Hardware and Software Forum

I've been in discussions with a group of other writers, Linux distribution watchers, Linux community leaders and developers in the past few days concerning Linux commercial vs. Linux community versions and some of us came to the conclusion that [URL="http://www.fedoraproject.org"]Fedora[/URL]'s relevance has waned. In fact, it might be time to …

Seems like a silly question, right? But $80,000 per track is exactly how much Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother from Minneapolis, has been charged. Well, I say charged but actually she was fined this amount for each of 24 songs downloaded via a file-sharing site at the end of a …

Raising privacy and civil liberties issues, job applicants to the city of Bozeman are not only required to list all their social media accounts, but their passwords as well. “Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs …

Twitter was all a-twitter overnight (UK time) about the iPhone version 3.0 software upgrade. It was falling over, people weren't able to download, it was agony and then it wasn't working apparently. I hope you don't enjoy reading that sort of stuff. I'm not able to write it, you see; …

There is little doubt that when it comes to consumer satellite navigation devices, TomTom pretty much rules the roost. There is equally little doubt that in the past it has made some pretty serious mistakes, such as introducing the world to the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1276.html"]first virus infection distributed by a satnav device[/URL]. …

Today, I'm announcing my new Linux company, HookLineNSinker, Inc. (HLNS) which will produce a new commercial Linux distribution: Pricey Linux. HLNS products include Pricey Linux Enterprise, Pricey Linux Small Business Server and The Pricey Linux Desktop. There are also Pricey Linux Support options for those of you who need 24x7 …

Now here's a thing. The web browser [URL="http://www.opera.com"]Opera[/URL] is coming out in a new version, Opera Unite, and it's going to let you host all the music, photos and social media you want. On your own computer. Here's the [URL="http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKTRE55F1EI20090616?feedType=nl&feedName=uktechnology"]Reuters report[/URL]. Initially I can see this will look like a …

Back in October '08, I wrote "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3288.html"]5 Things I Wish Linux Had[/URL]" but never realized that it would inspire the heated debate (Read the comments) that it did. I also didn't realize that it would inspire an actual operating system. One of my readers commented briefly that he would take …

[URL="http://blogs.forrester.com/information_management/2009/05/microsoft-office-still-owns-the-desktop.html"]Sherri McLeish from Forrester[/URL] reports that 80 percent of enterprise customers still use Microsoft Office. While this is down significantly from the 95 percent reported in this [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_27/b3991412.htm"]2006 BusinessWeek article[/URL], it still makes me wonder why so many companies would continue to use Microsoft Office given the current economy and …

Apple kicked off its annual [URL="http://developer.apple.com/WWDC/"]World Wide Developer's Conference[/URL] on Monday, and it proved something very important; it could generate plenty of excitement without [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs"]Steve Jobs[/URL] on stage. I know that I along with many others watch with anticipation as live bloggers on the scene gave us the blow by …

Everyone knows that China is not exactly the most Internet friendly country, in fact the Chinese government pretty much hates it. Despite being a truly [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1269.html"]connected superpower[/URL], the Chinese government has already [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1407.html"]declared war on Internet porn[/URL]. Of course, the Internet is a cool tool when used as a weapon …

Hackers managed to get root access to a large Internet Service Provider, reportedly via a zero day vulnerability over the weekend, and destroy data from 100,000 websites as a result. The UK-based ISP, VAServ, has [URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/08/webhost_attack/"]stated[/URL] that the attackers apparently exploited a vulnerability in virtualisation software called HyperTM in order …

Yesterday, [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] [URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090609/bs_nm/us_apple1"]announced[/URL] significant price drops on many of its consumer products including the iPhone and Mac Air. This is an unusual move by Apple since it carefully controls its pricing--so much so that rarely, if ever, do its products go "on sale." So what's up with this big price …

I have to confess my initial reaction was the same as that of Daniweb colleague [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4429.html"]Bill Andad[/URL]; the lack of a coherent upgrade path for the new iPhone 3G S is some sort of idiocy by UK operator 02. But then I got to thinking. And it's not. It's unfortunate …

UK iPhone 3G users hoping that the network operator with the exclusive contract on the new iPhone 3GS might see sense and let them upgrade have been dealt a body blow as O2 confirms they can go and swivel on Twitter. The iPhone 3GS will be upon us in a …

