Can Linux be that good..?.

I had an epiphany the other day. It happened this way. I was using Ubuntu, my Linux operating system of choice, when I found myself looking at my screen, mindlessly twirling the Compiz Fusion cube and painting fire on the screen. I was restless. And then it struck me.

After using computers for over twenty five years, I was suddenly struck by the thought that I do not know what to do with a fully functioning, uncrashable, secure and attractive operating system. For me a computer has always been a toy, something to be played with and tweaked to squeeze out every possible advantage. I have always been one to push the envelope, so crashing and messing up operating systems is rather old hat for me.

With Windows it was easy. I didn’t even have to try to break it. When I first switched to Linux, I used rpm-based distros which left me in dependency Hell in short order. Since I switched to Debian based distros even this became increasingly difficult.

Most people grimace and fuss when their computer breaks down. Not so with me. I am suddenely engaged. I have something to do. It gives me an excuse to start fresh and do what I do best, push things to extremes.

My computer should be easy to break. I have two hard drives, one SATA and one IDE. I have thirteen partitions on them with a minimum of six operating systems at any given time. Plus, I have an assortment of usb devices with even more operating systems and file systems on them. I am always installing something or other, so things are bound to go badly eventually.

Let’s start with Windows XP MCE. It came with my HP Pavilion desktop computer. My two year old computer came with two partitions and one hard drive. On the second partition is HP’s recovery program. The last time I booted into Windows XP was months ago. When I do boot into it I wonder why I bother. It takes forever to load. After which time, it insists on doing endless updates, many of which require rebooting. Ugh! I can’t wait to get back to the sanity of Linux which I am only too happy to do.

My main OS is on another partition on the SATA drive that it shares with Windows. Ubuntu is spread across three partitions, one for root (30 GB), one for home (55 GB) and 1 for swap (1 GB). I have learned over the years that it is better to use separate home and root partitions as long as you are going to install and re-install as often as I do.

My main operating system is Ubuntu which is a Linux operating system based on Debian. Ubuntu is an African word which has no English equivalent. It means that we are in this together and we all benefit when each one benefits or something to that effect. For me, it is the perfect description of community which fits in well with my philosophy.

I came to use Ubuntu shortly after it was first released. I was using another Debian distro at the time called SimplyMEPIS. They lived along side each other for a couple of years. I have used Ubuntu exclusively for about a year.

I chose Ubuntu through lots of experience with various distros. I have a box of Linux installation CDs that goes back about seven years. I have tried all of them at one time or other. My first distro was Mandrake. I stuck with that for two tortuous years. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Mandrake, but it did not like me. It was so prone to dependency problems that I was continually frustrated. Since I was relatively new to Linux, I was more easily frustrated than I am now.

During this time, I also used Fedora and Xandros. Xandros was my first Debian based distro. I liked it, but did not like its approach which was to mimic Windows. Also its repositories were limited and often out of date.

When MEPIS first came out, I gave it a try. I instantly loved it. It was just good. Everything worked just as I imagined. It was simple. It had great tools. It detected hardware that others had trouble with. I used it as my main OS until they switched it up on me. They moved to Ubuntu core. I was already using Ubuntu so this seemed redundant to me. In comparing the two side by side, I realized that I preferred Ubuntu. It was more current. It had more features and more applications. It was time to make the switch to Ubuntu, so I did.

I still have SimplyMEPIS 7.0, 64-bit version, installed on a partition. Right now I have Sabayon, openSUSE, and PCLinuxOS installed, in addition to the two already mentioned. Sabayon is a work in progress. It is a great concept. I find it refreshing, but time consuming. OpenSUSE is full featured and elegant. It is also prone to breakage. PCLinuxOS is a fork of Mandriva which for some strange reason will not install on my system. It is nostalgic so I keep it around. PCLOS works well enough, but it does not have all that I need, so I don’t take it as seriously as some people do.

Ubuntu stands apart. Sure, it is brown and orange, not my favorite colors. One of the first things I do is to change the theme. Next I add the restricted drivers and get Compiz Fusion working. I install AWN and Screenlets to complete the makeover. I install my favorite applications and add a few different desktops and I am in business. Which brings me to my current state. Everything that I could possibly want is installed and working perfectly. So what do you do with a perfectly working computer?

It turns out that you get the jump on things. You install the latest version of Ubuntu from scratch. That’s right. You start over. Hardy Heron is due for release later this month. But why wait for the inevitable rush and slow downloading? It is working well enough now for everyday use. So I installed version 8.04 and now it too is working perfectly.

You have to ask yourself if Linux is that good. For me, it is. I push things to extremes and if I can do that and Linux still works flawlessly then it has to be good. I have Hardy Heron installed with KDE 4, KDE 3, Gnome, Fluxbox, XFCE, and Sugar installed. I am using KDE 3 now, but use Gnome just as often. I switch it up just for variety. I have my bar at the top regardless of whether it is KDE or Gnome. I have AWN at the bottom. I have learned that I can have Gnome’s menu running from inside KDE using the AWN menu applet, which is cool.

I install Virtual Box for Windows compatibility. It has Windows XP installed, using and old license from my previous computer. The same VM has been kicking around for a couple of years. I just drag and drop it around wherever I go. Essentially it has every Windows program in it that I like. I prefer it to Wine. I run Virtual Box in seamless mode which gives me a Windows bar at the bottom, as well as my Ubuntu bar at the top. Yes, Windows XP and Ubuntu appear on the same screen and share the same desktop. All of window effects and cube effects still work, too.

Linux is not perfect and Ubuntu is not immune to problems. I just don’t seem to have them to the degree that other people do. So I am continually looking for something to use my computer for. I go onto the forums and help others. This reminds me that my experience is not the norm. Or is it? We may never know since people seldom post their good news.

Most people who have problems with Linux are usually trying to work around an obscure piece of hardware, most often a wireless card or external modem. They have usually inherited or pieced together an older desktop computer or laptop, which is problematic from the outset since it was likely abandoned by the previous owner for a reason. Their expectation is usually unrealistic based on what they are working with. That being said, most often the Linux community is patient, accepting and is able to get most hardware functioning, albeit in a long round about way since newbies seldom post the kind of information that could help resolve the problem quickly.

You might think that since I change my computer so much that it is no longer Ubuntu. It may not look the same, but it is pure Ubuntu at its heart. One of the things that I like about Ubuntu is that it is so flexible. It is simple enough for newbies, but complex enough for experienced users to tailor it as they choose. This is where the fun is. Computers should be personalized to our own taste. It is a workplace, a toybox and an extension of the self.

So, what do I do next? Unfortunately, Intrepid Ibex, Ubuntu 8.10, is still six months away. It is something to look forward to, but in the meantime, I need something to do. Wait a minute, I have another computer to work on in the guest room…

Adopting Ubuntu

In all the “switcher” TV ads that the folks in Apple’s marketing department have come up with, the choice is always the same. Go with the clunky and complicated Microsoft Windows machine, or pick up the hip and sleek designer Apple computer running the Mac OS (hip and sleek short form for “operating system”). They’re good ads — heck, I’ve even gone to Apple’s website just to watch them.

But there is another choice out there that a lot of people simply aren’t aware of because there’s no slick marketing campaign behind it.

For many people, e-mail, web surfing, picture editing, listening to music, making spreadsheets and basic word processing are just about all they do with their computers. Today’s Macs and Windows PCs are impressive machines indeed, but their power — and price — can be overkill for the average computer user. If you’re looking for a new computer and you’re not sure whether to go Windows or Mac, I’d suggest also paying some attention to the “L” word.

