Sunday, March 25, 2007
Virtualization on Mac OS X
Check out my blog entry I just posted over at The Mac Katana. It discusses my experiences on Mac OS X with VMware Fusion Beta and Parallels.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Online All The Time
In my lifetime of communicating with a computer, I have lived and been a part of several paradigms of online communcations. I remember the dial-up the BBS days in the 1980s, the CompuServe forums in early 1990s, e-mail in various forms of evolution in the 1980s through the 1990s and the spam infested world of today, groupware in the 1990s, and instant messaging, forums, blogs, portals and wikis in the past few years.
Collaborative online communication continues to evolve. Today, the social networking sites, personal wikis, personal blogs, and portals are all evolutionary forms of storing and managing online information. What I like about today's world is that with open source technology and the numerous online services providing you with all the tools you can imagine, the only thing you need is a modern web browser to access it all! Not having a blog, participating in a forum, being part of some online community, or not being online is like not having access to a telephone in the 1970s.
I remember being a young person in the late 1970s and early 1980s and spending hours talking on the phone. For me, this has translated into the modern equivalent of being online all the time today. With notebook computers, internet gadgets and all types of mobile devices, it is hard not be online today. You actually have to make a effort to stay offline today. The only time I spend less time online is when I am on a vacation. Then I intentionally disconnect.
I find that instead of watching TV and cable, I actually do this while staying online. A few years ago this was sort of a novelty. Today, it is now just a normal way that I watch TV/cable and concurrently browse the internet. My multitasking capabilities are up and my attention span is going down. I am not sure if this is a good thing but I have adapted to this way of personal interactive entertainment over the last few years.
What I have not seen is the smooth convergence of TV and the web that was envisioned in the 1990s. This did not occur. Today, we still have TV/cable that pretty much works the same way it did in the 1990s and the web has become richer but the convergence has not occurred. I think the two industries are intentionally trying to figure this out and no one really wants to the change it all. YouTube and other online video sites are in a big fight with traditional content providers and from what I have seen, it appears that the traditional content providers are resisting the convergence and change. So what else is new?
Well, back to my original topic. I am watching a Comedy Central show right now and writing this blog entry. Maybe in 10-years we'll see the convergence of TV and the web. I doubt it because that is what everyone thought 10-years ago in 1997.
Collaborative online communication continues to evolve. Today, the social networking sites, personal wikis, personal blogs, and portals are all evolutionary forms of storing and managing online information. What I like about today's world is that with open source technology and the numerous online services providing you with all the tools you can imagine, the only thing you need is a modern web browser to access it all! Not having a blog, participating in a forum, being part of some online community, or not being online is like not having access to a telephone in the 1970s.
I remember being a young person in the late 1970s and early 1980s and spending hours talking on the phone. For me, this has translated into the modern equivalent of being online all the time today. With notebook computers, internet gadgets and all types of mobile devices, it is hard not be online today. You actually have to make a effort to stay offline today. The only time I spend less time online is when I am on a vacation. Then I intentionally disconnect.
I find that instead of watching TV and cable, I actually do this while staying online. A few years ago this was sort of a novelty. Today, it is now just a normal way that I watch TV/cable and concurrently browse the internet. My multitasking capabilities are up and my attention span is going down. I am not sure if this is a good thing but I have adapted to this way of personal interactive entertainment over the last few years.
What I have not seen is the smooth convergence of TV and the web that was envisioned in the 1990s. This did not occur. Today, we still have TV/cable that pretty much works the same way it did in the 1990s and the web has become richer but the convergence has not occurred. I think the two industries are intentionally trying to figure this out and no one really wants to the change it all. YouTube and other online video sites are in a big fight with traditional content providers and from what I have seen, it appears that the traditional content providers are resisting the convergence and change. So what else is new?
Well, back to my original topic. I am watching a Comedy Central show right now and writing this blog entry. Maybe in 10-years we'll see the convergence of TV and the web. I doubt it because that is what everyone thought 10-years ago in 1997.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Search In 2007
Today, everyone knows how to use Google or a search capability. It is very intuitive and even my son who is in first grade has figured out how to use the search feature in online dictionaries like Merriam-Webster. What surprises me recenlty is the how the enterprise search market is becoming a very competitive space.
A few years ago, Google and Yahoo! were the two enterprise level products on the market with an low cost to entry. This is a critical point in the modern IT environment. Today, there are numerous open source and proprietary solutions all claiming some type of advantage in their implementation of search technology. I can name quite a few search technologies today that I have reviewed Google Search Appliance, Yahoo SDK, Amazon A9 OpenSearch, IBM OmniFind, Corpora Find!, Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 Enterprise Search, Nutch, Lucene, Autonomy/Verity, and whole lot of embedded search engines. In the Java world, Lucene appears to be the best of breed search framework. As a matter of fact it is the basis for the IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition search technology.
I really like the Google appliance mentality. You just install it and use it. It just works kind of like your refrigerator. When was the last time you had to do any type of maintenance, patches, reconfiguration, optimization, of your refrigerator. You do not! That is the point. You just use it, it works and you keep it clean and it looks good. That in summation is what I consider the baseline needs and wants for a search solution. No one else has anything like it on the market yet.
I have designed and built solutions using Lucene, Verity, Google API and Yahoo! SDK. Generally speaking, they all work in a similar fashion. Personally, I prefer the appliance approach that Google provides. It just works. It uses the same Google API that you can already use and implements a dedicated hardware based solution that requires very little systems administration overhead.
As for the state of enterprise search today, I would say the the IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is a powerful open source entry into this highly competitive space. With it's low-cost to entry and open source foundation, it looks like it will mature into a viable competitor to the Google Search Appliance in the next few years. Comparing the Google API to the Yahoo! REST based search SDK, I think the Yahoo approach using REST is much easier to use from a developer perspective.
I would not count out the open source product Nutch either. It is based on Apache Lucene which is the defacto best of breed Java indexing framework. Nutch has been brought into the Apache Software Foundation which is a powerful force in the open source universe.
As for the state of search, I think the leaders remain the same and the fresh new open source competition is breathing life into this area that was once completely dominated by a few products.
A few years ago, Google and Yahoo! were the two enterprise level products on the market with an low cost to entry. This is a critical point in the modern IT environment. Today, there are numerous open source and proprietary solutions all claiming some type of advantage in their implementation of search technology. I can name quite a few search technologies today that I have reviewed Google Search Appliance, Yahoo SDK, Amazon A9 OpenSearch, IBM OmniFind, Corpora Find!, Microsoft Sharepoint 2007 Enterprise Search, Nutch, Lucene, Autonomy/Verity, and whole lot of embedded search engines. In the Java world, Lucene appears to be the best of breed search framework. As a matter of fact it is the basis for the IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition search technology.
