Open Source Today

June 26, 2007 - Selling OSS into Microsoft Networks (Tom Adelstein). The adoption rates for Open Source products gained momentum steadily over the last two years. CIOUpdate reported on 8 June 2007 in its article entitled Open Source Adoption Continues Unabated that Worldwide revenue from standalone open source software reached $1.8 billion in 2006. Worldwide revenue from stand-alone, open source software will grow 26% to $5.8 Billion by 2011. VARs can benefit from this trend by learning how Microsoft has opened the door to UNIX/Linux applications and Networks.

June 19, 2007 - Seven opportunities for Value Added Resellers (Tom Adelstein) who have the combination of products and services that can provide solutions for busy system administrations. Several products exist to solve those administration problems. Find out how to capitalize on the The Top 7 Things Sysadmins Forget to Do.

June 12, 2007 - Welcome to Open Source Today (Tom Adelstein). This introduction describes how this site is focused upon the needs of the reseller channel and the aid it can offer your company. One of the topics covered lightly is the opportunity that the Asterisk IP PBX open source application can offer some resellers. Look for pertinent coverage of topics of interest to you and your company that will follow.

July 17, 2007 - Structure Web Pages with DIV Tags II (H. Cohen). This time we look at a bit more complexity where we introduce a vertically arrayed set of resizable, colored band within the central column covering the major portion of the home web page. Code for both the html and css file is exhibited. Details of each are touched upon.

July 10, 2007 - Internal Web Page Bookmarks: Anchor <a> Tag (H. Cohen). Discusses creation of internal, web page bookmarks where the suggested code on most on-line reference materials can result in unexpected web page changes. What is described is how to get it to work both in local testing and off a real web server.

July 03, 2007 - Unexpected Line Spacings Due to Superscripts (H. Cohen). Superscripts caused unexpected double spacings of text. To make this appear a bit better created new css class for specified paragraphs. That was not totally pleasing nor was using numbers in brakets that were the old style for denoting footnotes.

June 26, 2007 - Web Page Borders (H. Cohen). Exploring web page solutions using differing border types separating div areas. Examples of errors and wrong direction discussed along with the use of not completely satisfactory fixes while waiting to learn ways to do it better later.

June 19, 2007 - Page Templates (H. Cohen). Your coding of web pages by hand is eased by building templates that contain the maximum of common components. In addition, you should include a few that quickly remind the coder to fill in the appropriate data, e.g. the header for the article title and perhaps the first text heading.

June 12, 2007 - Div Tags to Subdivide Web Pages (H. Cohen). The Div tags more naturally block off regions of your web pages than multiply, embedded table structures. Div tags combined with cascading style sheet(s) play an intimate role simplifying your html code while setting the properties of your div blocks globally, if you so desire. All of this makes for easier to read and easier to alter code.

June 12, 2007 - Simple, Effective Work Setup (H. Cohen). This item includes advice how to setup for easy coding, which results in running early and often testing. The focus is upon ease of use, comfort and having the needed minimum tool set readily at hand.

June 26, 2007 - Electro-Pneumatic Freight Railway Brakes (TxtEdMacs). Electro-Pneumatic Braking of railway freight has been long sought for a variety of reasons, e.g. more precise control yielding economies in handling, safety, infrastructure capacity and fuel usage. Some singularly would seem to suffice to start the program, however, large up front costs (in the billions) coupled with a retarded payback have delayed its appearance. In the extreme case, even one unequipped car negates the investment. An interim, speedier solution is suggested that couples nicely too with our interest in open software development. Open source software might be a large part of the answer.

June 19, 2007 - Railway Energy Recovering Locomotive (TxtEdMacs). The long promised energy recovering locomotive has finally appeared, indeed prior to the publication of this item that was awaiting the start up of this site. Nonetheless, in Spring of 2005 GE ballyhooed this needed technology and only just a few weeks ago was it exhibited. Testing, well perhaps it got a bit, however, certainly much less than was needed to perfect and make this a product the North American railways will readily purchase. There are a number of outstanding questions regarding the technology and its long delay. Some of these questions are addressed here.

June 12, 2007 - Why Pick on Jeffrey Immelt and G.E.? (TxtEdMacs). While GE, perhaps has not earned the total knockdown, its methods deserve derision. Thus, it is given its due.

June 12, 2007 - Introduction & Goals (TxtEdMacs).