This week has marked a proud moment in domain history for domain developers – that’s right, the announcement of Google Chrome. For those unfamiliar with my domain flipping methodology I will explain this first so that this post makes sense. (If you are a regular reader feel free to skip to the next paragraph)

When I flip a domain I do not buy a domain and then sell it quickly. Instead, a flip for me is the process of buying a domain in a category I feel has good growth potential. Next I spend some time researching the market, understanding the top keywords using tools like Wordtracker, and finally – creating a game plan for what I think would be most effective on the given domain. Then I develop a high-quality website with interactive features that keep users coming back. By writing high-quality, keyword-rich content I create websites that rank well in search engines like…Google.

So how does Google Chrome help domain flippers/developers? Easy – all of those domainers that have been getting hits through typo’s will now lose their traffic as the typo’s now become search terms plugged-into the Google search engine. Google then determines it was a typo and suggests what the user was actually looking for. What does this mean? More hits for legitimately developed websites.

This means that flipped/developed domains will now get significantly more traffic as ranking well in a search engine will become far more valuable than having a typo similar to a popular keyword. At the end of the day this is also a better service to the end-user who can actually find what they are looking for rather than the typical parking page found on typo domains.

So domain flippers, developers, investors of the world rejoice! Let’s face it – Google is the undisputed king of the Internet and when the king makes a browser the masses will use it. This will represent a change that over time will help make domain development the new wave of domain name investing.

Author: Morgan Linton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

Now is the time to look at an alternative to Microsoft Office.

Are you locked into using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? Are you spending extra because you need a database, and Access does not come with the basic Office package?

Well, the time has come to look at alternatives, or at least the one I’ll discuss here in a few moments. Whether you are a writer on a tight budget, but need to send your submittals in Word format or an employee wanting to do work at home without either paying hundreds of dollars for Office or installing an illegal copy at home, there are inexpensive options.

(Just as an aside, do NOT ever install or use unlicensed software from Microsoft or anyone else. It is simply not worth the headaches, including huge fines and possible jail time. And if you take a copy home from the office, you may lose your job.)

How much would you pay for office productivity software with these features?

o runs on Windows (R), just like Microsoft Office

o all files can be saved in Microsoft Office formats

o a word processor

o a spreadsheet

o a presentation tool

o a database

o a drawing tool

o export to Acrobat PDF format (requires third-party add ins to do this in Microsoft Office)

o save in Flash format (.SWF) for use on the Web; this cannot be done at all in Microsoft Office

Are you interested yet? Want to know the price?

FREE.

For more information, visit the OpenOffice site: http://www.openoffice.org

How can this be? Well, there is a movement among programmers around the world referred to as open source.   I won’t bore you with great detail, but the idea is that programmers from all over will donate their time to working on a specific product (in this case, OpenOffice) and leaving it in the public domain. You may have heard of the Linux operating system; it is still the most famous open source collaboration.

Just as RedHat and SuSE, among others, take Linux and add tools to make it easier to use, Sun Microsystems has StarOffice available starting at $79.95. This includes limited technical support (OpenOffice does not have technical support.) This is still a bargain, and Sun sponsors OpenOffice. In case you are not familiar with Sun, they are a very solid Silicon Valley company, primarily known for their workstations and inventing the Java programming language.

Instead of upgrading to Office 2003, I recommend at least investigating the OpenOffice option. Whether a home user or a business with hundreds of copies of Office installed, it just makes sense.

After all, it is free!

About the author: Gregory S. Diehl has almost 35 years experience in applying technology to solve business problems and expand opportunities. He has worked as a systems analyst, programmer, technical writer, Web developer and numerous other roles. A Master CIW Designer, he is currently starting a Web design and development firm in Las Vegas.

http://www.gsdweb.net

http://www.lonewolfreviews.com

webmaster@gsdweb.net

Author: Greg Diehl
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

Google started taking part in the battle of browsers in early 2008 by releasing their browser, Google Chrome. The initial release was only targeted towards Microsoft Windows users. But during December 2009, Google released official betas for Max OSX and Linux operating systems.

Chrome has demonstrated that it can fight with the existing giants. Within a relatively short period of time, it has surpassed the market share of Safari and Opera. Currently it holds a significant share of 4.26%, being at the third place. The Internet Explorer still holds the majority of share of 63.6% while Firefox has gained 24.7%.

