KDE on Linux now de facto platform for Brazil primary school education system

I just received excellent news from Mauricio of Open Source Diary that Brazil has made KDE on Linux the official computing platform of the primary education system. The official details and such are available at his blog, but I'll post one quick screen shot here showing the new desktop.



The long and short of this news is that primary education system of Brazil includes some 52 million users spread across the country. That's not an exaggeration folks...52 million.

Here's a brief excerpt:

[At] the end of this year there will be already 29,000 labs deployed, serving approximately 36 million students. This number grows to more than 53,000 by the end of 2009, and at that time 52 million students will have access to them. You can also see in the slide a solution that is being developed for classrooms: a single hardware unit with integrated projector, cpu, bundled content and DVD player. With it, digital content will no longer be restricted to the info lab, and will be usable by teachers in the traditional classrooms as well.

I am thinking that this is the largest massive Linux deployment in history. I may be wrong, but I'm just elated to see that 52 million young people will grow up in a free (as in freedom) environment where they will learn and flourish without the trappings of proprietary technology. This is one HUGE victory for Linux.

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IBM iDataPlex server line offers power on demand and liquid cooling

IBM has released data on it's new iDataPlex line of servers that are aimed at web services companies which need power on-demand for certain applications, but also need to watch power costs carefully. The new servers use liquid cooling which is much more efficient than traditional air conditioned and cooled units. The new line allows companies to double the server capacity of a single rack and still use 40% less electricity. The systems are also designed to be used as pools of computing resources rather than in the traditional single use server model. This further enhances efficiency within the data center. To the new internet startup company, this new line of servers will offer massive and efficient scalability, reduced energy consumption and reduced data center footprint. It's a win-win on all sides.

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My Home Office

Here are those pictures I promised of my home office...I don't have pictures of the new iMac yet, but it's off to the left where you cannot see it. I recently swapped the black case with blue lights in the front for a clear sided case and added UV lights. Next in the series is one of my Dell laptops...the other laptop is a M1210 which I keep free of "schwag" for business travel purposes. The last pic is of my office guard dog, my Chihuahua Mary. She's almost 3 years old now.

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My Cube at Work

For those that want to see it, here are some pics of my cube at work. Even though I am a consultant, I still make my space as homely as possible. I'll post some pics of my home office next.

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Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition Released

Integrates the Latest Stable Applications with Long Term Support

LONDON, April 21, 2008 – Canonical Ltd. announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition for free download on Thursday 24 April. In related news, Canonical also announced the simultaneous release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition.

Ubuntu 8.04 Long Term Support (LTS) provides a stable platform for software and hardware vendors, developers and users. With three years of support and maintenance on the desktop, 8.04 LTS is a great choice for large-scale deployment. A substantial and growing ecosystem of free and commercial software built for Ubuntu provides a rich set of choices for desktop users. This is the eighth desktop release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu's track record in delivering - on a precise schedule every six months - a commercial operating system that is free, stable, secure and fully supported, remains unique.

“Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition is a very significant release as it will take Ubuntu squarely into the business environment," said Jane Silber, COO of Canonical Ltd. "Our business and home users have told us that they want a longer support cycle to make Ubuntu a better deployment option. We have responded to that and added a commitment to much broader software and hardware support that we and our partners are excited to deliver. With enhanced commercial support through Landscape, combined with our always excellent community support, expect to see 8.04 LTS drive Ubuntu into new arenas."

"Ubuntu's polished, user focused version of the Linux desktop has built itself a wide enough following to compel significant ISV interest and support,” said Stephen O'Grady, principal analyst at Redmonk. "By coupling a very capable desktop offering with long term support options, Ubuntu is becoming an increasingly viable option for enterprises as well as consumers."

"Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino bring highly scalable messaging and industry-leading collaboration to the Ubuntu desktop,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president of IBM Lotus Software. "We believe the extended multi-year support for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS makes it an excellent desktop solution for corporate users who wish to deploy Lotus Notes on an open platform."

Latest and Greatest Applications

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS raises the bar on the Linux desktop experience. It includes the latest, stable version of many core products, and in that spirit is the first distribution to bring Mozilla Firefox 3 (Beta 5) to millions of users. The combination of Linux and Firefox make Ubuntu 8.04 LTS a superb web desktop, with fast browsing and greatly reduced exposure to viruses, web forgery and spyware.

Enhanced photo experience: The enhanced default photo manager, F-Spot, together with improved camera and phone recognition means users can upload, tag, manage, display, delete, print and share photos with friends and family more easily.