I really like the Google appliance mentality. You just install it and use it. It just works kind of like your refrigerator. When was the last time you had to do any type of maintenance, patches, reconfiguration, optimization, of your refrigerator. You do not! That is the point. You just use it, it works and you keep it clean and it looks good. That in summation is what I consider the baseline needs and wants for a search solution. No one else has anything like it on the market yet.
I have designed and built solutions using Lucene, Verity, Google API and Yahoo! SDK. Generally speaking, they all work in a similar fashion. Personally, I prefer the appliance approach that Google provides. It just works. It uses the same Google API that you can already use and implements a dedicated hardware based solution that requires very little systems administration overhead.
As for the state of enterprise search today, I would say the the IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is a powerful open source entry into this highly competitive space. With it's low-cost to entry and open source foundation, it looks like it will mature into a viable competitor to the Google Search Appliance in the next few years. Comparing the Google API to the Yahoo! REST based search SDK, I think the Yahoo approach using REST is much easier to use from a developer perspective.
I would not count out the open source product Nutch either. It is based on Apache Lucene which is the defacto best of breed Java indexing framework. Nutch has been brought into the Apache Software Foundation which is a powerful force in the open source universe.
As for the state of search, I think the leaders remain the same and the fresh new open source competition is breathing life into this area that was once completely dominated by a few products.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Platform Agnosticism and Ultra-Portable Computing Machines
I have been on the front lines of the platform wars for more than a decade now. I was an early adopter of 32-bit DOS extender technologies (DesqView, Concurrent), OS/2, 32-bit Windows, Linux, Citrix, virtualization and other platform specific extension technologies for which some have since long come and gone. Today, virtualization, cross-platform languages, Java, fast processors, cheap memory, cheap storage and open source technology have changed everything. The concept that a specific platform will dominate no longer fits the paradigm shift of the always connected online future.
I have spent the past five years working towards platform agnosticity and have only recently been able to experience it in practical form. It has been three months since I switched to using Mac OS X as my preferred environment. Since, then I have been able to truly practice, research and experience cross-platform computing and software engineering. Java, being designed cross-platform is a key enabling technology.
The online Google Docs and Spreadsheets and all their online applications has pushed the envelope even further. I now use my online Google apps more than anything else and use my desktop applications (OpenOffice.org, MS-Office) as online extenders for necessary functionally where ever I am. This is an inversion of how most people perceive these online applications. Anyway, I have lived this inverted environment since last summer (almost 8-months now) and can confidently say that it works for me and is the future of computing. I blogged about this last year. ("Online Everything Is Getting Closer") This year I think the "online everything" is even better because I have been able to live it and push the innovation further. Google's recent announcement of Google Apps for Enterpises is a testament. There is also a rumor that an online presentation tool is in the works! That would be impressive.
I have found that open standards, open source technology have had a larger influence in the mutli-platform world more than enything else. Prior to switching to Mac OS X, I was primarily a Linux and Windows user/developer using Java technology. I always preferred Linux overall but now my MacBook has become a 'better Linux than Linux' in my experience. With Linux there was always something missing in the GUI (KDE, Gnome) application spaces. On the Mac this missing gap is closed by the numerous robust GUI applications that exist on the Mac OS X platform. In addtion to the excellent Java support built-in to Mac OS X, there is an active user base/community that just focuses on the getting things done. As Apple has been pushing, 'It just works.'
This year is shaping up as I anticipated. I have moved most of my computing work online and can access and collaborate online using any computer platform, anytime, and anywhere. My search now is for ultra-mobile computing device that has a full-blown Linux like OS allowing me to access all my information whenever and where ever I need. This new device must not sacrifice any computing power or external peripheral capability via USB or Bluetooth interfaces
I recently checked out the Sony UX series devices which are incredibly tiny machines based on Windows XP Professional. It uses solid-state hard drives (no moving parts) which is highly desireable in an ultra-portable device. Nokia has the N770 and N800 Linux based devices which are getting closer. I have not seen the N800 in person yet. I have been using my Sony PSP as a portable browser for two-years now and it just works as browser in addition to being an excellent multimedia gaming device. I also recently got to play with the Sony Mylo hands on and this is getting closer but not quite there yet. Some people like the Mylo but for me, it does not meet the full-blown computer requirement.
I am hoping that Apple comes out with something in this ultra-portable device space that 'just works' like my MacBook does. I tried out my mobile phone a few years ago as an internet platform and very quickly ruled that out because it is 'too small' and limiting as a computing device for power users or developers. Not much has changed in this space recently. Plus the bandwidth is not there in the US for the mobile smart phones. Today's mobile phones are too small and too slow for practical use as a serious computing platform.
I am looking for a 'better Linux than Linux' in a ultra-portable form factor that uses solid-state storage with no sacrifices. My best bet desirable device today would be a Linux based device that is ultra-portable. Maybe Apple has a ultra-portable Mac OS X device in the works? I like the Sony UX series but being a Windows device and relatively expensive puts a negative spin on it. Java is a key open source enabling technology that must be supported given its scalability and cross-platform design and having it is my preference being a Java technologist. Given the state of wide Java support today in Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows I do not see this as an issue.
Anyway, the migration of moving everything online allows me to be very critical of the ultra-portable computing device I want in the future. Notice that in the ultra-portable environment, I really have not focused on any platform. Just the device form-factor, features and capabilities as an ultra-portable computing machine that sacrifices nothing. No one has attained it yet but I know what the target requirements are for my ultra-portable computing machine are and it does not yet exist. I prefer something that is Linux/Unix centric since that is where most of the innovative ideas and cutting edge computer science research occurs today. Maybe later this year someone will surprise the world and come up with an innovative new product! I think in the next few years we will definitely see this happen. Whoever produces just has to remember that cost is also a factor.
I have spent the past five years working towards platform agnosticity and have only recently been able to experience it in practical form. It has been three months since I switched to using Mac OS X as my preferred environment. Since, then I have been able to truly practice, research and experience cross-platform computing and software engineering. Java, being designed cross-platform is a key enabling technology.
The online Google Docs and Spreadsheets and all their online applications has pushed the envelope even further. I now use my online Google apps more than anything else and use my desktop applications (OpenOffice.org, MS-Office) as online extenders for necessary functionally where ever I am. This is an inversion of how most people perceive these online applications. Anyway, I have lived this inverted environment since last summer (almost 8-months now) and can confidently say that it works for me and is the future of computing. I blogged about this last year. ("Online Everything Is Getting Closer") This year I think the "online everything" is even better because I have been able to live it and push the innovation further. Google's recent announcement of Google Apps for Enterpises is a testament. There is also a rumor that an online presentation tool is in the works! That would be impressive.
