tim ferro
ramblings of a code monkey, fanboy, and uber-geek

“Intel Corp. and Transmeta Corp. on Wednesday said that the two companies had agreed to settle the patent infringement lawsuit. Under the terms of the agreement Transmeta will receive a one-time payment that equals its revenue for the recent three years and consequently will obtain the amount of cash that equals its revenue throughout the whole history of the company. Intel will receive rights to use technologies by Transmeta.

The agreement will grant Intel a perpetual non-exclusive license to all Transmeta patents and patent applications, including any patent rights later acquired by Transmeta, now existing or as may be filed during the next ten years. Transmeta will also transfer technology and grant to Intel a non-exclusive license to Transmeta’s LongRun and LongRun2 technologies and future improvements. Under the agreement, Intel will covenant not to sue Transmeta for the development and licensing to third parties of Transmeta’s LongRun and LongRun2 technologies.” - Source

“Microsoft will release Windows 2008 Server as the direct successor to Windows 2003 Server in the spring of next year. The new server OS, code named Longhorn, shares the same kernel with Windows Vista and incorporates many additions compared to its predecessor.

When using the completely revamped server-management console, configuration and administration of the new server become much simpler. The new Internet Information Server 7 also sports a new user interface. With virtualization technology integrated directly into the operating system, third-party tools or solutions are no longer necessary when using virtual machines and the like. Lastly, administrators are as up-to-date as it gets, since Windows 2008 Server includes all of the components slated for inclusion in Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista.” - Source

“Mozilla Labs is launching a series of experiments to bridge the divide in the user experience between web applications and desktop apps and to explore new usability models as the line between traditional desktop and new web applications continues to blur.

Unlike Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web. We think the web is a powerful and open platform for this sort of innovation, so our goal is to identify and facilitate the development of enhancements that bring the advantages of desktop apps to the web platform.
The first of these experiments is based on Webrunner, which we’ve moved into the Mozilla Labs code repository and renamed to Prism.” - Source

“Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook.

The two companies said on Wednesday that Microsoft would invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. The investment values the three-year-old Facebook, which will bring in about $150 million in revenue this year, at $15 billion.” - Source

“As of late, my interest in Linux has been peaking, and I loaded VMware Server on a spare computer running Linux to do some testing. Performance is excellent, and I wanted to share with you the necessary steps required to load VMware Server on Ubuntu Linux.

This blog post is also available in PDF form in a TechRepublic download and also in the form of a TechRepublic gallery.” - Source

“Microsoft engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation on virtualization technology at the University of Illinois last week. And as part of that presentation, he showed off a few old versions of Windows running in Virtual PC. And he also pulled up a disc image running a tiny version of Windows 7.” - Source

“Experienced Ubuntu users know what to expect from this Thursday’s release of Gutsy Gibbon, the love-it-or-hate-it code name for version 7.10 of the popular Linux distribution. It’s not a major “Long Term Support” release, it’s not a radical re-thinking of the system, but it is another step toward a Linux system that “just works.”" - Source

LifeHacker.com - Screen Shot Tour
DownloadSquad.com - Mark Shuttleworth talks Ubuntu 7.10
ONLamp.com - What’s New in Ubuntu 7.10?
Wired.com - Review

“Hitachi and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) announced today they have developed the world’s smallest read-head technology for hard disk drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage capacity limits to four terabytes on a desktop hard drive and one TB on a notebook hard drive.” - Source

All we need now is for Hitachi to somehow make photonic storage devices viable, marketable, and cost efficient, that will be the day.(If you don’t know what I’m talking about; a “photonic” storage device uses packets of light to store data instead of magnetic fields.)

“A couple of years ago, the Linux desktop was a pimply adolescent with half-baked ideas. Today we see a handsome, well-dressed grown-up who handles a range of tasks with confidence and even performs fancy tricks. No longer need we make allowances for his dress sense or his strange habits.

The timing couldn’t be better. Vista is a Wagner Opera that is usually late to start, takes too long to finish, and is spoilt by floorboards creaking under the weight of the cast. Mac OS X Leopard, meanwhile, is the late show in an exclusive nightclub where the drinks are always too expensive. In contrast, the Linux desktop is the free show in the park across the street — it imposes some discomforts on the audience, but provides plenty of entertainment. ” - Source