Bob Sutor

Daily links for 09/02/2010

2010-09-02T19:52:53Z

How to Install Apps With Ubuntu Software Center – PCWorld Business Center

“The latest release of Ubuntu 10.04, code-named Lucid Lynx, has a somewhat revamped user interface. One of the most significant changes is the Software Center, which provides a simple, user-friendly way to find and install your choice of thousands of free, open source apps. While there are many ways to install apps in Ubuntu 10.04, the easiest way is to click Applications from the top-left panel and select Ubuntu Software Center.”

tags: ubuntu
Writer Neal Stephenson unveils his digital novel The Mongoliad | VentureBeat

“Author Neal Stephenson has been credited for inspiring today’s virtual world startups with his novel Snow Crash. Now he’s launching a startup himself: Subutai, where he is co-founder and chairman.

The company, based in Seattle and San Francisco, has developed what it calls the PULP platform for creating digital novels. The core of the experience is still a text novel, but authors can add additional material like background articles, images, music, and video. There are also social features that allow readers to create their own profiles, earn badges for activity on the site or in the application, and interact with other readers.”

tags: stephenson book
In Search of the Right Case to Protect the iPad – NYTimes.com

“While the iPad’s aesthetics are exemplary, its built-in protection is a bit spare, especially when it comes to its 9.5-inch screen. Transporting the iPad can sometimes resemble a trip home from the grocery store with a dozen really expensive eggs.

But fear not, iPad owners: thousands of armed-guard-like cases are available to protect your frangible computing device. ”

tags: ipad
iPad to get iOS 4.2 in November | Crave – CNET

“During Apple’s music event, Steve Jobs gave a brief preview of iOS 4.2, the iOS update that will finally bring the iPad up to speed. In November, the update will finally bring the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad up to the same iOS version, and it will also bring Game Center to the iPad.”

tags: ipad
The End of the Virtual World — THE Journal

“Teachers are looking for alternatives as Linden Lab prepares to close down the Teen Grid–a region of the immersive virtual world Second Life designed just for teenagers and their education institutions. Where will all those teen avatars wind up? And is there an upside for those who’ve spent years developing educational resources on the proprietary platform?”

tags: second-life teen virtual-world

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Linux, News, Open Source, Virtual Worlds.
Tagged with: ebook, iPad, Second Life, Ubuntu.
Twitter: bob_sutor

ApacheCon North America 2010

2010-09-01T17:02:55Z

Registration is now open for ApacheCon North America 2010, the annual conference of the Apache Software Foundation. The conference will be held from November 1 to 5 at the Westin Peachtree in Atlanta, Georgia.

This and other conferences are listed in my calendar of upcoming events.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Open Source, Travel.
Tagged with: .
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Daily links for 09/01/2010

2010-09-01T18:29:24Z

iPad, Kindle, Nook or Sony? What is the best e-book reader? :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andy Ihnatko

“My advice is consistent: right now, the two best e-readers are the latest edition of Amazon’s Kindle ($139 or $189, depending on configuration), and Apple’s iPad ($499 to about $860). You’ll want one of those two. They’re easy to choose between because they’re polar opposites in every way. “

tags: ipad sony kindle nook

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: News.
Tagged with: ebook.
Twitter: bob_sutor

Monthly disclaimer

2010-09-01T13:44:38Z

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my employer’s positions, strategies or opinions, especially if they are about the guitar, fishing, gardening, carpentry, porch building, and musical tastes.

Blog entries before 2010 are in my Archived Blog.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Blog and Website.
Tagged with: Disclaimer.
Twitter: bob_sutor

OSI Days 2010, Open Source India

2010-08-31T16:47:35Z

Title: OSI Days 2010, Open Source India
Location: Chennai Trade Center, Chennai, India
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-09-19
End Date: 2010-09-21

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Daily links for 08/31/2010

2010-09-01T18:30:12Z

Five Reasons Linux Beats Windows for Servers – PCWorld Business Center

“That’s no accident. Linux is eminently better suited to server use than Windows is–better than most any other competitor, I’d argue. Why? Let’s count the ways.”

