Author: Dr. Bill

Would you trust Facebook as your email provider? Hummmm… I don’t know that I would… they don’t exactly have a rep for security!

Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday

“Back in February we wrote about Facebook’s secret Project Titan — a web-based email client that we hear is unofficially referred to internally as its ‘Gmail killer.’ Now we’ve heard from sources that this is indeed what’s coming on Monday during Facebook’s special event, alongside personal @facebook.com email addresses for users.

This isn’t a big surprise — the event invites Facebook sent out hinted strongly that the news would have something to do with its Inbox, sparking plenty of speculation that the event could be related to Titan. Our understanding is that this is more than just a UI refresh for Facebook’s existing messaging service with POP access tacked on. Rather, Facebook is building a full-fledged webmail client, and while it may only be in early stages come its launch Monday, there’s a huge amount of potential here.”

So, Facebook has “friended” NC! My home state is jazzed that Facebook will be building a new $450 Million Dollar data center. Dewd! That’s a lot of geekiness!

Facebook ‘Friends’ North Carolina With Data Center

“North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue on Thursday said that Facebook plans to build a $450 million data center near Forest City in Rutherford County, the second data facility that the company will own. Our Judges Selected Some of The Most Groundbreaking Technology at Interop 2008, Including Overall Best of Show ‘We are proud that Facebook chose to make North Carolina a ‘friend,” said Gov. Perdue in a statement. ‘The feeling is certainly mutual. You can’t pick up a newspaper, read a magazine or flip on the television without hearing more great news about our state. The investment and jobs at the data center will be a boon to that region of the state, and will help confirm North Carolina’s distinction as a global business destination.’ The project is expected to take 18 months to build and to create over 250 construction and mechanical jobs, according to the Office of Gov. Perdue. The completed data center is expected to employ between 35 and 45 full-time and contract workers. Future expansion will also be a possibility.”

Will it be “the iPad for business?” Or, will users just say that they want iPads? We’ll see! Though, $500.00 is easier to get approved than $800.00.

RIM Climbs to Highest Since June on Plan for Tablet Under $500

“Research In Motion Ltd. climbed to the highest level since June after saying it will sell the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer for less than $500, suggesting it may try to undercut Apple Inc.’s iPad. ‘The product will be very competitively priced,’ co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said in an interview in Seoul today, without being more specific than saying it will be ‘under’ $500. RIM, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, will start selling the PlayBook in North America in the first quarter and expand into global markets in the second quarter, he said. The iPad starts at $499 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage and Wi-Fi wireless technology. The price rises to $829 for a version with more storage that can connect directly to cellular-phone networks.”

So, another full version number jump! Not those small “dot” releases! The BIG one! Sounds good…. but I will wait a bit for good ol’ CentOS!

Red Hat announces Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

“Red Hat announced today, November 10th, that long anticipated release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.

The announcement itself was anti-climatic. Everyone in Linux circles knew that RHEL 6 was coming. What I did find interesting–as customer after customer and partner after partner said how wonderful RHEL was and Red Hat Red Hat EVP Paul Cormier showed how the server operating system market has become a battle between RHEL and Windows-was how utterly mainstream Linux has become.

Solaris is done. The other versions of Unix now live in niches. The other Linux distributions, such as Novell’s SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and feisty newcomers such as Ubuntu are fighting it out for second place.

Linux is no longer a revolution. It is no longer the outsider wanting into the business market. Linux, in particular, RHEL, is at business’ heart. As Cormier said, “It’s no longer about who has the newest kernel, our customers are beyond that.”

Exactly. I see Red Hat’s announcement as a graduation ceremony. Yes, the technology is important, but what’s even more important now is Red Hat, the business, Red Hat, the brand.

As for RHEL 6 itself, yes there are many advances. What I see as the big change here is that Red Hat is pushing RHEL not just as the standalone server operating system we’ve known it as for years, but as the business operating system for both virtualization and the cloud.”

And… they claim it is MUCH faster than before… which is a good thing, because as much as I love Firefox, I haqve switched to Chrome because it is so light and fast! Hopefully Firefox will regain some of its mojo!

Mozilla releases beta 7 of Firefox 4, claims 3-5x performance boost

“Mozilla Wednesday released a significant update to the beta of its Firefox 4 browser. The update adds a new JavaScript JIT compiler, going by the name of JägerMonkey, and improves the browser’s support for hardware acceleration, OpenType fonts, and WebGL 3D graphics (the technology used to create an HTML5 version of Quake II back in April.) Additionally, the latest beta includes a stable add-ons API, so developers can finally update their add-ons to Firefox 4. Of course, the first thing Mozilla is touting about this version of the browser is the performance boost it gets from the new JägerMonkey JavaScript compiler.”