What is Android?

Beginning Android Gingerbread, Part 1

Beginning Android Gingerbread, Part 4

Q:

1. What is Android?
2. What is Dalvik?
3. What is Gingerbread?
4. What operating systems does Gingerbread/2.3.3 support?
5. Does Gingerbread/2.3.3 support Java SE 6 APIs?
6. Identify the three directories that are initially stored in the android-sdk-windows home directory.
7. What is the difference between the SDK Manager and android tools?
8. What does the emulator tool accomplish?
9. When you start SDK Manager, what dialog boxes are presented?
10. Which package is installed by default?
11. What additional packages need to be installed so that you can develop with Gingerbread/2.3.3?
12. Identify the directories that are added to android-sdk-windows as a result of installing Gingerbread/2.3.3. 

A:

1. Android is Google's operating system for mobile devices. It consists of an application framework, libraries, and a Dalvik
   virtual machine-based runtime environment that collectively run on top of a modified Linux kernel.

2. Dalvik is a non-Java virtual machine that's based on processor registers instead of a stack. It was created by Google
   employee Dan Bornstein, who named Dalvik after an Icelandic fishing village from where some of his ancestors originated.

3. Gingerbread is the nickname for version 2.3 of the Android platform and its 2.3.1 and 2.3.3 successors.

4. Gingerbread/2.3.3 supports the Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32- or 64-bit), Windows 7 (32- or 64-bit), Mac OS X 10.5.8 or
   later (x86 only), and Linux (tested on Ubuntu Linux, Lucid Lynx) operating systems.

5. Gingerbread/2.3.3 does not support Java SE 6 APIs.

6. The three directories that are initially stored in the android-sdk-windows home directory are add-ons, platforms, and
   tools.

7. The difference between the SDK Manager and android tools is that SDK Manager lets you create AVDs, install SDK components,
   and more via a graphical user interface, whereas android lets you create Android projects, create AVDs, and more via a
   command-line-oriented user interface. Also, android presents SDK Manager's Android SDK and AVD Manager dialog box when
   invoked with no command-line arguments.

8. The emulator tool launches an AVD by creating a complete Android software stack down to the Linux kernel level; the
   emulated Android device includes preinstalled apps (such as Phone) that you can launch.

9. When you start SDK Manager, the Android SDK and AVD Manager dialog box, followed by the Refresh Sources and Choose
   Packages to Install dialog boxes are presented.

10. The Android SDK Tools, revision 10 package is installed by default.

11. The Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 3 and SDK Platform Android 2.3.3, API 10, revision 1 packages need to be
    installed so that you can develop with Gingerbread/2.3.3.

12. The platform-tools directory is added to android-sdk-windows and the android-10 directory is added to
    android-sdk-windows\platforms as a result of installing Gingerbread/2.3.3.

MAC hare - PC tortoise

Where in the world are Mac sales growing? Everywhere!
Mac is the hare, PC the tortoise... 

Business is booming: Apple MAC shipments to business were up 66% (vs. 4.5%) in March 2011.
Business sales in the December quarter, were up 65.4% (vs. 9.7%). 

All that sounds like the Apple juggernaut is unstoppable. But even with a whopping 66 percent growth last quarter, Macs still only account for a measly 3 percent of total sales to businesses. Three percent does not a juggernaut make. It's practically a rounding error.

Mac sales growth outpaced the Microsoft Windows PC market in the March quarter
-- the 20th quarter in row it has done so.

IBM greater than Microsoft

IBM Worth More Than Microsoft ?

For one brief, shining moment , IBM passed Microsoft  in stock-market capitalization. The folks at IBM have been keeping score ever since Mister Softy surpassed Big Blue as the biggest of the tech behemoths nearly 20 years ago.

not quite big surprise as long as 

Windows Phone is at the bottom of Global Smartphone Rankings

let's remember that 

After Microsoft acquired Danger, Andy Rubin was ousted as CEO

 and ...

Microsoft's biggest mobile money-maker is Android, not Windows Phone 7

Beginning of the end for Microsoft's Ballmer?