As usual Apple put on quite a show at the [URL="http://developer.apple.com/WWDC/"]WWDC 09 Keynote[/URL] on Monday, but what struck me was the undercurrent of derision for its exclusive carrier AT&T. Tucked in among the [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/iphone/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217800153"]big announcements[/URL] of faster, cheaper Mac Books, $29 Snow Leopard upgrades, the long rumored $99 iPhone and …

Have you bought a [URL="http://www.amazon.com"]Kindle[/URL] or Kindle 2 yet? Don't--at least not until you check out the [URL="http://www.coolreaders.com"]COOL-ER[/URL] ebook reader. It's about the same size and weight of a Kindle--so what makes it so much [I]cooler[/I] than the Kindle? It could be your choice of eight cool colors, its magical …

Ah, Microsoft, that crazy company from Redmond, WA is at again. This time they want to rename the Netbook unilaterally to the...drum roll please..."low cost small notebook PC." As first reported in the [URL="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090602PD221.html"]Digitimes[/URL] last week, Microsoft decided on their own that the name was not appropriate and they were …

I guess that is what you might call a turn up for the books, as the US [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1506.html"]Department of Homeland Security[/URL] announces the 16 members which have been sworn in to serve on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Especially when you consider that one of them, Jeff Moss, is best …

Isn't it amazing just how attached so many people are to Windows XP given that it is relatively old and [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25484/53/"]relatively insecure[/URL]? I will even admit to having a netbook which runs very nicely on XP thank you very much, and have no plans to 'upgrade' this to Vista or …

"Opera Retakes Leadership from iPhone in Mobile Browser Market" reads the press release that arrived in my email this week. "Opera is the world's number one mobile browser, overtaking iPhone in May according to data from StatCounter Global Stats" it continues, which certainly peaked my interest. Not least because, according …

[URL="http://www.intel.com"]Intel[/URL] acquired [URL="http://www.windriver.com"]Wind River[/URL] for $884 million to boost Linux adoption in the Intel Atom market. Obviously Intel sees Wind River's embedded Linux market as new opportunity for its Atom processor family. There's also buzz about multi-core processor offerings from the two in the near future. I see this as …

Across Europe people have been voting in the European Parliamentary elections, and it looks likely that a pirate or two will have got elected in Sweden. I voted nice and early this morning, with candidates representing the three main political parties here in the UK as well as a rather …

Here we go again, it is silly season at Apple as an iPhone application feeding news from a civil liberties organisation is banned and Hitler gets the blame. Just two days ago I posted a news story entitled '[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4408.html"]You don't have to be easily offended to be an iPhone app …

Some people are complaining that the company hoping to map the availability of broadband Internet is too closely tied to the same major telecommunications and cable companies that stand to benefit from the more than $7 billion in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known …

[URL="http://www.linuxfoundation.org"]The Linux Foundation[/URL] notified me a few days ago about some new member benefits and I'm excited to tell you about them. For starters, you receive discounts on their training courses and entrance to their conferences--which translates to several hundred bucks to those of you watching your budgets. Want more? …

Ever wondered just how big the Internet is? I know I have, and during my search for an answer I have discovered along the way [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1437.html"]how fast it is[/URL] and [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4387.html"]how much spam it produces[/URL]. But now I know how big it is as well. When it comes to size, …

Someone at Apple really does need to take a closer look at how they choose the people who work as iPhone application approvers, either that or take a chainsaw to the approval process guidelines and start again but when sober this time. Look, much has been written about the madness …

Gamers have got to love the E3 Expo, especially Microsoft gamers who are into the social side of the Xbox experience. If they happen to be obsessed with Twitter as well as Xbox Live then Microsoft had some good news to announce for them at E3: a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4249.html"]Twitter[/URL] client for …

The iPhone faces a critical test this month with several factors coming together to threaten the dominance of the popular smart phone. First of all there's the Pre, a shiny new comer that threatens to overtake Apple's cool factor when it's released by Sprint this month (as I wrote about …

I received a newsletter from [URL="http://www.rpath.com"]rPath[/URL] concerning Lean IT and it occurred to me that Linux is the keystone in each one of the elements listed in it: Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Cost reduction mandates. As more businesses work toward saving money, they'll look for ways to save on IT …

Where would we be without the hole in the wall, that magical machine that provides us with cash whenever we need it? Where would we be without online banking, that magical system that lets us pay our bills via the Web? Customers of the HSBC bank in the UK found …

Remember the 14 million missing email messages from the White House under President George W. Bush? [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3815.html"]Remember[/URL] the (albeit flawed) court order (issued days before President Barack Obama's inauguration) directing the Bush White House to figure out what happened to them? Never mind. A federal appeals court recently ruled that …

