Bob Sutor

• A tale of two failures: Microsoft’s Kin and HP’s TouchPad | ZDNet

  “Last year, Microsoft pulled the plug on its Kin phone after only seven weeks. HP just discontinued its TouchPad after even a shorter lifespan. It’s embarrassing to fail so quickly and in such spectacular fashion, but the hidden costs are much more profound for both companies.”

  tags: HP microsoft touchpad kin

• Judge Dismisses Google’s Complaint in Android Lawsuit — Redmondmag.com

  “Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex issued an order indicating that Google had not documented its claims. The case involves Microsoft and its complaint against Motorola over the use of the open source, Linux-based Android mobile operating system. Microsoft contends that Motorola’s use of Android infringes some of Microsoft’s intellectual property holdings.”

  tags: google android lawsuit motorola microsoft

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• In U.S. Smartphone Market, Android is Top Operating System, Apple is Top Manufacturer | Nielsen Wire

  “However, because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system, it is clearly the top smartphone manufacturer in the United States. Other leading manufacturers include HTC, whose Android phones represents 14 percent of the smartphone market and whose Windows Mobile/WP7 devices account for 6 percent of the market; and Motorola, whose Android devices are owned by 11 percent of smartphone consumers. Samsung’s Android devices are used by 8 percent of smartphone owners while their Windows Mobile/WP7 phones are used by 2 percent of smartphone owners.”

  tags: apple nielsen smartphone android

• China Mobile has been meeting secretly with Steve Jobs – Apple 2.0 – Fortune Tech

  “At a news conference following release of its first-half earnings, China Mobile (CHL) revealed Thursday that it has met several times with Steve Jobs to talk about Apple (AAPL) making an iPhone that would support its proprietary 3G standard, Reuters reports.”

  tags: china mobile apple

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Exclusive: How LinkedIn used Node.js and HTML5 to build a better, faster app | VentureBeat

  “The app is two to 10 times faster on the client side than its predecessor, and on the server side, it’s using a fraction of the resources, thanks to a switch from Ruby on Rails to Node.js, a server-side JavaScript development technology that’s barely a year old but already rapidly gaining traction.”

  tags: HTML5 Node.js mobile

• Red Hat RHEV Freed From Windows Fetters | PCWorld Business Center

  “With the next release of its Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) package, Red Hat has finally rid itself of one of its most notorious dependencies, namely the use of Microsoft’s Windows Server and SQL Server.”

  tags: RHEV Red Hat virtualization kvm

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Samsung Galaxy Tab ban lifted in Europe | Apple – CNET News

  “Citing confirmation from Peter Schutz, spokesman for the Dusseldorf District Court, IDG’s Webwereld (English version) said that Samsung can now resume sales of its Tab tablet throughout Europe, with the exception of Germany. The court ruled that the German court does not have the power to ban sales of the tablet except within its own country.”

  tags: samsung galaxy ban europe apple

• Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course – NYTimes.com

  “A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.”

  tags: ai course stanford

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mobile

• Amazon Escapes the App Trap Too – Simon Says…

  “Well, it’s happened. As TechCrunch noted today, Amazon has quietly launched read.amazon.com, a full-featured HTML 5 version of the Kindle that runs perfectly on the iPad browser, looks for all the world like a native application after it’s been added to the iPad home screen as an icon and can even store books to read offline.”

  tags: amazon ipad kindle

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Innovation

• IBM, Apple Top List of 10 Most Innovative IT Companies – IT Infrastructure – News & Reviews – eWeek.com

  “IBM is the most innovative company in IT, period. The Aug. 8 issue of Forbes contains a list of what the well-heeled magazine sees as the “World’s Most Innovative Companies.” The print edition ranks 50 companies, and online there are an additional 50 companies ranked. What’s difficult to understand is how IBM was not included on that list. In an opinion piece on www.eweek.com, eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft lays out his argument as to why IBM should be on any list of technology innovators. Big Blue has a legacy of invention, of blazing trails and setting direction. Its latest supercomputer, Watson, is a testament to that. But IBM is not alone in its ability to innovate. In this slide show, Taft selects his own list of the top 10 innovative companies in the IT space. IBM sits on top of this list because of its research arm, its many patents and its proven discoveries. And though 100-year-old IBM has earned a position as a mainstay in the annals of IT innovation, newcomers such as Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce.com—Forbes’ top innovator—also have earned a place at the table.”

  tags: ibm apple companies

Open Source

• Azavea – OpenTreeMap – Open source geography-enabled urban tree inventory

  “Urban street trees have myriad proven benefits for communities including providing shade, improving air quality, assisting with stormwater runoff, raising property values, decreasing utility bills, and enhancing the look and feel of communities. While tree inventories provide municipalities with vital data to consult when managing the urban forest, creating a complete inventory is a time consuming and resource intensive process.  OpenTreeMap provides an easy-to-use public inventorying platform that enables individuals, organizations, and governments to collaboratively contribute to an interactive and dynamic map of a community’s tree population. OpenTreeMap can be used in a single municipality or cover a broader geographic region with many communities.”