Plenty has gone wrong on Ballmer's watch --- Google became dominant on the Internet and mobile. Microsoft has become reliant on yesterday's technology ... 

FOR ITS PART, IBM IS ONE of the few pioneering computer companies to survive the transition from mainframes and mini-computers to the client-server era, which has been dominated by Microsoft and its Windows and Office software. IBM toiled in low-margin personal-computer hardware, while Gates & Co. profited from Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system. IBM eventually sold its PC business to China's Lenovo, increased investments in enterprise servers and storage and expanded heavily into higher-margin software and consulting services.

FTP and e-mail on the same server

Setting up VSFTP using non-local users.

If an administrator wants for roadwarriors to set up on the same server
email and FTP , it's better that the FTP account has virtual users .

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
xferlog_std_format=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
# Virtual users will be logged into /home/virtualftp/[username]/
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/home/virtualftp/$USER
guest_enable=YES
guest_username=virtualftp
# Umask applied for virtual users and anon
anon_umask=0022
# Allows uploading by virtual users
anon_upload_enable=YES
# Allows creation of directories by virtual users
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
# Allows deletion of files and directories by virtual users
anon_other_write_enable=YES
# Sets a port range for passive mode. (must configure firewall to accept)
pasv_max_port=51123
pasv_min_port=51323
port_enable=YES

Setup virtual FTP usernames and their passwords (use the following format)

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd_users.txt

username1
passwordforusername1
username2
passwordforusername2
username3
passwordforusername3

Build the vsftpd database

#db42_load -T -t hash -f /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd_users.txt /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd_users.db
#chmod 600 /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd_users.db /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd_users.txt

Create directories for each virtual FTP user

#mkdir -p /home/virtualftp/username1

Test an FTP virtual user login

#ftp localhost
Connected to localhost.
220 (vsFTPd 2.0.5)
Name (localhost:root): username1
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.

Setting up VSFTPD permissions

I'm setting up a php-driven web app that serves files through a web interface. I've also set up a vsftp server to allow users to upload their data to a virtual directory. The vsftp server uses the pam-mysql module to use the web app's user database so no accounts are created on the system and we can disable ssh access.

Apache and vsftp run as different users , so we needed a way for each of them to view and edit the files created by the other. What we wound up doing was creating a group www-users and make it the group owner of /var/www. Then assigning the users apache and nobody to the group and set the permissons on the /var/www directory to 775. This will allow nobody and any other users in the www-users group to read and write to /var/www; it will also make it easier to authorize other users to write to /var/www — simply assign the user to the www-users group. Here are the steps in case any googlers need a hint.

1) set up vsftpd for umask 0027 (/etc/vsftpd.conf) [local_umask=0027]
2) create www-users group (groupadd www-users)
3) add user to group (usermod -a -G group user)
4) Set apache to run as www-users group (httpd.conf)
5) chgrp www-users /var/www
6) chmod 2775 /var/www
7) Add setgid permission to the directory: chmod g+s /var/www (I believe this is redundant)

Nokia must hide WP7

   In order to sell the phones with WP7 , Nokia will have to hide from the potential buyers the fact that its phones has a Windows operating system . So, why bother switching away from Symbian ?
Taking into account the fact that Microsoft and Nokia lost about half of the market share in one year , one can estimate that in the next year they can loose another half of what's left ...
So, it's probable that when Nokia will actually ship phones with WP7 , the combined market share of Nokia-Microsoft ECOSYSTEM will be aroud 10% ...
What will hapen with Windows 8 on ARM ? Will Microsoft advertise the fact that
you will spend less time with an ARM Windows 8 tablet ? ( in contrast with an iPad 3 )

Report warns Windows Phone 7 suffers from the "Your-dad-uses-it" syndrome

Gartner: Android and Apple win big globally in Q1

Microsoft sells 1.6 million Windows Phone 7 devices in Q1

Android, which Google executives said is being activated on 400,000 devices daily, tripled its market share from Q1 2010, with Samsung, HTC and Motorola shipping the lion's share of these phones.

