Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th May 2008 21:46 UTC
Multitouch has more or less turned into a buzzword these days - sometimes, its implementation makes sense and comes out as pretty useful (see the iPhone and Microsoft's Surface), however, other implementations turn out be debatable. There is another implementation out there, one that received a lot less attention from the press than the aforementioned cases: Jeff Han's Perceptive Pixel.
Linked by David Adams on Fri 9th May 2008 21:44 UTC
Today's NPR Talk of the Nation Science Friday radio program discussed the recent Memristor advances for the non-Electrical Engineer: "The possibility of such a circuit element, known as the "memristor," was first described in 1971, but no one was able to find a device with the properties of that missing element. Now, a group of scientists at HP Labs has found that in nanoscale materials, the "memristance" property becomes easier to see. The finding could lead to lower power, instant-on computers, as well as novel types of circuitry. HP Senior Fellow Stanley Williams, one of the discoverers of the modern memristor, talks about the find and its potential applications." The 13 minute program is available online
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th May 2008 20:24 UTC
In February 2008, the European Commission fined Microsoft for the record-breaking amount of 899 million Euros, for not complying to the 2004 ruling from Brussels. Today, Microsoft announced it has decided to appeal the fine. "We are filing this appeal in a constructive effort to seek clarity from the court. We will not be saying anything further," the company stated.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th May 2008 13:19 UTC, submitted by Moulinneuf
In July of 2007, Skype lost a court case over their failure to include a copy of the GPL in their WSKP100 VoIP phone - it ran Linux, GPL software, which means a copy of the GPL license must be included. The case was started by the gpl-violations.org group. Skype decided to appeal against the decision, but it has decided to withdraw that appeal.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th May 2008 11:11 UTC
Last week, when Microsoft's attempt at buying Yahoo stranded, Steve Ballmer specifically mentioned Google, and how a possible deal between Google and Yahoo would limit choice and competition in the marketplace. Google explained yesterday how it would fend off possible antritrust concerns following an ad-sharing deal with Yahoo. In addtion, Google noted the irony in Microsoft's complaints.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 8th May 2008 21:32 UTC
There are quite a few operating systems which have moved beyond the simple hobby operating system stage, onto a more lasting plane of existence. AROS, ReactOS, SkyOS, Syllable, Haiku; they're no longer basement products, coded by a single programer - they are now projects in which a lot of people have invested time, and possibly money too. They won't go away any time soon. The last few days have seen news on three of these systems: ReactOS, SkyOS, and Syllable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 8th May 2008 19:13 UTC
When Sun announced it would offer certain plugins and features for enterprise customers only, and maybe even make them closed-source, the open source community was up in arms. It seems that MySQL and Sun have listened to the criticism, as these plans are now off the table. In fact, these plans did not originate within Sun in the first place.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 7th May 2008 21:29 UTC, submitted by irbis
AMD had a bit of a setback with their Barcelona server processor, the company seems to have moved on. During a conference call today, the company laid out its plans for the server space for the coming years, putting 6 and 12 core processors on the horizon.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 7th May 2008 18:11 UTC, submitted by Dan Warne
As we all know, the Eee PC, running a modified Xandros, has been a major hit for Asus, and because of that, also a major hit for Linux. The device proved that a computer with a pre-installed Linux distribution can still be s successful machine, and many hoped that this would push Asus and other vendors to produce more computers with Linux pre-installed. This hope could be in vain after all if the new Windows XP-based Eee PC has anything to do with it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 7th May 2008 08:54 UTC, submitted by elsewhere
Yesterday, Trolltech released the final version of Qt 4.4, their graphical toolkit which forms the base for, among a lot of other things, the KDE project. It still features the dual-license model (of course), so proprietary developers can license Qt, while open source developers can get a GPLd version (both GPL 2 as well as 3). Read on for a quick overview of the new features, as well as some findings by Ars Technica.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th May 2008 21:48 UTC, submitted by irbis