  tags: open source tree

• A Guide to Open Source Licensing

  “If you’re working on or launching an open source project, one of the most basic decisions you must make is which license the project will be released under, and choosing the perfect license is more complex than ever. Over the years, we’ve provided many free guidelines on this topic, but it’s a moving target. In this post, you’ll find our updeated collection of all the things you need to know to make an informed open source license decision.”

  tags: open source licensing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Apparently, Android Is the Least Open of the Open Source Platforms

  “The study, done by market research firm, VisionMobile took a look at Android, Eclipse, the Linux kernel, MeeGo, Firefox, Qt, Symbian and WebKit and focused on their open governance, inclusiveness, transparency, and ease of access to source code. In the “open governance index”, Android finished with a measly 23 percent. It was far and away the lowest score, Android was the only open source project to score less than 58 percent (the best score was Eclipse at 84 percent).”

  tags: android open source

• Bob Dylan, Jack White and Norah Jones Record Unheard Hank Williams Songs | Rolling Stone Music

  “The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, a new collection of previously unheard songs by the country great recorded by artists such as Bob Dylan, Jack White, Norah Jones and Levon Helm, will be released on October 4th. The set, which will be issued on Dylan’s imprint Egyptian Records, was originally conceived by veteran A&R executive Mary Martin as a Dylan-centric project, but eventually evolved into a multi-artist tribute to the late singer-songwriter.”

  tags: dylan white williams music

• Seven Guidelines For Designing High-Performance Mobile User Experiences – Smashing Magazine

  “Users expect mobile services to be relevant and user-friendly and to perform well. The limitations of the medium, however, impose significant challenges to designing products that meet all of those expectations. While often underestimated, performance is a crucial contributor to a trustworthy mobile user experience. Therefore, it should be considered a key driver in the design process. In this article, we’ll discuss performance in relation to design and present seven guidelines that can help shape design decisions related to performance while accounting for the needs of end users and businesses. These guidelines are based on the experiences of our teams in designing native mobile apps for a broad product portfolio and on multiple mobile platforms.”

  tags: mobile High-Performance

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android Seen Beating BlackBerry, Windows Phone in Enterprise – Ina Fried – Mobile – AllThingsD

  “While there’s no question that the iPhone and Android are killing it on the consumer side, a new survey finds that mobile developers also expect those two operating systems to dominate the enterprise.”

  tags: apple google android

• Apollo Group to Buy Maker of Math Courses – NYTimes.com

  “Hoping to keep more of its students from dropping out, the Apollo Group, which operates the profit-making University of Phoenix, said Tuesday that it would pay $75 million to buy Carnegie Learning, which offers computer-based math instruction.”

  tags: apollo math courses

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• WebSphere Application Server V8.0 samples

  “WebSphere Application Server V8 samples are new and improved! Although you will continue to find key sample applications installed with the product, most samples are now available online and can be accessed from a new section in the WebSphere Application Server V8 Information Center. Sample code, documentation, and other resources reside online, under one roof, which increases availability and collaboration, while providing samples in a time-sensitive manner.”

  tags: websphere application samples

• Oracle’s Java virtualization support policy reignites controversy

  “With the release of Java 7 this week, Oracle posted a support policy expressly stating that it would not support the new Java 7 software development kit on VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V. Oracle has since said that it “mistakenly created” the policy page, but that the company will stick to its standard policy regarding non-Oracle components in a mixed stack: They’re not supported unless users can prove the problem stems from the Oracle part of the stack.”

  tags: oracle java virtualization

• Microsoft and SUSE extend Microsoft’s controversial Novell Linux pact | ZDNet

  “Microsoft is buying $100 million in additional SUSE Linux Enterprise certificates and the pair are going to continue to collaborate on interopability solutions through January 1, 2016. The SUSE certificates are designed to insure Microsoft customers who are implementing Linux that they won’t be caught in any Microsoft-Linux patent crossfire.”

  tags: microsoft suse novell linux

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• HTML5 to Create New Wave of Opportunities in Mobile Landscape

  “Smartphone adoption will continue to skyrocket with or without HTML5. That said, the most used single app is the browser. As HTML5 support continues to make its way into mobile browsers and HTML5 markup proliferates across the web, the phones themselves will increase in value because they have become an “always on, always connected” doorway into a vast, rich space. The question that most people ask regarding HTML5 on mobile is about the web vs. native debate (i.e., whether consumption of native apps slow in favor of HTML5 apps). I think this is a false dichotomy. I predict that in the distinction between native apps and web apps on mobile will eventually fade away.”

  tags: HTML5 mobile

• Google execs discussed Java license before Oracle filed suit – San Jose Mercury News

  “Van Nest told the judge Thursday that former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz gave a sworn statement this week that he did not object to Android when it was released and that he still views it as a “positive development” for the Java ecosystem.”

  tags: google java license

• Microsoft Windows fizzles as PC fears loom | Reuters

  “Microsoft’s perennial money-losing online services unit, which runs the Bing search engine and MSN Internet portal, posted a 16.5 percent increase in sales to $662 million, but its loss widened to $728 million from a loss of $688 million a year ago, as Microsoft continues to pour money into attacking Google. The unit has now lost almost $6.5 billion in the last three fiscal years.”