I have found that open standards, open source technology have had a larger influence in the mutli-platform world more than enything else. Prior to switching to Mac OS X, I was primarily a Linux and Windows user/developer using Java technology. I always preferred Linux overall but now my MacBook has become a 'better Linux than Linux' in my experience. With Linux there was always something missing in the GUI (KDE, Gnome) application spaces. On the Mac this missing gap is closed by the numerous robust GUI applications that exist on the Mac OS X platform. In addtion to the excellent Java support built-in to Mac OS X, there is an active user base/community that just focuses on the getting things done. As Apple has been pushing, 'It just works.'
This year is shaping up as I anticipated. I have moved most of my computing work online and can access and collaborate online using any computer platform, anytime, and anywhere. My search now is for ultra-mobile computing device that has a full-blown Linux like OS allowing me to access all my information whenever and where ever I need. This new device must not sacrifice any computing power or external peripheral capability via USB or Bluetooth interfaces
I recently checked out the Sony UX series devices which are incredibly tiny machines based on Windows XP Professional. It uses solid-state hard drives (no moving parts) which is highly desireable in an ultra-portable device. Nokia has the N770 and N800 Linux based devices which are getting closer. I have not seen the N800 in person yet. I have been using my Sony PSP as a portable browser for two-years now and it just works as browser in addition to being an excellent multimedia gaming device. I also recently got to play with the Sony Mylo hands on and this is getting closer but not quite there yet. Some people like the Mylo but for me, it does not meet the full-blown computer requirement.
I am hoping that Apple comes out with something in this ultra-portable device space that 'just works' like my MacBook does. I tried out my mobile phone a few years ago as an internet platform and very quickly ruled that out because it is 'too small' and limiting as a computing device for power users or developers. Not much has changed in this space recently. Plus the bandwidth is not there in the US for the mobile smart phones. Today's mobile phones are too small and too slow for practical use as a serious computing platform.
I am looking for a 'better Linux than Linux' in a ultra-portable form factor that uses solid-state storage with no sacrifices. My best bet desirable device today would be a Linux based device that is ultra-portable. Maybe Apple has a ultra-portable Mac OS X device in the works? I like the Sony UX series but being a Windows device and relatively expensive puts a negative spin on it. Java is a key open source enabling technology that must be supported given its scalability and cross-platform design and having it is my preference being a Java technologist. Given the state of wide Java support today in Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows I do not see this as an issue.
Anyway, the migration of moving everything online allows me to be very critical of the ultra-portable computing device I want in the future. Notice that in the ultra-portable environment, I really have not focused on any platform. Just the device form-factor, features and capabilities as an ultra-portable computing machine that sacrifices nothing. No one has attained it yet but I know what the target requirements are for my ultra-portable computing machine are and it does not yet exist. I prefer something that is Linux/Unix centric since that is where most of the innovative ideas and cutting edge computer science research occurs today. Maybe later this year someone will surprise the world and come up with an innovative new product! I think in the next few years we will definitely see this happen. Whoever produces just has to remember that cost is also a factor.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Yahoo Pipes
Leave it up to the IT industry to come out with a new product out of the blue. Yahoo Pipes has the opportunity to be one of the killer apps of 2007. I was just experimenting with RSS aggregation in java and php last year. I had a lot of good ideas but never go around to them due to the usual not enough time to focus on any of the ideas. Recently, I found a decent java webapp called Flock that is no longer maintained but has the right idea. Flock could use some nice enhancement. And then just yesterday, Yahoo! announces Pipes!
Details of Pipes are hard to confirm since the site is overloaded and they have a nice banner message stating that "Our Pipes Are Clogged" due to overwhelming demand. From what I have read, it appears to be some type of RSS aggregation/mashup tool that provides some visualizations on what you are creating. If it is anything like the Yahoo! Site Builder, then it will probably be a rich client java application that provides a nice GUI.
At any rate, when I finally get a chance to see Pipes first hand in the next few days of weeks will blog about it and see if it stands up to the over hype.
Details of Pipes are hard to confirm since the site is overloaded and they have a nice banner message stating that "Our Pipes Are Clogged" due to overwhelming demand. From what I have read, it appears to be some type of RSS aggregation/mashup tool that provides some visualizations on what you are creating. If it is anything like the Yahoo! Site Builder, then it will probably be a rich client java application that provides a nice GUI.
At any rate, when I finally get a chance to see Pipes first hand in the next few days of weeks will blog about it and see if it stands up to the over hype.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Nice Java Development Platform
I have been using my MacBook for almost two months now and feel quite comfortable with it. I have been using it exclusively at home working and experimenting with Java web applications that are running on my Linux servers. All I can say is that if you are looking for the next thing and are not tied to Windows then Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is it based on my experience.
The Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger user-interface is very intuitive and the Finder, Dashboard features are exactly what I was looking for in a next generation GUI. OpenOffice.org, Eclipse, and all my other tools for Java development work as advertised on Mac OS X. The next release Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) has even more features that take it to the next level.
For Java development, I can now say that Mac OS X is a really good solution. Much better than Windows primarily because of the underlying Unix foundations. If you are administering Linux servers and need an extremely consistent GUI, the Mac OS X is it. Your mileage may vary as I always like to say.
I created a new blog, The Mac Katana, devoted to my experiences on the Mac. Check it out if are interested.
I wish everyone good luck happiness and joy in this new year, 2007!
The Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger user-interface is very intuitive and the Finder, Dashboard features are exactly what I was looking for in a next generation GUI. OpenOffice.org, Eclipse, and all my other tools for Java development work as advertised on Mac OS X. The next release Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) has even more features that take it to the next level.
For Java development, I can now say that Mac OS X is a really good solution. Much better than Windows primarily because of the underlying Unix foundations. If you are administering Linux servers and need an extremely consistent GUI, the Mac OS X is it. Your mileage may vary as I always like to say.
I created a new blog, The Mac Katana, devoted to my experiences on the Mac. Check it out if are interested.
I wish everyone good luck happiness and joy in this new year, 2007!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Project Looking Glass 1.0 3-D UI
The future of user interfaces will be 3-D and it looks like the Sun has been busy with its Project Looking Glass 1.0 3-D user interface. "Sun Releases 1.0 Looking Glass Interface". As for the future, the 3-D user-interfaces are qutie impressive from the screenshots I have seen. You have got to check them out for yourself.
