Why The iPad Is Important

Alright, I’ve read the reviews. I’ve the read Cory’s piece about open-ness and closed platforms (and I agree, open is better). I’ve read from the nit-picking details to the high level geekery, and I’m here to say, the iPad is an important device. Of course, some have already heralded it as the inflection point in “tablet” computing, and it is that – but the reason I think it’s important is actually a bit larger.

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Google Wave in Action: Real-World Use Case Studies

A week ago we asked readers to tell us how they’re using Google Wave in their daily lives, and despite a bit of “ha! no one’s using Wave!” snarking on the Twitter, we got lots of interesting responses.

Unsurprisingly, most Wavers use it as a real-time wiki, but some take advantage of features unique to Wave, like inline and private replies, public tags, and gadgets. I featured the most unique use cases I got in a brand new chapter just added to The Complete Guide to Google Wave. The following is the text of the just-published Chapter 10, which describes ways in which a few people who don’t work for Google are using Wave to get things done—with screenshots.

So far you’ve learned the finer workings of Wave in great detail, but there’s a big difference between understanding how to swing a hammer and building a house. In this chapter, you’ll meet regular people who are already getting things done with Wave in their daily work and life. You’ll learn the Wave techniques they’ve developed through trial and error, and the specific Wave features they use to get certain jobs done. Finally, you’ll create wave templates you can use and reuse for your own purposes.

Take a look at some real-world case studies of Wave in action. Read the rest of this entry »

Google Wave Versus the Rest, Feature by Feature

We got a great response to last week’s frequently asked questions about Google Wave, and decided it’s worth expanding further on the differences between Wave and the current crop of web-based collaboration offerings.

Wave combines features from email, instant messenger, Google Docs, wikis, and forums and throws its own spin on things. For a quick visual of its offerings versus similar tools, check out this feature-by-feature comparison table. Read the rest of this entry »

PS3 Hacked, Exploit Is Now Available for Your Illicit Pleasure

GeoHot, one of the fathers of the iPhone’s jailbreak community, has just released the exploit that’ll unleash all sorts of promising PS3 hackery, just like he promised. We can’t wait for the homebrew and, frankly, piratical features this enables.

From the source:

This is the coveted PS3 exploit, gives full memory access and therefore ring 0 access from OtherOS. Enjoy your hypervisor dumps. This is known to work with version 2.4.2 only, but I imagine it works on all current versions.

You can find it at his page for now—try it out, let us know how it works!

An Epic 22-Minute Behind-the-Scenes of Avatar

Microsoft Courier Tablet

It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we’ve all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft’s astonishing take on the tablet. Read the rest of this entry »

Jolicloud Netbook OS Is a Bit Like Chrome OS with Awesome Desktop Applications

Chrome OS is a promising cloud-based operating system, but the big complaint most people have about it is that Chrome OS is entirely browser-based. New netbook OS Jolicloud is a lot like Chrome OS, but with the addition of killer desktop apps.

Before you even consider Jolicloud, you may want to look at their big list of compatible devices. It’s pretty huge, and I’d also suspect not complete. I’m actually testing it in a virtual machine and it’s working just fine, and it would probably work on a fair amount of other hardware. Read the rest of this entry »

VoIP telefónna ústredňa – Trixbox CE pre stredné a veľké firmy

Trixbox CE je open source softwarová VoIP (Voice over IP) telefónna ústredňa (PBX). Trixbox CE je postavená na Asterisku a operačnom systéme Linux CentOS. Keďže je to open source software, je možné ju voľne stiahnúť z internetu a nainštalovať na ľubovoľný hardware.

Trixbox CE má všetky vlastnosti, ktoré sú potrebné pre enterprise prostredie. Je možné ju bez problémov nasadiť aj do veľkých firiem so 700 klapkami (samozrejme na dostatočne výkonnom hardware) a dokáže splniť všetky požiadavky na veľkú telefónnu ústredňu.

Domovská stránka Trixbox CE obsahuje software samotnej telefónnej ústredne, ktorý je možné stiahnúť, dokumentáciu a má vynikajúce fórum, na ktorom nájdete odpovede na všetky otázky a taktiež tipy na riešenie rôznych požiadaviek a problémov. Zatiaľ všetky požiadavky mojich zákazníkov na funkcionalitu, táto VoIP PBX dokázala splniť. Read the rest of this entry »

The most amazing, beautiful and realistic piece of computer art I have ever seen

Solar Decathlon 2009

V hlave mám už dlhšiu dobu myšlienku, postavit si na zahrade pár solárnych panelov a napájať z nich napríklad počitače doma, alebo niečo, jednoducho to vyskúšať. Myslím si, že táto oblasť má určite budúcnosť a perspektívu, veď sa len pozri na svoj účet za elektrinu.

V týchto dňoch prebieha súťaž Solar Decathlon 2009 pod záštitou U.S. Department of Energy. Je to súťaž 20 univerzitných teamov, ktorý majú postaviť funkčný, atraktívny dom napájaný a fungujúci na solárnu energiu.

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