  tags: microsoft windows

• IBM Steps Up Its OpenOffice Commitment with Symphony Donation | eWEEK Labs

  “Now, the LibreOffice folks are working on their suite, and, with IBM’s renewed participation, the Apache OpenOffice project (which may or may not end up implementing the Symphony bits, although I hope they do) seems to have some new life as well. OpenOffice.org under Sun had gotten into a rut — there’s nothing like real competition to get things moving again.”

  tags: openoffice IBM apache

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Top Five Linux Contributor: Microsoft | ZDNet

  “At first, this code wasn’t open-sourced at all, but in 2009, it was discovered that some GPL code was already in Hyper-V’s Linux drivers. So it was that “In a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.””

  tags: microsoft linux ZDNet

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• HP officially launches webOS TouchPad … again? | ZDNet

  “When HP bought Palm last year I was hoping we would see less confusing messages and a more targeted focus for webOS with lots of resources to turn out great products. Instead, we end up with a rather lame tiny smartphone and then a tablet that was put on sale and then “officially launched” almost three weeks later. Yes, in case you didn’t know HP’s official launch for the HP TouchPad webOS tablet was yesterday, 17 July. I guess the 1 July release was just a practice run or something.”

  tags: HP touchpad

• It is time for Google to take control of Android | ZDNet

  “The time for good intentions has passed. Android device owners need Google to take control and make things work properly. Keep the platform open where it counts, but lock down the core parts of the OS to make partners toe the line. Customers will thank you.”

  tags: control android

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Oracle Involuntarily Partners with IBM to Create an IBM Mainframe World | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com

  “You know the funny thing about technology is that it tends to go in cycles. What hurt the mainframe the most was the market’s move to decentralize and put performance closer to the user. However, the massive switch to the Web and the concept of cloud computing reversed this trend and now the focus is to increasingly provide highly customized experiences on the Web. This shifts from heavy desktop and distributed computing platforms to highly centralized and I/O-intensive offerings. Much of what is being done is less about processing power and more about rapid data access or, in other words, mainframe country.”

  tags: IBM oracle mainframe

• SAP joins OpenJDK Java project | Application Development – InfoWorld

  “SAP has joined the OpenJDK project, an Oracle-led initiative producing an open source implementation of Java that also has gained support of such companies as IBM and Apple in recent months.”

  tags: SAP java openjdk

• vSphere 5′s licensing opens the door for open source | Open Source Software – InfoWorld

  “User response to the new licensing at VMware’s community forum has been decidedly negative. One person commenting on the VMware forum writes: “We just purchased 10 dual-socket servers with 192GB RAM each (enterprise license level), and we’ll need to triple our license count to be able to use all available RAM if allocated by VMs.” Another person claims that his small and medium business will see a 300 percent increase in price as a result of the new model.”

  tags: licensing vmware

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Google Staffing Up On Patent Lawyers And Experts | TechCrunch

  “It’s no secret Google is searching for more patents to add to its portfolio. The search giant recently lost the bid for Nortel’s 6,000 mobile and wireless patents to a consortium of tech companies including Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and Sony. As my colleague MG Siegler wrote at the time, Google controls less than 1,000 patents, which is low compared to some of its competitors. Google currently owns 701 patents in total whereas Microsoft was granted 3,121 patents last year. Unfortunately, because Google doesn’t own a large number of patents, the company will continue to be vulnerable to patent lawsuits.”

  tags: google patent lawyers

• Five Things to expect from the Amazon Android Kindle tablet | ZDNet

  “OK, enough is enough. While I don’t have any hard facts that anyone from Amazon will officially tell me, here’s what my sources have been telling me to expect. What I’m telling you here is from people both inside Amazon and from Amazon’s partners. Some of it may be wrong. I’m sure though that the broad picture is correct.”

  tags: amazon android tablet

• How to move your Facebook photos to Google+ | How To – CNET

  “As a Google+ newbie, you might be wondering how to get all of your photos from your previous obsession (Facebook) to the latest spectacle, Google+. Facebook went on the defensive recently when users tried to export their friend lists to Google+ for easy adding. Facebook blocked the service, leaving us users to fend for ourselves. Well, listen, Facebook: you can take my friends, but you can’t take my photos.”

  tags: facebook google photos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Share Posts in Both Google Plus and Facebook At The Same Time

  “Consider to follow this complete guide on how to automatically share your Google plus posts with Facebook friends.”

  tags: google facebook

• Google’s Rivals Accused of Colluding Against Android – Mobiledia – The Mobile Future – Forbes

  “The group calling itself Rockstar Bidco, which include Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion, bought Nortel’s trove of patents for $4.5 billion, possibly the biggest intellectual property auction of all time. The sale immediately raised concern from antitrust advocates, since the members of the coalition, mainly Google’s rivals, may use the patents to attack Google’s Android operating system.”

