Category: open source
-
Podcast on open source, thin clients in Education
David Warlick has a good podcast on the use of open source operating systems in schools that he posted today. Educators and parents need to be studying and learning more about Linux and other open source solutions. Where functionality and reliability are comparable with an open source alternative to commercial software or hardware, it is…
-
Apache Users
Seen this graph? A picture is worth 1000 words. Lots of good thoughts on this in my podcast/skypecast last night with Afan Ottenheimer of JeoNet.
-
Podcast10: Open Source in Educational IT Environments
This week’s podcast features a skypecast interview with Afan Ottenheimer of JeoNet. JeoNet is an Internet applications development company based in Iowa City, Iowa. Our conversation focuses on the viability of using open source software solutions in the educational IT environment from security, total cost of ownership, support, and usability standpoints.
-
Move to StarOffice
Sun Microsystems is coming out with a new rev of its StarOffice productivity suite tomorrow, why not make the switch now from MS Office if you are a Windows user? Cheaper price, same functionality, why not? New users can be licensed at $35 per seat, and that is a commercial price. CIOs should at least…
-
Open Source in Mexico, OLPC
Open source software is THE FUTURE for many of the world’s computer users, especially in places without lots of extra money laying around. (Hey, does that leave any schools anywhere out?!) Mexico is on board nationally with this official government website on open source technologies (www.softwarelibre.gob.mx). To see a translation of this page in English,…
-
MythTV
I have been wanting to buy a TiVo for many months now, but have not had luck getting approval for this from my better half. The Humax TiVo with built in DVD recorder is what I have really wanted, or the Toshiba version that comes with a lifetime basic TiVo subscription, but somehow we have…
-
Great Mac Utilities
This weekend my cousin, Devin Henley, taught me about two excellent Macintosh utility programs that I have been needing for some time. The first, WhatSize, is a great free utility for OS X that scans your mounted volumes and shows how big each folder and subfolder is. This makes it pretty easy to locate large…
-
Fiscal responsibility
Groklaw is reporting that HP is shipping Ubuntu Linux on its notebooks and desktops sold in Africa. How interesting that what I would consider a cutting edge computer operating system development is happening first in the developing world, not Silicon Valley. I want this to happen here too, in North America, and I think it…
-
Free PDF converters
Macintosh OS X has PDF file creation built right into the operating system, just click FILE – PRINT in any application, and instead of choosing PRINT in the lower right corner, click PDF in the lower left corner. I have found “compressed PDF” does not work well with Windows users, so I stick with the…
-
New IM client
Diversity is a wonderful thing, and so are open source / free software tools that support multiple instant messaging (IM) protocols simultaneously. Google has made news this week with the release of Google Talk, but it appears to not offer much (yet) in addition to functionality that is already available with other software options. We’ll…