Skip to Content

WalletPop tells you how to get free stuff!
Holidash Blog
AOL Tech

Posts with tag open

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Security, Commercial, Open Source

Does software piracy hurt the open source community?

microsoft office pirate search
Louis Suarez-Potts, the community manager for the open-source Open Office project, says software piracy also hurts the open-source community, and though it can be argued that open-source is bad for innovation, most of us love the open source community. So does the occasional pirated piece of software really hurt our beloved open source projects?

Suarez-Potts thinks it's bad for everyone including the open source community since pirated software theoretically takes "customers" away from open source projects. For example, a college student may never end up downloading Open Office since he copied Microsoft Office from a friend, but that's not to say it hurts the money-makers like Microsoft at all. A little bit of piracy helps to establish big company's products as "the standard", hurting open source projects even more and making it harder for them to get their foot into a user's door.

Now we'd like to pose a question: Like the college student used in the example above, does pirating software generally prevent you from trying Open Source software or would you have put the cash down anyway even if you couldn't get it for free?

Does software piracy generally prevent you from joining the open souce movement?

Filed under: Features, Linux, Open Source

Flipping the Linux switch: Myths about Linux

Linux on a toaster
There are a lot of funny, preconceived notions about Linux (and Linux users). Some ideas fall in to the realm of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Some ideas have an inkling of truth to them, and have grown and mutated into full fledged myths. Sort of like how Vlad the Impaler became Dracula, but with a lot less violence and a lot more compiling.

Some of the myths may even be stopping you from trying Linux. You want to try it, sure... but it's too hard or can't do what you need or you're not a hacker.

Let's lay some myths to rest today. Pitchforks, torches and garlic are optional.

Read more →

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Web services

Digg's API contest winners

digg api contest winnersDigg, your favorite social news site, ran a contest to celebrate and promote the release of the Digg API.

Entrants to the contest used both the Digg API and the Flash toolkit to create interesting works that could be viewed in flash and on the Adobe Apollo platform. Submissions ended on May 16th, and the work started for the judges who narrowed things down to the top 10.

Criteria for the final decision was based on:
  • Effective display of data
  • Usefulness
  • Creativity
From this point Digg users got their say. Check out the winners on the site. This is just another great example of what we get when companies open their API's for developers to tool around in.

Filed under: Text, News, Windows, Office, Productivity, Microsoft

Microsoft's Office Open XML spec gets final draft

Office Open XML Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba and the The United States Library of Congress have all approved the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification to be sent to the ECMA (a European standardization association). This is the next step in Microsoft's spec being accepted across many systems, platforms and applications. This is also the format that is the new hotness in the 2007 version of Office, at a beta-tester's workstation near you. I have to say that I have been very happy with Microsoft's 2007 Office system, and especially the XML format. It seems to make documents save and open a little bit faster, not to mention the endless interoperability features I haven't had a chance to test out yet. I think Microsoft is really on the right track here, and it shows, even in the beta. Hopefully this standard will be as versatile and flexible as we all think it will, but right now it is looking good.

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Facebook registration now open to everyone

Facebook opens its doorsToday Facebook, the U.S.'s second-largest largest social networking site, opened its doors to the world. With the long-anticipated addition of regional networks, new Facebook registrants no longer need an email address from a Facebook-approved college or company to join. Facebook's Carolyn Abram explains the privacy implications of the change on the official (and frustratingly feed-less) Facebook blog, and there's now a How this expansion affects you page as well. Facebook was originally planning to launch the expansion shortly after the launch of the News Feed, but after users had a bit of a privacy freak-out, they delayed the expansion to give the community a little time to get their heart rates back under control. There was still widespread resistance to the move, but nothing on the scale of the News Feed. Users seem pacified by the fact that college, high school, and work networks are still as exclusive as ever, and the riff-raff (like me) still can't get too close.

Filed under: Developer, Web services, Social Software

Facebook opens API

Facebook API This is pretty huge. Facebook, the #2 social networking site in the U.S., has released an open API that allows third-party developers to "make remote procedure calls to Facebook on behalf of a Facebook user." The current version of the REST API allows applications to get information about a Facebook user's profile, friends, photos, events, messages (but of course requires said user to be authenticated). The API is free to use with a "soft" limit of 10,000 requests per day, and the Facebook Developers site currently provides PHP5 and Java client libraries, though the API could be accessed with pretty much any language.

Update: Commenter George brought to our attention Facebook Friend Mapper, a very cool Facebook/Google Maps mash-up that demonstrates what's possible with the new Facebook API. Very cool.

Filed under: Productivity, Mozilla

Make Firefox allow "Open with" for all files

Firefox Open WithA minor peeve of mine is the way Firefox tries to protect you from yourself, i.e. not letting you choose the "Open With" option when downloading certain files, and instead making you save it to your hard drive first. Usually this only applies to executable files, but Firefox's definition of executable is pretty broad, so sometimes this restriction kicks in even when opening, say, JavaScript files. Oddly, there's no option to fix this, not even in about:config. If you've had it with this "feature," though, there is something you can do, but as you've probably guessed already it requires editing some files hidden deep in Firefox's innards. If you're comfortable with the risk, though, click through to this tutorial on Opening EXE files directly in Firefox (the server seems a bit slow just now, so you may have to try a couple times).

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Autoblog

Xbox 360 Fanboy

Engadget

WOW Insider

Switched.com

FanHouse