No, not that “L” word. I’m talking about Linux.
A brief history of Linux

For those of you not familiar with the world of Linux, let me give you the Coles Notes version. Some time ago, a rather creative software engineer in Finland decided he wanted to build a new computer operating system in his spare time. In what ended up earning him a near god-like status in the “geek” hierarchy, Linus Torvalds and a growing group of volunteers eventually did the highly improbable, putting together a new kind of operating system that could go head to head with the software that companies like Microsoft and Apple have spent millions developing.

Torvalds then went and gave his software, called Linux, away to anyone who wanted to use it or tinker with it, so long as they agreed to openly share any changes or improvements they made. Since that time, dozens of flavours of the Linux operating systems have come out, and the majority of them are utterly free. They’re also stable, secure, easy to use, and generally not plagued by spyware and viruses the way commercial operating systems are.

Now, back to our story.
Ubuntu

Linux, and more specifically the free “Ubuntu” version, has come a long way in the past few years and is well worth considering for basic computing.

Best of all, it won’t cost you a penny to try it out.

Like many Linux distributions, the entire Ubuntu operating system is available as a free “Live CD” you can download from the internet. Just burn the file [called an "ISO"] to a CD, and that’s it … you’re ready to try Ubuntu on any home or business PC. Alternatively, you can pay a small shipping fee and have an Ubuntu disc delivered to you by mail.

Either way, reboot your Windows machine with the disc in the CD drive, and rather than starting up Windows, the computer will run Ubuntu directly from the CD. This means that your entire Windows installation, including all of your personal files, are left entirely untouched — nothing is “installed” over the existing content on your machine. Once you’re finished trying Ubuntu, just take the CD out, reboot and your PC will start Windows exactly as it did before.

So what is it like?

Amazingly, Ubuntu feels much like Windows. I have converted several friends to Ubuntu over the years and every one of them has had the same opinion — everything is where you think it should be if you’re familiar with a Windows computer.
Software

The Linux operating system comes with great open-source software, and the icons for them are right there on your desktop where you’d expect to find them. Want to write a memo? Ubuntu comes with Open Office, a full (and free) office software suite that works with Microsoft documents, such as spreadsheets, text files and presentations. For browsing the internet, you get Firefox, the same browser I use now for both my Windows and Mac machines. Play music in the Rhythmbox Media Player or play your videos in Totem — again, both included for free.

With the exception of gaming, which is limited, almost all of the average person’s basic computing needs are well looked after with this package. I’ve used the last three versions of Ubuntu on my main portable web-surfing computer for years just to avoid viruses and spyware (as the vast majority of these nasty programs are written for Windows), and I have yet to be disappointed.

If you like it, you can load Linux permanently onto a cheap “bare bones” PC from your local computer store, saving yourself a chunk of cash that you’d otherwise have to spend on an operating system, software and high-powered hardware. The Ubuntu software is free, although there is an option where you can buy several years’ worth of support and troubleshooting if you feel you’ll need some extra help.

I’ve also “resurrected” several old machines using Ubuntu and various other versions of Linux that are far more compact and less memory intensive than Windows or the Mac OS, so they don’t need as much computing power to run them. It’s amazing to see how quickly you can breathe new life into an old beige-box geezer and save it from the landfill, rather than junk it because it doesn’t have the power to keep up with the latest commercial operating system.

The “Damn Small Linux” version actually comes in at a paltry 50MB for the entire operating system, complete with basic software to cover most daily computing needs — it’s great for getting more use out of old desktops or notebooks.

Ubuntu, however, is far slicker and more powerful than these trimmed-down versions of Linux. If you’re new to the Linux world and want to compare the experience to Windows or the Mac OS, I highly recommend Ubuntu as the best place to start. It will cost you nothing to try out, and you might just be surprised at how good “free” really is.

Why do i use Ubuntu..?

I’ve been using Ubuntu and Ubuntu based operating systems for about three months, and using it exclusively for about three weeks. I’m happier with my operating system now then I have ever been from using Windows. Why did I make the change though?

About a year ago, I frequented a video gaming board that I still frequent today. On this board was a topic about iPods and alternatives. On the board was an open source evangelist. He spoke negatively about DRM, Apple, iPods, Microsoft, and everything else closed source. I made my post asking why he was so up in arms against iPods. At the time I saw no problem in using an iPod, using iTunes, buying from the iTunes store, and using Windows. He told me that using these severely limit one’s freedom. Freedom to do whatever they want with an operating system, and not be restrained by copyright or other limits that were put in place to make money.

So this intrigued me. I had only ever used Windows before so I wasn’t too familiar with other operating systems or how they worked. I downloaded the Ubuntu distribution that was available at the time and partitioned my computer. Needless to say I was impressed but just couldn’t make the complete switch. Most of my music was DRMed and I HAD to be able to listen to my music. So, iTunes was literally a shackle on me from switching to Ubuntu and ultimately stop supporting Apple.

Over that year I went on a crusade of sorts to un DRM my music. The only legal way of doing this is to burn it onto a CD and rip it onto the computer. Alas, I lost sound quality with this. Was it worth it? Yes. By the time of 3 months ago most of my music was DRM free. The music I had left that wasn’t DRMed, which made up about 200 hundred songs, I wasn’t fond of anymore. I deleted the songs. Two hundred dollars down the drain, yes. Still completely worth it.

By this time I had my own laptop aside from a desktop. I downloaded the latest Ubuntu distro and installed it aside Windows Vista. I didn’t have much patience at the time to configure anything with school and other worries, so I used Windows for most of the time. I did try out several operating systems; Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, DSL (Damn Small Linux), Puppy Linux, and a couple of others. Ubuntu was the clear winner. When summer vacation came around I took the plunge into Ubuntu. After configuring everything I had a great operating system. The tasks that were unfamiliar to me such as using the terminal (which was very intimidating at the time) are a breeze now.

So, why do I use Ubuntu? Ubuntu to me is the best Linux distribution for me. It is free as in philosophy and free as in beer. It has a large selection of free, quality software. It doesn’t limit me in any aspect. It even supported my now deceased iPod very well. No longer do I need Windows at all. Just about everything I can do in Windows I can do in Ubuntu (with the exception of many video games).But is Linux for everyone? Of course not. Some operating systems are just not some peoples’ cup of tea. That’s just how it is. Are many Linux distros viable alternatives to Windows and Mac OS? Yes, absolutely!

Why do i use Ubuntu..?

I’ve been using Ubuntu and Ubuntu based operating systems for about three months, and using it exclusively for about three weeks. I’m happier with my operating system now then I have ever been from using Windows. Why did I make the change though?

About a year ago, I frequented a video gaming board that I still frequent today. On this board was a topic about iPods and alternatives. On the board was an open source evangelist. He spoke negatively about DRM, Apple, iPods, Microsoft, and everything else closed source. I made my post asking why he was so up in arms against iPods. At the time I saw no problem in using an iPod, using iTunes, buying from the iTunes store, and using Windows. He told me that using these severely limit one’s freedom. Freedom to do whatever they want with an operating system, and not be restrained by copyright or other limits that were put in place to make money.

So this intrigued me. I had only ever used Windows before so I wasn’t too familiar with other operating systems or how they worked. I downloaded the Ubuntu distribution that was available at the time and partitioned my computer. Needless to say I was impressed but just couldn’t make the complete switch. Most of my music was DRMed and I HAD to be able to listen to my music. So, iTunes was literally a shackle on me from switching to Ubuntu and ultimately stop supporting Apple.

Over that year I went on a crusade of sorts to un DRM my music. The only legal way of doing this is to burn it onto a CD and rip it onto the computer. Alas, I lost sound quality with this. Was it worth it? Yes. By the time of 3 months ago most of my music was DRM free. The music I had left that wasn’t DRMed, which made up about 200 hundred songs, I wasn’t fond of anymore. I deleted the songs. Two hundred dollars down the drain, yes. Still completely worth it.

