Showing headlines posted by dcparris

Into the Valley Don't take the biscuit

[Ed: Apparently folks attempted to recreate the "open source" model in the baking industry. Vance is wrong about one thing though.

"The business types don't understand how open source software really works and when they try and fail to apply it elsewhere, it makes the FOSS crowd look inept."

Actually, it makes the folks who tried this look inept, although the mad scientists may not see it quite that way. - dcparris]

Red Hat and Novell have become de facto standards in the commercial world. Yet one longtime Linux distributor is betting that corporate customers won’t settle for a two-horse race. Paris-based Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, last week unveiled global partnerships with Intel and Hewlett-Packard and plans for a major corporate push based on its Mandriva 2006 product line, complete with corporate server and a new SMB bundle.

[Ed: Ummm, isn't that the point of a competitive marketplace? - dcparris]

Linux users are frustrated by the lack of functionality of open source desktop products, according to a major survey by the Open Source Development Lab.

[Ed: And if you think that's bad, wait till you hear what Linux users have to say about Windows stuff. - dcparris]

A speech verification system developed with Meraka's Human Language Technologies Research Group thwarts "recording attacks" by hackers.

Red Hat has unveiled the first full release of its open-source directory server, based on Netscape technology acquired a year ago. Fedora Directory Server (FDS) version 1.0 open-sources two important components not included with a release earlier this year - the console and administration engine.

Evan Carew writes "In the 2.4 world, there's hope to get your Linksys WiFi card going, in 2.6, ye who enter here, abandon all hope. My story starts innocently enough at my local computer store where I made the mistake of asking the sales person what WiFi card would be compatible with my Linux distribution. He said he didn't know, but since Linksys already had Linux on their routers, their cards might work. Well, that sounded logical, so off I went to see if it worked."

[Ed: Brief, but good to know - dcparris]

The head of Microsoft Corp's Linux and Open Source Software Lab is taking on responsibility for the company's shared source initiative after its former manager, Jason Matusow, stepped up to the role of director in the corporate standards strategy team.

In 2006, Novell plans to further capitalize on its Linux product line with the launch of a "Linux awareness" program meant to migrate more customers, resellers, and development partners from NetWare and Microsoft Windows to open source alternatives. Jacqueline Emigh reports.

In my last post, I covered learning to program with a dialect of Lisp, called Scheme, from resources freely available on the internet from the SICP course at MIT. In this post, I plan to continue this theme by going over a few reasons that I have found for learning Lisp and to offer a few more resources for those of you out there who would like to add Lisp, or Scheme, to their programming repertoire.

Some vulnerabilities have been reported in the Linux Kernel, which potentially can be exploited by malicious, local users to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

[Ed: Secunia did not classify these as critical, but don't take chances you aren't prepared to pay for. - dcparris]

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, formerly known as Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, and LinuxForce, a leading technology services provider specializing in the development, implementation, management and support of Linux-based systems, have signed a long-term services agreement wherein LinuxForce will monitor and maintain a number of GNU/Linux systems for Aker.

November 29, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Red Hat (redhat.com) said on Tuesday that defense technology developer Camber Corporation had deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its computing and Web-based warfare training.

Well, as soon as I saw the Mac SE case, I realized that this one had the most potential. So this weekend, I bought a few things at Home Depot and got started making my Apple-powered, wireless, portable toilet paper dispenser -- the iWipe.

[Ed: Take your Mac with you, no matter when you have to go! - dcparris]

Varun Dubey writes: "The Linux community was left stunned when Windows Server software outsold Linux in the server market. Gartner, Inc. recently reported that sales of Windows systems accounted for nearly 37 percent of all server revenue in the last quarter while Linux accounted for 31.7 percent. Windows has a 5+ percent lead over Linux, which should be the cause for celebration at Microsoft. Is this the downfall or, as they say, the beginning of the end of Linux? Most definitely not. Before the folks at Redmond rejoice too much, there are some things they need to consider."

[Ed: Gee, just when I was planning to write an article about how Microsoft could save themselves from obsolescence. You should still look forward to that one. - dcparris]

Plenty of groups met at the Internet summit in Tunis, Tunisia, last week to talk about changing the fortunes of people from developing countries still locked out of the information society. A few, however, preferred to use the event to announce action.

Brian Phipps digs deep into an article about open source efforts and pulls out an interesting point that's mostly buried in the story: "A Forbes article on open source reports that Mission Viejo firm Medsphere used the Freedom of Information Act to get the source code for federal hospital management software "developed at taxpayer expense."

[Ed: As a matter of fact, anything the US and state governments develop - possibly with a few exceptions - is in the public domain. This is, as RMS would point out, a special case of free (libre) software. However, there is absolutely no license attached. Follow the link to the Forbes article. - dcparris]

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said yesterday it will delay a ruling in its an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. until Nov 30, as its committees are still deliberating.

[Ed: If Korea finds Microsoft guilty, they should apply appropriate penalties. If Microsoft wants to make threats in order to sway the government's thinking, they should consider further charges. How do you say "good-bye" in Korean? - dcparris]

The FreeMED Software Foundation is proud to announce the release of version 0.8.1.1 of FreeMED. This release is a bugfix and security release before the 0.8.2 release cycle. This release is available on the FreeMED Sourceforge Download Site at the FreeMED Sourceforge Download site. Some of the improved features and bugfixes are:

With women accounting for 50% of technology purchases, Dell, Samsung, and others are opening the door for them

[Ed: Gadgets aren't just for guys... - dcparris]

Diggable

FSMLabs is claiming a breakthrough single digit microsecond timing on a 64bit dual core AMD Opteron processors and has released Carrier Grade Linux and tools for a wide range of AMD processors.