Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 24, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

AIR on Linux test run

AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a cross-operating system runtime that lets you use rich Internet applications that combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Flex technologies. What that means to you and me is that it’s lets us run another kind of application on our Internet-connected Windows PCs, Macs, and just this month, Linux desktop computers.

I’m not crazy about AIR. It’s not the first, or one-hundred and first, application layer software to make it possible to run the same application on multiple platforms. Java, JavaScript, etc. etc. have all had their day in the sun and more recently Silverlight/Moonlight, JavaFX, and Appcelerator Titanium have thrown their hats in the ring. That said. AIR applications are remarkably fast and reasonably mature.

We’re already seeing a fair number of non-trivial, useful AIR programs like the Google Analytics Reporting Suite, the twhrl social network client, and RichFLV, a Flash video editor. And, now, in addition to Windows and Mac OS, you can run AIR and its applications on Linux as well.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that getting AIR to install on your Linux desktop can be troublesome and, once in place, installing AIR applications is a bit of a security worry.

More >

December 22, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Good-bye hard drive? Will PC hard-disks die next year?

I’m old enough to remember when some of the first hard drives, such as the IBM Winchester-two disks with 30MBs each, hence 30/30, thus Winchester after the 30/30 rifle-showed up. I can also recall using cassette-tapes and 8-inch floppy disks on PCs. I’ve met people in their twenties who are unclear about what cassette-tapes are exactly and floppy disks are rapidly falling away from our collective memory. Now, it looks like hard-drives will soon be following them into history’s dustbin.

Sound impossible? Actually it’s all too possible. SSD (Solid State Drives) have gone from being small and pricey to being roomy and affordable. At the year’s beginning, you could only find 4 and 8GB SSDs on inexpensive, Linux-powered netbooks or a 64GB SSD on the expensive Rolls-Royce of laptops, the Macbook Air.

As 2008 comes to a close though. It’s a different story. The drives are getting bigger and cheaper. 128GB drives are now common, 256GBs are on their way, and Toshiba will soon be selling 512GB drives.

More >

December 21, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

XP just won’t die

Microsoft will never admit that Vista was a major mistake, but it was. People who tried it, hated it. Businesses have stuck with XP, or are moving to Macs or desktop Linux. Microsoft knows it too. That’s why Microsoft is, out of the public limelight, enabling white-box computer manufacturers to keep selling XP well into 2009.

What Microsoft is doing this time is its letting the smaller distributors and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) — not the major PC vendors like HP and Dell — place their final orders for Windows XP OEM licenses by Jan. 31, 2009, and take delivery of those orders through May 30.

For you, that means you’ll be able to keep buying XP Pro on your PCs well into the fall of 2009. You may need to ask for it, you may have to pay more, but it will be available.

More >

December 18, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Bye-Bye Macworld, Brainshare, CES

Back in pre-history when I started writing about technology, that is to say the 1980s, trade shows were the place to find out what going on. My how things have changed. Brainshare, Novell’s big show, has been canned. Steve Jobs isn’t showing up for Macworld, and Apple is pulling out of the show next year.

Well, they say they won’t be there, but without Apple I’d be amazed if there was a Macworld for Apple not to attend.

I’ve seen this coming from years down the road. In 1999 and 2000, Comdex, which was the techie trade show had more than 200,000 attendees. It was a city within the city of Las Vegas. The Comdex shows were where Bill Gates introduced Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP. It was the show where Microsoft Windows became Windows the force. And, in spring 1999, when Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates virtually faced off with each other at Comdex, it was, in many ways, Linux’s coming of age. By 2004, Comdex was dead.

More>

December 17, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Steve Jobs’ health doesn’t matter

I like Steve Jobs. I like, despite my open-source leanings, many of Apple’s products such as Macs, iPods, and the Apple TV. I hate to think that Jobs’ health has taken a turn for the worse. But, whether his health has gone downhill or not isn’t really what important to the worlds of technology and business. What’s important is that, by not showing up to make the keynote speech at Macworld, Jobs appears to no longer be at Apple’s helm.

With Jobs at the wheel, Apple became the master of design. It’s not that Apple (http://www.apple.com) always brought something new to the table. Portable music players, for instance, had been around for ages long before the iPod took the world by storm. What Jobs did always bring was an eye for quiet, graceful looks that combined function and appearance into a single harmonious whole. No one, but no one, else has been so successful at that in either computing hardware or software.

Gimlet-eyed stock holders might not see the beauty in Apple’s designs, but they have seen how Jobs turned a company around from near irrelevance to a technology stock gold-mine. Is there anyone besides Jobs who could step into his shoes and convince an already frightened market that Apple will be as great as ever? I doubt it.

More>

December 16, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Likewise seeks AD Middle Ground

Likewise Software, which specializes in getting Linux and other Unix systems to work with AD (Active Directory) authentication, management, and auditing is offering a middle ground program between its open-source version, Likewise Open, and its enterprise edition, Likewise Enterprise: Likewise Open with Cell Module.

Any version of Likewise comes with WIS (Likewise Identity Services), which enables you to use AD authentication for your Linux, Unix and Mac PCs. This includes a full implementation of the DCE/RPC framework with support for Kerberos, NTLM and SPNEGO security protocols. Likewise also comes with LAC (Likewise Administrative Console). With this administrators can manage AD users, computers and access rights from Linux.

Continue Reading →