So far, there is a positive outlook for Chrome. Many existing users of Safari have reported that they like the improved response time with the browser. Also the browser is developed with user experience in mind, hence, has a very limited number of buttons and menu items. This gives the user a larger viewing area.

On a negative side, the browser is still in beta stage for Mac and Linux users. Some users have noticed the lack of control with their bookmarks a reason not the make the immediate shift. Most tech savvy users who are used to live with customized plug-ins with Firefox will also take sometime to shift to the new browser. Even though Chrome has extensions, it is still not matured.

In conclusion, Chrome has shown promising results so far. It is continuing to increase on market share in 2010 as it improves stability and overall user experience across all platforms.

Author: Roger Spence
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

Professional screencasting has always been left to proprietary systems such as Windows and Mac since the only quality software created for screencasting has always been geared toward those users. That all changed once RecordItNow was released for the KDE platform.

RecordItNow was created to fill the gap between the poor performing free applications and commercial approaches (none of which are available in Linux). Tauted as a “plugin based [KDE] desktop recorder”, it is much more than a simple desktop recorder. It can be used on any Linux variant with the help of a few KDE libraries.

Installing RecordItNow is rather easy, though it does require a few extra ‘plugins’ to fully function. One required plugin is the well known RecordMyDekstop application. Since RecordItNow is completely plugin based, it can use other recording applications with ease though it currently only support RecordMyDesktop.

For full functionality you will also want to download and install Mencoder and Ffmpeg. These two plugins are required if you want to encode your screencasts into formats like.flv (flash),.avi or just about any other standard format. Best of all, once installed RecordItNow can handle all the encoding automatically.

Installing RecordItNow and it’s plugins can be done in three ways in Kubuntu. The first and easiest way for most people is the GUI package manager KPackageIt. There are also two command line ways, through apt-get and with the aptitude package manager.

Before you can install RecordItNow though, you have to add the PPA repository which contains it. To add the new repository from the command line, enter in this command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:darcio53/ppa

Or by using the GUI:

Click on the Menu to open it. Then select System Settings. Under Computer Administration click “Add and Remove Software”. From the left menu, click on Setting and then on “Edit Software Sources” from the right panel. You will be asked to enter the administrator password. Once the Software Sources window opens which on the “Other Software” tab. Then click on “Add” and add the repository:

ppa:darcio53/ppa

Once you have reloaded the repository list, its time to download and install RecordItNow.

Still in the Add and Remove Software window, click on Software Management in the left panel. Now in the search box type in “recorditnow”. Once it’s found click the gray arrow on the ride, and then click Apply to install it. Do the same for “mencoder” and “ffmpeg”.

To install via apt-get and aptitude is easy. Open a terminal window by pressing ALT-F2 on your keyboard then type “konsole”.

Once in the terminal, all you have to do is type in one of these two commands to install RecordItNow, mencoder and ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install recorditnow mencoder ffmpeg

or

sudo aptitude install recorditnow mencoder ffmpeg

That’s it! Once you have completed those steps you can open RecordItNow and begin recording professional quality screencasts in Linux.

Author: Piotr Krzyzek
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rate

When it comes to security, versatility and stability, there is no better solution in information technology than open source. From operating systems to Web development to just about any common application, the open-source revolution finally has taken hold.

Businesses have started to truly understand the benefits of opting for open source, not only to save money, but also for the peace of mind it brings to their IT environment.

The term “open source” has a variety of meanings in the IT world. It is used to describe initiatives and collaborations ranging from software projects to enterprise environments with source code that is accessible to anyone. It stands as perhaps the ultimate example of the process of continuous improvement by encouraging everyone to make it better – and share how they did it.

Many open-source-based solutions like RedHat, Ubuntu and Suse are becoming down-right mainstream, drawing offers for proprietary partnerships from hardware giants like Dell, HP and IBM. So far, each has maintained its autonomy and reiterated its commitment to furthering “the movement” rather than its bottom line.

The issue of support no longer keeps businesses from buying in to open-source technology either. Most are fully supported, either through packages by their distributors, as in the case of RedHat and Suse, or via the well-rounded Internet network.

Open-source now is possible – and pragmatic – for every new Web development project. By using LAMP – that’s Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP – an open-source solution can be created that is versatile and secure.

Author: Aaron Wittersheim
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Latest trends in mobile phone

With vital data being transmitted and stored in web applications, there is a dire need for explicit security testing. Apart from maintaining the privacy of important data, security testing also involves tackling authorization and authentication issues.

