Archive January 2009
Foldable Keyboard for Handheld Bluetooth Devices
MSI have released a Foldable Universal Bluetooth Keyboard for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smart Phones. Measuring 285 x 98 x 12mm (approx.) and weighing only 184g, it is compatibe with:
- Palm Smart Phone and PDA OS version 5.0
- Microsoft Smartphone 2003 OS
- Pocket PC 2003 OS/Mobile phone edition 2003/WM 5/WM 6
- Symbian Smartphone User Interface series 60 and UIQ OS
- and more…
Read a review here: http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/01/21/bluetooth-folding-keyboard-for-handhelds-msi-bk100-bluetooth-keyboard/
And read more here: Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard for Handheld Devices
The Making of the Mac
MacWorld has a look back at how the original Mac came to life. From the Apple II (in 1977), through the Apple III, the Lisa and finally the Apple Mac the story covers it all!
The original Mac featured a 9-inch black-and-white display, 3.5-inch floppy drive (which could store 400KB of data on each disk), 128KB of RAM and a Motorola 68000 processor running at 8 MHz. It shipped with MacWrite, a word processing tool, and MacPaint, a drawing tool. Later the same year, Apple shipped the Mac 512K, which doubled the installed RAM but kept the same design.
Read more here: In the beginning: The making of the Mac | Macworld
Mercian Labels has Completed Their Migration to Open Source
Mercian Labels, a label printing company in the UK, has completed their migration to open source software.
Mercian Labels decided in 2007 to migrate all of their software to open source solutions. They have now succesfully migrated all possible parts of their business where an open source alternative exists. They are now using 15 open source computers and even their telephone system has gone open source.
They have successfully migrated their email (using Zimbra), Web server (migrated to Ubuntu dedicated server) and CRM. The company is using FreeNAS for network attached storage having tried a Buffalo Terastation Live which sadly died.
Read more here: Our migration to open source has finally been completed!
Desktop Virtualization for Vista
Microsoft has released a public beta of desktop virtualization software to run legacy Windows applications on Windows Vista.
Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) allows computers running Vista also run Windows XP or Windows 2000. Virtualization becomes a strategic issue for the conquest of new users of Vista in the business world.
The beta can be downloaded here. A short survey will need to be answered before downloading the software.
You can read more at Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization for Vista
Ubuntu 9.04 Boots in 21.4 Seconds with EXT4 as the default filesystem
Ubuntu 9.04 Boots in 21.4 Seconds when using the EXT4 as the default filesystem. This is compared to Ubuntu 8.10 with EXT3 filesystem which boots in 26.8 seconds and Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha (Build 20090112.1) with EXT3 filesystem that boots in 24.5 seconds.
The boot times were calculated from the moment the GRUB boot loader appeared on the screen and until the login manager was displayed. As you can see, there is an approximately 8.7 second difference between an Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) installation and an Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha (Jaunty Jackalope) one on the first system and 5.4 second difference on the second system.
Read more here: Ubuntu 9.04 Boots in 21.4 Seconds – With EXT4 as the default filesystem.
Why Linus Torvalds Will Laugh in Your Face
There is one way to get Linus Torvalds to laugh in your face; submit code to fix Linux that might solve a major difficulty, but also introduce new problems.
Linux originator Torvalds is following his long-standing policy of attending the Australian Linux.conf.au conference but not appearing as a presenter in the formal program. However, he offered a number of comments from the floor during a presentation by LWN.net founder Jonathan Corbet on the kernel development process.
Read more here: Linus Torvalds on regression, laziness and having his code rejected
VMware a Company to Watch in 2009
VMWare has been named one of the Top 20 Companies to Watch in 2009 by Linux Magazine. VMware works closely with major Linux providers to ensure production-quality support for Linux guest operating systems running on VMware hypervisors.
The Linux Magazine 20 Companies to Watch list features the vendors that are making a significant impact on the next-generation of Linux and Open Source adoption. Linux Magazine selects companies that have the ability to spur Open Source adoption in all facets of Information Technology, are technology and service innovators, and develop practical solutions for the Open Enterprise. Please visit http://www.linux-mag.com for more information.
Read more here.
Version of 5.3 of RHEL is Available via Red Hat Network
Red Hat announced the availability of a new version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) via Red Hat Network to customers with a Red Hat subscription.
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 Release Notes note over 150 updates and upgrades, but here are a few key highlights:
Virtualization enhancements: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 supports larger x86-64 systems. The number of supported physical CPUs is increased to 126, while maximum memory is increased to 1TB. Virtual server CPU and memory limits have been increased to 32 and 80GB respectively.
Next-generation hardware enablement: The soon-to-be-released Tylersberg/Nehalem platform is the next-generation of Intel x86-64 hardware. Support for the virtualization and performance features provided by this processor combined with numerous optimizations have already demonstrated exceptional performance over previous processor generations in internal Red Hat testing.
OpenJDK: Red Hat is taking a leadership position in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 by shipping the first productized implementation of OpenJDK.
Disk encryption: Critical for laptop use, but also becoming increasingly important in server deployments (due to concerns with hardware disposal at the end of its lifecycle), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 includes full support for encryption of storage, either at the block level or file system level.
Read more here: Virtualization gets a boost in RHEL 5.3
Sorry We Were Hacked
Just a quick note to let you know that the hitechsquad.com blog was hacked. The hack inserted some text and links for pharmaceutical products and Google is showing ads accordingly.
We have fixed the problem and we are now upgrading all the software to the latest versions to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
AMD Phenom II X4 Arrives
AMD has launched their new 45nm consumer CPUs; the Phenom II X4 940 and 920. These CPUs are the latest quad cores from AMD with bigger cache and more MHz. Does Intel finally have some worthy competition?
The Phenom II comes in two flavors (and prices):
- X4 920 – 2.8GHz – $235
- X4 940 – 3.0GHz – $275
These new chips are positioned between Intel’s Core 2 Duo and the Core i7. The initial release of the chips supports DD2 (with DDR3 coming later) and have 6MB of L3 cache accessible by all cores. The L1 and and L2 caches are 64KB L1 data, 64KB L1 instruction per core and 512KB per core respectively,
Initial performance tests show the Phenom II performs about as well as the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 for gaming and the same as an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 for CPU intensive tasks like rendering.
Read more here: AMD Phenom II X4 940 and 920 CPUs
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