  tags: google android mobile

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Mozilla Thunderbird unseats Evolution in Ubuntu 11.10 | ExtremeTech

  “For now, however, there’s some additional good news for the Thunderbird team. Canonical has released the second alpha of Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, and one of the most significant changes is to its default applications. After a lengthy tenure as Ubuntu’s pre-installed email client, Evolution has been booted — replaced by Mozilla’s blue, avian postman.”

  tags: mozilla thunderbird ubuntu evolution

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Apple passes RIM in U.S. smartphone share — Apple News, Tips and Reviews

  “Apple’s iOS is now the number two smartphone platform in the U.S., according to market research firm comScore. Apple rose to second place during the three-month period ending in May, up 1.4 percentage points to 26.6 percent of total U.S. market share. Android was the only other platform that gained share of smartphone subscribers during the quarter, growing 5.1 percentage points to 38.1 percent of the total pool and retaining its number one spot among mobile operating systems. All other major players besides Android and iOS lost share, with Research in Motion taking the hardest hit with a 4.2 percentage point drop for its BlackBerry OS, while Microsoft and Palm each shed 1.9 and 0.4 percent respectively.”

  tags: RIM apple ios mobile

• The HP TouchPad’s best feature? Linux under the hood | ITworld

  “It’s a strong testament to the power of Linux that HP has chosen WebOS as the platform for many upcoming phones, tablets, printers and PCs. WebOS is, of course, based on Linux, and its official launch on HP’s new TouchPad this week marks its official debut in the tablet space.”

  tags: HP webos tablet

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• OpenAvatar could help avoid vendor lock-in, improve appearance – Hypergrid Business

  “The recently-released OpenAvatar kit for open source avatars could help enterprise users of virtual worlds reduce vendor lock-in and, eventually, lead to significant improvements in the appearance of avatars, VastPark CEO Bruce Joy told Hypergrid Business. VastPark is an Australian immersive environment vendor that has both commercial and open source versions of its virtual environment software. The OpenAvatar kit is designed to add a level of abstraction between the virtual environment server and the avatar itself, and can be adopted by any virtual environment that uses mesh avatars.”

  tags: avatar virtual-world

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Readers Poll: The Greatest Bruce Springsteen Songs: | Rolling Stone Music | Photos

  “Last weekend we gave our readers the challenge of picking their single favorite Bruce Springsteen song. It’s not an easy decision. Do you go for an iconic song like “Born To Run,” or a slightly lesser known (but equally brilliant) track like “Backstreets”? Do you pick a rocker like “Rostalita (Come Out Tonight)” or a quiet, acoustic track like “Atlantic City”? Our readers went for all of the above. Click through to see the winners.”

  tags: bruce springsteen music

• Google Chrome hits 20% global share as Microsoft continues browser slide

  “Google Chrome’s rise in popularity has been remarkably fast and it’s just hit a new milestone: more than 20% of all browser usage, according to StatCounter. Chrome rose from only 2.8% in June 2009 to 20.7% worldwide in June 2011, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fell from 59% to 44% in the same time frame. Firefox dropped only slightly in the past two years, from 30% to 28%.”

  tags: google chrome

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Kitchen Window: July Fourth Barbecue From America’s Melting Pot : NPR

  “And sometimes the embrace is more like a bear hug. Giddau’s lambburgers are still a favorite on my family’s grill, but these days, so is Greek-style chicken marinated in oregano and lemon, spicy Spanish chorizo and clams and big, fat German wurst. It’s true that justice is one of our most treasured values. But I think even Giddau would agree that nothing says “United States of America” like a grill that pops and sizzles with flavors from around the world.”

  tags: NPR barbecue america

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• After OpenOffice and Hudson, will Oracle stick with open source? | Open Source Software – InfoWorld

  “With Hudson and OpenOffice, Oracle concluded there was no meaningful revenue at risk in donating the projects but that both efforts still had indirect value, Rymer says. By pushing them off to Eclipse and Apache, Oracle could continue to influence them, he asserts, without having to take on the cultural struggles: “Oracle sees Eclipse, Apache, and IBM as having a good feel for open source politics and communications.”"

  tags: openoffice hudson oracle ibm

• What’s new in WebSphere Application Server V8

  “IBM® WebSphere® Application Server V8 is a major release that offers dramatic run time improvements, plus simpler and easier ways to develop and deploy applications. This article presents a high level glimpse of some of the new technical features and enhancements that make these improvements possible. This content is part of the IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal.”

  tags: websphere ibm

• Did the lights just dim? IBM WebSphere V8 Released

  “IBM has released WebSphere V8, increasing the availability of application servers with support for JEE 6, which is very important.”

  tags: websphere ibm

• Mobile Apps Put the Web in Their Rear-view Mirror

  “Today, however, a new platform shift is taking place.  In 2011, for the first time, smartphone and tablet shipments exceed those of desktop and notebook shipments (source: Mary Meeker, KPCB, see slide 7).  This move means a new generation of consumers expects their smartphones and tablets to come with instant broadband connectively so they, too, can connect to the Internet.”

