Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 17, 2008
by sjvn01
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Apple Goes Enterprise

Has the day finally come when you might seriously consider using Macs in your server room? Yes, and here’s why.

If you listen to some people—Microsoft—Apple has about as much business being in the office as the New York Yankees would have playing in the National Football League championship. Which is to say: none at all.

These folks will tell you that Apple is all about the sizzle, and not about the steak. Or, to put it another way, they might concede that Apple knows how to out-design everyone, but underneath the pretty exteriors, you’ll find old, shopworn ideas.

To all these people may I say: Get a Clue.

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January 15, 2008
by sjvn01
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Apple TV 2.0

Renting movies, from all the major studios, will soon be a click away on the Apple TV.

We knew that Fox was going to co-operate with Apple to rent movies, what we didn’t know was that, despite all the yammer about how the studios hated Apple, was that all the rest of them–Warner Bros., Miramax, Paramount, Sony, and Universal, and their subsidiaries—would be offering movie rentals on iTunes and Apple TV as well. Walt Disney, of course, had always been on board.

Jobs said at his keynote speech in San Francisco that by the end of February, there will be 1,000 movies available for rent. Older titles will cost $2.99, while newer ones will cost you $3.99 or $4.99 for the HD versions. Once you download a movie, either to your computer or directly to the Apple TV, you’ll have 30-days to watch it, and 24 hours, once you’ve started watching it, to finish viewing your film. The newest of the new movies will be released 30-days after they make their appearance on DVD.

Yes, I did say directly to your Apple TV. Apple will be updating your Apple TV’s firmware, within the next two weeks, so that you rent or buy videos from the iTunes stores from your Apple TV with just your clicker. You’ll still be able to pull video down from your PC or Mac, which is where I keep the bulk of my movie and TV library, but now you won’t need to deal with a computer at all. You can do everything from your couch with a remote like a proper coach-potato should.

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January 15, 2008
by sjvn01
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Network Solutions Defends New Domain Policies

Some users may not like Network Solutions’ new domain name registration policy, but Network Solutions says it’s all about protecting users from “front-runners.”

Many people are angry at Network Solutions’ new domain name registration policy, but in an eWEEK interview, Network Solutions Senior Public Relations Representative Susan Wade said the company’s goal was simply to “defend our customers against front-runners.”

Wade explained, “We believe that some of our customers are having .com domain names taken from them because we’ve received a lot of customer complaints. They believe that they have come up with unique names, but after searching for them, they now find that the name has been taken.”

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January 12, 2008
by sjvn01
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Bye-Bye HD-DVD

The arguments over which HD format was better started the moment they rolled off the factory floor. Now, they no longer matter. Blu-Ray has won, HD-DVD has lost and now there’s little more than waiting for the HD-DVD house of cards to finish falling down.

What finally determined HD-DVD fate wasn’t which one was technically better. Although, as far as I was concerned it was always Blu-Ray, which can hold 25-GBs—5.5 to 8.5 hours of HD video—as compared to HD-DVD’s maximum of 15GBs or 3.5 to just over 5 hours.

No, two things killed HD-DVD. The first lead directly to the other. From the start, more movie studios offered videos in Blu-Ray. This meant that there were more movie choices. So it was that even though HD-DVD players were cheaper, in the beginning much cheaper, than Blu-Ray players people slowly surely started buying more Blu-Ray discs

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January 11, 2008
by sjvn01
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Lenovo finally delivers SUSE Linux-based ThinkPads

PC vendor Lenovo has promised ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for some time now. Lenovo will deliver the goods the week of Jan. 14.

Lenovo will release pre-installed SLED 10 on its Intel Centrino processor-powered ThinkPad T61 and R61 14-inch-wide notebooks. In February, Lenovo’s pre-integrated Novell Linux offering will expand to include some Penryn-based ThinkPads.

The ThinkPad T61 with SLED 10 Service Pack 1 will come with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7250. The T61 laptop is powered by a 2.0GHz processor with an 800MHz FSB (front-side bus) and a 2MB Level 2 internal cache. For memory it comes with 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM (double data rate 2 synchronous dynamic RAM).

For graphics, the T61 will use an Intel GMA X3100 GM965 on the motherboard. This, in turn, displays images on a 14.1-inch WXGA (Wide XGA) screen. This widescreen has a maximum resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels.

On the storage side, the T61 uses an 80GB hard drive that speeds along at 5400 rpm. The PC also includes a combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. For network connectivity, the system will use a built-in ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless minicard.

The starting price for this system will be $949, $20 less than the same laptop with Vista Home Premium.

The R61 with pre-installed SLED has almost identical equipment. However, it’s been designed to be quieter and use less power than its T61 brother. Its price will also be about $950.

With both systems, Lenovo will provide direct support for the hardware and operating system. Novell will provide maintenance updates for SLED directly to ThinkPad notebook customers.

Lenovo has offered SLED-equipped laptops before. In 2006, it started offering its high-end ThinkPad T60p mobile workstation. Company officials also promised in August that Lenovo would finally deliver pre-installed desktop Linux in its consumer and small business lines. A quarter later than expected, Lenovo is finally following through.

When asked about this development, Michael Applebaum, senior manager of desktop Linux marketing at Novell, said, “We’re very pleased to see our work with Lenovo reach the market and begin bearing fruit for customers around the world. The Lenovo ThinkPads with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop pre-loaded allow customers to reap the security, usability and flexibility advantages of Linux with the comfort of knowing it is pre-installed and fully supported by their hardware provider.”

Applebaum continued, “It’s never been easier to buy a Linux PC, deploy it into an existing environment and have it work seamlessly with current technologies. Going forward, you will see Novell and Lenovo continue to collaborate as we provide the market with additional models and capabilities to meet a range of customer needs.”

Lenovo is finally joining Dell as one of the first top-tier PC vendors to offer pre-installed Linux desktops to its customers. In the meantime, other lesser-known vendors, such as Asustek Computer and Everex, are also delivering inexpensive computers with pre-installed Linux. Pre-installed Linux desktop systems are still far from being as easy to find as Windows-equipped systems, but they are out there now and are relatively easy to find and buy.

A version of this story first appeared in Desktop Linux.

January 11, 2008
by sjvn01
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ICANN to Probe Network Solutions` Domain Registration Policies

ICANN will investigate Network Solutions’ domain registering policy in the wake of reports that the company was automatically registering domains based on user searches.

ICANN’s decision to investigate comes just as Network Solutions reportedly is changing the policy.

In a brief note to eWEEK, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international body in charge of TLDs (top-level domain name registrants) and Internet addressing, stated that it will be looking into Network Solutions’ new policy of registering any domain name that is searched for on its site.

However, Network Solutions told ICANN about this policy change before it implemented them.

“Network Solutions informed us when they launched this process,” said Jason Keenan, ICANN’s media adviser. It was only after Network Solutions quietly implemented this policy and users noticed the change and protested about it online that ICANN took note of it. Now, “ICANN has begun looking into the matter to see if it is in compliance with the Registrar Accreditation Agreement,” said Keenan.

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