By this time I had my own laptop aside from a desktop. I downloaded the latest Ubuntu distro and installed it aside Windows Vista. I didn’t have much patience at the time to configure anything with school and other worries, so I used Windows for most of the time. I did try out several operating systems; Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, DSL (Damn Small Linux), Puppy Linux, and a couple of others. Ubuntu was the clear winner. When summer vacation came around I took the plunge into Ubuntu. After configuring everything I had a great operating system. The tasks that were unfamiliar to me such as using the terminal (which was very intimidating at the time) are a breeze now.

So, why do I use Ubuntu? Ubuntu to me is the best Linux distribution for me. It is free as in philosophy and free as in beer. It has a large selection of free, quality software. It doesn’t limit me in any aspect. It even supported my now deceased iPod very well. No longer do I need Windows at all. Just about everything I can do in Windows I can do in Ubuntu (with the exception of many video games).But is Linux for everyone? Of course not. Some operating systems are just not some peoples’ cup of tea. That’s just how it is. Are many Linux distros viable alternatives to Windows and Mac OS? Yes, absolutely!

CHROME OS,WINDOWS AND LINUX...

Chrome OS is an upcoming operating system designed by search engine tycoon Google. Chrome OS shares the same name as the recently released web browser, Chrome. Google’s plunge into the operating system business isn’t all too surprising but the effects on the operating system world may be bad for Microsoft.

The Chrome OS is supposedly being designed for netbooks and for a world based of of the Internet. Google has stated (and I paraphrase) that operating systems of today were invented and designed before the rise of the Internet. Google wishes to try and revolutionize the operating system business. In my opinion, Google will have a better time marketing its open source, free operating system than Linux can, and may even become a viable alternative to Windows for the average computer user. Google is already familiar to thousands,nay, millions of computer users. It’s simple take on web searching and the superior search engine makes it the obvious market lead.

One of the main issues why Linux isn’t as popular as Windows or Macs is because of two reasons in my opinion:

A- Linux is seen as too hard to use by the average computer user.

B- There are so many Linux distributions competing (and also sharing at the same time) that they seal their fate when it comes to becoming as popular as Windows.

Reason A is understandable. When Linux was in its infant years, it WAS difficult to use. Times have changed now. Some Linux operating systems are as easy to install as Windows. This popularity problem hurts Linux hardware wise as well. Some hardware just doesn’t work well with Linux (although a lot does). This isn’t Linux’s fault, rather the fault of companies that code the drivers for their products. But there aren’t enough people using Linux to go to that trouble.

Problem B is also understandable, but it isn’t helping anyone. Linux distros need to get their act together and polish their operating systems in a way so that they CAN combat Windows and the new Chrome OS. Things change needlessly from release to release.

So, with Linux trying to get its act together when it comes to a larger market share, Microsoft is the behemoth in the industry that Google has to worry about. Google is going to have to convince manufacturers to put Chrome OS on computers. Even more so, manufacturers will have to market Chrome OS so that people will buy computers with it on.

The fact that Chrome OS is free, bumping down the price of the computer by a good 200 hundred dollars, will make it attractive to new users. I may even get a copy of Chrome OS and try it out myself. Will it convert me from Linux? Not likely. But it will probably have an impact on Microsoft’s market share.

Choosing frameworks

When starting a new project, it’s important to consider which framework(s) to use, if any. Frameworks can speed up development, but they may be feature-bloated or not so easy to learn. Also, it’s important to think about in which languages you will use frameworks. For the network (soon more on that topic) we first chose BluePrint for CSS, MooTools for JS and CodeIgniter for PHP. After some research, we discovered that for our needs MooTools wasn’t the correct framework, since we won’t do much more then ajax, DOM manipulation and tabs. We’re in the process of choosing a new one, but there is much chance we’ll go for jQuery. We also discovered that CodeIgniter was quite loose on MVC and OOP, and still PHP4-compatible (and thus not using PHP5 features optimally). Again, we’re in the process of choosing a new one, but there is much chance that we’ll choose Kohana.

What I want to say is that it’s very important to inform yourself about all the possibilities and think about what you need for your project.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu

For about a month now, I’m running Ubuntu on my 1GB ram desktop. I really like it, except for some useability issues. My sound is bugged as hell, I’ve googled hundreds of times, never found a working solution. Really, it’s fucked up. When I play multiple tracks in Tuxguitar it starts acting very strange, and I then get a horning sound. Sound at youtube is bad, it jumps a lot and strange sounds get mixed in.. But that might also be an issue of the other problem : flash. Installing a new Adobe flash version doesn’t work, Swfdec is bugged as hell, and you can’t fucking uninstall it without removing GNOME. Really, I like ubuntu, but sometimes I really wonder why I left Windows XP for Ubuntu. For hard-core geeks it might be good. Who needs flash after all, and sound ain’t important, is it? But for a bit more mainstream users, and for mainstream users to use Ubuntu, it is one of those important things. Without such things fixed less people will go to Ubuntu or any linux version, as not-geeks might not understand how linux-distro’s work. I think these are things that really have to be fixed.

20 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re a switcher like me, you’ll probably find these 20 handy mac keyboard shortcuts useful. Some basic, some pretty neat. Did you know that by pressing Command + Option + D hides the dock? I for one didn’t know that. Or how about switching apps by pressing Command + Tab. This is handy if you have multiple apps windows opened. For a complete list, visit TechRadar’s website by clicking here.

Do u think smartphones replace your clients’ laptops and netbooks?

Your clients might be wondering if smartphones can really replace their laptops and netbooks. Susan Harkins explains that applications and subscriptions make switching to smartphones a reality for some users.

————————————————————————————-

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercial where the businessman uses his smartphone to work while riding the bus. It seems too good to be true, but the reality is, smartphones offer much more than you might realize.

If clients are asking whether a smartphone can really replace their laptops and netbooks, the answer is yes, but only for a limited few. Applications are the key to getting the most out of a smartphone. Here are specific examples:

• Using Microsoft’s Mobile Word, your clients can enter text, choose fonts, and even format the text, but not much more.
• Your client can run a PowerPoint presentation on a smartphone. This works great for an audience of one, and sometimes that’s all you need! With the right accessories, your client can run a PowerPoint presentation via a smartphone from across the room.
• Speech recognition technology is also available. That means your client can send email and instant messages from a smartphone, eliminating the need to type individual messages.
• Clients can use the camera to capture, save, and even email text.
• With the right accessories, you can even print documents received via email or scanned (using the camera).
• Clients can book hotels, check flight status, convert currency figures, and check weather at the destination while traveling.
• Clients can read email, update a calendar, and so on while away from the office.
• Some smartphones can even find the nearest gas station using GPS technology.

Accessories and subscription plans can definitely make your smartphone more efficient. (Subscription-based products offer services for a recurring fee.) Due to the smartphone’s automated synchronization, your clients can do all of these things without connecting to the Internet and that’s what makes the devices flexible; clients won’t have to wander around looking for a hot spot to connect. To learn more about what’s available, check out the online application stores: Nokia’s Ovi Store, Windows Mobile Catalog, BlackBerry App World, Android Market, and Apple’s App Store.

Clients aren’t restricted to common productivity tools either. With the right custom applications, a smartphone can process orders, update inventory, and so on. In fact, building custom applications for smartphones could be opportunity knocking at your door; it’s the latest cottage industry. IT consultants could generate a considerable amount of extra income writing custom smartphone applications for clients.

On the downside, processing speed is usually, slow and clients will struggle with the small keypads. Entering text is slow and prone to errors, although clients can purchase portable keyboards and display units. In addition, the cost of a smartphone begins to add up when you start purchasing applications, subscriptions, and portable tag-alongs.

