Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 10, 2008
by sjvn01
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Kicking XP SP3’s Tires

Microsoft released a release candidate of the long delayed Windows XP SP3 to Microsoft MSDN (Microsoft Software Development Network) and TechNet subscribers on Dec. 3. The release comes about a month after a beta release of SP3 was made available to about 15,000 users.

With customers still showing no eagerness to move to Vista, interest has been building in XP SP3. While there’s little when it comes to new features in SP3, it does include a roll-up of the several hundred fixes that Microsoft has published for XP since XP SP2 arrived in August 2004, significant security and stability fixes, and a handful of new features.

While there have been reports that XP SP3 also increased its application speed by about 10 percent over SP2, this isn’t an attempt to benchmark or review XP SP3.

Betas and release candidates are, by their very nature, subject to a good deal of change between the version that a small group of testers sees and what will finally end up in users’ hands. It is noteworthy, though, that in a later apples-to-apples comparison Office 2003 on Vista SP1 vs. Office 2003 on XP SP3 on the same PC-XP still ran faster than XP SP2 and almost twice as fast as Vista SP1.

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January 9, 2008
by sjvn01
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Is Network Solutions Snatching Domain Names?

Numerous reports confirm that Network Solutions, the well-known domain registry company, is automatically registering domain names when individuals search for a potential name using its site’s search tools.

This was first reported in a forum message in DomainState, a news and discussion site for Internet site owners. In the message, a domain owner and developer who goes by the handle “Stratagenix” reported, “Network Solutions has instituted a four-day lock on all domain names searched on their site. They are effectively using phishing techniques to hijack or steal domain names and forcing domain name registrants to register their names at Network Solutions. The standard domain name registration fee at Network Solutions is $34.99—significantly higher than the leading alternatives. I was forced to register a domain name with them today or chance losing it to another registrant.”

In a follow-up story at DomainNameNews, a reporter confirmed that after using the popular whois tool on the Network Solution site to search for a domain name, they then found that the site had been registered to a private registrant, but that the domain name was still available from Network Solutions. At other domain registry sites, however, such as Dotster and GoDaddy, the domain name was unavailable.

I was also able to determine that simply searching for a domain name with Network Solutions’ Whois utility was sufficient for Network Solutions to automatically register the name. Moments after searching for the domain name: sjvn01.com, the next whois search revealed the following information:

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.

omain Name: SJVN01.COM

Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.

Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com

Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com

Name Server: NS1.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM

Name Server: NS2.RESERVEDDOMAINNAME.COM

Status: ok

Updated Date: 09-jan-2008

Creation Date: 09-jan-2008

Expiration Date: 09-jan-2009

As a result, the domain name was no longer available for purchase from other domain registry companies. Given this information, it would appear that we would have no choice but to buy the domain name from Network Solutions at their price if we wanted the site before Jan. 9, 2009.

Network Solutions, the only domain registry company from 1993 to 1999 for the .com, .net and .org sites, has not replied yet for requests for comments on this policy. According to a report in Circle Hub, an Internet infrastructure community site, Jonathon Nevett, Network Solutions’ vice president of Policy, Network Solutions is protecting its customers from “Domain Name Front Running [domains being registered by someone else just after they have conducted a domain name search]. … The measure will kick in when a customer searches for an available domain name at our Web site, but decides not to purchase the name immediately after conducting the search.”

Thus, “After the search ends, we will put the domain name on reserve. During this reservation period, the name is not active and we do not monetize the traffic on these domains. If a customer searches for the domain again during the next four days at networksolutions.com, the domain will be available to register. If the domain name is not purchased within four days, it will be released back to the registry and will be generally available for registration.”

Numerous Slashdot and Circle ID community members are treating this explanation with disdain. eWEEK’s own Larry Seltzer, in a Circle ID note, declared, “My word, that’s on the short list for most self-serving, hypocritical excuse I’ve heard from a business. We’re front-running in order to save you from the front-runners.”

Other individuals have started automated scripts to flood Network Solutions with bogus domain name searches in an impromptu DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. Others are protesting Network Solutions new policy to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the oversight organization for top-level domain name providers. At this time, ICANN has not replied to requests for its stand on Network Solutions’ policies.

A version of this story was first published in eWEEK.

January 8, 2008
by sjvn01
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Microsoft becomes the online channel for Olympic coverage

Maybe it’s just me, but when I read that Bill Gates had inked an exclusive deal with NBC to deliver live and on-demand Olympics coverage on MSN with its Silverlight, cross-browser, cross-platform video plug-in, I saw a new world of online video opening up.

In the past, online video has gotten a great deal of interest, but it’s never been really big business. Oh, people love their YouTube videos, many sites use Adobe Flash to add, well, flash, to their sites; some people legally download online video via iTunes for Apple TV and iPods, and far more skirt the law and company policies with illegal video downloads via various BitTorrent sites. Now, for the first time to my knowledge, a major “television” event is being made available over the Internet… if you use Microsoft Silverlight.

Now, I will give Microsoft credit. They could have made Silverlight Windows-specific, but they didn’t. Microsoft and Novell are working together to bring Silverlight to Linux Web browsers with Moonlight. Microsoft is already supporting Silverlight on Mac OS X.

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January 7, 2008
by sjvn01
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A marriage of convenience broken: OLPC and Intel

Can I be honest? Intel was never really interested in partnering with the One Laptop Per Child project. The marriage of Intel and OLPC was destined for divorce before the two ever walked down the aisle.

