[Mon Feb 11 11:33:01 CST 2013]

So much has been changing in the technology world lately that yesterday's bully is now in trouble. How so? Well, Microsoft's Windows operating system is well entrenched (and it has always been very well entrenched) in the desktop and laptop markets. The vast majority of those systems are running their OS. Sure, there are some running either Apple's Mac OS X or Linux, but they are hardly relevant. The fact is that Microsoft can freely do and undo in those markets pretty much as it pleases. Then there is the netbook market, that seemed posed to take the world by storm just a few years ago, but it certainly doesn't look as if is going to have such a dratic impact after all. To be sure, it will have its own niche, but it doesn't look as if it will manage to severly impact (or destroy) any of the other markets. Now, tablets and smartphones are a completely different issue. They have managed to disrupt the whole industry to the point that some even think that they may even kill the desktop, as we read in this piece published by Computer World:

In another illustration of the diminishing importance of the PC, a research firm today said that more than a third of surveyed customers who once used personal computers to access content said they had switched to tablets and smartphones.

But unlike others who, noting the same trends, have said it signals the death of the PC, John Buffone of the NPD Group argued that PCs aren't going anywhere for the moment.

"There is a significant amount of functionality that is best conducted on computers," said Buffone in an interview. That work, often collectively dubbed "content creation," could remain the provenance of PCs for a long time to come.

Sure. There is little doubt in my mind. But then, the true question is: does that matter? In other words, I don't think anyone seriously doubts right now that desktops and laptops are here to stay, at least in the short run. They are still the best tool for the job if one needs to do certain things (for example, software development, content development, writing, graphics or video editing, system administration, network monitoring...). I just don't see how our businesses will switch from the desktops and laptops being used today to tablets and smartphones to do their accounting or many other work-related activities. Actually, when I try to write content for my blogs on a tablet or even a netbook, it just kills me. I cannot stand it. Let's not even consider the possibility of a smartphone, which will only allow me to type a very limited amount of wods before I lose my mental sanity. These other mobile devices are ideal to do things on the go. They also work pretty well, to read certain documents, send quick messages or check out social networking websites. However, that's it, at least for the time being.

And yet, what if that's the case? Does it truly change anything? Like it or not, the fact remains that desktops and laptops are yesterday's products. Even more to the point, it's a market that's shrinking and that remains, for the most part, very static. The dynamism and innovation has now moved to the realm of mobile devices. That seems very clear. And, let's face it, Microsoft doesn't enjoy the same hegemony in these other markets. As a matter of fact, they don't have a significant market share neither in the high-end level (i.e., the servers that hold our data in these cloud-based days), nor in the low-level (i.e., mobile devices). That's their challenge. {link to this entry}

[Mon Feb 11 11:11:11 CST 2013]

Hmmm. Because one doesn't truly need to restart the smart phones as often as a desktop or laptop computer, I truly had no idea how to accomplish this on my HTC Droid Incredible. Well, it's pretty easy: just hold down the power button for a few seconds, and it will display a meny with the options to power off the device, turn it to airplane mode or restart it. Here is an article from Verizon Wireless showing the screenshots. And here is the relevant screenshot:

{link to this entry}

[Fri Feb 1 12:44:55 CST 2013]

I quite accidentally found a document explaining how to use UDF, instead of FAT, for USB thumb drives. Most people are familiar with the problem: you run Linux and rely a lot on a simple USB thumb drive but, because we live in the world we live, you also have to make sure it works with other operating systems out there (yeah, specifically with Windows). So, what do you do? You format it with the awful FAT file system, which is almost universally supported but is prehistoric, cannot handle large files or filesystems and it completely ignores links. So, what do you do? You suck it up and move on. Well, not anymore. Now, all you have to do is format the flash drive with the UDF file system:

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M count=1

$ mkudffs -b 512 --media-type=hd /dev/sdb

Obviously, the device name may be different in your case. Just plug in the flash drive and run the mount command to see what it is in your case. Then, umount it and run those commands listed above. Now you have your USB flash drive formatted with UDF, and you will be able to use it with multiple operating systems. On top of that, UDF supports POSIX permissions and it makes it possible to have a file that does not belong to any specific user or group. It's a godsend. I just tested it on both Linux and Apple Mac OS X, and it worked flawlessly. {link to this entry}