Final analysis

Clients who need Web and email access should do fine with a smartphone, whereas clients who need to run complex business software should stick with a laptop or a netbook. Any client in between will need a case-by-case review and that’s where you can really help.

The following chart compares features of smartphones and netbooks and should prove helpful when making recommendations.

	Smartphone	Netbook
Voicemail	Yes	No
Email	Yes	Yes
Instant messaging	Yes	Yes
Social networking	Yes	Yes
Multitask	No	Yes, but limited by processor
View and edit content	Yes, with the right application	Yes
Complex business software	No	Yes, but limited by processor
Create and edit documents	Limited, with the right application	Yes
Web connectivity	Yes	Yes
Automated synchronization	Yes	Yes, if 3G equipped
Fast download of video and high-resolution files	No	Yes
Digital camera	Yes, 2 to 5 megapixels; video capture, up to 30 frames per second; basic on-devise editing	Digital Webcam available in some models.
Touch screen	In some models	No
Full-size keypad	Via portable add-on	Available on some models
Screen	2″ to 3.5″	7″ to 10″
Weight	4 to 6 ounces	6 pounds or less
Internal DVD drive	No	If not, check for availability of external drive.
Battery life	2 to 8 hours	3 to 12 hours
Integrated wireless	Yes	Yes
Processor	434 MHz, but not all manufacturers publicize this information	1 GHz to 1.6 GHz
RAM	128 MB, but not all manufacturers publicize this information	1 GB to 2 GB
Hard drive	Internal storage ranges from 16 GB to 32 GB	64 GB to 160 GB
Inspected by airport security	No	Yes
Price	$200 to $700; this doesn’t include the monthly service fee.	$250 to $800

Do u think smartphones replace your clients’ laptops and netbooks?

Your clients might be wondering if smartphones can really replace their laptops and netbooks. Susan Harkins explains that applications and subscriptions make switching to smartphones a reality for some users.

————————————————————————————-

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercial where the businessman uses his smartphone to work while riding the bus. It seems too good to be true, but the reality is, smartphones offer much more than you might realize.

If clients are asking whether a smartphone can really replace their laptops and netbooks, the answer is yes, but only for a limited few. Applications are the key to getting the most out of a smartphone. Here are specific examples:

• Using Microsoft’s Mobile Word, your clients can enter text, choose fonts, and even format the text, but not much more.
• Your client can run a PowerPoint presentation on a smartphone. This works great for an audience of one, and sometimes that’s all you need! With the right accessories, your client can run a PowerPoint presentation via a smartphone from across the room.
• Speech recognition technology is also available. That means your client can send email and instant messages from a smartphone, eliminating the need to type individual messages.
• Clients can use the camera to capture, save, and even email text.
• With the right accessories, you can even print documents received via email or scanned (using the camera).
• Clients can book hotels, check flight status, convert currency figures, and check weather at the destination while traveling.
• Clients can read email, update a calendar, and so on while away from the office.
• Some smartphones can even find the nearest gas station using GPS technology.

Accessories and subscription plans can definitely make your smartphone more efficient. (Subscription-based products offer services for a recurring fee.) Due to the smartphone’s automated synchronization, your clients can do all of these things without connecting to the Internet and that’s what makes the devices flexible; clients won’t have to wander around looking for a hot spot to connect. To learn more about what’s available, check out the online application stores: Nokia’s Ovi Store, Windows Mobile Catalog, BlackBerry App World, Android Market, and Apple’s App Store.

Clients aren’t restricted to common productivity tools either. With the right custom applications, a smartphone can process orders, update inventory, and so on. In fact, building custom applications for smartphones could be opportunity knocking at your door; it’s the latest cottage industry. IT consultants could generate a considerable amount of extra income writing custom smartphone applications for clients.

On the downside, processing speed is usually, slow and clients will struggle with the small keypads. Entering text is slow and prone to errors, although clients can purchase portable keyboards and display units. In addition, the cost of a smartphone begins to add up when you start purchasing applications, subscriptions, and portable tag-alongs.

Final analysis

Clients who need Web and email access should do fine with a smartphone, whereas clients who need to run complex business software should stick with a laptop or a netbook. Any client in between will need a case-by-case review and that’s where you can really help.

The following chart compares features of smartphones and netbooks and should prove helpful when making recommendations.

	Smartphone	Netbook
Voicemail	Yes	No
Email	Yes	Yes
Instant messaging	Yes	Yes
Social networking	Yes	Yes
Multitask	No	Yes, but limited by processor
View and edit content	Yes, with the right application	Yes
Complex business software	No	Yes, but limited by processor
Create and edit documents	Limited, with the right application	Yes
Web connectivity	Yes	Yes
Automated synchronization	Yes	Yes, if 3G equipped
Fast download of video and high-resolution files	No	Yes
Digital camera	Yes, 2 to 5 megapixels; video capture, up to 30 frames per second; basic on-devise editing	Digital Webcam available in some models.
Touch screen	In some models	No
Full-size keypad	Via portable add-on	Available on some models
Screen	2″ to 3.5″	7″ to 10″
Weight	4 to 6 ounces	6 pounds or less
Internal DVD drive	No	If not, check for availability of external drive.
Battery life	2 to 8 hours	3 to 12 hours
Integrated wireless	Yes	Yes
Processor	434 MHz, but not all manufacturers publicize this information	1 GHz to 1.6 GHz
RAM	128 MB, but not all manufacturers publicize this information	1 GB to 2 GB
Hard drive	Internal storage ranges from 16 GB to 32 GB	64 GB to 160 GB
Inspected by airport security	No	Yes
Price	$200 to $700; this doesn’t include the monthly service fee.	$250 to $800

Finally,the truth abt Facebook..!!..

Someone finally has the courage to say it :

Facebook isn’t for your friends. Your real friends know what you’re doing already, they can contact you when they want to. Your “fake” friends are the ones on facebook, the ones you never want to call you directly.

Facebook is just an online advertisement of yourself. Look at all the cool things I’m doing. Look at how busy I am. Look at how cool I am. Don’t you wish you could be my real friend?

Your real friends know how fake that is. The “concert” you just went to was just a couple of guys playing in a coffeeshop and you left after 15 minutes so that you could get back to playing World of Warcraft. That “party” you went to was actually a LAN party, or worse, a console party where everyone takes turns playing Halo 3 against each other. You have a very ordinary, boring life.

If your Facebook page was a real ad, you’d be sued for false advertising. Ad was deceiptive, implied he/she was doing a lot of stuff but all this person does is play computer games! I want my time back!

Incredible how many people are doing so many cool things in their lives, I wonder how they even have time to eat or sleep when I see their facebook page. How are they able to keep up with their hundreds of friends. Uh, they can’t. Those are just Facebook friends, they could pass each other in the street without recognizing one another.

Where are the Facebook pages with real people with only a few friends? And entries like, “I played World of Warcraft yesterday. Went to sleep, then played computer games when I woke up. Repeat for week”? Come on let’s get real here.

I feel that these online sites pressure teens to act popular all the time. Now not only is it important to dress the right way, do the right things (and people), but this act doesn’t end away from school. One is also required to pretend to do cool things online to show off.

Finally,the truth abt Facebook..!!..

Someone finally has the courage to say it :

Facebook isn’t for your friends. Your real friends know what you’re doing already, they can contact you when they want to. Your “fake” friends are the ones on facebook, the ones you never want to call you directly.

Facebook is just an online advertisement of yourself. Look at all the cool things I’m doing. Look at how busy I am. Look at how cool I am. Don’t you wish you could be my real friend?