Just noting it here since Sun recently put a 1.0 out there for the open source community to experiment with and evolve.
Just noting it here since Sun recently put a 1.0 out there for the open source community to experiment with and evolve.
Friday, December 29, 2006
OpenOffice.org 2.1 on the Mac OS X
I have been using OpenOffice.org on Windows and Linux for many years now. I just recently got myself a MacBook and have spent the last three weeks using it and learning how Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) works. I have to say that I am getting more comfortable using the Mac OS X. I am using Firefox as my browser, have gotten used to the various Mac OS X applications and am now getting serious about using my new Mac as a software development machine. I primarily develop in Java so getting all my development tools setup on the Mac is a must. This includes Eclipse, NetBeans, Tomcat, JBoss, Nvu and OpenOffice at a minimum.
Well I must say that OpenOffice runs fine on the Mac OS X after finally getting it installed last week. Currently you must have X11 running in order to use OpenOffice on the Mac. A pure Aqua version of OpenOffice is in beta and should be ready for primetime in 2007. Look here for details. I downloaded NeoOffice which runs fine however, for me I noticed a few performance issues with NeoOffice. So I reverted back to OpenOffice as my word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and desktop database suite of productivity applications.
What really amazes me is how brainwashed so many users are with the perception that they 'must have' Microsoft office in order to function on a computer. I met several Mac users that said they purchased Office for the Mac in order to do word processing. Wow, the marketing machine at Microsoft sure does have everyone fooled.
This is the reason why I am blogging about OpenOffice on the Mac. It is available today and works as advertised. If only more Mac users or recent converts were aware of OpenOffice and its capabilities they could save themselves a few dollars and rid themselves of Microsoft. Personally, I enjoy have a Microsoft free laptop using my new Macbook. I have had the same on my Linux notebook for years and it sure does feel great not having to be dependent on Microsoft for my personal computing requirements.
Too bad that I work in a predominately Windows environment at work. It would be nice to see Macs brought into the workplace. Based on my experience, it just works like my refrigerator. No strange behavior, bugs, or just plain oddness to worry about anymore.
Well I must say that OpenOffice runs fine on the Mac OS X after finally getting it installed last week. Currently you must have X11 running in order to use OpenOffice on the Mac. A pure Aqua version of OpenOffice is in beta and should be ready for primetime in 2007. Look here for details. I downloaded NeoOffice which runs fine however, for me I noticed a few performance issues with NeoOffice. So I reverted back to OpenOffice as my word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and desktop database suite of productivity applications.
What really amazes me is how brainwashed so many users are with the perception that they 'must have' Microsoft office in order to function on a computer. I met several Mac users that said they purchased Office for the Mac in order to do word processing. Wow, the marketing machine at Microsoft sure does have everyone fooled.
This is the reason why I am blogging about OpenOffice on the Mac. It is available today and works as advertised. If only more Mac users or recent converts were aware of OpenOffice and its capabilities they could save themselves a few dollars and rid themselves of Microsoft. Personally, I enjoy have a Microsoft free laptop using my new Macbook. I have had the same on my Linux notebook for years and it sure does feel great not having to be dependent on Microsoft for my personal computing requirements.
Too bad that I work in a predominately Windows environment at work. It would be nice to see Macs brought into the workplace. Based on my experience, it just works like my refrigerator. No strange behavior, bugs, or just plain oddness to worry about anymore.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
My Initial Mac
After years of working with Windows, Linux, OS/2, I have always wanted to get into the Mac but never had the motivation or reason to spend the money to get a Mac. Well with the release of the Intel based Macs earlier this year and the ability to run Linux and Windows in virtualization via Parallels and soon VMware I took the plunge and bought me a MacBook on 11/29/2006. After seeing the features of Windows Vista and waiting for its release, I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade to Vista within the year or so unless it occurs at work. For personal home, entertainment, and personal multiplatform research use, I am going with Mac OS X.
After using it for a few days I am happy to say that I really like the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and the Mac in general. There are some extremely intuitive and unique capabilities on the Mac OS X that I have not seen on Linux, OS/2, or Windows. The Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Dashboard, Expose, HotCorners UI features name just a few. These are the features that I have been using extensively. There is this UI automation feature which I haven't even gotten into yet. I forgot the name of it but it looks exactly the type of thing I was looking for in a 21st century operating system.
As far as multimedia is concerned, the Mac just blows away Windows in my opinion and experience. I have used Windows Media Center Edition and compared to the Mac, it looks like a half-baked experiment. The Mac multimedia device experience is like an extremely polished and intuitive appliance. It is just something you have to experience personally is all that I can say.
I still have a lot to learn about the Mac architecture, Darwin, Cocoa, Aqua, X11 on the Mac and more. After just running on it for a few days, I am excited to say that I like it! I will be blogging a lot more about the Mac in this blog and more in the next few years. Given that I do almost everything on the web or online now, switching to a Mac was a piece of cake for me. Mozilla Firefox and Safari work nicely and I had almost nothing to learn from a user perspective.
From a software engineering perspective, Mac OS X totally embraces Java which is good for me since I have been working with Java technology for a long time. I have been finding quite a bit of open source stuff for the Mac which is nice to know. I really like all the Dashboard Widgets. For the future, I have been looking at the previews of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that Apple has been putting on their website and it has some innovations that again will make my next Mac OS X upgrade in 2007 a more capable Mac. The new Spaces and TimeMachine capabilities are a step into the future.
I will continue working with Linux and Windows since that is how I make a living but it would be nice to be able to make a living working on Mac OS X for web development. At any rate, I hope your future computing is as enjoyable as I foresee mine will be. After just a few days of using my MacBook, I feel better about my computing future already. In addition to all the above, I forgot to mention that my MacBook just aesthetically looks and physically feels cool under my fingers.
After using it for a few days I am happy to say that I really like the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and the Mac in general. There are some extremely intuitive and unique capabilities on the Mac OS X that I have not seen on Linux, OS/2, or Windows. The Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Dashboard, Expose, HotCorners UI features name just a few. These are the features that I have been using extensively. There is this UI automation feature which I haven't even gotten into yet. I forgot the name of it but it looks exactly the type of thing I was looking for in a 21st century operating system.
As far as multimedia is concerned, the Mac just blows away Windows in my opinion and experience. I have used Windows Media Center Edition and compared to the Mac, it looks like a half-baked experiment. The Mac multimedia device experience is like an extremely polished and intuitive appliance. It is just something you have to experience personally is all that I can say.
