Friday, May 09, 2008
What about Linux? (Bits & Bytes, Cyborgs+, February E-News from 2SS.Com)
[[Contact:26]]
[[Company:25]]
Dear [[Salutation:40]],
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‘ E – N E W S from ‘
‘ 2SS.Com ‘
‘ Compiled and Edited by ‘
‘ Mailed on: 02/01/2002 9:16 PM Number 38 ‘
‘ Int’l Standard Serial No. - ISSN: 1523-3537‘
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‘ Find E-News promoted at Excite, MSN, ‘
‘ Yahoo, E-Bay, Ziff-Davis University and more. ‘
‘ Please share E-News with others who might be ‘
‘ interested. It’s your FREE first-of-the-month, fast ‘
‘ read, update on technology that aims to make a ‘
‘ difference for your organization. ‘
‘ In this issue (5 Items): ‘
‘ ================ ‘
‘ 1--WHAT ABOUT LINUX? ‘
‘ 2--QUESTIONS (Bits & Bytes) ‘
‘ 3--PRODUCT WATCH (Real Cyborg’s) ‘
‘ 4--STRATEGIC/USEFUL/INTERESTING LINKS ‘
‘ 5--WHY SUBSCRIBE? 2SS.Com & ‘
YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. ‘
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‘ --------------------------Item One---------------------- ‘
‘ WHAT ABOUT LINUX? ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ Linux? Its popularity is growing wildly and, ‘
‘ at 2SS.Com, we noted with interest a recent ‘
‘ claim by IBM that its rather impressive $1 ‘
‘ Billion investment in Linux has ALREADY ‘
‘ begun to pay off. (see more at: ‘
‘ That’s powerful momentum. ‘
‘ Another interesting aspect of the growing ‘
‘ grass roots success story of Linux is that it’s ‘
‘ grown up on, and in large part via, the Internet. ‘
‘ Thanks to Google and their new ‘Groups’ tab
‘ feature for searches we can actually peruse ‘
‘ the initial 1991 postings of Linux creator Linux ‘
‘ Benedict Torvalds on line at: ‘
‘ Have you given any thought to using Linux for ‘
‘ your organization? It’s getting more and ‘
‘ more compelling as support and basic software ‘
‘ becomes available. A shopping list that includes ‘
‘ a powerful workstation with a state of the art ‘
‘ operating system, network connectivity, lots of ‘
‘ FREE utilities and standard desktop productivity ‘
‘ software looks like this: ‘
‘ 1. $500 to 1,500 for the Workstation ‘
‘ 2. FREE Linux Operating system ‘
‘ 3. FREE Linux Utilities like firewall ‘
‘ software ‘
‘ 4. FREE Sun’s Start Office suite ‘
‘ That makes the case clear, and it’s interesting ‘
‘ that our local community college district (The ‘
‘ Sacramento region’s Los Rios district) has ‘
‘ gotten the message, too. They’re planning to ‘
‘ stage Linux training for instructors that we ‘
‘ (2SS.Com) plan to participate in. ‘
‘ LATE BREAKING LINUX NEWS ‘
‘ As this newsletter was being finalized, Sun ‘
‘ Microsystems announced its intention to sell ‘
‘ general-purpose Linux servers. This is a ‘
‘ dramatic change for Sun, which up to now ‘
‘ has sold only its proprietary Solaris operating ‘
‘ system. In making plans to ship a full ‘
‘ version of Linux, Sun also announced plans to ‘
‘ expand Cobalt Linux appliances and begin to ‘
‘ offer FREE key elements of the Solaris ‘
‘ operating system. ‘
‘ Watch for more on Linux here and almost ‘
‘ anywhere you look for information on computers ‘
‘ and networks. Linux may be a bigger part ‘
‘ of our future than most of us (2SS.Com, too!) ‘
‘ would have guessed. ‘
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‘ --------------------------Item Two----------------------- ‘
‘ QUESTIONS? ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ WHAT ARE BITS AND BITES ABOUT REALLY? ‘
‘ We hear the terms all the time: 32-bit, 16-bit, ‘
‘ 40 Gigabytes, etc. The term Bit comes from ‘
‘ "Binary Digit." Normally when counting numbers ‘
‘ we use base-10 counting, but computers use ‘
‘ base-2. So, allowing numbers to be either ‘
‘ 1 or 0. Every one of these 1s or 0s is called a ‘
‘ bit and 8 bits together is called a byte. ‘
‘ The binary number 00000101 is a byte of 8 bits ‘
‘ equivalent to the number 5 and offering numbers ‘
