The linux gurus

Bpoilspill

Sporn

Carwrecks

Facebook now worth 33 billion

300000 largest websites favicons

Sony execs talk playstation move expectations ps4 details

Tardis

Netflix adds iphone and ipod touch compatibility in latest app v

Have you got a smart phone yet? In the little “war” that has been going on with Droid vs iPhone, it would probably be hard not to succumb to the advertising of the two main smart phones and pick up the one that seems to glow the brightest. But have you forgotten about the fact that there are still computers that can do things that neither of these phones are all that good at doing? While you may be the opposite of spoiled (a state which there might not be a word to describe) because of using that one operating system, there are actually better options out there – if you think you’re ready to find out what your computer is really capable of.

You’ve no doubt heard about Linux, the operating system that Prometheus stole from the gods themselves. Well, that isn’t really true (it is just a myth, after all), but that is one way of interpreting how well Linux works. As a format for creating programs, you have a whole lot of flexibility with a PC running Linux that you won’t get from any kind of smart phone. With Linux, you can actually alter the entire operating system, just because a particular program might need you to do so.

You can’t get that kind of flexibility on a phone, with the technology that is currently available. The operating systems of smart phones are rigid because they have to be – and changing the code of the operating system could render the phone inoperable, or even potentially dangerous to your online presence. Consider what could happen if you’d accessed your bank records through your phone, and it accidentally sends a signal calling for a funds transfer or the change of your account’s password. It probably wouldn’t happen like that, but it isn’t worth taking the chance. Computers are still the best for programming.

You can probably remember back to a time when you or your kids were going to school and everything that needed to be learned was in a kids backpack. There were all the books, the notes, the exams, the pop quizzes and the supplies. There was a time when a kid had to lug their whole life around. But as the world advances, so does the quality and ease of access for a child’s education. Thanks to the world of advanced computer programming a kid’s life is on a jump drive and they no longer need anything but the password to an online web portal.

Teachers are finding that putting kids on computers is not only the best way to handle their ability to process information but it also stands as one of the cheaper ways to educate. Through an online portal, in a cloud computing format, kids are allowed to access text books, read chapters, take online tours through some of the better parts of the subject, answer quizzes, and participate in class discussions. These are all things that teachers would not have been able to do years ago. It makes education a lot easier.

It’s a practice long adopted by universities to cut out on classroom space, as well as give commuters a break, by making classes available online.  Students each have their own schedule for the school year and can manage everything online. Grade schools see the cost effective nature of this type of learning and have done their best to institute this type of learning for the betterment of both the students and the bottom line of the school districts. It’s amazing what the world of computer programming can do for students and educators alike.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the developments in the technology industry. Technology experts have to monitor developments on a daily basis to keep their edge. Moore’s law describes this, rapid growth, nature of technology. Moore’s law states that the number of transistors that can reside on a circuit doubles almost every two years. This trend has held true historically and many do not seeing it stopping in the near future.

The capabilities of electronic devices have increased at such an exponential rate that, what was once the “top of the line” or “cutting edge” is old news after only a year. The history of the Palm Pilot, which was one of the first handheld electronic devices, provides an excellent illustration of Moore’s law.

In 1996, Palm Computing released the Pilot. It had 128KB to 512KB of memory, a 160 x 160 pixel screen and could only display shades of gray. Just a year later Palm released the 2nd generation Pilot that had 1MB of memory. In 1998 the Palm 3 was released the supported memory cards and flash ROM which held 2MBs of memory. In 2000, Palm released a handheld with a color screen. By the early 2000s Palm had integrated Palm PDAs into phones. With this new phone integration the Palm Treo took off in popularity. The Treo had various iterations until 2009 when Palm released the Pre. The Pre was their answer to the Apple iPhone (a subject for another article). The Pre had a touch screen, ran on the fast 3G network, and had 8GBs of internal memory.

In just over 10 years Palm’s products exponentially increased in capabilities while decreasing its form factor. Memory went from 128KB to 8GB (1GB is equal to 1048576KBs), screens went from gray to full color and PDA functionality was integrated with phone and Internet. The devices of 1996 looked like technology from the stone ages just a few years later.

With Moore’s Law still going strong innovators need to work hard to keep up.

Between 1999 and 2001 millions upon millions of songs were shared across the first peer-to-peer network of its kind. Napster, a free service which enabled users to share their music across the Internet, quickly became the most used online service from the moment it was launched.