I still have a lot to learn about the Mac architecture, Darwin, Cocoa, Aqua, X11 on the Mac and more. After just running on it for a few days, I am excited to say that I like it! I will be blogging a lot more about the Mac in this blog and more in the next few years. Given that I do almost everything on the web or online now, switching to a Mac was a piece of cake for me. Mozilla Firefox and Safari work nicely and I had almost nothing to learn from a user perspective.
From a software engineering perspective, Mac OS X totally embraces Java which is good for me since I have been working with Java technology for a long time. I have been finding quite a bit of open source stuff for the Mac which is nice to know. I really like all the Dashboard Widgets. For the future, I have been looking at the previews of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that Apple has been putting on their website and it has some innovations that again will make my next Mac OS X upgrade in 2007 a more capable Mac. The new Spaces and TimeMachine capabilities are a step into the future.
I will continue working with Linux and Windows since that is how I make a living but it would be nice to be able to make a living working on Mac OS X for web development. At any rate, I hope your future computing is as enjoyable as I foresee mine will be. After just a few days of using my MacBook, I feel better about my computing future already. In addition to all the above, I forgot to mention that my MacBook just aesthetically looks and physically feels cool under my fingers.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Playstation 3
Today, 11/17/2006, Sony unleashed it's Playstation 3 (PS3) to the US market. Ok, so what does the Sony Playstation 3 have to do with Software Engineering? Quite a bit if you look out into the digital future, at least in my opionon. The PS3 is much more than a game machine. It is a supercomputer based on the IBM/Sony/Toshiba designed Cell processor (I blogged about the Cell earlier this year, The Octopiler) that runs on Linux, has a 60GB hard drive, 802.11g WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, Blu Ray disc, and is designed to be the center of a digital entertainment hub for all your multimedia desires. Oh, yeah it is also an incredible Hi-Definition (up to 1080p), networked gaming machine.
I will not bore you with the technical details because that can be found all over the internet, printed media, and whenever you need it. One very interesting aspect of the Playstaion 3 that is downplayed, at least initially, is its inter-connectivity with the PSP. I really like the portability aspect of the PSP and use it quite frequently as a portable web browsing device and gaming machine. I'd like to see the PS3 and PSP collaborate with one another in games and other forms of digital entertainment that have not been explored yet.
I don't expect to be able to get a Playstation 3 anytime soon due to sell outs and limited supplies initally, but when I do eventually get one in the near future I intend to set it up in my family room and give it a spin as a center piece for the digital living room of the 21st century. I have intentionally held back from getting a large HDTV until after the PS3 was released. Now that the PS3 is out, I have begun researching and shopping for an LCD HDTV that will provide me with 1080p capabilities.
I think the PS3 will make the digital life interesting and fun again in 2007 and beyond. Something I would like to see is a Cell based notebook computer running Linux! Now that would be a really cool evolution say in 2008 for this family of technology. For now in 2006 and in 2007, we have the PS3. I can't wait to get mine.
I will not bore you with the technical details because that can be found all over the internet, printed media, and whenever you need it. One very interesting aspect of the Playstaion 3 that is downplayed, at least initially, is its inter-connectivity with the PSP. I really like the portability aspect of the PSP and use it quite frequently as a portable web browsing device and gaming machine. I'd like to see the PS3 and PSP collaborate with one another in games and other forms of digital entertainment that have not been explored yet.
I don't expect to be able to get a Playstation 3 anytime soon due to sell outs and limited supplies initally, but when I do eventually get one in the near future I intend to set it up in my family room and give it a spin as a center piece for the digital living room of the 21st century. I have intentionally held back from getting a large HDTV until after the PS3 was released. Now that the PS3 is out, I have begun researching and shopping for an LCD HDTV that will provide me with 1080p capabilities.
I think the PS3 will make the digital life interesting and fun again in 2007 and beyond. Something I would like to see is a Cell based notebook computer running Linux! Now that would be a really cool evolution say in 2008 for this family of technology. For now in 2006 and in 2007, we have the PS3. I can't wait to get mine.
The Open Source Battle Front
November 2006 will be remembered as the month when proprietary software companies opened a battle front in the inevitable war between open source and proprietary technologies. Here are some major signifcant events that have occurred:
These are just the major announcements. There are many more than this however, the big proprietary companies are significant since they command so much market share and industry influence.
So what is the agenda under the agenda? It is an acknowledgement and action by the big proprietary vendors that they have decided to compete directly with open source companies that threaten their proprietary software business model. I thought this batte front was going to happen in 2007/2008 and it caught me off guard as to how soon the chosen battle fronts were made by the proprietary software companies (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft).
At any rate, the next few months and 2007 will definitely be a year of adventure, changes, and interesting developments in the open source world. What is interesting is how Google, Yahoo, Amazon, IBM, and other pro-open source companies have stayed out of the fireworks so far this month. It looks like they are all managing to proceed with their open source strategies, whatever they are, and moving forward changing the world.
As a supporter of open source I think big changes are in store for all us in 2007 and beyond.
- Oracle announced that it will compete with Red Hat Linux directly in the Linux IT services sector.
- Microsoft announced and signed a deal with Novell for licensing and working with the Linux community.
- Microsoft also has signed a deal with Zend the open source PHP vendor.
- Sun made Java open source under the GPL on 11/14/2006.
These are just the major announcements. There are many more than this however, the big proprietary companies are significant since they command so much market share and industry influence.
So what is the agenda under the agenda? It is an acknowledgement and action by the big proprietary vendors that they have decided to compete directly with open source companies that threaten their proprietary software business model. I thought this batte front was going to happen in 2007/2008 and it caught me off guard as to how soon the chosen battle fronts were made by the proprietary software companies (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft).
At any rate, the next few months and 2007 will definitely be a year of adventure, changes, and interesting developments in the open source world. What is interesting is how Google, Yahoo, Amazon, IBM, and other pro-open source companies have stayed out of the fireworks so far this month. It looks like they are all managing to proceed with their open source strategies, whatever they are, and moving forward changing the world.
As a supporter of open source I think big changes are in store for all us in 2007 and beyond.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Unstructured Information Management
Unstructured information makes up most of the information content on the internet today. Estimates are as high as 90% of available information on the internet is unstructured. So with all the databases, portals, websites, repositories, hard drives and trillions of files that exist today how do you harness this information? This is where the field of Information Management has the technical challenge to turn all this information into useful information and knowledge. This is entirely conceiveable given sufficient time, computing power and storage. The challenge is making this happen in near realtime.
