It’s a well-known fact that humans love lists, and the media are generally all too happy to oblige. Recently, however, mixed in among the many “Top 10″ lists and “10 Ways to …” articles out there was one that seemed worthy of attention. “10 Characteristics of a Linux Guru?” was the title of the post, which came from DaniWeb’s Ken Hess. “I’ve known many knowledgeable people over the years but never have I met an actual guru,” Hess began. “I’ve worked with Linux since 1995 and still wouldn’t call myself a guru,” he added.

Screenlets bring a collection of fun things and useful apps to add functional eye candy to the Linux desktop with little or no resource drain on the computer. Windows and Mac machines have their widgets. Linux has its Screenlets. So you can scratch one more reason from the list of why you shouldn’t migrate to an open source operating system. When I held newbie status as a newcomer to the Linux OS, I had little interest in or use for Screenlets. However, back then I was struggling to master the basics of the open source world of computing.

It’s been a relatively quiet few days on the Linux blogs, and it seems safe to assume that at least part of that lull is due to the mind-numbing cold affecting many of us here in the Northern Hemisphere. The jollidays are at least behind us once more, but now there’s the prospect of day after day of this dark, unrelenting chill. Some tempers have heated up, to be sure, following news of the hapless netbook shopper who got kicked out of Best Buy. But that’s not all — like a seemingly empty tube of toothpaste, there’s always more to be squeezed out of the Linux blogs!

Google is continuing its march to put the desktop on the Web, with its offer to store files as large as 250 MB in Google Docs. Google is offering 1 GB of free storage for files that are not converted into one of the Google Docs formats — such as Google documents, spreadsheets or presentation. If more storage space is needed, it can be purchased for $0.25 per GB per year. The increase means users can back up large graphics files, RAW photos and ZIP archives, as well as collaborate and organize on such content online.

As text increases in importance on handheld devices like smartphones, hardware makers continue to grapple with solutions to bring keyboard functionality to a form factor ill-suited to the task. Pint-sized keyboards and virtual claviers are transitional alternatives at best. One technology that offers some promise, however, is speech recognition, as can be seen in two products recently released by Nuance, maker of the top-selling talk-to-text application on the PC, Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Back in early October — nearly three months before Umar Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit — the Transportation Safety Administration’s blog cheerily announced it had received $355 million of Recovery Act money for “a lot of really nifty improvements to aviation security.” Included in that amount: $25 million to pay for 150 backscatter advanced imaging units which allow screeners to detect threats under people’s clothes.

Apple could be gearing up to release a new tablet device known as the “iSlate” as early as next month, according to the latest batch of rumors circulating in the tech press. It turns out Apple owns the domain islate.com, MacRumors reported last week, citing a historic record that briefly exposed the Cupertino company as the registrant for the site. The company has also placed an order for 10-inch touch panels with Foxconn subsidiary >Innolux after delaying the tablet’s launch in order to find stronger glass, according to Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes.

Entering a physical facility should be just as secure as logging onto a PC. Security professionals often find themselves hard-pressed to secure both physical and logical assets. So why are so many organizations behind the curve when it comes to managing physical and logical access? There are dozens of excuses: “It’s too expensive.” “Securing electronic data is a greater concern.” “We wouldn’t even know where to start.” However, the reality is that a unified approach to physical and logical access actually saves money — not to mention time.

With just a few days left to 2009, the mood on the Linux blogs has been uncharacteristically quiet and contemplative. Mostly gone are the fire and vitriol so often seen in the community’s many contentious debates, replaced instead by discussions of a kinder, gentler nature. To wit: Linux Today’s Carla Schroder recently penned an Editor’s Note entitled, “Hug Your Favorite FOSS Contributors Today (On the Internet, no one can see you nod.)”

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and recent statistics make that especially true for Linux users. Exhibit A: Linux netbooks now account for almost a third of the 35 million or so netbooks to ship globally this year, according to Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI Research. Specifically, the exact breakdown is 32 percent Linux versus 68 percent Windows machines, Orr said — a far cry from the measly figures paraded around by Redmond earlier this year!

Microsoft released an app for its Bing search engine in the iTunes App Store on Tuesday. This free app works on the iPhone and iPod touch. Its features include voice search, geolocation and mapping. The Bing app for the iPhone and iPod touch has been launched less than a month after Microsoft released a BlackBerry version of the app. Bing apps are also available on Windows Mobile, BREW, and the Danger operating system, which runs on SideKick devices from T-Mobile. It’s sound marketing strategy for Redmond to get onto as many mobile operating systems as possible.

Microsoft released an app for its Bing search engine in the iTunes App Store on Tuesday. This free app works on the iPhone and iPod touch. Its features include voice search, geolocation and mapping. The Bing app for the iPhone and iPod touch has been launched less than a month after Microsoft released a BlackBerry version of the app. Bing apps are also available on Windows Mobile, BREW, and the Danger operating system, which runs on SideKick devices from T-Mobile. It’s sound marketing strategy for Redmond to get onto as many mobile operating systems as possible.

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