  tags: mobile

• Eclipse Foundation’s Indigo Release Empowers Java Developers – Desktops and Notebooks – News & Reviews – eWeek.com

  “The Eclipse Foundation’s Indigo release train marks the eighth year in a row that Eclipse has shipped a coordinated release of projects, with this year’s focus on the Java developer. Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, said 62 project teams participated in Indigo. The Indigo release, which shipped June 22, had 46 million lines of code released on the same day (calculated by Ohloh), 408 developers (committers) contributed code and 49 organizations collaborated on the release, Eclipse officials said. Ten predefined packages enable easy download and use, they explained.”

  tags: eclipse indigo java developers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Firefox 5 released, arrives only three months after Firefox 4

  “Mozilla has launched Firefox 5, a new version of the popular open source Web browser. This is the first update that Mozilla has issued since adopting a new release management strategy that has drastically shortened the Firefox development cycle.”

  tags: firefox

• Groklaw – Oracle v. Google – Updating the Reexams – UPDATED

  “Oracle has experienced another setback in its assertion of its patents against Google. In the reexamination of U.S. Patent 6192476 the USPTO has issued an office action in which it rejects 17 of the patent’s 21 claims. The specifics of the office action are set forth below in text form along with an updated reexamination history. While Oracle has asserted seven different patents in its claims against Google, if this reexamination is exemplary of what Oracle can expect in each of the other reexaminations, Oracle will have a hard time finding claims that it can successfully assert against Google, and there lies Oracles conundrum. Oracle either has to agree with the court’s directive to limit the number of claims it will assert at trial, or it is likely the court will simply stay the trial until the reexaminations are complete.”

  tags: oracle google android

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• White iPhone debacle shows why Apple is winning | TechRepublic

  “The lesson here is not that companies should always wait until their products are absolutely perfect before they release them. If that were the case, very few products would ever make it to market, and many of them would be too late to make a difference. The key is knowing when a product is perfect enough and when you should hold a product for improvements versus releasing it to get it in the hands of eager customers. That’s the hard part, but it’s also the thing that great companies do well.”

  tags: iPhone white apple winning

• OpenOffice, LibreOffice and the Scarcity Fallacy

  “As you’ve probably heard, the proposal to move OpenOffice.org to the Apache Software Foundation was approved by a wide margin.  Volunteers interested in helping with this project continued to sign up, even during the 72-hour ballot, giving the project 87 members, as well as 8 experienced Apache  mentors, at the end of the vote.  The volunteers signed up included an impressive number of programmers from OpenOffice.org, RedOffice and Symphony,  as well as QA engineers, translators, education project experts, OOo user forum moderators and admins,  marketing project members, documentation leads, etc.    The broad range of support for this new project, from volunteers as well as voters, was very encouraging.”

  tags: openoffice scarcity open source

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Linux News: Desktop: Keeping the Desktop Dream Alive: Q&A With Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin, Part 1

  “In 2007, Linux was heralded as the desktop of the future. However, the history of Linux on the desktop has been a story of strong support from a relatively small group of diehards but little real impact on the market as a whole. And by last year, there was even talk that the dream of the Linux desktop had been shattered. What happened, and where is Linux going? LinuxInsider sat down with Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin for an exclusive interview to get to the bottom of things.”

  tags: linux desktop

• Technology News: Desktop: Keeping the Desktop Dream Alive: Q&A With Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin, Part 2

  “Where is Linux going? For Part 2 of this interview, LinuxInsider continued speaking with Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin to discuss Linux in a wider variety of technology, new programs intended to make it easier for businesses to switch to open source computing, and open source’s ability to compete in the consumer mobile space.”

  tags: linux desktop

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• When WiFi doesn’t work: a guide to home networking alternatives

  “If you live an old home or building, you already know the limits of WiFi. Despite the improved range of 802.11n coupled with improved throughput at greater distances‚ WiFi doesn’t work magic. Buildings with brick or stucco-over-chicken-wire walls resist the charms of wireless networks, as do houses with thick wooden beams, cement elements, or with rooms spread out over many levels or floors.”

  tags: wifi networking

• WebSphere Foundation Chief Architects Blog

  “OSGi is a very interesting set of standards today that it provides the component model for packaging components and provides the runtime functions needed to knit the components together to make an application. There is starting to be an industry acceptance of OSGi as the standard for developing components. This industry acceptances so far has been more around componentizing middleware runtimes to enable customers to use just want they need of the middleware, lightening the environment up. But this is also changing, with the OSGi Enterprise Expert Group, is where the programming model concepts to enable customer applications is being standardized. Many industry players, including IBM, SpringSource, BEA, Oracle and others are working together to define this standard.”

  tags: websphere foundation architects

• Lessons in Longevity, From I.B.M. | HeraldTribune.com

  “AS it turned 100 last week, I.B.M. was looking remarkably spry. Consumer technologies get all the attention these days, but the company has quietly thrived by selling to corporations and governments. Profits are strong, its portfolio of products and services looks robust, and its shares are near a record high. I.B.M.’s stock-market value passed Google’s earlier this year. Not bad for a corporate centenarian.”