Microsoft must adapt WP7 for tablets
So far, Microsoft has said that it plans to offer Windows Phone 7 on smartphones and Windows 7 on tablets. But that’s a mistake. As Apple and Google have shown, adapting smartphone-focused operating systems for tablets is actually a much better idea. Plus, with the growth of tablets in today’s marketplace, bringing Windows Phone 7 to slates might help improve the appeal of Microsoft’s operating system. The time has come for Microsoft to think seriously about bringing Windows Phone 7 to tablets.

Verizon HTC Trophy Windows Phone Can't Alter Microsoft's Prospects

 Microsoft’s Windows Phone sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, according to new data from research firm Gartner. Although that pales in comparison with the number of Apple and Google devices activated during the same period, Microsoft executives’ traditional defense has been that Windows Phone is selling at a comparable rate to other first-generation platforms. 

FEDORA SENDMAIL SASLAUTHD

I configured a FEDORA 14 server with : SMTPAUTH and STARTTLS
I could send e-mails from a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone,
but with Thunderbird there was an error ;

On the Windows Mobile smartphone , the advanced settings were checked :
[ x ] Send/receive when I click send
[ x ] Require SSL for Incoming email
[ x ] Require SSL for Outgoing email
[ x ] Outgoing server requires authentication

In the end I changed MECH=shadow instead of MECH=pam , and
the problem was gone !



/etc/sysconfig/saslauthd
SOCKETDIR=/var/run/saslauthd

# Mechanism to use when checking passwords.  Run "saslauthd -v" to get a list
# of which mechanism your installation was compiled with the ablity to use.
# MECH=pam
MECH=shadow
# Options sent to the saslauthd. If the MECH is other than "pam" uncomment the next line.
# DAEMONOPTS=--user saslauth
# Additional flags to pass to saslauthd on the command line.  See saslauthd(8)
# for the list of accepted flags.
FLAGS=

http://www.howtoforge.com/howto_sendmail_smtp_auth_tls

http://www.screaming-penguin.com/node/4214

http://www.madboa.com/geek/sendmail-auth/

http://blog.mikezhang.com/2005/01/11/using-smtp-auth-and-starttls-with-sendmail

/etc/mail/sendmail.mc 

dnl ### do SMTPAUTH
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl
TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl


dnl ### do STARTTLS
define(`confCACERT_PATH', `/etc/mail/certs')dnl
define(`confCACERT', `/etc/mail/certs/cacert.pem')dnl
define(`confSERVER_CERT', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confSERVER_KEY', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confCLIENT_CERT', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confCLIENT_KEY', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, Port=465, Name=MTA-SSL, M=s')dnl