To meet this challenge, DARPA has funded IBM Research in 2005 to create UIMA which stands for the Unstructured Information Management Architecture. It is an open, industrial-strength, scaleable and extensible platform for creating, integrating and deploying unstructured information management solutions from combinations of semantic analysis and search components. IBM makes UIMA available as a free SDK (alpha), and makes the core Java framework available as open source software (UIMA at SourceForge) to provide a common foundation for industry and academia to collaborate and accelerate the world-wide development of technologies critical for discovering the vital knowledge present in the fastest growing sources of information today. IBM developerWorks has a tutorial for using the UIMA SDK with Eclipse.
Since IBM released UIMA as open source in early 2006, it has been widely adopted. Open source projects such as GATE, OntoText, and many other have been utilizing UIMA as the framework for unstructured information management research. As research into managing and harnessing unstructured information grows, there will be more available solutions to solve these problems.
To meet this challenge, DARPA has funded IBM Research in 2005 to create UIMA which stands for the Unstructured Information Management Architecture. It is an open, industrial-strength, scaleable and extensible platform for creating, integrating and deploying unstructured information management solutions from combinations of semantic analysis and search components. IBM makes UIMA available as a free SDK (alpha), and makes the core Java framework available as open source software (UIMA at SourceForge) to provide a common foundation for industry and academia to collaborate and accelerate the world-wide development of technologies critical for discovering the vital knowledge present in the fastest growing sources of information today. IBM developerWorks has a tutorial for using the UIMA SDK with Eclipse.
Since IBM released UIMA as open source in early 2006, it has been widely adopted. Open source projects such as GATE, OntoText, and many other have been utilizing UIMA as the framework for unstructured information management research. As research into managing and harnessing unstructured information grows, there will be more available solutions to solve these problems.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
The Expanding Google Earth
If you have not used Google Earth lately then you are missing out on one of the killer applications that merges the web with rich native applications. The 3-D Warehouse of Google Earth plugins has been growing steadily after Google released Sketchup, the 3-D modeling aplication. Sketchup comes in a free version and a professional version. The nice thing about this approach is that you get to use a fully functioning program that scales to the professional level if you need that capability.
"The growing world of Google Earth" provides some insight into just how Google Earth has been evolving. I use Google Earth quite frequently as the means to find places and to explore places that I have never been. You can spend hours doing this and is quite entertaining.
The real power of Google Earth is the API provided by Google that allows you to build upon Google Earth's capabilities by integrating it into your custom applications. Additionally an SDK is provided to allow even more customization. Google Earth is becoming a platform for creating new applications or mash ups.
The imagery database is constantly being updated and I can see the day when the 3-D models for just about everything is integrated and available. I can think of several applications of integrating Google Earth technology and designing 3-D programs for everyday use. For now, we all get to watch this killer application evolve slowly which is ok with me.
"The growing world of Google Earth" provides some insight into just how Google Earth has been evolving. I use Google Earth quite frequently as the means to find places and to explore places that I have never been. You can spend hours doing this and is quite entertaining.
The real power of Google Earth is the API provided by Google that allows you to build upon Google Earth's capabilities by integrating it into your custom applications. Additionally an SDK is provided to allow even more customization. Google Earth is becoming a platform for creating new applications or mash ups.
The imagery database is constantly being updated and I can see the day when the 3-D models for just about everything is integrated and available. I can think of several applications of integrating Google Earth technology and designing 3-D programs for everyday use. For now, we all get to watch this killer application evolve slowly which is ok with me.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Open Source To Rescue OCR
This blog is not entirely about open source intentionally. It just happens that open source technology is where all the action and innovation appears to be happening in software today. I just bumped upon an article about OCR that interested me. "Google releases open source OCR tool". If you thought at OCR was a stagnant technology then you just joined the crowd and Google's viewpoint.
What is interesting is the fact that it took an open source mentality, a stagnant technology (OCR), and a few bright Google engineers to reinvigorate the OCR technology space. The new open source product called, Tesseract, is released under an Apache Software License. Google hopes that the open source community will create solutions and new products for the OCR technology.
Prior to reading this article, I was not aware that OCR technology has literally stagnated for the last 10-years. HP and UNLV released their OCR technology into open source to re-generate interest. Well, it appears that Google does have the interest. Remember the digital library initiative that caused an uproar. Well, open source OCR looks like it is par for the course of working towards that goal.
What is interesting is the fact that it took an open source mentality, a stagnant technology (OCR), and a few bright Google engineers to reinvigorate the OCR technology space. The new open source product called, Tesseract, is released under an Apache Software License. Google hopes that the open source community will create solutions and new products for the OCR technology.
Prior to reading this article, I was not aware that OCR technology has literally stagnated for the last 10-years. HP and UNLV released their OCR technology into open source to re-generate interest. Well, it appears that Google does have the interest. Remember the digital library initiative that caused an uproar. Well, open source OCR looks like it is par for the course of working towards that goal.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
The Next Set of Open Source Waves
I have written about my viewpoint of open source technology and how it is transforming the IT industry. Well, I am glad that this mentality or at least thought process is becoming mainstream. I really like the angle that InfoWorld has put on this in the article "Who are the Losers, Now That Open Source is Winning?".
What is even more ironic is how Microsoft has approached the Mozilla foundation to collaborate on future projects. This is just more evidence that open source is a strategic aspect of any company working in the IT industry. You can no longer ignore open source if you want to remain viable in the future.
The success of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, SalesForce.com, RedHat, JBoss... are case studies for businesses built on open source technology. Getting back to who is winning and the next set of waves, the InfoWorld article above makes a pretty good assessment of the current state of open source vs. proprietary technology in the IT field. The bottom line is for the next few years there will be peaceful coexistence. After that the two will be on a head on collision course and if you are not a player with or in open source technology, you will probably not be doing business successfully in the future.
As always in this business, time will tell and we are always just another major breakthrough away from a complete disruptive technology shift. So far this year, I think the cards are playing in favor of open source and its increasing critical importance to the IT industry.
What is even more ironic is how Microsoft has approached the Mozilla foundation to collaborate on future projects. This is just more evidence that open source is a strategic aspect of any company working in the IT industry. You can no longer ignore open source if you want to remain viable in the future.
The success of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, SalesForce.com, RedHat, JBoss... are case studies for businesses built on open source technology. Getting back to who is winning and the next set of waves, the InfoWorld article above makes a pretty good assessment of the current state of open source vs. proprietary technology in the IT field. The bottom line is for the next few years there will be peaceful coexistence. After that the two will be on a head on collision course and if you are not a player with or in open source technology, you will probably not be doing business successfully in the future.