  tags: ibm longevity

• Project Spartan: Facebook’s Hush-Hush Plan To Take On Apple On Their Own Turf: iOS

  “As we understand it, Project Spartan is the codename for a new platform Facebook is on verge of launching. It’s entirely HTML5-based and the aim is to reach some 100 million users in a key place: mobile. More specifically, the initial target is both surprising and awesome: mobile Safari. Yes, Facebook is about to launch a mobile platform aimed squarely at working on the iPhone (and iPad). But it won’t be distributed through the App Store as a native application, it will be entirely HTML5-based and work in Safari. Why? Because it’s the one area of the device that Facebook will be able to control (or mostly control).”

  tags: facebook apple iOS mobile

• Rise of the “Hybrid” Mobile App – Technology Review

  “One thing holding pure Web apps back is limited support for HTML5, the latest Web standard, which can be used to create a rich, native-app-like experience in some browsers.”

  tags: mobile hybrid

• Apple to fight vs. Google for smartphone patents – International Business Times

  “Nortel Networks, once North America’s largest communications equipment provider, has sought bankruptcy protection and has sold most its assets.  Among its assets remaining are 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patent portfolios.  The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking, Canada-based Nortel said.”

  tags: apple google nortel patents

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Bit.ly Offers Customized URL Shortening for Free

  “And now for another announcement in the white-hot world of….URL shortening? Yep. In the second URL shortener announcement this week, bit.ly (news, site) is announcing that its bit.ly Pro service, which lets organizations set up custom short domains, is now going to be free.” 

  tags: Bit.ly url shortening

• Photo Booth: A Hundred Years of I.B.M. : The New Yorker

  “Given I.B.M.’s preeminence in the generation and recording of data, it’s no surprise that the company keeps an extensive internal archive: thirteen thousand square feet of paper, a vast collection of outmoded products and artifacts, and hundreds of thousands of photographs, according to Paul Lasewicz, I.B.M.’s archivist since 1998. Drawing on those photographs, here’s a look at the history of design at I.B.M.”

  tags: photo ibm

• Vivek Kundra to Leave White House Tech Post – NYTimes.com

  “President Obama tapped Mr. Kundra in March 2009 to modernize the federal government’s technology use and to create a more transparent federal government after a highly praised stint under Mayor Adrian Fenty of the District of Columbia.”

  tags: cio government

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• HP sues Oracle as tech big shots’ animosity grows – Forbes.com

  “In the lawsuit, HP accuses Oracle of anticompetitive behavior, breaking a promise to continue supporting Itanium machines and of the use of “strong-arm tactics to coerce customers into replacing their HP servers with Sun servers they do not want.” Oracle’s foray into the computer hardware market – an HP stronghold – began with its $7.3 billion acquisition of struggling server maker Sun Microsystems ( JAVA – news – people ) last year.”

  tags: oracle HP

• Of Open Source and Open Innovation – Open Enterprise

  “Last week I wrote about a talk I gave with the title “Innovation inducement prizes as a possible mechanism to unlock the benefits of open innovation models”. I explored the idea of inducement prizes then, and now I’d like to look at open innovation.”

  tags: open source innovation standards

• DOJ Clears Google’s Bid for Nortel Patents – WSJ.com

  “U.S. antitrust enforcers have given Google Inc. the go-ahead to pursue its $900 million opening bid for a trove of high-tech patents being sold next week by Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., people familiar with the matter said.”

  tags: google nortel patents

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Java standards process to get an upgrade | Application Development – InfoWorld

  “New procedures are part of the recently introduced Java Specification Request 348. “This JCR — nicknamed JCP.next — proposes a variety of changes to do with transparency, participation, agility, and governance,” JCP said in a document posted on its website on June 8. The document states that JCP chairman Patrick Curran views full transparency of a JCP expert group operations as the most important change introduced by JSR 348. “Many expert groups carry out their business openly over public mailing lists and publicly viewable issue-trackers, and they make public responses to all comments. JCP.next will elevate those recommended practices to mandatory status. The process of recruiting Expert Group members will also be documented for the public eye, ensuring that all applications are considered in a fair way,” JCP said.”

  tags: java jcp standards process

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The first Chromebook Review: Samsung Series 5 | ZDNet

  “So it is that I’m pretty happy with my brand new Samsung Series 5 3G even though CNET gave it a just “ok” rating pending software improvements. While neither Chromebook will be generally available until June 15th, I was able to get my hands on one a week early. I’ve been working with mine for several days now and this is what I’ve found.”

  tags: samsung chrome google

• The New C++: Lay down your guns, knives, and clubs • The Register

  “And while new languages have since been born, C++ has endured. Java is the only one to have outpaced it in popularity, according to the TIOBE Index. PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript? Sure, some might claim that they are the future, but C++ is the past, the present, and the future. According to Sutter, C++ is on the verge of its biggest change in the 13 years since it became an official ISO standard, a change that will make it relevant for the next two decades.”

  tags: c++ programming

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Take Me Fishing | Blog | The Starter Fly Rod