Music sharing and download: Users can plug in a PSP, share playlists with friends, buy from the Magnatune online music store, stream live radio and plug in more devices than ever (with UpnP).

Better video: The new default movie player now allows users to browse YouTube and other video sources across the web and to share their videos with others. It integrates with Myth TV, the open source TVR, so users can watch their favourite TV shows straight on the desktop. Brasero allows them to easily burn all content to CD or DVD.

Productivity enhancements: Clock and calendar integration is available to manage time across the globe with a single click to set, attend and receive alerts about appointments.

Slick desktop: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS combines the latest GNOME applications with desktop visual effects, giving users a smoother, better-looking and more intuitive experience.

Breadth and Depth of Services

Longer support: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is supported with security updates and maintenance for three years so corporate and individual users have a longer upgrade planning cycle. Those who want the newest applications will be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10, due in October 2008, those who prefer longer deployment cycles can stay with Ubuntu 8.04 for three years before moving to the next LTS release.

More applications: More than 30 commercial ISVs plan to support and distribute their applications on the 8.04 LTS desktop platform, including Adobe, Google, Real Networks, Nero, Skype, Corel, Parallels and Fluendo.

More accessibility: Gesture support allows users to navigate Ubuntu in a more natural fashion. Also available are increased language support for voice command, support for keyboard accessibility, slow keys, zoom and more.

Pricing and Availability

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition is free of charge and available on Thursday from http://www.ubuntu.com/download.

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Sun finishing up the complete open-sourcing of the Java Platform

It seems that Sun Microsystems is now moving swiftly toward open-sourcing all of the Java platform. At present, all but some 4% of the platform has been opened up and released without constraints. The remaining pieces, which include some sound, graphics and SNMP functionality, will soon be opened up as well.

The reasoning behind this push for completely open-sourcing the Java platform is that it will now be able to be packaged and shipped with Linux distributions, which often only package truly and fully open-source software. This will help push Java usage and development to more places than ever before, and will really hit home with the type of crowd you want using your development platform - open-source developers.

Sun is working closely with Linux distributors like OpenSuse, Ubuntu and Fedora to make all of this a possibility. "We're hoping to see some movement [with the] Linux distributions in the very near future, hopefully by JavaOne," said Rich Sands, group manager for developer marketing at Sun, in an interview on Tuesday. As a side note, JavaOne will take place in San Francisco in two weeks.

Although I am not a developer in the strict sense, I do regularly script things in Python and write small apps here and there. Python is a very powerful language, and I love it to death, but bringing Java to the masses through a truly open implementation of the platform is a huge step toward forming a development core around a truly multi-platform development platform (no pun intended.)

There was once a time when resources in a computer were limited and efficiency in coding was of paramount importance. Today, however, resources are plentiful and hardware is cheap. It makes more sense now to work with a slightly less efficient development platform that can run on any operating system and throw more hardware where needed to increase speed.
This step by Sun can possibly lead to a scenario where most new applications are written once in Java and able to run on just about any hardware. This drastically reduces development time (and cost) for multi-platform applications while at the same time increasing the possible user base of an application. It's truly a win-win situation for Sun and application developers everywhere.

Perhaps in another post I will delve into how the implementation of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) as a virtual appliance that runs in virtualization software like VMware or VirtualBox can result in the eventual removal of an operating system all together? What do you think?

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FBI worried counterfeit Chinese Cisco gear may be in government installations

Now I have always said that the government does not attract the cream of the crop in terms of personnel. The private sector offers much more money and that pretty much sums up the argument. Yet again, it seems that US Government incompetence (not a surprise with the current administration) has possibly allowed counterfeit Cisco networking hardware in government installations. The original article goes into more detail about how the government process for bidding (lowest price) has raised the odds of getting counterfeit hardware and how the FBI is concerned that these counterfeit electronics are a threat to national security.

As you can see, the FBI is concerned about critical infrastructure damage, AND, the potential of access to secure government systems. Many online IT circles have been speculating that the counterfeit hardware will provide backdoor capabilities and access into compromised networks for the originators of the equipment. In fact, some areas of speculation regarding the counterfeit Cisco equipment has focused on the possibility that the hardware is being manufactured expressly to deploy exploitable systems far and wide into the wild. The rationale being that the likely "wholesale" price of the counterfeit routers and switches are so low and profit margins likely very thin, that the only real advantage may be gained from downstream system exploits in the future.

