intelliLinux A blog about Innovation and Information

On June 6th 2009, Palm released their first smart phone featuring a non-Microsoft OS to support true multitasking. That all by itself isn't such a huge deal even though stalwart Palm fans have wanted that exact feature for years.

The real news is that it's new operating system, WebOS, is totally Linux based and appears to be significantly more open than Google's Android or certainly the bsd based OSX variant used on the iPhone. Even better for Palm and it's fans, WebOS has a feature base and attractiveness that even the iPhone's OS can't best. Compete with, yes. Get the better of, no (at least according to most of the reviews i've read).

Now, I must admit some bias because I have been a fan of Linux and it's usage since mid-2002. That said, I'm not particularly impressed with Android. WebOS is much slicker, and in my opinion the differences in openness are stark. I will be looking at webOS as it stands, not in comparison to anything else.

In this spirit, I have talked with some of the hackers currently working away on the Prē through #webos-internals on Freenode, and i'm very impressed with the device's OS and what has already been discovered less than two weeks out.

For the past 6 months or so I have claimed to anyone who asks that QtEmu is about ready for it's 2.0 release - and I think I'm totally right about that. QtEmu is an app that is basically trying to be like vmWare workstation, but better. It's not quite there yet, but it's already pretty good. It is based on the work of uwolfer, the mind behind the massive improvements to KRDC in kde, and he has played a key role in helping me improve it this much.

In the past 6 months or so I have added a number of big features - things like automatic USB support, local file socket VNC support (this makes connections a lot more secure) and a bunch of other things. At the moment I'm pretty sure the only thing holding it back is the fact that VNC screen updates are rather slow - but that's the case in KRDC as well.

It's a common problem for plenty of techie type people, or at least it is for me: i find myself with about 5 computers on my desk, and i want to see every screen. Of course, in this instance, a KVM is not really a great option, but I also don't want to have 5 keyboards to choose between. Another common scenario is when I have to use my laptop and a desktop computer simultaniously, and a third all too frequent desire is to be able to cut and paste between multiple machines. There is a solution that solves all of these problems, and is completely cross-platform to boot: Synergy.

If you have ever wanted to share a single application across multiple PCs, this is a hack for you! While it's not perfect, this procedure makes it possible to share a single application or really any group of windows between two computers simultaneously. Now, you may be thinking "why do that when i can use VNC?" The truth is, I'm not exactly sure what major advantages this procedure has over VNC, other than not sharing an entire desktop and using only the X11 protocol, but there must be some advantage somewhere.

For a few years now, people have been predicting "the year of Linux on the desktop." For one reason or another, this hasn't quite happened yet. Recently, however, various projects have been comeint together to meet the challenges that have been hampering widespread acceptance of Linux. One of these challenges is in the area of network management, and a tool called NetworkManager is the solution. NetworkManager is a lot like the incredible Hulk: it's great - but only until you get it angry.

Well I've discovered that there are many good reasons to have an Uninterruptible Power Supply, like in case the power goes out, but there are at least a few reasons that they can SUCK too. These are pretty straightforward:

So, I know this is supposed to be a blog focusing on innovation, technology, and hopefully the convergence of the two. That is why this story is tagged under "Volkswagen"; The original Volkswagen, the type 1, or Beetle, was filled with innovation, and used technology from the latest in aerospace at the time. It was an incredible car for what it was designed to do, and was in production from 1938 until 2003 - 65 years.

There are a number of software projects i'm keenly interested in, and at least a few I work on.

So, who is this guy that thinks he can write a blog that people will actually want to read?

The truth is, i'm not sure I can. My name is Ben Klopfenstein (I'm told it means Stone-Pounder), and I am beginning a blog that will discuss innovation, information, and 'techno-drivel.' (Also religion, games, politics, literature, and so on...) Of course you can tell by this blog's name that my postings will include plenty of Linux fun, but there is much more to obsess over than just an operating system kernel.