Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

With Xapian and Omega you can quickly build a powerful search interface for your Web site. You'll be able to index your HTML, PDF, and PHP content and search for it by metadata or words contained in the documents. The shared library that implements the actual index is called Xapian. Omega is a set of tools built by the Xapian team to let you use the library for index and search if you are not a software developer. Since Omega uses Xapian, if your distribution's package repository includes Omega, then when you install it you'll install Xapian as a dependency.

A group called Nathive has officially launched its Alpha-stage, open-source image editor for GNU/Linux. The Nathive editor runs on a GNOME desktop, is open to developer modification, and aims to be "simple, lightweight, and easy to install and use," says lead developer "Markos."

Apple releases iPhone developers from nondisclosure agreement ... copyright board keeps music royalties the same ... Visa tries Android as a payment platform ... Motorola looks to Android as its potential savior, and more.

A judge of the New Jersey Superior Court has prohibited the scheduled release of a report on the security and accuracy of the Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine. Last June, Judge Linda Feinberg ordered Sequoia Voting Systems to turn over its source code to me (serving as an expert witness, assisted by a team of computer scientists) for a thorough examination. At that time she also ordered that we could publish our report 30 days after delivering it to the Court--which should have been today. Three weeks after we delivered the report, on September 24th Judge Feinberg ordered us not to release it. This is part of a lawsuit filed by the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic, seeking to decommission of all of New Jersey's voting computers.

Microsoft plans to continue charging licensing fees from handset makers for using its mobile operating system and not follow the free offerings of Google and Nokia, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday. The pressure on Microsoft's high licensing fees has increased over 2008.

There are several definitions of "open access." One is making open source code available to a community of smart cookies who can debug and modify it using open source mechanisms. Another is offering up low-cost or free software development kits (SDK) to encourage creative applications for a given platform. Another is offering middleware that allows an application developed once to run on multiple platforms. And, finally, in mobile networks, open can mean using a phone and its applications on any carrier's compatible network.

Cisco has been talking about the "network as a platform" for a long time, but what does that actually mean, and what does the AXP network module have to do with it? The Cisco Application eXtension Platform (AXP) is made up of a hardware card (three different models), modified Linux software that runs on the card, and a program for software developers. You could also say that the AXP represents "network virtualization".

At a very early stage in the installation of the Ubuntu8.04 desktop I encountered some perplexing failures in the mount command and in my attempted alteration of the fstab file. Commands that had worked in Ubuntu's earlier LTS desktop failed both on the command line and when the file itself was executed. Moreover, with respect to the latter the results were similarly perplexing whether the file was executed during bootup or on the command line with the "a" option. Succinctly the problem is, I have not been successful mounting the external directories [1.] of the 6.06 desktop while on 8.04. Nonetheless, use of essentially the same commands work where I can see all the directories of 8.04 while running the 6.06 desktop. Moreover, with root level privileges on 6.06, I can copy, remove or alter files and sync in either direction. Those options are unavailable to me on 8.04.

Red Hat Thursday released a Linux software stack for compute-intensive IT environments that it said costs less than Microsoft's price for its comparable Windows offering. Red Hat charges a subscription of US$249 per node, or server, per year for Red Hat HPC Solution, a new offering that combines Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Platform Open Cluster Stack 5, clustering software it has licensed from Platform Computing. Red Hat HPC Solution also includes device drivers, a cluster installer, cluster-management tools, a resource and application monitor, interconnect support and a job scheduler.

After marking the GNU Project's 25th anniversary with an endorsement by Stephen Fry and the relicensing of OpenGL, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is concluding the month-long celebration by relaunching its high priority list, which enumerates as-yet unwritten or incomplete software needed to run a completely free computer system. Instead of being simply a page on the FSF's Web site, the list will become a campaign, and be actively promoted and discussed, and given a new emphasis in the Foundation's activities.