  “Do you want to expand your horizons into fly fishing?  If you aren’t fly fishing already, you should give it a try!  It doesn’t matter where you live or fish… fly fishing is about more than trout.  In fact, almost anything that can be caught on spinning or casting gear can be caught on a fly.   Fly casting can be a lot of fun, and fighting fish on a fly rod and reel is a unique challenge.”

  tags: fishing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Doctor Who’s Daleks to get ‘a rest’ | Television & radio | guardian.co.uk

  “The Daleks, the most well known adversaries of Doctor Who’s timelord, are being sent into temporary exile, showrunner Steven Moffat has revealed. Moffat said that he had decided to give the Doctor’s sworn enemies “a rest” for a while. He told the latest issue of Radio Times magazine that the fearsome creatures would have “trudged away” by now after being defeated so many times.”

  tags: television Dr. Who

• Nintendo lifts lid on Wii U, seeks hardcore gamers | Reuters

  “Nintendo Co Ltd has unwrapped a new touchscreen controller for its next-generation Wii to positive early reviews, spurring hope it might attract a hardcore gaming crowd that has drifted to rivals such Microsoft Corp’s Xbox.”

  tags: nintendo gamers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Apple launches iCloud; here’s what powers it — Cloud Computing News

  “Apple officially launched its much-hyped iCloud suite of services at its Worldwide Developer Conference today, and although the capabilities are sure to be the talk of the town among consumers, it’s Apple’s cloud infrastructure that makes it all work.”

  tags: apple icloud

• Apple Announces iCloud Streaming Music Service : The Record : NPR

  “The service, which was introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, will be available starting in the fall for users of Apple products who also upgrade to the company’s latest operating system. Though iCloud itself will be free, to fully take advantage of the service, users will need to pay $24.99 for a service called iTunes Match that will scan their iTunes library and make their songs available to be streamed on any Apple device, as long as those songs happen to among the 18 million available from Apples iTunes store. Songs that aren’t included in the store will have to be uploaded from users’ hard drives.”

  tags: apple icloud music

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Why OSCON Java? – O’Reilly Radar

  “OSCON Java 2011, being held July 25-27 in Portland, Ore., is focused on open source technologies that make up the Java ecosystem. (This event is co-located with OSCON.)”

  tags: java conference

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Google pits C++ against Java, Scala, and Go • The Register

  “Google has released a research paper closely comparing the performance of C++, Java, Scala, and its own Go programming language. According to Google’s tests (PDF), C++ offers the fastest runtime of the four languages. But, the paper says, it also requires more extensive “tuning efforts, many of which were done at a level of sophistication that would not be available to the average programmer.”"

  tags: google java c c++ scala

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• DNA logic gates calculate square root using 130 different molecules

  “Before you have visions of DNA controlling Skynet, it’s worth taking a second to consider the system’s limitations: all those molecules were used to simply perform square roots on four-bit numbers, and each calculation took over five hours. Although they’re not especially useful for general purpose calculations, these DNA-based logic gates do have the advantage of being able to integrate into biological systems, taking their input from a cell and feeding the output into biochemical processes.”

  tags: dna logic

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Oracle gives OpenOffice to Apache | ZDNet

  “In a statement issued this morning, June 1st, Oracle’s Luke Kowalski, VP of Oracle Corporate Architecture Group, stated that the company was going to “contribute the OpenOffice.org code to The Apache Software Foundation’s Incubator. The company then claims that Oracle is doing this to “demonstrate its commitment to the developer and open source communities. [By] Donating OpenOffice.org to Apache gives this popular consumer software a mature, open, and well established infrastructure to continue well into the future. The Apache Software Foundation’s model makes it possible for commercial and individual volunteer contributors to collaborate on open source product development.”"

  tags: apache oracle openoffice

• Official Google Blog: The +1 button for websites: recommend content across the web

  “Today, we’re releasing +1 buttons to the whole web. As a result, you might start seeing +1 appear on sites large and small across the Internet.”

  tags: google +1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Linaro: Now a Year Old, the Linux Effort Begins to Deliver | PCWorld Business Center

  “Linaro was launched at Computex in 2010 by ARM, IBM, Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and TI with the mission of reducing fragmentation, increasing optimization and making it easier for OEMs and ODMs to develop Linux-based products.”

  tags: Linaro Linux ARM

• Apple drops secrecy, confirms iOS 5, iCloud on tap at WWDC 2011

  “Apple announced today that it plans to introduce the next generation of its mobile platform, iOS 5, as well as a new cloud service called iCloud at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week on Monday, June 6. This is a highly unusual move for Apple, which normally tries to keep their center-ring announcements secret until the scheduled event.”

  tags: apple ios

• Linus torvalds christens the next linux kernel 3.0- The Inquirer

  “What was going to become Linux 2.6.40 has, in the blink of an eye or a few clicks of Torvalds’ keyboard, become Linux 3.0.0-rc1. There had been talk last year about whether the Linux kernel development team should call time on the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel, with some having suggested that 2.8 should be the next major version number. Now Torvalds has made the decision that the next major Linux kernel release will be 3.0.”

