Dave’s Guide to the Best of the Web

Apple’s iPhone is a pretty sweet device from all reports, but by no means perfect. While many consumers enjoy the device for its own qualities, many open source advocates and other strange geeks (I’m talking about myself, so I feel qualified to make fun of myself) look upon the iPhone not so much as a gigantic step forward as an actual device, but rather as what it represents - a push for more innovation and a challenge to the incumbent cell phone carriers to offer more.

But what if everything Apple is offering and will offer will in the long-term be considered only a footnote in history? I think that there is a grand possibility that this will happen. Why? Because of a small company called OpenMoko which is building upon the revolutionary concepts of open source.

Open Source rebels against the traditional concepts of capitalism in some senses. I have talked to many who embrace that traditional concept and when explaining to them the options they have from open source I often find them responding with befuddled expressions indicating their confusion as to how anything that is really free can also be really profitable. If you aren’t a geek (yeah, with big glasses and never having met a girl in your life) you might not be aware of open source - but its real and revolutionary. You would probably recognize some of its successes such as Linux (an operating system and the grand-daddy of successful open source software), Mozilla Firefox (the web browser), or OpenOffice.Org (the office suite).

Open source is spreading itself throughout society. While initially operating mainly within the confines of computer software it has spread to the furthest reaches of the imagination - including cell phones. OpenMoko has recently released to the public (though asking that only developers purchase them) the Neo1973. This phone is expected to become widely available according to The Economist in November 2007. OpenMoko is an open source phone. It provides most of the features hardware wise you could hope for in a phone and then leaves the phone open for innovation by developers and users. Developers can write applications for it, users can connect to it on any of a variety of carriers. No longer is one locked into a mandatory (and unnecessary) set of applications or to a certain carrier - rather the phone is designed to allow anyone to design applications for it and to be utilized by any carrier that will allow it.

So, take a look at the OpenMoko sites. They are attractive, the phone is attractive, and the concept is attractive. While OpenMoko’s Neo1973 isn’t the phone to buy just yet, I expect it to begin chopping up market share like crazy in the near future. OpenMoko has two sites - the first is for the public consumption of the phone, the second is for developers (or those interested in weird things) to view and assist in the creation/editing/maintenance of the code base/featureset for OpenMoko’s cell phones.

Bookmark OpenMoko. They aren’t anybody just yet - but they will be.

Note: I am aware that Ubuntu is not “Linux” in its most technical and basic conception, but it is one of the best distributions of Linux available and I chose it as a representative of the whole.

    Let me tell you a story. Once there was a company that dominated all other companies - their name was Microsoft. They had an office suite, known as Microsoft Office that towered over all other office suites. While Corel and Lotus both had their suites, they were minutiae in comparison.

Now, let’s talk about our ambitious David in this story of David and Goliath (don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Microsoft - its just the nature of the story). His name was Sun Microsystems. Sun is a big behemoth in and of itself, but not nearly as well-known or popular in the mainstream eye as Microsoft, IBM, or Apple. Still, one of their products was the dominant player in its time - known by the name of Java and utilized to create interactive web applications (the .NET framework may be considered in part a response to this challenge by Microsoft). Sun Microsystems decided to unseat Microsoft from the Office throne by launching their own product line - called StarOffice. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the software never took off and eventually Sun decided to take a new approach - releasing the software as open source.

Open source? What’s that? The two most popular open source projects at this time are Mozilla Firefox (the web browser) and Linux (the Operating System). Open Source speaks of the code that runs a program being available for viewing and modification, without cost to the developer. It has significant benefits that we can discuss another time. In any case, the most important aspect from most people’s perspective was that it was free.

Sun Microsystems put some developers on this software and began to welcome other developers into the fold. Since starting several large companies have given time or code to the program - such as Google. The application has advanced from a decent word processing application in its version one stage to an excellent application in its version two stage and really offers Microsoft Office a run for its money - especially at the consumer level.

So, enough story. Let’s talk about this software. OpenOffice.Org is currently at version 2.2. It offers a word processor called Writer (similar to Microsoft’s Word), a spreadsheet application called Calc (similar to Microsoft’s Excel), a database application called Base (similar to Microsoft’s Access), a presentation application called Impress (similar to Microsoft’s PowerPoint) as well as several other applications include a mathematical formulation application and a drawing application. As such, it offers a complete alternative to the basic Microsoft Office system (with the significant exclusion of the popular option - Microsoft Outlook - an email client).

