Archive

Mind map tools offer users a system to graphically think through complex ideas in a somewhat controlled space on the computer screen. This type of software makes it easy to link related ideas with lines, branches and multiple colors in much the same way you would "think" about a topic with a scratch...

Google released Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, on Monday -- a new version of its open source mobile platform. Gingerbread made its debut on the Samsung Nexus S smartphone. The new platform comes with enhancements such as a more refined touchscreen keyboard for faster typing and greater accuracy. There...

There is a great deal of commotion about the cloud, and rightfully so, but the noise can be overwhelming. The market is crowded with different products and platforms from the smallest of startups to industry behemoths, a condition that is not helped by cloudwashing and other tactics designed to take...

The advantages of open source software really become evident when it comes to using design applications. This category of software is one that not everyone needs -- that is, unless you need software to help you create illustrations for Web design or print publication projects. The Linux OS has a bev...

High-performance computing applications such as numerical simulation -- whether for forecasting, mechanical and structure simulation, or computational chemistry -- require a large number of CPUs for processing. To meet these needs, customers must buy a large-scale system that enables parallel proce...

So Turkey Day has come and gone for another year here in the good old U-S-of-A, but what comes next might be even better -- at least from a geek's perspective. That's right, it's Black Friday once again, and the tech shopping deals are ripe for the picking. Who has time to worry about Novell, Attach...

New app choices have a habit of getting in the way of older favorites. Sometimes, a new approach or design can tempt you to give up one approach to solving a computing need by replacing it with another. That is the case with personal information manager apps. Open source software gives us Linux user...

The marketing stars appear to be coming into alignment for the vendors of open source offerings who are targeting the U.S. government. Significant barriers to adopting open source technology at the federal level are breaking down, and tight budgets provide an opportunity for vendors to emphasize the...

Saying the Android platform is fast is an understatement. Within one short year, it's erupted from claiming a mere sliver of market share to taking second spot worldwide for smartphone sales by operating system, according to Gartner's figures. Android had 25.5 percent of the worldwide smartphone mar...

It used to be that only hard-core film buffs carried video recording equipment on vacations. Unless your job required working with film, film editing software was not on most computer users' must-have list of tools. Maybe that is why until recently, few really useful film editing apps existed for th...

Local, state, and federal government agencies across the U.S. share the common goal of serving the public. They also share another contemporary fact of life: They are running out of money. As a result, efficiency is becoming a major goal in government at all levels, and information technology appear...

Enterprises' need for storage is increasing exponentially as businesses use more and more rich media, such as audio and video, both within their networks and on customer-facing websites. That demand is going to continue growing, driven both by customer demand and demand from new hires who grew up wi...

The Linux platform has several really good financial applications that are more than capable of handling both personal and small-business accounting operations. GnuCash, HomeBank and Skrooge are among the best financial apps I've found for Linux. In terns of features and performance, all three are a...

Google on Wednesday released mod_pagespeed, a module for the Apache HTTP Server that will automatically perform various website speed optimization tasks. This includes 15 or so on-the-fly optimizations. Google claims mod_pagespeed reduces average page load times by up to 50 percent. However, mod_pag...

One of the lingering concerns potential Linux users have is the worry of leaving behind Windows software they have relied on for playing audio and video files. That used to be a valid concern. But it isn't something to worry about any more. Three relatively new Linux apps make it possible to convert...