As a tester, it is the most exciting form of testing. There are many interesting tools and techniques to reveal the vulnerabilities of a web application. But as fun as it may sound, it has a very serious side to it. With the use of the right security testing tools you can uncover many hidden issues that can otherwise give out sensitive information in unauthorized hands. With so many web application security testing tools available, there is always a doubt about the most suitable option. Here are some tips to choose the right security testing tool:

Simplicity of use
It is very important for a security testing tool to have complete ease of usage to save unnecessary time wastage. The tool should not be confusing and should be easy enough to be understood by first time users. The installation should be simple and the basic setup should not require too much time.

Add-ons
A web application security testing tool is incomplete without a handy set of standalone tools. Some examples can be HTTP editors, web proxy and HTTP discovery service that allows detection of live web servers on the network. These utilities are very important to perform thorough investigation. More than half of the issues are revealed by these additional utilitarian tools.

Creation of logs
Logging allows you to track the entire process from submitting the URL to packet level details. You can locate the error invoking code and can even identify the headers sent and received via the HTTP protocol.

Authentication and authorization
Security testing tools should allow you to manipulate the web application as an authenticated user. This will help you in revealing the loopholes or the sensitive areas of the application that can be easily exploited. Similarly, you should be able to adopt different authorization roles and test the application accordingly.

Handling false positives
Every testing tool generates many false positives but the right tool is the one that offers ways to control what has already been scanned or seen. When used in future, it saves lot of time and makes testing hassle free.

Testing login
Though rare, but if a web application tool provides password cracking capabilities, it can make the application very secure. This helps in testing the robustness of login mechanism. The conventional dictionary cracking methods are little limited in their scope.

Advanced features like smart scanning, multiple site scan, and internal scan query manipulation allow complete testing of the application quickly. Go for the evaluation version to see whether the tool is actually as per your requirements or not. Keep these tips in mind and choose the web application security testing tool that works well in your environment and fits your budget.

Author: Ambreen T
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

In these post 9/11 days, intrusion and lack of privacy are often justified by the glib phrase “If you have nothing to hide why worry?” Yet all of us at some time or other have something to hide without being a criminal. What if you’re planning a surprise party, buying presents or arranging a secret holiday? Or perhaps you are being very naughty – hiding photos of your girlfriend from your spouse, which if not exactly nice, is not usually a crime.

The best reason of all is for personal security – ID theft is at an all time high and keeping important information secure is not that easy these days. Even if you trust your firewall, anti- spy ware, etc, what if your pc or laptop was stolen? Could you be absolutely sure that no one could read your files, or access your passwords, business accounts, salary files, and new business ideas?

What if you could hide your most cherished information so securely that it couldn’t even be detected? Well now you can, thanks to open source and it won’t even cost you a cent. All you need is a PC running Windows or Linux and the Truecrypt application.

Truecrypt is a remarkable piece of free software that can be downloaded from http://Truecrypt.org It uses the best security methods- algorithms like ES-256, Blowfish, CAST5, Serpent, Triple DES, Twofish, AES-Serpent, and AES-Twofish-Serpent. Even the source code is available to examine or alter. Don’t worry if you don’t know what these names mean; they are all well established and verified means of encrypting data. You can find out more about them on the Truecrypt website or use Google.

There is a very dodgy practice in security- known as “security through obscurity” that works by not revealing how the secured data is stored. It relies on that secrecy to protect your data. This is snake oil. Many programmers think they can write their own encryption algorithms and sell them but it is actually pretty hard to develop robust and secure algorithms. It’s considered far better to use tried and tested methods and keep your passwords secret. That’s what Truecrypt does. There is nothing wrong with hiding the files as well but you should not rely on keeping files hidden as your only means of protection.

Truecrypt is excellent at disguising its encrypted files. It doesn’t use any special type of file so the presence of a Truecrypt file cannot be easily spotted. It is possible to detect that you have used Truecrypt on a Windows PC by looking in the registry but those registry keys can be found and removed if you are really security conscious and know how to use regedit.

In Windows Explorer if you see a file ending in .txt, it is usually a text file, just as .xls is an excel file, .doc is for word etc. With a file named kernel.sys, you might think it is part of Windows. But it could equally be a Truecrypt file. Examining the bytes in a Truecrypt file with a hex editor will not reveal what the file contains or even identify it as a Truecrypt file. You’ll just see random byte values. The whole file is encrypted and only your password can decrypt it. As your password isn’t stored anywhere that means if you forget it, the data is irretrievably lost. There is no back door or recovery utility that you can use.

