Nuclear or Nothing?

In Ireland we, like the rest of the world, have though questions to answer. Ireland being an island economy, is especially reliant on oil, none of which we produce. I was surprised earlier this week to hear one of George W. Bush’s top aides, saying that the U.S. needs to lose dependence on foreign oil and research alternatives. I was never more shocked, to hear Bush’s change of heart, from using improved technology, to one of his aides saying they need to use less oil.

Best Radio Podcasts

Even while podcasts are relatively new (well a couple of years - like blogs), Irish Radio Stations are surprisingly well in on the act. Even our incumbent state broadcaster, RTE, is podcasting en-masse on both RTE Radio 1 and RTE 2FM. To recieve podcasts, you need podcasting software, start by getting Juice Reciever(Formerly iPodder), available for Linux, BSD, MAC and Windows. I will start with my top 5 Irish Radio podcasts:

Spam, will it ever stop?

Spam has become a fact of life nowadays, but is their anything we can do to stop it? The answers boils down to no, we can’t. If we make it illegal, the spamsters move abroad or go underground, as we have seen in the United States. People have been prosecuted, but again this does not deter people. Spamhaus have a novel idea, by trusting domains on reputation, based on spam reports.

Google will organise your life

Google have released a calendar, as part of their mission to “Organise the Worlds Information”. While it is what you expect from Google, the Calendar did not impress me a whole lot. It does have an intuitive interface, that is easy to use. It does integrate with Gmail, although the full extent has yet to be seen, as they fall short of mentioning it in Gmail at all, but I would expect this to change.

Ekiga's Vorbis

I am all for open standards, but they face huge problems. Not least is lack of intergration between them. Take SIP used by VOIP providers, such as OpenWengo. While OpenWengo is open source, and it is SIP, they are not helpful in informing you how to use other clients, or dial other OpenWengo users from other networks. What I am really talking about is the need for an all-in-one communications program, that is multi-platform.

Europe's New Voice

As tech savvy readers will be aware, dot EU is the latest domain to go into public use. What is a domain? A domain is the name used for internet site like “dueyfinster.eu”. It has already sold over 1.25 million names already, this entering the third day of the public sale. Their have been bitter critics of how it has dealt out, with heated arguments over some domains such as Polo.

Bebo and Beyond..

Do you say Baybo or Beebo? Do you have a clue what I am on about? Apparently 22 million of you out there will, welcome to Bebo.com the social network growing faster than ever! What is a social network? Apparently (by Google Definitions): The personal or professional set of relationships between individuals. Social networks represent both a collection of ties between people and the strength of those ties. Often used as a measure of social “connectedness”, recognising social networks assists in determining how information moves throughout groups, and how trust can be established and fostered.

Mozilla's Millions

Only now is it truly becoming clear, their is [serious money in Open Source][]/ With Mozilla reported to have made tens of millions of dollars. One blogger reported 70m was made by the corporation, with a Mozilla insider confirming thats a reasonable ballpark figure. Christopher Blizzard, board member of Mozilla, had this to say on his blog: Blizzard added that an earnings figure of $72m (£41m) quoted on some blogs was incorrect.

Just Klik it!

One of the biggest complaints of Linux is that software doesn’t install to well, or is very difficult to install. “Dependency Hell” (When software relies on other bits of software to work), used to be quite commonplace. Ubuntu has cleaned a lot of dependency hell up, and a new program for installing software from the internet, is included in the new version, due to be released 1st June 2006. That’s when I discovered a little gem called Klik for many Linux distributions.

Virtual Ubuntu

So you have heard of Ubuntu, maybe they have even shipped you a free disc or you have downloaded one? Like most users, even advanced PC users, they get nervous about installing Linux and afraid of what they might have to learn. Touted as the brighest star, Ubuntu really does outshine other Linuxes, with usability, features and great range of software. Now you can try Ubuntu on Windows. How can I try it, is what I always get asked, without risk to my computer?

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