One might be tempted to write OOo 2.2 off because of the difficulties in communicating with the rest of the world that uses Microsoft Office - but that doesn’t need to be a problem - OOo 2.2 (and previous versions) are compatible with Microsoft Office documents - they can open, create, and save documents in Microsoft Office formats (e.g. doc, xls, ppt, mdb, etc.).

I won’t go into all the features of OpenOffice.Org, other than to say that it has most of the features of Microsoft Office and I have used it for several years - including throughout most of my college tenure - quite successfully to create, edit, read documents in a Microsoft Office world. So what downsides are there?

If you haven’t used Microsoft Office before, there are very few. The biggest disadvantage to OpenOffice.Org is learning the differences between Microsoft Office and OOo 2.2. The differences aren’t that significant at the basic level where we spend 90% of our time - in fact users will feel right at home when sitting in front of OOo 2.2. Its that other 10% of special functions we use occasionally that has been shuffled around and requires a little more time and patience to learn.

The other disadvantage with OOo 2.2 is its lack of all the extras Microsoft’s Office includes - most notably, the clipart. If you use a lot of clipart you will have to learn to search the web for it or purchase a CD/membership for clipart.

In the end, OpenOffice.Org is an extremely affordable (free!), reliable, and feature-filled product. Development on it is continuous and with a new extensions architecture similar to that found in Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird we can expect a upcoming blossoming in features that will make it even more attractive. Why not spend ten minutes with it before you purchase that copy of Microsoft Office and see if it fits your needs?

Facebook isn’t a new internet entity, but previously was restricted in its membership (to individuals attending or graduated from higher education facilities). This restriction probably kept it from amassing the same user base as MySpace, but all that has changed. Facebook is no longer restricted and people are beginning to recognize as a platform its significant superiority over its competitors.

The first thing one notices when visiting Facebook is its aesthetically pleasing nature. MySpace is probably the social network that falls most flat on its face in this arena, but still rules the coop simply because it is the largest.

Beyond aesthetics it is the nature of Facebook which makes it so appealing. One could go on and on about the many features but I’ll just highlight a few:

• News Feed - Discover in seconds what your Facebook friends have been up to.
• Widgets - Facebook has a number of widgets which can be added and removed at will. These allow you to tell about yourself. My favorite widget (by a third-party) is Wakoopa which lets others see my top ten most frequently used applications.
• Status Updates - Instead of long blog posts, Facebook is centralized more around “status updates” which are short descriptions of what you are doing at any given moment and appear in the news feed of your friends.
• Causes - An easy, modular way to show your support for a cause and to donate monetarily to that cause.

If you haven’t already tried Facebook - I highly recommend it. It only takes a few minutes to setup and requires very little ongoing commitment to maintain, but lets you stay in touch with a large number of friends and colleagues. Just remember, it also has the name “crackbook” similar to Blackberry’s “crackberry” because of the possible addictive nature of the application. It requires little dedication, but can be abused to use much.

    With the advent of cell phones many are getting rid of their traditional telephone lines. It saves a few bucks and if they have satellite, cable or FiOS a telephone line isn’t required to get internet. Charity and I have moved this way as well, now we each have a cell phone - but no home line. Still, there are times when it would be nice to have a landline - like when you get that massive bill for all those extra minutes you used or when you want to give a company a number that doesn’t ring you directly. Thankfully, there are some excellent alternatives that don’t require keeping or re-installing your traditional phone line.

One of these alternatives is Skype. Skype is a software application that allows you to make calls to anyone anywhere in the world as if you were on a phone for an exceptionally low cost. While one can pay on a per-minute basis, the better way to go (usually) is with an unlimited plan. For example, an unlimited calling plan to the U.S. and Canada is only $29.95 a year. Can you even find a phone plan for that cheap per month?

Additionally, Skype offers the ability to call any other Skype user through their Skype network at no cost - you don’t even need a plan. There are numerous other features which make this service grand, but probably one of the greatest are the phones. You can get phones that are essentially like traditional phones but operate over the internet - either wired or wireless. This allows one to begin using Skype without becoming technically savvy, or for you to initially configure the Skype service for mom and dad and then have them make calls just as they always have.