Software posts

In the not-too-distant past, Macs were a relative rarity in the laptop bags of those attending open source conferences. Not so anymore. I recently had the chance to go through some download data from SourceForge for an article on the site’s blog and talk to Community Hacker Rich Bowen about what the data meant. Windows downloads led the pack by far, and Mac and Linux download levels swapped positions over the past couple of years. Bowen told me out he saw people whipping out MacBooks at ApacheCon and other places he never would have seen them a few years back, anecdotally supporting the overall trend…

The future of the internet and computing might be in the cloud, but people are reluctant to give up their hard drives and programs. This has been made clear by the assumed poor performance of the Chromebook line of laptops over the last six months. The most recent price reductions of Acer and Samsung Chromebooks to a base of $299 just prior to Christmas is enough circumstantial evidence to show that we’re just not ready to dish out big bucks for cloud-based computers. Like it or not, we use Microsoft Word. We feel safer storing our pictures on our hard drives. We don’t want to rely on persistent internet…

The term “firewall” has one that most people know but few understand. It’s often confused with anti-virus software because of the similarities of purpose, but it has a completely different use on your computer. This infographic by ZoneAlarm breaks it down nicely for us (while throwing in a quick pitch about their product). Knowing what they do and why they’re important can help you understand how to better protect your computer from the more nefarious types on the internet. Click to enlarge. …

Everyone has heard of hackers, viruses, and spam. What fewer people have heard of or understand are botnets despite statistics that show they’re trending to be the choice of current cybercriminals. By using “Command-and-Control” servers, hackers are able to remotely take over computers to execute their nefarious activities. Connecting through C&C servers allows a “bot herder” is able to send out spam emails, spread viruses, distribute malicious software, and steal identities. Nearly 90% of all email spam is sent through botnets – and that’s not their biggest threat. This infographic…

Amazon is getting a lot of attention based upon the Amazon Fire tablet, but now that buzz around the initial launch announcement has subsided a bit, it’s time to take a look at real differentiator: Silk. When Amazon first introduced Silk, they didn’t wait beyond the 2nd sentence of the post before asking the question that they knew would be asked by dozens of tech bloggers: “A browser?  Do we really need another one?” Their response to those and other questions is in this video: What they didn’t address was the inherent problem with their browser: privacy. To solve the concern that tablet hardware…

With over 12 million monthly visitors, word must get out to keep people from going to MySQL(dot)com until they get things sorted out. This isn’t a minor annoyance. The exploits inserted by the hackers are extremely malicious and work in the background. There is no need to click on or accept anything. Simply visiting the site can cause major permanent damage to your hard drive and currently only 6 out of the 43 major malware protection services are even able to detect it. The administrative access to perform the hack and inject the exploits, known as the BlackHole Exploit Pack, was sold through a hacker…

In the oft-siloed world of grad school, MIT’s Media Lab leads the way when it comes to creating environments that foster interdisciplinary exploration. New discoveries routinely get shared between seemingly unrelated fields and lead to unexpected applications. This approach is broken down by our friends at Online PHD. There are times when accidents turn into breakthroughs. MIT Media Lab has a knack for putting together circumstances and environments that are conducive to these “accidents.” Click to enlarge. Created by: Online PhD…

With about a million iPad apps and a billion iPhone apps available, finding good ones isn’t hard. Finding ones that stand out from the crowd often is. If you like making music but don’t necessarily have “skills” with instruments, MadPad is an iPhone or iPad app that can help. No skill required – just bring your imagination and creativity. “Remix your life” is their way of putting it. By sampling everyday sounds and using a slick interface to put them together into music, even the most mundane places like hardware stores can be used to create music. Check it out: …

Google’s first entry into social gaming wasn’t spectacular. By allowing a handful of partners to develop, they were only able to yield 16 games total for their social network, Google+. Compare that to bigger sites like Facebook with thousands of games and even smaller sites like Tagged.com who have hundreds of games, Google+ has been a minor blip in the growing social gaming industry. All of that should be changing soon as Google+ announced that they were launching their initial API release. It is much more limited than other platforms, allowing only public data to be used, but it’s a start. They…

It’s the most exciting release by Microsoft in years. Windows 8 is actually making the Apple-loving blogosphere open their eyes and cheer out loud. Will it be successful? Will it come out too late? In the coming months we will see how this pans out, but for the first time in a long time, Microsoft is hot. You can see the entire keynote on BuildWindows, but here are the highlights. Below it is some of the feedback coming around the web. Windows 8 Makes Microsoft A Tablet Contender Against Android, Apple Windows 8 Running on ARM: 10 Reasons This Partnership Matters Windows 8 to offer built-in malware protection…