  tags: linux torvalds

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• How to choose a license for your own work – GNU Project – Free Software Foundation (FSF)

  “People often ask us what license we recommend they use for their project. We’ve written about this publicly before, but the information has been scattered around between different essays, FAQ entries, and license commentaries. This article collects all that information into a single source, to make it easier for people to follow and refer back to. The recommendations below are focused on licensing a work that you create—whether that’s a modification of an existing work, or a new original work. These recommendations do not address the issue of combining existing material under different licenses. If you’re looking for help with that, please check our license FAQ.”

  tags: fsf license apache

• Announcing our license recommendations guide — Free Software Foundation — working together for free software

  “Today I’m happy to share something we’ve been working on for a little while: “How to choose a license for your own work” is a comprehensive set of license recommendations for new projects. This page explains what factors are important to consider when making licensing decisions, and suggests specific licenses for different scenarios. If you’re starting a new project (whether it’s software, documentation, or something else related) and unsure what license to use, you just need this one link to find our recommendations.”

  tags: fsf license foss

• 20th Anniversary of Linux T-shirt Designs Deadline Monday | Linux.com

  “If you haven’t sent in your design yet, there is still time. The deadline for submissions is this Monday, May 30, 2011. And, there is plenty of room for more ideas. One hint for all the designers out there: Remember the theme is the 20th Anniversary of Linux. By incorporating this into your design, you will increase your chances of being among the Top 5 finalists.”

  tags: linux anniversary

• IBM Tops HP, Oracle In Server Growth — InformationWeek

  “IBM’s server revenues grew 22.1% in the first quarter, outpacing rivals as demand for the types of high-end systems in which Big Blue specializes picked up. Total industry revenue from non-x86 servers, including Unix and mainframe systems, jumped 12.3%, compared to a 10.1% increase in revenue from sales of servers that run Windows or Linux on industry-standard chips, according to numbers released Wednesday by market watcher IDC.”

  tags: ibm hp oracle server

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Microsoft Skype breaks open-source partnership | ZDNet

  “I told you so. I knew that Steve Ballmer could talk all he wanted about how Microsoft would continue to support non-Microsoft platforms, but that there was no way he’d actually do it. The first proof is here. Digium, the company behind the popular open-source Asterisk private-branch exchange (PBX) program, has announced that Skype has unilaterally ended its deal that allowed Asterisk to work with Skype.”

  tags: microsoft skype Open Source

• Fedora 15′s five best features | ZDNet

  “Fedora Linux not for everyone. If you’re an experienced Linux user who wants an easy-to-use desktop Linux, I recommend Mint 11. If you’re new to Linux and just want something that’s easy to pick up and use, I think you should give Ubuntu 11.04 a try. But, if you’re a Linux expert, and want to explore the outer limits of what’s possible with Linux, then Red Hat’s new Fedora 15 Linux is the distribution for you.”

  tags: fedora linux

• How to kill innovation, in five easy steps | TechRepublic

  “Unfortunately, it’s easier to mess it up than to get it right, and the result is that employees end up confused, frustrated, and stifled. Here are six things that a lot of leaders and companies do to stifle innovation. Keep in mind that a lot of these things are done for good reasons — organization, systemization, and efficiency. Nevertheless, the effect is the same.”

  tags: innovation kill

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America hold annual convention – The Washington Post

  “The winner in the main-event novel category was Connie Willis, a celebrated favorite — and former teacher of Swirsky’s — whose two-part “Blackout” and “All Clear” chronicles a group of Oxford historians who become stranded amid World War II when their time-travel assignment goes awry. “It took me eight years to finish,” Willis said after the ceremony. “Around the five-year mark, people did start to point out that it was actually taking longer than World War II.””

  tags: nebula scifi

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• CDC EPR | Social Media | Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse – Blog

  “There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.”

  tags: zombie apocalypse cdc

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Today a whole lot of companies, including BMC Software, Eucalyptus Systems, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, Inc. and SUSE, announced the creation of the Open Virtualization Alliance.

From the press release:

… today announced the formation of the Open Virtualization Alliance, a consortium committed to fostering the adoption of open virtualization technologies including Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). The consortium will promote examples of customer successes, encourage interoperability and accelerate the expansion of the ecosystem of third party solutions around KVM, providing businesses improved choice, performance and price for virtualization.

The Open Virtualization Alliance will provide education, best practices and technical advice to help businesses understand and evaluate their virtualization options. The consortium complements the existing open source communities managing the development of the KVM hypervisor and associated management capabilities, which are rapidly driving technology innovations for customers virtualizing both Linux and Windows® applications.

KVM virtualization provides compelling performance, scalability and security for today’s applications, smoothing the path from single system deployments to large-scale cloud computing. As a core component in the Linux kernel, KVM leverages hardware virtualization support built into Intel and AMD processors, providing a robust, efficient environment for hosting Linux and Windows virtual machines. KVM naturally leverages the rapid innovation of the Linux kernel (to virtualize both Linux and Windows guests), automatically benefiting from scheduler, memory management, power management, device driver and other features being produced by the thousands of developers in the Linux community.