tags: linux security windows

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Linux, News, Open Source.
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Twitter: bob_sutor

Daily links for 08/30/2010

2010-08-30T16:58:41Z

Chromium gets GPU acceleration – The H Open Source: News and Features

“Google developers have announced that Chromium, the open source browser on which the company builds the Chrome browser, is getting a GPU graphics overhaul. The development has been driven by the work on developing WebGL and 3D CSS transform support.”

tags: chromium Google browser
Red Hat Appoints General Hugh Shelton As Chairman – Update

“Open source solutions provider Red Hat Inc. (RHT: News ) said Monday that it has elected U.S. Army Retired General Hugh Shelton as chairman of its board of directors. Shelton succeeds Matthew Szulik, former Red Hat chief executive.”

tags: Red Hat Linux

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Linux, News, Open Source.
Tagged with: Chrome, Google, Red Hat.
Twitter: bob_sutor

The summer garden moves toward the end game

2010-08-30T14:04:50Z

There are two days left in August and though we’re not yet at the end of summer here in northwestern New York State, we starting to be able to see it. The garden is not looking as neat and tidy as it was a few months ago. Many of our flowers are still blooming, but the pumpkins have set and berries are forming to feed the birds this winter.

Here’s a visual update on what’s happening in the backyard. Contrast it to my last update in mid-July.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Home, Photos.
Tagged with: gardening.
Twitter: bob_sutor

Daily links for 08/29/2010

2010-08-29T23:33:23Z

Google backs out of JavaOne conference | Reuters

“Citing concerns about Oracle’s lawsuit against it, Google said Friday it cannot participate in the upcoming JavaOne conference. The Oracle-sponsored JavaOne conference, formerly a Sun Microsystems event, is being held in San Francisco the week of September 19. Oracle is suing Google over alleged misuse of Java patents in the Android mobile platform.”

tags: google oracle
Open-Source Facebook Competitor Diaspora to Launch Sept. 15 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

“Open-source social network Diaspora is set to launch on Sept. 15, the service’s creators announced in Thursday blog post. But can it do battle with Facebook?”

tags: facebook open-source diaspora

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: News, Open Source, Social Networking.
Tagged with: Diaspora, Facebook, Google, Java, Oracle.
Twitter: bob_sutor

Sailing: Wind, waves, and a Suzuki 6

2010-08-28T21:56:58Z

How wind and waves can make or break a day for sailing, but it still helps if the motor starts.

I’ve had my Catalina 22 sailboat on Lake Ontario east of Rochester, NY, for several weeks now and have been out on it twice. Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes, which are really very large fresh water inland seas. Though it is the smallest of the Great Lakes, it is still huge at 7,540 square miles, or 19,529 km².

The National Weather Forecast Office out of Buffalo provides very detailed information about expected conditions on the lake at various places. For example, the forecast for Monday is shown in the image to the right.

The temperature should peak at 84 F around 3 pm. Winds should be on the light side between 5 and 7 knots all day, with direction varying from the southwest to northwest and back to southwest. No rain is expected. Wave heights should be between 1 and 2 feet.

Given data like this and my work and personal schedule, I have a chance of figuring out when I might be able to go sailing. I’m a novice with some experience, so I’m looking for nice conditions to practice sailing and build up my confidence.

Ideally there would very little chance of rain, no chance of thunderstorms, wave heights 2 feet or less, and winds of 12 knots or less. Temperature-wise I’ll just have to take what I can get. More experienced sailors maybe with bigger boats want and can deal with stronger winds and larger waves. I’m looking for fun and a great time learning, not drama, at least not this year.

This morning looked to be ideal and it was the first time my wife Judith was going to go sailing with me since about 27 years ago. The kids slept in but we got up early and drove the hour up to the lake. The weather was gorgeous, the lake wasn’t perfectly smooth but it looked great, and the winds were decent.

I had a few things to do to set up the boat and so I connected the battery charger to the shore power. I ran through the safety equipment and procedures with Judith. I hanked on the jib sail and took the cover off the mainsail. We then straightened up, I put away the battery charger, and set to starting the motor.

