Entries for the ‘Software / Open Source’ Category

Reddit Goes Open Source: What Does That Really Mean?

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

My new favorite crowd voting / social bookmarking site Reddit made the announcement today that it’s “open source.” This means the code for the site has been made publicly available, which could lead to crowd sourced improvements to the site as well as new sites developed using the Reddit “engine.”

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The Next Revolution: Why The New iPhone Matters

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

A revolution is easy to spot when looking backward, but they are much harder to see when they first happen. Microsoft, Apple, eBay, Amazon…all revolutions with ramifications that weren’t seen until much after they first released a product, or came online.

But I predict a revolution in an event that took place just a few days ago at the Worldwide Developers Conference, where Steve Jobs announced the latest version of the iPhone. I know, I know, you’re thinking that I missed the boat. The iPhone revolution already took place; this is old news.

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The Death of Search Engines?

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

There’s an interesting article over at ZDNet UK. The idea is that people don’t need to go to a search engine to find what they need. If they want a review of a product, they will go to Amazon or CNET. If they want to find out about a place or person, they will head straight to Wikipedia. If they want something funny or interesting, they’ll got to YouTube or Digg.

I find myself doing this. Instead of going to Google (that will return 6 million pages), I will often head straight to Wikipedia. I’m not saying I don’t use Google, but I am finding that I use it less. If I’m looking for a review of a product, Google is simply unusable. Instead, I’ll go to any number of sites that I have found useful (and bookmarked), to find that information.

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I’ve Given Up on Digg & Delicious But Am Hooked on Reddit

Monday, June 9th, 2008

The title of this post was originally going to be “Delicious: A Review from a Late Adopter.” But that was four months ago and only a few days after I started using social bookmarking site Delicious. At the time, I found it useful even if lacking in a few areas.

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I Bought My First Firefox Extension Today

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

While Walt Mossberg is getting buzz for calling Firefox 3 the “best browser for web — for now,” I thought I’d point out my first time paying for something to do with a browser. I purchased the Dictionary Tooltip extension for Firefox 2 for $3.99. And while I’m anxious to give Firefox 3 a try, I’m waiting for the big kick off later this month.

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Firefox 3: Gimmicks for Gecko?

Friday, May 30th, 2008

I’ve chimed in on my opinion of Firefox 3 and the browser’s direction before, but the latest “news” on Firefox 3 has me rolling my eyes. Mozilla is trying to set a new Guinness world record for “most software downloads in 24 hours.” Is it just me or is this a lame attempt to look like a plucky underdog?

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Hard Drive Problems That Can Lead To Hard Disk Crashes

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

A hard disk crash can be caused due to several reasons, and most of these reasons are not related to the age of the hard disk. When a hard drive fails, often computer users try to open it and repair it by themselves. This can be a big mistake, as the internal components of the hard disk are very delicate and susceptible to scratches, dust, dirt, corrosion, and fingerprints.

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The Firefox Catch-22, Will Firefox 3 Help?

Monday, May 26th, 2008

A New York Times article reminded me of my love/hate relationship with Firefox. The article points out that Firefox 3 will be released next month with a bunch of new features. While the new feature list seems impressive on the surface, the truth is that I love Firefox for its extensions more than its features.

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