At this point, I have several questions. How is the FBI going to investigate this matter? Is there any way for customers who own Cisco gear to verify that their gear is legitimate? How will Cisco respond to this issue both internally and externally? How high is the risk that other network hardware manufacturers have been the victims of counterfeit hardware vendors? What other electronic devices that may be attached to sensitive networks or systems are possible counterfeit products? Just how deep does this rabbit hole go? Is this a wakeup call not to buy products from China?

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Microsoft poised to release Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Microsoft has finally 'finished' XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and has set Wednesday, April 29, 2008 as the release date for those that wish to download it from the web. For those that wish to get it via the traditional Windows Update, you will have to wait until sometime "this summer." Having been originally slated for release as early as 2006, SP3 has had a very bumpy release road with several major push backs. My own upgrade experience with this service pack (admittedly a release candidate) was less than stellar. My test box refused to reboot, and only some manual copying of files via the recovery console fixed the issue. Most users report that SP3 has improved the speed and reliability of XP, further raising the question that most users are currently asking, "why Vista?" Why Vista indeed. The XP SP3 Overview covers this service pack in more detail. Users should read over this first, then decide if they wish to apply the service pack before the normal summer release. I have yet to notice and difference in performance or functionality, but I will be sure to note it here if I do. Any other opinions on SP3 from the general community?

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Free and Open Source Software Costing Vendors $60 Billion?

Whenever some trade group, industry analyst or otherwise states that something is costing some group of people some arbitrary amount of money, I get really peeved. First of all, you are assuming that the 'victim' would have made that money in the first place; often ignoring any other market forces like competition. Second, you are grabbing figures from random places and attempting to extrapolate some meaningful data from it. In that case, I can say that these same vendors are costing the free and open source market the same amount of money by using patents and such to circumvent true innovation. A recent study, like the shill it is, indicates that free and open source software is costing proprietary and closed source (read profiteering gluttons) upwards of $60 billion annually.

Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology, and while to it is only 6% of estimated trillion dollars IT budgeted annually, it represents a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies," said Jim Johnson, Chairman, The Standish Group International, Boston, MA

Not only do I find this number arbitrary and lacking any real relevance, I despise the fact that inflammatory terms like "raising havoc" and "real loss" are being used to describe it. It would be more professional and acceptable to say that Open Source software, by nature of its inherent innovation and quality, is rising in prominence within the software industry. This sector has garnered $60 billion in annual revenues and is poised to reach even higher. This new business model is one that should be emulated and aspired to.

How's that for fair and balanced reporting? What do I say to The Standish Group? Who paid you do do this report? Bunch of shills.....

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The Real Penetration of Open Source Software - You have no idea...

While browsing some blogs lately, I came across Jonathan Schwartz's Blog (from Sun Microsystems - the new owners of MySQL.) He talks about a recent situation in which a CIO did not realize that his own staff was using MySQL in-house - on a LARGE scale...

Here is an excerpt:

The CIO responded categorically with "we don't run MySQL, we run [name withheld to protect the proprietary]." The CISO said, "We can't just let developers download software off the net, you know, we've got regulation and security to worry about." The CTO smiled. Everyone else appeared to be sitting on their hands. I was going to leave it at that. Thanks for the business.

Until a (diplomatically) assertive Sun sales rep piped up, "Um... no, I connected with a buddy of mine over at MySQL, and had him check - you've downloaded MySQL more than 1,300 times in the last twelve months."

After a profoundly awkward silence, one of the individuals from their internal development team piped up, "Actually, everybody uses it. Why bother hassling with license agreements when MySQL's got you covered. We're stoked you bought them."

The full entry is at: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/freedom_s_choice

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Hillary Clinton - A Fairy Dragon?

For those who question the relevancy of Google's targeted ads...here's what I saw when reading a friend's blog about dragons and other fantasy creatures...talk about priceless...

You can visit his blog at http://www.allaboutthedragon.com and see if you get the same ad....

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Pystar gears up to sell $399 Mac Clone

So long as Apple's team of law dogs doesn't get a hold of them first, PC maker Pystar plans to sell a $399 Mac clone. It is rumored to come with a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 250 GB HDD, and OS 10.5 (Leopard) will be an available pre-installed option.