the full sendmail.mc 
~ ~ ~ 

divert(-1)dnl
include(`/usr/share/sendmail-cf/m4/cf.m4')dnl
VERSIONID(`setup for linux')dnl
OSTYPE(`linux')dnl
define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl
TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5')dnl
dnl # do STARTTLS
define(`confCACERT_PATH', `/etc/mail/certs')dnl
define(`confCACERT', `/etc/mail/certs/cacert.pem')dnl
define(`confSERVER_CERT', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confSERVER_KEY', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confCLIENT_CERT', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
define(`confCLIENT_KEY', `/etc/mail/certs/sendmail.pem')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, Port=465, Name=MTA-SSL, M=s')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, Name=MTA-v4, Port=smtp')dnl
FEATURE(`delay_checks')
define(`confDEF_USER_ID', ``8:12'')dnl
define(`confTO_CONNECT', `1m')dnl
define(`confTRY_NULL_MX_LIST', `True')dnl
define(`confDONT_PROBE_INTERFACES', `True')dnl
define(`PROCMAIL_MAILER_PATH', `/usr/bin/procmail')dnl
define(`ALIAS_FILE', `/etc/aliases')dnl
define(`STATUS_FILE', `/var/log/mail/statistics')dnl
define(`UUCP_MAILER_MAX', `2000000')dnl
define(`confUSERDB_SPEC', `/etc/mail/userdb.db')dnl
define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS', `authwarnings,novrfy,noexpn,restrictqrun')dnl
define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS', `A')dnl
define(`confTO_IDENT', `0')dnl
FEATURE(`no_default_msa', `dnl')dnl
FEATURE(`smrsh', `/usr/sbin/smrsh')dnl
FEATURE(`mailertable', `hash -o /etc/mail/mailertable.db')dnl
FEATURE(`virtusertable', `hash -o /etc/mail/virtusertable.db')dnl
FEATURE(redirect)dnl
FEATURE(always_add_domain)dnl
FEATURE(use_cw_file)dnl
FEATURE(use_ct_file)dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl',`sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl',`list.dsbl.org', `"550 Mail from " $&{client_addr} " BLOCKED/DSBL; see http://www.dsbl.org/listing [dsbl.org]?" $&{client_addr}')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl',`bl.spamcop.net', `"550 Mail from " $&{client_addr} " BLOCKED/COP; see http://www.spamcop.net/w3m?action=checkblock&ip= [spamcop.net]" $&{client_addr}')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl',`cbl.abuseat.org')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl',`dnsbl.sorbs.net',`"554 Rejected " $&{client_addr} " Found in dnsbl.sorbs.net"',`t')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl', `bhnc.njabl.org', `"550 Mail from " $&{client_addr} " BLOCKED/BHNC; see http://www.njabl.org/lookup [njabl.org]?" $&{client_addr}')dnl
FEATURE(`dnsbl', `dul.ru', `Use mail relays of your ISP')dnl
FEATURE(`enhdnsbl',`multi.uribl.com', `"Spam blocked see: http://lookup.uribl.com/?"$&{client_addr}', `t')dnl
INPUT_MAIL_FILTER(`greylist',`S=local:/var/run/milter-greylist/milter-greylist.sock')
FEATURE(local_procmail, `', `procmail -t -Y -a $h -d $u')dnl
FEATURE(`access_db', `hash -T -o /etc/mail/access.db')dnl
FEATURE(`blacklist_recipients')dnl
EXPOSED_USER(`root')dnl
LOCAL_DOMAIN(`localhost.localdomain')dnl
MASQUERADE_AS(`grampa.com')dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl
MAILER(procmail)dnl
dnl MAILER(cyrusv2)dnl
define(`confMAX_MESSAGE_SIZE',`12000000')dnl
INPUT_MAIL_FILTER(`clamav',`S=local:/var/run/clamav-milter/clamav.sock, F=, T=S:4m;R:4m')dnl
define(`confINPUT_MAIL_FILTERS',`clamav')

LUBUNTU - New Ubuntu Family Member

May , 2011

Lubuntu now officially supported Ubuntu derivative.

It's official: Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu derivative
and is mainly geared toward low-memory computers .  

Get Lubuntu 11.04

Learn about and discuss the Applications and Other Features included with Lubuntu!

Please read the release notes before you install.

Download

Please use the torrent download when possible to save our servers from being hammered on a release. The torrent should download faster than using the link below.

• Direct Server

OR from here

• Direct Server

I always have around an old computer : a Pentium II  @ 333MHz with 256 MB RAM ;

When I have some free time , on this machine , I test different Linux distros to see if they 

perform better than freeBSD . 

I still hope that some day I will be surprised by a new 

derivative of Ubuntu or Fedora ...  

ChromeBook Network Computer

Simon Phipps former Chief Open Source Officer at Sun explaining why he doesn't view Google's ChromeBook as a Linux laptop. (ComputerWorldUK)

Simon Says...

The Network Computer is back

If I was in the marketing team at Google I woud have proposed the name 
"InternetBook" under a new cathegory called  "Internet Computers" ...

ChromeBook is not just a laptop with Linux. It uses Linux, yes, but that's incidental to the end user proposition. It's a network computer - the same vision at which Oracle failed in the mid 90s and which Sun struggled with for over a decade.

Instead, it's a browser in a box, complete with a local cache for offline use, intended to be used online all the time to access services of the kind Google delivers through Google Apps.