The dd command is one of those ancient UNIX tools that is extremely powerful, yet at the same time, the syntax can make it feel slightly archaic. A lot of seasoned sysadmins and developers still remember the first time they saw the dd command used by a bearded wizard. He might have used it to test the disk I/O, capture a disk image, or restore it. In some ways, dd can seem like Old Spice–only the guys over 60 use it. But the younger generation should know that dd still has some tricks up its sleeve. In this article, we’re going to put a new twist on this old favorite and show how grandpappy really does know best sometimes.

As South Africa prepares to host the second annual ODF conference next week, momentum behind the Open Document Format appears to be growing stronger. To date at least 15 national governments, including countries such as South Africa, Brazil, and Italy, have adopted ODF as a government standard according to the ODF Alliance. And earlier this week Sweden national standards body approved ODF as a national standard in that country.

Google unveiled the first Android-powered cell phone last week, a T-Mobile-branded device dubbed the G1. Comparisons to Apple's iPhone were immediate -- and that is a good thing for Android, when you consider what a raucous and contentious week it was for iPhone developers. Initial G1 reviews were generally positive, but several reporters complained that when they asked about specific missing applications and features, the reply came back that third-party developers "are welcome to add that." In open source circles, that sort of comment is often regarded as a dodge, what a proprietary vendor says when dumping source code over the wall with no intentions of developing it further.

Carla Schroder takes us on a tour of some of the excellent Linux package managers: RPM, dpkg, and the sophisticated dependency-resolving package managers, aptitude and Yum. Learn how to find out what is installed on your system, find files and packages, install and remove software, and update your Linux system smoothly and reliably.

Converting an old PC into a home or office server may look like a good idea on paper, but in reality, the idea has a few serious drawbacks. For starters, old PCs tend to be noisy, power-guzzling monsters, and older components make them less reliable. Turning an old PC into a server also means installing and configuring all the necessary software, which can be a time-consuming and laborious process. If the drawbacks of this approach outweigh for you its possible advantages, consider instead Bubba Two, a nifty Debian-based device that can be used for a variety of tasks.

Chances are you have some sort of web site. Linux has a rich history of text processing which can be used to turbo-boost your blogs. In fact, blogging goes to Linux like a hand to a glove. The theme for this month is “I didn’t know you could do that in Linux,” and today I’ll show you how Linux can really help your blog take off, both in terms of improving its performance as well as giving you a much greater handle on what’s happening.

Adding a second (or third or more!) hard drive to your computer is a great way to, well, give your computer more disk space. Ok, the concept is pretty logical but the process to make it work needs some explanation. Here’s what to do, plus one thing the Linux filesystem does brilliantly which Windows can’t do at all.

Windows, whether XP or Vista, is home to all the major instant messenger (IM) clients, and for things like Skype, unquestionably has the best versions. But if you’re hankering to talk to multiple friends on multiple IM systems at the same time, and you want some open source goodness without having to go through the pain of learning Linux, try Pidgin for Windows instead – the open source program that lets you talk freely.

No Linux distribution can bundle every package that users might want, so most distros host software repositories from which users can download and install additional applications. Since 2006 Slackbuilds.org has served as a high-quality repository for Slackware users, but using it requires several steps and switching between a Web browser and a virtual terminal. Sbopkg is a new ncurses-based utility that helps users build packages from SlackBuilds.org and seamlessly integrates the repository with the operating system. Slackbuilds.org is closest thing available to an official Slackware repository. It is administered by people on the Slackware development team and recommended by Slackware's maintainer, Patrick Volkerding, in the Slackware release notes. Sbopkg automates and streamlines the process of working with Slackbuilds.org to build packages.

The Linux Foundation (LF) announced a "LinuxCon" conference that will be open to end-users. Set for September 2009 in Portland, Ore., LinuxCon will co-locate with the annual Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC), says the group. The LinuxCon announcement follows up on The LF's first end-user event, which is scheduled to take place on October 13-14 in New York City. This Linux Foundation End User Collaboration Summit offers an opportunity for "sophisticated" end users to "learn and interact with leaders from within the Linux community, including the highest level maintainers and developers," said the non-profit organization.