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Photos: Saying goodbye to Kodachrome
Take a look at some of the beautiful pictures photographers shot with Kodak’s Kodachrome film.
A Simple Twitter App with Ruby on Rails – Messages With Ajax
Ruby on Rails is a web application framework that promotes rapid development. Clients’ demands are ever increasing yet they still expect the same quality of output. In the first part of this three part series, we cover setting up a simple message model, which will hold the messages posted. Further to this, we will learn how to post a message asynch
Apple Chief Steve Jobs Spotted at Work
Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs was at the company’s headquarters on Monday, underscoring speculation the pancreatic cancer survivor may have returned to work.
Cisco: Smart Grid May Be 1000 times larger than the Internet
There’s been plenty of hype about the Smart Grid — some justified and some not. But the gold award for Smart Grid hype has to go to Cisco, whose spokesperson last month said that the grid could end up being up to 1,000 times the size of the Internet.
Myspace Reducing International Staff, Closing Offices
Damn you, Facebook and Twitter. Damn You!
The Web Designer’s Guide to Cloud Hosting
Cloud computing is quietly taking over the world and changing the way we use our computers forever. Whether you’re storing your photo collection on Flickr or logging on to Gmail, everyone’s now using the cloud, even if they don’t realize it. But how does it work and how can we as web designers and developers make it work for us?
How to Refresh an Old Desktop
The recession and the tight credit situation are combining to make it more attractive to fix up an old computer, because a three- or four-year-old PC can be rejuvenated fairly easily.
Predicting SCO’s Actions Post Bankruptcy
eldavojohn writes “SCO lost last year and began the bankruptcy filings a long time ago but PJ has some speculative bad news on what they retain through the bankruptcy proceedings. SCO proposes to sell a number of assets to an outfit called UnXis, which PJ characterizes this way: ‘It starts to hint that this is more a renaming, taking in some new management who seem to have financial expertise, and SCO keeps skipping along as unXis, with the dangerous litigation spun off safely into a litigation troll.’ In their filings SCO says they retain ‘their litigation and related claims against International Business Machines Corporation, Novell, Inc., AutoZone Corporation, Red Hat and certain Linux users which are not material customers of UnXis (excluding certain large-scale users of Linux servers) that are claimed to have infringed against UNIX copyrights.’ So that’s still a possibility they could go after anyone who is a ‘certain Linux user.’ And what’s even worse is that they’ll retain a patent for running multiple Java applications on a single Java virtual machine. We may not be out of the SCO litigation woods yet.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple’s Obsession With Secrecy Grows Stronger
Hugh Pickens writes “The NY Times has a story on the culture of secrecy at Apple (registration possibly required). Secrecy is not just the prevailing communications strategy; it is baked into the corporate culture that had its origin in the release of the first Macintosh. ‘It really started around trying to keep the surprise aspect to product launches, which can have a lot of power,’ says marketing veteran Regis McKenna who advised Apple in its early days. Today few companies are more secretive than Apple, or as punitive to those who dare violate the company’s rules on keeping tight control over information. Employees have been fired for leaking news tidbits to outsiders, and the company has been known to spread disinformation about product plans to its own workers and sue bloggers who cover the company. Apple’s decision to severely limit communication with the news media, shareholders, and the public is at odds with the approach taken by many other companies, and many experts agree that the secrecy that adds surprise and excitement to Apple product announcements is not serving the company well in corporate governance. Some say that recent reports that Steve Jobs may have had a liver transplant, still not confirmed by the company, now makes one of Apple’s assertions from January — that Jobs was suffering only from a hormonal imbalance — seem like a deliberate untruth.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dutch Gov. Wants To Tax Online Media To Fund Print
Godefricus writes “Outrage ensued among Dutch techie and media websites, after a government report advised that the dwindling print media industry should be financially supported by the online industry (Google translation; Dutch original here). The idea is to help the old media fund ‘innovative initiatives.’ The suggested implementation of the plan is by taxing a percentage of each ISP subscription, and give the money to the papers. The report, which was solicited by the Dutch parliament and written by a committee of its members, specifically states that ‘news and the gathering of news stories is not free, and the public must be made aware of that.’ The report is not conclusive, but from here it’s just one step toward a legislative proposal. Both industries are largely privately owned in The Netherlands, and the current government is center-left wing. Who needs an RIAA if you can build one into your government? And hey, why invest in the future if you can invest in the past?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
