Hmmm, I'm not spending much time here lately...too many other projects on the boil...but checked out the statistics for the past month, and all of a sudden they have shot through the roof. Yet most of my content is old (well, to me anyhow).

So tell me, dear readers what it is that you come here for?

Do you want to see this blog continue?

Because things keep changing on the VNC landscape, I've found that latest versions of Linux cannot run with xtightvncviewer any longer for providing a remote listener to UltraVNC's SC help software.

I'm now running Archlinux on one machine, and Ubu-Jaunty on another. Neither can use xtightvncviewer to respond to incoming UltraVNC connections. But after a few hours searching, I found something that can; SSVNC project; http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/ssvnc.html#download.

Karl's excellent project has all you need to do VNC. I downloaded the binaries, selected vncviewer from here: ssvnc/bin/Linux.x86_64, copied it to a new folder and set it to listen like so:

#!/bin/bash
/home/cw/remote/vncviewer -bgr233 -encodings "hextile copyrect" -listen

Save that file, give it execute perms, and set it to start at system startup. Wunderbar.

For years there has been speculation of Google making it's own OS...the news today is that it's true, and should be here mid 2010.

"So what", you say?

Well, this bodes really well for my favourite OS...as Google, which is based upon Linux, takes off, it knocks MS down, and forces competition in the marketplace. Not only that, but all of a sudden Google's billions are put behind the code base for Linux, which being GPL Open source, improves both of them...

Should MS be worried? Of course, but they've got the bank account to keep milking the public for some time yet. Apple is the one that really needs to be worried. This spells disaster for them, as suddenly someone in the Linux ranks has the backing to take them on, and make their much-vaunted OS X look silly. Whilst Apple has been throwing advertising dollars at the old horse of MS's Vista, poking fun continually, there has been a new horse coming up on the inside rails that they just didn't anticipate.

Already many are saying that the Google OS will be a limited joke. And MS is saying that they are not worried. But for them to even comment, rather than ignore, says that they are. And the OS will not be a joke. What does Google do poorly? It throws it's dollars behind skilled programmers and designers, and comes up with something that works, and is dead simple. That is how they won the Search wars. And they don't sit still...taking years to release anything new is not their style ;)

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

That intrigues me...a NEW WINDOWING SYSTEM... are they reinventing the wheel? Are they reworking Gnome? They do say that the code is being opened up LATER THIS YEAR, before the release to the wider world on NetBooks in 2010...so I guess we wait and see :D

Thank you Google, you have made my day!