Not only did Napster revolutionize the way people interact with one another over the Internet – it changed the music industry. Users ability to open their libraries for anyone else on the service and the ability to download directly from other’s libraries on the network caught fire. This open exchange of music lead to immense copyright infringement cases and the service was eventually shut down.

The spread of Napster was so quick and overwhelming that it was quickly noticed by the general public. Several major musicians such as Metallica and Dr. Dre filed lawsuits with Napster. Ultimately the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit in behalf of various record labels and Napster closed its doors in 2001. At its peak, Napster had over 26 million users.

Napster’s open community pioneered peer-to-peer file sharing programs. Many file sharing services followed. Limewire, Bittorrent and Pirate Bay all have similar services. These services ushered in the era of complete file sharing where users could choose to share any file from their computers not just music. Now users could share pictures, documents and movies with each other. These services have also faced many lawsuits. Pirate Bay met the similar fate as Napster.

Individuals wanting to exchange files across the Internet was done only person to person previous to Napster’s open community nature. It’s hard to imagine the Internet now without the ability to connect with strangers.

Perhaps the true utility from the Internet is the ability to share ideas with everyone in the world. The closed world has grown increasingly open due to computers and the Internet. The free flow of information has created amazing innovations and at the same time challenges. Balancing the open nature of the Internet with security will always be a hot topic for debate.

It is hard to imagine a world without computers. Today’s world just wouldn’t be the same without email and the Internet. It would be even more difficult to envision a world without television or radio. Technological advancements have changed the world and it will continue to do so for years to come.

Technology has defined different eras in history. The printing press helped define the Renaissance. This ushered in the Age of Enlightenment. The printing press helped enable the proliferation of knowledge to the masses, which was previously reserved only for the monarchy. Communities were better able to organize, politicians were able to spread their messages more broadly and the best selling book of all time began to enter the houses of the world: The Bible.

The steam engine ushered in the Industrial Revolution. This discovery revolutionized the worldwide economy. The Agrarian based societies made way for manufacturing and mining. Transportation helped broaden and improve trade. The locomotive connected the two coasts of the United States.

The discovery of electricity was monumental for modern technology. The light bulb, electric motor, telephone, television, computers and numberless other advancements came about because of the discovery of electricity.

The development of the Internet brought about the Information Age. Just about any piece of information is truly just a few clicks away. Each and everyday database upon database is made available to anyone with a computer and Internet access. The democratization of knowledge has flooded the earth.

What began as a communication tool has turned into a necessary business tool for today’s economy. Almost every business has a web presence and almost web business sells products on line. One could purchase or rent anything from groceries to movies on the World Wide Web. Internet commerce constitutes a large percentage of Internet traffic.

With technology playing such an integral part of our lives one can be certain that innovation will only lead to greater things. Technology will continue to develop and further change the way we live and with the rate things are getting developed – our lives will change fast.

Which computer operating system will forever be a heated debate in the technology world. The debates can only grow stronger as these operating systems are further developed and the new ones are created.

Windows verses Apple is perhaps the most recognized battle of operating systems. The development of these systems are of technology folklore. Books have been written about them and a feature length movie was also created chronicling the details of the early years of these two storied companies. Although Apple has experienced an increase in market share since the early 2000s – there is no escaping the fact of Windows dominance.

As of 2010, Windows is the most used operating system in the world. It is the standard by which all other software programmers base their programs on. Windows first released Windows in 1985. It was originally developed as an added feature to the existing MS-DOS systems of the day. Windows revolutionized the way users interacted with their computers. The Mouse was first introduced and the world of command based use made way for graphical user interfaces.

Since its original release Windows has undergone several iterations of their famous operating system: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP and Windows Vista are just a few of the more famous releases. All of them had their pros and cons. Overall the pros for Windows include: huge library of applications that have been developed for the platform (as it is the most used in the world); most hardware is manufactured to be compatible with Windows; extremely large user base.

As the benefits of using Windows stem mostly from the fact that they hold such a large market share – it is ironic that it is also their curse. Being the most widely used operating system paints a large target on them for malicious attacks. Windows does have the largest number of viruses and spyware in existence.

The debate for operating supremacy will never end and only time will tell if any other company or programmer will be able to overtake Windows dominance.

If Windows has an upper hand on Apple, it is the large market share is has that has held steady for years. Historically Microsoft Windows has held over 90 percent market share over its competitors. Apple, although the second most popular operating system (as of 2010), has hovered in the single digit percentage for market share.