Unusually for software of this complexity, Truecrypt is very easy to use. It can make use of a file, an entire disk or even a USB drive to hold encrypted files. My preference is to use a file, as it’s easy to make backup copies.

Each Truecrypt file or drive is actually a “volume”, similar to a root folder that holds other files and folders. Each ‘volume’ has to be prepared once- just enter a password and it is filled with random data in a few minutes. “Volume” files can be pretty small – a few hundred kilobytes or very large- up to gigabytes. The overall size obviously depends on what you want to hold in it but as a general rule, keep it as small as you can- certainly don’t make it very big “just in case”. Big files stick out like a sore thumb. Certainly avoid using file extensions that are easy to check. You might be tempted to hide a Truecrypt file in a folder full of large spreadsheets. But Excel would not be able to load your file and that might be a clue.

The Windows folder for instance is full of large files such as win32.fts, a 16 megabyte file that is part of the Windows XP help system. Do you know how to use an fts file? I certainly don’t. So creating a Truecrypt file with an fts extension in the Windows folder is one place to hide files.

Once a file has been prepared, it just needs mounting to make it usable. Select the file, choose the drive letter it will use and enter your password. One second later you’ll have a new drive show up in Windows Explorer. This drive can be reformatted, compressed and used just like a real disk. You can copy your files on to it or work directly on it- it’s as fast as a normal disk and just as safe. How do I know? I’ve used one for over a year and have never lost any data.

Certain countries have laws – the U.K. for instance, that can force you to reveal your passwords to authority if they demand it. If you don’t, you may go to jail. However Truecrypt can provide “plausible deniability”. You can store a secret volume within a Truecrypt volume using a second password. If the first password is used, only the files in the visible part are revealed and you can claim that you have complied with the law. Unless the secret volume takes up a large amount of space, like finding a hidden room in a house, it will be impossible to detect if a secret volume is present.

Using Truecrypt is of course no excuse to avoid the usual security processes like firewalls and anti-virus. Neglect those and you might end up with a key logger on your PC that would record everything you did including your passwords.

I’ve used Truecrypt to secure a large list of website usernames and passwords. It has proved to be extremely robust and reliable. If you’ve got personal data that must be kept private – Truecrypt is one of the best ways to do it. Just don’t forget your password!

Author: David Bolton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news

Are you old enough to remember the 1992 Janet Jackson song entitled The Best Things In Life Are Free? Or maybe you are so old that you can remember the 1956 Hollywood movie of the same name. In any case we do not guarantee that you will find Damn Small Linux and our associated tutorials to be among the best things in your life. But we do guarantee that they are both completely free. Well, wait a minute. They are both free, but…

You may have to shell out some of your hard-earned cash to learn Linux, especially if you are downloading the software and running the tutorials on your home computer. Yes, you will have to pay for an Internet connection at least during the time devoted to downloading the files. Now by today’s bloated standards Damn Small Linux is really small; it weighs in at a mere 50 Megabytes. So downloading this software distribution is fairly quick, especially if you have a high-speed connection. And yet as we all know, sometime during the following month your Internet Service Provider will want money.

Once you have downloaded Damn Small Linux you won’t need the Internet to run it. But you may want to activate one or both of the Internet browsers that are part of this distribution. And you may want to download additional applications; there are lots of them and since this version of Linux is so small, you should still have scads of disk space available.

Your Linux costs don’t end with the Internet. I don’t think that the electricity that powers your computer is free. And the longer your days and nights spent in front of the computer the higher your light and heat bill. Furthermore, the more time you spend on Linux the more money you may end up spending on snacks, new eyeglasses, and taxis when you miss the bus to work because you just couldn’t tear yourself away from the computer in time. I think you get my drift. But we repeat. Linux, this website, and many of the references on the web are free. Should you outgrow Damn Small Linux the larger versions of Linux are free, or at least quite inexpensive when compared to ostensibly similar versions of Microsoft Windows.

Most people don’t run operating systems for their features but for the applications they enable. Reason number two: Damn Small Linux provides lots of free applications.

Author: Levi Reiss
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

First impressions of Google Chrome web browser -”It’s simple to use; clean in appearance and really user-friendly”.

