Firefox exec: we don’t want to be bundled with Windows

Posted on February 11, 2009 by vidurgupta

Last week I posted EU: bundle rival browsers with Windows and argued against the idea. Now, Firefox architect Mike Connor has said he doesnt want his browser to be bundled w/ Windows:

“My personal view is that it’s not the right outcome,” he said. “The choice [when installing Windows] would be weird. There’s no good UI [user interface] for that.”

He went ahead and blasted Opera for bringing on the original lawsuit which resulted in EU decision.

Connor also attacked Opera’s claims that bundling harms competition. “Opera’s asserting something that’s provably false,” Connor said, referring to Firefox’s ever improving market share, which now stands at just over 20% worldwide. “It’s asserting that bundling leads to market share. I don’t know how you can make the claim with a

This the original article: Firefox exec: we don’t want to be bundled with Windows

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Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”

Posted on February 9, 2009 by vidurgupta

Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”

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Poo Power! Oslo Buses to Run on Biomethane

Posted on February 5, 2009 by vidurgupta

Poo Power! Oslo Buses to Run on Biomethane

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Saving Gas: Pneumatic Hybrid Engine Is Much Cheaper Than Electric Hybrids And Almost As Economical

Posted on February 4, 2009 by vidurgupta

Saving Gas: Pneumatic Hybrid Engine Is Much Cheaper Than Electric Hybrids And Almost As Economical

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Desh se Tech News and Bakwas!

Posted on February 4, 2009 by vidurgupta

A couple of interesting tech news from India yesterday. First is the launch of Windows 7 in Indian languages.

Microsoft, as a part of its efforts to overcome the language barrier to computing, has showcased a variety of custom made products directed specifically at the vernacular language market – a market that has been largely left untapped till now.

The new initiatives include Language Interface Packs (LIPs) in 12 Indian languages – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu – for MS Office and Windows.

MS does even one better and created tools for developers.

There’s more in store for developers as well. Directed at vernacular language developers, it has launched the Captions Language Interface Pack (or CLIP) in Hindi, Malayalam, Oriya, and Tamil. CLIP uses a tool tip caption to display translations for user interface items in Visual Studio 2008 making it the first ever instance of Microsoft releasing a tool specifically to help students and beginner developers in India use the product in their own language.

The original article from Techtree.com is Microsoft Launches Windows 7 in Hindi

The second and controversial is the launch of $20 laptop which would come down to $10 w/ mass production. The model is called Sakshat. This is an excerpt from India Unveils $20 Laptop:

The Sakshat model scheduled for display in the city of Tirupati Tuesday has 2 GB of memory, which is expandable. It has Wi-Fi and fixed Ethernet capability and will consume just 2 watts of power. The laptop was created over several months in a cooperative effort involving government, academic, and commercial interests.

…

The Sakshat is thought to use a simple version of Linux open source software as an operating system.

There are little details available about the “notebook” and as it is government backed there is doubt if the cost is actually that low or government subsidies are involved. An article in the Indian Daily “Hindu” has some more details and the device really is an hand-held and not a “laptop”.

The 10” long and 5” wide hand-held device, resembling a palmtop or a modem, helps e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device.

It doesn’t seem to have any input devices build-in and a very small display. This is from a Times of India article, $10-laptop proves to be a damp squib:

The so-called laptop actually turned out to be a storage device containing megabytes of data info which can be accessed by a user by connecting this device to a laptop. It meant that unlike the internet, this device can display that information that has already been stored.

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The World is Green

Posted on February 3, 2009 by vidurgupta

I have read a series of “green” articles in last week or so. The first is my favorite, “Whisky Power! Distillery Unveils Scotch Green Power” and I’ll drink to that :-)

We pretty sure that the expression “drunk on power” was never meant to be taken this literally. Recently the Rothes consortium of whisky and scotch distillers announced that they have partnered with Helius Enery to install a power plant fueled by none other than, well, whisky by-products! We think that we can drink to that.

The next article, Tidal-powered datacenters: A sea of opportunity?, is very interesting specially since the blogsphere is a buzz with article on power consumption of data-centers and efforts to reduce it. Power, for cooling and machines, is one of largest costs for any data-center. Another related article was the announcement by Cisco, Automation initiative starts with computers, networks — but will expand to heat, lights:

Cisco Systems Inc. launched a major green initiative today that includes free software to help customers use their networks to automatically turn off computers and network gear at night and whenever they aren’t being used.