This market dominance is often held as the reason why Windows is the superior choice. Despite the many benefits of Apple’s OS, its user base pales in comparision to Windows. This trend continued through the early years of Apple, as it found it a challenge to even capture 5 percent of the market. As of July 2010 Apple’s operating system has reached close to 10 percent market share in the United States.

Apple’s operating system was initially released to the public in 1984 with its Macintosh computers under the name of System Software. This OS popularized the modern day graphical user interface. Apple released many iterations of its operating system and eventually released its Mac OSX operating system in 2002.

Mac OSX was different from Apple’s previous classic operating systems in that it was based off of the Unix platform. Much of the programming behind of OSX was developed at NeXT – a company that Steve Jobs had started after leaving Apple. OSX contained a few new features that the previous operating systems had, while performing in a more stable environment.

Benefits often cited for using Mac OSX include: Stability and reliability, ease of use and fairly low rate of virus’ and spyware. The drawbacks that are often referred to are: Not nearly as much software is developed for Apples, incompatibility (cannot use Mac software on non-Apple computers) and price of hardware.

Despite the drawbacks the popularity of Apple has increased since the early 2000s. The gains in popularity of Apple’s operating system could be attributed to the popularity of the iPod. Prices for Apple products were adjusted to be more consumer friendly. Their development of other revolutionary products such as the iPhone and iPad has also helped accelerate its sales.

Students would have a hard time writing their term papers without it. Businesses would struggle without it. Families would have a more difficult time staying in touch with each other without it. We are talking about the Internet.

The Internet has grown from simple research programs in the 1980s to an integral part of daily life. The Internet’s utility continues to grow as more and more of the world’s population gains access to it and begins to contribute to the immense library of knowledge. This exponential growth, although great in concept, could end tragically if infrastructure does not continue to develop systems to support it.

The Internet began as interest in networking multiple computers together between each other gained popularity. Research conducted at MIT and UCLA led to packet switching technology and new protocols for communications between physically separated computers.

The global introduction of the Internet began in 1982 and quickly spread. Internet service providers quickly commercialized access to the Internet and catalyzed its growth.

Uses for the Internet have morphed from a communication tool to a business and social tool. With this, increased usage data rates communicated across the internet has grown exponentially. Increased email volume along with photos, music and video is flooding the Internet. Websites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr receive millions upon millions of rich media each and every day.

This incredible communication of data has come to be referred to as an “exaflood” of information. As of 2010, it is estimated that over 21 exabytes of information is transferred over the Internet. One exabyte is equal to one quintillion bytes! This startling statistic is cause for concern for some industry analysts as the rate of growth is quicker than the rate of growth for storage availability. In other words – the Internet will run out of space.

As technology advances, so will the amount of information transferred of the Internet increase. Innovation will have to keep pace with this exaflood of information. Companies would do well should they find the solution to ongoing issue.

Linux provides users an alternative to the dominant Windows and Mac operating systems. Linux is popular Unix based open source software based off of the Linux kernel. It can be used on many electronic devices such as computers, gaming systems and mobile phones. It is most widely used on servers. Market share for Linux on servers is anywhere from 20-40 percent whereas Linux on computers is 1-4 percent. Its popularity continues to grow as the software improves while its user base grows.

Appeal for Linux is its open source nature. Open source software allows users to view and change the source code. Software for computer programs is usually closed only to copyright holders, limiting access to the source code by a select number of individuals. Open source allows programs to be added upon and improved by the community of users. Linux is also free open source software, allowing free distribution of licenses.

The idea for open source software is that software will naturally be improved upon when the community of users has access to the source code. Users naturally will find the weaknesses and strengths of the software and can immediately make the changes themselves. The efficiency and functionality of the software improves as its community of users grows.

Linux’s long history has created a large user base. Its community has made many improvements and modifications. Network administrators have found Linux especially useful in data/server environments where security is a high priority. Many large corporations and governments use Linux in their systems.

Desktop use of Linux continues to increase in popularity as it is becoming more widely accepted. Programmers have started to program for the Linux platform as Linux’s use increased. Programs usually only seen for Windows and Mac are starting to now release Linux compatible versions. Dell computers started to offer Linux installations in their computers in 2009 marking a huge step on Linux’s popularity.

Whether you are a network administrator, IT advisor or consumer of electronics – Linux should play a factor during the decision making process when considering a new or improved system or device.