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From time to time, installing VMware Tools on a Linux guest will cause you some grief. While there are lots of howtos, usually they're for VMware Workstation. Here's one that works in Debian/Lenny 5.0.2 on ESX Server 3.5 Update 4.

Adobe has announced that it has open sourced two of its Flash player platforms. Adobe's core technologies will remain proprietary. On Tuesday Adobe launched the Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), a rich media player platform. OSMF was previously part of a project codenamed Strobe. Adobe also open sourced the Text Layout Framework (TLF), a typography platform for Web apps.

Bordeaux is a Wine GUI configuration manager that runs winelib applications. It also supports installation of third party utilities, installation of applications and games, and the ability to use custom configurations. Bordeaux is written in GTK and requires GTK 2.10 or higher to be installed on a given system. Bordeaux also uses wget and cabextract extensively and they should be installed for Bordeaux to operate correctly.

An objection from IBM lodged with the bankruptcy court has opened up a surprise new front in the SCO Group liquidation hearing. According to IBM lawyers, in 2008 SCO boss Darl McBride made personal payments to Steven Norris via an intermediary, for searching for further investors willing to invest in SCO. Money was also paid by SCO's German subsidiary SCO Deutschland, with which Norris is reported to have signed a consulting contract.

Microsoft has again released code under GPLv2, this time the Live Services plugin Moodle. Microsoft's contribution follows close on the heels of the release of its Hyper-V driver to the Linux kernel under GPLv2. The free Live Services Moodle educational website builder for teachers and students can now be tied in with the Live@edu service for email, calendars and IM.

I'm pleased to report this morning on the formation of a new advocacy group for the use of free and open source software in the U.S. Government. I'm also pleased to have been asked to serve on its Board of Advisors, along other proponents of free and open source software, such as Roger Burkhard, Dawn Meyerriecks, Eben Moglen, Tim O'Reilly, Simon Phipps, Mark Shuttleworth, Michael Tiemann, Bill Vass, and Jim Zemlin.

Some months back I developed some pyuno code for converting spreadsheets into CSV files from the command line. Pyuno being the Python interface to the OpenOffice runtime. One of the enhancement suggestions I got was to add the ability to extract all the sheets and/or a specific sheet rather than always extracting the first sheet. The following update to the code does just that.

Social networking, micro-blogging and other such buzzwords abound across web development these days, and the “public” is a fickle as ever. The darling of the media-driven, web-based section of the public is dropped as soon as it gets popular or as soon as somebody figures out a way to make money out of it — money usually involves advertising, which usually ends up bombarding users with spurious post-mercials. How can free software make an impact in such an environment? Enter Identi.ca. Read the full story at Free Software Magazine.

One of the most frustrating things about rebuilding computers for our kids is getting the right video card for the machine. We are donated mostly Dells from the Dimension E series to the 8100 and 8200 series machines. Guess what? Michael decided that these machines didn't need AGP slots. That in a word Sux...

The Android Market features a few tethering applications, so it should be easy to use your Android phone as a wireless modem.

Open source software company Inverse released the version 1.8.4 of PacketFence - a fully-featured network access control (NAC) solution running on Linux.

Adobe Systems has open-sourced two pieces of Flash technology to build community buy-in around its media player. Today, the company announced the release of the Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) and Text Layout Framework (TLF) under version 1.1 of the Mozilla Public License. TPF is an ActionScript library that's been built on Flash Player 10's text engine and Adobe AIR 1.5, providing typographic and text layout for the web. It's been used in the NYTimes.com Reader 2.0 and Boston GlobeReader.

Vietnamese Linux technology firm Hacao has released a netbook, along with a new bilingual (English/Vietnamese) release of its Hacao Linux 2009 CE distro. The Hacao Netbook is based on an Intel Atom-based MSI Wind, and offers a 10-inch screen and 160GB of storage.

Some months back I developed some pyuno code for converting spreadsheets into CSV files from the command line. Pyuno being the Python interface to the OpenOffice runtime. One of the enhancement suggestions I got was to add the ability to extract all the sheets and/or a specific sheet rather than always extracting the first sheet. The following update to the code does just that.

Well, so she wasn't a Trooper , she was a Rodeo... But she's gone now and she will be missed. From February 2004 to July 20th, 2009, she served daily and without complaint, picking up hardware parts, delivering computers and attending to the business of what would eventually become The HeliOS Project. In all, she gave The HeliOS Project right over one hundred and eighty eight thousand miles of service. She was out picking up a small computer donation for Linux Against Poverty when age and the demands of her business became more than she was capable of giving.

Over the last few years KDE has seen increased involvement of students and university researchers. While many universities still feel uneasy about working with Free Software, the open and welcoming attitude in the KDE community has already brought several scientific research projects to life. A prime example is of course the Nepomuk project, officially finished but still very much alive within the Free Software- and scientific communities. Furthermore, many involved contributors make use of scientific research papers while looking for inspiration to solve the more complex problems involved in writing software. The Free Software community also contributes in a practical way to science: the Avogadro project, grown out of the KDE educational application Kalzium develops an advanced molecular editor designed for use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. Last Akademy, an initiative was developed by Celeste Lyn Paul to bring KDE and science even closer.

Today's low-end PC hardware is like the supercomputers of yesteryear, and yet it can feel like you're still struggling with an old 386. Akkana Peck shows how to use the ps and top commands to find CPU and memory hogs on your Linux computer.

Turns out Yahoo! is more than just a Microsoft plaything. Today they will unveil a revamped interface that among other things enables users to update social media sites directly from the Yahoo! search Home page.

Making the best use of available memory is one of the biggest challenges for any operating system. Throwing virtualization into the mix adds both new challenges (balancing memory use between guests, for example) and opportunities (sharing pages between guests). Developers have responded with technologies like hot-plug memory and KSM, but nobody seems to think that the problem is fully solved. Transcendent memory is a new memory-management technique which, it is hoped, will improve the system's use of scarce RAM, regardless of whether virtualization is being used.

A recently discovered root exploit attacked the newest Linux versions and circumvented protection systems such as SELinux and AppArmor. A solution has been found.