Yesterday, the OpenSolaris team released OpenSolaris 2008.05, the fruit of Project Indiana. The first review we found was published over at Blogbeebe, which is overall fairly positive. At the same time, Practical Technology believes that "OpenSolaris has finally been released just in time to die".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th May 2008 15:53 UTC
"Today, I'm incredibly pleased to introduce iMac, our consumer product. And iMac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the internet, with the simplicity of the Macintosh." With these words, ten years ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the product that would literally save Apple from certain doom. The all-in-one, translucent computer would become a revolutionary product.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th May 2008 15:15 UTC, submitted by Shlomi Fish
"Which parameters make software applications high-quality? And which parameters or methods, while desirable, are not directly 'quality'?" This is the question the author of this article asks himself. Most of his 'parameters' make a lot of sense, but be aware that the article is about what makes an open source program high quality, and not programs in general. This important bit is stated in the one-sentence 'abstract'.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th May 2008 15:00 UTC, submitted by Julien Danjou
"Awesome is a floating and tiling window manager. It's extremely fast, small, dynamic and awesome. Windows can be managed in several layouts: tiled, maximized, dwindle, spiral, floating... Each layout can be applied on the fly, optimizing the environment for the application in use and the task performed. Managing windows in tiled mode assures that no space will be wasted on your screen. No gaps, no overlap. Other layouts can be used for different purpose. If you do not want to use the tiling management, you can use the floating layout wich will let you organize your windows as you wish, like any other window manager." Version 2.3-final has been released today.
Written by Thom Holwerda on Mon 5th May 2008 21:00 UTC
Ever since I started using computers, I've been baffled by the relative clumsiness of installing applications. Whether we are talking the really old days (launching the Rambo game off a tape), the '90s (running Keen or using installers in Windows 95), or the modern days (still those installers, but now also package management and self-contained applications); it's all relatively cumbersome, and they all have their downsides. I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and come up with my idealistic, utopian method of installing, running, updating, and uninstalling applications.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 5th May 2008 17:12 UTC, submitted by Dale Smoker
OpenSolaris 2008.5, the new distribution based on the OpenSolaris operating system, has been released into the wild. This release follows the conventions set by many of the popular Linux distributions, such as being based on a single live CD with installer, but also adds a load of OpenSolaris-specific features such as ZFS, DTrace, Containers, and a new package management system, IPS. OpenSolaris 2008.5 is the fruit of Project Indiana.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 5th May 2008 12:53 UTC, submitted by Adam S
A few weeks ago, Ars published part one in a series called "From Win32 to Cocoa: a Windows user's conversion to Mac OS X". In this series, Peter Bright details why he believes "Windows is dying, Windows applications suck, and Microsoft is too blinkered to fix any of it". Part one dealt with the history of both Windows and the Mac OS, and part two deals with .Net, the different types of programmers, and Windows Vista.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 4th May 2008 11:36 UTC
There are many things concerning the internet that are decidedly not amusing. The internet can be a source of viruses and other forms of malware, which affect computers worldwide. It can provide refuge for the sick and perverted, who use the depths and anonymity of the internet to distribute material that goes beyond any imagination. It can also be a hotbed for other dangerous activities like crime and terrorism. However, I think I speak for many when I say that spam is the one thing that bothers us all on a continuous basis.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 4th May 2008 07:19 UTC, submitted by sonic2000gr
Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to purchase search engine company Yahoo, however, the board of directors of Yahoo shot the offer down beause it 'massively' undervalued the company. This ignited an acquisition dance that took a few months, and rumours were abound as to what either of the two would do next.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 3rd May 2008 20:44 UTC, submitted by Moochman
Engadget got the chance to sit down with Jonathan Schwartz, the pony-tailed CEO of Sun Microsystems. Being the gadget blog that they are, Engadget asked Schwartz about the long-missing JavaFX Mobile platform Sun has promised, Java on the iPhone, and competing with Microsoft as an open source vendor.