As so often is the case in a divorce, the partners have very different explanations for the split-up. In a press statement, Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said the OLPC board “had asked Intel to end its support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC and other systems.” Further, “they wanted us to focus our support exclusively on the OLPC system.”

The OLPC organization fired back the next day in its own press statement, saying, “since joining the OLPC Board of Directors in July, Intel has violated its written agreement with OLPC on numerous occasions. Intel continued to disparage the XO laptop in developing nations that had already decided to partner with OLPC–Uruguay and Peru, with countries that were in the midst of choosing a laptop solution [such as] Brazil and Nigeria, and even small and remote places [like] Mongolia.”

The New York Times dug up more dirt on the split over the weekend. According to writer John Markoff, an Intel salesperson tried to talk the Peruvian government into dropping the OLPC’s XO computer for Intel’s Classmate PCs. When OLPC leader Nicholas Negroponte found out, that was the last straw, and OLPC and Intel were on their way to splitting.

Not that they were ever really together anyway. Intel joined OLPC for one reason: After Negroponte lambasted Intel for its lack of support for the child-friendly OLPC on 60 Minutes in May 2007, Intel felt it had to do something to make it look better, even if it meant allying itself with the Advance Micro Devices-powered OLPC.

To Negroponte, the OLPC is all about getting computers into the hands of the poorest of the poor. To Intel, it was about improving its public image. In short, it was idealism vs. pragmatism. This is one of the oldest of conflicts and one that seldom ends well for the leaders of either side.

For most people, however, I believe that the conflict will end well. As a result of the OLPC XO and Intel Classmate, we have the first generation of truly powerful–but low-priced–computers. This can only benefit desktop Linux.

It also can only benefit the children of this divorce. No matter whether the computers they use are OLPC XOs, Intel Classmates or some other design, ultra-cheap PCs mean more computing power in the hands of children. And that can only be a good thing for all of us in the long run.

A version of this story was first published in DesktopLinux.

January 3, 2008
by sjvn01
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Netflix and LG to take on Apple TV

OK, everyone who saw Netflix going in to online rentals put your right hand up. I see a lot of hands, congratulations, you were right. On January 3rd, Netflix and LG Electronics announced that they would be delivering set-top box for consumers to stream movies and TV show episodes from the Internet to HDTVs without the use of a PC.

With more than 7-million subscribers, Netflix owns the DVD rental business, and now they have their eyes on the media extender market. That’s still a small market, but it’s one where Apple TV has quickly become the dominant player. Will Apple be able to stay on top?

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January 3, 2008
by sjvn01
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Rocket gOS 2.0, the latest Ubuntu-Google marriage, days away

That was fast. Only two months ago, Good OS, a startup Linux distributor, exploded on the scene with gOS 1.0, an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux with dedicated links to Google applications. Now, the company has announced that it will release the next version, gOS 2.0, Rocket, at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.

Good OS’ gOS 1.0 surprised everyone by blasting off into being an extremely popular Linux distribution with no forewarning. Introduced with the $199 Wal-Mart PC, the Everex Green gPC TC2502 gOS became just as much of a story as Everex’s ultra-affordable desktop PC.

Like gOS 1.0, gOS 2.0 is built on top of Ubuntu Linux 7.10. Instead of the more popular KDE or Gnome desktops, gOS uses the lightweight Enlightenment E17 interface.

What’s different about this version isn’t any fundamental changes with the operating system; it’s the new chrome it puts on top of the Linux desktop. For example, as only makes sense for a Linux that depends so much on Google and Internet access, Rocket comes with Google Gears. This is Google’s beta online/offline synchronization technology. With Gears 0.2, developers can use JavaScript API (Application Programming Interfaces) to create online applications that will have some functionality even when the net is down.

Gears pulls this trick off by installing a local-use-only Web server on a PC, a PC-based database for storing application data and a synchronization engine called WorkerPool to keep your local data and settings in tune with the application’s Web server. A Firefox and Internet Explorer browser extension provides the matrix for the JavaScript API to pull this together. On gOS, Firefox, of course, is used.

At this time, though, Gears is still very much a work in progress. To the best of our knowledge there are no mainstream Google applications, except Google Reader, Google’s blog and RSS reader, which currently uses Gears. To make it more useful, Good OS will provide an updated list for Gears-enabled applications for its gOS users.

GOS 2.0 also includes a new browser-based Web-cam application, gBooth, that was written specifically for gOS. It’s designed to work with Facebook, the popular social network. It also avoids the problem of hardware compatibility by being produced in concert with Ezonics, a Web cam manufacturer, to create the “gCam,” a Linux- and gBooth-compatible Web cam. This device will also be available on Jan. 7.

In a press statement, Ezonics’ CEO Liu Ping said, “We’re revamping Ezonics in 2008 to be ‘Web-2.0’ focused and ‘Linux’ conscious. We are excited to work with gOS to launch the gCam as a first-of-many, Linux friendly, cloud devices.”

In addition, the new gOS comes with dedicated shortcuts to Google Reader, Talk and Finance and Google search integration into the desktop itself. It also provides access to online storage via Box.net.

The new gOS version will be available for download Jan. 7 from the Good OS site. Developers can pick up the gOS Rocket Developer Kit with VIA motherboard and CPU from ClubIT.com. Everex will be releasing gOS 2.0-powered computers–the Everex CloudBook, gPC, gPC mini and gBook–at Wal-Mart.com and other vendors in February. While pricing has not been announced for the new gOS PCs, it’s expected that, like the Everex Green gPC TC2502, they will be very low priced.

A version of this story appeared in DesktopLinux.