Practical Technology

for practical people.

October 29, 2008
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux 8.10’s five best features

Ubuntu, as Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman will tell you, hasn’t done much to date with improving the Linux kernel. On the other hand, as Canonical CEO and top Ubuntu guy Mark Shuttleworth pointed out in a recent press conference, “Ubuntu’s focus has been on high-quality integration.” Based on my work with the Ubuntu 8.10 release candidate, which goes final tomorrow, October 30th 2008, I agree with Shuttleworth.

I’ve been running Ubuntu 8.10, aka “Intrepid Ibex,” on a Gateway GT5622. This PC uses a 1.80GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160 processor. It has 3GB of RAM, a 400GB SATA II hard drive and a DVD R/W drive. For graphics, it uses the Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 950, which was set to pull 224MB of RAM from main memory to use as shared video memory.

I also ran the new Ubuntu on a Lenovo R61 ThinkPad with a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the T7500, 2GBs of RAM, with an AT&T USBConnect Quicksilver for 3G connectivity.

On these PCs, Ubuntu 8.10 ran without any hiccups, so I could focus on the features.

Number one on my list is the new Ubuntu’s support for 3G wireless devices and its improved Wi-Fi support. Until Mobile WiMax becomes as universal as cellular I expect I’ll find myself needing a high-speed network with no alternative except 3G.

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October 28, 2008
by sjvn01
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Free (as in beer) CodeWeavers CrossOver Linux and Mac

Try as you might to get away from Windows, you might think that you’re stuck with using it because there’s this one program that you have to use and you can’t find anything on Linux or Mac OS that works for you. Well, you’re in luck. CodeWeavers the company behind CrossOver Linux Pro and CrossOver Mac Pro is offering for today, October 28th, free downloads and registrations for these programs that will enable you to run many popular Windows programs, such as Quicken, Microsoft Office, and Photoshop CS2 on your favorite operating system.

This offer started as a pointed joke at George W. Bush’s expense: the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge. In the Challenge, which CodeWeavers launched in July, the company said it would provide its software for free in the unlikely event that under Bush’s administration any of the following things happened: Return the stock market to it’s 2008 high; Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50; Create at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year; Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level; Bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice; or, and this one that actually happened, bring the average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to $2.79 a gallon.

As Jeremy White, president and CEO of CodeWeavers, explains, “I was filling my tank at Big Steve’s Gas Palace in St. Paul, I had just finished my morning corn dog and 64-ounce Dr. Pepper when I looked at the pump and noticed gas was at $2.79. I screamed ‘Woohoo,’ then I yelled ‘Oh, crap!’ as I realized every American can now have my software for free. Kind of upsets my fourth quarter revenue projections…”

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October 27, 2008
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu’s Shuttleworth: “I don’t think anyone can make money from the Linux desktop.”

A popular question in desktop circles is “Can anyone make money from the Linux desktop?” Canonical CEO and Ubuntu founder, Mark Shuttleworth’s answer is “I don’t think anyone can make money from the Linux desktop.”

Yes, that’s right. The man behind what’s almost certainly the most popular Linux desktop doesn’t think he, or anyone else, can make money from the Linux desktop. Furthermore, he never really has.

In a press call about the October 30th arrival of the next version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 8.10, Shuttleworth said that Canonical has always seen the desktop as a “zero revenue” product.

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October 26, 2008
by sjvn01
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ABC, Fox and The CW Video Woes

Some friends of mine recently tried to view a TV show off ABC.com and ran into a problem: they couldn’t watch the show. The video appeared to be Adobe Flash, but even though they had the new Flash Player 10 installed, they couldn’t view it.

Around and around they when with first one combination of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Adobe Flash Player and another. No dice. That’s when I came in.

I looked into and discovered that while some of the site’s video is in ordinary Flash format, some of the rest, including the shows my friends wanted to watch though were in another format: Move Network’s Move-Simulcode..This format starts with Flash, but then it divides the source video into segments the vendor calls “streamlets.” These are created using a dual-pass VBR (variable bit rate encode).

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October 24, 2008
by sjvn01
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Real life Linux: The ASUS Eee PC 1000

For years, the mom-in-law had resisted getting a computer of her own. She just doesn’t like technology. Everyone knows the old joke about people who are so slow when it comes to using technology that they never managed to set their VCR’s clocks. She can’t use a DVD player.

Yes, I’m serious. Oh, I know she could do it, but she really doesn’t want to in the same way that I really don’t want to take class in calligraphy. Anyone who’s ever seen the illegible scribble I use in place of handwriting will understand where I’m coming from.

But, despite that, the combination of the allure of solitaire and the Web finally got to her, and she wanted a computer to call her own. So, what do you get someone to whom even turning on a computer is a challenge? You get them a Linux-powered mini-laptop. Specifically, I got her an ASUS Eee PC 1000 running a variant of Xandros Linux. I picked Linux, not just because I like it, but because its combination of ease of use, low-cost, and no maintenance requirements makes it ideal for a new PC user.

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October 23, 2008
by sjvn01
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An idiot’s view of open source

If he wasn’t so utterly wrong and, it appears that he’s taken seriously, Andrew Keen’s delusion that the economy is about to “Give Open-Source a Good Thumping” would be funny.

Keen, author of the book, Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is killing our culture, argues that “One of the very few positive consequences of the current financial miasma will be a sharp cultural shift in our attitude toward the economic value of our labor. Mass unemployment and a deep economic recession comprise the most effective antidote to the Utopian ideals of open-source radicals.”

Therefore, “Historians will look back at the open-source mania between 2000 and 2008 with a mixture of incredulity and amusement. How could tens of thousands of people have donated their knowledge to Wikipedia or the blogosphere for free? What was it about the Internet that made so many of us irrational about our economic value?”

The problem with his argument is simple: it’s a straw-man argument. There are almost no open-source radicals, and of those, few, if any, are working for free.

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