May 21, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments
You have a laptop in your bag, an iPod Touch in one pocket, and a mobile phone in another, but what does your poor dog have? Nothing!
This cannot be allowed to continue! Dogs have digital needs too!
So, it is that Zoombak, a GPS locator company, has just released the Zoombak GPS Dog Locator. Seriously.
May 20, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments
Linux is in our computers, our phones, our Wi-Fi equipment, and our TiVos — why not our cars? Intel Corp. and Wind River have been working with both the embedded and automotive industries to advance in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) with open, Linux-based, standards-based, interoperable hardware and software called Open Infotainment Platforms (OIP).
The name of their game is to make it possible for both car manufacturers and after-market vendors to bring new infotainment products and features to market faster to meet consumer demands. According to Ton Steenman, Intel’s vice president of the Digital Enterprise Group and general manager of the Low-Power Embedded Products Division, there has been a major shift in the automobile industry towards adding media and information built-in devices to cars.
“We see car manufacturers wanting to extend the media digital experience into the automobile, and making it so that these devices are always connected to the Internet. The industry has been trying to do this the old way of taking several years to set up a technology and then modifying it slowly as needed. That isn’t doing it for them. They’ve been worked with Intel for two years now on how to unleash stuff quickly. So, we’ve worked on the definition and development of an OIP,” Steenman says.
May 20, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments
Network Solutions, best known for being the grand-daddy of domain name companies is partnering up with German open-source e-mail and groupware company Open-Xchange to offer a hosted email and groupware SaaS (Software as a Service) offering for SMBs (small-to-medium sized businesses). The target? Customers who want a more affordable solution than Microsoft Exchange.
While Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) long ago moved into the Web hosting business, in addition to its bread-and-butter domain business, this joint offering with Open-Xchange marks its biggest step into both e-mail service offerings and open source. Network Solutions has offered POP and Web e-mail services in the past along with Symantec Brightmail anti-virus and spam protection.
Now, with Open-Xchange services, NSI can offer full SMB mail services. For example, according to an Open-Xchange representative, Outlook users will be able to use all their e-mail client’s functionality even without a Microsoft Exchange back-end.
May 20, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment
It took over a year, but the Apple TV finally had a worthwhile competitor, the Netflix Player by Roku Digital. I’ve been using the Apple TV since day one and the Netflix Player for only two weeks, but I can already see the real differences and for the most part Apple TV is the clear winner.
1) The Interface: Here’s its Apple TV
The phrase ‘bare-bones’ was made for the Netflix Player’s interface. With it, you can watch movies and TV shows from the Netflix library and you can fast-forward or reverse—no chapters here—and that’s about it.
Before you can watch anything on your Netflix Player you need to queue it up from your Netflix account on your PC. Some writers have been reporting that you don’t need a PC to run Netflix Player. That’s not true. Netflix states that you “must have a computer running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, or Windows Vista; Internet Explorer version 6 or higher; Windows Media Player version 11 or higher; an active broadband connection to the Internet; 1GHz processor; 512MBs of RAM; and 3GBs of free hard disk” space to use it. Mac users appear to be out of luck.
With Apple TV, you only need any PC that can run iTunes. Advantage: Apple.
May 19, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment
My old reliable X40 IBM ThinkPad finally came to the end of its day so I had to replace it with a new laptop. These days though instead of having to buy a Windows laptop and retrofitting Linux on it, I have a wide variety of Linux notebooks to choose from.
I’ve tried a good sized sampling of the current generation of Linux laptops—the Dell 1420 with Ubuntu, and Asus Eee spring to mind–but I finally decided to buy a Lenovo R61 ThinkPad. It’s not that I found the other laptops lacking. For most users, I’d recommend the Dell 1420. For users on a budget or for whom having the lightest possible full-service laptop is all important, I’d commend the Asus models without a moment’s hesitation.
I, however, have been an unabashed ThinkPad fan for over a decade now. Historically, I get about twice the life span from a ThinkPad than any other brand of laptop. They’re little tanks in notebook computer clothing.
May 18, 2008
by sjvn01
8 Comments
What happens when you get Linus Torvalds, Mr. Linux, together with Jeff Bonwick, Sun’s master of storage and creator of ZFS? Well, right now, we don’t know.
All we know is that Bonwick has posted a trio of photos of himself and Torvalds on his blog under the mysterious title, Casablanca, with a couple of cryptic comments about chocolate and peanut butter and the phrase, “All I can say for the moment is… stay tuned.”
Jim Grisanzio, Sun’s senior programming manager for OpenSolaris, links to the blog under the title “ZFS Pics.” This seems to indicate that Sun may be talking with Torvalds about bringing ZFS to Linux. Even this conclusion is really just speculation.