‘ from 0 to 255. 16-bits means that numbers from ‘
‘ 0 to 65,535 are available and more room for ‘
‘ a computer to work. A true 32-bit processing ‘
‘ system means numbers 0 to 4,294,967,295 are ‘
‘ available. ‘
‘ When storing data: ‘
‘ * A kilobyte is 1000 bytes, but, because of ‘
‘ use of base 2, this translates to 1,024 bytes ‘
‘ or 2^10; ‘
‘ * A megabyte is 2^20 or 1,048,576 bytes; ‘
‘ and ‘
‘ * A gigabyte is 2^30 or 1,073,741,824 bytes. ‘
‘ ANY GOOD OUTLOOK TIPS? ‘
‘ Outlook users, do you know you can drag a ‘
‘ message onto your Calendar icon or folder to ‘
‘ automatically fill out a schedule screen on that ‘
‘ item. Just continue to set the date and time ‘
‘ and click Save and Close. You can also make ‘
‘ a new task by dragging a message to the Task ‘
‘ icon/folder or dragging an appointment, task, or ‘
‘ note to your Inbox. In every case, Outlook ‘
‘ creates a new, unaddressed message with ‘
‘ the subject and text ready to address. ‘
‘ THE NEXT WEBVAN? ‘
‘ New on-line grocer Tesco (more at ‘
‘ http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-8475769.html?tag=st.ne.1007.saslnk.saseml ) ‘
‘ is the new (next?) online grocery service ‘
‘ that’s setting up in the Pacific Northwest. See ‘
‘ why their ‘low-cost’ strategy may succeed ‘
‘ where Webvan’s filed. ‘
‘ CYBORG WATCH? ‘
‘ At Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, their ‘
‘ research staff has successfully combined ‘
‘ the brain cells or a snail with a silicon chip to ‘
‘ create the world's first working cybernetic ‘
‘ circuit. ‘
‘ The snail’s neurons were glued on to a ‘
‘ series of transistors, then stimulated to see ‘
‘ if they were communicating with each other ‘
‘ over the artificial network forming a working ‘
‘ synapse. For more information see: ‘
‘ http://www.smh.com.au/icon/0111/03/news5.html ‘
‘ HOW IS TEACHING E-COLLEGE AT UOP? ‘
‘ After two weeks I (Ron Ellis) and my students ‘
‘ are doing reasonably well. ‘
‘ It continues to be an interesting and reasonably ‘
‘ compelling experience to log on each day to ‘
‘ see what they’ve come up with. So far I’d like it ‘
‘ to be a little easier to integrate, but that’s not a ‘
‘ very serious complaint. I’m liking it! And should ‘
‘ be able to give you a full run-down next month ‘
‘ as the 5-week class I’m teaching will be complete. ‘
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‘ ---------------------Item Three------------------------- ‘
‘ PRODUCT WATCH ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ THANKS TO WWW.GOGGLE.COM. ‘
‘ Some of the Linux story (above) was made ‘
‘ possible by extensive efforts to acquire and ‘
‘ ‘re-assemble’ Usenet postings. Google acquired ‘
‘ the archives of Deja.Com and then continued ‘
‘ to assemble the pieces from CD, disks and ‘
‘ tapes, to compile a Usenet search service that ‘
‘ goes back 20 years. That easily includes the ‘
‘ entire on-line story, or Linux not to mention the
’ most explosive part of the growth of the Internet. ‘
‘ THE ‘ORIGAMI’ ‘
‘ The ‘Origami’ from National Semiconductor by ‘
‘ year-end 2002 is a device that works as a: ‘
‘ * Microsoft Windows XP Embedded host ‘
‘ * Digital camera ‘
‘ * Video camcorder ‘
‘ * Smartphone ‘
‘ * Web browser ‘
‘ * E-mail device ‘
‘ * Videoconferencing tool, and ‘
‘ * MP3 player ‘
‘ * Among other… things! ‘
‘ Learn more at: ‘
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%253D1490%2526a%253D19985,00.asp ‘
‘ PAPERPORT DELUXE ‘
‘ For $99 ($70) upgrade, the latest version of ‘
PaperPort software give you two tools you ‘
‘ may need. One is a high quality scanning
‘ software that’s easy to use and that works with ‘
‘ most scanners. The other is a simple and ‘
‘ full-featured file manager that works like ‘
‘ Windows Explorer but manages and lets ‘
‘ you see most any file on your hard disk. If you ‘
‘ have a scanner and no scanning software ‘
‘ or software that’s hard to use, you may want to ‘
‘ check out PaperPort Deluxe (see more at: ‘’
‘ http://www.scansoft.com/products/pprt80/ ) ‘