Look: When I first opened Google Chrome browser, I didn’t know what to expect; I found an internet browser that is very clean in appearance. Google has gone for a minimalistic approach which is perfect. The overall design of the web browser appears to be sleek and modern.

Functions: Google Chrome offers striking new features. When the browser is first opened, a gallery will appear – showing which sites you have visited most. This is a very handy feature if you don’t like continually typing in website addresses, or having to use a search engine to find what you need.

Tabs are also used in the web browser; however, the tabs are positioned at the very top of the browser, this is quite handy, as it reduces clutter between the website address and the main web page. The tab functions similarly to Internet Explorer 8.

In addition, Google has added a new Task Manager feature, which allows you to monitor individual websites’ CPU usage. This comes in handy when you find a website that uses a lot of resources and may crash your browser. This program is useful for avoiding web browser crashes.

Another feature is Incognito mode – aka “privacy mode”. Incognito mode allows you to browse the web anonymously because your web browsing activity won’t be recorded in your web history folder; however, it won’t stop websites from collecting information about your browsing activity. You will notice a dark grey window when Incognito mode is turned on.

Google Chrome also has a quick bookmarking function. To bookmark a website, just click the star button next to the website address bar; this couldn’t be simpler. Google Chrome also has a simple downloading interface. When downloading a file, the file downloading progress will show in the browser, once the download has finished, you can drag the file onto the desktop (within the browser window) to add to your desktop.

Verdict:

Google Chrome is such a useful web browser: its sleek design and ease of use, makes it very versatile browser. I prefer Google Chrome browser to Internet Explorer 8.0, because it is so simple to use and the minimalistic approach allows you to concentrate on what you are looking for, rather than a browser with loads of unnecessary gadgets (Internet Explorer).

What are you waiting for? Try it for yourself!

Author: Martin Simmons
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news

The Linux operating system has experienced huge growth in the past few years. With excellent stability. flexibility and the free price tag. People are realizing that Linux is a great alternative. Just like Windows, users would have to learn how to use Linux. Linux developers have taken note, and have come up with several ways to allow people to try Linux without getting rid of your Windows installation. Here are a couple of ways you can get a taste of what Linux has to offer.

Live CD
Linux distributions like Ubuntu offer a feature called Live CD. Live CD allows you to boot off of the install CD instead of your hard drive. All you have to do is burn the CD, keep it in your CD drive when booting your computer and press the option to boot from CD. Now each computer is different so consult your PC manufacture for instructions to boot from CD. Once booted you will be able to use almost all of the functionality of the Linux distribution that you have on CD without impacting your Windows installation. There are two drawbacks: You cannot save your settings once you turn off your computer and the operating system tends to run slow because CD drives access data slower than hard drives. If you like what you see you can install to your hard drive from the live CD. Get more on Ubuntu’s website.

Wubi
Wubi is great. What Wubi does is creates a virtual hard drive in one folder stored on your Windows partition. Then Wubi gives you the option to boot into Windows or Linux upon booting by changing your boot record. Installation is easy. Just download the install file. Select the install path and what install of Ubuntu you would like. That’s it. Once complete you will have the option to boot into Linux or Windows. If you want to remove Linux just go to add/remove programs and uninstall Wubi. That’s it. No mess. There is a small risk of damage to your boot record but I have never seen it. Check out Wubi by doing a Google search.

Virtualbox
Virtualbox is really cool. Virtualbox is a piece of software that you can install in Windows and Linux that will allow you to emulate another operating system while running another. For example, if you use Windows you can install Virtualbox and install Ubuntu then run Ubuntu in a small window or full screen while being able to use everything in Windows. I hope that makes sense. The only drawback Virtualbox has is it runs slow because it has to share system resources with your host operating system. So you won’t be playing any games while running Virtualbox. If you want just learn this is a great solution. Once you are done you can close up Virtualbox to free up system resources. For more information check out VirtualBox’s website.

That’s it! You have three free ways to get your feet wet with Linux. If you like Linux give it an install as your main operating system. There are too many things to explore with Linux to fit in one article. I recommend trying out Ubuntu.

Author: Mike Man
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rate

What is Google Chrome?

Google Chrome is the web browser released in September 2008 by the Google Team, which thrust Google into the already crowded Web Browser market. At the browser’s introduction, Internet Explorer held about 75% market share, Firefox was at around 15%, and Safari was at around 3-5%. The rest of the market was made up of smaller specialty browsers like Opera or Flock.