Your real friends know how fake that is. The “concert” you just went to was just a couple of guys playing in a coffeeshop and you left after 15 minutes so that you could get back to playing World of Warcraft. That “party” you went to was actually a LAN party, or worse, a console party where everyone takes turns playing Halo 3 against each other. You have a very ordinary, boring life.

If your Facebook page was a real ad, you’d be sued for false advertising. Ad was deceiptive, implied he/she was doing a lot of stuff but all this person does is play computer games! I want my time back!

Incredible how many people are doing so many cool things in their lives, I wonder how they even have time to eat or sleep when I see their facebook page. How are they able to keep up with their hundreds of friends. Uh, they can’t. Those are just Facebook friends, they could pass each other in the street without recognizing one another.

Where are the Facebook pages with real people with only a few friends? And entries like, “I played World of Warcraft yesterday. Went to sleep, then played computer games when I woke up. Repeat for week”? Come on let’s get real here.

I feel that these online sites pressure teens to act popular all the time. Now not only is it important to dress the right way, do the right things (and people), but this act doesn’t end away from school. One is also required to pretend to do cool things online to show off.

Btaccel(cloud bitorrent client) and optimize firefox to get over 1gb speeds for your torrent downloads

8/7/09- Initial release

In this tutorial I will teach you how to use this great online bitorrent client called btaccel and how you can get your torrent download speeds up over 1gbs. Read ahead to learn how to never wait long again for the torrent you want…..

What is btaccel you say…

Btaccel is an online bitorrent client that downloads whatever torrent you want into their cloud servers much like a gmail account, which means that you can get a direct download once the torrent has been available. Getting a torrent this way is alot faster because you no longer have to worry about getting seeds for a connection, it just tells you when the download is available to you. Better yet btaccel will email you once your torrent is available for a direct download.

How do I sign up for btaccel?…

To use Btaccel all you need to do is register for an account(which is free) and login much like you would a normal email account. Go to www.btaccel.com and register for an account. Then after using the confirmation email you’ll be able to login. To learn more and register for a btaccel account click the link>

read more…

Using btaccel’s search/Url box…

Now there are a couple different ways to use the search box located at the top of the page on btaccel.com to find what your looking for, I’ll explain it below the 3 ways I would suggest.

1. You could search for a program or movie by name which will bring you to a typical google search for what you are looking for. This way is not the most effecient because using google to find a good torrent is like finding a needle in a haystack. I do not suggest doing it this way, below are my 2 favorite ways of finding what you want.

2. Search your favorite torrent sites for whatever torrent you are looking for. I like going to sites like demonoid and mininova cause you can read the comments and know exactly what your downloading and if it’s safe. Also once you find what your looking for you can simply copy the URL(web address) and paste it into the search box at btaccel and directly link to that site, bypassing the google search completely.

3. Using Vuze bittorent client’s built in search feature you can search multiple torrent sites at once without the hassle of going to a different torrent site. This is my favorite way of doing this, because with Vuze’s search you can add more sites by searching for templates. Also with vuze it display’s the torrent’s url up top after you select the one you want. Now this is the way I like doing it but if you don’t have vuze or use utorrent I would suggest option #2.

Now I have the URL what do I do…

Just paste the URL into the btaccel search box and it’ll give you a status on that particular torrent. Some torrents will be available right away while others will be qued into your browser and an email will be sent once the site has completed the torrent download. Once it’s out of que just click on the email link it gives you and select the torrent and begin downloading directly. Doing it like this you can get an average of 400kb’s -600kb’s for your download. But like I said before we can increase that speed by double. Read ahead and learn how…

How to optimize Firefox to increase your download speeds to over 1gbs…

Downthemall: This is the must have addon for anyone who uses firefox. Installing this will give you up to 4x download speeds! Now when you click on your torrent available in btaccel you’ll get a pop up box asking how you would like to download the file. Just click dta one click if it’s a single file or downthemall if it’s multiple files and hit save file. Doing this will increase the download speed to over 1gbs and put a smile on your face. The first time I used this I couldn’t believe how fast this simple little addon made my download’s. With the use of downthemall and btaccel no more looking at your speed go from 400kb’s down below 100kb’s ever again. That sounds to good to be true give me downthemall now. Ok, you want it you got it, click the link for downthemall addon>

These following addons are a must for anybody who download’s alot…

Skipscreen: This nifty little addon makes waiting at sites such as rapidshare or mediafire a thing of the past. What it does is exactly what the name suggests it skips the waiting screen for you, which is really great for rapidshare users cause it basically gives you a premium account of sorts. To get skipscreen click on the link >

Download Statusbar: View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing. This puts all your downloads at the bottom of your browser page for easier viewing. Get it here > <Download Statusbar>

FasterFox: Browse faster by speeding up common tasks – faster downloading, searching, visiting favorites, copy & paste, and more. Basically just speeds up your browser for doing everything a little bit faster. This addon is for older version of firefox but a beta for firefox 3.0 is available. Get fasterfox by clicking on the link>

Final thoughts….

I hope you have learned something useful in this tutorial. Using btaccel.com and firefox’s downthemall is incredibly simple and makes bitorrent clients like vuze or utorrent a thing of the past. With the recent implenentation of cloud computing into out daily lives expect to see alot more great tools like this. The future of computing will eventually all be done on the net. This is merely the beginning. Now that you’ve learned about btaccel and how to optimize firefox to download quickly and effieciently go out and start getting whatever you want with ease.

Btaccel(cloud bitorrent client) and optimize firefox to get over 1gb speeds for your torrent downloads

8/7/09- Initial release

In this tutorial I will teach you how to use this great online bitorrent client called btaccel and how you can get your torrent download speeds up over 1gbs. Read ahead to learn how to never wait long again for the torrent you want…..

What is btaccel you say…

Btaccel is an online bitorrent client that downloads whatever torrent you want into their cloud servers much like a gmail account, which means that you can get a direct download once the torrent has been available. Getting a torrent this way is alot faster because you no longer have to worry about getting seeds for a connection, it just tells you when the download is available to you. Better yet btaccel will email you once your torrent is available for a direct download.

How do I sign up for btaccel?…

To use Btaccel all you need to do is register for an account(which is free) and login much like you would a normal email account. Go to www.btaccel.com and register for an account. Then after using the confirmation email you’ll be able to login. To learn more and register for a btaccel account click the link>

read more…

Using btaccel’s search/Url box…

Now there are a couple different ways to use the search box located at the top of the page on btaccel.com to find what your looking for, I’ll explain it below the 3 ways I would suggest.

1. You could search for a program or movie by name which will bring you to a typical google search for what you are looking for. This way is not the most effecient because using google to find a good torrent is like finding a needle in a haystack. I do not suggest doing it this way, below are my 2 favorite ways of finding what you want.

2. Search your favorite torrent sites for whatever torrent you are looking for. I like going to sites like demonoid and mininova cause you can read the comments and know exactly what your downloading and if it’s safe. Also once you find what your looking for you can simply copy the URL(web address) and paste it into the search box at btaccel and directly link to that site, bypassing the google search completely.

3. Using Vuze bittorent client’s built in search feature you can search multiple torrent sites at once without the hassle of going to a different torrent site. This is my favorite way of doing this, because with Vuze’s search you can add more sites by searching for templates. Also with vuze it display’s the torrent’s url up top after you select the one you want. Now this is the way I like doing it but if you don’t have vuze or use utorrent I would suggest option #2.