Over time, Chromebooks can take consumer love

ORACLE VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) provides desktop virtualization to replace personal computers with virtual machines (VMs) on a server. Users can access these VMs though any RDP client.

Oracle released VDI 3.2.2 on January 24, 2011. When accessing a VM, the user is presented with an Oracle VDI login screen. Upon entering his credentials, the connection broker determines the correct VM for the user based on customizable policies. Once the VM has been determined it will be made available (resuming when suspended, starting when shut down) and the user is then redirected to the client OS or, if VirtualBox is used as virtualization backend, the RDP server built into VirtualBox.


Remote Desktop Support.


Sure, your Chromebook won't be able to handle an install of...pretty much any piece of software you can name. But remote desktop support means you'll be able to access the copy of Photoshop on your desktop. So when you do need to work, you can just work on your desktop via your notebook.

RDP Client

 for ChromiumOS

Q:

But my *only* gripe with ChromeOS is the lack of a decent RDP client. Not
like Logmein or Teamviewer, but a real RDP client. I manage a bunch of Linux
and Windows servers, and it would be awesome to be able to put my CR-48 to
work in a data center environment. The SSH client is awesome, and having a
full scripting environment is the cherry on the cake.
Does anybody know of a solid, and usable RDP client for ChromeOS? Also, any
idea when Chromoting will be rolled out?

A:
If you don't mind flipping the dev switch and are comfortable following the
directions, you can install rdesktop from
http://www.duh.org/chromiumos/pkgs/ .

Google Limits Free Lunch

Google Limits Free Lunch

For businesses with 11-50 users wanting to use Google Apps, the free lunch line closed for new subscribers. In fact, those business subscribers need to step up and pay $5/user/month for the pay-as-you-go, non-contractual option for Google Apps for Business. Only companies with 1-10 users will receive Google Apps for free; a version which comes with less free storage and lower uptime guarantees.
Standing Apart from Google Apps
With over 100,000 requests for the Office 365 beta, customers are looking forward to the general availability of Office 365 this year. It will bring a substantially more attractive online services value to small businesses and individual professionals. For a peek, see this snapshot of Office 365 for small businesses. (You might also scan the Office 365 enterprise plans if your organization is larger.) 

 

Google App Engine vs. Azure

Google App Engine 1.5: GAE is Google’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud offering, most comparable to Microsoft’s Windows Azure. Unveiled in 2008, GAE is currently still in preview, but Google is saying it will go into production mode some time later this year. (Azure went live in February 2010.) Google also said this week that 100,000 developers are using GAE every month, and that 200,000 apps are running on the platform. Microsoft said earlier this year that it has 31,000 Azure customers. The 1.5 GAE release adds support for Google’s Go programming language, and a 99.5% uptime SLA (once GAE comes out of preview). Microsoft offers a variety of different SLA rates for different components of Azure, which seem to run between 99.5% and 99.9%.

Android/WP7 activations per day/month

Android activates in one day what WP7 activates in one month ...

He revealed that Google has recorded more than 100 million Android activations to date, thanks to the work of 36 industry partners, 215 mobile carriers, and 450,000 developers worldwide. That broad base of support has brought the number of Android activations per day to 400,000, four times what Google reported in May last year. And Barra said that Google's Android Market now has more than 200,000 applications and that 4.5 billion Android applications have been downloaded and installed. 


One report claimed Windows Phone activated just 674,000 units in the first six weeks of 2011. If you doubled that to get a full quarter, that would be roughly 1.3 million units. Given the data by Canalys though, I think those numbers are low. I find it hard to believe that manufacturers shipped nearly twice as many units than were sold through to customers. 

Microsoft SKYPE Home Premium Edition

REALLY ?

What if the new full name of the new Microsoft VOIP software wold be like:
Microsoft SKYPE Home Premium Edition
wouldn't it be REALLY funny ?

SKYPE was purchased by eBay in 2005 for $3.1 billion and then sold for $1.2 billion less ...

