Sometimes, I don't have a clue when things should be obvious, but at least I am lucky this doesn't happen too often. I won't give you any detailed examples regarding the above, but I think it's enough to say that once, it took me about 5 years to notice a scratch. Well, at least I understand jokes faster than most blondes...but I must confess that, if one would come to me and tell me "Free the Airwaves," I wouldn't guess in a million years that this is something closely related to Google. Fortunately, I have Google to find out a lot of things, and so we can easily talk about FreeTheAirwaves.com or .org!

"One of America's most valuable natural resources is our "white spaces" -- the radio airwaves, or spectrum, that have long carried analog TV signals. Three-fourths of the white spaces are completely unused today, and -- especially once TV is broadcast in digital only starting in 2009 -- could be used to kick-start a revolution in wireless technology, including universal wireless online access and numerous new products and services that can't even be imagined today."

Well, it may be true that Google's Android didn't manage any breakthrough yet, but this initiative looks pretty interesting. Just read this: "This fall, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will decide whether to make this spectrum available for anyone to use.<-250x250 Square - right-> At Google, we think more open access to the white spaces is essential, not only for companies like ours, but for society in general. But this outcome is far from certain, so we've joined a broad coalition of public interest groups and industry peers who are working to convince the FCC to free the airwaves and unleash the next generation of Internet innovation. We hope you'll add your voice to the debate by signing our petition and helping spread the word about this campaign."

So...can I have some broadband wireless for myself? Yummieee! It's not exactly like that, but...

"Google launched this website because we believe strongly that freeing the white spaces is crucial to the future of the Internet. Make no mistake: open access to this unused bandwidth would surely be good for our own bottom line (not to mention those of many of our industry peers); better access to the Internet means more people doing web searches and using our software products."

In the end, this will also accelerate the growth rate of portable computers' market share, I think. After all, what could be better than have 100% free WiFi coverage? 3G coverage for your iPhones, I know, but that's not the point now...

For now, this is only about signing a petition, and making yourself heard, but the future may prove extremely interesting for Google and those following them in the "Airwaves Initiative," if I can call it this way...

If you ask me about the disadvantages of open source software now, I can say there are two facts I really don't like about it. First, you can't eat it, and second, you can't drink it. I am not joking, because that's what I can tell you for now. Why? Well, I am not a programmer, and for most computer users, there's no big difference between open source and freeware. After all, you get the program for free, install it, play with it for as long as you like, no matter if it's freeware, or open source, but for programmers, there's a big difference. While freeware applications don't usually give you the chance to go through their source code and even modify it, the open source ones allow you this, and even more, in some cases. Now, it seems things in the open source world are slowly changing, as we're going to see right away...

OK, so where were we? Oh, yeah, disadvantages of open source software! A recent US federal court has just ruled that the holder of a copyright to some code made available for free download can enforce an "open source copyright license" to control future use of its work. As strange as it may seem, open source proponents have argued that those who don't comply with the conditions should be subject to copyright infringement claims. Say whaaaaat? I know I may not be that deep into open source, but there's one thing I am sure of - I don't like the way this sounds! Not at all!<-250x250 Square - right->

It all started with Robert Jacobsen, a hobbyist who made software used for model trains. Obviously, free software, but he ended up bringing copyright infringement claims against developers of commercial products, as they didn't follow the terms of his programs' license.

After being rejected by a lower court, Jacoben got his claims finally fulfilled, in a court decision described as "a fantastic ruling" by his lawyer. According to Victoria Hall, Jacobsen's lawyer, the decision "shows that open-source groups can protect their code under copyright laws, and this is a ruling that other open-source groups can use."

In the end, I think it all ends well. I may have been a bit in a hurry to draw my conclusions - the open source movement can sleep well, as long as they are not going to steal code and turn it into commercial products without following the Artistic License. Anyway, this is only my opinion, so if you know more, or would like to say something, go ahead - I am "all ears!"

...right from NVIDIA! I am sure that thousands of people are looking to download free computer games, but too many of them end up with...well, not-so-legal downloads, and of those, a very large number are also infected with various viruses. If we look at this whole matter and say the truth and nothing but the truth, there are only a few free computer games really worth your time. Don't get me wrong - I've seen a lot of promising ones, but most of them have been in the "eternal Beta stage" for a few years, and then simply faded away. The good part is that, when the battle for hardware supremacy enters the scene, providing free games for download turns into something really easy to do for the big ones, as it just happened with NVIDIA on Tuesday...