The motor came with the boat and is of the same vintage, 1988. Before I picked up the boat, I had the marina check out and tune the motor. It’s a 6 hp 2 stroke Suzuki DT6 and it has worked just fine in my limited time using it.

So after an hour of getting to the boat, an hour of maintenance and setup, I pulled the motor cord. Nothing. The cord pulled easily but there wasn’t even the slightest indication that the motor turned over. So I did it again and then one more time.

I retired to the cabin, got out the manual, and found nothing to help me diagnose the problem though I did learn how to remove the top cover. Being careful not to drop myself or the cover into the lake, I removed it and could tell that a plastic gear-like thing connected to the starter mechanism looked a bit odd. While it moved when I pulled the cord, there seemed to be no way for it to engage the motor.

Then I noticed a piece of plastic nearby and, oddly enough, it looked like it would fit nicely on the top of the gear-like thing. Evidently this broke at the very end of the last trip when I shifted the motor into neutral as I docked the boat.

No sailing today. I could not put the boat under sail to get it out of the marina and I wasn’t going to row it out.

I loosened the bolts on the motor mount and hauled the motor out of the water, off the boat, and onto the dock. Judith and I then unhanked (removed the connectors of) the jib, folded it, put the cover on the mainsail, and put the motor in the back of the car.

There were several folks at their boats this morning, it being such a beautiful day to sail, so I flagged down someone walking by and asked about local repair places. I knew of a good one in Rochester, but wanted to know if there was one closer. He pointed me to the yacht club fleet captain who gave me some good advice about the motor I have and a possible replacement.

Here’s the deal with motors on sailboats: when you need one, you really need it. I need it to get out of and then back into the dock. There are other times you need it such as when there is no wind, there is too much wind and you need to pull down the sails, or you need the assist to keep you moving.

Having a motor which often works or probably will work or might not break in a critical way even though it is 22 years old is a not acceptable to me. Maybe it’s because I had some really unreliable cars when I was young that I have a fear of getting stranded. Getting stranded in the middle of a big lake is just not going to work for me.

We were lucky because the motor didn’t work before we set out. I would have been really unhappy had we been a mile offshore trying to get back. I know what I would have done in that case, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do and certainly not how I wanted the first trip on the boat with my wife to end. The last time we went sailing right before we got married, the bolts holding the rudder gudgeons fell off and we were without steering. (Hmmm, maybe it’s Judith …)

So here was the conundrum: while I could get a replacement part for the motor, I didn’t have all the tools necessary to install it. I could pay someone a couple of hundred dollars to do the repair, but what might break next? Or should I suck it in and buy a new outboard, one that was presumably more reliable and not likely to get me stranded?

Like many things on the web, there’s a lot of argument about outboards: this brand or that brand? how much horsepower? one cylinder or two? two strokes or four? You don’t need to know what these are to understand that there are sizable groups of people who love any one combination and disdain all others.

This is what I did: I ordered a new Tohatsu 6 HP 4 stroke long shaft motor online. By ordering it online I saved 25% over what it would have cost locally with sales tax. The new motor uses regular gas so I won’t have to fuss with the 100:1 gas:oil mixture anymore, so that’s a bonus. I’ve been told that I want to try to use ethanol-free gas if possible.

For the Suzuki I ordered the replacement part which I now know to be a starter pinion. The motor is useless without it and I wanted to make sure I had one before they became obsolete or unavailable. I may put the motor and the part on Craigslist and try to get back a few hundred dollars. Alternatively, over the winter when I’m not trying to get in more sailing before the lake freezes, I might try to borrow some tools and install the pinion myself. Maybe then I’ll get a rowboat and put the motor on that, who knows.

With luck the new motor will be here by the end of the week. If the sun, the wind, the waves, and UPS cooperate, I just might be able to sail next weekend.

IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Beta 4 is now available

2010-08-26T15:46:54Z

IBM Lotus announced this morning that Beta 4 of Lotus Symphony 3 is now available. I use Lotus Symphony 3 in beta as my day-to-day office productivity suite.

Aside from any official statement regarding the wonderfulness of this beta, my IBM friends and colleagues inside the company have given it great reviews. This is the final planned beta before the v3 product release.

