Monthly Archives: July 2007 - Page 2

Web nostalgia, Microsoft's Linux deals, and a few gadgets

Posted by on 13 July 2007 15:38 Comments Off

Happy Friday the 13th! Here are some links for today:

  • This Is What The Web Looked Like In 1994 A nostalgic look at the web 13 years ago. Somewhat depressing, altogether quite laughable. Now you can use browser emulators from that period to view current websites. A good study for those designing websites intended to degrade nicely in non-standard browsers. ;) By the way, Geek with Laptop is a pretty slick blog; I just found it yesterday.
  • The New Linux Distro – Are the Linux companies who have made “patent deals” with Microsoft really just letting Microsoft make money off Linux? Who is really benefiting here, Linux companies, the Linux community, or Redmond? A good quote about the importance of the community:

    These companies forgot one thing…the power is with the consumer. The power is in the community. Ubuntu realizes that…they’ve embraced the community and look what’s happened! The community holds the power to make or break…the power of spoken word cannot be underestimated.

  • Mean Spirited Comments and Blogging – Good exposition on what to do when you run across nasty comments, as I did on Trolls.
  • Running a Windows Partition in VMware – For Linux hackers who would rather not leave their comfortable environment to use Windows (and yes, the need does arise at times, sadly), here are directions on how to mount an existing Windows partition and run it in a VMware virtual machine.
  • Call feature on Google Maps – Now Google will let you call any business number listed on Google Maps from your phone, without calling them directly. Google pays long-distance charges.EDIT: This has been discontinued.
  • Controlling Jobs in Linux – Great tutorial on job management from the Linux consoleEDIT: Site is no longer active

Links for 7/12

Posted by on 12 July 2007 16:22 Comments Off

I ran across quite a few interesting articles and posts today and thought I’d post some links.

New Blogger features

Posted by on 12 July 2007 12:45 Comments Off

Just as I leave Blogger in favor of WordPress, they roll out some new features:

  • FeedBurner integration Now Blogger users can integrate FeedBurner features into their default feeds. (Read more on The Blog Herald.)
  • Cool new search widget Blogger users can install a search plugin that allows visitors to search not just the content of the blog itself, but also everything the blog links to.

Alas. But I still like WordPress better.

Global Constant

Posted by on 11 July 2007 18:56 Comments Off

So this is the new blog. I chose the title because it’s sort of the opposite of Instance Variable, for you programmers who understand that terminology. (Read this post for why I chose the name in the first place.)

So here are my tech-related posts. I’ve put feeds on both sites so you can keep track of everything from one place if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Political activism and open source

Posted by on 6 July 2007 16:14 Comments Off

What an intriguing idea. A group of people are beginning to create an open source project to give the American public more information about the inner happenings of the federal government. Seems like a way to get people in all sectors of the country involved: politicians, businessmen, geeks, and even the politically inactive.Bill Bradley, one of the proponents of the new idea, published a book earlier this year called The New American Story. The review makes it sound like quite a good read for those interested (and those who are not, but should be) in saving our nation from the political corruption we have begun to fall into. Something as simple as voting can change the face of politics, if only people would get out of their houses and do it.

Usability, the iPhone, and Fitt’s law

Posted by on 5 July 2007 16:25 Comments Off

I just read a great iPhone usability review on the Humanized Weblog. Interface design interests me, and Humanized has a ton of really cool ideas for creating humane, usable, intuitive interfaces.

Also on the post was a discussion on Fitt’s law and the way Apple designed multi-level lists on the system. I found a link on the Wikipedia article to a Microsoft blog discussing the implications of Fitt’s law in interface design for Windows and Microsoft Office.

Very interesting reads.

ScobleShow

Posted by on 5 July 2007 12:56 Comments Off

I have really been enjoying watching the most recent episodes on the ScobleShow. I discovered Robert Scoble’s blog sometime last week and have been reading it quite avidly since then. I just watched the episode “A talk with VMWare’s lead geek” and found it very interesting.I’d recommend both of these sites to anybody interested in technical computer subjects.

Microsoft patent infringements and Linux

Posted by on 5 July 2007 10:07 Comments Off

The latest buzz in the Linux forums deals with Microsoft’s claims on patent infringements. Novell made a deal with Microsoft last year dealing with interoperability between Linux and Windows. Word has it that Red Hat is now following suit, despite previous resistance, and making plans to talk to Microsoft.The part that baffles me is how Microsoft is claiming that open-source software is infringing on its patent rights, even though it may be that Microsoft has violated some open-source patents.

Now it seems the Free Software Foundation has made a blunder with the new GPLv3. It makes me wonder if the open-source community will leave the FSF in the dust or if they will submit to the new terms. Linus Torvalds, at least, has said that they don’t anticipate moving the Linux kernel to the new GPL.

What a mess.

On the brighter side, Apple’s stock is skyrocketing since the iPhone came out last week.