Year 2003

Galileo Global Positioning threatened by the US Military?

I just read this article in The Register regarding the potential effect/degradation of the Galileo Global Positioning System by the US Military; apparently they are not that happy about its 1m resolution that is to be publicly available. I sincerely hope that no such demands are accepted by the EU. Galileo is a fantastic project and it's utility to Europeans and everyone else is paramount, both in civilian and military contexts. Unfortunately, I can see how the US military is concerned about this and how they will use their military and political muscle/influence to 'convince' the EU that Galileo should be degraded to a toy-GPS.

ADSL in Greece revisited once again.

I was just about ready to go to bed when I read this transcript from a session in the Greek Parliament regarding ADSL. (it is in Greek). I thought it is time to revisit the subject. I’ve got ADSL in Greece since this summer when it was announced. I can safely say that for as […]

Sweden not joining the Euro — what does it mean?

One day after the referendum took place in Sweden, anti-Euro campaigners all over the UK express their satisfaction and assure everyone that the UK should and will not adopt the Euro for years to come. But what does this mean for the UK and what does it mean for Europe? Reading the opinions and polls […]

Ximian Gnome — Linux Desktops

I recently tried Ximian Gnome 2. What do I think? Well, it is definitely a good try, but it is very similar to the Gnome desktop I had on my machine more than 18 months ago. I don’t know whether it is me or it is really happening, but I find the Linux Desktop developments […]

Java development on OS X. Things that need to be done.

Part of my development efforts in the past few months has been based on Java and since MacOS X is the operating system of choice for me I usually use it for Java development. On the C/C++ and of course Objective-C front, MacOS X is doing alright, despite the largely obsolete development tools involved. It […]

Apple as innovator, from Tim O'Reilly.

Just happened to stumble upon an interview by Tim O’Reilly (if you don’t know who he is, maybe this is not for you). In that interview he speaks of Apple as an innovator in the computing industry. One of the comments in the article are what made me want to write a few things about […]

DRM, privacy, the way the net is turning out to be!

Well, I have managed to correlate several – seemingly unrelated – things again to my own surprise. Think for a sec. about the way the unipolar governing of the world by — currently — the US, personal freedom/privacy, the power provided to the world by electronics and computing. I just watched Colossus: The Forbin Project, […]

DSL, connectivity, progress: things not happening in Greece

It is not the first time I am writing about my frustration with internet connectivity in Greece. In a country such as Greece, with more than 60% of its land being in the form of islands or mountainous terrain, making human communication and transportation difficult, one would think that advanced telecoms would be available to […]

Desktops of the future…

It was in 1990 that Microsoft released Windows 3.0, making the PC the dominant platform as it is today, by providing a cheap, easy to use environment for people to use and developers to program (without the horrible Apple royalties that had to be paid for Macintosh development at the time). Windows 3.0, as other […]