Adobe's Air needs admin rights to install apps.  Adobe gives really lame, misguided reasons for this like "if you don't have admin rights you shouldn't be installing software."  Should Firefox stop allowing extensions to be installed if you don't have admin rights?  Java Web Start?  The multitude of apps on portableapps.com?  That's not what locking down admin rights is about; it's about protecting the computer from security threats.  Many people run without admin rights on purpose to protect their computer.Read more

I do understand why companies often prefer BSD and Apache products to the GPL.  But what I don't understand is why companies prefer proprietary over GPL.  Let me emphasize, I'm talking about a product that is not related directly to core business secrets such as content management or a database.  Read more

I've been using AirDB lately for one of my projects.  It's a nice, lightweight  Active Record implementation in ActionScript for use in Adobe Air applications.  I wanted to create a LogTarget for logging with the standard Flex logging framework (mx.logging) that was backed by a database.  Read more

I've been using Linux for six years, and I've seen the Linux desktop mature in amazing leaps and bounds.  It's maturing so fast, that in any given month, I often see maturation for core parts of the overall product. 

For some perspective, when I first started using Linux, you had to manually run a command to mount your CD.  You had to run another command to unmount the CD when you were finished with it, and a third to eject it.  In that order, exactly, or it would fail.  Often you had to reboot just to get the disk out of the tray. Read more

I welcome efforts by companies such as Microsoft and Sun to embrace openness.  Sun gets it.  They've released Java under the GPL license.  That's a significant contribution to my software freedom, and I will always appreciate Sun for doing so.  As a result, I know I can involve myself in Java as deeply as I need, and never fear my software freedoms can be taken. Read more

I was in the market for a laptop, and if I am anything, it's a frugal gadget geek.  I'm always buying gadgets, but I'm cheap about it.  Buy.com had a deal on refurbished HP DV9627CL laptops for $700.  While that's not cheap, it's a pretty loaded laptop, with a 17 inch widescreen, dual core 64bit processor, 2 GB memory, 200 GB HDD, and so on.  This thing isn't super portable, but it's well equipped for a developer like me. Read more

The Asus Eee is good for many needs, but sometimes it's nice to have access to a full desktop machine from the convenience of your Eee.  Luckily, like most Linux desktops, Eee packs thousands of hidden utilities, including some that let you connect remotely to other computers.

Accessing a Windows desktop

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I've been trying various browsers over the past 6 weeks or so.  I've used Firefox for four years now, since it was named Phoenix, then later Firebird, then later Firefox.  I've enjoyed the run, but I was starting to desire a bit of a change.  Firefox doesn't look as good as the rest of my Gnome desktop, and trying to makeRead more

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying browser options beyond Firefox.  I've really enjoyed using the GTK-native browsers Epiphany and Galeon.  They are fast, both in loading and rendering pages.  But, the biggest issue I had is that 64 bit builds of these browsers can't use 32 bit plugins.  And Flash 9 is only available in its 32 bit version.  It's pretty hard to use the web these days without Flash, now that sites like Youtube have pushed Flash beyond advertisements and into the mainstream.Read more

Update: I'm getting reports that this has been fixed in Java 1.6 (aka Java 6).  So, I tested this with the latest Java 1.6 32-bit in Ubuntu Edgy, and apps seem to be working fine under Beryl.  So, you may not need to go to all the trouble below.  The latest Java 1.6 for AMD64 on Ubuntu Edgy, however, still doesn't work for me under Beryl.

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