It seems that Microsoft has a new BOTTOMLESS BAG for throwing away money ... 

Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion. Why, Exactly?

Microsoft buying Skype for $7 billion? Really?

Who is who.is

http://www.who.is/dns/who.is/
http://www.who.is/whois/who.is/
http://www.nabber.org/projects/dnscheck/?domain=who.is&nocache=on
http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx%3awho.is

WHO.IS NAME SERVERS

Name Server	IP	Location
dns01.name.com	204.74.108.241	San Mateo, CA, US
dns02.name.com	204.74.109.241	Tempe, AZ, US
ns1.name.com	173.192.28.4
ns3.name.com	174.36.196.243	US

ping who.is

WHO.IS SOA RECORD

Name Server	sdns1.name.com
Email	@name.com
Serial Number	1007280102
Refresh	3 hours
Retry	1 hour
Expiry	7 days
Minimum	1 hour

WHO.IS DNS RECORDS

Record	Type	TTL	Priority	Content
*.who.is	A	1 hour		174.36.202.233 (US)
test.who.is	CNAME	5 minutes		ralph.name.com
who.is	A	1 hour		174.36.202.233 (US)
who.is	MX	5 minutes	10	mx0.name.com
who.is	MX	5 minutes	10	mail.name.com
who.is	NS	1 day		ns1.name.com
who.is	NS	1 day		dns01.name.com
who.is	NS	1 day		dns02.name.com
who.is	NS	1 day		ns3.name.com
who.is	SOA	1 day		sdns1.name.com. support.name.com. 1007280102 10800 3600 604800 3600
who.is	TXT	5 minutes		v=spf1 a mx ~all

RELATED DOMAINS FOR WHO.IS

name.com


  http://www.who.is/whois/romtelecom.ro/
  http://www.who.is/whois/vodafone.ro/
  http://www.who.is/whois/rdsnet.ro/
  http://www.who.is/whois/terrasat.ro/

http://www.nabber.org/projects/dnscheck/?domain=vodafone.ro&nocache=on 
http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx%3aromtelecom.ro

PostgreSQL 9.1 + synchronous replication

PostgreSQL 9.1 synchronous replication

PostgreSQL 9.1 is now available in beta, introducing a number of new features. Among the new features is support for synchronous replication for the database.
"The database administrator can decide on a per-transaction basis which ones need to be replicated and which ones don't. The advantage of that is that there are a lot of mixed load applications which might have a small amount of essential data and a large amount of data that is not as important". 

BlackBerry BOLD with Ballmer's Bing

BBB+BB : BlackBerry BOLD with Ballmer's Bing ?

Microsoft , even if will buy RIM and Nokia , in the ECOSYSTEM WAR , will be
on the 4th place after Apple, Google and HP ...

Before showering Nokia and RIM with CA$H,  Ballmer & Co. should have decided first if Silverlight or dot.NET framework would be THE CHOICE for WP7 developers ...

USB HDD Docking Stations

USB 3.0 HDD Docking Station

 The Ineo USB 3.0 HDD Docking Station quickly turns any internal hard drive into an external one. It offers very fast throughput speed with USB 3.0 and is backward-compatible with USB 2.0. The device is compact, easy to use, and supports both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives.The Ineo USB 3.0 HDD Docking Station doesn't have eSATA or FireWire connections.

 Read more...

 

Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station

Dockingstations pentru HDD

 

Promote your site with Pingy

You can promote your site with Pingy for free!

Explanation - What Pingy Does?

In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated.^[1] An XML-RPC signal is sent to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material. The technology was first introduced by Dave Winer to Weblogs.com in October 2001.^[2] Today, most blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post or updates an old one.
Open ping servers, like Moreover Technologies' Weblogs.com, let other web services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them. Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material.
In addition to open ping servers, there are also proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.
Unlike open ping servers, proprietary servers with their own subscription applications have no incentive to share their received ping data directly with other servers, which may offer competing services. As these servers do not share their data, bloggers have to ping a large number of individual servers to receive the desired publicity. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic and Pingler.com, which ping multiple proprietary ping servers and remove the need for website owners to accquire new servers to ping themselves.

