Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Santa didn't bring you any calendars this year? Feeling a creative urge? Try Photo Calendar for creating and printing your own beautiful custom calendars.

Here we are, at the front of a new year and decade. For open source software, the refined fuel that has enabled many of the incredible information technology happenings of the previous decade, the future is, well, wide open. The rising tide of cloud computing combined with shifting strategies in the enterprise space will surely bring much excitement to the open source arena and the players within. Rather than reflect, or predict on the future state of open source, I'd like to take an opportunity to make a few requests to maintain the success of open source.

Lots of fascinating new devices were showcased during past week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In addition to marketing new products events like the CES serve as an opportunity to demonstrate what technology can do. Naturally, some of those feats may not prove particularly useful, but they are fun to watch anyway. Even more fun if the underlying software is built on top of Linux, as is the case for the following special devices found at CES 2010.

One of the coolest things about being a Linux user can be showing off your slick custom interface to your friends. With the maturing of Grub 2 and kernel mode setting, we’ll soon all have a beautiful boot from start to finish. The step we’re covering today is customizing GDM, the login manager you likely use if you’re running Ubuntu or any other system with Gnome as your desktop. Well those of you who don’t like the Ubuntu brown can brighten up because there’s no shortage of slick GDM themes available for download. Today, we’ll cover where to get them and how to use them.

When it comes to playing music, there is no shortage of software options, both open and closed. The race to gain users is a race to add features, and if KDE is your thing, then Amarok may be running your way. Arriving just a few weeks past its first anniversary, the latest release of Amarok 2 maintains the momentum built steadily by the seven revisions of the past year. In addition to continuing improvements in stability, performance, and usability, the 2.2.2 release adds and edits a range of features from playlists to podcasts and patches a host of bothersome bugs.

At CES, Nvidia demonstrated tablet-PC prototypes incorporating its Tegra 250 processor, including a Linux-based model from Foxconn, and Android-based models from ICD and Notion Ink, the latter using Pixel Qi display technology. Meanwhile, an Android version of HP's Windows-based "Slate" computer is on the way, say several reports.

Google Engineering Director David Glazer has announced that registration for this year's Google I/O developer conference is now open. Google I/O 2010 will take place on the 19th and the 20th of May, 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The organisers say that, in addition to various Google products, such as App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, Android and Chrome, the Google I/O developer conference will focus on "pushing the boundaries of web applications through open web technologies".

There is a right way to remove and replace your computer's CPU, and several wrong ways. Carla Schroder shows the right way, and how it isn't very difficult.

Most comparisons of the KDE and GNOME desktops focus on usability and productivity apps. However, they often neglect what might be called the leisure apps -- specifically, those used for image and music management. But in the modern online culture, these leisure apps are often as important to users as any other aspect of the desktop. For many, especially at home, they are probably more important than a word processor or spreadsheet. In KDE, photo management is generally handled by DigiKam, and music by Amarok. In GNOME, F-Spot is used most often for photos, while traditionally Rhythmbox has been used for music.

In a recent attack on the web server of the BerliOS (Berlin Open Source) open source platform intruders replaced the portal's home page. The unknown attackers left a message accusing the BerliOS operators of not investing enough time in proper system maintenance – and in protection against attacks.

Facing criticism is part of the cost of doing business for large companies, and Google is no exception. Among the chief sources of criticism for the search giant is its accession to the censorship demands of the People's Republic of China. The outcry may soon see a change of tense, however, as the company has announced an end to its cooperation.

Google's newly-acquired startup AppJet released the source code to its popular EtherPad web editor recently, making good on a promise to EtherPad's users who were previously faced with a service shutdown following the acquisition. The source is under the Apache 2.0 license, which is GPL-compatible, making the code potentially useful to a wide array of free software projects. The release has the community debating the impact on similar and related software, and revisiting the contentious question of how free software in general can and should transition to the web-hosted environment.

Yahoo has finally offloaded its open source enterprise e-mail division, Zimbra, to VMware. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the sales price is believed to be far less than the US$350 million Yahoo paid for the company in September 2007. Kara Swisher at Boomtown reported that the sales price was "well below" the acquisition price, but didn't specify an amount.

Quartics Inc. used last week's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) to show off a VPU (video processing unit) claimed to improve video quality on the fly and do real-time conversion to 3D. The Windows-ready QV1721 targets netbooks, laptops, and other PCs, and includes an on-chip ARM926EJ processor, the company says.

One Laptop per Child Association will be gathering 300 MBA, graduate and undergraduate business students to develop innovative business cases for XO laptop deployment under the auspices of the Global Case Challenge. But I wonder why.

Having been inspired by the Neowin original two-part article, "Microsoft's Future" by Max Majewski (part one and part two), I decided that a look at where Linux stands now, and what the future may hold for it. In 1991, Linux was created with a announcement on a Minix Usenet group by Finnish student Linus Torvalds, stating that he was looking for feedback on a free operating system he was developing. A following started, and people began to submit code back for inclusion into the project. The hobby grew legs of its own and, over the years, turned into the powerhouse community that it is today. Large corporations rely on Linux. Businesses make money selling Linux services. Linux is starting to make an appearance almost everywhere.

If you are an Android developer, looking to root your Android phone, or just a blogger who wants to take screenshots of your latest Nexus One phone, you will need to install Android SDK in your computer. I know that it is kind of troublesome to download/install the SDK just to take screenshots in your phone, but luckily it can be done easily. This article will show you the way to install Android SDK and take screenshots in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic.

Shame on me, I missed that during last week's CES (Consumer Electronics Show), MSI wasn't the only company to announce the release of a SUSE/Moblin Linux-powered netbook. Samsung also announced that they'll be releasing this Linux mix on its N127 netbook. This release, however, is still just getting out of the starting blocks. As several people at the show reported, the one sample netbook that Samsung was showing still had a Windows key emblazoned on its keyboard. Whoops!

Video clip editors have been in short supply under Linux. Jonathan Thomas is now trying to fill that gap with the first stable version of the OpenShot Video Editor. As in many of the applications of the craft, a video editor works on a timeline in OpenShot with clips arranged on multiple tracks, edits them and adds effects. A preview then shows what's been accomplished.

Put on your favorite self-pitying emo music and get ready for some developer frustration. I'm running down the top 10 things I love to hate about Android.