Now I have the URL what do I do…

Just paste the URL into the btaccel search box and it’ll give you a status on that particular torrent. Some torrents will be available right away while others will be qued into your browser and an email will be sent once the site has completed the torrent download. Once it’s out of que just click on the email link it gives you and select the torrent and begin downloading directly. Doing it like this you can get an average of 400kb’s -600kb’s for your download. But like I said before we can increase that speed by double. Read ahead and learn how…

How to optimize Firefox to increase your download speeds to over 1gbs…

Downthemall: This is the must have addon for anyone who uses firefox. Installing this will give you up to 4x download speeds! Now when you click on your torrent available in btaccel you’ll get a pop up box asking how you would like to download the file. Just click dta one click if it’s a single file or downthemall if it’s multiple files and hit save file. Doing this will increase the download speed to over 1gbs and put a smile on your face. The first time I used this I couldn’t believe how fast this simple little addon made my download’s. With the use of downthemall and btaccel no more looking at your speed go from 400kb’s down below 100kb’s ever again. That sounds to good to be true give me downthemall now. Ok, you want it you got it, click the link for downthemall addon>

These following addons are a must for anybody who download’s alot…

Skipscreen: This nifty little addon makes waiting at sites such as rapidshare or mediafire a thing of the past. What it does is exactly what the name suggests it skips the waiting screen for you, which is really great for rapidshare users cause it basically gives you a premium account of sorts. To get skipscreen click on the link >

Download Statusbar: View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing. This puts all your downloads at the bottom of your browser page for easier viewing. Get it here > <Download Statusbar>

FasterFox: Browse faster by speeding up common tasks – faster downloading, searching, visiting favorites, copy & paste, and more. Basically just speeds up your browser for doing everything a little bit faster. This addon is for older version of firefox but a beta for firefox 3.0 is available. Get fasterfox by clicking on the link>

Final thoughts….

I hope you have learned something useful in this tutorial. Using btaccel.com and firefox’s downthemall is incredibly simple and makes bitorrent clients like vuze or utorrent a thing of the past. With the recent implenentation of cloud computing into out daily lives expect to see alot more great tools like this. The future of computing will eventually all be done on the net. This is merely the beginning. Now that you’ve learned about btaccel and how to optimize firefox to download quickly and effieciently go out and start getting whatever you want with ease.

LED Bombing

Random Cool: LED Bombing

Graff bombing and tagging may not be as popular today as it was in the heyday of the Hip Hop cultural movement but it still has enough of a dedicated following to warrant designers like Aïssa Logerot to invent graff inspired gadgets like the Halo LED spray can.

halo is a handy light specially dedicated to light-writting. Graffiti artists can conserve their own gesture they have with an aerosol spray. It is possible to change the color and the brightness of the led to change the graffiti’s styles. If the light doesn’t have enough battery, the user must shake it to have energy again.

That’s right, you gotta shake it to charge it, just like a real can. But unlike a real can, your tags will only last a few milliseconds in the darkness and that neat resonance effect depicted in the screens can only be preserved with a little trick photography.

plasma and andriod cell-Zii StemCell computing revisited

Some time back we have seen the mystery of the Zii StemCell computing being unravelled. After that many were wondering what Creative is up to with the chips. Now they have come back with Zii EGG Handheld StemCell Computer that Supports the Plaszma OS or Android™ OS . Good move !. Android hmmm!

The platform boasts multi-gesture touch display(cool!) , Text-to-speech Feature, Hardware GPS Receiver, Wifi, 32GB of internal memory and up to 32GB of external memory, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and accelrometer.
They are heard of iPhone. No 3G? shame! Check dictionary for competence. Get USB 3.0 dudes.

Plazma OS, based on the linux 2.6 kernel is said to show some gimmicks like 3D grphics (’ in a battery powered small handheld’), advanced media and communication capabilities. But they say it is not a phone but a computer! in 108 gms. Hmmm! I wonder.

Also support a Zii optimized Android OS. Supposedly to harness the power of the StemCell computing technology of the ZMS-05 processor.

Added value – bulk prize of 199$ per piece price tag plus lot of development support and market ready design.

Gonna rock or bust?! Its all about the all-knowing crowd and the economy.

NEW LINUX MINT..!!

ATI problems Killed OpenSuSE. Well, I couldn’t stop at “Sorry Guise! Had a #Fail and not going to try out anything more until tomorrow!” I planned out what I was going to do, and set my sights for Linux Mint.

Linux Mint is a Ubuntu-Based linux distro, Ranking higher and higher in popularity online by Linux users. (It was even suggested to me as a reply to one of my last blog posts!) So, why not give it a go?

Linux Mint Impressed me. It’s not just the average Ubuntu distro. There were three main things about Mint that I believe tops Ubuntu.

The Theme:

I’m not a big fan of green. But Mint’s Black + Grayscale + Green look is great. It looks much better than Ubuntu’s human theme, and that makes it much more pleasant to use.

The Menu:

The menu is a Sort-Of Novell-ish start menu, but done much cleaner and easier to navigate. Set places and System down the left-hand side, Most used applications and presets down the right. Even better was the very impressive search filter, which in real-time searched for whatever you typed in, in an almost spotlight way.

I’m not usually a fan of all-in-one menus, but Mint’s does it in a way that makes it easy to use and easy to find what you want without any headaches.

mintInstall & mintUpdate:

mintInstall and mintUpdate are Linux Mint’s own spin on the Ubuntu updater and Ubuntu Installer. Although not much has changed in the installer; (Except some minor abilities and configurations, and better display of screenshots/caps of the program in work.), mintUpdate is a big improvement on Ubuntu’s Updater. Unlike Ubuntu, mintUpdate not only shows version updates; but the changelog, extra warnings, extra info and prioritizes the updates in groups of numbers for the most important to the least important.

If you’re a user of Ubuntu, and looking for something a little different, I suggest you go to the Linux Mint website and download a Live CD to test it out!

David.
-Blaynos.

virtual attacks on social networking sites alerts security experts

by Chris Luzader

Security analysts Thursday scrambled to find a motive behind the distributed denial-of-service attacks that brought down Twitter for several hours, and also hit Facebook, Google and LiveJournal.

With little information to go on, researchers ended up speculating on who launched the attacks and why, although several agreed that Twitter’s infrastructure needed immediate strengthening.

“If you monitor the hacking forums, it’s clear they’re pissed at Twitter,” said Richard Stiennon, founder of IT-Harvest, a security research firm. “Twitter came out of nowhere. Hackers hated that. They’d been using forums and IRC to communicate, and all of a sudden, the rest of the world has their own thing in Twitter.”

To Stiennon’s thinking, the rise of Twitter — and the backlash against it — resembles the situation in the 1990s, when AOL rose to prominence, but tech-savvy users denigrated it as little more than a glorified BBS (bulletin board system).

“It’s the same thing now,” Stiennon said. “They look at Twitter and think, ‘there goes the neighborhood.’ So they wanted to demonstrate that they could take it down and generate news at the same time.”

Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG Technologies, has a different idea.

“I think it was a vigilante,” he said, “who wants to call attention to the danger of botnets.”

Thompson’s theory posits that the vigilante — perhaps a security professional — assembled a small botnet, then aimed it at Twitter and Facebook, which was also attacked Thursday. He based his idea on several similarities to the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that hammered U.S. government and South Korean commercial sites in early July.

Those attacks, at one point thought to originate from North Korea, were unfocused, had no noticeable political agenda and most important, ended with the botnet controller ordering the machines to self-destruct by wiping their hard drives.

“Who builds a botnet, then destroys it?” Thompson asked. “That’s just crazy.”

In fact, Thompson said he believed the Twitter hacker was the same person who ran the U.S./South Korea DDoS almost exactly a month ago. “No one profits from DDoS-ing Twitter,” he said. “The only possible explanation is that someone wanted to make people think about something, and I think that something is botnets.

“Botnets are a very big problem, but no one does anything about them,” he added.