A new [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4387.html"]Symantec[/URL] survey has discovered that people are more likely to check the oil in their car than they are to back up valuable data. When you consider that our computers are so much more than mere work machines, that they have become very much woven into the fabric …

The FBI has confirmed reports that it was forced to shut down it's external unclassified email network "as a precautionary measure" following the discovery of a virus infection. I am led to understand that the particular virus concerned has been identified by the FBI but this information has yet to …

Perhaps it's my role as the family computer guy that's leading me in this direction today but it seems to me that there should be Linux distributions that are age-oriented and age appropriate. Seldom do I see my parents-in-law playing a heated game of [URL="http://www.quake.com"]Quake[/URL] or doing any kernel tinkering, …

This is a good idea. Not for the first time the American President is keeping his earlier word. This time he is appointing a [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8073654.stm"]Cyber Tsar[/URL]. This, it strikes me, is an excellent idea. In the UK we have a data protection commission and a commissioner in charge of that. …

The latest Symantec [URL="http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx"]MessageLabs Intelligence Report[/URL] has landed on my desk and makes for the usual rather depressing reading. I guess that most depressing of all, if not surprising when you take a look at your inbox or worse still your junk folder, are the figures relating to spam activity …

The latest [URL="http://www.opera.com/smw/"]State of the Mobile Web[/URL] report, published by mobile web browser client developers [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3617.html"]Opera[/URL], reveals that mobile web usage in the UK has grown by nearly 50 percent over the last year. The report also tries to make sense of other global trends as they impact upon mobile …

There has been no shortage of data loss by the military over the last year or so, from [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22897/53/"]US Army files found on eBay MP3 player[/URL] through to more than [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/uk/publicsector/government/information-governance/secure-data-disposal.aspx"]600 laptops going missing from the UK Ministry of Defence[/URL]. However, usually these losses concern data such as names and …

File under strange but true. It would appear that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second has been presented with a specially commissioned gold-plated Nintendo Wii games console by THQ as part of a marketing campaign for some new game. The rather loose connection between British royalty and the game in …

There are not too many times when one gets to connect the former Hollywood action hero and current Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the shrine to geekdom that is the UK Museum of Computing. So when one comes up you really do have to grab it and run. The …

A survey of leased line Internet connections from 6000 organisations covering speeds ranging from 256Kbps right up to Gigabit Ethernet has revealed that as many as one in six are loaded to a degree where performance impacts are likely. NetEvidence, a network performance management outfit, undertook the research, and was …

I attended two seemingly unrelated events things this week: I saw the new [URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/"]Star Trek movie[/URL] and I attended the [URL="http://www.mitcio.com/index.php"]MIT CIO Conference[/URL] in Cambridge. At the conference, Tom Malone, who is the Director of the [URL="http://cci.mit.edu/"]MIT Center for Collective Intelligence[/URL] (think about how much they must have just on …

InterOp 2009 is a success by anyone's measure but it's been a mixed bag for me so far. Internet access on the show floor is almost non-existent. For a major tech show like this, it's absolutely ridiculous. You'd think that Internet access would be a standard feature of any technical …

Now there is a headline that is right up there with 'Vatican endorses new Dan Brown novel' in terms of something you would not expect ever to be reading, but according to reports it is true. The Pope is apparently keen to emulate President Obama in the way he has …

According to multiple sources, the Palm Pre is set to launch on June 6th, which happens to be the 65th anniversary of [URL="http://www.army.mil/d-day/"]D-Day invasion[/URL]. I guess we can call this the Pre-Day invasion. Instead of storming the beaches of Normandy to take on Nazi Germany, Palm will be taking on …

Strange but true, usually the best of enemies it would seem that [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4331.html"]Microsoft[/URL] and the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4219.html"]Linux Foundation[/URL] are in full agreement over something for a change. What is more, they are working together in order to find a solution as well. According to Horacio Gutierrez, the Microsoft Corporate Vice President …

Scared that students taking an exam might cheat, teachers at the posh Harrow School in England took the unusual step of banning them from using the Internet and re-routing their email so it could be read by the headmaster. The irony of the exam being concerned with Nazi foreign policy …

Ever wondered why your WiFi doesn't work as well as you expected, especially if you live in a highly populated part of town? The obvious, and oft-repeated, answer is that all those WiFi networks trying to work in the same vicinity just end up causing network edge congestion and that …