Research in Motion has long-held a stranglehold on all things mobile with the U.S. DoD. Time goes on, and things change. After being turned down by Apple to have access to the iOS codebase, both the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), have announced the release of separately developed hardened versions of the Android operating system (OS) in the past year. More notable was the related DARPA pilot program that deployed smart phones running the hardened version of Android to be tested in Read More

Electronic Frontier Foundation just posted an article discussing “Apple’s Crystal Prison and The Future of Open Platforms” in which they characterize Apple’s and Microsoft’s restrictive policies as affronts on users freedom, and call on Apple to lead the way by aligning with Steve Wozniak’s call for Apple to open up. They also outline a “bill of rights” outlining four rights they believe mobile computer owners should enjoy. I generally support the idea of more openness in computing, but I see a couple of key issues with what they wrote. It’s Read More

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation recently mused on the topic of non-free games on Linux, and unsurprisingly he rejects them, even though admitting that they “might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with GNU/Linux”. His position has been consistent for decades. What’s important is teaching users about their freedom as software users, and making that a priority, and not so much increasing the Linux market share and mind share. In reality, however, I believe freedom rests with choice, and not with terms of various license agreements. Read More

HP’s EliteBook line of notebook PC’s is designed with both form and function in mind. Each EliteBook is constructed on a magnesium alloy “DuraCase” chassis with an anodized aluminum exterior. The result is both attractive and durable. Keyboard The EliteBook “Durakey” keyboard is spill-resistant and designed to stay clean in the messiest environment. The flat keys are surprisingly comfortable to type on and they allow little or no dirt to find it’s way underneath them. On the other hand, the <ENTER> key is too small and the function keys could Read More

Today we use computers to aid us in music composition and production, but still retain much of the creative control over the outcome. Sometimes we play actual musical instruments and use computers to mix it all up, add effects, and balance the sound. Other times we use sound synthesizers and sequencers that allow us to fine tune the composition to utmost precision, and with relative ease, but we still control the outcome. What if the role of a human musician was drastically diminished, or completely eliminated? Could computers make music Read More

Linux and quirkiness tend to be synonymous, if looked from the perspective of a user who doesn’t want to fiddle or deal with workarounds to make things work smoothly. Release after release Ubuntu has been no different in this department, even when it seemed closest to the goal of a perfectly user-friendly system. It’s become somewhat of a running joke among some circles to go test out the shiny new hyped Ubuntu thinking this is finally it, and they’ve finally done it, and then leave with a bit of a Read More

Both Apple and Google are building a relatively seamless ecosystem around their products and services, and both of them involve the cloud as a key component. Apple seems to be leading the way in terms of integration and seamlessness of it (no surprise there) while Google might be leading in terms of features, that is, all of the things that can be done in the Google cloud, with only a web browser as a client. I currently own an Android smartphone and a Mac, but I have to admit that Read More

Google has rolled out yet another update to their troubled search engine algorithms. This update, belatedly dubbed “Penguin”, was supposedly targeted towards sites which engaged in spammy SEO tactics, but instead it appears to have penalized a wide range of legitimate and high quality web sites. Some of the biggest losers are sites many ByteGuide readers know well, including: comcast.com is one of the largest cable television companies and Internet service providers in the world. Comcast lost 31% of their visibility in the Google’s rankings. dslreports.com is one of our Read More

Less is more. This is the slogan of the future. It should be among the most valuable concepts to keep in mind and aspire towards. Where “less is more” does not describe the current state of things the goal should be to rectify that. This idea captures a multitude of fields relevant to everything from the survival of the human race to its advancement. Here are a few key examples. Key to Survival In a time of crisis predicated on the depletion of readily available resources doing more with less Read More

Recent changes by Google have created a boom in the SEO industry, but perhaps not quite the one Google engineers envisioned.  Google has been fighting a losing battle against “web spam” for many years, and this motivated them to engage in more aggressive tactics to keep their search results clean.  In the past, Google stated that there was nothing that a competitor could do to hurt your rankings in their search engine, but a few years ago they updated it to add “almost”: There’s almost nothing a competitor can do Read More