Archive

Wikitude was a top-50 finalist in the Android Developer Challenge, and like ShopSavvy, it is a good illustration of what's possible with the mashing together of the G1's capabilities. In this case, Wikitude uses the GPS for location-awareness and combines that with the wealth of information that's a...

You may be thinking "who needs another open source High Availability project?" Or, in fact, "why do we need any open source HA project?" For those who do not know, OpenSAF is the latest in a line of open source HA projects that is specifically designed to address high availability and clustering. Fi...

Harvesting, querying, delivering, enriching and analyzing data is at the heart of every business. However, most organizations are saddled with high-priced commercial databases as a result of continual departmental investments in new database projects, business intelligence projects, and the addition...

CardioTrainer was one of the first apps I downloaded when I got my G1. If you're the outdoorsy type, it should serve your needs quite well, whether you're a cyclist, runner, hiker or just want to track your daily walks. The application is easy to use. Launching it calls up a start screen, and pushi...

The Web 2.0 revolution has spawned hundreds of cover stories, thousands of companies, and millions of words of hype. But there's one thing it hasn't brought: Profits. With the coming of the credit crunch and the global recession, hype won't pay the bills. That's why the next wave of Web 2.0 will be ...

For users reared on GUI-oriented commercial operating systems, switching to open source POSIX-type OSes can be an onerous task. Whereas Linux, and FOSS in general, are built around the ideas of inclusion and sharing, the communities built up around the open source operating systems often face accusa...

Imeem for Android is a music application from Imeem.com available for free at the Android Market. This application caught my eye as one of the early front-runners in popularity at the Android Market. I've been using it for about a month, and I listen just about daily. As a music app, it's faster and...

In a society far away and long ago, people mostly farmed and ran storefront businesses where they lived. Then came the migration to the cities, where a new generation of workers stuffed into bulging urban-based factory jobs. Many spent their entire adult lives working for The Man in an upstairs offi...

Every industry has a hero who paves the way with innovation. Cisco is looking for developer heroes for the open source software industry and hopes to find three as winners of its Think Inside the Box Developer Contest. The contest, which started in October, encourages developers to produce applicati...

The mobile Internet device is the most exciting new device category to hit the market since the smartphone. A MID is a handheld device that delivers high-speed wireless Internet and multimedia services, typically with a 4- to 7-inch screen form factor. Most MIDs will be based on the Linux operating ...

Freescale Semiconductor has launched a new low-cost processor, the i.MX515, that's designed to power what Freescale hopes will be new lines of Linux-based netbooks retailing for less than $200. There are lots of interesting angles to Freescale's efforts -- the lower price point, the technology behi...

Given the many options out there, someone in the market for a portable computer may have a hard time deciding whether to go with an ultra-small netbook or a small-but-not-THAT-small notebook computer. If you want a netbook, you've got another choice ahead of you: Would you like that with Linux or Wi...

I recently carried out a personal quest for a netbook computer. Relying on a bit of insider snobbery since I write about computer technology almost daily, I was not expecting a big problem in making a selection. It's not that I really needed another computer. My home office is well-stocked with two ...

Universities and government agencies, even a few private corporations, are going all "mad scientist" on us in the realm of virtual worlds. But why are they experimenting there and why are so many drawn to virtual worlds like a dying man to a priest? "As a new part of the real world, virtual worlds a...

Universities and government agencies are conducting all kinds of research, both scientific and sociological, in virtual worlds -- but is this merely a newfangled boondoggle or is the research really real? "My general perspective is that virtual worlds are at least as real as many parts of the so-cal...