Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Elite routing gurus may scoff at RIP, but for smaller domains it's easy to set up and performs just fine, and virtually all routers support at least RIP v1. Charlie Schluting walks us through the finer points of understanding how RIP works, and its strengths and weaknesses.

Sound is the new frontier for Flash as Adobe Systems released its first major update in three years today, packing in features missing from May's first beta. Flash Player 10 will deliver sound file features that go someway towards giving developers working on audio the same powers of content creation and customization as video. Adobe has added the ability to read audio files' binary data and directly access the sound buffer to add the sounds filters you really want.

Typically, each new version of the Python programming language has been gentle on users, more or less maintaining backward compatibility with previous versions. But in 2000, when Python creator Guido van Rossum announced that he was embarking on a new version of Python, he did not sugar coat his plan: Version 3.0 would not be backward-compatible. Now that the first release candidate of Python 3.0 is out, with final release planned for later this month, developers must grapple with the issue of whether to maintain older code or modify it to use the new interpreter.

Every Linux distributor must find its own peace when it comes to the issue of proprietary software. Some distributors will avoid anything non-free to the point of tearing firmware out of the kernel. Others, like Fedora or Debian, will not include any non-free code. Distributors like Ubuntu are rather more willing to facilitate the use of non-free software, but even they are, perhaps, not 100% comfortable with it. And distributions like Xandros positively embrace proprietary code.

The Hacker Underground is dead. Long live the Hacker Underground! In the most recent issue of Phrack Magazine, I read an article titled"The Underground Myth," that makes a number of astute points about the demise of the hacking scene of the last few decades. The author describes a technical landscape in which the technology security industry and a diminishing number of obvious exploits conspired to destroy the scene.

Web sites that run text squarely around images even when the images don't have even borders look a little lazy. pngslice slices an image into thin vertical images and generates a small chunk of HTML to align these slices so that the original image can be seen in a Web browser. This lets you place non-rectangular floating images on Web pages and align the surrounding text to the uneven borders of the image for a professional-looking layout. While you may be able to achieve a similar effect in other ways, if you want to have your Web site viewable in both a wide variety of browsers and versions of those browsers, using image slices is an effective technique.

Linux will be a passenger in every seat on Qantas' Airbus A380s airplanes. All of the airline's superjumbos -- the first of which will commence flying next week -- will have their in-flight entertainment systems powered by the operating system. The A380 is the first Qantas aircraft to utilize the Panasonic eX2 Inflight Entertainment System (IFE). All of Panasonic's X Series of IFE systems run on Linux.

In November, Asus will ship a $400 Windows-based "nettop" that includes an integrated touchscreen and Linux-based "Express Gate" quick boot technology. The "Eee Top" reportedly has a 15-inch display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a gigabit Ethernet port.

With the games industry apparently enthralled by DRM and committed to criminalising their customers, our upcoming event as part of the London Games Fringe is especially timely. Open Rights Group in conjunction with Own-It will co-host a panel discussion on the role of open source in the games industry and invites all our readers and supporters to join the debate.

There has been much discussion of the Vital Wave Consulting total cost of ownership model showing a $2,700 5 Year TCO This report models the cost for a secondary school to install a computer laboratory to support a course in computer literacy (often called ICT). This course consists of classroom lectures based on textbooks with hands-on computer access during scheduled laboratory periods ('students are not permitted in the computer lab without a teacher present').

The head of virtualisation kingpin VMware believes that the current climate - both economic and physical - will force enterprises to put the desktops of employees on USB sticks. While this might not spell good news for the purveyors of fat clients like Dell, HP and Acer, VMware CEO Paul Maritz is adamant that it's a key way to cut costs and save the climate.

The Linux Foundation has released the first public beta of its solution to enable developers to more easily build applications that run on different Linux distributions. The foundation, on Oct. 14, announced the availability of the first beta of Linux Standard Base (LSB) 4.0, which introduces a new application checker, a new shell script checker, and a new multi-version software development kit (SDK) that will enable developers to build applications to earlier LSB specifications without changing SDKs, said Brian Proffitt, community manager for the Linux Foundation.

It is hard to imagine something more expensive, condescending, inaccurate, frustrating and enraging - nor something better calculated to restrict knowledge and broadcast ignorance. It's almost as if the parties involved actively want to prevent people learning. It certainly feels that way. British Library, are you listening?

The third full OpenOffice suite is out in the wild and attracting plenty of attention. OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released Monday -- and already, demand has been high enough to overwhelm the download servers and cause them to crash. The software suite, designed as an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, offers everything from word processing and spreadsheet creation to presentation and databasing tools.

The final version of OpenOffice 3 is out today, and if you're looking to save yourself plenty of money, download it instead of buying Microsoft Office --- you could save yourself hundreds of dollars, and not lose out on many features. I put the Windows version through its paces, and am about to download the Linux version as well. The suite has six full-blown applications: the Writer word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentations program, Base database program, Math equation editor, and Draw graphics program.

James M Whitehurst, CEO and president, Red Hat, on his recent visit to India talks to CyberMedia News on many red-hot issues around open source technology and its business colours. Like, how to make money out of something free and open? Like why OOXML won't make a dent enough? Like why India is on a vantage point with OS? Well, his hat fields them all. Enjoy.

A common charge against free and open source software (FOSS) is that it lacks the ability to innovate. To that charge, the lifelong research of Eric von Hippel, professor and head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers a thorough and scholarly refutation. Having studied the sources of innovation for more than three decades, von Hippel has found in FOSS both a confirmation and an elaboration of his ideas.

Linux-based operating systems are built through an open-development model, which can afford organizations an early view of—and an opportunity to influence—the technologies and implementations that will eventually work their way into these companies' infrastructures. What's more, these early looks extend beyond points on a presentation slide deck to comprise runable code that's gathered into fast-moving, community-supported Linux distributions that administrators can begin testing in advance of the long-lived, enterprise-oriented releases to come.

Today, we are announcing that in partnership with Adobe we are building a platform-neutral download client. Using Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), we intend to make BBC iPlayer download functionality available on Mac, Linux and Windows for the first time later this year. Whatever platform you use, you'll now be able to download TV programmes from the BBC to watch later - on the train, in the garden, or wherever you like... Given our obligations to rights-holders and the BBC Trust, these programmes are protected with DRM, but in a way that shouldn't affect your enjoyment of our programmes, whatever platform you've chosen.

The latest and full featured version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now available through Ulteo.com using a web browser with a single click of a mouse. No download or installation process of the productivity suite is required. This new service by Ulteo offers many benefits for users of the productivity suite, and is compatible with any operating system that can run Firefox 2.0+ or Internet Explorer 6.0+.