So What’s the Big Deal?

Well, Google had been fairly adamant in stating that they were not developing a web browser when it was initially rumored that they would enter the market. Industry insiders suggested Google would release a browser as the company had been slowly but surely venturing into new territory. Google had developed a webmail program with Gmail, a calendar web app, a document and spreadsheet app, an rss feeder, and plenty more. It was believed that it was only a matter of time before they developed a browser to house all of these web applications. In September 2008, 4 years after rumors initially began, Google entered the market.

Ok, Well What Makes it Different?

Chrome was developed with the intention of getting out of the user’s way. The development team had decided early on that the content that was being interacted with by the user should be the entire focus. This is reflected in the user interface of Chrome, which has a small “frame” size, and for the most part, lacks any shiny distracting functions.

In addition, the Chrome team developed the browser with speed in mind. The framework of the browser is based on the WebKit platform, which is also the basis of Apple’s Safari. WebKit is typically very fast and efficient, and served as a great starting point for development of Chrome. The altered WebKit framework specific to Chrome is called Chromium, which is an open source platform.Because of the complexity of some of the web applications on the Internet, the Chrome developers believed that it would be important that the browser could maintain stable whilst interpreting these applications. The team created a system which gave each tab its own process which could be killed if it became unresponsive, without effecting the other tab processes.The browser also offers Incognito, which is a private browsing feature. When Incognito is activated, no cookies, cache, or history is saved. After the Incognito browsing session is completed, there will be no record of that session saved. This is especially useful for public or shared computers.The browser also utilizes a JavaScript engine known as V8, which was developed from scratch by Google. V8 was designed to simplify JavaScript which is simultaneously becoming more prevalent and more complex in the web today.

Author: Samuel Crasnick
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Creditcard Currency Conversion Fee

Novell, a leader in the infrastructure software for the Open Enterprise, earlier announced that the BMW Group is using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell with integrated Xen* virtualization software to implement virtualized workloads in its data center, thus reducing hardware costs and simplifying deployment.

After extensive testing by BMW IT Research Center staff in North America and Germany, the automaker is now ready to deploy virtualized data center solutions using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLED) 10 and Xen hypervisor on Intel x86 dual-core servers with Intel Virtualization Technology. BMW joins a number of automakers like Audi, which is also running Novell’s SUSE Linux operating system. With the technology around, it wont be hard for the automaker to track the developments of BMW muffler and other auto parts as well as the updates in the day-to-day business.

According to BMW, Xen virtualization technology built into SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 will allow the company to increase flexibility in managing server life cycles. BMW will also gain operational and cost advantages in other areas, in addition to having a flatter support structure through the integrated operating system and virtualization layer. Hardware resources can be more efficiently used through server consolidation, and BMW is able to cluster virtual servers and migrate them live from one physical server to another as needed. The company is also currently evaluating Novell ZENworks Orchestrator as a way to manage the resulting virtual data center systems.

The BMW Group is taking advantage of what the market is just discovering, that Xen open source virtualization software fully integrated in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a viable alternative to proprietary virtualization solutions, providing high performance at a lower cost, said Roger Levy, vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell. Integration ensures all pieces of the solution work well together, and as is the case with open source software, it eliminates vendor lock-in and enhances customer choice. The automaker added the Xen virtualization technology will allow the company to increase flexibility in managing server life cycles.

According to consumers, SUSE Linux Enterprise, the next-generation platform for the open enterprise, is the best-engineered, lowest-cost and most interoperable platform for enterprise computing, from the desktop to the data center. As a fact, more and more businesses are using the technology to increase leverage. Capgemini, for one, has also entered into a partnership with Novell. The latter will deliver new solutions to enterprise customers using a combination of open source and proprietary software.

Under terms of the agreement, Capgemini will improve its open source consulting practice with Novell capabilities, specifically centered on the deployment of IT solutions using SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell along with mixed-source applications and management tools. Whats more, customers can deploy a Linux platform across their entire desktop-to-data center infrastructures with extra confidence that only a global consulting leader could offer.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Novell,” said Paul Hermelin, Capgemini CEO. “Every day we hear from more customers that open source is becoming a critical part of their IT strategy as they seek choice and value. Capgemini prides itself on its ability to help customers identify and deploy mission-critical technologies that will help them improve their IT infrastructure effectiveness, and this partnership with Novell is critical to fulfilling these needs. Novell, through its SUSE Linux Enterprise platform and ZENworks management suite, is a key vendor offering a complete solution.”

