Linspire at 50% off!

Unfortunately its digital download only so you need to have a way to burn it as an ISO file onto CD. Here's the web address
Great OS. I use an older version that has full functionality but lacks al the cool new features. Box editons are not on sale but can be found at Frys Electronics and Best Buy stores. There was so much interest in it when they were giving it away that they have decided to do another promotion. Its one of the few Linux distros that takes all the guess work out of making your applications work easily with just th eclick of a button. You have to pay for that service called CNR but it is less time consuming and easy to use. It is one of the biggest gripes among hardcore Linux users yet it is one of my favorite things about it. Go figure. THe sale time is limited and it is a great way to give a holiday gift to anyone looking into Linux for the first time. There are other distros out there like Madriva, Red Hat, Xandros and Unbutu but Linspire is a top choice for desktop Linux becasue that has been their focus. They are building an enterpise edition but so far I have heard very little about it. Enjoy folks.

Sun and the environment issue

Interesting webcast yesterday on the environment, the surplus of dated, aging equipment and the coming proliferation of the thin client. Sun has been saying the network is the computer for a long time and finally it is becoming a reality. Everything will be ondemand now. IBM is moving that way too but Sun seems to have a real edge with its new chip structure. Very little power use, fast and inexpensive, they've effectively set a new standard in computing with this one. Sun sat stagnated (or so I thought) for so long it had me wondering if they would ever return to profitability. I was really wondering about their acquisition of a tape storage company too until yesterday. McNeily finally clarified that tape needs no power for storage but hard disk space does. Something I never really considered before and such an obvious oversight on my behalf. While some of the speakers were a little over top for me they still raised some valid points that while the technology to do some good exists no one is in favor of disrupting the status quo.

Microsoft supercomputers

Well it took them long enough to get around to it but they finally have. I wonder how much of an impact on the market it will really have. The cool thing about using Linux is that you can customize it to do whatever you want. I doubt MS will have that feature available. Info is very scarce so far on the topic. I think Solaris has a better chance in the market of clustering than MS does. Research costs are high enough already, why would anyone want to increase those costs further without a high level of customization available? I see it as an attempt to generate revenue but a little too late. MS got complacent and has not really made any advances in the market in over a decade. Same old boring stuff while silently the developers elsewhere have been working on cutting edge stuff like looking glass and Firefox. Once Mozillas project Lightening becomes a reality there will be a tough competitor to Outlook. Too little too late MS.

Changes

For the avid readers that never post or potential commenter, I'm sorry I had to put the word verification and comment moderation on. I started to receive to much Blam (Blog spam) so if you still wish to comment, go ahead but it may be several days before I can review it.

Yahoo backs out

Well at least one of the portals was smart enough to leave a dead horse where it lay. Yahoo apparently has decided to drop AOL from its wish list. A brilliant move since it isn't worth nearly what Google and msn are willing to pay. I think the rivalry between the two contenders now is more of a we will will show you thing than a sound investment strategy. There is no clear reason why either should care about AOL. There are other music services out there. Msn already has one although it is somewhat of a joke in contrast to others on the net. Google is not in this arena yet and maybe msn thinks that they can deter Google by snapping up everything Google looks like it might want to acquire. From the standpoint of Google it makes sense in that there will be fewer players in the market thus increasing chances that people will buy what they would be offering. Notice how I stated looks. It may be an attempt by Google to get msn to squander its reserve cash on things that Google truly doesn't care about but nonetheless puts msn at a financial disadvantage in R&D if they waste money on acquisitions. Whatever the outcome msn will most likely lose this battle. If it spends the money it can slow Googles assault yet it depletes itself of R&D cash reserves thereby giving Google the advantage whereas if they allow Google to compete that also is a revenue threat. All Google has to do is entertain the idea of acquisitions now to make software vendors shudder. I think that Google will soon come out with a Java based accounting software that is web based thereby eclipsing Intuit and if it is Java based, making the first real attempt to capture a as of yet underserved Linux market. It could be the first accountacy program for Linux and also steal away Windows based clients. It would actually be nice thing to see considering Intuit refuses to address Linux users and in its hubris maintains an overpriced software policy.

Jini

Well I discovered Jini.org in th epast few days and I must say it is an interesting idea with a huge amount of potential. I ran across it quite accidentally while browsing some of Sun Microsystems employee blogs (lots of good reading there BTW) and came across this one ladys blog by the name of Mary. She has an intersting bit on this jini thing. I almost missed it because the logo looks so much like Java's. Wel it turns out there is a reason for that, the two are related. Jini is a technology that I wish we had in greater prevalenence already. While I admit it could have some implications it is neat. Sort of like Bluetooth but not exaclty. Imagine that your network was setup and everything in the network was accessable by everything else. You can store info on other Hard drives on the network without necessarily putting it on your own and when a device like a new scanner or other jini enabled device came into proximity with the network it would be recognized and accessable by the network. The better explaination they gave was the link between the coffe pot and the alarm clock. Coffee being my lifeblood in the morning I couldn't pass up reading that. You decide you want to wake up an hour earlier i the morning so you decide to program the alarm an hour earlier but at the same time you are alos resetting the coffe maker! Oh my lazy bones just fell in love with that idea. I can't wait for that one. The idea, as you log your schedule into your computer everyday the ubiquious computing environment will seamlessly intergrate many functions to optimize your time. SO much is done from the keyboard today it's unreal. On demand movies are big now too. I'm rebeling agianst it so far because I admit I have a tv near my terminal so I can run and blog and surf all at the same time. Its a geek thing. Anyway check out jini.org if you have the chance. The tool kit is open source. Enjoy.