Ubuntu Hardy Heron: Beyond the Hype and into the Dilemma

Bruce Byfield has written a pretty good review of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron's place in the market. He concentrates mainly on the tension between "free" software and proprietary extensions. For those of you who have wondered exactly what that argument is about, this is for you. Byfield lays it all out succinctly and accurately.

I'm an Ubuntu fan. I'm a Linux and free software advocate. There are problems in paradise, though, and Byfield has laid them out in an easy to understand form. Well worth your time.

Jack

Review: PsyStar OpenComputer

The link above will take you to a short review at OS News.com and here is CNet's take on one of the machines offered.

I think it is safe to say that the company is trying to pull this off. It is not a scam. However, I will still excercise and preach caution as it might be easy for PsyStar to either get swamped under the demand or crushed by Apple's lawyers, whether temporarily or permanently.

Jack

The ABCs of securing your wireless network

Ars Technica gives you the basics. If you haven't, or even if you have secured your wireless router, you might want to read this article.

Man gets prison after hundreds of thousands of spam e-mails - Boston.com

One down, infinite number left to go.

XP SP3 not generally available yet, after all | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

"Microsoft has decided not to release Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 to Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center as planned on April 29. The reason? A last-minute compatibility issue with a Microsoft application — Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS)."
I guess we have to wait a little longer for XP SP3.

Joe

Getting to Know the Nabaztag Internet Rabbit

You can tell by my nick that I have something of an attachment to rabbits, though I won't go into that here.

I have looked at the Nabaztag rabbit for a while now, but have given up on most articles about it because they are simply too dense. Mac Tidbits has finally reviewed it right.

Jack

Psystar delivers Hackintosh

That the company is delivering small numbers (and there is only evidence for a very few deliveries, yet) does not make this a wise investment. However; PsyStar is headed in the direction of proving themselves worthy of our money. Let's see how they do before sending off checks, though.

ALL early reports are very good.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 04-27-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 04-27-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.
Remember the pictures from Geek Meet 2008 are up, you can click here to see them.

Links from the Gregg zone

1) Well, we are going to start the week green, I ran across this site following a link about green gasoline. A very promising breakthrough announced earlier this month April 7, in the magazine Chemistry & Sustainability a publication in the biomass field. Link to the article here http://www.nextenergynews.com it seems they have found a new process for handling stuff like switchgrass, cottonwood, woodchips, cornhusks, and the like into green gasoline. The process is cheap and produces a product almost exactly like gasoline, even can be used as jet fuel. The carbon footprint for the process is almost zero, and produces electricity as a by-product to the process. The other thing I like about this site is an extensive amount of videos concerning everything from electric cars and alt. fuels, to geothermal and wind power. A very interesting site, you should not miss this one if the subject interest you.

2) This is along the same line, here is a video I looked up due to a reference on the Jay Leno show, actually, there are several of them here, but this one caught me because you can do it today. Leno commented that he uses zero gas to commute back and forth to work. His Prius hybrid prototype uses only electric power for the first forty miles, his commute is twenty, he plugs it in when he gets to work. Later I saw an interview with a couple of guys who have an add-on conversion kit to boost the Prius hybrid up to 100+ mpg. That got me googling the conversion cost is currently about three thousand dollars installed in one day, which will come down. It can be reversed to the point you can use it on a lease car, remove it and they will not be able to detect it was ever there. http://www.youtube.com

3) This is a link to a short article I ran across I thought some of you might be interested in. Seems that Sony one of the most vocal music piracy companies, is being sued by a small software company for using pirated software in Sony computers. An ironic twist if there is any thing to it. http://www.news.com.

4) However, that previous story link is nothing compared to one Jack sent me about a Rupert Murdoch firm going on trial for tech sabotage. This one reads like a spy novel, the cast of characters include hired hackers, former intelligence agents, Canadians, TV pirates, Bulgarian and German hackers, a UK-Israeli firm, the Israel domestic security agency, a research lab in Haifa, would-be terrorist Yossi Tsuria, code breakers, people disappearing only to be found hanging in the park, I mean this sounds more like a TV movie than a trial over TV smart cards. http://www.wired.com

5) To wrap it up for the week another link sent to me by Jack about one of my favorite things, duct tape. I cannot begin to recall one tenth of the times duct tape has saved my day. I think it is one of the greatest inventions of all time, at least for the handy-person around the house. I had no idea that it was used on the moon to save the day for the Lunar-Lander. What I found most surprising was the comment about it being under the seat in the space ship, I thought the weight factor would have prohibited any such thing. You just have to read this; it will win a beer at the local pub trivia contest every time. http://science.nasa.gov