We are happy to have an opportunity to talk with Alexey Bragin, the Project Coordinator of ReactOS – an open source Windows analog. ReactOS is getting more and more attention in press and over the Internet. We are asking Alexey questions often arising among potential users and developers.

Alexey, how did you join the project?

I was developing different software, mostly under Windows. Open source was already quite popular at that time, and, at some point I had a simple thought: UNIX-like operating systems have many followers with open source code (Linux, FreeBSD), there is a whole GNU infrastructure. Why more modern operating system designed as a replacement for outdated UNIX does not have any open source realization? After brief search on…

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Microsoft’s search engine, Bing is moving to the iPhone platform in uncommon way: via applications that use Bing API. The most bright example of such apps is Robotvision – a Bing location-based service for iPhone that became available at the Apple Store in a recent time.

The application uses iPhone 3Gs GPS module and camera to provide users with information about the nearby environment (e.g. restaurants, businesses, etc.). The application retrieves this data from Bing SE. It also has Twitter and Flickr integration.

But the most notable feature of this solution is one called augmented reality: as you change the position of the device to horizontal by flipping it, the units you were looking at through the camera begin to be shown as markpoints on a map. You flip your iPhone…

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Using several different Version Control Systems (VCS) is typical for companies of any size and scale.

The reason is that sooner or later any company feels a necessity of a newer VCS. This necessity may be based on different factors varying from low performance and absence of GUI to the price factor and VCS concept (traditional or distributed).

But transition to a newer VCS doesn’t cancel the usage an old one: in case of projects’ transfer to a new system, one won’t be able to work with changes history. This usually results in a situation where all the old projects continue to be supported by an old VCS, while the new system is being used only for new projects.

The disadvantages are obvious:

• A company has to support several servers for VCS
• Users have…
  
  

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Google brings into being its Chrome Frame: an open source plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The plugin that weights around 500 Kb can be installed on IE 6, 7, or 8 without any additional coding and allows IE to support HTML5 and other modern web technologies that Explorer just can’t handle at the moment.

Despite of Internet Explorer is still being the most wide spread browser, the majority of its users are unhappy with it. Of course, speaking of web standards & technologies, in the latest versions of IE things started to get better, but it is still far behind the niche’s monsters: Opera, FireFox, Chrome, and Safari.

So what the plugin does? In brief, it actually turns IE into Chrome giving it…

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HP comes up with DreamScreen 100: a next-gen innovative gadget that combines functions of a connected screen, web browser, media player and more, and allows mobile social networking, wireless media sharing, and data storage. This device brings the concept of a connected screen to a new level by introducing non-precedent functional while being simple, intuitive, and stylish.

According to Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP, “Constant, always-on access to friends, information and entertainment is a common expectation today, and with HP DreamScreen, social media, web services and digital entertainment can be enjoyed in more areas of the home.”

The core features of the DreamScreen 100 may be listed as following:

•    802.11 b/g wireless compatibility
•    Built-in 2…

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Sprint & Verizon have made a decision to enable Wi-Fi in all their future handhelds, after BlackBerry Tour.

According to Jeff Clemow, director of business product marketing for Sprint, «Sprint will “embrace” Wi-Fi in all its “major devices”, and the feature is a requirement for all of Sprint’s equipment suppliers now».

While Sprint & Verizon are making promises, their competitor, AT&T is expanding its presence on the Wi-Fi market: last fall AT&T bought Wayport, a Wi-Fi service provider, for more than $200 billion. That helped AT&T to gain 10 000 new access points (which makes about 20 000 in general), and to become the nation’s largest Wi-Fi operator.

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The way people communicate has been evolving since the first man made his first step. At first there were only plain shapeless sounds, but as conditions and ways of life were becoming more and more complex, eventually broadened and flourished human language and its ability to provide more accurate and specific information. Finally, it blossomed into the beautiful harmonious speech that we hear nowadays.

Alongside of verbal evolution, the way people transfer information to each other was also changing with time. In those great battles of Ancient history only those could win who got the latest battle-front news faster than opponent. Minutes or even pure seconds could make or ruin the day of the whole empire. This led people to thinking…

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The name is Blekko. Blekko will be a search engine. That’s basically all we know about a new project, that would probably attempt to become one more “Google slayer”. Too many other “killers” achieved nothing despite of being promoted as “the SE of the future” even before they were launched. This was the destiny of Guil, Wikia Search, SearchMe, and some others.

The new one, Blekko, wisely decided not to repeat the mistake of “selling ground on Mars” and decided not to communicate with press, bloggers, or any other media at all. Probably that would save the project from fiasco within 2 weeks after it will be launched.

Indeed, right now no one really knows their logo, their investors or anything like that. However, some top investors were noticed putting their…

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