John O Connell’s Blog

The emergence of ultracheap netbook computers has been one of a few bright spots for the PC industry over recent months. Last year, some 14 million netbooks were sold against forecasts of 5.3 million, according to research company Gartner. And at this week’s Computex industry conference in Taipei, Taiwan, computer makers and hardware manufacturers will demonstrate a host of new models and netbook-specific hardware.

Home free: The main interface for Moblin is clean and basic: it shows recent activity in the OS and upcoming appointments.

via Technology Review: Moblin: A Netbook OS to Watch.

According to a recent survey by The Eclipse Foundation, Ubuntu is the most popular choice for developers

Monday, June 01, 2009

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Eclipse Foundation, a not-for-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the Eclipse projects, recently announced the Eclipse Community Survey 2009 in The Open Source Developer Report.

According to the report, Linux has become the most common deployment platform for the developer community. There is a shift from the Microsoft Windows to Linux and Mac OSX for their desktop development operating system.

26.9 per cent of respondents cite Linux as primary desktop operating system, representing a 7 percentage point increase from 2007. Though Windows is still the dominant development OS at 64 per cent, it has decreased 10 percentage points from 2007.

via Developers take a shift from Windows to Linux – CIOL News Reports.

Ubuntu Desktop Course has been released, it’s written on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

I can imagine what you’re thinking… Ubuntu 9.04 is already out, why this course is about 8.04? I actuallly don’t have an answer but having a course for a LTS is really important and anyway training structures cannot handle the effort of updating all the materials and instructors every 6 months, ……

via Ubuntu Desktop Course 8.04 available | Fabrizio Balliano

Industry experts have given a broadly positive reaction to Google Wave. Still in development Google Wave is a browser-based tool that mixes e-mail with Instant Messaging and real-time online collaboration elements. Harry McCracken of Technologizer.com wrote “It s one of the most ambitious services that Google or anyone else has cooked up”. Google Wave is currently only open to developers interested in building applications for the tool. Google Wave co-creator Lars Rasmussen wrote on the official Google blog: “A wave is equal parts conversation and document where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text photos videos maps and more. “In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text photos gadgets and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly.

via BBC NEWS | Technology | Strong reception for Google Wave.

It’s been interesting watching the reaction of bloggers and main stream media pick up on the “Google Wave”, Since the news broke on twitter last week.

Listen in on

TWiT 197: Steal This Diploma

Psion have announced that other companies are free to use the netbook name, reaching an “amicable agreement” with Intel and ending their lengthy legal battle. While the full details of that agreement are unknown, Psion have confirmed that they will be voluntarily withdrawing their “netbook” trademark registrations.

via Psion-Intel Netbook trademark fight settled – SlashGear.

Open-source software has won the argument. Now a new threat to openness looms

“FIRST they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi probably never said these words, despite claims to the contrary, but they perfectly describe the progress of open-source software over the past 15 years or so. Such software, the underlying recipe for which is created by volunteers and distributed free online, was initially dismissed as the plaything of nerdy hobbyists. Big software firms derided the idea that anyone would put their trust in free software written by mysterious online collectives. Was it really secure? Whom would you call if it went wrong?

At the time, selling software to large companies was sometimes likened to drug dealing, because once a firm installed a piece of software, it had to pay a stream of licence fees for upgrades, security patches and technical support. Switching to a rival product was difficult and expensive. But with open-source software there was much less of a lock-in. There are no licence fees, and the file formats and data structures are open. Open-source software gained ground during the dotcom boom and even more so afterwards, as a way to cut costs.

via Computing: Unlocking the cloud | The Economist.

Digital Development Plan – A national priority

28.05.2009

There is a host of other countries who are competing to be the world leader in the ‘smart space’. This is a global race to outpace the competition in the digital economy. Ireland must prioritise building our nation’s digital capabilities, and we need to do it now if we are to stay in the game.

Nations across the planet are in a race to be in the vanguard of the global digital economy – it’s a matter of economic life or death. Countries are investing now in digital infrastructure and services because they are vital to economic growth, recovery and job creation.

The digital economy underpins our whole economy and its competitiveness. Investment in digital infrastructure and services must take precedence over everything else. It is the bedrock on which all other sectors depend; it is the key to our recovery and future economic success.

If we prioritise digital, we will create the growth to fund other development. If we fail to make this a national imperative then all other future revenue will be adversely affected.

via SiliconRepublic.com: Digital Development Plan – A national priority – Comms.

How could you build a business with the newly announced Google Wave?

Wave is like email mixed with collaborative editing and instant messaging. It’s conceivable that the Google Wave paradigm will replace today’s group collaboration tools with something less fractured (everything’s in one place), universal (document equals IM equals email) and more centralized (one application instead of many). Heck, it could even replace email itself.

via Business Opportunities around Google Wave.

How much is it worth to be one of Twitter’s suggested users?

The site’s choice of recommended users remains controversial – but arguments may reflect its critics’ motivations, rather than being a failing of the service

via How much is it worth to be one of Twitter’s suggested users? | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

HTML 5 and Web video: freeing rich media from plugin prison

DailyMotion and Google are both experimenting with the HTML 5 video element and have strongly endorsed standards-based solutions for deploying video on the Web. Ars takes a close look at the state of open video and explores both the benefits and challenges of liberating rich media from the proprietary plugin prison.

By Ryan Paul | Last updated May 31, 2009 3:00 PM CT

via HTML 5 and Web video: freeing rich media from plugin prison – Ars Technica.