Showing all newswire headlines

A newly published book includes a chapter about installing Linux on iRobot's "Roomba" robotic vacuum cleaner. Hacking Roomba, by Tod E. Kurt, includes a variety of fun robotic hacks and projects, none of which will void the device's warranty or prevent its operation as a vacuum, according to the publisher.

A commonly used convenience feature in Firefox is the password manager (PM) which can keep track of username/password pairs for sites that one visits and fills in when a new login is required. Unfortunately, as a recent bug report shows, PM can be too helpful and provide that information to other sites, invisibly to the user. As of this writing, the underlying browser problem has not been fixed, though MySpace (where the problem was originally discovered in the wild) has changed its filtering of user-supplied HTML to avoid the problem.

A new version of the popular PostgreSQL open-source object-relational enterprise database was released today, featuring more than 200 improvements aimed at making the application easier to use, according to the PostgreSQL Global Development Group.

Kontron has introduced a new series of industrial panel PCs based on its COM Express technology. The V Panel Express series supports Linux, comes in three screen sizes, with Core Duo processors optionally available, according to the company.

R Cubed Technologies is the first certified Omni hardware partner to distribute the Multiplied Linux Desktop solution. Customers in North America can now purchase computers pre-installed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Userful Linux Desktop Multiplier^TM software.

Virtualization is the hot buzzword these days. Everyone is all excited over this latest, greatest miracle computer cure. It transforms your computing infrastructure into a shiny empire of efficiency and contentment, makes you an IT Hero and it repairs bad haircuts. So what are you waiting for? Hop on the virtualization bandwagon quickly, before it goes away forever!

Aw, I knew you wouldn't be that gullible....

SNSI delivers robust commercial-grade vulnerability scanning that detects a broad range of vulnerabilities in Windows platforms and systems running Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Red Hat Linux and Mandrake Linux, SUSE Linux, Cisco routers, and HP printers. It provides suggested remediation actions and offers extensive reports ranging from high-level consolidated management reports to detailed reports used by network administrators.

[Posted because the software detects vulnerabilities in Linux/UNIX systems. We recognize that some of our readers manage mixed environments. - dcparris]

IT managers running Red Hat Linux should think carefully before making the switch to Unbreakable Linux, the new Linux distribution that Oracle Corp. announced last month.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Xchange Network announced today the extension to XC Bridge(TM), enabling users on disparate collaboration servers to easily share calendar, contact, and/or task data. XC Bridge now provides for any combination of Microsoft Outlook(R), Mac Address Book/iCal, Microsoft Entourage(R), Novell Evolution(TM) or Web Interface to create, update and share data regardless of the collaboration server that the user is a direct member of (e.g., Microsoft Exchange(R)).

After more than a year of active development, the open source PostgreSQL 8.2 database is now available.

[Hooray! - dcparris]

I've wanted to tackle Ruby for quite some time. Luckily, Addison-Wesley just sent me a copy of The Ruby Way, Second Edition by Hal Fulton. This is one of those books that makes me think publishers feel the need to sell books by the pound. The sad part about that is that, in many cases, books printed by the pound contain tons of fluff and useless information. Not so with The Ruby Way. Every page contains gems valuable for anyone who wants to program with Ruby.But this isn't a book review, per se. If it were, I'd recommend The Ruby Way without reservation.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) finally published the Open Document Format (ODF) as an official standard last week after approving it as an international standard last May. The ODF file format—the XML-based open format for text, spreadsheet, database, and presentation files—is now published under the standard name of ISO/IEC 26300:2006.

Winzig is a free, low-resource personal information manager (PIM) written in Python. It fits address book, calendar, to-do list, note-taking, and more into one small, fixed-sized window -- perfect for embedded devices, and if you care about your screen real estate, good for desktop systems as well.

Business software maker Novell posts a preliminary quarterly profit, bouncing back from a year-earlier loss when it took a$38 million restructuring charge.

Last month a new update of SIAG Office, version 3.6.1 was released. It’s a minor update, mainly bugfixes. Still, it was an update I was very glad to see since it had been nearly a year since the previous release.

With Power -- which previously was Apple's processor platform -- IBM has created synergy among developers, operators, architects and others thanks to Big Blue's global scale and industry strength, Interarbor Solutions Principal Analyst Dana Gardner told LinuxInsider. "It's really a growth area because of the clout IBM can bring to it."

Miguel de Icaza, inthis weblog entry says,"Facts barely matter when they get in the way of a good smear. The comments over at Groklaw are interesting, in that they explore new levels of ignorance." This comment rings especially true of his weblog entry. For example, Miguel states...We have been working on OpenOffice.Org for longer than anyone else has. We were some of the earliest contributors to OpenOffice, and we are the largest external contributor to actual code to OpenOffice than anyone else.Say what? Who created OpenOffice? Who bought it? Who opened it? Anyone ever hear of Star Division gmbh or Sun? Since when did Novell become the earliest contributor to OpenOffice.org?

Eldy doesn't need a cutting edge computer to function: it runs on most Windows PCs and will soon be available also on Linux. The project has deep roots in open source: it was developed in accordance with a set of rules and with the support of the open source community; Eldy was released freeware in order to guarantee the feasibility of the project, but it will have an open future and a self-installing Linux distribution.

[Frankly, it seems more like a FOSS project, or a project that aims to be released under a FOSS license. Can any Italians help us get a better grip? - dcparris]

The contest resulted in some superior and innovative work. "Some of the templates show just how advanced and flexible Openoffice.org's OpenDocument format is as both a Word and Spreadsheet ODF processor. The winning templates and many others breaks a myth that Openoffice.org cannot do advanced editing functions like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel."

Sysbotz releases Systems Panel v2.0, An upgrade to their IT management solution accessible from your web browser.

[Appears to be non-libre - dcparris]