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Edging Forward: Appleā€™s Win for the Open Web

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 03, 2011 at 4:42 PM

I remember as a boy shopping with my parents for our first computer that didn’t hook up to a TV. In the stores, there was the “open world” of PC’s and then that odd little section for people who insisted on closed, strange — gasp — Macs. Such a view was more a sign of a general misunderstanding of Macs than anything else, but the reputation has persisted for many. A new product launch from Adobe, however, shows just how wrong that reputation is.

Red Hat for the Clueless: RPM

By Ed Hurst | Jul 24, 2011 at 4:31 AM

You probably know everything on your computer is just zeroes and ones, grouped together in eights and sixteens, and so forth. You might know a bunch of folks type out lines of instructions ("code") for computers which have to be converted into those ones and zeroes, in a process called compiling. You may have heard compiling stuff on Windows requires you to buy expensive software suites to do that sort of stuff. Maybe you know Open Source means the entire process from start to finish is wide open and free, and if you take a notion, you can compile your own software because it's all part of the package. This is why I recommended you install the Developer Workstation package profile. You can take all those instructions people write and make it into zeroes and ones yourself.

Linux for the Clueless: Fonts

By Ed Hurst | Jul 13, 2011 at 3:23 AM

Linux is capable of superior font display handling. On my hardware, it's better than any version of Windows if those capabilities are taken advantage of. However, its capabilities are not turned on in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or many other distributions) by default. There are several issues involved, but never fear — they can be solved.

The Showdown: the 4G Contenders Square Off

By Timothy R. Butler | Jun 21, 2011 at 1:58 PM

In many ways, 2011 is shaping up to be the year of 4G. Although Sprint launched its 4G network several years ago and Verizon went live with its own next generation network late last year, this is the year that phones and other 4G devices have finally become widely available. With each of the major carriers claiming to have a 4G network, Open for Business investigated to find out who offers the best choice for fast Internet access on the go.

Tweet This

By Timothy R. Butler | Jun 06, 2011 at 5:34 AM

Today opens up WWDC, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. Apple has confirmed three major foci for the conference this year: iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud. Word on the street points to major Twitter integration in the core of iOS as a key component to iOS 5, something that sounds interesting, but hardly earth shattering. Let’s go a step further: what if Apple’s Twitter integration work was a step towards an Apple purchase of Twitter?

RHEL 6 for the Clueless: File Management

By Ed Hurst | May 31, 2011 at 11:17 PM

There is a world of difference between Windows and Linux in file handling. Your immediate need is to understand the business of permissions. One of the fundamental security advantages in Linux is every file is owned by someone, and the owner gets to decide what happens to those files. Ownership, of course, is limited to those who have an identity on the computer in question.

The HTC Thunderbolt: Sometimes Faster Really Is Simply Better

By Timothy R. Butler | May 23, 2011 at 5:33 PM

Last year, choosing a cellular network for a smartphone was easy enough: pretty much any phone you might buy was a “3G” capable one and, for the most part, the speed those phones achieved on their respective networks was about the same.. Today, all four of the big cellular companies are proclaiming the arrival of 4G phones. In this series, we will be looking at the latest and greatest phones to hit the market and examine whether they live up to the hype, starting with the first nationally available 4G LTE phone: the HTC Thunderbolt.

RHEL 6 for the Clueless: Multimedia Capability

By Ed Hurst | May 16, 2011 at 5:13 AM

RHEL (and clones) does not come with very much multimedia capability. It has to do with politics, copyrights, and philosophical debates. Even if we tried to outline all the issues here, chances are quite good you don't care a whit. You want to play your music and videos, and there is no good reason you shouldn't. There are plenty of Linux developers willing to join you in seeking to play what Windows can play, and a lot more besides, but Red Hat is being careful and sticking to their commitment to the corporate client base.

RHEL 6 for the Clueless: Securing Firefox

By Ed Hurst | Apr 28, 2011 at 10:35 PM

How secure is “secure”? Nobody can decide for you. What I offer here is the measures I take before browsing the Net. From what I can tell, these measures are effective in that the data-mining and marketing industry has a very poor idea of who and where I am. Try looking yourself up on sites like Spokeo or Zabasearch to get an estimate of your online data trail. While your webbrowser is not the only source, nor even a major source, of such information, it is a part of the bigger effort. The whole idea is to make those data mining sites as inaccurate as possible. And maybe you don't care, but for those who do, I'd like to suggest a few configuration changes to improve things.

The View from Mudsock Heights: I Remember Mr. Biellier for More Than the Egg A Day Chicken

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 18, 2011 at 4:36 PM

My cousin Alan in Missouri sends news that Harold Biellier has died. The report made me sad. Not because it was a tremendous surprise: Mr. Biellier was 90. Nor was he someone critical to my day-to-day existence: I doubt I’ve seen him even once in the last 40 years. I know I haven’t in the last 35.

You are viewing page 9 of 18.