...when they announced a bunch of free computer games, all available for free download! Obviously, this is not something done only because NVIDIA loves its customers so much, but because Microsoft agreed to support the Havok phsyics technology in its upcoming games, pushing NVIDIA aside, if I can say it this way.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

As I was expecting, this is not just general computer software - most of the applications available for free download are optimized for NVIDIA's PhysX technology, and the free applications pack comes at the same time as a free trial of Badaboom, a little video transcoder that used the CUDA technology of the GeForce 8-series GPUs, cutting the time necessary for transcoding a video file by up to 18 times, as Elemental Technologies claims.

Here's the list of goodies NVIDIA has for us:

- "Warmonger, a full free game. Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. Destructive power is more than eye candy here—it's a tactical weapon in this ground-breaking action game.

- Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack—includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay (requires full version of Unreal Tournament 3)

- A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark)

- A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark)

- All new Nvidia 'The Great Kulu' tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment

- All new Nvidia 'Fluid' tech demo—a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids."

These being said, get ready to download free computer games, the right way. Good luck!

If you ask me about "Microsoft Money," I would usually answer "Well, Microsoft has a lot of money, since they were willing to buy Yahoo," but that would be completely wrong. Have you ever used Microsoft Money? I am not talking about the money that usually go into Bill Gates' accounts, since there's also a personal finance software called this way. Unfortunately, it seems we're talking about an endangered piece of code here, and today we're going to find out why...

Most recent version of Microsoft Money is Microsoft Money Plus, released in August 2007, while the first one dates way back in 1991. Since everything comes to an end, Microsoft decided to cut costs involved in keeping this application alive even more, after discontinuing localized versions of Microsoft Money for a few countries.<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

Now, here's what the Redmond giant is saying about this software veteran: "We've decided against releasing a 2009 version of Money Plus boxed product. Microsoft Money Plus distribution efforts will focus on selling software online via download, and we have discontinued traditional box sales of the software at retail. I doubt this surprises many of you, especially those who've discussed with me how annual releases don't make much sense for a product that's in its 17th version. The time seems right for this shift. Last year's sales of the software via download outpaced in-store sales for the first time. In fact, software downloads accounted for more than 50-percent of Microsoft Money sales."

These being said, I guess the boxed edition of Microsoft Money Plus 2008 will soon become a precious collectible, as this is going to remain the last version shipping in nice shrink-wrapped boxes...

Unfortunately, this is not only about Microsoft - in a few years, boxed copies will become as vinyls are now for the music industry. If this is good or bad, that's what remains to be seen, but I think nothing can replace the feeling of holding a new box of your favorite software application, especially when comparing this to a message saying "Download complete. Install now?"

No matter what some or others may say, Linux is not user friendly yet, believe me! It doesn't matter if we're talking about Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian or another of those many Linux distros available at this time, I am sure there's none good enough for the average Windows user who doesn't want to spend a single minute learning something new about his computer or his OS(I know a lot of people using IE simply because they are not willing to change it with something better, not because they don't know something better is available). Anyway, we're not going to talk about an entire crowd of Linux versions, because there's some interesting news about Ubuntu some of you may be interested in...

In a speech at the LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, analyst Jay Lyman of the 451 Group said that companies are getting more and more into free, community-driven Linux distributions, instead of choosing commercial offerings with conventional support options. One of the main reasons seems to be the cost of support services from the major distributions, since most companies using Linux internally on a large scale have enough resources to handle all critical needs, so support from the likes of Red Hat or Novell is being rendered useless.<-125x125 Button - right->

According to Lyman, Europe is moving faster than US, since CentOS and Ubuntu are gaining more followers in corporate environments and data centers there. "In Europe there is a greater propensity to consider something that is not from a traditional vendor," he said.

In the end, it seems that the greater adoption of Ubuntu in commercial environments is "not a flash in the pan," since the 451 Group analyst thinks "For Shuttleworth, Ubuntu isn't just a business mission, it's a personal mission."

The difference between "now" and "then" is that, these days, an entire generation of Linux system administrators have all the information required to get better than ever before, and information means power. That should be enough to make Linux go higher than before, especially since Microsoft...you know the story!