http://mrpogson.com One man. Closing, all the windows. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:27:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/googles-ultimate-small-cheap-computer-on-the-radar/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/googles-ultimate-small-cheap-computer-on-the-radar/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:15:29 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10327 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } The small cheap computers of today are like bricks (cell-phones) of a decade ago compared to what Google has in mind. Google is talking of making glasses with a heads-up display of information. Things like GPS readouts, speed, location, news,… It’s everything you can do short of an implant in your brain… I guess that [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/googles-ultimate-small-cheap-computer-on-the-radar/feed/ 0 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/us-veterans-administrations-looking-at-alternative-office-suites/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/us-veterans-administrations-looking-at-alternative-office-suites/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:06:46 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10317 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } From the VA’s Request for Information: “to lower cost VA wishes to pilot alternatives to the desktop installed versions of the Microsoft Office productivity suite of applications. VA Office of Information and Technology intends to solicit proposals for alternative architectures for providing an office productivity suite with similar functions that are offered in Microsoft Word, [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/22/us-veterans-administrations-looking-at-alternative-office-suites/feed/ 1 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/india-is-heaven-for-a-startup-3-million-pre-orders-of-the-aakash/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/india-is-heaven-for-a-startup-3-million-pre-orders-of-the-aakash/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:26:11 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10313 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } People love small cheap computers and they don’t get much cheaper than the Aakash, $35. The idea is to supply youth, students and the poor with the most affordable computers. These are not Cadillacs but machines that just work to provide a first computer for individuals who cannot own a more expensive device. As a [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/india-is-heaven-for-a-startup-3-million-pre-orders-of-the-aakash/feed/ 0 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/turning-tesseract-loose-on-us-doj-v-m/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/turning-tesseract-loose-on-us-doj-v-m/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:44:58 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10298 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } There is a wealth of information in the archive of US Department of Justice v Microsoft but it is locked away in PDF images. As part of my contribution to FLOSS I have begun to run the exhibits through the Tesseract Optical Character Recognition programme. Tesseract does a fine job but it is not well [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/21/turning-tesseract-loose-on-us-doj-v-m/feed/ 9 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/20/the-market-is-deciding/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/20/the-market-is-deciding/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:32:29 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10286 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } Unlike IDC et al, I have no access to tons of information from all over, but I can see what is on “Bestsellers” lists on retail web sites. For tablets, I am still reading that Apple’s iPadtm? is dominant. This is what Walmart says about tablet-PCs on their bestsellers list: Tablet OS Price Pandigital Star [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/20/the-market-is-deciding/feed/ 6 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/printing-in-gnulinux/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/printing-in-gnulinux/#comments Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:52:11 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10281 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } It’s been a while since I have had any problem with printing in GNU/Linux, but yesterday I needed to print from Beast to give my wife a paper copy of a document. To my surprise, I had not configured the printing… It turned out there was no printer driver for our networked printer for Beast’s [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/printing-in-gnulinux/feed/ 1 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/gnulinux-sold-retail-in-brazil/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/gnulinux-sold-retail-in-brazil/#comments Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:59:34 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10269 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } In Canada, where I live Walmart does not have a single GNU/Linux system for sale the last time I looked. In Brazil, the situation is quite different. The translation by Google shows They don’t seem to have alphabetical order in mind but they certainly do give space to GNU/Linux. So much for the FUD that [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/19/gnulinux-sold-retail-in-brazil/feed/ 5 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/barriers-to-migration-to-floss/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/barriers-to-migration-to-floss/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:12:04 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10259 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } Judging by some of the comments to my blog posts, one would expect that lack of applications would be the prime reason for not migrating to FLOSS but it seems the real world sees things differently. A survey in 2010 found these reasons: Shocking, eh? Lack of functionality is in third place with 16% of [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/barriers-to-migration-to-floss/feed/ 26 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/keeping-an-eye-on-the-enemy/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/keeping-an-eye-on-the-enemy/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:27:43 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10242 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } My enemies are the purveyors of non-free software who try to lock the world into doing things their way and paying for each iteration. M$ is chief among them but many of their “partners” are cut from the same cloth. Apple does charge less for software but it’s still lock-in one way or another. That [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/18/keeping-an-eye-on-the-enemy/feed/ 32 http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/17/google-still-growing-like-a-weed/ http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/17/google-still-growing-like-a-weed/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:54:06 +0000 Robert Pogson http://mrpogson.com/?p=10239 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { width: 50%; padding-top: 1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float: left; margin: 4px 4px 4px 4px; } Google+ is growing at the rate of 1.6 million users per day and has reached 236 million by one estimate. For a late starter, Google seems to have hit a sweet spot to grow so fast. “The circles” is a hugely successful concept but the instantaneity of the system is wonderful. Integration with other services [...]]]> http://mrpogson.com/2012/02/17/google-still-growing-like-a-weed/feed/ 2