has restricted Windows 7 Starter to make sure it’s no competition for the more full-featured versions of Windows 7. For example, “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.” That ringing endorsement for Windows 7 Starter Edition was made by some guy named Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Ubuntu 9.10, however, is an excellent desktop Linux distribution. While I’ll be the first to admit that Ubuntu 9.10 has its rough-edges when you install it yourself on some systems, Dell has always done an excellent job of fitting Ubuntu on its systems.

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December 18, 2009
by sjvn01
2 Comments

Where does Ubuntu go from here?

Most people were caught by surprise yesterday when Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, the company that backs-up Ubuntu stepped down as the Linux company’s CEO. But after I thought about it for a bit, the move made perfect sense to me and for where I believe Shuttleworth wants to take Ubuntu.

First, as for his move, Shuttleworth is a really bright guy. He’s so bright, in fact, that he realizes his limitations. While Shuttleworth is a great start-up company guy–remember he made his fortune by starting and then selling Thawte, an Internet security company–and he knows technology well, he’s come to the conclusion that he’s not the right guy to be the CEO of a maturing company.

Do you know how rare it is to realize that just because you’re good at getting a company launched or you’re a technical wiz that doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great corporate manager? I can’t count how many potentially great companies I’ve seen crash and burn because their leaders didn’t realize that just because they were wonderful visionaries didn’t mean that they had what it takes to be a CEO.

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December 18, 2009
by sjvn01
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Open Source doesn’t automatically mean safety

Yesterday, Mozilla fixed ten security bugs in Firefox. If you haven’t upgraded Firefox to 3.5.6 yet, you can do so now. I’ll wait for you. Done? Good. You’re better off than a friend of mine who, I discovered, was still running Firefox 3.0.0. His logic? It’s Firefox and open source therefore it’s still safer than, say, Internet Explorer 6. Oh dear.

Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. He was right that open-source programs tend to be safer than proprietary programs. And, yes, he was right in thinking that the ancient IE 6 isn’t safe at all. But, just because a program is open source doesn’t mean that it’s always safe, and an old program, no matter how it was made or who made it, is very unlikely to still be safe.

The simple truth is that all programs can be broken. Some, like operating systems, Web browsers, and commonly used office software are constantly being poked and prodded by crackers to find weaknesses. Therefore, when a vendor comes out with a security patch for whatever program it is that you’re using, your best move is to patch your copy of the software as soon as possible.

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December 17, 2009
by sjvn01
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Augmented reality goes mainstream with mobile applications

Chances are your first introduction to augmented reality (AR) was in the 1986 movie Top Gun where our fighter pilot heroes fly planes with heads-up displays that let them monitor their planes and weapons while watching their flight. Now, augmented reality is moving from planes, high-end cars, and military helmet mounted displays to more consumer and personal settings. Indeed, AR is on the verge of becoming commonplace and commercially successful.

Augmented reality interlaces our vision with digital information. Robert Rice, chairman of the Augmented Reality Consortium defines AR as “any media that is specific to your location and the context of what you are doing (or want to do) and augments or enhances your specific reality.”

So what does that mean? It means, with new applications like Google Goggles, you can use your phone’s built-in camera to ‘search’ your enviroment by taking photos of your surroundings and Google will report back with information about what you’re looking at. While Google is getting the headlines, especially now that it’s toying not only with its own mobile device operating system, Android, but its own mobile phone, the Nexus One, they’re not the only ones playing with augmented reality.

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December 17, 2009
by sjvn01
3 Comments

Windows 7 Management Tools: An Overview

Windows 7 has many good features, but for some reason its management tools haven’t gotten the attention they deserve. That’s a shame, because Windows 7 offers a superior collection of built-in administration tools.

Many of Windows 7’s new management tools are bundled together in the Windows Management Framework. The Framework is made up of three components: Windows Remote Management 2.0 (WinRM); Windows PowerShell 2.0; and Background Intelligent Transfer Service 4.0 (BITS).

WinRM is Microsoft’s implementation of WS-Management Protocol, based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Essentially, WinRM enables you to run PowerShell shells, scripts, and commands on remote Windows 7 PCs.

PowerShell, the Windows equivalent to the Unix/Linux shell, has always been handy for administrators who like using scripts for fine-tuned control of their client systems. The new version of PowerShell includes several features which expands on this functionality.

For my money, there are three important changes. PowerShell 2.0 now lets you run commands on one or more remote computers from a single PC. Another real win is the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), a graphical development and debugging environment for PowerShell scripts. Last, but not least, PowerShell now has several new debugging features, making it much easier to develop scripts.

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December 17, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Shuttleworth steps down as Ubuntu CEO

In a morning press call on December 17th, 2009 Mark Shuttleworth announced that he was stepping down as head of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. In his place, Jane Silber, the current Chief Operating Officer who has been with Canonical since 2004 will take over as CEO.

Shuttleworth added that he will not, in any way, shape, or form be leaving Ubuntu. In an interview, Shuttleworth said that he’s will stay head of the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu Technical Board. Instead of managing the business, he will be “Working closely on product design and our enterprise customers. I will also be working more closely with partners, especially in Asia. I will also work more closely with larger enterprise customers in our new cloud offerings. I will be spending more time on the areas that interest me the most and where I feel I can do the most good.”

Specifically, “I will focus on my passions of product design and development. I want Ubuntu to succeed as the open platform of choice for almost all use types whether on netbook, notebook, desktop, server, embedded device or wherever people compute. That is a large undertaking and being able to focus on that, thanks to Jane, is a great privilege. I will also spend more time talking to and visiting partners and customers about what they demand from an open platform and feeding that back into the product through the community and Canonical.”

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