If you use OpenOffice or Microsoft Office, I recommend you give the free Symphony product a try. It’s available for Linux, the Mac, and even Windows.

Daily links for 08/25/2010

2010-08-26T15:55:25Z

A Look at the Reading Habits of E-Reader Owners – WSJ.com

“A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing and Research Resources Inc. found that 40% said they now read more than they did with print books. Of those surveyed, 58% said they read about the same as before while 2% said they read less than before. And 55% of the respondents in the May study, paid for by e-reader maker Sony Corp., thought they’d use the device to read even more books in the future. The study looked at owners of three devices: Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, Apple Inc.’s iPad and the Sony Reader.”

tags: reading ebook
Linux Day 2010 Tour

“Do you want to see how SUSE® Linux Enterprise can help you better manage your data center? Seeking ways to enhance your IT environment with the latest innovations? Want to understand where Linux and data center computing are headed?”

tags: linux novell ibm
Streamlining Application Development with IBM and Novell Webcast: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 12 Noon ET

“In this session, Marc-Arthur Pierre-Louis will show you how Rational Team Concert, Rational ClearCase and Rational Software Architect provide the infrastructure to better manage software development.”

tags: ibm novell linux
Time to Break Up Microsoft? – Forbes.com

“But maybe it’s not Ballmer that has to go–it’s Microsoft. What do you say we bust it up into three separate companies: Windows, Office and Web Ventures?”

tags: microsoft
Limited Edition CC Shirt Designed by Shepard Fairey – Creative Commons

“Last year, we were thrilled to have Shepard Fairey craft a beautiful new design for our campaign T-shirt. Knowing they’d be a hot commodity, we kept a limited number of the shirts and are now making them available in our online store until they sell out. If you didn’t grab one of these beauties last fall, now is your chance! “

tags: cc creative-commons

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

© Robert S. Sutor for Bob Sutor, 2010. All rights reserved.
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Categorized under: Books, Linux, News, Open Source.
Tagged with: Creative Commons, ebook, Microsoft, Novell.
Twitter: bob_sutor

Daily links for 08/21/2010

2010-08-22T23:15:49Z

Ubuntu quietly breaks off Sparc affair • The Register

“Maverick Meerkat is set to become the last version of Ubuntu that’ll run on Oracle’s Sparc, ending a four-year relationship.

Also getting canned is Ubuntu running on Hewlett-Packard’s Itanic 64-bit challenger.”

tags: ubuntu linux sparc oracle
How to Strum a Guitar – Strumming 101 | A Guitar Teacher’s Lesson Notebook

“The internet is especially great for an advanced guitarist. But one thing that’s often left out of free guitar lesson websites is proper instruction on strumming, even though this is the first hurdle most beginners face: Strumming a song start to finish.

One reason for this may be that it’s easier to learn strumming face-to-face with a teacher. Many students can simply watch and listen while a teacher strums, and pick up on the groove by imitating. But strumming can be described in writing.”

tags: guitar
Cyan Worlds Reveals More Riven For iOS Details, Including Screenshots :: App Advice

“Cyan Worlds has added an entire section of content to their website for the upcoming Riven for iOS. Still on track for sometime this fall, the famed title is claimed to be “coming soon.””

tags: cyan myst riven games

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Photos: A visit to the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

2010-08-21T00:27:10Z

Last Sunday my family and I spent a few hours at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire, just east of the Vermont-New Hamphire border. August Saint-Gaudens was a late nineteenth/early twentieth century American sculptor known for his heroic pieces such as the Shaw memorial on the Boston Commons as well as smaller bas relief works and coins.

Restorers were doing work on the exterior of the main house and a classical concert was being held when we visited, but here are a few photos from around the grounds.

Daily links for 08/19/2010

2010-08-22T23:16:27Z

Intel to buy McAfee for $7.68 billion | Business Tech – CNET News

“The chipmaker said Thursday it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy all of McAfee’s common stock at $48 per share in cash. The boards of both companies have approved the deal.”

tags: intel security mcafee

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.