Both Stiennon and Thompson used the word “easy” to describe the kind of DDoS attack required to successfully attack Twitter and other Web sites. “It wouldn’t take a real big botnet,” said Thompson. One with 20,000 to 30,000 bots could have spoiled Twitter’s day.”

A different motivation surfaced late Thursday, when a Facebook executive told CNET News that his company believed the attacks were directed against one individual, a pro-Georgian blogger identified only as “Cyxymu,” who had accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and Google Inc.’s Blogger and YouTube.

“It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard,” Max Kelly, Facebook’s chief security officer, said.

One thing security researchers seemed to agree on was that Twitter needed to bolster its Web infrastructure, or it will invite further attacks. “If Twitter is following the usual commercial site approach to plan for a 100% traffic increase, it would be easy for a DDoS to take it down,” Stiennon said.

“Twitter has to [re-examine] their infrastructure,” Stiennon recommended. “It wouldn’t take much more than $10 million to double the transaction capacity from what they have had. I’d double that or even quadruple that right away.”

Barrett Lyon, the former chief technology officer and co-founder of BitGravity, and a noted expert on DDoS attacks, concurred. He and Stiennon collaborated yesterday in an attempt to dig up information about the Twitter attack; Lyon pegged the attack a DDoS before Twitter acknowledged it later Thursday morning.

“It’s pretty clear [Twitter is] ready for a redesign,” Lyon said in an entry to his personal blog. “They need their own autonomous network, bring in bandwidth from many different providers, and have several layers of security. Building a strong ACL border and a nice mitigation layer would make a lot of sense for a company that is enabling communication.”

According to Lyon, Twitter relies on just one vendor to provide its link to the Internet backbone: NTT Communications, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, based in Tokyo.

“I would guess something in their load balancing farm was not configured to deal with the attack or this would have just been absorbed without much notice,” said Lyon, who noted that Facebook, which has a much more robust infrastructure, largely escaped harm.

Thompson, meanwhile, said if his premise is correct, Twitter may not have much time to get its act together. Noting the monthlong gap between the July DDoS attacks against U.S. and South Korean sites and Thursday’s assault on Twitter and others, he said the vigilante might strike again using the same timeline.

“If I was a betting man, I’d be betting on another one in early September,” Thompson said.

Apollo 11 at 40...!!

July 16, 1969: The world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon.

The Apollo 11 launch date had arrived with just months to spare: Nine years earlier, U.S. President John F. Kennedy had said that by the end of the decade the country would put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth.

The successful Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, ushered in an era of moon exploration that has so far gone unrivaled.

(Read about the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission in a 1969 National Geographic magazine article.)

Moon Race

President Kennedy's moon mandate came at the height of the space race—a kind of subplot to the Cold War between the United States and what was then the Soviet Union.

The U.S.S.R. had made the opening gambit, sending the first artificial satellites into orbit, starting with the 184-pound (83.5-kilogram) Sputnik I in October 1957.

The Soviets followed that success a month later with the first animal in space, Laika the dog, which did not survive the experience. (See pictures of monkeys and other primates sent into space.)

Things came to a head in April 1961, when the Soviets sent the first human to space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made a 108-minute suborbital flight in a Vostok 1 spacecraft and returned safely to Earth.

A month later Alan Shepherd became the first American in space with his suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft.

From there the two countries started upping the ante by increasing the number of orbits per flight. Meanwhile Kennedy's moon directive had signaled a change in tactics for the U.S.

Swallowed by Moondust?

At first a moon-landing mission probably raised a lot of eyebrows at NASA—particularly among the astronaut candidates.

"Atlas rockets [which launched spacecraft] were blowing up every day at Cape Canaveral" in Florida, recalled Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell in the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon.

"It looked like a … quick way to have a short career."

But Kennedy's idea "didn't just come out of the blue," Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin told National Geographic News.

"People had been studying what could be done—the Air Force in particular—in a far-reaching manner, like sending cargo to the moon."

At that point, though, scientists still had a lot to learn about what humans and their gear might contend with on the lunar surface.

Geologists didn't know, for example, whether volcanism or meteor impacts were responsible for the moon's pockmarked surface. (Current wisdom says meteors.)

Many scientists also feared that the moon was covered with a thick blanket of featherweight dust that would engulf any landing spacecraft.

(Explore a moon time line.)

Moon Landing Practice

Shortly after Kennedy's speech, an intensive effort got under way to prepare humans for a moon landing.

In January 1963 Neil Armstrong and four other Apollo astronauts took a field trip to Arizona's Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater, a dormant volcano. Geologists then briefed the astronauts on how those Earthly landscapes were similar to what they might encounter on the moon.

In the years that followed, Apollo crew also toured the Grand Canyon and spent time testing lunar rovers at Bonito Crater northeast of Flagstaff, where the rough, rocky surface mimicked what some geologists thought would exist on the moon.

Geologists flew over Sunset Crater and other landforms in Cessna 182s, taking aerial photos so the astronauts might better understand the lunar geology they were likely to see.

(See milestones in space photography.)

Apollo Moon Program: Tragedy and Triumph

The Apollo moon-landing program carried an optimistic moniker: It was named for the son of Zeus in Greek mythology, often known as the god of light and the sun.

But the first mission almost brought U.S. moon-landing efforts to an abrupt end.

On January 27, 1967, a flash fire occurred in the Apollo 1 command module during a launch simulation, killing the three astronauts meant to pilot the mission.

"I wasn't sure if we were burying the entire Apollo program or three of our buddies," Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan said in In the Shadow of the Moon.

Following an exhaustive investigation into the accident, NASA issued a report in April 1967 that called for major overhauls of the Apollo hardware, launch procedures, and quality control.

The program swung back into gear, and by early 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Alan Shepard and Donald "Deke" Slayton were cruising over the lunar surface—and grudgingly holding back from diving down for a landing—as they scoped out the Sea of Tranquility, the chosen landing spot for Apollo 11.

(Explore an interactive moon map, and read about the first person to map the moon using a telescope. Hint: It wasn't Galileo.)

A few months later, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins set off toward the moon.

Moonwalkers

Launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. ET aboard a Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 included a command module dubbed Columbia and a lunar lander called the Eagle.

The lander was named after the bald eagle in the mission insignia.

Apollo 11's journey to the moon took three and a half days.

During that time the astronauts "just kind of gazed out the window at the Earth getting smaller and smaller, did housekeeping things, checking the spacecraft," Aldrin recalled.

As the craft passed through the shadow of the moon and started its approach, Aldrin and Armstrong got into the spider-like lunar module and began their descent.

The landing process didn't go flawlessly. Alarms sounded when the computer couldn't keep up with the data stream: "Nothing serious—it was distracting," Aldrin said.

"Neil didn't like what we were heading toward, and we selected a safer spot alongside a crater with boulders in it. We landed with a little less fuel than we would have liked to have had, maybe 20 seconds of fuel left."

Aldrin insists that he felt no real fear about landing on the moon.

Nevertheless, he said, "we kind of practiced liftoff [for] the first two hours. … We both felt that was the most prudent thing to do after touching down, was to prepare to depart if we had to."

Finally, with half a billion people watching on televisions across the world, the astronauts emerged from the Eagle to spend another two hours exploring the lunar surface.

The pair planted an American flag and placed mementos for fallen peers.

Armstrong uttered his famous first words, reportedly unscripted: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Armstrong and Aldrin logged 21 hours on the moon—spending the last and longest portion of it trying to sleep in the frigid lander. Then they lifted off to rendezvous with Collins and Columbia for the return voyage.

The crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969—and they were immediately put into a three-week quarantine.

