We have been harping for a while it would be nice if one of the old guard bands from the 700mhz auction (eg old analog TV) were Open Sourced and free to use. Now I am sure you are saying to yourself why the heck for?

Well how about Open Source cellular service? And ladies and gentlemen there is even a project to do it! OpenBTS. The interesting thing is, it does not take millions to implement. Most of the components are cheap or free. The radio xmtter is a Open Hardware project sponsored by the FSF. Essentially its a computer controlled power amp. Call management is handled by another Open Source project — Asterisk. Wrap some cabling and ISP support and you have Open Source Cellular. Its already been proven operational at this years Burning Man event. Its running on the island of Niue.

More details here and here

Downside? Well one, unless you are in an area with no cellular service, you can’t operate it. The reason of course is interfence with the current incumbent carrier that has the space. That is why we need an Open Commons area for technologies like this to be experimented with. . We need it now!

And that is? For the DIY crowd, Gluster-FS is what. Don’t want to lose all that Video you have stored? Well bend an ear. If you have built your own PC or server once or twice this should only be a minor step up in your repository of tricks.

What is Gluster? For those in the Linux know, its like VLM write large for the ‘Net in a way. It permits one to take your RAID array for one server and provide the transparent methodology for back up on a mirror system in real time. A nice technique that used to take an advanced degree in Network, time and patience 5 years ago. Gluster automates most of this.

Are there folks this is probably not worth doing? Well if you already have RAID duplication using a hardware card you probably won’t care so long as your total storage requirements are fairly static. The other issue is one of cost. You have to add another system. (Haven’t tried this VM yet.)

For everyone else go here. A nice Linux How-To is provided.

GCOS was announced back on 7/7. I have held doing an instant comment due to lack of time and a need to assess the situation. Bottom line, it will be a mild success in certain areas. But a block buster, I think not. But lets do the obligatory announcement coverage shall we –

It’s been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Why the downbeat Dog? Experience. Look there are several ‘OS in the Web’ systems now. Desktop Two, g.ho.st. Even an FOSS variants YouOS (since shutdown) and eyeOS. This concept has been around for 3-4 years. It has a niche. But the idea is not how people generally utilize their computers. The one thing that has made the PC successful all these years is it near universal malleability to tasks. To achieve that has generally required a broad access to the hardware/OS interface. OS in the Web tends to limit that capability for security reasons.

Beyond that there are other considerations. Developing an OS separate from the Android effort is probably a long term mistake. You duplicate efforts across a broad swath of code base. Microsoft did this with the business/consumer OS divide and they ended up with having to do a downstream merge anyway. This effort also misreads the consumer intent. OS in the Web makes the correlation that people want their web presence quickly. No. People want their access to their applications that access their data quickly. That is why we believe the ‘instant on’ virtual application stack is the proper course. Instant on web presence is just one of many such applications. People want choice.

Will this be a flop? No, just because it is Google. There are many niches where this makes sense — high security areas, kiosk applications, call centers, etc. On cell phones? I would tend to doubt it. Lets just wait and see.

Linky.

Solid Oak is seeking an injunction against the Chinese developer of Green Dam, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Inc, but its chances of gaining satisfaction must be reckoned to be fairly slim.

So, it’s no surprise it is also seeking injunctions against US PC vendors who follow Beijing’s directive that any machines they ship in China must carry the software.

“They are stealing proprietary copyrighted material from us, sending it over to the US and saying, ‘We want this on all the computers you send us’,” Solid Oak president Brian Milburn told Reuters. “Just because we are a small company doesn’t make the theft of CyberSitter any less [wrong].”

Milburn told Reuters he had been tipped off via an anonymous email. “We found actual proprietary code areas within the Green Dam program itself which are incredibly suspicious because they use our proprietary encryption methods. There’s a lot more to it than just a list of bad words.”

Heinous if true. Not that it would cause the Chinese much heartache. Even if Solid Oak were to when a class wide injunction here in the US the Chinese would just use internal suppliers like Lenovo to meet their needs and continue to use the pirated components.

But very rapidly the bamboo curtain is falling again.

Linky.

If you like YouTube but the feed seems to take forever better catch the piece below. It appears that use of OpenDNS, if you do use it, maybe causing your problems. —

It turns out another Qwest customer, Andrew, wrote to us yesterday to suggest the same solution to the problem:

I had the exact same problem with Qwest and YouTube; I am, I guess you could call “a heavy user”. However, I realized that this began to happen after I used OpenDNS on my router. After I removed OpenDNS, YouTube worked great and every video downloaded very fast.

Ok here’s the thing — do you use OpenDNS as your primary or as a backup DNS feed? Oh and does your router even support multiple DNS entries. Some still don’t. To fix that make your first two entries the ones that your ISP gave you. Then make OpenDNS your third DNS feed.

I have that exact set up on my linux based router/gateway. I see no speed degradation as the ISP DNS picks up the YouTube feed first. OpenDNS is there when the ISP’s own servers go tits up. Which has happened a couple of times. YMMV.

