Remember the pirate port-town called Tortuga in Pirates of the Caribbean? Tortuga was out of the jurisdictions of the Royal Navy and the East India Trading Company. The place really lacked order. In Tortuga, pirates got slapped and first-mates where found in less than desirable places. Many IT professionals may think of images similar to Tortuga when they hear the phrase, “open source.” However, the results reveal that open source is not a disorderly software collaboration, so the images of Tortuga don’t apply.

Now think back again with me to Port Royal. Port Royal was the heavily-guarded British Caribbean stronghold. Most of the time, order was maintained, and only a few major problems occurred such as when Lady Elizabeth was abducted by pirates. How could the Governor’s daughter be kidnapped in such a secure place? However, Port Royal maintained the very important image of being under British control regardless of real threats and problems. Now this depiction could accurately portray our more commercial-ware solutions. [...]

Before (or Pre) this year’s Computer Electronic Show, I was not thinking about Palm. My current Palm Centro is slow, too small, and all of the apps are really old. I had decided on waiting for a Google Android phone for the Sprint network.

Then CES happened… The new Pre looks like a character from Wall-e. Applications can be developed using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS (well that’s a great tool box – seriously – think gmail). The keyboard appears to be more accommodating and the foundation of this eggy looking device is Linux. Finally applications can be managed like a deck of cards and they maintain their state as you move from app to app. [...]