As always in this business, time will tell and we are always just another major breakthrough away from a complete disruptive technology shift. So far this year, I think the cards are playing in favor of open source and its increasing critical importance to the IT industry.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
LAMP Stack Development
Well, I have recently been pretty heavy into PHP development and must say that is quite an change compared to Java/Struts and J2EE type development. One nice thing I have found is taht Eclipse and Zend are working together to make this a smooth process with the PHPIDE. If you are a Java developer and already use Eclipse, you will feel quite at home using the Zend PHPIDE which is an Eclipse 3.2 plugin that works quite nicely even in beta form.
There are pros and cons to using the LAMP (Linux, Apache MySQL, Perl/PHP) or WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP) stack. I will just refer to this as the LAMP stack from now on in this posting. One benefit is that all the tools are open source. There are very few financial barriers to using these technologies. The primary con I see if that you have to ensure that you are using compatible versions of each of the components in your technology architecture. One solution is just try a VMware appliance, WAMP, or XAMMP packages pre-built for Linux or Windows. The downside to the pre-packages approach is that if you have to deploy and support a LAMP/WAMP stack, you will not have the necessary configuration skills for troubleshooting issues that may occur on your servers. I recommend that if you need to support this stuff, then learn to do it the hard way at least once so you will know the configuration and mechanics of the LAMP stack. The "Install & Configure Apache, PHP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin & WordPress on Windows XP/2000" and "Building a LAMP Server" HOWTOs really helped me out with this stuff among other HOWTOs I found. As usual, the HOWTO article was not bullet-proof or 100% accurate. I think I found about a 75% accuracy rate for configuring LAMP. Most issues I have found concern the PHP5 and MySQL5 issues (see this Zend post).
In other words, I discovered that MySQL 5 and PHP 5 have introduced some connectivity issues and incompatibilities with latest Apache HTTP Server. PHP5 doesn't even work with Apache 2.2 in my experience and I confirmed after doing quite a bit of research on the web. From what I have seen, the PHP community is working on supporting Apache 2.2. For MySQL5 and PHP5 you need to be using Apache HTTP Server 2.0. I learned this the hard way. Additionally, I was not aware that MySQL5 breaks quite a few PHP applications due to changes in password encoding and introduction of object-orientation in PHP5. Then there is the PHP mysqli extension that supercededs the mysql extension that is built into PHP. What a frustrating experience that is.
Anyway, what I have learned with all this experimentation with LAMP stack is that it is like all the other open source technology solutions I have been working with in the past few years. It does work with a few caveats. LAMP works as good as your understanding, skills and ability to use the web for research all the tools and components. Paraphrasing this, LAMP works if you are willing to put in the time and have the right mentality and necessary open source skills to solve problems.
There are pros and cons to using the LAMP (Linux, Apache MySQL, Perl/PHP) or WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP) stack. I will just refer to this as the LAMP stack from now on in this posting. One benefit is that all the tools are open source. There are very few financial barriers to using these technologies. The primary con I see if that you have to ensure that you are using compatible versions of each of the components in your technology architecture. One solution is just try a VMware appliance, WAMP, or XAMMP packages pre-built for Linux or Windows. The downside to the pre-packages approach is that if you have to deploy and support a LAMP/WAMP stack, you will not have the necessary configuration skills for troubleshooting issues that may occur on your servers. I recommend that if you need to support this stuff, then learn to do it the hard way at least once so you will know the configuration and mechanics of the LAMP stack. The "Install & Configure Apache, PHP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin & WordPress on Windows XP/2000" and "Building a LAMP Server" HOWTOs really helped me out with this stuff among other HOWTOs I found. As usual, the HOWTO article was not bullet-proof or 100% accurate. I think I found about a 75% accuracy rate for configuring LAMP. Most issues I have found concern the PHP5 and MySQL5 issues (see this Zend post).
In other words, I discovered that MySQL 5 and PHP 5 have introduced some connectivity issues and incompatibilities with latest Apache HTTP Server. PHP5 doesn't even work with Apache 2.2 in my experience and I confirmed after doing quite a bit of research on the web. From what I have seen, the PHP community is working on supporting Apache 2.2. For MySQL5 and PHP5 you need to be using Apache HTTP Server 2.0. I learned this the hard way. Additionally, I was not aware that MySQL5 breaks quite a few PHP applications due to changes in password encoding and introduction of object-orientation in PHP5. Then there is the PHP mysqli extension that supercededs the mysql extension that is built into PHP. What a frustrating experience that is.
Anyway, what I have learned with all this experimentation with LAMP stack is that it is like all the other open source technology solutions I have been working with in the past few years. It does work with a few caveats. LAMP works as good as your understanding, skills and ability to use the web for research all the tools and components. Paraphrasing this, LAMP works if you are willing to put in the time and have the right mentality and necessary open source skills to solve problems.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Open Source Technology and National Security
I have read several articles that support the idea that the US DoD should adopt open source and open technologies more readily to match the productivity gains that many companies in the private sector have attained. The recent article, "Open Source in the national interest", provides a strong case for adopting open source in the DoD more readily. The 79 page April 2006 report mentions specifically how IBM has transformed itself by adopting open source readily.
There was a 2002 Report by Mitre that advocated the same. The 2002 article is not in as much depth as the more recent article noted above.
If Google, Yahoo, EBay, Amazon, IBM and many others are doing so well with open source technology on the large scale, then I think our government can do the same. It would just require a transformation of the government IT organizations. This is definitely more difficult than it sounds but when I see entire countries adopting open source technology (i.e. EU, Japan, Korea, China, India) I get that feeling that we might be falling behind or losing our edge by not following suit. I think it is in our national interest and so do many others in this ever changing computer science field.
There was a 2002 Report by Mitre that advocated the same. The 2002 article is not in as much depth as the more recent article noted above.
If Google, Yahoo, EBay, Amazon, IBM and many others are doing so well with open source technology on the large scale, then I think our government can do the same. It would just require a transformation of the government IT organizations. This is definitely more difficult than it sounds but when I see entire countries adopting open source technology (i.e. EU, Japan, Korea, China, India) I get that feeling that we might be falling behind or losing our edge by not following suit. I think it is in our national interest and so do many others in this ever changing computer science field.
Agile Web Development and the Lighter Languages
I have spent the past few months working with developing and experimenting with Java (JSP, Struts, Spring, Hibernate), Perl, PHP, ASP, Visual Basic and Ruby. Well, I will have to say there is something to be said about agile processes and open source dynamic languages. Recently I have had the opportunity to work with Java/JSP, Perl, and PHP. I am porting a PHP web application to JSP and intentionally sticking with a JSP Model 1 implementation. This is a bit of a digression in development techniques or a few steps backwards but I am testing out a theory. I can always refactor to an MVC design or other if necessary.
