Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Segway Inc. of Bedford, N.H., announced a voluntary recall this week of all Segway units after reports that a software glitch can cause riders to fall off. We can upgrade any unit for any Segway customer, whether they purchased their Segway from us or not. In response, Segway of Oakland is offering free, speedy software upgrades at its Bay Area showroom, eliminating the time and hassle of sending units to New Hampshire to have the same upgrade performed.

Okay kids, gather ’round, I’m going to reminisce. When I was about six, I had what is classed as well developed literacy skills—I could write some words, I could read books about Jenny and Jack on the swing, that sort of thing. My parents bought a mac and we thought we were the height of sophistication. (That was in 1986, BTW.) But to me, it was like a magic box that was used on special occasions, and it was a grownup thing. I mean, I only used the phone on special occasions!

Virtualization key players have been busy during the whole 2006 summer arguing about value of para-virtualization as well as the best approach to integrate a standard hypervisor interface in the Linux kernel.

Dear Windows user,

You are looking into the world of Linux? Welcome to another world of computing. As an MS Windows user you are familiar with one way of doing things. Be prepared to familiarize with a different way of doing things. This can sometimes be confusing, sometimes frustrating.

Henry Jensen has announced the release of DeLi Linux 0.7, an independently developed distribution designed to run on very old computer systems (those with a minimum of 8 MB of RAM).

[Runs on old hardware? I got some old hardware to try it on.. - Scott]

According to police in Oakland Calif., Nina Reiser, the estranged wife of well-known open-source programmer Hans Reiser, has been missing since Sept. 3. Hans Reiser (pictured here) is the founder of Namesys and creator and primary developer of the highly popular ReiserFS Linux filesystem.

Some organizations consider taking the plunge off of big iron PBX platforms into IP telephony as being pretty daring, but that's nothing compared to what Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is doing. The south Texas school is boldly moving thousands of users off a Cisco VoIP platform to an open-source VoIP network based on Asterisk.

Vyatta announced it has secured $7.5 million in first round financing from JPMorgan Partners (advised in the financing by Panorama Capital), ComVentures, and ArrowPath Venture Partners. Vyatta recently introduced the Open Flexible Router (OFR), a flexible, cost-effective, and secure alternative to the incumbent, closed-source solutions that dominate the market today.

IBM has published the following new technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development.

[This is a round-up of most of the IBM/developerWorks articles posted here this past week. - Scott]

A software glitch that can cause riders to be thrown off the ultra-cool Segway personal transporter has prompted the Bedford, N.H.-based Segway Inc to issue a recall of all the 23,500 scooters sold in the United States.

[This has nothing to do with FOSS but I love those cool scooters. - Scott]

There was a time, not too long ago in our reckless youth, that the term “Linux” might have been met with a gaze generally reserved for naughty and/or vaguely Germanic-sounding words. Mothers would have disapproved, because although they might not have known what it meant, it was probably inappropriate and surely the result of listening to those foul-mouthed high schoolers after band practice.

Xandros announced that it has teamed up with Interactive Ideas, a Linux distributor, to deliver the Xandros line of Linux desktop and server solutions to major resellers, system integrators and retail channels in the United Kingdom.

As the second Google Summer of Code (SOC) winds down, most participants agree: the program, which pays selected students to work on a free or open source software (FOSS) project for three months, is a unique and exciting opportunity, but needs to continue efforts to become more organized. Those who were previously involved tend to agree that this year was less chaotic than last year.

Mozilla Corp. Thursday updated its Firefox browser to fix 7 flaws, including 4 pegged by the open-source developer as "Critical."

Tripos, provider of drug discovery informatics products and chemistry research, announced plans to support a robust open-source workflow platform developed by researchers at the University of Konstanz, Germany.

The latest LinuxQuestions.org Podcast. Topics include LQ Podcast feedback, Ex-Microsoft security strategist joins Mozilla, quickest patch ever, Microsoft releases new “Open Specifications Promise” on 35 Web Services specifications, Microsoft Re-Re-Releases IE patch and Flashforward Linux demo.

IBM's moves to offer platform alternatives come at a time when rival Microsoft is developing its own real-time communications platform built around Office and Office Live Communications Server, which includes instant messaging and VoIP capabilities. IBM/Lotus has been building out its real-time platform and trying to negate any advantages Microsoft may have.

Simon Fraser University CIO Jim Cranston says software licensing fees are one impediment to using emerging technologies in areas such as e-learning.

Robert Scales of Raincity Studios, a small award-winning Drupal and Ruby development firm in Vancouver, Canada, is not your typical CEO. Grounded by a pride in the quality of the work that his team produces, Scales is so dedicated to openness in business that he publishes Raincity's finances on his blog, although the company is private and he has no legal obligation to do so. The result of such openness, in Scale's view, is a stable business capable of surviving the next economic downturn.

Forget Symbian! The "war of the OSes" in mobile phones looks rosy for Linux and Windows, according to a detailed, insightful, freely available whitepaper from ARCchart. Funded by Trolltech, the 27-page "independent" report overviews the entire cellphone software market, offering in-depth reviews of 15 software stacks.