Published by Robert Pogson June 21st, 2010
in technology.
AOL is on a tear banning FLOSS, apparently…
I find on their site:
“Linux/X Windows users should use XMMS.”
Have they not gotten to XMMS yet or is it a case of the legal guys not knowing that the bosses want content distributed?
Update I went to Shoutcast.com and found the URL for their MP3 feed. I am downloading it at the moment with wget and playing it in an endless loop with mplayer. Cool stuff. Slowhand… Heart… great stuff. What is the problem? They are not encrypting the stream in any way. How can they object to VLC playing it? Strange. Are there ads or something on their “approved” players?
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson June 21st, 2010
in technology.
SCOG lost SCOG v Novell hard. They lost decisions by judges and a jury on the whole merit of their case. They lost grounds to sue IBM, big-time, because the last judge ruled that Novell had the right under the Asset Purchase Agreement to block such actions. That leaves IBM with GPL and various other counter-claims to roll right over SCOG if they ever get back to a court-room.
Still the fools prattle on:
- “Paul Murphy” declares this outcome makes the future bleak for GNU/Linux.
- Maureen O’gara thought the jury got it wrong. (Warning – aggressive ads from M$)
- Rob Enderle while dropping most attacks on GNU/Linux recently still slings FUD at Google and FLOSS in general.
You have to admire their stamina but their brains must be malnourished to slither through chains of illogic as they do.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson June 21st, 2010
in technology.
M$ is rewriting their embedded OS for the smartphone. From scratch. While the competition is sharing and flowering with cross-fertilization. Without copy-and-paste and multitasking. Re-writing is both an admission of failure in the mobile market and a risky venture to survive. In the fast-moving field of mobile technology, the delay could be a killer.
The mobile market-place likes new, so M$ has some hope, but without copy-and-paste, it’s dead. Consumers have used copy-and-paste for ages and are not about to give it up. The only way an IT system can work well without copy-and-paste is with such an incredible degree of integration and mind-reading that copy-and-paste is unnecessary. That is the ultimate in faith-based engineering if you ask me. I feel another Vista coming on. This time, there are lots of alternatives available, many with GNU/Linux on ARM. M$’s competition will have a field-day. Big lead. Superior product. Mind-share. Too bad, M$, you lose.
- Robert Pogson
I blundered into a serious blog entry about using a Live CD to rescue a system. You have to see the picture at the top of the page… Smaller-scale events lead me to GNU/Linux many years ago but even last year I had one of two labs behave similarly. Most of the machines could not boot that other OS after a tiny bit of use by kids. Anyone skilled in the art of using a computer may have been lucky and never experienced a BSOD but I have seen some installations of that other OS that were trivial to induce to BSOD. Lose ’9x just needed depeletion of memory resources, like opening up 3 browser windows and the word-processor at the same time in 64MB. A real OS would keep going with virtual memory…
XP is orders of magnitude better than that but it still is wonderfully able to slow down through use. I have used the rescue CD trick on PCs that took 5 minutes to respond to a click. The patience of users of that other OS is amazing. My users will never stand for that again because they have seen responsiveness even on older hardware with Debian GNU/Linux.
Live CDs that may be useful to you:
- KNOPPIX, the classic and still great.
- SystemRescueCD, designed for the purpose, based on Gentoo.
- Debian GNU/Linux, live version of the distro, but also most installation CDs have a “rescue” component, as have many distros.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson June 21st, 2010
in technology.
Toshiba has announced a mobile Internet device (MID) with ARM. This one looks great and is snappy (video). With 8 hour battery life running flat out and weighing only 870g it is one of the sweetest netbooks I have seen. The 1024×600 display is probably good enough for my old eyes. Watch for the Toshiba AC100.
Toshiba is one of the most reluctant OEMs to ship GNU/Linux but they do not seem hesitant with this product. The Android UI is smooth. The response is crisp. We are not half-way through 2010 yet, The Year of ARM. Expect more and better. By Christmas, consumers and businesses will be asking why they cannot have this kind of performance on all PCs… Chuckle. Wintel is about to be put on a much shorter leash.
- Robert Pogson
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