….

For example, the software could be used to track how many employees have left a plant or office complex at the end of a shift based on the number of workers with badges who were still inside. If everybody has left, “why keep the systems working?” Kerravala said. “It has a lot of benefits.”

Initially though the software will work with devices which use power over Ethernet. Again, the goal would be reduce power consumption in offices and possibly, data-centers. Another one is IBM Information Infrastructure to meet new emerging green initiatives and needs in IT, a report by IBM on how one could use it products to make the enterprise “greener”. For me the most interesting part in the report is “FIGURE 1. TOP PRIORITY GREEN BUSINESS INITIATIVES IDENTIFIED BY SENIOR BUSINESS EXECUTIVES”. It shows that business care least about carbon credit/offset programs which incidentally all politicians tend to favor. Go figure :-?

The last link is New Catalyst Paves The Path For Ethanol-powered Fuel Cells from Sayan’s BlogWorld.

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EU: bundle rival browsers with Windows

Posted on February 1, 2009 by vidurgupta

I read this article a few days ago, EU may demand Microsoft bundle rival browsers with Windows, and here is an excerpt from it:

But Microsoft revealed some details of the charges.

“The Commission is considering ordering Microsoft and OEMs to obligate users to choose a particular browser when setting up a new PC,” said Microsoft in its quarterly filing with the SEC, referring to the computer makers who preinstall Windows. “Such a remedy might include a requirement that OEMs distribute multiple browsers on new Windows-based PCs.”

I generally like the idea as I firmly believe one should have a choice of software. But playing the devil’s advocate,  do most users of Windows really care? They want the thing to work out of the box, they run default installations, etc. + you have one vendor support, agreed to sucks, but still all the magic updates and all. And who will educate such users that all browers are not born equal. It is safe to assume that most applications are tested on IE and Firefox but can the same be said for Opera or Chrome? It is more of a pain.

And of course, you can argue that we have a choice and what about the advanced users? Well, if you are using IE you are connected to the internet and nothing in Windows prevents you to download and install the other browsers. And yes, MS should provide an option to install IE.

And one more thing: EU can you do something about Apple installing Bonjour and Safari by default w/ iTunes?

Disclaimer: I use both Windows and Linux.

Filed under: Apple, computers, tech | 3 Comments »

WifiDocs/WiFiHowTo – Community Ubuntu Documentation

Posted on January 30, 2009 by vidurgupta

WifiDocs/WiFiHowTo – Community Ubuntu Documentation

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Cellphones as Credit Cards?

Posted on January 28, 2009 by vidurgupta

I have been using the PayPass with my American Express for a while now. It is convenient; you don’t hand your card over, so less chances of forgeting it or fraud, it is faster than sliding and usually for smaller amounts no signature is required.

So, when I read “Cellphones as Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait” I was “come on, there is enough money to be made! share it!”. The problem:

“In Japan it was easier,” explains Gerhard Romen, director for corporate business development at Nokia. “It was just the major guys saying, ‘This is how it will be.’ ” A single carrier, NTT DoCoMo, accounted for more than half the Japanese market at the time the system was rolled out and thus had significant leverage with financial institutions and handset manufacturers.

This is not the case in the United States. For such payments to work here, cellphone manufacturers, carriers, financial institutions and retailers must all play roles. There also must be some sort of intermediary that is trusted by both the financial institutions and the carriers to activate the virtual credit cards inside the phone.

Free market is a bottle neck and as I noted in my earlier post it doesn’t lead to very cheap access w/ comparison to some Asian countries.

Cellphones are being used in Japan to make credit card payments over the counter. It saves money, plastic and some butt pain.  Money and plastic because once the technology becomes pervasive people can ask for credit cards to be activated over the phone and credit card comapnies don’t need to ship them. Butt pain as now you don’t need to carry credit cards in your wallet. And nobody forgets the cellphones these days, so they are never out of money!

On the downside, I would like to digup how secure this is. Today, most gas stations ask for your zip code and if one gets his/her hands on my phone it easy to get the phone number and from there the zip code. And I hope short range is really short range like touching the keypad or else, folks would setup shop to run your credit card bills high remotely.

Let me see if I can find some folks in Japan and ask how it works.

Filed under: life, money, tech | Leave a Comment »

Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0 – BizTech – Technology

Posted on January 24, 2009 by vidurgupta

Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0 – BizTech – Technology

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