Bodog.com is a casino, sport-betting emporium, and online poker palace. The site gets busy; during football season it takes almost 200,000 bets per week, while the virtual poker tables can handle up to 5,000 bettors at a time. Bodog started out using WebLogic and Versant on Solaris, but ran into problems when a bug repeatedly took servers down at critical junctures. Vendors didn’t offer much help, but a switch to Linux and JBoss brought Bodog some much-needed relief in the form of more reliable uptime and scaling capacity.
March 11, 2008
March 7, 2008
Red Hat High campers are bridging the digital divide
One of the things Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik loses sleep over is the digital divide, especially when it comes to children. He wanted to do something about the disparity in the availability of computing resources and skills between social classes, so he set aside corporate funds to create Red Hat High, a week-long technology summer camp for eighth- and ninth-grade students.
Classic Gasperson: iCEBOX: Coming Soon to a Kitchen Near You
When I was young, all the upwardly mobile families had an extra TV in the kitchen. When I became a wife and mother, I often thought it would be nice to be able to watch the news or a few games shows while cooking dinner, instead of just turning up the big set in the den and trying to hear over the kitchen clatter. I never got a TV for my kitchen–but these days, I don’t watch much Wheel of Fortune. Instead of channel surfing, I generally surf the Web. Now, thanks to a nifty new product from CMi Worldwide called the iCEBOX, I can browse and braise, surf and saute, all at the same time.No, the iCEBOX is not a retro refrigerator, despite its name–but it is cool. It is a countertop computer specifically designed for today’s kitchen, with a water-proof, grease-proof wireless keyboard and remote control. The remote lets you switch between TV, Internet, CD (music or video), and household monitor at the touch of a tiny button.
Step Aside, Galloping Gourmet
Each mode provides the “household CEO” with plenty of entertainment and functionality in the kitchen. The TV mode makes the iCEBOX a traditional set so you won’t miss a minute of your favorite shows–but to use it only as a television set would be a waste of its capabilities. For instance, a specially designed Internet portal lets you check your email via remote control and guides you to the most relevant culinary and other domestic delights. iCEBOX also functions as a music center: Just pop in your favorite music CDs, or view CMi’s special video CDs and become the next Galloping Gourmet as you follow the on-screen cooking action.
With all your newfound kitchen delights, don’t worry about losing touch with the rest of the household, because the iCEBOX also functions as a video monitor. Put a camera in the nursery or in the backyard and keep an eye on Junior–even if he’s not a baby anymore. Or stay a step ahead of door-to-door salesmen: Install the camera in a strategic location by your front door.
One Cool Box
The countertop model is sleek and space-age, similar in appearance to the new iMacs. It weighs a mere 16 pounds, with the CPU and monitor molded together out of high-impact ABS plastic. The screen is 9inches, somewhat small by normal surfing standards but just right for the kitchen. The unit comes with all the necessary connections for stereo and video input/output. The only disappointment is the snail-like 33.6K modem that comes standard with this model–hardly fast enough for today’s Internet activities.
If you don’t have room for another appliance on your countertop, the iCEBOX LCD model fits under the cabinet and sports a small, flip-down LCD screen. It is a step up from the countertop version, with a 12.1-inch screen, beefed-up audio capabilities, USB and Ethernet ports, and a 56K modem.
The countertop iCEBOX will probably retail for around $499 and is slated for nationwide release to computer retailers and home appliance stores in July 2000. The tonier iCEBOX LCD will make its debut in September 2000 for about $2,200 and will be available only through your local homebuilder or remodeler, so don’t expect to see it on retailers’ shelves anytime soon.
March 6, 2008
Classic Gasperson: FSF asks Lindows, “Where’s the source?”
Bradley Kuhn, vice president of the Free Software Foundation, says the organization is contacting LindowsOS representatives because the company has not included source code with its “sneak preview” releases. Lindows CEO Michael Robertson says his company will comply with the GPL when the product is released to the public. (more…)
March 4, 2008
For Terracotta, a year of open source has been good for business
Terracotta makes a Java clustering solution that it calls “drop-in” technology. Terracotta is unique, says Amit Pandey, chief executive officer, because it makes a way to offload temporary but important information that has traditionally been stored in expensive databases. In an effort to increase interest in the product, about a year ago Terracotta decided to open its source code and start giving the product away. According to Pandey, since Terracotta’s entrance into the community, “we’ve seen only goodness.”
Linux keeps Alexa’s engineers happy
Alexa Internet is one of the oldest and most recognized Web entities. In addition to providing detailed Web site traffic information that it collects from users of the Alexa toolbar, Alexa created the Wayback Machine, an archive of Web site snapshots, which it donated to the Library of Congress in 1998. Don Whitt, Alexa’s vice president of operations, says Alexa, acquired by Amazon.com in 1999, has a long history with open source platforms, including Slackware, FreeBSD, and CentOS.
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