Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 26, 2008
by sjvn01
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Steve Jobs is healthy

Jobs is basically healthy. That’s good news.

After weeks of rumors about his health going downhill or perhaps a reoccurrence of cancer, Jobs took the unusual step of calling a New York Times reporter to tell him ‘off the record’ that “While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than ‘a common bug,’ they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer.”

While I’m glad to hear that Jobs is relatively healthy, it does bother to get this news in such a roundabout way.

The reporter spends far more time on Jobs former health problems, an encounter with a rare, curable, form of pancreatic cancer, and whether or not his health should be a public issue at all than he does on the news.

This leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

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July 25, 2008
by sjvn01
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Is OpenSolaris in hot water?

Here’s how it works: Novell owns Unix’s IP (intellectual property). SCO sold Unix’s IP to Sun. Sun then included some Unix IP into Solaris. Finally, Sun open sourced Solaris as OpenSolaris. Sounds like trouble, doesn’t it?

While Sun’s Chief Open Source Officer Simon Phipps described the line of logic above as “sheer speculation,” others see a major potential legal problem for Sun. However, analysts, lawyers and open source leaders also agreed that it’s unlikely Novell would ever choose to make trouble for Sun. Novell, however, has not commented on its intentions despite several attempts to get the Linux company’s take on the issue.

Thomas Carey, chairman of the business practice group at the Boston-based Bromberg & Sunstein IP law firm, describes the legal details like this: “As to Sun, SCO released Sun from a confidentiality obligation with respect to SVRX (System V Release X Unix) code when its contract with Novell did not permit it to do so without Novell’s permission. SCO did not seek or obtain that permission. This proceeding does not involve Sun as a party, only SCO and Novell. As between these parties, the court views the genie (the confidential information) to be out of the bottle, and the court can’t put it back in. It can, however, hold SCO liable to Novell for breach of contract (and/or breach of fiduciary duty), and it did so and found the damages for this breach to be $2.5-million.”

What does this mean for Sun? Carey says, “In theory, Novell could sue Sun directly, but its chances of success would be slim. Furthermore, Novell is not interested in pursuing/developing SVRX, and is more interested in its reputation in the open source community. Its lawsuit against SCO was political — it got to wear the white hat. If it went after Sun because of OpenSolaris, it would wear the black hat. It is not likely to change hats now.”

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July 25, 2008
by sjvn01
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How Dell is making Ubuntu more attractive

Dell was the first of the major computer manufacturers to support pre-installed Linux, but it’s not just pre-installing Linux. The Austin, Tex. company is also adding functionality to Ubuntu Linux on its desktops and laptops.

Dell began adding extra features last December when it added DVD-playback to its systems shipping with Ubuntu 7.10. Ordinary Linux can only play DVDs if they’re not burdened with DRM (Digital Rights Management) malware. By including InterVideo’s closed-source LinDVD DVD playback software users are able to legally play DRM encrypted DVD movies.

With the recent release of Dell PCs with Ubuntu 8.04, Dell has added other goodies to the basic Ubuntu Linux distribution. As John Hull, Dell’s manager of Linux engineering, describes in Dell’s Direct2Dell blog, Dell is now including “Fluendo GStreamer codices for mp3, wma (Windows Media Audio), and wmv (Windows Media Video) playback” in its latest Ubuntu-powered desktops and laptops.

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July 24, 2008
by sjvn01
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The two essential Firefox extensions

Firefox 3 is good. Firefox 3, plus the right extensions, is great.

Now, a lot of people publish lists of ‘best’ extensions. It’s quick and easy to make these lists. One difference between my list and some of those “99 Must Have, Best Firefox Extensions!” is that is the real list of the extensions that I use every day. These don’t just sound good, they work well. These are the extensions that have transformed Firefox for me from just a mere Web browser to an essential part of my electronic office.

To me there are two essential Firefox extensions. I would no more run Firefox without it than I would run Internet Explorer. The first of these is Google’s Toolbar for Firefox. This isn’t so much a mere extension as it is a bridge to an entire library of useful Web tools I’m not fond of sticking toolbars on my browser. I’d rather have the screen real-estate for the Web site I’m visiting. When it comes to the Google Toolbar, though, it’s no brainier. I install Firefox, I install the Google Toolbar. It’s that simple.

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July 23, 2008
by sjvn01
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Vista Adoption going no-where, IT considering Linux and Mac instead

KACE, a systems management appliance company, announced that their recent survey of IT administrators showed that 60 percent of them have no plans to deploy Vista. That’s almost 10% more turning their backs on Vista then in KACE’s last survey in November 2007 . According to the company press release, “42 percent of them said they would consider deployment of alternative operating systems, such as Mac OS and Linux, in order to avoid a migration to Vista.”

11% of Windows users have already decided to switch rather than ‘upgrade’ to Vista. Of that number, 29% plan to changeover to the Mac, followed by 24% to Red Hat Linux, 21% to Ubuntu Linux, and 15% to SUSE Linux. The remainder plan on switching to another version of Linux.
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