As for their craft, the ascent stage of the Eagle was jettisoned into lunar orbit. Within a couple of years the lander smashed unseen into the moon. Columbia now sits on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

To Infinity, and Beyond

After 40 years, Aldrin's impressions of the moon are as fresh today as the day he landed.

"What fascinated me was the lifelessness off it," he said. "That had not changed in hundreds of thousands of years. Generations of humanity had emerged from the trees, and the moon had looked the same way."

Aldrin also remains passionate about what the Apollo 11 mission meant for the world, and what it can still teach humanity.

Today he advocates the U.S. setting its sights higher than it did 40 years ago, "accepting the role of leading other nations to achieve what we did."

"We do have this wonderful opportunity to emerge from whatever troubles us now," he said, "with a very optimistic pathway for the future."

Android google voice-ur new google phone company..!!

Can Google be your phone company? The answer is yes. I came to that conclusion after I met with Vincent Paquet, co-founder of GrandCentral (a company acquired by Google) and now a member of the Google Voice team. Earlier today he stopped by our office to show the mobile app versions of its Google Voice service for Blackberry and Android. Google recently announced that it was going to make the Voice service widely available to users in the U.S. soon.

These mobile versions of the Google Voice service will allow folks to not only manage their Google Voice connections –- to access and playback voice mails, send and receives SMS messages and read message transcripts — but also make local and long distance calls from mobile phones. The apps are fully integrated with each phone’s contacts, so you can call via Google Voice straight from your address book. This is how it works:

androidgooglevoiceThe mobile app for Google Voice uses the regular PSTN connection to place a call to Google Voice, which then places a call out to the person you need to reach. Since these calls (and SMS messages) originate from your Google Voice, they display your Google Voice number for the recipients. The service needs a data connection but it isn’t necessary to have a Wi-Fi connection to place and receive calls. The wireless number you buy from the cell phone company becomes less relevant.

The Google Voice app essentially reduces the cell phone carrier to a dumb pipe. While the BlackBerry application is interesting, it’s the Android application that shows that Google has bigger designs. I have been playing around with the Android App for about an hour or so and I can see the broader implications. When I was setting up the app, one of the options I was given: to make all calls through Google Voice. And that’s when I thought to myself: Oh! OH!

The app is so tightly enmeshed with Android OS and the address book and other apps, you hardly think that you’re using Google Voice. If Google bundles the Google Voice app with Android and sells it to makers of cheaper feature phones, it can start to insert itself between the consumers and wireless companies.

This “man in the middle” position is Google’s strength. The company has inserted itself between consumers and information via its search offering and profited handsomely from it. Why can’t it do the same with this voice offering? There is anecdotal evidence that some consumers might actually be happy paying for their mobile service by listening to advertisements.

To be sure, Google Voice isn’t the first such service. Truphone and a handful of other startups offer similar services, but Google’s sheer size is what makes this a pretty interesting move. They also have a mobile OS and connections with handset makers such as HTC to get serious traction. In this summer of a lot of hot air from Google — Google Wave and Google Chrome OS, for example — this is the first interesting product with larger implications. Suddenly the idea of Google as my phone company doesn’t sound so preposterous.

about Microsoft Azure..

Microsoft today unveiled pricing details for its Azure services platform — possibly because customers were reluctant to build an application on the beta platform without knowing what it may one day cost them. The platform is Microsoft’s leap into the clouds, and it’s an impressive first step, at least on paper, complete with competitive pricing and lots of concessions designed to get enterprise customers to shift over their IT operations. It also has the potential to become a platform as a service, which would enable far greater levels of control than current platforms, such as those offered by Google; or those tied to applications like Force.com, which allow programmers to build more apps that connect with Salesforce.com; or Quickbase, which does the same for users of Intuit’s software.

What It Is:

• Windows Azure is a cloud operating system on which developers can build using .NET, Java, Ruby on Rails, Python and other languages. Doug Hauger, Windows Azure GM, said that in the future Microsoft will offer an admin model that will allow developers access to the virtual machine, although they will not have to manually allocate hardware resources as they might with a traditional infrastructure-as-a-service offering such as Amazon’s EC2.
• SQL Azure is Microsoft’s relational database in the cloud.
• .NET Services is Microsoft’s platform as a service built on the Azure OS.

What It Costs:

• There are three pricing models: consumption-based, whereby a customer pays for what they use; subscription-based, with discounts for those committing to six months of use; and as of next July, volume licensing for enterprise customers that want to take existing Microsoft licenses into the cloud.
• Azure compute is 12 cents per service hour (half a cent less than Amazon’s Windows-based cloud).
• Azure’s storage service costs 15 cents per GB of data per month, with an additional penny for every 10,000 transactions, which are the movements of data within the stored material.
• .NET Services platform costs 15 cents for every 100,000 times the applications built on .Net Services accesses a tool or chunk of code.
• Moving data costs 10 cents per GB of inbound data and 15 cents per GB of outbound data.
• SQL Azure is $9.99 for up to a 1 GB relational database, and $99.99 for up to a 10 GB relational database.

What It Means for Microsoft and Cloud Computing:

Much of the analysis so far has accused Microsoft Azure as being a late entrant to the cloud computing and platform-as-a-service party. They’re right, but Microsoft is still ahead of many enterprises that it hopes to attract as customers, which have done little more than eye the cloud with suspicion. So it may be late, but don’t discount Redmond’s efforts just yet. Microsoft seems to be willing to play with other programming languages and embrace heterogeneous environments in Azure, likely because no enterprise data center runs solely on Microsoft software. The Azure platform also has a service-level agreement that offers 99.9 percent uptime on the storage side, and 99.95 percent uptime on the compute side.

In addition to validating cloud computing in the enterprise and offering enterprises a familiar face in the clouds, Microsoft Azure has a dark side (maybe it’s navy?) in that it will reduce the software company’s profits (though it may, at the same time, generate additional revenue. However, Microsoft knows this, and so far has warned investors about what the cloud stands to do to Microsoft’s earnings. It will mitigate some of the margin loss if it can operate its cloud as efficiently as possible. It’s already researching ways to do so, including using low-power chips that Intel designs for netbooks in its servers to save on electricity costs.

The nature of corporate computing is changing thanks to virtualization, faster networking and performance boosts from multicore processors. Microsoft cannot afford to ignore these shifts, especially as its customers start to realize the power of cloud computing. It may be behind Amazon and other players, but there’s plenty of room for an open platform that’s aimed at enterprises. But Microsoft will have to try to improve its reliability, and I’m still unclear as to how nicely it will play with companies that want to build management platforms and other tools for customers who want a view inside the Azure cloud. But so far, the details around Azure make it a contender.

4 way galaxy collision...!!

—A blue ridge of glowing gas seems to cut through the heart of the galaxy group known as Stephan's Quintet in a newly released picture from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Discovered in 1877, Stephan's Quintet is really a quartet: Only four of the galaxies (above in a visual-light image by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) lie close together about 280 million light-years away.

Astronomers now know that the large spiral galaxy seen at bottom left is actually a foreground object a mere 35 million light-years from Earth.

The blue ridge, revealed by Chandra's x-ray vision, is likely the result of a shockwave created as one galaxy—the centermost object in the above picture—plows past the other three at nearly 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) an hour.

Further studies of this group, including more detailed images like the new Chandra picture, can provide astronomers with a better understanding of galaxy evolution.

That's because galactic smashups result in alterations such as explosions of star birth, galaxy growth via mergers, and changes in shape. (Related: "Earth Likely to Relocate in Galactic Collision.")

Gravity's pull in the colliding quartet, for example, is stripping the galaxies of their cool star-forming gases, so that astronomers think in a few billion years the group's spiral-armed galaxies will become ellipses.