Author: Glady Reign
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Electric Pressure Cooker

The jury is still out on whether Google will be successful marketing the Nexus One to the average consumer but when your product is endorsed by a giant in the Open Source community, you know you are on the right track.

Linux Torvalds, best known for developing the Linux Kernel, acknowledged that “the Nexus One is a winner” and has replaced his rarely used G1 phone.

What is his view of cellphones in general?  His direct quote,  “I generally hate phones–they are irritating and disturb you as you work or read or whatever–and a cell phone to me is just an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are”.

What changed Torvalds’s mind about this horrid device called a cellphone, “I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me ‘just in case’ I would need to get in touch with somebody – now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.  I’ve wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that google navigation might finally make a phone useful.”

The Android OS is an open source mobile platform that is fully customizable which allows developers total control and ease of application development.  There are currently 20,000 plus applications available and that number is expected to skyrocket.

Sources: http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-camper.html

Chrome is the newest browser that is available for people to use on the Internet, and the ‘next big thing’ in terms of addons and applications will be Google Chrome extensions. When Chrome was first released, it was extremely fast and had many features which Internet users had been looking for for a long time. The browser market, however, is already dominated by two major organizations – Microsoft and its Internet Explorer software and Mozilla with Firefox.

How was Google going to position itself in this already slightly saturated market? They went for optimization of their code, making what is sometimes called slow (the browser) and making it lightning fast. They realized that the everyday user online cares only for retrieving information quickly, and that boot-up speed and flexibility was a big factor for people when surfing online.

The launch of Chrome was a huge fanfare, but after a few months they were having problems breaking through the 5% level in terms of overall users. So what was the reason that people were not trying and then sticking with Chrome? The answer was customization.

Internet Explorer’s major advantage over the competition in the browser marketplace was some decidedly shady tactics that Microsoft employed over the last twenty years in terms of supplying their own browser in new installs of its operating system, Windows. This practice has since been challenged in courts around the world, and MS has been forced to pay huge amounts of money in compensation to certain companies, and indeed probably caused the bankruptcy of many, many others.

The Internet generation grew up with Windows and Internet Explorer, and it became the de facto standard software for people who knew no better. It was a huge monopoly which looked as if it would continue unchecked in perpetuity. Then Firefox was born.

Firefox began as an open-source project to create a new, better, faster browser – to try to avoid the drawbacks of a monopoly caused by Microsoft. IE was by no means perfect, and was becoming slow and susceptible to attacks by virus writers and makers who targeted the dominant brand. Firefox was supported by a huge number of organizations and people, especially tech-savvy netizens who demanded more from their product. Google itself invested in the non-profit which was developing Firefox, as well as the once-defeated Netscape organization.

Firefox flourished, and its popularity has grown more and more over the last few years as even regular Internet users have realized that there is an option to using Internet Explorer at home and in the workplace. Communities of people began working on extending the functionality of Firefox ahead of IE, and these add-ons that were written became more widely distributed until they were seen as standard by the surfing population.

When Chrome was launched, people remembered how fast Firefox was when it was first released. Many thought that Chrome would become the new alternative to IE due to this speed, but they failed to realize that the reason it was so quick was because it had a standard installation with zero add-ons and extensions. This was not a good thing for Google.

The Chromium project (who are in charge of developing both the Chrome browser and new operating system) had to adapt, and so they decided to themselves allow extensions to their browser, so that independent developers could advance the functionality of the software and users could be able to use features which they were now used to in their browser.

The first few Google Chrome extensions that were shown off were developed by Google themselves, and include some very simple add-ons as well as a couple of more complex ones. The functionality of adding a site’s RSS to your reader is seen as standard to most people, but it was unavailable until the Chrome extension was released. They also released a ‘check Google mail’ plug-in which would tell you how many messages are in your inbox, and it gives one-click access to your inbox.

The best extension that was revealed early is Bubble Translate – which allowed ‘on the fly’ translation (using Google’s translate facility) of webpages. Obviously these are just the tip of the iceberg, and there will be huge numbers of add-ons, plug-ins and extensions for Google Chrome to come in the near future. We will then see how it fares against its two, well established rivals.

Author: Sammy Till
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Make PCB Assembly