software

Learn something new with software

So ... what happened?! It seems like I should be sitting by a pool, sipping a fruity cocktail. However, the calendar claims that it's back-to-school season. (Most frighteningly, I saw my first Christmas advertisement yesterday.)

The end of August is an excellent time to optimize that old laptop for your son's freshman year of college, or to find great free software for empowering that new PC with an arsenal of goodies. Check out two collections of excellent back-to-school software: the first (with video!) from honor-roll assistant editor Jessica Dolcourt; the second from our favorite superhero, Power Downloader.

In the … Read more

Free Software Foundation to Microsoft: You are not above the law

Microsoft may wish that it were above the law, but the Free Software Foundation has issued a press release calling Microsoft to repentance for its efforts to deny GPLv3's hold on it.

We do not...agree with Microsoft's characterization of the situation involving GPLv3. Microsoft cannot by any act of anticipatory repudiation divest itself of its obligation to respect others' copyrights. If Microsoft distributes our works licensed under GPLv3, or pays others to distribute them on its behalf, it is bound to do so under the terms of that license. It may not do so under any other terms; it cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3.… Read more

Back-to-school downloads

Students everywhere are stirring from their summer stupors to stock up on supplies for the coming year. If your back-to-school must list doesn't include software, listen up. Browse some picks of student-friendly downloads for elementary-aged young'uns to graduate scholars, or get a run-down in the video below.

If you don't see what you want, take a turn through the vast halls of CNET Download.com, where you'll find educational software and games aplenty.

Can you trust that file?

Earlier I had a trilogy of postings about DropMyRights (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) that included the warning to run Microsoft Office applications in restricted mode in case a file (Word document, Excel spreadsheet, etc.) carried a virus or some other type of malicious software.

But what do you do if a Word document or Excel spreadsheet doesn't display or work properly when the application is run in restricted mode? A decision needs to be made whether to trust the file and open it in unrestricted mode.

If the file was sent to you by e-mail, you'… Read more

New method for detecting GPL violations; proprietary vendors urged to come clean

Why would anyone steal free software? Hint: it's not about the price, it's about the freedom. Some downstream users want their software with no obligations attached. In other words, they want someone else's cake, and they want to eat it, too.

Selfish, greedy, naughty people.

But now there's apparently a way to detect and prove GPL violations, as reported on Slashdot. The technique is called birthmarking, and while the academic paper [PDF] calls for birthmarking Java, the same technique is generalizable to other languages.

Here's how it works:… Read more

IBM to open source collaboration software?

InfoWorld is reporting that IBM may soon open source key parts of its Jazz collaboration software. Jazz comes from the Rational side of IBM's business, and is a development tool that facilitates code collaboration between developers. It's not the sexiest project out there, but arguably a useful one.

We might think about open-sourcing some of the very lowest layers (of the framework) so that the APIs (application programming interfaces) are available, and people could build on the kernel.

The reason? To drive pervasiveness of the Jazz platform.

Open source is just about the only way to get platform ubiquity in today's software world. IBM understands this better than most. What it might want to watch out for is its messaging around the move....… Read more

A defense of my Adobe-bashing

Note: For readers of this blog, below is the response I posted to a gripe from Adobe Systems' John Dowdell about an earlier blog posting of mine.

As the author of both the headline and the blog, I'm glad you took the time to write down your thoughts, not just curse me inwardly, because it affords me the opportunity to offer the following response. It is, as the blogosphere cliche goes, a conversation.

The headline is perhaps a bit snarky, but I don't think it's wholly inaccurate. John Loiacono took pains to point out the flaws of … Read more

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 tracks traffic, gas prices

In advance of Labor Day weekend and its inevitable coast-to-coast traffic jams, Microsoft is releasing Streets & Trips 2008 software. Among the new features in the deluxe edition are live traffic updates, information on nearby gas prices, and estimates of what filling up along the journey will cost for that Hummer, Prius, or whatever else you're driving. It also hooks up to Live Search maps that you can mark up, and which chart businesses including hotels, snack spots and camping areas.

Despite such helpful features, this product seems like an odd fit in the market when you can get … Read more

Adobe bashes open-source alternatives

Adobe Systems has embraced open-source software for some products, but its core Creative Suite line looks like it'll remain proprietary.

In a blog posting Sunday, Adobe's top creative products executive, John Loiacono, made unflattering remarks about open-source alternatives whose free cost is offset by the time that creative pros have to spend fiddling. "Time is money," he opines, not without merit, and links to a blog posting by Eric Vreeland, who observed, "Debugging recent installs of certain open-source software has wasted immense amounts of my spare time; charged at my hourly rate these hours represent … Read more