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This short article explains how to implement performance critical reference counting using gcc's atomic variables.

As you spend more-and-more of your time on the Internet and connecting with others, Flock can help to streamline repetitive social activities.

Canonical is building an Android execution environment that will make it possible for Android applications to run on Ubuntu and potentially other conventional Linux distributions. The effort will open the door for bringing Android's growing ecosystem of third-party software to the desktop.

How to get ath5k working on Jaunty with Compat-wireless and a self-compiled kernel. I used to have some trouble while setting up my Atheros PCI card on Ubuntu Linux 9.04. It worked natively on Ubuntu 8.04, where it was detected as ath0. I upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 whereby I noticed my wireless PCI card didn’t work natively anymore. Someone suggested me to upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04 Jaunty, and I did that immediately. After the system upgrade I noticed again that my wireless device was gone in Ubuntu 9.04. When I ran iwconfig I didn’t see wlan0 or ath0 anymore.

NASA is processing immense sets of images and data from Mars and the moon into a special Microsoft format for viewing in the Redmond company's WorldWide Telescope online program. But the U.S. space agency also plans to publicly release, as open-source software, the tools it's developing to make the conversion. That technological balancing act is among the details revealed in a federal Space Act Agreement establishing the terms of a collaboration announced by NASA and Microsoft earlier this year. The text of the agreement wasn't disclosed at the time, but NASA has now released the documents in response to a request made by TechFlash under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Firewall Builder supports variety of object types, both simple such as address, network, host, or IP, TCP, UDP and ICMP services, as well as more sophisticated such as Firewall, Host, Address table, DNS name, User service. Firewall object is central to the program and is in the focus of this article.

Ubuntu should let new users who click on a restricted-media file know that there is indeed a way to play said file, even if they haven't yet opened up their repositories to non-free software. The way the 8.04 LTS edition is set up, it seems you must KNOW you need a restricted driver — and indeed must know what a driver, a repository, the fact that MP3 is an non-free, hostile-to-open-source media format and what a restricted driver or codec is — before the system will prompt you to install one. Only giving helpful information to people who really don't need it is just not ... helpful. Ubuntu, by the very nature of its mission, popularity and target audience (new users of free, open-source software), must be held to a different, higher standard. Educate users by all means, but don't hobble their machines and drive them away before they've even gotten their FOSS feet wet.

A wireless mesh network lets you multiply a single wired Internet connection over as large an area as you care to manage, such as a farm with remote buildings, a school campus, a neighborhood, even marinas (Internet on your boat!). You can quickly quickly adapt to changing conditions without laying so much as a foot of cable. Eric Geier shows us how using Linux and open source management tools.

Canonical has unveiled the first fruits of a project that could put applications for Google's Android on a netbook sooner than the search giant can deliver itself. Ubuntu's chief sponsor has demonstrated an execution environment that lets applications built to fit the screen, power, and hardware of an Android smartphone on an Ubuntu-powered PC. The execution environment potentially lets these applications take advantage of features common to a PC such as support for mouse-based input instead of touch, multiple windows open simultaneously, and have an application run while the CPU is idle.

In the video last week I showed how to use the bash complete command for simple use cases. Today I'll show you some of the additional ways that you can use the command for more complex scenarios.

Two things I do every morning no matter what are drink my morning coffee and read the latest Linux news. A day without either of them would be a disaster. Because getting Linux news is so important to me I’ve kept track of several Linux news sites and tested the value and focus of their articles. I’ve also participated in many of these sites and have noted significant traffic changes as we move deeper into the age of social media. As things change it may be time to re-evaluate where you're reading and submitting your Linux news.

Filmaster is a new social network for film buffs that features personalized content and recommendations. What makes it special is that it is an open service: both code and content is free as in freedom.

Triumphant Return of Linux in the GNU/South - June 13th, 2009 The SouthEast Linuxfest is occurring on June 13th at Clemson University. It begins at 9am, and runs till around 6pm, followed by an after party.

Tech Data, a $24 billion technology giant with deep Microsoft relationships, has developed a 24-month plan to emerge as “the voice for open source in distribution,” The VAR Guy has learned. Here's the scoop and its implications for the global open source movement. Details here.

Linux Unified Kernel which I was telling you about a few days ago was recently recently reached version 0.2.4.

Canonical demonstrated a prototype version of an execution environment for Ubuntu that lets it run Android apps, says an industry report. The environment acts like a simulator, and is based on the Xorg X Window environment, says the story. Ubuntu sponsor Canonical demonstrated the Android emulator at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Barcelona, Spain, according to a Ryan Paul story in ArsTechnica. Based on the Xorg open source implementation of X Window, the execution environment functions like a simulator, enabling Android apps to run alongside conventional Linux applications, writes Paul.

If proprietary software is the proverbial dam, Open Source is the raging torrent pushing to break through one might even continue the analogy to identify certain figures in the proprietary world as the little boy with his finger in the hole, with more nefarious intent, of course. More and more cities, countries, and even continents are embracing Open Source with open arms and, given the analogy above, snorkels and as of last Thursday, one more municipality has been fitted for fins.

If you've run older PowerPC-based Macs in your businesses you may be wondering what to do with them now that Apple has made the transition to Intel, and the G3, G4 and G5 processors are beginning to show their age. Paul Rubens suggests scrapping OS X, and turning the machines into servers or workstations running Linux.

Intel has worked hard and spent a lot of money over the years to shape its image: It is the company that celebrates its quest to make computer chips ever smaller, faster and cheaper with a quick five-note jingle at the end of its commercials. As Renee J. James of Intel puts it, “You can’t just throw hardware out there into the world” without accompanying software. But as Intel tries to expand beyond the personal computer chip business, it is changing in subtle ways. For the first time, its long unheralded software developers, more than 3,000 of them, have stolen some of the spotlight from its hardware engineers. These programmers find themselves at the center of Intel’s forays into areas like mobile phones and video games.

Mandriva, the Linux vendor, has announced "Click'n'Backup", its own web based backup system. The service, reminiscent of the recently launched Canonical's Ubuntu One, includes online secure storage space and a backup and restore tool. Unlike Ubuntu One, the backup and restore tools are available for non-Mandriva Linux systems, Windows and Mac OS X. The system can be configured for backup, or as a shared and synchronised file store, allowing users to keep files up to date on multiple machines.