There's a little more information here: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/16759

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Gartner: Windows is collapsing under it's own weight...drastic changes are needed

An interesting report just issued by Gartner Research lays out the argument that Windows has become too bloated and is not what the market wants. As a result, the operating system is collapsing in the eyes of the tech industry. Windows is not evolving along the lines that the rest of the industry is, particularly in the areas of modularity and virtualization. Although Microsoft has made efforts in both areas, they are laughable at best. Has the rest of the world finally come to terms with what many tech heads have been screaming for years now? Will Microsoft be able to change the direction of their oversized barge of an OS? The next years will tell all, but I fear that unless Ballmer is replaced with someone younger, more in touch with the tech generation and with a better defined vision of the future of tech, Microsoft will go the way of so many companies who refused to innovate and adapt.

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Windows 7 Screenshots - A preview of Vista's successor

Paul Thurott has some excellent screen-shots of the new Windows 7. While not much is known about the new OS that will follow Vista, the look is definitely similar to that of Vista. Check out the rest of the screen shots at: Paul Thurott's Site

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Yet more ways to make your Windows XP PC faster...

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Using MS Config to make your PC faster

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Windows Vista vs Ubuntu ... pwned

Let's settle this once and for all....

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Apple MacBook line to see major design changes

According to design insiders, the new line of Apple MacBooks will see some major design revisions with the next release. The chart to the right illustrates the various design changes that have befallen the Apple mobile line since the original iBook.

The design changed will not just be cosmetic, however. Along with the face-lift, the internals will get a boost as well. The MacBook has not had a major cosmetic update for a while, and as Apple's industrial design cycle comes to a close, the company has decided to bring the look more in line with the popular new iMac line. The internals will also be based on Intel's new Centrino 2 platform, so a new logic board will need to be accommodated for. This also gives Apple a change to make any engineering improvements or other changes internally. The new MacBook like is scheduled to hit store shelves in Q3 2008. If you're in the market to purchase a new MacBook, now would be a good time to wait and see if the new line is more in line with your wants and needs. If not, at the very least you will be able to pickup a current generation machine at a discounted price.

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Water cooled XBOX 360 Custom Mod

For all of those gamers in the crowd, here is a custom modification for your eyes to feast upon. Apparently, a gamer has taken it upon himself to remedy the problem with his overheating XBOX. Because this is a true DIY project that was completed on a semi-limited budget, I give it my compliments. The full thread and more pics are available at: http://www.onansdisciples.com

What do you all think about it? Drop your comments below...

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Stephen King weighs in on Video Game Violence

Author Stephen King, who regularly writes a column for Entertainment Weekly, weighs in on Video Game Violence in his latest column.

“What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture — not just videogames but TV, movies, even Harry Potter — as a whipping boy. It's easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room. Elephant One is the ever-deepening divide between the haves and have-nots in this country, a situation guys like Fiddy and Snoop have been indirectly rapping about for years. Elephant Two is America's almost pathological love of guns. It was too easy for critics to claim — falsely, it turned out — that Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech killer) was a fan of Counter-Strike; I just wish to God that legislators were as eager to point out that this nutball had no problem obtaining a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Cho used it in a rampage that resulted in the murder of 32 people. If he'd been stuck with nothing but a plastic videogame gun, he wouldn't even have been able to kill himself.”

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Comcast may be Increasing intrusive packet-forging connection throttling

An interesting research project from the University of Colorado at Boulder:

New traffic shaping can disrupt a Comcast Internet connection

Recently, it has been observed that Comcast is disrupting TCP connections using forged TCP reset (RST) packets [1]. These reset packets were originally targeted at TCP connections associated with the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. However, Comcast has stated that they are transitioning to a more "protocol neutral" traffic shaping approach [2]. We have recently observed this shift in policy, and have collected network traffic traces to demonstrate the behavior of their traffic shaping. In particular, we are able (during peak usage times) to synthetically generate a relatively large number of TCP reset packets aimed at any new TCP connection regardless of the application-level protocol. Surprisingly, this traffic shaping even disrupts normal web browsing and e-mail applications. Specifically, we observe two different types of packet forgery and packets being discarded.

More information at the rest of the site: http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Broadband_Network_Management

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Protestors unfurl a large banner onto the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic logo redesigned with handcuffs

From the BBC….Protestors unfurl a large banner onto the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic logo redesigned with handcuffs.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44547000/jpg/_44547280_ap466flag.jpg

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Imagine a place ... A Linux ad featuring the most famous of birds....

I saw this on YouTube and had to put it here for all of you to see. It is a work of art that really encapsulates what Linux is to me and so many other people. Please share it with everyone that you can think of.

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