Microsoft cash cows

Microsoft’s third quarter for fiscal 2011 was a bang-up one for Office, and a bang-down one for Windows.

- Microsoft cash cows lined up to provide the milk -

Windows/Windows Live revenues per quarter (in billions)

Q3 FY11  4.4  (Jan 11 - March 11)
Q2 FY11  5.1  (Oct. 10 - Dec. 10)
Q1 FY11  4.8  (July 10 - Sept. 10)
Q4 FY10  4.6  (April 10 - June 10)
Q3 FY10  4.7  (Jan. 10 - March 10)
Q2 FY10  7.2  (Oct. 09 - Dec .09) ** Windows 7 launched October 2009
Q1 FY10  2.9  (July 09 - Sept.09)




Office division revenues per quarter (in billions)
Q3 FY11  5.3 (Jan 11 - March 11)
Q2 FY11  6.0 (Oct. 10 - Dec. 10)
Q1 FY11  5.1 (July 10 - Sept. 10)
Q4 FY10  5.3 (April 10 - June 10) ** Office 2010 launched May 2010
Q3 FY10  4.3 (Jan. 10 - March 10)
Q2 FY10  4.9 (Oct. 09 - Dec. 09)
Q1 FY10  4.5 (July 09 - Sept. 09)

Microsoft's Bing : a bang-down 

Microsoft's quarterly earnings show its worldwide dominance is waning

U.S. Smartphone Market: Who’s the Most Wanted?

Apple Maintains Leadership While Google, Microsoft, Rim, and Nokia Lose Steam

 

Windows Phone 7 gets hit again --- developers are losing interest in writing apps for it

 

When it comes to smartphones, the news has been bad for Microsoft as well, with recent surveys showing waning interest in Windows Phone 7 from both consumers and developers.

 

PC Sales Off, Games Buoy Microsoft

Windows & Windows Live Division : 4.4 billion revenue ;
4% Y/Y decrease ;
Sales of Windows for consumers PCs fell 8 percent in the quarter;
Windows for netbooks, declined 40 percent. Business PC up 9%.

Revenue from Microsoft’s Online Services Division (MSN, Bing)  lost $726 million in operating income, continuing a pattern of losses. 

Revenue from Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, 
(Xbox 360 , Kinect ) gained 60 percent, to $1.94 billion.
Kinect did well, selling 2.4 million units in the quarter.
Customers bought 2.7 million Xbox 360s. 

 

Microsoft Reports Record Third-Quarter Results

NPD : Mobile Phones USA - Q1 2011

Verizon's iPhone Sales Help Make Apple the Third-Largest Mobile Phone Brand in the U.S.

Samsung and LG remained the top handset manufacturers for the U.S. market, but Apple's share grew to encompass 14 percent in the first quarter, due to its best-selling iPhone models.

Sales by mobile OS in Q1 2011:

• Android - 50% (down from 53%)
• iOS - 28% (up from 19%)
• Blackberry - 15% (down from 19%)

Largest handset brands in the U.S.:

• Samsung - 23%
• LG - 18%
• Apple - 14%
• HTC, Motorola and RIM followed

Top five mobile phone handsets for the quarter:

1. iPhone 4
2. iPhone 3GS
3. Motorola Droid X
4. HTC EVO 4G
5. HTC Droid Incredible

For the first time, smartphones accounted for more than half of all mobile phones sold in the US (54%).

BBC : Microsoft Dinosaur

BBC compares Microsoft and Intel with dinosaurs ...

Anyway, there's people saying that Windows will dominate the tablet market




- Recent history :

• May 2010 - Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization to become the world’s most valuable tech company. MG Siegler notes that Microsofties balked: “That means nothing — look at the revenues!“
• October 2010 - Apple passed Microsoft in quarterly revenue. (”Who cares — look at the profits!“)
• April 2011 - Apple passed Microsoft in quarterly net income (a.k.a. profit)