Linky.

…Then they mock you. Then they adopt you. Its the tech version of the old activist line about change. In this case it is about Android and a pending settop box –

Motorola has denied putting Google’s Android onto a set-top box, pointing out that their “au” box is still running their own proprietary OS, despite reports to the contrary.

EE Times reported that Motorola was working on an Android box, which Android Guys then identified as the “au Box”, which can synchronise content with mobile phones and is supplied by Japanese network operator KDDI.

But it seems the connection was spurious, and Motorola has sent us a statement making it clear the company has no plans to extend Android into the set-top box sphere.

In some ways it’s surprising that Motorola is so adamantly sticking to its proprietary platforms, when the mobile division has bet its future on Android. But the benefits of using an open OS are less obvious in the set-top world, and Motorola’s platform is already Linux-based, so reaping many of the advantages of Open Source.

We have said all along that Android would end up in products other than just cell phones. Our classic of course is expecting to see android running coke dispensers. Just some karma that is appealing.

But android on a settop box? Why not? It has the tool set. Can support/drive a small LCD display like you find on cells. The fact that the price is out of this world is just the accountants plus.

Motorola, fine, you want to run with the prey rather than be the predator go ahead. But you are making a strategic mistake. You have made enough already.

Linky.

Hang with me here for a moment. Its a long stretch but quite honestly I think it will happen. If a eavesdropping technology can be applied in the work place it generally is —

This is a new type of microchopper built for military uses –

The advanced flight controls system makes the Hornet-3a very easy to fly. Being able to operate the 15 grams UAV outdoors in wind and gust is considered a vital part of its operational capabilities. It is also one of the most challenging tasks for the flight controls and autopilot system. A major milestone was therefore reached on April 7th when the Hornet-3a made its first flights outdoors.

With the Norwegian snow still present the Hornet-3a was flown in dry conditions with light variable wind up to 2 m/s. The aircraft showed no adverse controllability issues either in hover or during high speed passes. Over distance the Hornet-3a was able to maintain an average horizontal speed of 7 m/s with a maximum airspeed of 8 m/s. The test also confirmed some of the low signature capabilities of the system. Outside a distance of approximately three meters the sound from the helicopter was completely drowned by the ambient noise.

But don’t think about the PD-100 for military use. The ability of the device in confined spaces like what is demonstrated in the video above is fully capable of use in the office. So –

First use: Security. Some firm is going to look at this and see the functionality as a means to reduce security staff. You could have a lone dude at a monitoring station watching the building. Thing is that dude could be 4 states away. All the video is recorded to disk. Control is via the 802.xx wireless network in the building.

Second use: Your boss. Once it is apparent that the devices work and your supervisor sees the screen the monitoring dude is looking at…. Well lets just say, your boss will be asking for a copy of the video feed from that chopper be sent to his PC in real time.

Third Use: Your Boss. Well the choppers get cheap enough the Boss will get one of his own. He will match up the flight path with the employees Exchange schedule. Next thing you know the little bugger will be buzzing over all the cubicles at 9am every day. Or hovering outside a meeting room. Or checking the coffee bar. Add mic and speaker and your OverLord of the Cubicles HAS arrived.

Don’t scoff.

More here.

Do you need to do a quick file share with some coworkers? And you don’t want to spend all afternoon setting it up? Will a public Anonymous FTP share do the trick? Well then try ShareMe.

ShareMe has only two requirements — Internet connection and a functional install of Python 2.5. Launch the code with the appropriate directory switch and you are up. End users can access various ways. Linux types using the typical file tools in KDE or Gnome. Windows users can use either the command line FTP client or IE.

No this is not going to replace VSFTP anytime soon. The security is minimalistic to make it easy to use and access. This is one of those little tools you keep around for those times when nothing else seems to work.

More here.

If ya can’t beat’em, join’em! Or at least it seems that is what Fijitusu is proposing to do over the next year or so. They are preparing to rollout a public-private SAAS type offering. –

FSC is betting on private clouds - which look somewhat like a managed services deal. The difference, Reger argued, is that customers will be able to pick and mix which elements of they want to float up in the clou, and will be able to switch partners more easily, rather than being locked into multi-year deals.

The German-based PC and server vendor will offer four levels of service, starting with a hosted basic desktop environment, dubbed Workplace-as-a-service for around €30 per month. Workplace as a service will launch this autumn. It will be followed by more complex offerings covering managed infrastructure, infrastructure solutions up to infrastructure products and services.

Reger said the focus, at least initially, would be on providing “infrastructure as a servive”, admitting that “platform as a service is not currently Fujitsu Siemens strength.” However, that could change as the firm is borged into Fujitsu.

My view is that this is only half way there. Somebody really smart is going to come out with an infrastructure that permits a company to offer its compute services for a fee, in the cloud. This provider will act as a cloud based services broker. The broker manages where the jobs go to be processed. The broker gets a slice of the action. The data participants receiving the balance. By offering up idle cycles the data participants are able to amortize their IT investment sooner.

It will happen.

Linky.