The theory that I am testing is: "It is possible to ignore elegance temporarily for attaining speed and practicality of getting a solution working using a 'quick and clean' process. (agility)" The old cliche in programming of doing something 'quick and dirty' to just get the job done is a concept I never really liked but have had to do occassionally in my career. The 'quick and dirty' approach almost always got me in trouble. I try to avoid doing this at all costs if possible. Based on my experiences with agile 'quick and clean' development, I feel that it is possible to attain software development speed practically in a sustained manner without sacrificing too much elegance. In other words, getting the cleanest job done in the best possible manner in the shortest period of time.
What I have found interesting in the days I've spent porting PHP to JSP is that it is relativley straight forward if you ignore your inner programming voice that says you should refactor the PHP to a more elegant Java/JSP design. In just a few days work, I have functioning webapps in JSP that rival the development speed of the looser PHP. I have to note that the PHP webapp is not using any PHP framework, design patterns (Five Common PHP Design Patterns), or other MVC pattern frameworks. This would of course complicate the design and make porting PHP to Java/JSP slower in my opinion but would require an experiment to prove it.
One other thing I must note is that having a really good IDE is critical to making this work. I am currently using Eclipse 3.1, Netbeans 5, and Zend Studio 5 in these 'quick and clean' experimental processes and this is definitely a must. I recently added Netbeans 5 to my pallete of java programming tools and it has yielded quite a productivity improvement for JSP and servlet development for me.
My next set of experiments is to get into Ruby on Rails (RoR) development which is a 'quick and clean' architecture. I have been talking about this all year however, have not made the time to start an experiment with RoR.
The theory that I am testing is: "It is possible to ignore elegance temporarily for attaining speed and practicality of getting a solution working using a 'quick and clean' process. (agility)" The old cliche in programming of doing something 'quick and dirty' to just get the job done is a concept I never really liked but have had to do occassionally in my career. The 'quick and dirty' approach almost always got me in trouble. I try to avoid doing this at all costs if possible. Based on my experiences with agile 'quick and clean' development, I feel that it is possible to attain software development speed practically in a sustained manner without sacrificing too much elegance. In other words, getting the cleanest job done in the best possible manner in the shortest period of time.
What I have found interesting in the days I've spent porting PHP to JSP is that it is relativley straight forward if you ignore your inner programming voice that says you should refactor the PHP to a more elegant Java/JSP design. In just a few days work, I have functioning webapps in JSP that rival the development speed of the looser PHP. I have to note that the PHP webapp is not using any PHP framework, design patterns (Five Common PHP Design Patterns), or other MVC pattern frameworks. This would of course complicate the design and make porting PHP to Java/JSP slower in my opinion but would require an experiment to prove it.
One other thing I must note is that having a really good IDE is critical to making this work. I am currently using Eclipse 3.1, Netbeans 5, and Zend Studio 5 in these 'quick and clean' experimental processes and this is definitely a must. I recently added Netbeans 5 to my pallete of java programming tools and it has yielded quite a productivity improvement for JSP and servlet development for me.
My next set of experiments is to get into Ruby on Rails (RoR) development which is a 'quick and clean' architecture. I have been talking about this all year however, have not made the time to start an experiment with RoR.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Archaeology and FOSS Trends
Archaeology has been a passion of mine since I was a kid. Prior to getting into computer science and music, archaeology was one of the professions I wanted to pursue. To this day, using the internet and reading as much as I can I try to stay involved in what is current in the archaeological field.
Much of the software technology used in the archeological field has been proprietary until very recently. I just bumped into an open source product called ArcheOS that is a GNU Linux distributionhas specifically configured for archaology! The 1.0 release was presented late in 2005 and has since been evolving following the open source model.
In the article, "Uncovering progress in FOSS-based archeology", it discusses the progress made to date with FOSS for the archaology. I will research more into what ArcheOS does and should have a cursory working knowledge of this stuff sometime this year if I can devote a few days to it.
I am surprised at how FOSS has been finding its way into the archeological field. I guess with continuing technology trends, open source technology appears to be invading just about every aspect of life where software is required and used. It makes logical sense that open source technology is finding its way into other fields other than business, science and technology.
Much of the software technology used in the archeological field has been proprietary until very recently. I just bumped into an open source product called ArcheOS that is a GNU Linux distributionhas specifically configured for archaology! The 1.0 release was presented late in 2005 and has since been evolving following the open source model.
In the article, "Uncovering progress in FOSS-based archeology", it discusses the progress made to date with FOSS for the archaology. I will research more into what ArcheOS does and should have a cursory working knowledge of this stuff sometime this year if I can devote a few days to it.
I am surprised at how FOSS has been finding its way into the archeological field. I guess with continuing technology trends, open source technology appears to be invading just about every aspect of life where software is required and used. It makes logical sense that open source technology is finding its way into other fields other than business, science and technology.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Windows Genuine Advantage Spyware
I need to stand on top of my Microsoft soap box and say a few things about Windows security. I use both Linux, Windows and whatever devices make my digital life more productive and entertaining. Well, if you have not heard, just this past week Microsoft was caught and tagged as the largest spyware source to date. "Microsoft Big Brother". For roughly the past year, all modern Windows PCs have been phoning home every day. This was put into service in July 2005 as the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) service which was required to allow Windows patches to continue working. The true intent of WGA was never revealed by our trusted Big Brother, Microsoft.
The thing that bothers me the most about this is that Microsoft did this for security reasons and used it for some yet unknown reason (marketing) to make using Windows better for everyone. This sounds like a smokescreen to me and makes me wonder about the new integrate security features like anti-spyware Microsoft has embedded into the next version of Windows Vista.
Boy am I glad that I have options and know how to use Linux and other personal computing platforms effectively. As I look to the future, I see a less Windows dependent future for me. At least as far as home computing and entertainment computing and security are concerned. With Linux, Mac and Sony PS3 coming online soon, I think in the near future I will further diversify my personal computing technology architecture and use Windows less. Choices exist, you just have to exercise your right to choose based on good solid information.
The thing that bothers me the most about this is that Microsoft did this for security reasons and used it for some yet unknown reason (marketing) to make using Windows better for everyone. This sounds like a smokescreen to me and makes me wonder about the new integrate security features like anti-spyware Microsoft has embedded into the next version of Windows Vista.
Boy am I glad that I have options and know how to use Linux and other personal computing platforms effectively. As I look to the future, I see a less Windows dependent future for me. At least as far as home computing and entertainment computing and security are concerned. With Linux, Mac and Sony PS3 coming online soon, I think in the near future I will further diversify my personal computing technology architecture and use Windows less. Choices exist, you just have to exercise your right to choose based on good solid information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
