Posts

Posted on

Novell Releases Linux Usability Research

The research including videos, results, and some analysis is available at http://www.betterdesktop.org/ and is provides some insight into the usability of the OpenSuse. Developers and those lookng to migrate users to Linux desktops will find this data useful.

Novell Shares Linux Usability Research Videos
Novell Inc. released a large amount of primary desktop-usage research—including more than 200 video clips of users bumbling their way through unfamiliar computer interfaces—to the software development community Monday, as part of a new program aimed at making Linux desktops a more comfortable fit for users.

Posted on

Oracle Scoops Up InnoDB

Oracle Scores Open-Source InnoDB Storage Engine
Oracle on Friday purchased InnoDB, the Finnish open-source database company whose add-on table storage engine for MySQL rivals MySQL’s own MyISAM in popularity.

InnoDB Oy Inc.’s database engine isn’t stand-alone. It is distributed as part of the MySQL database. Moreover, InnoDB’s contractual relationship with MySQL is up for renewal next year.

Posted on

DIY GPS Tracking on Nextel Phones

MAKE: Blog: DIY GPS tracking
Mod a GPS enabled Nextel and fauxjack yourself…or your car, or your kid, or a big dog, or an elephant. We really, really want to track an elephant. Mologogo is a free service that will track a “friends” GPS enabled cell phone from another phone(gps not required) or on the web. It currently works on pretty much any Nextel phone with Java and GPS – even a $60 no-contract Boost Mobile phone.

Posted on

Yahoo! Whitepaper on RSS

Interesting whitepaper from Yahoo! on RSS. Do the low numbers represent a market opportunity? or maybe RSS doesn’t really matter to most folks? Yahoo! sees RSS as a market on the rise.

RSS

Posted on

CiteULike: Social Tagging and Bookmarks for Academics

CiteULike: A free online service to organise your academic papers
CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there’s no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser. There’s no need to install any special software.

Posted on

Is There Really A Web 2.0?

The whole Web 2.0 bit is really beginning to grate on my nerves. Rick Segal has a bit to say about getting swept up in the hpye. Give it a read.

The Post Money Value: Web 2.0 & New World Order?
1. Ignore browser vs. app debates, they are for tech people with too much time on their hands.

2. Focus on solutions. You have a problem and there are options to solve your problem. Solve the problem and the features that solved it are what you want/need. It’s a nice closed loop that gets you satisfied.

These 2 points are mentioned at the end of the piece, but they are really the take away here. The key to any app or solution is that it scratch an itch. Otherwise it’s just an answer looking for a question and there are plenty of those laying around. And it doesn’t really matter where the scratch comes from, just that it be easy enough to apply to sooth the itch without creating another one.

This website uses a Hackadelic PlugIn, Hackadelic Sliding Notes 1.6.5.