By now you’ve probably heard: Google is on the warpath with the announcement of Chrome OS. Just a mere 12 hours after the information was posted on The Official Google Blog, everyone is buzzing about the new operating system, what it means for Microsoft and how the public will react.

Well, it seems they already are. Within 10 minutes of sitting down at my desk, when I was able to finally access my mail, sign on to Instant Messenger and open Chrome, I was bombarded with articles, tweets and IMs about Chrome OS. Maybe this is the reason why. According to the Google Blog, the Google team is “designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds.” The difference is that the Chrome OS will run on the web, versus cluttering up your computer’s performance. This concept of cloud computing isn’t brand new- both Good OS and Microsoft have tooled around with a cloud-based OS. Good OS’s Cloud was released last year and hasn’t caught the attention of the general public, but Cloud 1.0 has been “optimized for netbooks” and is coming soon. (Unfortunately, any chance of widespread popularity was just usurped.) Microsoft’s Azure is a services platform, which may be a terrific tool for developers, but for those of us who ‘don’t do code,’ Azure has very little value (at the moment anyway.) What’s interesting is this quote from Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, regarding the future of applications and computer use:

“All of us are going to be standing on their shoulders” as the technology industry transitions from offering and using traditional software run in enterprise IT networks to running more applications on the Internet via cloud-computing environments hosted by large vendors…” — Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service

However I think they anticipated Microsoft being the “large vendor.” The cloud, aka The Internet, the virtual highway- is it still virtual? With the concept of widespread cloud computing, and an entirely web-based operating system, the interactive space seems to become palpable. With all of our information, our manageable life existing entirely online, it seems we’re moving into virtual real estate. (I may be exploring the outer limbs here, but it’s a big tree.) One of my biggest concerns, and one I think the general Internet community will also harbor, is that of safety. Google claims that the Chrome OS “should just work.” No viruses, no malware… No identity theft? And although voicing different concerns, the recent announcements for all-in-one telephone application Google Voice also stirred questions of security. 1– I know a ton of my information is already on the web, but everything? My comfort level is questionable, even though I know myself and my love for Google’s simplicity. 2– What is Google doing with all this data? Google Voice will have the ability to record your phone calls for data purposes– don’t you think they’ll cache your spreadsheets, presentations, photos and SSN? Now, Google gets data when we use their web based apps and desktop products. With the Google Chrome OS, every action you take is on their system. What do you think about the issue of security, data sharing and the new Google OS? Drop me a line!

Find out more about Microsoft Azure and Cloud 1.0

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Author: Lauren Bridges
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

Okay, so you have this old computer system hanging around and you’re not quite sure what to do with it. Maybe you’re a small company and you think disposing of it might be a waste yet the idea of paying an extraordinary amount of money in new software licensing isn’t appealing. Perhaps you’re an individual and you want to pass along your old laptop to one of your kids. Maybe you’re a non-profit and need to make use of every resource you have. Regardless, you have a very simple need: you want this computer functional so that it’s easy to use, can browse the Internet, edit common office documents, instant messaging, and can read email – and you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to do it. Certainly it can’t be that hard to turn this old worthless machine into something useful again?

And in fact, it’s not. Here’s a practical approach to creating an Open Desktop using free solutions that you can download today from the Internet.

1. Operating System. Download Ubuntu Desktop Edition.

2. Internet Browser. Download Mozilla FireFox.

3. Productivity Application. Download OpenOffice.

4. Email Application. Download Mozilla ThunderBird.

5. Instant Messaging Application. Download Jabber.

A full 32-bit operating system, Ubuntu is quick and easy to install, performs better than Microsoft Windows ®, and you don’t need a degree in computer science to be able to use it. It comes with a familiar graphic user interface and a friendly wizard-driven setup process.

OpenOffice is a free productivity suite capable of handling word processing, spreadsheets, database, and presentation graphics, and is fully compatible with Microsoft Office ® documents.

Meanwhile, ThunderBird is a simple to use email client that has similar capabilities to Microsoft Outlook Express ®.

Mozilla FireFox and OpenOffice comes with Ubuntu so no extra downloading is necessary; you can get the latest versions by downloading them directly from their respective websites after installing Ubuntu.

Finally, Jabber is a cross-platform instant messaging solution. Use Jabber if you have multiple instant messaging accounts with the likes of Google Talk, Yahoo! IM, or MSN Messenger to bring all of that messaging into one place.

Through installing these applications in the order presented, you can turn that doorstop of a computer into something useful again. Bear in mind that the Open Desktop won’t be able to run some of your favorite Microsoft applications, but if you want something that connects to the Internet and performs some very rudimentary functions, this configuration is easy to implement. We’ll see you online!

Russell Mickler works a technology consultant in Battle Ground, WA, USA. With over fourteen years of experience, Mickler teaches for numerous colleges and universities. Mickler holds a CISSP, MCSE, and Masters’ Degree in Information Technology. His website can be found at http://www.micklerandassociates.com he can be contacted at mickler@micklerandassociates.com

Author: Russell Mickler
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Creditcard Currency Conversion Fee

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
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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