David Adams Archive

Pirating Android apps is a long-standing problem. But it seems to be getting worse, even as Google begins to respond much more aggressively. The dilemma: protecting developers' investments, and revenue stream, while keeping an open platform.

Artificial intelligence is going mobile . The technology that can help machines behave more intelligently, popularized by such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, is finding its way onto tablet-style computers and other handheld devices.

OCZ Technology, today unveileda proprietary drive interface called "High-Speed Data Link" (HSDL) that's expected to boost I/O for solid-state drives (SSDs) in high-performance computing environments.

The Fedora 14 Beta was released today, but as a Network World article points out, it "will be the first Red Hat supported distribution to let users choose MeeGo as their desktop." This new release will also include the Sugar interface, intended for netbooks, and "will also be the first version to fully incorporate Red Hat's VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), called SPICE, or Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments. SPICE will allow Fedora to host virtual desktops that can be accessed over a network."

I attended VM World last week, and as you might imagine, it was "cloud computing" this and "cloud computing" that the whole time. The hype factor for the cloud is in overdrive right now. But is it warranted? A lot of people, even tech-oriented ones, outside of the data center sysadmin types, wonder what all the hype is about. I've come to believe that cloud computing is major computing revolution, but for most computing users, it's an invisible one.

Ping would have been a great thing for Apple to have done about 3-4 years ago, but at this point, the Social Networking thing has pretty much played itself out, picked its winners, and we've all moved on. Apple went to all the trouble to make a deal with a golf company, and all we got was a third rate social network? First of all, in what is probably just a temporary setback, Ping is choked with spam, but more importantly, it's just a sucky social network.

Here's the dirty little secret about Android: After all the work Apple did to get AT&T to relinquish device control for the iPhone and all the great efforts Google made to get the FCC and the U.S. telecoms to agree to open access rules as part of the 700 MHz auction, Android is taking all of those gains and handing the power back to the telecoms.

Ubuntu's community manager Jono Bacon talks in an interview with derStandard.at about the relationship between Ubuntu and GNOME, GNOME Shell, Unity and why the netbook market is that important to Canonical.

Displays built out of plastic instead of glass would be a gadget lover's dream: they'd be rugged and lightweight, and they should be inexpensive to make on "roll-to-roll" systems similar to those used for newsprint. But to develop prototypes for flexible tablet computers and other gadgets with plastic displays, the device makers have had to develop custom equipment.

For the first time since Sun was eaten by Oracle there was an email in my inbox today promising news and updates from the transition. As a valued member of the Sun community, we'd like to make sure you keep abreast of all the latest as we transition to Oracle. A lot of great things will be coming from the combination of Oracle and Sun and you'll want to stay informed! Here's your chance to keep up to date. Simply follow the link below and tell us a little more about yourself to receive news and information about products and events from Oracle. Maybe they are finally realising that we won't wait around forever. Time will tell if this will be substantial. The phrase 'a little slow on the uptake' leaps to mind.

During the fiber boom, Corning became the darling of Wall Street. A decidedly old-school industrial era company that specialized in making glass, Corning is getting rich of another boom -- this time from smartphones like the iPhone.

JoliCloud, the much talked-about cloud client OS, is making its debut today with the release of the official 1.0 milestone, and is now available for general release. JoliCloud is an operating system combined with a user interface that allows people to access web services as if accessing an app on their smartphones.

The 2.6.33 Linux kernel has introduced a useful new service called the DRBD - Distributed Replicated Block Device. This service mirrors an entire block device to another networked host during run time, permitting the development of high-availability clusters for block data. Explore the ideas behind the DRBD and its implementation in the Linux kernel.

If the latest reports on IE9 preview are accurate, then this is a very encouraging development: "The fourth and final Platform Preview for Internet Explorer 9 was released today, along with a raft of new HTML5 demos and tests." Microsoft have reportedly further improved IE9's performance and standards compliance.