Linux is great to use at home. It can be handy at work. It's a great server operating system. But there's one other place that Linux is really worth its weight in gold: public, or semi-public, computers. There's nothing quite as nerve-wracking as seeing someone on a computer you're responsible for, and wondering what exactly they're up to. Except for maybe seeing someone you're responsible for on a computer, and wondering the same thing.

Public computers are pretty easy to visualize -- in places like internet cafés, libraries, or school computer labs. Semi-public computers are a little more obscure. Semi-public users can be any group from the temp workers in your office to your house guests or kids. The real function you'd want in any of these settings is control of some sort. You want the computer to stay in the condition it was in originally, at least as far as software goes. You might not want the users to have access to certain applications, or maybe they should access the internet through a proxy.

There are a number of ways to achieve this sort of set up. Before you shake your head and start wondering how exactly you're supposed to change login and desktop scripts... Relax. KDE's Kiosk is a pretty simple way to lock down a desktop.

Right now, it appears that Kiosk is still being ported to the KDE4 framework, so you'll have to stick with an older version of KDE for locked down desktops. Since most distros that feature a KDE4 desktop tend to still include KDE 3.5.x alongside it, this shouldn't be an issue.

Even if you have a computer at home, on occasion you'll find you need to use the public computers at a library, internet café, or your local copy shop. Traveling, technical glitches at home, or the sheer convenience of checking on something right now brings almost everyone to a public computer once in a while. It brings a few people -- whether they own computers or not -- to public computers daily.

I have a confession to make. In a former life, I was a systems librarian. I know what's on public computers. No, I don't have your personal information. I removed that from the public computers, along with a lot of keylogging software, viruses, and spyware. What I do have is a few little tricks to keep your private information private.

The cardinal rule of public computing is the most obvious. It's also the one most often broken. Sometimes there's no avoiding breaking it. Sometimes, though, it seems there is a digital variety of the "belief in immortality" that's usually attributed to young adults. This digital immortality seems to affect people of all ages.

Keeping track of calendars and appointments might say 'boring' to many users, but Google is aiming to change that stigma with their new Calendar gallery. With nary a 'Management Strategies' event in sight, this collection of subscribe-able calendars (which anyone can add to) is all about fun, travel, sports and the rest of life. Featured calendars include a Netflix DVD release schedule, Orbitz deals, presidential travel schedules and even specific TV show schedules.

Don't fret about the calendar subscribing process, as you won't have to deal with cleaning out schedules you never meant to follow. Clicking the name of any calendar offers a handy pop-up view of the entire month and all that particular calendar's events, allowing you to get a birds-eye view and decide before actually subscribing.

This is a great move for Google Calendar. Until now, users could only search public calendars, but not browse any kind of list, let alone see them organized into categories. Now that you can also view Google Calendar on your mobile phone, you never have to miss another appointment or actually interesting event again.

Nothing is secure when it comes to passwords. That's why you have to ensure you do not store passwords online or on any device or service that can be hacked, is in beta or testing modes, and especially in public documents.

Chris Pirillo points to a little issue that was found lately concerning Google Calendars. It seems that some people might be setting reminders for themselves in Google Calendars, while entering in login and password information in the reminders. Ok, that's not the worst part, calendars from these individuals are set to public viewing.

The best place to store your passwords is in your head. Second best is on a little piece of paper that is securely hidden and would not mean anything to any person that might happen to find it. Security first online!

Microsoft has decided to put a hold on its video sharing site, Soapbox, while it cleans up a little.

Even though it was just opened for business in a public beta just last month, Microsoft has decided to put a plug in new registrations on Soapbox while it implements some new technologies that will allow for the detection of videos that could have copyright restrictions. The pause in new accounts will allow Microsoft to sift through some 45,000 videos and conclude whether copyright issues might be present. No doubt this has something to do with Google's recent $1billion battle with Viacom. Microsoft will be using a product by Audible Magic that will filter videos, and block those under copyright.

Registered users will still be able to access and utilize the system. No word on how many videos will have to be removed from Soapbox as of yet due to potential copyright violations.

[via infoworld]

According to Read/Write Web, who has an exclusive podcast with Yahoo! Mail product manager Ethan Diamond, Yahoo released its new Mail Beta to the public on September 13th. The AJAX powered application is one of the best I have seen on the web to date. It functions much like Microsoft Outlook and includes a built-in RSS reader. Ethan Diamond has a quick screencast so you can see the type of features the new Yahoo Mail has. I have been beta testing it for some time, and I agree that it is very good. Tabbed messaging is something not even the new (2007) version of Outlook has, and Yahoo does it well.

DivX, the little video compression software company that could, is aiming to go public this week, CNET is reporting. The company has almost matched last year's annual revenue of $29.3 million in the first 6 months of 2006, and after adding copy protection to its software which helped it land in over 50 million DivX-certified devices to date, the company is now shaking hands with its former enemy: Hollywood studios. DivX is hoping to strike it big with said studios in a lucrative web distribution deal for films, though as far as we can tell, no deals are itching to be signed just yet.

Steven Frank, founder of Mac software company Panic Inc., certainly thinks so, and I agree. With the slew of new web apps that are being introduced almost on a daily basis, it's becoming a pain to create a registration for each one, verify, then jump back in to finally start playing. Not to mention this process completely breaks that initial 'ooh, a slick new [insert service here]!!' excitement.

I think it would be great if these hot new web 2.0 startups would offer a public, no-registration-required sandbox to further boost their convenience and cool factors, but what about you, DLS readers? Are we splitting hairs here, or might this be a good idea? Sound off.