‘ ACT! LINK™ TO QUICKBOOKS ‘
‘ The fastest, easiest way for you to share
‘ information between ACT! and QuickBooks® ‘
‘ Pro 2002 and Premier 2002 ‘
‘ ACT! Link ™ for use with QuickBooks® Pro ‘
‘ 2002 and Premier 2002 is the fastest, easiest ‘
‘ way to share information between ACT! And ‘
‘ QuickBooks. ACT! Link provides access to ‘
‘ QuickBooks information from within ACT! via the ‘
‘ new QuickBooks View. ACT! users can now see ‘
‘ invoices, credit information, purchase orders, ‘
‘ and other transactions for any selected contact. ‘
‘ In addition, ACT! Link eliminates double data ‘
‘ entry by importing ACT! contacts to QuickBooks ‘
‘ or QuickBooks contacts into ACT!. ‘
‘ Plus, you’ll get QuickBooks account detail ‘
‘ directly into ACT! Notes and History and be ‘
‘ able to produce invoices in QuickBooks directly ‘
‘ from ACT! sales and opportunity information. ‘
‘ Get real-time access to accounting information, ‘
‘ eliminate double data entry and generate ‘
‘ revenue faster with ACT!, ACT! Link, and ‘
‘ QuickBooks® Pro 2002 and Premier 2002! ‘
‘ With ACT! Link, you can: ‘
‘ * Import and View ACT! Contacts into ‘
‘ QuickBooks ‘
‘ * Create ACT! Contacts from QuickBooks ‘
‘ * Customers and Vendors
‘ * Track Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Credit ‘
‘ Information in ACT!, Notes and History View ‘
‘ Invoices, Credit Information and Purchase ‘
‘ Orders in ACT!’s new QuickBooks View.
‘ * Create QuickBooks Invoices from ACT! Sales ‘
‘ and Opportunity Information ‘
‘ To learn more see: ‘
http://www.act.com/home/index.php3?cellid=202300011011 ‘
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‘ ----------------------Item Four-------------------------- ‘
‘ STRATEGIC/USEFUL/INTERESTING LINKS ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ IS YOUR COMPUTER SAFE? ‘
‘ Go to http://grc.com/ and click on their ‘
‘ "Shields Up!!" icon to see how secure you really ‘
‘ are on the Internet. It may be a revealing visit ‘
‘ and we can verify from our own test it should ‘
‘ only provide you with information. There are ‘
‘ no harmful side effects except for your need
‘ to invest in becoming more secure. ‘
‘ ARE YOU GETTING THE SPEED YOU EXPECT? ‘
‘ http://promos.mcafee.com/speedometer/ is the ‘
‘ McAfee site for your Internet Connection ‘
‘ Speedometer. Give it a try and compare to ‘
‘ what you signed up for. At 2SS.Com, our DSL ‘
‘ connection tested out at 1.191 Mbps 1.179 ‘
‘ Mbps and 1.17 Mbps in consecutive tests. ‘
‘ SURVEYSUITE ‘
‘ http://intercom.virginia.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/intercom/SurveySuite/ss_wizard.pl is the ‘
‘ home of SurveySuite where for $29.95 a year ‘
‘ you can compose and send as many surveys
‘ as you’d like. It’s an inexpensive alternative to
‘ other services that charge much more but ‘
‘ SurveySuite comes with no support as you can ‘
‘ read at the site. ‘
‘ LIVE TEMPERATURE READOUT ‘
‘ We’ve found http://ww3.weatherbug.com/aws/ ‘
‘ to be addictive. Once you download and install ‘
‘ it, you get (whenever you’re connected to ‘
‘ the Internet) a continuing temperature readout
‘ in the ‘tray’ (lower right hand corner of Windows) ‘
‘ that gives you a full local weather report when ‘
‘ you click on it. It uses ads to pay for the ‘
‘ otherwise FREE software and updates. ‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ -------------------------Item Five----------------------- ‘
‘ WHY SUBSCRIBE? ‘
‘ 2SS.Com & YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
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‘ 1--Review each month’s issue in ‘
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‘ technology questions. (This is a free ‘
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‘ Acquisition, Service and Repair by ‘
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‘ ding Audit, Tax and General Business ‘
‘ Consulting by David Ljung, Principal at ‘
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