26 February, 2009

OSS is getting international recognition

At least SOMEONE understands the new world of technology we're approaching. The British Minister for Digital Engagement (-Tom Watson-) released a new 'plan-of-action' yesterday, entitled: "Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan".

(Click here for a PDF version of the paper.)

A little intro-excerpt:
"Open Source has been one of the most significant cultural developments in IT and beyond over the last two decades: it has shown that individuals, working together over the Internet, can create products that rival and sometimes beat those of giant corporations; it has shown how giant corporations themselves, and Governments, can become more innovative, more agile and more cost-effective by building on the fruits of community work; and from its IT base the Open Source movement has given leadership to new thinking about intellectual property rights and the availability of information for re-use by others."
The new action plan adds to the old plan published in 2004, but the new one includes circumstances and agreements that can make it difficult for proprietary software vendors to compete in government IT deployment.

He states among a lot of things that the new era in IT development demands re-usage of code. (Securing government rights to special custom code and re-usage of the code within internal departments.)

So, basically, it looks very promising for OSS in the time to come regarding government software deployment, software costs and national IT system expansion.

25 February, 2009

Nytt liv i PSP leiren...



http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/02/24/kultur/spill/playstation_2/playstation_portable/motorstorm/5020515/

Sony slipper nå PS3-spillene "LittleBigPlanet", "Assassin's Creed", "Motorstorm" og "Rock Band" til PSP-formatet.

"- Det er mange store utsagn i spillbransjen, men vi er selvsikre når vi sier at 2009 vil bli et spennende år for PSP. Våre fans har krevd store PSP-spill, og i år vil vi levere igjen og igjen, uttaler markedssjef Mark Hardy i SCEE i en pressemelding."

SCEE => Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

24 February, 2009

"The office" #4

Yeah, a new pic-shot from my cellphone, and yes.., that's a brand new Asus Eee PC 900 to the left.

Since my Acer Aspire One bit the dust a few months ago, I've been missing my UMPC privileges. And when I got a newsletter about a clear-sale, I drew out my credit card ;P

19 February, 2009

ARCFOUR (RC4)

RC4 is a stream cipher designed in RSA laboratories by Ron Rivest in 1987. This cipher is widely used in commercial applications including Oracle SQL, Microsoft Windows and the SSL. The algorithm was kept as a trade secret until the mid-1990's.

The external analysis of RC4 was invoked by the leakage of its source code in 1994 to cypherpunks mailing list.

The key stream generated by RC4 is a stream of pseudo-random bytes.

This is the first in a series of posts about cryptography/security.
I won't delve far too deep into details, but I'm very interested in the specific protocol algorithms used.

P.S.: RC4 is reputedly an acronym for "Ron's Code 4"

17 February, 2009

Google / HTC Magic!

ProcessorQualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz
Operating SystemAndroid
MemoryROM: 512 MB
RAM: 192 MB
Dimensions113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches)
Weight118.5 grams ( 4.18 ounces) with battery
Display3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
NetworkHSDPA/WCDMA:
  • 900/2100 MHz
  • Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
  • 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device ControlTrackball with Enter button
GPSInternal GPS antenna
ConnectivityBluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio supported formatsAAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG
Video supported formatsMP4, 3GP
BatteryRechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1340 mAh
Talk time:
  • Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
  • Up to 450 minutes for GSM
Standby time:
  • Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
  • Up to 420 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion SlotmicroSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC AdapterVoltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A
Special FeaturesG-sensor
Digital Compass


05 February, 2009

WHERE IS THE "ANY" BUTTON!?

...the most common problem with PCs today is between the monitor and the keyboard, aka Joe User.

Joe, you see, is dumb. You'd think that in the 21st century with no one under the age of 40 able to remember when there were no PCs and no one under the age of 30 who can recall when there was no Web, that we'd be over basic computer illiteracy. You'd be wrong.

While Windows is insecure by design, you can stop most of its security problems just by patching it on a regular basis and using an anti-viral program. So simple even a chimp could do it right? Well maybe a chimp could, but not Joe User.

[Joe User => not a geek/nerd.]

http://blogs.computerworld.com/its_time_to_start_issuing_pc_licenses

January 22. - remember this date fellow geeks!

This article @ computerworld.com, discusses and reflects on the software giants vs. open-source. It describes what situation the IT industry is facing taking the financial crisis into consideration.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/being_anti_linux_is_bad_for_your_business_health